Christmas Traditions

My family has a number of traditions and my wife and I are adding to them. For about as long as I can remember, my family has always had waffles and bacon on Christmas Eve. Since we weren't home over Christmas this year, we celebrated this tradition during our visit a couple weeks ago. I am a big fan of having breakfast for dinner and all I have to say is, don't knock it til you've tried it!

In my sermon this week I talked about another family tradition. Ever since I became a Christian in sixth grade and understood the truth and significance behind the Christmas narratives, I have insisted that the Magi (or wisemen) do not appear near the nativity scene in our house because it wasn't until some two years later that they finally reached Bethlehem. So, for example, our nativity scene is in the living room but the wisemen are in the kitchen. By the way, the title for the sermon was "Wisemen still Worship Him." Think about it.

I enjoy pizza and so whenever and however I can get my wife to allow us to have pizza, I do. One of the ways I've found to do this is to ask to have that for dinner whenever we have to decorate for the holidays (e.g. carving pumpkins, decorating the Christmas tree...). This year was my wife and my first for having a real Christmas tree at our place because in the past we've always gone to visit out families over Christmas. So our parents shipped us all of our Christmas decorations, we got literally the third to last tree on the lot on the Tuesday before Christmas, and ate pizza after decorating the tree on Friday night.

I know a lot of people like to watch movies such as "A Christmas Story" and "Miracle on 34th Street" this time of year. However, my Christmas movie watching tradition includes "Home Alone" and "The Santa Clause" (Tim Allen), which as of last night I was able to catch both of.

We had a Christmas Eve service at the church which I thought went very well and was well attended because of so many families who were in town visiting members of our congregation. That's one of the nice things about having an older congregation...kids and grandkids are expected to visit them over the holidays. During the service we had a series of readings through the Advent passages in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke along with singing traditional Christmas Carols and some special music by members of the church. We didn't have a special Christmas day service but instead Harmony and I were invited over to the house of a family from church for dinner (the noon meal).

The basketball team had a couple of tough games last week (jv went 1-1 and varsity went 0-2). This week I start a series through the OT historical book of Ezra which I'm very excited about, having been studying it now for the last few weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.

By God's Grace, Jeff

It's warmer but I get sick...go figure!

Harmony and I traveled to LA this past week for a wedding, to see family and friends and to escape the cold! The high in ND was in the teens the week before we left. People asked me what the temprature was going to be in So Cal and I would just replied "at least 50 degrees warmer than here!" I always seem to get sick whenever I travel from cold weather to warm weather and this time was no different. My Mom had the stomach flu just before I got out there and so I somehow caught it a few days later. Other than being laid up for one of the days, the trip was really nice. Harmony's best friend got married this past Saturday. We got to spend some good time with family and friends and got to eat at most of our favorite spots (i.e. In-&-Out, Carl's Jr., the Loft and Busy Bee).

I had a busy week leading up to us going out of town. In addition to basketball practices everyday after school, I had to get Harmony to the airport on Thursday (she flew out early to help with wedding preparations), had basketball games on Friday and Saturday, spent quite a bit of time on the phone trying to fix our Tivo (which I ended up having to send in to get a new one...hopefully it'll come soon!), getting ready myself to leave Sunday afternoon, not to mention preparing for church on Sunday! God provided and everything got done. He is good!

I finished 1 Peter two Sundays ago and next week will start a series through Ezra. A friend asked if I had any insights into 1 Peter after preaching through it the past few months and the one issue that resurfaces is suffering and specifically how to suffer in a way that pleases God.

The JV team is 5-1 and varsity is 2-3 (both lost last night). I am enjoying getting to know the players, coaches and parents. I have always enjoyed basketball and for some time have wanted to coach youth so this is a great opportunity. It certainly keeps me busy. For our game a week ago Saturday, we left before 11am and didn't get back until 9pm! At least both squads won.

I'm sure there's a lot I'm leaving out from the past couple weeks but I think that's enough for now anyway. Pray for us getting back into the swing of things after our week off.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Missing Mayor Daly

So we got our first good snow of the season on Saturday evening and night. I was prepared to have to shovel our driveway and sidewalk Sunday morning but what I wasn't prepared for was that none of the streets in town had been plowed! They still haven't been plowed two days later! Apparently the powers that be in ND don't think that 2-3 inches of snow is enough to bother with (though the highways were plowed). It makes me long for our days in the Chicago area when Mayor Daly would have hundreds of plows out by the time the first snowflake hit the pavement spreading salt all over the place...at least we won't have to worry about the corrosion.

On Saturday morning the basketball team had some scrimmages an hour and a half away in Drake and Anamoose (and yes there is a cartoon moose on a sign leading into the town). The team looked pretty good and some points and not so good at others. They still have a lot of work to do to be ready for the beginning of the season (which starts Friday!).

Harmony and I drove up to Minot Friday evening to have dinner with the pastor of Trinity EFCA and his wife. We had a very nice time getting to know them. On Sunday I drove up to Minot again to meet up with the pastor and we drove out together to a conference in Fargo. Dr. Carson from Trinity's New Testament Department was giving a talk to pastors on the use of biblical, systematic, historical and pastoral theology in our preaching. It was very informative and practical. I also got to meet a number of the other EFCA pastors in my general area (e.g. Devil's Lake and Rugby). I rode back yesterday evening with the associate pastor from Minot whose from St. Louis and so we swapped North Dakote cultural stories during the four hour drive. For example, some of the women say phrases that start with "Oh for" like "Oh for cute" or "Of for geez." Some of the guys in making suggestions use the expression "A guy could..." We had lots of laughs to say the least.

This past Sunday I preached on 1 Peter 5:6-9 about the importance of Christians responding appropriately to spiritual realities (i.e. who God is and who the Devil is). If you'd like to listen to it click here (I'm having problems uploading it...sorry).

"Will the 800 number still work after 20 years?"

Harmony and I took our every other week trip down to Bismarck on Saturday and, as we often do, brought a Papa Muphey's "Take & Bake" pizza home with us to cook up that night. After putting the pizza in our 1987 model oven I, for some reason, closed the lock handle that apparently you're only supposed to use when cleaning the oven. I tried to retrieve the pizza 12 minutes later only to find that I could not unlock the oven door...so I pushed even harder and ended up warping the handle! We had to call over one of the elders of our church who owned an electronics repair store for many years to help us almost completely dismantle the oven so that we could get trip the lock and retrieve the now burnt to a crisp pizza (an hour and a half later). I ended up having to taquitos for dinner.

On Thursday we were invited over to one of the farm house of one of the family's in the church for Thanksgiving. It was great getting to know them better and having a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. On Sunday I preached for the first time at the Prarieview nursing home in Underwood. They ask the local pastors to help out once a month which I figure will give me the opportunity to serve the community and get to know some of the residents and staff there. It went well except for the worship singing which would have gone better had I chosen hymns that the organist and residents knew!

A month ago I saw an ad in the local paper that the school was looking for an assistant basketball coach. I grew up playing basketball in rec leagues, have always wanted to coach youth athletics and thought it would be a great way to get more involved in the community. After turning in my resume I hadn't heard back from the school and so figured they found someone with more experience. A week ago I received an email from the principal asking if I was still interested and after talking it over with Harmony and praying about it, I accepted. Due to the Thanksgiving weekend, I missed the first practice but have since attended the last two. There's another assistant (who coaches the JV team) in addition to myself and the head coach. I'm very excited about learning more about coaching and getting to know the students and community members through this. We have our first pre-season scrimmage this weekend and I'll try to remember to keep you posted with the results throughout the season.

Speaking of basketball...Duke looks really good this season! I know its still early but I think this could be a special team even though they're young (only one senior) and relatively short (7' foot reserve but no starter over 6'8"). The sermon this week was on 1 Peter 5:1-5 about right relationships in the Church. If you liked to hear it, click here. Pray for me to be even more diligent in serving the church having now added another activity, for Harmony in starting up a women's outreach bible study and our church starting up a youth ministry in January.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Hunting and Painting

I forget to mention last week that Friday November 9th was the opening day of deer hunting season, which runs through Thanksgiving weekend. The fact that schools around the state were closed Friday (even though the season didn't officially begin until noon) speaks volumes about the popularity of hunting around here. Some in our congregation had more luck than others in filling their tags (the license you buy for a doe or buck).

Harmony and I spent most of Monday painting our living room and upstairs hallways a shade of yellow. We might actually have chosen one shade darker than we wanted but it looks quite good, if I may say so myself. This is something we had talked about doing even before arriving and had even purchased the paint a couple months ago but I had been dragging my feet. We are planning on painting the bathrooms a shade of blue but may take a little bit of a break before starting that endeavor! If I remember, I'll put up a photo of our new look living room.

This past week was pretty busy as we helped out with the Child Evangelism "Kid's Club" at the school on Wednesday (had 40-50 kids show up!). On Thursday I had a "Healthy Church" meeting with other local EFCA pastors in Dickinson. We discussed Sunday School curriculum, ways to get to know people in your community and Mott winning the nine-man football championship (one of the pastors is from there and Underwood's only regular season loss was to Mott). Sunday evening was our monthly elder meeting in which we meet to pray for the congregation and talk about how we can lead them better. In addition we invited the deacons to join us to discuss next year's budget. I really appreciate the work the elders and deacons do for the church and especially listening to the way they pray is refreshing and encouraging.

The sermon this week was on 1 Peter 4:12-19 and entitled "Christian Pain Yields Joy." If you'd like to hear about how God uses the suffering in the lives of believers to bring about joy in their lives, click here. This was also the week I gave a talk on Charles Haddon Spurgeon during the adult Sunday School. Given the topic of suffering we've seen over and over again recently in our series through 1 Peter, it was neat to study a man who endure so much but remained so faithful to the Lord, including his committment to prayer. If you'd like to learn more about "The Prince of Preachers," check out the biography I have listed in the book section. Please pray for both Harmony and I to grow in our boldness and courage in sharing the Gospel.

By God's Grace, Jeff.

The Snow Shovel Works

Yep, on Thursday morning we had a half inch of snow on the ground. I got some practice in shoveling the driveway (although the rest melted by the afternoon). The weather has certainly been getting colder but we've still had some nice days (low 60s this past Saturday). I've always said, I don't want to hear talk about Global Warming from anyone who hasn't spent a winter in some place like Illinois or North Dakota.

This Saturday Harmony and I made our bi-monthly trip down to Bismarck. We purchased some Christmas items including lights since this will be the first time we won't make it back to see our families over the holidays. We caught a movie and had McDonald's for lunch (until you live an hour from the nearest fast-food you won't understand the significance of that statement).

I finished up the adult Sunday School series on the Spiritual Disciplines this past Sunday and am excited to share about Charles Haddon Spurgeon this coming Sunday. In the last Spiritual Disciplines lesson, we saw what it looks like to persevere in the Disciplines. It's one thing to be excited to study the Bible, pray, serve now but what about in a couple months when they aren't as fresh on your mind. I know I have at times been known to start something only to give up on it within six months. Harmony is even surprised I've stuck with this blog!

The sermon this Sunday was on 1 Peter 4:7-11 and was entitled "The end is near...so live like it!" It was a great challenge to me to consider how I'm living my life in light of Judgment coming soon. If you'd like to check it out for yourself click here.

How Much Did Your Church Sign Cost?

One of the benefits of living in a small town in this part of the country is that for the most part people are pretty positive about churches and therefore churches are allowed to do what would be impossible in larger cities. Case in point. All of the churches in town have signs just off the main road leading into town from the highway...for free! Our Church had not put one up since the merger until Harmony and a few others painted the old Baptist 4x8 wooden sign and one of the deacons drilled holes and put in posts to mount it on last week. Now we have signage!

Harmony started a pilates class with another lady from the church this past Saturday morning in Washburn. She was really sore Sunday and Monday but for some strange reason was willing to wake up at 5:00am on Tuesday morning to drive fifteen minutes to a 5:30am pilates class that she knew would make her sore afterwards! I'm proud of her and I think it will also be a good way for her to get to know more women in our area.

Last night we had a second youth ministry planning meeting and I believe we worked out of all the details to start up a junior/senior high combined group in January. Now all that's left is to advertise all over the area (including in the local papers, on town bulletin boards and in the school...yes that's right, a church beign able to advertise events in schools believe it or not. Please pray for us as we figure out all of the details and seek to start this up early in January.

I am finishing up the adult Sunday School series on Spiritual Disciplines (i.e. prayer, evangelism, service) this coming Sunday. I think it has been quite helpful and hopefully has laid a solid foundation for future topics. Next I am going to teach a one week Christian biography session on Charles Spurgeon, a 19th Century English Baptist who has had a great affect on my life, and then another guy from the church is going to teach through a series on the early church in Acts.

The weather has been turning colder over the past couple weeks such that a number of days this week won't see a high of 50. We even saw our first snow flakes of the season on Monday. This wind has also been picking up steadily. Winter is coming!

This sermon this week was from 1 Peter 4:1-6 entitled "Live Christ-like or Die Judged." Hopefully you picked up on the reference to this summer's blockbuster movie "Live Free or Die Hard." Anyway, it seeks to answer the question "Is the Christian life worth it in spite of suffering?" If you would like to hear how this question is answered, click here.

Pheasants, Pheasants Everywhere

Yesterday I had the opportunity to ride along in a combine harvesting corn. For you city-folk, a combine is a large (and very expensive) piece of farm equipment used in harvesting. It's large enough to harvest ten or so rows of corn at a time at a speed of 7 mph. It makes harvesting a section take no time at all. In fact, the slow part is waiting to unload the corn into trucks to take back to the silos at the farm. It was a great first-hand experience for me in farm life.

As the combine harvested the corn rows, pheasants were flying out of the field all over the place. This time of year is pheasant hunting season and many of them seek refuge from hunters in the fields. Unfortunately they can't hide from a combine. Apparently you can also come across deer and even mooseswhile combining (also avoiding hunters). Hunting is the big past-time around here this time of year. So far I haven't gotten invovled (you need a license...and a gun) but...

Last Wednesday I attended a pastors' appreciation at the local nursing home. I got to meet a number of the employees and residents. I also signed up to preach once a month on a Sunday afternoon. I figure this will give me the opportunity to meet more people in town and serve the community as well. I will have to make some changes since their services last only 30 minutes and my sermons usually go that long (this week even longer!). Please pray for me to find ways to get to know more people in the community. Harmony and I are prepared for trick-or-treaters tonight, so hopefully we'll meet some families that way.

One of the amazing aspects of small town life that we've been picking up on is how people know and care for one another. Whenever someone in town is suffering, the community as a whole rallies around them. One of the members of our church has been having some medical problems and therefore incurring some medical bills. On Sunday there was a pancake benefit to raise money to help with the bills. 500 people attended (pretty good for a town of only 800!).

I was reading a sermon about the Holy Spirit by Charles Spurgeon yesterday in which he made a point I had never considered before. In connecting the roles of Father, Son and Spirit in creation ("Let us create man...") to salvation, he said, "It is a source of sweet comfort, to think that it is not one person of the Trinity that is engaged for my salvation; it is not simply one person of the Godhead who vows that he will redeem me; but it is a glorious trio of Godlike ones, and the three declare, unitedly, 'We will save man.'" What an amazing thought that it isn't just the Father or just the Son who desired to save us but all three members of the Trinity are equally as passionate about our salvation.

This week's sermon was on 1 Peter 3:13-22 entitled "Righteous Suffering." I learned a lot about how to face suffering in a way that please God through this passage. If you would like to listen to it you can by clicking here.

"Band of Brothers...Watch it sometime!"

Harmony and I have been watching (for the second time) the "Band of Brothers" dvd series about Easy Company in the 101st Airborne during WWII. It's a very enjoyable series (even for Harmony who normally doesn't like war movies). Netflix is a very valuable resource to have especially when you live 50 miles from the nearest Blockbuster!

On Saturday we went down to Bismarck (our every other weekend trip) specifically for a "Pastor's appreciation night" at the local Christian bookstore. In addition to everything being 25% off for local pastors, they had drawings, snacks and freebies. We even ran into another pastor from Underwood (remember there are 6 churches for a town of 800!). I picked up a couple books and Harmony got a book and the new Caedmon's Call CD. The reference section of the bookstore was pretty much picked cleaned to which I remarked, "that's what you get with a bunch of pastors." Although I was glad for the discount and that there is a Christian bookstore in Bismarck, the state of Christian bookstores these days is pretty sad. For example, their self-help section is larger than their reference section, they have just about as many "Christian" fiction books as non-fiction, and although the have sections for men, women, family, children, teens, and prophecy, they don't have one specifically for theology! That is why I end up buying most of my books online.

I am currently working with the Elders in updating our worship songs. The church has been using an older hymnal and songbook up until now. I am trying to convince them to update their praise songs and possibly even invest in newer hymnals. I value hymns but also realize that there are just as many quality modern praise songs and we should seek a healthy balance. On a related note, I am becoming more and more thankful for the fact that we have two ladies who can play the piano/organ and one of our Elders is willing to lead the congregational singing. I took it for granted coming from a city church in which we had many talented musicians and singers. Apparently in small town churches, if you have even one piano player you're doing well.

Some of you may be wondering what the weather has been like lately in ND. Well, over the past couple weeks it has mainly been in the mid-to-upper fifties or low sixties (although tomorrow is supposed to get back into the seventies!). We haven't had any snow yet, although I'm sure it's around the corner. Harmony and I have enjoyed watching the nightly news and espeically on the weekends where they have the younger reports fill-in (the weekend weather guy on the CBS affiliate out of Minot is the age of Harmony's younger brother!). I call it, "when kids do the news."

Pray for wisdom for me as I seek to lead the church as I have been realizing more and more that if God is not at work then nothing I do will be of any real value. If you'd like to listen to this week's sermon on 1 Peter 3:8-12 entitled "Called to Righteous Living" click here.

By God's Grace, Jeff.

Who wants to give the cows shots?

Harmony and I were invited by a family at church to help them on Saturday with their cows. They have over 100 cows and needed to weigh and vaccinate the calves and spray all the cows with medicine to prevent ring worm and the like. My job was to open and shut a heavy gate that led from where the calves got their shots to the scale. Harmony operated the manuel scale and took down the weights. The gate I was lifting was on a pulley and the rope snapped three times, sending me almost tumbling backward once. It was a pretty cool day (50s) but at least there wasn't any wind. We had a good time getting to see first-hand what it looks like to be a rancher. If I remember I'll post a picture I took w/ my phone when I can download it.

That brings me to another problem Harmony and I have encountered living in a small town and some of you who've tried to contact us via our cell phones understand what I mean. We barely get any cell phone reception with Verizon and are actively thinking about switching to Alltel which others in the cummunity use and it seems to work just fine.

On Thursday I drove down to Beulah (50 miles southwest) and met up with another EFCA pastor there and then we drove another hour and a half south to Dickinson to meet up with a few other EFCA pastors for lunch and discussion of theology and church issues. It was a great opportunity to meet some of the other "local" Free Church pastors. Having to travel a good two and a half hours to get together with a group of pastors from your denomination is a big change for me. In Evanston, we could have gotten probably a dozen EFCA pastors together within a twenty miles radius. In ND, the next closest EFCA church to Underwood is 30 miles south with maybe three others within fifty miles! Even w/ the travel it was a good experience and I look forward to building those relationships more in future meetings. Also, driving to and from Beulah I crossed over the Missouri River which separates Central from Mountain time so that going there I arrived about when I left but coming back it took twice as long!

On Sunday after the worship service and Sunday School we had a fellowship dinner (lunch for those of you not living in a farming community) followed by Harmony and the ladies meeting and me meeting with the Elders. Harmony talked to the other ladies in the church about starting up an evangelistic women's Bible study in town and they seemed very supportive. Please keep Harmony and the church in your prayers about getting this going in the next few months (things around here move a bit slower). I had a very productive monthly meeting with the other Elders in which we discussed a number of imporant church-related issues and even on those that we did not come to a decision, certainly made headway. Please continue to pray for my leadership of the Elders and the church in general.

In addition to those prayer requests, please pray for the upcoming lauch of our youth ministry. I received some material in the mail yesterday that we're going to use and am very excited. I'm not sure whether we'll start up in the beginning of Nov. or wait until the new year but pray for wisdom w/r/t this either way. Also, I've been battling a slight cold over the past few days so please pray that I would not get anymore sick and that I would recover quickly. Thanks.

This week was the last sermon in the mini-series "Respecting Authority Glorifies God" in 1 Peter and dealt with authority w/in the household. It is a very challenging passage for both husbands and wives. If you'd like to listen to it the audio is posted here.

By God's Grace, Jeff Higbie.

Facing the Giants

Harmony and I watched "Facing the Giants" this weekend. It's a movie about a football coach at a Christian school. I am usually suspect of "Christian" movies but it was actually quite good and I'd recommend it especially to families with teens as it deals with some important issues such as, what is the most important goal in sports/life. The one noticably missing piece (as is the case with most "Christian" media in my experience) is explicit teaching on sin. Although the theology in the movie was solid and repentance was clearly displayed, the scenes of revival were not clearly connected to people dealing with sin but merely "following God."

On Friday, Harmony went to a "Steer" conference with a couple other ladies from the church. Steer is a very interesting ministry. It enables farmers and ranchers to support missionaries financially when they otherwise might not be able to. One of the ways Steer does this is by a rancher setting aside the calves from one of his cows to be sold and the money to go to a missionary of his choosing. It's a perpetual source of suport for a missionary since healthy cows have one calf a year and so each year around the same time the missionary can expect a sizeable check.

Harmony and I have begun volunteering with Child Evangelism's "Kid's Club" at the local school. This is a once a month activity for K-6th graders in which after school they gather in the cafeteria for snacks, games, songs and teaching from Scripture, including a clear Gospel presentation. The first session of the year was last Wednesday and Harmony and I see it as a good way to get to know the kids and families in the community.

For the first time this college football season, both of my teams won! Notre Dame got their first victory and Northwestern won in dramatic fashion against Michigan State. I believe this is the farthest into the season before both teams won that I can remember, since I've been rooting for ND and NU anyway (c. 1997).

Please continue to pray for wisdom w/r/t to starting up a ministry for the youth, for Harmony planning an outreach Bible study for women in the community and for my monthly meeting with the Elders on Sunday. Pray that we would lead this church to a more God-honoring place. If you'd like to listen to this week's sermon on 1 Peter 2:18-25 entitled, "Respecting Authority Glorifies God: Part 2 (workplace)," click here.

Bee on the pulpit

I had just invited everyone to spend some time in corporate prayer for the needs of the congregation when I noticed a large bee (or maybe it was a wasp...I didn't wait to find out) sitting twelve inches from me on the pulpit. Good thing that everyone had their eyes closed because I carefully picked up my one-inch thick leather-bound prayer journal and dropped it on the insect. It reminded me of being the best man at a buddy's wedding five years ago when a candle fell during a song and I froze not knowing whether to go for it and make a disruption or not. In that case the pastor calmly took care of the situation. Ah, the trials of pastoral ministry!

Harmony and I took the "river road" down to Bismarck on Saturday. It travels along the Missouri River and was full of beautiful scenery especially with the fall colors all around. Harmony took a few pictures that I will hopefully remember to post in the upcoming weeks. This part of North Dakota is very pretty even if it is still rather flat (though I believe there are a lot more rolling hills than in the eastern part).

The are lots of small towns all over the state that are all about the same size (600-1000). There are a lot of German, Norweigan and Dutch pockets throughout the state. In fact there's one section in south central North Dakota that's referred to as "The Iron Curtain" because it was settled predominantly by Germans (take a look at some of the town names to see what I mean). Unlike living in Chicago or LA where you have ethnic neighborhoods but other than that ethnic origin does not characterize most areas, here it seems that even today many towns are still very much dominanted by one ethnic origin (Underwood's is German). One of the benefits of this combined with small town life is there are many local ethnic events. A couple from the church took us to an all-you-could-eat turkey and meatball supper (dinner for you city-folk) in a neighboring community called Turtle Lake. It was very good and very filling!

Last night we had the families with youth and any others from the church over who wanted to give input and help brainstorm about starting a youth ministry. Some great ideas came up during our time. One of the benefits of being away from city life is that families are at least somewhat less busy and in particular schools are not allowed to have evening activities on Wednesday nights so that churches can have youth group Bible Studies then. It looks like we may start up a Junior and Senior High combined youth group meeting on Wed. during the adult Bible Study hour with a few couples rotating as leaders. In addition, the idea of beginning some sort of community youth center came up and it just so happens that we still own the old baptist church and have been unable to sell it (Faith Evangelical is a combination of PCA and Baptist churches and we use the old PCA building). We talked about teaming up with the other churches in town and offering to use that space for a youth center to give kids a safe place to go on weekend nights and/or weekdays after school. There's really nothing else in town for kids to do on Friday and Saturday nights after seven and when there are no sports playing at the high school so it would seem serve the community well. Please pray for wisdom in regard to this.

This week's sermon was on 1 Peter 2:13-17 and began a three part mini-series called "Respecting Authority Glorifies God". This week we looked at respecting societal authorities and in the next two weeks we'll cover the workplace and home. If you like to listen to the sermon click here.

Books I'm currently Reading

Harmony suggested that I post occasionally about the books that I'm currently reading. If you know me at all, you know I enjoy reading. Particularly I like reading theology, biographies and John Grisham novels. So here's what I'm currently reading:

Lectures to My Students by Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon is one of my favorite preachers of the past. I was given this book by my Bible Study Leader in high school while I was serving as an assistant. I began reading it a couple times in the past but never finished. I have been challenged greatly by Spurgeon's teaching to those preparing for pastoral ministry. I wish I would have finished this book before entering the ministry but am glad God has brought it to my attention early on at least. I would highly recommend anyone considering ministry to read this and Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome by Kent Hughes before entering the pastorate.

Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul David Tripp. This is a book on biblical counseling (along the lines of the "Center for Biblical Counseling") but is meant not mainly for professional counselors but the whole Church. I have found so much valuable teaching and practical applications in this book for both counseling others and evaluating my own heart. I hope to use this in the future to train Faith Evangelical for the purpose of building each other up.

John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitken. Newton is famous for the hymn "Amazing Grace" and his life is a testimony to the truth of the amazing nature of God's grace (sinful slave trader to faithful servant). His struggle with sin growing up and with his calling to ministry is very powerful. Some parts of this biography are dry but overall I have been encouraged and challenged by it.

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. One of the great benefits of having a wife whose a librarian is I get to check out brand-new books before they're even on the shelf! This book seems to be a combination of two other Grisham novels: Bleachers and The Brooker. I enjoyed it in spite of it being rather predictable, full of worldliness and a storyline that didn't always tie into the plot. However, I get the sense that part of Grisham's point was that everything in our lives doesn't always fit together the way we thought it might.

If you have read any of these let me know what you thought and I'd love further recommendations for books.

Small Town USA

I have the sense that many people who may read this blog like myself, before moving to Underwood, ND (pop. 800), have no idea what a small town looks like. So I thought I might jot down a few thoughts to give you a picture of our life here.

We don't have any stop lights and only a couple stop signs, all the rest of the intersections are yields (though its rare to need to do this). We have two exits on highway 83 that runs to the east of town. This stretch of 83 is four-lanes, 70 mph and runs from at least Bismarck (50 miles south of Underwood) to Minot (55 miles north). County Road 14 runs through town and is where our church is located off of.

We have two restuarants (one open 6 days 6-2, the other 5 days 11-8 - neither on Sunday) and a bar. There are two gas stations, one serice shop, and a body shop (mainly for damage from hitting pheasants and deer!). We have a small grocery store, a mom and pop hardware store and a old-fashion soda fountain/pharmacy/knick-knacks/office supply store. There's a lumber yard, a grain elevator and a couple of farm related business. We have an insurance office, post office, and funeral home.

K-12 meet in the same school and currently have about 200 total students. The are five churches (2 Lutheran, a Catholic, an Assembly of God, a small Methodist and ours). There's a senior center, a nursing home, a clinic w/ 2 RNs, a day care, a 55 and older apartment complex, a general apartment building, a "motel" that is mainly used by those here on short job assigments and my favorite, a nine-hole golf course.

The biggest employers seem to be the power plant, ethanol plant, coal mine, nursing home and school. There are a number of families that do not live in town but live in the surrounding farm land. Apparently many more people used to live out on the farm but as people got older they stopped farming and moved into town and farming is now a big operation meaning that there are only a handful of families in Underwood in which farming is their sole occupation (maybe a dozen or so). Some may still raise cattle but also work at one of the plants in town. in addition to cattle, come of the main crops include wheat, corn, soybeans, sunflowers, and flax.

I may have missed a few things but that should at least give you a picture of what Underwood looks like (and probably many of the other small towns in the Dakotas and elsewhere).

Please continue to pray for Harmony and I to be able to meet people in the community and begin to develop quality relationships with those outside of the church. If you'd like to listen to this week's sermon, "Abstinence Glorifies God" (1 Peter 2:11-12), click here.

Top Ten "Guy" Movies over the past 25 years

Here's my list of the top ten "guy" movies over the past 25 years. Why the past quarter century? I haven't been around much longer, it's a round number and I don't care for too many movies pre-1980. Let me know what you think about these or ones I may have missed.

10. Saving Private Ryan (1998) - Directed by Spielberg and with arguably the best cast ever assembled (Hanks, Damon, Diesel, Ribisi, Giamatti, Sizemore, Pepper, Farina...)

9. The Karate Kid (1984) - He beats the bad guys and gets the girl, 'nuff said.

8. Back to the Future (1985) - Marty McFly: "Wait a minute, Doc. Ah...Are you telling me you built a time machine...out of a DeLorean?" Dr. Emmett Brown: "The way I see it, if you're going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"

7. Gladiator (2000) - "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next."

6. The Last Samurai (2003) - Best Tom Cruise movie ever (not that that's saying much)

5. Braveheart (1995) - If you're a guy and don't own this...

4. Rudy (1993) - I admit it...I cry everytime they start chanting "Rudy...Rudy"

3. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) - Too many memorable quotes to count, e.g. "Well ain't this place a geographical oddity. Two weeks from everywhere!" and "Well, ain't is a small world, spiritually speaking. Peter and Delmar just been baptized and saved. I guess I'm the only one that remains uaffiliated."

2. Good Will Hunting (1997) - Put Damon and Afflack on the map...at least one's remained there.

1. Forrest Gump (1994) - What can I say, Tom Hanks is the man!

We're Official...

...North Dakotians that is. On Thursday our ND license plates arrived so we're no longer the only ones around w/ IL plates and on Monday we went down to Bismarck and got our drivers licenses switched over. Now there are officially two more citizens in the third least populated state in the country!

I have mentioned to a number of people that living w/in an hour of Bismarck has made our transition easier b/c for only being a city of about 50,000, it has everything you could need. The one thing that was missing was a Chipotle. Yesterday Harmony and I ate at Qdoba and while it isn't quite as tasty as Chiptole, it was very good and provides me a place nearby to get a large burrito!

On Saturday I invited one of the other pastors in town over to watch the ND/Michigan football game. It was nice to have a fellow Irish fan to commiserate how bad ND is this year! It has been nice getting it know some of the other local pastors and even talking about planning some events together in the future.

On Friday Harmony and I has supper (not dinner, which is lunch, while lunch is an afternoon light meal traditionally taken out to farmers by their wives) with a family that were farmers before retiring. One of their sons still farms here in Underwood and after supper they took us out to the farm to watch the guys chop corn for feed. Corn has become a hot commodity in the last few years due to the emergence of the ethanol industry. Corn for sale to the ethanol plants won't be ready to harvest for a few more weeks but farmers dedicate a portion of their corn field to be chopped while it is still green (has moisture in it) to store for animal feed during the winter. They had two choppers begin towed by tractors and two flatbed trucks running chopped corn from the field to the farm and then back just in time to fill up again. We are really enjoying learning about farming. Did you know that a "section" refers to a square mile plot of land and is divided into four "quarters"?

Over the last few weeks in addition to preaching, I have been leading the adult Sunday School hour. We are going through a ten week series on the Spiritual Disciplines (e.g. prayer, service, fasting) with the point being that these are God's appointed means for helping us grow in godliness. The last two weeks have been on the importance of and how to read, hear, study, memorize and meditate on Scripture. I am mainly relying on a book by Donald Whitney called "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life." I would highly recommend it to anyone who would like to learn more about and seek to grow in the area of the Spiritual Disciplines.

The sermon this Sunday was an expostion on 1 Peter 2:4-10 entitled "Built for God's Glory". This passage refers to Jesus as God's cornerstone (part of the foundation that sets the lines for the rest of the building) and promises that anyone who values the rock of Jesus will not be shaken but also that He will be the demise for those who discard Him like a useless shard. If you would like to hear more click here.

Lewis' faithful Newfinland

Harmony and I took the opportunity on my day off this week to begin checking out some of the sightseeing spots in our new area. In Washburn (13 miles south of Underwood) there's a learning center and model of the fort Lewis and Clark wintered at during there exploration of the Louisana Purchase. In addition to a lot of information about their journey in general, their winter in North Dakota in particular and the Native Americans they encountered along the way, there's also a large copper statue of Meriwhether Lewis' Newfinland canine, Seaman. North Dakota has a large Native American population and certainly has influenced the history of the state. Our community does not have a large Native American influence but a number of Native American families live here and we would appreciate your prayers as we seek to minister to them.

I had my first regular Elder meeting at Faith Evangelical. I am greatful for the opportunities I had while training for ministry to sit in on a couple Elder meetings, both at EBF and at Capitol Hill Baptist during a "Weekender" conference. I would highly recommend this conference to anyone planning on entering pastoral ministry and would encoruage pastors to give other men in their congregations that either may be preparing for ministry or may be future candidates for eldership to sit in on an Elder meeting. A couple of useful suggestions I have learned as a result of attending elder meetings before leading one myself is to have a "care list" of members who need special prayer (e.g. health), encouragement (e.g. recently bereaved) or challenge (e.g. non-regular attender) and to pray through the membership roster as an elder board.

Harmony and I are having a wonderful time getting to know the people of Faith Evangelical as we've been getting together for dinner, dessert or games with a couple of family each week with the goal of getting around to each family in the first couple months we're here. This past week I also attended my first "civic clib" meeting. This is a group of local business leaders (including pastors) who get together monthly to plan city events and seek ways to invest in the community.

Pray for Harmony and I to be faithful witnesses of the Gospel as we meet people in our new community and to have wisdom for leading our church to a more God-honoring place. If you'd like to listen to my sermon on 1 Peter 1:22-2:3 entitled "Loving Others & the Word Shows Maturity" click here.

John Newton

I've been reading a biography by Jonathan Aitken on John Newton (author of the classic hymn "Amazing Grace"). As you may know, Newton was the captain of a slave ship and by his own admission a wicked sinner before being convicted of his sin, repenting and pursuing ministry. I was struck by the following paragraph in the preface of the biography:

"He went on to serve as pastor of a distinguished church in London, where he befriended many notables of his day. The grace that had "saved a wretch like me" worked its way thoroughouly in his life. His achievements earned him a monument in Westminster Abbey, and the honors continue even today, two centuries after his death. Newton was recently inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and in 2007 the actor Albert Finney played him in Amazing Grace, a film about Wilberforce. Perhaps the surest emblem of his transformation is a town named Newton in his honor in Sierra Leone, where he used to dock his slave ship." (p. 12, emphasis mine)

I highly recommend this biography especially to those who have struggled with sin for many years and wonder if God can use "a wretch like me". I'll leave you with a quote by John Newton which I first heard in the movie Amazing Grace and which has since been an encouragement to me on numerous occasions:

"I am a great sinner but Christ is a great Savior." (p. 24)

Cucumbers Coming Out our Ears

Everyone has a garden. Everyone is also very generous in offering their neighbors, fellow church members and especially pastors, a share in their fresh picked produce. We have received squash, zuchini, potatos, tomatos, corn, apples and yes...cucumbers. I think over a three day period we were offerred cucumbers by no less than three different people. I had no idea there were some many kinds of apples! I eat apples regularly and figured your choice was, Red Delicious, Granny Smith and a couple others. One family at our church has more kinds than that grafted onto one tree! Harmony used this to remind me of our status as grafted into God's Vine. There's a garden in our backyard that Harmony is busy preparing to use for next season.

Being located off of a state highway and hour from a good-size city has enabled me to enjoy one of my favorite moments a few times already. Ever since I've had a license and driven long distances, I have always enoyed those moments when you're on the open road unable to see any cars infront or behind you. Today as I was driving back from Bismarck was one of those precious occasions. However, even with few cars on the road (or maybe because of it) it seems like there are many more bugs out here! At one point driving back from Minot a couple weeks ago, it seemed like a bug was hitting our windshield every few seconds for a minute or two. We have to wash the car after every trip to the city. Another new experience for us is living in a town in which the paved road ends at one point and your forced to travel on gravel (still at 55 mph) as your drive past many of the farm areas. Speaking of speed limits, it seems that it is either 55-70 or 25 without many spots inbetween. In town the limit is 25 and on the highway it's 70 with a few spots of 55 as you pass other towns along the way. I have yet to see a 35 mph zone which seemed to be the standard in our previous locations.

Someone asked me recently what cultural differences I've picked up on so far. I thinking we are still discovering many of these and some of the interesting ones I've been trying to include in this blog. Another cultural difference that did come to mind though is the amount of time dedicated to the weather report on the nightly news. Maybe it's because there aren't as many murders, fires and political scandals to report on but more likely it's the continued importance of farming that prompts the weather to take up nearly half of the broadcast.

Well, I think that's all I have time for today. If there's ever anything in particular you'd like to know about, leave me a comment and I'll do my best to shed some light on it. Please continue to pray that God would give me a passion for evangelism and Harmony and I wisdom about starting new ministries and revamping existing ones (e.g. women's and youth). I'f you'd like to listen to my sermon from this Sunday ("Redeemed to Fear" - 1 Peter 1:17-21) click here.

The Numbers Game is Rigged!

One of the ways that I have been trying to get to know some of the other guys in the community is by attending "coffee" a couple times a week. A number of the men in Underwood meet at 9am Monday through Saturday for coffee at Grandma's Place coffee shop. The way they decide who pays for coffee each morning is by playing a numbers game. The person who lost last writes a number from 1-100 on the inside of a napkin and then starting with the person on his left each guy picks a number to which the writer says is either high or low until someone gets it right on and is the one who picks up the check. The odds of paying are about 20 to 33%. However, somehow I got stuck paying my first two times! I'm not saying that they were out to get the "new guy" but it does make one wonder...

This past week Harmony and I were interviewed and had our picture in the local paper, attended Central McClain's first football game (co-op of Underwood and nearby town Turtle Lake)...they lost to Mott but rebounded Saturday by beating Shiloh. I participated with the other local pastors in a teacher appreciation luncheon on Tuesday. It was a good opportunity to get to know the superintendent, principal, teachers and staff in Underwood. If I haven't mentioned it before, there are five other churches in Underwood (a town of 800)! There's a really small Methodist church that is pastored by a chaplain from Bismarck, an ELCA Lutheran church that is between pastors, a Missouri-Synod Lutheran, Assembly of God and a Roman Catholic church.

I finally got out on the local golf course yesterday with the pastor of St. John's Lutheran, Dean Hartley. I had a good time getting to know him better and hacking around the course (I did have a couple of pars...and a couple of 8s!). The course is nine holes but with two tee boxes and two flags on each green so that you can play 18. It's not a bad course, challenging but wide-open and pretty empty...especially on a weekday.

This Sunday's passage was 1 Peter 1:13-16 and the title of the sermon was, "Holiness is NOT an Option." In preparing this sermon, I was reminded of the need for spiritual vigilance in our media saturated culture (not just watching movies for entertainment but considering what worlview and messages the producers are trying to communicate and whether those promote or detract from the Gospel). I also caught the CNN special program "God's Warriors" (Christian segment) and was struck with the realization that not only is there a need to remain spiritually alert w/r/t the secular media but even w/r/t "Christian Leaders" who may (whether they realize it or not) be replacing the centrality of the Gospel with another message (e.g. a political agenda). The Gospel alone has the power to change lives to pursue the holiness of God.

Pray for Harmony to have wisdom in how to best minister to the women of Faith Evangelical and for me to have more opportunities to interact with people in the community, to share with them the love of Christ and the power of the Gospel.

Don Quixote's Dragon

Harmony and I drove up to Minot on Saturday. Minot is about 55 miles north of Underwood, is one of the larger cities in ND (about 35,000) and is mainly known for its Airforce base. You may not think that a city of 35,000 is very big (nor that it should even be called a "city") but to give you perspective, Fargo is the largest city in ND at around 100,000 with Bismarck (50 miles south of Underwood) coming in second at around 50,000. ND is the third least populated state in the US after all! Minot has all of the fast-food chains and many of the shopping chains that one could need (e.g. Starbucks, Tace Bell, Old Navy, Target). The one chain that I am very sad to say is nowhere in ND is Chipotle! There are a few Qdobas but none near us. On our way back from Minot I had Harmony take a picture from the car of one of the giant windmills being put up all around ND (see picture above). This is an example of the alternative energy sources abounding in ND, like Underwood's Ethanol Plant:(http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/08/15/news/local/137777.txt).

On Thursday we were interviewed by the local paper (it should appear this week or next) and met with a local accountant. Taxes for pastors are crazy! I am considered employed for income tax but self-employed for social security. God has been using this to teach me to trust in Him alone for our finances. Its a good thing I'm not in it for the money.

I think after this past Sunday, I have finally been able to meet all of the regulars of Faith Evangelical. If you'd like to listen to the sermon from this week, it should be available here shortly (Disclaimer: the show I refer to in the intro is actually called "Cash in the Attic"). Please pray for Harmony and I to have opportunities to get to know more people in our community.

By God's Grace, Jeff Higbie

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday...Harvest Fest!

This past Saturday was Underwood's annual fall celebration, "Harvest Fest." The day was full of community events such as horseshoes (my record 1-2), Kids/Teen/Adult Quest (team competition), kids "Corn Pageant" in which participants were judged in the best corn clothing competition and "corniest" joke, ice-cream social, and kids/adults tractor pull. In addition, Harmony and Rowena (one of the other women from church) competed in the adult corn clothing competition in which Harmony won first place for her corn hat (see picture)! It was a very fun day that enabled Harmony and I to get to know many more people in our new community.

The corporate worship service went well on Sunday. I am starting to get the hang of how the traditional service flows. One aspect in particular that I was not prepared for was the amount of praying that I am expected to do/lead during the service (coporate confession of sin, invocation, corporate prayer requests, prayer before offeratory). I am glad that prayer is a significant part of the service but it is cerainly different from what I'm used to and I am still adjusting to it. I got to meet a few people that had not been at church either last week or when Harmony and I visited in April, including one guy who is a contractor at a nearby windmill field (one of NDs numerous alternative energy sources).

We have been taking time to explore the communities surrounding Underwood. Yesterday we drove to Turtle Lake (about twenty miles away) which has the closest hospital and apparently at one time had a Foster Freeze (which unfortunately is now closed). We have discovered one unexpected blessing. In Washburn (15 miles south) there is a coffee shop! If you know me well, you know that I do some of my best reading/studying at coffee shops and so Harmony and I were very excited to have found one nearby...it may become a regular stop for us on my day off.

Please pray for Harmony and I to continue to get to know the people at Faith Evangelical and for God to grant me wisdom to lead the church and reach the community in a way that honors and pleases Him. Pray for Harmony as she seeks opportunities to share the Gospel at the library.

The sermon from this past Sunday is here if you'd like to listen to it (updated link).

1 Peter 1:1-2 Sermon 8/5/07

If you'd like to listen to my first sermon at Faith Evangelical click here. If you have problems accessing it, try upgrading to the most recent verison of Quicktime. I will try to publish my sermons on Northern Expositor by Wednesday of each week. Let me know what you think!

Frozen Flowers in August

Apparently Diet Coke and flowers do not require the same refridgeration temprature. Anyone that knows me well, knows I enjoy ice cold Diet Cokes. In an effort to set up my office at church, I purchased a 12-pack of Diet Cokes and put them in the church frig that was also holding the flowers for this past Sunday. The frig was on low (i.e. not very cold) and I figured it was just to save energy during the week, so I cranked it up to chill my pops. Later I found out that not only does a cold frig keep sodas cold but it also freezes flowers! I wasn't expecting to have to begin apologizing until I had actually tried something ministry-related that backfired but I guess its good to get the excuse me's out of the way early on.

The service on Sunday went well after I was able to question the Elders two different occasions about exactly what was to go on and what my responsibilities included. One of the older ladies commented to me on the way out that she was looking forward to going through 1 Peter.

If like me you grew up in a contemporary church setting, let me give you a sense of what a traditional service in small town North Dakota looks like: piano prelude, welcome and announcements, silent individual confession of sin followed by a prayer of corporate confession, call to worhip reading, hymn, responsive reading, chorus, corporate offering of praises and prayer requests followed by a time of corporate prayer, offeratory followed by a corporate singing of the Doxology, sermon, hymn, Lord's Supper (1st Sunday of each Month), hymn, benediction, piano postlude, pastor greets congregants at door. The service proper is followed by a half-hour of coffee/fellowship and an hour of Sunday School.

We're starting to make the parsonage look like a home. We've finally unpacked all of the boxes, found a place for everything, bought some furniture, hooked up the cable and rearranged our dining room table. Now we're talking about what color to paint the walls and how to set up the furniture when it arrives.

Some other things that we've done in the past week included, on Saturday driving to a nearby town for ice-cream at the Crab Apple which is only open during the summer months, driving past fields full of corn and sunflowers, wondering why there are so many hay bales sitting on the edges of fields, searching two different grocery stores before finding black beans, thick teryaki sauce and Stove Top, receiving our first gift of beef from a family that had one of their cows slaughtered, viewing the Bourne Ultimatum in a non-stadium seating movie theatre located inside a mall, making two trips to Sam's Club, and taking a couple days to realize that the parsonage didn't have a microwave and then a few more days of realizing how much we take having a microwave for granted before we could get one...fifty miles to the nearest Walmart!

Overall things are going very well. Please pray for us to continue getting to know the congregation and the town of Underwood (ND town of the year '05-'06!). We checked out a book from the library on Underwood and I will try to fill you in on some of the highlights in upcoming posts. I will try to post at least once a week (probably Tuesdays) so be sure to check back weekly. I believe the digital voice recorder captured my sermon and so now I just need to figure out how to post it online. - By God's Grace

Our Long Awaited Arrival

Thank you to everyone for all your prayers, encouragement and support over the past few months as Harmony and I prepared for our move to North Dakota and start of my new ministry as Pastor of Faith Evangelical.

We arrived in Underwood Tuesday afternoon safe and sound. I am greatful for the help of my in-laws during this move. I would have never got our dining room table or elliptical trainer put together if my father-in-law wasn't there nor would we have nearly as much out of boxes yet without my mother-in-law's help. We were also blessed to have many brother and sisters from Evanston Bible Fellowship help us pack the moving van on Sunday and many from Faith Evangelical to help us unload it. We have already begun to feel the tremendous hospitality with our cupboards being full before we've even been to the grocery store. I have been and am continually amazed at how God provides!

Last night we attended our first Bible study here and I met with the Elder Board. This Sunday I am excited to begin a preaching series through the Book of 1 Peter. Ever since we cadidated in April, God has put this book on my heart as what Faith Evangelical needs right now. The working title of the first sermon (1:1-2) is "Who we are shapes how we suffer." Suffering is a major theme in the book and Peter wastes little time in beginning to help his readers develop a theology of suffering by reminding them of precious truths about being a Christian and how knowing these should affect every aspect of our lives, including how we approach suffering. I am greatful to Pastor John Piper and Dr. Steve Roy at TEDS for encouraging pastors early on in ministry to help their congregations understand suffering from a Christian perspective. While not everyone is currently suffering, we all will and so it is vital develop an understanding of what it looks like to suffer in a way that glorifies God so that we will prepared.

This sure is a big change for us. Most of our congregation has never lived outside of North Dakota and we've never lived in a community without as many people as the whole state of North Dakota! We have enjoyed waving to people as we drive through the town, actually stopping and saying hi to those we walk past and the great kindness and acceptance we've received.

I did purchase a digital voice recorder to record my sermons and make them available online (If you know how to do this, please let me know!). Please pray for Harmony and I as we adjust to small town life and pray for wisdom for me to lead Faith Evangelical to a more God-honoring place.