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.