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.
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