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.