Glutton for Punishment

I guess I am a glutton for punishment but after remarking only a few weeks ago how nice it is to be done with basketball season...as of this week I've started a new season! I am coaching the 4th-6th grade basketball team at the school. This is way differnt than assisting with the high school team! At the same time, it's something that I've always wanted to do and am glad to be able to serve the community in this manner. You may wonder why 4th-6th grade and the reason is that Underwood doesn't have many boys in 5th and 6th grade. On the team we have 2 sixth graders, 4 fifth graders and 8 fourth graders. So far we've been working on the very basics like footwork, dribbling, lay-ups, passing, and the like. I know the kids really want to scrimmage but I have to keep reminding them that the drills we're doing now will help them become better basketball players in junior high and high school and will enable them to have more fun when we start scrimaging and playing games in April.

This past Sunday I preached on Psalm one and the sermon was entitled "Two Ways to Live." If you'd like to listen to it, you can by clicking here. This week I am going to preach a special Easter Sermon on Jesus' resurrection, followed next week by a sermon on Psalm two. Then when Harmony and I return from vacation, I'll be starting a year-long series through Matthew.

Pray for me to continue seeking to grow a love for the people of Faith Evangelical Church and the community of Underwood. Also pray for wisdom for myself and the Elders of the church as we begin making plans for some outreach events during the summer.

By God's Grace, Jeff.

Going for a Walk in Early March

Now, some of you may think being able to go for a nice stroll in the afternoon in early March is no big deal. If so, you've never lived in North Dakota! Our weather here has still mainly been in the low to mid thirties and apparently you can frequently still get some cold weather and a good bit of snow even this late into the year. But, this past Monday it was near 60 degrees out and with more sunlight in the afternoons due to Day Light Savings, we were able to go for a walk after Harmony got home from the library. The other nice things about going for a walk in a small town is that it's pretty easy to cover most of, if not all of town during your walk and you don't have to worry about traffic. We are looking forward to taking more regular walks soon.

On Saturday I spent 6 hours in front of the computer during a fantasy baseball draft. I guess now the proverbial cat is out of the bag when it comes to one of my pedadillos. I have been participating in fantasy baseball leagues ever since high school. For those who may not be familiar with this endeavor, basically, a bunch of guys sit around before the baseball season begins and draft their own teams of players and then track their stats throughout the season to see whose team does better (though there are a number of variants to this). A group of friends in college started a league back in 1998 and we've kept it going ever since (though all of us have been out of school now for a number of years). In fact, this was the first year that I wasn't able to draft in person but had to participate via the Internet. This made for a long and less fun 6 hours! However, I think if I wasn't involved in this, I probably wouldn't follow MLB much.

This passed Sunday I finished preaching through Ezra. Although I found this book to be chaulked full of insight and application, one aspect that I am glad to be done with is reading the numerous lists of names in Ezra. The one at the end of chapter ten was especially challenging mainly because it came at the end of the passage instead of the beginning. With that said, I am glad to have taken the church through this great OT historical book. If you'd like to listen to the sermon from this last week entitled "Dealing with Sin," click here. I am going to be preaching on Psalm One this week, an Easter sermon next week and Psalm Two the following Sunday. After that we will be taking a week of vacation and then beginning what will probably be a year-long series, through the Gospel of Matthew.

I am going to begin coaching the 4th-6th grade basketball team next week so please pray for wisdom for me in leading these kids and being a witness of the gospel and love of Christ to them and their parents. Please also pray for wisdom for myself and the elders as we meet this Sunday to discuss upcoming outreach and discipleship events and programming.

By God's Grace, Jeff.

Freewill Offerings Abound

Not too much happened this past week so instead of filling you in on the ongoings of our lives, I thought I'd blog about a couple of interesting observations I've had recently. First off, just about every event, church-related or not, takes up a "freewill offering". Basically, they "pass the plate" in order to raise money. Maybe I ran in the wrong circles to notice this in the other places I've lived but it struck me a couple weekends ago at the Northern plains District Conference that having a "freewill offering" seems to be a pretty common occurrence around here. If anyone has any thoughts as to why this might be or has experienced this outside of a rural setting, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Second, everyone seems to call me "pastor." Not "Pastor Jeff" or "Pastor Higbie" mind you, but "pastor." It almost seems like a title of relationship (e.g. "mom" or "grandpa"). This isn't even just among people within our church but even those in the community who I barely know! I'm wondering if this is common among other ministers or if again this is something unique to our setting. I guess I'm glad that people know who I am but I don't want to give the sense that somehow I am spiritually more mature because of my position or that I can't possibly understand what's going on in people's lives because of it. If anyone has any thoughts about this I'd appreciate it.

This past Sunday I preached on Ezra 9 about "Corporate Repentance." If you'd like to listen to the sermon you can do so here. This coming week is the last in the series through Ezra. I am going to preach on Psalm 1 and 2 and in-between preach an Easter sermon before going on vacation for a week and then starting a year-long series through Matthew when I return.

Pray that God would continue to grow in me a heart for the people in the church and those in the community and a passion for seeking Him in His Word and prayer.

By God's Grace, Jeff.

My Samaria

This past weekend, Harmony and I, along with some others from our church attended the Northern Plains District conference in Minot. The main speaker was Dr. Bill Hammel, President of the EFCA. He spoke about the need to minister to our Samarias, "the places you don't want to go but the people you need to reach." Just as Jesus could have avoided traveling through Samaria (as most during His day would have), He chose to enter Samaria because He had a divine appointment with a Samaritan woman at a well. I was challenged to consider who the "Samaritans" are in my community and to be willing to go to them instead of expecting them to "clean up their lives" and come to the church. I hope in the near future you will hear about me seeking to engage those who are often difficult to be around and easy to discard.

In addition, we voted on a new District Superintendent, Daryl Thompson, the pastor of Liberty Free Church in Williston. He has an unbelievable passion for evangelism, helping pastors and making sure our ministry fits our context. I really appreciated hearing his ideas and passions and am excited to get to know him better and have someone to go to for ideas and help. One of the convictions he shared that resonated with me is that "our Message and Mission must always stay the same but our Ministry must change to meet the need of our community."

In between events at the district conference I also had the district basketball tournament. The conference was in Minot (60 miles north of Underwood) and the tournament was in Garrison (20 miles north of Underwood), so on Friday night and then again Saturday afternoon, Harmony and I commuted between Minot and Garrison. We lost our opening round game to Wilton but the boys played tough and we encouraged them that if they continued to play that well we'd have a chance in the next couple games. On Saturday we played Sheridan County who we lost to by a couple points in the regular season. Utilizing a 2-man zone defense, we shut them down offensively and scored just enough oursevles to pull off the victory, 38-29. On monday night we met up with Washburn who we had just lost to a couple weeks ago. The boys played them really tough. We outscored them in two of the four quarters and were within a basket a couple times in the fourth quarter but just didn't have enough bounces go our way and lost 56-50. The one nice thing (beyond the season being finally over!) is that the assistant coach for Washburn and his son (who plays for them) attend our church. As I told my wife when she asked if she could root for Keir during our game, "No, but if they win you can root for him the whole rest of the season."

Sunday I preached on Ezra 8 and we saw that "God Helps those...who rely on Him." This was my longest sermon yet, so if you've got a spare forty minutes, check it out here. I also taught the second to last Sunday School lesson on the EFCA Statement of Faith "What We Believe & Why", which I believe has been a good series to take the church through, in spite of the fact that the statement will probably be changed at the upcoming national conference.

Please pray for me to work hard in the work God's given me to do and to pursue keeping my way pure by guarding it according to His Word (Ps 119:9). Please pray for Harmony to find someone to help out in the library as her working three evenings every week is taking its toll.

By God's Grace, Jeff

I'm too old for All-Nighters but not for Lockins

This Sunday the youth ministry at church had a lock-in that Harmony and I helped out with. This is similar to events that I organized while a youth pastor in Evanston but there I called them "All-Nighters". The main difference being that there's no expectation of staying up all night at a lock-in. We put on a movie at about 2am and pretty much everyone was out by the end of it (us included). It was a fun event and we had some kids there who don't normally attend the youth group. Please pray that we would continue to have wisdom about how to serve the church kids and reach out to kids from the community.

On Thursday evening I got a call from the basketball coach asking if I wanted to coach the JV team on Friday. The JV coach had a prior committment and this game opportunity came up last minute. So I did...and we won! We had to leave right after school got out to make it up to Max (30 minutes) for a 4pm game. We made it with eight minutes to spare! However, by the time the kids got dressed they only had a couple minutes to shoot around before tip-off. As a result we came out a bit sluggish. We trailed in each of the first three quarters before making a run in the fourth to win by double-digits. I was proud of how the kids battled...and it was nice to get my first JV win!

Our district tournament starts this weekend. The top four teams (out of six) advance to the regional tournament. We play a team in the first round who we lost to by five during the season, so if we play well we'll have a chance. Our girls won their first regional game but lost last night (only the top finisher in regionals moves on to the state tournament).

Harmony and I are going up to the Northern Plains District Conference in Minot this weekend. I think we're both looking forward to getting a chance to meet some other pastors in the district and just to get away for a couple days.

This week's sermon was on Ezra 7:11-28 enititled "God's Providence and Persian Politics." If you'd like to listen to it click here.

By God's Grace, Jeff

I left the car running

For the first time ever, last Saturday I left the car running while I was in the grocery store and at the bank because it was near double digits below zero. Before you label me crazy, let me fill you in that this is a common practice in town. No one is worried about having their cars stolen. They are much more concerned about not getting their cars to re-start in the severe cold. Having now participated in this small town rite of passage, you know that we are adjusting to our new lives in North Dakota. I'm lobbying to get a remote starter before next winter.

The other "exciting" happening of the week was having to deal with a clogged sewer line. In our basement we have a large utility room in which is our sewer drain. Since it was clogged, it did not properly drain but instead seaped into the utility room. We spent most of the day mopping up while we waited on the local plumbers to arrive. They were able to roto-rooter the drain and it is now functioning properly again. Now that we know the signs, I hope we never have to deal with that again. Ah, the joys of living in a home instead of an apartment!

We had basketball games Monday and Tuesday night. JV won both their games but varsity lost both of theirs (though they played much better in the second half last night). Varsity has one more game on Saturday before the district tournament begins next weekend. The top four finishers in the tournament move on to the regional tournament. Our girls team finished second in the district and will have their first round game in the regional on Monday. I have enjoyed working with the kids and getting to know more people from the community but I will be glad when the season is finally over and I get my afternoons, evenings and weekends back!

On Sunday we continued in our series through Ezra and looked at the beginning of chapter seven, learing that God accomplishes His will through His Word. Ezra is a great model of what it looks like to rightly value Scripture. He studied it, obeyed it and taught it. If you'd like to listen to the sermon click here.

Please pray that I would continue to develop a love for the church and community and for Harmony that she'd find someone to help her out in the library.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Poor Scheduling

I made a rookie pastor mistake this week. When the elder board scheduled our annual meeting, I didn't bother to check on other events occuring that day. It turns out that the evening of the first Sunday in February also happens to the Super Bowl! Fortunately the attendance at our annual meeting was not negatively affected. I'm sure at many churches you'd of had a hard time getting quorem...either that or the pastor would not have to worry about scheduling another annual meeting! So at about halftime of the big game, we were voting on church officers and budget. Now, before you leave sympathy comments, I did TIVO it and so was still able to watch the game (though I didn't fast-forward through the commericals).

By the way, as far as commercials go, my wife and I like the Doritos one with the giant mouse, the Bud Light one with fire breathing, the Budweiser one with the Rocky theme and the Pepsi one with Justin Timberlake, especially when he gets bonked on the head by the flat screen tv.

I am now 2-1 all time as a basketball coach (although I'm pretty sure even w/ this win I've lost ground to Coach K). Last night we played against Grant County and had four eighth graders playing with us. This gave us a deeper bench (I only had six guys in the previous tournament) as well as some funny moments. Needing an extra ball-handler, I told one of the junior highers he was going to start and he looked at me with big eyes and said, "who me?" Then during the first half one of the eighth graders asked me if we had any out-of-bounce plays. And although we have about six of them, because the junior highers don't practice with us I answered, "None that you know." But all-in-all they played really well and it bodes well for the future...the present on the other hand isn't going so well. Both JV and Varsity lost. We only have three games before the district tournament starts and we're currently not going in the right direction.

I think I've mentioned this before, but the best (only good) thing about the current state of most "Christian" bookstores is that you can find great deals on doctrinally solid books. Whenever my wife and I are in Bismarck and stop at the Christian bookstore there, I always go to the discount bin first. This time around I found "Living the Cross-Centered Life" by C.J. Mahaney for only $4.99! Great deal on a book that been on my list for quite awhile.

On Sunday I preached on Ezra 6 and we saw that "When God Acts, His People Rejoice." We also had our second week in the "EFCA: What We Believe and Why" Sunday School series. This week we took on the first two points in our statement of faith: Beliefs on Scripture and God. Click here to listen to the sermon.

Please pray that I would continue trusting and depending on the Lord in every aspect of my life including my leadership of Faith Evangelical Church, for the youth ministry to continue reaching out to the community and for Harmony as she gets adjusted to running the library.

By God's Grace, Jeff