Church

On Wednesday night I almost won!!

Well, not really me!  I had helped a seven year old put together a model racing car.  We started with a block of wood.  Then we shaped, sanded, painted, detailed, glued, set the wheels, weighted the car and generally raced it along the floor to be sure it worked.

Then the big night came. 

Dagen and I were hoping for a good finish — at least 7th or so.  In the initial run the car placed first.  And for the next three runs the same finish.  Soon the other kids were cheering him on with “Dagen, Dagen, Dagen.”  The fifth run the car bounced and placed last.  The other three runs we hit first place again.

When the scores were tallied we placed second! 

OK, so its not really we!  Dagen got second, and I got honorable mention – next year the other fathers will be out to beat me!!

With a little detour on their way to Edmonton, two Free Methodist pastors dropped in to see us Wednesday.  One of them, Daniel, is a good friend of mine from Prince Albert.  The other, Bob, has a father whom I knew from year’s past.  Both were on their way to their SPN (a great name for a pastor’s small group!!)

We took a tour of our house and basked in the sunlight as we talked over lunch.

As we sat around the table (Jill, my wife and the best cook in the world, made a great pea soup and we had ham buns to top it off) we discussed our families and friends.  Daniel’s son is almost 1 year old – I was at Wesley’s baptism this past year.  His wife is working at home – they are trying to balance having more job offers than what she can accomodate!

We tossed around our personal approaches to sermon preparation time.  We all agree its a week long task that sees the hours of preparation downsized to a few minutes on Sunday.  We agonized over the place of relationships in pastoring a church.  We all agreed that that’s what its all about – the church of Jesus Christ is people!!  All three of us are basically introverts who are learning to be relational – some of us have progressed further along, so we were all encouraging one another. 

As we were departing, the topic arose — John Wesley and sanctification.  For those of us who stick to words we can handle, that’s really just about being more like Jesus every day, until the core of our being reflects who Jesus is. 

Unfortunately that tangent will have to wait for another day.  But, it’s a good excuse to get back together!! 

It’s that time of year!  When plans begin to take shape for the coming year.  I still work on the academic year – September through June, so the six month itch is beginning to manifest itself now.

This year I’m searching for a sense of direction for the church I’m working with, as well as for my wife and I as we complete our first year of being “empty-nesters.”  We see no reason to consider another venue.  As a matter of fact, there has been no lifting of the original sense that we should be here.

But how do we do and listen at the same time?

I’m reading and hearing from others who are in the same space.  We all know that God is there and is not silent.  But right now the clarity of His voice is just a little off frequency – prayer starts that tuning in process, other people add their signals and in the end the message will be clear.

Over the years I have seen this cycle repeated.  I know God will speak.  I know He will speak in His own time. 

But, I’d still like Him to hurry up so I can wait!

So, I’m surfing the web.  I put in Baker. 

Out comes a car sales dealership in Australia.  With some interesting videos!  Try out the “Taxi Driver”.

They take a while to load but are well done.  And they have the BAKER name attached!

Oh, and by the way.  I couldn’t get a website domain at ronbaker.com because another car salesperson had already snatched it up.

Amazing what you find on the web!!