West Cocoa Chat

As the Holidays began a number of “us” whose boys have grown up together at our church decided to take them to our favorite Japanese Steakhouse, “Makotos” in Melbourne. No, there wasn’t a scene (as in the movie, “Christmas Story”) in which a duck’s head had to be severed to make the meal more presentable.

Several of our “boys” will be graduating in the next 2 years from High School so occasions where we can get them all together (yes, we actually wanted to) are fleeting at best. Are party ended up being 24 so I volunteered to drive our church bus to increase the fun.

The meal was fantastic and our 2 Japanese Chefs put on an outstanding show. I think the funniest moment was when the Chef for the boys threw water on the hot grill causing a loud hiss and a large cloud of steam. Steven’s friend, David, who was in the direct “line of fire” yelled across the room to his Mother, “Mom, I think my eye-brows are gone again!”

The reason this was funny was due to the fact that David, on a dare, had shaved his eyebrows during our youth group’s trip to John Dobb’s Church to help with Katrina Relief. David is a great kid with a great sense of humor. I guess you have to have a good sense of humor to shave your own eye-brows.

Despite all of the fun we had at Makotos that for me and I think for all the parents, wasn’t the highlight of the evening. On the bus ride home, I was using the bus microphone (no, this wasn’t the highlight either) to play “tour guide” and liven up the evening. At one point I was hushed by several of the adults. Now, those that know me I’m sure would agree that I couldn’t have possibly been annoying. I appreciate all of you who have my back.

No, I was hushed by the adults because the teens, on their own, had started singing praise songs. There is a certain feeling you get when your children on their own, choose to do spiritual things.

Now, I’m not bragging on my parenting skills or my son’s (and his friends) ability to be “perfect.” Goodness knows that that both he and I are far from it. My praise goes to God for despite all of the mistakes I’ve made in raising my son and I know my friends would make the same statement, praise to be to God that our boys love Jesus.

Happy New Year Family.

Once again Christmas time as come and left in what seems like a blink of an eye. Ours started off with Steven’s Christmas Concert the last week of school. Steven is in the first row, second from the left.

I know in the past I have pontificated on the current age of “Accountability” that we currently find ourselves in with respect to Education. At current here in the Sunshine State we hold children as young as 7 years old, accountable for their standardized test scores. A 3^rd Grader must past the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) in both Reading and Math to be promoted to the 4^th grade, irresponsive of their performance throughout that year.

“Accountability” here in Florida is on the cuspate on venturing as far down the educational ladder as Kindergarten. There is a movement afoot to use what is called the “Dibbles Testing” as part of the “school grade formula” for Elementary Schools.

In the past few weeks our church has been renovating our “office wing.” In the hustle and bustle of cleaning out files, preparing rooms for paint, and the like, we’ve come across old minutes from Elder’s Meetings, some of which date back 30 and 40 years old. In reading some of these minutes from my “ancestral Shepherds,” 2 things came to mind:

1. To some extent certain subjects (finances and motivating people) were repeated quite often. The mention of this is certainly not an affirmation of anything positive.

2. Most of the Meeting Documents contained extensive, blow by blow, word by word commentaries. “Brother so and so said this and Brother so and so said that.” Much more detailed than the current minutes we currently record of our meetings.

As I thought about “number 2” the conclusion I came to was the “word by word” commentary was necessary to hold folks accountable. Each word seemed to be measured so that it would stand up in a court of law should some legal action be needed.

We seemed to be (southern colloquial phrase coming) “ate up” with holding folks “accountable” in our society.

As I thought about my standing before God my thoughts turned to the “blood of the lamb.” I’m thankful that a Holy God, a righteous God is also a loving God. I’m thankful that when God looks at us, he doesn’t think of our “accountability” but rather he sees justification for those of us whose sins are covered by the blood of the lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are loved by a “second chance God.”

Have a good weekend family.

^{Romans 5:6}You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!

My wife was first asked by my father who was our Deacon of Fellowship at the time, to “help” him organize a “Church Christmas Party” back in the early 80’s. This “help” took on the form of decorating the church building as well as cooking for the party. My part was one of “go-fer” and “Chief Assistant.”

When we came to Central we were asked to bring this tradition to them and so it took on it’s latest form this past Saturday. This time the affair included enough prime rib stuffed with garlic and Alice Springs Chicken to feed almost 100 people! Did I mention that Barb also made salad, potatoes, bread pudding (this ain’t your father’s bread pudding by the way) and (for the WW folks) sugar free pumpkin pudding. To say that the activity around our home on Saturday morning was hectic would be an understatement. No, it didn’t get as bad as an episode of “Hell’s Kitchen” but I was compelled to address Barb as “Yes Chef” and “No Chef” a few times during the day.

As with anything at church, none of this could get accomplished without the help of good friends helping us decorate, clean, set up, serve, and then clean again following the party.

The gift exchange we always play is one of the highlights of the evening, especially when you play with almost 100 people. Our version is a no-holds barred, unlimited number of times a gift can be taken, will the guys hold on to their “Man Card” Gift Exchange Game. To facilitate things we had 2 people go at a time. Each year there is always a “hot gift” that is taken multiple times. This year’s version was a cleaver calendar entitled, “The Men of Central.” This creative individual took our 12 deacons and superimposed their faces on the bodies of guys who looked like they had been on same stuff most of Major League Baseball apparently has been using.

As I reflect over our quarter century plus experience with Church Christmas Parties it somewhat reminds me of our experience with church itself. When we first started going to these parties, we were just attendees with no responsibilities. We came, we enjoyed, and then we left. Then we transitioned into taking on some responsibility and ultimate a task became a beloved ministry.

God bless all of you and as Greg said in a previous post of his, I’ll give you the conservative Holiday greeting, may you have a “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”

I was thinking about the “seasons of life” the other day. Greg talking about his lack of wanting to decorate the outside of his house due to his kids being grown and out of the house, my own son graduating from High School this year, and just plain getting older got me going. I chaperoned our Middle School Christmas Chorus Concert last night and again, I became reflective as I watched parents look at their performing children in much the same way I looked at my son just a few years ago on that very spot.

Does it seem that God sometimes goes through “seasons of life as well?” I know in my own life there have been times when God seems like He is screaming at me either post or pre-event. No more was that more evident than our 2 year drama with a local Bible Camp in which we were told we couldn’t have Pat Pugh speak to our campers, a year later being un-invited from said Camp seemingly giving brotherhood terrorists / blackmailers the final victory in our long association with Christian Camping, and then having God provide a new Camp and the means to bring Pat to our week of Camp.

As I have said so often, we are still feeling the benefits of Pat’s challenging lessons to our kids, my very own son and this despite the best efforts of men to stand in the way of God. Yes, in the highest and most positive sense I can conjure, God spoke with a very big mouth. He seemingly was saying, “I am sovereign, I am King, and the Gates of Hell will not prevail against the teaching of my Holy Word!” Those are seasons that you can hang on to, teach and preach about them, and remember them in the tough times.

Then there are the times when God seems to be a “mealy mouth.” Perhaps more accurately He at times seems to have “no” mouth at all. His voice is silent. I remember when my Mother’s cancer came back, one month before we were to move into our “dream home” with a “Mother-in-Law’s Quarters.” Steven was in 2^nd or 3^rd Grade and he loved his “Nanny.” I prayed and prayed for healing, for remission, for a miracle but God was silent. There was no word from God, no last minute save, no healing. Don’t you just love life?

But as someone once said, “Faith isn’t faith unless it’s tested.” I am not a bold person and I don’t like change or tests. I love my routine, my anonymity, and my “ducks in a row.” I love for my God to have a “big mouth” because it’s comforting. I never liked sleeping alone.

Yet as I grow older and I can’t say that I “enjoy” God’s silence but I’m coming to grip with it. I guess that’s one reason to look forward to Heaven. God will never be silent and we don’t have to worry about being alone.

I know I rambled a bit but it was on my heart as are all of you. God bless.

As I said in my earlier post, we spent the weekend in Jacksonville Beach and attend the Carolina Panthers vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars game. However my weekend didn’t start out with so much fun. Since its Christmas time imagine Cousin Eddie in the movie, Christmas Vacation, emptying the black water tank of his “R.V.” into the city sewer, yelling at the yuppie Couple across the street, “The shi-_ter’s full.” That was my Saturday morning.

We are on septic tanks here in beautiful West Cocoa. I had already planned to pop the lid off my sewer tank and clean out the filter. Our toilets and washer had been draining slower and slower so I knew it was time. So I got up early Saturday morning and went to use the bathroom in our guest bathroom. It’s the bathroom with the toilet that you’re suppose to jiggle the handle when you’re done so it won’t over flow. You probably guessed it, I did everything but jiggle the handle. I went into our bathroom to shave and brush my teeth when I heard a sound like running water. I tell you family, it’s a bad, bad feeling when you see water running into your living room over your laminate floor! Fortunately we only ended up with one bad spot in our living room, the hallway, and Steven’s bedroom but I felt like a putz!

After we got up as much water as we could with the steam-vac it was on to the outside to clean the sewer filter. The filter is designed to catch hair, soap, and “other solids” from entering the drain field and causing damage. The aroma itself was to die for but I popped the cap in the tank, pulled out the filter, offered to let my wife hose it down but was surprisingly turned down, and then hosed down the filter. Out toilets and showers immediately began to flow without hesitation. I was then ordered to take a shower due to the strange aroma that was emanating from my skin.

We left for Jacksonville Beach around 2pm and arrived around 4:30. The rest I’ll leave for the pictures. Enjoy.
The view from our 4th story Hotel on Jacksonville Beach.

Happy Friday family. Don't forget to wear that blue to support our troops and their families as they served our Country. We continue a tradition this weekend among 4 Dads and their "boys." For years now, I and 3 of my friends at church have taken our boys to either a College or Pro football game. For the last few years we've graced the confines of Alltel Stadium which I now understand to be Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. Chuck and I along with our 2 sons will leave out tomorrow for our hotel in Jacksonville Beach with Bret and Ron to follow later with their 2 sons.

My son and Bret's are seniors this year so this could be the last time that these 4 Dads and their "boys" are at a game together. I do and I don't look forward to this weekend if you know what I mean.

Have a great weekend family.

Hello family. Sorry for the delay in posts. Busy week last week. Please pray for my son who was diagnosed with "Shingles" last week. Yes, a teenager with Shingles. He is doing better this week and the pain for the most part has disappeared.

I’m sure one reason the pain has dissipated is due to the generous gift my in-laws gave Steven. Steven’s 97 Ford Contour was on it’s last legs. We were trying to baby it until April when my Expedition would be paid off thus freeing up some money. My father-in-law being the take charge guy he is stepped up and bought Steven a new Honda Civic for Christmas, birthday, and graduation. I’ll get a picture of Steven with his new car and post it soon. No, my in-laws are not looking to adopt any more Grand-kids.

I asked our preacher, Don, if I could relay this to you and he gave me his permission. Hey, there’s a twist, having to ask the preacher if you can use “him” in an illustration.

Don went to the Bank this morning to deposit some checks for our church. As the Teller was conducting her business, she noticed the “Central Church of Christ” logon on the checks. She asked Don, “What kind of church are you? My husband and I are looking for a church.”

When Don told her we are a non-denominational church she said she and her husband would be visiting us this coming Sunday. She said they had been looking for a non-denominational church.

The following thoughts came to me as a result of Don’s story:
1. In the past I would have had a hard time describing ourselves as a “non-denominational” church. Although we have no “Earthly” home office, the fact that most Churches of Christ act in fear of other coC’s, operate in fear of being booted out of “the club,” and know that they will be either black-mailed or black-balled if they go outside and accepted practice or belief, makes us a denomination in the worse sense. I don’t think I could have made the same claim that Don did today, a few months ago.

2. I couldn’t help but think about the beginning of our movement. In it’s infancy it strived for autonomy thus making each individual congregation non-denominational. We had the very plan for being a movement of Biblical, non-denominational, autonomous churches in the palm of our hand and yet, some way, some how, we lost our autonomy. I suspect that in our movement’s infancy, individual churches began to cooperate with each other to accomplish works that each individual church could not accomplish on their own.

Nothing wrong with this concept but the danger it brings is the demands on each other to confirm to one model of church, a model foreign to the New Testament.

Although it has been wrought with pain, blackmail, un-invitations, and slander, our journey towards being a truly autonomous / non-denominational church has been worth all of the above. I know we haven’t arrived and I know we have a ways to go but I can now honestly say that if someone in our area is looking for a non-denominational church, I know where they can find one.

May God bless all of us as we journey towards what God wants us to be individually and as churches.