West Cocoa Chat

Whats the one thing that can happen to you on the way to work that can absolutely ruin your day? I'll throw out some possible answers while you engage in this cognitive exercise.

1. Krispy Kreme runs out of doughnuts.
2. You decide to take a shortcut to work that turns out to be a log jam of traffic.
Here's one for the "sickness boys" -
3. As you're driving by the local Guitar Center you see a "Going Out Of Business" sign on their front door which begs the question -
Will there be a "GC" in the "Eschaton?" :)

Although all of the above would cause one (or most of us) to start one's day off in a negative fashion, they were not part of my morning reality. However, if you guessed (insert Rizzo's voice from the T.V. show "M.A.S.H.") "Ve-hick-le accident," then you chose wisely. Yes, I was sitting in line at a traffic light when I felt as Keith (http://kdavis777.wordpress.com/) describe in his latest post, a "disturbance in the Force." In this case it was a lady bumping me in the rear with her 88 Olds Royale which desperately needed a brake job.

When I got out of my car I did restrain my "Restoration instinct" in me that wanted to tell her the only way she would be going to Heaven would be if she got "re-baptized" to cover such an egregious sin. To her credit (which I hope is good) she immediately got out of her car with her insurance card in her hand, apologizing for her faulty brakes. My damage will most likely be less than my deductible.

We exchanged information and I asked her if she was O.K.? I then did a commercial for an auto mechanic that attends our church. I gave her his name and phone number and told her she really needed to get her brakes fixed before something serious happened. I told her to let him know she had hit me, to use my name, and ask for the same discount he usually (I hope) gives me. We parted ways and I arrived at work in less than a happy mood.

Later that day I received a phone call from the guy who announces baseball games with me at our local high school. Since Steven graduated he has been doing most of the games. He called to ask if I could do that night's game. I really didn't want to do the game since I had my running clothes with me and I was all set to do my 5 mile run on the way to our Weight Watchers meeting and then enjoy a meal out with my WW crowd. I agreed to do the game and wondered afterwards what else was going to happen to me to keep the car wreck karma going.

I did enjoy seeing everyone again at the ball field and watching the team narrowly win 12 to 11. As I was closing up the Press Box after the game, one of the opposing player's (kid went 5 for 5 with two HR's) mother walked in to talk to me. She told me her son was a senior and this would be their last (I know the feeling) visit to our field. She said she always appreciated how I announced the game, gave out statistics, and gave praise to the play of players from both teams. She gave me a hug and I walked away with a tear in my eye and recognizing like most of you, one day's experiences can certainly run the spectrum of bad to good but its all to the glory of God.

Have a blessed day.

Trey Morgan (http://www.treymorgan.net/) recently asked folks to comment on what attracts them to a particular blog. Its a great question and it received many responses. Most folks stated something about blogs being attractive to them if it was "visually appealing." That probably leaves me out. I was the guy in College that died a 1000 deaths when the Professor stated something along the lines of "all projects need to be creative." I think I can get creative occasionally with what I write or say but making something visually attractive just isn't me. Heck, you should see me every Sunday afternoon after a few games of Beach Volleyball. Not only am I the oldest guy playing but I'm probably the dirtiest when all is said and done.

Wow - I don't know where to start without drying my eyes when I think about "The Pulse's" debut this past Saturday night at our church. No, my eyes are not watering due to the fog / smoke in the picture. :) BTW - Steven is in the white shirt playing bass and singing backup.

My tears are tears of joy and thanksgiving. When I was introduced to the fledgling world of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) in the early 80's, it touched my soul. It gave me a way to worship God in song in the music that reached me. I often dreamed about a day where I would be at a church that would allow, encourage, and promote CCM as an event in it's confines. Of course chances of that happening at a Church of Christ seemed remote.

I remember going to the first "Night of Joy" held at Disney World. It was the early 80's and the Park was being closed and then reopened for a night of CCM. Amy Grant was one of the performers. We were driving to Disney when I made one of my famous predictions. I said, "The place will be empty. How many people are going to go to Disney World to listen to Christian Music?" You know, God must get a real kick out of me because that first night was sold out!!! Shoulder to shoulder, Christians from churches across Florida were worshiping over and over again! As I sit here listening to "How He Loves" I'm still amazed.

Can I digress on my blog for a moment - this seems to be a recurrent theme with me. Something I think is impossible God must look at, smile at me, maybe even laugh, and then know that He is working out His Plan in His timing. I could go on and I have in the past.

Our timing with scheduling C-4 wasn't very good as we realized later in the week that Cocoa was holding an event in it's downtown park by the river called "Praise-Fest." It went on all day Saturday with activities for the family and numerous local CCM Bands playing throughout the day. Nevertheless we had about 100 people show up for our first C-4 Service.

Steven's Elementary School Music Teacher came to hear the band. She is also a worship leader at a local church. She had attended Praise-Fest earlier that day having heard several CCM Bands. After the concert she told us "the Pulse" was better than anything she had heard that day.

One of our former members who has been in a CCM Band for years told our worship guy that Steven's backup vocals with his harmonizing in his opinion were outstanding. It was good to hear some praise for the boy after the tough year he has had.

Even better was seeing how all of these guys were engaged in worship to THE God of Creation as they engaged. They had put in hours and hours in an act that can only be described as a gift to our church and to our community in the name of Jesus! I tell you family I'll take being "voted off the island" any day of the week to see and experience what the Pulse brought us into Saturday night.

I cannot thank enough our worship leader and the lead singer of the Pulse, Mike for all that he does. He is very demanding but he loves our church and the kids of the Pulse. Kudos have to go to the other members of the band - Craig on guitar, his brother Trevor (who suffered a baseball career ending knee injury that he is recovering from) on drums, Vaughn on keyboards, Matthew on lead guitar - that boy has the quickest hands, and Steven who played bass and sang backup vocals. Mike's wife, Teeva also sang on a few songs and did an outstanding job.

Only God knows what's next for our church and the Pulse. It was good to be there at the start.

As many of you know, our church has been on an interesting journey. That journey hasn't been without some lows which I have chronicled in the past. But as low as some of those lows have been the "highs" have been above and beyond anything I could have imagined or had been praying for with respect to a "Church of Christ" in Central Florida. I do not say that by the way to hold us up as some model to emulate or strive for, for our individual churches' journeys will be as they were in the First Century - flawed attempts to be the "Bride of Christ." I say flawed because of the evidence of Paul's corrective Epistles to churches to as he told the Ephesians, to get both feet back into Christ. Sometimes those folks as we do at times, were hanging on by one toe.

One of best "highs" we've experienced has been the freedom to allow those that are talented musically, to use those talents for the glory of God. I have spoken about the folks on our Praise Team and our Praise Band in the past. They put in countless hours of prayer, practice, and patience as they strive to do something that is so, so subjective. That is to worship themselves as they facilitate worship for the rest of us, to do it with excellence, and to do it so that it doesn't look self-serving or as we tend to say in our fellowship, "entertainment."

Sidebar - I must confess to you that I struggle with the "entertainment" label. If I take it to the "preaching arena," how do you determine if you think you need to, when "really good preaching" that is engaging, moving, and even funny at times, crosses some line into "entertainment?" I'll confess (looks like I've been listening to too much "Catholic Radio" :) )to you that I might not be the best guy to throw out the (this is for you Randy http://www.randywray.com/ :) ) "e-word" on someone or something. My default program tends to go to appreciation first when it comes to folks who put in hours at church either teaching, preaching, singing, or in our case now, playing. That's not to say I'm naive enough to not know there are times when you need to throw in a "positive sandwich" such as:

"I sure appreciate the way you played your guitar this morning.
You know I think you might want to tell the sound guy to turn your volume down just a bit.
Thank you for all that you're doing for our church."

How was that? That was one long sidebar!

A part of this special group of folks came up with a dream to have a Saturday Night Praise Service at our church. This would be tailored towards those of us (of which I are one) who like Contemporary Christian Music from "Mercy Me" to "Skillet." This is a dream in more ways than one.

As some of you know, my son did not make our local Community College Baseball Team. A part of his life that was so much him and to some degree us, has stopped. His music, our worship guy, Mike, and this Band has been a dream come true to him and us. He has taken the energy that he used to throw into batting practice and has now thrown himself into this band, his walk with the Lord, and our attempt at a Saturday Night Praise Service.

The other part of this dream aspect comes from an unexpected source - my wife. You see, my wife teaches Kindergarten, she is as Mike (http://preachermike.com/) Cope once blogged about, our church's "food lady," but she isn't one who dreams about bands and their names. That is, until a few weeks ago. Barb woke up one morning remembering a vivid dream about Steven, Mike, and their Praise Band. She said they called themselves, "The Pulse." In the dream there was a video playing of Jesus, his arms outstretched, blood pulsing out of his wrists but instead of it being red, it was the name of nations and people as if Jesus is the pulse (or should be) of the World. She said she could hear our drummer beating his drum in rhythm as a beating heart drives the pulse in our bodies. All of this from someone who does not dream about Contemporary Christian Rock Bands.

My wife sweet wife who doesn't have a demonstrative / aggressive bone in her being, felt compelled to tell Steven and Mike about her dream. If you knew her you might say that part of this story is a dream. Well, they heard her story and they adopted the name. So this coming Saturday night at 6:30 at what was once a very improbable place, our church, "The Pulse" will present a concert / service that they're calling "C4." C4 stands for the four "C's" in our name, "Central Church of Christ in Cocoa" and as I'm sure many of you know, "C4" is also explosive used by the military.

Isn't that what God's Word and putting on Christ in our lives acts like - explosive? Sometimes old things need to be "exploded" to allow the new and righteous to enter and take hold. The Pulse has already been an answer to prayer and in many ways, a dream that has come true. If you get a chance, pray for these guys. If you can, fly on down and hang out with us on Saturday.

God bless.

There are times as a teacher when I am on my game. You mean being able to convey the wonderful world of Algebra in an engaging and relevant manner so as to improve (how’s that for educational jargon) student performance? No!

I’m talking about keeping the middle school kids off balance when given the opportunity as we say in the South, “To mess with them.” As always, the names have been changed to protect the ignorant, I mean innocent.

John is one of my better students and he actually gets my humor, most of the time. John was paying attention during an inspiring lesson on “Slope Intercept Form of an Equation.” When it came time to post the assignment on my screen John’s attention began to wavier. After a few minutes he “came back to us” and he began to copy the assignment down and start it.

I was inputting some grades into my computer when John came up to my desk, book and paper in hand, and a puzzled look. He said, “Mr. Walker, I don’t get number one?” My standard answer is usually like Steve’s (http://intentionalwalk.blogspot.com/) in that I tell students to take the first 10 minutes on their own, struggle, and use the notes we just took in class, etc, etc.

That started to come out of my mouth when I noticed his problem. The assignment was on page 289 but John had written down “page 389!” Yes, he was a full “century” ahead of us and he had no clue and better yet, he was worried. To make it better, I had him!

Looking at John with one of those “disgusted teacher looks” I said, “John, give me a break. Number one is easy. Just look at your notes.” Then I asked the class who didn’t realize the 100 page problem, “Is number one hard?” Of course to John’s distress they gave a collective “its so easy a caveman could do it” response.

You could see John’s brain processing the situation with thoughts such as, “I don’t have a clue how to start number one and so-and-so is already on number 10! What is going on?” So John turned around and started heading back to his desk. I stopped him after a few feet and said, “John, look at the screen and then look at your paper. Do you see anything different?”

It only took a few seconds for John to realize he had been had to which he said, “Mr. Walker, you’re good!” Thus I fulfilled one of my philosophies of teaching that has gotten me through 28 years of teaching Middle School which is, “Get them before they get you.”

Trust me, as I get older this mantra gets harder to live out. Feel free to try this at work or home.

A Monday night at home does would not be my Option A on most Mondays. As Greg will attest I am a “fun-a-holic.” I’m always up for a road trip, ball game, let’s go help someone move blah-blah, or excuse me while I run a 5K or 6 miles. I just seem to have this need to always be doing or planning something.

Mondays usually involve, going to work, running 6 miles, weighing in at WW, and then going out to eat (WW and going out to each sound somewhat oxymoronic, yes?) with our WW gang. That was until yesterday. Wife had a long day and as I chronicled yesterday, it was our last day of FCAT Testing. She called to say she was exhausted and heading to the house. For once (I must be getting older) in my life I said, “Sounds good.”

We hung around the house, ate dinner, watched (where do they get these categories?) Jeopardy, and were in bed by 9pm! Trust me that is way early for our family.

Don’t worry; I went back to my old ways this morning. I met some of my colleagues for a little 7:30am work-out before school this morning. And so it goes.

Yes, our version of high stakes testing ended around 1:15 today. Students had two 80-minutes tests on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week followed by two 60-minutes tests today. The schedule had students going to just two classes following testing. It would be wise of the D.O.E. to make testing days early dismissal days but then that might make (sarcasm warning) sense and be good for kids.

One thing our school does for kids is to play a G-rated movie that teachers have the option of showing to their classes. My favorite part is to watch these kids who are growing up way too fast, for a moment turn back the clock as they enjoy the movie.

I’m sure you’re wondering about the title of today’s post? Could this be a series of lessons propagated at a neighboring church concerning our church? Just a little joke in an otherwise serious topic.

I have wanted to blog about this for the last few days but I have struggled with how to present the topic. I’m sure you’re thinking I’m a little off in my calendar, as we tend to keep it light on Fridays. Let me open by stating what our speaker stated in the very beginning of his lesson to our church. He said something to the effect of, “What I’m about to say, two-thirds of you or more will not believe me.”

Our speaker was a former PLO Terrorist, Walid Shoebat. Walid is now a Christian and he goes around the world speaking about the threat of Islamic Fundamentalism. His website is http://www.shoebat.com/ He has written several books including one that I borrowed for today’s title as well as “Why I Left Jihad.” Walid has been a guest on CNN and numerous other news shows.

He speaks from the perspective as my kin in Kentucky might say, “I was one.” In eloquent fashion he contrasted some of the differences between the hate of Fundamental Islam and the love of Christianity.

Christianity------------------ Islam:

Love your enemy-----------Kill your enemy.

Be truthful in all things-----It is O.K. to lie to the

infidel if you can gain

an advantage.

Love your wife as

Christ loved the

Church---------------If your wife steps out

of line, beat her.

He also spoke about his early indoctrination into the way of hate with the end goal of destroying the Western World. He even voiced concerned over the latest decision to close the Prison Camp at “Gitmo.” He cited his own experience of having been arrested, released, and then going on to commit an act of terror in Israel.

In making such a statement that some might say is “politically charged” he told our church that he found it ironic that when he was a terrorist of the PLO, the news media considered him a freedom fighter fighting for the independence of his homeland. He said once he became a Christian and began to speak out about the threat of Jihadist terrorists to our country and the western world, he was labeled a racist.

So, why do we need to hear such a message and especially in a church? Here are some reasons that you may or may not agree with:

1. Walid said it himself, there are Jihadist living here in the U.S. He said for many years I was one of them, living among you, smiling to your faces, and hating and plotting when your back was turned.

2. For the protection of our young women. Walid said you never see an Islamic woman marry a Christian. To do so can bring a death sentence. However, Islamic men are encouraged to date and marry American women. Even the more so to bring them “home” to an Arab country were they will find themselves little more than slaves to their husband and his family.

3. Muslims and their beliefs are being pushed into our society. There will be and is great pressure for Christians to not speak up about the threat of fundamental Islam.

As a final thought, I do not agree with some of the conclusions Shoebat has drawn with respect to Biblical prophecy and current day Israel. Nevertheless, he has a message that you should hear and read about in our changing society. Sorry about the heavy subject but I thought it was worth sharing.

Oh, as a “final / final note,” not everyone at our church would agree with what I just wrote. There were a wide range of varying opinions on what Shoebat shared but then he said it would be so.

Have a good weekend.

So where have I been? Reading your blogs, doing some commenting, and administering Florida's version of high stakes testing with the Nation's 47th level of State funding for education. Florida's motto apparently is, "Accountability with less money." O.K., enough of that.

I am so excited about our week of Bible Camp that will take place in June. Our theme is borrowed from the popular Casting Crowns hit song, "Praise You in the Storm." Our theme is appropriately for our times, don't you think? This theme is special to Barb and me since it arose out of our annual Planning Meeting in which my son took a very active part for the first time. Its great to see how our legacy of "Bible Camp" is being passed down to our kids who are now young adults.

I cannot do a post about Camp without mentioning my good friend Steve (aka "the Puckster") and the Melbourne Church. Throughout our quarter century together (some with the Stoogelover himself, Greg http://gregengland.com/) Steve and the Melbourne Church have stuck with us through the good times and the challenging times. This year will mark the 3rd time that Pat Pugh will be our main speaker throughout the week. Pat was recently honored in the Harding Grad School (http://www.hugsr.edu/info/bridge.php) publication for his work in inner city Cincinnati. I'm not sure which edition he's in but I'm sure the Puckster can tell us.

What can I say about Camp (http://www.cob-net.org/camp/ithiel.htm) Ithiel which has been our home for going on 3 years. In our time of need God threw us together as we fulfilled a need for them. Mike, the Camp Director is always pleasant, spiritual, and willing to meet needs when asked.

I'd ask that you pray for our incoming camp staff and campers as we hurtle into the summer.

Or is it misunderstanding is in the air? I think that particular malady was in the air yesterday. Based on “Ben’s comment” on yesterday’s post, I can’t tell if he misunderstood what I wrote or if I misunderstood his response? I’d say that was going around yesterday based on the following.

In the wonderful world of secondary school, teachers will stand in the halls during class change. On the first level this is a responsibility on our part to supervise the Halls and to ensure that students are being respectful and courteous to each other. A “weggie” in the middle of the day can potentially disrupt the learning process.

On another level, this particular facet of our day gives rise to the occasional “adult” conversation that can take place in the span of 4 minutes save for the obligatory, “May I go to the restroom / Did we have homework last night / may I use the phone / I forgot to do my homework / and Are we doing anything today” questions / statements. As it would have it, there were 3 of us in the halls yesterday and the “misunderstood you bug” hit like this:

Teacher #1 – Did you hear the latest?
Me – No.

Teacher #1 – “John (he uses the first and last name) did (not a very nice thing) this to “Joe.”

Program Note – Teacher #2 and I commit the cardinal sin that we’re always slamming the kids for – we only heard half of what he said or in this case – the last name which happens to be the same last name of a fellow teacher.

Me – No way!
Teacher #2 – No way (for emphasis) way!

Teacher #1 – Yes and can you believe he is still here?
Me – (trying to remember the formula for tar and feathers) You have got to be kidding me.
Teacher #2 – (grabbing the wall for support) How is he still teaching his class?

It was at this point that Teacher #1 realized we had mistaken the perpetrator as being a teacher rather than a student.

Teacher #1 – No, no, it wasn’t (you morons) Mr. blah-blah. It was a student!

It was at that point that I was able to both breathe and look at Mr. Blah-blah without contemplating the formula for tar and feathers.

2nd Program Note – The supposed “offense” turned out to be milder than first reported.
I think I’ll stay in my classroom for now own. J
Have a good day family.

Would the title, “Lets Keep the Music Going” be in poor taste for this post? For some reason I’m stuck on thinking about my fellowship and what seems to be a growing wealth of nonsensical information on churches that choose to empower their gifted members to facilitate worship accompanied by people playing instruments or how about the acronym “WABPPI.”

I say nonsensical because of this article (http://www.christianchronicle.org/article2158686~Richland_Hills_among_churches_removed_from_directory) in the Christian Chronicle. In this article, "Richland Hills Among Churches Removed From Directory," Carl Royster, who is identified as "the volume’s compiler" says this, "“The one unifying constant that defines whether or not such a congregation is included in this document is the practice of a cappella worship services..."

Let me just say this for everyone - "Wow!" Maybe that is why in the same issue is another article (http://www.christianchronicle.org/article2158685~Church_in_America_marked_by_decline) entitled, "Church in America Marked by Decline." I'm not making that up.

Please feel free to read both articles and draw your own conclusions. I'll draw mine:
1. Is instrumental music a guarantee that you will grow? No.
2. Does instrumental music guarantee a church will not act with legalism? No. I know many of you and I have personal experience in this area.
3. Should every Church of Christ start an instrumental service? No. Just as the churches of the 1st Century, all of our churches should be true to Scripture, their community, and heed to the leading of the Holy Spirit in their particular situation. This is what we have tried to do. It is an ongoing journey just as all of our walks in Christ are.

THE BIG AND OBVIOUS ONE:
1. When you state that the "one and constant" identifier of your church or denomination is something other than Jesus and being Jesus to your community, there is a great probability that many of your churches will go into decline.

Our "one and constant" marker if you will should be the words of Paul in Ephesians 2:

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's handiwork, (emphasis mine) created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Being still somewhat of the Church of Christ "tribe," there are times when I pause and think about our church's journey. Despite the fact that in some ways like the Richland Hills Church of Christ, we too have been voted off our tribe's island by many of our local churches, I still consider us a Church of Christ. When I think about the upcoming Pepperdine Bible Lectures, my 20th in 19 years I think my thinking becomes more "tribal" than usual.

To me, the subject of "the use of the instrument in worship" seems both irrelevant and impersonal. Thoughts of irrelevancy flood my mind with respect to Scripture. The main argument I hear and read from some of our Brotherhood's brightest is based on "the Law of Silence." In other words, if it isn't mention in the New Testament then we can't and shouldn't do it. This irrelevancy falls into two categories:

1. Perhaps it isn't mentioned because Jesus and the Apostles had bigger fish to fry. Jesus is quite clear on things that will send one straight to Hell. One need only read Matthew 25, "the Sheep and the Goats" to know that we must be about service to everyone with no strings (no pun intended) attached. James 4:17 says:

"Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."

2. To the degree "logic" is used to appeal to the lack of mentioning of instruments in the N.T., what about explaining their use in Scripture? There are too many O.T. passages to list and here's one - why would God mention their presence in Rev. 15 and the fact that He supplied them-


1I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God's wrath is completed. 2And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. They held harps given them by God 3and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: "Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. 4Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."


2nd Category - Impersonal - Just the very phrase, "the use of the instrument" seems to forget that there is "someone" using and worshipping with that instrument! Every Sunday I look at our Praise Band and consider how many hours they have practiced to do what they do on Sundays. Moreover, I know their hearts, their walks, their families, their shortcomings, and their gifts! For the record to my fellow Church of Christ brothers and sisters, they are not instruments! They are people with God given talents and a passion for God so that they want to use their gifts to glorify God.

My point isn't to promote churches in our Brotherhood to start artificially allowing their gifted members to facilitate instrumental worship. As with many facets of non-denominational autonomy, that decision should be based on where the Holy Spirit is leading that church.
I just pray that our Fellowship can return to the times of David Lipscomb, one of our Restoration Fathers. I'll leave you with a passage from a recent article John Mark Hicks wrote on the (http://www.hugsr.edu/bridge/bulletin12.php) Harding Grad website. Happy Monday.

David Lipscomb and T. B. Larimore, prominent leaders in the Restoration Movement at the turn of the century, did not press the instrument issue to the division of the body, and they preached in instrumental churches where some others would not. They did not believe that this issue alone should divide the fellowship of churches. When Lipscomb was asked in 1871 whether we should disfellowship or condemn to hell those churches which used the instrument, he responded: “While we condemn the organ certainly as wrong, unauthorized, corrupting, we have never decided that it is Christian to go to this extremity. Churches became corrupt in primitive times and yet no such advice is given in the scriptures.”¹⁴ For many years Lipscomb continued to hold meetings and preach for churches that used the organ.¹⁵ But nevertheless Lipscomb also continued to oppose the use of musical instruments in the worship of God. We too can press this truth with our friends and with fellow-Christians without condemning them to hell.