Thankful in All Things

Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. --Ephesians 5:20

Always giving thanks for everything is not an easy thing. I asked the staff what were the hard things they were thankful for this year. Here are some of their answers:

• I am thankful that God is hearing and answering my daily plea that the progression of Parkinson’s Disease for my husband be slowed/halted and that he is still able to function independently. We celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary this year -- every day together is precious.

• I am thankful that after 20+ years of praying my sister became a Christian this year. We are now not only much closer as friends, but also sisters in Christ.

• When I think of difficult things I am thankful for, I think of:
My difficult family background
My hearing loss
Mental illness in my wife’s and my own family

• An unexpected grandchild.

• Our fourth child.

• Adjusting to having an extended family member come live in my home. But I consider it a privilege to provide a home for her and am glad to have her. Besides, even though she does things differently, she’s often helpful, and I’m thankful for THAT!

So what are some of the hard things you have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving?

A Sunny Afternoon at the Cemetery

Our neighbor, Roy, lost his wife of fifty years several months ago. He's obviously grieving and lonely, so Ron and I try to visit with him now and then, take him a meal, etc. He mentioned once that we ought to go see Eve's headstone. Sunday, although a bit nippy, was a beautiful sunny fall day, and seemed like a good day to honor Roy's request. We pulled into his drive to find him out walking his dog. Ron asked if he'd like to take us to the cemetery. His face lit up and with an atypical bounce to his cane-assisted step, he hustled little Buster into the house, then climbed into the car with us.

Their headstone is indeed a lovely one. They made a good choice. A more important choice, however, is whether to believe or reject Christ's claims. Meandering around a cemetery tends to turn one's thoughts toward eternity.

Over the last couple years here at Faith Church, I've watched the staff shift their focus from plans and programs to prayer and people. They are encouraging us all to become outward focused. To notice when a neighbor is lonely and needs someone to sit at the kitchen table and listen to him tell of his grief.

Just about four steps away from Eve's headstone is the grave of a 23 year-old man who took his own life. On the back of his stone, his family elected to engrave the entire note he left behind at his death. It is filled with heart-wrenching cries of desperation. He believed he had nowhere else to turn.

What person in our lives may be experiencing that desperation? Will we take time to speak some reassuring words before it's too late? Of course, we probably won't know about their desperation. Which underscores the need to bathe our day in prayer, then trust God to intersect our path with a person He loves and wants us to encourage.

I'm speaking to myself when I say we need to shift our focus away from our own daily plans and direct it toward prayer and people, just as the Faith Church leadership has been demonstrating. Building relationships, serving others, doing acts of kindness, realizing we are a picture of Christ to many, producing spiritual children and grandchildren - these things are worthy of our energy.

Stop by a cemetery someday soon and let it remind you of what is important. Then join the staff and leadership in building Faith Church - not primarily with people transferring from other churches - but with those from our own relationships who have just experienced new birth. For believers, a cemetery never has to be a fearful place.

Family Ties

I know, it's distracting isn't it. When was the last time you saw both our Student Ministry pastor, Bryan Bell, and our Director of Worship, Jacob Addison, in a shirt and tie at the same time? And this wasn't even a Sunday...this was normally casual Tuesday. Tuesday, when even Pastor Steve is known, on occasion, to show up at the office in flip-flops and jeans.

What was the reason for these two breaking out the formal wear? The mother of one of their home church members had passed away and they attended her funeral today. "It's just part of being irrevocably committed to each other," said Jacob, "Sometimes that means helping somebody paint, sometimes it means bringing them a meal, and other times it means being with them during a hard time."

This week I have been dwelling on the part of Faith Church's vision that states, "we are a community where people are...irrevocably committed to each other." What does that really look like? How are we to be committed to each other and on mission at the same time?

What really got me thinking was our denomination's new online magazine. The recently posted issue is entitled, "Family Ties," and it is filled with great articles on the subject of what it means to be brothers and sisters in the church.

This week I am posting a shorter blog with the hopes it will encourage you to check out the articles and videos at EFCAToday. Let me know what you think by emailing me at ssiepel@faithchurch.net.

Praying in Faith

Have you ever simply gone to God with a request in faith and waited in anticipation for His response? What did that look like? Were you tempted to take action while waiting?

Years ago we struggled with infertility after our first son was born. We asked the elders of our church to come pray with us. During that time of prayer the Lord impressed upon my heart Psalm 27:14, which reads, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

His response to our prayer wasn’t ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but ‘wait.’

Well, I proved to be a very poor wait-er. Over the next seven years, I “waited” by going to several doctors and undergoing multiple infertility treatments, all to no avail. Finally, we decided to actually wait—stay still in anticipation.

Two weeks later, on my 33rd birthday, we found out I was pregnant. When that daughter was nine months old we were surprised by another pregnancy. And when that daughter was nine months old, I was pregnant with our youngest son.

So, in a little over three years we went from a family of three to a family of six. Funny thing is that if you had told me this is what God was planning for us, I don’t know if I would have believed it.

Not only was I bad at waiting, but I also failed in faith. When we prayed for God to expand our family, I actually had an answer in mind. I pictured God’s response looking a certain way. When that didn’t happen, I thought that maybe I had heard Him wrong and needed to take action. I didn’t believe in a God that was big enough to answer in a way that I couldn’t even imagine.

Recently, the elders of Faith Church have felt God calling us to pray specifically about something. Pastor Steve will be speaking more about that this Sunday. As I have been helping with preparing some of materials to go along with Steve’s sermon, I’ve been forced to wonder once again if I believe in a God that can answer prayers in surprising ways.

Has God ever answered your prayers in unexpected ways?

Your Staff: Such A Genteel Group

"On the Lighter Side" will include incidents of office humor and encouragement, with the hope of bringing a smile to your day.

As most Faith Church attendees know, the staff meets in the conference room every Tuesday to eat lunch together. One Tuesday each month, we go out to a restaurant. What you may not know about is the process by which those restaurants are chosen.

Around this time each year, we engage in the annual restaurant rodeo, during which our favorite eateries are lassoed in with about the same degree of cheering, groaning and chaos as in a steer rodeo.

Speaking of steer, several steak and/or burger places were nominated as candidates. Pastor Steve shouted out his idea of visiting Five Guys. Bryan Bell also cast a vote for Five Guys "because," he explained, "my job review is coming up soon."

Carol Daubenmire agreed to head up the process this time. She allowed everyone to call out names of restaurants while she wrote them on the whiteboard. It was no time at all before someone discreetly closed the door because of the screeching and reprimands.

"_____ ______! Why would you say THAT place?!"
"They have good food!"
"Gag! I hate that place!"

Carol worked to restore order, then explained that each person would have four votes. We made our way up to the whiteboard, several at a time, and drew bold colored dots beside our four choices.

It was totally unplanned for this event to fall on our national election day. But it surely was appropriate. There were cries of disenfranchisement. Warnings to spell that write-in correctly. Some wanted a re-vote, especially when a certain pastor placed all his dots beside BDubs. However, in our system, this is legal. Someone was discovered adding extra dots to the board (initials PH). She insisted she was just recording the next person's votes for them. Strictly being helpful. Right!

A number of incumbents fell by the wayside. New candidates took their place, promoted by compelling grassroots efforts. Strong partisan opinions were expressed, but thankfully, stopped short of mudslinging.

Jacob Addison and Brian Smith were the last to vote. They stood there evaluating how things stood, trying to decide how to use their votes most strategically. Finally, others began to warn them to hurry up, but Jacob declared he had until 7:30 in Ohio! When he sat down, he sighed, "Now I'm too tired to really vote."

After half an hour of working to keep fights from breaking out, seeing that the process was not hijacked, and shouting to be heard above the din, Carol finally tallied the votes. The eating-out schedule for the next 12 months is complete. Carol collapsed into her chair and whimpered, "I'll never do this again. It was like herding cats!"