Pleasing to the Eye

Yesterday,  I met up with my friend, Nichole.  We have known each other since we were seven and eight.  We spent the afternoon in Southlake Town Square, eating, shopping, and catching up.  I took a few pictures of the little popcorn and candy shop where we picked up some gourmet popcorn.  I got dill pickle flavor, a spicy jalapeno ranch, and some fruity popcorn for the kids.  Nichole got an oreo flavor and another sweet kind I can't remember. 

The shop is called Le Popcorn, and the window displays were very inviting.  I admit, I love candy stores.  I can't resist them.  Nichole shares my affinity for sweets, and so we were both hooked. 

Apparently, we are all created to be drawn to that which is pleasing to the eye.  In Genesis 2:9, Scripture says that "And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food."  From the beginning, God made the food that would nourish and sustain us to be pleasing to the eye.  Perhaps candy is not our sustenance, but it certainly is nice to look at.  In the same way that fruit trees and sweet things please our senses, may our countenance, words, and behavior be pleasing to those around us.  Most especially, may they be pleasing to the Lord!

On this New Year's Eve, as we look to the year ahead and make plans, consider resolving to be pleasing--in our countenance, our words, and in our actions.

Happy New Year!

Jennifer

Meditations on the Bylaws Part II

It might come as a surprise to most people at church, I reckon, that I did not want to serve on the Bylaws Team initially.  What may be an even bigger surprise is that I was not even in the business meeting when the motion was made to form the team.  My husband relayed to me the news that a team had been formed to review the church's current Bylaws and that volunteers were being sought for the team.  Being busy already, I resisted God's gentle urging to put my name forward.  After a week or two, I could no longer resist the now constant urging and called the church office to submit my name.  I am pretty certain that I was one of the last ones on the list, if not the very last one.  I am sure that God had His reasons for wanting me to serve on the team, but all I could really be concerned with was obedience to Him.

After the church voted for the members of the team, one of the newly installed team members suggested that we come to our first meeting with a statement about what we hoped to accomplish on the Bylaws Team.  For me, there were things that I knew we needed to do as a church, and so I expressed my goals and my beliefs with regard to work on the Constitution and Bylaws.  The first concept that weighed heavily on me was covenant.  I had been spending a good deal of time studying the covenant that God made with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai found in Exodus 19:
     "Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel:  'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.  Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.  Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'  These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."  Exodus 19:3-6

I came to the first meeting and declared to the rest of the team that I strongly believed that we had an opportunity to return to the type of covenant declared at Mt. Sinai.  We could declare, like the children of Israel that "We will do everything that the Lord has said (Exodus 19:8)".  Our present church documents are very businesslike, but we could have a document that declares our allegiance to God and declares our return to His precepts. 

Years before, I had read the book Our Covenant God by Kay Arthur.  Ms. Arthur writes that "Everything God does is based on His covenant."  The key to understanding the nature of God is understanding covenant, for God is a Covenant God; a God who is loyal and faithful and true.  Reading this book was a major turning point for me spiritually.  The book looks at the covenants of God as recorded throughout the Bible.  Foundationally, I gained a greater understanding of how God blesses us through His covenants.  Armed with this knowledge, I was convicted that our Constitution should reflect our church's desire to be a faithful people of God. 

James, our team leader brought to us a Bible study from the organization 9 marks (http://www.9marks.org/).  For a little over nine weeks, we went through the study.  We examined nine characteristics--or marks--of healthy and holy churches.  Within the chapter on "A Biblical Understanding of Membership", I was struck by this statement:  "...membership in a church is that church's corporate testimony to the individual member's salvation."  I had never thought of membership in the church in this way.  My testimony--or lack of one--reflects on the local Body of Christ that I have identified myself as a member of.  In the times in which we live, as ever, we must be thoughtful about our church membership.  We live in times in which people regularly betray and abandon their commitments.  Unfortunately, church members are no different than the rest of the world.  Generally, Christians divorce at nearly the same rate that non-Christians do.  This is problematic for a people who claim to follow God, who declares that He hates divorce (Malachi 2:16).  Just as in many churches, our church had experienced the sting of conflict and dissension.  We had also seen members come and go.  We examined how to go about repairing our church's view of membership, and we came to the conclusion that a membership covenant would help.  The 9 Marks study, as well as the book Church Structure That Works by Bill Blanchard had membership covenant examples.  Presently, our church has a membership covenant, though it has not been necessary to affirm it.  Additionally, it has not been necessary to take membership classes prior to becoming a member of the church.

The team has had an agreement that no recommendation will be brought before the church without 100% consensus.  This has meant that much debate occurs behind closed doors on many, if not most, issues that we bring forward.  It is a slow process, to be sure.  However, we have felt that if we are not in complete agreement on an issue, than we must not have discerned the will of God.  With prayer and lots of Bible study, we came to the agreement that a membership covenant would be a useful tool to help restore a Biblical understanding of church membership.  In my mind, I thought that this would be not be an offense to anyone since we already have a membership covenant, and because the covenant affirms what people who have been longtime members already know and practice. 

Much to my surprise and dismay, the idea of having members sign a membership covenant before joining the church met with a small, but very vocal and passionate outcry.  The key objection to longtime members has been that if they have already been members for a long time, then they should not have to sign.  To me, it was always a no-brainer:  I intend to demonstrate my commitment not just to the church, but to God, and so I will sign.  Of course, I have been a committed member for over 11 years now.  I do not intend to leave the church, nor do I intend to disobey that which the Lord has revealed as His will.  As a women's ministry leader, I would like to demonstrate my commitment to the women of the church, as well.  In the ministry work that I do, I find that I often minister to hurting women.  Women who have experienced the sting of abandonment and betrayal do not deserve a half-hearted commitment on the part of their leader. 

In my next post, I will discuss more about the concept of covenant.  I would like to dispel some of the myths about covenant that have been expressed to me privately and in the town hall meetings.  In the meantime, I hope that I have given you some insight into the process of how the proposed membership covenant came to be.  I also hope that you have found the links and materials intriguing, and that you might be interested in checking them out.

Until next time, may God's richest blessings flow over you,

Jennifer

Meditations on the Work of the Bylaws Team Part I: An Introduction

In August, 2008, I was part of a team elected by the church to review and suggest changes to our church's current Constitution and Bylaws.  Dubbed the "Bylaws Team", we began meeting the week after our election to begin work.  In the 16 months since the team began, we have worked hard and have recommended a new Constitution and are working on a new set of Bylaws.  In the summer of 2009, the church had the opportunity to see for the first time the Constitution that the team drafted.  The team received a fair amount of criticism, that we then took into consideration as we attempted to work towards a set of operating documents that honor God and help the church to function efficiently.

The team took the summer to work on editing the Constitution.  We believed that by September we would be able to present the completed Constitution to the church for a vote. This was not to be, as some of the membership expressed their desire to see the accompanying documents to the Constitution--the Bylaws--completed and presented along with it. 

In the meantime, I have had several people ask me for my opinion with regard to the work that we have done on the Bylaws Team.  There are those who have expressed the concern that I have not been vocal enough in the town hall meetings (I record the minutes in meetings), or that they would simply like to know my opinion.  It occurred to me today that I could use my blog to express my opinions regarding the work that we have done.  However, since this is a women's ministry blog, my goal will be to educate and to encourage with regard to the spiritual concepts that I have learned on this journey, rather than attempt to turn this blog into a Bylaws Team blog.

I hope that you find this informative, whether you are a longtime member to the church,  a newer member, or a member of another church.  It has certainly been an interesting process, and I continue to learn a great deal as we endeavor to complete the work set before us.

Blessings and peace,

Jennifer

Merry Christmas!

I hope that it was a blessed Christmas for all of you out there in blog land.  It was a great day for us, and I am pleased with how the day went.  We don't often get snow in North Texas, and we got quite a bit last night.  This made it difficult for travelling, and meant that my parents were unable to join us last night.  However, as is true for Texas weather in general, the weather changed.  Today was a sunny and cold day, and the roads were a bit safer.  My parents joined us for lunch, and I have to say that lunch went well; which is to say that I didn't have any major catastrophes.  I cook turkey so infrequently that I have to admit to being a bit hesitant about how it would taste when we sat down.  As we sat down to lunch today and gave thanks, I thought about how blessed our family is and I rejoiced quietly.  We were able to have a nice meal, give our children gifts, and were able to be together on Christmas Day.  God is good.

As I reflect on the day's events, one thing stands out to me especially:  My youngest, Lily, was standing in front of my mother, and she said, "Thank you for giving me the fairy doll, MiMi."  That made my heart so glad.  Before the children opened their gifts this morning, I hoped that they would be grateful and feared for just a moment that they would not.  As much as we have talked with the children about Christmas being about Jesus' birth, God's greatest gift of love, I wondered whether or not we had talked about being grateful.  As it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:  "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."  For one brief moment, I saw God's will being demonstrated in my daughter's life:  She was truly grateful for the gift that she had received.

I rejoice with all of you who share in the hope of Christ's birth, death, and resurrection.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!  I pray that I will never cease to give thanks for God's good gifts. 

May God's richest blessings flow over you,

Jennifer

Christmas Greetings From My House To Yours!

I have a lot of fun at Christmas.  I enjoy decorating the house with Christmas decorations and lights.  We try to plan fun things for the kids, like decorating Gingerbread houses and baking cookies.  With our oldest son wrestling this season, I have been decorating in fits and spurts. Since Christmas is just a few days away, and since we have family coming in, I have been kicking it into overdrive here at my home.  I thought that I might share a few photos of our Christmas decorations with you all.  I enjoy reading blogs that do a Christmas home tour, so here's my contribution.  Enjoy!


Welcome to our home!  Here's the view from the front sidewalk:

Here's the view from the front dining room window.  If you look closely, you can see the table decorations.

Here's a shot of the dining room.  I've done the tablescape with a Nutcracker theme.

This is a nice shot of my husband and two youngest children decorating their Gingerbread house.

Here is a shot of one of my older sons decorating their Gingerbread house.

I hope you've enjoyed this sneak peek into my home.  Merry Christmas!

Blessings and peace,

Jennifer

Remaining In the Words of the Lord

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."  John 15:7

I am reading an excellent book entitled Truth and Transformation by Vishal Mangalwadi, a Christian lecturer, social reformer, author, and political columnist.  I have only read a few chapters, but I have learned so much already.  Coincidentally, our Bible study class discussed Jesus' discourse on the vine and the branches in John 15:1-17 this morning.  We discussed remaining, or abiding, in Jesus' Words.  The original Greek word that is translated remain, has to do with the idea of standing with another, or remaining united with one in heart, mind, or will.  The passage in Mr. Mangalwadi's book that I read this afternoon gave me a new perspective on John 15.  Specifically, Mr. Mangalwadi sought to determine the differences in the West and its successes in the fields of technology and social reform as opposed to the East and its reliance on human work.

Mr. Mangalwadi's perspective as an Indian who is seeking to reform the poverty of his country enables him to view his culture without the romanticism that so often clouds the judgment of outsiders.  He uses the example in his book of the nation of Uganda, which has so much electric power that it sells its excess power to Kenya.  Still, the poor women of Uganda have to draw water in jugs which they carry on their heads back to their families.  Mr. Mangalwadi wondered why women in the west do not have to do such things.  How did the West determine to use their minds to solve their problems?

Simply put, the progress of Western civilization can be attributed to medieval Christian monasteries, which placed a premium on rational thought.  After all, the monks posited, since man is made in the image of God, he must be able to understand goodness and truth.  They developed complex theories and developed technologies to aid them in their work so that they could devote more time to study and reflection.  How this applies to John 15 concerns the Christian monks' determination to study the Words of Jesus, and to engage in thought.  Mr. Mangalwadi juxtaposes this determination of the Christian monks to those of the Buddhist monks, who sought to empty their minds of rational thought altogether.

One can see the danger of attempting not to think.  Simply, no progress is made; no technology is born.  Buddhist monks were required to beg for food by their Buddha.  Christian monks worked because the Bible says that those who do not work must not eat.  Daily work is modelled by God; therefore, it must be a worthy pastime.  However, the Lord also says to abide in His words and to obey His commands.   That, too, must be worthy.  In short, for the Christian, thought is good.  Thought is encouraged, as long is it is centered on what is pure, lovely, excellent, praiseworthy, righteous, noble, and true (Philippians 4:8). 

I look forward to continuing to read Mr. Mangalwadi's observations in Truth and Transformation.  It encourages me to continue to seek truth as it is found in God's Word.  It also shows me the danger in allowing New Age mysticism based on the tenets of Hinduism and Buddhism to take root in our country.

Blessings and peace,

Jennifer