TimHowey.Com

Proverbs 1 Follow-up

Yesterday, we started reading a Proverb a day through September.  My family does this reading at night.  Well I have 3 follow-up thoughts after day 1 (Proverbs 1) last night.

1. Proverb-a-Day -- I received this note from Brad about his daily reading schedule: "Hi Tim - I started reading a Proverb a Day about 4 years ago and it completely changed my life and I've done it every month since and its usually one of the first things I do in the morning before I even get out of bed."

2. The "Pambo" Commentary -- Our own Pam Turner of information center & discipleship team fame sent me this note: "Journaling just wasn’t sufficient for Proverbs 1, so I made myself a personal commentary."  Check out Pam's commentary in this file. Wow. She titled her email "The Pambo Commentary". Made me wonder if she's "Pam-bo" (Stallone), "The Pam-inator" (Schwarzenegger), or "Iron Pam" (Downey Jr.).

3. My Family's Experience -- I read the chapter for us yesterday. A few things quickly became clear.

• Relevance -- Right out of the gate I had a perfect opportunity to start a conversation about issues close to them -- being tempted by friends, listening to parents, choosing to follow God themselves, etc.
• Vocabulary -- I realized I'd  have to stop & define a few words: "equity, prudence, enigma, lurk, concourse, rebuke, disdain, calamity." We had fun with this.
• Drama -- When I read the voices with dramatic feelinng, the kids engage more. I read v.11-14 with the most dark & sinister voice possible. I read v.22-33 with my best imitation of a strong, clear female voice [though my wife has NEVER thought my voice was believable...she says I go too high]. But the kids paid more attention!
• Meat -- These are large & meaty chapters. My wife wondered about cutting the chapters in half for now. I'm not ready to give up the fight so quickly though. :-)

Mornings & Evenings with God

I thought I'd give everyone an update on my current morning & evening devotional times. My morning is for personal devotions. My evening is for family devotions.

Morning Personal Devotions

In the mornings, I start a cup of coffee or tea, plunk myself down in our oversized chair in our living room, and spend some time with God. Here's what I'm doing these days:

• Pray my Top 10 -- First, I pray through a short list of items that drafted back on 8/9 and I'm praying for every day. The format is similar to the 40-Day Challenge described here. I'll add little clarifications or sub-requests or mini-answers to the list every day, so it's not super-static.
• Write a Letter to God -- Usually during my prayer list, some issue will start weighing extra heavy on my heart, or a question will really need some answers soon from God, so I'll pause from praying my list & write a short letter to God. I'll put today's date in my journal (spiral notebook) & literally write "Dear God". Then I'll write a letter to him. It worked for the writers of the Psalms. It works great for us too.
• Read 5 Pages -- After finishing my letter & going back to finish the prayer list (& returning to add on to the letter to God, if necessary), I do my daily reading. I'm reading through 5 pages of my Bible a day. I'll look at what chapter I ended yesterday, count 5 pages ahead, find the closest chapter marking, then read to that point. During my reading, I'll jot whatever comes to mind about the text: observations, questions, applications, anything. For example, one sentence I wrote today was, "Psalm 119:14 -- Have I rejoiced in the path of the Scriptures as much as in $10B? I'd much rather have the Scriptures! And you!"

Evening Family Devotions

The Howey family is doing our family devotions at night these days. We're reading 1 chapter aloud per night, ideally starting around 8:00 p.m. Tonight we kick off 31 days through the book of Proverbs. I gave more detail about this process here.

Hope that helps!

September Reading Plan

We've come to another end of a family reading plan tonight. We've been reading through the lives of Elijah-Elisha-Elijah, two of the greatest prophets in Scripture.

My family reads 1 chapter aloud every night together. If we miss a night, we catch up by reading 2 chapters the next night. We've been rotating who reads aloud. Jacob closed out Revelation 11 tonight.

A lot of times, I'll pause the reader and ask, "What does that word mean?" or "What's going on here?" Then we talk about it. I might explain the passage and/or act it out. The more animated the better. The key is making it FUN!

But we need a new plan now. So tomorrow, we're going to start reading a Proverb a day through September. It's easy to remember the plan. Day 1 = Proverbs 1. Day 2 = Proverbs 2. And so on...

• 9/1 = Proverbs 1
• 9/2 = Proverbs 2
• 9/3 = Proverbs 3
• ...
• 9/30 = Proverbs 30
• 10/1 = Proverbs 31

Again...if you don't have a Bible reading plan, join my family & I through Proverbs in September.

Web Bonus - Bottom Line on Career (Pt.2)

For a double web-bonus...

• World's Worst Boss -- You ought to google or bing this phrase and check out the painful stories from office-warriors.  I had a hard time picking which ones to share.
• The Office (UK) -- I've been catching up on this short-lived series on YouTube. It was just as painful as the US series, with the same characters & story lines. Again, there is a terminate-able offense in every episode. (Did I say painful? Why do I love the painful pregnant pauses?)
• Dilbert -- This is the best cartoon in history...with another TERRIBLE boss: "the pointy-haired boss." Scott Adams did what I did for a living: IT. I could relate to Dilbert. :-)

Web Bonus - Bottom Line on Career

I loved yesterday on so many levels.

• Ladies Worship Team -- Wow. That was uh-maze-ing. The ladies that led worship together have an incredible gift, their voices blended so well, & God was there! "Point of Grace" has nothing on them. It's time to get a bus & have them tour the country! :-)
• Yesuparam Bandela & John Jacobs -- Hearing from Yesu & his work with the Gospel Association of India was outstanding. The story of his father, his father's stabbing & martyrdom, & Yesu's call to the ministry was an incredible mixture of tragedy, forgiveness, redemption, & God's grace. And it was great hearing from John, CIO of JE Dunn, on what it was like for a fellow Johnson Countian & Gracer to minister in India for 2 weeks.
• God's "Career Shift" -- The topics we touched on yesterday fundamentally changed how I viewed my career at Black & Veatch years ago.
• • Our God is a God of creativity & work
  • God created people in his own image, with the same need & capacity for creativity & work
  • No matter who we THINK we work for, our TRUE supervisor is Jesus
  • No matter WHAT we think we do for a living, our TRUE vocation is to be Jesus ambassador, missionary, pastor, & priest to our workplace
• Cutting Room Floor -- I had to leave several passages out of our conversation, but to see our careers from God's perspective, check these out:
• • The bondservant-master relationship (Eph 6:5-9, Tit 2:9-10, 1Tim 6:1-2, 1Pet 2:18-25)
  • Our finances are to fund our ministry (2Th 3:10-11, 1Tim 5:8, Eph 4:28)
  • Check out the hero in this story. It's General Naaman's wife's servant girl who exemplified grace, love, forgiveness, & speaking God's message in her workplace (2 Kings 5)
• A Transformed Family -- A mother grabbed me last week after service, broken about the type of environment that had emerged in her home. She was owning the responsibility & desiring to change. We prayed together & I shared some Scriptures with her. This week she came back & she was glowing. Her focus, attitude, & home environment had been transformed by God!

Next week's topic is "The Bottom Line on Health."  Never had a talk on this. I'm PUMPED about it!

3 + 3 Wednesday Update

3 quick hits about ministry:

• Freedom Fire Backpacks -- We were able to collect 229 backpack for students in urban core.  Way to go!!
  
• Colonial Presbyterian -- Earlier this week, I called my friend Jim West, Senior Pastor at Colonial Pres, to get an update on the situation I blogged about back in June. Colonial has a long history of great influence around the KC area. Sunday was an absolutely HUGE day in the life of their church. They voted both congregationally & corporately to leave the PCUSA & join the EPC. It is a new day at Colonial & we couldn't be happier for our friends.
• Christ Community -- I had lunch today over at Nick & Jake's with Tom Nelson, Senior Pastor of Christ Community Church.  CCC is a real leader in the area of spiritual development in our area. I got to hear more of his story & heart, and receive some primo-mentoring from one of the great spiritual leaders in our area. He was so gracious with his time & gave me a copy of his book, Ekklesia. I always called CCC our friends, and now I'm happy to call Tom a personal friend.

3 quick hits about the weekend:

• Baptisms with Ben -- If you'd like to be baptized this weekend by Pastor Ben (and who wouldn't???), you can.  Ben is laying down his guitar & doing baptisms. I may get baptized AGAIN just because HE'S doing it. :-) Just contact the church office if you're interested. And remember, if you have someone who's been a spiritual influence in your life & you'd like them to be a part of it, we do "team baptisms"!
• Signers for Sunday -- Do you know anyone who'd be interested in possibly "signing" (sign language) our weekend services? If so, contact Marie King at the church office.
• Breakfast with Men -- It's time for our quarterly men's CommUNITY event. This Saturday. 7:30-9:00 a.m. Fully-catered breakfast. Jimmy Dodd speaking on "How to Follow God in the Dark Times". Bring your disciple, discipler, friend, boss, son, dad, neighbor, etc.  Check it out!
  

Men's Community Event Invite from Grace Church on Vimeo.

Dancing Shirtless Guy - Leadership

Last Saturday morning, I had the chance to meet with leaders from across Grace Church.  There was a TON of energy and excitement...at 8 a.m.!  I showed this video on the Leadership Lessons from a Dancing Guy & we talked about it at our tables.  Enjoy!

(P.S. A tip-of-the-hat to our Student Ministries Pastor, Josh Krzanak, for the idea!)

Web Bonus - Bottom Line on Home

I remember sitting in church years ago & hearing a tale of two families.  Take one family whose child becomes a happy, well-adjusted, college graduate with a nice job & family.  Take another family whose child gets sidetracked into dysfunctionality & addictions, never able to hold a job or support themselves or maintain healthy relationships.

Most would consider one a success & the other a failure.  Unfortunately BOTH are failures if they fail to pass on a rich, living relationship with God to the next generation.

Yesterday's topic was "The Bottom Line on Home."  The bottom line was this: "Family should always, always, always come second."  That is, right after God, and before everyone else.

Some bonus "thots"...

• When to Judge?? -- I made the statement that it's really premature to call any family a "success" until (a) your kids are walking with God themselves out of the home, (b) you & your kids are passing on your spiritual heritage to your grandkids, & (c) your grandkids starting to embrace a walk with God through Christ themselves. This sits on my heart ALL the time.
• 3-4 Generations -- God wants us to look toward & invest in 3-4 generations, physically OR spiritually. It's a theme all the way through Scripture. Check out Exodus 20:1-6, Psalm 78:4-7, & 2 Timothy 2:2.
• A Spiritual Heritage -- Jason McMahon shot me this note after service, when considering God's definition of success...passing on your walk to the next generations.  He wrote, "What a warm feeling I had yesterday on my drive home knowing that my grandparents (and Kim's too) were successful.  As they have great grandchildren that will get to meet them in heaven.  Thanks for making my day :)"
• The Sweet Sound -- Did you hear it?  The sweet sound of violin was filling our worship again.  Nice to have Mrs. Stary back! (Why is it that good violin is "oh so good"?? And bad violin is "oh so bad"??)
• Another Local God?? -- I mentioned to everyone that, among all the things that can bump God & family out of the #1-2 spots in our lives, youth sports/hobbies have got to be mentioned.  I received this (anonymous) comment: "Tim, thanks for telling the congregation last week that sports shouldn’t have such importance in families. Keep repeating that. Please!"

Next week's topic is "The Bottom Line on Career."  This would be the PERFECT time to give a shout out to your friends at work and invite them to visit Grace with you this weekend!!!

Web Bonus - Bottom Line on God

It felt like coming home.  After a few weeks off, I got the chance to see everyone again, worship together, be encouraged, teach, minister...you name it.

Our topic was "The Bottom Line on God" from Deuteronomy 6. The bottom line was this:

• God is not interested being a "part" of our lives

Lots of stuff to add to yesterday...

• Not Your "Avg-Joe" -- It was great to have recording artist/worship leader Joe Henschel from San Diego lead worship for us.  He did a fantastic job & gave Pastor Ben a "break" (working audio).
• The Shema -- Our study centered on the bottom line many Jewish rabbis might give "On God": the Shema.  The Shema is at least 3 things:
• • A Word -- The Hebrew word "Shema" is translated "Hear" in English
  • A Verse -- Specifically Deuteronomy 6:4, the greatest expression of monotheism & the uniqueness of God in Scripture, & the final words a Jewish person attempts to say
  • A Prayer -- The Shema is the first verse of the morning & evening prayers of Judaism consisting of praying these 3 sections of Scripture back to God: Deut 6:4-9, 11:13-21, Num 15:37-41
• Bonus Verses -- I came across these in my daily reading just before the message, but couldn't find space for them:
• • The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10)
  • The fear of the Lord is teachable (Psalm 25:12)
  • Are you guided by God's eye...where He's looking? (Psalm 32:8)
  • No one...no one is like God (Psalm 35:10)
• The "Highest" Highlander -- When I was talking about there being only 1 God, I REEEEALLY wanted to pull out the Highlander reference.  "There can only be one!!!"  [One God, that is.]
• Calling all Men!! -- Speaking of "Highlander" & real men, it's time for every man to "man up" and register himself & his son & his dad & his boss & his friend for the quarterly men's event called "Men's Community".  Besides getting a free breakfast of "man-food", we'll hear Jimmy Dodd on how to follow God, even through the most difficult times of life. Man up & show up hungry at 7:30a on Sat Aug 28.
• Calling all Women!! -- The time's running out to register for the Imagine event at the Sprint center and reserve your hotel room with other Grace Church ladies. Register here today. And check out the preview video here. P.S. If men have to "man-up", do women have to "woman-up"???

Next week's topic is "The Bottom Line on Home." We all know a neighbor, a friend, or coworker (or US!) who desperately NEEDS to be there next weekend. Do whatever it takes to get them there beside you!

Join Us Live at 9pm CDT tonight

Tonight's the night.

Join Pastor Ben & I LIVE ONLINE @ 9PM CDT in a round table, talking about "Senior Pastor / Worship Pastor Relationships."

• What's it REALLY like to work on staff in a church?
• What's it REALLY like to navigate leadership/relational challenges in the public eye?
• What's it REALLY like to work with Ben?  (I wanna know!)

Click here for details on how to join us online.

See you at 9p!