janiemehaffey

Church-a-palooza

From this past Sunday to next Sunday, I will have attended worship services or had meetings with leaders at ...

-Common Ground Christian Church, Tampa, FL
-Northview Christian Life Church, Carmel & West Lafayette, IN
-First Assembly of God, Ft. Wayne, IN
-Church at the Crossing, Indianapolis, IN
-Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Naperville, IL
-Traders Point Christian Church, Whitestown, IN

I was meeting with a new friend today who was asking about my work at Fishhook. I felt a little bragadocious as I explained that my work at Fishhook allows me to be incredibly nosey, eavesdropping on God and how amazingly He uses all kinds of churches to teach His word and change lives.

It's also no accident that He would have me connecting with a long list of fantastic churches exactly two months prior to The Pursuit's launch Sunday. Many ideas to glean and implement!

My Sister Tried to Kill Me

I was six. Peggy, my 14 year old sister, was on the phone with her friend Robert. She says that at the time they were just friends, but I had learned a lot in my six long years of life and could read so much more into the relationship. So I sang into the receiver ...

"Peggy and Robert, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

As I took my breath to head into the "First comes love ..." portion of my diddy, I heard, "Hang on a second, Robert" and felt my body being lifted and hauled down the hallway to the bathroom. The faucet to the tub cranked at full stream, my head was under the pulsating water, and I gasped for any dry air I could find. I was going to die.

Something must have triggered in her head though ... probably the simple fact that her life would be oh so slightly worse off dealing with the consequences of killing me as opposed to just dealing with me directly. So she stopped. I have no memory of the moments that followed. I'm only happy she was convicted enough to let me live.

Happy birthday, Peggy! (Pictured here with me and her grandaughter/my namesake, Emma Jane.)

A Gentle and Quiet Spirit

Gordon and Jeanette ... the in-laws ... make their way across Alligator Alley tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving with us. They have been in Ft. Myers for several weeks and are heading back to Indiana on Friday.

I can't relate to people who have "mother-in-law problems." (Sorry to brag.) Not only do I not have problems with Jeanette, but she is one of the women in my life I most want to emulate.

When Peter talks about the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit (I Peter 3:4), he's describing Jeanette. She is downright pretty. Oh, she's definitely pretty on the outside with barely a wrinkle on her face. (Daria and Kim, you're lucky to have those good genes!) But she also epitomizes the inward beauty that is "great worth in God's sight."

The gentleness is outwardly displayed through the sweet way she speaks, her inability to say anything mean about any person, and the tireless way she plays with her grandchildren. (Ask her to tell you a Jeter and Peezer story sometime. She has an endless supply.)

But the quiet shows through a steadiness in her spirit. Jeanette is very anchored in her faith ... steady and unrattled.

So I watch Jeanette and learn from her example ... reading through the Bible every year, supporting her man through decades of ministry, not gloating when victorious at the euchre table ... and pray for a gentle and quiet spirit.

Where Is Your Quiet Place?

Matt and I started reading "The Emotionally Healthy Church" yesterday. I can already tell it's going to rock my world. I so needed to hear Peter Scazzero's challenge for church leaders to strive toward emotional and spiritual health. I want that for Matt. I want that for myself. I want that in our home.

Emotional health is modeled by Jesus through expression and boundaries. Scazzero points out:

"I saw Jesus able to express His emotion with unashamed, unembarrassed freedom ... At the same time, I observed how Jesus was able to separate Himself from the expectations of the crowds, His family, and His disciples. His relationship with His Father freed Him from the pressures of those around Him. He was not afraid to live out His own unique life and mission, regardless of other people's agenda for His life."

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus retreated to a quiet place. Sometime the crowds followed Him, and He delayed His time alone with God to teach and serve their needs. Other times, He dodged them and found His quiet place.

For the past seven years, I have tried to start each day in my quiet place with God. In this home, that place is a big purple chair, the "quiet" administered via earbuds connecting me to some kind of music without words. (My current favorite is Jim Brickman's "Grace" album.) I read my Bible; I journal; I pray.

But many noises try to fill that quiet place ... "I'll just check my e-mail before I start," "Oh, the dog needs a walk," "I'll take this phone call first and make it quick." Some of the noises/needs are valid; many are Satan's attempt to keep me from that place where he knows God will focus me on His purpose for my day. I pray for discernment to know the difference and to protect that precious time.

So, where do you go to quietly retreat with God? And how do you protect it from the "crowd"?

There's something about experiencing it

I don't want to be one of "those people." You know, those people living in warm climates who brag about the weather, while their friends up north trudge through snow in parkas.

But this week, as I watch the temperatures go down on my iGoogle home page (displaying temps for Miami, Indianapolis and Louisville), I can't wrap my brain around the fact that it's getting so cold up there. Even with my tendency to always be cold, I can't remember what 30 degrees feels like . . muscles stiffening, face burning from bitter winds, teeth chattering, getting cranky (just ask Matt about our NYC trip).

That's probably the biggest challenge we have as Christ-followers when sharing our faith.

How do we get someone who has never experienced a personal relationship with Jesus to wrap their brains around the peace, freedom and fulfillment that comes through it?

I pray that God speaks through me and the other Pursuit-ers . . . through our words and how we live our lives . . . and He can help many more people in South Florida experience Christ's love first-hand.

Church Communicators in South Florida

My new friend Jenn Collins posted a comment on the blog yesterday.

Jenn is one of the most refreshing people I've met since moving to South Florida. She grew up in the area and now serves as Communications Director for Oasis Church.

Jenn has mobilized her smarts quickly for her young years, heading up one of the cleanest and clearest church re-brandings I've seen. Most people in the area would identify Oasis Church ten times more quickly than Church of Pembroke Pines, though it's only had the new name a few months.

I asked Jenn to meet over coffee this week to see if she'd be up for getting together a group of church communicators to network in the area. As God has gone before me in many other ways, He already took care of this as well. Jenn had already planned the first meeting of such a group and started a blog. I love that!

I don't know what I would have done without my network of friends in the Indianapolis Church Communications Roundtable. What began as a resource sharing network quickly became a support group - sharing the joys and frustrations of ministry, marriages, babies and career decisions. Thank God for knowing we need such a group and for putting it on Jenn's heart to start one down here.

So, if you are a ministry communicator in South Florida, join the group. The first meeting is this Saturday at 11 at Oasis.

Who I'm Following

Matt thinks every Christ-follower should have someone they're following and someone they're leading. My favorite sermon I've heard him preach was all about Paul . . . following Barnabas and leading Timothy (see the book of Acts for details).

God knows I need extra help in figuring life out because He has put two ladies in my life who I follow . . . because they follow Christ:

Ali Smoot
I still can't believe God moved Ali away from me during the hardest year of my life. But how blown away am I that 3 years later I see that He sent her down here to lead the way for a whole new church to be started. That God!

So far, from Ali I've learned:
-Whatever the situation, wherever you are, right here, right now . . . pray.
-God's word is Truth. All time spent in it is profitable.
-My man is the most important person on earth. When choosing between spending time with him or someone else . . . Matt wins.
-I can have a spotless house, or I can have a house with a dog and a cat. The dog and cat win.

Danielle Tooley
I still can't believe God moved me away from Danielle. But He (and she) confirm for me regularly that this is where we're suppose to be. Our 1/2 hour phone dates are highlights of my weeks.

Lessons so far from Danielle:
-Serve your family first, then serve others. But whatever you do, serve! (Even after living with her for a year, I still haven't figured out how she finds so many hours in the day to accomplish what she does.)
-You can be their mom AND be their friend. It's a delicate balance, but doable.
-Do my best in whatever I do . . . God deserves my best.
-When choosing between two things, why choose? BOTH!

What I love the most about these ladies is that they keep me grounded. I can call them any time, day or night, in the middle of the emotion and . . . Bam! They totally pull me out of the drama and focus me on truth. Wow!

So, who are you following?

We have GOT to get our Passports!

Last night we're hanging out at the Diaz home in the after glow of Trick-or-Treat night. Around the room sits:

-Alex, the Columbian who grew up in Venezuela and is now a Worship Minister.
-Erin, the Hoosier who learned to speak fluent Spanish, travelled to Venezuela where she met Alex, married him and is now a Small Groups Minister.
-Donna, the Maltese who grew up in Canada and now helps people find homes in South Florida.
-Esther, the Maltese who still lives in Malta and is visiting her daughter, Donna, in the States for seven weeks.
-Mike, the . . . hmm, I'm not real sure where Mike began, but he sure has travelled all over the world and now is an IT brain in South Florida.

Also in that circle sat:
-Matt, the kid who grew up in Cambridge City, IN, moved to the big city of Indy and now leads a church in South Florida.
-Janie, the girl who grew up in Kentucky and still fills like Laura Ingalls when she walks around Miami.

In the midst of talk about travels around the world, Matt and I got busted . . . "You don't have your passport??? I can't believe that!"

Since we moved here, I now have friends from Guatemala, Venezuela, Cuba, Malta, Vietnam, Haiti and Jamaica. Some day I'm going to want to visit the home countries of these new friends . . . but I won't be allowed to leave the country.