Sunday Review 9/27

It’s apparent to me that we’re losing some faces in the crowd. You’ve seen it too, haven’t you? Is it discouraging you? Are you worried about it? Do you have a thought or two or three as to why it’s happening? Let’s go ahead and talk about the elephant in the room, or in this case, that may not be in the room.

Attendance is down a bit, yes. But I’d like to encourage you with a couple of cliché reasons as to why. First, whenever a church is in transition, such as we are at Plum Creek, this kind of thing often happens. Second, we’re getting into that time of year where farmers are busy, and we have a large population of farmers, so that’s something to consider as well.

Here’s the thing, though. What it all comes down to is, we can’t let ourselves be distracted by things like this. No matter what happens, as a church, we need to be focused on the mission that God has called us to. I do want to encourage you to join me in reaching out to our missing brothers and sisters, but at the end of the day, we have to be focused on Christ’s mission of evangelism.

Last Sunday we talked about Jesus’ eating with tax collectors and sinners. We talked about how the Pharisees were enraged by this. We also talked about the fact that Jesus pointed out to these, the religious elite, that he hadn’t come to call the righteous, but the sinners. It’s not the healthy people who need a doctor, Jesus reminded them, but the sick.

I picked up a book by a pastor who I highly respect named Tim Harlow. He writes about this passage, and suggests that what Jesus was really saying was:

“I’m letting you know up front that my goal isn’t to have holy little people that live in a little box and get everything right all the time. If that was what I wanted I would just take you all to heaven right now. But this is not heaven. This is earth. It’s messy here, but we’re finding sinners and getting them ready for heaven, and we do that by sitting down and eating with them, just as they are. Sick and messy. If you’re good with that – pull up a chair and join me.” Tim Harlow’s Life on Mission

I gotta tell you, I really like that quote. I really like that mission. I really like that Tim puts it so clearly, so plainly, and so well.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I don’t care that we have people who are wandering. I’m saying that at all. What I AM saying, is that we have a mission to do. And I believe if we stick to it and do it, and we don’t let anything distract us from it, God will take care of us.

We have nothing to fear, Plum Creek. We only have work to do. 

Sunday Review: Amped Up

Last Sunday, we Plum Creekers gathered together for the seventh time under the roof of the Riverside Park Amphitheater for our annual outdoor worship service that we call "Amped Up."

Amped Up is special for a variety of reasons. First, it's cool that a church would do something like it. It's so very out of the box, and takes a lot of work to pull off. My unending thanks to Mike Ooley, Jack Harmon, Bob Hoel, Dave Halterman, Steven Boyer, Mona Sterwerf, Betty Thomas, Bill Craven, Carolyn Kieth, Shelly Griffin, and many, many more who put in so much time and effort to make the event possible. Everyone who helped from setting up the stage to organizing food to parking cars, truly, thank you for your efforts this weekend.

In the past, Ray always tried to make Amped Up as much about evangelism as possible. I don't disagree with that, not by any stretch of the imagination. But I have noticed that Amped Up has become that "third Sunday" that so many casual church goers attend. You know, Christmas, Easter, and Amped Up. So I wanted to deliver a message that, while certainly and appropriately evangelistic, might also "amp up" some of those more casual attenders, as well as make the regular attending crowd excited about our goal of winning people to Jesus.

From the response that I have been getting, it sounds like those efforts weren't in vain. I'm grateful to God for blessing our day, and for being with us as we worshiped him.

Leading up to the day, I had asked those on facebook to take a look at the 1953 Merrie Melodies cartoon "Duck Amuck."

In the picture, Daffy Duck believes he is about to star in a cartoon about the Three Musketeers. Instead, the animator of the picture spends the length of the film drawing in different scenery and costumes on Daffy, and at one point even goes so far as to erase the exasperated duck and draw him back in as a flower headed monster.

In this preview of post-modernism, we are entertained by a slowly maddening protagonist, (Daffy Duck) and eventually learn the identity of the somewhat sadistic antagonistic animator (Bugs Bunny in this case).

We have a good laugh at Daffy's expense, but I think more than we are necessarily entertained, we also find a common thread with Daffy in the pattern that he's knitting (See what I did there, Pam?).

Daffy spends the picture arguing with the narrator, insisting that he's not doing his job correctly, that he's making mistakes left and right, and even goes so far as to try to tell the animator how to do his job.

How often do we do the same thing with God? How much time do we spend arguing with him and yelling at him and telling him how to do his job?

If we're honest with ourselves, we've probably all done that at least once. But if we could just... back off for a second and let a cooler head prevail, and think, and feel, and ask him...

Ask him? Ask him what? What is he doing? Why is he doing it? Is he even there?

No. God is there.

Psalm 139:7-10
Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the grave), You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will lay hold of me.

So, if God is there, and he's everywhere, why can't I sense him? Why can't I feel him? Why does my life often feel like a Daffy Duck cartoon that spinning out of control?

Good questions. But I have a better one. You see I think we often spend way too much time looking for answers, when we aren't focused enough on asking the right questions. So, what's the right question to ask? Well if God isn't present everywhere, all the time and with us, the question isn't "where are you, God?" But instead, "God, would yo reveal yourself to me?"

God I can't find you, God I can't feel you. Show me yourself. Prove to me that you're still here and haven't left me. Help me to find you again.

I admire my wife for the heroic battle she's fighting and winning. Most of you know that life has been insane for our family lately. Between Jesci's fight with lymphoma, her Dad's passing this summer, and a few other odds and ends here and there, life has at best been busy, and at worst, very, very difficult. But Jesci has a theory - That God is preparing us for something stronger.

I really admire that. I admire it because Jesci hasn't allowed the negative circumstance in her life to dictate how her life will be lived. Instead, she has asked God to reveal to her what he is up to. And in doing so, she has been able to see that God has a plan here.

Let's not forget what we learn from Jeremiah 29:11 - God has plans for a hope and a future for us.

So that begs the question, will you be like Daffy and spend your days uselessly arguing with God? Or will you spend your days like Jesci, and ask God to reveal himself and his plans to you?

Let's take an example from a faithful servant. Let's lay down our burdens, our woes and our complaints. Let's strap on the armor of God and let's reach out to a world that's hurt, lost and dying. God has given us marching orders in 2 Corinthians 5. We are to reconcile the world to him! And we need to be at our best to perform such a task. Let's lay down our burdens, let's pick up our armor, and let's amp it up!

Sunday Review 8/30

As we prepare to finish up the narrative of the Old Testament in our sermon series The Story, we took some time this weekend to visit Persia and pay honor to it's queen - Esther. 

I've always really liked the book of Esther. I know everyone gives Esther grief because it's the book that doesn't specifically mention God in it, but I appreciate our guest worship leader, and my sister in law, Jean Bell's reminder that God knew that we would need some examples to follow, and I agree with her that this is a big part of the reason of why it was included in the cannon of the Bible. 

Esther is a perfect example of what it means to be submitted to God and to be willing to be used of him. Esther may have ended up being the Queen of beauty and courage, but she started out as an orphan, a person with lower status than anyone. She was raised by her cousin, Mordecai, who told her after being forced to be queen not to tell anyone who she is or that she is a Jew. 

Abandoned. Stolen from home. Forced into a life she didn't ask for. Told to be quiet about her heritage and family. Not a great way to start out life. 

Esther arrives on the scene confused and afraid. The king's Eunuch's who were assigned to attend her were likely the only people she talked to on a regular basis. 

One day, she gets a report that the King's number two guy, Haman, just signed into law an edict making Jews public enemy number one, and ordered that they be terminated. Cousin Mordecai appeals to Esther to plead with the king on the Jew's behalf. 

Further complicating the matter is that Esther has no idea how to behave around the king. Can she even approach him? People who showed up in the king's presence un-invited were thrown on large sharp poles and impaled. I could see why she would be a little nervous to approach him, let alone talk to him about what's happening and ask him to intervene. 

But...

Esther 4:13-14

When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?

Mordecai was right. He caught a glimpse of the "upper story." Do you remember the concept of the "Upper" and "Lower" story? The Lower Story is our life. It's what is going on around us. It's what we see and interact with. The "Upper" Story is God's story. It's what he's doing behind the scenes that we can't see. It's where his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and where his ways are higher than our ways, and where it's where he's working in his mysterious ways.

I get in my mind this picture of God playing chess with himself. We of course are the pawns. The moves of the player are unknown to us, but we can be sure that God is playing, and that no matter how close it may seem to "checkmate", God always has a move or two up his sleeve. 

In this case, it looked as though Haman was going to commit racial genocide and wipe the Jews out with one fell swoop. But in the upper story, God was preparing his next move. He was about to move his Queen. 

It didn't happen right away, but eventually Esther gathered her courage and revealed to the king what Haman was planning to do. The king was so furious with Haman that he had him executed and impaled on a pole. Mordecai was elevated to Haman's old position, and the Jews were saved. 

All because an abandoned, lonely, and frightened girl submitted to God and allowed him to move through her. 

Maybe you are like Esther and you don't have a large amount of confidence. Perhaps you feel you're too young to be used of God; too inexperienced. Or perhaps you feel you're too old; too set in your ways. But if we learn anything from Esther's story, it's that God can use anyone to accomplish his purposes. 

1 Corinthians 1:26-27

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 

And he can do it again if you'll submit to him through Jesus Christ and allow him to move through you. 

Sunday Review 8/23

Last Sunday, we covered Chapter 19 of The Story - The Return Home. We talked about some of the joys of various homecoming festivals, and how being home, even when life is busy, can seem so good to your soul.

We also talked about the fact that the book of Ezra records that the Jews were sent back to Jerusalem with a mission. King Cyrus of Persia told them to rebuild God's temple. But there were enemies of Israel who tried to delay or stop the progress of the construction of the house of God.

But when King Darius, the new king of Persia, learned of this opposition, not only did he put a stop to it, but he demanded that the enemies of the Jews be the ones to financially support the temple's reconstruction, as well as to provide needed elements for the sacrifices to God that would take place there.

God seems to be rather insistent that this "house" be built. But we are reminded many times in Scripture that God doesn't live in temples made by human hands.

Acts 17:24-25
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 

If God doesn't "need" anything from us, including a "house" to live in, why is he so focused on the Jew's building a temple for him?

I believe it's not the temple itself God is concerned with, but everything the temple represents!

So what does the temple represent?

1. God's Presence
The temple was where the Jews went to worship. It was where they went to pray. It was where they went to inquire of the Lord and bring their sacrifices.
2. God's Praises
The temple was, after all, where people went to worship God. That would serve as a reminder that it's always appropriate to do so.
3. God's Provision
The idea here was that God's temple would be the first completed building in Jerusalem, right? So while they're building their houses, and their businesses, and their markets, they'd see that finished temple and remember that once again, it was God who brought them out of captivity. It was God who brought them into Jerusalem again, and it was God who brought them freedom and resources to settle here again.

Now, in our modern situation, the temple represents the church. Let me be so bold here as to suggest that in THIS case, I DO mean the church building.

Our specific building, Plum Creek Christian Church, was constructed in 1912. Construction finished in December of that year. Plum Creek had been meeting before that time in a barn a short distance North East of where the church currently sits at 4021 E 550 N in Rush County Indiana.

Plum Creek isn't a temple, or for those of you who are reading who don't attend Plum Creek Church, YOUR church isn't a "temple" either. But it is where we gather together to worship God. And he is still concerned about what happens inside that building. He's concerned that we:

1. Gather Together to Celebrate His Word - Not just from specific leadership persons such as myself as the preacher, or Libby Tanner as a Sunday School Teacher, or Scott Sterwerf as an elder. Those facets are certainly true and accurate, but from everyone I talk to at Plum Creek, I hear words of wisdom, words of kindness, words of life!
2. Gather Together to Worship Him - I appreciate our worship teams at Plum Creek and the unique worship experiences they help to arrange. Lifting our hearts to God together gives me great joy each week.
3. Gather Together to Enjoy Fellowship with his People - I have made lifelong friends at Plum Creek. People to love, people to pray with, people to bounce ideas off of. People who's shoulder I can cry on when I need to. I can testify that the people of Plum Creek do a great job of wrapping their arms around you in troubled times.

God is still just as concerned with what happens inside the building today as he was back there. And just as there were enemies to face the Jews who re-constructed the temple, there are enemies today who would threaten our work on building the kingdom of God. In order to stand up to those enemies, we need to be strong and united, as the Jews in our story were. I'll leave you with this scripture, and encourage you as I do to follow Paul's instructions in order to best carry out the work of building God's Kingdom.

Ephesians 4:1-6
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 

Be one, my brothers and sisters - and let no enemy inside or outside of the church stop you from building God's kingdom.

Out of their box...

I opened a new set of Ninja Turtles action figures tonight. Big deal, right? Those of you who know me well know this isn't news, so why blog about it?

Because these brand new figures are nearly 25 years old. I'll explain.

When you were a child in the late 80s it was impossible not to be hit by the tremendous wave of pop culture that was "turtle power". I was just another victim of the pizza eating, cowabunga yelling,  foot bot fighting ninja knuckleheads. I remember very well when we first went to buy a turtles action figure. We finally wore my mother down. She fought against the turtles, she didn't want that in her home. Well, she lost ;)

The first turtle was to be a gift for my brother's pending preschool graduation. The turtles were so popular at the time, finding a figure was nearly impossible. Oh there were figures, but they were all supporting characters such as Splinter, Bebop and Rocksteady. Finding an actual "turtle" turtle was a tall order.

With the help of a friendly walmart associate, we literally started taking each figure off the shelf until finally, we found Donatello! The trouble came in, though, that after we gave him to Matthew, I was super jealous. Fortunately over the weekend, Walmart had a chance to restock, and when I came home from school Monday, Mom had a surprise for me...

My very own ninja turtle! Leonardo! I remember to this day how brilliantly his bright blue bandana popped out against his olive green skin tone. He was a beautiful figure, my first of many, and my favorite to this day.

Over the years, I ended up assembling all four turtles, and several other characters, April, Shredder, etc. but they wore out over time, and then in my "too cool for toys" teen years, I sold them in a church garage sale. Sad times.

A few years later when moving moving into college, I wanted some background noise, and randomly popped in one of the TMNT movies. As new friends came by to introduce themselves over the next couple of hours, and saw what I was watching, we ended up talking all about our memories of watching the turtles, playing with our turtle toys, and pretending to be them on the playground at recess time. Before long, after spending the day sharing old memories with new friends, it seemed almost like I was experiencing it all over again for the first time, and the turtle power wave hit me just as hard, if not harder than before.

I suddenly really missed my toys, and regretted selling them. Especially the four turtles. Oh well. Life goes on.

Fast forward a few. Years, and my wife Jesci (who is awesome) bought me a most excellent Christmas gift. She had gone to eBay and purchased a huge box full of TMNT toys! It was great to see a lot of those old toys again, but the main attraction, the crown jewel, the MVP(most valuable plastic) was an original 1988 Leonardo and a Donatello in perfect shape, still in their original packaging.

I couldn't believe how cool that was. I didn't know how to tell her what that meant to me. And I couldn't open them. They were just too... Perfect! In time, I picked up Raph and Mike as well so I could have a set of four. One of the advantages of your childhood heroes being named after renaissance painters is that eBay sellers often miss spell their names, and you can buy that's tuff cheap, since no one thinks to try miss spelling "Rafael".

Anyway, over the years, I kept them in a closet, unsure of what to do with them. When my son was born, we decided to hang them in his turtle themed room, at least until we could get him his own set.

Well, in the past year I noticed the plastic bubbles that hold the figure on the cars were coming apart, they were just kinda wearing out. Eventually the figures were going to come off of the package whether I liked it or not. Then the other night while I put Torrin to bed, there went Raphael. Fortunately I Caught him in time.

Donatello followed, and while I thought it would bum me out, it was actually really great to have those toys back. I have quite a collection of action figures, and have often thought about selling them all and just going down to those four original turtles. You know, I think I'm ready to do just that...

Sunday Review 8/16

Now that I have a blog of my own, I think it would be a cool thing to sort of look back in the rearview mirror as it were and review Sunday's sermon and activities. That way, anyone who missed church at Plum Creek Sunday morning, or for that matter, anyone who may be curious about what we talked about can get an idea of what went down. Plus, it will allow me one more opportunity to spend some time with those thoughts before moving on to crafting the new sermon for the coming week.

We've been working through a popular sermon series called The Story. A 31 week study that focuses on the main narrative of the Bible - the story of God's redeeming love for humanity. It tells how the story progresses all the way from Genesis 1's creation story to Revelation 22's "come, Lord Jesus."

This week, we were on chapter 18 of the story, which covers the events in the book of Daniel.

We looked at how Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't try to fight the unfair circumstances in their lives, nor did they use them as an excuse to compromise their faith or integrity, but they accepted their situations and served God despite the opposition and despite the unfairness that surrounded them.

I think it's particularly difficult for us in 2015's America to adapt to "unfair" things that happen to us. Because, for the most part, we have life handed to us on a silver platter, even those who would consider themselves "poor."

We get upset when our internet reception is poor, when interstate traffic is backed up, or our sandwich is cooked improperly. We get mad when our favorite team misses an easy foul shot, when homework keeps us from being able to play with friends, or when we can't beat that boss in level 8 of Mario Bros.

When we don't like a certain movie, it's not enough for us to simply not like it, we take to YouTube or Twitter and trash it. If we don't like what's happening in politics, we threaten to stop voting. And heaven forbid the church makes a decision we don't like. A lot of times we use our tithes as a bargaining chip rather than as an offering to God.

If we don't like how we're being treated at work, we often quit before finding a new job. Evidently the thought that "They can't treat me that way!" is more important to us than "Hmm, I need to feed my children this week..." And if we do, actually do, commit some sort of error, we usually point the finger at someone else before we blame ourselves for the problem.

These are the things that make me think, as I say, that it's difficult for us in 2015's America to adapt to "unfair" things. But they happen. Each of us has had something unfair happen in our lives before. Remember that often times, how we choose to respond to the unfair thing determines whether or not God will be able to use our humble circumstances for his glory.

1 Corinthians 1:26-27

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that their very weakness is what qualifies them! Daniel and company were placed in positions of leadership in Babylon, not because they were great, but because God had a job for them to do there. God was able to use their devotion, their integrity, and yes, even their weaknesses to do amazing things.

Read their story in Daniel chapters 1 - 6 and see what I'm talking about. See how they stood up to opposition, relied upon one another, and ultimately turned to God when there was no where else to go, and trusted him to use their humble circumstances for his glory.

In the end, not only the kings, but the whole nation's heart was turned to God. That was made possible all because of the work of four men and their willingness to stay faithful and their willingness to accept their humble position, even if it was "unfair".

In the passage above, Paul goes on to say the reason that God chooses to use lowly and humble resources (aka, you and me) is so that no one may boast before him. Paul closes chapter one in a way very similar to how I will close this blog entry:

Let me boast, not in myself, but in Christ. If anything is found in me to be of value, to be of worth, to be of interest, then let it be my devotion to my king.

Daniel and friends submitted to God even when life was unfair. They may have had the right to act differently, but they remembered that their commitment to God called them to be different. They humbled themselves and they patiently waited on the God they trusted to use their humble circumstances for his glory. May we do the same. And may we boast only in him who gives us our worth and our purpose.

Coming out of my shell

Did I ever tell you that I once had my own talk show? It's true! I had my own radio show on WJBC the Net. But,don't let yourself be too impressed. It was Johnson University's Internet radio station. The name of my show was "Zachary Korff: Coming Out of His Shell." 

Named for my insatiable love of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the fact that I was, indeed, coming out of my shell. I love radio, and always have. I had settled in as a co-host with several of my friends on WJBC such as Mac Fife, Drew Stewart, and "Nails". He and I took over Saturday nights together. 

But now I had my own show. This time, Nails joined me as my co-host. We played music, but I was more excited about the content of our show - talking about controversial issues of the faith. We "came out of our shells" to talk about the hard hitting issues no one else wanted to cover. It was a blast! 

When I say I've always liked radio, what I specifically mean is Talk Radio. As a young minister in training, I was nervous about having new content to express each and every Sunday morning. I asked my father-in-law, who had been a very successful preacher, how you keep yourself full of different things to say come Sunday morning. His answer was three fold: 

1. Read/watch/listen to the news

2. Read Books

3. Read God's Word

As a minister it would be important to know what Was going on in the  world, what people were saying about it, and finally, what God's word said about it. I choose to follow this advice, but I didn't have cable, and I wasn't much into reading the newspaper (for those of you who don't know what a newspaper is, it's kinda like the Internet, but in print form). So, radio was the medium I choose, and the love was born. 

Ironically, Tim and I would listen to the radio together and apart, and then talk about what we heard our favorite hosts saying, but Jesci, his daughter and my wife of 12 years, hates listening to talk radio. 

So when I finally had the opportunity to do my own radio show, I was excited to launch a theme that blended my favorite heroes in a half shell with my love for talk radio, and "Zach Korff: Coming out of his Shell" was born. 

As I type this up, we're nearing the 10th anniversary of when the show launched (January 2006). And I figured, since I sadly no longer have access to the radio to express my thoughts, perhaps a blog would be a good outlet. 

So, while it may not be as "entertaining" as listening to the sultry sound of my voice, I will aim to be just as entertaining, informative, and light hearted with my words here on this blog as I cover a wide variety of things that interest me, from faith matters, to geek matters, to family matters (not necessarily meaning the TV show). 

Thanks for reading! I'll include a picture of my old school flyer that I used to promote my radio show.