Sledding Fun

Hit the slopes of Sugar Creek this week for some snow sledding. Had a great time with our friends The Wilson family from Orlando, Florida. They are in town visiting their parents/grandparents, Jerry & Sharon Snelling. It was cool because some of their kids have never seen snow! Also caught the new National Treasure: Book of Secrets movie-- it 's really good.

MerrWii Christmas

We hope everyone is having a great holiday season. Brian and I have enjoyed spending time with our boys and extended family in the St. Louis area. We have been very blessed/spoiled this Christmas, as usual. The kids received many great gifts, including a Wii. We thank God for our faith, family, health, and so many awesome friends that add value to our lives. Happy Holidays!

Joy Barnett

Our good personal friend, and friend of Englewood Ministries, passed away on December 14 (obitutary).

Joy Barnett touched so many lives as evidenced by the number of people who attended her funeral. As I sat there listening to some of her grandchildren (Drew Boatwright, Matthew Barnett, Luke Barnett, Kristie Sexton) and her son (Tommy Barnett) speak about her, I realized that words cannot express the person we knew as Joy Barnett.

The Spirit of God was so rich in her life that every charateristic, every attribute and every gift she possessed was magnified to a place few attain. And she used all of these to reach people for Christ. She exhibited a love and concern for others that was so strong, you felt it.

I will greatly miss our times at lunch and dinner talking about the ministry, sharing ideas and dreams. She encouraged this young pastor to get back in the game at times and inspired me to believe God for great things. Often, when I felt overwhelmed with ministry, I would look down at my calendar and see a meeting with Joy already scheduled. And her words of wisdom, nuggets of truth from seasoned experience, would penetrate my soul and cause life to flood in again. My family and I loved her very much and she will be greatly missed.

To order a copy of Joy's latest book, Make a Difference Mentoring, click here. Joy signed a personal copy for us a few months ago and Jennifer has loved reading this book.

I am preparing a very special message for Sunday, Dec. 30 in which I will share more about Joy Barnett and the qualities of her life that we can all learn from. I was so touched by her son, Pastor Tommy's remarks at her memorial, that I will pull from some of these points and add in my own to form a great message I'm already excited about! Don't miss this service as you will be encouraged and inspired for the new year.

Kansas City Dream Center video

This is the video that was shown at our annual Dream Center banquet. It was produced by Karissa Merritt, a member of Riverside Church in St. Joseph, Missouri. Karissa is a member of the student ministry there under Pastor Ben Montgomery (former worship leader at Englewood !)

This video provides a great look at the ministry of the KC Dream Center. By the way, Karissa won first place in the Video Production category at the Assemblies of God National Fine Arts Festival (Aug. '07).

Monday Night Football

I've watched MNF regularly since I was a kid like many others across America. I especially like watching when my favorite team, the Chicago Bears, are playing. So tonight I find myself in a familiar place, and I'm witnessing a third string quarterback look good at times and very bad at others.

At one point in the game, the Bears had 4th and 1 and decided to go for it. It was the right call, but the wrong play. The Bears don't have a great record this year, but they are still one of the best teams on short yardage in the league. Most of their success comes off of the run. The 4th and 1 call was for a play action pass and the third string quarterback couldn't execute a simple roll out. Note to Bears coaching staff: "Run the football!" Keep to your strengths.

But it got me thinking, how many times do organizations (churches) go away from something they do well. They get away from their strengths. Instead of staying focused on the one thing they do best, they expand their service and become mediocre.

For us, we are called to save souls and to be an outreach minded church. Even though we may add something to our overall ministry that serves the church body or community, our goal is to win souls. Though the methods may change, our focus is to share Christ with as many people who will listen. I pray we always keep the main thing, the main thing. Let's play to our strengths!

Berna Hays-Moving Forward

Berna Hays, long time member of Englewood Assembly of God, recently moved to live with her daughter in Colorado. Before she left, Jennifer Ross and I had the chance to sit down with her and pick her brain about life, church, being a Christian, facing cancer, and many different things.

Even at her age and despite her circumstances, it was inspiring to hear Berna talk about "moving forward". The apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:12-14...

"I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward (forward)—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back."

We put together a video for our Great Gobble Giveaway Outreach service. Berna is a wonderful lady and loved very much!

12: 12/12

Hard to believe, but our son, Joe, is 12 today. We celebrated last night with cake and also presented him with a new baseball bat. It's great to see Joe growing up both physically and spiritually.

Our biggest job as parents is to make sure we lay a solid foundation that our children's lives will grow from. This includes a passion for God, emotional maturity, respect for others, a will to succeed, and a good work ethic. The years ahead will be both challenging and rewarding! --Happy Birthday, Joe!

Dream Center Banquet

On Friday Dec. 7, we held our annual Kansas City Dream Center (KCDC) Banquet. Pastor Brad Oyler and his team always do a wonderful job, and this year was no exception.

Independence Mayor Don Reimal opened up the evening encouraging all those involved with the KCDC to continue serving out of a "higher calling." And he thanked them for their continued community service. Independence School District Superintendent Jim Hinson brought a challenging message on being transparent in our witness and maintaining our personal anointing.

This banquet enables us to re-cap what the Dream Center does throughout the year, celebrate our volunteers, and gather important financial support. The volunteer of the year was given to Jerry Smith who continually provides multiple services to the building, workers and to those we minister.

Here's a great video on the Dream Center put together by Karissa Merritt, a high school student from Riverside Church in St. Joseph, Missouri. After several trips to capture the true essence of the KCDC, she edited and produced the video that won first place in the nation at the annual Fine Arts Festival. Her reward, a full ride scholarship to an Assemblies of God school! Those in attendance, after viewing, gave her a standing ovation.

The bottom line is our church cares. We care about all individuals, from all walks of life. We are serious about sharing the love of God in tangible ways and living out our faith. I'm proud to pastor Englewood Ministries, but even more so of the wonderful people who are making a big difference!

10:45 Service Only!!

Just got in (6:30 pm) from being out multiple times today. And honestly, the roads are better now than at any other time in the day. However, they say the worst weather will be from 3:00 am til 9:00 am Sunday morning, so we will have only one service on Sunday, at 10:45 a.m.

Please drive carefully and come prepared to worship the Lord. I will be speaking on "Home for the Holidays." This will be an inspirational and warm-hearted Christmas message. Hope to see you there!

P.S. Don't forget all weathermen are of the devil :)

Posted by Pastor Brian

Community Outreach

The following is an article taken from Outreach Magazine:

Many people ask me how they can get involved in community ministry. Helping kids do their homework sounds appealing. Leading a volunteer group that builds something of lasting significance is motivating. Serving in an evangelistic outreach and seeing people come to Christ that night, inspiring.

Our desire to do outreach ministry has elements of personal gratification mixed in. We want significance. We look for activities with measurable results, preferably in the short term. I say go on and do it. Seek it. Try it. Often, Kingdom advancement occurs through short-term ministry efforts, where we get as many of our needs met as those of the people we seek to serve.

Just leave space for the idea that the most lasting fruit of your outreach efforts may not be in what you personally accomplish. Your most lasting fruit may come when you serve in a support role for someone who was there before you showed up.

I remember the day in 1998 when two teenagers, one black and one Mexican, duked it out in a raw fistfight at the corner of Howard and Navarro streets, where Harambee Ministries is located. Man, were they mad at each other. They were both in our Harambee teen Bible study that met on Tuesday nights. We could stop the fight, but I didn’t know how to bring peace between these valuable young men.

But Derek Perkins did. He was the leader of Harambee, a community ministry veteran who helped start this ministry back in 1983. Derek wasn’t too disappointed about the fracas because he saw an opportunity to go deeper with these youth. First, he stopped the fight and made them go, well, not to opposite corners, but to different parts of the block. He didn’t lecture them.

But that weekend, he invited them on a fun fishing trip to Mexico. Both went. They were still angry, but they respected Derek and trusted him to keep the other calm.

They returned with a tale. Out on the Sea of Cortez, the wind kicked up, and waves splashed seawater into their small boat. Slowly, it filled up with water. Far from shore, these two tough guys bailed water, wiping back a few tears of fear as they scooped. They made it back to shore, back to America, back to the ‘hood. And they were friends after that.

While Derek was away on that trip, I held down the fort doing mundane organizational stuff. They fished for dorado; I got out the receipts for donations. As he explained to them from the scriptures that Jesus wasn’t just for women or white people, I met with volunteers to plan their service activities.

There were other times when I was Derek’s direct backup. Some crazy guys were doing selfish things on the corner. Derek was about to walk out the door to confront them, but he needed backup, or at least the appearance of it. I went with him. We grabbed an intern on the way. The intern and I stood there, trying to look tough, while Derek talked to the guys. Crisis averted.

Other occasions were not so dramatic. Once, while Derek focused on preparing a lesson for the Tuesday night study, I made a Carl’s Jr. run for 40 of the 99-cent burgers. It wasn’t a real spiritually significant task but important nonetheless: Two burgers each filled up the guys and kept their attention on Derek and his teaching.

I affirm the desire of individuals and churches to create or lead a unique community outreach ministry. Just know that sometimes we hurt our cause if we cannot flex, like a basketball team, into a support role when necessary.

In our outreach efforts, we’re often like baseball players—we have our position, that’s the only one we play. But basketball players can play any position—bring the ball up the court, guard any player, take any shot. In community ministry, we need less baseball players and more basketball players.

I would be amiss if I failed to mention the joy of supporting others in their community ministry. It was a joy to play backup to Derek. I knew firsthand the need to dramatically reach out to youth in the community, but I didn’t know how to go about it. Derek did, and in a real sense, I too helped turn many young people to the hope that is in Christ.

It felt good then. Looking back, it feels great now.

"Playing Backup" by Rodolpho Carrasco--Outreach magazine, "Community Onramps," May/June 2006