CHINESE CHECKERS

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

This piece is NOT about the game “Chinese Checkers” but rather is about Chinese restaurants! I was just trying to come up with a catchy title! I’m certainly aware that Americans tend to eat too much and exercise too little- and that experts tell us we’re in the midst of an obesity epidemic. And, according to those medical weight charts, depending upon WHICH one you actually go by, I’m anywhere from 40 lbs. to 60 lbs. overweight.

There is, however, a whole spiritual component to the food thing. In ancient middle eastern cultures, when you BROKE BREAD with someone...when you ATE a meal with them, that’s when you really got close to them. We’ve made Holy Communion into a ritual where a person eats a small unleavened wafer and takes a sip of wine or grape juice. In the first-century church, Holy Communion was a MEAL. (That’s what I Corinthians chapter 11 is all about.) Remember that the Resurrected Christ made Himself known to those He’d met on the Emmaus road when they had stopped at an inn and He was suddenly made known to them as they began sharing a meal.

Well, that’s all just introductory stuff for those critics of mine who hate when I write secular posts (although when I started the blog in 2006, 90% of my postings were totally secular!).

I may be stepping on the toes of my friend Michelle McElroy in writing this because she writes a great blog about Framingham, particularly her restaurant reviews! (The link to that is in the column at the right!) For at least the past fifteen years, key people in Framingham have been wringing their hands about the need for downtown revitalization in Framingham. Certainly a big piece of downtown revitalization is good restaurants locating in and near downtown Framingham (or ANY downtown for that matter). When I came to Framingham in 1987 it wasn’t long before we began eating out at and taking out food from the Sampan Chinese restaurant on Concord St. in the heart of downtown. The Sampan now has the reputation of being “a real dive” but in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s it was a pretty nice place. In those days, the food quality was a solid “B”. I remember that I took a visiting missionary out to lunch there and he was impressed and surprised at how good the food was. In those days, the Sampan was only that back, small dark dining room that they have. They later bought an adjoining storefront area, and created that much brighter dining room and bar area. Sadly, around 6 or 7 years ago, the food quality started going downhill at the Sampan. Somewhere around that time, they also became a Keno parlor. It wasn’t long before rather than being a pretty good Chinese restaurant that happened to have a bar and a Keno parlor, they became the Keno parlor and bar that happened to serve Chinese food, also. Around 5 years ago, they stopped serving lunch and began opening for the day at 4 p.m. Well, that meant the end of those low priced luncheon specials! About a year ago, they experimented with opening at 1 p.m. but it didn’t work. I think they’re back to 4 and there’s a big “FOR SALE” sign on the place.

You’d think the Sampan would NOT want to be a model that other Chinese restaurants would want to imitate. Not so! I live right down the street from the Han Dynasty Chinese restaurant which is also located on Concord Street about a mile north of the Sampan. When I first came to town, that facility was an American family style restaurant called “Wallace’s”. By 1990. Wallace’s had closed and the Han Dynasty had opened. (I believe the Wallace family still owns the property and the Han’s owners lease it from them.) The Han Dynasty is a much larger facility than the Sampan...probably at least 4 times larger. In their first decade of existence their food was AWFUL...almost inedible. In those days, it was around a “D” level. In fact, the Han Dynasty’s food has gotten better. It’s not magnificent, but today I’d rate it around a “C plus” and I’d rate the current Sampan around a “C minus”. It wasn’t too many years ago that the Han Dynasty would not only be crowded for dinner but would have a respectable sized crowd for their luncheon buffet. Today, you can go in there for the luncheon buffet and NO ONE is in the dining room! In the lounge at the other end of the building, people are drinking and playing, you guessed it, Keno! A few days ago, a sign appeared on the Han Dynasty door stating that beginning on April 1, the lounge will open at 2 and the kitchen and dining room will open at 4.

If you’ve ever watched the Chef Gordon Ramsay show “Kitchen Nightmares” you know he “preaches” that one of the main reasons restaurants fail is that they either forget their mission or they don’t have a mission. I think the Sampan and Han Dynasty could both use a week with Chef Ramsay! I’m sure the owners of both places will say the economy is bad and you can’t make it serving luncheon buffets and luncheon specials anymore. I’ve observed, however, that the Cherry Blossom Chinese Restaurant on Rte. 135 is Ashland is doing a booming business with their luncheon buffet. That’s a place that had “A minus” food quality ten years ago, and now is down to “B minus” level. It was very crowed for the luncheon buffet in 2000 and it’s not QUITE as crowded in 2010 BUT still quite full and I think the price is about the same. They’re NOT a Keno parlor, either.

Another Chinese Restaurant in MetroWest that still has luncheon specials and has NOT gone the way of becoming a Keno parlor is Star House on Route 135 across from St. Tarcisius Church. It’s a very small facility, and both a take-out and eat-in place. They’re much too small to do a buffet, but they do have luncheon specials, and the food is OUTSTANDING. They do serve beer but there’s no bar.
They can comfortably seat around 20 people and pack in another 10 which WOULD make the place like a sardine can. They tend to be kind of short staffed, but if you can handle that, the food is great. Michelle of the This Is Framingham blog says she and her husband had a bad experience there one time in that their order was messed up and I guess the service could have been better. I hope she’ll try it again, ‘cause I don’t think that’s typical for them.

Yes, I just felt like writing about Chinese restaurants today. And it IS interesting that when a Chinese restaurant emphasizes and focuses on any product other than Chinese food, that seems to put them on a fatal course. So, I guess there’s a lesson in that, for whatever your calling and talents are in life: Find YOUR mission, focus on it, and do it well!

MY ONLY BIOLOGICAL BROTHER- EDWARD STEPHEN BARIL (1956-1983)

This piece entitled "Edward Stephen Baril" was originally posted on March 25, 2008.
Today would have been my brother Eddie's 54th birthday. In Eddie's honor and memory, I am reposting it today, albeit a little later in the day than I probably should have!

“And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.” (Acts 8:2).

For my sister Dianne and me, March 25 is a holiday of sorts, and a solemn holiday, at that. Today would have been our brother’s 52nd birthday. “Eddie” (his formal name was Edward Stephen Baril) died in the summer of 1983 at the age of 27. Bluntly, a relative of ours sort of took issue with me a year ago because I stated on the blog that he died “of natural causes”. Well, he wasn’t shot or stabbed. He didn’t die in a plane crash or in a car accident. He didn’t die in a fire. He collapsed in a bathroom at his place of employment, went into a coma, and died eight days later. I think an objective group of 12 middle-aged suburban people would agree that technically the way he died fits the definition of “natural causes”. However, Eddie DID abuse alcohol, and POSSIBLY other drugs (although that is not known for sure) so it can be deduced that substance abuse probably had a significant amount to do with his death.

Within our extended family I think it’s kind of sad that Eddie is best remembered for his death (much the way John F. Kennedy is to younger generations). There was so much more to Eddie than that. The loss of Eddie was felt at Amy’s wedding reception this past weekend. Cathy Mondor, the woman who’d been Eddie’s fiancé, was present with her “significant other”. She took a lot of pictures. She came SO close to being “Amy’s aunt”. It’s sad.

Eddie was a year and a half younger than me. He did not look like me. I look very French. When I went to Montreal in the early 1990s, people would just come up to me and start speaking French. I’ve got SUCH a French look, they assumed I was a fellow Quebecois! Eddie looked like our Scottish MacDonald and MacPhee relatives. We did not look alike, at all My sister has characteristics of both of us, although she tends to have more of Eddie’s features than mine. Not only did Eddie not look like me, but he was nothing like me. I’m a public speaker. Eddie was a man of few words with a very dry sense of humor. I tend to be very “unhandy”. Eddie was an outstanding mechanic. He also had quite an artistic flair, and even liked to cook. As teenagers in the early 1970s, my sister and I were part of what religious historians call the “Jesus revolution” or the “Jesus generation”- a “mini-revival” in which hundreds of thousands of teenagers became born-again Christians between roughly 1967 and 1973. Dianne and I really were NOT such “goodie/goodies”. Had we not “gotten saved” I hate to think of what each of us would have done. But in our parents eyes, our “being religious” tended to make him look really bad. Eddie started drinking (secretly) at age 12. By age 16, he was a full-blown alcoholic. I’m sure you may wonder how someone can have a drinking problem right under your nose and you can’t even see it. I know by experience how “possible” it is. Around 16, Eddie began getting into accidents, and various troubles with the law, all accompanied by drinking. My parents tried and tried to turn Eddie into a good, wholesome, responsible, obedient, dutiful, Catholic boy. It didn’t work. Those were hard years.

I will never forget the day Eddie moved out of the house in Canton. It was January 1, 1980. There was yelling and swearing between Eddie and my father like you’d see in the most intense of an “R”-rated movie. Eddie stormed out and never lived there again. Some months later a law enforcement officer called looking for him. I called Eddie and told him about it, but I assured Eddie I would never tell my parents about it, and I never did. I’m glad Eddie was in my wedding on August 28, 1982. He was dead less than a year later.

Eddie was in a lot of emotional pain. I loved my parents, and in many ways they were good parents, BUT... my father was very intense and authoritarian and expected his kids to be perfect. He expected teenagers to think and act like very moral and conservative 40-year-olds. He expected hard work and achievement. He was a very hard guy to please. My mother was very emotional and a devout Catholic. She expected her kids to be dutiful, obedient, and wonderful Catholics. All three of us let them down, big time! In my case, (believe it or not) I’ve struggled with depression and low self esteem off and on throughout my life. It’s ONLY my “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” that has kept me sane and given me a sense of accomplishment. In Eddie’s case, he drank.

I was not close to Eddie. Lest you think that made his death easy for me, it DIDN’T. Six months after Eddie’s death, I went through the darkest depression of my entire life. There was such GRIEF and what they call “survivor’s guilt”...the whole thing of “why am I alive and why is he dead?”. I haven’t spoken a lot about my sister in this piece because she can be a very private person and may not want a lot to be said about her, but she took Eddie’s death harder than I did and has always been grief-stricken by the loss of her brother.

So, I’m letting you know that today is Edward Stephen Baril’s birthday. I don’t want him to be forgotten.

Incidentally, Eddie LOVED Ford automobiles (including Mercury and Lincoln) and Eddie LOVED The Beatles. I think Ford cars and Beatle music were his favorite things in life. So if you see a Ford today or hear a Beatles’ song today...think of Eddie.

"MAKING HOME BIBLE STUDIES ILLEGAL"

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

Framingham’s Jennie Maroney has a great Letter to the Editor in the Tuesday, March 23, 2010 MetroWest Daily News entitled, “Making Home Bible Study Illegal”. It’s found at:

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor/x126578209/Maroney-Making-home-Bible-study-illegal

I realize Jennie Maroney has a reputation as a local right-wing political activist and pro-life activist. I also realize that quite a number of people dismiss Jennie Maroney as a right-wing kook. I count Jennie Maroney as a friend with whom I agree probably about 80% of the time and disagree about 20% of the time. She’s a nice lady with a passion for truth and righteousness and certainly not a kook.

Her letter about home Bible studies expresses a legitimate concern. Jennie tells the story of situations in both San Deigo, California and Gilbert, Arizona where the municipalities tried to forbid home Bible studies as “religious assemblies”. In the San Deigo case, the government wanted a pastor to pay several thousand dollars for a “major use” permit to hold home Bible studies. After this case got a lot of publicity on Fox News it was thrown out, but a similar case in Gilbert, Arizona is still ongoing.

I have read in Christian periodicals of a number of such cases over the past fifteen years or so. I think there ARE several cities and counties around the country which currently forbid home Bible studies. It’s interesting that not all such municipalities are in “blue states”. Some are in fairly conservative states.

Home Bible studies made up a HUGE part of my own spiritual journey. After I “got saved” as a Christian teen I attended a home Bible study for several years. At the time, my old-fashioned Catholic parents were of that “you’ll go to Hell if you set foot in a Protestant church” mentality, but they did not object to home Bible studies. Later, I came into the Assemblies of God through a Friday night home Bible study which I attended faithfully back in 1976. In the early 1980s the church where I served on staff (Christian Life Center, Walpole, MA) pretty much pioneered the idea of “home fellowship groups” (today often called “care groups”) in the Boston area. Such groups ARE Bible studies, but also include the components of evangelism, discipleship, and prayer ministry.

Most large American evangelical and charismatic churches have home “care groups”. Back in the ‘80s, they were mostly geographical. When someone signed up to host a group it was pretty much “forever” and all the groups used the same material. That’s almost never done today. In large churches, usually care groups will give people a choice of 2 or 3 topics being studied and usually the commitment is for 3, 4 or 6 months. Typically churches will take August and December OFF from having care groups. I remember that record keeping was a big part of the groups in the ‘80s, and I’m aware that record keeping when people all change groups and locations every 3-6 months has got to be a little complicated, but computers and software have also gotten a lot more sophisticated since then.

The bottom line is, home Bible studies and home care groups are very important components of Christian discipleship. Certainly, I can understand that if a family in a residential neighborhood were having a weekly religious assembly with, say a hundred people present, that would constitute all sorts of problems. I suspect it would easily violate occupancy and zoning laws. But home Bible study groups work best with 6 to 12 people present. If a group were to grow beyond that number, you’d want to create a new group someplace else. HOW a group of 8 or 9 people studying the Bible in Joe Jones’ living room every Tuesday night is a threat to zoning or neighborhood sensibilities or anything else is beyond me! It used to be that it was totalitarian Communist regimes who forbad home Bible studies. God help America if we continue down such a path! As Jennie Maroney writes,
“What next? No Cub Scout meetings? No baby showers? No football parties? Where does it end?”

Amen, Jennie!
oops.... it is illegal to say “Amen”?!

READ ALONG WITH MITCH

“Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.” (I Timothy 5:17)

Over the years on the blog I’ve recommended a book or two that I’ve enjoyed and that I think others might enjoy, too. (I know clergy are SUPPOSED to be big readers. I’m pretty embarrassed that I might read 3 or 4 books a year in their entirety. Many clergy read a book a week. I tend to get bored with books and stop about a third of the way into a book.) I was blessed to be treated to a luncheon at Ken’s Steak House by the Framingham Interfaith Clergy Association last Thursday. Some of my fellow evangelicals can’t understand why I have a good relationship with so many politically and theologically liberal clergy. Most of the clergy at F.I.C.A. are liberal in both categories (though NOT all of them!). Yet, that group has been very helpful to me and to First Assembly of God of Framingham a number of times through the years. I’ve truly learned some things from my liberal colleagues and I think I can safely add that they’ve learned some things from me. At that lunch meeting I was presented with a card and with Mitch Albom’s book, “Have a Little Faith”.

You may recall that Mitch Albom wrote “Tuesdays With Morrie” and “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”. He’s a GREAT writer. He also used to have a nationally syndicated radio show which was heard on the weekends on Boston’s 96.9 FM talk station. I used to look forward to Mitch’s radio show.

I’m ashamed to admit how many books I’ve received as gifts that are still laying around my office at the church building (no, I still haven’t packed up my office yet!), still laying around my bedroom, or even laying around in the bathroom! In many cases I’ve read a chapter or two and stopped reading the books. In some cases there are new books I’ve never touched. I didn’t want to do that with the Mitch Albom book; and it’s a lot like “Tuesdays With Morrie” in that it’s a small book.

I’m pretty proud of myself that I read, “Have a Little Faith” in one day on Sunday! I also must add, it’s a WONDERFUL book! It’s absolutely worth the $23.99 price! (In fact, Mitch is tithing 10% of the books profits to his 501c3 nonprofit organization called “Hole in the Roof” which grants money to inner city churches that directly minister to the homeless.)

I fool around with writing, but my son Jon is a great writer. So is Mitch Albom. For people like Jon Baril and Mitch Albom writing is a craft the same way a guy is a finish carpenter. “Have a Little Faith” profiles two clergymen Mitch Albom has known and highly respected: His Rabbi Albert Lewis who passed away a couple of years ago, and Pastor Henry Covington, an inner city African-American Pentecostal pastor who ministers to the “least of these”. Some of my evangelical friends will argue that Mitch is not truly “saved” as we understand that word and will try to dismiss his words and thoughts. That’s too bad because my reply to them would be that Mitch is like the devout Jewish man to whom Jesus said, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (see Mark 12:34). Albom frequently attends Pastor Henry Covington’s church where the pastor calls him “Our Jewish Member”. I high respect vulnerability in writers and Mitch Albom is not afraid to share his struggles and positive personal experiences in the area of faith in God and doing the will of God.

The late Professor Rachel Bangs (who had been long retired from Framingham State College) used to talk to me about “nuggets” she would find in God’s Word. Well, a number of passages from God’s Word are quoted in “Have a Little Faith” and the book itself is loaded with spiritual nuggets. What, for instance, would you do if you were in Rabbi Albert Lewis’ shoes back in the early ‘50s when he was leading his Conservative Jewish synagogue which was located in a Catholic neighborhood near a Catholic Church? One of the high holidays fell on a Sunday. The Catholics were having a hard time finding parking spaces because the Jews’ cars were parked all over the local streets. The Catholic priest came out yelling at the Jews who were parking their cars near his church and yelled, “They should have exterminated all you people!”

The next day, the Rabbi went and had a nice conversation with the priest. He apologized. The Rabbi and priest walked arm in arm around the Catholic schoolyard at recess that day to show their solidarity with one another. They ended up becoming good friends.

As far as Pastor Henry Covington, he (supposedly) got saved and filled with the Holy Ghost as a kid but went into a life of TERRIBLE crime and sin. The man has a powerful testimony of how God has pulled him out of the gutter and today he is reaching the “down and outers” of Detroit’s streets.

Mitch Album does a thousand times better telling these stories than I’m doing. I was DEEPLY moved by reading “Have a Little Faith”. I am most grateful the Framingham clergy gave me such a great little book as a gift.

Right now I NEED to “Have a Little Faith”. In fact, right now, I need to have a LOT of faith! The book was PERFECT for me.
I hope you’ll pick up “Have a Little Faith” and read it. I highly recommend it!

"WHAT A BUTTE!"

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:6-9)

The title of this posting is sort of a pun or play on words. I know that a long time ago on my blog I wrote about my father and that when he was angry with someone in traffic he would yell, “What a beaut!”. It was his way of getting out the anger and frustration without swearing or demeaning himself in public. I am not sure that my family appreciates it, but I have that same tendency. I must yell, “What a beaut!” at least 5 times a week when I’m driving! This posting is not about yelling when driving, however, it’s about Butte, Montana of all places.

Perhaps this should be featured on a PBS website or in a PBS publication because I want to write about the impact that the documentary “Butte, America” on the PBS program “Independent Lens” had on me this week. I love history- especially American history, and I enjoy watching a good documentary. A couple of nights ago I tuned into “Butte, America” on one of the new digital Channel 44s (“WGBH World”). Wikipedia’s entry about “Butte, America” is as follows:

"Butte, America is a 2009 documentary film about Butte, Montana's history as a copper mining town. It was created by Pamela Roberts, narrated by Gabriel Byrne, and includes a mix of first hand accounts and scholarly analysis from John T. Shea, Marie Cassidy, David Emmons, and Janet Finn, .The movie focuses on developments in American labor and production during the "dawn" of the electrical age in the 1880s when copper was discovered in Butte. The mining activity brought an influx of immigrant workers and their families to the boom town that grew to be a "Western" metropolis of 45,000 people forming a Rocky Mountain city that with similarities to Pittsburgh in the East. Labor relations and the corporate operations of Anaconda Copper are also related."

That’s all true, but it makes it all sound rather dull. If you love American history, especially learning some of the more obscure stories of American history, you’ll LOVE this documentary. It’s superbly done! The film portrays Butte from the late 19th Century right up to the 1980s. If you really “get into” this film you’ll find yourself laughing and crying at various times. Butte was the copper mining capital of the world for several decades in the early 20th Century. The big copper company was “Anaconda”. Do any of you remember a piece from The Three Stooges’ “Men in Black” short in which The Three Stooges meet a hospital patient named Anna Conda? Immediately upon meeting her, Moe pretends he’s reading a ticker tape and begins yelling out the stock price of Anaconda as if he’s a stock trader! I’m showing my ignorance here, but I’d figured Anaconda was just a made up name for that short. In fact, Anaconda was the big copper company which essentially controlled the City of Butte and the State of Montana.

I learned from watching “Butte, America” that one hundred years ago Butte was a boomtown much more like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania than any western city or town. Most of the residents were immigrants from Ireland, Mexico, or eastern Europe. The culture was European and ethnic. This was NOT primarily a “cowboy town”. Thousands and thousands of men worked in the mines in deplorable conditions. Anaconda made fabulous amounts of money while the miners barely survived. The documentary had a definite left-wing bias. (Well, on PBS, that’s no surprise!) In this case, however, one can certainly appreciate the left’s point of view. If it were not for the formation of a strong Union, these families would barely have made it.

I don’t mean to say that Anaconda was all bad. Much about Anaconda was good. The company built homes for its workers and poured a lot of money into the community. They even built a first class amusement park. Film clips from the ‘50s showed a happy American community where families went to the amusement park for picnics and junk food and to enjoy the rides.

In the 1940s, Anaconda expanded into South America, setting up a huge copper mining operation in Chile. Things were great until 1971 when a far left politician took power in Chile and nationalized the copper mining operation. Anaconda’s financial situation took a major dive. The company gave up traditional mining in Butte, and began a HUGE eleven year excavation project in which they dug up as much copper and other precious metals as they could. In 1982, they went belly up and everything ceased. A giant ugly and toxic hole and man-made lake were left behind. (Incidentally, in order to do the excavation, whole neighborhoods were bulldozed and EVEN THE AMUSEMENT PARK which Anaconda had built was excavated!) Most of Butte’s residents were devastated but seemingly nobody cared. At one time the city had 90,000 residents. Today it has about 33,000.

I couldn’t help but think of the above verses from Galatians. Anaconda had made great money on the labor of poor miners. In later years, they’d seemingly become a kinder, gentler company. Yet, their history and ways caught up with them- and the people’s trust in Anaconda ultimately left them, well, with a toxic hole in the ground.

Amazingly, the film ends on kind of a positive note, but leaves the viewer wondering how things could have and should have been much different. Frankly, many people laugh at the Bible-thumping preachers who proclaim the importance of honoring God and His Word in all you do. I know this will sound really idealistic, but if the overwhelming majority of the people of Butte, Montana, both white collar and blue collar, rich and poor, had truly followed the tenets of God’s Word, I suspect this whole story would have had a different and much better outcome.

If you have the opportunity to view “Butte, America” please do so!

FROM COLORADO SPRINGS

“preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.” (2 Timothy 4:2)

For several years I’ve subscribed to a weekly newsletter from Focus on the Family (located in Colorado Springs, CO) entitled, “The Pastor’s Weekly Briefing.” Most of you will recognize that Focus on the Family was founded by Dr. James Dobson and holds to some very conservative political positions including advocating the legislating of morality. There’s a WHOLE lot more to Focus on the Family than right wing politics, however. “Focus” has offered outstanding resources to parents and families in crisis for decades. “Focus” also has a focus (pun intended) on pastors and their wives. H.B. London, former Nazarene pastor and first-cousin of Dr. James Dobson heads up the ministry to pastors and their wives. “The Pastor’s Weekly Briefing” is a helpful resource and I’ve enjoyed reading it each week for at least two years. Most of you know the church I was pastoring closed and so technically speaking I’m not pastoring anywhere right now but I’ve elected to keep receiving “PWB” as they call it.

The March 19 issue which arrived at my “in box” today had the responses of pastors to a two question survey they asked a couple of weeks ago. I’m going to take the liberty of reproducing that here. (If you’d like a copy of the full March 19 PWB just e-mail me and I will forward it on to you.) I can tell you from attending Assemblies of God ministers’ meetings, mixed evangelical ministers’ meetings and EVEN some meetings with more theologically liberal clergy, the concerns the pastors express here ARE exactly what today’s pastors are dealing with. They’d LOVE to communicate this to their lay people but often they feel frustrated because the lay people won’t listen or just think they’re whining. I hope you’ll read this thoughtfully and prayerfully. I’m very grateful for the few families and “die hards” who stuck it out to the end at First Assembly of God of Framingham, but I can tell you, the issues listed here affected us at First AG Framingham as they affect most churches. YOU could make a positive difference in your church. I hope reading the following will motivate you to do that!

Here is it, straight from the Pastor’s Weekly Briefing electronic newsletter:

TWO-QUESTION SURVEY RESPONSE

A couple weeks ago, in the March 5, 2010, issue of The Pastor's Weekly Briefing, I asked for a reader response on two questions. We received several hundred very interesting replies. I asked one of our staff members, Dale Wolyniak, to put into capsule form the essence of those responses. Here is what we found:

Question 1: What do you feel is the greatest challenge to your ministry?

* It was evident that apathy within congregations was a primary concern. This was also reported as a lack of commitment and help in ministry, a certain lukewarmness — which may stem from being too busy with wrong priorities — plus, distractions in our congregants' homes.
* Some pastors noted that church was seen as an event, rather than a place of being the Body. This was reflected with a view of the church being more of a club, with a consumer approach to 'serve me.'
* A high percentage of comments indicate that the church has lost its sense of urgency to spread the gospel because of being more concerned with tradition, programs and activities rather than personal evangelism and discipleship.
* Another indicator was the cultural tolerance for sinful practices. And, within the church, a lack of discipline to live up to biblical values. This fusion of postmodern values and a liberal approach to life can leave the church without a prophetic voice.

Question 2: What one thing presents the greatest challenge or threat to you and your family or marriage?
* Respondents spoke most frequently about the need for balancing time and resources of ministry with that of the pastor's marriage and family. A few phrases that frequently occurred were "emotional exhaustion," "energy depletion" and "excessive activities" that seemed to plague the ministers' lives.
* One comment was that there was a "rising tide" of evil in the world that is seen in the public schools, TV, movies and the Internet. In speaking of the cultural influence on our children, one pastor commented that we need to "keep a Christ-centered focus in our homes, despite the tsunami of temptations around us."
* A challenge that creates high stress is the unfair expectations of church members toward their pastor and his or her family. A major concern was that a pastor's spouse and children needed to be given adequate time and attention in spite of busy ministry lives.

It is obvious that we may need new wineskins with new wine to awaken hope in the church and to reach this generation with a relevant and spirited message. Also, another question might be, "What is your greatest blessing in ministry?" I am sure there are more blessings than negatives.

Perhaps we need to sit down with pen and Bible in hand and ask what activities we should be doing. One thing we learn from the survey is that things in the church have not changed much since the last time we asked those two questions nearly 16 years ago. In fact, they may be getting more difficult.

BE ENCOURAGED!

We know that God is still calling faithful ministers and their families. They continue to present Christ, and His truth is being lived out in a pluralistic and often skeptical society. So, keep the faith, my colleague, you are making a difference.

THE DOCTOR IS IN

“Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.” (Proverbs 27:2)

That whole “6 degrees of separation” thing says that every person is only 6 people away from anyone else in the world. I’ve written about this before. For instance, my sister used to attend a Bible Study in Boston with Jamie Bush, President George H.W. Bush’s nephew. So that makes me only like 3 people away from both Presidents Bush! Are you familiar with country music singer JoDee Messina? I know her sister Terese Patterson, so I’m only 1-2 people away!

Longtime Assemblies of God constituents will have seen the name Dr. Christina Powell in our “denominational” publications. (Incidentally, the Assemblies of God likes to call itself a “fellowship” rather than a “denomination” but as my friend Pastor Tony Bellarmino of Turlock, Calif. says, about the Assemblies of God, “If it ‘walks like a duck’....” and Tony agrees that it’s a denomination.) Christina Powell is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and is an Assemblies of God minister. She’s often quoted in the Assemblies of God’s weekly magazine, “The Pentecostal Evangel”. In many aspects, she’s very respected as a doctor and ethicist in the Assemblies of God the way Attorney Richard Hammer is respected by our “denomination” for his expertise in Law.

Well, Christina Powell and her husband attended our church, First Assembly of God of Framingham for at least a year in the early 1990s. Our church also featured her as a special guest speaker at a service about 8 years ago. I’ve been trying to touch base with a lot of people who have been connected with First Assembly of God of Framingham over the past 25 years or so to let them know the church has closed. Frankly, Dr. Christina Powell was somebody I’d forgotten about. In this past Sunday’s Pentecostal Evangel magazine, there was a story about the damage done to children in homes where there is a lot of yelling by the parents, AND that a number of parents are yellers but don’t know how to stop this behavior. One expert who was quoted in the article was Dr. Christina Powell. THAT tripped off my memory that I needed to contact her about the church’s closing.

I did find her e-mail address in my ministers’ directory and I shot off an e-mail to her. Wow, was I blessed by the reply I received! She sent me a long and touching e-mail telling me of how much our church had meant to she and her husband. She even remembered songs we sang at the time, and the impact on her which helped encourage her to go forward with Harvard. It turns out she might not be in the Assemblies of God and she might not be “Dr. Christina Powell” if not for the impact of First Assembly of God of Framingham. In a low period in my life, that was a huge affirmation. I’m glad the doctor was in!