CHRIS BROWN'S SAGE ADVICE

“And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people:  and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” (Exodus 24:7)

I guess first I’d better tell you who Chris Brown is.  Chris Brown is a woman in my age group who attended our church (First Assembly of God of Framingham) along with her husband Gary and her three sons, for many years.  Currently Chris and Gary Brown attend Metro Church in Marlboro.

Chris Brown has a very nice singing voice.   She was a song leader and worship leader at our church, and usually did a very good job.  Chris also worked tirelessly for many years as our church Treasurer.  I believe she loves God very much.  Chris Brown is a schoolteacher.  Like me, her primary ethnic ancestry is French.  Also like me, she tends to be kind of a perfectionist and tends to be quite opinionated.  Depending on the issue and situation, Chris Brown and I either really got along well and worked well together or we didn’t.  There was no in-between.  I once told Gary Brown that Chris is very much like me.  He didn’t agree, but I stand by that statement.  

Chris and Gary left our church over five years ago, and I don’t see a lot of them, but there’s an impact Chris has made on my life.  I don’t know if she even remembers this, but one day Chris Brown said, “If every Christian would just seek the Lord and find out what he wants them to do and then DO it, most of the problems would be solved.”  Whether she meant most of the problems in the church, or in the world, or in life, or whatever, Chris Brown made a true statement that day!  I have  quoted Chris Brown’s statement about a thousand times over the past several years.

All of us, including me, get in trouble when WE want to be our own bosses...when WE just get out there and do what WE want to do.  I suppose SOMETIMES that works, but I want to tell you, most of the time it causes a lot of pain and heartache and confusion and stress and leads to all kinds of other junk.

One person, a 60ish woman, challenged me on Chris Brown’s sage advice.  That woman said, “But THAT’S not REALISTIC!”  Ironically, the woman who said, “But THAT’S not REALISTIC!”  believes just about anything many TV preachers say.  Go figure!  Maybe it’s NOT realistic, but I’m gonna keep proclaiming it and trying by the grace of God to live it.

Recently, two women from our church congregation challenged me on Chris Brown’s sage advice.  Their beef was that I keep quoting a woman who left our church...who in doing so hurt me and hurt a  number of people at the church.  My response to that is twofold.  First, that all happened over five years ago, we ALL make mistakes and we need to leave that “at Calvary” as we born-again Christians say.  Secondly, whatever Chris may have done in leaving our church, her statement is a TRUE statement and a good statement.  I happen to be a guy who is full of flaws and failures.  I’d hate to have someone reject a powerful and true sermon of mine just because I said they wore a dumb looking tee-shirt or I accidentally scraped their car on my way out of the church parking lot or something!

What Chris Brown said is SO simple it could easily be marginalized or forgotten, but I pray it WON’T be.  Like the movie, “Pay it Forward”, if everyone reading this piece put Chris Brown’s sage advice into practice, our whole society would be revolutionized and changed for the better!

Again,  “If every Christian would just seek the Lord and find out what he wants them to do and then DO it, most of the problems would be solved.”  I know some of you are thinking, “But I’m not a born-again Christian.”  Well then, that’s step one, and then make following Chris Brown’s statement step two.

I’m serious.

"OLD CATCAN" AND LIPATOR (extra entry)

(This is not one of my usual well-written philosophical, reflective, thoughtful pieces.  Today I'm just wondering about a couple of things...)

LAST THINGS FIRST:  Lipator.
Have you seen the new Lipator commercial on television which features a doctor?  Is it just me, or does that doctor look remarkably like President George W. Bush?

AND:
There was a person who often posted on my blog with the name "OldCatcan".  If his purpose was to BUG me about WHO he was and how he knew some of the stuff he knew...he succeeded!  If what he said was true:  OldCatcan spent a lot of time in the U.S. military service.  He has visited (and possibly spent a lot of time) in Africa.  He knew my father, the late Eugene A. Baril and apparently had been to my father's residence in Canton.  He has also visited the church I pastor in Framingham, although not recently.  His postings indicated he is an intelligent and inquisitive person.

I may have scared OldCatcan because sometime ago above one of his postings I asked him about who is really is and he disappeared.  I don't think he's posted anything in around 5 months.  I wonder if this will bring OldCatcan out of the woodwork!

A VERY DRAMATIC SITUATION

"...whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." (from I Corinthians 10:31)

All of my kids are very talented in the area of drama.  I've never done much acting except for very small parts in various church productions, and yet I'm a very good actor, so I assume they've inherited that ability from me!  Throughout high school, my kids were all active in their school's drama group, sometimes even having lead parts in plays and musicals.  Rachel is currently a Theater Arts minor at  Westfield State and is active in that school's Musical Theater Guild.  My son Jon played Captain Hook in a production of "Peter Pan" with the north shore's Mystic Players in late 2005 and currently is rehearsing with the Worcester County Light Opera Company as they prepare for nine performances in April of "Sweeney Todd".

Up until very recently, the Assemblies of God (like most theologically conservative Protestant groups) took a dim view of drama.  Really strict "low church" Protestants in North America traditionally considered drama "the work of the devil".  Catholics, Jews, and pagans could put on plays, dancing shows, make movies, etc. but NOT good "Bible Believing Christians".  One of the first "evangelicals" to make positive use of drama was Billy Graham.  His organization founded "World Wide Pictures".  Their evangelistic films of the early '50s were very hokey and corny, but their 1975 film "The Hiding Place"- the true story of the Ten Boom family of Holland who saved countless Jews, were eventually found out, and taken to a concentration camp, is a first-class film in every way.  Up until sometime in the 1970s the Assemblies of God forbad "attendance at theaters"; however, there's been a radical shift in the past thirty years, with many Assemblies of God schools offering courses in drama.  Ironically, one of the founders of "Blue Man Group" is a graduate of the Assemblies of God's Evangel University!

Forty years ago an Assemblies of God pastor would never approve of his 23-year-old son performing in a play like "Sweeney Todd" and certainly would never go to see it.  Well, times have changed!  Jon doesn't drive- maybe that will be a topic of another blog entry- so I've driven him to a number of his practices and I've hung around watching rehearsals.  I've been very impressed with the dedication of the Worcester County Light Opera Company.  They actually own their own theater/headquarters building  in a  residential neighborhood in Worcester on the far west side of the city near Webster Square.  I'm amazed at the time the members of the WCLOC put in-not only practicing songs and lines, but building sets, and physically maintaining their building.  They even run a camp for children during the summer to instill an interest in the theater in them.  In church work, it's sometimes hard to get people to show up for anything outside of Sunday morning, and often when there's hard work to be done, hands are few.  That's not true of this acting company in Worcester.   Maybe "Sweeney Todd" wouldn't be a lot of Born-Again Christians' "cup of tea" but some Christians could learn a thing or two about commitment from watching these hard working thespians.

The Worcester County Light Opera Company does have a website where you could find more information about their group and about "Sweeney Todd".  Their web address is www.wcloc.com

TRUE CONFESSION

“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3 New King James Version)

This past week, Lord caused me to “consider the plank in my own eye”.

Here is the story:

Around nineteen years ago, a man named Sam and his wife, along with their severely developmentally disabled daughter, moved from Cape Cod to Millis, MA.  They began attending our church in Framingham.  Some of our church people used to vacation on Cape Cod and worshiped at the church on the Cape where Sam’s family attended, so it was only natural  that when they moved to MetroWest, Sam and his family would want to worship with the people they’d met.

As I recall, at that time, Sam’s daughter was 24-years-old.  She was on the developmental level of (maybe) a 1-year-old.  We had sort of a nursery/crying room immediately at the back of the very small church’s sanctuary.  (We had a different church building at that time.)  Sam and his wife brought their 24-year-old daughter and put her in the nursery/crying room just as though she was a 1-year-old.  She was kind of big...well, not “fat”, but bigger than the average 24-year-old and there she was taking up at least one fourth of the small room.  I know this sounds terrible, and I KNOW God loves their daughter, but it just plain looked and seemed weird.  At that time, I had three kids under the age of 6, including a 1-year-old.  I’m ashamed to admit it, but I was really uncomfortable about the 24-year-old being in the nursery.  I knew that if I were a “lay person” and I visited a church with my family, and came upon this scenario, I wouldn’t come back.  I spoke to a few of our church’s Board members and got them to agree with me.  I then spoke to the parents (over the phone) and expressed my concerns.  Sam actually didn’t take it too badly. I ran into him outside of the church a few times after that and he was very friendly.  But Sam’s wife was quite offended.  They never came back to our church.  

Sam and his family began attending another small church in another MetroWest community.   It turns out, Sam is a very talented businessman and motivator.  Sam became the “right hand man” of that church’s pastor.  He became Men’s Director and a key Board member.  Over the next ten years, that church grew from 30 people to 250.  Several years ago,Sam and his family moved out-of-state.

I hadn’t thought about my phone call to Sam and his wife for years, but God brought it to my mind last week.  Many times I have felt sorry for myself because I’m a person that influential people have tended to marginalize and talk down to.  Suddenly, I realized I’d marginalized THEM.
I never prayed about my decision to call them.  I never even prayed about the fact that the disabled daughter made me feel uncomfortable.  I was way out of line.

Imagine if Sam had stayed at our church.   Would WE have been the tiny church that grew to 250 (now over 300)?  Maybe.  So, folks, learn a lesson from my stupidity!

I’m actually trying to get either a street address or e-mail address for Sam so I can write to him and apologize.  I know it’s about 19 years too late.
I admit this posting doesn’t make me look too great, but it shows I’m human.

"SSUUNNDDAAYYYY!!!"

“...do the work of an evangelist...” (from 2 Timothy 4:5)

Tomorrow (Sunday, March 25) would have been my brother Eddie’s 51st birthday.  For a few of you from First Assembly of God of Framingham, it would also have been Dorothy Chick’s birthday.  I think Dorothy Chick would have been 79.  For ME, March 25 is a big day because we have Evangelist Rob Fisher from New Jersey at our church as our special speaker for the 10:30 a.m. service.

I’ve been receiving Rob Fisher’s on-line newsletter for some time.  Although he’s called an “evangelist” I think he’s also more of a “prophet” in the sense of someon like David Wilkerson (founder of Teen Challenge who has given numerous prophetic words to the Church of our time).

Rob Fisher speaks all over the place, especially the northeast.  He speaks in large churches and key venues.  For us to have Rob Fisher at our tiny church is really a blessing and an honor.  

You know how it is when you entertain a guest in your home...or something like that... you want to put your best foot forward.  Well, I want to do the same thing at our church.  Right now even if everyone at our church showed up we’d have over 35 empty seats.  Somehow, I’d love to fill up those empty seats.

If you are from the Framingham area, “What have you got to loose”?
As Billy Graham would say, “You may be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or no religion”.  (I used to wonder why he didn’t include Hindus, Buddhists or Muslims!)  Well, you MAY be “Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or no religion”.  Why not spend this Sunday morning in a special way...in church hearing an interesting speaker?!

I’d love to see you Sunday morning at 10:30 !  (In case you don’t know, we’re located at 32 South Street -at South and Taylor Sts. - you can see our yellowbrick builidng from Route 135, and our property borders the Chicken Bone Restaurant.)

INCIDENTALLY, for those of you too young or too old to remember,
“SSUUNNDDAAYYYY!!!” was the radio rallying cry of New England Dragway in Epping, New Hampshire in the early 1970s!

LOST

"Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?" (Luke 15:8)

Some of you know one of my favorite television shows is "LOST".  My son and are are practically addicted to it.  If you think that's what I'm going to write about today, you'll be disappointed, because that's not it.  I just feel a little frustrated because lately I seem to be losing a number of things.

A few weeks ago, I lost a very nice pair of clip on sunglasses.  I looked and looked until I looked so much I almost needed a new prescription from straining my eyes.  They never turned up.  Fortunately, I have friends who run an optical shop, so I got new clip on sunglasses through them.  Earlier this week, I bought some off-brand instant shower cleaner.  You know, the stuff like "Clean Shower" except it was an off-brand.  I bought it first thing in the morning, so I brought it to the church with me to bring home later.  Well, I've searched the church, I've searched my car, and I've searched my residence.  After 24 hours of that, I gave up and went to the supermarket and bought ANOTHER bottle of off-brand instant shower cleaner.  I did not take any chances!  I put that right in my bathroom cabinet!

Tuesday morning, I could not find the MetroWest Daily News on my front porch where it always is in the morning.  I looked all over the place, more than once.  It felt silly to be out in my pajamas walking around the front yard looking for the paper, but I was.  I  later gave up and walked up the street to buy a paper.  (Wednesday we DID get our paper, as usual, but what happened to the Tuesday paper?)  Tuesday night when I went to put my cell phone away, I noticed that the top of its leather case was missing.  I looked all over the house, and it's no where.  I don't absolutely HAVE to have the top...the belt clip part is on the bottom of the case- but it's kind of annoying that it just disappeared.  I COULD go to the Verizon store and buy a new case...but I don't know.  In a few months I'll be upgrading the cell phone, so maybe it's just not worth it.

I once read an article that said that the thing to remember when you lose something is that old nursery rhyme which says, "Leave them alone, and they'll come home, wagging their tales behind them."  I guess there IS some truth to that one.  The "aerator" on our kitchen faucet "acted up" months ago.  I knew I had some spare faucet aerators around.  Well, I looked and I looked and I looked... and you know the drill.  I finally gave up.  This past weekend, I was looking for something else- my wife needed her passport for something.   I found mine but not hers.  While I was looking in my dresser for her passport, I found an envelope with spare faucet aerators!  On Tuesday I changed the kitchen faucet aerator.  It had been "acting up" for about 5 months and "driving us crazy".  Now, the faucet is back to "normal"...no weird awkward stream or constant dripping.

My sock drawer contains numerous single socks...where do those other socks go?  Well, I guess I could go on an on, but as an evangelical Christian, I know that as long as my SOUL is not lost, well, things are OK...

ROLL OUT THE BARIL

“...and I will write upon him my new name.”  (from Revelation 3:12)

At last week’s retreat, one young pastor came up to me excitedly and announced, “I know your daughter Beth!”.   The problem is, I don’t have a daughter Beth.  The young pastor was dumbfounded because Beth Baril’s father is a Massachusetts pastor and so he assumed it had to be me.  Another guy later commented, “I assume you’re related to Dennis”.  In fact, there is a Pastor Dennis Baril in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.  We have met a few times.  Dennis and I are probably related WAY back but we are not close relatives...at best we’re VERY distant cousins.

A couple of days ago, Claire Grimes, our church’s Secretary, brought in a photo of a Baril couple from Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard that she’d clipped out of the newspaper.  I also explained to her that I didn’t know these people and they’re not closely related to me.

My late uncle, J. Elbert Baril, (he was always known as “Al”) of Miami, Florida, did an exhaustive genealogical study of the Baril family.  In fact, Baril is a very uncommon last name.  There are only a little over 700 households in the entire United States with the last name “Baril”.  Most are in New England and in Michigan, but Barils are found in just about every state.  There are also probably three times as many Barils in Canada as in the U.S., most, but not all in Quebec.

The Barils of FRENCH ancestry in North America pretty much all descend from Jean Baril who immigrated to Quebec from France in the 1600s.  Jean was married three times and fathered seventeen children.  I descend from the second wife.  I say “The Barils of French ancestry” because there are also Barils in the United States who are Jewish and not French at all.  There was a store manager in Framingham around eighteen years ago named Scott Baril.  Scott is Jewish.  His last name Baril is a shortened version of a long, Eastern European name such as “Barilovsky”...something like that.  I actually saw an obituary of a Jewish Baril one time and some of the relatives had the name Baril and others had the longer version... again, I forget exactly what the longer version was.

Baril also can be pronounced several different ways...none is especially correct or incorrect.  In the U.S.A., most Barils pronounce it the way I do which is “Berr-ILL” with the accent definitely on the second syllable and the final letter “L” clearly pronounced.  Others pronounce it “Barrel”.  I HATE that pronunciation, but some Barils DO say “Barrel”.  In French Canada “Baril” has a silent “L”.  It’s pronounced “Barry” or sometimes “BarRIE”...depending on where they put the accent.  Somebody told me they had a Professor Baril at a college in Michigan who pronounced it “Barry”.

It’s interesting when you do a “Baril”  Google search.  There’s a Steve Baril who ran as a Republican candidate for Attorney General of Virginia.  I actually got his e-mail address and communicated with him, which was kind of cool.  (Imagine, Steve COULD someday be PRESIDENT BARIL !)  There’s a Baril, who is originally from Michigan, that runs a website for Barils.  He’s big and bald and has the nickname “Bullfrog Baril”.  We’ve corresponded and he  refers to me as “Cousin Bob Baril”.   There is also a Bob Baril who is a runner.  It’s all pretty interesting.

You may well meet Pastor Dennis Baril or Beth Baril someday...and you’ll have to let them know you’re acquainted with the “other Pastor Baril”!

Incidentally, “Baril” in French is literally “Barrel” or “little keg”.  Most who have studied the name’s origin believe Barils were people in the French speaking areas of Europe who made barrels during the Middle Ages.