Randy Wray's Blog

As the most miserable city in America, Stockon still has something to offer and attract others into our misery company.

We just need to spin this news, look at it from the glass half-full.

So I thought we could help out the chamber of commerce and come up with some slogans.

Something like:

“Come experience being number one.”

“You wanted a new (item that was stolen) anyway.”

“At least we’re not Bakersfield.”

How about this for unwanted recognition.

When two church members invite you to go up into the mountains to a secluded fishing spot you have to make sure they liked the video!

Ever since I was a small child I’ve always been prone to motion sickness.

If we go deep sea fishing (which I refuse to do) you’ll fish and I’ll chum.

I’ve been struck with the car sick bug while driving (that’s how bad it is).

So an hour and a half or so into the drive, to impress the church members who invited me up into the mountains to fish today, I calmly asked if we could pull over.

I stepped out of the truck and set the contents of my stomach free.

Hard to regain your dignity after such an episode.

But at least I wasn’t the one that said that the hike to the fishing spot (which turned out to be a 2 mile hike downhill) was only a 1/2 mile or so.

The walk back uphill to the truck my calves will not soon forget.

We made and showed a video Sunday, a parody of American Idol, to illustrate the comedic tragedy of operating in area of un-giftedness (yes, that is a made up word).

I was worried about the length of the video (13 minutes) – it was too long but I couldn’t cut anybody, I just couldn’t – people gave up 2 1/2 to 3 hours of a Saturday to make this video – I couldn’t choose one over the other.

My message was about 17 minutes so even with the 13 minute video I was still 15 minutes away from one of Greg’s shorter messages!

What I was not prepared for was the number of our church members who left in anger.  Comments were made, while exiting, about how stupid this was -  or how pointless it was.

The point of the video (which was clearly communicated) reinforced the message that God has given each of us certain, individual, specific gifts.

Just because we can’t sing as well as some one else does not mean our gift is a lesser gift.

Instead of comparing gifts and making subsequent value judgments we save the energy (of comparing) and dive in to the work God has for us.

The message was a call to discover, develop and deploy our unique gifts for the good of others and the glory of God.

So many people only care about their own well being and their own good.

I’m struck with the irony of 1 Corinthians 13 . . .

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud.  Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not get upset with others. Love does not count up wrongs that have been done. Love is not happy with evil but is happy with the truth. Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always remains strong. Love never ends.

Unless of course you show a video . . .

Some of you know the challenge of typing that particular title and the importance of getting every letter just right.

Here’s a breed photo of our weekend guest.

Mocha has her paws full.

Interesting side panel in this month’s REV magazine.

REVEAL, an initiative within the Willow Creek Association utilizes research tools and discoveries to help churches better understand spiritual growth in their congregations.

REVEAL establishes a spiritual vitality score for each church in its database based on three areas of spiritual activity:  (1) faith in action (evangelism, serving,) (2) personal spiritual practices (prayer, Bible reading), and (3) the church’s role (activities, congregant needs), churches that score over 85 are in the top 5 percent of the database.

Not sure if their list of 15 highlighted churches is a sampling of a whole but what stood out (for me) was the discovery of churches that were not on the list.  Of course, this could just mean that those churches were not in their database.

The smallest church to make the list was The Citadel of Faith in Detroit, Michigan with a weekend adult attendance of 220.

The largest church to make the list was Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas with a weekend adult attendance of 9000.

We can ask Brad to blog officially as to why two churches in Detroit made the top list (Christian Gospel Center Church of God in Christ with a weekend adult attendance of 350).

Every once in a while (sing a long if you wish) the “must tend to” details relating to automobiles don’t take as long as you expect.

The girls are headed out of town for a tourney this week and so I took the Jetta to get it road ready.

I pulled up to the oil change place and was the only customer on the premises.

Talk about attention!

I wheeled into the VW place because our back panel was loose – the service tech listened to my description of the problem and said “you’re missing a screw.”

I said “yes, i know, but let’s talk about the car.”

Perplexed look.

Humor is often wasted on the unsuspecting.

Well it seems a whole batch of Jetta’s went rolling off the assembly line missing a screw (Greg, check the inside door panel on the right side – look for a hole with a missing screw).

It seems even assembly line autoworkers take a few plays off here and there.

Both tasks in less than 1/2 an hour  – that has to be a record!

Yesterday we discovered how the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us the necessity of boundaries when we help others.

Our desire to serve must always be tempered with discernment and boundaries.  He does not serve out of guilt or compulsion rather out of compassion.

He does a great thing, but he has boundaries.

He bandages the man up, but he doesn’t perform surgery.

He takes him to an inn, but he doesn’t let the guy move into his house.

He pays for a few days’ expenses, but he doesn’t give him a blank check.

We need to challenge some assumptions and set aside a particular mentality that plagues small to mid-size churches  – this whole idea that we have to embark and execute every ministry and fill every designated time slot with churchyness.

Sometimes we have to say no to some really good things so we can say yes to something better in our lives.

The kids are on spring break except for the girl who still has HS softball practice and a game yesterday.

The boy and I decided to hit the lake for a couple of days and live off the land (we went to the grocery store first).

We had a fun time, saw 22 different types of animals and with the exception of catching no fish we had fun.

That is until the wind came up -windy, windy, windy yesterday – enough wind to cut the trip short but still it was good to get out.

Especially if you’re talking about plumbing.

Believe me.  He’s right there, every step of the way, working his magic.

I hate plumbing and I hate paying plumbers.

Hence the dilemma.