Staff day today. Enjoyed time with Master Brett Jones, our Kiwi buddy, and downed a monster burger at "the station."
I have missed Brett's unique gift of articulating thoughts, motives, ideals and structures. He was such an unbelievable asset to us in our early days and we still benefit from his gifts. Thank God for the Body of Jesus Christ.
Well, I thought I'd check in quick... I need to get to work on some things for this weekend and plan the following weeks message. Also, just a heads up for some of you: we will be gathering on the lawn behind the school this Sunday. Should be fun.
What's my name?
sd
Posts
It looks like my final audio post from last night didn't make it... Oh well.
Last night's message went well and we had an awesome time of worship following the talk. Mike Morgan, Mike Klintworth, Nate Lyons and Drew Hunt have been doing an outstanding job with the worship. Yesterday there was a monster crud war. Tons of food and yucky stuff were tossed at each other in a mud field. TASTY! Last night they did a game where they blended up camp food from the week and had people drink it! AHHHHH! I could not be in the room - my weak stomach would have lost the plot!
Today I am going up to camp with the family and speaking tonight. Pray that it will be a challenging closing rally.
Anyways - I am looking forward to getting back into a groove, but have NEEDED this ministry opportunity to read, to pray, to worship, to think, to be active and to rest...
I am reading a book by Randy Frazee called:"Making Room for Life." Good and challenging book. I am consi...
Well - I am just about ready to leave for camp. I would like to ask you to pray that this camp will be impacting to our middle school students and leaders. Also - please pray that God would guide me clearly each evening for the message and that it will connect well with the students.
I will audio blog a bit if my phone has range to keep you updated. No range=no audio blog updates. I'd like to audio post so you can have an idea of what is happening and how to pray. Vicki and the kids went to visit my sister Jody and brother in law Bif (Brian) for a few days in Indiana.
Yesterday I played ping pong with my friend Jeff VK and had a good time. I haven't played in a while, but played suprisingly good. I had a lot of fun, but I think just hanging and chatting is the most fun. Following this adventure in "sports" I headed over to GR to hang with people from the GC2004 web site forum community. We chatted about membership and other denominational issues. It wa...
We did the staff thing today. Great lunch with a bunch of fellas from Watermark. Anyways I want to give you a link to some hilarious videos of Jesus. They are from VINTAGE 21. They were made to show our whacked views about Jesus. If you have a fast connection and quicktime check them out here:
Jesus Movies
Last night I had the opportunity to hang out with the New Zealand gang and West Michigan pastors. We have a partnership with churches in NZ. We have a close partnership with a church called "Shore Grace" and also are connected to Cession Community. (LINKS TO LEFT.)
Anyways - I'm tired and not really inspired to write. A great online game that I play and invite you to join is: BZ FLAG. Check it out.
I'm flying without wings,
sd
Well first I need to apologize to Dave Drury for not showing up to work out. I did get to bed late, but I could not sleep. I had a bunch of things turning over in my mind and nothing seemed to help. Needless to say I hardly slept. I need to get to bed earlier and not think too much before bed!
Moving on... Today I got my second message done (out of four) for our middle school camp starting Weds. It has been good to go through the story of Gideon and learn from him. I had forgotten how Gideon basically blew it in the end. Gideon is called by God to call His people Israel back to Him and away from idols... Gideon begins his leadership by tearing down idols and then at the end of his leadership he creates a golden ephod and people begin to worship it as an idol. It is amazing how we can start with a solid vision and strong conviction in leadership, but then compromise and make it more about yourself...
God keep me humble and make me all about You.
Thristy Gatherin...
I just got back from working out. Tired and sweaty and feeling oh so good... Today my folks are going to hang with the kiddos. Vicki and I are going to get some work done and then do lunch together. I look forward to lunch with her alone - it will be great to just chat and connect. Vic's mom is coming into town later today as well.
Anyways - this week was mildly productive in the future message planning. I have been studying a lot about two subjects that are intertwined:
1) What is the Gospel and the Kingdom of Heaven?
2) What is the essence of the Church and Christ's intentions for her?
We are going to be doing a four week conversation, in August, regarding the subject of the Church and how we then should live and move and have our being... I am very excited about being a follower of Jesus as I read and study more and more. We truly are a part of something bigger and we have something to LIVE for! Anyways - I'll talk more about that later... But I look ...
WELCOME SUZIE Q to the blogging world. Sue and Jay Z are husband and wife and mighty fine people. She has a great first post and I encourage you to make her blog a part of your well balanced diet of blogs each day. :) You may know Sue as "The O.C." in Jay's blog... Anyways - our blogger community is growing.
Heading out today to work on camp talks for our middle school camp. I have four messages I need to put together so I am heading to Holland soon.
sd
Wow, leading is hard, but also the most natural thing in the world.
It is hard to be used of God to move people in a direction. Why?
> People have different values and thoughts and agendas.
> People seek comfort and stability rather than change and being pushed.
> People give lip service to something, but don't always give it heart service.
> Only God can change a human heart.
> People need time and clear communication and understanding to buy in.
> Other thoughts on the difficulty????????
It is natural to lead because...
> We all influence people and leadership is in some ways just directed influence.
> When you care so much about God you can't help but want people to grow toward Him and His plan.
> When you care about others who can't help, but want to see them grow.
> People are looking for leadership and direction and want to be involved in something bigger than themselves.
> God CAN and DOES change human hearts.
...
It has been one year since "Deurty" was launched in this big bad blog world of ours. I have shared a lot of different things ranging from church planting thoughts to personal ideas to family issues. Thanks for reading and for commenting and for doing life with me in this bizarre way! :)
Below is my first post from a year ago. I welcome comments. Also I posted an audio blog for the fun of it.
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Friday, June 13, 2003
I titled this BLOG - "Deurty" since "Deur" was taken. The content will not be dirty, but I assume my thoughts will seem a bit messy at times as I wrestle with ideas and have competing values to work through. So that is a justification for the name I guess - I also thought it was clever. Most uses of my last name deal with potential kid names.
For example:
Eleva - Deur
Float - Deur
Escala - Deur
You can have fun with that later I suppose. I'd love to hear from you on some ot...
My dad (Dave Deur) in his subversive emerging holistic blog (formerly 'Dave's Dusty', but now titled: 'Dibs') has put together a wonderful piece on the Lakers. I especially like the pic of Kobe with the heading... If you hate the Lakers like me you will enjoy the post: DIBS
Also, I will be trying this audio blogging thing soon. It said it is free "to post it", but it looks like there is a cost for the call itself. So, I will charge my home phone (which will conviently be Wade Breeden's number.) :)
Went to bread shop for some free slices of bread.
Flat tire on our car.
Vicki works this afternoon.
Going over my message and visiting some open houses.
Everybody WANG CHUNG TONIGHT!
sd
Just wanted to thank God again for my awesome family. My wife is the most unbelievablely loving partner and my kids are incredible! Thanks God!
This morning I had breakfast with our leadership life group. It is great getting together with these fellas. I really appreciate the fact we make it a priority to pray together. Following that meeting I came home and spent a chunk of the day chasing down statistics and filling in forms for our district. I understand the importance of statistics, but I am not a big stats fan. A few ended up being quite interesting... But one question that I found difficult to answer was "number saved."
Our church has a lot of people new to church and to God. I have seen people embracing Jesus over the course of the year and we can't pin point a date. We have seen people's lives changed, but it is much more process oriented. That question: "number saved," is built for crusade ministry - for altar calls - for sign on...
"She bangs, she bangs..." - William Hung
Well today I "cranked the beast" (to use old college terminology) on my message.
It is done - it is finished - it is laid to rest - it is put down like a rabid dog!
I learned a lot about God from doing the message.
One thing I took aways was that God is generous and his generosity can cause us to be stingy and jealous. (Because I am a pretty selfish fella.)
I watched a bit of Ronald Reagan's procession into Washington DC. I really liked him alot. I think most people liked him. Afterall he did win 49 out of 50 states in the 1984 election! Holy Landslide Batman! His optimism and confidence made you proud to be an American. He seemed to embody a positive vision for our country. Good leader.
Well I have successfully worked out two mornings starting at around 6:15 am! I really like this morning person thing, but I miss going to bed late. I need to rant sometime soon on the Lakers and the media that is...
"Wetting your pants is cool!"
The power of peer pressure!
I cranked out some great study today at the library of Western Theological Seminary. We are looking at Matthew 20 this week and the story of the workers in the vineyard. The story really drives home the generosity and grace of God. I really love to study a passage of Scripture. I really have ignored this parable for some time. I'd read it, but skim over it for other stories and thoughts so I thought it would be good to cover some parables that are not typically studied or taught. Let's see what God wants to say...
When my daughter prays she pleads with Jesus. She prays something like this...
"Jesus - thank you for all the food you give us - it is really good. Please do everything that I want, please, please Jesus, please! Help Mr. Ron to feel better and I love you so much - so much Jesus - please please help the spirit be with us - Amen."
The Pistons won! All the commentators ...
I need to get back on the right track!
Tomorrow I begin the early morning workout routine. I need inspiration! 6 am here I come. Dave Drury you better be there! :)
Today's gathering was swell. Jeff Johnson shared his story and did a phenominal job. It was very moving and impacting. Thompson pinch hit for Morgan as he hangs out in Galilee and Turkey retracing the steps of the early church. Thanks Steve and good job... We had a nice time with the Myers life group over lunch. It is awesome to hang out with such great people and hear how God is moving in their lives.
I am sure you noticed my pic of Ronald Reagan. I was truly saddened by his death even though it was a long time coming. He was the dominate President in my life. From when I was nine to seventeen. I was always proud to call him my President. He was an incredible communicator, a man of vision and focus. So - I take a second and remember him.
The Pistons are on TV and I fear that they aren...
Forgive the animated gifs. I enjoy spicing up the blog a bit with some motion - hope they are only mildly annoying. Vicki is working in a parade home and I am sitting here with sleeping kids. Ahhhh... it feels good to just sit.
One thing I would like to mention quickly is this thing I am thinking about and I think I may have shared this a bit already... But here goes again (maybe)... I believe that God has truly called us to be his people on a mission. That mission is to bring his Kingdom and reign and therefore, his influence and relationship. I guess you could say that I have an evangelist heart. But, how I have seen sharing my faith has been shifting. I never felt comfortable in just walking up to someone and asking them about Jesus. I always thought it was extremely cheesy to ask an almost stranger if I could share with them the most important thing to me and then procede into my testimony (story.) I think this is the least desirable way to share, because there is lit...
Got a bunch of stuff done around the house including mowing the lawn. We also got together with Jason and Judy with the Smiths and Thompsons - kinda a get to know ya experience.
Tomorrow I am golfing. Thanks to Ryan for the invite! It is a best ball which is awesome because I am on a team rather than doing it on my own and I am not good.
Well I am going to go to bed.
sd
Nice day... lots of vision stuff and nailed down some things.
06:00 am Early morning meeting with Jeff B. at the BK.
08:00 am Home and pull together final details for the day / communication.
09:30 am Head to Spring Lake Wesleyan to speak to their interns regarding church planting.
10:00 am Speaking and interacting with the interns.
11:30 am Done speaking and head to Cantina for lunch with Dennis Jackson.
11:45 am Lunch with Dennis - dreaming about partnering in a church plant with Watermark and SLWC...
01:20 pm Heading home to do some work.
01:30 pm Reading and prep for my message next week on Matthew 20 (get ahead!!!)
03:00 pm Communication and organization.
03:30 pm Headed out to meet "The Roach" and his wife Judy (intern couple)
04:00 pm Checked out a potential place for them to stay in Muskegon.
05:30 pm Headed home and picked up some tortillas for dinner. (I also bought a charleston chew)
05:45 pm Ate with the fami...
June 19-23 the international Wesleyan church will be in GR for our 'general conference.' Anyways - there is a site to learn about the memorials and other discussions regarding the wider wesleyan church. If interested: GC2004.com
Tomorrow I am chatting to the interns at Spring Lake Wesleyan about church planting. Cool. I look forward to whacking out their thinking. I might make stuff up and push it like it's real. Here are some main points that would be fun to push (pretend we are living these out...) :
> The return of BUS MINISTRY! Watermark is actively trying to purchase ten busses to send all over the community. COME AND SEE!
> Evangelism as CONFRONTATION! Watermark is training God's people to get in people's faces, to get aggresive and seeing results!
Any other thoughts that would be totally whacked?
Finally, Mike Morgan is on his way to Galilee and Turkey to study the New Testament. Pray for Mikey as he is gone for two weeks.
...
Saw Shrek 2 tonight with my little lady Aub-bob (as the Smith kids call her.) I am trying to organize housing still for our interns (Jason and Judy.) We have two options, but I was hoping that something extremely cheap would have opened up or someone would have opened up their home, but alas having a married couple with you is much different than just having a single guy or gal with you. Anyways - that should be set up in a few days.
I am working on a passage of scripture for a message on June 13th. Read ahead and give me your take in the comments section on what you would say or do with this... How does God speak to you through it? Just curious. >> Matthew 20:1-16.
Wade Breeden - dude - I've missed seeing you and Michelle. Hope camping has been swell, but let's get together! I'll call you or vice versa!
Mike - have an awesome time in Israel. Take lots of pictures, stand close to the tour guide and work the ladies... huh?
Ked - man thanks for...