Simon and Garmanfunkle

Living with the Garmans is like living inside a Saturday Night Live Sketch… non-stop comedy. This week has been a great time of catching up on our lives and talking about the ministry they have here. The Garmans have made the (very wise) decision to direct the majority of their attention during this first phase of ministry on learning the Icelandic language. It is a difficult language compounded by the fact that the vast majority of Icelanders speak fluent English. This makes learning Icelandic difficult because English is always available as a default. Tonight an Icelander who has known Colby and Annie for a few weeks told me that he has never known a foreigner to learn the language so quickly. The week to this point was spent preparing for an event that took place tonight.. Colby, Annie and I performed a Christmas concert in the basement of a downtown Reykjavik’s Café Rot. We chose eight songs that told the Biblical Christmas story and talked about the significance of the incarnation.

The Garmans promoted the event through Facebook. Per capita Iceland has the greatest number of Facebook users in the world. More than 150,000 Icelanders have a Facebook account. Nearly half of the 320,000 people living in Iceland have a Facebook account. (46.89%).

About 50 people came to the concert and it went great. Each song was dripping  gospel  and we giving us the  opportunity to talk about the songs during and after the concert with those who attended. Everyone stayed around for an hour or so after the event and talked. Please pray for Colby & Annie as they continue to work in Reykjavik.

Traveling With Ruthe

I’m riding a bus between DC and NYC right now (wi-fi on a bus? Wow!) with my 5-year-old daughter Ruthe. Ruthe and I are going to spend the day today in NYC before flying out to Reykjavik tonight to visit our good friends the Garmans. This is a sweet trip for me because this time three years ago my family and I were on month three of a four-month church planting project in Reykjavik. It’s a great city and we loved our time there. Our family and our church have had a tremendous desire to see the gospel spread there since we learned spiritual condition of the country. Our work there has gone well and we are hoping that having the Garman’s there full time will give the project some real traction. While Ruthe and I travel Jennifer and our boys is in the sunshine state visiting her solder brother who recently returned safely from the war in Iraq.

I’m not use to traveling with children when Jennifer is not with me. I have already broken several of the cardinal house rules. Ruthe’s hair went without being brushed for about 36+ hours (if you have never seen Ruthe’s hair you cannot possibly understand why that is so bad), we left the house for our December trip for “Ice” land with only a pair of church sandals – oops. We had donuts for dinner last night at 9:30pm, then cheese-its for breakfast this morning. Ruthe’s not supposed to drink anything after 7pm but she was downing a Sunkist at 11:00pm. But… she’s still alive and having a grand time.

I plan to post our adventures throughout the week. If you are in town this weekend Pillar Church will be continuing the Man of the House series with Pastor Naethan Hendrix teaching “A Man Guides Patiently” and at Lakeside Pastor Bryan Scott will be continuing our series in Galatians.

CWAC Makes Headlines

This week two articles came out about CWAC. The first came out in OC Magazine you can read the text from the article HERE. The second came out today on the front page of the Region Section of the Free Lance Star and Fredericksburg.com. The articles are mostly accurate and very positive about what we are up to with CWAC. Please read them over and remember that we are short on funds and short on volunteers. If you can give to CWAC please visit our donation site at www.thelakeside100.com.

Our good friend Kevin Dowker is also working on a new website for CWAC… Click the little image for a quick look at it.

CWAC Pics & Progress Update

Well.. tomorrow will be two weeks since CWAC opened it’s doors. Business has been decent especially considering that we have done virtually no advertising yet. The past two Sunday evenings we have held community worship services and those are also going well. Here are a few shots from the shop for those of you who have not yet been able to stop by. For all of you coffee lovers, one of the CWAC team members, Kevin Dowker, has put together the CWAC Coffee Club. If you join the coffee club ($10+S&H per month/per LB) you will be shipped CWAC coffee each month. If you are interested you can download the form HERE and fax it to 540-720-9070, or email it to kdowker@gmail.com or mail it to CWAC 32345 Constitution Hwy Suite C Locust Grove VA 22508.

See More CWAC photos HERE

Man of House Resources

Below are a few resources for husband’s and dads who are hoping to do a better job at spiritual leadership in the home. The first two are from Resurgence. Happy learning!

Pastor Dad Book - Print and Read

Family Guide for Dinner Study - 1 Peter pages 68-186

Circle of Man Worksheet

Family as Flock

In preparation for our upcoming sermons series “Man of the House” I have been thinking about the pastoral nature of the husband’s role in the home… The church almost never teaches on this subject and many varieties of Christian men exist within our churches. I have made a list of 50 christian men I have known from childhood to present (myself included). I dropped each of them into one of four categories that best described them.

• The Slug – is an easy going guy who doesn’t generally rock the boat. He doesn’t lead his family but is content to be led by his family. He has realized that following is far easier than leading so he lays low and hopes for the best. He is sometimes considered a good father/husband by others because he is involved in a lot of activities with his family. The passive man is found in both lazy and hard working versions. His wife tends to be the disciplinarian, the bookkeeper and the pacesetter on spiritual matters. On occasion he attempts to lead but surrenders quickly in exchange for peace.
• The Bear - throws his weight around in the house. His wife wonders if she is  his helper or his servant. The bear spends a lot of time at work and tends to keep every professional commitment while often sacrificing family commitments. His time away from work is dedicated to hobbies and media. When questioned, the bear generally responds with anger. He rarely says “thank you” or “I Love You”. The bear sees himself as a spiritual leader because he makes sure that his family is involved in spiritual activities such as church and mealtime prayers yet his family rarely observes any authentic spiritual devotion.
• The Ant – his good deeds and religious piety monopolize his life leaving no room for his ministry in the home. He cannot devote mental or physical energy to his wife and children without believing that he is robbing it from God. The ant is sure to make significant progress in his ministry but will achieve it at the cost of his family.
• The Dog – is able to be both strong and loving. He can lead the family and love the family. His spiritual devotion is interwoven with his devotion to his wife and children. He sacrifices himself in order to provide for them and protect them. He is chiefly concerned about how his actions will effect the spiritual climate of his household. He sees his wife and children as a flock that he is to shepherd and protect and lead. He embraces his role as a leader without lording over his family.  The dog sets the pace on matters of faith and direction yet is always a servant to them.

No.. I will not put the list of men in this blog… nor will I share the details of my observation… What I will say is that more than 1/2 of the Christian men I know best from childhood until present are not the spiritual leaders of their home that they should be. Here is how my little subjective experiment shook out:

• Slugs – 12
• Bears – 6
• Ants – 9
• Dogs – 22

So Christian men…. take a few minutes and place yourself in the category that best describes you.

Isn’t She lovley?

Here are a few excerpts from emails I have received this week that really excite me about what God is stirring at Pillar…

“I enjoyed bible study last week, I took to heart what you said and have changed the way I pray.”

“The response I received today from the church just proves that God is at work in their [members at pillar] lives and they have a desire to see Christ preached to the lost.  I don’t believe I have ever come across a church that has a desire for God’s Word, personal discipleship, and evangelism the way Pillar does.  My family and I feel very honored to be apart of all that’s going here.”

“I like to think of myself as spiritual and through prayer I realized that it was a church that I was missing.  I’ve been searching for about a year for a church that has everything I’m looking for and was about to give up hope until the day I attended Pillar.  All this time and it was right under my nose!  I really like what I’ve seen and heard from my daughters Sunday School lessons to the message taught each week to the incredibly warm fellowship that I’ve witnessed.”

“Thank You for bringing Coffee with a Cause to Locust Grove! Quite honestly being in the coffee “house” is like a little piece of heaven…sipping strong coffee, listening to PER, greeted by friendly Christians…it doesn’t get much better than this. I already feel like it is a place I can go when I need to seek physical and spiritual refuge and remind myself that God is the bottom line of EVERYTHING! Thank You and God bless all of you and the new church! YAY!”

New Series @ Pillar

This Sunday @ Pillar we begin a new series called, Man of the Hosue. I’ll be preaching to men for the next 5 weeks. We are exploring the importance for Christian men to embrace their God given role of spiritual headship in the home. We are asking the men of our church to do five things during the course of the series.

• Mealtime devotions with family
• Attend a Saturday morning accountability breakfast.
• Read booklet, “Pastor Dad” by Mark Driscoll
• Pray daily with kids & spouse.
• Serve communion to families on Sunday morning.

The Land of Fire & Ice

I’m getting ready to drop in on the Garmans for a few days  to catch up on the ministry in Iceland we started back in 2006. The Garman family is serving faithfully there and I am hoping to learn a little about loving Jesus by spending a few days with some real missionaries. This trip is going to be extra special because I have the privileged of traveling with my favorite 5 year old, Ruthe. Ruthe was 3 when we lived in Iceland and remembers very little of our time there but has agreed to accompany me on the trip in order to give the Garman girls a few days of love. If the technical gods are with us the Garmans will be joining Pillar Church (Via Satellite) this Sunday morning… so be there or be square. Please pray for the Garmans and the people of Iceland. The winter months are historically a difficult time for Icelanders with nearly 24 hrs of darkness and frigid temperatures. This year should be especially depressing given the collapse of the Icelandic economy earlier this year. You can read about the Garman’s and there adventures in Reykjavik HERE. If you love the Garman’s and want to send something with me make their winter a bit warmer please feel free to contact me sometime between now and thanksgiving or use the comments section of this post to write them a message.

Normalcy

About 3 months ago my life got very crowed. Jennifer learned she was having some pregnancy complications and was placed on bed rest, our church decided to partner with one of our church plants to open a coffee shop, I began an internship with the illustrious Mark Dever… add that to the fact that summer is the busiest time of year for our church and we found ourselves right in the middle the perfect storm of chaos.

This week it feels as if some glimpse of Normalcy has returned… the baby is healthy, the coffee shop is finished, the internship is going fine and church has settled a bit. So… I return, like an ashamed child to the blogosphere… all  my normal readers have written me off … I get it… but here I go again. Proving just how dirty Clint is.

I will beging with a pictorial introduction of two new births… Coffee With A Cause and Moses Owen Clifton.