8 Mistakes in the First 6 Months of Planting

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If you want an anecdotal look back at my memorization history (such as it is) check out Part 1.

So, I have been blessed by a number of situations where I have heard lots of very good ideas to help memorize Scripture.   First, I would like to say that one size does not fit all.  Everyone’s mind works differently, so I can’t guarantee results with what I have done.  You need to find your own way along this path, but researching what others have done does give you good ideas to try and see which will be best for you.

A couple of years ago, I sat in on a nice little seminar taught by my church’s worship pastor, Jason Strain.  He taught a session on Scripture memorization, and highlighted a number of ideas, including mnemonic devices, acronyms, and song.  I like song: it does work.  He even got into producing entire songs for our church to help memorize Scripture.  You can download them for free on the church website if you like.   The only downside I found with them was while I learned the verse very quickly, I didn’t learn the reference point or the verse number – so while it was now in my head, I couldn’t reference it for others.  Saying to someone, “It says somewhere in the Bible, ‘Salvation is found in no one else, and there is no other name under heaven, given to man by which we must be saved,” doesn’t have nearly the same impact as saying, “It says in Acts 4:12, ‘Salvation is found in no one else…” See what I mean?  Still, it’s better than no memorizing!

More recently, I was at our church’s “Discover Hope Lunch” where we introduce new attenders to our church and help them take the next step towards membership.  At the end of the lunch, I was sitting around talking to a couple of nice ladies and one of them took out a little business card wallet.  It was filled with Scripture verses printed onto business card paper.  She said she carried it everywhere she went and used it all the time.  What a neat little idea!  The next day I scoured three different Dollar Stores for such a wallet, and then went and bought some business card paper to print on.  I put together a dozen verses on “Scripture” and “God” and put them into the wallet.  What I have been doing is taking that wallet to work, flipping open a verse and sitting it on my desk right in front of my monitor.  This keeps the verse in my vision all day long, and it’s been working very well so far.  This week I have memorized 2 Tim 3:16, Psalm 119:105,  and Psalm 19:1.  Today my goal is to do two: Romans 1:19 and John 20:28.

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I wanted to write a little about memorization.  Interesting trivia fact: the first piece of Scripture I memorized was NOT John 3:16!  Growing up in a home that didn’t put a high priority on God, it simply didn’t come up much.  In fact, my first memorized section of the Bible is also the longest I have ever memorized – and it came courtesy of Charles M. Schulz.

Yes, that’s right.  The creator of Peanuts.

He was actually a devout Christian, I have heard.  Whether or not that’s true, in his Christmas special, “It’s a Charlie Brown Christmas”, the question of the true meaning of Christmas comes up, and Linus, Lucy’s little brother recites Luke 2:8-14.  From the King James.  I watched that show so many times, that passage sank into my heart, and remains at the tip of my tongue.  It is a very poetic passage, recounting the angels announcing to the shepherds the arrival of the Messiah as an infant, and where he could be found.  Oh, to be a shepherd that night!  That would have been amazing!  Here it is, from memory:

And there were in the same country, shepherds – abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night, and lo – the angel of the Lord came upon them.  And the glory of the Lord shone ’round about them. And they were sore afraid, but the angel said unto them, “Fear not!  For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the City of David, a saviour: which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you: ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a heavenly host praising God, and saying: “Glory to God in the Highest!  And on earth, peace, good will towards men!”

I wonder how many other children have this passage riding in their hearts as a result of Mr. Schulz’s little animated special which has become a Christmas institution for so many North Americans.  The takeaway idea here is that when you are engaged emotionally and you are experiencing something on a number of levels, there is much more of your brain working on committing something to memory.  When I experienced Scripture in the context of a story, presented by a character of interest, and I heard it repeatedly voluntarily, all these things allowed me to commit to memory a big chunk of text effortlessly.

Next up: what’s working for me to memorize!

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I am very excited.  This is the opportunity I have been praying for, that God would give me a chance to experience full-time ministry before we actually leave to plant.  I had been wondering how God would provide for me the necessary experience to manage what we plan to do – the door was opened with the arrival of the Twins.  It took me 2 months to realize that the door was open (twins are rather diverting).  Then, we had to look at the financial realities of whether we could do it – it is still going to be very tight, but we believe in fath that God will provide what we need to complete home repairs and prepare to move to Medicine Hat.

The remainder of October will be challenging with many distractions.  I am starting to prepare my outreach ministry this month.  Our community group needs to sit down and figure out a covenant.  Cheryl is helping me to begin a program of memorization for Licensure.  We have our church planting assessment at the end of the month.  I have to prepare a mini-sermon that is supposed ot introduce the new church plant for that assessment process.  And I need to finish well at work.  Please pray for all these things.

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And as for us?  Beyond what’s in the newsletter?  Heh.  It’s going to be a very busy fall, winter, spring, summer, … I was just mowing the front lawn and thinking to myself, “What an awesome privelege to be risking my entire family for God!”  It is sickening, yet thrilling trusting him with my livelihood, my family, and moving away from all of the familiar, to bring him Glory and build a new church.  One second I can’t believe what I have purposed to do, it is beyond insane, but it occurred to me that will be my testimony to my workmates, who I have prayed for … for years now.  I will be able to say to a couple of good friends who are atheists, “Would you risk your entire family, your money, your home, your family for your belief that God isn’t real? Because I am staking everything on my faith that he is, and that he loves me and will keep us all in his hand.  If you wouldn’t risk, you might want to consider Christ, seriously.”

It would be nice to just do my job, come home, coach my kids’ soccer team, play a game on my computer, and love my wife.  It would be peaceful, and restful and safe.  It would be a good life.  But what is this short life here on earth anyway?  A few moments in eternity?  I’ll rest when I am with him in heaven.

Don’t ask me where that came from.  Maybe it’s simply my rationale for putting way too much on my plate and then trying to cram it all in at once.

Or maybe God’s going to help me finish it off.

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I think back on the Yard Teams I led in June, and how one of the last homes we approached was a couple’s home – they were renting and the landlord had just a couple days before advised them that if they didn’t immediately clean up the yard they would be evicted.

They had a lawnmower, but it was broken, and both of them were working so they had not had time to deal with the problem.

Then we showed up.

Flash forward to yesterday. I am going out by myself, to canvas about 8 square blocks of North Delta to line up some yards for my team, rained out last weekend, to serve. After getting a lot of no answers (whether they were home or not I may never know) and a few “no” answers, I was wondering if I would be able to line up enough homes for the teams. I had already caught myself trying to do this on my own strength – the first house I went up to I sounded (to my own ears) like a blithering idiot and was not at all surprised they turned me down. I then spent the next hundred feet or so walking to the next house praying about Moses. See, I remember from Phil’s Exodus series (check out gethope.ca to listen to it) that when God spoke to Moses out ofthe burning bush, he wanted Moses to go alone to Pharoah. Moses felt that he had a speech problem and couldn’t communicate effectively as God’s messenger – not realizing that when the Lord of the Universe says “do it” he is going to make sure it goes the way he wants it! When God allowed Aaron to accompany Moses, it was a concession, but God’s desire was that Moses would allow his God to be his strength.

So, my conclusion was that God wanted me to go in my own strength, and allow him to speak through me. So I prayed that God would give me the words even though I knew in my own words I would screw it up.

Of course the next house said yes.

Ok, done with that prayer digression.

Back on topic. Divine appointments. So I go up the block and go out to the main road, 112th. I find a house halfway down that looks a little shaggy so I knock. This time I have been praying. I was worried about how I would present, and how I would overcome objections – all the typical sales stuff. Then this older East Indian lady opens the door and just says yes. I am like, that was too easy.

We come back an hour later and her husband comes out, with a friend of his. His friend is a Christian, from Edmonton, who goes to a church called “New Hope Community Church” – almost the same name as ours. They tell me the story – the couple had just moved to this house a few weeks before. Their old house had a landlord who took care of the yard. They had no equipment at all, and had only been in Canada for 5 years so this whole yard thing was completely new to them. He asked me for advice on what kind of lawnmower to buy. We got to talking some more and he had been to church while in school in Bombay. He was very interested in why we were doing this. I shared with him that Jesus had done so much for me in my life, I felt it was important to show my love for him by serving and loving the people that Jesus loves. What an opportunity! They asked me for more information on where and when we met as a church and said they would be out to church on Sunday! What an amazing time!

You just gotta do it. God takes care of the rest.

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I was driving down the road the other day and thought about how long I have lived in the area and how these roads are all so familiar to me. When we move, not a single road will be familiar. Everything will be foreign to me. I will be very turned around and lost for weeks!!  I’m used to giving directions, not receiving them.

That’s the whole point though isn’t it? Receiving direction rather than giving it. I won’t be in the driver’s seat (not that I have been but I do direct people at times). I will have to rely completely on God and his plan rather than my own agenda. He’ll direct where we’ll live. He’ll be directing us to places to build relationships with people in the community. He will help me find my way around town, or at least give me the courage to ask someone for directions when I get lost. I won’t be giving directions because I will be too busy receiving them. I will have to rely on him as I navigate this new life.

There have been many times when I have been completely overwhelmed by the idea of planting a church in Medicine Hat but every time when I realize that I am trying to think about parts of the church plant that I haven’t received direction on yet, I calm down. There are things I need to take care of now and I need to trust God to reveal what He needs done at the right time. It doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be thinking about them as it is important to be aware of different concerns that might pop up, but there isn’t a need to stress over them. It will be challenging for me as I am the type of person who looks at the big picture and likes to make sure everything is in order so I can check everything off one item at a time. I don’t like only having part of a map revealed and having to wait for other sections to appear as I go along on my journey. I am being stretched and challenged in this area and it is a good thing. It means I am not in control and I’d probably mess something up if I was.

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We had to do a little promotion at church to get our team together. Cheryl and I built this nifty little video to run during announcements on Sunday morning. I thought you might enjoy it.

Our first day was Wednesday, and it went well. We served three houses with one team in 2.5 hours, which doesn’t sound like a lot but the people we worked for were very grateful. The first lady, her name was Fatma, and she was a Muslim woman, was extremely grateful and called the next day to thank me and the team again for our service. We may go back to visit again on Saturday to help with a bit of her backyard too.

Another young woman later that night tried to offer us money for our work. I actually half wonder if this sense of expectation of a “catch” is what held back so many people from saying yes to us. We just told her we are doing this as a service to the community, to show Christ’s love. In retrospect, I thought more about it and in the future I will offer this analogy – when someone gives you a hug, you don’t feel obligated to pay, right? Think of it as a hug for your yard.

Now, coming up on Saturday which will be our second service day, the skies are clear right now. But it is forecast to rain tomorrow. Pray that we get a window of dry weather, otherwise we could be challenged tomorrow. And also pray for our park ministries that are running this week, that we would bear fruit in our community!

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