Sometimes we need to do less.

Pastor Shack begins his medical leave tomorrow October 1st. He will be gone for 6 months. Pastor Jim needs a chance to heal. This was not a sudden event but this is was the effects of a number of issues that have built up over time.

This got me to think about my own health. I recently worked 30 days straight. I also work outside the church. So even on the days that I was "only" at the church for a meeting I was likely working. On top of this I still own my old house and need to maintain this house in addition to our house. So I do not often get time for exercise. Or even time to just be quiet and listen to God. Even Sunday mornings can be busy enough to keep me from being able to worship God.

So during this time I decided that I needed to take time for myself and take care of myself. A couple of weeks ago after an all day church meeting, I finally got back on my bike. On my bike I can talk with God. I can give my body a workout and rest my mind at the same time. I am trying to do this on a regular basis.

Jesus tells us the Sabbath was made for man. God wants us to rest each week. I hope you are taking time to rest.

I hope you will join me in prayer for Pastor Jim's healing.

In Peace,


Dan Johnson
Youth Director.

Less is More?

On Saturday September 18th, the results of a years worth of work by the Strategic planning team and it's sub groups, was presented to a wider audience. The results of this work was well received. I am excited by what the future holds for Holy Cross.

The biggest change coming out of this work is the idea that Less is More. We need to be focused on who we are and what we do best. We need to stop trying to do everything and focus on what we do well. But do it better.

Part of the plan that was presented was a missional map to help move people through the process of being involved at Holy Cross. But the idea of being intentional in moving people to the next step in the map.

An implementation team was established and will begin the important task of moving us forward in a focused intentional direction.

I will write more later.

In Peace

Dan Johnson

Choices

In middle school I had a Science teacher that gave us choices in making decision in his classroom. One choice I will always remember is the choice of pen color. We could use any color of pen we wanted as long as it was Blue or Black. Simple choice. I almost always had one of those colors. Sometimes life can get complicated. The last few months since we returned from the mission trip have been rather busy and sometimes I struggled with what to deal with next. And sometimes when we have 2 many choices we end up not making a choice. Research as show if we are offered to many choices it is often easier to chose to not chose.

Is our faith life like that? Do we have to many things pulling for our time? Do you sometimes just feel like giving up and just turning on the TV? I like some TV shows and I am thankful that I have a DVR and can watch an hour long show in 40 minutes. But sometimes I get caught up in channel surfing and forget to take time in my life for Christ.

During our week at Pine Ridge reservation we truly focused on LESS us and More God. Each morning we had a 45 minute devotion. Think about it 45 minutes each day to spend in quiet time reflecting on God. Talking to God. Listening to God. Each evening we again had time with God. This was in a group setting with song and a lesson. Again this time lasted about an hour. So each day we had almost 2 hours of direct time with Jesus.

When we got back home the normal pulls of life spring back and are in our face each day. Instead of 45 minutes with Christ in the morning we are running out the door to our next appointment. Worship at night????? Really but I have this meeting, or this ball game, the grass needs to be cut, hey my favorite show is on tonight. We all have excuses. But isn't it really about our needs and wants and not God's needs? I know the grass needs to be cut and I know it is important to the boys that I am at their game. But, shouldn't time with Jesus be put aside each day?

Sometimes I wish my choices were reduced to 2. Any color you want as long as it is Blue or Black. Anything you want to do, as long as it honors God.

More God. Less World.

We are back.

After a much to long delay the Blog is back. I promise this time we will update the blog on a weekly basis. With the possible exception of a mission trip week. Otherwise I will be updating this space weekly. Please feel free to give feedback, comments both positive and negative are wanted.

This past summer 11 of our youth headed out to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Three brave adults led the way. We had been preparing for months to be able to give our best to God and the community we went to serve. Perhaps you have heard some of the stories about Pine Ridge. We had. We had guest speakers come and talk with us prior to going. We had watch videos about Pine Ridge. We were prepared. Or so we thought.

What we got was very much what we expected in some ways yet completely different in other ways. Some of the people were very quiet and withdrawn. Others were quite willing to talk. Some houses we saw were in very rough shape. Yet we spent our time working on houses that while needing repair were not in truly bad shape. It was a week of contrasts.

The contrasts helped us to focus on our theme of the week. More or Less. More God and Less world. All we long we focused on how we can have more God in our lives. This more or less theme got me thinking about how we could make a difference in the world at Holy Cross if we had More God and Less distractions.

Next week I will write more about More or Less.