Serve by Design

These days, I am mourning the loss of another good friend, Pastor Joel Newton, who passed this week. The older I get, this is happening more frequently! Joel and I have known each other for more than thirty years. We met at a Bible conference that our church hosted just a few months after I returned to Illinois in the early nineties. I was immediately blessed by his quiet, approachable, and Southern gentleman temperament. He was raised in Alabama and loved to support his favorite team! “Roll Tide!” Joel and Cheryl's Retirement Celebration Joel would later be called to pastor one of our strongest churches in Peoria. He and I continued to make time for frequent lunch meetings at our half-way point in Lincoln. I considered our friendship to be a peer mentoring relationship although I think he regarded his older pastor-brother in Christ as “seasoned” enough to offer occasional mentoring suggestions. We formalized this relationship during the season when Joel undertook graduate studies ...

We woke up to a surprise this morning in Sherman! Nearly three inches of snow covered the trees, grass and outdoor patio furniture! It's not supposed to snow in early November, but it did... again! Twenty-seven years ago the first of November, our family returned to Illinois after living in Texas for fifteen years. It was my calling to a new church field that brought us to Illinois after seminary and service in two good Baptist churches. Since three of the family members had been born on Texas soil and were thereby, and forever more, true blue Texans, we were technically only moving three back. Over those years in the Lone Star State, we never brought up the matter that our oldest was born in the Land of Lincoln. He was only thirteen months old when we took him to Texas and now, as a fifteen year-old, it could be expected that he was not altogether happy about our return.  By this time in adolescence, his whole identity was Texan and no one could persuade him otherwise! "...