School has started, so that means that we are getting adjusted to the 10 month calendar for the school year. This is the second year Judy has worked full-time outside of the home. We are still adjusting to this routine.

I was reminded, yet again, of that adjustment this week. We are preparing to host Chris Smith, from Nashville, Tennessee, who will lead us in a Marriage Enrichment Seminar Friday night, September 11, and Saturday morning, September 12. Chris is an excellent speaker, and very humorous, and I know he will do a marvelous job. However, Judy will not be able to make it to the Saturday morning session because of a teacher training session with her school.

Time was when Judy and I made an effort to attend every marriage enrichment seminar we could. That will not be possible next weekend because of her schedule. One more thing that is different.

I know most of you reading this have been experiencing this kind of reality for years in your marriage. I respect you for the fact that you have been able to do this for some years. The change of routine continually challenges me. I noticed the other day that every time I am at home, I try to put a load of laundry in the washer or dryer.

For Judy, I think it has been even more difficult. For years, she placed most of her concentration on our children and their needs. Now, by necessity, she is transitioning to place an increasing amount of concentration on her children in school.

I am sure that in many ways this is healthy. I am sure this process helps facilitate our children maturing and growing up. After all, each year they need to learn more and more about making their own decisions and being ready for that inevitable day when they will leave home. Still, I know this goes against some of Judy's natural emotions and temperament.

I appreciate Judy being willing to teach. We have kids going to college soon. Moreover, Judy has a gift for ministry in the public schools.

For Judy and me, spending time together requires more negotiation and planning. Life is never static; it is dynamic and changing. For almost 20 years, a family constant was having Judy at home most of the time. For the next 20 years (or longer), both Judy and I will be working full time outside of the home. Inevitably, the day will come when we will no longer be able to work full-time outside the home. That will bring yet another stage into our lives.

That is another sermon for another day.

Labor Day

In honor of Labor Day, let me tell you about something that happened to me last December. I noticed my transmission was having trouble in my Suburban, and I was very concerned. After all, I knew Haleigh was going to be turning 16 in a few months and I needed to get it fixed so I could give the Suburban to Haleigh.

Of course, Haleigh now tells me that if I give her the Suburban, the first thing she will do will be drive it over a cliff. Everybody's getting ashamed to ride inside the Suburban. Judy loathes to take it anywhere. Just the other day, I had to take our dog, Jack, to the vet, and he would not even get into the Suburban. If your dog even is too proud to ride in a vehicle, you have got problems.

But all that was in the future. My problem last December was my transmission. Now, I had taken that same Suburban to a man back in 2007. He replaced the entire transmission. However, the warranty was only for one year. It had been more than a year, so the warranty had expired.

Nevertheless, I trusted this man and I went back to see him. I left him the Suburban, and a little while later, I got a call back from him. He told me he had to do some major work. He did not need to replace the entire transmission, but he needed to do some major work. Just from the description, I knew this was going to cost several hundred dollars –maybe even over a $1000.

I was disappointed to hear the news, but I was not surprised. I told him, "I know that the warranty has expired, so how much do you estimate you will need to charge me?"

He said, "I know that the warranty has expired, but I feel bad for what has happened. I have no idea why this happened. But it should not have happened. I take pride in my work, and I want to make this right. So I'm not going charge you anything."

Now I felt bad. I tried to talk him out of this, but he would not consider otherwise. I went to a mutual friend who was a mechanic and asked him what I should do. In no way was he surprised by the attitude of the transmission specialist. Still, he also said that it was Christmas time, he knew this guy had a family, and that he should not spend the amount of time that the repairs would require without compensation.

Graciously, our mutual friend agreed to talk to the transmission specialist. Finally, a compromise was struck. The amount the man was willing to receive was still minimal; nonetheless, I felt better.

I told this story to our worship ministry team Wednesday night. They unanimously asked, “What is this guy’s name? We may need transmission work done sometime, this is the guy we want to go to.”

Over and over in Scripture, you hear Paul saying words like this, "23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col. 3:23-24.) Your work is an offering to God. Nothing has the opportunity to change the world like your work done well.

By the way, the name of the man who fixed my transmission? Jimmy Hayes of HAYES AUTOMOTIVE.

QUALIFICATIONS OF ELDERS

Last week, I posted for you the quiz that I gave my church. I asked that you place an “x” beside the “qualification” if it appears in Paul’s letter to Timothy, Paul’s letter to Titus, or in both. I promised the answers to the quiz, and here they are:

Did you notice the lists are not the same? Theoretically, a man could be “qualified” to serve as an elder in Crete, and be “qualified” in Ephesus, or vice versa. What we have done in the 20th century is combine these two lists into one super list, and then we have codified this super list.

A couple of Sundays ago, I had a little fun with my church concerning this subject. We took a little quiz entitled, “Is It on the List?” Here were the rules: we were to identify the qualities that were on the combined list that Paul wrote to either Crete or Ephesus. See how you do:





The correct answer is all of the above were on the list –except for “loving,” “patient,” “kind,” and “joyful.” Here is the interesting twist. Love, patience, kindness, and joy are part of a list. The list is that of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit.

For years, I was part of churches, including those in Argentina that I helped lead, that held up the "super list" of qualifications elders should have; however some of the Fruit of the Spirit of were not on that list.

Do we want elders to have the Fruit of the Spirit? I would hope the answer would be “yes.” The problem is, if we have institutionalized this super list of qualifications, we may have overlooked the portions of the Fruit of the Spirit that do not overlap with the qualifications of the super list.

Now, you may be thinking, "Mark, don't you think the Fruit of the Spirit is a given?"

Maybe it should be. But I can tell you this, it was not in Argentina. Nor was it in any church that I had been a part of. I never remember church members asking the question, "Does this man demonstrate that he possesses the qualities of the Fruit of the Spirit."

Maybe the problem for us in Argentina, maybe my problem, was that I was looking so closely at the super list, it became the sole focal point of evaluation.

Frankly, I am sad to say, I have seen churches debate whether or not an elder whose wife died should resign (since he was no longer being the "husband of one wife"), but members never debated over an elder who was impatient.

I have seen churches debate whether or not men whose children had left the faith during their adult years could serve as elders; however, they did not debate whether or not a man whose spirit was the antithesis of joyful should serve as an Elder.

Now, hear me out. I am not issuing a call for lowering the bar when it comes to selecting elders. On the contrary, perhaps we should remember the high calling that the eldership has.

By now, I hope you have sensed the tension that exists when it comes to leadership in the kingdom of God. Churches typically lack pastoral leadership. There is a high need for additional shepherds. Nevertheless, scripture ordains the eldership to be a high calling. This calling does not come with a legalistic checklist of qualifications; on the other hand, the list of qualities that Scripture indicates are important for the eldership extend past the list of qualities found in I Timothy and Titus.

Another important topic is the possession of the Fruit of the Spirit. Should not the question of whether or not elder candidates have these qualities be a consideration?

Finally, you have the humanity of the individual elder candidates. These are fallen men. Reconciling these tensions proves a daunting task in the elder selection process.

Finally, you have the humanity of the individual elder candidates. These are fallen men. Reconciling these tensions proves a daunting task in the elder selection process.

I constantly find myself evaluating and listening to other voices. Just today, I was talking to a sister who helped me see that “Able to Teach” (I Tim. 3:2) and “Holds firmly to a trustworthy message (literally ‘teaching’)” (Tit. 1:9) are referring to the same concept—leadership to assure sound teaching in the church. So I placed them in the category of those qualities that appear to both churches of Crete and Ephesus.

Yes, a tension will always be present. I will discuss this more next week.

Five things I think I think (a tip of the hat to Peter King for this idea)

1. I saw this week that Charles Gibson is retiring from ABC News at the end of the year. I grew up watching him on Good Morning America; okay, I was 27 when he started on that program. Still, I watched him for a lot of years on GMA. By the time he began doing World News Tonight, I had pretty much done away with watching the evening news on TV. The internet was simply too accessible to instant news. Still, it was comforting knowing that Charles was always going to be there if I wanted to watch him. If Walter Cronkite was a teddy bear providing security, Charles Gibson was an old shoe—a reliable, comfortable presence. Don’t tell him I said that.

2. Skimmed Craig Nelson’s book ROCKET MEN. Nelson tells the story of the Apollo 11 crew and their mission to the moon. I want to read it more slowly in the future. For now, here’s the most amazing item from the book. The Saturn V rocket had over 6 million parts. NASA maintained rigorous standards of inspection to insure that 99.9 percent of all parts were reliable. In spite of this high standard of excellence, NASA could meet its goal and still have 6000 parts fail. What incredible risk and courage these astronauts and NASA demonstrated.

3. During my morning quiet times, I am reading EAT THIS BOOK by Eugene Peterson. I came across a convicting passage this morning. Peterson warns us to beware of the individualized personal Trinity—my Holy Wants, my Holy Needs, and my Holy Feelings. This Trinity slowly breaks down our spiritual growth and ultimately could lead to disaster.

4. The ETCA Varsity Girls’ volleyball team is 13-0. Today they began a challenging tournament with teams from public schools who are, in some cases, larger schools. This will be a good test for ETCA. They won all three matches today. Your’s truly has a daughter and some students who play on this team. Blessings on the girls.

5. I’m sorry I will miss the Oklahoma State/Georgia game tomorrow. I hope Ok. State wins.