jeffslater.net
Archive for August, 2006
Back from Bristol!
Aug 28th
We had a great time at the races in Bristol, Tennessee. Patrick Mead was right — there were “men driving billboards, turning left constantly…. large quantities of beer, mullets and tube tops…” (actually, we didn’t consume large quantities of beer and I only wore my tube top once).
The Busch race on Friday night was really good (too many wrecks, but an exciting finish). The Nextel Cup race on Saturday night was OK (it also had an exciting finish). But it seemed like too many drivers were just playing it safe, trying to get into the ten race playoff (The Chase for the Cup) instead of going for the win.
But overall, it was a good time with friends. We had great neighbors at the campground (Mike and Al), we ate some good food, and we got to see some genuine, in-the-flesh rednecks. And no, we did not attend (or participate in) the wet t-shirt contest at the campground.
More to come — including pictures of me in my tube top!
Let’s Go Racin!
Aug 23rd
We’re off to Bristol, Tennessee for the NASCAR Nextel Cup race this weekend. I will give a full report when we return.
Here are some pictures from our Bristol experience a few years ago. The first one is my friends and me in Victory Lane (that’s Dr. Jerry Punch in the black shirt — far right side of the picture). The second one is me standing in front of Jeff Gordon’s pit (he won that year by bumping Rusty Wallace out of the way with one lap to go — it was sweet). The third one is my friends and me standing on the actual track. We didn’t have pit passes that year. We went with a group to tour victory lane, and when the tour was over, we just wandered away and walked all around the pits and on the track. We talked to crew members, and got up-close to several cars. We walked right past Mike Helton. We probably wandered around for over an hour before someone noticed we didn’t have pit passes and asked us to leave.
If you watch the race on Saturday night, look for me. I’ll be wearing a hat.
Pew Warmers
Aug 17th
Not long ago, I wrote about “Safe and Comfortable Christianity” (read the post Here). I conlcuded that piece by stating: “There are many spiritual gifts listed in Scripture – many ways in which you can be involved in the work of Jesus in this world. Being a Pew Warmer is not one of them.”
I want to revisit that, because it is apparent that this is more of a problem than I had thought. I’ve seen it in every church I’ve worked with in my 12+ years of full-time ministry — people who are content to sit back and let about 20% of the congregation do almost all of the work. People who are quick to complain about the church, but not so quick to do anything to make it better.
The problem recently hit me right between the eyes. My wife serves on the Education Committee at our church, and they are currently getting things ready for the fall quarter. This means lining up teachers for the children’s classes, and they are having a difficult time finding some people who are willing to teach (other than the few who teach constantly and are in danger of getting burned-out). We have a congregation that has an average Sunday morning attendance of about 240. And we can’t seem to find a handful of folks willing to teach our kids. That is just disgraceful. Oh, we hear lots of excuses and lots of explanations. I could understand if someone was already involved in ministry, but most of the people giving excuses are not involved. They are just Pew Warmers.
To be completely honest with you….. I wish they would go warm someone else’s pew. Because not only do they refuse to get involved in ministry, but they are usually the first ones to complain when something happens that they don’t like, or when they think the church (or the elders, or the ministers) is not doing what they think it should be doing.
My wife is about as frustrated as she can be. She is over-involved (almost to the point of burn-out). She teaches children’s classes, volunteers in the nursery, coordinates Wednesday night fellowship meals in the summer, heads-up our Wonderful Wednesday program, does bulletin boards, and serves on the Education Committee. And when she goes to ask someone to teach a children’s class for one quarter, she gets responses like, “Nah.” Or, “I’m too busy.” How we long to have folks come up to us and say, “What can I do to serve? What can I do to help? How can I contribute? How can I serve?”
If any of you who are wiser and more experienced have suggestions and/or solutions to this problem, I would love to hear them.
To any members of our congregation who may be reading this — please don’t come to me and complain about our church, our leaders, our ministries, etc. — unless you’re also planning to get involved and work positively to make things better. If you’re just coming to complain, I don’t want to hear it. You’re wasting my time.
New Seger!
Aug 10th
The first new Bob Seger CD in ten years will be released September 12th! You can already pre-order it at Amazon.com. Here’s the LINK. The first single, “Wait For Me” can be purchased at iTunes, and it is well worth 99 cents. Go out and get it. It reminds me of “Against The Wind.” Now, if we only get Mr. Seger to put the rest of his library on iTunes!
From everything I’ve heard, the new CD should be great. He does a song with Kid Rock (“Real Mean Bottle”) and a song with Patty Loveless (“The Answer’s In The Question”).
All Seger fans are holding their breath, hoping that he will tour.
Back from Camp
Aug 9th
Well, my first year as a director for a week of camp at NWOCYC was a success. We had 36 campers, which is a low number, but normal for a first-time director. And I was thankful for the low number — it made my first year that much easier.
We had a great group of campers. My week was an all-ages week, so we had kids from 8 all the way to 16. For the most part, they did what was asked of them, and didn’t give us any big problems. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were terribly hot. The heat index was in the 100’s all three days (those of you in the south probably think that’s no big deal, but it is here in north-central Ohio). So we did a lot of stuff in the pool. One of the best things we did was to play rugby in the pool with a greased watermelon. The kids (and staff) loved that game! We had 4 baptisms during the week, the last one at 11:45 p.m. on Friday night.
I had a great staff, many of whom were experienced camp workers. That helped A LOT! The week would not have gone as well as it did without them. It is true that an effective leader is the one who surrounds himself with good, knowledgable, experienced people. Two of our staff members put together an incredible DVD of the week. We showed it to the campers late on Friday night, and they absolutely loved it. We also gave each of them a copy to take home. If I can figure out a way to post it on-line, I’ll let you know.
But my best, most helpful, and hardest working staff member was my wife, Jill. She served as a counselor and teacher. She helped out with activities, with clean-up and in the kitchen. She let me know when I was messing up, or needed to handle a situation. She knew what needed to be done, and made sure that it got done. I don’t know what I would have done without her last week. And then, bonehead that I am, I forgot to mention her when I was thanking people on our last night of camp. I know I’m not the first husband to do something like that. Why do we do that, guys? Why do we sometimes take our greatest treasure for granted?
Anyway, it was a good week, and I will do it again next year (if they want me to). I will try to post some pictures as I have time.
Jeff Slater
Recent Comments