matthewmthomas.com

Saturday, twelve guys from the church got together and cleaned up the outside of the building.  They worked from about 9 until about 2, with a lunch break, and got a lot done.  There’s still more to do, but things look really good around there right now.

Among other things, we had to plant a new Rhododendron in place of one that died.  The stump extraction was taken care of by these guys, who were the only ones willing to pose for a picture all day:

Tonight, our men’s group decided not to meet in one of our classrooms at the church, which has been our normal practice.  Instead, this evening, we went to the Dunkin Donuts shop around the corner, where one of our young men was working, and had our group there.  We read our Bibles and prayed, and didn’t disturb the other customers or employees.  But we began to see how the Good News of Jesus could carry beyond the walls of our church into our community.

Just one more small step in the right direction, eh?

Last evening, our Trustee board did something I consider quite amazing: they discussed and passed a “board covenant”.  The “board covenant” states the board’s commitments to each other and the congregation in how they do business and what business they do.  It also acknowledges the accountability structures present in the congregation and deals with a few issues of discipline.  In fact, I’d like to share it in its entirety with you.  It follows in the “read more” section below.  Feel free to comment.

Read More »

On Wednesdays at 6:30 our Men’s group gets together to read the Bible and have a good time.  Tonight, we took care of a project on the church building: leaves.  Our building has a flat roof and we are next to an oak forest.  It collects leaves.  So even this last week, we had leaves falling all around the church - not off the trees, but off the roof.  So our guys spent most of two hours cleaning off the roof and the driveway where we threw all the leaves.  The satisfied crew then posed for a picture:

A big thank-you to Leon, Herb, Tim and Doug!

 See the yellow-ish tinge on the tree in the picture?  It’s about to burst into bloom.  All the other trees on the street are still vertical brushpiles, but this one - it’s ready to go.  That’s about where our congregation is right now.  We are slowly, surely becoming a missional congregation.  We can see that once this thing blooms, it’s really going to bloom.  Now, we just have to wait for it to mature enough to bloom. 

Our Worship is becoming more reverently relaxed and celebratory.  Our Men’s and Women’s Formation Groups are growing.  Our prayers are still leading us into greater realization of God’s vision.  We’re learning how to care for one another.  We’re probably one revision away from having a workable new set of bylaws that can be shown to the congregation at large for feedback and ratification sometime in the near future.  Last Sunday, a man who just got sober at the Warren Family Mission gave his (powerful, moving) testimony.  He has been accepted and welcomed into the life of the Church.  It’s looking more and more likely that our stuff for Teens and Children will be re-started by the early summer. 

We’ve had some serious pruning, to be sure.  But that will make the new growth all the more plentiful, as the roots go down deep to nourish it. 

Praise Be to God!

This last Sunday was Communion Sunday at FBC Warren.  Probably due to my study under Bob Webber, I tend to use a form of prayer during communion that resembles the liturgical Eucharistic Prayers.  It’s always ad-lib, but there are common elements. 

One of those elements is that of the Sanctus.  The Sanctus is the liturgical spot where, as the Book of Common Prayer so elegantly puts it, we say, “joining our voices with all the angels and archangels, and all the company of Heaven, who forever sing this hymn to the glory of Your name,”

Holy Holy Holy, Lord God Almighty
Heaven and Earth are full of your Glory
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord
Hosanna in the highest.

I will often say (in less formal language) the gist of this during my prayer leading in to communion.  This, to me, is part of the common (communing) nature of the event: we are in communion (joined with) Christ, and we are also in unity with all those who call on the Name of the Lord - including all angels, etc., and all other followers of Jesus Christ throughout time and place, both in this age and the age to come. 

This Sunday, for the part of the Sanctus, I was led (on the spot, I may add) to sing the chorus from ”How Great is Our God” by Chris Tomlin, which has become a song we use to celebrate during worship.  And the congregation joined in. 

“How great is our God, sing with me, how great is our God, and all will see how great, how great is our God.”

It was quite moving.  Essentially, we all participated in the act of Sanctus, and therefore the act of Communion with Christ and the Body of Christ globally throughout time, through singing, rather than merely calling it to mind by reference. 

In this way, we have experienced Worship Convergence through communion: convergence of our experience in our local congregation with all the Saints who have gone before, those living now throughout the world, and those who will come after.  And with that, we live in the life of the Kingdom in greater measure. 

And that’s why we do it (worship, that is) in the first place: to live in a greater measure of the life of the Kingdom.

Amen.

Beginning with the Pastor and a core group of disciples, personal discipleship to Christ spawns Vision.

Vision spawns groups of disciples and conflict within congregational systems in areas that are not discipleship-oriented.

Conflict leads to maturity or destruction.

Discipleship flows from discipler to disciples, from leader to leaders to led, who then become leaders.

Transformation begins in small groups, flows to worship, flows to leadership, flows to congregation, flows to finances, flows to growth.

At least in my experience.

Other thoughts?

Since February 2003, I’ve had a weblog.  Based upon a very nerdy joke, I called it M Squared T.  Real nerds will tell you that my initials, MMT, mathematically reduce to M^2 (squared) T.  Unfortunately, two things conspired against the M Squared T blog: first, people couldn’t spell the durn URL.  Not that I blame them.  Until it became automatic, I would typo my own URL regularly.  www.msquaredt.com was just a little much.

Second, in 2005, I became the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Warren, Ohio.  Now, my blog audience moved from my friends, family, and other bloggers to people who were in my congregation.  As that situation became increasingly conflict-ridden, it seemed best to shut down the blog to ease some of the tensions. 

Nevertheless, I find it important to be a contributing voice in the work of God that is emerging these days, and I feel it is necessary to create two blogs - one for the friends, family and fellow nerds, and one for my work as a professional church leader.  I may even make more blogs… you never know. 

I have added Google’s AdSense ads to this site in order to (at least) cover its costs.  In agreement with Google’s terms of service, that’s all I have to say about that. :) 

Enjoy the blogs.