As I have indicated recently, I have been teaching a class on the gospel of John. This next week, we will be looking at the story of the woman at the well. (John 4:4-26) This story really resonates with me for some reason. I just think that it gives a great picture of who Jesus is and why He came…
The first thing I recognize about Jesus is that He doesn’t care about race, sex, or spiritual history. This woman was a Samaritan. The Jews wanted nothing to do with the Samaritans, calling them half-breeds and unclean... basically treating them as outcasts. This woman was a woman. (duh!) In that culture, women were not respected as anything but child-bearers, housekeepers, and child-raisers. Most men in that culture figured that that was all women were good for. This woman had a bad history of poor marital choices. She had been with many men… five husbands and currently with a live-in boyfriend. Women like that were shunned. This Samaritan woman had three strikes against her: She was of an ‘inferior’ race, was part of the ‘inferior’ sex, and would have been very ‘inferior’ spiritually. Yet Jesus chose to speak extensively to her… and even chose to start a revival through her.
I’ll be honest, I’ve never had to deal with race or sex discrimination. I can’t even begin to identify with minorities of any kind of social group. So, it’s hard for me to put myself in the Samaritan woman’s shoes… except for one thing: Sin. We both have made mistakes, we both have experienced shame and guilt, we both have been embarrassed of our actions, we both deserve death, neither one of us deserve even a moment of Jesus’ time or attention. And I guess that is what resonates with me so much about this passage: Jesus didn’t care about what the woman had done in her past, He just cared about the woman.
Another thing I notice in this passage: “It was the sixth hour.” Which means it was NOON. Typically, the women of the town would gather water during the coolest part of the day… which might be early morning or late evening. Why would this woman be drawing water during the hottest part of the day? I think it is a direct result of her sin. The other people in the town knew what kind of a woman she was. I think this woman choose to go during the part of the day when she wouldn’t have to face any of the other women at the well.
The woman says to Jesus (after He has told her about living water): “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” I think this lady is talking about more than the physical labor of drawing water everyday. I think she is also suggesting that she would like to not have to carry around her shame anymore. She would like to stop drawing water at the hottest part of the day to avoid the judgmental looks from the other women. She would like to be reinstated. She would like to be accepted. She would like to be loved.
Jesus extends that gift to her. He empowers her to go back to the town and tell the people about this Messiah 'who told me everything I ever did.' For some reason, whether it was her passion or newfound boldness, the townspeople listened to her and went to find out for themselves that Jesus is the Messiah. That’s what I love about Jesus: Who could have predicted that the person He chose to start a revival in this Samaritan town would have been a dirty, shame-filled woman? Jesus can use anybody with a willing heart. Race, sex, and history don’t mean anything to Him. He is greater than any of those things.
I don’t know about you, but that’s the best news I’ve heard all day…
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Friday, April 15, 2005
Howard Family Update
Hello! I hope all of you are doing well. It has been about two months since I’ve sent one of these things out… so I thought I should get cracking on a new update.
We had a bit of a break-through moment with Emily on Good Friday. She basically got potty-trained in a day. She had not shown any signs of even wanting to learn until that day… and then when it came, it came all at once… so it was pretty shocking to us. I won’t go into details, because they tend not to be pretty… but since then… we have gotten her completely out of diapers, she goes on the ‘big potty’, and she goes all by herself most of the time. She is quite proud of herself. She even flushes the toilet… in fact, she gets mad if you attempt to do it for her.
She is growing so fast… I just measured her yesterday… she is 38 inches tall… which, again, was surprising to me. Last time she was measured, she was in the mid-twenties. She’s grown so much recently! We want to take her to Disneyworld, probably in two years or so, and she needs to be 48 inches to ride everything… as it stands right now, she can ride everything but about ten rides! It will be fun taking her.
I honestly didn’t work with her on this too much… but she recognizes and even likes Star Wars. She likes to watch The Phantom Menace… and I had a box of about twenty loose toys that she loves to play with! She especially loves the princesses. Leia and Padme are her favorites!
Melissa is doing well. She went to South Dakota over spring break with Emily, I think she was happy for the week without her school children. We are hoping that she will only have to work, at most, one more full school year. We are hoping that, by then, our family will be a little bit bigger… no announcements yet… just dreaming and planning and trusting in God’s plan for our lives!
Melissa has been doing a lot of tutoring on the side lately, just to make some extra money. She is going to try to teach summer school during the summer… summer school here is nice… only four weeks… half days…and only three or four days of the week. So, we’ll make it work. I’m thankful for her hard work… she continues to blow me away with how great she is with Emily and how supportive she is to me. She is an amazing woman!
Ministry continues to evolve here. I don’t always know what I’ll be working on from month to month. For awhile, I thought I might have to take over the youth ministry next fall… but it’s looking more and more like that will not happen. Which is fine with me either way. Our Sunday attendance is starting to turn around. After averaging about 150 through most of the year… the past two months we have averaged in the 170’s… and last week we had 194! Which was shocking because we didn’t have anything out of the ordinary happening… not even a baby dedication!
I recently started teaching a Sunday School class on the gospel of John and it has been a wonderful experience for me. God seems to be using it as a reaffirmation of my calling… placing another passion for a specific ministry in my life and allowing me to have a little success at doing it. It has been a lot of fun!
Who knows what I’ll be in charge of a year, or even a month, from now… I just know that I am enjoying ministry. I enjoy many of the people here. I enjoy learning and growing and being challenged by God to become a more effective minister. I have enjoyed seeing God’s hand of blessing on this congregation. All I can do is pray that He will continue to bless as I continue to try and make the right decisions and do the right things!
On a whole other topic: Some of you might be wondering… Has Josh been to a Cardinal game yet this year? Nope. I’ve been to TWO of them. Haha! I never would have predicted that three years ago. It used to be good for me just to get to one game a year! I was talking with my Dad last week when he was here… last year, he was able to attend five games… and that is the most he’s been to in a year. I’m hoping to help him break that record this year… we’ll see.
Anyway, I would love to hear from any of you! I hope you are doing well!
Your friends,
Josh, Melissa, and Emily Howard (Sherlock is still alive too!)
We had a bit of a break-through moment with Emily on Good Friday. She basically got potty-trained in a day. She had not shown any signs of even wanting to learn until that day… and then when it came, it came all at once… so it was pretty shocking to us. I won’t go into details, because they tend not to be pretty… but since then… we have gotten her completely out of diapers, she goes on the ‘big potty’, and she goes all by herself most of the time. She is quite proud of herself. She even flushes the toilet… in fact, she gets mad if you attempt to do it for her.
She is growing so fast… I just measured her yesterday… she is 38 inches tall… which, again, was surprising to me. Last time she was measured, she was in the mid-twenties. She’s grown so much recently! We want to take her to Disneyworld, probably in two years or so, and she needs to be 48 inches to ride everything… as it stands right now, she can ride everything but about ten rides! It will be fun taking her.
I honestly didn’t work with her on this too much… but she recognizes and even likes Star Wars. She likes to watch The Phantom Menace… and I had a box of about twenty loose toys that she loves to play with! She especially loves the princesses. Leia and Padme are her favorites!
Melissa is doing well. She went to South Dakota over spring break with Emily, I think she was happy for the week without her school children. We are hoping that she will only have to work, at most, one more full school year. We are hoping that, by then, our family will be a little bit bigger… no announcements yet… just dreaming and planning and trusting in God’s plan for our lives!
Melissa has been doing a lot of tutoring on the side lately, just to make some extra money. She is going to try to teach summer school during the summer… summer school here is nice… only four weeks… half days…and only three or four days of the week. So, we’ll make it work. I’m thankful for her hard work… she continues to blow me away with how great she is with Emily and how supportive she is to me. She is an amazing woman!
Ministry continues to evolve here. I don’t always know what I’ll be working on from month to month. For awhile, I thought I might have to take over the youth ministry next fall… but it’s looking more and more like that will not happen. Which is fine with me either way. Our Sunday attendance is starting to turn around. After averaging about 150 through most of the year… the past two months we have averaged in the 170’s… and last week we had 194! Which was shocking because we didn’t have anything out of the ordinary happening… not even a baby dedication!
I recently started teaching a Sunday School class on the gospel of John and it has been a wonderful experience for me. God seems to be using it as a reaffirmation of my calling… placing another passion for a specific ministry in my life and allowing me to have a little success at doing it. It has been a lot of fun!
Who knows what I’ll be in charge of a year, or even a month, from now… I just know that I am enjoying ministry. I enjoy many of the people here. I enjoy learning and growing and being challenged by God to become a more effective minister. I have enjoyed seeing God’s hand of blessing on this congregation. All I can do is pray that He will continue to bless as I continue to try and make the right decisions and do the right things!
On a whole other topic: Some of you might be wondering… Has Josh been to a Cardinal game yet this year? Nope. I’ve been to TWO of them. Haha! I never would have predicted that three years ago. It used to be good for me just to get to one game a year! I was talking with my Dad last week when he was here… last year, he was able to attend five games… and that is the most he’s been to in a year. I’m hoping to help him break that record this year… we’ll see.
Anyway, I would love to hear from any of you! I hope you are doing well!
Your friends,
Josh, Melissa, and Emily Howard (Sherlock is still alive too!)
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
New Passion for Ministry
My personal goal was to write about something once a week for my blog. The past month or so has been very busy and I just haven’t had much of a chance to write. I want to try and do better.
Starting in February, I began teaching a Sunday School class on the gospel of John. It has been a wonderful experience for me. God has used this class as a reaffirmation to me personally… but he has also reminded me of the richness of scripture and its’ ability to change, challenge, and renew.
The past few months, I have been thinking about God’s plan for my life as it applies to my ministry choices in the future. I am currently in a position that I love… but have recently been reminded in several ways that I have deep passions for specific ministries... but this church does not have need of my help in those areas. So I’ve been kind of trying to figure out where my passions lie in my current ministry context.
I do much of the administration work… for which I am gifted and wired. I do this type of work pretty quickly and pretty efficiently. I am highly organized and am a good steward of my office time. That said, administrative work is not inspiring or challenging to me. I can do that stuff in my sleep. I’m glad that I can do much of that kind of work here, but it’s not something that stirs my heart at a deep level.
I think God is starting to show me a new area of passion in my life that I never knew or identified was there: teaching. Maybe even more specifically: organizing and writing curriculum. I have had such a good time with this Sunday school class! One of the things that my brother-in-law, Kevin, inspired me to do while I worked with him last summer is to learn how to use computer programming that would give a more ‘polished’ look to the things I create. I am thankful for Microsoft Publisher!
So here I am, being challenged to look deeper at God’s word… but also using my ‘administrative’ gifts to help sift and organize that information into an hour long class that will help other people gain access to scripture. I remember one afternoon… my lead pastor walked into my office and expressed his desire to use the stuff that I am putting together for this class in the future for a church plant that we are considering. That was really motivating and encouraging to me!
Next fall, for the second time, I am going to offer a class called ‘Foundations’ which is a class for new Christians. Basically a Christianity 101 class. My dad has taught this class for years at my home church, Heritage Wesleyan. He sent me the curriculum they use. I have been thinking about ‘updating’ it with Microsoft Publisher. Basically, I want take the information that is already there and make it look a little more polished. I also want to make it easy enough for any future teachers to use.
I have so many ideas kicking around in my head for other classes that I would like to do: Theology 101, Church History 101, History of Christian Thought, the other three gospels, Hebrews, Romans… the list goes on and on. God has lit a fire in my heart for another area of the church… for which I am very, very excited!
Starting in February, I began teaching a Sunday School class on the gospel of John. It has been a wonderful experience for me. God has used this class as a reaffirmation to me personally… but he has also reminded me of the richness of scripture and its’ ability to change, challenge, and renew.
The past few months, I have been thinking about God’s plan for my life as it applies to my ministry choices in the future. I am currently in a position that I love… but have recently been reminded in several ways that I have deep passions for specific ministries... but this church does not have need of my help in those areas. So I’ve been kind of trying to figure out where my passions lie in my current ministry context.
I do much of the administration work… for which I am gifted and wired. I do this type of work pretty quickly and pretty efficiently. I am highly organized and am a good steward of my office time. That said, administrative work is not inspiring or challenging to me. I can do that stuff in my sleep. I’m glad that I can do much of that kind of work here, but it’s not something that stirs my heart at a deep level.
I think God is starting to show me a new area of passion in my life that I never knew or identified was there: teaching. Maybe even more specifically: organizing and writing curriculum. I have had such a good time with this Sunday school class! One of the things that my brother-in-law, Kevin, inspired me to do while I worked with him last summer is to learn how to use computer programming that would give a more ‘polished’ look to the things I create. I am thankful for Microsoft Publisher!
So here I am, being challenged to look deeper at God’s word… but also using my ‘administrative’ gifts to help sift and organize that information into an hour long class that will help other people gain access to scripture. I remember one afternoon… my lead pastor walked into my office and expressed his desire to use the stuff that I am putting together for this class in the future for a church plant that we are considering. That was really motivating and encouraging to me!
Next fall, for the second time, I am going to offer a class called ‘Foundations’ which is a class for new Christians. Basically a Christianity 101 class. My dad has taught this class for years at my home church, Heritage Wesleyan. He sent me the curriculum they use. I have been thinking about ‘updating’ it with Microsoft Publisher. Basically, I want take the information that is already there and make it look a little more polished. I also want to make it easy enough for any future teachers to use.
I have so many ideas kicking around in my head for other classes that I would like to do: Theology 101, Church History 101, History of Christian Thought, the other three gospels, Hebrews, Romans… the list goes on and on. God has lit a fire in my heart for another area of the church… for which I am very, very excited!
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