Great days... and then there is yesterday

I love Sundays around Osprey. People are excited. God is working. The first service just seems to click. The message connects with people and they are moved by the Holy Spirit to respond.

Bible study classes are not full but they are humming as men, women, boys and girls study the Bible and interact with their teachers.

And then comes the 10:45 AM service... (cue the Jaws Music)...

It's the Christmas holidays and our normal worship leader is gone on a deserved family vacation... Then the substitute cannot leave their bed... Then the video worship we would use disappears... just disappears in a kind of DVD rapture. And in a church that struggles with music, those who are left, the pastor (me) included are musically challenged, so we decide to go ultra-laid back and give time for testimonies. These go amazingly. Testimonies about alcoholics and the self righteous are given because they all find Jesus. More than a few tears are shed as we all relate to God's miraculous work in the lives of people.

I try to lead in a few choruses that are simple... and with me leading them, they are simply awful. Starting too high and reaching notes that starts the neighborhood dogs howling in pain, we struggle through them.

But so far, we're doing okay.

The comes the message that seemed to flow in the 8:30 AM service seems more like oozing at 10:45 AM. It lasts too long. This brings to mind the axiom that "There is not such thing as a bad, short sermon."

We had some guests in the service who had come in late and looked like they would try to leave as soon as everyone closed their eyes in prayer. As I get to the end of the sermon, I am aiming at the invitation and some of the same kinds of results God blessed with in the earlier service.

But what do I see? People weeping over their sin? People praying?

No.

Some guys is in the back row licking his girlfriend's shoulder. I am not lying. They had been rather affectionate before, but nothing I would say anything about. But now he is busy using his tongue the way my cat cleanses herself. It's not just a little licking... It is Gene Simmons and KISS licking.

Somehow I got through the invitation. As always, it is the Lord who gives blessing to his Word when it is preached, because I was far too distracted to remember what I said.

I love pastoring FBC, Osprey. I love preaching God's Word. I hate guys licking their girlfriend's shoulder.

I am so happy we had no service last night.

Guilty Pleasure

Several years ago I started watching almost any TV show about food. Obviously I would watch the Food Network and quickly quit watching any of them except for Emeril Live, Mario Batali (he's a paisan) and Iron Chef. With Emeril soon to be seen only in re-runs and Batali who is usually on in the afternoons, I was left with Iron Chef: America.

That is until I got hooked on Top Chef (I, II and III) and started seeing advertisements for show entitled "No Reservations". For reasons that are obvious to anyone who watches the program, it is on at 10:00 PM. I caught a repeat of a show and was quickly and totally hooked.

Chef Anthony Bourdain is a beer drinking, cigarette smoking, wise cracking, cynical and sometimes obnoxious chef who travels the world and refuses to go to the tourist places to eat. He will go to a country like Ghana and tell his guide that he will eat whatever the guide normally eats. He has eated some food that to my eyes would (in the words of Colonel Troutman in "First Blood") "make a billy goat puke."

This is how he describes the show in an interview:

Mostly casual street food from around the world, no high-end, you know, what I do. What real people eat. ... traveling around the world, only to places that I want to go. I'll say what I want to say, personal essays, never too far from the street. Markets, farms, cafs, bistros, but never high-end places.

But that is only a part of what makes this guy a guilty pleasure for me. He experiences food and life without apologies and without the political correctness that ruins many good shows.

Let me give you a bit of his thoughts, then maybe you will get hooked yourself:

On Vegans

How can you travel? Before you've even left home, you've already decided, "I reject most of the world's bounty and the expression of their hopes and dreams and culture." Some nice, possibly impoverished Vietnamese rice farmer is nice enough to offer you the one chicken he can kill a month, or a week, and you say, "Sorry, I can't"? It just seems antihuman. It's antisocial.

Food Network

I see a day when the executives say, we don't need Emeril anymore, even though he built their network. They'll replace him with some industry-created freakozoid who's been grown from a seedling into a recognized brand. When you look at Sandra Lee or Rachael Ray or some of the new shows like "Calorie Commando" that are just vomit-inducing -- at least Emeril worked his way up and has a real restaurant empire.

What Kind of Food He Likes

You can tell a lot from a menu. Certain menu items will pique my interest right away. Offal of any kind. If they're confident enough in their abilities to highlight things like liver and sweetbreads, or pork belly, I'm already interested. If they have something quirky or interesting like duck's tongues or chicken feet, or some really old school French or Asian or American dish, for that matter, I want to know more. You don't see that every day.

He's really not for everyone. In fact, he's probably not for most people. My wife likes to watch me watch him because I'm so busy laughing and enjoying this guilty pleasure.

AFTER PARADE REPORT

THANKS to all the great people of FBC, Osprey who worked so hard and so lovingly to make the Osprey Christmas Parade a success.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune sent a reporter who posted these pictures
http://spotted.heraldtribune.com/pages/gallery.php?gallery=312294

Eric Nalpas took the pictures. I am really appreciative of the time he spent with us and the great pictures. I was going to publish mine, but you can't beat a professional photographer.

We had approximately 400 people watching the parade that went through the streets of Osprey on both sides of US 41 (Tamiami Trail).

THIS JUST IN... (aways wanted to say that) Here'e the website for the article
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20071212/NEWS/712120693/1060/NEWS0110

Pastor Tom Bryant of First Baptist Church in Osprey was excited Saturday as the church prepared for the sixth annual Christmas parade.The parade started at 5:30 p.m. and lasted about two hours.

Fifteen holiday theme floats made their way down Pine Street, across Bay Street and up Patterson Avenue.

Highlights included floats by local firefighters and by volunteers at Oscar Scherer State Park.

Spectators lined the streets; many brought their own chairs to get comfortable.--

Eric Nalpas

WORLD FAMOUS PARADE THIS SATURDAY

New York may have Macy's. Los Angeles may have the Rose Parade, but Osprey has a Parade that no other town has.

Osprey's First Baptist Church takes our parade to the neighborhoods surrounding our church. With 18 floats made mostly by Bible study groups and Ministries, along with Oscar Scherer State Park, the Vamo Fire and Rescue, we start at the church, move through the neighborhood right next to our church. Then we cross the Trail (US 41 or Tamiami Trail, to foreigners) to old Osprey and drive past people we love and want to serve.

For a Pastor, this is the best of all possible ministries. It was born because some ladies in our Children's Ministry wanted to reach into some of the Mobile Home Parks around us. It kept that incarnation for a few years before it transitioned to a neighborhood ministry. But it is still organized, planned and run by people within our church.

Last year was the first through our neighborhood and we learned plenty of lessons like getting bigger and better lights to show the beauty of the floats. The neighborhood learned that this was not just a "Bubba Parade" with Santa's, Wise Men in bath robes and children waving from the back of a pick up truck! This was a great addition to their Christmas traditions.

And now, when we go around nailing up posters about it, people are excited and changing their schedule in order to watch it. I am thankful for the hard work of all the people who are making this years Osprey Christmas Parade not just fun but also a way to tell the people of our community, to whom this church has been committed for almost 100 years, 'MERRY CHRISTMAS'.

This Parade is going to be so cool!

A Revolutionary Act from Revolution Church

Revolution Church is an amazing place. The main campus is in Canton, Georgia. They are opening another campus in Jasper, Georgia soon. The pastor, Gary Lamb, is as revolutionary as the church. I've never met him except to interact with him at a couple of pastor's internet sites.

God is using him to accomplish great things north of Atlanta. Check out the church's website here: http://www.therevolution.tv/index.html

They recently did something that I have never heard of doing before. They took their average morning offering (around $15,000) and gave it back to their people in envelopes of varying amounts ranging from $10 to one envelope containing $1,000. They had only 4 restrictions on how they could use the money:

1.) They couldn't spend the money on themselves
2.) They couldn't use in on someone in our church
3.) They had to use it to be a blessing to someone else
4.) They had to share their story on RevolutionaryLove.tv

Read their comments here:
http://revolutionarylove.tv/2007/12/02/revolutionarylovetv-share-your-story/#comments

I hear from people all the time that churches are just in it for the money. There may be churches like that. I've seen a few of them on TV. Not only is the church named Revolution, they are revolutionary.

What an amzing story!

What Does Pastor Tom Do?

One of our 1st grade boys was asked this question last Sunday. His answer was classic:

He cleans up potty water after the toilet floods up. Then he baptizes people in the potty water.

It seems that he had seen me cleaning up after the Baptistry had overflowed. We baptized later on in the day. His only experience with mopping and vacuuming water had been when toilets went crazy, so he put two plus two together and got an entirely logical five.

One other child, a few years ago, thought I lived on a farm because I was "Pasture Tom".

I love Kids!

Monday - A Look Behind

WHAT A WEEKEND!

• Saturday night's Adult Christmas Party was simply amazing. People were fighting over $5 gifts even while they know they are being photographed. We'll get the pix posted soon.
• Craig Williams, church planter in Hershey, PA, did a great job talking about his ministry. By the way Craig and Shannon received over $700.00 for the work! Thanks for your willingness to give!
• There were lots of decisions in both services yesterday morning. I have started to practice what I preach and look for God showing up in unexpected places at unexpected times. This morning we were handing out fliers for our Christmas parade this Saturday and we met people who still remember last year's parade and helped us to get the info out.
• About the parade... People are talking all around Osprey about the parade. Our people have worked their butts off getting ready. Saturday looks to be an OUTSTANDING day for Osprey, our church, but most of all for the One whose birth we celebrate!
• Last night's movie, "The Nativity Story" was the best I've seen about the birth of Jesus. True to the Gospel message while being entertaining, it is one you might want to buy for your family. Sara said that it ought to be a Christmas tradition around our church.
• Our men's class is blowing out the doors. 14 men in a classroom designed to comfortably seat 10-12.... and I'm talking about Baptist men, which means BBB (Big Baptist Bellies)!

This is a busy month! But what a beginning!