Category Archives: Fellowship

“The Noticer”, by Andy Andrews

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That’s the title of a book I started reading over the weekend. It’s actually a fairly short book, but with other things stealing my time, it’s taken me a while to finish it.

Part fiction, part nonfiction, it’s taken a good bit from the experiences of the author, who lost both parents as a teenager and was homeless — living beneath a pier. The Noticer is a man known simply as “Jones”. It’s not really correct to say that Jones changed the author’s life. More correct would be to say Jones caused the author to change his outlook on everyday situations, and that’s what changed his life.

Here’s one of Jones’ tidbits:

“Here, for you, young man, is a law of the universe—one of many, to be sure, but one that is especially applicable to your life at present. Remember, whatever you focus upon, increases.” [emphasis the author’s]

Jones explains:

“When you focus on the things you need, you’ll find those needs increasing. If you concentrate your thoughts on what you don’t have, you will soon be concentrating on other things that you had forgotten you don’t have—and feel worse! If you set your mind on loss, you are more likely to lose…But a grateful perspective brings happiness and abundance into a person’s life.” [emphasis the author’s]

One way Jones causes us to think about interpersonal relationships is to explain the “four major dialects that we use to convey and feel loved.” Here are the four:

  1. Spoken words of approval
  2. Favors and deeds
  3. Personal contact
  4. Quality time

I’ll just pass those along without comment other than that we all feel loved in different ways. If we limit the way we convey love to only the way we most feel loved, we’ll fail much of the time.

This book is very biblical, but it’s not based on scripture; it’s based on experience. It’s a book that would be at home on any Christian’s bookshelf, but don’t let it spend too much time there; read it first, share it, and if you’re lucky enough to get it back, read it again. Then put it on your bookshelf!

The Noticer, © 2009 by Andy Andrews. Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc.
Video of the author’s interview with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts

How do you spend your time?

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My long-time friend Jim Martin is pulpit minister for a congregation in Waco, and maintains a blog I highly recommend: A Place For The God-Hungry. His post from Tuesday (2/4/09) was a pretty insightful look at how we spend our time, and the things we should really be making time for. I repeat that post here, with his permission…

I have been on Facebook for about a year. What I absolutely love about Facebook is the opportunity to re-connect with friends from the past. In the past few months, I have had the opportunity to communicate with Frank, Gary, Debbie, John, Bob, Debbie, Rick, and today — Stan. I haven’t seen most of these people in decades. Yet, re-connecting with these people is a special gift because we share a common history and a common memory. We were a part of a small Christian school in Dallas.

I have been thinking this week about how short life really is. When I was in junior high school, some days would seem like weeks. In some ways, time passes so slowly when you are young. Now? Now time moves quickly. Oh, I don’t feel old or even refer to myself as being old. Yet, I remember passing a mirror not long ago almost startled by the man staring at me. Yes, it was me inside this man’s body. But inside? “I’m still the boy.”

Today, I realize just how valuable time really is.

  1. I don’t have time to waste on things that don’t matter. I have plenty of time for the things that count.
  2. I don’t have time to get moody, self-centered, and irritable. I do have time to love my wife and children.
  3. I don’t have time to wallow in the past over what might have been. I do have time to focus on what God wants to do in my life today.
  4. I don’t have time to play self-importance games (Whom do you know? What kind of house do you live in? What have your kids accomplished? What are you driving?). I do have time to build up others and forget myself.
  5. I don’t have time to coddle worldly, immature Christians whose idea of church is getting their way. I have plenty of time to love fellow Christians who may have various opinions.
  6. I don’t have time to be a peacemonger (doing whatever it takes to keep others from getting upset). I do have time to be a peacemaker (loving people no matter what).
  7. I don’t have time to play it safe and never risk the possibility of discomfort. I do have time to trust God who has promised to never leave me or forsake me.
  8. I don’t have time to whine and blame others for being obstacles. I do have time to take responsibility for my own actions and behavior.
  9. I don’t have time to complain and focus on the negative. I do have time to speak a word of hope to people who are overwhelmed by heartache.
  10. I don’t have time to settle for the mediocre. I do have time to be passionate about what matters most to God.

Jim Martin

“Christian wins car for perfect church attendance”

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Now wouldn’t that be a hoot? Actually, it’s sort of not as far-fetched as it sounds.

I’m a former high school math teacher, and am still involved in a round-about way with secondary education, so one of the blogs I monitor is that of Teacher Magazine. One of their headlines Tuesday caught my eye: “12-year-old wins car for perfect attendance“. The article explained that “Chicago’s school system has offered several rewards in recent years, including vacations to Wisconsin resorts, laptops and iPods”, and that there are those who don’t approve of such rewards. The 12-year-old in question however, did indeed win a car for perfect attendance.

What’s attendance like in your congregation? Would it be better if churches started giving out chances to win something like a car for perfect attendance throughout the year? Not suggesting we actually do that, of course. Whether or not you agree with a school district giving prizes for school attendance, I hope we can agree that such gimmicks are inappropriate when it comes to church attendance.

So what do we do to increase attendance? Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

  • “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). That’s what Jesus said. Hey, there’s no commandment to even attend worship once a week, much less three times a week, so I guess this doesn’t apply. (That’s not what I believe, nor what I practice, but it is an argument I’d make if I wanted to make excuses for being somewhere else other than worship on Sunday morning.)
  • If you’re looking for a commandment (i.e., a “thou shalt” or “thou shalt not”) to participate in worship weekly or more often, you need an attitude adjustment. We don’t worship because we’re commanded to anyway; we worship because we’re created to! (Isaiah 43:7).
  • You don’t increase church attendance by increasing guilt. You do it by increasing commitment. If members want to be there, they will be. If they agree with what God spoke through the prophet Isaiah — that He created them to bring Him glory — then you won’t have to twist arms to get them there.
  • When the above happens, you won’t see attendance figures at Sunday evening worship or mid-week service (assuming you have one) that are one-third to one-fourth of what they are on Sunday morning. You won’t see very many who only attend on Sunday morning “because that’s the only time it’s commanded”. You’ll see a lot more who hunger and thirst so much for righteousness (Matthew 5:6) that worship and Bible study aren’t obligations; they’re “just what’s done”. They won’t consider being any place else.
  • When members see Christianity as more of a relationship than a religion, they’ll work more on building that relationship. Think of how you build a relationship with your spouse. You spend time with him. You find out what pleases her, and devote yourself to doing those things. The better you know your mate, the better you can relate to him or her. Do you see the connection?

I think we should concentrate less on what’s commanded and what’s demanded, and concentrate more on what’s right. I guess the human equivalent of that is eating oat bran, as Wilford Brimley is known to say, “It’s the right thing to do.”

Well I worship because it’s the right thing to do. I participate in Bible study because the more I know about God and His Son, the closer a relationship I’ll have with Them, and my light will be shining so brightly (Matthew 5:16) people will start wearing sunglasses at night.

Forget about commands. Just do what encourages one another (Hebrews 10:26) and is praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8-9). To God be the glory!