Week 45
Worship Theme: How the dead are raised - John 11:1 – 12:11
Team Meditation: Attending to little things - Acts 20:7-12

Halloween is behind us and the holiday season is before us. It's like this little lull between the storms. The first Sunday of November has been the Saint's Remembrance Day for years and years, but it has little meaning to many outside of the church, and sadly it has little meaning for those in the church anymore either. Perhaps there's a tear for those who have passed the previous year, but most of those tears will be from the departed's family. If there's any concern about death these days, it's dealing with our own impending demise that we're reminded of in some quirky ways at Halloween.

Team Meditation
I always appreciated the story of Paul and Eutychus. If Paul got long-winded and knocked 'em dead now and again, what did I have to fear? On closer examination, though, perhaps it wasn't Paul's message that put him to sleep, but the fact that Paul was so caught up in his own words that he forgot they had gathered to have a meal together. Whatever the reason, let us remember as leaders of the church that there are those who closely follow us and our examples can make the greatest difference in their lives. Handle them with care.

Worship Theme
Jesus seems to have carefully targeted his miracles for the greatest effect. He doesn't seem to be interested in being the most popular guy in Israel. He ticked too many people off for that. And though he had compassion for the masses, the fact is, he carefully picked and chose who got his miraculous attentions when it was up to him. If the crowds came to him, that was on thing. But when he went to do miracles, he carefully chose. Lazarus was a friend—a close friend. But being hauled back from the heavenly realm after three days didn't do Lazarus any favors. But Lazarus' death and resurrection had an incredible effect on many these last few days of Jesus' life: "For on account of [Lazarus] many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him"  (John 12:11 NIV). The question is, how is your life targeting the good you do and leveraging that good for the sake of changing the world?

Week 46
Worship Theme: Supernatural experiences - 2 Kings 4 and 5
Team Meditation: Fishing for micro-cultures - Luke 4:31 – 5:26

The only supernatural that most of us seem to be confronted with these days is how it is the "toy of the year" is in such short supply that only the hyper wealthy can get one when it shows up on E-Bay. And yet, the realm of supernatural healings and miracles are starting to be heard about even in our own culture. It's not commonplace yet, but there are rumors, as if a door has opened a crack.

Team Meditation
How many micro-cultures are there in your community? For those of us who are "big picture" people, sometimes it's hard to see the details, but there are certainly a hundred or more of them within walking distance of your church and home. Think of the high school where many of these cultures are more easily identified: Goths, Skaters, Punks, Jocks, Geeks, Stoners, Preps, and the list goes on. Each of these micro-cultures are unique to themselves. Although it's starkly clear in high school, it's no different in the adult world. The question is, how are you reaching out to them? To reach them you'll have to nuance your message differently. Not unlike how Jesus nuanced his "good news" to each of the different groups he ministered to in these passages.

Week 47
Worship Theme: All powerful love - 1 John 3:11 – 5:5
Team Meditation: Mission consistency - Luke 11:14-36

"And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love; yes they'll know we are Christians by our love." Oh that that were so, but the world knows Christians by our in-fighting, judgmentalism, holier-than-thou attitudes, and who we're against. And yet we're admonished that if we aren't known by our love, then perhaps we need to check who's side we're on.

Worship Theme
James took a hit from Martin Luther for his "Faith without works is dead" attitude. It's almost comical that John says almost the same thing here "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth"(1 John 3:18 NIV). In a culture where love is still erroneously linked with butterflies in the tummy and subject to the whims of emotions, it's almost like "tough love" to consider that love is only measured by how we behave, not in what we say (or feel). Not only that, John reminds us that love is self-sacrificial, even past the point of what most therapists might consider co-dependency, because, let's face it, living a life patterned after Jesus….

Team Meditation
What's your purpose in ministry? What is it God has called you to accomplish? There are a lot of distractions in the world of church that are just begging to sap your energy. You can end up spending the bulk of your time in  meetings, paperwork, doing weddings, funerals, pastoral counseling, and so on instead of making disciples of Jesus. Jesus set his priorities, kept his mission before him, and made no bones about it. He would not be divided.

Week 48
Worship Theme: Why Christmas matters - Isaiah 9:1-7, 11:1-9
Team Meditation: Be alert - Luke 21:25-36

The pictures of the end times and the time after that can be seen either as surreal metaphors or grotesque realities. Either way, in our as-yet rationalistic world, these scenes can be difficult to take seriously. And yet, these are the very scenes that give us hope. The question is, can the church offer that kind of hope authentically to those not in and of the church?

Team Meditation
Jesus told his followers that they needed to pay attention to the world around them. There was something important about the signs of the times. Sure, there were the warnings about the encroachment of the fallen world, but there are other reasons to pay attention. In our own day, the church has been caught either ignoring or denying the reality of the changing times around us. We continue to depend on yesterday's tactics to reach the world for Christ, but Modern messages won't work in a Postmodern world. I could go on, and I'll bet you can too. But here's the meditation: if you aren't a student of your times, you're missing the opportunity for faithfulness.

Worship Theme
There's an ongoing play between light and darkness throughout the Bible that is no more visible than here in Isaiah. Darkness is the natural state of being of our universe, as noted by the physics axiom that darkness is the absence of light, not the other way around. Science's darkness corollary in the Christian realm is that light dispels darkness. We live in a world where darkness reigns and the shrinking daylight of November serves as a constant reminder to the fact. But light conquers darkness every time and the church carries the light wherever it goes.