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This week I am inviting you to join us in a caption contest. Donny Henderson is the creator of these ads and he works for Avalon Church and runs his own design company. Check it out at http://www.pierceelliotdesigns.com. We run these ads before each service during the pre-service announcements. The purpose is to get people’s attention and to keep them watching. It also is just plain fun. Anyway, give us your caption. Keep it clean and keep it short. E-mail me @ ritchie@avalonchurch.net, send me a direct message on Twitter, or post a response on Face Book. I will put up one or two pictures each day this week. May the funniest caption win.

I will choose a winner each day and will send them a copy of my just-released book “Spoiled Rotten: Loving your Kids Without Indulging Them.”

Here are today’s pictures.

Don’t forget that we will baptize in all three Sunday morning services this Sunday, August 30th. We have lots of people to baptize and you need to join us for this celebration. We had lots of folks baptized last weekend and if you have not been baptized since you received Christ I want to encourage you to step up and join them. I have never known anybody who regretted getting baptized but I know lots of people who have regretted waiting.

Also, I will wrap up “Confessions of a Not-So-Perfect Pastor” this Sunday. I will be speaking on “I Am An Addict.” Whatever you have on your calendar clear it so you can be there. I would say “trust me” but that sounds a bit like a used car salesman and I am not selling anything. You know what I mean?

See you Sunday,

Ritchie

(If you missed reading the posts from the last two days stop reading right now and read them first)

I believe in miracles. A miracle is something that requires Supernatural intervention. Jesus walking on water is a miracle. Jesus resurrecting from the dead is a miracle. Many events that we call miracles are not miracles. Perhaps what happened next was not so much a miracle as it was God’s sovereignty. Whatever you call it I believe that God orchestrated it.

My hand looked like it had been through a meat grinder according to my grandmother. She got my grandpa and he took off his shirt and wrapped my hand in it and put me in the front seat of his Chevrolet. I still remember it. I can almost smell the dirt from the tobacco fields, my grandpa’s sweat, and the distinct smell of my own blood. They actually wrapped my finger separately and gave it to the doctor when we arrived at the emergency room of our small local hospital. Once they got the bleeding stopped they sent us to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Emergency surgery was performed on my hand. Later I found out some details that can only be explained as being orchestrated by God.

The doctor told us that if the fan-blade had cut the bottom of my hand instead of the top of my hand then all of the arteries in my hand would have been severed and I would have bled to death before I got to the emergency room. If the fan-blade had been just one inch or one millisecond further into its rotation I would not be writing this.

I also have been told that in 1967 there was only one doctor in that entire hospital who would even have attempted to save my hand. Every other doctor would have amputated my entire hand in an attempt to save my life. When we pulled into Baptist Hospital he was scheduled to be on vacation. He was not even supposed to be in town. I am sure it was just a coincidence that he forgot something and came to the hospital to get it and just happened to be there when I came in. Five minutes earlier or later and I would have gone through life with one hand. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

I have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful that God is in control. I am thankful that I have the use of my right hand. I am thankful I am able to have a sense of humor about it. Some of my college buddies called me ET. Others have said I do a great Homer Simpson impersonation. That’s cool. I just point at them with my middle finger and laugh. Technically, it is now my first finger so I am not giving them the bird…as far as they know.

Ritchie

OK, so here is the real story. (If you missed yesterday’s post stop reading right now and go read it first)

Both of my parents grew up on a farm. I was almost three years old and I was with my grandmother (my mom’s mom) on their farm. She was babysitting me while she was working in the chicken houses. They had these enormous barn-type structures that housed tens of thousands of chickens. They would gather the eggs three times a day and take them into a cinderblock building where they would grade the eggs and keep them cool until the company they contracted with came to collect them and take them to wherever big chicken companies take their eggs. It was important to keep the eggs cool.

On this particular day there was a big steel fan in the room where they sorted and graded the eggs. It had a big metal cage that covered the fan blades for safety. Although I do not remember this particular detail, I have been told that there was a tiny broken spot on the cage that was just large enough for a three-year-old hand to fit through. I was running around and like a normal child I tripped and fell. In a freak accident that probably had odds of one-in-a-million my hand went perfectly through the tiny hole. It cut off my index finger and cut through every tendon and bone in my right hand.

I remember lots of blood and screaming.

I will tell you about a miracle that happened tomorrow.

Ritchie

We have so many new people that come to Avalon Church each week that I often get asked if I am missing a finger. Wait. That is a weird way to construct a sentence. I do not get asked that question because we have lots of new people. Being new to a place does not make you ask a strange question like that. People ask that question – normally to someone on staff – because I actually am missing a digit on my right hand and they want to know how it happened. So, for all of you who have been wondering, here is the story.

I grew up in a very abusive family. I had a really mean uncle that got really drunk one time and was playing around and pretending he was going to hurt me and a couple of my friends. He made us put our hands on this stump and was acting like he was going to cut off our hands. During one of his “fake” attempts he actually got too close to my hand and cut off my index finger. He ended up serving time and I had to go through life minus a finger. We did get a big insurance settlement, however, that left me financially secure for life. The emotional scars are probably far deeper than any scarring to my hand.

I am totally kidding. I just made up that story. Wouldn’t that make a great Lifetime Network movie? Digital Abuse…He Gave His Family The Finger.

Actually, I grew up in a very loving and close-knit family. Like any family, we had our share of dysfunction but we loved each other. We were a cross between the Clampetts and the Fockers.

It happened on my grandpa’s farm. Check in tomorrow and I will tell you the real story.

Ritchie

I love the quiet and solitude of early morning. As I write this I am sitting on my back porch listening to the birds chirp, the frogs bellow their baritone notes, and the rest of nature warm up for an aria. Each day they yawp and yap and whir as they sing their praise songs to the Creator. Elohim is His name. It is the first name of God used in the Bible. It is a plural word describing His power, His creativity, His Trinity, His essence, His unity, His covenant nature, and His love. Before He ever spoke into existence the explosion of light, or placed His emphasis - among the vastness of the universe - on this tiny speck called earth so it could sustain life, or typed out the letters of DNA, or made flowers to pollinate, or made trees to produce oxygen, He had a plan. He, of perfect fellowship with Himself, had no needs, no loneliness, and yet He created man anyway to express His unfathomable love. He knew that the jewel of His creation would disobey and yet He made us anyway. He knew that we would be guilty. He knew of the lies, the murder, the selfishness, the deception, the rape, the conniving, the wars, the genocide, the greed, the theft, the abuse, the pornography, the slavery, the jealousy, the envy, the hatred, the adultery, the prostitution, the anger, the rage, the rebellion, the arguing, the yelling, the screaming, the rejection, and every one of the billions of ways that we would reject Him. But He loved us anyway. He made us anyway. His plan included that He, the Son, would have to become one of us. He would be God but He would be human and then and only then would a suitable sacrifice be able to be made for our sins, for it would be He Himself that would pay for them. He knew this. So it must have been that He made a covenant with Himself - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - before he ever spoke any of this into existence. He never breaks His promises because He does not make them to us but He makes them to Himself for us.

That is why I like mornings. It reminds me of Him. All of creation says, “Today is going to be OK…promise to God.”

Ritchie

Don’t forget that we will baptize in all three Sunday morning services this Sunday, August 23rd and next Sunday, August 30th. We have lots of people to baptize and you need to join us for this celebration. If you have not been baptized since you received Christ I want to encourage you to step up and do this. I have never known anybody who regretted getting baptized but I know lots of people who have regretted waiting.

See you Sunday.

Ritchie

I work with a group of pastors that come to Avalon Church once a month for a coaching network. There are guys from Geaorgia, Florida, Alabama, and Michigan in the group and they are awesome and I love them. We are working together to try and figure out how to grow their church and become more effective leaders.

Here is what I will be teaching and doing roundtable discussions on today:

• Dealing with discouragement

• How to encourage yourself

• Dealing with criticism

• Harnessing the power of dissention

• Developing a dynamic worship service

• Philosophy of worship

• How to change with the culture

Pray for these pastors and church planters that God will grow their leadership and effectiveness for his kingdom.

Ritchie

I love those sports commercials from a few years ago that showed games winning shots and the crowds going crazy. They would always end with the tagline of “Fuel for the soul.” It is amazing how much energy and fuel a game winning shot will give you. I hit a couple of those in my life and I promise you that you have tons of energy even though you have just played a full game.

We need fuel for our souls every day, especially when we are busy. I have to readjust my thinking to “I am too busy NOT to pray and read the Bible.” It is during my busiest times that I need the refueling and re-centering that comes from God’s Spirit most.

I have a very busy week; three services on Sunday morning, Dinner With The Pastor on Sunday night, an all day meeting with church strategist Tony Morgan on Monday, staff meetings, sermon prep time, a pastor’s coaching training meeting on Thursday, and I am speaking at a student conference four times this week. I need fuel for my soul so that I do not run on empty. I have learned that I am too busy NOT to read the Bible and pray.

I hope you will take time to fuel up today. You need it.

Ritchie

Last week I was getting my son, Brandon, all set for his freshman year of college at Georgia State University. I was rather amused watching the impatience of the incoming students. They did not really want their parents there – except for when it was time to pay, of course. They were kind of dismissive and seemed annoyed with their parents on just about everything.

I looked into the eyes of the parents and could see a sparkle that was disguised by their sullen “I’m-so-sad-that-you-are-moving-out” look. They had their best poker face on but I could see right past it. The look was one of insight earned from many years of experience. It was a look of worn by survivors who sat at the feet of the great teacher, Experience. It was a look that knows that soon their offspring must sit at his feet and learn too. They could hardly hide the smile because they knew. They knew that one day soon their child will be an alumnus of the school of life experience and then they will possess something far greater than a degree or knowledge. They will have wisdom. Then everything will be different.

Either that or they could not wait to turn their kid’s room into a movie room.

Ritchie