Update 2015

It is time for me to update my life since I have made some major changes.  On May 19, 2013, I officially relinquished the office of pastor of the First Apostolic Church, a position I held for thirty years, starting in May of 1983.  Before that date, I had been assistant and associate pastor for ten years, so the total years for serving the church was forty.  That’s long enough for anyone to be in charge.  At sixty-five, I felt like the church needed a younger man, a change of direction, an infusion of new life and a different vision.  The younger people needed a new role model, something that I had not been for many years.

Kris Dillingham, a family man, age 39, was elected to serve as pastor.  The margin of approval was very nearly 100%.  He and his wife, Jennifer, and three children, sons Rhett and Reese, and daughter Ashlyn, are already well-loved by the church family.  In his year and a half of leadership, Pastor Dillingham is doing a wonderful job.  The church is experencing great growth, increased contributions, and a vigorous renewal of live and vitality. 

At this point, I still occupy the office of Ohio District Superintendent, a post I’ve held for twenty years (or will be in May of 2015).  I have more time for district duties, I have been able to visit more Ohio churches, and I have been able to travel for speaking engagements.  So far, I have been to several foreign countries (Slovlakia, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, The Philippines) and a number of states, including Arizona, Mississippi, Texas, Indiana, Michigan and Florida. 

I have also had time to write more.  I have always written monthly articles for the Ohio Apostolic News since 1995, plus a quarterly newsletter to our district ministers.  Now, I have added to that a new book that came out last fall, “They Probably Told Me, but I Wasn’t Listening,” and ventured into Christian fiction with “Morgan County Morning.”  I have my second novel ready to publish, “Morgan County Midnight,” plus several other books, including a revision of “Healing Evangelism.”  I am especially excited about this one because I have input from two medical doctors and a nurse who headed up a surgical department in a major hospital. 

Ryan and Claire, who live in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, gave us another grandchild, Coleman Cash, born January 23, 2015.  That makes three grandchildren (MaKinzie and August).  Ryan is an assistant manager at Rural King, a home and farm chain, and Claire is a real estate agent.  Ross and Melissa live and work in Toledo.  He has a new job at Precision Trim, that is very promising, and Melissa works at a medical billing office.  Rene’ and Kyle live in Florida.  She manages a large apartment complex in St. Petersburg and he commutes to Orlando for a job as a construction foreman.

I am very blessed.  I hope to be active and productive for many years into the future!

A Two-Year Update

I checked this page this morning and couldn’t believe that it has been over two years since I posted an entry on a personal note.  I guess my gut instinct is that not that many people are interested in my personal life, so why bore them and waste their time and mine?

I do want to share the news about the huge project that Keith Smith and I are developing.  As you can read in my journal, we have begun a new program that we call LE90X.  It is a spiritual fitness regimen that runs parallel to a physical fitness program.  Many people are aware of P90X as a premier fitness program now wildly popular.  We believe that the physical fitness overtones that exist in society today provide a powerful associative aspect to LE90X.  It is proving to be true.

This weekend, I presented some components of LE90X to the ministers and spouses of Section 6, Texas district, UPCI.  The receptivity and enthusiasm that they had was incredible.  The younger ministers were especially excited about this because they are very knowledgeable of P90X and other physical fitness programs.  They caught the implications of the program immediately and are champing at the bit to get their hands on it.

We are now going through the process of reviewing, tweaking and revising the rough draft into a coherent program that will work for everybody.  Several church groups and individuals are involved in this process.  As you might imagine, it will take several months for this to happen before we are ready for release.  Since we expect this to be a major national—and even international—event, we cannot risk having an inferior product.  There will be copycat programs that will appear very quickly on the market that will have the advantage of our program’s skeleton and may offer improvements that we have not yet developed.  The initial release, therefore, has to be our best shot.

We anticipate a release date of mid to late summer.  I have a personal sense of mission about this program that I have never had of any similar endeavor in my life.  I believe it has the potential of reordering the rank and file of the church today.  That is a bold statement, and I didn’t say it would happen, but it has this kind of potential.  We will all have to wait and see.  Judging from the preliminary responses, however, I think the chances that it will be big are very good.

Stay tuned.

JMJ

Turning the big SIX OH

Now, I have an excuse for whining and complaining about all the aches, pains, fatigue, insomnia, mental lapses and the general sense of dilapidation—-I turned sixty on September 9.  Like the twenty-foot water walls lashed toward the Texas coastline by Hurricane Ike, my constantly degrading physical state has not happened immediately, but it has been gathering momentum for the last thirty or so years.  Unbelievable.  I remember how old I thought my Dad was when he had his sixtieth birthday.  Now, thirty-five years later, I know.  (Actually, he stayed pretty young in his sixties, but he didn’t take care of his health as closely as he should have.  I, on the other hand, get a regular six month checkup and I keep tabs on all the major areas of my body that typically become trouble spots as a man ages.)

You can imagine, then, how relieved I was when it was announced to me that the powers that be have officially set the age when one is “old” as eighty!  Thank God!  I have twenty more years of middle age…functionality, lucidity, coherency, preaching, teaching, leading, golf, travel, eating and the broad enjoyment of life at the save level as I have experienced it for most of my adult life.  I am doing my best to ignore the suspicion that the intervening years will go by even faster than the prior years. 

It does seem that the older one gets, decades become years and years become days.  Regardless, I intend to live life at the fastest pace, the highest level and the most productive output as I can manage into the foreseeable future.  Age is only a number for technicalities like Social Security, driver’s licenses and biographies.  Age is not a reference point for quality of life and the size of contributions one can make to the world around him. 

The only exception to the last paragraph would be whenever I don’t feel like doing something.  Then I can always back up to the “I’m in my sixties” argument.  And nobody will say a word. 

Busy...busy...busy...

I have not brought anyone up to date on my personal life and schedule since January because I have been so busy.  General Board meetings in February, trips around the district to handle situations, Wyoming, New York, Ohio district board meetings and conference, UGST board meeting and graduation…plus an overseas trip to Prague, Czech Rebuplic and Riga, Lativia have all been jammed into my schedule.  I also had a wonderful 25th Pastoral anniversary celebration with a banquet and special services over the weekend of May 17-18.  My Bible college president (TBC) and his wife, Bro. & Sis. Fred Foster were with me and did a wonderful job. 

 Now, we are gearing up for a summer of camps, plus a wedding in the fall for my son Ross and his fiance, Melissa Thrush.  In addition to all of this, we will have the one-year-old birthday party for MaKinzie.  Yes, June 18th she will be a year old.  Please pray for her.  She is having some health problems with regard to her immune system.  They still don’t know what it is or how to treat it.  She has been the delight of our lives for the last year. 

Both Ryan and Megan, and Ross and Melissa have bought houses this spring.  Rene is back in school at Lourdes College, hopefully working toward a degree in child psychology or education.  I am very proud of her and believe that she will succeed.  My wife is a wonderful help mate to me and is doing a lot of teaching, speaking, writing and leading at this stage of her life as well.

I am working on my second book in the Leadership series.  I have about 5-6 chapters to go before I submit it to be published.  I will tell you this…I am not bored with life.  I feel energized, motivated and positive about the future!  There are just not enough hours in the day to get it all done.  I like what I read the other day, though.  “There are not enough hours in the day to get everything done, but there is enough time to get all the important things done!”  My problem is…I think everything is important.  Oh well.  I will have to decide sooner or later.  Meanwhile, I keep on working.

Mother's Ninetieth

On January 26, I hosted a 90th birthday party for my mother, Theodora Jordan.  Her birthday was actually on January 7, but I couldn’t get everything together until later.  She was in fine spirits that day.  She battles a form of dementia that severely limits her short term memory, but she is very lucid and capable of carrying on a good conversation as long as she doesn’t have to remember a lot of things to do it. 

The funniest thing that happened had to be when Jenny, my sister from New York, tried to fix Mother’s hair.  After a few minutes, Mother reached up and yanked the new “do” down and slicked it back again.  She said it bothered her and she had no idea that Jenny had just fixed it up for her.  Jenny got perturbed and did it over again.  A few more minutes passed and Mother did the same thing.   Up went the hair again.  Down went the hair a third time.  After that, Jenny gave up.  It was a scream.  These days, Mother’s priority in life is to feel comfortable.  Dressing fit to kill—-which is what she was known for all of her life—-was no longer comfortable.  At ninety years old, she doesn’t worry abut impressing anyone.

 I was so grateful for all the people who came.  Family members who came were Jenny Teets, Vicky and Joe Carpenter, Joe and Sherri Carpenter (and Joshua), Angela and Jay Jones (and Kelsea), Cindy and Rodney Clark, plus my gang of Ryan and Megan Jordan (and MaKinzie), Ross, Rene, and my wife Sandy and me.  Jonathan Perry, a great nephew, came by.  Several church members who visit my Mother on a regular basis also came.  Although Mother did not remember the party after she went back to her room, we remember and it meant so much to us.

Other than the mental issues, Mother seems to be healthy.  She falls occasionally and she has bouts with depression because she wants to go home.  Her home was sold two years ago and all her possessions were liquidated.  She has no recollection of this however, so she often expresses her desire to go back to Jackson.  This is one of the sad realities we have to deal with now.  I’m just glad that I can have her about five minutes away from me in these sunset years.

Any friends or family who want to send a card or letter should follow through.  Mother will enjoy it over and over.