LakePastor.com

Good Press, Again!

This article was written in THE LAKE TODAY newspaper.  I thought it was worth sharing.  Once again, good press for Faithbridge.

Church, music ‘Come Together’

Beatitudes use Beatles’ songs to minister to wider audience

By Deborah Wolfe 
The Lake Today 

    “A lot of people put up the manger scene after Christmas and write the message of Jesus’ birth off as a cute story,” Faithbridge church Pastor Buck Cueni-Smith said, “but the birth of Jesus started a revolution and the Beatitudes are not only the way Christ lived his life but also the way he expected us to follow him." 
    Cueni-Smith was referring to the fact that many people don’t realize the Christmas season continues long after the giftwrap and garland are put away. In the coming weeks, Faithbridge church will recognize this process by incorporating Christ’s teachings in the Beatitudes with the music of the Beatles. 
    This may seem like an odd combination to some, but Cueni-Smith believes popular music can help people grasp the meaning of sometimes difficult Biblical teachings. 
    “The 12 days of Christmas are actually the 12 days after Christmas with Jan. 6 marking the epiphany, which is the beginning of Lent,” Cueni-Smith explained. “Epiphany literally means ‘to make known’ or ‘to reveal’ and our goal is to make Christ teachings known through the music of our culture.” 
Common thread 
    The idea of combining the message of the Beatitudes with the music of the Beatles came to Cueni-Smith after attending a performance of “Let it Be Christmas” at a fellow church. Taking a deeper look at the lyrics of other classic Beatles tunes, he found a common thread in the messages he felt could help him reach a broader audience. 
    “There is a Christian calendar that is established to go through the process of awakening,” Cueni-Smith said. “By incorporating Christ’s message with popular music, it magnifies our ability to enlighten a larger and more diverse group of people.” 
    This past Sunday’s introduction to the Beatitudes was supplemented by the tunes “Let it Be,” “Help” and “Revolution.” Cueni-Smith believes the story of Christ birth was the beginning of a revolutionary life that modern-day people should model their own lives after. 
    “People at that time were praying for a warrior king, but what God did in sending this little baby was revolutionary,” Cueni-Smith said. “God built a bridge through an infant in the complete opposite way that took everyone by surprise.” 
    Just as the song “Help” recognizes that you can’t do it by yourself, Cueni-Smith stressed the church should play a central role in assisting members of the community regardless of their religious beliefs. Through Faithbridge, he hopes to take the church back to being a center for community activities and he recently offered the use of the church as a shelter to families in need of refuge from the bitter winter weather. 
    “I like to wear out buildings,” Cueni-Smith said. “We have showers here and plenty of space for people in need. The church should be the hub of a community.” 
Entertainment Meets Ministry 
    Services and activities that combine ministry with entertainment play an important part in releasing people from the fear of entering a church full of foreboding and forbidding. While Faithbridge stays true to its Christian mission, Cueni-Smith said they try to keep the atmosphere relaxed and welcoming. 
    “Because church has gotten complicated some people are intimidated to go to a church building,” he explained. “We’re trying to produce events for the community that people won’t feel threatened that they are going to be preached at or judged.” 
    The church’s initial outreach attempt began in 2009 with a blues jam held on the Longest Night also known as Blue Christmas to recognize people who have lost loved ones through death, divorce or separation, those who are lonely and those who incurred a job loss or suffer from seasonal affective disorder. 
    Other activities have helped the young church rapidly build its open-door reputation throughout the Lake Area. 
    “We had an overwhelming turn out for our hog roast that included entertainment by a blue grass band,” Cueni-Smith recalled with a laugh. “And even though it rained during our drivein movie night, we had about 20 cars in the parking lot with people watching ‘Herbie the Love Bug.’” 
    Whether it takes Beatles tunes to teach the Beatitudes or 
employing the creative talents of tattoo artists to render chalk drawings of Christian tattoos they have etched in their customer’s skin, Cueni-Smith vows to continue to find innovative ways to reach out to the Lake community. 
    “It’s about being culturally relevant as a church,” Cueni-Smith said. “But we are committed to producing programs that will bring the outside world in.” 
    He stressed that music will always play a pivotal role in bringing seekers to Faithbridge. 
    “If you have an excellent music ministry, the preaching can be simply adequate and you will still get the message across,” Cueni-Smith said downplaying his abilities as a preacher. 
Concept Context 
The Beatitudes series began Sunday and will continue through the first Sunday in February. Though the concept has been well-received by most congregants, Cueni-Smith admits to a bit of consternation about a long-ago comment made by former Beatle John Lennon claiming the Beatles were more popular than Christ. Although later reports agreed Lennon’s remark was taken out of context, Cueni-Smith’s time spent as a circuit minister with the British Methodist Church outside of Birmingham, England, impressed upon him the enormous effect the group had on the English culture and left him wondering how the world would change if the church could have the same impact. 
“My biggest controversy with the Beatitudes series is from Christians because of Lennon’s remark but that was taken out of context and in a way he was right,” Cueni-Smith said. “If the church could gain the popularity that the Beatles had in England at the height of their fame, we could rival that comment.” 
More information about the Beatitudes through the songs of the Beatles and other Faithbridge sponsored events can be found online at www.faithbridgelakechurch.com or by calling the church office at 573-348-9454. 

FAITHBRIDGE CHURCH 
    For more information about the Beatitudes or Faitbridge events:     
• www.faithbridgelakechurch.com 
• Church office: 573-348-9454

    COURTESY OF BUCK CUENI-SMITH 
Beatitudes band members Mark McPheeters on guitar (left) and Larry Cox on bass (center) provide rhythmic background to Urban Poet Jeremy Shields as he raps to the congregation during the Beatitudes sermon series at Faithbridge Church in Osage Beach on Sunday.

Married 15 years, Pastor Buck Cueni-Smith moved to the Lake Area in 2009 to develop programs at the new Faithbridge church. The couple has 11-year-old twin daughters and a 6-year-old son.

Totally Overwhelmed With the Season

No apologies for not blogging these last several months. We have been having fun.  My last post was a video trying not only to brighten your spirits, but also to brighten my own.  October was brutal for Faithbridge Church. We expected attendance numbers to dip after the tourist season here at the lake, but we didn’t expect it to be cut in half. We started to question, pull data, and make excuses.

Then November came.  Oh my, where did they all come from.  And not just the ones coming to “check us out.”  People came that like what they saw and wanting to go deeper in to what are vision stands for. New contributors were added weekly.  People bringing friends and spreading the news about Faithbridge Church.

In November, we supplied Thanksgiving Dinner for 15 families.  The groceries signup was filled after the first Sunday it was announced.  A far cry from last year when we had to take money out of the budget to buy groceries for each basket.  Then in December, we did it again, but we also provide a weeks worth of groceries to feed the family while school was out.

During this time we started talks with an organization named FeedtheChildren.org.  We decided to set our Christmas Offering goal at $5000. If we were to reach this goal, it would purchase about 75% of a semi-truck full of food.  Feed the Children was founded in 1979 by Larry and Frances Jones, the mission of Feed The Children is to deliver food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty or natural disaster. Since their founding, Feed The Children has shipped food and relief supplies and other essentials to children and their families in all 50 states and 119 countries, supplementing almost 800,000 meals each day. 

We became a truck sponsor on December 15. Truck sponsorship allows Faithbridge Church to sponsor a truckload of food, personal care items and other necessities to children and families in need. Each truck sponsorship delivers 400 boxes of food, 400 boxes of personal care items, and 400 boxes of Avon products. The food, hygiene and Avon boxes are individually packaged for convenient distribution and contain a wide variety of essential items such as canned vegetables, pasta, soup, lotion, soap, etc. We need Individuals, businesses, schools and other community groups to partner with us. After the Christmas offering goal of $5000 we are asking to community to make up the rest of the $8,100, that underwrites the cost of transportation for an entire semi-truck of pre-boxed product and see our community changed for the better.  I’ll come back to this later.

Another overwhelming thing, was that we were overran with cookies.  Last year one of our members, E.G., thought about sending cookies to all the police stations, Sherif post, EMT and fire stations, and the hospital to spread cheer to all that have to work Christmas.  This year, after 26 people baked 3-5 dozen each we added nursing homes and the toll booths on the toll bridge.  It was wonderful to see people get involved in this outreach and we delivered the cookies after the Christmas Eve Service.

Which brings be to Christmas Eve. Last year our Christmas Eve service was our “come and see”. Now that we opened in May we had no idea what to do and how many people would show up. To find out what we did go to www.faithbridgelakechurch.com. It was a great and awesome experience that 160 people enjoyed. During the service we took an offering for our Christmas offering.  This brings us back to the Feed the Children Food Truck.

With still one more Sunday to collect on the Christmas offering we have collected $6100.  Once again I was brought to tears.  God is good and he is doing something with Faithbridge Church in the Lake Community.  I wonder what 2010 will be like.  Thank God and Thanks to all!

Just Had to Brighten a Day!

Thought I would share this.  Sometimes we just need to laugh, so go ahead--laugh!  I did.

No Excuses

For those who have noticed, I have not been writing.  If it helps, the reason I haven’t written in a while is that I’ve been doing my job.  It’s been good to be busy.  So this is my article of no excuses. 

Some people see it as a pastor’s job to blog, but when you are starting a church one cannot always take time to write. When you are starting a church one has to spend their time where ever there is the greatest demand.  And lately, the immediate need has not been at the computer writing blogs.   So here it goes, no excuses are needed for not blogging unless one wants to be noticed, wants to get their name out there, and/or needs to feel that people want to know what you think and are doing.   So if you are interested in people find out about you, here you go:

1. Blog regularly: Unless you blog regularly, people won’t find your blog interesting. Also Search engine bots check for updates to your site and accordingly reevaluate you rank.

2. Put appropriate Titles: Make sure your title bar is appropriate. Before it was ‘LakePastor.com’  I was 7pointblogger, whenever I  searched it on Google my site was the first to get displayed. However since I have changed my blog a mere search returns my site on the first page. This is because google not only searches for keyword but also takes into consideration the context in which it appears on the title.

3. Get yourself cross linked. Ask all your blogging friends to put your link on their blog roll. This is because search engine bots whenever will across your site link on other sites will improve your rank. Also try to put the link of your blog wherever possible but in proper context. If your blog is technical you can provide its link on all technical forums you visit.

4.Comment on other people’s blog: Regularly read other people’s blog. Only then you can expect others to read your blog. Whenever you comment do not forget to mention link to your blog.

5. Post quality content: The only reason someone will read your blog is because he will find it interesting. If you are writing it for the world do not be very specific in terms of places, names etc. If you target a specific group readership make sure that your are more specific.

6. Get yourself on wikipedia: Be a member of Wikipedia,Wikivarsity mention your blog link on your talk page (Please do not vandalize these beauties, they are boon to society). If you have blogged on a topic with extensive research you can mention it in the reference of corresponding topic in Wikipedia. That gets almost 10 to 20 hits per week depending on what the topic is.

7 . Be Honest: Whenever promoting your blog make sure that you are honest wherever you type about your blog. DO not try to fool people and get them on your site. It’s better to have one or two good readers than thousand trespassers.

8. If you want a particular keyword to point your site when searched in Google or MSN live make sure you type it as often as possible on your site. Make static pages that will contain that word in proper context.

But as for me, I’ll write when I can, Peace.

LIFE IS A PEICE OF A LARGER PUZZLE: R U PUZZLED?

LIFE IS A PEICE OF A LARGER PUZZLE: PUZZLED?

Life, you'll notice, is a piece of a puzzle.

Life doesn't come to us like a math problem. It comes to us the way that a piece of a puzzle does, piece by piece. You wake up. What will happen next? You don't get to know-you have to enter in, take the journey as it comes. The sun might be shining. There might be a tornado outside. Your friends might call and invite you to go sailing. You might lose your job.

Life unfolds like the coming together of a puzzle. Each day has a beginning and an end. There are all sorts of charac­ters, all sorts of settings. A year goes by like a chapter from a novel. Sometimes it seems like a tragedy. Sometimes like a comedy. Most of it feels like a soap opera. Whatever happens, it's a peice of a puzzle through and through.

We can discover the piece of a puzzle. Maybe not with perfect clarity, maybe not in the detail that you would like, but in greater clarity than most of us now have, and that would be worth the price of the whole puzzle.

Every piece of a puzzle, great and small, shares the same essen­tial structure because every piece of a puzzle we tell borrows its power from a Larger Puzzle. There is a piece of a puzzle that we just can't seem to escape. There is a piece of a puzzle put on the human heart.

As Ecclesiastes has it, ”He has planted eternity in the human heart.” (3:11)

Wouldn't it make sense that if we ever did find the secret to our lives, the secret to the universe, it would come to us first as the unfolding of a puzzle? Piece of a puzzle is the very nature of reality. Like the missing parts of a novel, it would explain these pages we are holding, the chap­ters of our lives.