Northeast Oklahoma District Church of the Nazarene

Dear NEO family,

Greetings in the strong name of Jesus! We had a great group come out last Monday for the “Theologically Speaking” session on “The Pure in Heart: Our Views of Christian Holiness”. Ten churches were represented with laypersons accounting for almost half of the participants.

Our next “Theologically Speaking” session will be on Monday, October 18. The topic is an important one, “The Word of His Power: Our views on the Bible and Science.” What do we mean by the sola scriptura? The infallibility or inerrancy of scriptures? The Wesleyan Quadrilateral? Are science and Christian faith allies or adversaries? I would love to have you put the session on your calendar and join us.

It was a joy to be at Cornerstone Community Church in Wagoner on Sunday. One of the exiting things for me was to see all the new teens and young adults since I last visited this church. Pastor Jeff Wooten and Youth Pastor Ryan Alsop and the wonderful laypersons of Wagoner are doing a great job.

It is always difficult for us to see a church struggle, go on life support and eventually close. A faithful core has kept the doors of Locust Grove Church of the Nazarene open for the last few years but now they have decided to disband. Thanks, Pastor Dana Pelton, and the faithful core for your service.

District Work and Witness projects are continuing in Drumright, Tulsa Southwest and Miami. We would love to have a key lay contact in every church for these projects. Send names to Jerry Wilburg, jerryw@thermoflo.net .

Harvey Mackay shared the following regarding “life lessons” in a recent email that is worth repeating: Gordon Dean was an American lawyer and prosecutor whose distinguished career was fairly typical for Washington types. He went to work for the Justice Department under President Franklin Roosevelt, taught in the law schools at Duke University and the University of Southern California. He was appointed as one of the original commissioners of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1949 by President Harry Truman, eventually becoming its chairman from 1950-53.

When Dean died in a plane crash in 1958, it's said that among his personal effects was an envelope with nine life lessons scribbled on the back. These lessons aren't about the law, or atomic energy, or foreign relations. Rather, they represent wisdom that should be shared and used by people everywhere. These are his superb lessons:

1. Never lose your capacity for enthusiasm.

2. Never lose your capacity for indignation.

3. Never judge people -- don't type them too quickly. But in a pinch never first assume that a man is bad; first assume that he is good and that, at worst, he is in the gray area between bad and good.

4. Never be impressed by wealth alone or thrown by poverty.

5. If you can't be generous when it's hard to be, you won't be when it's easy.

6. The greatest builder of confidence is the ability to do something -- almost anything -- well.

7. When confidence comes, then strive for humility; you aren't as good as all that.

8. The way to become truly useful is to seek the best that other brains have to offer. Use them to supplement your own, and be prepared to give credit to them when they have helped.

9. The greatest tragedies in the world and personal events stem from misunderstandings. So communicate!

The reason I'm so impressed with Dean's lessons is that -- besides being written on an envelope - they apply across the board, to all ages in every profession. They are simple yet profound.

All of these are helpful, but #5 stood out to me when I first read it. If you can't be generous when it's hard to be, you won't be when it's easy. How true it is. Let's choose to be generous ...that is a part of being a Christlike disciple.

Hope you have a great weekend and Lord’s Day. You are loved!

Dave McKellips