North American Christian Convention

We had a great time at NACC in Cincinnati a few weeks ago. It is always an encouragement to meet together with thousands of brothers and sisters in Christ. The worship services are so uplifting and the messages so inspiring. I came back energized and ready to continue the battle of seeking and saving the lost.

It is important for Christians to take time away to be re-energized and refocused. It’s easy to get distracted by the day to day demands of life and lose our focus on what is really important. I encourage everyone to take time away. Find a Christian retreat - mens retreat, womans retreat, family retreat, parent-child retreat, etc. - or just find a quite place to get away for a couple days to reconnect with the Lord and allow Him to re-direct your path and your priorities.

One of the primary weapons the enemy uses against us is to bombard us with stuff to take up our time, to keep us busy on less important things (although he makes them seem vital at the moment). Our best defense against busyness is a day of rest. In fact, God commands us to take a day off every 7 days.

We would all do well to heed our creator’s instructions. So take a break and get re-energized and reconnected with the Lord.

Serving Christ and His family,

Pastor Ken Lawrence

Family Vacation

We’re traveling back home from the North American Christian Convention in Cincinnati taking a much needed time out with the family. We spent the 4th of July weekend in Brunswick, OH at my Uncle Dave and Aunt Judy Gray’s house. On Sunday there was a big Gray family surprise party for my Uncle Gerard and Aunt Liz’s 50th wedding anniversary. 52 people were there. I got to visit with uncles, aunts, and cousins I haven’t seen in 20 - 30 years. We had a great time!

We are now taking our time working our way back home to Colorado. We spent time in beautiful Amish country in Ohio. The corn fields and wheat fields are quite a sight to see.

We then drove down into West Virginia, a state I had never been to before. Everything is so green! More farm land, lots of corn there, too.

We pushed hard yesterday through Kentucky to get to Missouri so we’ll have time to do some sightseeing today. We crossed the Mississippi yesterday. It is still showing signs of all the flooding the past few weeks. What an awesome sight.

Last night we ate at Lambert’s Cafe in Sikeston, MO. It is the “home of the throwed rolls.” With a slogan like that we just had to stop and see it! Sure enough, the waiters push around a cart full of hot rolls and holler out “hot rolls!” If you want a roll you wave your hand and they throw one to you. They are hot so once you catch them you have to quickly put it on your plate. Boy were they good! The meal servings were huge and delicious (and not on my diet).

Today we are off to the Springfield, MO area to visit a Civil War battlefield then on to Carthage to see the Precious Moments chapel. On the way to Springfield we’re going to go through West Plains and Caulfield where we used to live and Gainsville to show the kids the church where Chris and I got married.

We’re having a great time!

Ken

Creation Museum

We’re in the Cincinnati area for the North American Christian Convention (NACC). We have an exhibit booth this year promoting Norwood Christian Ranch. I got to the convention hall first thing this morning to set up our display booth. Everything went well and I was back at the hotel by 9:30 a.m. That gave us the rest of the day to take a family trip we have been planning for a long time.

After years of eager anticipation today we finally got to visit the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY. It was everything I hoped for and more. Answers In Genesis has done a fantastic job in creating a high caliber museum that rivals any secular venue. Entertaining and education for the children and intellectually challenging and fun for adults. It’s part amusement park part museum and all biblically based.

I was also pleased to see large crowds there. People continue to come to the museum in large numbers proving that while the media continues to tell us we live in a post-Christian nation, Christians are still alive and well in the US and will continue to support bible based ministries that proclaim the truth.

I you are in the Cincinnati area, or if you are looking for a great family vacation worth a few days drive to get to, I highly recommend you spend a couple days at the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum. Check out the museum website at www.CreationMuseum.org

Tomorrow the NACC begins. We look forward to getting the word out about Norwood Christian Ranch, attending some great sessions and hearing inspirational, motivating speakers. If you are at the convention look for us at booth 225.

Serving Christ and His family,

Pastor Ken Lawrence

Families Working Together

What a week we are having here at Norwood Christian Ranch. A workgroup of 18 people from Milford Christian Church in Milford Missouri are here to help us with some much needed repairs. They have wasted no time knocking out the many projects we disparately needed done.

They have reshingled part of the main building where the existing shingles were pealing up and at risk of blowing off, causing leaks. The new roof looks great!

They replaced sinks and counter tops in the dining hall. The counter tops are gorgeous!  Last month they sent funds to buy a new stove for the dining hall kitchen.  The new stove and new counter tops really give the kitchen a much needed face lift.

They have painted all the decks and much of the main building where the old paint was dried and pealing off.

They even got some firewood cut and split.

Those items were all on their “to do” list when they arrived. Not only have they enthusiastically taken care of those items with great care and pride of work, but they jumped in and took care of some “emergency repairs” that they hadn’t planned on.

They completely replumbed the kitchen and laundry room sinks that had become clogged. The clog was so bad that we could not run the washing machine, dishwasher, or us the main kitchen sink. The old pipes had sagged under the floor causing food particles, soap, and grease to build up and become hard as a rock.

They added an electrical outlet in the kitchen to make it easier to plug in the refrigerator and dishwasher. The outlet looks like it was put in when the building was first built.

Their first night here the baseboard heaters broke causing the rooms to overheat. They got them disconnected for us so they will no longer be a problem for other guests.

When they started removing old paint on the back side of the main building they discovered that the wood, which was very thin paneling to begin with, was deteriorated so badly that it needed to be replaced. This is the part of the office with southern exposure so it is subjected to direct sunlight year round. The sun had taken its tole one the thin wood. So they jumped right in and replaced the whole back side of the main building, including the threshold to the office door which had fallen apart.

It has been such a blessing to us having them here. It would have taken my family years to get all these project completed. They were able to knock them out in three days. What blessed us most was seeing families working together. Little ones as young as 2 and 3 years old, teens, and adults all working together as a team. We have heard no complaining or bickering. They are here on a mission of love and they are showing love not only to our family and the ministry of Norwood Christian Ranch, but also to one another.

A huge “thank you” goes out to the workgroup from Milford Christian Church:

Pastor Cliff Hazzard, daughter Caddie, son Nathan and grand son Tristin, Norman & Rhonda Schipull, Dennis & Nancy Gariss, sons Nick & Isaac and daughter Natalie, Travis & Crystal Milam and their daughters Sadie, Jasmine, Rylee & Averi, and Jim Bayless.

What a blessing you have been to us!!! The love of Christ was evident in the work you did and the attitude in which you carried out you mission here at Norwood Christian Ranch. You have been encouragement to us as we strive to serve Christian families around the country.

Serving Christ and His family,

Pastor Ken Lawrence

What a Blessed Day!

I had a wonderful Father’s Day! It began with my meeting Jim Hohnberger. Jim is the founder of Empowered Living Ministries (www.EmpoweredLivingMinistries.org) and the author of many Christian books including Escape to God. I read Escape to God a few months ago and felt an instant bond with Jim. This book is about Jim’s journey from non-believer, to being a “religious” man, to truly walking with God in all areas of his life.

When I read his book I could not believe the similarities in our lives. In fact, when I finished reading the book I said to Chris, “You have got to read this. This guy is living our life, but he is doing it right!” I felt such a bond with Jim that I longed to meet him some day and compare life experiences.

Well, about a month after reading the book, Ron Gabbett, the friend who loaned me the book and told me I had to read it, informed me that Jim was going to be in our area speaking at a nearby camp. Ron asked if it would be alright if he invited Jim to speak at church. Alright? I told him it was more than alright. I asked him to please do whatever he could to get Jim here.

Jim agreed to come speak to our little church. His message was such a blessing. After service we had Jim and Michael, the camp instructor, and Ron and his friend Ann over for lunch. We had the opportunity to share our hearts and experiences with one another for a few hours. What a blessing. Jim offered me words of encouragement as we continue the ministry of Norwood Christian Ranch (www.NorwoodChristianRanch.com) and how we might take it to the next level of ministering to pastors and missionaries and Christian families.

Jim is such a wonderful man of God. I felt like I had known him my whole life because God has had us on such similar journeys.

After Jim left we went out to Miramonte Reservoir with our dear friends, the Parkers, to do some fishing. The weather and the fishing were good and we had a nice, relaxing time on the water in the Parker’s boat. We came back with five fish and some funny fishing stories about “the ones that got away.”

All in all it was an excellent way to spend Father’s Day.

Serving Christ and His family,

Pastor Ken Lawrence

Being a Father Worthy of Honor

God has commanded children to “honor your father and mother.” This commandment is put on children regardless of the type of parents they have. The commandment does not say, “Honor your father as long as he is worthy of honor” or “Honor your good, God-fearing father.” Children are to honor their father no matter what, whether the father is worthy of honor or not.

According to Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary of the English Language, honor mean:

“To revere; to respect; to treat with deference and submission, and perform relative duties to.”

As fathers we can make it easy for our children or difficult for our children to obey God by honoring us. We make it difficult for them when we provoke them to wrath by constantly getting on their case for what they do wrong, by being disengaged from their life, by being too busy with our own selfish pursuits to invest time in their life to guide and direct them into a God-honoring life of their own.

We make it easier for them when we encourage them when we catch them doing something right. We make it easier for them when we “bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4), when we turn our hearts to them as a major priority in our life (Malachi 4:6), and when we walk as the spiritual leader of the home that God has called us to be (Deuteronomy 6:6-8).

A father’s life is not an easy one. We have so many responsibilities, so many distractions that pull our time in all different directions. It is difficult to keep life in balance. It takes effort to set priorities and jealously guard family time from all the other things that are constantly trying to turn our hearts away from our children.

Fathers, we are called by God to be provider, protector, and priest. In contrast, we are called by the world be spenders what we do not have, leave our children in the hands of the government, and let our children decide for themselves what religion is right for them, if any.

Notice that God’s calling is focused on our relationship with others. A provider provides for the welfare of others, in this case, for our family. A protector provides protection for others. A priest builds up other’s relationship with God. A father’s calling is to be focused on others not ourselves. God wants the father’s heart turned toward his children (Malachi 4:6).

The world’s calling is focused on self. “It’s your money, spend it on yourself because you’re worth it” is what the world tells us. “Protect yourself because nobody else will.” The only priest the world wants you to be is a priest of tolerance of godless beliefs and self indulgence.

How are we to live a life worthy of honor? By being a man of God in all areas of our life. By turning the focus off of ourself and onto the family God has entrusted to our care. Let me encourage you to make it a priority to be provider, protector, and priest in your home. Allow God to turn your heart to your children and you will be amazed at how quickly they turn their hearts to you. It is easy for a child to honor a father with whom their heart is engaged.

Live the life God has called you to. Walk as the example of Christ in your home for your children and you will truly be a father worthy of honor from your children.

Serving Christ and His family,

Pastor Ken Lawrence

It’s Ready!

The much anticipated new Pastor’s House DVD is finally ready! We’ve been working on this project for several months now. Post production took a little longer than we thought it would, but the extra time was well worth it.

The new DVD is called The Pastor’s House Father-Child Projects Volume 1. It is hopefully the first in a series of DVDs designed to help fathers build strong relationships with their children. This is accomplished by building fun, useful projects together that are easy to build. I’ve designed the projects so you can do them in a few hours using standard tools most guys have in their garage or workshop.

What kind of projects? On the first DVD my six year old son Thomas and I show you how to build a three-hole washers game and marshmallow blowguns. Believe me, I’m no carpenter, so if I can build these projects you can too. I even include a Bible lesson that relates to the project.

To check out a video preview of this awesome new DVD check out our website at www.PastorsHouse.com.

Pastor Ken Lawrence

Instilling a Christian Work Ethic into your Children

I heard of a farmer who had several boys. He worked those boys extremely hard around the farm. One day one of the neighbors pointed out that it wasn’t necessary to work the boys that hard in order to raise a crop. The farmer, quietly but firmly responded, “I’m not just raising a crop. I’m also raising boys.”

There seems to be a shortage in this country of the good old Christian work ethic. Whenever I talk with business owners and managers the conversation inevitably comes around to finding good workers. “People today just don’t want to work, especially young people” is a common theme of these conversations.

Why don’t people today want to work? Because most are not taught how to work. I’m not talking about the mechanics of doing a particular type of work, I’m talking about the biblical principle of giving your employer a good, honest, hard day’s work for your pay. In today’s world, that seems like a novel idea.

Parents, God has given us the responsibility to train the children He has entrusted to our care in all areas of life. That includes training them up to be good, hard workers whether it be for someone else or for themselves. This may be an area that is difficult for you to train your children in because many of us were not trained in it by our parents.

What if we were not taught a biblical work ethic? How can we teach our children what we don’t know? Thankfully God has provided instructions in the Bible.

In Ephesians 6:5-9, through the writings of the Apostle Paul, God speaks to us on this topic: ⁵ Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. ⁶ Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. ⁷ Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, ⁸ because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

While Paul is addressing the slave-master relationship, most commentators agree that this principle directly relates to the employee-employer relationship as well. What Paul tells us is that we are to work as unto the Lord. Whether our employer is present or not, we need to be diligent to do our very best work.

Even if you are self employed, you have customers that you work for. Give them the effort they are paying for as if you are doing it for the Lord.

So how do we teach our children to be good, Christian workers? Here are a few tips for giving them a firm foundation:

1. Starting as soon as they are old enough to walk teach them to put their toys away when they are done playing or before they get out a new one. Let them know that God provided those toys and we need to be good stewards of what God has blessed us with. They may not understand what “steward” means at that early age, but you are setting the foundation for a key biblical principle.

2. As they get older, teach them to make their bed. Don’t worry if they don’t make it “right” (that is, the way you do). You are teaching them responsibility. Technique will come.

3. As they get older give them more responsibilities like helping with the dishes, sweeping the floor, folding laundry or doing yard work. Our boys (6 and 3 years old) love to help wash dishes. You may need to go back and clean some again at first, but in time they’ll learn to do it well. By getting them involved in household chores at an early age you are instilling in them the idea that work is a natural part of being in a family and a natural part of life.

4. Except in special cases, do not pay them for doing their chores. Chores come with living in a house and being in a family. We don’t get paid for doing these regular chores. We do them because it is part of life, it is our responsibility as stewards of what God has given us. Now, if you have some special chores, especially if they involve something that generates income, then use those to teach your children about putting forth a good days work for a good days pay. For example, if they help you get ready for and clean up after a yard sale then share some of the proceeds from the sale with them for their labor. But in general, do not pay children for regular household chores.

Theses are but a few examples. I am sure you can come up with others of your own. If you would like to, please post a comment to pass along your ideas.

Part of the work we are called to do as parents is to instill a Christian work ethic into our children so that they will glorify Christ when they enter the work force as a employees or business owners. Let us put our best effort into this task.

Serving Christ and His family,

Pastor Ken Lawrence

Teachable Moments

As a homeschool dad I am always looking for teachable moments with my children. The Lord gave us one today. I was speaking with a member of the church today about an auction that was held last Saturday. He had bought a load of bricks and another family in the church had bought a load of lumber at the auction.

The lumber was stacked in front of the bricks so the man who bought the bricks could not take them home until the lumber was moved. Yesterday, I helped load and move the lumber. To my surprise, the friend from church who bought the lumber ended up giving it all to me to use at the ranch. What a blessing that was!

When I called the church member who bought the bricks to let him know the lumber was out of his way, he told me it would have to wait a few days because he was recovering from “the two worst blows to the head he’s ever taken in his life.” This gentlemen is around eighty and has experienced a lot in his life, from breaking horses to working in the mines, so for him to say he was hurting that badly I knew it must be really bad.

It turns out that the second of the two accidents he had this weekend involved slipping and falling down some stairs, hitting his tailbone on one step and the back of his head on another as he slid down the stairs.

He told me that once he was feeling better he and his wife would go over to the auction site and load the bricks into his truck. That got me thinking. It didn’t seem right that this older gentlemen and his lovely wife should have to load a truck load of bricks by themselves.

In our bible school lesson on Sunday we learned how God cares for His people through the kind acts of others. I thought this would be a perfect object lesson for the family to reinforce what we learned on Sunday. I talked with my family about showing God’s love to this couple by going over and getting the bricks and delivering them so they wouldn’t have to do it.

Thankfully, the whole family agreed that this was a great opportunity for us to serve someone else. So this afternoon, my wife Chris, my eighteen year old daughter Heather, my six year old son Thomas, and my three year old son Robert, and I went over and spent a couple hours loading up two bundles of bricks into my truck and delivering them to our dear friends. It was great having the family working together passing bricks from the pile, from person to person, and up into the truck. Even Robert helped out, carrying a brick at a time.

When we arrived at the couple’s home, they were pleasantly surprised and very grateful for the kind gesture. It only took two hours out of our day to be a blessing to someone else and to teach our children a lesson about service to others. When we finished unloading the bricks we found it interesting that we had delivered exactly 777 bricks.

I encourage you as Christian parents to look for teachable moments that you can use to reinforce the biblical principles you are teaching your children. Nothing drives the point home like some hands on experience.

Serving Christ and His family,

Pastor Ken Lawrence

What a Week!

You may have noticed that I did not post much this week. Well, it’s been one of those weeks for me. It began Sunday when I had to read a letter to the congregation from one of our members informing them that Sunday was her last day with us because she and her husband are getting divorced. She was one of the first converts the Lord brought to the church after I arrived. I had the privilege of baptizing her. We love the family dearly and it hurts so much to see a family with so much potential be torn apart like this.

On Wednesday Chris and I went to Grand Junction (about 2 ½ hours away) because Chris had major oral surgery first thing Thursday morning. She is recovering well at home now but it was a very stressful couple of days.

Today (Friday) I was back in the church office trying to wrap up my sermon prep after being out of the office for two days. When I took a stretch break around 3 p.m. I noticed a humid smell coming from the church basement where our fellowship hall is. As I got down the stairs I was greeted with the sight of a flood! There was about an inch of water all over the fellowship hall floor, into the nursery and storage room where all the seasonal decorations are kept. Apparently the hose bib from outside leaked through the basement wall.

So for two and a half hours this afternoon instead of finishing up my sermon slides I was bent over a shop vac, along with four or five other guys and their shop vacs, cleaning up the mess.

Tomorrow morning, I wrap up the week helping our dear friend who is getting divorced move to Montrose, about an hour and fifteen minutes away. I so dislike good byes, especially under these circumstances.

All this is happening the week we are trying to get the new Pastor’s House Father-Child Projects DVD finished up and sent off to the duplicator so it will be ready in time for Father’s Day. I’ll be glad when this week is over!

Why am I telling you this on a blog that is supposed to be uplifting and encouraging? Partially to let those of you who don’t know me very well see that I am human, I don’t live a perfect life, and I really am just like you. I’m also sharing this because it is very therapeutic.

I wish I could say that through it all I have remain focused on the important things in life, I haven’t let the stress get me down, and I have been a fine example to my wife and children. It would be great to be able to say that our home life is stronger because of a week like this.

The truth is, this week has flat worn me out physically and emotionally. When I get like this it typically shows in my short temper with my family. Do you react like that when life’s pressures build up on you? Does the only outlet seem to be venting your frustration on your children and spouse, those whom you love the most?

For me, that is a major warning sign that I am about to break. It’s a sign that I’ve been carrying the burden by myself instead of bringing it to the Lord, and talking openly about it with my family. It’s also a sign that I need to take a breath, get away with the family and relax.

Do you know your warning signs? What is it that signals you it’s time to back away from the pressure and take a day off? I encourage you to be conscience of your feelings and attitudes when you are getting stressed out and how you are interacting with those most dear to you. Heed the warning signs and get away before the pressure does you and your family in. The Lord doesn’t want us carrying our burdens alone. He wants us to bring our burdens to Him and cast them upon Him to carry for us. I encourage you to take Him up on His offer. I know I am.

Serving Christ and His Family,

Pastor Ken Lawrence

P.S. If you haven’t already subscirbed to our free e-newsletter on family related issues you can do so at www.PastorsHouse.com/newsletter.htm. A new edition will be coming out May 31st, Lord willing.