Rob Ketterling

THANKS FOR THE HELP

Thanks to everyone that gave me ideas to blog about (I didn't post all of them!) they were very helpful. I'll post some of those things and I'll answer your questions. Here's one quick answer and a question for the blog world. The answer on my devotion plan with my boys is that we do the S.O.A.P. plan. We read a chapter of the Bible, write down in a journal what Scripture stood out, what we Observed about it, what we can Apply to our life and what we can Pray about. (Here's a link to a church that does this. SOAP) Hope this helps.

My question for you is political. One of the big issues concerning the young Christian vote is that the care of the poor is the biggest priority for them. Now I'll be honest, I think we're talking about a percentage point difference in spending, that's all. It's not that one party is going to spend money on the poor and the other one is going to eliminate all spending, it's really much less than one percent of our national budget.  So with that being said, is there any scripture that says that the government should take care of the poor? I understand that the Israelites gave money to the temple treasury (the church of the day) but beyond that, does a government have a mandate to take care of the poor or is it the churches job? I think we're missing the point, it's our job to take care of the poor, not the governments job. Help me out if there's any scriptures that say it's the governments job.

STUMPED

I'm sitting here thinking of something to blog about and I'm stumped. I could blog about the Deacon meeting, our staff retreat, my new devotion plan with my boys, our budget planning process at RVC  but it doesn't inspire me so why should it inspire you! I could blog about my top 100 places to see before you die (I recently saw two more.) but I don't have the time. I could blog about being endorsed by Joe the Plumber but he's holding out his endorsement of me... So, I'm blogging about being stumped...If you have any blog suggestions, here's your opportunity. Help feed my blog machine!

MONDAY MORNING STUFF

OK, this post is past noon but I started it inthe morning, I just had a few interuptions! Here are a few random thoughts for this blog today.

* Services went great this weekend, I loved the special music by Jason Hall, well done Jason! The sermon was a lot of fun to preach as well and it just got better (In my opinion.) as the weekend went along. The heart of a servant, that's what we're praying for and most people will never forget my Africa confession!

*My smoke alarm battery died at 4:AM on Sunday! Why do they always die in the middle of the night!? I was on a kitchen stool, groggy, trying to disconnect a smoke alarm I could barely reach wondering that question. (By the way, it's daylight savings time this weekend. You get an extra hour of sleep and you should replace your smoke detector batteries!)

* Seeing snow after the service on Sunday was not a good thing! Thankfully it will be 60 by Friday!

* The World Series is boring, the Viking's are toast without the WIlliams Wall, and Gopher's Football is amazing! (They're ranked higher than LSU in the BCS standings!)

POLITICKED

I'm just so concerned with the political scene in the U.S. it's so sad what's going on. Rather than talk about the issues, we've turned our political process into a Hollywood evening news show. What was Sarah wearing today? Who paid for it? Did Barack body surf in Hawaii? How many homes do the McCain's own? Did Joe Biden....OK, maybe nobody cares about Biden, but they care about the rest of them!

I'm afraid our media has completely failed us as citizens. We know more about Joe the plumber than we do about the candidates. No one is asking about the issues and digging into the past of the candidates to see where they will lead us. (I truly believe someone's past behavior is the only indicator we can count on, talk is cheap.) Thankfully we have the Internet to do our own investigating if we're interested but that's really not enough.

It comes as no surprise, I'm socially conservative, and it frustrates me that the media is so biased, so determined to elect a candidate that they've lost theirobjectivity. I just think we're in big trouble as a nation when the media forgets to report the news and starts to spin the news. And I'm very concerned with the fairness doctrine and feel like it's the first step towards silencing the church. It's frustrating that we hear so little about this issue and others like it.

I have to say, it was very refreshing to be out of the country recently and to not have to watch the news and be deep into all the negativity of our political process. Thankfully we only have about one week left. The ads will be over, and a new leader will have to lead our country. So take a few moments and pray for our country, our church and that we will elect Godly leaders like the Bible instructs us to. I have to remind myself and I need to remind you, the real battle is a spiritual one, the thing that should consume us is the Kingdom of God and we should be thankful hat no matter the outcome of this next election, we have a job to do for Jesus.

Proverbs 29:2 - When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice.
      But when the wicked are in power, they groan.

Proverbs 16:12 - Good leaders abhor wrongdoing of all kinds;
   sound leadership has a moral foundation.

RANDOM STUFF

Here's a blog of some random stuff.

Kind of bored today with my day off, an overcast day and Becca out of town for the Healing Place Church Women's Conference.

I went golfing today and played what possibly is my last 9 holes for the year. (I didn't play well..) I'm not looking forward to Winter....

I stopped in on youth group Wednesday night and thought it was awesome. The Worship, the sermon, the cafe being open, the crowd. If you have teenagers, get them to our youth group on Wednesday night! 

I drove with Connor for the first time last night, (He has his permit.) and I think I aged 5 years! Not because he was a bad driver, but because I realized I'm old enough to have a son that drives!  

I'm looking forward to preaching this weekend after being out because of Russia the last two weeks. Part two of Servanthood should be good!

PASTOR APPRECIATION WEEK (OR MONTH)

OK, bear with me, this is not a shameless plug to be appreciated, it really is something I felt I should blog about. So withhold judgment as I blog!

It's Pastor Appreciation Month in October (It used to just be a week but now we get a month!) and I wanted to say thank you to all of the people that have said something, emailed me or given a gift. It really is appreciated as the stress of ministry weighs on me and other pastors and just a kind word from someone gives you a lift like you can't imagine. So thanks for the kind words!

I don't want to be presumptuous, but can I ask for just one more thing? In a large church, Pastor Appreciation Month gets a little lost. I don't know if it's because there are so many pastors, you don't know who to talk to, send a note to or bless in some way so you're overwhelmed by the number of pastors and choose to pass on a great idea. Maybe it looks like a lot of fun to be on a big church staff so you don't think there's much pressure so you pass on sharing a note because you don't think they need it. I'm not sure what you're thinking, (several of you are thinking the opposite of this and are doing a great job!) but I want to encourage you to take time in the last few days of this month and participate in this event.

I really don't need the encouragement, (I was serious, it's not a shameless plug for me!) but I'd love it if you took the time to show your appreciation to the pastoral staff. They need it because in a large church many times they get overlooked. So pick one or two that you're close to and show them some love! You don't have to do something for all of them but do something for at least one of them. Thanks so much for your help with this! (If you don't attend RVC, take time to show some love to your pastor!)

PLANNING AHEAD

I just got off the phone with an evangelist that's trying to put together an all day outreach in Minnesota for August of 2009. The plan is to have an all day concert with 12 hours of music and interspersed in the day, a few short presentations of the gospel so people can respond. I think this type of event will work because it's non-threatening and also past experience tells me this works in Minnesota. Luis Palau had thousands at his festival and Sonshine Festival has 20,000 or so and they have to pay to get in. This would be a free event so I think it would go over really well. I'll keep you posted on what comes of this, just thought you would like to know what we've got cooking for August 2009!

LSU AND THE GOPHERS

Recently I answered a survey and shared that there are two college football teams I cheer for, LSU and the GOPHERS. Unfortunately, most of my victories came from LSU and not the Gophers and they rarely were in the top 25 together. Well, I'm glad to say that they are both in the top 25! LSU is 13th and the GOPHERS are 24th in the BCS standings! I need to celebrate this while I can, you never know, LSU just might lose again!

VIKINGS AND POLITICS

Do we have to watch the Vikings and all of these political adds? It was a joy to have a break from both while we were gone!

A FEW MORE PICTURES

For those that are interested, here's a few more pictures of the trip. I'm really jet lagged right now but it's so good to be back home. I love RVC and I also love sleeping in my own bed! (Pictures are of us in front of the Vatican, me lifting a mini car and Becca and I in the Coliseum.)