Starting Summer, Useful URLs

The spring semester at Amarillo College is long gone. Students were taking their final exams two weeks ago, and Commencement ceremonies were held on Friday, May 15th.

The week after that, I'd been preparing to teach a summer section of Introduction to World Religions. It was to have started yesterday. But hardly anyone had signed up for the class and it wound up being canceled late last week.

It's not like I don't have anything to do, though. Here's a bit of what's going on in my world:

• Last Sunday, I visited the little Church of Christ at Adrian, Texas. What a great group of people. When you go to Adrian, you teach the Sunday morning adult class and preach during the morning worship. Then, you go home for lunch with one of church families and, then, preach again at 4:00. It's a full day in the country.
• Tonight, at The Colonies Church of Christ, I'll finish out a series of lessons on the Psalms. We'll close with Psalm 137.
• Of course, a few projects around the Bible Chair are waiting to be done.
• Next Monday, we start a nightly Vacation Bible School at San Jacinto. As usual, I get to lead the opening and closing assemblies.
• At the end of next week it's off to Connecticut where I'll get to spend a little over a week.

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Every once in a while, I spend some time searching (not surfing) the Web for sites that I can use and recommend to my students and people who show up at this blog. Here's some of the better stuff I've recently seen for the first time:

1. A complete, searchable Greek New Testament edited by Westcott and Hort. Yes, that's an old edition of the Greek text. But most of the differences between this and newer editions are few and insignificant. What I really like about this on-line edition is that you can click on any Greek word and get a ton of grammatical information about it. One odd thing about this page is that the NT books are listed alphabetically.

2. Here's the English version of the official website of the Vatican. Want to look around? The homepage has a search window. I typed in celibacy and, later, Vatican II and came up with dozens of hits for each. Interesting stuff.

3. You might also check out the searchable Yale Divinity Digital Image and Text Library. By going to this site, you get both the image database for biblical studies plus the image and text database for Christian history. Thinking about biblical studies, I searched for Crete and came up with several photos (along with descriptions). Predictably, searching under Ephesus gave me even more hits. Turning to Christian history, Campbell brought up nothing (ironic for some Church of Christ people), but Geneva rendered several hits, and Luther dozens.

What are some of the more interesting or useful websites you've recently discovered?

Oh, Yes! V.B.S.

We just completed a Monday-through-Thursday Vacation Bible School at the San Jacinto Church of Christ in Amarillo, TX. Here are a few photos, courtesy of Fred Cox . . .

Pictured here with their students, Lawanda Moore and Lynn Duncan are true Christians. They're typical of the teachers we have at San Jacinto: kind, thoughtful, Word-focused, organized, and effective.

The opening and closing assemblies included lots and lots of non-stop singing.


Getting to lead the songs at V.B.S. is pure joy.


Vacation Bible School has been a part of my life since before I can remember. I've mentioned this in my posts here and in my comments at other blogs: I think V.B.S. is one of the greatest church traditions ever. When it's done well, V.B.S. is a powerful time of teaching. It generates enthusiasm, promotes goodwill, creates lasting memories and, above all, leads to many Good-News moments.

We plan to extend our V.B.S. through at least the end of summer. All ages are welcome to join us each Wednesday from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Those in the Amarillo area who are interested in being a part of "Camp Wednesday" can get more information by calling the church office at 372-4682.

Got a V.B.S. story to tell?

From Laugher to Loser, and More!

I couldn't believe what I was watching last night as the L. A. Lakers fumbled a sure win to the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA finals. Boston's come-back set some sort of record for that sort of thing. Credit has to be given to the Celtics for what they did in the second half of the game. It was nothing short of amazing. Can you imagine the frustration of Kobe Bryant?

I think one reason we love sports so much is because it often mirrors life. Sometimes you think you'll never make it, but with persistent effort you make it (the thrill of victory). Other times you think you have it made, and everything just comes to pieces (yep, the agony of defeat).

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It's neither hot nor particularly windy in Amarillo today. (Here, wind speeds under, say, 25 miles per hour qualify as breezy. More than that, but less than a tornado, is called windy or gusty). Today's high is supposed to be 89. So I rode my bike to the Bible Chair in some of the most beautiful weather I've seen here in a while. Yea! Now if we could just get a soaking rain. Still praying for that. . . . .

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We're having Vacation Bible School at the San Jacinto Church of Christ next week. I'm leading the opening and closing assemblies. In between, Michele and I will teach the 4th and 5th grade class. I started going to V.B.S. about 45 years ago. Most summers since then, I've attended or worked in at least one. Some years, I helped to conduct as many as three or four. I love V.B.S. I think it's one of the greatest church traditions ever.

Another one from last week's Vacation Bible School 

Oh, Yes! V.B.S.

We're having Vacation Bible School at the South Road Church of Christ this week. The first two days in the "Construction Zone," (building character with Jesus!) have exceeded my expectations, which were pretty high. (Photos soon).

I've been a part of Vacation Bible School almost every summer of my life. This is the 20th year that I've been a V.B.S. director. When I was a youth minister, there were some years that I'd direct for three weeks; one V.B.S. at home, then two on-the-road with my high-school juniors and seniors and some of those unsung heroes called youth sponsors. I'll never forget those trips.

I'm aware that some churches have decided that V.B.S. doesn't help them much to advance the mission of the congregation. In some cases, those churches actually have a V.B.S. of sorts. It's just that now, their "V.B.S." is a children's musical or some other sort of programming. In other cases, what Vacation Bible School used to do is no longer being done in any form.

Other churches seem to have maintained a V.B.S. routine, only on a small and often uninspiring scale.

Still other churches seem to have decided that pulling out all the stops and doing the biggest and best traditional all-week Vacation Bible School is a great use of their resources. That's where I am these days.

Either way, what's important is that the church should pay attention to children, not merely because Jesus said we are supposed to be childlike, but also because children are so very receptive and impressionable. I've seen a few senior citizens come to faith. But the overwhelming percentage of people who become Christians do so before they turn eighteen. With hardly an exception, as churches grow larger, they grow younger.

Clearly, children are important to the Lord. So they should be important to non-kids who want to be pleasing the Lord.

Dear God,

Thank you for this week of Vacation Bible School. Please help all of us, in the words of our theme song, to become just like Jesus.

Lord, thank you for the blessing of children and childhood. Please bless the efforts of people who want to see the youngest hearts turned toward you.

In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.