All:
We are on schedule to have our study tonight (Sunday, January 8th, 2012 6pm.).
I will be in Mt. Summit, Indiana Monday thru Wednesday and have to cancel Monday and Tuesday nights classes.
I will be back for our Friday morning Men’s study at Panera.
Peace!
Tom
I love worshiping in Haiti! Take a listen!
Attached is a link to my Advent devotions. I encourage you to use them for your Christmas preparation. I also encourage you to share them with others. Send the link to friends and family. I pray that your advent season is filled with wonder.
Peace!
Tom
Gentlemen,
Last night a few of us went to see the movie Courageous. If you have not seen it, please make time to see it. It wonderfully challenges us to be the men of God He wants us to be. I am going to be doing a couple things in the near future to dovetail onto this amazing movie. First, I am starting a MEN’S ONLY Bible class on Friday mornings at 6 am at the Panera on Baldwin Road just north of I-75. This class begins this Friday (Oct. 14). I encourage you all to attend and please look at the other men God has placed in your life and invite them to come. We will meet for about 45 minutes and then be off to work. Second, I am going to hold a retreat (as soon as we can pull it together) titled Courageous: Follow Through. This will be a Saturday retreat where we discuss where to go from here. Now that we have seen the movie, what do we do? It is important that we follow through with our God-given responsibilities as men in this world. I am hoping many of us will be moved to make a resolution concerning our commitment to be who God has called us to be.
Feel free to call me or email me to discuss!
Peace!
Tom
248-434-7254 – tom@firmlyrooted.org
All,
We plan to to see the Courageous movie this weekend (Sunday @ 5pm). I am cancelling my Sunday evening class so we can all attend the movie. Here are the details:
The movie times have been posted and we are attending the one at 5:25 pm! We will NOT be ordering advance tickets…so just plan to meet us at the Star Theater there no later than 5 pm and we will sit as much in a group as possible! Then, afterward we will discuss if anyone wants to gather for dinner and movie conversation! All very casual…join us if you can!! Can’t wait!
Then we have Date Night the weekend following (Saturday 15th). Here are the details:
VENUE CHANGE! Please note…
Please join us!
All,
I received a letter yesterday from the Michigan District President letting my know that my request for reinstatement has been denied. Although this door has closed, I praise God for His goodness and grace and look forward to the doors He is opening.
Again, I want to thank you for your love, prayers and support. They mean so much to me.
Peace!
Tom
All,
First, let me say, No! I do not have an answer yet. I would expect to have it within a week or so. With this update I would like to convey to all of you what I believe God did and said to me during the 48 hours surrounding the reinstatement meeting. For to me, what occurred around the meeting is more meaningful than what occurred in the meeting.
I left for St. Louis last Sunday morning. I got to the hotel before noon and had hours to reflect and pray about the upcoming meeting. I had a chance to meet with a future pastor and affirm his calling into the ministry. Already on Saturday I began to receive Facebook, e-mail, and text messages from all of you letting me know that I was in your prayers. Words cannot express how significant all of that was. It felt like God was affirming my ministry even before I went before a committee of district presidents to see if I should be in ministry. What I am saying is that God was telling me that I have a ministry that is alive and well and was being echoed back to me in all of the messages I received prior to my actual meeting. One of those messages was received shortly before 7 pm St. Louis time (the time of the meeting). I went to shut my phone off so that it would not be a distraction to me during the meeting. As I reached for my phone, it alerted me that I had an e-mail. The e-mail was from a mom who wanted me to know about what she just found her oldest son doing. I have been visiting this young man over the last month or so. I have been praying with him about an illness he has that no one can seem to identify. I saw him Saturday before I left for St. Louis. After praying with him, I gave him a big hug and told him that I needed him to do me a favor. I told him that I needed him to pray for me because I had an important meeting in St. Louis the next day. He assured me that he would. His mom’s e-mail was telling me that for most of the early evening he was repeatedly asking if it was 7:00 pm yet. Mom finally told him it was 7:00 pm, and he went off. A few minutes later Mom went to check on him and found him prostrate on the floor praying for Mr. Donnelly. Needless to say, I started crying, shut off my phone, and thanked God for overwhelming me with the kind of love and support I had gotten that whole day.
I went into the meeting with the three men who made up my reinstatement committee. We introduced ourselves and had a prayer to open the meeting. The first thing that came out of their mouths after the prayer was that “the shear volume of letters written on my behalf showed that I was involved in ministry and that many, many people felt that I should be a pastor again.” Once again, God spoke directly to my heart to affirm the ministry I was already in. I never had to sell myself or convince them of the ministry I had been doing the last 15+ years. Your letters did that for me! They told me that they knew about my website, the daily devotions, the audio Bible studies, the Bible study classes I teach, mission trips to Haiti. Your letters shared with them what I thought I was going to have to reveal to them. We talked about the past and all that took place around the time I resigned from the ministry. They shared words of comfort as they reminded me of God’s grace and forgiveness. Finally, they told me that the next step is tough. In order to get reinstated, one has to get 70% of the vote of the Council of Presidents. We closed with prayer. Then one of the District Presidents told me to continue on in the ministry I have regardless of their upcoming vote. Once again, God used these men to affirm to me the ministry God had (and still has) me in.
The next day I woke up to two e-mails. The first told me that my RSO (Registered Service Organization) application with the LCMS was reviewed and being put toward the next step of the approval process. The second e-mail told me that the grant Firmly Rooted submitted for the rebuilding of the orphanage in Torbeck, Haiti was well done and awaiting the next step. Again, God used these emails to affirm for me a ministry I already had. This same day I got back to Michigan and turned on my phone to call and let some people know how it all went. Two of my calls were to men that I have been counseling. Both men independently shared with me that they had learned in the last few days how significantly God had blessed them through my counseling with them. They both shared that God had placed men into their lives that they were able to minister to because I had ministered to them. And again, there was God reaffirming the ministry I already have.
I went to St. Louis thinking that the hour or so that I got to share with those districts presidents was going to be the most significant moments I would have that weekend. And yes, it was significant. But its significance paled in comparison to talking to a seminary student about ministry at lunch that Sunday, receiving all your messages throughout the day, having the district presidents themselves share that they were impacted by my ministry (through your letters), getting e-mails that affirmed big ministry things being done for Haiti, and finally having a couple brothers in the faith affirm to me that God’s ministry through me has had such a profound impact on their lives.
Today, with confidence, I tell you that I am hopeful for the decision from the district presidents, but I am not relying on it to define whether I am a pastor or not. I am indeed a pastor. God has kept me in ministry, and has faithfully used me since the day I left the pastoral office of the church. He is working through my broken and sinful life to minister to others equally sinful and broken.
I leave my weekend in St. Louis deeply affirmed and eternally indebted to God and to you for a love and faithfulness that is undeserved, but humbly accepted.
I will update you all again when I am made aware of what the decision is.
Peace!
Tom
All,
There is going to be a year end event at Boulder Pointe on November 12, from 7pm to midnight. More information will be out soon. I just wanted everyone to know as soon as possible so you could lock in the date.
Peace!
Tom
