Dr. Jay's Blog

This was one of those days when I certainly had more on my “plate” than was humanly possible to manage!

It’s a great thing to be with people and to hear their stories and know their needs; but it’s also frustrating in that you can’t begin to process them all or meet them all as you’d care to.

When this happens, I find that my only recourse is to find some time in the midst of my day and focus on what Jesus promised and that was clear in Matthew 11:28 “come to me you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” That scripture is a dynamic “rhema” for any time that we need to have our burden lifted and our yoke made easy.

It sounds like a strange paradox at Christmas time when we’re talking about joy, festivities, celebrations and Christmas Eve services! All those things are wonderful and I trust they will happen but they need to be balanced through the truth that only the grace of Jesus can give us the strength we need to “be all things to all men”!

Just one more day ‘til Christmas!

Pastor Jay

In these days just prior to Christmas, nothing seems more important to us than how our families are doing.

I know that I'm calling each one of my kids every day just to "check on them" and to see what they're planning to do this Christmas and what, if any, needs they have that we might be able to meet.

Somehow we know that the most important thing in the world to us, beside our relationship with the Christ, is the family God's given us. Christmas somehow accentuates the value of those relationships and makes us more inclined to stay close to them than any other time of the year.

On the other hand, if you happen to be someone who doesn't have a biological family to watch out for you, then be encouraged that your spiritual family, your family of faith, is likewise reaching out at this time. If you simply open your heart and reach toward them you'll make a great connection that will cause this Christmas to be very special to you as well.

Blessings in Jesus to all my Christmas family!
Dr. Jay

After 10 days of fairly nasty weather, an uncomfortable tooth extraction and several disappointing crowds at our Christmas events, everything pivoted in a moment. We were at the 11:00 service and Pastor Scott had brought a very comforting and encouraging message on overcoming loneliness at Christmas. Following his sermon (out of the book of Ruth and Luke), Adam Farrell came to the platform and shared an original song that he had written about the love and presence of God at Christmas time.

The beautiful lighting, the powerful lyrics and the “haunting” sounds of his song “It’s Christmas Time (Be the Miracle)” got to my heart in a hurry! It reminded me of just how powerfully God has been moving in our church and how blessed I am to be part of something that began nearly 29 years ago in a small basement just north of Cranberry with only a dream and a handful of committed believers.

The fact that miracles are still happening and that our church is still thriving was a great encouragement in the midst of all the things that weren’t going as I had planned. Adam hadn’t chosen the song to speak to my situation, but it certainly did and continues to as I revisit it over and over again. (It’s available on ITunes – do a power search for Adam Farrell and download the song!)

It was a great moment for me and one that I pray will be repeated again and again, but that’s something only the Lord can do. For now, I’ll just rejoice in the gift that he gave on that Sunday morning.

Blessings,

Pastor Jay

I don't know what it was. When I woke up today, I barely had enough energy to get my breakfast down let alone think about doing a workout or tackling any of the projects that are stacking up in my "in box."

Though I mentioned this recently in another blog, there's absolutely no gift greater than our health if we're to accomplish the things God has before us. I went back to sleep, and when I awoke, prayed that God would give me grace to get through the day and to address whatever issue has been zapping my energy.

I think I might have an idea of what's going on (after a couple conversations with a couple medical folks) and believe that "this too will pass"!

I pray for you that God grants you health and much grace for all that's needed in this Christmas season.

Blessings & joy!
Dr. Jay

One of the things that I've sensed early in this Christmas season is that the pressure to try to fulfill expectations and make commitments is going to be extremely hard.

I know that we all enjoy being with people and that's a huge part of our life in community; but we have to keep in balance the reality that we can only appropriately give ourselves to "so many" people.

It's not long before folks come to feel like they're getting just "a little piece of you" instead of your full attention. This isn't a good thing and you're better off rescheduling than spending time that's hurried and distracted.

I know that's how I feel when I'm with someone who's obviously overloaded, and I don't want to treat others that way.

Christmas is a time to express love and appreciation. Give that to as many people as you can while maintaining a balance in your own life that gives the Lord your first and foremost attention.

Blessings,
Dr. Jay

It was one of the most blessed moments of my entire year.

I walked into the "gathering room" of the staff to discover our entire team working together in harmony to assemble thousands of Christmas cards that were being put into envelopes and mailed to every one of our North Way family members!

It was a humbling moment for me as I realized that after 28 years of serving our church there was still a joy in their hearts to serve our family in this simple way.

We should never forget the joy and gift that relationships are to us. When moments of need arise like this it's an incredible blessing to see your friends and partners in ministry rally to help you accomplish something you could never do on your own. What a sound of joy that was to me! Christmas carols, laughter and brothers and sisters in Christ working to make a statement of love to our whole church. Wow!

Blessings,
Dr. Jay

For those (the few) of you who were able to hear the message this past weekend (because of the horrible ice storm that we had) I mentioned the fact that I just had some oral surgery done on Friday.

That entire experience reminded me that when you're hurting physically, just about everything else you do seems to be more difficult if not impossible.

The positive side of this is that it reminds us of the amazing grace of God toward most of us that we have such healthy bodies for most all of our lives! The Lord has also provided us with physicians and caregivers who can help us in times of need so that we needn't go through pain endlessly, but be restored to health and continue on our journey of obedience to the Lord.

When we hurt, it also helps to have people around us who care. I'm blessed with my wife Carol who is an extraordinary caregiver and has a way of sharing in my pain that is rare and precious to me.

So, I'm glad that situation is fading in the past and pray for continued health for you as well as myself through the Christmas holiday just ahead.

Blessings,

Dr. Jay

For some, this may feel like “spitting into the wind” or even worse. However, after 20 years of leading this congregation, I still find it mystifying when 4 hours of totally unpredictable weather paralyzes most of our church family beyond description.

It would be one thing if this event affected the entire economy or all the businesses and so on , but the fact that this ice storm came through from about 7:30 am to 11:30 am, right in the heart of our prime worship time of the week, absolutely destroyed our attendance and the ability to come to worship and experience what God had planned. After all these years, I’m at peace with the fact that the Lord is in control and has the ability to start or stop any “natural disasters” as He chooses. However, the timing of something like this is simply beyond me.

It was only 2 hours after we dismissed our service at 12:15 (with 75% of the people not there!) that I was headed for the grocery store only to find it jammed with people who had already made their way out of their homes onto now wet, not icy, roads to pick up groceries and fulfill the rest of their day.

I suppose I’m just venting a bit but when one considers all that could of happened in those 4 hours it really is quite mystifying. The silver lining for me is the fact that 10 people gave their hearts to Christ yesterday morning. That’s quite astonishing given the adverse conditions they had to overcome just to get there, let alone the other distractions. 10 people changed forever. I suppose that’s reason enough to celebrate…but in my heart I could only imagine what would have happened had we had the normal 2,000 in attendance rather than the 500 who were able to make it.

Just 4 hours…but it couldn’t have come at a worse time. The great news is that we get to do it all over again in the coming weekend!

Blessings,

Pastor Jay

Over the last couple days I've been battling a low grade infection because of a tooth that has finally ended it's usefulness in my body!

Something as small as this would not seem to be a very big deal, but in reality it points to the fact that every part of our body has to be functioning well in order for us to fulfill the dreams and aspirations that we have.

That doesn't mean that we can't overcome some limitations, but when we feel physically ill or weak, even the most menial tasks take on a new challenge.

I found myself frustrated at my inability to get things done and focus because of the distracting painfulness of the situation, even though it's just a small part of who I am.

Mercifully, I think this all ends today as I see a specialist and get this problem taken care of. However, it's given me a new appreciation for the good health that I've been blessed with over the years and renews my prayer for every one of you to walk in the grace of God's intended wholeness for each and every one of us.

Believing for a much healthier weekend!

Blessings,

Dr. Jay

Just today I received an email from a friend who was traveling in the Philippines over the past couple of weeks. To see the devastation in that nation from a typhoon that hit the mainland about six weeks ago was pretty incredible.

Many of the photos that this person shared were very "graphic" in that they didn't filter out the depths of the human suffering that was involved and the amount of loss that many people experienced.

In this season, when we're so focused on our blessings (which we should be!) and all the joys of life, it was a healthy reminder for me to realize that so much of the world has so little compared to what God has given us.

This immediately raised my "attitude of gratitude" to another level and reminded me that some of the personal challenges I've been facing lately are nothing compared to what much of the world has to face on a daily basis.

It also reminds me that I want to give as much as I can to the mission of our church and to those specific places where I know my resources are going to make a difference in the lives of people who need it.

Most of all, I refuse to be caught up in the temptation to "overindulge" myself or my family this Christmas season. Jesus came to the earth to give himself for us as a sin sacrifice that would change our lives forever.

The least we can do in this Christmas season is to give something of what we've been blessed with to help others alleviate their suffering and perhaps find redemption as well.

Have a blessed day,

Dr. Jay

One of the richest blessings of functioning in the body of Christ over a long period of time is the opportunity to meet and work with great people! I don’t mean “great” in the sense of wealthy or necessarily well known; I mean it in terms of humble servants who are willing to do whatever God asks them to do.

It’s been my privilege to work with people like this over the years and perhaps the most exciting thing for me is to recognize that the Lord continues to send people like this into my life even though I’m certainly not worthy of such blessing.

The great outcome for the church family is they bring their skills and attitude to bear on the biggest challenges and opportunities that we face and the result is always something more fruitful and exciting than we ever could imagine!

I thank the Lord for great people… and remember that “the greatest of all is the servant of all” – Jesus!

Blessings,

Pastor Jay

Yesterday I had the unique privilege of not having any specific "responsibilities" in the morning services.

That allowed me the freedom to roam around at the Wexford campus and see the incredible things that are taking place on a weekly basis in just one of our locations.

I was blessed by the passionate expression of worship both in the main auditorium and the Worship Cafe'.

I was also blessed by the highly committed team that works so hard to create a Kidz Ministry environment in the context of the Family Matters paradigm, which is really helping our parents to succeed in their dreams to raise their kids as champions of Christ.

The passion for Worship Cafe', for their community and their leader, Pastor Kent, was apparent and, of course, Pastor Scott was his "normal" lovable self as he brought a challenging and yet very specific word to the main auditorium congregation.

When one describes everything that's going on (and I left out many important things such as adult education, etc., etc.) it's really overwhelming and incredibly humbling to be part of such an exciting ministry!

I pray you had time to plug in somewhere this weekend and avail yourself of a great resource that God has provided for us throughout the growing network of North Way's ministries.

Blessings!

Dr. Jay

There are times in our lives when we're allowed to have some "great moments" with other people who are particularly important to us.

It can be a family member, but right now I'm thinking of a friend who I haven't seen for awhile and have been able to reconnect with on a fairly deep level.

These kinds of things remind me that our walk with Christ is ultimately about relationships: relationship first and foremost with Jesus; relationships with other believers; and relationships with people who don't yet know Him.

When you're able to reconnect with someone without a lot of fanfare and immediately feel a certain bond, it reminds you that that’s something God gives us as a gift.

If you have one of these “great moment” relationships, be sure to affirm with that person how much they mean to you. If you don't have that close relationship, ask the Lord for someone you could become that kind of friend to.

I'm looking forward to building more of these relationships in the years ahead.

Blessings,

Dr. Jay

If only I could control the uncertainties of air travel, life would be so much simpler for so many people!

We had plans today to meet some folks and discuss a number of important issues concerning life here at North Way. Although our friends will be able to make the trip, the significant weather/equipment related issues that changed their flights all around did nothing but create some inconvenience for a couple dozen other people who had to change their schedules to accommodate all this.

However, in the grand scheme of life I expect the "if only" of a detail like this is quite small. Rather, I prefer to go back to the assertion that we've been making over the past weeks that God is in control of everything that concerns us and we do well to acknowledge that even when it seems to be inconvenient.

Reading the Christmas story last night with my small group I was reminded that it was the Romans who called for the census that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem to fulfill 700 year old prophecy that the Messiah would be born in that small little village outside of Jerusalem.

How much more can we count on God controlling circumstances of our lives to bring about His purpose if we simply believe Him to do so!

Blessings,

Dr. Jay

Though very few people (relatively speaking) will take an interest in what I think about the whole Tiger Woods incident, it does call to mind one of the most fundamental principles that I know as a person with even a small measure of visibility.

When it comes to one's mistakes, the best and only credible way to handle them is to deal with them honestly within appropriate boundaries.

We're all susceptible to failure (as Mr. Woods proclaimed), but we're also all accountable for those failures and have simply to acknowledge them accurately in such a way as to gain people's understanding and eventual support.

Throughout the scriptures, Jesus demonstrated a forgiving heart. Think of the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 8. He didn't have ugly and cutting words for her but simply forgiveness and an exhortation to "sin no more."

Honesty is the best policy and no amount of fame or money will ever change that.

Blessings,

Dr. Jay

One of the things that has encouraged me over the past few weeks is the increasing number of businesses and organizations that are restoring the centrality of "Christ" into this Christmas season.

As strange as it may seem, it's becoming more acceptable, once again, to wish others a "Merry Christmas" and not just a simple and sanitized "Happy Holidays."

This may not seem like a big deal but I think it does represent a bit of the hidden suppression that has really tormented the Christian community over the past decade or more as we have moved away from the centrality of the federal mandate to celebrate Christmas as the birth of Christ. In restoring this focus, even if gradually, we will have an opportunity to publically remind our i ncreasingly secular culture that some of the most important and cherished traditions of our country are because of our founding fathers commitment to a theocentric democracy.

In simple terms, I'm really excited about this Christmas season and hope and believe that many will come to know Jesus personally because they will discover that Christmas is more than a "holiday," it's a holy day!

Blessings,

Dr. Jay