House on the Rock Receives Space in the New Family Center of Gap

We have been given a tremendous opportunity to expand our ministry.  This fall we will be part of

what will become the premiere family ministry center in Central Pennsylvania and maybe in the entire

Mid-Atlantic region.

 

Jonas and Anne Beiler, founders of Auntie Anne’s, have an intense passion for marriages and families! 

Back in 1987 Jonas had a dream to create a center that would provide family oriented services to their

home community of Gap.  His dream is being completed right before his eyes!  In September the Family Center of Gap will hold its Grand Opening; and House on the Rock Family Ministries is privileged to have

an office on the third floor!

 

We are thrilled to be a part of this regional family resource center!  The synergy of working with Jonas

and Anne and the other family organizations will be fantastic!  While checking on the progress of our

space, I was privileged to meet the International Director of Focus on the Family who was also inspecting

the facility and donating some library resources.  That is the caliber of folks involved in this project; and

why we are so excited to be a part of this ministry venture.

 

In another meeting with the Executive Director of FRCC we talked about how we can partner with them

to provide biblically based family life education to the churches and clients in their network.  We will have

a significant role in the family life educational program of this center!

 

We’ll keep you posted on the details for the Grand Opening.  They are expecting over 3000 visitors and

we would love to see you there!  So plan to come on down and see this beautiful new ministry center! 

Visit it online at:  www.gapfamilycenter.org

Powerful prayers for fathers …

Today I was part of the Lancaster National Day of Prayer Celebration.  50 of us met in a pristine 1870 vintage sanctuary in Mount Joy PA.  We had a number of folks from the community lead us in prayer for their assigned areas … the mayor was there to pray us through “government,” the president of the local Chamber of Commerce to pray for businesses … you get the picture.

 

Well in the middle of this litany … an ensemble of young ladies from the local middle school got up to sing two songs they had written.  They were great in both performance and power of lyric. 

 

When it was my turn to lead us in a time of prayer for families I presented several requests … one was to pray against fatherlessness … dads who were either physically or emotionally absent from their children.  I then broke the audience into small groups to pray through one of the family issues I had listed … asking each group to pick a topic and pray.

 

I met with the young ladies who sang.  They were sitting in the front pew!  Do you know what they wanted to pray for?  Yes … against fatherlessness … they each prayed that men would be loving husbands and involved fathers.  Each one of those beautiful girls was in a home with no daddy.  What a powerful moment that was for me.  What a demonstration that our Heavenly Father is indeed a “Father to the fatherless!”  Pray for fathers!

First floor — Our walk with God

Now that we understand the need for a firm foundation and have established it in the Word of God we are ready to unearth the rest of our pyramid of priorities.

The “step pyramid” of Djores was built one level on top of another … imagine building a big square one story warehouse … it is structurally complete and fully operational. Then, after a while you need more space and build another square warehouse, a little smaller than the first level on top of that one … and then another slightly smaller on top of that … up through six stories … that was how this particular monument was built.

The pyramid was built one level on top of the other … the previous level had to be complete and solid before the next level was added. Again another lesson for us … as we begin to unpack the pyramid of priorities the first level has to be well established in order to support the mounting levels to follow. (Remember all of this was built on a massive stone foundation!)

Our first level of priority is our walk with God … Paul says in Ephesians 4 that we are to walk in a manner worthy of the call that God has placed on our lives as Christians. Our walk with God, the first story or our ‘pyramid of priorities’ rests firmly on the Word of God our massive foundation of God’s truth. We learn all we need to know about God and how to walk with Him in the pages of His “How to have a relationship with Me Book.”

We see in Ephesians 4 that our walks with God are the practical ways we live our lives. The way we love each other, the way we do our work … all need to lived out so that people can see that we are God’s special children. Read those verses and see how you’re walking ….

The “Unseen” Difference

Archeologists tell us that thousands of pyramids were built throughout Egypt … yet only a fraction of them stand today.  Why do a few remain standing while others crumbled in the desert throughout the storms of time?  Those scientists say the difference was foundations.  The pyramids built on massive stone foundations are the ones that have stood tall for thousands of years.  This discovery was made because they excavated these historical sites. 

 

This archeological fact unearths another powerful lesson for us.  If our lives are not built on a solid, well laid foundation … they are destined to fall … they will crumble … our legacies will blow away in the desert winds.  That is why we call our ministry House on the Rock Family Ministries!  We want to help families build their lives and homes on the “Rock.”  So the first priority in our pyramid of priorities is foundational and vital. 

 

The pyramid of priorities was derived from the inspired progression of thoughts of Paul in the letter he wrote to the church in Ephesus.  The first part of the letter (chapters 1-3) deals with ‘who we are’ in Jesus Christ … the second half of the letter (chapters 4-6) unpacks the ‘so what … how should we live?’ 

 

The foundation to our “Pyramid of Priorities” is built upon the inspiration of these words and thoughts by God’s Holy Spirit … who inspired Paul to write them in an orderly progression.  I believe that the order in which God inspired these words and thoughts is extremely significant in that they are His list of priorities in how we should live our lives as Christians.  It is the building of our lives on God’s inspired (the unseen) Word (the seen) that will cause our lives and legacies to stand the storms of time.

 

The Words of God given through the Bible are the foundation upon which all of us as Christ followers need to build our lives to stand the storms of time.

The “point” of the pyramids

April 7^th …

 

Every culture is fascinated by pyramids … whether Egyptian or Mayan.  If they didn’t stand today in their own defense … we would deem them impossible for ancient engineers and contractors to design and build such massive structures thousands of years ago.  That’s why the Great Pyramid is one of the 7 Wonders of the World!

 

But I look at pyramids from a different angle.  Because they were built as eternal monuments to the persons they entombed, they were imagined, designed, and constructed while that individual was still living his or her life.  It took builders over 30 years to construct the larger pyramids … that was just about the lifespan of the future occupant.  That must have been just a little eerie … seeing your own tomb/monument being built before your very eyes! 

 

Yet the similarities are very sobering … we are building monuments too … our lives will leave a legacy for our children and their children’s children.  So … we need to be thinking and planning carefully as to how we’re building those legacies … those monuments pointing our ancestors heavenward.  It will take us a lifetime to build a lasting godly legacy.

 

That’s why I call my presentation on priorities the “Pyramid of Priorities” … because our legacies (positive or negative) are built on our choices … and our choices are made based on our priorities.  So developing a set of foundational priorities is extremely important.

 

But there is another reason I have chosen this title … each of the priorities … just like layers of the pyramids … are built one on top of the other.  If the foundational layer is not solid … the rest of the structure will crumble …

Gender Neutral Priorities

I spoke to a group of young wives and moms this week … that’s a little unusual for me in that I regularly speak to men’s groups and couples.  But I learned that males and females both struggle with priorities … not the choices between good and bad … although we all wrestle with those issues … they rarely tax our taxonomy of more difficult choices categorized as good, better and best.   So to get us thinking I presented them with a choice:  “Do you go shopping all day with a girl friend who needs to talk and be encouraged … or stay home and do the laundry so your family has something to wear tomorrow?”  Neither is a choice between good or evil … but there is an element of good, better, or best choice.

The ladies were chuckling and quickly assured me that they … unlike men … can multi task and that they could easily accomplish both these “good and better” tasks in the course of a day. 

So much for my feeble attempt at a moral dilemma <smile>.   You see my “blue brain” thinks like a man … we do one thing at a time!  Multi tasking is drinking my iced tea while I am driving and listening to a CD …  the real main task is driving … the tea and music simply enhances the experience! … anyway … I quickly added another ”choice” to my prioritizing scenario … “and prepare a nice meal for your family who has done fast food all week because of your kids’ hyperactive schedules.”  That threw in a little more challenge. 

After we discussed the factors and issues surrounding the choices … I presented what I like to call the “Pyramid of Priorities” … based on the ancient writings in the New Testament.  We’ll share more of that later …

 

 

Marriage mentoring is a growing ministry

I am going to try to do better with the blogging … not that anyone is reading … but at least we will have some sort of written history.  It is now April … and we have completed one of the busiest seasons ever … that’s great news in that the ministry is growing … it is bad news in that it severely taxes our infrastructure.

I am excited at the potential of marriage mentoring … we just finished training 8 couples who are chomping at the bit to get started … I’ll keep you posted on their progress. 

We’re training another group of eight couples this month at another church … this is a fantastic ministry for preventing marital issues as well as for enriching relationships.  If you are interested in learning how to be a marriage mentor … or if you are in the Lancaster area and want to be mentored … contact me. 

Website Woes and Busy-ness

Sorry I haven’t been here for so long.  We had our website explode … too long of a story to go into here … but trust me it was frustrating not having a full site up and running.  Thanks for your patience.

We’ve lost Amanda … she went to work for CBC our home church as the secretary to the children’s and youth ministry department … where her husband works!  Imagine that she left us for her hubby!  We miss her …

Summer has been busy with conference speaking and life coaching.  Kapp has been holding down the fort and ramping us up for the fall. 

This is my youngest son’s last football season at Grove City … so I am lightening the load a little to get to “goodbye season’s” games.

Those of you who are local make your reservations for the first Date Nite on 9/20 at the Barn in Overlook.  We’re excited about this coming season!  See you there!

Blessings,

Bruce

Our first Family Ministry Conference

Well the Lord has a sense of humor … we have been planning our 1st leadership conference for over 11 months … national leaders flying in from Arizona to keynote … local family ministry experts to lead our workshops.  Thousands of hours in preparation for the big day on Saint Patrick’s Day.  We have 96 people planning to be here … from Pittsburg, Allentown, New Jersey and Maryland. 

Well on Friday the 16th Lancaster gets pounded with 7 inches of rain, sleet, and snow.  We cancel our dinner meeting for Friday night and pray that the roads will be clear for Saturday.  Over 70 folks braved the roads to get to the conference and I think we were all rewarded with a great time together.  The banner of marriage and family ministry has been raised a little higher in Central PA. 

We got re-acquainted with the Eric and Jennifer Garcia, the co-founders of AMFM, the national networking organization for marriage and family ministries.   They enjoyed the snow!  We also met Jeff and Judi Parziales from InStep Ministries  (also in AZ) … they are a fun couple too!  Both couples were supportive and encouraged us in our first event … admonishing us not to abandon this venture.  We are making plans for next year.  We want to build on this spark of momentum. 

Sweetheart Banquet was “sweet”

The feedback is overwhelmingly positive … 110 couples enjoyed our second annual sweetheart banquet in the majestic Palm Court at the Willow Valley resort in Lancaster on Thursday February 8th.   Amanda and our board members facilitated a smooth registration.  Kapp and Linda performed two mini dramas to help ’set the stage’ for our theme for the evening … “Celebrate Your Spouse.” 

We all enjoyed the great food of a Willow Valley buffet.  Thanks to Kyra for taking portraits of at least 80 of our couples.  Bruce Heffner sang and played some classic big band love songs to the delight of the audience.  We closed the evening with a “Celebration Ceremony.”  Be sure to check out the Fan the Flame section of our website to see the pictures of this event. 

We are always encouraged when couples say “thank you for a great chance to connect with my spouse.”  That’s what our Fan the Flame Date Nites are all about.  If you haven’t been to one get to one!!

We are doing our first Sweetheart Banquet in New Castle this Thursday night.  So you Pittsburgh friends be sure to register this week.