A Vote For Me Is A Vote For...

Chapter ??

Trying to figure out God and his ways is a lot like trying to master the game of golf. Right when you think you have that slice in your drive figured out, your short game goes down the tubes. Then you work and work to correct your short game only to see that you can't putt to save your life. And around and around it goes. I have spend a good portion of this year trying to figure out, for my family and I, just what God is up to. And it's from this search that I can honestly say, "I HAVE NO IDEA!" I do know this. Earlier this I year I was asking God to restore within me that sense of adventure back into my daily walk with him...well you get what you ask for.

In October of last year I left the church I had poured myself into for almost 7 years without really knowing what was ahead of me. The afternoon I left, is when I received the first phone call from Westview Church, where I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of. I left Point Of Grace, completely burnt out, hurt and thinking maybe, that after almost 20 years of working in ministry, that I was done. But in just a short time, 8 months working part-time at Westview, I've rediscovered that I still love seeing lives changed and watching people utilize their gifts when giving back to God. This summer has been a much needed time of rest and renewal. So now the adventure continues, back to full-time ministry.

Really kind of out of nowhere, I was presented with an opportunity to join the staff at Valley Church located in West Des Moines, and after talking back and forth for a week or so, I accepted the position of Director Of Programming at www.valley-church.com. Now I've only been on staff for 4 days now, but I have to say I'm really enjoying it and looking forward to what God had in store.

I will miss seeing the new friends we made at Westview on a weekly basis, but as always hope that we can continue to remain friends. You can never have enough friends.

So to Westview we say thank you and you have been a blessing from God to my family and I, and to Valley Church we are extremely excited to dig in and get involved.

Tim

Change

Change. Some hate it, some love it, others thrive on it. No matter how much we try to avoid it, it's inevitable, we can't escape it. Change is part of our human existence.

But to quote my good friend Tom Clegg, "the only ones who like change are wet babies!" So how do we deal with it?

A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to speak at Lutheran Church of Hope on the topic of Creativity. To summarize what I spoke on was this:

God calls us to be creative. Creativity equals change.
Change brings fear. Fear requires trust.
Trust requires faith. Faith requires God.

For the past three weeks we've had the opportunity to have Dr. Tom Clegg speak at Westview for our current series, titled after his seventh book, "Missing In America." This past Sunday he used a quote in his message that reminded me of what I've been thinking on over the past few weeks. The quote he used was this:

"Healthy things grow. Growing things change. Change challenges us. Challenges cause us to trust God. Trust leads to obedience. Obedience makes us healthy. And healthy things grow."

So repeat after me... change is good. Change is good. Change is...

This Is The Year!

Ok, so every year for the past 20 years I have tried to become an Arizona Cardinals fan, and every year they start great and then putter out about game 2. But....this is the year, this is going to be the year they turn the whole thing around. (Speaking in faith here. ;) So tonight they begin their journey. The Yates family loves the NFL and when Pre-Season kicks off it's like opening a new chapter each year. So I say once again, this just might become the year that I become a fan of the Arizona Cardinals. I'll let you know how it's going after about game 3.

More Than Music Seminar

Had a great time today at the More Than Music Seminar at Lutheran Church Of Hope. Again it was sort of a fist step in a new direction for me. For quite a while I've been wanting to put together a session about creativity and this gave me the opportunity to get it all written out and try it out. If you attended to today, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to post the resources I noted during the breakout session. I do know this, I met some great people that I hope to connect with in the near future, and it was great to see our good friend Jonathan Martin, always enjoy hangin' with him.

Tim

New Series @ Westview

Just thought I would give you a heads up on the new series we have coming up at Westview. Beginning this weekend we not only are starting "Missing In America," but also have the opportunity to have the author of the book speak at Westview for the next three weeks. Tom Clegg is a good friend and a great speaker, I look forward to hearing him teach again. Then following this 5 week series on how to reach our neighbors, we want to give you an opportunity to do just that. Begining this fall at Westview you will want to invite your friends and neighbors to "Live Healthy."

Piano Lesson

This Summer I thought I would take advantage of quality time that I've been given with the kids and begin giving them piano lessons. Our son has decided that he too wants to be a drummer, but here in Waukee, to play drums in the school band you need to have taken at least two years of piano. Our daughter has decided that she too will begin to play the flute next year, so we thought a good foundation in piano would be a great way to begin. Learning the piano just gives you a good overall view of music and how it works.

Currently the boy is up and practicing. We are on the 4th week of lessons and it's starting to get a bit challenging. We began with the right hand exercises, a five note scale starting on middle C, and have now moved on to the left hand, working our way down the keyboard, starting with G below middle C. He has the warm up down, those he can play, it's executing them into a song that's kicking his butt. Eight measures of an evil little ditty titled, "Love Me Tender." He'll play for a just a few minutes and right when it begins to challenge him, he'll ask if he can go back to the Warm Up exercises, those he can play. "No", I say, "keep working on the song. Each time you play it, it will get easier and easier as it goes." After struggling through a couple of measures, "Dad, can I just play the warm up excercises?" I finally had to sit down and explain, that practice isn't just about doing what comes easy to us, but practice is about working through those things that challenge us, slowly at first, but as we continue to practice, they eventually become easier. Each time we sit at the piano, those things that challenge us, become easier and easier to play.

While I was explaining practice to my son, It made me think how many times I've asked my Heavenly father if I can just go back to what's easy for me. Do I really have to work through the things that I struggle with? Can't I just go back and play the warm ups? I'm good at those.

I know what my "Love Me Tender" is. What's yours?

Tim