Why Hasn’t Russell Been Posting More?

This morning I want to thank all of you who faithfully read this blog. Don’t ever think that I don’t appreciate your interest and confidence. I also want to explain why I haven’t been posting as much the past couple of weeks. It’s not because I’ve been too lazy or didn’t have anything to say. The fact is, I’ve been absolutely slammed with work.

For one thing, we’ve been plowing through the process of moving Disciples Road Church into a larger facility with a better location. I’m thrilled with the new building, but it took some doing to get us in there. We had to purchase a shipment of new chairs as well as a new sound system. We had to mount the video projector and screen. We had to get all the computer stuff up and running. My brother-in-law, Ben Pressley, handled all of the electronics. (I’m useless in that department.) And I’m happy to report that we held our first service in the new building on Mother’s Day.

In addition to the church move, I’ve also been very busy working on a website for the church. We’ve hired David Biddix to create the site for us, and he is doing a great job. My role is to figure out how we want the site to look and get the content for it to David. The site will offer a word about Disciples Road Church, a place where people can listen to some of my sermons, a link to this blog, and an “Articles” section that houses some pieces I’ve written on various topics. We are far along with this project and hope to launch the site in the next couple of weeks.

Another item that is on the schedule for the month of June is the release of my first book, Straight Talk About God’s Will. The book is being published by Jebaire Publishing in Snellville, Ga. For the past several months I’ve been working with Shannon Clark, Jebaire’s acquisitions editor, to get the book out into the marketplace. We’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on that. But, man, has it been a chore! I wrote the book over the course of January-March of 2008. If you’ll do the math, you’ll find that it has taken over a year to:

-send out queries and proposals to publishers

-find a publisher who wanted it 

-weave through the steps of the editing process 

-get a preliminary version printed for early reviews

-etc., etc., etc., etc.

Needless to say, I’ve got a whole new appreciation for what it takes to get a book to a store shelf. I feel like that father in that movie “A Christmas Story.” When he won that awful, gaudy lamp, he said, “It’s a major award!” When I’m actually holding my published book in my hand, I plan to quote that line.

And, of course, it’s not like life slows down to let you move into a new building, launch a website, or get a book published. This past Tuesday night my eight-year old, Royce, had his last rec. league, coach-pitch baseball game. The “coach” in that term “coach pitch” was me. We had a great season, but I don’t mind admitting that I’m glad it’s over. That’s one less thing on my plate. The same can’t be said for Ryan’s season. He’s my eleven-year old and he still has a lot of baseball to play this year. He’s got one game left in his rec. season, followed by a season-ending tournament. Then he heads right into the practices and tournaments for his Cal Ripken All Stars team. I’m an assistant coach for his rec. team and his Cal Ripken team.

Of course, there’s always the yard that needs mowing. I’ve got that on the itinerary for this afternoon. I also need to preach and record the sermon for my Sunday morning radio broadcast. I’ll do that either today or tomorrow. That’s in addition to finishing the preparations on my Sunday morning sermon for Disciples Road. A new building doesn’t do much good if the pastor doesn’t have God’s message for the hour.

But you know what? As rundown as I get sometimes, I’ve learned to be thankful to have the health to be able to go. The Bible says “In Him (God) we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). It also says that life is so fragile and vaporous that we aren’t guaranteed another tomorrow (James 4:13-15). Take a trip to the hospital or the nursing home sometime. That will give you a new perspective on things. Those folks would love to have the health to be “busy.” So, if you’ve got such health, thank the Lord for it and use it for Him.

I’ll end this little personal update by asking you to pray for me, Disciples Road Church, the website, the book, and this blog. Ask God to use every item on the list to expand His kingdom, instruct His people, and bring honor and glory to His name. Any ministry that I have is really just Jesus ministering through me. If it wasn’t for Him, I wouldn’t be doing any of this. Instead, I’d be off playing some brand of ”trivial pursuit” with my life. Again I thank you for your interest in this blog and your confidence in me. If God is using the blog to help you, I’d love to hear about it. Leave me a comment sometime. That would be a real source of encouragement to me. Have a great day!