Discussion of the interview about homosexuality

This is the blog that hopes to discuss the video interview I recorded on Youtube (and marked for private viewing).

First let me say that this video was made as part of fulfilling an assignment at seminary. I attended the class "Human Sexuality" at Nazarene Theological Seminary, and believe me, we talked over many things relating to humanity and our sexuality. Remarkably, a third of the students (who were mostly Nazarene) agreed that homosexuality was perfectly biblically allowable, another third believed the Bible was very clear that it was sin, and others tried to find a middle ground. I take my stance mostly in the middle ground, and my video should make clear my beliefs.

As for the interview with the pastor at Trinity United Methodist church, I did agree with many things the pastor said, and I disagreed with some things she said. For those of you who want to get me kicked out of the ministry for not telling her where her sins were, I believe that it wasn't my place or my time to say anything of the sort. Besides... think about it: Do you think I could say something she hadn't heard before in her twenty plus years of ministry?
Besides, much of what was going through my head (which I believe was the Holy Spirit) was the scriptures which state, "Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification" (found in Romans 14:19) and "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing" (found in 1 Thess. 5:11). Among all those scriptures were the wise words of my mother, "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all," and I agree. Say what nice things you can say, and when you have earned their respect and trust then you may have a God guided opportunity to speak the truth, and speak it in love (read Eph. 4:15).
Many of the good things Trinity was doing was evident in the way their community supported them. That Easter Sunday of 2010 that I attended Trinity I heard from a church member that when the Phelps family (of Topeka Kansas) picketed their church months earlier left, a member of the community took a broom from their own home and swept the sidewalk clean. I took it as the community was sweeping away the spiritual filth that they had left behind. Such an action taken by the community is a testimony to the grace that God has shed to (and through) Trinity United Methodist. If a Christian can see or hear the grace of God being poured out on someone, no matter who it is, I believe it is a Christian's duty to profess it and give praise to God! To my brothers and sisters in Trinity, I give thanks to all that you have done to radiate God's love to your community. If your community can see it (as they have), then I will not be condemned by keeping my mouth shut to what God is doing through you.
As for the things that I disagree with, I would rather not write a lengthy article. For time purposes, I will come back to this later. In the mean time, I wanted to post these thoughts, and maybe spur on some discussion in a civil manner. If you wish to respond, please do so thoughtfully, with tact, and with love.

Thank you.

Discussing Missions at Central Church of the Nazarene, in Lenexa, KS

As a requirement for a class I'm taking in seminary (Nazarene Theological Seminary) I was asked to write a paper that might guide and educate a local congregation into living into the Missio Dei. I took Central Church of the Nazarene (my local congregation) and wrote the paper.

If you would like to read the paper, please e-mail me or leave a comment with contact info.
The paper has already been posted for grading, but the understanding and living into mission at Central Church of the Nazarene is never done.
If you have read it and would like to add comments to help better form the mission at Central, please leave your comments here.

By the way, here were the requirements for the paper.

"1) An assessment of the historical and current mission focus of the church. This section
should be 3-4, double spaced pages in length.

2) An outline of a sermon or teaching series of four to six sermons/lessons which focus
on the Missio Dei and how that is expressed both locally and globally by the local
church. This series should take the resources from this class into consideration.
Each sermon/lesson should include the sermon/lesson title, a one paragraph
description of the central focus of the sermon/lesson and a brief outline of the
sermon/lesson itself.

3) A plan for systematic mission education through the existing structures in the
congregation or possibly through implementation of new methods. This plan could
include age level projects as well as interaction with global missionaries.

4) A Short Term Mission plan: This may be a local or an international trip. It will need
to include a rationale for the trip which demonstrates how the trip is a part of the
mission of the local church, rationale for the selection of the project itself, selection
of team members (what criteria do you use in deciding who will go?), pre trip
preparation, a day by day devotional guide to be used while on the trip, and a post
trip plan."

Starting to Minister...

Twitter/txt message question:

"What do U think a struggling Christian needs to know to become a stronger Christian? Besides Bible reading & prayer. This is Forest. This is just a survey."
I asked many of you that Q. The main thrust of my question was to gain an idea of what tools we as ministers can give to people who are now: new Christians/ healing Christians/ disgruntled-yet-back-to-Jesus-Christians.... etc.
I ask this because my dream is to make a video discipleship series based online that would really help Christians GROW.
The first topic on this online video discipleship series will probably be something like: "The First Thing You Need to Know or Should Expect About Being a Christian."
The things learned in this "course" should be invaluable to those who are just starting to walking the Christian walk (for those who are starting this Christian walk again, or for the first time).
Encourage me in this process. Brainstorm with me. Find others like me and connect me to them, if you could, please!
(for instance, my twittering just connected me to http://deidox.com/ . Sweet!)

What do you think?

Wedding details: π@π

Forest Fisk and Amanda Sugden

are getting married

~ March 14, 2009 ~
3:14pm

in Boise, Idaho at
Five-Mile Church of the Nazarene
2701 S Five Mile Rd, Boise, ID‎ - (208) 362-3100‎

A reception will follow in 3 different locations and times:

Boise, Idaho:
Five-Mile Church of the Nazarene
Immediately following the ceremony.
2701 S Five Mile Rd, Boise, ID‎ - (208) 362-3100‎

Creswell, Oregon:
Church of the Nazarene
March 21st at 3:14pm
805 S Front St, Creswell, OR‎ - (541) 895-2937

Kansas City, Kansas:
The home of the new Mr. and Mrs. Fisk
March 28th, at 3:14pm
5513 Pflumm Rd, Shawnee, KS - (913) 638-9037

Things might change, but that's were we are now! π@π

Which is your cathedral?

Examine your life. Which is your cathedral? Where do you find yourself worshiping the one who made you?


This is a composite of two images. One image is a cathedral, built by man with a tall classic medieval architecture, the other is a classic outdoor scene depicted on your typical nature calendar. The trick is, neither contain the God one sometimes encounters in either place.

This is what the LORD says:
"Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house you will build for me?
Where will my resting place be? ~(Isaiah 66:1, NIV)

Ours is neither a theology where we can contain God in a church, or we can search and find God in the outdoors. Rather, we believe in a God who finds us!

We're engaged!

This is the (long) story of how I proposed to Amanda. In the end, she said that it was PERFECT:

Amanda and I had coffee with an old man friend of hers that she met at the coffee shop in Nampa where she works. There we talked for about an hour with this old man, when all of a sudden, a friend of ours came in with a video-camera. She got set up like she was filming us. Amanda asked what she was doing, and she said “oh, just a little film project” like she normally does. But ;-), she was there because of ME! My alarm on my phone went off, and I said, “Well look Amanda! It's time to get started.” I said goodbye to the old man friend, and I said, “This is where we're going to start. Right here at the coffee shop,” because that's where I first shared my heart with her, and where she got to know who I really was. I think that's where she fell in love with my heart :-). Then, we went to the NNU campus and the camera followed us. We shot film of where I first remembered her name, where we shared our first good conversation, where we had our first kiss :-0! and where we watched the sun set where we climbed up this tall tree a few years earlier.
THEN we went to the building on campus where students learn to be pastors (the religion building). As the story goes, 2 years ago Amanda and some friends and I made a snowman there and called him “Parson Brown”. Do you remember the song “Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland?” Well, THIS year, after we filmed the tree, we came down and saw our friends throwing snowballs. It was a VERY FUN snowball fight (just like I planned;-), then, we all pitched in making a big snowman like we did last time:-). I had a top hat, and a carrot, and 12 pieces of real coal all ready to go. After we built him, my friend asked “How does that song go?” so we all started singing,
“In the meadow we can build a snowman
And pretend that he is Parson Brown,
He'll say “are you married?”
We'll say, “No man...”
and that's when I said, “but I guess I should ask her first!”
So I got down on one knee and pulled out the ring and asked, “Amanda Renee Sugden, will you marry me?”
Ha Ha! If she was a turtle, she would have been in her shell ;-). She was so excited that she wasn't thinking... she got all quiet and was blushing a LOT... She wanted to say something beautiful like “For the rest of my life, darling, YES!”... But what she really said was, “Are you serious?”! After a really long pause (probably only 2 seconds:-)) she said, “yes” really, really quietly, and I put the ring on her finger. :-)
After all the hugs and kisses (this was ALL on the cam-corder by the way) I explained to everyone that the real ring was still not finished, and that was why this one looked fake... well... it WAS fake;-).
THEN, after we said goodbye to all our snowball throwing friends, we went INTO the religion building. There, my professor had set up a REALLY ROMANTIC scene. There were 6 chairs on either side of a small table. In front of the table was a small altar, with pillows to pad our knees. There was her pastor and wife there, and my pastor and his wife there, also her mentor and my mentor were there too.
That's when I told Amanda I wanted to start our permanent relationship to be blessed by people we wanted to become like. I wanted us to become like these people because we really looked up to them. And you know what? They prayed for us, and anointed us with oil. They asked that we not become like them, but that we would become like Jesus Christ... the person that they had striven to be just like. I thought that was amazing! I also want to be like Jesus in everything I do. So, that was really meaningful to me.
Then, my pastor explained some things about communion; and how every time that the bread is mentioned in scripture for communion it said that the bread was taken, blessed, broken and given. He prayed that just like the bread... and just like Jesus himself, that we as partners... as married people would be taken for God's use, blessed by Him, broken in service, and given to others. That's just what Jesus did for us.
It really made me think hard. I didn't want to be “broken” by God. But... I was thinking that is what makes love so meaningful: when you heart breaks for someone else enough that you share a little bit of it with others. What he said really touched my heart.
Then, we shared communion, and Amanda's mentor read from the Bible: Ephesians 3:14-21

When I think of the wisdom and scope of his plan I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father of all the great family of God that out of his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you the mighty inner strengthening of his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of Go’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, thought it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself.
Now glory be to God who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes. May he be given glory forever and ever through endless ages because of his master plan of salvation for the church through Jesus Christ. From the Living Bible (verses 14-21)

After Amanda's mentor finished, we went back to where all of our friends were waiting. They wanted to hear what happened inside. We had hot cocoa, and shared about everything.
She REALLY loved how I proposed. Everything went GREAT! God even helped the snow not to melt too quickly by dumping an extra few inches 3 days before I proposed so we would have enough to build Parson Brown! And, little did I know until right now that the verse her mentor picked out (Eph 3:14-21) is the date of our wedding (3-14-09)!
And, sense her mentor told me she felt like God directed her to that verse, I take it as no small coincidence ;-).
PRAISE HIS LOVE FOREVER!

here are some more pictures of me asking HERE

SWAT team on Pflumm

I was on my way home from buying my new camera, and I wanted to take some pictures of the Veteran's park just by my house. I thought the ceremony had started because they had already set up flags by the time I went to church, and my route home was stopped by a line of cops. So, I parked about 2 blocks away. Got my camera out of its box, and went to go take pictures of old men crying, and saluting of flags etc. a GREAT opportunity for first pics. But... no one was there!
I took pictures of flag, and leaves,


and went to the kiddy park just a few feet away THEN, all of a sudden there were S.W.A.T. cops swarming all over the place! Sense I had my camera I took their picture (with a kiddy park in the background)

and then saw the whole "POLICE MOBILIZATION UNIT" (looked like a charter bus) with a whole crew of people, police, guys in camo.... dogs, Sniper riffles, wires, screens etc.
I was pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be there, but I took a few more pictures. After all, after I saw 3 guys in camo... one with a sniper riffle, another guy, and a police guy with a German Shepherd dog (*click). I called Spring, and while I was hanging up one of them what looked like a line/cable for dynamite, (but probably just a cable for a camera/monitor or somethign) asked me where I lived (probably assuming I was displaced by whatever was going on in suburbia down the road). I said I was just taking pictures when he said, "Go! Go home! This is a police operation. I don't want you to get shot!"... So, I meandered home.
I was grateful that I wasn't anywhere near danger (in my opinion), but, just in case I was, I'm also glad that I wasn't shot. I hope you enjoy the pictures :-)

You can see the results here.