Christ - The ReeseSource: April 2011

Friday, April 29, 2011

APRIL 2011 EDITION

You probably heard it from your parents when Elvis appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show years ago…”The World is going to Hell in a hand basket”. “What is happening to kids today?” It was worse when The Beatles appeared on that same show some years later. You would have thought the world was ending! Then the Hippie movement arrived with the attendant long hair, loose morals, free sex, drugs, and flag and draft card burnings. Our parents were apoplectic!

I was a parent of teens in the 1980’s. Things seemed relatively calm on the national scene. It was a time of the “Me” generation. There was relative prosperity. We saw the demise of communism. All-in-all things were not too bad…seemingly. As a parent, I did not like my kids’ music, but what else is new!

Now here we are in 2011. Our economy is on the verge of collapse in light of our enormous and ever growing debt. America is losing its status as the superpower of military and industrial might. Institutions like marriage and the church are under attack to a greater degree than ever. Our country seems no longer to shine as a beacon of freedom in the world. We are involved with wars in two countries and militarily involved with one more. Our country is more politically polarized.

Where is all this headed? Who knows?

Until a few years ago, I did not care for uncertainty. I liked to know what is happening next. I liked being in control. Then, Peggy and I had the opportunity to travel to Italy. We did it “on the cheap”. We bought a 3000-kilometer train ticket and had “Buddy Passes” given to us to get us over there and back. We knew the places we wanted to see, but we had no itinerary other than the first night in Milan. Now, my “modus operandi” for travel was usually “pack it all and sort it out when I get there”. This was not going to be possible. We had to pack very lightly. We would be gone for about ten days. We did not want to lug big suitcases around Italy. We ended up with one small backpack/suitcase each and did fine. As we moved from town to town, we would ask the concierge at our usually three star hotels to help us make arrangements in the next town with the help of our Rick Steve’s Guidebook to Italy. At first, this stressed me out “to the max”. As time passed, however, I began to relax and see each day as a new adventure.

Oswald Chambers, in his devotional for April 29th, speaks of uncertainty. If you will allow me to quote him, "Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life-gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises."

I love the saying,"I do not know what the future holds, but I do, however, know the One who holds the future." That works for me.

MINISTRY NEWS

As of the writing of this newsletter, final preparations are underway for the 1st Annual “Duck If It’s Buck, Plaid Pants Open” Golf Tournament to be held on May 6th at Marietta Country Club. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude for the many people who have worked so diligently to make this a fun and different golf tournament. I would particularly like to single out the work of the tournament committee members: Ed Brooks, Marshall Dye, Dr. Dan Norris, and Neal Sisson. I would also like to thank Marie Sisson and Cindy Dye, who are working on the Women’s Round Robin Tennis Tournament to be held in conjunction with the golf event. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the wonderful hospitality of Marietta Country Club, particularly Kathleen Pappaterra, Membership Director, Stephen Keppler, Director of Golf Operations and Joe DeFoor, Director of Tennis Operations.

I continue to enjoy leading the Friday Morning Bible Study each week. We had an especially poignant discussion on Good Friday.

I have had a great many opportunities to walk alongside men in their day-to-day struggles and offer counsel and encouragement.

***Please note***
We have a few more slots open for golfers for our tournament. Call 678-986-4814 to reserve your slot.

NET WORK MINISTRIES, INC. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

NET WORK MINISTRIES, INC. EXISTS FOR THE PURPOSE OF BRINGING TOGETHER GOD’S PEOPLE AND HIS RESOURCES TO PRESENT THE HEALING MESSAGE OF CHRIST’S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, THROUGH WORD AND DEED, TO A HURTING AND LOST WORLD.

NET WORK MINISTRIES, INC.
2671 OLD HICKORY DRIVE, N.W.
MARIETTA, GA., 30064-1833
770-422-8638(office) 678-986-4814 (cell)
E-mail address – buckreese41@yahoo.com
Website: www.networkministries.blogspot.com

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

MARCH 2011 EDITION

It is a nutty time of year! One day it is 35 degrees, the next it is 85 degrees. Who can figure out how to dress for the day? Also, It is also a time of year when we get violent storms. This causes sleepless nights for me. If we have a lot of rain and the power goes out, my sump pump in the sub-basement will not drain the incoming water. The result is that it would be flooded and ruin the furnace. I have taken some precaution. I bought a gasoline-powered generator that I can use in such an emergency. However, this necessitates my being aware of the power going out, hence the sleepless nights.

Then there is the pollen! If you don’t live in the south, particularly in the Atlanta area, you do not understand pollen. When national pollen counts are measured as extremely high at 200, we “enjoy” counts of 9000! Everything wears a coat of yellow powder for several weeks. Everyone suffers, spring allergy sufferers and non-allergy folks alike. A malaise sets in on each of us, as the air is thick with pine pollen. The good news is that there is no more beautiful place on earth in the spring than the Atlanta area when the dogwoods, wisteria, forsythia, and azaleas are in bloom. Spring green replaces winter gray and brown. The earth experiences a sort of resurrection.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, a popular English preacher, speaks of another sort of resurrection, a daily resurrection. Let’s look at what he says.

“Every morning is a sort of resurrection. At night we lay us down to sleep, stripped of our garments, as our souls will be of our bodily array when we come to die; but the morning wakes us …even thus shall we be satisfied when we wake up in our Master’s likeness, no more to put on the soiled raiment of earth.

Now, as every morning brings to us, in fact, a resurrection from what might have been our tomb, and delivers us from the image of death which through the night we wore, it ought be saluted with thanksgiving. As the great resurrection morning will be awakened with the sound of the trumpets far-sounding music, so let every morning, as though it were a resurrection to us, awaken us with hymns of joy.”

Here follows Spurgeon’s challenge to us…

“Let us take care, while we are still fresh, to give the cream of the morning to God.

It is a good rule never to look into the face of a man in the morning until you have looked into the face of God; an equally good rule always to have business with Heaven before you have any business with earth. Oh, it is a sweet thing to bathe in the morning in the love of God.”

Do we attend to this? I am afraid we are in too much of a hurry, or we get up too late. Could we rise a little earlier? If we could steal even a few minutes from our beds, those few minutes would scatter their influence over the entire day.”

Ouch! As it is sometimes said, “Now he’s gone from preaching to meddling!” But it is good stuff, nonetheless!

MINISTRY NEWS

MEN’S RETREAT – DR. BOB MITCHELL LED A DISCUSSION BASED ON THE BOOK “RADICAL” BY DAVID PLATT – THERE WERE EIGHT MEN IN ATTENDANCE.

CRIME VICTIMS ADVOCACY COUNCIL HOTLINE RESPONDER POSITION – SPOKE WITH OVER EIGHTY INVIDUAL FAMILY MEMBERS WHO HAD LOST A RELATIVE WHO WAS A VICTIM OF MURDER.

UPCOMING GOLF TOURNAMENT CORPORATE SPONSORS –

DOUG HAYNIE – SILVER SPONSOR
ROB GARCIA – BRONZE SPONSOR
FIRST LANDMARK BANK – BRONZE SPONSOR
COURTMAKERS – BRONZE SPONSOR

UPCOMING GOLF TOURNAMENT COMPANY SPONSORS

BRUCE CHASTAIN CONTRACTING SERVICES
DYE AVIATION FACILITIES
ZACK BARFIELD – HEALTH PLAN DESIGN
WEST COBB DINER
MIKE AND KAMBRIA ROBERTSON – HOUSE OF HOPE – GUATEMALA
CLELL DEAVER – ATLANTIC CAPITAL BANK

UPCOMING GOLF TOURNAMENT FAMILY SPONSORS

JOHN AND JUDY MCMENNAMY
WARREN AND ELEANOR HERRON
MARSHALL AND CINDY DYE
PETER AND GAIL RE’

NEW NET WORK MINISTRIES E-MAIL ADDRESS – buckreese41@yahoo.com

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Net Work Ministries, Inc. Purpose Statement

The purpose of Net Work Ministries is to bring hope and healing to men and their families by exposing them to the love of Jesus Christ in word and deed. Net Work also encourages men in living out their Christian faith in their day-to-day lives.

Net Work Ministries, Inc. is a pastoral counseling and resource networking ministry that brings God's people together for mutual support and enables them to use the abundant resources He provides. It is directed towards men, to bring them into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to help them use the power of this relationship to become the men God intended them to be. This ministry helps men deal with issues that affect their everyday lives. It is a faith ministry that depends entirely on the Lord for resources and does not charge for its services. It is a fully accredited 501c3 I.R.S. organization.

Net Work Ministries was begun 1991 by a group of men who knew Buck Reese's giftedness in the areas of pastoral counseling and resource networking. Buck, who is a native of Atlanta, has been in ministry since 1975 and is an ordained minister. He was responsible for starting the Young Life high school ministry in Cobb County in 1977 and served as Area Director for 12 years. Buck was the Director of Church Relations for Rapha, Inc., a Christian counseling program, as well as serving as a pastoral counseling intern at Wesley Woods Geriatric Center. For 20 years Buck served as chaplain and assistant coach of the Marietta High School football team. Buck was selected to be a member of the 1998 class of Leadership Cobb and the 1999 class of the Honorary Commanders, programs of the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce.

Buck's full-time commitment is to Net Work Ministries. He is in contact with men of all ages and walks of life. A typical routine would include: Having breakfast or lunch with a businessman to offer counsel and encouragement to strengthen their commitment to Christ and to enjoy each other's fellowship and support. In all these situations, Buck offers a listening ear and a caring heart and shares Scripture and wisdom given by the Holy Spirit. The goal in all of this activity is to bring those who do not know Christ into a saving relationship with Him. To those who are committed to Christ, but are dealing with issues of day-to-day living, he gives loving and effective counsel, encouragement and support.

Recently, I have added a new role to my ministry. I have accepted the role as volunteer Chaplain to the Staff of Young Life Southeast Region, which consists of the states of Georgia and Alabama. There are currently 50 local area ministries with staff. I will be the"minister to the ministers."

The Concept of Net Work Ministries

From Henri Nouwen’s book “Gracias”:

“It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them.

From "The Hole In Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns, President of World Vision:

It is rare that a simple recitation of the gospel will cause people to instantly change their minds. It usually takes much more than that. Our own narrative typically involves a journey of discovery marked by relationships with respected friends and loved ones, reading, discussions, learning about the basis for Christian faith, seeing the difference faith made in the lives of people we know, and witnessing genuine faith demonstrated through acts of love and kindness towards others.

I Stand At The Door - My Calling To Men's Ministry

I Stand at the Door

By Sam Shoemaker (from the Oxford Group)

I stand by the door.
I neither go to far in, nor stay to far out.
The door is the most important door in the world -
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There is no use my going way inside and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where the door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it.
So I stand by the door.

The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door - the door to God.
The most important thing that any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands
And put it on the latch - the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man's own touch.

Men die outside the door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter.
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live on the other side of it - live because they have not found it.

Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him.
So I stand by the door.

Go in great saints; go all the way in -
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics.
It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in.
Sometimes venture in a little farther,
But my place seems closer to the opening.
So I stand by the door.

There is another reason why I stand there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them;
For God is so very great and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia
And want to get out. 'Let me out!' they cry.
And the people way inside only terrify them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled.
For the old life, they have seen too much:
One taste of God and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving - preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door
But would like to run away. So for them too,
I stand by the door.

I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not yet even found the door.
Or the people who want to run away again from God.
You can go in too deeply and stay in too long
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there too.

Where? Outside the door -
Thousands of them. Millions of them.
But - more important for me -
One of them, two of them, ten of them.
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by the door and wait
For those who seek it.

'I had rather be a door-keeper
So I stand by the door.

Net Work Ministries Testimonials

Quotes

“I have been involved in Net Work Ministries for almost six years. I am privileged to serve on the Board of Directors and work with Buck on a variety of projects i.e.: Young Life, Good Samaritan Health Clinic, P.A.C.E., working with the poor and indigent, and supporting the men who attend Buck’s groups.

Buck and Peggy have been there for my wife Rita and I through our most difficult times. They are always loving, always supportive. Buck and his ministry are a wonderful example of what it means to serve. It’s what the love of Christ encourages all of us to do for each other.”

Dwayne Lambing,
Regional Vice President
Nordco, Inc.

The Friday group began as an opportunity for me to have in depth conversation about subject matter that I was not totally comfortable with i.e. formal religion and my personal relationship with God. I believed intellectually that the universe was not an accidental explosion, but it demonstrated a purpose that only a Creator could know. I felt a part of that universe and was comfortable with my life and the roles I played in it. But I still asked myself, is that all there is to life.

Through a series of very diverse and interesting books it became increasingly apparent that no growth in self is possible without the "pains" of self examination. Sometimes this would occur during the course of "intense" discussions and other times would occur in moments of quiet reflection on these conversations. I began to notice that in this crucible of frank and honest discourse that I could find a voice for my beliefs and at the same time be intellectually true to my beliefs in science.

As it has turned out for me, the books have been less important than the comfort and strength that I find in the relationship of men willing to discuss matters that are not in their comfort zones , and that require an intellectual and emotional honesty that are not found alone on an island.
Thank you for your role in making all of this possible,

Dr. Peter Re’,

Neurologist