Monday, June 27, 2011
JUNE 2011 EDITION
Think back now, if you will, to the time when you first began a relationship with Christ. What was it like? For me, it was like a light going on inside me. It was a dramatic event. I remember the day and the hour I surrendered my life to Christ. It was 8:30 p.m., April 29th, 1975. I made a conscious decision to follow Christ at that time. I know that many of you cannot point to a specific time in your life. Either it was more of a gradual process or you feel you have always been a follower of Christ. For me, it was a time of great excitement and change. In fact, four days after I committed my life to Christ, I lost my job, but I had a sense of peace that God was in control and I was not worried. Please note that losing my job had nothing to do with my decision to follow Christ. I spent the rest of that spring and summer immersed in reading the Bible every chance I got. I got involved in ministry to high school kids that fall and began an almost 15-year career in youth ministry. I have a very nostalgic feeling about that time.
Fast-forward thirty-five years. I have been in ministry all these years. I am wondering whether or not Revelations Chapter Two Verse Four applies to me, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.” Do I have the same passion for reading the Bible?
Do I have the same sense of peace I had when “the wheels were falling off” in my life? Do I do ministry with the same sense of zeal I had when I first got involved with Young Life? I ask these scary questions of myself. Has being in full-time Christian ministry for thirty-five years jaded me to the glory and wonder of my redemption? The only answer I can give is that I am different now. My love for Christ is deeper, just as my love for Peggy is deeper and richer than when we were first married forty-four years ago. I feel I have matured in my faith. I may not be as emotional as I was at that time. I am not where I want to be. I have not arrived. Let me state that emphatically. But I am further down the road of faith. I love His Word. I read it every day of my life. I know, in a settled way, that I am doing what God has prepared me for in all those past years. It is still good for me to examine myself on a regular basis and ask the hard questions.
Nostalgia is useful in that it reminds us of times past that were pleasant and enjoyable. We must not, however, allow it to rule our lives. We must not find ourselves stuck living in the past. Let the past pleasant times challenge us to recapture positive traits and practices we had, but let us move forward seeking to grow more deeply in love with Christ.
Now, in closing, may I say a word to those of you that are not followers of Christ. I came to love Christ because I discovered that He first loved me long before I ever gave a rip about Him. He loved me so much that if I were the only person who ever lived, He would have given His life on the Cross for me. How do you respond to that kind of love? I pray you will discover and experience the love Christ has for you.
MINISTRY NEWS
We have moved our Friday Morning Men’s Group to Marietta Country Club as of June 17th. Guys, please join us at our new location at 7:00 a.m.
I will be ending my involvement with Crime Victims Advocacy Council at the end of June as we have found someone who has both experienced first-hand being a
family member of a victim of murder and has completed counseling courses and national training in this area. She will be a great fit for the organization. We feel that this is God’s timing.
I continue to walk alongside men in their journey of faith on an individual basis each day.
I had a chance to go on a much-needed family vacation because of the generosity of one of the members of our Friday Morning Group.
Bless each one of you for your friendship and support!
Net Work Ministries, Inc. Purpose Statement
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.
The Concept of Net Work Ministries
“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.
About Me
- Buck Reese
- Marietta, Georgia, United States
- Buck is a native of Atlanta. He graduated from Georgia State University with a business degree. He spent 10 years in the restaurant business prior to going into the ministry in 1976. He is an ordained minister. Buck has been married to Peggy for 52 years. He has two married daughters and seven grandchildren ranging in age from six to twenty-five years old . Peggy and Buck have lived in West Cobb for forty years.
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Net Work Ministries Testimonials
“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
1 comment:
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