Dear Family of Hope,

Grace and peace,

I am so excited and driven concerning the future of Hope Fellowship Church.  The aim as you know is to change the world.  August is a busy time for us.  We have evangelistic, emergency assistance, and educational initiatives to take place this month.  Please participate in as much as you possibly can.

To keep in line with our youth ministry, New Generation Youth  (New G), I am presently presenting lessons on the fruit of the Spirit.  Please get those messages.  They are very important for the Family of Hope right now.  Daily we are to consistently exude those characteristics.

I have more to say later this week.

Change the world,

Pastor

Hope Fellowship Church/Restoring Hope, Incorporated

Adopt a Classroom Initiative

What would happen if an urban, elementary school classroom received outside, additional, consistent support for its teacher and students? What if the teacher had money for additional resources?  What if every student in that classroom had proper clothing, school supplies, nutrition and mentoring?  Would it make a positive difference in their productivity and development? Hope Fellowship Church and Restoring Hope, Incorporated would like to find out.

Restoring Hope, Incorporated, a ministry of Hope Fellowship Church will launch its “Adopt a Classroom” program for the 2011-2012 school year.  The plan is to choose one class from a Title 1 school near our church and pour financial and human resources into it.  The Family of Hope will become vested in the success of those students.  The goal is to make sure the basic needs of the students are met along with placing as many tools in the toolbox of the teacher that we can.

Over the summer we will fundraise, finalize the specifics of the plan, and execute a memorandum of understanding with the chosen school.  I hope you are as excited as I am about the possibility of the initiative to impact lives.  We need all possible assistance.  I hope you will help us change the world by assisting needy students.

Change the world.

Peace to the Family,

Bishop

Grace and peace, Family of Hope,

At the time of this writing I’ve just finished a very slow and arduous 2-mile jog in my neighborhood.  Although I have a treadmill, I stress that I jogged outside for my own psyche since running outside is more difficult than the treadmill because the motor in the treadmill helps you.   I made up in my mind that I would run even though I am a little weary from travel yesterday.  I almost didn’t do it.  The more I found other things to do in the house the more likelihood of me not achieving my exercise goal today.

Two lessons can be drawn.  1.  Intent must always be followed by action.  2.  Some things are easier when not done alone.  Let me explain.  Relative to the former, we all have a lot of good intentions.  We are not like God’s creation right before the flood.  The Bible said the intentions of their hearts were evil all the time.  We as individuals, and as a corporate body called Hope Fellowship Church have good intentions.  Yet, it is intention plus action that leads to achievement.  Relative to our financial wellness and our physical well being we hopefully have good intentions to get those together, no matter how long it takes.  Consistent action will lead to achievement.   I gave up some things I really like for Lent.  Among them are Pepsi and Haagen-Dazs. That is a chore.  But, my commitment during the Lenten season was also commit to cardio exercise consistently.  I am doing pretty well despite my travels.  Action is the key. Take some action relative to your finances and health.

Secondly, the running is more difficult because I run alone.  There is no one there for encouragement or competition.  A partner could cheer me on and tell me to hang in there when I want to stop.  Also, competition won’t let me fail to meet the reasonably planned goal in front of someone else.  Discipleship and some aspects of stewardship are best accomplished with comrades and cohorts.  Financial wellness and physical fitness are matters of Christian stewardship.  Find someone to take the journey with you.  When I’m jogging by myself, left alone to conquer me.  Self is almost always the greatest obstacle.  We can do it individually and corporately with the help of God.  The future of the ministry depends on it.

Change the world.

Peace to the Family,

Bishop

Grace and peace, Family of Hope

I really hope you all are absorbing the message “God Wants to Deliver”.  If you don’t have part two from Sunday at 8am please get it.  We have to develop a hatred for poverty and all that it brings to negatively affect us.  God does want to deliver us.

A second part of the direction for us was unveiled in noonday prayer last week.  We have to do everything we can to improve our personal health.  It is important that we get fit.  Health and finances are tied.  Broke and unhealthy are not a good combination.  We cannot afford to lend ourselves to preventable health issues that become costly.   We should have extra motivation to be fit because of the potential negative impact on our finances.  We have to develop healthy lifestyles.

I am asking all of you who work in health and fitness to contact me so that we can look at the programs that we can offer on a consistent basis.  Proper health and fitness in time will become a core value of the Family of Hope.  Food service will also need to look at what we serve in church meals if we are going to pursue health and fitness as a lifestyle.

What a great thing it will be when the Family of Hope is full of people with good credit and good health.

Change the world.

Peace to family.

Bishop

Grace and peace, Family of Hope,

Sunday morning’s message is a reminder of what our position on poverty has to be.  It was the word given just after Hurricane Katrina that we were challenged to fight for order in our personal finances and to fight against poverty.  We got lackadaisical with our financial wellness program, and when the economy collapsed everyone went into survival mode.  Poverty is still a problem in the U.S.A., Daytona Beach and in the Family of Hope.

God has proven that He will always remind me of whatever He tells me to do.  No matter how far I or we get off track, He brings us back to what He has designed us to be and what He demands that we do.  We in the Family of Hope have to get our personal finances together.  More than that we have to attack the spirit of poverty on a consistent basis.  That disposition toward poverty needs to be a core value and core competency.

I’m asking for all of you with expertise in personal finances to email me within the next two weeks and inform me of your willingness, expertise, and availability so that we may develop a steering committee that can form the Financial Literacy and Wellness sector of our church.  Having financially literate people needs to become a hallmark of Hope.  We have to be a catalyst for change.  A part of that change is the elimination of lack in our house and the ability to help the poor in our city on a greater level.

Change the world.

Bishop

It is Valentine’s Day, ManUP

It is Valentine’s Day.  For those of you who are married or have significant others this is an important day.  This is a day a brother has to ManUP.  It is important to females.  No matter what your money is looking like I hope you have done something special, creative, and from the heart.  Use your creative skills to “make it do what it do”.  Let me give this disclaimer.  For my Christian readers I am not talking about sex and sensuality relative to singles.  I am not advocating that at all.  I do advocate love, respect, attention, and appreciation and a day and night that God can honor.

My mother raised me to take care of special days in the life of the person with whom you are in relationship.  Spend the time.  Be authentic and creative, true to yourself, and the relationship, and true to her.  Get the right kind a gift and make the day great.  I keep mentioning truth because it is so important in a relationship.

Truth is truth.  People get real emotional about this day.  The day really does matter even when some say that it doesn’t.  Do not make the day more or less than the relationship means just because it is Valentine’s Day.  Be all that you plan to be tomorrow, the day after Valentine’s Day, and no more.  This is no time for incongruent perceptions and mixed messages.  Don’t allow a sister to think she is special if she is only a substitute or a surrogate to get you through the day.  This article is for men, but for the sisters who read it don’t do that to the brother either.

I hope it is a great day.

Just sharing, Man to Man

Bishop Derek T. Triplett

This is going to be short because I do not want to be preachy.

Much has been written about the absentee father so no need to spend time on that.  I would rather spend time encouraging brothers to show up where you are needed wherever that might be, at home for homework, school functions, sporting events, church and civic events, opera, or “chick flicks” with your spouse of significant other.  Just be there, heart, mind, and body.

Male presence is irreplaceable.  There is no substitute for it.  Whether it is the husband and father in the home, or the actively engaged father outside of the home, the coach in the athletic program or the administrator in the school system, when a good man is present there is tremendous value added.  Every good man needs to know and remember that to his family and community his presence matters and his absence is a problem.

Just sharing, Man2Man

Bishop Derek T. Triplett

I Pray

I am not really into bumper stickers.  I really do not care for putting things on my car.  They become dated and tattered.  The “look” of the automobile is affected.   While I do not use them, I do pay attention them.  There is one that has been around for a while that says “Real Men Pray”.  This statement lends itself to much debate and argument.  What defines a real man?  Is there a standard?  What part of that standard is objective?  Is there subjectivity? What part does spirituality play in masculinity?  How do we differentiate what is distinctly Christian from the world’s generalized definition of spirituality?  The Biblical, theological, and social debate that could surround the phrase “Real Men Pray” is endless.  Nevertheless, I do not write to engage in it.  This is not a commentary on spirituality and masculinity.  I would rather just tell you that I consider myself a real man, a real Christian man, and give you a few reasons why I pray and in particular why prayer is important to my manhood.

To put it simply, I need to pray. When you seek to be a good man, manhood can be tough. Headship is not always easy.  The emotional and financial responsibilities of family combined with the pursuit of career and personal goals can be daunting at times.  And, that is before you add the effect of ego attachment to success in those areas. I need to know that the buck doesn’t stop with me alone.  I’m too finite and fallible.  I find security in the fact that God is greater than me, and his power continues to extend when my ability has reached its end.

When one seeks to be a man of purpose and power he has to frequently, if not constantly, deal with pressure.  That man lives with the burden of expectation.  As they say, pressure makes diamonds but also busts pipes.  For me, prayer keeps the proverbial pipe from bursting.  When I kneel, stand, sit, or lie down in prayer it helps relieve the pressures of life.  I don’t have to be father, pastor, bishop, community leader or anything else other than God’s son needing his presence and help.  That is a load off.

The power of prayer allows me to be present when I am absent.  I love my family.  They are spread out across the country.  I love my friends.  When any of them are in need I would like to be there for them.  My kids are away in college.  I would like to protect them every second of their lives.  I am secure in the fact that I pray for God’s watchful eye over them.  I pray for their future marriages and their spouses yet to be revealed and children yet to be born.  My prayers will affect my children for years to come.

In short, prayer is the only reason I can be the man I want to be.  Of course there is so much more to say if I were doing a Bible study lesson on prayer, but I am not.  I am just sharing a little bit of why this real man prays.

Just sharing, Man2Man

Bishop Derek T. Triplett

Be Prepared

I have a great fear of being unprepared at the wrong time and consequently missing an opportunity.  It is the lingering effect of it happening to me when I was a teenager.  I missed a great opportunity because I was not ready to take advantage of it.  It has been said that success is when preparation meets opportunity.  A friend of mine, Lee Norris Rayam who passed away several years ago, once said that when opportunity knocks the unprepared person would not just fail to answer the door.  That person would not even hear the knock.

During the 2008 Presidential election season, I was having a conversation with a friend.  I was challenged on why I was voting for my candidate of choice.  I gave my reasons, which only invited more questions about my knowledge of the candidate’s platform.  Little did I know that although we did not agree on who should be the choice for president, my debate “opponent” had read much more information on my candidate’s platform than I had at the time.  It quickly became obvious that I was not prepared for such a substantive exchange.  I learned a couple of lessons.  1. There are some people that will not allow you to get away with surface remarks.  2.  Cursory reading can get you in trouble with well-read persons.  By the way, I hate losing debates.

A man should make it a practice to be prepared.  Whether it is with the mundane or the important, do your best to stay ready and on top of your game.  It can be a challenge though.  Why?  Preparation takes planning. On countless occasions, I have been less prepared than I should have been due to the lack of planning.  There was a period of missed meetings, incorrect attire for the occasion, agendas that could have been more developed, and schedule conflicts that could not be resolved all because of the lack of planning and organization.  I am single and last year lost my executive assistant of over a decade.  Preparation now requires more planning on my part especially with the increased demand on my life and the lack of comfortable help and support.

Planning takes time. It is important to manage all of the various inputs and stimuli that can keep one from planning and thus being prepared.  Think about it.  Life is fast paced.  Technology has made life easier while also creating increased interruptions.  All day there are emails, text messages, phone calls, Facebook notifications, and those are just to your cell phone.  To properly plan at times it is important to hang a “do not disturb” sign on your total being so you can work on being prepared.  At times, we can be busy being busy.  My hope is to be less busy and more productive.  I have noticed that when I take the appropriate time to plan, productivity rises.  Being too busy can be costly.

Over the last few years, I have had a recurring dream.  It transpires at least twice a year.  In the dream, I have had a full day of preaching, and I arrive at my last preaching engagement for the night.  I do not know the type of service or the venue.  It is the last engagement of the day, and I am tired and just want God to bless the people through me in a hurry so I can retire for the day.  I arrive at the venue and discover there are thousands of people there, and the who’s who among black preachers is present including my dad.  I arrive just in time to preach and am ushered straight to the podium only to discover I have no Bible or notes, and I am too exhausted to remember my message.  I fumble through some simple Biblical oration at a time when I needed to be at my best.  I had been too busy to be prepared.  Over extension can negatively affect preparation.

Preparation requires tools. You cannot be prepared without the right tools.  I think this premise has broad application.  Ask yourself important questions that apply to you.  What do I need to have more upward mobility in my chosen career?  What should I be doing to prepare for this changing and shrinking job market?  Which social graces need improvement?  How can I be well read so as to improve my vocabulary and knowledge base, especially on current events?  Is there something missing that can make me a better husband so as to improve my marriage?  What do I need to be adept at fatherhood?  The list goes on and on.  You need tools in your toolbox.  Build them and use them.

Sir, do your best to stay on your game.  Do not miss out or mess up because you are unprepared and off your game at the wrong time.  I openly admit that this week’s article is late because of the lack of preparation and planning needed to manage last week’s known schedule and the interruptions that caught me by surprise.  I guess I need to read my own article.

Just sharing, Man2Man

Bishop Derek T. Triplett