New Hampshire is known as The Granite State. Its motto – found on car license plates – is “Live Free or Die.”
My wife and I chose to “live free” while we were there, and we didn’t regret a single moment.
Here are five more reasons why I love New Hampshire:
Number 5: I love the beauty of the state. The most famous part of New Hampshire is the White Mountains, and we had the privilege of driving through them one autumn day. The White Mountains do not disappoint!
We wanted to drive up Mount Washington, but it was closed. Then we wanted to take a train ride up the mountain, but it cost $62 a person, so we passed … but we did manage to snap a photo of a lost tourist …
Number 4: I loved driving the back roads, even though I consistently got lost. One day, Interstate 93 backed up on my way to church, and I decided to take the nearest exit and head south, figuring I’d hit the church eventually. While I made virtually no progress and needed assistance to find my way, I loved the remoteness of so many of the houses and the feel of the woods.
Number 3: I loved learning about New Hampshire culture. For example:
*The Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, and Boston Celtics are not my favorite teams … especially the Celtics … but it was fascinating hearing how the teams were covered and listening to New Englanders rhapsodize about their favorite players.
*The state does not have any sales tax or income tax. This meant that when we went to Walmart, everything we purchased was tax-free! Gotta love that … especially if you’re from California, where the sales tax rate is now 7.75% and climbing.
*All kinds of wild animals roam free, including turkeys which loved to hang around the church.
Number 2: I loved the weather … so much. While hot weather drains me, colder weather exhilirates me. During our last few weeks in New Hampshire, the temperature was in the 40s and 30s, occasionally dipping down into the 20s … and I couldn’t get enough of it … especially when I saw that the temperature was in the 90s and 100s back home.
Some friends told me that the snow gets old real fast, and I believe them. This is what the road looked like driving back to Manchester from Stowe, Vermont, one November day:
But I still loved the weather in New Hampshire!
Number 1: I loved the people of Crossroads Church in Pelham. They were so genuine … and generous … and classy … and kind to my wife and me.
I was invited to become a traditional interim pastor for the church while they sought a candidate to become senior pastor. The first night that I preached, the church had a reception for us after the service, including a large gift basket filled with goodies. People talked to us long into the night until I was advised to return to Manchester because a storm was coming.
My time there was short-lived because the church selected a candidate during my third week there, but Kim and I were the recipients of so much love that it was easy to love the people in return.
*We were given tickets to a Red Sox-Yankees game and a Celtics-76ers game.
*We were invited to attend a Chris Tomlin concert in Lowell, Massachusetts with people from the church.
*We were invited to lunches … and dinners … and after-church get-togethers … and even a meal on Thanksgiving.
*And Kim went on several excursions with women from the church, including this trip to Gloucester, Massachusetts:
Kim and I both agree: we spent three of the best months of our lives in New Hampshire.
So thank you, people of Crossroads Church, for making it all possible.
We will never, ever forget you and your fascinating state!
Restoring Kingdom Builders 
Stump the Pastor
Posted in Current Church Issues, Personal Stories, Please Comment!, tagged answering religious questions, Protestant distinctives, religious higher education, world religions on November 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »
I had a totally unique experience yesterday.
About 25 college students – who were taking a world religions class – visited the church I’ve been serving as an interim pastor.
The students drove themselves from the school to the church. I shook hands with each one and introduced myself to them.
They all came upstairs and entered the worship center and sat down.
Their professor stood up and briefly oriented the class to the worship center, noting that the church:
*didn’t have stained-glass windows.
*didn’t have pews.
*had a pulpit in the middle of the stage.
*had a baptistry. (Some students quickly walked up to it and looked inside … nothing.)
The professor then turned the class over to me, and for the next hour, I answered as many questions as I could.
What do secular college students want to know about an evangelical Protestant church?
They wanted to know:
*why there are so many different Protestant denominations.
*who is baptized and how a baptism is performed.
*whether Protestant ministers are allowed to marry.
*the role of women in a Protestant church.
*how many sacraments Protestants have.
*what the definition of “Protestant” is.
*what kind of music Protestants have in their services.
*what kind of sermons a pastor gives.
*whether or not we pressed our kids to attend church.
*whether pastors are paid or not.
*who owns the property and how it’s paid for.
*how pastors are hired. (Are they sent by a denomination or selected by a local church?)
There were no questions about:
*how a person gets saved.
*social issues like abortion or gay marriage.
*theological issues like the deity of Christ or His resurrection or the afterlife.
*the Bible itself.
*the role of Baptists during the Crusades.
The group was well-behaved, attentive, and inquisitive.
Nobody seemed hostile.
One kid on the front row had a Catholic background, and he asked me questions rapid-fire. I couldn’t tell if he sincerely wanted to hear my answers or if he wanted me to know how much he knew about Catholics.
This was a great experience for me. It enabled me to hear how college students view Protestant churches.
And it also showed me how little the students really know about what goes on inside the four walls of a Protestant church.
One young woman in the front row referenced a Christian rock group and helped some of the students understand what happens during a typical worship service. She became a valued ally 2/3 of the way through our time together.
It’s good for a pastor or an evangelist to visit a college class. It’s far better for the class to visit local houses of worship. (If a picture is worth a thousand words, just one visit to a house of worship must be the equivalent of reading 100 pages about that same religious group in a book.)
Maybe a local church could identify colleges within driving distance of their campus and invite professors (especially those who teach world religions) to visit the church campus with their students and ask questions of the pastor and staff.
What do you think?
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