Kids are back in school. Teachers are back to work. Evenings are becoming cool. Leaves are starting to fall. -- But these are all changes that happen every year and we grow to expect them. Although these present challenges, we have learned to deal with them.
But what about those changes that are not "usual" or "expected." We are dealing with new people coming into the church family and others leaving the family. We are dealing with the deaths and accidents of those in our church family. We are thinking of building a new building. We are interviewing potential new staff members from different states. What do we do with these changes?
It seems trite to simply say, "embrace them" especially when some of them had some level of control associated with them. So, what then do we do with change?
My immediate family is going through even more change than what the church family is going through -- my wife has a different job, my role at one of my jobs changed, all three kids are going to different buildings for school. In the midst of changing circumstances, I lean on my core beliefs and vision like never before. I ask if the changes are impacting my foundational beliefs and passions or if they are merely impacting the circumstances in which I go after my foundational passions aligned iwth my foundational beliefts. My core value is to make transformational impact and my beliefs include "all means all" and "the term 'we' is universal". I can expand if you really want.
The purpose of New Hope is to make passionate followers of Christ. Our core value is transformation. We do ministry going after the captives, lost, poor, and broken-hearted as described in Isaiah 61:1-3. Every thing we do desires to be done in alignment with these passions and values in mind. I am so encouraged by those in the church family who have persevered through the transition - I believe simply because they (you) are so passionate about seeing lost people get found, seeing found people become passionate, and seeing passionate people reproduce their passion in others. God is on the move in tremendous ways at New Hope and it fires me up every week to see how the people of New Hope avail themselves to partnership with God as He redeems indivdiuals and the community.
May God richly bless you today. May God have mercy on us and bless this ministry to live to its full redemptive potential even during this state of flux. I'm proud to serve along side of each of you - you all inspire me to become a better man and follower.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
What Would We Do For Our Children?
I can't believe it has been a month since the last blog entry... ugh. Anyway, this entry relates back to about a week or 10 days ago when my eldest son (OK, he's eldest by 20 minutes) and I went and fished off the landing to a small lake (it's a secret). We were catching a ton of sunnies and several bass and then it happened... he laid in to something huge... we could see it swirling in the water. My son had never been trying to reel up something this big. I was coaching him, "Rod tip up, rod tip up, keep the line taut, etc" - he was yelling, "It hurts" as he tried to hang on to the rod while turning the reel. When the fish got to within 10 feet of us, I could see it... a large northern. Of course we didn't have a net with us so I was just trying to get him to back up and get it close enough so I could grab it and throw it on shore. Then, in a flash of light, I could see his body curl, straighten, and snap the line. Without thinking, I ran in after it in hopes I could grab the broken line and pull it in by hand... but it was gone leaving just a slip bobber in its wake. I was so disappointed for my son; he handled it well but we were both bummed. It would have been so awesome to have landed that beast.
Shortly after that, the mosquitos came out and we headed home. On the 10 minute drive home (clue to where the lake is), we were reflecting on what happened. My son had asked me what I would have done if I could have grabbed the fish... I said I would have grabbed whatever I could of and pulled it out of the water where we could handle it. He said, "but I thought northern have sharp teeth". I said, "They do... very sharp. But I would have put my hand in its mouth and let him clamp down on my arm if that's what it took to get you that fish!" He didn't believe me...but it was true. I may have sacrificed a finger to get him that fish and put it on his wall.
It sounds ludicrous now... sacrificing a finger or a deep cut to get a kid a fish? But I think there is truth that we are created in the image of God and, with that, we would do just about anything for our kids. The Bible says that the Father's love for His children (us) is so great and lavish that He sent Jesus to live as a mortal and die in our place as the sacrifice for all we have done wrong. God was willing to send His Son to die and His Son was willing to bear that burden. My willingness to sacrifice for my son does not seem all that amazing any more.
Shortly after that, the mosquitos came out and we headed home. On the 10 minute drive home (clue to where the lake is), we were reflecting on what happened. My son had asked me what I would have done if I could have grabbed the fish... I said I would have grabbed whatever I could of and pulled it out of the water where we could handle it. He said, "but I thought northern have sharp teeth". I said, "They do... very sharp. But I would have put my hand in its mouth and let him clamp down on my arm if that's what it took to get you that fish!" He didn't believe me...but it was true. I may have sacrificed a finger to get him that fish and put it on his wall.
It sounds ludicrous now... sacrificing a finger or a deep cut to get a kid a fish? But I think there is truth that we are created in the image of God and, with that, we would do just about anything for our kids. The Bible says that the Father's love for His children (us) is so great and lavish that He sent Jesus to live as a mortal and die in our place as the sacrifice for all we have done wrong. God was willing to send His Son to die and His Son was willing to bear that burden. My willingness to sacrifice for my son does not seem all that amazing any more.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Aaah, flying (or not)...
I flew to Chicago on Wednesday... my flight was delayed 45 minutes and then we had to wait on the plane 45 minutes before we took off. It was a bit frustrating, but I would find only 2 days later that it was no big deal! Today my flight was delayed 30 minutes before we boarded.... we were locked on the plane, in our seatbelts for over 4 hours before we took off! Not in the airport... on the airplane! Planes were not allowed to depart for Minneapolis and by the time they were, planes weren't allowed to depart to the north from Chicago. It was a back and forth journey of "pretty soon", "oops not yet", "OK, pretty soon."
I rarely fly to Chicago because I figure driving takes about as long. Its 6.5 hours from my house... when I fly, it's 1.5 hours to the airport, get there 1 hour early, 1 hour to fly, then 30-60 minutes to leave the airport and get where I'm going. Plus, when I drive I'm in control of the radio, bathroom, leg room, etc. But this time I chose to fly.... I chose poorly.
In life we all choose poorly from time to time. Sometimes its more obvious and we knew we were choosing poorly at the beginning. Sometimes the choice seems OK at the time, but only in hindsight becomes the wrong choice. As we go through life, we are promised that we have the Holy Spirit to help lead and guide us - we all need to figure that out a bit more for those decisions where there is no clearcut answer. What I want to make sure I don't mess up is those choices where the decision is obvious and I still choose poorly. How can I worry about the unobvious decisions when I'm still struggling with making the right obvious choices?
May we be bold enough to make the right choices when we know what they are and diligent enough to seek the Holy Spirit for those decisions that aren't so obvious.
I rarely fly to Chicago because I figure driving takes about as long. Its 6.5 hours from my house... when I fly, it's 1.5 hours to the airport, get there 1 hour early, 1 hour to fly, then 30-60 minutes to leave the airport and get where I'm going. Plus, when I drive I'm in control of the radio, bathroom, leg room, etc. But this time I chose to fly.... I chose poorly.
In life we all choose poorly from time to time. Sometimes its more obvious and we knew we were choosing poorly at the beginning. Sometimes the choice seems OK at the time, but only in hindsight becomes the wrong choice. As we go through life, we are promised that we have the Holy Spirit to help lead and guide us - we all need to figure that out a bit more for those decisions where there is no clearcut answer. What I want to make sure I don't mess up is those choices where the decision is obvious and I still choose poorly. How can I worry about the unobvious decisions when I'm still struggling with making the right obvious choices?
May we be bold enough to make the right choices when we know what they are and diligent enough to seek the Holy Spirit for those decisions that aren't so obvious.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Shedding from the Son
About a week and a half ago, I went fishing (big surprise) for about 3 hours. Since I was in the back channels, it was safe to go shirtless and not scare anyone. I didn't realize I was burning until I got home and my kids made some comments. A few days later I started molting like a snake; I thought it was kind of cool; my kids thought it was gross although enjoyed pulling skin off me; my wife was angry I let it happen.
What came to mind is how our sinful nature is crucified with Christ. Through the glory of the Son, our junk gets burned and removed like the skin off my body. Peeling the skin or watching it fall off of me gave me a picture of how we become transformed through the renewing of our mind to the things of God (Hebrews 12). As we are exposed to the power of the Son, we are forced to change. Sometimes the end result is painful (sunburn, etc) and sometimes the result is the beauty of bronze. Sometimes there is visible evidence of exposure to the Son (peeling, burn, tan) while sometimes there is just a warming of the heart and a lifting of the spirits.
I'm not sure sure the analogy is holding together, but anything that reminds me of how good it is to take the time to be exposed to the Son is worth getting excited about. God bless you all in great and might ways. May we all take the time to let the Son soak in and renew our minds, transform our hearts, and get passionate about sharing His glory with others. Be strong & courageous you adopted children of God!
What came to mind is how our sinful nature is crucified with Christ. Through the glory of the Son, our junk gets burned and removed like the skin off my body. Peeling the skin or watching it fall off of me gave me a picture of how we become transformed through the renewing of our mind to the things of God (Hebrews 12). As we are exposed to the power of the Son, we are forced to change. Sometimes the end result is painful (sunburn, etc) and sometimes the result is the beauty of bronze. Sometimes there is visible evidence of exposure to the Son (peeling, burn, tan) while sometimes there is just a warming of the heart and a lifting of the spirits.
I'm not sure sure the analogy is holding together, but anything that reminds me of how good it is to take the time to be exposed to the Son is worth getting excited about. God bless you all in great and might ways. May we all take the time to let the Son soak in and renew our minds, transform our hearts, and get passionate about sharing His glory with others. Be strong & courageous you adopted children of God!
Saturday, May 10, 2008
What do my keys & a northern pike have in common?
They both spent about 6 hours in my trunk this afternoon!
I'm not sure why all my great stories revolve around fishing; perhaps it is because I relax my mind when I'm fishing to the point of losing it! I am up in Brainerd for my MBA residency weekend (every 6-7 weeks). We had an extended lunch break so I thought I would quick run and wet a line (since today is the fishing opener). I had found out this week that there is a dam on the Gull river where I could fish from shore so I ran up there to do just that, even though it was raining pretty good. I had about 30 minutes to spend and about 10 minutes into it I nailed a nice northern (about 28 inches). When time was up I headed back to the car with my rod, tackle box, & fish. I pulled the keys out of my pocket and opened the trunk and then set the stuff in and shut the trunk.
The plan was to go buy a cheap styrofoam cooler & ice for the northern (which was still alive and flopping around the back of the trunk), then grab some lunch to go, and head back to class. Well, that turned out to be more difficult as I couldn't find the keys - the only explanation could be that I locked them in the trunk. Ugh! Since one of our windows doesn't stay up (it is held there by duct tape) this made it easy to break into the car, but there is no trunk release inside the car either. OK, so at this point let me recap: 1) raining so I'm soaking wet in my jeans & t-shirt, 2) live flopping northern in the trunk, 3) soon-to-be dead northern rotting in my trunk, 4) keys locked in the trunk with the northern, 5) need to get back to where class is, 6) no way to get into trunk.
Longer story less long: I hitched a ride back to where class was, got the name of a locksmith (who went above and beyond to help me out), after class got a ride back to my car, and then fished another 2 hours in 40 degree pouring rain. It's good to be warm and dry.
When I called Tracy about the whole ordeal, she said... "That'll preach" -- we'll see.
I'm not sure why all my great stories revolve around fishing; perhaps it is because I relax my mind when I'm fishing to the point of losing it! I am up in Brainerd for my MBA residency weekend (every 6-7 weeks). We had an extended lunch break so I thought I would quick run and wet a line (since today is the fishing opener). I had found out this week that there is a dam on the Gull river where I could fish from shore so I ran up there to do just that, even though it was raining pretty good. I had about 30 minutes to spend and about 10 minutes into it I nailed a nice northern (about 28 inches). When time was up I headed back to the car with my rod, tackle box, & fish. I pulled the keys out of my pocket and opened the trunk and then set the stuff in and shut the trunk.
The plan was to go buy a cheap styrofoam cooler & ice for the northern (which was still alive and flopping around the back of the trunk), then grab some lunch to go, and head back to class. Well, that turned out to be more difficult as I couldn't find the keys - the only explanation could be that I locked them in the trunk. Ugh! Since one of our windows doesn't stay up (it is held there by duct tape) this made it easy to break into the car, but there is no trunk release inside the car either. OK, so at this point let me recap: 1) raining so I'm soaking wet in my jeans & t-shirt, 2) live flopping northern in the trunk, 3) soon-to-be dead northern rotting in my trunk, 4) keys locked in the trunk with the northern, 5) need to get back to where class is, 6) no way to get into trunk.
Longer story less long: I hitched a ride back to where class was, got the name of a locksmith (who went above and beyond to help me out), after class got a ride back to my car, and then fished another 2 hours in 40 degree pouring rain. It's good to be warm and dry.
When I called Tracy about the whole ordeal, she said... "That'll preach" -- we'll see.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Loving our enemies
What a wonderful message Pastor Bill delivered this morning; and what a challenge to love our enemies... we are able to love those who love us; but can we love those who don't love us? We are supposed to.
Later in the morning, we had our Biblical Growth Class where we were discussing the epistles (letters) of Paul to the churches that we starting throughout the regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea. There was a lot of info to cover, but some of that involved Paul's charge to the churches in the region of Galatia (NE corner of Mediterranean) to be "crucified with Christ" - that our sinful ways / our sinful being was nailed to the cross and was crucified with Christ. The life that we live is no longer the sinful, law-code guilt life that we were subject to before Christ - but freedom! Because we shared in the crucifixion / death of Christ, we also share in His resurrection - in new life!!!! Paul summarized this by stating that we are new creatures; the old has gone the new is come!
If we are to live lives of loving our enemies, we must be crucified with Christ and live life by the spirit (which Paul also talked about). It all comes back to the cross. Loving our enemies is not about trying harder, or reading books, or holding each other accountable - those might help as we try self-improvement -- but the answer to loving our enemies lies not in self-improvement, but in Christ-improvement -- the answer to loving our enemies is death; death of ourself; sharing in the death of Christ so that we might also share in His life. "For I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live!"
God bless you richly, abundantly, and extravagantly with the fruit of the Spirit that is living inside of those who are adopted as his children.
Later in the morning, we had our Biblical Growth Class where we were discussing the epistles (letters) of Paul to the churches that we starting throughout the regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea. There was a lot of info to cover, but some of that involved Paul's charge to the churches in the region of Galatia (NE corner of Mediterranean) to be "crucified with Christ" - that our sinful ways / our sinful being was nailed to the cross and was crucified with Christ. The life that we live is no longer the sinful, law-code guilt life that we were subject to before Christ - but freedom! Because we shared in the crucifixion / death of Christ, we also share in His resurrection - in new life!!!! Paul summarized this by stating that we are new creatures; the old has gone the new is come!
If we are to live lives of loving our enemies, we must be crucified with Christ and live life by the spirit (which Paul also talked about). It all comes back to the cross. Loving our enemies is not about trying harder, or reading books, or holding each other accountable - those might help as we try self-improvement -- but the answer to loving our enemies lies not in self-improvement, but in Christ-improvement -- the answer to loving our enemies is death; death of ourself; sharing in the death of Christ so that we might also share in His life. "For I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live!"
God bless you richly, abundantly, and extravagantly with the fruit of the Spirit that is living inside of those who are adopted as his children.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Reproducing Transformation
I just finished day 2 of a 4 day conference in Orlando centered around reproducing churches. It has been a whirlwind of great information and great networking. I'm hanging out right now with 3 other church planters and have met a ton of people over the past couple of days. There are about 3,000 people from across the world attending this Exponential Church conference.
Over the past few years we have refined the purpose of New Hope, "To honor God by making passionate followers of Jesus Christ through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit" and our core value as "Transformation through Grace, Growth, and Generosity." This has really allowed us to focus what we are about and how we make ministry decisions. However, as we have been challenged to refine our vision to the point of making it portable, Andy Stanley challenged us. He asked, what is the vision of the "One" campaign that Bono is leading -- "To make poverty history" - sure, there are more details with that, but it is memorable and everyone knows what it is about. He asked, what the vision of Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barak Obama were... the only one people knew was Obama's "Change" - everyone shouted it out. The point is that vision must be simple to remember and portable.
As Pastor Bill and I have chatted about our already refined purpose and vision, we started dialoguing about a perhaps even more refined vision. We toyed with "Reproducing Transformation". The idea here is that we want to be transformed and to reproduce that transformation in other individuals (through mentoring), through small groups, and churches. We are about transformation and we are about reproducing that transformation in others. Perhaps this does not discuss all of the theological elements of it, but we need to be able to clearly articulate what we are about. "Hey, what is New Hope all about?"... "Reproducing Transformation."
What is small groups about? Reproducing transformation
What is mentoring about? Reproducing transformation
What is children's ministry about? Reproducing transformation
What is Sunday morning services about? Reproducing transformation
Why do we have adult sunday school? Reproducing transformation
What is mens, womens, seniors, young adults about? Reproducing transformation
Why do we plant churches? Reproducing transformation
What d'ya think?
Over the past few years we have refined the purpose of New Hope, "To honor God by making passionate followers of Jesus Christ through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit" and our core value as "Transformation through Grace, Growth, and Generosity." This has really allowed us to focus what we are about and how we make ministry decisions. However, as we have been challenged to refine our vision to the point of making it portable, Andy Stanley challenged us. He asked, what is the vision of the "One" campaign that Bono is leading -- "To make poverty history" - sure, there are more details with that, but it is memorable and everyone knows what it is about. He asked, what the vision of Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barak Obama were... the only one people knew was Obama's "Change" - everyone shouted it out. The point is that vision must be simple to remember and portable.
As Pastor Bill and I have chatted about our already refined purpose and vision, we started dialoguing about a perhaps even more refined vision. We toyed with "Reproducing Transformation". The idea here is that we want to be transformed and to reproduce that transformation in other individuals (through mentoring), through small groups, and churches. We are about transformation and we are about reproducing that transformation in others. Perhaps this does not discuss all of the theological elements of it, but we need to be able to clearly articulate what we are about. "Hey, what is New Hope all about?"... "Reproducing Transformation."
What is small groups about? Reproducing transformation
What is mentoring about? Reproducing transformation
What is children's ministry about? Reproducing transformation
What is Sunday morning services about? Reproducing transformation
Why do we have adult sunday school? Reproducing transformation
What is mens, womens, seniors, young adults about? Reproducing transformation
Why do we plant churches? Reproducing transformation
What d'ya think?
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