Financial Freedom

Over the past four years, we have been teaching through a series on Financial Freedom. This is such a difficult subject to talk about in church because the knock on church is that "they are always asking for our money." Let me take this opportunity to be clear... I believe that Jesus taught a lot about giving; about how finances are tied so closely to our heart. I believe that Jesus commanded his followers (us) in how to treat finances; how to make monetary decisions; what to do with those in need; how to be generous.

When the church instructs on giving, it is not to somehow manipulate people into giving for the sake of the church. When Jesus gave the Great Commission, He said to "make disciples of all nations" but He also said to "teach them to obey everything I have commanded you to." The church has the responsibility to teach what Jesus taught -- including finances. When the church teaches on financies, it is out of a heart of being obedient to Jesus teaching to His disciples.

If anyone decided to give financially to New Hope, our desire is that they be motivated by Jesus instructions, God's principles, and the leading of the Holy Spirit. There should not be compulsion from man -- only instruction on what Jesus had to say.

As funds are received, the church (like each of us individually) carries the responsibility to steward its resources well. New Hope has a purpose, "To honor God by making passionate follwers of Jesus Christ through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit." Everything the church does must move individuals toward that purpose... hardened hearts become softened, hopeless find hope, prisoners be set free, doubters become seekers, seekers become followers, and followers become passionate. Whether New Hope received $10,000/year or $10,000,000/year, the responsibility and commitment of the leadership is to pray, seek the leading of the Holy Spirit, and make decisions that can best advance that purpose.

Our job as individuals: read the Bible, listend to Jesus teaching, be obedient to God's instructions, and lean into the Holy Spirit on what we should give and where we should give it.

Our job as a church: pass on the teaching of Jesus and steward whatever resources come in based on the purpose of the church, Biblical instruction, and the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

HIV/AIDS

There are several area pastors that are interested in joining forces together to make a significant impact in the battle against HIV/AIDS. Some churches have already taken some steps while others are waiting for the right opportunity. My desire is to see the churches lead a community-wide effort; to see Isanti County as an expanded community partner with a region in an area affected by HIV/AIDS to help turn the tide of poverty and lack of education which are underpinnings of the AIDS issue. To that end there I have attended a seminar at Bethel University attended by pastors from First Baptist and River of Life as well as other lay leaders from the area; this led to a discussion and presentation by World Vision at the ministerial meeting last week; this led to another one-on-one meeting with a lay leader from Cambridge Lutheran (who is already taken leadership on this issue). Over the next few months, my desire is that church leaders will meet to articulate a unified vision for what this could look like and then, over time, gain momentum by getting other community leaders on board ultimately resulting in the creation, announcement, and execution of a transformational impact program in the area of HIV/AIDS. Jesus calls us to care for the widows and orphans. The widows & orphans created by the greatest global medical crisis in history is absolutely staggering. Jesus calls us to the utter ends of the world to share the gospel. If you have a passion around this issue, I would love to hear from you as we start to move forward on this. May the Lord bless you in great & mighty ways. Your servant.... Steve

Preaching, presents, & popeye

Hey gang... I didn't realize it has been 12 days since my last entry on this blog. I guess Christmas had a way of getting my focus elsewhere. We did the Christmas play on the weekends of 12/9 and 12/16 and then I attended the Christmas play at Evergreen Community Church in Pine City on 12/23. This was the church that we were involved with helping start which is transforming lives up in Pine County and baptizing another 11 people this Sunday. Today I had the honor of speaking at New Hope and we went "In search of..." a hope that does not disappoint.

Preparing for this Sunday was grueling. I went through about 9 re-writes of the message. It felt like the Holy Spirit just kept saying..."No; not quite" and I would do down a different path. This hope that becomes an anchor for us is soemthing I needed a big dose of so, perhaps, this was God's way of having me look at the issue from multiple perspectives so that I would deepen my own understanding of it. Finally, on Friday night he solidified what I would share and then had me do some fine tuning Saturday.

Typically preparing to deliver a message is much easier, but for whatever reason this was a much more demanding challenge. I do feel, however, that God said what he wanted to say. I think we were all challenged to search out the deeper things of God and live our life according to them.

Without much of a break over Christmas, I'm planning to take the rest of the day off today (perhaps watch the Vikings slip out of the playoff race) and hopefully have New Years Day off (I know you all really wanted to know my schedule!).

I don't get a ton for Christmas, but it was probably the least expensive thing I received that mean the most to me. My brother put a can of spinach in my stocking. It is not uncommon for us to put goofy things in each others stockings.... I put hot dog buns, bread, macaroni, and butt paste in peoples stockings this year. Honestly, there is such a thing as "butt paste" and it makes a great stocking stuffer. Anyway, the reason the spinach was so meaningful is that he said he knows I am on the verge of a "Popeye" moment. These are the moments I've talked about before where people reach the point of "That's all I can stands and I can stands no more" and then act on it. It's no secret that there are some social justice issues burning in me, that are holy discontents, that are bubbling into popeye moments. This meant a lot to me.

Later...

Follower infusion

Hey crew! What a blast it is to be part of a community of faith that welcomes everyone to the foot of the cross. This past weekend was great as we saw many new faces come and hear the story of Christmas... "from the beginning." So often we get excited about telling the story to people who have never heard it (or at least never heard it clearly), but I found myself also very excited to share this re-enactment with those who have heard the story many times. Based on feedback I received, this production was a blessing to those long-time followers as much as it was to the newbies, seekers, or those drug there by the ear. I'm thrilled to be part of the "seeker" movement in making church accessible and relevant to all, but the downside can come in the form of providing what long-time followers need. In the "seeker" model, we try to move long-time followers toward a personal ownership of their growth while encouraging them through the Sunday morning programs to own their growth, to show radical grace toward others, and to give themselves to complete surrender to God. Sometimes, however, we are able to provide the followers with a real shot in the arm for their walk - my prayer is that this happened over the past couple of weeks.

I'm so honored to call y'all family and to be serving you in any way I can. Merry Christmas!

The rest of the story

This Sunday we had an opportunity to tell the "story of Christmas" through a musical troupe of story tellers. For many people, the story is just some unrealistic fable about a virgin giving birth to a guy who would later die and be raised from the dead. Unrealistic and, even if true, irrelevant.

Seeing God's creative gifts embedded in musicians, singers, writers, and directors in such a way that the "rest of the story" comes through is what blows my mind. It is amazing to me that God can use his people to share, in 35 minutes, the outline of His story. Starting with creation ("in the beginning") to the human condition (sin) to the sending of His son to satisfy our need and longing (Christmas) to the ultimate death and new life (Easter).

God was at work this past Sunday as individuals in the service and in the children's ministry made 1st time decisions to accept Christ as savior and to follow him as their Lord. Although not always a stroll in the hay, what a joy to be serving God and advancing His kingdom on earth as we prepare the bride (church) for His return.

Devotion

Today, Pastor Bill talked about devotion. What does it mean for us to be fully devoted; to be passionate followers of Jesus Christ? The more I become entrenched in the Old Testament, the more I am convinced that our devotion and Christ-followership must start with our fear, honor, and worship of a holy, all-powerful God.

It is easy to be devoted to a trend or a current cause or even an new and cool church. But that devotion only lasts as long as the trend it trendy, the cause is current, or the church stays new and cool. But if I want to be a fully devoted passionate follower of Christ, I must be fully devoted to our God of Wonders who does not change.

What does it mean to be devoted? To be set apart? To be fully surrended to the work of God in my life? For me, I need to continue to deepen my understanding of who God is.... I must understand the story of which I am a part of... I must acquire a deep appreciation for what God demands of me. Only then will I be able to understand how unworthy I am to be able to stand in the presence of God; only then will I be fully able to grasp the awesomeness of God; only then will I be filled the the fear of God and His awesome power. And then, and only then, will I be fully able to grasp what the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus really accomplished for me and us.

I long to have my legacy include being a passionate follower of Christ; I want to be regarded as one devoted to God and to the teachings of Christ; I want to be led by the Holy Spirit to live the life that God has called me to (good, bad or ugly). I am going to miss it plenty - as a leader I will make poor decisions; as a friend I will not always be as friendly as I should be - the examples are plenty... but my heart yearns to desire righteousness so as to honor the God of my fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I desire to lean in to worship God and His Son who stood in the gap for me; I desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit to give me peace, patience, kindness, gentleness as well as power and confidence.

I desire to be devoted.... 'hopelessly devoted'..... to God.

Gratitude

Many days I feel like a citizen of the nation of Israel. I lived my life for 20+ years in service to myself and my sinful desires - I was in bondage to myself and to the ways of the world (my Egypt). God sent people into myself to teach me about who God was and who could deliver me from my Egypt (my Exodus). For a while I enjoyed my freedom, but pretty soon I found myself complaining about areas of my life; I found myself longing for my previous life of selfishness - I was no different than the Israelites grumbling to Moses about the lack of water, or food, or being sick of bread, or being sick of qual, or whatever. As God works to transform my life I still find myself at times grumbling to God rather than clinging to his faithfulness of the past and promises of the future. It's easy to rip on the Israelites, but I wonder how different I would have been. It's easy to rip on Adam and Eve, but I wonder if I would have been covered with fruit. It's easy to think about how good things were back in Egypt, forgetting about the slavery and bondage - but the truth is, we (I) were slaves and have no found freedom in our (my) deliverance. As we paint pictures of Egypt (copyright Sara Groves), let's make sure we remember the full picture.