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.
Friday, June 6, 2008
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?
Sunday, April 6, 2008
The Body
This morning, pastor Bill dug into the issue of the different parts of the body working together for the good of the entire body. As we were doing the drama and being interviewed, it occurred to me how much of my past willingness to serve was related to my own sense of self-worth. I do not want to serve when I am not feeling good about myself or I'm lacking confidence. But as I thought more about this I realized how closely this is tied to having our identity in Christ. The more I am assured in my identity as an adopted child of God, the more I am willing to put myself out there. Like any relationship, starting to serve is sort of like going on a first date: what if they don't like me? what if they think I'm weird? what if I don't like them? how could I end it if I know its not working?
Any time we step out into something new, it is a risk. But as each one of us are transformed, we start to understand that growth comes from risk. Risk to serve in an area with no expertise. Risk to ask a question about God that no one else dares ask. Risk to say we don't have it all together. Risk or being transparent. Risk of seeing the transparency of others.
But we are the body. We are brothers and sisters. Perhaps there exists a truly functional family and, in that hypothetical family, I think there is transparency and trust. Conversely, it seems one of the traits of the "most" dysfunctional families is there lacks the ability to be real. I strongly desire the family of New Hope to be healthy; we may not be fully functional (although that's the goal), but we must be healthy. This means we share what is on our mind, including the truth in love. It means we need to accept hearing the truth in love. It means we are patient with each other and realize each person is uniquely wired by God.
It's exciting to be part of a larger body. I'm so honored to be part of the family of God and even more specifically of the family of New Hope. Like brothers and sisters, we'll walk through disagreements and conflict, but at the end of the day, like Sister Sledge sang, "We are family!"
Any time we step out into something new, it is a risk. But as each one of us are transformed, we start to understand that growth comes from risk. Risk to serve in an area with no expertise. Risk to ask a question about God that no one else dares ask. Risk to say we don't have it all together. Risk or being transparent. Risk of seeing the transparency of others.
But we are the body. We are brothers and sisters. Perhaps there exists a truly functional family and, in that hypothetical family, I think there is transparency and trust. Conversely, it seems one of the traits of the "most" dysfunctional families is there lacks the ability to be real. I strongly desire the family of New Hope to be healthy; we may not be fully functional (although that's the goal), but we must be healthy. This means we share what is on our mind, including the truth in love. It means we need to accept hearing the truth in love. It means we are patient with each other and realize each person is uniquely wired by God.
It's exciting to be part of a larger body. I'm so honored to be part of the family of God and even more specifically of the family of New Hope. Like brothers and sisters, we'll walk through disagreements and conflict, but at the end of the day, like Sister Sledge sang, "We are family!"
Monday, March 31, 2008
Merry Christmas
I was sitting in my recliner working on my laptop while Tracy was grading papers on the couch and it felt like the middle of winter. The snow was coming down; the trees were thick with the fluffy stuff. Lucky for us we never took down our Christmas lights. I found the extension cord and plugged them in and it took our evening to a new level of coziness. Funny how little things like that can boost the spirit. Here's to wishing our hearts are covered white as snow and the Christmas lights are always turned on.
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