ONE LIFE :: Investing in the Church October 28, 2008

Last night we unpacked the value of Christian community, and our role to be good stewards of this gift from God.  We did so in the context of community – it was a small group night! 

We opened with a couple songs (Unchanging by Tomlin & Fields of Grace by Big Daddy Weave).  We watched the video “Welcome to our Church” as an intro and I recapped where we’ve been with the series and shared where we would go that night.  We then got everyone settled into groups of 5 or 6 people.  (We started the night with chairs in lumps of that many this time – which seemed to work well.) 

I put 5 questions on the screen and they had 15 minutes to discuss them.  They were:

1) What groups have you been a part of?
2) What can you do to fully be a part of such a community?
3) List out the things that we benefit from by being a part of a Christian family – a church.
4) What do we give to the Christian family? It takes all parties’ participation – list out the things we can share with our church family, the gifts we bring; the investment we can make.
5) What does the average person think about church?

When they finished discussing, I had them shout back answers for each question.  It was a good way to draw us all back to the same page.  We made note of how positive the answers were for the first 4 questions, 
especially when compared to how negativly the fifth question was answered.  We touched then on the fact that part of our responsibility for being stewards of the church, is helping people outside it have a positive experience with it.  People perceive the church as hypocritical, judgemental, stiff and boring.  What can each of us do to help them see the reality – that it is at it’s best, a beautiful place for broken people to support and accept each other; where we can grow in, and be challenged by, the example of Jesus; where we can experience the great, never-boring, adventure of the Christian journey together.

We segued from that discussion by watching a video of one family from our community sharing their thoughts about church.  That was followed by John inviting that family forward.  They believe so much in the importance of church and being an active part of it that they joined our congregation that night.  We covenanted with them to support and encourage their faith - a great example of what the night’s topic was all about. 

John then talked a minute about the power of the christian church as a support system.  He had a volunteer come forward and hold both hands in the air.  He told him to stay put and then we played a song (You Are So Good To Me by Thirdday).  As we sang, our volunteer’s arms began to ache.  Out of the congregation several people came forward to help hold up his arms.  John came back up and expanded on the object lesson that had just occured.  He spoke about the beauty of this image, of God’s people taking care of each other – challenged us to be fully present in the midst of that process.  Then we closed with Sing to the King by Passion. 

It was a good night – people connected – God was praised – next week, we move on to money…

Here are our prayer requests this week:
Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know! You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space Drop Boxes. Please keep these things lifted up:

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney – has breast cancer.

:: Pray for Tina’s friend, Jackie – she’s going through a rough patch.

:: Pray for Lynn Kelly – she is gaining strength for some more surgery.

:: Friend of Cody Ouzts’ - Wes Daniel – is leaving for USMC bootcamp this week.

My Gospel October 20, 2008

I invited people to write out their own paraphrase of the Greatest Story Ever Told. 

I told them I’d love to post it here for others to find the blessing of reading “The Gospel According to Me”.

If anyone would like to take me up on that, just comment on this entry and I’ll post it to share.

In the meantime, I figured I should do the same…

 

The Gospel According to Tina

In the beginning, God.  That’s it.  God period.  He spoke and the world was born – his breath started it all, his heart gave it purpose, his vision made it perfect and beautifully flawed.  It had to be that way.  He wasn’t creating a robot habitat, he was creating a family - and that is always complicated.  People have been able to choose from the get-go, and it didn’t take long before we chose ourselves over Him.  So Eden was only a glimpse of our home, our perfect, walking and talking with God, home.  Heaven had come down to Earth and it was all ours – was meant to be all ours – untill the choice to be like God, rather than simply trusting God, started a whole new ball game, and we’ve been struggling ever since. 

Then, at some point back in the day, God reconnected with us through a new relationship described in an old testament.  God spoke, people listened, God spoke, people were stupid, God disciplined, people learned, God spoke, people listened… sometimes.  It’s a fascinating, drama of epic proportions that speaks of love and neglect, of redemption and miracle, of a perfect God desperately trying to be in relationship with an imperfect people.  But it just wasn’t working – the Jews tried very hard some of the time – they definitley came up with lots of rules and regulations, did lots of altar building and sacrificing, but the distance between us and Him was too great.  That sin thing is a real problem for God.  (It did lead to some pretty phenomenal literature – you should read through those books of the bible, get a helper though, it’s tricky but full of wisdom and grace.)  So anyway, God shifted gears.

This is important because it meant His one and only Son, who was there when the speaking and breathing got it all started, had to take a serious demotion.  From the right hand of God, to a baby wrapped in rags, born inside a poop-filled barn to teenage parents who had no clue – that’s not a good day.  Except it was - because heaven had come down again.  

Just to be sure we would get it this time, God sent his Love to us in our own skin, speaking our language, dealing with our issues, and yet… Jesus was without sin.  He was perfect – fully God, fully human - I don’t know, I haven’t fully figured that one out yet, but I believe.  His example lived is enough for me.  Its ability to span time and culture and a world of other options helps me believe.  If that weren’t enough, His life still speaks - it encourages and inspires me daily.  (It helps that my husband is a freaky replica of the classic, Western art version of his image, which is a constant reminder of His presence in my life.)  

The Good News is – he came - he lived – he taught – he loved – and then he redeemed.  He pulled the most amazing God-trick ever.  He stood in the gap that humanity’s sin had created.  He enabled the relationship between us and God to be renewed, and that took a great sacrifice – the weight of all that wrong had to be placed on someone’s shoulders – and so it was done.  On the cross that day, Perfection paid the price of death so that imperfect people like you and me could cross the chasm of selfishness to find the arms of selflessness.  The creation reconnected to its Creator.  Then Jesus, who had really been a team player in all this, simply rose from the dead. 

The Good News is - He is alive!  And that living happens in each of us who says yes to the offer.  No, of course it’s not perfect – this world is still broken.  That happened long ago – God is a god of His word, and that means He works within the system that we helped create.  But He is around every corner if you look for Him.  The sunset is singing of His grace as much as the summer storm sooths with His mercy.  When you get that hug you so desperately needed, those are His arms surrounding you.  In those moments of peace that restore your sanity, if you listen you’ll hear that star-forming breath in the still and the silence.  When you are laughing and playing and having a ball with some sort of recreation – so is God in the midst of you – re-creating.  He is here and he loves you so much.  Will you love him back?

The Good News is - every day is a miracle of grand proportion.  A great journey/adventure with the God of the universe that I am honored to play a part in.  Some days I make God proud in my role - other days he shrugs with an unsurprised grunt that feels like love coated in disapointment fringed with understanding and soaked in unabashed optimism.  The reality is, without Jesus I am just a screw-up who gets it right sometimes on accident without hope of a future or a future of hope.  With Jesus, I am a saint who often struggles with sin and there is nothing in my life but hope.  Without Jesus I can try to be a good person, who makes a difference in this world.  With Jesus I am a piece of heaven coming down, so that a good God can make an eternal difference for all people.  And that is good news!

ONE LIFE :: Investing in the Story October 20, 2008

Tonight was all about The Good News and our role as stewards of that Story.  God has given us the most amazing story ever told – one woven into the fabric of time, creation and our very beings – and it’s up to us to treasure it, to explore it, to  explain it – to share it!  Rodney Smith, a British Evangelist, said it this way:  There are 5 Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John & the Christian.  But most people never read the first four.” 

So we spent the first half of the night remembering the story.  We alternated between song and spoken word.  We sang the story with songs like Made to Worship by Tomlin, Wonderful Maker by Redman and Amazing Love (You are my King).  We watched a great video called “Let me tell you a Story” in which a guy walked us from creation to the cross in a very cool, rap-like spoken word.  We saw another video of a live drama of four people speaking the Gospel with great images of Christ as their backdrop – that one’s called “This Christ” – you can find them both on www.sermonspice.com.  After each story telling I asked for feedback – what stood out, what phrase or image got your attention?  People spoke from the congregation of those things, helping us all to be pulled into the little details of the story that spoke the loudest.

John, our pastor, then shared a short message of encouragement and example.  He used Acts 4:8-20 as a text -  using the disciples lives as an example to follow.  They were told by the religious authorities of the day to stop speaking and acting in the name of Jesus – their response was this: “Whether it’s right in God’s eyes to listen to you rather than to God, you decide.  As for us, there’s no question—we can’t keep quiet about what we’ve seen and heard.” 

We gave a challenge – we each have this One Life here on earth – and it’s speaking.  The question is, what story is your life sharing with your neighbor, your co-worker, your friends or your family?  We agreed that your life should speak in example as you choose how to live – like Saint Francis said, “preach the gospel at all times, and if absolutely necessary, use words.”  But we must also be ready to share the story in specific detail – to help bring it to life for people - to know the Good News well enough that our words can be God’s words.  We gave out a scroll that was titled: The Gospel According to Me.  There were some starter sentences there to help people try an exercise of verbalizing the story.  On the back of the scroll we put the Apostles Creed and lots of Scripture that fleshed out the basics, just in case that info was new or helpful to  people.  (I don’t know if anyone will take me up on it, but I also invited them to share their gospel with us here on the site.  We’ll see if anyone bites.)  There will be (and probably has been) lots of opportunity for us to share the story – so will we be ready to boldy name names like those Disciples did or will we keep quiet? 

We closed with the song Marvelous Light by Charlie Hall - a beautiful telling of the story and our Good News.  So there was part two of our stewardship series – next week – we’ll invest in the church.

Here are our prayer requests this week:  
Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know!  You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space Drop Boxes.  Please keep these things lifted up:

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney - has breast cancer.  Her treatments continue.  She travels about an hour away for them and has to spend the night – she also has 2 small children and her husband has to work.  Louise is in the process of retiring so that she can go down and help with the logistics.

:: Pray for Tina’s friend, Jackie – she’s going through a rough patch.

:: Pray for Rob Church – a college student from this church – he’s having a hard time right now.

:: Pray for the Quarles family - Doodle’s dad passed away this weekend.  (Doodle is our drummer when Richard is out.  His son, Brandon plays the keyboard.  His other son, Tyler, plays bass for us on occasion.  His wife Michelle is at there being supportive every week.)  

ONE LIFE :: Investing in the Garden October 15, 2008

Welp, we started a new series Sunday night – we all have ONE LIFE, what are you doing with yours?  It’s a stewardship series, so each week we’re looking into ways that we can give back to God from all the good gifts he’s given to us.  Our hope is that each week we will have a deeper understanding of what it means to honor God with all of our lives and effort and energy.  This week we started with the environment.  What does it look like if we invest in the Garden that God has so graciously given?

We started with an intro video that I shot of my neices and nephews.  With the song “Legacy” by Nicole Nordeman behind, they led us on an adventure in my woods.  Then we did a couple upbeat songs – Make a Joyful Noise (I will not be silent) – full of great earth imagery.  And then Beautiful One by Tim Hughes.  I especially love the line: “The beauty of your majesty awakes my heart to sing”.

We have some great men at our church with a heart for recycling, so two of them (John & Sam) gave a presentation with some scripture about how important our stewardship of the earth is.  They also spent significant time on recycling in our area, and our church’s collection system.  We gave out info about recycling and a sheet with an A-Z list of ideas for doing good for the environment. 

We brought the kids in from their program (which has officially been named “The Fishin’ Hole”, get it, the fishin’ hole @ The Water’s Edge?!) and they joined their parents.  Eric talked for a minute about the beginning – when God and Adam and Eve were chilling in a perfect creation - strolling with him in the cool of the evening.  We invited everyone to take a walk with us down to the creek (about a block or so from our church).  As they walked we encouraged them to imagine walking with God through our Garden.  What would that conversation sound like?  What would he say?  What would you say? 

Once at the creek we gave out the plans: we gave out trash bags and gloves and sent everyone out to practice what we had preached.  We collected all the trash we could find, brought it back to a collection point that had been set up, where we sorted the trash from the recyclables.  Before splitting up we did a closing benediction and then everyone was on their own in little groups for the remainder of the night.

So there you go!

Here are our prayer requests this week:  
Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know!  You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space Drop Boxes.  Please keep these things lifted up:

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney - has breast cancer.  Her treatments continue.  She travels about an hour away for them and has to spend the night – she also has 2 small children and her husband has to work.  Louise is in the process of retiring so that she can go down and help with the logistics.

:: Pray for Tina’s friend, Jackie – she’s going through a rough patch.

:: Pray for a relative of Cynthia’s – Michael Davis – he’s been in the hospital with what they think was a mini-stroke.

:: Pray for Rob Church – a college student from this church – he’s having a hard time right now. 

Marks of a Disciple :: HOPE October 9, 2008

This was the final piece of our 5 week series.  We focussed in on the hope all Christ followers can stand on, be motivated by, celebrate.  I read a book to get the point accross – Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulis.  It’s an awesome book (from the 60’s) that looks like a children’s book, but it’s not.  It’s about a couple of catapillars and their journey to discover their purpose in life.  You can get it at most big book stores – which I reccomend you do now!

So, I set up a reading space on the stage (rocking chair with a table and lamp) and as I read a chapter, the congregation saw the illustrations from the book on the big screen behind me (I just scanned them in and dressed them up with Adobe elements).  As I read they also heard a soundtrack of sorts.  Brandon & Brian (keyboard & sax) wrote a song for each chapter that really brought it to life.  There are 7 chapters.  Between the first 6 I inserted a question and a scripture that people silently meditated upon.  This gave them a chance to personally process the story as we went.  The final chapter segued into a video I made that used the song Hope for the Hopeless by A Fine Frenzy (great song!) and some powerful images of hope.

From there we received communion.  I talked about the message of Hope that Jesus shared that night in the upper room and then as we sang a couple more songs people slowly came forward and served themselves from a centrally located table.  We sang From The Inside Out (Hillsong United) & Everything Glorious (Crowder).  Both lyrically relating to  our topic in a beautiful way.

And that was our night! 

Next week we start a new series – I’m way behind on being ready for it!  PRAY FOR ME!!

Speaking of prayer, here are our prayer requests this week:  
Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know!  You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space Drop Boxes.  Please keep these things lifted up:

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney - has breast cancer.  Her treatments continue.  She travels about an hour away for them and has to spend the night – she also has 2 small children and her husband has to work.  Louise is in the process of retiring so that she can go down and help with the logistics.

:: Pray for Tina’s friend, Jackie – she’s going through a rough patch.

:: Pray for a relative of Cynthia’s – Michael Davis – he’s been in the hospital with what they think was a mini-stroke.

:: Pray for Rob Church – a college student from this church – he’s having a hard time right now.