What is our job?

When Paula and I started this insane process of planting a church in a town that had too many churches already, my dear friend and at the time planting coach, Bill Herzog gave us a book. It changed the coarse of what we intended to do as a church. Bill has a blog titled, "Thought from a regular guy" and I have stolen a quote from him about this book and its ideas.

Listen to the description of the church author Jerry Cook writes in his wonderful book, “Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness”…..“The Church is people, redeemed, filled with His Spirit, equipped to serve, meeting needs everywhere in Jesus name.” In another place Cook says this, “Among other things, I’m saying that we need to direct the church away from professionalism and into the hands of people who do not know what they are doing. I can say from firsthand experience that this policy is both scary and at times, utterly ridiculous, but always, in my mind, necessary.”

Basing a church on these three things has brought us both all kinds of headaches and heartaches, but as well it has been a source of blessing and inspiration. Loving whomever God brings to us, accepting them (this is even tougher) warts and all, and forgiving them or maybe I should say getting them in a place to understand God's forgiveness, is the greatest challenge we have face. I find I have a lot to learn about all of these. Try it!

Wait! Stop! Find Life!

From the great great words of Simon and Garfunkel, "slow down you're moving to fast; got to make the morning last!" We run right past our own lives, never stopping to find life in the present moment. Some see the glass half empty, others see it as half full but so many of us never see the glass at all! Now is the time to live, love and find God.

What then shall we do?

I was preparing for my sermon last Sunday and decided I would offer to start a Bible study in our church for those who wanted to learn more about the Bible. I love the Bible but have not been a big fan of Bible studies because most of the ones I have attended become either intellectual exercises in who knows the most about the Bible or a group of folks sitting around just focused on themselves. It is alright to learn and it is certainly fine to get help for yourself but then what? I felt I should add a scripture from James Chapter 4:22 "But be doers of the word and not hearers ONLY" I decided to find a group of folks who are willing to read the red words of the Bible (those words Jesus spoke) and then decide how to DO those things. In our church's mission statement it says, "We want to become disciples of Jesus, people who learn what is important in life and then do those things." That's the kind of disciple I want to be. How about you?

Breakfast Club

Friendship is the anchor to a healthy life. When you can find greatly different people sharing their faith in practical "where the rubber meets the road" ways, you have found something priceless as the ad says. I have been meeting for over 15 years for breakfast with one of more of these guys. We come from widely different backgrounds, started with Christ as the center of our lives and the rigors of life, death, divorce, and struggles as our common ground. Get Christ and then get people you can trust in, who have your back.

Don't Give Up! You Are Loved!

If you were at our church this weekend you would have heard that through many civilizations over much of history two great stories have emerged. The first is a story of death and rebirth. The death is usually in the form of a failed dream, a lost opportunity, or a tragedy. But there is a rebirth if we don't give up.

The second great story is of the reluctant hero. You don't get up in the morning and say, "I think that today I will be a hero." Tragedy strikes and we are forced, albeit reluctantly into the hero's role. Often we don't have time to think. Always, it is a surprise. It comes out of ordinary life in an ordinary world. I want to share some word in a song by Josh Groban that says there is help.

This Old Broad

OK so I was getting a little too religious so how's about some fun? My wife put me on to a video of Ginger Rogers dancing with her great grandson at the age of 92. I is quite impressive especially for those of us who think we are getting old. Keep watching past the slow dance.

Our Guide

In our travels in this life, it often seems like we are just stumbling along without direction. Sometimes that is an adventure like a Sunday drive, but most of the time it is disorienting. A map could help but a guide would be even better. One who helps us to see the high spots of our journey and the pitfalls as well. I believe God wants to be that guide, even if your relationship with Him is shaky or non-existent. In the last of my videos from fellow Vineyard pastors, Dave Schmelzer you can hear about an atheist who discovered the truth of what is available to us.