God has really been working in my heart lately in some areas that need repentance. It's hard to teach and preach God's Word to people without living it out on a consistent basis. The major area where I need to walk in repentance is my love relationship with Jesus. I like to refer to it as my devotional life. I feel like if I'm not wholly devoted to Jesus and knowing him more intimately, then everything else will start to crumble around me. To be honest, I've allowed the work of ministry, all good stuff, to stand in the way of my intimacy with the Almighty. I've been fighting... but not fighting hard. God called me to repentance this week and I am committed to falling in love with Jesus all over again.
God also called me to repentance in another area. I pray passionately for my city to be transformed by the gospel of Jesus. I sincerely want to see a movement of God sweep over our city in such a powerful way that other cities, other people, other nations look to Tacoma, WA and want to know what on earth is happening that could transform culture in such a supernatural way. I was at the "Send North America" conference this past week in Atlanta, GA and a questions was asked that really led me to repentance. Someone asked everyone in the room, "If God decided to move in your city but he decided to do it through a different church, would you still pray as passionately for your city?" Ouch. That one stung. Although I do love Jesus and do love my city, my motives were brought to light in that moment. I realized that my main motivation recently in praying for my city has not been life change, it has been that God would use The Pathway as the spark to ignite this flame. God knows our hearts. God knows my heart. I want Tacoma to be flipped upside down by the power of the Holy Spirit but I don't want to care if it's my church or any other church that God uses in the process. I simply long to be faithful.
I have also felt a strong need to repent when it comes to the way I love my wife. In all honesty, I think I probably am a good husband on most counts. I am truly in love with my wife. But over the last several months I have given my "best" to the people of our church and saved the leftovers for Jesus and my wife. Not cool. Not cool at all. I'm called to love my bride the way Jesus loves his bride. And I have not done that. Walking in repentance is humbling, challenging and exhausting. But it is effective and most importantly it is glorifying to God.
Yesterday I tried to follow the Spirit's lead and call our church to repentance. We did several things differently in our worship time but one thing we did was have people right the things they need to repent of on an index card and nail (actually tape) it to the cross where it belongs. We challenged people to mark this moment in their hearts as a milestone on the road to repentance. Now I expected people to put blank cards up there or one word answer. But God blew my mind. People were broken and wrote lists and paragraphs of things that they know they need to repent of. It was amazing. Please, pray for our church as we walk the road of repentance and pray that God will use us in whatever way he chooses to bring him glory in our city.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
A couple things...n
First of all, I want to give a major shout out to the five interns... Jack, Sarah, Josh, Ken & Lydia... who have served The Pathway, the people of Tacoma and specifically the people of the Summertree apartments for the past 2 months. Every summer we have embedded interns into a local apartment complex with the mission of reaching that complex for Jesus. We have learned a lot each year but in our third year the Holy Spirit saw fit to move mightily. It was amazing to watch the Spirit soften hearts, stretch our interns and begin to bring about life change. As I sat around the fire pit at my house this past Friday evening hearing stories of the summer from the interns, my heart was deeply moved.
All of the interns spoke with deep affection about one couple in particular. The funny thing is that their first encounter with this couple was when the guy asked one of the interns if they wanted to buy some weed. Who would of thought by the end of the summer the couple would be a part of the Summertree Intentional Community. God is amazing.
The second story spoke to the response of the Holy Spirit when we are obedient & consistent. These interns have been faithful to serve their apartment complex consistently all summer long. This last week Stacie, who oversaw the interns this summer, was knocking on doors and inviting residents to an event. She came to the door of one of the maintenance ladies who is the grandma of one of the boys the interns have really invested in deeply. The Grandma looked at Stacie and said, "I'm so glad you all moved in here." Stacie replied, "Me too, it's all because we love Jesus." And to that the Grandma replied with tears welling up in her eyes, "You must REALLY love Jesus." Her grandson has since come to worship with The Pathway and the grandma told Stacie that she will come some day... "but not yet."
The final thing I felt compelled to blog about tonight was a conversation I had with some people this evening. I'm currently chillin in the lobby of a hotel in Atlanta, GA. One of our partners was extremely gracious and invited me to attend the North American Mission Board's "Send North America" Conference. Very cool to see 2000 Southern Baptist leaders gathered to spur on gospel-centered church planting in North America.
While I was at the conference tonight I was chatting with a missions pastor who is praying about where their church should partner and a couple who will be moving to the Seattle area to plant this week. The new church planter told me that he met with a planter in Portland a while back who actually ended up shutting down and "going home" recently. When they met, the planter seemed very discouraged and articulated to this new couple, "I just wish somebody cared as much about planting this church as I do."
That is such a hard thing to hear someone say but I know exactly how he feels. Exactly. Ultimately, nobody... not even your wife and your mom... cares as much as the pastor does about the church plant. That's a humbling thing. It can be a defeating thing. But by the grace of God the Holy Spirit has shown me, in those lonely moments, that there is one that does care about "my" church plant even more than I do and that's the God of the universe. It may sound cheesy or ultra spiritual, but God cares more than I can fathom. He cares about HIS church that he has called me to plant. He cares about me, my wife and our kids. He cares more than I do and because of that I am confident I can run this race. I am confident I am not alone.
Praise Jesus for a God who cares.
All of the interns spoke with deep affection about one couple in particular. The funny thing is that their first encounter with this couple was when the guy asked one of the interns if they wanted to buy some weed. Who would of thought by the end of the summer the couple would be a part of the Summertree Intentional Community. God is amazing.
The second story spoke to the response of the Holy Spirit when we are obedient & consistent. These interns have been faithful to serve their apartment complex consistently all summer long. This last week Stacie, who oversaw the interns this summer, was knocking on doors and inviting residents to an event. She came to the door of one of the maintenance ladies who is the grandma of one of the boys the interns have really invested in deeply. The Grandma looked at Stacie and said, "I'm so glad you all moved in here." Stacie replied, "Me too, it's all because we love Jesus." And to that the Grandma replied with tears welling up in her eyes, "You must REALLY love Jesus." Her grandson has since come to worship with The Pathway and the grandma told Stacie that she will come some day... "but not yet."
The final thing I felt compelled to blog about tonight was a conversation I had with some people this evening. I'm currently chillin in the lobby of a hotel in Atlanta, GA. One of our partners was extremely gracious and invited me to attend the North American Mission Board's "Send North America" Conference. Very cool to see 2000 Southern Baptist leaders gathered to spur on gospel-centered church planting in North America.
While I was at the conference tonight I was chatting with a missions pastor who is praying about where their church should partner and a couple who will be moving to the Seattle area to plant this week. The new church planter told me that he met with a planter in Portland a while back who actually ended up shutting down and "going home" recently. When they met, the planter seemed very discouraged and articulated to this new couple, "I just wish somebody cared as much about planting this church as I do."
That is such a hard thing to hear someone say but I know exactly how he feels. Exactly. Ultimately, nobody... not even your wife and your mom... cares as much as the pastor does about the church plant. That's a humbling thing. It can be a defeating thing. But by the grace of God the Holy Spirit has shown me, in those lonely moments, that there is one that does care about "my" church plant even more than I do and that's the God of the universe. It may sound cheesy or ultra spiritual, but God cares more than I can fathom. He cares about HIS church that he has called me to plant. He cares about me, my wife and our kids. He cares more than I do and because of that I am confident I can run this race. I am confident I am not alone.
Praise Jesus for a God who cares.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Hindsight
This past Sunday we said good-bye to our second and final mission team of the summer. It was an outstanding week that tested my faith to the limits. The group was from First Baptist Church in Universal City, TX (FBCUC) and there was a tremendous amount of spiritual warfare from before the team even arrived. God knew what he was doing though (surprise! surprise!) and the culmination of the week was simply beautiful. The team spent the bulk of their week loving on kids and families from the Tacoma Rescue Mission and a local apartment complex called Summertree. The last night of the trip we had a huge block party and a ton of kids and families from these places came and partied with us. God was glorified and relationships were launched. Can't wait to see what God has in store.
This is all well and good, but why is this weeks post entitled "hindsight?" Well, it's because looking back on the starting point that led up to this amazing week only evokes two responses in me... awe & worship. Let me tell you briefly the back story of The Pathway's partnership with FBCUC.
I was born an Air Force brat and when I was about 6 months old my dad got orders to move from Florida to Texas and we found ourselves joining FBCUC. We were there for 3-4 years. My family was a part of the church and I attended their preschool academy. When we left for Colorado none of us knew the amazing plan God had in store for his Kingdom through a then 4 year old little boy and a church that was really beginning to grow in Universal City.
When my dad retired out of the Pentagon in 1994 (I think?), we moved back to the Universal City area but we were a part of a different church. When I went away to college in 2000 my parents went back to FBCUC for a short time before they moved again when my dad took a new job even farther south in Texas. Around the end of 2007 God started to call me and Kelli to help plant churches and in 2008 we moved to Snoqualmie to join a team to plant Lifepointe Community Church. When we began raising funds and seeking partnerships to plant The Pathway in Tacoma, I got a call from my dad. He told me that he hoped I didn't mind, but he had shared our plans with the pastor of FBCUC and he was interested in meeting me and Kelli. Of course I didn't mind! But since I had no real relationship with the church and had never met Pastor David, I didn't really expect anything to come of it. Oh me of little faith.
Before I knew it I was having lunch with Pastor David at a delicious little Mexican joint right next to their church building and it was obvious that the Holy Spirit was moving. FBCUC committed to partnering with us and has now blessed us with significant and consistent financial support, tons of prayer, 3 summer interns over the course of the last three summers and outstanding mission teams who don't simply show up in Tacoma. They come passionate, prepared, flexible and most importantly ready to serve and share the gospel.
The hindsight started to really bring me to worship this summer as I sat with the team reflecting on the week. In the group was Mrs. Rice. Mrs. Rice has known me since I was a very little boy. She is now 70 and I am now 30. Who would have thought when I was running around as a crazy little toddler that 30 years later we would be reconnected on God's mission. The Kingdom of God is big. God's plan is bigger. Hindsight is 20/20 and in the moment we seldom understand the fullness of what God is doing.
The lesson? Trust God. Seeing him orchestrate Kingdom work in this way... over a 30 year period... I can't help but trust him. His plan is perfect. His timing is perfect. And hindsight leads me to a place of awe & worship.
This is all well and good, but why is this weeks post entitled "hindsight?" Well, it's because looking back on the starting point that led up to this amazing week only evokes two responses in me... awe & worship. Let me tell you briefly the back story of The Pathway's partnership with FBCUC.
I was born an Air Force brat and when I was about 6 months old my dad got orders to move from Florida to Texas and we found ourselves joining FBCUC. We were there for 3-4 years. My family was a part of the church and I attended their preschool academy. When we left for Colorado none of us knew the amazing plan God had in store for his Kingdom through a then 4 year old little boy and a church that was really beginning to grow in Universal City.
When my dad retired out of the Pentagon in 1994 (I think?), we moved back to the Universal City area but we were a part of a different church. When I went away to college in 2000 my parents went back to FBCUC for a short time before they moved again when my dad took a new job even farther south in Texas. Around the end of 2007 God started to call me and Kelli to help plant churches and in 2008 we moved to Snoqualmie to join a team to plant Lifepointe Community Church. When we began raising funds and seeking partnerships to plant The Pathway in Tacoma, I got a call from my dad. He told me that he hoped I didn't mind, but he had shared our plans with the pastor of FBCUC and he was interested in meeting me and Kelli. Of course I didn't mind! But since I had no real relationship with the church and had never met Pastor David, I didn't really expect anything to come of it. Oh me of little faith.
Before I knew it I was having lunch with Pastor David at a delicious little Mexican joint right next to their church building and it was obvious that the Holy Spirit was moving. FBCUC committed to partnering with us and has now blessed us with significant and consistent financial support, tons of prayer, 3 summer interns over the course of the last three summers and outstanding mission teams who don't simply show up in Tacoma. They come passionate, prepared, flexible and most importantly ready to serve and share the gospel.
The hindsight started to really bring me to worship this summer as I sat with the team reflecting on the week. In the group was Mrs. Rice. Mrs. Rice has known me since I was a very little boy. She is now 70 and I am now 30. Who would have thought when I was running around as a crazy little toddler that 30 years later we would be reconnected on God's mission. The Kingdom of God is big. God's plan is bigger. Hindsight is 20/20 and in the moment we seldom understand the fullness of what God is doing.
The lesson? Trust God. Seeing him orchestrate Kingdom work in this way... over a 30 year period... I can't help but trust him. His plan is perfect. His timing is perfect. And hindsight leads me to a place of awe & worship.
Monday, July 9, 2012
The Spot
Since I posted late last week I was struggling to know exactly what to blog about today. I decided I would share with you some BIG stuff going on behind the scenes. We always appreciate your prayers. Most of you know that God blessed us with a building a little over a year ago. Because our hearts desire is to always remember that church is not a place we go, it's who we are, we decided to continue to call the people The Pathway and the building The Spot. It's been really cool to see how that has taken off and really been a conversation starter for what, or who, the church really is.
The Spot is a 19,000 square foot warehouse in the heart of Hilltop that has a ton of history. It used to be a car dealership, a dairy, a tent and awning factory and another church met there before we did. The Spot has another lot right next to it that's the same size and is just a big open grassy space. It is also included in our lease. The Spot is actually still owned by the previous church denomination, The Evangelical Covenant Church. While the majority of the building is just old warehouse space, there is about 3000 square feet that is renovated and usable. On Sundays we meet for worship in one 1500 sq. ft. area and our Kids Ave. meets in the other 1500 sq. ft. area.
However, Sundays is just a small piece of why The Spot has been such an amazing Kingdom tool. During the week we are able to use it open-handed for the city in the name of Jesus. We host block party's and watch parties for major sporting events. We have board meetings, Narcotics anonymous meetings, Intentional Communities, birthday parties and many other things that meet there. We have neighborhood block groups that meet at The Spot and we have even had a wedding reception and a memorial service there. We are also able to use the warehouse for storage space for families in transition as well as for our denomination. We allow the community to house its Tool Lending Library and the health department keeps their disaster response trailers at The Spot. We even have a local non-profit that offices at The Spot.
All this to say, this place, this structure, this building, this spot has given us tremendous favor with our community and our city. Favor in ways that are far greater than we could have asked or imagined.
Two Challenges:
1) The church has been growing and we are running out of usable space. That is a good thing but it is also a challenge that needs to be overcome. Renovations are very possible but are expensive and we're not sure how much we would even feel good about doing since we don't own the building.
2) Our lease is up in less than a year and the owners desire to sell. They strongly desire for us to stay in the building but we are paying less than half of what they are putting into the building every month. Because the denomination that owns it has their own financing arm they are willing to work with us to purchase the building but in our tough economy and lower income area we are not certain that is the answer.
Behind the Scenes: God is working. He has given us a partnership with a great church planting network and SBC association (psba.net) that is wanting to purchase strategic church planting centers in the heart of major cities, including Tacoma. God has given us a relationship with a well-known architect in Tacoma who has already donated some of his time in helping us evaluate what could be done. He also happens to love Jesus! The church is growing and The Spot is becoming a light in our dark city. We know that God will continue to do what he wants to do whether we stay at The Spot or not. That's where your prayers come in.
Pray: All of this has been, is and will continue to be way bigger than us. God has done things, changed lives, opened doors and provided resources in ways that have far exceeded our expectations or imaginations. We are constantly reminded that what is impossible with man is made possible with God. We lean on that promise. Please just pray for wisdom, direction and provision. I know those are broad but that is what we desperately need as the church moves forward and continues to grow. Thank you for interceding on our behalf. God is working here in Tacoma. You are a part of it. Thank you!
The Spot is a 19,000 square foot warehouse in the heart of Hilltop that has a ton of history. It used to be a car dealership, a dairy, a tent and awning factory and another church met there before we did. The Spot has another lot right next to it that's the same size and is just a big open grassy space. It is also included in our lease. The Spot is actually still owned by the previous church denomination, The Evangelical Covenant Church. While the majority of the building is just old warehouse space, there is about 3000 square feet that is renovated and usable. On Sundays we meet for worship in one 1500 sq. ft. area and our Kids Ave. meets in the other 1500 sq. ft. area.
However, Sundays is just a small piece of why The Spot has been such an amazing Kingdom tool. During the week we are able to use it open-handed for the city in the name of Jesus. We host block party's and watch parties for major sporting events. We have board meetings, Narcotics anonymous meetings, Intentional Communities, birthday parties and many other things that meet there. We have neighborhood block groups that meet at The Spot and we have even had a wedding reception and a memorial service there. We are also able to use the warehouse for storage space for families in transition as well as for our denomination. We allow the community to house its Tool Lending Library and the health department keeps their disaster response trailers at The Spot. We even have a local non-profit that offices at The Spot.
All this to say, this place, this structure, this building, this spot has given us tremendous favor with our community and our city. Favor in ways that are far greater than we could have asked or imagined.
Two Challenges:
1) The church has been growing and we are running out of usable space. That is a good thing but it is also a challenge that needs to be overcome. Renovations are very possible but are expensive and we're not sure how much we would even feel good about doing since we don't own the building.
2) Our lease is up in less than a year and the owners desire to sell. They strongly desire for us to stay in the building but we are paying less than half of what they are putting into the building every month. Because the denomination that owns it has their own financing arm they are willing to work with us to purchase the building but in our tough economy and lower income area we are not certain that is the answer.
Behind the Scenes: God is working. He has given us a partnership with a great church planting network and SBC association (psba.net) that is wanting to purchase strategic church planting centers in the heart of major cities, including Tacoma. God has given us a relationship with a well-known architect in Tacoma who has already donated some of his time in helping us evaluate what could be done. He also happens to love Jesus! The church is growing and The Spot is becoming a light in our dark city. We know that God will continue to do what he wants to do whether we stay at The Spot or not. That's where your prayers come in.
Pray: All of this has been, is and will continue to be way bigger than us. God has done things, changed lives, opened doors and provided resources in ways that have far exceeded our expectations or imaginations. We are constantly reminded that what is impossible with man is made possible with God. We lean on that promise. Please just pray for wisdom, direction and provision. I know those are broad but that is what we desperately need as the church moves forward and continues to grow. Thank you for interceding on our behalf. God is working here in Tacoma. You are a part of it. Thank you!
Friday, July 6, 2012
Catching Up
I'm a couple weeks behind on the blog so there is some major catching up to do. We have had a lot going on and God has definitely been with us and his Spirit has quite obviously been going before us. The week of June 23-30 we were visited by a mission team from Trinity Baptist Church in Ada, OK and it was awesome to say the least. The team encouraged me, my wife, my family and our church with their love of God, their joy and their energy. We worked them hard and they demonstrated a tremendous missional heart and faith in God. And God honored it.
A couple of stories. Trinity hosted The Pathway's first VBS and it was focused directly on The Pathway kids, their friends, and the Evergreen neighborhood right around The Spot (our church building). The first day did not kick off the way everyone had planned. We had a smaller turn-out than expected, the kids were a little more wild and crazy than the team expected, and it was a perfect opportunity for discouragement. But the team decided to believe God for what he had called them to do and they regrouped and pressed on.
As the week progressed the team continued to pray, prepare and hit the neighborhood streets to invite new kids. They prayer walked, had "intentional" lunches at our local park and constantly engaged people with the love of God and and gospel of Jesus Christ. It was beautiful to watch and God honored it. One of the first days of prayer walking some of the girls invited a little girl to come to VBS. She seemed excited but didn't come. Later in the week the team met a dad/grandpa and invited his 3 kids/grandkids to come to VBS. He said "yes" and that he had more kids and grandkids at home that he would go get. He brought back 7-9 kids and one of them was the same little girl that some of the mission team had met prayer walking days before... God knows what he's doing!
There was another kid named Joshua who the team met with his Grandpa Buddy at the park. Joshua came to VBS and had a blast. Buddy told us that Joshua called him the next morning to ask how much longer until VBS. Buddy told Joshua..."Only 7 more hours!" What a great testimony of the love they felt from the mission team. Buddy is a Native American with beliefs that are not Christian and the first day he allowed us to love on Joshua but would not come into The Spot with us. By the end of the week Buddy was hanging out, walking in The Spot and making himself at home! Praise Jesus.
All of our mission teams culminate with an end of the week block party that the team is inviting people to all week long. This week was no different and it was a huge success. The team left on Saturday but on Sunday morning we had our highest worship attendance ever and we had so many new faces as a direct result of the mission team. It was a beautiful sight!
Last story. Everyone who knows The Pathway knows that we believe church is not a place we go, it's who we are. We strive to be the church through Intentional Community(IC) and our prayer is that our Intentional Communities would multiply so that we have IC's in all the neighborhoods and apartment complexes in Tacoma. As a part of that strategy, we were praying to be able to start a new IC at a local apartment complex this summer. Two ladies from our Thursday IC live in that apartment complex and so do our 4 summer interns. Along with another guy from the Thursday IC they began serving and loving the apartment residents and 3 weeks ago a new IC was launched! This past Sunday we brought the new IC up to pray over them and it was amazing to see a resident of Summertree... still trying to find her way to belief... there with them. We got to pray over her and see the mission of God working before our very eyes!
God is so great and he is doing great things around us. Please pray for us in two specific ways. One, pray for the mission team from First Baptist Church Universal City, TX that is arriving on Saturday. Satan has already been working overtime to stop our plans for the team so pray that God wins the victory. Second, The Pathway more than doubled in size (praise Jesus) as a result of our Gather to Scatter (April is Awesome) outreach that we did in April. Because of that we are making plans to do a similar outreach in September. Our leadership team came together on Monday and came up with some amazingly creative ways to reach out again in an intentional and relational way that will cost far less than our April outreaches did. That being said, we are still going to need to raise some significant funds over a short period of time so please pray that we are able to do that and that God's kingdom will grow as a result!
A couple of stories. Trinity hosted The Pathway's first VBS and it was focused directly on The Pathway kids, their friends, and the Evergreen neighborhood right around The Spot (our church building). The first day did not kick off the way everyone had planned. We had a smaller turn-out than expected, the kids were a little more wild and crazy than the team expected, and it was a perfect opportunity for discouragement. But the team decided to believe God for what he had called them to do and they regrouped and pressed on.
As the week progressed the team continued to pray, prepare and hit the neighborhood streets to invite new kids. They prayer walked, had "intentional" lunches at our local park and constantly engaged people with the love of God and and gospel of Jesus Christ. It was beautiful to watch and God honored it. One of the first days of prayer walking some of the girls invited a little girl to come to VBS. She seemed excited but didn't come. Later in the week the team met a dad/grandpa and invited his 3 kids/grandkids to come to VBS. He said "yes" and that he had more kids and grandkids at home that he would go get. He brought back 7-9 kids and one of them was the same little girl that some of the mission team had met prayer walking days before... God knows what he's doing!
There was another kid named Joshua who the team met with his Grandpa Buddy at the park. Joshua came to VBS and had a blast. Buddy told us that Joshua called him the next morning to ask how much longer until VBS. Buddy told Joshua..."Only 7 more hours!" What a great testimony of the love they felt from the mission team. Buddy is a Native American with beliefs that are not Christian and the first day he allowed us to love on Joshua but would not come into The Spot with us. By the end of the week Buddy was hanging out, walking in The Spot and making himself at home! Praise Jesus.
All of our mission teams culminate with an end of the week block party that the team is inviting people to all week long. This week was no different and it was a huge success. The team left on Saturday but on Sunday morning we had our highest worship attendance ever and we had so many new faces as a direct result of the mission team. It was a beautiful sight!
Last story. Everyone who knows The Pathway knows that we believe church is not a place we go, it's who we are. We strive to be the church through Intentional Community(IC) and our prayer is that our Intentional Communities would multiply so that we have IC's in all the neighborhoods and apartment complexes in Tacoma. As a part of that strategy, we were praying to be able to start a new IC at a local apartment complex this summer. Two ladies from our Thursday IC live in that apartment complex and so do our 4 summer interns. Along with another guy from the Thursday IC they began serving and loving the apartment residents and 3 weeks ago a new IC was launched! This past Sunday we brought the new IC up to pray over them and it was amazing to see a resident of Summertree... still trying to find her way to belief... there with them. We got to pray over her and see the mission of God working before our very eyes!
God is so great and he is doing great things around us. Please pray for us in two specific ways. One, pray for the mission team from First Baptist Church Universal City, TX that is arriving on Saturday. Satan has already been working overtime to stop our plans for the team so pray that God wins the victory. Second, The Pathway more than doubled in size (praise Jesus) as a result of our Gather to Scatter (April is Awesome) outreach that we did in April. Because of that we are making plans to do a similar outreach in September. Our leadership team came together on Monday and came up with some amazingly creative ways to reach out again in an intentional and relational way that will cost far less than our April outreaches did. That being said, we are still going to need to raise some significant funds over a short period of time so please pray that we are able to do that and that God's kingdom will grow as a result!
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Interns, Father's Day & a Break
Interns: Please pray for our interns. If my calculations are correct they are on day number 11 and that is usually about the time fatigue sets in and enthusiasm creeps away. Our four interns this year, Lydia, Sarah, Josh & Jack hit the ground running when they arrived. Their primary mission is to help birth an Intentional Community at Summertree Apartments, where they are living, and help reach the neighbors around the Spot with the gospel. How are they doing it? Let me just tell you...
The beauty of their mission to start an Intentional Community at Summertree is that we already have two leaders in our church who live their. These two leaders are missionaries to the core and their have already been plenty of seeds planted amongst the community members. The second benefit is that another one of the guys in our church, a fairly new believer, is on board to help start this new Intentional Community. The interns had a bbq for their neighbors last Tuesday and launched their IC on Wednesday. They had several neighbors come and God is definitely up to something. Please continue to pray for them as they take the gospel to Summertree.
The other thing their doing is trying to take the love of Jesus to the Evergreen neighbors who live around the Spot. They are doing this in many ways but one of their primary approaches is called S.O.S. (Spot on Saturdays). Every Saturday they are hosting a block party at the Spot and it's not about our church... although are people are welcome to come. S.O.S. is all about the Evergreen neighbors. We were supposed to launch with an outdoor movie this past Saturday, but in case we all forgot, we live in Tacoma. You guessed it... it rained! Not to worry. The interns hit the streets with more fliers letting the neighbors know that if it rained, the movie would be indoors. The movie was "Despicable Me" and the Spot was packed (praise Jesus)! There were so many people that I had never met before. We were able to invite them to worship, invite them to VBS next week and just flat out show them we love them and God loves them.
Please pray for our interns. They are blowing my expectations out of the water, by the grace of God, but they are getting exhausted and need your prayers.
Father's Day: Father's Day was wonderful for many reasons but I will share with you two. One, I was reminded of how blessed I am by Jesus to have the wife and kids I have. Kelli, Jagen & Rylan are a gift from God and I am in awe of his grace in my life through them. I feel this way for many reasons... one of which is that they woke me up this morning with a huge slice of brownie fudge Cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory... yes, I am a fat kid at heart (and in the gut)!
The second thing I wanted to tell you about Father's Day was the most beautiful thing I could imagine seeing on this day. Their is a sweet young teenage girl in our church who we have known for a year or so. She has been growing in her relationship with Jesus and it has been so fun to watch from a short distance. She has shared with our youth leader Laura and myself several times that she is burdened for her dad and wants him to know Jesus and come to church with her. She has prayed and cried and prayed some more. To be honest, she was the farthest thing from my mind when I walked out the door of the spot this morning before worship. And then I saw her walking across the street with her father. A beautiful picture of God's abundant grace and constant movement. I literally worshipped right there in the depths of my soul. I pray that this is the first step towards eternal life change for this father. Pray that he comes with all The Pathway Dad's to steak night on Wednesday.
A Break: Finally, pray for me as I take a much needed break. I have attempted once a year to take a personal retreat for at least a couple of nights. Kelli and I decided that now was the time if I wanted to get it in before the summer. So shortly after lunch on Father's Day I headed to the Hood Canal for 2 days and 2 nights of prayer, silence, Scripture reading and planning. Please pray that I make the most of this time. Please pray that I don't procrastinate or get side tracked by the unimportant. Please pray that I don't make this retreat so task oriented that I forget to just be still and know that [He} is God. Pray that god puts a clear direction on my heart that will lead The Pathway into 2013 and that by his grace we would become a multiplying church!
The beauty of their mission to start an Intentional Community at Summertree is that we already have two leaders in our church who live their. These two leaders are missionaries to the core and their have already been plenty of seeds planted amongst the community members. The second benefit is that another one of the guys in our church, a fairly new believer, is on board to help start this new Intentional Community. The interns had a bbq for their neighbors last Tuesday and launched their IC on Wednesday. They had several neighbors come and God is definitely up to something. Please continue to pray for them as they take the gospel to Summertree.
The other thing their doing is trying to take the love of Jesus to the Evergreen neighbors who live around the Spot. They are doing this in many ways but one of their primary approaches is called S.O.S. (Spot on Saturdays). Every Saturday they are hosting a block party at the Spot and it's not about our church... although are people are welcome to come. S.O.S. is all about the Evergreen neighbors. We were supposed to launch with an outdoor movie this past Saturday, but in case we all forgot, we live in Tacoma. You guessed it... it rained! Not to worry. The interns hit the streets with more fliers letting the neighbors know that if it rained, the movie would be indoors. The movie was "Despicable Me" and the Spot was packed (praise Jesus)! There were so many people that I had never met before. We were able to invite them to worship, invite them to VBS next week and just flat out show them we love them and God loves them.
Please pray for our interns. They are blowing my expectations out of the water, by the grace of God, but they are getting exhausted and need your prayers.
Father's Day: Father's Day was wonderful for many reasons but I will share with you two. One, I was reminded of how blessed I am by Jesus to have the wife and kids I have. Kelli, Jagen & Rylan are a gift from God and I am in awe of his grace in my life through them. I feel this way for many reasons... one of which is that they woke me up this morning with a huge slice of brownie fudge Cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory... yes, I am a fat kid at heart (and in the gut)!
The second thing I wanted to tell you about Father's Day was the most beautiful thing I could imagine seeing on this day. Their is a sweet young teenage girl in our church who we have known for a year or so. She has been growing in her relationship with Jesus and it has been so fun to watch from a short distance. She has shared with our youth leader Laura and myself several times that she is burdened for her dad and wants him to know Jesus and come to church with her. She has prayed and cried and prayed some more. To be honest, she was the farthest thing from my mind when I walked out the door of the spot this morning before worship. And then I saw her walking across the street with her father. A beautiful picture of God's abundant grace and constant movement. I literally worshipped right there in the depths of my soul. I pray that this is the first step towards eternal life change for this father. Pray that he comes with all The Pathway Dad's to steak night on Wednesday.
A Break: Finally, pray for me as I take a much needed break. I have attempted once a year to take a personal retreat for at least a couple of nights. Kelli and I decided that now was the time if I wanted to get it in before the summer. So shortly after lunch on Father's Day I headed to the Hood Canal for 2 days and 2 nights of prayer, silence, Scripture reading and planning. Please pray that I make the most of this time. Please pray that I don't procrastinate or get side tracked by the unimportant. Please pray that I don't make this retreat so task oriented that I forget to just be still and know that [He} is God. Pray that god puts a clear direction on my heart that will lead The Pathway into 2013 and that by his grace we would become a multiplying church!
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Becoming a pastor...
I am a church planter. The farther along I go in this adventure of planting The Pathway the more I realize that God created me to be a church planter. Maybe more specifically he created me to be a missionary. I love lost people. I have a Master of Arts in Missiology for crying out loud. I naturally connect with the unchurched, know how to find them and enjoy talking with them and helping them move closer to Jesus. I love leading people to be the church. I love casting vision and finding open doors in a big city for the cause of Christ. I love being sent and helping others learn to live intentionally.
However, at some point on this crazy journey I became a pastor, a shepherd. At some point when God started to bring growth to this beautiful thing we planted called the church, I realized that while I'm still very much a missionary and a church planter, I'm also called to be a pastor. And boy is it hard... maybe hard is not the right word. To be a pastor is to struggle with things that are heavy... both spiritually and emotionally. Shepherding, overseeing, encouraging, counseling, comforting... it's just heavy, often agonizing and as far as I can tell, there is no manual. I guess the point of this blog is to ask for your prayers. I love being a church planter, but God has called me to be more than that. He has called me to be a pastor that plants churches and I'm still very much a student in all aspects of this calling.
Let me tell you about today and ask for your specific prayers. Today I spent time in the morning preparing a sermon, part of my pastoral role. Teaching the holy Word of God to the body of Christ is an awesome responsibility. Yesterday I spent time at Tacoma General Hospital with a family in our church. The husband/father is fighting a terrible disease and had to undergo emergency open heart surgery yesterday. Today I got to visit with him and his family and pray with them. I had the joy and challenge of being their pastor. It was such a difficult & sweet experience.
This afternoon I got a call informing me that our Kids Ave Director, a young woman who has become a part of our family, lost her dad today. She needed to be loved, encouraged and at the same time needed to figure out how to get back to Texas while covering all her roles and responsibilities here. I got to be a pastor to her as I visited her at her apartment. My heart was breaking.
Then, right after we figured out how to get her to Texas I got a text that the grandfather of another one of our Leadership Team members passed away. I called just to check on her, tell her that we love her and see how we could support her. She was sad and struggling and just needed someone to listen and point her to Jesus. Something a pastor has the privilege of doing.
Being a pastor. I never realized how crazy the shift is as planter becomes pastor while remaining planter. It's amazing really. But it is scary, intimidating and lonely at times. Your prayers are appreciated as I try and trust God to make me the pastor and shepherd that he desires me to be. He is the head of his church. What a joy to be an undershepherd of the King.
However, at some point on this crazy journey I became a pastor, a shepherd. At some point when God started to bring growth to this beautiful thing we planted called the church, I realized that while I'm still very much a missionary and a church planter, I'm also called to be a pastor. And boy is it hard... maybe hard is not the right word. To be a pastor is to struggle with things that are heavy... both spiritually and emotionally. Shepherding, overseeing, encouraging, counseling, comforting... it's just heavy, often agonizing and as far as I can tell, there is no manual. I guess the point of this blog is to ask for your prayers. I love being a church planter, but God has called me to be more than that. He has called me to be a pastor that plants churches and I'm still very much a student in all aspects of this calling.
Let me tell you about today and ask for your specific prayers. Today I spent time in the morning preparing a sermon, part of my pastoral role. Teaching the holy Word of God to the body of Christ is an awesome responsibility. Yesterday I spent time at Tacoma General Hospital with a family in our church. The husband/father is fighting a terrible disease and had to undergo emergency open heart surgery yesterday. Today I got to visit with him and his family and pray with them. I had the joy and challenge of being their pastor. It was such a difficult & sweet experience.
This afternoon I got a call informing me that our Kids Ave Director, a young woman who has become a part of our family, lost her dad today. She needed to be loved, encouraged and at the same time needed to figure out how to get back to Texas while covering all her roles and responsibilities here. I got to be a pastor to her as I visited her at her apartment. My heart was breaking.
Then, right after we figured out how to get her to Texas I got a text that the grandfather of another one of our Leadership Team members passed away. I called just to check on her, tell her that we love her and see how we could support her. She was sad and struggling and just needed someone to listen and point her to Jesus. Something a pastor has the privilege of doing.
Being a pastor. I never realized how crazy the shift is as planter becomes pastor while remaining planter. It's amazing really. But it is scary, intimidating and lonely at times. Your prayers are appreciated as I try and trust God to make me the pastor and shepherd that he desires me to be. He is the head of his church. What a joy to be an undershepherd of the King.
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