It's been far too long since my last post. I have started to write multiple times but sometimes the words just aren't there. God has been doing much in my life personally. He's far from finished and I'm thankful for that.
The church is moving a long at what seems from one angle to be 100mph and from another angle to be a snail's pace. The 100mph angle includes the following...
Summer interns-- Our interns arrived at the beginning of June and they are absolutely incredible. God gave us a gift by hand picking 7 interns whose lives, personalities, spiritual gifts, passion for Jesus, commitment to mission and openness to being stretched seem to fit together like a perfect puzzle. They are fun, energetic, kind, unified and are willing to work hard... really hard. Our Associate Pastor Adam and his wife Khylee are leading them well and our Intentional Community Director Stacie Hooks has empowered them to help lead our mission teams in an incredible way. Sometimes I sit back and wonder what they need me for! It's a beautiful picture of what we desire this church to be built on. Not a person or a program. On Jesus Christ flexing his muscles through the unity and diversity found in his body. Glory to God!
Mission teams-- We've already seen our first 2 mission teams come and go and we just welcomed teams 3 & 4 to Tacoma today! The summer mission team blitz started strong with FBC Charlotte and Trinity Baptist from Ada, OK. These churches have been with us for a long time now and it seems that every time they come back they just pick up where they left off. They are united with us in our heart and our vision for The Pathway in Tacoma and they have a clear understanding of the role God has called them to play. They are truly a beautiful picture of partnership when it comes to sending mission teams. Fielder Church from Arlington, TX and FBC Universal City, TX have started strong today. It's exciting to see them back together for a second year in a row and focusing on one of our newer neighborhoods of focus. It's a challenge and they're truly engaging in missionary work. Please pray for them and our next 4 teams as they seek to find persons of peace and saturate Tacoma with the gospel of Jesus! We have a block party the next 2 Saturdays and the following Friday. Please pray for lots of connections!
Mission trip-- It seems like an eternity ago that we took our first North American Mission Trip to Santa Clara, CA. It was an exciting opportunity led by one of our long-time, amazing leaders Donna Christian. We went to serve a small church in Santa Clara that is the home church of one of our college students, Stephen Abishema. The church is small but has an incredible outreach to the community through their annual Vacation Bible School. They are going through a lot of transition right now and needed more bodies on the ground so we were able to come and be just that. It was challenging, rewarding, stretching, humbling and most ultimately God-glorifying. It was incredible to be on the sending side of missions rather than the receiving side of things.
Now for the snails pace angle...
Summer-- We are struggling... for the first time really... with what so many churches struggle with. The summer disappearing act! It's so frustrating but so understandable that it's hard to know what to do with it. As a new church we rely heavily on the consistency of our people. With summer comes weddings, vacations, routines flipped upside down with kids home from school and the list goes on. People literally will work like crazy all week long and then leave town on the weekends. As a pastor, I get so frustrated and discouraged because I don't feel like the new people we're connecting with get a true picture of who we are. But as a husband and father I know the importance of recreation, rest, vacation, family visits and more! I have to constantly remind myself that church isn't just a place we go, it's who we are. And that if we're really committed to being the church, that isn't affected by travel plans, sports and more. Being the church happens in day to day life, phone calls, Intentional Community gatherings and the like. I get the summer blues like any other pastor but I believe we are going to emerge stronger, fresher and healthier as a result of the challenge summer brings.
Salvation-- There is a reality that we're not seeing a lot of salvation over the last year and a half. This breaks my heart. This disturbs me. This causes me to ask God a lot of questions. Our people truly seem to be growing spiritually. I honestly believe more of our people are reading their Bibles with more consistency than ever before. I believe more of our people are engaging the lost and being intentional with their lives. But we're just not seeing a lot of people saved. Why? I have no idea. But I'm praying for patience and for the Holy Spirit to fall in a powerful way. I pray that God will bring so much life change that it would be impossible for anyone but him to get the credit. We're currently moving at a snails pace but I'm praying that we would continue to faithfully engage the lost and share the gospel and I trust that God will respond!
I think I'll stop here. I want everyone to know that your prayers are working. I believe God is doing things in Tacoma that we can't even begin to fathom. I believe he wants to bring salvation and that if we continue to engage the lost that salvation will come. I believe he wants our church to grow and reproduce and that if we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus that's exactly what will happen. Please continue to pray for Kingdom growth and for God to get the glory. However he decides to allow those two things to play out I trust HIM completely!
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Monday, June 8, 2015
Reproducing Leaders
I'm sitting in my office right now listening to Adam Forgety (Associate Pastor & our summer intern supervisor), Stacie Hooks (Intentional Communities Director & mission team extraordinaire), having a brainstorming, planning, dreaming, and calendaring meeting with our 7 summer interns. I know it sounds like such a simple thing, but for me it's a really sweet sound. It's a sound we've prayed for. It's the sound of God answering our prayers.
You see, we have a vision as a church. It centers around REPRODUCTION. We want to be a church that REPRODUCES in 5 specific areas: disciples, leaders, Intentional Communities, worship gatherings, & churches. Did you catch the second one? Leaders. We want to reproduce leaders. Over the last 3 years, by the grace of God, I've been investing a big chunk of my life and whatever leadership ability I have into Stacie. It's been amazing to watch her grow. And now to hear her delegating, training, equipping and empowering our 7 interns to lead in ways I'm sure most of them never even considered? Beautiful.
Over the last year or so I've been investing myself into Adam. He came to Tacoma a worship leader but his hearts desire is to become a pastor and a leader. He's incredibly teachable and he's taken on the task of overseeing our summer interns. It's so fun to not just hear Adam teaching and training our interns, but empowering them to lead. He's casting vision for the interns and giving them space to lead. Incredible.
Our hope and our prayer is not just to have a "successful" summer here in Tacoma. Our hope and our prayer is to equip 7 missionary leaders over a 2 month period here in Tacoma and SEND them back to their home towns, their universities, their neighborhoods and their churches ready to lead, ready to equip, ready to train and ready to empower the people in their sphere's of influence to be missionaries for the gospel. And maybe just maybe, a few of these 7 will end up planting churches and being on church planting teams. Most importantly, we hope all of them will gain and maintain the humble confidence to be REPRODUCING disciples and REPRODUCING leaders everywhere they go for the rest of their lives.
Listening to a meeting can be worship. Our God is so cool.
You see, we have a vision as a church. It centers around REPRODUCTION. We want to be a church that REPRODUCES in 5 specific areas: disciples, leaders, Intentional Communities, worship gatherings, & churches. Did you catch the second one? Leaders. We want to reproduce leaders. Over the last 3 years, by the grace of God, I've been investing a big chunk of my life and whatever leadership ability I have into Stacie. It's been amazing to watch her grow. And now to hear her delegating, training, equipping and empowering our 7 interns to lead in ways I'm sure most of them never even considered? Beautiful.
Over the last year or so I've been investing myself into Adam. He came to Tacoma a worship leader but his hearts desire is to become a pastor and a leader. He's incredibly teachable and he's taken on the task of overseeing our summer interns. It's so fun to not just hear Adam teaching and training our interns, but empowering them to lead. He's casting vision for the interns and giving them space to lead. Incredible.
Listening to a meeting can be worship. Our God is so cool.
Monday, May 25, 2015
Failure.
John 3:30 is a Scripture I've quoted many times. He must increase, but I must decrease. But I have to be honest, I'm not sure that I've ever really taken that one sentence and meditated on it in the full context in which it was spoken. Let me explain.
Last week my family was blessed to attend what will probably be our final church planting retreat with the Northwest Baptist Convention. It is the only required event for church plants that receive Convention funding but they don't have to twist my arm to attend. By the grace of God we get to gather with a bunch of church planters and their families from all over the Northwest to be challenged, equipped and hopefully encouraged that we are not alone in the craziness of what God has called us to do. The location doesn't hurt either... Cannon Beach, OR!
For the sake of full disclosure, although I was looking forward to the idea of this final retreat (we will no longer receive NWBC funding after this year), I was going into it feeling pretty embarrassed, very discouraged and in large part like a failure. I don't say this to get you to feel sorry for me. I'm guessing these feelings are things that you all battle in various ways and at various points in your life. I was listening to a sermon by Matt Chandler this morning and he quoted Augustine of Hippo, and I'm paraphrasing, that because we are finite, we look at life as if our faces are squished up against a stained glass window. All we can see is the jagged mess of glass right in front of our eyes. It seems to make no sense. It appears to be just a mess. But God, who is infinite, sees the big picture of how all those jagged pieces of glass come together to make a beautiful masterpiece of stained glass. Perfect. Majestic even. My feelings of failure correlate directly to my lack of perspective and my finite view of the world.
When I'm able to step back and look at the big picture of what God is doing in Tacoma and through The Pathway, I'm genuinely amazed. To see all that he has done in my life and the life of my family is pretty incredible. Then to think of all the lives he's changed, disciples he's made, hope he's provided, it's absolutely awesome. But most of the time I have my face smashed up against the stained glass. That means I just see the reality that we have been funded by the NWBC (if you include our time as apprentices in Snoqualmie, WA) for over 7 years now. 7 years! We've been USC-2 missionaries, Nehemiah Church Planting Missionaries and... for lack of a cool title... regular old Northwest Baptist Convention Church planters.
The fact that we still rely so heavily on funding from outside sources makes me feel like a failure. The fact that we have hit a wall in salvations and baptisms over the last year (please pray for that wall to be broken by the way) makes me feel like a failure. The fact that I envisioned us having planted multiple churches by now when in reality we haven't even "successfully" planted this one makes me feel like a failure. The fact that I envisioned us having 10 strong Intentional Communities before we ever even launched a worship gathering and we have currently been gathering for worship for 5 years and we have 7 Intentional Communities makes me feel like a failure. The fact that we had dreams of being elder led (and still do) but we've struggled to raise up strong male leadership makes me feel like a failure. And on and on the pity party could go.
But here's the point. All of that... every bit of it... is about me. It's about my skill. My ability. My success and my failure.
Yet, I constantly pray and speak John 3:30... He must increase, but I must decrease.
I have to admit, in the midst of my pity party going into the retreat last week, I began to tune out the speaker pretty quickly. He was introduced as "one of us." A church planter just like us. But then they went on to say that in 7 years (the amount of time I've been going at this) he has planted a church that has 4 congregations meeting in 4 locations with an average weekly attendance of over 1200 people! Ha! One of us. I tell you what, I was praising Jesus last month when we finally were averaging over 100 people (and then this month we're back down in the 80's). I was praising Jesus when we finally launched our 6th and 7th Intentional Communities without seeing 1 die at the same time (because over the years we've launched many while seeing others not make it). These are my praises and this guy planted a church that was averaging hundreds within a year. He's not one of us! Or so my sinful, self-consumed mind and heart was telling me.
And then God finally woke me up to my selfishness and hypocrisy during the last session of the retreat. He preached on John the Baptist and it culminated with John 3:30... He must increase, but I must decrease. I realized that I have been increasing in this process for a long time. Motivated by the ticking time bomb every church planter feels with their partners (despite our partners being so faithful for 5 years). We live with constant fear of them saying enough is enough... fail... and moving on to the next potential success. I realized I've been increasing ever time I feel jealousy in my heart that another planter's church is growing faster than mine (mine? ha! It's not my church. It's not their church. It's Jesus' church.) I realized I've been increasing every time my fear of failure and my lack of faith causes me to live defeated when Jesus Christ has already won the victory.
John the Baptist played a prominent role in the Kingdom of God breaking into the world. But he didn't choose his role... and he knew it. He also didn't determine how he would be used or how long he would be used... and he was more than ok with that. John the Baptist wanted more than anything for people to know Jesus and for the Kingdom of God to burst into the world and grow. But in the midst of that desire, he was incredibly comfortable with his role. In John 3:27 John the Baptist said this... A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.
This one sentence really shook me awake and I realized... I've been saying this is not about me, but I haven't been living it. I've been finding my worth and my value in how quickly and how large MY church grows instead of finding my worth and my value in Christ and being excited and thankful for whatever role I get to play in HIS church growing.
Let me be clear. Everything I've been writing is mostly about my heart. My actions will probably not change too much. I will continue to go hard after the gospel, hard after seeing the lost found in Tacoma, and hard after disciple-making and church planting. What will change however, by the grace of God, is my JOY. I will find my JOY in the role Christ has called me to play, whatever that may be. I will find my JOY in Jesus increasing in fame, in stature and in prominence in this world. I will find my JOY in God's glory rather than my success or failure.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
I am not the source of success. I am not defined by my failure.
By God's grace I am in Christ... and that is enough.
Last week my family was blessed to attend what will probably be our final church planting retreat with the Northwest Baptist Convention. It is the only required event for church plants that receive Convention funding but they don't have to twist my arm to attend. By the grace of God we get to gather with a bunch of church planters and their families from all over the Northwest to be challenged, equipped and hopefully encouraged that we are not alone in the craziness of what God has called us to do. The location doesn't hurt either... Cannon Beach, OR!
For the sake of full disclosure, although I was looking forward to the idea of this final retreat (we will no longer receive NWBC funding after this year), I was going into it feeling pretty embarrassed, very discouraged and in large part like a failure. I don't say this to get you to feel sorry for me. I'm guessing these feelings are things that you all battle in various ways and at various points in your life. I was listening to a sermon by Matt Chandler this morning and he quoted Augustine of Hippo, and I'm paraphrasing, that because we are finite, we look at life as if our faces are squished up against a stained glass window. All we can see is the jagged mess of glass right in front of our eyes. It seems to make no sense. It appears to be just a mess. But God, who is infinite, sees the big picture of how all those jagged pieces of glass come together to make a beautiful masterpiece of stained glass. Perfect. Majestic even. My feelings of failure correlate directly to my lack of perspective and my finite view of the world.
When I'm able to step back and look at the big picture of what God is doing in Tacoma and through The Pathway, I'm genuinely amazed. To see all that he has done in my life and the life of my family is pretty incredible. Then to think of all the lives he's changed, disciples he's made, hope he's provided, it's absolutely awesome. But most of the time I have my face smashed up against the stained glass. That means I just see the reality that we have been funded by the NWBC (if you include our time as apprentices in Snoqualmie, WA) for over 7 years now. 7 years! We've been USC-2 missionaries, Nehemiah Church Planting Missionaries and... for lack of a cool title... regular old Northwest Baptist Convention Church planters.
The fact that we still rely so heavily on funding from outside sources makes me feel like a failure. The fact that we have hit a wall in salvations and baptisms over the last year (please pray for that wall to be broken by the way) makes me feel like a failure. The fact that I envisioned us having planted multiple churches by now when in reality we haven't even "successfully" planted this one makes me feel like a failure. The fact that I envisioned us having 10 strong Intentional Communities before we ever even launched a worship gathering and we have currently been gathering for worship for 5 years and we have 7 Intentional Communities makes me feel like a failure. The fact that we had dreams of being elder led (and still do) but we've struggled to raise up strong male leadership makes me feel like a failure. And on and on the pity party could go.
But here's the point. All of that... every bit of it... is about me. It's about my skill. My ability. My success and my failure.
Yet, I constantly pray and speak John 3:30... He must increase, but I must decrease.
I have to admit, in the midst of my pity party going into the retreat last week, I began to tune out the speaker pretty quickly. He was introduced as "one of us." A church planter just like us. But then they went on to say that in 7 years (the amount of time I've been going at this) he has planted a church that has 4 congregations meeting in 4 locations with an average weekly attendance of over 1200 people! Ha! One of us. I tell you what, I was praising Jesus last month when we finally were averaging over 100 people (and then this month we're back down in the 80's). I was praising Jesus when we finally launched our 6th and 7th Intentional Communities without seeing 1 die at the same time (because over the years we've launched many while seeing others not make it). These are my praises and this guy planted a church that was averaging hundreds within a year. He's not one of us! Or so my sinful, self-consumed mind and heart was telling me.
And then God finally woke me up to my selfishness and hypocrisy during the last session of the retreat. He preached on John the Baptist and it culminated with John 3:30... He must increase, but I must decrease. I realized that I have been increasing in this process for a long time. Motivated by the ticking time bomb every church planter feels with their partners (despite our partners being so faithful for 5 years). We live with constant fear of them saying enough is enough... fail... and moving on to the next potential success. I realized I've been increasing ever time I feel jealousy in my heart that another planter's church is growing faster than mine (mine? ha! It's not my church. It's not their church. It's Jesus' church.) I realized I've been increasing every time my fear of failure and my lack of faith causes me to live defeated when Jesus Christ has already won the victory.
John the Baptist played a prominent role in the Kingdom of God breaking into the world. But he didn't choose his role... and he knew it. He also didn't determine how he would be used or how long he would be used... and he was more than ok with that. John the Baptist wanted more than anything for people to know Jesus and for the Kingdom of God to burst into the world and grow. But in the midst of that desire, he was incredibly comfortable with his role. In John 3:27 John the Baptist said this... A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.
This one sentence really shook me awake and I realized... I've been saying this is not about me, but I haven't been living it. I've been finding my worth and my value in how quickly and how large MY church grows instead of finding my worth and my value in Christ and being excited and thankful for whatever role I get to play in HIS church growing.
Let me be clear. Everything I've been writing is mostly about my heart. My actions will probably not change too much. I will continue to go hard after the gospel, hard after seeing the lost found in Tacoma, and hard after disciple-making and church planting. What will change however, by the grace of God, is my JOY. I will find my JOY in the role Christ has called me to play, whatever that may be. I will find my JOY in Jesus increasing in fame, in stature and in prominence in this world. I will find my JOY in God's glory rather than my success or failure.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
I am not the source of success. I am not defined by my failure.
By God's grace I am in Christ... and that is enough.
Monday, May 4, 2015
Giving up
*This post is dedicated to a good friend of mine, probably the most faithful missionary I know, who's been feeling a bit discouraged.
------------------------------------------------------
In Luke 18:25 Jesus says... it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
In Jesus' sermon on the mount (Matthew 7:13-14) he says... For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 7:22-23... On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
We are a sinful and rebellious people. There is good in us because we were created in the image of God. But ever since the fall, there is so much self-centeredness, so much greed, so much pride and so much sin that it is incredibly difficult for anyone to actually choose the gospel.
In light of this, how on earth do we keep ourselves from giving up on people? How do we avoid becoming jaded and cynical? How do we keep from looking at a person who is lost and broken and thinking, "Why waste my time, they're just going to reject Jesus? They won't believe. It's not even worth it."
If I'm honest, I feel like giving up on this whole mission of God thing a lot. I've invested so much of myself into so many people. I've poured out my heart and my life and seen so little return on investment. It often makes me question why I'm even doing it. Or if it's even worth it.
For example, there's a young man who recently contacted me for help. I don't know him very well at all yet, but from everything I can tell he is lazy, unmotivated and selfish. He asked for help and a big part of me is thinking, no way am I going to spend time on this guy. He's not worth it. He won't change. But he is also lost. He has not trusted the gospel. He is not following Jesus.
But here's the key. This is what keeps me sane. This is what keeps me hopeful. Are you ready for this???
JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD!!!
Yeah... he really did. And if Jesus can rise from the dead, he can do anything. Not almost anything. Not most things. Anything. He can save any person. He can change any heart. And he can do it whenever he chooses. His perfect will may make the process of life change a quick one, or he may intend for it to be long. Some will choose Jesus and some will not. But my hope comes from the Lord. It's not about my ability to change people. It's about my faithfulness to Jesus and all that he has called me to do and be in him. He will take care of changing people.
When I get burned out and discouraged, I MUST preach the gospel to myself. I have to constantly tell myself that life isn't about how "successful" I am at leading people to conversion. It's about how faithful I am to pursuing the mission of God no matter the outcome. It's not about trying to gauge potential wasted time vs. potential return on investment. It's about following the Holy Spirit wherever he leads for as long as he leads.
I know many of you out there have mustered up as much courage as you could find and engaged the lost with the gospel only to be rejected. Many of you have opened your home, your wallet and many other facets of your life, only to be rejected, abused and burned in countless ways. I know many of you have given up. You've decided it's just not worth it.
But let me remind you that you too were once dead in your sins but you've been made alive in Christ because GOD DID NOT GIVE UP ON YOU! God is in the business of bringing dead things to life. But it starts with you. If you're feeling angry, frustrated, burned out or jaded, please hear me. The first resurrection that needs to happen is in your life.
This isn't simply about conversions. It's about the glory of God being made known! If your exhausted, tired, frustrated or have just given up. Be encouraged. You're serving a resurrection God who wants to resurrected your hope and faith so you can believe again, no matter how many times your burned or rejected, that God is getting glory and his mission is being accomplished. Not because of you... but through you.
Don't give up.
------------------------------------------------------
In Luke 18:25 Jesus says... it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
In Jesus' sermon on the mount (Matthew 7:13-14) he says... For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 7:22-23... On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
We are a sinful and rebellious people. There is good in us because we were created in the image of God. But ever since the fall, there is so much self-centeredness, so much greed, so much pride and so much sin that it is incredibly difficult for anyone to actually choose the gospel.
In light of this, how on earth do we keep ourselves from giving up on people? How do we avoid becoming jaded and cynical? How do we keep from looking at a person who is lost and broken and thinking, "Why waste my time, they're just going to reject Jesus? They won't believe. It's not even worth it."
If I'm honest, I feel like giving up on this whole mission of God thing a lot. I've invested so much of myself into so many people. I've poured out my heart and my life and seen so little return on investment. It often makes me question why I'm even doing it. Or if it's even worth it.
For example, there's a young man who recently contacted me for help. I don't know him very well at all yet, but from everything I can tell he is lazy, unmotivated and selfish. He asked for help and a big part of me is thinking, no way am I going to spend time on this guy. He's not worth it. He won't change. But he is also lost. He has not trusted the gospel. He is not following Jesus.
But here's the key. This is what keeps me sane. This is what keeps me hopeful. Are you ready for this???
JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD!!!
Yeah... he really did. And if Jesus can rise from the dead, he can do anything. Not almost anything. Not most things. Anything. He can save any person. He can change any heart. And he can do it whenever he chooses. His perfect will may make the process of life change a quick one, or he may intend for it to be long. Some will choose Jesus and some will not. But my hope comes from the Lord. It's not about my ability to change people. It's about my faithfulness to Jesus and all that he has called me to do and be in him. He will take care of changing people.
When I get burned out and discouraged, I MUST preach the gospel to myself. I have to constantly tell myself that life isn't about how "successful" I am at leading people to conversion. It's about how faithful I am to pursuing the mission of God no matter the outcome. It's not about trying to gauge potential wasted time vs. potential return on investment. It's about following the Holy Spirit wherever he leads for as long as he leads.
I know many of you out there have mustered up as much courage as you could find and engaged the lost with the gospel only to be rejected. Many of you have opened your home, your wallet and many other facets of your life, only to be rejected, abused and burned in countless ways. I know many of you have given up. You've decided it's just not worth it.
But let me remind you that you too were once dead in your sins but you've been made alive in Christ because GOD DID NOT GIVE UP ON YOU! God is in the business of bringing dead things to life. But it starts with you. If you're feeling angry, frustrated, burned out or jaded, please hear me. The first resurrection that needs to happen is in your life.
This isn't simply about conversions. It's about the glory of God being made known! If your exhausted, tired, frustrated or have just given up. Be encouraged. You're serving a resurrection God who wants to resurrected your hope and faith so you can believe again, no matter how many times your burned or rejected, that God is getting glory and his mission is being accomplished. Not because of you... but through you.
Don't give up.
Monday, April 27, 2015
The Fruit of Longevity
This morning I want to share some of the fruit we are seeing that is a direct result of our longevity as a church in Tacoma. I also need you to know that our longevity is a direct result of the faithful partners... both locally and nationally... who support our church, pray for our church and serve with our church consistently and have done it for the long haul.
Let me give you two examples of what I'm talking about.
Quite a few years ago... maybe 4 years... we had a family connect to our church. This family was pumped up to reach their extended family for Jesus. They began inviting all their friends and family to everything The Pathway did. To make a long story short, one family connected to the church as a result of all the inviting. The husband and wife both made professions of faith and were baptized and then over time, as life through them a lot of difficulties, they faded away. As a pastor, church planter, and a disciple of Jesus, every time someone makes a public profession of faith through our church and then fades away, it breaks my heart. I feel like a failure. I feel like the mission God has called us to... the mission of making disciples... has been left incomplete.
There was also a young lady we met during our days at Wright Park. We call those the early days. During that time we were doing nothing but sowing seeds of the gospel. There was very little discipleship because no one was interested in being a disciple yet. There was very little leadership development at that point because we had no potential leaders and honestly had very few people to lead. During that time we met a lot of young kids... teenagers... who were on the streets. Most of them had dropped out of high school, were homeless and were into a lot of things that set them on track for disaster. One of these young ladies had dated a guy we had also been investing in. She got pregnant, and fell off the radar. She made a lot of mistakes and has had a harder couple of years than I can probably even fathom. Again... heart breaking when we invest and share the gospel and then someone just disappears.
Fast forward to the last couple of weeks.
Easter Sunday brought the family I mentioned back to our worship gathering. That was exciting but has been a pattern the last couple of years. But this time, their oldest son made a profession of faith in Jesus! We got to sit with him and his parents and talk about the commitment it takes to become a disciple of Jesus. They came back the following week and he was baptized! They brought a lot of family and friends with them, including another guy we haven't seen in years. This guy is pretty hardcore, has never made a profession of faith, and only ever came to a worship gathering if one of his loved ones was being baptized. But this time, his girlfriend expressed a desire to become a Christian.
And then came the true test... for me anyway... the first "normal" week after Easter.
No baptisms. No special gatherings or expectations. Just the church of God gathering to worship Jesus. And that's when the fruit of longevity started to show itself. I was walking up to the school and I saw the hardcore guy and his girlfriend. To my knowledge, this was the first time he had ever come to a gathering when one of his loved ones wasn't being baptized. The mom and kids of the family who had fallen away were there too!
After seeing that incredible sight, the door to the school opened and in walked the girl I mentioned above. Talk about the last person I expected to see. I later found out that she was invited by another gal in our church who didn't even know this girl had ever been connected with The Pathway. We learned that she is now living at a transitional home that our church supports and to be honest, she looked better and more stable than I've ever seen her before.
Are these the sparks that will ignite the flame for a movement of God that we have been praying for? Maybe. I don't know. God does and that gives me peace.
But it is definitely the fruit of longevity. If our faithful partners, both nationally and now those who have covenanted with us locally, had given up on The Pathway after 2 or even 3 years, we would not be here to re-connect with people we were able to sow seeds of the gospel into years ago. But because of your faithfulness, we are getting to water seeds that were planted 3, 4, even 5 years ago and we're even seeing salvation spring up in others as a result!
God is faithful. Longevity matters. Please pray for this family, this young lady, the other couple and many others like them who God is allowing us to re-engage, re-share the gospel with and demonstrate unconditional love and grace to after years away from Jesus and his church.
Monday, March 30, 2015
It starts TONIGHT!
About a month ago we introduced our church to something we're calling the Best Day Challenge! In short, we built an Intentional outreach all around what we believe to be the Best Day in history... the day Jesus' rose from the dead... and Challenged every person in our church to pray for, engage and invite 2 people to attend a dinner the week before Easter.
These dinners are hosted by each of our Intentional Communities and were paid for by the generosity of one of our partner churches. There are 2 goals. The first is to show love to our friends, family, neighbors and co-workers in an extravagant and tangible way. How often does a church offer to buy dinner at a delicious restaurant for 40 people a night? That leads to the second goal. We want our friends, neighbors, family and co-workers who have been invited to ask us why? Why is your church doing this? What's the catch?
And that's when we have the opportunity to share with them. God has loved us so extravagantly, by sending his son Jesus to die for us, that our church tries to come up with any creative way possible to love the people around us in an extravagant way. Through these conversations and explanations, our prayer is that our church would have countless opportunities to share the gospel. We want to specifically share with those we invite how we came to know Jesus and that what Jesus did for us (the church) he also did for them (his creation).
It will never flow completely seamlessly and smoothly. Gospel conversations are often messy and awkward. But the point of the Best Day Challenge and specifically our Intentional Community Dinners is to provide opportunities for the people of our church to engage, and love, and share the gospel with the people they are around day in and day out.
But the Best Day Challenge doesn't end there. Through the dinners we are praying that folks in our church will find out that their friends, neighbors, co-workers and family are intrigued by this extravagant expression of love. We are praying that our church will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and when he leads, that we would invite some our loved ones to our Easter gathering this coming Sunday where we will be celebrating and talking about the Best Day in History... the day Jesus rose from the dead! We are strategically and prayerfully launching a new 6 week connection group the week after Easter for people to get a short-term taste of community. We have asked all of our existing Intentional Communities to throw parties the week after Easter so that we can have easy invites for our 2 people to be around and have fun with the people of God.
Most ultimately... we are praying and challenging our church to seek opportunities, sometime over the next 2 weeks, to share their story and Jesus' story with their 2 loved ones and then invite them to start following Jesus too! We are praying, we are crying out to God, that as a result of the Best Day Challenge we would see more people baptized on April 19th (our next baptism gathering) than we ever have before and most importantly, that we would see disciples made and lives changed by the hope of the gospel!
Will you commit to pray Monday 3/30, Tuesday 3/31, Wednesday 4/1 (2 dinners) and Thursday 4/2 as dinners are being hosted each evening. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to do something only the Holy Spirit can do.
Thank you!
These dinners are hosted by each of our Intentional Communities and were paid for by the generosity of one of our partner churches. There are 2 goals. The first is to show love to our friends, family, neighbors and co-workers in an extravagant and tangible way. How often does a church offer to buy dinner at a delicious restaurant for 40 people a night? That leads to the second goal. We want our friends, neighbors, family and co-workers who have been invited to ask us why? Why is your church doing this? What's the catch?
And that's when we have the opportunity to share with them. God has loved us so extravagantly, by sending his son Jesus to die for us, that our church tries to come up with any creative way possible to love the people around us in an extravagant way. Through these conversations and explanations, our prayer is that our church would have countless opportunities to share the gospel. We want to specifically share with those we invite how we came to know Jesus and that what Jesus did for us (the church) he also did for them (his creation).
It will never flow completely seamlessly and smoothly. Gospel conversations are often messy and awkward. But the point of the Best Day Challenge and specifically our Intentional Community Dinners is to provide opportunities for the people of our church to engage, and love, and share the gospel with the people they are around day in and day out.
But the Best Day Challenge doesn't end there. Through the dinners we are praying that folks in our church will find out that their friends, neighbors, co-workers and family are intrigued by this extravagant expression of love. We are praying that our church will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and when he leads, that we would invite some our loved ones to our Easter gathering this coming Sunday where we will be celebrating and talking about the Best Day in History... the day Jesus rose from the dead! We are strategically and prayerfully launching a new 6 week connection group the week after Easter for people to get a short-term taste of community. We have asked all of our existing Intentional Communities to throw parties the week after Easter so that we can have easy invites for our 2 people to be around and have fun with the people of God.
Most ultimately... we are praying and challenging our church to seek opportunities, sometime over the next 2 weeks, to share their story and Jesus' story with their 2 loved ones and then invite them to start following Jesus too! We are praying, we are crying out to God, that as a result of the Best Day Challenge we would see more people baptized on April 19th (our next baptism gathering) than we ever have before and most importantly, that we would see disciples made and lives changed by the hope of the gospel!
Will you commit to pray Monday 3/30, Tuesday 3/31, Wednesday 4/1 (2 dinners) and Thursday 4/2 as dinners are being hosted each evening. Please pray for the Holy Spirit to do something only the Holy Spirit can do.
Thank you!
Monday, March 9, 2015
BEST DAY challenge
We're entering an exciting season in the life of the church. Resurrection Sunday is rapidly approaching! We have a tradition in our Sunday gathering that whenever the resurrection is mentioned we scream and cheer (well... maybe I'm trying to make it a tradition by telling everyone to yell and scream when I mention the resurrection)!
Either way, as followers of Jesus, the resurrection should evoke in us emotions of awe, joy and gratitude. It was literally the BEST DAY in history and when we put our faith in Jesus, the one who died and rose again, we will experience the BEST DAY of our lives. We also know that all of us who have trusted Jesus will one day experience the most ultimate BEST DAY when we see Jesus face to face.
Thanks to the generosity of our partners, we launched what we're calling the BEST DAY challenge a little over a week ago. Our goal is to give our people the opportunity to love their friends, neighbors, family and co-workers extravagantly. We're trying to give them a chance to provide multiple "great days" for those they love with the hope and prayer of doors opening for gospel conversations.
We're challenging, encouraging, and praying that through these "great days" our people would have multiple opportunities to share about the BEST DAY in history... to share the good news that Jesus died and rose again to provide forgiveness of sins and restored relationship to God. Ultimately, we're praying that on our next baptism Sunday we would see more people than we ever have before celebrating new life in Christ!
How can you pray?
1) We challenged everyone in our church to pray for 2 people that they want to pursue with the gospel and to pray for the Holy Spirit to draw them to salvation. Please pray that our folks would accept this challenge and that God would be working in the hearts of all the "two's" that are being pursued.
2) The first "great day" we want to provide is dinner at a nice restaurant in Central Tacoma called Engine House 9 (E9). Each of our Intentional Communities have been given a night to take over the party room of E9 and fill it (up to 40 people) for the purpose of showing love and sparking gospel conversations. Please pray that our people would invite. Please pray that their 2 would come to dinner. Pray for gospel conversations.
3) The second "great day" is Easter Sunday. We're challenging people to invite their 2 to our Easter gathering April 5th. We have several photographers in our church and one of them will be taking FREE family portraits and we'll be providing one free print per family. Just another way to show God's love. Pray that people would come on Easter, that they would hear the gospel, feel the gospel and trust the gospel. Pray that they would connect to one of our Intentional Communities or to one of 3 new groups (pray that these all materialize) that should be launching after Easter. Most of all, pray that our people would use our Easter gathering as a catalyst for sharing their faith and inviting their 2 to follow Jesus.
4) The third "great day" is the week following Easter. All of our Intentional Communities will be throwing parties so that people can come and connect on a relational level with the community of believers. Some will be having dinners, others might have game nights or go do something fun in the community. Please pray for people to find themselves immersed in the body of Christ and that they would be radically changed by the gospel.
5) The fourth "great day" will hopefully come after the BEST DAY... the day many of these people put their trust in Jesus. We will be celebrating baptism April 19th and are praying that more people will be baptized than we could ever imagine!
Thank you for your prayers. We'll keep you posted!
Either way, as followers of Jesus, the resurrection should evoke in us emotions of awe, joy and gratitude. It was literally the BEST DAY in history and when we put our faith in Jesus, the one who died and rose again, we will experience the BEST DAY of our lives. We also know that all of us who have trusted Jesus will one day experience the most ultimate BEST DAY when we see Jesus face to face.
Thanks to the generosity of our partners, we launched what we're calling the BEST DAY challenge a little over a week ago. Our goal is to give our people the opportunity to love their friends, neighbors, family and co-workers extravagantly. We're trying to give them a chance to provide multiple "great days" for those they love with the hope and prayer of doors opening for gospel conversations.
We're challenging, encouraging, and praying that through these "great days" our people would have multiple opportunities to share about the BEST DAY in history... to share the good news that Jesus died and rose again to provide forgiveness of sins and restored relationship to God. Ultimately, we're praying that on our next baptism Sunday we would see more people than we ever have before celebrating new life in Christ!
How can you pray?
1) We challenged everyone in our church to pray for 2 people that they want to pursue with the gospel and to pray for the Holy Spirit to draw them to salvation. Please pray that our folks would accept this challenge and that God would be working in the hearts of all the "two's" that are being pursued.
2) The first "great day" we want to provide is dinner at a nice restaurant in Central Tacoma called Engine House 9 (E9). Each of our Intentional Communities have been given a night to take over the party room of E9 and fill it (up to 40 people) for the purpose of showing love and sparking gospel conversations. Please pray that our people would invite. Please pray that their 2 would come to dinner. Pray for gospel conversations.
3) The second "great day" is Easter Sunday. We're challenging people to invite their 2 to our Easter gathering April 5th. We have several photographers in our church and one of them will be taking FREE family portraits and we'll be providing one free print per family. Just another way to show God's love. Pray that people would come on Easter, that they would hear the gospel, feel the gospel and trust the gospel. Pray that they would connect to one of our Intentional Communities or to one of 3 new groups (pray that these all materialize) that should be launching after Easter. Most of all, pray that our people would use our Easter gathering as a catalyst for sharing their faith and inviting their 2 to follow Jesus.
4) The third "great day" is the week following Easter. All of our Intentional Communities will be throwing parties so that people can come and connect on a relational level with the community of believers. Some will be having dinners, others might have game nights or go do something fun in the community. Please pray for people to find themselves immersed in the body of Christ and that they would be radically changed by the gospel.
5) The fourth "great day" will hopefully come after the BEST DAY... the day many of these people put their trust in Jesus. We will be celebrating baptism April 19th and are praying that more people will be baptized than we could ever imagine!
Thank you for your prayers. We'll keep you posted!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)