Sampling the local night life

A good friend and I went out last night in our small town of Dallas and tried to sample some of the local night life. What we found was quite interesting. We first checked out the papers and craigslist to see what was being advertised. After that we struck out in my old '51 chev pickup. First stop...a long-running local musician jam at Guthrie Park Community Center. There were over a dozen musicians sitting in the round playing songs together. A lot of the material was older - maybe like the soundtrack of 'O Brother Where Art Thou' with a few other various tunes. Some interesting moments included a woman playing a saw (no joke) and steel bucket bass player! After about an hour, and a donation, we headed out for a younger crowd. That took us to a local bar called Blondies. As soon as we drove up, we heard some pounding, current sounding music and, upon entry, we found our younger crowd. The room was smoky and packed with 20 somethings. Not much dancing going on, but, every pool table was taken by young guys. We wanted to check out some of the other local haunts, however, my old chev's 6 volt battery wasn't going to hack it, so, we headed home early (11pm). All in all there are certainly some things to do on Friday nights even in a small town!

Plan away....but, God has the final say...

I've been in 'crunch' mode for the past month or so getting ready to start a new church (with a great team I might add) here in Dallas, Oregon. This morning, as I was praying and reading through Scripture, a new insight from God really sunk in. Me, the staff, and our Launch Team have been planning and working hard, and, we've been staying in constant prayer. Even with all this momentum, I've been anxious and worried about whether or not this church plant will work. I confess that I've stressed over no one showing up on Sunday...oh me of little faith right? Well, in reading Proverbs 16 today, I had a 'divine moment' if you will. Three times in that chapter, it says, in effect, plan away, but, God has the final say. The whole chapter starts and ends that way. This gives me a bit of peace...all our plans will succeed with God's hand. Our job is to be faithful, diligent in planning and working, and then rely on God to do His part - the BIG part...whew! I feel better already...

MCC sealed the deal!

After we met the staff of Monmouth Christian, we were pretty impressed! The talents and Spiritual maturity we encountered made quite an impact on us. With a group of committed followers of Jesus ready to help us and even mentor us in the process, we sensed God's involvement in a powerful way. Having a 'mother church' so close and willing to make this mission happen helped us begin to see church planting in Dallas as pretty doable. We returned home with a lot of excitement, and yet a lot of fear for the road ahead. In fact, our next fear was informing our church family in Maple Valley about our decision. That was really, really tough...more on that soon!

Asked for a NO, but God said...

That's right, after we prayed for a simple 'no' from God, friends, family, coworkers, etc. all of them overwhelmingly came back with "YES"! So, the sense of calling was growing and, even though we were sensing a strong leading, we wanted more clarity about Dallas. We wanted to know if it was the right fit for our family. As a kid, I spent a lot of years in Dallas, but now I wasn't sure if our next church planting adventure should be there. To help us, the staff from Monmouth Christian Church, led by Stan Peterson, invited us down to meet the staff and get a better feel of the community. We journeyed down from the Seattle suburbs to check it all out. At this point, you might be thinking that we had a bit of a 'Jonah' complex...meaning that God was clearly calling us and yet we were looking for a different message. We really wanted to be sure, though, so, we made the trip down to Oregon. You might guess what we discovered...(to be continued)

Asking for NO!

Ok, so, I promised to keep writing about my experiences with starting a new church, and, I'm behind (like so many other projects these days). Any-who, my wife Jackie and I began to dream about the possibilities, but, we were also asking God for a clear NO. In fact, we agreed to go to a church planter assessment in February 2007 thinking that they'd see how imperfect we were and help us with God's NO. As it turned out, they put us threw the ringer with questions, interviews, social interactions and other tests and instead of NO, they said, YES, green-light go! So, the plot thickened for us...is God really needing us to step out in faith again and this time lead a church plant? Surely not, right? Thats when we decided to go to friends, family, business associates and others in our lives who could shoot straight. We asked them to pray, fast, and consider this decision with us...you'll never guess what they came back to us with...(to be continued, heh, heh)

No fear of God...from Psalm 36

Last night at our prayer walk for the Dallas community, many sensed the weight of people who don't have any fear of God. So many in the city don't even consider God at all in their life decisions and are blinded by this neglect. The Psalm talks about people who, when they don't fear God, become arrogant in their confidence and live confused about evil and good, unable to know which is which...wow, God, help me and the launch team reach people like this...Amen.

Starting a new church...the journey begins...

Ok - over the past several months, I've been thinking I should document this journey of starting a new church, and, this morning, well, I think its time to begin. Since last night was one of the first official meetings we conducted with some of the 'launch team', I thought this documentation was well past due! You see, last night we met (over 20 of us) to pray around the town and seek God's wisdom in planting this church here...it was really cool! Back to what I started here...anyway, I was in Spokane in January helping a friend of mine lead worship for a men's purity conference (Pure Warriors) and I got a call from Jim Penhollow of East 91st Street Christian Church who lives in Portland and works to recruite church planters for the Northwest. Since he was instrumental in 2003 in getting me to leave a wonderful life in Tennessee for the unknown world of helping to plant a church in the Seattle suburbs, we had a bit of a track record. Anyway, after a quick no, but a promise to pray, I returned to the Seattle area to begin praying, dreaming and thinking about the possibilities...(to be continued...)

God-Directed!

There is a passage in the Bible in Acts 16 that never fails to ignite my curiosity. In this section of Scripture, Paul and his companions are traveling around the ancient world spreading the good news of forgiveness through Jesus and planting new churches. What is odd is in verse 6 where apparently Paul was ‘prevented by the Spirit’ from preaching in the province of Asia, but then, in the next few verses, Paul has a dream or vision showing someone requesting to hear Jesus’ message, and so, Paul concludes this was also God and thus enters Asia. It’s even more interesting to learn that from that point on, Paul and his traveling buddies face some pretty tough resistance to their ministry of telling Jesus’ story. You might think they’d start doubting that vision.

The reason this Scripture has always made me feel a bit unsettled is because I wonder what messages God has directed toward me through dreams and visions and through the Holy Spirit, and, I’ve been too boneheaded and missed them. In fact, I’ve wondered how of God’s direction we’ve all missed. So, recently I’ve resolved to try and give God more and more opportunities to speak into my life His plans. In Bill Hybel’s book Courageous Leadership, Bill highlights ways to maximize our ability to hear and receive vision from God, which he forms in a series of questions like: Have we totally given God our lives? Have we asked Him about what vision He’s got for us? Have we fasted? Have we prayed? Have we been quiet and waited in silence for Him? Have we cleaned up sinful patterns in our lives? Have we weeded out all the distractions and noise that would keep us from hearing what God might be saying? Have we read about, traveled to and looked at areas where God is already working for inspiration? (pg. 37 & 38 of Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels Zondervan © 2002)

As we enter year 3 as a church, I pray that we would all get rid of anything that prevents us from really hearing from God and seeing His vision of where He wants to take our church!

Christianity & Science...friends again?

I recently read a book that is really messing with my mind - called God at the Speed of Light by Dr. T. Lee Baumann, MD (no relation ok?). Anyway, he uses a lot of technical jargon to show how the sciences are rediscovering the mystery of matter and especially light and how it works. The concept of light behaving differently when viewed or observed is stunning...blows my mind! The one thing I still wonder is where or not Dr. Baumann sees God as PART of the creation, or God being intimately invovled but completely INDEPENDENT of creation...? Either way, the read was pretty curious and, yes, a bit exciting because I do think that science and spirituality are all part of God's truth.

Christ The Lord - at least it ends well...

I just finished a book that has been on my night stand for a few months...Anne Rice's Christ the Lord. It is a fictional story about Jesus's childhood with much liberty taken and much apocrphyal info added...thanks Gospel of Thomas, eh? Why was it on my night stand for that long? Well, it just wasn't that compelling. The story lacked passion. I did, however, enjoy the wrap up where Mary finally reveals his birth and his real identity...that was cool. Too bad it took 300 pages to get there...

I'm not giving up on Rice though - maybe I should read her other stuff - the vampire stuff? Not enough time in the day...

Wonder Struck

I have been rereading a book called Your God is Too Safe by Mark Buchanan and I ran across something that really spoke to me. Buchanan writes of the need for us to let the Bible, and God, be a bit mysterious and awe-inspiring rather that cold, meticulous, safe and comfortable. Rathern than disect everything to death, we do well to let God's truth be discovered in the story and in the wonder. He writes on page 60, "The worst consequence of losing our imagination, our wonder, is that we no longer see the Christward life as an adventure. We see it as a duty, a chore, a list of dos, don'ts, and how-tos...the stories we read in Acts about the church 'turning the world on its head' (Acts 17:6) - well, what would that kind of thing do to our tax-exempt status?'" We could really do our community, our church and our families a great justice by getting ourselves wonder struck! Well said Mark!

Generation EX Resource

Many people have asked me about the book I recently read about adult children of divorce called "Generation EX"...here is a link to order the book:

http://www.familylife.com/1-800-358-6329/detail.asp?id=10050&p=&c=&g=

Generation EX

I recently spoke at my church (Common Ground Church) on the touchy subject of divorce, and, specifically, being an adult child of divorce. Since that message, I've had a lot of people comment about their experiences and how they believe divorce has effected them. I am beginning to notice that kids of divorce who find and commit to following Jesus seem to be working through life better than those who do not have a relationship with Christ. God's power not only can create something (like Earth!) from nothing, it can also heal brokeness from divorce. I've been reading through the Psalms and finding comfort from phrases about God healing brokeness, protecting His children and defending those who love Him from all kinds of evil. There is a God who cares about what we care about! He cares about what is hurting us! Pslam 55:22 says, "Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let teh righteous be shaken."

A Musician's Key Scripture - Psalm 33!

A few days ago I was reading Psalm 33 and ran across a great couple of phrases that showcase the value God has on musicians and songwriters. The Psalm begins with the idea that singing and praising God is simply what those who love God do, period. Next we see how instruments enhance this practice of singing and praising God, and specifically (to my liking), STRINGED INSTRUMENTS! Finally, in the third verse or phrase of this Psalm, we see that playing well, or skillfully, is extremely important. Musicians, vocalists and writers must be offering our best to the King - it's crucial to the overall worship of the people of God! What an awesome yet incredibly weighty task we musicians have! I pray that God would help me shoulder this great burden and assist me in being the kind of musician and songwriter He needs me, and the other church musicians I work with, to be!

Worship Opens Doors...

I was reading Psalm 34 this morning and I was blindsided by a great phrase Eugene Peterson uses to translate verse 9 - check it out: "Worship God if you want the best; worship opens doors to all His goodness" - wow! That phrase has stuck with me...that when we give God the worship from our very depths it opens doors to the very best life has to offer. Sometimes I treat the worship of God way to unimportant. Worship should be center in everything we do whether working, playing, resting, etc. I want God's best - and, I think many would agree with me. Let's be 24/7/365 worshippers y'all! It's the KEY to open the doors to God's best!

How Did Sunday Go?

Sometimes when people miss a Sunday morning at Common Ground, they'll come up and ask me 'how it went'? I confess, I have no earthly idea what the answer to that question should be. Would I say, wow, we had lots of people there? Or, maybe, wow, we had a big offering that day? Or, maybe they want to know if the sermon was good or that people generally had a good time? Now, I'm not trying to be contentious here, but, what should the measure of a great Sunday morning worship time be? Beyond having a big crowd of people who are genuine and generous, how do we really gauge a great Sunday? I guess if you were to ask me how I measure Sunday morning's 'success' (beyond techinical stuff and musicality), I'd say simply that if people encountered and worshipped God, it's a success! I think its a success if we walk away from a Sunday morning feeling encouraged, inspired, and more in awe of God - what about you?

Praying the Psalms

In my lifelong quest to grow in my spiritual life, I've discovered something that is helping - praying the Psalms. I certainly didn't INVENT this idea, but, its simple and it is a great tool for directing my prayers on days when I'm not feeling all that 'spiritual'. Today I prayed through Psalm 9 and I really reflected on the simple act of praising God. I realized that if I really focusing on praising God, other stuff seems less important. Anyway, I'm a work in progress and maybe praying through these Psalms will further that progress...

The Heart of God - Generosity

I recently read a book that a friend gave me to read that talked about living life the way God intended us to live it - blessed. The writer, Robert Morris, pointed out that there are 3 levels of generosity or of being a good steward that the Bible presents. The first, and the most I've ever really thought much about, is the tithe or the tenth. This is a principle laid out way back before the Jewish nation of the Old Testament even had the 'law'. Morris thinks that statistically most of those who claim to follow Jesus don't do this today. In Morris' opinion (and from a passage in Malachi 3), those who don't give God the top 10% are subjecting themselves to a curse. Ouch! For me, I give my 10, but, I have to admit that God has been dealing with me about the 90...it's still not MINE...its His and always will be - He's just loaned it to me. Morris digs deeper to talk about going above the 10% into the realm of both offerings AND extravagant gifts (like a year's salary or a car or house or something). In both of these 'above the 10' categories, he speaks of relying on God's Spirit to direct us. So, after reading this book, called "The Blessed Life", I realized that my attitude had to change regarding the 90, and, that I need to be walking close to the Lord and listening to Him on opportunities for me to be generous in the 'above the 10' category...Lord, help me obey You in this and help me be truly GENEROUS!

Barna's 'Revolution'

I recently read this book (Revolution by George Barna) for myself and am struggling with why some of my peers are saying that Barna, the writer, calls for all church members to abandon the contemporary church, period. I didn't get that from the book. I did get a feeling that Barna, like myself, senses both by intiuition and statistics, that disciples are not necessarily being made in our current 'church' culture. In fact, the church, as a whole, is losing membership at an alarming rate - partly due to the fact that our culture has shifted in many different ways such as postmodernism, globalization, isolation, etc. As our culture has shifted, the church has not made appropriate changes. Barna talks about broadening our picture of what church should be by including valuable movements like home churches, smaller churches and other non-traditional discipleship methods. I personally liked his approach - the church in the New Testament did meet in larger groups, but, more often, they met in homes and focused on loving God and loving each other - it wasn't a big show each meeting with a 30-40 minute sermon by a designated 'preacher' with everyone staring at a stage as if it were a theater - passive onlookers, etc. Somehow we've got a church 'culture' that is all about the show, and thus, as Dallas Willard calls it, we've got a bunch of consumer Christians who shop for the best show. It's about becoming disciples of Christ who can make disciples...nice work Barna.

Emma's Baptism

It's been brewing in my head and heart to journal about this, and, since it's been so crazy this Summer, I'm just now getting to it - ouch! Emma-Anne, my 10 year old daughter, was baptized into Christ on Monday, August 14th in the Bumping River at the Indian Flatt campground. That was an amazing evening. Many friends from our church were there and I was confident Emma knew what she was doing, why she needed Christ, and understood what baptism was for. Really, she preceeded my own baptism, in age, by 4 or so years. It is a humbling experience being used by God to bring others into His kingdom, and that evening was very, very special. I must mention that the evening was made even more special by the fact that some other dear friends Tim & Heather were baptized after Emma - what a night! God was and IS moving in hearts young and old. Sometimes it takes longer for some, shorter for others to decide to jump in with God, but, when it happens - AWESOME!