learning from my parents

You can't have the responsibility to raise ---

until you first make a habit of picking up ---

                          

Thanks for your beautiful wisdom, Dad!  You and Mom continue to amaze me.

Whenever Dad saw a penny, he would pick it up.

When people asked him of the strange habit,

he said, "If God can trust me with the little things,

he'll be able to trust me with bigger things."

My parents adopted my three sisters

because they felt God place this 

passion on their heart.

Because God trusted them with the little things,

he's able to trust them with beautiful daughters.

to my beloved Saranac church

We can't do this

until we've first become competent in this.

I'm excited to be in this journey with you!
I love you and pray for you all the time.

let's ride

Our family had to go to Walmart while we were on vacation. While we were there, we were walking through a particular aisle showing Jude all the cool bikes. I can't wait to see the look freedom and balance give Jude's face when he rides a bike without training wheels for the first time. I know that as a Dad, I'm supposed to be patient about these kinds of things, but it's something I'm looking forward to so much.

Training wheels.  We've all used them haven't we?  

Right now, our church is feeling the exhilaration of what balance and freedom feel like.  We love and enjoy our sense of empowerment.  Many of us are stepping up, volunteering, and beautifully orchestrating our Sunday morning routine.  Many of us are offering up prayers throughout the week for God's kingdom to continually expand in Saranac.  Some of us have joined teams and are investing our time and energy into what it means to be the church in Saranac.  Feeling balance is fun.  Feeling free is beautiful.

Currently, our koinonia is at that point.  God has graced us with leaders, wonderful hearts, and amazing love for people.  We've gotten on the bike and have been thrilled by the initial feelings of balance and freedom.  We've grown in our relationship with God.  We've let God teach us how to love others more deeply.  We've seen our Kidzone transformed and given its own personality.  Our set up and tear down seems unnoticeable (which is a great thing).  Our Frontline team is showing love and hospitality to whoever joins us for our Sunday gatherings.  Our worship team blesses us with their continual talent as well as their love for Christ.  All these things seem to be streamlined and functioning flawlessly, but it's important that we realize our training wheels are still on and we're still getting used to how balance and freedom feel.  Things are going incredible, but healthy growth takes time.  As many of us look up and into the future with dreams, it's important we stick to the fundamentals.  Let's take time and be good stewards of the freedom and balance the LORD has given us.  Let's take time and be good stewards of this church that God has brought together.  Let's take time to grow in Christ and in relationships among one another.  Let's continue to do the small things with great love.  Although it may seem as if we're ready to ride, let's slow down, dig deep, and strengthen the foundation we already have.   

What this means…

LifeGroups - Instead of being a church with LifeGroups, we are a church of LifeGroups.  We're encouraging everyone to plug into one of our four LifeGroups in Saranac.  LifeGroups are a place where we learn about the LORD, we learn to live the LORD in our everyday lives, and a place where we learn to live and share about the LORD inside and outside of our social circles.  LifeGroups are the heart and soul of what it means to be koinonia and we encourage you to participate.  

Serve - There are many ways you can serve.  Whether you're great with kids, with providing a welcoming hospitality, whether you're talented musically or with technical skills, or whether you can carry a chair or push a tote; our church needs people to serve and volunteer to make Sunday mornings possible.  To get involved and or find out more, please see the Frontline desk on Sunday morning.  Want to help us this Sunday?  Show up at 8am.    

Give - Many of us give 10% of our income to the church.  Crazy?  We think so.  But when we give with humble and joyful hearts, God turns the little we offer into something large and expansive.  He takes our humble tithes and offerings and creates transformed hearts and lives.  We invite you, along with many of us, to give to the movement of God in Saranac through finances.  

Pray - Along with being in LifeGroups, serving and giving, we ask that you join us in prayer.  Prayer is essential.  This has been and continues to be one of the most refreshing ways God speaks to me.  Prayer rejuvenates the soul.  It strengthens the heart.  Prayer is a core spiritual discipline that I encourage all of you to constantly participate in.

We still have our training wheels on, but I pray we'll continue to build a foundation on the balance and freedom that God has given us.  Whether we're in LifeGroups, we're serving, giving or praying; I hope that the kingdom of God (as shown to us in Christ) permeates everything you do.  I pray that his love flavors your relationships, the way you see yourself and the way you see the world.  I pray that you participate in bringing a little heaven to Earth with us.  May his kingdom come and his will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.

Growth is happening among us.  It's important that as we move forward, we continue to strengthen our personal relationships with the LORD.  Out of that, He will do beautiful things!!  Out of a community built upon their relationships with God and each other, our church will be able to embrace balance and freedom so that we can eventually ride.  May we continue to remember the fundamentals.  

  

active kingdom passive church

A church is passively planted when the kingdom is actively pursued.  I don't know about you, but I don't want to actively plant a church and passively pursue the reign of God in my heart.  We are the church because the kingdom of God and his righteousness has been (and continues to be) pursued.  A church is a people who participate in God's mission.  We are not necessarily participating in the kingdom of God if our focus is solely on church.  This may seem like a subtle difference, but it has huge implications.

Christ teaches that we are to be a kingdom minded people (Matthew 6:33).  We are to be a people that love the Lord holistically.  We are to be a people that embody the incarnation.  We are to be a people that serve as a light to our community - a group of shenanigans that add flavor to the people around them.  God's kingdom is something I want to be focused on.  It's something I want to have my eyes gazing upon.  The reign of God in my heart is what I want more than anything else.  I'm passionate about living "in shalom" with God.  

I don't want to actively create or plant another church.  I don't want to feel good about how many people show up on a Sunday morning koinonia gathering.  I don't simply want to focus on what happens when we come together.  In fact, if this is ever our focus, there are plenty of other churches in Saranac, Ionia, or Lowell that we can merge with to do this sort of thing.  Instead, I want to actively pursue the kingdom of God.  Because I'm around others that are passionate about the same thing, church is a word that defines who we are.  If we are pursuing God's kingdom and righteousness, then "church" is who we are.  

When the kingdom is actively pursued, church plants are passively unfolding. 

sunday morning clockwork

Preaching is a lonely activity.

It's Sunday morning at about 9am.  In an hour, I'm going to get up in front of a crowd and deliver a packaged speech that will educate, inspire, comfort and challenge the audience.  Because I'm going to speak in an hour, I make sure to get away and spend a significant amount of time in prayerful solitude.  My goal is to cleanse my heart and mind of myself and let God saturate my existence.

One thing people don't know about me is that I'm terrified of public speaking.  The anxiety of a Sunday morning sometimes makes me feel like I'm on my deathbed.  And I don't just feel this sort of thing Sunday morning, it seems to accumulate throughout the week.  ...

Lord, I have to teach that?  I don't want to preach that.  I wanna preach about beauty or goodness or life or redemption, but you want me to teach about that?  That's abrasive.  That's going to make people mad at me.  That's going to turn people off.  Do I really have to teach on that?

Another thing people don't know about me is that by Sunday, I feel like I've been beaten and bruised and scarred.  All week, I've spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually thrown myself at a particular passage in scripture that has left me convicted, changed, challenged, and calibrated.  Through my study and prayer, I feel the weight of death.  I've been reminded of all the ways I'm not good enough and all the ways I need to change.  ...

The beautiful thing about being a Christian is the reality of redemption.  Redemption is the idea that life can come in the midst of death.  It's the idea that Christ was raised to life.  It's the idea that we, too, can have new life as we experience feelings of death.  Redemption is the idea that as we surrender our existence to Christ, we can have his life live inside of us.  

As I preach, I have these thoughts.  Is anyone listening?  Has anyone been affected by this scripture like I have?  Are people content with just showing up on Sunday morning?  Do they hear the implications of what I'm saying?  Are we recognizing the significance of Christ's words?  Are people more concerned about the Sunday program than they are about following Jesus Monday through Saturday?  Am I the only one in this room?  Why do I feel a million miles away from the look that's in their eyes?    ...

And as hundreds of eyes gaze upon me while I'm illuminated by the stage lights, I have other thoughts.  What do they think of me?  What do they think of the clothes I'm wearing?  Am I meeting their expectations?  Are they being "fed?"  Am I being transparent enough?  Am I being too transparent?  Where is that line anyway?  ...

It seems like a million thoughts race through my head.  

Fear

Inadequacy

Failure

Insecurity

.

.

.

When I was 12, I knew that the LORD called me to be a pastor.  For a long time, I ran from that call.  I went to college to major in several other things.  I tried to convince myself that God had different plans for me.  Yet…here I am.  For some reason, he called me to be a missionary in this culture

It's Sunday at 9am.  I KNOW that the LORD has called and prepared me for this.  Through all the fears, anxieties, thoughts of being inadequate, visions of failure and feelings of insecurity, I know that God has called me to be on mission with him.  No matter what kind of response I see, I have to continue being faithful to the call that God put on my heart.  

Here we go.  As I walk up the stairs to get on stage, I hope that today God will speak to somebody.  As I take the first few steps approaching center-stage, I pray that people will hear God's words, not mine.  As I look out into the crowd, my heart swells with love for those I see and I pray that they, too, would be changed by the words of God.  As I begin the sermon, my prayer is that those listening would find life that is truly life.

Preaching is a lonely activity.  

Lord, show us redemption.  Show us that you love us.  Move in our community in incredible ways.  Lead us to be a people who loves you and each other.  May this church be a blessing to it's community that reflects you in all it does.  May this church demonstrate the presence of Jesus.  Lord, I place today in your hands.  Please move with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.