Life is Nuts!

Life is nuts! In a couple weeks we will be moving to Traverse City to begin the next phase of our lives as lead (solo) pastor at The Journey. It was just two months ago that I polished up the resume and sent it off to the North Michigan District as an act of obedience. It was unbelievable how fast things progressed from there. On June 14th I preached there and on Monday the 15th they extended the invitiation and we accepted.

Now we are in the process of selling our house here, looking at houses in TC, packing, and trying to finish well here at Faith. We love the people here and are going to miss them terribly. I am also going to miss the comaradarie of a church staff until Journey is strong enough to begin taking some people on.

In addition, we are enjoying having our Kiwi family with us this month. Today we celebrated Raegan's second birthday at the park by the lake (I'm going to miss that, too.) The whole family was together and it was a very enjoyable afternoon. Of course, to make it even more interesting, we received a call that the realtor is coming to show the house tonight. So, I'm done here and heading home to help get the house show room ready.

POETS, PROPHETS AND PREACHERS Final Thoughts

The last few days of Poets, Prophets and Preachers are done and I’m sitting on my deck reflecting on my take aways. It was a profitable couple days, since I will soon be returning to preaching on a regular basis after a three year hiatus as a staff pastor. I won’t give too much on content. If you want more specifics, a few others took very good notes and are available @ http://adammoore.us/post/136370065/blogging-poets-prophets-preachers. Apparently, those bloggers disobeyed the “no laptop” rule or are outstanding note takers and have a way of transcribing very quickly. I, on the other hand, am a spineless conformer.

There were several things that struck me as odd about the conference; the aforementioned technology ban, the choice of songs for worship which were highly contemporized ancient hymns, and guided imagery and controlled breathing seminar by Shane Hipps on Tuesday afternoon.

However, I resonated with the heart of the speakers and regained focus on several preaching issues that will prepare me to return. I especially enjoyed Peter Rollins and his hyperkinetic presentation of seemingly random thoughts that challenged my heart nearly as much as the mind. I can see why he makes the institutional church nervous, but it needs to be kept on its toes. As an unexamined life is not worth living, an unquestionable church is not worth being part of either.

One last disturbing observation. Nearly everything Rob Bell taught to this new generation about sermon preparation, I learned from John Maxwell and his cohort a couple decades ago. They havereceived new labels, but are essentially the same lessons: Study hard, dig deep, collect thoughts and ideas, plan well ahead. I guess that should give as much comfort to the old guard of the “pulpit” as it probably unnerves the emerging generation. Some things don’t really change all that much, they are just reborn.

POETS, PROPHETS AND PREACHERS Day One

Clickity-Click and Glare

I’m taking in Poets, Prophets and Preachers in Grand Rapids this week hosted by Rob Bell and Mars Hill church. I thought it would be a great tune-up for me as I return to preaching and an excellent chance for my new Mini 9 netbook to shine. But apparently, it shines just a little too brightly.

I love taking notes, but my hand writing in indecipherable once I do, so having a small, light computer with really long battery life sounded great. Toward the end of the first night while the announcements were presented which included a celebration of lanyards (?) we were told that we could not use laptops during the session because of the glare off the screen and the distraction of the clickity-click sound.

I might have thought that Bell and Co. have joined the ranks of the new Luddites, but this is a conference that includes a session on How Technology Shapes The Sermon. It seems like such a disconnect between who they are and serve (a highly tech savvy generation) that the reasoning sounds tinny. It sends me wondering why they really object to my taking notes on a laptop. What I find most disturbing is hearing such a thin and disingenuous feeling reasoning coming from a group whose buzz words include “authentic” and “honesty”. Any thoughts?

BTW: I will revert to my palm today – (small glaring screen and no click)

Pride Parade III – Return of the Bigots

For the third year in a row, Faith Church has been showing the love of Christ in a very unusual place (for an evangelical church). We were at the Michigan (Gay) Pride Parade which ends with a rally on the capital lawn. Due to a family commitment in Traverse City, I couldn’t be there, but we have some great leadership in the Christ In Action (CIA) team.

Last year was fairly peaceful because there were no churches protesting the rally. This year they were back in full force. Notice the photo of the protesters; you will see the police moving them across the road. In the second photo is Pastor Brandon Bruce standing in pretty much the same place.

Our team went over to the protesters to give them water as well only to be called “phony Christians”. That actually helped with the outreach as the parade participants saw that we had at least one thing in common, the bigots don’t like us. It opened the door to better and more conversations.

When Pastor Brandon shared the results of the event with the Faith Church family, he said, “We were right where we needed to be. We were there neither condemning people nor condoning their actions. We were simply sharing the love of Christ, no strings attached”.

I love being part of a church that cares about broken people, no matter which way they are bent.

Small World or Big God?

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite couples here at Faith Church finished up @ MSU and made a move out to Vancouver, BC.  Brennan and Ashley Westerman had been part of one of my small groups and on the worship team.  They also got me hooked on kayaking and were involved in several CIA events.  On their last Sunday I asked, “Have you got a house lined up?”  They told me they were going to be house sitting for a couple who were going on the mission field for one year.  During that time they would find an apartment or house for the future.

Then the last week of May, we had the pleasure of having Jim & Penne Koch of My Father’s House, Jamaica  www.jaminjamaica.com with us for an extended weekend.  We’ve had a relationship with them for four years, but have formalized that relationship into a partnership this year.  Jim and Penne are going to spend this coming year doing more fund raising, but to have the freedom to do so required having someone who could act as house parents in their absence.  Enter Dan & Jennifer Rennert and their four children.

 The eldest four members of the Rennert family went to Jamaica for a week’s visit at the end of the summer of 2008 to meet everyone at My Father’s House and see what it is really all about. They had found MFH on the web and God was tugging at their hearts to get involved.  They decided to take the year, beginning in the summer of 2009 to help at My Father’s House!

 The week after Jim & Penne were with us, I got this e-mail from Brennan. 

 Hey Chris!

A VERY crazy thing happened....

We're in Vancouver now, and we met with the people whose house we'll be renting.  We've known that they were leaving for a year to be missionaries...we found out exactly where they're going and what they're doing.

Okay, here's the punch line.....

They're taking over My Father's House in Jamaica!  We couldn't believe it!

I'm just assuming it's the same place....can't imagine there would be more than one with the same name.  So that's pretty nuts.  They said the normal leaders are leaving to do some fundraising, and only coming back when groups come in.

 Brennan

 I related that story to someone and they said, “It’s a small world”.  Yes, I suppose it is, but I think this one can be chalked up to a Big God. 

 

Remember to pray for Jim, Penne, the Rennerts and Brennan and Ashley.  

What (else) I Did on My Vacation

Our trip to New Zealand and Bougainville was full.  If you've followed along you've caught up on much of what we did.  However, no trip to NZ is complete for me unless I catch up with some of the people who first took me there.  The Churches of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand.

It was great to connect with several of the church people we have gotten to know over the years here.  The first Sunday we went to Papakura to visit our dear friends Edgar and Judy Hornblow - yup - that’s really their name - they are the coolest people you could ever know.  

When we first visited Papakura in 2002 they were meeting in a doublewide house converted to be used as their church.  They are now building an enormous ministry center that will include two video venues to use as outreach to the community, they have an early childhood development center in place and the new gymn also includes a first class rock climbing wall.  (Faith church, we may want to redesign our new building!)    : )    

In the video below, Edgar takes us on a tour of the new Papakura building: 

The message that day was brought by a young woman name Jo.  She spent 3 months at Kentwood Community Church and is following a call to ministry now that she is back in NZ.  We were blown away by the message she brought - it was powerful, well constructed and well delivered.  I got a chance to see her again the Sunday before we left - It is encouraging to see what God is doing in this country.  As I sat in the Papakura church on that Sunday morning I was so moved by what God has done in seven years.  Our partnership with NZ in the West Michigan District (Rockford is Papakura’s partner)  has had an impact that continues to go on and on.  This was affirmed again and again over the next several weeks.

Our first contact with New Zealand were Richard and Jane Waugh at the East City Wesleyan Church (partner with Kentwood Community Church).  It was great to see them again and spend a fair amount of time with them.  The church is in its new facility which was also only a dream when we first met.  We got to worship with them on the morning of the last Sunday in NZ.  Richard and I always have the most stimulating conversations about what the church could be in the future.  He is one of my favorite people in the world.  

I got invited to meet with the national missions board and share some of my experiences in Bougainville.  Mike Yates (Shore Grace church) is the head of the team and another West Michigan partner (Watermark).  Bougainville is one of the key places New Zealand Wesleyans are reaching out to and is having a great impact.  Kathy Clifford is a missionary from NZ, splitting her time between Northeast India and Bougainville.  She is a great asset to the kingdom.  I had the privilege of meeting with her a few times and getting my missions worldview tuned up.  

I was also able to spend several hours with one of our Faith Church missionaries, Brent Dongell.  Brent is doing great and told me that he really feels like he is beginning to get into the rhythm of life in New Zealand.  You can tell by hearing him talk and by how others are responding to him that he is having a great impact.  He is filling the youth group gap at Cession Community Church (partner with Lowell Impact) where Brett is lead pastor and Kristen is the catalyst behind children’s ministry.  I asked Brent if the children’s ministry would be fueling the youth program in the near future, but he said that the families are largely young and so there are very few even upper elementary kids.  So he really is building the youth group out of unchurched kids - Go Brent!  Go God!  Brent is also leading small groups at Cession.

Cession is doing well.  Their band is awesome (Brent sang in the worship team our last Sunday there - I have video!).  There are several new families since we last were here, they’ve begun a Sunday morning service and are introducing an alternative Friday service once a month beginning this week. Brett does a great job preaching and there are several others who are very capable leaders and speakers in the church.  Brett’s forte is developing and empowering new leaders.  I’m so very proud of my family’s church and what God is doing there.  

Good to be "home" but this is weird

I'm really glad to be home and connecting with friends and family here.  Using the word, "home" as a segue, here's a weird video that one of my friends put me onto:  ENJOY!