Catching up

Kinda fell off the blog wagon for a while. Life's been eventful and blogging energy has been low.

We had our Preview service last Sunday, the 14th. We woke up to -15 degree temperatures and frozen pipes. But the pipes didn't burst, the service went well, and the water heater pressure release valve that also failed that day got fixed. We even had 20 adult visitors at our service, which was great.

So then it was time to fight the crud. Still on that fight. Parents are supposed to arrive from Seattle today. We'll see if their flight can get out of snowbound Sea-Tac.

Kids are on break and very happy about that. Our cat has learned how to use the toilet, which boggles my mind, but which is very good, since she's been spending more time inside due to the sub-zero temps. We bought a minivan. Meanwhile, the other car is frozen and won't start. The presents are wrapped, the house is clean, and it's time to get ready for Christmas Eve.

We'll be back at ExplorationWorks for a low-key service of candles, carols, and the Christmas story. 5:30 pm. We'll have childcare for little kids (3 and under).

And now this stream of consciousness is at an end.

Troubles, opportunities, and the Trinity

I had a conversation yesterday that reminded me once again that so much of what we learn in life comes during the difficult times. It's when things are falling apart that we take stock of what matters most. It's when challenges come that opportunities arise. And it's when life is difficult that we can actually work up the resolve to risk and take an opportunity.

When things are good, there is little impetus to change. When everything is fine, we tend to slip into cruise control. I don't think this is rocket science; I think most of us get this. And yet how easy it is to try to avoid at all costs anything that might make us uncomfortable.

Do you see difficulties and crises as times of opportunity? Or things to be avoided like the plague? Troubles will come. And along with them, opportunities. But we'll miss the opportunities if we see troubles simply as things to be fixed so that we can get back to the status quo.

Here's something to think about: God isn't interested in us just maintaining the status quo. God is calling us to grow and develop, to become people of strength and courage and conviction and integrity and compassion and grace... people like Jesus. God isn't interested in the status quo. He's calling us to press on through the difficulties to a future of opportunity.

Now this might seem like a leap, but this is one place that I find the doctrine of the Trinity so astonishingly practical and helpful. God the Father loves us as a loving father--more so than any earthly father. God the Son is interceding for us before the Father. He's praying for us. (I think too many Christians miss this part. It's easy to think of God sitting around in heaven waiting for us to get our act together. And yet Jesus--the Son of God, seated at the right hand of the Father--is ever interceding for us.) And God the Spirit dwells in us, ever pointing our attention to Jesus.

So when troubles come, I know that I am not on my own. God the Father isn't sitting around in heaven hoping things work out for me. He's overseeing things--even the troubles--and working things out for good. Jesus--God the Son--is interceding for me; he's more concerned with my troubles than I am! And God the Spirit is within me so that I may become the person God created me to be.

Don't get me wrong. I don't like troubles. I don't relationship troubles, parenting troubles, financial troubles, car troubles, or any troubles you can think of. They're not fun. But when I look to Jesus and press on through the difficulty, then I find the opportunity in the trouble.

"Let it snow"--and it did!

The snow seemed to fall endlessly in Helena. The first snow since October, the snow all the hunters wish had come earlier to drive their prey down from the hills. Instead, the snow came and drove helpless drivers into something like 40 accidents, including rollovers on I-15 and an 11 car chain reaction in downtown.

All this on the night of our cookie decorating party. But we were undaunted and a number of people came and enjoyed great cookies, cider, and coffee at the Vanilla Bean.

I did hear from people, though, who were planning to come or even on their way and had to abandon their plans. The traffic reports were more appropriate for Seattle: pervasive gridlock, cars creeping along Montana Ave. at 5 miles per hour, cars sliding down hills, cars in the ditch, cars abandoned as people gave up and walked.

Even so, the cookies were tasty and the conversation was great. My younger daughter, Carolyn, found the perfect way to angle for more cookie action: she "helped" the younger children with their decorating efforts.

Got a craving for cookies?

Our cookie decorating party is coming up next week. Check out the details here.

Becoming apprentices

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

On a certain Sabbath in the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus quoted this passage from Isaiah and declared that he was fulfilling this prophecy, that this is what he was going to be about. He was setting his agenda for his ministry.

And his agenda is our agenda. This is what we want to be about at Headwaters.

Jesus’ whole deal was that he chose twelve guys to follow him around and learn to do the things he did. And he told them to do the same: make disciples. The idea is that Jesus trained people to be like him, who would train others to be like him, and so on, and so on, and so on.

The world used to work like this—you had a master craftsman and a bunch of apprentices learning to be like the master. You had fathers teaching sons the family business. And this is exactly what being a disciple is about. Christians talk a lot about Jesus being “Lord.” Lord just means master. And not just “boss” in the sense of someone who tells you what to do. No, we’re talking about master in the sense of someone you emulate, someone you learn to be like.

Probably where we see this in our culture most readily is in…yes…Star Wars. Jedi Masters with their apprentices following them around learning to be like them. Learning how to use a light saber and the ways of the force and how to do Jedi mind tricks on the weak willed…

So when Jesus says he’s about proclaiming good news to the poor, we better get on board with that. He’s the master. If the master is about proclaiming good news to the poor, we as a church better be about that, too. If we think that Christianity is just believing in Jesus so that we can go to heaven when we die, we’re missing a big part of what Jesus is all about. When Jesus says he’s about setting prisoners free and releasing the oppressed, we better be about that as well. Christianity can’t be just about Bible studies and fellowship and fun. It’s about working for justice, showing compassion, offering mercy. Jesus’ agenda is our agenda. He’s the master and we’re learning to be like him, learning to care about what he cares about, learning to prioritize what he prioritizes.

Check out pictures from our preview worship over at our Headwaters blog.

Encountering the Great Physician

Encountering Jesus can be painful. So often we think of an encounter with God as this wonderful, warm, fulfilling experience. We forget that most people who encountered God in the Bible--or even just an angel--were terrified.

Yesterday I had to go to the foot doctor to get a plantar wart removed that had gotten infected, had a nasty abscess, and was giving me a lot of pain. The doctor was this easy-going guy. He liked to make small talk and tell stories. But he also had to cut this thing out of my foot. And it hurt. And I'm still having trouble walking.

It was very, very good to get the bad stuff out of my foot. But it involved pain. It was inconvenient. It took a while to heal. But there was no way around it. I could have had it frozen—-much less pain doing that. But I’d tried that before and it kept coming back, and now it was all infected. I needed to look my doctor in the eye and ask him to go in there and take it out. Knowing that it would hurt. (My apologies to you who think this is gross. And my apologies to those of you who’ve had to undergo much more serious pain in order to be made well…)

Encountering Jesus can be painful. Sometimes in the church people call him “The Great Physician.” And it sounds so wonderful and comforting. But maybe “The Great Surgeon” would be more to the point. I knew a pastor that called him “the great surgeon of the heart.” Jesus exposes people’s hearts so that he can heal them.

I really wish the foot doctor could have vaporized the bad tissue in my foot and healed me with no pain whatsoever. That's how it works in Star Trek. But not in real life. And certainly not when it comes to matters of the heart.

Jesus is the Great Physician. And he loves us and desires our well being. But he is also skilled with the knife and unafraid to use it on our calloused, stony hearts.

Psalm 139:23-24 says:
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Here's my prayer: that I would be willing to submit to Jesus' surgery, that I would not shy away from it. That I would not be satisfied with painkillers to numb the pain and in so doing ignore the root of the problem. That I would make David's prayer in Psalm 139 my prayer.

New blog

Just what the world needs. Another blog.



We're working on developing an actual website for Headwaters, but until then, I wanted to have a web presence that actually had our name in it. So go to http://headwaterscc.blogspot.com/ to see what's new. I've started out by posting some info on our values, vision, as well as some practical details.

Art Walk

I hope you can make time for the Art Walk on Friday. Plan for temps in the 40s, but hopefully no rain. Here are some samples of Tiffany Bushilla's photography that we'll be showing at the old taproom.





So come check out the rest of her stuff and have some yummy food. At our dessert benefit for Food Share we had fabulous sweets. This time we'll focus on savory treats!

Big weekend coming up

This will be a big weekend for Headwaters. On Friday night we'll be participating in the Fall Art Walk downtown. Come see us at the old Blackfoot River Brewery Co. taproom at 54 S. Park Ave. next to Miller's Crossing. We'll have food, drink, and the photography of Tiffany Bushilla.

On Sunday, we're back at ExplorationWorks for our November worship service. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. for coffee, tea, and refreshments and the service begins at 10:00.

At our previous worship gathering in October, we learned a few things about using the space at ExplorationWorks. So this time we'll be setting up the room a little bit differently. We'll have a more extensive program for children during the service. And we'll also be celebrating communion during our time together. My message will be taken from Luke 4:16-30 which tells of Jesus preaching in his hometown. This is where Jesus sets the agenda for his ministry--an appropriate place for us to start. Join us!

Sweet details

So what happened at our Sweet Time benefit for Food Share?

Michele Hill gave a great presentation about what Food Share does and what the need is like in Helena...

A number of people talked to her about volunteer opportunities...

Michele discussed how the increased demand for their services has resulted in people needing to wait outside in the cold. One of the people who attended last night may be able to help Food Share with a creative solution to the problem...

Some folks have offered to donate the meat from their deer hunting...

We raised around $900 (and the money is still coming in!)...

And people enjoyed a lot of great desserts!

It's exciting to see people make donations, get involved, and come up with creative ways to help out this great cause. Thanks again to all who came, all who helped put this on, and all who gave. I'm already looking forward to doing it again!

Sweet success

We had a great turnout last night at our Sweet Time for a Sweet Cause. We raised money for Helena Food Share and indulged in some great desserts while we were at it. And the donations are still coming in, even from people who couldn't be there last night. How cool is that!

Thanks to all who helped make this happen--those who brought desserts, Michele from Food Share, the Fire Tower Coffee House (who charged us a discounted rate for the space because so many people bought coffee), and all who came.

I'm going to meet with Michele from Food Share this morning and I'll post more details soon.

Sweet Time for a Sweet Cause

On Wednesday night this week, why not recover from election-mania by enjoying some great desserts with some tasty Fire Tower coffee? And while you're at it, help out a great cause--Helena Food Share.

Food Share is experiencing record demand in this time of economic turmoil. So join us for a fun night of sweet delights and make a difference for those in need while you're at it.

The desserts are complimentary, espresso and more are available for purchase, and donations to Helena Food Share are tax deductible. Cash, checks, and food donations are accepted! Headwaters Covenant Church is excited to sponsor this event--and we're pleased to have all the proceeds go to Food Share.

More details: we'll be at the Fire Tower Coffee House at 422 last Chance Gulch from 7-9pm this Wednseday, November 5th. Michelle Hill from Food Share will also be giving a brief presentation about their work in Helena. Please join us. And bring a friend!

Requiem

I've been out of the blogging loop for a while. Today just a quick note about great music coming up this weekend: Musikanten Montana is performing Brahms Requiem on Saturday and Sunday at 7pm: Saturday at St. John's Lutheran Church (1000 Helena Ave.) and Sunday at St. Peter's Episcopal Cathedral (511 N. Park Ave.). Tickets are $10.

This is my first time singing with this group and it's been great fun. This may be your only chance to hear live Brahms for some time, so come check it out!

Sunday and sweets

Sunday
We had a great time at ExplorationWorks on Sunday. Good music. Good food. Good time with people. It was a great space to be in--welcoming, spacious, light. Actually, almost too light. We'll have to rethink how we set up the room next time so that the screen doesn't get washed out. But that was part of the point; we wanted to try out the space to see what works and what doesn't. So we're busy now making our lists of all the things we need to think about for next time.


Sweet Time for a Sweet Cause
What's great about the fall? Falling leaves, warm fires, and great desserts. Yes, it's time to bring on the pies and the tortes, the cookies and the cakes.

So on Wednesday, November 5, we'll be taking over the Fire Tower Coffee House from 7-9 p.m. to enjoy desserts, coffee and raise some money Food Share. Merideth's already perusing her vast collection of dessert recipes for ideas. Our friend Lacy Claeys will be providing some of her signature cookies. My daughter Carolyn will no doubt make sure we have plenty of pumpkin pie available. It'll be fun. And tasty. And benefit a great cause.

The Gathering - Oct. 19

Headwaters Covenant Church was commissioned this past weekend at our parent church in Helena. This weekend we'll be having a gathering at our new meeting space, ExplorationWorks. We'll be there Sunday morning, October 19; doors open for coffee and bagels at 9:30 with our program starting at 10.

We're excited to try out the space and see what it will be like to meet together in this great location. In addition to good coffee and food, we'll have some music, prayer and get into our vision for being a new a church in Helena. Childcare will be provided. Please join us.

Commissioning service

This weekend Headwaters Covenant Church will be commissioned for its work by the church that is planting us, the Evangelical Covenant Church of Helena. It will be a time to introduce our launch team, a time to present our vision, and a time for prayer.

As we’ve been preparing for this, the first chapters of Joshua have been on my mind. That’s where we read the story of how Israel entered the Promised Land. They had witnessed God’s mighty power in Egypt, received the Law at Mt. Sinai, wandered in the desert, and now were ready to go into the land that God was leading them to.

As they stood on the shore of the Jordon River, preparing to cross into Canaan, looking over into the unknown, their leader Joshua stood before the people and declared, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”

Get ready. Prepare for God to do great things. Expect miracles—you’ll need them.

While we’re not going to literally cross any rivers, march around Jericho, or go into battle with swords and spears, we are being set apart to go into the unknown with the Lord going before us. God loves the people of Helena. He has called us to serve the people he loves, especially the poor and the “poor in spirit”, the hurting and the broken (see Matt. 5:3 & Luke 6:20).

We are about God’s work. It is God who loves and invites, forgives and restores. It is God who is longsuffering and compassionate, full of mercy and care. It is God who takes up the cause of the oppressed, comforts the lonely, and heals the broken. And we are called to join in God’s work, God’s mission, God’s labor for those he loves.

If you’re in Helena this weekend, join us at one of our commissioning services at ECC (800 N. Hoback). The services will be Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:00 and 10:30 a.m.

If you can’t join us, I invite you to pray for us. (And even if you can join us, please pray!) Pray that we will be strong and courageous. That we will be obedient to God’s call and God’s word. That we will not give into fear or discouragement. That we will be diligent in our preparations. That we will trust in God.

Three days before venturing into the Promised Land, Joshua and his officers went throughout the camp, encouraged the people, exhorting them and giving them instruction. And this was the response of the people: “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go” (Joshua 1:16).

Pray that this will be our response as well.

Unveiling the name

The day has finally come to announce the name of our new church. We’ve been calling it “the new church” or “the church plant” for months now, and over that time we’ve been working on a discerning a name that reflects who we are and what we’re about.

And that name is Headwaters Covenant Church.

Throughout the scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, rivers symbolize life and wholeness. We see the rivers that flow out of Eden, watering the garden of Paradise. The river in the book of Ezekiel that flows from the temple and transforms the Dead Sea into a place of life. The river of the water of life that flows from the throne in the last chapter of the Bible, a river that waters the tree of life in the new creation.

When Jesus talked with the woman at the well under the hot, noonday sun, he offered her “living water”--that is, new life. When Jesus offered this new life to the people at the temple, he said, “If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37-38)

This is compelling imagery. It speaks to the source of real life being in God. It speaks to the transforming power of God. It speaks to this transforming work in us spreading to others.

And that’s what we want to be about. Life and wholeness. New life that brings life to others.

ExplorationWorks

We took our kids to ExplorationWorks today. We took in some of the exhibits, made an origami frog (turned out well) and an origami bat (turned out not so well). This is where we'll be having our first meetings for the new church.



Here are a couple views of the room we'll be using. We'll move the exhibits, bring in chairs, set up the sound system, and be ready to go.



Here's where we'll be able to have some of the kids.



Pretty cool space, huh!

Who, what, and where

Who is this new church for? The other day I was talking with some Christian guys I know in Helena and they asked me how things were going with the new church. I brought up that some of us have had some very encouraging discussions lately with people who aren’t Christians. We’re sensing some openness and receptivity to the gospel. We’re praying for people, hoping to reach those who have not made commitments to Christ.

One of the guys looked at me and said that didn’t seem like what most churches were about, that most churches wanted to appeal to those who were already Christians.

Wow. Well, it’s what we want to be about. We’re open to the seekers and the skeptics. We want to welcome the burned out, worn out, and left out. Isn’t this what Jesus did? He was always hanging out with the wrong people. People who were overtly living bad lives—like prostitutes. People who were shunned and ignored—like lepers. People who had sold out their fellow Jews and were getting rich working for the occupying Roman Empire—the tax collectors. This drove the religious establishment crazy.

Why couldn’t Jesus just stay in the synagogue and teach the nice people? Why was he always with the sick and possessed? Why were is closest followers low class fishermen?

God is calling us to be like Jesus, and this means appealing to the “wrong” people.

What is this new church about? Again, Jesus is our model. We want to do the things that Jesus did. One of the best ways to see what Jesus was about is to read the first chapter or two of the gospel of Mark. It’s all there: Jesus calls people to a life of discipleship; he heals the sick; he drives out demons; he forgives sinners; he devotes himself to prayer.

So often Christianity reduces the gospel to a matter of believing the right things so that you can go to heaven when you die. But look at Jesus’ life: sure, he taught about heaven. He discussed eternal matters. But look at how much time he spent involved in the lives of ordinary people, meeting their needs, setting them free from whatever was burdening them, whether sickness, possession, oppression, or sin.

A friend of mine recently said that Christians will be judged on two things: how they used their God-given talents and how they treat the poor. I think he’s right (check out the Parable of the Talents and the story of the Sheep and the Goats).

Where will this new church be? I’m happy to be able to say that we’ve got a location for our first worship services. We’ll be meeting at Exploration Works, the beautiful new children’s museum here in Helena (pictured at the top of this post). It’s located right next to the carousel in the Great Northern Town Center. Not only does it have a great space for us, complete with a perfect place for young children, I’m sure my kids will be happy that it’s next to the carousel.

We’ll be trying out the space for the first time on Sunday, October 19 at 10 a.m. This won’t be a full-on worship service, but we will have music, prayer, and I’ll be presenting our vision in greater detail. We’d love to have you join us.

It's Wednesday—prayer and fasting

It's a day to pray. Do you find that easier to say than do? I can set aside time for prayer--or for study,or planning, or just about anything--and find myself suddenly stalked by distractions. The kitchen that needs tidying. The file sorting that isn't pressing, but all of a sudden seems appealing. Email. Anything but what I've set for myself to do.

And then there's fasting. Ah, what a noble spiritual discipline, always attractive in theory, always something to make excuses not to do. Some from our group are fasting today. And so what comes in with the newspaper this morning? The Hardee's flier with Thickburger coupons. And I'm thinking, "Yeah, lunch!" I love a Thickburger. But then I remember... fasting. Right. And soon I'm strategizing. Rationalizing. Thinking, "I can fast breakfast, eat a Hardee's lunch, and fast dinner. Or I could fast breakfast and lunch and then get down to Hardee's." How pathetic.

It's so easy to be driven by our appetites. But there is another way. Paul says in Galatians 5:22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

Self-control. Sorry Hardee's. Sorry, stomach, taste buds, and whatever part of me that was especially designed for curly fries. You'll have to wait for another day.

Prayer walking

Yesterday I went for a prayer walk through downtown Helena. Up through the older, redeveloping Rodney Street neighborhood. Past the courthouse and so many law offices I had never noticed. Over to the Neighborhood Center and the Rocky Mountain Development Council. Down into Anchor Park and past the library. Into the walking mall and then on to Last Chance Gulch. Past restaurants, boutique shops, and banks.

I was tempted to head right into the Fire Tower coffee shop at that point. I could hear the call of the cappuccino. But I looked up, and God's Love, our homeless shelter was right before me. I kept walking, praying for the shelter and those people there, and headed down Helena Avenue. I cut over to the Great Northern Town Center and walked around those big, beautiful, new buildings.

On my walk I noticed homes and businesses, low rent apartments and upscale merchants. Walking in a prayerful attitude I certainly saw things in a new light. We've done a lot of talking about being a church for Helena; it was good to actually walk some of our streets and pray for our city.

Prayer is crucial. We keep saying that as we work on planting this church. But so often prayer is little more than a cliche. I remember long ago I saw a spoof in the satirical Christian magazine, The Door. It had a handy guide to help non-Christians understand Christian lingo; it translated Christian phrases into everyday language. And so what, according to The Door, does it mean when a Christian says, "I'll pray for you"? Nothing.

Ouch. But it only hurts because there's a kernel of truth it.

We cannot let prayer become a meaningless cliche or a merely good intention.

And so we're going to take our praying seriously. On Wednesday this week we'll meet to pray. And some of us will also be fasting that day as well.

If you are so moved, pray for us on Wednesday. Pray that God would refine our vision for this church. That God would give us great compassion for those he wants us to reach and those he wants us to serve. That we would become the people God designed us to be.

Stick a fork in me

We made it through. 11 teaching sessions. Breakout sessions. Q & A. Various discussions with our regional director of church planting. A meeting with the national director. Talking with other planters. Lots of note taking. Endless PowerPoint. Eating. Coffee. And occasionally stepping outside to see the sun.

Tomorrow we can actually sleep in, pack up and get on a plane. And we'll head back to Helena and have dinner with the rest of our core launch team.

So, for now, good night.

Day two data dump

Okay, we're all feeling a bit punchy after another drink from the fire hose today. Even the leaders of our training call this a big data dump. It's a lot of information. But it's been good.

Today we spent time focusing on developing those strong roots that will support our church plant. A huge realization for us was that we don't need to be ashamed of taking the time needed to develop a solid team of people to make sure that we launch well. It's very tempting to want to jump right into putting on a worship service. We heard story after story of church planters who took four, five, six months or more to get their core launch group developed and ready to go public.

We looked at the importance of truly understanding our community and its needs. We looked at having people with a variety of spiritual gifts. We looked at the kinds of people attracted to new churches. We looked at problems that can arise early on. We looked at criteria and benchmarks will help us determine when to take next steps. And on and on.

We also took time to get away from the big group and talk and pray together just as our team. This was huge. With so much information, we were starting to feel like we were swimming into deep waters, waters that were threatening to overwhelm us. It was a lot to take in. So it was good to step away, take a breath, pray, and encourage one another.

So now--time to get some rest and hit it again tomorrow.

Through Day One

What happens at church planting training? I'm glad you asked. I'm in Denver with three members of our new church's core group. There are about 15 other groups like ours from other Covenant church plants around the nation.

Our opening session was on the nature of the gospel. An hour-and-a-half on the gospel. Wait a minute? Isn't this a room full of pastors and committed Christians who should know what the gospel is all about?

True. Nevertheless, it was a great session to once again get ourselves focused on what the gospel is all about. The profound message of the saving grace of Jesus can get drowned in the million details of administrating church life. Jesus’ victory over Satan and the powers of darkness can be neglected in our scientific and rationalistic age. His work to change our hearts can be overshadowed by our culture’s proclivity toward self-help and pop-psychology. His call to minister to the oppressed and marginalized can be neglected as merely a social gospel and not really important in the face of eternal issues. And his establishment of his church can be belittled in our individualistic approach to spirituality.

The gospel is about more than just going to heaven when you die. The gospel is the forgiveness of sins. It’s the defeat of powerful spiritual enemies that seek our harm. It’s the change of hearts. It’s bringing blessing to the hurting and wounded, the outcast and oppressed. It’s the creation of new and true community.

So that’s how we got started. Our second session focused on prayer. This, too, was a great reminder, a wake up call. We can do all our research, get organized, and have the best plan, but it means little without prayer. Our team discussed ways we might commit to prayer and fasting as we proceed with our planting efforts. It was great to get motivated to make this a priority.

Session three put us face to face with the state of the church in America. Put bluntly, it’s not a pretty picture. The mainline denominations are hemorrhaging members and churches. Catholic churches are in decline. Evangelical churches are barely hanging on. Meanwhile, population is increasing, so the actual percentage of churches to population is in a kind of free-fall.

This dire picture quickly led to the case for church planting. This was kind of preaching to choir—virtually everyone at this training is either proceeding with or preparing for church planting. Still, it was great for all of the teams to see the case for what we’re doing.

We moved from the big, depressing, national picture to a look at our local contexts. We focused on how to look at where God has put us: what kind of people can we reach? What are the needs in the community? These and dozens of other questions can help us hone in on what our community is like and what kind of church God is calling us to be.

Our fourth and final session of the day was on outreach. If we relearned what the gospel was in the morning, we relearned what evangelism was all about in the afternoon. So often we think of evangelism as persuading someone to make a decision. Like it’s getting a hard drinking, wife-beating, tax-evading, atheist to fall on his knees and pray the sinner’s prayer. We so easily focus on that moment of decision to the exclusion of everything else. In this session we focused on helping people take one step closer to Christ—from wherever they are. Good, challenging stuff.

After these four sessions we met for prayer with other teams from our regions. And then we wrapped up with a big, gnarly Mexican dinner at Casa Bonita, which has to be seen to be believed. Cafeteria style Mexican food, complete with mariachi bands, high divers, and cheesy dramatics. Ole!

Getting rolling in Denver

So we're in Denver now and ready to begin our church planting conference. It's already been good to meet with others who are in similar places. Chris is a church planter in Bellingham, WA who's in a very similar situation to us. Kyle's a planter in Issaquah, WA and his church had their first service last week. We met a team of people from the Portland area who will be having their first service in late October. So it feels like we're in the right place.

Leaving on a jet plane

Today, four of us in the core group are heading to Denver for a Church Planting Training put on by our denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church. (No that is not Denver, but I did visit that beach this year. Pretty fun.) It will be a great time to learn, meet with other church planters, and refine our vision. We're all pretty excited.

I've had a few conversations with people lately about our plans to get our worship services happening. Our plan right now is to have one service in each of the coming three months. When I say this, sometimes I get the raised eyebrow response. And I understand that. People think pastors only work on Sundays. Apparently I'm only planning to work once a month!

This is where the planting imagery is helpful. Think of the public expression of the church--worship services, groups, outreach, ministries, service to the community, etc.--as the fruit. It's the good stuff. It's pleasing. It's tasty. Yum!

But in order to have fruit, there must be branches to support the fruit. There must be a trunk (or a vine) to support those branches. There must be roots to support the trunk. And there must be good soil to support the whole plant.

What happens if you focus on the fruit before the soil is tilled, the seed planted, and the trunk and branches have been established? You get a dead plant. If we put all our efforts into weekly worship right away, we'll never develop strong roots or branches. So in order to have a strong healthy plant, we're working behind the scenes to put together good systems and structures so that we will bear good fruit down the road.

What does this mean practically? This morning I met with Tony, who will be leading our worship. We spent a ninety minutes looking at our plans for communion, the use of scripture in worship, the value of liturgy and spontaneity, addressing the needs of children, etc.

Then I came back to my office and worked on my planning spreadsheet. We need to craft a communication plan for our worship (what kind of brochures or bulletins to use), figure out how to take offerings (and not lose track of the money), determine what children's materials to use, get communion ware, find a screen, get some music stands, make a plan for refreshments, confirm our location space and worship time, figure out how to follow up with people... There's a lot to do. Oh, and I'll also need to write a sermon.

Now, don't misunderstand me. We're all busy. We all have long lists of things to do. My point here is that we're starting from scratch. When established churches put on worship services every week, they're not having to invent all of the infrastructure each time. We're like a theatre troupe that has just gotten together. We're still just looking at scripts. Heck, we're still learning each other's last names. Our worship services coming up this year are like rehearsals. Of course we want to have everything together right away, but undoubtedly we'll be learning what will and won't work as we go.

So we're off to Denver. To learn from those who have gone before us. To see things that work. And to find out what doesn't. It's like a big bag of fertilizer for our plant.

Closing in on a space

We're this close to getting a location for our first worship services nailed down. We had an encouraging meeting with a potential landlord; hopefully the final details will come together.

Establishing a new church doesn't happen over night. We don't just start having full-on worship services all the time right away. We don't roll out Sunday school and small groups and midweek ministries and everything else on the first day.

Right now we're taking the time to figure out what all of those things could look like at the new church. And we won't even have it all determined at our first worship service. Things come together a piece at a time.

But it's exciting to see this piece--our initial worship location--coming into focus. I'll keep you posted. Until then--pray!

And now...prayer

Our core group has been busy exchanging emails (or at least getting lots of them from me!) as we make plans, discuss location possibilities, refine our vision, and so on. It's easy to become fully immersed in planning, planning, and more planning.

So tonight we'll put aside agendas, resist the pressure to make big decisions, and spend time together praying. How counter-culture is that? We're wired to be goal-oriented and purpose-driven. We like action items and measurable results. It's hard to wait on the Lord. It's hard to be faithful to the call to "be still and know that I am God."

Even as I look forward to our time in prayer tonight, I find myself not-so-secretly hoping that some of the issues we've been wrestling with will suddenly become clear. God will speak to us. We'll make progress.

But that's my goal-oriented side coming through. And if God in his wisdom does give us direction in some of our concerns, that's great. But it's enough to simply be together in his presence. Demanding more leads us into idolatry.

Tonight, Brahms

What's on tap tonight? A little Brahms Requiem. Musikanten Montana will be performing this, my favorite piece, on November 1 & 2. So I'm off to a rehearsal for it tonight. We'll see if I still have my choral singing chops after something like 13 years since I sang this kind of music.


Check out the wikipedia page for more on this fantastic piece, including a recordings of all seven movements, texts, and translations right on the page. Very cool.

Theology on Tap

Last night I attended the first Theology on Tap in Helena, organized by Jon Bennion and Regan Clancy. We met at Bert and Ernie's for some food and drink and a discussion of the Trinity. After initial welcomes and introductions, Dr. Mark Smillie from Carroll College here in Helena presented on the topic for about 20 minutes and then we had an open discussion--about everything from God's nature, to the Council of Nicea, to prayer, and more.


Theology on Tap is typically a Catholic ministry to young adults. But Jon and Regan have intentionally established this as an interdenominational group. The twenty-plus people who attended introduced themselves and the church affiliation. It was great to see Catholics and people from a variety of Protestant traditions together discussing the Trinity in a relaxing and fun atmosphere. I don't think it worked that way during the Reformation...

Cool organization or compelling leadership?

I was discussing some of our big ideas for this new church with a friend yesterday. How we're trying to find the right rhythm of worshiping, growing in our faith, and serving our community. How we want to establish structures and patterns and rhythms that are healthy, honor God, and have transforming power in our lives and in the lives of others. It's an exhilarating ride. It's a time of exploration and creativity. It's fun.

As our conversation continued, we turned to a frustrating reality: no matter how carefully we craft our structures; no matter how perfectly we engineer our policies and plans; no matter how well we organize our methods and systems; some people will not buy it. Some people won't care for our approach. Some people will want to buck the system, do it their way. Some people will rebel, flake out, give up, or drift away.

What's this all mean? That the system is not our savior. Systems are great. Plans are essential. Organization is necessary. But the bottom line is Jesus, not our cool plans. People need an encounter with the Lord.

The Bible talks about organization a bit. It gives broad insight into the how question. But it's much more interested in the who question. It's about knowing Jesus. It's about loving God and neighbor. And it's about following someone. Jesus said, "Follow me." And amazingly, Paul said, "Imitate me." He didn't implore people to live according to a system; he implored them to learn to be like someone who was already a disciple.

And so as our conversation was wrapping up, we faced that reality. Systems are great, but we need someone to follow. Organization and structures are great, but the church needs leaders. Some people will love our ideas and our plans and jump in. But many will need to connect with someone who they can follow.

It's a humbling, even daunting prospect. But can it really be any other way?

Sound and spaces

In two days I've had two pastors offer me the use of their sound systems. Very cool. I have been so impressed with the support I'm getting from other pastors in town that I've told about our church plant. It's great when we don't give in to fears of competition but rather encourage and support one another.

I'm also learning more than I ever thought I'd need to know about zoning, occupancy limits, fire codes, investors, brokers, developers... yeah! It's actually fun.

location, location, location

On tap today: checking out a potential location for worship for the new church. We've had open houses for the new church at my home (we were packed out with 50 people here--and a bunch of those were kids out in the yard and in the bounce house) and at Grandstreet Theatre in our historic downtown.

Thankfully we've got a person in our core group who is well connected with real estate people, property managers, business owners, and the chamber of commerce. That's a huge help.

Thinking about this whole issue puts the tension in the forefront: the church is the people, not a building; but the church needs an actual physical place for a significant part of it's life. At our first open house, it became clear that my house won't serve for 50 people.

That said, our core has been meeting at our house and will continue to do so as we get things organized and running. This Sunday we'll meet for some time in the word, some prayer, as well as a meal and planning time.

Costly grace in Genesis

In my last post we saw glimpses of the gospel in the opening verses of Genesis. It gets even clearer in the account of Adam and Eve. We all know the story. The serpent, the tree with its fruit that was pleasing to the eye, a denial of God's warning, and soon a life in paradise is shattered by sin.

Before they ate the fruit, Adam and Eve were "naked, and were not ashamed" (Gen 2:25). But when their eyes were opened to good and evil, suddenly they felt shame. Suddenly they were worried, they felt exposed, they wanted to hide. Bring on the fig leaves!

The story goes on with God searching for them in the garden and Adam and Eve hiding because of their nakedness. Pretty soon Adam's blaming Eve, Eve's blaming the serpent, and God curses all three of them for their sins.

The scene ends with Adam and Eve banished from the garden, expelled from paradise. But before that, in an almost throwaway line, God shows his grace to the miserable couple. After cursing them, God takes animal skins, makes garments out of them, and clothes Adam and Eve (Gen 3:21).

A sacrifice was made. Blood was spilled. Innocent animals gave their lives so that the shame of two sinful people could be covered. Right away we see that sin is costly. It cost Adam and Eve their life of perfection in the garden. Now they were driven out, cursed with pain in the labor of childbearing and pain in the labor of working the ground. And right away we see that grace is costly. Covering the shame of these two cost the life of innocent animals. One day, covering the sin of the world would cost the life of God's innocent Son.

God is a God of love, a God who takes great pleasure in his creation, who declared the people he created to be very good. Indeed, he created humanity in his own image. And God is a God of compassion, having mercy on those in distress. His mercy and compassion are the fruit of his grace--his costly grace.

My sin cost Jesus his life on the cross. My sin. For my sin his blood was spilled and his nakedness exposed. What irony--God covered the nakedness and shame of Adam and Eve, but allowed Jesus to be stripped bare and shamed as the life ebbed away from his broken body.

The point here is not to feel more miserable about the cost of our sin. It's not about feeling guilty with our heads hung low, mumbling our regrets. All too often we have those feelings, only to have them fade with the passing of time and in the face of something interesting on TV.

Embracing the costly grace that God has for us isn't about getting over our feelings of guilt. It's not about "moving on."

Our natural approach to dealing with our sin is to sweep it under the rug. If it can't be denied, we rationalize and justify. If we can't explain away our failures, we compare ourselves to those who are obviously worse. But this is all just so much smoke and mirrors. We can hide our faults, explain them away, or point to the other guy, but still our sin remains. And all the time grace, that costly grace, is right before us. It's available. It's free. And only it can effectively deal with our sin and our shame.

Adam and Eve tried hiding. They tried explaining. They shifted the blame. All to no avail. They were found out, just as we are found out. God knows all about our sin. The only ones fooled by tactics of trying to hide, explain, and shift attention elsewhere... are ourselves.

What are we to do? Own up to our sin. Own it. Say, this is mine. I did it. I have broken the commands, I have thought those terrible things, I have wanted what is not good, I have failed to love, I have been completely consumed by my own selfish and sinful desires.

Jesus takes away our sin. But all too often we pretend like there's no sin for him to take. Who me? I didn't do it; that's not mine! You must be thinking of someone else... Own your sin. Don't hide or pretend or shift the blame. And then see how God's costly grace takes it away.

Wow, that is a good deal.

The gospel in Genesis

I've been thinking about the gospel in Genesis; it's all over the place, not just in the Gospels with a capital "G," not just in Romans or Galatians or the rest of the New Testament. Even the first pages of the Bible point to the gospel.

The opening verses describe the world as "formless and empty" and covered in darkness. And the Spirit of God is there, "hovering" over the waters and the darkness. God transforms the chaos into order, into something good.

Throughout the Bible the image of the sea is an image of menace and death. There's a reason that in Revelation 21, where the new heaven and new earth are described, there is no longer any sea--sin, evil, and death have been completely defeated.

Do you see how the Bible opens with a threatening picture? It's all darkness, the menacing deep, and chaos. And God is there. The Spirit of God is moving over the chaotic scene, hovering, brooding. And then: "Let there be light."

And so the gospel begins: our God is a God of transformation. Transforming darkness into light.

Transforming darkness. The gospel isn't for good people; it's for people in darkness. Skipping ahead to Isaiah for a moment: "the people walking in darkness have seen a great light..." The gospel isn't for nice people, refined people, people who have their act together and just need a little spirituality on their resume. It's for people in darkness.

Picture the Spirit of God hovering over the city: over the misdirected lives, the broken lives, the not-at-all-nice lives. Over the rebels, the abusers, the addicted, the cruel. And God says, "Let there be light." How does this light come to the people in darkness? Through God's people. It wasn't for nothing that Jesus said, "You are the light of the world."

I'm praying for light in Helena, praying for God's light to come through our new church. People need the gospel. I invite you to pray with me... and to walk in the light.

Going full time

I'm into my first week of full time church planting now. Almost all of the books are out of my old office...and piled all over the floor in my new office at home. I've got one bookcase on order and am working on plans to redo one of my closets to hold a bunch more of the my seemingly endless supply of scholarly tomes.

It's been a great week so far. Meeting with people in our core group. Meeting with people who are still checking us out. Sitting around our backyard fireplace with people and discussing all kinds of aspects of what our new church will be like (that's the way to have a church meeting--with 'smores!).

Things are beginning to coalesce, beginning to take shape. On our immediate agenda is finalizing our name and doing some legwork to get a facility secured for our first real worship service in October. Hopefully I'll have news on both of those fronts soon.

A door closing and another opening

Today is my last day in the office at Evangelical Covenant Church in Helena, where I've been the Associate Pastor for the past five-and-a-half years. Saturday and Sunday will be my last worship services there.

I've spent this week tying up some loose ends, getting musicians scheduled for ECC's services in September, moving boxes of books back to my home office (still lots of books left though!), getting ready for a wedding this weekend, and following up with people from our last open house.

Transitions are always bittersweet. The future is exciting, but I also realize some of the great things that have been easy to take for granted. There are many people that I am certainly going to miss seeing on a weekly basis.

God has often stretched me in times of leaving the safe and known behind to venture into an unknown future. It's exhilarating--and unnerving! Our core team has been having great conversations about what our new church could be like. It's great to dream, to explore the possibilities of what might be.

September will be a time for hammering out what ideas and ideals will look like in actual fact. It will be a season to pray and discern. And for all of our hopes and plans, we're opening a door but don't really know what's on the other side. But what else should we expect? God rarely details what the future will be...

Commitment weekend

We're having our next open house this Sunday night at Grandstreet Theatre. We'll be getting into detail about what the new church will be like and we'll be asking for people to consider committing to joining us on this adventure.

But before that, I'll be focused on a different kind of commitment. I'm headed down to the Big Sky Resort to perform a wedding for a couple making a lifetime commitment to each other.

Life is full of changes and milestones, journeys and adventures. Keep praying for our new church as we embark on the adventure that God has before us.

My amazing (unpaid) photography career

Peacock for dinner
Originally uploaded by vernazzablue

The photography career I never knew I had is about to take off. I got an email from schmap.com, a travel guide site, telling me that they're considering using one of the photos I've posted on flickr for their next guide to Salt Lake City. I haven't used flickr much lately and didn't particularly remember putting any pictures of SLC there. But sure enough, I had posted this photo of a peacock at La Caille, a great restaurant just outside of town.

Schmap doesn't pay anyone for the pictures they use, but they do let you opt out if you don't want them to use your photos. Of course, I can't imaging anyone actually paying me to use my photos, so I'd be happy to see them use it. I'll let you know if they do. Meanwhile, I think I'll check out some of their travel guides. Think they'll have one for Helena? Then I could really hook them up with photos.

More rhythm

Do you like juggling lots of activities, responsibilities, and commitments? Some days it seems like there are no end of meetings, calls to make, and multiple activities for the kids... somehow dinner needs to get made and the house should be cleaned... and wouldn't it be nice to have some peace and quiet to pray, maybe even get eight hours of sleep, maybe enjoy a movie...
Just being an American keeps us plenty busy. And then try following Jesus. Attend worship services. Go to small group. Volunteer. Serve. Go on that retreat, attend that seminar, lead that committee.

Pretty soon life is hectic. The rhythm is more complex than something from an avant-garde Elliott Carter string quartet (which is some pretty crazy, chaotic stuff). Pretty soon you want things to just slow down, you just want a break.

As we embark on this journey of starting a new church, we want to develop a rhythm that is life-giving, not crazy and demanding. So we've been talking about creative ways to incorporate all that God calls us to--worship, growing in faith, serving others, reaching out to the community, prayer, celebration, rest, and so on--into a healthy rhythm. We can't do everything every day. We can't even do it all every week! Our ideas are still a work in progress, but soon I'll be going into more detail about what we think this rhythm will actually look like.

But now it's Friday afternoon and we're ready for the getting-a-relaxing-dinner part of the rhythm...

Rhythm

I’ve been thinking a lot about rhythm lately. Not musical rhythm, but life rhythm and especially church rhythm. I grew up in a church that celebrated communion on the first Sunday of the month. In college my church had communion every week. Different rhythms.

My first experience with small group Bible studies was a weekly commitment. When I came to Helena I met people whose groups met every other week. Different rhythms.

Some churches follow what is called the church year, beginning with Advent, then Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension Sunday, Pentecost, and so on. Other churches only observe Christmas and Easter. Different rhythms.

In Seattle I met with church planters who are trying out different rhythms. Some are celebrating communion every week. Some aren’t even meeting for worship every week. One church in particular meets for worship monthly and then as smaller houses churches on two of the other weeks and then does community outreach and service on the final week. It’s a different rhythm.

The Bible gives us a lot of leeway here. The book of Acts describes the believers meeting daily together (Acts 2:42-47). The book of Hebrews simply encourages us to not neglect meeting together (Hebrews 10:25). Paul’s instructions about communion in 1 Corinthians 11 give me the impression that communion was something they celebrated quite frequently. Nevertheless, the Bible does not dictate specifically how or how often we are to gather for worship, when to celebrate communion, how to incorporate teaching and outreach and so on.

One of the dangers is thinking that there is only one correct rhythm to all of this. As we establish this church we’ll be thinking about this, talking about this, praying about this. We want to find a rhythm that incorporates worship and outreach, teaching and service, prayer and fun, times of engagement and times of rest.

The future is wide open right now. Pray that we’ll find a rhythm that honors God and gives us life.

Back in the saddle

I got home this week to a mountain of mail--bills, catalogs, magazines I never read, donation requests, and even a couple actual letters. So I just logged on to catalogchoice.org to opt out from the pesky catalogs I don't need (Halloween costumes anyone?). Maybe we'll save a tree or two.

I spent the past week meeting with people involved in church plants out in western Washington, from Poulsbo to Bellingham. It was a great time to see the different things people are doing. It was great to see how God is inspiring people. And it was great to hear people saying the same kind of things that we've been talking about here. God is truly at work in his church.

I'll be posting more now that I'm back in action. It was a bit strange to get away from the computer for three weeks--now it's a challenge to get back into it!

What do you hope for?

Sometimes—all too often, actually—I’m not sure what to read next for my personal Bible reading. So the other day I resorted to the tried-and-true “flip open the Bible randomly” method. I came to Colossians. Hadn’t read that lately. And I’ve been reading the gospels more than the rest of the New Testament recently, so it sounded good.

I quickly came to these verses: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ and of the love you have for all his people—the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven…” (Colossians 1:3-5).

I was immediately struck by the phrase, “the faith and love that spring from the hope…” Hope actually precedes faith.

Wow. I’m not sure I’ve really thought of it that way.

Elsewhere Paul says that the most important things are faith, hope, and love, and that the greatest is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Love is what matters. Jesus says we need to love God and love our neighbors—the Great Commandment.

And Jesus also says that the important thing is to believe in him, to have faith (see John 6:29 or even John 3:16). In the church, this is what we tend to focus on: having our beliefs all in order.
And so it’s easy for me to overlook hope. After all, isn’t the main thing to help people believe the right things? And if we want to please God and all get along, isn’t encouraging people to love each other really important?

So what’s the big deal about hope?

Here in Colossians, Paul is saying that hope makes faith and love possible. Without hope, people won’t particularly be moved to believe in Jesus. Without hope, loving God and loving others isn’t a compelling concern. Without hope, I might as well live for myself and not be bothered about faith and love.

I recently had a conversation with a guy who understood the basic Christian doctrines but wasn’t compelled by them. He’s a decent guy, but simply didn’t feel like Christianity had much too offer him. He didn’t need it.

As I reflect on that conversation now, I see that at least part of the deal for him was that Christian faith was presented as just so many ideas to be accepted. Hope wasn’t part of the equation. There was nothing to look forward to. Believing in Jesus is then reduced to a matter of the intellect, or a matter of duty, or worse, a matter of guilt.

We need a robust Christian hope. Not just a “I get to go to heaven when I die” hope. Yes that’s part of it. A big part of it. But Christian hope is so much more. It’s a hope that defines our future as well as our present. It leads to faith and it leads to love.

What is our hope? Try this: check out chapters 2–3 of the book of Revelation. You’ll find seven short letters to Christians, and each ends with a promise that gives a glimpse of the hope we have in Christ. See if that gives you an idea of what Christian hope really is all about.

Sun, fun, and jellyfish

We're on a beach vacation. Sunburns? Check. Running out of water while browsing markets full of overpriced kitschy stuff? Check. Daughter stung by jellyfish after being in water for less than five minutes? Check.
I ran to get the lotion, and by the time I got back, Evelyn was already recovering pretty well. The jellyfish aren't like the deadly kind in Australia; the stinging wears off relatively quickly. And by the end of the day when we talked about the high and low points of the day, Evelyn said everything was a high and there were no low points.
Goes to show that attitude is everything. I got sunburned on our first day on the beach and have been been griping about it under my breath for the past four. Whenever we go on vacation, it takes me a few days to realize that things will cost more than I think they should, it takes longer to get around than I think it should, and things won't always go according to plan.
And Merideth always rolls with it. Unfazed. No problem. Me? I get agitated, overly concerned, and forget that I'm supposed to be enjoying myself.
I'm pretty much into the swing of things now. Merideth got some braids and beads in her hair from one of the local ladies on Front Street here. And then they said, "How about you?" and proceeded with me (without really waiting for me to answer). Okay. Cool. Five little braids and beads. Carolyn, age 5, now has four (we'll see how long they last). Evelyn? She wanted no part of it.
For her, jellyfish turned out to be no big deal, but don't try to put braids in her hair.

Some great art

Back on line for a few minutes today.

Last Thursday we went to the Art Institute of Chicago, a world class art museum. The much parodied American Gothic is there (you know, the old guy with the pitchfork standing next to his daughter in front of the farm house). So is Nighthawks by Edward Hopper (also often parodied). And A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. My girls recognized it because I have a coffee mug with it on it. There are a bunch by Georgia O'Keefe, Monet, Manet, Cassat, Sargent, Whistler, and on and on. I could spend an entire day there.

But I was glad we managed three hours with the kids.

Standing at a painting to take it in isn't exactly an everyday experience for most people now. We're accustomed to TV, to movies, to endlessly moving images. It's a rare thing to focus on a canvas and try to draw out the stories it conveys, try to uncover the intentions of the figures, their motivations, their feelings.

Even in a grand museum like the Art Institute it's hard to do. There is so much to see, it's hard to give attention to any one piece for more than a few moments. More often, people breeze in to see the big work (like the Seurat), take a cursory look at the smaller canvases that most any other museum would be proud to display with fanfare, and then it's off to the next important work.

Maybe someday I'll go back and spend the day taking in just a few of them. Try slowing down today to take in something that you normally pass by without noticing. What might you learn?

Cutting the cord--if only for a few weeks...

I'm heading out of town today for some vacation followed by meetings in Seattle with other church planters. So my blogging may be sketchy.

I've decided to take the radical step of not taking my computer with me. Just a jump drive with a few documents I may need in Seattle. I keep telling myself it will be okay. Merideth will have her laptop... I will be able to check hotmail and blog a bit... It'll be fine. Really.

I realize how wired I am now to get up, email, check my schedule, blog, see what my favorite bloggers are up to, etc. It's true that the tools we use shape us.

During part of our travels we'll be out of cell coverage. No calls. No texting. We'll have to track down an internet cafe for email. Practically Gilligan's Island—

"No phone, no lights, no motor cars,
Not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe,
As primitive as can be...."

Actually, we'll have a rental car, and there will be electricity and modern conveniences and plenty of very good food. But take away my computer and cell phone and suddenly it's like being trapped in the 70s...

Do you ever get a week without your computer, without your phone? What can't you live without?

On the move

I mentioned in my last post that our core group met for the first time the other night. And we're already making plans for our next open house event, coming up on Sunday, August 24. It will be a different location (after it became clear from our first one that my house wasn't designed to have fifty people meet together!). One of our team has found a great location for us and I'll be working on the details of that today. Hopefully we'll get that firmed up soon and be able to let you know where the event will be.

The next open house will also be different from our last one: less of me just talking, more involvement from our core team. You'll get a taste of what we're about and a glimpse of what life in our church could be like.

Stay tuned!

forging ahead: mission and buildings

Tonight the core group of the new church got together to begin charting our next steps. It's already great to see how God is putting this group together. I am continually reminded that this is his work, we are his people, he is leading us, and he will see this thing through.

It was particularly cool to hear the people sharing their hearts, talking about what they are looking forward to being a part of. And it was so great that I wasn't pulling this stuff out of them; people were spontaneously bringing up values and ideals that they would like this new church to have. It was great.

A recurring theme was our desire to be more about our mission in Helena than about bricks and mortar (that is, getting a building). We discussed how it happens that a church turns from being outward-focused to focused on having a building.

My answer to that? I think it's a product of the church's vision that gets established on day one. We can aim toward getting the building and settling down, or we can keep our focus on the mission and let the building be a secondary issue. If the building doesn't drive the ministry, it becomes less critical whether we own or rent. If our goal is to grow and multiply our influence—to not only grow, but reproduce—then the building question takes a back seat to our mission. Where it belongs.

More ways this blog is changing the world! Or at least helping you see the books I've been reading...

There are some pretty cool things you can do with blogger. I've added a widget that shows five random books from my library. (It's on the right side toward the bottom.) I use librarything.com to catalog and tag my books. It's pretty cool.

I've also made it easier to keep up with this amazing blog by adding subscription features. The easiest way is to use the subscribe via email box (below the archive list). It's safe, secure, and easy. You can also subscribe using an RSS reader, but that requires a few more steps. So just sign up for email thing. It'll be great.

Finally, I also recently added the World Vision latest news feed and put their logo above it. Click on it to go to their homepage. Merideth and I have been sponsoring children through World Vision for years now and have also participated in some of their other programs. They do very good work.

They have a cool program for mother's day (and probably other holidays as well). You can buy practical things for people in developing nations--a duck, a goat, a bag of rice, stuff like that. And then they'll send a card to the person whom you're honoring (your mom, or whomever). If you go to their site, click on ways to give/gift catalog (or click here) and you can give an Ecuadorian family an alpaca today! It probably costs less than your car payment and will change a life!

What's right with Helena

Helena is a great town. Good people, great spaces, lots going on.

Alive @ Five, our midweek, free music in the park festival is well under way. Live music is going on somewhere almost every night. I’m hoping to catch at least some of David and Deidre Casey’s show at Riley’s Irish Pub tomorrow.

This Saturday more great stuff is happening than I’ll have time for: a friend has invited us to an art show at his home; the Summer Outdoor Film Festival starts at Performance Park in the walking mall. First up: Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn. Great film. It starts at 9pm and it’s free. (Call 406.442.4647 for info about upcoming shows.) And also on Saturday, Tango Helena is hosting a Tango and Argentinean potluck. Details here. Too many great things on one night!

A couple of weeks ago we caught a great Johnny Cash Tribute band at the Mt. Helena Music festival. I also took in four of the five free lunchtime choral music concerts that Musikanten Montana put on for Helena Choral Week. And then we took the family to a fun Sunday afternoon Brewers game.

Just a few of the things I love about Helena. It’s a good place.

Church of Starbucks

Last night I went down to Starbucks to meet with Lauren, one of the people who is on board with our new church. (Usually I'm a Fire Tower Coffee kind of guy, but I make exceptions.) We were getting together to talk about ideas and possibilities for the new church.

When I walked in I saw Russ Danaher, who is also planting a church in Helena. He was leading a groups of people in a Bible study.

(Russ and I and Steve Bostrom, a Presbyterian (PCA) church planter, have been getting together for lunch a few times a month lately. It’s good to meet with other church planters for encouragement, to learn from each other, and to keep focused on the fact that even as we’re leading different efforts, we’re also working alongside each other.)

I ordered my drink from Samara, who is part of Steve's new Presbyterian church.

While I was waiting, Dan Green, who is a youth pastor with the Salvation Army here, walked in.

It was cool to see four churches—three of them new church plants— represented at the coffee house last night. God is certainly at work in Helena. Good things are happening. I can see lives being impacted. I can see people getting fired up about being a part of God’s mission here. I’m encouraged. Let’s see what happens and see how we can be a part of it.

Praying, planning, and an interesting film

Latest update: Yesterday was a great day for praying about the new church and reading through the gospel of Luke (that's one long gospel!). I also met with one of the people who came to our open house and talked about the new church with some other people I know in town.

I'm making plans to meet this weekend with those from our open house who have said they're "in" and ready to go. We'll be making plans for future open house kind of things as well as spending time on some of practicalities of what the new church will be like.

Completely unrelated thoughts: we went to see Mongol the other night at our local art house theatre, The Myrna Loy Center. It’s an entertaining tale covering the early life of Genghis Khan, and certainly the first film I’ve seen in Mongolian.

While it has been criticized for taking historical liberties (I know, a shocking thing in a movie), I was struck by its portrayal of a completely different culture. In particular, how Temudjin (Genghis Khan’s name prior to becoming Khan) was taken by his father to choose a wife. He was only nine years old. They visited a neighboring clan and his father discussed with him what to look for in a mate. And then they had the girls of the clan line up and young Temudjin looked them over and made his choice. Not exactly an arranged marriage, but a far cry from anything in our culture.

Sometimes it’s good to see something completely foreign and see that the world doesn’t revolve around our culture, our assumptions, our view of things. Mongol gave me a glimpse of the life of people with different commitments and different expectations of the world. The world is bigger than America.

I’m also reminded that God is bigger than all of our issues and problems. Every day we can hear about an endless litany of dire circumstances, from rising gas prices and the latest dead in Iraq, to murder and corruption, to fires in California and pine beetles on Mt. Helena, and on and on.

But as I watched a film about a people who lived a thousand years ago on the other side of the world, fighting their enemies and fighting to stay alive, I see that our problems are not the end of the world. Time marches on. People live and die. Empires rise and fall. And still, God is at work. God is in the midst of it all. He is not overwhelmed by gas prices or wars or any other troubles. I can take comfort in that.