Friday night at Headwaters

Last Friday night we had a great time at Headwaters as we focused on how we can serve the Helena community. We came up with great ideas, made good connections, and had lots of great food. Tabouli, empanadas, bruschetta, guacamole, chicken satay, dal, really spicy soup, cheese and more. It was a good spread.

Check out what we came up with at the Headwaters blog.

We'll do this kind of thing again. It will be great. And we'll have more great food.

Let it melt...

Well, happy new year. The snow is melting like a flood in Helena and I'm really glad it didn't freeze last night. We would've had a skating rink around our house!
The last time we had a worship service we were dealing with freezing pipes and a failing water heater at our house. Hopefully this weekend will be a little less eventful! We're back at ExplorationWorks this Sunday. Refreshments at 9:30, service at 10. I'm headed over there today to see what the new exhibits look like--since we'll have to make sure we can move them for our worship space!

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.