Today the Grove set-up team worked in the rain for the first time. We’ve been blessed to get the kinks out of our system in the sunshiny Oregon weather and it’s paying off now that winter is here. Today was just a fantastic day at The Grove – there was a real sense of passion and conviction in the worship and in response to the teaching. The community is growing – growing together, growing spiritually and growing bigger!
Here’s a rundown of what’s up!
Preached today on the second half of Philippians 1. I do believe there were 4 full teachings in there, but I want to finish up this book by the end of the year. Today we focused on Christ being above all else – over our situation, our enemies, our life, our death and our suffering. Just all the big stuff.
I still spell Philippians wrong half the time. Why didn’t Paul write letters to Troy?
There were like 5 first time people/families who filled in cards this week. Even more who I met but we didn’t get a card from. And a couple more people decided to return a second time.
One of my favorite conversations right now is when people talk to me about how the environment/message/people/location/etc. of The Grove is exactly what they need in order to meet God and hear from Him. The conversations sound different all the time, but every time I see God working.
My second favorite thing about The Grove right now is how diverse it is. We have all sorts of different people gathering – moms, dads, grammas, grandpas, kids, teens, young singles, engaged couples. There are police and sheriff officers, firefighters, artists, poets, homemakers, businessmen, skaters (that’s me), indie rockers, students, industry workers, tradesmen, sales people, Christians and loads of unbelievers who are trying to find what they’ve been looking for, for so long, but (maybe) didn’t even know it. The diversity on a Sunday morning is just so awesome because early on in planning for The Grove we got rid of our “target audience demographic” and just decided to be real, meaningful, significant and relevant. So you can wear jeans or a suit – and you will fit in (and be comfortable) at The Grove. You can just be you – and be welcome with us.
There were about 200 people who joined in at The Grove this morning. Fantastic! Only like 30,000 more people in Albany to reach!
College football on Saturday was exceptional. Really fun SEC and PAC-10 games. I wish I could have DVR’d the Texans game today. They are getting much better this year.
My new favorite twitter feed: @jessebdylan – he finds AMAZING links on the web!
This week we have loads of meetings and conversations that are going to be happening – I’m almost done a whole book that covers historical views of the atonement. Rough, slow reading – but every other chapter is amazing me! Looking forward to walking through this week – no matter how deep it gets!
The final third of Wright’s amazing book focuses on the response of the church to the reality of the new heaven and new earth. Shaping the church for its mission in light of its destination. It’s the conviction of hope put into practice.
Here’s what I found remarkable:
p.207, “He has enlisted us to act as his stewards in the project of creation. And, following the disaster of rebellion and corruption, he has built into the gospel message the fact that through the work of Jesus and the power of the Spirit, he equips humans to help in the work of getting the project back on track.”
p.209, “Martin Luther’s words about the proper reaction to knowing the kingdom was coming the next day being to go out and plant a tree.”
p.217, “The present system of global debt is the real immoral scandal, the dirty little secret – or rather the dirty enormous secret – of glitzy, glossy Western capitalism. Whatever it takes, we must change this situation or stand condemned by subsequent history alongside those who supported slavery two centuries ago and those who supported the Nazis seventy years ago. It is that serious.”
p.219, “…much conservative theology, not least in the United States, where it counts heavily at the moment, has also served to reinforce the dominance of the West. The Cold War years enabled the United States to build up its persona as God’s answer to communism. Many conservative churches there still live by the belief that what’s good for America is good for God…”
p.226, on preaching, “God works as a result of prayer and faithfulness, not technique and cleverness.”
p.231, “But the shoulder-shrugging functionalism of postwar architecture, coupled with the passivity born of decades of television, has meant that for many people the world appears to offer little but bleak urban landscapes, on the one hand, and tawdry entertainment, on the other. And when people cease to be surrounded by beauty, they cease to hope. They internalize the message of their eyes and ears, the message that whispers that they are not worth very much, that they are in effect less than fully human.”
p.253, “Christian holiness consists not of trying as hard as we can to be good but of learning to live in the new world created by Easter, the new world we publicly entered in our baptism.”
p.283, “What you do with your body in the present matters, he insists, because God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Glorify god in your body because one day God will glorify the body itself.
pages read= 295 ~ year to date= 5769 ~ 2009 goal=9,000 ~ (64%)
The second section of Wright’s Surprised by Hope deals with the future for the world and, especially, for the church. It is an amazing examination of the Scriptures and the historic developments regarding the end of the world – at least as we know it.
It even includes some thoughts on purgatory and the writings of Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict). This understanding of purgatory, and final destinations of people according to Roman Catholic doctrine, is important for two reasons: first, because it has changed a lot recently due to outreach efforts in developing countries and, second, because those of us in protestant traditions find our roots in catholicism. Moreover, the doctrine of purgatory was one of the issues of the early protestant reformers – if it changes now, could the church move toward a more unified future? Which is to say, will Luther’s dream of reforming the Roman Catholic church finally develop fully – will the Catholic church reform to a more biblical doctrinal position?
Here’s what I highlighted:
p.81, “…there are two quite different ways of looking at the future of the world…The first position is the myth of progress…”
p.93, “The early Christians did not believe in progress. They did not think the world was getting better and better under its own steam – or even under the steady influence of God. They knew God had to do something fresh to put it to rights….They believed that God was going to do for the whole cosmos what he had done for Jesus at Easter.”
p.94, The “image-bearing capacity of humankind is not in itself the same thing as divinity.”
p.95, “What matters is eschatological duality (the present age and the age to come), not ontological dualism (an evil “earth” and a good “heaven”)
p.105, “Heaven and earth, it seems, …are made for each other in the same way (Revelation is suggesting) as male and female. And when they finally come together, that will eb cause for rejoicing in the same way that a wedding is…”
p.112, “The method of the kingdom will match the message of the kingdom.”
p.131, “Parousia is itself, in fact, one of those terms in which Paul is able to say that Jesus is the reality of which Caesar is the parody. His theology of the second coming is part of his political theology of Jesus as Lord. In other words, we have the language of parousia, of royal presence, sitting in a typically Pauline justaposition with the language of Jewish apocalyptic.”
p.157, “Suppose a cannibal eats a Christian, and suppose the cannibal is then himslef converted. The Christian’s body has become part of the cannibal’s body; who will have which bits at the resurrection?”
p.167, “Ratzinger detached the doctrine of purgatory from the concept of an intermediate state and broke the link that in the Middle Ages gave rise to the idea of indulgences and so provided a soft target for Protestant polemic.”
p.170, “In fact, Paul makes it claer here [Romans 8] and elsewhere that it’s the present life that is meant to function as purgatory.”
p.171, “The revival of a quasi purgatory in our own day, therefore, is beside the point. It is a strange return to mythology just when we should be having our feet on the ground. It is ironic that in some circles the aim seems to be to sidel up to Rome in a friendly way, at the very moment when two of the leading conservative theologians in Rome, Rahner and Ratzinger, have been transforming doctrin into something else. It’s time for a deep breath, some clear thinking, and a sigh of relief.”
p.184, “There is a great mystery here, and all our speaking about God’s eventual future must make room for it.”
So, a “specified day for reading specific books” schedule sounds like it would work, and for most normal pastors it probably would. Since I am a planting pastor, it doesn’t work at all. This past month I learned that well. In part because my schedule is driven by rapid change and quick growth right now, and in part because my days are rarely normal right now.
So I’m going to apply smart pastors rule number 76: If a system is not delivering the desired results the choice is to change the system or look ridiculous. (poor leaders work harder in a bad system which hurts them and those under their charge – smart leaders admit the bad system, take blame and move forward which builds trust and increases efficiency and effectiveness. of course, this is a whole different post…)
Anyways, I’m going to go with a changed reading schedule where i will read enough pages each month to hit the goal. And, I’m going to include a certain number of pages each month from my chosen bible to read through in that year. This year it’s been my copy of the Message (but my record sheet was accidentally tossed, so I’m sure I’m not going to properly complete it, but I’ll forgive myself), I’m thinking ESV next year?
So, to catch up to my 2009 goal of 9,000 pages, we’re going to do 1763 pages in November and again in December. I’ll choose the books at the beginning of the month, so that I can chose a variety of subjects and viewpoints.
Here’s November:
The Message: all the NT letters (~200 pages)
Ignite by Nelson Searcy, assigned through Coaching Network with Searcy (200)
Taylor, Principles of Pastoral Success (173)
McManus, Chasing Daylight (260)
A leadership book by a politician (364) (I’ll blog on it later)
Hauerwas, Performing the Faith: Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Nonviolence (241) – this one has footnotes, which I much prefer to endnotes. So much better!
Coupland, The Gum Theif (275)
for a little more than 1700 pages. I guess I won’t be watching much NBA on TNT.
What a great day it’s been in sunny Oregon! We got to see both the Oregon football teams win this weekend and had a safe and fun Hallowe’en. One got to be Snake Eyes, which there were many – we even razzed a Storm Shadow kid as we drove by. Well, ok, I rolled down the window and yelled out for LJ. We also had a little firefighter. It was so much fun to have people say, “Ohh a fireman” and then notice it was a girl and say, “uhhhh….. fireperson?” Then we got to feel all good about ourselves when we corrected them, firefighter. Fun at every single house!
Had to leave the kids at home this week though, they’ve been fighting off little colds. Many, many people were away this weekend – about halfe the launch team was absent – so we’re praying with them for health in our town!
We had 8 first time families at The Grove this weekend. This is really great for a church our size. Plus, Darrell has calculated that we are having about 50% of people who try out The Grove on a Sunday morning come back again! This is an amzing blessing – our coaching network taught us that a 20% return rate is really high – I love the whole Fusion system that has been put in place. It’s helping all sorts of people find a church that is really meaningful to them – with people, worship and teaching that makes sense in their real lives.
We’ve continued ramping up our online children’s check-in system. We now have cards for your wallet (just like safeway, albertson’s or the library) so you can just swipe and check your kids in. It’s speeding the lines right up, while still providing great security.
Started a new teaching series on Philippians today. We’re looking at the church plant from Philippi after 10 years to see how they had grown, but still had growing to do.
Starting a new series means a load of research to help contextualize the stories, so this past week was busy with research. We are carrying this series through to the end of the year, so it makes it well worth the effort for the congregation.
Thought we had fixed the sermon recording problems. Didn’t. It won’t be able to be up this week.
Today’s message was about loving more, but only doing so by drawing close to God. You can’t love well apart from God. Be close to God and love comes naturally.
Looking forward to this week. Heather is getting better so I may be able to move back into my bedroom – not that sleeping on the couch for two weeks isn’t awesome. I’ve avoided illness so far – I’m going to go take another Vitamin C to celebrate!
I read N.T. Wright’s book on the church, resurrection and heaven and absolutely loved it. I’m going to divide up my review of it over three separate posts because it is so full and challenging. It’s certainly well written – and it is theologically robust and adventurous. I’m actually enjoying reading through it a second time so that I can better understand and grow through Wright’s work.
The first section of the book explores current beliefs on mankind’s ultimate destination(s) and how those views have developed even from the earliest days of the church. Wright contends that clarity must be sought regarding heaven becasue the end will greatly influence the day we live in.
Here’s a few of the highlights:
p.26, “A piety that sees death as the moment of “going home at last,” the time when we are “called to God’s eternal peace,” has no quarrel with powermongers who want to carve up the world to suit their own ends. Resurrection, by contrast, has always gone with a stron view of God’s justice and of god as the good creator.”
p.40, “The cross, we note, already had a symbolic meaning throughout the roman world, long before it had a new one for the Christians. It meant: we Romans run this place, and if you get in our way we’ll obliterate you – and do it pretty nastily too.”
p.50, “…we find the development of the very early belief that Jesus is Lord and that therefore Caesar is not.”
p.73, “…the resurrection is not, as it were, a highly peculiar event with in the present world (though it is that as well); it is, principally, the defining event of the new creation, the world that is being born with Jesus.”
When I went to Houston in 2002 I got to attend Joel Osteen’s little church. I wanted to go because I was so impressed with Osteen’s hand motions while he preached. He is so efficient and purposeful in his gesturing. His theology, on the other hand, is straight whack.
Here’s the best little clip of his that I have ever seen:
I guess there won’t be much demand for bacon burgers at the next church picnic…
Our town took a bit of a hit this week as a huge plant, which employees almost 1% of our population is closing before Christmas. It seems like the recession is getting out to our valley a little later than other parts of the country. Praying for families to be able to work again. I know we’re to be dependent on God, not on our jobs, but that doesn’t make it easy to walk through times like these. On top of this, loads of people in our town are ill right now – including Heather! This made for an interesting week for us, especially since we had one or two appointments every day and the kids had a four day weekend. Looking forward to getting back to routine. Here’s some highlights from our weekend at The Grove:
Saturday afternoon a lot of families from The Grove went out to a local pumpkin patch. It was a pretty fun time. Super packed though – it took a couple of hours in the line to get on the wagon and go get a pumpkin – which is alright for us, but it was torture for the kids. Got a few great pumpkins though and we are snacking on the seeds as I write this.
Saturday night roots (The Grove student ministry) went up to Portland to enjoy a corn maze. Cool to see them building relationships and having fun together.
We were kid-less this weekend so I got to be at NAMS early and help with the set-up. The men and women who help each week with setting up the church are awesome! It really is an awesome time – everyone is smiling and happy – excited to be together and to see what God has for us today!
There were so many people at The Grove today! The total count I heard was 221! The church is adding 20 people every week! At this rate we’ll be adding a new service every three months! There were many brand new families and people who came back also.
Another bonus is the 30something kids that were in GroveKids! They bring a lot of energy to our worship – I love that children are full on participators in worship, right from preschool!
I love that I am recognizing people who have joined to The Grove this month. Now that we are a month in, there are many people who were brand new, who are now part of the Grove family! It’s really a great thing to see. We’re also seeing lots of parents of young families visit – they are always so encouraging.
The band did a really great job this morning. If you didn’t see Heather around, it’s because she had a fever and spent all her time backstage so that she wouldn’t pass it on to anyone. Great job bringing energy to the worship though!
The sermon today took a lot of work – lots of reading and research so that I could give a solid teaching. The topic was New Heaven and New Earth. How this whole experience ends and what happens next is a very large subject, so it was hard to pare it all down into something meaningful that would inspire, encourage and challenge people. It came off well though – tons of theology up front, with practical meaning and application: what you believe about the beginning and the ending really do matter in the everyday life you live!
The audio recording messed up again today. We’ve been using a computer and the program thinks it is smarter than the tech guys so it is making changes on its own. So, we’ll be dropping the money to buy a recorder that works. The audio recording is important for two reasons: first, since we have one service it gives the children’s volunteers a chance to be a part of the teaching. Secondly, the tech guys use their skills to capture the teaching and send it all over the world – overflowing the ministry of The Grove. One Grover actually email out links to people they know who they think would benefit from the recordings.
It was also a special moment for me (and Darrell I’m sure) when the church did a little pastor appreciation month presentation for us. I love our church – I absolutely do. They are great, great, great people. Thanks church!!
