Connect @ Grace

I’ve recently been reading a book called Orange by Reggie Joiner. It’s about how a church and its families can work together to successfully pass the baton of faith to the next generation. According to statistics, 70 to 80 percent of students who grew up in church are walking away from their faith after they graduate from high school. This book has a lot of interesting things to say about how we can combine the separate influences of church and family in a much more strategic way for a more powerful impact in the lives of our kids. There was one part of the strategy that especially struck a chord with me. The author said, “It’s important to understand how closely spiritual formation is connected to the act of serving. If we fail to help kids make a practical investment of their time and energy in serving others, their hearts will never mature to care for others.”
On July 20th of this year we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing. It was one of those occasions when people talk about where they were when that happened. I remembered that I was on my way home from my first mission trip and our youth sponsor stopped at a relative’s house so we could watch it on TV. I was fifteen that summer and that was the launch of my mission addiction. It was the first time someone trusted me to lead others in learning about Jesus. The weight of that responsibility gave me the confidence to believe I could make a difference in someone’s life and the desire to study more so I could do it better next time.
Lately God has been bombarding my heart with the idea of our church serving the world. It’s coming at me from everywhere. At first I was thinking it was for our adults and teens; now I’m thinking that it needs to start with taking our children with us to serve. And I used to think it was mostly about once per year mission trips; now I’m thinking this needs to be at least monthly. This book shared the thought that one reason our children are leaving the faith because Christianity to them looks boring and safe and they want to be a part of something that’s exciting and will change the world.
“The bottom line is that everybody needs to experience something bigger than themselves. Whether we provide them the opportunity to do so or not, they will look for a way to participate in something adventurous. When there is nothing dangerous or adventurous about your style of faith, you begin to drift toward other things that seem more interesting and meaningful. The family and church were designed ultimately not to protect children, but to set them free to demonstrate God’s love to a broken world.” Orange
Jan

Yesterday I didn’t do anything I didn’t want too. I woke up without an alarm, watched the sun rise over the ocean, ran along the beach and two bridges crossing the inter-coastal waterway, watched fish jump and dolphins cruise along the coast. I sat in my lounge chair at the edge of the surf and read the books of my choice. I body surfed, sun bathed and took a nap. I stood on my balcony and watched the space shuttle speed through the sky like a comet. I watched the sun go down, ate ice cream (chocolate of course) and revealed in the day that the Lord had made for me. No cell phones, no e-mail, no agenda, no plans, and no one I know within 18 hours of me except my beloved and my God: which is the best part. I usually approach vacations with a mixture of anticipation and guilt; hungering to get away while feeling burdened with too much work left undone to leave. It takes a few days but eventually I realize that the world can actually get along without me and that God wants me all to himself. That’s what these two weeks have really been all about; me and God. It’s interesting that with all of my daily personal pursuits I’ve been talking and listening to God all day. It’s been a while since we’ve spent this much time together. Scratch that last line and replace it with this: It’s been a while since I’ve been so attentive to His presence. I’ve been told that God will do whatever it takes to get our attention. So, if Florida is what it takes, I’ll gladly surrender.
tim

It’s no secret.  Pastor Tim and his family are on vacation.   That means that Sunday morning services will be a little different.  Turns out that this change up the service because of vacation is a world- wide phenomenon and happens to the best of us.   Here are some hilarious suggestions from a blogger on www.stuffchristianslike.blogspot.com.   A giggle will do you some good!   Holly

The “everyone is on vacation, everything goes” church service.

It is a poorly kept secret that the day before a big holiday (or when the pastor is on vacation), whether you live in Cleveland or Croatia, your church is going to do things a little differently than on most Sundays. That is, with a large portion of the congregation out on vacation, they’re going to mix it up a little.

For instance, at a lot of churches, the younger ministers are always asked to preach the day before Memorial Day. Senior pastors know that it’s a lot safer to have some rough around the edges minister saying something crazy to 400 people instead of the 800 people that usually attend. Same goes with music. Go this Sunday (in the United States) and you’re bound to see some guy that’s always been in the background of the stage step forward for a totally unexpected guitar solo. Or a woman that’s always wanted to lead worship will suddenly be behind the mic for the first time.

I call it “Day Before Vacation Syndrome” or DBVS.

And because I am a huge dork and it’s roughly 800 degrees right now in Alpharetta, Georgia, I thought I would offer a few suggestions for ways you can avoid DBVS at your church:

1. Controversy
Since a lot of folks won’t be in church because they are out on vacation, use this opportunity to address all of the most controversial issues. Talk about politics, money, and anything else that otherwise would get the crowd riled up and upset. That way, whenever someone says, “I wish this church was not so seeker focused and dealt with some of the tough issues,” you can reply “You must have not been here for stemcellobamadrugssex Sunday.”

2. Snakes
Ever thought about incorporating some pit vipers into your service? Why not on the Sunday when everyone is out of town? I don’t know where you can buy a “bag o’ rattlers” but surely someone near you sells poisonous snakes. By the way, I don’t mean to be selfish, but it would really help me out if someone could invite me to a church service where they handled snakes. I’m dying to write about that but won’t unless I’ve actually gone to a service.

3. Church Sumo Wrestling
At every church there are little church politics that no one wants to talk about. The worship minister wants to do more modern songs than the pastor will allow. The elders think the pastor needs to do more old testament and less 30 Rock references. The janitor is still mad at everyone over the “glue incident” of 1978. Get those big blow up sumo costumes you can rent, a huge tube of bootleg jello (this a church after all) and then have everyone settle their differences. How cool would it be to see the super happy pastor’s wife leg drop the super grumpy elder that is always a jerk to her husband?

4. Skittles
Why not throw skittles out during the service? Instead of saying, “watch this” or “listen to this” or another phrase that is designed to get people’s attention, why not throw handfuls of skittles at them? Wouldn’t you love to be hit in the side of the head with a bunch of fruit candy delightfulness? I would.

5. Weird instruments
Ever wondered what an accordion and triangle version of the song, “I can only imagine” would sound like? Got a kid in youth group that is really good at beat box? Do you need more cowbell but are afraid most people would hate it? Well they’re all on vacation. Get the accordion out, it’s go time.

6. Practice Christmas
Next to Easter, the Christmas service might be the most important one you do. So why not do a dry run in July and make sure everything goes well? Just consider it a practice. Do the candles with kids, hang some holly, sing carols, do the whole thing up and then that way, when the real Christmas rolls around you’ll be ready. Don’t tell anyone it’s a practice, just do it as if it’s a normal thing to do. The look on the face of your visitors and members that show up and find themselves singing “Oh Holy Night” in the middle of the summer will be worth it.

7. Haikus
Do the entire sermon in haiku. It’s not as hard as you think. Here’s an example: Jesus was so cool (5 syllables) He gave His life for our sins (7 syllables) Let’s be close to him (5 syllables)

8. Have an “SCL Sunday”
Why not throw a “Stuff Christians Like” service? We’ll play Sandi Patty and Carman songs. We’ll take a love offering and interlink our fingers when we hold hands. We’ll get a puppet group, named “Strings of Mercy,” to come do the Noah’s Ark story and then I’ll speak. It will be fantastic.  I would do some pop and lock breakdancing in the hallway if my church North Point did any one of these ideas. If they don’t I’m going to do that mime move where you pretend to be stuck in an invisible box. Mime is the opposite of breakdancing.

p.s. There are two things that go without saying: 1. I can’t promise that your church will use any of these tips. 2. I can promise that the church I start, GracePointeLifeTruthHouseNorthRiverElevate, will use all of them.

I love almost everything about summer, but one thing that I do not like is weeds. For many years I planted a garden because I loved the fresh vegetables. As a novice gardener one of my greatest frustrations was trying to tell the difference between weeds and good plants. Have you ever noticed that there are lots of weeds out there that look to the untrained eye like the real thing? In my early years of gardening I pulled out good plants and left weeds because I couldn’t tell the difference. It was really frustrating when I went to harvest what I thought were vegetables only to find weeds. Another frustrating thing about weeds is how easily and prolifically they grow. I had to carefully nurture the vegetable plants by watering, weeding, and cultivating, but it seemed like those weeds grew anyplace, anytime, anywhere all on their own.
Gardening, otherwise known as pulling weeds, gives a person lot of time to think about how plants and weeds are a parable of our lives. 1 John 3 is a chapter that deals with how to know if someone truly is a follower of Christ. Lots of people claim to be Christians because they said a prayer, were baptized, or take communion. They can fool a lot of people, they may even fool themselves, but the proof is in what they produce, just like it is with vegetables.
I John 3:9 from the Message paraphrases it this way. “People conceived and brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin.” Some people have gotten the idea that being a Christian is just about not going to hell and have never understood that it’s about turning control of your life over to the one saving you from hell. So if you’re still calling the shots in your life and if you’re not producing good fruit, you probably need take some time to examine whether you are a Christian or not.
Now some who have read this may be doubting their salvation because we all know we continue to sin. To you and myself I have another parable from the garden. Remember how easily those weeds grow in a garden, anywhere, anyplace, anytime all on their own. Our lives are like a garden; it takes effort to keep the weedy sin out and it takes effort to cultivate the good fruit. If you don’t want to sin and you want to follow God’s way, that’s a good indicator that you are a Christian, but it still takes diligence and work. I’ve wished a million times that doing good came as naturally to me as doing the wrong thing. In Matthew 13:22 Jesus said in explaining the parable of the farmer sowing seed, “The seed falling among the thorns refers to people who hear the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.” So if you’re like me you probably need to take some to examine whether you have been lazy about weeding the sin out and cultivating good fruit in your life.
The goal for all of our lives should be to be the good soil that Jesus described in Matthew 13:23 “But the seed falling on good soil refers to people who hear the word, understand, [and apply] it. They produce a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Jan