News: Travis Darnold joined the family of God!

Sunday, November 1st, 2009. That was the day that Travis Darnold obeyed our Master and was joined to Him (and to us!) in water baptism. After our Sunday morning worship service, a good number of us (about 35 by my count) went to the William's home to witness the event. The water was chipper (poor Travis was chattering away as he stood in the water), but it was glorious. Prior to the actual immersion, I taught those gathered there a chorus which I hope will become traditional for such times. The words (authored by the band Bluetree) are: "Death to the past, it's gone/ and here's to a new beginning/ for our God's not finished yet with us./ Death to the past it's gone/ and here's to a new beginning/ for your God's not finished yet with you." With those words still ringing, Travis stepped into the cold waters and offered his old self to death so that his new life in Christ might begin. I asked those nearest to Travis and me to lay hands on him as our elders and I did the same. With those farther away reaching their hands toward him, I led the group in praying to God that He might send His Holy Spirit onto/into Travis and lead him into maturity in Christ. What a beautiful moment for a church family to share! It's just the beginning, though; now the church must get to the work of discipling Travis so that he can become the Christ-like servant of God he is meant to be. Amen!

Do we really want revival?

Joe McKeever has an article posted on Crosswalk.com entitled "Why We Don't Have Revival". Please take a few minutes to read it over. It'll take some time to read it and to think it over, but I'm betting it will be well worth the minutes you invest. This is one of those articles that you read with a sense of offense then realize that the feeling of offense says more about the reader than the author. Do you think - and be honest now - that his words are true of New Hope generally? Let's hash this one out together! Please comment on McKeever's article as your comment to this blog post. The link to the article is below... http://www.crosswalk.com/pastors/11609331/ Eyes on the Master, brothers and sisters!

Meet at the church or as the church?

"THE church is the people, not the building." I think we all agree on this statement. It's a foundational concept for those who long to see the churches of Jesus Christ become more and more like their Master. Church isn't an event either, right? We know these things. We say them and we mean them. Churches of Christ were churches long before large and beautiful edifices were built to house them, after all. We know that in the earliest days of the gospel, churches met in members' homes. Individual disciples opened their homes to their spiritual family so they could gather to hear the word of the Lord, worship him together, pray as one and share in communion. They often met in public places like groves, synagogues, and even the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

Buildings for meeting are not unimportant or trivial things, though; just ask those believers who are unable to buy or build houses large enough for their congregations. It is quite a blessing to have spacious and comfortable shelter from the elements as well as a sense of continuity and local identity. Unfortunately, with this great blessing comes the strong temptation to confuse the building and tools used by the church with the church itself. This is why it is so important for us to say again and again, "The church is the people, not the building."

In light of these accepted truths, I've begun to make small changes in the way I express myself. After all, the little things we absentmindedly say reveal a whole lot about how we really see things. For instance, I've decided not to say "church" as a reference to a place anymore. Rather, I've decided to say "church house". So I don't want to say, "Hope to see you at church," but I might say, "Hope to see you at the church house." Another alternative might be, "Hope to see you at the gathering" or some such thing. Also, I don't want to say, "Want to meet at the church?" when making plans with people. I prefer to say, "Want to meet at the church house?" This is a small change to my day-to-day conversational habits, to be sure, and rather awkward too, but it is significant. Every time I say it, its awkwardness serves to remind me that the church really is the people and that we are housed in a building. Of course, I might slip out of a lifetime of habit, so if you hear me refer to the church house as "the church", please gently remind me of my decision to change. It's getting easier and more natural the more I do it, and you might notice it now that you've read this post. This isn't just a quirky personal experiment, though. I'm asking all of New Hope's leaders to make this change with me. Would you begin to speak of "the church house" as distinct from "the church"? Of course, you should feel free to use whatever phrase you like that communicates the building idea, but "the church house" is the most natural-sounding that I've come up with ("meeting place" seems a little vague, doesn't it?). Please let me and other leaders know what it is like for you as you try to make the transition from calling our building and facilities "the church" to calling them "the church house" (or your own variation). Leave a comment or two for this post. Do people react differently to this choice of wording? Does it help remind you of the truth about who we are as the people of God in Christ? I look forward to hearing from you about this!

New Events Committee Leadership

This just in...

Ok, it was in yesterday afternoon, but that's close enough. During yesterday's Events Committee meeting, it was decided that Elizabeth Darnold will be the committee's chairwoman for three months, with Heather Mitchell as her co-chair. At the first of 2010, Bob and Bonnie Ditmyer are planning to take the lead as co-chairs of the committee. Well done, all, in choosing good leadership! It is hoped that by sharing the leadership in this way, no one will feel the weight of leadership too heavily, or at least for too long. Good plan. These leaders will serve as agenda creators and keepers for their monthly meetings (second Sunday of each month). They will also be the voice of the committee to the church. I look forward to exciting things to come in the next few months. Go E.C.!

For those who may not know, the dedicated members of our fantastic Events Committee are (in no particular order): Kate Compton, Bob and Bonnie Ditmyer, Elizabeth Darnold, Heather Mitchell, Tim Hays and Macie Morris. Please express your support and appreciation to them whenever you can. They are volunteers and do so much on our behalf.

Church in a locker room

In Wholly Jesus, pastor Mark Foreman offers a surprising analogy. He believes that the church should view its gatherings on Sunday mornings (or Saturday nights) as the locker room huddle before the big game. Acknowledging the less-than-sacred connotations of the locker room picture, he defends his picture by contrasting it with the seemingly prevailing understanding of church gatherings as the big event itself.

Life in the world as salt and light is the big event for disciples of Jesus, he contends, and so the gathering of the saints should be more of a locker room huddle in which the players can be challenged, encouraged and inspired to play to their best and win the game. As I have pondered the two alternatives he presents - viewing our weekly gatherings as the performance or the preparation for the performance - I am compelled to agree with brother Foreman. I admit that much of my time is spent in preparation for the gatherings. After all, I am called to preach (which takes preparation throughout the week) and teach (more preparation) to the gathered family of believers here at New Hope. These things aren't just a part of my job description as an employee, they are intrinsic parts to the whole of my Lord's calling. Those who minister in music and those who teach classes - they must prepare for the gatherings as well, mustn't they? Of course. Still, we cannot escape the fact that it is easy to unwittingly communicate to the whole church family that Sunday attendance and involvement is the "big game". It's not!

I believe it was brother Ron Larsen who expressed all this with another sports metaphor: church gatherings are the pit stops in the race (of life). This clarity about the purpose and role of our church gatherings is hugely necessary and helpful for all of us who lead the people of God. If we are determined to train, equip and prepare disciples of Jesus, we must be determined to do this for the world. It is not enough to train more and more people to preach in church or teach in church. We can't be satisfied with just filling up vacant positions of service and leadership within our church structure. We'll do these things because they help us to be efficient and effective in the work of training, equipping and preparing, but these are not the end as much as means to an end.

What is the end, then? What is the bigger goal? Our ultimate aim is to effectively train, equip and prepare the followers of Jesus to live lives in the community and in the world that manifest the nearness and power of God's kingdom. When God's saints do this, it will be the result of the local church's collective commitment to teach, preach, encourage, rebuke, correct, support, provide, forgive, accept, visit, challenge, and - the arch over them all - love. I want to be coach-like in this way. I want to seize the opportunities afforded me in the gatherings of the saints for the purpose of training, equipping and preparing each and every member of the body to live life Sunday through Saturday as fully aware and fully engaged disciples of Jesus and citizens of God's eternal kingdom. More importantly, I want all who lead the church in our gatherings to view our gatherings this way. What are your thoughts on this distinction between the 'big game' and 'the locker room huddle' in considering our gatherings? Please comment to this post and to each other's comments.

God's too big for Jesus?

I saw a sign on a car's window recently. It read, "God is too big for any one religion." Hmmm. Interesting thought.

My immediate reaction is to be defensive. "Not for MY religion," I'm inclined to muse. On the other hand, I do have to respect the statement's acknowledgement of God's bigness. He is BIG! He's certainly big in size and scope - filling the whole universe (Eph. 4:10) and measuring the heavens by the width of His hand (Isaiah 40:12) is a pretty convincing feat along those lines. I have a feeling that the message meant more than that kind of big, though, because spacial size doesn't have much to do with religions. Religions aren't bottles or boxes in which only so much can physically fit.

On what kind of bigness is this message commenting? Well, quite frankly, the sticker's message didn't seem to have God's bigness in mind as much as the smallness and limitations of religions. Very well, then, what's the point of that message? Religions are useless because they can't capture the fullness of God? God is best understood through the lens of multiple or maybe all religions? Either of those assertions are nonsensical! If we view all religions - including Christianity (I know some balk at the reference of our relationship to God through Christ as a 'religion', but it is a religion) - as man's imagining of God and his own discoveries about God, then I might agree with the above assertions. If, however, God Himself chose to disclose His nature, His desires, His characteristics and deeds to men, then of course that religious framework which subscribes to God's self-disclosure would have a truth-advantage over all others. This is why the Muslims consider themselves to have the truth-advantage: they believe Allah disclosed the truth about himself to their prophet. For the Jews it was Moses and the prophets. For Latter Day Saints it was Joseph Smith and their modern Apostles/Prophets. For those of Biblical Christianity, the self-disclosure of God to which we submit ourselves is Christ Himself as expressed in the New Testament Scriptures. 

God is too big to be entirely and exhaustively described and honored in our religious books, in our songs or our sermons. He is not too big, however, to define himself to us in ways that we can draw near to Him and know Him personally. In fact, He is not even too big to show Himself to mankind in the form of a poor Jewish rabbi walking along the Sea of Galilee. If the person Jesus is my religion (i.e. my devoted belief and way of life), then God's just the right size for my religion because Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15) and in him "all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9). Nice try, window sticker, but I'll take Jesus' Word over yours any day.

Note to self

While I was in Big Bear, I did a lot of reflecting on my own discipleship and my own ministry at New Hope. I preached a bit to myself (I tend to do that a lot). I thought I'd share a bit of that self-preaching with you... "Make disciples! That's your job. That's your task. That's your duty. Issue the invitation to those who don't yet believe, trust, follow or obey. When some decide to do those things, take them by the hand, love them like crazy, and immerse them in the way of Christ and his kingdom. Tell them, show them, enourage them, correct them, applaude them, rebuke them. Prepare them. Then, when they're ready, send them and trust them. Watch them, support them, remind them and encourage them some more. "It will take all you've got to give, but we're making disciples of Jesus Christ, not birdhouses. Make disciples and you'll change the world and the eternal kingdom with it." I'm right to whip myself into shape with these words. Strong words. Kick-in-the-bottom kind of words that remind me of the simplicity (not ease!) of my calling. Focus, focus, focus. There's freedom in this kind of simplicity. After all, we're working with the One we work for.

Things are Simple (or so it seems)

I'm here in Big Bear Lake, enjoying a few days of personal retreat. It's a much needed time to think, pray, evaluate and plan without the normal day-to-day busyness that surrounds me in Lancaster. I haven't had a lot of leisure time, but my time has been sweet! Earlier today I was walking a trail in the national forest along one side of the lake. I then found a rock on which to sit, read, think, and pray.

Not long after that, I drove down to the lakeside to sit and do some more reading, thinking and praying. In the beauty of the rocky woods and of the lakeside, I was able to take my time and just observe the many living things around me. How simple life is, I thought, for those woodpeckers hammering away at the side of that tree! How simple life is for that wee hummingbird flitting around to tiny flowers for food, for those ducks gliding on the water's calm surface, for the tree who towers majestically over me. Good grief, I thought to myself and prayed to the Father, what would it be like to think only about getting food and avoiding predators? What would life be without cell phones, calendars, meetings, deadlines, alarm clocks, bills to pay or cars to maintain?

Well, in thinking a little deeper on these things I realized that the simplicity of those creatures' lives isn't without its drawbacks. There's nothing to be envied about having to spend most of one's life searching for food to survive, is there? It's not an ambition of anyone I know to have a life of evading predatory creatures in one's home environment. Come to think of it, I guess I have as much time as the birds and bugs have in a given day; the difference is in the options given to me in how to use that time. They are just as busy as I am, but they don't get to look back on their days and see the lasting benefit of what they've accomplished. I've got it good compared to those birds, lizards and flowers!

Ah, but busyness does wear on us, doesn't it? Slowing down and finding rest in our busy days is a good thing. Sabbath was God's idea and design for us, after all. Yet, he did tell us to work six days out of seven.  Our rest is best when we've worked hard to get to it. Six days of work leading up to one day of rest is a well crafted balance (well done, Maker!). We're made to be productive and working. There's something unbecoming and even unnatural about laziness and lethargy for God's image-bearing creation.

The classic workman's anthem, "Everybody's working for the weekend," expresses a common attitude toward work and busyness. It's something like, "Do it because you have to, but be quick to get on with what really matters - play time!" As disciples of Christ, however, we have come to a Master who calls us to see work and labor as a joy and a satisfying exercise in worshiping Him. Yet he also calls us to come to Him and find rest. Interesting, isn't it, that in calling servants to His work, He brings them into a perpetual Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4:9)? Fellow workers, labor and strive with me! Let us share the yoke of Christ together even as we find strength, energy, joy and contentment in His abiding presence. Take breaks, rest and slow down when you need to. The work and your fellow workers will still be here when you're done. The urgency of Christ's kingdom work compels us to be about His business, but it should also compel us to rest purposefully and thoughtfully. Let us be such servants that we rest for the sake of the work, not in an attempt to escape it. Amen!

Oh, How They Love Jesus!

We are a discipling church. All churches should be. Everything we do that is rooted in the Scriptural model layed down for us leads to the discipling of people. Even worship, focused on God and for His pleasure alone, is offered acceptably when we learn from Jesus how to do it ("in spirit and in truth"). We can't do anything with confidence that it is acceptable to the Father without having the Word of our Master-Rabbi to assure us.

This being the case, it is essential to our success in the work of discipling that our leaders be focused and purposeful disciples themselves. All those who teach and lead must first be taught and led by the Chief Shepherd Himself. We must be bridges leading to the Man himself. We must be moons reflecting his glory and light. If we are not connected to or illuminated by him, then what can we do for others? What a joy it is for me to see genuine discipleship in the lives of those who lead with me! I see in your deeds and hear in your words the deep desire to learn, grow and draw nearer to Jesus himself. What's more, God has gifted you all to take part in the discipling process in various ways - teaching, encouraging, showing love in tough circumstances, forgiving hurtful sins, etc. These are all parts of the whole work of developing men, women and children who understand what following the Master is all about.

One of my most important jobs - one that I am committed to accomplishing more and more effectively - is to ensure that those who lead and teach are being discipled themselves. We will continue to encourage each other to see Jesus as the source and the goal - "the Beginning and the End" - of all our efforts. We are not primarily interested in passing on our particular church culture or norms, but the culture and norms of the Master himself. Our church-specific culture and norms (unless in violation of the Scriptural model) are good and positive, but not necessarily the only good and positive culture and norms out there. His kingdom's culture and norms, though, ARE exclusively acceptable, and so we will commit ourselves entirely to the work of promoting and abiding by them. As we do, more and more people will think and say, "Oh, how they love Jesus!" What sweeter words can be spoken about us than those?

Each and Every Part

Lee Cockerell, a former executive vice president of operations at Disney World, wrote a book titled Creating Magic. This book is a guide to leadership based on the principles he helped develop - principles that are taught at the Disney Institute. One of the key principles he highlights is that everyone is valuable in every organization. He went so far as to claim that the person sweeping up the grounds is as important to Disney World's success as is the president of the company. Each plays an important role, he argues, or else why would the company bother to hire someone for the job?

Here at New Hope, our goals are different than those of the 'cast' members of Disney World. We don't aim to give people the best vacation of their lives or to make a profit for any shareholders. No, we aim to be and to make competent, confident and committed disciples of Jesus Christ. We long to make an eternal profit for our King. Not surprisingly, however, Cockerell's principle holds true here in a little church in Lancaster, CA just as it does in the world's largest resort in Orlando, FL. It's not surprising because this principle of everyone's importance is expressed in the Scriptures. Wasn't it Paul who wrote about the members of a church being the parts of a body - each having its own function and each needing the others? Paul spoke for Christ who spoke for the Father.

I'm thrilled to be able to see this principle in action all around me at New Hope. I watch as one hugs and greets, another speaks words of encouragement, another prays for someone as soon as a need is made known. I appreciate so much that there are those who disciple our children and show them uncommon love while others do the same for our youth and adults. There are those who are generous with their personal resources to help fund the church's ministries or to meet an individual's urgent needs. People are fixing eight-foot light bulbs, they're cleaning out storage closets, and they're teaching small groups about Christ and His Kingdom. They are selecting and teaching music or they're learning music; they're passing out pamphlets and serving the elements of communion. On and on this list might go, proving that every member who serves in any capacity is essential to our success because the body needs every part. Indeed, the body could do even more if more of her parts were engaged in the work as well (and we're working on that). May God help us value each other as we ought. May He open each person's eyes to the value he/she has in this Kingdom work we share. May He grant you the joy and deep satisfaction that comes from realizing that your work, done for the eyes of your Father who is unseen, will be richly rewarded. Amen.

So it begins

Welcome to the new blog! I am creating this blog in response to a recommendation that all leaders should have a blog in order to communicate regularly the vision, progress, direction, joys and concerns of their organizations - in this case, our church. My hope is that those most engaged in leading and serving at New Hope will visit this blog several times a week in order to read what is on my mind and heart as the pastor of New Hope. I plan to present here many ideas and plans that can be read by all, commented upon, and discussed by other New Hope leaders. The comment box will, I hope, prove to be a powerful tool for those reading the blogs, as they can respond instantly to what is written for me and all other readers to see. We know that the work of our church is not meant for one or a few, but for all to do. We are all servants of the Head, our Master Jesus, and He works through the various parts of His body to accomplish His work. With this in mind, I am embarking on this journey into the blogosphere for the sole purpose of enhancing the communication and dialogue between the faithful servant-leaders at New Hope Community Church. Thanks for being a part of this and for all you do in the work of making "competent, confident and committed disciples of Jesus Christ who will do the work of God's kingdom in our community and in the world!"