Forever With You

Last week was not a good week. If you saw my facebook status you'll know what I am talking about. My frame of mind wasn't a great one....

But as I reflected back on the past week as I drove, I was listening to the new Decyfer Down album "Crash" and heard the last song on the CD and it struck me. The words of the chorus are a prayer that I need to pray often (especially during the trials of last week)

The song is called "Forever With You"

Like shooting stars
How brief we are
I wish this moment could last forever
Here with you
I am made new
I want to live like every breath matters
You're not so far away
Just hear me when I say

CHORUS:
I wanna love what you love
I want to see what you see
I want a heart that burns like a fire in me
I want your light in my life
I want my heart renewed
Here I am
Forever with you

The falling rain
Can bring a change
I never knew how far that I could fall
I can hardly wait
'Til I see you face to face
I can't believe your love remains the same
You're not so far away
Just hear me when I say

I wanna love what you love
I want to see what you see
I want a heart that burns like a fire in me
I want your light in my life
I want my heart renewed
Here I am
Forever with you

Now that I am here with you
After all that I've been through
I just can't live without
The grace you gave to me
Now I see what you see
Your beautiful life forever in me

I wanna love what you love
I want to see what you see
I want a heart that burns like a fire in me
I want your light in my life
I want my heart renewed
Here I am
Here I am
Here I am
Forever with you


The words that struck me the most are: I want to love what you love, I want to see what you see.

It also reminds me of two questions that I found in my reading the book "The Ministry of the Missional Church." Those questions are: Where is God already working in the community? and What does God want to do in the community? Without God giving me his love and his eyes, I could never and wouldn't want to see where he is working, and where he wants to work.

So may I have the eyes, the ears, the heart of God for the world.

Death by Suburb

I have been doing a lot of thinking over the last year regarding Suburbia. Mostly in relation to what does it mean to be missional in the suburbs. My wife and I wrestled with this question and whether we needed to move to a more "urban" area in order to be missional...but I think that is, in one way, a cop out. Being missional is about where you are planted. Yes you can be missional in the urban area...the needs are easier to see. But you can also be missional in suburbia. I got to see a great example of that at a church in Bucks County called the Well. Todd Hiestand is the Pastor and he has written a great deal about being missional in suburbia, which has been tremendously helpful to my journey.

So the other day while in my favorite bookstore, Ollies...(good stuff cheap) I found the above book "Death by Suburb" by David Goetz. So I picked up and began reading. Goetz lays out 8 toxins of Suburbia and 8 Spiritual practices to counteract the toxin.

The 8 toxins are: I am in control of my life, I am what I do and what I own, I want my neighbors life, My life should be easier than this, I need to make a difference with my life, My Church is the problem, What will this relationship do for me, and I need to get more done in less time.

The 8 Spiritual practices that he lays out are: The Prayer of Silence, The journey through the self, Friendship with those who have no immortality symbols, Accepting my cross with grace and patience, Pursuing action, not results, Staying put in your church, Building deep and meaningful relationships, and Falling in love with a day.

Here are some quotes from the book that resonated with me:

"I think my suburb, as safe and religiously coated as it is, keeps me from Jesus. Or at least, my suburb (and the religion of the suburbs) obscures the real Jesus. The living patterns of the good life affect me more than I know. Yet the same environmental factors that numb me to the things of God also hold out great promise. I don't need to escape the suburbs. I need to find Jesus here."

"The kingdom of God often appears plain, ordinary, small, in the moment."

"Even in suburbia all moments are infused with the Sacred. God is really present where I live..."

"The practice of solitude may be the most important spiritual discipline for the suburbs. And it is probably one of the most difficult to practice here."

"A friend with a special needs child (and five other kids as well) recently said to me that he thought one spiritual issue of our community (which has a median household income of 75,000) is how hard we work at appearing not to have any issues. 'The sad thing' he says, 'is that you wind up with a bunch of folks who appear to have it all, but are miserable. They're trapped in the attractive veneer of being 'perfect people.' That, by its very nature, negates the transparency to form a deeper bond with a human being."

"The perfect suburban life is bogus."

"Coveting may be the most toxic indulgence of the suburbs, and the life practice to overcome it requires the discipline to face another kind of person. This person is not like me. This person in not like my neighbor, whose house I covet. This person is invisible to me, because I am facing in the wrong direction- toward those I perceive to have more than I."

There are a lot more quotes that I could share but I close with this one...

"forget trying to live a safe, gated life."

Purple Door Arts and Music Festival

Several months ago while working through ideas for promoting Veritas in the community, I thought about the Purple Door Arts and Music Festival. I know a friend of mine had a booth there last year and I thought that it would be a good fit for us at Veritas. I found out about the details regarding the application and the cost, and sent off the application with the applicable fee. The other week I heard back from the festival that we have been accepted as a "vendor".

I am really excited about being at Purple Door and share with those who stop by about Veritas. We are currently working on several things that we will be giving away to anyone who stops by. This coming Friday Matt Wheeler (our worship leader) will be recording some original worship songs. We are also hoping to have another couple from our group lay down some of their original music. So at Purple Door one of the things we'll be giving away is a CD of original music from our community.

We'll also be giving away brochures, postcards, coffee mugs, and various other items to promote our launch in September. If you are at Purple Door this August (August 14-15) stop by and say hi.....

The Commodification of Jesus

So yesterday I got back from the Creation Festival in Mount Union, PA. We have gone every year with the youth group from Hempfield COB. It was a bittersweet time because this will probably be the last one for a while. But I have this love have relationship with the Festival.

I love hanging out with people. I love eating with people. I love seeing people I haven't seen for awhile and catching up. I love some of the bands and the speakers. But the one thing that drives me up a wall every year is the jesus junk that is being sold...especially alot of the T-Shirts.

The one that bothered me the most this year is represnted by the picture above. It said "mcJesus..Over one bilion saved." This shirt to me represents a troubling trend..the commodification of Jesus. What this shirt is really saying is that Jesus is a product that can be bought and sold. That when we "accept Jesus" into our lives we are making a business transaction. That we "go to a church" on Sunday and attend a worship service, where we are being served by the Pastor and leaders. Also there is the whole problem of consumerism that Tony Campolo speaks about in "Lord Save Us From Your Followers". We are way too comfortable with consumerism in the evangelical world.

Maybe I read into things too much....but people need to think about what they are making when they make t-shirts that they think are clever. Most of the time they are a rip off of something in the world, which is not clever, not original, and not artistic. And there are the meanings behind the t-shirts that the designer didn't think about. Jesus is not a product to be bought and sold. Jesus is Lord and is to be followed and served.

Sin Nature and Being a Parent

Yesterday was a crazy crazy day. I got up and we went to Sunday School/Worship at Hempfield COB. Then we left and went to my Brothers house for a picnic. Following that we dropped in on a party for a couple from HCOB who have been married 50 years and are like grandparents to Kaiden and Trinity. Then we went to Core Group, and ended at home by making dinner for tonight's dinner with Jonny and Jenny Baker (hope to blog about this experience tomorrow before I leave for Creation)

Anyway during our time at my brother's Kaiden was playing with a portable game unit of a boy that my brother is currently watching (a pseudo nephew if you will) and went up on a balcony area. He looked down at us, and at the game unit and then proceeded to throw the game unit onto the ground. It hit some rocks and bounced, and the screen was cracked. I asked him what he was thinking, and he had no good answer. So we told him that he will be paying for a new one for Kayne. Well that didn't go over so good. He said he was sorry...not for breaking it, but that he had to use his money.

As I have reflected back on that experience, I realize that the sin nature is with us from birth. Now Kaiden is 5 and I have seen the sin nature but it was very evident yesterday. But I also realized something else, that I do the same thing as a child of my heavenly father. I take something that I've been blessed with, and use it in a different way than was intended, and I end up "breaking it". Kaiden took something that he was blessed to play with, and used it as a baseball, and then broke it. I take my gifts, talents, etc... use them to benefit me, and don't give praise to God for those blessings. I take something that was created to be holy and pure, defile it, and break God's original intention, which was perfect, and then it doesn't work like it once did.

But something else I realized as I was standing there fuming and upset with Kaiden. While part of me wanted to strangle him, a bigger part of me wanted to hug him and tell him that I still love him. And it dawned on me, when I take what was originally meant for good, twist it, distort it, and sin, God still is there loving and caring about me. That doesn't mean that punishment doesn't come with the love, but that through the punishment God still loves me and wants the best for me.

That's how I spent my father's day.....being frustrated with my son, but loving him still and being aware of my own sin nature and God's never failing love for me.

Moving Forward

Things seem to moving forward with Veritas as we work towards our September 13 launch. Here are a few exciting things that we are experiencing right now.

1. We have signed a lease for one year with English Presbyterian Church in Marietta for only 400 dollars a month. I believe this will be an amazing partnership with English as we begin and develop and grow. I still feel that in the future we would love to inhabit a place where we can develop a third space (whether business or not..I'm not sure...) much like a previous post.

2. We are having many conversations with people about joining our Core Group. I had a meeting on Monday night with a great couple that we connected with through setting up a time to go visit a church in Bucks County called The Well. I also have a dinner with a couple on Saturday night.

3. The Pastor of the Well also let us know of someone else in Lancaster county who was part of the Well and is now in Lancaster county...we'll see where that leads.

4. Finances are slowly coming together...to a point that I think we can make a go at this on a part-time level, and I won't need to work full-time and work on the church plant as well.

5. Saturday morning we are doing a FREE Car Wash to bless the community.

6. Monday night we are having dinner with Jonny and Jenny Baker from Grace in the UK while they are here teaching at Lancaster Theological Seminary. I met Jonny when he was here 2 years ago, and then again when I went over to London 2 years ago. I am looking forward to that.

7. Visiting the Well on July 5 and looking forward to the experience and talking with the Pastor.

All in all I am really excited about the journey that we are on, and what God will do in the future in and through us. That doesn't mean I don't get nervous, scared and worried at times, but I do know that God is in control and he will take care of us.

So Beautiful Post #3

So the other day I finally finished the Leonard Sweet book "So Beautiful" dealing with "the divine design for life and church" that Sweet says is "MRI- Missional, Relational, and Incarnational". I enjoyed reading this book as I haven't read anything lately from him. He is coming to Lancaster in August, but I won't be able to see him at the Parish Resource Center due to being on vacation...but someone from the church who works there says that she'll get the book signed for me...which is nice.

There is so much in the 3 chapters that it would take me pages and pages just to share what spoke to me in each chapter. As I said before the book is separated into 3 chapters, 1 chapter for Missional, 1 chapter for Relational, and 1 chapter for Incarnational.

Here is a smattering of quotes from each chapter that stood out to me.

"Sometimes missional is not going anywhere but being missional where you are."

"Which takes more bravery and initiative? Knock unannounced on the door of your next-door neighbor's house? Or travel halfway around the world to build a house for a stranger as part of a church mission trip? The closer you get to home, the more ingrained the inertia and expected rules of behavior."

"The mission of the church is to continue Christ's ministy on earth."

"The question is not a church-going community but a non-going church."

"To build a non-going church, you make sure that the bond with Jesus is weak, that every decision is tepid and triple-checked, and dissuade people from taking risks."

"The church can never be "on a mission" because that presupposes an "off" switch, and you can't be "off mission" and still be a church. The church is mission."

"The ultimate story of the Bible, the metanarrative that unlocks the whole story, is that God is on a mission, and we are summoned to participate with God in that mission."

"We are more concerned with winning arguments and battles than winning friends and losing the self in truces of truth."

"A Jesus disciple is a channeler of truth, beauty, and goodness, one who lives Christ's life into the world, one whose being is a convection current of love with high conductivity."

"We don't serve a propositional, attractional, or colonial God. We serve a missional, relational, and incarnational God."

"I find that my faith suffers nothing by leaving a thousand questions open, so long as I am convinced of two or three main lines."

"Hold to Christ, and for the rest be totally uncommitted."

"It is extremely difficult for the church to think of church less as a place and more of a set of relationships, a network of networks that can be nourished in multiple spaces. The church is not a set of propositions, buildings, or beliefs: The church is a network of relationships...with God, with the Scriptures, with each other, with creation."

"Our starting point is not telling people where they should be, but being with people where they already are 'while going' and catching up to the Spirit."

"But the incarnation blows the distinction between the sacred and the secular out of the water."

"It is wisely said that Christians who marry the spirit of the age will soon find themselves widowed, but it is equally wisely said that those reacting against this temptation might find themselves simply opposing the spirit of the age with the spirit of a former age."

"When Paul addressed the crowd at Athens in Greece, he never quotes a scriptural text, but takes a page out of their own books and calls them to 'repent'"

"You are the body of Christ: that is to say, in you and through you the work of the Incarnation must go forward. You are meant to incarnate in your lives the theme of adoration- you are to be taken, consecrated, broken and distributed, that you may be the means of grace and vehicles of Eternal Charity."

I could probably keep going as they is much in the book that really connected with my reality of planting Veritas as "A Missional Community of Authentic Worshippers." I would recommend getting this book if you have interest in the missional conversation.