Andrew

The SOAP passage today is John 1:35-51. The part that really jumps out to me are verses 40-46. It's amazing what happens here. After being introduced by John the Baptist to Jesus, Andrew is so excited he goes to find his brother, Simon Peter (who goes on to be the first leader of the Jesus movement). Philip finds Jesus and he has to go tell his brother, Nathanael.

This is an awesome progression! John brings Andrew to Jesus, Andrew brings Peter to Jesus. On the day of Pentecost, Peter's preaching brings thousands to Jesus. Acts 2

I think the longer we know Jesus, the easier it is to take him for granted. We forget (or in my case have never really known) what it's like to be away from Jesus. A life lived for Christ is the life we were created to live. A life lived a part from Christ is going against God's intentions for our lives, which is why it brings so much heartache and pain. The farther removed we become from our pre-Christ days, the easier it becomes to forget the pain of not knowing Jesus. Which then results in us becoming apathetic about investing in unbelievers.

My wife is an exception to the rule. Her sensitivity to the guidance of the Holy Spirit puts her in places where she can point people toward Jesus. On Sunday, I shared how Erin spending the night in the hospital with our potential birth mom and the mom's friend allowed her to bring the presence of Christ into a terrible situation. I didn't go into a lot of details about this story, partly because that friend was sitting in the congregation. But Emily has given me permission to begin sharing part of her story. But since Emily is such a great writer, I'll let you read her own words here.

If you just skipped over that link, believe me, you want go back and read what Emily wrote.

Yesterday I received an email from Emily telling me she couldn't limit herself to five for our Fave Five. She asked me if it's okay if she had ten, afterwards she listed her ten.
This is Andrew's story. This is Philip's story. When we first encounter Jesus, it's so life-changing and powerful that we must go share it with others. We can't keep it to ourselves.

What happens to us as the years go by? Why do we tend to become so self-centered, focusing upon Jesus and me? This is why if we're going to continue to focus upon connecting with unchurched people, I need to be investing in and empowering the newest Christ-followers among us.

My prayer for TFC today will be that God sends us more Andrews.

What you've just read is my SOAP journal entry of the day. Rather than keeping it hidden in my notebook, I wanted to share it with all of you.

Thoughts from Sunday

• The weekend kicked off on Saturday with the kids attending the new Veggie Tales movie, The Pirates who don't do Anything. We used the church budget to buy tickets for the kids and their friends. I know of several families who brought unchurched friends, which really pumps me up! There's nothing better than that!


• Sometimes when I'm sure my message will hit a home run, I bomb and fail to connect with people. Sometimes when I'm sure I'm about to strike out, I end up connecting. By Friday afternoon, I was pretty sure Sunday's message was going to hit home with people, which actually concerned me (my wife says that it's a matter of over-confidence vs. over-preparation). I took time each day last week to sit in the passage, letting the passage work on me and reveal what I needed to share with the church. I was talking about how John pointed people to Jesus, just as we point people toward Jesus. What jumped out at me were John's doubts about Jesus - Matthew 11:2-6 - as well as Jesus' graceful response. John's life shows us that it's possible to be working through doubts while at the same time, pointing people toward Jesus. I shared the story of my wife spending all night in the hospital room so as to be the presence of Jesus to the birth mom we'd been talking with. Really, really powerful.


• There are a several families facing some serious challenges right now. It causes me to pray hard for these families.


• We had our biggest group of kids ever on a Sunday morning! Pastor Andy was really pumped about it. This number was spiked by the 6 kids brought by a friend in which my wife has really been investing.


• Almost all of our new families over the past 6 months have been from unchurched families. It's really been amazing to see God bring these families to TFC. God obviously trusts our church!


• I unveiled (that word makes me sound like an incredible leader) our plan for investing in unbelievers in 2008; Fave Five (borrowed from T-Mobile commercials). I asked the congregation to begin thinking of five people they can help point toward Jesus in 2008. If you haven't decided on your Fave Five, be thinking and praying about it.


• I had the privilege of sharing the story of how getting SOAPed up is already helping people listen to God in 2008.


• Our trailer was loaded by 12:20, which is a new TFC record! Actually breaking our record of 12:25 from last Sunday. The reason for this record breaking speed? People are staying around to help tear down. I'm not exaggerating when I say this help has been awesome. Having so many people stay and help takes so much pressure off our set-up/tear-down crew as well as giving us more time to hang out together. This is going to become a habit for us.

Weightlifting Goals

My New Year's resolutions were to bench 3 plats on a side and squat 4. I took some significant steps in different directions toward those goals this week.Last Thursday I found out I'm just 15 pounds away from hitting the 3 plate goal on the bench. We usually do high volume work outs (5-8 reps) so I'm not really trained to focus all my strength into one lift, which lowers my one-rep max potential. But last week I went for a one-rep max anyway and repped out 305, the most I've done in years. I'm okay with the amount of weight but what makes me really happy is how I did it. Just as the weight came off my chest I lost momentum for some reason and the bar stopped moving. Months ago, that would've been the end of that attempt but I was able to recover and push the bar all the way up. That's hard to do and I'm more proud of that than the actual amount. Being able to recover is a better picture of my overall strength than simply a smooth lift. I built up this ability by doing a couple things: failing enough that I stopped being scared of failure, working on a "lock 0ut" exercise and doing enough volume in our workouts that I've built up a strong enough base from which I find strength reserves. I'm sure there's a life principle in there somewhere...

I've just gone down in my squat max, though, at least with the new way we're squatting. Jason just bought a squat box for our workouts. We used to just sit down far enough for our butts to touch the top of a bench (just below parallel) and then bounced back up, carrying our momentum throughout the entire lift. But now we're sitting all the way down on the box (again, just below parallel), stopping in a complete sitting position, before standing back up. This means we lose all momentum in the lift, making the return trip back up almost twice as hard. Last night was the first time we've tried it and it's going to take awhile to get my form down. Hopefully I'll have a quick learning curve because I tried less than 3 plates on a side and couldn't finish the lift. So, it's going to be awhile before hitting 4 plats, as I'd like. It's going to be more work but it will make me stronger in the long run. Again, I'm sure there's a life lesson in there somewhere...

Let's get SOAPed up!

This is our plan for listening to God through scripture in 2008.

S for Scripture: Open your bible to the day’s reading. Take time reading and allow God to speak to you. When you are done, look for a verse that particularly spoke to you that day and write it in your journal.

O for Observation: What do you think God is saying to you in this scripture passage? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and reveal Jesus to you. Paraphrase and write down the scripture passage in your own words.

A for Application: Personalize what you have read by asking yourself how it applies to your life right now. Perhaps it is instruction, encouragement, a promise, or correction for a particular area of your life. Write how this scripture passage can apply to you today.

P for Prayer: This can be as simple as asking God to help you use this scripture passage or it may be a greater insight on what He may be revealing to you. Remember, prayer is a two way conversation, so be sure to listen to what God has to say. Now, write it out.

This week's scripture passages
Monday: Mark 1:21-18
Tuesday: John 1:35-42
Wednesday: John 5:19-24
Thursday: Luke 10:1,3,17-4
Friday: Hebrews 1:1-12
Saturday: 1 John 4
Sunday: Matthew 3:12, 11:1-19, 14:1-12

Financial Peace University has begun!

Our FPU preview class was held last night at the King of Kings Lutheran church. I'm really excited about this class for several reasons. First of all, there were 28 different families that bought the packet and decided to go through the class. That means there are 28 more families in this area that will be able to make an impact for the Kingdom of God because they'll be learning how to (in Dave Ramsey's own words) "live like no one else so they can give like no one else." I'm thoroughly convinced that there is nothing better than intentionally living on less than we make so we can fulfill Jesus' expectation that his followers share with "the least of these."

I'm pumped that 7 families from TF are going through the class!

I'm pumped that a guy who played on our softball team was at the preview class last night. I talked with Dan, the pastor of KOK Lutheran and he said that guy began coming to church about 6 months ago. Coincidental, 6 months ago, Travis Theel invited him to play softball with us. It's really not a coincidence that the time he was hanging around church guys was also the time he decided to get back into church. We didn't win many games, but we pointed people toward the Kingdom!

I'm also pumped about a particular family that decided to take the class. I can't really share too many details, but it's nothing short of a miracle that they were even at the preview class together, let alone deciding to work on this area of their marriage!

God is at work in people's lives and we get to be a part of it!

Our gift to Water Partners

Yesterday was the last day we were collecting money for Water Partners International.
We've now raised a total of ..........................
$1,480!
Wow! That's awesome! That's generosity! That's our church living out the discipline of Sacrificial Giving. That's also bringing the Kingdom of God not only to our little corner of the world but a far-off corner of the world as well! We found ways to intentionally spend less on ourselves to serve people in Ethiopia who literally have almost nothing.
Days like this make me so proud of this church!

I'm also proud to say that TFC raised more money than the church pastored by my good friend, Russ Koelzer, Lifestream Christian. Russ was already to call me to brag that they'd raised more than us, but we ended up passing them.
Seriously, though, it's awesome to be able to come together with other churches in Gardner to transform our world. I love it!!!!

New Year's Resolutions

I'm doing it, for the first time ever, making a list of New Year's resolutions. These are things I've been seriously considering over the past couple months and I know that if I make them public I'll be held accountable.

Personal

• Jog 12 miles per week, although I need to fix my treadmill first
• Do my ab workout on the running off days
• Finally get to 3 plates on my bench press and 4 plates on my box squat
• Spend 3 hours per week in personal Bible study
• Begin studying French
• Attend some sort of coaching training event
• Read the Bible with my wife before going to bed
• Fast every week from Monday noon to Tuesday noon

Pastoral

I've decided it's time to stop worry about things that are out of my control and to actually let God be in control of His church. This means that I'm going to entrust God with growing TF numerically so I can focus on growing people. There are two groups of people in which I'll be investing most of my time: our Advisory Council and the unchurched people God has entrusted us with. With that in mind, here are my specific goals.

• Redesign the structure of our Advisory Council so we have leaders over each of the 5. Finish this by spring
• Personally invest in the new people who were previously unchurched (I have a list on my desk)
• Spend 3 hours per week in prayer for TF.
• Find more ways to emphasize the 5 during Sunday morning worship
• Read 1 chapter a day of a ministry related book.
• Equip the church for personal Bible study (coming this Sunday) or as the pastor from whom I heard of this plan called it, "develop a self-feeding program."
• Focus on our Fav Five (coming soon)
  

Barrenness

It's been a difficult few weeks for Erin and me. It seems like a lot of the emotion we've been holding in during the difficult past 6 months has started to come out. Even as unemotional as I am, I had a bit of an emotional breakdown over the Holidays when I was confronted with some of the grief I've been holding in. I know I'm being vague, but I just need to put out there that we've both been experiencing quite a bit of pain in relation to this whole struggle to be parents.

On New Year's Eve day, I read this passage from Habakkuk 3:17-19:

17 Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines;even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren;even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty,18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.

Here's a portion of my journal entry after reading that passage.
Little did we know, when 2007 began, the type of pain we'd experience this year.... But this passage gets right at what we've been feeling. Yes, things have been very hard, but God's very good! "Even though (we're still barren)... yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation."
Jesus, I don't feel so great about everything, but from my heart I can affirm this to be true. I love you. I've committed to you and I'm going to keep following you.

And then today, I read this line from Ezekiel 34:26, "I will bless my people and their homes around my holy hill. And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing. " I don't read this to mean God will send a stork to our front porch tomorrow morning. But I can stand on the assurance that God will give us what we need. He has the resources we need, not matter what we face. Even if his gives us the strength to deal with our loss when it seems that everyone around us have been blessed but we're still barren. God will send, in the proper season, the showers we need. I believe that and I stand upon that.