To get where we want often times takes pain

"The truth is, sometimes the good plan he has for our lives is to make us look more like him, which more often than not takes pain."  - Jefferson Bethke

I am currently reading Jefferson's book "Jesus > Religion! The above quote got my mind twirling with many thoughts, that I would love to share. 

My thoughts led to having that perfect 6 pack chiseled abs. Or those nice toned muscles. They are so hard to get; and for me I might have gotten to a 2 pack abs once in my life. The known process for an individual to get to this point; they must suffer to get to this end goal. One of the ways they suffer, is that they have to continue ripping muscles. Ouch! Though, once ripped, the muscles grow back even stronger than they were before! Another way that they suffer is that they cut out unhealthy food! The Cheetos, pizza, ice-cream, etc. have to go and is usually replaced with things like spinach, cranberries, and organic food...That sounds a lot like emotional suffering...Though, if we are to get to the end goal of having toned muscles or a 6-pack; then we must be willing to cut away things that are harmful and choose to deal with the pain!

The same thing I am finding out as I am living out my Christian walk. I must choose to cut things out of my life that are not healthy for my walk with God and replace them with healthy things. I also have to learn to grow through the pains of trial and error; and through pains of storms and situations in my life. That way, after the hard times leave; I will be stronger in Jesus! 

We are told that we are to live Christ-like lives...When I was younger I thought that it was a command we needed to do, just like a chore...

Now where I am in my life; it is not even close to that of a chore or just something I need to do to fulfill this command. I desire to grow my relationship with Jesus! You might think that I might sound sick and twisted; but I am starting to enjoy the bad times in my life. I know what my relationship with Jesus feels like, after the pain of circumstances is lifted. I was a runner for most of my teen and college years, and I would compare my feelings to that of a runner's high. A runner gets to a point where he actually loves running and enjoys it! I have gone through so many frustrating circumstances and storms; that I actually look forward to the my stronger version in Jesus appearing afterwards! It is really something to have my savior going through the storm with me, loving me, teaching me, and growing me in His love and His Word! 

As I tell my friends when storms arise, we search God out more in the storms than when everything is calm around us. Now, I have an extra thought to storms in our lives. The thought that through the pain, we can grow stronger in Jesus and our love for Him! 

Yes, that's right we are close to announcing our plans for Vacation Bible School! Unlike past years, we are planning to be well-planned and set a great foundation to one of our strongest year events. Around the beginning of the year, the above logo will be sent out as a magnet on an invitation card to families. This will be close to seven months out; but it also will be around the time that families start planning their summer vacations and activities! Also this gives our leaders, and soon to be leadership team plenty of time to start thinking of how we can make this year's VBS better than the last! Lots of planning over the next 8 1/2 months...

Community does not exist where there is no unity! At least, not to the potential that it should. Our churches should be a place that grasps true community; and makes unity its prime focus.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. Many churches fight with other churches. Within churches, we find small quarrels and disagreements. Christians have disagreements and never resolve them.

We as Christian's tend to fight over preferences; preferences that ultimately distract us from our purpose of sharing Jesus. We want our tradition and the way we have always had it; more than we want to see people coming to faith in Jesus. We get caught in a trap of what can the church do for us; instead of how we can be part of the church. One of my favorite observations of lately has been conflicts among classes; the same classes that are going through a series called "When Relationships Collide" a series about conflict. Funny how many times in the midst of our conflicts; that God is relevant and trying to speak out and we miss it.

What would happen if our churches; would start rebuilding its unity? Then we might just see more churches building strong Christ-focused and Christ-led communities; that focused on bringing people to Jesus. Now that is why the church exists, why the church is supposed to be a community, and why we are to be unified!

Fish Stories!

I caught my first fish when I was a young kid; and boy, was it a big one! A 17 inch beautiful rainbow trout. It was the first day of trout fishing and they tend to stock many of the streams in Pennsylvania where I grew up. On that day, kids under a certain age were able to fish in those streams. I still have the picture today as to proof of what I caught.

One of the things about fishing; is "fish stories." The stories that keep getting bigger and bigger...I have probably told a fish story or two in the last few years. In fact, I have probably heard plenty of stories over the past few years. When I was in God's Word; something crossed my mind. Peter or maybe James or John were catching up with some old friends and family; and they started telling stories of Jesus. And I can just picture some of these people responding back to the disciples; "Wow, and I thought your fish stories were crazy!" Think about it. If the disciples shared their stories with people.

"Well, there was this time that we were on the Sea of Galilee and we were about to be lost at sea; and Jesus stood up and talked to the storm and it went away!"

"Or there was this time that we had left Jesus and were out in the boat; and all of the sudden we saw Jesus walking on the water toward us. Oh, and of course Peter had to give it a try and almost found himself on the bottom of sea."

"And what about when the people listening to Jesus started getting hungry; and Jesus turned 5 loaves and 2 fishes into a mass meal that fed thousands!"

The stories would go on and on of Jesus' miracles, and Jesus' stories, and Jesus' life lessons. That I wonder if people scratched their heads and wonder if these were just "fish stories" or if Jesus was the real deal! Same thing today; some people have said the Bible is just a storybook. While others have realized that Jesus was and is God-flesh that had lived among men!

A New Kind of Racism...

Well, not exactly a new kind of racism; it has actually been around for awhile. I'll get to describing this new form of racism, but let me set this up. When reading the Bible, I see that there are many forms of racism implied.

First, God did set his nation Israel apart. So at times; we can see that the nation of Israel is segregated from the rest of the world. Circumcision, not eating ham, and other rules that God gave His people seemed to place His people even farther apart from the world. Though, God was doing this to set up the Messianic bloodline so that he could send His Son into the world to redeem it. In a way, we can see that God designed His people "not to be of the world" so to speak. In fact, when we accept God; He calls us to live a different life than that we lived before Salvation.

Another implied form of racism we find in the Bible; was between the Jews and the Samaritans. When we read Scripture, it does not take long to see that they hated each other! Why? Well, the Jews were full-blooded Jews; while the Samaritans had intermarried into the world. Jesus went through Samaria. He communicated and interacted with Samaritans, and even offered them salvation!

In our own American history; during the 1800's, we fought a civil war over slavery. In the 1900's, we fought segregation of blacks and whites. Expressing that each man is equal in the eyes of God, and should be the same to man.

Christians should hate racism! Whether it was Jew vs. Samaritan or Black vs. White...

Though, Christians, can be racists themselves! I call it Church People vs. Un-churched People...

I have seen this a lot within our churches and society. The excuse many times is that we are not to be of the world...the problem with that is that we hide our lights under a bushel and that bushel is called the church!

We set the table for people like us, those that are of like faith, those who dress like us, those who act and talk like us. Our churches grow only when either like people come or we convert a person to our way of doing church. Now, I should mention I am all up for doing church in the way Scripture says to do it; but when we start adding tradition as what Scripture says, I get fired up. I have seen churches that have done Bible checks at the door to see if you had a King James Bible! Churches that have a dress code where people stop coming because they felt like their best didn't match the code! I see groups of church people that talk to each other week after week, but never connect with a new person! Music, dress, church talk, versions of the Bible, tradition in general; can hinder an unchurched person from connecting to a church and hearing about Jesus.

What should saddened us as Christians?

1. When we realize that we don't communicate with people that don't know Jesus! When we look around and all we have done is surround ourselves with Christians. Not that surrounding ourselves with Christians is wrong; but when we don't have connections to share Jesus with people then we have a problem...

2. When people that you have known for years finds out that you go to church! If we never talk about Jesus, the Word, church, etc. we are not living out what Jesus asked us as Christians to do.

3. When personal preferences and church tradition keeps a church from reaching out and growing!

4. When we see that unchurched people are right about the church! We are just a bunch of self-righteous people that are a bunch of hypocrites; that need Jesus.

I'll finish my thoughts with this: Is there a difference between church people and unchurch people? Absolutely no difference between the two; except, for one main factor that separates a true follower of Jesus and someone that does not follow Jesus. The grace of God! Church people are sinners! Unchurched people are sinners! We are the same! BUT the grace of God is the only thing that separates us; and that grace of God is for all people, churched and unchurched.

My Testimony of Accepting Jesus!

Church Planting, Now That Excites Me!

Church planting is something that drives warm blood into my veins! I love meeting church planters, I love visiting church plants, I love reading and taking classes on church planting, and one day I desire to be a major influence in a church plant. Though, today, I am stoked to meet church planters and helping them in anyway I can. I desire to continue to learn off of them and let those times refuel my heart and passion for the places I am serving in. Why? Because many times when a church is established, it can become content and non-effective. Granted, just like marriage; our churches should never lose sight of it's first love and the way that it acted in the beginning!

A church plant brings us back to why the church exists. A church plant struggles and claws at establishing itself within the community. A church plant loves the community and encourages the people to be very involved within that community. A church plant is driven with passion and excitement; it has to or it will soon fade out. A church plant has vision and purpose.

Church planting is the key to the future of the church, we have far less church plants than churches that are closing their doors! If you are part of a church plant; keep plugging away, loving on people and sharing Jesus. If you are in an established church; but know of a church plant in the area, help them out in any way that you can! Pray for the church plants in your area; that they grow and point people to Jesus! Pray for our churches to regain the fire of living out lives fully devoted to Jesus; and continue to be an impact in their community! I LOVE CHURCH PLANTING!

Called Out Conference

Man, what an awesome weekend! A weekend that I really needed. It started off on a rough note. On the way down to the conference; we had two cars in the left lane almost run us off the road. Then we also got lost and drove all over southern Wisconsin. The rest of the weekend was amazing.

The worship team was brilliant. It was made up of two electric guitars, two acoustic guitars, two vocals, drums, and bass. The sets were energetic and heart-led. One of the songs, We Won't Relent, became my new favorite worship song! The breakout sessions were energetic and focused on Jesus and what the church is supposed to be. Nate Ray did a great job of communicating and relating with the students.

On Saturday, we visited a church plant an hour away from our base camp. Paul shared his heart and love for church planting. He sent out students north, south, east and west in the town; just to observe and report what they saw in the communities. The students did a great job of making observations and asking questions about church planting.

The week was amazing, I needed it. I enjoyed meeting come new friends from Chicago; and playing basketball with them. I needed a new song on my heart. And I needed to renew my heart for the community!

Harvest Fest: a successful community outreach!

This year we hosted our 4th annual Harvest Fest and boy was it a God led outreach! We estimate that within three hours; we had about 250-300 people at the event! On paper, the breakdown was 34 leaders and 34 members/kids; and 197 visitors that at least had registered. Then there was some unregistered people that were not on paper. What led to this? Well, lots of word of mouth, Facebook, newspaper, internet searches, tv broadcast, and the rain. Not sure how some of the word got out to the tv and other sources, because we did not contact some of those places. So between that and the rain; it was God driven!

This is monumental to our church; we are only about 6 years old and I have been only there for 3 of those years. In the history of Graceway; this is the largest outreach event/event that we have ever done! Which is good, because since the beginning of forming the church it has been slowly declining. Most of our leaders this year were new; and we even had a few children volunteers. The volunteers maintained their areas, stayed positive, and were by far the best group of volunteers to work with! 

When you read the Gospels; you will see that Jesus many times fed the people or met their needs and then showed them who He was. That is what we are tying to practice in our community! Hopefully, that we continue reaching out to the community and sharing the love of Jesus!