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Kristie Henry, our graphic designer has done a great job with getting artists to submit visual art for this next series.  Here’s one from Kyle of Amy Carmichael.

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Yesterday we had our yearly planning day for Merge (young couples/young singles group).  We evaluated everything we did this past year and talked about the good and the bad.  We decided to keep going with what we think is our strongest point and that is simply becoming a place where community can happen.  So our goal is for Merge to be “A Gateway To Spiritual Community and Service.”

What this means practically is that, instead of becoming a place  where we have a bunch of in depth theological teachings, we are going to be a gateway to Riv U and the classes that we are offering though that.  Instead of doing a bunch of teaching on serving, we are going to invite various ministry leaders to come to Merge and share their testimony and hearts for their ministry and hopefully people will want to jump in there.

There aren’t many healthy post-collage age groups that we know of in the Lansing area and we are still trying to figure out how to do this so if you have been involved in this type of ministry before and have suggestions, we’d love to hear them.

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Thanks to Drew for this Shaeffer quote. Remember his quote was given a few decades ago and some might not find some of his wording very PC.

“Don’t start with a big program. Don’t suddenly think you can add to your church budget and begin. Start personally and start in your home. I dare you. I dare you in the name of Jesus Christ. Do what I am going to suggest. Begin by opening your home for community…

How many times in the past year have you risked having a drunk vomit on your carpeted floor? How in the world, then, can you talk about compassion and about community - about the church’s job in the inner city?

L’Abri is costly. If you think what God has done here is easy, you don’t understand. It’s a costly business to have a sense of community. L’Abri cannot be explained merely by the clear doctrine that is preached; it cannot be explained by the fact that God has here been giving intellectual answers to intellectual questions. I think those two things are important, but L’Abri cannot be explained if you remove the third. And that is there has been some community here. And it has been costly.

In about the first three years of L’Abri all our wedding presents were wiped out. Our sheets were torn. Holes were burned in our rugs. Indeed once a whole curtain almost burned up from somebody smoking in our living room. Blacks came to our table. Orientals came to our table. Everybody came to our table. It couldn’t happen any other way. Drugs came to our place. People vomited in our rooms, in the rooms of Chalet Les Melezes which was our home, and now in the rest of the chalets of L’Abri.

How many times has this happened to you? You see, you don’t need a big program. You don’t have to convince your session or board. All you have to do is open your home and begin. And there is no place in God’s world where there are no people who will come and share a home as long as it is a real home.”

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A couple weeks ago, I gave a sermon on hospitality and I asked the question to our members “how would you feel if everyone you knew was talking about you behind your back?” The answers were all things like “angry”, “sad”, “upset” etc… And then I talked about Roman’s 12 where we are supposed to “outdo one another in showing honor.” And so what if everyone was saying positive things about you. The world would tip over I think.

Anyway, it’s easy to gossip. It’s easy to get little digs in at people, but it’s really hard to rank yourself lower than others. It’s hard to push people past yourself. But that is what we are called to do as people who follow Jesus.

Ironically, Noel just found a quote by atheist Bertrand Russell.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
- Bertrand Russell

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I love my job. I get up in the morning and can’t believe that I get the chance to help pastor a church, lead the music ministry, develop young leaders and be a part of everything that God is doing here at Riverview. Sometimes people are envious of the job and can’t believe that I get to go into the studio and make an album for the church, or spend time arranging a hymn for corporate worship. I have to say though, that there are a lot of hard things that come with the territory.

We all know that have right doctrine (and more importantly living right doctrine) is key to following Jesus in a corporate way. After that though, there is not a ton of instruction on our corporate worship.

We know this about church gatherings (and a few other things):
1. Should probably include prayer.
2. Should be overseen, by overseers (elders).
3. Should probably have some teaching.
4. Should probably not be out of control for the sake of unbelievers.

Now, there are more principles that you might be able to extrapolate from Scripture, but you aren’t going to find God speaking into style and methodology that much.

And so now we get to a place where a lot of people have come to know Jesus and our mission gets larger because more people are reaching more people. That’s good. That’s what’s going on at Riverview.

The hard part comes when the nature of your ministry changes and roles need to change with leaders. All of the elders had their job description changed this year in order to more effectively use our gifts. We’ve also had to ask some other leaders in the church to adjust their roles. All of this can be really hard and at the same time, I’m very encouraged by the reaction of these leaders to serve the church in any way possible. It’s very cool.
Hard, but cool.

Please keep praying for us that we make decisions that help us use our resources in the most effective ways.

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I can’t wait for St. Patty’s Day next year. It’s always a good time.

Oh wait, and it’s also our wedding anniversary…

Oh, and almost forgot, our kid’s due that day too…

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I’m not married
I’m not a father
I’m not a pastor,

never preached a sermon

I don’t have a degree in anything
I don’t like sushi
I don’t mind Zima
I call my dad for advice
I don’t have chest hair

So what about you?

Well…

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I really like this from Ben Arment

Jesus gets in your business. To welcome him is to invite agonizing and self-demolishing life-change. For the average church-goer, the conviction is almost too much to bear. So we look for someone who might take his place in order to construct an easier form of Christianity.

Enter the pastor.

Whenever people come into our church, I’m aware that some of them already have a job description for me in their heads. My teaching is expected to supplant their time in the word. My prayers are expected to sustain them. My pastoral care is expected to comfort them. And my personal interaction is expected to please them.

I quit that job.

My job is to decrease so that Jesus can increase.

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When I go out in public

I
am
recognized

Some people I’ve met
And forgotten
Some people I haven’t-
But I feel bad
anyway

I sit down at a restaurant
And they know that
I like

Tiramisu

Or

Bacon

Sometimes, I forget to comb my hair
Or I have
“kid crumbs”
on my shirt

And I’m not

Puttogether

And I wonder,
More than I should,
What do people think?

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