Home Sweet Home

After more than a year of looking and praying we finally found a home to purchase in Pine City! We actually found it about a month and a half ago and put an offer in on it, but it was rejected. We couldn’t afford to offer more and decided that either the timing was wrong or God had something else in store. Then last Monday our realtor called us and said they’d take our previous offer if it was still open!

So we’re set to close November 16 and move the following day (stop by and lend a hand if you’re in the area!) We are moving out of a wonderful log cabin we have been renting from a fantastic family in town. It has been a real blessing and we have used it a lot for ministry, including our new Connect small groups. Our dream, however, has been to live in town so that students can stop by more frequently and easily, as well as to minimize our own constant commuting back and forth. The house we are currently renting is about 6 miles out of Pine City and we typically run back and forth five to ten times a day or more.

Our new house on 9^th Street SW (just north of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church) is in a perfect location for us. There was a windstorm/tornado last month that wrecked the roofs of all the houses on the street. We asked for this house to be checked out. At first the current owner’s insurance company would only agree to replace a couple of shingles, but since they don’t make that shingle any more and can’t match it we’ll be getting an entirely new roof!

The house is in a great neighborhood with very friendly families, plus it’s in walking distance of both the elementary school and the junior/senior high school, not to mention Nelson’s grocery, Wal-Mart, and the new Journey North Church offices! We may not have to drive for days at a time – and with gas pushing $3 again that’s a very good thing. Plus I’ll be able to bicycle a lot more, as well, which is something I have missed while living out in the country.

The new house will also be very ministry-friendly, with plenty of room for small groups, a big back yard for cookouts, volleyball, and football, and an easily accessible location. God is so good!!

Boxes again

Now that we’re moving into town, I am once again on a search for boxes. If you live nearby and have access to boxes we could use I’d be most appreciative.

I was reminded recently of Jerry Seinfeld’s take on this topic:

To me, life boils down to one significant thing, it’s movement. To live is to keep moving. Unfortunately, this means that for the rest of our lives we’re going to be looking for boxes.

When you’re moving, your whole world is boxes. That’s all you think about. “Boxes, where are the boxes?” You just wander down the street going in and out of stores, “Are there boxes here? Have you seen my boxes?” It’s all you think about.

You could be at a funeral, everyone around you is mourning, crying, and you’re looking at the casket. “That’s a nice box. Does anybody know where that guy got that box? When he’s done with it, you think I could get it? It’s got some nice handles on it. My stereo would fit right in there.”

I mean that’s what death is, really — the last big move of your life. The hearse is like the van, the pall bearers are your close friends, the only ones you could really ask to help you with a big move like that. And the casket is that great, perfect box you’ve been looking for your whole life.

A Wonderful 13 and Counting

Rosalie and I are celebrating our 13th anniversary today. It's been an incredible adventure together and it seems like we have always been a part of each other's life. 13 is supposed to be an 'unlucky' number, but I know I'm the luckiest guy in the world to be married to such a wonderful woman!

We'll enjoy a nice dinner out and then come home to watch our Packers play tonight. Thirteen years ago the Packers also played on MNF two days after we wed, defeating the Bears in a 'mud-bowl'. Good memories all around!

Preview and MegaRally

It's Saturday night and I just got home from helping set up for our third (and next to last) preview service tomorrow at Pine Tech. I can't believe we'll be launching in just a month! It's so exciting to see everything come together.

Tomorrow night our junior and senior high Connect small groups go on the road as we head to Bethel University for this school year's first MegaRally with Heather Flies and Jeremiah and Vanessa Gamble. (Students leave from the church offices at 5 and return around 10 p.m.) They're doing the MegaRallies a bit different this year by combining the speaker talks with drama vignettes. It should be really cool - and it's only $3! I'm glad we live near enough to Bethel to be able to attend these.

Wow, what a week!

I'm exhausted! It's been an amazing week with tons of stuff happening (more on that later). I've had a least 5 major blog post ideas floating around in my head this week but just haven't had any time to write them up ('bad, bad blogger!')

One of my challenges is that I wait until I think of something that I think is 'blog worthy', but those posts tend to be longer. (Hey, if you're going to do something, do it right!) In the interests of keeping my blog up to date I will try to have several shorter posts. That will also help people find things they want to read about and skip those posts that don't interest them. I find myself that when I'm browsing the blogs I've subscribed to in Google Reader that I am much more likely to read the short posts than the long ones. If they're interesting, I'll save the long ones for later.

Anyway, if you're still reading this, let me recommend a blog for you to check out (see - it pays to stick around for the end!) Seth Godin's blog, creatively titled "Seth's Blog", is a great example of awesomely short posts with plenty of helpful content but brief and readable. If you don't know who Seth is, he's an author and... well, instead of me telling you, check out his blog! The funny thing is that he posted this yesterday on The Secret of Writing to Be Read:

Basically, short, simple sentences not only sell more books, but spread ideas farther and faster.

Good stuff!

Soggy Weather Doesn't Dampen Spirits at Fall Fling

Journey North's ignite students attended Fall Fling at Camp Shamineau this week and a fantastic time was had by all! In spite of the constant drizzling rain, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the retreat. Many tried out the climbing wall while others competed in the volleyball tournament. We all tried our hand at dodge ball, as well. Plus there was campfire donuts, worship, challenges from God's Word, crazy interactive skits, the Bus Dance, cribbage, a scavenger hunt, breakout discussions, pizza, more pizza, late night talks, and lots of great relationship building.

The thing that struck me about this year's retreat was the relaxed atmosphere among our group members. There was no worries about who was not getting along or which person was upset about what. Everyone just thoroughly enjoyed being together. Plus we had fantastic adult sponsors in Doug, Justin, and Pam! They all have an obvious love for kids and a desire to see them follow Jesus, and each one models that faith in their daily walk! I am truly privileged to serve with these guys!

I was particularly impressed by our students during the volleyball tournament. We defeated two teams fairly easily and headed toward the final match on Thursday night. Although we have some healthy competitive spirit, we also just enjoyed playing together. It was disheartening to realize that our opponents in the final match were... let's just say that they were less than gracious winners. We played our first game and realized that this team would challenge our abilities. As they began to score their attitude became more obnoxious. I actually think our team would have had a stronger showing during the first game but we were thrown by their attitude.

As we prepared for the second game Pam gave us a great pep talk about being good sports and being positive even when faced with the kind of negativity that came from the other team. (Let's just say Pam's motivational speeches during Fall Fling are becoming an annual highlight - I just wish they weren't necessary! She is a very competitive person and so her encouragement toward good sportsmanship and being a good witness is particularly powerful. What a great role model!)

Our second game was more closely contested - the final score being 22-20. The thing we noticed was that as we became more intentional about cheering on our opponents when they had a good hit or spike, their own negative attitudes diminished... somewhat. Although it was frustrating to lose to such a cocky team, I could not have been more proud of our students (and sponsors) and their attitudes throughout the evening!! Way to go, everyone!

A Sweep and a Retreat

Wow, it's been a busy week. We had a great Come Back Event at the Pizza Pub this past Sunday and just packed the place out! Our second Connect small group gathering Sunday night was awesome, as well, with even more students attending. All three Pine City Dragons FLAA teams (4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grades) won on Saturday and Rosalie’s mom is visiting so she was able to enjoy Jonah’s team’s first victory with us. Plus the Packers won Sunday! (Even the Vikings win meant that the Bears lost, which helped out the Pack!) All in all a great weekend.

Now I'm getting ready to take students to Fall Fling at Camp Shamineau over school break this Wednesday through Friday. We have almost all of our students attending and are looking forward to a great (if a little soggy) retreat together.

Weird Requests

Do you ever wonder what goes through a kid's mind? Jordan came up to me a few minutes ago and asked, "Can I learn a foreign language on the internet?" That was an intriguing enough request in itself and I'm guessing he's looking at Spanish, French or German - one of the more common foreign languages, you know. The answer to my follow-up question was even more interesting.

"What language?" asked I.

"Portuguese."

"Portuguese? So are you going to be a missionary to Brazil or something?"

"Sure." He says, figuring it will get me to say yes.

Where does he come up with this stuff?

Students CONNECT for the first time!

After a few hours Sunday afternoon to recuperate from the great morning worship services we launched our first Connect small groups for students last night. We had a wonderful turnout and a great time sharing and fellowshipping together! Almost every student from Journey North was there, along with our first guest/newcomer! We spent some time sharing and casting the vision for the small group ministry before breaking into smaller cell groups for sharing and prayer. Next week we dive into our new study, Starting, the first six-week session of the Life Together student edition small group curriculum developed by Doug Fields and Brett Eastman.

Students also voted on the final name for Journey North student ministries. We had taken a poll earlier and narrowed it down to four finalists. Last night we settled on the new name: ignite! Now we can work on developing a logo for the ministry. (Anyone out there have some graphics skills and free time to give us a hand? I love to do this sort of thing and have some ideas but not the technical skill or software to pull it off.)

Another Awesome Weekend

Wow! Monday are often exhausting and depressing, especially coming after a big weekend of ministry. Not today. I'm exhausted, sure, but excited and energized about the amazing ways God continues to bless the ministry at Journey North!

We started with our second Preview Service(s) yesterday morning. What a joy it is to gather together with these people! We had good friends from Ripon, Wisconsin - the Hansons - visiting us for the weekend. They came to the first service yesterday and commented that they now understood why we were enjoying this ministry so much - there's a relaxed spirit and everyone is having fun worshiping and ministering together! That’s exactly it for me. It’s such a joy to gather together each week!

We had made some changes to the way things were set up at Pine Tech and it worked wonderfully – better than we could have dreamed! Thanks to all who helped make the weekend so great! And especially thanks for the ongoing prayers for our ministry as we seek to reach the great Pine City area and help point people toward Jesus Christ.

Secret Prayer Alert

Wow, what a great week. We're busy getting ready for our second preview service at Pine Tech this Sunday, plus we're launching junior and senior high Connect small groups on Sunday night. But right now I wanted to ask friends of Journey North Church to be praying extra over the next week. God has provided in hundreds of ways through so many people and incredible circumstances. Now there's some potential additional provision that would just be incredible - but I can't give any details just yet! (Don't you hate that!)

I remember when I was a kid I would go to prayer meetings with my parents and often someone would ask for prayer for an 'unspoken request'. I always thought that was kind of goofy, even though I knew that God knew the request. It still seemed odd to be praying for something you didn't know about (plus it really made me want to know what the request was!!!) Sorry to do that to you, but I will let you know that it is potentially really cool and we're just praying that God would guide the leadership as we make decisions. More later, but for now - as God brings us to mind - please pray! Thanks!

Podcast Review: What Do We Really Believe?

John Ortberg, senior pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and former teaching pastor at Willow Creek, is my all-time favorite preacher/speaker/teacher/author and never disappoints. I love the way he uses language and crafts his messages, plus his theological acumen is astounding. He can take complicated theological concepts and put them into very easy to understand terms.

He spoke recently on the topic of belief and a peoples Core Values (What Do We Really Believe? 6/24/07). His main point is that a person's behavior is the best indicator of what they truly believe. (This is something our lead pastor, Tim, has been talking about for a long time. Now I know where John gets his ideas from!)

Here are some clips:

Now, two people affirm the same statements. One man is humble and loving and truthful, surprisingly bold, full of life, and everybody wants to be around this guy. The other man affirms the same beliefs, but he's selfish, angry, judgmental, kind of cold-hearted, gossips about folks, proud, and nobody wants to be around him.

Here's the question: Do these two people share the same faith? Do they really believe the same things, and if they do, why are they so different?

But the real question that this is getting at is:

If faith is so important - if it's such a big deal to God that we actually say that we're saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8) - faith alone - then why does faith sometimes not seem to make a bigger difference in people's lives?

How can two people have the same faith but be so different? Why doesn't faith make a bigger difference in my life?

Later on he says:

But here's what often happens in our day. In our day, we try to get people to trust Jesus for eternity - to get them into Heaven - but without learning to trust Him for their daily lives. As a matter of psychological reality, this just does not work. It reduces people who say that they trust Jesus, and who might even think that they trust Jesus, but what they do will show they do not share His ideas about the way things really are and the way life really works. And, therefore, they are not able to live the way that Jesus would live in their place. We cannot live in the way that Jesus would live if we do not share at the Core level His convictions about the way things really are.

Excellent and highly recommended. (You can download it directly from Menlo Park's website, or subscribe to the podcast through iTunes!)

The “We’re In, You’re Out” Mentality

There's a fascinating discussion going on at the Leadership Journal's Out of Ur blog on evangelicalism and emerging theology. I guess it's really only fascinating if you're into deep philosophical/theological type discussions, but I found it interesting. Two paragraphs in David Fitch's article particularly resonated with me:

I believe one weakness in evangelicalism that the emerging church is responding to is evangelicalism's excessively rationalist approach to truth and salvation that birthed a stubborn "we're in/you're out" mentality. There has been an impulse in evangelical fundamentalism towards (a) an intolerant judgmental exclusivism, (b) an arrogant, even violent, certainty about what we do know, and (c) a hyper-cognitive gospel that takes the mystery out of everything.

Many of us grew up with this. This was most obvious in the way we made hell the selling point of the gospel. We said if you do A and B, you’ll be pardoned from sin and escape hell. Those who do not do A or B are going to hell. We built an apologetic that defended this to prove to people outside the church they were doomed. It came off arrogant, coercive, unloving, and indeed antithetical to the very nature of the gospel. In a world of democratic pluralism, the gospel's witness became shut off, dispassionate, and downright sectarian. It became impossible to represent such a gospel as "good news."

While I don't consider myself 'emerging' and certainly not 'emergent', I think these insights are very accurate. How often have we presented the Good News as nothing more than 'fire insurance' and then we wonder why people believe they're 'safe' and don't have to actually follow Jesus and become more like him! Does this help explain the existence of so-called 'Christians' who think being arrogant and critical are examples of discernment and spiritual maturity?
And we wonder why Christianity has such a bad reputation.