The Between Journey

I tweeted yesterday that I would put details to this Saturday’s service opportunity on the blog before the end of the day.  I should have said within 24 hours.

This Saturday, a group headed by Corey Whitaker will be trekking to Tacoma to work with Need-A-Break-Services.

The project:  Here is what Need-A-Break-Services says about it…

“Saturday, August 22nd, we are putting on a major volunteer project for a neighbor of yours, here in Tacoma. She has some major repairs needed and cannot take care of it on her own, despite working 2 jobs and struggling to remain stable. Work includes: demolishing and disposing of a broken down garage, replacement of wooden steps, major plumbing repair, plaster repairs and painting.”

Plan on meeting around 8:20 and leaving the NW Church building at 8:30 a.m.  The group will return around 5:00, perhaps even have dinner together after that.

Come be a part of making a difference in someone’s life…

To be around other leaders makes all the difference.

There are lots of amazing things going on in the Kingdom of God these days, and the Willow Creek Leadership Summit is one place to get a handle on certain aspects of God’s action in the world.   Over 20 of us from the NW Church were at Westminster Chapel in Bellevue this past Thursday-Friday to attend the simulcast of the Chicago event.  We were challenged, inspired, upbraided, and rebuked.  At the end of the two days, many of us left knowing that God was calling us to take hold of the gifts of leadership that He’s given us, and get to work doing what He’s calling us to do, individually and as a church.

There were many things that hit home, and for me personally, I’ve been spending some time thinking and blogging about them over at my website, (check there for my thoughts on the various speakers and their major themes), and this morning, as we met as a staff, we talked about what we learned and what we are taking away from the Summit that will impact our life here at Northwest.   One suggestion came from Chip and Dan Heath’s Session on their upcoming book “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard.”  They recommend organizations look for “bright spots”, things that are going well in the group, and after figuring out why they are working well, to work to replicate that success.

We often talk about what isn’t going as well as we’d like.  Here’s a question: what is going really well?  And how do we replicate it?

Here’s another interesting idea:  Chip and Dan were asked if they were faced in leading a church with 9 different ministries, and 2 of them were failing, 5 were doing OK, and 2 were going great guns, where would they put their energy and time.  They both said they would ignore the two that were failing, and they would also ignore the 5 that were doing OK.  They said they’d put their energy into the 2 successful ministries, trying to discern why they were successful and the working hard to replicate that success.  It reminded of Marcus Buckingham’s work on strengths, that the greatest opportunity for growth is not in the areas of our weakness, but is rather in the areas of our strengths.

So here’s the question again: what are the ministries that you feel are working well?  What is making them succeed?   And how do we replicate those?

As I said, we came away challenged and motivated and excited to do the discover the work that God is doing in this place.  Ross and Ally Harmon are great additions to our time (it only took one staff meeting to figure that out for sure), and no doubt the same will be true of Chris and Kim Goldman, who arrive this week for his new work as Preaching Minister and Catalyst Leader.

These are exciting times at the Northwest Church…

Pray for us, and join us…The Between Journey continues…

I love the light in the forest...

Well, I’m back from the adventures of Family Camp.  It had been a long time since I’d been to a camp of any kind, and I must say–it was good for me.  The quiet, the study, the walks, the conversations with people I hadn’t talked to much before.  I heard great stories, ate good food, got a bit of sun and beauty.  Everybody needs camp sometimes.   It’s easy to imagine how many lives have been changed up at Pleasant Valley Christian Camp at the base of Mt. Rainier.

Early Morning Sun

Along the Road

Discussing Jeff's Meddlesome Questions

Still discussing...

For those of you who aren’t on Twitter yet, consider it.  If you want to get a sense of what’s happening in real time around here (as well as with other people on your “important” list), go to www.twitter.com, get an account and then search for “nwchurch.”    When you find us, just click “follow” and you’re done.   You can program your cell phone to receive our tweets, or you can just follow along on your desktop or laptop.

This is a tool that we’ll be using more and more.  Fad or not, just now, it’s a communication tool that is gaining steam.   Let’s stay in touch in all the ways we can.

Peace…

Something’s afoot…

“Bring a Lunch & Park it”

Meet at Paramount Park on 155th and 8th at 1pm with your lunch, blanket, and favorite outdoor game.

Be prepared for some casual yet competitive soccer.

Kids are welcome…there’s even a playground!

Get the word out.

Both Psalms and Proverbs say it plainly: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

“The fear of the Lord” is something we should talk about more often.  We go to great pains to explain that we don’t really mean “fear” as in “being afraid” because the word implies things like respect and awe and wonder.   Frankly, here is where I find language so limiting.

Last night, at our film and theology group, we talked about a PBS/BBC film called God on Trial, in which Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz put the person responsible for their suffering on trial–namely, God.   The arguments are wide-ranging in the film, powerful on both sides.  But as we talked about God and his nature last night, wrestling with Romans 9 (I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy), it struck me that “fear” is not such a bad word.   Our language betrays us sometimes, shrinks this colossal God of ours down to human size.  There is a sense, of course, in which Jesus did exactly that, became human to give us that exact representation of the Father in a fashion that we could grasp more easily, more fully.  But our conversation last night simply reminded me again that we follow a God who infinitely larger than our language allows.

Philosophically, we would say that ontology precedes ethics.  What this means is that when we come into the presence of God, our initial sensation will be one of His Being rather than His love.  Whenever God or an angel shows up in both the Old and New Testaments, the initial response is not warm and fuzzy, but is usually along the lines of “Be not afraid” implying that the person witnessing the arrival is indeed afraid.

I take the statement “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” to mean that our acknowledgment of the presence and being of God is the first step in any real knowledge and wisdom.  Because a step in any other direction must, by definition, be in the wrong direction and flawed.

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him…

So this was the assignment from our sermon time:  You’ve been cast in a play, and are playing the role of “The Wise.”  Your director has instructed you to use Proverbs as the primary source of understanding your character.   Write a character description of “The Wise.”   Pay attention to verbs and attitudes.

Use the comment section to report what you discover.

Let’s build a great description of “The Wise.”

Get wisdom, though it cost all you have…

Just in case anybody wants to see the lyrics from the song I did last Sunday summarizing the Jesus Lab:

Also, you can hear the song at the front of part of the sermon podcast here.

I’D LIKE TO LEARN

He fed the crowds, and sometimes healed them
He saw their hearts, loved ‘em just as they were
He’d seek ‘em out, and when he found ‘em
He sometimes wept, and then he often made it right.

I want someone to teach me
How to walk the way he did
To reach into the heart of life
And change the way it’s lived
I want someone to teach me
To love just like the King
Never walking away,
Never leaving behind
Never failing, never lost
I want to learn.

He found a few, and called their names
Said I’ll teach you how to find the ones dying for the vine
He trained ‘em hard, He trained ‘em strong
Then he sent ‘em out, Powered up
With nothing short of love

He embraced, he inspired
Seized the moment every time
Listened like he really cared
Gave up every dime
He made it clear just who was blessed
And where the judgments fell
Challenged every power
Sent demons off to—well,

He sometimes paused, and listened hard
While that Spirit he called Holy said a word
Some days I think he’s pausing to take a look at me
To see if I need finding, to wake me from my sleep

‘Cause he’s trying hard to teach me
How to walk the way he did
To reach into the heart of life
And change the way it’s lived
I want someone to teach me
To love just like the King
Never walking away,
Never leaving behind
Never failing, never lost
Never failing to love
I want to learn.

The verb is to love.  It’s so counter-intuitive to realize that love is, at its heart, about something other than our self.   The cultural use of the word is almost completely about romance and the feelings we get when there’s some kind of connection with person that attracts us.   And yet, we know that this is not at all what the biblical writers meant when they used the word.   Eros is the Greek word for the romantic kind of thing that permeates our thinking, but as many of you know, agape is the Greek word that comes closer to what the Christ was all about.

My study in preparation for Sunday led me to some deep places in my thought about God.  The love of God is the core of life, really.  Scripture says we live and move and have our being in Him.  All is grace, and by that I simply that we arrive on the planet by no planning or strength of our own.   And while we have choice and action and significance and a certain kind of power, it is still the grace of God that allows us to function as we do.  His love is the breath of all things, and some believe that even the cruelty of death and suffering cannot escape the touch of that love.

Ann McKay was finally released from this life Wednesday morning.   She has suffered for the past year, waiting for grace to release her.  She is now in the presence of God, and knows His love no doubt differently than we do, being that much closer to it.   We cannot fathom the reasons life unfolds as it does.  God has His own reasons that are impenetrable in the end, but still we long to understand.  We love in order to find God.  We seek Him in the face of the other.  We walk in faith that His love is somehow traveling through us, changing us, rescuing us and the world.

What we will see Sunday morning as we go through the finale of the Jesus Lab is that there is a single move in loving that is so counter-intuitive, so unexpected, and so dynamic, that it is easily missed and rejected by the vast majority of the world.   In fact, it seems absurd.   You could almost say that God has hidden the secret of love in plain sight, and made it so amazing that few can believe it.

Come Sunday, and hear the single move of love that unleashes its power.

Do you know what it is?

Just a word to thank you all for this past Sunday’s experience.  I had been chasing down the sermon through the week, and the time just wasn’t there to linger as long as I wanted to.  But God inevitably helps in ways that are inexplicable, and the worship makes all the difference.  In both services, it seemed that we were plugged in to worship more than we’ve been in recent weeks, and it was real lift.  I especially want to thank all those who were in second service for singing as loudly as you did.  Perhaps it shouldn’t matter, but the effort you gave lifted my spirit considerably, and as we sang “God of This City”, my sense was that many of you had taken my prompt seriously, and were thinking, imagining just what God might do if we were to give Him full reign over our lives.

Don’t forget…this Sunday evening, a night of A Cappella and fellowship, beginning with ice cream and watermelon at 5:45 (interesting start time, don’t you think?) and singing and worship around 6:15.

See you there…