New Life Assembly

Here we go again...

What a weekend!  Spring finally broke and it was warm (actually hot yesterday), the sun was out, we had baseball opening day for Jacob, a great service yesterday, and it was also a nice weekend for watching Boston sports.

To the important stuff first, before I get a few thoughts in on the sports...I finally felt like I found my groove again preaching yesterday.  We were back to the topic of redemption, and I shared my thoughts on leadership in the community of the people that God has redeemed.  We started in 2 Samuel with God's promise to David, wandered through the passage in John 10 where Jesus applies the "shepherd" term to himself, and finally landed in 1 Peter 5 where Peter writes to the other elders that they need to shepherd the people God has entrusted to their care.

It was a good reminder for me of my responsibilities as a pastor to our community of people God has redeemed (otherwise known as the church), and hopefully a good challenge to the rest of us to listen when the leader speaks.  I promise to do my best to lead well in the way that Peter challenged pastors to lead. I hope that there will be others willing to follow along as we go where God wants our church to go in its impact on our community. 

If you're reading for a recap, and need a reminder, I definitely need help leading our church.  As we're growing, it's becoming more critical for us to have good, godly leaders in place, and I definitely think that's an important "next step" for us.  So if you felt God speaking to you in that regard yesterday, definitely make some time to talk to me about it.  Next week I'm going to kick off a three week series on handling our money in a way that reduces our worry, and aligns our resources with the work of God's kingdom.  I haven't done too much teaching on finances in my time here, so it'll be both a challenge for me, and for those listening I'm guessing it might get you thinking at the very least...

I was wiped out after service yesterday - I think I've been battling allergies and a cold for the last week or so, and it's been killing my energy.  But instead of taking a nap I foolishly decided to watch the Celtics game - I got sucked in and never slept (or had coffee, bad idea) before we went out to dinner with some friends.  Great dinner, great conversations, and Rita and I really enjoyed a night out without kids - definitely something we need to do better with.

The only downside of the Boston sports weekend was that the Celtics lost the 2 OT thriller to the Bulls yesterday. Three of the four games in that series have been instant classics, and it's been fun to watch some pretty good play by both teams - clutch performances and amazing finishes.  I'm more impressed than ever with Rajon Rondo.  I think the C's win this series in 7, and maybe find a way to win the next series, but I think they'll be done after that.

Sox sweep the Yankees, beating them every which way - the dramatic, walkoff win on Friday after tying the game off the greatest closer in baseball history.  A crazy, 16-11 slugfest win on Saturday, and then a classic, well-pitched game last night.  Feels good to beat the Yankees, as always, and feels good to have won ten in a row as well.  By the way, my new favorite use for Facebook is for relentlessly taunting Yankee fans on their inevitable demise.  Good times there.

I'm done for now - enjoy what's supposed to be a beautiful week.  I pray you'll feel the warmth of his countenance shining on you this week.

Two quotes that guide me...

Yesterday afternoon I cracked open a brand new Moleskine Plain Journal with the heavyweight pages that allow me to use my fine point Sharpies for writing out my sermon notes. This morning I took a few minutes to inscribe the following two quotes into the first two pages, as I have done for the last two books before this one. I genuinely enjoy the process of crafting and delivering a message every week, and these two quotes have served as a beacon for me as I endeavor weekly (and sometimes weakly) to speak a word of hope and life into the hearts of those who sit in need with me on Sunday.

They are both from a beautiful little book on preaching called "Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale" written by a remarkable author I first encountered on a recommendation from my brother: Frederick Buechner.

"Let the preacher tell the truth. Let him make audible the silence of the news of the world with the sound turned off so that in the silence we can hear the tragic truth of the Gospel, which is that the world where God is absent is a dark and echoing emptiness; and the comic truth of the Gospel, which is that into the depths of his absence that God makes himself present in such unlikely ways and to such unlikely people that old Sarah and Abraham and maybe even when the time comes even Pilate and Job and Lear and Henry Ward Beecher and you and I laugh till the tears run down our cheeks. And finally let him preach this overwhelming of tragedy by comedy, of darkness by light, of the ordinary by the extraordinary, as the tale that is too good not to be true because to dismiss it as untrue is to dismiss along with it that catch of the breath, that beat and lifting of the heart near to or even accompanied by tears, which I believe is the deepest intuition of truth that we have."

"The Gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old term, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is the comedy. And yet, so what? So what if even in his sin the slob is loved and forgiven when the very mark and substance of his sin and of his slobbery is that he keeps turning down the love and forgiveness because he either doesn't believe them or doesn't want them or just doesn't give a damn? In answer, the news of the Gospel is that extraordinary things happen to him just as in fairy tales extraordinary things happen....it is impossible for anyone to leave behind the darkness of the world he carries on his back like a snail, but for God, all things are possible. That is the fairy tale. All together they are the truth."

Back to the grind on a Monday...

What a strange week it was - I'm glad to be back into a fairly normal routine this week.  Kids were on vacation all week, so my work time was limited (as usual when that's the case), and I think it made for a below-average Sunday for me.

On the upside, I thought our first attempt at a cafe/concert on Friday with the New Life Band was a pretty good success.  We had a lot of good feedback, including some comments that we should try to do it again, maybe as an open-mic type of event.  People seemed to enjoy the atmosphere, and enjoy the desserts and coffee, so we're going to think about a way to reproduce it and do it again.  Look for the updates on that in the near future.

Confession:  the Sunday after Easter is always a difficult one.  Easter tends to be a peak attendance-wise, and there's a certain kind of letdown the week after, at least from my perspective as a pastor.  Combine that with what I felt like was less-than-adequate prep time, and you get (in my opinion) a below average message.  From the beginning I never felt like I was on track, my thoughts were not flowing, and I just felt out of sorts.  Once again, however, I'll trust God for his word to do its work in the hearts of the people who were there.  I'm always reminded in those moments that it's not about me and how persuasive I am, but about God by his Spirit drawing the hearts of people to himself. 

It definitely was a challenging talk as we hit on the idea that Jesus does not always bring people together, in fact that more often than not, even his love can become a divisive point for people.  Jesus was not a universalist, he talked about a broad road leading to destruction and a narrow one leading to life.  And yet he flung the door open to anyone and everyone who was willing to come in.  I think that sometimes followers of Jesus get confused into thinking that we're supposed to be the gatekeepers to the kingdom, and that's not really our role at all.  The church should be a place where everyone can belong even before they believe the whole gospel about Jesus.  The church should be a place where we are all welcome to ask our questions and seek a growing conversation with Jesus.

Next week we'll hit on the theme of Redemption again - this time from the book of 2 Samuel as we look at God's covenant with David to have his family rule over the nation of Israel.  RIght now it's looking like the track we take will be along the lines of thinking about redemptive leadership in the Kingdom of God, and what God requires of both leaders and followers in his Kingdom.  After that, we're going to hit a three week series on money - our attitudes towards it, how God wants us to manage it, and how we can live a generous life in the Kingdom of God.

For now, may the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the peace of the Spirit be with you all.

Post-Easter Monday

Good afternoon...I'm about to grab the second cup of coffee as I attempt to resurrect myself from the post-easter food consumption coma I think I managed to put myself into.

Kids are home from school for the week, so I'll be back to my distracted working between breaking up the periodic arguments that will occur, providing snacks every hour for my son who seems to eat more than a grown man, and tossing multiple books in their direction in hopes that they can read quietly while I attempt to work from home.  In the meanwhile, here are some quick bullet point followups from the weekend:

• Really loved our Good Friday service with other area churches this year.  Our worship team led the worship and I thought they did an outstanding job.  There was a great atmosphere of reflection and worship as we came together to consider the significance of the cross.
• Saturday I had my second baseball practice with 8 kids and a cold, rainy day.  They were remarkably cooperative despite the weather.  We made it through about 45 minutes before we called it a day.  Hopefully none of them are scarred for life, as in 15 years from now they're not lying on a couch somewhere saying, "Well, it all began on this miserably cold and rainy day when my baseball coach made us practice until our hands were bleeding and our lips were cracked..."
• Great day Sunday - the rain went away and even though it was cold, still a beautiful spring day!
• Though the service wasn't perfect (is it ever), I thought overall we did a good job communicating in word and song the message of hope in the resurrection of Jesus.
• I did NOT feel like the sermon was what I wanted it to be at all.  Part of it is that, as a pastor, you pump up your expectations for Easter to unreasonable levels.  At the same time, I didn't totally feel like I connected all the dots together in the message the way they were in my mind.
• But....I'll trust that God used the words despite the messenger - he is more than capable of doing that, I know.
• I had several good conversations after with some guests - some who had never been to New Life, and some who had been, but not for a long time.  Again, I'm hoping they will connect up with us again in the future.  I'll be working on follow up this week for that.
• I know we didn't hit 100 for attendance, but I'm guessing we were somewhere around 80 or so, which would be the highest that I can recall in several years.
• And I prayed yesterday morning that whether there were 100 people there or not, my greatest hope was that those who came would be impacted by the message of the resurrection.  I sincerely hope that everyone there heard that it's got to be a personal thing for it to make any difference in our lives - it cannot simply be a religious observation we do once a year to have the desired effect.
• Excited about our cafe/concert night on Friday with the New Life Band (we've got to get ourselves a name or something)...hoping some people come back to have a good night with us!
• Probably won't be much blogging action this week - see note above about kids and interruptions.  Have a great week - Jesus was resurrected so that you could live the life he has always meant for you to live, so get to it!

Monday on a Tuesday

So, yesterday I spent the day driving up and back from the Springfield, MA area for a denominational meeting, which means that I had about 4 hours of driving for 2 1/2 hours of meeting.  Nothing like that ratio to make you feel like you had an unproductive day, eh?

Some quick thoughts on last weekend and some looking ahead to Easter:

• Another good day with the music - a friend came by to our practice this week and cleaned up our sound, so I think that helped.  That said, I'm really looking forward to having the whole band together for this Sunday!
• Also, our band is going to be playing a cafe/concert type event at the church on Friday night, April 17th.  We're guaranteed to bust out some, uh, how do you say.......non-church music :)  Bring a friend - coffee, desserts, the whole deal.
• I felt as good about Sunday's message as I have about any I've preached that I can remember.  That's not always a guarantee that it was the best, just letting you know I felt good about how it went.  Some days you feel like you hit the sweet spot, and this week was one of them.  Talked to some people after who felt like God was talking right to them, and that's always a cool thing to hear.
• Yes, I did say that there are some Christians who I wish, for the LOVE OF GOD, would just shut up.  If you need confirmation, you can download the podcast.  Also, it was not hyperbole.  I really do wish that.
• Sunday night worship and prayer.  You missed it.  Really, you did.  We shared a powerful time of worship, prayer and communion together.
• Good Friday service at 7:30 at West Kingston Baptist Church.  Childcare is going to be provided for everyone up to age 12.  This is always a great time to get together with some other churches in the area, worship Jesus together, and reflect on the greatness of his love and sacrifice for us.
• This week we're going to hit on the fact that a conversation with Jesus would be intensely personal.  Just food for thought as you're getting ready...resurrection was not a theoretical concept for Jesus, it was real, and it was personal.  The only way it makes a difference is if we treat it the same way - real and personal.
• Bring someone with you on Sunday!!!  Let's fill this place up so that we can make Jesus, the risen Savior, famous in this community this week!

Conversations with Jesus: Misunderstood

This Sunday we started our three week series of conversations with Jesus, in which we're going to take a look at how Jesus might respond to some questions we would want to ask him.  This week - what do you say about the ways that you've been misunderstood and misrepresented?  Download Conversations with Jesus - Misunderstood

Almost There

I'm 60% of the way through a week that's got my head spinning with different responsibilities and opportunities, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to unload some of them here, and also look forward to Sunday.

• Monday night was an "Open House" of sorts for a group that I've been working with for about the last six months or so called Beautiful World.  We're looking to create a collective of men, women and children around the US who will serve as advocates for impoverished communities around the world.  We're asking those advocates to take on one creative fundraising idea for the year that will raise money (obviously) for a specific community, and will also raise awareness among their friends and families of the tremendous needs around the world.  Right now we're working with two communities:  Lamothe, Haiti and La Chureca in Managua, Nicaragua.  This August I'll be taking a 10 day trip to La Chureca with about 6 or 7 others who are part of the Beautiful World team.  Looking forward to what God is going to do in my own heart and life through that trip.  If you're interested, check out the site for more information!
• Tuesday night was worship practice, with our special guest Mance, running the sound for us and hopefully getting our sound cleaned up.  I know it's been a little muddy lately, so hopefully having Brian come in and tweak the board will get it to sound more crisp and clear.  He also stuck around to jam with us, which was great.  I have to say it's been so much fun getting to play with these guys every week - I'm honored to be working with good musicians who also get that we're there not to play for ourselves, but for God's honor among us.
• Last night was my first manager's meeting for Jacob's instructional league team I'm coaching this year.  I've actually never coached before, so even though it's really basic, I'm actually quite nervous about it.  It should be a fun year, a good bonding experience for Jacob and me, and hopefully an opportunity for him to learn the game I love!
• I'm really looking forward to this next series on Sunday:  Conversations with Jesus.  It's a title I've used a few times before, and in the past I've just taken a conversation right from the Gospels and looked at what Jesus is saying to a specific person in that conversation.  This time I'm going at it from a different angle - a more topical angle - and I'm trying to draw together different scripture references to formulate what I think Jesus would have to say in certain kinds of conversations; the kinds of conversations that happen all around us, even if we're not aware of them sometimes.
• Last week I started writing for the next book we'll be using in our character development partnerships.  It's going to focus on the beatitudes from Matthew 5.  I'm using one of my old sermon series as research, but I feel like I had a fresh take on it as I considered what I wanted to communicate, so it's going to require a lot of new writing, and rewriting.  I've got a bit of a deadline, since the last book is about 7 chapters, and so if the partnerships hit one chapter a month, I've got until July to get it done!

So, with that said, I guess I should get back to work - which today is going to involve a trip to Starbucks, a hot cup of java, a good pen and my moleskine writing journal.  That, my friends, is a good day.