I'm writing while attempting to prop up my eyelids to keep from falling back to sleep. Rita was away most of Saturday and Sunday, so I had to manage the kids both days on my own. It's always a good reminder for me when I do that of just how much work she puts into keeping up the house, taking care of the kids, and in general keeping our family functioning fairly smoothly. I'm incredibly blessed that God brought her into my life!
Yesterday was another great day at New Life! We're seeing new faces every week, and God continues to do incredible things among us. The band sounded (in my opinion) as good as we've sounded lately, and I feel like each week they get better and better. I know that music isn't everything when it comes to a church's worship, but I do know that good music enhances the vibe of a church like nothing else I can think of. The great thing is that I see in our worship team a heart not just to perform, but to really worship and lead others in worship. I think that's showing up when we play every week.
I taught on a topic I haven't spent much time talking about in my pastoral career - God's heart for the poor in our backyard, but also around the world. It's a concern that's been growing in my heart over the last year or so, and it's gotten me involved in an organization called Beautiful World along with my good friend Scott Axtmann. So I shared from Isaiah 58 and also Matthew 25 on the desire of God's heart for his covenant people to share his concern for those among us who have significantly less than we do. I hope I was able to pull off the sharing without laying on a guilt trip, which I think is a fine line you walk any time you share about things like that.
If you're interested in hearing more about the Beautiful World mission, or becoming an advocate for the poor, I'd encourage you to visit the site or talk to me and I'd be glad to share more about our heart in this mission.
A couple of things coming up I'm really excited about:
- The cafe/concert night THIS FRIDAY!! The band will be playing, but we'll also be opening up for an open-mic type opportunity. The coffee will be brewing, Rita will be making lattes and the music is going to be good, as always. Hope you can come join us, and definitely, definitely bring a friend with you!
- Starting Sunday I'm doing a three-week series on parenting. Try as I might I can't come up with any clever titles or anything, so I'll just give you the three basic ideas I'll communicate each week. The overarching theme is that if we are followers of Jesus, then it's important for us to communicate the story of Jesus and stir up others to follow Jesus, and that work first starts at home. So the first week, we'll talk about the stories we tell to our children, and the ways we immerse them into the Biblical story. The second week we'll touch on how we work to shape character into our kids, dealing with the reality that shaping character is a fundamental reality to good parenting. And the third week we'll talk about ways that we can work alongside our kids to advance the kingdom of God and the message of life and hope in Jesus to our community and world. If you're struggling with your parenting at the moment, if you just need some help along the way, or know someone else who does, do your best to get them here for these three weeks!
As always, I pray that the Lord would bless you and keep you, make his face to shine upon you, lift up his countenance towards you, be gracious to you, and give you peace.
you can call the series "how to be apparent" get it. a play on words. cuz apparent and a parent sound the same. and... its funny.... hm hm hm ha hm.....
Posted by: Zach LaValley | June 03, 2009 at 05:31 PM