New Life Assembly

The "Long Weekend, Short Week" Tuesday Reflections

I'm not sure how you spent your Memorial Day yesterday, but I was able to spend it by this gorgeous little lake in Ellington, Connecticut where I spent the first 18 years or so of my life.  We soaked up the 90 degree weather, my kids played for about 8 hours in the lake just like I used to when I was their age, we played cornhole and Wiffle Ball, and in general enjoyed being with our entire family.  Even though I spent most of the day sweating profusely, I still felt totally relaxed and found myself wishing that the day didn't have to end.  Even the ride home, normally an opportunity for little squabbles to break out between the kids in the car, went peacefully - mostly because playing the in the sun and the water all day totally saps your energy, but still, it was the perfect end to a perfect day.

Sunday was also a perfect end to what has been a really challenging, enlightening, and encouraging series of messages for me.  When we started talking about the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 on Easter Sunday, I really had no idea how deeply this was going to touch our hearts and lives as we went through the 8 statements Jesus makes there about life in his Kingdom.  I said a couple of weeks ago that the messages seemed to get progressively more difficult as we went, and I thought this weekend's was no exception.

I know that I spent the first seven weeks nodding my head when I thought about the blessed life that Jesus intended for me.  I loved hearing about the things that would happen for those who lived according to God's design.  The poor in spirit inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.  Those who mourn find comfort in the Kingdom.  The meek inherit the earth.  Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness find themselves being filled to overflowing with their heart's desire.  The merciful receive mercy in turn.  The pure in heart have their eyes opened to see God, and the peacemakers are known by their character to be children of God.

That's an amazing, compelling picture of the life Jesus invites his followers into.  But the eighth statement of Jesus really brings us to reality.  While this is a powerful, beautiful way to live, it's a way of life that cuts across our cultural grain, and puts us, at times, in direct opposition to the "everyone else" pressures of our culture to conform to what's expected.  When we live this way, and challenge that cultural grain, we may find that people oppose us - sometimes actively and other times passively - for our choices.

How we respond to that opposition is incredibly important, and has the potential to change the public perception of followers of Jesus.  Too often we have made a stand for righteousness in ways that were themselves unrighteous, unholy, and downright hurtful to others.  Too often in the face of our opposition we have ignored the first seven statements of Jesus, and responded by elevating the tension, adding fuel to the fire, and in general failing to live up to the standard Jesus calls us to.  Instead of taking that path, Jesus calls us to the less traveled road:  the road which allows us to rejoice and call ourselves blessed when we are mistreated and misrepresented.  It's a difficult road, which is probably why it's the road less traveled.  But I'm convinced that it's the road filled with Jesus' blessing and approval, which should be our greatest satisfaction.

Next week we are going to start a four week series of messages on sticky topics - the kinds of questions that followers of Jesus don't really want to talk about, and yet which we desperately need to talk about.  If you struggle with how to answer these questions, this will be a great series for you.  And if you have a friend who asks you these questions, this would be a great series to extend the invitation for them to join you on a Sunday morning.  I don't usually do this, but I'm just going to give you the preview of what we'll be talking about to prime the pump a bit:

Week 1:  How credible is the Bible?

Week 2:  How necessary is Jesus to salvation?

Week 3:  What is God's design for human sexuality?

Week 4:  How can we praise God for the good things in our lives and not blame him for the bad things?

The "Say Amen or Say Ouch" Monday Reflections

Ouch.

When I was a student at Zion Bible Institute, I had some fellow students who used to say about certain parts of certain messages that you should either "say amen, or say ouch" - indicating that you were agreeing with the message, or the message was hitting you hard enough that you should express some pain at what you were hearing.  Well, yesterday was a "say ouch" kind of sermon for me.  I said right from the start that the topic was one that I'm definitely processing personally, rather than one that I feel like I have got figured out.

We talked about Jesus' call to be a peacemaker in the midst of a very conflicted world, with conflicted relationships, and conflicted people caught in the middle of those conflicted relationships.  The reason I had to say "ouch" was simply that it's a message I've always struggled with.  I tend to be a conflict avoider, and so I usually find myself keeping peace rather than making peace.  I keep peace by avoiding people that I would be in conflict with, and sometimes keep peace with others by just keeping them separated, rather than by actively seeking harmony and unity.

My conflict avoidance (and that of others) often stems from a misunderstanding of the word peace.  We associate it with a lack of conflict, an absence of argument.  But when Jesus spoke about peace to his original audience, they would have heard it as a much more active reality.  They would have heard the word "shalom", which carries with it the sense of wholeness, the presence of harmony, and, in the words of one author, "a comprehensive flourishing."  In other words, when Jesus talks about making peace in his kingdom, he's envisioning men and women who aren't content to just get along by avoiding one another or by engaging in behind the scenes conflict, but who are willing to pay the price to move towards the completeness of what God is trying to accomplish in his kingdom through them. 

But peacemaking is a difficult process and a dangerous occupation.  It requires that we insert ourselves into stressful situations, and requires that we have a willingness to give up our self-interest and self-preservation for the larger good of the kingdom of God and the movement of Jesus.  When we make peace, either between ourselves and someone else or between two other parties, there is the possibility that we will be hurt by being caught in the middle.  We may have unkind or hurtful things said about us in the process.  We may be characterized wrongly in the process.  We may not even be able to bring about a successful resolution or reconciliation to the situation, but Jesus' call demands that we at least move towards the situation rather than avoiding it or making it worse by contributing to it.

The greatest example of a peacemaker is, of course, Jesus himself, who inserted himself into the middle of the great conflict between God and human beings, and offered himself as the bridge across the relationship gap that stood between us.  He did so knowing that it would cost him personally, and willing to take the risk in order to see the reward of reconciliation.  If we want to know what Jesus meant, we should look at what he did.  If we hope to see peace flow out from the church into the community, then it's critically important that we apply the lesson of peacemaking within the church, and within our relationships. 

That makes me say "ouch", but it also holds out the hope that we can embrace the call of Jesus, and so move his Kingdom forward.  I told a friend yesterday that it was a good message in the same way you might measure a good workout:  when you feel like you can't move afterwards.  I let my soul do some post-message recovery yesterday afternoon, but now the work begins.  I hope the same is true for you!

Next week we'll finish the final message in our "Blessed" series by looking at Jesus' blessing on those who experience persecution and opposition in the Kingdom.  I hope to see you there!

The "I'm stressed, Monday on a Tuesday" Reflections

It's Tuesday morning, I'm about to have my staff meeting with my one other staff member (that's Sally just in case you were wondering), and I'm completely stressed out, and have been for a week.  I've probably been a bit grumpy because when I get stressed out I get tense.  Don't ask Rita that, because she'll probably just confirm it.  And the reason I'm a bit stressed, and therefore a bit grumpy is that I'm working on a new series of messages that is requiring me to change up my routine quite a bit, and also is going to be dealing with some difficult topics.

In November I planned out a year-long preaching calendar with Jason and a couple of other guys.  At that time I had decided that we needed to do a series of messages around some difficult topics for Christians to address in our current culture.  At the time I was particularly thinking about the topics of human sexuality and the exclusivity of the Gospel - the idea that there is one way to relationship with God.  As it happens, recent current events have thrown the spotlight onto the questions about human sexuality, and the idea of a single way to God has always been seen as a bit narrow minded.

So here's what I'm learning (or re-learning as the case may be) about myself:  I get stressed when I feel like I'm not in control, which means that I often forget that God IS in control all the time, even when I think I am.  Does that make sense?

I'm also reminded of something else that is a core value for me in my teaching and in my leadership.  I've often been in conversations with other pastors who feel like the idea of planning out messages so far in advance somehow leaves the Holy Spirit out of the conversation.  I've always felt that God was working in me by His Spirit no matter how far in advance I was planning messages.  It's being confirmed once again as I get ready to tackle some difficult subjects that are incredibly timely.  I hope to do so in a way that is both gracious and truthful, and I hope to do so always in a way that allows God to speak for himself rather than me speaking for him.  I'm praying for that, and I'll simply ask you to pray for that as well.

But before we get to the Sticky Topics series, we're just a couple weeks from finishing up the "Blessed" series on the statements Jesus makes in Matthew 5 about life in his Kingdom.  It's been an incredibly challenging series of messages.  In fact, each week I've felt more challenged than the week before.  So I wish I could tell you it was going to get easier in the next two weeks, but that would not be true.  The last two messages about making peace and dealing with persecution may be the most difficult both for me to deliver and for you to hear.  At the same time, that probably means they're the most necessary.

I'm looking forward to seeing you Sunday morning!

The "Sitting back to Listen" Monday Reflections

So yesterday at New Life Jason and I got to switch roles for the day.  He was the Preacher Man, and I was Announcer Boy.  Since it was my week for announcements I decided to take the opportunity to do a little "housekeeping" about our weekly welcome/announcement time.  One of the things I absolutely LOVE about our church is that when we show up each week we are genuinely happy to see one another.  The only downside to that is that when we're ready to start the service, sometimes conversations continue to happen even while Jason is doing his welcome to the church.

So the way I tried to deal with it yesterday was just a gentle reminder - the welcome and announcements that you may have heard a hundred times as you've come to New Life over the last few years is not really for you!  It's for the people who show up each week who have never been to the church before and are just taking their first or second chance at checking out church again, or maybe for the first time.  So we want to make sure that when Jason or I stand up to welcome people to New Life, that you are respecting those people who are our guests.  And here's the thing:  I know you will, Because you're just as concerned about creating the welcoming environment at New Life as I am!

Jason did a tremendous job in the teaching yesterday as he walked us through Jesus' statement of blessing on the merciful.  He used Jesus' well-known parable of the Good Samaritan as a perfect illustration of the ways that we tend to ignore the need to be merciful simply because it's too messy, or too inconvenient, or because it just doesn't fit with our desire for revenge or justice.

There were several points during the message where I found myself nodding my head, knowing exactly what he was talking about, and knowing exactly who I've failed to treat with the mercy that God himself offered to me through Jesus.  And that's the biggest tragedy of the story - that we would so willingly ask for and receive God's mercy, and be so willfully disobedient to his command that we show mercy in return.  But the blessing to the merciful is that they will be shown mercy in return.

Jesus' words throughout the gospels show that our failure to be merciful has significant consequences.  When we don't forgive, he says that we will not be forgiven.  He told an entire parable about a servant who begs for mercy from his master and then shows no mercy to a fellow servant, ending with the picture of the unmerciful servant being cast into prison until he could pay his overwhelming debt.  In other words, mercy makes the Kingdom life much more messy, but also much more beautiful.  We know that clean, hard and fast lines are probably much easier for us to manage, but we also know that there's something more artful about a merciful life than a judgmental life.  And I know I'd rather live the beautifully complicated life of mercy than the simple, brutal and ugly life of vengeance. 

Next week I'll get back to teaching, and we'll be talking about the call for followers of Jesus to be pure in heart.  I've heard several comments from different people that this has been one of the more challenging, but beneficial series we've done, so I really encourage you to find someone to bring with you as we keep allowing God's word to transform our lives.

The "Monday on a Tuesday" Reflections

A couple of weeks ago I was at a meeting of some other ministers at our Network offices, and a good friend of mine recommended that the ministers there take a look at my Monday morning blog posts.  Since then I realize I haven't managed to actually post a Monday blog - nothing like delivering what your readers are looking for, eh?

This past Sunday we had one of our more energetic crowds in quite some time.  It wasn't the largest crowd, but the room was filled with some kind of expectation and anticipation.  The primary drivers were probably not who you'd think, either.  It was our youth!  They had just come back from the Awakening Conference over the weekend, and even though you might expect them to be "churched out" after full weekend of worship and listening to messages, they were exactly the opposite.  The sight of several of them lining the front row during worship, hands lifted and voices raised was quite an inspiring sight.

They even listened pretty intently to the message :)  I'm glad they did, because it might have been one of the more important messages in a series filled with important messages.  The more I teach back through the Beatitudes, the more I realize just how fundamental they are to life in Jesus' kingdom.  As we've already covered poverty of spirit, mourning, and meekness, I couldn't help but think that this is exactly the kind of church community I want to be a part of.

This week we covered Jesus' statement of blessing on those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Righteousness has a lot of biblical context, and a lot of extra-biblical context.  The way we think about it now might be more along the lines of self-righteousness - the kind of nose-in-the-air, keep-me-away-from-those-sinners attitude that so often is associated with Christians.  But the biblical connotations for righteousness are really about alignment of our character with God's.  Throughout the Old Testament God is described as righteous in his character and actions, and those who are in covenant with him are encouraged to be righteous in their character and actions as well.

Our souls are hungry and thirsty to live according to God's standard for us.  Our spirit is designed to crave the life that aligns with God's character, and too often we spend time on the things that won't truly satisfy that deep spiritual hunger and thirst.  Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom of Heaven are like a full course, gourmet meal dropped on the table in front of us, and we are invited to sit down to the table and fill ourselves to overflowing with his righteousness.  At the heart of this invitation is the understanding that our self-righteousness is, in comparison to what Jesus offers, a rather poor, unsatisfying meal. 

I want to continue to allow Jesus to awaken inside of me a hunger and thirst for my life to line up with his, for my ways to conform to his, and my character to align with his.  There's a tension in that, because when I look at my life I see the ways that I am out of line right now.  But it's a good tension, because it drives me back to the table of Christ's righteousness, and when I hunger and thirst for that, I find that he actually fills me up with what I desire.  True life transformation takes place when that happens.

Next week we'll look at another challenging statement Jesus makes, as he calls us to a life characterized by mercy.  I hope you, and a friend, will join us as we keep looking at the life Jesus died to purchase for us, and rose again to bring to life in us!

The "Bullet Points" Monday Reflections

Some bullet point reflections on what's been happening at New Life over the last couple of weeks, including this past weekend:

• There were times during yesterday's message when it seemed the room was as quiet as if people had just seen a ghost.  It was definitely a heavy topic as we talked about the reality of brokenness and mourning in the world, but I hope that we managed to see that there is hope to be had through Jesus' Kingdom as well. 
• I took some time after the worship and before the message to remind the church that the musicians are there to set the tone and the atmosphere for worship.  When we play, we want to have people encounter Jesus as they sing, or sit quietly, or even cry.  We sometimes leave space in our songs for music without words, and we want you to know that it's okay to supply your own words during that time.
• While attendance isn't the only way to measure momentum, we have been consistently gaining over the last several months, and that is due to our New Lifers inviting friends and family to join them for a service.  While it's almost expected to have guests on Easter Sunday, we had several guests yesterday as well.  It's been exciting to watch the room fill up, even if it creates some space problems for us.
• Speaking of space problems...we are doing our best to come up with the best possible plan for us to address the "we're running out of space" feeling that happens as the room fills up each week.  It's obviously a good problem to have, but one that we need to figure out if we're going to keep growing.  
• If you haven't yet, please check out our website at www.newlifewakefield.com.  There are still a couple sections in need of some photos to spruce it up, but we're basically done with the building process.  You can find email addresses for leaders, listing for our partnership groups, and even a calendar of events all on the site.
• We're hopefully in the last stages of getting our new physical sign for the building as well.  We have to get some approvals from the Town on our design, but then we will be moving forward with that project as well, hopefully in time for summer.
• Speaking of summer....we've been working very hard on preparations for our fourth annual Summer Life Block Party.  You're going to start hearing more about this soon - it's going to be Saturday June 30th with a rain date of the following Sunday, July 1st.  We've kicked this event up several notches this year with some new live musical acts, a musician (The Great Baldini) for the kids, and tons of different activities for the entire family.  This is going to be the best Block Party yet!
• We just started several new partnership groups last week, and have had a great response to those so far.  Looking forward to connecting with my group over the next 10 weeks and digging into the weekly message a little bit further together.  I know I'm partial, but I think I had the coolest mix of people in my group, and we had a great first week of discussion.  I'm sure the other groups are going to be just as good, and if you haven't joined one yet, make sure to check out the listings here:  Join a Partnership Group.

One last thing.  I love my church!  You guys make it an amazing place to show up to every week, whether someone has been there for a long time, or is just coming for the first week, you create the environment that welcomes them in, and allows them to hear about the life change Jesus brings.  Thanks for sacrificing your time, for giving your gifts, and for investing your lives in God's Kingdom!

The "Post Resurrection" Monday Reflections

Several good things happened yesterday.  First, and foremost, we celebrated the reality that Jesus is alive together with our New Life family, enjoying the grace that Jesus extends to us.  Second, we had a ton of guests, either first time or guests who were returning after being away for a while, and I think our church did a phenomenal job of welcoming those guests and showing them that there really is new life and new kind of hope being offered through Jesus.  Third, after Easter dinner yesterday I was finally able to have a cup of coffee, breaking my Lent fast from all caffeine.  In fact, about the only thing that wasn't good about yesterday was the Red Sox, but I won't talk about that, since I refuse to let them ruin what was an otherwise spectacular day.

Sunday kicked off a series that has, almost literally, been in process inside my head for a couple of years.  I've been working on and off on a short book that would cover the eight statements Jesus makes to open the sermon on the mount, which are commonly known as the Beatitudes.  I've long thought that these statements were foundational to Jesus' teaching about life in the kingdom, so it made sense to me that if we are inviting people to experience new life in Christ, we should talk about exactly what that life would look like.

So while I didn't teach from a traditional Easter text yesterday morning, I think that our look at the very first of the beatitudes was a perfect fit for the Easter message.  "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."  We touched on the idea that everyone likes to measure themselves on a sliding scale, or to be graded on a curve, but that when it comes to God's Kingdom, he isn't measuring on a sliding scale.  He is measuring according to the standard of life that he created us to live by, and when he measures that way, none of us measures up.

In fact, what we find is that when we measure to God's standard, we realize that we are spiritual beggars, totally impoverished and without the necessary resources to acquire the kind of life we know that we were created to live.  The only way to receive the richness of the life God has always intended us to live is to throw up our hands, admit that we are spiritually impoverished, and ask for grace to be extended to us.  The good news is that the story of Jesus is all about grace.  Jesus died to graciously purchase for us the life that we could never have owned by our own resources.  Jesus rose again from the grave to defeat death and give to us the life that we could never imagine. 

The admission that we are spiritual beggars, however, is a very difficult one to make because we are so invested in making sure that people think well of us.  But when we keep playing that game, we don't understand that the only person being fooled is us.  God's not fooled by your facade or mine, and most of the people around you probably aren't fooled by it either.  So let's give up on the comparison game, and let's call us what we are:  spiritual beggars looking for grace.  When we admit that, we find exactly what we are looking for in Jesus and the life he came to give us.

Next week we'll tackle the second statement Jesus makes about life in his Kingdom:  Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Hope to see you, and maybe some of those guests you brought with you this past weekend, again on Sunday!

The "6 Days Until Easter" Monday Reflections

Breathe.  That's what I keep telling myself.  We're 6 days from Easter, and while we don't do a ton of special services this week - no choirs, special presentations or anything like that - I always feel this stress in the last week before Easter.  It's the "big day" for churches like ours where you are most likely to have guests showing up who are either looking for a church, or are not looking for a church, but show up because that's what you're supposed to do on Easter.  Either way, I think it's our job that day to make sure that they get a chance to hear the gospel as clearly as possible.  While that's what I love doing, it's also a source of stress because I want to make sure I do it well.

So to kick off this week, I really needed yesterday.  We had a major technical glitch with our sound, which was causing the speakers to crackle during our third worship song.  It was so distracting for me at least, that I decided we would just shut everything down and go into the message.  I'm not sure how long I preached, since I didn't have a podcast recording to edit this weekend, but I have a feeling I might have gone a little longer than normal :)  But in the end, I felt like the way the whole service worked - we eventually got our sound back up and running - was better than the way I had planned it out.  Evidence once again that I don't know anything, and I'm glad God is in charge :)

We were finishing up our Prisoner of Hope series by looking at the way that the gospel turns us into messengers of hope - an irrational confidence that God is going to come through in our lives.  That kind of hope rises up within us, and eventually it starts to override the filters that we put in front of our mouths that keep us from sharing that hope with someone else.  Eventually the hope that we have spills out from our lives into the words that we share with others who might find themselves in hopeless situations. 

Ultimately our hope is founded on the realization that Christ is King - the saving, righteous king who rode into Jerusalem to shouts of praise and adoration only to be crucified five days later.  While others misunderstood his mission, he never did.  He embraced fully the reality that he was going to be a king to bring peace through his death, rather than peace through forceful domination of some other group of people.  His mission was sacrifice, death, burial, and ultimately resurrection.  It's only because a humble, gentle king came riding into Jerusalem some 2000 years ago that we have hope for a new life, a new future, and a new message of hope to share with our world.  And what we need most desperately is for that same king to come riding into our neighborhoods, our cities, our schools, and our workplaces so that we can cry out with those crowds:  "Hosanna!  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!  This is our righteous, saving King!"

So Sunday is Easter and we're starting a new series called "Blessed".  For eight weeks we're going to look at Jesus' eight statements that open the sermon on the mount, commonly known as the beatitudes.  We're going to look at these as the fundamental truths of life in God's Kingdom.  If God is inviting us into a different kind of life, a different kind of kingdom, then we should expect he has a different set of expectations for us to live by.  My Easter message is ready to go already, and I can absolutely tell you that if you have a friend, a family member or someone else in your life who needs to hear some good news, this is the week to bring them with you!

The "Nap Sandwich" Monday Reflections

Yesterday I had a nap sandwich.  That means I had a nice long nap sandwiched in between some pretty thick church bread.  I think this is how Sundays are meant to be spent.  I woke up this morning feeling really refreshed and ready to start the week, which is exactly how I wanted to start the week.  I've been running around in a manic frenzy for the last month, wishing that I could clone myself into "Meeting Keith" and "Teaching Prep Keith".  Since that's not going to happen, the nap sandwich was the perfect remedy.

I wasn't doing the teaching yesterday morning, which always makes me feel a little more loose and relaxed on Sunday morning.  Even though I absolutely love teaching on Sundays, I've learned over the last couple of years just how much the break of a week off recharges me.  I've also seen the value of having Jason's voice inserted into the rhythm of the teaching schedule for the whole church.  His style is different than mine, and he approaches topics from a different angle that I think helps give us a fuller picture of the scriptures and how they impact our lives.

The more we've gone through this Prisoner of Hope series, the more I have enjoyed it, and the more I have appreciated the metaphor that shaped the whole series.  At our monthly prayer meeting last night we were praying through the Lord's Prayer, but at the same time doing some ministry to a guy who showed up with a friend to our morning service.  He came in knowing that his life was a mess, and out of that realization we had the opportunity to do some great ministry in his life.  He is in a prison of his own making with the choices that have led him to this point, but we believe that Jesus wants to chain him to hope.

After prayer, three of us took him home, went out and bought some groceries for him and his girlfriend, and did our best to show them the love of Christ that has changed our lives.  I'm not sure how milk and ice cream fit into the Kingdom of Heaven, but I'm pretty sure that somehow in a few small grocery items we were able to bring some light and hope into that home.  And while I don't know exactly how the story is going to end for my new friend, I'm feeling more hopeful about him now than I did before he walked into our church.  He's got a few numbers to call when he's in trouble now that he didn't have before, and he has a few guys here at New Life who know his name, know his story, and are going to help him pray through to the point where God brings him freedom from the chains to the past, and instead chains him to hope for a future filled with God's grace and glory.

And though I'm not proud of it, one of my favorite parts of the night was ending it with double cheeseburgers and milkshakes with a couple of good friends, feeling like, at least for one night, we had done what God was asking us to do by making a difference in a couple of lives.  There's more work to do, and more lives to be changed, but this is exactly what I talk about when I talk about the win for our church - to be the church where unchurched and dechurched people come in, hear about the life change that Jesus brings, and start taking steps to develop that relationship. 

While we're on the topic, the next couple weeks leading up to Easter would be a great time to reach out and invite a friend to join you for one of our Sunday services.  Hope to see you next Sunday!

The "I'm an unashamed believer that God isn't finished with New England" Monday Reflections

Breathe.  That's what I keep telling myself today.  It seems like over the last 6 months or so the pace of my life has accelerated so rapidly that I can hardly keep up any more.  I've been running in several different directions at once, which is always a recipe for disaster.  So today I'm working from home, which is code for, "not doing too much other than a few things that have to get done today", and hoping to be ready to dive back into a full week starting tomorrow.

I spent yesterday with my two favorite church families.  The first is the church I pastor in Wakefield, and the second is the church that my good friend pastors in Boston.  Our two churches are tracking on the same series right now, Prisoner of Hope, and so I shared the same message in both places yesterday.  I felt almost like a modern version of a circuit riding preacher going from one place to the next.  In between the two, we had our third Block Party planning meeting, which has me so excited because we have so many people participating in putting this event together now that it's guaranteed to be even better than it has been for the last 3 years. 

The message yesterday really was one of those messages that is central to my heart and conviction about our journey following Jesus.  I'm convinced that once he captures us with the hope of the gospel, he gives us a renewed, redeemed purpose to fulfill in the world.  It's a purpose that we can't just give ourselves to part-time, but a purpose that will consume everything about our lives if we will let it be the only thing that captures our attention. 

I've been here at New Life for over 12 years now, and in that time I really feel like God has honed me and sharpened my sense of calling.  It's much easier for me now than it was at the beginning of my time here to say "no" to the purposes that other people think I am supposed to fulfill because I have a better understanding of what God is calling me to be and to do as a pastor here at New Life.  In that, I feel like I have a very settled sense of the direction that God is leading our church as a whole.

Yesterday I shared that there are some people who look at pastoring in New England as a spiritual death sentence because it has the reputation of being this incredibly difficult place to lead a church.  I think that some people look at New England as if God has washed his hands and is finished with those hard-hearted, stiff-necked people.  But I'm convinced that's not the case.  In fact, I believe that God still wants to do something significant in this area, and in particular in the South County Rhode Island area.  I believe that God actually wants to use a church like ours to change the way people think about Jesus and the church in our area.  And in one of the least "religious" states in the Union, I can't think of any purpose that would be more worth me spending my life on.  I want New Life to be the kind of church that allows people to see a new kind of hope for their lives in the gospel, and I'm committed to dreaming that dream, and allowing God to write that story through me. 

This is what I wrote in my notes yesterday, and I'll stand by it:

I believe that if we give up hope now there will be people in South Kingstown and Narragansett who won’t have the chance to see a different kind of church with a different kind of people who sincerely love Christ and are willing to let him change their lives.  If we don’t live out our calling, then we are going to fail to connect them to the gospel of hope; we are going to leave some people hopeless that God is calling to himself, and that’s something I’m not willing to let happen.  I have hope that if we live out our calling together, then we will be part of God’s story of changing the hearts and minds of people in the least religious part of the country, and I can’t think of anything I’d rather be a part of.