Book Review: Tithing...test me in this

Who would have thought that a book on tithing could be a page-turner? But Tithing...test me in this, was just that. Douglas LeBlanc's interview with individuals or couples about their experience with tithing (giving away 10% of their income) was an easy read that inspired me toward generosity.

LeBlanc starts the book with a simple overview of the practice of tithing which I found very helpful. He quotes a number of early church Father's showing that tithing was the norm for the early church showing that it wasn't abandoned because of the New Testament teaching of grace. He said that tithing is like prayer in that God doesn't need our help but welcomes our joining him in his kingdom work. When we open our grip on money we invite God's blessing on us but when we tighten it we miss an opportunity to join God at work.

Each interview flies by as people relate how they came to be tithers and how they see God has blessed them for it. It's more of a book of stories than teaching but each chapter teaches you about the discipline of tithing through the people's experiences with giving.

LaBlanc interviews some notable people, one being Ron Sider, author of the classic, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and Randy Alcorn, author of a number of books including The Treasure Principle, a helpful book on principles of generosity from the Bible.

Many people referenced Malachi 3:10 as an inspiration for their tithing practice. This is where God told Israel that if they tithed on their income that He would bless them. And God even said..."test me in this". In other places God says that we should not test him but we are given the right to test God in one area; tithing. Give to God his ten percent of your income and see if God is not faithful to meet all of your needs.

Some commons themes that came up from different interviews was that:

• tithing is a simple matter of obedience to God. It was never meant to be an option.
• tithing is the beginning, not the end of generosity. Tithing is a discipline that gets our generosity wheels turning when our natural selfishness would cause us to keep everything to ourselves.
• tithing acts like training wheels on a bike. It gives us guidance in our early days of giving. As time goes on giving 10% is kidstuff compared to true generosity. After awhile we stop thinking about how much we are giving and think more about how much we keep for ourselves.
• tithing was never done to receive a blessing but nearly every interviewee talked about seeing God bless them in many ways both tangible and intangible. Frederica Mathewes-Green said..."When we tithe, the blessings keep flowing in faster than we can bail them out again!" page 13.

The church has gotten a bad rap for "always talking about money". Tithing...test me in this, bypasses this complaint and shows how tithing is an invitation to share in the character and joy of God through generosity. If you are currently tithing this book will remind you why you do. If you are considering the practice it will convince you to take the risk.

Note: I review books for Thomas Nelson Publishers for a chance to read free books!

The Reality of Walking with God

I've been enjoying the Lenten posts from Larry Crabb's devotional that I recommended in a previous post. He's been hitting the theme of what it REALLY means to walk with God. It's not all fun and games. He's not a God who runs around keeping us from scraping our knees and wiping our nose. He's a God of great purpose and wants to include us in that purpose. But he doesn't always include us in on all the details and we need to learn to humbly accept that fact.

Here's part of his post from today. Click the link at the end to read it all or to subscribe yourself...

The Book of Jonah

God says, you are growing up. You can no longer celebrate My love the way a little boy celebrates the care he receives from a good mother, from a tender woman who provides her child with a nutritious meal and a sweet dessert and then, after an hour of play and reading, tucks him into a warm, comfortable bed with the promise of another fun day tomorrow.

Part of growing up, of seeing Me as I am, tempts My followers to run from Me, to establish a safe distance from the distinctly unsafe and inexplicably disagreeable ways I sometimes involve Myself in the lives of those I love.

You are growing up. Your days of naïve worship and shallow but exciting intimacy are
over. It is always difficult for a child to become an adult, to draw close to Me as I AM. read more...

Celebrating Lent

Lent is the 40 days that lead up to Easter. The word simply means "spring" since it is during springtime. Christians have used this time, like Advent before Christmas, to prepare themselves for Easter.

Someone asked me the other day if we celebrated Ash Wednesday (the start of Lent which was last Wednesday). I said...not yet. She wondered why we didn't and I told her that most evangelical churches (as compared to the mainline denominations) dropped some of the traditional church calendar observances as a reaction against an overly ritualized church. The services lost their meaning and people were staying away in droves so they were simply dropped.

But like anything, we need to revisit past decisions and see if they are still accurate...still relevant. Sometimes we just need a break from ritual to make it fresh again. There's nothing wrong with ritual as long as it's meaningful. Every Sunday service is a ritual no matter what kind of church you have. Some rituals are boring and some are kept fresh.

So for those of you that like ritual and are able to keep it fresh, take heart. We might add other church calendar days back into our schedule if we sense a passion for it. Moving into our own building will help because we've only had the banquet center available to us on Sundays and Good Friday. I'd be interested in knowing your thoughts.

By the way. If you are interested in receiving a free daily devotional during Lent from Dr. Larry Crabb click the link provided. Dr. Crabb sends this out daily and each devotional summarizes a book of the Bible and spoken as if from the mouth of God. It's short. You can read it in 60 seconds. Almost 100 people have signed up for it already.

Book Review

I have agreed to occassionally review a book for Thomas Nelson publishing. Here's my latest review on the book; Finding Purpose Beyond Your Pain by Paul Meier and David Henderson, both Christian psychiatrists.

When I sent off for the book, Finding Purpose Beyond Our Pain, I was looking forward to reading it. I’ve known about one of the authors (Paul Meier) for years and have enjoyed hearing him on a radio show. He gave very practical advice. As a pastor I have had the opportunity to counsel many people through painful episodes in their lives and I was looking forward to the insights that two Christian psychiatrists would bring to the issue. But the book was a bit of a disappointment to me. They underplayed their psychiatric knowledge and overplayed on their biblical knowledge so what the book ends up being is good common sense wisdom that might come from most seasoned Christians. It’s not a bad book. I’m sure that it will be helpful to many. But it’s not the in-depth look at the issue of pain that I was looking for. As a result, I felt like it slipped into Christian cliché at times, giving the standard answers that I’ve heard all my Christian life. Again, that’s not necessarily bad…I was just hoping for a fresh perspective from two doctors.

The book is broken into seven parts, each focusing on a different pain with four chapters per issue. The seven pains discussed are; injustice, rejection, loneliness, loss, discipline, failure and death.

Dr. Meier occasionally broke into story telling about his life which I found very engaging. I wished he had spent more time drawing on his personal life experiences rather than both doctors spinning a variety of anecdotes in each chapter.

If you are a relatively new believer this book might be just what you are looking for. But for more mature believers I think it will leave you wanting more.

Podcasts on Marriage and Faith

I download sermon podcasts all the time to hear from some of the better preachers in the country. Andy Stanley and John Ortberg usually serve up some pretty good stuff...practical, biblical, clear.

This past week they both had series posted that I think you'll find helpful:

• iMarriage- a three part series on marriage by Andy Stanley.
• Can Smart People Believe in God? - a three part series by John Ortberg. The second session was John interviewing theologian Dallas Willard with some tough questions about faith. The link takes you to a video but you can also download mp3's. If you go to itunes and search for Menlo Park Presbyterian Church you can get all the services that Dallas spoke at. He answered different questions in each service. Good stuff for people that struggle with questions regarding faith, God, the Bible, etc.

Both of these series can be accessed through iTunes as well. Enjoy.

How to Make Resolutions that Stick

I'm not preaching this week. It's amazing what I have time for when I don't have to prepare a sermon...like blogging. I would like to do it more.

I get blog updates from Michael Hyatt, president of Thomas Nelson books. Today he sent out a helpful post on how to make your New Year resolutions actually happen. I thought you might appreciate his advice...

In order to make your resolutions stick, you need to employ four strategies:

1. Keep them few in number. Productivity studies show that you really can’t focus on more than 5-7 items at any one time. And don’t try to cheat by including sections with several resolutions under each section. This is a recipe for losing focus and accomplishing very little. Instead, focus on a handful of resolutions that you can almost repeat from memory. Mine fit on one 4″ x 6″ card.
2. Make them “smart.” Resolutions are really just annual goals. But like all goals, they should be s-m-a-r-t:
   • Specific—your goals just identify exactly what you want to accomplish in as much specificity as you can muster.
   • Measurable—as the old adage says, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
   • Actionable—every resolution should start with a verb (e.g., “quit,” “run,” “finish,” “eliminate,” etc.)
   • Realistic—you have to be careful here. A good resolution should stretch you, but you have to add a dose of common sense.
   • Time-bound—every resolution needs a date associated with it. When do you plan to deliver on that resolution. It could be by year-end (December 31) or it could be more near-term (March 31).
3. Write them down. This is critical. There is a huge power in writing your resolutions on paper even if you never develop an action plan or do anything else. Henriette Anne Klauser documents this in her fascinating book, Write It Down and Make It Happen [affiliate link].
4. Go public. Tell your family and friends what you are committed to achieving. Better yet, post your resolutions on your blog like my son-in-law did. Going public creates accountability and leverage. Several years ago, I blogged about my goal to run a half marathon. Once I did that, there was no turning back. People would ask, “So how’s your training going?” I wanted to have a good answer, so I would haul myself out of bed and go run.

To illustrate, I have five resolutions for this year:

• Read through the entire Bible by December 31, 2010.
• Finish the second draft of my new book by March 31, 2010.
• Mentor eight men, once a month, beginning on January 12, 2010.
• Write 208 blog posts (four per week) by December 31, 2010.
• Run the Country Music Half Marathon on April 24, 2010.

You can read the full post here.

Michael's blogsite home is here.

Recent Cedarbrook Photos

Here are a few recent pics. Three from the World Hunger fundraiser at Pizza Hut and one of our flooded auditorium! For more photos go to our Facebook page.

New Tagline: Connect, Grow, Serve

I asked for input a few weeks back about a new tagline. I got some good input. People offered a number of creative ideas. One I liked the best was, Cedarbrook Church...know God, no guilt. I think that reflects well the spirit of who we are which is the purpose of a tagline.

After thinking about many options we settled on something more functional...Cedarbrook Church...connect, grow, serve. We had already decided that we would use these three words in brochures and on the website to help show movement within the church. We want people to understand that Cedarbrook is not about a Sunday meeting. People who want to engage at Cedarbrook should move beyond Sunday to connect with other people, grow deeper spiritually and start to serve others.

• Connect: initially through Cedarbrook 101
• Grow: primarily by joining a small group
• Serve: in church ministries, Lend-a-Hand outreach and missions
  

Since we had already agreed to use these three words to show movement we decided it was best to simply use these words as our tagline...reinforcing the idea of movement rather than introducing a new idea altogether. We want to keep the messages simple and memorable so people know what step to take next to grow in God.

Thanks to those of you who shot me your ideas! It all went into the mix of decision making.

Book Review: Fearless

Fearless, by Max Lucado, is a word spoken in season. As he closes his book, Lucado notes that a British researcher counted the use of the term “at risk” in British newspapers. In 1994 the term was used 2037 times. By the year 2000 the term was used 18,000. Had the world really become nine times riskier in just six years? Sometimes it feels that way.

Lucado takes on the variety of fears that we all experience (the fear of being insignificant, the fear of running out, the fear of disappointing God, the fear of not protecting my kids, etc.) relying on well known New Testament stories to give us perspective. But the chapter that struck me the most was the very first as he sharply defined the nature of fear…

Fear creates a form of spiritual amnesia. It dulls our miracle memory. It makes us forget what Jesus has done and how good God is. The fear-filled cannot love deeply. Love is risky. They cannot give to the poor. Benevolence has no guarantee of return. The fear-filled cannot dream wildly. What if their dreams sputter and fall from the sky? The worship of safety emasculates greatness. No wonder Jesus wages such a war against fear. Page 10.

Lucado’s book moves swiftly, an easy read. But don’t let that fool you. His words are rooted in truth and will encourage you to face what ever is currently staring you in the face. It’s well worth your time to equip yourself for the threats that face us every day.

Sermon Input Welcome

I'm starting a new series soon (this Sunday or next, depending on whether or not Brian Hartz can speak on Sunday).

I'm thinking it would be nice to get your input. I'll let you know what I'm looking for and you can provide me with a story, a thought, a video, a song or whatever. I'll take appropriate jokes too!

Now... the upside on this is that my sermons should be more interesting. I think we'd all like that!

The downside is that I can't possibly include everything that everyone suggests. So...my fear is that I'll hurt feelings. So, here's the deal - if you offer an idea, etc. you have to offer it with no expectations of it being used. Sorry! But...the truth is I factor in everything I hear...so even though I may not use what you gave me...I WILL consider it and it will impact my thinking...keep me balanced and all that.

With that said, my next series is on the letter of 2 Peter (Something's Missing...a final word from Peter). I'll be laying out the background to the letter which involves Peter's anger at how false teachers have led the church astray and into immorality. I'd be interested in hearing some stories about how that may have happened in your church history...where a leader misled you or your church and immorality resulted.

Thanks!

Help us with a tagline

At Cedarbrook we are working at repositioning ourselves in the community with a new tagline. Up to now, our tagline has been...Cedarbrook Church...come and be refreshed. That was a good descriptor of what we were trying to achieve in the early days...help people see church as a GOOD place to come...a place that was approachable and accepting vs. a place that crammed religion down your throat and handed you a list of harsh rules.

We still want people to come and be refreshed but we also want to communicate that Cedarbrook is a place where you can experience change...a place to find your purpose...a place that will impact you for good in some way.

So we are looking for a new tagline. At a staff/LEAD retreat recently we considered over 50 taglines and narrowed it down to one or two but I'd love to get more input. If you'd like to contribute some ideas that would be great. Keep these things in mind;

1. The tagline should relate to finding purpose, experiencing life change or connecting with God and others.

2. It should be five words or less (preferred).

3. The audience the tagline is speaking to is primarily people OUTSIDE of Cedarbrook and OUTSIDE of the church. It's targeted at people who might consider Cedarbrook so the tagline should help this person get a glimpse into who Cedarbrook is and how Cedarbrook might impact their life. For example, General Electric's tagline has been...GE...we bring good things to life. But, the tagline will also serve as a reminder to INSIDER's of who we are.

Other popular taglines...

• Verizon...can you hear me now?
• Subway...five dollar foot long
• Las Vegas...what happens here, stays here (good tagline. Bad thought)
• Redbull...it gives you wings

These taglines illustrate the point well...with one short phrase you GET the essence of who they are and what they offer.

You can post your idea here or email me directly. Thanks. I'm not sure how I'll process them. But I hope to at least share the ones that stand out and get more feedback.

A Look at Fear

I just agreed to review books for Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for a free book. The first book I got was FEARLESS by Max Lucado. I'm not ready to review it but his first chapter is captivating. Here's a taste...

Oversized and rude, fear is unwilling to share the heart with happiness. Happiness complies and leaves. Do you ever see the two together? Can one be happy and afraid at the same time? Clear thinking and afraid? Confident and afraid? Merciful and afraid? No. Fear is the big bully in the high school hallway: brash, loud, and unproductive. Fear never wrote a symphony or poem, negotiated a peace treaty, or cured a disease. Fear never pulled a family out of poverty or a country out of bigotry. Fear never saved a marriage or a business. Courage did that. Faith did that. People who refused to consult or cower to their intimidities did that. But fear itself? Fear herds us into a prison and slams the door.

Open Sourcing my life

The big thing over the past few years is open source materials. That means that rather than charging for everything, people, companies, churches, etc. put there stuff out there on line for free. Download it, modify it, upgrade it and use it for your own benefit.

That idea got me thinking about living an open-sourced life. It's a bit of a pendulum swing. The opposite is where someone has so many boundaries and layers in place that they've protected themselves from every possible intrusion. It's very efficient...allowing no interruptions or messiness. If your life is in chaos...this might be where you need to go to get some balance and margin in your life.

But I'd like my pendulum to swing the other way a little. So I'm thinking of ways that I can crack open my life and get more people in. I've always been quick to meet with people that seek me out. That's good. But I've thought of two new ways that seem fairly effortless. One is just to open facebook whenever I'm online. That way people can chat with me about big or little things.

Another way is to have a regular open house. Lisa and I did our first one last night...a mix of neighborhood friends, staff, and newcomers to Cedarbrook. We are thinking of doing this every two weeks on Friday. Super casual with the goal of getting to know Cedarbrookers better as well as quickly incorporating newcomers to Cedarbrook into the flow of relationships.

I'm often so busy managing Cedarbrook that I feel like I miss the heart of what we should be about; relationships. I'd be interested in hearing some other ideas you might have about living an open sourced life...

Finding peace

I read something else from Nouwen the other day about when you feel unsettled during the day...
How can we stay in solitude when we feel that deep urge to be distracted by people and events? The most simple way is to focus our minds and hearts on a word or picture that reminds us of God. By repeating quietly: "The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want," ...we can bring our restless minds to some rest and experience a gentle divine presence.

Oswald Chambers said something very similar in his devotional for today...
Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once and ask Him to establish rest. Never allow anything to remain which is making the dis-peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against, and not to suffer.

God wants to resolve your unrest but you have to bring it to him to allow that to happen. Go to him now and ask for his presence to calm your heart. Good day.

Spiritual Dryness

My last post got me feeling guilty about not blogging. So many inspiring things cross my desk (or computer screen) every day. It doesn't take much to pass along the blessing. So, I thought I'd pass on some things from a Henri Nouwen devotional that I get emailed to me everyday.

Sometimes we experience a terrible dryness in our spiritual life. We feel no desire to pray, don't experience God's presence, get bored with worship services, and even think that everything we ever believed about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is little more than a childhood fairy tale.

Then it is important to realise that most of these feelings and thoughts are just feelings and thoughts, and that the Spirit of God dwells beyond our feelings and thoughts. It is a great grace to be able to experience God's presence in our feelings and thoughts, but when we don't, it does not mean that God is absent. It often means that God is calling us to a greater faithfulness. It is precisely in times of spiritual dryness that we must hold on to our spiritual discipline so that we can grow into new intimacy with God.

I like what he said here about being "just feelings and thoughts". I apply the same reasoning to any bad thoughts that go through my brain. Rather than feel guilty, I just tell myself that they are just thoughts. Everyone has passing thoughts that are not appropriate. The question is...what will you do with the thoughts? Dwell on them? Act on them? Beat yourself up for having them? Or pray for God to rid you of them and actively turn your thoughts to something positive. I'm amazed how quickly these thoughts leave when I am proactive about them and not passive.

I hope you'll sign up for Henri's devotional. It's worth the sixty seconds it takes to read it.

Summer Break

Summer is always a bad time for blogging. The best I can do is a few lines here and there on Twitter or Facebook...mostly updates on our building project. Catch me there!

My Twitter posts are in the margin below...

Twitter me FRemy

Okay, I'm succumbing to peer pressure and trying to do something now rather than waiting until later. I'm finally on Twitter. Follow me here.

At first I didn't get it. I thought it was self-indulgent...like, telling you every time I burped or ate a cookie, and ...WHO CARES!

But I'm realizing that it is a new medium for rapid communication and I think as I use it and incorporate it into the church that it will be another way to build community.

Rather than silly comments on my boring life I'll be passing along breaking news on our building and church ministries, along with prayer concerns (the biggies) and an occasional insight that I think might motivate or inspire you.

I hope you'll join me at http://twitter.com/FRemy

Leever's, Land and finding God's will

In his heart a person plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9

I talked about our decision to build on our land yesterday. You can download the Rooted to Reach Update. I took the full 30 minutes because it was more than an announcement. It was a case study in finding God's will. Finding God's will is not an efficient, tidy effort. It can be grueling, as was our process to determine where our home should be. But we need to be willing to do whatever it is we have to do to make sure we are on the right path.

"What" was never in question. We knew that we should move out of the mall. But the "Where" became a question when a number of people suggested buying Leever's. Suddenly it seemed like this might be a "God idea" and that made us pause and seriously consider it. We were willing to abandon our desire and go wherever God wanted, even if it didn't seem like the best place. We could see many good things about Leever's, primarily the location that would make us very present to this community. So, we pursued the ideas until "the wheels fell off" as we came to say.

Now that the wheels have fallen off, we are free to return to our original idea of building on our land. Some would say it was a waste of time to consider Leever's. Not me. Given the same situation I'd do it again. Once we move, we will be there for a LONG time. We couldn't afford to make the wrong move. And so if that required slowing down a bit to check out Leever's then that's what we had to do. I think it was a God honoring exercise. And God honors those that want to please him and do his will. I was confident that our motives were pure and God would ultimately make his will clear. I'm very proud of our LEAD Team and the many people from the congregation that we pulled into the process. There were countless meetings but it all paid off.

I say this because if you are seeking God's will in regard to a big issue in life I want to encourage you to do whatever you need to do to make sure you are honoring God. It's worth the time and effort. God will honor your hard work. He's looking for a people that seek him above all else.

If you have any specific questions about finding God's will I'd be happy to talk about it via email, facebook or in person.

Remy

Welcome Tevis West

Tevis West has recently accepted our offer to be our new worship leader. Tevis and his wife Melissa are currently in Madison, Indiana.

Tevis will be joining Cedarbrook on the weekend of May 31st for a visit while he is up here looking for both housing and part time work. He hopes to move up here in June if possible.

You can find Tevis and Melissa on Facebook in the Eau Claire network. I hope you'll give them a big welcome!

The Shack and Judging Others

Yesterday I opened my series called Finding God in The Shack. You can download the message by clicking on the link.

I addressed some of the criticism that The Shack has had thrown at it. We unfortunately see the dark side of the church when people feel like they have to be "fruit inspectors" for everyone else. I believe it is important to judge right from wrong and good from bad. It's important to identify true heresy. But how we go about doing that is very important. Plus, there are times that we too quickly jump to conclusions. What might look like rotten fruit may just be undeveloped fruit or maybe an unknown fruit. So we should be "quick to listen and slow to speak" when commenting on many things.

I like what Paul said to the Corinthian church.

My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.1 Corinthians 4:4,5

Did you catch what he said at first? His conscience is clear...but that didn't necessarily mean that he was innocent. Humility caused him to hold out the possibility of being wrong. And he was willing to let Jesus point that out when he returns. He was in no rush to judgment.

I don't always hear that kind of humility in the voice of church critics. They are often convinced of how right they are and how wrong others are. They see things in very narrow terms. And they have an urgency to let their concerns be known. Sadly they don't realize how "wrong" they are by insisting on being "right". They make both the church and God look bad, causing many to steer clear of the church.

Whether it is in critiquing The Shack or anything/one else let's be careful with our words. Let's think the best. Hope the best. Believe the best. I think this honors God.

The Shack is not a perfect model of God but it helps. Let's learn from it what we can and forgive it's weaknesses. I think that's good advice for dealing with each other as well.