What if I don't agree?

I got a great letter from someone at church recently. As our capital campaign draws to an end they decided that they could not contribute. They prayed and thought about it a lot but just didn't feel like it was something that God wanted them to participate in at this time. I could tell from the tone of their note that they felt bad about their decision and hoped I'd understand.

I thought it would be helpful to share my response (with a few clarifying additions) in case there are other people who feel the same way...

Thanks for your note about the campaign. Your decision is not a problem with me. I knew that the idea has been a struggle for you from the beginning and I respect your thoughtfulness and prayerfulness about the matter. I much rather have you prayerfully decline than give out of a sense of obligation and duty.

People are often confused when they can't agree with the majority - they feel like someone must be wrong - but I think God allows disagreement among us so we will work at respecting one another. That's the true meaning of unity. Unity isn't when everyone thinks alike. Unity is when people stick together even though they see things differently. (It's unrealistic to think that everyone will see things the same way - God created us all different!)

Thanks for your honesty and openness. You absolutely have my respect with your decision. I'm proud of you for standing by what you believe to be true.

Remy

Where's the Altar Call?

Cedarbrook attracts a wide variety of people from diverse church backgrounds. You'll find a smorgasbord of experiences from Catholic to Pentecostal to Lutheran to Baptist...plus New Age and who knows what else! It's that way by design. We want to be inclusive but people with strong church backgrounds always wonder why we don't do what they are used to doing. Like in the early days we got a lot of people asking why we never said The Lord's Prayer. (Short Answer: Jesus didn't give us the prayer as a ritual for church services. He gave it as a model for prayer.)

Someone just asked me why I never invite people to "accept Christ" at the end of the service or provide an "altar call" (inviting people to come forward as a sign of their commitment to Christ, ala Billy Graham). That is very common in evangelical churches (churches whose mission is to tell others about Jesus. I consider Cedarbrook evangelical) and something that was done all the time at the church I attended way back. This is what I wrote back...

Great question! I never do an "altar call" type invitation. I have nothing against it. For some church cultures it's very appropriate. Occassionally I'll call people to make a commitment to follow Christ. I've asked people to pray a prayer of commitment now and then. I could probably do this more often. What I'm trying to avoid is getting people to prematurely make a "decision" for Christ that only gives them some kind of false assurance of connecting to God. A disciple is someone who follows Jesus every day, not someone who prays a prayer once to relieve their guilty conscience. So I stay away from anything that implies salvation is an event and lean toward things that communicate that it is a 24/7 lifestyle. I think my messages regularly challenge people to deny themselves and put God first. If my ministry encourages people to develop this kind of lifestyle then I feel pretty good about the results.

Having said this, I do think that for many people there is a moment in time when a decision is made to follow Christ. I don't want to diminish this in any way. For some it's a gradual awakening. That's what happened in my life. For others it all gels in a moment and they pray and tell God that "from this moment on I'm yours".

I hope this helps. I'm happy to answer other questions. Fire away.

How to achieve the impossible

On Sunday I talked about how to achieve the impossible. My three points were that achieving the impossible...
1. starts with a sense of calling from God.
2. is a gift from God.
3. requires preparation.

When God calls you to something (point 1) he gives you what you need to make it happen (point two). I didn't have a chance to share what Moses told Joshua before he died...

The Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. … And the Lord … will deliver them to you,…Deuteronomy 31:3-5

Moses understood how the impossible happens...he had seen it enough. Moses realized that miracles don't depend on the leader but on the leader's God. God is ahead of us fighting our battles for us and clearing a path. In fact, God appeared to Joshua as the "commander of the Lord's army" in Joshua five, revealing that God is actively involved with our concerns.

13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" 14 "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come."Joshua 5

As you go about your day/week, remember that you are not alone in your struggles. God is fighting for you, clearing a path for your success. Don't give up. Continue on and you'll achieve whatever you sense that God has called you to do.

Rooted to Reach logo

I want to thank Andy Christiansen for creating the logo that we will be using throughout our capital campaign. Andy often plays drums for the band on Sunday's. Stop and thank him for his great work!

New Year Movie Reviews

I noted a couple of movies in my last post. I think "Seven Pounds" is still the winner so far. I had a chance to see two new releases and one on dvd since then. What's this got to do with church? Well, a lot of us watch movies and if you are like me, I don't like wasting my time on bad ones. I thought you might appreciate hearing what I think. Hopefully you invite a friend over and use the movie to build community!

Valkyrie: If you don't know the story of Hitler's failed assassination attempt (oops, I gave it away) then this might be more compelling than it was for me. I've read a bit about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who was actively involved in this same attempt and so I knew the story from a different side. (For a fascinating historical fictional account of this read the book "The Cup of Wrath" by Mary Glazener.) Valkryie is well acted. It's not the action movie that the trailer makes it look like. I'm sure most people will find it more engaging than I did. I recommend it. But it's more documentary than it is thriller.

Gran Torino: Wow, this is a tough one to recommend. If you like Clint Eastwood, you'll definitely want to see it. He does an award winning job of acting. Kind of the "Archie Bunker" of 2009, which (for you young folks) means that he plays a very bigoted man (warning: much cussing and derogatory remarks) whose heart is softened in a dramatic way by the end of the story. Eastwood plays an army vet who is widowed and is surrounded by an increasingly Hmong population in his neighborhood. It's definitely a movie that will help you understand that culture better with many "teaching moments" that instruct the audience. The Hmong actors left a bit to be desired. They literally hired these kids off the streets...with no acting experience (the lead character is from Minnesota) and you can tell. So, Clint and the story are good. The other actors and the language are bad. Some of you will like it. I did.

Dan in Real Life: I had no idea what to expect from this movie. Lisa and I passed on it for many weeks because we were afraid that the humor would be too silly. But again, the trailers didn't do it justice. It is a romantic comedy where Steve Carrell plays a widower with three girls. The hook is that he falls in love with his brother's girlfriend at a family renunion. It's light and fun. I enjoyed it. I can't remember if there are inappropriate parts (language, etc.). I know it's PG-13. I give it a thumbs up. It's not going to rock your world or inspire any deep thoughts but it's entertaining! There are a couple of plot reversals that keep it interesting plus it's well acted. The 14 year old daughter is a stitch with her over the top attitude toward her dad (she calls him a "Murderer of Love").

Post Christmas Check-in

I think the Advent Conspiracy was a success. I can't tell you how many people stopped me, emailed me or wrote me a Christmas card thanking me for changing their Christmas forever with my latest sermon series. Very gratifying! I don't know what the offering tabulation was from our Christmas Eve offering yet. But no matter what it is...I know that Cedarbrookers will make a difference this year by helping to fund a least a large portion of a well in some village. There's still time to give by going to www.water.cc/give.

Changed Life; I just had the pleasure of visiting with someone that I met about ten years ago at Arbor Place Treatment Center where I teach three days a week. When people from Arbor attend Cedarbrook they often become friends, as this person did. She received much inner healing in the five years that Lisa and I knew her but continually relapsed back into her addiction in major ways. Then she moved and we felt sad that all of our investment into her life seemed to be for nothing. But we reconnected recently and we found out that she has been sober for the last four years. She's even helping other women in a prison ministry. It was great to see what God has done in her life since she moved on.

Christmas Movie Reviews; My family has started taking in movies on Christmas Day these past few years. Yesterday we saw the new Will Smith movie "Seven Pounds". I really liked it. It was kind of dark yet it was heartwarming at the same time. It had elements of mystery, suspense and romance. You will have a lot of questions throughout the movie but then everything comes together in the last two or three minutes. That's all I can say without giving it away. But I'd definitely see it.

Not so good...Tropic Thunder. We got home late from a Minnesota Christmas and thought we'd watch one more movie on Pay per View. The only thing that looked watchable was Tropic Thunder. I thought I had read a good review on it and I like Ben Stiller. But don't waste your time. There are some funny moments and the premise is fairly amusing (a war movie turns into the real thing but one of the actors is clueless to what's going on around him) but the good parts are too few to justify the bad parts. I REALLY dislike frat-house humor (fart and sex jokes) and this movie turns to that formula whenever they were too lazy to think of something truly funny. I normally don't mind foul language in a movie if it reflects the situation but again, the bad language was pure laziness on the screenwriter's part. So, save your money. There's better things to do with your time! (that goes for your teenagers too!)

I hope you had a good Christmas. I'm enjoying some true down time.

My Christmas Wish List

Thanksgiving seems to be the time that people start asking each other what's on their Christmas list. I know you are all eager to know what to get me. So to make this simple and fast here's the list...

1. clean water for villages with dirty water (give online here)
2. clean water for villages with dirty water
3. clean water for villages with dirty water

I think you get the idea. But seriously, I don't expect you to give me a gift. I'm writing this to give you an idea for YOUR Christmas list. You don't have to be so hard core. Go ahead, put the usual on your list...socks, a Wal-mart gift card, fudge...but add one more thing...clean water.

Learn more about Living Waters International and how you can change a village forever. Why be so radical? Learn about the Advent Conspiracy at their website or download my sermons to learn why you might join the conspiracy this Christmas.

God's Gift - Our Gifts

Have you considered the incongruity of our Christmas gifts compared to God's gift to us?

God gave us the most personal gift - Jesus.

But we often give each other impersonal gifts just to fill an obligation.

God gave Jesus to us because we were in desperate need.

But our gifts usually go to people that already have too much.

God’s gift was paid with blood and sacrifice.

But our gifts are often paid with credit.

God’s gift lasts forever.

But we are lucky if our gifts last a few minutes.

What's wrong with this picture? Is there a more meaningful way to celebrate Jesus entering this world?

taken from Advent Conspiracy, Part One: Enter the Story.

Finding God's Will for Your Life

How do you know when your thought or idea is something that God gave you? That's what I talked about at the University of Stout on Sunday. What a great event! Lots of people. And people texted in their questions after the sermon. Very fun.

I didn't have much time to answer the questions so I wrote them all out and answered them in the text to my sermon. If you'd like to hear what I had to say just download the text version. If you still need more information just shoot me an email. I'm happy to answer your question the best I can.

Download sermon text.

Now, the Discussion Starts!

I want to use this space to update you on the research our facilities team has done over the last several months. Let me start with a little background for newcomers.

The History
Cedarbrook Church started in January of 2003 with about 200 people, meeting at the CineMagic Theatre. We outgrew that space and moved to the Shops Off Broadway mall in the Fall of 2006. This space has served us in many ways, giving us more meeting space and a nice Children's Center but for a church of 400+ we are really cramped, spilling over into other rented space with many of our staff "officing" out of local coffee shops. To rent more space in the mall increases the cost considerably and still only gives us a temporary site. So we determined a few months back that our next step is to move...not rent more mall space.

We created a facilities team made up of our LEAD Team and added to it a number of people with backgrounds in building, real estate, business and planning. Our goal was to assess our options for a new church facility. We didn't want to assume that building on our land (we purchased 14 acres one mile north of Wal-Mart a few years ago) was the "right" answer if buying an existing building would serve us better.

The Options
We looked at every option that could potentially work for us, some good and some bad, and we came down to these options:

1. Build on our land
2. Purchase the former Leever's grocery store
3. Purchase the former Lehman and Larson building adjacent to Wal-Mart
4. Be open to any late breaking opportunity that might open up.

Most of our time has been spent on options one and two above. Option three is new to us but has some attractive possibilities. We have hired a capital campaign company to help us raise funds for this effort (targeted to start in late January). What we want to do between now and January is start a discussion and see what resonates with the congregation. What gets us excited? What option will move us to give to make it a reality?

The Plan:
It would be ideal if we all agreed immediately on the best option. But short of that kind of miracle we want to at least engage the Cedarbrook family in a discussion to find out what everyone is thinking. On November 9 and 16 we will invite focus groups representing different subcategories of Cedarbrook attenders (students, townies, rural, parents, etc.) to give us their thoughts and ideas on our options. We also hope to engage other community groups (the Chamber, etc.) to give us their input as well. We will process all of this information, along with other research that we hope to gather, to gain consensus for one of the options. If we can't gain consensus before we launch the capital campaign we will delay the campaign.

My Request:
I have a few things to ask of you;

1. Pray. This is big. This is huge. This decision will impact the nature and direction of Cedarbrook for decades. We need God to be in the center of this decision making process.
2. Participate. This is not the time to hang back. We need your input, whether it's through a focus group or email or face to face visit. Keep it positive but don't be afraid to speak your mind, even if you feel like you are in the minority.
   
3. Stay open. Like I said, unless a miracle takes place, not everyone will agree on the final decision. This is a time for us to walk in humility and openness, respecting each other's opinions and trusting that God's voice will be heard through a very diverse group of people.
   

This is a historic time to be at Cedarbrook! This is a time that people will look back on in years to come and say, "Do you remember when ..." God has clearly been with Cedarbrook from the beginning and I know he will speak to us through this process to show us which way to go to best fulfill our calling. So join the journey as we seek God's voice together!

The With-ness Factor; Being incarnational

I want to expand on what I said in church yesterday about "serving others"...

I didn't have time to talk about the "Withness Factor". When I talk about the "withness" of serving others I'm not speaking with a lisp or writing a typo. It's a part of serving that is often overlooked.

The official term for what I'm talking about is being "incarnational". We talk about Jesus as being "God incarnate"..."carne" being the root word for "meat " (i.e. chili con carne which means chili with meat) or "flesh". So Jesus is God "in the flesh". God came to be with us by being like us. The name Immanuel means "God with us". So, that's the theological side.

But it wasn't until I went to help with the Katrina Flood Relief that I experienced what incarnational ministry really is or what I'm calling "withness". When my team was in New Orleans for a week I was happy to be there helping but I really wanted to stay there and be with them and see them through the whole ordeal. There seemed to be something inherently wrong with coming for a few days...clean out a few homes...and then leaving. It felt a bit cold. A bit calculated and clinical.

I experience the same feeling when I teach at Arbor Place. Part of me just wants to move in to the treatment center and live with the clients. It seems too condescending to ride in, dispense my wisdom and then leave. I want to be there to walk them through what I taught as well as let them help me walk through my own issues. It's that give and take of community that validates peoples humanity. No one wants to be merely the object of mercy. Everyone wants to give back as well.

Having these feelings was a bit of an awakening and helped me to understand the Mother Theresa's of this world who go to live in terrible conditions like the garbage dump in Calcutta. I used to think...I understand helping them but if you live in the dump you will never get the rest you need to help them. In a sense that's true...but the validation she and others give by living with the people is powerful.

So what's the take home message? That when you serve you give more than your time and talent but you give your self as well. You hear what they hear, you see what they see, you feel what they feel so that when you speak or act it flows from a true knowledge of THEM and their surroundings and not what your textbook or stereotype says about them. Plus you give AND you receive. We don't have all the answers. The people you help can help you just as much...in ways you never imagined...so pay attention! (By the way...you can practice this right in your home or dorm room with the people you live with).

When Jesus said, "Go into all the world and be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8) it might be good to add an "h" now and then to remind us that being a "witness" requires "withness".

(This is the text of my weekly email that I send out to people that want to take my sermons deeper. If you'd like to get that email let me know and I'll put you on the list.)

Freeing Up the Bottleneck

In my sermon on Sunday I challenged people to not wait for someone on staff to start a Bible study or plan an outreach or even a mission trip. It's not rocket science! You can do it! Within just a few months after I became a follower of Jesus I was leading small group Bible studies at the University of Minnesota and by the end of the year the campus group I was with put me in charge of outreach for the entire campus. I didn't know much but I had a willing heart!

My point is that people tend to get intimidated by taking leadership...especially with anything spiritual...like they have to be a Bible scholar or something first. Not true! At a church the size of Cedarbrook we should have 30 small groups and be sending out ministry teams every week to help someone somewhere. Why don't we? We just don't have the staff to manage all that. But we shouldn't really have to. If people would merely grab a few friends and start something our ministry efforts would double over night! (Maybe if you think of working with just your friends it won't be so intimidating).

Please think about if God is calling you to do that. I'm happy to meet with you to give you ideas and next steps. We've got six staff and 500 attenders at Cedarbrook. Let's not let the small staff bottleneck what God wants to do at church!

The ride of his life

Sometimes people do something so notable you just have to comment. Rick Gauger is a long time friend and a Cedarbrooker and he just set off on a 30 day bike trip across the southern states from San Diego to Savannah, GA. He's joined by Steve Brown and Jerry Porter from Menomonie and about 30 other people from around the country/world.

The Dunn County News did a nice piece on them Sunday that's fun to read (click the link). And Rick is blogging each night (we'll see how long he hangs in there on the blogging!) in case you want to track this trio. It sounds exciting (but very exhausting!).

Confronting the addict in your life

Every month I get a few emails asking me for advice on how to confront an addict in the life of someone at church. I've given this advice out so much that I thought I should get the information out to more people who might be too embarrassed to contact me. This is some of the advice I've given out over the past few weeks...

1. Should I confront them? Yes, you have to. The scary truth is that if you don't confront them the next phone call you get might be from the coroner or the police because they killed someone while driving drunk. If you are uneasy about this contact Arbor Place or another treatment center for tips on how to do an intervention on an addict. Don't go into it with "guns blazing" because it is very shaming to be exposed in your addiction and you don't want them to shut down or run away. But don't use those fears to keep you from confronting them.

2. Should I help them even though I've helped them in the past and it didn't work? Yes, if you can...if you have the emotional margin left in you. It's good to offer help if they sincerely want it...no matter how many times they've failed in the past, this might be the time it clicks. I think that's how Jesus treats us. But on the other hand, in some cases their past failures may have burned you so bad that you are no longer able to help. If that's the case, you just have to respect your condition and say, "I'm sorry, I don't have anything left to give." Turn it over to God and let go of the guilt. Jesus is the Savior of the world, not you.

3. How do I keep from being dragged down myself? That's a very important question. You need to engage with the person but only after FIRST establishing firm boundaries and communicating those boundaries in advance of engaging with them. Boundaries mean that there are specific consequences to their failure to uphold their end of the bargain. You have to be very careful not to let your helping them take you down because then you are no longer any help to them or others. Guard yourself emotionally and financially...even physically. If they impact you emotionally and financially it will eventually impact you physically. Educate yourself in the ways of an addict. Understand that they lie to minimize how bad things are. So don't take everything at face value.

4. How can I trust them? You can't. Sad but true. If they have repeatedly broken trust with you you need to let them know that they will have to rebuild trust with you before you can extend it to them. And remember that trust is not forgiveness. You should always forgive their behavior but that doesn't mean you restore trust until they've proven themselves trustworthy. This is where boundaries come in. There need to be firm consequences (not punishment) for breaking trust. (The book Boundaries, by Henry Cloud, is very helpful).

5. Should they go to treatment or can they do this on their own? Most of us underestimate the power of an addiction. Willpower isn't the answer in most cases. If you love them, get them into treatment and counseling...no self-help. And I recommend in-patient treatment so there is no way they can use, plus they get the counseling they need. Self-help addiction treatment just prolongs the pain and rarely changes anything.

That's a start. I hope this helps. Don't hesitate to contact me with your questions. I love helping people sort through these difficult issues. Also, consider forwarding this post to a friend struggling with knowing what to do with the addict in their life.

Church: Is it about scarcity or abundance?

If you've hung around me at all over the years you know I have this love/hate thing going with the church. I love it because the church is God's idea to pull together his people into a family to offer the hope of his presence to the world. What could be more exciting than that? But I hate what we have done to God's idea. I hate how we often let our selfishness turn God's idea upside down and use it for our own pettiness and small agendas.

So...if you listen in to my thoughts through blogs, sermons, podcasts or just over coffee I vacillate between rants about how bad the church is and why the world has a reason to hate us to wide -eyed optimism about how the church can change the world. I know, I'm a little bipolar on this topic but I've found a number of people that share my same frustration and so I write and speak to give that common frustration a voice.

I've been thinking a lot this summer about how people and churches view life from either a scarcity mindset or a mindset of abundance. The scarcity mindset says that the pie is getting smaller while the pie eaters are increasing and so be afraid...be very afraid. The abundance mindset says..."Who says there's only one pie? And if there is, who is to say that we can't make more? Or maybe there's something other than pies to eat if we think about it. If God is for us, who can be against us?" The scarcity mindset is petty, blaming, controlling and stingy. The abundance mindset is optimistic, innovative, generous and fun!

With so many things going wrong today (economy, war, hurricanes, etc.) it's easy to be drawn into the scarcity vortex...I've been watching it in the political conventions these past two weeks and I see it in the church as well. But as followers of Jesus we have to be careful to remember who we are and why we are here. God's got us here for a reason and he's not going to leave us with one "pie" to fight over. I think as God's family - here to reveal God to the world - we are to be known for our generosity because we are convinced that our Father is a God of abundance who can "meet all of our needs according to his riches in glory".

Okay, that's my vent for the day. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I'll be talking more about how to be generous come Sunday. Hope to see you there.

In Memory of Art Katz

Back in my early days as a young believer I stumbled across someone I consider a true prophet. His name was Art Katz. He was a Jewish man who came to faith in Jesus in his 20's and was radically apprehended by God. His book "Ben Israel" tells the dramatic story of his conversion. He immediately sensed a call to ministry and became quite popular in the Charismatic renewal. But he soon tired of the superficiality that he saw there and moved to northern Minnesota to live in a humble community of believers while he traveled the world sharing his unique message of being recklessly abandoned to God.

In my experience there was Art Katz and every other speaker was a distant second. He was not dynamic in a flashy way but spoke with a clarity and anointing of the Spirit that was riveting. I don't know if I ever left his presence without being deeply challenged in my faith.

Lisa and I were both profoundly affected by Art's ministry - so much that we seriously considered joining his community up north. We never did but through retreats, guest visits and tapes I sat under his teaching for years. He had a great sense of humor that tempered the intensity of his message.

It was through Art that God taught me what holiness is about and what it means to deny myself, take up the cross and follow Jesus. I know that without Art's ministry I would not be where I am at now in the faith, he meant that much to me.

I don't know if Art's ministry would impact you in the same way that it impacted me but I can't recommend his teaching highly enough. You can order his books/dvd's here and download free sermons here (I recommend "And They Crucified Him"). I'd love to hear back from you what you think.

Cedarbrook Baptism Pictures

We had a huge turnout for our baptism last Sunday night at Wakanda Pool and the picnic before it. A real Cedarbrook moment. About 30-35 were baptized (I lost count!). It was great to see so many people celebrating their being forgiven and having a new life in Christ. That's Andy and Jill Britz above with Jayne Rechtzigel and Byron Anderson looking on.


This is Greg and Cindy Ritchie.







And here is Stephen Gauger with Mark Deyo-Svendsen on his left and Chris Ehlert on his right.






And here are Kelley and Cecil Hayes.

There were many more of course. I'll be showing a powerpoint show of them all in late September at a Sunday service.

More Flood Work Pictures

Okay...my team is sending me their pictures. I've uploaded some below but the best work pictures in the house can be viewed here with a slide show.

Below is a before and after picture of gutting a child's room...



Karen Flodquist, Nikki and I are tackling the living room on the top picture below. Diane, Jordan, Nikki and Maddie are cleaning up in the street facilities on the bottom.

Report on Cedar Rapids Flood Team

I admit it. I'm totally self-centered. I love comfort. I dislike being inconvenienced. So I was quite at home sitting by the lake at our family cabin last week...probably the most relaxing place on earth for me. Then why did I agree to cut short my vacation to lead a team to do flood relief in Iowa? That's what I was asking myself at week's end!!

You see, four more days by the lake were sounding pretty good to me while traveling 11 hours round trip to gut out a waterlogged house in 90 degree heat and humidity was rapidly losing its appeal! And then this little voice inside me said, "You need this more than you need more time at the lake." I'm familiar with that little voice. I have conversations with it all the time! Maybe you know what I mean.

After a little attitude adjustment I was able to actually look forward to my trip and I wasn't disappointed. Without writing a book let me just give you some quick reasons why serving fills me up;

• When I do it with a team, I get to know those people better and in a way I'd never get to know them. The 15 people with me on this trip were a treat to work with.
  
• I get to see the country. The trip to Cedar Rapids was beautiful.
• I get to meet new people in the serving site and hear their story. In Cedar Rapids, we heard their story of suffering and hardship (maybe life isn't all about me, huh?). Did you know that there were as many homes flooded in Iowa as there were in New Orleans?
  
• I get a new perspective on my possessions. When you stand with a home owner and throw every material possession that he worked so hard for into a bacteria infested waterlogged pile of garbage, it makes you think twice about your pile of stuff back home. Maybe there are more important things to invest in.
  
• I get the chance for people to give back. Our hosts in Iowa went out of their way to serve us, feed us, encourage us and house us. They even fixed my van for free when I dropped my exhaust pipe. It's a very rich and humbling experience to be with two groups of strangers that are working very hard to serve the other group.
• I get to radically change someone's life that was hopeless. Our team of 16 gutted an entire house in seven hours...a job that would have taken the owner weeks to do on his own. We hit that house like a SWAT team and left him feeling like maybe things would work out after all.
• I get to learn from people ahead of me. The church that hosted us just celebrated their 50th anniversary and were on the brink of moving into a 5 million dollar building. It was great to think about Cedarbrook taking the same steps in years to come if we follow their example of faithfulness.
• I get to see God. I really think God is at the heart of service. He is also at the heart of rest. But he's nowhere to be found in selfishness.
  

I'll stop here. You get the idea. Our 30 hour trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa filled me up. If I didn't preach a sermon every Sunday I would love to do that on a regular basis. I can't...but maybe you can! Try it...just once and prove me wrong! But I think you'll find that serving changes your life in a way you never imagined. Here are some pictures from the trip...

To the left is John Anderson, Ryan Jensen, Darline Thompson and Karen Hofland looking very clean before the work started.

Below is our house with some of it's contents on the curb. Maddie and Jordan Wold are getting psyched up to start mucking out the basement!




These ladies are still smiling after some hard work...Karen Flodquist, Karen Hofland, Diane Colson and Nikki Schnell.


I'm still waiting for pictures from my team. The rest of the team consisted of Greg Wold, Tonya Anderson, Elli Hunt, Darlene and George Anderson and my wife, Lisa.

By the way, while we were in Iowa, we had two teams in New Orleans. Now read about their work on their own blog!

In Search of...a God-focused Mission

I've been thinking a lot about Cedarbrook's mission lately...

• to first experience and then share the life-changing love of God.

That has been our mission from the beginning. The idea behind it is that we don't want to share anything that we haven't first experienced ourselves. We don't want to be religious, just sharing words and doctrine. We want to share something that not only changes lives but has changed OUR lives.

So, I heartily agree with our mission statement. But I think we might be able to improve on it. What I don't like about our mission statement has nothing to do what it says but what it does not say. There are two components that I'd like to somehow incorporate;

1. God's mission. As I reflect on what is often taught in churches I hear us talking a lot about inviting God into OUR lives. I hear how bringing God into OUR lives will improve us and make us more successful. But I think we have it backwards. God wants us to join HIS life. He wants us to join what HE is doing and not vice versa. Any casual reader of the Bible can see that God has a mission. God has a purpose and a plan. So we need to be calling people to align ourselves with God's life and not simply encouraging them to invite Jesus to come into their life. It's too self-serving and ultimately robs God of his glory - like he is some cosmic servant who runs around trying to make people happy and feel loved.
   
2. Community. Another thing missing in our mission statement is the sense of community. If you think about it you could fulfill our mission as it is stated all by yourself. You don't need others to first experience and then share the life changing love of God. I was shocked when I realized that because it is such a glaring oversight to something that I see as central to God and our humanity. And the thought of serving God in isolation is so far from the heart of God. God is relational. He's made us relational. And we will only walk in oneness with God when we are walking in oneness with his people.
   

So, in light of these things, I'm pondering an upgrade to our mission statement. How can we incorporate these concepts in one concise statement that will fit on a t-shirt? I'm open to suggestions and would love to hear your thoughts. There's no rush or timeline. But it warrants some thought.