The Antioch Kids Art Books arrived this week and will be available starting a week from Sunday.
It's such a cool thing to see... all the artwork from so many different kids who all will be beaming with pride when they see their work in print.
I can already see my kids faces when they give these to their grandparents as Christmas presents :)
I shared a part of a letter in a message this last Sunday at Antioch.
It was a letter that I received in response from Eugene Peterson when we were getting ready to plant the church.
It had been over a year since I looked at it and somehow I ended up rereading it last Monday and was amazed at how well it tied in with what we have been talking about the last few Sundays.
I forwarded it on to our staff and elders and thought I'd also post it online since I've had several requests.
Click here to view a pdf copy.
The World Relief NEXT project is going to be launching here in Bend in the next two weeks. It's as cool of a thing as I've ever seen!!
One of the goals is to create a collaboration of northwest churches that can be more meaningfully involved in missions through collaboration than alone.
Below is the e-mail that Ann Mara sent to local pastors inviting them to a special luncheon. Make sure to holler if you would like to find out more information for your church!!
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Dear I am writing to invite you to lunch on December 4th, at 1pm, at the Pastini Restaurant, in the Old Mill Shopping District.
As we prepare to launch the World Relief NEXT Project (www.worldreliefnext.org) here in Bend, we would welcome an opportunity to sit down with you and explain our vision and goals, and to see how we can enter together into a collaborative approach towards global missions.
We will be joined by our esteemed friend and colleague Emmanuel Ndikumana, who will be visiting Bend from Burundi, East Africa. We invited Emmanuel to help us launch the World Relief NEXT Project, and to communicate his view on Missions from an African perspective. Emmanuel is a graduate of All Nations Christian College in the UK, and holds a B.A. (Hon) degree in Biblical and Intercultural studies and an M.A. degree in Aspects of Christian Missiology.
We hope that you are able to make this luncheon, and if you cannot, that you would suggest someone else in your place. Please RSVP by December 2nd, to this address.
Many thanks,
Ann Mara.(Project Manager)
ann@worldreliefnext.org
A friend of mine sent me the blurb below out of his journal. He and I have been talking through the subject of faith and trust in God -- something we both believe is underrated and under-emphasized.
My friend (we'll just call him Brad Pitt for short) is a pretty amazing writer and thinker. When his book finally comes out I'll reveal his true identity so that we can all pick up a copy!!
*******
Restless circles of trust. I've never thought of this before, and I've never heard of it. But tonight is the kind of night I can't sleep. I got out of bed, down onto my knees, and started to pray. I instantly felt pathetic, weak, tired, and useless. I couldn't focus on a single thing. The future, for some strange reason, suddenly went black and terrifying.
I felt like I was squirming around to get a better view but nothing helped. I realized, sometimes in my pursuit of God I'm restless. How ironic. In a season of rest I feel restless. Like a fidgety little kid desperate for my Father's attention. And it all feels endless. Round and round. Restless night to restless night.
And I wonder, where is all thing going anyway? Is there somewhere I'm supposed to be ending up? If so, how will this circle ever get me there? Where is my straight line to freedom?
Then it hit me. Trust. The restless circle runs around trust. The straight line runs around...well, nothing.
There is no center to linear living. Yet, strangely, I long for the center-less life. The 'I know where I'm going' kind of life. Ultimately, what brings me around is the question: Do I trust him? Restlessness, circles, lines, whatever...do I trust him? Yes.
There is something here in the midnight. The tapping fingers do not tap in vain. There is something in this fear. Maybe I'll find it tomorrow. Or the next day. Of the one hundredth time around the circle, and when I do it will be the restlessness to thank.
The holy wrestle with restlessness. The circle of trust. The ever on going journey.
Today was Mary Joy's 7th birthday!!
She had a party at Pappy's Pizza, which is designed specifically for kids and this kind of thing. I now have a phobia of places designed for kids and "this kind of thing."
Anyway, it was high energy from start to finish and had plenty of cute "kid" moments!!
Here are a few pics and the highlight video :)
I'm giving a message on Doubt and the Problem of Unbelief this Sunday at Antioch.
Tough topic.
I think that many are like Dostoevsky who said, “It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt.”
I'll only be able to scratch the surface so I made sure we'll have several books on the topic available at our book table.
Here are a few that I think are worth a look:
- J.P. Moreland, In Search of a Confident Faith: Overcoming Barriers to Trusting in God
- Alister McGrath, Doubting: Growing Through the Uncertainties of Faith
- Gary Habermas, The Thomas Factor: Using Your Doubts to Draw Closer to God
- John Piper, Battling Unbelief
"I love change... it helps you know that you're alive!"
Brandon Reynolds
(Wouldn't it be nice if everyone thought that way?)
Well... I feel like I'm officially a Dad now.
I had my first experience with a kid getting something stuck up her nose.
Feel free to guess which kid... you have a 1 in 4 chance of being right!
A friend of mine, Dan Brose, is now keeping a blog through Cauzal Coffee.
If you've ever wanted to hear a credible voice on some of the great causes of our day as well as keep up to date on what's going on in the world, then this blog is for you!!
Check it out: www.cauzalblog.com
The staff is reading through a book right now by Francis Chan called Crazy Love.
The book pretty much nails it on the head... so much so, that we made it an "all church" read at Antioch and want as many people to read it as possible.
Trust me... if you want to remain the same then don't read this book.
Since Sara was a little baby she has always hummed while she eats. If she really likes what she's eating she hums even louder. (She's not aware that she's doing anything out of the ordinary).
It has been one of the funniest and most enjoyable things in our family for a couple of years now.
I shot a quick little video of it this morning just to have something to show her someday...
Just met with two of my good friends Gary Christenson and Benjamin Edwards about a new media group they have created to help non-profits.
It is a great concept and a great cause.
If you are a non-profit in need of creative media solutions make sure to check them out... they are some of the best in the world at what they do.
www.emote360.com
So I really liked this quote on a birthday card I got today:
"Show me a day when the world wasn't new."
Sister Barbara Hance
I really enjoyed the conference this weekend and getting to hang out with some of my old professors.
Rich Waller did an amazing job pulling this thing off... all in all there were close to 400 people who came to listen or to volunteer.
It was also cool to see such a multi-church event and hang with the gracious staff over at New Hope Church.
Looks like the next one will be in February of 2010!
It's funny.
Every once and a while we'll get an unsigned letter with no return address delivered to us at Antioch sharing thoughts, ideas or comments.
That just drives me crazy.
Christians ought to be mature enough to have conversations and engage in dialogue. An unsigned and unaddressed letter is the supreme example of manipulation and control.
It is saying, I want to get my words in without hearing yours.
It is the jr. high student who puts two fingers in his ears and sticks his tongue out.
Not a fan of unsigned notes.
I came across a statistic on churches this week that was pretty interesting.
"85% of churches retain 10% or less of their visitors."
Seems pretty crazy... that means that only 15% of churches connect more than 1 in 10 visitors!!
Now I'm sure that some of that is because a lot of people aren't really looking to get connected to a community, but I'm wondering how much of that statistic is simply because churches do a horrible job of getting new people connected relationally.
I don't necessarily have any great thoughts on the matter, but the statistic really hit a button and I've been pondering it and praying about it for several days.
It seems like churches should be doing a better job with relationships and community.
So I was watching this cool documentary on the Gold Rush in California during the late 1840's and 1850's and heard a really good quote.
They were spotlighting these three brothers who had come up to San Francisco from Chile to make their fortune. After failing at the mines and then losing their hotel to one of the San Francisco fires they boarded a ship to return to Chile.
The one brother wrote a letter to their mom and said:
"We went looking for wool and came back shorn."
I love the conciseness of the statement and the imagery. It also dovetails with a lot of my thinking lately about the individualistic nature of American culture. So many of us go running around looking for our big win and to define ourselves -- and often, come back shorn.
Today there were 420 people at Antioch. It is the first time there have been over 400 people in a service and I think it is pretty darn cool to see what has happened from two years ago when we started til today.
Now I know someone will jump all over this and start accusing me of being everything that I'm not, but that's okay. Numbers are not why we exist. Numbers don't necessarily mean health or significance (there are a lot of things that are big that I wouldn't call significant or good). Numbers don't influence our decision making... the elders have always valued health and unity more than pleasing people or building attendance.
Having said that, it is pretty neat (like in Acts chapter 2) to see "more and more being added" - especially when all of those numbers correspond to actual people and especially when we hear from so many of those people that they were hurting and Antioch has become a place of safety, community and healing.
Right now, I'm excited about 420!
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