broken//stained//glass

Chipotle in Montgomeryville: Life is Burritoful

If you haven't heard yet, Chipotle will begin to enhance people's lives in the Northern Philadelphia region by officially opens its Montgomeryville restaurant doors - tomorrow.

If you've never had a warm, aluminum-wrapped burrito of love from the Big C you won't be disappointed.
I highly recommend you check it out.
And if you have had one (or more likely, several) before, you know what I am talking about...

Someone asked me if we decided to start Renew in the Lansdale area because we heard that Chipotle was opening up a restaurant in Montgomeryville.
Not sure if they were serious or not, but...um...no that didn't come into play on the decision.
However, it sure is a nice bonus!

Back from Maui

We're back from Maui - well, at least our bodies are.
Our heads are still somewhere over the Pacific.
Jet lag is really kicking the snot out of us right now, but we're recovering slowly.

Teaching the students in the Discipleship Training School (DTS) at YWAM-Maui was an incredible privilege and proved to be a very fruitful week. I was extremely encouraged by our time there. We also had plenty of opportunity to spend time with the staff. In their early and mid-twenties, this group of two dozen staff are extremely passionate about God, responsible and have a tremendous heart to serve the Lord. We had quite a few chances to shepherd them, listen to and pray for the YWAM staff, which was an unexpected but significant time of ministry during our time.

I taught on the topic of Understanding our Identity in Christ and Laying Down our Rights.
God's spirit was truly at work in the lives of the students as they wrestled through this essential topic of freedom in Christ.
At the end of the week, many of the students said it was the most challenging/difficult week of training thus far, and yet they also said it was the best week, too. I think that's a good sign.
I thoroughly believe that if we truly understood our identity and the freedom that exists in Christ it would absolutely transform us...me included! I think Stuart Briscoe was right when he said to a room full of pastors, "If we taught our people who they are, we could stop telling people what to do."

We also did have a opportunities to see the island and explore Maui. We spent time reading at several different beautiful beaches, watching the sunrise on top of a 10,000 foot volcano, cliff jumping over waterfalls, hiking through a Bamboo forest and watching surfers and wind surfers at Ho'okipa Point, the wind surfing capital of the world.

We had a terrific time but it is good to be back.
We missed Carter and our friends tremendously and there is plenty to do right now.
However, if YWAM Maui ever wanted to invite me back, well, they wouldn't have to twist my arm.

Counting Attendance: A Missonal Perspective

I remember hearing author and church consultant Reggie McNeal at a one-day church leaders conference several years ago share a story about the way God counts attendance.

Reggie and his wife have three grown daughters. When the oldest one went off to college the family helped her move into her new dorm, met her roommate and got her settled in before pulling away in the family minivan. The family drove home together and sat down at the dinner table to eat dinner. Reggie was used to seeing the five chairs around the dinner table occupied, but now he looked around and someone was missing.

Only four chairs were full. He started to pray for the meal.
He opened his mouth and the words got stuck.
He just couldn't. He started to cry.
He missed his oldest daughter so much. He realized that the family was not complete without his oldest daughter being there...and it broke his heart.

For Reggie, it hit him: this is how God counts attendance. God sees who is in attendance at our churches, but he grieves over who isn't there that could and should be.
He went on to say that God is the God of the empty chair.

Reggie could have sat there and said, 'Well, look at this. Having four out of five seats full at the dinner table ain't bad. That's 80% capacity. We're doing pretty good for our little family, aren't we?" But instead, he noticed who wasn't there and he couldn't get over it.

Imagine if we counted attendance the way God counts attendance?
Imagine if we counted who wasn't at the table of the family of God but should be - the lost, the hurting, the elderly, the younger generations, those who have been cast to the fringes of society.

When we learn to count those not in attendance - and want to do something about it - we begin to have a more inclusive, more holistic kingdom mindset.

Imagine if we grieved over those who weren't at the table.

It only takes a spark

"A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it. It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can't go on. A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they? You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?"

-James 3:3-12, The Message

Christianity every 500 years: What now?

We are in a time of enormous change.
We've all heard that before.
Every generation could argue that this has been true.
However, it seems that right now it may be more true than we realize.
Christianity is in an incredibly crucial period right now. We're not fearing extinction (Jesus promised that would not happen in the gospels) but we need to anticipate change.

Author and speaker Phyllis Tickle spoke recently that there is an uncanny occurrence that the winds of change blow through Christianity approximately every 500 years. "About every 500 years," Episcopal bishop Mark Dwyer says cheekily, "the Church feels compelled to have a giant rummage sale and right now we're having one."

Here's what he means...
If you look at history 500 years ago from right now the Great Reformation officially started on October 31, 1517 when Luther nailed 95 Theses on the door of the Church of Wittenburg.
500 years before that was the Great Schism in 1054 when the East and the West of Christianity kissed each other goodbye and Western Christianity became the dominant form of faith that we follow.
500 years before that you have Gregory the Great, the Pope who oversaw the destruction of Rome and the birth of Monasticism as the dominant form of Christianity.
And 500 years before that we hit the time of the Lord, the Messiah Jesus who turned the world upside-down.
And 500 years before Jesus any good Jew would tell you that was the time of the Babylonian Captivity.
And 500 years before that was the end of the age of the Judges and the coming of the Davidic Dynasty - which paved the way for the coming of the Messiah.

So, here we are, smack dab in the middle of another anticipated shift in the ecclesiological tectonic plates, if things continue on this trajectory.

We are in a time of enormous change.
It's futile to sit on our hands and do nothing about it.
Which has made me ask two important questions lately:
(1) What could this significant period of time birth for Christianity?
(2) And what is our part to play in it? 

WWJB?: The more appropriate missional question

We all remember the rage of the WWJD? bracelets a few years ago.
Started with good intentions off of the terrific old, classic book by Charles Sheldon called "In His Steps" it was intended to encourage people to ask the question at all times "What Would Jesus Do?"

Unfortunately, even though Sheldon's book of over a hundred years old, about ten years go it turned into a overdone Christian marketing activity. I'm not slamming those little bracelets at all (In fact, unknowingly, I even contributed to it. In high school my friend Stephen and I used to sell them at Christian concerts even before it became the national rage). I know many people benefited from those little bracelets. But it kind of lost its meaning and significance.

Interestingly, a few years ago in an effort to push the green agenda Christian environmentalists attempted to push the WWJD? thing to a new level and announced that the acronym now stood for "What Would Jesus Drive" in an effort to have consumers purchase gas sippers rather than gas guzzlers.

But WWJD? is a hard question because it can be abstract for us as followers of Jesus in the 21st century attempting to follow a man who lived in the 1st century.
What would Jesus do at college? Well, there were no colleges in the 1st century so its hard to say. 
What would Jesus do with music? Would he have an iPod? No way of knowing because it was 20 centuries before Steve Jobs was even born...
What would Jesus drive? Probably a donkey or a small colt if he were lucky.
These questions are not impossible, but they are hard and abstract to translate over into contemporary life.

I was talking with a friend recently about this and he suggested that the better question is probably WWJD: Where Would Jesus Be? That seems to work a bit more and help our Christian imagination run into the direction of living out the ways of Jesus.

A missional approach to ministry in essence, simply states that "they don't come to us; instead, we go to them."

Where would Jesus be?
Physically, geographically, emotionally, spiritually - where would he be?
Where would he spend his time and with whom?
Well, where did he spend his time as recorded in the gospels? 
With the hurting people. Where are those who are hopeless and homeless and seemingly useless to society.
With th disgraced. Those living in poverty.
That's probably where he would be.
And as followers of Jesus that's where we should be, too.
As a follower of Jesus does that reveal where I spend my time?

We know we need to serve the poor, but do we even know one person who lives under the poverty line that we interact with on a weekly basis? Do I even have one friend who would be considered poor?

We really want to chew on these questions seriously with Renew because how we answer them will be what - and where - we're called as Jesus followers. And that will require a lot from us - a change of our schedules, priorities, budgets and relationships.

I think my friend is right: WWJB? is the better question for the missional imagination in the 21st century.
But please, don't put them on a bracelet and sell them.

A working vacation in Hawaii

Megan and I leave this weekend to go to Hawaii and we're really excited.
What? you may be thinking, you're a church planter and raising support and now you're going to Hawaii?
Well, actually I am going to work.
I'm serious.

Several months ago I was invited by a great organization called Youth With a Mission (YWAM) to come and speak for the week at their Discipleship Training School in Maui this summer. [I know, I know...I've heard all the jokes from friends already about "suffering for Jesus" so you don't need to tell me again.]

When Megan heard about the opportunity she said: "That's great! I think you should go, but on one condition: you're not allowed to go to Hawaii without me!" Megan's mom is coming to PA to watch Carter for the week (the 12 hour flight over with an 18 month old would push us over the edge, for sure) and we're using the speaking honorarium to cover Megan's flight and in essence, get a 'free' working vacation. I'll speak every day for a couple of hours on the topic of Identity in Ministry (something I am really excited to speak on) and then have the rest of the afternoon off to enjoy the island.

YWAM is an incredible organization that trains young adults to be equipped followers of Jesus in the area of missions. I have a lot of respect for the organization, their heart for the gospel, for missions and for evangelism. I'm extremely excited about the week with the students - and I am really excited to teach again - it's been several weeks since I have taught in a formal setting. I'm also excited for the down time and to explore the island a bit.

While there is much to do here with all the things necessary to start Renew it's tempting to feel like its a bad time to go away. However, it's also a great time for us because we need to take it down to a lower gear for a little bit.

We invite your prayers for the students - that their lives would be impacted as followers of Jesus as they discover their identity as children of God - and your prayers for us during the week.

I'm not sure if I will get through all of them, but I'm bringing these books with me for the week:
-Letters by a Modern Mystic by Frank C. Laubach
-An Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne
-The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler
-The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren
-The End of Nature by Bill McKibben
-The Reason for God by Tim Keller

Renew website

Many have asked if Renew has a website.
Yes, we will.
It's not live yet, but we're working on it.

When it is up and running it will be found at www.renewcommunity.org
(You can check it out here...I worked really hard on it. Hope you like it).

More updates in the future when we have it up and running in the near future.

Dr. Ed Stetzer - Church Planting as a Biblical Assumption

Someone sent me an article this week about church planting being a biblical assumption. It highlighted the high importance of the local church intentionally focusing on church planting.

Dr. Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research and missiologist in residence, was the keynote speaker last week at the Southern Baptist Founders Conference in Owasso, Oklahoma. He stated that the overwhelming assumption of the New Testament is that local churches plant other churches. He said that pastors should avoid leading churches that are theologically sound but are inwardly focused (he used the term "cul-de-sac churches").

His challenge was to see churches connect sound theology with a mindset focused on church planting. "What was normal in the New Testament has become abnormal today, " he said. "The New Testament church was always multiplying and the church today must always be multiplying. Mission is to be wrapped together with good theology...God is a sending God."

Stetzer gave six points that reinforce the mindset of church planting as being in mission with God.

1. Prayer is essential to successful church plants. The proper place to begin a church plant is on one's knees.
2. Prayer flows into a radical reliance on God. All Christians are called to be on mission with God, bu the church has created a false three-tiered Christianity: laity, those called to full-time ministry and those called to ministry but not to missions. "We're all called. The only questions are 'where?' and 'among whom?' Church planters must not wait until circumstances such as financial resources are right, but must radically depend upon God.
3. Church planting blesses a community.
4. Build relationships and settle in. A church planter should become a part of the community which he serves and must build deep relationships, while preparing to stay for the long haul and engage the local people with the gospel.
5. Meet the needs of the people.
6. Church planters are announcing the Kingdom of God.

At Renew, we are committed to being a church planting church plant, believing that in a sense we are "born pregnant." We start with the vision that one day we will plant again so as to participate with what God is already doing.  Someone asked me if this was scary to think about. Sure it is. But it's what we believe God is up to and what is calling us to be about with Renew. 

Renew: What about location?

After much prayer, discussion with others who know the area well and demographic and geographic study we've come to believe that the most strategic place where we need to start Renew is in Lansdale, PA.

We came to this conclusion for many reasons, but here are just a few:
-Population: from the Five Points intersection there are 350,000 people within a 20 minute driving radius and 100,000 people in the North Penn district. The population of the immediate area is growing and experts predict that it will continue to do so in the future.
-Transportation: the PA turnpike and train station make it a hub and a strategic place for the future
-Ethnic diversity: The different ethnicities are evident just by simply driving around Lansdale - signs, ethnic markets, individuals, etc. The largest minority is Asian, followed by Indian and then African-American. There are 65 languages spoken in North Penn High School alone.
-Accessibility to home, work and play for many in the region.
-Potential: the fact that as we walk around we see so much potential for the gospel to be expressed in new ways! Percept, a demographics research group, indicates that if everyone in the North Penn area were to attend church and fill every seat in every pew in every church in and around Lansdale there would be more than 50% of the people who would not have a place to sit. There is an incredible need for the gospel in the region!

If you aren't from the Philadelphia region, Lansdale is a unique area about 30 minutes north of the Philadelphia Art Museum. Philadelphia is the sixth largest city in America. Approximately 7-10% of people in Philadelphia attend church in a Sunday morning. The city ironically is no longer considered a city, but a megacity which is surrounded by ten edge cities. The Lansdale/Montgomeryville/North Wales region is considered one of the ten edge cities of Philadelphia.

Continue to pray for us as we interact with those in and around the Lansdale area who are far from Jesus and in need of hope. Pray that Renew would be a connection for people to experience the God of the Universe in an intimate way.

Resources for the journey

Many have asked if I would suggest some resources to help people understand the heartbeat of what we feel called to do by starting a church in the greater Philly region.

Here are a few I would like to suggest:
The Younger Evangelicals (Robert E Webber)
The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society (Lesslie Newbegin)
The Shaping of Things to Come (Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost)
The Great Omission (Dallas Willard)
The Mission of God (Christopher J.H. Wright)
unChristian (Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman)

CityNet Philly is a great website of area churches in the greater Philadelphia. On the site, click on the "Resource Center" tab and take some time to listen to the talk by Bill Krispin on church planting in the region.

Also, see Bill Krispin's PDF below on the changing of ministry.
Download krispin_how_the_world_has_changed_notes.pdf

Forwarding the gospel to new addresses

“The gospel must be preached afresh and told in new ways to each generation, since every generation has its own unique questions. The gospel must constantly be forwarded to a new address, because the recipient is repeatedly changing his place of address.”

-Helmut Thielicke

Looking Out For New Horizons...

We seem to be living in a lot of uncertainty and risk right now. It's exciting, but it is risky.
I was encouraged by this quote by theological Hans Kung that I stumbled across recently.

“A church which pitches its tents without constantly looking out for new horizons, which does not continually strike camp, is being untrue to its calling…We must play down our longing for certainty, accept what is risky, live by improvisation and experiment.”

I hope and pray that Renew will live out this value for years to come...

Renew: Philosophy of Ministry

The ethos and DNA of Renew is going to continue to develop, especially when our Core Launch Team is developed and we begin to meet regularly.

But there are a few things that we're dreaming of that we've articulated in a philosophy of ministry. We do this in order to give people some context to the type of faith community we dream of shaping and the type of faith community we desire to shape us. Again, this isn't exhaustive or set in stone, but it simply allows us to articulate just a glimpse of the vision we have for Renew.

Download renew_philosophy_of_ministry.doc

Renew: Mission, Vision and Values

"So, what is your vision for Renew?
"What will it be about?"
"What makes it unique and distinct?"
"What do you hope to accomplish with the new church?"
"What are the core values?"

We've received a lot of these questions the past few weeks. Great questions.

I'd love to sit down and tell each one of these people who have asked these questions.
However, since I can't sit down one-on-one with everyone, at the bottom of this post I've attached a document of our Mission, Vision and Values.

While we are certain about several things with Renew, this document is a work in progress. It is not intended to be exhaustive, but simply helps us to articulate the dream we have. It's an attempt to move this exciting vision from our head and our heart onto paper.

Our core launch team - a solid group of passionate and committed people who will help to shape Renew - is currently being developed. As that team is shored up we will spend the next several months developing and cultivating the ethos of Renew as we seek out what God desires this faith community to be and to become.

Download renew_mission_vision_and_values.doc

Renew

We’ve settled on the name of the new faith community. 
Oftentimes, an organization becomes what it is called, for better or for worse. We spent a lot of time thinking and praying through the name of the new missional church, asking what name could embody what we want to become?

We’ve arrived at the name Renew.

Why we do we like it?
It's simple.
Easy to remember.
Hope-filled.
Action-oriented.
It embodies what we believe we are called to be and do.
One person commented that the name doesn't come across like we're trying to be cool. I like that.

The gospel message is about reconciliation, renewal and redemption.
Our calling as followers of Jesus is to be renewed by the love of God (2 Corinthians 5:17) and then actively join God in helping to renew the world in which we live. God's agenda for the world is renewal. And we believe that God's agenda should be our agenda.

Titus 3 talks about this renewing.
So does Romans 12:1-2. (Check out the language  of this passage in the Message - the language embodies what we want to be as a new faith community).

We’re stoked about the name and we pray that we will become the name of our faith community.

For Sale: Jeep Cherokee

For those of you who know me well, you know that I have had the privilege of owning my "dream car": a 1996 fire-engine red 4 wheel drive Jeep Cherokee Sport. You might have seen me driving it around the region or heard me use it as a teaching illustration or you might have even read about it on my blog.

As much as I love my Jeep Cherokee we are selling it.

If you or anyone you know is interested in it we're asking $2,300 OBO.
Contact me if you are interested in knowing more about it.

Church Planting and the Mission of God

“God’s church falters from exhaustion because Christians erroneously think that God has given them a mission to perform in the world. Rather, the God of mission has given his church to the world. It is not the church of God that has a mission in the world, but the God of mission who has a church in the world. The church’s involvement in mission is its privileged participation in the actions of the triune God.”   -Tim Dearborn, Beyond Duty

Why plant a church? Part II

Several weeks ago I attended a church planters training and assessment week in Richmond, VA. The opening session revolved around the question, “Why plant a church?” Here were some of the convictions they shared.

• Because Jesus’ strategy for the extension of the gospel and the renewal of society in any place – is the continuous planting of new congregations to reach into the lives of people in unreached/disconnected communities through the calling of specific leaders to be engaged in this mission. This is a call to plant churches of various kinds.
• It’s how the movement of Jesus developed in the New Testament. “The best method of evangelism is church planting and the best method of church planting is evangelism” (Peter Wagner, Church Planting for a Greater Harvest)
• It’s how the movement of Jesus continues today. There are several reasons why: The gospel of Jesus is almost always adopted through relational connections, which are normally indicative of some form of community gathered around the gospel. New congregations almost always grow from among those who currently don’t follow Jesus or are currently disconnected. New congregations more easily adapt to reach new groups of people. Younger leaders can emerge easier.
• It’s how the movement of Jesus extends beyond the church. There is 1 church for every 990 people in the US. The US is the 4th or 5th largest mission field in the world, the largest in the Western Hemisphere.

Why plant a church?

Many have asked me about the significance of church planting and how it helps to impact the Kingdom of God.

A few years ago Tim Keller co-wrote a compelling and succinct rationale for church planting that is worth reading. Tim Keller is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Keller's church has helped birth over 100 church plants in the U.S.

Keller wrote this rationale with someone who was planting a church in San Fransisco so understand that its leaning is towards that city, however the universal principles are worth understanding.

Download the PDF below.

Download why_plant_a_church_tim_keller.pdf

A New Adventure

Many have probably heard the news by now.
Last night I finished my responsibilities at Calvary Church/resonate in order to start a new church in the northern Philadelphia region.

It is impossible to provide an exhaustive explanation of the events that have transpired over the past several months. However, while long, this communication can help to provide context and information regarding where we are at and what we will be doing in the future.

To start, Megan and I have wrestled with the church planting question for quite some time – even back several years ago in Colorado Springs where we lived for five years before moving to Pennsylvania. We thought about church planting for a while until we asked ourselves the question, “Do we believe that Colorado Springs [the Christian Mecca of America] really needs another church?” We believed that the answer for us was overwhelmingly no.

Before moving to PA to work at Calvary we had a few other options we were praying through. One was an opportunity to possibly work for a large church in the Chicagoland area and another was to join some close friends of ours in a church plant in Beijing, China near several universities and two blocks away from where this summer’s Olympic Games will be taking place. While we spent much time thinking and praying about this option, we did not sense God’s clear call to go to China to church plant. Instead, we felt we were being called to join the staff at Calvary Church and in a sense quasi-church plant the resonate community under the structural umbrella of a larger church.

In no way are we romanticizing church planting. We understand the pressures and hazards that church planters face. While we are excited, we are also extremely nervous, knowing that while this is exhilarating, it is also exhausting and overwhelming.

There have been many changes and transitions at Calvary Church over the past year. This has prompted us to step back and ask many questions. For the past several months Megan and I have been searching, wrestling, asking God, dialoguing with others and praying about our specific calling. We’ve sensed that there was something new on the horizon. As we wrestled with this over the past several months we began receiving calls from people all over the country (Seattle, Buffalo NY, Clemson SC, Pittsburgh, Charlottesville VA, South Philly) asking us if we would be interested in being a part of a church plant. We thought through each option, but we kept being drawn back to the northeast and realizing that our heart was in the northern region of Philadelphia.

We continued to ask the question, as we did in Colorado Springs several years prior, “Does this area really need another church?” Once again, we believed that the answer was overwhelmingly no. However, we kept being drawn back to the fact that while this region doesn’t need another church, what it so desperately needs are fresh expressions and fresh extensions of the kingdom of God that matches with many people who have been cynical, skeptical, turned off by church and may find Christianity offensive. We also realized that the region is in desperate need of rethinking what church could and should be.

Back in March we approached Calvary leadership and told them that we had sensed God’s clear and compelling call to start a new church in the region and offered a proposal of a potential opportunity to work together in this venture. I told them that we can’t not do this – that this call, this dream, is so clear that if I didn’t do it I would be disobedient. I offered a bold proposal: what if we worked together and what if Calvary Church sent resonate out as an official church plant in the region?

I listed the many reasons why this could and would be a win/win. It would allow our church to live out our values of being missional, relational and transformational. I can’t think of a more missional thing for a church to do than to send out new church plants. I also mentioned that this would provide some structural relief for all of us, as there has been quite a bit of confusion as to the role of resonate in the larger structure and my role on staff at Calvary Church. For the past several months I have been vocal about my concern of the unsustainability of the “church within a church” model that Calvary/resonate has. I communicated that the “church within a church” model lasts, on average, three years in most American churches. I also mentioned that there are three things that happen to churches within churches (i.e. resonate-type communities in larger churches). They either supplant (the DNA of the larger church is replaced by the newer expression over a period of time), they plant (the faith community is sent out as a church plant by the larger church) or they punt (they realize the structure doesn’t work and shut it down). In addition, it would affirm my calling in ministry.

Calvary communicated to me that church planting is not in their vision nor are they interested in planting churches in the future. Instead, Calvary is committed to helping existing churches that want to be more healthy and more effective through the consulting wing of the church. While they said they would be unwilling to support this new church plant, they invited me to work together to see if we could come to some sort of mutual agreement over an 8-10 week process to see if I could receive their official endorsement, which I was glad to do. The purpose of this endorsement process was to strive for mutual agreement in areas such as mission, vision, values, timeline, transition, launch team members, location and communication. This endorsement meeting process, I was told, would last until July 15. A team was developed and we had a few meetings. Just a few weeks ago in one of our meetings I was informed that if I planted a church within a 15 miles radius of the parking lot of the church I would not receive endorsement from Calvary leadership. They said that if I could not make that commitment that I would be leaving in ten days.

I told them that I was unable to comply with their request and said that we feel called to plant a church in the region and would need to pursue that calling, with or without their blessing. What is disappointing is that within a 15 miles radius of Calvary Church there are 955,000 people. Catch that: there are almost 1 million people – most of whom are far from God and have not embraced the ways of the life of the Jesus – within 15 miles!

Much to our surprise, we were informed that our last day on staff would be June 1. We are surprised by the suddenness of it all, believing that we would be here at least until July 15.

Yes, while I have respect for each elder and directional team member, it is true that there have been some philosophical differences between Calvary and myself. We have tried to work through those differences. However, the future vision of Calvary Church is new and different. And we have realized that the dream for which we agreed to move from Colorado to PA cannot be realized at Calvary Church. We need to continue to pursue this calling, this dream, and be obedient to what God has called us to do. This is not a right/wrong, good/evil, us/them thing. It just simply is different. And thank God that he uses different visions while working under the same mission of seeing people come to a personal relationship with Jesus.

We do not see this new venture as competition in any way. It’s important to remember that our competition as churches is not against other churches, but against the work of the Evil One! In fact, I see this as a great extension of the kingdom of God at work in this region in order to make God more famous!

As we have shared with Calvary elders, leadership, staff and the resonate community we genuinely desire for God to continue his work at Calvary. It is His church. We continue to pray that God would bless Calvary in the future. We have committed to continuing to pray for each elder and directional team member by name in the future as they navigate through this new vision.

Anytime something of this nature occurs rumors swirl. And there are many rumors we have heard recently that are simply untrue. Let me clear up some of these untrue rumors in an attempt to preserve unity and pursue truth.

-We are not leaving because we are angry or bitter at Calvary or leadership.
We are not leaving because we were fired (though we are disappointed how things have ended so abruptly).
-We are not leaving because things got difficult and the easier thing to do was to go and plant a church (no, in fact, our lives are several times more difficult now…the easier thing to do would be to stay at Calvary).
-We are not leaving to cause a church split. (In fact, we want to encourage many people from Calvary: do not follow us. Simply pray for us. That's all we ask).
-We are not leaving on a whim and we did not make this decision hastily.
-We are not leaving because if I didn’t get my way I couldn’t be a team player.

In fact, in many ways we feel as though we aren’t even leaving.
We are going. Going to our calling that is clear for us.
There is much more of a pull to our calling than a push from Calvary.

We are going to pursue the dream: to see people far from God experience the love of Jesus and see those people sent out to live that mission. We believe that this is close to the heart of the First Missionary, the Holy Spirit.

And as we pursue our calling we are so excited we can hardly sleep!
We are excited - and scared to death! – but we wouldn’t want to be in any other place as we step out and take this risk for God.

What is exciting is that many others have stepped up and said that they want to own this vision, too. Many have expressed interest in joining us to see people reached with the gospel in this area. Others have reminded us that this is not just my vision – it is their vision, too – and they want to join God in what he is already doing in the region. What an amazing and perilous journey it is to follow Jesus!

There are many people and many things at Calvary that we will miss, but we don’t want to miss out on what God is up to right now.

We ask that you pray for Calvary leadership, resonate and for us as we launch this new faith community in the region. We know that many have been excited to know more about the vision and direction of this new church. We will be having meetings in the next several weeks to talk about the next steps. 

If you are interested in knowing more or if you are seriously considering joining us in this venture please feel free to email me and I can give you further information.

Prayers for the family of Steven Curtis Chapman

Tragic news for the Steven Curtis Chapman family.
Take a moment to pray for them in such an incredible time of grief.
Updates are available on his website.

One of my favorite SCC songs growing up was "My Redeemer is Faithful and True"
I am sure these words provide new meaning and renewed promise of hope in the God of the Universe.

As I look back on the road I've traveled,
I see so many times He carried me through;
And if there's one thing that I've learned in my life,
My Redeemer is faithful and true.
My Redeemer is faithful and true.

Chorus
My Redeemer is faithful and true.
Everything He has said He will do,
And every morning His mercies are new.
My Redeemer is faithful and true.

My heart rejoices when I read the promise
'There is a place I am preparing for you.'
I know someday I'll see my Lord face to face,
'Cause my Redeemer is faithful and true.
My Redeemer is faithful and true.

(chorus)

And in every situation He has proved His love to me;
When I lack the understanding, He gives more grace to me.

new films

Not sure I'll be able to see half of these films when they come out this summer, but they certainly look intriguing...

May:
Indiana Jones (last installment...gotta see it).
Narnia: Prince Caspian (I know much of America is burned out on fantasy films, but it's C.S. Lewis...isn't there an unwritten rule that if you're a Christian you have to support this film because its a story written by one of the greatest modern apologists of the faith??)

June:
The Incredible Hulk (the summer non-thinking blockbuster that will probably be just pure entertainment)
Get Smart (Michael Scott with a gun? I hope...)
Kung Fu Panda (pure animated fun...but with Jack Black)

July:
Hancock (Anything with Will Smith in it is worth the price of admission).

Documentary:
Where In the World is Osama bin Laden? (Morgan Spurlock's latest documentary. Moving from French Fries to hunting down the world's most notorious terrorist...that's quite a jump).

the birthday present of birth

"The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt grateful, though I hardly knew to whom. Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs? We thank people for birthday presents of cigars and slippers. Can I thank no one for the birthday present of birth?"
-Classic Christian author G. K. Chesterton

new music

Anybody heard the new albums/songs by:

Death Cab for Cutie
Counting Crows
Coldplay
R.E.M.
Jon Foreman's solo project?

Are they any good?