Generational blessings

One of the most interesting verses in the bible I think is in Exodus 20.  Part of the 1o commandments, it says, ""You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

One of the core goals of my life right now is to continue to grow in being a better husband and better parent.  I know the greatest calling of my life will be in how I loved my wife and how I raise Camden.  Part of the core vision of Exit14church is the calling to raise up healthy individuals and healthy families.  We can change the world as God restores and brings out in us the desires He has for us as individuals, as friends, as husbands/wives, and as parents.  

I was reading the story of Samson this morning.  I think that story is a cool and exciting and bizarre one, but like most stories, it's one that I've missed important details about everytime I've read it.  Perhaps you have as well.  Let me share a couple.  

One.  The initial part of the story of Samson is a conversation God has through an angel with Samson's mother.  She was the one who was given instructions about Samson's hair.  She had to accept responsibility for his future obedience to God.  I always thought that Samson was the one who was to avoid strong drink and eat only the proper foods.  But in the story, it's actually his MOTHER who is told to avoid strong drink and eat the proper foods during her pregnancy (interestingly, she'd been unable to get pregnant before.   Maybe this was a hint that mom's, even before their kids are born, are to take responsibility for their health?  As if this is some idea that just came about in the last 20 years.)  Now, I don't think this is a statement about whether spiritual people should or shouldn't drink.  It's a statement that often the blessing of the children is directly attached to the obedience of the parents.  In other words, if I want Camden to experience all of the blessing God has in mind for her, I better not short-circuit that by my own disobedience to God.  I need to pray for her, for her future, for God's blessing and calling on her life.  But I also need to be obedient and connected and faithful to God not just for my own sake, but for the sake of the generations that follow.  

Two--I always thought that Samson kinda had this physical power on demand because of his hair.  But what I noticed is that Samson only had incredible power in the moments when "the Spirit of the Lord moved powerfully upon Him."  Samson was a normal guy with a calling on his life and a physical mark demonstrating that call.  But the power with which he fought the Philistines and and the Lion and tore down Dagon's temple wasn't just his to whip up when he chose.  Samson was a normal guy who became supernatural as a channel of God's power.  

That's a good word for me as we begin this new church.  I'm a normal guy who looking back can openly acknowledge that anything of significance in my life has happened as a result of God's supernatural power in me.  And as you can imagine, we're in need of a whole heap of God's supernatural work in us in order to see this vision come to fruition.  So will you pray for us that the same supernatural power of the Holy Spirit that invaded a normal guy named Samson on a periodic basis will invade our lives as well, just a couple of called, normal people who accepted the call and now are waiting for the Spirit of the Lord to move in power in us whenever and wherever and with whomever He sees fit?

Minimalist

I've decided.  If I can be anything better than I am right now, it will be as a minimalist.  I've begun listening to how long it takes me to tell a story (and to all of you who have had to listen to my stories, I apologize, haha).  I've looked around my life to see the necessities and to determine the extras.  (And boy are there lots of extras)  

I've also come to realize that when we communicate, we should say as little as possible while still communicating clearly and effectively.  My friends at Crosspoint do this well.  All their series basically are built around one word.  

I've been wrestling a lot with who exit14church will be.  (And where we'll be, if that will be the name, just lots of wrestling pretty much all the time.)  Last night I was reading in the book, Church Unique.  In the context of talking about your church's mission, he likened mission to really be better explained by the term Mandate.  This is the "must do" of your church.  It's not the hows, it's not the whys, or the whens or the wheres.  That comes later.  

I've thought about our working vision statement.  It basically is that we want to become a community of healthy individuals and families who live out the way of Jesus and are a force for good in the community and the world.  If that's what we want to become, how will we do that?  As I was laying in bed about to fall asleep, three words came to my mind.  I don't know all of what they mean just yet, but I had to get up and write them down because, as I posted before, I don't remember as clearly as I used to like since Feb. 22nd, 2008, Camden's birthday.  (that's what sleep deprivation will do to you)  Here are the words:

Demonstrate Jesus everyday.

As a church, if we demonstrate Jesus, it will make us healthy.  As individuals, if we demonstrate Jesus everyday, it will make us better people, wiser people, healthier family members.  If we demonstrate Jesus everyday, by default we will begin to live the kind of life he lived.  If we demonstrate Jesus daily, we will be a force for good in the community and the world.  

I know this point may be debatable, but go with me here.  I think even people who don't believe Jesus is the messiah could benefit from doing in their lives what He did.  So if a group of people held themselves to living out the example of the One God sent as His Savior for the world but also His example of how to live while IN the world...and we actually began to do that, could that change the face of a neighborhood?  A community?  Is it easily evaluatory?  (Can I ask myself at the end of the day how I did in the demonstrating that day?  Can I ask my church to ponder how we did in the demonstrating on a regular basis?  Could they give an objective response?  Could I?)

And most importantly, isn't that a big part of what we were put on this planet for?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, agreements, disagreements, about this concise little mission statement.  You can post comments here on the blog page, or if you'd like to send those directly to me (so that the rest of the world can't read your thoughts, which is totally okay, too) you can email me at chris@exit14church.org

Consistency

My friend Steve is a great mentor to me, because he often reminds me of great and important things without even saying them to me directly.  Some are more general issues, others more specific.  He reminded me a few days ago about the old story of if you want to get the most rocks in the jar, you have to start with the big rocks first.  The point is that the little projects for which we have responsibility are often easier, we think take less time, and so we put them into our world first.  When we do that, we prevent some of the most important things from ever fitting into a packed schedule.

He also reminded me yesterday that if you don't blog regularly, your regulars will quit reading your posts because they don't see something new consistently.  So....my goal is to ratchet back up the consistency on posting.

I'll also attempt to keep this rather short.  In the last two weeks, we've lost a family member (Carlotta's grandfather, Don) and a close family friend (Juli Heller, from LaGrange FCOG) to death.  We've also heard about friends near to our hearts (our friends the Steffens, also through the LaGrange church) who are grieving a tremendous loss now.  In some ways, some of our church plant stuff has been put on hold as we've travelled for these last couple of weeks.  Ironically, it's also been during these last two weeks when some of the best strategic words from the Lord have come our way.  We've also begun conversations with some strategic people who really resonate with what we're doing (some of them have even done the same thing in the area in the somewhat recent past) who are just pouring encouragement and mentoring into me faster than I can take it in sometimes.  I probably need to start carrying a recorder or something, because I know God is speaking prophetically through these people.  We're learning.  We're finding a groove.  Our house is inching (there's still a lot of paint to be put on a lot of walls, but we're moving forward) toward a level of completion we can accept.  

Camden is growing.  I'm working toward improving some disciplines as it relates to time and basic spiritual practices like study and journaling.  So, while I would not say we are finding a normal just yet (that day is a long way down the road), we're getting there.

I want to say two thank you's really quick.  One, thank you to our life group.  None of you may ever read this, but it seems like in some unique way each week, you "save" us.  You pour the little encouragement, or laughter or hunger into our lives that just give us the strength to get to Tuesday.  I can't tell you how you have made our lives better just by being with you.  

Second, thanks to the LaGrange church.  We were there this past Sunday/Monday for Juli's funeral.  You let me come in and just kinda act like I still worked there.  We laughed and talked and for a moment, all the natural feeling of our time together (almost 10 years) came rushing back.  And when we left there wasn't this sadness that we were driving away again.  Instead, there really was joy because we know that our relationship is not based on proximity.  There's a deep love and affection we have for one another that no distance could ever diminish.  Someday, there will be a church in this area that we lead.  My hope is that that kind of love and fondness would permeate our new place here in a measure similar to that of our friends at LaGrange.  

Will we pray as much???

Just a short thought tonight as we watch the election results come in.  As I've played my presidential thoughts a little more close to the vest lately, because I have friends who are almost visceral in their passions on both sides of the ticket, one question has come to the forefront in my mind.  I have read many derogatory emails disparaging both sides that are shrouded under the pretext of devout spirituality (and I am not questioning the spirituality of my friends who forwarded/sent those)  And so to my question...will the people who prayed so fervently for their candidate to win tonight still be praying for the opponent tomorrow if their candidate doesn't tonight?  You know maybe, just maybe, God would be deeply pleased if we would pray for Kings, leaders and those in authority like He commands in Romans 13 (authority which He granted in the first place) as fervently after the election as before.  If anger wins the day tomorrow rather than prayer and trusting God even over and above our political leaders, then the enemy wins (and the enemy is neither red nor blue.)  And so today we vote our conscience, and then tomorrow, whether our vote was one that led someone to victory or simply was one for a leader who still will have opportunity to contribute to our country's leadership (remember, both of these presidential and vice presidential candidates still have day jobs in the US Senate or the Governors office), keep in mind that God is still in His heaven, and no amount of electoral votes can change that.  And who knows, maybe we'll all be reminded that even more than casting a vote, we should spend more time in the next four years casting our cares on the One who can really do something about our cares, One who always keeps His promises, One who knows what we need before we even ask.

October is gone, November is here

There's this subtle ticking in my head.  Somedays it's very loud.  Somedays you barely hear it.  But it never completely goes away.  My guess is most of you reading this can't hear it at all.  It's the sound of October 4th, 2009, ticking slowly away.  Now for you, that date may not mean a whole lot.  But for me, it means two things.  One, it's my sisters birthday.  But two, it's our targeted official launch weekend.  And so with every Sunday that passes, that clock starts ticking a little louder.  Who will show up that Sunday?  Where will they show up at?  Who will be on stage with me and who will be welcoming the hundreds of people who will show up and who will take care of their kids and will they come back for week two and will there be any money to buy all the equipment needed to take care of them and the worship and the children's ministry?  I haven't even mentioned that...at some point we'll need to figure out what we're going to teach and sing and how we're going to get them involved in a church that doesn't exist!  Now...it's a good thing that I don't hear that ticking so loudly all the time, otherwise this might be the first church ever planted in an mental institution.  (I wonder what kind of projector you use for a rubber room?)  

All in all, things are going well for us.  We are getting established in the community here, and we've already met some really great friends from Crosspoint and CATC.  We miss our LaGrange friends a lot, but that clock in my head keeps me from having time to get down about not seeing the people we care about so much.  

I still get a lot of people who ask me, "so how's this going to work?"  Do you have a church building to meet in?"  The answer of course is, "No."  But we don't have a group of people to need to have a place to meet in anyway, so for right now, no space is the best thing in the world.

Well the clock is ticking loudly now, so I better hit the ground running on a few tasks for the day.  Only 335 days til launch, and that's if you don't count the preview weekends!!!!!  Now I'm really freaking out!