The Next Two Weeks

In the context of Catalyst Church's young life, I have often felt the pressure of busyness, pace and prioritization.  Those pressures are going to be multiplied over the next 17 days.  On Feb. 11th, I have an international trip to Australia for a week.  In the interim, there are huge preparation pieces that need to take place (my first teaching weekend at CATC is Feb. 7/8, we have life-group timelines to line out, we're trying to put together a SuperBowl get-together, I have a potential intern to meet, as well as trying to pull together my potential staff team) and also I'm still having difficulty even getting a first contact returned from the principal of the school we may use as a meeting site.  

This past week I spent in New Orleans with my friends from LaGrange.  It was a great reminder of the power of team, even when some of the tasks we were asked to perform were tasks I had no experience in prior to the trip.  It was a great reminder that while Catalyst is going to be a tireless promoter of missional living, we are also going to be utilizing missions experiences early on, because they build community, they build team, and they often make a very tangible difference in the world for a family or a community.  It was one of the great weeks of my life to spend working with my friends from LaGrange once again.  It was almost like for that week we'd never left.  (A few tears here)  But it was also a reminder that I know God called us to start Catalyst at Exit 14, and has much good ahead for us, and that it wasn't just our decision.  Our decision would probably have been to remain with those we love, you know.  But just as Jesus was unable to stay with his friends outside of town, he was compelled toward Jerusalem (and even his own death) because that was the location where he would fulfill his calling.

Please, please pray for Catalyst this week and next regarding our meeting location.  I don't want to get hung up on a spot that the Lord may be closing the door on.  Let me give you a couple of pluses and minuses on the location, just to help you pray more informatively.  

The great plus is location.  Maple Ridge School sits two miles from our neighborhood.  Every elementary school student in our neighborhood who attends public school goes there.  The same is true for another 300+ home neighborhood in Ingalls (a neighboring community).  Parents know where it is.  It used to be the local voting precinct.  It is the home for all Pendleton Youth Soccer, which means every Saturday and Sunday in the fall and spring, a huge number of people in our target audience are at the site where we'd be meeting.  It has the same cafetorium layout as the school where Crosspoint meets.  It's a beautiful relatively new building.  And its not in the "town of Pendleton," which is a whole sociological and locational discussion for another time.  

The great minus is...location.  While lots of people know where it is, it's not on a main road.  It sits at the corner of two county roads, neither of which seem to get much attention/plowing during the winter.  Unfortunately, it's the only decent meeting location i've seen that's outside the town of Pendleton that we can afford.  (If anyone has $45000 we could have, there is a great location available in an office park at exit 19.)

While I know we're a little more than 8 months away from public meetings, as we begin sharing our vision, people do want to begin considering where you're going to meet as they think about being part of your mission.  I'm not saying we have to know where our location is going to be.  I guess I'm praying that if God is directing us away from Maple Ridge, that He'll make that closed door clear to us and then begin to open doors toward other venues.  Would you join me in this prayer?

Thanks for your interest in Catalyst Church and in us.  Thanks for your prayers.  Thanks for being part of this incredible mission God's calling us to through your concern and thoughts and encouragement as we travel forward.

Grace and peace,

Chris

Catalyst Church

Okay, so much for the teaser...I left you out in the cold (literally, it's really cold out there) since Monday with the thought that we'd post a for sure name on Tuesday.  So it's just like God to reveal the best possible name...on Tuesday morning on the way to my weekly staff meeting.  This meant that although we had THE best potential name choice to date, actually, it meant that at the time only I had it, and wanted to talk the name over with my team.  

Here's what we want to be about.  Connection.  Movement.  Transformation.  Mobilization.  We want as a church, to be the catalyst for these things in the lives of hundreds, maybe thousands of people in this community/region.  God will do the work; we will be His fuel.  This naming process has been one of the most interesting experiences of our journey so far.  It's truly like the story of Jacob wrestling the angel in the OT.  Except I feel like I need to and want to keep going round after round, saying to God, I need you to bless me with..._________.  And whether it's a launch team, or a sense of clear mission/vision, or a name, or strategies to fulfill this great mission with which we've been engaged by the Holy Spirit (this strategy part is the current wrestling match) God always is coming through, giving us passion and clarity and exactly what we need when we need it.

One last thing on this short post (along with a reminder that I'll be in New Orleans next week and may not make my regular Monday post until later in the week).  Please pray that God will facilitate the process of finding our meeting location.  And pray that we will continually come into contact with people who need to be part and to help us facilitate this kind of dynamic Catalytic ministry in our community.  I know there was one more thing I wanted to post, but I cannot for the life of me recall what it was.  Sooooo......I'll let it go til next time.

Chris

Clarity

I had someone talk with me the other day as we're slogging through the final steps of naming this church.  I heard myself say something that I've always known about myself but it was helpful to hear it aloud.  It's becoming more and more important in my life.  My statement was, "words and language are very important/significant to me."  It's true.  I'm a person who is learning to weigh my words carefully, who tries to understand exactly what you're really saying when you speak to me (without over-reading your intended expressions).  I'm also learning a significant paradox in life.  I'm a verbal processor, but many times, most people check out from conversation with you when you talk too long.  

What does all of this mean?  A few things.  First, clarity with your spouse is probably one of the best things you can do in your relationship.  Here's why.  If I live my life by the premise, "the clearer you can be in the least amount of words possible," it will force me to stop and think before I respond in potentially tense situations.  If I don't shoot from the hip or respond off the cuff without thinking first, I'm less likely to say something stupid, partially inaccurate, or completely inflammatory.  One of Carlotta's completely accurate critiques of me is that for much of my life, I've been somewhat ambiguous at times in my conversation.  Theoretically, I thought this was no big deal.  What I've since learned is that clarity brings more conversational health and remedies disagreements faster than ambiguity.  (Now that doesn't mean I use my words as a more effective weapon.  That's not justified either)

Beyond clarity more positively impacting my life with my spouse, it's a good pattern I'm getting into with Camden.  Even though she doesn't even know what "No!" means, it does me little good to even go beyond no right now because...as a 10 month old...rational conversation means nothing to her!  Sometimes I need to remind myself of that as I try to explain to her for the 100th time why she should stay out of the entertainment center cabinet.

I'm fascinated too as I study the bible what certain words actually mean in their literal translation.  This is why for all the people who think studying Greek or Hebrew is meaningless, I remind us that there are some words in their original language that translation to English doesn't do them justice.  In other cases, translation misses the fuller dynamic of the power of the Scripture.  Take for example, 1 Corinthians 6:19 (Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?)  I've been taught all my life that this verse refers to certain behaviors that we should not engage in because the Holy Spirit lives in my body and so I would never want to taint that temple with things like smoking or drinking or sexual immorality, etc.   Now while all those things are totally TRUE, in reality, the word you/your in that scripture is not singular, it's plural.  In other words, while the Holy Spirit does dwell inside of me, Paul literally is saying the Holy Spirit dwells among the believers in Corinth, and so choices made by the individual affect the Holy Spirit's work among the many.  As author Wil Mancini notes, we modern Christians are so hardwired into the idea of "personal relationship with Jesus" that we fail to even see how corporate and interconnected our journey with Christ really is.  We read with our language slants firmly in place rather than ingesting the scriptures for what they really say.

Now, how does this impact exit 14 church?  That is why you're reading I assume and I hope you're still with me. (**I haven't completely learned to live out this "be clear in the least number of words possible" philosophy just yet I see)  Our name must be clear in our intentions.  We are about movement, forward movement.  We are about connecting in ever deepening ways with God and our neighbor.  We are about living out the way of Jesus in ever clearer ways.  So our name and our philosophy of ministry and our processes/strategies must always reflect that movement.  Every name we filter through has to pass this effective language test.  It must express unity, passion, formation, anticipation and also speak that we are in search mode for the next step in our faith life, the next place God wants to take us, and the next people God wants to join us on the journey.  Our language will be a significant constant in helping us stay on mission.  And out of that forming language, these forming conversations, and lots of prayer and seeking direction from God, our new church name has emerged.  Want to know what it is?  

What a Way to Start a New Year

My friend Josh Hossler, who is someone some of you may know, as he was formerly the pastor at the LaGrange Missionary Church, is the lead pastor of a new church in the suburbs of Detroit.  About 6 months ago, they put up a huge billboard on a busy thoroughfare near their future meeting location with a website...namethatchurch.com.  It was a unique way to get a pulse of the community on what their thoughts were about church, about the values that would shape this new faith community, and, truly, it was just downright unique and pretty cool, I think.  

Well this week, we are...not putting up a billboard.  But in the young history of our band of Christ-following world changers, this is a significant one.  One for which I am asking your fervent prayers.  We are seeking this week some solid clarification on a church name, I am having a conversation with a leader whom I hope will be one of our original staff-level team members, I have my every other week coaching session with my church planting coach, I find out if I may be taking a trip to Australia in February, and I make a speaking trip to a church about Church Planting Indiana.  Also, I'm meeting today with one of the most well revered leaders in the Church of God to simply seek his wisdom on some recent demographic study he has been part of for our area, and hear some overall church planting thoughts and wisdom that I know he'll have to share.  

Next week I meet with a student I've been mentoring for about three months, meet with one of the most effective church planters in this area (his 5 year old church now has about 1000+ members and weekly attendance of about 700+) and get myself ready for a trip to New Orleans for a week of missional participation.  Plus, the time has come to begin really working out the details of finding a meeting location, which needs to begin next week as well.

It's a good thing that Christmas break actually felt somewhat like a break.  

I was reminded again this morning why we're doing what we're doing here.  More than just us planting a church in Pendleton, we are part of Jesus' work of raising the dead.  Sometimes we wonder, maybe we even voice aloud, why doesn't God do the kind of tangible miracles like we read about Jesus performing in the NT.  John 5 reminds us that everyday, Jesus is still raising the dead.  John 5:24 reminds us that when people receive the message of Jesus and believe in the God who sent Him, they experience eternal life.  People in those moments, as they receive from Jesus all He came to bring into their lives, literally pass from death into life.  Condemnation is revoked.  Complete life ensues from that moment forward.  

For we who are in Christ, we are already experiencing eternal life.  It's not something that arrives only when we "pass" from this world into the next.  Eternal life has already begun.  And we become instruments of eternal life transmission.  When I think of the hope that life will carry on in ever fuller engagement with Christ, culminating in the fullness of his presence someday, but moving toward that even now, it makes me more willing than ever to keep transmitting the message of Jesus through my life and my words.  And I want to be with people who are living that experience as well.

Please pray for us this week as we seek God's specific and dynamic guidance in all things we have going on.  Oh and also, I still have a wife and child, too.  So pray for me that my role as husband and father still are the primary drive of my life, and that as I love and lead my family, God will build His church through us, the church He desires to use to help restore this community and the world!

Change we can still believe in

It's New Years Day.  Psychologically, it's like we all get a do over, a new start, a chance to map out a different path from the one walked in the previous year.  Except...we still have to bring with us the "stuff" last year dealt us, or we dealt ourselves.  One way or another, every 365 days we get to experience a part of Isaiah 43:19, where the bible says, "See I am doing a new thing."  

The catch word of this past year, whatever your political bent, has been change.  President-elect Obama attached to this word change a phrase which resonated deeply in many people, a phrase which remains to be seen whether it can transition from stump speech to reality.  Here's one person hoping that can be so.  

Interestingly, for the follower of Christ, this idea of change we can believe in is something we should not only have hope for perhaps politically, but it is the hope by which we live our lives, make our decisions, and demonstrate our discipleship spiritually.  For those who are in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says we have been changed.  We are being changed into something altogether new.  This change has the power to effect every part of our lives and should really be holistically redirecting our world, both individually and collectively.  Forget for a moment about political change, because let's be honest.  Man-made management models and governing structures really have less power to change the world than we want to believe.  But what about what God is doing in your life as you begin 2009?  Is the change He's working out in you something that you are not only believing in, but living out?  Perhaps Obama might have improved even on his campaign theme by pushing for change we can live out.  That's what Jesus, my leader and commander in chief in the Kingdom I swear highest allegience to, expects of me...change I can live out.

As we begin this new year, I am looking inward.  What change is God working out in me to help others see more of Jesus in my life?  What is God doing in my home and in my family that will be a demonstration of His grace and peace to the people we come in contact with?  

And then I am looking outward.  This new church must be filled with people who are experiencing God's restorative work in their lives, change they can believe in (as it grows their faith in Him) and live out.  This is so much more than an intellectual ascent.  As you pray for us, as partners come on board to financially join with us, would you ask God to make us a group of people that helps cultivate life change we can believe in and live out?  2009 will only be truly and fully worthwhile if the end result is that my life resembles the way of Jesus more at the end than at the beginning, and if others who journey with me can say the same.