...to everyday life

Thursday Memo

Hi Five Oakers

I have FOUR things I want to share with you today.

#1- Wow, what a service this weekend. You all loved the bluegrass theme. So did I. For those who missed it we had fiddle, upright bass, mandolin, banjo, guitar and drums for the band and some sweet harmonies. Here are your comments (and my responses):

• Loved the bluegrass! Reminded me of my childhood Methodist summer tent services in Athens, GA.
• Great music today. 
• Thanks to whoever sent the nice card/CD about the baptism to me!
• Our three year old says “That’s my church” every time we drive by. This is an example of how Five Oaks has had an impact on our lives. Thank you! [Love this!]
• Love the music!
• Loved the bluegrass/southern gospel flavor. Let’s do it again! Why are we now calling our worship service a liturgy? It seems very catholic to me. [I agree it’s something we associate more with “high church” Lutheran, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic or Episcopalian. We’re most definitely not high church, nor are we trying to be. We’re using “liturgy” in terms of “order of service.” We like it because (a) it speaks to our intentionality in planning every element of the service (“all killer; no filler”) and (b) we are using all the elements of a typical liturgy (e.g., Call to Worship, Confession, Assurance, Prayer of Illumination, Communion, Benediction and others.). We really do want to call attention to this intentionality and to the elements so that it can be more meaningful for everyone as they participate. “Liturgy” gets people’s attention, but our style says “relax” to anyone who is not wanting to go high church. High church not where we are going, but thanks for asking about it.]
• Great music! That was fun! 
• The Holy Spirit, through Henry, hit it out of the park today. I’m closest to God in the times of deepest repentance – repenting of the sin beneath the sin. Thank you. 
• Fantastic music today!
• Great message on need for grace. Fantastic music! 
• Music was great. Congrats on the courage to mix it up. What’s next? Blues? Gospel? International?  [You forgot to mention Polka!]
• Loved music! Way to go Justin!
• Loved the music, thanks… wow! Please work that into future services every now and then!
• Love the blue grass style music!
• Loved, loved, loved the Bluegrass “I’ll Fly Away” a favorite of mine for a long time. Would love to hear a single expressive reader to read scripture with underscoring – to change it up. Great message. Very clear. Loved ‘little girl’ analogy. [Thanks a lot, my friend. Don’t like the way I read? Just kidding! I know what you're asking for. Maybe some day.]
• Great music, great sermon – thank you, thank you! 
• We appreciate the worship/arts team for sharing their talents, time and passion for Jesus! The bluegrass was fun too. We are thankful for the Bible teaching brought by Henry (and others like Tim B) each week. 
• Worship team – so creative and talented! People were smiling and enjoying themselves. [One of the ushers commented that people would immediately smile as they approached the worship center and heard the opening song.]
• You loosened us up a little and helped us have fun worshiping the Lord!
• Great  music! Thanks Justin and worship team! Thank you Henry for your continued focus on humility and prayer.
• The Soggy Bottom Boys – yes!
• Worship team great job! Bluegrass twist was fun! Thank you. 
• Do it again! Do it again! Loved the music! Do it again – soon! Tim, nice job explaining the stations and tying in the song “There is Power in the Blood” to communion. No miss question this week – state fair food. Henry, loved your deliberate stage setting of message before the opening prayer. Henry, I just love this series in Luke. Thanks for another great message.
• The bluegrass music was a fun change for the GA born girl. I love that Justin can turn on his inner southern boy. Great job on all the instruments. 
• Love the bluegrass music! 
• Thanks for keeping worship fresh and fun! 
• Awesome music, lets do it again! 
• Enjoyed “Power in the Blood!” and “I Saw the Light!” 
• I just want to tell you. standing up, introducing ourselves during the service is an awesome way to make us closer and “warmer.” Also loved the bluegrass! 
• Fun music – what a treat!
• It was so beautiful to see the new instruments playing today. Thanks Henry for your message today. What a gift we have in Jesus.
• Bluegrass worship was awesome. 
• Thank you for the music. 
• The bluegrass was very cheerful. I don’t smile for song, thank you for that! 
• The music never disappoints! Wow!
• Fabulous music and message that was especially poignant for me.
• Loved the music! Please do that again. 

#2- Come the church building on Saturday just before 4pm to welcome the Miles 4 Meals team as they drive into the parking lot. 2100 miles! They’re just under $40,000 toward a goal of raising $110,000 for our March Feed Event.

#3- I’m hearing that some small groups are opting out of the study we’re proposing for all small groups this fall explaining, “We did this last year.” You may think you did, but you didn’t. Let me explain. This fall our small groups will be doing a study based on the The Story of God: A 40-Day Guided Journey through the Bible. The book grows out of my passion to help people read the Bible with meaning and grow in biblical literacy. I’m editing the “second edition” of this book right now. It's one we use in our Story of God Small Group Experience. This book gives a framework for the Bible while, at the same time, getting participants to read the key passages in that framework. There are a ton of good books out there right now on this subject, but none of them give you a simple framework and have you read key texts. So here’s what’s different from the last time we did The Story of God in our small groups:

• Three brand new chapters that focus on discipleship.
• No oral stories. We continue to use the oral stories in the small group experience Lois and I lead, but we will not repeat that in the small groups.
• The discussions will be based on the daily readings from that week. We did not do this last time. Our Group Life writers are writing the group questions right now.
• I surveyed our congregation, and I estimate that only 20-30% of the people in small groups actually completed the reading guide (it was in handout form back then). Only 17% of our whole congregation actually completed the reading. You may think most of the people in your group did the reading but you’re probably mistaken. It’s quite likely that most of you reading this didn’t complete it either.
• Although I’m immersed in this subject, every time I lead it or read more about it I learn something new. I’m guessing you did not conquer the subject the last time around.

All that said, I trust that our small group leaders and their groups will make a good decision for their own group as they think about the discipleship development of their members. The best decision may be to by-pass the study. I’m just making sure everyone is making an informed decision.

#4- Here are some key ideas from last weekend’s message on the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:8-14):

• If I apply this parable to my life, what is to keep me from praying, “I thank you God that I am not like this Pharisee?” What’s to keep me from becoming self-righteous about not being self-righteous? 

• It begins with a confession. I’m no better than the Pharisee. I look down my nose at people who are self-righteous. But I’m also probably worse than this Pharisee because I’m not as generous and spiritually disciplined as he is.

• The tax collector sees everyone else too. And instead of comparing himself with anyone, he prays, “I am the sinner.” There isn’t a trace of an “at least I’m not” in his prayer. He is the sinner.

• You can address the sin on the surface and conquer it, but the sin beneath the sin may go unaddressed. It finds another outlet. You don’t yell but you’re still angry. You don’t look at the wrong sites but you still objectify. You don’t lie but you still crave people’s approval.

• Even my repentance is as self-absorbed as the Pharisee is self-absorbed by his religious accomplishments. I need to repent of my repentance.

• The word the tax collector uses has to do with atonement. He’s asking for more than mercy. He’s asking God to atone for him.

• The New Testament tells us that the reason the blood of the sacrifices protected the Israelites is because it pointed to the ultimate atonement that would some day come when God would bring his wrath down on himself for our failures. Jesus became the ultimate sinner on the cross.

• Jesus condemns the self-righteous Pharisee for praying, “I thank you God that I'm not like this tax collector.” And he EQUALLY condemns MY pride in praying, “I thank you God that I’m not like this Pharisee.” Then he dies for our condemnation.

• A car pulled up and parked in front of me and a little girl, maybe 4-years-old, stuck her torso out the open window. She had this smile on her face, just drinking in the warm weather. Then she looked back into the car and said, “I use to do this when I was a little girl.” …But she was still a tiny little girl. …We might think we’ve come a long way in our faith. But think of it from God’s perspective.

That's it for today. Love you all, Pastor Henry

Tuesday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I normally look back at the weekend on Tuesday, but I'll leave that for tomorrow. Just four things I want to share with you today.

#1- The Miles 4 Meals team is up to a little over $37,000 toward the $110,000 goal. They are down to two due to injuries and exhaustion (I would not have made it through the first day). Check out this article on the team from the Journal Advocate newspaper in Colorado.

#2- 170 backpacks were delivered today to the Karen Organization of MN!!! The first picture is of the staff praying over the bags.

#3- I just finished writing the second edition of The Story of God: A 40-Day Guided Journey through the Bible. The book went from 113 to 197 pages with only one additional chapter, so I need to do some trimming. This edition includes a focus on how we grow spiritually in the current chapter of God's story. We will be using this book in our fall trimester small groups so I have to finish my edits pronto.

#4- Today only (August 28) you can pick up a free copy of the Kindle edition of And Then I Had Teenagers by Susan Alexander Yates here. I have not read it but we really enjoyed reading her earlier book (And Then I Had Kids) when our kids were younger. Sorry to those of you who get this post via email on Wednesday. Bummer.

Blessings to you, Pastor Henry

Weekend Message Q&A

Here are the questions I received based on the weekend message.

Q – What is the prayer book you mentioned? While we shouldn’t compare our progress to others, should we compare it to where we were? 

A – The prayer book is called The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett. I love this book. I have to read most of the prayers several times before they sink in, so I stay on one prayer for most of one week. And these kinds of prayers are an acquired taste. They are theologically rich. You have to give it time. Even then they are not for everybody.

Regarding the second question, I think it is very appropriate to compare where you are now as a believer to where you were before you turned to Christ. In fact, it seems to me that the Bible encourages it when it compares our lives in Christ to our lives outside of Christ (e.g., Colossians 2:13; 3:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:5). But when it comes to comparing, say, this year’s maturity to last year’s, I think we have to be careful. I don't have a chapter and verse on this, but I think it it’s best to focus on greater love for God and not on greater obedience when it comes to comparing where we are now to where we were. And I think, in general, the greater our love for God grows, the more we see the depths of our sin.

Back to the prayer book. Here’s a portion of the prayer I’ve been planted on for a few days now. I think it illustrates part of what I was talking about in the message.

I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,
for thou doest always justify the ungodly;
 
I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home as a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bringing forth the best robe.

Every morning let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day's work in it,
be married in it,
be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it shining as the sun.

Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace.

 

Q – Learned a lot from the message Sunday, thank you! Ya kinda left us hangin tho, over your special favorite corn dog stand. Are you willing to share your discovery with the rest of us?

A – I’d love to share the location. To me, they have just the right amount of corn meal to hot dog ratio and just the right amount of crunchiness. Of course, I haven't tried all the stands, but when I've veered from this one, I've regretted it.

It’s the Corndogs/Lemonade stand not far from the Midway. It's right up the street from the Scotch Eggs (mentioned at the Saturday service) and homemade pretzels. We tried the pretzels for the first time and I think it may be the start of a new yearly tradition.

Thursday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I have a few things I want to share with you.

#1- I hope you've been to the Miles4Meals site and checked up on Jerry and his team. They've broken $20,000 in fund raising! We'd love to reach the $110,000 goal so we can extend our March Feed Event. Get the word out. You might even want to see if your company offers matching funds to Feed My Starving Children.

#2- What do a mandolin, upright bass, banjo, acoustic guitar, drums and fiddle have in common? They'll all be used in this weekend's worship. We'll be doing some of our regular songs with a bluegrass flair as well as a hymn or two.

#3- We have a new station this weekend. Lois has been requesting this one for a couple of years. It was built by our own Larry and Cathy Taylor and Ken and Deb Carr. Check it out here.

#4- We're looking at Luke 18:9-14 this coming weekend--the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Great passage, but it creates a dilemma. The Pharisee prays, "Thank you God that I'm not like that tax collector." He's pompous and prideful. Here's the dilemma. How do we take this parable in and not end up pompous and prideful as we pray, "Thank you God that I'm not like that Pharisee?" The answer to that question is crucially important to our souls. We'll be exploring that question this weekend.

Blessing to you, Pastor Henry

 

Tuesday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I have a few things I want to share with you today.

#1- Here are your comments from the weekend.

• Thanks. Christian = Disciple = Disciple Maker. Go, make, baptize, teach, and obey. Keep on keeping on à great commission church = Five Oaks. 
• Thank you for today’s message.
• Thank you for sharing “Kim’s story in your sermon today. We too have a “Kim” at home, who will likely not talk for his lifetime. 
• I have a hard time hearing the worship leader’s voice – can we up the volume on his voice. I need his leadership! Great last song.  [I know the worship staff is meeting this week to discuss some of the sound issues we’ve been having lately. I know they will come up with some solutions.]
• Volume was high the entire service. Thanks for the ear plugs.
• Worship was too loud to be enjoyable.
• Could not hear Justin’s “low register”. Congregation found it hard to follow/participate. Rest of music was good.
• It’s amazing how I can show up tired, frustrated and angry and be at peace before the end of the service. 
• Love, love, love “Be Glorified” song!
• Goodbye to you all! You’ve been my church family since 2000 and I can’t believe I’m leaving. Thank you for being a part of our family’s lives and for your dedication and work to bringing people close to God. God bless you all!  Andy Yung
• Thank you for being my church home since 1998! It has been an amazing 14 years filled with a wedding, baptisms and baby dedications! We will miss all of you, the excellent teaching, the leadership opportunities and the challenge to grow. God is moving at Five Oaks.  Jessie Yung [I don’t normal names in this section but I think this is appropriate. Jessie, you came one year after me. It’s crazy to think about. You and Andy have been such impact people in this church. You will be greatly missed. I will miss you.]
• Thank you for the message, Henry. 
• The story of Kim was moving, but was perplexed by the mention of the association between autism and doctors malpractice. As a parent of a child with autism, I’ve done research on the topic and know that there is no relationship between autism and what the doctors did or didn’t do. This is contrary to some popular belief. However, I respect Kim’s parent’s opinion. [I’m going to defer to your knowledge on this. I probably  miscommunicated what Miller says in the book. I know there were issues at birth that he recounts and they may have impacted Kim’s development. He may have made the distinction between this and her autism, and I may have missed it. Thanks.]
• Do we have or could we set up a group for women with partners, husbands who are unbelievers or who believe, but won’t attend church? I frequently attend without my husband (when I do it here.) it would be nice to know that there are others like me and with whom I could look forward to sitting by during services. [Sounds like something you might be able to convene or maybe you can have a conversation with Women’s Ministry leadership.]
• God is good!
• Thank you to the nursery sign-in you helped ease any nerves bringing our child there the first time you were all so kind. 
• I liked the music this week! Good balance between an older offering/song and a new (mystery ) song! [Justin and his team did a great job this week as usual. I appreciated the worship very much.]
• Thanks for opportunity to help others and involve our kids. – back packs! Great message, Henry! 
• Really nice worship set and excellent job explaining the response time. Liked seeing Alex on the acoustic guitar! That message really hit me powerfully where I am at – thank you. Great closing set! The spirit was moving. 
• Very confused by communion and the bread this week. [Might be because we ran out the last service? So either you were there when there was no bread or when they put out the crackers which don’t work for dipping but were better than nothing. That’s my guess.]

#2- No questions this week but I’m going to post the section I cut (for time's sake) from my message. Here it is:

The Bible drives home that just because God’s timing isn’t our timing doesn’t mean he doesn’t care.  Jesus seems to address the delay in bringing justice in this passage but, frankly, it’s a little confusing.

⁷ And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? ⁸ I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.

It seems like he is saying that the days of the Son of Man (the second coming) is coming soon. But it can also mean a couple of other things. He may be saying soon in the sense that our suffering in this world is short compared to the glory we will experience with him for eternity. Or he may be saying that when it comes, judgment will be swift. Both ideas are contained in 2 Peter 3:3-10.

2 Peter 3:8-10: ⁸ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

You see that Peter is comparing God time to our time. And he’s saying judgment will come swiftly, like a thief in the night. And you have an added bonus of getting a glimpse into his motive to delay: so that many more will come to faith.

#3 – Some key ideas from the weekend’s message on Luke 18:1-8:

• Praying is how we stay connected with God. Even if you’re shaking your fists at God in anger while you talk, it’s way better than ignoring him, denying him or being spiritually apathetic or cynical toward God.
• You read this and think that the secret sauce is in pestering God. In fact, if we can just get a whole army of people to pray together about the same thing, great things will happen. But God won’t be swayed by any number of people praying the same thing. He’s not interested in choreographed prayers. He wants an army of people in tune with him and his heart.
• His elect means his chosen people. Take away all the theological controversies over election and choosing and you are left with this: If you are his follower, you are his—you belong to him. He is your Father. You are his children. He loves you dearly. He was thinking about you before the earth was created. That’s what he says. And he’s thinking about you now. He cares about you.
• Your desert—every desert—is caused by the injustice in our world unleashed by OUR rebellion against God. Its root cause is our COLLECTIVE refusal to follow God and his ways. Yet God promises that in the days of the son of man he will make things right. The kingdom will come in fullness and there will be a new heaven and new earth. There will be perfect justice on earth as it is in heaven.
• God is NOT like the judge. And we are NOT like the poor widow. We are the elect, his beloved, his family. How much more will a good God listen and how much more will a family member be heard! That’s the point of the parable.
• [Here’s the end of the Paul Miller story from The Praying Life] “…Years later when Kim was about twenty, I was sitting at the dining-room table writing a Bible study on Psalm 121 that I was going to teach to our small group. I had forgotten about Jill’s Psalm 121 prayer. I looked up from the table and said, “Jill, God did it. He kept us from all harm. He did Psalm 121.” We had thought the harm was a daughter with disabilities, but this was nothing compared to the danger of two proud and willful parents. Because Kim was mute, Jill and I learned to listen. Her helplessness taught us to become helpless, too.  Kim brought Jesus into our home. Jill and I could no longer do life on our own. We needed Jesus to get from one end of the day to the other. We’d asked for a loaf of bread, and instead of giving us a stone, our Father had spread a feast for us in the wilderness. Thank you, Jesus, for Kim.”

Love you all, Pastor Henry

 

 

 

 

Jerry's Latest Miles 4 Meals Update

Right now on the Miles4Meals site it shows the team about 50 miles from Albuquerque traveling at 11 miles per hour. This update is from last night.

Hello Everyone,

The Miles 4 Meals ride continues! As of today, we have surpassed the $17,000 point in our fund raising. That will provide 77,272 meals for starving children world-wide. That is good, but we have a God sized goal of 500,000 meals so that we can feed 1,370 starving children, every day, for a full year!  I know we can do this. You can follow our teams progress, both our location and our fund raising at 5oaks.info/m4m, and if you would like to provide a life-saving meal for a hungry child, please donate a $ or two. [I think Jerry means a hundred or two.]

Today, we crossed into New Mexico and rode into Gallup. We are experiencing the fatigue, aches and pains you would expect after seven days of long rides through very hot temperatures, but the team's spirits and determination is still very high. We have witnessed God's hand in this in so many ways and have been truly blessed. I want to thank everyone who has been praying for us.  

Tonight we are the guests of Bethany Church, Don & Margo, Alan & Lizzie, and Scott. We just had a wonderful meal that Margo prepared for everyone. You would think that riding 100 miles per day would result in weight loss, but sadly we have been too well fed by our hosts. Not a bad problem to have. We were also interviewed and photographed by The Gallup Independent who will be running a story on our ride.

Yesterday, we were the guests of First Baptist Church in Winslow, AZ.

They provided us with roomy sleeping quarters in their new building. 

This past Wednesday, we were hosted by North Point Church in Flagstaff, AZ. We stayed in the homes of Dan & Elizabeth and George & Nevitta. Each of our team were also treated to a half hour massage by Theodora, who is a church administrative assistant for North Point Church and a licensed masseuse. The massage was such a blessing and it made the next day's ride so much more pleasant. Thank you again, Theodora!

Again, one of the true blessings of this event has been the time we have shared with our brothers and sisters in Christ. These churches and families have been so generous, hospitable and just wonderful. I cannot say enough about them. I am so looking forward to meeting our future hosts.

Tomorrow, we will be cycling to Albuquerque, NM and our hosts, John & Joletha Sturdy!

We really could not do this without the support each of you has offered us.

Thank you again and God bless!

Jerry Meras
Outreach Director

Thursday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I have four things I want to share with you today.

#1- One of our small groups has been conducting an evening VBS for Karen refugee children this week. They're running it for the kids at the apartment building of the Karen family they're connected with. What an undertaking! They've had almost 100 kids most nights! I can't tell you how proud I am of them. That's Christ, his kingdom and Five Oaks Church there at that building. And it's not just the adults from the group who are serving but their kids as well.

#2- The Turveys move to Peru is going to be featured on House Hunters International (HGTV) on August 29, 9:30am. Read about it here: "A Young Family Downsizes to Help Other in Lima, Peru."

#3- Tim Bubar is racing in the Faster pastor car race in Somerset, WI. Maybe you've seen the weirdly colored car behind the building. That's his race car. The race is this saturday at cedarlakespeedway.com. Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for students, age 5 and under are free. For tickets, contact Gail Schroeder on Facebook or at gschroeder@fiveoakschurch.org right away. I know some other local pastors are racing and so is Vince Miller. I hear there's been a lot of trash talk going on between Tim and Vince. Let's see who makes it past the first round.

#4- This week's message is on prayer from Luke 18:1-8. What can we learn from a parable about a unjust judge and a widow who will badger him until he puts her in jail or addresses her concern? Come and find out. 

See you this weekend and God bless you, Pastor Henry

Miles 4 Meals Update

Grueling and brutal is all I can say about the hills and temperatures our Miles 4 Meals team is facing. But they seem to be holding it together. Here's an update that came in from Jerry yesterday.

Sorry, that I haven't posted an update in a couple of days, but we have had limited internet connectivity. To catch all of you up, since that last time I emailed you, we have gone through Newberry Springs, CA and Bullhead City, AZ. Today, we began our ride in Needles, AZ and rode over some tough hills to east of Kingman, AZ. The heat did subside, somewhat. We only had to ride in 105 instead of the 116 we had riding into Needles. I almost brought out my riding jacket, brrr.

I have been overwhelmed by the incredible generosity our hosts have shown us. We have been truly blessed by the time we have been able to spend with each of them and the relationships we have built. Today, we are the guests of Journey Church at the home of Rex & Kathy.  Monday, we were the guests of City Bible Church at the homes of Ray & Barney, and Whitney & Kris. Sunday evening, we were the guests of Newberry Community Church at the homes of Pastor Vaughn & Molly and Harry & Mary. Pastor Vaughn invited us to their Sunday evening monthly communion service. It was a great service and a lot of fun meeting everyone at the service.

As we work our way across this wonderful country of ours, we have seen unbelievable sunrises in the deserts, and many fun and interesting sights, but remember we are not riding to sight see. We are out there to raise awareness and funds to pack 500,000 meals for starving children world-wide. Please tell your friends about what we are doing and follow our progress at 5oaks.info/m4m. Together, we will feed 1,370 starving children every day for a full year!

Thank you all for all your support. God bless! Jerry Meras

If you get a chance, go to the site and make a contribution (a big one if you can). If this event raises enough money, we can extend the days we will do the Feed event and reach our goal of 500,000 meals!

Also check out this article from the Woodbury Patch: "Miles for Meals Ride: 3 Dads from Woodbury, MN to Ride 2,000 Miles for Feed My Starving Children."

 

Tuesday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I have a couple of things I want to share with you today.

#1- It was fun having Dan leading and Justin on electric guitar. I also enjoyed seeing some newer faces to the worship team. One of the people at the Summit debrief on Sunday evening got choked up talking about his joy of seeing high schoolers on the team most weeks. He remembers leading high schoolers in our once per year or so youth led worship years ago...before they were this good! He was thankful that this is a value. I agree in a big way.

#2- Here are all your comments from the Communication Cards:

• I’ve never been a person that sings, not even in church, but Justin and the entire music team has helped me to do that. It feels good to sing with the Angels and fully participate in the service. [Yeah, I'm afraid some people may be missing out just because they don't feel comfortable singing out loud. They could connect with God in singing, but they are too reserved or something else. All that said, there are some that are singing loud in their souls as they take it all in. For some people it might be a lot like trying a food you didn't like from time to time to see if your tastes have changed. We had sauerkraut with the hot dogs after the Saturday service and I told the people at my table how I hated even being in the cafeteria in elementary school on the days they made sauwerkraut. Hated it that much. Now I love it.]
• Just love “How Great Thou Art”. Great message.
• Daniel, you never sounded stronger or better. Your face shone with joy this morning. [I agree. Dan, you were a blessing.]
• Have been on vacation. Nice to be back. Thanks for a wonderful message, Henry.
• Thanks for the great rendition of lyrics! Loved the bow with the electric guitar and beat to “How Great Thou Art”. Thanks for the message. I won’t look back! Well done. Thank you for the closing set! [I love it too when Nathan does the bow thing. I also LOVE that opening beat for How Great Thou Art.]
• So inspired from the GLS! Thank you Henry and staff for the special relationship we have that allows so many of us to attend! [Yes, great Global Leadership Summit, as usual. So inspiring and many practical take-aways. Thanks for coming!]
• I liked the hymns.
• “How Great Thou Art” – love it!
• Thank you for the effort put into the service and worship experience. It’s very difficult to hear the vocalist over the instruments. Singing time may be more worshipful experience if instruments are less loud at least for some songs. Last week was great. [We'll look into this. Thanks.]
• Could we try doing the greetings/ice breaker after the message? Or, perhaps have a question on the screen before the service starts? The timing of it feels awkward now – either we have trouble with discussing the question or it feels like we don’t have time to all answer it and make a connection which I assume is the point of having the ice breaker. [We'll look into your ideas. It can be hard to answer the question if you have it sprung on you or if you're not given enough time. Thanks.]
• I didn’t care for the first intro song, not the people doing it, but the words were confusing. Hard to figure out, almost like they were thrown together. Saw a bit of it, but not great. I like to be able to think about the words, hard to do with that song. [That was Dan's song. He would tell you he slaved over the words, but he would also tell you that he understands his style won't connect with everyone. He almost pulled the song because of this kind of concern (not that it wasn't deep with meaning but that it is harder to access its meaning). I fully appreciate your comment and value it. At the same time, I want us to do some songs that stretch us in this kind of way for a variety of reasons I won't go into here. I love the usual sytle of contemporary Christian worship music. There is a reason for its popularity. It connects and it's made for singing. But there is more out there for us to drink from. I've strongly encouraged our worship leaders to tap into the variety of worship music that being produced that doesn't fit the usual mold even if it takes some time to broaden our tastes and to write their own stuff and use it. Again, I mean it when I say that this kind of feedback you gave is good, helpful and honest. I'm not interested in cramming things down people's throats regardless how they feel about it ("Welcome to worship. Eat your vegetables!") I just want you to understand the reasoning and thought behind what we're doing.]
• Another amazing service. I can feel God’s presence here. Any recommendations on praying more efficiently/deeper? Trying to demonstrate prayer to my step-kids being more than a list of things done in a day. [My best recommendation is to read A Praying Life by Paul Miller. Can't recommend it enough.]

 Thank you for being a great church! Pastor Henry

Weekend Message Q&A

Piece of advice: If you're about to delete a file and it says it will be deleted permanently, make sure you're deleting the right file. I spent about two hours writing this post today. I deleted it. I think I can rewrite it, but it will never be as good. It was the best post ever! It was brilliant. But now it's gone. Oh well, here's a poor substitute for most amazing post ever.

Here are the questions I received about yesterday's message:

Q – (1) In this weekend's message, you talked about how God wasn't being vengeful but was simply hurrying on judgment for decisions that people had already made. That decision being to live on their own and to reject God. If His will was to speed up judgment then, why does he not do the same now? Is Jesus the main difference? Why give us a chance when but not those of Lot's or Noah's times? I guess it falls under the idea of why does God not strike down those who decide to ignore Him? I realize that this is probably something that we don't get to know on this side, but it's one of those things that I've been curious about. (2) What about everyone born before Jesus? Do they not have the chance for salvation? (3) How do we help others prepare for the kingdom of heaven without being shut out? (4) And how do we keep from turning back? I know you mentioned that going deeper in the word helps us to live a life of not turning back but how do we know if we're turning back because we want what we had or if we're turning back because we want those who were there at that time?

A – I took the liberty of numbering your questions since you have several in there.

(1) Actually, ever since Adam and Eve the default mode of God has been to delay judgment. Judgments like the one on Sodom and like the flood are the exceptions in the Old Testament. And God does bring swift judgment in the New Testament as he does in Acts 5:1-11 and as Paul may allude to in 1 Corinthians 11:30. Again, it’s the exception. And we don’t know that he doesn’t do the same thing now from time to time. Unfortunately people look at present day tragedies and pronounce God’s judgment, but that’s not a good idea. It presumes knowledge that those people don’t have.

From a biblical standpoint, the question is why does he delay judgment? The ultimate answer is above our pay grade, but we do know it has to do with his mercy and his bigger redemptive plan (2 Peter 3:8-10).

(2) Romans 1-3 may provide some of the answers to your question. I’ll highlight two. First, Paul says that everyone has the opportunity to know God but everyone suppresses the truth about God. All humans are culpable for their own sins and rebellion against God. Second, Paul says that the Jews who lived before Christ came and put their faith in God (as God’s chosen people) and participated in the covenants to Abraham and Moses (including the sacrificial system that was always pointing to Christ), will be saved.

(3) We help others by pointing them to Christ. We're called to be signposts to Christ in our everyday lives. We announce the Kingdom. One of the most effective ways of doing that is by sharing your own faith story and including the basic gospel in your story. Second, demonstrate the Kingdom by loving others concretely—caring for hurting people, living a life that is focused on serving others, sharing your stuff, etc. Third, avoid self-righteousness like the plague by humbly confessing your sins to others. 

(4) The bottom line is that ultimately we don’t keep from turning back; God keeps us from turning back. The Bible underscores this in countless ways but several passages drive it home. Take a look at John 10:27-29, Ephesians 1:13-14, Romans 8:29 and Philippians 1:6. You are family now. God will not let you go. When he gave you his Spirit, he sealed the deal. You are in his grace. When he saved you he committed to finishing what he started. Your effort is involved, but it’s always an outworking of his grace and all our efforts to stay in Christ flow from grace.

Q - You mentioned in your sermon that God is speeding up what was going to occur
in the OT. How is that supported biblically?

A – That’s not exactly what I said but what I said is not exactly what I wanted to say either. So let me try again: When God brings swift judgment like he does in Sodom, he is, in essence, simply speeding up the inevitable consequences of what we’ve unleashed on ourselves.  In other words, our choice to sin unleashes forces of chaos and disintegration and death and human conflict. When God intervenes, as he sometimes does in the Bible, and he exacts violent judgment here and now, he is actually (and quite simply) speeding up the inevitable. He’s making happen now what inevitably will happen later as a result of our own choices—death and destruction. I don’t know that there is a chapter and verse supporting that idea. It’s more of a theological reflection on what can be observed in the Bible. And the idea is not original with me but has helped me come to terms with these kinds of passages.

Q - Yesterday, you mentioned not looking back that we should look to the Cross. We should lean into grace more to help us. If I understood you correctly, the more we embrace grace the less you look back. Do you have any books that you recommend about grace?

A – Yes, the deeper we embrace grace and lean into it the more we become the kind of people who are not preoccupied with this world or attached to our stuff and our way of life apart from Christ. A book I’d most recommend on grace is The Prodigal God by Tim Keller. But study and reflection on the Bible is one of the primary ways of going deeper with grace, so I also highly recommend participating in our Story of God small group experience. It majors on God’s amazing rescue mission and how the whole Bible tells the story of God’s grace from beginning to end.

Q - Are there Old Testament references to a second coming?

A – Actually, the whole Old Testament points to Christ in obvious and subtle ways (Luke 24:25-27,45-47). Sometimes it’s referring to him in his first coming (e.g., the whole sacrificial system and the suffering servant of Isaiah 53) and other times to what happens at his second coming (e.g., references to putting all things right and a kingdom that lasts forever). The prophets evidently were not able to distinguish between the first and second coming. Theologians compare it to looking at a mountain in the horizon and not being able to see that it’s really two mountains, one shorter than the other but blending to our eyes. So also the prophets would see both events as one, sometimes in the same sentence.  

Okay, I'm seriously disappointed I lost that other post. So sad.