H. Henry Williams

Mid-Week Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

There are 12 things I want to share with you today.

Tip: Read the bolded highlights if you're too busy to read the whole thing. Get through it in about 1 minute.

#1 – Welcome to the new blog subscribers!

#2 – Get a recap of the weekend services with highlights of our prayers, readings and songs here.

#3 – We celebrated in our services on the weekend by lighting 37 candles for the first-time decisions made at VBS! If you missed the weekend, this is something we’ll be doing for the next twelve months or so. Here’s the VBS video celebration. (If you receive this post via email, click on the title and go to the website to watch the video.) #4 – I love that our VBS materials will be used again when one of youth mission teams does it in urban New Jersey.

#5 – We need and want feedback. We want to know how we are doing so we can measure improvement. And we need your ideas. So please respond to the Five Oaks ministry survey when it hits your inbox in two or three weeks.

#6- Here the recent feedback we received from the cards we send to first-time guests:

“The music was great. Anyone with hearing aids might have a problem. Enjoyed the active participation of the ‘stations’ and the evangelistic thrust – and to do something to tell others of one’s faith.” [My wife has hearing aids and does great with everything but the videos we show from time to time.]

#7 – One of our small groups, led by the Bryants, will again offer VBS to Karen children in one of the St. Paul neighborhoods later in the summer. Would you, your family or your small group like to help? Meet some folks and make a huge difference in the lives of children. Missions in your own backyard! If so, let me know and I’ll connect you with Kristen Bryant. Here are some pictures from last year’s event.

#8 – Pray for our Spain team, which is working at L'Arcada youth camp. They’re assisting the camp staff—including manual labor, sharing their faith stories and building relationships with the students—to make this year's Summer English Camp a huge success as they share the gospel with campers.

#9 – I’ve been filling out some pastoral recommendations for several members who are becoming mentors at MN Adult and Teen Challenge. What an impact they’re going to have on individual lives!

#10 – One of our staff members commented on missing the old farm house. Yes, good memories there but not a great office. So I said I preferred this picture of the old Five Oaks Ranch house.

The fire department used it for training. Cheap way of doing demolition.

#11 – Here are most of your comments from the Communication Cards:

• Beautiful worship sets! Great choice of songs for a visitor I know is here.
• Thanks for using scriptures for the reading. [Yeah, especially the way Dan read from 1 Peter during one of the songs. Loved it!]
• Dan, you are so funny – but Celine Dion (TMI)! The icebreaker question was great! Love this message series. Henry thanks. 
• Wonderful “White as Snow” with scripture, unbelievable! “How Great Thou Art” blew us away. [Unbelievable how engaged the congregation was for both, especially “White as Snow.” Dan and the band backed off a bit and the voices of the congregation came out so beautifully.]
• So happy to see the church full of people on a summer Sunday! Dan, love when you lead worship – your love for the Lord shines through! I didn’t attend church last week. My heart is so full and happy to be back this week! I love my church!
• Way to go VBS stuff! 37 amazing new lights. 
• Dan & band – great opening set. Adding the Bible passage added such depth. Loved it!
• Henry, thank you for the powerful and encouraging message. Well done! Great worship time and song selection Dan. Thanks.
• Please play traditional hymns as we all know them. [We do sometimes. And some of the hymns we do retain more of the traditional tune than others. But if I may be frank with you, I’m afraid I don’t have the fondest memories of old arrangements. Personally, I love the way we do them now. It is, of course, completely a matter of taste. I am excited about all the current work being done on updating the music of old hymns. My oldest son’s church, Sojourn (in Louisville) is on the leading edge of this. Check out them out here and listen to all their music for free. I recommend starting with "Over the Grave" then "The Water and the Blood." Their music is innovative enough to be an acquired taste, but it is well worth it.]

#12 – Here is the sermon in 10 Tweets, Exodus 1:1-2:10, “When Things are Looking Down”

1. The gospels are cast in the terms and images and ideas of the Exodus. You can't read Exodus without hearing echoes of the gospels.
2. When things are looking down, look back, look ahead, then look around. Not a pick-me-up ditty but a spiritual discipline.
3. In the story of Israel’s suffering from 1:1-2:10, God is only mentioned in two verses.
4. David McCullough: You can't have a sense of identity if you can't tell your own story.
5. Gen 46:1-4 – Their story told them they were where God wanted them & he was with them.
6. Rom8-If we don't know how to pray…the Holy Spirit does our praying in & for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans
7. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. (Rom8:28;MSG)
8. Perspective changes our experience of our circumstances.
9. God doesn’t just work above but with, in and through our circumstances.
10. In light of God’s promises and the end of the story, you can’t help but see God’s hand all over it.

I’ll leave you with this Sojourn video that helps explain their approach to music.

 

Blessings, Pastor Henry

You May be Wondering (Part 2)

If you are a Five Oaker that’s new to the blog, I would love it if you would check out the last two posts.

I’m going to answer a few more questions you may have about the proposed land purchase, but first a note I received from Steve Thomas. Steve was Board Chair during the search for Five Oaks’ second pastor and now lives in the Kansas City area.

“This is very exciting. …The pictures of the old farmhouse brought back a lot of wonderful memories.  We are praying for you.”

Here’s a note I received from a new member after my “Location” post:

“Just vision!  Refreshing.  No pleading.  No guilt.”

I wrote back:

“Thanks, Jim. The pleading and guilt will start later! :-) “

How are we going to pay for this purchase?

We are going to raise all the money through a capital campaign this fall. We have enough equity and our debt load is small enough to finance most or all of this purchase, but we want to raise every penny to buy it without adding to our long-term debt. I believe we can do it. That’s our goal and our prayer.

Will this project take money away from missions or compassion ministries, locally and globally?

This question arises with every capital campaign I’ve been a part of. When I hear it, I both applaud and cringe. I love it because it is so outwardly focused. What’s there not to love in this kind of default response that puts others first, especially Christ’s mission to proclaim the gospel and demonstrate the Kingdom of God?

I cringe because I've known too many churches that were great at sending money to missionaries but neglected the mission in their own backyard. Our mission begins in our “Jerusalem”--Woodbury, Cottage Grove and other neighboring communities (Acts 1:8).

If this is your concern, I want you to know that we will not stop being outwardly focused. We will continue to serve in our communities as a church and with our global and local partners, personally and finacially. We will continue to give away 12% of our general fund no matter what. And as our church has grown, that amount has grown with it! 

Additionally, we’re cheap. Oops, I mean, we're good stewards. Really, I do mean that. We’re still using the same used furniture Kevin Haley donated about 15 years ago, and it was already about 20 years old when we got it! I could give you dozens of other examples of how we have lived with less to maximize money for ministry and for ministry square footage.

Aren't capital campaigns a distraction from making disciples?

The way we do capital campaigns is not a distraction. It grows disciples.

A couple of years ago I had coffee or supper with over a dozen Five Oaks couples who are lead givers and asked them what motivated their giving. More than half of them mentioned a past capital campaign at Five Oaks or elsewhere as the primary catalyst in learning to trust God with their money. The stories were incredible and inspired my faith. I’m sure we’ll share some of them with you in the fall.

You are in for a spiritual treat if you pay attention and pray and participate over the coming months.

I’ve saved the best for last. It’s a question I received in response to my previous post. "What if 9.5 acres aren’t enough?  What if we need to double our current building size to accommodate God’s blessing?  Do we have plans to be able to do that?"

Love it! My answer, "It depends." The window of opportunity to buy more land around us will continue to be open for a while. The challenge is it will become increasingly expensive. We did consider going for more right now, but, like I said in an earlier answer, we’re cheap (there I go again). Actually, I believe we have honored God by how careful we’ve been with his money over the years. The last thing we want to do is become land poor. It’s a fine balancing act that requires spiritual discernment and listening to the Spirit.

You May be Wondering

Here are some questions you may be asking about the land purchase. But first, take a look at this comment to my last post from a long-term member who recently moved to Madison, WI.

How exciting! I remember sitting in the old farm house during a prayer vigil (by myself at 5 am) as the church was planning on growing into it's own building! God is so great!

Don't we have enough land already?

No, we are convinced we don't yet have enough land for what God wants to do through Five Oaks.

Currently, we have just enough land to run two concurrent services, one in the Worship Center and one in the Community Life Center. The land supports just enough space to build the additional children’s space and parking we will need for those two services.

Only eleven or so of our nineteen acres are usable. We have wetlands behind our building and another acre or so will go to the widening of Radio Drive. Our space for expansion is severely limited.

We want to be ready to grow. We are confident that God wants us to reach more people through us than our current land allows. More land gives us the ability to build a larger worship center before we go to concurrent services.

Why not just plant churches when we reach our space limits?

Church planting is one of the best ways of reaching new people for Christ, but it is not a method for making room for growth. And remember, this growth is on our doorstep! Church planting doesn’t leverage this strategic, God-given opportunity.

Why not grow to a certain size and hold there?

All churches have a life span and they all reach a size limit at some point. Every church without exception. God is in charge of that. But if a church loses its vision for reaching more people for Christ or loses its ability to bring more people in because of lack of space (due to lack of foresight or faith), it begins to die a thousand deaths. I suppose, under those conditions, we’ll be able to use the land for a cemetery!

What if we end up not needing the land?

We can sell it. Most of the land we're buying can be used for parking but not for building. But a housing development can count it toward their required green space. 

More questions and answers coming next week.

• How are we going to pay for this purchase?
• Will this project take money away from missions or compassion ministries, locally and globally?
• Aren't capital campaigns a distraction from making disciples?

Do you have any questions I can add to this list?

 

Location, Location, Location

“Someday the city will grow in our direction.” That’s what Five Oaks member Tom Berg told me back in 1996 as we walked the 19 acres of the newly acquired church property. Tom was leading the search team for a new pastor. I had come up from Kansas for an interview.

Two barns and a farmhouse were all that remained of what had been known as the Five Oaks Ranch. Surrounded by farmland and not a housing development in sight, I was thinking, ‘If the first rule for buying real estate is location, location, location, this is not the place to build.’ It seemed out of the way and far from all the new development in Woodbury. But at least 19 acres seemed like more than we would ever need.

That was almost 17 years ago and Woodbury was poised to grow eastward. And boy did it grow! It added 20,000 new residents to the east. Even so, as the population was growing away from us, we grew too, from a congregation of about 175 to a congregation of over 1600 who are active today. 

Those 19 acres have served us well all these years. And they will serve us well for several more.

But Woodbury will now expand to the south. It’s all coming toward us! And, get this, 20,000 more people are moving to within a five-minute driving radius of our property within the next ten years! We simply will need more land to meet our missional potential.

What was once a fledgling church wondering if it would survive the departure of its founding pastor is now an established, innovative and vibrant, disciple-making community, mobilized and impacting the world for Christ. 

What was once farmhouse and barns is now a church building where thousands of people from the community come to worship or simply to play basketball, hold recitals or feed thousands of hungry children.

It’s a place where, a couple of years ago, more people made first-time decisions to follow Christ than we had in average attendance when I came almost 17 years ago. 

And it’s a place where Tom Berg’s words will come true and this pastor can finally start singing, “Location, location, location.”

Failure to Launch

Tony Morgan is one of my favorite bloggers and he recently wrote a post to young adults about fulfilling their dreams. Here are the main points. Go here to read the whole thing and see what he says about each practice. Really good stuff!

10 Simple Practices to Help you Experience Your Future Dreams

1. Get responsible while you’re still at home.
2. Get a job while you’re in high school. Any job.
3. Get a degree, but don’t leave with a lot of debt.
4. Get an internship while you’re in college.
5. Get a real job when you graduate.
6. Get married to someone who shares your values and dreams.
7. Get a savings account instead of a car.
8. Get off your phone and into action.
9. Get a mentor.
10. Get disciplined about doing the next right thing right now.

Wednesday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

There are several things I want to share with you today.

#1 – I hope you got a chance to look at the pictures of our missionary partners this weekend and read a bit about their work. And don’t forget to pick up a 2014 Impact Calendar. Great opportunities ahead. But don’t forget, when you are impacting the world for Christ on your own or through another organization, that’s the church (Five Oaks) at work because you are the church!

#2 – Loved the Kid’s Hope USA video from the weekend featuring several of our mentors. We had a really nice celebration lunch for mentors on Sunday. Sarah Bowers, our Kid’s Hope Coordinator has done an awesome job from the inception of this ministry. Thanks, Sarah!

#3 – Our own Libby Johnson will be leading worship this weekend. It’s her first time leading the entire service, so sing loud, smile back and thank her for serving this way as a volunteer in ministry.

#4 – Juli Servatius send this story to me. Powerful. Juli founded and leads the adoption ministry at Five Oaks.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

#5- Here is some of the feedback we received from our most recent Story of God group:

• Deeper connection to the Story. I’ve been a learner and believer with the head knowledge but struggle with the heart connection. Seeing God’s grace throughout His story, my life and the future, has been moving.
• I’ve gained a way better understanding of how the bible all fits together. I feel more ready to be involved in the church and excited to have met some people in it. Thank you.
• I wanted to learn more about how everything fits together and deepen my faith. I’ve been transformed through Story of God by learning how the Bible fits together and points to Jesus. It has really impacted me how Jesus came to bring in the kingdom but it is not yet here in its entirety and won’t be until the new creation. The Story of God small group experience has deepened my faith and encouraged me to keep up the good fight and share the Good News. Thanks for everything.
• Daily time with God in prayer and studying the bible, being in the word, learning, craving my time spent in the Bible. Even when I was away from home and/or knew I wasn’t going to be able to attend, I still wanted to read and learn daily.
• The ‘Story of God’ series refreshed me. Although I have been to seminary, The Story of God provided me with a better understanding of the Bible as a whole. The work you did to relate the new and the old was outstanding. Thank you.

#6 – 29% improvement for this group between the pre- and post-quiz on Bible facts (that’s from a 6.5 average correct answer out of 10 to 8.2 average). The Story of God isn’t about accumulating facts, but knowing the facts helps with understanding and retaining the framework of the Bible. This group started way ahead of the winter group, but I neglected to report that the winter group had a 107% improvement on the quiz (3.0 to 6.2)!

#7 – Here are your comments from the Communication Cards:

• Love “Before the Throne of God”. Lyrics and music. a confession, a praise, a prayer. [Yes, incredible lyrics. Go here to see them and listen to the song.]
• Awesome message Pastor Henry. Thanks for the nudge. 
• Henry, thank you for your message today and especially for sharing your personal story of faith. God is good. 
• Thanks for the great opening set, loved the background “light” musicals behind the words of prayer. I love when we explain the stations every week – thanks.  Loved the explanation of relevance of our service to the message. Worship is not a church Ponzi scheme; it is an evangelistic putting unbelievers/seekers in proximity with believers in worship. Great message!
• Is drama no longer a part of our worship time? [Not in the form we use to do it in, at least for now. Drama is done well when you have a team. A team needs practice and opportunities on a regular basis. We were able to do this in the past when we mostly did topical series. We could plan ahead for certain topics and find dramas that might match a message, a message that would not be written until a few weeks later. (BTW, it was a bit of a nightmare when the message didn’t match well. I never felt forcing the message to fit the drama was the right thing to do, if you catch my drift.) Anyway, we now do expository sermons through books of the Bible most of the time and that just doesn’t lend itself to regular dramas or the same kind of “programming” we use to do. Thanks for asking.]
• Wasn’t sure if we were supposed to read the prayer from John 6 silently as Henry read or join him reading it aloud with him. [Thanks. I’ll try to be clearer next time.]
• I missed a prep/pre-service song this week. Re: your comment on arsenal of gods. Reminds me of the scene in the new (1998 or so) Mummy movie where the mummy is approaching one of the characters who starts holding up amulets to protect himself.  [It will be back. Thanks, though, for letting us know.]
• Aluminum and paper recycling station – please. [The vast majority of the recyclables in our trash get recycled (over 90%). We do have recycling for cans by the pop machine and one of our members takes that and sells it to raise money for missions. We’ve gone round and round on this and aside from looking more environmentally friendly as an organization, the end result is pretty much the same. All that said, we might change our tactics at some point. If you have more information that would be helpful for us in making this decision, please pass it on. Thanks.]
• The techno/pop is fun, but can we still do hymns and acoustic sometimes, too! Thanks! [Thanks for the suggestions. We did do a hymn this week: “Before the Throne of God.” Written in 1883 but with a new arrangement from Mars Hill church in Seattle and may have had the techno/pop feel you mention. We do hymns quite often. We love their depth. And I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing an acoustic weekend before long. We were just talking about this about a week ago. As you know, we've been short-handed staff-wise for several months in the Worship Arts department, so offering creative alternatives, etc. has been hard to do. But thank you so much for your suggestions and feedback!]
• Why 6 p.m. vs. 5 p.m.? I don’t like the lateness. Oh well. LOL. [Not my favorite time either, but I lost the argument with our Staff Leadership Team. The SLT thought a more dramatic change is called for in the long days of summer. More time to do afternoon activities and still two hours of sun after the service is over and early enough for evening activities. That’s what they said, and, drat, it seems to have worked.]

#8 – Josh Westurn is interning in our Student Ministries this summer. Josh is the son of long-time staff member John Westurn who now serves a church in PA. Josh is also living with us for the summer, so I get a good chance to torment him like I did when he was a little kid.

#9 – Vince Miller is preaching this weekend. If you’re new to Five Oaks, you will find Vince to be an outstanding communicator.

#10 – We’re off for our oldest son’s wedding. We're jumping out of our skins with excitement. We’ll truly miss being with you on the weekend, but we can't wait to worship with Sojourn Church Midtown in Louisville on Sunday.

Blessings, Pastor Henry

Tuesday Memo

 

Hi Five Oaksers:

I'm splitting my mid-week memo into two parts this week. Here are a few of things I want to tell you about today.

Hi Five Oakers,

There are several things I want to share with you today.

#1 – Get a recap of the weekend services with highlights of our prayers, readings and songs here.

#2 – We just sent out this postcard to 6000 area residents. Trying to make lemonade…

#3 – One of members wrote this some time ago as she reflected on inviting her neighbors to the Feed Event, and it fits well with last weekend's message:

Reasons Why I Wouldn’t Invite Neighbors

• We are not the most popular family on the block
• We are not the most involved family in the neighborhood
• We do not have kids the “average” ages of most on the block
• We are not the most neat or organized
• Our yard is not the most envied
• I am not the most extroverted person
• I am not the  most beautiful person
• We do not have a model perfect marriage
• I do not have super deep history with my neighbors
• Our garage is not the cleanest
• Our barking dog probably makes himself obnoxious barking too early or too late in the day
• I am not on board with some of the choices my neighbors make
• I am too busy to find the right words to ask others
• I assume others may want to help but are too busy as well—if I invite them, they’ll just say no anyway

The more I read over my list, the more I realized what sorry excuses these are.  It seems to me that Jesus’ philosophy was pretty simple—get involved in people’s lives!

I can do this by  providing food for the poor as I fill bags at FMSC. BUT also giving my neighbors the opportunity to feed  the poor could touch a spot in their own hearts that draws them that much closer to a relationship with Christ. 

The bottom line? Jesus promised—“  My Power is made perfect in weakness. All I need to do is be his instrument. He is responsible for the rest.

I look forward to seeing Him at work.

#4 – Yeah, this guy will be here Thursday and Friday for the Finding Faith movie. Read more about the movie here. 

#5 – 220 or so kids will be here all next week for VBS. I wish everyone could see their energy in the worship center when they sing and convene for large group. I wish everyone could see the youth who help lead this in preparation for leading it this summer on their mission trip. And all the dedicated volunteers that decorate the building and run this event. God bless you all!!!

#6 – Crazy energy and crowd for the Saturday service at the new time, 6pm. May have been our largest, non-holiday Saturday in years. Funny thing is I argued with our team against this time. I am happy to say I was wrong.

#7 – Here’s the message in 10 Tweets (“Worship Evangelism” in the Mission of God series):

1. Why is it so hard to invite people to a church service? Should we? What’s it all about, getting bigger?
2. There is a firm biblical foundation for inviting.
3. 1 Cor. 14:23-24 – Paul expected the unchurched to be invited.
4. The Jewish synagogues outside Palestine were teaming with seekers in the first century.
5. Temple court of the Gentiles: To get the nations as close as possible to God’s people worshiping.
6. Mk 11:17 – Jesus, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for the nations.”
7. Solomon anticipated seekers at the temple. “Sovereign Lord, when they pray, give them what they ask for.” (1 Ki 8:41-43)
8. Most of us need help leading someone to cross the line. Help is here every week. The gospel permeates our services. 100’s make decisions.
9. "Then in my 30s I find a church that helps me understand what it all means...my life changed that moment...crossed the line of faith…"
10. I’m so glad a neighbor friend invested in me (an unchurched kid) and invited me to his church.

I have a few more things to share tomorrow.

Blessings, Pastor Henry