One Year In, Part 2

After Pumpkinpalooza, I admit I got a bit tired and I think we need a little break (Mark 6:30-32). However, the needs of the community aren’t going away, so while rest is important, so also is outreach (Mark 6:33-44). We’ve several tasks ahead of us, including: continuing to learn about the needs of the residents, developing relevant ministries, and praying, praying, praying. Both in my own life and pastoral ministry and in our church, I’m convinced that God is calling us to a time of inquiry and intercession (Acts 4:24-31). We ask the Lord questions and proclaim His answers. I believe that Jesus is the answer to every human need, so this belief frees us to attend to the problems and issues of the community because in our hearts, we know that Christ is always the solution (John 14:6).

As we try to develop our meetings in Swallow School, there are several areas that need to be attended to. We need leaders, particularly in the worship and children’s ministries (Mathew 9:37-38). Qualified worship leaders aren’t easy to find, and the same can be said of children’s ministries overseers. Furthermore, we’ve set ourselves a difficult challenge because we’ve set as our target audience elementary school families rather than young singles. The latter usually have no children and fewer commitments than parents of school-age children. But it doesn’t matter; these are the ones to whom we are directed and we must trust the Lord to provide for us everything we need to reach them for Christ.

For our ministries to be relevant, we must also address what are called the “felt needs” of the community. These are personal and social problems that people are aware of. According to the chief of the Hartland police department, alcohol plays a role is approximately 90% of the domestic disturbance crimes committed in the village. Clearly, we ought to address this problem with the gospel that can set souls free (Luke 4:18-19). I’ve already begun the process of looking into an appropriate ministry, but the best resources are nothing without the anointing of God’s Spirit on the hearts of people who care and are willing to serve.

We’re also looking at the possibility of updating our website because in this technology-saturated and –savvy culture, online resources have to look their best and offer the best. We’ll use whatever’s placed in our hands in order to make a difference (Exodus 4:2; Ecclesiastes 9:10).

Integrating house church and suburban expectations is proving to be difficult. Since we’ve been meeting as a small group in a home for a while, I’ve really come to appreciate the many virtues associated with “home-grown discipleship.” However, I recognize that in this area, as big as our homes are, many people are hesitant to open them up to others and likewise, many are reluctant to enter the homes of “strangers.” For Lake Country residents, I get the impression that church buildings or other public facilities seem to be preferable to homes, although most of those who attend home groups testify to how enjoyable they are. Ideally, I’d like to retain both public and private and seek to integrate them in some complementary fashion, but I’m finding this to be a big challenge. I’ve read a bunch on the subject of house churches, and while I appreciate their value, I don’t want to impose a counter-cultural model on people which could prevent them from hearing or responding to the gospel. In this sense, the specific form of the church should grow out of what the Spirit is doing in our midst, how He is equipping us to serve our community, and what resources He gives us.

One Year In, Part 1

Sanctuary Church of the Lake Country celebrates its first birthday today. We’ve hosted Sunday morning gatherings for a year now. What’s God been doing in our church during that time and what lies ahead?

This church was founded on and motivated by a belief that the people of the Lake Country region needed a gospel witness that was intellectually credible, spiritually dynamic, relationally enriching, and practically-oriented (Acts 2:42-47). The Lake Country is more or less a region unto itself and so we didn’t think that churches in neighboring regions would be sufficient for its residents. And while it’s true that this area has many churches, most of them are either evangelical or sacramental. These have value, but the Lord put on my heart that the Lake Country needed “a church of power” (Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 5:4). In addition to this, my experience taught me that most churches were poor in developing relationships (1 John 3:11; 4:20), so any church we’d seek to establish had to emphasize the social dimension of the Christian life. Christianity is not purely private; it is a corporate faith that gets strengthened by, and must be shared with, other people (Ephesians 3:17-19).

So we started on Sunday, November 2, 2008 with just our family: Grace, Daniel, and I and the children. We began small (Zechariah 4:10) and I know that growth is slow sometimes and it’s not always easy, but doing the right thing is something God rewards (Galatians 6:9). Let me share with you an excerpt from an email I received recently:

"Robert, do you know what happens after you plant the seed of a Chinese Bamboo Tree? Nothing. That's right. Absolutely nothing. For 4 years after planting the seed of this tree you get no satisfaction other than a tiny shoot coming out of a bulb. Must be something wrong, right? A still birth or stunted growth. A bad seed maybe. If you didn't know about the growth patterns for this tree, you'd think that all your efforts to plant and cultivate were useless. But, in fact, what's happening all the time is that underneath the ground there's a massive root structure that's forming. You can't see it, but it's there and it's HUGE. Then, in the 5th year, the Chinese Bamboo Tree grows and grows and grows, sometimes up to EIGHTY FEET tall . . . Sometimes it takes months, even years before you SEE the growth. But all the while you're making deposits into a secret account that all of a sudden (that's the way it seems, but, in fact, my point is that it's not all of sudden) begins paying dividends. It takes maturity to be patient."

Kingdom work is a lot like growing bamboo; it's not something we can control but it is something we can anticipate!

We stepped out in faith and launched this church not because we were disgruntled with other churches (Philippians 1:15-16; 1 John 2:19); that would’ve poisoned Sanctuary and doomed our efforts. Rather, we believed that, apart from our own talents or skills, God could do a work in this area that needed to be done (Acts 14:27; 1 Corinthians 15:10).

We’ve striven to maintain a balance between the Word, the Spirit, relationships, and service. We’re not perfect with it. Each of us has a preference or a leaning toward one or more of these (I’m partial to the Word), but overall, we’re committed to growing in each area.

We tried really hard to keep an outward focus. I don’t think we’ve been entirely successful, but at least we did three outreaches on June 28 (water bottle distribution), August 1 (Picnic in the Park), and October 24 (Pumpkinpalooza). These enabled us to introduce ourselves to the community, practice servant evangelism, and begin to invite people to the church. These outreaches were not necessarily cheap, but they were worth it and I believe God will honor our efforts to bless our neighbors.

We also started to meet for services one Sunday a month at Swallow School. This represented a big change for us because we’ve gotten accustomed to meeting in the house. I think that the house meetings have facilitated our relational growth and our commitment to each other. These will serve us well, but I also believe that the Lord wants us to share His love with others. In other words, there’s room in His family for more brothers and sisters (Acts 2:47; 16:5).

Pumpkinpalooza

Sanctuary was blessed with the opportunity to host Pumpkinpalooza, a party-styled outreach to the families in the Lake Country area, especially those in the Swallow School district. We had support from personal friends in the area, servant teams with S.H.A.L.O.M. Ministries in Milwaukee, Rio Assembly of God's youth group and leaders, some friends out by Madison, and family and friends from Full Gospel Chinese Church in Downers Grove, IL. Thanks to everybody who helped; you made the event into something special!

It was our first time with such an event and overall, it went pretty well, We had over 30 families register for prize giveaways and everybody who attended got an invitation to our Sunday morning service at Swallow on November 8.

I've discovered that the process of evangelizing the suburbs and establishing a church is slow work that is best accomplished with a long-term perspective. God's vision for us may be awesome but it takes a while to get there and I've learned the value of being patient, kind, and consistent in how I interact with those in the community and plan outreaches. It takes a while to establish a good reputation but I believe that a bad one can be created in no time at all, so I'm convinced how important excellence and quality are in the events we host.

I also appreciate the effectiveness of the "servant evangelism" approach developed by Steve Sjogren (see http://www.stevesjogren.com/) and practiced all over America. It's a great way of giving away things of value (like bottles of water, car washes, assistance, or parties) with no strings attached. Since God's love is free, what we give away ought to be free, too. This demonstrates to people what the free gift of God love in Christ is like. It's not the gospel, but it sets up people to be open to the gospel. I'm learning that in the suburbs, where many residents are both busy and guarded, it may take a while to dissolved barriers of resistance. The servant evangelism approach is method the Lord can use to touch the hearts of men and women, draw them one step closer to dealing with spiritual and personal issues and ultimately, bring them to the cross of Christ. I felt that Pumpkinpalooza served that initial purpose well, and I pray that it and other comparable events will allow us the privilege of leading people to an encounter with Jesus.

Picnic in the Park

As advertised, we teamed up with S.H.A.L.O.M. Ministries to host an outreach at Nixon Park from 3:00 to nearly 9:00 PM on Saturday, August 1. It was a lot of work, but it sure was worth it! Before I cover what happened, just the fact that we were able to hold the event was a blessing. You see, from the time the 7 day weather forecasts were given for that date, the meterologists were predicting rain. The report stayed that way all week, so we really had little natural reason to expect anything else. But thank God for His authority! From the moment I saw the first weather reports calling for rain on Saturday, I prayed about the news. However, instead of telling God to prevent it from raining, I felt that the Lord simply wanted me to trust Him, so that's what I did. I just told Him, "Father, You have total control over heaven and earth and You are trustworthy, so I know that the weather is in Your hands. Give us what we need and we know that things will work out exactly the way You want them to!" Instead of me dictating my wishes to God, the Spirit gave me peace in my heart to leave the matter to Jesus and He blessed us! Yes, it rained on Saturday morning, but most of the day, it was merely cloudy or partly cloudy. Furthermore, the temperature was amazing; the high only reached 75 degrees, so nobody roasted out there. Actually, it got a little chilly at sundown, but that was OK with me!

Well, enough about the weather. I estimate that we fed about 200 people and approximately 10 people responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a great joy to lead someone to the Lord! We also had about 60 people fill out entry sheets for the prize drawings, so we'll follow up with them to thank them for coming. Regarding these prizes, we were able to give away some really neat items, including two bicycles, an iPod Shuffle, Starbucks coffee, and other things. We're grateful to the businesses in the area that made the donations and the prize winners seemed might grateful, too! It was also a lot of fun to interact with the residents of the area. You learn about the different challenges people are facing and through it all, I realize how much we all need Jesus. He can take care of any problem we have.

Handing out 25 posters and 2500 flyers to advertise the event was worth all the effort. I'm so convinced that the Lord equips His people with the resources to spread His gospel and when we mobilize to do so, He supports our endeavors. I pray we never lose sight of the joy of serving Him and making Him known. Jesus is worth it all!

Parade Outreach

Our church participated in the Hartland Hometown Celebration Parade on Sunday, June 28. We were number 58 out of 79 entrants and it took a while (more than half an hour) to actually get moving. But it was worth it. We had nearly 2000 water bottles stocked on a trailer and we gave out all of them a little more than half way through the parade route! I felt bad about running out of water bottles, but I have to say that people really enjoyed receiving them and I believe that God will honor our efforts to illustrate the free grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Home Church

Over the past couple of weeks, a story has been reported on some websites about a pastor and his wife who live in San Diego and host a Bible study in their house. Apparently, they were confronted with a county authority who told them that they needed to obtain a proper permit (at the cost of perhaps thousands of dollars) in order to host religious services in their home. It looked as though the issue was about proper land use and the government official must've felt like the pastor and his wife were running their home like a business (in this case, a non-profit business) and that they needed permission to do so. Well, this story caused quite a furor because Christians were concerned about the perceived attempt by San Diego to regulate or suppress religious and personal freedom.

Well, the case didn't get very far. The government probably wasn't too fond of the negative publicity and dropped the charge against the couple. At least for now, they're free to continue hosting their Bible study.

The matter was brought to my attention by some members of our church (which, incidentally, is a home church!) and I wanted to write about it but I delayed doing so until the matter got resolved. Because Sanctuary is home-based, the issue of needing governmental permission to engage in corporate prayer, worship, Bible study, and ministry is troubling. Of course, Philippians 4:6-7 tells us ask the Lord for His help rather than be anxious, so as scary as this incident was, we can't afford to let it dictate to us what we believe or how we conduct ourselves. Being Christ-centered means being centered on Jesus in everything we say and do, and that includes our dealings with the government.

My initial reaction when I first read about this story was to see it within the context of a broader trend of increasing intolerance towards Jesus, His people, and His gospel. In that sense, I'm not surprised that such an edict could be given to believers seeking to grow spiritually with other Christians. But I also speculated on the motivation of the official. What moved her to contact this couple and wield such a heavy hand against them? Had she ever done this before, and if so, to whom? Was she forced to do so because of the complaints of neighbors, and if so, what were they complaining about?

Proverbs 18:17 suggests that when we judge matters (a topic for future blog entries in its own right!), we need to pay attention to both sides. It's too easy to make a decision based on only one side of the story. I know the pastor's side of the story from my own experience of leading a home-based church and I share his concern about the potential use of coercion against his religious freedom. Furthermore, as I described above, I admit that I really don't know what the county official was thinking or what motivated her. But as Christ's followers, I know that we have to be careful not to put stumbling blocks in front of The Stumbling Block. The ultimate issue is the cross of Jesus Christ and what people will do about what Jesus has done for them. Other issues, like courtesy toward neighbors and complying with subdivision codes, are important, but shouldn't dominate. I'm in no position to assert that, for example, the Bible study clogged up the streets with parked cars, but social conventions like parking and noise levels matter to people and have to be taken into consideration by believers who seek to represent Jesus well to the community.

I don't think that it's a simple either/or situation: we can either honor the Lord and host the Bible study or honor the neighbors (or government or anyone else) and not host a Bible study. The Holy Spirit is far too creative; He can give this San Diego couple, and all of us, the wisdom we need to maintain our commitment to Christ while at the same time limiting the causes for stumbling that we might place before others. God is a good Father and will show us what's really going on and what we need to do. There's no substitute for His leadership so we should never feel that we have to solve these problems with our own wits. Mine aren't good enough; praise God that Jesus' are!

Hartland Hometown Celebration Parade Outreach

Sanctuary is going to team up with S.H.A.L.O.M. Ministries (http://www.shalom-ministries.org/) to host an outreach to Hartland on Saturday, August 1. (For more details, go to www.aboutsanctuary.com/outreach.asp.) When I met with the ministry leaders last week, Tony Vento, the director of S.H.A.L.O.M., suggested that our church should hand out bottles of water at the town's upcoming 4th of July parade. I felt that this was a good idea, so I checked into it and found out that Hartland's annual "Hometown Celebration Parade" is going to held on Sunday, June 28 at 1:30 PM. When I was talking to the staff at the village hall about the parade, I was told about the fact that some churches participate in the parade itself. Right away, I began to envision what it would look like if Sanctuary marched, but the thought that we're too small took over and so I dismissed the idea.

However, I still wanted us to distribute the water bottles, so at our home group meeting this past Friday, I led a discussion about "servant evangelism" and what God was leading us to do. (To learn more about servant evangelism, go http://www.servantevangelism.com/. It's got great information about the rationale for such service and lists tons of ideas about projects you can do.) Well, we not only had a great Bible study, but God's Spirit began to push my faith and challenge me. We were hit with two big ideas: first, double the number of water bottles I originally thought we'd need and second, try and get into the parade.

I went back to the village hall after Memorial weekend was over and we had no problems getting all the right paperwork to register the church to march in the parade. Of course, now we have some little issues to deal with, like designing a float, getting a banner, picking up the water bottles, seeing if we can get customized bottle labels, and getting all this done by the end of June. The Lord who calls us to ministry is faithful to make that ministry happen, so we believe that Jesus will see us through. One of the fellows in the church is making use of his business connections to get the water bottles and labels and another believer we know offered to construct the base of the float for us. The theme of the parade is "There's no place like home" right from The Wizard of Oz, so this should be fun!

In virtually every pastor's seminar I've attended over the years, planning and scheduling are stressed as crucial to ministry success. I understand how they can make life easier but, with that being said, there's nothing quite like the quick and sudden moves of the Spirit. All Christians, even plodding, methodical ones like me, have to be ready to turn on a dime to keep up with Him. The Lord's trustworthy, isn't He? I know He is!

Return from Singapore

I'm back from my trip to Singapore and even though it was a blessing to travel and teach there, I'm glad to be home. I wasn't sure about whether or not God wanted me to teach at TCA College (http://www.tca.edu.sg/) but I was told by a couple of advisors that I'd never have enough information to make a decision unless I flew over there. So that's what I did. Sometimes the Lord gives you experiences just to teach or reinforce things that He's already communicated to you. The trip there reinforced my need to stay in Hartland, WI, and develop Sanctuary. As a matter of fact, after I returned, the Lord directed me to two passages of Scripture: Psalm 122 and 2 Samuel 5:6-10. Both passages discuss Jerusalem and God used these to stress to me that I needed to condentrate on "my Jerusalem" which for now is Hartland. I remembered Acts 1:8 in which Jesus casts the audiences of the missionary ventures of the early church in a series of four concentric circles: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Through that verse, I felt like the Lord was telling me not to ignore "the uttermost parts of the earth," but rather to focus at this stage of my life on Jerusalem. God's Word brings peace and it certainly ministered to my heart, so I had to let go of the possibility of teaching in Singapore at this point in time. Our future is in Christ's hands and although we may not know every think that He's got planned, we can trust Him that He knows what He's doing. In short, Jesus is reliable! That's my experience; it is yours, too?

This is my very first blog entry. Right now, I'm juggling helping my wife with two sick boys (and a little girl who's not sick), working on a school project for one of them, and scrambling to get ready for a trip to Singapore on Friday. Sometimes the Lord takes us through seasons of relative (or even absolute) calm; other times, we're in a whirlwind. Either way, at least I know that Jesus is Lord, He rules over my life and my circumstances, and He makes everything right when we trust Him. I trust Him; how about you?