Re:everything

“For God so loved the Kosmos (universe).”  We are used to hearing, “For God so loved the world.”  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it just doesn’t capture the totality of God’s love or concern.  It doesn’t completely capture the fullness of God redemptive plan.  I think it’s easy to minimize what God is really up to in this world.  We may think, “God’s concern is with human beings and their eternal destination”  and you are right.  But is that the full extent of God desire for the Kosmos?  Is that the extent of the power of God’s grace at work in this world?  I believe that God’s concern covers all things in this universe.  I believe that God’s Grace affects everything in our life and in the Kosmos.  In Colossians 1 Paul speaks of this purpose and desire when we writes about Jesus:

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 

God’s concern is for everything.  The scope of his redemptive plan is in regards to everything.  Astronomy, marine biology, sex, relationships, plants, animals???  God created it, God loves it and God is reconciling it to himself through Christ.  Art, music, business, money, government???  Yep, God has something to say about it and a vested interest in it.  Video games, rap??? Maybe... This is a joke.

The point is, the good news about Jesus Christ affect everything. God loves the Kosmos completely (he created it and has authority over it) and by virtue of that, cares about everything in it and has something to say about it.  

re:everything

Morning Thoughts from Renew Church

Oswald Chambers has done it again.  Here are some of my thoughts concerning what I read this morning. 
Have a great day,
Josh



“Jesus says - ‘Go steadily on with what I have told you to do and I will guard your life. If you try to guard it yourself, you remove yourself from My deliverance.’ The most devout among us become atheistic in this connection; we do not believe God, we enthrone common sense and tack the name of God on to it. We do lean to our own understanding, instead of trusting God with all our hearts.” - Oswald Chambers

How guilty I am of making my best laid plans and then calling it God’s will.  Instead of trusting in God I lean on my own understanding of things instead of living out Proverbs 3:

5    Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6    in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

This then begs the question, do I really trust that Jesus will deliver me, will guard me, will make my paths straight?  Or do I, down at my core, merely trust myself and the plans I have made?

Jeremiah 1:8 says “8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.”  As we travel through the trails of our trek through life, who are we trusting in?  Will we remember that God has rescued us and will continue to rescue us and for that reason he is trustworthy?  Or will we continue to make our decisions based on our education, reasoning, wisdom...  our common sense and “tack the name of God on to it?” 

Do not forget the words of Psalm 27:
1    The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?

He is trustworthy!  You can lean on him!  He will deliver you!  No need to fear.

A New People-Group

I was introduced to a new people-group last night at a baby shower for my neighbor. They're called "Football Wives." You can't pick them out of a crowd in any way, but they have a unique attribute that very few folks in the nation (I speculate) can claim.

Our neighbor is the operations guy for the football team at OSU which makes his wife "The wife of the operations guy for the football team at OSU." Now, that distinction does not have anything unique that any other married couple does not have. What makes this different is the strange and wonderful bond that these 'football wifes' have. So track this with me... these women are thrown together not by any commonality except the occupation of their spouses - still not an unusual thing. Their families go through stressful times as a result of the jobs (referring now to the football jobs), there's travel or times of separation, there's a rhythm of life that comes with the family member's job. Still nothing unusual.

But let's take the job of a tax accountant - that's easy to compare as they both have seasons that are stressful and take them away from their families. Same with any family in sales, or construction. or... But during these times when the spouse is committing great amounts of time to the job, how often does it happen that the spouses are able to gather and 'do life' together? These 'football wives' are brought together weekly to watch the games with their kids and the other wives - I'm envisioning a weekly play-date on a very strange magnitude. These women have walked beside each other during the times when it's most stressful on the family to have the spouse 'away.' They've celebrated births, deaths, sickness, victory, defeat on every level as a group. THIS does not happen for 'accountants wives!' Could you imagine families hanging around together while the spouse is hammering out taxes? Or making a business deal, or laying a foundation? It's not going to happen! I often get thrown into the 'pastor's wife' group, but it sometimes feel more sympathetic than supportive. Not to complain about my role in the family, but more to expose what a wonderful bond these women have.

I don't feel like I'm saying it very clearly. These women I was with last night appeared to have an amazing connection to each other not because they chose to be together, but yet love each other deeply - which is a very uncommon thing, really. I was very honored to be able to step in for just a brief time to share their lives - for this I want to thank you, ladies.

The Month of June

This adventure continues to be an incredibly fast-paced journey with things to do around every corner.  A noticeable part of the last couple of weeks has been spiritual conversations with a number of people that are not connected to a church and/or Jesus Christ.  Whether I simply walk across the road, take a moment to ask someone at the local coffee shop how their day is going, or faithfully getting together with a friend to read a secular book with him, conversation seems to happen.  It is a lot of fun to watch and be apart of.  That being said, I have recognized my complete dependance and need for God to do something with those conversations which brings to my attention the necessity of prayer.  So, I’ve been praying more :) 


The leaders of our launch team have started to meet on Sunday evenings.  At this “leadership huddle”  we are discussing what it means to live out the gospel and asking the questions, “How do we live out good news in Benton County and what does that mean for us as Re:new Church?”  On a weekly basis we will be challenging each other to be a missional presence in our spheres of influence, sharing how we see God at work in our community, praying for each other, and raising up leaders for gospel-centered missional communities.  Our goal at these meetings is ultimately to make disciples that make disciples, consequently, missional groups that send out new missional groups and ultimately, be a church that plants new churches.  With that in mind our hope is to turn our leadership huddle into four missional communities (re:groups) and that each re:group leader would start the their community group with an apprentice leader.  Our purpose for apprentice leaders is to raise up and train leaders that will be sent out to start new apprentice leaders (and on and on and on).  We don’t want to split our missional communities, we want to send out new missional communities.  Our plan look some like this:

June, July, August:  Raise up four leaders at our leadership huddle.

September, October, November:  4 leaders lead 4 missional communities through a 12 week faith journey.  Each leader working along side their apprentice leader!

December:  Recharge!  Enjoy our families, celebrate Jesus’ birth, get ready for next season of re:groups!

January, February, March: 8 leaders lead 8 missional communities through a 12 week faith journey.  Each leader train their apprentice leader!

April 1:  Tentative Grand Opening of Re:new Church!

April 22 - May 27: 16 leaders and 16 apprentices lead 16 missional communities through a 6 week sermon based faith journey.

June, July, August:  Recharge

September, October, November:  32 leaders and 32 apprentices lead 32 missional communities on a 12 week faith journey.

Ok...  This may be idealistic but it is our strategy and goal.  Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to make disciples that make disciples, plant missional re:groups that plant other missional re:groups, and be a church that plants other churches.
Till next time!  Josh

Hiking, Gathering, BBQ

New photos posted! Check the "Pages" link on the right  -->

June 6 update (Josh's birthday!!)

Over Memorial Day weekend we drove up to Lynden, WA.  Amanda and I both commented how surreal it felt driving down the Hanegen Road to Lynden in our our own car.  We hadn’t done that in nearly 20 years.  After enjoying the weekend with my Mom and grandparents we got back to settling in.

Last week I continued to work on web site and administrative plans but the issue that was at the top of the priority list was picking out a name for the church.  So after asking all my facebook friends, talking with members of the Chamber of Commerce, talking it over with launch team members, polling my neighbors and asking a few random people at local coffee shops we have decided to go with the name Renew Church (or Re:new Church).  Thursday I asked God to make it clear which name we should go with.  Nothing earth shattering happened, in fact, by the end of the day I really didn’t care.  I just wanted to get the decision behind us.  Surprisingly, first thing Friday morning I was unpacking some framed pictures.  One of those pictures was a gift to me from Larry and Marsha Satterla that they had given me when I graduated from seminary.  2 Corinthians 5:17 was on that picture which reads, “If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.”  That was enough confirmation for me.  Renew Church it is!

On Saturday a few members of the launch team went hiking at Silver Falls.  Wow.  I think we saw eight falls on our five mile hike.  Amazing!  I’m thinking that we are going to start a “Hike for Health” club and try to go hiking at least two times a month.  Later that evening we enjoyed a cook out at a park (down by the river) with our launch team and played some two-hand touch football.  

Sunday was a big day for us.  Not only was it Levi’s 4th birthday, but we also hosted house church and later hosted a party for Levi at someone else’s house (let Jim and Patti know that I am still throwing parties at other people’s homes).  I don’t even have a grill so I had to borrow some from the neighbors so I could grill up some of my famous BBQ Chicken and Ribs.  I used my Sassy Molassy BBQ sauce and rocked it out on the grill.  The whole day was a party on Roseberry Street.  

Today is a new week and my birthday.  Yeah!  However, the long list of things to do continues to grow.  Formulating a specific action plan and objectives now stands at the top of my to do list.  I will also be working on my first newsletter, thank you letters, logo design, web page, setting up our online community, buying a printer, formalizing our leadership huddles and putting together a calendar for the summer.  Never a dull moment in church planting.  

Please continue to ask Jesus to pour out his grace on Roseberry Street, Renew Church, Corvallis and Benton County.  Ask God to equip us for our mission to renew the spiritual landscape of Benton County by loving God and Others.   

And check out our pictures! (Hiking pics coming soon)