Meeting people in the buff

The internet affords one the option of shopping in the personal comfort of one's home attired (or not) as one chooses. As you've probably heard, an individual recently went on a spree at Willow Valley and Darrenkamp Supermarket with the same approach, having forgotten the expectations of our society and the laws of the land. An unfortunate and destructive incident.

But I bring further attention to the event to highlight the actions of one Matt Irwin. He exemplified in an extreme case the Grace Church purpose statement, which was almost quoted verbatim in the article I'm referencing written by Cindy Stauffer and Tom Murse of the Lancaster New Era.

Irwin, didn't see Nicholas Hadzick as a naked guy who was running amok, he says. With God's direction, he says, he saw someone who needed his help. "I wanted to be his friend," Irwin says. "I think what he needed most was recognition that people cared about him, that someone was willing to meet him where he was at the time."

Nicholas was simply a common day version of The Woman at the Well. And in the spirit exemplified by Christ in that scene, Irwin reached out. Though I likely won't, nor do I wish, to encounter a naked man in public, I hope I reach out to those whose paths cross mine.

In that vein, I need to follow up with Terry tomorrow. Who do you need to contact?

What is your Grace story?

I've been filling in, working evenings, for the Evening Building Supervisor this week. Ken, who has been in that role since January, is in Baltimore for the summer, so I've had to hire a summer replacement. What I've enjoyed about this week is getting to talk with people who's paths I don't normally cross.

Just last night I met someone for the first time and out of curiosity, I asked how they came to Grace (those stories always interest me). Her husband is into remote controlled airplanes and I guess was in a RC airplane club or often flew planes with someone who regularly attended Grace. After several invitations to come to Grace, the couple checked Grace out. That was about two years ago.

What is your Grace story?

Women Power!

A beach blast rolled in overnight and our building looks very different this morning. If you have the chance, stop by today or find an excuse to drive your spouse/daughter to the Blast tonight so you can take a peek. It's a sight to see.

I heard that the volunteer army behind this event totals some 150 women. That's amazing! There are so many facets to ministry - obviously, the primary goal of an event like this is creating opportunities and an atmosphere for people to connect and build relationships with those who are far from God. That's the main goal. But there are so many fringe benefits that occur naturally through the process. Take the 150 volunteers. This event has provided an opportunity for 150 individuals to get more connected with our ministry and in all likelihood, for relationships to be strengthened there too. Who knows how God might use those relationships in the future.

I am so excited to see people of Grace banding together to watch God work in and through them. And as this army carries out it's mission tonight, there's an even bigger army that's gaining momentum for the June 24 outreach. I'm telling you, now is the time to get involved! It appears to me that God is at work around us and if you sense that He is inviting you to join Him in what He is doing, fill out the volunteer form for the rodeo. Join us in watching how God works as we work our tails off.

Meeting PEOPLE where they are and moving people to where GOD wants them to be!

Where the M&M's came in

On Monday, December 4th we moved from creating the statement to communicating the statement. If you think the ideas were flying around during our first meetings, these were ideas on steroids. I mean, I'm talking about ideas of having the congregation sitting in specially constructed bleachers with Pastor Scott preaching from center court and giving each attender a basketball and all sorts of stuff that never made the cut. In the end we hit on the M&M concept and the other elements that you witness throughout the series.

But in all of this, what's been most gratifying to me is to see a group of people take hold of a simple statement and see it motivate them to take a next step in their walk with Christ. I've listened to professors talk about purpose statements in the isolation of a classroom setting, but I had never been a part of implementing the process from scratch. I've read the purpose statements of other organizations and been personally inspired, but never seen up close how they can transform a group of people.

It's been very satisfying to have had the opportunity to have a seat at the table were all of this was composed, to be a part of the process, to see it implemented and to see how it's energizing us to meet people where they are and move people to where God wants them to be.

It's not about the chocolate

Several days after my breakfast with Rich, Pastor Scott gathered all of the full time ministry staff together for an all day meeting. We spent a significant amount of our meeting in prayer and sharing what God had been doing in our lives personally and in our ministry. While God's promised that "where two or three are gathered, there I am with them" with our staff, where two or three are gathered, there's sure to be a wild and fun time. Add to that being holed up in a room all day and it's like the time I doused the charcoal with so much lighter fluid the lid to the grill caught fire. Though you may not believe it, we did have a very focused and productive day.

It was neat to see each of us participate and contribute to the discussion. And while our backgrounds are quite diverse, we span a range of ages and our approach to ministry sometimes differ, we were uniquely unified throughout the meeting. It was an exercise I thoroughly enjoyed.

As I write this, eight months later, it's been fun to recollect to that first meeting and especially to look at our original worksheets.
You can see how much we left on the cutting room floor because we felt it was implied, in an effort to keep the statement short and memorable. Actually, we figuratively left the floor covered with ideas and worksheets throughout this process - either the Elmer's was defective or only the good ideas were sticking.

With prayer interspersed in the interim, we reconvened several times after that initial meeting to see if we were comfortable with our work and the direction we were headed. Pastor Scott then shared it with the staff for comment and reaction and then the Elders. Having received very constructive feedback, but limited negative reaction, we started preparing for the February message series.

The irony of that first meeting is that it wasn't until I started composing this post that I realized that in addition to the bottled water, soda and pretzels that we were munching on during the all day meeting, there were also M&M's on the table. None of us realized it at the time that M&M's would come to the forefront several months later.

Making an M&M

I really like m&m's, especially Peanut m&m's (the plain one's are just a little too sweet). I pick my favorite NASCAR driver based on who drives the m&m's sponsored car. It might be a little bit of a stretch, but m&m's excite me, so much so that I thought it only appropriate to celebrate my 200th post by talking about them!

In the past month at Grace, M and M has a new meaning

M eeting PEOPLE where they are
M oving PEOPLE to where God wants them to be.

The new statement captures the purpose of Grace Church since it was organized back in 1970. We just finished a month-long message series dissecting what Grace Church has been and continues to be all about. If you weren't able to attend any of the services or hear the messages, you need to check them out. I keep harping on how God's doing something in our midst unlike anything I've ever seen and He just keeps adding more and more to it. Go Berean on me and check with other Grace-folk and see if it's just me.

February was a good month, but I almost forgot about the journey that started on June 20, 2006 that got us to where we are today.

Having closed on the 12.5-acre property purchase in the Fall of 2005, Pastor Scott and I had been working on creating the process we would follow to lead us in figuring out how God wanted to make use of the newly acquired property for the sake of His Kingdom. We'd recently connected with Rich, who's involved in a local ministry, helping them with strategic planning etc. and Scott asked me to meet with him. We had breakfast together on June 20, 2006.

Most of what Rich shared was a 60-minute review of my Master's program, but material that had gotten fragmented in the deep recesses of my mind. While the restaurant didn't serve any chocolate candies that melt in your mouth, not in your hand, little did I know that our breakfast would chart the course for the next eight months or the role chocolate would play down the road.

Lord, please send lots and lots of snow

It first struck me after we had lived for a few weeks in an apartment complex in Lawrenceville, NJ. The architect designed the apartments in clusters of 16 situated around a central garden-type thing. It looked like a nice, homey, apartment complex where the residents socialized regularly. Yeah, what was I thinking?!? Looks can be deceiving. At the end of each day, each of us would retreat to our cells and lock in until it was time to head out for work the next day. Farm country, at least my experience of country living, hasn't been much different.

I've gotten to talk with our neighbors only a handful of times...
-when we were all out chiseling the ice disguised as snow last week
-when the tree fell on our backyard shed last summer
-when we were shoveling snow last winter
-when we asked them if we could help with work around the house for them as part of SALT2005
No wonder God sends so much snow, it's the only chance we get to talk to our neighbors!

Most interesting was the response when we took our neighbors a breakfast pastry just before Christmas. We had close to a dozen to deliver, but much to my wife's and my surprise, they invited us in to chat!

Talking with neighbors is much of what I watched my parents do as they planted churches. In the Philippine culture, just about every block had a family run business where you could buy a soda and a snack - much like a vending machine, except it was a much more personable experience. These Sari-sari stores were a regular gathering place on the block. Want to get to know people, hang out at the Sari-sari store for a while. And that's how I watched my parents start churches. What is the Sari-sari store equivalent in Lititz?

This is elementary stuff. I see two choices: either each of us walks across the room, driveway or wherever we need to walk, OR, we join the children of the world in praying for lots and lots of snow.

The Enemy's Playbook

Gleaning from my youthful observations, both past and present, I think I've seen some trends in the way our enemy (the aforementioned roaring Lion) does his thing to thwart the progress of the Gospel. And it came to mind again during Sunday's message.

In the Philippines, I observed a culture, if not a whole nation, for which the spirit realm was accepted as reality, though feared to such extents that it held them captive. My childhood friends were literally scared to death of the ghosts and spirits that haunted the rice mill and lurked among the graves at the cemetery. It was obvious to me how the enemy used their common acceptance of the spirit realm in an attempt to hold the power of the Gospel at bay.

I contrast that with my common day observances now and it fascinates me how different a playbook the enemy uses in the US culture. The spirit realm is laughed off as child's play in our culture. But the enemy's playbook would make Bill Belichick proud. In the US I see him using our busyness to hold the Gospel at bay, among a list of other offensive/defensive schemes.

And I often see the church playing right into the enemy's plan... we, the church, simply add more busyness to people's lives. As was mentioned on Sunday, we need to resist busyness for the sake of the Gospel, even if it means not participating or our family members participating in everything everyone else is doing, whether it be rec leagues, community activities or, heaven forbid, some church events.

In order for us to walk across the room, the driveway or whatever you need to walk across, we need time in our schedules to build relationships. Which leads me to tomorrow's post...

Where is God Working?

The principles in Henry Blackaby and Claude King's book, Experiencing God, ring in my mind constantly and I'm always asking myself, "Where is God working?"

If you were at last Sunday's service at Grace, you got an idea that this is an exciting month at Grace and there's more to come! I'm excited about what God is doing - it's neat to see the results/answers to prayers we started praying six plus months ago. I'm excited to see all levels of our ministry doing the same thing and pointed in the same direction. After much prayer and searching for where God is working, it's fun to see God use people to take those principles and find creative ways to apply them in ways that make them stick in our minds.

With all of the excitement in Lititz, it struck me that some of the blogs I monitor on a regular basis are all excited about what God is doing in their churches, particularly pointing at their plans for tomorrow. Coincidince or is God working in unique ways across the country?
Gary Lamb - Ridge Stone Church
Perry Noble - NewSpring Church
Steven Furtick - Elevation Church

Join me in praying that God would open the eyes of all of us as to where He is working, how He is challenging us to join Him and that He would protect all of us from prowling Lion seeking whom he may devour.