Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Here.We.Go

So we are full speed ahead. Saturday night was good. It was a real blessing to be worshipping with all of you in that setting for the first time. I look forward to the people we meet, the lives we help change, and the memories we will make. It was pretty great the way everyone spoke with someone they didn't know. Class death-knells for churches are when they start to focus inward instead of outward. The church is called to be missionary by nature, and part of that is being open to new people.
There are a few outstanding things we probably need to start developing. We need to start some dialog about children's ministry. How can we show parents that we care about them and their kids? Do we develop a way to keep children in the main worship service? What should we do with nursery aged children? Is anyone interested in helping develop some of that?
Website. We have a couple people that have spoken with us about potentially doing it. I think we should set a deadline and start working toward that.
Taskforces. I was just thinking about some things that we will need to get started on, and thinking that I don't have to have my hands in everything. What if we started having temporary taskforces to work on certain issues? We could either get volunteers or have it be random. I was thinking we do something like that to come up with a philosophy for chidren's ministry, outreach, things like that. What do you think? Just kind of spitballing here...

Friday, March 26, 2010

T-Minus...

What, like, 31 hours? Crazy huh?

Just a few thoughts as we are approaching our first worship service. We should not expect perfect from ourselves (and on this I'm speaking to myself first of all). We will have goof-ups and mess-ups as we go. Those are good opportunities to learn and to get better.

Don't try to meet everyone who comes tomorrow night. Now, it may end up being really nasty weather, so we may end up with only our core. In that case, be sure you know everyone. But if there are others there, let me just encourage you all to have one meaningful conversation/contact with someone there. That is, in my opinion, more important than just meeting everyone.

We need to start thinking about what to do with kids... in a good way. We will have parents come and they will want to know that we are thinking of them. If you are interested in helping me work through that, I need you to let me know soon.

Please be deliberate about maintaining the connections that we established during our home church phase. Invite people to dinner, to watch "The Office", you know, stuff like that. Relationships take work, at least, ones that are worth keeping do. It is ok to be intentional about them.

Looking forward to it, and as always, you guys are great.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Facility Championship

Ok everyone, we are down to our final two choices for our meeting place. We are either going to meet at Hope Community Church on south Logan St, or Bethlehem Lutheran Church on Wadsworth. The vote was 7-6 in favor of Hope, if it is free. The vote was 8-5 in favor of the Lutheran Church if Hope is not free. So there we have it.

I should hear from Hope sometime tomorrow or Wed, if I don't I will try again. I believe Chad is also going to try to get hold of them sometime this week.

Let me say how much I have enjoyed our time as a home church. I believe that we have a good thing to emulate when we get into our "Refuge Groups" and start looking to grow through them. We need to be very deliberate about continuing to work at our relationships, and we need to be sure to communicate.

I can't tell you how excited about our first service I am now. The worship team has put some hard work into making our services meaningful and well-thought. I love you guys and am thankful for what each of you brings to the table.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Fundamentalist detox

I like to think that some of what we have been doing for the past 7 months or so has been a type of detox from fundamentalism. Many of us are used to churches where asking questions is bad, accepting whatever answer your pastor gives is good. I couldn't disagree with church more than I disagree with that.

I think at one point or another that all of us have been shaken by some things we are talking about. That is good. I think one of the most disrespectful things we can do to God is to refuse to think more deeply about him. I think about it kind of like I think about any other relationship. What if after a few years of being married to Robin, I suddenly stopped asking her questions? What if I refused to mention her to anyone else, or to try to understand her more deeply? What if I had a very detailed journal of our previous interaction, and I refused to do anything but read that journal because I thought it helped me to "know" her more?

I think sometimes we run that same danger with God and the scriptures. Obviously the Bible is much better than some detailed journal, it is the written record of God's revelation to people. But it is not to be substituted for an actual relationship. We have, at least in my opinion, an obligation to ask tough questions, to talk to friends about God, to try to know him better than before. Sometimes I will discover something new about Robin, and it is pretty great. Wouldn't it be a catastrophe to be afraid to ask her anything new? That is, to me, the only way we can continue to draw closer.

So, I know this has been a struggle sometimes. When I was a fundamentalist I didn't have this kind of struggle. But I also didn't feel like I was pursuing God as he was pursuing me. It felt like I was simply knowing God as the pastor knew God. To me, that would be like just getting to know Robin by asking her dad a ton of questions. Talk about short changing ourselves!

That is why I think it has been good to "detox" from fundamentalism. Hopefully as we go now, we can enjoy the cosmic dance with God, knowing that he is infinitely creative and capable of making new dance moves, of interacting with us in a personal way, of moving us and making us into the kind of citizens of his kingdom that he desires. My hope is that we will always be a church that embraces the questions of life.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Our story

I talked a little last night about living our story. I just want to reiterate that on here today. What kind of story are you living? What kind of story is Refuge living? How are you contributing to that?

The best types of stories are those that set the hero or heroes against long odds. I think about "The Lord of the Rings" or a great Batman story. The hero doesn't think he or she can pull it out. The deck is stacked, the enemy has them surrounded. Just as it seems most bleak, the hero pulls it off.

If we are seeking to be the church in a world that has moved on, we have long odds indeed. We live in a world of contradictions. People want to be in great shape, but they want to drink sodas and eat as much as they want. People want to have clean teeth, but they don't floss.

Most of all, people want true, deep relationships. But they don't want to open up and make themselves vulnerable. People want community, but they don't want the community the make demands of them.

In the Christian world, people want to follow Jesus, but they don't want to follow him to the cross. They want to skip right over Good Friday and get straight to Easter.

It is my hope that at Refuge we will be a community that looks the hard things of life in the face. I hope that we will be unafraid of owning the difficult teachings of the Bible, that we will be unafraid of loving people even if that means arguing with them. I feel like we have come hundreds of miles in only a few months, and I am excited for the other places God takes us.

The other thing about great stories is that they are anything but predictable. Our journey together takes twists that we don't expect, and sometimes we have to just hold on for our lives. But the great thing is that we know we can count on God to pull us through. I'm glad you are all in this story with me, because this story needs a community of heroes, a group to make a difference in the world and in Denver. I know sometimes it might seem like a tough journey. It is. But as Dumbledore tells Harry, we can do what is easy, or we can do what is right.