Here’s the convergence:  George’s sermon on Peter stepping out of the boat, Brenna’s teaching on the Sermon on the Mount and our current series looking at the Lord’s Prayer.

• Peter steps out of the tenuous security of the boat and for just a moment actually walks on water a move prompted by Jesus’ declaration – I AM, courage.
• Jesus takes traditional commands arising from the law and with probably a little common knowledge thrown in and amps them way up ending with Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.

In both instances it seems that the impossible is asked – walking on water, turning the other cheek.  I love that Brenna started off the class on Sunday with the honest admission that as she read the words of Jesus she immediately thinks of all the caveats and invited the class to hold off on immediately thinking of how what Jesus is saying doesn’t apply. 

It’s a good challenge, because personal experience, church and biblical history show that we’re great at trying to lower the bar while calling it God’s best: righteousness becomes legalism, worship become going through liturgical motion, grace becomes license to do what ever you want, participating in the mission of God in the world becomes showing up and taking your normal seat.  Then the storms of life hit and we are forced to stop playing games. 

The Lord’s Prayer isn’t a formula – but guide back to what matters.  A guide back to the heart of God and his desire for us.  A guide to the high bar that our Heavenly Father has for us not to win his affection but to live into the character, relationship and strength of being that we were created for.  A look at the Sermon on the Mount as promises shows you something of our Father’s heart and what Jesus died for – freedom from anger, lust, anxiety and judgment whose word is good, whose action turns evil on it’s head, whose faith is authentic and whose life can withstand the storms.

As George called us to on Sunday, may we be people who step into who Jesus affirms we are, toward transformation and toward identification with the God who sought us out in the storm and called us His own.

Peace :: Jon

Ok, it might not be that bad but driving conditions have a good chance of at least getting pretty icy.  Despite the mountain boy in me that wants to taunt the elements – we also want to make sure every makes it home safe.  We’ll pick right up next week.

Haiti 2012

Trip deadline:  The deadline for the Haiti trip is rapidly approaching and the team is filling up.  So far we have 8 confirmed with room for 4 more.  If you have an application that that hasn’t been turned in or are still thinking about it – let Amber or I know ASAP.

Financial support:  If you can’t go but would like to help financially with the remaining $6000 needed to completely finish the building, you can now give online.  If you’re at Microsoft, Partners in Hope has also been set up for matching funds. 

GIVE ONLINE:  This will take you to the page that explains online giving for first time users.  Once you log in, go to FUND: Convergence // SUBFUND: Partners in Hope.

I hope you all get to enjoy the snow at some point this week!

Peace :: Jon

The things that bind us can be just as varied. When Jesus burst on the scene in Matthew chapter 4 soon to start with his famous sermon, he came to bring freedom. This work is pictured– the dawning light of a new day upon those sitting in darkness. That paralyzing darkness took a number of forms: demoralization at having been dominated by outside powers for years, living daily in a place whose identity was failure, silence from God that was met with earnest efforts by the pious few that felt impossible for most. Discouragement, confusion, boredom, exhaustion from an identity of failure all colluded to bind people into what felt like sitting through a night without end. And then Jesus came with the promise of a new day and the freedom of a new future.

The freedom that he would articulate in his famous sermon didn’t necessarily delight with easy easy answers and cheap fixes but it resonated with those who heard it as being what it real and true. If anything the simplicity with which he spoke could be frighteningly honest. He didn’t offer us formulas but invitations in the very heart of God.

The Lord’s Prayer is a beacon that draws us into the life of God in the midst of the storms of life.

Tonight we cut the words, listen to scripture, worship. Tonight is about freedom.

May we discover the simple, powerful and frighteningly honest freedom that God has for us this year.

Peace :: Jon

On one of the first days we were at Foison, I was taking a break in the shade and I remember turning around to see at least a full classroom of children running up from the river with water jugs to fill barrels that were at the work site. From that point on, there were always kids around doing anything they could to help, whether it was getting water, collecting rocks, or bringing wheelbarrows full of dirt that took five boys to push. It was amazing to see how happy and excited the kids were to be helping build their new classrooms.

Megan Riber

I recently had the privilege to travel to Haiti and spend time in relationship and construction with the people of Foison, Haiti. Though the area was not directly affected by last January’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake, this region is possibly the poorest within a country that is already considered the poorest within the Western Hemisphere. Food, water, and life do not come easy here, which is evident by the condition of the roads alone. Day and night these roads are trodden by foot often in the company of a donkey train, which is just a part of their subsistence lifestyle. Subsequently, patience and hope are not just skills or a mindset that is learned, but an integral part of life in Haiti.

The hope and prayers of Foison have been more recently expressed in the desire for a new and safe school building for the children. Past efforts by the community to build a school have been unfruitful because of poor construction techniques. With the leadership, team support, vision, and engineering experience provided by the Robinson’s this project has been able to partner the community of Seattle/UPC with the people of Foison.

This April the slab for the school foundation was built and poured in a continuing effort to finish the proposed four room school building. Finishing these classrooms will bring children out of rickety thatched shelters in which they currently attend classes. This project has been and will continue to be a success because the money given towards this effort is in concert with the prayers and desires of the community it will serve. Ownership by the people of Foison was ever present by their efforts from the young to the old. Even more inspiring was catalytic effect created by our labors and relationships we were able to build. The purpose of sending a team and not just funds or materials was surely validated by the encouragement and motivation witnessed by the serving team’s presence and interactions. One definition of a catalyst is a person or thing that precipitates an event without undergoing change. On second thought, maybe the team I was blessed to become family with were more than just catalysts because we too have been encouraged, motivated and changed by the people Foison.

David Thurman

Thank you to everyone who came up to the table to buy a t-shirt or sticker, or even just to talk about Haiti!

George got his shirt, too!

I expect to see some folks around Seattle sporting some Partners In Hope SWAG.

Everyday eschatology. Eschatology is really just a study of ideas about where things are going. We all operate out of some idea of the future – we just don’t talk about it as an ology and we might not feel as if we can articulate it very clearly. It’s not so much a question of if we have a view of the future but how our view or the view presented to us in culture influences our decisions today.

Cultivating conversation. Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is like…  What songs, images, clips, stories, etc. strike you as capturing something of what God is like, about or help illustrate what we’re talking about in the series?  What strikes you as saying something related to faith or Revelation that you don’t agree with?  It’s as we creatively engage with culture around us that we’ll begin to see what God’s calling us to, where there’s common resonance both in and out of the Church and what needs to be questioned as we think about faithfulness for this time and this place.

Below you’ll find resources to dig deeper with and ideas to get you thinking.

Peace::Jon

1. Music. Your End-of-the-World Playlist on the WSJ Blog.  REM’s End of the world as we know it get’s banned for being too easy on their list.  Maybe so, but I remember vividly this song from my jr. high days as capturing the chaos and fears of everything that we going on and the mixed feelings of both anxiety and apathy.  Keep in mind that it came out just a few years before the Berlin wall came down.  Just years before The Day After was on TV showing what would happen in a nuclear war.  I remember not so much watching it as NOT being able to watch it.

2.  Write a short story or poem. Write a short story or a poem that articulates something important for you out of what we’ll be talking about in Revelation that picks up the story in the series image.  What’s happened before?  What made them leave where ever they were to brave the storm? What got them there, what stood in the way, where are they going?  We’ve talked about fear, being uncomfortably known, walking toward the darkness and evil being unmasked and known.

3.  Dig Deeper. If you want to dig deeper into Revelation either for yourself or with a group, here’s some recommendations to get started with.

Books Reversed Thunder by Eugene Peterson and Discipleship on the Edge by Darrell Johnson. Peterson approaches the book more devotionally to inspire our “praying imaginations” with the Last Word on scripture, Christ, evil ….  Discipleship of the Edge is really a series of sermons that Johnson gave.  It does a great job distilling the issues and presenting the main scriptural and historical research while also connecting to our everyday lived experience.

More on the 7 churches: I had to make a decision when looking at the series about what to include and not include. I decided to cut a detailed look at the 7 churches of Revelation 2-3, in part because there has been a lot done on this but not as much with the rest of the book. You might want to take a closer look – and I hope you do!  Here’s a place to start:  The Whole World is in His Hands: A Study of Revelation from Earl and friends.

What makes this opportunity so unique – and what we are so excited about – is that this is not about saving the world or rescuing people. This is about a group of people in one school, in one village, in one country in a world that God loves. This is about being a catalyst and an encouragement of change. It is about empowering people to be the change, and recognizing that they are changing and teaching us too.

Partners in Hope: Haiti is your invitation to a story of hope – one that connects people across generations, faith communities and nations. It’s a story that invites you to participate in God’s passionate mission of restoration for the world He loves.

I hope you have heard the story of how UPC has become attached to a village called Foison in Northwest Haiti. If you haven’t, take a minute to explore this blog.

This story is 30 years in the making, starting when UPC commissioned Bruce Robinson to be a missionary in Haiti. It picks up again in 2009 when Convergence decided to send a group of young adults to serve with Bruce and his wife Deb.

From Convergence’s involvement has sprung a partnership with one church in one village called Foison. This church runs a school with over 700 children in attendance. But they don’t have enough buildings to house them, and the ones they do have are not the most structurally sound. After the earthquake hit Port-au-Prince in 2010, this took on an entirely new level of importance.

Together, UPC and the church at Foison have created a space for God to do an amazing work. There are so many stories – little instances of God showing up to bless leaders in Foison and their community, the children, Bruce and Deb, and UPC team members alike.

In the following video, we take a quick look through numbers, videos and photos at some of the ways God has been working.

Since the last team from Convergence went to Foison and poured the floor for this new school building in April 2011, the community has been active in continuing the work. They have constructed walls and hope to have two classrooms finished for use in September.

I continue to be amazed by the people in Foison, and the passion and desire they have. A spark has been ignited in their hearts, and I am eager to see God continue a mighty work in their community.

Carly

Poverty is reinforced by isolation. But one of the gifts of participating with Bruce and Deb Robinson in building the school in Foison is that it helps us to break down that isolation. Our relationship with the Robinson provides us with a pathway to walk together with families in Haiti. As they live and share their lives with the community in Haiti, the Robinsons help us to know how to connect to the community in ways that bring dignity, respect. and meaningful, long-term benefit to children and families. The school itself will provide a gathering place for learning and education which will be an invaluable asset to the entire community for years to come.

This is more than just responding to the immediate needs that arise after a crisis. This is about helping to build the infrastructure that will create of growth, hope and vitality for children and families for generations to come. And tangibly, this year the community itself will benefit greatly through the encouragement of knowing once again that they are not alone.

Our UPC mission personnel are physical witnesses of Jesus Christ – demonstrating his love as “the Word who became flesh, and dwelt among us.” John 1:14. In standing with the Robinsons to help build this school – we get to join in their witness of the gospel.

Mike McCormick Huentelman

Hey Everyone,

We are all doing really well. We can’t believe it has almost been a week since we left. We have made some amazing progress. Last Friday when we visited the school and began work, Bruce told us our goal for the week was to lay the cement for two of the four rooms. Today, with the help of a great crew of Haitians (or more appropriately, a great crew of Haitians with the help of a few Americans), we were able to lay the floor for two of the rooms and prepare some of the third room for cement. It was a very long day of labor. We got up at 5:30am, loaded the truck, drove up and the work began. We helped scour the hillside for rocks, move gravel in buckets, tie rebar, bend rebar, measure for accuracy,fasten the forms, compress dirt, entertain a lot of children, and many other activities. We just got home at 5:45pm and are showering before dinner. We broke our record from last January and had 20 people in the land rover along with a lot of other building supplies. It is really dry here and we are all covered in dust after any time in the truck. We were all extra dirty today after working hard, sweating, and driving. We’ve attached a picture of Keith in all his dirty glory. He is on the way to a well earned shower. We are looking forward to more time at Foison working at the school. We hope to finish laying cement in all four rooms by the end of the week. Prayers would be appreciated.

We had a great Sunday worshiping at the church in Foison, lunch at Pastor Chrisbon’s (the best Hatian food ever!), and finished the night off with a Shannon coordinated “missionary fashion show” compliments of the trunks of clothes half the team had to wear until we got the second half of our bags on Sunday. It was quite entertaining.

Thanks for all your prayers, please keep praying that everything continues to go smoothly.We appreciate your support.

Much love,

Amber & Team Haiti

Picture from Bruce of the finished floor in Foison.

Below is a message that we received from Bruce Robinson on May 1, about two weeks after our team left.

I finally got up to Foison and saw the finished slab. Pretty impressive! And the people up there are really pumped about it.

Today Deb and I were able to go up to the special once a year harvest and thanksgiving service at Foison. They took the back wall out of the church and added 30 more feet of benches and the place was SRO. It was pretty neat up to the end. Then they put two chairs in front of the podium and asked if anyone who was there wanted to accept Christ as their savior. Remember they had been having meetings every night for a week and this was the big culmination. One lady and one child came forward and sat in the chairs. So they got another chair. Another child. And another chair. And another. And another and another…some teenagers, and one or two adults, but mostly children. At fourteen, I asked the Lord for one more. We kept singing more songs and people kept coming. I lost count in the 20s and one of the choirs had to vacate a bench when they ran out of chairs.

I have heard of things happening like this in Haiti but have never been present. Something special happened. I don’t know how many of the children who went forward were ones that were working with us on the floor, or you were playing soccer with, or were in the Shannon Special Team Water Hauling Brigade. Concrete floors and school buildings are really important parts of mission work… when they are part of the ministry of a church where people are coming to Christ. And the precious children. They kept coming even while we were doing the last hymn. I think probably 30 people came forward to accept Christ. I have never seen that many at one time.

We received a further update on this from Bruce a couple days later, and he said that the final tally of people who came forward to accept Christ was up to 40!

God is moving and working in Foison!

Beginning construction on the school in the village of Foison has truly been a miracle. Currently, there is a strong foundation for the new school building in Foison. This is a direct result of the partnership of UPC’s children and the community of Foison. Last year, all of the children at UPC learned about Haiti and the work of Bruce and Deb Robinson. The kids prayed for Bruce and Deb as well as the Haitian people and communities. They also collected their change to put towards the foundation of the new school building in Foison. These kids believe that there is a reason for hope in Haiti and in their own lives. They have shown this by investing their prayers and money into a partnership with their peers in Haiti.

I was able to see the impact of our kids’ on our missionaries, partners, and the children of Foison. When Bruce, Deb, and local Haitian pastors heard that the money given for the foundation came from children and in the form of coins, they were amazed. This news seemed to inspire the community. The news of our kid’s prayers and offering ignited the community of Foison. People of every age came out to help contribute to the building process: old women hauled rocks for concrete, young kids brought water, men moved boulders and dug holes. It was beautiful to see. As of now, the foundation has been laid. A strong foundation. With your help, together with the community of Foison, we can finish pouring the floor, building up the walls, and putting on a roof.

Amber Evanson

Getting started off  right.  The New Year is one of those times built into the collective conscience to evaluate, reset and focus.  What did we get after?  What got after us?  Where did we go astray.  Despite our best intentions, our surest clarity and our solemn resolve life has a way of distracting and complicating things.  More than resolve, I often find myself longing to get back to basics, simplify from all the clutter and complication that easily and often unnecessarily steals my joy and focus.  It’s in that vein that I’m looking forward to kicking off the year with a series that draws us as a community back to the basics that bring clarity and focus for us as we seek to navigate faithfully and joyfully this year

Tonight Dave Lutz starts things off by asking where to start When I can’t find God. 

Haiti 2012. It’s also that time when we look forward to heading back to Haiti.  If you have never been I want to challenge you to think about it, especially as you start off a new year.  A trip to Haiti is always about two investments – investment in 30 years of amazing ministry to the people of NW Haiti and investment in your own journey of faith as you place yourself in a context to see God, yourself and others in a new way.  Regardless of whether you can go, here’s how you can partner in hope:

1. Pray for the team, whether you or someone you know should go.

2. Pray for the $6000 needed to finish the building.  If you’re interested in giving: online giving will be set up soon and building fund for the school in Foison has been approved under Partners in Hope for matching funds from Microsoft.

March 18-28. Applications due in January.

Looking forward to seeing you soon if not tonight!

Peace :: Jon

As I’ve taken a back seat at Convergence this Advent, I’ve  had the opportunity to be surprised as I’ve listened to George and Brenna work through well worn Christmas texts.  I love Brenna’s insight that so often we act as if we need to find God, significance, meaning, love when Christmas really is about God finding us – John 1 reminds us of that.  We might have been looking, but we missed the very thing we were looking for.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

The truth that God finds us doesn’t mean we just make our way passively through life because, “Well, it’s all God anyway and not about us!”  What it does is change the work.  Sitting with the pastoral team looking at Luke’s passages on Mary and Zechariah, I was surprised anew how so often when God shows up, the message begins with Do not be afraid. 

Found Afraid: If it was just the characters that surrounded the manger that needed to hear, fear not, then fair enough.  The surprise came as my mind wandered throughout scripture from Genesis to Revelation and realized how often when the word of God comes, it causes fear.  It’s not just fear from flaming angels or visions of the risen Christ.  I wonder if it isn’t the fear of actually entering into life beyond the small boundaries of our own control, understanding, comfort or power. 

Fear not Abraham – I will do through you what you can’t image for yourself

Fear not Moses – You will be the leader that you could never by on your own.

Fear not Joseph, Mary and Zechariah – God will powerfully work through you in ways you never imagined.

Fear not John – I am actually in the midst of the churches you care for so deeply and I hold the keys of hell.

Do not be afraid?  It all leads me to remember that often when I’ve seen God work powerfully in my life it’s not been when I’ve acted from the place of convenience, comfort and confidence but from the other side of fear.  It’s the place beyond my control.  The place of  risk empowered by the words Don’t be afraid.  The place of promise and hope. 

The place where I follow Mary by saying, I don’t know how but I’m in.

Peace :: Jon

Financial Peace University (FPU) is a video series shown in many churches around the World and around 1.5 million families have attended. Dave Ramsey takes you down the path to becoming debt free and becoming financially stable.

Many of you may remember the Financial Foundations class that we did last winter with Paul and Becky of the financial counseling team. I received rave reviews regarding the class and so many people told me they learned invaluable information. Paul and Becky facilitated FPU before moving to Austin and it has been a well-received course at UPC. I will now be taking over this job along with the assistance of the financial counseling team.

The course runs Thursdays (7-9 pm) from January 5^th – March 29^th.

There is a $99 charge for the course, but some scholarships are available.

As many of you know, I am extremely passionate about helping others overcome money woes and learning steps to financial stability. I see money as a taboo topic that we somehow expect everyone to magically understand in an increasingly complex financial system. I know that I still have so much to learn regarding money, and I am eager to help share what I have already learned and what I am currently learning. It is an incredibly freeing feeling to know that you have the resources to give generously to others, and I hope that is something that everyone can experience.

I hope that you can join us. Everyone I have spoken to who has completed the course has been completely satisfied with the experience. The deadline to register is December 18^th and you can do so by contacting Sue Bayouth sueb@upc.org. I have also copied the topics for the course below.

Irvin MacQuarrie

Super Saving: Dave explains the Seven Baby Steps that will guide you throughout Financial Peace University. You will also learn the three key reasons why you should save money—and why you must start now!

Relating With Money: Learn why it’s important for spouses to communicate and work together toward success. Also, singles will learn the importance of teamwork, and parents will find out how to teach their kids about money.

Cash Flow Planning: Unlock the secret of developing a monthly spending plan that really works.

Dumping Debt: It’s time to debunk some common debt myths! Dave reveals the truth about credit lies and gives you a plan to walk out of debt with confidence.

Credit Sharks In Suits:  What is a credit score, anyway? Join Dave as he unpacks your credit rating and shows you how to handle collectors when they call.

Buyer Beware:  Dave Ramsey draws on decades of experience to reveal the power and influence that marketing has on your everyday buying decisions. Let the buyer beware!

Clause and Effect:  In this lesson, Dave walks you through the world of insurance, carefully explaining what you need—and what you need to avoid.

That’s Not Good Enough!  Discover the seldom-used secrets of buying only big, big bargains—every time! Before you know it, you’ll be saying, “That’s not good enough!”

Of Mice and Mutual Funds:  Dave breaks through the jargon surrounding long-term investing and empowers you to make your own decisions about your investments!

From Fruition To Tuition:  Dave walks you through the maze of retirement options and helps you figure out the right path for you. You will also learn how to plan for college so your kids can graduate debt free!

Working In Your Strengths:  This lesson will show you how to avoid dead-end or mind-numbing jobs and provide tips for job hunting, writing a résumé, and acing an interview. Plus, you’ll learn tips for finding extra jobs if you need cash to attack your debt snowball.

Real Estate and Mortgages:  Dave draws on over 20 years of real estate experience to teach you how to win when buying or selling your home. Plus, he’ll dissect all of the common mortgage options available today, showing you what to choose—and what to avoid.

The Great Misunderstanding:  Warning! This lesson will challenge the way you think about money. Dave will show you how generous giving can completely revolutionize your attitude and improve your finances, business and relationships.

Here’s my best shot at boiling down the message and key questions for us today:

1. Do not be afraid—Focus your attention on the God who is worthy of your trust and able to do more than you can ask or imagine. Live courageously, faithfully and with integrity even when you might lose in the short term.

2. Have eyes to see what is real.See the difference between what is authentic, beautiful, and admirable and what is a glittering, impressive, intimidating yet actually a cheap imitation at best and full of death at worst.

3. Live a Bible sized vision.

· Live like what you do matters and trust in the accountability and justice of God.

· Invest your life in moving toward an expansive, intimate, creative vision of the good future that God will bring to fulfillment.

· Participate today in God’s creative, unstoppable sacrificial work of restoration as you follow the way of Jesus. Transformation starts with your own life but never ends there.

Questions to consider:

1. Where do you find yourself in the long slow fade?Anxious, threatened, bored, addicted, heartbroken, angry, broken, hollow, frenzied, hard, manipulated and manipulating, confused, hanging by a thread?

2. What’s your vision of hope?Answer this question, “Revelation 20-22 inspires me to dream of a day when…”

3. My next step from chaos to hope is… If you can note honestly where you are and dare to allow yourself to dream bible sized visions, you have a path. Read through the gospels, read through Rev. 21-22 for a week, start to ask where my anxiety comes from, start praying for a relationship, take a risk, start serving…

John Wagner took up that challenge.  When I discovered that he had background, training and a passion for creative writing, especially for movies – I challenged him to write a short story out of what we talked about throughout the series.  The result is Lost Journey.

I read a section as part of our final evening in Apocalypse (and didn’t do it the justice it deserved).  Lost Journey gives an articulation similar to Scott Burnett’s painting – one that opens our eyes to see hope and freedom in the midst of failure and the bondage of sin.

The question isn’t if there’s hope or not, but if we’re willing to receive what Love has to offer and leave the very path that has broken our hearts.

I hope you’ll take a moment to open the PDF attached and read Lost Journey.

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for John and a community that continues to give me fresh inspiration and evidence of the goodness of God for my daily journey that often feels messier than I would like.

Peace :: Jon

Truth 1 – When Jesus rose from the dead something decisive and history changing happened.  The future in which humanity’s greatest threat – death – was beat down.  Jesus went into the belly of the beast and let evil do it’s very worst and then walked out of hell with the keys.  All things began to be reconciled – starting with you and me (Colossians 1).

Truth 2 – Though that work has begun, it is not complete.  As the analogy goes – the war might be over but we are still behind enemy lines where we live in places of violence, fear, famine, personal and societal domination, disease, fragmented identities, sexual dysfunction and broken hearts.  We still live, work and interact with caricatures of what is true, beautiful and holy (dragons, beasts and whores) that demand our allegiance even as their masks slip and their makeup streaks. 

Hope – The work that has begun will be completed.  Our future is secure.  The way of the Lamb will prevail.  Evil will have to give account.  Heaven is coming to earth to release all that was started in the Garden yet unfulfilled.  We will look into the face of God as our tears are wiped away.

Our daily question:  How do we humbly walk with hope toward God’s future in which all will be set right and made new when our daily experience often feels complicated, compromised and difficult?  The truth is that its often easy to live with our eyes focused on the power and reality that crucified Christ because right now it just seems to work. 

As I reflect on Revelation 21 & 22 and the observations of others mentioned here, I am struck by 3 things that have profound implications on the trajectory of our discipleship today.

When you read Revelation 21-22, how are you inspired and challenged?  Your answer reveals the hope you have to share.  If we are to share hope in Jesus Christ (the central call of God’s people) we need to inspire each other through articulations of the goodness, vibrancy and availability of God’s love in Jesus Christ.  Got a story, image, picture or dream?  Email to me an I’ll post it. 

Before we can inspire each other toward good work we have to inspire each other to extravagant hope.

Peace :: Jon 

Kingdom Policy Values

Future Implications

Have you read Revelation 21-22 and let it shape your vision?

St. John gives us a vision of heaven, for if we have not vision of heaven, we will almost certainly be leveled to a monochrome existence – colorless do-gooders who see everything in terms of black and white, whose lives are drab with moral drudgery.  But the life of grace and the love of Christ are nothing if not extravagant.  There is an excess of reality beyond anything that we have not yet experienced; not only light, but light refracted into twelve colors.  The extravagance streams out of heaven in a kaleidoscopic blaze of color and illuminates the steps of our pilgrimage…  In light we see not only objects, but … their dazzling, light-charged beauty.  

Reversed Thunder, 179-180

Much of what determines which one we have is determined by our vision of the future – what’s the vision guiding you?

To be human is to dream.  Articulating that dream might always be that easy in a world where it feels foolish to dream after the collapse of optimistic visions of the the 1950s.  Just in the last week reports have come out that the world is not as bright and beautiful as it was predicted to be – especially for 20s and 30s.  The earning power, income discrepancy and job prospects are making the social dream of every generation being better off than it’s parents looking pretty bleak.  Home ownership for Generation X has turned out to look more like a losing proposition.  Add to that a bewildering number of options, images, narrative that promise instant success and it gets difficult to articulate what is perhaps the most personal and intimate of all questions.  What’s your dream of the future?

My sense is that we can begin articulating what our vision is by by asking two questions:

1.  Who, when or where does someone say, “Enough!”  This is the question of justice.  Who says “no, enough, stop” to the violence that has destroyed families, to the greed that has destroyed communities, to the manipulations that has devastated relationships.  When will there be an accounting?  Everyone has to answer that question in some regard and the answer will depend how we approach the sin (whether you call it that or not) in ourselves and in the world.

2.  What is the good life?  What does beautiful, true, right, whole, complete, significant look like?  How we answer depends on what we invest in, what we move toward what we are willing to sacrifice for. 

I’ve found that lots of people nod at that idea of heaven, which is a way to talk about a vision of hope for the future, but often have little to say about it beyond harps, tunnels and lights.  What is true is that we haven’t seen heaven and so can’t definitively say what it looks like.  We do have visions in scripture though that seems to rarely be talked about.  They might be symbolic – but they can tell us a lot about the hope that we do have.

To jumpstart sanctified imaginations, I’m going to post some distillations of observations by folks who dared to dream not based on what they want but based on what scripture actually says.

Peace :: Jon

Dreams, imagination and vision are not the realm simply of religious thought but of business, politics, economics, technology and often even the sciences.  All can declare a vision of the future that informs risks that we take today.  What’s might be surprising is that we often quite passively pick up these dreams without understand what their influence upon us.  Here’s some examples:

• Steve Jobs talked about iPhones and iPads as being magical and transforming the way you live.  One only need to look at 1950s era future of technology movies to see how this has informed the American imagination before.
• We listen for indicators that paint a vision of the future to help us determine whether we buy a house or not.  It’s not enough that we have a job or that mortgage rates are the lowest in decades if not ever.
• Politicians paint a vision of the future in hopes that you will place your trust in them and give a small token of your faithfulness in the form of a vote.

To dream is to be human. The fact that business, economics and politics intentionally influence our dreams and imagination doesn’t mean that they are doing something wrong.  The question is not whether we dream but whether that vision is reliable – able to deliver on it’s embedded promise, informed and leading to us toward God/life.

What’s your dream of the future?

As followers of Jesus, it’s not a rhetorical question to ask whether or not our own personal and communal dreams are truly informed, inspired and challenged by what scripture has to say.  The more we understand the vision revealed to us in scripture, the more we understand the hope to which we are called.   I asked George Hinman for his reflections on what Revelation 21-22 might have to say to us today.

When you read chapters 21-22 of Revelation – what inspires or challenges you?

Peace :: Jon

The challenge with Revelation of course is that it speaks in a language that we don’t always comprehend at first glance.  It speaks to us in parables – on steroids.  To our questions come not a punch list of things to do but images and stories that bring clarity.  As a way to summarize where we’ve been, here’s a list of questions that have been addressed.

1. What’s your view of Jesus and is it able to contend with the flood of images that dominate/inform/and drive your imagination, desires and values? 
2. Does Jesus know me, really know me, the world I have to live in, and the pressures I have to deal with?
3. Who is worthy of my trust?  Who can hold the the often contradictory facts of my life and help make sense of them?
4. Who can stand in a world that can feel daunting, chaotic, evil or just soul sucking mundane?
5. What should I do to stand and make my way with significance in life?
6. What’s is the actual work of being a follower of Jesus beyond going to church on Sunday?  Does it have anything to do with Monday- Saturday?
7. What is real and truly impressive?  What’s worth suffering for?
8. Who am I/we becoming? 
9. What’s the vision of my future that’s informing the trajectory of my life today?

As Ron has shared throughout the series, the message of Revelation would not have been confusing to the original listeners, they might have liked what they heard.  That’s not that surprising though when it comes to big questions.  Our ability to ask and wrestle with the big question throughout our life determines though what kind of hope we live and have to share.

Apocalypse is about revealing hope, audacious, bold, beautiful, Technicolor hope.

May that hope mark us.

Peace :: Jon

The answer comes in the parable of the Church’s mission found in chapter 11 – the work of witness in the great tradition of Moses and Elijah.  For many the work of witness needs some expanding – so we’ve heard from Denzel in Book of Eli and Darrel Guder.  One last thought to help us expand our imagination of how witness and calling intersect- extravagantly hopeful. 

We’ve already seen that hope at work in chapter 1, 4, 5, and 7.  If you make it past the 4 horsemen, hang in there and ride out the beasts while waving at the great whore of Babylon there is a pretty amazing vision of the end.  A vision not of death and destruction but of life – abundant.  Symbolism?  For sure.  But a vision that too often doesn’t even get so much as a mention. 

I asked Ken Kierstead, head of missions at UPC to dream a little bit out of some of the passages that we do have in the Bible that speak about the future – passages such as Revelation 21-22 or in his case Isaiah 65. 

There are 2 classes sponsored by the Ideas & the Arts Task Force that are coming up:  Land Reform by Roy Prosterman and Ethics, Business, and the Bottom Billion of the World’s Population by Dr. Kenman Wong.  My question is this, “Who cares?”  Apparently God does and so should we.

Our witness will always be to enter into the reality of God’s love in Jesus Christ – personally and spiritually – to say yes to Jesus as Lord and Savior.  That’s where it starts.  It’s just not where it ends.

May our witness be extravagantly hopeful!

Peace :: Jon

Darrell Guder has spent much of his career studying the identity of the church, what’s formed and deformed  it and what needs to be rediscovered.  At the very center of the church’s mission is a witness.

What have you experienced that makes the evidence that someone has presented you about God’s power and presence credible.  As I’ve thought about it, three things seem important.

1.  Connection.  Something carries more weight when it comes from two or more sources who have a direct connection to the thing at hand.  When you hear or see something coming from more than one person it leads to that credibility that this is more than just an isolated incident.  It’s why the witness of a community is so important.  Direct and I would say relational connection to the thing at hand tells you that someone isn’t just spouting off either Strawberry Shortcake platitudes or easy judgments.  When studying this with a group of people, one mentioned the sad incident of blaming the earthquake in Haiti on Satan worship.  Could misplaced worship have a negative effect on the people of Haiti?  Sure.  Blaming it for an earthquake on an island sitting on top of a massive fault strains credibility.

2.  Adrenaline.  Witness that is informed and arises out of connection might help us give better witness, but it doesn’t make it easy.  More often than not, there will be a thumping heart and sweaty hands.  At a basic level, we’re all social creatures and no one likes to stand out whether it’s not joining a hate fest or popping someone’s bubble.  The parable from chapter 11 includes the witnesses being killed.  That’s just honest – some times there’s a price to pay – often simply the price of standing out.  You can’t live big and do good though with a couch potato heart rate.

3.  Honest.  The most honest thing we can say often includes a yes and no.  The world and the churches we worship in for that matter are filled with good and bad.  If you don’t really know the gospel story though, it’s easier to just say that they are bad and we are good – whoever they and we happen to be.  What can you affirm and call out as marks of the kingdom of God and what can you call out as simply fear?

As Darrell said, it’s not a question of whether we will be witnesses or not, but whether our witness is any good or not.  This week may our lives present a credible witness to the love, goodness and power of God.

Peace :: Jon

What do you think of that term witness?  What does it mean, entail and include?  My sense is that that for many of us the idea has been reduced to a very narrow understanding left up to a very few very religious figures – either by inclination or profession.  If we are to understand our calling as God’s people both as a community and individuals we need to expand our imagination.

As far as movies that fall into that post-apocalyptic genre, The Book of Eli is one of my favorites.  It’s post nuclear war and life is brutal and mean.  People barely scrape by to find basics and things like a travel size bottle of shampoo is a luxury.  Order is kept only by strong men who impose their will through violence.  The hero

is a “walker”who somehow is able to travel unharmed and carries a kind of intriguing quiet strength.  Yes he can wield a machete like a ninja master but the hinge of the movies comes at the unveiling of a power shown here.  The female character has been sent in for the pleasure and manipulation this strange walker into the service of the strongman. 

Actually Possible.  Until this point in the movie all she has seen is that brutality wins, people are to be used and/or thrown away the moment they get between you and anything you want and the world is full of scarcity. Then she experiences something else that pulls back the curtain on a life that she never even knew was possible.  When we bear witness to the gospel we demonstrate and speak of the love, truth and power of God as demonstrated in Jesus Christ. 

Question.  When was a time that you saw or heard through another that there were options possible that you never considered because of Jesus Christ.  You might not have even known at first that the person or group were Christian – you just noticed a different way.

Challenge:  What are the ways in the spheres of influence that you see that either point to God’s love and truth or point away?  Pray that Jesus would reveal how he is calling you this week to give evidence where you are that there is another reality at work in the world.

Our imagination and courage grows as we hear examples – I’d love to hear yours!  When did God get your attention and show you that another way was possible?  Leave a comment below or email me at JEpps@upc.org.

Peace :: Jon

I’m actually more concerned about something else – Revelation being taken away from the majority of Christians.  Of course I don’t mean actually taken away – we can all read it whenever we want- but taken away in the sense that it doesn’t have anything to say to us.  It’s the book of Hollywood horror and post apocalyptic action flicks.  It’s the book of never fulfilled predictions that the world is going to end tomorrow…maybe… in a spiritual way that no one will ever be able to see.

Closer to my heart still are the deduced implications for following Jesus.  Recent news affirms the long history of  sincere yet tragic response of those who have sought to be faithful the message of Revelation – they quit their jobs to spread the message of coming wrath and gave away their savings for the sake of the mission.  It’s always a minority to be sure yet sadly illustrative of a wider disengagement either from what the book actually has to say about following Jesus or misinterpretation that leads to disengagement of society.  In both cases – discipleship stunted.

This week Ron Herms helped unpack was is for sure a daunting chapter in part because it’s packed with so much OT imagery.  At the end of the day it’s about the witness of God’s people the church in the world, which is really about the church’s mission in the world which is about giving evidence to the world that Jesus is Lord, the Kingdom is at hand and his love is the truest thing we can know. 

Ron broke all that was packed into chapter 11 into 4 basic things that we are told about our calling as followers of Jesus as it relates to witness:

1.  It’s about representing God

2.  It’s always effective

3.  We will at times suffer hostility

4.  The message of the gospel will be vindicated. 

Witness isn’t something for someone else to do, it’s something for all of us because there isn’t a single corner of the world where God’s message of restoration isn’t needed.

My prayer is that Revelation becomes your book because what ever anyone else does with it – it’s calling you and I to being people who fearlessly walk in hope.

Peace :: Jon

Just a reminder that the deadline for signing up for the 2011 Fall Retreat is coming fast, as in this Tuesday is the very latest you can sign up! You do not want to miss out on Dave Lutz as he talks about what Authentic Belonging looks like, on the amazing display of talent from our community members, the friendships that grow from the small groups, or all of the awesome inside jokes we will come back with! Register online or with Brenna no later than Tuesday night.

Pain & hope.  Beauty and brokenness.  Creation bursting into life and sin infecting with death. 

Part of what it means to be God’s people is to stand in the tension and articulate both difficulty and the hope.  What is really real at any given time encompasses both.

Ron presented us with 3 questions at the end of last week.  How would you answer?

1.  how do features / elements of the 4 horsemen operate in our world?

2.  what does faithful, creative, redemptive, fearless engagement look like when “naming these powers”?

3.  how can art, music, film, social action all be employed with these kingdom aims in mind?

If you missed Ron’s explanation, check out the podcast.  There are also other ideas & resources under Pulling back the Curtain page found under Content//Media above.

I found my way alone to this cabin, driving for hours, getting lost, asking myself those same questions over and over again. “I never should have come” was my last thought as I slung my overnight bag over my shoulder and trudged up to the door. The parking lot was still relatively empty, ” maybe they changed the time?” I wondered out loud.

I walked up the stairs, nervous, hoping against hope I wasn’t somehow the first person there. As I reached up to knock the door swung open and light and warmth poured into the darkness. A face appeared, kind and welcoming “welcome, we have been waiting for you. We are so glad you are here!” Before I knew what had happened my stuff was being picked up and put into a room, I was pulled into a game of Apples to Apples which spontaneously turned into a dance party. One by one more women began to appear, some with a sense of ease and familiarity that comes from being well established in a community of people , others, like me, who were new, full of questions and fears.

Over the next two days I met more people than I can really remember. We laughed, cried, cooked, played, had pajama dance parties, sang karaoke, and worshiped together. My fears began to melt away, I began to feel like I had some solid footing for the first time since starting to attend Convergence a few weeks earlier. Some of those women from that first retreat have become my closest friends. I have stood up in their weddings, held their hands through loss, clung to them in an earthquake in Haiti, painted houses with them in New Orleans, road tripped across the country with them, lived with them in houses and apartments, worked with them, worshiped the God of the universe with them.

Those 2 days changed my life. A group of us prayed that weekend for stronger friendships, having no idea what the Lord would plan and set in motion that would change all of our lives as we knew them.

There is something special about a retreat. When we take the time to pull back, to give up our time and freewill to simply be with others and God, we open a door to transformation. For those of us that are new, a retreat, especially Fall Retreat, is a chance to make those connections, to get plugged in, to start to discover our role in a new community. For those of us that have been around awhile it is a chance to welcome other people, to remind ourselves what it is like to be new to a community and to be thankful for what we have been given. Fall Retreat is a chance to remember why you became part of this community to begin with, to check in and see what role you are being called to as you continue forward with Convergence.

That first retreat with Convergence changed my life. Without it, I don’t think I would be working here today and having the privilege of getting to know each of you. So take a risk and sign up. Open your life up to God and all of His infinite possibilities. You may be surprised at what happens.

~ Brenna

Steve presented the way forward in 3 questions combined with 3 prayers:

1.  What do you see? Father, open my eyes to help me see what you see!

2.  What’s in your hand?  Lord Jesus, let my heart break for the things that break your heart!

3.  What will you do to make the party better?  Holy Spirit, help me not to duck!

This morning I stayed home with the boys as Shannon had an all morning committee meeting knowing that I would be coming in later tonight.  The boys and I got together read through a few bible stories, worked on that most basic of memory verses, John 3:16, and then went outside for a walk (I have boys and if you don’t walk ‘em you pay for it!).  Then it it me – family worship wasn’t over – “Hey duders, come here!”  “On our walk/scooter/bike ride up, look around for something awesome in our neighborhood that we can be thankful for.” 

Caleb was first – “Mine’s blackberries, look!”  “Great, let’s taste one, blackberries are awesome,” I responded.

Noah was a pretty quick second, “Mine’s neighbors.”  Noah’s always good for the lay up – we are walking through our neighborhood.  It’s true though, we have awesome neighbors that we love.  Noah scored some extra points by reflecting that we haven’t seen the neighbors across the way in a while.

We arrived at our local school and I was on the hook – “Mine’s our awesome school – it’s close, it’s got awesome teachers and it has the great playground and open area for riding bikes.”

We were talking about the great things in our neighborhood and praying for blessing on them when the boys decided that today was the day that the training wheels needed to come off for Caleb.  Noah had lots of instruction and Caleb was game –let’s do it – take them off! 

The question was to me and I have to admit to a lame series of thoughts – it’s going to take work to take the wheels off, we have to go all the way back to the house and then back, I’m going to have to run with Caleb and I’m tired, I’m not sure he’s even ready.  Pretty sure that would be the definition of “ducking”, so we went back.

It struck me that in a simple walk perhaps we had bumped into what Steve had talked about yesterday through a series of pretty simple spiritual disciplines.  It struck me even more that our little communal experience of gratitude lead directly into an excitement to try something that had never been done before and might not even be possible. 

Peace:: Jon

Perhaps this feels too simplistic, but that’s the point.  Apocalypse as a genre of literature let alone an idea has picked up such a powerful connotation in culture it becomes incredibly difficult to hear the powerful message that a book like Revelation has to say to us.  Instead of hearing the message that the risen Jesus Christ has for us today we become alternatively morbidly fascinated by visions of death and repelled into apathy at strange use of language that we rarely see elsewhere in Scripture.

The other day I was thinking of the description “post apocalyptic” as applied to today especially to movies.  When flipping through movie options on a weekend, you can usually tell what kind of movie fits into the general category of post apocalyptic even if the words aren’t used.  You know that you’re going to be watching some sort of dystopian view of the future that chronicles the horrible experience of people trying to survive if not regain some humanity after a catastrophic event such as nuclear war, pandemic, asteroid, robot rebellion or natural disaster. 

Hang with me here, in general you are invited into a story where things were good, something bad happened either by human hubris or outside disaster that leads to dehumanized life, death, violence with a dose of zombies or robots if you’re lucky.  As a side note, interesting that this kind of story has only increased as humankind has developed technologically.

Playing with this idea, what’s the trajectory you see in the Book of Revelation?  What’s at the end?  Even without any biblical or cultural background what you read in Revelation 21-22 speaks of a very different reality.  Not of despair, chaos, death and culture being send backwards but of hope.  Consider this quick list of descriptions of the future:

• No chaos
• No tears, death, mourning, crying and pain
• No behaviors inconsistent with those who fully bear the image of God. Cowardly, unbelieving…murders, immoral…
• No curse
• No closed gates to keep out enemies
• No temple – because the city itself will be the temple and God’s presence and glory will fill and radiate through everything in which we find…
  • People from all the earth
  • Culture and creativity
  • New creation, not floating in the clouds
  • Life that thriving

Post Apocalyptic?  If that’s starts to describe what it will look like – then sure!  There’s no doubt that post apocalyptic moves make sure an interesting story and get the adrenaline going.  It’s past time though that we expand our vision and sanctified imagination to what informs a life of courageous hope in a world full of enough pain already.

Peace :: Jon

In a world where connotations around apocalypse usually involve strange visions that leave one confused or zombies that have you running for a shot gun we need to expand our idea of what this is all about.  Perhaps one story that has nothing to do with the Book Revelation might help.

In Acts chapter 9, we pick up on the story of a certain Saul who was on rampage against the followers of the Way.  These followers of Jesus were deemed a threat and Saul felt it was his duty to use whatever means he could to wipe them out.  That was until he experienced and apocalypse.

In a very basic sense, apocalypse means to see in a new way – a pulling back of the curtain on the stage of life to see what is really real.  Think of Dorothy at the end of the Wizard of Oz when she discovers that The Great and Terrible Wizard is just a man behind the curtain who would very much rather you not know what is really real.  He is actually not great and powerful wizard but a good man trapped in a bad situation.

Traveling on the road to Damascus with orders in hand, Paul experiences a kind of a apocalypse.  The curtain is pulled back and he discovers that he is actions are actually having the opposite effect of what he intended.  He has an “aha” moment in which he sees what he could not before – one so powerful that it will change the trajectory of his life forever.

What’s the effect though of such an experience of seeing the risen Christ in a new way?  Ananias, a follower of Jesus who will soon be profoundly tied to Paul, shows us something remarkable.  In a vision, Ananias is instructed to go to a certain house and pray for Saul. On the face of it – a simple task.  Yet in a clear demonstration of the kind of refreshing honesty that we see throughout scripture – Ananias raises his hand to just double on the task at hand.  “Just checking, Lord, are we talking about the same guy who has it out for your followers with a vengeance?”  Yup!  Next you see the effect of a true apocalypse in a biblical sense – Ananias goes to the house, calls the enemy of the church “brother” and prays for him.  Did you catch that?  When we understand apocalypse in a biblical sense, we should be looking for the effect of people who stand when others run in fear and at times even walk toward enemies with the embrace of brother and sister.

Years later, Saul now with the new name of Paul, would write under house arrest with an almost giddy and weird sense of joy as he drops throw away lines that the that “All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household (Phil. 4.22).”  Those guards who are part of holding Paul, who are connected to the most powerful external threat to the early church, are now brothers and sisters.  The effect of seeing the risen Christ for who he really is and seeing the reality of the world around isn’t fear, paralysis, apathy or anger but unbelievable redemptive courage that turns enemies into brothers.

One final note: Ananias gives us a great example of what it means to release God’s future today. It was a simple act – yet one that took courage and involved risk.  He didn’t control the past, he didn’t control the future but he played a vital role in releasing God’s future today for when he had prayed for Saul, his eyes were opened and a new Paul was released to proclaim the good news of Jesus in a way that no one would have ever imagined.

What’s your image of Jesus and what effect does it have on the trajectory of your life?

May the curtain be pulled back for all of us that we would see with new eyes what God is doing in, through and around us right now.

Peace :: Jon

In particular, mark your calendars for:

• Convergence Fall Retreat at the Mt. Baker Chalet.  10/21-23.  Dave Lutz will be bringing the word as our speaker for the weekend.
• Leadership Forum with Steve Hayner.  9/24, 8-11 am.  Currently President of Columbia Theological Seminary, Steve has worked at SPU, lead UMIn here at UPC and headed up InterVarsity, USA.  With a life time of connecting timeless truths of scripture with emerging cultures, Steve will be talking about connecting our leadership to what God is doing in this moment of history.  Where ever your place is, this will be a great opportunity to connect with all ages to consider how Philippians 3 guides us as we walk into new territory.
• Convergence fall kickoff.  9/13, 7:30 pm. 

This fall we will be taking on the Book of Revelation in a series called Apocalypse.  Ron Herms, professor of Biblical & Theological Studies at Northwest University will be joining me along with a host of others to take on a book that can often be misunderstood, intimidating or just plain confusing.  It’s rich imagery actually communicates an incredibly important message not just about where things are headed, but about what matters right now and the risen Christ who has defeated even death who walks in the midst of all we face today.  It’s fundamentally a book about hope that inspires a life of courage and integrity.

Hope you have a great week and hope to see you next Tuesday!

Peace :: Jon

1.  We actually remember what they are.  (I know, rocket science stuff)

2.  We have some sort of tangible vision for what they mean and would look like on the ground.

So that’s we we are doing – taking time to remember, explain, fill out and dream about what might God have in store for this particular community of people.  Here’s the basics….

Vision:  Release God’s future today. We seek to play our role in helping 20s and 30s set a trajectory for their lives in which they both experience the fullness of God’s power in their lives personally as well as in the influence of blessing that God has called them exercise in life. 

Getting more specific:  Playing our role means providing opportunities for:

>Faith to deepen and expand to meet and inform current reality.

>A kingdom vision to be developed for all of life and insight into the unique roles that each person is gifted to play in God’s grand mission.

>Brothers and sisters to walk with who will encourage, challenge and pick you up when you fall.  You can’t play a team sport alone.

Some things year to year look the same – some change – some get reimagined.  I hope you’ll be praying with me for what it means for us to respond to God’s power and presence this year.

Peace:: Jon

Two experiences recently have captured my attention – not on the importance of the young – but of the old.  Let me explain.

Joy and Sorrow

On July 21st, Shannon and I had a quiet day to ourselves to celebrate 11 years of marriage.  The sweetness was broken early in the morning with sad news via email that Dick Myers had died that very morning.  In our moment of joy-sadness.  Not six months early I had lost another beloved brother to cancer – Connie Jacobson.  In my sorrow, joy came bursting through as I shared with my three year old about the man who showed me Jesus.   Before I knew it, I found myself praying with Caleb hand in hand on the front room floor for Jesus to come into his life. 

I’m happy to report that after 11 years, seminary, living in a foreign country, unemployment, two kids and a host of other dark and mundane moments – we still kind of like each other!  Dick and Jan Myers have part to play in that.  It was Dick and Jan that hosted Shannon as a UMin intern and showed a kid from a broken home what a great marriage looks like up close.  It was Dick and Jan that welcomed in another intern from the Bellingham INN who drove down on weekends to see about a girl.  It was Dick and Jan who would be part of our formal wedding pictures and continue to bless us throughout the years.

Two deaths in less than six months right on top of moments of great joy.  What’s going on?  Irony in a broken and cruel world?  Simply the way it is – death and life crammed uncomfortably together? 

Releasing the future

My connection to each of these men isn’t accidental but the result of their investment in me.  It was their love, interest, generosity, vulnerability, hope for the future fostered by a life time of being a student and most importantly a passionate and authentic love for Jesus that the Holy Spirit used to release God’s future in my own life. 

I’ve come to articulate the mission of Convergence as that of releasing God’s future today.

My understanding of what it means to be a pastor, father, husband and leader in an ever changing culture has been profoundly shaped by those older men and women who have walked before me and made it part of their mission in life to cheer me on.  They’ve modeled, instructed, listened, trusted and believed in me when I didn’t always believe in myself. 

They taught me to drive, threw me the keys and told me that I’d do great.

I chose the world release to talk about the approach to ministry with 20s and 30s because it captures both how hard and easy it is.  Hard because it involves letting go, risking and trusting.  Easy because well, often its really easy.  Here’s some examples:

>Ray Moore, UPC pastor since the dawn of time, noticing that new staff member who can’t figure which room the worship planning meeting is and helping them get settled.

>Mary Anne Hagen going to wrap presents in Renton with a bunch of 20s to bless families financially squeezed and having a blast doing so.

>Mentors who marvel at the junk that 20s face today as well as the inspiring tenacity at which they seek to live out their faith.

>Kind words of encouragement from those who have been around UPC for many decades to young pastors and leaders seeking to be faithful.

>Countless people who have opened their homes, shared their resources and given of themselves simply to say you’re welcome here at UPC and we believe in what God is doing in you.

Eight months into leading a discipleship group of three guys through Convergence, Dick got the diagnosis.  My immediate response was that he could stop leading tomorrow.  His was to hang in there and see.  That group continued long after the end of the year right up until Dick’s death.  Dick’s final gift perhaps was his vulnerability – an open life for the next generation to see what generosity, joy, true investment and hope in Christ really look like.  It was a gift that allowed them to bless him in return.

Our future isn’t just about the young who are rising to leadership but the old who stand in a place to release and shape God’s very best in them.

Peace :: Jon

Where do you see God at work in your life, your work, your organization or right here at UPC? What’s your or our call to more?
It’s one thing to talk about what get’s in the way of calling, it’s another to call out hope.
Reply and leave a prayer below for yourself and for others.

Peace::Jon

⁵ The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶ And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷ So if you worship me, it will all be yours." ⁸ Jesus answered, "It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’"  Luke 4:5-8

If only I could remove…

The power of entitlement is perhaps the greatest of temptations for it seems so right.  It’s logical.  It’s just.  It’s our duty.  It’s also leads to madness.

Gene Edwards delved into the narrative of David and Saul as a way to make sense of a growing number of letters that all pointed in one direction – devastation felt by Christians at the hand of authoritarian movements in leadership.  In A tale of Three Kings he illustrates that Saul had been set apart as king but had also been driven mad.

To read of Saul is to read of madness that arises from entitlement connected to what he considered his place to be – king.

>He was entitled to to throw spears at anyone who stood as his advisory. 

>He was entitled to offer sacrifices on his time table to meet his needs.

>He was entitled to kill the priests of Nob along with the whole town (1 Samuel 22).

>He was also entitled to anxiety, fear, violence, suspicion, depression and humiliation.

 What happens when we hold the spear?

In two particular instances Saul is chasing David and nearly catches his perceived threat when fortunes turn:  one in a cave while relieving himself and one has he sleeps.  In both instances David now has the chance to put an end to the one he is entitled to thrown a spear at in retaliation.

⁷ So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him. ⁸ Abishai said to David, "Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of my spear; I won’t strike him twice." 

^{Seriously, what would you do?  Remember, you have been called by God as the new king.  Anointed.}

⁹ But David said to Abishai, "Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless? ¹⁰ As surely as the LORD lives," he said, "the LORD himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. ¹¹ But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go." 1 Samuel 26:7-11

^{What’s discouraging is that the one who will be known the great King David – the one in whose line Jesus will come- is one who spent years being chased by a mad king.  What’s amazing is that David chooses better than get got.  He chooses a different strength to base his kingship on.  A strength that comes through brokenness.  A strength that is rooted in hard won trust in God and God alone.}

¹² May the LORD judge between you and me. And may the LORD avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. ¹³ As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you.                              1 Samuel 24:12-13

When you begin to look at David’s psalms through his time in the wilderness you see one who is painfully wrestling with the power of entitlement.  Consider Psalm 37.  You can hear his wrestling – I will delight in the Lord for I have considered the ways of the wicked and they lead to madness.  Against all the evidence, I will choose to to put my trust in God.

The power of entitlement makes fools out of those called to more.  Entitlement beckons us at every age.  Entitlement calls us to terrible things in the name of duty.  Entitlement calls us to spend our time in fear and anger of those who either hinder change we are called to bring or bring change to to what we have come to love.

Entitlement is madness. 

What do you feel entitled to and who or what do you feel you just need to remove?

³ Trust in the LORD and do good;
   dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
⁴ Take delight in the LORD,
   and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the LORD;
   trust in him and he will do this:
⁶ He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
   your vindication like the noonday sun.                                                            

Psalm 37

Peace :: Jon

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around ¹by the Spirit in the wilderness ² for forty days, being tempted by the devil. Luke 4:1

The more that God has called us individually and communally can really only be realized through the power of God in and through us.  Our call to more too often is subverted not at the point of response, but through the false power that we are tempted to use for a good end.  Powers of acquisition, entitlement and proof. 

It is in times of difficulty and suffering that we are given opportunities to lay aside what is false and enter into the power of the gospel. 

The life and experience of Jesus and those for whom we ascribe great in connection with their calling  invite us to consider the more that we might be missing.

And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. ³ And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." ⁴ And Jesus answered him, "It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’"  Luke 4:1-4

What is important to remember is that Jesus is tempted to turn subtly away from trusting relationship with the Heavenly Father by things that sound spiritual, rational and good.  It is the very subtly of the way that the power of God is replaced that is such a challenge.

If you are called, then take or do what you need to affirm and empower that call.

The power of acquisition says that if you could only do something or acquire something – then and only then will your call be affirmed and empowered.  It focuses your attention not on God but on what you need to get.  It convinces you that you’re powerless without it.  When you attain it, it frightens you with the prospect of being easily “stolen” by others.  It compels you into  shortsighted action that is laughably pathetic in light of the calling which you have received – action that you discover only undermines your credibility.

Consider Moses.  Clearly called.  The individual who God would part seas, defeat empires and free an enslaved nation.  The individual who perform miracles and form a nation.

¹⁰ Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, ¹¹ who did all those signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. ¹² For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.  Deut. 34:10

Moses also started off thing that killing one Egyptian slave master would affirm his call empower that call that he must have felt in his gut (Exodus 2).  Kind of sad when you think about it.

‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.  Matthew 4:4

1 Question / 1 Challenge   

q.  What is it that you are convinced you need to acquire or hold onto that both affirms and empowers your sense of call individually or communally?  Position / title / answers / resources / authority / recognition / promotion / the right…. 

c.  We don’t just survive but truly live and our empowered beyond our imaginations by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  Spend some time in scripture and prayer to hear what God has said about you, about what matter to him, about what you need, about what is there in abundance for those who ask.

Peace :: Jon

Missing my own point.  Brian had captured my point better than I.  Calling is sexy and powerful because calling has to do with how we exercise influence in the world which then can’t help but play into how we understand our own significance.  The problem comes when we don’t understand the the significant way in which we will influence the world has perhaps more to do with what is below the surface than is above.  What is above the surface are things such as gifting, passion, interest, opportunity and pressing need.  All things that fill headlines. 

In anticipation of our recent family vacation, bolstered by a new ability to swim, Noah wanted to do one thing – take surfing lessons.  He asked for it again and again and with a boldness that can  only come from a 6 year old boy declared that he was more than ready to swim out in the open ocean.  So like any good parent we came up with a first step that we hoped would provide a good experience and encourage his love of the water and perhaps even surfing.  As a kids who grew up body boarding – it was one of the highlights of my trip to see Noah riding the waves.  

All was well until…he crashed; fell off the board, tumbled in the waves and horror of horrors – got that terrible salty taste in the back of his throat!  It took a while, but we were able to coax him back out there for a few more rides that day but not again on the trip.  Turns out that embedded  in playing in ocean let alone surfing is the chance that you will get tossed around if not hurt.  I speak from personal experience   It also turns out that there is much, much more that Noah is called to experience than what he did that day.

This is all about power.  What is below the surface on calling beyond what fills headlines is how we understand, make sense of and deal with the suffering,difficulty and discouragement that is at the very heart of our calling as followers of Jesus Christ.  I’m growing agreement with Gordon Smith who writes in Courage and Calling that this is is perhaps the most important aspect to understand if we are live into the depth of our own call. 

Gordon writes, “Our ability to make a difference for God in a broken world, both outside the church and within it, comes through our capacity to be life in the midst of death, to be people of hope in a place of discouragement.”  page 145

Too many of us, and I’m talking about all ages here, have been tempted to ascribe a tragic reduction of the gospel the call of God or have mistaken the presence of suffering for the absence of God and his power.  In both cases, this is as much a call to less, as Noah thinking a push from his dad into the beach is all there is to riding waves and getting mad when he gets that uncomfortable salty taste in is mouth. 

The way power beyond what we can ask or even imagine.  Heard that somewhere?  Maybe in a benediction?  (Letter to the Ephesians 4:20).  The Church of Jesus Christ including every single one of us is called to a mission way over our heads.  We are called to influence far beyond what we individually capable of.  We are called to significance that can’t be rivaled by any role, position or job.  If we have any chance of living the call to more  that every single one of aches for, it will be by the power of the Holy Spirit released in our lives.  The only way that will be released in our lives individually and as God’s people is through suffering.

Jesus got the granddaddy of all calls in his baptism.  Not many of us get a call with the Holy Spirit visibly coming down and an audible voice from heaven.  Jesus did.  Headline stuff.  The devil couldn’t stop birth and couldn’t stop the public call.  He could gut the power to fulfill the call from the inside out as has been from the beginning of time to this very day. 

Jesus was lead into the wilderness to be tempted in which he had to answer the same question that we have to answer when it comes to calling – will I live by the power of God and transform the world or live by tragic – reductionist – self serving – ultimately powerless imitations. 

>The power of acquisition.

>The power of entitlement.

>The power of proof.

Over the next couple days – the temptations of Jesus and the narratives of scripture will expose each of these and invite us to something much better.

May God work by the power of his Holy Spirit, this Pentecost Sunday, to release his kingdom among us.

Peace::Jon

When the sun comes out around these parts, everything seems to change. People flock out of their homes, translucent skin glaring in the sun as they run as quickly as possible down to Greenlake to get a spot on the grass or join Seattle’s pedestrian version of the Daytona 500. Windows in cars roll down, music can be heard in the streets. Eye contact is made for the first time since November as people realize there is no wind and rain blowing into their eyes. We smile, laugh, play hookey at work, and feel a sense of hope that maybe, just maybe, this year we will have a nice summer.

I am no different than the rest of the Seattle sun cult. It comes as no surprise to me that for thousands of years people worshiped the sun. I went for a run yesterday and had to just stop, turn and face the direct sun, lean into it, and bask. The warmth and light drew me, eased my heart, and filled me with a sense of peace and wonder. All I wanted to do was remain perfectly still and let the sun recharge me and drive away all the memories of grey, rainy days and cold nights.

As much as I love the sun though, it will never be enough. As much as I want to believe that tomorrow will be sunny, I am realistic enough to know that especially in Seattle, there is always the distinct possibility, probability even, that tomorrow will bring rain. That is why I don’t worship the sun, but rather the Son. You see there are some distinct similarities and differences between the two but most importantly, the sun’s benefits are temporary, the Son’s are eternal.

Last week Ryan talked about blessing, about our call from God being a directive to bless the nations. Ryan told us that is wasn’t supposed to be “greeting card crap”, rather blessing was dirty, it was the beatitudes, it was going into the dark places to bring light, it is bringing comfort to those who mourn, peace to conflicts, hope to the persecuted and abandoned.

We are not called to be the sun, rather we are called to be the moon. The moon reflects the sun’s light and shines it into the darkness. In the same way we are to reflect the Son’s light into a darkened world. It is our job to bring the hope of Christ, to help drive away the memories of rainy days with the gift of forgiveness. We are called to bring peace, to bind up the broken-hearted. Our actions should cause those we encounter to turn their faces to the Son and want nothing more than to be warmed by His presence.

In this life we will have many roles and jobs; careers, families, passions. But our call, that is something different. Let us go forward living in such a way that His call becomes our call. A call to part the clouds and introduce people to the glorious Son.

Joyfully,
Brenna

Q.  I’ve been given specific gifts.  Is “calling” finding out how and where those gifts can be maximized?  If I miss my calling will I never reach my full potential?

If you haven’t read the first part of the response to this question- stop reading this – read the prior response then come back.  Done?  OK, here goes.

Our calling is first and foremost to belong to the one who has forgiven us,  justified us through His work on the cross, called us good, and then invited us to be part of the healing of the creation he loves. 

The next question should rightly be how can I bring the maximum benefit and blessing in service to Jesus for the sake of the world?  That leads us right into questions of gifts, hows and wheres.

Gifts:  I am coming to believe that understanding our unique place with call has everything to do with understanding ourselves as part of a body or community.

Here’s my observation – talk about organizations not thriving, people burning out, teams under performing and you pretty soon you start asking if people are in places of gifting or strength.  Usually the answer is not really.  What comes next usually is something about maybe we should think about getting people in to places where they can serve the mission of the organization out of their passions and gifts.  That’s where the warm fuzzies end with comments such as: gift tests don’t work, I already know what I’m good at, don’t you dare box me in, or my favorite, some version of this is too corporate, I follow the Spirit and serve from my weakness.  If you haven’t picked up on the sarcasm, you probably shouldn’t read this blog.

I get it.  Too often we have heard that we should discover our strengths and live dream of only doing what we are awesome at only to live in a very different world.  I am coming to believe that this isn’t because gifts don’t matter but because we approach calling and indeed gifting individually when they only many sense and can be experienced as freedom communally.  Even worse there are some gifts that seem to garner more praise and bigger pay checks.  The Apostle Paul who talks about gifts in the bible more than anyone talks in Romans about belonging to one another – which is another way of saying that others need you and you need other and the gift that you have are not for you.  In Romans 12, Paul lists a number of gifts (that I don’t believe are definitive or exhaustive but illustrative) that seem to me to fall into 3 categories when I think about what I would observe in either be most awesome team ever or just a really cool community doing something significant.  Whatever floats your boat.   I think you would observe an environment where failure isn’t fatal and people are constantly encouraged to move forward and grow.  You would observe an environment in which there is an informed clarity of purpose that never settles for OK.  Finally, you would observe that the team doesn’t just talk but does.  They don’t just dream big but they

Where:  There isn’t an inch of the total created order (Col.1) that God is not bringing back into proper relationship through Christ.  That gives us a lot of freedom for everywhere we set foot is a place to live out a call to more.  Where that place is has a lot to do with who and what is in front of us, what we have to work with and where we see the heart of God intersect the needs present.   We get into trouble when we get fixated on finding where we should be.  Where we should be can often be more informed by our own insecurity and false narratives of success than the truth about who we are, what is significant and what God cares about.

Look through various models of discernment on place and they usually have some kind of matrix to address the following questions.  Notice how much paying attention to where you are now has to do with the discerning the immediate place to live out your call. 

Where finally also has to do where the Spirit is leading which works in and through the above categories. 

What shouldn’t be dismissed but held lightly in determining where are factors such as pay, ease, excitement or what’s upwardly mobile.  That leads to to the last factor…

How:  I could easily write several blogs on this topic alone and have perhaps written too much in this one already.  What I will simply say here is the how around our gifts has a tremendous amount to do with character and not technique.  At any age, this is not what we usually want to hear.  It’s not easy to learn, quick to apply or a guarantee of instantly getting what we want.  The how of living a call to more is learned through humility, tears and mourning, poverty of spirit, meekness, dogged persistence, unwavering endurance and the kind of prayer that looks too much like Jesus in the garden than we would like. 

In Romans 12, Paul begins his practical instruction with the invitation to lay ourselves each day on the alter and die to ourselves.  We are called to more by not being conformed to the patterns of this work but by being transformed by renewing of our minds.  That’s no 3 quick steps to success or a just the right kind of prayer to the big guy for all that YOU want. 

The more we understand our call to more and our unique role the more that we will realize how over our heads we are and how much we are dependant both of the mercy and grace of God and his body (i.e. others).  When we understand that, we are in a position to be powerfully used by God in his healing work of the entire creation and that’s significant.

So, what to do?  Here’s four easy steps…

1. Begin today to set a rhythm in your life, especially if you are a place of discouragement and confusion, to declare your thanksgiving in your identity of significance in God through Jesus Christ.
2. Now that your attention is focused on the Caller, ask him where you can enter into (place, work, relationships, even personal reflection and healing) today.
3. Once you enter in, bring the most of what you can around what you understand to be your gifts in humility.  If you have some idea of your gifts, then part of this will also be starting to ask for help in the areas in which you know you tend to fall flat.  This is no excuse for you to be lazy, this will mean an uncomfortable vulnerability either in asking for help or in sucking it up and getting a job done that you would rather sweep under the rug and ignore.
4. Reflect regularly, what did I discover today about how God has made me and how He is calling me?  Where am I seeing and being affirmed for gifting?  Which of my gifts are raw and need development?  Where have I discovered issues that have nothing to do with gifting, but of character?

May we live in view of God lavish and abundant mercy and grace so that each and everyone of us can be released to move each day toward a calling to more.

Peace :: Jon

Q.  I’ve been given specific gifts.  Is “calling” finding out how and where those gifts can be maximized?  If I miss my calling will I never reach my full potential?

If you understand what your specific gifts are, you are already way ahead of the game!  Conventional wisdom says you don’t really gain clarity on gifts until your mid 30s and even then that doesn’t mean that those gifts are honed let alone that you know how to best use them.

Calling has a lot of to do with our gifts. Gifts can mean a lot of things depending on who you are talking to.  For sake of argument, let’s expand gifts to mean passions, talents, interests, personality, etc. 

Gifting though is always a secondary question. 

Though this might feel like a given, I believe that we have to always keep reminding each other that from a biblical perspective, calling is first and foremost about God calling us to himself.  Then secondarily, God has called us to participate significantly in the work that He is doing in the world.  The pattern observed throughout scripture of God’s work, from Genesis to Revelation, is of entering into the world personally, bringing order, healing and reconciliation to chaos and then inviting us to participate with Him in the same kind of work.

Calling has to do with applying maximum benefit in service of God not in finding places to maximize expression of gifts. 

Probably sounds like word play but this is vital because of the potential subtle shifts in focus.   Am I looking for places that maximize my gifts or where I can bring maximum benefit in service for the glory of God with the gifts I have? 

The answer will determine the answer to the last part of this question.

When we understand that our first calling is to belong to God and then to participate in God’s work of healing the world we can’t “miss” our calling.  If its a specific job, person, opportunity then we can miss calling.  A job, person or opportunity will also never be enough for us.  We are called to more.

As to full potential – in a broken world I don’t know if we can ever really say that we experience our full potential this side of heaven.  I am pretty sure though that trying to reach full potential on my effort alone dependant on landing in just the right place sounds exhausting and anxiety producing. 

In Jesus we are invited to belong as if we had reached our full potential based on the faithfulness and love of God shown on the cross.  We can rest secure.  We can then get after moving toward the image of God being restored in us as we participate in the repair of a broken creation.

I can only imagine that this might be frustrating because in some ways I dodged the question. 

In a world that far too often calls us to less – asking us to accept meaning from jobs, finding the perfect spouse, and quick “success” – the most important work around calling is clearly defining where our security, belonging and true success lies. 

If we don’t – we’ll chase phantoms that promise full potential but lead us to disappointment and despair.

In the next blog – I’ll try to address the question more specifically.

Peace :: Jon

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:8-10

Ephesians 2 summarizes well the first two most important questions we settle around call.

1. We are called to God.  He chose us before we did anything to deserve it.  This is so important because otherwise we use calling and the work involved far to often to try to prove to ourselves that be belong and are chosen in some way.  When you are trying to do something spectacular to be noticed, it’s usually just awkward and disappointing.
2. We are made in the image of God – so if we are to understand our work- we should understand the work of the one who made us.  We are created for good works, prepared in advance for us to do.  So what is the pattern of God’s work?  You can see it from Genesis to Revelation: >enter in personally >bring order for the sake of life through ordering and giving meaning >invite us to participate in His work.

Fair enough, but what does it mean to for us to begin to focus our attention uniquely to the things that we are called to do.  We aren’t called to save the world and we aren’t called to do everything.  We also get ourselves in trouble when we think that to understand our call means we need to get knocked off our horse like the Apostle Paul did and get a fortune cookie message from God.  You probably don’t want that call.  Significant?  Sure but with lots of suffering.

So what is that thing that you are called to do?  Tonight we spent time discussing it.  Whether you were able to make it or not, there are a lot more questions to be asked and answered as well as wisdom to be shared.  So let’s ask and share.

What are your questions around finding your unique place?

What have you learned around finding your unique place?

With a life time of experience and study, especially in the area of the calling of the church, I couldn’t let Dr. Darrell Guder go without asking a few questions.

At any age – he has a great word for us.

I had just one more question for him, and his response is perhaps the most important thing for us to hear as we navigate what God is calling us to.

So, what’s the surprise you discovered as you look back that you would share with those in their 20s and 30s?

Be encouraged – hold onto the one who is calling you – He is faithful.

Peace :: Jon

They aren’t the only ones, the bible is full of stories of women who were examples of courageous womanhood, from the Old Testament; Eve, Sarai(Sarah), Deborah, Ruth, Bathsheba,Esther, Zipporah, Rebecca, Rachel, Noah’s wife and the New Testament; Mary Mother of Jesus, Elizabeth, Mary Magdalene, Martha and Mary, Lydia, the widow, the bleeding woman… I could go on.

These women were real; they laughed, cried, bled, made mistakes, saved countries, saved families, followed God and Jesus, lost their way and found forgiveness. We are these women.

This year at the women’s retreat I hope that we will begin to see ourselves as courageous participants in God’s story. I hope that this weekend will be a time in which we can come together and strengthen one another for the journey. I pray we will learn what it looks like to be a strong woman for God, not attempting to be a man, but bringing forward all of the gifts and strengths only we as women can offer.

We have the opportunity to hear from 3 amazing women who are already heading down that path. Marilyn Vancil, Dani Forbess, and Carol Greenwood have all spoken deeply into my life. Brilliant, funny, tenacious, these women have a passion for life and Jesus, paired with true authenticity, and all are excited to share with the women following behind them on the journey.  

So come. I would love to have you. Let’s begin to walk this road of life together, stronger, braver, with more courage, humbly following the One who will lead us to victory. Email me brennah@upc.org to sign up or for more information.

Blessings,

Brenna

The Apostle Paul continues to give voice to an enduring invitation found throughout scripture – an invitation to a calling that triumphs despite beatings, mobs, ship wrecks and jailing. It was a calling not just worthy of God’s desire for us, but of our own dreams.

I need your help.  We only got 5 weeks and I want to make the best use of our time as possible.  I had to make a call to set up the framework – you can help me fill it out.   As you look through each week and a burning question arises or something comes to mind that you want to make sure we address – write it down below.  We’ll do our best to make sure it get’s addressed one way or another.  Got a reflection on calling or something you’ve learned over the years?  Add it below!  The more we talk about it – the better.

Peace :: Jon

To be honest I’m guessing that you would rather not – I base my guess on my own honest response.  It’s not that want to outright say to God that I don’t trust you, its just that would like things to be a little more complicated, a little more ‘add water and stir,’ a little more direct and effective.  Trust me is just really vague and actually down right hard.  Personally, I would like a little more control.

If I am going to experience “success” when it comes to the life of God in me, it means that I have to learn to paradoxically not run from experiences of “failure” in me.  I think Jesus gives us two things we can do that can lead us into the place of experiencing what only he can do in us.

1. Let the Beatitudes be your guide.  Our assumptions around the term blessed can get us into trouble if we equate it wholly with ease, cultural definitions of happiness, and getting what we want.  One way to look at blessed is “on the right road.”  This has been helpful for me because there are times when God is doing his greatest work in me but I think that I am headed in the wrong direction.  Read through the Beatitudes and see which one seems to identify your experience; feeling inadequate, mourning a loss even of an unmet expectation,  feeling like you want to strike back at an offense or thirsting for more from yourself and others?  It might be that you are in a place for you to see God do more in you than you can make happen on your own.  Don’t rush out too fast before asking God what is going on and what to do?
2. Let the Lord’s prayer define your actions.  The Lord’s Prayer is brilliant in it’s simplicity and practicality.  It simply and quickly focuses our attention to a position trust in our Heavenly Father and partnership for the day.  After telling his listener’s to not be anxious about basics and what might happen tomorrow, Jesus finishes by saying  that each days has enough trouble of it’s own (6.34).  In other words, get after it – just do it in partnership with your Heavenly Father and not out of anxiety, anger, lust, etc. 

We are people Called to More, the only way that we will live into the more – the kind that builds a firm foundation and elicits praise to God by those who see our good deeds, is that which comes from a daily setting ourselves up for success.

May we experience the freedom and power won for us on the cross more and more each day.

Peace::Jon

Whatever the case, I have been struck by how much the Sermon on the Mount is about building a life of strength.  Some might want to recoil at assertion thinking that I have fallen for the standards of culture when Jesus in fact calls us into being meek, peacemaking and humble.  I wouldn’t disagree – but he does do because he is calling us to strength.  I wonder if the church has spent most of its life trying to explain why the Sermon doesn’t apply exactly because our definition of strength was compromised.  Strength because religious benefits to consume – easy get, easy to give out – just not real effective at freeing us from the real things that consume our strength from the inside out.

So, here’s my thought, what if we went back and used the Sermon on the Mount as a sort of list of descriptors of a life built on a solid foundation – one of strength- one that could withstand the storms of life.  It might look like a man or woman who:

1. Doesn’t waste time or energy being bitter or angry but deals with conflict directly, quickly and in a way that honors people.
2. Avoids living in the fantasies of lust over what the other could give them and connects in real, life-giving and appropriately erotic relationships.
3. Approaches marriage as the sacred mystery and character forming crucible that it is designed to be instead of a just another relationship to get rid of when it doesn’t suit your needs.
4. Has a word that you can trust.
5. Doesn’t play the games of passive aggressive or poke my eye out and I’ll poke yours.  Instead they spend their lives giving better than they got and transform the ugliness around them.
6. Worship authentically and powerfully in ways that bring them into the presence of Holy God instead of playing dead end church games that lack any power.
7. Don’t waste their life and calling trying to possess purpose and meaning but get after the real troubles of each day.
8. Leave ultimate judgment up to God and instead live in humble and clear eyed freedom about where to use their words powerfully and effectively for benefit of others.

So how about you, what’s on your strength list?  Everyone one has one – just depends if any good or not.  What of the above is calling to you to let go of what you are grasping out of fear? 

Jesus wants to call us to strength.  That’s who he created us to be.  It’s what we need to accomplish his world changing calling for each and everyone of us.

It matters and you matter -so much so that God was willing to die for it.

May we move toward strength.

Peace:: Jon

We are all doing really well. We can’t believe it has almost been a week since we left. We have made some amazing progress. Last Friday when we visited the school and began work, Bruce told us our goal for the week was to lay the cement for two of the four rooms. Today, with the help of a great crew of Haitians (or more appropriately, a great crew of Haitians with the help of a few Americans), we were able to lay the floor for two of the rooms and prepare some of the third room for cement. It was a very long day of labor. We got up at 5:30am, loaded the truck, drove up and the work began. We helped scour the hillside for rocks, move gravel in buckets, tie rebar, bend rebar, measure for accuracy,fasten the forms, compress dirt, entertain a lot of children, and many other activities. We just got home at 5:45pm and are showering before dinner. We broke our record from last January and had 20 people in the land rover along with a lot of other building supplies. It is really dry here and we are all covered in dust after any time in the truck. We were all extra dirty today after working hard, sweating, and driving. We’ve attached a picture of Keith in all his dirty glory. He is on the way to a well earned shower. We are looking forward to more time at Foison working at the school. We hope to finish laying cement in all four rooms by the end of the week. Prayers would be appreciated.

We had a great Sunday worshiping at the church in Foison, lunch at Pastor Chrisbon’s (the best Hatian food ever!), and finished the night off with a Shannon coordinated "missionary fashion show" compliments of the trunks of clothes half the team had to wear until we got the second half of our bags on Sunday. It was quite entertaining.

Thanks for all your prayers, please keep praying that everything continues to go smoothly.We appreciate your support.

Much love,

Amber & Team Haiti

1.  Narrow Gate

2. A life judged by it’s fruit

3.  A house built on the rock.

Jesus had just taken a closer look at life and faith and pointed the way to authenticity and strength – to a righteousness beyond the religious professionals – to a life of God inspired maturity and depth.  With these three images he essentially says, you’re smart people, you chose what you want to build. 

Last week, I finished our look at Money and Anxiety with a prayer for all of us – that God would build in us a strength that cannot be taken away as we choose to trust in him over the pursuit of things.  My prayer is that God would do a work in us that we would be those who are fearless.  My prayer is that we would be people whose strength cannot be taken,  slapped, exploited or sued away. 

Following Jesus isn’t easy.  It’s not something you can consume or buy easily.  Following Jesus isn’t about following rules or never wanting to succeed. 

Following Jesus is about strength – one that brings out the best in who we are and can’t be taken away.

Hope to see you tomorrow as we finish up by looking at judgment.

Peace :: Jon

Poverty is reinforced by isolation.   But one of the gifts of participating with Bruce and Deb Robinson in building the school in Foison is that it helps us to break down that isolation.  Our relationship with the Robinson provides us with a pathway to walk together with families in Haiti.   As they live and share their lives with the community in Haiti, the Robinsons help us to know how to connect to the community in ways that bring dignity, respect. and meaningful, long-term benefit to children and families.   The school itself will provide a gathering place for learning and education which will be an invaluable asset to the entire community for years to come.

This is more than just responding to the immediate needs that arise after a crisis.  This is about helping to build the infrastructure that will create of growth, hope and vitality for children and families for generations to come. And tangibly, this year the community itself will benefit greatly through the encouragement of knowing once again that they are not alone.

Our UPC mission personnel are physical witnesses of Jesus Christ – demonstrating his love as “the Word who became flesh, and dwelt among us.” John 1:14. In standing with the Robinsons to help build this school – we get to join in their witness of the gospel.

Beginning construction on the school in the village of Foison has truly been a miracle. Currently, there is a strong foundation for the new school building in Foison. This is a direct result of the partnership of UPC’s children and the community of Foison. Last year, all of the children at UPC learned about Haiti and the work of Bruce and Deb Robinson. The kids prayed for Bruce and Deb as well as the Haitian people and communities. They also collected their change to put towards the foundation of the new school building in Foison. These kids believe that there is a reason for hope in Haiti and in their own lives. They have shown this by investing their prayers and money into a partnership with their peers in Haiti.

I was able to see the impact of our kids’ on our missionaries, partners, and the children of Foison. When Bruce, Deb, and local Haitian pastors heard that the money given for the foundation came from children and in the form of coins, they were amazed. This news seemed to inspire the community. The news of our kid’s prayers and offering ignited the community of Foison. People of every age came out to help contribute to the building process: old women hauled rocks for concrete, young kids brought water, men moved boulders and dug holes. It was beautiful to see. As of now, the foundation has been laid. A strong foundation. With your help, together with the community of Foison, we can finish pouring the floor, building up the walls, and putting on a roof.

I’ve had the privilege of knowing Bruce Robinson for nearly 30 years. He’s been a missionary for about that long.

Bruce is a pretty ordinary guy — he gets frustrated, and disappointed, and sad just like the rest of us. He’ll tell you that he’s just an ordinary guy that has found himself living and working under extraordinary circumstances. And before his wife Deb came along, those 20+ years of living single in NW Haiti were pretty lonely and his living conditions were bleak. Yet as ordinary as he is there are distinctives of his life that make him a great missionary.

First, he’s an authentic follower of Jesus Christ, and in spite of doubts and struggles (just like the rest of us) he leans hard into Jesus for his daily strength and direction.

Second, if you asked him, there’s no question in his mind that God called him to live and serve in NW Haiti — the poorest landscape in the Western Hemisphere.

Third, he has a clear sense of mission: to generously invest his gifts on behalf of his Haitian neighbors. So every day (except Sunday) he gets up, has breakfast with Deb, and at 7:30am he walks down the dirt road to the shop where he dives into his work with 45 of his Haitian co-workers delivering his engineering, and management and design skills, along with extraordinary ingenuity and compassion. He really takes the command to “Love your neighbor” seriously.

Fourth, he has submitted himself to local leaders — he actually works for a local Haitian community development organization under the leadership of the Haitian Baptist Church. He’s not a “foreign expert” elbowing locals out of his way and trampling over local institutions with an air of self-importance. Just the opposite: he humbly serves under indigenous leaders.

Finally and most importantly, he’s an incarnational presence — he’s the presence of Jesus — fluent in Creole, and committed to his continuing education in local culture and economics and he translates the gospel of Jesus Christ in appropriate ways and means for that context.

He’s an amazingly ordinary guy.

Bruce Robinson — my friend and my hero.

In 2009, I visited the school at Foison for the first time. We were working on getting water to the school for the 500 children there. Before starting to work, we were proudly given a tour by the principle, including the foundation of a hoped for expansion. That foundation helped me understand the challenges facing the Haitian people, and realize the things I take for granted in the United States.

In Haiti, something as simple as getting a bag of cement and a few blocks is very difficult.   Therefore, when you have a dream of something like a new building for a school, you take the few resources that you have and build as much as you can. Then you wait until you have the money or the cement that you need to build more. Sometimes it takes years just to get a foundation finished.

The foundations that we saw that day as we dodged grazing cows were markers of hope…delayed.  They also represent the crushing effects of poverty – people lay foundations with the  limited and less than ideal resources available, but end up with foundations that crumble easily. That’s what happened during the Haitian earthquake last year- their cities were devastated not just because the ground shook, but because poverty had forced them to create buildings that were barely standing to begin with.

If you visited the school in Foison, you would notice a lot of energy and excitement. Children are everywhere and they want to play with you any chance they get. They love to play soccer, braid hair, laugh and smile. They try to talk to you even if you don’t understand their language.

When they heard that the children at UPC had given money for them to have a new school building, they sang and praised Jesus. To them, school is more than just some place they have to go during the week. To children in Haiti, school means that they will have lunch to eat each day. It means that they will learn skills that will help their community and their families. It means that they might have a chance to get jobs when they grow up so they can buy food and clothes. And it often means that they get introduced to Jesus Christ by the teachers and pastors who care for them. It means that the people of Haiti have hope for their future.

Hello,

Let us being by saying how thankful we are to have you as part of the Convergence Community at University Presbyterian Church. Whether you come weekly, monthly, or simply when you can you are a valued member of our community and we would not be the same without you.

We have an exciting opportunity and an invitation for you to join us. We are launching a new online tool designed to help people connect in community and mission. This tool is called “The City” and is being used around Seattle and the nation. You may have already used it.

Though it might look like other social media sites, its designed not to replace them but complement then. We won’t be replacing our Facebook or blog but will be looking for the best ways add in further tools and spaces that foster mission and community engagement.

•   Further space to interact. We will be using this site to post events, prayers, thoughts and topics such as continued discussion after Tuesday nights on topics that interest you.
•  Central calendar and planning tools. The City will be where we post and plan retreats, where service opportunities are available, and where our community groups will base information and post on. Everything will be on one calendar where you can see exactly what you need to bring or roles you can volunteer for.
•  Study tools. There is a section devoted to your spiritual growth that you can tailor as an individual, including a scripture memorization tool, and bible study plan, a journal , and more.

This is just another tool like all tools. It doesn’t create anything by itself and has to be used. God is doing amazing things among us a calling us forward. Our hope is that his can be another resource to foster the further growth of what God is already doing in Convergence.

It will only work if you join us!

Jon Epps and Brenna Hesch

Sometimes in short-term mission trips it is easy to go somewhere once without an awareness of the larger picture. It’s possible to leave a bigger dent in people’s lives than positive impact.  We are actively working against this by developing long-term relationships with Bruce and Deb and a particular community around the school in Foison.

I was blessed to have been a part of two trips to Haiti and have gotten to know Bruce and Deb.  They have been a blessing and encouragement on my own journey of faith and have become mentors for me.  Their insight has helped me to clarify vision for my life, recognize my gifts and see how they can be used in service to others at home and around the world.

Carly Delevan

Please pray for our team!

Partners in Hope represents a collaboration between Children and Family Ministries, Convergence, and Haiti that we hope will include you. UPC has a long and rich history of great mission work in many parts of the world, yet one school in northern Haiti has caught our imagination and our hearts.

In the face of overwhelming needs presented to us all the time, it’s hard to know how anyone could possibly respond, especially in a country as removed from our daily experience as Haiti. One new building, in one school, in one village that we have personally connected with the last three years is our invitation. It’s as we partner with our missionary who connects us to a community that we are able to give witness to the good news of the Gospel—together.

This is a small project, but one in which we can pray specifically, give tangibly, connect as a community, invest in young leaders, and grow in our knowledge of God.

Over the next few days you’ll find stories from UPCers that give you a windows into how God both calls and transforms us to be witnesses to the good news of the Gospel.

We invite you to read through them and let one part of the story grab your heart and draw you  into specific prayer.

God bless you on your journey as you seek to follow him,

Jon Epps & Erica Hanson Wood

 www.upc.org/hope

I tried to avoid talking about specifics around liturgy – specific prayers, traditions, creeds, etc.  I know that my brain thinks differently than some of you and this approach drove you crazy because you need to get your hands on stuff that is tangible and specific.  You want words and traditions that are not your own but have been tested by history and generations of Jesus followers.  That leads you into greater understanding of the meaning in worship.  I get it and perhaps there is another series in there. 

Specifics are good but I also have become convinced that too often we use the very tools of faith to avoid the very God that we claim to serve.  That’s what the beginning of Matthew chapter 6 is all about- being consumed with our own image management while using the tools of faith.

I think that Sermon on the Mount might just turn on this one line – be complete as your Heavenly Father is complete.  5:48

So far Jesus has lead up to this line with the invitation to take on the character of God that he reveals as YOUR heavenly Father.  Now he is going to talk about right worship – giving, praying, fasting – with just one criteria.  Do it in such a way as to connect with your Heavenly Father.

It’s about ownership – the ownership and choice that you and only you can exercise- to take the tools of faith and make them your own so they lead you to into the presence of God and lead you to full maturity as a person.  God wants nothing less than your open and vulnerable heart because only then does faith become about relationship and become authentic.

As you come to worship, to community, to questions of faith practice start with these specifics:

>Where am I fearful?

>Where am I angry?

>Where do I choose the fantasies of lust to cure my loneliness? (this includes you too women)

>Where do I long for status and approval?

Then use every song, classic or new discipline, and community gathering as an opportunity to step toward your Heavenly Father.

I know – lame, hard work, no clear tangible easy answers.  Without that honest, raw, ‘I feel a poverty’ of spirit  evaluation of the ways in which you uniquely are tempted by anger, lust, fear, status, comfort, money, and even judgment of other over the living God you’ll build on a shaky foundation.  Trouble is not only will you make and idol of the tools of religion, you’ll probably also work really hard to make sure that others don’t own the tools for themselves in the name of getting it right.

Lord we need mercy – glad you give it freely – help us to take it.

Peace :: Jon

That’s what I thought when I first looked at the Sermon on the Mount – especially with what we have looked at over the last two talks with anger and lust.  I’ve come to see that’s just a way that justify not taking what Jesus says serious – make it so impossible and impractical in the name of taking the bible literally that I can continue to flirt with the line. 

Do I get angry – yes.

Do I have lust thoughts – yes.

Do I have a choice of what to do with those thoughts when they come – yes.

Both the words for anger and lust don’t have to do thoughts that sneak up on us as we interact with the world and each other – they have to do with what how we take that thought, nurse it, play with it, flirt with it.  Both words have to do with continuing to consume something that feels really good even if it gives you a hangover later.

In particular lust has to do with possession of someone or something that is not yours.  it’s about taking a person and turning them into a thing to consume so that we feel better, more powerful and perhaps even less lonely. 

We like to flirt with the line, even with divorce which is what Jesus is getting at.  Lower the bar as low as you can go and still call yourself “good”.  The problem is that the things we are flirting with is those that eat us up, distance ourselves from real relationship with others and separate us from experiencing the love and power of God.

It’s about choices – not to will yourself out of addiction or will yourself into God’s good graces.  It’s about daily, humbly and faithfully taking one step at a time back from the line in very tangible ways that we flirt with the line.

God is merciful and God is good and longs for us to trust him.

May we experience more of his grace and freedom today as we take steps to trust in that.

Peace :: Jon

On the other hand perhaps it’s brilliance, the kind I take no credit for obviously.  Our approach both in and out of the church to desires often betrays a set of confusing assumptions around desires, especially when you include the bible and God.  Fat Tuesday comes the day before Lent, a time in which the church has identified with the sufferings of Christ in preparation for the celebration of Easter.  It could easily be assumed that the closer we get to Christ, the closer we identify with Him, the closer we follow him – the more we become desire-less. 

The king and queen of all desires of course is our sexuality.  Spirituality > no desires.  On the other hand we live in a time when the the total indulgence of our desires, especially around sexuality is viewed as the highest and best good.  To not have sex is to not be human.  To not live constantly fill ourselves with the things that we desire (food, sex, pleasure, drink, etc.) is to somehow miss the boat.  Consumption becomes equated with being.

The church has a lot to own for the confusing ways that we at times talked about desires, especially sexual ones.  It hasn’t been good news.  The life that we are invited to though by Jesus, even by seemingly tough words in his Sermon on the Mount, is good news.  It’s not a disembodied faith that has no place for desires or emotions but one in which desires are guided for the flourishing of life.  Sexuality is powerful, sexuality is good but sexual desire as a consumable good that we’re entitled to more of can lead to becoming and treating others as less human – not more.

Peace:: Jon

To the glory of God the Father

To the glory of the Son, Jesus Christ

To the glory of the Holy Spirit, our Helper Amen

So what is the one thing about it that I am passionate about, the one thing I want people to get about worship more than anything else?

Have you ever sat in a service and watched a small child? They play around, fidget, cry, scoot close to their parents, give hugs and kisses. They will boldly walk into the sanctuary with messy hair and dirty clothes, exactly the same from before they walk in to the sanctuary to the time they leave.

There is a raw authenticity in those children, they don’t feel the need to put on their church mask, act like everything is great and that they love every second of the service. Children don’t cover up their hurts and mistakes thinking it is somehow better to strong, that they are a better “Christian” if they don’t show their struggles and sin.   

I would hope for everyone that they could enter into worship that way. The freedom to approach the Father and be in community with frank honesty. To experience space to cry with a friend, confess true and deep sin, to be mask free, the same on Saturday night as on Sunday morning. Therein lies joy, forgiveness, worship that flows out of pure thankfulness, a place in the heart that can respond freely to God’s call since we have relinquished our need to control our lives and image.

May our worship be as real as our lives.

Brenna

Boring!  You might have heard the term spiritual disciplines used before to talk about actions that “spiritual” people do to be more spiritual.  Disciplines as a term is unfortunate since it is loaded with negative connotations.  Connect it with faith and it can feel like a bunch of things that I SHOULD do but don’t want to do because it sounds like a lot of work for no real pay off. 

Standing before the sun.  There are many practices or disciplines that the church has developed over the years that have a rich history behind them.  There is no power though in the practices themselves no matter how ancient or mysterious they sound.  Their usefulness comes  only in their ability to help us come into the presence of the Living God in which are eyes are opened to the beauty of God and the ugliness within that we are being called to let go of.  A practice be as simple as making sure to watch a sunset or bringing home flowers to your wife who you need draw closer to.  One of the practices that I regularly need to remind myself to do is that of turning off the radio on the way in so that I bring my day before my Heavenly Father.

Not checking out.  As we move through the Sermon on the Mount, here’s some ideas of practices to to keep yourself from checking out and missing the gift that God has for you.

1. Ask the Father what his heart is for you.  “Jesus, where do you long for me to become more mature and complete, become more authentic or become more free than I am right now?”
2. Pray the Lord’s prayer to focus your day.  Stand before the one who is beauty and strength and love and ask what his will is for this day then simply declare what it is today that will pull your attention away from that – daily needs, people who have and probably will cross the line of your own integrity, and those things that make you doubt that God is watching out for your best. 
3. Stay on the right road by letting the Beatitudes affirm your direction.  The Beatitudes flat out are counter intuitive to the way we think leads to success because they point to a way beyond self protection and self sufficiency.  If you feel a poverty of spirit it might be that you are realizing that God wants more for you than you think you can do.  Mourning just might be the gateway to you becoming free from the damage done by you or to you or life beyond your unfulfilled expectations.  Your dissatisfaction at your own character or that of the world around you might be ground by which God wants to bring his power and presence in and through you.  Don’t bail when God perhaps is about to open up a world beyond what you thought possible. 

Keep then end in mind.  The goal is not a cold technical perfection that earns the approval of God or others but one in which the image of God in you is restored more and more to it’s full glory.  Messed up?  Don’t sit in shame or guilt – that voice is not that of God.  Confess, ask forgiveness and receive the grace to keep going.  Faithful step by faithful step you will discover that the things that seemed impossible or even crazy sounding become a matter of fact.

May we believe and actually live in both the mercy and grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Peace::Jon

About a decade ago, American Beauty hit the theaters and took home 5 Oscars including best picture and best actor.  It was a movie that I honestly avoided when it first came out.  Was this just going to a gratuitous and depressing exploration of sex, violence and all that is base?  To talk to some, usually who had never seen it, it was simply seen as gross.  While there are moments that make you laugh – it is indeed difficult to watch at times yet brilliant at looking behind the curtain of the American dream.  The tag line – look closer.  The problem is that we don’t want to and yet what we find when we do tragically resonates as being all to real all too often.

Look closer.  A closer look at the church and Christian faith is what many Christian writers have embarked on with news that isn’t always encouraging.  Book after book, study after study present news of the closer look society and emerging populations in particular have of church and faith.  Many are simply saying,  “no thank you.”  What is consistently reported though is that people aren’t closed to Jesus or faith.  They are closed to what appears ineffective and dismissive of the human experience.

One passage of scripture in particular engages the closer look directly – the teaching of Jesus himself known as the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.  What’s strange though is how this gift to us has often been put back on the shelves by the Church over the years.  Dale Bruner’s brilliant commentary outlines some of the options.

>It’s only for a select few – mostly nuns, priests, monks etc.

>It’s really meant to just convict us of sin and our need for grace– it’s closer look and admonitions are so brutal that no one could actually do them.

>Do it, but just in your heart – we’re not meant to really, actually do it, just let it guide your heart.

>It’s only for the future – various versions of this from different camps point that it’s the ethic of the future when everything has been fixed by God.  So don’t try.

I confess that for many years I avoided these chapters for they felt too hard, too brutal, too close to home.  What’s intriguing is that when Jesus was done,  the everyday crowd that was gathered, declared that Jesus taught with authority.  What he said resonated with the reality of life that they knew and experienced.  Perhaps we should look closer.

Two Guides.  I believe that there are two guides that can help us hang in there long enough to hear the good news that the Sermon on the Mount can be to us and our world.  I say hang in there because the closer look that Jesus takes can be uncomfortable.  Much easier to simply to simply approach church as a place of goods to consume and call it good.

First guide – know the heart.  Two passages point to the heart of the whole sermon and need to guide our reading.

²⁰ For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

At first the statement that our righteousness should surpass that of those who are pros can feel like a burden – until you look at the heart behind what is to come.  There’s more than not murdering – how about not being consumed by anger?  There’s more than not committing adultery – how about not being addicted to fantasies and lonely?  There more than looking good in all your religious activity – how about actually seeing the face of your Heavenly Father? 

A look closer can reveal that far too often we have settled for the lowest common denominator and called it the righteousness that God desires all the while being consumed from the inside out.

Jesus goes one step further

⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Frustrating idealism or crushing legalism as a professor of mine once asked?  Neither – the intention of our Heavenly Father for each and every one of us.  Not a cold technical perfection – but a mature and complete character – the kind we are meant for, the kind in which the very best of us is brought to bare.

Second Guide – know the way.  Three images at the end of the sermon point to the way.  One of the mysteries of our growth spiritually revolves around the interaction of what we do and what the divine does.  We all want to know what we do, what’s our part to bring ourselves into a place of interacting with God in such a way that our lives are changed. 

Jesus points the way in chapter 7 with three images – the narrow gate – a tree and it’s fruit – two builders.  Each drives deeper.  Each uncomfortable.  Each drives to the heart of the matter.  Each image seems to me to connect to Paul’s letter to the Romans as he pleads with the church – live in light of the mercy of God (12.1).  You cannot pick and choose what ever you want to from culture – there is one way.  Jesus.  You cannot hide behind your religion, your book , your spectacular works in my name. 

The way is unspectacular trust in me. 

The choice is ours – build our lives in trusting relationship with our creator and redeemer. Build a life that can withstand the storms of life.  A life in which our character is being made complete and whole.  A life in which we enter into the very life and power of God.

Or don’t – just consume more.  Take the quick way.  Build your life on the sand.  Just don’t be surprised if it doesn’t stand the test of time, if it doesn’t lead to growth, if it doesn’t stand up to a closer look.

Our choice – trusting relationship.  Perhaps the most difficult choice there is.

Looking forward to God’s mercy and grace at work among us.

Peace :: Jon

There is something that makes me come alive when I recognize that I’m on a dynamic journey with a dynamic community as we seek a dynamic God. This coming alive isn’t necessarily a feeling of elation or of suffering. It is simply an awareness that this is what it means to be alive. That God who created us in his image is alive. God’s spirit animates us and all those around us. Jesus has risen and is alive indeed.

To worship is to live.

George’s One Thing on Worship

Jon, my growing edge is understanding how our worship is really being a part of the Son’s worship of the Father.  My worship is lame: my prayer life, the integrity that I bring to it, the life that follows out of it…   All of this is wholly inadequate.  I find myself subject to the very legitimate critique of the prophets:  “I don’t want your burnt offerings.”  God wants and deserves whole-hearted worship.  And I don’t have it.  But what I do have is one who has taken up the challenge on my behalf, on our behalf.

Why we Need to Be Sent – By David Hallgren

In worship we brush up against the love of God because we brush up against God. When we gather around the Word of God, we receive the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise in Matthew 18- where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them…

Continue Reading

Jon, my growing edge is understanding how our worship is really being a part of the Son’s worship of the Father.  My worship is lame: my prayer life, the integrity that I bring to it, the life that follows out of it…   All of this is wholly inadequate.  I find myself subject to the very legitimate critique of the prophets:  “I don’t want your burnt offerings.”  God wants and deserves whole-hearted worship.  And I don’t have it.  But what I do have is one who has taken up the challenge on my behalf, on our behalf. 

Jesus is God in perfect humanity fulfilling—on our behalf—perfect worship, true worship.  The writer of Hebrews makes this point:  Jesus is the great high priest.  He is the liturgist.  He performs the work of the people that they cannot perform and never will perform without him. 

Thank God Jesus worships for us!  And we can thank God for the Spirit of God who joins me in particular and anyone else to the worship of Jesus.  So that when I worship in the Spirit, I worship in truth.  Which means the thing in my soul that is happening (as I sing that song or offer that gift or hear God’s word) is really something that is a thing happening in the heart of the Son for his Father; it’s just that now he is making it real in my experience too. 

That’s my one thing:  Jesus worships for me… and I with him through his Spirit.

This is an amazing event. We come together to remember that we are God’s children. We come together to witness to the reality of the risen Lord at work in our world. We come together to proclaim the coming kingdom of God in contrast to the present power of our culture. And in this gathering we are renewed and transformed. We are more deeply able to live into the identity of beloved.

So, we experience personally and corporately the love of God when we gather. We live into the greatest commandment – You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind – Matthew 22:37. Now what…? We have the 2^nd greatest commandment – You shall love your neighbor as yourself – Matthew 22:39.

We are sent out from worship, not ending our worship, but continuing our journey of relationship with God by loving our neighbor. For some reason, God asks us to gather and for some reason, God has chosen to proclaim love in this world in us and through us. We are marked by God in worship, by the sacraments of identity – baptism and sustenance – communion. We bear this mark in our world. That is why we are sent. To bear the mark and identity of beloved child of God in our world and to follow the power of God’s love, the living Word, in the gospel of Jesus.

Have you ever seen something out of the ordinary? Like a car crash or an amazing feat in sports? In the moment it happens we look to our neighbor and say, “did you just see that”? “why yes! You are not crazy, I did”. That is witnessing to the reality of experience. We witness to the reconciling power of God’s love made known in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We point out and share that the story of God’s love is not ended and that we are invited into even now. We have experienced this love in a meaningful and transforming way and others in our world need to hear this. So we speak to bring meaning to transcendent experience and we invite those around us to come and see. Come and learn the meaning behind this experience. Come and get to know this person, Jesus. He will be in this place, with these people, gathered.

David Hallgren

For my 30^th birthday I prepared a meal unlike any meal I had prepared before or since.  It took me a week to plan it.  I deliberately went to the Farmer’s Market to find the freshest produce around.  I found tomatoes the size of grapefruits in hues of red, yellow, and orange.  I found beets tinged with grayish earth and topped with swaying greens.  Fresh eggs, and lemons from trees just a truck drive away.  I was meticulous because I wanted my meal to reflect that creativity starts with the simplest elements.   It took two days to actually turn these fruits of the earth into a feast.  And through this event, I learned something.  There was no real reason for this gratuitous meal.  I didn’t have to do it.  When people found out what I was doing, they asked WHY??  I had no words to offer any satisfaction.  I just wanted to.  That was enough for me. 

Sacraments are a means of grace and grace is hard to get your mind wrapped around.  By its very definition it defies reason. When reason and logic brings us to the end of the road, grace trail blazes through unknown territory – not begrudgingly, but in celebration that there is a trail to blaze.  Grace is fearless and beautiful – like a mural in Skid Row.  Like the man who plays the violin in front of Trader Joes’ in the University District.  A taste of beauty in the midst of darkness.  An open claim to the world that the human being is made in the image of God and has the wild capacity to love.  There is no real reason for grace, except that God is gracious and therefore grace is.  And  it is through pictures of grace that we catch a glimpse of The One Who First Loved Us. 

Sacraments are the way that we can taste this grace within the context of worship.  They are by their very nature extravagant.  The body broken for the world.  The blood spilled out that our life may be, quite literally, wrapped up into the life of Christ.  The baptismal water that holds all the images of God’s renewal through history poured over us, even though we barely know what it is.  Without them we lose the chance to participate in this grace – to taste it and to bear witness to it all at the same time.  Would we still know the love of God?  Yes!  Would we still hear the fullness of the love of Jesus? Yes!  Do we need them for our salvation?  No!  But do they embody the richness and graciousness of the God we serve in a way that nothing else does??  You tell me.  They are moments of extravagance.   And in those moments we experience God’s extravagant love toward us – and they feed us. 

It is no wonder that the simplest of elements are used in the sacraments.  Water for baptism.  Bread and wine for communion.  Cleansing water to care for the outer body.  Grain and vine to nourish the inner body.   Together they wrap the human being from head to toe in the extravagant love of God.  But their simplicity speaks to the God who is at work transforming the common elements into his Holy Work.  It is God who offers the sacraments – always.  It is God’s transformation that we experience when we participate, whether we feel it or not.  And God is not only gratuitous, but anchored in relevance.  The extravagant feast is also the place of sustenance.  The waters of promise are also the cleansing bath.  Pure earthy grace for all. 

We don’t need the sacraments any more than we need art, music, beauty, or love.  But then, you tell me, what would we be missing? 

Dani

Dani works with Children and Family and is working on exploring the worshipping community.

The fullness of truth is found in Jesus Christ who is Truth.  If though God is the creator, sustainer and redeemer of all things (check Colossians 1) then I would expect to find resonances of the truth that I find in scripture throughout all of life.  I would also expect as well that the truth that I discover in my walk with Jesus would find application in all kinds of places outside the walls of “church” when I am being the the church.  This frees me up in a couple of ways – I can take the stance of student to all of life, I can find point of commonality and I can point to moments in the experience of the wider world as kernels of God’s Kingdom.

OK, enough said, let’s get to the point.

As we talk about worship in our series – CORE – I have in the back of my head the definition of what worship is from Dave Rohrer, UPC’s pastor of worship. 

Worship is waking up to the presence of God. 

I’m probably butchering it, it you get the idea.  What I love is how simple it is and how it avoids the traps that usually accompany talk of worship.  To that end, one song has been at the top of my list for a while now, because it captures for me something of the heart behind worship.

Open your eyes – Snow Patrol

….I want so much to open your eyes
‘Cause I need you to look into mine
Tell me that you’ll open your eyes [x4]
Get up, get out, get away from these liars
‘Cause they don’t get your soul or your fire
Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine
And we’ll walk from this dark room for the last time….

Organ, guitar, choir, band, loud, quiet and contemplative – I don’t care. 

The essence of worship isn’t found there – it’s found in coming into the presence of the Living God whose heart is that we would but open our eyes, take his hand and walk from dark room of our sin and rebellion into everything bright and beautiful that He created us for.

Here’s a challenge for you – the next time you walk into a worship gathering – ignore the music, ignore how great OR not the preaching it, ignore whether there are read prayer or spontaneous rambling,  ignore whether there are robes or deep V’s and fix your attention on one consistent prayer – Almighty God, Jesus, open my eyes.

Peace:: Jon

While we may reluctant to talk about money, the Bible has much to say about it.   Over 2,000 verses concern money and Jesus frequently told parables about it.  The book of Proverbs has many little tidbits about foolish and wise ways of handling money.  Clearly it is a topic that we need to address within the Church.

For me personally, money is an interesting topic.  Math was my best subject and I am fascinated about Economics and the numbers behind it.   At a young age, I was able to witness the responsible handling of money.  Despite neither one of my parents going to College (my dad would get a Degree much later in life) and both working jobs with low salaries, my dad was able to build up a successful real estate rental business and comfortably provide for four children.  Perhaps more importantly, the value of money was instilled in me.  I was never in want, but we never lived in extravagance.  My parents were known for their extreme frugality, yet they were always sure to give back to God what was his.

It is not hard to witness how easily money can destroy.  Lenders take advantage of borrowers as well as the poor.  Credit Card holders rack up immense debt at extreme interest rates.  An economy is nearly brought to its knees — fueled partially by bad loans and the get rich quick allure of a housing bubble.   Money can seem such an overwhelming topic with numbers, financial lingo, acronyms, and pages of small print.  Having seen this, it is my desire to do whatever I can to help others around finances.  It is my belief that grasping a few topics and developing financial discipline can drastically alter a family’s path.  It can remove stress, save marriages, and provide the freedom to share out of our abundance.

I am so excited for Financial Foundations!  I have met with Paul and Rebekah personally and have learned so much through them; I can attest that they are top notch and I am amazed at how they have generously given of their time.  There will be something to gain for everyone whether it’s learning out to get out of credit card debt, learning how to buy that first house, or how to diversify a portfolio.  My hope is to connect the Convergence Community to UPC’s amazing financial counseling ministry and to show that money need not be a topic that we cower from.

Hope to see you there!

Irvin

I’m not a big fan of Half Time.  Getting to the lines for burgers and beers makes me feel like I’m on the offensive line.  I don’t like getting a close view of the neck hairs of the man in front of me and getting back to my seat with the food is like waking up in a modern game of Frogger.  But really, Half Time is just boring.  Nothing really happens during Half Time, barring Janet Jackson’s slip from appropriate television circa 2004.  Half Time is not the game – and it doesn’t matter who sings on the football field, it will never be as engaging as the game itself. 

There’s no play clock during Half Time.  It’s a 15 minute intermission.  A break with decent entertainment.  Of course, it serves a purpose.  There’s always room for one more beer.  But it happens outside the boundaries of the game, in sort of a limbo time – where nothing really matters.  If the ball is caught in the end zone by a wide receiver in some random turn of events during Half Time, there are no points.  Sorry.  It’s Half Time.  It’s not the real game.  Though it was a great demonstration of what can happen in football.  Thanks. 

There are people who think that reading the Bible is a little like Half Time.

This is what I think is happening when I hear things like the Bible is great literature.  Or that it is a great example of Canaanite epic.   Or that it is merely a cultural representation of the First Century.  Or even, dare I say, that it is paternalistic and imperialistic.  All of the above may be true.  But those are Half Time observations.  Observations made outside of the time when every second counts and choices and consequences hang in the balance.  Half Time observations might be important on some level.  Kind of like asking who is number 12 and did he come out of Cal?  They offer information to fill out the historical perspective.  But to stop there would be disastrous.  Once I know more about number 12, what matters is how she can play – not where she’s from.  And when the play clock starts, that’s the focus. 

It’s not that the Bible is a play manual.  If only it were that simple.  The Bible is riddled with stories.  Stories about who we are, and who God is.  Stories about how God acts and we respond and how we act and how God responds.  Wonderful stories.  Stories that stick to your bones and take root in the marrow.  Stories that strike a chord deep inside us of something ancient, something primordial, something older than the earth itself.  Stories that bring us home.  And sometimes I stop there.  I listen, I absorb, I observe – like it’s Half Time. 

And then sometimes I wrestle.  I writhe and struggle like the clock is running.  And that’s when I see something else about the Bible.  It’s alive.  A pulsing breathing presence that I cannot control.  It has authority based not on dead history, but on its power for the living present.  It births new life as it bears witness to the life and death and resurrection of Jesus because the God’s message always contains the seeds of God’s action.  It can change me.  The Psalmist says that the word actually revives the soul from dust.  That sounds more like resurrection than ancient epic. 

Yes, we need to know the stories of the Bible.  Yes, story is the language of the human race.  Yes, every story bears witness to the truth that only a story is complex enough to capture and explain the meaning of the human existence.  Only a story can show you  the place where God and humanity intersect.  But the power of this story is that it is not over yet and that we are the current players.  It holds the past, but it’s concerned with the present, and it promises the future.  Only this story has a vested interest in giving us something that we desperately need to live differently.  Illumination.  Light.  Only with illumination comes power – the power to walk in the light.

A good friend asked me once, pointing to the Bible, “If this book is just sitting on the shelf, among Shakespeare and Tennyson, is it qualitatively different?”  At the time I wondered, but now I know.  It is.  And the reason why the other authors even hold any water at all is because of the Bible – the  master story in which all other stories are contained in one way or another.  The primary Word that provides the substance for all secondary words.  Because it’s alive.  It heals, transforms, and ultimately reveals God’s heart spent for the world that God reels back in one human life at a time. 

No wonder communities have been centering their lives on Scripture for thousands of years.  No wonder when the Catholics and Protestants of Ireland come together in unity, they read Scripture.  No wonder that inter-racial communities in South Africa are forming around Scripture.  No wonder we need it daily.  It’s alive and it mobilizes us.  It matters in real time. 

Save Half Time for dogs, beer, and Aerosmith.

Dani Forbess

It’s ironic, you know.  That we found pants buried so deep that day in Mexico.  Ironic because of how pants were invented.  All those years ago, the first pants were made out of fig leaves, sewn together in something akin to post Creation slave labor.  It happened on the day that Adam and Eve became slaves to their own fears and their disobedience.   The day they chose to exercise their full freedom and say no.  Then they made pants – the first pants ever – to hide.  Because suddenly they knew something about the world that unsettled them – something that was wrong.  They were naked.  They were unclothed and vulnerable and they were filled with shame.  So these new fugitive slaves made pants out of fig leaves and ushered into the world the first degree of separation between them and their Creator.

In this way, the world of Adam and Eve is not so different from our own.  Buried within the seed of the human heart from the dawn of time is a choice.  A choice between humility and arrogance, trust and fear, interdependency and shame.  And we’ve paved the road of history with our choice.  We do not choose God’s way.  We must create a way of separation – and we start with something as thin as a fig leaf.  We call it sin now.  But that only comes later, when the Lord talks to Cain and tells him it’s lurking at the door – the new neighbor of the human race.  It was born as shame.  When Adam and Eve first decided that there was something we needed to hide from, there is something that is not good enough about us.   And so, since that moment, we forge on alone, hiding, with sin lurking at the door.

So it’s no wonder that we need confession so desperately.  Not because we need to bash our heads against the wall in self-deprecation, but because we need to know that something has gone askew in our DNA.  Confession assures us that the world is not the way it is supposed to be.  We make mistakes, and so has everyone that has gone before us.  And it matters.  We live on a historical trajectory where our choices hang in the balance – and each choice, good or bad, impacts the world.  That’s what it means to be free. The human story is one where we have been invited to chart this unmapped territory with volition.  Volition – from velle –to wish or to will.   And so when we confess, we own our sin and we see its web starting with the freshly picked fig leaves.  We see our own hands sewing the seams of these new pants and they are swollen with complicity.  Confession is the mirror that shows us hiding in the garden and it makes us face the truth that we have chosen to live in a world that is different from the one that God created.  For better or for worse, this is who we are.  Try as we might, we can’t make a pair of pants wide enough to cover us.

Thankfully, God is a spelunker.  He forged into that first cave of Adam and Eve, calling to them, correcting them, disciplining them, and redeeming them.  In Scripture, confession and pardon are the two hands of grace.  They work together to restore the creation, and they are never seen apart.  Sometimes they stretch out in a lateral wingspan eons apart, but they are always connected through the core.  And we are deficient without them.  Like sailing through the ocean without a compass, or even worse, without an indicator of true North.   We need to know the truth of where we came from in order to hear the call of where we are going.

In Genesis, Adam and Eve don’t make the only pants.  It turns out God has an eye for fashion too.  Skins.  Not only does God trade fig leaves for precious animals skins, but in doing so, God re-skins us – using his own work to shape the human destiny rather than leaving us to our own feeble abilities.  These new humans literally give God their own shame – these feeble fig leaves – and he hands them something new . . . again.  The seed of shame is barely given a chance to root before it is covered with the seed of redemption.

Confession and pardon.  That’s how it works – even from the beginning.  We hide in our own shortcomings, our reluctance to believe and to trust, our addictions, our shame, and our fear.  And then God comes looking for us, and asks us to name those things.  To reckon with our own handprints.  Confession.  But he never leaves us there.  He makes something new – and though we have been changed, we have still been claimed.  Pardon.

Dani Forbess

Dani is the Faith Formation Lead for Children and Family Ministries

Just as the large department store windows of London were starting to dress up in Christmas decorations, I wandered into All Souls, just north of Oxford Circus. I sat on the ground floor of the church towards the back and waited for the sanctuary to fill up. Soon it was bustling with life as those coming in from the streets shook the rain off of their black coats, and took their seat. The Indian man who bumped my knees to slide in the pew had the warmth and friendliness of someone who had offered me a cup of tea and sidled me up by the fire. I can’t remember what he said. What I do remember is the way that he took off his black coat, settled into his pew, and waited. His sense of anticipation and his gracious hospitality swirled around him like incense and I couldn’t help but breathe it in and be overwhelmed by the mystery that if he belonged, then I did too. If he was anticipating something, then I was too.

I was at once aware of my own weary loneliness. I had been without a home, without a family for months. Eating greasy sausages and cold beans out of a tin can had become ordinary. But set right here in the middle of this nomadic stretch was a taste of belonging that awakened a long suppressed hunger. In the absence of food, an appetite can be quiet for a long time. But once the aroma of the feast starts to sizzle, the body catches up with itself, and the hunger can almost be painful. Yet, the fare is all the sweeter. And as we rose for the passing of the peace the place swelled with the grace of invitation. Arriving at All Souls that night turned out to be more like coming home late for a meal and finding that your seat has been saved and the plate is in the oven.

I do not remember the words he said during the greeting. I don’t remember if we used a formal passing of the peace or not. But I remember that as he looked at me his eyes flashed with delight. His grin widened as his hands turned toward mine, our fingers locking momentarily with nothing between us but skin. Perhaps he asked me where I was from, what I was doing in London, what led me into this warm building on a cold winter night. I have no idea. But his presence, which seemed to anticipate a greater presence, I will never forget. His hospitality shadowed a deeper hospitality. It coursed right through my soul as if we were meant to sit together in this moment from before the dawn of time – which of course, we were.

Call it greeting or the passing of the peace – the time of gathering has many flavors in our worship. It’s the time in a worship service when we move from the story about me to the story about us. When we walk into the sanctuary trusting, and by that I mean believing with our bodies, that we belong to Christ and that we each encounter him as these different parts of his body come together and warm the pew. Invisible ligaments and sinews develop between us. We become his organs offering warmth, sustenance, and pulsing with life. Christ’s peace can literally pass through our fingers and hang from our smile. His abundance is here. There is enough of him to go around, but we come together because he must go around. He is our blood, our life, necessary to every piece of tissue in that place.

And that is why we need to gather. Just walking into a room together is not enough. We need to hear it together – that we have been gathered from the four corners of the earth into this place at this time for one reason. To re-member. Literally, to re-member Christ’s body. We have not just flooded a room with individuals, we have assembled a body. We are not participating in an organization, we comprise an organism. We are there because in the moment of connection to that Body we find our identity. We are no longer strangers and aliens, but we are citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Gathering is about identity – in word and in deed. And so we invoke the gathering by recognizing that the body we live in here, Christ’s body, is a body of peace – and then in one way or another, we embrace.

No peace talks. No treaties. No settlements. Just the palms of a British Indian man and a college student joining together in grace.

As human beings we are bound more than we want to admit to time and space. This is why we need to pass the peace. We are bound to time and space just as we are bound to each other – we need other people in order to know Christ’s peace. I needed that British Indian man in All Souls that winter night. And he needed the passing of the peace – even if he didn’t even know it – to be the face of Christ to me.

Dani Forbess

Dani is the Faith Formation lead with Children and Family Ministries

apply our will in new resolutions and or in finding some kind of new input such as information. 

Both are actionable, practical and tangible.  What often miss or even avoid are questions around motivation – the why.  Understandable.  Why’s are more difficult to explore and don’t always lead to something immediately actionable. 

The whys also get at our CORE identity and so can bring up difficult questions that we would rather avoid in place of a quick Band-Aid solution.  When we can get at our CORE identity we can also get at what drives us and so what dictates both our actions and the results of those actions.  Scripture tells us that our CORE was marred early on – damage that has lead to damaging actions ever since.  The larger story of Scripture is about God at work restoring our CORE.

Over the next couple weeks we’ll be exploring five basic ways that we are invited into the presence of God for the restoration of our CORE.

Week 1:  Gathered // alone or together

Week 2:  Honest // cynical and defensive or honest about the good and the bad

Week 3:  Illuminated // called to know all things or illuminated

Week 4:  Secure // at the whim of shifting winds or secure

Week 5:  Sent // define a meaningful or sent with purpose

Hope to see you soon!

A moment of hope.  It’s that moment when we feel like it just might be possible to change if only….  If only I really try harder and apply my will.  If only I get the right system, information, diet, plan, approach, gym membership.  So often it’s just a moment because reality and the pressures internally and externally that form our actions haven’t had a chance to kick in.  Our frustration, resignation, or even paralysis beyond the moment perhaps comes because what we forgot to examine are those forming factors which come from the place of motivation.

You know what they say about assumptions…  Even within a faith community it can be easy to forgot why is that we do what we do or just to flat out assume that everyone get’s it.  The death of faith comes when we start answering the question with, “well that’s what we have always done,” or “that’s what Christians do.”  As we begin a new year, I want to go back to the guiding passage for the mission and vision of Convergence and dream.  Convergence doesn’t hold the monopoly on this and so even if you don’t or can’t come to our weekly gathering, I would love to invite you to let Colossians chapter one guide, inform and perhaps even drive your actions this year.

^9-12Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

^13-14God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.

Message

Not more, better :: glory strength for the long haul ::

deep, rich, beautiful joy

>  Learning how God works, you’ll learn to do your work better.  Why do we do things like mission trips, gather for worship, serve to our city, gather in community groups?  They too easily become another thing packing our calendar.  They could be opportunities for us to have our eyes opened to God’s character, values and ways in such a way that our work is informed.  I hope you grow personally.  I hope you discover your calling for ministry and place within the Body of Christ.  I hope even more that you discover that your calling that transcends church programs and particular jobs that lead you to a life of God honoring influence.

If you haven’t heard Earl’s message from Jan 2 – do it.  it’s a perfect illustration of how our leadership can resist the conformity of the world and become a blessing to those around us.

> Glory strength for the long haul.  In a world that is moving and changing so rapidly that we have come to expect instant results, it’s hard to look down the road.  Yet real sustainable growth beyond the technological has to do with investment. 

I hope you encounter the living God in a powerful way right now.  In the end though I don’t really care though because my prayer is focused down the road for our faith let alone our relationships have to be based on more than how good something feels right now.  Think about the impossibility of your friendship or relationship or marriage having to bear the weight of being awesome and stimulating all the time.

Instead, I am hoping that what is being built in you will:

-lead to a marriage that lasts and changes the trajectory of marriages in your family that have failed.

-lead to a rich wonderful single life without fear because your identity is not tied to marital status.

-lead to you being a better father or mother than you had because your parents took the baton forward from their parents or that you change the trajectory of poor parenting that you have been set on.

-lead toward solid endurance when you feel like God, your boss, your friends or spouse have gone silent in the affirmation department. 

-lead to becoming the coolest old person ever who is about giving blessing, encouragement, and wisdom away as you continue to learn and grow your entire life.

-lead you to die well so that others will say of you – life well lived.

That only comes from our ownership at every stage of our lives to courageous place ourselves before the Grace of God.

>Deep rich beautiful joy from participation in God’s passionate mission of restoration.

When Paul talks about the big story of what God is about in the world – he begins with our personal restoration but then explodes outward to include all broken pieces of creation being put back together in a brilliant harmony.  It will always be way beyond us – but always includes us.  The little bit of this world that we inhabit might feel significant or might feel small and unimportant – but it’s what God has give us.  The Holy Spirit has been sent by Jesus to continue his revolution and we’re invited.

I invite you to dream, to have God sized hopes and to courageously follow Jesus in what he has placed right in front of you.

Peace::Jon

When I was in college I lived in a sorority with 98 other women. Bright, beautiful, articulate; to the world these girls had life made. Based on a purely world view there should have been nothing fun in the house. We had cooks to make us meals, maids to clean our house, there were constant parties at neighboring fraternities, as well as socials and philanthropies to keep us entertained, enough male attention to make any girl blush. We should have been set.

Yet, I watched constantly as women I loved, as I,  made poor choice after poor choice. Binge drinking, sleeping around, catty behavior, eating disorders, you name it I saw it in a seemingly endless search by young women for the next thing that would fill a hole that was deep within, make them feel alive and at peace with who they were.

Here lay the fundamental problem. For all of our confidence, we didn’t  know who we were at the core. In trying to figure out who we were, we looked to the world for an identity and then did everything possible to will ourselves into that imposed identity. Thin, fun, driven, able to do it all, ok with hook-up’s, not wanting relationships… and yet nothing ever seemed to bring the peace, the security that was sought.

The world, it’s definition of who we are, will always leave us  swimming in the shallow end, a mere flicker of who we are know by God to be. Jesus calls us back into the deep end of life. When we begin to respond to God’s call on our identity we are able to see ourselves not as shadows seeking  but rather as reflections of  Christ in us. We no longer have to search hopelessly for some idea of who we are, rather we can turn to Christ and see a tangible example of who we are called to be, we have someone to follow and show us the way who has walked the road before.

So what do we hope to accomplish this year? Do we want simply superficial change or, do we want to be fundamentally changed by God from the inside out? That is what this winter series is about, reconnecting with our God given identity, not being conformed by the world but being transformed by the One who created us and knows what we were intended to be.

Do me a favor, make this resolution for 2011. Resolve to open your heart and listen to Jesus as He tells you who you are during this series and beyond. Take a risk to look deep inside and ask“who am I?” , and then don’t run from or be discouraged or disgusted by the answer, rather lay it before the God who loves you, created you, named you, and ask  Him to take your life and redefine it. As Jon said, our job is simply to respond to the One who is already calling.

~Brenna

It has been amazing to see the generosity of folks at UPC and beyond who have given both time and money. 

Let me count the ways…

1.  RAYS.  Thank you to everyone who provided basic supplies for Renton Area Youth and Family Services (RAYS).  I got to see first hand the huge pile of soap, paper towels, cleaners and other basics you gave that were a huge blessing in helping struggling families make ends meet. 

2.  Volunteers.  Thank you to all those who wrapped presents on the 11th and even went out to buy more presents!  Thank you to all who volunteered at the breakfast on the 18th. Thank you to Jen, Carly and Annie especially for all your work in organizing things so we could take part!

3.  Haiti.  Thank you to everyone who has given toward building up the school in northern Haiti!  It has been an incredible privilege for me to bear witness to our community connecting with the church in Haiti.  It has been humbling for me to hear of abundant generosity – even from friends of my parents who wanted to give.  I can’t wait to see what the total will be and more importantly what this will mean to the community in Foison.

4.  Incarnation.  Thank you to Kyle and Jess in particular for all the work that you put into the concert on Friday night.  It was awesome and it was a gift.

That’s only a small segment of what has gone on here over the last few weeks, but one that I have personally gotten to see and experience.  Doing things like shopping for basics with my boys for families in need have allowed the Epps family to think beyond what we want to all that we have and all that God loves.

I hope the next couple of days are filled not just with activity but with windows for you to see and experience the incredible riches, blessing and purpose that are ours in Jesus Christ, born into this world.

Peace:: Jon

My experience in Haiti on University Ministries’ World Deputation was a game-changer in so many ways. Like so many on a cross-cultural mission, I found myself taking in the sights, smells, and stories of a new place. At times I was in great despair as my heart broke for the people I met in Haiti. Other times, I was filled with great hope, encouraged by those that clung to hope in those desperate conditions.

But the things I remember most about Haiti aren’t the living conditions or the sights and sounds—my most lasting memories are the relationships.  UPC’s missionaries Ray and Sandra Van der Pol hosted our deputation team, and they introduced us to what felt like the entire missionary community in Haiti. Among those we met was another UPC missionary, Bruce Robinson.

In our time spent in the northwest region of Haiti under Bruce’s supervision, we had the opportunity to work on a church, teach a vacation Bible school, and even take a little sabbatical to La Tortue. But Bruce himself made a greater impression on me than any of those projects or experiences. This was before Bruce met and married his lovely and perfectly matched wife, Deb, and the best way to describe Bruce at that time might be “rough around the edges.” If John the Baptist lived in the 21^st century and was a missionary in Haiti, he and Bruce would be kindred spirits.

Above all, Bruce demonstrated to me what it meant to pray without ceasing. Before we got into the car, we would pray. Before we left the car for whatever was next, we would pray. After we talked with someone on the street, we would pray. One time while hanging out with Bruce in Seattle, an ambulance went by with its sirens blaring, so we stopped our conversation to pray. On Bruce and Deb’s most recent visit to Seattle, I told Bruce this was my greatest impression of him. He smiled and told me that it’s the only way you last in Haiti. I believe him.

I might not be in ministry without some key words that Bruce spoke into my life. While on Deputation, I was working for the Seattle Mariners as an intern and was paving a nice path for myself into sports administration and management—and I was loving it. Bruce, as he dropped us off back in Port-au-Prince, pulled me aside and affirmed the gifts in pastoral ministry that he identified in me. He encouraged me to do the “sports thing” for a little while but then make my way into ministry. He told me I have “it.” I’m not sure I know what “it” is, but I never forgot Bruce’s words. And here I am.

I don’t know what it is about missions, but they create an environment where you can spend twelve days with someone and it’s only natural that they remain a friend for life. That’s what happened with the Van der Pols, and that’s what happened with Bruce. When I see the Van der Pols after a service at UPC, I’m always greeted with a hug. Similarly, I see Bruce about once every three years and it feels as if we connected about a month ago. Perhaps it’s sharing an adventure. Perhaps it’s sweating together. Perhaps it’s the Holy Spirit. Whatever it is, the relationships I formed in Haiti, including my friendship with Bruce Robinson, have changed me forever.

Sometimes in short-term mission trips it is really easy to go somewhere once without an awareness of impact and growth and leave a bigger dent in people’s lives than positive impact.  It is important to recognize the potential for negative impact and work against it.

Convergence and UPC is trying to actively develop a partnership with Bruce and Deb and with Haiti that is strong, positive and life-giving for the people in Haiti.  One way we are developing this is through building the school in Foison.  Jon begins talking about the school here.  In January 2009, the first Convergence team spent time in Foison working to get a water supply to the school.  Because of the passion of one of those team members, the children at UPC began raising money to help build a new building on the campus in Foison, and in January 2010 a team from Convergence set out to get started.  The work was continued by the community at Foison who were encouraged and strengthened by having support halfway around the world.  Next, a team in April 2010 joined to continue working, and now we have the unique opportunity to see this work through to completion!  Convergence is sending another team in April 2011, and if you are interested in being a part of this team, you can find more information here.

Not insignificant in developing this partnership are Bruce and Deb Robinson themselves.  I was blessed to have been a part of two trips to Haiti (January and April 2010), and in that have gotten to know Bruce and Deb.  They have been a continued blessing and encouragement on my own journey and have developed into mentors for me.  Their insight has helped me to clarify vision for my life, recognize my gifts and see how they can be used in service to others at home and around the world.

We have the opportunity here to support Bruce and Deb in their ministry and thank them for the impact they have made on our lives and on those they work with in Haiti.  More importantly though, we have the opportunity to come alongside a particular community in Haiti that needs support and encouragement.  They need some solid foundations to build their lives on.  We have the opportunity to engage the community of God across national borders and empower our brothers and sisters in Foison, and we have the opportunity to see God’s blessing in each other’s lives as we interact through this school.

It provides us with a story that illustrates clearly the power of hope and community.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so the saying goes.  So here’s an outline with pictures to say what word’s can’t.

Foison.  The school sits in a small village located  just up from a river.  In 2009 a team from Convergence first visited the school bringing computers and supplies to complete an electrical line down to a well by the water’s edge.  Without power, water for 500 + kids had to be brought up a steep hill by hand.  I was struck driving through the various villages how much of a bright spot Foison felt like – a community of hope.

The way things work.  Driving around Haiti,  I was struck by the absolute lack of basic infrastructure that I take for granted in the US.  Something as simple as getting a bag of cement an a few blocks is a major undertaking both in cost and transportation.  Therefore, when you have a dream of something as simple as a new building for a school, you take the few resources that you have and build as much as you can until the time that you add a bit more.  Therefore the foundations that you see above as markers of hope…delayed.  It also illustrates the crushing effects of poverty – foundations laid with the resources you have available – foundation though that would crumble easily.

The catalytic power of encouragement.  Last year, the kids in CFM gave their offering to provide for a new foundation – one that would last – and that has catalyzed a community to action.  To know that there is a community who is helping with resources and traveling to encourage them in their dream has turned a grazing field into a worksite.  Gravel is being hauled and produced for the cement to come.  This is their project, supported by local church leaders including Bruce Robinson, that they are more than willing to work for.  The don’t need us to do it – they just need the encouragement of those who can come alongside.

Investment.  There isn’t a crisis, school will go on, the community will be just fine.  We need to respond in mercy to who a crises arises, but this is something just as important. 

It’s an investment into tackling the larger challenges that plague Haiti.  It’s an investment in infrastructure that has a good chance of surviving hurricanes and earthquakes.  It’s an investment into the future leadership of Haiti.  It’s and investment that perhaps might build more here at UPC than it does in Haiti as we catch a glimpse of God’s redeeming passion for all of creation and the role that his redeemed people play in that.  A glimpse that teaches us that we are connected to more than the circumstances in front of us.

Peace ::Jon

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1.14

I loved one of the questions that came out last week after kicked off the series – what about people who are middle managers or even at the bottom of an organizational structure? 

So often when we talk about leadership it’s easy for our minds to drift to board rooms and executive suites – places of clear power – and think about being a leader when…

As we talked about in our last series, there are those who might have a particular gift of leadership but we all are called to have influence of one kind or another. The real questions are around what extent and what kind.

The wonder for me of Christmas is that the eternal Word chose not to make his dwelling first and foremost in an executive suite, but in the mail room so to speak.  The influence (leadership) that he brought was at the bottom, in the midst, not at the top.  The Word brought light to the seemingly darkest place to illuminate and bring hope to real people with real problems. 

That’s the invitation that we have this Advent.  The invitation to re-imagine influence and significance in the real places that we operate.  It means though that we will be involved in subversion of perhaps the most difficult kind – ourselves.  The subversion of Christmas is the subversion of every shiny idol of identity in which we seek to take the easy route of personal fame. 

What if instead of seeking to bend the light each and every day toward you, your accomplishments, what you deserve to get or be, toward your own mobility upward, your limited energy was spent for the benefit of others and the organization or company that you work for?

What project or task would you drop?

What thing that occupies all your energy would you let go of?

Who would you take an interest in, what would you add, what new project would you pour yourself into?

What if as a people we poured all of our gifts, passions, talents and creativity into joining God in new creation and restoration instead of self protection and promotion.

Pretty sure that the result would be something beautiful for UPC, the Church of Seattle, our places of work and school and our families.

Peace::Jon

  When:  Friday, December 17th, 8 pm.

  Where:  Daniel’s Recital Hall, 5th Ave & Marion St.

  Tickets:  $5.00 at  Brown Paper Tickets

"Incarnation" is a word that gets thrown around often during the season of Advent.  We sing songs like “Hark the Herald, Angels Sing!” with the line Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity.  Wait!  What does that actually mean?  The more we think about “incarnation,” the more we realize that it is a packed word, impossible to fully understand apart from faith. As we ponder the meaning, emotions such as wonder, mystery and awe are evoked.

Sometimes, words are not enough to unveil deep meaning and truth.  That’s where the arts (music, painting, drama, poetry, etc.) come in.  The arts are often best used as a way to communicate emotion (such as wonder and awe).  Art inspires more questioning, thought, and dialogue.  The incarnation is surely a subject that cannot easily be explained or understood through text alone.

The goal for this evening is to explore the incarnation using art (primarily music and poetry) in dialogue with scripture.  Though we cannot (and don’t intend to) explicitly answer every question and take away the mystery surrounding the incarnation, our hope is to point to the one answer we have: Jesus Christ, “the incarnate Deity” who was and is fully God and fully Man.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:14

Details:  This is a joint performance from First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue and University Presbyterian Church of Seattle.  There will be a full band complete with strings and brass, using musicians from both churches.  Poetry and scripture will be read throughout the evening, highlighting aspects of the incarnation.

All of the money from ticket sales will be donated and split between two charities: FPCB’s “Jubilee Reach Center” and UPC’s “Haiti School Building Project.”

If true discipleship only includes what you do inside a church building then we don’t follow a very big God.  If being a follower of Jesus doesn’t apply to our workplaces beyond what we put in the plate, I’m really not sure how the comic restoration of all things works out (Col. 1).  Maybe Paul was just got carried away. 

Don’t get me wrong – I’m into worship service and pastoral ministry – I am one for goodness sake.  I just think that the job of a pastor and even a worship service for that matter is to prepare people for the work of the ministry that they do throughout the week. 

I am also under no illusions that connecting faith and work is an easy task and get that pastors can be more of a pain in the butt than a help at times.  I can’t think of a more difficult task than trying to bring the character of Jesus to a work place that might be antagonistic to faith or at least see it in conflict with the success of the company or organization.  If there was ever a place for the power, wisdom and grace of the Holy Spirit, it’s in our places of work.

That’s why I’m so excited about the gathering this weekend on Making Work Meaningful.  Two amazing voices on the theology of work that I deeply respect and the chance to hash it out in a community of old and young.  It’s a rare opportunity and one that excites me about being part of UPC. 

Sunday’s good, but when our spirituality moves beyond a church service and truly informs and is informed by what happens the rest of the week – we’re talking about transformation.

If you can – go.

Peace:: Jon

That’s what we started out with way, way back in September.  Amazing.  Time flies and we are drawing to end – it’s time to celebrate and look forward.

To end things with a bang we are going to finish things up down at 415 Westlake and mix it up a bit.  The teaching will be short so what we can spend more time in response  to what we have heard through things like building hygiene kits together, communion, time to be prayed for and time to pray.  We’ll also mix it up musically, with time to hear all the new music that has been created this fall and then end in worship together.

Afterward will be time to hang out in the cafe and the opportunity to take a gifting assessment from Romans 12. 

Why a switch?  I’m sure that some of you are wondering why we are switching venues for the night.  A couple of reasons.

1. Fun.  It’s good to mix it up every now and then and 415 Westlake is a great venue.
2. It reminds us that Convergence is defined by relationships and not a room.
3. It’s a reminder the call in Romans is to go out and be the people of God – moving toward downtown if even for a night is a great image for us a community.
4. It’s a great opportunity to be exposed to another mission effort that is seeking to reach those who need to know God’s mercy in different ways.

It’s going to be awesome.  See you tomorrow night!

Peace :: Jon

Address: 

425 Westlake Ave N, Seattle 98109

Directions: 

· Head south on 15th Ave NE towards NE 45th St

· Take the first right onto 45th St

· Turn left at Roosevelt Way

· Continue on to Eastlake Ave

· Slight right onto Fairview Ave E

· Continue on to Valley street

· Turn Left onto Westlake Ave N

· Union will be on your right, just past Tesla and across the street from Tommy Bahamas

Parking:

1. There are around 20 spaces in the parking lot.
2. Lots of street parking within a block radius.
3. If all else fails, there is a huge pay lot one street to the west with a cheap night rate.
4. Go metro and don’t worry about parking!

Perhaps one of the reasons is that the thing that we might feel gifted at might not be something that we can say that we are great at…yet.  Perhaps it can feel like a prideful thing to say that I am gifted at something and in the church especially we aren’t supposed to be prideful.  The problem is that we can often slip into a false humility by not wanting to admit the strengths that God has given each one of us.  Gifts or strengths are those things where we get a sense of energy vs those things that we feel like we should do but we procrastinate on, have to work up a lot of energy to just get going and when we do engage them only produce mediocre results.  The test that I have given out and will provide again on Tuesday is called Motivations for Ministry for a reason – it highlights from Romans 12 what we are motivated to do.

The gifts in Romans 12 can appear very everyday natural things in which faith and the Spirit of God are not needed.  Not true.  The Spirit is deeply needed in two ways.  The first is in the courage to own the gifts that you have and present them before a community.  It takes a lot of courage to own something before others, especially when it is in the process of being developed.  To present it before a community means risking having people look at us and say, “really?”  It also means we have to accept our own limits.  We have to acknowledge that we can’t do everything, perhaps even the very thing that we think we should have to be valuable.  We have to accept that we are loved, valued and accepted beyond our performance.  That’s a miracle of the Spirit. 

I think the second difficulty around engaging what we got comes from the fact that we can’t really accept our limits until we can receive the gift of others doing what we can’t.  We have to experience community in which the thing I let go of is picked up and done better by someone else.  Until then, we will continue to try to do it all. 

The diagram below is my attempt at trying to figure out how to to articulate how all the gifts could come together in an creative and dynamic way.  As I think about it, it occurs to me that every dynamic team needs three elements – direction, action and growth. 

So my challenge to you is to think through the following diagram and series in three ways.

1. How is our church community engaging all the gifts of the people of God.
2. How can you expand your personal engagement of faith to experience more of what faith can mean.
3. Where are you uniquely gifted to make the greatest impact and where are the opportunities before you in small groups, church communities or work that need you to engage what YOU got?

I’m a slow learner and still learning.  Am I missing something?  Could this be better tweaked?  Help me out.  I don’t care about being right – I care about you and I living in view of mercy.

Peace:: Jon

How do we unpack that deep reality? Well, we have a rare opportunity to engage that question  here on November 20^th at the workshop, “Making Work Meaningful”. We are bringing in two wonderful speakers, Jeff Van Duzer and R. Paul Stevens, both of whom are in demand around the country on the topic of work and faith. Jeff is Dean of the Business School at Seattle Pacific University where I teach, and Paul is the author of some of the best books I’ve ever read on the topic.

I believe we’re in for a rich and rewarding day with them, and with each other. Jeff will give us an incisive, practical view of what business and work look like from God’s point of view. Paul will give us a rich understanding of how our relationship with the living God informs our approach to work and to our devotional life as followers of Jesus. But that’s not all. We will also spend time in “workshop” assignments & discussions throughout the day with other people who are intent on learning from one another, dealing with real life, and making connections with people who can help in our work and callings. I look forward to seeing you there!

Bruce Baker

Register and find out more information online

You may remember last spring when we took a few minutes out of our Tuesday night to put together hygiene kits for U-District homeless.  We have the opportunity to do this again, but this time we need your help!

Help us to come alongside the Deacon ministry of UPC in supporting the U-District homeless by bringing much needed supplies for these hygiene kits (see the flyer above).  Bring supplies to UPC on Sunday November 14, and join us for Convergence @ Union (11/16 @ 415) to put them together into kits.

Help The Homeless printable list

Kyle and Wes have been working on an EP over the last half year or so to experiment with the connection of old and new to create something unique in worship.

I love it for many reasons – first among them is that this is an example of doing something that brings together elements that often are separated and even pitted against each other.  They don’t have to be.  The Great Exchange is an  example of something creative and dynamic that can happen at a place like UPC when we fear neither guitar nor organ nor electronic nor choir.

In their own words:

This EP is a project that we did for two reasons: First, because we believe that worship should be rooted in the truth of scripture and the history of the Church, and second because we believe worship is a-stylistic. We hope to represent a wide variety of styles as we do music that is both new and ancient. For this EP, the electronic style is like the glue that holds it all together. We have done these songs in a way that is nearly impossible to reproduce but we encourage you to take what we have done and make your own arrangements that will fit your own worshiping context. Feel free to email us with questions or to request charts.

Any community always wrestles with questions around it’s uniqueness as it relates to the greater whole.  For Christians, the question arises around what has God uniquely called this particular body to do within the wider Body of Christ.  The style might resonate with you or you might hate it – but this EP taps into what I believe UPC is uniquely positioned and called to do.

Then again, I like just about like anything that looks like a convergence!

Peace::Jon

Call+Response is a movie centered around the issue of Human Trafficking.  I saw this movie a couple years ago and it was really informative, stirred some things up in my heart, and generally challenged me.  UPC will be hosting a screening of this film again, and I invite you to join me and talk about what it stirs up for us.

Where: UPC, in Calvin near the Kiosk.

When: Friday, November 5th, 7pm

contact me at carlyd@upc.org for more information