We are on the verge of a very exciting time at Creekside.  Can’t wait.

Between now and Labor day I will be leading the staff, the elders and deacons, and doing the bulk of the preaching.  We just hired a new Youth Pastor, and we are preparing to bring on a New Worship Pastor, the adoption of the Rock Church which will become Creekside Lynnwood, etc.  There are all kinds of amazing things that are going to be happening over the Summer and if you are a part of Creekside Church you don’t want to miss all that’s going to happen over the summer.  This summer is going to be a time of preparation for us all.

Let’s get ready for the exciting Journey that God is leading us on.

Creekside Church could have just decided to grow by growing bigger and bigger buildings.  That could totally work.  But that’s expensive, takes a lot longer, and centralizes the mission of the gospel in one place.

God has been working on giving us a different vision for how to move the Gospel forward.  Creekside Church is not a huge church, we’ve been consistently growing, we’ve been becoming more healthy as an organization, and we have become more dedicated to our mission.

So we are going multi-site, and we are starting by adopting the Rock Church in Lynnwood.  The Rock Church will become Creekside Lynnwood.  Their pastor Scott Fenton will become a campus pastor of Creekside.  We will share the same mission, purposes, core values, etc.  Scott will preach live at Creekside Lynnwood, Don will preach live at Creekside MLT.

Last night’s celebration was a wonderful time of worship, communion and vision casting as we began to lay out the plans that we currently have for this transition and the public launch on September 16.  This seems like it’s a long way away but there are a lot of details that we have to work through in the transition.  We want to do as much as possible as smoothly as possible so we don’t want to rush into anything.

The founding pastor of the Rock Church, Scott Harris, led us in a kind of adoption ceremony.  It was great to see the founder of the Rock church honor Scott Fenton and celebrate this journey.  The Harrises are currently working through the adoption process as a family and the words that he keeps hearing from others is, “Adoption will change your life.”  Creekside MLT, our lives will be changed.  Creekside Lynnwood, our lives will be changed, and our prayer is that through this adoption that we will continue to see the Family of God grow in both communities.

We are better together than apart.  Looking forward to a pretty exciting at both Creekside Campuses and beyond.

Anyway.  

I spent much of this week at our Network’s annual conference.  It was great.  The best part about these kinds of gatherings is that it reminds me that I’m not doing ministry alone.  Creekside Church is not doing ministry alone.  We are connected with other people who are committed to the mission of the Gospel.  We want each other to succeed.  Talking with the different leaders that were gathered together it was so great to see that we truly are better together than alone. 

If you are a church leader and you don’t go to your network’s gatherings.  You need to fix that.  If you don’t have a netword that gathers together then start something with other churches in your community.  It is incredibly important that you not try to do this alone. 

I’m being reminded that when we let Jesus and the Holy Spirit do their job, we can walk in peace in the midst of our messiness and the messiness of the people around us.  I’m not responsible to fix you and your issues.  That’s the Spirit’s job of transformation. 

At the same time I don’t celebrate my messiness.  I acknowledge my own sin, my own weakness and keep focusing on Jesus.  The more I focus on Jesus who I want to be like, the less I focus on my mess. The more I live like Jesus, the less inclined I am to stay in my mess. 

Jesus takes people in their messiness and makes us beautiful.  This song by Gungor reminds us of this.  If you have a few minutes listen to this song and ask Jesus to help make a beautiful thing out of your mess.

The tension has been at work as we process what’s happened and what still needs to happen with who does what and how and for how long.  All that fun stuff.

The tension is at home as my wife and I who share a friendship with this team member and his family process what’s going on.

The tension is with this team member, mainly because I don’t know what to say.  (See previous comment about emotions).

I woke up this morning thinking about a song from the band Sixpence None The Richer.  The song is Tension Is A Passing Note.  If you want to listen to the song here it is:

Now I know this song is not earning me any masculinity points and I’m fine with that.  I wanted to share this because tension can serve as something that you get hung up on or it can be something that transitions into something much more beautiful.  This idea that tensions is a passing note comes from the idea of Suspended Chords.  The sound of these suspended chords can create dissonance because it’s something that we are not used to hearing.  Or it can create a tension that we wait to be resolved.  And when that tension is finally resolved it can give the listener a sense of aural relief.  Our ears are used to certain kinds of music and sounds.  And these tensions notes raise our awareness that something is different.

People are aware when there is tension in a room.  And if that tension is not addressed and resolved it can seriously damage relationships and organizations.  If we let the the tension in the chord go on to long people will turn the music off.  But if we let tension serve as the transition into relief then we learn to like the sound and we learn that tension is not forever and it can be resolved.

Who do you need to resolve tension with?  What steps do you need to take to bring forgiveness and grace?  This tensions doesn’t have to last forever.  It can become something that makes your relationship more beautiful.  Bring resolution.

Makes me think of this song as well.

This is something that he said about hope:

“Hope, the conviction that God will bring things to full, glorious completion, is no and explanation of anything.  Indeed, biblical hope most often has little suggestion about how to get from here to there.  It si rather an exultant, celebrative conviction that God will not quit until God has had God’s full way in the world.  On the one hand, such an affirmation is an antidote to our deep despair that most often can see no way out of our present vexation.  On the other hand, such an affirmation of hope is a warning about our self-sufficiency that imagines that in our own power we can have life on our own terms, no or in time to come.”

Wow.  God will have God’s way in the world!  That is where I place my trust.  It’s not just using wishful thinking to make a difference in the world.  It is the confidence that God is God and he will accomplish his purposes in the world. 

This is probably the most amazing thing you will see all day. Kids are awesome and adults who are willing to be kids also awesome!

I was reading in Douglas Moo’s Romans Commentary in the NICNT and came across this passage that I wanted to share.  He is addressing specifically Paul’s statement in 5:20, “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more . . .”  The idea being that the Law as was given to Moses made sin obvious to all who read the Law.  I love Moo’s explanation:

“Paul has emphasized throughout this paragraph, God’s grace is more than sufficient to overcome the increase in the power and seriousness of sin brought by the law. For in that very place where sin “increased,” grace ‘super-increased.” Paul’s purview is salvation history, considered in its broadest dimensions, and his point is simply that the law’s negative purpose in radicalizing the power of sin has been more than fully met by the provisions of God’s grace. However deep in the power of sin Israel may have sunk, God’s grace was deeper yet. How many times, after reminding Israel of her blatant, repeated sin, do the prophets yet proclaim the willingness of God to forgive; indeed, his settled purpose to bless his people, in spite of themselves. In Christ, of course, we find the fulfillment of the promise of God’s “superabounding” grace.” (Moo, NICNT 348-349)

I love the idea of grace super-increasing.  Through the work of Jesus on the Cross, his grace is maginified and amplified in the midst of all of our depravity.  ”Superabounding” grace is a wonderful thing and it’s available to all who put their faith in Christ.  It’s available to all of us, we just need to receive it.  

Superabounding Grace!  

Love it.

“There can be no return movement from the righteousness of Christ to the fall of Adam.  The life which springs from death is wholly pre-eminent over the life which engenders death and is enclosed by it.  There is a death which is the death of death: and this is the theme of the Gospel.  The Gospel is the power of God, the power of the Resurrection; it is the ‘miraculous warfare’ (Luther), the paradox; it is faith, as the primal and creative factor.  The Gospel is our life; and yet is is not ‘our’ life.  Where faith and the power of God are, men are what they are not.  They stand as new men on the threshold of a new world, the world of life.”

Awesome. 

We do short term trips like this knowing that we won’t solve all the worlds problems but we can help a few people.  And when we focus on what we can do instead of what we can’t do, we’re amazed by what God can do with what we offer. 

Here’s a quick video I made to show you what we did.