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So I came across this article. I took an astronomy class My Senior year in Highschool. Ever since then I have been facinated with Space. Becuase it’s so huge and beautiful and amazing, and God the Creator is still bigger, more beautiful, and more amazing.

Astronomers have for the first time penetrated the fog of the earliest universe and caught sight of it as a tiny marble-sized infant, just one-trillionth-of-a-second-old.

“We have new evidence that the universe went from microscopic to astronomical in the wink of an eye,” announced Charles Bennett, principal investigator for the space-borne Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and a professor at Johns Hopkins University.

I’m not trying to endorse the Big Bang Theory or evolution. I just thought this was an amazing article

Well, I created a transit ministries blog/website. I have a free trial through typepad right now, and we’ll see if it gets any traction. I liked typepad for that because even though it costs money it allows for a little bit more funtionality than blogger.

But I digress. I also went with the blog format because it’s easy to update and keeps good archives. Check it out, see what we are talking about, see events, eventually I’ll be putting up pictures from events and stuff on there.

So I watched 24 last night. I can’t believe what they are doing this season, first they kill President Palmer, Michele, Edgar, Tony, Now Audrey is in question. I just don’t know who to trust any more. Are they going to Kill Chloe and Curtis too? I just don’t know.

I used to tell everyone to watch 24 because it’s a great show, but it really is addicting so you might not actually want to get hooked.

What a great book. There were definitely some dry spells there, but the last chapter was what the book was building to and it definitely paid off. I feel that Newbigin was very clear that our faith needs to be risked from time to time.

In the last chapter, “The Gospel Among the Religions” Newbigin reminds the readers that as enter into the religious dialogue with people, we are in essence risking our faith and our beliefs while still trusting the supremacy of Christ. If we are not risking our faith then we are not utilizing our faith.

One of the thoughts that jumped out at me was the need for kenosis, or self-emptying, whenever we go into this dialogue, it’s not about us. I think when we try to jump into the mission of the church, to often we try to go on our own knowledge or cleverness and end up with a one sided conversation. We can’t do this. We need to enter the discussion fully relying on Christ and the Holy Spirit, and we have to be willing to accept that our conversation with people who don’t believe, may end up changing us for the better. We may and can be transformed by an non-Christian, and that can be a good thing. We can learn about compassion, modesty, love, service, all from people who don’t follow Jesus. Is that so bad?

God is the father of truth, so if something is true and good, then it reflects God.

I’d like to add this paragraph from the book that I though was pretty powerful.

There is no substitute for the gift of discernment, no set of rules or institutional provisions by which we can be relieved of the responsibility for discernment. Dialogue cannot be “made safe for all possible risks.” The Christian who enters into dialogue with people of other faiths and ideologies is accepting the risk. But to put my Christianity at risk is precisely the way by which I confess Jesus Christ as Lord — Lord over all worlds and Lord over my faith. It is only as the church accepts the risk that the promise is fulfilled that the Holy Spirit will take all the treasures of Christ, scattered by the Father’s bounty over all the people and cultures of mankind, and declare them to the church as the possession of Jesus.

I read 1 John this morning, a book that is full of love and encouragement to keep serving God. And I think often what keeps us from serving God is this fear of risk.

But God is love and John reminds us that

There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life — fear of death, fear of judgment — is one not yet fully formed in love.

Fear Not — Risk trusting God. If anyone wants a book that will remind them of the mission of the Church then The Open Secret by Leslie Newbigin is a great read.

I have really been digging this book The Open Secret by Leslie Newbigin. He was a missionary and professor of missions, and this books is all about the mission of the church. As our church is currently going through a replanting process I am finding this book to be very helpful to refocus on what we are all about.

I was challenged by the below quote because it emphasized the fact that there can be no one size fits all church:

The central thrust of all Rolan Allen’s Writing is expressed in the title of a posthumously published work, The Ministry of the Spirit. Allen’s charge against modern missions was that they had been tempted by their alliance with colonial power to act as though the mission of the church could be pursued in the style of a cultural and educational campaign, as though the object was to multiply replicas of the sending churches. In contrast to this Allen rightly saw that in the New Testament portrayal of mission the central reality is the active work of the living Holy Spirit himself. It is the Spirit who brings about conversion, the Spirit who equips those who are called with the gifts needed for all the varied forms of ministry, and the Spirit who guides the church into all truth. The Spirit is not the property of the sending church or the missionary who is sent. It is not part of the missionary’s duty to mold the new church into the style of the old. The Spirit is sovereign and free, and the missionary must trust the Spirit to do his own work. Where Christ is confessed, where the word of the gospel is preached and the sacraments of the gospel are administered, and where there is a ministry that binds the new community to the wider fellowship of the catholic (universal) church, there, Allen believed the Holly Spirit must be trusted to provide all that is needed, and the missionary has done his or here work and can move on.

I was really encouraged by this passage because even though our church is moving only 5 miles north, we cannot be the exact same church. We have to reach the community that we are going to, and we have to trust the Spirit to guide us in that path. We have to trust the Spirit more than our own cleverness or education of experience. Because what worked before is not guaranteed to work again. The Spirit is creative and wise enough to bring fresh ideas to reach the new community.

I am so excited to become Creekside Church, and I am eager to see how the Spirit transforms us and moves us.

God help us to trust you more. Amen!

Hey All, here’s this weeks text for >>beyond>> It’s taken from the Message:

27After this he went out and saw a man named Levi at his work collecting taxes. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” 28And he did–walked away from everything and went with him.

29Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus. Everybody was there, tax men and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner. 30The Pharisees and their religion scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. “What is he doing eating and drinking with crooks and “sinners’?”

31Jesus heard about it and spoke up, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? 32I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders–an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.”

33They asked him, “John’s disciples are well-known for keeping fasts and saying prayers. Also the Pharisees. But you seem to spend most of your time at parties. Why?”

34Jesus said, “When you’re celebrating a wedding, you don’t skimp on the cake and wine. You feast. Later you may need to pull in your belt, but this isn’t the time. As long as the bride and groom are with you, you have a good time. 35When the groom is gone, the fasting can begin. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!

36″No one cuts up a fine silk scarf to patch old work clothes; you want fabrics that match. 37And you don’t put wine in old, cracked bottles; 38you get strong, clean bottles for your fresh vintage wine. 39And no one who has ever tasted fine aged wine prefers unaged wine.”

I would love to hear what jumps out at you in this text.

Hope to hear from you

So last night we had a worship Concert for Speed the Light. It went really well. This whole evening was the brain child of Tessie Brown. She had to do a senior project and she wanted to do a concert and she figured lets benefit Speed the Light.

Rock On TESSIE!!!

It went really well. The Band played well, the spirit of worship was really great. and we raised $208.20 for Speed the Light. For those of you unfamiliar with Speed the Light it is an organization by which the teenagers of our denomination raise money for missionaries to buy cars and sound systems, computers, projectors, whatever they need to get the gospel out. It’s a great organization and I’m really happy that we are a part of this.

Go Tessie for a great night

So I singed on to blogger this morning and I was thrilled to see a link to MC Hammer’s Blog. Some of you might find this interesting others will find it just annoying but either way. Here it is.

Well the amish era at tNC is over for now. But I’m sure technology demons will return. Let’s pray that God will protect us from those oppressive spirits.

But with the amish era over I finally am in a place to process some of the stuff that I picked up from leader’s summit. First of all I think that Jeffrey Portman is the man Every year summit is one of the highlights fo the year. And This year was no different. I really appreciate Jeffrey’s heart for the leaders he leads. He closed out the conference with a call for all the leaders of the Northwest Ministry Network to pray. Prayer is our greatest tool to reach students. More powerful than any game, outreach, illustrated message, or anything is prayer, and I needed to hear that.

But Let’s go back to the beginning.

Earl Creps was one of the key speakers for this weekend. This is my take on Earl. He loves God, Church and leaders, and he wants those leaders to stop huddling and get out into the culture and reach people. I had heard of Earl before but I didn’t understand why everyone was in love with him. But know having heard from him myself I understand why.

One of the things that really stuck out from one of his talks was this statement:

You have to know who your are or others will try to make you who you aren’t.

I thouhg that was really interesting. I think my ministry experience so far has really helped me to understand this principle, but he solidified it quite nicely.

He was talking about Paul and Timothy, and how Paul was trying to reach both the Jews and the Greeks and timothy was both jewish and greek. He was equating youth ministry to timothy, this kind of inbetween person, and youth pastor today are between generations. And how Timothy had to make sacrifices for greater effectiveness. We need to ask ourselves what kind of sacrifices are we willing to give, what kind are we willing to be. Very informative. I was really challenged by his talk.

I went to a break out session with Earl and he talked about what youth pastors would only say to other youth pastors, he blogged about it here. I was very encouraged by a lot of what he had to say. And challenged as well. It was quite good.

The other featured speaker was a Scottie Gibbons the youth pastor or ReaLife Ministries. He was very inspiring. He has been in the same ministry for something like 13 years. I hope that I can have that kind of longevity. I really was challenged to think big picture of the right now, not just stuff that I think God might be calling me to some time. I don’t know if that makes any sense to anyone reading this but it makes clear sense to me (deal with it).

Scottie talked about Prayer on the closing day, but he also talked about running. and How we need to know our goals and be disciplined. Don’t look away but run and work hard. So that was good to hear as well.

Portman brought up quite a scary thought in his main session. We are one generation away from being biblically illiterate in our nation. Crazy. I really want to do my part to help equip students with a working understanding and love for the Bible. I hope that I can reach a lot of kids with the message of the Gospel and show them how to get the WORD into their lives.

The breakout sesssions were really great as well.

Where I was really inspired and what made this whole weekend worth it was that the leaders that I brought with me were inspired to make our ministry great. Two of my leaders sat in a session where they learned about Aaron and Hur and how they helped Moses hold up his arms when they were fighting the Amalekites and as long as Moseses Arms were up the Israelites were winning, but whenever Moses’ arms fell they lost. So they are trying to organize our leaders to help me to hold my arms up. And this was totally their own idea. They are going to run with it. And I just can’t thank them enough for it.

Youth Leaders Summit is worth it every year for me and my team and I am so grateful that I work in a network of leaders who care about equipping and strengthening their leaders.

I am as close to amish as I EVER want to be right now. Our church is at this present time without our network, so to send out emails, blog, or anything like that I have to go to the public library where they heave free wi-fi, that’s not so bad. What is multiplying my frustration is that my desktop computer is currently out of comission and that computer has all of my data bases, distribution lists, and hundreds of other timesavers. GRRRRR.

I hate technology when it doesn’t work right. I have been wanting to blog about this past weekend leaders summit but I just have not had the will to do so at the library. It’s very, very, very frustrating.

But I will live, I know I sound like a whiner but c’mon technology, give me a break here.