Back...

Got back from our trip to Richmond, VA tonight around 7... unloaded the van, carried water, talked to the neighbor for too long!, ate supper, went to the hospital to visit George, sold two items on ebay... now catching up on email and blog... will blog more tomorrow!

Good trip... starting to feel old! Glad to be home! There is no place like home!...even home without water... but that will change tomorrow a.m. I hope!

God is so awesome!

I've had such a neat God day... I am bubbling over! It is amazing how God shows up often when we least expect it and in ways that we can't imagine! That happened to me today and I can't wait to tell others about it...

I won't share it here now... because I want to tell it first tomorrow morning in worship...

But I promise one day next week, I will tell it here. Probably about Thursday... as I will be out of town at a church conference tomorrow night through Wednesday night.

YEAH GOD!

Did you know....

How many food commercials there are on television? Neither did I, before last night... when I had to starve myself all day due to a medical procedure today. Boy was it hard to watch all that temptation! It seemed like every commercial was for food! And the hard part was that they all looked good!

Isn't that how temptation is? When you can't or shouldn't have something... it always makes itself known and is very attractive.... but that's where prayer and the presence of the H.S. is very helpful! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me... Philippians 4:13.... last night was definitely a 4:13 moment!

What an incredible journey...

This past year has been an incredible journey for us at Community of Joy! God has done some amazing things! He provided a new Ministry Center, caused significant funds to be given to purchase and remodel the building, drew new people to join us in our journey, allowed us to operate a cold weather homeless men's shelter in our ministry center and to support another group in another week, caused two other churches to join us in cooperating in some ministries like the shelter and VBS, and the list goes on....

I am excited about our Celebration next Sunday... Anxious to hear people's stories, to see how God will move in our hearts to give generously toward the retirement of our debt, to begin thinking and praying about the coming year and eagerly anticipating what God will do in each of us and through each of us as we join him in the work he is doing!

And to think over a year ago, I was on the edge of throwing in the towel on ministry... and God got my attention and moved in some amazing ways... It's been a great year!

ALL thanks to God!

Some things I believe about mission...

1. God is at work in the lives of those outside the church as well as inside the church.
2. God invites us to join him in the work that he is doing.
3. People who are not part of the church are interested in spiritual matters.
4. People who are interested in spiritual matters and not connected to a church can be reached relationally.
5. Prayer is part of that process.
6. When we listen to those outside the church, we will learn where God is already at work in their lives.

Here's a great quote from Tangible Kingdom by Matt Smay and Hugh Halter...

"The incarnational big-story gospel will require a place of discovery, where people will be able to see the truth before they hear about it. This place will not be a location, but a community of people who are inclusive of everyone. These people will be making eternity attractive by how they live such self-less lives now and will be modeling life in a New Kingdom in ways that will make it easy for other people to give it a try. People like this aren't desperate to convert people; they are desperate to be like Christ and to be where he is. Their heartbeat is to be transformed into the image of Christ and to pray and work for little specks of transformation in everyone and everything they touch. Success is faithfulness and the rest is up to God!"

Hard to Believe...

It is hard to believe that in a little over a week, we will have occupied our Ministry Center for a year now! What a great and awesome year it has been! Looking forward to our Celebration Sunday on July 20, where we will look back and look forward.

In the coming year, I want us to look at who God has called us to be as Community of Joy! We will do that by looking at where God has placed us and the needs that are present there and by looking at who we -- what are the unique capabilities and resources God has given us and what particular focus most energizes us.

For me, I want to see us actively live our vision... being the hands and feet of Jesus and being a place where relationships matter. I want to see us identify ways we can make a profound difference in our community... ways we can bring up there, down here! Moving from an attractional model of ministry to an incarnational model of ministry.

I have a hunch that two groups of people that we can actively reach out to are the homeless and the university students...

What would happen if we reached out to the university students by sharing cold water on move-in day, inviting them to a free meal that night, then to another free meal the next week and then to our pork roast, and then we opened our building as a place to hang... sharing refreshments, free wi-fi, opportunities to connect?

What would happen if we purchased some property to turn into a transitional housing situation for a family on the edge and mentored them with life skills, financial counseling, and shared love with them?

What would happen if we bought a property and developed a training facility like DC Central Kitchen that would train street folks as we feed the hungry in our community?

Or what would happen if the burning desire of your heart became a reality and we found other ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus by actively reaching out with his love, hospitality, hope, healing, and peace?

It's time for us to think about, pray about, dream about such things! The growth of the church will be a by-product of our efforts to be the tangible kingdom of God!

Don't be that...

This past week at the work camp with our youth, Kevin Brown taught me something.... I overheard him saying to one of the other youth... something that I think is AWESOME. When one of the guys was getting out of line or beginning to act up... Kevin said, "Don't be that man!" "Don't be that woman!"

That statement is an awesome reminder that we can choose who we are... when things aren't going the way we want them to go or things are overwhelming us and we begin to act up or get out of line or aren't representing Jesus well... to be reminded by a brother or a sister... Don't be that man! Don't be that woman! is a great help!

Sometimes, that is all the reminder we need to change the course of our attitude or actions!

I have no idea where Kevin got that or if he made it up himself... but I like it a lot! Thanks Kevin!

Our final hours in D.C.

After eating lunch at the International Guest House and rounding up our belongings, we took our vehicles out to the New Carrolton Metro Station and hoped the metro back to Union Station. We enjoyed iced coffee drinks at Ebeneezer's Coffee House which is owned by National Community Church. We also attended their 5 p.m. worship service below the coffee shop... it was packed to overflowing... 170 plus people in a space that should hold about 125! People who wanted in, even had to leave due to no more space! They were participating in One Prayer and we heard their campus pastor's prayer for the church... Make us Doers! The neat thing for me was that the very passage of Scripture that he spoke about from James... was the passage I had planned to use for morning devotions but due to the hectic pace of running out of time at breakfast, I did not do devotions! In fact the message to be doers was the very emphasis I was going to make ... isn't God COOL!

We arrived home around 10:15 p.m. and I went straight to bed!

Our Last day in D.C.

Went to the Capital Area Food Bank today to ackage food for some daycare facilities next week.

It is a 48,000 sf facility where thousands of people are provided groceries. It gets donations from ara supermarkets that have slightly damaged packages or otherwise unable to be sold to the public. It is called food recovery... because the food would be thrown away otherwise.

LOTS of Serving...

Yesterday, we did LOTS of serving and today we will be serving as well! Yesterday was an absolutely FUN day! The fun started as we were on our way to the DC Central Kitchen, where they serve 4500 people a day! More on that later... we posed for pics in the fancy new CoJ/C2 youth shirts. Then the second bus driver helped us get where we were going even though his bus didn't get there. Then it was serving time...

After orientation, where we were told about this kitchen being the source of food for 4500 people in DC a day, we were each assigned a chef to work with... actually there were 4 or so chefs. Christian, Kevin and I cut up 100 pounds of potatoes, made a potatoe and carrots dish, filled pans with baked chicken for distribution, loaded pans with hotdogs, and helped to package the potatoes and carrots for distribution. Miss Tami, helped cut onions, cucumbers and to make cole-slaw. Miss Belinda was promoted to assistant to the chef and she monitored the ovens (approximately 10) and made a homemade soup (chicken and rice). Caroline, Brittany, and Kayla made two days worth of breakfast sandwiches.... for this morning and tomorrow. They made more than our Chef Mike though they would make!

Chef Mike was totally IMPRESSED with our group! AWESOME bunch of willing servants! I was TOTALLY PROUD of them!

After all that, about 12:15 we ate there with the other group from Kansas, who came to serve.

The DC Central Kitchen has a motto to cook as if for your family. They are the supplier of food to most of the DC region's soup kitchens and they also feed the residents in the shelter that is above the kitchen. The kitchen is a top notch commercial kitchen where they also operate a catering business from. They employ chefs and drivers... the drivers take the food to the shelters each day in nice box vans. They are funded by grants, in kind donations, and the profits from the catering business. It was founded by Robert Egger who then wrote a book (which I bought several years ago, but haven't read, indeed I will now though!)

Here is what the description on Amason.com says about DC Central "You are a good person. You are one of the 84 million Americans who volunteer with a charity. You are part of a national donor pool that contributes nearly $200 billion to good causes every year. But you wonder: Why don't your efforts seem to make a difference?

Fifteen years ago, Robert Egger asked himself this same question as he reluctantly climbed aboard a food service truck for a night of volunteering to help serve meals to the homeless. He wondered why there were still people waiting in line for soup in this day and age. Where were the drug counselors, the job trainers, and the support team to help these men and women get off the streets? Why were volunteers buying supplies from grocery stores when restaurants were throwing away unused fresh food every night? Why had politicians, citizens, and local businesses allowed charity to become an end in itself? Why wasn't there an efficient way to solve the problem?

Robert knew there had to be a better way. In 1989, he started the D.C. Central Kitchen by collecting unused food from local restaurants, caterers, and hotels and bringing it back to a central location where hot, nutritious meals were prepared and distributed to agencies around the city."

After serving... we went through the Holocost Museum... what a SAD and AWEFUL tragedy that memorializes... we were very numb when we finished walking through the main exhibit for 2 hours.

Then it was out to get rained on and supper and then fireworks near the Whitehouse and Washington Monument. Afterward, we waited for nearly an hour and 3/4 for a bus. Tami and I took advantage of the wait to do a photo op at the whitehouse... George and Larua didn't invite us in!

SORRY this is so long and the pics are out of order!

LOTS of WALKING today....

Today, we got breakfast early... and jumped on a bus to go to the capital area... to meet Phil Jones, the Church of the Brethren Washington Office Director and then we walked from his office to the Capital for a special tour he had arranged for us. Then we walked out onto the part of the Capital that will be used in January for the Presidential Inauguration and stood where the new President will take the oath of office.

While there, we hear the practice session for tomorrow night's fourth celebration with Huey Lewis and the News.... From there, we walked to the Lincoln Memorial touring it and the Vietnam War Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, WW Memorials and the Monument. From the Monument, we walked back to the capital and then to Union Station.... it was a LONG walk... we are all sore and the kids are questioning my guiding ability... though I did know where I was going and when they were concerned, I stopped two people to confirm my great sense of direction! It's just that is was about 25 block farther than I told them it would be!

The steps we are walking down in the pics are the very steps that the president walks down to get to the inauguration. The chamber is the old senate chamber and the pics with the large paintings are in the rotunda. The biggest disappointment of the day is that after taking these pictures, my camera memory card died!

It was my first time ever seeing the Vietnam War Memorial... and I was amazed at the wave of sadness that overtook me when I started walking down reading the names.... I almost burst out crying... what a sad thing war is!

Having a great time in D.C.

We arrived safely and in good time at our host site for our stay in D.C. It is the International Guest House which is run by the Allegany Conference of Mennonites. Wilbur and Helen Yoder, our volunteer hosts are very sweet and provide a very warm welcome. The pics are of the house and it's wonderful porch.

We walked 8 blocks tonight to get supper from a Carry out Chinese place that took about 45 minutes to prepare. The city definitely changed the farther we walked... and while we were waiting for dinner, we were glad that we were not staying in that part of town. The house is in a great section though.

At 9 p.m. every night... the 13 residents and staff all join together for tea in the living room. That was fun... we drank iced tea and had birthday cake for Wilbur's birthday and went around the circle introducing ourselves. One lady was from Harrisonburg VA and after a few more sentences we found out she grew up in Belleville PA... SMALL WORLD... There were other connections as well... a delightful time... met one lady... Rasy who is from Cambodia and is blind and homeless... but had enough money to travel from the streets of California to here... she spent last night at Reagan Airport and is here tonight and then will go back to the airport... interesting lady... I really enjoyed talking to her.

This is going to be a great experience for our kids... each morning they put the flags from the countries that the guests represent on the table at breakfast. Tomorrow there will be one for Cambodia, Congo, among others. Neat, neat experience!

Going to D.C. on a Work Camp Experience...

I am going with some of our senior high youth today through Saturday night to Washington D.C. on a work camp experience that Miss Tami put together for us.

We will be staying at the international guest house and tomorrow we will visit with the Church of the Brethren Washington Office director and will tour the capitol, meet our congressional reps and look at some of the monuments. Then Friday and Saturday, we will work at a soup kitchen and food bank. Of course, we will take in the 4th of July fireworks on Friday and on Saturday night, we will attend the 5 p.m. worship gathering of National Community Church which owns a coffe shop called Ebenezers.

It should be a fun and meaningful trip.

Some Quotes....

Here are some quotes to share and think about....

”Religious people have preferences; Missional people have stories” Bruce Wesley

“If you copy someone else’s vision, who will accomplish yours?” unknown

”What causes exclusive community is fear. What causes inclusive community is love!” Hugh Halter

“If people aren’t asking about our lives, then we haven’t postured our faith well enough or long enough.” Hugh Halter

“The gospel is the tangible life of God flowing into every nook and cranny of our everyday life.” Hugh Halter

“People who only dream of community usually destroy it, but those who love people without expectation unknowingly create it.” Hugh Halter

”Missional people are individuals committed to forming their character and lifestyle after those of Christ and who are compelled to live out their faith in the context of a community.” Hugh Halter

God's Amazing Work....

During this One Prayer series, where I had a significant break from preaching, I had decided that I wanted to use the extra time I had to wrestle with the question (through prayer and reading) of how we as a congregation get to the next level. A friend of mine, Jeff Glass, suggested a book to me... so, I bought it and a sequel and read them both. In the mean time, one Sunday after worship, Connie Polovina was talking to me about next steps and asked what my vision was for the congregation. Then I saw two more books that looked helpful in this quest and I purchased and read them. Turns out they were VERY helpful.

One of the things that I was concerned about was that in 1999 when Sharon and I first came to Community of Joy, things were booming for the first 10 months -- excitement was high and attendance and giving jumped to all time highs for us as a congregation. Part of that was excitement of new leadership and part of that was an intentional vision casting process and part of that was some new ways of doing things.... BUT about 10 months into the journey, things started to plateau and then we began the slow decline until a year ago, when we purchased our ministry center and things took off again... however, in recent months the plateau has begun again... some of that is due to loosing our sign out front... but I think it is more than that... I am beginning to see that we have a vision issue again... NOT that we don't have a vision, but that our vision is mostly words on a paper and not a song in our hearts. Part of the vision issue is that for some the motivating vision is still to become a self-supporting congregation... which includes owning a building, meeting our budget, paying our mortgage, and modest growth. But there has to be more to vision than that!

The book that was most helpful to me in this regard is called Church Unique by Will Mancini... in it Will shares a process that helps us determine what our UNIQUE vision from God is and then offers a framework to integrate that vision so that it motivates us on to new levels. It all begins with developing a Kingdom Concept... which is the simple, clear, big idea that defines how our church will glorify God and make disciples... based on the local opportunities where God has placed us, the unique resources and capabilities that God brings together in us and the particular focus that most energizes and animates us.

One of the things that I realized and this book confirms is that without a motivating vision that is unique to us... we jump from one idea to the next in the hopes that something will get us where we want to go. I confess that I am part of a movement of pastors in America that have hopped on the Conference bandwagon that we spend time at ministry conferences hearing what is happening in certain churches and then try to imitate that hoping that it will help us too! Doing this ignores the fact that God has made each church unique and called us to a unique purpose. God doesn't mass produce his church... each church is unique. "If we copy someone else's vision, who will accomplish ours?"

I think it is time to clarify our vision! And I am exploring a relationship with a Navigator who will help us do that and will be working with and through the leadership team to determine where we go next. The one thing I am sure of... I don't want to enter a decline again... I want to continue moving forward on mission... being the hands and feet of Jesus in the community and world.

Another thing I am clear on is ... growing the church is the by-product of vision and not the vision. The church will grow as we live out our God given unique vision in the place where God has planted us!