Thursday, September 20, 2007
Alpha
After a couple of years' hiatus, Alpha is rolling again, thanks to the efforts of Pastor Brian and the Alpha team. It would be typical to think about how much of an impact Grace Community can have on seekers and new Christians by reaching out through Alpha. But on our Anniversary Sunday I was thinking about the tremendous impact that Alpha has had on Grace Community, how so many Alpha alumni have done so much at Grace (your pictures were up front in the slide show!). Alpha deserves all the support we can give it. Many, many thanks to those of you who are helping out with everything from facilitating discussion to serving dinner. What you're doing now will have an impact on both the Alpha guests and on us as a church community.
God sighting - CYES
In our staff meeting on Tuesday I found out from Wendy that one of the teachers at Champion Youth Education Services, the after-school program that uses 701 E. Meadow on weekday afternoons, is a Christian and is looking for ways to utilize his position to spread the Gospel. I guess I'd always assumed that any influence for God on CYES would have to come from us. Who would've thought that it would start as an "inside job"? Guess God got there first. Let's pray for CYES and that our relationship with them to be a source of grace.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
finances
The leadership team has worked hard to face the financial challenge in front of us. And so has the Holy Spirit.
In order to retain our family ministries intern while remaining financially responsible, we let you know exactly what the financial need was and asked you to participate in meeting that need. People did step forward and contributed so that after a week the internship was over half funded. And then in the last couple of days, 2 anonymous donors, unknown to each other, offered matching grants that more than covered the remainder.
The numbers are significant, but what impresses me is the fact that there are people who want to encourage other people to give. They don't have the opportunity that I do to address the church community on Sundays, so they've let their generosity be their sermon. Part of their statement is that we're in this together, that this is a community effort. In an individualistic society in which money is a taboo topic, it's great to see finances used to encourage us to do something together.
In order to retain our family ministries intern while remaining financially responsible, we let you know exactly what the financial need was and asked you to participate in meeting that need. People did step forward and contributed so that after a week the internship was over half funded. And then in the last couple of days, 2 anonymous donors, unknown to each other, offered matching grants that more than covered the remainder.
The numbers are significant, but what impresses me is the fact that there are people who want to encourage other people to give. They don't have the opportunity that I do to address the church community on Sundays, so they've let their generosity be their sermon. Part of their statement is that we're in this together, that this is a community effort. In an individualistic society in which money is a taboo topic, it's great to see finances used to encourage us to do something together.
anniversary thoughts
Tomorrow we're celebrating our ninth anniversary as a church community (the actual date was Sept. 13). As I've been thinking about this anniversary, it's occurred to me that we are entering the year before our 10th anniversary. True, I'm not the most brilliant mathematician, but the significance of this is about more than just simple arithmetic.
I remember when we started Grace Community in our living room and were dreaming the vision that God gave us. There were a bunch of numbers attached to the vision, but it was all about what we'd look like in our tenth year. So now I'm thinking about what we'll look like in our twentieth year. That original vision was developed as a way of directing us in our first decade. And now I see this coming year as a time to develop our direction for the next decade.
To be honest, I don't think any of the leadership team (including myself) has a clear picture of where we'll be after the second decade. The only one who does is God. So that's who we should be consulting. This coming year needs to be about discerning together what God has in mind for us. It needs to be a year of prayer and preparation. Not intercessory asking prayer, but contemplative listening prayer. We need to know what is on God's heart and how that applies to the specific time and place in which he's put us.
There's lots to celebrate and I'm looking forward to the year-in-review slide show and congratulatory words from our superintendent, Evelyn Johnson. I was just telling my kids after bedtime prayers that if we hadn't been used by God to start this church community they wouldn't have all the friends that they do now. God's brought a lot of great people into our lives through this work of his called Grace Community. And I know that I can trust his plans for our future to be good plans, full of blessing for us so that we can be a blessing to this world that he loves and for which his Son gave his life.
I remember when we started Grace Community in our living room and were dreaming the vision that God gave us. There were a bunch of numbers attached to the vision, but it was all about what we'd look like in our tenth year. So now I'm thinking about what we'll look like in our twentieth year. That original vision was developed as a way of directing us in our first decade. And now I see this coming year as a time to develop our direction for the next decade.
To be honest, I don't think any of the leadership team (including myself) has a clear picture of where we'll be after the second decade. The only one who does is God. So that's who we should be consulting. This coming year needs to be about discerning together what God has in mind for us. It needs to be a year of prayer and preparation. Not intercessory asking prayer, but contemplative listening prayer. We need to know what is on God's heart and how that applies to the specific time and place in which he's put us.
There's lots to celebrate and I'm looking forward to the year-in-review slide show and congratulatory words from our superintendent, Evelyn Johnson. I was just telling my kids after bedtime prayers that if we hadn't been used by God to start this church community they wouldn't have all the friends that they do now. God's brought a lot of great people into our lives through this work of his called Grace Community. And I know that I can trust his plans for our future to be good plans, full of blessing for us so that we can be a blessing to this world that he loves and for which his Son gave his life.
God sightings
I met with Susan and Bich on Thursday, our regular monthly meeting about prayer ministry at Grace Community. It's been building slowly, but momentum for prayer ministry is starting to become more noticeable. It did my heart good to see people coming up for prayer a couple of Sundays ago when we had a special emphasis on prayer ministry. All of the prayer helpers made themselves available (instead of the usual 2) and were kept busy for half an hour after worship. I know there was a lot of healing and sustaining grace activated in a lot of people's lives that day.
What's the next step? To hear the stories of how God's healing and grace are at work. If you have a "God-sighting" story, let Bich or Susan know through the feedback card or by emailing prayer@graceconnections.com.
But back to our meeting. We set in motion a plan to provide prayer covering for every ministry at Grace. The details will be coming together over the next month. In the meantime, don't wait for a newsletter or prayer sheet. Find out a little about what's going on in a ministry that you care about, whether it's singles, kids, local involvements or global involvements. Then pray for that ministry. And don't forget to report your own "God-sighting" when you see God at work.
What's the next step? To hear the stories of how God's healing and grace are at work. If you have a "God-sighting" story, let Bich or Susan know through the feedback card or by emailing prayer@graceconnections.com.
But back to our meeting. We set in motion a plan to provide prayer covering for every ministry at Grace. The details will be coming together over the next month. In the meantime, don't wait for a newsletter or prayer sheet. Find out a little about what's going on in a ministry that you care about, whether it's singles, kids, local involvements or global involvements. Then pray for that ministry. And don't forget to report your own "God-sighting" when you see God at work.
J2M thoughts
At the cluster retreat on Tuesday and reminiscing last night with Sam & Angela the topic of the Journey to Mosaic came up (if you don't know what I'm talking about check out www.pswc.org and click on the bus or click here). It made me realize that there are a lot of misconceptions about the trip. And that people get excited about it when they find out what it's really like.
Some Asian Americans think it's pointless to rehearse again the inequities of the past. But the trip isn't about downloading data points. It's about processing the data and finding hope for the future. Maybe it's just typically Asian to think that nobody cares and that nothing will get done and so we should just eat the bitterness and work harder at proving ourselves. But that's not the biblical approach. If one member of the body hurts, we all hurt (1 Cor. 12:25). And we must both bear each other's burdens and carry our own load (Gal. 6:1-2). Which is to say that Asian Americans have hurts in our past, but so do African Americans and Hispanics and Native Americans and even people in the white majority. So we must all confess and forgive. That's the process by which we will find healing (James 5:16).
That's what makes the Journey so unique. It's an opportunity to really hear each other's stories, to vent in a safe environment, to be challenged with new information, to do whatever it takes so that the Holy Spirit can give us all a greater desire to proclaim and live out the Gospel of God's desire to reconcile the world to himself.
So consider going on the Journey, even if you consider yourself an expert in American and/or California history. It's not just about the past, it's for the future. And for the Kingdom.
Some Asian Americans think it's pointless to rehearse again the inequities of the past. But the trip isn't about downloading data points. It's about processing the data and finding hope for the future. Maybe it's just typically Asian to think that nobody cares and that nothing will get done and so we should just eat the bitterness and work harder at proving ourselves. But that's not the biblical approach. If one member of the body hurts, we all hurt (1 Cor. 12:25). And we must both bear each other's burdens and carry our own load (Gal. 6:1-2). Which is to say that Asian Americans have hurts in our past, but so do African Americans and Hispanics and Native Americans and even people in the white majority. So we must all confess and forgive. That's the process by which we will find healing (James 5:16).
That's what makes the Journey so unique. It's an opportunity to really hear each other's stories, to vent in a safe environment, to be challenged with new information, to do whatever it takes so that the Holy Spirit can give us all a greater desire to proclaim and live out the Gospel of God's desire to reconcile the world to himself.
So consider going on the Journey, even if you consider yourself an expert in American and/or California history. It's not just about the past, it's for the future. And for the Kingdom.
Friday, August 31, 2007
leadership team mtg reflections
I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last post. I'm definitely not in the habit of blogging yet. But I'm trying: pray for me! And speaking of prayer...
On Monday we had our longest meeting yet under Kenny's tenure as Grace Community's chair: we didn't finish till almost 11 pm. Why? We want to present a sound budget for FY2008 (starting in October). We discussed the church's goals and vision and how the budget can reflect that while being fiscally responsible. I was impressed with the robustness of the dialog. Everything was on the table with no hidden agendas. And it was built on a foundation of solid biblical reflections on leadership in Kenny's devotional.
Thanks to all of you who are praying for us as we continue to face this financial challenge. We realize that there's still a lot of work to do, so we've postponed the town hall and community meetings so that we have more time. Please pray for ministry teams that still need to submit their budgets. Pray for Mike as he guides the process for the ministry teams. Pray that by the end of September we'll raise the $19,500 that's needed for our internship fund so that we can keep Sarah with us. Pray for the leadership team meeting on 9/17 as we put together the draft of the budget. Pray for the town hall meeting (9/24) when we present the budget for the first time and get further input. And pray for the community meeting (9/29) when we vote on the budget.
On Monday we had our longest meeting yet under Kenny's tenure as Grace Community's chair: we didn't finish till almost 11 pm. Why? We want to present a sound budget for FY2008 (starting in October). We discussed the church's goals and vision and how the budget can reflect that while being fiscally responsible. I was impressed with the robustness of the dialog. Everything was on the table with no hidden agendas. And it was built on a foundation of solid biblical reflections on leadership in Kenny's devotional.
Thanks to all of you who are praying for us as we continue to face this financial challenge. We realize that there's still a lot of work to do, so we've postponed the town hall and community meetings so that we have more time. Please pray for ministry teams that still need to submit their budgets. Pray for Mike as he guides the process for the ministry teams. Pray that by the end of September we'll raise the $19,500 that's needed for our internship fund so that we can keep Sarah with us. Pray for the leadership team meeting on 9/17 as we put together the draft of the budget. Pray for the town hall meeting (9/24) when we present the budget for the first time and get further input. And pray for the community meeting (9/29) when we vote on the budget.
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