watershed: a community church

For a couple of weeks now we've been wrestling with some big questions - about God, about our world. As a follower of Jesus I am convinced that what I believe about what God is like and how this world works play a crucial role in how I live my life and understand my faith. God is doing something in our world, and he invites you and me to discover our place in the story. But it seems that there are a lot of different ideas floating around out there about what the means.

So this week we're going to wrestle with those ideas...and explore what the Bible has to say about them. A few topics to consider: God, Jesus, salvation, sin, judgment, heaven, hell, who's in, who's out, good news for who?, the gospel, following Jesus, being born again.

 

It's been great to have so many of people coming with thoughts on these topics, and searching the scriptures for direction. I look forward to hearing what you've discovered this week. If you'd like to help us get the conversation going ahead of time, please offer your comments below.

 

I've found the last few weeks to be incredibly encouraging as we've wrestled with questions together. You've been very transparent and thoughtful in thinking about what these questions say about how we can best live life with God.

This week we'll explore the question, "What is this world like?"

In other words: is our world supposed to be like this, or is something wrong? It seems that to many of us, we have a sense deep down that this is not how things are supposed to be.

How is it that our world can be filled with such beauty and such order and such good, and yet at the same time filled with such heartache and such pain? How are we supposed to relate to God in the midst of this kind of world? How does our faith inform how we live?

How does the Bible begin to answer some of these questions?

If you'd like to begin sharing your thoughts before Sunday, please use the comments below.

It was good to be together on Sunday. I appreciated our discussion and look forward to continuing it in the coming weeks. As we discussed, life is full of questions, and yet our greatest need is not for more information, but for a relationship with the One who is true and good and beautiful.

what is God like?

As we work through/wrestle with the questions you have posed, we are driven to the question, "What is God like?" In order to approach the other questions we must consider what we believe about who God is and what his character is like. So, at our next gathering we'll dive into questions like these:

 

• How do I live as You desire (love You - love others) when there is so much else that must be done to live here? Err - maybe I know the answer - give me the ability to execute ...
• Why do you allow suffering especially of the innocent?
• How do I know when You are pleased with me? How do I know when I'm good enough?
• How do I know what God has planned for me?

searching for answers

These are questions about how we relate to God - about what he is like. We agreed together on Sunday to spend some time on our own this week considering that question: what is God like? Consider your own experiences, but also please spend some time searching the scriptures, asking God for a deeper understanding of what he is like.

While this may be a "big" question, please don't be overwhelmed by it. Maybe a way to approach it would be to consider the themes and stories of the Bible you are already familiar with...what do they show you about what God is like?

plenty to talk about

I think we'll have plenty to talk about on Sunday. :) If you'd like to begin sharing your thoughts before then, please comment below.

Tonight I've found myself glued to the news, watching the toll of the multi-vehicle crashes on Interstate 39/90 near Madison. At least 2 people were killed and dozens more injured in the accidents blamed on foggy driving conditions. (See the story at Channel3000.com). The obvious damage and unexpectedness of it reminded me how unpredictable life can be. Lori and I immediately thought of our friends and family and of the many times we've traveled that stretch of road.

We thought of all of you and prayed for your safety and the safety of your families and friends, and I'm learning to not just watch the news, but to pray for everyone whose lives are being affected.

Please join me in praying for the rescue workers, those involved in the crashes, the loved ones who are waiting for news, the doctors and hospital staff, and for the wisdom of those who will have difficult decisions to make during these events.  If you would like us to pray for you, please send us a note via the Contact Us page and our prayer team will pray.

In the midst of life's unknowns, I'm so glad for the hope you and I can have. As a follower of Jesus I am confident that this life is not all there is and that when my life on earth is over, whenever that is, my Savior will greet me with arms wide open. This week we will all be presented with opportunities to give reason for the hope we have - as the topic of the crash comes up around Stoughton, in our workplaces and in conversations with people who have important questions about life and its meaning.

These moments are opportunities for you and me to speak into people's lives at a moment when they seeking answers. We don't have to have it all figured out, but we can join them in the search for answers, and share with them the hope we have found in knowing and following Jesus - hope for both this life and life after death. As a church family, please join me in praying for those who have been impacted by today's accidents and for those with whom we have an opportunity to share this week.

Psalm 62:6-7 says, "For He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken."

With hope,

Jeff

We had a good gathering last Sunday. With the beginning of the year, we took our time together as families for prayer...and we had several interactive family friendly prayer stations set up around the building that gave us each a chance to reflect on the past year and look forward to the coming year, asking God for his direction.

questions

One of the stations invited people to write questions that they have...if they could ask God something, what would it be? There were some very thoughtful questions, and we're going to use these to provide direction for our times together over the next several weeks. I'm looking forward to some good discussion as we explore the scriptures together and see what they say about our questions.

 

We'll take 1+ questions each week and wrestle with it together. Some of these may have some clear answers, while others may propel us to embrace mystery and the unknown. We'll also talk briefly about the whole idea of having questions and doubts, and what that means to our faith. Here's a 2 sentence preview of what I'm thinking:

Questions are central to our faith - they acknowledge that we don't have all of the answers and need to look beyond ourselves for guidance. Questions propel us to search for and discover more of God.

What do you think?

the questions

Here are the questions that you wrote last week - from adults and kids alike:

1. How do I live as you desire (love You - love others) when there is so much else that must be done to live here? Err - maybe I know the answer - give me the ability to execute ...
2. Why do you allow suffering especially of the innocent?
3. Can you help me ride my bike? 
4. Why do you make hiccups?
5. How do I best work through decisions with co-workers in a kind but not door-mat way?
6. How do we live a life like Jesus showed us in a world that is so different and often so far from God?
7. How can I become like a child in your presence without losing my ambition? 
8. How do I know when You are pleased with me? How do I know when I'm good enough? 
9. How do I know what God has planned for me? 
10. How do I stay focused on serving you when I'm so easily distracted and exhausted?
11. What does it mean to be who you created me to be? How can I grow more confident in Christ?
12. How do I let go of my need to be liked by others?
13. Where did God come from?
14. What is heaven like?
15. What does "salvation" mean? What does the Bible really say about it? (from a previous discussion)

more questions

And, some questions about the questions: Are there any recurring themes here? What do these questions tell us about ourselves and how we think about God?

A couple of thoughts for Christmas...

The birth of Jesus made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living it.
-Frederick Buechner "Listening to Your Life," Christianity Today, Vol. 37, no. 15

 

Life is a constant Advent season: we are continually waiting to become, to discover, to complete, to fulfill. Hope, struggle, fear, expectation and fulfillment are all part of our Advent experience.

The world is not as just, not as loving, not as whole as we know it can and should be. But the coming of Christ and his presence among us-as one of us-give us reason to live in hope: that light will shatter the darkness, that we can be liberated from our fears and prejudices, that we are never alone or abandoned.

May this Advent season be a time for bringing hope, transformation and fulfillment into the Advent of our lives.

-Life Is an Advent Season, Connections, 11-28-93

May you have eyes to see your Savior and respond to his gift of love during this Christmas. I'm thankful for all of you who are part of this journey with us.

 

Thanks to my friends the Reynolds for sharing these quotes with me.

"The angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.'" -Luke 2:10

Who would have thought that the Glory of God would be delivered into poverty and dirt?! The Son of God belonged in a palace, on a throne - certainly anywhere but a stable. Jesus entered this world vulnerable and with no material glory. The blue-collared shepherds were the first to see respond to t the good news of Jesus' birth.

Throughout Jesus' life, he is constantly challenging the powerful and indentifying with the weak and poor. The political and religious leaders were consistently angered by Jesus' words and actions, but it was always good news for the poor - the broken, the discouraged, the sick and homeless. His message was always full of hope and healing for those in need.

How are we poor? If not financially, where are we most aware of our need? Are we poor in spirit - recognizing our need for God's love and grace and humbled by our unworthiness of God's good gifts to us? The comfortable and successful have little need for a Savior. How might we submit ourselves to this love, realizing that it is more powerful than our personal kingdoms, our wish lists, our careers and families? How might we submit to this love that can alone bring light and life to someone else? Jesus is building a Kingdom, and love is a key the city.

The coming of Christ remains good news, an act of love. He is still the wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Where have you witnessed the good news of Jesus in your life?

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." -Matthew 5:3

 

Portions adapted from "Peace is Here" by Jars of Clay.

I recently came across this beautiful reflection on what it means to hope at Christmas, written by Jars of Clay frontman Dan Haseltine.

"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." -Luke 2:19

Christmas comes each year with its dangerous invitation to hope. Yet for most of us this invitation feels more like an inconvenience and a burden. We see this burden from the very beginning, as Mary herself pondered the meaning of all these things. I wonder how many of her personal hopes and dreams were on the altar at this moment. Surely this was not the life that she had dreamed for herself, and who could possibly understand the road that she was about to walk? Who would go with her? As she began to consider all that she would lose along this journey the invitation to hope must have felt callous and far-fetched.

If you are like me this is where most of my adult Christmas' have been spent, burdened and heavy under the Hope that promises much but asks for everything along the way. Maybe this is your story this year, maybe your losses have been deep and painful. Maybe you stand in the reality of every Christmas from now on being a bitter reminder of those that are no longer with you, and things that have been lost along the way. If this is you take courage from Mary who somehow found a way to move from peep pondering and introspection to singing. Somewhere along the road the question of her life ceased to become "If you knew me and love me God how could you ask this of me" to "God who do you see when you look at me?" Somewhere along the way her hope was unfettered to all those good things that she had hoped her life would be and became anchored to God's hopes for her.

"For he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed," -Luke 2:48

Where do you need hope this Christmas?  How can we be a portrait of hope to the Stoughton community?

Last week we began considering how the coming of Christ invites us to a life where we can worship more. Christ came to give us full access to life with God. This kind of life changes the way we see and experience the world around us.

You are a worshiper. So am I. We all are. Every day, all day, in every place you and I worship. We all worship something. We can't help it, because we were made to worship.

You may not consider yourself a worshiper, or may not think that you worship all the time, but think of it this way: worship is about what we value; worship is our response to what we value the most.

So, worship isn't just about singing or about what we say. It's more about what we do.

This thought comes crashing home during the Christmas season. For many people this is the time of year that they think to themselves, "I'll finally take time to focus on the important things in life. This Christmas season I'll discover how to really worship. I'll finally rise above all the everyday stuff to find real meaning in it all." But in a few short weeks, or days, they give up feeling like they've once again failed. They think of worship as some grand act that will elevate them beyond the "everydayness" of life.

In his book The Air I Breathe Louie Giglio suggests another way...

Most people find themselves in places that don't seem all that spiritual. Or worshipful. Jobs that seem pointless apart from paying the bills or filling the time.... If you've ever felt like that, I've got great news. You can worship God wherever you are...doing whatever it is you do. Your attitide of worship can turn any mundane task into an offering to God.

Perhaps our greatest acts of worship come during the "everydayness." Trusting and following Jesus gives us a new relationship wit God and shows us a way to live in close connection with him in each moment. Giglio goes on to say

Our lives are filled with gifts from God, little miracles. The trees that line the road we take to work. The car (new or not so new) that gets us there. A chance to work. Eyes to see. A place to sleep. His faithfulness in days gone by. All these should keep us worshiping moment by moment.

When we see the greatness of God in all these everyday moments, we can't help but worship more. We're invited to a moment-by-moment connection of personal worship that's as much a part of our lives as the air we breathe. That's the life that the coming of Jesus makes possible.

The Christmas story is about so much more that Christmas, isn't it?

Christ tends to get overlooked at Christmas. Let's be honest. December comes and you think, "Ok, this is the year." This time you'll definitely slow down and take it all in. Make the most of time with family. Help the needy. Zero in on what it really means to be a Christ follower during this holy season. But then, life happens, Christmas comes and goes and everything is pretty much the same.

What if this Christmas things really were different? What if this Christmas you could discover how to

• WORSHIP MORE
• GIVE MORE
• LOVE MORE

Here's the deal: I'm not a cynic or a humbug, but there's nothing magic about the Christmas season. Christmas doesn't change me, and the Christmas season can't change me. I can't really become something at Christmas that I'm not the rest of the year. But, it's not hopeless.

The coming of Christ was meant to change the world. Christ changes me. The coming of Christ fulfilled a long awaited promise. In Christ we now have full access to life in the eternal kingdom of God.

So, while I may not become a different person at Christmas, in Christ I am a new creation, and I'm learning to live like the person God says I am in Christ. It's an ongoing journey, and I'm letting Jesus teach me the way to live.

This Christmas season, we'll be exploring these ideas together and discovering how the coming of Christ invites us to a life where we can worship more, give more, and love more.