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Dear Congregation:

As I leave on vacation for this week, returning for some rest and rejuvenation to my family in Illinois, God has led me to share some thoughts with you.

God has given us many promises. He has given us promises individually, as his beloved children; he has given us promises collectively as First Baptist Church; he has given us promises as his people, the People of God, through the Scriptures, through the work of the Spirit, and through the mouth of Jesus himself. The first promise I want to remind you of is that God is not slow in keeping his promises. (2 Peter 3:9) He always does what he says he will do. Moreover, he always shows up in the right way at the right time in the right measure. It is up to us to believe this promise so that we may receive from his other promises.

The second promise I want to remind you of is that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58) Because of this promise, he exhorts us in the same verse to “stand firm and let nothing move you, and excel in the work of the Lord.” In many parts of our lives, it seems that the work we do does not pay off. For one reason or another, we are unable to receive blessing from our daily work. Nevertheless, God promises that as we work for him, in his name, and do so with the excellence that comes from working for God with a heart fixed on him, we know that our work is worthwhile.

The third promise I want to remind you of is that of the cross and the resurrection. Jesus promises his disciples that “in this world you will have trouble.” (John 16:33) His next sentence is, “but take heart, for I have conquered the world.” He also reminds us that it is our life – not just our job or duty, but our life itself – as disciples to carry our cross as we follow Jesus, putting to death everything in us that is not of him. As daunting as this sounds, his promise to those who go to the cross with Jesus is that those who do will share in the resurrection with Jesus. It is this resurrection that makes our work worthwhile.

The fourth promise I want to remind you of is that God is in the business of restoring broken relationships. It is for this reason that I am writing to you on this day: from evening on Wednesday, 8 October to the evening of Thursday, 9 October, it is the day known to the Old Testament People as Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. (See Leviticus 16:1 – 34.) It was on this day that the people formally repented and sacrifices were made to restore the relationship between the People and God. This was also the day to be reconciled one to another. As followers of Jesus Christ, we know that he has atoned for our sins, and the sins committed against us, and we can be right with him. Let us take this time to renew our repentance and be reconciled. Offer the olive branch. Bury the hatchet. Burn the list of sins committed against you and forgive. This is the Call of God.

I want to encourage you in light of these promises. Many of you are exhausted. Life in general and life at First Baptist have been difficult. Things have not gone as we have wanted. Many of us face chaos at home or work, in our neighborhoods or in our extended families. Economics are hard. This applies both to us personally and to the church.

These promises stand in stark contrast to what we see as our “everyday realities.” In fact, they look so different from what we live in day-in and day-out that they seem quite unbelievable. The world does not seem conquered. We have more broken relationships than we can count. We struggle to make ends meet. Reality and promise look like they live in two different worlds.

But God has something more for us. We must always remember that God’s reality is the only real reality. His perspective is the way of seeing things that puts everything in its proper place.

I believe that God has made some very specific promises to First Baptist Church. I pray that we all may accept them and live in light of them, no matter how things appear.

First, God has promised that if we do God’s will, we will become a healthy, thriving congregation, a missional congregation capable of being the presence of Jesus himself in our community for its transformation and redemption. This is a big promise. It does require our obedience, and our single-hearted devotion to doing everything God has invited us to do, but it is a big promise.

Second, God has promised that he will raise up leaders to help coordinate and guide his people to do what he has called us to do. Some of those leaders may be you. Others may come from elsewhere. But he will do this.

Third, God has promised that our congregation will be re-populated, and that soon. Let us prepare ourselves for this reality.

Fourth, God has promised to pour out financial abundance upon our congregation and people, in whatever measure we are faithful with what he has given us. And he plans to do so soon. As long as we are able to demonstrate wisdom and generosity, God will provide for us with more resources to do more for the work of his Kingdom. But if we choose to hoard and to keep our resources to ourselves, we will be in want and need. This is what we call “Kingdom Economics.” Kingdom Economics is where the blessing of God comes through following his Call and applying his wisdom. It is often the reverse to all other Economic systems. If God is inviting you to be wisely generous, it will likely challenge your understanding of how God is providing for you. But he will do it.

Fifth, God intends to restore damaged and broken relationships all around us – including many of those broken during the last five to ten years around First Baptist. He desires to bring us all deep healing for our hurts and forgiveness for our sins. Let us take this time to set ourselves right with others.

Sixth, God is showing us that we are a part of something he is doing that is much bigger than just us. He has not taken us this far to leave us to fail now. He has called others around us to support us and to walk alongside of us.

When I return to you on 19 October, I will be preaching on Exodus 33:12 – 23. I hope that by that time most of you will have read this letter and that passage in Exodus. I hope that by then you will have taken to heart God’s promises – both the specific and the general – and will have set yourself to prayer, repentance and study of the Scriptures toward what God is, in fact, doing with us, and how he intends to get it done. I hope that some among you will take the initiative to invite others to new or renewed involvement in this Body of Believers by offering them this letter as encouragement, and by offering the invitation to join us for worship, or join you in prayer and Bible Reading together.

For the passage from Exodus speaks of Moses’ desire not to move forward unless he was assured God was with him and the people. He asked God to show him his glory. And God did so. We are about to see God’s glory, if we allow God to give us eyes to see it. Let us prepare ourselves in this time for wholeheartedly asking for and receiving God’s glory.

Will you join me in seeking God’s glory and his presence together?

Grace and Peace –

+Pastor Matt

As I continue in congregational leadership, I have become convinced that there is much more that God wants to do than we ever allow him to do.  God really wants to heal the sick.  God really wants to cast out demons.  God really wants to change lives and bring people abundant life.  God really wants to pour out his Spirit - in the supernatural kinds of ways that we see in the New Testament and elsewhere.  God really wants to even raise the dead. 

And yet, we don’t pray anywhere near enough for this to take place.  Moreover, oftentimes, the prayers that we pray are weakened by the expectations of failure or, perhaps worse yet, survival rations of God’s Spirit.  Sadly, we often don’t expect God to respond.  Especially not immediately. 

What if the Church - and yes, our local congregation, too - were to pray 24-7 as a habit: not just in a few places, mind you, but as a habit for congregational life?  What if we were to expect the miraculous?  What if we were to expect God’s will to actually be done in our lives?  What if we were to invite the full giftedness of the Holy Spirit to come down upon us - to give us what we need for ministry, and to form God’s character in us? 

If?  Then: then we would see God transforming our communities organically through the work of the Spirit-filled church.  Then we would see the message of Christ connected to the lives of many people who otherwise would see this as just so much more talk.  Then we would see radical revival.  Are we ready for this?

Then let us pray: not just for the extravagant, but for the mundane.  Let us pray expecting that God will speak to us.  Let us pray, knowing that he hears us.  Let us pray, knowing that he desires to grant us Abundant Life.  Let us pray - knowing that God desires the church to grow as we do his work.  And let us do so together, as much as possible. 

God, move your Spirit upon us.  Cleanse us from our sins.  Heal our bodies, souls and minds.  Grant us emotional healing.  Provide for our needs.  We want to give you glory, honor and praise.  Pour out your Spirit and let your Kingdom come. 

Amen!

Today, I observed a subtle shift that has been going on in my outlook on preaching - what needs to be preached, what must be heard - has come to some fruition.  Today, I had the “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom…” passage from Matthew 7:21 - 29.  While through the past I have heard and focused on the warning aspects of the passage, today, we focused on the reassurance and confidence aspects of it.

Yes, even in such a passage there is hope and good news.  That was the focus today.  Previously, I think we needed to hear the warning more.  Now, the encouragement. 

This is a very good sign that we are moving toward congregational health.  What do you think?

This was the question at our men’s group tonight.  How do we reach ____?  fill in the blank.  It was a good discussion.  We decided to pray the prayer Jesus invites us to pray in Matthew 9 - “Lord, send workers into your harvest field!” for two weeks and see what God is saying.

Pray with us!

After a few conversations recently, I am again reminded of the nature of God’s call on our lives.  When God calls us, he does not “need” us.  His motivation is blessing.  He desires to bless us.  So he calls us.  The things to which he calls us are the vectors and the means by which he blesses us - even now.  When we run from God’s call, thinking he is asking too much, we run from God’s blessing.  God cannot bless us as much or as fully if we disobey rather than obey. 

This runs alongside the call-burnout issue.  We think we have to do so much - this activity, that activity… we end up so hyperactive, we don’t know what to do with space and silence except that all the stuff we’ve packed away comes to the surface.  So then we blame God about how tired we are (since he has called us) or what we’re going through (because it hurts) and then don’t want to listen to what happens in the silence and so run harder and further. 

And all God wanted was for us to do what he called us to do: no more, no less.  A long time ago I decided to follow God’s call - wherever that led.  I decided to let God do as much as he possibly could.  And it has led me to some very surprising places.  Not the least of which is Warren, Ohio.  It’s been a tough call, so far.  Crazier by far than anything I’d imagined.

But God’s blessing has been greater than anything I’d imagined, either.  And it isn’t over yet - not by any stretch.  This week, I’m preaching on Isaiah 49:8 - 16.  In that passage, God’s people feel overwhelmed, abandoned by God and unable to fulfill their calling.  Yet, even so, God chooses to bless them.  They’ve been failures as his covenant people.  Yet, he chooses to give them something greater than they had to begin with.  He even wants to bless the journey back from exile into the land of promise.  He’s not just blessing the land, he blesses the journey too.

No, we have not been forgotten.  We will not be forgotten.  But we must pursue the call to receive the blessing.  We must pursue the call of God and no other calls.  This is the Word of the Lord; Thanks be to God!

So I’ve continued my work of prayer this week, seeking God’s vision and direction (while not neglecting my other pastoral duties).  It seems like I’ve been interacting with God at a very deep level regarding some issues we’ve been experiencing in our Congregation.  And the conversations I’m having reinforce what I’ve been praying for. 

I think we as followers of Jesus tend to under-play extended periods of prayer as valid for Christians - espeicially “professional church leaders.” 

I’m realizing it needs to be more balanced, now.  Definitely more time for prayer - in solitude and in groups.  No doubt about it. 

Now… how to get that to take hold congregation-wide…

Saturday, twelve guys from the church got together and cleaned up the outside of the building.  They worked from about 9 until about 2, with a lunch break, and got a lot done.  There’s still more to do, but things look really good around there right now.

Among other things, we had to plant a new Rhododendron in place of one that died.  The stump extraction was taken care of by these guys, who were the only ones willing to pose for a picture all day:

Food for thought from TheHeresy.com.  (via tallgrassworship, via dyingchuch)

If the church were a business we would measure our profit and if we weren’t making enough we would change. If we were a hospital we would measure how many of the sick and injured become healthier. If we were a vocational training institute we would measure how many people get jobs and keep them in their area of training.

Now imagine a school that measured how much people enjoyed the classes, how great the day care was, how inspiring the teacher was, the levels of enrolment and the amount of funding they had but only passively cared about the success of their graduates in the workplace. That my friends describes most of the church in North America today.

We need to change what we measure and how we measure our success.

· Do people have a proper understanding of the gospel?
· Do they love the people that can offer them nothing in return?
· Are people willing to sacrifice for others?
· Are people becoming more like Christ in their values and behaviour?
· Do they have life and freedom?

If we considered these things, we would realize the state we are in and we would change. As long as we measure things based on our own personal satisfaction or by the markers of organizational success we will miss the point.

Full post here.

In our days of congregational conflict, we experienced the conflict in terms of the “customer satisfaction” paradigm.  The irony is that the dissatisfaction came from the fact that we had begun to measure the “success of graduates” sorts of things and found ourselves not only lacking, but almost utter failures.  From this distorted sense of purpose flowed our lack of success in the proclamation of the Gospel. 

Now, with the conflict largely resolved, we find ourselves having success in bringing the life of the Good News to bear in our lives and in the community around us.  Having focused on “success of graduates” has allowed us to find that “customer satisfaction” comes along for the ride - but only to a point.  Disciples, eventually, have to come to value discipline - which, of course, from time to time, involves correction.  As long as correction is considered part of a satisfying experience, it’s all good.  If not, well… then we’re back to where we were. 

Whatever comes, though, it is essential that we measure the right things.  And I have hope that as a culture of discipleship develops in our congregation, even discipline and correction will be welcome.

Tonight, our men’s group decided not to meet in one of our classrooms at the church, which has been our normal practice.  Instead, this evening, we went to the Dunkin Donuts shop around the corner, where one of our young men was working, and had our group there.  We read our Bibles and prayed, and didn’t disturb the other customers or employees.  But we began to see how the Good News of Jesus could carry beyond the walls of our church into our community.

Just one more small step in the right direction, eh?

Last evening, our Trustee board did something I consider quite amazing: they discussed and passed a “board covenant”.  The “board covenant” states the board’s commitments to each other and the congregation in how they do business and what business they do.  It also acknowledges the accountability structures present in the congregation and deals with a few issues of discipline.  In fact, I’d like to share it in its entirety with you.  It follows in the “read more” section below.  Feel free to comment.

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