Reflecions From Sunday Evening

Got a new insight from technology. Updating a cell phone could be a metaphor for growing in the spiritual life and discovering new insights. I have a notification on the phone. Update available. I click on the update. I wait and watch the signal that tells me the updating is taking place. When the process is complete something new is added and available. The change brings an updated model and new possibilities and effectiveness. Do you get the idea? In the spiritual life the Holy Spirit is always offering an update. When we open our hearts to the wind of the Spirit we wait and watch as we find the Lord changing us. Soon we find the new insights and experience of grace has opened our lives to new possibilities. Furthermore fruitfulness and effectiveness is enhanced. All due to the updating of our relaitionship with Christ. Anyone notice the update available? I pray the update be yours. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

It's not only been a good day but a very good week. I was able to share in our conference pastor's gathering, CONVERGE, this week. Mark Batterson of National Community Church in Washington D.C. was our keynote speaker and Juanita Rasmus of Houston, Tx. completed our time on thursday morning. It is always good when you have take-aways from events like this. Batterson brought me to a place of making "bold" prayers and making prayer circles around people and issues. Then you "hold on" and watch God move in power! Juanita invited us to gather in triads and pray with a four-fold focus. First ask God how to pray for this person. Second listen. Third record what you hear from God. Then pray what you hear as a blessing in the person's life. I got four great words on this one. Bold - Courage - Risk - Joy. I'm looking forward to sharing these prayer keys as we move forward and also how these words are impacting my life. The Spirit carried over into our worship services this weekend. I know we were in the presence of the Lord. It was a blessed day. Thanks to all who allowed God to use them today. It has been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

We are in the process of having our house painted. Before any paint goes on the house there has been a great deal of replacing bad wood, repair work, caulking, scraping, priming and preparing the wood for fresh paint. Another option could have been to ignore the problems and just slap some paint on the outside and call it good. That is certainly no way to care for a house. This has me thinking about the spiritual life. Many people seem content with covering up the outside without the discipline of inner preparation. Don't get me wrong. There is no amount of self repair that makes us ready for the covering of God's grace. But for a healthy spiritual life inner work (the house repair) takes place as the fresh covering of grace comes upon us. Christian living is not merely about outward appearances. It is a entire renovation. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

Today our focus was on creating a culture of call. We seek an environment where people are becoming more and more aware of the awesome presence of God and developing an increasing expectation and ability to hear God's call. The first part of a call culture is recognizing the presence of God. Secondly in light of the majesty, holiness and spendor of God we acknowledge our utter dependence on the grace of God. This is our "evangelical experience" where we receive a keen sense of God's forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ. At this point we are in position to hear God's call. Three possibilities were offerd today. 1. A call to serve. Specifically we were asking 8 people to serve by picking up and cleaning coffee cups on Sunday's. It seems small but when service is done "as unto the Lord" all things are deeply significant. I asked for 8. NINE (9) people indicated a response to this act of service! 2. A call to invest in opportunity for others. Speicfically I asked people to underwrite a full scholarship for an Hispanic student to attend one year at Lydia Patterson Institute in El Paso, Texas. I asked for 45 peole to contribute $100 toward that goal. We understand that not everyone can give that. But the principle is; Not everyone is called to do everything but everyone is called to do something. SIXTY-FIVE (65) responses were returned for a total of $6500! So people gave extra. 3. A call to consider pastoral ministry. I asked for one person in the weekend to respond to that call. ONE (1)response was returned! (There was a report of another but I did not see the card.) What a day. I believe we are in the midst of a strong culture of call becoming more and more real among us. It's been a great day. I hope you've had a great day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

40 years ago today I married Cynthia Grizzell. Cindy and I are sitting here being grateful that God brought us together and has given us such a blessed life. It does seem a bit strange that we have been together for so long - but we don't really feel that old. The kids surprised us last night. I never saw it coming. A super evening with family and friends that I had no idea was going to happen. Thanks guys - it was a blessing. Later we are heading out for our anniversary dinner. Great day. As we have often done in these years together we spent the morning at church followed by lunch and a learning time with Rev. Doug Anderson. Very grateful for the place the church plays in our life. Thanks to Doug Anderson for being here to preach today. He said it was his anniversary gift to us! He did a wonderful job inspiring us about Radical Hospitality. Now for what's coming up. Next week I finish the series on Love Walks (yes, I do still preach here!) by sharing "The Catch." I preached this message on Sunday night a couple of weeks ago and look forward to sharing next weekend. On Labor Day weekend we will think about our "Culture of Call" and I will share some thoughts about responding to the Nudge of God. In September we kick off a series called "How to Find Fault With Others." More to come on that one! So it's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections from Sunday Evening

This month we are stressing Radical Hospitality. We continued our conversation about evangelism today. Pastor Ginger and I did a dialogue message this weekend. We were able to offer two perspectives on the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. (John 4) We can look at details of scripture passages or share in conversation which we did today. Your story of faith in Christ is worth sharing. I encourage you to watch for opportunities to engage someone in spiritual conversation this week. You may be used by God to awaken faith in someone's life. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. Steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

Pastor Ginger began our August message series today. "Love Walks" shows us that the love of Christ compels us to "walk across the room" to share good news with others. The "church" word is evangelism. Often when people are invited to share thier initial reaction to the word evangelism some negative image arises. Pushy - arrogant - trying to get me to do or beleive something I am not sure about. Contrast these negative images with what we think of when asked to describe a person who has had a positive influence on our lives. We hope to help people see evangelism in the same positive light with those who have had the greatest impact on us. Evangelism is good news. We share the good news. One evening Cindy and I were with some friends at Zona Rosa. A teenager came walking past us talking on her cell phone. Her message: They are giving away free ice cream at Coldstone! That was the word all over Zona Rosa. People were telling their friends. They were telling strangers. It was good news and it was spreading fast. We got some free ice cream that evening! How could we chatter good news? - grace - forgiveness - hope - encouragement - assurance - confidence - peace - Come and receive. It's even better than ice cream. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve