Leaving for Mozambique!

I never had a trip to Africa on my bucket list. Mission trips were not on my radar. I was a Student Ministry Director then a church leader who wanted to reach young people, neighbors, and friends right here with the very good news of Jesus Christ. That was my focus. We as a church are clearly focused upon building a church to reach our friends, family, co-workers and neighbors in the Cedar Valley and beyond.

I've been struck this week by our readings in the book of Acts especially chapter 10:9-23. God shows Peter a vision of all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice tells him, "Get up. Peter. Kill and eat."

Peter was a faithful, Jewish Christian who wanted to obey the Jewish laws and follow Jesus. He had never eaten unclean or impure animals and now, in his mind, was not the time to start.

So Peter replies, "Surely not, Lord!"

The Bible then says that this exact communication happended two more times. Two more times God said, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat!"

"Surely not, Lord!" Those three words have stuck with me this week. "Surely not, Lord!"

As I reflect upon God's leading of Orchard Hill Chruch, I often say those words or words like them, "Surely not, Lord!"

Surely not, Lord...you're not calling our church to partner with a community halfway across the world called Gorongosa, Mozambique on the continent of Africa.

Surely not, Lord...you wouldn't be asking us to sponsor 250+ children monthly so they can got to school be cared for and learn about Jesus.

Surely not, Lord...you're not calling me to go there on our team of nine people and invest two weeks with the pastors, tribal leaders, chidren and Food for the Hungry staff people.

Surely not, Lord...you couldn't be asking our church to focus upon five communtities in order to tranform lives for Jesus Christ: the Cedar Valley, Walnut Neighborhood, Grundy County, Pignon, Haiti and Gorongosa Mozambique.

Following Jesus almot alwasy takes us outside our comfort zone and our pre-constructed boxes and human plans.
"Surely not, Lord!"

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Orchard Staff Take Journey Beyond Our Walls

Yesterday almost our entire staff took a bus trip called Jouney Beyond Our Walls. This was a day for us to see some of what God was doing beyond the walls of our Cedar Falls campus. According to staff evaluations. This was a tremendous day for growing our hearts. In this picture we are hearing about our Art Team from Walnut Neighborhood who are painting this awesome mural. We visited with two of young ladies who are on this art team!

In partnership with Harvest Vineyard Church we are renovating Walnut House to have a ministry center in the neighborhood. We walked through Walnut House and prayed for every room. George Marshal, one of the co-pastors of Harvest Vineyard shared his vision for the house.

At Lincoln Center we laid hands on and prayed for Jesse and Rachel Henkle who will be starting
as our Host Leaders at that ministry. We also ate lunch in the basement with about 20 people from that ministry. This was an excellent time for our staff to meet some of the people who make up this ministry. It was moving for many of our staff to hear the surrendered hearts of people who have invested in this ministry for their entire lifetime.

Tuesday was a beautiful day for our staff Journey Beyond Our Walls. This bus was our home for the day and this is a picture of the building in which Lincoln Center Church meets.

Here are staff gathers in one of the four buildings that we rent each Sunday in Grundy Center. We were inspired to hear from Mike Brost and Jen Venenga about their vision for this ministry of life-change in Grundy Center. This ministry is doing an aweful lot with very little.

One of our Orchard families donated the funds to sponsor this day. It was so encouraging to spend the day together as we bused across the countryside to see some of the places where God was at work. The Student Ministry staff led interactions and games during some of our bus time.

We began our journey within the Cedar Falls campus as our entire staff visited our preschool. Here the students are singing an enthusiastic song about how big and mighty our God is! It was incredible to see the faces and the smiles of these children and teachers.

So, what did we learn from a day together as staff? Several evaluations said that the hearts of individual staff people grew several sizes on this day. It was oustanding to see how God is working in so many different places and in so many different ways. So many of our staff do not get the opportunity to see firsthand the work that God is doing through our church family.

For me, it was so good to see the incredible passion and gifts of our different staff leaders. Each segment of this trip was introduced and described by one of our staff leaders or partners. Their enthusiasm was contagious. One evaluation from a staff simply said, "I'm more glad to be a part of Orchard Hill Church!"

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Every Life a Deep Ocean to be Explored!

This morning we heard our second story in a 3 week series called Stories from the Seats. The response has been amazingly strong. Laura Sol Cryer, Sam Schmidt, Jim Thompsen and Bruce Adkins (at Lincoln Center) all have amazing stories which highlight the work of God in their lives.

I love this series because when someone tells their authentic story it touches people in a very deep place. It seems that each person finds a piece of their own story in the story of what God has done in another's life. As I visited with so many people in the Atrium this morning, I found people connecting with Laura's story in so many places:

--a young person with an eating disorder
--a distraught mother searching for God in the struggle of a child
--a struggle with alcohol
--trusting God when I cannot find the peace that passes understanding

I love that one theme of the stories is that we are all broken and only in the power of Jesus Christ can we find healing. I love that another theme is that every life is a deep ocean to be explored and in the exploration we will often find God doing amazing and unexpected things. We will be filled with awe!

I'm grateful for the courage of these story-tellers!

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It’s A Great Easter Week!

Tonight at both our junior high CHAOS and our high school BIG HOUSE events, our staff will be inviting students to make new or greater commitments to Jesus Christ. I believe great things will happen in the hearts of students.

Tomorrow night our college BASIC event on UNI’s campus will feature 6 or 7 students sharing their testimonies and Orchard will have an Easter Thursday Communion Service. Friday night fourteen high school seniors from 5 different high schools will share at the Community-wide Good Friday Service of Darkness. Again, I believe that God will work in a powerful way.

A Visit and A Gift!

This morning Dan Paxton, the senior pastor of Heartland Vineyard (our neighboring church across the street), stopped in to give me a book he thought would be helpful to me and we prayed together. We prayed for each other and for both of our churches to have impact this Easter week.

Dan’s stopping in made me feel humble that he was thinking about and caring for me on this busy Easter week. As I reflected upon his visit and his gift, I wanted to pass on the encouragement to other church leaders. I emailed several friends who lead churches in the Cedar Valley and let them know that I would be praying for their congregations this Easter. As I would expect, they “replied to all” and committed to pray for each others congregations on this Easter week.

On top of that, our Mission Team to Haiti, will be with our partners near Pignon, Haiti this Easter. Our team of ten which includes staff members (Doug Tensen & Pat and Diane Oehler) will be leading that church in worship on Easter Sunday morning. This Easter weekend will be awesome at Orchard and across the Cedar Valley and the world.

I Am So Thankful!

I thank God that I can be part of a community where churches authentically pray for each other instead of competing against each other. I thank God that I can be a part of a congregation that invests so much in God’s kingdom beyond just our congregation.

It is my hope and prayer that everyone reading this has a powerful and inspiring Easter!

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God Rocks at Love Cedar Valley!

One of 160 explosions of kindness today. This is Lincoln Park where a team includes folks from Drug Court!

Over 500 people attend the final worship gathering at Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center in downtown Waterloo after serving in Explosions of Kindness!

The band had musicians from 9 different churches!

One God.

One church of Jesus Christ

55 local congregations participating

160 Different Explosions of Kindness done in the name of Jesus

1200+ people join as volunteers

Love Cedar Valley was a huge success today and I was proud to be a part of the church of the Cedar Valley. This is probably the day that best demonstrates the oneness of the Body of Christ within the valley. I just love that 55 local congregations participated in this demonstration of God's love. The name of Jesus was lifted up in worship, in teaching, in prayer and in concrete demonstrations of his love.

I believe this was an answer t0 the prayer of Jesus in John 17 where He asks that His followers would be one just as He and the Father are one! Today oneness was demonstrated.

My wife, Linda and I greeted people as they came to the Five Sullivan Brothers Center. It was a blast to greet many of the 600 people who attended the kick-off session. It was inspiring to meet so many great people and then join them in worship and loving the Cedar Valley. This is the most multi-ethnic worship that I participate in locally and it is sweet to watch so many different kinds of people worship God.

Laura Hoy did a great job of leading this event. She also gave a short and powerful teaching asking if we are willing and courageous to be the hands and feet of Jesus. She reminded us that God has always accomplished much through the small and courageous actions of His people.

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When following Jesus doesn't make sense: the story of Lincoln Center.

Sunday morning I taught at Lincoln Center Church between Dike and Grundy Center. This 126 year old Christian Reformed Church is a small rural congregation composed of mostly older folks who love God and hope to see the ministry of their congregation continue. As many of you know, we are moving towards a merger with them where they would become a part of Orchard Hill Church. In so many ways this does not make sense, yet we believe God is leading us to do this!

As I was driving home from the morning of teaching and interacting with this congregation, I had a very clear question come into my mind-- How do you follow Jesus when following him seems to make absolutely no sense?

I was telling my wife, Linda, about this question at lunch when she asked me if I'd heard Tim Boettger's teaching that morning. I had not. She said that this question was exactly what he'd taught on. I still haven't heard the teaching but I visited with Tim yesterday and he told me about it. He used the verse John 2:5, "Whatever He says to you, do it."

He taught about how the 10 lepers were given an instruction that made no sense. They were instructed to go into the city and present yourself to the priests. Lepers did not do that. They stayed outside of the city and they avoided contact with the priests. Why would Jesus ask them to do something that made no sense and was contrary to their practices and laws.

At this point, they had to choose. Do we follow Jesus and do this or not? They chose to follow His instructions and were healed as they walked toward the city. One remembered to return and thank Jesus. So, often Jesus asks us to follow Him when following does not make sense at the beginning of the walk. Tim gave several personal examples. I have many examples of this following Jesus when it doesn't make practical or common sense in my own life and the life of our family.

I followed Jesus into starting a faith-based ministry where our family income would be determined by the donations of people in the Ed-Co School District. We had four little children and needed lots of diapers and food. This move did not make sense but we believed God was leading us. Over time, the appropriate funds were donated and Linda and I learned to trust God as He supplied our needs in many different ways.

We moved to Cedar Falls leaving a ministry involving hundreds of students to begin to work in a youth group at Orchard with 8 students. To so many friends and family this made no sense; however, we really felt God's clear leading. Today between Orchard and Nazareth these churches regularly touch more that a thousand junior high, high school and college students. Somehow, our coming to Cedar Falls was a part of that.

When asked by Orchard's leadership what I'd like for a job description in Cedar Falls, I felt led by God to ask them to allow me to work for Orchard only 1/2 time so that I could build a coalition of churches reaching kids as a group of churches. This also didn't make sense for several years as I struggled to get churches to work together. Today it seems so obvious that God was leading. Even this weekend's Love Cedar Valley with 3 or 4 dozen churches working together may have been aided by this following of Christ when it made no sense.

So, back to Lincoln Center. We're pretty certain that God is leading this merger for many reasons but it still doesn't make a lot of sense. John 2:5 says, "Whatever He says to you, do it! Here's some of the evidences that we see God leading us...

Lincoln Center's Council had 5 different options for their future and they prayerfully decided the merger was the God-led option.

Their council continued to pursue this option even as I clearly explained that they would cease being a congregation and would become a ministry of Orchard under the authority of our Leadership Team. They would be giving up congregational control in order to gain a greater ministry. They would sign over their assets to Orchard and surrender control of their future.

Lincoln Center's Congregation voted twice to leave their denomination and pursue joining with Orchard--93% and 74% even when we had no idea exactly what that would mean for them and their church.

Their Christian Reformed Classis prayerfully blessed this move as did four Christian Reformed pastors who visited their Council. If those events were not surprising enough.

Listen to this. Something quite unique happened one month ago. A talented young married couple who are trained for ministry and were a part of Orchard's ministry in the past, came for an appointment.

They came to see me because while living in Denver, Colorado they had felt God calling them back to Iowa to participate in rural ministry. God has given them a huge heart for older people and rural ministry. Their question was, "Does Orchard have a place for us to participate in rural Iowa ministry?" I couldn't believe it. We needed help with Lincoln Center (maybe the most rural church I'd even known) but I had no clue who could do it and here was God possibly sending the answer before we had even formed the question.

I believe at Orchard, we are learning to follow Christ even when it makes no sense. I hope the congregation is ready for this. It seems to be an exciting and challenging way to live. It's really just a part of us being fully devoted. I could make a whole list of things we are doing that don't make sense but seem to be led by God. We could begin with the five focus-communities that He has led us to commit to. It's His leading and we are simply trying our best to follow.

Hang On!

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Investing In Our 6th Communities!

Let's eat lunch!
Grandpa telling a story to 7 of the grandkids!

Yesterday was a great day for having fun and investing in one part of the 6th Community that God has put into my life. I spent the entire day with my 10 grandkids and some of my children. The other children had to work. The kids came to town for a time of cousin-friendship building. My day began at 6:30 feeding a bottle to Jackson, our 4 month old grandson from Ames.

The rest of the day was invested in playing outside, inside games, going to the park, wrestling, eating and having good discussions with my kids. It was a great Spring Break Tuesday.

The idea of serving and sharing in our 6th Communities is so important to the future of our church mission.

The term "6th Community" came during a breakfast discussion with Neil McMahon. It was one term that would tie our caring for others in everyday life with the idea of our church's goal.

Orchard's Big Hairy Audacious Goal is to change lives for Jesus Christ within and between our five focus communities. Those communities are:

1. Cedar Valley
2. Grundy County area
3. Walnut Neighborhood in downtown Waterloo
4. Gorongosa, Mozambique
5. Pignon, Haiti

We are committed together to make a long-term difference in these five communities and to allow God to help us learn from each of these communities of people. I'm learning so much from each of these communtities. I plan to return to Gorongosa, Mozambique in June. I want to visit and train many of the pastors I was with 2 years ago and I want to spend time in the place where our school is being constructed. I want to be a symbol of God's encouragement to the people in that region.

Our 6th Community is the place where you and I spend our time and have been given influence by God. This probably includes your family, your workplace, your neighborhood, your sports team (or the other parents of your kid's sports teams). I pray that Orchard folks will be praying and investing in their 6th communities. It will make all the difference.

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