Three Encouraging Events

Yesterday I visited with some of our new members at Orchard. It was a blast to connect with these people and hear about their spiritual journeys. It reminded me again that every life is a journey. Watching these tables of new members share their faith and their journeys was a great encouragement to me!

One week ago on Saturday, I had a second encouraging event. Approximately 120 of our Orchard leaders gathered for a day to Focus Upon Our Future! We began the retreat with 17 tables of these leaders sharing pictures of God at work in their lives and in our ministries. Wow. That was powerful. I walked through the tables and did some eaves dropping on the sharing. It was a powerfully encouraging day to hear all of these stories.

On that afternoon our Orchard Leadership Team met for a couple of hours. Again, we shared what God was doing in our lives and what was changing in each of our lives. I am so encouraged by the people who sit on our Leadership Team.

So, I'm very encouraged these days. I hope that those in our congregation are also able to hear the stories and see God at work!

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Celebrating So Many Things!

This picture shows the crowd that showed up for the 5:00 pm. Christmas Eve service at our Lincoln Center site. Chairs were added to the middle isle and we had a standing room only crowd of 294! Very cool picture of God at work.

The balcony was dusted off and completely filled with eager Christmas Eve participants who had a great view of the service!

Candle light was distributed and both campuses ended their services with Silent Night and Joy To The World. God orchestrated some very cool things this past Christmas Eve. Not to us, but to him be the glory!

I just completed figuring our average worship attendance for 2011. Our average worship attendance was 1,631 per week. That's 5% growth from 2010 with one-half of that growth due to our partnership and merger with Lincoln Center.

I'm continuing to celebrate that God continues to choose to allow us to be part of some "amazing and perplexing" things that He is choosing to do. I'm humbled and ecstatic as I think of God inviting us into 2012 with him. It's gonna be a challenge and a thrill.

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Seeing Past the Busyness!

The busyness of the season has arrived. We are getting ready for Saturday's Christmas In Walnut project, preparing for the holiday services, going to concerts and programs and trying to get things ready for the family Christmas celebrations. It's a lot!

In the midst of it, I want to feel the calm and peacefulness of this holy season of Christ's birth. I know that my perspective makes all of the difference. If I'm calm and centered on the inside, then I can continue to see the beauty and opportunities of this special season of the year. If I let my heart get focused on the busyness, then I lose what I love about this season--its peace and joy and hope.

So, I'm saying quiet prayers and looking for the joyful opportunities in each event. I'm loving my grandkid's Christmas programs. I'm loving the concerts and parties we will attend. I'm loving seeing so many friends and family. I've decided that I will find the quiet peacefulness that is available to me during and between the events of this season.

I hope you can take time to find peaceful and quiet times to focus on the baby of Christmas.

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Christmas Is For Real!

Today Orchard's Daily Engagement with Scripture turned the corner to focusing upon Advent by diving into the first two chapters of Luke.

So, the gospel of Luke begins:

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fullfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. Luke 1:1-4

I love that the gospel of Luke starts this way with the Christmas story. Luke basically says this is the truth. I've investigated it and it seems good to write all of this in an orderly account.

In a culture where the myths of Christmas get mingled with the truth of Christmas, it's powerful to begin this way today.

My wife, Linda, and I have a stack of Christmas books that we read to our granadkids. It's a mix of the truth and the folklore of Christmas. The pile might look like this: The Grinch That Stole Christmas, Rudolf, The Jesus Storybook Bible, The Night Before Christmas, The Little Drummer Boy, and The Story of the Angels.

Truth and folklore mixed together. It's so good that as a church and in our homes we can enjoy the folklore and focus clearly upon the truth of a rescuer by the name of Jesus. For all of the homes who are using a Jesse Tree to bring this truth home to their family, today is Day 5.

This is going to be a fun season!

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Critical Volunteers!

My wife, Linda, was up at 5:00 a.m. this morning preparing for the ministry, she founded more than 25 years ago, called Mom's Morning Out. She has been so committed to this ministry over the years. She recruits childcare every week, she cares for the moms and tries to help them keep growing in their faith. She has given 8-10 hours per week to this ministry for all of these years. Now our daughter is leading a similar group through St. Marks Lutheran Church is Cedar Rapids.

Linda says the key to this ministry is all of the volunteers who join her to serve the moms. She's right. Mom's Morning Out is one of our many key ministries that wouldn't even exist without volunteers and a volunteer leader.

I started thinking of this and wanted to say a word of encouragement to all of Orchard's volunteers. It requires hundreds of volunteers every week to be the church.

So, thank you....

300 volunteers who have committed to Christmas in Walnut

200+ volunteers who serve in Children's Ministry every Sunday morning

Volunteer parking team

Volunteer Coffee House team

Volunteer muscicians

Money counters

Newsletter folders

Greeters, ushers,

Big House, CHAOS, and BASIC volunteers in Student Ministry

Meal preparers on Wednesday night and Picnic in the Park

Small Group Leaders

I could go on and on but I won't. These volunteers and many others serve faithfully in seen and unseen ways. Thank you so much.

At our recent Congregational Celebration, our Volunteer Leadership Board shared their hearts for our church. Many have mentioned to me that it was moving to hear our Board of Elders share their hearts. At the top of this entry is a picture of many of them from the Congregational Celebration.

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Mozambique Partners Visit Orchard!

Here's the panel that visited with our Under-Resourced Team and our Missions Team on Saturday morning about helping people help themselves instead of just being involved in charity and giving.

Halkena and Sheilla shared their stories at the Big House Event on Wednesday night in our Cedar Falls Sanctuary!

Our partners at Harvest Vineyard Church and our partners from Mozambique got this picture together. It is so fun to see partners from different parts of the world being together.

The five days that our team from Mozambique were with us in Cedar Falls was an incredible time of learning and building relationships. Halkeno, Sheilla and Josh kept very busy in their time with us. We prayed together, shared the story of sponsored children, laughed together and enjoyed each other. We added about 20 monthly sponsorships for children. This was fantastic!

We work hard in our Under-Resourced work to build friendships with people who can help us learn and can walk with us. It's very good to have them visit!

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Eating Meat on Halloween!

Last weekend we had a Halloween Party at our house with our family. It was a blast. We had the party last weekend because Linda and I are going to be on a weekend away when Halloween comes next Monday. We didn't want to miss all the fun!

After teaching on family the last three Sundays, I've been thinking that I forgot to mention the role of fun in building families. Having fun together, in big and small ways, is an important ingredient to positive and effective family life in Christ. This models for all of us, the role of joy and laughter in the Christian life.

Some followers of Christ choose not to celebrate Halloween because of its dark roots and its connection with our secular culture. Instead of celebrating Halloween they have Harvest Parties or other healthy alternatives. I believe that is a honorable and appropriate response for some parents who follow Christ and want the best for their family.

Linda and I have chosen to embrace holidays like Halloween and redeem them within our family for the sake of joy. Our grandkids brought their costumes and they trick or treated at every available door on our property. We tried to scare them and then Linda read the message of God's creation and the love of Christ as I carved a pumpkin (very poorly may I admit!). It was a memory building time of simple fun.

Romans 14:6 says this about a New Testament debate among people who were deciding whether to eat meat that had previously been offered as a sacrifice to idols, "...He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.

Both responses to eating meat offered to idols (and to Halloween) can honor Christ. Romans 15:5 goes on to say this, "May the God who gives endurance and encouaragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe our church family is one where we can allow each other to have freedom in Christ. We can allow and encourage followers of Christ to make different decisions but still trust their hearts and encouage each other. We can be a church marked by love for each other that is attractive to those who are seeking God.

Go have some fun and let your life be marked by joy!

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