beth, please change…

I love church planting -because it is missions. I always wanted to be a missionary. As I was writing this I started thinking about the 13 yrs I spent in Finland.

I attended a church that met in a movie theater (they have since built a church) in Espoo, Finland. I didn’t feel like a missionary, I just lived there. I helped start sunday school classes for kids (we met on the floor in the hallway of the Theater). I helped translate for the deaf and some English while attending, I sang in the choir (no solos!) and attended/co-led women’s groups and Bible studies….

The thing is, I wasn’t really a missionary, just missional. Still am.

(By the way, the good looking guy in the picture if you follow the link above is Danny Lepojarvi, a good friend’s son! He is a missionary to Tansania.)

Pretty catchy name, huh? I admit I am sometimes tired of catchiness, can’t we just be real? BUT WAIT! I attended this “Exponential Conference” in Orlando for Church Planters. I didn’t know what to expect. I was interested in hearing Alan Hirsch (hoping I would understand at least an iota of what he said!) and Andy Stanley - they seem so different - but they were both there.

The thing is, it is a little over a week since the conference ended and I am MORE inspired than when I left. I have such a sense of expectation for the people we are ‘doing life with’ at Community Christian in Yorkville! I feel like God is in the process of making something wonderful happen in us and through us.

The Yorkville Campus meets at the Historic Courthouse. Last weekend some of the attenders at Yorkville got together to touch up the appearance of our rented space. We completely repainted the Kids’ City Room and did major and minor touch-ups throughout the building. Go Team!
Kids’ City

All in the family

Bob and Guy spearheading repairs

Bill taping

trying to match my paint color to the right project - no match here!

These pictures were taken with my new Blackberry Curve! Pretty nice, huh?

26 This great secret was hidden to the people of times past, but it is now made known to those who belong to Christ. 27 God wants these great riches of the hidden truth to be made known to the people who are not Jews. The secret is this: Christ in you brings hope of all the great things to come. 28 We preach Christ. We tell every man how he must live. We use wisdom in teaching every man. We do this so every man will be complete in Christ.

It’s so amazing that WE are the great mystery, the secret, the great riches. We are God’s gift to the world. The local church IS the hope of the world.

Are we acting like it? Do we live each day in the light of God’s intention for us? Do we (I) realize the weight and joy of this glory? (ASV translation says “Christ in you, the hope of glory”)

I have been at the Exponential Conference in Orlando Florida. More about that later…

Well, I tried to keep it short and could have gone on FOREVER, but I like you, so I’ll stop now.

is service an outgrowth of relationship with Christ or an inroad to meeting Christ?

maybe both?
so, how do you connect people to serving in a community of disconnected people? I suspect there are (and actually know of a few) groups of people that are just serving the people around them. no fanfare. no pomp and circumstance. that’s cool. but sometimes you need to see things happening in order to be inspired, in order to learn how…. I am looking.

tell your stories, or someone else’s here…

Today we had a low-key birthday celebration for my twins (completely different and born 2yrs and 8 days apart) They are only twins in that they usually have their birthday parties together. Thank goodness they like each other. Here you get to experience (through the magic of digital photography) the Birthday Wars.

Round 1 - Cookies:
Sue Parrish brings plates of cookies for the ‘boys’. John’s cookies are all slightly larger than Jeff’s due to the fact that John is the BIG brother.
Round 2 - Parent’s gifts:

Jeff notices (and points out) that his gift bag is bigger than John’s. He also thinks it is nicer looking. Jeff finds a card in the bag and suggests that perhaps only HE got a card. But no, both of them got cards. Jeff is sad because John’s card has more writing on it. John comments that Dad’s handwriting is improving (Guy told me what to write, but he signed it!) Unfortunately for Jeff, his dad was convinced that Jeff would love a Hawaiian shirt (he did have a Pac Sun version of a Hawaiian shirt about 6 yrs ago, so close…) annnyway. Thank goodness for returnable items. Jeff will now be happy to wear whatever Elisa picks out for him. John loves his polo (are they still called that?) shirts. A day (and money) well spent!

GO SUCK LEMONS!
Ever heard that phrase? Well, don’t tell it to Liana, if you want it to mean something bad!

Video version to your right!

Generational Conversations:
Maybe the highlight of my day… My dad loves his grandkids! He would do just about anything for them. Here he and Liana are in deep conversation.

Our Current series “A crazy little thing called love” is pretty crazy! As we talk about what men and women need in a relationship, love and respect come up. Basically, women need love and men, respect. I really hate stuffing people in boxes like that, but have found it to be mostly true in my life, so I am buying it. However, the CRAZY thing is this:

Wives and Husbands
Ephesians 5:

22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

For the longest time “wives, submit to your husbands” really irritated me. I haven’t always had a husband that is easy to work with! My first husband didn’t believe in God and some of his ideas were really contrary to what I believed. But as I looked at vs 25 “just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” I realized that the command for my husband was impossible to accomplish. I immediately felt compassion. I haven’t been asked to die. I haven’t been asked to do for my mate what Christ did for all of mankind for all of eternity.

ouch. WHO can do THAT?

Every sunday I get up early to go help set-up at Yorkville Campus. I was really tired today - should have gone to bed earlier last night. I picked up my daughter in law and grandbaby and off we went! I am especially blessed. I work with great people and many of them are my family….really. Here is a short picture story of some of the mornings’ highlights for me.

This is my daughter in law, rehearsing a sketch with Jeff for the service. It was entertaining and funny! She is one of my favorite people, more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

Here is Grandbaby with Uncle John, waiting for mom and dad to be done. John would do anything for anyone. He has a huge heart.

Dad and daughter warming up! Jeff is thoughtful, imaginative and inclusive, as a musician and as a dad.

I don’t know if a mom gets happier than when seeing her kids worship together.

I didn’t take a picture of my daughter’s smiling face as she walked down the hallway today, but here is a picture of her from the day before.

To make my day complete, I sat next to and followed this Guy home. (Behind a truck and trailer I thought was going to hydroplane into an empty cornfield!) Here you see Guy and Mark Ripsch training an apprentice to drive the truck. We start them young and on a lighter weight truck, with no trailer. So simulate the weight of the trailer, we cart kids dads around in the bed!

God broke my heart today, with kindness. I didn’t expect it, I don’t deserve it.

Thank you.

wikipedia says a mission is a “specific task, often religious, which a person or group has been charged with or adopts as their main purpose.”

main purpose…are we being hypocritical? are we misunderstanding what it is to have a main purpose? are we expecting people to quit what they are doing so that they can then be ‘missional’? (as if they were different things) are we telling people that where they spend the majority of their time (work) is not relevant to their mission? what if being missional was something you did where ever you are, whatever you are doing?

if it’s my purpose for living I want it to be in every aspect of my life. why try to separate mission from taking a shower, reading a book, going to work or a restaurant or church? mission happens where you are.