Q & A this Sunday

We will be having a Question and Answer time this Sunday night at 5:00 p.m. for our proposed building. This will not be a voting meeting, just a meeting for anyone who might have questions or suggestions. We are in the early stages of this building and are open to any suggestions. We want to make sure that everyone is on the same page and we simply want the Lord's will to be done. We will also be sharing some ideas that we might have on our current buildings and how they can be best utilized. Looking forward to Sunday night for a time of sharing and a time for vision casting.

Pastor Board Banquet

Had our annual Pastor/Board Banquet last night in Oskaloosa. This is a time that our District officials share their vision for Iowa to the local pastors and board. I thought it was interesting that the theme of the night was "Reaching the Next Generation." Many of the things that were shared last night was in my message from Sunday. I feel the Holy Spirit is moving our leaders and churches to realize the importance of this truth. Many of the things Tom Jacobs our superintendent shared were right on. Here are a couple things that stood out to me;

1. Some of the greatest ideas are not going to come from my generation but the next generation. It is my job as a leader to help cultivate and fund those ideas.

2. As a church, we must not choose our traditions over our children.

It was a great night of vision and can't forget the great food as well. I am exciting that our state leaders have a vision and heart to reach our state in creative and innovative ways.

Just got done creating our Easter Postcards for our Easter Weekend. We will be printing 3000 cards this year and sending them to Montezuma, Deep River, Malcom and Barnes City. We will also use these cards as invite cards as well in church. Easter is not that far away so begin praying about Easter services and the lives that will be touched this year.

Weekend Reflections

1. Had the touch of the flu on Friday and Saturday. I don't get sick that often so it was definitely an unpleasant experience. Still pretty weak on Sunday when I preached but got through.

2. Rhonda Minner hit a home run on her song on Sunday. She definitely has a great voice and an anointing as she sings.

3. We picked up twelve kids on the van on Sunday! That is great numbers for the winter months.

4. Preached on the "Battle of Parenthood." Continuing our "Love is a Battlefield" series. Talked about the importance of reaching the next generation. We must realize that if we don't reach the next generation, the church could easily become extinct. We have an opportunity as a church and as parents while our kids are with us. Statistics show that we only have a 4% chance of reaching someone after they reach the age of 18. This has to be a wake up call for us all. We must fight for our children and fight for our teens. We had a powerful time of prayer for our kids and teens around the altar this Sunday.

5. Still no solution on the sewer system. It looks like we have a frozen pipe somewhere underground. The question is where?

We are up and running (Kind of..)

OK, so are sewer system is still not working. It looks like we have a frozen pipe underground and not quite for sure yet what we are going to do. We brought in some external tanks so we can have running toilets in the main building so church is on. I think we got most of the stench out at least. What a crazy week. I am believing God for some GREAT things tomorrow with all the chaos we have experienced this week.

Our Church Stinks!

No literally, it really does stink. Our sewer backed up in both buildings on Tuesday night. What a mess! We have sewage water in the foyer and in the Education building bathrooms. Problem is still not solved as we are going to have to blast out the sewer underground with a huge water blaster of some sort. Just praying that it works. There will be no Bible Study or youth tonight due to the horrible smell. YUCK!

Lent

The season of Lent has officially begun. I want to invite everyone to the Lenten Breakfast that will be taking place every Wednesday at the Methodist church from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. until Easter. Lent is a season that leads us to Easter and it is a time of prayer and self-denial. I know we are not a liturgical church but there are some things we can learn about Lent. We will be doing our own 21 day fast leading to Easter in March.

New look

The blog is getting a makeover. I thought it was time to change the look of it. Hope you like.

Weekend Reflections

1. Went to Joe's Crab Shack on Friday night with the family to celebrate my birthday. Gotta love Joe's. I enjoy the fun atmosphere. This is the one time of year I get to enjoy seafood since Jen despises it.

2. Most of Saturday was spent on basketball and then to Cedar Rapids for hospital visitation. Jen and I are also looking for a Wii Fit but can't seem to find them anywhere.

3. Sunday was a great day. We had 185 in attendance and it was just one of those fun Sundays. We are in part two of "Love is a Battlefield" and I talked about the fight for marriage. Paul gives us two commands in Ephesians 5 for men and women. He calls the women to respect their husbands and he calls men to love their wives. When we don't do these two essential things, we get caught in the crazy cycle. The key is learning to stop this cycle and energize each other with love and respect. Jen bought me some crazy glasses to illustrate that men see through blue lenses which represents respect and women see through pink lenses which represent love. Got a few laughs out of that one. The key is to look through the lens of your spouse and not your own lens. Also, remember Jesus is our example. Jesus' love for the church should be present in our love for our spouse.

4. Sunday Night was our Valentine Banquet. The ladies did an excellent job decorating the fellowship hall. It looked amazing. The food was great and the fellowship was great as well. We played the "Newlywed Game" and had lots of laughs. It was a fun night.

Cookie Outreach

Today we did our annual Valentine Cookie Outreach. We wrapped over 120 plates and gave them away to the community. What a great and practical way to show the love of Jesus!

We started our series entitled "Love is a Battlefield" last Sunday. I really felt it was important that before we talked about relationships in general that we needed to understand God's love towards us. If we don't understand God's love, then we will not be able to show true love towards others. Remember that Jesus prayed that we would be filled with the same love that He and His Father have for each other. (John 17) God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are able to express perfect love. There is no selfishness in the Trinity. We are to be filled with this love and then give this same type of love. This was Jesus' prayer for the church. Let us know our worth in Christ! Know the the battle that Jesus went through on the cross so that we can experience this love. When we understand this truth, then we will be able to go to the battlefield for others.

More Snow!

Anyone tired of snow yet? Working at home today because we are snowed in once again. Looking forward to Spring and warmer weather.

Blogging Again

Hey everyone, so it has been a long while since I have blogged. It has been a crazy year for me especially in my family life. I am excited to say that things are starting to slow down and so I want to try to blog again. There are many things happening right now at CH and I am excited about what God is doing. I feel that the blog is a great way to keep everyone posted and share their thoughts. Please stayed tuned!

Chutzpah

We concluded our series on "Parables" yesterday. I wish we could have taken more more time on the parables as there are so many of them and they are all so important. Yesterday we talked about 'chutzpah' faith. It is a bold, persistent, shameless faith that presses in until we receive an answer. Jesus taught in His parables that God is moved by this type of faith. There are times in our prayer lives that it seems that God is not listening and may seem that when we pray things don't get better but they get worse. It is in these times that people tend to give up. They may give up on prayer or worse yet give up on God. Jesus told us that it is in these times that we press in and hold on to the promises of God. Jesus said at the end of the parable in Luke 8 that we need to ask, seek and knock until the door is opened. I want to encourage everyone to not give up on whatever you are asking from God. God is faithful and He is moved by our persistent prayers.

Leaders Meeting

We are our first all leaders meeting on Sunday night and I am very excited about what the Lord is doing in our church. This past October I was challenged by the author of "Good to Great" to get the right people on the right seats of the bus to move the vision forward. I feel that God is definitely putting the right people in the seats. John Bushong has just took over our Christian Education and I am very excited about the possibilities of what we can do with Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and other events this year. My wife Jennifer is also doing a great job with our children's ministry department and we are moving in the right direction with new curriculum and a vision for outreach. Our youth team is becoming stronger and I believe that over the next few months we will see strong leadership arise to take over this ministry. I was very excited to hear reports from our Missions Team as well as they are seeing the needs in the community and world and taking action. God is doing some great things and I believe the vision is moving forward and best is yet to come.

Desiring God

Last week I got the opportunity to got to Minneapolis to the Desiring God conference. One of the speakers was Matt Chandler and Matt did a great job explaining the role of ministry. Here are the seven things he taught from 1 Timothy chapter 4.

1. The Gospel matters- If we don't get the Gospel right people will conform to a pattern of religion not the pattern of Christ.

2. Avoid myths and train in godliness

3. The Gospel will be a stench to some- I think we sometimes forget this principle. Not everyone accepted the message of Jesus. Some turned away and did not receive the truth. If we are offending some with the Gospel we must be doing something right.

4. Be the example- As a leader I must be devoted to the scriptures and not what every other church is doing.

5. Pastoring is a part of sanctification- Our calling is to Christ not the church.

6. Practice the Word- If we are not careful our faith can stagnate. As I grow the church will grow.

7. Pay attention to myself and my teaching- If I pay to attention to my own life and my teaching I will be able to save myself and those who hear what I teach.

Valentines Outreach

This will be our third year that we will be doing our Valentine Cookie Outreach. I am always amazed on how a simple thing like handing out plates of cookies to people in our community makes a huge difference. This year we will be inserting our new Hope Cards (more on that on a later time.) in each plate. If you know someone who could use a plate of cookies, make sure you mark their name down and put it in the offering as it passes by. We will be delivering the cookies the week of the 9th. Can't wait to see what God is going to do through this outreach!

Faith vs. Works

I was reading in my devotion time this morning from Romans 4 when Paul is talking to the Jews about forcing circumcision on the Gentiles. I am not going into details on the chapter but I encourage you to read it. The point of the chapter was Paul was telling the people that circumcision was just an outward sign of what God had already done in the heart. Paul uses Abraham as the example. Abraham was a man of faith and had faith in God and His promises. God told him to go to a land where he had never been and Abraham went. God told Abraham that he would have a son in his old age and Abraham believed. Paul makes the point that Abraham had faith before he had circumcision. It was faith that allowed him to receive God's promises not circumcision. The point is simply this; God doesn't judge us by our outward works but God judges us by our faith. This is so important! As a pastor, I am simply judged by many outward things; whether or not my sermon was good on Sunday, what was our attendance as a church and even our budget and finances. These are all measurable things that we can look at and say whether or not a pastor is a success or not. If you are not a pastor you have other measurable outward things that people possibly measure about you. Here is the point: God doesn't measure our outward works, He measures our faith in Him. Here are some questions I am asking myself:

1. Am I doing something right now that requires faith? Something bigger then myself and something I cannot do on my own.
2. Am I trusting God's promises and His Word as my resource?
3. Am I believing that God will come through and am I taking action towards that thing that requires faith?

I would rather be known as a person of faith then any other outward works. If this matters to God then it should also matter to me.

Prophecy Series

Pastor Weets wrapped up week three in our prophecy series. Pastor Weets has given us so much information the last two weeks to possibly make your head hurt. I would encourage you to listen to the podcast or pick up the CD and listen a few times through to let the message sink in. This Sunday he spoke of the coming Anti-Christ and the Mark of the Beast. It is interesting that the number 6 means man and three is perfection. The Mark of the Beast is a picture of man's attempt to be God. We see this today in our culture. There is a spirit of anti-Christ in which people no longer want to have anything to do with God and take God out of everything we do. As we move towards this we can see how this will eventually set up the things to come with an eventual ruler and system. I am so thankful that the Word promises us that as believers we have nothing to fear. These things will take place during the Tribulation period where the church will already be raptured. We will be with the Lord in heaven during these terrible days. One of the things that Bible prophecy should move us towards through is a heart to reach those around us who do not know Christ. You may know some that if Christ returned they would not go and have to go through the Tribulation. It is our job to reach them and share the love of God with them. Bible Prophecy should give us that compassion and heart to win people for Christ.

Girls Basketball

Just started helping with the 1st-3rd grade girls basketball league this month. We are holding practice in Monte which resulted in thirty some girls attending. Last year we practiced in Grinnell and only had around eight. We have broken up into four teams and we are practicing twice a week. It has been a blast to help with the girls. The coolest part of all is the league is Bible based. As we get into the season the girls will learn Bible verses and at the half-time of games they will learn a Bible story. What an awesome way to present the Gospel and reach families. Looking forward to the year and getting to know the girls and seeing God do some great things.