I have been thinking a lot lately (in between worrying about the Twins) about Community Group in the Fall.  We are going to orient this group to not just be a group that is praying and supporting the formation of a core group for our church plant, but also serving Community of Hope by helping to move our group members towards both greater personal dedication to the Lord and also living missionally where they are.  It is hoped then that not only will people be able to support us btu they will become better equipped even if they remain here in BC.

Given the boatload of reading I was doing last year, working on my graduating essay on church planting in resort communities, I think I am positioned to take our group in a more exploratory posture deeper into the idea of missional living.  What does that mean?  It means taking seriously the reality that if we actually mean to follow Christ, we must be about his business – and his business was bringing about the Kingdom of God on earth.  We must be doing what he did – making disciples, each of us, personally, in the place where God has put us.

I love my church, but I recognize that they, like me, have long been poisoned by this idea that doing church is for clergy.  That they are the ones who evangelize, teach, make disciples, baptize, and otherwise grow the church.  That our only obligations are to sing some worship songs to God every Sunday, say Grace before every meal, and do whatever our pastor asks us to do in the name of humility and service.  What a weak, anemic faith that is!

I picked up “Breaking the Missional Code” by Ed Stetzer and David Putman as some thing to read while in the hospital, and it has been good so far because it is putting legs to ideas that need to be explained.  I hope to use ideas from that book as topics of conversation in our Community Group.  They ask some very good questions that we, who hope to reach people for Jesus in our neighbourhood, need to ask ourselves.

One startling thing that they point out is that as a church increases its “evangelism training” the actual evangelism of that church goes down.  Conversely, it appears the most effective evangelists are new converts, with no training.  A comparison is drawn to the Woman at the Well that Jesus met – who went back to town and told the whole Samaritan village about Jesus and saw great numbers believe in him as a result.

Evangelism training has a place, but it really seems that the most effective means of engaging people with the gospel is in two respects – relationally (which takes no training really – but does take a lot of emotional and temporal investment), and holistically.   What I mean by holistically is that your faith needs to be lived out.  It needs to inform your actions, choices and way of life to the point where Christianity is not your religion – Christ is your life.  When this happens barriers start to come down.  Hypocrisy is mitigated, because you are not acting one way and talking another.

How does this happen?  It happens when you are being encouraged, supported and motivated towards greater wholeness in Christ.  It is a happening that I really want to see in our Community Group this fall.

We hadn’t updated here yet, but the Twins arrived on Sunday morning at 4am.  They are both doing well, the bigger twin is up with us in Mommy’s postpartum room.  The smaller twin is still in the nursery because his blog sugar is a little wonky.  I think it is mostly due to his smaller size, less energy reserves.  He will be fine once he can make some headway in building some body fat.

We are still staying at BC Women’s Hospital.  Not sure when we will be heading home from here, but hopeful it will be by the end of the week.  If not we may get Lyan (the small one) transferred back to Surrey for further care.

Lots more including pictures on Facebook if you’re on there.  I may try to post pictures here too later.

With one of my favourite Christian bloggers putting out a call for confessions, I decided to get inspired.  Heh.  No, inspiration just happened. Confessions!

• I am feeling more nervous, more unprepared, and more at wit’s end with this pregnancy than I have ever been with any of my other children.  (Duh, you’re having twins!)
• I am going through a slump at work, and I think it’s partly because I am distracted by the fact that I can’t conclude a deal on a van for the family.
• My wife is very insightful.  She pointed out to me that the reason I am so focused on vans is because it is the only thing I feel I have any control over right now.  I can’t control the pregnancy, I can’t control the quality of sales opportunity at work, I can’t control my family’s health (largely).  Problem is, I can’t control finding a van either – it is the dealer, the salesperson, the buyer for my car who are in the driver’s seat and I am just waiting… waiting… waiting…
• Feeling Romans 7:19 right now with respect to my kids and my computer.  Guess which one I think is the sin.
• Also feeling Romans 7:19 right now with respect to studying for licensure and facebook.  Guess which one I think is sin.
• I really want to start using my knowledge of the internet to warn people away from Maple Ridge Chrysler, because of the way they have treated us.  I can’t decide if it is revenge or public service that is motivating me though.

A great article from Penelope Trunk about self-discipline.  Great ideas and a good point about how important this is.

It’s on my heart because I am really beginning to recognize that self-discipline is not just critical for your own personal walk with Jesus, but if you want to do anything of note in life, it indispensible.

Like the President says.

Love is patient, love is kind…

It rings in the ears.  Just like that other classic saying, “Patience is a virtue.”

After the June that we had you would think that we’d be satisfied to wait on God for our needs but I find myself more and more tied up with worry about our auto situation.  We know what we want, we have some money to get us there, but we need to sell my car to get us the rest of the way.  And once that is done, then there will be the next problem – that of shopping for the van we want, which is actually pretty hard to find.  We will probably be looking in the USA at this stage, and shopping long distance is not easy.

There are two really affordable vans I have found on eBay and I would love to move on them.  However, the interest shown in selling my car has not materialized into a serious offer yet.  It is so easy to slip into base thinking like, we haven’t prayed enough (like God can be coerced by vervency or frequency).  But the reality is patience is a part of discipline, which is really what God is trying to instill in us (but mostly me).

Enter into this my choice of the next book to read through: Romans.  I hit on chapter 5 this morning and unsurprisingly, Paul had something interesting to say to the Roman church on just this issue:

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:3-5)

My baser nature wants me to jump all over these opportunities, because they look like fantastic deals that may not come up again.  And we could do it – we do have clear credit cards right now.   However, we don’t want to use them anymore except for absolute emergencies.  Yes, the car will ultimately sell, and this would be the most immediate solution, but that doesn’t build patience does it?  Some of the most God honoring things I have seen done are when people do not go into debt but wait upon God to provide and then pay with cash.