This weekend our church had to deal with its first incidence of church discipline.  As a part of the elder team, I have been in on the meetings and interviews and entreaties to change that have preceded it until there was no other choice.  It is heart-rending since I have been a good friend and accountability partner with the man for about 5 years.

I knew there was going to be an emotional cost to leadership but these last few days have really shown me how much that weighs.  On top of it all I also had to finish a ministry outreach on Saturday, then rush out to New Westminster for the funeral of a couple in my small group’s grandmother who had passed.  Again, more emotional weight.

I lost sleep over it, and that is bizarre for me, a guy who can usually turn off like a light switch.

I think it was doubly difficult because my wife left town to visit her family on that Saturday morning too, so I did not have her with me to lean on emotionally.

By Sunday night I felt so burdened that I couldn’t even think about going to bed.  I took the dog out for a walk in a miserable windy rainstorm.  I didn’t even want an umbrella.  I just wanted the water to soak my head and wash away the heaviness in my heart and mind.  At the end of the walk I was reciting Psalm 23 to myself, and when I got to the verse, “he anoints my head with oil;  my cup overflows,” A particularly cold drop of rain hit me right in the forehead, and it felt like that was God’s anointing… and it began to feel better.

The dog enjoyed the walk.  I enjoyed my little encounter with my compassionate shepherd.

Hey guys. So going into the fall, I’ve been put in charge of Yard Teams – an outreach into the community where we visit people who have unkempt yards and offer to clean up, mow, trim and weed their place as an act of love in community.

We had to do a little promotion at church to get our team together. Cheryl and I built this nifty little video to run during announcements on Sunday morning. I thought you might enjoy it.

Our first day was Wednesday, and it went well. We served three houses with one team in 2.5 hours, which doesn’t sound like a lot but the people we worked for were very grateful. The first lady, her name was Fatma, and she was a Muslim woman, was extremely grateful and called the next day to thank me and the team again for our service. We may go back to visit again on Saturday to help with a bit of her backyard too.

Another young woman later that night tried to offer us money for our work. I actually half wonder if this sense of expectation of a “catch” is what held back so many people from saying yes to us. We just told her we are doing this as a service to the community, to show Christ’s love. In retrospect, I thought more about it and in the future I will offer this analogy – when someone gives you a hug, you don’t feel obligated to pay, right? Think of it as a hug for your yard.

Now, coming up on Saturday which will be our second service day, the skies are clear right now. But it is forecast to rain tomorrow. Pray that we get a window of dry weather, otherwise we could be challenged tomorrow. And also pray for our park ministries that are running this week, that we would bear fruit in our community!

Our faithful friend Megan once again reminded me it has been too long since I have written anything here.  I can only plead busyness – work has gone ballistic in the sense that I feel like I am in a rocket right now at work.  IT is a good thing as God has been blessing like nobody’s business.  It’s almost like he knows we need the money for that new van!

On top of work, of course this is our big “Great Canadian Adventure” Week here in Surrey.  We have 46 people up from two churches – Ripon, CA and Ashland, OH.  They have been incredible servants and we’ve seen some powerful things happen as we serve alongside them.  I’ve been running the Yard Cleanup teams, and the reaction of people to completely free acts of service as big as yard cleanup has been amazing.  I myself have had 3 families tell me they will be at church on Sunday because of this – others I have talked to said there could be as many as 10-15.  Cheryl and I also had the opportunity to speak to the teams about our vision for Medicine Hat.  What a privelege!  More to come in our newsletter, which we will be emailing probably this weekend.

Anyways quick points:

• Thanks goes to Mike Silliman, fellow Grace Brethren Church Planter back east for the encouragement.  Check out his blog – he does good posts that really make you think.
• I found a neat Scripture memory application that I am going to try and talk Cheryl into letting me buy… when we have a moment to actually… you know… talk or something.  Yes, we are that busy this week!
• Just ran across a very good article (as usual) by Jonathan Dodson.  Advice for a 1st Year Planter.  I’ll be reviewing this article next year for sure.

Until next time!

The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches holds annual regional focus retreats where pastors and elders can get together and encourage each other and build relationship.  The Northwest Focus Retreat is just the Northwest District, so most everybody knows each other… except us.

This was the first retreat where we as Community of Hope’s leadership board attended.  Not the whole board mind you – I think it mostly had to do with availability.  Myself, Gord, Ken, Jason and Philip left immediately after church to drive down to the Clear Lake Bible Camp near White Pass, WA.

Jason was going down to finish up his Licensure review.  You may ask, “What is licensure?”  It is the process of a church organization authorizing you to marry and stuff.  It is also the first step towards ordination, or the recognition and commissioning you as a shepherd of a church.  Jason had already been licensed in the church he was at before but he was asked to be licensed by the Grace Brethren.  It is a two stage process – first they give you a long written test that basically covers a ton of theology.  Then they have an oral review where a board of other pastors asks you questions based on what they consider your weakest written areas.

Part of the reason Ken and Gord and I went was because we are going to be seeking licensure soon and it would give us an opportunity to see what the oral reviews were like.  The other part was it was a great opportunity to get to know the other guys in the district.

So we drove down Sunday afternoon.  Monday all day was a teaching session led by John McIntosh, the lead pastor of Simi Valley Grace Brethren church – a pretty big and pretty successful church.  He is also this year’s moderator of the FGBC.  He was a fantastic, gentle, challenging speaker.  I was very blessed by our study of 2nd Timothy.

Other blessings: spending a little time talking with Greg Howell, pastor of Goldendale Grace Brethren.  What an encouraging man.  Greg Stamm, talking a little about his son and hearing his enthusiastic support for our work in Canada.  Scott Avey, and his heart for the Brethren and seeking where God would have him next.  Hiller Payne, my new friend from Mukilteo, who I will not allow to forget his offer of gumbo!

Can’t wait for the next retreat with these gentlemen!

I should post more often so that I don’t end up trying to summarize an intensely busy week in a post short enough not to bore you all to tears.

Let me quickly summarize the events of the past week:

Wednesday – Staging for 1st Community of Hope Leadership Retreat.  Phil tasked me with setting up the “hike”.  Realized I couldn’t prepare adequately without actually looking at possible trails, so grabbed a friend of mine (Brandon) and hustled up to Harrison Lake after work.

Thursday – Planned to make up for taking off yesterday by spending the evening with my wife, but then Harry called me with tickets to Game 1 of the Canucks’ 2nd Round!  “No” is not an option with Canucks playoff tickets.  Man do I owe my wife.

Friday – Leave for the leadership retreat.  Yay!  We have a 4×4 to get to the hiking trail!  Good drive up with Jason and Juan-Carlos.

Saturday – Challenging day, fascinating how God had been speaking to many of us about the same things before we even left.  Ron Helmer (Bread Garden Catering, Surrey) makes some serious gourmet vittles.  Not home until after bedtime.  Owe my wife even bigger.

Sunday – Church, then our “Discover Hope” Lunch.  Met 7 people interested in pursuing membership.  Then shopping for Awana, then Awana.  Cheryl has a stomach bug.  I still owe her big time.

Monday – Finally got some yard work done – cut the front lawn, raked, seeded ripped out moss patches, fertilized.  Made supper, and then Small Group Leader meeting.  That makes 5 nights in a row unavailable to Cheryl.

Of course, one more thing on the docket tonight to bring the total to 6.

What I learned this week:

• My wife is amazing and despite her discomfort with the growing twins (see sidebar), her heart is behind me.  I am so grateful for that.  She also told me this week when I mentioned I think I need some fulltime ministry experience this winter, that she will sacrifice again for me to be able to do a few hours each day after work at the church offices.  What a blessing she is!
• Our leadership team here has a huge heart for people which really helps when you are planting a church.  If you don’t have passion for the lost, you are going nowhere.  Plus, they are fun guys to be around.
• I am the best pool shark of the bunch!  Heh.  I dare you to dethrone me!
• God is so working.  What a blast to see it happen.
• I need to apologize to my oldest, Dylan.  I was hard on him last night about leaving tasks unfinished.

More later.  Next post will be about evangelism – God is opening some doors!

A bunch of quick things, none of which are postworthy in their own right, but relate to our journey.

• Sunday we had a lady in the church let us know that they have relatives in Southern Alberta who have a Bed and Breakfast.  They have hosted church speakers and evangelists before, and she suggested we contact them for a place to stay as we investigate.
• Saturday night I stayed up far too late with an old friend, talking about life and our church planting dreams.  It is good to have people behind you.
• Speaking of good to have people behind you, I had an old forestry school friend join our prayer network this morning!  It feels like my heart for this calling grows two sizes every time someone unexpected joins our prayer network newsletter list. (By the way, if you haven’t signed up for it yet, it’s on the sidebar to the right.)
• One of my own private plans for the scouting trip was to seek God with a 5 day fast before we leave.  I mentioned that to a couple of close friends and they have courageously volunteered to join me in fasting and praying for God to reveal his plans to us on this trip.
• God’s got a number of challenges for me this week, and I am looking forward to meeting them all head on.  From leading an Awana Director’s meeting to meeting with some friends to deal with some issues, this week has some real experience in store for us both!

So in my travels on the internets I found another Grace Brethren church planter. His name is Mike Silliman and he pastors a new plant called Elk Creek Grace Brethren Church in PA. He blogs at Mistake Maker.

Apparently, he has quite the collection of leadership CDs by John Maxwell, a famous speaker and teacher on leadership.  I actually have a copy of the Maxwell Leadership Bible, that an elder at Cedar Grove gave me once when I was picking his brain about how to develop my own leadership gifts.  He is giving away these CDs and is having a little contest to see who to give them to.   So, if you are looking for a little something to encourage you in this area, hop on over there and suggest a caption for the picture, and see if he picks you.

She is worth far more than rubies. (Proverbs 31:10)

Just this weekend I was reminded about how wonderfully gifted my wife is.  She is a counsellor, leader, organizer, coordinator, so many wonderful gifts that will be critical to our success as a pastoral couple.  At times I almost feel overshadowed at how effortless she makes these things seem.

This morning I was thanking God for her while walking the dog, and I thought about how God has gifted me as a leader as well.  We’re not the same.  And in some ways, I would have to say that she is much more charismatic – people give her leadership automatically – than I am.  While it would be easier to plant a church if I was that way too, instead of embroiling myself in sinful jealousy, I found my heart moving in a completely different direction.  I just found myself praying that I would offer no appeal that way.  That I would be invisible, that I would just be the kind of leader that points the way to Jesus.  If the church we begin is thought of as a house of God, and oh yeah, that guy Shane talks on Sundays, I would be satisfied.

So thanks, God, for my wife, and let me simply point the way to you.

Mondays are definitely becoming a debriefing day for me.  It gives me a chance to reflect on all that went on Sunday – and the way we do church up here, a LOT happens on Sundays.

The discipleship class I teach is proceeding really fast.  I feel like anytime I have less than 4 people in the class, the material moves so quickly.  Of course, it helps when the people in the class are both highly in agreement and/or highly experienced in this environment.  I am letting them talk but the talk goes off subject so quickly, and feels unproductive.  Do I keep trying to hit the brakes and threaten derailment?  Or do I let us go at the pace that’s comfortable, and possibly get done early?

Another thought that occurred to me is that we parallel my class with a class for people who need a better understanding of their own faith.  Both lead to membership, but I don’t see where the material I cover gets treatment in a Gospel of John study.  I am wondering if perhaps it might make sense to run a mini version of my class after the Discovery class wraps, to make sure they are understanding how we are organized and why.  It might ease transition to membership for people new to their faith.

Last night was exciting on a number of levels.  It did not go as planned at all, from a human perspective, but God was doing some neat things.

First, we were trying to launch a new pre-preschool evening chidren’s program.  That made quite a few parents happy.  However, I had to get my nursery people rejigged to keep that working.  I had a leader lined up but they needed some help so I spent a large amount of time making sure everything was going smoothly and babies were happy.

This took me out of the picture for the opening ceremonies, but I am glad my directors stepped up and got it done.  We handed out handbooks and vests/shirts to the kids – I think they were thrilled.  Then, I was supposed to to a large group message.  I had everything ready: some props, the message printed out.  Then I realized I couldn’t put down the baby boy I was carrying around.  So, thanks God for preparing me to hand this one off!  I had Shane, the T&T Director, step up and run with the ball.  He did great.

Cheryl was there last night, helping with an autistic boy, and she wound up in the Sparks room where Ken (our new Sparks Director) was a little lost.  By the time I came up, she had everything under control and moving while Ken got up to speed.

The new handbooks and vests got all the kids worked up and they really took their efforts to another level, now that they could see more of what they were working for.

We were short some people, but it all got done.  I found myself pretty much circulating around complimenting people on how well they were doing.    Now that’s the kind of job I can handle!

All in all, a very successful day.  No question in my mind a day that would have completely hit the fan without God covering bases I didn’t even know needed covering.  Yay God!

I need to figure out what this word means.  How does one not give away the farm when one knows stuff that the person you’re talking to probably could use it, but you’re not sure if it is your place to say?

I’ve faced two different situations in the last 4 days where I have been asking myself, should I just shut up, or should I be forthright and say what I know?

I’m not very good at this yet.  Circumspection.  Need to figure it out.  Circumspection without sneakiness.