Oasis (2)

Here is part of an article I published in our monthly newsletter, explaining why we are planting a new church.

The reason for the larger question of why start a new church at all comes from scripture. Jesus commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to be reaching out to new people in different places, inviting them to draw close to Christ. (Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 10:27-28) We believe that a healthy church is a growing church (the opposite is not necessarily true) And as we have seen, the Northern Lighthouse (NL) is growing. This raises questions about how one is to grow, relationally, systemically, and physically. (i.e. a building) One way to grow is to be ever spending money on ever larger buildings. Our approach at the NL and now Oasis, is to plant new churches. Why? So that more people worship Christ, and reflect the Kingdom of God, serving others, rather than living under the consequences of poor choices.

Right now, less than 400 of the 2800 people currently living in Waverly, worship in Waverly. There are two good churches there, but with 2400 people in need of a closer relationship with Christ, there is a great need in Waverly. Additionally, some of the things we do here at the NL are unique. The kind of atmosphere we all work to create, a community which is a place of acceptance and direction, a place of hope and love, and all through the power of the Holy Spirit, these are the type of things we believe God has called us to be a part of in Waverly. Additionally, because God is already at work in Waverly, we don’t seek to bring something external to this community, something that is of ourselves, but rather, we seek to join God where he is already at work. As we have been helped, so we help others, creating a community of the Spirit.

Missional - Overused and Missunderstood?

Rick over at Blind Beggar believes that the word missional is getting overused. So he is calling for a SynchroBlog about the defination of missional on June 23. You can see who else is talking about this here. I'll definitely be participating.

In the mean time, here is my defination in three words: Jesus - Community - Go.

Oasis (1)

So I've mentioned a couple of times that I'm helping to plant a church in Waverly Nebraska, a suburb of Lincoln. This new church plant will be called Oasis Community Church, or just "Oasis", which is what we hope to be.

Keep in mind, one's stay at an oasis is always temporary, it is a place to rest for those on a journey. Lord willing, so it will be with our Oasis. As we participate in the mission God has given his people, the church, to be ever going, living the good news where people are at, we will seek to be a temporary Oasis of relationships and worship, a place to reorient ourselves on Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.

In the next few days I'll post a few more articles about what God has called us to be a part of in Waverly.

Free Graphic Design

So I'm working on creating a graphic, and/or having someone else do it. Seeing what's out there, getting ideas.

Not surprisingly I have come across some pretty good sites. A lot of them are making things available for free. How do they do that? Several ways. One is for the artists to raise support, so the artists are creative design "missionaries". Another is for the web site to be a common ground for artists to post their work, so anyone and everyone can give and take. And a final option I am seeing is big churches posting their own material on the web, giving it away.

Here is where I found a lot of this stuff
ChurchRelevance
Free Church Graphics and Resources Toolbox

And here are some that I personally found useful.
Muddy River Media
CreativeMYK
OPEN

On CreativeMYK I was able to post a want add, looking for someone to design a logo for us, and in less than a day I have gotten two responses.

Juno

Just watched Juno. It's really good if your ok with a certain amount of profanity and coarse joking. (it fits the character) It is so stinking real. I don't mean the pregnancy, I won't presume to be an expert on that, although the baby was shown as rather bloody right after being delivered. I mean the circumstances, the feelings, and all the rest. Specifically the challenge of dealing with a teenage pregnancy in a normal kind of way, one that isn't over dramatized, (you won't see this one on the Hallmark channel anytime soon) and in fact is very funny.

As for the spiritual angel. I simply like identifying with real people in real life. Jesus lived a real life with real laughter and real problems. The film Juno animates life... warts, laughter and all. Additionally, it represents a pro-life view, without being an infomercial.

Budget Hero

I just got done playing this federal budget game. It's preety cool, check it out.



You can sum up my budget priorities this way:
Priority #1 - A balanced budget and a good economy (Go Republicans)
Priotiry #2 - Taking care of those in need... wisely. (Go Democrats)

Here is my theological grid. Sustainability, and justice for all, including future generations. This is Biblical. The profits this creates can be used to help those truly in need. (including the unborn) Socialism goes wrong by making care of people the first priority of the federal government. A sinking ship can't save people, now or in the future. Nor is it the federal governments job entirely. (it has and should have a very big role to play)

In contrast, capitalism goes wrong when it makes "security", money and ease the final priority. Greed is always a challenge, however we saw it pushed to the breaking point in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (think child labor and rich barrons) These sins ushered in the "New Deal". Unfortunately we have seen it again in the past few years. (with a "born again" Christian in charge) Some have gotten wealthy while many have languished.

What is not high on my list of priorities is military spending. Why? I have a number of reasons, but mainly because no one is really threatening to take away our freedom... militarily. Judicially and economically, now that's a different story. Much of defense spending is wasted in a vast "military industrial complex", which doesn't actually keep us safe from that vast hoard of nations on the very brink of invading us. (wait a second...)

It's been said before, "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." I think the age of set piece battles and one nation invading another is coming to an end. That doesn't mean there aren't very real threats. What I'm saying is that how we prepare to fight these threats, under what circumstances, and with what preferred end in mind, has or needs to radically shift.

We are largely engaging Iraq in the same way we engaged Germany and Japan. Our army beat there's and then we set up house keeping for a while.

In a world dominated by free people competing economically, economics and information will be the weapons of choice. Any nation that steps out of line (N. Korea, Iran, or to a lesser extent, Russia, China vs Tawain, or India vs Pakistan) can be punished with special forces operations, economic penalties, naval blockades, stealth bombers, cruise missiles, or some combination of these. All you have to do is economically punish the aggressor. While the rest of us get rich, living at peace and trading with one another.

Who says you have to invade and overthrow? I understand that ground troops win wars... if taking ground is your defination of win. But who decided that?

Update

So obviously I haven't been blogging lately. I think I'm going to re-commit my life to Chr... I mean blogging, try and get on here a minimum of once a week or so.

As for what's up now.

I'm planting a new church (more about that in the future)

Presently I'm on vacation (maybe that's why I have time to be on this blog)

I just signed up for a cool on-line church planting class. You can learn more about it here.

Nicholas is nearly two, and just beginning to talk.

All and all, life is good.