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Grace Place Congregation:

Happy Thanksgiving!

We’re already listening to Christmas music at our house (thanks to my Christmas-fanatic wife).  I look forward to Christmas too, but Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it is way less commercial and intended to be all about giving credit and gratitude to the One to whom we owe everything.  I encourage you to take some time on Thursday to thank God for the many blessings of this year.

The past several months at Grace Place have been a time of spiritual renewal and new energy—not the kind we can produce ourselves, but the kind that comes from the presence and blessing of the Lord in our midst.  I want to thank those of you who have agreed with me and other leaders to pray regularly, seriously, expectantly, and persistently for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, homes, and church!

Here are a number of important things I want to bring to your attention as we approach the end of the year:

Interview with Astronaut Joe Tanner

This Sunday, November 29, I’m looking forward to interviewing Joe Tanner, who flew on four space shuttle missions and spacewalked seven times!  The message is title, “To God be the Glory,” and you will be fascinated with video, pictures, stories, and a unique perspective on faith and the Creator of the universe. (There will be a potluck at 5:00 PM in Loveland before the 6:00 PM service).

Festival of Trees/Christmas in Berthoud

Grace Place teams up with the town of Berthoud this year again on Dec. 4-5 to Celebrate Christmas as a community and raise funds for local families who are struggling financially.  Be sure to bid on a tree or wreath at our Berthoud campus or in many of the local businesses in the town.  Also there are many other activities to participate in, including the women’s ministry brunch and Steve Desmond Christmas concert.  Volunteers are needed in a number of serving roles. Contact the office for details or go to www.christmasinberthoud.org.

December Teaching Series

I can’t wait for you to hear about some of the incredible miracle stories that have been happening in our congregation.  The December teaching series is called, “The Unexpected: Miracles Still Happen.”  We’ll be examining miracle stories in the book of Luke and hearing testimonies from Grace Place members who have experienced the power of God’s healing touch—physically, mentally, and spiritually.

New Loveland Campus Worship Time

Starting December 13, we are moving the worship time at Loveland High School two hours earlier to 4:00 PM.  After listening to the congregation for some time now, it seems that this time may work better for people’s rhythm of meal times and getting smaller children to bed in time to get their sleep for school in the morning on Monday.  There were several important reasons for moving our Loveland location from TVHS to LHS and going to an afternoon/evening time for this season.  I really appreciate those of you who have been willing to try something different and be flexible for the sake of the mission.  Remember, the reason for a gospel outpost in Loveland is not just for convenience or another option for the already convinced, but to take our worship gatherings closer to friends and neighbors further north who need Jesus!

Christmas Eve

This year we are returning to Thompson Valley High School again for one Christmas Eve service at 4:30 PM, December 24. This one hour service is designed to inspire believers and challenge seekers.  My message is entitled: “Nothing is Impossible with God” (as the angel told Mary when it was announced that she would give birth to the Son of God although she was a virgin).  Bring your friends and family!  An offering will be taken at the doors as you leave—100% of which will be given away to help those who are struggling financially, both inside and outside our church family.

Life’s Healing Choices

Please be praying about your involvement during the Life’s Healing Choices spiritual adventure coming in January-February.  Based on the eight beatitudes of Jesus (Matthew 5:3-10), we are going to learn helpful tools for finding deep personal healing and freedom from hurts, habits, and hang-ups.  The basic outline for this study was developed by Rick Warren, pastor and author of the book, The Purpose Driven Life. The material, when applied personally, has helped many thousands find greater freedom and victory in their lives.  It is the basis for the Celebrate Recovery program, but presented in such a way that every person will find rewarding benefits.  Please pray about whether you will host a small group in your home for eight weeks.  All of our hosts will be supplied with a DVD of Rick Warren teaching for 25-30 minutes, and booklet with discussion questions for each lesson.  Your Grace Place pastors and leaders believe that this is a unique opportunity for us to cooperate with the Lord in going deeper in our spiritual walk with God and each other than ever before.  Join in!

Year End

We all know that this has been a rough year economically for many.  We continue to pray for those who have lost jobs and are struggling.  The church has also been impacted by the downturn in the economy which has forced us to make some cutbacks in ministry and staffing.  Our staff and ministry leaders are being very frugal and careful about expenditures.  For the second year in a row the staff will not be receiving pay raises in January or Christmas bonuses.  As we seek to be careful stewards of the resources God entrusts us with, at the same time, we see many new opportunities for serving others and reaching out with God’s love both locally and beyond.  A strong offering in December is needed to rebuild reserves and fuel ministry and outreach as we start the new year.  God does not call us all to give the same amount, but to give according to how his has blessed us. “For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have” (2 Corinthians 8:12). Please pray about whether you may be able to give an extra year-end Christmas gift—above and beyond your regular, percentage-based tithes and offerings. Partnership with God pays rich dividends!

Selene and I count it a privilege to serve you, as do our all our pastors and staff.  Thanks for responding to the challenge to seek the Lord with new eagerness and intensity.  Good things are in store.  We love you!

In a New York Times magazine article (”Facebook in a Crowd,” 10-26-08), Hal Niedzviecki reflected on social media sites—specifically, Facebook. Soon after starting a Facebook account, Niedzviecki had accumulated about 700 on-line “friends.” In his own words, he was “absurdly proud of how many cyberpals, connections, acquaintances, and even strangers I’d managed to sign up.” But he went on to point out that due to a 2-year-old at home, his “workaholic irritability,” even his love of being left alone, he had fewer in-the-flesh friends to hang out with than he’d ever had before. So he decided to have a Facebook party to push his virtual friends into actual friends.

Niedzviecki invited all 700 of his “friends” to a local bar for a party. People could respond to one of three options: “Attending,” “Maybe Attending” and “Not Attending.” Fifteen said they would be there, and sixty said they might be there. He guessed somewhere around 20 would show up.

He writes about what happened next: “On the evening in question I took a shower. I shaved. I splashed on my tingly man perfume. I put on new pants and a favorite shirt. Brimming with optimism, I headed over to the neighborhood watering hole and waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually, one person showed up.”

And the one woman who showed up to meet Niedzviecki? He didn’t know her. She was a friend of a friend. They ended up making small talk and then she left.

Hal waited till midnight but no one else showed up. So, he ordered a beer and sulked. He concludes his article with these words: “Seven hundred friends, and I was drinking alone.”  (via hal@brokenpencil.com)

Here’s my take on this story: Niedzviecki NEEDS A CHURCH FAMILY!  The people I see who are connected and church and on Facebook are truly connected.  Sure, not all your “friends” on Facebook are truly “friends.”  And sure, not everyone you know at church is truly “family.”  But those who choose to really participate in a healthy local church develop a true family that shows up!

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).

This verse, a part of Paul’s parting exhortation to the pastors in Ephesus, contains valuable words for every pastor. Notice four points:

First, we must keep watch over ourselves before we can keep watch over the flock. John Stott writes of pastors: “For they cannot care adequately for others if they neglect the care and culture of their own souls” (The Message of Acts, 326).  Are you keeping watch over yourself?

Second, we must keep watch over the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made us overseers.  The words “elders” (v.17), “overseers” (v. 28), and “shepherds” (v. 28) are all used interchangeably as different words to describe the pastors (as in 1 Peter 5:1-2).  Shepherds are to lead, feed, guard, and care for the sheep.  How are we doing on each of these?

Third, we are shepherds of “the church of God.”  It is not our church.  It is not the member’s church.  It is God’s church.  Jesus is the head/senior/lead pastor.  It is to him that we will give an account for how we shepherd under him.  “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away” 1 Peter 5:4.

Fourth, the flock we shepherd was “bought by his own blood.”  That’s how God looks at his flock.  We are not to view our sheep like literal sheep: dumb, smelly, and wayward.  We are to view them as God views them: precious, valuable, blood-bought!

Richard Baxter, writing in the language of 1656, drives this point home:

“Oh then, let us hear these arguments of Christ, whenever we feel ourselves grow dull and careless: ‘Did I die for them, and wilt not thou look after them?  Were they worth my blood and are they not worth thy labour? Did I come down from heaven to earth, to seek and to save that which was lost; and wilt thou not go to the next door or street or village to seek them? How small is thy labour and condescension as to mine?  I debased myself to this, but it is thy honour to be so employed.  Have I to make thee co-worker with me, and wilt thou refuse that little that lieth upon thy hands?’” (The Reformed Pastor, 121-122 quoted by Stott).

Some thoughts to encourage and challenge fellow pastors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbjEUEnwpx4

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14, NIV)

Here is a challenging and thought-provoking excerpt from The Way to Pentecost by Samuel Chadwick:

Fellowship or “communion” [KJV] means partnership. The word passes through various phases in the New Testament, and is variously translated, but the idea of sharing runs through them all. In Luke 5:10, it is said that James and John, sons of Zebedee, were partners with Simon. Paul says of Titus (II Cor. 8:23) that he was his partner and fellow laborer; that is, they were colleagues in the ministry of the Church. Of Philemon and Onesimus it is used in the still more intimate sense of comradeship. The communion of the Holy Ghost, therefore, means that we are partners, colleagues, comrades with the Spirit of God. We are partners in vocation and resources, sharers in work and power….

The Apostolic Benediction prays: “The communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.” (1 Cor. 13:14, KJV) All the blessings of communion are for each believer. There is nothing promised to the Church that does not belong to its humblest member. The Spirit of God is not the monopoly of any particular class. There is nothing done by a minister that may not be done by anyone to whom the Holy Spirit is given. Let that be quite clear. Everyone can say: The Holy Ghost comes into partnership with me. He is my Helper, my Witness, my Teacher, my Guide, my Strength. For all the will of God we each have the Spirit with all His resources of wisdom and power. All things are possible to the soul strengthened with His might and led in His wisdom. If these things be true, wherein lies the explanation of our weakness and reproach? Where is the note of certainty in our testimony? Where is the prevailing power of prayer? Where is the power that overturns strongholds and casts out devils?

The communion of the Spirit is with us. He seeks partnership with us. His resources are inexhaustible, and His power invincible, but! but! but! There are reserves, conditions, interests; barriers that hinder, grieve, and quench the Spirit. He is held up by the barriers of unbelief, and prayerless living, worldly ambition, stupid vanity, and inflated pride. He longs for our fellowship. For the sake of Christ and the Kingdom of Grace, He longs to be admitted to confidence and co-operation. He wants a central place in our hearts, and to be admitted to the life of the soul. He comes to co-operate, and co-operation waits for confidence and consent. Where there is “agreement” there is power. Service becomes mighty in this fellowship. All the conditions of power are met in “the supply of the Spirit.” Personality is quickened and sanctified. Sympathy is deepened and enlightened, and in sympathy are the discernment that understands and the appeal that woos and wins. Weakness becomes strength when the Spirit of Might comes upon us. Ordinary men become wonderful when clothed with the Spirit of Power.

Weakness is a reproach when such might is at our service. Defeat is dishonor when the partnership of God is rejected. With the communion of the Holy Ghost at our command, what manner of men we ought to be! With such a partnership what mighty works we ought to do! There are no limits to His power. There are no reserves in His communion. There is no respect of persons with Him. Why do we set boundaries to His work, limit His activities, and refuse His appeal? He brings all, let us give all. “The Spirit which He has planted within us jealously longs for our love.” He seeks to enter into communion with us in all our life, and in return He will lead us into the communion of all that He has and is. Sign the deed today, and there will come the joy and power of the Holy Spirit of God who is the Spirit of Christ. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.” (2 Cor. 13:14, KJV)

I’m standing in front of the Parthenon on the Acropolis in the center of Athens.  When Paul arrived in Athens (Acts 17) the Parthenon had already been standing for around 500 years!  Paul did three things when he came to Athens: he saw, he felt, and he acted.

First he saw.  He walked around and checked out all the many temples and statues and altars and idols.  It was said in Athens that there were “more gods than men.” But he didn’t just see art, he saw idolatry.  He saw confusion.  He saw people who were very religious, but misguided. He looked; he studied the culture.

After he saw what he saw, he felt. “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” (Acts 17:16) The word Greek word for “greatly distressed” was used in medical journals for a violent seizure. The word represents strong emotion.  Paul was not nonchalant about what he saw.  He was extremely moved in his spirit.  As a result he couldn’t just do nothing.

So he acted.  He spoke up and got engaged in trying to share the gospel in two different locations: 1) in the synagogue; and 2) in the market-place (Acts 17:17).  The market place (Greek: agora) in Greek and Roman cities was not just a food market.  It was a major gathering place in the center of the city, not only for trade, but for social and philosophical interchange as well as a place where the legal courts were held.  The synagogue was like the church—a place where mostly the already convinced gathered, along with occasional seekers.  Paul didn’t just stay there.

If we are going to reach people with the gospel, we are going to have to take the good news beyond the church to the agora, to the market place!

John Stott writes:

The equivalent of the agora will vary in different parts of the world.  It may be a park, city square or street corner, a shopping mall or market-place, a “pub”, neighborhood bar, café, [coffee shop] or student cafeteria, wherever people meet when they are at leisure… there is a need for [people]… to gossip the gospel in such informal settings as these. (The Message of Acts, 281)

If we are going to make a difference for Christ in the world, we need to ask His Spirit into our lives so that we can see as He sees, feel has He feels, and than act as He would have us act, find ways to get the good news beyond the church and out into the agora, to “gossip the gospel” in the market-place!

I read this letter at Winnie Sawchuk’s memorial service. She served as the Grace Place Loveland office manager. One day a couple young adults stopped in the office. They were down and out. Winnie reached out to them and made an impression. Months later, May 4, 2009, a handwritten note was left in the door at the office. It read:

Hello,
I imagine you don’t remember me. My friend, Montana and I came into your office not long after you opened. That is sort of my “area” so we stopped by to see what you were and why you guys had such a weird name.
Anyway, I heard that you were sick with cancer…I am so sorry. I can’t imagine how much that must suck. Just wanted to let you know that Montana (who is sleeping in a tent in Alaska currently – crazy boys) and I are thinking about you.
You have been sort of the piece of the puzzle that keeps standing out as not fitting in the church picture. I have met a lot of church people – a heck of a lot more than I would like to have. And I am” way too heathen” for them to do anything but pray at a distance… I don’t blame them for truly they are “freaking” more holy than me. But, you work for a church and you talked to us and answered our questions… and even offered us food – since there have been times the pain in the stomach combined with the “dizzy” in the head have made life miserable. This meant a lot.
Guess I just want to say “thank-you”. When I heard that place was a church I was biased against you, but you were nothing like a Christian. If ever I were to be a Christian at a church I would want to be on like you. One that even a “screw-up” like me could talk to.
These church people of yours better to taking good care of you.

(The letter is signed “Jess”)