Well folks, the honeymoon is over. We are officially one year old in public ministry today! We "launched" on the first Sunday of 2008. And we haven't missed a Sunday since. I don’t think this is the kind of thing we’d want to do all the time, but at the end of the first year it somehow seems appropriate, even necessary to me, that we just stop and look back on all that has happened.
Over and over again the people of god are called to remember who God is, what god had done for them, and what God promised to do for them. It was a way or remembering God’s faithfulness in the past to build faith for what he’s do in the future. On these occasions the people would renew their vows to God. Abraham renewed the covenant with God when his son was born after 20 years of waiting, at 100 years of age. Moses renewed the covenant before the people took possession of the Promised Land. Joshua renewed the covenant when it was time for him to pass on the torch of leadership to the next generation. Over and over again we see this as a essential part of worshiping God and being his people. It wasn’t that God forget, it is that we do. We need these occasions.
At one point in the history of God’s people they had forgotten the covenant for so long that the book of Deuteronomy, ironically the covenant renewal documents Moses wrote, had actually been lost! Young king named Josiah took the throne and when, in a building project, the scrolls of the law was discovered, he said this…
1 Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 He went up to the temple of the LORD with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD. 3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD -to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. 2 kings 23:1-3
This past year we were on one speed- fast forward. So today I want to start by hitting the pause button, rewinding a bit, and reviewing our first year. And in reviewing our first year, I hope we will RENEW our passion and commitment to what got Connections started in the first place. Because ultimately I don’t want us to just look back, I want us to look ahead with a RENEWED sense of passion and commitment to God.
Here are some of the highlights, simply off the top of my head:
We kicked off the year with a brunch to celebrate our launch. That was so much fun we are doing it again on January 18th. Join us, Our first series was "Resolutions Worth Keeping." We talked about four occasions in the bible when some made a resolution, which is defined, "to be fixed in purpose." We took from these stories four resolutions for our church, all based on the desire to "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)
- To grow in worship to two services;
- To increase our volunteer based to 100 people;
- To launch our Connection Groups ministry in the fall with 200 participants;
- To see 52 people give their lives to Jesus- one for every week of the year.
I've prayed for, wrestled with, and thought about those goals all year long. Were they audacious enough? Were they too small? Were they tangible enough that we could gauge our progress? Were they my hopes, or God's plans? Well, here's where we sit a year later:
* We grew to see over 200 people coming to worship with us Sunday mornings this fall. But we haven't felt the need to offer a second service.
* We increased our volunteer base to nearly 125 people. So more than half of the folks that worship at Connections also volunteers at Connections.
* We launched our Connection Groups with more than 100 people registered.
* We've seen many people tell us they have committed or re-committed their lives to Jesus, but this one is hard to gauge. It's very personal, plus, we don't want to "force" or manipulate people or decisions. Yet we want to be very intentional. So, by way of our communication cards or other direct communication, I've had 12 people tell me they made a first time commitment or re-commitment to Jesus.
In February we had what I thought was our most fun series of the year- "How to Look Good Naked." I've been tempted to try to turn this series into a book. I really think God was up to something in those messages.
In March we began a series that took us through Easter, "Vantage Point." We looked at the different points-of-view that many had about Jesus during his life, and today. (I also went on a ski trip in March and made a video sermon that was pretty fun, and went over fairly well. Incidentally, in that video we tried to use some trick photography. I grew a beard for about two weeks, then we filmed the second half of the message first. I shaved, then we filmed the first half. So when I told the bible story that covered the span of one week, it was supposed to look like a week went by and I grew a beard during that time. In theory the idea was sound. In practice, I haven’t really hit puberty yet, so no one noticed I tried to grow a beard, or that I had shaved my beard.)
Anyways… We called April our "Volunteer Appreciation Month" and gave out t-shirts to all our peeps. We talked about our “Signs of Belonging” at Connections. Here we defined what it looks like to be a part of our church:
* Soaring in Worship- making worship a priority, corporately and in all our lives.
* Studying God's Word- setting aside time 5 days a week to read the bible and pray.
* Stewarding God's Gifts- out time, our talents and our treasure (yes, money). Joining a Connection Group is a great way to help us in this area.
* Serving God's People- signing up for a ministry team, or helping us create new teams for our church and community.
* Sharing God's Love- picking 2 people we can intentionally pray for and invite into our lives.
We also had our "Connections Gives Back" mini-series where we highlighted the work of the International Justice Mission and our own crew of people who were going to bike across the US and Canada in "Sea-2-Sea: Ending the Cycle of Poverty." John Vandersteen, Mike Talsma and Thea Hiemstra together raised over $20,000 and joined more than 200 people, together raising over 2.1 million dollars. (Show a slide of them here please) This was an AWESOME cause for our church to feel a part. I pray things like this will become the norm for Connections and our people. We also welcomed back Kat Zietsma who had been serving in mission to India and New Zealand.
When we hit the summer season we launched into a study of the book of Philippians that we called "Breakout." This is going to become my routine for the foreseeable future- each summer we'll work through a whole book or section of the bible- just taking the whole thing apart piece by piece. What is so wonderful about going through whole books and sections of the bible is that it then that we really see how truly relevant the bible is to our time and our day. We just set aside our agenda and let God’s word guide and teach us.
In August we ran a series called "Into the Wild." I was blown away by the feedback I got from this series. We had four people commit/recommit their lives to Jesus. Plus, the band did the coolest cover of Hard Sun ever!
In the Fall we kicked things off with "Wiii Church." This is when we really seemed to get into the zone at Connections. Numbers came up, folks were getting involved, the family ministry was flourishing with Sarah DeVries at the helm, I put a renewed focus on our Media ministry, and we formally launched our Connection Group ministry. (Show Connection Group Slide)
More than 100 signed up as we started a semester approach to home-groups based on three guiding values: Common Purpose, Common Place, Common Possessions. Our purpose is Connections, our place is as neighbors in homes, and our life is to be shared together, even through caring for the material and physical needs of one another, in addiction to emotional and spiritual support. I could go on and on here, but suffice to say- we got off to a great start!
We also had our first Communion and Baptism service. No promises on what this will look like in the future, but for now, it's enough to see folks stepping forward and making this public profession of faith in Jesus and participation in His church.
All through October we went on the faith journey from: Petri(fied) to Justi(fied) to Sancti(fied) to Glori(fied). I thought it was super cool, maybe more than anyone else. Thanks for indulging my goofy ideas. At least we sported some cool t-shirts.
Our Game of Life series I got to make everyone uncomfortable as I talked about sex. Then I got to be uncomfortable as I talked about money. I already have plans to do a Game of Life series, Part 2 (there are just so many great games out there can we can use to dive into some great topics. Spoiler alert- Taboo is gonna make you all squirm!)
Finally, we ended 2008 with "The Advent Conspiracy." Worship Fully- Spend Less- Give More- Love All. Whatever our particular needs were, we hoped and prayed and planned for a great celebration of the incarnation of God, the birth of the Christ, Jesus. Last week I encouraged everyone to position yourselves to encounter God in 2009. To make the decision to do your part in making life intersect with God.
And as I look back on the past year, I am humbled and awed by all that God has done and how he has intersected with Connections. I am truly amazed
- • by all our volunteers have done,
- • by the worship the Music Teams draws us into,
- • by the love and care of our Family Ministry,
- • by the hospitality of our First Impression Team,
- • by the creativity of our Media guys,
- • by the faith of our Prayer Ministry,
- • by all of our Connection Group facilitators and hosts,
- • by the stories I hear about the love and support our folks extend to one-another and to our neighbors.
(I am also amazed at how many babies were born this past year. Good grief people, can’t you couples keep your pants on? I mean there are other options for things to do. You could watch a movie or play a board game or something.)
And more, I'm blown away to genuinely feel that we've only just begun. The first step was just getting started. Casting the vision, sharing a dream, seeing if anyone would want to get on board. The second step was getting this year under our belt. To see if anyone would care. If anyone would show up. If anyone would get involved. And you have.
Now, this morning, before anything else we do this year, I want to invite everyone here to renew your commitment in 2009. Connections started with a simple plan to take part in a very big mission. It’s a simple way of doing and being the church. It’s our way to taking part in a much bigger plan and mission, which is to join with God in what he’s doing in the world.
Our simple mission is our simple method. Connecting with God…with People…with the World. We want people to know that they can connect with God through a relationship with Jesus Christ. That in faith we believe that Jesus meets us where we are and takes us to himself so that, as the bible teaches, our lives are hidden in his. Our lives and brought into connection with Jesus.
We want people to connect with other people. When you put your life in Jesus, and when I put my life in Jesus, our lives are then joined together in the mystical union with Jesus. The bible even goes so far as to call us now brothers and sisters in Christ.
We want people in Jesus to then connect with the world. God created the world, loves the world, gave his life for the world, and has a plan to renew the world. God has not let the world go to hell in a hand basket, and is not letting the world go to hell. In fact it could be more the opposite- God is bring heaven to earth in the new Kingdom.
This is our mission and our simple plan. We invite people to join us in connecting with God in worship here on Sundays- what we are doing right now. We believe that gathering together in worship is not just a religious practice, but is a relational norm for the church. We believe there is a special spiritual dynamic in gathering together. We believe there is benefit and blessing to sing and pray together. We believe that God’s word, the bible, is to be openly taught and applied.
We believe that it is a reveled and essential human need, and spiritual need, to connect with one another. So we have created a structure in which we can connect in homes in groups with each other. We believe that something happens to our lives when we simple connect with others. Sometimes it’s dramatic, usually it’s not, but our need for human connection is every bit as essential as our need for oxygen and water.
Our simple plan then is to connect people to the world to share and grow together in this mission. People can join a ministry team. People can do things like bike across the country or go to India. And people can allow it to happen much more organically, and much more locally. We believe we are part of God’s redeeming mission to love the world when we shovel a neighbor’s driveway. When we say a kind thing or offer a act of service or open our eyes to the needs all around us- anything and everything done in love in the name of Jesus is part of living his mission in our world.
Today I invite you to join a Soul Revolution. A revolution of how we understand ourselves in the eyes of God, and in relation to God. For years perhaps you’ve heard this idea thrown around: Christianity is about a relationship, not a religion. We like the sounds of that, but what does it even mean? The very people, such as myself, who make this claim, seem to be living a very religious life. We go to church on Sunday. We join home groups. We read our bibles and pray regularly. We even give to the church a portion of our money. We speak about and hope for a relationship, but all we can seem to offer is a different religious package.
But where as religion offers a one-size-fits all plan for spiritual growth, relationship invites us to something completely unique- as unique as the individuals who comprise the relationship. I have three kids. I have a relationship with all three of my children. But each relationship, and our ways of relating, are completely different. My oldest daughter craves time with me to talk. I can take her out on a date and she can talk my ear off. The girl has an insatiable ability to talk. She’s highly intelligent and extremely verbal. Love her. I love being with her.
My middle child loves to do projects together. She has more artistic talent in her little finger than most people have in their whole body. She loves making things together. She loves giving gifts. She’ll work for hours making stuff, wrapping it up, giving it away. Just being with her as we make stuff is like heaven on earth to her.
My youngest, my boy, couldn’t be more different. He is so sweet it makes my heart melt. I watch him just hold onto his mom, he kisses his mom. He loves his mom so much and he tries so hard to help her. But when he sees me, he attacks. He jumps in my arms. He says let’s going biking, or skiing, or throw a ball, or bike down a ski hill while throwing things at each other. He wants to wrestle and laugh and play with his toys.
They are all my kids. They are all so me. And they are as unique as can be. And my relationship with them as their father is equally as unique. Imagine if I demanded they all relate to me the same way? Imagine if I could only relate to them in one way? I wouldn’t be a very good father, and we wouldn’t each have a very strong relationship.
But there are some threads which run through each relationship. They all want love from me, they all want time with me, they all want to do something for me. Each child needs my unconditional love. And each of us needs the unconditional love of God. Each needs time with me to express love and grow the relationship. And so each of us needs to find ways to spend time with God where by we can experience his love. Each child wants to do something for me, they each are trying to express their love to me. And so each of us needs to reflect back and express our love to God in ways that make sense and work for us.
This month I want us to get past our one-size-fits all religious practice and plan for spiritual growth. I want us to find the ways that we can love and be loved by God, the ways of spending time together with God that make sense to us. And the ways in which we can express our love for God.
So today, I invite us all to renew our commitment to this mission in 2009. Or if you are new to Connections, to journey with us and see if this mission, and if this community of people, isn’t one of the most awesome things you’ve every experienced. But I still ask you to commit to it, because you’ll never experience it standing on the sidelines. You’ll see it, you’ll hear it, and you can even get excited about it. And if you’re on the sidelines today, I’m so grateful. If you need more time on the sidelines, I understand, and that is fine. But if you are ready to jump into the game I invite you to our starting lineup!
Because I believe we are going to see some amazing things happen this coming year. I believe that God is going to do some things that we don’t even know how to ask for or imagine so that when He does, we can’t take any of the credit, and He will get all the glory.
And this I know- I can’t do it without you. Our church is no more than the people who put their lives in Jesus Christ, and who come together as Connections. Alone, I am a child of God, known and loved by God. And that’s an awesome thing. Alone, you are loved by God as well. But together, we are the church. And together, there is nothing we can’t do.
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