Christmas Store

christmas store stats

The Christmas Store and Christmas Craft Fair were set up today in hopes of a great day tomorrow for these events! We are praying that the bad weather forecasted for tomorrow blows north of us! Here's a look at some stats at this point:

365 invitations/tickets given to shoppers

235 volunteers for the Christmas Store and Christmas Craft Fair.

$5,727 donated

1,770 gifts total (some donated and some purchased with the money)

60 dozen cookies and treats baked and donated

13 key teammates working together to organize

1 Great God

emotional development

I've recently finished reading Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero. I'd recommend you read it, especially anyone who is in full-time ministry. Scazzero beautifully unpacks his thesis that a person cannot be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. He does a great job of examining the problem of emotionally unhealthy spirituality and providing a pathway toward health. Scazzero contends that though people may be 50 years old biologically, they may be but an emotional infant, child, or adolescent. How do you determine what makes for these emotional stages of development? Scazzero defines them in the summary below. It provides for a good self-assessment; at least it did for me!

Emotional Infants

*Look for others to take care of them

*Have great difficulty entering into the world of others

*Are driven by need for instant gratification

*Use others as objects to meet their needs

Emotional Children

*Are content and happy as long as they receive what they want

*Unravel quickly from stress, disappointments, trials

*Interpret disagreements as personal offenses

*Are easily hurt

*Complain, withdraw, manipulate, take revenge, become sarcastic when they don't get their way

*Have great difficulty calmly discussing their needs and wants in a mature, loving way

Emotional Adolescents

*Tend to often be defensive

*Are threatened and alarmed by criticism

*Keep score of what they give so they can ask for something later in return

*Deal with conflict poorly, often blaming, appeasing, going to a third party, pouting, or ignoring the issue entirely

*Become preoccupied with themselves

*Have great difficulty truly listening to another person's pain, disappointments, or needs

*Are critical and judgmental

Emotional Adults

*Are able to ask for what they need, want, or prefer-clearly, directly, honestly

*Recognize, manage, and take responsibility for their own thoughts and feelings

*Can, when under stress, state their own beliefs and values without becoming adversarial

*Respect others without having to change them

*Give people room to make mistakes and not be perfect

*Appreciate people for who they are-the good, bad, and ugly-not for what they give back

*Accurately assess their own limits, strengths, and weaknesses and are able to freely discuss them with others without losing themselves

*Have the capacity to resolve conflict maturely and negotiate solutions that consider the perspectives of others

urban-suburban partnership

Any readers part of an urban-suburban church partnership? If so, I'd be interested in learning if your churches worked on any kind of covenant together and what your celebrations and challenges have been.

Orchard Hill Church and Harvest Vineyard formed a covenant together this fall. God's been at work binding us together over the past few years, but we thought a covenant would be good to form so that we could articulate values, expectations, and practices as partners. Click here on "covenant" if you'd like to check it out.

classic Saturday

This year, I've been reading and sharing weekly through Devotional Classics edited by Richard Foster and James Bryan Smith. There are 52 devotions offered from a variety of devoted followers who have written in order to encourage the faith of brothers and sisters in Christ.

This week's author is Elizabeth O'Connor (1921- ) and her quote is on the topic of money. O'Connor was a part of a radical faith community called the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., founded in 1947 by a movement of the Spirit that had the rest of the world taking notice.

"As we become exposed to the poor and their needs, the rich young ruler and the widow and her mite lose the storybook quality of our childhood faith, and become figures in the counter-culture literature of a revolutionary leader-the very one whom we call Saviour. The First Commandment and all the Scriptures on the worship of idols begin to lay bare our own primitive selves. Some of us have looked into the face of our idols and found that one of them is money.

Though we along with millions of other churchgoers are saying that Jesus saves, we ask ourselves if we are not in practice acting as though it were money that saves. We say that money gives power, money corrupts, money talks. Like the ancients with their molten calf we have endowed money with our own psychic energy, given it arms and legs, and have told ourselves that it can work for us. More than this we enshrine it in a secret place, give it a heart and a mind and the power to grant us peace and mercy."

A question by Foster/Smith: Jesus preached that we cannot serve God and wealth, because he perceived that Mammon (the spirit of wealth) functions as a false god for many. How has money tried to gain your allegiance? What struggles have you encountered in trying to "serve two masters"?

risk

I talked with three people the other day who talked about risks that either they or people they know are taking with God. Jeremy, our guide for the day at Freedom for Youth yesterday talked about how he and his wife just relocated this summer into the inner city neighborhood where he works. He talked about reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne a few years back and how it moved him to greater faith and bigger risks.

Another guy I talked with was telling me about a man in Ft. Dodge, IA, who was your "average" Christian and above-average business guy. He was successful with money and influence, and then he also read Claiborne's book. It challenged him and he felt called to think and live differently. He ended up giving up his career to start a 70-bed shelter for men in Ft. Dodge, a need that was not being met. This fellow I was talking with told a few stories of that the guy in Ft. Dodge who is taking some big leaps of faith.

The director of Freedom Youth Ministries, Mark Nelson, introduced himself toward the end of our day, and as we prepared to leave, he told us to remember that none of this can be done without God. He talked about the biggest requirement on his part has been to take the steps of faith..the risks...that God has asked of him. Mark also said that as he took that initial first step way out there, he had in his mind that that would be it. But as he continued on the path God was laying out for him, the requirements of faith and risk just kept 'a comin; in fact, they were even bigger leaps than his initial step out over the edge.

I don't know about you, but I have a pretty high self-protection quotient. Do I believe that we need to calculate risk and factor in all sorts of things like timing, readiness, etc.? Yes, wisdom is definitely important. But I often ask myself if I use so much "human wisdom" that it leaves out faith and stunts me from acting on the voice and supernatural movement of God. Anyone else ever identify here? This just always brings me back to the question...how's my walk with Christ? Am I abiding closely with Him so that I can hear Him clearly and trust him enough to obey and take the big steps over the edge...and he will always call us to take big steps over the edge.

freedom for youth ministries

Freedom for Youth from Cass Blaede on Vimeo.

Above are pictures are of the workshops and T.A.G.S. store at Freedom for Youth.

I drove to Des Moines yesterday with friends and was given a grand tour of Freedom for Youth Ministries, a ministry for kids, teens, and young adults that you can learn more about at www.freedomforyouth.org or by watching video above.

God's been at work through Freedom for Youth in many great ways in the seven years of the ministry's existence. What I loved most were the workshop sessions for the teens... welding class, woodworking, small engine repair, bike repair, an art studio complete with a kiln, and the T.A.G.S. store where they sell to the public items the students have made...bracelets, cutting boards, welded decorations, vases, and much more. They've even launched a coffee business recently. A great picture of empowerment for youth!