lcv '12 promo video

children's gift

 At the end of each month, Harvest has something called "Children's Gift" in which the younger children go in front of the congregation and share a song in worship.  I usually teach Sunday School there the last Sunday of the month, so it's my joy to experience Children's Gift on these Sundays.  The kids went up right after John and Brion rapped a song they wrote.  God was glorified through quite a great variety of music at Harvest today!

no under-resourced church

Last month at the end of Orchard Hill's leadership retreat, I caught up with George Marshall, our partner from Harvest/Walnut.  I asked him if he heard any language or comments through the morning that might cause him to cringe.  Sometimes we struggle to know what language to use around Orchard.  We want to talk about God's call for us to care for the poor, but we don't want to perpetuate paternalism and our own poverty in our own thinking and talking.

How did George respond?  He told me that there were no cringe factors, and then he went on to say, "I think it's fine if you want to talk about our partnership working to reach out in an under-resourced neighborhood.  Just don't ever call Harvest an under-resourced church.  There is no such thing.  God resources his Church and is all-sufficient as He leads His Church.  The only time a church is under-resourced is when people in the church are under-utilizing their gifts for the Kingdom."

I love that.  It goes along with a teaching I heard not too long ago.  The teacher spoke about leading in the things that matter to God.  We can lead in things that seem hard, scary, hopeless, because if God is passionate about it, then He is also responsible in getting it done.  He just wants us to offer Him what we have for the work.

CCDA Des Moines

 Dave Clark shared an overview of the eight key components of CCDA with about 150 folks gathered in Des Moines for a CCDA Intensive this weekend.

Sixteen of us traveled from the Cedar Valley for the gathering.  It was a very good day of hearing from Dave C. and  then from Craig Wong on "Strategic Partnerships."  Harvest/Orchard/Youth Art Team even had the opportunity to share a bit about what God was up to in our friendship.  

the making of a video

I love, love watching the parts of the Body of Christ work together to create something new and beautiful together. We're making a new Love Cedar Valley promotional video for 2012, and it was all hands on deck above.  I wrote a script, Katlyn was the amazing artist who drew out multiple pieces for a storyboard, Rajan and Eli, both 9 year olds, get to be the hands and the voices to the video, and Jonny and Jeff are the design/technical brilliance.  Can't wait to see the finished product!

race- are we so different?

I saw this exhibit in Washington D.C. this past summer and was excited to see that it's in our local UNI museum until June.  It's a must go see for any who live around here!

http://www.uni.edu/museum/exhibits/featured.html

new wineskins

Mark 2:22

"And no one pours new wine into old wineskins.  Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined.  No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

I believe God is taking Christ’s Church through transition from old wineskins to new.  The models and structures of church as we have known it might just continue to fade, making way for a whole host of innovative ways that God wants to send his people out to lovingly engage their neighbor and incarnate the Gospel.  

A friend of mine is leaving a position at our church to go full time into property management.  His boss is investing in real estate and is buying up properties with the intent to be a just and responsible landlord and to help physically create and restore affordable living spaces for many who are lower-income in our community. His motives?  I hope and believe Christ is motivating him to be a good steward of his gifts and resources, to meet real felt needs in our community, to work toward just rental practices, and to be a light and witness for Christ through all of it.  This is just one example of a new wineskin... of being the Church where we live and work.  


What about you?  God has some new wineskins for all of us if we dare pray, dream, follow..