I AM the road

This Sunday I preached from John 14:1-14. Jesus had just told his disciples in the upper room that Judas would betray him, Peter would deny him and that he was leaving them, but not to be troubled. This was someone the disciples had left everything for, had followed for the last 3 years yet he was going to leave them. They had to be shaken up, this was turning their world upside down. Jesus had not done what they thought he had come to do. He did not take over the kingdom. The Romans still had control. Jesus then said he would come back to get them to take them to where he was going, and that they would know they way. Thomas is the disciple I relate to most. He always had a question or a statement because he quite did not understand everything going on. Remember he has the name Doubting Thomas for a reason. He wanted to see Jesus nail scarred hands in order to believe. I do not think it was just his doubt that mad him want to see Jesus hands. His world had been rocked, Jesus just died in front of him and he was pretty dismayed. I think he longed to be reunited with Christ, to see him because he missed him. Coming back to John 14, Thomas replied, "How can we know the way, we do not know where you are going?" This response led Jesus to say one of the most known/talked about scriptures ever. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one shall go to see the Father but through me." Thomas did not understand that he did not need to know where Jesus was going, because all he had to do was follow him. Exactly what he had been doing for the last three years. Jesus was trying to say it is not about going a specific direction or even an eventual destination. As long as you follow me, you will be fine. The way can be translated to "the road." Being a disciple of Jesus means to continue to follow him along the road. The road is the right direction and will get you to an eventual destination, but it is still not about the direction or destination. Anyone that has been on a road trip knows what I am talking about. The drive/journey along the road can be just as much fun as what happens at the eventual destination. Relationships are strengthened, stories are told, laughter is shared, games are played. Guards come down, trust is built, bonds are made that would have never happened otherwise. Heartland is now on the road. We are following Jesus along the way. We are building disciples. We might be like Thomas and do not know where we are going yet but we know we are following Jesus and that is the most important thing.

The Journey of Heartland Community Church

July 1st we started our ministry here with high morale and an amazing unity of the church. People were in great spirit and excited to have a new pastor. Jenny and I were happy to have a new place to minister and a blessing of a new baby and ready to start in on the journey at Heartland. I had a message that I had preached once before and turned it into a series. I was wondering how it would go over and seems to been received well. Know, Grow, Show as I have prepared each week has been encouraging, challenging and empowering to me. I think God is using this series to start Heartland on a new journey to be, not only Christians, but Disciples, to not only Love God as Savior but as Lord, To Love our neighbor as well as enemies. God is taking us on a wild adventure where we will be more visible in the community. We will serve the poor, the widowed, and the elderly. We will meet their physical and spiritual needs. We will help them with their lawn or repair a roof, while we pray with and tell them about the reason behind our serving them. We will have experiences that will build inroads to the community. We will be known as the church that enjoys having fun. We will be all inclusive that not only welcomes people to our church but also brings them into our family. We will provide a safe place for people to belong and help them find their purpose. We will also take care of our body as we love and disciple the children and youth in our church. They are vital to our ministry as they provide an amazing energy and zeal. We will help them to know God, how to grow and show Christ in a hurting world, and we will learn from them as they will help provide creative ways to bring Christ to their world. We will help build the home by pouring into the marriages, and relationships between parent and child. We will come along side of people and give hope to those who thought their marriages were over. We will provide grace, mercy and compassion to those who have been hurt or have hurt others within their own family. We will provide encouragement to those who have lost others. We will give hope to the hopeless, joy to the depressed and love to those who feel unloved. We will help people experience freedom from the bondage of sin. We will help them see true freedom is in Christ and a relationship with him. God is not a distant God who has no part of us but one who come alongside us as a friend to show us the Way. We will continue to be a house of worship and prayer. We will love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We will love our neighbor and be willing to lay aside self for our preferences. We will be sacrificial as we carry our cross daily. We will be fully committed followers of Christ, because this is what disciples do. Join us on this amazing journey, because it is not just about the destination but also the experiences along the way as we bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. We have a lot to do so we better get started. John 10:10b “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” -Jesus

Road of Discipleship

The last few months have been a whirlwind. Since my last post we have quit our jobs and moved to La Porte City, IA to be the Pastor of Heartland Community Church. We took a two week vacation to Indiana and Maine to introduce Tedy to family and have a breather before we started our ministry. I started officially on July 1st and it has been an amazing road. In the month of July we had a series on what I saw was the important elements of discipleship in any church. you might have seen #knowgrowshow. It was adapted a few years ago when I read Simple Church by Thom Rainer when I was writing my project for my MA at Wesley Seminary. I enjoyed the simple element of Worship +2, which explaining in short, every disciple should have a time of Worship in a local body accompanied by a time of growth with a small group, and a place of service in the church and/or community. However was not really adapted by the church that I was working at during the time. The church wanted a more structured discipleship plan that you could almost graduate from and have different degrees for all the "post-grad" work. I went along but still could not get Simple Church and know, grow, show out of my head. Now that I am in a different ministry I decided to go back to this know, grow, show model. I started it as a series but it really has in a way developed into more of a vision of discipleship that has taken on a life of it's own. So I wanted to explain this discipleship process to you. 1. Know- There is a stage where each one of us meets God. The start of any relationship can be an amazing time of wonder and exploration. You start to understand that Jesus died for you as savior. You worship him because of who he is and what he has done in your life. The know stage is a great stage of development and curiosity. Just like when I met Jenny at IWU, I wanted to spend a lot of time with her to know who she was. But just like any relationship you do not stay in the know stage forever. It starts to become uncomfortable because this in a way is a very surface level relationship. You must go deeper in order for the relationship to continue to move further and deeper. 85% of Christians never leave this stage of Christianity therefore never become disciples. 2. Grow- This stage is a place where we are growing and taking root in the faith. We become involved in small groups, youth group, Bible Studies because we enjoy taking our faith to another level. We learn about who we are and God's purpose for our life. When Jenny and I started dating we went out in groups, but we also went out on dates together. It was fun and our relationship grew in ways that would not happen if we did not intentionally take these opportunities to grow with each other. Growing is a great place to be but if we always pour into ourselves then we start to become focused on ourselves and become selfish. If I were to always eat but never exercise I would get fat and be very unhealthy. This is not a good place for an individual but also a horrible place for the church. The church needs to learn to be focused on the people outside of the church as much if not more than those inside the church. So we must learn to be selfless and sacrificial. This is when we start to recognize Jesus as more than Savior but also Lord. So this leads us to show. 3. Show- We learn to think of others before ourselves. In order to do this we must be willing to serve. Teaching a growth class for others, praying for needs in the church. This is where the rubber hits the road and our faith becomes action. Leading youth group, serving a neighbor, taking part in the meals to wheel, serving the homeless, helping a widow. But also sharing Christ as the reason behind your love for people. When Jenny and I started to become more serious in our relationship I took her home to meet the family and she reluctantly introduced me to hers. Eventually we stood in front of about 200 friends and family members and committed to this love and each other for a lifetime. I showed my love for Jenny. It is vital in our relationship with God that we show him to the world as the reason. This might be sharing your God story with a co-worker, or sharing it in the worship experience. This might involve becoming baptized or becoming a member of the church. There are a number of ways that God can use your passion and purpose in revealing him in the world we live. We are not meant to graduate from any of these group. And we never arrive at a destination. We more or less add them to each other as we continue to become disciples. We need to continue to come back to worship and get to know him in fresh ways. We must never stop growing as we will never arrive at the "perfect disciple" And we must continue to show him to our world so our world can also know, grow and show.