Going and Growing

From It's Like Herding Cats

We've been here at New Hope almost 12 years now, and have (I hope) learned a lot about how to live in community. Most of the years have been good ones in terms of seeing the people and the church grow. But the perfect storm hit last year and it really kind of knocked us all for a loop. Military, contractor, and other moves caused us to lose as many people in one year as we had in all the other years combined. Believe me there has been a tremendous amount of soul searching over this unwelcome development.

And yet, I'm beginning to think God is up to something pretty special.

We've been working with other churches to deliver meals on Saturday and then expanded that to do it again ourselves on Wednesday. We've met a lot of people we never would have, and made some inroads. Last Saturday, we showed a free movie with all the movie fixings free too - hot dogs, popcorn, etc. One elderly couple in Valparaiso we deliver to both times walked six tenths of a mile to come. I was outside and saw them - he with his cane, and her with the bright colored flyer in her hand - coming up the street. We welcomed them in with cold bottles of water and made sure they were cared for. Sitting near them was Danielle Chandler and her dad John.

Well we finished the movie and I asked the woman how she liked it. In her limited English she said "We loved it!" We gave them a ride home. As they left the van she said "see you Wednesday."

Monday night I got a call from Bunny just as I dropped Allan off at his house after supper. "Can you meet Danielle Chandler over on Okaloosa? She's trying to deliver some food to the couple who came to the movie and can't find their house."

I did, and walked up to the door with Danielle as she dropped off some Memorial Day burgers. Folks, I've knocked on doors in this neighborhood and people don't greet you like we're greeted now. :)

Seeing Danielle's heart seem to swell as she gave them the food made me smile.

I'll bet God smiled too.

Saturday in the Park Recap

We'd prayed and planned. We'd dreamed and imagined what God would do. But when the actual day dawned it seemed as if we might not see anything realized from our efforts. The weather overnight was horrible. At 6AM I visited the festival site amid driving rain and lightning. However by 7:30 we were setting up the booth and getting ready to meet the people who would come.

Our idea was to take the items that would support the work of other ministries into our neighborhood - Valparaiso. We believe strongly in the causes we support and want to do more than our church along can do. Clean water for people who don't have it is a life or death issue. Orphans who are HIV positive will die without care, and there are families that will adopt them and get them that care, but adoption is expensive. Human trafficking must be stopped. Families in Africa want to get out of poverty but jobs that can do that are scarce.

We can't change everything. But we can DO SOMETHING!

And we did.

The day was a huge rush. We met a lot of people and even though the day was shortened by weather at both ends, we sold a lot of product for the organizations that can use it to make a difference.

There were things we can do better if we do it again. But the passion we brought to work with us that day can only be equaled - it won't be exceeded.

I'm very proud of what our New Hope volunteers did Saturday. Guys, YOU ROCK!

Fishing and cutting bait

Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
James 2:17 (MSG)

Gotta love the way the Message cuts to the chase.

One of the expressions that my father passed along to me was this one "It's time to fish or cut bait." There were other expressions he passed along, but this isn't the time or place for those. :)

The idea behind it is simple - either get busy fishing,or stop fishing and do something that helps others fish.

Well, here at New Hope, we're going to fish and cut bait this summer.

Right now, on the other side of the sanctuary from where my office sits, our community garden is growing. Our hope is to be able to provide lots of fresh vegetables for people around here who are in need. We had the land, had the seeds and the time, and other than yours truly, had people who knew how to grow things. So it's a beginning that hopefully will enable us to help others and help others help others. Fish AND cut bait.

Then on the same Sunday our mission trip team leaves for Kentucky and a week spent serving in one of the poorest counties in Appalachia, our Souls4Soles "Barefoot Sunday" will have those of us in worship leaving our new or gently worn shoes behind. They'll be collected and sent overseas to people who have no shoes. Fish AND cut bait - again.

Then there's the upcoming "Worth the Sacrifice" challenge. Where we'll eat nothing but rice and beans for 5 days to try to get a glimpse into the life of orphans in Africa. Our hope is to involve other churches as well and appeal to people to "do something" to change the world. We'll gather that Friday night for a celebration and an offering of the money we saved during the week that we normally would have spent on food. Those monies will be sent to Amazima Ministries in Uganda, an amazing outreach of care and love for orphans. Just click on the link on the right of this blog to learn more about Amazima.

It's time friends. We cannot wait for the government to act. This is our time and our mission. Let's FISH AND CUT BAIT.

Reflections on Sunday 24 May 2009

We were challenged today in ways I don't think have ever happened in the ten years I have been here. I put slides in the announcement ppt of each child sponsored by New Hope family members. There were also slides with the stats on what Compassion and World Vision are doing around the world.

But that was just the beginning.

First the Soles4Souls skit laid out the timing for their "Barefoot" challenge. Basically it means people who participate leave the sanctuary barefoot on that Sunday, leaving their shoes to be shipped to people who need them more.

Then John Anderson got up and shared from his heart about what God has been doing in his life. He was brutally honest about where he was and what he thought before God laid a hold of his heart. And he laid out a clear challenge to us - eat only beans and rice for five days, and give the money you would have spent on food that week to Amazima Ministries for their work among the orphans and poor in Uganda.

We then worshipped using the same songs as last week with one exception. We added "God of This City", a powerful call to serve and see heaven rain down onto earth.

The message was from the parable of the talents, and I tried to help everyone see that we are here to play our part in God's Kingdom ministries. That we have no right to take what he has given and hoard it for our own selfish uses. That we need to take risks and follow Jesus.

I'll try to get the audio up later today.

That night we had a family meeting to share what we think God is telling us about where He is working and how we can join Him there. It was pretty cool to hear what God had been doing in the various small groups. We'll see what comes out of the discussion.

Community Garden - featuring a celebrity you know

Our community garden will roar into life this week, and will feature the famous "Bob" of Veggie Tales fame. Carol Stoy took the Veggie Tales seeds we bought for the girls and has raised them to the point where they are ready to be planted in the soil.

The idea behind the garden is to grow vegetables that can then be given away to people in need as well as providing space for people within the community who would like to raise their own produce. If the tomatoes thrive, we should be able to give everyone in Valparaiso a basket full sometime during the growing season. I really hope we get some of our neighbors working alongside us. That would be awesome. But energizing people to use their time and talents to love their community in Jesus' name will be a win too.

If We Are Willing To Love

"Mookie", the child we sponsor through Compassion.












There are days when the frantic nature of our life around here literally crushes my spirit. Trying so hard to hold onto what I've heard from God, I find myself being pulled into pragmatism - "let's just get through today." Maybe it's a problem unique to me but I don't think so.

One of the things that helps me regain my heart-footing is reading certain passages in Scripture, and certain books. There are places I return to again and again in God's Word, and there are passages in books that call me home. Today I picked up a book I have read at least 5 times - Donald Miller's "Searching for God Knows What." I opened it to the chapter on Jesus and begin reading it again. Here's where the book fell open today.

"A few years ago I sat down with a man named Ron Post. Ron was about to retire from a ministry he had started twenty years ago called Northwest Medical Teams. Northwest Medical Teams is an aid organization that sends doctors to volatile regions of the world to help the sick and dying. We met at a coffee shop across town, and I asked Ron questions about how he had built this eighty-million-dollars-a-year ministry, with 98 per cent of the money going directly to the work being done in the field. I asked him how he structured his time, how he delegated responsibility, and finally asked him what was the key to his success. To answer the last question, Ron pulled from his pocket a tattered envelope filled with pictures.

For the rest of the morning the man laid down pictures of people he had met, the first of which was a young Cambodian woman, who at the age of thirteen, was being used as a sex slave by the Khmer Rouge. He told me that they had rescued her from captivity and given her a new life filled with the knowledge and love of Christ. As he showed me picture after picture of blind people who, because of a simple surgery, could now see, crippled people who could now walk, the starving who had been fed, he told me their names. He knew their names - every one of them. I had asked the man what the key to his successful ministry was, and he told me through his stories the key to his multi-million dollar ministry was a love of people. And I believe now and will always believe that if we are willing to love people, God will pour out His resources to bless our lives and his efforts."

I believe that too.

Liveblogging from the movie

Enjoying hanging out with a few old friends and some new ones watching the movie in the fellowship hall. Free popcorn, snocones, a movie screen bigger than the biggest flat panel and FUN occurs.

Oh and I want a dog like that.

We need to do this one Sunday night every month.

The Invisible Church

We're not here.

Oh,I know that physically we occupy a corner off the highway, across from the elementary school and Little League field, just down the road from city hall.

But ask most of the town's population where New Hope Baptist Church is, and they won't have a clue.

We're invisible in the same way a liquor store is invisible to a teetotaler. Or a dry cleaner is to a bricklayer.

You have absolutely no need or interaction with a business or concern, so your eye just sends it to the background.

Doesn't help that our buildings have been here for decades without change. When I was in the grocery business, we knew that end of aisle displays had to be rotated, otherwise shoppers stopped noticing them. They became part of the fixtures in as little as two weeks.

They became invisible.

We become visible only when the people who make up New Hope touch other people's lives. While we are engaged in that, we come into view. As soon as we stop, we fade away.

For years we thought that a lit steeple, or outdoor signs would do the trick.

Nope.

We are the steeple.We are the signs.

How can we become more visible?

I'll talk about that tomorrow.

Until..

"Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It's the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too. "
— Frederick Buechner

“The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away.”

If Jesus showed up today,what would He think about this "stimulus plan?"

Live from NPC: Shane Claiborne | Out of Ur | Conversations for Ministry Leaders

The main event this evening was Shane Claiborne, who spoke about the “new economic vision” that God gives his people in Scripture. An important first step to understand Scripture’s economic vision is “learning to laugh in the face of things in the world [like money] that don’t have real power.” He spent most of his time unpacking Mark 10:29-30, by suggesting that, in God’s economy, there is enough for everyone because no one has more than he needs. He quoted an early Christians who said that a person who has two coats when someone has none was considered a thief in the kingdom of God; when you give to the poor, you’re simply giving back what has been stolen.

He argued that the “end of poverty was one of the signs of the birthday of the church,” and that loving our neighbors is not an “act of distant charity” but a matter of entering into relationship with our needy neighbors. This great summary line came late in his talk: “The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away.” Then he put his money where his mouth was. Shane cashed the honorarium check that NPC paid him for his sermon tonight into $1 bills. As he concluded, he had someone bring a bag of the dollar bills to him; then he scattered them on the floor and invited everyone to come take one “as a sign of God’s jubilee.”

I found it difficult to gauge the audience’s response to Shane’s presentation. They were quiet and subdued; not hostile by any means, but not enthusiastic. I think his message struck home. I, for one, found it deeply convicting.

me too

"That has an integrity you can't argue with"

Neue Ministry | Join the Conversation

Q: What does Jesus’ political agenda look like in today’s world?

A: We’re saying that the church is not simply suggesting political alternatives but the church is an embodiment of a political alternative. Jesus wasn’t offering the world a better empire but another kingdom. That’s part of why we have so many images and stories in the book to show that. One of my she-roes is Mother Theresa, she is an icon for what it means to be pro-life but it’s not because she ran around wearing an “Abortion is Murder” shirt. She said, if you didn’t want to have your babies, you can give them to me. That has an integrity that you can not argue with.

Jesus had a political manifesto in the Sermon on the Mount and the beatitudes and the poor are at the very center of it. So if our political agenda is not good news to the poor, then it’s not the gospel of Jesus.

amen

Exactly

"Sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of." Geri Weitzman

It just wasn't working for me, and for a lot of people. Church was something you did because you were expected to. Nothing ever changed that much as a result of participation in it. Not in the world, not in the community, and not really in you.

Over the years I'd ask people where the real spiritual leaps in their faith occurred. Or said another way, "when have you really felt God's presence?"

I would go for years without hearing anyone say "at church."

And I so wanted them to.

You see I do believe that the church is the best hope for the world. That through God's people - battered and bruised by sin but given new hearts and new lives though Christ's sacrifice - things could change.

The lost - the missing - the invisible among us... Could be found.

The widows - the orphans - the poor... Could be fed, could be cared for.

The community - our neighbors - our coworkers... Could be simply... loved.

Regardless of color, regardless of age, regardless of income, regardless.

And the people who gather each week to share a worship experience together, would then leave and continue to worship God with all their hearts,with all their minds, with all their souls - everywhere.

I've wanted a place for those outside, where I wouldn't have to apologize for what we do, but where we could share how great God's love is and how amazing His grace is.

Are we all the way there?

No. We still have miles to go before we sleep.

But I can feel it coming true - this dream I have.

I can feel it.

Where In the World Is God At Work?

If you look to the right, (if you can tear your eyes away from Canaan's picture) you'll see a badge for the "Red Letters Campaign." They are doing some awesome work in reaching "the least of these" with the love of Jesus. I received an email about a week ago from them about some new initiatives and opportunities for smaller faith communities like ours. So I wrote for more information and am praying that God might use us too- to love Canaan and his brothers and sisters.

As I've said before, I believe that compassion is learned by doing compassionate acts, and serving is learned through service. "Book Learning" isn't nearly enough.

So pray that God will reveal whether we're about to join Him in another adventure. :)

And here are ten things you can do right now to help them in their work from their website.

10 Things You Can Do Now:

1. Connect through Facebook
2. Support Project Ethiopia
3. Follow Adoption Journals
4. Answer Blog Buzz Questions
5. Feed Ethiopian Orphans Today
6. Drill Water Wells in Nigeria
7. Poverty Projects for Kids
8. Get a Blog Badge
9. Follow RLC on Twitter
10. Subscribe to RLC Blog

Go over there!

New Hope @ Worship 18 January 2009

Bunny and I got back from Macon about 8PM and she went straight to bed - exhausted from the weekend. I had been working on the sermon all week,and even got some notes in at the nursing home. But some of the experiences we had this weekend drove the message as much as anything else.

It was "Sanctity of Life" Sunday all across the SBC yesterday, and normally that guarantees a lot of pastors preaching against abortion. Thing is, that just reinforces our image as people who live their lives standing in judgment of others rather than kneeling to serve them.

So I was determined to bring a message about the worth of life being determined by God, not by man and challenge people to not just focus on abortion but on the whole list of life related causes - including the aged.

Satan must have not liked that plan, because I had a horrible time with the power point to support the message. In fact I never got the presentation I had crafted to work and had to copy and paste from my background notes during the 45 minutes immediately preceding the worship.

I used a visual prop of an old worn out file that used to belong to my father. He left it at my house once when he came over to look at my lawnmower years ago. I can still picture him sitting on the concrete sharpening the mower blade by hand with that file. It has a wooden handle he carved himself. The usefulness of that file is gone now, but it's worth will never diminish to me, because it was crafted by my father and held in his hands.

We are made by God in His image. Though we are weak and helpless as infants, or worn out and feeble in old age, our worth to God is still such that He calls us His masterpiece. To allow any society to cheapen the worth of a human is then to rebel against God. We as followers of Jesus cannot be silent.

Babies die from lack of medicine, food,or water when we have all the money in the world.
Old people are warehoused in nursing homes and want for basic human kindness and we are just too busy to care.

It has to stop. First within the church and then through our example and influence in society.

More later. But here's what we did in worship this Sunday.

O Worship the King - LOVE THAT SONG
Your Grace Is Enough - Likewise

Jesus Paid It All

We only did two songs because we just didn't have a good practice Wednesday on the others so I decided to only do what we could do well. God deserves our best.

Uh, no - not me,but...

Just had a great conversation with one of our members who was calling me about our idea of doing a community garden plot this spring. She was coming up with one good thought after another on who we needed to talk to, where we could get some expertise, and what it would mean to connect with people outside the church with this.

So I am thrilled to tell you that no, I am not the pastor who would do anything to get you to come to church. But I'm blessed to serve with a group of people who are always looking for ways to build bridges from where you are to the grace and love of Jesus.

Gallup-ing toward a new kind of influence

One of my pastor friends posted a link to the new Gallup poll that reveals that most people feel that Christianity's influence on US society has decreased. Given the events of the past 4 years politically and especially the election just past, I totally understand how someone who equated the influence of what the media loves to call the "Religious Right" with politics could come up with that conclusion.

I would too.

But as someone who is on the "front lines" so to speak of Christianity's work in the world, I have never equated what I believe Jesus has called me to do as a person or as a pastor with whether or not the political party I voted for won or lost. My measuring stick was far more personal.

"Am I loving God with everything I have - my total life? Am I loving my neighbor - whoever God places in my circles of influence - as fiercely as I do myself?"

Then as a pastor, I am looking to see if our church - through individuals and as a group - are we doing the same? So my standard of measurement is how many people have we shown the love of Jesus too - spiritually, physically, materially, and what was the result - in our hearts, and in theirs? That's what I look to when I "take a poll".

I came across an article by an English writer who happens to also be an atheist who has looked at what Christianity is doing for the people of Africa. Read it and then imagine someone writing an article about the churches of Valparaiso and Niceville and what we are doing for the people God has placed us near.

"It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God. Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa....

Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith. But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary...

Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates...

Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete." -- Matthew Parris in The Times

I want that kind of article written about what we are doing. Not for the publicity, but to measure what effects we are having on our community. Let's use that as a better "poll" and then see what amount of influence we are having.

Awesome- You Go New Hope!

Just heard that our gifting for the families Sharing and Caring assigned to us in Valparaiso was a wonderful time of sharing.

We're going to end this year at New Hope having touched more people in more ways with the love of Christ than in the 9+ years that I've been here.

Lives changed, tears shed, the power of the love of Jesus made known in the life of the giver and the ones we give to.

That's just awesome!

What is New Hope?

What triggered this post? It was a young man who rode up on a bicycle he'd borrowed who wanted us to help him with some gas for his truck. He was deaf, and was trying to communicate his needs by writing them out on the inside of a worship guide we handed him. He passed several other churches on the way here. We finally figured out his needs and mobilized to help him. But it turned out his mom was nearby and help wasn't necessary after all.

But within 5 minutes we had three people involved trying to love our neighbor. There was never a question of if. There were resources both personal and corporate on hand to meet the needs.

This may be a smaller church by the measurements of the Southern Baptist Convention. Even our local association rates its members and gives churches our size the downgrade. But in terms of what percentage of our members are willing, ready, and eager to serve God and love our neighbors, I'll put New Hope up against any of the others.

"It Starts With Me" and you

One of the more encouraging changes that is occurring right now within the Christian church is the reawakening to the understanding that it's not okay for us to "cross by on the other side" when it comes to poverty in our communities.

Can a church go too far and replace their primary mission by embracing the fight to end poverty? Probably. We've gone too far trying to change the government via political means, so yes, we can lose our way.

But if a community can go in Jesus' name, never forgetting that He came to seek and to save those who were lost, and make meeting needs part of the task of BEING Jesus in their neighborhoods - then we should.

We Love Valparaiso

We Love Valparaiso Website

It began with an idea to provide a place for the nonprofits - churches, schools, clubs, etc. to promote their activities on the Internet even if they didn't have a web presence. I had read an article about "Community Web Portals" and thought it might be something we could use here.

When I mentioned it to one of our members, John Anderson, he said "we can do that."

Pretty cool, huh?

Our hope is that as we go along we'll get more and more people to check out Valparaiso through this portal. If you are involved in an organization or business that serves the people of Valparaiso Florida, we want to get to know you and help you help them.