An Itchy Christmas

“Merry Christmas!”

wished out loud to a frazzled Bath & Body Works checkout lady was how this present musing began.

After she so nicely wrapped up an extremely smelly purchase in a green plaid gift bag with pink tissue paper, the BBW cashier looked at me and said, very genuinely, “Happy Holidays!” I, being very grateful for purchasing the last Christmas present of the season AND having it wrapped well by someone else, replied also very genuinely, “Merry Christmas!”  And instead of moving along to the next customer who would also be purchasing very smelly gifts with names that invoked Oriental countries and yummy fruit, she paused, looked me in the eye, and said, “Merry Christmas to you too!”

This time there was something different in her voice.  She wasn’t just ‘customer service friendly’ -asking me what color of tissue paper I wanted with the gift wrap or giving a recommendation on which smelly bottle of bath salt was more luxurious than another smelly bottle of bath salt (salty baths? enjoyable? really?).  It was more than that.  It was like I hit a itch that she’d been waiting to scratch.  It was like she was relieved to be able to let a hearty “Merry Christmas!” bust out of her lungs.

That relief I sensed in her voice existed because there was a truth here that was being glossed over.  Only wishing a generic “Happy Holidays” made her uncomfortable, but she didn’t know what to do about it.  Maybe she tried, early on, to wish a spirited ‘Merry Christmas!’ to customers, but only earned strange glances in return or even a reprimand from her manager.  But as much as it was pushed underneath, the truth needed a way to surface.  And my simple “Merry Christmas” paved the way for the truth she felt in her soul to make its way to the surface again.  The itch that she’d grown too comfortable ignoring now HAD to be scratched!  What a relief!!

For many people, a relationship with God feels the same way.  It’s an itch that they’re not sure how to scratch.  Deep in their soul, they know they’re supposed to be connected to something bigger, better, brighter than they are.  They’ve tried tons of ways to be connected:  church, synagogue, mosque, meditation, volunteerism, etc.  But because they earned strange glances at church because they didn’t quite know when to sit or stand or how to keep their kids quiet through a long sermon, or because their friends reprimanded them for participating in such an ‘archaic institution’, they’ve pushed this need for a relationship with God underneath the surface.  On top of it all, they seem very comfortable:  decent family, decent job, decent future ahead of them.  But underneath it all, the itch remains!

So the question for you to consider this Christmas season is:

How is God going to use you to help that itch rise to the surface again in the life of someone you know?

I hope that you have a beautiful Christmas, filled with peace and joy.  And I hope that God will use you in little ways and in mighty ways to point others to Jesus: the only one who can provide perfect relief for all that itches us

Let’s Go!

Calling all voters!

Monumental Meetings

Raise your hand if you like meetings!!

I can’t see any hands yet…anyone like meetings?  Anyone…Anyone?  Bueller…Bueller?

So often, we tend to look at meetings as a necessary evil.  My friends who work for large corporations often tell me of entire days they’ve spent double booked in meetings – leaving early from one to make it to the end of another.  I marvel at their shrewd application of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle: if your boss always sees you moving, he can never pin down your exact location!

For many people, meetings are boring, top-down, group-thinking black holes that tear at the foundational fabric of job satisfaction.

It shouldn’t be like that, should it?  Meetings should be relational tools used to join together various people with various interests/job responsibilities under one purpose.  Right?

I’ve embarked on a series of monumental meetings for the Lake in the Hills Church Plant.  Over the past month, I’ve been contacting Prince of Peace families that live within a 20 minute driving distance from LITH and inviting myself over to their house.  Yes, I’m going against what my mother taught me – to never to invite myself over to someone else’s house – but it’s for a very good reason:  to have a meeting!  …?

But I think it’s the good kind of meeting.  It’s the kind where we get to know each other personally.  Where we get to share who we are and where we’ve been.  Where we get to dream big dreams about what God could do through us in LITH.  Where I get to pet extremely friendly dogs and learn each family’s personal sense of decor.  But most of all, these monumental meetings are meant to be the beginning of a relationship through which we will join together in bringing God’s kingdom to people in the LITH community!

It has been so exciting to get to know these families and to see what gifts God has blessed them with.  Each individual really is different and has something unique to offer our new church plant.  Every time I leave from a meeting at a house it seems like God has provided another important piece to this church planting puzzle.  I just can’t wait to have our first large group gathering and be able to see how all of these pieces will fit together!  It’s going to be great!

Thought for the week:  if God can even use meetings for the good of his kingdom, imagine what plans he has for us!

Let’s go!

Thankful for…

• Christmas music – it just makes me happy!
• Others excited with me about starting a new church
• Flavorful coffee
• Wing back chairs
• Italian beef sandwiches (Portillos!!)
• Steady work
• Late night conversations with potential LITHers dreaming about what blessings we could bring to LITH.

Inspired to Make a Difference

People are people.  They seem different, though, because we describe them differently.

ambitious
boring
conservative
distant

Meeting with ‘The Boss’

Is there a better place to meet someone than Starbucks?

Three feet away behind you is a woman talking to her lawyer about her divorce proceedings (which are beginning to get a bit nasty based on the choice words used to describe her ‘beloved’), and three feet in front of you are two co-workers chatting it up about the new (secret) product that’s getting a bit closer to launch. Even though you hear all the nasty, classified details, there’s an unspoken expectation that as soon as you get up from your table, toss your paper coffee cup away, and walk out the door all you’re allowed to say about your Starbucks eavesdropping is: “Man, some lady was chewing out her jerk husband”.  No first names.  No last names.  No identifying drink orders.

So, I met ‘the boss’ there yesterday.  We had super secret church planting business to discuss.  Or something like that.

‘The Boss’ is actually 2 people, Keith Haney and Mike Mast (blog).  They are the two mission executives that have been hired by our church district (Northern Illinois District) to oversee the ‘New Starts, New Believers’ campaign.  They get to be the champion for church planting efforts like ours.  It was a great time to hear what’s going on around the district – both the challenges and the successes.  We are so blessed to have both of these guys working alongside us!  They are great encouragers! (And I’m not saying that just because they bought me a book.)

It wasn’t until I left the sacred coffeeshop that I processed our conversation.  And what I just couldn’t get out of my mind was

A New Beginning

I never thought of myself as a church planter.

I guess that doesn’t say too much, though.  I’ve never really thought of myself as anything in particular.  You know how kids are really cute when they tell you “I want to be a firefighter/doctor/garbageman/etc when I grow up!”?  Yeah, that wasn’t me.  I wasn’t that cute.  And by high school I realized I wasn’t only un-cute, but abnormal.  Everyone had something they wanted to be – but not me.  There were young men and women in my HS class who were preparing to be actuaries, baristas, chemical engineers, and hairstylists, but I was content with attending a liberal arts school so that I could keep my options open.

Keeping your options open is not a bad life-motto.  Some might disparage it as indecisive, but I think it always reminds me of my place in life.  That I can do my very best right now in whatever I’m called to do, but I can’t predict everything that’s going to come my way. Keeping my options open reminds me that I’m not ultimately in control of what’s going to happen – that God is!  And by faith I know that he has a plan for my life and allows me to discover it, bit by bit, as I follow him.  The exciting part of keeping your options open is knowing that God will challenge you to go where he wants you.

We Go

Get up and Go!  Go to the land I will show you!
-God to Abraham (Genesis 12)

Abe had no idea what land God was talking about, but he listened and followed.   Sometimes God calls us to be his followers right where we are – in our existing community of friends, neighbors, co-workers, family.  But on occasion, he has been known to shout out, “Get up and Go! I’m going to show you something new to do for my kingdom!”

For years, people in Palatine, IL and the surrounding Chicago suburbs heard this shouting and wondered what new thing God had in store for them.  After a couple of years of discerning what God was referring to, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Palatine, IL  called me to lead them forward in planting a new church in a far northwestern suburb quaintly known as Lake in the Hills.   While I never thought of myself as a ‘church planter’, keeping my options open helped me to hear God’s plan for me and then to respond like Abraham, “OK, Lord.  I don’t know where you’re leading, but I’ll follow.  I’ll get off my butt and go”  (very loose translation of Genesis 12:4).

We go wherever God leads.  It’s exciting and terrifying, but we can’t help it!  He leads – and we go!

He Grows

Then Jesus said, “God’s kingdom is like seed thrown on a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows—he has no idea how it happens.”
-Mark 4:26-27

I’m pretty sure I never thought of myself as a church planter because I couldn’t relate to the stereotype I had of them.  They were people who had everything under control – their plan for the future of their church was detailed down to the number of new converts they would have 2.5 years after launching, their staff was undeniably enthusiastic about every single idea proposed, and their family was joyful about 70 hour work weeks.  I knew that I could never live up to my own stereotypes of a church planter.  And after Prince of Peace asked me to consider being one, I was terrified that I would never be able to ‘grow’ a church without being the ’stereotypical’ church planter.

But as my wife and I considered this offer, we were reminded that it wasn’t us who would be on the hook to grow this new church in Lake in the Hills:  it was God.  He had obviously told the great people at Prince of Peace that he wanted to do a new thing in LITH, so he was going to live up to his word as promised!  He would be the one to grow faith in the hearts of people in LITH.  He would be the one to provide opportunities for his love to be shared with the LITH community.  He would be in control of all the whens & hows & what nexts & who’s gonna do it alls.

God grows his own kingdom.  He provides the time, place, soil, seed, and even the planter.  For some reason right here, right now, he chose to use me.

It’s going to be awesome

We Go – He Grows