Category: church

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the tenebrae program

here’s the tenebrae program from tonight. it was a cool evening. it’s a very simple service that involved a good number of people to do it. i think the most meaningful part of the gathering for me was actually the room in which we held it. as a church we continually talk about the church not having walls but it’s still real easy to associate worship with a place – even when you just rent that place for a half a day each week. i loved the fact that we were doing this incredibly somber worship gathering in the university center of uwsp while students, faculty, and others were walking around outside the door and stopping to find out what was going on. i saw a couple of people that i have talked with before concerning faith and they were intrigued with what we were doing in the university center. for me it was a great reminder of BEING the church in the community.

SIDE NOTE – every so often while speaking i reference the people who are a part of tapestry by calling us “tapestrites” or “tapestronians.”  tonight i made reference to “tapestrities” and natalie g shouted out that we should be called “threads.” THIS IS BRILLIANT. as far as i am concerned the people of tapestry will from now on be referred to as “threads.”

SIDE SIDE NOTE – the “not my job” section of this week’s episode of “wait, wait … don’t tell me” is one of the funniest things i’ve ever heard. paula poundstone explaining the ingredients of ringdings is classic.

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brief freak out moment

i was typing the announcements for tapestry tonight and i had a brief freak out moment. the reason was that there are a lot of things going on in tapestry right now. i freaked out because i worry about us getting too busy with activities. it is far too easy within the church culture to get really busy doing “church” things. i don’t think that is what faith is about. i don’t think that JESUS’ goal ever was to get people to do more and more stuff at church. yet it becomes very easy for churches to think that the goal is to get people at more and more activities. that’s when churches begin to do things just for the sake of doing things. a busy calendar makes it appear like the church is doing important things. this is why activity is often substituted for mission.

but that’s not what tapestry is about. when we started everyone agreed that the goal was to focus on helping people to learn, experience, and live out a faith that is lived out in people’s every day lives. this means doing few church activities and making sure that the ones we do actually support people in living out their faith in their offices, school, families, etc. what we do always has to be on target with our mission. we don’t want to do any activity simple for the sake of doing something.

so i started to freak out when i noticed all the things we were doing. this week we are doing four service activities, two worship services, and a small group study. in addition to those activities there are several other things happening throughout the month. that’s a lot of stuff our small church. my freak out changed when pam pointed out how “on mission” these things are. every activity that is happening fits perfectly within our mission. as a church we’re a little busy over the next several weeks but thankfully none of it is activity just for the sake of activity. what we are doing fits right in with who we believe JESUS is calling us to be.

SIDE NOTE – i made the walls yesterday and we used them at tapestry tonight. they were quite cool. kind of a church stonehenge people have already begun to fill them with sightings of GOD’s life. i’m glad to see them being used for one very selfish reason. yesterday i sprayed them black with four cans of spray paint. i didn’t have one of those spray paint handles (which i have since bought) so i controlled the cans with my index finger and thumb. this was not a good thing. it strained my thumbs and index fingers so much that i wasn’t able to type or hold things last night. it was so bad that i couldn’t even release the clasp on the dogs’ leashes. it would suck to think that i went through that for something that wasn’t going to be used. thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the true.

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community service as outreach

i spend a lot of time in local businesses. the first reason for this is that i believe in supporting local businesses, the second reason is because they are a great resource for knowing the point area, and the final reason is because i hope that through building relationships with some of these business owners and employees they will be open to hearing about the faith that i believe is the way.

anyhow, today was a great step with one such local business owner. i’ve been using her store for a year and a half now and every time i go in we usually stand around and talk until it gets to busy for her to do so. she’s a great person. we’ve talked local politics, business, and faith. she knows where i stand and i know where she does. she usually describes herself as having “new agey, cosmic, oprah faith.” i’ve invited her to tapestry a few times and her response has always been “robert, i love talking with you but i don’t really fit in with that organized stuff.”

today she responded to our conversation “well i would come to that.” the conversation was concerning whether or not i had finished my message for easter. i didn’t start that conversation off, she did. she asked that question and i told her i had barely started because they biggest part of tapestry’s easter celebration would be painting the hope center (i.e. resurrecting something). i explained the whole thing to her and she asked “so are you doing this on easter morning?” i hadn’t thought of that and i think it is a great idea (i mean a really great idea). i told her so and that i would check into whether we can do it or not. the conversation ended when another customer came in the store. her final response was “well i would come to that. let me know when you have the date and time and i might even come to her service afterward.”

i have tried for 6 months to get her to come to something tapestry-wise without any success. who would have thought painting the hope center would have been the thing that she wanted to come to.

i know a lot of faith communities use community service as outreach to those receiving the service. i think we may begin using community service as outreach to those doing the service.

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a GOD sized task

this afternoon while meeting with a couple who have been coming to tapestry for a month i was reminded of the need for CHRISTians to try GOD-sized things. brent and rachel moved to stevens point from around chicago. there they were a part of the chapel and worked within the chapel’s domestic missions. we were talking about it and rachel said that the goal for her mission was to end all hunger in their county. that’s a large goal. some would say that was probably an impossible aim. that’s what makes it GOD-sized, because GOD likes to do the impossible.

as the bride of CHRIST we need to aim for GOD-sized goals. i’m not sure if we are doing that enough. GOD has to be present and working for us to accomplish GOD-sized goals. when we aim small we don’t need GOD. we can reach tiny goals on our own. yeah we can brag about succeeding with them and pretend like we saw GOD do something but we know the truth … we usually do them in our own strength. that’s not true with GOD-sized goals. with them we are going to fail if GOD doesn’t show up. with GOD-sized goals HE gets all the credit because HE is the only ONE WHO could accomplish them.

i know our present economic time calls for prudence and i agree with that. i’m not talking about any church over-reaching itself with its finances. instead, i think we need to push the limits on our love and sacrifice. if we love and sacrifice in GOD-sized manners i think really cool things will happen and i want to be a part of that.

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pick your poison

luke 14 - jan 25, 2008 #25/366
yesterday morning i was given the opportunity to fill in as preacher at first baptist church in stevens point. the pastor glenn is retiring this year and is trying to take advantage of all the vacation time he has accrued. glenn is a great guy who has been a lot of help to me in getting adjusted to stevens point.

anyhow i love tapestry and the fact that people talk back to me when i’m speaking (i’m even more excited about the future because i believe we are going to develop new ways for people to participate more in our worship gatherings). my previous time at first baptist (i spoke there in 2007) was kind of a “i will sit down and stare at you while you speak” type of experience. basically very unlike tapestry. therefore, i thought i would start things off trying something different. i gave them two sermon subjects and told them that they had to vote on which one they wanted us to discuss. these were both subjects that i had put a lot of research into previously – one that i had never spoken on but had study in a doctoral seminar on jeremiah and another that i had spoken on once before. i felt both were appropriate for the crowd that was there.

the look on their faces was well worth it. they instantly developed a “deer in the headlights” look. i think it helped a little with encouraging participation (they spoke a little more than last time) but at the very least it made me smile. the best part is that if they didn’t like the message they ultimately have no one to blame but themselves because they chose the message. i’m sure the other one would have been much better. 😉

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jambalaya training

cold jambalaya
as many of you know i have used a good bit the jambalaya pot and equipment that parkview, jess, meg, and josh gave me when i left baton rouge. yesterday i was using it to cook the weekly meal for “the place of peace” and had a first time experience. “the place of peace” is a wonderful group that is affiliated with the catholic worker movement. volunteers provide a free meal for anyone who needs it. anyway yesterday they ate jambalaya. that wasn’t the first time experience because i’ve cooked for them before.

the first time experience was that i had the opportunity to teach someone how to make jambalaya. ben sheets is the associate pastor at good shepherd lutheran church and sunday he is leading the good shepherd youth in doing a jambalaya fundraiser to support their summer trip conference/mission trip to new orleans. so ben came over and went through the jambalaya making process with me. that was the first.

the student (josh taught me how to cook jambalaya) has finally become the teacher.

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they always impress me

one of my favorite churches in the nation is the ring community church in baton rouge. they won’t like that i am blogging about how awesome they are, but that’s okay because they will get over it.

i love these guys and girls and every time i get to spend time with them i am more and more amazed by all that they are doing with CHRIST. this week while i’m studying at nobts i’ve gotten the chance to spend a good it of time with some of the ringers (basically the ring’s pastor, josh, has been nice enough to give me a place to stay for the week and this has meant that i get to spend a good bit of time with josh and meg). while talking with them this week i accidentally learned that they spent 25% of last year’s giving on taking care of people’s needs within their community. they’ve been buying cars for people in need, fixing up houses, buying groceries, etc. this is above and beyond their missions giving. 25% of the budget is HUGE. they still have salaries, rent, printing, and more to pay but they believe in matthew 25 so much that they give generously. i don’t know of another church giving that much. if you counted all the extra money they are giving for missions (which i know is at least another 10% probably more) that 25% would jump much higher.

to give you an idea of how big this is most churches spend about 70-80% of the money they have on buildings and salaries. having a place to worship and people to lead it is expensive. some churches spend much more than 80% on these two items. that doesn’t include the programs that go on at a church, the copying and office needs, the equipment needs, toys for kids in the nursery, sunday school or small group literature, and the many other things that are a part of doing things in a church. most churches are lucky to give 10% to missions and a little something extra to help those who come to them in need. now do you see how impressive 25% plus a minimum of another 10% for missions is?

the coolest part is that they didn’t tell me this in a manner of bragging or even on purpose. we were talking about giving and their budget and josh said “yeah, we kind of spent more than our budget was supposed to be, but that’s okay because $40,000 of that was because of spending $34,000 over and above our people in need fund.” that’s when i asked how big their budget was just so i would understand what that $34,000 overage meant. they hadn’t even thought of it being 25% of their budget (in other words $40,000 of a $160,000 budget). it was no big deal for them, which, of course, makes this all the cooler. i’m sitting next to josh right now, he doesn’t know that i’m blogging about how cool i think they are and probably wouldn’t like it if he did know i was doing it, and he just said, “yeah it’s kind of cool that we actually gave more to meet these needs than i get in salary.” he’s right.

i hope more of us can be like this church. i hope tapestry will show them up. 😉

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the CHRISTmas bonus

pam follows a forum for the wives of pastors, which i think is funny because anyone who knows pam knows that she is not like the typical pastor’s wife – how many pastors’ wives do you know that are ph.d professors? ok, so now i have to right a brief sidebar right in the middle of this post (rather a fun statement to make).

as a minister for 20 years i have been around many pastors and their spouses (remember not all pastors are men – but for the rest of this post i am going to generalize to men pastors because that is primarily where this experience comes from). in my interactions with these ministers i have constantly heard them say “my wife is always told that she doesn’t look anything like a pastor’s wife.” i laugh most of the times i hear this because i believe that looks are pretty much meaningless. i’ve been around pastors and pastors’ wives who look cool and hip and yet act just like the general stereotype of pastors – that everyone should heed their words, that everyone should serve them, that they have unearned authority just because of the position that have been placed in by their congregation, that others should instantly take care of their kids for them, etc. it’s really just like all the references in the old testament concerning people putting on the outside looks of piety but never having the inward actions of piety. the only difference is here it’s about putting on the outside looks of not being a typical pastor’s wife (or pastor) and yet in your interactions with people actting out the very worst of the pastor/pastor’s wife stereotype. thus it’s always funny that some people think that not being like a pastoral or pastors’ wife-orial stereotype is just about how someone looks. i would rather be around a pastor or pastor’s wife that looks the stereo type but acts like a humble servant than around someone who looks like ryan seacrest or his female counterpart (who is seacrest’s female counterpart?).

okay – rant ended. oh and mom and dad, don’t worry this rant isn’t from anything that has happened recently. it’s just developed from being at enough ministers’ conferences. you see the best and sometimes the worst at those things.

ok, now back to the pastors’ wives’ forum that pam reads every now and then. pam told me yesterday about at message thread from the forum concerning CHRISTmas bonuses. the thread is discussing whether or not you get a CHRISTmas bonus from your church. that’s when pam looked at me and said “you know what your CHRISTmas bonus is this year?” being a male i could think of several great responses to this question but i held my tongue. so pam replied, “you’re leading a church that is getting it. they’re getting what church should be and they’re getting the whole advent conspiracy thing.”

pam’s right. in the past several weeks pam and i have seen the young adults and college students of tapestry act out CHRISTmas in real ways. gloves and coats were brought to the tapestry hot drink night so that we could turn our time together into a time of taking care of others. some young men of tapestry decorated a neighbor in need’s house because they new he wouldn’t have the chance to do it. we know of gifts that are all about relationship that have been made, produced, etc. money is being raised for a freshwater well for a community. on a personal note i have received several messages from people who already feel that tapestry is a gift from GOD and that they are being able to live out their faith in more meaningful ways because of what GOD is doing through the people of tapestry. that’s the kind of CHRISTmas bonus that i like.

if you are a minister somewhere and you get a CHRISTmas bonus gift this year that’s great. please don’t read this post as if i am trashing on churches giving gifts to their ministers because i am not. i am just saying that for me this year what is happening at tapestry is the best CHRISTmas bonus i’ve received in 20 years of ministry. anything else would probably distract for that great bonus and neither pam nor i want that.

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it takes a village

DSC_0007_edited-2 one of the coolest things that pam and i have experience in this little adventure of planting tapestry has been all the unexpected support we have received. we went into this thing believing that GOD would provide and knowing that i do a pretty lousy job of asking for help. we moved up to stevens point with a $100 a month pledge from our former church and a commitment from about 20 people to regularly pray for us and tapestry. apparently we had the right 20 people praying because support has come from unexpected and unasked for sources over the past year. it has been amazing.

without me asking people the prayer group has grown from 20 to 80 people and at least 5 different churches that i know of (there are a couple of more that have discussed it but i don’t know if they have begun or not). this has been huge because they have been an endless source of encouragement. it always seems that on the days that i am down or doubting i receive a card or message from one of the individuals or churches that has committed to praying for us. in fact, the photo above is of an encouragement banner from a group of ra’s in thorndale, texas who have adopted tapestry. it’s quite cool knowing that these little guys are praying for us.

i have also been amazed at the financial support that has come in. i haven’t asked people to give but we have had several people from family to former co-workers to friends send money and resources to be used within tapestry. since, we were starting from "ground zero" this was a huge asset. i hate asking people for help, it really tears my stomach up. yet because of these supportive individuals i haven’t had to ask anyone to support us. don’t get me wrong, we’re not rolling in the dough budget-wise but we do have the funds necessary to do the bare minimum that is necessary without pam and i going into debt. this would not have happened without people and a couple of churches randomly giving to what is happening.

there are people in point who believe in what GOD wants to do through tapestry but many of those people would never had the chance to hear the message if it were not for people outside of point who believed to the point of supporting it.

so what i am trying to say to everyone who has helped is THANKS! i completely recognize that this whole thing is a team effort to glorify GOD. some of the team lives in point and other members of the team aren’t as fortunate. 🙂