Ken's Blog

Responding to the Questions That Jesus Asks

2012-02-01T16:46:00.001-08:00

In a post last week, I commented on a passage from Stan Guthrie’s book All That Jesus Asks, which I am currently reading. Let me take you deeper into the book by asking a question: Have you responded to all of the questions that Jesus asks of us?

First you might ask a question: What questions does Jesus ask? Since we are talking about questions, that is a good question. The answer is quite simple: All you have you to do is read the Gospels — just as we are going through the Gospel of Luke with my messages this year — and you will find that one of Jesus’ primary methods of teaching is to ask questions.

Guthrie sums up the questions Jesus asks us like this: “His questions prompt our participation, inspection, and reflection. His questions draw us into the mind of God and invite us to grow as we walk with him. As we grapple with Jesus's questions, we learn what we truly believe-and what we don't…. Jesus, the master teacher of history, asked probing questions of all who came to him: friend and foe, skeptic and follower, seeker and betrayer. And he still asks today.”

Here are some of the questions Guthrie explores that Jesus asks:

First Guthrie seeks to answer the vital question, “Who is Jesus?” Guthrie says, “Jesus was intensely interested in knowing what people thought of him, because our relationship to him determines our eternal destiny.” So he explores questions such as:

“What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” in exploring the crowds’ response to John the Baptist.
“Can a blind man lead a blind man?” as he discussed the context of his teachings.
“How can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man?” in discussing his authority.
“Why do you not know how to interpret the present time” as he discusses his mission and his followers’ awareness of that mission within the world.
Most importantly, “Who do you say that I am?” as Jesus explores with us his identity.

Those are just some of the questions that Guthrie suggests explore Jesus’ identity. Jesus also asks questions about following him, questions that explore our thinking and whether we love the Lord with al of our minds, questions that explore our character, and questions that challenge some of the critical doctrines we must believe.

As I read Guthrie’s book while I am also studying Luke in preparation for my messages each week, I find myself paying closer attention to Jesus’ questions and how I would answer them. Let me give you one brief example:

The first question that Jesus asks in Luke during his ministry is in Luke 5:23: “Which is easier to say, ’Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ’Get up and walk.’” With this question, Jesus forces us to think about the forgiveness that we need and his ability to forgive anyone, in any circumstance, of their sins. You and I need to keep the power of his forgiveness in front of us.

So let me ask you, are you willing to let Jesus explore your commitment to him by seriously giving consideration to his questions?

SPENDING TIME THINKING ABOUT GOD

2012-01-26T10:15:00.001-08:00

In our Sunday morning adult class, we recently discussed God as Jesus’ Father and how they relate to each other and the Holy Spirit, and considered our inadequacy to completely understand the nature of God. Following that discussion, I shared the following story:

Shortly after St. Augustine had finished his theological tome On the Trinity, he was walking along the Mediterranean shore on the coast of North Africa when he chanced upon a boy who kept filling a bucket with seawater and pouring it into a large hole in the sand.

"Why are you doing that?" Augustine asked the boy.

"I'm pouring the Mediterranean Sea into the hole," the boy replied in all seriousness.

"My dear boy, what an impossible thing to try to do!" chided Augustine. "The sea is far too vast, and your hole is far too small."

Then as Augustine continued his walk, it dawned on him that in his efforts to write on the Trinity he was much like that boy: the subject was far too vast, and his mind was far too small!

We may not be able to understand God, but we do need to give constant consideration to God and how he works in our world and in our lives. In his book All That Jesus Asks, Stan Guthrie suggests that we do not study the questions about God as readily as we do matters about things around us. Guthrie comments on and analogy Jesus used in Luke 12:54-56:

He also said to the crowds: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, right away you say, ‘A storm is coming,’ and so it does. And when the south wind is blowing, you say, ‘It’s going to be a scorcher!’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why don’t you know how to interpret this time?

Guthrie says:

Their priorities are wrong. They study the weather, which comes and goes, but this moment, this opportunity to align oneself with God's purposes, will never come again-and yet people don't use their brains to evaluate these unique circumstances and make the right decision. It is damnable ignorance.

Such attitudes are just as prevalent today. People study the stock market, the weather, the baseball box scores, how to land a good job, and many other subjects, some more worthy, some less. But they expend few or no brain cells on the most important matters: Is there a God? What is he like? What does he require of us? How do we get into heaven and stay out of hell?

Most of us know about many things today. There is an extremely large amount of information available to us about every subject imaginable, more than at any time in the world’s history. We know details about our jobs, how to run our computers (some more and some less than others), our cars, the features in our homes, and a myriad of other things. But how much time on a daily basis do we think about God and what he is like and how he needs to affect every aspect of our lives?

Jesus raised just that point in Luke 12. When we know Jesus as Savior, we also need to know him as Lord and open every aspect of our lives for him to influence. That takes constant thought.

Opportunities in a New Year

2012-01-07T19:54:00.001-08:00

As a congregation, we will have plenty of opportunity to evaluate our spiritual lives in 2012 as I preach through the Gospel of Luke. There is no more important person to learn about or to measure our lives against than Jesus . He is the center of our faith.

I try to preach at least one series of messages each year that puts the emphasis squarely on Jesus’ life or ministry. In the last three or four years, we have, at various times, examined his teachings through his parables, his miracles, the people he encountered, and the Gospel of Mark.

The salvation that Jesus offers is the beginning and ending point of our faith, so in 2012 we will let Luke teach us about Jesus as our Savior. Luke, more than the other Gospel writers, emphasizes that Jesus came as the Savior for everyone. The key verse in his Gospel is Luke 19:10: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

So through this year, consider what it means for Jesus to save you and how he can use you to offer his salvation to others. If you have struggled with whether to put your faith fully in Christ, let Luke’s Gospel speak to you about Jesus this year, and determine to trust him completely.

There are other tools that you can use this year to keep your spiritual focus sharp. Here are a couple:

Commit to spending time every day in the Word of God. If you already spend time in God’s Word every day, find a new way to approach Scripture so that it speaks to you in a fresh way.

I have made it my practice most years to read the entire Bible through the year. In recent years, I have used computer Bible apps and online services to determine my reading plan for the year. There are plenty of tools available today for reading the Bible, many of them free. I have one resource that has over twenty Bible reading plans. If you need to find one, I would be glad to help you, but anyone can take a book of the Bible and read through it or just divide the number of pages in your Bible by 365 and read that number of pages per day.

It also helps to change up your Bible reading. I have read and preached from the New International Version of the Bible for many years, but last year I changed and read through the Bible in the English Standard Version and began using an updated NIV that came out in 2010 when I preach. This year I will read the Holman Christian Standard Bible and will read from it when I preach. In just a few days, I have noticed some of the differences in phrasing. That is enabling me to think about the passages I am reading in new ways.

And one more thing: Commit to regular attendance at worship in 2012. If you are out-of-town and cannot attend Westwood, attend church wherever you are. I have learned much from attending other churches over the years. Regular worship keeps you sharp in your Christian walk as you worship, fellowship, and encounter the Word of God.

So meet the Savior in fresh ways in 2012. Keep him at the center of your life.

The Real Story of Christmas

2011-11-30T11:19:00.001-08:00

Black Friday is generally the biggest one-day shopping day of the year, and the “beginning” of the Christmas shopping season. With the rise of online shopping has come the advent (excuse the pun) of Cyber-Monday, which offers a whole new way to get great shopping deals leading up to Christmas. By all accounts, both Black Friday and Cyber-Monday were outstanding successes this year.

It is not just about Christmas shopping, though. This year I saw news pieces about people finding great shopping deals to buy for themselves. It seems that the season is not just about giving. It is about getting the best deal that you can on something you want.

While America is shopping, the world, it seems, is sinking into deeper and deeper trouble. Our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is currently in Myanmar (Burma), one of the world’s greatest abusers of human rights and a country suspected of cooperating with North Korea on ballistic missiles. In addition, world-wide economic woes continue, with general concern around the world about the impending collapse of economies in Europe.

While pondering these national and international issues and with Christmas approaching, I have been pondering two passages of Scripture that ought to give us hope. It seems that Jesus came into a world where personal selfishness and international turmoil reign. Behind it all is the ongoing battle between good and evil. In the midst of that battle, Jesus brings us hope and ultimate victory.

Micah 5:1-4 predicted the birth of a new ruler would take place in Bethlehem at a time when a siege was laid against Israel that would strike their ruler with a rod. Although Bethlehem was an insignificant place in Israel, this coming ruler was tied to the nation’s heritage — his “origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Micah prophesied that “He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God” and “his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.” The baby born in Bethlehem would bring stability to a world of selfishness and turmoil.

The great victory that Christ’s birth brings into the world is underscored in Revelation 12 when the scenes from the birth of Jesus that we read about in the Gospels are set in cosmic terms. One commentator says that the Gospels tells us the story of Jesus’ birth from an earthly viewpoint, while Revelation 12 tells us the story of Jesus’ birth from a heavenly viewpoint.

In Revelation 12 the story pictures “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head” who cries out as she is about to give birth. Then an enormous dragon attacks with the purpose of devouring her child as soon as he is born. The child is protected, resulting in a war breaking out in heaven. But the dragon is defeated, and a loud voice from heaven announces the salvation and power and the Kingdom of God that have come as a result.

Both Micah and Revelation show us the great battle we are engaged in that is, in part, a product of the selfishness and turmoil of our world. In the midst of the battle a child is born. He is born in the humblest of circumstances, but he is the greatest child, the greatest king of all who will yet rescue the world for God. That is the story of Bethlehem.

Fred Craddock – A “Preaching Genius”

2011-11-29T08:13:00.001-08:00

One of the preachers who has influenced my own preaching through his sermons and books is Fred Craddock. He is a master storyteller-preacher who has taught and influenced dozens of preachers. This week CNN’s Belief Blog has an excellent profile of Craddock, who is now 83, that discusses his preaching as well as his personal journey of faith. You can find the profile here. I highly recommend reading it.

International Day of Prayer For the Persecuted Church

2011-11-04T19:27:00.001-07:00

November 13, is The International Day of Prayer For the Persecuted Church. While our constitution establishes religious freedom in the United States, there is growing evidence of that right being seriously eroded. Yet, such freedom does not exist at all in many countries of the world. In many of those countries, Christians face persecution resulting in imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom.

On November 6, my sermon theme will be “Hazardous” as we examine Acts 5, one of the times in the book of Acts when the early church faced persecution. From those early days until now, living for Christ has always been hazardous. Today, however, persecution has risen around the world to new levels. So we need to be aware of the plight of many of our brothers and sisters in other nations and pray for them.

Certainly we can expect persecution to come to those who follow Christ. Jesus told us that “Everyone will hate you because of me” (Luke 21:17). In John 15:18 & 20, Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” and “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” In Acts 14:22, Paul would say, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”

Sunday our bulletin will include an insert with stories of people who are experiencing these very things today:

Gao Zhisheng is a Christian and prominent human rights attorney in China who was seized from his home in 2009 and imprisoned without a trial.
Asia Bibi, a mother of five in Pakistan, was accused of blaspheming Muhammad and sentenced to death.
Youcef Nadarkhani was arrested in Iran for opposing the practice of forcing Christians to read the Quran in school and has been held in solitary confinement.
Puih H’bat was arrested in her home in Vietnam while leading a group of Christians in prayer.

These are the conditions many Christians around the world face. So we must pray for them.

You can learn more by visiting the web site of Voice of the Martyrs: www.persecution.com.

Jesus’ Claim On Your Life

2011-10-12T16:42:00.001-07:00

In a Thursday morning Bible study that I have been teaching since June, we are currently studying the Gospel of John. Among the unique things about John’s Gospel are the claims that Jesus makes about himself. Among the four Gospels, we read these claims only in John. He did not so much write a narrative of Jesus’ life as he wrote a reflection on who Jesus is.

Consider, for instance, the uniqueness of Jesus’ “I am” statements that John presents:

“I am the bread of life” — John 6:35.
“I am the light of the world” — John 8:12.
“I am the good shepherd” — John 10:11.
“I am the resurrection and the life” — John 11:25.
“I am the way and the truth and the life — John 14:6.
“I am the true vine” — John 15:1.

Those are just the most familiar of the claims that Jesus makes. Each of them is filled with meaning, but let’s examine just one for a moment: Jesus’ claim to be “the light of the world.”

When Jesus makes that claim, he continues by saying, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Then he demonstrates what he means by the claim through the continuing dialog and events of the text.

When the Pharisees challenged the validity of the claim, he went on to claim, “If you knew me, you would know my Father also” — John 8:19.
He then claimed that he is going away — referring, of course, to heaven — and said, “Where I go, you cannot come” — John 8:21. We cannot go there, he said, because “You are of this world; I am not of this world” — John 8:23. We can only go where he is when he takes us there because we put our faith in him.
When we hold to his teaching, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” — John 8:31-32.
Finally, when the Jewish leaders claimed Abraham as their father, Jesus made the remarkable claim, “Before Abraham was born, I am” — John 8:58.

These claims only scratch the surface of Jesus’ claim to be “the light of the world.” Jesus then demonstrated the effect this claim can have on us by healing a blind man in John 9. The man who is healed saw Jesus far better than the leaders of the Jews who were teaching the people about God, but they did not know God.

When this man who was blind believed in Jesus, Jesus made a claim on his life, and he makes a claim on our lives. We need to believe Jesus’ claims, and then we need to let him claim our lives as we walk with him, trust him, and learn from him to know the Father.

IS YOUR CHURCH INNUMERABLE?

2011-10-10T08:55:00.001-07:00

There are some things that are innumerable – too numerous to count: grains of sand on the seashore, stars in the sky, and drops of water in the ocean. On a recent drive through Rocky Mountain National Park while in Colorado, I added another one to the list: rocks in the Rocky Mountains. Some actions are innumerable: the tears a mother will shed for her children, and the times a four-year-old will ask “Why…?”

The population of the world is innumerable today. World population remained steady at about one billion people from the time of Christ until about 1600. Then it began to increase until it reached about two billion people during the last century. During the lifetime of most of you who are reading this, world population has grown from two billion to nearly seven billion. That is innumerable (This analysis can be found in Unleashed by Dudley Rutherford, et al from Standard Publishing in the chapter “Innumerable.”). As of July 1, 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the world’s population to be 6.96 billion.

In the book of Acts, the growth of the number of Jesus’ followers could be described as innumerable:

Acts 1:15 begins with 120 followers of Jesus before Pentecost.
In Acts 2:41, the number multiplied to more than 3,000.
In Acts 2:47, the Lord was adding to their number daily.
Acts 4:4 records that about 5,000 men were now Christians.
Acts 5:14 tells us that “more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”
Acts 6:1 says that “the number of disciples was increasing.”
Acts 9:31 records this about the church: “Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.”

By AD 350 there were thirty-one million Christians, more than half the population of the Roman Empire! The church was growing so rapidly that it became virtually impossible to count. Today there are some two billion Christians in the world.

I review those numbers for you in order to ask a question: How does the church once again become innumerable? How does your church become innumerable?

I realize that the number of people in most churches can be counted. As Christians, however, we are part of the world-wide church, so every church should be seeking out as many lost people as they can, so that together we become innumerable. Here are three emphases that I find in Acts that together enable the church to reach innumerable people.

(1) Emphasize the centrality of Christ. If you read through the messages preached by Peter and others that are recorded in Acts, you will find that every one emphasizes Christ above all else. Peter’s message on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 sets the stage by telling us that Jesus’ miracles prove that he is from God, that he was crucified and rose again, as foretold by the prophets and witnessed by the apostles, that he was exalted to the right hand of God, and that he poured out his Spirit on those who witnessed his resurrection. Messages recorded in each of Acts chapters 3, 4, and 5 all repeat that emphasis on Christ. Christ must be emphasized above all by the church.

(2) Emphasize the need for salvation. When Peter concluded his message in Acts 2, he was asked, “What shall we do?” He responded, “Repent and be baptized … in the name of Jesus Christ” and you will receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. This emphasis on salvation continued throughout the messages in Acts, with Peter even announcing in Acts 4:12 that “salvation is found in no one else” except Jesus. This is not just the message of the church. It is the message of every individual Christian. Most people come to Christ because a friend or family member has reached out to them in the name of Christ. Make this the emphasis of your life and your church.

(3) Emphasize the practice of love. In the snapshots in the book of Acts into the life of the early church, we have various pictures of the church loving and caring for each other and for those in the community around them. The church in fact became known in the world around them as a community of people who loved each other and those around them.

Your church can be innumerable. Begin to ask how you can build these three emphases into every aspect of your life and the church. Make your church not just about your church, but about the church around the world reaching innumerable people.

The Gospel–Available to All

2011-10-01T08:53:00.001-07:00

Among the stories in the Book of Acts of people who chose to follow Jesus was an Ethiopian man whose story is told in Acts 8:26-39. We do not know his name. He is only known to us as an Ethiopian eunuch who was in charge of the Ethiopian queen’s treasury.

He had gone to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home when the Holy Spirit instructed Philip to go to the desert road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. This was the lesser of two roads that went from Jerusalem to Gaza. It was the least traveled road because it stayed out of the populated areas. As he did with Philip, sometimes God sends us to the most unexpected people in the most unexpected places to share the Gospel or to minister to people in Jesus’ name.

When Philip came upon this man on the road, the Spirit instructed him to approach the chariot. When Philip did so, he heard the man reading from Isaiah 53 in the Old Testament, and had the opportunity to explain Isaiah’s prophesy about Jesus to the eunuch and to baptize him.

The Ethiopian, although he was a worshiper of God, was not a Jew nor a Samaritan. He was from an important country as the Ethiopia of that day was a much larger region than today’s country of Ethiopia. At that time, Ethiopia was the whole region of the upper Nile River. As the first non-Judean or non-Samaritan to come to Christ that we know of, this man would become important in the expansion of the Gospel outside Judea. God was beginning to direct the church to take the Gospel to everyone, even the unexpected.

One of the early leaders of the Christian church movement in the U.S., demonstrated that kind of out-of-the-box thinking to lead others to Christ. Barton W. Stone preached for a small church at Cane Ridge in Northern Kentucky beginning in 1791. Stone had a conviction for diversity during a time of slavery, and led the Cane Ridge church in becoming an abolitionist church.

The Cane Ridge Meeting House, as it is still known, had a second level. In the early yeas of Stone’s ministry, the church still had some racial separation and black people had to sit in that second level. As a result of a great 1801 revival at Cane Ridge, many of the white men who were slave owners were convicted by the Holy Spirit and Barton Stones’ preaching to set their slaves free. A few years after that, there were black elders and leaders in the Cane Ridge church, and the entire separation between the races was gone. White and black people worshiped alongside each other on both levels of the church.

God used Barton Stone at Cane Ridge in much the same way that he used Philip in Acts 8 — to make the Gospel equally available to all who believe, regardless of skin color, nationality, position, or any of the other distinctions that we make between people. God is still in the business of using the Holy Spirit to unleash the church to turn the world upside down by reaching all people. Won’t you join him in that effort? Let the Spirit unleash you.

2011-09-01T07:10:00.001-07:00

In July, I attended the North American Christian Convention (NACC). The NACC is an annual gathering of Christians (primarily from the movement of independent Christian churches/churches of Christ of which Westwood is a part) from all across North America and the world. It is a gathering for preaching, teaching, retooling for ministers and leaders, connecting with old and new friends, and challenging the church to live out its mission.

Christine and I both attended our first NACC in 1973, just a few months before we were married. Our daughter grew up going to the NACC, and still attends on occasion, especially when it meets in a location within driving distance of her home, as happened this summer and last summer. This summer it met in Cincinnati where she lives, so she attended several sessions with me.

The NACC has been a rich blessing to our family and to me personally. Each convention offers new blessings. This fall, I hope to bring some of the blessings from this year’s NACC to our congregation through a series of messages based on this year’s theme.

The theme this year was “Unleashed — The Church Turning the World Upside Down.” This theme was developed through a series of messages to the adult convention based on the book of Acts. The theme comes from the promise by Jesus in Acts 1 that his followers would have the Holy Spirit poured out on them — that the church would be immersed in the Holy Spirit. That promise was fulfilled in Acts 2. How does the church live when the Spirit is unleashed? Through these messages, we will find how we can emulate the powerful ministry of the church in the book of Acts. Here are the themes we will examine:

We become a kaleidoscope that attracts the whole world to the church’s welcoming beauty and diversity (Acts 1:8; 10:1-48).
We see innumerable souls won for the kingdom of God (Acts 2:41-47; 4:4).
We see pandemonium ensue as others take notice of the excitement and commotion of God’s church working in their midst (Acts 4:13-22).
We are shaken by the power of God’s Spirit and preach fearlessly and without restraint (Acts 4:23-31).
We demonstrate lavishness when we see the needs of those around us and give sacrificially (Acts 4:32-37).
We display a hazardous faith (Acts 5:17-42).
We are open to the kinetic power of the gospel (Acts 13:41-52).
We take hold of the unequivocal calling to go into the whole world (Acts 20:22-24).

I am praying that these messages will challenge my life and our congregation to let the Spirit be unleashed in our lives.

How Would Someone Sum Up Your Life?

2011-08-26T19:17:00.001-07:00

If someone who knows you well were to write a summary of your life in just a few sentences, what would they say? Would the things he or she says mention the things you are most passionate about? Would those few sentences reflect your walk with God? Would it be positive or negative?

As I have studied David’s life this summer and shared messages with you from what the Bible tells us about him, I have found some remarkable sentences in the account of his life in 1 and 2 Samuel that summarize his life. These sentences sum up the various events of David’s life and point to Godly characteristics that we can learn from. These sentences reveal to us the life of “a man after God’s own heart” and show us how to live with a heart for God.

Here is a sampling organized around some of the main events of David’s life:

David’s anointing to be king of Israel:

Man looks at the outward appearance (literally ‘the face’), but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). From the time that he was anointed, the Lord knew that David had a heart for God, and God chose him to be king because of his heart. What does God see when he looks at your heart?
“The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David” (1 Samuel 16:13). David did not live by his own power, but by the power of God. Just as the Spirit came upon David at his anointing, so he comes into our lives we accept Christ and are baptized. Do you choose to live by the power of God’s Spirit within you?

David’s slaying of Goliath:

“I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied (1 Samuel 17:45). David could slay Goliath because he was more than a boy with a slingshot; he was a warrior fighting in the name of the Lord Almighty. People today may choose to defy the Lord as Goliath did, but my question for you is: Do you live in the name of the Lord Almighty?

David’s moving the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem:

When David danced before the Lord, only to be criticized by his wife, he said, “I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes” (2 Samuel 6:21, 22). David worshiped the Lord freely and extravagantly, without inhibitions. Do you celebrate freely before the Lord when you come to worship?

David’s desiring to build a Temple:

David desired a Temple, but when God told him “no,” he “went in and sat before the Lord.” (2 Samuel 7:18). After receiving what had to be one of the great disappointments of his life, David went in and sat and talked with the Lord. In his prayer, David asks the Lord, “Who am I...that you have brought me this far?” He goes on to acknowledge the greatness of God. When you have a heart for God, you acknowledge his greatness even when he does not give you the things you desire. Do you recognize that God always knows best?

David’s kindness to Jonathan’s son

After David settled in Jerusalem as king, he asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can shown God’s kindness?” (2 Samuel 9:3). Saul had made himself David’s enemy, but David had a great friendship with Saul’s son Jonathan, so he sought to demonstrate kindness (the word is actually “grace”) to anyone left from Saul’s family — and he did so with Jonathan’s son. Do you extend God’s kindness, his grace, to others, even those with whom you disagree?

David’s repentance for adultery and murder:

When confronted for his sins, David responded to Nathan, the prophet, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13). He was the king, but he acknowledged his sin. We all sin, and we know we do. Do you acknowledge your sin to God and receive his mercy?
When David’s infant son died, he said, “Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23), In some way, David had come to understand that, through our faith and the mercy of God, we live beyond the grave. He lived for the day that he would see his child again. Do you live for eternity?

These are just some of the lessons David can teach us. The New Testament tells us that “God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do’” (Acts 13:22). We too can live with hearts for God. I hope you are learning these lessons from the life of David.

Worship With a Heart For God

2011-08-08T10:12:00.001-07:00

The central piece to the life of the church today is the weekly worship service. More people come into church by first attending worship than through any other means. We put a lot of time and energy into our worship – as well we should – but do we really lead people in worshiping with a heart for God?

A study of the life of David, the second king of Israel, led me to consider this question this summer. It is a question well worth pondering.

David had faced this question, because he became king at a time in Israel’s history in which they had neglected the proper worship of God for over twenty years. We know this because the Ark of the Covenant, the place where God’s glory rested and therefore the centerpiece of their worship, had been left in the home of a priest named Abinadab for all those years (you can read that story in 1 Samuel 4-6 and 7:1-2).

When David became king he realized that this centerpiece of their worship was missing, so he determined to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem where he had established his capital. In the account of his bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, as told in 2 Samuel 6, I find three ways in which we can worship God. Each has relevance for today’s worship practices.

(1) We can worship God with complacence. This is the worship largely promoted by the church. I know; I know. You say, our church does not worship complacently, but observe the experience of David.

David took 30,000 people with him to the home of Abinadab, 10 miles from Jerusalem, to retrieve the Ark. They put the Ark on a new ox cart to transport it. Everyone was celebrating and singing and playing instruments and worshiping. David knew that in order to worship God properly, they needed the Ark of the Covenant in their midst, but Abinadab must have been aghast at the complacency of the celebration. They were taking it all too lightly. This was the Ark of God, after all.

Do we forget who the God is that we worship? Do we become too casual and too complacent in our worship, forgetting that we worship a holy God in all of his glory? Do we simply worship God so that he will improve us a little bit, and design our worship services to make people feel better instead of to pour ourselves out before the Most Holy God?

(2) We can worship God with anger. This is the worship most common in our culture. Nearly one-third of people in our culture believe God is an authoritarian, angry God.

The worship mood of the celebrating crowd moving the Ark to Jerusalem suddenly changed. As they marched along with the Ark of the Covenant on the ox cart something happened. Perhaps the wheel of the cart hit a rock and was jolted. The Ark became unsteady and began to fall. Uzzah, walking alongside the cart, reached out and steadied the Ark. That’s all he did. He probably reacted without even thinking about it but he Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah and struck him dead because he touched the Ark. They named the place, “Outbreak against Uzzah.” They had failed to follow God’s instructions for moving the Ark, and, even though his intentions were right, Uzzah lost his life, and David got angry. The celebration ended. The plans were scrapped. They left the Ark at the home they were passing by.

Many people in our culture have become angry at God for all the evil that is present in our world, but they will not turn to him. How do we explain a loving God to people who are angry at him? Like Israel, when we neglect the proper worship of a Most Holy God, we will only know anger. As Eugene Peterson says, ““Sometimes I think that all religious sites should be posted with signs reading, "’Beware the God.’"

(3) We can worship God with extravagance. This is worship as God intended.

Three months later David returned to retrieve the Ark. In the interim, he had learned how to properly move the Ark, and he observed those regulations. They made sacrifices as they moved toward Jerusalem. When Michal, David’s wife, criticized him for his display of exuberance, he said he would celebrate before the Lord, becoming even more undignified than he had in order to honor the Lord.

That is the kind of celebration we need to bring before the Lord. Call for people to worship by giving all of themselves to the Lord. Remember that we worship the Most Holy God, and pour yourself out before him.

(This post is based on a sermon preached on July 17. To listen to the sermon, go to this page and choose the sermon for July 17.)

Saul’s Death and Christ’s Death

2011-08-06T07:25:00.001-07:00

When my brother-in-law, Jerry, died last month, he was buried in the veterans’ cemetery in Johnson City, TN, the same place where my mother was buried a little less than four years ago. My sister, Karen, her daughter, Amy, her daughter-in-law, Kristen, our daughter, Nancy, and I returned to the cemetery later in the day after the burial had been completed. All of the markers in the cemetery are identical crosses, but the cemetery allows the crosses to be personalized with something about the person, besides the facts of name and dates. We walked through the cemetery and noticed some of the things written on some of the grave markers. My sister recognized some of those who had died more recently because she works at the VA Hospital and they had been patients in her department, but all the rest of us were reading things about people we had not known.

Words on grave markers give only a very slight glimpse into a person’s life, but may well sum up the essence of that person’s life.

During the course of David being pursued by King Saul, Saul died by his own hand after battling the Philistines. His grave marker could well have contained words that he himself spoke to David after David spared his life for the second time. 1 Samuel 26:21 records those words for us as part of a promise to David to not harm him. He said, “I have played the fool and have committed a serious error.”

Sometime later, the Philistines defeated Saul’s army in battle. His three sons, including Jonathan, were killed, and Saul would take his own life by falling on his sword (1 Samuel 31:1-6). He had long before that stopped following the Lord, and played the fool to the very end. The heads of Saul and his sons were cut off by the Philistines and carried throughout the land to announce the Philistine victory, and their bodies were publicly displayed hanging on the walls of a city. Israel had been conquered by the Philistines. Saul’s tragic death had drastic consequences for his nation.

Chuck Swindoll compares Saul’s death with the death of Christ — the great Son of David:

Saul’s death seemed to destroy hope for his nation, while Christ’s death offers hope to all.
Saul’s death brought victory to his enemies, while Christ’s death brings defeat to even death itself.
Saul’s death opened the way for David to become king, while Christ’s death opened the way to salvation for everyone who accepts him.

All of us know that we will one day die. Many choose a death like Saul’s — one without hope. They choose to die the fool.

This week our congregation and Lisa McCullum’s family mourn Lisa’s death, but we also rejoice because she had chosen to accept the redeeming death of the great Son of David. Her joy at knowing Christ touched us all. May we choose to face life and death as she did, with the hope of Christ.

How Is Your Church’s Heart?

2011-07-11T14:25:00.001-07:00

In the late 1930s, Carl Sandburg finished a four-volume masterpiece, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years. As Sandberg sought for an appropriate title of the seventy-fifth chapter, covering the events immediately following Lincoln’s assassination, he settled on a quaint line from an old woodsman’s proverb, “A tree is best measured when it’s down.” Sandberg felt that you cannot adequately measure the significance of a person’s life until he is “down.”

I have found that old woodsman’s proverb also describes with some precision the life of King David of Israel. As such his life teaches us many valuable lessons on how to live and how we should lead the church.

David is the only person in all of scripture to be called “a man after God’s own heart.” He demonstrated great strength of character by depending on God, but he also demonstrated great weakness when he fell to temptation and sinned against God. He wrote about it all in the Psalms. He could write about both because he always found his way back to God; he got his heart back in the right place.

David was born and raised in a world in which, as one writer put it, “the people were on a long drift from God.” That is certainly true today, so perhaps there are some things we can learn from David about keeping our hearts and the heart of our churches right with God.

Samuel had been the prophet and judge for a long time when the people of Israel asked God for a king. Saul was chosen as the first king, but he would disobey God, so Samuel told him that God would replace him as king with “a man after his own heart.” 1 Samuel 16:1-13 tells the story of the selection and anointing of David as the king who would replace Saul. That story gives us three reasons, as stated by Charles Swindoll, why we need to let the Lord look at our hearts and at the heart of our churches.

(1) Man Panics; God Provides. After God rejected Saul as king, he sent Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint a new king. He asked God, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.” Have you or your church ever felt panic like that? Perhaps you have lost your job or faced a serious illness. Perhaps your church has lost a significant leader or is facing a pastoral change at a critical time in the church’s life.

God sent Samuel to Bethlehem and showed him that he had already selected the next king. He has nothing to fear. God provides the next job, the food and support we need to survive, the strength to make it through our health struggles, the next pastor or leader for our churches. We need a heart for God because he provides.

(2) – Man Looks; God Sees. Samuel began his consideration of the next king by examining Jesse’s oldest son, Eliab. Eliab looked like a man you would choose to be king. On that day, Samuel looked at seven of Jesse’s eight sons, but none of them were God’s choice, because God sees something we do not see: God looks into our hearts. Literally the text says, “Man looks at the face, but the Lord looks at the heart.” We still need to learn this lesson. If there is one thing we should learn about how to look at people it is to look at them not by face or stature or any feature of their outward appearance, but to look at their heart. Only God can really do that, so we have to learn to listen to God to give us that kind of discernment.

(3) – Man Forgets; God Remembers. While Samuel was looking at Jesse’s seven other sons, Jesse had forgotten about his eighth son, the youngest. Samuel had to ask Jesse if he had any other sons. Can’t you hear Jesse’s response: He is just the youngest. He is only a boy. He is only a shepherd. What could you want with him? Forgotten, shoved aside. Worthless. How often do we do that with people? God, though, remembered that David was out watching the sheep. He was chosen and anointed as king because of his character. I have often been surprised at the people God can use, because he remembers when we forget.

So, how is your heart? How is the heart of your church? Do you work at letting God develop within you and your church a heart that trusts in him?

When You Are Hiding In a Cave….

2011-06-29T07:07:00.001-07:00

David had perhaps the most difficult path to becoming king of Israel of any king in history. He did not seek the throne; rather the throne sought him. Samuel anointed him to replace Saul as king, and David remained true to his anointing, but it could not have been easy.

We have already seen in 1 Samuel 18-21 that David lost his position in Saul’s army, his wife, his mentor, Samuel, his friend, Jonathan, and his dignity and self respect. When 1 Samuel 22 opens, David is fleeing from Saul and he “escaped to the cave of Adullam.” He had no security, he had no food, he had no one to talk to, he had no promise to cling to, and he had no hope that anything would ever change. He was in a dark cave, away from everything and everybody he loved. Everybody except God. The only people with him were 400 people who themselves were “in distress or in debt or discontent.”

That would not be the last cave in which he would hide from Saul. We get a glimpse at how he felt about these experiences in Psalm 142, which is a record of David crying out to God while in the cave.

I cry aloud to the LORD;
I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.
I pour out my complaint before him;
before him I tell my trouble.
When my spirit grows faint within me,
it is you who know my way.
In the path where I walk
men have hidden a snare for me.
Look to my right and see;
no one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge;
no one cares for my life.
I cry to you, O LORD;
I say, "You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living."
Listen to my cry,
for I am in desperate need;
rescue me from those who pursue me,
for they are too strong for me.
Set me free from my prison,
that I may praise your name.
Then the righteous will gather about me
because of your goodness to me.

What does David do while he hides in the cave? He cries out to God; he pours out his complaint to the Lord. He recognizes that God is his refuge. He would continue for quite some time to flee from Saul, but in the cave he renewed his commitment to trust in God no matter how difficult his circumstances.

None of us are hiding in a cave with 400 distraught people, but at some time, we have all felt we were alone, with no one to help us, no promise to cling to, and no hope for the future. If you have faced such circumstances in the past, you will likely face them again in the future. There is only one person who can really help at such times. We should learn from David to cry out to the Lord, make our complaint to him. As he was for David, the Lord will always be there for us.

Unbroken

2011-06-11T10:48:00.001-07:00

In her bestselling book Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand tells the amazing story of Louis Zamperini, 1936 Olympic distance runner and bombardier in the military during World War II and prisoner-of-war. His is a story of endurance and redemption that both reinforces and informs the mission God has given to the church as a body and to individual believers.

Zamperini was a prankster as a boy and through his teen years. Some of his pranks were harmful or illegal, yet he continually survived them. Then in high school he became a track athlete and became one of the best 5,000 meter runners in history and then one of the best mile-runners in history. He went to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. When he returned home, he trained for the 1940 Olympics, only to have them cancelled due to war.

From the story of those early years of Zamperini’s life, we learn our first lesson for the church: Young people who appear to be growing up to be a nuisance can develop into worthwhile individuals. We always need to realize this in the church because we are called to help people make the most out of their lives.

With his Olympic dream gone, Zamperini ended up in the army, serving as a bombardier in the Pacific. On May 27, 1943, Zamperini's bomber left Oahu in search of survivors from a downed plane. About 800 miles from the base, one of the engines cut out and the bomber plunged into the ocean. Zamperini and another soldier would stay afloat on a tiny life raft for 47 days—a world record for survival at sea. After confronting sharks, starvation, and dementia, their real battle would begin. Zamperini spent the next two years as a Japanese POW in the notorious Sugamo Prison. In particular, a guard named Watanabe (nicknamed "the Bird") ensured that Louis endured constant physical torture and verbal humiliation—all in an attempt to shatter the spirit of the American soldiers.

Zamperini would survive his prisoner-of-war ordeal, and leave us another lesson: Survival is possible even in the most extreme circumstances. Of all people, those of us who follow Christ should understand that people can overcome. It is, in fact, our responsibility in the church to nurture people through their difficulties in order to help them survive. At the same time, we need always to remember to trust God in our own difficulties.

In 1944, after Louis had been declared dead, he returned to America to a rush of publicity. Unfortunately, his life quickly descended into a new self-made prison of alcoholism and bitterness. In particular, Louis now endured constant nightmares about his past and an obsessive drive to murder "the Bird." But the walls of addiction and hatred started to crumble in 1949 when Louis attended a Billy Graham crusade and heard the gospel and trusted Christ.

After receiving Christ, in the words of Laura Hildenbrand:

When [Louie] thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him. He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the Bird had striven to make him. In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed, he was a new creation.

Zamperini’s conversion leaves us another lesson: No matter how much suffering a person has endured, he or she still needs Christ. Zamperini’s suffering, as it does for many people, led him into his own destructive cycle until rescued by Christ. We need to watch for the suffering in people’s lives that shouts to us of their need for Christ, and share Christ with them.

Then there is one more lesson that we can learn from Louis Zamperini’s story. It grows out of the consequences of his conversion. Up until his conversion, he became obsessed with finding a way to return to Japan and murder his nemesis, “The Bird.’ After his conversion, Christ took away the bitterness and desire for revenge. Louis Zamperini not only received forgiveness, he was able to forgive his greatest tormentor. The lesson? If Christ forgave us, we need to forgive like that. The church should be in the business of teaching people to forgive others.

Zamperini has followed Christ in the long years since his conversion. He survived all the people who were part of his story, many of whom also followed Christ, people with whom he will share eternity. I recommend Unbroken. I especially recommend the lessons it teaches us about following Christ and serving in the church.

Contrasting King Saul and King David

2011-06-10T18:36:00.001-07:00

King David, whose life we are learning from this summer, was a remarkable man who kept his heart right with God, despite his imperfections. His predecessor as king, Saul, began with the same opportunities that David had, but failed to trust in God. Much of what they each experienced in life is in fact a direct contrast to what the other experienced.

· Saul disobeyed God while David obeyed God. Both had physical qualities that opened doors for them. Saul was tall and described as an “impressive young man,” while David had “a fine appearance and handsome features.” Twice Saul disobeyed direct commands of God and then tried to make excuses and get around what he had done. David’s reign includes account after account of how he obeyed God. When he did sin, and he had some enormous public sins, he confessed his sin and walked the hard road back to God.

· Saul had the Spirit of God depart from his life while David possessed the Spirit of God in power. The middle of 1 Samuel 16 presents a direct contrast for the reader in this regard. In verse 13, we read about David’s anointing as king and are told that “the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power.” In the verse next verse, we read that “the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul.”

· Saul trusted himself and his army, while David trusted the Lord. On two occasions, Saul was given direct instructions from the Lord through Samuel how to conduct a battle, but on both occasions he disobeyed God when things did not go the way he expected. Those two acts of disobedience led directly to his removal as king. David, even before he was king trusted God. In the most famous story from his life, David killed Goliath with one stone from his slingshot. When asked how he could fight a giant as a mere boy with no armor, he responded that “the Lord will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

· Saul developed a great jealousy of David and tried to kill him, while David spared Saul’s life. Saul spent a great deal of time and energy pursuing David because he saw him as a threat to his throne. David, though, demonstrated remarkable composure in the light of these threats. On multiple occasions, David had an opportunity to kill Saul, but refused to do so, stating that it was not his right to slay the Lord’s anointed.

These are just four examples of how these two men’s lives contrasted with one another. Their stories, when compared with each other, offer us the choice of how we are going to live. We can disobey God, live without the Spirit of God, trust in ourselves, and respond to others out of jealousy. Or, we can learn to trust God, even in the midst of our sin and imperfection, and let his Spirit dwell within us, so that he can use us in mighty ways.

These are some of the lessons from David this summer that I will be sharing with our congregation this summer as we continue learning from him to live with a heart for God.

Living With a Heart For God–The Life of David

2011-06-01T17:47:00.001-07:00

“David.

“Jesse’s youngest son. Youthful shepherd of Bethlehem. Giant-slayer. Teenaged king-elect. Composer of psalms. Saul’s personal musician. Jonathan’s closest friend.

“He rose from hunted fugitive to Israel’s king. And he fell from champion in battle to aged and troubled monarch.

“David — a man of glorious triumph, yet great tragedy. Uniquely gifted, but human to the core; strong in battle, but weak at home. Why are we drawn to study his life? Because David isn’t a polished-marble personality. He is blood and bone and breath, sharing our struggles of spirit and soul.”

Chuck Swindoll begins one of his studies of David’s life with those words. David is one of the most remarkable men to have ever lived. He is the only one in Scripture to be called “a man after God’s own heart.” He is mentioned more than any other Old Testament character in the New Testament. One of his psalms is among a small handful of the most well-known passages of Scripture. He was a great poet and musician, a courageous warrior, and a national statesman.

Yet he was a man of great vulnerability, and so very much like us. He was anything but perfect, falling from the pinnacle of his kingdom into the depths of sin.

Among the events of his life that we shall examine are the following:

· His anointing: As a teenager he was anointed to be king of Israel after the failure of Saul, Israel’s first king, to remain true to God.

· His music: Chosen as the future king, he served as an attendant to Saul, offering up music to calm the soul and soften the heart. He would go on to write music that still touches hearts through the words of his psalms.

· His triumphs: Among his greatest triumphs was his victorious confrontation with the giant Goliath. He saved his nation for the first time, but it would not be his last. He shows us how to walk with God in the battles of life.

· His failures and repentance: His adultery was one of the great personal failures of history, yet he repented and found his way back to God. He shows us how to respond to our sin.

That is just a taste of his remarkable life. He also battled jealousy, revenge, conflict, sorrow, and triumph. There is something for everyone to learn from in his life.

If you want to live with a heart for God, you really need to meet this man. We need to do more than just read the stories of his life in the Old Testament. We need to see his successes and failures and ask how his experiences can help us have a heart for God like he did. So, we will examine his life this summer and learn from him how we can have hearts that remain true to God and that are on fire for God.

King David Is Coming to Westwood This Summer

2011-06-01T17:40:00.001-07:00

King David will visit Westwood this summer through a new sermon series: “Living With a Heart For God.” Perhaps as much as anyone else in the Bible David teaches us how to live with a heart for God.

Chuck Swindoll says about him: “Few men in history have been so gifted and respected as the sweet singer of Israel, David, the youngest son of Jesse. His personality was a strange combination of simplicity and complexity.”

J. Oswald Sanders summed up David’s life this way: “He swung between extremes, but paradoxically evidenced an abiding stability. The oscillating needle always returned to its pole – God Himself.”

His story begins before we even meet him. When the prophet Samuel rebukes King Saul, David’s predecessor, for not obeying God, Samuel said to him, “Your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people.” David was that man, and so became known as “the man after God’s own heart.”

David always longed to serve God well, from the time he was an obscure shepherd boy in the hills of Judea to his reign as king. Yet woven in his life were moments of sin and the normal struggles with life that demonstrated flaws in his character and failure in his reign. He had great victories, such as his defeat of the giant Goliath, but also struggled with great sin, such as his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. Yet he wrote some of the greatest songs of praise ever written, words in the Psalms that still move our hearts.

We can learn much from him about having a heart for God. Let’s share the adventure of his life together this summer.

BUILDING ON THE RIGHT FOUNDATION

2011-05-07T12:09:00.001-07:00

Early in May, I officiated at the funeral service for Wendell Smith. He was 90 years old and had been an active member of our congregation in Madison for all but a brief time since the congregation started in 1958. His life speaks to what it means for a Christian to faithfully serve the Lord.

The funeral was held in our church building, which Wendell had a large part in building in 1958. He also played a part in the decision to start the congregation. It was the first time I conducted a funeral in a building constructed by the person being remembered. Among the stories he told over the years about that construction project was how he laid the brick for the building. He had never laid brick before, but did so expertly, taking to the task with his usual attentiveness to detail, making sure the job was done right.

That is the kind of building that God wants us to do with our lives and that Wendell demonstrated consistently with his life. Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11 to be careful how we build “for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” We are to build our lives on Jesus Christ. He alone is the foundation we should build on.

From the time that Wendell walked down the aisle of his home church in Jamestown, Indiana, as a young man and gave his life to Christ, he faithfully followed Christ for nearly 80 years. The foundation of his life was Jesus Christ, and Wendell worked to honor Christ.

Wendell was a woodworker. He made many things with his hands and demonstrated through them how to build our lives with Jesus Christ as the foundation, Among them were various items that he made for our church building and for people. Here is a sampling:

One of Wendell’s district managers for the insurance company he worked for before retiring in 1984 told us at the funeral about a grandfather clock that Wendell built for he and his wife. A few years ago, he made a small clock for my wife and I that sits on the desk in my office. He made many of those clocks for people. Wendell did things like that to bless people, doing what Paul commands: “make the most of every opportunity.” Now the clock has run out on his life on this earth, but his influence remains, and he reminds me that we should leave things behind that will be a lasting influence on others.

We have a directory board that Wendell made in our church building with pictures of the people in our congregation. Wendell and his wife, Helen, have been committed to the people of our congregation for all these years. The people of our congregation have been their family. They demonstrated faithfulness to the church over the years, staying active in the congregation through good times and bad, because you stay with family.

We have two candelabras in our building that Wendell made and that we use for Christmas Eve and Good Friday services, weddings, and on other occasions. He also made candelabras for other churches and has them scattered in churches across Wisconsin. Candles are important to those of us who follow Christ, because they are a visual representation of the light of Christ. Jesus is described in Scripture as the “light of the world” who came into the darkness to save us. When we light candles in our churches, they can remind us to live our lives by the light of Christ.

Wendell made our pulpit a few years ago. I generally do not preach from a pulpit, but it is still a reminder of the importance of preaching and teaching the Word of God. Through the preaching of the Word of God, we learn the truth of God and receive encouragement to live by it. We should work at making sure our churches are Bible believing and Bible preaching churches.

The cross at the front of our worship center and our communion table were both made by Wendell. The cross, of course, is the very essence of Christianity. Jesus came into our world to go to the cross and redeem us from our sins. We remember Jesus’ death every time that we take communion, so our communion table has been central to the worship of our congregation from the time that Wendell built it.

You may not be able to build a church building or furnishings for a church building, but you need to build your life on Jesus, and we need to help others build their lives on Jesus Christ. I hope that is what your legacy will be.

Church Plant in Menomonee Falls, WI

2011-04-18T08:32:00.001-07:00

WCMA, a church planting organization that I work with, is working with some other organizations and churches to plant a new church in Greater Milwaukee this coming Fall. The target community is Menomonee Falls. If you would like to follow the plant’s progress and pray for it, you can find the latest update from our church planter, Jerod Walker, at this link: http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=301031f422f4725bc1e2f0750&id=54897f1b45&e=154a360ad2.

Westwood Message–April 14, 2011

2011-04-17T05:10:00.001-07:00

Food Pantry Donations

The Lord continues to bless the ministry of our Food Pantry, including two recent donations.

We received a donation of a $60.67 credit at Second Harvest from this year’s Million Pound Challenge. The Million Pound Challenge is sponsored by the Princeton Club. Several of our people have taken up the challenge to lose weight or exercise as a way of developing donations to food pantries throughout the area. Our Food Pantry purchases food from Second Harvest that supplements our other food donations. The Million Pound Challenge continues through May.

We also received a donation of 2,872 pounds of food and $500.00 toward purchasing perishable food from Roundy’s Foundation. That donation was presented to our Food Pantry and others in the area on April 11 at the Copps Food Center on University Ave. Gloria Jean Ehlers, our Food Pantry director, received Westwood’s donation. Thanks to Gloria Jean and all of our Food Pantry volunteers who make this ministry possible.

Easter Offering For the New Church in Menomonee Falls Continues Through April

We continue through the rest of April to receive designated gifts for our Easter Offering. That offering will go toward the new church to be launched in Menomonee Falls in the Fall.

Good Friday Service on April 22 at 6:00 PM

Join us for our Good Friday Service at 6:00 PM on April 22. This service is a special service of music, scripture, and readings, as we explore the meaning of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Sermon Series for April and May

Upcoming Dates at Westwood

April 22 Good Friday Service at 6:00 PM
April 24 Easter Service at 9:30 AM

A Westwood Message–April 7, 2011

2011-04-09T11:07:00.001-07:00

Easter Offering to Go to New Church in Menomonee Falls

Plans are well underway for a church plant in Menomonee Falls which will launch in the Fall. WCMA, a ministry supported by Westwood, is partnering to help fund the plant. Jerod Walker is the lead church planter.

Our Missions Team is asking the congregation to give to an Easter offering toward the church plant. Offerings designated for this special offering can be given throughout the month of April.

Seder Potluck Supper at Mandrake Road Church of Christ

Mandrake Road Church of Christ, 4301 Mandrake Rd., Madison, is hosting a Seder Potluck Supper on April 18 at 6:00 PM and has invited Westwood people to attend. April 18 is the first night of Passover when Jews and Jewish Christians across the world will be celebrating as well.

They request that you keep with the Passover tradition of making food that contains no flour or leavening agents. (Though, since we are under the New Covenant, if someone brings, say, a chocolate cake, they are quite sure the blood of the Passover Lamb will cover such "sins" and many will happily enjoy it anyway!)

There will be ceremonial parts of the meal, following the haggadah (a booklet with readings that everyone will have a copy of), and eating the regular meal will happen midway through that. Children are welcome; there are even some parts of the seder meal that purposely involve children. They expect it will be over by 8pm.

If you would like to attend, please contact the Westwood office and let Chardel know by April 14 so that we can give Mandrake Road a head count.

Compassion International Giving Update

Thank you to everyone that has given over the past couple of months towards Compassion International. We just received some coins collected that totaled $42.88! In addition, someone else gave to bring the balance due to $0.00 right now. So we are current on our giving for Diocaris and Samuel through the month of April. (As a reminder, it's $38/month to sponsor each child, $76/month to sponsor both of them). Everyone's help is much appreciated to share God's love with these two children in the Dominican Republic.

God's Great Blessings to YOU!

Sandy Polcyn
c/o Compassion International

Sermon Series for April and May

Upcoming Dates at Westwood

April 10 Small Group Potluck at 5:00 PM
April 22 Good Friday Service at 6:00 PM
April 24 Easter Service at 9:30 AM

MAKING THE CROSS CENTRAL TO YOUR LIFE AND CHURCH

2011-04-09T11:04:00.001-07:00

Imagine a stranger visiting your church some Sunday. The visitor knows next to nothing about Christianity, but is interested and wants to learn. As he drives up to your building, he notices the cross on the outside. As he enters the building, he sees crosses as part of the design on the main entry doors. Moving into the worship auditorium, he notices a cross prominently displayed at the front, one in the design of the pulpit and in the design of the table in the front. He sits down next to a couple and notices that the man has a cross pin on his label and the woman has a cross on her necklace. The opening song refers to the cross. When the part of the service where you have communion begins, the minister refers to communion being a remembrance of the death of Jesus on the cross, and the congregation sings “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”

Such a visitor might go away impressed but puzzled by the frequent mention of the cross. It is notable how often the cross is referred to, but it also raises questions: Do Christians really give up everything for the cross? Can Christianity be accurately summed up as a faith of the cross?

The cross is difficult to grasp. We know it is central to Christianity, but even we sometimes are not aware of how often we mention the cross. We become accustomed to our references to it. Further, we must ask ourselves how we are to put the cross at the center of our lives and of our churches. The questions are appropriate as we near our annual focus on the death of Jesus on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter.

This is the issue that comes forward in the Gospel Matthew the first time Jesus introduces the idea of the cross to his disciples. Matthew 16 is a turning point in Matthew’s Gospel. The chapter contains Peter’s confession of faith, immediately after which Matthew writes, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” From that time on, Jesus makes teaching about and preparing for his death and resurrection central to his ministry.

When he introduces the topic in Matthew 16, we find that we have a choice to make regarding the centrality of the cross in our lives and in the church.

(1) We can stand in the way of the cross. The disciples could not understand the idea of the cross when Jesus introduced it, because they believed him to be a king who would deliver them from Rome. A king could die, but had to be protected, but Jesus explains to them that he must die. Peter, just after his confession of faith, says to Jesus, “Never, Lord. This shall never happen to you.” Peter responded to the first mention of the cross by standing in the way.

Have you ever stood in the way of the cross? Does your church stand in the way of the cross? Are we too often comfortable taking the easy path in following Christ? Do we do things our way instead of God’s way? Does Jesus need to say to us as he did to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan”?

(2) We can take up the cross. Jesus puts a hard teaching in front of us: If you are going to follow Jesus, you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him wherever he leads. We are in the middle of the practice of Lent. Perhaps some of you have given up something for Lent. Such a practice reminds us that we are to give up ourselves to follow Christ, but we must be careful to remember that living by the cross is an ongoing commitment, not just a seasonal one. Indeed we must take up the cross, as Jesus told his disciples, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

Are you practicing that kind of commitment in your life? Are you asking people in your church to practice that kind of commitment? As we go through this Good Friday and Easter, make the cross not just about words, but make the cross central to your life and the life of your church.

Thinking About Heaven

2011-04-05T14:41:00.001-07:00

If you would like a perspective on heaven in light of the current evangelical discussion taking place about heaven and hell -- in light of Rob Bell's new book -- give Gordon MacDonald's new piece a read. I have read MacDonald for quite a few years in Leadership Journal where he is editor-at-large, after a long career in ministry: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/currenttrendscolumns/leadershipweekly/leavingpeace.html.

Westwood Message–March 31, 2011

2011-03-31T19:46:00.001-07:00

Easter Offering to Go to New Church in Menomonee Falls

WCMA, a ministry supported by our Missions Ministry, is partnering on a church plant that will launch this Fall in Menomonee Falls. Jerod Walker will lead the plant.

Our Missions Team is asking the congregation to give to an Easter offering toward the church plant. Offerings designated for this special offering can be given throughout the month of April.

New Small Groups To Begin

Part of our church mission statement says that we exist “to exalt God…by building people to maturity in Christ, connecting people into the body of Christ…” Part of growing to maturity and connecting to others can take place within a small group where you study and fellowship with other believers. In an informal setting such as a home, people can discuss, ask questions, and grow through interaction.

Such experiences are important to our development and growth as Christians. Small groups provide significant experiences toward such growth. Some of you are already in a small group, such as our Tuesday evening Bible study that meets at the church office and our morning women’s groups. We are once again going to begin some new groups, and we would like for you to consider becoming part of one.

In order to facilitate and discuss the formation of new groups, Mike Notaro and Dawn Zimmerman arranged a meeting of interested people. The meeting will be a potluck dinner on April 10 at 5:00 PM at our building. Each family should bring a meal item to pass or dessert to pass. There is a sign-up sheet on the table in the back of our worship center.

Worshipping and Waiting Together Community-wide Prayer Service

Join together with other Christians in the greater Madison area to worship and pray this Friday evening, April 1, at 7:00 PM at High Point Church, 7702 Old Sauk Road, Madison. This is the second of six such events planned for this year in the Madison area.

Sermon Series for April and May

The Experience of a Lifetime

2011-03-31T08:45:00.001-07:00

Three experiences have marked Christianity from the very first days of the church: experiencing the cross, the resurrection, and life in the church. If you experience all three, you cannot help but have the experience of a lifetime. We will set out to realize such an experience through our April and May worship services.

First, we will experience the cross as we move toward Easter where the church focuses on the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Then we will experience first the resurrection and then life in the church as we move from the resurrection toward Pentecost, the beginning of the church through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection.

The small coastal town of Arroyo Grande, California, has recently been disturbed by events surrounding the theft of a cross that weeks later was discovered set aflame outside the bedroom window of a 19-year-old woman of mixed race.

The 11-foot wooden cross was stolen from Saint John's Lutheran Church in Arroyo Grande, California. The cross was later found burning after being erected in a neighbor's large front yard adjacent to the house rented by the woman and her mother. Now authorities are investigating the case as a theft, arson and hate crime.

The cross has created controversy since Jesus first announced to his followers that he would go to Jerusalem to die. In fact, in one of the passages we shall study about the cross, Paul says that the “message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,” and he calls “Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentile.”

The cross was even controversial before Jesus died. Each time during his ministry that he predicted his own death, someone tried to talk him out of it. There must be some other way, they were saying, and they tried to urge Jesus to find it.

Yet God has chosen the cross as the symbol of Christianity and as the cruel means by which his only Son would die. John Stott writes in his book The Cross of Christ that Christians could have chosen any of seven symbols that he names as a suitable pointer to some aspect of Jesus’ ministry. “But instead the chosen symbol came to be a simple cross.”

Why would God choose something so brutal, so terrible, so controversial as the means of his Son’s death and the symbol of his followers? The answer is both simple and complex: a sacrificial death by the perfect Son of God is the only possible path to salvation and eternal life for imperfect, sinful people.

So, we will once again look at the cross during the first three Sundays of April and then we will share in its power during our Good Friday service before turning our attention to the Resurrection. We will find that both provide us with the experience of a lifetime.

Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man

2011-03-17T16:14:00.001-07:00

When I was growing up, we would often sing this little song about Zacchaeus in Sunday School:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man
And a wee little man was he.
He climbed way up in a sycamore tree,
For the Lord he wanted to see...

The story of Zacchaeus is one of the fun stories that comes out of Jesus’ ministry. The idea of a wee man perched like a bird in a tree (and being found out) is the stuff of humor.

Charles Spurgeon, the famed London preacher, also established a Pastor's College that exists to this day. A famous feature of the college experience was "the question oak," a large tree on Spurgeon's estate where, in good weather, students would gather on Friday afternoons to ask questions of Mr. Spurgeon and then deliver extemporaneous sermons. On one memorable occasion, Spurgeon called on a student to give a message on Zacchaeus. The student rose and said: "Zacchaeus was of little stature, so am I. Zacchaeus was up a tree, so am I. Zacchaeus came down, so will I." And the student sat down as the students, led by Spurgeon, applauded.

We can have fun with the story of Zacchaeus, but we must remember that the story teaches us some important truths. So Jerod Walker will preach this Sunday on Zacchaeus’ encounter with Christ. Jesus’ encounter with him is Jesus' last personal encounter before his arrival in Jerusalem and the events leading to his death.

Significantly, the final line in the Zacchaeus story contains the summary line of the purpose of Jesus' ministry: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). Saving the lost is what Jesus is all about. Saving the lost is also primary in the mission of the church.

When Jesus went to eat dinner at Zacchaeus’ house, there was some muttering about him being the guest of a sinner. There has often since then been muttering in the church about people who become friends of “sinners,” but they are the very people Jesus calls us to. After all, we must always remember that we are all sinners.

It is appropriate that a planter of a new church will preach on this passage for us Sunday, because new churches are all about reaching those who do not yet know Christ, who have not yet found forgiveness of their sins from Christ. Join me in letting the story of Zacchaeus capture you, not just the fun story for children and the story that brings us a cute little song. Let it capture you to the extent that you make a concerted effort to reach out to those in our world who are “sinners” like Zacchaeus.

Westwood Message–March 10, 2011

2011-03-10T13:59:00.001-08:00

Be sure to turn your clocks ahead one hour on Saturday night as we resume Daylight Savings Time this coming Sunday, March 13.

Jerod Walker to Preach at Westwood on March 20

If you have followed the announcements we have published about this year’s WCMA church plant (in partnership with other organizations), you may recognize Jerod Walker’s name. He will be the lead planter for the new church, and we have him coming to Westwood on March 20. He will preach that Sunday and discuss plans for the church plant during the adult class in our 11:00 AM class time.

Jerod began working fulltime on the plant on January 1. Prior to that he served as Family Life Minister at Central Christian Church in Beloit. Previous to that he served as senior minister of a church in New Mexico.

Children’s Workers to Meet on March 20

Our children’s workers will hold their next meeting on March 20 at noon. We will order pizza for lunch. We will order pizza for all family members who will be waiting unti the end of the meeting. If you are interested in working with our children or are a parent, you also are welcome to attend.

The main discussion topic for the meeting will be planning and scheduling our special children’s activities for the year.

Potluck Dinner for Small Groups Coming on April 10

Mike Notaro and Dawn Zimmerman are organizing a meeting for anyone interested in being part of a small group. More details will be coming, but if being in a small group is of interest, put April 10 at 5:00 PM on your calendar.

The Question of Authority Prompts an Encounter With Jesus

People today are not comfortable with authority. I experienced it in my teen, college, and young adult years. It was the era of the Viet Nam War, and massive demonstrations took place against the war and the political leaders (authorities) of that time. Hippies were everywhere it seemed and were a very visible indication of cultural rebellion against authority.

Today we see this discomfort with authority all through our culture. As children grow older, they sometimes rebel against the authority of their parents. Employees often dislike rules that have been established in the workplace. Many of the legal conflicts of our day are conflicts over authority. Much of the reaction to the posting of the Ten Commandments in public places is argued on constitutional grounds, but it is really a matter of authority. People do not want to live under the authority of moral guidelines.

This issue with authority is not new to our day. Much of the conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders was over authority, and that prompted an interesting encounter with Jesus in Matthew 21:23-27. The people came to Jesus because he taught them as “one who had authority,” so some of the Jewish leaders came to Jesus one day and questioned his authority. They asked, “By what authority do you do these things?”

Jesus asked them a question about whether John the Baptist’s baptism came from heaven or from men. They would not commit themselves to an answer. They reasoned that if they said his authority was from heaven, Jesus would ask them why they did not then believer John. If, on the other hand, they said his authority was from men, they would lose the respect of the people who held that John was a prophet. Jesus, then, would not answer their question about his authority because he knew they did not want to live under the authority of God anyway.

When we reject the authority of God, in our lives, we reject what is best for us. Jesus came to earth and showed us how to live under the authority of God because living by his authority is best for us. We see authority in a negative way and when that authority comes from other people it often is. When it comes from God, though, it gives us the best chance, the only chance, of living holy lives.

You may not like authority, but God’s authority is one you can trust, one that will benefit your life. Determine to let God rule your life.

RECLAIMING YOUNG ADULTS WHO DROP OUT OF CHURCH

2011-03-04T06:47:00.001-08:00

I have been in leadership ministry all of my adult life, and all that time we have been discussing how to get young adults engaged in the church, so that they stay in the church. Some young adults would leave the church until they married and/or had children, and then would come back. Others stayed away. We have discussed how to help these individuals maintain their faith, but have never reconciled the issue. Perhaps we never will reconcile the problem, however some recent reading has refocused the issue for me.

In last November’s Christianity Today, Drew Dyck had an article titled “The Leavers.” In his opening paragraph, he describes the problem like this: " Some striking mile markers appear on the road through young adulthood: leaving for college, getting the first job and apartment, starting a career, getting married—and, for many people today, walking away from the Christian faith.”

Here are just some basic statistics that frame the issue. First, consider those who drop out of church. Thom S. Rainer and Sam S. Rainer III in their book Essential Church? state that a study of 18- to 30-year-old adults in America reveals that 70% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 22 drop out of the church. Second, there are the “Nones,” those who claim no religion. Dyke cites findings released in 2009 from the American Religious Identification Survey showing that the Nones comprise 22% of 18- to 29-year-olds, up from 11% in 1990. Seventy-three percent of Nones came from religious homes; 66% were described by the study as “de-converts.”

While there is some truth to the claim that young adults will end up coming back to the church, Dyck claims that the crisis of people leaving the faith has taken on new gravity because young adults today are dropping out at a pace that is “five to six times the historic rate.” There is also what he calls a “tectonic shift” that has occurred in the broader culture. Today’s young adults have been raised in a pluralistic, post-Christian world that leaves those who grew up in the church with a weakened faith.

Essential Church? discuss the top ten reasons that their research shows as to why church dropouts stopped attending church. They include the following: “simply wanted a break from church,” “church members seemed judgmental or hypocritical,” “moved to college and stopped attending church,” “work responsibilities prevented me from attending,” and “didn’t feel connected to the people in my church.”

The Rainer’s conclude that “Churchgoing students drop out of the church because it is not essential to their lives.” They frame the issue positively by asking, “Why do one-third of churchgoing young adult Americans stay in the church?” Their answer emerged from several years of research. “Young adults are likely to stay in the church if they see church as essential to their lives.” This conclusion grows out of their conviction and research showing that “most churches in America are doing little to become essential to the lives of their members.” This is especially true of young adults who see the church today as one option among many for their lives.

So, how do churches become essential to the lives of people? The Rainer’s suggest that the essential church has four major components that I can only summarize here:

(1) The essential church simplifies. This idea is discussed in Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger’s book Simple Church where they define a simple church as “a congregation designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth.” In other words, the church should be built around helping people grow spiritually.

(2) The essential church deepens people’s knowledge of God’s Word. Many churches are “dumbing down” biblical teaching in order to make the church “more attractive.” The Rainer’s research shows that the church instead needs to hold to firm biblical teaching.

(3) The essential church as high expectations of its members and attendees. Low expectations result in low commitment. The Rainer’s state, “The high-expectation church expects much and, thus, receives much from its members. As a result, the church exodus is minimized.”

(4) The essential church helps its members multiply spiritually. Believers need to be engaged by the church in evangelism, missions, ministry, and church planting.

This would be a good topic for your church to explore. Finding ways to attract and retain young adults by making the church essential to their lives will also make the church essential to people of all ages. That, after all, is what we should be seeking to accomplish anyway.

WHERE DO YOU FIT IN THE MISSION OF WESTWOOD CHRISTIAN CHURCH?

2011-03-04T06:44:00.001-08:00

In their book Simple Church, Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger define a simple church as “a congregation designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth.” They go on to suggest that the simple church has four major components:

Clarity — Our mission statement provides this clarity, describing what we are about as a congregation. Remember the four key words of our mission statement and find your place in that mission: winning, building, connecting, sending.
Movement — By living out Christ’s mission, we should be moving to become the people God wants to make us into.
Alignment — We should align everything we do in life and in the church with Christ’s purpose, and be united around that purpose.
Focus — We are called to abandon everything that falls outside of Christ’s purpose.

Let’s continue working to carry out the mission that God has given us.

Soulprint by Mark Batterson

2011-02-21T08:45:00.001-08:00

I was recently asked by Multnomah Press to review Mark Batterson’s latest book, Soulprint. Here is my review:

This was the fourth book by Mark Batterson that I have read. Like the others, I found it a worthwhile read, filled with thought-provoking ideas and worthwhile illustrations. He speaks to the reader's heart and soul and helps you understand your walk with God.

I appreciated how Batterson grounded the material of his book on the life of a Biblical character, in this case King David. As an expository preacher, I have a strong sense that we need to ground Christian teaching in the words of Scripture and in an understanding of the people that we find in Scripture.

For this reviewer, however, I found that the grounding of Batterson's book in Scripture is also its weakness. Except in a couple of places, Batterson does not adequately "exegete" the life of David. His look at David's life mostly has the sense of illustrating his thesis, instead of guiding his thesis.

I did find Batterson's transparency about his own life and ministry were helpful tools in illustrating and clarifying his ideas. He does not, in my view, let his life get in the way of what he is "teaching," but does show how he has wrestled with his concepts in his own life before preaching and writing the ideas.

In the end, I think there are some things that could strengthen the book, but overall found it to be helpful and thought-provoking.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Joseph–Living With Integrity and Forgiveness

2011-02-15T14:45:00.001-08:00

I spoke at Christian Workers’ Meeting at Southside Church of Christ in Milwaukee, WI on 2/15/2011 about Joseph. The following outline is an outline of my series of message on Joseph for those who attended the meeting.

If you would like Word documents of the sermons from the series, you can download the zip file that this link will take you to: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10269289/Joseph%20Sermons%20-%20Henes.zip.

LIVING WITH INTEGRITY AND FORGIVENESS

Genesis 37-50

A review of Joseph's life shows us how to live when when we face a variety of issues and circumstances in life.

I. LIVING WHEN YOU ARE HATED - Genesis 37

II. LIVING WHEN YOU ARE TEMPTED - Genesis 39:1-20

III. LIVING WHEN YOU ARE FORGOTTEN - Genesis 39:20-40:23

IV. LIVING WHEN YOU ARE REMEMBERED AND REWARDED - Genesis 41:1-57

V. LIVING WITH YOUR CONSCIENCE - Genesis 42:1-34

VI. LIVING WITH DIFFICULT DECISIONS - Genesis 42:35-43:15

VII. LIVING WITH GUILT -- AND EXPERIENCING GRACE - Genesis 43:15-34

VIII. LIVING A LIFE OF GRACE - Genesis 44:1-45:15

IX. LIVING AS A FAMILY - Genesis 45:16-46:30

X. WORKING WITH INTEGRITY - Genesis 46:31-47:31

XI. LIVING WITH INTEGRITY AND FORGIVENESS - Genesis 48:1-50:26

INTRODUCING PEOPLE TO THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

2011-02-08T08:55:00.001-08:00

Karl Vallentin, a Munich comedian, did a skit in which he walked on a stage where everything was dark except for a small area under a street lamp. He began to look for something on the ground. As he looked, a person playing a policeman came on stage and asked what he was doing. He told the policeman that he was trying to find a key, whereupon both of them continued the search. Finally the officer asked, "Are you sure you lost it here?" "Oh, no," said Vallentin as he pointed to a dark corner, "It was over there, but here is where the light is!"

That is the tragedy of many people’s lives. They are looking in the wrong place for help with their lives, and sometimes even in the church we have people who look for the light in the wrong place. For instance, we have a lot of teaching to do when Christians mix faith in Jesus with beliefs from other religions or when they distort the truth of the Gospel with claims that all religions are equal.

Then there are those who make no claims to follow Christ and are living in moral blindness. Certainly some of them have never heard of Christ in the way the Bible presents him to us. They have heard of the distortions of Christ that are talked about in our culture. Others reject Christ for any number of reasons.

With any of these people, we have to ask whether we are introducing people to the light of the world. Are we bringing people who wear the name Christian to an understanding of Jesus as the only light that brings hope to their lives? Are we sharing Christ with others as the only one that can answer the longings of their hearts?

I had these questions refocused for me recently as I studied John 9 which tells the story of Jesus healing a man born blind. The setting for the story actually begins in John 7 when Jesus goes to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish feasts. While at the feast, he makes the pronouncement in John 8:12 -- “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” He declares that the answer to the darkness in our lives, the only place to find those answers, is in him. Then he demonstrates the reality of this truth in John 9 by healing a man born blind.

The blind man has something of the same experience as Helen Keller who said once, “Gradually I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me and forgot that it had ever been different until she came—my teacher (Annie Sullivan)—who set my spirit free."

Jesus put mud on the eyes of the man, sent him to the Pool of Siloam, and told him to wash. When the man did so, he was able to see for the first time. Up until then, he had no doubt gotten used to the darkness. When people asked him how he could now see, all he could do was tell them what had happened to him. If we will point people to Jesus, they will have the same experience.

Just seeing the light, though, does not always end the matter when the light of the world – Jesus – enters a person’s life and changes him or her. There will be those who misunderstand. The Jewish leaders misunderstood this healing, carefully questioning the man twice about what had happened and questioning his parents in between. They sought to discredit Jesus, but all the man could say to them was, “I was blind but now I see…. If this man were not from God he could no nothing.” Then Jesus came to him again and offered him a choice – would he believe in Jesus, the light of the world, or not, and he chose to believe.

This is the clear choice we must present to people There will be plenty of people who will try to discredit a person whose life has been changed. There are plenty of people who will do whatever they can to discredit Jesus. We know the truth of the matter: people find light when they choose Christ. He makes all the difference in their lives. Our responsibility is to introduce them to the light of the world.

Following Jesus

2011-02-03T08:21:00.001-08:00

Among those people who had an encounter with Jesus in the Gospels were those we call the Twelve Apostles or just the Twelve. We have met some of those individuals in my current sermon series “You Can Meet Jesus.” However, it is worth paying attention to them as a group and how their individual encounters with Jesus affected them as a group and drove them to carry out the mission of Jesus.

A post this week on his Internet site by Mel Lawrenz, minister-at-large of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, WI, set me to thinking about this. He posted a column titled “Leadership — So What?” as an introduction to a year-long series of discussions by himself and others regarding spiritual leadership today. One comment about Lawrenz’s post and one sentence in the post itself particularly caught my attention in regard to how the Twelve encountered Christ.

First the comment: The comment said, “Spiritual leadership begins and ends with our ‘followership’. As leaders, we must first, and always, follow our Savior and Lord.” That is certainly what the Twelve did. They followed Christ first and sought to model him in how they served. In fact, the essence of Jesus’ “recruiting” them was to call them to follow him.

The term first appears in John 1:43 when Jesus said to Philip, “Follow me.” It appears again in Mark 1:16 when he encounters Simon and Andrew as they were fishing, and he said “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The phrase appears again in Matthew 9:9 when he called Matthew to follow him. In each case, when called, the Twelve followed Jesus.

We cannot avoid this call if we are going to be known as Christians. Jesus calls us to follow him before we lead or serve. We are to emulate his character and service by how we live.

If we are to follow Jesus, we should understand this comment by Lawrenz: “When we look at the first generation of Christian leaders, they definitely pursued the mission Jesus left them with power, authority, and truth.” That is, the first followers of Christ made it their priority to carry out the mission of Jesus. So, as their story progresses, the Gospels tell us how Jesus sent them out in pairs to minister as he did, and later he would send them out again as part of a group of seventy. Eventually, they would be the early leaders of the church.

Meeting Jesus, encountering Jesus as his early followers did, means we are to carry out his mission. As we continue meeting people in the Gospels for the next few weeks, but more importantly as you live your life, consider what you are doing to contribute to the mission of Jesus. Are you making it your priority to introduce people to Jesus? When you do that is when you really meet him.

Preaching and the Packers

2011-01-27T10:47:00.001-08:00

Mel Lawrenz served as senior pastor of The Elmbrook Church in Brookfield for ten years, succeeding well-known pastor Stuart Briscoe. Lawrenz now serves as minister at large with The Elmbrook Church and leads The Brook Network which is an exchange of leadership ideas sponsored by that church.

This week, after the Packers won the NFC Championship (you did hear about that, didn’t you?), Lawrenz wrote a column on The Brook Network titled “Preaching and the Packers.” He told how he would sometimes break into a series of sermons to bring a special message because of something extraordinary happening in his community or the world. He did so in 1997 on the Sunday the Packers played in their first of two Super Bowls in the 1990’s and preached a sermon he titled “How To Have a Super Life.”

He based his sermon on a section of Hebrews 12:22-34 – “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

I thought this basic summary of that sermon is worth considering as we prepare for this year’s Super Bowl, because having a “super life” with Christ far surpasses even the Packers playing in – and hopefully winning – the Super Bowl.

1. Belong to “the city of the living God.” There are Packer fans everywhere, but that does not compare with enjoying life as part of the children of God around the world.

2. Join with the “thousands of angels in joyful assembly.” A stadium full of cheering fans is exciting, but that does not compare with thousands of angels cheering for joy as they witness God’s great act of salvation; they cheer just by seeing us respond to God in faith.

3. Experience “the church of the firstborn whose names written in heaven.” Championships go down in the record books, but when we belong to Christ our names are recorded in the Book of Life for eternity.

4. Join with “the spirits of righteous men made perfect.” We admire people who strive for excellence, like talented athletes or anybody in any calling; but in Christ we are joined with the spirits of believers of past generations, heros of faith whose only claim to fame is that they knew enough to throw themselves on the mercy of God and were thus “made perfect.”

5. Get to know “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.” Star quarterbacks are wonderful to watch; but the certainty that we have to live a super life is that we have come to the head of all creation, Jesus. On the cross he looked like he was utterly defeated, but in that act of sacrifice he became the mediator of a new relationship between us and the living God.

Remember that in real life there are no scoreboards; you don’t know how many minutes remain in the game; and you don’t know when “the game” is up for you. In real life–in God’s world–sometimes what looks like defeat is victory and sometimes real losers look like they’ve won the game. The Super Bowl is great fun – especially when the Packers win it. But what is greater yet is to live a super life because of Christ. That’s something to cheer about.

Westwood Message–1/20/2011

2011-01-20T10:04:00.001-08:00

The Million Pound Challenge

Hopefully you are aware, from last week’s Westwood Message, of the Million Pound Challenge, which is sponsored by The Princeton Club. It helps out the food pantries of Southern Wisconsin.

Last week, I included the following information about the Million Pound Challenger: Between now and May 31, for every pound of weight you lose, The Princeton Club and other corporate sponsors will purchase 10 pounds of food for the Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin – up to 1 million pounds of food. You can even select which local food pantry will receive your food – which means you can select Westwood’s Food Pantry.

There is also another way that you can support our Food Pantry through the Challenge: If you don’t need to lose weight, but would like to exercise, you can also participate. For every hour that you exercise, 10 pounds of food will be donated. You do not need to exercise at the Princeton Club, but can do so wherever you choose. You just need to report your exercise time on the web site. Everything is all done on the honor system. If you already exercise, this would be a great way to put your exercise to another use.

If interested in participating, you can sign up at www.princetonclub.net/mpc. You can also make financial contributions at the web site.

It Will Cost You to Meet Jesus

Jesus did not meet people just so he would know them and they would know him. Every time Jesus met a person, there was a purpose behind it. With that purpose, comes a cost. Jesus was not shy about discussing the cost of following him with those he encountered. The cost is the same for us as it was for the people Jesus met during this three-year ministry.

Jesus discusses the cost of meeting and following him in multiple places in the Gospels. One of those places is Matthew 8:18-22. The passage is the story of two would-be followers of Christ.

1. The first of the two immediately promises Jesus he will follow him anywhere, only to have Jesus explain to him the cost of following him. He was too quick to promise.

2. The second person told Jesus he needed to first go home to bury his father. Jesus told him he could not put off following him. He was too slow to perform.

The story of these two men appears in Matthew’s Gospel in a place you would not expect it. It comes in the middle of a section documenting the authority of Jesus over various kinds of sickness, nature, and demons. Matthew wants to show us that the same Jesus, who has authority over sickness, nature, and demons, also has authority over the lives of his disciples. Jesus determines what following him will involve, not us. Therefore, if you are going to follow Jesus, it must be on his terms rather than your own.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the failure to follow Jesus on his terms “cheap grace.” He said, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate.”

The contrast is “costly grace.” He said, “Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price, to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. ...Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.”

When Jesus meets us, he makes radical demands on our lives, places us under his unique authority, and establishes for us the priorities of true discipleship. As we continue to examine the lives of people who met Jesus and meet him again for ourselves, I hope we will also rediscover the cost of following Jesus.

Westwood Message–1/13/2011

2011-01-17T06:13:00.001-08:00

January Is Sanctity of Human Life Month

All of January is Sanctity of Human Life Month, and Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is normally celebrated on the Sunday in January that falls closest to the day on which the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions were handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 1973. We will acknowledge the importance of life on January 23 by providing you with information about CareNet Pregnancy Center through a brochure in our bulletin and a video in our worship service.

One of the people involved with CareNet wrote the following thought. It is titled “The Next Step.”

We have all heard the story of the man who turned a deaf ear to the radio warnings to leave his home due bad weather, refused help from a boat and helicopter and then asked God why he didn’t save him when he got to heaven. And God replies, “I sent you a warning to get out and a helicopter and a boat; what more did you want?”

How often do we want to know the plan, see the expected results, be sure of the investment, but then like the man in the story, lack the faith to actually take the next step.

The next step is something Jesus recommended a very long time ago. “Come and you will see.” “Follow me.” These were the words Jesus spoke to the disciples as He called them. He didn’t sit them down and reveal what the next three years would hold. He knew they would be overwhelmed, possibly enough to turn around. He chose to keep it simple. “Follow me” was all He said. Take the next step…

By taking the next step the disciples experienced the wonder and amazement of seeing God at work before them. For me, joining the Care Net team was a similar experience. By taking the next step I have seen lives saved, hearts changed and been in awe of the work God does every day at Care Net,--all in three short months. I can’t begin to imagine what miracles I’ll be privileged to witness in the years to come just because I took the next step and responded to a church bulletin announcement. I wasn’t sure I didn’t know what the results would be. But I sent in the application anyway.

Don’t miss out on the glory God has to show you. Trust the signs He sends you and take the next step.

The Million Pound Challenge

Again this year, The Princeton Club is sponsoring the Million Pound Challenge to help out the food pantries of Southern Wisconsin. Between now and May 31, for every pound of weight you lose, The Princeton Club and other corporate sponsors will purchase 10 pounds of food for the Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin – up to 1 million pounds of food. You can even select which local food pantry will receive your food – which means you can select Westwood’s Food Pantry.

If interested in participating, you can sign up at www.princetonclub.net/mpc. You can also make financial contributions at the web site.

Believing the Right Things

As we examine some of the people who encountered Jesus in the Gospels over the next couple of months, there will, of course, be people who met Jesus that we will not meet. One of them is a man in John 5 who had been an invalid for thirty-eigh years. He met Jesus in Jerusalem at the Pool of Bethesda.

There was a legend about this pool that appears in some later manuscripts of John’s Gospel. The verses are likely not a part of John’s original Gospel, but they accurately describe the probable belief of the people of Jesus’ day about the pool. That belief was that an angel of the Lord would periodically come down and stir kup the waters. The first one into the pool after such a disturbance would be healed of whatever disease he or she had.

Actually the pool rippled periodically because of a subterranean spring, but the man who Jesus met in John 5 believed the legend. He told Jesus he had not been healed because there was no one to help him into the water when it was stirred. Thus someone always got in the water ahead of him.

All that changed on the day he met Jesus. Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walked.” The man was instantly cured. HJe picked up his mat and walked.

There are many teachings and legends that people believe in today. You can find a book or article on a wide variety of belief systems. We are told in any variety of ways to belief in ourselves, to belief in one another, to come together for the common good, and on and on it goes. While we are encouraged in these false belief systems, we are old that God can nothing for people, that he is only a crutch, that he should be left out of our daily experience.

The invalid in John 5 would find out that only Jesus could heal him; the legend he had accepted for so long was false. We need to learn his lesson. Only Jesus can can heal us. We gain eternal life only through him, not through any good that we do. We need to believe in the right things – that is we need to believe in the one and only Son of God – and encourage others to believe in him too.

WHAT KIND OF DISCIPLES ARE IN YOUR CHURCH?

2011-01-11T11:20:00.001-08:00

I recently read Real-Time Connections by Bob Roberts, Jr., founding pastor of NorthWood Church in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area who is deeply involved in church planting and development around the world. In a chapter he titles “Living as a Disciple,” Roberts asks the question, “What is a disciple?’ and goes on to discuss several characteristics of a disciple that he draws out of his reading of Luke and Acts. His thinking about the subject is a worthwhile read.

Soon after reading Roberts book, I read Essential Church by Thom S. Rainer and Sam S. Rainer III. This father and son team are both engaged in ministry and church development and consulting. Their book is an examination of how the church can reclaim a generation of young adult dropouts. One important piece of their study is a reflection on Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger’s earlier work on “The Simple Church.” Their simple church philosophy explores how to design the church “around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth.” They are concerned about a straightforward process for making disciples. This book too is a worthwhile read for church leaders, and I will likely be back to it in a future column.

As I read these two books, however, I also was engaged in a study of John 1, at the end of which Jesus calls his first disciples. Jesus would later call his disciples to be fishers of men, but on the first occasion of at least five of his disciples meeting him, we get an indication of what Jesus does for us when he calls us to be his disciples. Understanding what Jesus does for us helps us know what kind of disciples we should be making in the church. Is your congregation comprised of the kind of disciples that Jesus wants us to make? What kind of disciples are in your church? Here are three ideas of what Jesus does for us when he calls us:

(1) Jesus Takes Us. In John 1:35-36, John the Baptist is with two of his disciples when he saw Jesus passing by and said to the two disciples, “Look the Lamb of God.” The two disciples followed Jesus. When he turned around, Jesus asked them, “What do you want?” They were just interested in going with him, so they said, “Rabbi, where are you staying.” Jesus replied, “Come and you will see.” In other words, he took them with him. They stayed with him and learned from him. Jesus will take us with him, so we can learn from him. Does your church have disciples who are spending time with Jesus? Are you encouraging people in your church to spend time with Jesus? My life and ministry has been marked along the way by people who took me with them; three men in particular come to mind. They had more knowledge and experience than I did, and by being with them, I learned ministry. Think of what people in our churches will learn from Jesus if we encourage and teach them to let Jesus take them with him.

(2) Jesus Names Us. Andrew is the first one of Jesus’ new disciples who is mentioned by name in John 1. He went and told his brother Simon that they had found the Messiah. When Simon meets Jesus, he is given a new name – Cephas or Peter, the name we primarily know him by today. When we follow Christ, he gives every one of us a new name – his name. We are known as Christians, followers of Jesus. So let me ask you: Do the people in your church wear the name of Jesus proudly? Do you teach them to do so as disciples of Christ? Do they bring others to Jesus, as Andrew did, telling them they have found the one can give them eternal life?

(3) Jesus Calls Us. In John 1:43-51, we read about Jesus’ call for Philip and Nathanael to follow him. Nathanael’s calling is particularly interesting because when Nathanael questions how Jesus knows him, Jesus indicates that he saw him sitting under a fig tree. Jesus is telling Nathanael that he knows everything about him. Jesus knows everything about us, and yet he calls us to follow him. Jesus calls everyone in your congregation to give their all to him. How well are you teaching people in your church what Jesus expects of them?

So what kind of disciples are in your church? Is your church challenging people to really be disciples of Jesus?

You Can Meet Jesus

2011-01-04T20:11:00.001-08:00

Their stories are as interesting as they are diverse. Some of them are well-known stories, and the characters are very familiar. Others are vaguely familiar, but we do not remember the details of their lives nearly as well. All of them are the true stories of people who had encounters with Jesus in the Gospels.

The people who met Jesus during the course of his three-year ministry were themselves as diverse as can be. Some were religious leaders — some of whom were righteous leaders trying their best to serve God, while others were religious in name only. Jesus, rightly so, was often very critical of this latter group. Most of the people who met Jesus were ordinary people who desperately needed God in their lives. Some of these were searching for God; others were not. Some of those who met Jesus wanted nothing to do with him; others became his most committed followers.

I hope you will take the time to meet some of these people in the next three months through the series of sermons I will begin preaching on January 2. After all, those people of first century Israel were very much like we are. We need to meet Jesus in the way they did and learn to walk with him, and their experiences can show us how to do so.

Here are the people we will meet:

· Four of the first six disciples of Jesus: Andrew, Simon (who would be renamed Peter), Philip, and Nathanael.

· Nicodemus, who met Jesus at night early in his ministry, and helps us see how Jesus can change us.

· A woman we just know as the Woman at the Well, but whose story helps us know how Jesus can refresh our lives.

· Matthew, the tax collector, who became one of the apostles and who shows us how Jesus can call us even though we are sinners.

· Another man whose name we do not know; we just know him as the Man Born Blind. He helps us learn how Jesus can open our eyes.

· We will learn about forgiveness from a sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume.

· The story of Mary and Martha will show us how the Lord can capture our hearts when distractions get in the way.

· In the home of a prominent Pharisee, Jesus met a diseased man and teaches us how to accept everyone.

There are others that we will meet. They teach us some of the great lessons of life because they had encounters with Jesus. They will help us deepen our walk with Jesus. Come and meet them; you will be glad you did.

GOD’S APPEARANCE BRINGS US LIGHT

2010-12-06T14:40:00.001-08:00

I began my ministry in the 1970’s in youth ministry, and often took youth groups on trips to various conferences and events. On one such trip, we stopped in Missouri at Meramec Caverns and took a tour of the caverns. At the very deepest part of the caverns (at least that is the way I remember it), the guide turned out the lights. If you have ever had such an experience, you know that there is nothing as dark as a being in a cave with no lights. It can be unnerving.

One of the adult leaders of our group decided to have some fun with the experience and began to laugh – out loud. Soon some in our group were laughing along with him. The tour guide was not too happy with this turn of events and threatened to end the tour. Even though we were trying to be funny, I think we were all relieved when the lights were turned back on. You don’t want to be left in a cave with the lights off.

As we come into another Christmas season, we would do well to remind ourselves of what John’s Gospel teaches us about Jesus’ incarnation – his coming into the world. He tells us that Jesus is the light of men. In John 1:5, he says, “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” Allow me in my column this month to meditate with you on this idea.

We live in a dark world. In many ways, the world is far darker than the darkest cave. Jesus comes into that darkness to give us the light we need to make it through life. You can face any number of dark circumstances in life, from family difficulties or dysfunction to financial difficulties to misunderstandings with a co-worker or boss or person who works for you to any of the great challenges of life. It makes no difference what it is; Jesus comes to shed light that will enable us to handle our circumstances.

Jesus brings us that light because of who he is. This is the great theme of the opening of John’s Gospel. John’s Gospel shows us the real greatness of the baby born in Bethlehem. John does not tell us the story of Mary and Joseph the way Matthew and Luke do. He tells us who the child in the manger is. That child can bring light into the darkness because of who he is. So, who is he? Here is some of what John tells us:

(1) He is the Word of God. People have constantly wondered whether God speaks to us. Ingmar Bergman, about fifty years ago, produced a movie titled The Silence that spoke to this issue. It portrays the plight of three characters who do not hear the voice of God and who believe that God is silent. John says about Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word…” John states this as a continuing action, not as a past tense like we read it in English, and he intends it to mean that Jesus was born to speak God’s words to us. Through a baby born in Bethlehem, God was speaking to our world.

(2) He is God. Surveys show that although the vast majority of Americans believe in God, they are confused about the nature of God. John shows us that we can understand the nature of God by knowing Jesus. He uses two complementary phrases to state this: ^“the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In the first phrase, the idea is that Jesus is continually face to face with God. The second phrase directly states that the baby born in the manger is in his very essence God, just as he was human. It wasn’t just a baby sleeping in that manger – it was God. So if you want to know what God is like, if you want to teach people what God is like, show them Jesus.

(3) He is the Creator who gives us Life. The New Testament is clear that Jesus was present with God the Father in creating the world. He made it all so that we would have life (look at John 1:3-4). He gives us not just physical life, but a spiritual life with him – later in John’s Gospel, Jesus calls it abundant life – that leads to eternal life.

So meditate hard this Christmas season on who Jesus is, and show people the way to him. Someone wrote these lines about the light that comes into the world with the birth of Christ:

More light than we can learn,
More wealth than we can treasure,
More love than we can earn,
More peace than we can measure,
Because one Child is born.

Witnesses for Christ From Uganda

2010-12-02T09:25:00.001-08:00

Last Sunday, I referred to an incident in Northern Uganda, a place Richard Stearns calls “the darkest place on the planet” that he has visited. Here is an abbreviated account of what he experienced there:

One day, Margaret, six months pregnant, was gardening with her friends. A group of boy soldiers – led by an adult commander – attacked Margaret’s friends and hacked them to death with machetes. The commander noticed Margaret was pregnant, so he chose not to kill her because he thought it would bring bad luck. Instead he told the boy soldiers to cut off her nose, ears, and lips, which they did.

Remarkably, she survived, and three months later gave birth to her son James. Margaret and James were brought to World Vision’s Child of War Center, where she received counseling and support to deal with her trauma and disfigurement.

Months after her son’s birth, Margaret saw the commander who ordered her mutilation come to the same rehabilitation center. Margaret was afraid for her life and also wanted to kill him. World Vision staff worked with this man to get him to confess to what he did. They also worked with Margaret to help her anxiety and explore the possibility of forgiveness. Weeks later the man asked Margaret to forgive him, and Margaret reached deeply to the source of all forgiveness – Jesus – and forgave.

This week I read about a group of children in Uganda who are shining into dark places and providing a witness for Christ. Chuck Colson tells about it:

“The children are members of the Mwamba Children's Choir of Uganda. Tragically, AIDS has taken the life of one or both of their parents. They grew up in an orphanage begun in 1998 by a Ugandan pastor. This pastor felt called to do something about the number of children being orphaned by the AIDS epidemic.

“Sadly, the pastor died a few years ago, putting the future of the orphanage in jeopardy. His son, Daniel Mugerwa, and Daniel's younger brother, were scarcely out of high school; they had no idea how they could keep the orphanage going. But as Daniel told my colleague Stephen Reed, a family friend who attended his father's funeral heard the orphans singing a tribute to their late founder.

"’If you can get more people to hear these children's voices,’ the friend said, ’that could help save the orphanage.’

“So that's what Daniel did. As Stephen Reed writes in the HuntingtonNews.net, the brightly-dressed children sing ‘with a sound and a beat that grabs the audience.’ The choreography comes directly out of Ugandan culture. In a song titled ‘You Are Everything,’ the children sing:

"’You are everything to me/ My soul rejoices in you/ Your goodness, mercy and joy / All the world's so in love with you!’

“The song expresses their joy for God's mercy in their lives: Mercy in the form of loving adults to care for them now that their own parents are gone. Unlike many American children's choirs, these kids don't have to be reminded to smile as they sing: Their faces and bodies are bursting with joy.

“Their music is indeed helping keep the orphanage open. The choir is currently touring the United States. They have made two CDs of their songs, and are about to release a third.”

These “children of Uganda have so much less” than we do “and they've endured great loss-and yet their lives are a musical praise to God for His blessings.”

Where there is darkness, where the holes in our world are deep, the love of Christ can still shine bright and often does. I hope the story of Mwamba Children’s Choir will encourage you to let your love for Christ shine bright in this Christmas season.

God Appears In Our World

2010-12-01T11:44:00.001-08:00

I grew up loving Christmas and have never grown tired of it.

For most of my adult life, either we have traveled to be with family for Christmas or they have traveled to be with us. This year it will be no different. We will have family in our home this year for all but two days from December 14 through January 3.

While growing up, it wasn’t that way. We were always home at Christmas. We could not travel at Christmas, and our extended family lived away from us. So Christmas every year was celebrated with our immediate family: Mom and Dad, my two sisters and one brother, and my grandmother (Dad’s mother who lived with us in the winter). We opened presents around the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and then awoke early on Christmas morning to check out our gifts from Santa Claus — often gifts that were too big to be easily wrapped.

After opening presents on Christmas Eve, though, we sat around the living room as Dad took Mom’s well-worn King James Version Bible and read us the Christmas story from Luke 2. That became the highlight of Christmas for me. I don’t know if Luke’s account of the birth of Christ is my favorite story in the Bible, but it certainly ranks right up there.

I don’t remember the gifts I opened through those years, but I remember “The Gift of Christmas.” The gift God gave to the world is still the most important part of Christmas for me. I hope it is for you too.

This year I want to help you understand “Christmas According to John.” He doesn’t tell us the stories of Christmas as Matthew and Luke do, but he tells us the meaning of Christmas. It can be summed up in the phrase I will use as a theme for my December messages: “God Appears in Our World.”

John calls Jesus the Word. He says in John 1:1 that from the very beginning “the Word was with God and the Word was God.” This One who came into our world, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas is God himself coming to live among us.

John makes this clear in John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Make Christmas special this year. Let’s find out together how God made his appearance among us. John says about Christ: “In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4). And he says so much more. You want to know that kind of person — and you can.

So, enjoy Christmas this year. I hope you enjoy everything about it, that you will meet the God who appears in our world, and that you will never grow tired of him.

Westwood Message–11/18/2010

2010-11-18T17:17:00.001-08:00

Thank You’s

Thanks to everyone who helped with preparations, cooking, cleanup, and all the other details for the Harvest Dinner last Sunday evening, November 24. We had a number of guests, and everyone had an enjoyable evening. Thanks for all your hard work.

Christine and I would like to thank all of you who blessed us with cards and gifts for Pastor Appreciation Month in October. We are glad to be ministering with you and look forward to how God continues to work through Westwood’s ministry.

WCC’s 2010 Kids Christmas Play
“Toooooooooo Busy”!!!Sunday, December 19, 9:30 am Worship Service

Westwood’s children have begun practicing for the 2010 Kids Christmas Play which will be performed during our December 19 worship service. Between now and then, our elementary and middle school children will meet downstairs for the entire worship service each Sunday for a class and play practice.

Christmas Decorating Set for December 3 & 4

Christine Henes will supervise “Hanging of the Greens” at the church on December 3 and 4 starting at 9 am. She needs Middle and High School youth, and men and women to assist in a variety of ways:

1. Set up of 2 long tables on the platform on Friday am and removed and put away Saturday afternoon, the 4th.

2. Individuals to donate fresh cut cedar, pine greens and red twig dogwood branches. I would like to have at least 2 yard bags full of evergreens Please have these bagged and at the church on Friday, December 3.

3. An individual to donate enough premade fresh evergreen roping to go around the double entry doors. Please deliver Friday December 3 am or Saturday December 4th am.

4. An individual to donate white outdoor lights to generously wrap the cross outside on Segoe Road.

5. An individual to wrap the Segoe Road cross in white lights on Friday December 3, remove and store them after January 6.

6. Helpers who will climb a ladder, fluff greens, and bows, assist in making arrangements, iron, pound nails, etc.

7. Helpers please bring scissors, pruners, wire cutters, iron, ironing board, glue guns, finishing nails, hammer.

8. Bring a sack lunch.

9. Work days will be January 7 and 8 to remove and store Christmas decorations.

Roger Wisegarver is Making Progress In His Recovery

Roger Wisergarver continues to make progress in his recovering from Guillen Barre syndrome. Last week Brenda shared the photo below of Roger in his new wheelchair and of them the two of them with their new wheelchair accessible van. Both the wheelchair and van were purchased with the benefit for Roger, for which we took a special offering.

Brenda also sent us this thank you note:

Your continued prayer and generosity are appreciated by us so much!! You all have been a God send.

We will come visit soon.

Our Love,

Roger & Brenda Wisegarver

Upcoming Westwood Events

November 21 11:00 AM – Budget Presentation to the congregation
                      4:00 PM – Singing at Clare Bridge
December 5 11:00 AM – Westwood’s Annual Meeting
                   12:00 Noon – Keenager’s Potluck
December 11 9:00 AM – Christmas for Kids
December 19 9:30 AM – Children’s Christmas Program
December 24 5:00 PM – Christmas Eve Service
December 26 12:00 Noon – Potluck for Chardel
                                  Johnston’s Fortieth Anniversary

FINDING THE HOLE IN OUR GOSPEL

2010-11-09T16:09:00.001-08:00

A study listed the top ten things people forget when they travel. The items listed include tickets, passport, extra socks, cash, medication, a toothbrush, and others. Have you ever forgotten anything when you travel? I suspect most people who travel can tell a story about going on a business trip, camping trip, or vacation and forgetting to pack something pretty important.

This month, I would like for you to consider whether you are forgetting something in the Gospel, and to consider pursuing a discussion on the subject with your congregation. Have you ever felt like there is something missing in your walk with Christ? This is the issue Richard Stearns develops in his very worthwhile book The Hole In Our Gospel. He explores the question “What does God expect of me?” He says this in the book’s introduction:

“The question, ‘What does God expect of me?’ is a very profound one – not just for me, but for everyone who claims to follow Christ. Jesus had a lot to say about it. Yes, He did give us deep insights into the character of God and our relationship with Him as well, but He also spoke at length about God’s expectations, our values, and how we are to live in the world. So how are we to live? What kind of relationship are we to have with a holy God? What is God asking for, really, from you and me? Much more than church attendance. More than prayer too. More than belief, and even more than self-denial. God asks us for everything. He requires a total life commitment from those who would be His followers. In fact, Christ calls us to be His partners in changing our world, just as He called the Twelve to change their world two thousand years ago.”

I discussed Stearns’ book in my September 2009 column. Since, then, a new resource has been published to enable congregations to have their own discussion of the themes of his book. Besides the book, you can use videos in which Stearns discusses his ideas, a small group study guide, sermon ideas for a six-week series, and other resources. You can access some of the material and order items in quantity at www.sixweekquest.com.

This is not the first time a writer has suggested we might be missing something of what God expects of us. Seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Micah wrote that the people of his day were missing something vital to the heart of God, and God made it clear what he expects. Micah 6:8 says, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Jesus also saw a hole in the faith of the religious leaders of his day. In Matthew 23:23, he said, “’Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.’”

Stearns’ ideas grow out of Jesus’ mission statement for his ministry as found in Luke 4 when he reads from Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth. There are three realms of life that the W.H.O.L.E. Gospel covers as seen in Jesus’ quotation from Isaiah 61. Jesus said he came to fulfill them and intends for us to find all three in how we live out the Gospel.

(1) The whole Gospel covers the spiritual – Jesus came to “preach good news to the poor.” We need to proclaim the Gospel to the spiritually poor, while not forgetting our own spiritual poverty. This is perhaps the easiest aspect of our mission to recognize.

(2) The whole Gospel covers the physical – Jesus came to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind. Another word for the Gospel is this sense is mercy. We are to be merciful to everyone who is hurting in life. We dare not forget this aspect of the Gospel.

(3) The whole Gospel covers the social – Jesus came to release the oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. This aspect of the Gospel calls for justice. The church must always work for the justice of oppressed peoples.

Consider digging into Stearns’ book and take the Six Week Quest with your congregation. Take a look with your friends at the make-up of the W-H-O-L-E Gospel.

Westwood Message–11/4/2010

2010-11-04T18:40:00.001-07:00

Harvest Dinner is November 14 at 5:30 PM

Our annual Harvest Dinner will take place on November 14 at 5:30 PM. Plan to come and bring family and/or friends. You can sign up to come and eat, bring a pie, help set up, or help clean up and put things away. Sign up on Sunday or contact Chardel at the church office. Invite your family and friends to come and eat with you. We have invited the campus ministry family at Koinonia House with Wisconsin Christian Campus Ministries. The main meal will be provided. Plan for a great evening together.

WCC’s 2010 Kids Christmas Play

“Toooooooooo Busy”!!!

Sunday, December 19, 9:30 am Worship Service

Practice will begin on Sunday, November 14, 2010. Grade School and Middle School kids will meet downstairs during the entire worship service through Sunday, December 12. They will have a short lesson and then play practice following until the end of the service.

Practices will go through Sunday, Dec. 12. Parents, please send your children downstairs when you arrive for church each Sunday for these five Sundays. We will have only 5 weeks to put this together, so it’s IMPORTANT that the kids are at church for practices.

Sandy Polcyn and Kris Wales will be directing the play for the kids this year. If you have any questions, please ask Sandy.

We’re looking forward to working with the kids for Christ through Drama!

Sandy and Kris

New Roof for White Oaks Lodge at Rock River Christian Camp

Rock River Christian Camp needs volunteers to help tear off the old roof and to put a new roof on the White Oaks Lodge during the next two-three weeks. Please call (815-493-6622) or e-mail (office@rockrivercc.net) Leslie at the camp office to let them know if you are able to go and help. The roof may not survive the winter, so this project needs to be done before the cold winter weather sets in. The camp staff is willing to feed you if you are there over mealtimes.

Upcoming Westwood Events

November 13 - 7:30 AM – Men’s Breakfast
November 13 - 9:00 AM – Women’s Mug ‘n’ Muffin Fellowship, Church Office
November 14 - 5:30 PM – Westwood’s Annual Harvest Dinner
November 19 - 6:30 PM – S.E.R.I.O.U.S. Women
November 21 - 10:45 AM – Budget Presentation to the congregation
November 21 - 4:00 PM – Singing at Clare Bridge
December 4 - 10:45 AM – Westwood’s Annual Meeting
December 4 - 12:00 Noon – Keenager’s Potluck
December 11 - 9:00 AM – Christmas for Kids
December 19 - 9:30 AM – Children’s Christmas Program
December 24 - 5:00 PM – Christmas Eve Service
December 26 - 12:00 Noon – Potluck for Dick & Chardel Johnston’s Fortieth Anniversary

MAKE CARING PERSONAL

2010-11-03T14:01:00.001-07:00

In his book The Hole In Our Gospel, Richard Stearns tells about a simple behavioral experiment conducted in 2006 by three researchers:

A test group of ordinary people was divided into three subgroups. The first read the story and saw a photo of a poor, starving seven-year-old African girl named Rokia. The second group was given a statistical portrait of seventeen million Africans in four countries who were desperately hungry because of crop failures and food shortages. They were told about yet another four million who were homeless. In other words, group two read about hunger and suffering on a massive scale. The third group was given the story about the little girl Rokia but was also given the statistical information given to group two. Finally, participants in all three groups were asked to donate money to relieve the suffering. Amazingly, the group that heard only Rokia’s story gave the most money. The group that was given the statistics about twenty-one million suffering people gave the least, and the group that received both pieces of information was only slightly more generous than the statistics-only group. The story of one child was more compelling than the suffering of millions.

People will depersonalize a large group of people and thus respond to them with far less compassion than they will when a person’s life circumstances become personal to them. When we realize this, we can better understand some of the appalling realities of our world and how the unthinkable becomes possible. Does this allow, for instance, for the Holocaust and the Rwanda genocide? Might this explain slavery — and how Christian people tolerated and defended it for so long?

As Christians we need to see beyond the mass scale of such tragedies and personalize such things as poverty by understanding that the lives of people are affected — not just large numbers of nameless people.

This is how Jesus saw people. Matthew 9:36 says, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

So, as we discover “The Hole In Our Gospel” through the current sermon series, I encourage you to make poverty and disease and helplessness personal. Many of you are doing so by helping with our food pantry or ministering to “the least of these” in other ways. Get to know someone who is hungry, thirsty, a stranger, in need of clothes, sick, or in prison and care for them. God has rescued us from the helplessness of sin and calls us to care for people who need to be rescued. Make caring personal.

Westwood Message–10/28/2010

2010-10-28T09:49:00.001-07:00

Clip More! Earn More! Box Tops for Education Support Mountain Mission School

DID YOU KNOW… that Westwood collects Campbell Soup labels and Box Tops For Education for Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Virginia? There are collection boxes in the foyer for the labels and box tops. Labels and box tops have helped purchase many items for the Mission School. $1504.00 has been earned toward educational items with Box Tops so far in 2010.

Mountain Mission School reclaims the lives of seriously disadvantaged children. Since 1921, Mountain Mission School has cared for children born in nearly every state, the District of Columbia and many foreign countries around the globe. Sam Hurley, the founder of Mountain Mission School was himself an orphan in Appalachia, and many children with roots in Appalachia are served by the school.

Westwood has connections with the school: Ken and Christine Henes traveled to the World Convention of Christian Churches/Churches of Christ with the Mountain Mission Choir in 2004. The students were a blessing, demonstrating Christ’s love where ever we went. Marion and Marilyn Greaser’s son, Scott, served at the Mountain Mission School for a time.

Please save your labels and box tops to help support this important work. For further information on the school check their website at http://www.mountainmissionschool.org. Should you have questions about the project, see Marcia Larson or Christine Henes.

Harvest Dinner Is November 14

Our annual Harvest Dinner will take place on November 14 at 5:30 PM. Plan to come and bring a friend. You can sign up to come and eat, bring a pie, help set up, or help clean up and put things away. Sign up on Sunday or contact Chardel at the church office. Invited your family and friends to come and eat with you. The main meal will be provided. Plan for a great evening together.

Daylight Savings Time Ends On November 7 At 2:00 AM

Late afternoon – early evening darkness is coming to Madison beginning November 7. Don’t miss it. All you have to do to experience this annual phenomenon is to turn your clocks back one hour before going to bed on Saturday evening, November 6. Then you will find darkness settling in one hour earlier the next day. It is all the result of daylight savings time ending for 2010.

Vote Next Tuesday, November 2

As you probably know from the many political ads that have been on TV and radio, next Tuesday, November 2, is election day in America. I just want to encourage you to vote. Elections have consequences for national and state policies, so be sure that your vote is counted.

New Information Available on Westwood’s Web Site

The Caller, our monthly newsletter, and these Westwood Messages are now available on our web site, so you can go there at any time time to check them out or send other people to the website who ask you about the congregation. They are on the Publications page. Recordings of the most recent sermons are also now available for download or for listening to online. God to the Sermon Recordings page.

There are also some documents on the same page that you can download to read about what we believe and teach. All of those documents can be printed to read for yourself or to share with others. Find out more about baptism, the Lord’s Supper, what kind of church we are, and other information.

Westwood Message–October 21, 2010

2010-10-20T19:55:00.001-07:00

Great Communion – Great Day

We had a good crowd and spirited worship service for Great Communion 2 last Sunday at Mandrake Road Church of Christ. Here is some of what took place:

Four singers from the gathered churches led an a capella worship service with everyone in full voice as they worshiped the Lord.

We took an offering toward this year’s CROP Hunger Walk which took place on Sunday in Madison. The offering totaled $763.00.

The preachers from the four churches, Roy Ratcliff from Mandrake Road Church of Christ, Lance Hawley from Emmaus Christian Fellowship, Bob Lawrence from Community Christian Church, and I shared a message from Ephesians 4 on “The Nature of a Unified Church.” We discussed (1) the church’s calling; (2) the church’s unity; (3) the church’s ministry; and (4) the church matures.
We concluded the service with communion, following a thoughtful meditation by Keith Schoville on the importance of gathering weekly and taking the Lord’s Supper.

Everyone enjoyed the rich fellowship and worship in a full building. I can think of no more appropriate way for us to gather as sister churches than for us to discuss the theme of the unity that we all share in Christ. How should that unity cause us to live for Christ? It was good to think together about that.

I can also think of no more appropriate way to demonstrate that unity than to share together in taking communion. We remember the Lord’s death, of course, when we take communion, and it is his death that binds us together as brothers and sisters in his name. What an encouragement it is to know that other believers in our city are united with us in Christ.

New Sermon Series, “The Hole In Our Gospel,” Begins October 24

On Sunday, we will begin a Six Week Quest as I begin a sermon series, “The Hole in Our Gospel.” Through the series I will develop themes from Scripture that Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, develops in his book The Hole In Our Gospel.

A few years ago, Stearns found a “hole” in his Gospel as he struggled with a decision to leave his position as CEO of Lenox, the fine china company, to become president of World Vision, a ministry to the poorest of the poor in our world. He found that there was something lacking in how he was living out his Christian life. He identified the “hole” in his Gospel and sought to begin living out the WHOLE Gospel. We will explore that theme from the Scriptures for the next six weeks.

Harvest Dinner Is November 14

Our annual Harvest Dinner will take place on November 14 at 5:30 PM. Plan to come and bring a friend. Beginning Sunday, you can sign up to come and eat, bring a pie, help set up, or help clean up and put things away. The main meal will be provided. Plan for a great evening together.

A Rescue That Captured the World’s Attention

Last Sunday, at the end of the message we delivered at Great Communion 2, I spoke briefly about last week’s rescue of the miners in Chile. One billion people around the world, including me, watched on television and the Internet as the 33 miners were rescued from the mine where they had been trapped for 69 days. Those miners went to work on the day this drama began, as they had many days before, with no thought that the mine would collapse that day and they would have no communication with the outside world for 17 days.

Over the course of two months, their rescuers worked diligently first to drill a shaft down to the miners in order to establish communication with them. Then they painstakingly drilled a larger shaft that a capsule large enough for a single man to fit in. One-by-one they brought each man to the surface. Family and friends would greet each one as he emerged from the capsule and the miner would be taken for medical evaluation. As each one was taken away by the medical people, the men operating the capsule would already be sending it back down the shaft to get the next miner. They literally rescued those miners from a pit and brought them to safety.

That rescue operation is a good picture of the church. Medical people and miners all used their gifts to rescue people. That is what we are to do in the church. The salvation of those who come to Christ is far greater than being rescued from a mine. We are to establish communication with those who do not know Christ, and then work to bring them to the knowledge of salvation through Christ. When people are welcomed into the family of Christ, we are then to go back to work to reach others.. Christ literally rescues people from the pit and brings them to safety, and he uses us to accomplish this task. Let’s continue working to that end.

If you would like to read two good commentaries from Christian leaders on the Chilean rescue, you can find one by Charles Colson at BreakPoint and one by Mark Taylor, editor of Christian Standard at their website.

New Sermon Series at Westwood

2010-10-15T09:22:00.001-07:00

“The Hole In Our Gospel,” Begins October 24

It began with a call to ministry with World Vision; it led to a world-wide ministry that continues today; it brought about an excellent book that challenges Christians to action; now it is coming to Westwood in the form of a sermon series that asks the question “What does God expect of me.”

After becoming president of World Vision, a Christian organization that ministers world-wide to the poorest of the poor, Richard Stearns found his view of being a Christian challenged and deepened. It led him to write a book he called The Hole In Our Gospel that challenges the church. The themes of the book have been developed into a Six Week Quest that we will begin on October 24.

The main thing that you need to know about the theme is summed up in this paragraph from the introduction to Stearn’s book:

“The question, ‘What does God expect of me?’ is a very profound one – not just for me, but for everyone who claims to follow Christ. Jesus had a lot to say about it. Yes, He did give us deep insights into the character of God and our relationship with Him as well, but He also spoke at length about God’s expectations, our values, and how we are to live in the world. So how are we to live? What kind of relationship are we to have with a holy God? What is God asking for, really, from you and me? Much more than church attendance. More than prayer too. More than belief, and even more than self-denial. God ask for everything. He requires a total life commitment from those who would be His followers. In fact, Christ calls us to be His partners in changing our world, just as He called the Twelve to change their world two thousand years ago.”

This series will challenge your thinking, challenge your actions, challenge your life. Come and discover the hole in your Gospel and learn what God expects of you.

A LIFELONG WALK WITH GOD

2010-10-08T15:51:00.001-07:00

During a recent study of the life of Joseph, I also took a new look at the life of Jacob, his father. Jacob’s life not only influenced his son, Joseph, and prepared Joseph to become a great leader and a man who trusted God completely, he also shows the way for us to walk with God through the highs and lows of life. As such, he can also help us show people in the church and seekers that we influence for Christ how to have a lifelong walk with God.

Jacob certainly had some issues in his life. It began with his name which means “the one who deceives.” He lived up to his name as a liar and a cheat. Jacob deceived his father into giving him the family blessing that by all rights belonged to Esau. He then had to run from Esau, and ended up with the family of Laban who would deceive Jacob into a marriage with Rachel. Laban and Jacob would deceive each for years until Jacob finally deceived Laban one more time and then took his family and returned to Canaan. Even on that journey, Jacob’s family had plenty of tragedy.

To put it in contemporary terms, Jacob had a dysfunctional family. He reminds me of the people who come to God because their lives have been torn apart from difficult marriages to troubling children, from job difficulties to bad business decisions and relationships, from financial woes to hurt feelings. Even we who follow Christ face these challenges.

Yet Jacob had four memorable encounters with God that shaped his life:

(1) When Jacob fled from Esau and stopped for the night at Luz, he had a dream of a stairway reaching to heaven. There the Lord spoke to him and told him he would give Jacob the land on which he slept. The Lord promised Jacob, he would be with him and watch over him wherever he went. Jacob’s response was to name the place Bethel, “the house of God.”

(2) As Jacob brought his family to Canaan after leaving Laban’s household, he spent the night alone. That night a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man could not overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip, leaving him with a permanent limp. Jacob would not let the man go until he blessed him, and the man changed his name from Jacob, “the deceiver,” to Israel, “the one who struggles with God.”

(3) As Jacob and his family moved into Canaan, God appeared to him and told him to settle at Bethel. Once again God appeared to him at Bethel and told him again that he would bless him. Then Jacob changed the name of the place once more to El Bethel, “The God of the House of God.”

Despite the difficulties Jacob faced all through his life, I imagine these encounters with God stayed with him. Joseph surely learned about them, took them to heart, and determined to walk with God himself.

Yet Jacob continued to face his own troubles, including losing Joseph, his most-loved son, through the deception of his other sons. He finally had to make two decisions to send his sons to Egypt for food. The second one is especially difficult because the “prime minister” of Egypt demands that they only return if they bring the youngest son. Jacob sends Benjamin with them, making the difficult decision to trust God. The text in Genesis tells us he was once again called Israel.

(4) Then Jacob has one more encounter with God. He has found out his son, Joseph, is alive and is the “prime minister” of Egypt. When Joseph sends for him to move the family to Egypt, he sets out and spends the night at Beersheba, the southern-most point in Israel. There God appears to him again and promises that he will go down to Egypt with Jacob and will bring the nation that will come from Jacob’s family, back to the land of promise.

Most of us and most of the people we minister to will face difficulty and tragedy in life. We may face those things after we have walked with God and had some great moments with him. When the difficulties come, we need to remember those experiences. We need to teach people to remember how God has changed them. Our early days with God do not need to fade as distance memories. They need to constantly remind us, as they did for Jacob, that God will walk with us through all of life. Teach people to have a lifelong walk with God.

Westwood Message

2010-10-08T15:48:00.001-07:00

Great Communion Coming October 17

Great Communion 2 will be hosted by Mandrake Road Church of Christ on October 17 at 10:00 AM. That will our Sunday morning service that day, and I hope you will plan to attend. The worship service will feature a worship service led by people from the four congregations attending and a message that will be delivered by ministers from the four churches. We will conclude the service with a time of communion together, and we will take an offering that will go toward this year’s Crop Walk, which will be held that day in Madison.

Mandrake Road Church of Christ is located on the north side of Lake Mendota at 4301 Mandrake Road, about three blocks north of Northport Drive. We will have maps and directions available at Westwood on Sunday. If you would prefer to have a ride to and from the service, please contact us at the Westwood office, and we will make arrangements.

Madison CROP Hunger Walk on October 17

Westwood had participated for a few years in the Madison CROP Hunger Walk. This year, we will be participating with a twist. We will be walking, but our fundraising will come from the offering taken that day at Great Communion 2. If you are going to walk this year, meet at First Congregational Church, 1609 University Avenue, Madison, at 12:45 PM on October 17 to register. The walk will begin at 1:30 PM. The Madison fundraising goal this year is $70,000.

CROP Hunger Walks help children and families worldwide -- and right here in the U.S. -- to have food for today, while building for a better tomorrow.

Each year some two million CROP Hunger Walkers, volunteers, and sponsors put their hearts and soles in motion, raising over $16 million per year to help end hunger and poverty around the world and in their own communities.

And you are part of it!

Have You Seen the New Senior Citizen Cell Phone?

For our senior citizens: if you are looking for a cell phone that you will instantly know how to operate, here it is. No more figuring out how to make or answer a simple phone call.

TRANSFORMATION: It Starts In the Heart of One

2010-09-29T08:09:00.001-07:00

I read two enlightening — and alarming — surveys in recent days about Americans and their religious knowledge and the effect it has on their lives. They are especially informative as we are currently looking at the theme of “Transformation” from Romans 12-15 on Sundays.

The article for one of the surveys had the headline over it, “Americans don't know much about religion.” The opening paragraph pretty well summed up the results: “A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.“

The survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life sought to test religious knowledge by asking questions about understanding of the Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in religious history. The overall result: Atheists and agnostics scored highest, with an average of 21 correct answers out of the 32 questions, while Jews and Mormons followed with about 20 accurate responses. Protestants overall averaged 16 correct answers, while Catholics followed with a score of about 15.

The other survey, conducted by the Barna Group, had the headline, “Survey Finds Lots of Spiritual Dialogue But Not Much Change.” In summary the survey found that the explosion of communications devices and technology has substantially expanded public dialogue about religion, but that “has translated into very little change in people’s faith life.”

Only 7% of those surveyed said they could think of any religious beliefs, practices, or preferences they had altered during the past five years. By age, the most likely to have shifted their religious positions or practices were young adults (18 to 26 years old) at 13%, while the least likely were older adults (over 65 years old) at 3%. Evangelical or born again Christians were neither more nor less likely to change than were atheists, agnostics, and unchurched adults.

It is one thing, of course, to come to a conviction of truth about Jesus and then change your beliefs. Some people do in fact abandon Christian faith. It is quite another thing to have a conviction of the truth of the Gospel and not be able to identify or state basic Christian beliefs or to not have your behavior and lifestyle changed — transformed — by convictions about Christ.

Change in behavior can come at any age if the Gospel brings conviction to an area of a person’s life. Consider these polls. Be the exception. Let the Gospel continually transform your life.

Westwood Message

2010-09-23T09:26:00.001-07:00

Where’s Your Passion

While in Colorado last week for a retreat for church planting leaders and for some vacation, Christine and I worshiped on Sunday at First Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, CO. There are only three churches in this small town, and the Presbyterian church itself is small, but we enjoyed our visit with them.

The congregation was formed in 1869, and their building, which is affectionately known as the “Little Stone Church By the Stream” was dedicated in 1874. The congregation thrived in the 1870’s and into the 1880’s , but a period of decline followed. The Depression years were especially difficult, and they considered discontinuing services. But they persevered, with the church members even being asked to bring pieces of coal for the offering to help heat the building.

Today, the congregation has a bi-vocational pastor who has been with them for twelve years. They had a well-planned service that any follower of Christ could have worshiped in. The made us feel more than welcome, inviting us (almost to the point of insistence) to stay for their coffee and refreshments after the worship service. We stayed and had an enjoyable time visiting with several people.

The point of my relating this experience, though, is to tell you about the pastor’s sermon. His text came from one of Jesus’ stranger parables, the parable of the Shrewd Manager that you can read in Luke 16:1-9. It is the story of a manager who was wasting his master’s possessions. When the master dismissed this dishonest man, the manager, in order to gain favor for himself after losing his job, went to some of his master’s debtors and had them pay the master less than what they owed him. The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.

Jesus said about the manager, "For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

Jesus commended the manager’s shrewdness, not his dishonesty. He calls for his followers to use what they have in this world to influence people for eternity. This calls for us being more passionate about eternal matters than what we are about earthly matters. We can be passionate about many things, but how passionate are you for the things of God and for helping people to know God? The pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, CO, made this point very nicely last Sunday. It is something important for us to think and pray about.

Great Communion Coming October 17

Last October, we hosted and enjoyed a Sunday morning worship service with other Madison Christian churches and churches of Christ. The service was well-received, and many people said we should do it again. So, we are going to do it again on October 17 at 10:00 AM. This year the service will be hosted by Mandrake Road Church of Christ. That will our Sunday morning service that day, and I hope you will plan to attend.

We are currently at work preparing a joint time of worship and a message that will be shared by ministers from four churches. We will conclude the service with a time of communion together, and we will take an offering that will go toward this year’s Crop Walk, which will be held that day in Madison.

Sermon Series on Transformation

2010-09-09T08:04:00.001-07:00

Transformation: A radical change in form, appearance, or character. Transformation is not just a minor shift or a small nuance, it is a complete alteration of the state of something. Think about it this way…it is the process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. It is the process of yeast causing bread to rise in the oven. It is the process of a small seed developing into a giant redwood tree that is hundreds of feet tall. It’s transformation and that’s what we’re going to be experiencing throughout this new sermon series.

God is in the transformation business. He wants to transform us. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “We … are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.” When we open ourselves up to God, we become open to transformation.

God wants to transform everyone into his image, but it begins with you and me. It begins in the heart of one. We cannot expect God to transform the people around us unless we allow him to transform us first. God wants to transform those who are not now followers of Christ. If we are not careful, though, we can think that God’s transforming work is for them, but it begins with us. In fact, the Scripture passages where the apostle Paul clearly calls for people’s lives to be transformed are written to Christians.

Our scripture for this sermon series will come from selected passages in Romans 12-15. Much of the great doctrine of the church is laid out by Paul in Romans 1-11, but in the closing chapters of the book he describes how we are to live in light of what we believe: we are to live transformed lives.

I hope you will come and find out in the next few weeks how God can transform you. Let it begin in your heart.

DEVELOPING 3C COMMUNITIES

2010-09-06T19:58:00.001-07:00

Community Christian Church of Naperville, IL, has developed from a new church planted by college friends into a mega-church with multiple services on multiple campuses. In addition, they have developed The New Thing Network, whose mission is to be a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches. They are a church worth learning from.

The mission of Community Christian Church is “helping people find their way back to God.” They carry out their mission by leading people to become 3C Christ followers. They define a 3C Christ follower as someone who is growing in three experiences: Celebrate, which is primarily about our relationship with God; Connect, which is primarily about our relationship with the church; and Contribute, which is primarily about our relationship with the world.

In their book, Exponential, Dave Ferguson, pastor of Community Christian Church, and Jon Ferguson, teaching pastor of the church, describe the history and strategy of the congregation and New Thing Network, in order to lay out their strategy for starting a reproducing church movement. Instrumental in their process of developing reproducing churches and movements is developing communities of 3C Christ followers that “focus on serving people and are able to reach people who would never walk through the doors of our churches.”

So what is necessary to reproduce such communities? In their book, the Ferguson’s present some ideas and philosophies that have worked for them. Let me summarize some of them.

(1) Believe That Acts 1:8 Was Meant to Be Accomplished.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus’ mission for the church as he presented it to his disciples was meant to be accomplished, and the Ferguson’s say it “can be accomplished.” Once we believe this, we will realize that “we cannot build facilities big enough or fast enough to keep up with what God wants to do.”

(2) Teach People to “Go” and Not Just “Bring.”

Most churches for many years have primarily used the “attraction” model of evangelism. That is, we encourage believers to invite people to church and we develop programs that will attract people to our services. While that is a legitimate way to reach people, we also need to find ways to go and reach people that will never come to our services and events, especially as our culture becomes more and more secular and resistant to the church. Community Christian even gives their people permission to skip their worship services to create opportunities to go and reach people. Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, in their book, And, suggest that both bringing and going are legitimate forms of evangelism for the church.

(3) Plant the Gospel Before Planting a Church or Starting a Group.

Communities of people on a mission “will go and live among the people with a readiness to serve them.” Author Alan Hirsch suggests that most churches operate from Ecclesiology (the church) to Missiology (the church’s mission) to Christology (the Gospel). Instead we should operate from Christology to Missiology to Ecclesiology. The early church started by planting the Gospel in people’s hearts and allowed the church and Christian communities to develop as people’s lives were transformed. We will need to operate with this model more and more in the future.

(4) Get Comfortable With Chaos and Failure.

Most of us who have served in the church for a long time will have difficulty with this idea because we have been trained to plan for success. However, the Ferguson’s say, “If we give our leaders permission to go out and start missional communities and churches that will reach people for Jesus, it will not be perfectly organized and it will certainly not be one hundred percent successful.” We should do everything possible to reach people with the Gospel, being willing to go outside of our comfort zones and take risks.

That is just a sampling of what the Ferguson’s suggest is involved in reproducing our churches and Christian communities. Their book is certainly worthwhile reading and learning from. Perhaps they can help you think through how to make your church a reproducing church.

TRANSFORMATION: It Starts In the Heart of One

2010-09-01T13:46:00.001-07:00

As many of you know, in addition to my role as minister at Westwood, I also serve as Executive Director of WCMA, a church planting organization for Christian churches based here in Madison. Westwood has a stake in WCMA’s ministry as they support WCMA.

Along with other organizations and churches, WCMA is part of a networking initiative known as 10-10-10 Initiative. The name comes from the date October 10, 2010. Here is the way this effort is described:

“The 10-10-10 Initiative is a cross-denominational emphasis on the urgency and importance of starting healthy new churches. The 10-10-10 Initiative seeks to help 100s of ministries partner with 1,000s of existing churches to see 1,000,000s of lives transformed through healthy new churches. The initiative seeks to serve networks, denominations, churches and individuals by accelerating the impact of how God is already at work through them. 10-10-10 represents the exponential power of “10” through multiplication. 10 to the 3^rd power is 1000. Imagine 1,000 new churches birthed in October 2010 and thousands of existing churches unified on the call to engage in new church work.”

The theme for this effort is “Transformation: It Starts In the Heart of One.” That is, if 100s of ministries are going to partner with 1,000’s of existing churches to see 1,000,000s of life transformed through healthy new churches, it all begins with our own lives being transformed into the image of Christ.

Beginning on September 12, we will examine the theme of Transformation at Westwood through a series of five messages from Romans 12-15.

We will begin the series with two of the great verses in the Bible: Romans 12:1-2. Included in those verses is this statement: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” In Romans 1-8, Paul explores the great doctrinal themes that hold the church together. Then, he calls for transformation in the life of the believer and explores the practical areas of life in which we must let God transform us. Let God transform your heart, so 1,000,000’s can know Christ.

Roger Wisegarver Benefit

2010-08-30T09:43:00.001-07:00

Last night six people from Westwood traveled to Monticello, IL, to attend the benefit concert for Roger Wisegarver and to deliver Westwood’s offering toward his medical needs. It proved to be an excellent event with many very good results.

Facts About the Offering and Event:

Final Offering From Westwood: $3,595.00

Offering at the Concert (approximate) $11,000.00

Total Offering (approximate) $15,000.00

Announced Attendance 321

Reflections

Those attending from Westwood included Nadine Miller, Kathy Seman, Tom and Ann Sippy, Christine and I. We left the eastside of Madison at 1:30 PM and returned at 1:00 AM.

Roger and Brenda were in attendance, and Roger spoke to the gathering midway through the program. Some of you will remember the video of him being interviewed about how he is dealing with this disease and his recovery that we showed after worship in July. That video was played for the gathering and then Roger reiterated to the crowd some of the things he said in the video about how the Lord is taking he and Brenda through this challenge.

One of the neat sidelights to the event was that two of the men from the rehabilitation facility that Roger is currently in volunteered their time to bring Roger to the event.

The choir that performed the concert is a men’s choir formed from the Christian radio station that Roger moved to Central Illinois to work for. Roger had, of course, been singing in the choir until the virus struck. The general manager of the radio station with whom Roger became friends before going there to work, was the MC for the evening. He told me he would be going on the air this morning to announce the results of the benefit.

They hope to purchase a battery powered wheel chair for Roger with funds from the benefit. They hope in the coming months to raise enough funds to purchase a wheel-chair accessible van for Roger and Brenda.

Our efforts at Westwood to raise the money we did and to have a delegation at the event were well received. Thank you for giving generously in order to help a couple who are friends of all of us who have ministered here with Roger and Brenda.

This was the third time I have seen Roger since all of this unfolded at the beginning of the year. Each time I see him, I have observed noticeable progress in him. His attitude has been exceptional through all of it. He still has a long way to go in his recovery, so continue to pray for he and Brenda.

God bless,

Ken

WHEN EVERYTHING IS AGAINST YOU

2010-08-09T20:18:00.001-07:00

Murphy’s law has become quite well known in America. It says, "If anything can go wrong, it will." Captain Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on an Air Force project, at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949, is usually given credit for it. One day after finding some wiring done wrong, he said about the technician responsible, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he'll find it." The contractor's project manager kept a list of "laws" and added this one, which he called Murphy's Law. Shortly afterward a doctor working on the project described the project’s safety record as a result of a firm belief in Murphy’s Law and their efforts to circumvent it. Soon Murphy’s Law was being used by Aerospace manufacturers in their advertising and began to be quoted in many news and magazine articles. It may have older roots than 1949, but the events at that time seem to be what has made Murphy’s Law an American institution.

Despite our belief in the power and work of God, even Christians can feel like Murphy’s Law is at work in their lives and in the church. We try hard to carry out the Lord’s work, but sometimes it seems like everything is against us.

One of the Bible characters who expressed such a sentiment was the patriarch Jacob. He had to run from his brother Esau and was deceived by his father-in-law Laban when he sought to marry Rachel and was given Leah instead. Then he had to give Laban fourteen years of labor to get Rachel. His favorite son Joseph was sold into slavery by Joseph’s sons, who claimed he had been killed. Then the land experienced famine, and his sons went to Egypt to get food, only to return without Simeon and to be told they could only return to Egypt for more food and to retrieve Simeon if they took their youngest brother Benjamin with them.

Is it any wonder when Jacob found out these facts about his sons’ trip to Egypt that he called up Murphy’s Law and said, “Everything is against me” (Genesis 42:36)? Until the family ran out of food again, he would not let his sons return to Egypt and take Benjamin with them. Enough bad already happened. What might happen next?

In the ensuing months, Jacob had no choice; he had to allow his sons to take Benjamin and return to Egypt. By then, he was beginning to face matters with God again at his side. This man had some great experiences with God in his earlier days when he dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven with the Lord at the top and when he spent a night wrestling with God only to have his name changed. Now when everything is against him, his life changes and he begins to let God work in him. There are two clues in Genesis 43 to the change in Jacob:

First, his name Israel is used three times in Genesis 43. His name had been changed by God from Jacob (the one who deceives) to Israel (the one who struggles with God), but he continues to be called Jacob. His grandfather Abraham, on the other hand, had his name changed from Abram to Abraham and was always known as Abraham from then on. Now Jacob is referred to as Israel. When everything is going against him, he learns once again to struggle with God and let God work in his life.

Second, Jacob refers to God Almighty (Genesis 43:14). He asks for God to grant mercy to his sons so that they will all come back to him. Instead of saying again that everything is against him, he says, “If I am bereaved, I am bereaved.” God can do his work whatever happens. Robert Candlish wrote about Jacob at this point: “The pilgrim of half a century is on his feet again with staff in hand, eye fixed once more on God.”

Maybe it seems like everything is against you as you serve God. Maybe it seems like everything is against your church and nothing turns out as it should. Those are the times when we need to struggle with God and remember that God Almighty is the one by our side. Take your “staff” in hand and fix your eyes once more on God. Call the church in times of difficulty to once again trust in the God who has been at work through all these years.

Westwood Message – August 5, 2010

2010-08-06T07:08:00.001-07:00

Roger Wisegarver Benefit Concert

Last summer Roger and Brenda Wisegarver moved from Madison, where they were faithful and active members of Westwood, to their hometown of Monticello, IL. Roger began work for a Christian radio station in Central Illinois. Many of you know his story from there.

Then during the last few days of 2009, Roger noticed that his legs were beginning to feel numb. Days later, he couldn't walk. Upon diagnosis, the doctors told Roger and Brenda that Roger had what is known as Guillain Barre Syndrome. Guillain Barre is a syndrome where a person's immune system attacks a virus in the body, but then for some reason the immune system then turns and begins to attack the neural system as well. Within the first several days of 2010, Roger went from feeling numbness in his limbs to being completely paralyzed and unable to speak. Days later, he was on a ventilator, a feeding tube, and was unconscious. After several days, Roger woke up. Since then he has had an uncertain climb toward whatever recovery might look like this side of heaven. His story is that of a faith journey through difficult and uncertain times.

On August 29 at 6:00 PM, First Christian Church of Monticello, IL, Roger and Brenda’s home church and the church where they are now members, will hold a benefit concert to help with Roger’s medical expenses. As a support to Roger and Brenda due to their long involvement with Westwood, we would like to have Westwood help with this benefit concert in two ways:

(1) During the rest of August, we will accept gifts at Westwood toward the love offering to be taken at the benefit concert. You may make checks out to Westwood and designate them for the Wisegarver Benefit.

(2) Our leadership would like to invite you to travel with some of us to the benefit concert on August 29 to deliver the gift from Westwood and to offer our encouragement and support to Roger and Brenda. If you are able to make the trip, you can use the information tear-off in your Sunday bulletin to get us your name and the number from your family that will go, Just write Wisegarver Benefit somewhere on the form.

We will announce coordinated travel arrangements for the trip to Monticello later in the month. It would be great to have a good contingent from Westwood attend.

Is There a Piece Missing In Your Life?

2010-07-28T11:02:00.001-07:00

Jack Harris, an 86-year-old retired man in England, spent nearly eight years working on a five-foot long, 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. It took up his dining room table all that time. When he thought the painstaking process was complete, he stood back to admire his work - only to find one piece missing.

He searched his home for the missing piece, but has not found it. He contacted the puzzle’s manufacturer to see if they could provide the missing piece, but they no longer make that jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle would never be completed.

As our church has looked at the life of Joseph this summer as an example of a person who lived with integrity and forgiveness, there is an interesting counterpoint to his story — Joseph’s brothers. They had a missing piece in their lives. In the last half of Joseph’s story, he attempted to help them recover that missing piece.

In order to understand the piece missing from his brothers’ lives, we need to know what motivated Joseph’s life. We first find this key to Joseph’s life after he is tempted by Potiphar’s wife and says he cannot “do such a wicked thing and sin against God.” Then Joseph is given the opportunity to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker and then of Pharaoh himself. In each case, he attributes God as the one who can interpret dreams. When he reveals himself to his brothers after years of separation, he tells them everything that happened to him was so God could save their lives. After their father, Jacob, dies, he reinforces that to his brothers. Joseph put God at the center of everything in his life.

In contrast, his brothers first think of God when they are in trouble. Returning home from buying food in Egypt, they find their money for buying the food is still in their sacks. Their response is to ask, “What is this that God has done to us?” For the first time, as far as we know, they acknowledge God because he had been missing in their lives for all those years.

So here is my question to you in this brief piece: Is God missing in your life? Or, do you put him in the center of everything that you do? Is he at the center of every decision you make? Do you talk about him to people you know? I am not asking whether you are a Christian, but whether you integrate God into every corner of your life. If not, he is the missing piece in your life — and an important one at that!

A Good Summer Trip

2010-07-15T08:10:00.001-07:00

I enjoyed a wonderful trip to South Bend, IN, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Nashville from July 4 through July 12. My first stop was in South Bend, IN on July 4 to spend an evening with Christine. She is at the University of Notre Dame for six weeks as she continues pursuing a Masters degree in Theology. Her classes are going well. When I was there she was at the end of her first two weeks of a three-week class. Now she is near the end of her first week of two more three-week classes, with just over two weeks to go.

On July 5, I traveled to Indianapolis to attend the North American Christian Convention where I also exhibited for WCMA, the church planting organization that I also work with and which Westwood supports. The theme of the convention was Beyond, as the convention program and speakers challenged everyone to go further in their faith than they have ever gone before. One exciting feature of the program was a performance for the entire family of the musical The Rock and the Rabbi, the story of Peter and his relationship with Jesus. I visited with many friends from across the country and a good number of people from Wisconsin’s Christian churches.

After the convention ended on Friday, July 9, I traveled to Cincinnati to meet our daughter, Nancy, and we traveled to Nashville, TN, to spend the weekend with my nephew, his wife, and daughter who live in Mississippi. We spent some great time together seeing some of the sights of Nashville, but mostly just visiting and catching up with one another. This weekend has a long story behind it, and the time was very well spent.

While I missed being at Westwood on July 11, we all attended the Harpeth Community Church in Franklin, TN, on Sunday before we all left the Nashville area. This is a relatively new church where I had attended a seminar two and a half years ago when their first building was under construction. I enjoyed worshiping there, seeing the completed building, and getting a taste for their ministry. I also pick up some new ideas any time I attend another congregation.

When we left Nashville, Nancy and I drove to her home in Cincinnati. I drove back to Madison on Monday, July 12, stopping to see Roger Wisegarver in his rehab facility in Champaign, IL on the way. I had not seen Roger since late January. He continues to make slow, but positive progress in his recovery.

RESISTING TEMPTATION AND HELPING OTHERS TO RESIST TEMPTATION

2010-07-06T06:39:00.001-07:00

Many years ago on the island of Cape Hatteras, off the shore of North Carolina, there were men whose business it was to get ships to run aground on the shoals just off the island. These men were "wreckers" who made their living gathering up the parts and cargo of such ships. These men would walk back and forth along the shore with lighted lanterns at night. The ships’ captains would mistake that bobbing light for the stern light of a ship they supposed had found safe passage. They would turn inland and run aground. In the morning the wreckers would come and gather the timber for new houses, utensils for their kitchens, and money for their purses. It was a thriving business.

Followers of Christ have always been faced with “spiritual wreckers” who are far more dangerous than the wreckers on Cape Hatteras. These spiritual wreckers can ruin our lives and “run us aground” on the false values of the world. Traditionally the church has spoken of three types of wreckers: the world; the flesh, and the devil. They combine together to offer temptation to everyone, but especially to Christians, those who seek to live moral lives.

We need to help each other in the church to face these spiritual wreckers. Those who need the most help are our young people who go off to college. They face the most difficult years of their lives in regard to their moral choices. They can either have their faith affirmed while they are away from home or they can “run aground” in light of the moral choices they will have to make.

Such temptations are not new to today’s college-age population. One of the oldest records of a young adult who resisted temptation was Joseph, whose story of temptation is told in Genesis 39. I do not have room here to recount his story; I urge you to read it for yourself, especially if you are a young adult leaving home for college or work. However, in a recent study of Joseph’s temptation, I came across a list by James Montgomery Boice of six factors that make a temptation like Joseph’s so dangerous.

(1) The temptation was a natural temptation – that is, it appealed to a right and normal appetite. Some temptations, for instance a temptation to murder or steal, are not normal. A temptation to sexual sin, however, appeals to a right and proper and even God-given appetite or desire. Today sexual temptation comes at us from every direction in images and messages that suggest nothing can be wrong if it feels good.

(2) The temptation came away from home. A good home is a restraining influence on the behavior of children as they grow older. Thus the destruction of families in America goes hand-in-hand with the decline in moral values. This is what makes it so possible for good Christian young people to go away to college and fall into sin and away from God.

(3) The temptation came from an important woman. If Joseph pleased Potiphar’s wife, it would secure his advancement, but if he crossed her, Joseph would make her his foe and ruin his hopes. All kinds of people who are in positions of authority, including college officials, can tempt us and thus put us in the kind of bind Joseph faced.

(4) The temptation came after an important promotion. Joseph had been put in charge of running Potiphar’s household. Moments of success and advancement in college and business can make you vulnerable to those who would take advantage of you.

(5) The temptation came repeatedly. Genesis 39 tells us that Potiphar’s wife kept on trying to seduce Joseph. Sometimes Satan can wear down even the strongest believer by coming at us time and time again until our resistance is worn down by the repeated attacks.

(6) The temptation seized the perfect opportunity. Potiphar’s wife was very careful. She caught him when no one else was in the house. Satan often whispers to us, “No one will know…”

We will face temptation that we need to resist. As Boice suggests they will come in ways that make us the most vulnerable. Put yourself in a position to resist. Don’t let yourself fall to a temptation that can follow you for the rest of your life. Set up relationships in your life and in the church that will help you and others resist and thus maintain a positive witness for our Lord and keep us faithful to him.

Living With Integrity

2010-06-30T19:59:00.001-07:00

It seems that fewer and fewer people live with integrity. Politicians intentionally distort the truth in order to gain support for their political positions and pet projects. People lie in the workplace, both bosses and those who work for them, in order to cover up for their own shortcomings. It seems like we regularly hear about celebrities who have been dishonest with their spouses or children. If it happens to them, it happens to many more people who are just not well enough known to have their story reach the news.

Sadly, it also happens with Christians. This week, Jonathan Acuff discussed this very thing on the Belief Blog of CNN with a piece titled: “My Take: Why Christians Are Jerks Online” (Read the complete blog entry here). Acuff writes his own blog www.stuffchristianslike.net and has recently written a book titled Stuff Christians Like.

Acuff makes the point that Jesus taught us the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. Then, he asks these questions: “So then why are there so many hateful Christian blogs? Why do Christians write bitter messages on Twitter? Why do we send hate mail?” He offers two conclusions:

(1) The business traveler approach — Many people, Christians and non-Christians, are different people when they are away from home and no one knows them. Acuff suggests that Christians treat the Internet the same way, approaching it like the normal rules of their lives don’t count on the Internet. They write hateful things and portray unloving attitudes under the guise of “whatever happens on the Internet stays on the Internet.”

(2) Room cleaning Christianity — Acuff discusses how energized a college student will become about cleaning his/her room when a final paper is due. We do that, he suggests with loving our neighbor. It is hard to love someone who is not easy to love. So instead of showing our neighbor the grace of God, we get online and police people. We find small things to focus on that will distract us.

Christians, though, are to live with integrity whether we are in a different environment where no one will likely recognize us or when we notice the little problems in people’s live and become critical of them. That is, we are to be the same people and loving people in every circumstance.

Joseph was this kind of person. As we have begun to look at his life in my messages and our adult class discussion this summer, that becomes clear almost immediately. The stories we are studying about his life are captivating, but even more they demonstrate how to live with integrity in a world where integrity is often absent. You can change that: live with integrity.

North American Christian Convention is July 6-9

2010-06-24T08:37:00.001-07:00

One of the great opportunities that I have most summers is to attend the North American Christian Convention (NACC). It is held every summer, usually in early July or late June, in a different city around the county and brings together 10,000 or so fellow believers from Christian churches/churches of Christ all across North America. In a conference-type setting, the NACC inspires and teaches through preaching, teaching, worship, workshops, and fellowship.

This year the NACC will be held in Indianapolis from July 6-9. Next year the NACC will again be in the Midwest as it goes to Cincinnati from July 5-8. If you would like to consider attending a NACC, check out the NACC website to learn more: http://www.gotonacc.org.

I get to see many people from around the country that I know at each year’s NACC. Most years, I exhibit for WCMA (the church planting organization for which I am Executive Director), along with ministry and mission organizations from all over the world.

While our congregation is a non-denominational and independently governed church, we are part of a network of such churches from around the world. The NACC comes out of that fellowship of churches, but is open to all believers in Christ. If you would like to find out more about our fellowship of churches, Standard Publishing has two publications available that will give you some good insights: “What Kind of Church Is This?” and “Simply Christians.” Check them out. If you would like further information on these two publications, please contact me.

Stephen Bilak – A Life of Service

2010-06-18T06:41:00.001-07:00

We enjoyed having Pat and Nadya Oja update us at our church, Westwood Christian Church, last month on the mission work of Slavic World for Christ. That ministry was started many years ago by Stephen Bilak. Since Oja’s were here, the ministry has launched a new website that has a one page biography of Stephen’s life and how the ministry began and developed. Stephen’s story is a wonderful story of faith that you will enjoy reading. You can access it at the ministry’s website: http://www.slavicworld.net. Click on the picture next to the “How it all got started” on the home page to access the history and a gallery of pictures.

Westwood Message – June 10, 2010

2010-06-10T09:00:00.001-07:00

Thank You Note From Oja’s

We received the following thank you note from the Oja’s who were at Westwood on May 23 to update us on the ministry of Slavic World for Christ and the Old Park Church in Ternopil, Ukraine:

Dear Brothers and Sisters at Westwood,

We are so appreciative of the kind and generous reception a couple of weeks ago when we visited! It was a great pleasure to be with you and we are very grateful for your interest and continued support of the work in western Ukraine. We look forward to our next opportunity to be with you and will continue to keep you updated on current events in Ternopil.

With much love in Christ,

Pat, Nadya, Evie and Jules

Birthday Card Shower for Wendell and Helen Smith

Wendell and Helen Smith’s 66^th anniversary is on July 24. We would like to shower them with cards for their anniversary. On June 20, we will have a basket in the church entry way labeled “Card Shower” that you can place your cards in. Or, you can mail your card directly to Wendell and Helen. If you need their mailing address, please contact Chardel at the church office: cjohnston@westwoodchristian.com or 274-0266.

Christmas in July Red Kettle Campaign

The Salvation Army will hold their Christmas in July Red Kettle Campaign from July 9-17 with 38 kettle sites throughout Dane County, including the Copps on Whitney Way. They have 1,806 two-hour shifts to fill.

The Salvation Army is experiencing a high demand for their services at this time due to the economy. They have set a goal for their campaign of $27,500. Last July we went above their goal of $25,000 by raising $38.295.

If you would be willing to volunteer for one or more shifts during the July campaign, you can contact Chardel at the church office, and she will get you registered. You can also register on your own at www.ringbells.org by setting up your own username and password.

Laufenberg’s Help Dedicate Flag Pole in the Town of Brooklyn

Lyle and Linda Laufenberg of Westwood are members of a Civil War reenactment group that participated in the dedication of a new flag pole in Brooklyn, WI on Memorial Day. Liberty Pole Hill Park, southwest of the village of Brooklyn, is the highest point in Dane, Green, and Rock Counties. In 1861, during the Civil War, the park became a gathering place for volunteers in the Wisconsin Infantry to register for enlistment in the army. From there, they would walk to Evansville, Janesville, and other places to begin serving.

The park’s flagpole was torn down by vandals in 1963 and not replaced until this year. The battery of which Lyle is a member was invited to participate in the flag pole dedication.

The event was featured in local news reports, including a report on WISC-TV in which Lyle was interviewed. You can access that story and video here: http://www.channel3000.com/news/23750282/detail.html. WKOW-TV also ran a story on the event. Their story and video can be accessed here: http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12571923.

Results From the Million Pound Challenge

We put out information at the first of the year about the Million Pound Challenge that would benefit food pantries in Dane County like our own. This was the first ever Million Pound Challenge. We have received information that the effort reached 624,424 pounds of food.

MAKING CHRIST SUPREME IN YOUR CHURCH

2010-06-10T07:12:00.001-07:00

In 2001 an article appeared about a new church in the state of Maryland in The Washington Post. Using market research and focus groups, the denomination starting the new church designed weekly services that deliberately de-emphasize Jesus Christ. One of the founders of the church said, “The sad fact is the name of Jesus Christ has become for many people exclusionary.” Using Hindu and Zen, intermingled with a few verses from the Bible and recorded music by Willie Nelson, the leader of this group was quoted as saying, “We’re enabling people to discover God themselves, maybe through Jesus, maybe through Buddha, maybe through any number of ways.”

While those of us who have come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior would disagree with such an approach for church teaching, we do often function this way on a practical level. Instead of calling people to faith, repentance and submission to the supremacy of Christ, many tell people things such as Jesus wants to give them a happy marriage or a stress-free life.

While Jesus will certainly change our lives, our marriages, and our stress levels when we make him our Lord, we must not settle for “What Jesus can do for me” but for “Am I living in light of his lordship?” We don’t simply “add” Jesus to our lives; we adore him with our lives through our obedience.

Dwight L. Moody understood this and demonstrated it in his ministry. In 1893, when the World’s Fair was held in Chicago, Moody led a great evangelistic effort in Chicago. It was perhaps the greatest evangelistic work in his career. One of the features of the world’s fair was the “World Parliament of Religions” exhibit which many of Moody’s friends and associates wanted him to attack during the evangelistic effort. Moody, however, refused to attack the other religions. He said, "I am going to make Jesus Christ so attractive that men will turn to him."

That needs to be the spirit of the church. Paul’s letter to the Colossians, of all his New Testament writings, especially makes this clear. In a recent study of Colossians 1, I discovered three areas in which we should make Christ supreme or preeminent in the church.

(1) Christ is supreme in creation. In Colossians 1, Paul describes Christ as “the image of the invisible God.” He is the portrait of God, revealing the personal character of God to us. He is also the “firstborn over all creation.” This phrase is a difficult one to translate, but refers to Jesus’ existence before all creation and his priority over all creation. As a seminary professor of mine wrote, “It is Christ who makes the universe a cosmos instead of a chaos.” In the church, we dare not cave in to the pressure of our culture to water down creation to the philosophy of our culture that our world just evolved into existence. We must hold to the biblical teaching on creation and doing everything we can to care for the world God has given us.

(2) Christ is supreme in the church. Paul describes Jesus as existing “in the beginning,” a reference not just to being first in the order of things, but to being the source of the church and is therefore superior to it. He is “the firstborn among the dead.” Jesus’ resurrection is superior to all others. Without his resurrection we cannot be raised. Jesus is “supreme,” that is, he is superior to all else in life and in the church. We need to give Jesus superior status in the church. The church is not run by the pastor or elders or any other church leader. The church should be led by Jesus. We receive our marching orders from him. Our mission is not to run our church programs, but to carry out his mission.

(3) Christ is supreme through the cross. Paul says in Colossians 1 that Christ “reconciles all things to himself…through his blood shed on the cross.” The word reconcile could be translated “unite.” He unites all things to himself. That is, the very act that brings harmony and peace to all the universe is the act that brings redemption to the church – his death on the cross. The church should never apologize for the cross, but needs to hold it up as the one source of redemption for those we counsel and teach.

So, make Christ supreme in your church. Check your attitude in everything you do in the church to b e sure that you are putting Christ before everything else and following his direction.

Ternopil, Ukraine Church Celebrates an Anniversary

2010-06-03T06:46:00.001-07:00

On May 23, Pat and Nadya Oja were at Westwood Christian Chruch to update us on one of the missions we support, Slavic World for Christ and the Church of Christ in Ternopil, Ukraine. On that same Sunday, the Ternopil church celebrated the tenth anniversary of being in their church building. They have posted a couple of short videos of the celebration on their website. If you are interested in viewing them, go to this link: http://www.ternopilchurch.com/.

Westwood Message – 5/27/2010

2010-05-27T06:50:00.001-07:00

Help Need for VBS Preparations

Needed! VBS Painters and Craft Helpers!!! We plan on meeting at the church on: Saturday, June 5, at 1:00 pm to finish drawing murals and begin painting. Also, we'll have craft supplies there to begin cutting, sorting, etc. Any questions, please contact Kris Wales or Sandy Polcyn.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Sandy and Kris
VBS Co-Captains

Dead Seas Scrolls Presentation Coming to Westwood

The Milwaukee Public Museum’s exhibit “Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible” ends its showing on June 6. While some of us were able to see the exhibit, some were not able to see it. So, we have asked Keith Schoville of our congregation to do a presentation on the Dead Sea Scrolls in our 11:00 AM Adult Class on June 6. Keith is a retired professor from UW who taught in the field of Biblical Archaeology and has been on many archaeological digs in Israel. He will bring a great amount of insight into the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for understanding the Bible.

Memorial Day – A Day of Remembrance

Next Monday, Americans will celebrate Memorial Day with picnics, parades, and family gatherings. For most, Memorial Day is a work holiday. Yet, we often forget the purpose of the day.

Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day as soldiers who gave their lives in the Civil War were remembered and flowers were placed on the graves of soldiers who had died in the war. After World War I, the day changed from honoring those who gave their lives in the Civil War to honoring all Americans who gave their lives in any war defending their country.

Since the late 1950’s, on the last Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. Similar activities take place in other military cemeteries around the country.

Since many Americans are not aware of the meaning of Memorial Day or just neglect remembering our fallen soldiers, The “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed by Congress in December 2000. It asks for all Americans, at 3:00 PM local time, "To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to 'Taps.’"

Remembrance is a great idea. Indeed it is a Biblical idea. Throughout the Old Testament, God asked the Israelites to establish memorials to remind the nation of who they were – God’s people – and of how he had delivered them.

Jesus established the most important memorial of all when he established the Lord’s Supper on the evening before his crucifixion. We offer communion every Sunday in our worship service so that we remember his death and never forget that through Jesus’ death our sins our forgiven and we receive eternal life.

So on this coming holiday weekend, I encourage you to take part in two remembrances. Remember the Lord’s death on Sunday as we gather to worship, and then, on Monday, remember those who have given their lives defending our country.

Thank You From John Navis

John Navis serves as a missionary in Sao Luis, Brazil, and is supported by Westwood. In 2008, we gave a special gift of $1,000 to his ministry (one-third of our 2008 Christmas offering). He recently emailed his mother and asked her to share with us how that money has been used:

We just got the awning put on the door of the church. They were bought with the money that Westwood gave us as a special Christmas gift two years ago. It took a while to get the job done but with the most recent rains, we didn't have any rain come in. Thank Westwood a lot for me.

John Navis

Thank You For Rock River Christian Camp Donations

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Rock River Christian Camp Pantry Days collection this year. We collected bottles of disinfectant cleaner for the camp. In addition to the individual bottles of cleaner, two bottles of concentrated cleaner were donated. Those two bottles will make into far more than the 50 individual bottles we were asked to donate. Money was also donated that will be used to purchase more bottles of cleaner.

Coming Summer Events at Westwood

June 6 – Keith Schoville to lead the adult class in a study of the history and importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
June 6 – 12:00 Noon – Keenagers Potluck at Westwood
June 13 -- Missions Message with report on his mission trip to China by Dennis Seman
June 13 – after worship – Graduation Reception for Karen Sippy
June 19 –9:00 AM to 3:00 PM – Workday at Koinonia House, 111 N. Orchard St., Madison, the campus house for Wisconsin Christian Campus Ministries
July 12-16 – Vacation Bible School at Westwood
August 1 – 12:00 Noon – All Church Potluck
August 28 – Westwood Festival

Living With Integrity and Forgiveness

2010-05-26T07:35:00.001-07:00

I am in the midst of reading an autobiography titled Man From Macedonia: My Life of Service, Struggle, Faith, and Hope by Rev. Aaron Johnson with Deb Cleveland. I came across the book through a preacher friend whose wife is Aaron Johnson’s co-author.

Aaron Johnson is a sharecropper’s son from North Carolina who gave his life to Christ as a teenager, studied for ministry, and became involved in the civil rights movement under the tutelage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He advised North Carolina governors and served as state corrections secretary while pastoring a Baptist church. His book takes the reader to the front lines of the fight for civil and human rights in our country over the last fifty years, showing us “how human hatred and fear smells, sounds and feels-and how it feels to empower others with hope and trust.” It is a fascinating story of one man who has made a difference in our world.

I have long enjoyed reading biography and hearing the stories of great people’s lives — a few of those stories have even made their way into my sermons. As Charles Swindoll, one of our day’s great preachers, writes, “Who isn’t inspired by a man or woman who exerts phenomenal and beneficial influence? Who can read about someone’s courage to stand alone with single-minded vision amidst a slippery ever-eroding culture, and not want to emulate such a life?

This summer, I want to examine with you one of the great lives that we read about in the Bible — the life of Joseph. He modeled a life that anyone would consider great, doing so under difficult circumstances. His story occupies more space in Genesis that any other single individual, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. His life is worth examining.

Joseph was loved to a fault by his father, hated by brothers who sold him into slavery, falsely accused of attacking his employer’s wife and put in prison. In the midst of all the mistreatment, he learned to let God work through him and rose, as Swindoll puts it, “above the all-too-common reactions of rage, resentment, and revenge.” He learned “to overlook unfair offenses, to overcome enormous obstacles, and model a virtue that is fast becoming lost in our hostile age—forgiveness.”

Aaron Johnson rose above hatred and fear in the South, just as Joseph rose above it in Egypt. We need to hear such stories, so I encourage you to look closely with me into the life of Joseph this summer. In a day when you can barely read the news without mention of another leader who has “lied,” we need to learn integrity and forgiveness from a man who modeled integrity and learned to live with forgiveness.

Ray Giles – Faithful to the End

2010-05-20T07:20:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week, our daily prayer list at Westwood Christian Church referenced the death of veteran missionary Ray Giles. You may not know who he is and may not have realized that, although he has never been to Westwood, he had connections to our congregation.

When Westwood’s minister from 2002 to 2007, Wade Wilson, went to Ethiopia as a missionary in the 1990’s, Ray was one of his mentors. When Ray and his wife, Effie, retired to Johnson City, TN several years ago, they and my mother became friends. During the last two years of my mother’s life as she was in and out of medical facilities, Ray and Effie often visited her in her hospital or assisted living home or nursing home. When I would go to Johnson City to visit Mom, I had several occasions to visit with Ray and came to appreciate his deep faith and his kind, gentle manner.

Ray had ministries in Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina before leaving for the mission field in Ethiopia. He served for thirty-two years with Christian Missionary Fellowship. Most of that time was spent in pioneer evangelism among two tribes of western Ethiopia. During the years Marxism took over the country and the missionaries were forced to leave, he served on the home staff of CMF as Field Director. When the country opened again he returned to work with the churches that had survived the Communist years. On retirement to Johnson City, he continued to be involved in missions as mentor for perspective missionaries. He was an elder and Sunday School teacher at Lone Oak Christian Church in Johnson City.

Those are the facts of his life. Those of us who knew him saw him as a man of deep faith who maintained his positive, loving spirit through his final months of life on this earth as he battled the cancer that invaded his body. My sister kept me updated on his health through emails from his son, and he lived through his cancer the way he had lived through the many challenges of life in the ministry and on the mission field – with a deep, abiding trust in the Lord.

The preacher of the Lone Oak church told about his passing away shortly before midnight last Sunday with “his family by his side, singing and praying with him and for him as the body died...but life, real life, continued. That's probably how Ray would have described it--such was his faith.”

I tell you a little of his story because he is one of the great saints of the church who was faithful to the end. Sometime around midnight last Sunday evening, I expect the Lord met him as he passed from this life to eternity and said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.” That is the reward we all seek, so stay faithful.

Westwood Message – May 12, 2010

2010-05-11T18:33:00.001-07:00

Koinonia House Workday

Koinonia House, the campus house at the University of Wisconsin for Wisconsin Christian Campus Ministries, will have a workday on Saturday, June 19 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. They need volunteers to help in multiple areas: Landscaping, cleaning, tearing old carpeting out, moving furniture, power wash the exterior of the house, and others. If you can help out on that day, put the date on your calendar and plan to work. Koinonia House is located at 111 N Orchard St in Madison.

News From Martin and Arlyn Shields

Last week we received the message below from Martin and Arlyn Shields, former members of Westwood who now live in Texas:

It’s been a while since you heard from us, but we’re still enjoying your e-mails. Thanks for including us.

I would like for you to share something very special with our friends at Westwood. Travis will be graduating from Southwestern University on [last] Saturday. Now that’s a milestone for all of us! But even greater than that: He was commissioned last week to serve in the mission field in South Africa for one year. He is so excited about the upcoming time. He will receive training in June and leave in late July/early August.

You may remember that he was baptized at Westwood, so all of you have had a part in preparing him for this year of service. Please add him to Westwood’s list of missionaries that you support in love and prayer.

We’ll keep you posted as things progress.

Would love to come to Wisconsin for a visit. As Texas heats up, all places to the north look inviting.

Love to you all.

Arlyn and Martin

Thank You Note From Wendell and Helen Smith

We wish to thank everyone for their prayers, cards, calls, and support during the past few months of our health problems. God is our refuge and strength during difficult times. We praise His Holy Name. Thank you for caring.

With Christian Love,

Wendell & Helen Smith

Upcoming Missions Presentations on May 16 & 23

Two of the missions that Westwood supports as part of our world-wide missions outreach will have representatives in our worship service on the next two Sundays to inform us about their ministries.

On May 16, Zach Fulton, the church liaison for Rock River Christian Assembly, will join us to preach and update us about the camp’s program. Zach is new on the camp staff this year, so this will be his first time at Westwood.

On May 23, Patrick Ojay and his family will update us on the ministry of Slavic World for Christ and the ministry of the Old Park Church in Ternopil, Ukraine. Patrick’s wife, Nadya, is a native of Ternopil, and they have a long history with the Old Park Church. Patrick will share a combined message and update on the ministry during our worship service, and then will also lead the adult class. The Ojay’s have been at Westwood before, so we are glad to welcome them back.

Update on The Manhattan Declaration

Last fall, I informed you of The Manhattan Declaration, “a call to Christian conscience” in our culture. It was written by a wide-ranging group of Christian leaders who “united … to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:

1. the sanctity of human life

2. the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife

3. the rights of conscience and religious liberty.”

In an email report to signers of the Manhattan Declaration, I received the following information:

You [may have seen] the story of the eight nurses in New York who refused to participate in taking the life of an unborn child by abortion. They were punished, but held their ground. (Later their employer relented and even apologized to them.) Here are people who refused to render to Caesar that which belongs to God! If you didn't get to the story, please read it. More people must follow their example.

The second bit of exciting news comes from England. Weeks ago, a group of British pastors and Christian leaders, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, posted on a website a condensed version of the Manhattan Declaration. They called it, appropriately, the Westminster Declaration. In the first week they had 5,000 signatures. As we write, they have close to 50,000! This is extraordinary. The church in England has not, in recent years, distinguished itself by giving Christian witness on public moral issues. So this was welcome change and big news - all inspired by the Manhattan Declaration.

Around the world we're getting similar reports of the Declaration being picked up and circulated. It has been translated into a number of foreign languages.

You can electronically sign The Manhattan Declaration at this website: http://www.manhattandeclaration.org. As of yesterday, 444,187 people have signed it. You can read and sign the full declaration at the website and read other news about what is happening in the U.S. and around the world as a result of the declaration. The goal of the drafters of the document is ”to build a movement - hundreds of thousands of … Christians who will stand together alongside other men and women of goodwill in defense of foundational principles of justice and the common good.”

WHAT ON EARTH IS GOD DOING IN THE CHURCH?

2010-05-08T05:55:00.001-07:00

I meet monthly with a group of church leaders in which we have a presenter speak on a topic of interest to the group, which is then followed by some robust discussion. This year our theme has been “What On Earth Is God Doing In…” The presenter speaks from both Biblical and practical material to what God is doing in the topic of the day.

During May I will be speaking to the group on the theme “What On Earth Is God Doing in the Church?” There is an abundance of material on the theme, and I will probably share some of the ideas I present to them in future columns. For now, I have been reflecting on two pieces of information that I read recently about the church’s contemporary circumstance that serve as a starting point for me as to what God is doing in the church.

Some of the facts that research (from the Barna Group and others) reveals to us about the church in the United States can be quite alarming. I prefer to see the circumstances the church faces as challenges that the Lord can lead us through. Here are some of those facts:

Since 1990 in the US, about 2,000 churches are planted each year, while 4,000 churches close each year.
Since 1990 the US population has grown by 60.5 million people. If the average church plant weekly attendance stands at 1,000; we would have to plant 60,000 churches just to keep pace!
Churches lose an estimated 2,765,000 people each year to nominalism and secularism.
Only 21% of Americans attend religious services every week.
Of the 6,500 languages in the world, 4,400 have NO portion of Scripture.
Of the 16,000 people groups in the world, 6,600 of them are unreached.
1700 pastors left the ministry every month last year
50% of those entering the ministry will last in the ministry less than 5 years
7 churches started last year...every day!
11 churches closed last year...every day!
Every second a person who does not know Christ dies. Every second! That is 86,400 every day
2.75 billion people in the world have never heard of Jesus

It is no wonder the church is on such a rough path when you consider the seven faith tribes identified by George Barna:

Casual Christians — people who profess to be Christian but deny the power thereof. Two-thirds of all Americans represent "casual Christians."
Captive Christians — those who walk the talk. They represent one-sixth of the adult population.
Jewish people make up roughly 2 percent of the adult public.
Mormons comprise slightly less than that, "though its adherents are strikingly unified in their ideology and practice."
Pantheists (Buddhism, Hinduism, New Age, etc.) are also slightly less than 2 percent of the public.
Muslims make up about one percent, but are "growing in number." [Two million of the six million Muslims are American converts to Islam.
Skeptics — atheists or agnostics, nearly 11 percent strong, "are, in essence, religiously irreligious."

How do we reach these people when evidence suggests the church is on decline in America? It is true that the church is doing many good things and in some areas – such as church planting – the church is making progress. Yet overall, we are losing ground.

A group of Christian colleges that train people for ministry in both church and non-church vocations is taking a positive step in this regard. They are asking their administrators, faculty, staff, students, trustees, alumni, donors, and other constituents to “ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:38). They have taken up the motto “Just one more”; pray for just one more.

Jesus preceded his call for his disciples to pray by saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” That is still true, perhaps more true today than it has been. Yet, even though our Lord is the same, we have neglected his command to pray for workers. Will you and your church take up the challenge? Will you begin to pray daily, regularly for just one more?

From Westwood Message – April 29, 2010

2010-04-29T09:47:00.001-07:00

Offering for Dennis Seman’s Mission Trip to China

During April, we collected our Easter offering to help Dennis Seman be part of a two-week mission trip to China with China Partner beginning in mid-May. The offering total came to $1,986.00. Thank you for your generous giving.

Is the National Day of Prayer Unconstitutional

As you have probably heard in the news recently, a federal judge here in Wisconsin has determined that the National Day of Prayer – which is next Thursday, May 6 – is unconstitutional. The decision came in a legal case filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation which is based in Madison. The case is not over as the decision will be appealed and may very well reach the Supreme Court.

Wayne Shockley of Westwood wrote the following in reflecting on the decision:

The recent court decision declaring the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional left me with conflicting thoughts. On the one hand, I can kind of understand the reasoning behind the decision. Not that I agree with it, but I can see the judge's point. What the Constitution requires is that the government be neutral in all matters pertaining to religion. Certainly it can't provide money or facilities to any religion. That's the part that prohibits the "establishment" of a religion. At the same time, it can't limit the practice or exercise of any religion. The court said that encouraging prayer is providing support for particular religious practices; hence it steps over the line to establishing of religion.

On the other hand, that's a stretch. That's beyond nitpicking. There is no coercion of any kind in a Day of Prayer. There's no money or substantial support of any kind given to any religious organization. Even atheists are free to meditate - if they wish. One might suggest that they meditate on their freedom to complain about religion, but that would be uncharitable.

Yet there are two good things that can come from this decision. One is that it reminds us what kind of attitudes we face in our society today. The nitpicking nature of this decision betrays hostility to religion, not neutrality. Obviously, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is hostile to religion, and large segments of our society are joining in that hostility to some degree. Christians can no longer expect any kind of support from our culture in general. We are on our own, and we may as well get used to it.

The second good thing from this decision is that it will prompt Christians to remember that we don't need support from our culture. Throughout history and around the world, the Body of Christ has flourished quite well in cultures much more hostile than this one. In fact the survival and even success of the Church in the midst of hostility has prompted many people to investigate Christianity and then to follow Christ. We see that happening in China today. In short, we don't need the government at all, not even a one-day-a-year proclamation.

It is tragic that our society will deteriorate as it becomes more hostile to Christianity. Many people will be hurt, both in this life and eternally. But if we are going to make this a more Christian nation, it will have to be by the work of the Church among the people by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by proclamations of Presidents by the power of the government.

Christian Camp Offers Life Changing Experiences

2010-04-27T16:53:00.001-07:00

The front page of this Caller emphasizes the ministry of Rock River Christian Camp (RRCC). We have included information about Zach Fulton, camp liaison for RRCC coming to Westwood on May 16 to preach for us and update us on RRCC’s ministry and summer camp program.

Westwood has a strong connection with RRCC. RRCC is one of the missions that Westwood supports, and we promote the camp program, encouraging parents to send their children to weeks of camp at RRCC and encouraging adults to attend retreats and other events. Mike Younglove serves on the RRCC board as a representative of Westwood.

Both Christine and I were influenced by Christian camp from an early age and have stayed connected with various Christian camps as adults and parents.

My camp experience began when my two sisters, brother, and I all attended church camp as children and continued to attend through high school. We had five or six area churches in northeastern Wisconsin who together rented various camp facilities for two weeks of summer camp, first at a state park in Michigan’s U.P. and then a church camp facility at Pembine, WI. Then, when I was in high school, I was asked to be a counselor at a camp for younger children and had the opportunity to attend a specialized high school camp in Indiana. We formed friendships that continue to influence our lives.

While in youth ministry during my years in college and first two years in seminary, I began working in Christian camps. In one capacity or other, I have worked in camps in at least five states. Christine and I forged and deepened friendships while working in Christian camps. One such experience over 30 years ago strengthened our friendship with Bob and Dawn Baird who were with us last Sunday to share about their mission work in the Congo.

The summer after our daughter was born, we had responsibilities in a week of church camp. Before she was one, Nancy went along. She continued attending church camp all through high school.

Our lives would not be the same without those camp experiences. Our early church camp experiences were foundational to the development of our faith in Christ, and our many experiences working in church camp as adults deepened our faith in more ways than I could ever describe to you.

So take advantage of the opportunities afforded you and your children at RRCC this summer. Westwood will even help with the cost for your children to attend camp, as we have funds in our budget to pay one-half tuition at RRCC for Westwood children. A week at RRCC just might be the thing that influences your children to a lifetime of faith and helps your faith grow beyond what you ever thought possible.

Worldviews and the Church

2010-04-12T17:07:00.001-07:00

Chuck Colson, founder, and Mark Early, president of Prison Fellowship Ministries, broadcast a daily BreakPoint commentary on more than 1,200 radio outlets. BreakPoint is the worldview ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries. Their mission is “to seek the transformation of believers as they apply biblical thinking to all of life, enabling them to transform their communities through the grace and truth of Jesus Christ.”

The BreakPoint website and the recently established Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview both help to carry out that mission. The BreakPoint website features Colson’s and Earley’s commentaries as well as feature articles by other established and up-and-coming writers to equip readers with a biblical perspective on a variety of issues and topics, and the Colson Center website provides a variety of resources to assist Christians and the church to understand contemporary issues from a Biblical worldview. If you are interested you can get an email subscription to the daily transcripts of BreakPoint commentaries by going to www.breakpoint.org.

The need for approaching issues in the church from a Biblical worldview has never been so poignant as it is today because of the direction in thinking that our culture has headed. Various surveys have brought matters such as the following to light:

One survey asked people if they believe that there are moral absolutes that are unchanging or that moral truth is relative to the circumstances. By a 3-to-1 margin adults said truth is always relative to the person and their situation.
Among teenagers, 83% said moral truth depends on the circumstances, and only 6% said moral truth is absolute.
Another survey concluded that 44% of adults in America contend that, “the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths.” Just 38% of Americans reject that idea.
Among Christian kids, 63% say that all religions pray to the same God.

How do such views show themselves in people’s behavior? People are left with philosophies such as “if it feels good, do it,” “everyone else is doing it” or “as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else, it’s permissible.” The decline of moral foundations among our young people has culminated in a one-word worldview: “whatever.”

These worldviews have begun to be combined with Biblical teaching today, even in the church. The Bible, however, can help us understand the kind of truth on which we need to stand, because this happened before. Paul wrote the letter of Colossians to a church that was letting ideas from the culture around them seep into their Christian teaching. In Colossians 1, Paul presented three foundational elements that can help hold us to a Biblical worldview:

(1) Faith. In Colossians 1:3-4 Paul says he thanks God for his readers because he has heard about their faith in Christ Jesus. Today you will hear people say something like, “Everybody needs faith” or “You gotta have faith.” It is like some kind of good luck charm, with no object to the faith. Having faith means you’re okay. Paul is not talking about such faith because faith has no intrinsic value in and of itself. Faith derives its value from the object of faith. Salvation does not come by believing in belief, or even in a set of doctrines or a creed. Salvation comes by believing in Christ. We need to help people in the church to put their complete faith for salvation and for life in Christ alone.

(2) Love. In Colossians 1:3,4, Paul also thanks God for his readers because of the love they have for all the saints. We need people in the church who are not only good people, but who genuinely love each other. Throughout history, the church has always been at its best when it demonstrated the love of Christ to each other and to the world.

(3) The Gospel. Then Paul recognizes that the Gospel brings us hope as nothing else can. Our hope is that heaven is out in front of us. We go to heaven only by believing in the Gospel, which is the message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The Gospel must be at the heart of the life of the church and of individual believers.

How does your church measure up in having a Biblical worldview? Does the teaching in your congregation help people hold to the truth of Scripture without mixing in ideas from our culture? Perhaps these ideas can help your church present a Biblical worldview.

From Westwood Message – April 8, 2010

2010-04-07T18:58:00.001-07:00

Al Lynk Baptized on Good Friday

At the end of our Good Friday service on April 2, Al Lynk was baptized into Christ. Al has been participating in several activities of the congregation already.

If you have not been in the church office recently, you may not know that Chardel’s office (which doubles as meeting space for one Bible study and quite a few meetings) has been repainted. Al did most of the painting. Thanks, Al.

Bob and Dawn Baird Coming to Westwood on April 25

Bob and Dawn Baird, veteran missionaries to the Congo in Africa, long-time friends of Christine and I, and the speaker at our Women’s Retreat in 2009 (Dawn, not Bob) will visit Westwood on April 25. Bob will be preaching, and they will share with the adult class about their ministry in the Congo.

After spending the last few years based in Central Illinois, the Baird’s are currently making plans to spend significant time in the Congo each year and be regularly involved in the mission work there. They will tell us about their plans. Shortly after their visit to Westwood, Bob will be traveling to the Congo, with plans for Dawn to follow in the summer.

Westwood Is on Facebook

If you are on Facebook, check out the Westwood Christian Church Facebook group and the Westwood page on Facebook. You can find either one by signing into Facebook and searching for Westwood Christian Church. We are beginning to post events and news about Westwood in both places, and you can post your own news and announce events through either the group or the organization page. Here is a link to each one.

Sermon Series in Colossians Begins April 11

Ken will begin a sermon series in Colossians on April 11. Each sermon will be followed with the adult class, “Going Deeper: A Discussion of Today’s Sermon,” at 11:00 am each week. Colossians does a wonderful job of describing how we are to make Christ supreme in our lives and in the church, first through a description of who Christ is and then through various descriptions of how we are to live with Christ in our lives.

EASTER OFFERING FOR DENNIS SEMAN MISSIONS TRIP

2010-04-01T05:27:00.001-07:00

Dennis Seman will take a two-week missions trip to China beginning about May 16. We will assist Dennis with the approximately $3,000 cost of the trip through our Easter offering. Gifts may be given, designated for his trip, beginning Sunday, April 4, through the end of the month.

Dennis will be going with a group named China Partner, whose mission is to train current and future Chinese Christian leaders with needed ministry insights and methods.

On this trip, Dennis will primarily be learning firsthand about China Partner to see if they are a fit to work with each other in the future. Along with giving, be sure to pray for Dennis in this endeavor.

Living Under the Supremacy of Christ

2010-04-01T05:25:00.001-07:00

What are you passionate about? The people and things you are passionate about make a difference in how you live, how you schedule your time, what kind of activities you will get involved in.

There are some people in our lives each of us should be passionate about. I would hope you are passionate about your spouse if you are married and about your children. When you are passionate about the people you love the most, you will talk about them and you will schedule time for them and for the activities they enjoy. I know that if you want to get me started talking all you have to do is ask about Christine or our daughter, Nancy, and our son-in-law, Dave.

Then there are the organizations that we get involved with or the sports teams we enjoy rooting for that we are often passionate about. People will put a lot of time and effort into an organization whose mission they care passionately about. We root feverishly for teams that have captured our hearts. Here it is the Packers or the Badgers in football or basketball or, for some, hockey. While I share those passions with people in this area, I part company when it comes to baseball — I am a Chicago Cubs fan. If you want to know why, just ask!

My greatest passion, though, exceeds even my family and certainly organizations or sports teams. You see, without a doubt, my greatest passion is Jesus Christ. I hope he is yours too. When I taught preaching students how to preach, I wanted them to learn to preach him with passion.

We will consider our passion for Christ in a series of sermons from Colossians beginning April 11 and extending through May. In a variety of ways, Colossians calls for we who are believers to make Christ the passion of our lives, not just in what we believe, but also in how we live.

There are three key verses in Colossians, each of which calls for us to make Jesus the passion, the center, of our lives.

(1) Paul begins Colossians by describing the nature of Christ. He says Christ is who he is “so that in everything he might have the supremacy” (Colossians 1:18). He is to be the passion of our lives.

(2) In chapter 2, Paul discusses the believer’s position in Christ: “So, then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him” (2:6).

(3) When he gets to chapter 3, Paul calls for us to live a Christ-like life: “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (3:1).

My theme for my messages in Colossians will be “Living Under the Supremacy of Christ.” The book tells us why we should make Christ supreme and how we should then live. This calls for great passion, living for the one who has created and redeemed us. I hope you will develop your passion for Christ.

Good Friday and Easter

2010-03-25T08:07:00.001-07:00

As we do each year – and as Christians have done for centuries – we will remember Christ’s death and resurrection with special times of worship during the weekend of “Holy Week.” On Good Friday -- April 2 at 6:00 pm – we will have a Good Friday service at which we will reflect on Christ’s death on the cross. Then on Easter – April 4 at 9:30 am – we will gather for our Sunday morning worship in celebration of the resurrection.

Please invite friends and family to these services. We have flyers available in our foyer for you to pick up and use to invite them. These are great times to expose people to the central themes of the Gospel.

The cross, since the very early days of the church, has been the central symbol of Christianity. A few years ago, John Stott, a London preacher and global Christian leader, wrote The Cross of Christ, which has become an important study of the cross. In the book, he suggests that seven symbols, other than the cross, could have served as a universally acceptable Christian emblem: the manger, a carpenter's bench, a boat, an apron, the stone rolled away from the tomb, a throne, or a dove. Then he says,

"But instead the chosen symbol came to be a simple cross...central to their understanding of Jesus neither his birth nor his youth, neither his teaching nor his service, neither his resurrection nor his reign, nor his gift of the Spirit, but his death, his crucifixion."

Another London preacher of many years, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his book The Cross described the importance of the cross of Christ with this statement:

"During these twenty-six years in my Westminster pulpit there have been times when in my utter folly I have wondered, or the Devil has suggested to me that there is nothing more for me to say, that I have preached it all. I thank God that I can now say that I feel I am only at the beginning of it. There is no end to this glorious message of the cross, for there is always something new and fresh and entrancing and moving and uplifting that one has never seen before."

The message of the cross runs deep, but the resurrection validates what Christ did on the cross. The resurrection is proof of Christ’s victory over sin and our hope of salvation.

So we turn to each as a means of focusing ourselves whenever we gather to worship. At this time of the year, we give them each a special focus in our times of worship, as we let the cross once again draw us to Christ and as we realize the hope contained in the resurrection. There is no more important message with which to encourage your friends and family to experience Christ.

Westwood Message – 3/11/2010

2010-03-11T15:16:00.001-08:00

Lisa McCullum Is Baptized

Lisa McCullum has been attending Westwood for a couple of months, and had recently made known her desire to commit her life to Christ. On March 7, we were privilege to share her baptism into Christ as a part of our worship service. Pray for Lisa’s new walk with Christ and, if you haven’t already, be sure to get to know her.

Christ In the Passover, Good Friday, Easter

On March 26 at 7:00 PM, Jean Hanson, a volunteer with Jews for Jesus, will present Christ in the Passover at Westwood. Her presentation will be followed with a feedback/question and answer time as we seek to gain a better understanding of the background out of which Jesus offered himself as the Passover Lamb.

Please consider inviting family and friends to this event, and to our Good Friday service on April 2 at 6:00 PM and our Easter Sunday morning service on April 4 at 9:30 AM. Flyers are available in our foyer that you can use to invite people. Pick some up and give them out to people you know.

Rock River Christian Camp Church Representatives

As most of you know, we support Rock River Christian Camp through our Missions budget and promote the camp to our youth and adults for attending church camps and retreats. As a camp supporter, we are entitled to have up to three representatives on the camp’s partnership board which meets two times a year, in March and October. We currently have one member, Mike Younglove, on the board.

If anyone from Westwood would be interested in filling one of our other slots on the partnership board, we would be glad to have you do so. Let either Chardel or I know of your willingness, and we will be glad to give you the details you need to serve.

Register for Summer Camps at Rock River Christian Camp

We have information available for all the summer camps at Rock River. You can also find the information on the camp’s website: www.rockrivercc.net, along with registration forms. If your children have never attended a summer Christian camp, consider sending them this summer. It will be an experience they will never forget, and it will change them forever.

Rock River begins with two-day camps for those in 1^st and 2^nd grade, then has three-day camps for those in 3^rd and 4^th grades, and week-long camps for older elementary children and junior high and high school youth. They also have specialty camps including wilderness, adventure, equestrian, volleyball, and paintball in addition to the main camp program.

See a Special Exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum

The Milwaukee Public Museum is currently exhibiting, in a limited engagement, “Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures.”

We are planning a group trip to see the exhibit on May 3. Put the date on your calendar, and plan to go. We will arrange group transportation and will announce further details next month. Keith Schoville, our “resident biblical archaeologist” has agreed to see the exhibit. He will be able to answer some of the questions people in our group might have.

The exhibit brings together archaeological objects and manuscripts to tell a story 2,000 years in the making. You will witness actual Dead Sea Scrolls and other early biblical artifacts to learn how transmission of these early writings has shaped the beliefs of Judaism and Christianity and influenced aspects of Islam. This is the largest temporary exhibit ever produced by the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Young at Heart at Rock River

While I am giving you information about Rock River, let me mention that Christine and I will again lead a Young at Heart one-day retreat at Rock River for senior citizens on May 11. The theme this year is “Our Prodigal God,” and the speaker will be Brian Henry from First Christian Church in Kenosha. Cost for the day is $25.00. Place the date on your calendar and plan to attend. We will get a count of those planning to attend next month and will again share transportation.

Red Kettle News from the Salvation Army

We are volunteers from Westwood ring bells for the Salvation Army’s annual Red Kettle campaign for two days in December. We had volunteers handle twelve two-hour shifts at the Copps store on Whitney Way Dr, and collected $1,001.49 during those shifts. Overall, the campaign in Dane County raised $578,000. There were 2,624 volunteers in Dane County filling 5,835 shifts for a total of 11,607 hours.

DECIDING ON THE FOCUS OF YOUR CHURCH

2010-03-09T09:48:00.001-08:00

I heard several years ago about a town in Pennsylvania that had trouble with their fire hydrants freezing over in the winter. The town council came up with a solution: they passed an ordinance that all fire hydrants had to be thawed out three days before a fire.

I doubt if the story is true, but it does illustrate a persistent problem in many churches (and other organizations for that matter): It is far easier to recognize the problems we face than it is to design workable solutions. Many solutions we come up with in the church to solve the problems we face are either unworkable or they solve the wrong problem – often one that does not even exist.

The root cause of this ineffectiveness is normally that we have the focus of the church directed to the wrong things. That is, we fail to focus the church’s efforts on those things that Scripture calls for us to focus on. Normally when we get the church’s focus wrong we have focused on ourselves and make decisions based on how those decisions will impact the members of the church, instead of focusing on reaching out and ministering in the name of Christ within our communities.

I consider this to be a critical problem for the church, because in less than a generation our culture has gone farther away from God. We have changed morally, demographically, and technologically – leaving God behind in the process. Our culture’s “doctrine of salvation” has become if you are good enough and do not do many bad things, you will get to heaven. In order to really be the church in that environment, we should focus like a laser on the matters that Scripture calls for the church to focus on.

I find three areas of focus for the church in Colossians 1. Is your church focusing on these matters as a priority in the way you organize and operate your church program?

(1) Focus on the supremacy of Christ. Colossians sets out the nature of Christ in chapter 1, verses 15-20. Paul says Christ created all things, is before all things, and holds all things together. Then comes verse 18: “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” When I consult with other churches, I find it important to really get them to think about the implications of the supremacy of Christ for what we do in the church. That is, do we really, in a practical way, understand that Christ is the head, the leader of the church? Do we really seek his wisdom rather than our own when we have decisions to make? Is Christ the heart and soul of every sermon that is preached, every worship service, every program, every event in the church? Our focus should start there, with Christ.

(2) Focus on our reconciliation through Christ. In Colossians 1:21-23, Paul discusses how we were once enemies of God, but now, through Christ’s death, we have been reconciled to God. Can there be any doubt – if we hold to the Scriptures – that our only means of salvation is to trust in the death of Christ? There is no other message for the church to preach. There is no other reason to bring people into the church than for them to experience the saving work of Christ in their lives. Donald Wildmon, founder and recently retired president of the American Family Association once said, “"At the very heart of the Christian gospel is a cross – the symbol of suffering and sacrifice, of hurt and pain and humiliation and rejection. I want no part of a Christian message which does not call me to involvement, requires of me no sacrifice, takes from me no comfort, requires of me less than the best I have to give."

(3) Focus on the commission of Christ. Paul closes Colossians 1 by discussing how he had become the servant of the church by the commission God had given him. He said, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.” I wish I had room to tell you about some of the people I know who have gone into some of the hardest places in the world to preach the Gospel. That is the call of every church, of every believer.

Does the focus of your church need to be re-examined? Try checking your church’s focus against these three areas.

Jesus Alone Is Mighty to Save

2010-03-03T10:06:00.001-08:00

Jesus Alone is Mighty to Save

Tom White, Director of The Voice of the Martyrs, writes about watching an interview of four religious leaders — a Catholic, two Protestants, and a Muslim — speaking in Chicago. They were discussing youth violence after a Chicago student was beaten to death at his high school. The Muslim leader, referring to the outreach of his own mosque, said we could fight youth violence with “the gospel … the church … the word of God.” White says, “He pirated these Christian terms for his own Islamic use. Throughout the entire program, Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was never mentioned, unless it was edited out.”

White goes on to say, “Is it easy for me to substitute my own witness for Jesus with politically correct terms like “moral code” or “family values”? The public does not resist these terms because these are not life changing words. These words have no power to save or transform. These generic words, when purposefully divorced from Jesus, become meaningless.”

This is exactly the message we have been considering this winter as I have preached from the miracles of Jesus. The miracles not only tell us that Jesus is Mighty to Save, but that he is the only One who is Mighty to Save.

Jesus broke into people’s lives when he lived on the earth to heal lepers, the paralyzed, the blind, the deaf, to drive out demons, to calm the storms, and to raise the dead in order to show us that he can deal with all the issues of life that we face. Then ultimately he rose from the dead to demonstrate his power over the greatest enemy we have. He alone can solve the violence in our schools and every other problem our culture faces. We need to point people to Jesus.

In the same column, Tom White told about the founder of Voice of the Martyrs, Richard Wurmbrand, who took many dangerous trips into communist countries to tell people about Jesus “the sin killer, the transformer.”

The newsletter went on to tell about a North Korean who escaped to China in search of churches that were rumored to be giving away food. He was given a Bible to take home with him, read it, believed it, and gave his life to Christ. He would later risk his life to return to China to take more Bibles back to North Korea. In China, he met a North Korean army commander who had also given his life to Christ, but continued to serve in the army. They risk their lives everyday if they are even caught with a Bible because they believe, as we do, that Jesus is Mighty to Save.

Jesus is powerful beyond imagination and can work even in the most anti-Christian nation in the world. If he can work there, he can work within us.

Westwood Message – 2/18/2010

2010-02-18T12:40:00.001-08:00

Invite a Friend to Westwood

You can always invite a friend or family member to come to Westwood with you, but in the next few weeks we will have two events to which I would like to encourage you to invited others.

First, we will hold an outreach event on March 26 at 7:00 pm when we host a presentation from Jews For Jesus titled Christ In the Passover. Jean Hanson, a volunteer with Jews For Jesus will make the presentation, and we will follow it with a feedback/question and answer time. While the presentation focuses on the Jewish Passover, it is relevant for everyone seeking to know Christ as it shows how God used the Passover to prepare people for the coming of his Son into the world.

Second, we will celebrate the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday, April 4. On that day, I will conclude my current sermon series with a message on the resurrection by looking at Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead using the theme, “Discovering the One Who Defeats Death.” Our worship planning team is discussing ideas for an uplifting worship service that Sunday. It will provide you with another great opportunity to invite a friend or family member to attend with you.

By early March, we will have flyers ready for you to use to invite people to these events. You can begin now to pray about who you can invite.

See a Special Exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum

The Milwaukee Public Museum is currently exhibiting, in a limited engagement, “Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures.”

We are planning a group trip to see the exhibit and will be announcing a date soon. Keith Schoville, our “resident biblical archaeologist” has agreed to see the exhibit. He will be able to answer some of the questions people in our group might have.

Free Showing of ”Sophie’s Choice”

Care Net Pregnancy Center is hosting a special screening of the newly acclaimed film, "Sarah's Choice" starring Rebecca St. James. This inspirational movie is about a young woman who experiences an unplanned pregnancy and is torn about what to do. With financial pressures mounting and her career at stake, she must make a choice. This free viewing of the film can be seen on February 28 from 4:00 to 6:00 pm at High Point Church. You can sign up for free tickets at Care Net’s web site.

JESUS CAN CALM THE STORMS IN YOUR CHURCH

2010-02-08T09:51:00.001-08:00

On November 10, 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald, one of the largest carriers on the Great Lakes, found herself in the worst storm to hit Lake Superior in more than thirty years. She had sailed the lakes for seventeen years when the storm with wind speeds of 80 miles per hour and gusts of 96 miles per hour and with waves running thirty feet high struck the mighty ship. Shortly after 7:00 pm in the looming darkness the Edmund Fitzgerald's long hull bent, then bent further, then snapped like a broken bone. Her two great pieces foundered momentarily and began their tragic descent some 500 feet, settling 170 feet apart on Lake Superior's bottom. Some say that the breakup happened in ten seconds. One instant she was plowing through waves as high as a three-story building, the next she was gone.

During his ministry, Jesus encountered a sudden storm one evening while crossing the Sea of Galilee with his disciples. Given the much smaller size of their boat and of the Sea of Galilee compared to the Edmund Fitzgerald and Lake Superior, the storm was just as dangerous for Jesus and his disciples. Storms can strike fast and hard on the Sea of Galilee. This one was of such proportions that the disciples were afraid for their lives – even the veteran fisherman in the group who had no doubt navigated many harsh storms on the Sea of Galilee.

Matthew says this terrific storm blasted them “without warning.” Luke calls it a “squall,” which literally means “a hurricane wind” that came down on the lake and swamped the boat. Matthew uses the word “earthquake” to describe the storm. It was as though the lake was being shaken.

I have seen storms come up like that in people’s lives and in the church. One day everything is going fine when without warning a storm hits. Sometimes the storms are personal, but they strike at the heart and soul of a congregation because of the nature of the storm and who it strikes. I have seen this happen when a leader in the church or a member of a leader’s family falls into sin and the entire church is affected. Other storms can be congregational in nature when a major disagreement erupts in the church or a physical calamity strikes. Whether it is personal or congregational, the storm can make it feel like the entire congregation has been shaken.

When the storm struck the Sea of Galilee that night as Jesus and his disciples crossed, Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat – but he had not left them. When they awakened him, Jesus instantly calmed the wind and the water. Just as suddenly as the storm appeared, it disappeared. Here is a compelling thought: the storm did not disturb Jesus, but the unbelief of the disciples did. He said to them, “Where is your faith?”

The disciples should have known Jesus could calm the storm. At this point in his ministry they had already see him perform several miracles. He had touched an “untouchable” leper and healed him, healed a centurion’s servant without even going to his home, and raised a widow’s son from the dead.

If we have followed Jesus for any length of time, we have seen him do some amazing things. Yet in the midst of the storms that disrupt our personal and congregational lives, we do not always believe that Jesus is there in the midst of us. We think he is asleep, not in the boat, but at the switch. Our faith falters, and we wonder if he will wake up. Then he stands in the midst of us and calms our worried souls. He can and does act to bring stability to our lives and the church.

When he calmed the storm that night, the disciples were once again amazed at what he did. People were constantly amazed at what Jesus did. Just read the Gospels again, and notice how often the word is used. The disciples said, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

Who is he, indeed! He is the Master of the universe and the one who loves us deeply. When a storm hits your church, he is the one you need to turn to. He is the one who can calm people’s lives and empower the church to carry on her mission no matter how terrific and threatening the storm is. The next time a storm threatens your church, allow him to work. Then watch in amazement and say, “Who is this? He calms the worst of our storms.”

Invite a Friend to Westwood

2010-02-03T19:33:00.001-08:00

When Jesus called his first disciples, Peter and Andrew, Matthew’s Gospel tells us he saw these two fishermen brothers casting a net into the Sea of Galilee. He said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Shortly afterward he saw two other brothers, James and John and called them. All four immediately left their nets and followed him.

Jesus calls all of his followers to be fishers of men. One way to encourage your friends and family to follow Jesus is to invite them to events and services at Westwood.

We have been working to turn Westwood into a “fishing” church. Toward that end, we have two opportunities coming up in late March and early April that will give you an opportunity to invite someone that you know to come learn about Jesus.

First, we will hold an outreach event on March 26 at 7:00 pm similar to the events we have held in each of the past two years. This year, we will host a presentation from Jews For Jesus titled Christ In the Passover. Jean Hanson, a volunteer with Jews For Jesus will make the presentation, and we will follow it with a feedback/question and answer time. While the presentation focuses on the Jewish Passover, it is relevant for everyone seeking to know Christ as it shows how God used the Passover to prepare people for the coming of his Son into the world.

Second, we will celebrate the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday, April 4. On that day, I will conclude my current sermon series with a message on the resurrection by looking at Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead using the theme, “Discovering the One Who Defeats Death.” Our worship planning team has already begun discussing ideas for our worship service that Sunday. It will provide you with another great opportunity to invite a friend or family member to attend with you.

By early March, we will have flyers ready for you to use to invite people to these events. Begin now to pray about who you can invite. Determine to be a fisher of men.

Church in Managua, Nicaragua, Has Extraordinary Ministry

2010-01-28T10:10:00.001-08:00

Several years ago, Billy and Bette Loft, missionary friends of Christine and I, started a church in Managua, Nicaragua, that has an extraordinary ministry. I just received an email update from them and here are some of the highlights:

· Late last year, they sent a team on a missions trip to Paraguay. During the trip there were 30 decisions for Christ and 10 baptisms. On the weekend of January 17, they reported to the church in Managua about the trip and they had the largest attendance in two years, with an even larger attendance the next weekend.

· Last Monday in a leaders’ meeting, Billy reported to a group of leaders that a couple the church sent to Paraguay to work in the church there was $250 short in monthly support. The leaders committed to making up that support after they are already committed to support above their ability, but now by faith hope to do more.

· The Managua church has another couple ministering in Spain who live on less than half the support of other missionaries in Spain. They went to Spain originally for one year, but have remained for 13 or 14 years. They are developing leaders and growing the church with ministries to the Muslims, Latin immigrants and the Spaniards.

There are stories like that taking place all over the world. We have our own story here in Madison, and missionaries we support around the world have their own stories. God is doing wonderful work wherever you look. I was encouraged to faithfully work hard at ministry by reading the example of the church in Managua. I hope you are encouraged too. If they can minister effectively and faithfully for our Lord, so can we. Indeed, we must if people in Madison are going to know the Lord.

Elders’ and Church Leaders’ Conference on February 20

2010-01-28T10:09:00.001-08:00

Lincoln Christian University in Lincoln, IL, is hosting its annual Elders’ and Church Leaders’ Conference on February 20 from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm. We are putting together a group of people to attend, and the elders have agreed to pay the $30 person registration fee from the Elders’ Fund in our budget.

The theme for the day is “Leading the Simple Church.” Lincoln’s information about the conference says, “If you are looking for ways to move your congregation away from time-wasting activities and refocus on simple processes for moving people from visitors to mature believers, plan to attend LCU’s “Leading the Simple Church.’” Best-selling author of Simple Church, Dr. Thom Rainer will present a three-part seminar covering the reasons for, the process of becoming, and the results of the simple church. In addition to the seminars, a variety of smaller forums will be offered. Click here for complete information and schedule.

If you are interested and have questions, contact me. If you know, you would like to attend with our group, let Chardel know.

Join the Million Pound Challenge – Help our Food Pantry

2010-01-28T10:08:00.001-08:00

I hope you have seen our information in announcements about the Million Pound Challenge and are considering participating in it. You can help out our Food Pantry by doing so.

For each pound of weight you lose, or every hour you work out in January through May, 10 pounds of food will be donated to Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin by the Princeton Club and other corporate sponsors, up to one million pounds! You can also make a financial contribution; 10 pounds of food will be donated for every dollar you contribute. You can even choose which food pantry the donation will go to (suggestion: Westwood’s!) Work out wherever you want and someone donates food on your behalf, how’s that for motivation?

Membership to the Princeton Club is not required for participation, but you must register and log your progress on their website. To register, go to www.princetonclub.net/mpc. When you register, join ‘Team Westwood – Will Work Out for Food.’ and choose Westwood Christian Church as your designated food pantry!

If you have any questions, please contact Rachelle Purington at 608-345-3172 or rashelly18@yahoo.com, or Chardel at Westwood’s office, 274-0266 or cjohnston@westwoodchristian.com.

Has Rock River Christian Camp Blessed Your Life?

2010-01-28T10:07:00.001-08:00

Rock River Christian Camp, the church camp we promote in Polo, IL, and encourage people to attend, is seeking stories to share about how the camp has blessed your life. They will use the stories in a promotional campaign they are working on. If you have been blessed by RRCC and would like to share your story, write a short paragraph and email it (office@rockrivercc.net) or mail it (RRCC, 16486 W IL Route 64, Polo, IL 61064) to the camp.

Registration is now open for the summer camping season at Rock River. If you would like to send your child to a week or more of church camp, check out all the dates and other details at www.rockrivercc.net. Application forms are available on the website to be downloaded and printed. We also have information available at Westwood. Westwood will pay ½ of the registration cost.

John Navis, Westwood’s Missionary to Brazil, Sends Encouraging Report

2010-01-28T10:06:00.001-08:00

John Navis, who we support as a church planting missionary to Brazil, sent us an encouraging report in December about their ministry. We will put more complete information in next week’s Caller, but here are some highlights:

· The church in Sao Luis, Brazil held their annual Christmas Supper on December 25 at 7:00 PM.

· One week later, they held their annual church meeting and “greeting the New Year celebration.

· The church in Sao Luis celebrated their 16^th Anniversary in October and had two baptisms on the day of the celebration.

· The church had 12 baptisms in 2009, 2 more than 2008.

Haiti Relief

2010-01-14T08:14:00.003-08:00

If you are interested in donating through a Christian organization for relief work in Haiti following the earthquake earlier this week, consider doing so through International Disaster Emergency Services (IDES), a ministry of Christian churches. They do all their relief work directly through churches, ministries, and missionaries who are already working in a country, so all the funds go directly where they are most needed. You can donate through their website (http://www.ides.org/). You can also get information at their website for mailing them a check.

The Wisconsin State Journal ran an article on January 14 about a group from Central Christian Church in Beloit being on one of the last planes out of Port-au-Prince before the earthquake. If you missed the article, you can read it online at this link.