Category: Superindendent

By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC

There isn’t a much better place to be in the middle of summer than our beautiful Pacific Northwest.  This is God’s country!  The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! (Isaiah 55:12).  Jesus said that if we don’t praise him, the stones will cry out.  We join the psalmist, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6).

We often hear that mission begins and ends with worship. It’s only when we see God’s worth that we follow Him; that we join His work.  But when Jesus returns there will be no more mission, but our worship will go on.  We worship now and we will worship in the new heaven and new earth!

We answer Creator’s call to join His family and work.  We respond to God’s holy and infallible Word because It is real – God breathed.  We know that we are filled with the very presence of God Himself as the Holy Spirit fills, seals, gifts, enlightens, comforts, and leads.  God sets us on redemptive pathways and invites us into healing and wholeness.  God pours out His infinite love and endless grace to us His precious ones.   He’s not just an idea, a moral code, or a life accessory.  He is our God!  How can we not worship Him?  When we are asked to do something difficult…when God asks us to go somewhere we don’t want to…when we have to let go of something…when something is costly… – it is there, in those telling moments, when God is most real and present.  We give ourselves to Him.

“Worship” comes from the Old English for “ascribing worth.”  We are worshippers of what we give our best to: our time and resources, our affections and imagination.  All around us, there are worshippers of achievement, entertainment, knowledge, material consumption, even different causes.  As a follower of Christ, how are you ascribing worth to God in your life?

As I walk these beautiful days of summer, I want to share just a few ways I’ve been worshipping God.  I share these not as some kind of formula or as one who has arrived, but I share as one who is desperately wanting and needing to give God my all.

God is an amazing artist.  I keep looking to Mt. Rainier and our surrounding mountain ranges.  They take my breath away.  The bounty of the land, beauty of our waters, and those breath-taking sunsets bring me closer to God.  Every evening that I’m home at 9pm, the kids and I have sat outside and we’ve shared Scripture and reflections with each other through Lectio Divina.  I continue to pray to the Lord of the Harvest daily at 9:38PM (reflecting Matt 9:38), even while at the night market in Arcadia, CA and just before a movie started!  I’ve actively been journaling and spending more time reflecting on where God has taken me and what He might be saying.  I’m nearing 100 pages completed in my bullet journal.  At moments of desperation this summer, I’ve fasted and prayed. I’ve cried out to God when it’s been hard.  Right now, I share with the conference staff a hunger for God’s presence.  I’ve put on worship music or sermons instead of podcasts or news.  I’m sitting still and slowing down more.  Yes, I’m so inconsistent and not perfect, at all.  But I love to worship God

My prayer is that you would grow in worshipping God during this backside of summer.  Worship and serve God with nothing less than your whole beings.  Surrender, turn, confess, reconcile, and walk in the light.  Be deliberate.  Be accountable.  Share your worship and invite others into in.  Remember that old Matt Redman classic?

“I’m coming back to the heart of worship

It’s all about you

It’s all about you.

I’m sorry Lord for the things I’ve made it.

When it’s all about you.

It’s all about you, Jesus.”

(The Heart of Worship)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1-2

By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC

Conference Family, I just returned from Omaha, NE after Gather 2019/Annual Meeting concluded.  It was a good hard annual meeting.

It was an especially good meeting for the PacNWC. Communitas Cov, Spokane, (Asher Ernst) and Iglesia Esperanza Viva, Kent (Esau Del Arca) were welcomed into membership in the ECC. We are thrilled that we now have three vibrant churches in Spokane after a time, not long ago, that we thought we may have none.  And IEV is now our second Spanish-language member church (with Iglesia Latinoamericana, Bellevue). We have been praying to the Lord of the Harvest daily and he answers our prayers in these beautiful ways.  Welcome churches!

In addition to our new member churches, we celebrated the ordinations of Chaplain David Arnott (Navy, Whidbey Island), Pastor Stephen Bjorlin (Irvington Cov, Portland), and Chaplain Lisa Eastman (Providence Regional Medical Center)! Congratulations!  We also showed our appreciation with our Clergy Lifetime Service Recognition for seven of our own: Harvey Drake, David Greenidge, Rick Hampton, Rick Mylander, Lawrence Pennings, Paul Petersen, and Brian Wiele.  We are so grateful for your service!

We also brought 2,599 names of the denominational total 14,826 for B.L.E.S.S. this year.  And I loved that so many of you were part of the 60% of all ECC churches that participated in Immerse. Good things happen when God’s people are in the Word and are BLESSing people!  There was much good news and many important decisions made.  For Gather resources, summary and recordings see link below.

Gather was also an especially hard meeting.  We removed First Covenant, Minneapolis, one of our historic founding churches, and two pastors including Steve Armfield, who is especially beloved.  Steve has served in multiple places of influence and importance throughout our body over decades.  I first met Steve when we both served on the Board of Ordered Ministry almost 20 years ago.  After each vote, we palpably saw the spectrum of some with great relief and others great despair; some a sense of reaffirmation and others disorientation.  There was a thick cloud of difference in what people believed the Covenant to be.  Though the votes surpassed the supermajority threshold, it’s important to note that there was not a small number of delegates that did not agree.  Yes, the church has spoken and there is a level of clarity achieved.  But we also clearly saw that there exists significant differences and opinions about history, identity, and how to approach these types of consequential decisions.  Deep convictions of discernment, theology, and practice were at acute odds.  For today, my word for us is to proceed with caution and care-fulness.

I have many reflections but I cannot capture them in this article.  But I feel compelled to address a couple of thoughts here.  Please give me grace in understanding that these are not exhaustive.  I attempt here to briefly name and describe them, but I urge us to stay connected in unpacking these and others matters that you are thinking through as well.

Keep Learning/Keep Talking – It doesn’t matter where you are on the vote or theologically, these matter are important concerning the mission field God places us in.  We cannot avoid it or pretend it’s not real.  The complexities of how this affects our mission is vital.  I also reflect on how much attention and resources have gone into all of this compared to other areas of our mission and other groups of people.  Let’s keep learning and keep talking.

Avoid Harm – In our pain and even in our relief, it’s easy to be reactionary, to rant on social media, or to push matters in other unhealthy, even un-Christlike ways.  Please stop.  I’ve been shocked by some of what I’ve seen and heard.  For example, I was aghast that two of our PacNWC pastors were verbally attacked in the hallway after the votes.  It unfortunately was experienced to have racial overtones as well.  This is from the enemy!  Stop making others sound like they are inexperienced, unwelcoming, or unloving.  Stop making others sound like they aren’t wrestling with the same Bible.  Stop putting things out for all to see, where in the end, the very people we are reaching out to, and especially those who are LGBTQ, will think increasingly negatively about the church.  We must hold God’s glory safe in our hands as the church.  Protect that, and each other – avoid harm.  In Christ, let’s be better than that sister and brothers.

Answers are not easy to come by right now.  In fact, words are difficult to find.  In my monthly update to the our executive board yesterday, I wrote this:

Sometimes when your whole being is tired and things around you are in such a swirl, like soldiers or first responders, we naturally fall back to our “training.”  My training and instincts take me to truths like Psalm 18:1-2

I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Sometimes there are no words.  Sometimes we just need to sit.  Sometimes we need to wait on the Lord as the sun beats down.  But we find that he will provide shade under the towering shadow of his big-ness.  God holds us today.  He is our rock and our deliverer.

[Click Here] to visit the Gather 2019 Recourse Page including live stream recordings, agenda, and delegate summary.

By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC

This Tuesday ten pastors and I are engaging Francis Chan’s latest book Letters to the Church during our Clergy Conversations time.  I read it in January and felt convicted by the prophetic word it is to the American/Western church.  Conference staff read it and struggled through Chan’s challenges which led to creating this space for our pastors to discuss the book. Though Chan differs at certain points of theology with Covenanters, his passion pierces.  It’s not a perfect book, but it was difficult to put down. “God intends to change the world through the local church.”  I ask myself, do I really believe that?  Do you?  If we do, is it clear what the church is to be?  Chan states, “It is imperative that we differentiate between what we want and what God commands.”

Jesus lays it out, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).  Jesus is not lacking clarity here, but I think we’ve set up a type of discipleship that does not call people to full surrender or sacrifice.  We’ve allowed the discipleship bar to be low, easy, and comfortable.  To make things worse, we don’t have clear pathways of evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development in our churches.  This is the family business, isn’t it?  This should be our expertise.  If there’s anything any of us should be great at, it’s making disciples who can make disciples.

When we start to be about something different than what our family business is about, we begin to go through mission drift and become something that we call church, but isn’t the church. Mike Breen writes in Building a Discipling Culture, “If you make disciples, you always get the Church.  But if you make a church you rarely get disciples.”  What are we investing our  time, attention, and resources toward?  We get into a rut of being busy doing a lot of Christian stuff, but not actually making disciples.  That’s like being Best Buy but all we sell is overhead projectors.  How’s the family business where you are?

We seem to overfeed minds and neglect emotions and passion.  We over-study and under-serve and under-respond.  Or we push in areas of justice and mercy, but we seldomly call people to holiness and a deeper life in Christ.  Either way, Jesus’ words stand clear.  If we want to follow Jesus, we must give up our own way, be ready for sacrifice and suffering, and follow him.  In an instant-gratification culture and a world that frames truth as indefinite and personal, this is a difficult way. God wants our money. He wants our time.  He wants our sexuality.  God wants our pursuits.  He is a jealous God, and wants all of us – heart, soul, mind and strength.

A.W. Tozer concludes, ”Only a disciple can make a disciple.”  PacNWC Family, go and make disciples, as you follow Jesus yourself!

By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC

I walk away from our 129th Conference Annual Meeting and Ministerial Association Annual Meeting excited and blessed!  Thank you West Hills Covenant Church for lovingly and generously hosting us!  Your home was a perfect space to gather, interact, and linger as we soaked in the warm beautiful sunshine God gave us.  Your attention to detail and the gifts of hospitality blessed us.  On behalf of the Conference – thank you!

It’s a new day for our annual meetings.  We renamed it our Annual Celebration and put our focus on only essential business.  We concentrated on our spiritual life together and sharing in small groups to encourage and spur each other on.  We wanted to return to our roots as Mission Friends and invest in our relationship together and concentrate on our shared mission work.  It was a precious time to be together.

I leave our meeting excited because we saw at least 432 people come to Christ this past year in our churches!  Rob Mohrweis reminded us that we should also add the 111 students that made decisions for Christ at camp as well!  I kept hearing stories of God using your Easter services to touch even more people.  I can’t wait to hear about how many chose Jesus this next year!  Wow!

It was also amazing to report the many ways our chaplains are ministering in settings outside our churches and how we are bringing God’s shalom through working with students, feeding and clothing people, creating space to talk about race, work with refugees and immigrants, visit prisoners, support military families, and partner with non-profits and parachurch organizations.  God’s Kingdom is truly being established around and through us!

We also celebrated Iglesia Esperanza Viva, Kent, and Communitas, Spokane being voted in as member churches.  And the celebration increased as we introduced three additional church plants that are being incubated: a new work in Spanaway from Esperanza Viva, Epiphany Covenant and Seattle Chinese Covenant in Bellevue.  Though we have not planted any churches in two years God is now answering our prayers.  I believe He is saying, “NOW, PacNWC, now…!”  Wow!

What I appreciated most was our times of worship (thank you Pastor Stephen Bjorlin/Irvington Cov and Brandi Sanders!), being in Scripture, and prayer together.  It was good to get back to our core.  We came and sought God together.

Church, may we continue to stay watchful in prayer and as we practice the presence of God into this new year.  May we see where the Spirit is leading us and boldly take steps in that direction.  May we find new ways to serve and walk faithfully.  May we be generous in how we share Christ with people.  May we love mercy and do justice.  May we plant more churches.  May we step into this near year with reckless abandon.  We concluded the Annual Meeting with this benediction:

Church, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  Love and serve Him with your entire being.  Go into all the earth and make disciples of all people and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  You are loved.  Go in peace.

[Click Here] to visit our 2019 Annual Celebration Page with full report in English and Spanish, resources and more.

By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC

Lenten blessings!  There is much to look forward to this month with Holy Week and Easter quickly upon us and the Conference Annual Meeting Celebration the week after that!  Per last months article’s call to fasting I want to report that I gave up coffee and watching Golden State Warriors basketball games.  For anybody who knows me, that was a “go big or go home” decision!  First world challenges….I know, I know… I share to encourage and to warm up being on the journey together and not from a spirit of bringing attention to myself.  How is this spiritual discipline going for you?  I’d love to hear – really…

Though caffeine and entertainment may seem shallow, it has been a meaningful discipline and journey for me.  As I leaned into Lent, what surprisingly emerged was also a commitment to add more concerted times of prayer.  The fasting sent me deeper.  It’s been so good… I actually scheduled time in my calendar – so necessary!  It was a commitment to fast from the busyness that is life and practice what I say, teach, and preach I believe in but truthfully too often I’m a practical atheist.  I can clearly communicate to you that I believe in God and that I believe in the power of prayer.  But my life does not as clearly reflect how real God and prayer is. Martin Luther said, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”  I really need to breathe!  I don’t want to spiritually suffocate!

Scripture shines light on this appropriation of super-power.  It gives us the good stuff, not the artificial stuff.  Like a dear pants for those cool streams, our souls long to connect with God.  We daily sing and sit and practice God’s presence in a way that we linger at these live-giving, purpose-sharpening waters.  We daily practice and lean into surrender as we make God our absolute center (Ps. 42).  It truly is our superpower.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.¹

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you.  The Lord…hears the prayer of the righteous. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.  Devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful.²

Charles Spurgeon said, ”True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is far deeper than that – it is spiritual transaction with the Creator of Heaven and Earth.” Wow wow wow!

Friends, as we walk closer to Holy Week, it is my prayer that you would not merely find things to do; go to services, fast, listen to sermons.  I trust that you will sit with God, see him, experience him.  I hope that you will fervently cry out to God and linger.  I pray that your thirsty soul will be quenched with the real stuff and that the miracle of Easter will continue to absolutely change your life.  Holy Spirit stir us to prayer and stir us in our prayers!

Easter blessings.  I look forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting Celebration at West Hills.  Yes, we will be setting time aside to pray together.  Breathe!

¹  Philippians 4:6, 7; Romans 12:12

²  Luke 11:9; Proverbs 15:29, 1 Chronicles 16:11; Colossians 4:2

By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The imposition of ashes this Wednesday is a tangible reminder of the fragility of our mortality. Our reality in our inner world and worldwide is brokenness. I served in a leadership development organization for young Asian North American pastors that created a unique three-retreat cohort. The outline was Our Brokenness, Brokenness in Our Churches, and Our Broken World. On the surface I’m sure this doesn’t sound like particularly inspirational training, but we believed that embracing our brokenness was a vital foundation for ministry health. Ash Wednesday certainly helps us begin in like space and compels us to not run too quickly to Resurrection.

As you step into this Lenten season, I call us to a higher level of noted intentionality. Mary and I often catch ourselves complaining about “first world problem.” We spend way too much emotional energy about the efficiency of our cell phones, or what brand to buy, or a package coming a day late. There is spiritual urgency, a necessity, as Western followers of Christ to keep fasting as a regular spiritual discipline. In our abundance and relative ease-of-life, it is too easy for us to forget God. In the speed in which we travel our days and the amount of stuff we commit ourselves to, it’s impossible for us to know God. Our belief and sense of God is way too small.

Martin Luther once admonished the theologian Erasmus by saying, “Your thoughts of God are too human.” Erasmus thought about God in the ways we would think about a human. He had caged God, tamed and domesticated him for his own purposes. In very similar ways, I think we do this too. The book Your God is Too Small by JB Phillips speaks directly to us.

If you don’t already, I call you to regular fasting to grow closer and more dependent on God. You will hear his voice more clearly. You will see the Spirit more regularly. And let us all join in a Lenten fast to raise our intentionality. Let’s slow down. Let’s refocus. Let’s check our priorities and what our hearts truly love. Let’s do what is befitting God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. Let us show with our lives, our time, our efforts, our attention, our worship of Jesus our Savior. We are dust. God is here. Let’s be here too.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7 (KJV)

May God breath his Spirit into you, the breath of life that only he can give. And as you walk your Lenten path, may you experience the fullness of life as God intends for you. May he do his good work of forming you out of dust. Lenten blessings to you.

BLESS Sunday is March 17th and I want to bring your attention to the importance of it. Evidence in most churches today reflects that our evangelism temperature is low. Our life’s work is disciple making. This is the core of our family business. Our product is more followers of Christ. But too often, we are too busy and too distracted that we are not meaningfully connected to the people in our sphere of influence that God places us in.

Researcher and writer Thom Rainer states from his studies that on average only about five in every 100 adults in churches are actively sharing Jesus with others. He also states that only a meager 6-7.5% of churches would be categorized as “effective evangelistic churches”; churches that have at least 10 per 100 adults actively sharing Christ with people. I would love it if all 75 of our churches were living as effective evangelistic churches! I would love for us to be known for our high evangelistic temperature and passion for intentionally helping people take steps closer to their Savior. I would actually love if the reality was more like 20% of adults in churches living evangelistically. That would be a game-changer and systemically shift the tone and culture of our congregations.

The BLESS portal on the ECC web page has amazing resources for you to tap into including the brand new BLESS Journal for Teens that our very own Erik Cave helped create. I trust you were one of the 449 of our 875 ECC churches that walked through BLESS since it begun. I pray that your people received one of the 316,791 bulletins that were ordered. In the portal you will find sermon series ideas, flyers/posters, PPT’s, creative ideas, Spanish language resources, and more.

For those of you who have been around the Covenant for a while you will remember earlier iterations of our intentional evangelism work with Bring My World to Christ and 72. BLESS is in the same lineage with commitment cards that are collected and brought to the conference and ECC Annual meetings for prayer and celebration. I urge you to use March 17th, or another Sunday, to challenge and resource your people. Let’s bring a flood of cards as we commit ourselves to Begin with prayer, Listen with care, Eat together, Serve in love, and Share our story – to go and make disciples! Mark your calendars and make plans to fan your church’s fire. Let’s go and BLESS some people, Peoples!

Introductory letter from the BLESS portal:

Welcome to BLESS
Make and Deepen Disciples is excited to introduce you to a new way of thinking about evangelism. We know that God has always sought to reach and restore the world through blessing. Since the time of Abraham, God has blessed his people so that we might bless those who do not know him. We invite you to practice these five simple practices with those in your spheres of influence—friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors and colleagues—the people outside of God’s family—with the hope that we may help them travel further in their journey toward making faith commitments to Jesus. As we seek to authentically BLESS others daily in the midst of your deepening relationships with the people in your life, we believe God will use each of us to bless our world with Christ!

For his glory and kingdom,

Michelle Sanchez
Executive Minister of Make and Deepen

By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC

New Years greetings to you as you usher in 2019. It was wonderful to be back with both sides of our family over Christmas. The sun break was welcomed, but time with family was extra special.  Over the years one of the highlights of the holidays has always been with my mom’s side that included her 4 siblings, their children and now 27 grandkids.  It’s always a time of hearty reunion and celebration.  It certainly was true again this year.  As I pray about 2019 for the Conference, I think of this – how strange would it have been if I walked into this year’s family party with a new girlfriend?!  How absurd would it be if I went through the evening as if nothing was wrong, equally interacting with my wife of 28 years and the other?  Scandalous!

For our 76 churches and over 13,000 Sunday attendees, there is one thing I want to call us to in the new year – faithfulness.

As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. (Gal 6:14 NLT)

My prayer is that you and I, through our churches, and together as mission partners, would have this kind of clarity and focus.  I ask myself and I ask you, is Jesus your core and your passion?  Has the world’s expectations, status, styles, upgrades, schedules comfort…taken over your soul?  May it never be!  May our interest in the world be crucified!

May we not be lukewarm

May we live and serve with undivided hearts

May we not dumb down church/discipleship or allow it to be shaped by our self interests or fear.

May we worship God with nothing less than all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

May everything, every choice, every pathway, every pursuit, and every investment flow out of the reality of Christ.

May we fully surrender our lives to Jesus and walk in faithfulness!.

Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. (Eph 4:21-24).

Wherever God has you, I trust you will continue to experience the hope, peace, love, and joy of Emanuel.  God is right here.  I pray that your choices will allow space for your affections to  warm and your commitment to Jesus deepen.  I stand in hope that passions increase for the ways of God to show through small and tectonic movements of renewal and redemption.  I join in singing with all those who gave voice in the quiet of their hearts and in the volume of grand choirs,

Sing a new song to the Lord!  Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!  Sing to the Lord; praise his name.  Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.  Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.  Tell everyone about the amazing things he does. (Psalm 96:1-3 NLT)

May the God of the new, as we start this new year, breathe his Spirit of life into you and your church today!  On behalf of the Conference staff, Happy New Year!

By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC

God with Us – Emmanuel.  When I get past my religious habituations, the idea of Emmanuel takes my breath away.  Our ancient prophet longingly declared amidst intense international turmoil that a Savior would come.  Under high political and spiritual pressure, the oracle went to public spaces and the courts of kings declaring that this savior would be our Prince of Peace – Everlasting, Wonderful, and Mighty!  He would come to save us and bring hope and peace to our broken world. Come LORD Jesus, come, our Savior and Prince of Peace, come!

Church, as you enter this Advent Season and walk through our annual rhythms of remembering and celebrating the coming of our Prince, I urge you to take time to camp on the everything -changing truth of God with Us.  Spend time on God’s resolute and passionate movement toward us; to be with us.

Our ancient prophet emphasized two main thrusts with this.  The prophet first speaks to his contemporaries that were distressed and low on hope. Isaiah wants them to know that God sees them, has not forgotten them, and will come. They desperately needed to change the prevailing despair.  And day after day he speaks boldly at this. In this way, I believe he speaks to us today as well.  We are reminded everyday of the pain and suffering in our communities and around the world. God with Us, Wonderful Counselor Mighty God, come and be with us who are suffering: our intimate losses, life-draining diseases, frustrating un/underemployment, our ever-present brokenness and sin.  We join creation in groaning. Holy Spirit comfort the broken-hearted and bring Your healing balm. You are here with us. You move to our broken hearts.

The prophet also vividly paints that, with zeal, God will begin a reality where His righteousness and justice will never end (Isa 9:6-7).  It is a call to treat people rightly with fairness, generosity, and equity. He repeatedly and extensively spoke in those public and royal places declaring that God’s people should care for the poor and needy, commit to follow God’s ways, and pursue economic and social justice.  He calls us to not just convenient charity or easy discipleship, but a whole-life commitment to radical generosity both relationally and materially.  Isaiah loudly declares God with Us is by nature a movement outward.  It’s a movement into our broken world.

That Creator would be concerned about a sinner like me – amazing. That He would choose to literally take on flesh and walk on this earth – amazing. God with Us is truly the ultimate move.  I pray God’s peace this Advent as He meets you in your brokenness and as you share the peace of your life in Christ with others.  I pray God’s hope as you move into your communities and, with zeal, live out God’s righteousness and justice. I pray God’s joy over you as you celebrate the coming of our Messiah.  Christmas blessings!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.  (Isaiah 9:6-7)

The realities that hang in between Solomon’s time for everything, and a season for every [activity/event/matter] under heaven reminds us of our human experience.  We know it all too well these days.  Our hearts cry out as we see a seemingly growing number of heinous acts.  The fruit of hatred ripens as so many voices water its roots.  And along the way, too many people choose to stay isolated, ignorant, and ill.  Have mercy on us O God….

So many realities hanging between born and die…kill and heal…tear down and rebuild….weep and laugh…mourn and dance…  Solomon says, I have seen the burden God has laid on humans.  But then he moves to He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of people…I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.  Man, God, we’re desperately counting on that…

So much hangs in between these experiences.  But under, around, beside, above and penetrating through and through, we remember this truth.  Because of Christ, we are infused with the same power that raised Christ from the dead (Eph. 1:20)!  Our tanks are filled with resurrection jet fuel for life as we live as the church.  We don’t exist to stay isolated, ignorant, or ill.  I love The Voice paraphrase that shouts out, There is nothing over Him. He’s above all rule, authority, power, and dominion; over every name invoked, over every title bestowed in this age and the next. God has placed all things beneath His feet and anointed Him as the head over all things for His church. This church is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

We dare not live in a mindset of scarcity.  Check us if we ever stay in despair.  The hope that comes from the empty tomb and the actual indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our very bodies, compels us to turn up the lights and fan the flames. It moves us from the in-between hanging that makes up our broken world to remember we are Christ’s Church.  And God call us into all this world’s brokenness to bring his change and transformation.  Turn off the news and the newsfeeds.  Open your Bibles, pray and fast.  Go out and be the church like never before.  Resurrection and Holy Spirit POWER be with you.