One of the good things about Crown of Life is that we take Jesus’ words “Go and make disciples” and “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria and to the ends of the earth” seriously.   Our mission statement as a congregation which is part of our membership class has been updated and simplified to this:  Our mission as a church is to get the gospel to as many people as possible and as many people as possible to the gospel.”   For that reason, we began our third worship service, not in Corona where we already have two services, but in Beaumont.  And for that reason, we are getting ready to start a fourth service in Riverside.

I know that not everyone sees it the same way.  It has meant some changes for people, changes like the Corona service times moving by half an hour (by the way, the Beaumont service time moved half an hour too) when Pastor Tim couldn’t work with us any longer; changes like being more mindful of how long each service lasts because there is another service that starts and drive time for the pastor needs to be part of the equation.  Changes yes, but hardly terrible sacrifices.  Adjustments yes, but not really monumental upheavals.  Inconveniences, sure but not really so much when we remember what the apostles and especially the Lord Jesus himself endured.

Here’s why I think that one of the good things about Crown of Life is that we are a multi-site congregation:

-About 40 people each week who worship at Crown of Life in Beaumont but wouldn’t be doing so if we were not multi-site.

-4 musicians at Crown of Life Beaumont that wouldn’t be using their gifts to praise their God if we were not multi-site.

-A Lutheran VBS with a high water mark of 18 children attending at Noble Creek Community Center last summer that would not have taken place if we were not multi-site.

-Baptisms, confirmations, the Lord’s Supper for new families who would  not be driving to Crown of Life in Corona if we were not multi-site.

What being multi-site is all about is getting the gospel to as many people as possible and as many people as possible to the gospel.   What if St. Paul had said, “Let’s stop at Troas and not go to Philippi in Macedonia, in Europe”?  What if Philip the deacon had decided, “Jerusalem is far enough” and never witnessed in Samaria or to the Ethiopian official?  Multi-site is mission work.  In Manitowoc, WI where I vicared, First German Lutheran Church started every other WELS church in town.   In Alaska, where I had my first call, Pastor Zietlow, the first WELS pastor in the state and pastor of Faith Lutheran in Anchorage also started churches in Kenai, Eagle River, Fairbanks, Wasilla and South Anchorage even if that meant him holding a service on Sunday morning in Anchorage, flying to Kenai for a Sunday afternoon service and then flying to Fairbanks for a Sunday night service.

Multi-site is about Crown of Life doing mission work.  It’s us answering Jesus call to be fishers of men.  It’s us saying, “Here am I. Send me.  Send me” and not saying “let’s get Synod to send someone.”

Multi-site is all about the souls of people for whom Jesus died.  And that’s a good thing.

My last post dealt with the SIN of grumbling, complaining and arguing.  One of the consequences of grumbling, complaining and arguing is that it accentuates the negative and blinds one to the positive.   So with this post, let me write a bit about one of the good things at Crown of LIfe…King’s Kids.

King’s Kids is our school-age child care center operated in our building in Corona.  A bit of history.  King’s Kids was supposed to start operations when we moved into our building right after construction but because of a mistake by our architect in the occupancy code listing on the plans, it started about 9 months late.   There were no corrections to the actual building.  We just needed the occupancy code on the blueprints to read E for education so that we could get a license for a childcare center.  Those 9 months plus a six month delay in actual construction almost sank King’s Kids before it opened because we had a staff person to pay during this time without any income from the center to pay him.  At opening, the center had a start up loan from the church that went just over six figures.  It seemed that every King’s Kids Board meeting dealt with the issue of “can we keep the doors open.”  At that time a really high census of children at the center on any given day was 5-8 children.

I mention the history because when we compare then to now, we realize that  God is so very good.   Today King’s Kids on a normal day will provide care for about 75 children a day, 20-25 before school and 45-55 after school.   We have a staff of 7, not including Tim who directs operations and me, the pastor.  If you add us to the staff, it makes 9.  We drop off and pick up at 9 different Corona schools.   We also provide care for PM kindergarteners before school and AM kindergarteners after their school day ends.   Each day, there is a Bible story time in the morning before the children leave for school and two Bible times after school because there are so many children.  The children learn about Jesus from us and for many, we are their only source of that learning.  We teach them Christian songs, prayers and Bible verses.    That start up debt I mentioned in the paragraph above has been cut in half.   We are easily the largest child care center picking up at most of the schools.   Yesterday we picked up 30 children from just two schools.  King’s Kids not only pays its staff, but also 1/2 of the utilities for the building, a small share of the monthly mortgage payments the church makes as well as all its own expenses.

We have a strong King’s Kids Board of three very good men who care deeply about this ministry and give up their own time and treasure to support it.   But the most amazing blessing is that every day about 75 children are led to Jesus.  And that is not just one of the good things.  That is a very good thing.

Last night the Tuesday night growth group was studying Philippians at Connie’s house.  We were in Philippians 2 and had just read Paul’s encouragement to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his purpose.”   In these words, Paul is talking to the saved and telling us to work at living like a saved person.  This is a sanctification, not a justification passage.   Then Paul begins a section where he explains  how to live a sanctified life and he writes, “Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.”     There are so many things that Paul could have pointed to in talking about living our faith, working out our salvation, being children of God and shining like stars.  He could have talked about idolatry or adultery, about stealing or swearing.  But he didn’t.  He said, “Do everything without complaining or arguing.”

Remember, in many ways, the Philippian church was special.  These are the people Paul thanks God for each time he remembers them.  This is the group who are encouraged to “rejoice” over and over again.  So why start this section with these words, “do everything without complaining or arguing”?

In 1 Corinthians 10:13, the apostle writes, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.”   Back up a few verses to vs 10 where Paul is ending a section talking about temptation that is common to man in which he lists idolatry, sexual immorality, testing the Lord.  In verse 10, Paul writes, “And do not grumble…”

Do you think that maybe Paul begins this section on the sanctified life in Philippians, writing to a Christian congregation where so many things were right, because they struggled with one of the temptations common to man — grumbling, complaining, arguing?

In fact, in the history of God’s people, both Old Testament and New Testament, this seems to have been a particularly troubling temptation.  Israel grumbled over and over again.  The New Testament church heard the complaints of the Judaizers that too much had changed, of the Grecian Jews that their widows were being overlooked, of Paul and Barnabas as they argued whether to take John Mark with them on the second missionary journey.

Let me suggest that this is still a temptation common to man.  It’s not the only one, of course.   But Christians who would never think to do idolatry or adultery or test God yield to the temptation to grumble, complain, argue.  Does it afflict us at Crown of Life?  It afflicted the Philippians or Paul would not have specifically mentioned it.  It is one of the temptations common to man listed in 1 Corinthians.  And we too, at Crown of Life are sinners just like the Philippians and Corinthians.

But don’t lose hope.  Paul continues to the Corinthians with these words of hope, “and God is faithful.  He will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able.”   We don’t have to give in to this temptation common to man.  We have a faithful God who gives us the strength, his strength, to resist this temptation.  So when we hear the whine, the complaint, the grumble coming from our lips, let’s recognize it for the temptation that it is.  And then let’s remember what Luther said about temptation.  “We can no more stop temptation from coming to us than we can stop birds from flying overhead, but we don’t have to let them make a nest in our hair.”

This past Saturday, Crown of Life called Pastor Jon Enter to be our associate pastor.  At the meeting, after the meeting, and in conversations on Sunday morning, I’ve fielded lots of very good questions because this is new to us and how our Synod has chosen to organize the calling of a pastor is very different from adding staff in the business world.

First we speak about the calling of a pastor as a “divine call” and the call document itself that is sent to the pastor called says, “that we trust that in this call you will hear the voice of your Lord Jesus Christ.”  The divinity of the call is not in how the call is issued but Scriptural truth that it is God who gives pastors to the church.   When Matthias was selected to replace Judas, the list of qualified men was narrowed to two based on a set of qualifications and then lots were cast to select Matthias.   The call is divine because it comes from God through the church whether we cast ballots or lots.

In our churches in the WELS, we have agreed that the call seeks the man not the man seeks the call.  There is nothing in the Bible that lays out how a pastor is called.  It seems that sometimes they were elected from the congregation, sometimes they were appointed from within the congregation and sometimes they were brought in from the outside.  We could conduct interviews prior to extending a call; we could ask for submission of resumes or conduct preaching trials.  Other Christian churches do so and the fact that they do doesn’t make them any less Christian.  But we have agreed to commit the matter to prayer and commend the decision to the pastor called and the Spirit’s wisdom.

I was asked about salary and whether we would be more likely to gain an acceptance of our call if we paid more.  Most WELS churches use Synod code as the guide for salary decision of their church workers.   Synod code has built into it a system for respecting education, responsibility and experience.  It also includes a COLA for the part of the country in which the pastor serves.  This is an objective standard that removes salary as the major consideration in accepting or declining the call.  As a self-supporting church, Crown of Life is not forced to pay synod code but we have always recognized the wisdom in using an objective standard prepared by professional HR people outside of the congregation.  Crown of Life has always paid synod code and because it is wise to do so.

If you have questions about this, please call me or talk with me after church and I will do my best to explain.  The way the Lord and his church works is not always the way the world works.   In the meantime, please keep Pastor Enter and his wife, Deborah and his church in Florida in your prayers as he deliberates our call to serve in the IE.

As I write this, we are six whole days into the new year and I cannot help but wonder how God’s people at Crown of Life are doing with their resolutions.    It’s been said that New Year’s resolutions are “resolutions that go in one year and out the other.”

I came across this blog post for Joseph Sangl.  After listening to the struggles of people with saving, giving and handling finances through two go rounds of “Financial Peace University,”  I think he’s spot on.  Dave Ramsey said that same thing.   So please read on.

“Make Your Goals AUTOMATIC

Despite our best efforts, we can fail to achieve the goals that we have established.  One key way that we can ensure that our financial goal is achieved is to make each one AUTOMATIC.

• Want to give away $4,000 this year to your church?  Set up on-line giving to make it automatic!  $333.33 each month will ensure the goal is achieved.
  
• Saving $2,000 for your emergency fund in 2012?  Establish an automated transfer of $166.66 each month from your regular bank account into a savings account and the goal will be accomplished in December!
• Want to max out your Roth IRA this year?  Set up an automated transfer of $416.66 each month into your Roth IRA and you will achieve $5,000 by year’s end (or save $500/month if you are over age 50 and are catching up with $6,000/year)!
• Want to pay cash for a $1,500 vacation in July?  Set up an automated savings account to save $250/month and you will be able to do so!

Trust me – it is usually NOT EASY to force yourself to set up these giving, saving, and investing goals to be automatic because:

1. We KNOW that once it is set up to happen automatically – it IS going to happen, and
2. We KNOW that it is going to make the monthly budget tighter

But it is so worth it!  Yes, it will be tough for the first few months, but I have found that our family adjusts within a couple of months.  After that, we don’t even notice anymore until …

• vacation time rolls around and the money is there to pay cash!
• you receive your giving statement and find out just how much you were able to give away!
• you recognize that you are actually moving toward your retirement savings goals!”

Was the Grinch a Christian? Exposing the Real Grumps of Christmas

One of my favorite holiday movies is How the Grinch Stole Christmas, especially the new Jim Carrey version. Dr. Seuss invented a character that became so wildly popular, he’s now a cliche (i.e. “Don’t be such a grinch!”). Anyone who puts a damper on the holidays falls into the grinch category.

As a Pastor, I’m immersed (often beyond my own comfort level) in what I’ve come to think of as the Christian subculture. This is the realm in which Christian believers live. We have our own music, our own bookstores, and our own schools. None of this is bad. I read “Christian” books, listen to “Christian” music, and send my kiddo’s to a “Christian” school. The problem comes when we begin to assume that, based on America’s Judeo-Christian heritage, our Christian subculture is actually THE one and only acceptable culture for all.

Somewhere around the Thanksgiving holiday, I start getting emails from alarmed Christian citizens who are outraged at the all out assault on our faith that consists of such brutal persecution tactics as forcing us to be greeted with a friendly “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” rather than our traditional, more Christocentric “Merry Christmas.” These friendly folks who dare to leave the name of the Savior out of their otherwise friendly greetings are… grinches, as are the retailers who refuse to advance their commercial and materialistic “sales” using the name of Christ, or the lawyers who file for injunctions against public displays of internally-lit plastic statues of the biblical nativity characters.

This bunch of grinches has the gaul to assert that even those who don’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah, sent as the Savior of the world, should not be expected to use His name in spite of their unbelief. After all, 99% of Americans are true, born again believers… right? (Hint: Nobody agrees on the actual percentage because of disagreements over the theological grounds for the label “Christian”, but 99% is waaaayyy off.)

But are we, in our rather demanding viewpoints in our Christian subculture, the actual grinches in this story?

This past weekend, my family picked a movie off of Netflix none of us had ever heard of before: Christmas With a Capital “C”. The acting wasn’t necessarily the greatest, but the storyline was at least slightly unpredictable. And there was a memorable line uttered that resonated with my own feelings about our Christian activism. The city council in the setting of a small Alaskan town was struggling with their response to an injunction against the display of a nativity on city property. Many of the believers in town were outraged that their long-held tradition had been challenged by a liberal, interloping lawyer. But one participant at the table gave voice to a different value… “Maybe we Christians should spend less time demanding our own rights and traditions and more time serving people in the name of Christ.”

I know I’m going against the grain here, as a Christian, but I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. I don’t want stores to feel they have to plaster the name of Christ over every holiday bargain. I don’t want us so focused on defending the display of our nativity scenes (which never, by the way, depict the nativity biblically anyway) that we ultimately shout at our Muslim, Jewish, atheistic, and other non-Christian neighbors to get their noses out of our business and be on their way.

I am a Christian. I believe Jesus Christ is the virgin born, sinless Son of God, sent to die on the cross for our sins, who rose again and is returning someday to establish a reign of peace and justice for all of eternity. He is the One and only Savior of the world, the One and only “way” to the Father (see John 14:6), and the One and only Redeemer who can possibly atone for the sins of mankind against our Creator.

And as His follower, sent to love people outside the faith, I’m going to make room in my Christmas celebration for my Muslim neighbors, my atheist neighbors, my Jewish neighbors, my Hindu neighbors, and anybody else who doesn’t share my traditions.

I’m not arguing that we should in any way compromise our beliefs about Jesus. I simply think that our belief in the biblical Jesus demands that we refuse to become the grinches in the story of our culture. Which is the better way to influence the very people whom Jesus died to save? To take our angry demands to court and the editorial sections, shouting in the faces of our enemies? Or to walk as the Savior Himself might have, loving our neighbors as ourselves, praying for them and being a blessing to them, even when it means making room for unfamiliar traditions alongside our own?

It boils down to two possible goals. If our goal is to preserve our own traditions and protect our Christian subculture while the world goes to hell, then by all means, the fight is on. But if our goal is to balance truth and grace to lovingly influence our surrounding world for Jesus’ sake, perhaps we should strive for a better approach.

Christian… don’t be a grinch.

From time to time I share blog posts from others who make me think.  This is one of them.  It’s by Pastor Brandon Cox at brandoncox.com

What are your thoughts on Brandon Cox’s blog post?

Crown of Life is a church that has a bit over 350 souls and 300 communicants.    Our church staff is a pastor and 2/3 time worship arts/children/ IT/creative arts/and what ever other hat I need him to wear staff minister.    Those who study staffing recommend one full-time staff person for every 125 people in the church.  So needless to say, lots of what gets done gets done because lay people devote a tremendous amount of time, energy and talent to it.

I want to mention two special ladies today to publicly thank them for their service to their Lord and his church.

Betty Buechi is our volunteer bookkeeper for all of Crown of Life, Corona campus, Beaumont campus and King’s Kids.  She works with church treasurer, David Krout, to pay all the bills in a timely way, note all income and receipts in correct budget categories, manage payroll.   This is no small task.  The finances for a church of our size with a thriving childcare center is rather complicate.  It’s not a matter of keeping a checkbook like we all do at home.   The amount of money that flows through our books is mid six figures, church and childcare center.   So Betty, thank you for doing this.  Because of you, when it comes to staying on top of our church books, “we can do that.”

Mary Kleinschmidt is the other lady in the two very special lady group.  Mary is the site coordinator for our Beaumont campus meaning that I rely heavily on her to make sure that everything runs smoothly in Beaumont, especially but not exclusively for Sunday worship.  The hats Mary wears are: set up/down, Sunday School organizer, keyboards in the band, choir director, charitable works leader, communicator with the rest of the members, small group host, evangelism worker.  She also holds the keys to the community center that we rent, opens her home for any 101 class, committee meeting and whatever else has to happen.   To use the phrase, she is chief cook and bottle washer, worker, planner, doer, encourager.  And she meets with me at least once a month too.  Mary, thank you for  your wonderful servant’s heart.  Thanks to you “we can do that” in Beaumont too.

Advent has always been my favorite time of the year.  It follows almost immediately after Thanksgiving, which for me as a pastor is a special time to thank the good Lord for his blessings.  It involves beautifying the church with Christmas decorations, which this year the teens in Corona did beautifully.   But this year was special.  After the 8am service in Corona and 9:30am service in Beaumont, I returned to our Corona campus to see a full parking lot.  And when I entered the building, it was a packed house.  221 people at the late service, if the count is accurate.  It’s hard with that many people.    The blue Advent paraments were up;  the first candle on the Advent wreath was lighted.  I missed it because of the drive but the congregation had already joined in the first Christmas carol of the season — O Come All Ye Faithful.   The tree light sparkled.

But what made this past Sunday so wonderful was that Benjamin Ryan Johnson was baptized and welcomed into God’s family.   God worked through the simple act of pouring on water because he attached his name to that water and we acted in accord with his command and promise.   His parents brought him.  Jesus bought him with his blood.  The congregation when asked if they would do their part of his family of faith answered “Yes as God gives us strength.”

Of course, there were all the prerequisite pictures, including close ups of the “baby cousins”, Ben and Paisley, being held next to each other.  Leah has posted them on her FB.

Cap it off with an open house and Mike and Leah’s home.  What a wonderful Sunday!

I picked this up today on google reader from a Pastor’s blog I follow. So very true.

I remember reading somewhere that the average American Christian gives to God something like 2% of his income, what God has given to him.  The Old Testament starting point for offerings was the tithe or 10% and then offerings were given over and above.  God tells us New Testament believers to decide in our hearts what to give and I cannot help but wonder that if Old Testament believers who had only the promises of God of a Savior to come gave 10% and more, how much thanks our giving to God shows since we have the promise of God of a Savior fulfilled in Jesus.   As you think about this,  let me offer you three reasons to give with thanks to God.

1.  We give out of gratitude for the past.  In 1 Jn 4:19, the apostle tells us, “We love because he first loved us.”    Our common meal prayer includes the words, “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good and his love endures forever.”  That prayer recognizes that the food we eat, the roof over our heads, the clothes on our backs, and everything else that is good in our lives has come to us from a loving God.   Above all things, God has given to us Jesus as our Savior.   Giving back an offering to God, then,  is really just a simple thank you to the God who gave it all to us in the first place.

2. We give to keep our priorities straight in the present.  St. Paul teaches us in 1 Cor 16:2,  “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income.”  First thing…every week giving to God reminds us to keep God first by giving to him “off the top” and “week in and week out.”  It is so very easy to let us be our first priority.  Giving to God “first and every” reminds us just who needs to be number one in our hearts and souls.

3.  We give as a confession of faith for the future.  Paul again writes, this time in 2 Cor 9:6-8  “Remember this:  Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.  Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. “   Giving with thanks to God is our “Amen” to this promise of God.

So as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, give some thought to how much thanks our giving shows.