After the turbulent years of the 1960′s artist William Zdinak, like all of us, had much to think about. He longed to put some of his own ideas into a painting with a religious theme- and, by his own admission, kept failing. But he is not one to give up easily and is blessed with great physical stamina as well as unpretentious religious faith.

Struck by the sudden vision of all mankind within the body of Christ, he began to paint with utmost concentration. Fifteen hours of unbroken painting- utilizing hastily gathered scrap photos as the basis for depicting individuals- resulted in the inspired “In His Image.”  There were no preliminary sketches or plans. (The artist’s sense of color and composition have long been trained by the competitive disciplines of commercial art and the high standards of fine arts exhibits where his paintings have won acclaim, including the World’s Fair of 1963).

In the artist’s words: “It really doesn’t matter which persons are depicted.  We are ‘all one in Christ’ as St. Paul has told us. Hurting one, we hurt all; helping one, we help all. That is the idea behind ‘In His Image.’”

(For a more extensive story behind the painting you can go to www.printsforinspiration.com/story.html.)

My purpose in sharing this painting and story with you is to remind all of us, in the month we celebrate “love,” we are all “One” in Christ, and as such we need to love, care and respect one another as Christ would.

In His Service,

Pastor Randy

Like Janus, our church family should be looking both back and forward.  We can look back to 2011 and celebrate the things God has done in our midst.  He has accomplished many things through His people at Grace.  We have established a great relationship with Bridger Elementary, which God has already been working through.  He has given us the ability to continue to reach out to our neighbors through events such as the Santa Breakfast and the Community BBQ.  He has continually made His presence known to us in our worship services and prayer meetings.  We need to look back at these events and celebrate them.

But we also need to be looking ahead to 2012 and see what new things God has in store for us.  I believe God will open more ministry opportunities to us, as well as give us new partners to help with these ministries.

If we are going to discover what God has in store for us and respond to His guidance, we must keep our hearts and minds open to the leading of His spirit.  Early in 2012, Theresa Benson and I will be putting together a prayer event to help us to continue to stay focused on our Lord and is will for Grace.  Be watching for the details of this event.

In His Service,

Pastor Randy

When I look back on those days, I do so with fondness, and a smile comes to my face.  It was important for our family to be ready for Christmas.

I didn’t realize it then, but, in a way, our family was participating in a commercialized version of Advent.  Advent is the four weeks before Christmas, during which we prepare for, and celebrate, the coming of the Messiah— both his first coming, and his second coming.

During Advent, we are to ready our hearts to receive the Christ; just as my family, in my youth, readied our house for Christmas.  And just like decorating our house, readying our hearts for the Messiah takes planning and focused preparation.  Advent is a time when we should direct our full energy and attention to the significance of the events which took place in Bethlehem that first Christmas night.

To help us focus the four Sundays of Advent are themed around the words hope, peace, joy, and love.  I am sure it was hard for Mary and Joseph to recognize how important these words, these concepts, would become to their newborn baby boy.  He was the Prince of Peace who would bring hope to the hopeless, joy out of despair, and give love to those who were in desperate need of being loved.

What Jesus brought to the people of Palestine over 2000 years ago, is the same that he brings to us today.  Let us use this Advent season to prepare our hearts to receive what the Prince of Peace has for us— joy that’s unspeakable, hope in a hopeless world, and love that is unmatched by any we’ve ever experienced.

PRAYER:  Come Lord Jesus and prepare our hearts— prepare us— to receive all you have to give us.  May we be as ready to receive as you are to give.  Amen.

Also on Sunday, November 6, following morning worship, the Missional Church Team is hosting a soup luncheon.  At this luncheon, we will be discussing missional church in general, and in particular, we will be discussing how Grace will begin living out the idea of missional church through our partnership with Bridger Elementary School.  Then on Wednesday, November 16 from 6-7 pm, the Bridger PTA will be sponsoring an Open House specifically for people from Grace.  This will give us an opportunity to see the school, hear about the needs, and see the volunteer opportunities that exist.  Please mark this on your calendar and plan to attend!

On Saturday, November 19, we will be having our Annual Budget and Elections Meeting.  At that meeting, not only will you be asked to vote on the 2012 budget and new church leaders, you will also be asked to vote on new church bylaws.  Each of you will be receiving a letter shortly about the new bylaws, and beginning Sunday, November 6, copies will be available in the church entryway for your perusal.

The week of Thanksgiving, we will be putting together Thanksgiving Boxes and delivering them to families.  This year, we will be working with the Bridger PTA, and , hopefully, some of the families who will be receiving boxes to put the boxes together.  Bridger has offered to let us put the boxes together at the school where there is a lot of refrigerator space to store turkeys and other refrigerated food items.  This is an exciting first step in being able to minister to and with the Bridger community.  Be in prayer about God’s Spirit being at work in this adventure!

God is doing a lot in our midst.  Continue to pray for His leading!

Prayer:  God thank you for all you are doing.  Continue to give us insight and wisdom as we seek to follow you.  In the Name of Christ, Amen.

 Much like human beings, God created the church to be organic.  That means the church should constantly be in a state of change as it adapts to its changing surroundings and culture.  And like humans, there are only two options: change or die.

 Change for the church does not mean we change our message:  “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” (Jn 3:16, The Message)  What it does mean is change in the way that message is presented.

 Over the course of the last few months, Grace has been experiencing change, and I know this change has caused some discomfort among some of our members.  This discomfort is normal and always accompanies change.  However, it doesn’t mean we don’t change.  Just like some of the changes our body goes through as we get older are uncomfortable, we endure them, because to change means life. 

 The changes we are going through as a church, are not change for change sake.  They have a purpose.  Your church leaders and your pastor believe we are changing, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, to be the church God wants us to be in this time and place.

 The changes we have experienced thus far are small compared to the changes, I believe, God has for us in the future.  As we move more in the direction of being the kind of church which can make a difference in the world, the changes will become larger.  As the changes occur, there are two options.  We can embrace what God has for us and live, or we can refuse to accept the change and die.

 Which option will you choose?

 PRAYER:  Father, help us to accept your change so we can be the people you want us to be.  It is uncomfortable, but we know, with your help, we can accept them and grow in your grace, love, and guidance.  We pray this in the name of the one who changed our lives forever, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

All of that being said, let me tell you my reasoning for removing the order of worship.  I think all too often, people focus on the order of worship in worship instead of God.  The order can be used as a “checklist” to see where things are at, and how much time is left.  In this way the order of worship actually detracts from worship.  To be honest with you, if I didn’t have to know what I was doing in the service, I would prefer not knowing the order of worship.

Not having an order of worship doesn’t mean we won’t know what is happening.  The worship leader, Grace Singers, and myself give enough verbal and visual clues during worship to let people know what is happening—when we are singing, praying, taking offerings, etc. 

My hope is by not having an order of worship we will be able to more easily focus on God, and to allow God to surprise us during the worship service.

If after hearing this explanation, you are still uncomfortable not having an order of worship, I will be glad to talk with you (remember, I don’t bite).  When we have our discussion I will be asking two questions:  Why does not having an order of worship bother you?; and, How does having an order of worship help you to worship God better?  Maybe there are some issues I have not considered.

I look forward to continuing the dialogue with all of you as we move forward to worship God “in Spirit and in truth.”

Prayer:  Father, continue to teach us how to focus on you in worship.  May we learn from your Spirit and from each other.  May we be surprised by what you have in store for us as we come before you in worship.  I pray in the name of the one who worshipped you perfectly, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The church is to be God’s ambassadors, representing His reign.  We are to be a preview community of the coming reign of God which is talked about in the New Testament.  All we are, do, and say, should point to what life is going to be like when Jesus returns to set up His earthly reign.

As community, we are to show others what it is like to live in relationship under the rule of God.  In many ways, this will require behavior different from the world around us.  The church needs to demonstrate an alternate lifestyle to the popular culture.

As servants, we are to serve the larger community much as Jesus did during His ministry.  Jesus talked about his service to others in Luke 4, “He [God] has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  As we are the hands and feet of Christ in the world, we carry out the mission Jesus began with his ministry.

As messengers, we are to share with others the message of God’s love, forgiveness, and salvation which was fulfilled in the life and ministry of His son.  As we demonstrate what community and service looks like under the reign of God, we need to put into words why we are the way we are, and why we do what we do.  This is what Jesus was talking about when He said, “…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

In the days and months ahead, as we begin discussion about being a missional church, we will be discussing what it means to be community, servants, and messengers.  We will be exploring how we can be God’s ambassadors in the world.  As this dialogue takes place be in prayer for God to keep our hearts and minds open to what He wants to do with and through us. 

PRAYER:  Lord, as we explore what it means to be a missional church, show us how we can be your ambassadors to the world around us.  Teach us how we can be a community which demonstrates your love.  Show us how we can serve others— to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, and to set the oppressed free.  Give us the voice to be messengers so we can share your message and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  We pray this in the name of the one who gave us our mission, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 Whether we realize it or not, each one of us who are involved in the church, hold to a particular ecclesiology.  Some people see the primary task of the church as a place where the family of God gathers to get spiritually fed and worship together.  Others see the church’s primary task as preaching the Word of God and growing in numbers.  Still others see the church as being the hands and feet of Christ in the world.

I believe if Grace Baptist is going to be affective as God’s church in this community, we need to come to a common understanding of what the church is to be and to do.  As a congregation, we have already done this in the adoption of our vision statement, God’s vision for Grace Baptist Church is to engage in Christ-centered discipleship and worship to equip you for, and support you in, ministry in the Montavilla neighborhood and the communities where you work and live; while cultivating trusting, loving, accepting relationships.

Notice what our vision statement does and does not say.  It does not say we intend to grow in numbers.  Many people have the mindset that growing numbers is a sign of a healthy church.  This is not the case.  Church growth needs to be left to God.  Acts 2:46-47 says, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”  It is the Lord’s job to add numbers, not ours. 

What our vision statement does say is we will do ministry.  Ministry is the act of sharing the Gospel through words and through deeds.  Ministry is the way God’s church relates to the world, and how God works through the church to reach people in His name.  Ministry focuses on kingdom growth rather than church growth. It takes the church from being focused inwardly (on ourselves) to being focused outwardly (on our community and others).

If we listen to how God is calling us to minister as a church, and if we respond to His call with all we have and all we are, He will make sure we have all the resources (finances, materials, and people) we need to continue to do the ministry to which He has called us.

We at Grace need to move from an ecclesiology of church growth to an ecclesiology of church ministry and kingdom growth.  We need to move from an ecclesiology of being inward focused to an ecclesiology of being outward focused.

Lord, help us to change our ecclesiology to be more focused on ministry rather than numbers; to be more focused on others than on ourselves; and to be more focused on kingdom growth rather than church growth.  We pray in the name of the One who’s ministry was our example, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The Montavilla neighborhood is not the only neighborhood to change in the last few decades.  What has happened in Montavilla and Portland is taking place all across America.  American culture has been shifting all around us.

As a church the most important question we can ask is, “How can we best relate the unchanging Gospel to the shifting culture around us?”

Before we can answer this question, we have to understand the neighborhood in which our church is located.  How well do YOU know the neighborhood where God has situated our church?  Do you know the demographics of the people who live around the church?  Do you know what they consider to be the biggest problems of the neighborhood?

These are the kinds of questions our Missional Church team hopes to answer over the next few months.  We will be having “conversations” with people from a variety of organizations in and around the Montavilla neighborhood-businesses, neighborhood associations, fire and police, non-profits, parks and recreation, and other churches.

We will compile this information and produce a picture of the neighborhood around the church and the problems facing it.  Through what we learn and God’s wisdom we believe He will show us how to “best relate the unchanging Gospel” to our neighbors.

Continue to be in prayer for the Missional Church team and what God will do in our neighborhood through Grace as we help to meet the needs of our neighbors.

Lord, thank you for putting our church in the Montavilla neighborhood.  Be with us as we seek ways to relate Your Gospel to the people around us.  In the name of the One who met the needs of all, Jesus Christ.  Amen.