Family Value: Prayer

As we continue looking at the values that make us who we are at FCC, it’s hard to think of anything as important as prayer.  Prayer is the business end of who we are.  Prayer is the master key that unlocks all kinds of doors.  Through prayer we intercede for each other.  Prayer is a way for us to announce God’s kingdom by lifting up our friends who don’t know Jesus as a savior.  Prayer deepens our relationship with God as we share our lives with him.  Prayer helps us gain clarity and direction as a church for where God wants us to go.  Prayer is the Swiss Army knife of the Church.

At FCC we are committed to using prayer for all it has to offer.  We work to foster a dynamic prayer life as individuals and as a family that meets together.  We note that Jesus spent a great deal of time in prayer.  As we seek to become more like Jesus, prayer is a key ingredient.  We pray to help us grow closer to God.  We pray together to help us grow deeper in his family.  Through prayer we impact the world and gain direction in how to serve it.  Prayer is accessible for the smallest child and meaningful for the wisest adult.

Family Value: Variety

You know the old saying about variety: it’s the spice of life.  A little variety can turn a boring rut into an exciting new path.  Variety can get us unstuck and open up new possibilities.  It only takes a dash of this spice to awaken us to fresh ideas and to gain a taste of the world around us.  It’s like that with people too.  If everyone close to you thought the same way as you and liked the same things as you, there wouldn’t be a lot of growth in your life.  We need people close to us to challenge our assumptions and give us opportunities to learn about other ways of looking at the world.  This is especially true in churches where people tend to share a lot of the same values.

One of the things I have always loved about FCC is the diversity that exists in our church family.  We live in a fairly homogenous community.  Yet within our church family we have people from all different income brackets, different political affiliations, different religious backgrounds, even different ethnicities.  This is something that makes us all better.  The variety in our church family is an opportunity to learn and grow and experience the body of Christ more fully.  At FCC we embrace variety and celebrate it.

Family Value: The Bible

Imagine the issue of speeding tickets if there were no speedometers or radar guns.  How would anyone really know how fast they were going?  On what basis would an officer issue a citation?  Where would you set the cruise control?  Officer: “Ma’am, do you know how fast you were going back there?”  Driver: “Actually, no.”  Officer: “Neither do I, but it felt like you were going too fast.”

When it comes to understanding God and how to be in a relationship with him, we need something defined and objective to go off of.  My ideas about God arising from my own experience aren’t reliable or objective. Neither are yours.  That’s why we need God’s word, the Bible, to give us a solid and objective way to know God.  As a church family, the Bible is the ultimate source of authority.  It sets our direction, informs our decisions, and settles our disputes.  To help us better understand the Bible, we have a set of creeds and confessions.  These witnesses help us see the Bible more clearly and understand its meaning better.  Finally, God’s Holy Spirit shines a light on God’s word in this dark world and applies that truth to our hearts, our lives, and our church family.  Family value #1 is God’s word.

FCC Family Values

When I am asked to officiate a wedding for a young couple, I set up several meetings prior to the ceremony.  These conversations are to help us get to know each other, but also to talk through some of the issues they will encounter in their marriage.  One of the areas I am very intentional about exploring is the values of their family of origin.  I have found that more than anything else a person’s reactions and expectations are formed by the values they received from their family.  A person doesn’t just marry their spouse.  A person marries the culture and values of their family as well.

We are a church family.  And we have values too.  These are values that we marinate in.  We pass these on to the sons and daughters of the church.  They are the reason why you feel a little out of place when you visit another church.  Their values are different.  It can feel a little odd.  As we’ve welcomed Kyle to FCC, we’ve talked with him a lot about our core values.  I think it’s good for all of us to get a refresher on this.  Over the next several weeks, I will use this space to explain and highlight a series of core values at FCC.  These values consciously and unconsciously guide our decisions.  They help us change, or make change a very difficult undertaking.  They give us our unique flavor and identity.  There are seven of them: The Bible, Variety, Prayer, Better Together, Celebration, Empowerment, and Alignment.  We’ll start looking at them next week.

Spiritual Discipline - Humility

As we practice a different spiritual discipline each month in 2021, we have come to the most paradoxical of them all: humility.  In our world, the goal is to prevail, succeed, and be on top.  The way to do that is through ambitious hard work, being better than others, and calling attention to your skills and achievements.  The discipline of humility is quite different.  Rather than a different way to play the game, humility doesn’t play that game at all.  Instead of promoting ourselves, we humble ourselves before the Lord and let him lift us up.  We embrace the example of Jesus who “humbled himself and became obedient to death.”  God then exalted him to the highest place.  

This week we are asking you to practice humility by doing something cheerfully that you don’t feel like doing.  A friend or neighbor might ask you to go for a walk.  On the playground, a classmate might want to play a game that you don’t.  Your kids or a parent might invite you to do something you’re not excited about.  Practice the discipline of humility by doing it with a cheerful attitude.  There’s a really good chance you’ll not only live to tell about it, but will find a slice of freedom from yourself and become more like Jesus.

Church Famous

Andy Warhol is credited with saying, “In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.”  Perhaps he envisioned a day when a video or social media post could go viral.  People around the world would see your meme or a tweet, giving you roughly 15 minutes of notoriety before you slip back into anonymity.  That doesn’t sound like much to aspire to.  Living your life for just 15 minutes of fame?  Fortunately, there’s an alternative.

I’d like to (possibly) coin the term “church famous.”  As opposed to being world famous, church famous happens on a much smaller scale.  It’s having notoriety in your church family.  Church famous is the state of being known and loved by the people you worship and serve with.  It’s mattering deeply to the people in your LifeGroup.  When you get sick, undergo surgery, or have a baby, people will pray for you, bring meals, and send you cards.  All because you are church famous.  It may not be as glamorous as being world famous.  But in the end it is a much better deal.  And it lasts a lot longer than 15 minutes.

Investing in God's Kingdom

There is a saying in the 12 step programs that “we can only keep what we have by giving it away.”  It’s paradoxical, but the greatest blessings of possessions are most often found in sharing them.  With the retirement of our building debt, we are able to reallocate nearly $50,000 of our budget to invest in God’s kingdom.  One of the criteria for this investment is that it provides a meaningful way for everyone to participate in what we do.  This criteria also applies to the way we decide how to invest.  We want everyone’s prayers and input in this process.

Starting on Sunday, we will take about 20-30 minutes after church to hear your thoughts and ideas.  Tables will be set up in the gym with refreshments and a discussion leader at each table.  This Sunday, August 8, we’re inviting people with last names starting with A-L.  Last names M-Z will be invited on August 15.  If you can’t make it on your assigned week, just come when you can.  We hope to see many of you there and hear your ideas!

Prayer of Abandonment

Father, 

I abandon myself into your hands; 

do with me what you will. 

Whatever you may do, I thank you: 

I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me, 

and in all your creatures -

I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul: 

I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, 

for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, 

to surrender myself into your hands without reserve, 

and with boundless confidence, 

for you are my Father.

-Charles de Foucauld

Prayer: President or Pal?

Think for a moment about the way you talk to God.  Are your prayers more formal and official?  Do you pray in very relaxed, conversational tones?  Maybe when you pray it is similar to how you would talk to the president, with great respect and deference.  Or maybe it’s like talking with a best friend or a spouse.  When you talk to God, what earthly conversation is most similar?  Who do you talk to in the same way you talk to God?  If someone heard you praying, who would they guess you were talking to?

I have a suggestion for you: try praying differently than you normally do.  If you address God more like you would a boss or the president, try talking to him as a friend.  If you tend to be less formal in your prayers, try addressing God the way you would a celebrity or a powerful person.  You see, God is both of these things.  He is infinitely great and transcendent.  But he walks alongside us and shares in our lives.  Try praying differently this week and find a new experience of God.

Summer: School's Out!

The other day I was telling my daughter about one of my favorite memories as a kid.  It was the evening on the last day of school.  It was getting dark and I came in from playing with my friends in the neighborhood.  Normally I would be thinking about school the next day.  Then it hit me: there was no school tomorrow.  For a whole summer I would not have to sit in class, ask permission to use the bathroom, and do homework at night.  But let me be clear.  I didn’t stop learning just because school was out.  I learned just as much in the summer.  It’s just that the subject matter was different and the style was far less formal.

When I think about the age to come when everything is made new, I imagine waking up in the first morning in heaven and rejoicing for all the things I won’t have to do anymore.  All the frailties of this body and the dysfunction of this life will be gone for good.  But in the age to come we will keep learning.  For eternity we will explore great mysteries and learn the mind of God.  The classroom of this life will give way to the heavenly laboratory where we will discover answers to our nagging questions.  We will find new questions to ask and discover those answers as well.  We’ll have an eternity to learn the greatness of God.  And it will take eternity to learn the greatness of God.

Summer: Light

These days are the longest days of the year.  Technically, every day is just 24 hours.  But in mid-June we get a good 16 hours of daylight.  Contrast that with Christmas when we barely get 8 hours of daylight.  One of the reasons that December 25 was established as the date for Christmas is to remind us that, as the prophet writes, “people living in darkness have seen a great light.”  In the midst of our greatest darkness, Jesus comes as the light of the world.  From that point on daylight hours grow longer and longer until June 20 when we will experience the greatest amount of daylight.  

What started in a manger 2000 years ago has been growing.  That light has been dawning.  Summer is a symbol of the fullness and maturity of light.  In Revelation, John describes it this way: “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.  On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.”  The longest day of the year reminds us of the eternal day when darkness will be no more.

Summer: A Destination Season

This week marks the official start of summer.  In honor of this season, I will be sharing some reflections on its significance over the next few weeks.  I want to start with an observation: summer is a destination season.  Spring and fall are seasons of transition.  They are marked by change.  The start and end of spring and fall look very different.  But summer (along with winter) is a season that stays much the same.  We work hard all spring to plant our gardens and flowers and get the lawn ready for summer.  We clean our homes to remove the signs of winter dormancy.  But once summer comes, we enjoy the fruit of our labors.  There is still work to be done in the summer.  But it is the work of maintenance, rather than preparation.

Ever since the resurrection of Jesus, we have been in the springtime of history.  We are planting and sowing, cleaning and repairing.  We are getting ready for a destination we call the new creation.  In much the same way that spring creates an ongoing for summer, we live in anticipation of the final summer.  Our labor then will no longer be in preparation, but rather in celebration of this final, beautiful season of life.  We will have arrived.  The damage of sin will be cleaned up forever.  Jesus will be there.  God will be with us.

Shaping Our Minds and Hearts for Service

During the month of June, we are practicing the spiritual discipline of service.  As with other months and other disciplines, we’re suggesting a different way to practice it each week.  Last week we asked you to practice the discipline of service by doing a “hidden” act of service - something that very few, if any, people would know you did.  We hope you’ll continue to do this as you have the opportunity.  But this week we’re encouraging you to reflect on the nature of service itself.

We believe that the Bible has the power to change us.  When we read it and meditate on it, the Holy Spirit works on our hearts and minds.  And so we would like you to reflect on the most startling example of service in the Bible - John 13:1-17.  Take a few days this week and read through this passage of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.  Place yourself there in the story and wonder what it must have felt like.  Why did Jesus do that?  What does it say to you about becoming more like Jesus?  Read it with your family or your spouse at dinner a couple of nights this week.  Let this amazing demonstration of service shape your own heart and mind.

Wearing a Blindfold and Running

There’s a song by Elyssa Smith that was released last month called “I Won’t Break.” Some of the lyrics to that song are: “To live by faith and not by sight is like wearing a blindfold and running.” As the disciples followed Jesus during His earthly ministry, this must have been what it felt like at times. Having left their lives of fishing and tax collecting behind, they entered into something brand new. It probably felt scary and disorienting at times; yet, He had called them. There was this sense of awe and wonder as they followed Jesus and experienced the coming of the Kingdom of God. What does it look like for you today as you follow Jesus? What does it look like when your dreams and God’s story collide? You are called. You are forgiven. You are loved. Shine on.

Getting Richer By Giving More

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

-Jim Elliot

Jesus implies things that defy conventional wisdom.  Things like not storing up treasures on earth.  Things like not worrying about provision and finding life through death.  To discover if these things are true we simply have to do them.  It’s like testing whether a bridge will support our weight by walking out on it.  We either trust Jesus or we don’t.

One area of life where we can test the waters a bit is through generosity.  We don’t have to give everything away to see if what the Bible says about giving is true.  By simply giving a little more we can judge for ourselves if there is gain.  We can decide if being more generous makes us more joyful.  The Bible is filled with examples of God replacing our material possessions with even more valuable forms of wealth - relational and spiritual wealth - while still meeting all our needs abundantly.  The question I have for you is this: Will your life also be an example of this

Celebration of Discipline

Last month we were encouraged to celebrate recreation, relationships, creation and our vocations. It was easy to see celebration as a discipline to be celebrated. It was evident in the smiles on our church family in the video of people enjoying recreation and hobbies. Now that it is almost time to get the boat out of storage, we are being asked to practice simplicity and question our stuff? Is that something to be celebrated? 

Richard Foster’s book is titled Celebration of Discipline. How do the disciplines of simplicity, fasting, meditation and others fit with celebration? The answer is joy!!! As we seek first the kingdom of God and pursue life with Jesus as our treasure, we experience God’s goodness. Joy is finding God’s goodness. As we practice spiritual disciplines as well as engage with VBS, GEMS, children’s ministries, youth ministry, and all of our other programs, we have the opportunity to find deeper joy in our relationship with Jesus. We find good news of great joy. It is all worth celebrating!

The Discipline of Simplicity

Every year at this time we talk about “spring cleaning.”  We sort through our possessions and determine which are worth keeping and which are no longer earning their space in our homes.  The result is a barrage of garage sales and donations to Once & Again or Dibs! or Goodwill.  I’ve wondered sometimes why we don’t do summer cleaning or fall cleaning or winter cleaning.  There’s something about spring that leads us toward a fresh start.  There are things that will no longer be helpful in what is to come.  So it ends up in the trash, on a table in our front yards, or in the donation bin.

This is the principle behind the discipline of simplicity.  We let go of the things that are no longer helping us to move forward.  We sort out things that distract us.  This month we will be doing some spring cleaning in our souls to help us focus on our relationship with God.  What we discover is that when we have less we actually have more.  More peace, more passion, more joy, more of God.  This month we’ll invite you to try some practices that will create a little more space in your life - space for God. The first is to commit to memory Matthew 6:19-21.  Let these words of Jesus rest upon your heart and inform your approach.

God Works While I Sleep

I think there’s a sermon in here somewhere, but I had this great thought the other day: God never stops working.  I feel foolish saying this, but as a pastor I often operate under the assumption that God’s work happens when I am on the job.  God needs me in order to do things in our church.  I know.  It’s silly and arrogant.  But we often live our lives under the impression that God is only working on situations when we are focusing our time and attention on them.

In John 5, when Jesus was accused of working on the Sabbath, he made this statement about God: “My Father is always at his work, to this very day.”  Jesus doesn’t say that God is only at work to the extent Jesus is on the job.  God is always at work.  And for some of that work, we can join in and be a part of it.  That means that while I watch the Tigers, God is still at work.  When I’m hiking with one of my kids in the UP, God is still at work at FCC.  When you’re stuck in traffic or waiting to check out, God never stops working.  And when I go to sleep at night, the work of God continues without limitation.  It’s important to join God in his work.  It’s just as important to know that his work never stops, even when we’re not involved.

Our World Belongs to God

A Contemporary Testimony, Articles 7 & 10

Our world belongs to God—

not to us or earthly powers,

not to demons, fate, or chance.

The earth is the Lord’s.

Made in God’s image

to live in loving communion with our Maker,

we are appointed earthkeepers and caretakers

to tend the earth, enjoy it,

and love our neighbors.

God uses our skills

for the unfolding and well-being of his world

so that creation and all who live in it may flourish.

Becoming Like Jesus in Celebration

In previous generations, religion was characterized by reverence.  Perhaps some of you remember growing up in churches that were very solemn.  You sat perfectly still and wore your very best clothes.  It was all very serious.  Reverence is certainly an appropriate response to God.  But it’s not the only appropriate response to God.  There is plenty of room for joyous celebration as well.  And we see this clearly in the life of Jesus.

Jesus knew how to have a good time!  He told parables that, in their context, were hysterically funny.  He regularly attended parties.  Sometimes he would go to the homes of prominent leaders.  Other times he would go to places where prominent leaders wouldn’t be caught dead.  The Gospels state that the “Son of Man came eating and drinking.”  So clear was his penchant for celebration that he was accused of having a demon.  Any serious attempt to become more like Jesus must include celebration.  As we grow more like him, we will become more celebrative, more joyful, even more fun.