Sending, Gathering and Welcoming

Sunday April 22nd we marked a turning point in our relationship with Mike & Amy Cupp. They live in Homer, Michigan and for over a year now they have worshiped with us on several occasions. Mike preached for us and we entered into a discernment process with them as they feel called to be church planters. I have been in regular contact with him and prayed for them and now he will soon be ordained.

They have begun to meet with people in Grand Rapids. If the Lord opens the doors they will move there in the next year or so. Check out their new website:   

http://grandrapidsanglican.org/2.html

We are so grateful the Lord has allowed us to come along side Mike and his family and to be a sending church even though we are not that big of a church ourselves. This feels so much like God who often uses the small and foolish things to confound the big and powerful things of this world.

Next Deb and I, and Pat and Judy Self gathered with other Lighthouse Network church planters for dinner and a chance to catch up last Sunday night in Lansing. Joe and Sue Mlaker, priest at Christ the King Anglican, hosted a social night out with Bishop Doc. After a great evening of just catching up we heard first hand from Bishop Loomis and Allen Kanappell, our Network leader, about transitions in the AMIA organization. It was an important time and gave the 20 or so of us gathered a chance to pray for Doc. Though personally I had hoped the transitional process of coming together with other orthodox Anglicans could be smoother than it has been, I am very hopeful that the Spirit of God is at work. I am convinced that we are in the process of joining forces with more like-minded Christians as we reach pre-Christians with the life transforming message of the Gospel. Please keep our leadership, particularly Bishop Doc, in your prayers. (Even though he wears Purple Converse! At least this Bishop thing has not gone to his head, just to his feet!)

Finally, last Tuesday was a welcoming day as we met our daughter Katie at the airport. After seven months, 22 flights, stops in New Zealand, Israel and Cambodia, she is now safe and sound in Flint. We only have her for a few days as she will be heading off to Chicago to start grad school in Christian Counseling. She believes the Lord is leading her back to Southeast Asia for  more long term mission work as a counselor to train nationals in areas of emotional healing. Pray she gets her body clock adjusted soon and the practical details of living and education will all get worked out. Thank you Lord for the gift of giving us Kate back home safe, even if it is for a short time. Thank you Lord for all those who supported her and allowed her journey on this discernment mission trip.

Easter At the Mission

At New Wine we are trying to do things differently.  Our emphasis is on cell church life and living our faith out in our neighborhoods.  We have not abandoned everything or "thrown the baby out with the bathwater".  Our Sunday Celebrations, however, is NOT the main thing we do.  We try to make the larger gatherings times of sharing and celebration.  There is the sacraments.  There is the proclamation of the Word.  But we also encourage the "Prayers of the People" to be more of a community experience inviting congregation participation not just a liturgical exercise.  We also make time for the sharing of how we see God moving in us and through us.  And though we are more informal than your average liturgical church we sometime pull out the stops and "dress up" in vestments for the high feast such as Easter.  (Check out Dave's new stole in a picture of Easter Sunday service from Mexico - De Colores!)

Easter 2012 was full a great music, thanks to Anne Robinson, Deb Kulchar and Mike Robinson.  We had several good testimonies of God's provision and blessing shared.  But for me, the highlight was the sending forth of one of our newer members, Tim Goodrich, as he heads out east to apprentice as a shoe maker in Philadelphia.   We stood him in our midst and laid on hands, anointed him with oil and sent him out with our blessing.  Tim recently started coming to New Wine and immediately his gift of "invitation" was apparent in that every week he was bring guest with him.  He is such a great example of one who leads and invites in a very natural way.  Tim has been a leader/pastor in a church previously and sees the Lord using him down the road again, but in the mean time he learning the dieing art of handcrafted shoe making.   We hope to continue to support and stay connected with Tim even though he is out east.  Perhaps we can help encourage him on his way to church planting in an urban setting some day down the road.

Thursday Jim Sartor and I had a chance to meet with about 20 church planters down in Troy at Kensington Church.  This mega church has on staff  a future thinking church planting coach Alex McManus.  I love going down there bimonthly for brain storming session as we think together with Alex's help about what we are doing and how we are doing it.  I was blessed yesterday to have Jim go with with me and we sat at a table with 3 other people from a new work in Flint called The Bridge.  I am always challenge and encourage after my time with others who are planting churches, and even better when they are doing it in my neck of the woods!   I am going again May 17th.  I hate going alone so if you are free come join us and be stretched!

New Wine Report - April 2012

Life in the vineyard has been good. We continue to have visitors come to the church on Sundays and we are working at getting to know those who join us for worship. Several folks have become regular and we are hoping to find ways for them to connect with us and us with them. Our hope is that all of us are looking at how the Lord would have us live out this journey of discipleship and service together. It is uncanny how many of our visitors have connections with people in our fellowship without even realizing it. One person had worked at a restaurant that one of our families had frequented for several years. Another couple from New Wine knows another person's parents from years gone by. Still another was the son of a pastor friend who I have worked with in Flushing. We are the "Network Generation" which reenforces the notion that "it is all about relationships". We are not responsible to change the world (that is Jesus' job). We are responsible for the people He places in our paths or into our "networks".

Another example of the Spirit moving in Flint is a young couple contacting me last month. They live in apartments in Flint, but work at the private Catholic primary school in Flushing. They will be married in July and are feeling called to buy a house in Flint. The hope they have is to establish some sort of faith community in a neighborhood to help change and serve the community. They were interested in New Wine, which they found via our Sunday Yard Signs and website, because of our

house church approach to discipleship and mission. The Lord is bringing people like them to Flint. They want to "do church" in a new way. Please pray with us for Nick and Rachel as we do our part to encourage them in their calling to be missionaries to Flint.

I finished the Lent Preaching Series on "Breaking the Power of Shame" last month. The final part was called "The Shame Exchange".

(The sermons can be heard on lineat: http://www.newwinemission.com/Audio_Sermons/ )

What struck me as I worked through the materials from a NAVPRESS study guide by the same name, is that so much of the work of the cross and Easter was about the problem of shame in our lives. Jesus' work on the cross was a matter of taking on our shame and guilt and exchanging it for his righteousness. If we believe this and own it for ourselves, when we sin He wants us to give Him our shame by confessing it and asking Him to take it on. This means we will not have to stand before our judge with head bowed down or in fear of judgment, but free from its hold on us. As Christians we cannot avoid shame when we sin, but now we do not have to hide or run from God. Instead He wants us to bring it to Him and He will set us free. This reminder this Lent was really good news. My prayer is that those of us at New Wine can truly live into the freedom Jesus bought for us on the cross.

Finally, when things go well spiritually the enemy often steps up his mischief. Last month I struggled with the distraction of a car accident. Just as Deb is starting her new full-time job, we find ourselves needing to buy another car. To our surprise and delight, we have already been blessed by over $2,000 of gifts given to us to go towards a new vehicle. That leaves me speechless (which is odd for a preacher). That being said, I have experienced a sense of spiritual oppression in the form of distracting thoughts, which is typical when the devil wants to hassle me. I have learned this is what happens when you are trying to follow after Christ. So we ask your prayers for spiritual protection and continued provision for each of us and our family. I ask you keep Deb in your prayers as she learns her new job. Pray she might find favor and enjoyment in what she does and the new people who she meets.

A Cross About My Neck

In preparations for Holy Week, I purposed to wear a cross for the season of Lent. I am not much of a jewelry person. My wedding band is as much "bling" as I wear at any one time. So to wear the cross daily for 40 days was a way of doing something more than the usual routine of life. It proved to be more effective than I thought.

First I had do put it on each morning and take it off each night. This simple action reminded me why I was wearing it and often caused me to offer a prayer like "draw me closer to you Lord and the meaning of the cross." There were actually some days I thought about not putting it on. More often than not it was out of laziness rather than some rebellion or some fashion statement. It was at these moments I thought about how tempting it would have been for Jesus not to take on the cross and yet He did not turn away.  He prayed to the Father, "Not my will but your will be done."   So I resisted my impulse and put it on each day.

The cross was with me wherever I went. Several people asked about it since I do not commonly wear such things. It provided a witnessing opportunity because the cross has a story. It was given to me in 1999 when I was on pilgrimage to Israel. Our tour guide gave an identical cross to each tourist so he could identify us in crowded places on our trip together.  This meant it went everywhere with me during that very significant event in my life. It was around my neck when I walk where Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee. It was with me when I stood in Jericho and next to Jacob's well. It went with us to Bethlehem and the upper room. I held it close as we walked the "way of the cross" in the Holy City and visited the church of the Holy Sepulcher which may have been built over Calvary. I remember holding it tight on several occasions as if by touching it, it could help me remember the significance of this place and the feeling that I felt.

Even these past few days of Lent it proved to be significant. I was wearing the cross the morning I was in a car accident in which I totaled the car.  The accident could have been deadly for myself and others involved. Yet, we were all spared. I later pondered how special it was that this cross, the image of a time of great suffering, was with me at such a frightening moment. The cross reminds us that Christ will go even to the worst places of our lives. He goes to places of fear, places of suffering, even places of pain. He is there and He does not shrink back.   His promise is He will be with us always and everywhere!

My cross has two fish and five loaves molded into it to remind me of God's desire to feed those who hunger after him. I think today I can say that the simple act of wearing a cross the past 40 days did feed my soul. It did cause me pause, reflect, push against the temptation to take the easy route and reminded me very much of His provision and blessing in my life. I am thankful for the cross  in more ways than mere words can capture.

One little cross about my neck. Who would have thought?