Bishop, Cheese & Flims

The Trustees and I asked our dear Bishop to postpone his scheduled annual visit on March 9th to later this year. Several key members of our fellowship will not be here and we would prefer for him to come later this year to ordain Jim Sartor our first Permanent Deacon. Jim is still in the process of "reading for orders" but hopes to complete the work soon. We have requested that he be ordained here in Flint, which is not the practice at this point in our Diocese, but we see this as an outreach event, since we anticipate a large number of Jim and Barbs friends to attend. We hope to hold his ordination at Riverside the end of Spring or early Summer.

After a season of prayer and searching, a door has opened for me to work 2 days a week at the Flint City Market. Paul Hills, who some may know, is owner of a small cheese counter there. With the advent in May of a new location of the market for both downtown and one out in Davison, Paul was looking for additional help. If the trial period works for both of us, I will be soon known as "The New Wine & Cheese Man". Hope to see some of you soon at the cheese counter. I am looking forward to this being a time of meeting many new people through new enterprise on Tuesday and Thursdays each week.

Our Tuesday Night "Celtic Cell" group has been really trying to put some feet on what they have been studying the last few months. Currently they are looking for creative ways of engaging pre-Christians by strategically finding venues where it is easy to meet or invite folks to join us. Since the start of the year the group has been going to the Flint Institute of Art FOMA (Friends of Modern Art) Film series on Friday nights. Most are Indy or Foreign Films, which prove to be great discussion starters. Each week after the Film a group gathers at a home or local eatery for food and discussion. It has been very good. These are great opportunities to build relationships that may have Kingdom implications. If you want to join the fun give Rob Robertson a call. (810 919-5660)

New Wine Listening Day - Jan 2014

The Biblical promise is "when two or three are gathered together in Jesus name" Jesus is in the midst of us. One way is He is more "visible". The Spirit is working making us more like Jesus. So we think like Jesus. So we speak like Jesus. So we act like Jesus. Therefore when Jesus' followers gather together there is a very real sense that we have a better chance to see Jesus manifest in our midst as we see Him in each other.

Saturday January 18 we were gathering in Jesus name. About a dozen of us set aside the morning to pray, worship and listen. We started with using the Morning Prayer liturgy and daily lessons assigned for the day. They were:

Genesis 6:9-22 (God's instructions to Noah)
Psalm 20 (Song of God the Victor)
Hebrews 4:1-13 (God's Rest and God's Word)
John 2:13-22 (Account of Jesus Cleansing the Temple)

We then retreated for quiet reflection and meditation. Upon returning the following thoughts were shared. This is simply one perspective of our time together:

One pervading theme was that we were being reminded that "God was walking with us", just as He walked with Noah and others whose hearts are bent towards God. The image of a small child reaching out to hold the hand of a caring adult reminded us that He loves us better than the best human effort. We are to take comfort in God's hand extended to us.

Later we were reminded by one who pointed us to 1 John 2: 6 which teaches that people will know we are Jesus' disciples if we "walk in the same manner as He walked." He walks with us as someone who knows what it means to be human. Hebrews 4:14-16 says we do not have high priest "who does not sympathize with our weakness". He knows our struggles and challenges, yet He bids us, beckons us, to walk with him. It is a partnership. We can do this by holding to the faith (study and learning the Word) and by holding to each other in the community of faith. Attend to each other.

A second theme seems to be related to a follow up question: "Lord where are we to walk?" Very often we are not given the advantage of seeing down the road, but called to simply keep our eyes on Christ as he leads. We were reminded to "keep in step with the Spirit" based on Galatians 5:25. This means we cannot just sit still, but we must keep moving, mimicing Jesus, which requires our utmost effort and focus.

This idea was reenforced when another person put forth the image of a "blind man" running in a road race. Here it takes a lead runner and the blind man holding on to the elbow to make a functioning team. The toughest steps are the first few when the two need to get in sync. But the team works because of trust if they do not give up too early in the process because it is hard at first.

In a journal this was expressed in this way: "Do not stumble, but run with Me. I will lead your life like a runner who has no sight. The more you trust Me, the more we run together, the freer you will be. Trust Me. Hold My arm. I will lead"

Yet in our listening time there came forth a challenge from someone's meditation on Genesis 6 calling us to "engage the culture". With the patience of Noah we are to be obedient claiming, naming and celebrating art, song, beauty and everything good. While we observe the world on its self-destructive path we are to engage the world with light, a Christian worldview, where we see the good coming from God. As we do we then point people to the source of light. We are not to retreat from the world but to advance out in the world to be like the "Temple", cleansed by the Lord and lifted high as example to those around us. This engagement cannot be primarily intellectual or mental. Our engagement is relational. It is to be done one life at a time. Whether at work, or family, or friends we are called to not just speak of God but to demonstrate the love of God. Kindness, compassion, active listening, all open the doors for us to share about the love of the Father for His children.

This is not an easy or natural process. It is easier to retreat into to the safety of the ark. Engaging the culture may not require a physical battle (though some have been known to "lose their life" or "livelihood" for standing for Kingdom values), but the battle is primarily spiritual. One of our number was drawn to focus on Psalm 20 in which they saw a prescription for spiritual warfare: First we are come before the Lord with praise and prayer. Second we are to remember what He has done to strengthen our faith. Next we are to confess our short comings. Then we are called to exercise grace and forgiveness in the world and to the world. We ask that all these be done in His Spirit, In His character, In His name. Another member noted the Hebrews 4 begins with warnings like "remember your first love", "no hard hearts", "don't be slow to learn", which is complimented by James 1:19-22 "be quick to listen, slow to speak", "be doers and not just hears of the Word." Good counsel for us in 2014.

One last image was shared on Saturday. It was the image of large glass bottle of oil used for healing. It was over flowing down the side and on the table spreading out in every direction. Its smell was pungent, pleasing to the senses, and it was in abundance. The words spoken over the oil were " A Year of Healing and Restoration."

May 2014 be know to us as a Season of Healing and Restoration as we follow the Spirit's lead in our walk individually and as a church. May we engage the culture with boldness if not with words only but in intentional acts of kindness and love. May we see God's healing power touch our lives, our church and our community at a level we have not experienced as of late. Amen.

New Wine Report - Jan 2014

An update from the vineyard in Flint. This mission of New Wine, like all churches, is to make disciples of Christ. The vision is to do that in different way: not programatically but relationally. This means that we are working hard at building deep, authentic relationships where we care deeply and spend time together growing and serving. What we have found is this is a slow and sometimes difficult process. Here are ways we have been thinking relationally the past month or two:

Hope for America Parties - We hosted two dinner parties in the beginning of November to watch "My Hope America", Billy Graham's final national Gospel presentation. We had over 28 participants who all heard a clear call to follow Christ. Several there had their faith encouraged and one or two who are still seeking were really challenged.

Roxbury Outreach - We hosted 3 craft parties for the residents of Roxbury Senior Apartments where Peggy from New Wine lives. Dave shared a brief explanation of different Christmas symbols each week and then 3 different women from our fellowship prepared a simple Christmas craft to make so we could build relationships with Peggy's neighbors.

Taecken's Terrace Party - We hosted a party for over 40 residents of another Senior Apartment where we hold our Wednesday cell group. Treats and carols was the plan, but catching up with many of the residents who have come to the group from time to time was delightful. Several of the residents comment on how significant our work at Taecken's has been. We are starting a new study next week.

Implosion Sunday - The last Sunday of Advent we gathered before service offering coffee and doughnut holes to people gathered outside Riverside Church where we meet to watch a 19 story building 4 blocks away be imploded. We did have one visitor join us afterward and has expressed interest in returning. It was a ministry of blessing and a great way to start the service off with a "bang"!

Mt. Morris Prayer Team - Sim and Fran Boggs who have come alongside New Wine on several occasions have purposed to make a spiritual difference in the community of Mt. Morris. They are life-long residents and are being lead to organize a group of people who are meeting regularly to pray over their town. This may include prayer walks in 2014, but for now it has started as a Facebook group.

Flushing Cell Outreach - This group plans in 2014 to designate one meeting a month to events or activities that reach beyond our normal prayer and study time. We are starting with inviting one of our group's foreign exchange student to share about Macedonia, her home. We have invited several people who know her from beyond our group to come and hear her story. Then in February we hope to host a movie night, and eventually a blessing party for a local frat house.

2014 Challenges - Due to anticipated revenue changes and expense increases (Healthcare specifically) we are praying the Lord will provide for the estimated $14,000 shortfall in our budget. Dave is exploring other part-time ministry possibilities and Deb is hoping to see her part-time work (which she really likes) grow in weekly hours. It is all about relationships. Building relationships take time. But these challenges could be met with the addition of 6 to 12 new people who join us in this mission and embrace our vision. Join with us now in praying that our work can continue in Flint in 2014.

Donations to help support our work can be made online: www.NewWineMission.com or by sending a donation to : New Wine Mission, PO Box 13608, Flint, MI 48501

For the latest pictures and information on the ministry try our Facebook page: 

www.facebook.com/#!/NewWineMission

Advent Outreach

Peggy lives in Senior Apartments in Clio.  She is a missionary.   We see every member of New Wine as being a missionary to their neighborhood.  Peggy's mission field is her apartment of 100 or so residents.  This December she will be hosting a "Advent Outreach".  We will meet once a week to work on a Christmas Craft to give away to other residents, family or friends.  Amidst our project time we will share about the Advent Wreath and its spiritual significance this time of year.  She hopes to hold this gathering in the community room near the lobby with a time of prayer at the end of the crafts party.  How are you reaching out in the holiday season?   We pray the Spirit will inspire you to reach out in creative ways in this holiday season. 

New Wine Report - Nov 2013

Jesus instructed his church to not put "New Wine" into "Old Wineskins". When dreaming about a new church start-up we chose the name "New Wine" because authentic Christian community often looks very different from the "program centered church" of America today. It seems that the latest evolution of the church has produced a church full of "spectators" more than "participants".

Life giving churches today are populated with people who are doing more than watching. I certainly am not suggesting everything in the way church has been done is bad or even ineffective. But this generation is tired of too much talk and not enough action on the part of the followers of Christ.

Even in choosing our name we are trying to communicate that our intent is to change our ways. We want to be a church where everyone understands themselves to be ministers. We want to become a church where our expectation is that we all do the ministry of serving, loving, forgiving, helping and sharing.

A light for me last month was walking into the Flushing Outreach Center and seeing several of our Cell Group members hard at work. This cooperative Christian outreach is helping hundreds of needy families in our area. This is not people miles away but these are our neighbors who those serving get to know. Jim Sartor, Deacon in Training, is now serving in a chaplain's role at the center, with his main role helping the volunteers connect with those they serve by praying, sharing or connecting them with Christian churches in our town. His gentle spirit of encouragement and modeling will help these servant-hearted people be more intentional in their Christian outreach.


I had a good chance to pass on some insights and share of our experience of trying to hear the Lord in our regular "Listening Days" with our brothers and sisters over in South Haven, Michigan. They asked me to lead them in a time of "Listening" as they press ahead after the leaving of their long time pastors, Andrew & Summer Gross. Andrew is now serving in Pittsburgh as the communication officer for the ACNA. Brian Wolthuis from Holland, Michigan is now serving in a part-time roll and they have just made the move into a new worship space, an old daycare center on the back of a local church in their community. They were encouraged by our time together as it seems that the Spirit was calling their whole fellowship to a time of "prayer and fasting" as they begin this new season in the common life. I am very excited to see what the Spirit is leading them to do and become.

I began last month by attending the Diocesan Clergy retreat in Akron, Ohio. Pat Self and I stayed with my family who live close by, but we also encouraged Rebecca from central Ohio to join us. Rebecca has been a prayer partner with New Wine for several years. In a very special set of circumstances, which include a vision in a dream, we were connected. It seems that the Lord is now leading her to come alongside Anglicans in her area (she has been ministering in a Vineyard church for many years). She has exercised a ministry of prayer and encouragement in our work in Flint and I think the Lord has now connected Rebecca with the wider Anglican community which is very exciting.

Finally, last month also proved to be a great blessing to Deb and I as I took a week off to paint our home a nice bright yellow. Now known as the "Happy House on Dale Street", we had several happy and hard working members of the church join us in this project. Weeks later I am still a little sore, but we continue to pray we can be a bright spot in our corner of Flushing.

All Saints at New Wine

"All Hallows Eve", the night before "All Saints Day", is my least favorite time of the year.  So many of the Christian Feasts celebrate significant events in the life of Christ or the Church.   It would be so typical of our fallen nature that a worldly way of thinking would begin to twist something good -  "remembering the lives of faithful people who have gone before" - to something dark and even frightful and at times down right gruesome.   This fall at New Wine we have chosen to sit at the feet of saints and ask "how did they draw near to the Lord?"    Based on a book Longing For God we focused on 7 different saints.  (check out the audio sermons page at www.NewWineMission.com )  This day we truly celebrate the saints that have gone before and still teach us today.

Now we turn our sights to mission outreach and deeds of kindness and service.  Join us November 7 when we host 2 dinners at Taekens Terrace in Davison and Roxbury Court in Clio and then watch Billy Graham's last national sermon.  Call (810) 659-0432 for more information.    Our Flushing Cell group is collecting (till the end of the year) extra tubes of toothpaste for needy people in our community.  But I was reminded of the hands on outreach of the food and clothes closet that we help support when I dropped in on the FCOC last week and found several of our cell group members hard at work serving the needy of our community.  FCOC (Flushing Christian Outreach Center) served more than 149 families which is over 404 individuals in the last reported month. 

So as we look ahead, we are thinking and praying for the Family, Friends and Neighbors (FFN's) the Lord is putting in our lives this holiday season.   We are asking "For the sake of the kingdom,  how will we love more, serve more and be in the Word more?"  This was the challenge brought to us in our last listening day this Fall.  Pray we do not just listen but do what the Lord is calling us to do as we end 2013.

New Wine Report - September 2013

Life at New Wine has been good over the summer. Our last Report was end of June. July and August seem like a blur. People away on trips and the slow passing of summer included two significant departures from New Wine Mission. First we said good-bye to the Robinson Family as they moved to North Carolina for Mike to take a new JR. ROTC position near New Bern. The plus is that they are already involved in an Anglican Church - All Saints, Morehead City. They have been part of a small group with some young Marines at Camp Lejeune and just a week ago had their first cell group in their new home. Our loss but the Kingdom's gain. We also said farewell to Cameron and Hannah as they start their 3 year seminary experience at Nashotah House in MN. We will see the MacMillans later this month when they return to Michigan for a family event. We hope periodic visits will be a regular occurrence over their seminary experience. We are supporting them both in prayer and financially as a church and individually.

We certainly feel the absence of these two dear New Wine families, but we have added to our numbers with several twenty something folks who have started regularly coming the past two months. This fall we are seeing Tim Goodrich step up as our new worship leader and he is doing a great job. Finding the balance of contemporary songs that speak our praise and love to God and yet remaining connected to the songs of the church in ages past is the goal. Over the summer we have seen a new Thursday Evening - Contemplative Cell group emerge. Meeting in downtown Flint at Tim's Shoe Shop they transform the space into a simple worship space for quiet evening prayer and reflection on the daily readings. Calm, quiet and sacred this hour long gathering is often completed with fellowship at a local pub. Laughter, conversation, tales true and imagined, mixed with a little theology is creating a great relational setting for a new way of doing church.

This fall we are continuing to look to do ministry around the table. Several of our cells will participate in the "My Hope America" event on November 7 hosted by the Billy Graham Association, but it is designed to be around a dinner in a home or other gathering places. We hope to host four "Matthew Parties" modeled after St. Matthew throwing a party so his friends could meet Jesus. We are also looking to go deeper with the Lord as we embark on a 7 week sermon series based on a book by Robert Foster called "Longing for God."

Finances have been tight starting early this summer. Once again we were surprised on two occasions when two families beyond our immediate church family tithed unexpected money to our work. Just when expenses exceeded income, the first check came, then just a few weeks ago the second one came again just in the time of greatest need. We can express what a blessing both these gifts have been at a time we did not know how our needs would be met. We can only receive these as a sign that we are to keep pursuing the vision of establishing a self supporting Anglican ministry which Loves People and Loves God, around the Communion Table and through authentic house church communities in Genesee County.

In the beginning of August we held another listening day. We sensed the Spirit saying keep focused on "More Word, More Love, More Service". Let me end with a verse the Lord directed me to during my quiet time that confirmed to me I was to stay the course here in Flint:

Judges 9:13 "But the vine said to them 'Shall I leave my new wine, which cheers God and men, and go to war over the trees?'" and the implied answer is "NO".

When God is at work, and I believe He is at New Wine, we are to stay the course though things are lean or our numbers thin. God is at work and He has not said pull up the stakes and move the tent. This gives me hope for the weeks and months ahead. May we see a great harvest in His vineyard.