Omelets

Every morning I make breakfast for Landon and Logan. Yeah, I know...I am incredible father! ;-) I am an early riser anyway and I don't mind cooking breakfast (that was my job in the cafeteria in college.) And it also gives me some time to talk about God with them and get their day going on a spiritual note. Yeah, I know...I am incredibly spiritual too! (No I started this because I realized I had been dropping the ball as my sons' spiritual leader!) Today we had ham and cheese omelets with orange juice and man were they were good!

But I have discovered that there is only so much you can do with eggs in 20 minutes for a good, un-bland breakfast. One thing is certain: unless you are 'Rocky' you do something with eggs other than serve them raw. They get baked, boiled, poached, or fried in some way or another; but you always do something with them.

Last week we got eggs before Easter. In our mind the service on 3/18 did not go well (although some said they loved it...go figure?) The sound wasn't just right, the musicians struggled, the computer did what computers often do, and I of course laid an egg in the message. But the good thing about our team was we did something with those eggs...we just didn't leave them raw. Extra work went into every area of the service. We prayed harder and worked harder. And it showed. What a great service we had Sunday. Those were some good omelets!

An old saying about preparing to serve God is that we should work like it all depends on us and pray like it all depends on God. Thanks to everyone who makes it happen each week and works like it all depends on them and prays like it all depends on God. More and more people are coming each week and some of them are coming to Christ.

Did you know that since January began we have 13 new families and about 36 new people! We are doing well and we have a good two months of growing time ahead of us in April and May.

We may have some Sunday services (or children's events, small groups, student programs, etc.) where we lay some eggs. Humans will be humans. We should strive for excellence but if we get eggselence (that was bad, I'm sorry) lets learn from it and keep moving forward. Everyone makes mistakes but not everyone learns from them. Thanks for everyone's hard work...I loved the omelets!

Eggs Before Easter

It was good to see everyone at The Crossing yesterday. Time for some honesty, though. There are just some Sundays where you just don't feel like you have it. I think yesterday was one of those days. First of all I felt like I laid an egg in the message. It was too long and not interesting enough. And the thing that kills me is that it was the first in this series. We struggled in other ways too. The slides were hard to read, the sound was not just right, the band struggled, a problem with the computer kept the countdown from coming up. What a day.

So what do you do? Learn what you can and move on. This week will be better--count on it. But please pray for us. We need God to bless our work. So we had some eggs before Easter. But this was one Sunday. We move forward making things as good as we can but in the end it is God's church.

In Search of the Real Jesus

Will the real Jesus, please stand up? If the culture's discussions about Jesus are any indication, he is really popular today. That does not mean those discussions have any accuracy. In fact more discussions by those who are unconnected to him or poorly informed about him probably mean more confusion about Jesus. And the God they know through this process is not the One that makes them in His image but one that they make in theirs. As one can personalize their Scion today, so too you can your God!

And even those who are connected to him and supposedly informed about him often believe in a Seinfeld-esque Bizarro Jesus that unfortunately leads to Bizarro Christianity. (Ask someone who knows Seinfeld) "Their" Jesus is only a shadow of the true Christ. And many whose understanding of Jesus is accurate may not have really learned anything new or meaningful in a long time. The problem with that is passionlessness. Nothing new means everything old--old and stale. Somewhere along the line they stopped digging, busy with so many other things I guess. And the Jesus they show the world is cold, formal, and institutionalized.

I don't know what is worse...the uninformed making the Jesus they want, the poorly informed and their Bizarro Christ, or the not recently informed and their passionless Christ. All of it makes the job of spreading the good news in this era maybe more challenging than winning Martians who have never heard of him. (I don't know if there are any but if so, we need to win them to Jesus too.

So who is this man? And what does understanding him mean for us wherever we may be in our spiritual journey. That is the point of this new series as we lead up to Easter, Who Is This Man? I hope the uninformed come to know him, the poorly informed will know him more completely, and the not recently informed will get a new fire for him. Don't miss this new series beginning this Sunday!

Monday Morning Quarterback

In spite of the time change, yesterday was a good day. To my knowledge no one walked in at noon with a strange look on their face. Many of our new families are coming consistently now, and new people keep coming back. I know it was a wild week for Adam with the birth of Ella Kay. It was great to have Gretchen's parents, Steve and Donna Smith and her brother and sister Zach and Fran, too. They are a wonderful family and of course, very proud of Ella Kay.

Life in Stereo: Hearing God in Hi-Def ended pretty well yesterday. I felt good about the message although it was a little long (as usual). I struggled a little with my cold but had a voice until the end. Man that Nooma video was awesome. Those guys are incredible.

I am looking forward to the new series this Sunday, Who is This Man: In Search of the Real Jesus. My Choi Kwang Do instructor Chuck told me they saw a TV special talking about a tomb where Jesus' body was supposedly found. And then you have everyone else's opinion on Jesus including of course, Ricky Bobby. Even though there is a very serious side to this series, we are still going to have fun with it so I hope you come! Hopefully you will leave thinking, "Thank you Jesus for being who you are." or "I didn't really know that about Jesus."

Thanks to everyone for making yesterday a great day and I will see you Sunday!

W.W.J.S.?

O.K., here's the scenario...you have five minutes to have a conversation with Jesus at your favorite local coffee shop. You only have five minutes. What would Jesus say? What two or three things would he want you to know before he vanished into heaven? Come Sunday to The Crossing and we will discuss it. Oh, and I have a free gift (that may be redundant--wouldn't be a gift if it wasn't free) for you and your kids that will help you to hear God in hi-def everyday. Remember its a gift...and its free! Can't wait for Sunday--btw, set your clocks forward so you don't arrive at point 2 1/2 of the message!

Ella Kay...we already love you!

Congratulations to Pastor Adam and Gretchen deWeber on the birth of their baby girl, Ella Kay. Know we now why tiny Gretchen was so pregnant...Ella weighed 8 lbs. 9 0z. Thank you Adam and Gretchen for doing all you can to make The Crossing grow! Pictures are coming.

4:00 AM Messages

It is my goal that The Crossing will be a place where people can be transparent. I have to lead the way. So...I wake up every day at 4:00 AM because of a certain physical reality associated I assume with being 41. This is what I call my bladder alarm. I know some of you may think I need to be more dignified but sometimes my time as a youth pastor 20 years ago inadvertently intrudes on my present reality. I don't know when God speaks to you but often I get 4:00 AM messages. And today, 4:00 AM was a special time. I heard God in Hi-Def, and I cannot wait for Sunday...don't miss the service. The band will be rockin' and your kids will have the best day of their week.

Loving Sundays

What a great service yesterday at The Crossing! Man I loved that worship song, “Everlasting God.” The band was rocking yesterday to God’s glory. Thank you, God, for such an awesome time! Many of you said the message was helpful too which is cool because if it isn’t helpful I need to start checking out monster.com. Someone once told me, “You know pastor, I have heard a lot of comments about your message…but I liked it!” Hopefully those who commented yesterday actually liked it.

I felt a lot of energy yesterday as I spoke…it was easy and exciting to speak. Maybe it was the topic and maybe it was just people praying for me, I don’t know. I have come to know this about God however—you cannot program him in to the service; he will either bless it or he won’t. And it is not because he is inconsistent with his blessings or lack thereof but because of a combination of human factors that we don't always understand and can’t control.

I also know that believers are not always the best judges on how good a service is. Just because it helps us or makes a connection to what we like or enjoy does not mean God blessed it more so than something else. Often Christ-followers have told me a song or a message was not blessed by God because they and others were not moved by it. But how can we know how God should work in any situation? I guess Moses would reject any thing from God that did not come through a burning bush…Mary, anything that did not come through an angel…and Daniel, anything that did not come through a hand, writing on a wall. God works and speaks differently in every situation.

In the end though, it all belongs to him and is all about him. God will not dance at the end of our strings. It is his church and his people and he cares more for them and understands them more than we ever could. I do know that… (A) When we pray with passion he seems to have a powerful presence and (B) when we are focused on meeting spiritual needs, especially of disconnected people, he works. Think about this: who would you want to help more—someone who will help your child who is home safe get better grades in school or someone who will bring your child home who is missing and may be in terrible danger? That is how God sees disconnected people…like a parent whose child is missing. God help us to see things like you do!

In case The Crossing’s service does not always do it for you, here are some thoughts: pray for God to work in the service the moment you do not feel it is helping you. Say to yourself, this must not be for me today so God wants me here to help pray for whoever it is for. Somehow that service may end up being more of a blessing for you than if it actually was for you. And secondly, bring someone with you that you think will be helped at The Crossing and pray for them throughout the service. God is willing to work where people are trying to help those who need it most. What would life at The Crossing be like if we had just 10 people a week who brought someone to church and were praying for God to work in their lives in the service? Our church would double annually if we had that! And I think that we would all enjoy the services much more. In fact, we couldn't wait to get there. God, let it be!