February 2010

“Keep it Simple”

Pastor Rush is on his way home from a wonderful Pastor's Conference. As he boards the plane, his thoughts quickly turn from the blessings of the conference to the life and schedule he was returning to. After analyzing the next few days and weeks he is troubled.

At thirty thousand feet Pastor Rush is thinking about the people in his church. He is praying and thinking. Some tough questions are emerging. Are the people in his church being transformed? Is his church making real disciples, the kind of disciples Jesus made? Or is everyone just busy?

He glances over at the sleeping passenger next to him. On his lap is the airlines magazine, and it is opened to a full page advertisement for a popular media service. The top of the advertisement says "Simple". Out of curiosity Pastor Rush pulls the same magazine out of the seat pocket in front of him. He finds the page to further examine the advertisement. It is interesting. He snickers. Simple sounds so good.

So the theme begins in the recent book titled "Simple Church" that Pastor Nathan introduced me to. It pushes the point that we need to stop and take a look at what we are doing, why we are doing it and how we could do it better and simpler. The goal that Nathan and I have for this year is to help us take a good look at how we can simplify to accomplish the mission of the church of Jesus Christ.

When I first arrived here 12 years ago a sign had been posted around the church, "Let's keep the Main Thing the Main Thing." The need for a call for simplicity has not changed since that time. Sometimes we have been effective at focusing our efforts, other times we have not.

It's time once again to focus our efforts on the calling of Christ to the church. The call to go and make disciples. Jesus shared it with his disciples in Matthew 28.

18 Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Just like Pastor Rush all of us can ask tough questions. We can dig into the questions about what is effective and what is not. We can see if new ways of doing "church" will help accomplish Christ's commission of the church. Can we go back to older ways of reaching out that will set us on a new path? Perhaps you have an idea that will revolutionize and simplify our ministry. All of us can remember times when we were too busy to reach our neighbors or too committed to care.

It is our prayer that the chruch of Jesus Christ here in Upsala can be focused on the main thing. We truly are purposing to help everyone in our fellowship to worship, grow and go. A simple picture helps us remember this focus. The three C's of Community Covenant Church move us forward in all three areas.

If the Joy of the Lord is to be the source of our strength, then we must be able to follow God's will for our lives and church. We must be able to see God's vision for the church and not our own. My prayer is that you are ready to let God use you in miraculous ways by loving God with your whole heart, striving to grow to be more like Christ and going out to serve and share the gospel with the world. Will you partner this year with Nathan and me to see what the possibilities are for 2010? God bless you as we move forward together.

Pastor Craig