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Our worship pastor Josh came in my office the other day. We chatted for a while, and I had the impression he was working up to something. Finally, he said, “The time has come for us to move back to Minnesota to be closer to family.” I felt myself take a deep breath, the kind I have needed on other occasions when I have received gut-churning news. I love Josh and Kate. The thought of losing them was initially too much to bear. They have been a true blessing to our church. I really cannot imagine Platt Park Church without them. Through song and spirit, and through friendship and serving they have wiggled their way into our hearts, and we will never be the same.

In addition to my personal sense of loss, I also felt brief panic regarding our church’s loss of such a dynamic pair of worship leaders. But God quickly reminded me of this reality, which has been true to my experience every single time we have had great staff move on from our team: God really does provide for his church. Josh and Kate will never be replaced, but God will provide, and as has happened in the past, we will probably step back amazed by the person(s) He brings into our midst.

I thank God for the amazing season of ministry we have shared with Josh and Kate. They have made a forever mark on my life and on the life of our church. They will never be forgotten. Josh and Kate, thank you for serving the Lord with passion, authenticity and commitment. Thank you for your creative spunk and for loving Platt Park Church so well. We will miss you in our faith community, and Denver won’t be the same without you. We bless you, celebrate you, and honor you as you head into the next chapter of life that God has for you.

During seminary, I was instructed to seek out a mentor who could be a wise sounding board as I progressed through my ministry journey. I asked Vaun Swanson to mentor me. Little did I know that Vaun and I would form a friendship that would far outlast my time in seminary. We have since traveled to Africa together with Food for the Hungry, walked together on trails all around Denver, and shared in each other’s families and lives for years.

Because of this rich history, I am delighted beyond belief to announce that Vaun Swanson is joining our staff as Pastor of Community Development. In addition to Vaun’s extensive graduate education (Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees), she is gifted at creating environments in which people can move from loneliness to community and grow to be all God intended them to be. She has a unique knack for noticing, serving and walking with people during seasons of transition or struggle. Her love for God and walk with Christ are beautiful and inspiring aspects of her character. Vaun’s passion for biblical equality has taken her all around the world, and most recently to Nepal, where she has been teaching and leading conferences on what it means to be “one in Christ”.

I was born into a family that was pretty far from God, but once God got a hold of my family, we began participating in a non-denominational Christian church. I have deep appreciation for those roots, but I never really liked that description “non-denominational.” The description essentially meant that while our church hesitated to align itself with any of the mainline Christian denominations familiar in the U.S., we sought to be faithful to the story of Jesus as revealed in the Scriptures and through Christian tradition. My childhood church recognized that the reality of multiple denominations (“expressions”) of Christian faith testifies to long centuries of disagreement and division among Christ-followers, which is not always a winsome quality to those who are seeking a spiritual home.

Many people see denominationalism as a marred aspect of Christian history, reflecting division, exclusivism, and religious arrogance. Others believe that denominationalism has provided a helpful accountability to Christian interpretation of Scripture and life practice. Most likely, there is truth to both perspectives.

Personally, I think there is a lot of rich history and valuable insight available through the various denominations of our faith. So, in describing Platt Park Church, I usually tell people we are a multi-denominational church: we like to borrow from the best of the various denominations.

This Sunday we are kicking off a new series called “Streams: What We Can Learn from Various Christian Traditions.” We will examine the strengths of the following “streams” of Christian heritage:

8/4 – what we can learn from the Reformed stream
8/11 – what we can learn from the Anabaptists
8/18 – what we can learn from the Catholic stream
8/25 – what we can learn from the Pentecostal/Charismatic stream
9/1 – what we can learn from the Majority world church

I hope you’ll join us for this conversation & exploration of the various streams of our faith. My hope is that each of us will find our faith challenged, deepened, and refreshed by the wisdom sipped from each stream.

I think from God’s perspective there is really only one church. This Church, with a capital “C”, is made up of followers of Christ all over the world. Regularly I find myself asking people, “where do you go to church?” Of course, this is a legitimate question since there are many local expressions of the Church around the city and many different churches are needed to reach many different kinds of people. But sometimes I step back and wonder what does God think of all these churches? I know the Church is the bride of Christ and that God loves his church. But I wonder what he thinks of all the different local expressions. Does he wish we were more united? The scriptures are filled with passages about the importance of unity….what does that look like today?

Tomorrow morning we kick off a new message series on The Lord’s Prayer. We are teaming up with ten other churches around Denver during the month of July to teach/preach through this same message series. Other participating churches include:

Scum of the Earth Church
Mountair Church
The Refuge
Mile High Vineyard
City Church
TNL Church
Denver Community Church
Trailhead Church
Pathways Church
Bloom Church

Of course, each church will have a unique perspective and approach but it has been a great joy to join forces with some other amazing churches in town! By simply sharing together in the same teaching topic for this next month I have become more aware of the exciting ways that God’s kingdom is advancing in our great city and I am thrilled that we at Platt Park Church are a part of it!

Churches like ours rise and fall on the commitment and giving of regular volunteers. This is really no different from the early church that we read about in the book of Acts. The early church started because a band of regular people experienced an event that changed everything and re-oriented their lives and values forever. On the original Easter Sunday a movement was born and that movement is still going strong to this day. Easter has always been about the celebration of a single event in human history – an event that changed the lives of men and women and launched a movement called the church that is still re-writing history to this day. That single event, of course, was the resurrection of Christ, and I am watching the resurrection of Jesus continue to shape us today.

Platt Park Church recently received a $100K gift for building renovations. This gift came from a woman in our community who came to Christ later in life and is experiencing the transforming power of God’s love in her life today. She told Tim and I that she felt God telling her to give this huge gift to our church to help speed up the building renovations so that more people might encounter Christ. I share this with you so that you can join us in celebrating God’s work in the life of our faith community. I feel like we are experiencing the flow of God’s spirit today. Since 2010, when we were required to relocate from our worship space at South High School due to renovations in the school, it has felt like provision upon amazing provision from God. In the midst of many challenges, we have experienced the flow of God’s spirit working in this church.

Week in and week out volunteers give and serve and place the needs of others ahead of their own. We are not perfect – not by a long shot – but we are growing to be more like Christ every day. Our church would not exist without such passionate, devoted followers of Christ. A HUGE thanks to the amazing people who keep re-orienting their lives and priorities around the life of our risen Lord. Thank you for trusting God enough to risk comfort, security and misunderstanding. Thank you for giving your time and talent and treasure so that others might know His love. The greatest sin and shame in most churches today is selfishness and I am continually inspired by the other-oriented-ness that is growing in our church. May it grow even more! You people inspire me. Thank you for living a life that counts for all eternity.

To God Be the Glory!

As we approach Good Friday I’ve been thinking about how today we sometimes talk and hear sentiment about how “Christ died for us, so that we don’t have to die.” On a certain level that’s true. But this doesn’t strike me as consistent with how the disciples in the early church talked about Good Friday. It seemed their understanding was more about “Christ died, so that we might die with him.” I’m thinking of the apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20: “I’ve been crucified with Christ…” And Jesus’ words in Luke 9 read, “Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way.” So, if Christ died and invites me into that death, it leads me to a life of self-sacrifice. But if Christ died so that I don’t have to die, it leads me to a life of self-help. Christ didn’t just die so that I don’t have to die. Christ died and invites me into that death with him.

Last night, after playing with us in his basement playroom, Russell picked up the Barney DVD that Nana brought him and said, “More, more, more!” I said, “You watch Barney and I’ll watch you.” The truth is, I enjoy watching Russell doing just about anything (except maybe throwing his food on the kitchen floor). Russell sat on the floor enamored by, and glued to, the purple dinosaur; and I sat on the floor enamored by, and glued to, my 18-month-old learning and laughing with Barney. Russell did not even realize I was watching him; he was just doing what he does.

How do you imagine God is looking at you when you are doing whatever it is that you do? You and I probably don’t realize how much God is not only watching us but also enjoying watching us. Our loving God is not caught up in the tasks that we are caught up in; he is much more caught up in the joy of his creation – just the essence and being of his beloved ones. Just like I don’t need Russell to start performing, or tying his shoes, or solving algebra equations, God does not need us to complete some important task to receive his love. He just loves to love.

I wonder how my view of God might change if I lived more in an awareness of his perfect love instead of trying to earn it, or deserve it, or prove that I’m worth it.

Several years ago I had a really cool, HUGE, old jade plant. Every time people walked into my office, they would comment, “cool plant!” One time a guy from Texas came to our office and he loved my jade plant so much that I chopped off a big portion for him to take home and re-pot. In fact, there were several times I cut off big branches of that jade and shared them with people who later told me their new plant was thriving. Then our office changed and frankly the entire organization kind of fell apart. I relocated my jade to my new office space.

After a few months in the new space, my jade plant wasn’t looking so good. It had gone from healthy and robust to limp and lifeless. When the jade plant finally fell and the once mighty plant was declared dead, I began the clean up process. What I discovered was that the inside of the jade’s trunk was completely rotten! It was the craziest thing! Some green leaves still appeared to be growing, but the inside was completely dead.

This whole jade plant experience reminds me that what we see on the outside is not always consistent with what’s on the inside. Sometimes people, families, organizations and endeavors look very good, very “up and to the right,” but in reality, the middle is rotten. Sometimes a rotten middle is a narcissistic leader at the helm, or the mismanagement of resources, or perhaps a disgruntled staff. But whatever it may be, rotten middles always reveal themselves in time, and they always bring death and destruction. That is why interior health must be a priority for leaders, families, churches, and businesses.

Scripture tells us, “Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” We are well into this new year 2013, and there is no time like the present to do the difficult work of examining our hearts before God and taking whatever next action steps are needed to participate with God in our healing and renewing. Here is a simple starting guide, if you are unsure where to begin:

1. Be still with God. Examine the jade plant of your life, not just the exterior leaves that everyone sees and admires, but also the inner thoughts, emotions and motivations.
2. If any part of this slow examination causes you shame or sadness, notice it.
3. Sit with the noticing, as if you are looking deep into the core of the jade plant, seeing the colors, feeling the textures, maybe smelling the stench.
4. If needed, confess your diseased-ness and your need for God’s help.
5. Ask God for wisdom to know what steps may be needed.
6. Make a movement in the direction of healing and restoration.

 

While coaching Josh, our worship & outreach pastor at Platt Park Church, on the talk that he gave on December 30th, I listened to him deliver a great joke as part of his message. I noticed him pulling back just a little bit as he told me the joke.  I can relate!  Whenever any one of us creates something and offers it to the world, aren’t we tempted to pull back just a little (or a lot), with this anxious question inside, “Do you like it?” or “Did that work?”

My coaching advice to Josh was this: “If you’re going to tell that joke in the message, you’ve got to commit. You’ve got to decide you’re going to do it and then just put it out there full force, no matter if people laugh at your joke or not.”

Well, he delivered that joke with conviction, and it worked, and I was so proud of him for taking the risk to put himself out there, regardless of the response. Even if it hadn’t worked, and people hadn’t understood or laughed, I’d still be proud because the world needs more people to risk, to dare greatly, to take a chance at adding value/joy/insight/art to this broken world.

When you choose to commit, we are all better for it.

My grandma used to always ask for a bottle of rum each year for Christmas. She would use it to make this fantastic rum cake.  Although she is no longer with us, we have this recipe in her own hand writing and I love pulling it out and making it each year at this time.  Hope you enjoy!