This is an open letter to our community, but if you read this and want to join us please, please come on by.  Unfortunately when we sent this out it got messed up so I am posting it here for the people.  Sorry for the complications.

Hey Marsh Creek Family,
I wanted to write you a quick note to tell you why I am so psyched about Sunday.  We have been telling you for a few weeks we are doing something special that requires you to wear comfortable clothes and bring a camera.  Shelby let you all know this past week that our something special would serve the community.

Well the scoop is… This Sunday the Church is leaving the building.  We will gather at our normal time at 10am (even though we know many of you all come at 10:10 – wink, wink, nudge, nudge) and begin our worship service as normal.  At the point of where the sermon normally goes we will be heading out to participate in one of five organized projects around the community for the rest of the morning.

Why are we doing this…
1. Scripture teaches that followers of Jesus are known by their love, and our love is experienced best when we, like Paul taught in 1 Cor. 9 this past week, become a servant to all.

2. The Church is the people… that would be you all…  Not the building or a service.  Worship is more than just songs.  This is a tangible way in which we will live lives of worship, by serving out of love alongside those we love.

3.  95% of people will hear, accept, and know Jesus love through a personal relationships.  This opportunity places us in relationship with our community directly and indirectly making it easier for the community to understand what we are all about because they have seen what we are all about.  We want our lives to live in such a way our words can be heard.

4. It is a blessing and unique privilege to serve together as families and as a broader community together in relationship.  We are really looking forward to seeing sons and daughters working alongside Mom and Dad.  The next generation working along side other generations.  Even those that are in lower elementary will be able to participate in many if not all of these events.  This day will easily be a highlight of our year, as our Baptism and Picnic have become a highlight for our Church family.  Why?  Because we are all together celebrating the goodness of God in community.

What are we doing…
We have a number of opportunities that range in interest and scope, take a look over them and come prepared with your 1st and 2nd preferences..

1. Serving Exton and West Whiteland township by mulching and planting at the Butterfly Park they are developing. (all materials are provided along with childcare at this location on the playground)

2.  Serving Safe Harbor by preparing food that will be delivered fresh that night to be served the next day.  Participants can serve the food on Monday the 24th if they can but not required.   The menu and food that is needed will be provided.  (Kids are welcome)

3.Serving Bridge of Hope by preparing food that will be delivered frozen to be served on Monday, June 14th.  Participants can serve on the 14th if they can but not required. The menu and food that is needed will be provided.  (Kids are welcome)

4.  Serving Home of the Sparrow projects by helping an elderly lady, who lives in Thorndale.  They will be doing yard work & painting a bird bath.  All necessary supplies are there.

5. Serving Home of the Sparrow projects by helping an elderly lady who lives in West Chester.  They will be doing yard work.  All necessary supplies provided.

I can’t wait for this Sunday because Jesus came to call us all into relationship with Him, to know and experience His love, and to Go in His power and share that love with the world.  Every Sunday I have the joy of worshipping alongside you all, studying God’s word, and relating in community.  This Sunday I can’t wait to worship alongside you in service to our community, because I believe nothing will impact our world more than God’s people moved by prayer, empower by His Spirit, serving the people He has called us to for the Glory of His Kingdom and the Fame of His name.

I invite you all to join me as the Church leaves the building and loves on the people of Central Chester County in a big way.

I can’t wait to see you on Sunday
Joel

I have been reading John Maxwell’s Everyone Communicates, Few Connect which is a book I highly recommend.  In my reading today I came across the following passage I wanted to share with you all.

“President Abraham Lincoln, an incredible communicator, was known during the Civil War to attend a church not far from the White House on Wednesday nights.  The preacher, Dr. Gurley, allowed the president to sit in the pastor’s study with the door open to the chancel so he could listen to the sermon without having to interact with the crowd.

One Wednesday evening Lincoln and a companion walked back to the White House after the sermon, the president’s companion asked, “What did you think of tonight’s sermon?”

“Well” Lincoln responded, “it was brilliantly conceived, biblical, relevant, and well presented.”

“So it was a great sermon?” his companion asked

“No” Lincoln replied. “It failed.  It failed because, Dr. Gurley did not ask us to do something great.”

That passage to me sums up the bulk of preaching I have heard over a lifetime and I feel unfortunately sums up most of the preaching I do (although I would say I am rarely brilliant despite my desire to be relevant, biblical, and well presented).

This hits me hard because I firmly believe God created us for something great, for great things, for things that Jesus promised would be even greater than what He saw or did while He was on earth.  Yet rarely are we asked to attempt great things or dare to do so.  Even this past week I preached on the importance of being a missionary to the people God has placed us among I feel I failed to call Marsh Creek Church to do something great, something epic, something that will change the world.

To those who communicate for a living, or even regularly in your daily life, what great thing are you challenging those around you to do?  For me the gauntlet has been thrown down.  Because I believe the Church should be the place where the greatest things in our lives are conceived.  Where lives are inspired to make dreams become reality.  Because we are loved by a God who empowers us to live the blessing of life He has given us to it’s fullest.

So now I ask you all to do something great, the only thing that will impact a life for eternity.  Will you be willing to share your faith with someone who God has placed in your life so that they have the opportunity to know the God who loves them, forgave them, and saved them for eternity so they could be loved, and know His presence.

I was just quoted a staggering stat yesterday by a good friend.  That 95% of people who come to know Jesus personally do so because of a personal relationship.  So Church services, evangelistic events, concerts, etc. only account for 5%.  You are the X factor, the difference maker, the one empowered by God to do great things for the glory of His Kingdom.
I would argue that the greatest thing that can be done in life is to impact a life for the greatest possible good.  You are surrounded by lives you have the opportunity to impact.  Will you do something great?

Our staff read the following the other day in a book we are studying together.  It is part of a Franciscan benediction.  The prayer is one that ask’s God to wreck you in a good way.  To disquiet your soul in such a way that are starving for more of Him.  To give you a Holy passion for a cause, and finally for the foolishness to believe the impossible is possible through God.

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that yo may live deep within your heart

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and the exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice,  freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, and starvation, so that you may reach out your nad to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim is impossible.

Amen

This is a dangerous prayer.  This sort of prayer is a catalyst toward something much bigger than yourself, that will push you well outside your comfort zone, and into a place where God completely fills the horizon, and every moment because you are completely dependent on Him; And you are seeing Him do amazing things in, through, and around you.

I meant this post for a week ago and have since procrastinated.  The worse news is now that I am finally getting around to this post I am realizing it has been a month and half since I last wrote.  Shame on me!  I know I have disappointed my loyal reader out there.  So whoever you are, I am sorry and thank you for hanging strong.  I look forward to the day where I can make reader plural, accounting for more readers.  But I digress.

A week ago at Marsh Creek Church we preached on the single life and God’s gift of season in our life.  The encouragement is to embrace the season you are in.  Take hold of it, suck the marrow out it, live the life you have for all it is worth.  Regardless of our station in life we are more prone to notice what we don’t have, and comment on what we wish would happen, or what we would like to get, achieve, become.

For many this means the best hours of their day are spent asleep.  In their dreams they find the perfect life partner, have the perfect career, the perfect kids, the perfect car, the perfect ministry, the perfect Church, etc.  For many of us our best life is lived in our dreams.  Author and Pastor Erwin McManus does this subject a ton more justice in his book Wide Awake which is well worth the read.

It is a sad state that our best life is bottled up in the most inactive ours of our existence and when we do come to and set our feet on the ground of reality we feel we have to settle.  I do not believe God created us for this.  When He created mankind He put mankind in paradise and gave them purpose in relationship with Him.  It was perfect and I believe they were truly satisfied.  They were living wide awake.

I want to encourage us all to take stock of where we are and the dreams we desire to take hold of.  Prayerfully lay these desires before the Lord, but also do something about it.  Even if it is a small thing.  Stop waiting to live, and start living today.  The act of living, of pursuing our God given call, passions, dreams, purpose and talent is our spiritual acto of worship.  Sunday does not have to be the best and only hour you worship.  It is the celebration of all the worshipping you have been doing all week because you are alive, and living life!  Life is too short and too hard to settle for second best.  So live, cease the day, and praise God for the opportunity to do so along with the blessings that come your way.

Today God just rocked my world as I had the opportunity to preach on what the greatest unrecognized truth’s of his scripture.  God grows things.  That it.  Period.  End of story.  Methods, Philosophies, Ministry plans, strategic initiatives check your ego at the door because it don’t matter if God aint growing it.

This truth requires our dependence.  We have no control over it.  We can try and manufacture it, but the thin veil of our efforts will quickly be discovered in the body count of burn out.

One of he things that unfortunately did not make the final cut on today’s sermon is the real math of God’s work to grow.  We measure growth by stories.  That is our math among leadership at MCChurch and I pray that is the math wherever you find yourself.  You see marketing can make numbers, big givers can pad numbers, and nice buildings are nice, but the real math is in the stories of God’s work among the people He is impacting for the glory of His Kingdom.  When our Church’s are filled with the exploits of God’s Kingdom, the other things will follow as God gifts. And we thank God for those gracious gifts because they are all from Him, and Him alone.

So celebrate the stories my friends.  Tell the stories, find the stories.  Because the work of God is found in the stories of real lives impacted by His love

This past week at MCChurch we grappled with the idea of being spiritual people.  The pathway to spirituality begins with our spending time with God in His word.  Whoever you are, wherever you are I challenge you to humbly place yourself in His word and receive the things His word teaches you.  Wrestle with it, pray over it, disagree with it, argue with it, thank him for it, repent because of it.  As we listen and respond we know God more.

As you embark on this journey go out and buy a new Bible.  Just the other day I had a good friend pick me up a Bible from her book store.  I forgot the fun, and wonder of owning a new unmarked Bible.  I opened it for the first time last night with the anticipation of all the things God has to say to me, and how this book will walk with me through this journey.  Sometimes it is good to mix things up.  To go out and mark the journey with a milestone that  marks something new, the next step, or next leg of the journey.  For a long time I have studied out of two other Bibles one was my Dad’s from when I was a kid, and the other I received as a gift from my parents as a student.  Both are well marked we have journeyed a long way together.  They are testament to the lessons learned and the things taught to me by God.  And now I have a new Bible to walk this next leg of the journey with me together.  To show me new insights as God’s Holy Spirit works in me to uncover the words He has for me to shape me into His likeness.

I know it’s cool these days to have your e-bible, youversion thing on your ipod, iphone, crackberry, and soon to be ipad.  But there is something special about the materiality of a book, a new Bible waiting to be opened, to be read, to be highlighted and underlined.  To be marked up with thoughts, and dog eared to be remembered.

Regardless of how you do it, do it, get in to it, to use a scriptural metaphor drink deep, feast.  As you do, you will be changed.  Guaranteed

“Stay thirsty my friends”

As we have embarked on our weekly study of Corinthians I am using this blog space to expand on the series, answer follow up questions, and include information that just sometimes does not fit into the context of Sunday morning.

In today’s episoded of Director’s Cut (because I cannot think of a better name for it) we find ourself taking a second look at a tough passage that gets in the face of us Church goers and hits at sensitive areas.  And whenever you dig at that sensitivity you expose pain, and pain is just no fun.

This morning is no different.  We are doing a complete study of 1 Corinthians and in so doing we are gonna tackle some tough subjects for us all.  Paul charges straight out of the gate in his letter at one of the biggest problems that plagues the Church at Corinth and has plagued Churches for centuries.  Divisions over leaders, style, methods, and theology.  In this case our passage looked at division over leaders.   These divisions will pop up again later in the book as we see how the Church was not loving one another but rather causing hurt.

That being said I may have come out of the gate a bit strong myself, this morning.  Being that this mornings message was a tough one, I went right after it.  Unfortunately I was made aware that I caused a question or two concerning the possibility of a larger problem at MCChurch and may have come off a bit harsh.  I did not intend to imply any problem through my strength in tone.

Let me first be really really clear.  There are NO major divisions at MCChurch or issues, at least that I am aware of.  We are simply human like everyone else and can easily have our little things, and do occasionally have our little things.

Did I have any specific thing in mind no.  Did I use a specific example or two from the past, yes, because I felt it served a purpose and exposed that sometimes even our Church can get caught up in this stuff and that we all can do damage even with the best intentions.

Let’s face it we all want to believe we go to the best Church on earth that has no issues and totally handles everything with Grace and Love.  It is just not reality on this side of eternity even though we strive for it to the greatest degree that God allows.  I had also  hoped by using examples from our community to appropriately set the expectation of open and authentic conversation drenched in love that we can understand because they are ours.

In fact allow me to applaud my MCChurch family for their unity in the face of challenges over their history that easily could have ripped us apart.  Instead they have been an example of grace and love with their eyes firmly fixed on Christ as we journey together in knowing Him more.  I am proud to say I have experienced the best the Church has to offer at MCChurch and wish the same experience for everyone anywhere the Lord may find you.

Now I did keep it personal to us as a Church and to Christianity in general for the sake of reflection in hopefully our journey to be open, honest, and self aware of the things that can drag us apart.  But here is where I think an important part of the context may have been missing in my method and perhaps my madness.

I have had a front row seat to two powerful ministries make unfortunate errors in handling situations that could have easily been addressed in a much healthier and holistic fashion (in my opinion, others may disagree).  The fall out was a significant body count of people who left those churches, some who fell away from Christianity all together, and even more who bare the scars of being wounded by those unfortunate events.  The root, going way back to the beginning was the lack of acknowledging and dealing openly and lovingly with differences that when left untouched in the dark festered and turned into division, and resulted in split.

In addition I have sat through sermons that spent more time trashing every other Church in the local area than it did focusing on the context of scripture or the personal application to the folks sitting right there (this thankfully was not at MCChurch).  I have heard of pastors from Churches in the same community be unwilling to talk with one another never mind find a common cause to work toward in serving their community.  I have heard of one Church calling another Church terrible names, and for what.  That is not good enough!  Followers of Jesus can do better and should do better.  And my hope, prayer, and deep deep desire is to see Churches be beacons of love, known for their uncommon unity and solidarity in purpose.

So this mornings topic was personal to me because I have felt the effect of what seemed like innocent differences remain unacknowledged, unowned, and undiscussed turn into chasms that could not be crossed.  I have walked with friends, good friends, who were crushed under the wheels of it, and have felt the separation of broken relationships because of these things.  And I want and pray for better at MCChurch and your Church too.  It’s just not worth it.

So I went a little strong today because it’s personal, because I love my MCChurch family too much, and I love my brothers and sisters out there and their Churches too much to see it happen anymore.  Lord willing MCChurch will see God’s work continue to be made even more alive in our weakness and any source of potential division will be the catalyst for innovation, and the bedrock for creativity as God takes the things in us that could make us weak to show His strength.  My prayer is that if God convicts the things unspoken will move from darkness to light, from unspoken to spoken, from hidden to exposed, because that is the place that God works, convicts, reconciles and heals.

I pray everyone would experience a healthy Church that is marked by love and understanding even when we take on the not so fun topics.  May we prayerfully be guided by God to unity by humility.

My prayer is the appeal of Paul in 1 Cor. 1:10 that we would be unified in mind and thought.  The picture here is that of a fishing net being mended together.  Bring two pieces together for one purpose (catching fish).   What a cool picture.

I guarantee I will not always get it right, but I will do my best to make it right as I am a work in progress.

I had the unique privilege and educational opportunity to spend a portion of my day talking with a principal of, what is in my opinion, one of the great design firms and innovators currently out there today.  Sometimes life throws us those neat little treats, the gifts that we get to enjoy.  I have had the chance to experience their work, be surrounded by the spaces they have designed that were inspired by dreams.  It is a unique experience to both enter into and be moved by a space.  By the placement of walls, windows, colors, and other stuff that elicits feelings and response.  Since that conversation I have spent time praying over the dream here at MCChurch.  The possibilities, the future, the impact, the role we will play in God’s grander story of His Kingdom and His people yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  Just to spend some time wondering what is it that God is inviting us into, what is it that He will do, what chapter of the story is He about to author.

I was struck by what a unique and wonderful gift it is to dream.  To wonder, to be captured by an idea that knows no bounds, that can’t possibly fail, that will change lives, possibly even change the world.  Nothing can stop us in our dreams, possibilities are limitless, boundaries non existence, the world is our oyster.

I began to think about what God was dreaming and what he already new before the world was ever formed.  When He could have done whatever He wanted when water could be purple and the sky orange, and meatballs could rain from the sky, and a warm summer breeze smell like chocolate.  Yet the world we live in is His dream spoken.  Form put to ideas, a universe that cries out to the nature of it’s created order and points in worship to it’s creator.

I have spent a lot of time reflecting on Joshua in the first chapter of the book that bears his name and have wondered what it must have been like to hear the voice of God so clearly.  And then to look across the river Jordan into a new land, a land God promised to Abraham, and to wonder, to dream about what it would be like to finally live there.  To lead the people there, and see God build His people there.  What did Joshua dream?  How scared was he?  What did he pray?  How alive did he feel in that moment.

Sadly, to roughly quote one of my favorite authors, we experience most of our dreams in our sleep…  Few dare to dream wide awake, to live to see the reality of a dream come to life, to risk communicating the dream, to chase the dream, journey toward its realization and experience the exhilaration of victory and the sting of failure along the way with all the lessons to be learned and stories to be told.

I pray for myself, my family, my Church, and for anyone else who should stumble across these random thoughts.  I pray for the boldness to dream wide awake and to be willing to risk to live the dream. And I hope some day to hear the stories, because the good Lord knows they will be great stories.

To quote Steven Tyler  ”Dream on”

Feeling a bit cheesy now, until next time

So I hope over the coming weeks to blog some of the stuff from our new series at Marsh Creek Church entitled The Corinthians.  This past Sunday we kicked it all off by looking back at the plant of the Corinthian Church by Paul.  What I found so unique about this particular Church plant was Paul’s methodology was a different than in previous plants.  Paul’s normal M.O. beyond going to the jews first was to argue for the gospel at the center of town with the other philosophers of the day in a Battle Royal of Philosophers.  In Corinth, Paul engages in the business community by working along side some friends and develops relationships with those he comes into contact with in the community.  And through this network of relationships Acts 18 notes “many believed and were baptized”.  Paul’s methodology in Corinth fit the culture he found himself in.  He adapted, without compromising the gospel.

The take away, each of us has been placed by God exactly where He wants, for the purpose of His Kingdom and the Glory of His name.  And it is God who is already at work around us and is just eager for us to see what He is doing in the people we are already surrounded by, so that they can know Him, like we know Him.

The thought I wanted to add was one that unfortunately got cut from the sermon I delivered on Sunday.  At least in my opinion sometimes a sermon like this can be delivered in a way that feels like a “bring your friends to Church to get saved and pad our numbers in the seats” sermon.  What I wished I had said and had written in my original manuscript is that we judge our God ordained success at Marsh Creek Church by stories.  We look to the stories of lives changed by the miraculous work of God using us as He sees fit in the places He has put us.  We look to the stories of God’s redemptive work in drawing us close to Him and giving us the courage to take the next step of faith.  We look to the stories of those who have been so impacted by knowing God that they commit to serve Him with their life in the places God is calling them to.

Stories are the tangible evidence and experience of God’s work in the people he loves so dearly.  At the end of the day that is what we pray for.  That is when we know we are listening and responding to God’s voice, when we are work within His will, and the story He is writing in Central Chester County.

Sometimes some good stuff get’s cut from a sermon accidentally.  But to me this thought was too important.  I don’t write this to sound super spiritual, or to imply I somehow have arrived.  Far from it my friends.  Writing this put’s it out there so you all can hold me accountable, because let’s be honest crappy attendance and a tight budget are not fun.  But together we can pray more carefully, and look more intently to what God is doing, and then go obediently to join Him.

So in closing to quote the most interest man on earth “stay thirsty my friends”.  Thirsty for the work of God in your life, and then to pour that work into the lives of others for the Glory of God.

I figured it high time to dust off the old blog and engage the world again.  Ironically I find no better time than to offer some thoughts and reflect on this weeks events.

The disaster in Haiti is personal for me because I have been there and have had a chance to be impacted by their people.  Their faith, their generosity, their hospitality despite their worldly poverty showed me how rich they truly are.  What was crushed in a few short moments was largely built by hand over weeks, months, and years.  Each cement column and floor was hand stirred and poured by passing buckets of cement.  Many patiently waited for a long time to receive the hospitals and schools that would provide a higher quality of life and an opportunity to impact their neighborhood for Gods Kingdom.  It breaks my heart to know what was so painstakingly built now lays crushed around them.  I am glad to see the world rally to help them.  I am greatly encouraged to see the response of the Church in this time of crisis to bring aid as well.  In many ways leading the charge as they have been there so long working with the people of Haiti.  My prayer for them as a nation is that despite their significant suffering, and untold horror this moment will be a turning point for them.  A time in which we come together and help them rebuild.  And in rebuilding we are able to give them far more than we have ever given before.  I pray they will be overwhelmed by the generosity of the world and especially America and more importantly the Church.  I pray that in rebuilding we can offer them things that will work to get rid of hunger, poverty, and disease that plagued them because they often could not get or provide for these needs.  I pray the images we see on TV would haunt us, disturb our souls and move us to action.  Because as dear as Haiti is to me, this is just one of many heartbreaking realities around the world waiting on the rest of the world to look in and see and move to action.

The Church is alive and well down in Haiti and God has been doing unbelievable things.  They have a strong faith, and steadfast hope in the Lord.  I was encouraged today as I was scanning the news to hear that they were gathering in town squares, fields, and open spaces to pray, comfort one another, and worship together.  In their grief they continue to seek God, despite the significant disaster they face.

If you are part of the Marsh Creek Church family we will take a special offering this week to aid in the recovery.  We have also been collecting shoes and have found out those shoes will go to the people of Haiti.  I can tell you that this need alone is significant and will go along way in the rebuilding effort.  Many do not have shoes and are significantly hindered by having to go barefoot on unpaved roads that are littered with streams of raw sewage and trash.  This was before the disaster.  Now they must contend with impassable roads and collapsed buildings.  Shoes for their feet will impact them a great deal.  So please plan to come prepared.  For those who may read this from other Church communities take the lead as God moves on your heart to respond.

And let us allow this to be one more moment that moves us closer to the heart of Christ as we humble ourselves to serve our brothers and sisters in need.