"The Collaborative Method!"

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary,the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. Acts 1:14

One of the greatest lessons that I am learning in my Christian walk is the growing discovery of the collaborative method. This is one of the hardest lessons I have ever learned in my life, and I still have a lot to learn. When the Marine Corps take a recruit, they have 12 weeks on Paris Island to turn those recruits into a team. Their lives and success depends on them beginning to learn thislesson. In sports, we say we can accomplish more together than we can apart. And in the church we have the example of Jesus Christ in his teaching. The promise of a coming helper, his death on the cross which gives us forgiveness of our sins (everything that holds us apart from him and each other) and then he told his followers to stay together for Pentecost. Pentecost was when the Holy Spirit fell upon the diverse group of gathered believers and they were empowered to be a team that would impact the whole world. This was the birth of the “collaborative method.” The word “together” is mentioned 390 times in the Bible. Every marriage has a lot to learn in order to workcollaboratively. Every family has a lifetime of lessons to learn. There are so many lessons to learn for a little league soccer team or an office sales team, but in a church we have no other optionbecause we want them to know we are Christians by our love.

• Long-term commitment is essential.
• Learning and re-learning how to communicate with one another is vital.
• Being able to put our projects on the table for the team to work on is really hard, but its an important step of trust.
• Everyone looking for God’s will, beyond seeing each issue as “us against them”, is maybe the most important ingredient.
• Discovering that great teamwork takes time – so lets keep working on it. This is a really big deal.
  
  Your friend for the rest of my life,
  
  Pastor Tim White
  

Overcoming Unfaith

Mark 9:17-27
In the 9th chapter of Mark’s Gospel, a helpless father desperately implores Jesus to rescue his son. He stands uneasily yet candidly at the crossroads of belief and unbelief. Jesus meets him there.

This kind of faith is not an unquestioning allegiance to ideology. It isn’t reflected in bumper-sticker quips like, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.”

The simple, soulful confession of this kind of faith is, “Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.” This kind of faith exhibits the virtue of skepticism.

In the field of philosophy there are two types of skepticism: Academic and Pyrrhonian. Academic skepticism asserts the impossibility of truly knowing anything. Its fatal flaw is its own logic: How can we truly know that it is impossible to truly know anything?

But Pyrrhonian skepticism accommodates an open-minded pursuit of truth. It acknowledges the severe difficulty of apprehending ultimate knowledge while allowing the possibility of knowing truly.

“Christian faith in God is not a naïve basic truth.
It is unfaith that has been overcome”
Jurgen Moltmann

Scott Burnett

Courage

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13

Most people don’t realize it, but the Bible has a lot to say about courage. For some reason, in our society today, courage has become a trait no longer highly prized as it was in our parents’ generation. Our society is enthralled with stories about those whose success came by accident, and we are thrilled when we hear that they hardly even tried – an overnight success! We like the “get-rich-quick” stories. Buy a lottery ticket and become a millionaire overnight – no work necessary. We love the idea of someone discovering us! Maybe that’s why movie stars and pop music stars are the new heroes of our society.

I praise the people of courage who are all around us: the single parent, the businessperson daring to conduct business God’s way in a dog-eat-dog world, the hero struggling to overcome a chronic or even life-threatening illness, the person with an impossible dream! We all cheered Lance Armstrong’s victory in the Tour de France, but imagine his hard-fought battle against cancer! People flock to successes, but some of us live in admiration of the people who fight the odds, holding on to the impossible dream.

Courage cannot be born without the cradle of adversity. If you feel like a failure or that everything is going wrong, let me salute you for your courage! I admire the writer who has never published, the policeman or fireman, and their families, who live with the constant threat of danger, the idealistic school teacher who continues to give everything, day in and day out to each child they’re given; the Small Groups pastor who ministers and really nurtures people’s souls; the person who sticks with their dream even when the results are not encouraging. I am not the only one who notices! There are children watching and learning. There are cynical people who are watching and wondering. God is watching and applauding from heaven!

Lord Jesus, I pray for the people of courage! Give them this moment to hear your applause of heaven! Amen.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Tim White

Me? A Leader?

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.

1 Peter 4:10

Many years ago I thought that being a leader was only for those who had gone to years of seminary or Bible school or had lived long, saintly lives. When I was 24 I was asked to be an Assistant Sunday School Superintendent. I thought the man who asked me must be mistaken or thought he was talking to someone else. I had little training, no degrees, and at 24 hadn’t lived a very long or saintly life. Joel, who turned out to be one of my life mentors, told me two things. The first thing he told me was that leadership was a gift from God and the second thing was that if I would make myself available to God, my Heavenly Father would do the rest.
Wikipedia defines "leadership" organizationally and narrowly as "the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members.” Leadership is the ability of an individual to set rules for others and lead from the front. It is an attitude that influences the environment around us. Those who are leaders in a church community are not bound by this narrow way of looking at leadership. We have the benefit of Scripture and the example of Jesus to help us on our quest of being effective leaders in the body of Christ.

In the book, “Lead Like Jesus” Ken Blanchard notes that before we can be effective leaders for Christ, we need to ask ourselves two questions, “Whose are we?” and “Who are we?” The idea behind the question “Whose are we?” is to discover, who is our primary authority, who is our primary audience? If we define our success by power, position, performance and the opinions of others we miss the point. Scripture teaches that effective leadership has its roots in pleasing God. If our goal is to please God then our attitudes and how we serve those we lead will be encouraging and effective. The second question, “Who am I?” also includes the question, “Why am I here?” Jesus knew what His Father wanted Him to do and walked out that ministry. True success is the fulfillment of the life mission God has planned for all of us. Success in life depends on the relationship we have with Christ and what level of control we will let Him have in our lives.

We have an opportunity to discover how to be effective leaders at Washington Cathedral next Saturday, September 29th at the “Leading Like Jesus”- Leadership Conference. Bill and Elaine Brammer, as the Directors of our Small Groups Ministry, have done an incredible job of putting together a great event. Pastor Tim will share his vision for this next year. I strongly encourage you, if you are already a leader or think that you are being called to leadership, to participate in this day of encouragement and learning.

By Kathi King

Excitement!

It seems that one thing all of us crave is a little excitement in our lives. We love those thrill rides at the theme parks that excite and maybe scare us a little. We love the excitement of travel and seeing new things. We get excited about holidays, birthdays and weddings. We all need a little excitement to feel alive.

As I watch the children around me I wonder at the excitement in their little faces. It doesn’t take much. They can be excited about almost anything it seems. They are excited to see a video of something they have watched many times. They get excited just playing. Children have a wonder in their eyes that helps them see excitement in the world around them. They are always ready for a new adventure.

When Jesus called His first disciples, the excitement they felt was tangible. In John 1:41, Andrew could not wait to run to tell his brother Peter “We have found the Messiah.” There was no way to contain the enthusiasm and exuberance he felt. He had to tell others. Like a little child, he was excited. Jesus tells us that we must come to God as a little child (Luke 18:17). I think that the sense of excitement is part of what Jesus is telling us we need to have.

When we first become believers in Jesus there is that sense of excitement and expectation. It is a new beginning. As we move along, we sometimes loose that sense of excitement. Our spiritual life can get a little dull. God does not want us to have dull lives, but lives of abundance and excitement. The next time you pick up your Bible, take time to pray, come to church, meet with your TLC or help with an event at the church, come with the expectation of meeting God.
Anticipate something special is going to happen. Open your heart and your eyes to something wonderful that will happen.

Our God is full of surprises and excitement. The anticipation and expectation of something happening between you and God, will keep you excited and alive! Come as a child, with wonder in your eyes, waiting to see what God will do next. Look around and feel the excitement!

By Allan Wenzel

Authentic Faith

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. John 1:16 (NLT)

This was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Temple assistants from Jerusalem to ask John, “Who are you?” He came right out and said, “I am not the Messiah. John 1:19-20 (NLT)

“It has been said that the Gospel of John is a pool in which a child can wade and an elephant can swim.” Marianne Thompson, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Fuller Theological Seminary adds, “…and a pool in which a theologian can drown!” No book in all of literature has changed more lives than the Gospel of John. It was probably the last gospel written by the only apostle who was not martyred. This old survivor often wrote with plural pronouns as if he is representing a community of believers. Can you imagine what it will be like to hear an old preacher from our church preach in the Randy and Rod Halvorson Re-Creation Center – many years after a majority of us are in heaven? Running through the mind of that old preacher (who is likely to be one of the children on our church right now) will be the testimonies of all the collaborative efforts of many heroic individuals -- people who literally invested their lives building a great grace-filled family attempting to be a great caring network. As that old preacher shares about a church with a “positive faith” and church that believes in “teamwork approach”, I can hear that old preacher saying, with emotion and a quivering chin, “This is what we have come to believe with all of our hearts!”
There is so much in the gospel of John that I will not be able to cover, I am thankful that Allan Wenzel will be teaching a class of extended study on this great gospel by encouraging interaction in one of our adult classes.
I love the section where John discusses John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a hero of the Apostle John. John was a follower of John the Baptist before he became a follower of Jesus Christ, so the story of John the Baptist is part of his own personal journey of faith. I have a heritage of Methodism which I revere. My grandfather was a Methodist pastor, and currently both my uncle and cousin are Methodist pastors. I attended a Presbyterian seminary, and it has contributed greatly to who I am. As children, some come from a Lutheran background, or Catholic, or Salvation Army. Maybe the Boy or Girl Scouts or Rotary has contributed to your journey of faith. Maybe even being raised in a very scientific family, or a background of philanthropy and public servanthood has been part of your heritage. Whatever it is, all of it is part of your continuing story of your own faith journey.
John the Baptist was respected because he was a man who knew who he was. He was not a like a “reed blown in the wind by every fad or fancy.” I used to love to work with Junior High kids because they found out who they were sometimes by discovering who they were not. One Sunday they were going to be an athlete, then the next Sunday they would come and say I am not an athlete -- I am going to be a scholar. As their identity changed throughout their time in the youth group, I simply enjoyed being their youth pastor. What an exciting adventurous time of discovering who they were and who they were not.
John the Baptist knew he wasn’t the Messiah, and he knew he wasn’t Elijah. Many times in our search for faith and who we are, we begin by discovering who we are not. Our kids had to discover they are not us and we had to learn that also. But it was a marvelous lesson for both of us to learn. Sometimes people begin by discovering important points such as – “I can’t fake my faith,” or “I’m certainly no Billy Graham.” They will say things like – “My faith needs to have heart,” or “I can’t exclude reason and science from my faith.” Each one of these personal journey points does not surprise God but it might surprise us. And discovering who you are not is not a stop sign, it is a yield sign. That sign says “yield to who God designed you to be. Let’s make our faith as authentic as possible.” Now that is an exciting adventure of faith!

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Tim White

Seek to Understand

“When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, to the god nobody knows. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with.” Acts 17:22-23 (The Message)

The above passage is part of a “sermon” that Paul gives to a group of philosophers in Athens. The other night at our Small Group TLC we were exploring together how best to handle loved ones, and people around us, when their beliefs about God are different from ours. We could think of all the examples that don’t’ seem to work – argument, belittling, ignoring, etc. We all agreed that the Apostle Paul was a master at coming alongside people and then pointing them toward Jesus.

A great example of Paul’s ministry is his message to the Athenians. Before he said anything, he observed, and looked for something to help him to understand the people he was addressing. Then he used what he saw to affirm them for having beliefs--at the same time pointing them to Christ, but in the context of what they would understand. Paul had encountered Jesus personally, and often referred to the fact that seeing Jesus had turned his life around.

I don’t know about you but I have a tendency to want to “argue people into heaven.” I enjoy a good debate and sometimes let my desire to win the debate get in the way of pointing them to Jesus. But, if I take a lesson from Paul, and let my encounters with Jesus take over for my desire to win a debate, then I find that I can step back and seek to understand where someone is coming from. I can also better value their opinion and viewpoints and gently introduce some things for them to consider. When I take my own needs out of the picture, and focus on my relationship with Christ, amazing things begin to happen.

Pastor Tim is beginning a series this week to lead our church into a deeper understanding of what it means to live a life following Jesus and seeing what the Gospel of John reveals to us about living in the Kingdom of God each and every day. His first in the series is “The Jesus Secret!” In addition, he has asked our leaders to read the book “Lead Like Jesus” by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges; and he has asked our WOW ladies to do a Beth Moore study of “Jesus, The One and Only.” My prayer is that you will join me in a renewed focus on Jesus, and like Paul, “seek to understand before we seek to be understood.”

Blessings,
Linda Skinner