When it's Hard to be in Close Proximity

By Rey Diaz

“One day long ago, God's Word came to Jonah, Amittai's son: "Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer." 3 But Jonah got up and went the other direction to Tarshish, running away from God. He went down to the port of Joppa and found a ship headed for Tarshish. He paid the fare and went on board, joining those going to Tarshish—as far away from God as he could get.” (Jonah 1:1-2)

We all know the story of Jonah; we learned it in Sunday school. As a child it was hard to forget about how a man was swallowed by a whale! Now that we are older, something else stands out in this story. Jonah’s tale is about a person who received a call from God, but instead of following that call, he turned around and ran in the opposite direction. He ran away because he felt squeamish at the idea of entering the great and important city of Nineveh, and bringing God’s truth to them. Jonah thought it would be easier to run away than be in close proximity with people so different from him.

Sometimes we think like Jonah. We know just as intrinsically that God placed us to reach out to particular people. But these people might as well be from Nineveh for how intimidated we are to bring up God’s truth! We think: “how will they respond? What if they become offended and it changes our relationship forever? I don’t want to lose their friendship….but then again I also don’t want to lose them, when I know there is a better way….”

If Jonah stayed comfortable, Nineveh would never have the chance to experience God’s saving-love…and their destruction was imminent. Yet, when Jonah repented and became obedient, do you remember what happened? The entire city (which took three-days to walk across) declared a fast unto the Lord, from the elderly to the children, all the way to the animals! Even the king of the city repented and demanded that those underneath do likewise.

Oh…that this could happen to our cities! I once heard it said that Seattle has more dogs than Christians, and it not hard to believe when you get a chance to look behind closed doors at the hurt hapenning in many households.

My prayer is that God would call those who hold His light to carry it into the darkness…even if it feels uncomfortable…and that we would fearlessly bare the cost of close proximity...because we love our city and those in need, but more importantly, we love the One who has called us to it.
* What about you? Do you tend to take the easy way out, like Jonah, or walk without hesitation into the communities and households of people different from you?
* What gets in the way of your close proximity to those in need? What are you going to do differently to connect with those in need?

(Post comments here, so that others may be inspired by your courage and authenticity)

“Are you highly potent?”

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” (Matthew 5:13)

Have you ever tasted a meal and discovered a surprising blandness? Or when cooking, added a little salt to a dish and found the true flavor come out? In both cases, I’m sure you were immediately aware of the effect of salt on a meal. Salt can make or break a meal. I believe that is why Jesus called us the “salt of the earth.” We have the opportunity to make or break this world if we take Jesus’ commands seriously to make disciples (Matthew 28:16).

When Jesus created the salt metaphor to teach us about our mission on earth, he gave us the beginning of a powerful formula, detailing how to be a contagious Christian. For salt to fulfill its function it needs to retain its flavor. If you apply Jesus’ salt analogy to us, flavorful salt (or highly potent salt… continuing with our “contagious” analogy) means that you are so filled with God you can’t help but spills out on those around you.

Becoming a highly potent Christian is not easy, but it is necessary if we want to be contagious and fulfill God’s purpose for us. And Jesus tells us the only way to be highly potent is through constant connection with God (John 15:4). Often we find it difficult to remain in God because we are so busy, easily distracted, and often forgetful. However, a wise man once said “you are too busy not to pray.”

If you commit yourself to be consistently filled with God, then your day-to-day life―your marriage, family and work-world―will be completely revolutionized! This commitment will not only change your mind and heart, but everything that you are! As people see you living out this amazing, over-flowing-with-life-way, they will want it. You will be contagious.

Highly potent means you are so utterly infected that you cannot help but infect those around you!

Pray for God to fill you… not just on Sundays but every day of the week and every moment of the day. I am praying for every member of our church to become contagious. That is how we change the world.

So are you highly potent?

Look over these questions and shoot me a reply: reyangeldiaz@gmail.com.

1. When was the last time you were contagious?
2. Are you highly potent? If not, what is making you lose your flavor?
3. If you are highly potent, what do you do to maintain your potency?
4. Have you ever met someone who was some really flavorful salt? What effect did they have on the people around them?

By Rey Diaz

Contagious: We Are Designed to Spread

"Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue” (Luke 15:4-7, The Message)

Last night I had the opportunity to put my “Contagious” Message into practice. Benjamin Smokovich (who coordinates the athletic ministries at Washington Cathedral) invited me to share about myself with the guys who come to play basketball at the ReCreation Center every Monday. After a few games, we took a break to eat and hangout. I began to casually talk about my faith and relationship with Jesus. And it reminded me of something I have known for a long time: there is nothing more exciting than befriending, loving, and leading someone to faith in Jesus Christ… nothing! I felt alive.

People matter to God. They really do: Jesus’ stories in Luke 15 tell us that you have never looked into the eyes of another human being who isn’t valuable to God.

If we don’t deeply believe that people, all people, are important to God, we are missing one of the key narratives of the Bible. Our line of thinking becomes a dangerous, slippery slope of logic. Not only does this reasoning cage the contagious nature of the gospel, but it is the start of all human tragedy and oppression. Every injustice that has occurred throughout history began with the assumption that this person, or people-group, does not matter. But the Bible teaches us that every person matters to God; no matter their race, upbringing, disability or difference, or the country or home life into which they were born.

What is important to God must be important to us. Surprisingly, God has invited us to become involved with what is important to Him! If we don’t make God’s priorities our priorities, a lost and hurting world will stay that way… and we will never accomplish our individual and collective purpose on earth. Nor will we be doing what we were designed to do and what gives us the greatest fulfillment.

Bill Hybels once said: “Deep in every true Christian, there is awareness that we are on this planet for purposes greater than having a career, paying the bills, loving our families, and fulfilling our role as upstanding citizens. Even going to church and worshiping God—important as these are—sometimes leave us feeling that something is missing. After all, we’ll worship God for eternity in heaven; we don’t have to be here to do that. What is it that’s absent in the lives of so many believers who are crying out for fulfillment? What on earth is God asking us to do? God wants us to become contagious Christians: His agents, who will first catch His love and then urgently and infectiously offer it to all who are willing to consider it. This is His primary plan, the one Jesus modeled so powerfully, to spread God’s grace and truth person to person until there’s an epidemic of changed lives around the world.”

We as a staff at Washington Cathedral are praying that each of you ask God to help you become contagious. We need contagious pastors, leaders, small groups, kids, and members if we are going to change the world. Would you like to become contagious?

Rey

The Perfect Mosaic: God's Church

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:15-17

This has always been, and will always be God's church. He is in charge. He makes decisions and we just follow. The last few years the leadership of Washington Cathedral has felt led to continue in the process of becoming a diverse, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational church; what we call the “meta church”. When we read the book of Acts, we see a church composed of all types of races, ethnicities, social-economic background, languages, and ages―God's perfect mosaic. This diverse group would learn from one another on their journey of following Jesus, becoming disciples. This movement spread like wildfire from a small sect in Jerusalem to a worldwide church. We feel called to continue that traditional at Washington Cathedral, a meta-church that is diverse community of friends who are learning the way of Jesus together.

I am honored to be a part of fulfilling God's mission for Washington Cathedral. I look forward to helping Washington Cathedral lean into the future and am excited to join this great team.

As Lead Pastor I have two main initiatives:

1) Build a discipleship culture to help Washington Cathedral become a movement. I will build this culture through communications (preaching half the time), leading our TLC's, and introducing a new discipleship language and vehicle.

2) I will also oversee the professional ministry staff and develop systems for our church that will allow us to continue growing.

Since we are restructuring our org chart, here is what it will look like. Pastor Tim will continue in the role of Senior Pastor along with his wife Jackie who is Co-Senior Pastor. He will oversee all of the congregations of Washington Cathedral and all our non-profits. He will also continue sharing and preaching about half the time. I will be Lead Pastor over ministry and staff and Linda Skinner will oversee all operations including finances and administrations.

We feel we are on the verge of a breakthrough- - - a revival- - - a move of God that will sweep the northwest. But we need teamwork and full cooperation with God to see this come about. Change is never easy but it is necessary for growth. Please pray for us as we go through this change and commit to supporting us. Paul said it best, "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow." (1 Cor. 3:6) God will continue to lead, build, and grow this church.

Pastor Rey Diaz

Breakthrough: Teamwork Leadership

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. John 1:1-5 (NLT)

As a church we are so excited to welcome back to our Redmond Campus Pastors, Dr. Rey and Elise Diaz. They have been serving in Honduras the last four years and God has blessed them with phenomenal success in building Together For Transformation which includes, the AFE school, the Love and Faith Church, the medical clinic, the social work project with the people of the dump, the home building projects, and so many other ministries that work at transforming that part of the world.

They are returning to our local Washington Cathedral staff with the intentions of launching a movement of great caring networks. I will continue in my current role of Senior Pastor and Chairman of the Board. Rey and I will share the preaching at the main services. Of course, as before, there will be other members of the preaching team joining us from time-to-time.

Rey’s position is what I like to call the “new offensive coordinator”. He will lead the ministry staff and Pastor Linda will continue to lead the operations and financial administration. This will allow me to put more focus on building the round table organizations and the meta church congregations. Of course I will continue, as always, to do my share of pastoral care, counseling and discipleship as I have always done in our church. Rey will be leading major adaptations to our English speaking congregations.

We will continue to be a strong multigenerational church. Each of the Congregational Pastors will continue to lead their congregations – Pastor Dale 6:00 Saturday, Pastor Linda 9:00 Sunday and Pastor Jackie 11:00 Sunday. However, we will be raising the bar of excellence in everything we do to better reach people for Jesus Christ. This includes re-engineering our small group ministry, discipleship ministry and evangelism ministry. It is as if I am the “head coach” (the chairman of the board) and he is the “new offensive coordinator”. Most churches don’t have both a Lead Pastor and a Senior Pastor, but if you haven’t figured it out yet- - - we aren’t most churches. As always, we believe in teamwork leadership.

Bill Gates brought in a specialist to be President and run Microsoft while he worked on the creative side of things- - - we are doing something similar. This is normative in the business world. Rey, myself and Pastor Linda work so well together that this collaborative approach to leadership is going to bring about a tremendous breakthrough and perhaps be a model of teamwork leadership for churches around the world.

Rey is a great organizer and sequential thinker while I am a great disorganizer and random thinker, so together we expect to move Washington Cathedral to the cutting-edge of church growth. We have been through a long hard path the last 8 years and now it’s time for a breakthrough. Rey is beginning this breakthrough with a series of messages leading up to Easter called “Contagious”. It will start next weekend (March 10th & 11th). Let’s get ready to rock this world as we bring in reinforcements to move from one great caring network to launching a movement that will change the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ!

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White

Courage: Born Through Adversity

Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous.

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’re thrilled when we hear that they hardly even tried―an overnight success! We like the get-rich-quick stories- - - “I bought 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.

But 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! People flock to successes, but some of us live in admiration of the people who fight the odds, holding on 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/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 TLC facilitator who ministers to and nurtures people’s souls; the person who sticks with their dream even when the results are not encouraging.

And I am not the only one who notices! There are children watching and learning- - - there are cynical people watching and wondering- - - and God is watching and applauding from heaven!

Life is a drama―a real adventure classic!
If we just appreciate it!

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,

Pastor Tim White

An Exciting Adventure: Humility

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:3-4

The issue of self-esteem and humility is a tough one to work out. So many people are desperately in need of confidence to face the difficulties and challenges they face. Yet others become so proud that they are offensive to others with their disregard for the thoughts and feelings of those around them. I have wrestled with this issue throughout my ministry. As I think back to some of the people I have mentored in the past- - - lack of humility has been a big issue. Some grow and get so spiritual that they are not only un-teachable, but they isolate themselves with their superior attitude.

This is not to say that I have not wrestled with this issue myself- - - I think God is trying to help me grow in this area. The phrase “Consider others better than yourself”, can be a touchy statement in Scripture. We, as a church, have always had as our guideline “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words treat others as you would like to be treated. I think the choice of words is important. It doesn’t say that others are better than you―that could be fundamentally damaging for someone to constantly be focusing on how everyone is better than they are. Instead, it’s a basic introduction to politeness. When I think of this phrase, I remember times of being invited over to peoples’ homes and being treated with amazing civility. In fact, they were living out Philippians 2:3-4. I believe that humility is not about eroding your personal respect as a God created human being, but about treating others with more respect because of your love for Jesus Christ. And it doesn’t mean you have to buy everything everyone is selling because some of it may not be honest, ethical or practical. Sometimes you have to make a firm stand and do it in a loving way. It is just something that we all have a lot to learn more about.

What I am sure of is that those who have begun the way of humility described in Philippians have opened the door to very exciting adventure- - - a life-honoring leadership style and a second world of communication and relationships that were not available before. Let’s join together for this new adventure as we apply this biblical principle to our lives.

Your friend for the rest of my life,

Pastor Tim White