February 5, 2010

Get Packing (part 2)

Posted by Garry

In the coming days and weeks, we will talk a lot about ‘preparing your supplies.’ We pray that this scripture (Joshua 1:1-11) will encourage us as we move. Every two weeks we will blog a list of ‘3 things you can do now to prepare your supplies.’ These are practical things we can do to get ready for cultivating in Waterford the community of faith we’ve been called to be. Some will be challenging, some might take us out of our comfort zone, and some (hopefully all) will be fun.

On to our first three items…

3 things you can do now to ‘prepare your supplies’…

1. Pray for your friends, family, co-workers and neighbors daily by name—that they would come to be a part of a community of faith in Christ that strives to love and serve like Jesus, and that Summit Church Waterford could be a that type of community.

2. Pray about where you fit. This effort to establish a campus of Summit Church in the Waterford area will take a legion of people pouring into it. You may have already stepped up. Thank you. It matters. If you haven’t found where it is that you fit, please pray. More details will be coming very soon about specific ways that you can be a deeper part of this movement of people. For now, pray.

3. Get your Summit Connect group and another group together on a Saturday afternoon and have a cook-out and flag football game at a park in the Waterford area. My group will open the challenge. Any takers?

Find out what Get Packing is all about.

February 5, 2010

Facility Update

Posted by Isaac

Building or no building? Yes and no.

We’ve committed to reach the Waterford Community with the Gospel. We need to be in that community to fully realize that mission. We are not there yet… but we are making strides towards obtaining a permanent facility and thinking creatively about getting to Waterford sooner.

Here is an update on the progress:

We are aggressively, but thoughtfully, perusing a permanent facility that we hope will be secured soon. Even if we sign a lease on the permanent space tomorrow, the build-out process (which includes creating architectural drawings and scope documents, permitting, a bid process to contractors, and the construction) would leave us worshipping in the South Meeting Room for the better part of 2010; we want to get there faster.

So, we are searching for a temporary, intermediate facility in Waterford. The most viable candidate for a temporary facility is an elementary school. We have visited multiple school campuses and are evaluating the pros and cons of each. We want to be up and running services at the best possible place in Waterford by Easter, so we are moving quickly but not hastily.

This will not stop us from procuring a long-term, seven day-a-week facility. But, the timing on that facility will not stop our commitment to reach the Waterford area with the Gospel. Keep praying, keep inviting. Thanks for all you are doing—God is using it.

February 3, 2010

Get Packing (part 1)

Posted by Garry

God’s people had traveled together through the desert for forty years. They traveled because they believed God was leading them. They’d sweat, and prayed, and cried out, and hoped—and together had been desperate for God to show up. And God had shown up. They could now see what God was doing and where he was leading. The promised land, the destination, was directly in front of them. It is here where everything changes. Moses could take them no further. The framework through which God had spoken to his people was now different.

Joshua1:1-11 records what is next. God gives very clear instructions to his people through Joshua. It goes something like this:
1. Be strong and courageous because you are going where I have been leading you;
2. Be strong and very courageous;
3. Be careful to obey everything I have told you;
4. Keep my Word on your mind, and talk about it with each other;
5. Do everything I wrote to you to do;
6. Be strong and courageous;
7. Don’t be discouraged because I am with you wherever you go.

God says, ‘Don’t loose heart. Don’t get discouraged. It might get tough. It might get challenging. But remember what I have told you. Remember I have never left you no matter where you have gone. I’m not a place. If you go where I am calling you to go, I’ll be with you.’

And Joshua’s response to this crazy, difficult challenge was to lead the people God has chosen. To show all of humanity God’s love, compassion, and justice. We have the same high calling. Prepare your supplies. Get Packing! Prepare what you have been given, do what God is calling you to do, go where God is calling you to go—because it is about to happen. The provision is already there. You have all you need to do what comes next. Take steps. It is time.

This isn’t just some old story about what God did. This is our story about what God still does. And this is what it looks like when people move together. This is what it looks like when people believe that God is up to something that we all can be a part of.

God still calls people to be strong and courageous. God still calls people to go. God still calls people to follow his word closely. God still calls people to be a part of the masterpiece of love, hope, redemption, and restoration that he his actively painting on this world through brushstrokes from those that say “Here I am Lord, send me.” God still asks people to recognize the amazing potential he’s given them. He still asks them to use it to usher in his Kingdom.

God is calling the people that make up Summit Church: Waterford to ‘prepare your supplies.’ We have all we need to do what is next to be the community of Christ-followers God has called us to be. We have all we need to carry out the vision God has given Summit Church: to form biblically functioning communities that reach lost people, connect in Christ-centered relationships, teach truth, serve others, and worship God. It is time.

Three things you can do now to get ready, get your supplies together, and get packing.

January 26, 2010

The good news is not a fancy screen.

Posted by Garry

Last Sunday an amazing thing happened as we gathered in the South Meeting Room at 10:45 for the Summit Waterford service. We—as a community of people striving to follow Jesus, anxious to be in the Waterford area to put hands and feet to the reality that Jesus never stops coming to people to meet them where they are—experienced something very powerful.

We experienced the truth that has changed and will continue to change everything. The truth is, the good news, the gospel of Jesus, the hope of humanity, the restoration of all things… is not a fancy screen.

And it is not a projector.

And it is not technology at all.

I feel so blessed to live in a moment in history where the good news can be shared, reproduced, and displayed in ways that have never before been possible using technology and innovation. But that technology is not the good news.

The good news is that the creator of the universe loves you and he desperately wants you to participate in what he is doing to put things back together. He wants that so badly that he came here to show us in the person of Jesus. He invites us in. And for thousands of years people have gathered to get a glimpse of who Jesus really is and what it really means to follow him. Because this truth changes everything.

As a community, we came face to face with the truth that God can use innovation to reach people, but that God is not dependent on technology to participate with him in this effort. And I am so thankful.

In a profoundly important moment in Jesus’ ministry – when he was entering Jerusalem for his final Passover before he went to the cross – the crowd began to praise him as king and Lord. A few folks approached saying, “teacher, rebuke your disciples.” Basically, are you going to let them do this, are you going to let this go on?

“I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

You can’t stop the truth that is too good not to be true. And we, as Summit Waterford, won’t leave it to the stones. It is our job, and our joy to proclaim that good news. How could a screen or a projector, or microphones, or a building get in the way of that? We now have the experience to know that it simply can’t.

Luke 19:37-40

January 12, 2010

exclamation points

Posted by Garry

I love exclamation points!

The exclamation mark was introduced into English printing in the 15th century, and was called the ‘note of admiration’ until the mid 17th century. In German orthography, the sign made its first appearance in the Luther Bible, first printed in 1534. Dorky history lesson over… doesn’t that seem appropriate.

Doesn’t it seem appropriate that a heightened expression of admiration would have to be created to appropriately reveal the creator of the universe? I shouldn’t read the scriptures in a stale internal monotone. That is not the God we serve. An exclamation point is attributed to Jesus’ words 153 times! God is fully emotive, and so are the people that comprise the scriptures that reveal him. It’s not methodical and drab. It’s much more inspiration and revolution.

When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! (Genesis 8:10) That is joy and awe. That is knowing you have provision and hope. That is a ‘note of admiration’ by the writer of Genesis. I think sometimes we run the risk of becoming so familiar with the accounts of scripture that our own familiarity is imposed on the events. Noah didn’t know the dove would return with the olive leaf. Noah didn’t know exactly what God was up to, or how this would turn out. He had faith. He had hope. And when God reminded him that he would never leave him he was as overwhelmed… as we are, when we first realize the same.

I love exclamation points! I love that they turn the volume up on our following the Master. I love that this Christian life – this striving to learn, love, and live the way of Jesus for the sake of others – is filled with more than periods.

In this season, when Summit has so much to celebrate and admire about God building his Church, I don’t know what I would do without exclamation.

God is opening the opportunity,
through creativity and innovation,
through imperfect people like you and me,
for more people to know they are loved by him and have a part to play in his story!

Multi-site!

I pray that I don’t forget to turn the volume up once in a while. I pray that when I read the Word I remember the passion, and love, and hope that went into telling the story that is too good not to be true. I pray that I don’t forget to admire all that God is doing at Summit and in my life, and that he continually calls all of us in to be a part of pulling his vision forward.