Summerfield Church - Fishtown

As part of our movement towards being a healthy church with healthy people, we made the move to focusing on Jesus - learning about the greatest healer of all time. It has been quite a blessing.

In the middle of all that, we were shocked at the diagnosis of a severe cancer growing within our body. Our hearts are breaking.

We can only pray that facing the cancer head-on will help bring healing to all those who are hurting, and to our body as a whole.

"Hold me Jesus
I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been king of my glory
Won't you be my prince of peace"
- Rich Mullins

I've gotten a great insight tonight.
For now I'm not a pastor. I am a marathon runner.

Up to this point, I've been thinking of the marathon running as a tool to help being a pastor.
But for now I'm a marathon runner who's also a pastor.

Putting marathon running first will make me the pastor God wants me to be,
the pastor the neighborhood and church need me to be,
and the husband my wife needs me to be.

I'll explain this more when I understand it more.

Right now, good marathon runners are sleeping, so I'm going to bed.

Praise God for an interesting Sunday!

First, it was great. Even 'though we had our smallest attendance in a few months (yeah, it's something I worry about way more than I should), the Spirit really moved. There was certainly a great understanding of how we are all in need of God's grace, and I pray there was as great an understanding of how great that grace is.

However, I'm kind of wondering where God is leading us right now. I feel, perhaps, a little adrift. Not adrift in the sense of being lost and purposeless, but more adrift in the sense of floating freely on the wind and trusting the Spirit to take us to the right place - which is both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

The last few months it has all been so clear...
3 foundations
3 personal transformations
10 action steps
Geez, I've never been the kind of preacher that preaches that way, but God laid it out, even with acronyms - FLOE & FLOE. (I'll explain later.)

But with this week's worship and message, as powerful as it was, I'm not sure what the next step will be or what God is doing. I just know we have to trust. So we will.

I once heard it explained that someone who wants to give you directions can either lay them all out ahead of time (kind of like Mapquest or Google Maps or other similar programs) or they can ride in the passenger's seat next to you and yell out "Turn left at the next light" just before you get to the turn. It seems that God's at that point where he's saying, "Turn right at this corner" and I'm swerving to do it. The cool thing is, I'm not only content, but I'm having fun on the ride... it's a roller coaster, but in every good sense of the word and none of the bad senses.

Thanks, God.

It was time to take a break from the principles and get down to the nitty-gritty.

Here's a list of things we need to do in our lives which God laid on my heart this past week, and which I preached on - despite it not being a typical topic for baptism, confirmation, and new members!

This is the rough outline. I cleaned it up a bit for the sermon itself, and I'll clean it up a bit more later.

#1 Be holy, because God's holy.
"Be holy, as I am holy" (Lev 11:44)

#2 Avoid the sin of being easily offended.
"A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense." (Proverbs 19:11)

#3 Tithe. Test God and see how he blesses you!
Bring all the tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. And test Me now with this. (Mal 3:10 )

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." (Matthew 23:23)

#4 Work to Support Yourself and Your Family!
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." (2 Th 3:10)
A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest,". (Prov 24:33)

#5 Don't be unequally yoked.
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14)

#6 Honor the pastor/leaders/teachers.
"Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, and are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other" (1 Thess. 5:12-13)

#7 Not many should be eager to be a pastor/leader/teacher - judged more harshly.
You will be judged more harshly then the rest of the believers, because you are the teachers. (James 3:1 NIV)

#8 Be Slow to Get Angry
"Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God." (James 1:19-20)

#8-1/2 Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Your Anger
"In your anger do not sin". Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. (Eph 4:26)

#9 Avoid the Appearance of Evil
(Eph 5:3)

#10 Control what you say.
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. (James 1:26) (James 3:6)
Watch your joking/humor. (Eph 5:4)
"I was just joking" (Proverbs 26:19)

As we seek to build on the foundations of growing healthy, we see that there are three transformations that God wants to make in our life - both in our individual lives and in our life together as a church. These three transformations are:

1) WE ARE SET FREE BY GOD
Becoming a Christian isn't merely about mentally saying "I think that's true" to some set of beliefs. It's also not simply about deciding to try harder to be good people. We recogniz we have been slaves to sin, unable to free ourselves from sin's control on our lives and from the destructive consequences of our choices. However, by choosing to turn from that sin and accepting the forgiveness, new life, and freedom God gives us through Jesus Christ, we have been set free from sin - both its power and the death it brings.

2) WE LOVE GOD BY OBEYING GOD
Jesus said it plain and simple, "Those who love me obey my commands". In a similar statement, Jesus also said, "This is love for God - to obey his commands." It just doesn't get much clearer than that. We love God by obeying God.

3) WE PRESS ON TO THE GOAL
Temptations and trials will come our way. So will opportunities and adventures. Through them all, we keep our eyes on the goal - the Kingdom of God. We overcome distractions and live as heroes live, letting nothing stop us.

I'm very excited about all the things that are happening as part of the "Growing Healthy" lifestyle God has called us to. The inspiration for messages has been amazing, and to summarize the first three weeks of what God has to say to us, it is that health starts with these three things:

1) WE FIND OUR IDENTITY AS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS. Who we are and how we live must be totally based upon being followers of God through Jesus Christ. Before we are anything else, we are followers of Jesus. That is the first consideration in all that we value and all that we do. We repent from sin, we receive forgiveness, we live as God would have us live. We are followers of Jesus.

2) WELOVE ONE ANOTHER. As Christians, we need to love each other. This isn't about a warm, fuzzy feeling called love, as nice as that may be. It's about celebrating each other in our diversity, rejoicing in each other as redeemed and active disciples of Jesus, helping each other in difficult times, and doing the hard work of guiding each other towards a deeper relationship with Christ and dealing with each other when we have problems in our relationships with each other.

3) WE EMBRACE OTHERS. We love our neighborhood, our city, our nation, our world. We are multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-lingual, and come from a wide variety of religious backgrounds. We seek to be outside of the church walls much more than inside of them. Without forgetting that new life in Christ begins with a faith that includes turning away from sin, we welcome those who are seeking, doubting, and struggling. We don't just tolerate those who are different from us - we enjoy them!

I've been spending a lot of time on two things which I mentioned in my last blog entry.
#1) The goal of having 300 people.
#2) The fact that we need to change a lot of things to get to that point.

Prayer and Bible reading and research (and mostly God's action) has led to the point where these things have coalesced into the direction we will now be taking... "Growing Healthy".

"Growing Healthy" deals with growth toward fully healthy:
* individual spirituality - including mental, emotional, financial, and physical wellness
* relationships
* functioning methods of accomplishing goals

It also moves us to a place where we naturally grow as a result of our health.

So, I'm going to be inviting everyone to hop on board as we start "Growing Healthy for the Long Run"!

I am in training to run a marathon. In fact, I've been in training for 5 months. God willing, I'll be in training for another 17 months.

Two years training? I've got to be kidding, right? Absolutley not! As an overweight sedentary cerebral type of guy, this marathon is no small thing for me. However, I believe God wants me to get in better shape. Not only that, but I believe God wants to use me as an illustration of what can be done if we are faithful at pursuing what he has planned for us.

The church is often spiritually much like I have been physically - overfed on junk food, underexercised, and often focused on doing what is easy and brings immediate gratification. However, God has something much more planned for us! God wants us to be healthy, grow, and maintain our health.

So let us glorify God by keeping our eyes on the goal, dropping off the weight which holds us back, and pressing forward.

I have a real burden on my heart for people to know the wonderful grace of God in Jesus Christ... and to know how God is so merciful while being just, how Jesus is a lot different from the way he's portrayed in popular culture or philosophy, and how the church can be a lot different from the stereotypes of stale tradition or self-righteousness.

Because of this, I want to see people come to faith, and I want to see this church grow - and I believe God wants that too. So, there's a burden on my heart for our church to grow to 300 this fall. I know that may sound like "numbers for numbers' sake", but the reality is that each number represents a person touched by God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I know that in order to grow to that size, we need to do a lot of growing ourselves. We need to:

* take better care of our building
* be more consistent in following through on our plans
* invite a whole lot of people
* really believe this can and will happen
* make some really big investments of time, talents, and money
* eliminate some wasted use of time, talents, and money
* pray, pray, pray, pray, and pray

So, I beg all of you with all my heart -
start praying, start believing, and start living so that 300 people may be touched by the grace of God this fall.

Humbled,
P. Dan

One of the things I need to work on more is saying Thank You to people. I am okay at doing it privately in person. (If you do something I appreciate, I will usually say a solid, sincere Thank You to you.) What oI'm not so good at is giving thanks in writing or in public. For instance, I haven't sent out thank you notes to some non-members who recently made some donations to help our ministry - and I'm afraid a check or two was deposited before I got the address off the check to write a thank you. So, even 'though it's too little too late, I want to say a BIG thank you for your help!

There are so many folks I could thank just for everything they did this past week, especially those who give on an ongoing basis like my wife Judy and our Pastoral Associate James. However, here are a few folks I want to especially thank for things that happened this week:

Chris - thank you for making the hospital run, and for your ministry during that time!
Mary - thank you so much for preparing mood for both Alpha and Youth Alpha. What a blessing!
Christina - thank you for the soup you brought to Alpha!
Will - thanks for putting the Sixers trip together, and for all you've done with the basketball ministry.
Catherine - thank you for all the help organizing the office! (Of course, I'm going to need a lot more help, given my penchant for stacking!)
Kyle - thanks for the furniture repairs and for the clean-up in the coffee room!
The Women's Circle - thanks for tackling the difficult issues of the future, and for doing so gracefully!

As I sit here, the list goes on and on. I can think of many more I haven't thanked yet. I look forward to getting the chance to thank many more!