Eric Sass, youth spiritual counselor at Fellowship Church in Anthem, recently suffered a chiropractic induced stroke recently.  Eric is fantastic physical shape (I would see him at the Community Center Gym regularly) and was just having a routing chiropractic adjustment being done to his neck.  Unfortunately during the adjustment his an artery leading up the back of his head to his brain was severed, causing impaired vision, diziness, and pain.  After being rushed to the emergency room at John C. Lincoln it was determined that Eric had experienced a "small stroke".   Our condolences go out to he and his family and we wish him a full and speedy recovery.

A blog has been set up to track Eric’s progress at www.ericsassupdate.blogspot.com/

Best wishes Eric.

Seriously, have you ever contemplated the number of airplanes that don't land in a fiery pit of death and destruction every day?  Have you ever read a newspaper article about the cars that reached their destination and failed to cause an 87 cause pile up?  How often do you hear stories about the thousands of politicians, generals, etc. who are playing by the rules and doing what they are supposed to be doing?  The most literal translation of the word "Gospel" is Good News.  Yes, I know that we're supposed to be sharing Jesus good news, most specifically.  But it's important here, that at the very root of our faith, is the command to share good news.

A perhaps related issue with the inherent challenges of a church getting good press: For lots of good reasons, we trust an outsider.  If I said "Such-and-such church is ..." You'd take me seriously if you thought I was an unbiased observer.  If you felt like I had an agenda, like I had an axe to grind, it would be quite understandable to take what I say with a grain of salt.

However, this creates a dilemna.  The dilemna is this: if somebody loves a church, they are likely to want to get involved with that church.  Unless they are anti-social or a hypocrite (or both) they will want to get on board with it.  In the act of getting on board with a church, we lose some of our credibility in reporting how awesome it is.

More specifically: I say "Fellowship Church is awesome."

It'd be natural to say "Well, of course you're going to say that.  You're involved with the church.  You want everybody to think it's awesome."

That's one explanation.   But what if the causal arrow operated differently?  It's equally likely that Fellowship Church is awesome quite independently of me, quite before me.  (Actually, it's much more likely.)   I am attracted to this awesomeness and seek to serve.  I also want to report this awesomeness I see...

At any rate, this is an absurdly long winded introduction for a supporting anecdote that's pretty straight foreward and simple.  I think this is a pretty good demonstration of why I love my church, though.

The other day we had this little drama.  A borderline crisis, almost.  (Things are pretty much o.k. now, thanks for asking.) 

Nobody was around.  It was the middle of the afternoon.  I called a slew of people and left a message that was some variation on "Hey, it's me.  I have a  big favor to ask."

It's such an amazing blessing to have a list-- a healthy sized list-- of people I can call in a jam.

But it gets better.

Because these people called back.  Pretty much right away.  The calls came back quicker, I think, than if I'd left out the "I have a big favor to ask part."

It is so very precious to be part of a community where people are eager to help each other. 

As awesome as it was to simply have a list of people I could try to call, it was twice as awesome that there were so many people who could help us, who would help us.

It was actually a little convicting.  Because there are so many people outside of our immediate circle so desperate for our help, so desperate to see Christ's love.  Many of my fellow church members do an equally amazing job of taking care of people outside of their social circle.

I haven't done as good a job with this.  I hope that all the amazing people on that list know that I would do everything I could for them, as they did for me.  But Jesus calls me to do everything I can even for people who can't or won't reciprocate.  My hope is that I can take this feeling of blessedness and use it to motivate me to do a better job of reaching out, into the world.

This post was submitted to Watercooler Wednesday, a Blog Carnival on arts and culture.  Click here for some great reads.

One of the reasons that the church doesn't have a very good reputation is because in many cases it hasn't earned a good one.  Christians do stupid, heartless, self-centered, Christ-ignoring things.  A lot.

But there's another reason the church has a lousy reputation.  That reason is this catch-22.

When you're being all Christ-focused you're not doing it for the attention.  A church that is doing the right things, for the right reasons, won't advertise that it's doing the right thing.  On the other hand, when bad stuff is going down, if we are being principled in our reactions, we are public with our admissions of guilt.

The result is that the church ends up looking worse than it is. 

I want to err on the side of bragging.  I like to think a bragging in Christ, for Christ, which is what we're told to do.  (Can somebody help me with that verse?  It's an epistle, I think a Paulian one, where he says "don't brag about yourself... brag about Christ.) 

The church which I attend and serve in rocks.  I'd like to proclaim that again.  The church I attend rocks.

I'm going to spend a few posts trying to convey the depths and extremes to which my church rocks.  We certainly have our struggles.  To whatever extent we humans are in the drivers seat of the church we're certainly screwing it up...  but I want to focus on the fact that there are some things being done right in the church, that sometimes Jesus is in the driver's seat.

Story #1: At Sunday's outside service, Pastor Marty preached about trying to see problems and issues from a God's eye view.  And he gave us an experiment to do.

He passed out envelopes.  Inside the envelopes were bills.  One and five and ten dollar bills, and somewhere, a fifty.

(If you're reading this you might be thinking "O.K., so he put a fifty, a ten dollar bill, and a whole lot of ones." 

All I can say to this is I know only what three people got.  None of them were one dollar bills.  Not exactly scientific evidence... but it's highly unlikely that three random people got the only amounts which weren't one dollar bills.)

He challenged us.  To use the money, however much it was, for somebody other than ourselves.  We weren't allowed to put it back in the collection plate.  We had to ponder the position from a God's eye view and use it in the way we feel He would.  Then we have to log what we did at this website.

This would be an awesome exercise even if that's all it was.  But it's more than an exercise for us.  It was a profound show of faith and leadership from Marty.  Investing a ton of money in a project such as this is such a beautiful modeling of what Christ was all about: subverting the norm, investing in people, challenging people, taking risks, reversing the status quo.

I haven't figured out what to do yet with my little envelope.  But it's really awesome to pray over this decision and be mindful of the question of what to do with it... If it's appropriate, I'll share what I do with the money from the envelope in this blog.  And be sure I'll be revisiting this topic in the next couple days: Fellowship Church rocks.

Last week we did a communal fast at Fellowship Church. It was a week full of listening to God and caffeine headaches.

Honestly, Friday was my most difficult day. Friday's are my day off and I spend most of the day at home, disconnected from the folks I normally do life with. One of the biggest things I learned through the week was the power of strong Christian community.

Isolation primes us for attack. In my case, the cravings were stronger and the reasons to quit were more clear than ever - I lacked focus because I lacked friendship.

Fortunately my awesome wife was there to help - coming up with creative dinner ideas and helping us make it through the home stretch.

Lesson of the week: Community is the context for growth.

There is a difference between the two.

A mentor is a close friend, someone who has gone before you, who is strategically pouring into your life as you forge your journey. For me, I have had a couple different kinds of mentors.

• My dad - the first, and most significant spiritual mentor on my life. My dad taught me what it means to be a Christian. He challenged me to memorize verses that were key to our faith, trained me to live as a Christian and helped me tame a wild tongue.
  
• Scott - my first professional mentor, Scott was a former Dallas cop and a seasoned Paramedic, he taught me to be an aggressive paramedic - "There's nothing you can do to someone you can't undo with what's in this box (ambulance), get to work and don't second guess your training." His carefully training made me a stronger paramedic than I ever could have been on my own.

I would love to hear some of the things God has shown you over the fast. Post your journey!

There are so many people doing this fast - it's been incredible to be a small part in something so big. The first time our church fasted like this, I was a little taken back by some of the things people ate or didn't eat on the fast. 

Things that, by my interpretation of the guidelines, had no place in the fast were common place with a couple of people and families. On the other hand, things I felt were 100% okay, others abstained from.

This time is no different. A friend of mine walked into a meeting the other day with an Izze. For Emily and I, we drink these all the time and we're not doing carbonated beverages during the fast - so an Izze would be off the list (and highly tempting). But for my friend, an Izze is a huge sacrifice from the normal cuisine.

Ultimately I've come to realize that fasting is about sacrifice. And everyone is sacrificing right now.

What we're doing  has so little to do with what you eat and what you do not eat - it has everything to do with the focus you hold, the sacrifice you make and the discipline you build.

The community is fasting. But that means different things for different people, because we are all at different places in our walk with God (not to mention our diet!). The important thing is that we build each other up, help one another and don't get caught up in legalistic judging.

When the community fasts, it is just as much about community as it is about fasting.

There are big differences between communal and personal fasting. With One Prayer, our community at Fellowship Church has united together in a communal fast. Below are some of my personal thoughts on communal fasting and my experiences thus far (as well as in the past).

• When we fast together we find the strength, accountability, encouragement and power that God has built in to our Christian community. This requires a certain level of openness, but without a doubt, the people who journey through the fast with us are people who are surrounded by the support of the community God has placed them in.
• Leaders need to share openly about their struggles in a communal fast. The first time Fellowship Church fasted, I will never forget watching a video blog Ed did. He shared his struggles and I thought - he's struggling too? There was vulnerability for him to share this and it encouraged me that I wasn't' the only one stretched by fasting.
• When we fast together, and allow certain foods and disallow other foods, it builds discipline. The Bible teaches us there are essentially two options in life, good and evil. These two options are not all that far apart and it takes spiritual discipline on the part of the Christian to live in a dark world, but not of it. Fasting from certain foods builds discipline. It focuses the mind, trains the heart and helps us grow spiritually to prepare for the battles ahead.

This morning I noticed something...I looked around while we were singing and saw a few people who I met at C3 almost a year ago. They came looking for something, they were broken and they were searching...They came to C3 and found Christ. A year later it has been an amazing privilege to see them grow in Christ and live their lives for Him. It just reminded me why C3 does what they do. For people who are searching- who are lost and in need of an amazing Savior who can rescue them. As I stood there and noticed them, I was humbled to be able to be a part of this community. C3 has helped me grow in tremendous ways that I never imagined. I love being able to meet people who are truly looking for something, who are lost, then be able to see them find that amazing hope in Christ and watch their lives change for Him. I don't have words for what that is like...I'm just grateful. 

We sang Mighty to Save at Crave tonight and I love the beginning lyrics- it couldn't be more true: 

Everyone needs compassion
A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
A kindness of a Savior
The hope of nations

I love C3!

When you capture a child's imagination you do two massive things. First, you win their attention. This allows the message you have to reach them. Second, you mark them for life with your message. I can think back to my childhood and remember a few things that sparked my imagination. I want church to be one of those things for the kids at Fellowship Church and the churches around the world that use our curriculum.

Ultimately it boils down to this:

If you can capture a child's eyes and ears, you have have the two pathways the Holy Spirit uses to capture their heart.

Below is the theme song from our first series in Elevate Jr., it shows clips from all eight weeks of our first series, Spy Chase Jr. Elevate Jr. is targeted at 3-5 year olds and this 8-week series teaches the character trait of friendship.

We are already well into post production on our second series, which will teach the stories of Jesus. To find out more, visit ElevateKids.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHc5aFx64Mo

The typical "retreat" focuses on your relationship with God.  This is a great thing but typically it turns into a "what are you holding back from God, What haven't you fully surrendered?"  They are usually very introspective and require a gut check.  This can be and is a very powerful experience.  It is impossible to tear down a piece of your wall and not have your life changed.  But it can leave you feeling vulnerable and raw.  Then you come home and reality hits.

 This weekend was different.  It focused on our dreams, and where God is leading us.  It was less about "dealing" with stuff, and more about opening up and dreaming.  I love to hear what God is birthing in others.  Seeing how excited they are gets me excited.  But I also got to share my dream.  And the absolute coolest thing is that they are all connected through Fellowship church.  A collection of 6 guys all dreaming about one thing, all adding specific details, all with a different angle but the same focus.  How awesome?!?

I have seriously been finding ways to talk about this weekend.  I have even steered conversations in that direction, just so I could tell someone else that God has given me a dream.

Ok I think I will stop there. 

Please feel free to add a lyric from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band here.

Billy

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

The most direct repurcussion to what I posted yesterday: Marty was preaching on some really tough words of Jesus.  He said that people try to soft pedal these words, chalk it up to cultural differences, translation errors, etc.  I don't think I'm putting words in Marty's mouth to say that I think he's right in some healthy skepticism at these attempts at explaining the hard stuff away.

It occurs to me, in fact, that this is another way of trying to have our cake and eat it too.  We have our cake by saying I accept the whole of The Bible.  We eat it to by saying that when it's hard to swallow parts we can just rationalize and explain the hardness away.

There's actually something really reassuring about the fact that this stuff is not easy.  The reassuring part is this: we could reasonably, rationalized be accused of making up a faith that was easy, that confirmed the perceptions that we had before we allowed ourselves to be changed by the scripture. 

The hard truth might not be fun.  But the very fact that it is hard actually helps to confirm the truth of it.  The very fact that we are trying to conform ourselves to the words, rather than the other way around, this implies that we are behaving obediently.  In Brian McLaren's words, we are allowing the scripture to read us.

If I struggle with Jesus words, I am inevitably lead to question of where MY problems are.  If I begin with the assumption that the bible is true, and I really wrestle with the fact that Jesus is supposed to be more important than my biological family, I can turn my view on myself.  I can begin to see that there is idolatry in my attitude.  I was attempting to hold my family above the creator of the universe.  On the other hand, if I begin with the assumption that my world view is correct, then I will work hard at finding ways to make scripture not mean what it seems to mean.

This is not to say that we should instantly simply assume that Jesus' words should always be taken in the "hardest" sense possible.  He did, after all, promise that his yolk was light and easy.   What I'm getting at here is that reasonable understanding is huge, but we have to be careful not to delude ourselves into taking the very easiest way out.

The fact that Jesus came with a sword to set us against those in our biological family is hard.  I think we should really hold onto this difficulty.   We should not try to escape the reality that people we love very much might end up our enemies. 

But we should hold this reality next to the reality of what Jesus told us to do with our enemies.  He told us to love them.

Holding these truths next to each other is harder than just taking one and running with it.  This isn't a win-win, really.  This isn't letting one of Jesus statements counter act another statement so that they cancel each other out like matter and anti-matter in a cheesy science fiction novel.

This is letting his words meaning penetrate in a real way.  As we wrestle with Jesus meaning it determines the "wrestling moves" we use.  In this case, it leads to me the following questions:

#1) Does it look the same to love an "enemy" and love an "ally"?

#2) How do we go about living our every day lives with people who are "enemies"; how do we strike the balance between loving them and recognizing there is something in them which is opposed to what we are supposed to be doing and thinking and feeling?

Looking foreward to answers,

Jeff

Update: Well, it's the end of the day, I shot this video nearly 12 hours ago... first video blog was incredibly difficult to get on the web - but it's up! Enjoy.

In a few minutes I'm headed out to meet with our volunteer build team. They are the men and women who create the FC Kids environment each year. We are blessed to have the team we have and it has been one of those experiences where you see that excellence breeds excellence.

Walt Disney caught on to this a while back and realized if he kept his parks clean (don't sell gum anywhere on property, don't allow smoking, keep the trash picked up) then his guests would help keep the park clean.

In my case, when a group of talented people come together for a project, the talent of the team is attractive to people who are more talented. They join the team and the next project is even greater.

This requires creating an environment where people have room to grow, experiment, fail and move forward together. If the culutre is rigid, the same people will end up doing the same things and get the same results. Creativity, flexibility and grace lead to growth, experimentation and forward motion.

5.  The people don’t smell like tomato soup.
Let’s face it, a lot of places you go to these days, the people all smell like tomato soup.  Whether it’s the movies or a local restaurant or even watching the kids playing soccer.  That’s right, tomato soup.

4.  There will be lots of moms there. (and none of them smell like tomato soup, as far as I can tell)

3.  The band will be singing a special song to moms, but its not about moms, and it’s way better than this song about moms.

2.  Two words:  Free stuff.

1.  You’ll find out in the book of Hebrews what is just as important as a mother’s love.

SUNDAY MORNINGS @ FELLOWSHIP (10:30 AM)
325 Bullard St
Holden, Massachusetts 01520
www.fellowshipholden.com

April 27 - Family Matters:  He said/she said
May 4 - Family Matters:  Parenting - An Orange perspective
May 11 - Family Matters:  My mom - The Golden Compass
May 18 - Family Matters:  Outlaws/Inlaws

If you have a family, or if you want to have a family, or if you know someone who has a family, then come and invite someone who you know that will be interested in what the Bible has to say about the family.

Sunday Mornings @ Fellowship (10:30 am)
325 Bullard St
Holden, MA 01520

Who’s gonna be there?

Marty is an amzing guy.  He has supported and shaped my life in some profound ways.  He's given me oppurtunities to serve and supported in me in this serving in amazing ways.  He has a brilliance for finding ways to be encouraging and recognizing peoples gifts and sacrifices. 

It's hard to not sound condescending when you say that you're proud of somebody, but many people, myself included, are really amazed by the job he has done in stepping into the big cheese position at Fellowship Church. 

They included:

• Lifechurch.tv and Church on the Move (Fabric pannels look tight)
• Granger Community Church, Rock Church and Mariners Church (Check out the glowsticks)
• Fellowship Church (I love the use of the screen in the background... when we have our buildings :). If you don't check out any of the other links make sure you check this one)