It’s the little things.  My glass coffee press broke!  I loved the coffee it made-strong and hot, but I could not find a replacement. Instead, I abandoned it and grabbed a fresh brew at the coffee shop on the run. It wasn’t the same as slowing down and sipping java while still in my pajamas, but it was good enough. Like a real Minnesotan, I rationalized that the added chaos in my life was normal. The god of java was more important than time.

Small gods consume us—we settle for chaos when we long for time.  We live vicariously through social media, but long to create our own memories.  We let small gods rush us from here to there and anywhere but home, even on weekends. The small gods are more important than time.

We obey the small gods and our Christian souls run empty. We want to grab a quick cup of Jesus for life on the run—but small gods keep us busy. We are chained to small gods who tell us chaos is normal!  STOP! That’s exactly what small gods want us to believe! WRONG! God intentionally sent his Son to fight the chaos of small gods, rescue us, and defend our right to live in God’s time, including a healing relationship with Jesus, the Prince of Peach who restores our soul– and sanity.

I boldly made a decision to grab my mocha and Jesus, to purposely carve out my God-given time for what really matters in life! Fight the small gods with intentional God-time.  I got my morning devotions and coffee back–now in a new insulated, non-breakable coffee press. I stayed in my pajamas and talked with God. Prayer time was amazing, who knew? I carved out family time and WOW–my soul filled faster than my caffeine levels. Imagine that.

This is the Gospel’s secret to a happier New Year: dump the small gods. Worship the big One.  Carve out God-time every day: read a few verses of scripture, talk to God in a private space, worship with your family, volunteer for Jesus, fill your head with God-stuff, give to the ministry of the church… BUT… above all else, take deliberate steps to dump the small gods! Get your life back, your family, health, finances, and yes—definitely your soul back.

It’s the little things that fill your life with goodness.

“My Church ….”

Coffee helps me ponder, so I sipped some hot Caribou and considered an odd possibility… none of the above!   None of those beautiful churches were ‘my church’. Every single one of them belonged to someone far greater than myself, Jesus Christ.

Wait! What about the traditions, Sunday routines and décor, I get a say in them, right?  The coffee burns my lips.

Ask the Spirit. What the boss wants, the boss gets. If Jesus Christ need us to change directions, well, we do what the boss tells us to do. Change.

Be still my caffeinated heart! Change?  

Jesus tells us to find new disciples, so we find new disciples, any way that works. We get out of our pews and do it. If what we are doing isn’t working, we change to make it right. Jesus gets what Jesus wants, disciples. Jesus is the boss.

We change to find disciples, not change disciples to find us.

Church: The Spirit is poking us to find disciples, those who do not know Jesus. What’s working in this group? A 2^nd

Jesus, you are the Boss.  It’s not ‘our church’, but ‘your church.’  Show us what to do.

I overheard you the other day, proudly proclaiming the end of God.  You were pretty certain of that ‘fact.’  A couple of your tablemates nodded in mutual defiance, but the others looked away.  They were uncomfortable with your ‘facts.’ No, they did not speak up.  They let it slide by and quietly claim their allegiance to the invisible God they seldom meet, but still believes, exists….. just in case. Maybe that is why you wonder if anyone really believes in God.  No one has ever shared their story with you.  Pity.  Their stories make doubt seem doubtful.

You said religious people are hypocrites, showing-off their goodness. But, take this from the pastor who knows, they come wearing all their faults, worries, and guilt. No, they don’t shout these from the pews. Most keep their faults to themselves. But I bet you do, too?

Folks come to Jesus like a patient goes to the doctor–to find healing and peace.  It seems healthy, forgiven Christians may actually live longer than atheists.  Maybe forgiveness, hope, and a new lease on life are good for the body as well as the soul?  Staying connected to Jesus is how we stay sane.

So, let me confess the truth: we Christians mess up more than we succeed, but this world needs us to keep trying. Why? Because–there is more to life than our cell phones and political stances. The world need us to be the Jesus we follow-to treat people with dignity and respect, love the unlovable, and be the peace.  Jesus came out swinging with love and healing. What a contrast to the world today.  Like I said, we don’t always get it right, but wouldn’t it be a better world if we did? 

I’ve learned over the years that most atheists are really angry agnostics, indifferent Christian who struggle with the church people who failed them in the past. Jesus isn’t fond of their actions either, but he is willing to forgive them.  Are you willing to forgive?  Is that what is keeping you away from Jesus?

So this is what I’m going to ask my folks to do—share their story with you, explain the crazy time that God found them, or how their faith carried them through when belief in humans failed.  I want them to share how they try to love like Jesus and how they fail, but they try again.  I want them to share how Jesus takes hold of their soul and gives them the courage to stand up to injustice, fight bigotry, love diversity, and find peace in loving the stranger. I want them to be bold in their faith and dare to show their passion so folks like you see the real Jesus, the One that also stood up to an unjust world and loved it anyway.  I want you to see forgiveness, transformed lives, and hope that defies understanding.  Most of all, I want YOU to see JESUS in them. I want you to see the invisible Son of God alive in the visible Body of Christ called the church.   

God’s grace will do the rest. 

I’m sitting in a Boston coffee shop sipping coconut iced coffee after having my first taste for such divine java at the Corner Drug store back home. Today, my table is smack dab in the heart of the Berklee School of Music in Boston.  I’m surrounded by student musicians fully immersed in their musical studies.  The young guy next to me is snapping his fingers to an imaginary beat as he explains music theory to the equally youthful gal directly across from him. They are whole heartedly engaged in the conversation, each contributing questions and comments that liven their spirits, laughing and exclaiming at the ideas they share. 

I speak Jesus. They speak music. We all drink coffee.  It should be a match made in heaven. 

Call me a dreamer, but I wonder what God would have us do to reach the people in the coffee shops in our world, or for that matter, the bars across the street?  What language do we speak?

I pray for the Holy Spirit to transform our tongues to the language of the coffee shops and the bars, to speak music to the musicians so that we speak Jesus to those without Jesus. May the Spirit of Pentecost ignite our passion as deep the musicians surrounding me; and may Jesus be the music that fills  the depths of their young souls.

  Apple just announced that their stores will undergo a major shift from ‘selling’ Apple products, to eye-catching interactive labs geared to ‘using’ the products. They are leading the next generation forward, the same people that the church wants to reach– but cannot find. Apple knows.

http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/25/15419398/apple-store-redesign-genius-bar-grove

Wait—we don’t offer that either, unless you can get the downloaded PDF from our website and even then, maybe that won’t work.

We could send you a text, but are not set up to do that either. 

How about a group message from Facebook?

See the problem?  

Beginning in June, expect to see  changes–the beginning of more to come:

• Worship moves to 10 AM year-round.
• Kid’s Church and the nursery continue year-round.
• Expect a colorful monthly newsletter in your e-mail.
• Receive current happenings also by e-mail.
• Join small groups and mission events for soul searching purpose with Jesus.

Lead and let others follow.

Be bold witnesses to a resurrected Christ.

Pastor Terri.

I shuffled through paperwork on the way to my tax appointment.  Deep in the pile of papers only an IRS agent can love, a document caught my eye: “Paid in Full-Parent Plus Loan.”  It was the first big loan I took out to help my overwhelmed daughter pay her college tuition. I didn’t want to do it, but there was no choice if I wanted to keep her in school that year and my income was just a bit too much for grants.  Her meager campus cafeteria job paid $10 per hour, but that was barely enough to cover her rent for an old house near campus that she shared with four other students. The left over paid for food, books, a variety of school fees, and gas for her slowly dying car.

Paid in Full-the relief was in my hands! Done! Finished! No more debt!

 As excited as I was, the tax guy didn’t care. He punched numbers into an on-line form to calculate the difference for another debt I owed –the government. Sigh, so much for my money… I handed him my plastic card for the difference and another debt was marked “Paid in Full.” 

When was it ever MY money?  Someone always wanted it, claimed it or needed it.  But there was this very persistent voice of God running through my head reminding me just who gave it to me to use in the first place. That’s right—use, give away, spend, and share for the Kingdom. 

 ‘I know God, but just once could I keep it all? 

 “Keep what you need-will 90% cover it?” God asked.

 “Well, when you put it that way.”  I humbly respond.

 While I whined, I realized that money was a small price to pay to help Jesus with the work of the kingdom on earth.  The investment price was steep and the set up costs exceeded what anyone on earth could pay. I looked at the cross sitting on my desk.

“That was quite a price to pay for a kingdom,” I said.

 “It wasn’t for the kingdom,” God replied. “It was for you.”

 “Huh?”

 “Without my children, there wouldn’t be a kingdom.”

 “So, why did Jesus have to die? Couldn’t he just find us and drift back to Heaven?

 “My child, you were so entangled in the cosmic net of evil.  Jesus had to pierce the heart of evil to rupture its cosmic grip. Death was the only way into the soul of evil.  When Jesus rose to life that third day, my Son burst the chains of hell open and freed my children from certain death.  It was the price he paid to save you, a price paid in full.”

There it was–stamped on the empty cross–Paid in Full.

Yet, she died an un-heroic death leaving fans stunned and heart-broken, more so because she was Princess Leia than Carrie Fisher, which is an even greater tragedy.  Princess Leia fought evil, stood up to injustice, and put her life on the line to save entire planets.  The cause was greater than herself.  Carrie Fisher, however,  struggled to overcome personal brokenness, like troubled relationships, substance abuse, mental illness and a Hollywood that exploits the beautiful only to dump them when they outlive their youthfulness.  Princess Leia fought the dark side in the universe while Carrie Fisher fought the darkness within.  Both fought to save the innocent, including the homeless and the hungry. Both were heroes in their own courageous ways.

Ironically, children dying in Aleppo took a back seat to our hero’s death.  Children shooting children in Minneapolis never broke the headlines. And, refugee families begging for a camp to take them were too depressing even for the news.

What did make the headlines?  Political leaders fought to gain control of bathrooms.  Britney Spears really didn’t die.  Amazon sold more televisions this year than the height of Mount Everest.  Meanwhile, Christmas Day saw some churches closed for lack of interest while most were poorly attended, giving the dark side a burst of energy.  Yet, US citizens pressed on and slammed one another in malls across America trying to grab the best after-Christmas sale.  Score another for the dark side.

People!  What happened?   When did we stop playing for the good guys, more explicitly—the Good Guy, Jesus, the Hero of the Light? When did we forget that the smallest of these was worth the whole cause?  When did the ‘poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free’ represent mall shoppers crushing each other?  And, why were churches even asked if they would be open on Sunday for Christmas and New Year’s Day?  People—it’s Sunday, the Sabbath!  God doesn’t take holidays!

We loved Princess Leia. She was the rich fighting for the poor; defending truth, justice, and light for the lost and displaced, not only in this world, but for all facing the same injustice—anywhere. Still, we don’t get it!   Princess Leia is a story. The Prince of Peace is real.  Jesus the Christ came to fight the dark forces with a sword of light and charged us to do the same. Yet, we know more about Princess Leia than the Prince of Peace!

People, it’s time to crawl out of the movie theaters and into the churches, pick up your lightsaber and fight the real forces of darkness!  It’s time to learn the ways of Jesus, meet in churches across America to strengthen our collective resolve to fight evil, and stop our world from blowing itself up faster than any ‘death star.’ The immigrants, refugees and children of our world cannot wait for a story tale Princess to save them!  You are it!  Be a hero and be courageous.  Follow the teachings of Jesus; pitting love of neighbor against evil and GO!

May the Light of Christ go with you.

Peace,

Pastor Terri