Your Place Series #4

Steve, with lovely wife Lori and their 3.6 children, hosted the 4th meeting of the "Your Place" series. As part of the meeting, Steve and Lori shared their story. And there were many laughs. And yes, Buffalo Center, IA exists. (Boy you weren't kidding when you said it was small Steve.)

And lucky for me, I mean everyone else, Steve wrote about it.

http://crosswaylife.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/our-place/

And for all those singles out there who couldn't make it to the meeting, see Steve for your free copy of the booklet he mentions.

Your Place Series #3

The third meeting of the Singles Summer Series took place this past Wednesday at the Iron Hill Brewery in Lancaster. Fourteen singles were richly treated to drinks, dessert and discourse by Brian Vanderweide, a pastor at our sister church, Covenant Fellowship. After a fond introduction by Doug Plank, Brian first thanked everyone for attending and communicated gratefulness and respect for the pastors of our church and their hearts for the church and for the singles.

Brian led us through the text Philippians 3:1-11 with the goal of assisting us in discerning what is priceless and worthless in God’s eyes. The word “priceless” can be overused for different things (Mastercard commercials) and can dull our senses to what is truly priceless. For something to be priceless, other things will need to be worthless. Why? Because everything can’t be priceless. Sounds simple, but in order to discern between the two, we will have to (1) guard against influences (v. 2-3) that will tell us what is priceless and worthless, (2) identify those things that are worthless (v. 4-8) and (3) continue to know (v. 10-11) and pursue the One who is priceless – Jesus Christ. The fruits of discerning between the priceless and the worthless in our lives, will be experiencing Christ’s power to overcome sin, experiencing joy in suffering and trials and sharing in the resurrection of Christ when He returns or call us home.

At the end of the meeting, Doug thanked Brian for speaking with the singles and he left us with a question to ponder and respond to. Doug asked us to consider the things in our life that we consider “priceless” – things that we devote our time and energy to or find our identity in – job, assets, financial status, relational status, etc. He then challenged us to repent of treasuring things above Christ, and to turn to Christ and find that he is truly priceless and everything else is worthless.

Thank you Brian, Doug and the pastors for an enjoyable evening!

Your Place Series #2

This past Wednesday was the second of the Your Place series meetings with the pastors of my church. This time, the singles, numbering 14, gathered at the Haugherys home. Upon being warmly received, we were given the task to tour the house and be ready to discuss something that surprised us or something we had a question about. After awhile, Bill gathered us in the living room and before we discussed our findings, Bill and Cynthia shared their story of how they met, married and eventually came to the Lancaster area. Then we shared our findings and questions about the house. It was really interesting to hear what stood out to people but what was even more special and humbling was how Bill and Cynthia shared intimate and special stories about each thing a person shared. As discussion flowed, Bill even opened up for people to ask questions about anything about their life. What followed was a very humble time as some questions surrounded their granddaughter and the impact of her passing away a year next week on them and their family. Many tears flowed, from us, not from the Haugherys, and it was such an honor and very humbling that they would share about their sufferings and how God met them and continues to meet them. Then the meeting concluded with Bill praying for us and giving us a copy of an article on Self Pity from the Journal of Biblical Counseling.

For me, meeting with the Haugherys was like returning to a familar place with many memories. And while some things look different, its still a home full of the gospel, God's word, prayer, joys and sorrows and laughter. It was a great time and wonderful to spend time with the Haugherys.

Let's see, the next time, is a special meeting with guest speaker whose name is escaping me right now. But it sounds like it will be another great time.

Your Place Series

This summer, the pastors of my church decided to switch things up a bit and have the singles attend meetings with them instead of attending caregroups. I appreciate this on two levels. One, for practical reasons. Summer is busy and cramming one more extra thing in would make things challenging. Plus, I think I would be torn between attending both caregroup and these meetings if I had to choose between the two. Second, I am looking forward to the times to hear from them and get to know them and interact with them outside of a Sunday meeting context.

Hopefully, I plan to blog about the meetings to share how I benefited from the gifts that the pastors are to the church.

So with that introduction out of the way, we had the first meeting this past Wednesday at the Priviteras. It was a great time to meet with them, to hear from Pete and to interact with other singles in the church.

After some rough starts with the coffee maker (the machine, not the user) and getting chairs and seats squared away for all 20(?) of us, Pete introduced the summer series and the pastoral team's heart behind the meetings and just the encouragement and blessing the singles are to the church. Before getting into a mini-message on Ephesians 3:14-21, Pete humbly shared his thoughts about relating to others in the church and the feeling of being alone or not feeling you belong because there's no one like you or wondering where there place in the church is. I thought this was humbling for Pete to share his experiences and to encourage us that other people, no matter what stage of life, go through this too. This was a great reminder for me. To remember that I'm not unique or the "only one" and to reach out to new people who will definitely feel like this. I was especially encouraged by Pete's exhortation and encouragement that I will be paraphrasing below.

To those who have remained in the church for a long time - you being here and being a part of the church and serving - it is an evidence of God's grace in your life. No doubt you had struggles with relating with others and working through sin and differences, but you remaining and continuing to participate in the life of the church - that shows that there's been more grace than struggles.

I wrote this down and have been chewing this over in my mind. Yes, I do find it true what Pete said and it was like a light was being shown on something I never saw before. I'm just amazed at the grace God freely gives to me with relationships and with others especially, that I have sinned against. I am truly grateful for God's grace shown through their forgiveness, patience and not willing to give up on this wretch of a sinner. Everytime I think of this and even now, I am praising God and thanking God for my church and the people in it.

And not to miss the meat of the meeting, Pete went over the passage in Ephesians and in the course of the overview, went over the gospel with us clearly showing the love of the Father and the lengths he went to save us. I don't think there were too few dry eyes in the room.

So, one meeting down and some more to go! This was a great kick off meeting and I can't wait for the next one in less than 2 weeks!