Worship Jesus, Serve Jesus, and Love Others

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I don’t know if we can capture 20 years in one Sunday service. Throughout the week, I struggled to put something together that would make sense and honor what the Lord has done in our church. My original plan was to preach a sermon in our Great Commission series. The ‘theme’ of that sermon would have been the Universal Church’s role in the Great Commission and the local Church’s role in the Great Commission. But it just proved to be too much. Instead, I tried to highlight ‘why we’ve done what we’ve done’ in 20 years and help our church notice the fruit of this.

And if I’m speaking honestly, I struggled with doing that. My main reason was that I sincerely want to spend more time honoring the Lord for what He has done rather than discussing what we have done. And I struggled with it because I would instead open a text of Scripture together and study one text. We had some out-of-town guests with us on Sunday (Justin and Megan Lakemaker) who said they noticed that when I started preaching, I was more comfortable. They were right. My lovely wife pointed out my uneasiness was because it wasn’t a ‘sermon,’ and Dave Quilla said the same. I feel uneasy when the Word of God is not openly discussed on Sunday mornings.

As I thought and prayed this last week, I was stunned by the growth in our church in the previous 5 years. 64% of our members have come to us in the last 5 years. That is amazing to me. It also revealed why a lesson like Sunday’s is so important. People coming to CLF are coming because we are CLF. The Lord has been kind to develop convictions and a culture. We have had deep beliefs about God’s word and how we fulfill our role in the Great Commission. We need to do a better job of explaining that to new people. And we have a particular culture of doing ministry together. The good people of CLF have genuinely bought into the Bible’s ‘one another’ passages, believing that our ‘corporate’ witness is essential to the Great Commission. We need to not only explain this, but we need to encourage people in this great work and hold each other accountable for this work. But what has become more apparent to me through the last several months is the need for clarity about who we are and what we are as a local church. So, our ministry team needs to ensure all our members understand these things. But so do members who have been here longer than 5 years.

Here’s why it’s important in our history: CLF is what it is because the Lord has been kind to us. Let’s be clear about that. But the Lord has given us wisdom through the years about particular convictions that have helped develop our culture. And this has happened over 20 years, not just over the last 5. We have gone through challenges that have adjusted our perspective. We have had tough stretches that have revealed weaknesses. And those things all play into who we are. Since 64% of our members are relatively new, they don’t have these experiences with us or heard our convictions. At the picnic yesterday, some new members told me that the Sunday message was very helpful to them. They said it helped them connect to CLF and better understand who we are. That’s the goal. We want more people to come to faith in Christ, be discipled into Christ-likeness, and become active members of CLF.

CLF Mission

I tried to do this on Sunday with this statement: CLF exists to equip people to worship Jesus, serve Jesus, and love others. I said that a few times. While this is not our written ‘mission’ statement (we’re working on that), it does define what we’ve tried to do and what we believe is our part in the Great Commission. Our goal over the next several months is to ensure that every ministry in our church accomplishes this mission. We want to equip people to worship Jesus, love Jesus, and love others. And we want to do this in community together.

The Gospel and Addictions

Justin Lakemaker spoke this past weekend at CLF on “The Gospel and Addictions.” It was not only informative; it was encouraging and challenging. One of my takeaways was that addicts usually seek ‘escape.’ Justin talked about how past experiences can shape the addict’s life and it’s important to understand their story if we want to help them. What struck me was how many ‘escapes’ are in my life or our lives. Justin mentioned other addictions: food, money, technology, entertainment, etc., all generally begin with seeking escape from suffering and pain.

If you missed this conference, you can access those when they’re on our YouTube channel (free if you came to the conference and $10 for access if you didn’t come). Here’s why it is important for you: You’ll be shocked at how easily addictions can attach themselves to us. But also, our county and state will have more addictions due to our drug laws (or lack thereof). Finally, it would be good for your soul. I took my immediate family to the conference, and our kids walked away with biblical tools and personal application. I felt the same way. I was deeply affected.

When the videos come out, we’ll let you know.

This Coming Sunday

This Sunday, September 17th, we will continue our Great Commission series by looking at John 4. The goal of this sermon will be to help us see the gospel’s effect on our lives.

From the Cheap Seats

This was hilarious to me. Here’s a current MLB player meeting an MLB legend. I have to believe that I would’ve responded the same way (fan-girl): https://bleacherreport.com/post/mlb/0ee2a24f-b304-4080-9e10-1b286343432b
I don’t believe I thought the Cowboys would beat the Giants 40-0. I thought the Giants would be a challenging game to win: on the road, in the rain, and the Giants are very well coached. But…such is the NFL.
How do the Bengals no-show like that?? How do the Rams destroy the Seahawks?
I enjoy the NFL. It is a gift to our family. We have our fantasy league, and it’s a blast. But I have no idea why Jill’s team ALWAYS has 3 injured players in the 1st week, who get hurt right before the game or in the 1st quarter. It’s unfortunate. And I have no idea, being the sports nut I am, how my team is consistently terrible!

To watch or listen to the sermon described in this post, please click here.