This Sunday, I shared about Jeff. He might say he has much in common with his fantasy football group, where he can be himself. He's goofy, memorizes stats, and can tell you anything about the Chicago Bears. I wonder how Jeff might know that he has so much in common (including eternity) with the people of God… that he belongs with the people of God.

Jesus wants everyone to be together with him.

A doctor named Luke was among the thousands of people who followed Jesus. Scholars believe that he was also one of the 70 that Jesus sent out into cities and villages and share that God wants everyone to be together with him. He would emphasize that Jesus is the way God brings all people together. He then tells us that Jesus physically ascends into heaven. The question was, is God with us anymore? Luke's response is an emphatic "yes" as he tells us that God sends us the same Holy Spirit that Jesus always has to bring us all back together with Him.

The Apostle Paul reaffirms this when he tells the Jesus lovers in Corinth, "God's Spirit lives in you" (1 Corinthians 3:16). In other words, Jesus is always with us. Perhaps more profoundly, like Luke, we help people belong because everyone belongs with the people of God.

That's why one of our three priorities is creating belonging everywhere by prioritizing relational connections. In other words, it's one way we want to focus as a church on seeing people transformed by the gospel by discipling all generations where they live, work, learn, and play (or wherever we gather).

We've all been in crowds of thousands and felt isolated and alone. And, let's face it—even though there are close to a million people in Pierce County and 225,000+ in our neck of the woods, many feel isolated and alone. Like Jeff, I wonder how each one of them might know that they belong with the people of God.

We often find ourselves together with people. Whether it's a worship service, meals, sports practices, home projects, community service, meeting up for a life group or Bible study, kids and youth activities, social activities, or meetings, I believe how we gather matters.

So, here's the secret to belonging at home, school, work, or on the field.

Vulnerability.

According to researcher Brene Brown (Daring Greatly), vulnerability is uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. She goes on to say that vulnerability isn't weakness but incredible courage. Vulnerability is seen in the moments we share when we are scared, uncertain, or emotionally exposed or ask for forgiveness. More profoundly, she writes, "Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity."

While Brene is approaching the conversation from a social science perspective, she may or may not know that what she is saying is deeply spiritual (and biblical).

Allow me to explain. God made each of us in the image of God with emotions (Psalm 139). Because of sin, like the first humans, we hide when we are scared and uncertain because we are exposed (Genesis 3). It’s like we are spiritually naked and we don’t want anybody to see us. So, living in darkness is easier than being vulnerable by stepping into the light. And yet, we know that Jesus is the light of the word, the light no darkness can overcome (John 1). And it’s in Jesus, we experience love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, creativity - and so much more… We receive all the gifts of God to enjoy and be a blessing to the people around us.

With that perspective, in order to create belonging everywhere, we must take risks and do new things because if everyone belongs with the people of God, we are the ones God uses to help people experience the belonging of God.

Where can we begin?

Make a list of 5 people you trust.
It begins with vulnerability—sharing something scary or uncertain, asking for forgiveness, or emotionally exposing ourselves. It takes incredible courage to do that with another human being.

It's OK if you don't have five right now. How about one person? Then, challenge yourself to take a risk and open yourself up to one new person in the next year. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was trust. Take your time, but also take the risk.

Meet New People (Make Introductions)
Most people feel uneasy meeting someone new. Meeting new people may feel uncomfortable because we are opening ourselves up to the opportunity for rejection. However, we are also opening ourselves up to making new friends and helping "the Jeffs" know they belong with the people of God.

How were you introduced to the people of God? In what way was it natural or awkward? How can you introduce people where you live, work, learn, and play to the people of God where they belong?

Empathy
When we introduce people to the people of God, many discover they have more in common than they thought. Neuro-research tells us that the more we get into the weeds of each other's lives, the more we share time and activities with each other… We begin to share our everyday lives together.

True belonging emerges in a life together with Jesus.

Environment
We've all been in places that do not allow relationships to happen. The restaurant is so noisy that you can't talk over dinner, and the store is so crowded that you can't wait to leave. This is an event where people avoid the food rather than the food attracting each other around the table.

Our Master Planning Team can't wait to share more about how we can make our ministry spaces an even better environment for belonging with you and the people who belong to God (and may not even know it yet).

Creating belonging for everyone can be scary. But I have discovered that if I run away from the risk, uncertainty and fear enter my mind or twist my stomach. I often say, "I'm not good enough."

To that, I remind myself that God's Spirit already lives in me (1 Corinthians 3:16) and that I am God's masterpiece, created to do this good work that God has given me to do since the beginning of time (Ephesians 2:10). I think about how much I want "the Jeffs" of the world to know that they belong with the people of God. And I then say, "I love you, God… let's love people and live like Jesus together."

Vision is always caught more than taught, so I'd love to engage with and listen to what excites you about what "creating belonging everywhere" means to you. Please email me at pastortim@oslc.com, or let's connect over coffee or tea.

Next week, we will explore what it means to prioritize discipling all generations by being the best neighbors.

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If you’ve spent time in the workforce, educational spaces, and churches, you’ve probably heard “mission” and “vision.” While they’re related to each other, they are distinct. Depending on your context, the words can also mean different things to different people.

That said, here’s what it sounds like and means here in our ministry context.

Mission defines our church’s identity. And while our identity makes us unique from other churches, it also unifies us as one under our true Lead Pastor, Jesus Christ. Because our unity is made and found in Jesus alone, His mission becomes ours. In this sense, churches may use different words to say the same thing. And it’s Jesus’ mission that unites 1000 excellent ways of following Him into a single “true north”: making disciples of all peoples (nations).

Disciple-making is not just what we do; it’s who we are created to be.

That’s why our mission is to make disciples who love God, love people, and live like Jesus. This is who we are in Jesus.

So, let’s explore our mission a little more, and then I’ll share some thoughts about the vision.

A decade ago, we worked hard as a congregation to make Jesus’ mission easy to remember and put into practice. (Some of you remember those conversations and processes!). It was so important that it made it into our Constitution - which organizationally is like etching it in stone. It’s truly a gift (thanks, God!).

Here’s some biblical background on our mission.

The gospel writer Luke quotes Jesus spelling out His God-given mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). The gospel writer Matthew quotes Jesus not only saving the lost (Matthew 18:11) but also the least (Matthew 25:40) and the last and lonely (Matthew 20:16).

It’s humbling (and overwhelming) that Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), commissions His disciples (including you and me!) to join Him on His mission of seeking and saving the lost, the least, and the lonely.

Jesus says, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20a) 
Because it is Jesus’ mission, He promises to be with us until the very end (Matthew 28:20b).

With that said, what is vision?

One way to think of ministry vision is “where God is leading us next.” Typically, vision is an articulation of broad-scale, long-term, transformational change.

Let’s go a little deeper.

You may have read or heard the Proverb: Where there is no vision, the people perish. (Proverbs 29:18) Suppose you dig deeper into the Hebrew and the context of this passage. We discover that vision is defined as revelation. Another way of understanding perishing is that the people have no boundaries; they run wild (apart from God’s way). That doesn’t sound like a good time for God’s people.

Other ways to think about vision include: 

• Vision is the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom (Oxford Dictionary)
• A clear, challenging picture of the future of ministry as you believe that it can and must be (Aubrey Malphurs)
• The living language that anticipates and illustrates God’s better immediate future (Will Mancini)

So, vision is a plan… a picture… and living language that describes where God is leading us.

When I arrived at Our Savior, our vision between 2014 and 2020 had been to send disciples who take an unchanging God into a changing world. In that time, we experienced significant staff transitions in 2015, a major arson fire in 2016, a multi-million dollar rebuilding project in 2017, and a Senior Pastor Transition in 2018-2019.

That’s a lot, isn’t it?

Let’s pull back the curtain a little bit more.

When I arrived in Fall 2019, we began laying some groundwork for a re-visioning process. In Spring 2020, we started our COVID journey together. Throughout those years, our informal vision was to prioritize relationships. Internally, we’ve coined the phrase “Relationships are king” (though we know that Jesus is king!).
And it worked! While far from perfect, our ministry team and leaders have received feedback that the relationships make Our Savior unique and special. What began as a priority has become part of who we are, today.

That’s the power of a unified vision.

When we began to see a light at the end of the COVID tunnel, I started praying Psalm 25:4-5:
 Show me your ways, Lord,
 teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God, my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.

In other words, Lord, show us your vision… how you would have us put your mission into practice.

Since then, hundreds of you have participated in providing feedback. We have gathered both real time and projected data, conducted environmental studies, hosted town hall information-gathering meetings, and contracted with BCRA to host focus groups. We completed a master campus plan and are ready to begin a phasing process to move forward. We re-launched healthy and growing core ministries, and we are currently considering what it might mean to become one church in multiple contexts or locations.

Over the last year, we’ve worked hard to clarify our vision - where God is leading us next… and we are ready to share it with you.

Ready for it?

We see people transformed by the gospel by prioritizing disciplining all generations where they live, work, learn, and play.
Vision is always caught more than taught, so I’d love to engage with and listen to what excites you about what “people transformed by the gospel” looks like for you. Please email me at pastortim@oslc.com, or let’s connect over coffee or tea.
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Next week, we will explore what it means to prioritize discipling all generations by creating belonging everywhere.​

Do pastors only work on Sundays?

​I could write a book with that title.

While Sundays may be the most visible part of a pastor's work, being a Senior Pastor (or any pastor) is a full-time calling. Notice I said "calling," not a "job." It is as much a spiritual experience as it is a human one. That's why I believe that the call seeks the person… the person doesn't seek the call.
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From my perspective, a calling is different from a job in that being a pastor is much more than a means of paying the bills. Being a pastor is a complex collision of purpose, personal values, passion, fulfillment, and internal and external motivation (specifically, the Holy Spirit).

Without sounding hyper-spiritual, pastoral leadership is so humanly crushing that I don't believe you can do it without God's Spirit leading, guiding, strengthening, and sustaining you. A community of leaders is also essential to shepherding and leading well.

And here's why: not only is the Senior Pastor the human-organizational leader of the congregation (which is a full-time job itself), but the role is also responsible for spiritual leadership. This spiritual leadership includes preaching and teaching God's Word, becoming aware of and ministering to the needs of the wider community, seeking God's direction and vision for His church, ensuring people are shepherded and spiritually cared for, partnering and mutually supporting other pastors in their ministries, and carrying the burdens of people as their pastor.

Here are some "sneak peeks" into my week as your Senior Pastor…

Every morning, I wake up and recenter myself as a child of God. Reading a passage of scripture (I'm currently in the Psalms), I remember that I'm a baptized child of God. Whatever happens throughout the day, I am His. I believe that God's forgiveness is mine through Jesus and that the Holy Spirit is constantly at work in my life. I started this "habit" early on in ministry, which fuels my daily prayer. I physically feel different on the days when I short-sell this time with God.

Before I leave for the "workday," I kiss my wife (TMI?) and hug my kids. I am the only person who can be a husband to my wife and a dad to our kids. Throughout the year, we shift evening schedules to make family time work. Sometimes we get it right… other times, we don't. We live in a never-ending ocean of grace and learning together.

Driving through my neighborhood or dropping kids off at school, I often wave to or briefly talk with my neighbors. We love our neighbors. We believe God has put us together on our street with and for each other.

If you've read this far, you might think, "This is what you do for work"?

While I don't get "paid" to follow Jesus, love my family, or be a good neighbor - I don't believe I can be an influential pastor or leader without continually growing in this way of life.

During my "work week," I facilitate conversations, learning, discernment, and decision-making. Whether preparing for or leading a meeting, phone and email conversations, face-to-face visits, or community gatherings, most of my time is spent with people.

Mondays typically begin with a video conference call with other Large Church pastors. We spend time in prayer, personal sharing, and mutual encouragement and support. I then connect with our ministry staff for a daily prayer time. I'll then connect with my assistant to review the week and our Operation Director to coordinate on anything urgent. The rest of the day is spent preparing sermons, responding to emails, and writing my weekly email and blog. I will sometimes grab lunch or coffee with somebody or make a care visit.

I’m getting back into the habit of meeting a friend on Tuesday morning for an early morning walk/hike. Once a month, I also spend the day with local Lutheran pastors for a collegial gathering. Otherwise, my day continues with daily staff prayer time. I will meet with our Message Planning Team or finish my sermon and writing for the week. Once a month, I have an afternoon video call with our Northwest District Board of Directors' "All People's Group" Task Team. I will use the rest of my Tuesday to follow up on more urgent pastoral care calls or prepare for Elder or Board of Director meetings. Tuesday evening is Life Group night or an elder's meeting (generally twice a month).

I start my Wednesdays with an Executive Coaching session before spending the rest of the day with our ministry staff in meetings. We will have lunch together once a month to celebrate birthdays, work anniversaries, and other significant life happenings. The afternoons are often scheduled with various meetings about baptisms, ministry, or church business. I am onsite on Wednesday evenings to connect with people. It's also a great time to schedule meetings with people who work during the day.

Thursday begins with staff prayer time, which then moves into a worship "Production" meeting, during which we review everything for Sunday worship. I'll spend the rest of the day in personal leadership development time, making pastoral care visits and phone calls, and often have mentor meetings with our Pastoral Intern. I will sometimes also connect with a group of local pastors on Thursday mornings once a month. Our Board of Directors will meet throughout the year on Thursday evening.

Friday is my sabbath. Now that our kids are in school, Beth and I find Friday an excellent "date day" that fills our buckets. I also love catching a nap, running errands, and cooking on my sabbath.

Saturdays are precious to us as a family. When we are not serving at Faith in Action, we explore new places, hike a mountain, or ride bikes on a trail.

Sunday begins like "normal." When I arrive on site, I often pray for our church, community, and world while driving or walking around our campus. I'll then review my sermon slides and listen to the worship band warm-up. Sunday morning is when I get to be with you in God's Word, pray with and for you, share communion, and enjoy being with you. I often go home with a filled heart to either rest or spend time outside with my family. We will sometimes invite people over to enjoy the day with us on Sunday afternoons.

Is each week really that organized?

More often than not, "life happens," and many weeks are not as orderly as I just described. I’m thankful for my family and my Assistant who are adaptable, flexible, and understand that ministry is first and foremost about people (after Jesus). Memorial services and weddings, community events and tragedies, pastoral counseling requests, keeping our Board, elders, and leaders informed, and the ongoing "business" of the church ebb and flow in and out of my week. They’re not “distractions” or “extra work”...  rather, they are what it means to serve people like Jesus.
 
Final Thought

But let's think about this. . . Whatever you do—whether you're a student, in the workforce, retired, staying at home, or anything in between—you have a calling, too. You, like me, have humanly crushing responsibilities.  We need God's Spirit to lead, guide, strengthen, and sustain us. We need a community of people around us to live and lead well.

​Let me know what you think and how your life and work are more of a calling than a job.

Have you noticed how misunderstood Jesus can be in today's American cultural context?

I sometimes worry about my faith needing to be understood. 

I mean, I want people to understand and "get it."

Perhaps you do, too. 

Some people may say Jesus started a new religion. Others might say Jesus came to free them to be spiritual and not religious. And many of us have seen the dangerous convictions that Jesus is at the center of modern social and political movements.

Apostle Paul, who saw Jesus with his own eyeballs describes it like this: Jews demand signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:22-25).

The Apostle Paul says that Jesus is misunderstood because He is a stumbling block (literally, a scandal). Why would the God of the universe love people so much that He took the curse and punishment of sin for people who wouldn't love Him back upon Himself? For some, Jesus was misunderstood because he challenged their religious beliefs about God and themselves.

The Apostle Paul also says that Jesus is misunderstood because He made irrational choices. Why would a Palestinian Jew go to a Samaritan well and bond with a woman by asking her for a drink of water? Why would a rabbi wash his disciples' feet? Why would the movement leader back down in the moments when he could rise up? For Greeks, Jesus was a fool.

Much like the 1st-century Greco-Roman culture on the isthmus of Asia and Italy, I am seeing how people today are struggling to live in a world that is increasingly polarized in every way. And I am convinced that the gospel is still the dynamite of God (Romans 1:16) that changes how we feel, think, and act — no matter how misunderstood it (and those who share it) might be.

The gospel did and continues to change how all people feel, think, and act because Jesus didn't come to start a new religion or to free us from religion to become more spiritual. And Jesus surely didn't come to bring a social justice or a political perspective.

Jesus came to seek and save people from the death penalty for their sins as well as their own devices. Taylor Swift is right: they come with prices and vices, and we end up in crises - it's a tale as old as time.

And if that’s true, then we are invited to live like Jesus to look, listen, and love the people in front of us - wherever we are... always... no matter how misunderstood it might be for us or for others looking and listening in.

If you want to get your heart and head into this week's message before Sunday, read Acts 19:1-19.

Lamentations 5 begins with the word, remember.

Chad Bird helps us understand the significance of this word. You can click here to read the article.

If you read Chapter 5, you might realize that Jeremiah doesn’t share anything he hasn’t already said before. It’s as if he knows that only an act of God can change reality.

And perhaps that’s the point of the entire collection of laments… that only divine acts of mercy like healing, humility, servanthood, a crucifixion, and a resurrection can bring complete restoration and freedom to love and serve God and others.

Which means that all of life is remembering to die to ourselves so that we can rise again with Jesus.

This lament, without the anointed one, is hopeless. But, with Yahweh’s anointed One, Jesus, there is always hope in moments of despair.

In Hebrew religion and culture, three roles were designated to represent God’s presence and power.

• A prophet
• A priest
• A king

Prophets were people who were individually called by God to forthtell truth. We think of people like Elijah, Jeremiah, and Isaiah. Prophets are often beaten up and ignored either out of ignorance or fear. Ultimately, prophets bring conviction and comfort to their recipients - even if (or perhaps especially when) they don’t completely understand the message themselves - like Jonah. Without prophets, there would be no real-life truth-telling.

Priests were the people who stood between God and His people. If you think of them as bridges, priests will carry God's people's sins, burdens, and praises by offering sacrifices on behalf of a community. In turn, the priests would also echo God’s words of forgiveness, cancel the debt caused by people’s sins, and instruct God’s Word to the people. Without priests, there would be no reconciliation or justice for sin between God and people.

Kings were the royal representatives of God’s authority and power in human space. At one point, God’s people saw that other nations had kings who ruled with efficiency and human energy. Forgetting that they already had a King in Yahweh, they asked for a king - and God gave them kings. Some of them were Godly, like David. Others were ungodly, like Saul. Regardless of their character, kings were to execute God’s human laws among communities of people. Without kings, there would be no legal, moral, or ethical order, only chaos.

This context is essential to understand when it comes to Lamentations 4 because this Hebrew poem is lamenting the loss of all three unique relationships with God. The prophetic voices have gone silent. The priests have been taken from the temple. The king has been killed. In every sense, for the Hebrew people, God is gone.

The good news is that the lament is also a prophetic word in itself. While the lamenter expresses the collective memory that their humanly anointed prophets, priests, and kings are gone (Lamentations 4:20), the title “the Lord’s anointed” is a direct reference to the promised rescuer Messiah from Genesis 3:15.

Don’t miss that Jesus is the prophet of prophets, the priests of priests, and the king of kings. He is the One who is also carried off into foreign places, silenced, taken from the temple, and killed on the cross. He is also the One who, three days later, rises again to new life. And that new life continues to speak truth into our world today through His Word. He continues to stand between God and all people because Jesus is the Lamb of God - the sacrifice of sacrifices for all sin. And Jesus is the king of kings who rules and judges with the equity of grace and mercy.

This lament, without the anointed one, is hopeless. But, with Yahweh’s anointed One, Jesus, there is always hope in moments of despair.

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