The Ross House for Chrsitmas Eve '07

The Lights of the new year are in sight!

We live in the future and in the past,
the present is a fleeing moment.

Sometimes I regret to live as such,
realizing this focus will not allow me to touch.

Our minds must bring our bodies into the full moment that is now
In order to benefit those around us
bringing help, Joy, or just awareness,
that they are precious...

enough to shelter a moment of present
as a gift to the loved ones around our table
in this blessed yuletide week.

Merry Christmas!

What shape does Jesus come in today? Actually I think He can even come in the shape of a cookie! 14 wonderful NEW Freedom People would probably agree. How hard is it to give three hours of time to make others Christmas better?

Now 64 Business' over 500 workers on our block in Howard are enjoying your (our) cookies! Thanks for your love in the shape of cookies!


Whether it's cookies, toys for tots, or bringing food to someone shut in during the holiday... When you give, no questions asked, and then enjoy the smiles and warmed hearts. When you give as unto the Lord, God comes to man (woman)

I love giving to you...
but more than that I love giving "with" you!

Seven years of co-labouring, hanging out, eating together, training, team teaching, oh, and eating together... and still friends forever!

God bless the Byrd family as they move to Colorado... may part of their hearts stay here!

It's easy to feel alone.
If you do, or ever have it would be a very normal thing.
Everywhere you look in every direction you see noone giving your reflection back to you. All you see is the reflection of that which is different.
You wonder where is the familiar? How did I get here? Did everyone get off the bus when I wasn't looking or have I moved forward when everyone else was standing still?

Being alone is usually not the true perspective. It's not the one others would see. They see misplaced, or displaced... Maybe they see what could befrom a different field, leaving a dissatisifaction with the way things were.

Leaders are often alone.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Simon and his companions went to look for him,
and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"
Mark 1:35-37

Private Justin Ross graduates from Basic training tomorrow morning.

It hit us today at the family day welcome... We are a military family! We support our soldier and he helps to make sure that the defending of our country's freedom happens at the sourse of the conflicts, not on our soil. His commanding officer LTC Charles Samaris was very clear in helping us see that is why we deploy our soldiers to other continents. The other choice would be setting up sandbags at our borders and defending out nations at the edge of our cities.

Thank God for those who will make the sacrifice. We make it to stand strong for Justin and He makes it to stand strong for us! and for you!

What is the value of anything on earth?
What effort should we invest in something that doesn't last forever?

Solomon by the direction of his father, David invested a huge amount into the temple.
This temple that was so magnificent that the Queen of Sheba came to see it.

1 Kings 10:1 When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions.
2 Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan-- with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones-- she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind.
3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her.
4 When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built,
5 the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at {5 Or the ascent by which he went up to} the temple of the LORD, she was overwhelmed.
6 She said to the king, "The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true.
7 But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard.
8 How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!
9 Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD's eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness."

Debbie and i are at a Great Marraige conference Sept 13-15 in Rome Georgia.

Here's great tidbit!

Think about the setting of Genesis 2:18

Adam was walking and talking with God on a daily basis and there was no sin in the world and yet in that "perfect intimate situation" God said it was, "Not Good"
This means our relationship with God is not enough... He wants us to have a relationship with others!

Of course women would like to think that according to God, it was "not good" until there was woman! :-)

Check out www.GreatCommandment.net

See where we are staying in 100 year old milking cow barns.... fixed up pretty nice though


Also you have to check out the link to the Berry College Campus... it will increase your vision when you learn it was begun by a Sunday school teacher who wanted to find a way to educate poor mountain children.

http://www.berry.edu/

How does God provide?
Here are some of the ways HE's provided in my life this summer.

Finances from laying 8000 bricks in a wonderful friends backyard...

Letters from my (our) son, Justin, from Basic training in Missouri...

hearing others be strong helps you be strong... GOOD JOB JUSTIN

realizing my lack of faith and character, but willing to enter into a new level of strength and character by being willing to simply stand.


Huge comprehension of the present culture through a funeral done for a young friend (go to www.newfreedomchurch.podomatic.com) He drew the picture here...

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18

I find great encouragement from The Word of God, God's Presence (like feeling him nearby) and by others who do what I do

 


Proof that I don't tell fish stories!

Now who can tell me what kind of fish this is?

I'll give you a clue... I caught it in Lake Michigan!

I find being too caught up into man's creations can leave you feeling empty. Like maybe life falls short of what it was meant for... energy leaves you and you feel kind of hollow...

that's when you need some of God's work to inspire.
He does all things well. No artificial... the real thing.

Like these Black Eyed Susans in our back yard.

Thanks God for inspiration.

Entries in the life of a church planter.
So, church planters are people who go to a location, and do whatever is neccesary to get a church on the map in that place. Sometimes God provides the finances from the ministry, but often HE lets us see that HE is the provision. Last week it came in the shape of a friend needing help and returning financial help.

Monday night & Tuesday; drive to Port Sulpher Lousianna. Tuesday night; breakdown 30 miles short of destination at 11:30 p.m. / Wednesday morning 1:30 a.m.; arrive at destination, a camper parked in the shaddow of a Katrina destroyed Oil refinery... sleep till 7:00 a.m. Wednesday. Wednesday; welcome to the beautiful south golf coast, (I'm pretty sure that Port Sulpher missed the memo) 8:30 a.m. till 10:30 p.m.; load the job trailer and three trucks that needed to come back north after working on re-constructing the levies. 10:30 p.m. Wednesday; left for green Bay in Four Trucks, four divers. Arrived bay in Green Bay at noon on Saturday... Broke down or got detained 9 times on the way home. Took a thourough tour of the life of Jonah, realizing that trucking is not one of my allowed provisions for church planting.
Oh, and developed a deeper friendship with the man, (fellow pastor)who I drove down and back with.

Work Hard, Play hard... that's what I say!

two Saturdays ago in Langlade county... trout, bass, black bear, and memories...

... Oh and the making of a sermon on "A measure of Faith"

Over the few months of summer I'm going to make a serious attempt to show you what's on the otherside of the life of a pastor.

I'll make post's with pics and times and a blurb about what I was doing...

for the last seven weeks I've traded physical health and strength for finances as I layed 8000 bricks to build a friends 3 tier patio.

who says we don't have fun????

NEW...
that's what we call ourselves,
it's what is happening all around right now,
it's what spring looks like around here,
it's what we call our church,
It what's available by tapping into the way God has set up in advance for us!
Think about it!
The same grass that was frozen is now green abd growing!
The same brown, "dead" apple trees in my yard, are now pink and white and beautiful!
The same dead church can be alive!
The same dull, dark person can be NEW with life that brings beauty to all around!
NEW
R U NEW?

We are at the "Door" of something big!

Some may be wondering how to get to the new location and identify it when ou get there! Let me help you out a little.


As you head toward downtown... u get to the corner of Shawano and Fisk turn Left!

Then look to the right and see the Family Center Entrance

see you at 6:00 p.m. Saturday.

Sunday was our first Pancake breakfast! You can see that those who were there had a great time... very full filling! I know that's bad!

The other day my son took some pictures of Duck Creek. Nothing special except our radically cold winter had frozen the several foot deep creek solid... then with Spring thaw... and a bunch of rain, it rose the level of the creek high enough to lift the ice up off the creek bed and break it up all around the whole area of where it used to be!


What a picture of what God is doing in my life... breaking up hardness! ... and what I beleive He will do in the body of Christ in these last days we live in.

Hosea 10:12 Sow with a view to righteousness, Reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the

I love this article... it portrays what I dream to do...
reach...


Coffeeshop Connections
What one pastor is learning, as a part-time barista, about relationship and discipleship.
by David Swanson


I didn't intend to be a once-a-week barista at our local coffeeshop. It happened like this.

One morning my wife was going into the local coffeeshop to interview for a very part-time job to help cover the cost of her return to college. Just before she walked out the door, without much forethought, I asked her to see if the owner would let me work one night a week with her. We were both surprised when he seemed to think this would be a good idea.

Surprised, because I'd never met the owner, didn't drink coffee, and couldn't tell the difference between a latte and a cappuccino if its frothy mug was staring me in the face.

Not surprisingly, after working there three years, I've learned a lot about coffee.

Somewhat surprising are the connections I've observed between the coffeeshop and the local church where I'm a pastor.

Spontaneity
Our church is a highly structured and very busy suburban environment where spontaneous interaction with friends rarely happens. Just getting together with some folks is an exercise in long-range planning!

At the coffeeshop, however, I can count on bumping into someone who will be up for some conversation. It could be the Russian immigrant who is finishing up his computer science degree. Or the stay-at-home dad looking for some adult contact. Or a college student happy to be off-campus.

Our church offers a lot of really good things for its members. But as the church grows, it's hard to maintain the spontaneity that characterizes smaller churches (and coffeeshops).

If we believe the church community is the sum of its people, and if we believe that relationships are not something that can be programmed, then we do well to consider how to create margins in church life for spontaneous relational moments, similar to those that attract people to the coffeeshop.

Eclectic People
Not only don't I know who I'll bump into at the coffeeshop, chances are, they won't look like me. While many churches tend to attract people who are similar, the coffeeshop doesn't have a target demographic. You don't even have to like coffee; we welcome tea and smoothie people too!

One night while working a couple months ago, I introduced one of our regulars to a friend from church. For the next two hours these new friends, one a twenty-something artist and the other a single mom of two college-age kids, sat at a table listening to each other's stories.

Where else do soccer moms mingle with Goth kids dressed for the Friday night show? Or young, upwardly mobile commuters interact with a homeless man? Or a local pastor (me) interact regularly with anyone outside the church?

Space
The building at our church has been planned efficiently. After all, we want to be good stewards of our space. There are a couple of name-brand coffeeshops in our town that seem to have similar thinking: you enter, you find yourself in line, your order your beverage, and you head out the door. It's in and out.

Our little independent coffeeshop does things differently. Frankly, we're not efficient. We talk to our customers too much; catching up since we last saw each other. We serve our coffee in mugs (unless they ask for it "to go"), which seems to keep folks around longer.

And worst of all, we've cluttered the shop with comfortable sofas, armchairs, and coffee tables. It's hard to get out. It suggests customers are supposed to linger, talk, rest.

Our church activity centers around our once-a-week worship gatherings. A lot of great stuff happens on Sunday mornings that has been planned in advance. But there's one time, a no-man's-land, that I always look forward to for its very lack of planning. It's the time before, between, and after our services. This is the time when stories are told. When friends are introduced to new friends. When the visitor is invited to connect.

This is when we learn of the single mom who needs her roof repaired; or our homeless friend who needs a ride to the doctor this week; or that the church softball team is looking for a couple more players.

You can't plan this stuff. But I wonder, like the coffeeshop, can you make space for it? Or does the church become an in-and-out kind of place?

Experiment in Coffeeshop Discipleship
I was telling a friend at church about my desire to have a place to experiment with what I was observing at the coffeeshop. I wondered what would happen if we created an environment where folks could learn about the way of Jesus in a space that expected spontaneous relationships between eclectic people.

This was partially motivated out of a desire to invite others into the kingdom of God, but also to fill my own longing for this type of coffeeshop discipleship.

My friend liked the idea and volunteered a large office over an industrial building he owns. Within a month a few of us transformed that dingy office into what now looks like either a small coffeeshop or large living room. We call it "the loft."

On Sunday evenings you can find 15-20 of us gathering for coffee and conversation about what it means to follow Jesus.

People who hear about our Sunday evening conversations often ask me if it's "working." While I understand the question, there is no quick way to answer. If there is time, I might talk about our regulars.

Sherry is a Jesus follower who works as a stage manager in a theater in Chicago. The loft is a place where she can come and refresh.

Thomas is a guy we met at the coffeeshop. An artist and deep-thinking Jesus follower, he was looking for a place where his contributions would be valued.

Zeb grew up in a Buddhist home and now is part owner in a rapidly expanding business. I'm not sure where he'd place himself spiritually, but he's a regular on Sunday nights.

Laurie is a single mom who recently has been bringing her pregnant, soon-to-be-single-mother neighbor.

Dave grew up in a churched home before he walked away from the faith to see if he would "notice any difference." One of our most faithful participants, Dave is quick with a smile and an invitation to go rock climbing.

While I'd like to think these folks are coming for our stimulating conversations about following Jesus, I realize that is only part of it. I know this because they show up early, grab one of our second-hand mugs for some coffee and settle into a couch to catch up with someone they haven't seen in a week. I know this because after we've wrapped up our discussion for the evening, the conversations continue.

After a year and a half, our experiment is suggesting that much of the spiritual movement in people's lives is due to the space created for significant relational contact within an eclectic group of people.

Now I don't think our church is going to replace our sanctuary chairs with couches anytime soon. But then, that's not the point. Maybe the point is to create the type of environment that invites the Jesus-follower and the skeptic into conversation; the homeless and the CEO into relationship; the pastor and his neighbor into life together.

Maybe we have something to learn from the coffeeshop.

David Swanson serves as a pastor at Parkview Community Church in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and as a barista at La Spiaza.

As I was sitting in my office today considering tuff decisions to make I was focusing on a picture on my wall.

It is a Picture painted by William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army.
It is set in the 1890's with people dressed in their finery having tea and pleasant conversation on a dock beside the ocean. The ocean is whitcapped with waves and filled with the bodies of drowning people. You see them exhausted and ready to perish in the water. meanwhile the people on the safe, strong dock are oblivious to the dying around them.

I felt like God was saying to me, "what would you be willing to do to reach some of those dying people?" Would you be willing to tear off part of the dock and build a boat to go get those people???

Or do you value the dock too much.

I guess the dock is the church, and we are the people having tea and crumpetts...

Check out my Slide Show!

The Argentina trip is back and I've seen a change in them already. I see an increase in some of the members compassion for others. I think some of Sherry Gramms got onto these ladies!

My wife, Debbie is in Buenos Aires, Argentina on a missions trip.
Here's some pics I found on someone else's site who was recently in Aregentina.
I'll post some of hers when she gets home!

NEW Freedom's First Annual Mtg.

I've grown up in church. One thing I said I'd never go for is to have a church in conflict! It's such a waist for people to use up energy that should be directed toward life changing good and divert it to pettiness!

I'm very glad that our first annual mtg went nothing like this cartoon! All votes were in 100 percent agreement!

Thank you God!