“What Next?”

Luke 12:48

1. I want to let you in what has been going on inside me. Maybe you’ll be able to relate – maybe not.

1st this week I have felt empty inside.
2. last Sunday’s dedication service was the culmination of a 29 month process that began with the fire & ended with Brendan Beck, Kylie Myers & Joanna Crumley leading us in a prayer of dedication.

3. something inside of me let down last Sunday afternoon. And I’ve felt empty. Mission accomplished. Cross that off my ‘to do’ list.

2nd this week I’ve also felt joy inside.
1. joy for all that God accomplished over the past 29 months – guidance, protection, provision, unity, hope & a new future.

2. and this beautiful, wonderful, amazing facility that we now call home. Lots of joy.

3rd I’ve been asking myself the question, “what next?”
1. I’ve been asking myself this question for several months. What will the future look like? What is God calling us to? What does it mean to be a steward of this fabulous facility?

4th I believe God has given me 3 pointers into our future
1. the 1st came in the form of a quote from Stu Weber of Good Shepherd Community Church out in Boring. He wrote it after returning to Good Shepherd following a sabbatical. I want to help Good Shepherd become more assertive in the community…I want to help the church blossom to a new level of responsibility and impact as a truly mature church.
2. when I read that something erupted inside of me. My heart said Yes Yes Yes. I believe the same thing about CAC – its time to blossom, reach a new level of responsibility & impact, become a truly mature church.

3. next I came across more words from another pastor. This time Tim Keel, pastor of Jacob’s Well in Kansas City, in his new book, Intuitive Leadership.

4. after seminary, in the midst of receiving a call to plant a church in Kansas City, he experienced what he called a life-changing moment while reflecting upon a time in his life when he was in college & involved in student ministries at the University of Kansas – a time of growth, excitement, spiritual formation, kingdom fruitfulness. I cannot believe that you intend the best years of my life as a disciple of Jesus Christ to be experienced between the ages of 19 & 21. I cannot accept that I have peaked in my experience of you & the church & that I am to spend the rest of my life going through the motions. I cannot accept this!

5. again, as I read these words something rose up inside of me. I said Yes Yes Yes!

6. I cannot believe that the best years of CAC are behind us. I cannot accept that we have peaked in our experience of Christ & his church. I believe that our best years as a church are still ahead of us.

7. personally, I want the next 20 years of my life to be my best years for the kingdom of God. I want them to be my most fruitful, impactful & influential years. I want to lead & love & preach & pastor & exhort & vision cast better than I ever have before!

8. next, 3rdly something happened to me last week while writing the dedication prayer we used in our dedication service. As I was wrapping it up the phrase – to whom much is given, much is expected – was given to me. It comes from Luke 12.

Luke 12:48
1. 12:35-48 has a dual theme – the return of Christ & a call to faithful service. We honor Christ by being ready for his return – you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him (40).

2. 12:41-48 – unfaithful & faithful servants (read)
Þ master is looking for faithful & wise manager – 42
Þ active faithfulness is rewarded – 43
Þ unfaithfulness receives judgment – 46-48

3. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. The gifts of God are to be used in a faithful, wise & responsible manner…until Christ returns. And we have been given so much!

4. we’ve been given much in the way of people – we have a children’s wing full of children, healthy active strong impressionable. They are the future. We have junior & senior high students settling into their new youth center. We won’t have them for much longer. They are the future.

5. we’ve been given much in the way of resources – take our adult population. Education, backgrounds, experiences, abilities, passions, financial resources. There’s a ton of resources at our fingertips. We will be held accountable for how we employ them in kingdom work.

6. we’ve been given much in the way of facilities – what a gift we’ve been given! I still walk in here everyday & wonder if I’m dreaming. We are called to be a faithful & wise manager of this wonderful facility.

7. what next? I don’t have all the answers right now. I do know 3 parts of the answer that I want to conclude with.

God is calling us…
1. 1st God is calling us to a new level of responsibility maturity fruitfulness. It’s time to step it up. Its time to grow. Its time to get serious.

2. Fridays Sports Tribune carried an article on Jacoby Ellsbury – he grew up in Madras, played college baseball at Oregon State & played in the World Series this fall with the Boston Red Sox who won it all. He attributes part of his success to Pat Casey at Oregon State & what he was taught about the work behind becoming a champion. Before the 2005 when the Beavers were picked to finish next-to-last in the Pac-10 Casey told them – You want to be Pac-10 champions? You have to practice like ones. He learned to practice harder, do the little things that add up.

3. if we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always be what we’ve always been. It’s time to do some new things in order to become a new, mature, fruitful people.

4. 2nd God is calling us to a time of reflection & self-examination. I’m talking individually & corporately. What does God want to see happen in & through us? What do we long to see God do? Where does he want us to take risks? Step out in faith? Move out of our comfort zones?

5. greater gifts mean greater responsibilities!

6. God is calling us to a time of confession repentance & consecration.

7. confession of our sin selfishness disobedience secrets. Confession of all those things holding us back from pleasing God. Stopping us from new growth.

8. repentance from those same things. In confession we tell them to God & ask for his forgiveness. In repentance we stop doing or being them.

9. I talked to one of you several months ago about all the weight you had lost. I asked you how you did it. You simply said I made up my mind to eat less. I haven’t changed my diet. I’ve just changed the size of the portions I eat.

That is repentance. And what can be done in our diet, God longs for us to do in our relationship to him & others. What behaviors attitudes practices values are in need of change?

10. consecration of our total selves to God both individually & corporately. This is to make a new start, a fresh beginning. Here I am God, I’m all yours, all that I am, all that I have, all that I aspire to be. Take me use me fill me bless me send me into your kingdom service.

11. God is calling us to new levels of responsibility maturity fruitfulness. God is calling us to reflection & self-examination. God is calling us to confession repentance consecration.

………

Music I listened to while sermonizing…Prayer of the Children by the American Boys Choir; Christ, We Do All Adore Thee & Steal Away by the Gingerich Family Singers; O Magnum Mysterium by Grex Vocals; Brother Sun, Sister Moon by John Rutter & The Cambridge Singers; Bob Dylan; Delirious?

Books I read while sermonizing…Luke by Darrell Bock; The Gospel of Luke by William Hendriksen; Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament by Fritz Rienecker & Cleon Rogers; Intuitive Leadership by Tim Keel; For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn; The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky

John & Marie Champ shared what has been going on in their lives of late.
We miss seeing our missionary friends and it was good listening in on their adventures.
The Champs work for Wycliffe Bible Translators.


Tim at it again. Nice message, though he was thrown for a loop a couple of times. A cell phone distracted him (but gave the rest of us a chuckle), and for some reason he had trouble saying: "If we always do what we have always done, we will always be what we have always been." Poor fellow... And he practiced the line before hand!