Merry Christmas friends!
I hope somewhere during this past year you expereinced God's presence in new ways, and I hope you can come to the manger with a new sense of awe and wonder.
Blessings,
Randy

I have ministry friends in Denver. Their names are Ron & Cathy Ipema. This past Fall, Ron was told that his position would be terminated at the end of this year. After serving as a pastor/ministry coordinator for a number of years, this was something that totally sideswiped them.

Two weeks ago two of their kids caught an e-coli bacterial infection. Last Friday I received this e-mail from a friend...

"I do not know if you have heard or not --- but Ron and Cathy Ipema's 3 yr. old daughter Jessica died this morning. She had been in the hospital for almost two weeks. I do not know much as far as details are concerned but please put Ron & Cathy and their entire family on your prayer list.

They have been through so much in the recent past and it is at times like this where the only thing that will carry them through is the God in whom they have put their trust and fellow Christians who bring them before God's throne. I will let you know more as I find it out."


PLEASE give me a Christmas gift by holding them before God in your prayers... even if it is only for a few short moments now. (PAUSE)
If you want to send them an e-mail, it's aryp2003@yahoo.com
Always In His Grip,
Randy

Here's a map to the place we will be meeting for the next month.



San Ru avenue is the first street east of 28th Avenue on Port Sheldon. We will be meeting in the building on the east side of the street--look for the W.E. sign.

We will be meeting at the same time as usual: Snacks and nibblies at 5:30pm, Worship Gathering at 6:03pm.

I just read Chuck Colson's article in Christianity Today entitled "The Postmodern Crackup." I can tell you who I think is cracking up... The article can be found at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/012/24.72.html

Brian McLaren has posted a response. It can be found at: http://www.anewkindofchristian.com/archives/000018.html

Brian's response is long, but it's worth a read. I think the second half of his letter is really the heart of what he wanted to say to Chuck. It would be interesting to know if Chuck ever reads the letter, and it would be more interesting to hear a thoughtful response.

Don't hold your breath... breathe... breathe...

Here's something I'm working on... I welcome your comments.

A Loss of Story
Not many of us know our story. What is worse, most of us have lost our sense of story. The result of this is that we find ourselves getting caught up in any number of smaller ‘un-stories’ that are put forward in our culture. Think about the stories that shape your lives—the stories that inspire you to do what you do. How do those stories go? How many of us find our identity as a people in the stories of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jesus, Peter, Paul, John, etc.? If we were honest, many of us find our identity as a people in the stories of George Washington, Donald Trump, Jennifer Lopez, Bill Gates, Tony Hawk, Martha Stewart, Michael Jordan, Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey, etc.

Let’s face it. We are a de-storied people—even in the church! The reasons for this are complex and many, but let me suggest a few. First, at some point in our history, we began to look at the Old Testament as the Unimportant Testament. We fell into the old heresy that divided God’s story into two parts—the first, God’s failure, the second, God’s success. The Failure could be ignored and avoided, because it had apparently been done away with. In many people’s thinking it was, “Out with the Old, in with the New.” So we had whole groups of people seeking to be “New Testament Churches.” Think about how many bookstores sell New Testaments. Think about how many so-called “evangelistic crusades” pass out New Testaments to would be converts. Doesn’t this suggest that the Old Testament is somehow unimportant?

Second, at some point in our history, we stopped seeing ourselves as an ongoing part of the Biblical narrative. This had to do with our emphasis on timeless, propositional truth and personal-application (Bible as self-improvement manual focused on ‘today’). Our emphasis on the autonomous self and the supremacy of the moment placed the Bible before us as a resource to utilize rather than as a rule by which to measure our lives.

Third, a confidence in common sense (‘everyone will come to the same basic conclusion’), coupled with an egalitarian (‘everyone’s interpretation is equally valid’) approach to interpretation of scripture resulted in both the popularization of some pretty bad interpretations, and the thinning of practical Scriptural authority (‘if it can mean anything, it means nothing’).

So, water's edge is going to try using a "facility" other than our comfortable home basement for our Sunday night gathering times. We're going to give it a whirl for the next month beginning this Sunday. I'll post the address, directions, and a map later this week.

Blessings,
Randy

I am working on some stuff for this course on discipleship I'm teaching with John West, and I worked up the following diagram for what the church is to be and do in the world. I would like some feedback to refine it. So, let's hear it...

What Is the Church Here For?
Mission: Extending the Kingdom of God (proclamation of the availablility of the kingdom through Jesus, cooperating with God’s work of healing through service to others)
Expression: Embodying the Kingdom Life (worship, demonstration of renewed lives)
Discipleship: Training in the Kingdom Life (apprenticeship, teaching, loving one another)

Here's something I wrote a while back. Ain't it funny how things you write come back and bite you in the butt?

On Humility
It is good that a person should be ignorant of his goodness or attractiveness. It is better, though more difficult, that a person, having been made aware of his goodness and attractiveness (of character), pays it no further attention because he looks not on himself, but only to God and others.

A friend of mine, Katie Guthrie, spoke at Young Life tonight. I guess she used some of the ideas of John Eldridge, but they were also some of her own thoughts. She rocked the house - giving high school kids some really meaty stuff to digest!

She suggested that control is the opposite of love. We always think of hate as the opposite of love, this idea intrigues me.

Control and power are closely related. What if we took this idea seriously. Wherever we want control, we could shed it.

What if we gave up control as pastors? What if we gave up control as males in the church? What if we gave up control of our families to God and our family members? What if we gave up control of the church to the third world where passionate Christ followers are creating kingdom noise?

.... food for thought...