Go Lions!

34 point in the 4th. Its a nice record to hold!

Umm... I'm really not sure what to say....

Dear Sugar Grove Church Family

It is with a great sadness that I share some important news with you. For the past year, God has been working in the lives of both Shari and I to help us understand his will. We were caught off guard at the resignation of Pastor Roger as were all of you. We knew that God had a plan and purpose for us here at Sugar Grove and we gladly accepted that opportunity and privilege to serve him and you.

It became abundantly clear this past week that God’s plan for us was to help this church and its teenagers struggle through this time of transition when the Elder Board, expressed to me that I am not a fit for the staff that they are trying to build here at Sugar Grove and that it would be a good idea for me to submit my resignation. In turn I tendered my resignation to the Board of Elders on Tuesday, September 25th.
I wanted to take some time and thank you for the wonderful support that you have given Shari and I as we desired to serve you the best way we know how. Thank you so much for all of the support that you have given us by your prayers, kind words, and volunteering to help with the Youth Ministry. Our time here has been a blessing on our hearts.
As we nervously, yet confidently, take the next step in our ministry please pray with us that God’s will for our lives will be made clear. We don’t know what God would have for us next, but as soon as we know we will let you know. Our final Sunday of ministry at Sugar Grove Church will be October 14th.

Thank you,

Joel Wolfgang

Chris Patrick

So, Just found out that a guy that Jacob, Justin and I went to school with, and I played Football and basketball with just scored a spot on the Green Bay Packers Practice Squad. I'm a little surprised. Congrats Chris!

Why Not Sue God - It Will Solve All Your Problems.

I loved this. A Senator no less!

Vote 756!

What do you want to happen to Barry Bonds home run breaking ball! Marc Ecko bought the ball and is planning to do whatever the public decides. Vote Here.

I voted to brand the ball with an asterisk!

2-0 and Lovin' it!

Go Lions!!!

Apparently I've been reading a lot on Evangelism...

I just finished reading Becoming a Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels and Mark Mittleburg. Hybles being the most senior pastor at Willow Creek and Mittleburg (when it was written in '95) the pastor of evangelism wanted to share their vision and personal stories of how they have become Christians who've discovered that the most invigorating feeling of leading people to Christ. They are trying to help people realize that is fun and exciting, scary and intimidating to lead people to Christ, but at the same time necessary. At one point they actually say that no one is excused when it comes to sharing the gospel.

When I was in Junior High because of our Sunday School curriculum we had a lesson on Evangelism. I remember asking the teacher whether or not they had the experience and if they could tell us about it. The teacher looked at their notes and then looked to the class and that they hadn't ever led anyone to Christ and that wasn't there goal. Their goal was to be a seed-planter. They meant that they didn't believe that all were called to be an "evangelizer" and that some people are and some aren't. They weren't doing what they were preaching. I knew then that they were wrong and I know now that we are all called to evangelize.

Jesus in People's lives...

So I was preparing my lesson for this week and I always knew that Jesus was connected to so many different kinds of people, but I just wrote it out and it seemed to be shocking, so I thought that I'd share it with you...

The early church realized something. Everywhere Jesus went he talked to all sorts of people. The people who were well respected by the community, people who were called sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, cheaters, liars and thieves. He talked to the lame, blind, hearing and speech impaired, those with incurable diseases, and even people who were possessed by demons. He also showed that he cared for people who were Roman, Scythian, Samaritan and Greek. The early church realized that every single person is important to God!

This is just crazy to me!

The Missional Church: From Atrophy to Emerging...

I have been perusing the site Friend of Missional for some time now. The articles, definitions and discussions have been quite interesting to me. About half-way down the homepage there is a section explaining the missional church movement that was taken from the book Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer and David Putman (which is in my ever growing stack of books to read). This is an interesting piece of work that I would like to share with you and also maybe add to the conversation just a little. Apparently they argue that the missional church movement is a shift in thinking here are their categories:

From programs to processes
From demographics to discernment
From models to missions
From attractional to incarnational
From uniformity to diversity
From professional to passionate
From seating to sending
From decisions to disciples
From additional to exponential
From monuments to movements

A lot of this isn't new information. Many of us have been preaching these shifts for years what I would like to argue is another shift in thinking:

From atrophic to emerging

When I use the word emerging I am not talking about the emergent conversation - I'm talking about life itself. Please understand that in the beginning God created everything very good. This word good is interesting - I find it interesting that God didn't make everything perfect. The word perfect implies an ultimate end; something that is perfect can get no better. It is the ultimate. Many people may argue that God did make everything perfect (in fact I used to teach this), but when you read the first two chapters of the bible and you read the last two chapters of the bible you will skip all of sin and repercussions and - I believe - get a good look at what God had in mind all along. God moves from untouched creation to global city. Some how this city is completely unlike cities as we know them today. Somehow this city is the unique combination of creation and massive amounts of people. Therefore, Creation can become better than it was originally.

Since Genesis 3 the world has atrophied, so bad in fact that not two chapters later God decides to destroy it with water - save one family. From that day there has been glimmers of hope and light, but ultimately creation has been depleting. It is as if creation is on a collision course with destruction!

Then something interesting happens - Jesus. He is the second Adam - and doesn't fall to temptation. He defeats death - creation's ultimate end of atrophy. He becomes the goal for humanity to follow and become. He is the light to follow and through him Christianity emerges. Christianity becomes a group of people who are passionately pursuing the life of Jesus Christ. They realize quickly that he is a better way to live. They also realize that following Jesus can somehow stop the collision course.

Christianity has always been about moving from an atrophic to an emerging creation. We strive to see God's kingdom come "on earth as it is in heaven." The original creation didn't know death or destruction. It didn't know starving children, or AIDS. It is the church's responsibility to show Christ to this atrophied creation. A missional church helps other understand and be a part of that mission. A missional church stands in the way of creation's atrophy. A missional church strives to become more and more the way God originally created life to be.

They Like Jesus But Not The Church

I just finished They Like Jesus But Not The Church by Dan Kimball. Thanks Robb for the recommendation. This book adds so much to my internal conversation about evangelism. How do we share Jesus with people today? Is it different for just a few years ago? What do people think about the church, and why? These are all valid questions, that most pastors and church leaders - myself included - have neglected.

After reading this book I have to ask myself two questions, how many non-Christians do I know? and how many of them am I developing relationships with? I am challenged with these questions because I ask students and lay people of the church to constantly be a missionary in our community and I wont or haven't done it myself. I have led by example.

This book opened my eyes to understanding our culture as a mission field all the time. We need to be prepared to have conversations with non-Christians in order to just build relationships with them even if they never come to Christ. It's not about notches in our evangelism belt, but about loving others the way that Christ loves us.

The "I don't want to Cluster Blog" Post!

Wow! What a crazy week it's been. Since my last post 3/4 of my biological family come to visit - not for more than 48 hours, but they came to visit. I had a birthday, and a brush with TB!

Jacob and Justin
My brothers breezed through town last week. They went to Michigan and spent some time with dad, they saw an amazing Tigers Game and went fishing. On their way back to Iowa they stopped by and spent some time with Shari and I. We stayed up 'till 3:30 and had a Taco Bell run sometime after 1:00. It was much fun!

Mom and Donny
Not 36 hours later my mom and my step-dad came for a visit. They came from Minneapolis early Saturday morning, 1:30, and we celebrated my b-day with them and had a great time. They they left early Sunday morning, 8:30!

Coughing Blood!
Well, Sunday morning I woke up with the taste of blood in my mouth. I'm not sure why. Even today I'm not sure why. The doctor said that he has ruled out most anything that it could be and expects that it will just go away. We'll see! I have blood work results that come back today!

Labor Day
I received some money for my birthday and there is only one logical thing to spend money on, books and Noomas!

Here's what I bought!

The Barbarian Way - McManus
Breaking the Missonal Code - Stetzer & Putman
Emergent Worship - Kimball

Nooma #1 - Rain
Nooma #10 - Lump
Nooma #11 - Rhythm

Birthday
Yesterday was my 25th birthday! Halfway to 50. I feel pretty good about that. It was funny because people tried to pick on me because of my age and it became funny because everyone who was picking on me was much older than I am. lol!
Shari treated me very well! Our day was absolutely packed with stuff. We had so much to do:
8:30 - Go in for blood work
9:00-12:00 - Get ready for Youth Group
1:00-4:00 - First aid Class
6:00-9:00 - Youth Group (prep. and clean up)
We ended up celebrating at dinner time. I got to get BW3, Shari got me a few presents (all of which I want and will return nothing - and use everyone of them!)

Well, I've caught you up!

A New Kind of Youth Ministry

I just finished Chris Folmbee's A New Kind of Youth Ministry, he obviously is trying to focus on using Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christian identity to associate himself with Emergent thinking, but never actually claims that he is coming from that perspective. He does, however, mention that he and Brian talk quite frequently.

Chris is the president of Sonlife Ministries.

I felt as though he had some great thoughts on where Youth ministry should head. I personally enjoyed his thoughts on how we should teach students. No one learns anything great when somebody just stands in front of you and speaks. He called for youth pastor's to become more learner-centered instead of teacher-centered.

He called for the youth ministry to change the way it does evangelism in order to teach students to evangelize rather than just bring unsaved friends and relatives to an appropriate program where the gospel is being presented. He actually asks the question. If all we do as youth pastors is give students opportunity to bring lost friends to evangelistic events when will the students learn how to witness to their friends.

His perspectives come from a wide variety of experience and conversations. Chris gives some very practical ways in which youth leaders, workers or pastors can make some greatly needed changes in youth ministry.

All in all I would recommend this book to any who have an interest in serving in Youth Ministry. I believe that he asks questions that each youth worker must answer in conjunction with their involvement in youth ministry.

Vanessa...I finally took the quiz!

Emergent/Postmodern		82%
Fundamentalist		54%
Neo orthodox		50%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan		50%
Modern Liberal		39%
Classical Liberal		36%
Reformed Evangelical		29%
Charismatic/Pentecostal		21%
Roman Catholic		14%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

Take it for what it's worth!

The Missional Church

I have been confronted with this phrase many times since coming back from Poland. This concept isn't new in fact I've been taught it in every church that I've been associated with. I've heard it said, but I really don't know that I've seen it lived out in the hearts and minds of the people. In fact many times I've heard statements completely opposite of the missio dei and it is frightening to me. I found this blog post today and it really got me thinking about how things have got in the way of the missio dei. Here are ten things that we should not expect in a truly missional church.

TEN THINGS ANYONE WHO JOINS IN A TWENTY FIRST CENTURY MISSIONAL CHURCH PLANT SHOULD NOT EXPECT

1.) Should not expect to regularly come to church for just one hour, get what you need for your own personal growth and development, and your kidss needs, and then leave til next Sunday. Expect mission to change your life. Expect however a richer life than you could have ever imagined.

2.) Should not expect that Jesus will fit in with every consumerist capitalist assumption, lifestyle, schedule or accoutrement you may have adopted before coming here. Expect to be freed from a lot of crap you will find out you never needed.

3.) Should not expect to be anonymous, unknown or be able to disappear in this church Body. Expect to be known and loved, supported in a glorious journey.

4.) Should not expect production style excellence all the time on Sunday worship gatherings. Expect organic, simple and authentic beauty.

5.) Should not expect a raucous "light out" youth program that entertains the teenagers, puts on a show that gets the kids "pumped up," all without parental involvement. Instead as the years go by, with our children as part of our life, worship and mission (and when the light shows dim and the cool youth pastor with the spiked hair burns out) expect our youth to have an authentic relationship with God thru Christ that carries them through a lifetime of journey with God.

6.) Should not expect to always "feel good,"or ecstatic on Sunday mornings. Expect that there will ALSO be times of confession, lament, self-examination and just plain silence.

7.) Should not expect a lot of sermons that promise you God will prosper you with "the life you've always wanted" if you'll just believe Him and step out on faith and give some more money for a bigger sanctuary. Expect sustenance for the journey.

8.) Should not expect rapid growth whereby we grow this church from 10 to a thousand in three years. Expect slower organic inefficient growth that engages people's lives where they are at and sees troubled people who would have nothing to do with the gospel marvelously saved.

9.) Should not expect all the meetings to happen in a church building. Expect a lot of the gatherings will be in homes, or sites of mission.

10.) Should not expect arguments over style of music, color of carpet, or even doctrinal outlier issues like dispensationalism. Expect mission to drive the conversation.

O AND BY THE WAY¦ Should not expect that community comes to you. I am sorry but true community in Christ will take some "effort" and a reshuffling of priorities for both you and your kids. Yes I know you want people to come to you and reach out to you and you're hurting and busy. But assuming you are a follower of Christ (this message is not for strangers to the gospel) you must learn that the answer to all those things is to enter into the practices of "being the Body" in Christ, including sitting, eating, sharing and praying together.

Sanctioned Gay Unions in Medieval Europe....So!

Sanctioned Gay Unions in Medieval Europe

Civil unions between male couples existed around 600 years ago in medieval Europe, a historian now says.

Historical evidence, including legal documents and gravesites, can be interpreted as supporting the prevalence of homosexual relationships hundreds of years ago, said Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.


If accurate, the results indicate socially sanctioned same-sex unions are nothing new, nor were they taboo in the past.


“Western family structures have been much more varied than many people today seem to realize," Tulchin writes in the September issue of the Journal of Modern History. "And Western legal systems have in the past made provisions for a variety of household structures.”


For example, he found legal contracts from late medieval France that referred to the term "affrèrement," roughly translated as brotherment. Similar contracts existed elsewhere in Mediterranean Europe, Tulchin said.


In the contract, the "brothers" pledged to live together sharing "un pain, un vin, et une bourse," (that's French for one bread, one wine and one purse). The "one purse" referred to the idea that all of the couple's goods became joint property. Like marriage contracts, the "brotherments" had to be sworn before a notary and witnesses, Tulchin explained.


The same type of legal contract of the time also could provide the foundation for a variety of non-nuclear households, including arrangements in which two or more biological brothers inherited the family home from their parents and would continue to live together, Tulchin said.


But non-relatives also used the contracts. In cases that involved single, unrelated men, Tulchin argues, these contracts provide “considerable evidence that the affrèrés were using affrèrements to formalize same-sex loving relationships."


The ins-and-outs of the medieval relationships are tricky at best to figure out.


"I suspect that some of these relationships were sexual, while others may not have been," Tulchin said. "It is impossible to prove either way and probably also somewhat irrelevant to understanding their way of thinking. They loved each other, and the community accepted that.”

Of Rain and Indiana...

So I went to Meijer this morning to pick a couple of things up and it was raining - not really hard, but harder than sprinkling. I didn't remember to wear a jacket or really anything but a t-shirt and I regretted it. The interesting thing is that when I got out of my car no one was wearing a jacket, in fact I saw many people just standing in the rain talking. I thought it was rather odd but decided that I wasn't going to care.

The funny thing is that for my next morning errand I had to run to the bank. Now funny thing is that our bank is natorious for having a very slow drive though. In fact several of the other pastors and I kid about it. I wont go into the drive through unless there is no one in line. Since going to Meijer the rain hadn't picked up or slowed down much, but the one drive through lane that was open had a line of six cars while no one was in the parking lot to go inside.

I found it odd...

I'd have bought a Jersey

After two weeks of workouts, Miller to stay retired

Reggie Miller's comeback has ended before it began.


Miller
The former Indiana Pacers star and TNT hoops analyst has decided he won't make a comeback with the Boston Celtics or anyone else, according to The Indianapolis Star.

"That's it,'' he told The Star. "Physically, I know I could have done it. But mentally, when you do something like this, you've either got to be all in or all out. And I've decided I'm all out."


Miller told the newspaper the decision came after two weeks of workouts designed to see how his body might react to the stress of an entire NBA season.


"Earlier [Thursday], I was ready to come back. I was going to do it. But then I flew back here, I thought about it, I talked to a lot of people, and honestly, most people told me I should come back," Miller said, according to the newspaper.

"Charles [Barkley], Mark [Jackson], Doug [Collins], they all said I should do it. And when I was back in Indy this week [for the Peyton Manning charity bowling event], people on the streets, they'd tell me to do it," Miller told the newspaper. "But as the day went on, I just realized I wasn't ready mentally to put myself through the grind again."

Miller, the NBA's all-time leader in 3-pointers, retired in 2005 after 18 seasons, all with the Pacers. But he considered a return when the Celtics picked up Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett and asked Miller if he was interested.

The answer is no, Miller told the Star.

"Please write, 'I will never, ever, ever try something like this again,'" he said laughing, according to the newspaper. "Any of the 30 teams in the NBA, if you're interested, please don't call."

Reculturing Evangelism

So, it's nice to get some affirmation about what I've been saying. I've started a new book, A New Kind of Youth Ministry. Its interesting because the author, Chris Flomsbee, is the director of Sonlife ministries, Sonlife is natorious for holding large evangelistic events that don't produce disciples just converts.

In the first chapter of the book he calls for youth pastors to stop doing big event evangelism and to start doing relationship evangelism. Just get to know students as much as possible. He calls it a move to friendship evangelism. You meet friends and share with them how Christ has worked in your life by just living it. It's amazing to see what happens!

This fall we are starting a Friendship Evangelism program. We are getting teens together and teaching them the skills necessary to help their friends get to know Christ. Chris talks about how if all we do is large event evangelism how is one-on-one evangelism modelled for today's teen.

Growing up I was very close to my youth pastor. I watched him like a hawk! I don't know that he even knew it. But I was amazed at his ability to build relationships. It seemed as though every other year or so another family or person would start coming to church because of the relationship that he had built with them. I saw him do it, so now that I am in the position I have been challenged to do the same.

I am praying that many of the students that I come into contact with will live missionally. That everyone they come into contact with will understand that they are a follower of Christ and that their friends may understand that that it a better way to live!

Pretty Good for Not Being There!

I didn't get to participate in the draft this year, but Yahoo did the picking and it didn't turn out too badly!

Drew Brees - QB
Vince Young - QB
Steve Smith - WR
Larry Fitzgerald - WR
Braylan Edwards - WR
Lee Evans - WR
Ladanian Tomlinson - RB
Brian Westbrook - RB
Ronnie Brown - RB
Carnell Williams - RB
Chris Cooley - TE
Benjamin Watson - TE
Shayne Graham - K
Josh Brown - K
Baltimore - DEF
Miami - DEF

Pretty good I think!