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Some of our thoughts and experiences as we grow
where God has planted us.

From one Pastoring New Englander to one who Pastored in New England, with Humility

11/12/2015

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Jared Wilson's piece on ministry in New England is very good and should definitely be read by all serving or thinking about serving in New England. I pray it may encourage more people to join us in serving here. For the harvest is great, but the laborers are few.  But while Jared is quite accurate in his understanding of mission in New England, he doesn't quite understand being a New Englander engaged in mission.  He rightly identifies an attitude of hostility that some evangelical churches harbor towards new ministries and ministers. But he doesn't seem to understand it.  The basis for that attitude is well described by Eugene Peterson in Long Obedience in the Same Direction:

For who does not experience flashes of anger at those who make our way hard and difficult? There are times in the long obedience of Christian discipleship when we get tired and fatigue draws our tempers short. At such times to see someone flitting from one sensation, one enthusiasm, to another, quitting on commitments, ducking responsibilities, provokes our anger – and sometimes piques our envy. No matter that we are, on other grounds, convinced that their adulteries are an admission of boredom, that their pleasures are the shallowest of distractions from which they must return to worsening anxieties and an emptier loneliness. Even when we know we are doing good work that has good future, the foolery and enmity of these others make a hard day harder, and anger flares.

The hostility that Jared mentions is born out of our long struggle to be faithful.  It is not just the 10, 20, 40, 70 years some of us have personally been faithful to our churches.  With our families and churches we have inherited and continue a tradition of two, three, or four hundred years of faithful witness. This faithfulness has been fraught with hardships. New England is, and has always been, a particularly difficult place to be evangelical. Yes, sometimes we are just jealous of a new church's quick success. We need to repent of that envy. But often a new ministry in New England provokes an angry reaction from established churches because the new ministry exudes an arrogant superiority over the indigenous faith community. Humility is harder when facing arrogance. This is especially true for arrogance over weaknesses. The very presence of "new" and "exciting" exacerbates the pervading attitude of infidelity in our church culture we are fighting with faithfulness. Our tough situations get tougher. Struggling churches struggle more. The humble are humbled further. This is not necessarily the fault of the new ministries, but neither is it their glory.

Instead of the challenge of competition, most churches and pastors in New England would benefit from support, assistance, and possibly even correction, in what we are already faithfully doing. Ministries like Overseed help significantly in this work.  We need sympathy for the challenges, internal and external, we face. We need help, and the desire for help, in reaching new people for Jesus in New England. What we don't need is a contest to attract the few churchgoers that are already here. 

The key component to the expanding mission in New England is humility, both on the part of the established ministries and the new ones. Jared ends his piece with a call for humility. St. Benedict begins his ministry there. So do we.

-Abraham
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Crabs and Coconuts - A Desert Island Parable

9/18/2014

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A man washes ashore on a desert island. Grateful to be saved from the storm, he begins figuring out how to live. Soon he discovers a source of food – coconuts! Often found on the ground or a short climb into a tree. Easy to break open with a rock. And the nostalgic flavor is reminiscent of his favorite childhood dessert. The memory of his mother combining yellow cake mix, Jello pudding, and sweetened coconut gives him comfort.

Time passes and a second man washes ashore. Ecstatic he is no longer alone, the first man shares all his knowledge on how to live. The second man appreciates the first man's experience, but eventually begins to raise questions. What about the crabs in the atoll surrounding the island? Wouldn't they be a good source of food? The first man quickly dismisses these suggestions. He has lived for years on coconuts. Catching crabs would be difficult – it would involve swimming and facing many dangers in the reef. Crabs would pinch. Crabs would require cooking. Crabs wouldn't have the familiar taste of home. Crabs were not a good idea; coconuts were. The second man accepts the first man's position – crabs would be more difficult than coconuts.

More time passes and a third man washes ashore. The storm and the waves have not been kind to him. He is bruised, battered, paralyzed, and unable to care for himself. The first and second man want to care for him and collect extra coconuts so the third man can eat. But the third man cannot stomach coconut – each time he eats, he vomits it up in minutes. The first man attempts to serve the third man coconut in a variety of ways, to no avail. The third man becomes sicker and weaker.

Unable to stand the third man's hopeless state, the second man resolves to do something. He rises early before the other men wake and enters the water. As he swims, his eyes dart constantly, looking for sharks. He scrapes his palms and knees climbing the atoll – but there, in the shallow places are the crabs. They move quickly and are difficult to catch. The second man falls many times and is bruised, cut and pinched. He isn't as good at catching crabs as the first man is at collecting coconuts. Yet he collects some and swims back to shore, salt water stinging his open wounds. The second man struggles to light a fire and begins to cook. The light and aroma awaken the third man. The second man cracks open the shells and feeds the third man, who eats and begins to gain health and strength.

Every few days thereafter, the second man makes the journey to capture crabs. Trapped by what is easy, comfortable, and familiar, the first man watches from shore and wrestles in his heart. Why can't the third man just learn to eat coconut? Why does he need something different? The first man wonders what to do. Should he continue eating coconut apart from the other men? Or should he join the second man in his work to care for the third man?

This battle wages in each of our hearts. We have been saved from the storm of this world and washed to the shore of salvation by the grace of God. His Word is the food we need to live. Will we as individuals, and as the Church, continue to offer God's Word in ways we find easy, comfortable, and familiar? Or will we continually take challenging, uncomfortable risks to offer God's life-giving Word in ways others can receive it?

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death
-even death on a cross!”
-Philippians 2:1-8

-Amanda & Abraham
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We're Still Here

7/31/2014

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In his July newsletter, Kevin Fitton shared some of his thoughts and experiences from planting a church in Vermont.  As soon as we read his words, we wanted to post them here and Kevin graciously agreed.  We pray you are encouraged and inspired as you faithfully remain in the place God has called you.  
In any kind of ministry or non-profit work, it is difficult to gauge success. You can set out markers, but even when your ministry reaches those markers, there's always something in the back of your mind, saying Yeah,but. Yes, you may have reached a certain group of people; Your organization or church may have made a discernible impact on people's lives. Maybe you have even saved lives. That's success, right?

It is. But then there are the thousands and the hundreds of thousands that you didn't reach – people who remain completely unaware of the life and teachings of Jesus, people who are hungry, or homeless, or emotionally maimed by one of the many terrors in this world. Can you feel great about your “successes” when an infinite line-up of problems waits in the wings?

In general, I have tried to hold on to the successes that have come through St. Andrew's and Church at the Well. If we don't hold on to our successes, after all, it won't be long before we've given up. It is also a way of honoring God when we notice and remember the good things He has done through our ministries. But there still remains that question: is it enough? Does it matter?

Recently, I ran into another church planter, who had come to Vermont several years ago after planting a fast-growing church in a city in the northeastern US. I had met with him before he'd made the move to Vermont with his family and told him the same thing everyone else had: “This isn't going to be easy. It's not like other places in this country. People aren't going to be interested in your new church here in Vermont.” He had nodded, and then let the words go through one ear and out the other. I know, because that's what I did with all those pessimistic comments before Rebecca and I moved to Vermont – just let them wash away. It's the only way to handle it. If you really let it sink in, you'll just end up running. Church planters are just like entrepreneurs in that we have to be willing to ignore the statistics.

So here we were three years later, and he was telling me how difficult the process had been. He said, “You know, Church at the Well is the flagship church plant for the rest of us. You're the ones who made it.”

At first, I was surprised. You don't usually receive compliments from other pastors.

Then he said, “Can I ask you something? How did you do it? How did you make it to the point you're at now?”

Now I was really surprised. Compliments are rare, but sincere questions are like lightning strikes. It was an interesting question, too, because I don't usually think of our church as having made it. Certainly, we've come a long way, but we don't exactly blow the doors off with our attendance, and money's a continual challenge. Sometimes, the legs holding the thing up feel awfully wobbly.

But when I started speaking, I knew I had the right answer for his question. I said, “The reason our church made it is because we didn't leave. We could have left. Adam and Michelle could have left. There were times when it looked really bleak. But we're still here.”

Of course, there's a lot more to it than that. I could have given him a speech about how we built up our leadership team, the value of a clear mission statement, and a website to communicate that vision. I could have talked about the quality of our worship service, or the way Adam has built up our small groups program. But that would have missed the point. The point is faithfulness, showing up every single day and offering to God what you've got to offer. It isn't very much, let's not kid ourselves, but it's the material God likes to use for building his church. Our faithfulness. It's the brick and mortar, the wood and the nails that He uses to build upon the foundation of His love and grace.   

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Which brings me back to the question of success. How do you know whether what you've been doing is enough? The only way to look at it, as far as I'm concerned, is through that lens of faithfulness. Did we show up every day? Did we trust God (or at least try to trust God)? Did we pray, and love, and serve? 


We could have done better. I could have done better. I wasn't the most experienced pastor when we came to Vermont, and so I ended up learning a lot of stuff through trail and error. But one thing I can say with certainty; we're still here, asking that God would continue to bless this little ministry we call Church at the Well. 

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Kevin Fitton is a graduate of Hope College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He served as pastor of St. Andrew’s Christian Church for five years, before St. Andrew’s merged with Mosaic Burlington, creating Church at the Well. Kevin is also a freelance writer and is currently pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College. He lives in Ferrisburgh with his wife, Rebecca, and daughters, Naomi and Adelaide. Learn more about Church at the Well at www.wellchurchvt.com

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7 Ways We're Like Toddlers in the Eyes of God

6/23/2014

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1. The world revolves around us. We push people out of our way and snatch what we want from them. 

2. We follow our whims and change our focus by the moment. We drop what we're holding when we see something that looks better.

3. We're deeply reluctant to share. Our first instinct is to hoard as much as possible for ourselves and our favorite word is “Mine!”

4. We live in the here and now. All that matters is what's immediately in front of us.

5. We test and disregard limits. Getting what we want is more important than any rule intended for our benefit.

6. We resist taking a day of rest. We're overstimulated and exhausted, yet even while rubbing our eyes we continually scream, “No nap! No nap!”

7. We are loved by our Father with an everlasting love beyond description. In spite of all we do to assert our will over His, God still adores us. When we are resting in His arms, completely trusting Him to take care of our needs, He pulls us even closer, and in that embrace He forgets all our faults.   

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-Amanda
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Keep Calm and Pray the Psalms

5/11/2014

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Here are some thoughts about praying the Psalms from Eugene Peterson.  

"If we want to pray our true condition, our total selves in response to the living God, expressing our feelings is not enough — we need a long apprenticeship in prayer. And then we need graduate school. The Psalms are the school. Jonah in his prayer shows himself to have been a diligent student in the school of Psalms. His prayer is kicked off by his plight, but it is not reduced to it. His prayer took him into a world far larger than his immediate experience. He was capable of prayer that was adequate to the largeness of the God with whom he was dealing. 

This contrasts with the prevailing climate of prayer. Our culture presents us with forms of prayer that are mostly self-expression — pouring ourselves out before God or lifting our gratitude to God as we feel the need and have the occasion. Such prayer is dominated by a sense of self. But prayer, mature prayer, is dominated by a sense of God. Prayer rescues us from a preoccupation with ourselves and pulls us into adoration of and pilgrimage to God. Pastors, who are vocationally immersed in so much experience — people throbbing with pain, panicked in crisis, mired in confusion — are in particular need of such rescue.

For there is no lack in us of the impulse to pray. And there is no scarcity of requests to pray Desire and demand keep the matter of prayer before us constantly. So why are so many lives prayerless? Simply because “the well is deep and you have nothing to draw with.” We need a bucket. We need a container that holds water. Desires and demands are a sieve. We need a vessel suited to lowering desires and demands into the deep Jacob’s Well of God’s presence and word and bringing them to the surface again. The Psalms are such a bucket. They are not the prayer itself but the most adequate container, askesis, for prayer that has ever been devised. Refusal to use this psalms-bucket, once we comprehend its function, is willfully wrongheaded. It is not impossible, perhaps, to construct a container of a different shape and material that will serve makeshift. It has certainly been done often enough. But why settle for such as that when we have this magnificently designed and spaciously proportioned container given to us and at hand?

For eighteen hundred years virtually every church used this text. Only in the last couple of hundred years has it been discarded in favor of trendy devotional aids, psychological moodbenders, and walks on a moonlit beach.

The Psalms, of course, are not “devotional,” or “psychological,” or “romantic.” They are no use at all to us in any of these departments. Their use is as an element of askesis, a form for our formlessness.

The fundamental ascetic form — and this is the church’s consensus for two thousand years — is the Psalms prayed daily in sequence each month.* (This is the “office” of the Roman Catholic, the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican, and for the rest of us, the Psalms divided into thirty segments and prayed through monthly, whether we feel like it or not.)"

-Excerpts from Under the Unpredictable Plant by Eugene H. Peterson

*Or weekly, following the Rule of St. Benedict which states: “We especially impress this, that, if this distribution of the psalms should perchance displease anyone, he arrange them if he thinketh another better, by all means seeing to it that the whole Psalter of one hundred and fifty psalms be said every week...[lest] those monks who show too lax a service in their devotion in the course of a week, chant less than the whole Psalter with is customary canticles; since we read, that which our holy forefathers promptly fulfilled in one day, we lukewarm monks should, please God, perform at least in a week.”

Steps to Praying the Psalms 
  1. Respond to the call to pray.  This call to pray may be prompted from a reading of scripture, a specific invitation to a time of prayer, or in response to a situation that desperately needs prayer.
  2. Recognize the power of praying the Psalms.  Join with Jesus, Jonah, Augustine, Ambrose, Benedict, Bonhoeffer, and countless others in praying this ancient manner.
  3. Accept a rule.  This can be a particular set of Psalms to read, such as a daily office, or it can be a given amount of time to pray. There is power in humbling ourselves to obedience.
  4. Move your lips.  This monastic criteria is based on the Rabbinic requirement that prayer must involve moving lips, derived from the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:12-13 and the nature of the Hebrew verb hagah. Prayer doesn't have to be projected though, you need only to make enough sound for you and the Holy Spirit to hear.  
  5. Pray the Psalms.  This is not merely reading the Psalms aloud, but making the words of the Psalms your own. Reflect on how they apply to your life.  Consider these things:
  • Many psalms talk about enemies. Think about what enemies you face. Are they physical infirmities? Specific people? Demonic forces? Spiritual problems? Emotional difficulties?  
  • There is frequent mention of suffering. Consider how these Psalms apply to Jesus. Compare the ways you suffer to His life on earth and death on the cross. Remember the power He demonstrated over pain and death. Think of the persecuted church around the world, and throughout time, and pray these psalms in intercession for them. Remember that throughout history praying the psalms have helped the faithful flourish under oppression. Or perhaps there is someone else whose suffering is particularly poignant to you. Pray these psalms for them. See how the power of the Gospel can apply to them. 
  • Many psalms refer to Biblical history. Think of yourself as a continuation of those stories, for you are!
  • And finally, many psalms praise God, and call on us to praise God. Let us also praise God. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD!


A Few Explanations About the Schedule
*The bolded Psalms at the top of each day's column are to read when you wake up and the bolded Psalms at the bottom of each day's column are to read right before you go to sleep.  
*The rest of the Psalms in each day's column are to read at some point during that day of the week - either in a few chunks or all at once (all at once will take about an hour).  
*The General Purpose Column is for when you feel led to pray the Psalms apart from the routine you have been following.  
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-Abraham
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Delivering God's Message Regardless of Results

2/19/2014

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I'm a girl who wants to see results from my work. This desire has obviously made parenting five young children a challenging experience. So much of what I do is quickly destroyed and needs to be repeated – laundry, cooking, and dishes are perfect examples. I long to accomplish something and have it remain. Lately, I've realized my preoccupation with results applies to much more than household chores. My focus on results has affected how I view my work as God's messenger.

The people of God in Northern New England have the opportunity, privilege and blessing of being His messengers to the least religious region in our country. God's message is a simple one and has been delivered by His people from Biblical times until today. Turn from your ways and turn to God.

Once we turn to God and experience His indescribable love and forgiveness, we desire to share His message with others. Who could ever keep such Good News to themselves? But in all honesty, sometimes I've stopped delivering His message because of the reactions I encountered. I take the dismissal and rejection of His message as an indication that I'm not making progress. And yet, I really shouldn't be surprised when I deliver God's message and it is ignored or rejected. Countless other messengers have experienced those very reactions.

Consider the messengers sent by King Hezekiah. Hezekiah and his officials decided to celebrate Passover – a tradition lost during the rule of previous kings who did not follow God. Hezekiah commanded curriers to travel throughout the land with God's message - return to God for He is gracious and compassionate. And so, “the couriers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, but people scorned and ridiculed them. Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem. Also in Judah the hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered, following the word of the Lord.” (2 Chronicles 30:10-12)

My first reaction to this passage was disbelief. Really?!? These curriers proclaim God's amazing message through the entire northern kingdom of Israel and only a few respond? Why is there only response in the southern kingdom of Judah? Wait a minute – what if I'm in a “northern kingdom?” What if all I can expect is scorn and ridicule? What if all I do to proclaim God's message only produces minimal results? That is not a job that I want to sign up for!

Ultimately, I don't have control over what will happen when I deliver God's message. I may be scorned and ridiculed. The hand of God may move people to follow His word. When I consider Hezekiah's curriers continuing to deliver God's message, even without results, I realize this is the model I am called to follow. I am not responsible for the results. I am responsible for the delivery. We also see this principle when God instructs the prophet Ezekiel, “Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you. Go now to your people in exile and speak to them. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says,’ whether they listen or fail to listen.” (Ezekiel 3:10-11).

So even though we are not responsible for the results, we still need to thoughtfully consider our delivery of God's message. Numerous researchers have suggested that the majority of communication actually happens non-verbally. In addition to considering how we verbally deliver God's message, we should also carefully consider how we deliver God's message non-verbally. How we live is a powerful way to deliver God's message.

Returning to the scriptures above, we see Hezekiah choose to follow the word of God by reinstating the Passover celebration. To Ezekiel, God's instruction is “listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you.” These individuals are responsible for delivering God's message verbally, but they also implement God's word in their own lives. To fully deliver God's message we must base our lives on God's word. The discipline of daily Bible reading results in life choices that proclaim God's message. How we spend time, how we spend money, and how we love others are prevalent life topics addressed in the Bible. How am I delivering God's message in these areas? I should regularly consider how I am delivering God's message in every aspect of my life – verbally and non-verbally.

Delivering His message is my service and offering to God. I want to follow the example of David who refused to offer sacrifices to God that cost him nothing (2 Samuel 24). Our delivery of God's message should cost us something. It is actually a good sign if we encounter difficulty, hurt and rejection while delivering God's message with our words and our lives. Instead of trying to avoid difficulty and pain, we can use them to drive us to an even deeper connection with and dependence on God.

My hope for God's people in Northern New England is that we support and encourage one other to continue delivering God's message and not turn to other activities that result in immediate worldly results, success and achievement. Our aim as His messengers is not to please others, but to please God. May our prayer be that of Psalm 19.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
 night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words; 
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
 their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
 like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other;
 nothing is deprived of its warmth.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
 refreshing the soul.


The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, 
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
 giving joy to the heart.


The commands of the Lord are radiant,
 giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure,
 enduring forever.


The decrees of the Lord are firm,
 and all of them are righteous.


They are more precious than gold,
 than much pure gold;

they are sweeter than honey,
 than honey from the honeycomb.
By them your servant is warned;
 in keeping them there is great reward.
But who can discern their own errors?  
Forgive my hidden faults.
Keep your servant also from willful sins;
 may they not rule over me.


Then I will be blameless, 
innocent of great transgression.

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart


be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

*All scripture references in this post are from the 2011 NIV.

-Amanda
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Rolling Flames and Rolling Hose

2/7/2014

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Yesterday morning at 6:45 my husband was running up the porch steps of a burning building with flames rolling out at him.  It was the start of a ten hour fire call.

It's easy to admire firefighters for their willingness to run in to situations that most of us would be running away from. But I see another quality in firefighters that I admire even more – their faithfulness to drudgery. You see, only about an hour of that ten hour call was “exciting” work - breaking windows, knocking down doors, battling flames. The rest of the time, the firefighters were involved in tasks such as redirecting traffic, checking for and spraying hot spots, pumping water out of the basement that flooded next door, and cleaning hose. Three hours of those ten hours were spent at the station cleaning hose and hanging it to dry and putting new hose back on the trucks for next time.

Faithfulness to ten percent excitement and ninety percent drudgery is impressive. But when you start to factor  in the hours of training, practice drills and equipment maintenance, it quickly becomes an even more impressive percentage. Firefighters are committed and faithful through so many mundane and boring tasks. There is no thrill or enjoyment in cleaning thousands of feet of wet, heavy hose. Those hours of preparation and maintenance, however, are what make the fleeting moments of excitement possible.

In our spiritual walk, we all yearn for exciting experiences. No one wants to sign up for drudge work in the kingdom of God. But there is a lot of drudge work that needs to be done. So, today I'm challenging myself to be faithful in drudgery. I want to intentionally commit to mundane tasks and recognize their essentialness. Our faithfulness and commitment in the boring things will enable God to use us when those exciting moments come along.  If we want God to use us with rolling flames, we need to roll a lot of hose.  

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.   Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, 'children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.'   Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.   And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.  But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.   So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.”  -Paul's words to the Philippians 2:12-18 NIV

-Amanda
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Rolling hose to head back to the station
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Extravagant LoveĀ 

10/25/2013

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Eleven years ago, when my husband was called to be the pastor of our church in Cavendish Vermont, we never thought that God would call us to long-term ministry here. The idea of a pastor choosing to stay with one church for decades or even a lifetime was not a familiar or desirable concept. We were just looking for a place he could work until a position opened at another church. Cavendish, population 1400, with no traffic lights and no police department, was not where we ultimately wanted to be. 

Eventually, God made it clear that Cavendish was where He wanted us to stay. Eventually, as my husband was convicted to stay, he shared his commitment with the people in our church. And eventually, as people began to actually believe we were staying, a woman I'll call Lucy told us this story.

On the day my husband officially became the pastor here, our church threw a party. Family and friends came from far and near to join the celebration. As Lucy stood waiting in line for munchie food and cake, she couldn't help overhearing some of our friends talking. One said, “This is a nice little church for them to start with.” The other agreed, “Yes, but soon he'll be able to move on to a better one.”

My heart ached when I first heard this story and that ache has never fully gone away. How did Lucy feel hearing guests at her church make these statements in such a matter-of-fact way? How did she feel about my husband using her community as a stopover on his way to something “better?”

Even after overhearing that conversation, Lucy chose to do something extraordinary – she chose to love us. She had us for dinner, gave us veggies from her garden, baked homemade goodies, gave our children birthday gifts, babysat without notice during emergencies, loaned us her vehicle and so much more. For me, Lucy is a living example of Paul's instructions to the church at Ephesus.

“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” -Ephesians 5:1-2 The Message

We cannot truly love if our intention is to advance ourselves. A relationship will never be genuine if we plan to stay only until someone “better” comes along. A true friend doesn't say, “I'll hang with you until I get in with the popular crowd.” A true spouse doesn't say, “I'll be married to you until I meet someone I like more.” A true pastor doesn't say, “I'll stay until I find a better church.” None of these are following Jesus Christ in the way He loves us.

While God doesn't call everyone to love through long-term ministry, it needs to become a much more common practice in our Church culture. When we commit to embracing a community and staying in that one place, we are forced into confronting our selfish desires and ambitions. It's tempting to think we can leave our problems far behind by moving on to something “better.” But the reality is that we carry our struggles within us. Having the spiritual discipline of staying where we are allows God to work to bring us to maturity. And, in case we forget, the Bible tells us repeatedly that the primary characteristic of a mature Christian is loving like Jesus loves.

So, I'm asking Jesus to help me live a mature life of extravagant love by committing to Cavendish Vermont – not considering what I can get out of it, but considering what I can give. I want to challenge other pastoral families to join us in choosing something extraordinary – staying with our churches and loving our communities. My husband has often said it would be amazing if God raised up a generation of church-leaders in our region who were committed, as a whole, to the difficult work of sticking with their churches through an entire lifetime of spiritual challenge and growth. Is God calling you to join us in loving like that? 
-Amanda
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Sugaring Season

3/31/2013

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“Sugar” is how traditional Yankees from northern New England refer to what the rest of the country calls “syrup.” That's because widely available cane sugar is a modern reality. For much of our history maple sugar was the only sweetener we could produce ourselves, and was therefore readily available. Not only is it a culturally significant connection to the past, but also the production of “sugar” is a significant symbol for the ministry of our region. A gallon of Maple Syrup is produced by putting 40 or so gallons of sap through extreme heat for some time. Sounds like a version of Malachi 3:2-4 for our region. With apologies to Eugene Peterson.

"But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance? He'll be like a hardwood fire in the sugarhouse. He'll be like the strongest lye soap at the laundry. He'll take his place as a boiler of sap, as a cleanser of dirty clothes. He'll scrub the churches clean, evaporating the tasteless water from them, until they're fit for God’s table, fit to be poured on offerings of righteousness. Then, and only then, will northern New England be fit and pleasing to God, as it used to be in the years long ago."

-Abraham
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    Abraham & Amanda Gross

    We're committed to serving Jesus in Cavendish, VT

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