Day 6: The Trip Home

Earthdate: 7/30/07 Captains Log: DAY 6 The Ride Home

Time to go home. What a wild ride!!! Thanks for all of your prayers and support. We leave Michigan with minds and souls filled with ideas, inspiration and love.

As many of you already know, Rejoice! is filled with wonderful leaders…and…I had the awesome blessing and honor to spend six days with 4 of our best and brightest! DeWayne, Don, Jim and Sonia represented our community above and beyond the call of duty. Not only were they fantastic listeners and contributors to what we will bring home to Sioux Falls, but on many, many occasions they blessed the communities visited as much as we were blessed by them. They were not only takers of great ideas, but also helping hands and loving servants. Whenever one of the churches we visited was cleaning up or setting up, they were one of the first to jump in and say, “How can I help?” I am so proud to have shared this week with them.

I am sure much of what we learned and experienced will germinate and grow into our future, but I also want to say this was not only a trip about how can we do things better? It was clear as the week progressed, this was also a trip to be affirmed that we are doing many things right. We indeed do many, many things very well already! Each of you reading this have played a part in our growing. Thank you for your part in making Rejoice! a great community.

As we are on our way home, I am truly proud and honored to serve such an awesome community. May God take what we do well now and make it great…and…may He take what we do great now and make it excellent.

THE BIGGEST LESSON LEARNED
If there was an underlying theme to every church we visited it was that growing churches can take many shapes and forms, but the truly great growing churches exist not so much for their members, but they exist for the sake of those outside their worshipping community. In Cincinnati, they used the phrase, “outward focused.” These churches grow, not to become big, but they grow because that is what great churches do, they grow. I like what one person said, “Great small churches become big churches…this small to big growth is just a fact of church physics.”

If you would like to see pictures from Day 6 trek home, click….
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYtW7lw3aMXcA

Thanks for reading. See you next Sunday if not sooner.

Peace Out!

T-Rob

Day 5 - Life Point Vineyard Church and Mars Hill Bible Church

Earthdate: 7/29/07 Captains Log: DAY 5 Monroe, OH – Life Point Vineyard Church (LPVC) and Mars Hill Bible Church, Grand Rapids, MI

Today was a day with two very different experiences. The first experience was in Monroe, OH and the second was at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI. (Rob Bell’s church) These two experiences could not be any more different.

First things first. Life Point is in Monroe, a suburb north of Cincinnati. It is a daughter church of yesterday’s visit to Vineyard Community Church.

LPVC in many ways felt much like Rejoice! It was, at this point, a relatively small (160 people), yet fun, energetic and dynamic church. LPVC did so many things right from our team’s perspective. They were very welcoming. There was a warm feeling from the moment you walked in the door. The music was great. The announcements were fun. There was just a fun, good vibe from the moment we walked in the door to the moment we left. Plus our experience was boosted by an excellent sermon by Pastor Andy Ransdell. Memorable, well delivered with pearls and nuggets to take home to use in daily living.

At LPVC, we were invited to arrive early and sit I on n the worship team’s pre-worship prayer, pep talk and strategy time. It was great. All the team’s that made Sunday happen were at this meeting. Pastor Andy shared with the team the mood of his sermon and the team together shared how best to make everything feel like it fit just right. The meeting finished with everyone putting their hands together in a circle (like a basketball team) Andy asked loudly, “What time is it?” They all said even more loudly, “It’s Worship Time!” Fun!

About the only thing that was dramatically different from a Rejoice! Sunday morning…and we would not change our way to theirs…was they don’t have their kids worship with the adults. This is typical practice for many non-denominational churches, but our team agreed we like kids worshiping with adults and we thought…we should keep doing things our way.

The day in Monroe ended with a golf cart ride to our van. The LPVC kids are in a building down the street and parents, after worship are carted to get their kids and then brought to their cars. It was different, but it was one more “fun” thing.

After LPVC, we got in the van and traveled to Mars Hill Bible Church (MHBC) in Grand Rapids, MI. I was duly warned by friends that it is quite difficult to find Rob Bell’s church. The warning was accurate. It was almost as if, Mars Hill was trying to hide its worship location. There were no signs that read “Mars Hill this way.” In fact the signs on the building almost added to the confusion. Old signs from old building tenants were still up and MHBC appeared to be in no hurry to take down the old signs and stop the confusion.

We made our way to the door of an old mall and found small letters on the door that read, “Mars Hill Bible Church.” …so we entered. No frills, no glitz. One team member commented, “It almost felt sterile.” To use an MTV word, there was no “bling” anywhere in the house. The bulletins were very simple…no graphics, just printed text in Ariel font. The wall decorations, the few that were there, were simple and Spartan. It was almost as if they decide to be as minimalistic as they could possibly be. It was almost like the MHBC leadership asked themselves, “What is really needed for worship?” People, some music, a message and some prayer. There was not much more there.

Although, almost to a person, MHBC was the least favorite worship experience of our trip, it still was a valuable reminder that churches grow (this one to over 10,000 people per Sunday…yes there are four zeros in ten thousand) not because of flawless worship, glitzy buildings, slick sermons (not everyone even liked Rob’s sermon), but churches grow because God decides to move in a community and the people willingly respond. Rejoice! does not need the latest greatest sound system, media production, best preaching, a flawless worship band, etc. All we really need is for God to move (and He is moving) and the people to respond (and we are responding). All Rejoice! really needs to do is to continue to pray and be faithful.

Now for some closing words…

Wow! What a great trip! What a great team (back home in Sioux Falls…pressing on in praising God without us…and…my 4 friends in the van who joined me on this wild ride) Whose idea was this trip anyways???? J

If you would like to see pictures from Day 5, click….
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYtW7lw3aMXYQ

Thanks for reading. Pray for a safe return…and…we will see you next Sunday if not sooner.

Peace Out!

T-Rob

Day 4 - Cincinnati

Earthdate: 7/28/07 Captains Log: DAY 4 Cincinnati – Vineyard Community Church (VCC)

Today seemed like a day and half chucked into 24 hours. We had just traveled overnight from Kansas City to Cincinnati. Mid-morning/middle of the night, we tried to catch a little sleep and then rush into a full day Saturday. And what a day it was!

First on the agenda, a “Block Party” with two churches, VCC a worldwide mega-church and W.A.E. Church (W = Window, A = Arts, E = Enrichment) WAE Church is a year-old, brand new inner city church just beginning with 25-30 people per Sunday. A couple of months before, WAE called VCC and asked for help to reach their neighborhood. They made plans, scheduled a Saturday, and today, that “Block Party” became a reality. Free food, free games, free inflatable jumper, free juggler, free DJ, and free Grace from God was shared with all who responded to the neighborhood canvas and word of mouth.

Wow, VCC sure does know how to do a neighborhood outreach. WAE made the call and VCC did the rest…setup, people and event. About 50+ VCC people (kids and adults) clad in their “Cincy Kids” t-shirts, joined with around 15 WAE members and just loved an entire neighborhood.

The gimmick used to get the neighborhood to check out the event was a bag of popcorn and invitation that read, “Come and check out our free neighborhood party with this invitation and you might win a brand new microwave. As the Block Party was winding down, a name was picked from a hat and the microwave winner was decided.

Don and Sonia, from our team, had the honor and privilege to go and deliver the prize $35 microwave. They found their way to a home that would have better fit in the 3rd world than it would fit in the world’s richest country, bugs were crawling on the floor, urine and feces smell permeated the air. From the home with next to no furniture emerged an older woman who welcomed them. They gave her the $35 microwave, but she responded with a gratefulness that rivaled a lottery winner. This prize delivering event culminated a half day filled with life- long memories.

As we helped pack up the Block Party, we traveled to VCC (a mega-church campus) which is the birthplace of the Servant Evangelism movement (remember our Dollar Car Wash…we stole it from VCC). Once at VCC we did some Q&A with Harmony Hensley, a literal tornado of service, love and energy. Harmony speaks twice as fast as the average human being. Harmony would take a breath every other minute, amidst her enthusiastic sharing of all the VCC outreaches, only to launch into another 2 minute long run-on sentence of awesome VCC servant event outreaches. After about an hour and half of only scratching the service of all of what VCC does, Harmony gave us a tour of their building. It is an impressive building that declares what it is about right from the beginning. Written in large letters across the front entrance were the words, “Small Things Done with Great Love Can Change the World.”

After meeting with the whirlwind of Harmony Hensley, we met with Andy Ransdell, former Teaching Pastor of VCC, and now mission developer pastor of LifePoint Vineyard Church (http://www.lifepointvineyard.com/), Monroe, OH. Andy shared the journey of moving from teaching pastor to planting a new church. Andy shared the gift of launching out of an awesome church and the struggle of trying to carve out their own identity and God-calling. He also shared the struggle of trying to figure out how to grow not only wider as a church, but grow deeper as a community of faith. He shared how he didn’t want to grow a big church, but also grow people to become disciples of Jesus Christ. Much like Kaw Prairie Community Church the day before in KC, Life Point helped us connect the dots between where we are and where we will be. It was affirming to share our first year journey with Andy and have him respond with a “Wow, you guys are doing great.” I guess deep down I know that, but it is always good to hear it from an outsider.

The piece de resistance of a very busy day was 6:30 worship at VCC. The worship band was excellent. The sermon was well crafted, practical and memorable. The whole experience was well done. Afterward, we loaded up with more pop and water from Target and poured ourselves into bed.

Tomorrow, worship at LifePoint Vineyard Church and then a five our trip to Rob Bell’s Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI.

If you would like to see pictures from Day 4, click….
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYtW7lw3aMXUg

Thanks for reading. Thanks for all your prayers…we feel them…keep ‘em coming!

Peace Out!

T-Rob

Rejoice! Church Trip - Day 3

Earthdate: 7/27/07

Captains Log: DAY 3 Kansas City (Lenexa) – Kaw Prairie Community Church KPCC (a partner church of the PCUSA/Presbyterian & the ELCA)

Today we met the team from Kaw Prairie Community Church. You may notice that the name “Lutheran” is not in their name. This omission is intentional. It is because KPCC is a joint effort between the ELCA and the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). The ELCA fronted the start up costs and the PCUSA has given them the land. They presently worship in a lunch room at a new Roman Catholic High School.

KPCC, like Rejoice!, is a baby church. Whereas we are an infant baby, they are a toddler baby. But they, like we, are still young enough where everything we do still seems new. They, like we, are at a stage where there are no set rules and there is a lot of room for creativity and experimentation. One such example of experimentation is their order of worship. Unlike nearly all mainline Christian churches, KPCC celebrates Communion before the sermon, weekly. Pastor Dan said, “I can give you theological reasons like Jesus always fed people first and then taught them later, but really we order things this way mainly just because it works for us.” Another unique thing KPCC does is that they do not take an offering during the worship. They just leave two Pier 1 sort of pots in a conspicuous place in the worship space. All those people who have bought into the mission give and give generously. This, too, is “different,” but it “works” for them.

Their plans for their future worship space and ministry building are very interesting. (The architectural plans for the building can be found on their website http://www.kawprairie.org/) There is a coffee shop in the front entrance/central-courtyard. There is also a McDonald’s type playland just off of that central-courtyard. The plan is that moms and dads of preschoolers could come drink good coffee while their kids play in the McPlayland. In addition there is a youth/theater room. All of these spaces can be rented for birthdays, etc. Their main worship center doubles as a basketball gym. The space is creative, functional and welcoming! Ultimately the building, like the people, becomes a welcoming space for the unchurched/dechurched.

Even though they are making plans for building a building, KPCC seems in no hurry to have a building. They know that their building will happen by Christmas 2008, but no one seems very stressed over the completion of that building. KPCC is a community that completely does not equate success with a building. Their future building is only a tool to expand their ministry. They see a building as a step in the growth life of KPCC not the destination.

KPCC tries to groom volunteers from within their community. Some of these volunteers grow in ability and responsibility. KPCC believes, as time goes on, that some of the volunteers will just simply grow into a paid positions. In fact this just happened. They just hired their first fulltime staff. Her area of responsibility is Family Ministry Coordination. She just exudes confidents and organization.

KPCC, like Rejoice! seems to strive to “grow smaller as they grow bigger.” They have several wonderful small groups like Alpha, Men’s group, Women’s Group, Divorced Group and even a Paintball small group. (This paintball group would be more than enough for my son to sign up J)

KPCC has tried many and varied ways to get their name into the community…from door-knocking, to post cards, to roadside signs, to being a part of local parades. During the door knocking, they intentionally cut across yards (rather than using sidewalks and driveways) because they figure people who would be bugged about someone walking on their lawn would also be the sort of person who would not be a good fit for a mission church. I am not sure what I think about this…but it keeps rolling around in my brain.

At each church we have visited, I have decided to be bold and ask for financial help with the extra seating we will soon need for fall. To expand our seating, we will need about $4,000 of chairs and equipment. Interestingly the smallest church we will visit was the first to offer help, that is real help. KPCC is giving us their used rear projection screen that they no longer use in their present worship space. (this is a $1000+ item!) Wow! Baby churches are the coolest churches in the whole world! (Rejoice! KPCC, etc.!)

Pastor Dan, after hearing about all the different churches we were visiting said, “I am not sure how much we will help teach you…I hope this trip you made to us didn’t feel like a waste of time.” I said, “Oh no Dan, don’t think that. This stop with you is probably the most important stop along the way. You at KPCC are the place that best helps us connect the dots between where we are now and where we might be 10 years from now. Without you, the other churches ministries seem a little unrealistic and beyond our means.” Don shrugged and gave an unconvinced “maybe” sort of look and let out a nearly inaudible, “Hmmm.” Interestingly, as we were saying our good-byes, one of the other people on the Rejoice! team said almost the same things I said without any prompting. Dan and his team gave us a big smile…

If you would like to see pictures from Day 3, click….
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYtW7lw3aMXQw

Thanks for reading. Thanks for all your prayers…we feel them…keep ‘em coming!

Peace Out!

T-Rob

Rejoice! Trip Log - Day 2 7-26-07

Earthdate: 7/26/07 Captains Log: DAY 2 Des Moines – Lutheran Church of Hope (LCoH)

Today we stopped at the two fastest growing churches of the ELCA (Evangelical Church in America…our national church affiliation). First we started at Hosanna! Lutheran. (http://www.hosannalc.org/). We went with the thought of just to check out the campus, because we were ahead of schedule and it was on the way. Fortunately, we were blessed by an impromptu meeting of one of Hosanna’s pastors. Pastor Tim shared that about 3 years ago Hosanna! added a 3,000+ seat worship space which is full for the 3 weekend services already! He also shared that HL had 13 pastors on staff. (Only one ordained and only 6 fulltime…this idea of non-ordained pastors is a unique thing that Hosanna!) HL was a beautiful space with awesome ministries from Alpha to a motorcycle club, to skateboarders club. Hosanna is in the process of planting two new churches.

Next we headed down I-35 to Des Moines. We were greeted by Pastor Molly of Lutheran Church of Hope (LCoH) who took us on a campus tour. LCoH is in the middle of a huge building project. They are in the process of adding 2,600 seat worship center.

LCoH, unlike Hosanna!, is not planting daughter churches, but planting satellite churches. They presently have planted two satellites and are in the process of planting a third.

LCoH is busy place that teeters on the edge of organized chaos. Great wisdom was gleaned from LCoH, for example they are creating a systematized way of identifying, grooming and growing leaders. (They will be sending us their program later in the month) They operate with the rule of “don’t commit to anything till it is absolutely necessary.” (building buildings, adding staff, etc.)

Another unique LCoH thing is that LCoH only had Contemporary worship for its first 10 years. But, as they got bigger, they decided to add a Traditional Worship chapel (the most beautiful space on campus with seating for 300) Who goes to this service? A unique blend of two generations. Senior citizens and 20 something children who were raised in traditional worship, left church for a while, came back and wanted traditional worship. To be sure this is the smallest service of their 7 worship services on a weekend, but a vital part of their community.

Pastor Molly shared how nearly every room at LCoH has more than one function. LCoH tries to maximize the investment/tool of their entire church building. This using every inch of space adds to its uniqueness, charm and organized chaotic feel. There is just a buzz and an energy about the place that is contagious.

We later met with Pastor Scott who is the new Satellite pastor LCoH NorthBranch. (http://www.hopenorthbranch.org/) Scott shared how LCoH NB has intentionally avoided the whole “When will we build a building” question with the anwer,“We will build a building when it fits our mission.” Rather than going to a larger worship space they decided to add another worship time.

We got to check out VBS at LCoH. Wow! Four hundred kids for the evening. We missed the morning time slot where there were 1,200 kids (no—that number is correct…no typos)! The same numbers occurred the week before. LCoH sees VBS as a major outreach into the community. Our team was very impressed with the parent and older youth leadership/participation. The group worship was like one mass aerobic class of 50 adults and 400 kids. Words cannot truly convey the energy…check out the pictures!

The last piece of the day was my personal favorite. We went to one of LCoH satellites. Immersion is LCoH satellite for 20 somethings. It started out just as a band practice. But people started coming just to listen to the band. A congregation was being born. Six months later, the senior pastor asked if they would like to add worship elements to the practice for the audience…and…a congregation was born. The music was concert loud and the participation was spirit-filled reminiscent of a mini Life Light Fest. You can check this satellite online at http://www.beimmersed.com/

A full day, but a great day. Find pictures of the day at:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYtW7lw3aMXNA

Thanks for all your prayers…we feel them…keep ‘em coming!

Peace Out!

T-Rob

Rejoice! Trip Log - Day 1 Rosemount, MN

Earthdate: 7/25/07 Captains Log:
DAY 1 Rosemount, MN – Community of Hope Lutheran (CoH)

Today the team made our first leg of the tour. We drove down County Road 42 into Rosemount, made a couple turns and got close to what we thought was the general area. Someone said, “That building over there doesn’t look much like a church, but I bet that might be it.” Sure enough, what looked like a warehouse from the side, had tastefuly designed front entrance. We stepped inside, we found a very welcoming front atrium with lots of space, banners on the wall, TV screen saying welcome to CoH and a very nice Christian bookstore on the right.

After taking a looking into a worship space that would hold about 500 people completely full, we were greeted by Pastor Per (pronounced “pear”) Nilsen. Per gave us a tour of the building. (classrooms, gym, prayer room, offices, media room, etc.)

Per shared how CoH how worshipped in a school for three years. Bought property in the fourth year, paid down the debt and then built a very low cost building that minimized churchy architecture and maximized technology and functionality. Where CoH put up a 30,000 square foot building for 2.7 million dollars after 5 years…to compare a neighboring church built a 9,000 square foot building for 1.8 million after 10 years. CoH plans to use this space for 10 years, sell it as a warehouse and then move onto a bigger campus.

CoH has given a great example of faithfulness, kingdom expansion and growing disciples. There is much to be learned from CoH.

One of the last things Per said continues to germinate in my brain (Per was responding to “big church” vs. “small church”) Per said, “It is not a matter of whether a small churches should stay small…it is just great small churches become big churches.” Church growth expert Christian Schwartz says it this way, “If a church is a healthy, it is not a matter if they will grow…a healthy church will surely grow…the only question is how much will it grow?”

You can find pictures from Day 1 at:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYtW7lw3aMXFg

Peace Out!

T-Rob

Wow! What a great day!

Today 20+ people from Rejoice! left their homes armed with towels, buckets, hoses, faith and 100+ $1 bills. Our mission, surprize people with a reverse $1 car wash...that is wash people's cars but instead of taking a dollar from each car, we gave each car a $1. Strange looks, protests, giggles, smiles, questions...all asked, "Why?"

Our Answers:

We believe "Small Things Done with Great Love Can Change the World." We are "Sick of Christians who Talk about What They Believe. We decided to Show People What We Believe...Namely, God Loves You and So Do We."

It is so wonderful to be a part of this tribe of people called, "Rejoice!" It was so much fun to see Rejoice put the Joy in serving our community. It was fun to see minds being blown by "Small Things Done with Great Love."

Funny how skeptical some of us humans can be. Sad how cynical our society has become. Some refused our $1 and our free clean car. It was just too much to get their heads around. Some just could not figure out how to to respond to kindness...no strings attached. God bless the one fella who insisted we take his $5 bill...it was even more fun to give his $5 to the woman behind him an additional $5.

Yes this was fun for all who served. Yes our service may lead some people to check out Rejoice! (not our reason for the event...we only wanted to shine and show God's love) But by far the most important thing that happened today was that Rejoice experienced the joy of serving and loving others. Everyone who served said, "This was great...this was fun...we should do this again sometime."

Maybe, just maybe...we pray that our sharing the love of God today might inspire others to do the same. Wouldn't it be great to see our small pebble of service today sending a ripple of love across our city. Wouldn't it be fantastic to see a whole community of people sharing and receiving love in surprizing ways which begin to transform hearts, transform homes and hopefully someday transform our whole community!

We have a bold vision and belief...We believe, "We can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us." (Philippians 4:13) We believe God can use small, simple acts of love to show and shine His love. May our serving change hearts everywhere...our hearts...and the hearts of those whom we serve.

Give 'em Heaven My Sisters and Brothers!

Pastor Tim