Announcement

THE CHURCH WILL BE HAVING AN INFORMATIONAL MEETING FOR ALL MEMBERS AT 12:15 AFTER THE CHURCH PICNIC ON AUGUST 10.

Nothing will be voted on, but the elders would like to present a number of things to the congregation. We want everyone to think on these things going into September. I will talk more about it on Sunday. Please wait to ask questions on the 10th.

1. Working toward a definition of who we are, and not just who we are not.
2. A new leadership structure that frees the elders to do their main roles.
3. Definition of role - the role of an elder, deacon, congregation (process of decisions).
4. Elder training for those who have the gifts to be an elder, but need to be trained.
5. Plans for the fall - services, Sunday school
6. Baptism - details on how we will do it for all 20-30 people who are interested.
7. Statement of Faith change to reflect EFCA's recent changes.

Praying for you-

Pastor Darren

The Net is Ready

The nets are ready for some exciting games of volleyball, so bring your lawn chairs and grab your sunglasses for the Family Picnic, Sunday, August 10. Immediately after worship, we will picnic on the church lawn. Bring a double-sized casserole or salad (you might want to drop it off at church before worship). Dessert and beverages will be included.

Corn Dogs and Cotton Candy

Hey, everyone...Pine County Fair Clean Up starts bright and early, tomorrow morning, Thursday, July 31 at 7:00 am. Meet by the Grandstands at the fairgrounds. We will be cleaning the grounds each day Thursday through Monday mornings. We need all the help we can get! All adults, parents of students, and families... we need everyone! This chore is really fun when we all work together! Call the office with questions at 629.2584.

Baptism

First, we have a place for our baptism service. For those who I have asked to find a place, the search is now off. I cannot remember who I asked, so please forgive me on this one!

The "when" will be announced soon enough.

Now, what do we as a church believe about baptism?

1. We believe the gospel. We were born enemies of God, not friends. We were born separated from God, not with. Our hearts were far from Him, not close. And yet, because of His great love, He calls us to come to Him in repentance and trust His Son. His Son died in our place and took care of our sin.
2. We believe that baptism is not necessary for salvation, but not optional. In many churches, baptism is downplayed because we do not want to have people think it is required... and that does such an injustice to the New Testament. Baptism was a way of referring to conversion. I like to call it as part of the process. You trust Christ, get baptized and enter in the family of God as part of your conversion.

Most will find themselves in two places:
1. You were baptized as a baby. If this is you, I would ask you to look through Scripture. See if you can defend baptism before a profession of faith. There are Christians in the world who hold to infant baptism. I am not one of them. In our church we have people from Catholic and Lutheran backgrounds who are in this boat.
2. You have never been baptized. If this is you, what are you waiting for? :)

Here are some questions I normally get:

1. How old do you have to be?

Having worked with teens for a long time, I know many who regret getting baptized at 5 or 6 because mom and dad wanted them to do it. I personally feel uncomfortable baptizing anyone younger than 12 or 13.

2. What if I'm not ready?

If you are a Christian, you are ready. Becoming a Christian does not mean you have reached a certain level of godliness. Becoming a Christian means you realize that Jesus died for you because you are not good. Saying you're not ready is saying Jesus is not enough. If you are a Christian, shed the guilt and come to the water.

3. What if I as a parent want to baptize my child?

I understand the great commission as meaning that all Christians can baptize anyone. I do however hesitate with parents and their children. I see baptism as an entry rite into the family of God. I personally think the lines get blurred when a parent does it. I am however open to it if you really want to do it.

If you would like to join the many who are going to be baptized please stop in or talk to an elder. We have old and young, married couples, singles, elders, high school students and youth leaders. It is going to be a blessing.

In order to be baptized by me, you will have to do a few things - they will be easy. More on that on Sunday.

Cause or Allow?

When it comes to suffering we always ask - did God cause or allow this to happen? Or is this even the right question to be asking? How much control does God have? Why would he allow bad things to happen - especially to His children.

When Job exclaims that God Himself took everything from him, the writer of Job says that Job did not say anything wrong about God. When Jesus hangs on the cross, we find it ordained by God - He hung Himself on the cross. When we get to Smyrna in Revelation, God tells them how long they will suffer - He is controlling the duration. And when the saints cry out to Him to avenge their suffering in Revelation 6 His answer is quite startling - Be patient because more Christians must die.

Trusting in a good God-

Pastor Darren

Happy 90th Birthday, Marv Nelson!

Marvin Nelson is celebrating his 90th birthday! You are invited to a Potluck Fellowship Dinner, Sunday, August 10, 12:30-3:30 pm at the Chengwatana Township Hall (just 1/2 mile west of the Hustletown Church on Hwy 10). Marv would love to see everyone. Join us as we celebrate the years God has given him! Bring something to share! (Marv is the father of Bruce Nelson).

A Few Games and a Little Sweat
Added Up to Lots of Fun!

Our students met at the Johnson's on Wednesday night. Here's a report from Isaac Johnson:

"We began the night with some games of Lacrosse, which was really fun but we were sweaty because Wednesday night was so hot outside! After some games, we all introduced ourselves to Pastor Darren and then he introduced himself to us. We had the opportunity to ask him questions so that we could get to know him better. Pastor Darren spoke to us about being broken and seeing the need of the Savior in our lives. He spoke to us about having the correct ideas about God and having a repentant heart over the things we do wrong. He talked about the need of having a real heart change and that our relationship with God was not just about being good, but that our actions are the result of what is in our heart. We had a great time getting to know our new pastor."

Here are some pictures....

Youth Group and the Gospel

Last night I went to the Johnson's and met the youth for the first time. Their questions were great - although that is one of the last times I will do "Ask whatever you want" with any group!!:)

I told them that my role as a pastor (and their parent's role) was not to get them to "be good." We are not after good behavior. We are after heart change. Yes, it is true that when a heart is changed action will occur. But it is possible to create rules for children that gives them the appearance of godliness, but in the end is nothing more than a moralistic religion. I have been to youth conferences that are little on the gospel and huge on action. This is not Christianity. An atheist can tell kids not to _________(fill in the blank). We are not first about reforming morals, we are first about admitting we are enemies of God and coming to the cross where God broke His relationship with the Son in order to heal our relationship with Him.

I read from a study that showed that kids with a biblical worldview (strong doctrine) were the ones who lived different from the world. I know there are many statistics out there about youth that would say that "evangelical Christian" kids act no different then anyone else. The reality is this - the message that is shared with kids is the message by which they are saved. If we give them a soft, non-doctrinal, culture centered message with little gospel and no Bible, I promise - there will be no change.

But if we give people a Bible saturated message that is centered on the gospel we will find kids transformed. They may still not follow all of our rules (and I am glad for this), but they will come back to the cross again and again - and that is better than any kid who listens to everything their parents say.

Managing Mouths
and Taming the Tongue

We want to thank our students’ families for hosting Frontline nights this summer. Jack Allen has been gone for the summer due to responsibilities at Grindstone Lake Bible Camp as the new Camp Director. But, this fall, Jack will be back!

Tonight the Johnson’s are hosting…. 6:30 pm sharp! Pastor Darren will be guest speaker…. get ready for an exciting evening!

Last week the Lindstrom’s opened up their heart and home to our students. The students were reminded of the importance of managing their mouths and taming their tongue by two funny little guys Jonathan and Furby presenting James 3, in Lil’bit Podcasts Episodes found at http://www.alilbit.com/ Here’s a few pictures from last Wednesday! See you tonight!

Where We Are Going

First, I need to say - we are tracking you. Last week we put a hit counter on our website to see if anyone is really reading our blog. Yesterday we had 89 hits - amazing considering we have 70 households in our congregation, and only 35-40 use the internet. So if you are outside of our church and in the area, we welcome you to the conversation. Some hits have come from Canada - you don't need to spend the gas money to visit! Everyone else, feel free to come in and say hello - I would love to meet everyone who is visiting.

That being said, after some discussion with the elders, I will be speaking on the 7 churches of Revelation over the next 6-7 weeks. From there we will spend 12 weeks looking at the overall storyline of the Bible - this will help everyone to put together the whole Bible and see how we fall into the grand narrative God is weaving through history.

Praying God will bless us on His own terms.

Pastor Darren

Forgiving Others

Part of Sunday's message on the Lord's Prayer dealt with the forgiveness of others. I pressed forward with two points:

1. The Bible does not know of a non-forgiving Christian. The forgiven will forgive.
2. Thomas Watson's definition of forgiveness is helpful. "We know we have forgiven others when we strive against all thoughts of revenge; when we will not do our enemies mischief, but wish well to them, grieve at their calamities, pray for them, seek reconciliation with them, and show ourselves ready on all occasions to relieve them."

Of course, there are many hard cases. I want to revisit the hardest. What do you do when the person you need to forgive either does not think they have done anything wrong or are just plain unrepentant?

What are we to do? God never forgives an unrepentant person. And yet He does forgive us of sins we do not even know we commit. God calls us to forgive even our enemies - and an enemy rarely apologizes. I think that the act of forgiveness toward people who do not want it, is really for our own heart. We are to lay down all ill will we wish on others. We are to put away our right to be angry and move on.

When will you know you have forgiven someone? The key for me is when I stop having imaginary conversations with the people who have hurt me. When that happens, I know I have believed the gospel... that God forgave me. I am thankful that God does not struggle to forgive me the way I struggle to forgive others. When I repent toward him He welcomes me back and removes my sin again and again. How dare I withhold the gospel from others (especially those who repent).

EVEN MORE GOSPEL

Today I read a great article titled: How a Mega Church is Rediscovering the Gospel. The article is written by the pastor of a large church who had a transformational moment this past year. Here is an excerpt. It's long, but read it:

I suddenly realized that I had undervalued the Gospel by treating it as merely the starting point of the Christian life, instead of as the all-encompassing source of truth and grace that empowers all of the Christian life.

The Bible came alive over the months that followed. When I read in the Old Testament about the wrath of God, the frustration of God at the Israelites in the desert, or the mercy seat in the Tabernacle—it would all take me to the cross. Everything everywhere was about cross-centered redemption: the Bible, relationships, even creation itself. The over-arching story of salvation became more clear to me than ever—beginning with creation, moving to the fall, and then redemption, and finally restoration. What I learned, I preached. Almost overnight it became the Gospel every week displayed in a different passage.

It has been a year of great growth inside my soul. And it has been a year of intense battle as I discovered the unplumbed depths of my depravity. My sins are not isolated incidences of weakness. There is an infection of idolatry in the core of my being where will-power is impotent and the only thing in the entire universe powerful enough to cure me is the blood of Christ.

To be specific, I have found it to be incredibly challenging to give up the belief system that has sustained me so long, one built on an initial forgiveness and then fed through a powerful combination of pride and fear. This pride stemmed from the performance of spiritual disciplines, pointed to the obvious signs of success (we were, after all, named in the fastest-growing one hundred churches!), and most of all was fueled by the approval of others. But fear may have been an even greater motivator: fear of being exposed as less than what people expect; fear of not being as smart, spiritual, or competent as I should be; fear of not measuring up; and fear of Luke 12:48, “to whom much was given . . . much will be required.”

The belief system of a pastor is bound to come out in his preaching at least in subtle ways. My emphasis was always on grace, but it was also laced with the discipline of effort and inner strength to be what God called us to be. The result was either pride or defeat. My preaching has changed as a result of the Gospel going deeper inside of me.

The truth is I have existed as a pastor with gods in my closet. There were times when these gods sustained me. Giving them up has caused more death this year than I would like to admit. The closet is still not empty, but the death of these gods has made me ravenous. Without the Gospel as my source of security and significance, I would die. So as one who has vacillated between self-sufficiency and depression, Gospel-driven transformation is both liberating and terrifying.

There are some in our church who have not yet rediscovered the Gospel this way. There are others who hear the terrifying part but not the liberating part, and they sit on pins and needles. Many of them will leave soon, I think. But there are many others who have felt the shackles start to fall off, and, like me, they are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

Rediscovering the Gospel is an ongoing process. Our church is a big ship to turn. I would never attempt to turn it if the approval of others was as vital to me now as it was a year ago and if I hadn’t been changed by love, by Good News. In the midst of news this good, there is no better place to be—even if I am rejected by some and even if attendance falls. As a sinner-pastor, I stand in dependence on grace to plant and water Gospel seeds, recognizing that God himself gives the growth. In 2008, I will endeavor to preach an ever-clearer message that is faithful to the Scriptures—and woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel. Indeed.

Gospel centered ministry will change every way we "do" life.

Pastor Darren

More on the Gospel

Have you ever heard the phrase: "Preach the gospel, and use words if necessary?"

This is far from what the NT (and OT) has in mind when they speak of the messengers of good news. The message is primarily proclamation - which is why words are always necessary. I do appreciate the desire to "live out" the gospel - but the gospel is always first a proclaimed message. It is not the message of friendship with Jesus or freedom in a new life. It is more than Jesus being a personal Savior. At the core of gospel centered ministry is the stark reality that God stands against us and we are born his enemies. Yet, He sends His Son to die and pay for sin. A heavy price yes, especially for God, who did not need to do it to satisfy some unfulfilled desire. The gospel is an historical event. If you believe the gospel is good news, then verbal proclamation will always be central. If it is only advice on how to live a good life that connects to God, then all we can do is model - but that is not that gospel. That is why "using words if necessary" is not gospel ministry.

If you want some good resources on this topic go to: http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/.

Pastor Darren

What I (and hopefully we) Value

As we move forward as a church, pursuing Christ as a joy filling redeemer, I want to give everyone again the five ministry values I put forward to everyone on Sunday:

1. Gospel Centered Ministry

We want everything we do to be centered on the gospel. God's wrath stands against us until we come to Christ in repentance so that His death can count as ours. We want this message to constantly enlarge our view of God and make our hearts pound with joy as we recognize how much God had to do to reconcile his image bearing enemies. This message will transform how we view others, giving us ease to know people are broken sinners who need to be saved from themselves. It will help us to rely on grace for today and not count on what was needed yesterday. It breaks social barriers so that we can relate to all people, knowing that we are all in need of mercy. We want our prayer meetings focused on gospel faithfulness more than sickness and health. We can find healing in this message - for our relationships with God, our family, friends and fellow brothers and sisters.

2. Bible Saturated Ministry

Being "biblical" can carry a lot of different meanings, but what we want to say is that the Bible is not just defended as the Word of God, but loved. We want to move beyond quoting the Bible, and see ourselves as part of the grand redemptive narrative that God is weaving. We want to be part of the story, seeing ourselves as part of a long plan that God has had. We want the Bible on our minds and hearts, unashamed of what it is and unapologetic to what it claims. We want families to go home and open their Bibles together. We want everyone to bring Bibles to church and learn what God has done (not just for us, but in history). We want the sermons not just based loosely on one verse out of context, but grounded in God's salvation history, intent on discovering the meaning intended by the original writers.

3. Elder Led Ministry

Elders are appointed to lead and they must - we will be held accountable by God for the care of the souls of those placed under our care. We are to protect the church from bad teaching and divisive people. We are to run after those who are falling away and bring them back. A pastor is just one of many elders who shares the ministry of teaching and training people to be Bible saturated Christ followers.

4. Ageless Ministry

So many congregations split the age groups up - so we have youth, singles, young married, middle age, empty nesters, seniors, men, women, children, etc. all broken up. They spend most of their time on youth, believing that it is the best time to reach a person is before their 18. What we want is a cross section of ages ministering to each other. We want the older generation tied to the youth. We want married and singles together. We want the wisdom of the ages to be shared, not horded in small sections of the church. We want the young married couples to sit down with those married 20,30, 40 and 50 years and learn what a godly marriage looks like. The church will not be centered on one age group, but all - a multifaceted ministry pointing everyone to Christ exalting joy filled living.

5. Congregational Driven Ministry

If the pastor is the one who "does" all the ministry we will end up missing out on 99% of the gifting on the church. The elders role is very specific, but God gives the congregation a significant amount of grace based gifts for the purpose of blessing each other. We don't necessarily need a program or even permission from the elders. We don't need an evangelistic campaign to always reach the community. Authentic Christ followers will serve the Master as a natural outflow of their own godliness. They will evangelize because they love the lost. They will serve, exhort and counsel because they love people. While we will plan things as a congregation from time to time, let's not rely on organizational strategies to use our gifts. Let it be an outflow of a Christ following heart. We will receive nothing but unbreakable joy as we use the grace given gifts God has bestowed on us for His glory and our joy.

Pastor Darren

90th Birthday Celebration
Share their thankfulness!

Everyone is invited to a 90th Birthday Open House Celebration for both Delford and Leona Chapin. They want to invite you to share in their thankfulness for the many years God has given them to enjoy, on Saturday, July 12, 1:00-4:00 pm at the Lighthouse. They ask, no gifts please!

Freedom Fest Starts Friday
Great Fourth of July weekend in Pine City...
don't miss it!

Friday, July 4
6-8:30 pm- Robinson Park- Food, root beer floats and a country musical performance by Al Godage Sundown at Robinson Park. Bring lawn chairs and enjoy the show!

8:30 pm - Lights for Life,” an American Cancer Society fundraiser sponsored by the Pine Area Lions, brings the trees in Robinson Park to life by remembering victims.

8:30 pm -12:30 am- Music from High & Mighty Band at the Pizza Pub

Saturday, July 5
7:00-10:00 am- Breakfast provided by Pine County 4-H in the 4-H Building at the fairgrounds.

9-11:30 am- Mini-triathlon begins at the beach at West Side Park and finishes at Robinson Park. (Pre-registration is required at http://www.pinecitychamber.com/)

9 am-2 p.m- Brats and hot dogs are sold by the Cross Lake Association at the fairgrounds

9 am -3:30 pm- Annual car show (sponsored by the Classic Cruiser Car Club) and a tractor show are featured at the fairgrounds.

10:30 am- 4-H Dog Show at Robinson Park. Smoothies are on sale at 10:30 am and root beer floats will be for sale at 11 am.

12 Noon- At Robinson Park, there is bike decorating and a parade, along with other children’s activities including a money scramble at 1 pm, a Wal-Mart bike giveaway at 2 pm, a K9 demonstration by the Sheriff’s Department and train rides provided by Pine City Lions.

12 Noon-3 pm- The Rural School Museum is open with a program at 1 pm, and 2-4 pm, enjoy a sesquicentennial celebration and a performance by the Pine City High School Band.

10:00 pm- Fireworks at the fairgrounds.

Sunday, July 6
11:00 am- A Boat Parade, sponsored by the Cross Lake Association. The parade route will proceed south down the west side of the lake, up the Snake River as far as the Highway 61 bridge, back to Cross Lake, south to Lakeside Medical Center, then north up the east shore to Norway Point before turning south along the west side to the starting point.
Good places to watch the parade are from the public boat landing, Highway 61 bridge, public dock area, shore or another boat. Prizes will be awarded for the best decorated pontoons or boats, and judging takes place near the end of the parade route.

3:30 pm- Praise in the Park... don't miss this very special event in Robinson Park. Area churches are coming together to lead in praise and worship to our Savior! Bring the whole family! There will be activities and music for children by Journey North Church!

We're Going Hog Wild Around Here!

We're about to go "hog wild" gettin ready for this year's Blue-Ribbon Bible School! The setting takes place at a make-believe county fair. Children will visit Henrietta's Chicken Coop, Annie's Garden, Uncle Zeke's Barn, Blue-Ribbon Room, Growing Garden, Barnyard Bob's, and Friendly Farmhouse.

Get a mooo...ve on and register your child for this year's VBS where he/she will be learning how to grow a little more love, sprout lots of joy, plant seeds of peace, produce a crop of patience, and pick a bushel-full of kindness!

Son Harvest County Fair runs each evening 5:45 pm-8:30 pm Monday, August 4 through Friday, August 8. To register your child (ages K- 6th grade) stop by the PCEFC office or call 629.2584.