When pastors' travel allowances get out of control...

NHCF in the UFO Fest Parade!

Last year was my first experience with McMinnville’s UFO Fest, and I thought it was a blast, especially the parade! So, I thought it would be fun to have a NHCF entry in the May 19th parade this year! The event is next Saturday at 1:00 p.m. on Third Street.

You may be (and should be) asking yourself, “What is the purpose of having our church in this kooky cavalcade?” Here are my reasons:

1. It would be really fun.
2. It’s a good way to let people know we’re here (especially since we’re new).
3. It shows people that Christ’s followers have fun and enjoy being together.
4. It shows McMinnville that we enjoy being a part of the community.

The basic plan: Put our band on a flat bed trailer to play some groovy music, and have others riding/walking along to throw candy. All will need to be dressed up, and if we get ambitious maybe we’ll have some kind of float in addition to the band trailer.

What we need:
- Pick-up truck (full size) with hitch
- A good-sized flat bed trailer
- Aluminum Foil o’ plenty
- Candy
- A good generator (bigger and quieter the better)
- Funky alien stuff (costumes/props)
- New Hope banner
- Ideas!

The deadline to enter is this Monday, and we need to describe what our entry will look like. So if you’d like to help dream up our plan, we’ll have a brief brainstorming/planning meeting this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at my house. If you’d like to participate in the planning and/or the parade, please email me back soon at brian.janssen@newhopeconnection.com.

Live long and prosper!

If God is sovereign, why pray?

Here's a thought-provoking article by John Piper that deals with predestination and prayer. What do you think?

The Sovereignty of God and Prayer

A baseball joke...

Two ninety year old men, Moe and Sam, have been friends all their lives.

It seems that Sam is dying of cancer, and Moe comes to visit him daily.

"Sam," says Moe, "You know how we have both loved baseball all our lives, and how we played minor league ball together for so many years. Sam, you have to do me a favor. When you get to Heaven, and I know you will go to Heaven, somehow you've got to let me know if there's baseball in Heaven."

Sam looks up at Moe from his death bed, and says, "Moe, you've been my best friend for years........of course, I'll tell you."

And shortly after, Sam passes on.

It is midnight a couple of nights later. Moe is sound asleep when he is awakened by a blinding flash of white light and a voice calls out to him, "Moe.... Moe...."

"Who is it?" says Moe sitting up suddenly. "Who is it?"

"Moe, it's me, Sam."

"Come on. You're not Sam. Sam just died."

"I'm telling you," "It's me, Sam!"

"Sam? Is that you? Where are you?"

"I'm in heaven," says Sam, "and I've got to tell you, I've got good news and a little bad news."

"So, tell me the good news first," says Moe.

"The good news," says Sam "is that there is baseball in heaven. Better yet, all our old buddies who've gone before us are there. Better yet, we're all young men again. Better yet, it's always spring time and it never rains or snows. And best of all, we can play baseball all we want, and we never get tired!"

"Really?" says Moe, "That's great, but what's the bad news?"

"Uhh...Sam, you're pitching next Tuesday."

"And that fills them with hope."

A couple nights ago Kelly and I watched the 2002 movie Signs by M. Night Shyamalan (of "The Sixth Sense" fame). We really like this film that's a great mix of creepy and hope-filled!

In the story, Graham Hess (played by Mel Gibson), his brother, Merrill, and his two children live on a Pennsylvania farm and are startled to find mysterious crop circles in their corn field. It turns out that there are visitors from space whose intentions are unknown, and the whole world is on edge. One late night as the two brothers are watching TV coverage of 14 space craft hovering above Mexico City, they have an amazing conversation about what it all means--it's the highlight of the film to me. Graham is a former Anglican priest, so the conversation is a spiritual one, and he tells his nervous brother:

People break down into two groups when they experience something lucky.

Group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance.

I'm sure the people in Group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation isn't fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear.

Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in the Group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.

See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?

The great thing is, not only is "someone there", we can actually have a relationship with that Someone. He not only has everything under control, both good and bad, but as it tells us in Romans 8, nothing can separate us from His love.

There may be tragic things happening in our lives--God's ultimate aim is not our earthly happiness but His ultimate glory. But in the midst of our tragedies, big and small, we really do take hope and comfort in the fact that He is completely in control and loves us with an everlasting love.

Spring Choral Concert

Linfield College is presenting its Spring Choral Concert this Sunday, and four collegians from our own New Hope family are among the performers: Anne Muehlek, Lindsey Jorgensen, Meagan Rosson and Ethan Barske.

The concert is at 4:00 p.m. this Sunday, May 6th, and will be held at the First Baptist Church (125 S. Cowls in downtown McMinnville). Admission is free!

The concert should be interesting, because in honor of Cinco de Mayo the groups will perform songs by Latin American composers. So if you like choral music, come see Anne, Lindsey, Meagan and Ethan (and scores of their closest friends) live in concert!

Truth is truth.

At New Hope Christian Fellowship we have a real commitment to God's Word as absolute truth. It is our sole authority for how we ought to glorify God, run our church, live our lives.

I am saddened that there are many "Christian" churches that do not seem to share that same commitment. Today I read an interesting piece by Albert Mohler. He was commenting on a newspaper article in the Arizona Daily Star about Tucson area churches who are changing the language in their worship services to make church less offensive. The quotes from these church leaders just left me stunned. Try this example:

St. Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church has been minimizing its use of "Lord" for two decades, senior pastor David Wilkinson said.

"We usually change 'Lord' to 'love' or 'soul' or 'light,' " Wilkinson said. "It's pretty much a hierarchical, patriarchal image we're getting rid of."

Or how about this one...

"Lord" has become a loaded word conveying hierarchical power over things, "which in what we have recorded in our sacred texts, is not who Jesus understood himself to be," St. Philip's associate rector Susan Anderson-Smith said.

YIKES! Now I don't think we ought to be obnoxious in our faith, nor should we be offensive out of a sense of pride or feeling of superiority. But truth is truth! And if you find yourself offended by something that is true--well, it's still true! We use a hierarchical word like "Lord" because (you guessed it) the universe has a hierarchy!

I could say a lot about this, but maybe I'll save it up for a sermon or a really long blog entry one of these days. In the meantime, I highly recommend Mohler's response to these Tucson churches and the many others like them:

Not Much 'Lord' in this Church Service

And believe me, our church is and always will be proud to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to submit to His Word as absolute truth!