Here's another good Sunday report! Our AC held on, and we had a great time of worship this morning!
Dewey preached a powerful and sobering sermon about religious hypocrisy from Matthew 3. I know many of our folks were away traveling, and I hope you will take some time to listen to his message online--it was really terrific (you can find all our sermons by clicking the Sermons, Etc. menu button at our website, NewHopeConnection.com). We also shared in communion as a church family. Cassie and I sang a song I wrote called All Because, and you can hear our live rendition online as well.*
And this afternoon our softball team evened its record at 2-2 by beating one of Creekside's teams in a fun game! The lead went back and forth, and we held on to win 11-9. We play Creekside's other team next week, and I hope some of you will come cheer us on after enjoying our after-church barbecue!
Once again, it's a privilege to serve with a gifted teacher like Dewey, an awesome group like the New Hope Band, and a wonderful church family like New Hope Christian Fellowship. I look forward to meeting again next week!
*By the way, did you know I have a professionally recorded CD with some of the songs we sing on Sunday mornings? My friend Hank (who comes to play sax for us every once in a while) and I put together a CD that includes All Because, The House of the Lord, He Is Lord of All, Our God Is Worthy to Be Praised and six other theologically-based modern worship songs. They're only $10, and I've got some on hand at the church, or you can email me and I'll get them to you!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Sharing "The Four Circles"
There have been a number of evangelism tools over the years to help us simply share the good news (e.g. The Four Spiritual Laws or the Bridge Diagram). Today I read an interview with James Choung of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a college campus ministry.
Choung has developed with IVCF a new tool for sharing the gospel, and I found some of their reasoning very intriguing. Maybe this approach would help you feel more comfortable and confident in sharing--check out From Four Laws to Four Circles.
And for a description of the "Circle of Belonging" diagram you can click here.
Choung has developed with IVCF a new tool for sharing the gospel, and I found some of their reasoning very intriguing. Maybe this approach would help you feel more comfortable and confident in sharing--check out From Four Laws to Four Circles.
And for a description of the "Circle of Belonging" diagram you can click here.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Praying for college students
I think it's really fun living in a college town of sorts, and I'm so glad for the group of students in our New Hope family (and I miss them during the summer)!
Back in May we shepherds invited folks in our church to send us prayer requests, and then we spent a whole shepherd meeting just praying for those requests. We did it again in June, and those have easily been my favorite meetings as a New Hope shepherd. One thing that struck me in those two sessions was how many requests we received from college students. While collegians make up around 15% of our Sunday morning attendance, the percentage of prayer requests from students is easily higher.
With that in mind, I was very interested to read an article by Becky Tirabassi called Candid Observations of the MySpace Generation. I encourage you to take a look. It may help you see our students in a new light and perhaps inspire you to minister to them in a fresh way.
Back in May we shepherds invited folks in our church to send us prayer requests, and then we spent a whole shepherd meeting just praying for those requests. We did it again in June, and those have easily been my favorite meetings as a New Hope shepherd. One thing that struck me in those two sessions was how many requests we received from college students. While collegians make up around 15% of our Sunday morning attendance, the percentage of prayer requests from students is easily higher.
With that in mind, I was very interested to read an article by Becky Tirabassi called Candid Observations of the MySpace Generation. I encourage you to take a look. It may help you see our students in a new light and perhaps inspire you to minister to them in a fresh way.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Brittany Inman, New Hope Missionary to Kenya
Last Sunday we got a chance to hear from Rebecca Hardin, who is our missionary serving in Indonesia. Well, this summer we have another New Hope member, one of our college students, who is leaving soon for a short-term mission to Africa!
Brittany Inman is at home in Washington during the summer break, so last week I emailed her some questions about her upcoming trip. Here are her responses:
1. What city/country will you be in?
I will be in Eldoret, Kenya (see map below)
2. What dates do you leave/return?
I leave the 28th of June from Portland and I return around July 14th.
3. Are you going with an organization? How many are in your group?
I am traveling with Open Arms International. I'm not sure the exact number in my group, I know some from the UK are meeting us in London during a plane change.
4. Can we reach you by email while you are gone?
I don't think I will be able to reply to emails. I'm not really sure what to expect internet-wise, but I do know that one person who lives in Eldoret is responsible to send updates to friends and families. I was allowed three email addresses to include so I included Dewey as one of the three contacts, and he is more than welcome to forward any updates he receives to people that are interested.
5. In just a sentence or two, what will you be doing there?
I will be working some of the time at a village that the organization has built for Orphans, particularly whose parents died from AIDS. The other part of the time I will be traveling with a medical clinic in the slums, providing prayer and Children's ministry, most likely to the children waiting to be seen by the doctors. : )
6. Do you have any prayer requests you'd like the church to know about?
When I heard about this trip I felt God pushing me to go, and for the first time in my life I felt God speaking to me fairly clearly. Now at times, I feel that I am unprepared, or not good enough to be a messenger of God to these people. I am trying to get closer to God before I go, but I have found myself distracted with work and with preparation for this trip (packing wise, not spiritually). I really want to do what God wants me to do while I am in Kenya, but I am afraid that I will be scared or not know what to do. Also I know that what I am going to see during parts of my trip is going to make my heart ache and I want God to help me deal with that, I want to be able to push my feelings aside and really throw myself into this work so I don't come home regretful because I could have done more. The organization people also suggested that I request prayers for adjusting back to life in the US after having seem so much poverty/suffering and hopefully amazing miracles : ). One last thing that I am worried about is not being about to give food/money to the people there; we are instructed not to do that, but that many people who need so much will ask, I know that I will have trouble with this : (
Be sure to pray for Brittany as she leaves this Saturday. If you are a student of world events, you may know that there has been a lot of violence in Kenya the last few months over a dubious presidential election, so pray for her safety as well. I'll try to update you if I hear any news from the field!
View Larger Map
Brittany Inman is at home in Washington during the summer break, so last week I emailed her some questions about her upcoming trip. Here are her responses:1. What city/country will you be in?
I will be in Eldoret, Kenya (see map below)
2. What dates do you leave/return?
I leave the 28th of June from Portland and I return around July 14th.
3. Are you going with an organization? How many are in your group?
I am traveling with Open Arms International. I'm not sure the exact number in my group, I know some from the UK are meeting us in London during a plane change.
4. Can we reach you by email while you are gone?
I don't think I will be able to reply to emails. I'm not really sure what to expect internet-wise, but I do know that one person who lives in Eldoret is responsible to send updates to friends and families. I was allowed three email addresses to include so I included Dewey as one of the three contacts, and he is more than welcome to forward any updates he receives to people that are interested.
5. In just a sentence or two, what will you be doing there?
I will be working some of the time at a village that the organization has built for Orphans, particularly whose parents died from AIDS. The other part of the time I will be traveling with a medical clinic in the slums, providing prayer and Children's ministry, most likely to the children waiting to be seen by the doctors. : )
6. Do you have any prayer requests you'd like the church to know about?
When I heard about this trip I felt God pushing me to go, and for the first time in my life I felt God speaking to me fairly clearly. Now at times, I feel that I am unprepared, or not good enough to be a messenger of God to these people. I am trying to get closer to God before I go, but I have found myself distracted with work and with preparation for this trip (packing wise, not spiritually). I really want to do what God wants me to do while I am in Kenya, but I am afraid that I will be scared or not know what to do. Also I know that what I am going to see during parts of my trip is going to make my heart ache and I want God to help me deal with that, I want to be able to push my feelings aside and really throw myself into this work so I don't come home regretful because I could have done more. The organization people also suggested that I request prayers for adjusting back to life in the US after having seem so much poverty/suffering and hopefully amazing miracles : ). One last thing that I am worried about is not being about to give food/money to the people there; we are instructed not to do that, but that many people who need so much will ask, I know that I will have trouble with this : (
Be sure to pray for Brittany as she leaves this Saturday. If you are a student of world events, you may know that there has been a lot of violence in Kenya the last few months over a dubious presidential election, so pray for her safety as well. I'll try to update you if I hear any news from the field!
View Larger Map
Monday, June 23, 2008
A Nice Sunday
Yesterday was just a really nice day!
I counted 167 of us in church worshiping together, which was a pretty full number for late June! I was also encouraged to look around and see a number of new faces. I got a chance to talk to one of the visitors after the service, and even though our band was somewhat stripped down, he was just thrilled with the worship and the teaching and the friendly people. What an encouragement!
Then in the afternoon I got to play softball with our New Hope Hitters. We lost 5-3 in a close game, but it was fun as always. Even though we're 1-2 on the season so far, it's been a blast playing with the team, and I'm always proud of the cheerful attitudes and good sportsmanship they show whether winning or losing.
I went ahead and continued the nice day by taking my kids to the park and riding bikes in the perfect weather. Sometimes I'm just sure the Garden of Eden was a lot like Oregon in the summertime!
We are blessed with a wonderful church family in a wonderful place. I hope your week is blessed as well, and I look forward to seeing many of you again this Sunday!
I counted 167 of us in church worshiping together, which was a pretty full number for late June! I was also encouraged to look around and see a number of new faces. I got a chance to talk to one of the visitors after the service, and even though our band was somewhat stripped down, he was just thrilled with the worship and the teaching and the friendly people. What an encouragement!
Then in the afternoon I got to play softball with our New Hope Hitters. We lost 5-3 in a close game, but it was fun as always. Even though we're 1-2 on the season so far, it's been a blast playing with the team, and I'm always proud of the cheerful attitudes and good sportsmanship they show whether winning or losing.
I went ahead and continued the nice day by taking my kids to the park and riding bikes in the perfect weather. Sometimes I'm just sure the Garden of Eden was a lot like Oregon in the summertime!
We are blessed with a wonderful church family in a wonderful place. I hope your week is blessed as well, and I look forward to seeing many of you again this Sunday!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Superhandles
There was a nice lead story in the sports section of Saturday's News-Register featuring our own Jon "Superhandles" Hildebrandt! The article highlights the video series on basketball drills that Jon is producing. You can read it online here.
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