A year in review

I just wrote my 2004 annual meeting pastoral report, and thought I would post it here for y'all to take a look at. My reflections on 2004 and dreams for 2005!

If 2002 was the year of “prayer and seeking God” in order to be ready for what God was going to do, and 2003 was the year of “the INCREDIBLE gift of God to move our church downtown” to a permanent, FREE facility, then I would have to characterize 2004 as the year of “learning to manage the wave” of God’s blessing. Here’s what has happened in 2004:

1. Preaching through the book of Acts
I have absolutely loved our series in Acts! It has been the start of a wonderful relationship for me and a love for the early church. They did ministry without the aid of buildings, budgets, programs, powerpoint, and air conditioning! (Come to think of it, we do it without that last one too, eh?!)

I’ve been blown away by the early church’s tenacity to “be his witnesses” throughout the whole known world. These folks just flat out love Jesus Christ and have a genuine concern for their friends, family and cities who don’t yet have a relationship with Christ. I’ve watched our church grow in these areas too, and yet, I want so much more in my life and in the life of our church! Come, Holy Spirit, and make us a Church on Fire!

2. Hiring a LOT of staff!
If you have looked on the back of your worship folder in the last few months, you will see a whole bunch of new people who are on staff at Hope Community. I have always believed that the greatest earthly resource we have at Hope is such a quality group of leaders. It has been my dream to see our staff team grow in numbers and in quality. I can honestly say, that for the year 2005, we have a “dream team” of staff. I have never been part of such a gifted, hardworking, and God-centered people as we now have on our staff.

However, to get there we’ve been busy hiring people like crazy! In the last 18 months, we have hired an Associate Pastor for Outreach and Assimilation (Cor Chmieleski), a Custodian (Mike Devereaux), an Office Manager (Nancy Skinner), a Small Group/Administry (SHAPE) Director (Nicole Devereaux), a Seminary Intern (Chris Wachter), a Youth Minister (Jesse Splan) and a Bookkeeper (Tennille Ziegler).

Some of these hires were to replace some dear friends who have moved on to other things (greener pastures?!?!). Darin and Becky Durand (Youth) have moved to Seattle, Ben Banti (Custodian) has moved to Nashville and Maureen Swenson (Office Manager) has moved into Motherhood! Blessings to all of you and thanks for all your blood, sweat and prayers during your service at Hope!

3. Learning about what it means to be a better steward of what God has given us.
Last spring, I was invited by Jim Barber, associate pastor of Constance E. Free Church to get some mentoring in how to manage a growing church. We had a few discussions about Hope, and how we can be better organized in our ministry so that we can help “manage the wave” of what God is doing. Although I have a natural reaction to organization as a thing churches often do that quenches God’s Spirit, a reasonable amount of structure is a good thing – allowing, of course, for God’s Spirit to blow whenever and however He wants to! As we talked, we boiled the three main components of Hope down to this:

Cause
Community
Corporation

Cause is our vision. It is our passions, our mission statement – who we are as a church. Hope has always been very strong in this area. We are a passionate community of folks who desire to “honor God by helping as many people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.” We do this through helping people to “think biblically, live Christ-like, and learn ministry skills.”

Community is our relationships. Do we really love on one another? Of course, Hope has a long way to go in this area, but we are a community based church. We desire for people to get to know one another, to study the Bible together, to learn to “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep” together. Our retreats, small groups, events, and every ministry we have has some element of creating more and more community among us.

Corporation is an area we are now working hard on. How do we manage a growing church with over 400 in attendance and remain community focused but in an organized fashion? Surely the addition of staff has SERIOUSLY helped this problem, as well as the addition of Nancy Skinner, who just has a knack for organization and streamlining things. However, healthy corporation at Hope is our BQ (big question) for 2005, and we would appreciate your prayers as we seek God’s direction in this.

Other thoughts
I have been honored to be the senior pastor of Hope now for 8 1/2 years. Preaching, teaching, leadership development, mentoring people in their faith, helping new churches get started worldwide and introducing new people to the faith are still my greatest passions, and I long to continue to grow in my love for Christ and in my ministry skills here at Hope. I cannot imagine a better place to live out my dreams, raise my family, and have the encouragement and correction that Hope gives to me and my family. Thanks for your love, appreciation, and grace toward me. You are so very dear to me!

This year, for the first time in my ministry life (since 1987, Carole and I have been vocationally part of some ministry somewhere), we are taking a sabbatical. From May 1st, to July 31st we are going to be getting some much needed rest and study time. A few of my goals are to start my doctoral work at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, work on my ordination paperwork with the Baptist General Conference, do some preparation for our next sermon series (to be announced later!), and remodel our basement. In addition, I simply plan to just catch up on my reading and fishing! We also hope to do some family traveling and just hanging out. Even though I long for this sabbatical, I can honestly say I am not “burnt out” but I guess you should take one of these before that happens, huh?

Amazed that God so loved the world (including me!),

Steve

A New Year, The Word of God and Life

It is that time of year again, when people make all kinds of resolutions to eat healthier, be nicer, save money, are better parents, lose weight, or finally win a Super Bowl (for all you Vikings fans out there).

I’ve never been one for promises like that. They seem to just fade away once my interest changes, or I may miss a day of exercise and just figure, “Might as well quit...didn’t reach my goal of exercising everyday, so I might as well not exercise at all!”

I know that sounds silly, but we all do that. How does real change happen, then? Is it through being disciplined and regimented in how we treat ourselves? That is part of the solution, but not all of it. Without transformation in our MINDS, our change of behavior is just that, a change of BEHAVIOR. I crave TRANSFORMATION!!

Jesus never called us to be nice, or thin, or healthy in and of itself. He calls us to be godly, to seek first his kingdom, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and THEN these things will change.
How do you get that kind of transformation? Through God’s word!

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving 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 for ever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
(Psalms 19:7-10, NIV)

This year, join me in reading the Bible through in a year. You can get a Free Discipleship Journal Reading Log to help you do it along with me. BUT, even if you don’t “make” it all the way through (I seldom do make it through in a year!), that isn’t the point...being transformed by Jesus is!!

Tsunamis and the Sovereignty of God

As I write this, the count is now over 114,000 people who lost their lives due to the recent tsunami that hit the coasts of India, Indonsia, Thailand and other Indian Ocean countries. The relatively small region of Indonesia called Sumatra, which only has about 40 million people, lost 28,000 people on that fateful Sunday from the flooding due to the 9.0 earthquake in the area. Estimates today say that about 5 million people are without the basic needs they have for shelter, food and water. This is a disaster of biblical proportions.

My heart breaks for these people, many of whom were on a vacation of a lifetime. In minutes, the playful beach play turned into a frolic for their lives, and many were not able to overcome the stong waves and currents of the tsunami. At times like this, I have two almost polar opposite, simultaneous thoughts that give me peace.

First, I wonder what God is up to in this whole process. The God of the Bible is in absolute control of all things, and although he has no darkness in him whatsoever, he often uses tragedy for his purposes. I fully admit that as much as I would like to know God's reasoning, I am not able to look into his purposes so that I fully understand. But I KNOW that he does all things for ultimate good and for his pleasure.

Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
(Psalms 115:3, NIV).

I am forced to think this way because we believe in a God who is absolutely sovererign over all things. And, although I do not understand, I completely trust that he is good, and he is in control of this and all things, even evil events. He allows things for his good reasons.

Second, I plead with God to rescue people from this tragedy. I ask him to send all kinds of aid, to allow miracles to happen to find survivors, for disease and looting to be non-existent, for many, many people to meet Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord through this. Why do I pray to God that way? Again, I pray because he is completely sovereign...otherwise, prayer would make no sense. Why pray to him if he really isn’t able to answer?

But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
(Psalms 109:21, 22)

On Friday, December 31st, my three boys and I decided to do something to help out in a practical way...we got online and donated some money to World Vision. I couldn't be prouder of my three boys as they each decided to donate some of their money to those in need.

Let me encourage you to prayerfully consider helping out at this time. There are many organizations that can help out the victims of this disaster. Three that we have been recommending to our church are:

World Vision - www.worldvision.org
Christian Children's Fund - www.christiandchildrensfund.org
Habitat for Humanity - www.habitat.org

Father,
By your incredible great power, show yourself to so many people in that region. Allow them to see you as you are, the powerful, mighty, in-control God that you are...as well as the one who weeps with those who weep in times like these. Be with the survivors. Show yourself to them. Use these events to draw men, women and children to yourself. Allow great work of believers to show the love of Christ to those in need. Work as only you know how to work!
Amen