Emmaus Church

Over the past few weeks the group has been growing! It’s exciting to see all the new faces and people who are beginning to call Emmaus “home”. The most exciting part of doing this plant is meeting people who have been disconnected from church for years and people who are exploring the Christian faith. What is amazing to me is that people feel like they belong…even before they believe in Jesus!

This past week I went through some of the connect cards and was blown away to see 4 people want to be baptized, 4 people renew their commitment to Jesus, 2 people want to learn how to have a relationship with Jesus, and 7 people want to know how they can serve at Emmaus!

I’m constantly astonished at what God is doing at Emmaus and in me. The longer we are into this thing, the less in control I feel…but I’m guessing that is how God wants it…less of me and more of Him. I didn’t know I had so much to learn!

Well…it finally happened!  Our first “public” service was a success!  Thanks to so many people who made it happen!  A guy wonders how everything will come together: the lobby, the kids area, the lighting and staging…what will we blow up?!  I’m thrilled to say that everyone did a fantastic job and no pastor was harmed in the making of the service! 

I was truly overwhelmed at how many people were excited to be there.  There was a sense of anticipation and excitement.  Emmaus is small now, but we are going to grow!  Not because I’m super-pastor, but because people genuinely loved being there and the arrows were pointing outward.  It wasn’t and is not about us, but about reaching out to people who feel disconnected from church.  And we did that well. 

We’re not going to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done, but we are going to give God the glory because he is a God on a mission to find people who think they belong on the outside of the circle when, in fact, God is inviting them into the circle…we feel like we’re just a door.

High Stakes.  Everything in church planting seems like it’s high stakes.  Send out a postcard?  It better work.  Do a Community Dinner?  Will anyone come?  Have a group meeting on the first nice day in months on a long weekend?  Do I even wanna be there?! 

For the next week and a half, life will be crazy.  Our first preview service is on tap.  There are lots of questions.  Will we have enough time for set-up?  What will we blow up? Will our postcard bring people to the service?  Will they like the music, sermon, or kid’s activities?  Will my message be relevant and engaging?  We won’t be a full-fledged church offering all the bells and whistles, but will it instill belonging and vision?  These are all questions that lay on top of my blanket when I go to bed at night.   

But, just maybe they’re the wrong questions.  Maybe the right questions are “have I prayed enough?”  Have I been a decent husband and dad lately?”  ”Have I planted God-seeds” through random acts of kindness in my community?  They’re all behind the scenes kinda stuff. 

So, in the days to come I’ll pray I won’t be a loser and check out of being a husband and dad, son-in-law, brother and brother-in-law to the people who are family in this busy time.

Over the course of 6 months, this whole church planting thing has caused me to age years.  I’m starting to see more signs of aging even though I’m still in my 30’s!  But, it’s all coming together. 

 If you’re just reading this blog to catch up on what’s happening–welcome.  We’ve seen God do some cool stuff lately.  It’s the kinda stuff he does all the time, but, we give him all the credit.

1) Thanks to a church donating the use of their equipment and U-haul truck for Sunday night services!  Amazing!  It’s an answer to some of our prayers!

2) Thanks to a church for making a contribution to cover most of the costs associated with our Community Dinners on Febuary 7th and 8th! 

3) Our music guy, Adrian Cendoya, started working out here in Bothell (he lived about an hour away and was commuting regularly this direction.  He moved out here this week so he can help out even more. 

 So, there’s a lot to be thankful for and God is teaching me patience and trust.  After all, this is his church, not mine. 

                                            Wow!  What a wild ride starting a church is!  For the past 6 months we have been looking high and low for a place for our yet to be church to meet.  We’ve tried everything from bars, taverns, and wineries, to commercial meeting spaces, schools, event halls and conference rooms.  We’ve tried theaters, community centers to no avail.  We’ve tried bribery, side door deals, and under the table transactions and nothing has worked.  Having a place to gather is a rather important issue, you know.   

 But God…

Not even 24 hours before we were about to send out our first major mailer to the community, we got the OK to make plans to meet at the Northshore YMCA in Bothell!  This fairly new facility is close enough for anyone in Woodinville or surrounding areas to come to.  We are just one minute off the I-405 and it will be more than adequate for our first meetings!  We will have use of the teen center, preschool and toddler room, Adventure Zone (looks like a McDonald’s playland) for elementary school age kids, lobby, kitchen, and family gymnasium!  The amazing thing is that I had inquired before, but the site was unavailable! 

So, just in time….just in the nick of time, God made a way.  He seems to do that pretty often… I mean, wait till the last second.  He likes to make us sweat.  Why?  Because he wants to remind us that it is not us, or our intellect, or savvy that brings about what he wants.  He’s the God who loves to rescue.  Does God have an ego?  Of course he does!  He selflessly desires our adoration.  He longs to be the object of our desire.  He’s passionate about us seeing life through his eyes. 

 So, for everyone out there, the Bothell YMCA is our new home!  We will meet on Sunday nights at 6:30pm for about an hour on Sunday evenings beginning the Sunday after Easter.  We will have a sneak-peak preview service on Sunday night, March 2nd at 6:30pm.  Everyone (including families) welcome!  Hope to see you there!

Website: http://www.seattleymca.org/page.cfm?ID=0146

Finding a good worship guy is crucial to a church–any church.  So, I’ve been praying and placing an add on craigslist under the musicians section for a music guy for Emmaus Church.  If you’re thinking that’s a pretty lame thing to do, you’re right.  But, over a 2 month period, I did find the strategy to be quite effective.  Problem is, I got a lot of flakes and nutjobs respond to the add.

Then a guy responds who seems quite normal.   He sings, plays guitar, bass, drums, piano.  We trade emails for a bit, I do a few background checks and meet over the course of a month and we really seemed to mesh.  So, everyone, meet Adrian Cendoya.

He’s a cool guy.  Any guy who loves sports and can play ping pong like nobody’s business is  alright.  Oh ya, he’s pretty good at leading worship in a church too.

So, there you have it.  Adrian Cendoya.  Single, 25, 6′0, and a bright future ahead of him and Emmaus.  I believe he is God’s guy for this moment in time.

Welcome aboard Adrian.

Strange concept isn’t it…this mountain growing? Kind of like growing corn, or onions, or peas in your back yard. Anyone grow mountains lately? Place the bulb in the ground, water and fertilize, and voila!

Now I know, generally speaking, mountains don’t really grow. Unless you’re a seismic geologist, you probably couldn’t tell that mountains actually are pushed up by the tectonic plates below the mountain. In fact, Mount Rainier here in Washington has grown approximately 12 inches since 1947. Just like in the world of seismic geology, in the world of church planting, mountains seem to grow too.

When Molly and I first started this journey, we thought we had a fairly realistic idea of the mountains we thought would face and then climb. We were willing to pay the price to travel lightly and move up the mountains. But, as we have begun to climb, we’ve noticed the top of the mountain seems like its growing! The challenges seem greater and more treacherous than we thought!

So, in one of my pity-filled moments, one of my planting mentors (let’s call him “Dave”) issued the question, “So, what are you gonna do? Quit, or keep climbing?” It was a pretty simple question, but just the perfect one at the perfect time. I’m not ready to quit (I’m more of a fighter than a lover). In fact, it’s all the more reason to give Jesus all the credit for making the seemingly impossible, well, possible.

Mountains do grow. Difficult situations sometimes get more difficult. The unthinkables happen. We lose the job. Someone in our family chooses to become more distant and disconnected to us. Stuff happens. But God…

God specializes in the tough stuff. The last minute stuff. To be sure, he’s in the small, mundane stuff. But He loves to show himself capable and worthy of our admiration and trust. But something happens to us as we “sweat” a bit. We feel small. We feel desperate. We wonder if God is listening. Or, if He’s gone mad by allowing certain circumstances or events in our lives. not sure we can handle them. Effectively, He’s brilliant. He knows we need him, but we need to know how much we need him.

Sometimes WE grow the mountains by focusing on just how challenging the climb is. We focus on the impossibles. On the “can’t be done” thoughts. On the rational. Been there and done that. But, I’m learning.

Mountains grow. But God is bigger. More majestic. More stunning. More awe-filled. More faithful. More worthy of our reverence. And if we’re climbing a mountain, we climb one step at a time with our eyes focused not on the size of the mountain, but on the next step. I’m learning as I go.

I need a website. It’s today’s business card. Problem is, I don’t know how to do HTML, but I’m encouraging my 11 year old son, Josiah, to learn. I’d throw in a trip to the Red Robin if he could do a website for me. He says he’ll keep the offer in mind.

So, the other day I “myspaced” an old friend of mine who was a tall, lenky, bright kid and about seven years younger than I. He was full of charisma. I hadn’t had contact with him for at least 10 years. By some cosmic roll of the dice, he shoots me an email about 5 minutes later. We exchange numbers and talk for awhile. He’s attending a church in Redmond, however, asks how he can help with the new church plant called “Emmaus Church.” After sifting through the cursory events of our lives, I come to find out he does web design…how odd.

My friend, Sean (we will call him), proceeds to inform me that he can get a domain name pretty easily, which will be made public soon (I had been thinking for months and not come up with a satisfactory domain name and emails me the perfect one in about 30 seconds), and will host the site for free. All of this takes place over lunch at the palacial cafeteria at Microsoft. To make things even better, Bill Gates will actually make a donation to our non-profit church because Sean is volunteering five hours a month! So, at the end of the day, Microsoft is paying me to let Sean do a website for Emmaus Church!

This church planting stuff is a challenge and when I was starring at how high the mountains were, Jesus made himself present to me on the plateau at Microsoft. Who knows what the future holds, but as long as God continues to bring off-the-map kinda people into my path like Sean, I’ll know God is in this whole thing.

I told myself I’d never blog. I promised myself. I contracted with me, myself, and I. Why? It’s easy to get comatosed by the countless ramblings of people with too much time on their hands (note: subtle Styx reference), or people who incessantly express their every thought ad nauseum. In my previous state of assurance, the only exception was if monetary profit could be traced back to the musings of a blogger. But, I think I’ve changed. I’ve been delivered. I see the light. I blog. I’m not going to cry about it anymore.

Why the conversion? Because I see what I’ve missed by not recording the events of my life and my journey as a church planter. And, I’ve been negligent in giving God public glory for what he’s done in my life and how far he has brought me and Emmaus Church. He deserves both the glory and the blame!

So, here it is…in true fashion….my first blog. Did I write anything that would make anyone want to come back? Probably not, but, hopefully I’ll deliver something of value that will honor God in the blog entries to come. After all, at best, my story is a subset to his story.