God's Faithfulness

Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you for your prayers and support in every way these last several months as we have taken time to pray and seek God's direction for where He would have the next path in our lives lead. We have greatly benefited from this time to rest, travel, read, pray, and consider a variety of opportunities that have been presented to us.
Tim has officially accepted an offer from Stone Creek Christian Church in Oregon City. They are a loving family of Christians who are very excited for new leadership and desiring to be relevant to the families who live around them. We are equally excited for the adventure of ministering with this body of believers, trusting that God is going to make this another meaningful part of our life's work. It will be wonderful to have that sense of "belonging" again with a local fellowship.
Tim will officially begin on January 20th.
Again, we are so appreciative of all of the encouragement we have received throughout this process of transition. We are truly blessed by many wonderful friends and family. God is faithful!
Love to all,
Tim and Patti

Isaiah 58:6-7
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Christmas Letter 2007

Dear Friends & Family,

“Change” is the adjective to describe the past 12 months for our family! Two weddings, two graduations, & job changes still in the works! If this is all “news to you,” read on!

David is a freshman at Mt. Hood Community College & works at NW Technologies. In addition he plays guitar & drums, is a leader for the youth band at church, & provides a lot of the technology for the youth group, together with his girlfriend, Shannon. He went on a mission’s trip to Mexico, & volunteered for 2 weeks at Winema Christian Camp. His dog “Rocky” is now 6 years old…like 42 in dog years!

Bethany married Tavis Miller on December 30th, 2006. She’s attending MHCC, & working as a CNA for a home health care agency. Tavis is a student at PSU, & works at UPS as a part-time supervisor. They live in Portland & volunteer with the 5th & 6th graders at church. If you’d like, you can see their wedding photos at www.portlandphotographer.net/bethanytavis).

Matthew married Kaitlin Rossos on September 15th. They make their home in Gresham. He continues to work as a master mechanic at Landmark Ford in Tigard. Kaitlin is a classroom aid for elementary children with special needs. To see their wedding photos go to www.portlandphotographer.net/kaitlinmatt.

Sharon & Jon are in southern CA where she is in her last year at Loma Linda School of Medicine, planning to specialize in Family Medicine. She has been interviewing for various residency programs on the west coast, & we are praying, God-willing, they will be able to live near Portland for her 3 years of residency. Jon is working for Hall & Partners as a Senior Accounts Executive in the qualitative research department & plays guitar in their church band. They adopted a 1 year old golden retriever “Hurley” this fall.

Tim graduated from Hope International University with a Master’s Degree in Church Ministry, and was ordained into Christian Ministry by the elders of Abundant Life Church. We are proud of him for persevering through this rigorous program, all the while continuing to provide leadership to a growing ministry & be the great husband & father he is (obviously, this is Patti doing the writing). We both resigned from our children’s ministry positions at Abundant Life in the summer. We have taken a few months to rest & regroup, doing a bit of traveling, reading, & visiting churches. We have visited friends on Vancouver Island, volunteered for 2 weeks of Outdoor School, spent a week in central Oregon, taken two camping trips to the beach, & our most awesome trip-a week in Maui this month. Thanks to many generous friends who surprised us with this “all-expenses-paid” trip in celebration of Tim’s graduation & our silver anniversary! We are humbled & grateful. Tim’s brother Steve & his wife Rebecca were able to join us, which multiplied the fun! If you’d like to see some pictures, check out our blog at: http://timpatti.blogspot.com/.

Each year as we sit down to summarize the year that has been, we are reminded of God’s faithfulness in leading us & giving our lives purpose. We pray you will know God’s love, especially as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Our love, Tim, Patti, & Family

The Shack, by William P. Young (Coming Soon)

Dear Friends,
For those of you who have already read this book, and been telling us "You have to read this book!!!," you will understand why it is going to take time for me to find a way to put into words a description of this book and the impact it has had on me.
For those of you who haven't yet read or even heard of this book, let me say that everyone could expand his or her understanding of God by reading it. Everyone has experienced, or will someday experience, loss and some "Great Sadness" in life. Young's story of one man's wrestling with God to grow and live with the "Great Sadness" in his life, and finally forgive God for allowing it and man for inflicting it, gives us all so much to meditate on and wrestle with as we try to find meaning and perspective on the difficult chapters in our own lives.
Most likely, I will not be able to really summarize this book. More likely I will choose some of my favorite quotes to share with you. I wouldn't want to spoil the plot, because then you might choose not to read the book for yourself, which would be cheating yourself out of a valuable experience. Be prepared to cry and have your imagination about God stretched.
More to come....
-Patti

Knowing God, by J.I. Packer

To give you an idea of the significance of this writing, Billy Graham writes in the book’s forward “A hundred years from now only a handful of books written today will still be widely read and accepted as Christian classics. Dr. James I. Packer’s Knowing God may well prove to be one of them….This book will help every reader grasp in a fuller way one of the Bible’s greatest truths: that we can know God personally, because God wants us to know him.” I will attempt to flesh out that summary with some of the meat I found in this “contemporary Christian classic.”

KNOW THE LORD: Jeremiah 9:23-24 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me.’”

Packer lays the foundation for the book by insisting on the value of the study of God, writing “…while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe…Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.” This may seem like a selfish motive for seeking to “Know” God, but he goes on to suggest that we, like David, should seek “to understand God’s truth in order that (our) hearts might respond to it and (our) lives be conformed to it.” Psalm 119: 2, 5 “Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart….Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!” As we learn more of God, we should meditate and pray upon what we have come to know about him. A man’s prayers are “always the best evidence for a man’s view of God.” As an example, Daniel prays “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands….Lord, you are righteous….The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving….The Lord our God is righteous in everything he does.” Does my praying express how much, or how little, I know God? I must learn to measure myself by “how I pray and what goes on in my heart.”

BEHOLD YOUR GOD! Ecclesiastes 11:5 “As thou knowest not what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child; even so thou knowest not the work of God who doeth all.”

Packer describes the essence of God as “omniscience governing omnipotence, infinite power ruled by infinite wisdom.” As examples, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and later Paul all experienced various hardships in their lives, but through those circumstances they came to know and trust God. He insists this does not mean we will ever see the “big picture.” Quite the opposite! “Christians…may drive themselves almost crazy with this kind of futile inquiry.” Rather we must “be clear-sighted and realistic-ruthlessly so-in looking at life as it is….you simply try to see and do the right thing in the actual situation that presents itself.” Take Solomon’s advice from Ecclesiastes, and give up “optimistic expectations of finding the divine purpose of everything….the truth is that God in his wisdom, to make and keep us humble and to teach us to walk by faith, has hidden from us almost everything that we should like to know about the providential purposes which he is working out in the churches and in our own lives.” He concludes, “This is the way of wisdom….We can be sure that the God who made this marvelously complex world order …knows what he is doing, and ‘doeth all things well,’ even if for the moment he hides his hand. We can trust him and rejoice in him, even when we cannot discern his path.” We must not “frustrate the wise purpose of God by neglecting faith and faithfulness in order to pursue a kind of knowledge which in this world it is not given to us to have.”

THE LOVE OF GOD: 1 John 4:8 “God is love.”

“’God is love’ means that his love finds expression in everything that he says and does….Knowing this, we are able to apply to ourselves the promise that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose.’” Romans 8:28. “The measure of love is how much it gives, and the measure of the love of God is the gift of his only Son…” 1 John 4:11 “Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Packer concludes this chapter with some tough questions: “Could an observer learn from the quality and degree of love that I show to others-… –anything at all about the greatness of God’s love to me?”

THE WRATH OF GOD: John 3:18-19 “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God.” Romans 11:22 “The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and win. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.” Exodus 34:6-7

God has given us freedom to choose and “the unbeliever has preferred to be by himself, without God, defying God, having God against him, and he shall have his preference. Nobody stands under the wrath of God except those who have chosen to do so.”

THE JEALOUS GOD: “None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24

“God’s jealousy is not a compound of frustration, envy and spite, as human jealousy so often is, but appears instead as a (literally) praiseworthy zeal to preserve something supremely precious.” This said, “Our right response to his jealousy over us is zeal for him. “Does zeal for the house of God, and the cause of God, eat us up? –possess us? –consume us? Can we say with the Master, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.’ John 4:34….the Lord Jesus once sent a message to a church very much like some of ours-the complacent church of Laodicea-in which he told the congregation that their lack of zeal was a source of supreme offense to him. ‘I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Be zealous therefore, and repent.’ Revelation 3:15-16, 19. How many of our churches today are sound, respectable-and lukewarm? What, then, must Christ’s word be to them? What have we to hope for? –unless, by the mercy of the God … we find zeal to repent? Revive us, Lord, before judgment falls!”

IF GOD BE FOR US… Isaiah 53:4-10 “We considered him stricken by God….The punishment that brought us peace was upon him….The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all….For the transgression of my people he was stricken…” 1 John 3:1 “Behold! What manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God.”

In this portion, Packer goes into depth on the concepts of propitiation and adoption. He states “the driving force in Jesus’ life was his resolve to be ‘obedient to death-even death on a cross,’ Philippians 2:8, and the unique dreadfulness of his death lies in the fact that he tasted on Calvary the wrath of God which was our due, so making propitiation for our sins.” Jesus’ death didn’t merely pay the price we owed, but it actually turned away the wrath of God, opening the way for a new covenant, adoption into God’s family. He contrasts the old covenant with the new writing “the angels’ song which Isaiah heard in the temple, with its emphatic repetitions- ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty,’ Isaiah 6:3, could be used as a motto-text to sum up the theme of the whole Old Testament. The basic idea which the word holy expresses is that of separation…But in the New Testament we find that things have changed…believers deal with God as their Father. …. Father has now become his covenant name-for the covenant which binds him to his people now stands revealed as a family covenant. Christians are his children, his own sons and daughters, his heirs….the thoughts of our Maker becoming our perfect parent-faithful in love and care, generous and thoughtful, interested in all we do, respecting our individuality, skillful in training us, wise in guidance, always available, helping us to find ourselves in maturity, integrity and uprightness-is a thought which can have meaning for everybody, whether we come to it by saying, ‘I had a wonderful father, and I see that God is like that, only more so,’ or by saying, ‘My father disappointed me here, and here, and here, but God, praise his name, will be very different,’ or even by saying, ‘I have never known what it is to have a father on earth, but thank God I now have one in heaven.’” Four aspects of fatherhood: 1) authority, 2) affection, 3) fellowship, and 4) honor. “Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification…a forensic idea, conceived in terms of law, and viewing God as judge, …but not implying any intimate…relationship with God the judge….But contrast this…with adoption,…a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father….To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is a greater.” As our perfect Father, God often “gives us what we should have asked for, rather than what we actually requested….The New Testament message in three words, … ‘adoption through propitiation” In his chapter “thou our guide,” Packer suggests six common pitfalls to guidance. 1)unwillingness to think, 2)unwillingness to think ahead, 3)unwillingness to take advice, 4) unwillingness to suspect oneself, 5)unwillingness to discount personal magnetism, and 6)unwillingness to wait. The good news is that when we miss the road, “our God is a God who not merely restores, but takes up our mistakes and follies into his plan for us and brings good out of them. “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten….You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you.” Joel 2:25-26. Look at Abraham, Moses, David, and Jonah. “It is said that those who never makes mistakes never make anything; certainly, these men made mistakes, but through their mistakes God taught them to know his face and to cleave to him in a way that would never have happened otherwise.” Concerning the adequacy of God, Packer asks “have you been holding back from a risky, costly course to which you know in your heart God has called you? Hold back no longer. Your God is faithful to you, and he is adequate for you. You will never need more than he can supply, and what he supplies, both materially and spiritually, will always be enough for the present.” He concludes, “’Thou hast said, “See ye my face.” My heart says to thee, “Thy face, Lord, do I seek”’ Psalm 27:8. If this book moves any of its readers to identify more closely with the psalmist at this point, it will not have been written in vain.”

Although I didn't necessarily agree with everything he wrote, this book is a good read for every Christian. There is so much to get you curious and make you want to read your Bible in order to understand things more. If you're in for a challenging, meaty read, this is a good book for you! -Patti

Learning from Jonah's Mistakes & Wins

Another thought provoking book I read recently, and am still meditating on, is "Under the Unpredictable Plant, An Exploration in Vocational Holiness" by Eugene H. Peterson (the guy who produced "The Message" paraphrase). In this work, Peterson uses the biblical story of Jonah to draw out lessons applicable to ministers today. This was definitely one of the more scholarly books that I have ever attempted and actually finished. It was full of big "seminary" words that I had to look up ... or ask Tim to explain to me. There is so much good "meat" to chew on. I would highly recommend this read for anyone investing a considerable amount of their life in ministry. Peterson's insights are amazing!
The book is basically broken down chronologically according to Jonah's journey.
Buying Passage to Tarshish addresses Jonah disobedience in his unwillingness to go where God had called him. This begs the question "Am I serving God where he has called me, or am I ministering because of the glamour, comfort, and excitement of the church?" The "travel folders" make Tarshish seem quite enticing, but if God has called me to Nineveh, I had better obey.
Escaping the Storm is a wake-up call to "jump overboard" from the ship of practicing Christianity as a "consumer religion," and turn the Titanic around and head for Nineveh where the people are ready to hear God's message. Peterson suggests "It is interesting to listen to the comments ... from Third world countries ... on the religion they observe in North America. What they notice mostly is the greed, the silliness, the narcissism. They appreciate the size and prosperity of our churches, the energy and the technology, but they wonder at the conspicuous absence of the cross, the phobic avoidance of suffering, the puzzling indifference to community and relationships of intimacy." He continues "...there is far too much acquiescence, too much caving in to the culture. ... the world that wants a religion that is mostly entertainment with occasional breaks for moral commercials." Before the storm hit, Jonah was in control and heading in the opposite direction God had called him. "He had decided on his ... destination. He had paid the ... money ... he was taking charge. ... But his assertive move to take charge of his vocational destiny and his considerable financial wherewithal to bring it about are, now, insignificant. God' storm and God's salvation ... now dominate the scene. Jonah's will and Jonah's money are now trifling."
In the Belly of the Fish: This chapter was the most instructive for me at this place in our lives. "And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish." -Jonah 1:17-2:1 "Whenever I am in trouble, I pray. And since I'm always in trouble, I pray a lot." -Isaac Bashevis Singer This is the beginning of Jonah's renewal. His "drowning of religious careerism... We become what we are called to be by praying. And we start out by praying from the belly of the fish. ... The belly of the fish was the unattractive opposite to everything Jonah had set out for."
In this chapter, Peterson makes some pretty bold statements about the need for a renewal of prayer. These are some of the statements that most stick with me from the book:

• "This is the hard part, for in the ordinary course of things God does not appoint a fish to swallow us into the place and time of prayer. We have to find our own place, carve out our own time."

• "...what Christians do in prayer is the most significant factor in the shaping of history."
• " '...I would say that sometimes I wonder at dead of night whether, during the next fifty years, Protestantism may not be at a disadvantage because a few centuries ago, it decided to get rid of monks. Since it followed that policy, a greater responsibility falls on us to give something of ourselves to contemplation and silence, and listening to the still small voice.' " -Herbert Butterfield"
• Not a word in the prayer is original. Jonah got every word ... out of his Psalms book." Peterson goes on to argue, very persuasively, that we should be "praying" the Psalms regularly. This has become a new regular practice of mine!

Finding the Road to Nineveh Finally we find Johan in Nineveh. Although he went reluctantly, he did eventually arrive. The nature of ministry is geographical: "Pastors don't send memos, don't send generic messages, don't work from a distance: locale is part of it. It is the nature of pastoral work to be on site." Peterson goes on to describe an attitude of looking to see what Christ is doing in the lives of those entrusted to his care: "...I am not so much wondering what I am going to do or say that will be pastoral as I am alert and observant for what the risen Christ has been doing or saying that is making a gospel story out of this life." We must enter into the daily lives of the church family. When Jonah finally "got it" he "didn't stand at the edge (of Nineveh) and preach at them; he entered into the midst of their living - heard what they were saying, smelled the cooking, picked up the colloquialisms, lived 'on the economy,' not aloof from it, not superior to it.'" We need to learn to appreciate the sacredness of the every day. In summary, "Religious work-in-general is not pastoral work. it interferes with spirituality, it makes a muddle of the gospel. Our work is not to make a religious establishment succeed but to nurture the gospel of Jesus Christ into maturity. Holiness cannot be imposed;it must grow from the inside. ...And the congregation is not stupid and lumpish, waiting for pastoral enlightenment. Condescension in pastors is even worse than hostility. No, the congregation is topsoil - seething with energy and organisms that have incredible capacities for assimilating death and participating in resurrection. The only biblical stance is awe. When we see what is before us, really before us, pastors take off their shoes before the shekinah of congregation. Every parish is different...What works in that place cannot be imposed on this place...If i am dismissive of the uniqueness of this parish,...I will impose my routines on it for a few seasons, harvest a few souls, then move on...and in my belligerent folly I will miss the beauty and holiness and sheer divine life that was all the time there, unseen and unheard because of my rapacious religions ambitions." Wow! And "...note that the individuals most obsessed with the numerical aspects of growth are, typically, our adolescents....One sign of maturity is a loss of interest in these kinds of numbers. So why is there still so much adolescent measuring of religious biceps and breasts in American churches?" The daily work of ministering to one another and working through our "task lists," is the raw material of life's holiness. It is the accumulation of these things in life that amounts to more than any formal weekend teaching from the pulpit or leading others in worship from a brightly lit stage.
Quarreling with God under the Unpredictable Plant When Nineveh repented and God showed mercy "Jonah's sulking disappointment came from a failure of imagination, a failure of heart. He had no idea what God was doing, the largeness of his love and mercy and salvation. ...He had a program laid out for Nineveh ('Nineveh shall be overthrown!'). But God had a destiny to fulfill in Nineveh ('And should not I pity Nineveh...?'). ...Jonah's program was a child's index finger; God's destiny was a huge gesture.... God had purposes far exceeding anything Jonah imagined. Jonah thought he had come to Nineveh to do a religious job, to administer a religious program. God had brought Jonah to Nineveh to give him an experience of amazing grace. The tables are turned: it is no longer Jonah preaching to the people of Nineveh, but the people of Nineveh preaching to Jonah..." Peterson goes on to expound on the "mess" of dealing with people; of our plans being trumped by God's Spirit moving. Pastoral work is creative work involving "risks, mistakes, false starts, failures, frustrations, embarrassments... we must not...try to moonlight as efficiency experts in religion. We cannot nurture the life of Spirit...while holding a stopwatch. We cannot apply time management techniques to the development of souls." In conclusion, Peterson advocates a vocational paradigm shift "from pastor as program director to pastor as spiritual director. ...The spiritual-director pastor is shaped by the biblical mindset of Jesus; worship-orientation, a servant life, sacrifice. ...Spiritual direction is the act of paying attention to God, calling attention to God, being attentive to God in a person or circumstances or situation."
Making an Ending Scripture leaves the Jonah story is left unresolved. "Did Jonah spend the rest of his life avoiding the unpredictability of God...? ...We don't know....Curiosity about Jonah's final word gives way to wonder about our own. " Hmmmm. I pray God gives me the mercy and strength to finish well.

Thoughts on how we "do" church...

I (Patti) recently finished reading the book "Jim & Casper Go To Church." In this book, a Christian (Jim Henderson) hires an atheist (Matt Casper) to visit 12 various churches in America with him. They document their experiences and reactions for our benefit.
There were several points that were very enlightening "Aha" moments to me, as well as many that made me a bit uncomfortable, considering how comfortable I have often been participating in some of the very things they found to be somewhat inconsistent with our supposed mission as Christ's people. Of course, there were many things that each church was "doing right" in their opinion, but many more areas for improvement if our mission is to reach the unchurched. Several of the churches had very non-traditional ideas that excited me. I felt the book challenged me, at this time and place in my life, to be willing to think about several things: 1)What are we trying to accomplish in Sunday "large group church?" 2)How can we be more effective at making Sunday "large group church" meaningful? 3)Is this really what Jesus meant for the church to become?
What I didn't find in the book was any consideration of how ministry to children played into the life of these churches.
Their focus, by plan, was the adult "large group" Sunday Service. As any Christian knows, that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to living out our faith in a church family. However, it is certainly good to ask these questions, and try to answer them. Are we failing our adult church members by the way we "do" church on the weekend? After all, the truth is many people will never be involved in a mid-week small group or other ministry of the church. Could we do better?
Well, this was a timely read for me. As Tim and I explore possible future ministry opportunities, we will wrestle with these questions. Hopefully the new church family where we land will be open to wrestling with these questions too, and maybe even experimenting with some creative ways to improve the effectiveness of ministry to adults, while of course providing a high quality ministry to children and students. :)
If you're looking for a book to make you question how we "do" church, I think this one will make you think.
Happy reading! Love, Patti