Details, Details, Details

I am constantly amazed at the amount of details that have to be planned before I can actually invite someone to consider being part of this new church venture.  I have finally worked up a web site that I can actually update with very little frustration or confusion.  Thanks to my brother and his wife, it is not only an informative site but also very attractive and interactive.  They are both so much smarter than me in the ways of technology.  I also have business cards now telling people who we are and how to reach us!  I have had so many conversations these last few months where people have asked me for a card.  The reality is that you can't have a card until you have the details to put on the card.  So I have secured the details-web site, phone number, email address, twitter account, etc.  It seems as if  communication has become more instantaneous and more complicated. 
The other details necessary for communication are even more important.  I have read many things, gone to congregation development training and had hundreds of conversations about what kind of church we would like to be and where we see God calling us.  Then in order to communicate this discernment, articulating it in a way that will not bore people to tears, I have written the text for our website trying to help people understand. 
Also, my blog is moving to the website and the facebook page will be deleted and moved to one connected to the website.  I have had technical difficulties getting it to move.  Two of my posts have not appeared anywhere so I came back to what I know how to use!  I have also learned in this process to copy my postings to a document so when they are lost I can retrieve them.  Details, details, details.  Sometimes they can be the thing that get between us and God.  And sometimes they can be the catalyst that help someone find a relationship with God. 
Just in case you want to see our work!  We are about 85% finished and we have a few place holders for photos to be taken in the future. www.http://livingwatertulsa.com

Not The ONLY

There have been times in my life when I have been so thankful to be "not the only _______".  For me it has been not the only tall girl, white person, female, mission minded person, person in jeans, etc.  I know that this is a feeling everyone has about whatever their circumstance.  As a girl at fourteen years of age, who was six feet tall, I was thankful that their was a girl named Jaime who was a Senior in my high school.  Even though we weren't really friends and seldom spoke, I took great comfort in the fact that she was also super tall.  Because I was not the only insanely tall girl in a high school of 500 people. 
Last weekend I was blessed to spend time with people from all over the country who have started new churches, new communities of faith and new ministries.  I could hear their stories and ask them questions and they recognized where my questions were coming from without me having to explain.  It was so nice and it helped my spirit reenergize about starting the new community that I have hoping for.  Yesterday, I met a pastor in the area whose church is only 12 years old and he offered to spend time with me and I am elated.  Being the only of something can be extremely lonely.  I have missed my wonderful friends who I have made over the last 6 years at my previous church.  I have doubted why I agreed to do this in the first place. 
But I know that God has a hand and a plan for this new church.  I find myself muttering "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  This verse has helped me push through some of the fear of rejection as I visit with new people about what we are trying to do.  As I drove home from the conference I attended, I was filled with ideas and inspiration and it got me home without any sleepiness.  God even blessed with with a contact to follow up with who lives in Glenpool and her sister was my waitress in St. Louis. 

Field of Dreams

My family just returned from a family reunion on my cheesehead husband's side.  The weather in Wisconsin was lovely but they all kept complaining about how hot it was there!  It got up to 90 degrees!  For those of us living in Oklahoma, in the hottest summer on record, 90 degrees was a wonderfully cool experience.  At night it even got down to 57 degrees and we had to use a blanket.  It was so nice to remember what normal weather felt like. 
On the way home, we decided to drive through Dyersville, Iowa to see the Field of Dreams baseball field.  We discovered that the family farm where this movie was shot had been sold to some investors who will be building a baseball/softball mecca.  We thought it was important to see it while the corn still surrounded it and it resembled the humble place that was depicted in the movie.  The information on the sign taught us that 64,000 people came to this small family farm every year to see the place where the movie had been located.  Which begs the question why?  What is it about that movie that draws people?
From memory, I would have to say because it is a movie about second chances.  Every character, in one way or another, finds healing through the building of this baseball field where miraculously people bridge between heaven and earth.  One of the most famous lines in the movie is "Is this heaven?  No it's Iowa."  The cast of characters are from all kinds of backgrounds and are drawn- in a way that makes no sense at all- to this field.  And the fact that this field was built at all is a miracle.  The man who owns the farm is getting calls from the bank.  The whole town thinks he is crazy.  But he builds it anyway and miraculous things start to happen.  He listens to the still small voice who compells him to act. 
As a pastor who has been asked to start a new church in an area that is full of churches, I identify with this man.  It seems crazy to take the risk, to begin when more people are leaving churches than joining them, to start with nothing and hope for everything, to trust that still small voice that has compelled to me try.  But so many things have come together in a way that can only be explained by accepting that the Holy One has a plan that- how can I not try?  Probably the most famous line of this movie is, "If you build it, they will come."  I hope that as we build a community of faith, that people will find it a place of second chances, have moments that feel like miracles and heal in their relationship with their Creator.  Our field of dreams is right here.   

Surprises

Two things have surprised me regularly in this process of starting a new church.  The first is the loneliness. As someone who has always been part of a church community, the isolation has surprised me.  Yes, I have been meeting new people and have enjoyed hearing their stories but those relationships are new.  I have worked by getting up and going to a building full of people who collaborate with me and are there for feedback and laughter for the last six years.  Now I have to make myself get dressed and leave the house everyday with a new agenda of meeting people and getting my work done.  I have found myself feeling close the the people who check me out in a restaurant or store because they have been nice to me in their job of customer service.  That's when I realized how lonely I was.  My new community is small and we don't yet have the consistency of a weekly worship service.  My friends are new and we haven't developed the depth of relationship that will come yet and  I am missing my old friends and colleagues.  None of my training mentioned this aspect of the new church start so it surprised me. My daughter's cat has tried to comfort me.  No matter where I sit in our house, he follows me and lays near by or demands my attention by laying on the keyboard or book I am trying to use.  I am having to check myself for cat hair before I can leave the house now.
The other thing that has surprised me is the people who have reached out and contacted me about a person who lives in my area.  I have had phone calls, emails and cards from people who want to tell me about a person they know who I should reach out to.  I have actually started a file for the information so I can be intentional about making sure I follow up with every one.  I even knocked on the door of someone's home who did not know I was coming because all I had been given was an address for the lead.  It reminds me of dating, which I haven't done in 20 years, because of the constant potential for rejection.   In this process, I have met some lovely and wonderful people.  I have to rely on God's plan and purpose for this church and push through my fears.  It is an amazing journey that is defiantly not for everyone.  

Young Voices

I sit here surrounded by the youth in Okmulgee serving as Youth Force 2012. I came into this week straight off of a week of church camp. It is hard to explain to someone who hasn't had the joy of camping or serving with a group of teenagers who love Jesus how invigorating it is. The energy of young people is amazing and to have it directed at growing in their faith is a wonder to experience. I think we have to ask how we manage to have such amazing youth ministry that doesn't grow into young adults of faith. We have been using a model of youth ministry that claims success when we get big enough to move our youth into their own building with their own worship service. But what message does that send to our youth? We seperate them from the rest of the church and teach them that the "main building" doesn't have anything of relevance for them. We graduate them out of the youth program and wonder why they don't go back to the place that we have implicitly taught them has no meaning for their lives. We then wonder why they go to churches that have worship that reminds them of their youth program. This is a pattern we have to change if we want to engage young adults in our churches. If we want our youth to grow into lifetime disciples, we have to be willing to allow the entire church to respond to their needs and build relationships that span the generations. At my most previous church, one of the most meaningful things we did was connect our 7th graders to adults through a mentoring program. Both the adults and the youth are transformed by the conversations about their faith. Relationships are nurtured that never would have happened if we had taken the youth out of the main church. As we grow a new church, we have to find ways to be in conversation with the young voices in our community. We have to be willing to take young people seriously and actually listen to what they have to say. The church needs the young voices of every generation to walk boldly forward in faith, to be relevant as a voice in the wilderness. I challenge you, to start something new, something that speaks to people of every age, and takes the time to listen to the things of the heart, mind and soul that possibly could transform the world.

Vision Cook Out

Last Saturday night we had our first official gathering as a community called Living Water UMC!  We had 15 people gather in my home and share food and conversation.  The youth minister in me had everyone play the game Two Truths and A Lie.  The game is played by putting two facts about yourself and a lie on a 3x5 card.  The group tries to guess which person put in the card and then which item on the card is a lie.  We learned some amazing facts about each other.  Some of them were: who likes animals and who clearly does not (Jokes about eating our cat were made!), one of us was baptized in slimy green water at a church in Glenpool, Ashley's favorite food is jello but is jello really food?  It was a lovely evening and my prayer is that it was the beginning seed of who we will become.  I was asked that night where I got the name Living Water so I wanted to share that here.

After I was asked if I would be willing to start a church,  I went through a series of steps that included interviews, questions and a group evaluation.   During that time my husband and I tried to come up with a name and nothing seemed right..  After I was "officially" going to start a new church, my youth group, collegues, and friends all started coming up with names.  The funniest one was by a student who wanted to name it "Monkey Business UMC."  During our week of boot camp training, the need to name the church became glaringly important.  We had come up with some great names but if I googled them, they were already taken by people in the Tulsa area or the OK United Methodist community.  So as I went to bed one night, I said to God "I need help with this one.  I can't do it and you have to give me a name, please."  I went to sleep that night confidant that in the next few weeks that it would come to me if I was willing to listen.  About 2 am, my husband woke me with his snoring and I moved to the living room couch.  As soon as I laid down, it came to me "living water."  So I got up, hit the computer and didn't find a Living Water UMC in the entire state of Oklahoma.  I then did a Bible search of the words and discovered it is woven throughout the entire Bible.  I starting reading the woman at the well story and was drawn in to the perfection of how it fit my vision for the kind of church I wanted to start.  So that is how we became Living Water before we had ever met.

Mother's Eyes

I have been remiss in keeping this updated so I have a lot to catch up on today!  Last week my friend, Mike, lost his mother and I went to the funeral in Rogers, Arkansas.  The things that Mike said that day were so profound and moving that I feel the need to share them.  He read the things his mother had written in his last birthday card (she knew she was dying of her third type of cancer.)  She wrote about what a beautiful baby he had been, what a wonderful man and parent he had become and how much she loved him.  Mike talked about how he obviously wasn't perfect and that she saw him with a mother's love.  He then made the connection to how Jesus sees us with eyes full of love and a willingness to forgive when we fail to live up to our potential.  How beautiful!  To think of our creator viewing us with a mother's unfailing love and willingness to overlook our blemishes. As I/we create this new community of believers my hope is that they can experience this kind of love and we will have the courage to tell them.