This Week At Foothills

I love being a part of all that God is doing here at Foothills Community Church.  I have the privilege of having a front row seat to life change everyday.  Our purpose here at Foothills is to reach the thousands of unchurched people in our geographic area with the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ and to equip them to experience His presence and demonstrate His power.  It happens everyday!

I also have the privilege of experiencing all this with a great group of people!  Love the team God has allowed me to work with!  Each week youth pastor Sam Stuckey and I put out very fun video highlighting all that God is doing around Foothills.

I give you This Week At Foothills...



Who said church announcements needs to be boring?!

Strangers

Spent some time last night talking to students about the importance and power of sharing our faith with others.  Over the course of the discussion the realization came to them, that not sharing their faith was a pretty selfish decision.  Christ has given us an amazing gift; the gift of salvation.  It is a gift not to be hoarded but rather shared.

Jesus makes it clear that we are to be engaged in sharing our faith.  The amazing part of it all is how God uses that.  We may think that our only impact is on those we spend time with, but the truth is, it goes much further than that.  That stranger sitting next to you in the coffee shop may be following Jesus, because of you!

 

Another Year Down

As 2011 comes to a close I must give pause to reflect on the amazing year it has been.   After a three year odyssey of a whole lot of change and uncertainty, 2011 has been the year in which the dust finally settled.

Each day we find our selves thanking God for the way He has provided and blessed.  He has blessed us with a new home, new relationships, and an incredible church community to name just a few.  Our hearts are full.

As is our family tradition over the past few years we have put together sort of an online Christmas greeting.  A video that looks back of the past 12 months showcasing some of the many highlights.

Here's to 2012.  I look forward to what it holds.

Christmas Blessing Ministry

Love being a part of a church that cares so much for the community.





Thank you Foothills!

Beauty Abounds

How often do you take the time to slow down and just appreciate?

Appreciate the blessings in life.

Appreciate the little things.

Appreciate the big things.

In this fast paced and oft times increasingly negative world we live in, it's much too easy to miss the beauty,  yet there is beauty all around us.

There is beauty in a smile.

There is beauty in the giggle of a child.

There is beauty in the changing seasons.

There was beauty in the ice formation I found on my windshield the other morning.



In the words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it."


In every passing second there is beauty.  Stop and appreciate.



Where do you find beauty?

Where I Live

I live in the state of Oregon.  Oregon is a stunningly beautiful place.  A true gem of God's creation!

Uncage The Soul Video Productions has just produced an incredible video entitled "Finding Oregon."  The video a 6 month compilation of time lapse photography captures the states unparalleled beauty.  It features the Columbia River Gorge, Mt Hood, Mt Jefferson, the Southwestern Coast, the Alvord Desert, Leslie Gulch, Blue Mountains, Crater Lake, Eagle Cap Wilderness, Deschutes River, and more.



Read more about what it took to capture these stunning scenes here.  

Ready to visit?

Child Sponsorship

I just learned about an incredible interactive web series produced by Missions in Action, a ministry with the simple purpose of making a difference around the world.  They currently have a team traveling around the globe for the purpose of

1. Identifying a problem somewhere around the world that people are facing.
2. Highlighting the actions that individuals and/or companies are taking to help those in need.
3. Providing a way for viewers to help out through a specific call to action.

As a long time child sponsor and a blogger for Compassion International I am excited about the impact this series will have.

They currently are in the Philippians visiting children and families who live in extreme poverty in the flooded villages of Northern Manila, and showcasing the power of child sponsorship.

Watch this powerful first episode and then ask God what role He might have you play.

I have so enjoyed the relationships I have had over the years with various children.  Currently my family and I have the privilege of sponsoring  Fernando Isaac Tetlalmatzi Reyes in Mexico and so enjoy the developing relationship we have with him.  What a joy it is for my family knowing that we are blessing a young boy living in the midst of great need.

If you have not already done so, I encourage you to consider becoming a child sponsor.  You will bless a child in untold ways and you yourself will experience blessing like never before.

Persecuted

Last week I had the privilege of being at the Right Now conference in Dallas Texas.  In a question and answer session with Francis Chan, Francis was speaking about his recent experience in India.  When asked what the Church of India thought about the American Church he simply replied, they don't understand it.

He said, they couldn't understand why people would leave their church.  Why would a believer leave their church because they did not like they way their pastor preached?  Why would a follower of Jesus leave their church because they did not like the music?  Why would one leave their church because the children's ministry was not exactly to their liking?  You see for those that follow Jesus in a place like India, they put their very lives at risk to follow Him.  Faith is not something they claim with their lips but rather something they risk their lives for.

This Sunday is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  This Sunday as we head off to church with not a care in the world many thousands around the world are putting their lives in danger doing the same thing.

May this video produced by K.P. Yohannan, the founder and international director for Gospel for Asia move you like it did me.  May it remind us to not only pray for the 40,000 people that are put to death for surrendering their lives to Jesus, but also help us consider our own journey with Jesus.  May it cause us to fully surrender to the One that did likewise for us.

Big Buts

We are great at coming up with excuses.  Let's just make sure our buts are not bigger than our whys?

God calls us to a life of surrender and sacrifice.  May we not forget that we can do all things through Him who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13).

HT: Rodney Olsen

Life Together

As a pastor I think a great deal about what God desires for the Church.  What should we value?  What should our gatherings look like?  What is our purpose?  While I believe there is much God desires from the Church, one thing I know, is He wants us to experience life together.  We were never meant to live in isolation.  Life, in community with one another, is what we are called to.

To do so is messy, challenging, exhilarating, and life changing.  This fall at Foothills we are placing a great emphasis on Life Groups.  Life Groups are small groups of people joining together to live out the five purposes of our church, Prayer, Outreach, Worship, Edification, and Relationships.  They are are small groups committed to doing life together.

Sometimes the best way to describe what something is, is to show what it is not...  

How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!  Psalm 133:1

Mission of The Church

I love the Church. I am thankful God has given her to us. I can't imagine doing life without the amazing community of people God has placed me in.

So many times I have heard, "I have Jesus; I don't need the Church," or "I love God, I just can't stand the Church." While it may be true, fellowship with the Church does not equal salvation, we still need the Church, and the Church needs us. Yes the Church is far from perfect, yet in all it's messy imperfection God chooses to use us to impact the world with His message of love.

We as God's people are called to a life of mission. The mission ... the building of God's Kingdom. What makes it exciting, is we are not called to do it alone, rather we are called together into this great adventure. The mission of the Church matters and it is through the unity of the Church that it will be accomplished.



"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25

Consumer Worship

In speaking on the importance of worship, one of my college profs once said something that has always stuck with me.  He said, "In America we worship our play and play at our worship."  A sad, and yet fairly accurate assessment of the view of worship in the American Church.



We have done a good job of reducing worship down to something we consume as opposed to a lifestyle we live.  Worship is more than a quick weekly fix on a Sunday morning.  It is even more than a daily time alone with God.  It was Jesus that instructed us to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind" (Luke 10:27).  Not something done on the fly!

May we remember, it is not about us.  It is about the Person of our worship, the One that deserves our full and continual attention and adoration.  May the words of the Psalmist ring true in our lives.

Not to us, LORD, not to us
   but to your name be the glory,
   because of your love and faithfulness. 

Psalm 115:1