The past few weeks have been the calm before the storm for Chris and me. We’ve had a relatively quiet schedule and actually enjoyed a few relaxing evenings at home. All of that will change in a good way tomorrow night when Aaron and Danielle arrive with our two “Chinese” grandkids, 3 year old Ellie and one year old Aiden. They’ll be with us for a couple of weeks and then we will fly with them to Amarillo to visit family and on to LA to help them get settled in there. It will be a fun, but action packed few weeks. We’ll maybe have another relaxing evening in late August

Twin Oaks is also enjoying the calm before the storm. We keep the church calendar relatively light in August as ministry leaders are busy gearing up for the fall and families are getting in final trips before school starts. But behind the scenes there is a lot of planning and dreaming going on and excitement about what God has in store for the rest of the year at Twin Oaks. So as you enjoy the remaining weeks of summer please keep Twin Oaks in your prayers each day; take advantage of the great ministry that is still happening each week; and be faithful in your giving (for some odd reason giving has been very low in July even though attendance has been pretty good for summer) And look forward to a great season of blessing beginning in September.

This Sunday we’ll wrap up our “GROW” series with a look at “Self Control When You Feel Like Losing It”. How do you keep your cool when you are betrayed, slandered, attacked? Jesus will show us the way this Sunday as we look at events in the last week of His life. Invite a friend for this practical and informative message.

Golf is a tough game to learn, and an impossible game to perfect. The latter truth is on display every weekend on network broadcasts where you can see the best golfers in the world miss 2 foot putts. The former truth was on display last Saturday in the 4^th annual Greater Twin Oaks Open Championship Classic. The Twin Oaks field was filled with experienced “pros”, pure beginners, and long time players who looked like pure beginners (namely the writer of this update you are reading). I sympathized so much with the guys who were struggling with this new sport they were just taking up that I played the first few holes as if I had never picked up a club before.  And I was reminded that to play well, you have to play often (plus some lessons, practice, and patience are very helpful as well). The best players spend hours practicing how to hit out of a sand trap so that when the moment comes that they need that shot, they know what to do.

The experience reminded me that the Christian walk also has a big learning curve. No one comes out of the baptistery walking like Jesus. Discipleship takes time, effort, study, encouragement, perseverance. And you can’t just decide to occasionally pop into church to worship, read your Bible every great once in awhile, obey God when it is convenient, and then expect when temptation comes you’ll be able to stand strong. Becoming like Jesus is only the result of purposeful, determined effort over a long period of time. And we won’t perfect it till we get to heaven. But if we really want it - if we really apply ourselves and seek the help of God’s Spirit we will continually GROW to become more and more like Him.

That’s what we are talking about this summer in our GROW series. This week we talk about “Goodness When Temptation Rages”. Like a golfer who finds himself in a sand trap, we need know how we are going to get ourselves out of there BEFORE we are in a tough spot. Again this week we’ll look at Jesus’ example as He teaches us how to prepare ourselves to successfully resist temptations and live lives of integrity. I hope to see you there.

We’ve made a ton of changes in the 20 years I’ve been with Twin Oaks/ Wyandotte Christian. Some were big things like changes in musical styles, broadening women’s role in the church, updating our by-laws, etc. We’ve even changed the location and name of our church. It doesn’t get much bigger than that.

Other changes were smaller, like when communion and offering come in the service, putting songs on screens instead of using hymnals, and replacing the pulpit with a chair and table. But to be honest, sometimes (Chris would tell you most of the time) I don’t like change.

The recent change in our bulletin is a good example. Last Wednesday was the first time with the redesigned bulletin and though I had approved the redesign weeks before, this first day I had to use it I was frustrated. It didn’t work for me. There wasn’t enough room for all of my announcements, no order of service (so I didn’t know when to get up and preach) it didn’t have room for some information I thought was important.  Since it is bigger than the old bulletin it won’t fit neatly into my file cabinet like the old one. I have to fold it over. I sat down in a staff meeting that afternoon and said “Don’t propose any changes today. I’m changed out!” Two days later I went to a church communications seminar where the bottom line was “Less is more.”And the speaker reaffirmed that the changes in the bulletin were good changes.

But even before that I recognized: “It’s not about me. It is about whatever helps us communicate the message of Christ better. It’s about getting more people involved in ways that will deepen their relationship with Christ.” The bulletin is just a very small tool in that mission. I liked the old bulletin just fine. It met my needs better. But it’s not about me.  One of the things I’ve appreciated about Twin Oaks through the years is that you’ve been patient as we made changes, big and small, because you cared more about the mission than you did about your personal comfort. You care more about reaching lost and hurting people than you do about having things your way. I think that’s why God has blessed and used this church like He has. And I just wanted you to know that I really love that about you.

If you are reading this while in a tent at a campground up north on a very long weekend with your family… shame on you! Put your iPad, iPod, smartphone, laptop away and spend undistracted time with your family. If you are checking your email at work… shame on you! They aren’t paying you to read emails from your pastor. But if you are leisurely checking your email in your off time… enjoy

Seriously, I hope many of you are enjoying some time away with family this week and pray that God will bless with a restful and meaningful time together. If you don’t have a church nearby I hope you will take some time Sunday to thank God for His blessings in your life, including the privilege of living in the greatest country on the planet.

If you will be in town this weekend I hope you will be at Twin Oaks as we continue our “GROW” series with a look at “Kindness in an Unkind World”. Celebrate the freedom we enjoy in America to worship and celebrate the freedom we have in Christ through a love based on relationship, not performance by setting aside worship the one who purchased that freedom with His life.  “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” (Titus 3:4-5)

Father’s Day is this Sunday and it has caused me to reflect on being a dad and to think about how proud I am of my kids. They could tell you I’ve been far from a perfect father. So I chalk their success in life to God and their mother. I’ve been thinking lately about what it means for our kids to be “successful”. Is it to get a good education; to excel in sports; to have a solid career and make lots of money? Or is it that they have a deep and growing relationship with Christ? That they reflect that in their marriage?  And if the latter two are really more important than the former ones, do we reflect that in our parenting priorities? In your home is band camp more valuable than church camp? Is a week of soccer worth more than a week at MOVE conference? What do we teach them by our example? Does serving Christ take a front seat in your calendar over serving self? What about your spending priorities? When they see what you spend your money on, what does it teach them about what is most important in your life? What does your church attendance and involvement say to them about where God fits on your priority scale? Our kids learn more from our walk than our talk. Just something to reflect on this Father’s Day.

I’m proud of my kids for many reasons, but at the top of that list is that they all love and serve Jesus in their own ways and give Him first place in their lives. I’ll take that for Father’s Day over any tie or card.

I got another email from a Twin Oaks neighbor about our sign today (You may remember the last neighbor  email  was a complaint during the “Pure Sex” series This lady wrote ” I want to thank you so much for running the message on the sign outside your church. Every morning on my way to work, I watch in eager anticipation for the words ‘Need Hope?’ to appear on the sign outside the church. As I sit at the light at Dix and King, I am reminded of my desperate need of Hope and the comforting reminder of where to find that hope in the arms of my God. Little did you know when you set up that running message board, that those words would touch someone in such a deep way, EVERY DAY?”

An hour later I was walking around the property and the sight of a mother duck with about 10 babies in our retention pond drew me down there to take a closer look. As I stood between the two ponds with the reeds whistling in the breeze it reminded me of the many times before this property was developed that I’d stand near that same spot, surrounded by 10 foot tall weeds, shattered glass, old tires and other junk. Dozens, if not hundreds of times I’d go there to pray for the future church that would one day be there. In the privacy of that vacant lot I had some great times of worship, dreamed big dreams about what God would do here, and shed a few tears in those moments when it looked like that dream would never become a reality. And I spent a lot of time praying for the people who would be impacted by the church that God would plant at Dix and King “for the display of His splendor.”  People like the lady who emailed this morning; and the man who said not long ago that he’d probably be dead today if he hadn’t gotten an invitation to Twin Oaks; and the father and son who recently found hope and a future in Christ this year and have hardly missed a service since. On a fairly regular basis someone will come up to me on a Sunday morning and say “You have no idea how my life has changed since I started coming to Twin Oaks.” Of course it is Jesus, not the church, who impacts their lives. But Twin Oaks is the tool he uses.  And some days I am amazed at how He is using us.

I’d encourage you to take a moment today to thank God for Twin Oaks and what she has meant to your walk with Christ. And while you are talking to Him, pray for those people He whose lives He will change here in the years to come.

Here are a few questions we didn’t get to in our series.

Q: Can you explain how we can love homosexuals but know homosexuality is a sin?
A: The same way we can love unrepentant gossips or gluttons or greedy people and know their behavior is sin. We are all sinners and we can’t treat some sinners differently than others. We can call sin a sin and still show love to the sinner. Jesus was “a friend of sinners” but he never condoned or played down their sin. We can accept people and treat them with respect without accepting everything about their behavior.

Q: Is “self pleasure” a sin? Yes or no.
A: No. (It is so difficult to leave it at that without the following disclaimers: Lust is a sin and anything that controls us is a sin. So if you can do it without lusting or letting it get out of control, the act itself is not a sin)

Q: We already have a building. Instead of building another building for ourselves, why not invest the $ in serving people in need? People are God’s church, not a building.
A: We agree that we shouldn’t build another building “for ourselves”. We are building the next building (Phase 2) for the thousands of children and teens in our area who don’t know Jesus and will spend eternity in hell if they don’t come to know Him. We believe the new youth center will be a useful tool in reaching them. We had a building in Wyandotte. We didn’t build our current building “for ourselves” but for the hundreds of people we felt we would reach in a new building. God has blessed that and hundreds have found Jesus here since the move so I would think everyone would agree that it was worth the expense. Also, the more people we lead to Jesus the more capacity we have to “serve people in need”. We are spending much more on missions and doing much more for those in need in our community than we did before we built this building.

Q: Will someone who is living with their mate not married, go to hell?
A: If they don’t repent and make things right, they are playing a dangerous game. Someone who is living with their mate not married is rebelling against God and obviously unrepentant about it (or they would change it). Anytime a Christian refuses to repent of sin they are in danger of “shipwrecking” their faith and eventually getting to the point of not being capable of repentance (Hebrews 6:4-6). I think Hebrews 10:26-27 should be a convicting verse for anyone who refuses for repent of any sin in their life: “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” (See also 1 John 3:6; 2 Peter 2:20-22)

Q: You talk about forgiveness for our past sins, but I find church people are the worst for holding your past over your head. Why do Christians do that when they are taught different?
A: Let’s not paint all “church people” with the same brush. I’m not sure I buy your premise, but it is true that some Christians and some churches don’t seem to get “the grace thing”. Jesus had that same problem with the religious leaders of His day. Hopefully you see the difference here at Twin Oaks. It is hard to communicate uncompromising truth and unconditional love at the same time and only Jesus got it right all the time. We all are guilty of doing differently than we are taught at times and this is only one area we need to be careful of.

Q: I was wondering why we help others with schooling but can’t help our own country with schooling?
A: If the question is in reference to the Kids Club sponsorship program in Cambodia the answer is twofold. (1) Education in America is free. Children in America are not at constant risk of being sold by their parents to pay for rice. Some of the children we help in Cambodia have already been trafficked. They live in the slums of one of the poorest countries in the world. Without education they will never make above the average wage of $300-600 a year. And even the poorest of Americans have access to food stamps and shelters. In Cambodia there is no safety net. (2) While many individual members, the café “tip jar”, and some Sunday School classes and GEMS group sponsor children, no children are sponsored from the church’s general budget.

Q: I’m a sinner, non church-goer, can/should I take communion?
A: We are all sinners. No one is “worthy” to take communion. But when you come to communion it is a time to look at your life and repent of any sin and confess it to God and get right with Him. If you aren’t willing to leave that sin with Him and walk away from it – if you are unrepentant – then you should skip communion. But the right response is to repent.

Q: Why do we close our eyes and bow our heads (down) when we should be looking up?
A: The posture isn’t important -the heart is. Both prayer postures are biblical (along with a few others)

Q: There were several questions regarding drinking (“once in awhile”; “moderate drinking, twice a week”; “getting drunk”) along with questions on smoking and smoking “legalized” pot.
A: I believe these questions would fit under the guidelines of ‘“Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything.’ (1 Corinthians 6:12) Smoking and pot have no benefit and are very addictive. Though drinking in moderation is not a sin – if you are of legal age – (and at least for Timothy had some health benefit), drunkenness is a sin, and if you are getting drunk then you are being “mastered by” it.

Q: Why is it that recently we have not been blessing the offering? Since (we are) bringing our tithes and offerings to the storehouse this is a very important part of our worship service.
A: You may have been pleased to notice since the question was submitted that we now bless the offering in the same prayer that we offer prior to the communion.

I had just spent some time this morning praying for those affected by the Joplin tornado and returned to my computer with a heavy heart. I opened my favorite web radio station and heard Laura Story singing:

“What if Your blessings come through raindrops/ What if Your healing comes through tears/ What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near/ What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?”

Needless to say my eyes filled with tears as I listened to the rest of the song and thought of our friends in Joplin. I did a Google search to see the story behind the song and, long story short, the singer, Laura Story, wrote it out of the pain of watching her new husband battle brain cancer. “Life is filled with things you don’t expect, but the Bible tells us to respond by trusting God and continuing to worship Him,” She said.  She went on to talk about how God has used this trial to open up ministry to so many other hurting people. Then she said something that I thought was so profound: “The song shows that we still have more questions than answers,” Laura confesses. “But there’s a decision that I find God is asking us to make: whether we are going to choose to interpret our circumstances based on what we hold to be true about God, or whether we’re going to judge what we hold to be true about God based on our circumstances.”

Read that one over again and dwell on it for a moment. That is the battle we all must fight when trials come and life gets hard and it sometimes seems that God’s fairness is in doubt. Maybe this is a message you need to apply to some hurt in your life today. It speaks to my wounded heart regarding my friends in Joplin.

Let me share one story from Joplin that speaks of God’s presence and power  in the middle of our storms. Natalia Puebla had just finished her freshman year at Ozark Christian College last week. She’d turned in her last papers. And Sunday she made what would end up being her last Facebook post. It was lyrics from a song that one of her teachers said summed up her life’s goal:  “No guilt in life, no fear of death-this is the power of Christ in me. From life’s first cry til final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of man, could ever pluck me from His hand. Til He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I live.”  Later that day God did call her home. Tuesday Doug Welch, one of her professors, posted “I still had a stack of papers to grade when the tornado hit. Today I looked on the top of the stack and there was Natalia Puebla’s paper about the Resurrection of Jesus. It’s a good paper, deserving of an A — but she knows this truth far better now.”

And I’m drawn back to that song I started with.

When darkness seems to win we know the pain reminds this heart/ That this is not, this is not our home/ It’s not our home

Thousands of Christian in Joplin would echo those sentiments today. They lost houses, but that was not their home. Natalia is home. And in your darkest moments let the pain remind your heart – This is not your home.

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy

And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

“Therefore we do not lose heart… For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

I’ve been taking a stroll down memory lane the past week. With the long weekend and Grant preaching last Sunday I had some extra time and decided to finally dig into the task of transferring all of our home movies from VHS to DVD. I would scan through each one to log what was on it but for some events I slowed it down to real time to savor the moment. Ashley’s first steps, family Easter Egg Hunts, Christmases, birthdays, pumpkin hunting at Venetucci Farm, Christmas tree hunting in the Rocky Mountains, Aaron’s NHS induction, Josh’s graduation, and both of the boy’s weddings.

I never would have imagined back then that in 2011 Ashley would be working on her doctorate in physical therapy at Southern Cal; Josh would be on staff with me at Twin Oaks (in addition to his successful engineering career at Ford); and Aaron would be returning from a 5 year ministry in China. I am proud of all of my kids and am excited about where God is leading them.

Because Twin Oaks is the “sending church” for Aaron and Danielle and many of you are supporters or prayer partners, let me explain their transition and what they will be doing next. Aaron will be entering Biola University in Los Angeles to get his doctorate in intercultural studies. After two years of study at Biola they will return to China for two years to do research for his doctoral thesis and write his dissertation. The purpose of all of this is to further refine an evangelism training program that he has developed that is already being used to communicate the Gospel to an Asian mindset. This program could have an impact on Asian evangelism for decades to come.

As their sending church I’d like to ask for prayers for Aaron and Danielle as they make this transition. Pray that they can find an affordable apartment in LA; that he can find a part-job at a church there to help supplement their living expenses; pray for them and the kids (1 year old Aiden and 3 year old Ellie) as they all adjust to American life after 5 years in the Asian culture. Most of all, pray that they finish strong as they wrap up this 5 year phase of their work in China, finish their seeker and discipleship studies with their students there, and say their good-byes to teammates, students, and friends. They will be with us at Twin Oaks on August 7^th to report on their work and thank you for your faithful support.

Several years ago when we decided on a name for our relocated church we chose “Twin Oaks” based on Isaiah 61:3 which says “They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.” From the beginning that has been the purpose of Twin Oaks – to display God’s splendor in this community. To bring Him glory by the way we do things within the church, but also by the way we love and serve those outside of the church. Sometimes we do that through church ministries, such as feeding the homeless in Cass Park or hosting blood drives for the Red Cross. But I really think we display His splendor even more when individual members live a life of love and service in their interactions with friends and acquaintances in the community. That thought occurred to me again this week as I put out a plea for a volunteer to look after an elderly man while his son was away for a month. I was blown away as 6 people quickly responded with “count me in”.  The 6 of you will display God’s splendor to that father and son (and all of those they tell about it). God’s splendor is on display through a husband I know who has devoted himself to the care of his wife with Alzheimer’s. Through a man who reached out to a friend going through a divorce and looking for direction and who invited him to church where the friend is finding hope through Christ. God’s splendor is displayed through a couple who took in a family that is going through rough times and needed a home. In these and hundreds of other ways you are loving and serving people in Jesus’ name. And when you do it shines the light on God, and displays His splendor. May we grow in that love and service more and more and increasingly reflect His glory till  everyone in our community knows that there is a God who loves them and desires a relationship with them through His Son.