John Wega, US Christian Commission

I asked John Wega of the US Christian Commission to come and be interviewed for my "Developing Outreach and Discipleship Programs" class tonight. (Thanks Tom Rees for this fantastic class idea).

John, a member of Bethel Assembly in Littlestown,  is doing some amazing outreach to tourists in Gettysburg. A few years ago he (A medical biologist) discovered that there were thousands of virtually untold stories of how believers ministered to the soldiers who fought and died at Gettysburg, and brought thousands of them to Christ.

John has become an dominant historian, documenting and collecting these stories of Christian work around and through the Civil War battles. He has re-constituted the US Christian Commission, and is again using it as a platform for reaching people with eternal life. He builds and conducts tireless period-perfect chapels on the battlefields and in the town of Gettysburg, challenging listeners with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He owns and operates a museum, conducts "living histry' exhibits that really honor both the history and Jesus, and conducts tours that honor the men and women who worked so hard to help hurting soldiers, and make an eternal difference.

I have often been deeply frustrated with how little I or we do to reach the millions of tourists who visit Gettysburg. John really encouraged me with the work that he is doing, and the affect that it is having. He is a man of real vision, courage, and positive action for God.

Way to go John!

Gotta be a God thing

If this is gonna happen- if we are going to be able to plant 10 churches in partnership with other churches in the community, well, it is going to HAVE to be a God thing.

I am more and more aware of how difficult it can be for churches to work together closely on a project such as this. I am not amazed that it doesn't happen more.

I guess the bottom line is, we are asking churches to trust us that we will make this a win for them, and will do everything we can to make it something that will cause their churches to grow, even while they plant another one.

We are trusting in God to make that happen. Not because it's our idea (planting churches). It's His. And He will do it -build His church- with or without us.

I want it to be with.

Christmas night in the emergency room

So I had a great Christmas...mostly.

Christmas morning we have Candace & Aaron, Jake & Shawna, and Julie's immediate family over for a breakfast feast. Then in the afternoon we went to Grandmas in Millersville. Very nice.

When we got home there was a mound of Christmas goodies that nice people at church gave us. I took a couple of hands full of some kind of candy coated popcorn and nuts thing, and ate it like there was going to be a famine. Like I needed more junk.

About 15 minutes later, I started feeling pressure in my stomach. It got worse, and worse untilI had trouble breathing and functioning at all. I was very tired from doing the three Christmas Eve service, and had wanted to go to bed early. But instead, I paced the floor in the worst agony I have ever been in.

For hours.

Julie prayed over me awhile. Finally, I told her to please to go to bed, while I walked and twisted to get some kind of relief. I tried laying, and sitting, and doing whatever I could think of to get a little relief. Nothing seemed to help. I was crying in excruciating pain. About 3:17am I had enough. I left Julie a note to please sleep on, but I was going to the hospital to find out how a lizard had crawled into my stomach and had a thousand babies.

In the hospital, they told me that I had gallstones, and that I might get more attacks until I one day get tired of it and take out my gallbladder.

So today I am sore from all the tension of being in so much pain. I am also a bit suspicious of food- it may not be my friend anymore. And I am seeking answers about gall stones.

Steve and Tracy Wulf

In the rush of deadlines and Christmas events, I have still not written about my friend Steve Wulf. Steve and Tracy have planted Connection Point church in Tampa in September. They are dong quite well. Steve is full of vision, passion, and excellence. I got to meet Tracy's Dad, who is also part of the team, the worship leader, and another leader or two.

I believe Steve and Tracy are excellent leaders and will go far. They have a great plan and are executing it very well. Not only will they plant this church, but many more churches will come out of this one as well.

These days 60 people gather weekly and being assimilated into a powerful force for God in the Citrus Park area of Tampa. Discipleship is happening, and the group is growing steadily. Outreach plans and development ideas are flowing.

Because this church exists, precious individuals will live for eternity in Heaven. Marriages will become storybook love lives, and serious illnesses will be healed, and world changing children will be raised. I am deeply honored to have friends like Steve and Tracy, and believe that God will use them incredibly to do great things.

Freedom Valley got to play a very small role in this new church's planting. We are the sponsoring church, have given a few dollars, and have guarateed their financial responsbility to ARC. I am chairman of the board. I pray for them often, and we hope to be able to give more finances in the near future. These items don't seem like much but it is an honor to have ANY role in something this powerful.

God has a great plan, and I am always amazed that He allows me to be part of it.  Life giving churches being planted are one of the great thrills of my life, and certainly the great hope for America.

strategy wanted

I would like to be the kind of guy that thinks big. Big enough to build actual plans to affect an entire nation with goodness, forgiveness, love, and vision. 

Jesus.

Does that kind of stuff only happen by circumstantial fortune? Or is there a way to strategically make it happen?

There are 4 million people in Tampa alone, I was told today. We found a couple of new and  growing churches. Some of them are doing stupendous jobs, but still only reaching several thousand all together. To reach this city (only one of many in my beloved country), we would need literally hundreds of them if we were content to raise the water level by only 10 degrees!

God has given us a tiny little plan to raise the water level in a tiny little county (Adams) by a degree or two- perhaps even three if we are blessed. That could make a big difference for us. But if we want to reach a nation, somebody needs to think a LOT larger than ANY plans I have heard of.

God, please help me think a little more of your thoughts. Help me do my part on my scale, while I seek and find you on how to do a far larger thing than I even know how to imagine. 

My big brother is 18 years older than me. He talks of retirement, and fights health issues. If I become like him in the next 18 years, I would surely like to make them count in a way that gets a lot of people walking into Heaven for eternity.

holding the new baby

Almost 22 years ago, I held my oldest daughter for the first time.

I was completely unprepared for the rush of feelings and powerful ideas that rocked my world as I held her. I couldn't stop looking at her, or finding other people who had to look at her too. And if some unfortunate soul in a rough mood would have looked at her even slightly oddly, I would be in prison for life.

It's not the same, but neither is it unrelated to what I feel this week as I travel to Tampa and spend a little time in the world of our newest church plant, Connection Point.

Don't get me wrong. I had little to do with this church plant. But we helped where we could, and need to celebrate what God did in bringing this new entity into the world. Steve and Tracy Wulf are the church planters, and people I am very proud to work with.

The bottom line is, people will spend eternity in Heaven because of this new church. This is as exciting as when each of my four awesome children were born.

I can't wait to see and hear about what God is doing.

heroes are standing up

Wow. I was hardly prepared for the avalanche of family issues that this past weekend brought up. Yesterday it was something like 3:30pm when I finally got done praying with couples, families, and individuals who had to face the wreckage of sinful lives- either their own or someone else's.

Several marriages dealt with infidelity for the first time. I talked to kids who wanted to know how to handle an abusive parent- some Mom's and some Dad's. I talked to quite a few very remorseful people who made huge mistakes and now have to face forgiving themselves even more than other people.

I count it unspeakably precious to be able to help in difficult places like these. And by the grace of God, I believe in some ways, I did.

From time to time, someone tells me that they wouldn't want my job, because it involves to much "playing in the sewer of human pain". But this is the job I was born to do and I am thrilled beyond belief when I get to do it, and it helps someone. All I do, is lead them to the foot of the cross, and help them see the value of bending their knee before a forgiving and understanding God who is acquainted with pain and can help them heal.

And after years of doing this job, here's what I know. Every person who finds their way through these excruciatingly painful events and survives it by falling on their knees before Jesus, will emerge with the strength and vitality of a super-hero. I never get tired of seeing that happen.

So you think your family's messed up?

We are into the real Christmas story again this week, with "I'll be home for Christmas" 2: Making Family Count.

There's a lot to learn out of the family Jesus chose:

1. Greatness can come out of all kinds of wreckage of family life. There was a lot of dysfunctionality in the family history Jesus chose to come to the earth in. But somebody stood up, reached for character and greatness, and chose not to allow the labels of the past to define the present.

2. Great leaders of great families know their rights, but tend toward mercy. Joseph knew it was his right to end the engagement when he heard that Mary was pregnant and not by him. But while he could end it, he didn't. He tended toward mercy when he had the chance, and reaped the rewards that can only come when mercy pays off.

3. They stepped into glory, by hearing God's voice. Joseph and Mary were asked to do things that no one else had ever done, were not well thought of, and seemed impossible. But by hearing His voice when he spoke, they stepped into the kind of history that is only made when somebody emerges from the bland landscape of everyday humanity and becomes great by doing what God called him to do.

oh wretched man

I am more and more aware of how different I am as a person. 

Two weeks ago, my niece wrote on the Stoltzfoos Family Yahoo Group that she wanted to do a "fabric exchange" at the Stoltzfoos family Christmas thing. I'll be honest; I cannot imagine spending more than about 12 seconds discussing fabric. I could not have known a subject that I am less interested in.

But that little email blurb generated a ton of interest. I didn't know the Stoltzfoos's had so much to say! On and on the 'fabric' discussion went, like we were talking about something interesting(!) like motorcycles, or church. You know, fun stuff. At least to me.

And I discovered recently that there are people out there who love the color purple. Which to me, is a little like loving the devil. Or Osama Ben Laden. It seems unthinkable in my tiny brain.

And then there is leadership. When I get with other leaders, I realize that my leadership thinking is way different. We start at a different place, take different paths to any given destination, and struggle to see the end point as the same place.

And I suspect that it is not them that is wrong, usually- it is me. 

I guess I thought I was a pretty regular guy. A pretty normal dude. But recently, I am painfully aware that I am just... not... normal.

Sorry world. I hope my abnormalities don't bother too many people, or make too many people feel like they are the strange ones. For those of you still reading this drivel, please know that I know that it is definitely me who is the odd one. I fervently hope that my strong and odd opinions are not the source of pain for the people around me.

Know that I am writing this tongue-in-cheek. I sort of like who I am even if I am different. But I genuinely hope I don't bother other people with it.

God, please help me not hurt people with my oddities.

15 church planters needed

My current time with God is being spent on one question; how does one go about finding 15 church planters? Because while the goal is to plant at least 10 new churches, I would like to recruit 15 church planters by June 1, 09, so there there is room for attrition in the ranks as leaders decide whether or not this is their calling, and this is the time.

So how do we do that, -find 15 church planting teams?

Maybe I can write it out and discover something by trying to express it. maybe someone who reads this blog will have an idea. My current thought is something like this:

We find someone who can visit the twelve key churches (and other churches that later choose to get involved), and share the dream with congregations, asking for those who might be interested in exploring church planting to come to a special exploratory meeting on the subject.

Here are perhaps some of the characteristics of a church planter:

a. Already leading in some way.

b. Has brought someone to Christ within the last year

c. Has demonstrated ability to believe for something that does not yet exist.

d. Has an interest in seeing the Kingdom expanded.

e. Is self motivated

f. Has already started something successfully

g. Is passionate about the body of Christ growing in excellence

h. Is passionate to make disciples of Christ.

i. Has demonstrated an ability to recruit and lead a team

j. Tends to stick to what they started.

Anyone else have any ideas about how to do this crucial step?