Core Values

This past Saturday the Core Value Task Force at Chain of Lakes completed its work. Since September this group has met off and on. The purpose of the group was to develop the Core Values of Chain of Lakes Church.

A Core Value is a principle, quality, belief, and/or attitude that is foundational to a community. A Core Value is not a goal, a strategy, a tactic, and is not reactionary. If done right a Core Value could last beyond our lifetime.

Our hope is that our Core Values will permeate every person and ministry in our congregation.

We have worked extraordinarily hard on these Core Values. We spent three and a half hours this past Saturday coming up with the explanations for our Core Values. The final wordsmithing was invigorating!

The Steering Committee of Chain of Lakes will review and most likely vote on these Core Values this coming Thursday. If a reader of this blog has a comment about these Core Values and the explanations for them, please share your thoughts in the comments section. Would you want to be part of a church who was committed to these Core Values? If you make a comment, we’ll take them seriously.

The following are the Core Values that our Task Force developed and an explanation for each Core Value.

Hospitality
We will go out of our way to welcome people as Jesus welcomed the, with an open heart and open arms.

God’s Church
In every decision we seek to discern God’s desire. No leader, person, or ministry is more important than what God wants.

Relevance
Jesus successfully communicated his message by using examples and symbols of first century culture. We will be open to using examples and symbols of our culture to communicate Jesus’ message.

Acceptance
We accept people without judgment, regardless of what has happened in a person’s life or where someone is on his or her faith journey.

Outward Focus
We will keep the needs of the broader world before us and won’t only focus on our own congregation’s needs.

Investing in Future Generations
Our priority is to create an atmosphere where children, youth, and young adults grow in faith.

Healthy Disagreement
When we disagree we will encourage discussion while valuing all opinions. We will speak truth in love, treat others respectfully & with dignity, and seek to remain in community.

Joyful Love
We are released to love each other with joy because of what God has done for us. We are a community who enjoys spending time together and supporting each others’ journey.

A Presbyterian Mugging

One issue that every congregation eventually confronts is how to respond to first-time visitors. Research shows that timely follow-up makes a difference in whether people will attend worship a second time. When I served in Plainview I discovered through trial and error that some sort of follow-up had to be made before the next worship service. If we followed up with a first-time visitor after a worship service took place, we were shooting ourselves in the foot. I found that it was better not to follow-up then to follow up after the next worship service.

When I served at Community Presbyterian Church in Plainview, we tried all sorts of follow-up.

We tried mailing letters, but over time found that this was too impersonal.

We tried having lay people bake some bread and bring it unannounced to the door of the family. This idea worked well, but over time it was too hard to coordinate getting the bread made and dropping the bread off at someone’s home. Too often it was too much for one person to do during the week and too difficult to coordinate one person making the bread and another person dropping it off. Believe me it sounds strange that such simple tasks are too hard to coordinate, but that was my experience.

Eventually we came up with the idea of sharing a coffee mug with a person. We got this idea from Adam Hamilton, pastor of United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. As he developed his new church, he would drop off a coffee mug with every first-time visitor. In Plainview we had a very faithful woman who would drop off the coffee mug. Over time we called this a “Presbyterian mugging.”

The idea is simple. Show up unannounced at the person’s door. Choose a time when the person is most likely home. If the person comes to the door, share the coffee mug. Share with the person that we were very glad that the person came to worship, ask the person if he or she had any questions, and then encourage the person to attend worship the following Sunday.

If the person isn’t home, I write a note and put it in the mug and then call the person the next day to share that I put a mug at their doorstep.

Of course we have to get the address of the person in worship. At Chain of Lakes we put a Communications Card into every bulletin. During the announcement time in worship we ask people to get the Communication Card out of the bulletin and to fill it out.

I decided that when I came to Chain of Lakes that I would deliver the mugs myself. This past weekend we had eight new families come to worship, so one of my goals of the week is to deliver eight mugs. I delivered four mugs last night and as soon as I finish this blog will deliver the other four mugs.

My experience last night was interesting. None of the people were taken aback that I was at their door unannounced. Every person knew me because they had seen me lead worship this past Sunday. Every one of them was appreciative that I would come on a cold, February night to deliver a coffee mug. I learned something about every person when I delivered a mug. Too often evangelism is difficult because we know so little about the person. We don’t know why the person came to worship, or the person’s background, or the level of the person’s interest. Last night I was able to fill in some blanks about the four people to whom I gave a coffee mug.

I resisted going inside to talk to the people. If a person comes to worship a third time, then I will visit the person. Last night one person told me that it was an African custom to offer hospitality to a visitor, so if I didn’t come inside I was refusing hospitality. I couldn’t refuse that offer. So we visited for about a half hour. I don’t know if the family will come to worship this Sunday, but I do know that I enjoyed the visit.

A Symphony of Wows!

What a fabulous day of worship we had at our Grand Opening worship service yesterday. Because it’s such an important day a Grand Opening service should be remembered throughout the history of the church—and I believe that years from now people will still talk about what we experienced yesterday in worship at Chain of Lakes.

Numbers matter to me—mainly because numbers signify something deeper. Here are the numbers from yesterday’s service:
Over 100 people attended. The usher told me 101. We encouraged everyone to sign a communication card, but there was so much going on that everyone didn’t fill out a card. If we took the time to scan our memories, I’m sure that many more than 100 people attended. The attendance was so large that we had to open the back walls to our sanctuary. Some people sat in the hallway because the sanctuary was full.
Forty-three adults and children attended from Chain of Lakes Church. This was the most we’ve ever had attend worship from our own faith community on a Sunday morning.
Seven new families came to check us out. I’m going to have to figure out when I’ll have the time to deliver coffee mugs to each of those seven families this week.
Approximately twenty-five children came up for the time for children.
Seventeen Presbyterian churches sent representatives to support us. I think we should just declare yesterday’s meeting the second Presbytery meeting of the year. We had churches from three different Presbyteries attend, so I guess it could be called a Synod meeting too!
We collected 58 Haiti Hygiene bags which will be sent to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.
A large number of people shared their hopes and prayers for Chain of Lakes by filling out a card and pinning them to the cross we made for the service. I counted approximately 50 cards in the above picture.
Fifty-seven people voted for the topic of the next sermon series. This coming Sunday, I am starting a three-week sermon series called, “Mythbusters.” For three weeks I am going to explore the myths that prevent people from having a deeper relationship with God and with the church. On the Communication card I shared eight myths about God and the church and asked people to vote on three. The results are now tabulated. The myth that we will be exploring in worship next Sunday is-------------I can’t tell you. It’s a secret. You’ll have to come to worship next Sunday, February 7 to find out which myth we will explore.

Even more important than the numbers was how the Spirit was present in worship yesterday. The music shared by Richard and Melinda Marshall and Sue Ruby was fantastic. My daughter, Hannah, caused many of us to choke up with her song. Chaz Ruark shared a powerful message about being connected as Presbyterians. John Ivers shared his passion for Chain of Lakes when he shared the history of our new congregation. As an aside, John gently teases his wife, Gloria, about how she cries in public. When he spoke yesterday, John appropriately choked up twice. As he did the second time Gloria shouted out, “he’s put a lot of work into this project.” That was beautiful on many different levels!! Many people complimented the sermon. And the singing—wow! When Presbyterians are inspired we sure can sing! One person from Chain of Lakes decided to accept the invitation I had previously extended her to serve on our Steering Committee as she sang the final hymn, “Here I Am, Lord.” Never underestimate the power of singing!

The Scripture we heard in worship yesterday was the story in Acts 2 of the birth of the church. That story shares that “awe” came upon the group as many wonders and signs were performed. In my sermon I shared that a three-letter synonym for awe is “wow.” I believe that when we say the word, “wow” we are expressing the movement of the Spirit. Yesterday at Chain of Lakes we experienced a symphony of “wows.”

Thanks to all of the Presbyterian Churches who sent representatives. From my memory the following churches were represented at our Grand Opening.
Bloomington, Oak Grove
Buffalo, Buffalo
Chaska, Shepherd of the Hill
Columbia Heights, Church of All Nations
Coon Rapids, Church of the Master
Eden Prairie, Eden Prairie
Golden Valley, Valley
Hudson, First
Jackson, First
Minneapolis, Aldrich
Minneapolis, Lake Nokomis
Minneapolis, Westminster
Redwood Falls, First
Rochester, Community
St. Louis Park, Peace
St. Paul, Central
St. Paul, Macalester-Plymouth
Shoreview, Presbyterian Church of the Way
Waukon, Waukon

Grand Opening worship

This Sunday, January 31 at 10:30 a.m. we are celebrating our Grand Opening worship service at Chain of Lakes Church. We are worshipping at the Lino Lakes Senior Center—1189 Main Street. The Senior Center is located a half mile east of the intersection of Main and Lake Drive (#23).

I’ve used all sorts of metaphors to describe this service. First it’s a Grand Opening—we are opening our doors to the community. We’ve done a lot of advertising and direct mail for this Grand Opening. We are praying that many people in the community will come and check us out. Second, last week in worship I compared the service to the Opening Day of baseball season. We will have special guest speakers and special decorations and special food. Since we started worship in December we at Chain of Lakes have gone through spring training—preparing ourselves for Opening Day. Finally, to use New Church Development language this is our launch service. When new church development pastors get together they talk about how many people attended the launch service. I’m sure I’ll be sharing the attendance of Sunday’s worship service with many people in the future.

We have a marvelous service planned. We’ve organized the service around the theme of celebration. We’re celebrating our Presbyterian connection—Chaz Ruark, the Executive Presbyter of our Presbytery will speak and we will recognize delegations from other Presbyterian churches; we’re celebrating children—my daughter, Hannah, is singing, and we will have a special Children’s Time; we’re celebrating history—John Ivers will give a talk about the history of Chain of Lakes Church and we’ll hear a reading from Acts about the start of the church; we’re celebrating the future—in my sermon I’m going to share some of the dreams we have for Chain of Lakes Church; and we’re celebrating gifts—Richard Marshall, the co-chair of the viola section of the Minnesota Orchestra and his wife, Melinda, will share their music along with Sue Ruby. All three of them were generously loaned to us for this service from Valley Presbyterian Church. We are asking everyone to bring a Haiti Hygiene kits at the service. These kits will be given to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Contents of a Haiti Hygiene kit can be found on the blog I wrote on Thursday, January 21.

This promises to be a marvelous service, and we encourage people from the community to come.

Which leads me to my last request—and this one is aimed at the people from Chain of Lakes Church. And that request can be summed up in one word—invitation. I shared on my Facebook Page this week and the word of the week is “invitation.” Last Sunday in worship I shared that most people who join a faith community first came to the community because of an invitation shared by a friend or family member; I also shared that less than ten percent of people who join a church first attend because of an invitation by a pastor. When I encourage people at Chain of Lakes to invite I don’t do it to pass on the work of evangelism; I do it because research shows that lay folks are more successful than pastors in bringing people to a faith community for the first time. I am working on my ten percent this week—I’ve made a number of phone calls extending invitations. But I am also spending time encouraging everyone at Chain of Lakes to invite.

Two Sundays ago we passed out invitations to the Grand Opening after worship. I was touched when Nancy Amundsen got out her address book and started filling out envelopes. Now that is serious inviting!! (See the picture at the top of this blog).

Wherever you reside would you take a moment right now to pray for our Grand Opening service. Pray for the three “P’s.” People, presence, and preaching!

The pain of a Vikings' fan

My first memory of shedding tears was watching the Vikings lose to the Chiefs in Super Bowl IV in January 1970. I didn’t shed any tears when Garrett Harley kicked a 40 yard field goal in overtime last night, but the emotion I experienced was the same.

Being a Vikings fan is now rivaling being a Red Sox fan before they won the World Series and being a Brooklyn Dodgers’ fan before they beat the Yankees in 1955. Red Sox fans were convinced that they were cursed by the Bambino after they traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees. The problem for Vikings fans is our drought hasn’t been broken yet. My rational side doesn’t believe in curses, but how else can a person explain how the Vikings could lose such a winnable game.

How do the Vikings fumble twice inside the Saints ten-yard line and fumble inside their own ten-yard line?
How do the Vikings have 12 men in the huddle on the most important play of the year, AND when they were coming out of a time-out?
How does the official throw IN OVERTIME an interference flag on Leber when the ball was clearly uncatchable?
How does Brett Favre throw an interception when he and every person who has ever thrown a football know that he cannot turn the ball over in that situation?

Each of the above plays didn’t lose the game, but mix them together and the brew concocted tastes what Vikings fans were belching after the game. Terrible turnovers, bad coaching, questionable calls. Those descriptions could be used to describe the 1975 loss to the Cowboys and the 1998 loss to the Falcons and now will be used to describe yet another inglorious loss in Vikings history—2010 Saints.

My reaction to the game has illustrated that I will always be a Vikings fan. For weeks prior to the game I was joking to my friends that the Vikings had to earn my heart back. I shared that I’ve had my heart broken by the Vikings too many times to get on the bandwagon. I was going to root for them, but I wouldn’t give them my heart. Hmmmm. I guess I proved that idea wrong as I was screaming more than once at the television at my neighbors’ house last night. (And I had never been to my neighbors’ house!! Just proves that decorum goes out the window when fans are rooting for their team. What event besides sport causes us to scream without embarrassment in another person’s home?) Despite my pre-game boasts, I had deluded myself—I had given my heart to the Vikings—and they proceeded to break it again. So I guess I’m a Vikings fan again. On Facebook my fellow linebacker at Carleton told all Vikings fans not to get near the kool-aid today or do much with sharp knives. Good advice. Because many Minnesotans experienced rage at about 9:30 p.m. Central time last night.

It’s “wait ‘till next year,” again. It’s an old saying—and connects Vikings’ fans with long-suffering fans everywhere.

Haiti Hygiene Kits

One of the purposes of Chain of Lakes Church is for disciples to impact the world. Our congregation is helping make an impact through our response to the devastation wrought by the earthquake in Haiti.

Last Sunday in worship we were able to collect over $400 for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. I was blown away by the amount of this offering given by 33 people!! We will continue to collect money during worship the next two Sundays.

We are encouraging everyone who is coming to our Grand Opening worship service on Sunday, January 31 at 10:30 a.m. to bring a Haiti Hygiene Kit. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is encouraging congregations to collect these Hygiene Kits.

I’m excited that the day that we celebrating our Grand Opening service—our launch service to use New Church Development language—we are also helping to make an impact on the community. On that day we’ll interweave worship and service.

I shared with the worshipping community last Sunday that I hope we at Chain of Lakes will take some mission trips to Haiti at the appropriate time.

Haiti Hygiene Kit:
1 — hand towel (approximately 16" x 28",
no fingertip or bath towels)
1 — washcloth
1 — wide-tooth comb
1 — nail clipper (no metal files or emery
boards)
1 — bar of soap (bath size in wrapper)
1 — toothbrush (in original packaging)
6 — Band-Aids® or other adhesive
bandage strips
Please do not add toothpaste to the Hygiene Kit. Toothpaste which has an extended expiration date will be added to Hygiene Kit shipments just prior to shipment. Seal all items in a one-gallon plastic bag with a zipper closure.

Leadership Lessons from Martin Luther King

I studied Martin Luther King Jr. in a class taught by Paul Wellstone in the spring of 1985 at Carleton College. The class was called, “Social Movements and Protest Politics.” During the class we read King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” a brilliant exposition of the philosophy of non-violent resistance.

On this Federal Holiday marking King’s birthday, I found King’s letter and read it again. If we do anything to remember Martin Luther King’s birthday today, I commend all of us at a minimum to read this letter. The copy I read is here: http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

This letter had an important impact on me as I decided what to do with my life. King was writing to the white clergymen of Birmingham who were critical of the campaign that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was conducting to expose the racial injustices of the city.

What touched me when I studied this letter 25 years ago was King’s desire to reach out to these white clergymen. He appealed to a higher moral law to justify the non-violent resistant campaign that he was leading in Birmingham. King hoped that these white clergymen could see that it was only through non-violent resistance would the conditions in Birmingham change. He appealed directly to their heart and their own sense of morality.

As a junior in college this had a deep impact on me. I began to believe even more deeply that change in our world could not take place unless people could transcend the differences of race and class to work together for good. The seeds of these beliefs had been planted in me when I lived in inner-city Kansas City, Kansas as an elementary-age boy. While there I questioned how the rich, white people in Johnson County could live with themselves while people suffered from poverty in the neighborhood where I lived.

The ideal is quite simple: people transcending differences to work for good. The application is terribly hard. But the ideal that King communicated is worthy of our life’s devotion.

I eventually came to the conclusion that the church is the best institution in our world to help people overcome differences to work for good.

This ideal is so different than the approach Pat Robertson has taken in regards to the horrific earthquake in Haiti. Robertson saw the earthquake as an expression of God’s wrath for Haiti’s “pact with the devil.” I can’t help but reflect on the differences between Robertson and King.

Both looked at terrible suffering. Robertson responded by blaming the victims; King would have responded by helping the victims. Robertson responded by appealing to the devil’s work; King would have responded by appealing to a higher moral law. Robertson created division; King would have worked to bring people together. Robertson responded by controversy that divided people; if King had responded in a controversial way he would have done it to expose injustice in hopes that human hearts would be touched so that aid would be delivered.

On this national holiday let us all commit ourselves again to the simple, but profoundly difficult task of overcoming our differences to work for good.