A night of imaginings

Last night twelve adults and four youth gathered at the former Lino Lakes City Hall to look at our proposed new worship space. I believe the facility was brought to us by God. It’s almost perfect for what we need in a first facility—we will not have to set up or break down the sanctuary each week, we can use other rooms during the week, we have access to a kitchen, the folks administrating the building are excited about our presence there, the facility is located on a very well-traveled highway, it’s handicap accessible, and has enough parking. All I can say is, “thank-you, God!”

During our time last night our group enjoyed the facility and imagined how God will use this facility to help deepen a Presbyterian presence in Blaine & Lino Lakes. Barbara Anne Keely gave us a beautiful gift which we will use in our sanctuary.

Our group also spent some time discussing our upcoming Alpha ministry. Starting Wednesday, September 30 we will share a basics of faith course called, Alpha. Alpha is a world-wide course that addresses many of the questions that people have about God. We will have a meal, I will share a talk responding to the question, then we will break into small groups. We’re asking each member of our new community to participate in the “Just bring one campaign.” We’re encouraging everyone to just bring one person who is outside our community to Alpha.

We also had a very fruitful discussion about the future Core Values of Chain of Lakes Church. A Core Value is a principle, standard, or quality that is foundational to our community. In the days ahead it looks like we will gather on two Sunday evenings to decide on four or five Core Values for our community.

I am energized by developing our Core Values. I shared with our group last night that most people in churches never have the opportunity to decide the Core Values of a church. Deciding on our Core Values will influence the character and identity of Chain of Lakes Church for years (perhaps decades) to come. How cool is that!

Finally we celebrated that our faith community gave 20 backpacks with school supplies to CEAP. CEAP gives out thousands of backpacks to children in Anoka County who need them. I arbitrarily set a goal of our community giving 20 backpacks. And we ended up with—20 backpacks. Hmmmm. The Spirit is working. I give thanks for the generosity of the people at Chain of Lakes.

Mostly, the evening was a night of imaginings. We imagined how hundreds of people will be touched by God and our new faith community in this new facility.