Groundbreaking at Chain of Lakes Church

 

What a day! Chain of Lakes Church broke ground yesterday on our first-phase building. It was a day that the people in our congregation had been waiting for a long time. I shared in my sermon that the length of our wait made the day even sweeter. And oh was it sweet!

I’ve shared with folks at Chain of Lakes that if our events have PIE they will be successful, that is Prayer; Internal Enthusiasm; External Curiosity. I know the Groundbreaking received plenty of prayer. This is practically all I’ve been praying about for the last week. The Internal Enthusiasm was apparent to me when I arrived around 9:15am, seventy-five minutes before worship. Already close to twenty people had already arrived to help with the set-up. I discovered the external curiosity during the week as almost everyone who I invited seemed interested.

Chain of Lakes has had a team who met every Tuesday for the past five weeks to plan the Groundbreaking. And the team’s attention to detail was beautiful. They had three large tents set up and an additional five smaller tents along with 150 chairs and a sound system.  All of it was hauled to the property and set up. And everything worked beautifully.

But once the service started the logistics moved to the background and God’s Spirit took over. We started worship with a trumpet playing sections of Copeland’s Appalachian Spring. These were the first sounds in the worship space. Worship was held in the approximate space where the future worship space in the first-phase building will be. We called this the first worship service in the new space.  Obi Anizor, Val Owens, and my daughter, Hannah Moore, shared a litany of welcome. I wasn’t in tears only because I was focusing on not weeping. And before worship someone from the Praise Band playfully shared with me that they would give me $100 if I didn’t cry. The Music by the Praise Band was joyous. John Ivers shared the story of Chain of Lakes and then John Altrichter shared the story of the Building Campaign and thanked the large number of people who have given their time to this campaign over the last five years. We heard the story of the start of the church in Acts 2. And then I preached.

In my sermon I told many stories.  I shared the story of my wife, Amy and me coming to Blaine and ultimately receiving a call to build the one church. She is the Administrator at St. Joesph by the Lakes Catholic Church in Lino Lakes, and I’m the pastor of Chain of Lakes in Blaine. Through our leadership in these two congregations, we’re building the church. I looked at the story of Acts 2 and marveled at the spiritual energy. It was the spiritual energy that we were feeling yesterday.  I said.

It is a spiritual energy that comes from God and is available to all. It’s the energy of the church.  It’s much more than let’s jump up and down and wave our hands.  It’s the energy that inspires us to love each other deeply.  We won’t tolerate hunger because we can’t bear to see people who are hungry; we won’t tolerate unnecessary suffering, and we will go out of our way to care for people who are suffering.  We want people to experience this energy so we encourage people to learn the Scriptures, and have a relationship with Jesus; we encourage people to worship weekly because when people do they can experience the source of this energy; we won’t tolerate homelessness because that’s not what God intends for humans; we won’t tolerate or give in to divisions or extreme partisanship because God wants us to be together. 

And we celebrated what the church can mean to us. I shared that the

the church—is the ekkelsia, which is a Greek word that essentially means, “the community that is called out to represent something special.”  A community where people do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God; a place where individuals live by the Fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  A place where people are safe—and are given the space to heal from the wounds they’ve experienced.  A place where people discover who they are—what I call the Inspirational Intersection.  A place where people call the world to justice and righteousness.  And ultimately a place where everyone notices—like Tertullian did in the 2nd century—who noticed church people and wrote, “look how they love each other.”

 After the sermon I asked people to stand and recommit themselves to Chain of Lakes Church. Everyone else held up their hands in blessing. I then had everyone else stand and recommit themselves to building up the church. The people from Chain of Lakes held up their hands in blessing.

 At the end of worship we gathered to break ground. Everyone was encouraged to bring a shovel and most did. And though the ground was hard because of the lack of rain, we were eventually able to move dirt. Everyone who was present could receive a commemorative shovel and a small flower pot into which they could put their dirt.

After worship many of the kids kept digging their holes—for which kid doesn’t like to dig in the dirt?

Portions of the service can be viewed at: vimeo.com/manage/videos/587573200

The whole day was a symphony of wows. I was filled with awe because of the many wonders that were done. And just like that community in Acts was touched by what they saw, I felt the same way. This was one of the most moving services I had the opportunity to lead. The spirit from the service will stay with me for a long time.

 After worship we stayed for a long time to talk and celebrate and share many hugs. A large number of people from Chain of Lakes were hauling chairs two hours after worship ended. Many of the pictures of the day were shared on the Chain of Lakes Facebook page.

And so we move on—and we look forward to the start of construction. Assuming that final details of an additional loan will be approved, (we need the loan because the cost of materials have increased by a hundred thousand), construction will start in September.

I can’t wait to see dirt moved and then see a building arise. I know that the soil for that building has been prepared and the foundation has been set.

So many memories from yesterday. The happiness of an event well planned, managed, and executed will stay with me for a long time. And a day when I said, “wow” quite often. When I hear or say the word, “wow” I know that God is nearby because God is in the business of orchestrating wow. And yesterday God was the masterful conductor.

Would you take a moment to subscribe to this blog?  Put your email in the box on the right hand side of this blog.  You'll be asked a few questions to ensure you are really a human being.  You'll then receive an email whenever a blog is posted

The Community is invited! Groundbreaking celebration

 

I want to invite the community to the Groundbreaking on the first-phase building at Chain of Lakes on Sunday, August 15 at 10:30am. The worship service/groundbreaking will take place under a tent(s), so it will happen rain or shine. It's BYOS--Bring Your Own Shovel! It's not necessary, but if you know you are coming sign up at colpres.org and/or on the Facebook Event page. 

This event is meant for the wider community as the people of Chain of Lakes Church have always wanted to make an impact in the wider community. At the very first worship service Chain of Lakes collected Haiti Hygiene bags as a way to provide relief after the horrific earthquake in Haiti. For the past five years, Chain of Lakes has committed our congregation to be part of a movement to end homelessness in Anoka County. We do this by establishing partnerships with organizations who provide direct relief to homeless groups. We currently have partnerships with HOPE 4 Youth, Stepping Stone, Blaine High School, and HOPE for the Community. In the past two months we’ve established partnerships with River Trails Learning Center and Threshold to New Life. 

Our commitment to service comes from our faith. Being part of a movement that ends homelessness is more than “doing good.” It’s our own commitment to the Kingdom that Jesus launched when he came to the earth. 

The people of Chain of Lakes love to grow in personal faith. We have great dreams for prayer, and small groups, and worship in the new building. We have a deep desire to help people grow in their faith life, to be healthy in their relationship life, to be healed from the pain of past wounds, and to discover their identity (which I call the Inspirational Intersection, which is the intersection between what God wants us to do and be & what we want to do and be.) 

Chain of Lakes has worshiped in many different worship locations. We started at the Lino Lakes Senior Center, then worshiped at Da Vinci Academy, Roosevelt Middle School, Northpoint Elementary School, and since late 2014 at our location on Davenport. For the past two summers we’ve shared Drive-In worship on the church property. Our goal has always been to create a building in the Lakes neighborhood. Now we are finally ready to break ground. 

In finding out about the groundbreaking many people have shared congratulations and rewarded our congregation on our patience. We never thought it would take 12 years to celebrate a groundbreaking. I think these past 12 years have taught our congregation patience and dependance on God. We could have never gotten to this point without the workings of the Spirit. 

Come celebrate this Sunday, August 15 at 10:30 on the church property. The property is located on Main just east of Malmborg’s Nursery. Go to colpres.org for more information. 

Come and enjoy this community celebration!

 

 

Rebuilding not reloading--the disappointment of the Jose Berrios trade

I’ve been a fan of the Minnesota Twins ever since I listened to Herb Carneal and Halsey Hall broadcast games from the old Metropolitan Stadium. I used to keep score on an old red scorebook.  I still haven’t figured out why a shortstop is a “6” when a third basemen is a “5” and a second basemen a “4.” I’ve always been a fan. Fans have opinions, and I’m writing to share my opinion about the recent Jose Berrios trade. 

I wish the trade hadn’t happened. Even if the management of the Twins has received kudos for getting Austin Martin and Simeon Woods-Richardson, two high prospects for Berrios, the trade indicates that once again the Twins are in rebuilding mode instead of reloading mode.  Twins fans went into this season hoping that we would win a playoff series and at a minimum a playoff game. Now we’re hoping the Twins can make the playoffs in 2023. 

 It seems to me that it didn’t have to be this way. The Twins could have signed him during the off-season of 2019. Instead they haggled in arbitration. The Twins won the case, but lost the optics. Then they could have signed him after last season when Berrios again did well. I still don’t understand why Rocco took him out at the end of five innings in the playoffs last year. I remember seeing Berrios arguing in a professional way with Rocco in the dugout. He lost the argument; the Twins lost the game; now the Twins have lost Berrios, and Twins fans have lost any hope of winning a playoff series. 

This isn’t the first time the Twins have traded their ace for prospects. And it has worked out. I remember when the Twins traded Frank Viola to the Mets. That turned out to be a fabulous trade as Kevin Tapani and Rick Aguilera led the Twins to two World Series titles. I remember the Johan Santan trade when the Twins traded him again to the Mets for Carlos Gomez and others who most don’t remember.

Trading Berrios makes me feel the Twins are a small market team again. I could understand the Twins trading our ace pitchers when they played in the Metrodome. That stadium never allowed the Twins the revenue streams they needed to pay for an ace. But the Twins promised that playing in Target Field was going to change this equation. We were going to keep our homegrown stars and money was not going to be an object to keeping the players that they developed.

The Twins kept their promise by signing Joe Mauer to a 184 million dollar contract.

But now we’re back to rebuilding mode. This trade feels like it has brought the Twins back to the Metrodome days.  A player is developed and then traded off for prospects. The prospects might be good and like the Viola trade they might lead the Twins to the World Series. But I think that Berrios could have led the Twins to the playoffs. I’m more interested in them consistently winning playoff games then having highly rated prospects.

The Twins have rewarded their fans with championships. I’ll never forget watching Frank Viola shut down the Cardinals in game 7 in 1987; and who can forget Kirby’s homerun and then Jack’s masterpiece in 1991. The Twins made the AL Championship in 2002 and have won eight division titles in the last twenty years.  We’ve had reasons to celebrate. And with Derek Falvey and Thad Levine it seemed that the Twins were going to replace non-productive players with younger players from their farm system without missing a beat.

But this trade reveals that the team has missed a beat. Quality pitching at the top of the rotation hardly exists right now.

Which leads me to my final point—sign Byron Buxton! Like Berrios he is a player that the Twins developed from the farm system. And he has been injured, and there are no guarantees that he won’t be injured in the future. According to media accounts Buxton wants to play for the Twins and is willing to sign a fair contract. Not signing Buxton is another sign that we are a small market team.

I’ll still go to Target Field and watch games. But the beauty of Target Field is not as exciting as a winning ball club. Unfortunately the actions of this past week have pushed that possibility of winning playoff games out for at least another year.