Chris's posterous

What an amazing conference!

I’ve been to a lot of conferences in my day – always good teaching, good times of fellowship with old friends. But this conference was different. This conference was graced with the gift of leadership, vision, clarity, correction, and encouragement as shepherds within Sovereign Grace. I am left with the unspeakable privilege to be the pastor of Grace Church. There’s no other group of men or women that I would rather give my life to teaching, counseling, and loving.

We can’t wait to be reunited with you all!

One Wild and Windy BBQ

Last night was our first gathering in Peoria as a church plant team – BBQ style. And boy was it WINDY! At one point, a gust blew a cooler off the picnic table...mind you, the cooler was full of ice!  And it seemed like everyone in Peoria had the same thought as us because the place was a zoo. It made “kid watching” that much more challenging – hats off to the moms who were on kid duty!

But still, we had a GREAT time and met a number of nice people who have heard about the church plant. It made me want to get up to Peoria all the more quickly and begin our new lives together as Grace Church.

Thanks to all of you who came out and risked the wild and windy BBQ!

One Wild and Windy BBQ

Last night was our first gathering in Peoria as a church plant team – BBQ style. And boy was it WINDY! At one point, a gust blew a cooler off the picnic table...mind you, the cooler was full of ice!  And it seemed like everyone in Peoria had the same thought as us because the place was a zoo. It made “kid watching” that much more challenging – hats off to the moms who were on kid duty!

But still, we had a GREAT time and met a number of nice people who have heard about the church plant. It made me want to get up to Peoria all the more quickly and begin our new lives together as Grace Church.

Thanks to all of you who came out and risked the wild and windy BBQ!

The Gospel and Neighbors Kids

I got a chance to share the gospel with the neighborhood kids this week during our move.

I stepped out to load a few boxes into the trailer and I heard the other kids talking with my daughter about how you get to heaven. They didn’t seem to know.

I asked my daughter Taylor, “What are you guys talking about?” She brought all the kids over to me and we began to talk. I was able to tell them that there is no other way to heaven except through trusting in Jesus. He died to take the punishment that we deserve for our sins and he promise us eternal life if we believe in Him and follow Him.

I followed up by asking if they thought they were Christians. One said she thought she was (let’s pray she is!), the other didn’t know. They went back to riding bikes and I went back to loading boxes. Let’s pray for God to bring conversions to the people around us. Even 8 yr olds need to hear the gospel.

The Foundation: Jesus Christ

Simple church. That’s what I want. I want to lead and build and participate in a church that embraces the truth of the Bible and lives out the implications in everyday life. I think this is probably the goal for most churches and church plants.

But simple church is not easy church. It takes work to make things simple. It takes more effort to define and dismiss the unnecessary than it does to create and execute. Simple church means saying ‘no’ to good things so that the right things can be accomplished. Simple church means understanding what is important and what should define your values.

The Corinthian church was not a simple church – it was the definition of complex. It was confused on many issues, ranging from spiritual gifts to holiness to marriage to the Lord’s Supper. It needed clarity. It needed guidance. It needed repentance. Ultimately, it needed a clear understanding of the foundation of the church.

And so the apostle Paul arrives and sizes up the situation. And he speaks a word of simplicity to cast away the fog – church is about Jesus Christ. Relationships are about Jesus Christ. Life is about Jesus Christ. And so he writes in 1 Corinthians 2:2 “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

At the center of the believer’s life, and the corporate identity of a church, is the God-man Jesus Christ. He is the Savior, he is the only mediator between God and man, he is the ruling Lord of the world. And he achieved this status not through force, but through humility.

“...who (Jesus), though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name that is above all names, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:5-11

He was crucified to defeat sin and death. He was crucified to redeem us. He was crucified so that all things would be made new under his Lordship. He was crucified so that we could be brought to God. And that’s why Paul begins by laying the foundation for the Corinthians – Jesus Christ is the center of redemptive history and is the center of every genuine believer and church. He is the foundation upon which the church will stand.

Is there more to the foundation of Grace Church than this? Sure there’s more, but there’s never less than Jesus Christ and Him crucified for us.

Laying a Foundation

I remember when Tara and I bought our first house in 2000. It was a new build out in East Mesa and we watched with excitement as every little step brought it to completion. It started off as a dirt patch and it just sat. Nothing happened. We would drive out there at night and look at our little dirt patch and dream of what it would become.

When you dream about building a house, you think about paint colors, decorations, and which kid gets which room. You think about sitting out on your patio reading a book or inviting your neighbors over for a meal. You think about doing life inside this house.

Before too long, the digging began. Lots of digging. The construction of the house was finally underway! We came out there one day after church and our dirt patch was gone and in its place was a solid foundation of concrete. It undergirded everything we dreamed about, even though we would never see it again after the walls were constructed. It continued to give support to the frame long after that day.

Grace Church is in a similar spot. We have a dream ahead of us – to become a church that exalts Christ and impact the city as a community of believers. We are dreaming of the paint colors and the decorations and the back patio. It’s hard not to! But we don’t want to overlook the foundation.

Over the next few posts, we are going to walk through the foundation of our new church – the theology and values that will hold our church together and determine our boundaries. Above all, we pray that God would give us wisdom and courage to build with precious stones that will last for generations to come.