Merry Christmas

I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas season. I look forward to seeing most of you in one of our two Christmas Eve services (5:30 and 7:00). I won't be with you next Sunday, but Randy will do a great job in my place.

When we see each other post-Christmas, we'll be starting Reaching for the Prize (see the previous blog posting for more info). I'm already praying that this campaign will draw us closer to God that ever before.

So until then, let me leave you with this thought about the birth, life and death of Jesus, from Eugene Peterson:

"Though there were auspicious signs that preceded and accompanied his birth, preparing the world for the majestic and kingly, the birth of Jesus itself was of the humblest peasant parentage, in an unimportant town, and in the roughest of buildings. He made a career of rejecting marks of status or privilege: He loved lepers, washed the feet of his disciples, befriended little children, encouraged women to join his entourage, and, finally, submitted to crucifixion by a foreign power."

Merry Christmas!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

...unless you're a music minister, that is. I get a Sunday off this week, but Kyle and his choir and orchestra are burning the candle at both ends getting ready for our annual Christmas concert this Sunday. I hope you'll be there. I know they will do an outstanding job reminding us of the glory of the God we serve...Emmanuel, God with us.

Don't forget about our two candlelight services on Christmas Eve. And yes, I will get to preach once more before then, on December 21. Next week, I'll give you a little preview of that message here.

In the meantime, here's news on Reaching for the Prize, the spiritual growth emphasis we'll start on January 4 (this article will also appear in your next issue of the Westbury Word:

If you watched the recent Olympics, you probably found yourself inspired as I did. No, I’ll never ran as fast as Usain Bolt, or dunk a basketball like Lebron James and the rest of our basketball team did. And I will never have abs like Michael Phelps (sigh), not to mention his eight gold medals. Yet I found myself marveling at the thought of experiencing a Christian life that would be that exciting and victorious. Imagine no more stumbling into the same old sins, wallowing in the frustrating quagmire of temptations we thought we had overcome. Instead, we conquer sins, standing in the glory of growth and achievement. Imagine a spiritual life where we always knew where God was leading us, and so spiritual disciplines aren’t dull and difficult, but refreshing as an early-morning swim.

Actually the analogy isn’t as ridiculous as it might sound. Paul was rather fond of comparing the spiritual life to athletics. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize? Run is such a way as to get the prize (1 Co. 9:24). Those aren’t just empty words meant to encourage people who are born losers; God’s Spirit is constantly working to make us spiritual champions: Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). All we have to do in order to experience that renewal, that victory, is to get on board with the training program God has already custom-designed for us.

With that in mind, Westbury will begin a spiritual formation campaign called Reaching for the Prize on January 4. For five weeks, all adult and youth members of WBC will be challenged in three ways:

· A daily devotional guide.

· Weekly Bible study lessons led by your own Bible study teachers.

· Sermons that tie into what you’ve learned during the week.

I designed Reaching for the Prize because I believe that WBC should be an Open Door to New Life. That means that people who don’t know Christ should meet Him through our influence. But it also means that every one of our members—from those who have been following Jesus a few months to those who have known Him for decades—should be experiencing new life, consistent growth, and amazing victory. My prayer is that by the time you finish the five weeks of Reaching for the Prize:

You will know exactly what God is trying to accomplish in your life.

You will have a detailed list of goals for your spiritual growth, along with a plan to achieve those goals.

Your Bible study leaders and staff ministers will have a better idea of how to minister to you and the rest of our church.

Please be in prayer for this campaign.

Do You Believe In Emmanuel?

I am currently preaching an Advent series on the biblical name "Emmanuel," Hebrew for "God with us." Anyone who's ever received Christmas cards is familiar with the source of that name, Isaiah 7:14. ("The the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel"). But how many people know the story behind that prophecy? Who was Isaiah speaking to, and what was he trying to accomplish?

A 2003 survey revealed that Americans are more than 3 times more likely to believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus than in the theory of evolution. As gratifying as that statistic might be to evangelical Christians, let's be honest: Believing intellectually that Jesus was born of a virgin is not true saving faith. Neither is the sort of presumptuous, "name-it-and-claim-it" faith we see promoted so often in the Christian world today. True faith is the ability to believe God's promises and obey His will even when it seems dangerous or foolish to do so. True faith is following Jesus into the valley of the shadow of death, when it would be easier to stay behind in the green pastures. This Sunday, we'll see the sort of faith God demands of us in the story of a little-known Judean king named Ahaz.

Happy Thanksgiving!

One could make the argument that Thanksgiving is the most Biblical holiday we still observe. After all, we are never commanded to observe Christmas and Easter, but we are often urged in Scripture to be thankful. Of course, gorging on turkey, dressing and pie in front of a televised football game have little to do with thankfulness, but I'll continue to observe those little American additions, anyway.

Truth is, there are so many reasons to be thankful this year. So I hope you get to spend quality time with extended family, eat some good food, and enjoy time off from regular responsibilities. But most of all, I hope you rediscover how truly rich God has made you.

I am planning on taking the next full week off. Gale Yandell will preach in my stead this Sunday. Please pray for her. I know she'll do a fantastic job, and that the Lord will use her powerfully. We will spend part of the week with my family, and part with Carrie's family. It should be great.

As for the surveys you took in worship service last week, we will let you know what we learn as soon as we have those tabulated. I am very excited to see what they reveal about our effectiveness as a church.

When I see you next, it will actually be Advent! November 30, I plan to preach a message entitle "Jesus our Emmanuel" from Matthew 1:23. It will be the beginning of an Emmanuel series focused on the Incarnation of Christ--what it means to us today, and how it should change the way we live.

An Important Sunday

Every time we come together in the Lord’s name, it’s an important moment. But I wanted to make sure each of you knew what was going on this coming Sunday. First of all, we will be hosting Tiffany Chenier, principal of McNamara Elementary. She is eager to thank us for our help on their campus, and show her excitement about the partnership between us which is just beginning. She’ll probably bring other teachers, students and guests, so be prepared to welcome some new faces this Sunday!

Second, I plan to preach this Sunday on the state of our church. There are so many good things going on at Westbury, and I want to celebrate those. I also want to talk about the direction we hope to go in the near future. Obviously, there’s a lot we as a church staff don’t know and can’t predict, but we want you to know our hopes, dreams and plans so that you can help us pray and work toward those exciting things.

Third, we want to hear from you about the effectiveness of our church’s ministry. In most churches, the measurement of success comes in three categories: Attendance, offerings, and baptisms. Those are indeed important statistics, but they don’t tell the whole story. A church can attract lots of people and bring in plenty of money without really making a difference for Christ. Even baptisms are not a sure-fire indicator. Our job is not just to bring people into the Kingdom; we are commanded to make disciples. So how can we measure whether or not we are helping people grow into the kind of people God wants them to be?

I had an idea a while back for a way to measure this. We could take a survey of our members once a year. Every year, this would give us a snapshot of where our ministry was effective at producing growth, and where it was not. This would help us to set goals, start new programs, and tweak older programs that aren’t getting the job done. It would also give us a way to measure improvement in our church. If we score higher in a certain category next year than we do this year, we’ll know we’re on the right track.

So this Sunday, at the close of my sermon, we’ll ask you to take a short survey that will be inserted into your bulletin. Our guests will not be asked to fill out the survey, as it is only for our members. I’ll have some special instructions for them. The survey has been written to reflect our purposes, and will cover three categories:

1. Worship: Do we help our members connect to God? (Loving God)

2. Community: Are our members connected to each other? (Loving others)

3. Outreach: Do our members reach the lost and hurting? (Loving those outside the church)

Please pray about this. We want this to be a tool that will help us enhance our ministry and make our church more effective in God’s work. I am excited about this Sunday, and I hope to see you there!

Ruth: Redeemer

Boston's Charles Street jail used to be home to the city's most notorious characters. Among its former inmates was Frank Abagnale, Jr., the con artist portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the feature film "Catch Me If You Can" (Steven Spielberg, 2002). Once the paragon of prison architecture, the facility fell into disrepair by the 1960s, when it became overcrowded, riotous, and filthy with pigeon droppings. The building was condemned in 1973, and the last inmates transferred in 1990.

Seventeen years and $150 million dollars later, the Charles Street jail is now Liberty Hotel, which boasts luxury accommodations that cost from $319 to $5,500 per night. With restaurants named Clink and Scampo (Italian for "escape") and a bar named Alibi, designers celebrate the building's past.

Former inmate Bill Baird visited the hotel on the 40th anniversary of his arrest and was amazed at the renovation. "How you could take something that was so horrible," he observed, "and turn it into something of tremendous beauty, I don't know."

Sounds an awful lot like the kind of work our God is famous for. He is, after all, in the full-time redemption business. He takes what is worn out and condemned, and rather than flatten it all and start over, He begins the renovation process. When He gets done, the result is magnificent. Of course, unlike the architects who redesigned that prison in Boston, the materials God works with have a will of their own. We can choose whether or not to participate in the process of redemption.

Ruth tells us a story of redemption. She was a woman who was as marginalized as they come; a widow in a partriarchal society, a foreigner in a country that didn't like outsiders. Yet by the end of the book, we find that God has weaved her into His redemption plan. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Come this Sunday as we wrap up the story of Ruth. And remember this final quote from CS Lewis:

It costs God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things; but to convert rebellious wills cost Him crucifixion.

Immanuel

Here's my article for the December version of our newsletter, The Westbury Word:

The little boy lay clutching his blanket in the dark, flinching with every clap of thunder, every violent gust of wind. He’d seen thunderstorms before, but somehow the darkness outside—and the way the lightning lit up his room every few seconds--made this one seem scarier. Finally, he got out of bed and padded down the hallway to his parents’ room. “Dad…” he called out in a plaintive voice. The father, disoriented, sat up in bed and asked what was wrong. “I’m scared. Can you come sleep in my room?” A loud sigh. “Son, you’re a big boy. You can sleep by yourself. Besides, don’t you know God is with you? Don’t you know He’ll protect you?” The boy leaned against the door frame, finger pulling nervously on his lower lip. “I know, Dad,” he finally replied. “But right now, I need someone with skin on.”

Can’t we all identify? The good news is that we worship a God who put skin on…theologians call it the doctrine of the Incarnation. Every year at Christmas, we celebrate that moment when our Creator “became what we are that He might make us what He is,” in the words of the early church father Athanasius. God Himself put it best in His prophecy through Isaiah, foretelling of a child who would be born to a virgin and named “Immanuel,” a Hebrew word meaning “God with us.”

This Christmas, we will celebrate Advent at Westbury by focusing on the miracle of Immanuel. We’ll sing songs about our wonderful God, who loved us enough to become one of us—so that He could die for us. And we’ll challenge ourselves to be Immanuel—God with skin on—in our relationships with people who don’t know Him.

Speaking of which, all of us know people who need Jesus. Christmas is one of the best times to invite them to church. Pray that God would open doors for you to share your faith with these friends and neighbors. Invite them to WBC this Christmas so that they can meet and experience Immanuel.