Operation Joseph.... or Coffee Anyone?

Our family has just finished "Joseph" immersion... Calista was in the kid's choir for the Buffalo High School Production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and our entire family has been consumed with the music and the songs for several weeks now. If you are not familiar with this musical, it is about Joseph the son of Jacob from the OT. The whole show is about dreams that Joseph and others around him have had. In the show, Joseph's dreams lead him to a ministry in Egypt where he provides food for the Egyptian people and also for his own family.

I had a dream once upon a time. I was living in Saint Louis Park, Minnesota. The dream was to start a coffeeshop that would be a church (a ministry) that would be a part of the community. I didn't know where I was to open this coffeeshop and through a chain of events this dream lead me to Montrose, Minnesota. On faith, my family and I moved away from everyone we knew to a place that we knew no one so that we could follow the dream.

We got here and formed Jacob's Well as a home-based church which we have been running since 2003. But lately, I have been reflecting upon the original dream... the one that inspired us to moved to Montrose. Although Jacob's Well has served us well in the time we have been in Montrose, I believe that it is time to follow our dream... like Joseph followed his dream... and get on with establishing a coffeehouse here in Montrose, MN.

So we begin Operation Joseph to follow the coffeehouse dream. I am working on getting a business plan together and then I will work on grant writing. While we get the coffeehouse up and running, we will be suspending any sort of 'Deeper' Sunday meetings.

Instead on Sunday mornings we will be encouraging our current Jacob's Well attendees to check out other worship services in the area. We are planning to go as a group next week to Celebration in Montrose. I think that we may be able to find others that might want to work with us on the coffeehouse ministry at these churches. I don't think that they would need to leave their current churches because what we are going to be doing is not the same thing as what they offer.

Please be in prayer for all of us as we follow our dream...

Peace,
Lisa

PS If you want to be on the Operation Joseph planning team, please contact me.

Come Out of the Cold

Hello everyone,

We have been invited to Celebration Community Church's "Come Out of the Cold" event:

We will be having our annual "Come Out of the Cold" event on December 9 at 6pm. This is a time for coffee, cookies, and cocoa. We would love to have you join us. This year we will have a special musical guest from Plymouth. The Armstrong Chamber Singers will be here. We are looking forward to a great evening. So, if you want, you may join us. All are welcome to attend. Pastor Frank

Hope we are all able to attend.

Peace,
Lisa

Mission in Montrose

Have you felt that there is more to being a Christian than sitting in a pew once a week on Sunday morning? Are you filled with compassion for those around you?

Maybe it's time to join us a Jacob's Well...

We are a group of Christians who are committed to following Christ 24/7. We meet together periodically to encourage each other to grow closer to Christ.

As a part of this process, we also see ourselves as part of a greater mission... one that started with Christ and continues today. Christ came to restore humanity to the state that God originally intended when humanity was created. This mission includes bringing compassion and love to those of us around us. Jacob's Well was established in Montrose to join God in this mission here.

To find out more about Jacob's Well, contact Pastor Lisa Ellwoods at jacobswellprayer@aol.com.

Missional Church & Readings for this week

Shalom
Do you know what this word means? It is a Hebrew word that means peace. This is the state that God wants us to be living in. At Jacob's Well, we have spent way to much time in conflict and not nearly enough time in peace. In order for Jacob's Well to survive we need to get ourselves to a point where shalom reigns our gatherings. Right now, I don't see it. In fact, I see the exact opposite.

I know that the way that we are attempting is not the way that you have done church in the past, but Jacob's Well was never supposed to be a church that is like the churches that meet in the buildings that have been erected for that purpose.

We are not a church that is 'selling' God to others. We are not to assume that just because people don't attend a regular church gathering that people don't believe in God. We assume the opposite.... that God is already working in the world around us and we need to recognize God where God is showing up. We join God where ever God is at work. This is what it means to be a part of a missional church...

Missional Church
I know we have been talking about it for awhile at Jacob's Well, but I think it would be helpful to see what others have said about the missional church. Please read at least the front page of this website:

Friend of Missional - What is a Missional Church?

It explains what a missional church is supposed to be about. Please be praying about if this is the type of church that God wants you to be a part of. This kind of church is not for everyone. Some people fit better in a more traditional congregation where there is preaching from a pulpit and Sunday school each week. It is between you and God to discern where you belong.

Readings
I want each of us to be looking at the Gospels and Acts to see how the early church interacted with the world around them. We will talk about this as we are doing our 'Mission to Montose' on Sundays. When you do these readings, read a version without commentary so that you can look at the text and come to your own conclusions without seeing what another author has to say about the text (let it speak directly to you).

For next week, read all of Mark and look for the answer to the following questions: How did Jesus and the disciples respond to the people that they met along their journey? What did they talk about? What was the first thing that Jesus says in this Gospel? What is the last thing Jesus says in this Gospel?

Peace,
Lisa

Jacob's Well... a Mission to Montrose

Jacob’s Well is a Christian neighborhood church dedicated to serving the community of Montrose, Minnesota.


I was reflecting on the mission statement of Jacob’s Well tonight. In October 2003, we began Jacob’s Well to be a church that serves the community of Montrose, Minnesota. While we began with good intentions, we have become a church that is serving a few select residents of Montrose, Minnesota. And this needs to change….

As Jacob’s Well… we need to be active in the community.
As Jacob’s Well… we need to get to know our neighbors.
As Jacob’s Well… we need to serve Montrose, Minnesota.

As I have said before, God loves Montrose. And as followers of Christ, we need to be showing love to Montrose, Minnesota.

I think that as individuals, we have been showing Montrose that we care, but we need to be doing this as a group. We have talked about being a missional church many times and I think that we need to be putting this to action.

Starting on Sunday, August 26th we will start approaching Jacob’s Well a little differently. We will be going out into Montrose each Sunday at 10:00 AM as a group to see where we can serve our community. Some weeks this may be a meal at Red’s or Alice’s… other weeks could be a prayer walk through a neighborhood or a roadside cleanup. I am excited about going out into our community and I hope you are too.

Peace,
Lisa

PS For more information on missional church, check out http://www.friendofmissional.org/

Fishing for Men of the Spirit... Fishing with a purpose.

Fishing for men of the spirit: Is a group of men that through fishing are able to change, not only their lives, but lives of other men and children. We can be mentors to one another and the children by teaching how to take care of our ecosystem and building relationships.

Where: Big Waverly Lake: AMERICAN LEGION PARK public boat launch area.Entrance at PARK DR and LAKE AV. Of WAVERLY township.

Date: Starting Aug 8, 2007 Every Wed Night.

Times: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Other: Every one of legal fishing age must have a fishing license. Please, no alcohol. Boaters please have life jackets for every one on board your boat. Please recycle your used fishing line and throw your trash in the trash bins. Please practice catch & release, but if you decide to keep fish, follow MN state guidelines and rules of fishing. Follow all rules of boating. There will be a snack & drink provided by Jacob’s Well Church of Montrose, MN. Let’s have fun and catch some fish!

For More Information contact: Michael Dueball
Email: www.mdueball05@aol.com
Phone: 763-675-3507

Due to scheduling conflicts, we need to push back the Revelation Study for a week. Here is the new schedule.

July 15 - Seven Churches Chapters 1:1 - 3:22
July 22 - Seven Seals Chapters 4:1 - 8:1
July 29 - Seven Trumpets Chapters 8:2 - 11:19
August 5 - Seven Signs & Seven Bowls Chapters 12:1 - 16:21
August 12 - Destruction of Babylon & The Consumation 17:1 - 22:21

Peace,
Lisa

2007 Owls - Buffalo Soccer Club

Jacob's Well has been sponsoring the 'Owls' in the U8 Girls division of the Buffalo Soccer Club this year. This season, so far, we have won 2 games, tied one game and lost 3 games. If you would like to cheer us on, we play on Monday nights (see link on sidebar) in Buffalo on the fields behind Target. Our team color is raspberry (hot pink). So, come on out and cheer us on!

Peace,
Lisa

Summer Topics

I am excited to announce that for the next six weeks we will be talking about the book of Revelation.

Here is the schedule:
July 1 - Introduction to Revelation
July 8 - Seven Churches Chapters 1:1 - 3:22
July 15 - Seven Seals Chapters 4:1 - 8:1
July 22 - Seven Trumpets Chapters 8:2 - 11:19
July 29 - Seven Signs & Seven Bowls Chapters 12:1 - 16:21
August 5 - Destruction of Babylon & The Consumation 17:1 - 22:21

This should bring some very lively conversation over the next few weeks. Hope to see you there.

Peace,
Lisa

What is your "Good News"?

I have heard over and over again that as Christians we are supposed to share the gospel with people. I don’t know if I am the only one or not, but I have often wondered what exactly are we supposed to share with others.

I tried explaining how I understood the Biblical account and shared with people how Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. The response: “That’s nice, but I didn’t ask him to.”

So I attempted another approach. I tried explaining how it was to experience ‘walking with God.’ The response: “Why would I want to do that?”

I’ve tried to logically explain how all of prophecies about the messiah were fulfilled in one person. The response: “You can’t trust the Bible, it was written by men and they make errors.”

None of these seem like ‘good news’ to me. So what is missing?

We need to remember that God sent Jesus Christ to earth as a human in order to help restore humanity to a right relationship with God. In other words, Jesus came to make what was wrong right. This is the good news.

So, in my life, what has God made right? Before I followed Jesus, I tried to do everything on my own through my own motives and understanding. I struggled to make sense of everything and most of the time I felt very much alone. When I decided to follow the way of Jesus Christ, I asked him to enter my life and partner with me in it. After he welcomed me with open arms, there were still struggles but I have not felt alone anymore. I know that no matter where I go or what I do, Jesus has partnered with me to make it through everything.

This is my good news: I no longer need to live life alone. Instead, I am able to live it in Christ.

What is your ‘good news’?

Peace, Lisa

All We Need Is Love

Yesterday after our meeting, I was thinking about what we could all rally around. You know, that ‘thing’ that brings us all together. It’s funny that we hadn’t come up with it before since I think it is quite obvious. Above all, we need to be committed to each other. Remember the song “They will know we are Christians by our love”? We need to be loving to each other.

We aren’t going to agree on many, many points. Theologically we will disagree, we will disagree on how to do church, we will think that we are the only one with the correct answers, we won’t acknowledge when someone else is right etc. Remember that the church in Acts couldn’t agree either. But, they did have Christ in common and they learned to love each other through it.

We too have Christ in common. And I think that sometimes theological points get in the way of loving each other. I was reflecting today at how much more compassionate I was before I came to Christ. And I wonder what happened to that. I remember 20 years ago when I felt compassion toward all humanitarian causes I came upon. We had nicknames on my floor in college and I went by Peaceful. Maybe the Beatles were right… all you need is love.

I am truly sorry that I fall short of the unconditional love that we are supposed to be sharing in Christ. I know that we need to have this love for one another. I pray this week that God will bring me back to that compassion for humanity and especially the family that we affectionately have called Jacob’s Well.

Peace,
Lisa

The Faithful Four

Whatever Happened to Following Acts?

Acts 2:41-47 from The Message
That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe – all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship at the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

Remember when we were at the beginning of Jacob’s Well and we searched Acts to see how the early believers ‘churched’? The kids memorized the four elements that the early believers committed themselves to. Remember what they were? Here is a refresher…

The Faithful Four
1) The Apostles Teaching
2) The Life Together
3) The Common Meal
4) The Prayers

For awhile, we were pretty good about following these elements, but somehow we haven’t been as diligent about following them. How many weeks go by and we tag on a quick prayer to the end of our gathering? How often do we get together and share a meal? How often do we just hang out and share life together? Are we reading our Bibles to see what the Apostles have to say?

I want to challenge all of us to get back to faithfully following these four elements in our church community of Jacob’s Well. The believers of the early church did all of these things daily. I know that our schedules make it difficult for us to do these daily, but I think it would be reasonable to expect that we could do these at least weekly.

Here is what I propose for The Faithful Four
1) The Apostles Teaching –
a. once a week discussion in the group regarding specific teachings (this can be a Bible Study, Scripture, Theology, Church Traditions etc)
b. daily individual Scripture study
2) The Life Together –
a. Once a week meet with the entire group
b. Twice a week get together with another member of Jacob’s Well outside of the gathering of the entire group
c. Email or phone another member of the group at least twice weekly to connect with each other
3) The Common Meal –
a. once a week a meal with the entire group
b. one other meal with someone in the group each week
4) The Prayers –
a. Pray every time you get together with other members of Jacob’s Well
b. spend time alone with God daily
c. Once a week a longer prayer session with at lease one other member of Jacob’s Well

Let’s start with these guidelines. We can always go beyond these suggestions and we will adjust them if we find out that they aren’t working out.

Peace,
Lisa

Great Northern Gig?

Hi gang!

I was thinking about what I have been taught about planning for ministry, and I think there might be a few steps that we would be wise not to forget to do before we get to far into the planning for the meeting at the Great Northern. We need to remember that all we are doing needs to be done by the will of God and not by what we think might be the way to do it. We have in the past of Jacob's Well tried things without a lot of strong foundational planning behind them (and without group prayer for the events) and only had marginal results. I really would like our next event to be more fruitful and for us to be doing what He intends Jacob's Well to be doing.

1) We should first of all be praying for God (as a group) to see if this is what He wants us to be doing... yes Mike has felt led to this, so we need to take that seriously but I know if we don't go into it with His blessing it will be pointless to spend time and energy on it (How have the rest of you felt about this... are you excited, indifferent or somewhere in-between?)

2) When I took the 'Strategic and Tactical Planning for Ministry' class, I was taught that we often present a solution before we fully understand the problem that we are trying to solve.

In the class he used this example: The problem is that there are too many kids getting into trouble after school so we need to put in more basket ball hoops at the school to occupy their time. This sounds like a logical solution, but the root cause of this problem was lack of parenting skills and overworked parents because they needed to work two jobs to make ends meet. So, putting in hoops was not getting to the main problem. Providing low or no cost parenting resources for the parents would better get at the real problem.

Bringing a band into the Great Northern might be the way that God wants us go, but I, myself, have not determined what the root problem is here in Montrose so I can't say for certain this is what we need to be doing.

Here is what I would suggest... Next Sunday is our business meeting in which we should determine the direction that Jacob's Well should be going. Let's take a week for all of us to be praying for God's direction and guidance for 1) the Great Northern 2) Walking at the Elementary School 3) Anywhere God wants to lead us 4) What problem does God want us to be addressing in Montrose and 5) How should we go about doing it

Keep on Praying!
Blessings In Christ,
Lisa

Weekly Update

Hello everyone...

Just wanted to update you on the activities at Jacob's Well.

1) Finances - I just read Randy Alcorn's book "The Treasure Principle." Mike is reading this book and will pass it along to Diane. We talked about getting out of debt. We decided that we will start to be accountable to each other for this. Diane had some materials from a financial planner that she was going to try to find. (Why don't we talk more about this next week at the business meeting?)

2) We will continue our weekly prayer walking at the Elementary School. I suggested we call it "Miles for Montrose". We will normally walk on Monday nights, but because of President's day this week it will be Wednesday instead.

3) We will kick off lent on Wednesday at the elementary school by doing a short Ash Wednesday ceremony. We are all deciding what we will give up this year.

4) Mike is very excited about bringing in some sort of entertainment into the Great Northern. Mike is going to work on this project. (I'll put it on the agenda for the business meeting).

5) Next week we will continue in Chapter 2 of 'Waking the Dead.' Please bring your calendar next week so we can schedule out the chapters.

Did I forget anything? If so email the group.

Have a Blessed Week.
Lisa

PS I forgot to mention that the Business Meeting next Sunday night will be at the bank from 7:00 - 8:00 PM.

God Loves Montrose... Do you?

Many times people have asked me, why did you move to Montrose? The answer that most people could relate to was that we moved here because we could get more house for our money. While this is a good and valid reason, there was more to it than that. God called my husband and I to Montrose to begin a ministry called Jacob’s Well.

This week I spent a great deal of time praying for what God wanted Jacob’s Well to do in Montrose. I kept thinking that God would give me some incredible direction to go that would bring God glory. God didn’t give me a detailed plan or an incredible vision but instead a question.

“Do You Love Montrose?”

Of course I do, but I haven’t necessarily done a good job at living it out. I’ve tried. I volunteered at the city and at the school. I have attended city events and promoted activities, but I feel that there is more that I could be doing. More love to go around.

My question is what does this look like? How does unconditional love and compassion apply to a place and the people who live and reside there? Is it about doing good for those in the community or is there more to it than that?

I believe that God would want this community to be one that is known for its love and compassion for the people. But, how do we get to the point that we have this kind of love for each other. I think that it comes out of prayer.

Lord, please give us your eyes so that we may see how you love this city of Montrose, Minnesota. Let us show your love. Let us know what is wrong in order to make it right in Montrose. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Coffee House Vision

Jacob’s Well Coffeehouse Vision

My calling in Montrose has always been about having a business that would be a part of the community where people who did not want to attend organized church could go where Christ could love them. There would be no church per se but rather the business which would fund the ministry activities of the church. It would be a completely different way of doing church than had previously occurred. I envisioned the idea of a coffeehouse and no other idea for a business has filled me with passion or brought out a positive response from people in Montrose. So why haven’t I gone ahead and started this endeavor?

There are a couple of stumbling blocks…

• No space for the coffeeshop
• No money to start the business
• No people who are committed to this same vision

And yet this vision continues to grab a hold of me to the point that I feel if I do anything else that I would not be following what God has asked me to do here in Montrose. And yet, I am stumped as to what step to take next.

God… if you have truly given me this vision for Montrose… a place where Christ can love the people here… than show me the way… open the doors and guide me.

Thoughts on the Kingdom of God...

Simply put, Christians interact with the Kingdom of God through the Holy Spirit. When Jesus came to earth, He initiated the way in which all believers could actively participate in the Kingdom of God. While Jesus was here, He showed us how we need to behave when we are in the Kingdom of God. Jesus demonstrated how to interact with other humans as well as how to interact with God in order to be representatives of God’s Kingdom. Jesus then gave us the Holy Spirit in order to facilitate our participation in God’s Kingdom. Jesus intended for us to play a part in the Kingdom while we are here on earth. There is an element of eternal life to this Kingdom which will intensify for us over time and become complete when Christ returns.

This is the basic Christian message in a nutshell, and over and over I have seen churches get some of it right and some of it wrong. Mainline churches will tell you that Christ initiated a way of living, but will usually downplay any sort of activity by the Holy Spirit. Evangelical churches emphasize the initial ‘decision’ to become a Christian and the fact that we are ‘born again’ through the Holy Spirit, but most Evangelical churches don’t teach that we are active in the Kingdom today, but more likely that we will participate in the Kingdom once these earthly bodies have died.

While both views hold some of the elements of the intended Kingdom, I don’t think that either viewpoint is quite as fulfilling as it is intended to be. In the New Testament, the idea of being ‘In Christ’ is one of the most common phrases. I think that one of the challenges of the church has always been to attempt to describe the reality of being ‘In Christ’ which is the participation in the Kingdom.

I think that the issue here may be the contextualization of the story of Christ. Specifically, I think that there must have been a time when the mainline churches needed to emphasize the compassion element of the message because the congregations were not getting that part and the reverse must have happened in Evangelical churches. Now, each tradition overemphasizes a specific element but seems to not quite understand the whole picture. I think that the time has come for pastors to bring the entire experience of being ‘In Christ’ back to the congregations and to be teaching both compassion and Spirit.

Being in the Kingdom is being an active part of a community that God has established in order to improve the general wellbeing of people as well as the planet which God created. Being involved in the Kingdom is not simply ‘turn or burn,’ but it is a way of life that transforms us into the human beings that God has intended for us to be.

I think that a good portion of the problem lies in the way that Christians describe this transformation. They tend to focus on an individual experience rather than the fact that the community transforms the person. In the New Testament there was much talk about redemption of humans through Christ. Today’s secular American does not see any need for redemption because they do not see that they are involved with activities that pull them away from God. In fact, they believe that all people are entitled to believe in whatever type of God that they choose. Without a perceived need for redemption, the message is lost on the secular American. So, I think that this might be a question of how the message of the Kingdom is presented. Perhaps we need to change the description to being one of transformation or even ‘self-improvement’ in and because of community. I think that this perception of the Kingdom would be helpful for the post-modern audience.

Also the idea that the Kingdom is a way of life rather than a place could be helpful for the post-modern person. The Kingdom is about the relationships that we have with each other and with God. In other words, it is the Triune lifestyle. Of course when we talk in Christian phrases, the post-modern doesn’t listen to Christians. We need to describe this lifestyle in one in which we can personally connect with God and with each other. Because it is a three-way relationship, God is able to improve both of us while we are interacting with each other. As more people enter the community, the more we are improved.

What is God asking me to do?

I came to a realization today. I had received my pastoral credential renewal in the mail and promptly put my renewal sticker on my license. I noticed that I have had the license for two years and I realized that, yes, God has called me to be the pastor of Jacob's Well and I need to be focusing on what I have in front of me before I can worry about some time in the distant future. I don't know if this makes sense, so I will try to explain. When I think of my calling, I generally have been looking toward the future. This is good for vision casting and direction, but I think I am missing the ministry that is happening here and now. I have regular attending people at Jacob's Well and I think that I forget to point them toward God. After all, this is my job as a pastor. I realized today that God intends for me to be focusing on the people and loving them and the rest will follow. I need to remember this as we go on in Jacob's Well.

40 Days of Prayer for Montrose

We began praying for Montrose on January 1, 2007. I know that the first week went really well and then the Norovirus hit our group. I think that we need to get back on track with this.

Our original vision was to open a coffeehouse to be a place in the community in which we could provide spiritual guidance for those who may or may not set foot in a church. (And have some really good coffee!) This would also be a place where community could grow. Where people could meet and spend time together. Basically it would be a gathering place for Montrose residents.

So far... we have not been able to get everything together to open a coffeehouse. Are we not hearing God properly? Is there something else that God wants us to be doing instead? I am having a hard time hearing God... I pray that this would change.

Items we are praying for:
Jesus to show us what we need to do for Montrose
guidance on a coffeeshop
Help for our group to become closer to God

Lord, please show us the next step!

Blessings In Christ,
Lisa