Monday, February 26, 2007

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

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

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

Monday, February 19, 2007

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

Sunday, February 18, 2007

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.

Friday, February 09, 2007

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.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

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.