Pathways Church Blog

In September, we are beginning a new series on spirituality and sexuality entitled naked. We’ve created an evite to help spread the word. If you have friends or family that you have been talking to about Pathways, this is a convenient tool for you to send them an invitation with info about this series and Pathways.

Go ahead, send yourself one to try it out. Once you’re satisfied that it works, you can start sending them out until your heart is content…or our server crashes!

As we wrap up talking about The Space Between Us this week, we are talking about what it means to know and be known.

Genesis 3 describes how the fall of humanity broke not only the relationship between humans and God, but between humans as well. To follow Jesus is to follow God’s way of restoring the relationship between God and humanity and also between humans. To allow God to be seen in the space between us means that we are willing to venture into knowing others, and to risk being known.

A few questions for us to begin to work through together:
How do you see the results of the broken relationships between humans played out in Genesis 3?
Because relationships are broken, they can offer us both the greatest pain and the greatest beauty that life can offer. Agree or disagree?
As you have experienced relationships in your life, what have been some of the greatest obstacles to knowing, or being known?

If you asked my what my favorite hobby is, I’d probably tell you that it’s watching my boys play organized sports. For many different reasons, both relationally and physically, there is not much I’d rather spend time doing. In the process of participating in and going to many diffferent games over the years, I’ve seen my kids respond to both winning and losing in both positive and negative ways. Nobody likes to lose and everyone likes to win. What I’ve hoped to teach them is that you can lose and be a winner as well as win and be a loser. It’s how you respond to your circumstances that matters most.

This same concept can be applied to following Jesus. You can have the right answers and act with judgment and self-righteousness and be in the wrong. You can also have the wrong answer and act with love and humilty and be praised for it. I’m not advocating that the right or wrong answers in life are not important, I think they are (and I believe that God has made the “right” knowable), but I am a strong believer that humility needs to cover every aspect of our pursuit of Jesus and our relationships with one another.

What does it mean to be humble in our relationships? How does humility treat other people, especially those with whom we might be in disagreement? When you pour humilty and boldness into the same test tube what sort of character quality is created? I’d like to hear your thoughts on that this week on the blog.

It is always exciting to see the things that God is doing outside of our community. It’s also awesome to get to be a part of those things. I’ve known Scott Hatfield for over 10 years and deeply respect his passion as a follower of Jesus as well as his passion for people whether they are inside or outside of the church community. Resonate Church will be launching their first official service on September 30th, 2007 at Liberty Ridge Elementary School in Bonney Lake. I want the people of Pathways to do three things.

First, would you pray for them as they get ready to launch! I remember the feelings that surged through my veins as Pathways took it’s first steps. The fear, the excitement, and the exhaustion and exhileration. Pray that God would do amazing things through that Resonate’s efforts in Bonney Lake.

Second, if you know anyone who even remotely lives in that area southeast of Seattle, would you call them or send them an email to tell them about this church? They may never attend, but they may know people in the area who will. The biggest hurdle for a new church to cross is simply getting the word out that it exists.

Third, we, at Pathways, want to be an encouragement to their community as they launch by sending people who will help with their children’s ministry during the first weeks of their existance. Would you be willing to consider working with kids in Bonney Lake on the weekends of October 21st and 28th? If you are interested, Cyndee Baldwin is organizing crews to go bless them. Let her know!

If you want to know more about this new church visit: www.resonatechurch.org

I have quite a few questions for us today…What is the greatest celebration that you have ever been a part of? What made it great? What sort of things do you celebrate? Have Christians lost the art of celebration? Have we become too caught up in the “don’ts” of religion that we have become fearful of allowing ourselves to celebrate?

John 2:1-11 – Jesus at a party

Matthew 9:9-13 – The first thing that Matthew does after meeting Jesus is throw a party (inviting Jesus along with all of his friends).

Luke 15:11-32 - Jesus tells a story of great depravity, restoration, and a huge celebration

Matthew 22:1-14 – Jesus describes heaven as a wedding celebration

I really believe that God knows how to celebrate. Whenever we are given glimpses of heaven, we see a party going on. When Jesus walked the earth, he was accused of partying too much. He was always at the center of celebration. Take a look at these Scriptures below to get a sense of those celebrations and share your thoughts with us on the blog.

I have been meaning to post this thought since last week, but am just now sitting down to do it. Our time together as a community was deeply meaningful to me last week. First, there were memories of last summer at the park. Pathways was brand spanking new and we hardly new each other. Some of you, we first met at the park last year. This year to see the larger number of people was encouraging, but that was nothing compared to standing back and watching your participate in communion. So many of you “communed” together with celebrating friendships, some saying “Thank You”, and I know that there were wounds that were mended and forgiveness offered as well. I cried real tears during our communion time in the middle of T.A. Sullivan Park.

My only regret is that we did not do a better job of encouraging all of us to bring our neighbors and friends. There was plenty of food and fun to be had – especially once the jumpers and slides went up! Whoaaa Doggy!!

We’ll have pictures up on the site soon. Thanks for making it an incredible day, not just for me, but for everyone involved.

The New Testament consistently communicates that following Jesus is lived out in how we treat one another. The “One Another’s” of Scripture are found everywhere (here are just a few):

John 13:14-15 – “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”
John 13:34-35 – “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Romans 12:10 – “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
Romans 15:7 – “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”

When you read most of these, they are in the form of a positive action…love…accept…bear with…encourage. These make sense. There is a different “one another” phrase that has always intrigued me. It does not come across to me as positive. In fact, I associate it with pain. I’m not going to spell it out here in this blog…I’m going make you look it up yourself in Hebrews 10:24. What does this look like to you? Do you associate this with pain and struggle?

Let’s start a discussion about spurs.

Scott Hatfield sent me an email today about a book that, in his words, every follower of Jesus should read. So, I thought I’d put it on the blog as a resource for his message last Sunday. This is tough stuff, but great stuff.

The book is The Wounded Spirit by Frank Peretti.

We are a little more than half way through the summer and that means that we are closing in on the last six messages for our Relationships series. Remember that we are meeting at our regular time at Silver Lake this Sunday. Bring out the food, the water guns and stick around afterward for a great time!

I also want to ask you to bring one more item to the park – Stories of Grace. This Sunday will look a bit different than others in that there won’t be an extended teaching time. Instead, I’d like for us to hear from, learn from, and be encouraged by one another. How is God changing the way you “see people”? Where has God been at work in your relationships? How has your heart softened in unexpected ways as Christ has become more real in your relationships? Where is the smoke becoming more evident in the space between us?

This stuff is rich! I was reading Ephesians 4:1-6 this morning with a group of men and was blown away by the what the Apostle Paul was teaching as the central core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Maybe it is what he doesn’t say that is astonishing. He does not list any of the “BIG” sins. He does not give a list doctrinal statement that we all need to adhere to. It seems as if he wants the Ephesians to understand that the primary way in which we respond to the gospel is how we respond to one another. (That’s a great concept – we ought to talk about that!)

Last week’s conversation surrounding forgiveness was phenomenal! It illustrates just how important it is AND how difficult it is. How are you seeing God at work in the “Space Between Us”?