Pathways Church Blog

Want to know what God wants? The hearts of His kids! This is a bunch of His kids submitting their hearts to Him. I will never get tired of baptisms. I’d fill a service with them and shut my teaching down for this. Awesome…and there is more to come!

The very fact that a perfect God invites an inperfect people to participate in His perfect Kingdom blows me away. I don’t deserve it. I don’t have a single thing to offer that God does not already have at His disposal. I’m a far cry from a good representation of His goodness. YET – I’m invited to participate in His Kingdom! So are you!

What does that look like? We talked last week about the things that God wants. He wants the hearts of His kids. We talked about Micah 6:8 and the fact that God wants us to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Him. These are a great summary of what God wants. Now, let’s get practical. What does that look like?

I believe it looks like someone who is living in their “Sweet Spot”. Don’t understand? All the more reason to see you there on Sunday.

Yo Pathwaysians,

I’m trying to learn how to utilize this blog (as well as our Facebook page) a bit better in our communication with everyone. So I thought that I would throw this out to everyone and ask you to respond with any ideas that you might have.

We are entering into a new sermon series called “Gaining Traction in my Pursuit of God”, on Sunday, March 8th. Basically, we are going to teach about Spiritual Disciplines that can help us to grow in our relationship with God. So, I’ve got a few questions for you. If you would answer these quetsions, it would be a huge help to me in my preperation for the series.

1) When you hear “Spiritual Disciplines” what does that communicate to you?

2) What are the things YOU THINK you need to do to get closer to God?
2a) What has been your biggest frustration in trying to grow closer?
2b) What has been the biggest help in trying to grow closer?

3) What would you most like me to teach on in this series?

Thanks for your help. I’m sure that your input will shape this series!
Dean

I get so pumped up when we start asking questions about the Kingdom! I hope that the questions are resonating in your head beyond Sunday morning. There is so much to process and learn for all of us here.

Last week we asked what the Kingdom is. It is both a place (where God’s will is done) and a way of living (acting on God’s will). Through a way of living, we, in a very real sense, bring the place here among us.

This weekend, let’s ask these questions, “What is God’s will?” and “How am I supposed to make that happen?”

How would you define God’s will, or another way to word the same question, what is it that God wants? What are ways that you have seen “God’s will” at work in real life?

Many of you have asked “What is going on with Ian & Taryn and the adoption process in Nicaragua?” Well, here is what we know:

• They have been blessed to be able to spend a large portion of their days with the boys. The people who run to orphanage want the boys to spend as much time with Ian and Taryn as possible while they continue to wait for things to fall into place. So, the boys often get to come over to the house where Ian and Taryn are staying for now and spend the days with Ian and Taryn there before going back to the orphanage at the end of the day.
• Things have been going well , though very challenging, in terms of their interaction with the boys. Because of their traumatic upbringing, there are many emotions involved. From joy, wonder, and love — to episodes of impatience, insecurity and distrust. Each day gets easier as they get to know eachother better.

So what’s next:

• Taryn will be staying in Nicaragua indefinitely, until they can bring the boys home. Ian has just returned home, but is hoping that he can return to Nicaragua soon to join his wife and their soon-to-be kids. This is a crucial time in that they boys are just getting adjusted to Ian being the father-figure in their lives. Then for Ian to have to leave to come back to the states, stalls that process of growth.

Some of their current needs:

• Prayer – for wisdom, strength, speed of the legal process, language development, safety, and for God’s provision for their physical and financial needs.
• Housing – in order for Ian & Taryn to take legal custody of the boys, they need to establish themselves as a “family”. Which means that they need their own residence, unshared. Please pray that God will open a door to just the right house for them.
• Finances – Though they will be living there, they will still have to meet financial obligations back here at home .. bills, etc. They do have someone (that they know personally) who is going to be renting their house while they are gone which helps with their mortgage, but there are still many other bills they will have to meet here at home while they are away. They also need to start looking ahead at the cost of getting their new family home. They will need to be able to purchase 5 airline tickets. They do have some frequent flyer miles which may buy them 1 or 2 tickets, but they will still need to find the means to purchase the remaining tickets. They did not go down completely unprepared; for many months they have been saving all their extra income in anticipation of living down there. The time simply came sooner than they were expecting.

How you can help:

• Purchase them airline miles – If you would like to help Ian & Taryn get their boys home, you can buy them some airline miles. Comment on this post, and we will give you more information. Your comment will not show up here.
• Donate some of your airline miles – If you are an American Airlines member, you can donate some of your airline miles. Comment on this post, and we will give you more information. Your comment will not show up here.
• Pre-pay Ian for work – as some of you know, by trade Ian works in the construction industry. He can fix just about anything! If you have some work that you need done, you can pre-pay Ian for the work, and when they get back he will schedule all the jobs out.
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Thank you in advance for giving of yourselves…

I read a lot of blogs, from other church planters to keeping up to date on LOST. This morning I was reading through a few and found this from Todd Hiestand. He’s a church planter in Philadelphia and a friend of John Chandler’s. I thought I’d share his thoughts with you as I think they are relevant to all of us.

We are living in a time where fear and despair are the overwhelming attitudes. Whether we’re talking about our personal financial situations or our national financial situation or our world’s financial situation these attitudes are prevalent. Fear. Despair.

But as those who profess faith and resurrection, we can’t succumb to fear. We can’t ignore the problems of the world, but we can’t let fear be our master.

We are not people of fear.
We are not people of despair.
We are not a people of obligation.

Fear leads to selfishness.
Despair leads to self-preservation.
Obligation leads to legalism.

We are people of hope.

Hope that comes from grace.
Hope that comes from resurrection.

Hope leads to freedom.
Freedom leads to Generosity.

Let us be a people of freedom.
Let us be a people of grace,
overflowing in generosity.

John the Baptist proclaimed the Kingdom. Jesus talks a lot about the Kingdom. He tells stories (parables) about the Kingdom. He taught us to pray regarding the Kingdom (Lord’s Prayer).

What’s the Kingdom? What does it have to do with us and how do we pursue it?

Over the next three weeks we will dive into the Kingdom and how the passions and gifts God has given to each of us can be used make the Kingdom visible in this world. You won’t want to miss this.

Looking back on that last six weeks as we have walked through our study on the grip that money has on our hearts has been a great thing. Somewhat unexpectedly, it has become, what I believe could be one of the most important series that we have ever done as a community. Here are some of my random thoughts and convictions from the past several weeks.

1) If “money” is the number one cause of divorce in America – then the church had BETTER start talking about it!!! God definitely want to help His kids navigate this issue in their lives – and last I checked, the Creator of the Universe has some wisdom He wants to dish out! As a community, I hope that we always have ears to hear.

2) I’m guilty of focusing on 10% of my finances and ignoring the remaining 90%. God is interested in my whole heart, not part of it.

3) I can only imagine what God could do with a community of people who have given him 100% of their hearts and lives. The world could change – I believe that!

4) Ken Nussbaum makes me laugh. Pringles can as a worship leading tool. Sweet!

5) Reflecting back on all of the ways that Pathways has displayed a Macedonian Spirit was an awesome exercise for me this week. I hope that you were inspired by it as well. It is amazing to see the ways in which this community has already made a HUGE impact on lives around the world. IT HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN!

6) Here’s our Macedonian list for those who weren’t there:

Our First Offering ever taken: Hurricane Katrina victims
Water Aid / Hopelink
Kenya Water Project
Hoops of Hope (HIV/AIDS orphans in Zambia)
Everett Gospel Mission
Snohomish County Flood Victims
Myanmar Cyclone Victims
Peru / 11 Pathwaysians to build homes
Heifer International
Bethany Christian Services – Adoptions
Church Plants
* Bonney Lake
* Bothell
* Austin, TX

I love you all and can’t wait to see what God has in store for us!

This Sunday we come to our final installment in our study of becoming better “Stewards” of our money. I hope that the word, “Steward” takes on new meaning for you after spending the last five weeks “guarding our hearts” and asking the tough questions.

I have to tell you that, like so many things in life, this series had me scared leading up to it, but it has been an incredibly positive experience, both in the ways that I have been challenged and in the way that you have told me about how you have been challenged. In my opinion, that is the sign of a good study of Scripture! If none of us are challenged, then sleeping in on Sunday morning would be better use of our time.

I love hearing your stories. I’ve heard stories from those of you who are trusting God for the first time with your tithe. I’ve heard from some of you who are deep in debt and desperately want out. I’ve heard stories of conviction that you have been living selfishly. I’ve heard stories of deep pain as you have been faithful to God and things have not worked out the way that you would hope. We are all learning to interact within God’s larger story and asking that He would become more and more central in our own.

This Sunday, we will all reflect on what God is teaching us in our own journey. There are things that we have been holding onto that have kept our hearts from fully embracing Christ. Together, as a community, let’s release those things into God’s care and pursue faithfulness.