Landmark: September 2008
That’s What I’m Talking About
Landmark is a newsletter that reports a very special kind of news. It describes how we have seen God work in specific situations in Red Mountain Community Church. Some call these "God-sightings," or "God moments." We know that He’s always present and in the middle of everything we do. But there are moments when His presence is especially obvious. I want to tell you about a special thing I have watched Him do at Red Mountain. It was not a moment. It has happened over the span of about eight years. It came to light for me in a special way in the last 30 days in a personal moment with God.
When I was in my early 20s, I attended a conference where Dr Howard Hendricks spoke. He has spent a lifetime training young men for ministry and investing in the health and progress of Christ’s Church. He told the story of meeting one of his former students who had been pasturing a church for several years. Dr Hendricks asked him how his ministry was going. The man was quick to answer, "Great! Our attendance hit the 1,000 mark!" Dr Hendricks responded, "A thousand what?"
Around the year 2000 that question began to re-surface and increasingly occupy my mind. "A thousand what?" You see, during the first decade of Red Mountain’s existence we experienced steady numerical growth. By 2000 it was not uncommon for us to have 1,000 adults in attendance on Sunday Mornings. But I remember that those of us leading the work began to be concerned about our spiritual health. Sometimes a church can grow numerically, but be stagnant spiritually. We couldn’t help but ask, "A thousand what?"
So eight years ago God began to stir in the hearts of the leaders a vision to make Red Mountain a place of greater spiritual depth. A couple of years earlier God had led me to up my own commitment to the study of Scripture. I recommitted myself to helping all who would listen understand the words of the Bible. As leaders, we made commitments to provide deeper experiences of Christ in our teaching, in our worship, and at virtually every level of our programming. This proved to be something the Lord was leading in, and He slowly brought about so many different changes. All of them were good. Some of them were difficult and even hurt a little.
But today I hear stories from the people of Red Mountain that are totally different than they were eight years ago. I see a totally different level of understanding of the things of the Spirit. I see many more people fully engaged with Jesus on a deeply personal level. I hear many more stories of life change.
The "A thousand what?" question still occurs to me often. But on the evening of September 7, when I sat in communion and listened to you worship and watched you all come up to the tables to receive the elements, the Lord seemed to say to me, "That’s what I’m talking about!"
Bob Fox
Just Walk
In July, 18 college students and leaders went on a challenging and memorable mission’s trip to Belize. God was faithful as we walked in faith to accomplish His work. I wanted to share a story of how one of our leaders transparently opened her life and how God used it to touch the hearts of others.
Lee Stephenson, Pastor of Young Adults
"For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." ― Ephesians 2:10
One of my greatest challenges is to be proud of God’s workmanship in my life. As a divorced, single mother I often am reluctant to share my testimony for fear of how others will judge me. In God’s great sense of humor, the one request that was made of me on this trip was to be prepared to share my testimony in a small church in Santa Elena, Belize.
While I have come a long way in my battle against the guilt and shame of my past, I still found that in the moments leading up to sharing my testimony I had to constantly repeat the words of truth found in Ephesians 2:10 ― I am God’s workmanship, and everything that has happened in my life is the basis for the good works that he has prepared for me to do, and I do not have to be ashamed of one part what my loving Savior has shaped and formed my life to look like.
So, with trembling voice I stood in front of 50 people and told them of how I have known God all my life, but through an abusive marriage and a heartbreaking divorce, I now know Him, and I know that no matter what happens He will never let go of me. In obediently walking in the good works that God prepared for me, I was able to share and connect and pray with one of the women in the village who shared a similar story of heartache.
So, remember God’s part is your "workmanship" and He is faithful to use you and to make something beautiful of your entire life story, not just the good parts. Our job is simply to walk.
Back at Jesus’ Feet
Years ago as I was becoming more and more passionate about my calling as a pastor, I developed many little mantra’s to keep me grounded and focused on what my specific contribution to the Kingdom was supposed to be. One of those mantras was "doing God’s work is not being with God." What I meant was that working in ministry (as a volunteer or a paid employee) is not an appropriate or sufficient substitute to spending time with God. I wanted to keep watch for this in my own life, and in the lives of those who were doing work in the church. I frequently ask people how they were doing in the time they spend with God, whether in Bible reading or study, in prayer, or in pondering (aka meditation).
Over the years I have paid attention to this mantra in the work I do with the large number of volunteers I am involved with ― proactively avoiding their emotional, spiritual and physical burnout. Unfortunately, someone I care for greatly and who I work with daily slipped through the cracks of my mantra; she has allowed me to share this story.
Many people in our church know Pam Silvestri; she has been on church staff as the Administrative Assistant for Spiritual Formation for several years. Pam is the type of worker that goes above and beyond in all she does, and as her supervisor I took advantage of her willingness because of the amount of work we "need to get done".
Instead of telling me to slow down, she had to look for ways to free up time for work and one way was for her to give up Women’s Bible study. To add to this, Pam has been dealing with physical limitations for most of her life, which resulted in many surgeries and complications, just within the last year alone she has had four surgeries. But as expected, Pam competently jumped right back into work following these surgeries and soon found it to be physically challenging and was struggling to keep pace.
Pam shared her overwhelming feeling with a friend and coworker as she realized she had squeezed so much work into her life that her priorities were at an imbalance ― no time for God and no time to regain her strength. As the coworker later shared their conversation with me I realized I needed to reexamine why I wasn’t employing the same mantra principles with her. Pam and I met and she told me how she was struggling to keep up with all of the demands. She had become drained physically and malnourished spiritually.
Yes, I pre-empted my mantra ― I had let God’s work be her only time with God. The Holy Spirit convicted my thinking and actions. As God directed us we both came up with a plan to alleviate the over-extended work load and how she could redirect her energy to the thing that would bring her renewed strength. Because of Pam, I was reminded about how quickly we can forget about the spiritual welfare of those around us ― the ones we are caught up in the status quo with. So I challenge you, who might be the Pam Silvestri in your life? Who do you need to check in with to talk about the state of their relationship with God? Who might be caught up in the great and noble work of the church, but missing out on deepening their relationship with God?
Carlyle Naylor, Pastor of Spiritual Formation
PS Pam is back in Bible study and is finding new strength by sitting at Jesus’ feet. It is good to see her smiling again.
Realities of Life
The theme we chose for our 2008 High School Summer Camp was "Escape to Reality" because the reality of life for many of our students is that they live very full, stressful, complicated and confusing lives. It’s no wonder God’s reality for their life gets lost in that confusing swirl of adolescence. As God shows Himself to our students, we pray that we will get to see the signs of the reality of life change happening! Here is a story where one of our students started this journey prior to coming to this year’s summer camp. I hope this is an encouragement to other families and students as you seek for God’s reality for life.
Going back in time to our 2007 High School Summer Camp where one of our students was not able to finish the entire week of camp due to some personal struggles that came out while we were at camp. It was one of those situations where we just hoped and prayed for God to intervene and change the course of a student’s life. After camp and in the months to follow we just wondered if that was going to happen. We were encouraged as this student decided to sign up for this year’s summer camp and would bring a friend. Throughout the course of the week it was evident that hand of God was working in this student’s life and the life of their friend. Mid-week the friend decided to put their faith in Christ for the first time, due to the influence of their friend, who a year prior was struggling in their own walk but now was living out Christ in a real way.
This is the reality we are striving for in Student Ministries ― real life change. The type of change that lasts beyond a camp or a mission’s trip. The kind that wakes students up to the REALITY of Christ and leaves a mark on their lives forever. Praise God that He woke up one of our students and in the process brought a new child into His kingdom!
