God is good. All the time.

A year ago at Cottonwood we were stuck. Our shopping center lease was taking over 40% of our budget. We had no room left to grow. The shopping center wanted us out in order to remodel and bring in higher paying tenets. We had been praying for God to “close doors,” so we would follow Him. He did. We had only two choices. Move or die.

We called our move from the shopping center in west Albuquerque to Stapleton Elementary School in Rio Rancho Cottonwood 2.0. We saw it as the only way to follow Him. It would allow us to expand ministry, save money on property expenses, and begin outreach here in New Mexico (rather than just in Mexico and Haiti). We had no idea that moving our worship location would be more than a change. It was a whole new beginning.

Not only has our location changed, so has our church. Some friends left. New ones have come. The result is that we are a different group of people with a clear focus of living lean in order to do more for Christ. The result of living lean has given us the opportunity to do some new things in 2009. Some we might have done had we been able to stay, but all of them - NO WAY! Here is a partial list…

Some 2.0 firsts for 2009 - it was our first…

1. Mexico Orphanage Christmas box emphasis with the Orphanage Director (Leo) here to explain the ministry to us. Leo is great fun. Lord willing we will be able to deliver the boxes ourselves at Christmas 2010.

2. Haiti missions trip emphasis with the Haiti English Camp Director (Shelli) here with us to explain that ministry (found at www.heartlineministry.org). Lord willing we will have a gang going down to Haiti for English Camp this summer.

3. Haiti fundraiser supper with some Rio Rancho Haitians with us. By God’s grace we had our first Haitian visitor to Cottonwood come to church the week of the fundraiser (other than the children folks in our church have adopted). Now we have a connection with the Rio Rancho Haitian community. Who would have thought?

4. Compassion International (www.compassion.com) emphasis with Compassion child (Peter) with us. Peter was raised in Uganda, educated through compassion, and came to the US for college. It’s amazing story you can find on our website at http://www.cottonwoodchurch.net/audio_video.htm, click on the “special speaker” block at the bottom of the page. He taught us our opening service phrase, “God is good… All the time!”

5. 24 pizza devouring business meeting. What fun, who would have thought we’d have such a crowd? It concluded with a B-ball tournament (still sore – old guys rule!), and Chess/dominoes tournament (bearded guy rules). Special communion was a tradition we must keep.

6. Portable cart crash (no one hurt)

7. Projector bulb crash (wallet hurt)

8. Breaker blown (pride hurt)

9. Jamez rappelling/camping trip. (body hurt)

10. Gather ‘round cafeteria portable baptisms – a new, really cool, Acts 2 tradition

11. Wedding proposal in the middle of a service – it’s in the middle of one of the early Heart Attitude sermons you can find at http://www.cottonwoodchurch.net/audio_video.htm,, but I can’t remember which one.

12. CareNet walk for life with Cottonwood band serenade. That was a cool day, raising over $11,000 for Rio Rancho CareNet www.carenetabq.org.

13. Christmas Angels – helping special needs and Stapleton families for Christmas. On Dec 13 we bring our gifts to the manger during the service. Later we get to deliver the gifts directly to the families.

14. Year of local/Stapleton outreaches (garage sales, jumping castle, Christmas Angels, Testing days, etc) http://www.rrps.net/NewElementa/stapleton/default.htm

15. Year to really live lean. Our property spending was under 15% of our income, down from over 40% the year before.

G is good… All the time!

Dan

SHIFT

Shift
Did you ever have a Thanksgiving where you felt like you were forcing yourself to give thanks? It feels unnatural to give thanks when the year has been more about worrying and whining than thanking. 09 has been that kind of year.

We started the year in a recession, we end it with double-digit unemployment – will I keep my job? We’ve added another trillion dollars to our debt load – how will my kids ever repay it? The flu bug packs an H1N1 double punch – should I get that vaccine? Church has new faces coming with older faces leaving – should I look around too? Public schools become more violent and less tolerant of Christian views – should I pull my kids out?

We need to shift.

We use to have an ‘85 Suburban that was as ugly as it was large. One day it started whining. Then it sounded like I’d run over a trash can full of rocks. The transmission quit working in anything but 2nd gear. So, I drove home in 2nd gear – with the engine overheating and the whining continuing. It needed to shift, but it couldn’t. We can.

This year, if you’ve been anything like me, we’ve been focusing too much on ourselves. We’ve become nervous worrying and whining humans. It’s time to shift our focus off of ourselves and on to the God who is faithful. Lets shift our focus on to the Great I AM.

Psalms 100:1-5 says, 1 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. 3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. (NLT)

I AM was around before there was an earth, He is here now, and He will be faithful to watch out after our children’s children. Even after this earth is destroyed, His love for you continues. We will praise him then. We can thank Him now. Lets stop whining. Lets shift into another gear.

Dan

Heart Attitude No. 7b Follow Leaders - Inconcievable!

Titus 1:6 says “An elder must live a blameless life.” Have you ever tried? Inconceivable (with credits to Princess Bride)! If we only follow blameless leaders then church will be anarchy. Remember Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned…” Who besides Christ qualifies? If you are looking for a reason not to follow me just ask JoLynn. Or Megan, or Amanda, or… How are we to interpret such a radical command?

The Greek word for blameless, Cooley definition is “Teflon coated.” Accusations don’t tend to stick due to the person’s character. Think of past presidents. Some accusations slid of like butter on Teflon, some like gorilla glue. Some knew how to apologize, others how to spin words and make excuses. I’ve got an old rule for leaders, developed from the betrayal of Christ (and some time in Dr. Scott Peck’s wonderful book, People of the Lie). I call it the three Rs. Here it goes:

Rationalization. This is zero change after being confronted with our sin, and making up excuses why we are still OK. Remember the Pharisees? They took money from the temple (too cheap to use their own) and paid Judas to betray Jesus, they had people lie about Jesus, and then they watched Jesus be tortured to death as a result of their actions. After the event, when Judas threw the money at them and confronted them with their sin, what did they do? The rationalized, “If we don’t put the money back in the temple treasury, we’ll be off the hook for lynching an innocent man,” they thought. Weird - sick.

Remorse. This is a 90 degree change. It’s a Judas change. He felt awful about betraying Jesus – but it didn’t make him blameless. Mt. 27:3 says he felt “remorse.” But remorse doesn’t lead to reconciliation, only death. It isn’t going far enough. So Judas went out and hung himself. Forgiveness and reconciliation were available, but ignored.

Repentance. This is a change of 180 degrees. It’s a change like Peter experienced. Just 50 days after denying Christ he is willing to die for Christ. This is the mark of a leader. It’s being blameless.

Being blameless isn’t being perfect. It’s being repentant. It’s living differently after being confronted with our sin. It’s closing the loop, cleaning up after we mess up. Repentance puts a Teflon coating on our character.

Inconceivable – that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

Dan

Heart Attitude No. 7 Follow Leaders

I WILL FOLLOW MY LEADERS WITHIN SCRIPTURAL LIMITS AND MAKE IT A JOY FOR THEM

Do you remember the 55mph days? It was a law made to hate. Then Paul has to go and write,"Everyone must submit to governing authorities..." Rom 13:1-2. Why couldn't Paul have stopped after chapter 12? Romans 13, the unlucky chapter. They were tough days in which to drive a 240Z. But, I still wanted one...

Paul wrote this during a time when Christians weren't fined for driving too fast. They were taking their life into their hands by simply living out their faith. Those who have a hard time with Obama would have flipped over Nero - the antichrist born before his time.

We must obey God before man, but if the authorities over us aren't breaking Scriptural limits, we are told by God to obey them. There is no alternative. God wants us to obey our parents, our boss, our government, and our church leaders. He even wants Christian slaves to obey their masters. Remember that first Heart Attitude, "I will put the goals and interests of others above my own?" This is when the going gets bumpy. But God isn't messing around here...

When the Isralites didn't want to follow Moses, God burned some alive! Num 11:1-2. God gives us another warning in Heb. 13:17 nlt "Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your sould, and they are accountable to God. give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit." Let God hold your leaders accountable, that isn't our issue. Our issue, our questions is...

"What can I do to make it a joy for ______ (my parents, boss, church leaders) to lead me?

Dan