FERVENCY - MY KIDS, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY - GOD'S !!!!

FERVENCY is the name of the youth worship band from the Church of God of Landisville, which I am privileged to serve as Lead Pastor.  These kids chose their name because of their attitude towards Jesus Christ and sharing the Good News.  Last Saturday night they performed at local high school talent show, a distinct honor rarely afforded openly Christian groups.  This is their performance.

WHERE HAVE I SEEN JESUS LATELY?

One of the blogs I periodically read is called Alan’s Corner.  Several months ago he posted an article by the title, “Where Have I Seen Jesus Lately?”  He opened his post with these lyrics:

Some day you’ll come, darkness will cease.

True light will dawn, everyone will then see.

Everything new, we’ll finally see you.

Awaiting that day, searching for more.

While all along you are

found with the poor.

Help me to see that you’re all around me…

Our praises arise.

As we come to recognize.

Jesus is near.

Glory is here.

—“Glory is Here”, Michael Gungor Band

As a Christian, I believe Jesus is near.  Nearer, in fact, than most of us think.  Already his glory is reflected in many ways. So, where have I seen Jesus lately?

I have seen Jesus in the heart and the worship of my wife Dianne.  She so very much loves Jesus. Worship is part of her heartbeat and when she leads worship, she helps others know clearly that Jesus is near, glory is here.

That love of Jesus that is evident when she worships has a powerful way of overflowing into the lives of others, especially when Dianne is worshiping by serving Jesus.  She is a teacher with a particular heart for special needs children. Many a child who is at risk or requires early intervention or deals with autism or behaviorial issues has found an advocate and a friend in Dianne. Many of the regular staff members she comes alongside of have found that love of Jesus translated into a love and heart for them.

I have seen Jesus in a friend named Lynda, who simply has a heart that people give their hearts and lives to Christ. A woman of great artistic creativity, who has know many personal challenges in her life has long ago set aside her agenda just to be a willing worker for God. More than once I have observed her go the second mile, step out of her comfort zone, risk being hurt even because she just wants people to find the peace of Jesus Christ.

I have seen Jesus in two of the willing workers of the church I serve, Dave and Donna. My first real encounter was when I asked Donna to help with refreshments for a conference and discovered Dave was the menu planner. Early each Sunday they are on duty at the church to greet people as they arrive (and that’s after they’ve made sure the church is ready and any last minute detail for Pastor Steve has been cared for).  From watching over senior citizens, to getting down on the ground playing crazy games with the children at Vacation Bible School, to know becoming caring adult friends of the little preschoolers in our Sunday School, making the church a safe and welcoming place for those little lives.  That’s where I have seen Jesus lately.

This is fun!  There are whole lot more evidences.  I will continue this post in future posts.

In the mean time, I would love your comments about where you have seen Jesus lately. – Steve

SHARING JESUS

“Yesterday a little girl told me I sounded like Jesus's wife when I sing... and she knows because "she saw the movie." – Stacie Reber

Last week I had the privilege of leading a team of 26 persons to work with our Navajo sister congregation, Tsaile Community Church, conducting a Vacation Bible School for more 100 students. My team ranged in age from 15 through 78.  Some were high school students, several bankers, several school teachers, another pastor, a financial planner, an electrician, a retired middle school principle, a candy-maker, a person who works with autistic adults, a candy maker, a graphic arts specialist, a quality control manager and more.  An eclectic group with a common passion to help children meet Jesus Christ.  We did this through stories and song, crafts and whiffle ball, a lunch, direct explanations of the gospel.  We mostly did it by trying to let people see Jesus in the flesh by meeting him as he worked in and through us.

photo courtesy of Lauren Zimmerman

That's a tall order when you think about it.  We are imperfect vessels of a holy God.  His unconditional love is expressed in his amazing grace, but we frequently hide that love in our actions and daily test his grace.  We talk about Jesus in moment and live for ourselves in the next.  We claim to be transformed into a new creation but reclaim our old nature when it is more convenient or comfortable.

Yet as imperfect as we may be and as inconsistent as we are in our actions, we still have the responsibility to share Jesus.  It's not our plan, it is His.  In John 15:6 we read: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last."   And as if to reassure us in any hesitancy we may be feeling, he adds, "Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."            

Sometimes the odds before us are almost daunting.  Not all of us have the opportunity as did the folks from the Church of God of Landisville to go work in another culture.  Yet Christians are vividly aware that they live in a culture for whom God is increasingly out of sight and out of mind.  We live among people who have heard many empty words and have grown deaf to many religious expressions.  The first witness is not words, it is a life lived as a reflection of the Jesus that lives within us.   The apostle Paul explained that to the Colossians.

"To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.' (Colossians 1.27)

Tsaile VBS Team from Landisville Church of God (photo courtesy of Stacie Reber)

Hopefully when they hear the words of Jesus spoken they will believe those words because "they have seen the movie."

(C) 2011 by Stephen L Dunn

I SERVE ONE OF THE TRULY GREAT CHURCHES

Part of the group at our All Church Family Retreat

My day job is serving as the Lead Pastor of the Church of God of Landisville in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  I have had this privilege since September 2001.  I hope that God will allow it to be my final pastorate (even though I am a good ten years from "retiring" as a lead pastor). The reason for this sentiment is that I serve a great church that serves a Great God.

Waiting to receive the offering on Children's Sunday

Landisville has been in existence since 1833, but in the last eight years has been on an initial journey of following the leadership of the Holy Spirit to become an outward-focused church with a commitment to outreach by being the best church it can be for the community.  We are not a mega-church, but what Lyle Schaller calls a "middle-sized" one. There are about 350 persons from infants to "ancients" in our core congregation. Many of these people have a gift of hospitality and more than the usual number have a powerful passion for simply living as Christ's authentic disciples.

Kids from our BURN student ministry at See You at the Pole

We operate two significant community outreach programs: the Christian Flow Center for the senior adults of Landisville and the surrounding community, and the Agape Youth Center, which provides an afterschool drop-in center for middle school and high school kids. (We are just across the street from the Hempfield School's main campuses).  And many of our people work regularly with the Lancaster County Council of Churches by providing meals in the city among the poor at Christ Lutheran of Lancaster.  Our Ignite the Day worship and Bible study attracts over 75 kids at Hempfield High School and we do all we can to be supportive of  the good our schools are trying to do for the community.

Our Adult Choir at our Traditional Service. We also have a Contemporary Service and a Wednesday evening Youth Worship Service.

We are blessed to be an intergenerational church where people of all ages matter to God and contribute to our vision for serving Him.  We have families that are drawing close to God and growing in spiritual maturity.

Mother and daughter praying before school

 There's a lot more to our story, but I will be sharing it in the weeks to come.  I love these people deeply.

This is part 1 in a series " A Great Church Following a Great Commission from a Great God"

BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS, BEST NEWS

Last Sunday we began a three-part series heading into Easter called "Bad News, Good News. Best News." The first sermon was "Voices and Visions from Hell." My associate, Barry Sellers challenged people with the reality of Hell. It is a place of torment, but the greatest torment is that we are separated from the presence of God eternally. That's clearly Bad News.

This Sunday, March 28, I will be speaking of Heaven. The message is "Into His Nearer Presence." People often think of Heaven as a reward - nice mansion, no more tears, streets of gold, etc. But Heaven is the ultimate place of a relationship initiated on the Cross where we begin to know the unconditional and unending love of God through Jesus Christ. "Now we know in part," says the Apostle Paul. Imagine living where you know God as He knows you and that relationship brings you eternal peace and joy! That's the Good News.

Then on Easter is the Best News "No More Death." Death is defeated by the empty tomb. Christian no longer to live dominated by death. In fact, even as we live now in the land of the dying, we are living the abundant and eternal. How would your life be changed now in you lived by the resurrection truth - "No More Death" ?

Join us at the Church of God of Landisville,171 Church Street in Landisville PA at either 8.15 or 10.45 Sundays. For directions go to our website at www.coglandisville.org

ON THE JERICHO ROAD

I serve as the Lead Pastor for the Church of God of Landisville. We have two Sunday morning worship gatherings. One at 8.15 is traditional - pipe organ, choir, much of the worship tradition you may have grown up on.

The second service at 10.45 is very contemporary--high energy and powerful. We have a great Worship Band that rocks the house for Jesus.

At the 8.15 service on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - Valentine's Day--we put together an "old time gospel quartet" with our brand of humor and joy. At the risk of driving you away rom this blog -- here's Roger, me, Jerry and Bill with Barb on the piano.

Have fun! We did and so did our congregation!

SOME GREAT KIDS

The youth ministry at the Church of God of Landisville has taken a new direction. Under the leadership of Jeremy Moyer, we are focusing on teaching kids to be leaders and influencers in their generation. We emphasize the power to overcome instead of merely coping. Learning to take responsibility and engage in sacrificial servanthood. This past weekend 52 kids (many of them from our Agape Youth Center) had a weekend retreat at the church. Two service projects were built into the usual worship, fellowship, fun, food, and lack of sleep. One of those projects, which the kids carried out in the pouring Saturday rain, was to collect food for the nearly depleted Hempfield Food Bank. 458 pounds were collected. These are some GREAT KIDS.

WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?

Jesus Christ has a good press these days. Even non-Christians admire him. Celebrities like Madonna appeal to him when declaring their positions on contemporary social issues. College students still line up to take courses about him and to debate his impact.

Yet often the cultural understanding of Jesus is a mile wide and an inch deep. Like so many other things, we use Jesus to baptize our positions and decisions instead of asking the a priori question, "What did Jesus say about Himself, His values, and the work He came into the world to do?"

In Colossians we read: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the first born from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross." (Ephesians 1.15-20)

CS Lewis once famously stated in his book MERE CHRISTIANITY that, "“I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [Jesus Christ]: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to.”

This Sunday at the Church of God of Landisville during both the 8.15 and 10.45 worship services, I will be answering that question, "Who Is Jesus Christ?" I hope you will consider joining us.

A GOOD QUESTION RETURNS

Last summer and fall I led a group called "A Good Question." It met at Cafe on Main and more than 35 persons participated during its first season. Cafe on Main lost its lease, so we had to put it on hold but now, thanks to the cooperation of the Black Knight Restaurant on Main Street in Landisville-A Good Question is returning.

What is A GOOD QUESTION?

It is quite simply an open discussion/dialogue on Christianity, the Bible, God and Spiritual Things. I am a pastor, but it is not my intention to make a judgment on anyone’s position or beliefs—nor is it to persuade you to agree with my position or understanding of an issue. I simply intend to provide you information or a perspective that you might not yet know or have considered-- and help you think through the answers for these important questions for yourself. It is my firm conviction, born of my own faith, that truth has its own persuasion and validation for those who are intellectually honest and open-minded. I have been blessed by a faith that encourages me to ask questions, renew my mind, and be committed to a life of truth.

Please know that this is essentially a religious discussion group. That doesn’t mean you have to believe in God or anything particular to be a part of this discussion. It does mean that if your question or concern really has more to do with personal matters which are better suited to a counselor, I will simply offer to meet with you personally at a more appropriate time. In other words, we are not a therapy group or a support group—except a “support group” for seekers of the truth.

You may feel free simply to share your question as a part of tonight. If you’d like to send me questions for future evenings, please feel free to email me at sdunnpastor@coglandisville.org.

Yours seeking the truth that makes and keeps us free!

Steve Dunn

A GOOD QUESTION meets the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month at the Black Knight in Landisville from 7:00-9:00 pm. Come and go on your schedule, stay as long as your schedule or your questions permit.

THE IMPORTANCE OF VISION

As a pastor, I am in the vision business. My job is to help people and churches identify the vision God has for them, to embrace it, and to work in obedience to that vision. The scriptures tell us that when the people of God begin to move to a new level of impact and fruitfulness "your old men will see visions and your young men will dream dreams." Proverbs tells us, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." A more accurate translation is "where there are no VISIONARIES the people CAST OFF RESTRAINT." What that literally means is that not everyone originates the vision. It's not done by majority vote and it is not dependent upon everyone giving it equal support. But most of us live by "little pictures" defined by the comforts and concerns of everyday existence. Our vision is limited by our limited experiences, the boxes we live in. God's vision always takes us outside the box. The body of Christ lives by "the big picture" - what God is doing and having visioncasters who help us see what GOD is doing and encourage us to go and do what God is doing.

Churches without vision "cast off restraint." That means they have no focus, no boundaries, temporary expectations. They also have no unity because as individuals, we think like individuals. Armed with a vision, we are drawn together by the higher goal of serving Christ instead of self or self-interest,a true unity of the Spirit that blesses everyone.

Note: This Sunday, September 13, 2009 at the Church of God of Landisville--we will be observing SHARE THE DREAM Sunday where we examine the vision that God has given this congregation for serving Him and His world. You can find out more about the church, its location, its worship times, its ministry at our website www.coglandisville.org.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CHURCH OF GOD OF LANDISVILLE

Learn more about the Church of God Landisville by going to our blog NEWSBREAK FROM CHURCH OF GOD OF LANDISVILLE which is accessible at www.coglandisvillenews.blogspot.com or by going to our website at www.coglandisville.org

SURVIVING TOUGH TIMES

This Sunday we renew our sermon series, "Surviving Tough Times-Developing a Tough Faith." This week's message is "Slow Down and Listen." It talks about the twin enemies of an effective faith in tough times - haste and busyness. Join us at either 8.15 or 10.45 this Sunday at the Church of God of Landisville, 171 Church Street in Landisville PA.

THE FACE OF MISSIONARIES

The Church of God of Landisville where I serve as one of the pastors has been including cross-cultural mission and work experiences each year as part of its ministry. We believe this is an important part of making a kingdom-focus part of our DNA as a congregation. This week 18 of our people are doing vacation Bible school for our Navajo sister congregation in Tsaile AZ. You can read a daily update on my blog THINKING OUT LOUD ABOUT LANDISVILLE (web address www.landisvillechurchofgod.blogspot.com. Pictures on our web site at www.coglandisville.org.

This is our third trip to Tsaile. In 2008 we sent a work team to Gulfport MS to help rebuild homes. People from our church have worked in Haiti, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and other locations.

Over 20% of our people have been to a cross cultural mission not to mention those who help feed the homeless, and other functions that strengthen our visibility and witness.

SUMMERTIME

Summer doesn't arrive officially for a little over a week. Temperatures today, however, are more summer-like. The last day of school for most kids was Tuesday or Wednesday, so summer has certainly begun for them. The golf course I visited today sure seemed like summer, even with the threat of afternoon thundershowers. My associate pastor left yesterday for his vacation-a fishing trip to Canada. The lake and family picnics are already being conjured up as excuses for skipping church. Tomorrow night I leave to work in our church camp. Yes, it's summertime.

So what are your summer plans?

For some of the people from my church, it will be a summer of service as they conduct a Vacation Bible School for our sister church on the Navajo Reservation at Tsaile AZ. Watch this blog spot for some of the details.

A BIG WEEK-END IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

I am blessed to serve what Lyle Schaller calls a "seven-day-a-week church." There is rarely an evening and NO day when the church doesn't have some form of ministry going on. This week the church bustled with its normal outreach activities--the Agape Center for youth, the Christian FLOW Center for senior citizens. Today our Preschool Gym will be in operation and the Agape Center will open for middle schoolers. Tomorrow night our Agape Kids (serving elementary age kids) will fill our gym. Saturday our Tsaile VBS Team has a benefit auction at 4:00 pm to help raise monies to operate a Bible school for the Navajos. Sunday morning will be the normal church stuff--normal? Sunday afternoon we will celebrate the life of one of our oldest members, Sam Bender, a World War II hero, who went home to be with the Lord Tuesday. Tuesday night we even had a wedding--at Worship Band rehearsal as Carl Scillia, our drummer was married to Carol Hunt.

The BIG EVENT for us was the celebration of the 5th birthday of our Christian FLOW Center, a monthly ministry to the senior citizens of the Hempfield area that regularly attracts 125-35 people. Pastor Barry Sellers, my Associate heads this up. Congratulations!

And don't forget to support the TSAILE VBS AUCTION. Some really neat things provided by our church members and Lancaster County businesses.

ONE LAST SOUP AND SCRIPTURE

Our 2009 Soup and Scripture series wraps up Wednesday night. Maria Nauman is leading a final study about resurrection morning. Our thanks to Roger and Lynda Fry, Sam Ruggiero, and Maria for providing great bible studies. We have between 20-30 each Wednesday evening. Soup is at 6. Scripture at 7.

Soup and Scripture

Many churches, Protestant and Catholic, have a tradition of a simple community meal and a time of study of the scriptures during the season of Lent. Lent is the 40 days (minus Sundays) that precede Easter in the Christian calendar. It is a time of prayer and reflection, confession and repentance--and intentional recommitment to living more Christlike lives.
At my church, Church of God of Landisville, this is called SOUP AND SCRIPTURE. It meets every Wednesday night beginning this evening. A light meal of soup, salad, bread (the soup created by our great soup chefs) served beginning at 6:00 pm. Then at 7:00 we participate in an inductive Bible study. This year four lay persons and my associate pastor are leading a study on the events and teaching from Christ's last week before his crucifixion. Roger Fry, one of our elders and the teacher for one of our adult classes, Friendship, will be teaching. You can read more about this at our website, www.coglandisville.org