Trying to get home

 

I’m sitting in the airport in Manchester, NH.  Long day, but a good one.  I spent the day working through strategic issues facing our church plant in Boston.  After a great dinner in the city, I headed back up here to fly home.  Problem is the flight has been delayed at least 90 minutes.  I hope it gets out since it is the last flight of the night.  As it is now, I’ll land at Midway a little after midnight Chicago time…though it will be 1:00 am to me.  Can’t wait to see Jenny and the kids!!! (Pictured above as Dora and Diego at Halloween).

Special thanks to Tim Barbee (click here for his blog) for picking me up tonight.  I love connecting with our college students, but often they are coming home at the same times I’m leaving town for the holidays.  Tim’s studying for ministry and in his internship right now.  We wanted to connect so bad that he agreed to pick me up from the airport tonight.  Since it will be midnight already, maybe we will stop at White Castle or something for a late-night pack of sliders before we come home.

Reunion x 2

 

I had a reunion at REUNION today.  I’m here in Boston spending time with our church plant - REUNION Christian Church.  They had an absolutely incredible service today with their highest attendance ever — about 250.  This, in spite of having to adjust to a smaller conference room at the back bay Hilton and have 2 services (including one at noon) when they usually only have one.  Everything about Reunion is cool, but their music is off the charts.  They are a stone’s throw from the renowned Berklee College of Music and have attracted a number of students from there.

Which leads to my second reunion.  Shortly after I walked in this morning, I learned Pete Koopmans was playing the drums.  Pete’s from Suncrest and going to school out here at Berklee.  Jenny and I were in a community group with his parents a few years ago and we became great friends (Brian and Cindy are actually the Spiritual Mentors for Jack).  Too much to share here, but I got to take Pete to lunch afterwards and catch up.  He’s got a solid faith, an awesome girlfriend, some emerging opportunities with a band, and has found Reunion to be a place to call home.  I love it.

In Boston

 

I have 2 trips to Boston within 2 weeks here.  The Fenway neighborhood is home to both the the Red Sox and an incredible new church there.  Tomorrow I’ll worship at Suncrest’s church plant REUNION Christian Church.  This church is less than one year old and already attracting over 200 people each weekend.  That’s incredible for any church plant.  It’s especially incredible for Boston — which competes for the dubious title of “least churched city in America”.

I agreed to be the team leader of the partnership team that gives advisory leadership for the new church.  That really means “facilitator” because there are other guys in the mix with a lot more insight than me - Jon Ferguson from Community Christian Church in Naperville, Drew Sherman from Highland Meadows Christian Churchin the Dallas area, and John Cassetto from Manchester Christian Church in New Hampshire.  Our meeting on Monday should be full of vision.

Suncrest is giving $50,000 over 5 years to this new church so it’s exciting to see it so healthy….part of our larger vision to be a church planting church.

Suncrest Note

Hey Suncrest,

 

I went to the funeral of Russ Blowers Thursday in Indianapolis with one of our elders, Jerry Allee.  Russ was the senior pastor of East 91^stStreet Christian Church (the church that started Suncrest) there and was the mentor for John Wasem (our founding pastor and my mentor).  Russ was 83, had served East 91^st for 46 years until 1996 and then spent the next 8 years visiting and caring for his wife who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.  He was a great man and kind of a grandfather in ministry to me.  The funeral was a powerful celebration of the difference one man can make in this world.

 

If you don’t have a student in High School or Middle School you may not know about one of the most dynamic things happening at Suncrest.  SLW – Student Life Worship – is an every Sunday experience down in “the annex.”  Jared and his team of interns, adult volunteers, and student volunteers expanded this to 2 services in October and last Sunday more than 100 people experienced them – incredible!  I just got an email last week from a mom who brought her daughter for the first time a few weeks ago and the impact is already being felt.  Great job guys!

 

We announced our Christmas schedule on Sunday and one of them is worth highlighting here.  Our Women’s Ministry is having a Christmas Event called the “The Greatest Gift” on Friday, December 7.  It includes dinner and a great program.  The whole idea is to introduce people to what a true relationship with Jesus looks like.  Ladies,  this is your chance to help your friends, family, and neighbors take a step toward a relationshipwith Jesus.  Since the event is intended to be outward-oriented, the way to sign up is to bring non-Suncrest ladies with you.  To sign up for that or just for more info, contact Debbie Batistados at ????@?????.com or ???-????.  The deadline is right after Thanksgiving, so do it now.

 

This MixTape has been a fun series, hasn’t it?  At our community group last night we were talking about other songs we could have done.  If you have any thoughts, you can always send them to me or Bobby.  I imagine a similar series will make an appearance next year. 

 

This weekend we are tackling U2’s “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”.  Doug has a post on his blog where he is looking for some of the unanswered questions people have for God.  To see it (and put in your 2 cents worth, click here:  www.douggamble.blogspot.com

 

Greg

Heaven is now home

 

Russ Blowers 1924-2007

On one hand, I wish I knew Russ Blowers better.  He was rich in experience, wisdom, and grace.  He was a respected leader and teacher.  There was so much to be learned from this man.  On the other hand, I feel absolutely blessed to have known him at all. 

Russ led East 91st St. Christian Church through some amazing growth as he was their pastor for 45 years.  He was still their senior pastor when E91 launched Suncrest in 1994 and we had the privilege of him preaching for us on a number of occasions.  Russ was my mentor’s mentor.  A grandfather in ministry, if you will.  No doubt a part of what he poured into John Wasem, John poured into me and I’m thankful for any and all of it. 

I remember planning a celebration on the 25th anniversary of John’s ordination.  Russ was the natural person to invite as a very special guest for John and I got to call Russ to invite him.  I have to admit it, there was a little bit of a star-struck feeling even as I was dialing the phone.  The result?  When Russ answered he was gracious, complimentary of “what John had told him” about me and spent all the time I wanted chatting after made the arrangements for the event.  I’ll never forget it.

Thanks for leading with integrity over a lifetime, Russ.

Click for Article about Russ in the Indianapolis Star

In Indy

 

Had another great day at Suncrest today…Lots of energy in the place as we did “Jesus Take the Wheel” in our MixTape Series.  Our musicians and vocalists have impressed me with every one of the songs we’ve done.  Bobby Jackson’s wife Beka did the lead vocal today…would have thought it was Carrie Underwood!

Our family is in Indy tonight.  We count the Ken and Nancy Sanasack’s as great friends in addition to church attenders and a former employer for Jenny.  Nancy had what seems to be successful surgery for ovarian cancer here on Friday and we all wanted to get down to see her…kids included.

We’re staying in town tonight and Jenny is observing an insurance certification class tomorrow down here.  She may have the chance to teach for the largest insurance school in Indiana and she’s checking it out.  I’ll be spending the day with the kids…pool at the hotel, Chuck E Cheese and (hopefully) nice long naps!

Too young for “good old days”

I had a wild thing happen last night. We had our “leader’s edge” gathering for ministry team leaders and group leaders. At the end of the night, I walked through our commons area and ran into Lisa Bossi and Bubba Goodman at the same time. Lisa and Bubba lead in different areas at our church now, but it was a little reunion of sorts because Lisa and Bubba were my first 2 youth leaders when I joined the Suncrest staff over 11 years ago as youth minister. We gave each other a big hug and even started getting nostalgic about the “good old days”. I’m way too young for that!

It’s just cool to see where God has brought our church and our lives since then. There was more evidence of that last night too…over 120 people there for the leader’s gathering. We celebrated record numbers of new volunteer leaders AND volunteer leaders who have reproduced themselves. We had an incredible weekend on Sunday with our highest attendance ever (excluding holidays), we had 16 baptisms, and I got to pray with 6 people after our services who are sorting out how to let God’s grace give them a real fresh start in this life.

Last Saturday our church went out to serve people in need in our communities. You totally missed out if you weren’t able to participate. I know the house I served at was a real blessing to a lady who recently lost her husband. Jenny and the kids took donuts to another house where we were helping a lady in our church. Here’s what she wrote about the people who helped her…

On Saturday I had the blessing of being part of Suncrest’s “Great Day of Service.” Several friends spent a good part of their day doing projects around my house that I couldn’t do or afford to have done. They insulated the crawl space under my bedroom, made my sump pump more efficient, and replaced the porch that had fallen apart two years ago. It was a great day, that’s for sure. I’d like to thank Bert, Daryl, Jason P, Jake and his young friend Dino, Brian, and Heather. Also thanks to Brian, and Jenny, Jack, and Abby for the donuts. It is truly a humbling thing to be on the receiving end of such generosity. I thank God for everyone who served on Saturday at my house and at other sites. I pray for impact in our community. I know you guys have been a blessing to me!

That’s a wonderful expression of our mission, isn’t it? Being Used by God to Change Lives. Great job, Suncrest!

Our Mix Tape series has us tackling Carrie Underwood’s Jesus take the wheel this Sunday. Just trying to show a little love to our country music fans out there!!! See you then.

Greg

PS - This is the last Sunday to bring in your shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. We are stacking them on the stage…should be quite a sight!

unleash it?

 

Since I just mentioned Jon in my last post, I should mention Dave Ferguson too.  He’s the lead pastor at a pace-setting church in Naperville - Community Christian Church.  Actually, CCC isn’t just in Naperville, it is in Romeoville, Shorewood, Chicago, Montgomery, and more.  This idea of being a multi-site church — one church in multiple locations is a move suncrest will make soon.

Dave posted a link to this article from Forbes Magazine on his blog and I think it’s a must read about the potential power of the church if it were ever unleashed.  This isn’t “pie in the sky” thinking, either — read it and start thinking how incredible the potential of the church is to fight the problems of the world.

Think about this…

 

Jon Ferguson is a friend, a guy with all kinds of insight about ministry, and, sadly, a cub fan.

He just posted this on his blog and thought it was worth repeating…

“The Cubs were swept by the team who was swept by the team who was swept by the team who won the World Series.  That has to make the Cubs one of the worst teams in the history of Major League Baseball to make the playoffs.  Sad, isn’t it?”

You can click on his blog as one of my links in the right hand column.

Life is a Highway

Are you like me…did it take you a while to get the tune of Life is a Highway out of your head?  Maybe it’s because I was in all three services.  Maybe it was because Mitzi put that microphone in front of me to sing in the first service…and then again in the third!!  I’ll get her back somehow.

It was a great Sunday…full of newcomers and strong attendance even on a fall break weekend for some schools, but since I spent last week’s email talking about the cassette tape handout, I missed a chance to reflect on the 4C’s of Puzzled…if you will allow me I’d like to take a personal slant on that…

One of the absolute worst fears a preacher/teacher could ever realize is this: though he has poured his heart and soul into explaining and applying God’s word, the people he is teaching would never change.  Never respond.  Never be compelled to act on what they have heard.  Maybe that’s why I loved this series so much.  There was…week after week…kind of this palpable sense that people are embracing the 4C’s of cultivate, connect, contribute, and care. Here’s what I mean: 

• We talked about connecting in relationships where truth meets life and had an immediate response of 444 people agreeing to give it a chance in the setting of a small group.
• The next week, we talked about cultivating a personal relationship with Jesus and I when I talk to Suncrest people the conversation always seemed to go to how the daily reading/reflecting/prayer guide had shaped them in some way.
• On the third week, we talked about contributing by serving and within hours hundreds and hundreds of people had gone out to serve at a nursing home, or to encourage our missionaries, or work on our grounds.
• On the final week, we talked about caring about people far from God and the next week our services were full of new faces.

That is definitely cool.  My prayer is that it is sustainable.

I just prayed here in my office that you and I would sustain our personal commitment to growing in these four attributes of a Christ-follower.  Faith isn’t a one-time act…it’s a journey!

I also just prayed that Suncrest would sustain our commitment to these four areas of focus.  If this is what God has called us to…it can’t be a seasonal idea or the latest fad.  At our core we’ll need the discipline to not be distracted by other good things and lose the focus of making these four qualities a growing part of all of our lives here.

I love you guys.  Let’s be as intense about the 4 C’s next year as we are right now.