Southview Connect

Deacon and Elder Ordination

These two Sundays are always special at Southview. Last Sunday, January 3, we set apart Jeff Boothe as a new deacon at Southview. Southview recognizes as deacons men and women who possess gifts of leadership, who are giving of themselves in service to the church, and who are called to further service. In accordance with the meaning of the word and practice of the New Testament, deacons are to be the servants of the church.

The main focus of our deacon ministry is ministry to families - this is their “main thing,” and they do it well. Deacons make hospital visits; they pray with members and families; they face crisis situations right alongside the members they serve. They help with needs through administering the deacon’s benevolence fund that our church collects for our members and regular attenders who are in financial need. Deacons serve our members and our church by assisting with the Lord’s Supper, assisting with baptisms, and helping in any and every way they can.

Deacons also focus on helping to maintain the unity of the church. Two of the most important aspects of the early church were love and unity among the community of faith. Protecting the unity of the church is what we see the first deacons doing in Acts 6, and the result was that the Word of God spread, and the number of disciples increased rapidly. That is our desire - that the word of God would spread and that the number of people who are Christ followers would increase rapidly because of the unity of our church and the ministry of our deacons.

Elders have four major responsibilities at Southview: teaching Biblical truth, modeling Christ-like character, caring for the body of Christ, and leading the Church under the authority of Christ. Elders are men and women who possess gifts of leadership, who are giving of themselves in service to the church, and who are called to serve in this capacity. The Biblical qualifications for this position are listed in 1 Timothy 3:2-7 and Titus 1:6-9: above reproach, devoted spouse, self-controlled, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine, not quick tempered, uncontentious. free from the love of money, manage own household well, not a new convert, good reputation with outsiders, not self-willed / not stubborn or abusing of authority, loving what is good, just, devout, and holding fast to the faithful Word of God.

This Sunday, January 10, we're going to set apart Judy Hall as a new Elder at Southview. Be praying for her as she accepts this new leadership role, and keep all the Elders covered in prayer as we seek to lead under the leadership of Jesus, always being mindful of the responsibility we have accepted. It is truly a joy for me to serve alongside the deacon team and with the Elder team. I pray that God would use these men and women as they seek to serve Him and His Church with all their hearts.

Compassion Ministry Update

During the month of December, we focused on our new partnership with Compassion International. I taught a series of messages in a series called "A Christmas of Compassion," studying some of what God's Word has to say to us about God's love and compassion for us as well as His expectation of the compassion and love that we are to show to others, especially the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed. We offered a number of opportunities for Southviewers to get involved, and wow! Did you ever!

During the month of December, 54 children from Rwanda were sponsored by Southviewers through Compassion International! I am so excited about so many children being provided for and given an opportunity to hear the life and eternity changing message of Jesus Christ due to your obedience to God's Word!

We also collected an offering at our Christmas Eve service this year, 100% of which is going to a clean water project for communities in Rwanda that Compassion International is working with. Southviewers, as of this morning, $14,123.00 has been given toward this! Each community's water project will cost approx. $4,400, and you gave enough to do 3!! I praise God for your generosity and your love for these children and for our God. May we, the church of Jesus Christ, be known for our compassion and love for all people, as a testimony to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There Are No Hot Dogs In Heaven

In our Bible Study class at Southview we’re finishing up our study of heaven.  It’s been a terrific study and we’ve all come to see heaven in a different light.  Looking forward to our eternal home, the New Heaven and New Earth promised us in Revelation Chapters 21 and 22, we all have a new sense of excitement about the work Christ has set before us.  Knowing that someday we’ll be reunited with family, friends, and of course Jesus our Savior, and knowing that we’ll be living everyday in the presence of God as He dwells among us, provides us the hope and peace we need to face the struggles and challenges here on this earth until Christ comes again.

As we studied through the many references to the New Earth and New Heaven we were struck by the numerous similarities with God’s original creation and how it gives us a pattern of things to come in our new home.  We can also see from Revelation Chapter 21 that there will be a great holy city, the New Jerusalem, and out of the center of it, from God’s throne, flows a crystal river and on each side are trees that bear fruit, fruit for us to eat.  We’ll have homes, live in an active Kingdom where kings come and go passing through the twelve great gates of the city, gates that never close, we’ll know everyone around us, and we’ll be in God’s constant presence.

The earth itself will be new scripture says, the old things will have all passed away and we’ll live on a new earth brightened by the glory of God.  What an exciting place.  Isaiah also had much to say about the New Heaven and New Earth.  In Isaiah 65:17 God says, “Behold I will create new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.” He also declares in Isaiah 51:3, “The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD.  Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.”  What a marvelous place our new home will be.

And, in Isaiah 65:25 God says, “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpents food.  They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.”  This too will be like it was in the days of Adam and Eve and life in the Garden of Eden, man, animal and all of creation at peace and in perfect harmony.

As I reflected on this and thought about life on the New Earth I realized it’s going to be so new, so different, we can hardly comprehend it.  Living in resurrected bodies, walking along the crystal river and on the streets of gold, we’ll be eating from the Tree of Life – but then it occurred to me – there won’t be any hot dogs in heaven, man and animal will be at peace – we’ll all be vegetarians again just as man was before the flood.  Wow, no hot dogs, I love hot dogs – but then it occurred to me as well we’ll be eating like we’ve never eaten before.  I can hardly wait, fruit from the Tree of Life, Bread from the Bread of Life, drinking water from the Water of Life and…something we’ve never experienced, food from the “grain of heaven”, manna – won’t it be great!  Psalm 78:24 tells us manna is the “grain of heaven”, Revelation 2:17 promises to give to he who overcomes the “hidden manna”, and I’m willing to wager that the wedding feast will have it featured on the menu as well.

I wonder if one of the jobs some of us will have is growing and harvesting manna, or pruning and caring for the Tree of Life, a tree Revelation tells us grows all along the crystal river.  Given that the New Jerusalem is going to be 1,500 miles high that would mean a river at least that long, and probably a lot longer.  Plenty of room to grow all we’ll need for the millions upon millions living on the New Earth with us.

For sure we’ll have a lot to do and joy will fill every day, and even though I won’t find a hot dog there I know Heaven will exceed my every expectation.  Now if I can just keep that excitement to fan the little light of mine that is my testimony perhaps someone else today will learn about heaven, and Jesus the savior that wants everyone to join him there.

Have a great week working in the kingdom.

In Christ,

Wes

Christmas Eve Service This Thursday Night at 7

Due to the big snowstorm, we didn't gather as a church last Sunday, but I am looking forward to seeing you all this Thursday at our Christmas Eve candlelight service! We'll begin at 7 p.m. - we've been praying about and planning this service for a while, and we are looking forward to a special service.

Don't forget that our Christmas Eve offering will go toward the Compassion clean water project in Rwanda - come prepared to share as you have been led by the Spirit.

We'll also have a few more packets for Rwanda children who are in need of sponsors through Compassion International - if you didn't get an opportunity to sponsor a child on the 13th, this opportunity will be available before and after the Christmas Eve service.

See you Thursday night!

Beethoven's 9th Symphony

I was raised around classical music.  Even though we were poor materially my mother, who loved classical piano, always made sure we had a used piano in the house.  She would often spend hours playing and I loved it.  During my undergraduate years, with no musical talent of my own, I took Music History as an elective to learn more about this classical music I too had come to love.

This evening it occurs to me there is much we as Christ followers can learn from classical music, specifically a style of music referred to as a symphony.  Webster defines the word symphony as, “harmonious complexity and concordant in sound.”  Answers.com defines it as: “something characterized by a harmonious combination.”  Orchestras, those collections of string, bass, woodwind and sometimes percussion instruments, are typically central in the performance of a symphonic piece.  While each specific musical instrument appears to only play certain notes at certain times, seemingly without actually playing a “tune,” when all sections of the orchestra are playing together the music, the symphony, will provide a “harmonious complexity” that produces real music and deeply moves people.

Symphonies are typically structured in “movements”, with most having four although many only have three movements.  Within each movement typically two competing themes play out in the composition that is either played in a fast or slow tempo.  The traditional symphony I’ve grown to like is four movements in a slow, fast, slow, fast style.  Beginning in the 17th century with the advent of standard definitions for what constituted a specific instrument, and standards for tuning those instruments, the composers of the day attempted to bring the voice of Opera – the music of the day – to the instrument.  Mozart and Haydn brought this new approach to a real art form with the symphony. 

However, in the 18th century Beethoven took it to a whole new level with his boldness in composition and then with the creation of his 9th Symphony where, during the closing movement, the fourth, he did something never done before he added chorale voices – symphonies are for instruments only - this was unthinkable, radical, and extremely dramatic, and with it he forever changed the symphony – most would say for the good, but not all.  In 1903 Debussey declared that the era of the symphony had ended with Beethoven’s 9th – even though in retrospect it had not.

So, you may rightly ask, what’s all this got to do with being a Christ follower – simply this, have you ever thought of your church family as the orchestra, God as the composer of the symphony he’s written for your church and Christ as the conductor?  Or, have you fallen into Debussey’s trap of thinking all symphonies have to have four movements and only instruments?  Can you see that while each of us represents a different instrument and therefore set in a different section of the orchestra that when we play the composition as the composer has written it, and follow the guidance of a skilled conductor, we play at our very best and accomplish the original intent of the composer?
That, it occurs to me, is what is at work in the local church.  That is, when something occurs outside the norm, like Beethoven adding voice, within the church such as a new ministry beginning, or praise songs are sung instead of hymns, or the order of worship changes, do we embrace that and incorporate it in our symphony or reject it out of hand and try to play God’s symphony the way we want, rather than He?

I’ve come to see God’s hand in so much of what happens in any local church body, and ours is no different, and I’ve come to realize that I was seeing God as a cookie maker, using the same cookie cutter in every church.  Each church should have a certain size staff with specific positions and ministries, each educational system structured the same, the same music programs, missions programs, and community outreach – I reasoned that that must be what God intended, that we be uniform and the same, and that when that doesn’t occur something must be wrong or out of place.

Today I see that no, God is actually the great composer and conductor creating marvelous symphonies within every local church, each is different both in composition and in orchestra components but with a single theme, reaching mankind for an eternity.  I’ve come to see that when we recognize each church has a unique purpose and mission and God is the one who draws the orchestra together to play that specific symphony that we can be harmonious in a way that glorifies Him above all else.  Perhaps this week it’s a piece of jazz He has for us to play and perhaps next week a symphony – as long as we see Him as the great composer and see others around us as having a role to play then we can accomplish all that God intends – and while it may seem different we will indeed be a “harmonious combination.”

God is moving among us today preparing to have us play a new piece He has written.  He’s moving the instruments around, and perhaps bringing in some new ones as well.  In the year ahead He’ll do things with us He’s never done before in ways He’s never done before – a brand new piece of music, how exciting.  Perhaps you’ve been in the string section and now you’ll be in the brass, perhaps you were first violin now someone else has been given that role, perhaps you’ve never played an instrument or sung a note in any orchestra before – this coming year might be your first ministry, first church, first Bible class, or first mission trip or perhaps your first time working with people you don’t know or have never worked with, all of which is true in a new orchestra or learning a new piece.

Committing ourselves today to the work ahead, to embracing and learning the new “symphony” Christ will accomplish with us this coming year is the first step in performing and contributing at our highest level.  I’m excited and I hope that you are as well.  Learning a new piece of music is always a challenge but exciting as well as we recognize that God’s not through with us, in fact He’s just beginning.  I can hardly wait to hear the first recital!

Praising God with you,
Wes

From Duty To Delight

This article from Pray! Magazine deals with one woman's change of perspective on prayer, from seeing it as a duty to a delight. Well worth your time in reading - check it out here.

Praying for your children

The leader of our prayer ministry, Diane Atkison, pointed me to this article from Pray! Magazine on praying for your children. I thought it was great - no matter how old your kids are, this is a vital part of parenting. You can see the article here.

How's Your Cadence?

This summer I’ve added cycling to my list of activities aimed at getting and keeping me in shape.  Jumping into it with a passion I’ve read several pieces on training and, true to my long distance running instincts, I've been studying how to plan and execute a long ride.  Eventually I’d like to do a “century” ride, a ride that goes for one hundred miles.  It takes training and a lot of advanced planning if you want to make a ride of that length and still be able to walk after the event.

As I’ve been reading and practicing a variety of things that should help me improve as a cyclist – diet, getting the right sleep, having the right gear to ride safely, doing the sprints and time trials, etc., I came across something I didn’t anticipate – “Cadence Training”.  In its simplest form “cadence” is the number of revolutions per minute that a cyclist turns the crankshaft (the pedal) one full revolution.  Cadence, it turns out, is something most competitive cyclists pay a lot of attention to, and now that I understand the principle I pay a lot of attention to it as well.

It turns out that most of us weekend riders pedal at around 60 rpm while a serious competitor will typically crank out 90 rpm.  And, the extremely good ones, like Lance Armstrong, ride at 110 rpm!  And, oh did I mention Lance rides 100-150 miles a day for three solid weeks in the Tour De France at that rate? 

I immediately realized I was not a Lance Armstrong, he like Tiger Woods in golf, or Michael Jordan in basketball, is an extremely gifted athlete so I know that attaining 110 rpm is probably not a realistic training goal for me, but clearly getting my 60 rpm up to or close to 90 rpm is certainly attainable if I work at it. 

The other training insight I’ve gotten is that it’s better to cycle up a hill using a lot of lower gears and keeping your cadence high then trying to hammer up a hill in a real high gear.  You might take the first couple of hills faster than everyone else, but by the end of a 25 or 50 mile race you probably will finish last as your legs and energy level will have all been spent.  And it turns out if you practice keeping your cadence up while climbing you’ll actually climb the hill faster using less energy, especially if it’s the fifth or sixth hill in the past thirty minutes.

Lately I’ve come to realize several applications of this training to our Christian walk.  First, when I realized I hadn’t really focused on my cadence and did some further studying it turns out there’s a couple different types of people – those who try to overcome the hills in life by powering up them as hard and fast as they can and burn out early, and those who don’t try to improve their cadence and become satisfied with simply keeping pace with the pack.  I realized I had been both at one time or another.

Second, clearly as Christians we are commanded not just to run the race God has set before us, but we are to run that race with intentionality, with the express purpose of winning that race.  In Hebrews 12:1 it reads: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Paul in his writings talks of running so that we are to win the race, he writes in Philippians 3:13-15, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.”

And again in 1 Corinthians 9:24 Paul writes, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” If we are to take our Christian walk seriously, if we are to be the Ambassadors Christ calls us to be, then we should be doing it with intentionality, with purpose – we should be running the race to win, not just to get the T-Shirt.  Are you? 

As you consider your answer to that question consider your cadence, are you trying to hammer up and over every hill, are you trying to keep pace with the faster runner rather than set your own pace, are you allowing Christ to lead you in this race or are you trying to do it all on your own strength?  Or, perhaps you’ve been content staying with the pack, running along with the group rather than running to win, do you even think about winning, or is your focus simply completing the race?

I’ve come to realize at various stages in the race Christ has set before me that I’ve been both a power runner – running very hard in my Christian walk and then being so burned out I couldn’t complete the next lap, and I’ve had times in my life when simply keeping pace with the pack was my only goal. 

Neither are good, neither are what Christ intends for us.  We need to be working constantly on our pace, our strategy, overcoming the next obstacle, and enjoying those times when the wind’s at our backs – all with the express purpose of running to win, not simply to finish.

So here’s a piece of wisdom from a newbie cyclist: “pedal faster, not harder” and work on getting your cadence up – don’t be satisfied being one of the “average” weekend riders.  It will make the hills come and go much faster and easier, and the level ground will simply fly by. 

May Christ begin a new work in you today that will increase your cadence and bring you the victory that awaits each of us through Him.

In Christ,
Wes

Do You Know What Freedom Is?

Yesterday we talked about what Paul meant by Freedom in  Galatians 5:1. I heard a real interesting talk this morning by Michael Frost who relates an article written in the Sydney Morning Herald about a man who lives right next to the Gap... a very popular suicide spot on the South Head of Sydney (also a popular tourist destination, the photo above). He tells of seeing a young bloke perched on the edge, obviously ready to jump. He tried to talk to him... he talked to him for a while, he then asked him to come away from the edge, offered him a cup of tea or a beer at his place. The young bloke responded "no" and jumped. As he tried to reach to out to him, all he was able to grab was the young bloke's cap which flew off as he jumped. He has since spoken with hundreds of people perched on the edge of those cliffs, offering them an ear, a cup of tea, anything to get them away from the edge.

We live in a world that has real sense of hopelessness. That lack of life purpose that you just can't find in any of those "self-discovery" or "self-authentication" lifestyle religions. 

Here's where Freedom comes in and sets Christianity apart... Paul challenges us Christians to understand what it truly means to be Free... not just freedom from... but also freedom for! As the theologian E. J. Epp puts it:

The implications of this Christian freedom as Paul develops it are vast and far-reaching, but essentially he sees freedom as a reality effected in and through the Christ-event, which has broken the power of sin and neutralized the individual hostility against God, which at the same time has covered the guilt and stain of sin and erased the past; which has crushed all enslavement to self, to religious convention, to the present power of evil, and to cosmic forces: and which has triumphed over every force that dominates humankind, including human mortality itself. But that is only one side of the coin – the “freedom from what?” side; there is the also the significant “freedom for what?” side.

Freedom means: free to do what we were created for! It means purpose, it means mission. As a community, first and foremost, we are called to accomplish God's will on this earth. To bring hope to the hopeless, shine the light in a darkened world... to surrender all we are for the sake of His Kingdom. 

By truly embracing what God's Freedom for His people means, by putting in as much effort in fulfilling His will for this earth as we do in building up our own lives... then we may find fewer people standing on that edge. 

Youth Mission Week... Pt.1

Here's a little snippet of what the youth group is doing this week. We sanded and stained Ms. Georgia's deck, it was a beautiful day, only 98 degrees with about 110% humidity...!!!

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