Every once in a while I’ll just write about a collection of stuff.  “Stuff” is one of my favorite catch all words that is so useful in the English language. 

Disaster Action Team - Emergency Response

We are making huge progress is serving our community during times of emergency.  We are now officially connected toPima
County as a church that will feed people during a crisis.  We have a kitchen trailor that can serve about 250 people an hour.  In the case of an emergency (fire, natural disaster, etc.) we will serve victims or emergency personnel serving the victims.  In June we’ll be part of an emergency preparation drill here in
Tucson.In the near future we are seeking to be a part of CERT – Community Emergency Response Team.  When that happens we’ll make our facility and team available to serve those who are victims of disaster.   In that scenario we’ll house, feed and care for those who have been displaced.

If you would like to be a part of this developing life group, contact Tom Taylor who is our Director of Guest Services.  You can contact him at the church office at extension #224 or email him at ttaylor@pantanochristian.org

Attendance and Giving

I want to share our attendance and giving figures.  These numbers are from July through December ‘06 (the first half of our fiscal year).  I’ve also added the comparison for the same time period the previous year.

                                                2005                           2006

Total Attendance                   2377                           2215

Total Worship                        1798                           1584

Budget shortage                   $44,446                      $97,425

You’ll notice in total attendance we are averaging 162 less people per week than last year.  Part of this is that we sent approximately 175 people to start Vail Christian Church.  Many of those folks were also mature and generous givers.  So our lower attendance and budget numbers largely reflect our blessing the Vail community.  However, last weekend was a high compared to last year (2400 for the weekend)!

I also want to be honest and transparent in that I also know that a few have left Pantano Christian Church because they are not connecting to our mission.  You need to know that it really does painfully affect me when people leave.  But I am so convicted of the direction God is leading us toward – living deeply devoted lives to Jesus to bless our community and world!  This is not a sitting church.  Not everyone will see this as a fit, and that’s okay too.  Recently I’ve been encouraged by a significant number of new folks that love our focus and direction and are finding great connections in life groups.  Jesus wasn’t interested in crowds and neither am I.  We are about engaging in the spiritual revolution and mission of God.

Together to make a difference,

Glen

I am so excited about the new weekend message series titled Surprised by Jesus – a Fresh Look at Jesus and His Message.  I am so captivated and overwhelmed by Jesus.  Even though I’ve been following Jesus for 36 years, I find that my love, respect and trust of Jesus keeps growing. 

To be honest, I don’t like to identify myself as a Christian very often.  It is not that I’m ashamed of being a Christian; it is just that there is so much negative baggage about Christianity.  I am sure that Jesus would never approve of much of what is done in the name of Christianity.  But I have no hesitancy identifying myself to anyone anywhere as a follower of Jesus.  I’m so proud to follow him. “He alone is worthy!”  He is forever fresh.  He is surprising and shocking.

Jesus is more than unusual.  He defies every form of human conventional wisdom.  Every time I read the Gospel – the story of Jesus - he blows my mind.  I am continually surprised by Jesus, just as the people of his day were.  And the surprises, while usually very challenging, are so welcomed.

In this new series we won’t discover a new Jesus.  We are not trying to “re-invent” Jesus as some have tried to do over the ages.  But we’ll look at aspects of Jesus and some of his teachings that we might have glossed over or maybe have not emphasized.  We’ll look at some things that just might surprise us about Jesus.  But the surprises may actually be a door toward a deeper relationship with Jesus and a door toward a greater kingdom adventure.  So get ready to meet or get re-acquainted with the not-so-familiar or at least not so comfortable Jesus.

This weekend I’m going to ask all of us here at Pantano Christian Church to join together in a Bible reading project.  I would like all of us, over the next few weeks, to read one of the four Gospels, one of the first four books of the New Testament – Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.  I want to encourage you to read it slowly.  We are not trying to just get the project done, but I want to encourage you to allow Jesus to read your heart as you read his words.  I’m starting the gospel of Luke (the longest and the one with the most people stories).  Some of you might want to start with Mark (short and direct) or Matthew (the story with a Jewish flavor) or John (using strong metaphors or pictures to identify Jesus). 

May we allow Jesus to form and shape us more and more.  May he become so compelling to us that he is compelling to others who experience Jesus in us.

Together to make the world different;

Glen

We’ve completed the 3 year transition of senior leadership and launched Tim and Sandy Coop in their new role. Tim, as Pastor of Community and Pastoral Relations will focus on partnering with other churches and agencies to see neighborhoods transformed. He’ll lead our efforts in Project Hope in
Peru. And he’ll continue to actively serve on our pastoral and teaching team. If you missed our thank you celebration Sunday afternoon you missed one of the most joyful, fun and encouraging events of this century at Pantano Christian Church.

Ask anyone there about the new word we added to the English dictionary. Ask what it means to be “Cooped.” What a thrill to be able to give the Coops a thank you gift of over $15,000. Thank you to all who participated in that gift. And we honored the Coops by naming our indoor basketball court – Coop Court. The whole evening was a blast.

Let me share a few reflections after the weekend. I really loved and enjoyed listening to the incredible, emotional and powerful testimonies of how
Tim Coop has touched so many lives in so many ways. Then it hit me, I can NEVER fill those shoes! My arms are not wide enough! At first that was a bit disturbing and then the Lord reminded me to never even attempt that. One of the greatest mistakes any leader can make is to try becoming who they are not. God made Tim and me as very different people with different histories, personalities and gifts. I praise God that we all, and especially me, will continue to benefit from Tim’s wonderful grace and kingdom perspective.

And that led me to another reflection. The beauty of Pantano Christian Church and any healthy church is that we embrace that there is no one pastor or leader who “has it all.” We all bring to the Body of Christ different gifts. It is only as a community of faith that we find real wholeness and balance. Where I am weak, Tim is strong. Where Tim is weak, Roger is strong, or Dave or Ed or put any name in the blank. Pantano Christian Church is not a personality driven church, but a church guided by its mission and vision and godly biblical values. It is a church that is led and taught by a team, not an individual.

That led to my next reflection. I had the joy of sharing our vision at the weekend services. I shared where we are going and what we see for the next few years. If you missed that, you can read about it in our Pathway Handbook on pages 38 & 39 or on our web site.

That vision is not my vision alone. My voice on the weekend was simply one voice sharing the passion of many voices. It is a vision that God has been giving our leaders over several years. It is a collective vision where different leaders have listened to Jesus and brought a part of the vision to the table. As I shared the vision I would even remember times when a different staff person had shared an insight that ended up being key part of where we are going. One of the great strengths of Pantano Christian Church is our team approach to leadership and teaching.

What does a Lead Pastor do? He leads and empowers a team. And God has given us a GREAT team.

Together to make the world different;

Glen

Resolutions

Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe it is 2007 already.

This weekend I talked about resolutions. After doing a Google search on the web regarding resolutions I realized that most writers and bloggers have pretty much given up and trashed resolutions. Why? Because most people don’t keep their resolutions so why make them. And worse, when we don’t keep our resolutions we feel bad about ourselves.

I tried to think about this from God’s perspective. How does God view resolutions? First, I think God knows we are frail and fail often. We are broken and thus break many of our good intentions. The Apostle Paul relates in Romans 7 about the good he wants to do yet in the end does not do. Second, we know we can’t accomplish much by human effort alone. We need the power, guidance and encouragement of God to succeed when it comes to issues of character and right living.

But I also see men and women of God in the Bible making and keeping resolutions. In the end I think it comes down to wisdom. Wisdom is making right resolutions. Wisdom is also finding the system or structure and ways that help us succeed.

That’s why we introduced STEP to you this weekend. If you missed the weekend message you can listen to the podcast or read the notes online. Further, STEP is spelled out in our new winter ’07 Pathway Handbook on the first two pages.

STEP is an acronym for our four core values or expectations of those of us who belong to Pantano Christian Church. Here’s what STEP stands for:

Sharing life together
Transforming into Christ’s likeness
Entrusted with time, talents and treasures
Participating in the Great Commandment and Great Commission

STEP provides a system and structure to succeed in becoming the people that God wants us to be. Every resolution that I could think of can be address in STEP. Please take a look at the Handbook (hard copies on campus and the electronic copy on the web). If we will commit to engage in one or all of the four parts of STEP, we’ll find that we can be overcomers and fruitful.

If you are not sure about how to get started, we have a new class called “First STEP” that will be held Sun. Jan. 14 from 2-4pm. The next one in February is on Wed. the 7th from 7-9pm. See page 5 of the Pathway Handbook.

Together to make a difference in this New Year,

Glen