But God…

We often say things like, “I know God is big, but…”  It’s so easy to look at our current circumstances and get scared.  We feel like we’re going to be swallowed up by the things going on around us.

Let’s go back to grade school grammar… remember conjunctions?  Conjunctions join two parts of a sentence (or two sentences) together.  One conjunction is “but”.  This three letter word has amazing power.

You could say, “I like you, but your breath is bad.”  Or something like, “Your mom is nice, but she can be annoying.”  In each of these sentences, the word “but” negates what came before it.  In other words, whatever comes before the “but” is unimportant.  It’s what comes after the “but” that counts.

Look at the following Bible verses…

You, with the help of wicked men, put [Jesus] to death by nailing him to the cross.  But God raised him from the dead.
Acts 2:23-24

By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
Eph 2:3-5

In each of these passages, we see the phrase “But God.”  Notice that when He comes on the scene, everything changes.  Wrongs are righted, lives are changed, and things that were dead are made alive again!

We can look at the circumstances Watermark is facing right now:

• We only have 22 people involved.
• Since Watermark is unknown, we have no influence in the community.
• Our financial resources are limited.
• We have no building yet. (But we’re working on it!)

With each of these, we could say, “I know God is big, but…”  We instead choose to say, “These things seem big, but God…!”  What matters is what comes after the “but”! 

Our confidence is that although things look tough right now, there’s still the “but God” at the end of our journey!  God has already done some miraculous things to bring our team together… just wait 'til you see what He does through Watermark!

Beginning Aug. 29 we’ll have weekly team meetings on Sundays at 11:00am, up until our church launch on Oct. 24.  If you’re in the Freiburg area, we’d love to have you join us!  Contact us for more information.

Difficult…

We got a Facebook message from some friends that went through the same church planter training I did (with http://arcchurches.com).  Their church is now 5 mos old and doing well, although not yet as big as they had imagined it would be.

One of the things they told me was that the entire process was “really hard in so many ways (way more than we could have ever anticipated or anyone could have communicated), but also rewarding.”

I must admit that this is a bit unnerving.  I know it’s not going to be easy.  I know there will be times we want to give up.  But hearing from someone just a few months ahead of us in the process that it’s REALLY tough kinda gets your attention.

It makes us rethink why we’re doing this.  We KNOW that Watermark is God’s idea, so we’re staying with it.  We’re going to not just persevere and survive, but thrive.  I believe that most churches that fail don’t make it because the people just give up.  I don’t want that said of me.

All that said, we welcome your prayers.  We know the road ahead won’t be easy, but we’re committed.  We want to finish well!

Launch Team Meeting – 1 Aug 2010

Here is the mp3 of the Launch Team Meeting from last Sunday’s meeting… “We’ve forgotten what it’s like to be sick.”

Hier ist die mp3 von der Launch Team Meeting der am letzten Sonntag stattfand… “Wir haben uns vergessen wie es sich fuhlt Krank zu werden.” (Leider nur auf Englisch)

http://watermarkfreiburg.de/upload/LaunchTeamMtgs/Launch_Team_mtg_010810.mp3

Feeling stuck?

New Perrin Ministries Blog: Feeling Stuck - http://bit.ly/bPxRRS

What to do when you don’t know what to do

New Perrin Ministries Blog: “What to do when you don't know what to do” - http://bit.ly/9oJzee

No strings attached!

One of the things I’ve been processing lately is the importance of serving people as Jesus did… with no strings attached.

Then Jesus arrived from Nazareth, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the Devil. He was able to do all this because God was with him.
                                                                              Acts 10:38

So often churches use what many refer to as “bait and switch” tactics: You invite someone over for dinner or a party, and then spend the evening “witnessing” to them.  Or they invite someone to a party or some other kind of fun activity, but they have to attend a church service first.  At the very least there is an expectation that they come to a service at a later date. 

But what would it look like if a church served and loved people with no strings attached?  If it just served people in order to live as Jesus did?  If it helped people, counseled people, fed people, performed weddings, etc. just because it is the right thing to do?

I think it would help the world around us lower its defenses when it comes to Christianity.  It would make it easier to engage people on spiritual topics.  It might even open the door for people far from God to come check out a church.  And we want Watermark to be that church!

19 July 2010 Launch Team Mtg

We had an awesome time with many of the launch team members yesterday at Justin and JJay’s apartment. They have an incredible apartment with a huge balcony overlooking a castle, an old church and the “bath houses” of Badenweiler.

We talked about the four “core values” of the church.

1) A SAFE PLACE – to discover a relationship with God. We talked about how the style of the church will be one with a totally unchurched person in mind... and without “churchy” language.

2) FAMILY ORIENTED – where kids can feel like they’re the center of attention or the “Superstar” for an hour and a half on Sunday mornings.  We want to be a fun, safe place for kids to experience God.

3) MISSIONAL LIVING – we want the entire church to be involved in ministry of some kind. We believe that everywhere we go in our daily lives is our “mission field”.  We don’t want to do church... we want to BE the church.

4) AUTHENTIC FAITH – not television evangelist faith... but how to trust God in the daily details of our lives when we need to pay bills, struggle in our relationships, etc.  And this faith will be characterized by taking calculated risks for the Kingdom.  God is not honored by small-minded, play-it-safe, comfort zone faith.

In Matthew 14 we read the story of Jesus walking on the water.  When Peter realized it was Jesus, he asked Jesus to call him to come.  Jesus called him; and Peter responded.  Although the boat was filled with disciples, Peter was the only one willing to take a huge risk and get out of the boat.  And he was also the only human ever to walk on the water besides Jesus.  The higher the risk, the higher the reward!

Each of the team members shared their passion for a certain area of the ministry and how they could get involved. Then, we talked about how we can serve the community and how to get the word out about the church in different ways. They had some incredibly creative ideas. What an awesome and diverse team that God is raising up here!

We also talked about meeting every Sunday for a short service and then break off into a few groups to talk about the area of ministry that each is involved in. We are adding people each week that are interested in helping us launch....or that are just checking it out. Everyone is welcome at these meetings!

God is so good! We have found a building that is incredible. We are working on getting city approval to meet there, funding, getting our non-profit status, buying equipment, etc.

Prayer:

• That the city officials approve a “church” in this area and that they will work with us concerning handicap accessibility.
• That a few of the team members would be accepted into the University of Freiburg or the job internship that they desire in the Freiburg area.
• Housing for the interns (and a few others) that are raising support to come help us.
• Provision for those that are now raising support to come join us.
• More team members so that we can start with a bang.
• Talented musicians to join the team because good music is at the heart of what we are doing.
• Direction for all of us because we are “stepping out of the boat” while we try to create a type of church that we have never seen here before!