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Celebrating Signs of Life

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 By Pastor Ryan White

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin.” (Zechariah 4:10, NLT)

I am relatively new to Elim. I was not here with you through your multiple leadership transitions, the extended interim period, or the dark days at the start of this coronavirus pandemic. Every local church has its seasons. It sounds like Elim’s last season was all about stasis and survival. The image I have picked up on is not of a body on life support, but of a body that suffered trauma and was put into a medically induced coma so that it might heal, recover, and prepare for its next chapter of living.

Yet the joy of my journey with you all thus far has been to witness signs of life returning to this body, to see our collective chest rising and falling as the breath of God’s Spirit rushes into us and races back out through us.

There is much to celebrate. It warmed my missionary heart to drag our baptismal out of storage and scrub it clean of cobwebs and spider nests, readying it for use. Since that time, God’s rescuing Spirit has done His work among us. Four souls have been buried with Christ into the waters of baptism and raised to walk in newness of life, declaring before family and friends their devotion to Jesus. These four—Jake, Lily, Emmy, Violet—are the maturing children of this church, proof that God’s faithfulness extends from generation to generation. Yet Christ’s heart grows bigger still. He reminds us, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also” (John 10:16, ESV). Therefore it is thrilling to report that this coming Sunday we will be baptizing and celebrating our first adult convert since Easter. Jesus, through His death and resurrection, has defeated the powers of evil, sin, and death and is making all things new, even us—even Shirley, our new baby sister in the faith!

It says in Psalm 117, “Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!” I love the imperative nature of this psalm. You must praise Him. Stop what you are doing, the psalmist sings, and rejoice in who God is and what He is accomplishing in your midst. It is a call to celebrate, an invitation—in the words of Adele Ahlberg Calhoun—“to take joyful, passionate pleasure in God and the radically glorious nature of God’s people, Word, world, and purposes . . . delighting in the all the attentions and never-changing presence of the Trinity” (Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, p. 26).

I am not saying Elim has arrived, but I am inviting you to celebrate. This is a rhythm for which we were created. Don’t despise small beginnings. Don’t look past these early sprouts. The Lord rejoices to see the work begin. We should as well. Jesus is breathing his life into us once again. Let’s mark the moment. Let’s lift up our gratitude and engage in actions that orient our hearts toward worship, thanksgiving, and praise.

In this season of newness at Elim, what is it that you are celebrating?

Here are just a few things for which I find myself praising God since Easter:

  • I keep hearing reports of Elimites who are living as Jesus’s witnesses in their communities, hosting barbecues, water fights, strawberry shortcake parties, and more for the express purpose of building relationships and deepening connections with neighbors who do yet know Jesus.
  • Newcomers are again walking through our doors, investigating Jesus and what life in God’s family is all about.
  • After a beautiful season of family worship complete with worship bags, Hula-Hoops, and kids’ moments, Kids’ Ministry has returned on Sunday mornings and God has raised up our own Beth White as Elim’s new Kids’ Ministry Director.
  • I am celebrating the three new families we have welcomed into membership and the others we’ve seen return after a time away.
  • I am grateful for the many tireless and faithful volunteers who have mowed the lawns, weeded the playground, prepared meals, welcomed guests, led us in worship, ran and troubleshot our technology, and gotten back into the rhythm of loving children in the name of Jesus.
  • Personally, I have been deeply blessed by rich times of bonding with other men through our softball team and Thursday-night study through the Gospel of John.
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Celebrating Financial Faithfulness!

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Dear members and friends:

The Stewardship Team is committed to keeping you informed on a quarterly basis (or more often, if necessary) regarding Elim’s financial position. We are committed to transparency in times of scarcity and times of abundance. There is much to celebrate this year! Here is your update covering the first quarter (January through March) of 2018.

  • What is our year-to-date (YTD) budget (as of March 31)? – $83,823
  • What is our YTD giving to budget (as of March 31)? – $99,275
  • What are our YTD expenses (as of March 31)? – $76,970

What do these numbers mean?

  • We are $15,452 ahead of budget in terms of giving to budget! This is great news!
  • Our giving is $22,305 ahead of our expenses.
  • We are fully funding our Future Expansion Fund on a monthly basis.

What are our plans for the surplus in giving?

Since our mortgage was paid off in December 2013, we have been talking about the need to build another annex to house our growing children’s and youth ministries. We have been setting aside budgeted monies as well as surplus funds for the past five years to fund this need. As a result, we have approximately $70,000 set aside. The elders’ wish is to accelerate this plan and to contribute a large portion of our surplus to this need. We project that we will need approximately $250,000 to make these improvements. It is the Elder Board’s desire to meet this need in the next 12–18 months.

If you are able and willing to contribute to this critical need over and above your normal tithe, please do! All you have to do is designate your gift to the Future Expansion Fund.

Final Thoughts

The primary reason we give is because as followers of Jesus, we worship our Father, who is gracious and generous to all of us. One of the privileges He has given us is to be co-creators with Him in His Kingdom in this community. May this continue to motivate us to worship!

Do you have questions? Contact one of the Stewardship Team members: Dan Amos, Phil Pavey, Gregg Zimmerman, Willie Houze, or Martin Schlomer.

 

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The Ordinary Things

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By Brian Waple

As I sit here pondering what I’m going to write, it occurred to me that it is in the ordinary things that we find God. Now, this is not to say that God isn’t present in the spectacular and majestic and extraordinary—He most certainly is. But, as we go through our days, as routine as they are, we have opportunities to see God working. And we have the privilege of joining Him in those things, being present to what He is doing, and being a part of the blessing that comes from Him. And when we think about that, shouldn’t we be thankful?

I was having breakfast with my son the other day. We talked about some pretty nasty events going on in the world and how things seem to be verging on the chaotic and hopeless. As we were speaking, I was reminded that God is in all of that, the good and the bad, just as He is present in our conversation. And then it dawned on me like a lightbulb turning on—be thankful. Be thankful for the opportunity to spend the morning with my son and speak with him of things secular and spiritual; be thankful that he has a good, reliable car and is willing to do all the driving around Seattle on a wet Saturday morning (Praise God for that!); be thankful that he is happy with his life and is able to take care of himself and is respected for what he does; be thankful that Cindy and I have a weekly opportunity to spend the day with our granddaughter and be a part of her growing and developing; be thankful that she has parents who love each other; be thankful that there is no strife in my immediate family and that we get along really well. And be thankful that God loves me so much that He has blessed me with an incredible wife who cares about me, looks after me, and is willing to spend the rest of her life with me.

These are things I normally take for granted—these ordinary, some would say insignificant, non-Facebook worthy things. But they are moments when God speaks to us in the ordinary and shows us how much He loves us and how much we really are blessed. And our attitude should be one of thanks. In his book The Voice of Jesus, Gordon T. Smith writes, “Gratitude is fundamental for the Christian believer because through thanksgiving we open our hearts to the Spirit of God” (p. 85). Wouldn’t it be a shame to close our hearts off to the generous blessings of the Spirit of God simply because we refuse to be grateful?

“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, NLT). During your day, take a moment to think about how God is being present to you and blessing you in the ordinary things. And then take some time to give thanks.

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The Most Valuable Thing My Minivan Taught Me

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By Nate Champneys

When your minivan has 265,000 miles on it, you can be grateful for anything that works!My minivan has 265,000 miles on it and, as you would expect, it has many things wrong with it. One thing that I have taken for granted for years and that has stopped working in the last year or so is the heat controls. The heat controls are digital, and the control panel has completely stopped working, so the only thing I can control now is the fan speed. But intermittently the control will come back to life. Most of the time we get into our car and we just expect things to work and we forget the blessing that a simple thing like heat can be until it’s gone. But when my heat control works in my car occasionally, it is a cause for celebration and thanksgiving.

I have lived with my heat control the way it is for about a year, but this past summer, when the weather turned hot, it was not fun to live without A/C. Here is a crazy story—on the first day of the summer heat, I turned on my car and, lo and behold, everything worked, and I had some relief from the heat. My A/C continued to work all summer long, until the days turned cool and then, just as it had come to life, all the lights went dark, and I was back to only having fan control. But let me tell you, every day through the summer when I turned on my car and had wonderful cool air came out the vents, I thanked God for the gift of A/C. In the same way now that winter has come, although my heat control is not working, the system is “stuck” on heat. So, I can turn on the fan and have heat. It’s funny, now, every time I turn on my car and the heat comes on I thank God for the heat in my car.

It’s funny how such a stupid little thing, when taken a way and then restored, can be such a cause for thanksgiving. I began to think, why wait until something is taken away and then returned before thanking God for it? This has caused me to look around my life the last few months for the many little gifts God gives to me every day that I take for granted. When we look around at our lives through the lens of looking for the thousands of blessings God has given us, it really changes our perspective when we complain or worry about the things that we don’t have. God has given us a thousand and one gifts every day that we don’t even thank Him for.

In this Christmas season of giving, we give gifts because of the amazing gift God gave us through His Son, Jesus. But do we take time to recognize all the other gifts he is giving us right now? The clothes you are wearing right now. The laundry soap and water you used to wash them. The dresser you keep them in. The computer or smartphone you are reading this blog post on. The roof over your head right now. The light on the ceiling with electricity making it turn on. The heater that is heating the room where you currently sit. We are not owed any of these things, yet He has provided all of them to us while many people across the world do not have any of these things.

The Christmas season for many is a time of worrying about what gift to get for each person we care about and how we are going to pay for it. I encourage us all to take a moment and look around for the gifts that He is giving to you as you go throughout your day.

James 1:17—“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

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It’s the Little Things That Count the Most

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By Martin Schlomer and Donna McKenzie

Honestly, I like to see big things happen. Big accomplishments and big progress are home runs that get me excited. However, it’s the little accomplishments, the little wins that make up the real stuff of life. They’re not always very exciting, but they need to be celebrated

Last week, Donna McKenzie reminded me of the critical importance of celebrating the little things, those little victories, which are often overlooked and under-appreciated. As you read what she wrote, make note of those little things you can thank God for. They are bigger gifts than we may realize.

Also, as you read, continue to pray for Jeff, Donna, and Ryan. They’re special people and a gift to this body!

Martin

A Wave of Grief and a Moment of Joy.

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what Ryan can and can’t do. In fact, I try very hard not to think about it. Once in a while, though, it sneaks up out of the blue and hits me. It takes me by surprise, then grief overcomes me. Last night was one of those times. I was sitting on the couch, minding my own business, when my neighbors’ son pulled up into their driveway. I looked out the window and saw that he had a few friends with him. They piled out and started chasing each other around. He looked so tall, so strong, and it hit me, reality. He is the same age as Ryan. Their birthdays are only a few days apart. They are both seventeen, soon to be seniors in high school. I sat and watched him for a few minutes, and then sorrow filled my heart. That is what my son should be doing! That is what he would be doing if it wasn’t for the Duchennes. Reality.

aircondionerIt is times like those that bring to light the reality of what Ryan has lost. At this point, the list for what he cannot do has far exceeded what he can do. It is getting harder and harder for him to have any sense of independence. Today I was watching Ryan as he drove his chair into his room. He reached down to the standalone air conditioner, turned it on, then a few minutes later he went back and turned the temperature down. I got to thinking, he does this quite frequently throughout the day. I wanted to cry as I thought about it; watching him do this simple task seemed to bring him so much joy. An air conditioner? YES! Why? Well, Ryan can control it. He can turn it on and off; he doesn’t have to wait or ask for help, this is one thing he can do, independently! It may seem like a little thing; it isn’t driving a car like my neighbors’ son, but it IS something Ryan CAN do and I WILL take it, as small as it might seem, and celebrate it!

Sometimes it is a little thing that can bring a wave of grief, and sometimes it can bring about a moment of joy. For today, I am choosing to see the joy in a little thing. To most, it probably seems minute, but to us, we will celebrate it as a small victory of independence for Ryan!

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PREPARING TO GIVE PRAISE

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By Martin Schlomer

Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done. Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts. Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and His strength; seek His face always. Remember the wonders He has done, His miracles, and the judgments He pronounced. Psalm 105:1-5

This week we enter the holiday season! On Sunday, we will celebrate Thanksgiving as a community. The Miles family will begin by sharing how God has grown them through Jacoby’s accident. Following this, you will be given the same opportunity.

As you celebrate this Thursday and as we prepare to come together this Sunday, consider the following questions:

  • How are you thankful for how God has grown you as a disciple this past year?
  • Whom has God used to encourage and/or challenge you this past year, and for whom you are thankful?

“Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer but richer for having made it.” A.W. Tozer

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