Well, here it is – my annual pep talk about coming to the ARC conference. It’s true, for sure, that I get totally jazzed around this time of the year about this event, and consider it a personal high point and want to get as many of you there as possible.

For the past three years, because of finances we have used in-house speakers, and I think it has been a good move.  Last April we were quite clear that the Lord gave us a path on which to proceed that has to do with the next decade, namely focusing on Making Disciples, and our focus in the fall and winter mini-conferences was on “The Habit of Worship” and how that is a central part of the making of a disciple.  We want to finish this first foray into this calling with this year’s conference – “The Beatitudes as the Core of Discipleship”, and I have enlisted the help of Dave Johnson, who has become a close friend of mine over this past year. But let me tell you how this happened.

Dave is in process of making a transition similar to the one I made three years ago, and we have had great talks regarding that. In the middle of these talks, I sought Dave’s input regarding particular church situations that needed a broader perspective. Dave shared some thoughts with me from The Beatitudes that I found utterly compelling.  Upon further digging into his soul, I found that he had a lot more to share.  In fact, when he began his work at The Church of the Open Door thirty years ago, it was the gospel of Matthew and these initial profound statements of Christ were formational in the establishing of the church. Suffice it to say that The Beatitudes are a place where Dave Johnson has mined and lived for years.  So I am looking forward to this conference with a wide-open heart, waiting to hear from Jesus through this very gifted servant from this critical passage of Scripture.

This really is the core of worship.

You have, no doubt, received all kinds of information from Renee regarding the conference, and all things are being made ready.  If you’re coming to the conference but haven’t registered yet, please do so HERE. If you have any particular needs that you need addressed, you can get in touch with Renee at arc@arcchurch.org.

I look forward to seeing you all in a few weeks.  One of the great regrets that I always have is that I will see you, but will have only some fleeting time with most of you, simply because of the nature of my responsibilities during that time.  But it will be enough to see your face, get a quick embrace and worship with you.  And listen with you as the Holy Spirit engages our hearts about the core of worship in our lives.

See you soon!
Ned

I have a Valentine’s Day tale for all of you that will probably get me in trouble with some of you. But that’s never stopped me before, so here goes.

Tuesday was the day. Another Hallmark Conspiracy Day, as I like to name them. But romance is good, and I love my wife, so we went out to a movie and dinner. Sue especially likes to see some of the Academy Award nominated films before the big show, so I found that “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close “was playing at 4:30 and we headed out because it was playing in an area where there are a few pretty good restaurants. Perfect, right? Not so quick.

There was a large line at the theater and I thought, “Hmm…this film must be better than I anticipated”. Perhaps it is, but when I got to the window, they said it wasn’t showing until 10:00 pm. But everybody was in line for “The Vow”, which I had little knowledge about. In hindsight, it was clearly deliberately released on Valentine’s Day. Some folks that we queried were agog with anticipation for “The Vow”. They were all quite young, but I’m not that old, am I ? So I purchased 2 tickets for “The Vow”. And since it was a matinee, only $5 apiece. My thinking was that even if it was a bomb (note: not “The Bomb”), it was only a $10 loss. Worth the risk.

The theater was filling quickly and by the time the previews were afoot, the place was packed. I can’t honestly remember the last time I was in a theater that was even 1/4 full. But almost everyone was between 15 and 30 years old. That’s when the gnawing feeling began in my gut. We don’t belong here. People are wondering if we’ve lost our way and have stumbled into the wrong theater. But there was no turning back.

Here’s where I get in trouble with some of you. I disliked this film on multiple levels. No, I hated this film. It is beyond question the quintessential Date Film/Chick Flick and every stereotype is applicable. But beyond that, the acting was profoundly wooden. Mind you, in our quest to see the Award films, we had recently seen “The Iron Lady” with Meryl Streep and that was as remarkable an acting performance as we’ve ever seen.  I won’t give away the ending to “The Vow”, but I was a little sheepish to find out that this whole movie was based on real events.  So I’m feeling the need to be doubly careful.

So here’s the point of my little tale. I’m shamelessly advertising for our Annual Conference that’s coming up in less than 10 weeks. This conference ain’t no Date Flick. I’m nominating it for one of our best ARC Conferences yet – an “Academy Award Winning Performance”.  As my wife would likely say, “You say that every year.”  But as I say, “This time I really mean it.”

It’s at Grace Church in Toledo, OH, and we begin on Friday morning, April 20^th.  I think I can safely guarantee that no one will be disappointed by what we are presenting this year. Dave Johnson will be addressing the key pastoral issue of making disciples who genuinely worship God in spirit and truth.  He’ll be basing his five talks from the very beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount – The Beatitudes. This is unquestionably the truest description of the heart of a worshipper, and Dave has taught on this effectively over the years. We’re also going to be presenting 10 workshops that we think will add nothing but help to your understanding of being a chosen leader of God among His people. And we’re also trying to pay attention to the impetus that we received some years ago from the Lord to make some adjustments in the areas of Genders and Generations – and this is reflected in our workshop presenters.

Beyond all of that, it’s just important for us to get together at least annually as leaders and workers who share the common values of the ARC.

So please come.  Bring your friends and relations, and we’ll look forward to seeing you there in a few weeks.

This conference is the real deal.  Join us on the red carpet!

I met Andy & Breena Holt at last year’s ARC Annual Conference inToledo. Andy came with a bit of fanfare from some of the Toledo leaders; he won the preaching award at Gordon Conwell Seminary in Boston, and so I was eager to meet this young buck and his wife.  They were also in preparations for the planting of the newest ARC Church in Columbus, OH.  It’s called Ember Church.  I’ve attended Ember and was deeply impressed by the substantial quality of their worship.  I didn’t get to hear Andy preach, because that particular Sunday he was in the nursery.  That was also impressive to me. Since that time, I’ve met with Andy and have followed his blog (“The Sometimes Preacher“) with regularity. Andy is a remarkable communicator, a very good preacher (I’ve heard him now a few times on his podcast) and Breena attests that he is a very good husband and father.

I’m very glad to introduce Andy to you – he will also be sharing a workshop at our conference coming up in April (“Preaching as Discipleship”).  Andy and Breena also represent one of the commitments we made four years ago – to pay attention to raising up young leaders in the ARC. By the way, Breena will also be sharing a workshop at the conference (“Women and Friendships”). So with no further ado, here’s Andy Holt on “The Curious Way God Made Ember Church Possible”.

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This is a story I’ve been meaning to write for awhile. It’s the story of how God used a blog (not mine) to make Ember Church a reality. Enjoy!

One of the best experiences I had while working at Heritage happened the weekend before Lent, 2010. We usually brought in a big-time guest speaker the weekend before Lent, and this year was no different, because we invited Scot McKnight to come speak to us about Mary. The responsibility fell to me to pick Scot and his wife Kris up from the airport, escort them to the hotel, and to and from church for the weekend. They could not have been nicer, more down-to-earth people; and Breena and I got to share lunch and dinner with them! (Thanks, Heritage!)

Scot has a very popular blog called the Jesus Creed, on which he (and others) makes many thought provoking posts every day. There is usually good, civil discussion in the comment threads. I enjoyed taking part in the discussions for the better part of 2010, and Scot was even gracious enough to post several of my book reviews there.

When I moved into full time church planting in early 2011, I stopped commenting at the Jesus Creed, but was still an active reader. One day, in the Spring if I remember correctly, Scot posted about a book he recommended to me over dinner, Introverts in the Church by Adam McHugh. It is an excellent book and, as an introvert, I resonated with so much of what he wrote. (You can read my review of the book here.) I left a brief comment on Scot’s post about the book, saying something to the effect of, “You recommended this book to me when you were in Columbus, and I really enjoyed it!”

Later that day I got a comment on my own blog from someone going by the handle Pastor Mark. My first thought was, “Is Mark Driscoll commenting on my blog? Does he want to fight me?” As it turns out, it was Mark Farmer, a pastor in Columbus and fellow frequenter of the Jesus Creed blog. He contacted me because he had read my mention of Scot’s trip to Columbus, and thought it would be great to get together to chat. I happily agreed, thinking this was a great chance to meet another pastor in the area. I am, after all, the world’s worst networker, so whenever I get an opportunity to network with other pastors, I jump at it.

This is where things get God-level interesting. Mark and I both live in Westerville. In fact, we live in the same neighborhood. What is more, he pastors the church that is about a 2 minute drive from my house! We met up at Panera and had a wonderful conversation. He was a missionary and church-planter in France for a long time, and I was eager to hear his stories of ministry in what I perceived to be a difficult environment.

Meanwhile, Ember was still in the planning stages, but the summer was fast approaching, and that meant the fall, and our launch, was I had been against that from the beginning because I thought people would then perceive us as Junior Church, or Extra Church. In our culture, you go to church on Sunday morning, and everything else is extra credit. Fighting the culture over Jesus would be hard enough; I didn’t want to have to fight the culture over what time you go to church, too.  right around the corner. I had been looking into renting the local elementary school for our Sunday morning services, but the cost, along with the cost of storage, audio/visual equipment, and time to set-up and tear-down seemed prohibitive. We had some money, but not enough to get us off the ground in an elementary gymnasium.

I recently read Mike Sares’ newsletter for December and he brought up the church calendar, Advent in particular.

I like his reference to Isaiah and festival keeping and it’s one of the things I like about the church calendar. It presses us to focus on the things that truly shape our worship—–like the Incarnation, and the Resurrection, and the outpouring of the Spirit as the new covenant community is launched on its mission. Advent and Lent are preparation times to re-engage these central truths and the Realities that they hearken once again.

Mike has been pastoring the Scum of the Earth Church (SOTEC) for about a decade. Most of you know the story out there but might not know Mike as well. He is one of the most human leaders that I have had the privilege to know. And he is incredibly generous. Two stories come to mind. The first occurred during a Phil Keaggy concert inDenverwhere Mike arranged to give a gift to his departing worship leader, Deva Yoder. It was a very expensive guitar that Mike also arranged to have Mr. Keaggy play during his set on stage and then dedicate the song (I believe it was the Beatle’s “Here Comes the Sun”) and the guitar to Deva. Further he worked it out that between sets, Phil would present the guitar to Deva. Really, all very charming and honoring. But what I loved the most was watching the delight that was unfolding in Mike as he arranged all of this. It was a lot of work and quite expensive but he was perfectly childlike in his anticipation of the delight of another. It seemed to me that this was part of what Jesus meant when He called us to embrace the kingdom like children. Mike did it beautifully.

The second story had to do with Gothic Nathan, who Mike called the best evangelist at Scum despite his struggles with his own humanity. I was in the car as Mike was giving Nathan a ride home (wherever that happened to be at that time) and Nathan was enthusiastically trying to engage me in the merits of techno music. Not a big fan and Nathan didn’t pick up my cluelessness. And he wouldn’t stop even when we got to his drop off spot. And Mike wouldn’t “rescue” the situation but patiently let Nathan go on….and on. And I finally got it. This was a piece of Mike’s pastoral generosity and I was getting a much needed lesson in grace.

Finally, if you haven’t yet read Pure Scum, it’s worth your time. It will soften your heart with grace and you can hear a lot more stories of generosity.

Here’s Mike Sares. Listen to his Advent encouragement.
Ned

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Isaiah 30:29 And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people go up with flutes to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are about taking time out to celebrate God’s goodness to us. In one sense, we shouldn’t have to set aside special times during the year – we should always be grateful – but that’s simply not the case, so we mark our calendars to remember. We have begun, for several years now, to celebrate Advent as a rule at Scum of the Earth. We need to meditate upon the awesome wonder of God becoming one of us since we all are people infected by a consumeristic culture. God went to great lengths in order to secure Jesus a place in our hearts. It is almost impossible to get away from the busyness and commerce which surround the holidays. We’d have to live like monks or like the Amish. The best we can do is to focus on the important stuff within the church so that, in at least one community, we are not bowing to the culture.

The church has got to be the place where (or rather, the church has got to be people who believe that) God is the heart of the holiday season. We can’t expect that from anywhere else on the planet. It is our responsibility to remind each other what the holidays really mean – and I’m not talking about some sanitized version of Thanksgiving (for example) that whitewashes the terrible way the government has dealt historically with native Americans. That first Thanksgiving may have been us at our best. Nor am I talking about Christmas being the time of year when we are “not naughty, but nice.” It is imperative to be brutally honest in our view of ourselves if we are ever to have an honest view of God’s goodness at holiday time. We are thankful because He loves us in spite of the fact that He knows us – what we’ve done and left undone.

So celebrate the season within the context of community. Celebrate with your church, with your friends, or with other families who know that Jesus is the Heart of the Holidays. Better yet, become the community that celebrates God’s goodness with someone who has no community at holiday time. Help the helpless, feed the homeless, and befriend the friendless for the time we have left this year.

In Him,
Mike Sares

Rick Widener just informed me that I have spent 30 of the past 60 days in Ohio. And though I appreciate many things about the great state of Ohio, I am very glad to be home in Minnesota.

Much of my time in Ohiowas spent with Grace Fellowship Church in Mansfield, which is sorting through a tough season of leadership change. A year ago, GFC had 3 new elders and a new pastor/presiding elder. It would be both improper and impossible to go through all the details here, but suffice it to say that there were no moral indiscretions on anyone’s part. Waylon and Natalie Clemmons and family have moved to Berea, Kentucky to work with a Vineyard Church there. Though it was very difficult for both the Clemmons’ and GFC, I am satisfied with the process that occurred in this parting of ways. Very sad, but satisfied with the way folks handled themselves in challenging circumstances. But would you lift a few prayers for the following?

1. The Clemmons family as they re-situate inKentucky
2. The GFC family as they re-engage God and each other on the other side of this distress
3. The GFC elders (Matt Godsil, Tom Russell and Steve McKee) as they lead GFC through this season

While in Ohio, I also was able to lead 2 mini-conferences (in Elyria and Findlay), a men’s retreat for Grace Church in Toledo, meet with leaders from 7 of the 8 ARC churches in Ohio and preach 4 Sunday sermons. I was also able to meet with a leadership team from Dayton that is interested in affiliation with the ARC through connection with Greg Weis, who pastors Grace Christian Fellowship in Dayton.

We are now in the process of serious planning for both a mini-conference in Florida at Tampa Covenant Church (Eric Meyer and Lou Kaloger) in conjunction with Faith Farm (Jim Benton) on February 3-4. They would love to have a host of northerners drop in for that time, and I’m guessing a lot of northerners would be happy to be in Tampa in January. So save your pennies, folks, and let’s see if we can get a good crew down there for that time.

The ARC Annual Conference will again be at Grace Church in Toledo on April 20-21, and the focus will be on the larger matter of making disciples with a specific emphasis on the heart of worship in an individual believer. This is the specific direction we feel we’ve been given and we are aiming to press this out with purpose. We are also sustaining determination to flesh out a previous word regarding making adjustments in the 3 G’s—Gifts, Generations and Gender. Consequently, several workshops will be done by some of our stellar and under-deployed women and teachers from the younger generation. And though this is not yet finalized, I am hoping to have as our plenary speaker one of the best teacher/preachers in Minnesota over the past 3 decades. And if he can make it, it will be a serious blessing to your heart and mind regarding this matter of worship and discipleship.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving celebration. I am so profoundly thankful for my family and for the very institution of marriage and family.

Blessings on you and yours,
Ned

We did the seminars in Elyria and Findlay, OH and Spooner, WI. The mini-conference in Spooner included workshops on worship with our finances, worship in our homes, corporate worship, the call to worship via baptism and the Lord’s Table and the continuing worship in ongoing sanctification. I was deeply gratified by the offerings of many. Getting down to the core elements of disciple making is a foundational piece that we dare not neglect.

We’ll do a similar mini-conference in Tampa, Florida in January with Tampa Covenant Church pastored by Eric Meyer and Lou Kaloger and Faith Farm, pastored by Jim Benton from Okechobee. This would be a great opportunity for all you northerners to escape the deep freeze for a bit, thaw out, and return to the tundra with renewed vigor to make warm disciples of Jesus. Consider it, won’t you? It’ll be on the weekend of January 20-22. Eric has promised warm weather and a free trip to Disney World for the first 500 that sign up. Was that how you said it, Eric? I’ll check with Eric and get back to you all on that.

On a more sober note, I would like to enlist prayer for Grace Fellowship Church in Mansfield. Waylon Clemmons, who was installed a year ago as pastor there, has resigned and though I can’t go into details now, it has nothing to do with financial or sexual sin but is more complex. I hope to be able to give greater clarity in the future. Suffice it to say for now that everybody is in some level of pain over this. So please pray for the Clemmons family as they move on and for GFC as they seek to do the same. The elders at GFC are Matt Godsil, Tom Russell and Steve McKee. They have been faithful and pastoral in a difficult path. So for the Clemmons, the GFC elders and the GFC church family, pray and ask God for His paternal care that is our portion in Jesus.

Peace,
Ned

On the day of Pentecost, 10 days after the ascension of Jesus, God Almighty poured out the third Person of the Trinity on 120 praying believers. The new covenant realities were now in full motion. God was now indwelling those who had put their faith in Jesus. One of the immediate results of this divine impartation was the almost comical scene of 120 largely uneducated Jews preaching the gospel in languages they had never studied. They were accused of being drunk and it isn’t clear that they had any understanding of the message they were delivering. God fearers from many nations were inJerusalemfor this feast of First Fruits and 3000 of them were on the verge of becoming the first fruits of the new covenant cut in the flesh of the Lamb of God and sealed by His resurrection from the dead.

Peter preached a 2 part sermon on that day. Part one consisted of 22 verses in the Bible. It takes 2 minutes and 22 seconds to read that. And the result of that 2 minute sermon was the spiritual fact that 3000 folk were cut to the heart and believed. And following that, Peter went on: “And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, ‘ Save your selves from this crooked generation’ ” ( Acts 2:40 )

However marvelous this event was, it’s what followed that I’d like you to pay attention to today. These believers became worshipers, devoted worshipers, who ordered their daily live around 4 priorities:

1. the apostle’s teaching, the Word of God
2. fellowship with other believers
3. the breaking of bread, a reference to the Lord’s Table, the center of their corporate worship
4. the prayers, and without doubt, corporate prayer

Three of the 4 of these “devoted priorities” had to do with worship. They were orienting their lives around God, being helped at all times by the Holy Spirit, and experiencing the living reality of the risen Christ and seeing His continuing mission on the earth being played out through their lives. The rest, as they say, is history.

But this event was never meant to be mere interesting history. These words were written down for us to show us the path of life. It hinges on Jesus who is calling us to the very same devotions and priorities and, yes, to similar expressions of fruitfulness in our churches and cities.

To those of you who are leading the flock of God, take heed. We are called to make disciples, followers of Jesus, who are exhibiting these same priorities. To those of you who are following Jesus and your leaders, take heed. God calls you to these devotions as surely as He did 2000 years ago. Disciples are made this way and the fruit of Jesus and this powerful gospel are the expected results of that path.

Be encouraged. Jesus said He would be with us to the end of the age to get this great mission accomplished. Let’s lean more deliberately in that direction.

Peace and blessing,

Ned

This first year we will focus on worship, more on the personal devotion of the individual believer rather than corporate worship. The Fall and Winter mini-conferences will emphasize this crucial piece. However, month by month I will address any of these 5 areas. This month I’d like to have you think with me regarding Community.

I’m actually writing this on the 2nd to last day of our family summer cabin trip. We’ve gone to the same cabin for the past 20 years and it amounts to a wonderful expression of food, family and fun. We had all 6 kids up with their 3 spouses, 5 grandchildren and 1 girlfriend. Excellent time on multiple levels. It was and is the kind of community that sustains healthy community which is so crucial for the kind of life that God has made us to live

While up at the cabin I read an amazing book that I highly recommend. It’s not a Christian book and some of the language is a tad earthy but there are few books I’ve read that capture the essence of the human struggle better than this one. Michael Perry penned Population: 485 nine years ago, but it was only a few weeks ago that Pat Kahnke, the pastor of St Paul Fellowship, thought I might like to read his copy. He turned it over to me with glowing accolades. And he was absolutely correct. Pat is a writer himself and marks this as one of the best pieces of non-fiction he’s read. Me too.

Perry is writing about life in New Auburn, Wisconsin. You guessed it—pop. 485. I lived 1/2 hour from New Auburn back in the late 70s when I taught at a discipleship school. We lived on Potato Lake on County Road “D”. After those 4 years we moved to Spooner, Wis ( pop. 2500 ) for the next 6 years. New Auburn would be just about an even experience on either side of Potato Lake and Spooner. Small towns typically suffer from an inbred parochialism but listen to Michael Perry get after the matter of “belonging” in a chapter entitled “My People”:

“It seems to me that the globalization of human experience via everything from satellite feeds to online kipper boutiques is good news to the extent that even the most reclusive among us receive daily updates on the complications of the human condition. There was a time when ignorance–and the prejudice it fostered–could be grossly excused as result of cultural or geographical isolation. Nowadays, ignorance must be willfully tended, like a stumpy mushroom under a bucket. Light is hitting more and more of the earth. Trouble thrives, but more and more humans share a general sense of life as it is on this spinning rock, and that is due, in part, to the war correspondent in Kabul, The Food Network, and lesbian chat rooms.

The trouble is–and this is not a complaint but a report–the world has our attention in a million ways it never did before, and we find it tougher and tougher to focus our loyalties. Tougher to know how to belong, or to want to belong.. Individual freedom is essential to the human spirit, and a theoretical individualism makes for cool Nike commercials, but sometimes you have to team up. To fight a fire , for instance, I love–the word is not too strong–the idea of neighbors coming together to put out fires, and I’m thrilled to be part of that effort when I am called. It feels good. It feels right. It feels like I belong. Sometimes you find yourself looking for little commonalities. Go Packers.”

Perry found community in little New Auburn and though it may not be the perfect expression of the Divine, it did strike a very resonant chord in his life.

We were made for community because we are made in the Image of God, the eternal community of Father, Son and Spirit. Every attempt at long term isolation is doomed to this failure–it can never produce the Image of God that I was created to be and express. We must belong to each other and belong intimately and sacrificially. Intentional and deliberate community is a key element in what it takes to build healthy and fruitful disciples

Blessings on the rest of your summer. I’ll see many of you this fall and I’ll be looking forward to it!
Ned

• Worship
• Community
• Outreach
• Marriage and Family
• Leadership Development

We’re not working out of some grand master scheme but are quite certain that we have heard from the Spirit and are gearing up to “go boldly into that dark night where others have feared to go” How’s that for a bad melding of Dylan Thomas and Star Trek?. But in all seriousness, this is a great opportunity to put feet to our 3 Gs mantra of the past 5 years (Gifts, Gender and Generations). I have been overseeing the ARC now for 10 years along with the MMC. I think I should be out of this position before this next 10 years is up but I am hoping to be fully engaged to this 10 year plan no matter what position I hold.

These 5 areas, of course, bleed into each other but we must clarify, teach and train in all of them with specifics related to our present culture and its inherent challenges. Our plan is to do Fall and Winter mini-conferences that lead into our annual conference in Toledo. During these conferences, I would also like to sit down with local leaders and sort through these 5 areas and collectively determine the best route to achieve our objectives

Presently we are conceiving of 5 locations for these mini-conferences:

• Ohio/Michigan
• New Jersey/New England
• Minnesota/Wisconsin
• Florida
• Denver/Seattle

I haven’t forgotten about Brazil, Poland and Mexico but I am unsure of exactly how to pull this off and I need to meet with leaders from these 3 countries to determine their needs more precisely

The impetus for all of this, I believe, is this ongoing call to make disciples. These 5 areas are at the center of that calling. So, in effect, we will be seeking to keep the first things first.

More to come on all of this. It’s a meat and potatoes approach. Nothing very spicy here but it’s the stuff that will cause us to stay on track and grow into yet more fruitful branches.

Peace and blessing to all of you,
Ned