64 Sundays

Dreams are not eternal. The things we do in this life, the organisms and organizations we create, have a lifespan. Leaves bud, flourish, brilliantly change color, then fall to the ground dead, shrivel up, and get consumed into the ever-turning, ever-recycling earth, destined to become nourishment for the next round of leaves budding in the warmth of the coming spring.

So it was with Ember Church, my near-decade-long dream whose lifespan was all too short, lasting only a little longer than the leaves I just raked from my front yard. I had hoped that this church would take root and flourish for decades, outpacing my own life on this earth. But that's not how it turned out. Despite my prayers and best efforts, Ember Church died young - just 64 Sundays old.

•••••

Before we were married, I made a promise to my wife. I told her, "I will never sacrifice my family for a church." I had heard enough horror stories of the rebelliousness of pastor's kids, and I resolved that, as much as it was up to me, I would not push my kids into rebellion by putting the church before them. They, and my wife, would come first. And if I ever had to choose one or the other, I would choose the family.

When we decided to step out in faith and plant Ember Church, we knew that I would have to do it bi-vocationally, meaning that I would work a full-time job to provide for the financial needs of the family, and use my spare time to pastor the church. We knew this would be extremely challenging, and would demand sacrifice from all of us in the family. We determined that we could do this for 2 years, and then we would re-evaluate the situation. The hope was, at least on our part, that the church would have grown large enough by then to support me in full time ministry.

We were thrown two curveballs that caught us off guard. First, it took me a year to find a job. That process was brutal, and I really don't want to relive it here. Suffice to say, it was a stressful and desperate year. The second curveball, however, was thrown with a full count in the bottom of the ninth, and it buckled my knees so hard I couldn't even get the bat off my shoulder. That was Zeke's epilepsy.

•••••

The first seizure was in May, and the second in June. Then a third one in July. After that, things went downhill, and fast. He started having seizures about 10 days apart, and we wound up at the ER five or six times in about a month's time. As his meds increased, so did his seizures. He went from developing slowly (but developing) to regressing.

We didn't know what was going on with him. He was losing words. He was losing motor skills. He was already developmentally delayed, and we had worked very hard to get him to where he was, but it was all slipping away. Before long Breena noticed that he was having tiny, micro-seizures throughout the day - lots of them. He would seize for a brief second at the top of the stairs, lose his balance, then tumble to the bottom. This happened a lot. All the words he had picked up through extensive therapy were gone, replaced by a loud, frustrated, "Enh!" He was descending into physical and mental chaos.

I made an offhand comment in one of my sermons at Ember that chaos is the defining characteristic of hell. Zeke's chaos translated into chaos in our family, and the only word I could find for it was hell. Despite our prayers, despite the medication, Zeke just kept getting worse; and the deeper into chaos he spiraled, the more closely we followed him. Our lives became a living hell.

All the while I was trying to pastor this church that I loved and believed in, but that hardly anyone came to. Ember wasn't growing; it was shrinking. And that's hard to do when you're a small church to begin with. I was discouraged. I was angry. I didn't know what to do. I felt my son and my church slipping away.

•••••

Nobody was getting a good version of me. My wife was getting a bad husband. My kids were getting a bad father. My church was getting a bad pastor. I was stretched too thin. I couldn't work a full time job, be a family man to four kids and a wife, be the father of a child with special needs, and pastor a small church into stability and viability. It was too much. I was desperately banging on and kicking at this "church" door, trying to get it to open, trying to make this church work; then God showed me: "This isn't a door. It's a wall. And if you keep banging on it and kicking at it, your whole house is going to fall down on top of you."

It was time to call it. I couldn't go on. If I persisted with Ember, it would cost me my family. I would have broken my promise to Breena, made almost eight years earlier. I would have sacrificed my family for the church. While the Son of God was an acceptable sacrifice to God for the sake of the world, the sons and daughters and wife of Andy Holt are not.

Things moved quickly after that. I told Breena. I told my parents. I told Ned Berube, the president of the ARC. That was Tuesday morning. I told Garth, our other elder, on Thursday. Then, on Sunday, I told the rest of the leadership team. That night, because Travis, who was scheduled to preach, got sick, I went ahead and told the church. That sucked. (And would you go freaking figure, it was our best attended service in weeks, and we even had a new couple!)

The following week we had a celebration dinner, telling stories of what God has done through the 64 Sundays we had together as a church. It was beautiful, and it broke my heart.

•••••

To the people of Ember Church I want to say this (and I know you'll say that I don't need to, but I do): I'm sorry. I'm sorry that this beautiful little church didn't survive. I'm sorry that I couldn't do more to make it last. You all said such wonderful things at our celebration dinner, and for that I'm grateful. I'm glad we got to do that. I remember a lot from that night, but one thing stands out: Mary, who always seems so happy, standing up and, through tears, telling us that Ember is the only place where she knew it was OK to not be OK. That got me.

I'll always remember the Jeremiah series, and hopefully I'll write that book someday. I'll always remember the two baptismal services, and dunking Somers, Becca, and Cody the Guy I Didn't Recognize Because He Shaved His Beard in that freezing cold baptistry on New Year's Day. (The second baptism service, when I baptized Mary, Ian, And Dustin on Easter, was much more comfortable.) I have a lot of other memories that I'll always treasure, and I hope you do too. We only got 64 Sundays, but they were beautiful and difficult and wonderfully worth it. And now that this leaf has fallen to the ground, I hope and pray that it will enrich the soil of the wider Church, and that you who were a part of Ember will nourish and flourish wherever God takes you.

Ember Outdoors

This summer we're doing something fun at Ember. Rather than meet at the church building and continue services as normal, we're going to meet outside, in our backyard, and have church around a campfire. Some of the same elements will be there, but many won't. I won't be preaching. Instead, I (and others) will be leading discussions on some of the topics we've covered this past year. We'll also eat a meal together, which I hope will be a true expression of the Lord's Supper in our own context. (It's actually supposed to be something closer to a full meal than a nibble of bread and a shot of grape juice.) We'll sing songs around the fire, and just generally have a great time hanging out.

We'll meet from 5-7pm at our house. If you need directions, send me an email at andy@emberchurch.org. It's open to everybody, and should be a really low key way to get to know some of the amazing folks at Ember.

Ember Tuesday

Yesterday was a crazy day at work as we welcomed in the Governor of Ohio and the Mayor of Columbus. I also played in our first company softball game of the year. All that to say that I didn't have time to blog about church this past week.

It was another great service. I was telling Garth, afterward, that it seems like we're just beginning to hit our stride--just in time to transition into Ember Outdoors, where we'll be focusing on community-building and living out the things we've been talking about lately.

Speaking of which, Sunday night's sermon was one of my favorites. It was one I've preached several times before, but never at Ember, although the themes from the sermon undergirded all that we've done in the past year. 1 John 4:7-21 was the text, and the sermon was called Agape.

This is a message that you really ought to listen to. It's been formative for a number of people, not least of all myself. I don't say this very often about my sermons, but this is one you've got to hear.

We had a sweet time of responsive worship, both before and after the sermon. My amazing wife Breena did a great job with her songs. I love watching her worship, coming more and more into her own as a singer.

In a couple of weeks we move from the sanctuary to the firepit. What an appropriate place for Ember Church to meet! I'm really looking forward to building our community in a nontraditional way. We'll have more information on this coming soon.

Ember Monday

Yesterday morning I sensed that God wanted me to give a different message at church than I had prepared. I had planned on giving an old message called Agape, from 1 John 4. It's a very important message, one that I'll probably preach this coming weekend. But God had something else in mind for last night's church service.

In the hours leading up to the service, I sensed that the Spirit was going to show up. I had no idea what that would look like, of course, but I just had the feeling that God was going to move in some way. In my mind I was thinking, "I sure hope so, God, because I have only a vague idea of what I'm going to say!" So in our prayer time before the service started, I asked the team to pray over me--that's something I haven't done yet at Ember.

The service started and Emmy belted two powerful songs, You'll Come and Closer, neither of which I had ever heard before. It was a powerful way to start the service. I especially appreciated the simple words of Closer:

Beautiful are the words spoken to me
Beautiful is the one who is speaking

Come in close, come in close and speak
Come in close, come closer to me

The power of your words
Are filled with grace and mercy
Let them fall on my ears and break my stony heart

That's the whole song, but I felt the words were right on target with what my heart, at least, was yearning for.

When I got up to pray before the sermon, the tears came. It took me completely off guard. I hadn't even started preaching yet, but I was already crying. I haven't cried in a long time, and certainly not while preaching since I don't even know when. But I wasn't crying because I was sad, or downtrodden, or empty. I cried because I was full. I cried because, after running on empty for months, God had filled up my soul.

The sermon was about the second beatitude, Matthew 5:4, which reads like this: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. I basically talked about what I had learned from Dave Johnson, pastor of The Church of the Open Door, while at the ARC National Conference last week. The basic point of the sermon was that mourning means letting out what's on the inside, and that God's kingdom is where the people who have the courage to do that are comforted, not condemned.

I preached without notes for the first time at Ember. I didn't know exactly what God wanted me to say, I just knew that this is what he wants for our community: that we would be a place where those who mourn are blessed because they are comforted. After the sermon, which you can listen to in the sermon player, I invited everyone to take whatever posture they felt appropriate for our responsive worship set. As I sat in the back, running the slides, I didn't see anybody standing. I thought to myself, "The sermon fell flat, but that's okay. God wants us to be this kind of church, so I'll keep preaching this message." But when I stood up I saw something unexpected. I saw people laying across the chairs, heads buried in their hands. I saw people kneeling. I saw people weeping.

I don't know exactly what happened. I don't know what was going on in each person's heart. But I believe that the Holy Spirit showed up, and I believe that he spoke to us. Beautiful are the words spoken to me. Beautiful is the one who is speaking. Come in close.

It was a rich and tender time together in the presence of Jesus. I hope that we have more times like that. We gather together every Sunday night at 5pm at 401 E. Schrock Rd. All are welcome. Always.

Ember Monday

Last night at Ember we started a new non-series series. Since I only have four preaching weekends (and six weekends altogether) before we transition for the summer, I thought I would preach on some things that are important to what we're doing, but not necessarily tightly related to one another. This week and next I'm preaching two sermons from 1 John that I wrote while I was at Heritage. Last night was a sermon called Halakah, from the first 16 verses of 1 John.

The point of the message is that what we do with our bodies matters to God. John was dealing with an early form of the Gnostic heresy, which taught that everything spiritual is good while everything physical is evil. The implication of this heresy is that Jesus, who was good, did not have a body. If he did not have a body, then he could not have died for us. There are other, equally drastic implications of this teaching. I'll post the audio soon (hopefully today?). I found a post I wrote a couple years ago after preaching this sermon at Heritage, which you can read here.

After church a bunch of folks came over to our house. (We try to invite everyone, so if you haven't been invited, I'm sorry. We really want you to come!) Specifically because Travis and Kristy were out of town, we decided to have a campfire in the backyard. (That's what you get for going to Clevelandtown!) Here's a photo from my wife's instagram stream.

We love campfires, and these are going to be a big part of what we do as a church over the summer. But more on that later.

Ember Monday

Christ the Lord is risen today! That was our celebration last night at Ember, even though we didn't sing that song. Garth and Kelly pulled together a great team of musicians and singers from our congregation to lead us in praising Jesus. I think it was our biggest music team yet!

I preached a message on Mark 16:1-8, which concluded our series on the Gospel of Mark. It was our longest series yet--15 weeks in all. I preached all but one of the weeks, when Cory led us through a Passover meal (which was awesome!). You can listen to the audio of that presentation here.

The part of the service that I was most excited about, of course, was the baptisms. We baptized three folks last night--Mary, Ian, and Dustin. I've already written about the holy privilege of getting to hear their stories, which made it so much more meaningful to baptize them last night.

Special thanks to Lauren Kreischer for taking photos. It was a great night and a great service. My heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who made it happen. The resurrection of Jesus is the reason that we all gather together in the first place.

Easter Baptisms

Last night I had the holy privilege of preparing three people for baptism. I heard amazing testimonies of God's power from Mary, Ian, and Dustin. I was truly overwhelmed by the goodness and power of God, and I am so excited to baptize these three this Sunday at Ember.

Baptizing is one of the greatest honors I have as a pastor. I get to be the participating witness to their public confession of faith and full identification with Jesus, his death, and resurrection.

I'll be honest. Planting this church has been hard in many ways. It has not turned out like I had hoped or expected. And yet, as I consider those who have been impacted by our church, such that they would take the step of obedient faith and be baptized here, I am on the verge of tears. These beautiful and courageous souls have given me and Ember a great honor, something I will never forget.

Easter is the celebration of new life, of the power of God to conquer death, and of our own hope of resurrection and life forever with Jesus. Baptism is a symbol of all of that. If you want to be baptized this week at Ember, let me know. I would love to make that happen.

Ember Monday

Technically, yesterday was Palm Sunday. We should have been celebrating the triumphal procession of Jesus into Jerusalem. But because we don't have the capacity to host holy week events, we covered the crucifixion. In other words, we had Good Friday on Palm Sunday.

We talked about the gruesome details of the crucifixion, and the agonizing pain that Jesus endured on our behalf. But there was more than physical pain at the cross; there was also cosmic, divine pain.

I put a rather provocative post on facebook yesterday afternoon: "Tonight at Ember Church we'll be talking about the end of God..." By "the end of God" I meant the end of the divine dance of self-giving love that had been going on from eternity past among the members of the Trinity. At the cross, the Father cried out, "Stop!", and the dance stopped. And in that stillness, he reached out his hand to you and said, "Come. Come and dance." The end of God is the new beginning of us.

The sermon ended with a cliffhanger. I wanted the congregation to feel the dissonance of the cross, to experience a bit of what the first disciples experienced that first Saturday. To wait, disturbed. As the preacher said, "It's Friday...but Sunday's coming."

The music team did a great job last night. Emmy and Kristy sang beautifully while Garth and Travis held down the instrumentation. Once again I saw that, though we are a small church, God has given us many gifts. There's a lot of talent at Ember!

Ember Monday

Last night we did something completely different. Instead of gathering in the sanctuary, we pulled some tables together in the lobby/fellowship hall and celebrated a Passover meal. Cory Baugher, who is a Christian high school Bible teacher, led us through the meal, teaching us the symbolism of the feast and how Jesus fulfilled Passover. It was truly remarkable, and I learned a lot! I heard from several other people who said it was a wonderful night at church, and they were really impressed with Cory's teaching. I just wish we had been able to find a way to record it. If you want to experience it first hand, Cory will be taking his home church, Karl Road Baptist, through the same ceremony and teaching in a couple of weeks.

It was so nice, for me, to be able to sit back and be blessed by someone else's teaching. Thus far, when we've had someone else teach (mostly Travis Ell), I've either been in Children's Ministry or doing something else for the service. But last night I just got back to sit back, relax, and be taught. It was truly refreshing.

I've been thinking about what to preach on after the Mark series ends on Easter Sunday. We have about a 4 or 5 week window for a preaching series. Do you have any suggestions? Is there something that you'd like to hear me preach on, whether you go to Ember or not? Let me know in the comments section.

Ember Monday

For those who were at church last night, we probably won’t remember much from the service, but we will remember huddling in a small room in the basement, waiting out a strong thunderstorm and a tornado warning. Just as I was ending the service, we started to hear the tornado sirens, and somebody mentioned that we were under a tornado warning (which is the more series kind). So we cleaned up really quickly and headed down to the church basement to stay safe.

The church basement is really half first-floor, half basement. It has several doors to the lower level parking lot on the south side, but is built into the side of a hill, so there are no windows or doors on the north side. As the storm approached, we moved into an inner room to stay safe. Other than some funny comments from my kids, things were rather uneventful.

There was some video from last year’s tornados in Joplin that I kept thinking about. About a half dozen people were holed up in a beer cooler at a local gas station. You couldn’t see anything on the video, but you could hear the prayers, the cries, the screams. It was intense. Though we were never in serious danger from the storms, I did imagine something like that happening to us. (What can I say? I have an active imagination.)

During the actual service, we covered Jesus’ teaching in Mark 12. We also opened up the floor to those students who were coming back from short-term missions trips the previous week. Becca Lowe shared about her time in Jamaica, how the students there are very bold in their evangelism, and how the campus leaders are excited to have 5 or 6 people show up for their gatherings.

That last point really convicted me, because attendance has been down significantly at church, and that is discouraging to me. While I’m not that interested in building a megachurch, I do want Ember to grow, and I want to see more people entering God’s kingdom. I think we’ve got a good thing going here, and that we bring something unique to the table as far as central Ohio churches go. Hearing that those Jamaican leaders were excited about having 5 or 6 people at their gatherings was really good for me. That’s the perspective I need to have. I need to remember that this isn’t a race or a contest, and that the size of a church doesn’t reflect on the character or calling of its pastor. More importantly, I need to focus on the people that do come to church, what God is doing in their lives, and how I can best serve them, loving them in Jesus’ name.

Ember Monday

Last night was our most lightly attended service ever. I say that with a bit of enthusiasm, though, because about half of our congregation were on short term missions trips with Cru. Some were in Jamaica, others were in Florida. We prayed for all of them, and trust that God is doing great things in and through them this week.

We continued our Mark series with chapter 11, where Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey and clears the temple. We asked the question, "What sort of king is Jesus?" He's not a typical king. He's the sort of king who goes to battle on a colt, not a war horse. He's the kind of king who goes to a cross, not a throne.

Jesus began his reign as King over All through his humble self-sacrifice, and his reign continues in the same spirit. Our task, then, as his followers, is to live like he reigns. Our lives must reflect the rule and reign of King Jesus.

Furthermore, the New Testament makes it clear that we, Jesus' followers, are the new temple of God. We must live like Jesus reigns because we are where Jesus lives. If we are his temple, our lives must reflect his reign.

Next week at Ember I'm going to try to shoot some video, so bring your friends! Let's get that place packed out for a little promo video I'm putting together!

Ember Monday

Last night we rebooted our series on Mark (after a 1 week hiatus) with the story of the Rich Young Ruler. I preached a message that I had (mostly) written in seminary, which I titled Too Big for Heaven then, but changed to The Small to fit the titling convention of this series. I wrote that sermon probably six or seven years ago. A lot has changed since then, but I think it held up okay. My voice was giving out after a few days with the flu, so I definitely rushed it. (It was only 23 minutes, about 10 minutes shorter than normal.) My friend Evan got the main point and Instragrammed it.

We welcomed another new addition to the music team--Kristy Farren! She did a great job of leading several songs, and especially One Thing Remains, which is fast becoming an Ember favorite. I love watching Kelly & Garth bring new people in the musical fold, and I REALLY love watching all this talent pop up from all over the congregation!

God has us in a really interesting place right now. Sometimes I think this first year is a cocoon year, a year of active preparation and testing. I don't know what's going to happen on the other side of it, but I'm sure looking forward to it!

Sermon Scraps: The Commitment (Part 2)

Here is more from the lost sermon on marriage, The Commitment.

•••••

Some time ago we came across an argument between Jesus and the teachers of the law. I mentioned that the way theological arguments happened in those days was through a successive appeal to authority. The ultimate authority, for those first-century Jewish teachers of the law, was Moses, the man who wrote the first five books of the Old Testament.

So in the course of your argument, if you’re able to prove that your position can be traced back to Moses’ words, then you win. Jesus knew that the Pharisees held Moses in the highest regard, and he probably didn’t feel like arguing that day, so he just conceded the point: What did Moses command you? Jesus is like, “Okay, I’m more interested in teaching than arguing, so just give me your best argument right off the bat.” Let’s just cut to the chase.

And the Pharisees presented Moses’ position: “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” Before we move on, we should probably ask the question: Where did Moses say that? Great question! It’s actually in Deuteronomy 24. I bet you didn’t even know there was a Deuteronomy 24! Let me read it to you.

¹ If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, ² and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, ³ and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, ⁴ then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Interesting. Did Moses ever say a man can divorce his wife? He didn’t, did he? The law here is not, “Here are acceptable grounds for divorce”; instead, the law is, “When one of you gives your wife a certificate of divorce…”. Moses never permitted divorce; he just conceded that divorce was a reality when human beings marry one another.

But Jesus isn’t ready to concede that point. Look at how he interprets this passage in Deuteronomy 24.

⁵ “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. ⁶ “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ⁷ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, ⁸ and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹ Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

The fact that laws like this exist, Jesus says, points to the reality that you’re all a bunch of hard-hearted sinners who are too stubborn to humble yourselves, work through your issues together, and persevere through trials in order to keep your commitments. No, Moses wrote you this law because you’re only willing to fight for what you want, you’re too proud to admit it when you’re wrong, and you’re ready to drop your commitment the moment others start impeding upon the realization of your selfish desires. That’s why Moses just conceded the reality of divorce—because he knew people too well.

Jesus knew people really well, too, but he’s not willing to concede the reality of divorce. Jesus has far too divine an imagination to settle for a world in which divorce happens.

The Pharisees have made their appeal to Moses. Now Jesus is going to make his appeal—to creation. And remember, he was there. The New Testament declares that Jesus was present at creation. He remembers how things were originally designed. He knows, firsthand, what God’s intention had always been for marriage.

God did not build divorce into his creation because he did not build sin into his creation. He did, however, build marriage into his creation because he also built self-sacrificing love into his creation by creating human beings as free, moral agents. But God has never been willing to concede the reality of divorce. He says through his prophet Malachi, “I hate divorce.”

So Jesus quotes from Genesis 1 and 2, the only passages in the Bible, until Revelation 21 and 22, that are unstained by the presence of sin. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’” God had a plan, and that plan did not include divorce.

You see, we were not originally created as hard-hearted sinners who are too stubborn to humble ourselves, too proud to admit that we’re wrong, or all too ready to drop our commitments the moment others start impeding upon the realization of our selfish desires. That is not how God made us. That is not found in Genesis 1 and 2.

But we were made as ‘male and female’, the perfect complements to one another. Perfect partners. By design. According to plan.

Moses looked at the world and conceded the reality of human sin. Jesus stepped into our world and refused to accept our reality, then he went about changing it. Here’s the most important thing I or anyone else will ever say about marriage: We’re supposed to be looking at Genesis 1 and 2, not Leviticus 24. Our model is the beginning of creation because Jesus came to make all things new, to restore creation to the way God originally intended it, to undo all the evil that has been wrought upon God’s good creation by sin and death. When it comes to marriage, we claim Jesus as King must look to Genesis 1 and 2. Male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. And we must conclude what Jesus concludes: "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

Christian marriage is not based on romantic love or sentimental feelings; it is based on the beginning of creation being re-created in our hearts and in our most important relationship. Marriage predates Moses. Marriage predates sin. Marriage was built into creation by the Creator himself.

Sermon Scraps: The Commitment

Last weekend I was scheduled to preach a sermon on marriage from Mark 10. I was really looking forward to it, but God had other plans for the message that night, so the marriage sermon had to be scrapped. I promised to post some of the excerpts here on the blog.

My blog has taken a back seat lately. Working a fulltime job in the marketplace has limited the amount of things I can do, and, unfortunately, I've had to all but eliminate two things that have been very profitable for me in the past: reading and blogging. (And don't even get me started on blogging about reading!) I'm hoping that this will be a temporary adjustment period, and that I'll find the time to read and blog again soon.

I suppose that's enough of a pity party. Here is some of what I was going to say about marriage last week at Ember.

•••••

Marriage is a difficult subject for many. Divorce is even harder. Many of you may be children of divorce. You’ve watched your parents turn on each other. It’s often been said that what kids need most is not to know that their parents love them, but that their parents love each other. Divorce destroys that love foundation. So, before we look into our passage for tonight, I want to briefly lay a theological foundation of a love that never gives up, burns out, or fades away.

Because of what we see in Jesus, we can know these things: God always keeps his promises; God always follows through on his commitments; There is perfect, eternal, infinite love between the three members of the Trinity; We are invited to fully participate in the divine love of the Trinity. The Trinity will never get divorced. The love of God that exists within God is infinitely strong. It can never be broken because God is perfectly selfless, humble, and unstained by any sin.

In a world of dissipating love, it's a comfort to know that there is a love that is stronger than life, that sustains creation, and that resides within the heart of the One that made all that exists. Our new family--the family of God--is built on a foundation of self-giving love that does not change over time.

•••••

I'll share more on this tomorrow. There's a much longer section that I hope will be worth reading, but I wanted to put this theological foundation up today. I hope this provides some perspective on what love is and where we can find the love that never lets us down.

Ember Monday

We've officially moved past the half year mark of services: Last night was our 27th service. The message was from Mark 9:30-50, where the disciples are arguing over which one of them is the greatest. (On a total side note, some scholars would have us believe that the Gospels were written to solidify certain disciples' standing and position within the larger Christian community. If that were true, then why do the disciples consistently come off looking bad in the Gospels? To put it simply, these guys are not the heroes of this story; Jesus is.) Jesus' answer to their selfish ambition is to say this: If you want to be first, be last. If you want to be great, serve. Where Jesus is King, greatness is measured by an upside-down standard.

If I had a main point to the sermon, I suppose it would be this: The path of greatness can only be traversed by those who have forsaken greatness altogether. The aim of our lives is not greatness, achievement, or the actualization of our potential; the aim of our lives is Jesus Christ, the one whose purpose all along was to die at the hands of the authorities and rise again three days later.

One of the best parts about Ember, for me, is watching my wife's heart come alive as she sings with the music team. She's done it 4 or 5 times now, and it's been a revelation for her. And I get to have a front row seat for the experience! It couldn't be better.

We also welcomed a new member to the music team tonight, Emi. She's got a great voice and has been serving at the church since just about the beginning. It's so cool to see people like Emi get involved.

If you live in central Ohio, you should come join us for worship some time. We meet on Sunday nights at 5pm at 401 E. Schrock Rd. All are welcome!

Ember Monday

Last night at Ember we reached the midway point of our series through Mark, and we came to the story of the Transfiguration. It's a truly remarkable story, and we saw how it is a picture of the great redemptive arc of Scripture. In fact, I made the audacious claim that I would explain the entire Bible in that one sermon. I think I managed to do it, but you can judge for yourself. Listen to the sermon called The Gospel According to Mark 07 - The Glory in the sermon player. Or, if you're a reader, you can download my sermon manuscript here.

We tried something a little bit different with the music last night, as Kelly and Garth led from the floor, and went unplugged. I enjoyed the change of pace as it felt even more intimate than we typically do, which is saying something.

The big announcement is that God came through for us in a big way by providing me a full-time job, which I started today. We prayed and believed for a long time, and God came through in his time, and in a big way. My new employer is the #1 rated place to work in central Ohio. I'll be doing a lot of cool stuff with video, and I get to work with a great team of people. I couldn't have asked for more! This means that Ember is free to move forward with the only financial constraint of rent. There's no stopping us now!

Come and join us sometime for worship. We meet at 5pm on Sunday evenings at the beautiful American Baptist Church in Westerville: 401 E. Schrock Rd.

Ember Monday

Yesterday we pressed deeper into the identity of Jesus during our series on the Gospel of Mark. The sermon was called The Question, and the text was Mark 6:1-16. In this text we find Jesus coming back to his hometown of Nazareth, where the people who watched him grow up can't accept who he has become since his baptism. They sneer, cynically, "Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son?" The people who knew him best doubted him the most, so that he was hardly able to do any miracles in Nazareth.

The lesson we learn from the unbelief of the people of Nazareth, especially when contrasted with the faith of the twelve disciples, is that Jesus can only truly be himself in you when you trust him. Your lack of supernatural faith neutralizes his abundance of supernatural power. But the converse is also true. When you respond to Jesus in faith he will unleash his supernatural power in your life. You can listen to the sermon in the audio player on this blog, or you can download it from our podcast: http://sermon.net/EmberChurch/rss/ (I've submitted our podcast feed to iTunes several times now, but still can't manage to get us in the podcast directory!)

The music last night was excellent, as always. I especially love the services when Garth shows up with his upright bass. We were especially blessed to have Rocky on the drums--we don't get a full drum kit very often, so we're always excited when we do.

The last song we sang was that old hymn What a Friend, which encourages us to take our burdens to God in prayer. Of all the things that God is teaching me right now, taking my burdens to him in prayer is at the top of the list. And the message of the song is that we can take our burdens to Jesus in prayer because he is our friend! So true.

Ember Church meets every Sunday night at 5pm at 401 E. Schrock Rd. in Westerville. All are welcome.

Ember Monday

Last night was the third week in our series The Gospel (According to Mark). We covered Mark 3:7-35 in a sermon called The Family. It was a different kind of preaching experience for me because, rather than taking one central idea and working it out for a half hour, I went through the text section by section, treating each one independently. Normally, I don't like to preach that way, but the passage I chose was so long, and so full, that I didn't know how else to attack it.

Something huge that came out of the text, for me, was what Jesus was doing when he appointed his disciples. He chose 12 men, which is, for Israel, a tremendously significant number. There were 12 tribes of Israel--12 sons of Jacob--that formed the original nation. Jesus, by choosing 12 men to be his inner circle, was symbolically reestablishing Israel, recreating the nation of God's people. And here's the kicker: He put himself at the center.

What's so significant about that? Well, consider who was previously at the center of Israel. Who was the first one to establish Israel? Who was in the center of the camp as the 12 tribes moved through the wilderness from Egypt to the Promised Land? It was YHWH. Does that mean that Jesus is replacing YHWH? No, it means that Jesus is YHWH, and that he is replacing the YHWH the people thought they knew. Jesus replaces the God you thought you knew. Everything you thought you knew about God is refined and corrected in Jesus.

Giving communion to one another at Ember.

At the end of the sermon we took communion. We did it in a way that was outside of typical. Normally, communion will be passed down the aisles or administered at the front of the church by the priest or pastor. In order to demonstrate that we are a family in Jesus, I had us administer communion to one another. We formed a line (that's what's happening in the picture), and each person administered the elements to the person behind them in line, saying, "The body of Christ, broken for you. The blood of Christ, shed for you." For me, it was a profound picture of the church in action, giving one another the sacred body and blood of Christ, providing the spiritual sustenance to each other we all so desperately need.

Ember Church meets every Sunday evening at 5:00. We rent a beautiful church called The American Baptist of Westerville, which is at 401 E. Schrock Rd. in Westerville, Ohio. Please feel free to come be a part of our community.

Ember Monday

I was really flying high after our baptism service last week. Seeing God move in people's hearts to take that huge step of baptism is one of the most emotionally rewarding experiences a pastor can have.

Yesterday's service was also a powerful one for me because I felt a freedom to worship that I hadn't had in a little while. I'm convinced it was because I was emotionally and spiritually prepared for worship on a level that I hadn't been yet since we started Ember. Everybody in the building stopped whatever we were doing at 4:30 and gathered to pray. While we had done this sort of thing before, this time it seemed more intentional. The Spirit really moved us, and his presence carried over from that time right into the service.

The sermon was the second in our series on the Gospel of Mark, and we looked at four passages where Mark is demonstrating the authority and Lordship of Jesus in particular realms. When he drove out a demon, Jesus demonstrated that he is the Lord over spirits, both angels and demons. When he healed the crippled man who was lowered on a mat from the roof, he demonstrated that he is the Lord over the human body and all that ails it. When he calmed the storm on Galilee, he demonstrated that he is the Lord over nature. Finally, when he raised Jairus' daughter from the dead, he demonstrated that he is the Lord over life and death. In fact, what Mark is telling us in these episodes is that Jesus is Lord Over All. There is nothing over which he does not have authority. There is no where which he is not King.

Jesus is Lord!

Ember Monday

Yesterday was another night of firsts at Ember. Our first service of 2012. The first week in our series on Mark. And, most importantly, our first baptisms! Let me tell you the story.

Travis Somers came to me a couple months ago saying he wanted to get baptized. We talked about it for a bit, then somebody had the great idea to have our first baptism service on New Year's Day. What better way to start out the new year than to be baptized?

For a long time Travis was the only person who was scheduled to be baptized. We announced it at church several times, and I'm sure I mentioned it online on numerous occasions, as well. But nobody bit, so Travis was it.

On Saturday my son and I went to the church to get the baptistery ready. We turned on the hot water heater, swept out the baptistery, and wiped it down really well. (By "we" I mean "I did all that while Cyrus colored in the kitchen"!)

I returned to the church the next morning to fill up the baptistery with the hot water from the giant water heater. What came out, however, was a brown, mucky, horribly-stinky water-type solution that might have been hot, but was certainly unsuitable for baptizing. In fact, the water smelled so bad the odor set off the toxic gas alarm on the other side of the sanctuary!

Pastor Mark (the pastor of American Baptist Church - Westerville, where we rent space) and I had no idea what to do. We decided the best course of action would be to dump out the stinky brown water-like substance and fill the baptistery with clean, but extremely cold, water. And boy was it ever cold!

I tried boiling large pots of water and dumping them into the baptistery, but that wasn't having any effect. Also, the stove is in the basement, down a really long flight of stairs and clear on the other side of the building. No, thanks. After unsuccessfully searching around town for a sumbersible water heater, I decided that we would just have to suck it up and deal with the frigid temperatures.

About that time I got word from a friend that Becca Lowe also wanted to baptized. Awesome! That's 2! I made sure that both Becca and Travis knew to wear warm clothes.

During the service, I made a call for those who have never been baptized to come forward and be baptized tonight. I didn't expect anyone to come forward because I had been making cracks about the water temperature all night. But Cody Parsons responded! That made 3!

Normally, I would invite each person to go into the baptistery separately, where I would stand with them and ask them a series of questions, which basically amounts to a profession of faith in Christ. This time, however, we took care of all that before getting into the water.

After they each confessed full faith in Christ and submission to him as King, I got into the baptistery (So cold!) with Travis. We both about died from shock. We managed to get through it, though, and I said as loud as I could, "Based on your profession of faith, I know baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." And under he went! It was exhilarating! After Travis came Becca, and after Becca came Cody. We all came out alive, and we've all got a great story to tell of the first baptisms we ever had at Ember Church!