Thursday, February 19, 2009

Hey, we just got this pic of the commissioning service last Sunday when Bill Berg and NHCC Elders prayed for us:

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

MY TOP TEN - BOOKS (What are yours?)

I know that not everyone likes to read books. Many of us, maybe even most of us, would rather read a life. I think that is why Jesus didn't write books. There are books I think I should write, but I have been slow to do that partly because I have been considering that my life should be that book before I write it. Well, that's my struggle.

Even so, there are books that have had a big impact on my life because, even though I don't know the authors personally, they have explained the message of my Savior, as presented in the Bible, in ways that have helped me understand it better. Here are my top ten:

  1. Messy Spirituality, Michael Yaconelli
  2. The Rabbi's Heartbeat, Brennan Manning
  3. Ruthless Trust, Brennan Manning
  4. Victorious Spiritual Warfare, (I had the honor of contribuing - Lighthouse Ministry)
  5. 21 Most Powerful Minutes..., John Maxwell
  6. Boundaries, Cloud & Townsend
  7. Addiction and Grace, Gerald May, M.D.
  8. The Shaping of Things to Come, Frost & Hirsch
  9. The Church Comes Home, Robert & Julia Banks
  10. Transforming Discipleship, Greg Ogden

This list is not static for me - I am always looking for others that bring light to the path. Let me know what you find!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Newspaper Towers

Our first evening together was spent getting to know each other better by building newspaper towers,



and making up descriptions about each other, like:


"Beautiful Barbie, Justice James, Joyful Josiah, Notorious Nic, Bouncing Bob’s B’wife Becky, Joyful Julie, Evangelist Esther, Amazing Amanda, Judge Jeff, Brilliant Bruce, Missionary Meg, Miraculous Muriel, Precious Pam, Terrific Tammie, Silly Scott, Mysterious Mark, Ken, Jazz, and all the kids…(and I didn’t write it down either)
...", it's a little scary with all the “judging” or “justices” or whatever they were…it reminds me of my lawyer days, like walking into court! :)

Seriously, we are off to a good start in getting to know each other, with 10 kids and 18 adults! February 20-22, Becky and I will be at a “marriage encounter weekend”, so you can pray for us as the Lord moves you to… We don’t get really excited about conferences, but it will be good time away together.

Our next get-together will be Saturday night, February 28th, from 5-8 pm. It will be at the home of Joe and Deb Lorsung, at 6868 Hwy 95 NE, North Branch. It’s about 6 or 7 miles East on Hwy 95 out of Cambridge and look for the balloons on your right. We're going to do Chili night with other Mexican food. If you like milder stuff, bring it, otherwise each family can bring a main dish; and if it’s just you, bring chips and salsa or another side thing. Drinks & coffee will be provided.

We will keep meeting all together through the Saturdays in March, and in our study time we will be discussing the Biblical base for the first five of ten core values.

1. Everybody is worth dying for
; John 3:16
2. We are called to love people and control resources, not the other way around; John 13:35, Luke 16:9
3. The blood of Christ really works; 1 John 1:9
4. Eternal life is great for dead people, but we’ve been provided an abundant life now; John 10:10, Ephesians 1:18-20
5. We all lead, because we all have influence; 1Corinthians 7:14, Daniel 12:3
6. We can’t lead well until we have learned how to follow; Matthew 3:13-15, John 5:19
7. If we aren’t being led by God’s Spirit, we will be driven by other things; Romans 8:14, Luke 4:1
8. We hold tightly to our personal calling, but trade our hats as needed; 1Corinthians 12:7-11
9. For all the theology we can conceive, at last what we do is what we believe; James 2:18-20
10. In the end, making disciples is the ONE thing Jesus told us to do. Matthew 28:18-20.-

We will have some break-out discussion on these.

Also at this next meeting we will set aside time to celebrate things God has been doing, so be ready to share answers to prayer and other ways God has shown up in your life!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Our First Party!

So my last day officially at New Hope is this Sunday, February 15th! This marks an end and a beginning - From here on, church comes "home", and we are going to be hanging out at Scott and Tammie Elliott's house that day from 5-8 p.m. It's 1004 Hillock Street in Isanti (let me know if you need directions - e-mail me at nogah@izoom.net)

We have had 23 people say that they want to hang out more together, so we are really looking forward to doing some fun stuff and sharing more of what is God saying to us on Sunday. I expect to have some good pics to post after that - and I hope we can have a website soon.

We plan to keep meeting as a large group through March to get to know each other better before grouping up into house churches. The next gathering will be on Saturday February 28th, 5-8 again, but we haven't confirmed a place yet.

Here is a great website to check out for missional church strategy:
http://www.missio.us/

Exciting times...good to be following the Wild Messiah!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

The In-gathering

It's February 5th, and we are looking at the last of our four open houses this Saturday from 7-9 pm at our house (1087 313th Ave NE, near Bear Circle in Cambridge). As you may have noticed, this blog has a new name - "Mission-link". A few of us got together and thought this was pretty descriptive, and a better way to refer to what we are doing than "the missional house church network".

On the 15th, New Hope Community Church will be commissioning and praying for us, and taking as offering to provide some resources for the start up period - a real blessing!

So after the last "open house", it will be time to really get to know each other, so we will keep getting together on the weekends as a bigger group (21 as of right now) and do some things to connect better and find out how God has wired each of us - it will be fun to discover how God has been at work in the lives of others to draw them to this vision. Eventually we will see probably three groups emerge out of the big group, but we will be waiting to see how God connects people before moving into that.

If you would like to find out more about Mission-link, you can reach me at 763 221-4760, or my -email: nogah@izoom.net. Live the adventure!

Grace & Peace

Bob