Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Christmas Letter 2009

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family:

We are still here in Portland. A few times we thought God was calling us elsewhere, but He isn’t finished with us here yet. This is a challenging place to do ministry, but we are seeing some rewards. I know we don’t always see the impact of ministry this side of heaven, but it is encouraging when a neighbor tells us that Lifegate (our church) is a light in the community. Our family has had a pretty eventful year in 2009. Since we home school the kids, they were assigned for their language class to write part of our Christmas letter for this year. Here is what they wrote in their own words:


Alec (11):

I have had a great year. There are a few things I did this year: In March we went to the Great Wolf Lodge for spring break. They had an enormous indoor waterpark. There were four large slides. The largest and best waterslide was The Howlin’ Tornado. In the center were smaller waterslides with a giant bucket on the top. The bucket fills up with water and tips over sending water everywhere. There was also a large pool that made large waves. There was a cool game called Magiquest. We had a wand (we still have the wand) that had an electronic device in it. You point the wand at objects and they say something. A book gives you clues of what to do. Emma got a chocolate cupcake because it was close to her birthday. In baseball I was on the Yankees. We were the second-best team. I was on the All-Star team for 9-10 [year olds]. The other 9-10 team won the state championship. We had VBS in June. There were four groups, Mega Watts, Slimy Scientists, Beakers, and Flux Capacitors. I was on the Flux Capacitors. My birthday was on July 3. I got an AT-TE Lego set and a Republic Attack Gunship Lego set. A few days later, we went to Trout Creek Bible Camp for five days. The counselors and CIT’s (counselor in training) have weird nicknames. Zach’s birthday was on July 14. School started in the end of August. We don’t have regular school on Friday though. We have it at a church for home schooled kids. You have three classes. I chose a geography class, a cooking class, and a games class. Zach was in two of my classes. Emma was in one. I also did fall baseball. I’m in 11-12 year old baseball now. Zach did soccer, too. His team did okay, (0 wins, all the rest losses). We went to Wenatchee in the beginning of November for my great-grandma’s funeral for a few days. We went to my other grandparents for Thanksgiving. My aunt, uncle, and cousins were also there. We’re going to my grandparents in Wenatchee for Christmas.


Zachary (9):

For our spring break we went to The Great Wolf Lodge. My favorite ride was “The Howlin’ Tornado. Emma could not go on it. We went to The Great Wolf Lodge with Aunt Pam, Uncle Scott, Dallas and Jessica. There was also a thing with waves. Sometimes the waves are high and sometimes they are lower. There is a bucket [that] dumps water. There is a game called Magiquest. It was fun. In the game you have a book and a wand. With the wand you point at pictures and other things. The hardest one was fighting the dragon. In June we had VBS. VBS was fun. My group was called the Mega Watts. This year VBS was called Power Lab. In July we went to camp. My favorite game we played was called Safari. In Safari there are animals with flags. You get a point if you grab a flag. I got one point. My birthday was not long after camp. I got a tie fighter, a Jedi Quest book, a movie called Star Wars the Clone Wars, a clone helmet, a clone blaster, and light saber. My birthday was fun. I started soccer in September. Soccer was fun. We did not win any games because there were not that many people on my team. We had Friday school after that. Friday school is a thing where you chose three classes. Like games is a name of a class. In the games class you play board games. Friday school was fun. For Thanksgiving we went to our grandparents’ house. We had fun. Jessica and Dallas were also there.


Emma (7):

I had fun this year. It was fun going to The Great Wolf Lodge. I especially liked Magiquest. Friday school was really fun! I’m glad I did the ballet class. It was fun going to grandma and grandpa Goddard’s house for Thanksgiving. I’m glad Jessica and Dallas were there. I can’t wait till Christmas. I wonder what adventures will be waiting then…. Copyright by Emma Brown. All rights reserved.


Have a blessed New Year in 2010!

The Brown family




Tuesday, December 1, 2009

When Love Comes To Town


This week we kick off our Christmas sermon series for 2009 "When Love Comes to Town" as we think about the wonder of the incarnation. We will look at the Greatness of God, the Love of God and the message of the Gospel.

This week we are looking at the greatness of God. When was the last time you stopped to think about what it meant for Jesus, the Son of God, to come to earth as a baby?

Watch this video from Francis Chan and spend a few moments worshiping God.


Friday, October 16, 2009

Friday Favorites-10/16/09

Jonathan Herron had a couple of great posts based on stuff he heard at Catalyst 2009.
-This post from the session with Chuck Swindoll listed the 10 things he's learned in 50 years of ministry. So much wisdom there.
-And this post from the session with Andy Stanley on Healthy Church Teams. Trust on a team is huge!!!
I am really looking forward to the day when I am able to get to some of the great conferences that there are for pastors (Catalyst and Innovate are two on my wish list.)

Monday, October 12, 2009

The Long Road to a Million Miles

The internet can be a strange and wonderful place. You never know what you might find or where a particular series of links may lead. This morning I followed a path that led me back to the EPIC series we are finishing up at Lifegate this week.

It all started reading Jonathan Herron's blog. He had a few posts last week from the Catalyst 2o09 conference in Atlanta. That led me to the Catalyst site, where I stumbled onto Andy Stanley's twitter feed. So I headed over there to add him to my list of guys I follow and noticed that while he has something like 22,000 followers on twitter he only follows 42 people. So curious to see who these 42 people were that Andy thought were important enough for him to follow I clicked over to that list and came across a name I wasn't familiar with, Scot McKnight. That led me to his blog-Jesus Creed-where he had a review of Donald Miller's new book-A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Whew.

I finished Millers book a couple weeks ago and have been thinking about it ever since. Primarily because the theme of his book goes hand in hand with the current sermon series we're in at Lifegate-EPIC. In EPIC we've been talking about 3 relationships where you must be going deeper if you truly want to have a life that goes beyond the ordinary. In his book, Miller talks about the Story we all find ourselves in and the importance of understanding how the choices we make every day impact what kind of story we will live. If we are unaware of our choices and don't make them intentionally, most of us will end up living a mundane, mediocre, ordinary life or we can begin today to choose to live an EPIC story, a Story that matters, a Story that God can use to make a difference in the world.

What kind of Story are you living? Make it EPIC.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Friday Favorites-9/25/09

-Mark Batterson's post on success was a great reminder of what true success really looks like.

-I always love Dan Kimball's posts & this one on the latest (last?) book on the emerging church was no exception. Make sure you check out what he writes about tradition in the last half of the post. Great stuff.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

EPIC


One of my favorite words for about the last 10 years has been epic. I can trace that back to two things: 1) This book by Len Sweet and 2) The EPIC service I had the honor of leading for almost 2 years at Lifehouse Church in Rocklin, CA.
Now the next EPIC chapter in my life and ministry: This Sunday we are starting a new series at Lifegate-EPIC: Surpassing the Ordinary. We will be spending the next 3 weeks looking at what it takes to have a life that goes beyond the ordinary. I believe that a life that is beyond the ordinary is a life that has some true depth and meaning, so we will be focusing on what it takes to go deeper in 3 key relationships:

Week 1: Going Deeper with God
Week 2: Going Deeper with Other Christ-followers
Week 3: Going Deeper with your oikos

Don't miss it-be sure and come check out the "epic" feel of the auditorium.

It should be EPIC.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Friday Favorites-9/18/09

Best blog post's I read this week:

-Mark Batterson's post on Spiritual Hunger was a real kick in the pants for me & my own desire to know God more.

-Curtis Honeycutt's Open Letter to Those who have Been Burned by church raises some interesting points. I would pray that Lifegate is the kind of church where those who have been burned by the church in the past would feel loved & welcome.

-Earlier this week I wrote a little about Clark Blakeman and the work he is doing with Second Stories. If you want to know more about why they do what they do check out his post here.

-Here is a post from Andy Crouch about the opening show of U2's 360 tour. If there was one show I could go to this year-this would be it.