Sermon, Habakkuk Part 3 (LIVESTREAM)

The Church Irreplaceable; Why God’s People Must Gather

Luke Lundell found this great article considering why it is we meet together in person as a church, and why it is appropriately frustrating to "do church" through a screen.

You can read the article here.

Helping our Friends in Hutori

For those of you on the prayer chain, you heard the tragic news that earlier this week, Oleg Ustenko's house burnt down.  Oleg is the son of Pastor Vasiliy, the pastor of our sister church in Hutori, Ukraine.  Oleg serves as a pastor himself in Irdyn.  He has a wife, three children and a baby on the way.

A GoFundMe Fundraiser has been set up by his cousin to help the family through this tragedy.  

Here is what she has written.

On June 22,  my cousin’s family who lives in Ukraine lost their home due to a fire caused by a lightning strike. Everything burned down within minutes  before  fire trucks could even arrive.  Praise God everyone was able to get out of the house safely before it was too late.

They’re a family of five and expecting another baby in a few weeks. The father, Oleg, is a hard working man who works full time and serves as a lead pastor voluntarily in his free time. Now they’re left with nothing except smoke damaged pots and pans!

Their community, family and friends are coming together to help with basic needs like food, clothing, shelter at the moment but it will take another decade to be able to rebuild their home. There’s  no resources in Ukraine that can help them get back up faster. If you have it in your heart to help them by either giving anything or sharing this post it will be a blessing to this family!

All donations will go straight to this family!!!
Thank you so much for all your support!

I invite you to prayerfully consider making a gift to the family through this GoFundMe account.  You can follow this link:

https://gf.me/u/ya8cki

If you use social media, please consider sharing this link so that others can see it and give as well.

Thank you

(NOTE:  GoFundMe keeps 2.9% of what is raised and $0.30 of every donation.  Knowing this, if you would love to know that the family received $100 from you, consider giving $103.30 to offset the GoFundMe costs)

Update (6/26/20):  I just learned that someone who knows the family and lives in the US will be traveling to Ukraine shortly, and can bring any financial donations collected.  If you would like to avoid the GoFundMe fee, you can write a check to New Journey Church and put "Hutori Fire" in the memo line.  All the money collected will go directly to the family.  Thank you in advance for your generosity to this special family in this difficult time.

New Life Bible Camp info

Hello New Journey,

With New Life Bible Camp opening in July, many of you may have questions as to what things will look like in our current Covid-19 climate.

The New Life Bible Camp Facebook Page will have a Live Stream to answer questions tomorrow evening at 7:30 PM CST with camp director, Seth Maxwell. 

You can access it here:  https://www.facebook.com/newlifebiblecampmn/

There is a cap for the number of students allowed at camp this year due to Minnesota guidelines.  As of now, there is space for 9 more girls and 14 more boys for Elementary camp happening July 6-9th.

You can register your students for camp at https://newlifebiblecamp.org/

Other youth camps will be Teen camp, July 24-26th (Tyler will be speaking), and Soccer camp, July 27-30th.

Sermon, Habakkuk Part 2 (LIVESTREAM)

Sermon, Habakkuk (LIVESTREAM)

Racism and Corporate Evil: A White Guy’s Perspective – Tim Keller

With all that has happened in our country these last few weeks, there are many voices of division and many perspectives on how to properly respond.  I've tried to be considerate in what is appropriate for me to share here on our church blog, and what is more suitable for me to share personally through social media, recognizing that what is placed on our church blog automatically is seen as endorsed by our church and that it would be unfair for me to present my personal perspectives here when perhaps not all the leadership in the church would share my perspective.  For this reason, I have chosen to share most of my thoughts through my Facebook account rather than here.

With all of that being said, the issues surrounding race are too close to the Father's heart for us as a church body not to dialogue about.  Below is a video by Pastor Tim Keller that I believe is of great value to us as a predominantly white congregation.

There are several in our church who are currently doing a Tim Keller Bible study.  He is gifted at looking at culture through the lens of Scripture.

Graduation Quilts

For those of you who didn't get the opportunity to see the beautiful quilts our quilting ladies made for our graduates, here are a few photos.

What a special ministry these ladies have in blessing our graduates every year and others throughout the year with such a tangible expression of love!  Thank you ladies.

Honor Grad Celebration Livestream

Sunday Sermon with Jerry; Livestream

Honoring our Graduates

This Sunday we will have the opportunity to honor the graduating seniors of New Journey Church and to bless them as they pursue their future endeavors.

There are two ways we will be celebrating the accomplishments of our graduates.

Live Stream Service (2:30)

Because there are those in the families of our graduates who are immune compromised, out of respect for them, we will not be holding our Honor Grad celebration during the church service, but will have a livestream service at 2:30, where I will interview the seniors and pray over them.  We invite you to tune in on the blog, website, or YouTube page. 

Drive-By Service (3:00)

Shortly after the livestream you are invited to our drive-by service in the parking lot.  Tables will be set out with baskets for each senior so that you can drop off cards and gifts, roll down your window, and offer words of encouragement, prayers, and well-wishes.  Once again, out of respect for the families of the seniors, we are keeping this a drive-by interaction at the request of the graduate's families.

Please be praying for each of our graduates in this unique season of life made all the more unique this year.

The ruggedly handsome, Treydon Boushee

The lovely, Hannah Noel

The lovely, Katrina Jackson

Philippians and the Newspaper; How God's word Interprets this Moment.

Theologian Karl Barth once said that we should hold the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.  I can’t imagine life in our nation right now for those holding the newspaper alone.  Newspapers point to the bleakness of reality.  As we watch a virus continue to take 20 lives in our state a day, as we watch footage of George Floyd dying under the knee of an officer as three others stand idly by, and as we see news footage of low income apartments and immigrant owned restaurants and businesses burned to the ground, we are filled with grief.  As Christ followers, we know that just as newspapers point out bleak reality, the Bible also points to reality.  The Bible shows that darkness won’t reign forever.  Night has broken with the rising of the Son.

We have been going through the book of Philippians these past months in our sermon series.  I chose this particular book because Paul writes it from a place of tangible suffering.  He is imprisoned, apart from his dearly loved friends in the Philippian church.  Even more so, he anticipates potential execution.  From this circumstance, we’ve seen several focuses come to the forefront of what Paul wants to share with his Philippian brothers and sisters in Christ. 

The world around us faces suffering with hopelessness.  As we interpret our suffering (the newspaper) through the lens of hope (the Bible), Paul invites us to find a treasure the world would never expect: joy.  Paul is filled with joy as he recognizes that his imprisonment has served to advance the gospel, and he rejoices that ultimately, he will experience deliverance because of his faith in Jesus (1:12-26).  We find ourselves in the midst of pandemic, with a global health crisis and economic upheaval.  The bitter pangs of racism, violence, and rioting stain our nation.  How could these possibly be fertile ground for joy?  As Christ followers, we know this darkness isn’t the entire reality. As the world scrounges for a vaccination to Covid-19, we hold the ultimate cure to helplessness and loss.  Christ has won and he will redeem this broken world.  We find joy in knowing that we hold the only hope the world needs and its ours to freely share!  Paul calls us to shine as lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation (2:15).  Oh, what an opportunity to shine brightly in the darkness!

  Another theme Paul draws out is unity; that the Philippians would stand firm in “…one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (1:27).  This unity is found through Christ like humility “…do(ing) nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count(ing) others more significant than yourselves” (2:3).  The racism that our nation is stained with flows from sinful pride; an inability to count others as more significant than oneself.  When one doesn’t consider others as more significant than oneself, one will fail to consider how the history and experience of black and brown people in our country shapes their present reality, aborting empathy before it has an opportunity to form.

Likewise, when facing injustice like the death of George Floyd, one is tempted to further press division rather than seek healing.  We see this in the riots that only broaden the divide and tension within our country.  Paul entreated Euodia and Syntyche, two sisters in Christ divided through conflict, to “agree in the Lord” (4:2); to find unity, to stand side by side.  Our country is divided into groups of “us” and “them”.  The church, established by Christ, is called to be a unified “us” in the hope of the gospel and the worship of our Lord.  What an opportunity we possess as the church to display the beauty of Christ exulting unity to a divided nation lost in hopelessness.  When looking to Revelation, we see a picture of every tribe, tongue and nation worshiping the Lamb together—a beautiful diversity united in Christ (Revelation 7:9-10).  This is the picture the world needs to see.

The last theme I’d like to examine from Paul’s letter to the Philippians is righteousness.  Paul warned the Philippians the dangers in following the Judaizers who believed they could be righteous before God through practicing ritual law.  Paul, once a pharisee himself, looked upon all the self-righteousness he pursued through ritual practice and position, counting them as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord (3:7).  In fact, he saw self-righteousness as skubala—excrement…utterly repulsive and worthless—in order that he may gain Christ (3:8).

When the world is reminded in such a palpable way of its evil, people long for righteousness.  Its true that our nation needs reform.  Wilberforce worked for decades to end slave trade in the British Empire.  Martin Luther King worked tirelessly to bring justice during the Civil Rights era.  Both men were Christians who chipped away at injustice through reform, and oh that believers in Christ would do the same today!  But be not mistaken—no amount of reformation can ultimately bring transformation in the heart of an individual or the heart of a society.  Only the Holy Spirit through the blood of Jesus Christ can do that!  While policy and law focus on symptoms, the Holy Spirit transforms the heart.  Righteousness is found in Christ alone! 

May the joy, unity, and righteousness we find in Christ be like sweet honey on the lips of a starving world.  We have the hope the world needs.

Please Pray for our Men!

Here is a picture of Josiah and Neil Warren (Ron and Liz's son) serving with the National Guard in Minneapolis.

Please continue to pray for Josiah Hoagland, Neil Warren, Sammy Buehler, Trevor Schmidt and all the others who are serving to bring peace to Minneapolis and other cities around our nation.  Praise God for their Christian influence, and the sacrifice they are making.  May God grant them safety and be glorified through their servanthood!

Pray for our broken nation.

14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14