So far I am extremely impressed with this church and couldn't be more thrilled to be learning from them.
There is too much to say and not enough time, so I will attempt to write a few posts about some things I've learned in the last few weeks.
Part of this internship requires that I read over 5,000 pages of text and write over a
hundred papers during the course of the internship. Yes, we write an
average of five papers per week. They aren't huge papers, obviously,
but they are read, analyzed, scrutinized, and dissected by Mark, and
discussed in front of all of the other pastors and interns, so they'd
better be well-thought out, well-written, and well-defended.
Those of you who know me well know that I love this aspect of the
internship, but it is still a lot of work, since the books and papers
just keep coming. Mark has designed the internship to be a major lesson
on ecclesiology and church polity, so most of the books and papers deal
with such subjects. Some, however, are more historical-theological in
their thrust.
More than reading the books, however I'm getting so much out of physically being here and observing this church.
I'm impressed with how upfront and honest CHBC is about who they are and that they don't change things just to be more palatable to the culture. They are very clear about what they expect from their members, namely that they are there every Sunday morning and evening. I actually heard a
pastor tell someone during a membership interview that if they don't
plan to attend both the morning and evening service, they ought to join
another church. This was said not in a mean way at all, but they
believe their evening service is a vital part of growing as a
congregation.
I'm
impressed with how bold, precise, and confident Mark is when he speaks. In fact he often jumps in and corrects us if we don't speak precisely enough,
or to the point, so we have all grown a ton in this way. Although he keeps a busy schedule, he is extremely relaxed, and always has guys coming in and out
of his study. He surrounds himself with an excellent team
of pastors and elders, making him one of the least stressed out guys I
know.
I'm impressed with their "service review"
which takes place each Sunday after the evening service. All the elders
and pastors, a group of members and the interns gather together to talk
about every aspect of both services that day, from the
music to the prayers to the sermons. Because it takes place on Sunday,
everyone still has the service fresh in their minds. Each person at the
meeting is asked specifically about each part of the service, and they
feel completely comfortable sharing things they liked or didn't like.
This provides accountability and consistency, and also gives members the
chance to give their input on the services.
The
first three weeks of this internship have been at once both
exhilarating and exhausting. I'm thoroughly enjoying observing how they lead, shepherd, and
disciple their congregation and I am now more excited to be a pastor
than I have ever been!
Monday, January 28, 2013
Life at home
Many people have asked me how I'm doing with these changes, and
honestly it doesn't feel that different to me, at least not yet. We are
still living in the same house, participating in the same activities,
teaching the same piano students, so the biggest changes are Sundays,
and Max not being home as much.
Obviously Sundays are very different, and we miss our church family, but I know this is a temporary change, so we are making the best of it, and enjoying our time in DC. We have been invited to a few different homes in between Sunday morning and evening worship services, and this has been quite relaxing compared to when Max often spent Sundays finishing up his sermon for the evening service at SPEP. We met another family with 4 kids who commutes an hour to church and spends their entire day in DC, walking around, going to museums, etc. We are hoping to join them sometime when the weather is nice, and finally visit some museums in these next few months, so that should be fun.
As far as family time goes, I think this internship has been really good for me to be more intentional about spending more time with my kids. As mothers, it is easy to let days or weeks go by without spending quality time with your kids, knowing that they will get their fill of "quality" time when Daddy gets home. He is usually the "fun" one who wrestles with them and plays with them and tucks them into bed when he gets home from work. I'm usually the "business" girl who keeps everyone on task each day. Since Max has been getting home late, or sleeping in DC a few nights a week, I have purposefully made it a point to be more "fun" for my kids and it has been awesome! I've realized that its important to spend every day like this, playing with and enjoying these moments with our kids especially since they won't be young forever! I've also been more organized, making meals ahead of time so that Max can take lunch/dinner with him on certain days. This inevitably makes each day much more organized and manageable.
God is using this time as a learning experience for all of us and we are grateful for it.
*Max will be going to Israel on February 10th, and then has another trip with all the interns afterwards, so this will be a crazy month for us!
Obviously Sundays are very different, and we miss our church family, but I know this is a temporary change, so we are making the best of it, and enjoying our time in DC. We have been invited to a few different homes in between Sunday morning and evening worship services, and this has been quite relaxing compared to when Max often spent Sundays finishing up his sermon for the evening service at SPEP. We met another family with 4 kids who commutes an hour to church and spends their entire day in DC, walking around, going to museums, etc. We are hoping to join them sometime when the weather is nice, and finally visit some museums in these next few months, so that should be fun.
As far as family time goes, I think this internship has been really good for me to be more intentional about spending more time with my kids. As mothers, it is easy to let days or weeks go by without spending quality time with your kids, knowing that they will get their fill of "quality" time when Daddy gets home. He is usually the "fun" one who wrestles with them and plays with them and tucks them into bed when he gets home from work. I'm usually the "business" girl who keeps everyone on task each day. Since Max has been getting home late, or sleeping in DC a few nights a week, I have purposefully made it a point to be more "fun" for my kids and it has been awesome! I've realized that its important to spend every day like this, playing with and enjoying these moments with our kids especially since they won't be young forever! I've also been more organized, making meals ahead of time so that Max can take lunch/dinner with him on certain days. This inevitably makes each day much more organized and manageable.
God is using this time as a learning experience for all of us and we are grateful for it.
*Max will be going to Israel on February 10th, and then has another trip with all the interns afterwards, so this will be a crazy month for us!
Philosophy of Ministry
(This is Michelle typing Max's thoughts about the week, so I'm sorry if it isn't well organized)
One of the pastors spoke to us the other day about CHBC's philosophy of ministry.
It may look to some people like CHBC is very inward focused because everything they do is geared towards building up the members of their church through teaching, training and shepherding.
They believe many churches spread themselves too thin, or hire pastors to fulfill one main duty within that church - for instance hire a pastor of outreach. Then the members think the pastor is the one who will do outreach or that he will train a specific group of people who then will do all the outreach.
At CHBC however, they want to train all of their people to reach out to their neighbors and coworkers. This is precisely why the pastors spend all of their time training up the members to do outreach and feel competent to defend their faith and speak openly about it to others. Are the pastors of CHBC responsible for every person in DC or even every Christian in DC? No. They are responsible for the sheep whom God has given them. They are responsible to train, pray for and teach their members to go into their jobs and be outposts of the gospel.
CHBC has a Wednesday night Bible study which is very simple, but extremely well done. They open their Bibles and look at a portion of scripture together. The teaching is deep and thorough. There are many non-Christians who are eager to come to this via word of mouth. One Muslim who has been attending this Bible study spoke up quite a bit saying how much he loves the church and how much he is learning about the Bible and now he is inviting friends to come.
Most churches doing a church plant today plan to reach a certain target audience, as though they were selling a product to a bunch of consumers, but CHBC doesn't do that. As far as they are concerned, their target audience is everyone who walks through the door of the church. They aren't after the "young urban professionals" or whatever some marketing guru might tell them to target. They employ no special gimmicks or fancy frills to attract people, but they just make sure to be faithful in teaching and preaching the word of God the same exact way to everyone. Mark says he preaches as though everyone listening to his sermon is, at the same time, highly intelligent and very uneducated. In treating people this way, he digs deep into the text, uses words like "justification" and "atonement," and preaches on average about an hour. He assumes that they don't know very much about the Bible, but that they are very capable of learning about it. Mark admits that, due to his own personality, he's naturally going to attract some people and not others, but he's not aiming to appeal to a narrow audience.
Most churches believe that they must get people immediately "plugged in" to a homogeneous group. So, the twenty-something single without kids gets assigned to a group of his peers, the motorcyclist gets assigned to the cycle club, and the seniors get lumped together. This type of segregation, however, fractures the church. It takes a diverse body of people, whom God has brought together through the power of the Holy Spirit, and who otherwise would have nothing in common with one another, and it splits them up exactly the way the world does...by common interests and demographics. The world understands gathering together around common interests. What makes no sense to the world is when a completely diverse group of people know, pray for, care about, challenge, and love one another. Of course there's nothing wrong with hanging out with your peers, but the love of Christ is displayed when you love your brother with whom you have next to nothing in common. The modern American church has become another institution clamoring for customers, and it knows that you get the most, not by challenging them to grow in their sanctification, but by giving them whatever makes them happy and comfortable.
That being said, whenever a new member joins CHBC and asks how they can get plugged in, they don't respond by putting them in a group of their peers, thus separating them from the rest of the church body. Instead, their response is simply "start attending the morning and evening service every week and talk to people afterwards." In this way they are encouraging new members to begin conversing with whomever they happen to be sitting with, whether that be a seventy year old black woman or a twenty year old asian man. And I've personally witnessed the fruit of this approach, as CHBC has an incredibly diverse group of people, all of whom come together as one body. The last thing the pastors want to do is disrupt that unity by pigeon-holing the members into homogeneous groups. This is so counter-cultural, but it's how the Bible describes the church.
One of the pastors spoke to us the other day about CHBC's philosophy of ministry.
It may look to some people like CHBC is very inward focused because everything they do is geared towards building up the members of their church through teaching, training and shepherding.
They believe many churches spread themselves too thin, or hire pastors to fulfill one main duty within that church - for instance hire a pastor of outreach. Then the members think the pastor is the one who will do outreach or that he will train a specific group of people who then will do all the outreach.
At CHBC however, they want to train all of their people to reach out to their neighbors and coworkers. This is precisely why the pastors spend all of their time training up the members to do outreach and feel competent to defend their faith and speak openly about it to others. Are the pastors of CHBC responsible for every person in DC or even every Christian in DC? No. They are responsible for the sheep whom God has given them. They are responsible to train, pray for and teach their members to go into their jobs and be outposts of the gospel.
CHBC has a Wednesday night Bible study which is very simple, but extremely well done. They open their Bibles and look at a portion of scripture together. The teaching is deep and thorough. There are many non-Christians who are eager to come to this via word of mouth. One Muslim who has been attending this Bible study spoke up quite a bit saying how much he loves the church and how much he is learning about the Bible and now he is inviting friends to come.
Most churches doing a church plant today plan to reach a certain target audience, as though they were selling a product to a bunch of consumers, but CHBC doesn't do that. As far as they are concerned, their target audience is everyone who walks through the door of the church. They aren't after the "young urban professionals" or whatever some marketing guru might tell them to target. They employ no special gimmicks or fancy frills to attract people, but they just make sure to be faithful in teaching and preaching the word of God the same exact way to everyone. Mark says he preaches as though everyone listening to his sermon is, at the same time, highly intelligent and very uneducated. In treating people this way, he digs deep into the text, uses words like "justification" and "atonement," and preaches on average about an hour. He assumes that they don't know very much about the Bible, but that they are very capable of learning about it. Mark admits that, due to his own personality, he's naturally going to attract some people and not others, but he's not aiming to appeal to a narrow audience.
Most churches believe that they must get people immediately "plugged in" to a homogeneous group. So, the twenty-something single without kids gets assigned to a group of his peers, the motorcyclist gets assigned to the cycle club, and the seniors get lumped together. This type of segregation, however, fractures the church. It takes a diverse body of people, whom God has brought together through the power of the Holy Spirit, and who otherwise would have nothing in common with one another, and it splits them up exactly the way the world does...by common interests and demographics. The world understands gathering together around common interests. What makes no sense to the world is when a completely diverse group of people know, pray for, care about, challenge, and love one another. Of course there's nothing wrong with hanging out with your peers, but the love of Christ is displayed when you love your brother with whom you have next to nothing in common. The modern American church has become another institution clamoring for customers, and it knows that you get the most, not by challenging them to grow in their sanctification, but by giving them whatever makes them happy and comfortable.
That being said, whenever a new member joins CHBC and asks how they can get plugged in, they don't respond by putting them in a group of their peers, thus separating them from the rest of the church body. Instead, their response is simply "start attending the morning and evening service every week and talk to people afterwards." In this way they are encouraging new members to begin conversing with whomever they happen to be sitting with, whether that be a seventy year old black woman or a twenty year old asian man. And I've personally witnessed the fruit of this approach, as CHBC has an incredibly diverse group of people, all of whom come together as one body. The last thing the pastors want to do is disrupt that unity by pigeon-holing the members into homogeneous groups. This is so counter-cultural, but it's how the Bible describes the church.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Music
Last Sunday was our second time attending CHBC, and I think the thing I love the most so far is the singing.
Music is usually a big deal to me in a worship service. I typically prefer contemporary music, but I do love the old classic hymns as well. Regardless of what songs we are singing, I want to be able to truly worship without being distracted by those around me, and without feeling like my voice is sticking out like a sore thumb. When I am playing the piano at a church, I am of the opinion "the more musicians the better" probably because I get more nervous if I'm all by myself. I also think that the more musicians there are, and the bigger the sound is, the more comfortable people feel singing out, and worshiping without distractions. Some people may disagree, thinking that if the music is too big or loud, the focus is on the musicians themselves, rather than on worshiping, and I'm sure this scenario is true in a lot of places, as too much of a good thing can often turn into a bad thing.
At CHBC there is no formal "music program" and no paid musicians, and the focus is on congregational singing. How could a church of 1000 members have good music without a paid person? Well, Mark picks all of the songs for the year all at once, and then during the week the pastors and interns come together and sing one verse of each song (usually in 4 part harmony and it sounds amazing!) and then decide if they want to change any for that Sunday. There is usually someone playing a beautiful grand piano and guitar each Sunday, and about 4 singers up front.
When we first went there and saw the bulletin with about 9 or 10 hymns, I was a little disappointed, because as I've said I do love contemporary worship music. After the 1st song, I realized there were several contemporary songs mixed in with the hymns. They usually include the music for every song in the bulletin, making it appear as though they only sing hymns, but I believe they do this so that people can read harmonies, because it sounds like a small taste of heaven the way people belt out those parts! The singing here is really fun, and probably my favorite part so far. I am actually thinking about the words I'm singing, rather than those around me, and truly worshiping the Lord.
The evening service is a very special time of "family news" where members share what is going on in their personal lives or how they had an opportunity to share the gospel this past week, or church wide events or announcements. At the end of all the announcements, various members are called upon to pray for each particular announcement. You really get to know the members during this service, as everyone is very open and honest when they go up and share. When someone becomes a member, they commit to coming to the evening service in addition to the morning service, so there is a huge turnout. One other unique thing about the evening service, is Mark usually has about 5 or 6 new books on various topics that he will briefly describe and give away to the first person who raises their hand.
This is a very warm and friendly congregation who love the Lord, and we are blessed to be a part of it for these 5 months.
Music is usually a big deal to me in a worship service. I typically prefer contemporary music, but I do love the old classic hymns as well. Regardless of what songs we are singing, I want to be able to truly worship without being distracted by those around me, and without feeling like my voice is sticking out like a sore thumb. When I am playing the piano at a church, I am of the opinion "the more musicians the better" probably because I get more nervous if I'm all by myself. I also think that the more musicians there are, and the bigger the sound is, the more comfortable people feel singing out, and worshiping without distractions. Some people may disagree, thinking that if the music is too big or loud, the focus is on the musicians themselves, rather than on worshiping, and I'm sure this scenario is true in a lot of places, as too much of a good thing can often turn into a bad thing.
At CHBC there is no formal "music program" and no paid musicians, and the focus is on congregational singing. How could a church of 1000 members have good music without a paid person? Well, Mark picks all of the songs for the year all at once, and then during the week the pastors and interns come together and sing one verse of each song (usually in 4 part harmony and it sounds amazing!) and then decide if they want to change any for that Sunday. There is usually someone playing a beautiful grand piano and guitar each Sunday, and about 4 singers up front.
When we first went there and saw the bulletin with about 9 or 10 hymns, I was a little disappointed, because as I've said I do love contemporary worship music. After the 1st song, I realized there were several contemporary songs mixed in with the hymns. They usually include the music for every song in the bulletin, making it appear as though they only sing hymns, but I believe they do this so that people can read harmonies, because it sounds like a small taste of heaven the way people belt out those parts! The singing here is really fun, and probably my favorite part so far. I am actually thinking about the words I'm singing, rather than those around me, and truly worshiping the Lord.
The evening service is a very special time of "family news" where members share what is going on in their personal lives or how they had an opportunity to share the gospel this past week, or church wide events or announcements. At the end of all the announcements, various members are called upon to pray for each particular announcement. You really get to know the members during this service, as everyone is very open and honest when they go up and share. When someone becomes a member, they commit to coming to the evening service in addition to the morning service, so there is a huge turnout. One other unique thing about the evening service, is Mark usually has about 5 or 6 new books on various topics that he will briefly describe and give away to the first person who raises their hand.
This is a very warm and friendly congregation who love the Lord, and we are blessed to be a part of it for these 5 months.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Farewell Party
I was personally uncomfortable having a "farewell party". After all, we are still going to be living in the same place and seeing the same people at various functions. Neither one of us likes all the attention on us (well, that's what Max said privately to me, although I think he often thrives on being the center of attention. . . maybe it's just this particular type of attention that he doesn't like.) Anyway, I think another reason I didn't want a farewell is because in the back of my mind I was hoping that we would come back to our beloved church. . . if not immediately, maybe some day. But the truth is, we have no idea what the Lord has in store for us in the future, so we have to look at the present and see that God is clearly leading us away from our church at this time, and take things one step at a time.
In the end, I think we were both grateful for this party and overwhelmed by the love and appreciation we felt last night. Bill did a great job emceeing the whole thing. Jake, Crystal, Andrea, Brian, Becky, Trip and Glenn said such heartwarming, memorable and funny things. So many people wrote such kind words in a guest book that we will cherish for many years to come. It kind of actually felt like a wedding. . . or as Brian put it- this is the closest anyone will ever come to attending their own funeral - with all the pictures of us that were up and the "eulogies."
At the end Max got up to speak, but was speechless. After what seemed like several minutes, he finally fought back tears to thank everyone. Then he said that he felt like the most loved person in the world that night. This was a special night for us, and we will certainly miss our SPEP family.
We have also been touched by the amount of people who have so graciously and generously blessed us financially during this time. We are continuously in awe of God's kindness and provision for us. Thank you.
In the end, I think we were both grateful for this party and overwhelmed by the love and appreciation we felt last night. Bill did a great job emceeing the whole thing. Jake, Crystal, Andrea, Brian, Becky, Trip and Glenn said such heartwarming, memorable and funny things. So many people wrote such kind words in a guest book that we will cherish for many years to come. It kind of actually felt like a wedding. . . or as Brian put it- this is the closest anyone will ever come to attending their own funeral - with all the pictures of us that were up and the "eulogies."
At the end Max got up to speak, but was speechless. After what seemed like several minutes, he finally fought back tears to thank everyone. Then he said that he felt like the most loved person in the world that night. This was a special night for us, and we will certainly miss our SPEP family.
We have also been touched by the amount of people who have so graciously and generously blessed us financially during this time. We are continuously in awe of God's kindness and provision for us. Thank you.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Mixed emotions
As we embark on this new journey, we certainly have mixed emotions - excited to start this internship and learn so much, scared of the time and energy that will be required, nervous about what lies ahead and sad to leave our church family. However there is nothing more comforting than having full confidence that God has called us here. He has already shown us great love in providing for our monetary, physical, and emotional needs, and we know that he has a plan for us.
We are praying for a smooth transition in our family life as the kids will not see their Daddy as often. The transition to a new church is also overwhelming, especially for our oldest boy. He has a few very special friends that he will miss more than words can describe. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. We are scared to leave what is comfortable and safe, but also excited to begin this new journey that God so obviously has ordained.
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