Announcement This Sunday on Land Purchase Recommendation

I remember sitting in our living room about five or six years ago. A few of us were dreaming about what a church could become. I don’t know if any of us fully believed these dreams would come true, but we dreamed anyway. We simply dreamed about a church that thought and acted like Jesus.

The Land at Sunset

We searched the Scriptures and discovered Jesus had a special place in his heart for children. We determined from our beginning children would be our priority. Last week I stood in front of the congregation with dozens of adult mentors and presented Bibles to thirty-five third graders. The dream is coming true. 

We learned that Jesus spent much of his time serving people. One of us said that we look most like Jesus when we serve. We dreamt of ways we could love and serve our community and the world. Last month we cancelled our morning worship experiences at Millard West and sent hundreds of men, women, and children into the community to worship God by serving people. It was God’s people being the church and was one of the great days in our short history. The dream is coming true. 

We looked at the early church in the book of Acts and observed that small groups and Christian community was at the center of their lives. We read how Jesus surrounded himself with others. We dreamed of hundreds of small groups that meet in people’s homes: learning, growing, praying, playing, laughing, crying, sharing, and caring. Dozens of small groups kicked-off last week. New friendships will be formed. People will grow in their relationship with God. The dream is coming true. 

An important announcement will be made this morning about more dreams and visions. After two years of prayer, examining thirty-five properties, negotiating with land owners, and some more praying—the Leadership Team and the Land and Building Team is ready to present a property to be evaluated by the congregation. Over the next few weeks, the congregation will have the opportunity to continue to learn, ask questions, and provide feedback to our Leadership Team and our Land and Building Team. 

The purchase of land was not something we dreamed about in the living room that night. The purchase of land is, in small part, because of necessity. The school does require us to have an exit strategy and we know of no other alternatives big enough for us to worship within miles of Millard West. The purchase of land is mostly about dreams and vision. We dream of a place where children can be developed, mentored, and coached. A place where middle and high school students want to come and hang out. A place where we can give food and clothing to those in need. A place for recovery and support groups and Christ-centered counseling. A place that the community feels welcomed and embraced. Simply, this will be a place where people throughout the metro area will worship God, connect with each other, and serve our city and the world. 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig

Looking Forward. Looking Back.

Looking Forward 

Vacation Bible School – It’s always one of the best weeks of the year. Hundreds of children and volunteers will gather from July 15th to July 19th at Faith-Westwood to learn and experience that everything is possible with God. Visit the VBS table on Sunday mornings to sign-up your kids or learn about different ways you can serve. You can also visit www.watersedgeomaha.com and register your children electronically. 

WE Serve – Mark the date: Sunday morning, August 12th. We will redefine worship. 

Buildout – Construction has started on the build-out of our property near 180th and Center. Visit the table this morning or next week to learn about ways you can serve and participate in this project. 

Land – We will be going through a congregational process to evaluate the Harrison Street property this August and September. We will have in-home meetings, a congregational meeting after worship, and a congregational meeting at the ministry center. These forums will allow the Leadership Team and Land and Building Team to share where we are so far in the process and to listen to ideas, thoughts, and questions of the people of The Water’s Edge. The vote on purchasing the property is tentatively scheduled for mid-September and the Capital Campaign to resource the purchase of the property will happen from mid-October to mid-November. 

40 Days in the Word – As a pastor the most common question I get is something like this: “How do I read the Bible and apply it to my life?” I also experienced and observed that big things happen in small groups. Starting September 9th, we will learn how to read the Bible and apply it to our lives on Sunday mornings and in our small groups. New groups will start. I want to encourage you to pray about participating in a small group for six weeks this fall. 

Looking Back 

2012 is half over. Here is where we currently stand with participation and income. 

Year          Adults                            Kids          

2011          420                               101

2012          483     15% increase       116     15% increase

If you include the facilities person from Millard West, we average exactly 600 people on Sunday mornings so far this year. 

As the people of The Water’s Edge, you continue to model generosity. We have given $249,000 so far this year to support our mission and ministry. This is an increase of 16% over last year. Our capital giving for the purchase of land and the ministry center now exceeds $162,000. As a congregation our total increase in giving is 53%! 

Your vision, commitment, and generosity inspire me. 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig

Launch Sunday

I remember the evening. Amber and I drove to the family’s house. We were the first people to arrive, which is rare for us. We chatted for a few moments with the host family. We then went to the basement. She organized the snacks and desserts. I arranged the chairs. I invited dozens of people to come to that first small group meeting. Most didn’t. Sixteen people did. I led a few corny games to help everybody get to know each other. We had a Bible study, took a break, ate the food Amber recently organized, and got to know each other a little more. We concluded the evening with a discussion and prayer. Everybody came back the next week and eventually started bringing their friends.

A month or two later, The Water’s Edge leadership team started. This team contained a few people from the small group, a few people from Faith-Westwood, and a few people from the community. This group worked so hard and gave so much for The Water’s Edge to become a reality. We started off with no name, a dream, a few resources, and God’s power. We took a retreat to a monastery, handed out thousands of bottles of water at a parade, walked around neighborhoods and prayed, invited friends, collected food for hungry people, created ministry teams, and strategized for the future. 

Less than a year later, The Water’s Edge launched our first worship service at Russell Middle School. It rained hard that morning. About 200 people worshipped with us. We were so excited. The next week it was clear and sunny. Less than 100 people came back. AJ was a one-man band. We had plenty of leftover donuts. Humble beginnings. 

Since then we have worshipped in two other schools. Most of my pastor friends don’t believe me when I tell them we worshipped in a Catholic High School. We have fed thousands of people, baptized hundreds of people, started dozens of small groups and ministry teams, run marathons and half marathons together, and taken mission trips to places like Omaha and Joplin and Belize.

A few weeks ago on Christmas Eve we had over 1,000 people worship at The Water’s Edge. We sang familiar songs, prayed together, listened to God’s Word, shared communion, and lit glow sticks – promising each other and promising God we will be light to the world.

This morning is a new day that I will be writing about five or ten years from now. Our first day as our own church. I’m so grateful for the people at Faith-Westwood. Their support and vision has made The Water’s Edge possible. I’m more excited today about the future than I was five years ago and I was pretty excited back then. I can’t wait to see what the next five years will bring. More than anything, I hope The Water’s Edge helps you grow, serve, heal, relate better, give, forgive, laugh, love, cry, care, develop, make friends, and connect more closely with God. I’m glad we are on this journey together. 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig

Launch

Scene 1

I flew in a private airplane a few years ago. The take off from the Millard Airport was gentle. Even peaceful. It was cool flying over our house and seeing southwest Omaha from above.

Scene 2 

Benjamin and I sat next to each other and tightly held hands. We were at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the Space Shuttle Launch Simulator. A loud sound blasted and we were thrown back into our seats as the shuttle went from zero to 100 mph in three seconds kept accelerating until we reached 17,500 mph.

A quote I want you to think about

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon. 

Scene 3

It’s January 1st, 2012. The Water’s Edge becomes a church that day. Eight days earlier we celebrated the birth of a baby who changed the world. On New Year’s Day we celebrate the birth of church that will change the world of our people and the people we serve and love. January 1st is a Sunday. It is not the day we take-off. It is the day we launch. Not shooting for the sky, but for the moon. We probably won’t set an attendance record on January 1st, but then again Joseph, Mary, and Jesus didn’t have a lot of company either and they did pretty well.

Over the next two months I will describe what a launch looks like in all areas of our church. 

The first area is missions

God is leading every one of us to serve somewhere and somebody in our world, country, and / or city next year and in all subsequent years. We look most like Jesus when we are serving—especially when we are serving the marginalized. Fans of Jesus support those who serve. Fans of Jesus think serving is a good idea. Followers serve and encourage others to serve alongside them. Period. Next year we are going to serve people outside the church and The Water’s Edge is going to encourage you and resource you so that you are successful. 

We will do a few things well rather than doing a lot of things not very well. We will serve with focus and clarity. Opportunities will exist to serve the poor, the hurting, and the young—internationally, nationally, and right here in Omaha. 

The Water’s Edge will be defined by kindness and generosity. We will be known as unselfish servants. We will live out the Gospel: For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others. –Matthew 20:28 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig

Birth, Dreams, and Land

If you have been around a while, you know that The Water’s Edge and Faith-Westwood will become separate United Methodist churches on January 1st, 2012. This is a good thing. It’s not a split, but a multiplication. It’s not like a couple breaking up, but a family giving birth.

As a pastor at Faith-Westwood, I will be saying goodbye to many people in the next few months. I don’t look forward to that. There are lots of people I care about deeply. Although I will still live in the same city, I won’t be their pastor anymore. I look forward to leading The Water’s Edge full-time. The Water’s Edge is an amazing, young congregation because it is comprised of generous, remarkable, and dedicated people. I know that our best days are in front of us.

This week I will be meeting with a group of people to take a first steps in developing a strategic, long-term vision for The Water’s Edge. Part of the vision will be similar to what we are already doing: more small groups, exceptional kid’s ministry, serving each other, feeding Omaha, and challenging people to grow closer to God and each other.

Some of the vision will be new. I know God wants us to have a men’s small group every morning of the week. We are on are way. I know God wants The Water’s Edge to reach out to students in middle schools and high schools in West Omaha. God has placed it on my heart to develop a recovery ministry to minister to hundreds of people battling various addictions. I can’t imagine a vision that doesn’t include deepening your relationship with God and with others. When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus replied: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. –Matthew 22:37-39

Part of our long-term vision also involves the purchase of land. At the present time, we are working with commercial real estate agents to acquire land within a few miles of the high school. With our current population of adults and children and future projections based on growth during our first five years, we will eventually outgrow the facilities at Millard West High School. Our own facility will also allow us to serve our community more effectively than leased space. We have in front of us an opportunity to build a new kind of church: one that offers us a place to worship, grow, and relate, while simultaneously loving and serving our community. We will do things in West Omaha that need to be done that nobody else is doing.

These are big dreams and bigger dreams are on the way. Thankfully we have a bigger God who makes all things possible. I’m so excited to see what God is going to do through us and in us as we are take this journey together.

The best is yet to come…

Craig

And Make It Plain on Tablets

Vision is a proactive, preferred picture of the future. Simultaneously, a vision is not just a picture of what can be; it is an appeal to better ourselves and a call to become something more. Last week we celebrated our fifth birthday as a congregation. I talked about vision for the future of The Water’s Edge.

Then the LORD answered me and said:

Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it. –Habakkuk 2:2

A biblical vision for a church always includes people outside the church. Jesus told his disciples to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoner, and welcome the stranger. He challenged people to care for the widows and orphans. He spent a lot more time outside the Temple than he spent inside the Temple. His last words to the disciples were to go and make disciples. 

Jesus had other practices and beliefs. He believed in community. Not the polite kind where people are nice to each other. But the kind where people bear each other’s burdens, care for one another, dare each other to grow, and share life together. Jesus believed in recovery and wholeness. He believed in the power of prayer. He was a servant. He said children were as important as anything and everything else. And he wasn’t interested in fans: he never asked people to be enthusiastic admirers. He was only interested in people following him. 

Where there is no vision, the people perish. –Proverbs 29:18

As we become a new church independent from Faith-Westwood on January 1, 2012 – it is the appropriate and perfect time to discern and develop God’s vision for our future. 

I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. 

Your sons and daughters will prophesy. 

Your old men will dream dreams, 

and your young men will see visions. –Joel 2:28 

A team of people will pray, listen to God, study the teachings of Jesus, listen to our congregation, evaluate our strengths and areas for growth, listen to each other, dream, and create a vision for The Water’s Edge. I can’t imagine the vision won’t include things like small groups, recovery ministries, prayer, students and children, helping people’s dreams come true, serving hurting people all over the world, sharing our faith with people not in the church, a community-center-type building that will allow The Water’s Edge to love our community into a relationship with Jesus Christ, and a collection of eclectic people who are not fans of Jesus—but fully committed followers of Jesus. 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig

The Water's Edge

Here is next Sunday's column, a little early. I'm leading a camp for kids this week and had a little time this morning.

Last Sunday night, a woman in our membership class, H2O, asked me where we got our name, The Water’s Edge. I was grateful she asked the question because, in the busyness of life and ministry, I need a reminder of why we exist.

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things. –Mark 4:1-2

As chapter 4 continues, Jesus taught and challenged the people gathered at The Water’s Edge. Next, he sent the people out into their community to live out his teachings. Finally, he calmed the storm in the lives 

The vision is to be a Mark 4 community. It begins with Jesus and his teachings. The dream is to have an overflowing group of people gathering weekly at The Water’s Edge to hear the teachings of Jesus. Community is experienced. We share our lives together. We laugh and pray and learn together. The teachings are relevant to our lives and they challenge us. When applied to our lives, the teachings make us better. Then we are sent out into the world and because we are getting better the world will be better. And, for those times when the world doesn’t make sense or our lives don’t quite make sense, Jesus calmed the storm. He offers peace when the world is not able to.

I left worship Sunday morning excited about how this vision is becoming a reality. People came early and stayed late. We ate together and shared with each other. We watched all the elementary kids singing songs about God’s love for them and their love for God. I don’t know if it’s possible to convince me of a more beautiful thing. Then we heard stories from high school students about how they served the elderly and the poor. That is beautiful too. We heard the teachings of Jesus that we are to be influencers in our communities. We prayed for one of our own who is having a mass removed from her brain this week. People stood in line and signed a card for her. I delivered that card to her this morning. Her eyes welled up. I could sense Jesus was calming a storm. And then the gathered people were sent into the community to love others, to offer hope, and to invite others to follow Jesus.

The dream for The Water’s Edge is that we experience community because life is best lived in the presence of others. The dream is that we are challenged when we need to be challenged and that we are comforted when we need to be comforted. The dream is God changes our world and the world one live at a time. I have enjoyed and I look forward to taking this journey with you.

The best is yet to come…

Craig

Vision

Last week I wrote that The Water’s Edge Leadership Team will be focusing on seven initiatives in 2011. The initiatives are:

1. Increasing discipleship for all of us as we learn, experience, and practice what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
2. Developing and deploying leaders. We have many community and business leaders in our congregation whom we are currently underutilizing in leadership roles at The Water’s Edge. New leaders walking alongside our existing leaders will allow us to continue growing, learning, serving, being, connecting, and loving.
3. Growing participation at the 9:00 worship service. Our biggest achievement in 2010 was starting a new worship service. This service has allowed us to grow again. Our goal is to glorify God through worship and make both services as meaningful as possible to all participants.
4. Discerning a clear vision that excites us, challenges us, and unifies us.
5. Improving opportunities for middle school and high school students (especially students from families who are new to us in recent years) to connect with each other, to connect with God, and to serve our community.
6. Developing a plan to acquire a permanent facility. Although Russell Middle School and Millard West High School have been excellent facilities for us, we cannot be renters with the school district forever. Four years ago when we had about 120 adults and children, we were very mobile. Today with 500 adults and children on most Sundays, we are much less mobile.
7. Expanding financial stewardship. It will take additional financial giving to resource us for where God is leading us in the future.

Last week I shared some thoughts on increasing discipleship, expanding our leadership base, and growing participation in the 9:00 worship service. I will cover student ministries, a permanent facility, and financial stewardship in the near future. This morning I want to share about vision.

Proverbs 29:18 says: Where there is no vision, people will perish. In life, we are not limited so much by our age, our looks, our current resources, or our abilities, we are limited by our vision. Helen Keller once wrote, “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.” A God-honoring vision has four characteristics: 1) It is stimulating and challenging to our mind, 2) It excites our heart, 3) It is what we will build our lives by, and 4) It is what we will become.

I don’t exactly know exactly what the vision is going to look like, but I know it will build on our current strengths and challenge us to trust God as we move forward in a daring direction. I know it will involve prayer and reading / applying the Bible to our daily lives. I know it will involve small groups: encouraging, learning, sharing, serving, and growing together. I know it will include inviting new people to join us on the journey. And I know if will involve serving the poor and marginalized here in Omaha and throughout the world.

I’m excited about our future together and believe the best it yet to come…

Craig