Check out the May 22, 2011 article done in the Everett Herald about some heroes on Casino Road. Todd McNeal is spot lighted.  Joseph Fehlen & Tyrone McMorris also make a cameo appearance as the unnamed pastors.  Good read about a great community.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110522/NEWS01/705229935

Acts chapter 27 has to rank as one of my favorites.  At this point in the book many are compelled to plow through and just get to the end.  Anyways the good stuff has already happened, right?.  Paul completes three consecutive reflections in front of three different rulers about his conversation to Christ.  People are hearing the gospel and the real spiritual stuff already occurred.

Then we get the weather report, Nautilus  training, and a geography lesson of the northern  Mediterranean Sea.  Seemingly a throw away chapter in the Bible as Luke describes the maritime travels and perils of Paul on his way to his greatest ministry opportunity, Rome.

I however stop and take in every moment of this chapter because I see the adventures of my own life and my fellow travelers as the words flow off the page. This chapter is the reality of life.

Who doesn’t miss a port or two?
Many of us feel like life goes black for more than two weeks.
I have thought on a number of occasions I would take just one ship and had to get on another.
We have all known days on the open sea with the wind on our back and a drink in our hand.
Followed by the next day, we are inches away from crashing into a rock embankment and starving.
Who hasn’t thought ‘Fair Havens’ was a good spot to rest and found out it was not as billed?

This chapter is not a throw away because it is about the journey of our lives. I am all about the journey more than the destination.  It is in the journey that we find if our faith really functions in times of crisis.  We see if we have the guts to drop the anchor or even cut the ropes. Do we have the intestinal fortitude to release the man-made life boats?  Can we deal with endless opinions of the professionals of what seems the logical steps or  just trust the last word we heard of the Lord?

That is journey stuff, the stuff of life.

Traveling the seas of life is hard.  Jesus does not say this will be a nice walk on sandy beaches.  But he does say- “Take courage because I will be with you”.  I will lean on that as the boat I am on is headed for the harbor…or is that a rock?

Thanks for sailing with us.

Dear Friend;

Crescent Lake Bible Camp in Rhinelander WI was where Christy and I first met. The year is still debatable but we can agree that we were only in grade school. Growing up across the state from each other we would find ourselves writing, calling and spending lots of time together during youth events.  We then got married at the young age of nineteen at the Rhinelander Foursquare Church.  Many have asked us, “why so young?” Our response usually is, “we wanted to do life together.”

And life together we have done and it has yet to be boring.

We spent nine years in Minnesota cutting our teeth at college and in church ministry. Two years in Virginia learning the voice of God.  It then took me three years in Washington to realize I am not perfect and all my ideas are not gold.  These last four years at South Everett Foursquare we have felt the heart beat of God for the poor, the foreigner, and the parentless.

These last 16 years have been a great journey. And, three kids, seven different mailing address, three college degrees, seven cars, one motorcycle, endless friends and 5841 miles later we are circling back around to where it all started.  It is with both joy and sadness that we will be moving back home to pastor at the church where we said “I do” to a life’s journey together.

Some transitions are hard and others are easy. This is both. 

It has been extremely hard to envision leaving what we have had a hand in developing here in Everett. This is a great church that is little in size and big in heart with thriving ministries reaching out to thousands of the most vulnerable in our community. Our hearts and hands will be breaking as we leave some great leaders and very dear friends that have chosen to come and do life with us. Because of that this has been the most difficult decision our family has ever made.

On the other side, it is easy for us to envision returning home because of the connection we have established over a lifetime with family and friends. It is a great church that is thriving and looking towards the future impact they can have on their community. It is an honor to go to a church where the last two pastors have been there a total of 50 years.

We do not yet have a firm transition timeline but look to stay in Washington until the end of the school year.  Those in leadership over our church do not what to rush anything.  Our Foursquare district team will be working with the local church leadership to find the right person to fill this pastoral role in an appropriate timeframe.

We have had a fair amount of moving these last few years and we are so grateful to those of you that have given a bit of yourselves to us and we hope that we have left a deposit of our ourselves with you.  Scripture says in Romans 13:8, “owe no one anything but love”.  We are forever in debt to you for the love you have shown us. 

See you on the road as we journey together,

Joseph and Christy

Baptism is a thing that seems to bring up a lot of questions in people’s lives. What is it? Do I need to do it? One thing Matthew 28:19-20 talks about is how we as Disciples of Christ are to go into the entire world baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Great, so what does that mean? 

When we look at the Book of Acts we find several story of such activity happening in the early church. (Acts 2:41, 8:12, 8:38, 9:18, 10:48, 16:15, 16:33 18:8 & 19:3-5) These give us instances of baptism but still don’t give us the why or what happens in baptisms.

The greatest story of a baptism happened in Luke 3:21-22 and Matthew 3:13-17 when Jesus was baptized by his cousin John.  This gives us a great model of baptism and as we look at others scriptures that give us a clear understanding of what happens.

The word used for baptism in the Bible was a very common one that meant to immerse, plunge under, and submerge. It is what we do to cucumbers to make them pickles, we baptize them in the brine.

That is the simple answer to how we baptize people, we immerse their whole body in water. But what is spiritually happening when you get baptized in front of your friends, family and other onlookers?

 #1. You are making a public stand for Christ.
 Galatians 3:26-27 “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes”

Just like putting on the jersey of your favorite team you are clothing yourself with Christ when you publically declare that you are a follower of His.  Public is important. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, the most public gathering around. People went there for their drinking water, to wash their clothes, to cool off on a hot day, and to go fishing. Everybody gathered there.  

Matthew 10:32, “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven but whoever disowns me before men I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”

We are ultimately making a public statement that are…  

#2. Being baptized into Christ’s Death
Romans 6:3-4;6-7 “Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”

Our old self is dead. 

Your old nature dies in the water grave of baptism. It is the burying of one’s pasts.  Whenever your old sinful life comes back and reminds you of what you did you can say, “you’re dead!” You were buried with Christ in baptism and it is really weird to listen to dead things.  That old sin that used to grip you has no more power over you.

And glory to God through baptism you are…. 
#3. Raised into new life.

You are going to be raised out of the watery grave into new life. You are different now as the Holy Spirit of God is active in your life. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead raises you from the death of sin.

Romans 6:4 “Just as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the father, we too may live a new life, a totally new life in Christ.”

We have a new life now to live out the commandments that Jesus spoke of while here on the earth. This new life is now empower through the experience of baptism.

One note of warning.  The Greek word for baptism was also used for the process of dyeing garments. I once thought I could dye a polyester shirt even though I was told repeatedly that only cotton could be dyed. I thought I could take a garment that wasn’t able to accept the color of dye and force it into the fabric. It didn’t work and everyone laughed. 

Just like in my experience we need to prepare ourselves for the water of baptism and it has nothing to do with our clothes. We need to prepare our own spirit to except the water of baptism into the fabric of our life. We can prepare ourselves for baptism by:

1)     Expecting the free gift of Christ salvation and choosing to be a follower of Him. If we don’t do this we are just getting wet in front of a crowd.

2)     Spending time in his Word and read the stories of Baptisms so you are not surprised when a truly spiritual moment happens.

3)     Be prepared to share your own story of your past and how you want this moment to declare publically that you are a follower of Christ and how you wish to die to your former self and be raised to a new life in Christ.

Baptism has symbolic meanings but at it’s core it is a deeply spiritual event and encounter that every follower of Christ is asked to partake in.

(another great blog written by Christy Fehlen originally posted on www.agrowingfamily.wordpress.com)

Our new favorite game is Blokus.  We have started buying it as a gift for birthdays and graduations .   At first we thought the game  was pronounced blow-kiss and embarrassingly enough called it that for a while.  One day it dawned on us  that the whole point of the game is to block the opponent from being able to lay his or her block piece, thus the pronunciation  block us not blow-kiss.  Funny how obvious it was yet we missed the point completely.  The game is simple lay one piece at a time and every piece you lay has to connect a  corner of the last piece you played.  You have to strategize and watch out because your opponent is always on the look out for ways to block you from your next move.  The goal in the end is to lay every block combination you have been given.  Whoever has the least amount of block pieces left in the end, is the winner. 

In the beginning, I would always end up with my larger combination blocks leftover .  Being the student and competitive gamer that I am, I was not going to settle for less than my best.  After playing a few rounds ending with the same results, I realized I better ditch the bigger combination pieces early on because later when things got more difficult it was nearly impossible to play these pieces.  

This game is a great metaphor for life.  Starting with the name….block us or blow-kiss.  Looking back it is so obvious, duh block us.   Isn’t it funny how sometimes all life requires is a glance back to gain a little perspective?  If I did this than the result would be that. Hindsight, right?   It was all there in the name of the game.  The mission statement, the directions, the course of action, yet why was I blinded to it?  I relied on my own common sense or lack of and proceeded forward without a thought for the details.  Details that could have been easily found in the rules and with a little practice and application.

What I really love about this game is that once you start to figure it out, you start to dream of where the pieces can go and the different combinations of plays that will get you to the goal.  All the while, keeping in mind that you are facing an opponent with exactly the same goal.  You have to adjust and sometimes have multiply plans going at the same time.   

So here is my spiritual link-  God’s will.  As Christians we devote our entire lives to knowing and living in God’s perfect will.  Yet to be honest we struggle to be confident in his perfect will because we don’t even recognize the name of the game.  And in the game we really have many options, but it is up to us what we do with the pieces given to us.  Our strategic plan or application is simple.  Remember the big pieces first.  If not you can’t play them later in the game.  It is called priorities.  Mine go something like this God, Marriage, Family and then the rest of the world….. When I don’t “play” the big pieces first, I have to readjust.   Sometimes I have to scrap all the pieces and start over.  I have never completed the game of Blokus, meaning using all of my block pieces.  I usually end up with 6 or 7 blocks left over.  Yet I am improving and that keeps me returning to the game.