Ezekiel 17 ( The Connection)

I want to thank all of you for your prayers and willingness to be open to the Lord's leading for this new community of Jesus. Here is what I would like for us to do in the next few weeks.

1. Spend the next two weeks in prayer and worship. I would like to focus our gathering times to seek the Lord about how we should move forward as a community. I think it is important to be in tune with the Holy Spirit...The Wind is Blowing!!! So, I would like for us to follow this schedule: Gather on Sundays (April 2 and 9) at 1:00 pm for worship and prayer. Also, come together on Wednesdays (April 5 and 12) at 7:00 pm for worship and prayer. We can also focus our daily prayers on seeking the Lord's guidance for this new community.
   
2. Plan special events for this new community for Holy Week. We could host a Messianic Passover celebration. We could plan to meet at the park on Easter Sunday (maybe the weather will cooperate) and have a worship gathering, picnic, and egg hunt.
   
3. The following week we could make some specific decisions and plans about this new community of Jesus: God's calling for us, Practical Mission focuses, Leadership and Structural issues, etc.
   

As we go through a process of development, it is important for us to be sharing together. So, feel free to come over and visit, call, email, and blog. We need to intentionally function as a community! Let me know what you think.

God Bless!

John Ketchersid

I really thought the time of worship last Sunday was good. I love to express my thoughts and thanks to God in tangible ways. The art wall and the prayer station really helped me do that. And the band (thanks Devon, Cole, Thomas, and Becca!) playing made a beautiful atmosphere for the gathering. Also, all the set up helped us experience the reality of God's presence (thanks Tom, Laurie, and Sherrinda). It was good for us all to be together and share with each other.

We need to carry on the conversation about what the Lord is calling us to be and do. What is the Lord impressing on your heart? Sherrinda and I just watched the movie Chocolat. I thought it was great, have any of you seen it? It reminded me of Babette's Feast. And it really awoke in me a desire to live in the fullness of life that God gives.

We have been having discussions about some foundational ideas for our new community. I wrote some things and Devon has added some of his thoughts. Now I think it's important for us to continue the conversation. So, here are some of the things we've written down as basic characteristics of a community of Jesus...

The Gospel - The Gospel message is that God came to live among us in the person of Jesus Christ and that His life, death, and resurrection are the actions of redemption and restoration of all creation. We trust in Him and His work for our salvation. We accept this Gospel story as the true story of our own lives. We read scripture with the Gospel as our method of interpretation. Therefore we are followers of Jesus.

Life Transformation – People are transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit in this world. That begins with us as we live our lives trusting in Jesus as the source of real life. Therefore we will pursue spiritual disciplines so that our lives will be wholly given to following Jesus. Then our evangelism, witness, and service are not activities or programs that we participate in but they are a constant result of the character that the Holy Spirit is producing in us. We also seek to be honest with every part of our lives. We refuse to live in the false dichotomy of the sacred and the secular. We aim to fuse our work, play, art, and education into one seamless life in Christ.

Community – God dwells in relationship and community (theology of the Trinity) and we are being renewed in his image. So, we too live our lives in relationship and community. We love and support each other. We read and interpret scripture together and understand it as a body. We pray together to be in tune with God’s purposes. We worship together as a communal expression of what God is doing in our lives. We believe that the way the kingdom of God shows itself on this earth is through compassionate community. As we live within the Gospel story through the power of the Holy Spirit in the context of community, we are moving together more and more into the Kingdom of God.

Continuing the conversation....

John Ketchersid

We will meet at our house this Sunday to eat and worship together. Just bring a lunch for you and yours...last week some brought fast-food and others brought brown bag. We will eat at noon and then go down in the basement to pray and worship together.

The Southlake Blvd Church gave us some folding chairs to use! Thanks to Steve, Evan, Aaron, Thomas and Caleb for helping me pick them up yesterday.

We have some great plans for the worship gathering this week. We pray that it will be an honor to God and a blessing to you. Remember, we are a body worshipping together! So come prepared to share your heart and be a blessing to others (1 Corinthians 12:27).

See you Sunday (if not before).

God Bless!
John

If I haven't talked with you and you plan on coming please give me a call. That way we will know how many to prepare for. I am really excited about this time of prayer and discussion! We trust that the Lord will lead us in our Visions and Dreams for a community of Jesus in this area.

God Bless!
John

We had our first gathering today! It was a great time in the Lord. Everyone brought their own lunch and we ate together. Then after eating we went down into the basement for a worship time. We had a wonderful time of prayer and talked about the Kingdom of God...It's within YOU!!!! (that almost sounds like a Gatorade comercial) The communion time was really a blessing (thanks Steve and Denise). It was all very cool but we hope to have live music in the near future. Here are a few pictures of our time together.

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! We are going to meet and talk about purpose and direction for our community of faith this coming Wednesday (March 22) at about 6:30 or 7:00. We will meet at our house and get some pizza.

Several of us went to Veritas yesterday. If you are interested in checking out an "emergent" worship gathering, this is a good one. They meet every Saturday night at 6:00 in the Richland Hills United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. I met up with Rev. Mike Baughman who leads it. He was interested in what we are doing, too. You can check them out at xanga.com\veritasgathering.

May the Grace and Peace of our Lord be with you this week!

John Ketchersid

So...maybe the park idea was a bad one. Due to rain and cool temperatures we will meet at our house at noon. Go ahead and bring your brown-bag lunch here and we'll have an indoor picnic. After we eat we will have a time of prayer and worship. See you tomorrow.

Here is a picture of the big evergreen tree at Linda Spurlock Park.



It looks like it might be too wet and cool to meet at the park this Sunday. So, the backup plan is to meet at our house. But doesn't this tree look inviting?!

God Bless!
John Ketchersid

I think I need to spiritually relax. I have so many preconcieved ideas about church and being a Christian that I confuse business with faith. I recently read an article that a friend recommended...Detoxing from Church. It was really helpful to me. Maybe it will be helpful for you, too...http://www.theofframp.org/Detox.html.

I am really excited about starting a community of followers of Jesus in a new way, but I have to say it's not easy for me. After 20 years of ministry in traditional churches...I have the old-dog-new-tricks syndrome. It will be good to meet at the park this Sunday and do a new thing (I sure hope it doesn't rain). Speaking of rain...if it does rain then we will meet in our basement.

I am also reading a great book called Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger. The book gives a definition of Emerging Churches that I think is helpful and expresses what I have in mind for a new community of Jesus...

"Emerging churches are communities that practice the way of Jesus in
postmodern cultures. This definition encompasses the nine practices.
Emerging churches (1) identify with the life of Jesus, (2) transform the secular
realm, and (3) live highly communal lives. Because of these three activities,
they (4) welcome the stranger, (5) serve with generosity, (6) participate as
producers, (7) create as created beings, (8) lead as a body, and (9) take part
in spiritual activities." (Gibbs and Bolger, pp. 44, 45)

I know these nine things sound kind of like what church has always been. But as we talk about them more, I think we will see a new and fresh expression of the kingdom of God emerge. More later.

Does it sound like I am relaxing yet? Well...maybe not relaxing, but I am really enjoying the ride into new dreams and visions of following Jesus Christ in this world.

Peace!
John

Huurraaay!!!!! Anyone who wants to make a comment can post their thoughts...even if you do not have a Blogger account. And I really would like to hear from you! Also, if you have a blog somewhere else that we can all read, please let us know where we can find you.

God Bless!
John

Ezekiel 17:22 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. 23 On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. 24 All the trees of the field will know that I the LORD bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.

Wow! What a great vision of God's Kingdom. As we begin a new community of faith in Jesus, let's pray for and seek this kind of kingdom to be lived out in us every day.

Plans:

• Many of us are praying and fasting this week as we begin this new community. We want to listen to the Lord for guidance. You might want to post a comment and let us all know what the Lord is saying to you.
• This Wednesday night (March 15) at about 7:oo the Ketchersid Basement will be open for a prayer and worship. Don't feel any pressure to come, it's just a time for spiritual contemplation, meditation, and lifting up our hearts to God. We thought that since our kids will be going to the church youth and children's program we could use that time to seek the Lord.
• Our tentative plans for this coming Sunday (March 19) are to gather at Linda Spurlock Park on Glenview Dr. at noon. We plan to gather at the big evergreen tree. Bring a sack lunch and maybe a blanket or chairs. We will have a time of fellowship and worship together there at the big tree. Be sure to check back later in the week for finalized plans.

Let's live in the peace and joy of the new kingdom of Jesus this week!

John Ketchersid