He's getting bigger.

Isaiah gets bigger every day!

Time for Thanksgiving.

We made the trip to visit family last night and arrived at 11 or so. Our travel was alot of fun and I continue to remember that I enjoy spending "do nothing" time with my wife. She is alot of fun and intriguing to talk to. I'm thankful for her. :)

Happy thanksgiving.

God is not a Gangster.

Ken's message yesterday was really good. It was needed for me.

I often percieve God as a "gangster" that hurts me. Because the process of growth is painful sometimes, I want to say that God is not good anymore. But he is always good. He is always just. And he is the great physician. When a doctor makes cuts it is not a bad thing, when a gangster makes cuts, it's a bad thing.

Powerful stuff yesterday at our service. The spirit of God was at work and alive in what was going on. Oh, and I got to baptize two young ladies in that baptismal. There is something that is really cool about baptism because it is so celebratory and there is excitement that surrounds it...Sweet!

ThanksGIVING

Yeah.

It's that time of year again. I am pumped to head to Iowa for Thanksgiving and Christmas to visit my family. It's a great time of food, games, fun, and family. I am pumped to see all of the family that is so dear to me.

God is good and has allowed me to be in a place that I love, have a wife that is amazing, and the cutest son ever (unless he is being stubborn, but I'm not complaining.)

I am thankful for alot. I am thankful for my country even though there is significant issues with our nation. I am so thankful for my salvation from my God. I am thankful for the relationship that I have with him and cannot imagine living life without him. I am thankful for my life group that I am a part of where there is authenticity, honesty, and real community. I am thankful for the friends that I have and have had in the past. They are great.

I am thankful for all of the "stuff" that I have even though I need none of it.

I am certainly blessed. Cool stuff. Thank you God!

At the same time, I realize that it can all be taken away and I would still be thankful for the relationships that God has allowed me to have, for the time of blessing in my life, and for my family.

Let me always be thankful for what you have allowed me and blessed me with! Amen.

God's Economy.

As I drove to the office this morning, I listened intently to my Dad's favorite radio station, NPR. NPR is notorious for being fairly critical of alot of things, but this morning the radio station was attempting to depress the already depressed. The announcer was sharing how the world economy was dropping by percentages across the globe. Credit was impossible to attain all over the world and that was only making it harder for folks to crawl out of the economic crunch here in the United States.

What if we actually followed God's laws of economy? I wonder what would happen? Dave Ramsey has a voice in this area. Check it out!

My Dog.

I'm so glad that I don't have to go through the pain that I put my dog through. She's a trooper though. On Friday, we took her to the vet and put up for stay overnight. She was getting spayed. This process is not fun, I'm sure for a dog, but I know that there are good reasons to spay a dog. (I really don't want little Matties running around, because they get big, you know?) But the reality is that this is hard on their bodies.

She came home yesterday and slept for hours. She slept and slept and slept. I think the pain medication really took care of her sleeping during the day.

Then last night she woke up. And barked. And barked. and barked. I think she wanted food.

You might ask, "Chris is there a point to this particular blog?" Not really, I am just making my life privy to your inspection. This is what I worked on this weekend. :)

The only conclusion that I draw from the whole experience is that dogs are expensive. Vet bills cost as much or more than my medical bills. Ugh.

Till I see Him.

I have listened to the song, "Till I See You" constantly for a few weeks. Take just a couple minutes to read through the lyrics. It's good stuff. I want to look forward to seeing Jesus Christ and wait in great anticipation for him to return.

-Chris.


The greatest love that anyone could ever know
That overcame the cross and grave to find my soul
And 'til I see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
I'll trust in You

With all I am I'll live to see Your kingdom come
And in my heart I pray You'd let Your will be done
And 'til I see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
I'll trust in You

I will live to love You
I will live to bring You praise
I will live a child in awe of You

You are the voice that calls the universe to be
You are the whisper in my heart that speaks to me
And 'til I see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
I'll trust in you

You alone are God of all
You alone are worthy Lord
And with all I am my soul will bless Your name

Allied Force Worship, November 12th, 2008

Tonight was our first night of the "Spiritual Disciplines" Series. It was our first night back from small group hangout week. I decided that I would blog about how tonight went and give my thoughts on the general state of High School AFW.

I thought tonight was a great night full of energy right from the beginning. Matt Hamer and Company led a great worship set with alot of energy and worshipful moments. I thought the worship was very spirit led and people that were leading were ready to lead others in worship. Overall, the worship time was good.

We started the night with a visit from the Turkey Bowl mascot. Jake Hofeling through on the Turkey suit and had a good time highlighting November 30th as our Turkey Bowl 2008. That was alot of fun.

The message of the night was "read your bible." My prayer each week is that God speaks directly to students and it appears that many students were spoken to and were moved to take first steps in their relationship with Jesus Christ when it comes to quiet times, etc. Cool stuff!

As always, I prayed for small groups as they met after AFW.

-Chris.

And Thus, it begins.

On Saturday, I put up Christmas lights. I gave in to the holiday glitz and glamor. Actually, I just like my wife alot and I know that she loves to see Christmas lights. I have to admit, our house does look kind of cool with lights on.

I love the Holiday time. I love seeing family, seeing people, enjoying food (especially...), and taking some time off from the busyness of work. I'm excited for this holiday season and wait in anticipation for Christmas.

I often wonder around this time if I have this eager anticipation for Christ's return to this earth. I quickly realize that I don't, and I wonder why? The early church, some of who walked with Christ, certainly had an anticipation for Christ to return. I do want to wait in anticipation for Jesus Christ to return and set up his kingdom! This Christmas season, my I enjoy anticipation of the holidays, but also the deep anticipation of meeting my savior face to face!

Good job Millenials!

I was so worried that my age group wouldn't show up. And early yesterday, exit polls were saying that they would not show up. But they did...They just came out int he evening. :) (It just shows that the day starts a little later for this generation.

Here is an excerpt from an article that says that millenials are interested, they ARE involved, and they ARE thinking about things such as politics and their country. Cool stuff. This was posted back in September.

This generation's self-confidence and orientation toward the group and the broader society has important political implications. Recent polling data from USAToday/CNN demonstrate that Millennials are paying close attention to the 2008 election and have every intention of voting, at numbers rivaling those of older voters. Their survey of more than 900 young Americans, taken Sept. 18-28 found that:

• 75 % of Millennials are registered to vote
• 73% plan to vote
• 64% have given "quite a lot" of thought to the election

I prayed for the Election...Now what?

The election came and went yesterday. I turned in my ballot early this time and got to sit back and watch as the results unfolded. Surprisingly, the media was right on this one as they predicted that Obama would would win. And he did. I also realized that there are literally hundreds of races that affect our country for the next several years through this process. I focus so much on the presidential election that I sometimes don't remember the other parts of what we are voting for.

I think alot about prayer for my country, for my government, for government officials, and for our troops. When I think about praying, I do. In this election there were lots of folks that were praying for Obama to win and there were alot of people that were praying for McCain to win. It's a good thing God is not a people pleaser or there would be so much more madness on a Tuesday night in November every 4 years (Can you imagine? God looking at the other two parts of the Trinity and saying "What should I do?" :) ). God is soveriegn. I have said since the beginning of the candidating process that it's a good thing that HE, my Savior, is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that he appoints government officials to the spots that he has them in.

Did the candidate that I voted for win? Some of them did and some of them didn't. But the reality is, I won't stop thinking about prayer for these folks or praying for these people because their is a need for our God to speak truth into the hearts and lives of our government officials. And there is a support that I can give them whether or not I agree with the politics at hand. There are parts of the future administration that I will disagree with wholeheartedly and I will still pray that God would reveal truth, that God would protect our government officials, that he would guide and direct our nation and that he would prove his soveriegnty over and over again!

One of my good friends wrote a note that talked about the phrase "God Bless America" and really said that if we were to really think about that statement than those of us that follow Jesus Christ might even say "God bless our World." Am I praying for my government and for governments that mine interacts with? Am I praying for countries that obviously have major issues (as mine does) and am I praying for people to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? Sometimes, my small mind doesn't think that big. :)

So, now that the election is over, many of us will say that we are done spending intentional time in prayer for the election. Of course we will, the election is over. But how about we start the more important process (and more longterm) of praying for those that are in office forced to make decisions that directly or indirectly affect the American people and the world each and every day? I'm done. And I'm glad that November 4th is over (Now I can stop watching people bash each other during TV commercials on Monday night football.) And I know that I will be praying hard as we continue into the future.

Faith Developement in Teenagers.

This is an interesting article that a great Youth worker sent me today via email. Check it out! It's got good stuff that I think we all need to grasp and understand. Click on this sentence.

Voting Day.

It's voting Day.

CNN has some cool stuff for you to use on this day of electing. (I'm sure there are many tools out there...I just thought this was cool.)

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/calculator/

The New Statement of Faith for the E. Free Church of America

Recently, the E. Free church of America adopted a new statement of faith in an attempt to make the statement stronger and much more easy to defend with scripture. At the same time as this was going on, I was trying to get the process started to pick up my License leading to a Christian ministry certificate. It has been a good process so far. I have the privilege of reading 5 books, 4 of which are written by Arnold T. Olson and writing a massive paper. I really am excited about these things simply because I know that they will stretch and grow me in my theology, my philosophy, and my understanding of scripture. The new statement of faith seems much more pointed and therefore stronger than the old statement of faith which seemed fairly ambiguous to me. It seemed like it was "wide open" in some ways to any interpretation or to anyone's understanding of scripture. Here is an article talking about the strength of changing the statement of faith. Cool stuff!

It's Not Broke so Fix It

As a denomination, there are a couple surefire ways to get your name in the headlines. You can bow to popular wisdom on a major doctrinal issue, as the Episcopal Church did in 2003 by electing an openly homosexual man as bishop. Or you can weigh in against practices near and dear to some of your fellow Christians, as the Southern Baptist Convention did two years ago.

If you want to make sure no one covers your denominational meeting, here's what you do: Revise your statement of faith before certain issues become disputed in your churches. And yet here I am writing about the Evangelical Free Church of America's newly revised statement of faith. Why? Because the time to fix your doctrine is when it isn't broke.

By and large, the EFCA has been insulated from the evangelical world's recent debates over open theism, the Atonement, justification, and inerrancy. That's not to say the EFCA has avoided the debates. Faculty at the EFCA seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), have actively engaged each of these controversial topics. But the newer interpretations have not gained traction among the denomination's 1,300 churches. Still, it's clear EFCA leaders had these debates in mind when they adopted a new statement of faith on June 26.

The first article says God has "limitless knowledge and sovereign power." Thus, the EFCA takes a stand against open theism, which claims that God granted humans complete free will, so he can't know the future precisely. This first article was shifted ahead of an article on the Bible, which led off the last statement of faith, adopted in 1950, when the EFCA was formed by merger. The move should not be interpreted as de-emphasizing inerrancy. Indeed, the 2008 revision strengthens the EFCA's commitment to inerrancy by taking a cue from the 1978 Chicago Statement. The Bible, "without error in the original writings," is to be "believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises." The EFCA statement also says the Bible is the "ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged."

It is no surprise the EFCA would take a strong stance on inerrancy. The late TEDS luminaries and CT editors Kenneth Kantzer and Carl F. H. Henry helped draft the Chicago Statement. But the move is still significant, since every tenured TEDS professor must sign the EFCA statement of faith. Another bastion of inerrancy, Westminster Theological Seminary, recently suspended Peter Enns on suspicion that his understanding of inerrancy was at odds with the Westminster Confession.

Like other doctrinal statements of the era, the EFCA's 1950 draft did not elaborate much on any point. For example, it says the "shed blood of Jesus Christ and his resurrection provide the only ground for justification." But with the definition of justification now up for grabs, the new statement says, "The true church comprises all who have been justified by God's grace through faith alone in Christ alone." Regarding the Atonement, the 1950 statement says that Jesus "died on the cross, a sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures." Someone who rejects substitutionary Atonement, who sees Jesus primarily as a model of sacrificial service, could sign the earlier statement. Not so with the 2008 version. It reads, "We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed his blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins."

EFCA leaders often cite as their unofficial motto, "In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, charity. In all things, Jesus Christ." If that's the case, they must see substitutionary Atonement and justification by faith alone as gospel essentials. But the document may be equally notable for what it does not say. There is an article about the Holy Spirit, but it says nothing about certain gifts of the Spirit, such as prophecy or speaking in tongues. It says the Lord Jesus mandated baptism as one of two ordinances, along with the Lord's Supper. But it does not specify the mode or timing of baptism. Very few EFCA pastors baptize infants, but the denomination allows this option, said Greg Strand, the EFCA's director of biblical theology and credentialing. He said the EFCA historically accommodated refugee Methodists and Presbyterians who still wanted to baptize their infants.

Unlike Baptist denominations, adult baptism by immersion is not a requirement for membership in the EFCA. This practice dates back to the EFCA's roots in the Scandinavian free churches that split with the Lutheran state churches. The free churches recoiled against requiring anything but a profession of faith in Jesus Christ for membership. But the EFCA's openness on baptismal modes has led churches to de-emphasize baptism altogether, Strand said. The 1950 statement says only that water baptism and the Lord's Supper are "not to be regarded as means of salvation."

"The ordinances became a matter of indifference," Strand said. "That's a weakness. And that's what we attempted to redress in article seven in our new statement of faith." The 2008 statement says the ordinances "confirm and nourish the believer." David Neff, editor in chief of Christianity Today media group, observes the new tone of the document, which also states the ordinances "visibly and tangibly express the gospel."

Strand and many other leaders relented on one proposed change. They worried they could not garner support from the required 67 percent of delegates to the EFCA national leadership conference. The proposal would have dropped premillennialism from the statement of faith. Objections to the change recall an earlier era during the early and mid-20th century, when dispensationalism became closely associated with historic Protestant orthodoxy in America. Strand said some delegates argued that opening the door to other end-times views would undermine inerrancy and put the denomination on a slippery slope to liberalism.

Concerns about promoting a social gospel were raised about the article on Christian living, Strand said. But the surviving article reminds Christians that "God's justifying grace must not be separated from his sanctifying power and purpose." It goes on to say that God commands Christians to live out their faith with "compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed."

"One of the big issues the evangelical church needs to address today is the both/and of orthodoxy and orthopraxy," Strand said. "That is why we've been intentional about including both in a statement of faith."

By being intentional about revising the statement of faith before it breaks down, EFCA leaders just might save themselves the trouble of fixing it later.

Collin Hansen is a CT editor at large, master of divinity student at TEDS, and author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists.