“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
-Galatians 5:25

Hopefully, this last weekend brought a little clarity to a common misunderstanding about the “spiritual” life. Many people live under the misunderstanding that following Jesus is primarily about a rugged dedication to a set of “Christian” practices or attributes that grant us access to a deeper spiritual intimacy with God. Only, that kind of thinking is backwards. It is intimacy with God’s Spirit — the Holy Spirit — that enables us to have the heart transformation our hearts are longing for. Then, out of that transformation, comes the things people generally associate with prerequisites for membership in the community of the church and life with God (“…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control”). God wants to build those kinds of things into us. They aren’t the demands of a God who withholds His Spirit that we might prove our worth to Him. No, He came to rescue broken people who require His Spirit to become whole again.

This week, consider where the Holy Spirit might be inviting you into a deeper closeness with Him. What might it look like for you to hear from Him? He intends to transform you by His power, not by the force of your own will.

In being together at the beach on Sunday afternoon: surfing, building sandcastles, throwing frisbees, and solidifying the “farmer tan” I have been cultivating all summer, I got a glimpse of God’s power at work. I had several conversations with people sensing and wrestling with the things to which the Holy Spirit was drawing their attention. I talked with people who were finding (like we all do) that obedience to the life to which God is calling us is a courageous and difficult thing. Yet, it is His Spirit which both alerts us to our need for obedience AND enables us with power to become obedient.

Last Sunday, far and away, the highlight of the service was Amanda Maguire. So many of you came to me at the door or at the beach mentioning how much her words got a hold of you. She continues to challenge me to rethink the people I include (and the people I choose to exclude) everyday. This next weekend is NEIGHBORDAY WEEKEND. Who will be included in your neighborhood? Who will be excluded? This next weekend will be such a landmark weekend for our church. Remember, the best of the church is expressed, not inside the walls of our building, but in the communities in which we live. We get to rewrite the story of what most people imagine Christians to be about: a hyper-exclusive club for the outwardly righteous. Throw a great party. Invite people. Share the story using the hashtag #mvneighborday.

See you Sunday,
Jeff

This Labor Day weekend, spend time getting to know the people who live in your neighborhood and celebrate NEIGHBORDAY instead!

Some ideas to get you started…

Questions? Contact Kim.

I hope that somewhere in the course of your week you experienced some measure of God’s resurrection power – that you weren’t merely looking to have certain parts of your life merely resuscitated. The resurrection is the game-changer. The otherwise fearful, confused, and disorganized band of Jesus’ disciples were somehow galvanized together after Jesus’ crucifixion. Something had changed. Something was different in them, and unlike all the other “messiah-movements” of the time, theirs wasn’t extinguished when their leader was executed. All of us have been in the place where we needed more than “getting things back to the way they used to be.” We’ve had that experience of needing something that was otherwise dead within us, to be raised to new life. This, is what Jesus does. It’s what we believe and hope to see in and through the Mariners MV community.

That’s the heart behind NEIGHBORDAY. We want to give the people you work with, or go to school with, or the neighbors you live next to, a chance to encounter not the dogma of church tradition, but the people who belong to Jesus… YOU! So, throw a great party. Invite people. Include people. That’s what we do around here. You already do such a great job at it. I get to see it every week when I see the kindness and hospitality of our church toward visitors. So, ratchet up your same spirit of warmth to your own neighbors. People love to be included – even if they have to decline. Because this Labor Day weekend is now “NEIGHBORDAY,” who will you include? What are your plans? Share your ideas using the hashtag #mvneighborday so people can get some ideas.

As we continue to be the inclusive and invitational church God has called us to be, it’s clear there’s a vital need for caring volunteer leaders who care about our kids. What a great church! Last week, we highlighted our Children’s Ministry and so many of you stepped up to take critical roles within “Port Mariners.”  If you’re still looking for a place to serve on Sundays, Port Mariners is a great place to put some of your gifts to good use. Contact Becky for more information.

See you this Sunday,
Jeff

This past weekend, Amanda and I went away for a brief study break. I prayed for our church community. I drafted our fall series. And, I visited a few churches in the Seattle area. In every church, in every setting, there is always something beautiful that God is doing. In no way is any church perfect. After all, the church is group comprised of broken people looking to find hope and healing in Jesus. But, the church continues to be beautiful nonetheless–people are being challenged to live differently, light is breaking into darkness, lives are being restored, addictions are being broken, and forgiveness is running rampant.

Last week, our Community Life Pastor, Mike Kenyon, spoke about the crucifixion of Jesus and His victory over the powers of sin and evil. We marked the crucifixion by identifying our need to confess. Many of us came forward, literally nailing to the cross those things that have held us captive. In so doing we embodied what Jesus accomplished on the cross–putting to death the slave-making powers of sin and evil. What a potent depiction of God-at-work among us.

This week will be a particularly great week to invite some friends who are unsure about Jesus. We’ll talk about the one thing that was a game-changer for all of Jesus’ followers–the one thing that altered history forever. We’ll also highlight our brilliant, energetic, faithful, committed, endearing, compassionate Children’s Ministry in an extremely clever way.

Also, don’t forget to include your neighbors in whatever it is you might be doing on NEIGHBORDAY Weekend (formerly, “Labor Day”). Share your thoughts and pictures with the rest of us #mvneighborday.

See you on Sunday,

Jeff

Over the past few weeks we’ve seen God powerfully at work in our church community. People came forward courageously seeking God’s healing power two weeks ago. For a lot of us, our experience with healing, at least as it pertains to the church, is mostly negative. We’ve seen and heard about “healing services” that were little more than gimmicky sideshow acts relying upon group dynamics and mass hysteria. But, despite the occasional negative press, we believe God heals–not in every instance, not always in the ways we expect, nor in the timeline we’d prefer–but, God calls us to come to Him that we might seek His restorative power in our lives.

Here’s an example (I’ll leave it purposely anonymous) I prayed with someone whose marriage of several decades was crumbling. His wife had left him several weeks earlier. This past Sunday, seeing him at church, I mentioned that I had been praying for him throughout the week. After a brief embrace, he said that on the previous Monday (the day following our service), his estranged wife called, wanting to reconcile their marriage.

No matter how it happens, God’s restoration power still amazes me. He’s at work in this church transforming the ordinary lives of hurting people.

Then, this past weekend, we talked about the agony of Jesus’ anticipation before the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus, looking into the specter of the cross was neither stoic, nor Hollywood-heroic. Instead, he wept, pleading with God for another way. But, ultimately Jesus said, at the end of his harrowing prayer: “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” What marked Jesus’ life was his willingness to carry out the most difficult tasks before him, not because he thought they made the most sense, not because they seemed to give him the greatest fame, but because they were what His Father wanted.

This week, what does it look to like to say, courageously, “not my will, but what you will” to God? What decisions, challenges, trials, confrontations, or conversations are in front of you that are not at all comfortable, easy, peaceful, or even clear that require your obedience?

Ecstatic about all that God is doing in our midst,
Jeff