rhema from the Logos

I should have started this sooner, but a few weeks ago I challenged CLCers to read thru the New Testament in about 6-7 weeks, during our "Road Trip for God" series, and I suggested then that as we read, the Holy Spirit would illuminate certain verses. The 'technical' name for that would be "rhema", the Greek word for 'word' when it is spoken to us, as opposed to the "logos", the Greek word for 'word' as it applies to all of Scripture.

Anyway, as I've been reading, HE's been talking to me, and I want to post a few entries this week on some of those latest 'words', beginning with this one

Is that how you feel? It sure got my attention this weekend, and I concur: the only thing is fulfilling my purpose. A friend of mine down South used to say, "the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing!"

Here's a more important question: do you know what your assignment is? I'd like to hear from CLCers this week about your assignments.

weekend reflections

Another excellent weekend. Seems like we're on a roll these days, and I'm not getting weary of it at all. This one started with a terrific leadership seminar at our Shorewood campus with one of our CLC Directors, Dale Van Steenis. It was encouraging to see so many future leaders present, along with some of our current staff and key leaders, and Dale was his own inimitable self as he keep us entertained and challenged at the same time.

Saturday night in Tinley was one of the largest attendances of the summer and once again, worship at each service was especially anointed, which certainly set the stage for our look at the book of Acts in this installment of our Road Trip for God series. I was just overjoyed to see several men respond to the invitation to receive Christ at the close of the services - thank God for new people who are coming to faith at CLC!

My wife was at our South Bend campus today as we welcomed the new Campus Pastors, Chris & Amber Payne and our new Worship Directors for that campus, Chad & Lisa Wasmundt. It's great to have both of those families on location now, and Chris reports that the afternoon session helped us to uncover the spiritual gifts and passion of the current South Bend membership, which will be a great help as we move forward in our preparation for a Grand Re-launch there in February, 2008.

Pastor Dan tells me that Dale Van Steenis hit it out of the park in their Sunday service, and that every parking space was occupied in Shorewood this morning, with many first-time guests and a super attendance there.

With our total attendance hovering in the 1,500 range even during the final days of summer vacation, this Fall is bound to see significant increase at each campus - man, that's exciting!

Don't dare miss this coming weekend when each campus will focus on "Ready, Set, GO!"

a joint-writing project?

While we were in Dallas for the Global Advance "Ambassador's Meeting", Chris and I spoke briefly to the delegates about the advantages we've experienced through 'team ministry'; i.e., working as a husband-and-wife team at CLC, since Global Advance is launching a new initiative to empower and encourage pastor's wives and women in leadership.

Afterwards, someone told Chris how encouraging our session had been and asked her if we had written or would consider writing a book on the subject. Usually, I would just laugh off that kind of comment, and especially at this season of my life when I hardly need another project. But this one kinda got my attention, and I must admit, I'm at least interested. For sure I believe the benefits of this approach far outweigh the disadvantages, which is why all of our pastors at CLC operate as husband-and-wife teams (had you noticed that?)

Whaddya think? Would you be interested or do you think the body of Christ could benefit from a book about husbands and wives pastoring or leading or serving together? Lemme know - I'm really interested in your thoughts.

off to Dallas

One of the highlights for me each summer is my annual trek to Dallas to participate in the Global Advance "Ambassador Meeting", which is a gathering of some of the most missions-minded pastors in America. We enjoy some great fellowship, some missions updates and challenges from Dr. David Shibley, along with the latest news and plans from Global Advance. Of course, Dr. Shibley is a dear friend and G.A. is one of our missions partners, with whom I do pastor's conferences every year.

This year is even more exciting, because for the first time in their history, Global Advance is unveiling a new strategy to include women in their training focus, as they begin offering simultaneous conferences for women in leadership alongside their FrontLine Shepherd's Conferences in developing nations. They've asked Chris and me to make a presentation tomorrow to all the pastor's gathered in Dallas, since we've practiced team ministry for years.

I'm pretty pumped about that, since husband-and-wife-teams are such a core value at CLC (if you hadn't noticed, all our pastors operate as couples!), and we so believe that The church has suffered from not embracing women in ministry. Imagine what the Body of Christ can accomplish if women, who make up over 50% of our numbers, are fully released to accomplish their ministry in the Kingdom!

So we're off to O'Hare in a few minutes, but we'll be back this weekend (at Tinley & South Bend) - let's keep chasing lions together!

a whole bunch of Lion-Chasers!

Just saw Mark's post this morning and I couldn't agree more....I'm still reeling over the fact that we sold a total of 528 copies of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day at CLC!

I honestly can't imagine what this place will look like with over 500 LION-CHASERS on the loose, but I can't wait to find out!

AND the timing couldn't have been more of God set-up for the last weekend of this month when all 3 of our campuses will focus on "Ready, Set, GO!"

Buckle your seat belts, CLC-

Mark Batterson's visit (update)

I just got the latest, actual figures - turns out we set a new record attendance for summer at CLC (not overall) of at least 1,500 folks who were here to receive from Mark's ministry this weekend.

AND (I just got this report and I'm still in shock) we sold almost 400 copies of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day this weekend, which means we've sold over 500 copies of his book at CLC this year!!!

I can't even imagine what this place is gonna look like with that many LION-CHASERS around, but it's sure going to be FUN to find out!

Hey, do us all a favor: start sharing your stories here of the 'lion' that God has prompted you to chase now! I can't wait to read the reports-

weekend reflections

incredible. awesome. wonderful. What other adjectives can I use to describe this weekend? Having Mark Batterson here to speak at CLC was everything I had expected and then some, as he 'deviated' from his prepared outline at least a couple of times, once in each service this morning, and during those riffs he said some stuff that was absolutely prophetic and timely for where we are at CLC!

We'll have his teaching on our podcast soon (probably tomorrow), but I'm also going to take an edited portion of his message from the 11:15 service and use it again in a couple of weeks when I present what may be the most important message in our history as a church, Ready, Set, GO!

Besides his insights and communication skills, Mark was also incredible generous, as he made his book, In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day, which retails for $13.99, available to our church family today for his cost, $5.00! Besides the fact that we sold well over 200 copies (that's in addition to 125 or more copies we sold prior to his visit) this weekend, I can't help but respect and admire an author who willingly bypassed hundreds of dollars in personal profits, just to get his message in the hands of more people. Kudos, Mark!

Then add to that mix the fact that our newest campus in South Bend, IN dismissed their service today, chartered a bus and used carpools to bring the entire congregation here for service - how exciting was that? I thought our worship team did their usual awesome job of leading us into the presence of the Lord, and all of CLC responded with hospitality and a servant's heart to make their visit a delight.

As usual, I'm tired tonight as I sit at my keyboard journaling these thoughts, but it's a good tired. I'm just very thankful for today...excited about what God is doing here...and proud that I get to lead such a wonderful part of the body of Christ! In fact, I just thought of another adjective - WOW!

Passing the Mantle

Our terrific IT guy, Dustin Frampton, just gave me the video link so that any of you who're interested can see the 'passing the mantle' portion of the service from our newest campus in South Bend, IN this past Sunday.

It was a special moment for me when John Nordstrom, Sr. and his wife Phyllis led that portion of the service and you can now view it below.

2 weekends NOT to miss

I know we've been saying it and printing it at CLC, but here it is again: the 2 BIGGEST weekends of summer (maybe of 2007) are coming right up:

• this weekend at all 3 services, Mark Batterson will be our guest for his "Chase the Lion" tour, and the timing couldn't be more of a God-thing! Whatever you have to do, get over to 183rd & Ridgeland for Saturday at 6pm or Sunday at 9am. (He's also speaking at the 11:15 service, but with the entire South Bend campus coming over on chartered buses, I honestly don't expect there to be a seat left in the house).

Mark will not only be teaching from his book, but he'll be doing a book-signing after each service as well, so if you haven't yet read "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day", this is your chance!

• August 25/26 at all 3 campuses (Shorewood, South Bend, Tinley Park) our pastors will be sharing a very special state of the church address, "Ready, Set, GO!" as we launch the most ambitious campaign of our entire history - and it's unlike anything we've ever done, so you don't want to miss it!

weekend reflections....a little late

Sorry it's taken me until Tuesday evening to reflect on last weekend, but that's kinda where I am now (some 70-hr workweeks are catching up w/me). At any rate, my wife preached herself hoarse last weekend, and I've received reports of several folks healed and new folks who received Jesus after her message about the passion of Christ - so praise God for what HE's doing!

While she was preaching the lights out in Tinley, I was at our newest campus in South Bend, IN for a 'passing the mantle' service with outgoing pastor, John Nordstrom. It was a very touching moment that we captured on video and hope to have up on our webpage soon. I am truly humbled thinking that a 52-year old church would decide en masse to dissolve their corporation and transfer their assets in order to join our CLC family!

In addition, there's a genuine sense of hunger and excitement in the congregation there, and I fully expect that God is going to honor this move by bringing growth and revival to that community. We've got our work cut out for us in the next several months as we attempt to download as much CLC 'DNA' into them as possible in preparation for a grand 're-opening' on Sunday, February 3, 2008, when we hope to welcome at least 300 new folks!

Finally, I heard great reports from our campus pastors in Shorewood, Dan & Pat Johnson, that services there were blessed with strong attendance and the presence of the Lord. What more can you want in one weekend?

Feel like a broken-winged duck?

I checked out of the blogosphere for the last few days so Chris & I could have some time together. We didn't really go away on vacation; just got away from the office and did some fun stuff together to recharge our batteries.

But today is 'back to work', so I crawled out early and did my morning walk around the lake (usually 3 miles a day; this morning I cheated and stopped with 2.5). But what I noticed on a couple of my laps was the duck (or goose) that Chris had actually mentioned to me a few days ago. The poor fellow (or gal - I honestly didn't check) has suffered a broken wing somehow or other, so it just kinda sticks out at an awkward angle now. At any rate, he was just swimming around, floating in the lake by himself today.

Seems the entire flock that inhabit this lake have moved on to other locales - without him. I guess he really can't keep up with 'em anymore in the air or maybe even on the water, so they must have moved on, leaving him to languish behind all by his lonesome, without his duckie buds (You wouldn't call 'em "peeps", would you? Honks, maybe?). Wait, I digress.

My real point is that Christians and Churches can sometimes be like geese. Sometimes, when you're hurting the most, and not really able to keep up, it seems like everybody else moves on without you. And from the look of my goose friend this morning, I know that's no fun.

But it doesn't have to be that way. One of the things I love about CLC is that it's not that way. If you're hurting, whether from a broken wing, or a broken heart, I promise that there are folks here who will stick with you and help nurse you back to health.

But it starts with this - you take the initiative to let a brother or sister know your need, so that you can truly be healed. (Someone smarter than me has said "we confess our sins to God to be forgiven; we confess our sins to each other to be healed") Ultimately, this is the result.

Do you have a friend you can confess to? Do you need our help in finding one? Have you ever had a 'broken wing' that got healed thru relationships with others? Let me hear from you.