Update from Nate
There are some important updates from Trinity that I would like to share. This is especially important for the Trinity family, but also for our broader support, and all those who follow Trinity. Greetings and grace to all of you!
Welcome Home
It must have been around 2007, a few years after I came to Trinity (2005), I read the book Simple Church by Thom Rainer, and it influenced me profoundly. Maybe I read it in conversation with a few other pastors, but I don't remember reading it with other leaders at Trinity. It would be been wise to read that book with the elders so we could go through the process together. I used to think I was doing people a favor by doing work that should be done collaboratively all by myself! I repent!
Out of the process set forth in Simple Church, I came up with a simple statement for Trinity that has served us fairly well. The tag line is "growing in grace and blessing with grace." It communicated the centrality of grace, which Trinity sorely needed, and which we all sorely need, always! It also set goal that we would be people who are growing through discipleship or formation, and blessing through mission and mercy. It was all very clear to me, and I heard it used frequently by others at Trinity. Over the last two years, I have heard many times, "What is our vision?" At first, I just kept repeating "Well our vision is to grow in grace and bless with grace." It didn't seem to satisfy those asking. After my sabbatical, I knew I had work to do to refresh the statement, draw out implications of the statement, give it some structure, a little C.P.R.? I had every intention of sticking with "growing in grace and blessing with grace" until my tenure at Trinity was complete.
After I returned from sabbatical (mid-August), Roy Jones was near the top of my list to visit because Effie had died while we were in London. The deaths were the most difficult days of my sabbatical. Roy and I planned to visit Effie's grave then spend a little time together one afternoon. We made it to his boat in the San Pedro marina, and he made an offer I couldn't refuse. He asked if I wanted to use his boat. I told him that I was looking for a place to spend Thursday mornings where I could have uninterrupted prayer and study time. So far I have taken him up on his offer seven or eight times. Those times have been precious times with the Lord and have given direction and focus to sermon prep that has been valuable to me.
One Thursday in mid-October, I was in prayer in the back of the boat, and asking the Lord to help clarify how he was leading me and Trinity, and it was as if "Growing in grace and blessing with grace" were on a cloud that simply floated from one side of my mind's eye to the other side. And it was gone. It was gentle. It was griefless. I also knew that something new would come in time. One hour later was sooner than I expected. I sat and typed what seemed like a download.
The theme is "Welcome Home." Home is actually an acronym which I will explain later. Before saying much else, I knew I wanted the elders to know, vet, improve, cancel, and process this so it wouldn't be "my" vision. We did this on a cursory basis at our Monday noon elder meetings at the end of October and beginning of November. Poul Erik had been pushing us to have a short elders retreat for some time. I resisted, thinking of how busy each of the elders are, and not wanting to pressurize them. He brought it up at a meeting, and turns out we could all get away the next week from Thursday PM through Saturday AM to the Anderson cabin at Hume Lake outside of King's Canyon National Park. Wow! The scheduling seemed miraculous to me. I shopped, and Poul Erik cooked all the meals, and the elders each took a turn leading us in evening, morning, noon, evening, and morning prayer. We had one goal: Come down the mountain with confidence that we are in unity with the Lord of the Church and each other. Here is what we can share at this point.
Trinity's Vision Verse
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. - Ephesians 2:22. This verse is perfect because it it about the home that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Trinity) are building.
Trinity is a family marked by:
Hospitality: Our house has a big front door that is wide open because God lives among us. We are embraced by Grace to embrace with grace. We will be a home where orphans and the lonely become family, the barren become fruitful, sinners are forgiven, the lost meet the prodigal Father, a table is set with a place for you, love is communicated, the poor are not forgotten, as and failure is not terminal.
Outreach: We are a family on mission. Our big front door isn't just for coming in, but for going out resourced to bless others in our daily callings.
Multiplying: "Be fruitful and multiply" is God's original dream. We want to see fruitful multiplication growth. John Ryan (current president) said, "I like it. It's scalable." Individuals, home groups, service groups, and even the congregation can multiply.
Equipping: We are growing up into Jesus Christ, and want to present each one mature in him. We want to raise up spiritual sons and daughters who are "able to teach others also."
We believe that this "Welcome Home" theme is timely because of epidemic spiritual homelessness and a spiritual housing shortage in the Los Angeles area. It has been a common refrain among those who are new to Trinity, "I feel like I've come home." It is important that our own people feel like they are at home with the Lord so they can be a "Welcome home" family member wherever God has strategically positioned them during the week. I am looking forward to engaging with the Trinity family in working out the implications of this new theme.
Here is a message I gave two weeks ago addressing "Welcome Home." Christ the King Sunday: The King Has a Dream - Vision Message
Here are some of the resources that have influenced our thinking.
THE BIBLE!
The First Urban Christians, Wayne Meeks. Yale 1983
Ministry in the Image of God, Stephen Seamands. IVP 2005
The Sabbath, Abraham Heschel. Farrah, Straus, and Giroux. 1951
The Forgotten Ways. Alan Hirsch. Brazos. 2006
Exiles. Michael Frost. Hendrickson. 2006
Total Church. Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. Crossway. 2008
Center Church. Tim Keller. Zondervan. 2012
Fathering Leaders, Motivating Missions. David Devenish. Authentic 2011.
Life Together Study Guide. Dale Ziemer. Free PDF Online 2006
"Peter writes to Christians facing persecution, calling them "strangers in the world" (1 Peter 2.11). The word literally means "without family" or "without home" (paroikos). The Roman Empire was viewed as family (oikos) with Caesar as its patriarch. But God's people are now outsiders. For many, conversion may also have meant exclusion from their immediate family and its support structures. But the Christians are being built into an alternative "house" (oikos) (v.5). It is not a sectarian ghetto, for it is called to respond to hostility with good works (v.12), just as Jeremiah told the exiles in Babylon to seek the welfare of the city (Jeremiah 29.7). Nevertheless, the church gives us a new community and a new identity." (Chester/Timmis, 41).
"[Jesus] was the ultimate exile. Thinking equality with God a thing not to be grasped after, he humbled himself and allowed himself to be "exiled" here on earth. And like all good and faithful exiles, he enters fully into life in this host empire without giving himself over to it completely." (Frost. 29)
Mentoring Men
Another major shift for me at Trinity is from a course/program focus to a fathering focus. In the late summer of 2015, I told our Presiding Pastor (Bishop) Curtis Leins that I was planning to do an Equipping Course for 20ish people to get them ready for leadership and multiplication. He encouraged me to NOT do this, but to instead invest in fathering men. I remember thinking, "That sounds Pauline." I went with my plan anyway. There was a little fruit, but not what I had hoped. This year I went with his plan. I am already seeing the fruit. "Pauline" is a fantastic way to go.
Paul says to the Corinthians, "For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel." - 1 Corinthians 4:15. To further convince me, the Lord arranged for me to teach Pastoral Epistles at Canadian Lutheran Bible Institute. These are spiritual fathering handbooks!
I invited 8 guys into a very intentional 6 month process called "Gospel Coaching." 7 said "yes." We meet once a month in 3 groups (2-2-3), and once a month one-on-one.
Here is the invitation I sent to start this thing up:
Agenda:
To equip with the necessary training, support, discipleship, and mentoring to bring you to a place of effective leadership anchored in deep personal knowledge and experience of the gospel. To take six months to focus especially on the development of your personal, spiritual, and missional life.
Expectation:
Nathan will give some questions before the agreed upon time, which should be reflected on before the meeting.
Nathan will agree to make the meeting a priority, and would like you to as well.
Nathan will commit to using biblical and gospel oriented methods of coaching. I refuse to manipulate, control, or leverage shame. You can expect me to be vulnerable and honest and you can count on full confidentiality. You can count on being challenged.
Cost:
Precious time, but no precious money!
Future:
I will not hound you or pressurize you into this! I know that there are different seasons, and now might be the right season, and it might not be. There is freedom for you to respond how you feel led. I might ask you again in 3 or 6 months something like, "Have you considered or reconsidered being a part of a mentoring relationship?"
What do I want from you?:
If the answer is no, simple respond by saying, "Nah!" Or "No way" or "Never" or "Not now..."
If the answer is maybe, respond by saying, "Maybe, here is what would make my decision easier..."
If the answer is yes, respond by saying, "Yes! Free mentoring with someone who has messed up as much as you? Think how much I could learn from your mistakes, so I don't have to do as many stupid things as you!" Or something similar. If you say yes, I will send you an intake questionnaire, that has room to communicate the best times to meet.
I am finding Gospel Coaching by Scott Thomas and John Wood very helpful in this work. They describe their process like this, "Gospel coaching is an intentional relationship of skillful caring for others based on four ancient shepherding principles: 1) Know the sheep 2) Feed the sheep 3) Lead the sheep 4) Protect the sheep."
Just as Trinity has a clear verse for this season (Ephesians 2.22), I also feel a clear verse for my calling:
Nathan's Vision Verse
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. - 2 Timothy 2:1-2
10 Secretaries
Shelly Mickelson has worked in different capacities at Trinity for 20 years. 17 of those years as Secretary. 11 patient years with me! She announced her retirement effective the end of 2016. She is going to be missed greatly. I have called her "the bishop" because of her ministry of oversight. I have called her "Radar" because of her keen sense of anticipating what I am going to ask. I have called her "sister-in-Christ" and "friend." Her heart is in Jesus' ministry and supporting the ministry of Trinity. Any transition will be difficult, which gave me the crazy idea to try something different.
I actually got the idea from Eugene Peterson's autobiography called, "The Pastor." In a chapter entitled, "My 10 Secretaries" he described the staff at Christ our King Presbyterian in Maryland, the church he planted and served for a long time. For much of it, and until it was a larger parish, they relied on 10 volunteer secretaries to serve in administering and supporting the ministry of the church. We are going to try something like this at Trinity.
Here is the profile of the kind of person I was looking for:
1. "Welcome Home" hospitality
Trinity is a family marked by Hospitality, and we want that to come across in first impressions on the phone, social media, email communications, and face-to-face. People are welcome to come and be family during the week. They can join us for 9:15am Prayer, share a cup of coffee, help fold bulletins, or help with some other project.
2. Christ-centered focus
Trinity is more than a community center, we are a Christ-centered community! We would like people to meet Jesus in our welcome, compassion, helpfulness, service, listening, and maybe even in our prayer. If at all possible, the work day begins in prayer at 9:15-30am in the Sanctuary.
3. Curiosity
An attitude of curiosity is helpful in being open to learning a few new tasks, specific to the day. Since there is no way for any of us to know all the answers to every potential question that comes our way, we will value curiosity, and learn to say frequently, "I'm not sure, but let me find out."
4. Committed follower of Jesus
Of course, we would like to be warm, and capable at our callings, but a life committed to following Jesus is the foundation of this role. We will need the patience and love of Jesus to work with sometimes difficult problems or even people. We will need character and restraint to handle sensitive information, and bring it to the Lord or the appropriate leader, but to no one else
I had a goal of involving 4 men on Tuesday and 6 women Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and we are very close. Tomorrow we will have an orientation lunch at noon in the Lounge to schedule shadow training times with Shelly during the month of December to get ready for our common experiment in January 2017. Here are the "10 Secretaries," and I promise to come up with a better name:
Tuesday: Ben Hoiland, Ray Tyson, John Mickelson
Wednesday: Ro Snow, Diane Ryan
Thursday: Karen Grobien, Diane Holland
Friday: Kathy Stock, Donna Erdahl
Sub: Sondi Culler
God has really provided the whole way. Again, I was hesitant to ask people because of the generous time commitment this volunteer job would require, but God and his people are more generous than I expect. Yesterday I was one volunteer short. Today is an example of God and his people's generosity. This morning my prayer sounded close to this, "Lord, I really would have liked to have all of my volunteers at the orientation luncheon on Tuesday. Donna Erdahl would be so terrific in the office on Friday. She is warm, young-at-heart, vital, and would be such a fun person to work with for Kathy and welcome people to Trinity." I am not exaggerating. A half hour later, Donna was on MY phone, "Pastor, I was thinking about the secretary job for Fridays. I think I'm supposed to volunteer. What do you think?" What provision! What generosity!
Prayer Requests
Pray for the working out of our "Welcome Home" vision.
Pray for me and for the guys I am gospel coaching.'
Pray for as smooth a transition as possible for the 10 Secretaries.
Pray for the super-volunteers:
Tuesday: Ben Hoiland, Ray Tyson, John Mickelson
Wednesday: Ro Snow, Diane Ryan
Thursday: Karen Grobien, Diane Holland
Friday: Kathy Stock, Donna Erdahl
Sub: Sondi Culler
Finally, pray for Joy and me as we consider a mission trip to Tanzania at the beginning of 2017. We have coverage and the Trinity elders have given encouragement to go as the Lord leads. More on this later!
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