Mid-Week Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

I have a few things I want to share with you today.

#1 - I'll mix my comments about service in with yours. Here's what you wrote on the Communication Cards this weekend:

• Thank you for preaching the word so faithfully.
• Excellent, compelling message, Henry. [I loved giving that message. I rewrote it in the car on the way home from our trip to Sioux Falls. (Thanks for driving both ways, Lois, so I could work!) Hanging out with my father-in-law gave me some more stories I look forward to sharing here and there. He just turned 84, so when he talks about his childhood it's so different from what most of us have experienced that just about everything he says is interesting or funny.]
  
• Thank you worship band! Awesome! [I agree. They did so many interesting things with the music and their voices. And the sound mix was powerful. Thanks, Mark. It was deep sounding and even loud without being harsh once again. I think we're starting to hit our stride on this.]
  
• I love my church! Great message and music – thank you Jesus. He is alive and lives in me. 
• Love – love – love the service. 
• Aimee did an amazing job singing harmony, beautiful and anointed. The “reserved for families with children” is a nice welcoming touch on the back rows. Keep up the good work Five Oaks. [I made a point to tell Aimee what a great job she did in that song. Perfect.]
  
• I liked introducing myself by name to those sitting around me and learning my “neighbors” name. [There's more of that to come. We need to connect better in our services. We are not a huge mega-church where people go to be anonymous. We have an intimate setting. We need to capitalize on that without making people feel uncomfortable. One of our members gave me a great idea and we're going to run with it. I'll be explaining what we're doing in my message on June 9/10 weekend.]
  
• Thanks for rockin’ the house Justin!  Another great message, Henry! 
• Great music, great mix, perfect volume. Great message, great energy.

#2 - You can now look at a more in-depth review of our weekend service here. It includes the elements of worship that guide our service (i.e., our order of worship, our liturgy), snippets from songs we sing, all the readings and prayers, the benediction and a video highlight from my message. This is a great opportunity to spend some more time in the prayers and remember how God spoke to you in the service.

#3 - This is our first Saturday supper for the summer and the new Saturday service time for the summer: 5pm. The staff sampled Davanni's pizza this week to help pick the kind of pizza we will be serving. Nice to work at Five Oaks! I can't stay for supper this week because we are serving the Cuban meal to the winning family from the auction! It's going to be a fun evening.

#4 - Two dates to put in your calendar for the summer:

• St. Croix/Hudson Baptism Service and All-Church Picnic - July 22 - One outdoor service that weekend followed by a baptism in the St. Croix and a picnic for everyone who wants to stick around.
• Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit - August 9 & 10 - We had 120 Five Oakers attend last year and I've NEVER heard anyone regret going. Here's what I hear all the time: "I wish I hadn't waited so long to come." This is for everybody including stay-at-home parents and students. You will be spiritually fed and inspired. It's profound and practical. It will blow your mind. Join over 100,000 other people around the world. Make this your first year. Is there anything else I can say to convince you to come?

#5 - Here are all the comments we received back from first-time guests:

• 5/21 - I enjoyed the service and felt welcomed.  I appreciated the Bible-based teaching sermon.
• 5/21 - Worship is awesome, I like the idea of communion every Sunday.  Never had that before.  The lighting of the candles I like.  All and all I like it very much.  The messages are very good and presented very well.

#6 - They told us in our Kid's Hope training that this question would be asked at some time: "How many other kids do you meet with?" I got the question last week from my Kids Hope Mentee! It was fun to say, "You're the only one." The school would like 10 additional mentors next year. If you are able, will you prayerfully consider?

#7 - Coming this fall: We're going to plant ourselves for about four weeks on a couple of verses in Luke that bring out the importance of Scripture. We'll explore the trustworthiness of the Bible, how to study the Bible, etc. Start praying about a friend or family member you can invite to this series...someone with a lot of questions or doubts about Bible and faith.

#8 - Some fun and/or informative stuff I came across this week applying my "Input" strength:

• You know I like eating and I'm a firm believer in eating responsibly (i.e., eating healthy, controlling portions, and eating delicious things), so here are 9 Tips for Eating Christianly.
• I also like taking quick naps for quick recovery during the day and found this helpful and full of great, practical information I've been applying with great results: "How to nap"
• Along the same lines, Michael Hyatt did a podcast on napping. Did you know some really famous people made a habit of napping. Check out the manuscript of the episode here or his post on the episode here.  
• Patrick Lencioni says creativity arises from being "joyfully inefficient" here. Thanks to the inefficiencies of my Input "strength," sometimes I feel like I should be the most creative person in the universe!

#9 - We'll be singing a song written by Dan Lukas this weekend that has a great tie-in with my message on Luke 14:1-11. Here are the words so you can begin to prepare to worship with them:

"Teach Me"

you hear the humble when they cry
feel the wounds we have inside
you love the poor as they are
your heart is for the ones far away

i want to be like you jesus
i want to be like you jesus

teach me to be humble
teach me what is great
teach me to love others
teach me not to hate

you find the broken in us all
you welcome in the prodigal
you call into to darkness come
you call us daughters and sons

See you on the weekend.

Blessings to you, Pastor Henry

Mid-Week Memo

Hi Five Oakers:

I have a few things I want to share with you today.

#1 - I'm not the most on-time person I know. Okay, those of who know me would say I'm one of the least on-time people you know. I contend it has a lot to do with wiring, but that's another story (or an excuse). Anyway, as I saw many of you wandering in late for the services and missing the opening song I had told you about (which started about 3 minutes early...sorry, but we have to do that), it hit me that maybe I'm missing some good stuff when I arrive late to other things. Just a thought.

#2 - Here are your comments from the Communication Cards (and my responses):

• Thank you to staff of Five Oaks for sharing your gifts with others. Pastor Henry, leadership and oral charisma! And all who make it a strong community. [It really is a team effort!]
• Great message Henry. Thanks! I’m curious what the other analogy was? [An analogy hit me in the middle of my message on Saturday night that I said I better not share until I think it through. It had to do with coming Biggest Loser mid-season and watching a weigh-in and hearing all the cheers. Not seeing the before, you might be tempted to think, "Actually, they don't look so good." (And who would, wearing what they make them wear.) Someone may have lost 100 pounds and still have 150 to go. Coming in mid-season, you don't see the change and may focus on what is still needed. But the real point is comparing them to how they started. So it is with spiritual growth. It's not about comparing myself to others but comparing my current self to my earlier self. Am I growing in greater, deeper love for God and people?]
• Gratitude for the messages given here. They have relevance all thru my week. Love the way he uses Henry and opens my ears!
• Captivating service. Thank you for a great message, and also to the worship team, beautiful music. Beautiful Sunday. [Couldn't agree more! So many worshipful songs played so well. Great sound mixing too. It was loud without being harsh, so nothing got in the way. Loved it.]
• Really nifty communion method!
• Praise the Lord!
• I came early to hear “the new song”. [I was in there early every service so I could catch it. Love it!]
• Very nice having communion together for a change so everyone could comfortably participate! [It's good to change things up. Dan Lukas' idea and I appreciated it too.]
• Sweet to hear voices over music. Thanks. [I love it when the worship leader pulls back and you can hear the congregation. God is listening!]
  
• Powerful message! [Powerful passage.]
  
• Praise the Lord!
• Pastor Henry, thank you for clarifying we don’t compare ourselves to each other, but only to God when it comes to our personal salvation! Also, were you referring to Isaiah 61 at the beginning when asking us what Jesus came to do?  [I was referring to Jesus' sermon in Luke 4 where he indeed quotes Isaiah 61 and several other passages.]
• Pastor Henry, thank you for being bold and for speaking so powerfully to us. The healing topic can be so difficult, but you approached it so honestly and biblically. It’s not about me… how few pastors preach this to their flock. Thank you.
• Thanks Justin for playing your song today! Thanks also for the prayer “please forgive me for not forgiving others”. Henry, GREAT, GREAT message – thanks or the honesty and clarity – for not soft balling it and for challenging us to be honest with ourselves. So many great message today – too much to write! I LOVE MY CHURCH! [The call to worship, the prayers of confession, the biblical words of assurance we include in every service are powerful. I agree. All killer; no filler.]
  
• Very cool message on healing. Liked seeing people engaged in worship. [Saw a line four deep waiting for prayer with the prayer team at the 9:30am. It's been a dream come true to see this kind of praying going on in our services, especially that kind of personal contact.]
  
• Thank you for speaking to the spiritual realm. I sometimes get so focused on this physical world; it’s problems that I forget the spiritual is the eternal. This world is Satan’s, but Jesus has overcome the world. I need to take heart and believe enough that it changes the way I think, what I say and what I do. [Me too.]
• Beautiful Majesty song today! Great sermon, really challenging us, great, great closing worship set! [On Majesty, I loved the way Justin came in slowly and beautifully with the guitar at the start.]
• Love Justin’s new song! Didn’t care for prepackaged communion – too much fumbling. Loses meaning. [Thanks for the helpful feedback. We too were concerned that it might keep people from focusing on the Scripture reading beforehand.]
• While I liked doing communion in a more traditional way once in a while, I found the new communion cups very distracting. [Traditional for some and totally new for others. But I, like you, passed the plate while growing up.]
  

#3 - While I'm on a one-month sabbatical this summer we will hear messages from John Ortberg (on video from the Summit), Tim Keller (on video from the Summit), Tim Bubar and Vince Miller. All but John Ortberg will be preaching from our series on Luke, even Tim Keller. He's up when we get to Luke 15 and the story of the prodigal son(s). It's a great line-up.

#4 - Speaking of the Summit, we will be promoting this year's Willow Creek Leadership Summit starting in June. The dates for the Summit (held live via satellite at Eagle Brook's Lino Lakes campus) are August 9 and 10. Save the date. This is the best conference I attend every year. You know it's great. Your friends have told you it's great. Maybe this year you'll attend. 120 from our church attended last year. Our pricing is hard to beat because of our partnership with Eagle Brook in this event. This isn't only for people who consider themselves to be "leaders." It's for everyone and you'll be inspired in your journey with God.

 #5 - Here's the video faith story from the weekend. We had a little trouble with the color mix but the content is outstanding and inspiring. 

#6 - Interesting passage from Luke 14 this weekend. All I'll say is that it surprised me. Here's this coming weekend's benediction based on Luke 14. You can start to hear the blessing in it now.

Put your mind on your life with God
The way to life is God.

His way is not easy,
But it is simple and good.

His promise is to be with us.
He will not leave us.
He will not leave us.

I am so privileged to serve as your pastor. I spent a few minutes talking to one of our members after one of the services. We talked about our struggles in recent years and what God has been teaching us. Then I received such a kind email from him thanking me for stopping to talk with him. I was the one blessed. It was a great time of reflecting together. I love you all, and I pray for you. If you write a request, I pray for your request specifically. Thank you for praying for me and blessing my life.

Blessings to you, Pastor Henry