Wednesday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

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

#1 – One Snowy Starry Night was a great success. Half of the 900 plus registrants made it in spite of the snowstorm. That’s a lot of folks. I loved all the enhancements to the experience. It just keeps getting better. The carpenter’s workshop with real, working carpenters was impressive. And if Mike and Stephanie can keep having babies in time for this event each year, they can be our permanent Mary and Joseph family! Great, great work by so many people, and lots of fun. Great learning experience, too. I scared a bunch of kids with the rabbi costume, but only one cried. I'm going to have to be meaner next year or wear a scary clown costume. :-)

#2 – Our One Starry Night Miracle story: The people who were bringing the animals canceled because of the weather. The live animals are a big part of this event. Jeni or Cindy were sharing this with the Rick and Melissa Borner. Lo and behold, Rick and Melissa own three pygmy goats! Goat-herding Five Oakers!!! Thank you Rick and Melissa for bringing the goats. What are the chances of something like that happening?

#3 – The Story of God on steroids is what I call the Cover to Cover course Warren Coe will be teaching at Five Oaks starting Tuesday evening, January 8. Registration for the first trimester begins this weekend. The entire course of study spans 3 semesters. What a great chance to go in depth on the whole Bible story. Email me if you’d like more information

#4 – Get a recap of the weekend service with highlights of our prayers, readings and songs here.

#5 – Here are your comments from the Communication Cards:

• Bulletin Error – Dorothy Day, T & C Wiant phone. O Come All Ye Faithful – very powerful! Awesome! [I don’t feel good about putting their number on the web, so email me if you’d like it forwarded to them.]
• Thank you Pastor Henry, for this message. It can be so timely for me because family drama makes the Holidays so tough! Fear makes me hold everything in that I need to share with them during this time. thanks for preaching the truth in love to me. You’re a blessing. 
• The decorations look great! 
• Nice guitar rif at start! [That was Clint and he’s moving back to Maryland. Graduated from McNally School of Music. He’ll be missed.]
• Okay, I know, we as humans are naturally resistant to change, but my communion “packet” today reminds me of a Keurig coffee K-cup! Huh? Loved the traditional Christmas carols! [We had the packets only at the 9:15 because of a snafu. Sorry about that.]
• Thank you for the beautiful songs and bringing my heart to worship Lord Jesus Christ.
• Thank you for today’s message! I’ve been wanting to lead a team again at work and now that it is upon me I become fearfully failing at it – especially because I asked for it. I lost sight of living a life of fearlessness and the reason I became scared was because I alone can’t do it. But with God I can.
• Just feeling the power of the Christmas Season – thank you Five Oaks for embracing and enhancing my experience.
• Love the music. Any opportunity to play the music a little softer?  Music is a bit loud, otherwise great. By the way, the Christmas CD is awesome.
• Great worship music. Base drums and bass guitar, provided a nice bottom end. Great arrangements of the music.
• Nice job on the pre-song and solo. It’s good to see/hear men on backing vocals lately. [I’m loving the preludes this month. All from our Christmas CD.]

#6 – We received another great comment on the card we send visitors. We have been batting a thousand on positive comments lately.

11/4  Looking for a new church in our area and this was a great first impression.  We will likely continue to attend and make this our new church home.

#7 – Here’s the sermon in 10 Tweets: Luke 2:8-21 on “Fear”

1. Coulrophobia = Fear of clowns. Not as limiting or debilitating as some fears can be.
2. The No. 1 Enemy of Creativity: Fear of Failure… Harvard Business Review Blog Post
3. “Fear of Me” – I can’t do what God wants me to do. There’s also fear of people and circumstances.
4. Until you see the role of good fear, you can’t be free of fear. Good fear is a healthy respect that motivates me to go beyond myself.
5. Good fear drives me to learn new skills, prepare for contingencies, call in professionals and turn to God for help
6. The Bible says that the only way ultimately to keep fear from robbing your life is found in facing the ultimate fear of all.
7. The ultimate fear comes in a burst of light one starry night: “The glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear.”
8. When people shrink in fear at God's glory, he often tells them not to fear & points to his mercy & grace.
9. The ultimate fear leads you to your Savior.
10. Face your fears by beholding the gospel: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news [= the gospel]”

#8 – Volunteer Central will be up and running in room 101 for all Christmas services. If you haven’t volunteered yet, let us know you’d like to help for one of the services.

#7 – 16 people went through the membership class last week. Our membership is at an all-time high in the history of our church. If you want join our team and you participated in the Story of God small group study this trimester, we have a one-hour membership class coming up in February. Don’t miss it.

#8 – Thanks to Eric Fraser for the cookies we enjoyed between services this last weekend. Eric does this on his own, after clearing it with us, because he knows a lot of people visit churches in December and he wants to create a place for conversations to happen. I love that!

#9 – We’ll be offering two opportunities in January for those interested in finding out more about serving in the Befriender Care Ministry (January 6 and 13, times and location forthcoming).

#10 – This week’s message is on peace in the midst of anxiety and worry.

Don't forget to pray hard and invite someone to the Christmas services. It could change their eternal destiny!

I love you all, Pastor Henry

Off the Cutting Room Floor

Here's the article that inspired the section I cut after Saturday night. And if you want to see the scary clown, go here.

10 WAYS FEAR ROBS ME
Hilary Tompkins

I’m afraid of you.

No, really.

I believe that people have power over me. Power to wound, expose, shame, injure, and expect something I’ll never be able to deliver. The thought of disappointing you all makes me want to run and hide. I am caught between the rock of their approval and the hard place of their rejection.

I’ve sought refuge under the radar. My fear robs me daily. Here are 10 ways it does so.

1. FEAR ROBS ME OF EXPERIENCING GOD’S FAVOR
I’m way more concerned about what people think of me. Pleasing people is my goal and although it’s an ever-moving target, I keep trying to hit the bull’s-eye of their approval. If people compliment me, I exhaust myself making sure I never disappoint people—or I give up entirely. I must know what they think.

2. FEAR ROBS ME OF HEARING GOD’S VOICE
When things go well, when I receive accolades, I miss God’s kind and tender, “Well done,” believing that it simply can’t be true. My ears are tuned to their thoughts and opinions—they’ve become my standard. When God lovingly rebukes me, I run back to their latest compliments and feed on them for a while.

3. FEAR ROBS ME OF HONORING AND OBEYING GOD’S LEADING
When I receive direction in prayer or conviction through a sermon or sense the Holy Spirit while reading my Bible, I feel a momentary call, a renewed vision, a rush of freedom that encourages me to step out in faith. But if I do that, people will judge me, so I wait, rethink, and conclude that what I heard was probably just my own thoughts and ideas anyway.

4. FEAR ROBS MY TRUST IN GOD
I take great measures to ensure that I am safe from what people can do to me. My family’s health and behavior, my job, daily inconveniences, schedules, unpredictable relationships, even my pain—these must all be managed. It is all within my power to control. I am risk-averse. Circumstances are better determined by a spin doctor than the great physician, Jesus.

5. FEAR ROBS ME OF PURSUING CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Relationships wither as I refuse to address sin and allow its consequences to flourish. Prickly sinful patterns go unchallenged and I only hang out with those who “get” me. I’m certain that people won’t respond lovingly so I avoid building intimacy.

6. FEAR ROBS ME OF RECEIVING CORRECTION
I don’t trust people because I’m sure their words will hurt me. I miss the comfort of familiar lies. I internalize the worst interpretation possible and focus on my perception of reality. I prefer my own exaggerated version of events. What will they think of me if I’m wrong? Admitting I don’t know or saying I’m sorry just looks weak.

7. FEAR ROBS ME OF BEING FULLY KNOWN IN COMMUNITY
Exposure threatens my carefully crafted exterior. If I let people get close to me they’ll hurt me. Self-protection ensures my identity stays intact. Intimacy and deeper relationships are for other people. Opportunities to serve people should leave them in my debt. Isolation is my friend.

8. FEAR ROBS ME OF GRATITUDE AND JOY
If I focus on resentment, I can remain entitled. If I’m too grateful for something it will be taken away. Childlike joy isn’t very dignified and my dignity is fragile.

9. FEAR ROBS ME OF MY VOICE
I doubt that God could speak through the Holy Spirit in me. I cease to encourage or exhort others in case it’s not well received. I neglect opportunities to speak out in faith because I fear their evaluation, their disagreement, or their mockery.

10. FEAR ROBS ME OF REST AND PEACE
I’m so consumed with self-recrimination that my daytimes and my dreams are filled with mental tossing. I re-evaluate and reassess my words and actions. I’m defensive and irritable, under pressure to succeed.

I am convicted of how often I have found comfort in their commendation instead of the Holy Spirit’s conviction and I wonder, How can God stand to know that I have chosen to worship you instead of him? How can I be in his presence and confess that I’ve loved your approval more than his? That your words are louder than his voice? Oh Lord, forgive me for my unfaithfulness.

HOW HAS FEAR ROBBED YOU?
You may feel exposed just talking about it. We hate to admit our idolatry, but our fear has cost us, and the wages of our sin is death. We chose slavery and condemnation when we chose to please man—all the while God offers the free gift of life in Christ (Rom. 6:23).As Paul says to the Galatians, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Those who fear man are described in Jeremiah 17 as parched wasteland, a picture of spiritual poverty and in John 12 the fearful authorities loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. We are glory thieves, and the struggle to escape this deception is not new.

HERE IS MERCY
But here is mercy: “the fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” True comfort is found in the kind discipline of my heavenly Father, who I can trust completely. I worship him because, like David, I would rather fall into the hands of the living God than into the hands of man (2 Sam. 24:14). I love his correction, his approval, his guidance, and his voice. In learning to worship him, I have found freedom from the demands of man. He takes all my sin and fear and replaces it with holy fear of him. People, whom my flesh fears, exert power over me no longer.

Joyfully, the gospel tells us that for those who are in Christ, there is no condemnation—we’ve been set free in Jesus from the law of sin and death. All who are led by the Spirit of God are no longer slaves but sons. As it says in Romans, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry ‘Abba! Father!’”

No longer in bondage to each other, we are liberated to serve a kind Father who has made it possible in Jesus for us to do so: fearlessly.