ONE BLOG TO RULE THEM ALL

Welcome to the new Terra Nova Church Blog. Here’s a brief history of blogging in terra nova land. When we started the church last year, we knew we should be blogging and that it was an effective way to communicate with a bunch of people all at once. So we set up the “pastors blogs”. One blog for each pastor. And at first, we were pretty good about keeping up with it on at least a weekly basis. And people checked the blogs, and commented, and everyone was happy. Then, one or more of us would get busy, and blogging became a nuisance, rather than something we really wanted to do. So a month or more would go by with no entries. And people stopped checking the blogs. Then we realized that 1. It’s a pain to feel like you have to find something to blog about every week so that people don’t feel disappointed. 2. It’s a pain for you to check three separate blogs to see what your pastors are up to. 3. We’d really like to invite guests (other people at TN, other than just the pastors) onto the blogs to post things. For example, you will see a blog here about Tom Corey’s trip to Kiev to teach at a Seminary. In the future, you will see blogs about serving at Joseph’s House, various mission trips, art openings in the gallery, new initiatives at Terra. We hope that this new blog will become a popular place to keep up with the life of Terra Nova. Send your blog entry ideas to phil@terranovachurch.org . Enjoy!

one year ago//one year from now

One year ago at this time I walked into my office here at 409 River St. after spending some time with Aimee's family for the holidays. I was greeted by a wall high pile of boxes holding all of my books that I had moved up a week earlier from old office at the church I had recently resigned from. I had no desk, though I did have bookshelves. A file cabinet had been delivered while I was away in between Christmas and New Year's. I spent the next few days setting everything up as Ed, Scott and I figured out what it meant to occupy the same space.

A year has passed and I can hardly believe it. I'm a skeptic, and a bit of a pessimist. So a year ago, as I set up my books and my desk and organized my files, there was a part of me that was thinking "this could all be over in a couple of years--if this doesn’t work out, if this church never really takes off, then I'm out of a job in a couple of years when the money runs dry." And I was ok with that reality; I had worked through those issues and decided that it was worth the risk and that at the very least, it would be an amazing experience.

I just ran the numbers comparing Dec. 05' with Dec. 06'. Our average attendance has gone up by 120% in 12 months. 120%!! We cracked the 200 mark a few weeks back. What a shock to find 50 people sitting upstairs because the main floor was packed out. We have made very good progress towards being a self supporting church financially. And it doesn’t seem like we are slowing down. I meet new people constantly on Sundays. Many of them coming back and eventually making this their church. People are growing in their faith. People are coming to faith for the first time.

In short, my pessimism and skepticism was ill placed. For whatever reason, God has chosen to grow this church. We have tried to be faithful with what he has given us as the spiritual leaders of this growing community. Personally, I find myself ricocheting back and forth between extreme humbleness at what God is doing and the sinful sort of pride that so wants to take credit.

What does 2007 hold for Terra Nova? Will we need to add a second service this year? How many tribes will it take to meet the needs of people wanting to be connected? Will we become self sustaining a year before we planned? Who will claim Jesus as their God at this time next year that is today still trying to do it all on their own? What segments of our culture will Terra Nova make inroads where the church may have never been before? In what way will we collectively and individually better incarnate Christ to those around us?

More than anything else, I hope and pray that in 2007, we are more fully yielded to Christ than ever before.

basements, garages and the constant quest for control

My basement sucks. It floods regularly even when it's not raining. I have uninvited plant life growing in the french drains. And it smells. I have attempted to control these issues with two highly overworked sump pumps but sometimes even that doesn't work. This past weekend, when one sump first clogged (2 hours to fix) then burned out altogether, I watched as roughly 2 inches of water covered my basement floor. In my second attempt to fix the problem I broke some pipes--got frustrated--did some cursing and then did what any self respecting male with an unsatisfied need to fix things would do. I sloshed through the water, walked upstairs, dried off my pruny feet and sought to gain control of some other part of my life--preferably something that lacked the ability to intelligently interact with me--like children, or a wife, or even a cat for that matter (who, by the way, insists on peeing in our dining room and crapping in our guestroom even when her box is squeaky clean). My once beautiful garage had become the household dumping grounds since the end of the summer, so I angrily declared that "I was cleaning the garage and I don't want help". This was an area that I could control. This, I can fix! I swept, I cleaned, I organized. I listened to NPR--my personal place of zen. And I thought about mankind's desire for control.

Basements and garages are really inconsequential in the grand scheme of life but the lessons are the same for more important things. How often do we/I attempt to gain more control in one relationship because another seems out of control? If I can't fix my kids and make them obey me, I find something to complain to my wife about. If I'm spinning my wheels on an important project at work, but can't seem to get traction--I switch to something else that I can easily conquer. I guess it's not so much a control thing--it's an order thing. I don't think I'm a control freak--I think I'm an order freak. If one part of my life is out of order and I can't fix it--I seek to find order somewhere else, anywhere else.

Like most things in life, our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses. My need for order makes me a good manager and a terrible visionary. My need for order makes me a good head of household, while often lacking on leading the souls within that household. Finances and yard work are simple and straightforward while marriage and parenting are complex and messy. This is life after the fall (Genesis). Our only option is to identify the sinful side of control and order-confess it and move on--while preserving the positives of those very same qualities.

pt

Why have'nt we been blogging?

Lots of people have been asking the pastors why we have'nt been blogging in the last month or more. The key reason is that blogger does'nt like us for some reason. Some of us are unable to blog at all, others can blog, but not with pictures. And you know, if you can't use pictures--it just lacks interest. So, maybe someone can help us figure out what we are doing wrong all of a sudden?

verbal snapshots from the a29 bootcamp

Well, the church planters bootcamp is over and life will return to normal. Before we had a church, we had dates on the calendar to host an Acts 29 bootcamp www.acts29network.org . And so, for the last year, this has been on my mind. For the last few months, this has been on my weekly to do list in some form. And for the last few weeks, it has felt like I was eating, sleeping and breathing bootcamp. And now, it's over.

Here are few verbal snapshots that stick out.

Monday October 16th--running around like crazy trying to finish those last few things.

Tuesday morning 9:00AM--All the prepwork is done. Registration has gone well. I stand at the back of Rev. Hall staring out at roughly 150 people engaging in worship as Scott Womer leads this congregation that has never been together before and in 36 hours time, will never be together again. I get that lumpy throat thing as I feel that healthy type of pride, and all I can say is "Thankyou God--This is for you". Seconds later, I over hear one of Acts 29's leading pastors say to a guy he brought with him "Man, these guys are so cool--we could really learn a lot from them". Suddenly, that healthy type of pride switches to that sinful type of pride as I revel in the knowledge that a pastor from a church 8 times the size Terra Nova feels like he could learn a lot from us. I quickly confess that sin, but there is a part of me that can't get past the fact that the band really did sound awesome.

Wednesday evening, dinner time--As I walk past Brown's Brewing, Jose Malone's, and Ryan's Wake Pub, I see each restaurant packed with people from the bootcamp having dinner and drinking a beer without fear of being seen drinking a beer. The thought strikes that some of these people are making new friendships that will carry on at some level for a lifetime. I see others sitting around the bar, like the speakers and those doing assessments of future church planters just so happy to be together again. There is this brotherhood among A29 pastors that I have just never seen anywhere else. There is a clear sense that we share a mission and philosophy.

Thursday, daytime--This is the day for assessments. Guys who want to plant churches and have gone through the rigorous process leading up to this point are finally sitting in a room face to face with a few pastors wondering if they will make the cut. For me, as an assessor, there is a somber seriousness to the whole thing. There is a great deal at steak here: human resources, financial resources, marriages will be tested, lives may or may not be changed, churches will form, some will last and others will not. This takes a great deal of concentration and emotional commitment and it is draining to say the least, and yet, I love it.

Thursday, nighttime--Time to party. It is a tradition at all a29 bootcamps to finish the day of assessment with a big bash to thank everyone for their hard work (all donated as no one gets paid). Speakers, assessors, a29 staff and wives fill up the upper room of Elda's on Lark as Acts 29's head office buys us all a great dinner. Later on, several of us retire to the deck outside as a few of the guys enjoy a good cigar, good conversation and the night air.

It is done. It has been good, and God has been glorified in everything from the intense teaching sessions to the even more intense assessments, to the relaxed atmosphere of a deck on lark st. smoking cigars with friends.

pt

Ok, I get it.

I'm going to level with you here. I really don't care for this blogging stuff. It's like taking the trash out every week. I really don't want to take the trash out every week, so I typically wait until late wendesday night when I'm really tired and I really don't want to go around the house and empty the two bathroom trash cans and the one in the office and the one in the kitchen, and the diaper pail. So, with a certain amount of protest, I do this lame, weekly chore of collecting all the trash, bringing it out to the garage, rolling out the big green dumpster and going to bed. Occasionally I forget to do that. Sometime I wake up early enough to still get the trash out before the truck comes. Sometimes I miss it and we end up with an overflowing dumpster the next week.

Back to blogging--I used to treat this like the weekly trash chore. I really didn't want to do it, but I would try to do it anyway. I'd search around trying to find something to mention. A tv show, a cd I like, some random thought. But to be honest with you, it's a chore that I'd rather not need to do, unless something really strikes me as worth writing about.

So, my last post was from 8/24 and it was about astroturf. Initially, there were a couple of comments. Then, in the last few days--I get a ton of comments from the same people. I'm pretty sure I get the point . . . time to update the blog. Well, I'm not going to do it! So there. I guess this technically counts as an update, but you get the point. When I have something I feel like mentioning, I'll blog again. Scott--go write a song. Patty, go teach someone. Rob, go fix a car.

pt

Ok, I get it.

I'm going to level with you here. I really don't care for this blogging stuff. It's like taking the trash out every week. I really don't want to take the trash out every week, so I typically wait until late wendesday night when I'm really tired and I really don't want to go around the house and empty the two bathroom trash cans and the one in the office and the one in the kitchen, and the diaper pail. So, with a certain amount of protest, I do this lame, weekly chore of collecting all the trash, bringing it out to the garage, rolling out the big green dumpster and going to bed. Occasionally I forget to do that. Sometime I wake up early enough to still get the trash out before the truck comes. Sometimes I miss it and we end up with an overflowing dumpster the next week.

Back to blogging--I used to treat this like the weekly trash chore. I really didn't want to do it, but I would try to do it anyway. I'd search around trying to find something to mention. A tv show, a cd I like, some random thought. But to be honest with you, it's a chore that I'd rather not need to do, unless something really strikes me as worth writing about.

So, my last post was from 8/24 and it was about astroturf. Initially, there were a couple of comments. Then, in the last few days--I get a ton of comments from the same people. I'm pretty sure I get the point . . . time to update the blog. Well, I'm not going to do it! So there. I guess this technically counts as an update, but you get the point. When I have something I feel like mentioning, I'll blog again. Scott--go write a song. Patty, go teach someone. Rob, go fix a car.

pt

Astroturf makes a home

A man needs a space of his own. Here in my newly astroturfed garage, I can bask in the smell of engine oil, grass seed and real hard wood charcoal whil listenting to NPR. In case your wondering, a 20 foot length of 12 foot wide astroturf costs about $50. Who says astroturf is tacky? 

astroturf and playgrounds

Scott Womer says that my posts are too long and too serious. So, here's something completely frivolous and short. Two projects I've been working on at home. 1. A new playground for my kids. (Someone helped me build it, but if I mention his name, he'll be flooded with requests). 2. My freshly astroturfed garage, which henceforth will be called "the man's livingroom".