This past Saturday, our family and friends threw an awesome party for Char and I celebrating forty happy years together. We’re asked all the time, “What’s your secret?”, as if there’s some magic to it. Well the answer might surprise you…

I feel bad when I hear divorced people say, “We split up because we grew apart and got tired of each other.” Every now and then Char will half jokingly ask me, “After all these years do you ever get bored of me?” To which I give the only smart answer a husband should give if he knows what’s good for him, “Of course not, babe…” But if I weren’t so unpoetic, I would want to say, “Bored! Hell no! How could I be? Being married to you has been like going on an expedition together. We’ve had our thrills, our dramas, and our share of letdowns as well as our great escapes but they’ve also led to wonderful surprises and joy! How can I ever be bored? You’re the Indiana Jones of marriage!”

Back in ’72 we had it in our heads that marriage would take some getting used to but with enough work we’d get it, like learning mathematics. Boy, were we wrong and I’m so glad we were! Sure it’s been work but it’s been more like working my way through a great novel you can’t put down; that to your delight has lots of layers to it. Not a simple story but if you’ll stick with it, draws you in and causes you to think hard and is filled with unexpected plot twists and discoveries.

We’ve found that marriage isn’t something to be mastered like algebra – become familiar with the rules, practice, practice, practice and eventually you master it (that would be boring). Marriage isn’t mathematics. It’s a living, breathing relationship – the melding of two sometimes, as in the case of Char and I, very different, volatile individuals – that can’t be mastered by simply following a ‘how to’ manual. It’s a very special connection given to a man and a woman given as a gift by God to mirror the complexity and mystery of his very nature! I’m sorry it can’t be mastered like a foreign language. I’ve discovered that the things that make for a satisfying and exciting life together, like trust, transparency, patience and most of all, forgiveness, develop over time, through trial and error while under fire, in the middle of the untidiness, unpredictability and hard knocks of life. And as uninviting and messy as that might sound it actually can be terrifically satisfying and fun… the furthest thing from boring.

In all honesty, Char has led the way in what I think is our mostimportant collaboration – becoming friends. Lovers explore intimacy together. Partners work together. Both are very important ingredients. But friends enjoy one another. It’s so common for couples to move from attraction to sexual intimacy, skipping right over friendship. Our looks will fade. We get wrinkly and lose our sexual prowess but friendships endure. And that’s what I find missing in most failed marriages.

Those of you who know Char know she’s turned friendship into an art form. And like most artists she makes it look easy. She’s a natural. But what comes natural to her isn’t natural to me. Char’s greatest gift to me has been teaching me how to be a friend by being a friend not just my wife.

Now friendship is our heavy-duty shock absorbers on the rocky road of relationships, allowing our love to go deeper, opening the way to new adventures, challenges, discoveries and joy… but never boredom.

And there you have it. That’s our secret. We’ve become friends! At the heart of every good marriage is friendship. Who would have thought? Sounds too simple but almost half the people that try out marriage fail because they fail at friendship. Get good at being a friend and you get good at life…

Here’s to friendship
Mike T

One day, in the window there was a sign, “Under New Management”. Things suddenly changed for the better. It was like night and day. The new owner cleaned the place up. Laid down new rules. He insisted they serve better food and offer better service; establish better conditions, regular hours and a sense of pride. Before long, business picked up. They made money and the employees even got raises…

But I heard the craziest thing through the grapevine. Even though things were so much better for everyone, there were complaints about the new boss and how he ran things. A few of the old timers grumbled, “He’s a slave driver. Who does he think he is?” They didn’t like being told what to do or be held accountable. They wanted to go back to the way things were when they could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, the way they wanted. So they quit.

The resurrection and absolute power

I know you’re gonna think I’m off my rocker, but when I think of that restaurant and the reaction of some of the workers I think of the implications of Easter. The gospel is the announcement that in and through Jesus, God was rescuing and remaking the world. Despite popularly held opinions, the resurrection of Jesus doesn’t mean, “It’s all right. We’re going to heaven how.” No. Jesus’ earliest followers saw it differently. It was a show of absolute power. To them Easter declared, “The world’s under new management now. God’s in charge, here on earth as it is in heaven.” To them it meant that Jesus had upstaged the powers that be and was running the restaurant now. “He’s the Boss. Get used to it.”

Because of this, God lifted Jesus high above everything else. He gave Him a name that is greater than any other name. So when the name of Jesus is spoken, everyone in heaven and on earth and under the earth will bow down before Him. And every tongue will say Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:9-11)

Standing before the risen Jesus, there was no more hesitation or doubt in Thomas’ mind as to what the resurrection meant… “My Lord and my God!” His life was under new management.

Good news for some, not so good for others

And even though this is great news, like those disgruntled employees, not everyone’s happy about it. In fact most people find this too much to take. “Who does Jesus think he is anyway? My boss?” Well yes, that’s his point exactly… and more. He’s king of the world! With a boss you can quit. But there’s no such wiggle room with a king. This kind of absolute power can be unsettling, disruptive and frankly threatening to people who pride themselves in their autonomy…like most of us in the self-sufficient, consumerist Western world.

So as we come to Easter with the empty tomb and think of its implications of absolute power we need to honestly ask ourselves, do we want a religious leader to fix us and save our souls so we can go on living our version of the good life or do we want a king to rule the world… and our lives?

He has risen, indeed!
Mike T

It’s not like there’s a whole bunch of people living here that have never heard the gospel. They used to be churchgoers but are no longer interested in church, period. They come here and just stop going to church. They’ve heard all the arguments and reasons to believe and have rejected them. “Been there, done that and it didn’t work.” So they’re staying away in increasing numbers.

Soul-sickness

The problem is that this isn’t working well for many “nons” either.Society can buy practically anything it wants except happiness. It’s gone for the American Dream but made itself soul sick, unable to enjoy life. Getting more miserable even as it piles up more stuff. It’s gained the world at the price of losing its soul.

Sick souls are not cleansed healed by arguments, reasons or religious self-improvement schemes. Sick souls become whole by simply encountering God’s bona fide presence and by experiencing faith that works in their daily lives. What they need is for someone to show them how this sort of faith works so they can try it and see if it in fact does work.

Jesus had faith

Jesus showed us how faith actually works by walking it out in his own life in plain sight for all to see through a very simple, child-like relationship with his heavenly Father. “…the one who sent me is with me – he has not deserted me. For I always do what pleases him.” (John 5:19-20; 8:29)

He proved to us that even though faith can be hard and even scary at times, it worked because for him it wasn’t a blind leap into presumption or into his own wish dreams. It was a leap into the arms of a God he carried on a warm, intimate relationship with. A God who spoke to him, guided him and was a strong, steadying, satisfying, healing presence for his soul in the midst of his hectic and often difficult daily life.

The aim of this experiment

This is at the heart of Leap of Faith. Discovering a faith that works in a world that has rejected reasons and arguments and in need of the real love and cleansing God’s presence offers. Leap of Faith a way we can experience that presence in our everyday lives by doing some simple concrete things that put us in a position to exercise faith in God’s goodness like praying big specific prayers, prayers for our six, tracking with these prayers in our small groups, letting our faith be guided by daily readings from God’s Word, doing this as a community with the goal of experiencing a better sort of life together.

We’ve just started our second week of this 40-day prayer experiment. Why not join us. Even if you’re not here in Brooklyn with us you can participate by going to our website and getting the low down on what this year’s Leap Of Faith is about and sign-up for our daily devotional readings.

The World Awaits…
Mike T

Our 40 days of prayer & faith, called Leap of Faith, is starting Monday February 27th through Easter Sunday. You will find all the materials you need to join in here.

We suggest taking a look at the User’s Manual, then sign up for daily email to get your readings & reflections via email every morning.

User’s Manual

Daily Study Guide (full 40 days)

And so, during the 40 days of Lent, our entire church asks God for really big things – things that we can’t pull-off on our own. We put ourselves out-there to see what God might, and can do for us. 

So we ask God for:

• Big things for us, individually
• Big things for our friends and family who aren’t really  experiencing much from God
• Big things for our church and larger community

We do this by doing certain activities together as a church.  Those things include:

• A special Sunday sermon series
• Daily Bible readings, God and the Nations
• Daily prayer
• Weekly Small Group Discussions
• Some sort of activity that stretches us and our experience of God over the 6 weeks

This year’s theme for Leap of Faith is called “The World Awaits”. This theme centers around understanding, appreciating and experiencing the bigger story of God and the things that God is doing in the lives of all people. We, at the NBV, believe that God isn’t just working to benefit our lives, but the lives of our non-religious and secular neighbors, family, friends and strangers as well.

This year we’ll be going through the entire Bible and seeing how God’s plan, from the beginning, has never been to be a special possession of a limited group, but to rather share Himself, His love and blessing withall people – regardless of location, background or circumstance. We’ll also try to experience what the Bible seems to pitch, in that we get the most out of life by sharing and pursuing God together.

So, we’ll try to learn about faith alongside our non-churchgoing friends by asking them to share their experiences with faith and learn from them in a give-and-take sort of way.

If you find this aspect to be intimidating, as many people do, I’d encourage you to attend the “Conversations” discussion group on Monday February 27^th. It will be a great discussion centered around why and how these conversations can be educational and helpful to all parties in the discussion, rather than uncomfortable, unhelpful and off-putting for everyone. You can sign-up on your bulletin or email ryanwobbrock@gmail.com

This coming Sunday we’ll make available a Leap of Faith User’s manual that explains everything in-depth and will help prepare you for what we’re about to embark upon, here at the North Brooklyn Vineyard.  We’ll kick everything off on Sunday the 27^th with our daily Bible readings starting on Monday the 28^th.  By the way, if you are receiving this update and your not a part of the NBV you can still participate along with us. Just go to our website and sign–up for the daily readings and listen in on our sermon series.

I believe if you’ll buy-in all the way to this year’s Leap Of Faith, these next six weeks will be a challenging and exciting season of spiritual growth for you.

The world Is awaiting us…
Mike T

Everyone agrees this is a new beginning and that there’s something exciting pending that God has in store for us. I suspect it has something to do with him continuing to shape us into that community we’ve been dreaming of becoming since we began… that connects well with God, one another and with the world so that the most unlikely, non-religious people will themselves connect with God.

This is who we already are but we have more to go and our faith needs further stretching if we’re going to be a socially attractive and spiritually engaging community. We’ll need even greater confidence in God’s love and dependability as we move forward.

40 day adventure

This is where Leap Of Faith comes in. Our third annual Lentin prayer experiment is coming up at the end of this month, beginning February 26th. Forty days, approximately six weeks, of targeted prayer, daily Bible readings, and small group participation, all geared to broaden our faith and deepen our experience of God’s active presence in our daily lives and in the life of our church community.

In the past these forty-day experiments have been a mixed bag of blessing, stretching and grappling with the mystery of prayer and faith. But in the end everyone that has stuck to it reported a deepening of their relationship with God, even those whose prayers went unanswered.

The world awaits

In the spirit of this sense that there’s something God has pending for our community the theme of this year’s Leap Of Faith is, “The World Awaits”. The idea is this: As human beings created in God’s image we’re at our best when we’re connecting with this God. Moving with him. Loving him. Loving like him. Loving what he loves. God loves the world… not just the church-world, the whole world. He has a good plan for our world. This plan includes God revealing himself and expressing his love to a waiting world that’s aching for it, through people like us in many cases simply by having friendly conversations and learning from each other.

For our part, we have to be willing to move with this loving God. For most of us this will take big trust – a leap of faith if you will – and that’s what these six weeks will be about.

If you’re a part of our church we’ll be filling you in on the details over the next couple of weeks. If your just a friend receiving this mailing and want to participate anyway you an by going to our website for a LOF Users Manual, sign up for the daily Bible readings and to listen to our six part World Awaits sermon series. Join us in this adventure. There’s a world of exciting kingdom opportunity awaiting us all.

I want to thank the Greater Boston Vineyard for inventing Leap Of Faith and being so generous by sharing it. The World Awaits is their baby. Our church is borrowing it from them. Thanks so much.

Sincerely,
Pastor Mike

To receive this future Community Updates, subscribe on our homepage.

Why are we doing this? Because we believe it’s going to help you discover an important thing about God and giving. God says in the book of Malachi that his people can test him on this. That when we’re generous with our offerings to his work he will “open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in!” (Malachi 3:8-10). Those of us who do regularly give have experienced it! (Ask around… we think you’d be hardpressed to find someone who does give & doesn’t think it in some way enhances their life).

Signing up below ensures that your offerings over the next 3 months will be kept to the side as part of the challenge. Email finance@northbrooklynvineyard.org at any time with any questions.

I immediately called our Advisory Team to fast and pray, each member covering a day of the week, until he found a new home for our church. Well great news, St. John’s Lutheran, a beautiful old, neo-Gothic-style church located in neighboring Greenpoint, has graciously agreed to allow us to become their tenant congregation!

A God-thing

This is definitely a God-thing. In November, before we ever received notice that we were being kicked out of the school we had a prayer meeting in the basement of the St. John’s. Afterwards I went upstairs and stood in the front of the sanctuary. As I looked out over the pews in the dark something came over me and I got this strong sense that God wanted us to be there. A new home and a new beginning.

A couple of nights later I mentioned this to our leaders at our monthly team meeting and you know how when God speaks the room gets all energized? Well that’s what happened. Suddenly we were full of hope and new possibilities that frankly had been missing for a while. We allowed ourselves to dream a bit about what a new home and a new beginning might mean for our church… The ability to catch public attention; to meet in a space conducive to worship; new possibilities for neighborhood ministry; being in a community more open to what we were offering… Visibility, growth, and stability.

I hadn’t seen the team that pumped in a long time. But I quickly reminded everyone not to get carried away. After all there was no door open to us. St. Johns hadn’t given any indication that they’d be open to such an arrangement. Oh well, it was nice to dream…

A little help from a friend

But what I didn’t mention to you was that I had made friends with a guy who’s on St. John’s board and he just so happens to be in charge of their building. He was the one who arranged for us to have the prayer meeting there. Sowhen three weeks later we received the bad news of our impending homelessness I went to him and asked if he would act as our advocate. He caught the vision and went right to work, petitioning the other board members while our team prayed. A week or later he called and told me  that he had gotten permission for us to rent the church! In the short span of little over a month God changed the situation, opened the door and got us a new home.

The next step

So as of February 5^th we’ll be meeting Sundays at 12 noon at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 155 Milton St.,right off of Manhattan Ave in Greenpoint (Google Map). This move does not affect our Trash Bar service in any way. This may seem like the case of a new home and a new beginning, but I believe it’s more. I believe it’s the next step of an adventure God has had planned for our church all along and I’m excited to see what’s in store for us.q

On Thursday evening, January 19th we’re holding a prayer meeting at the church from7:00 – 8:30pm in order to seek God’s continued help in this time of transition. Come and join us.

God bless,
Pastor Mike

This will affect some 160 religious groups in the city. What this means is that as of Feb 12th, we’ll no longer be permitted to rent P.S. 132 for our Sunday morning services.

Now what? Well after getting over the initial shock I got in touch with our Advisory Team to put together a plan. This is what we’ve come up with so far: We’ve initiated a facility search in the Williamsburg and Greenpoint areas.

Several members have been assigned to put together a list of prospective locations. We’re looking at churches, synagogues, community centers, private schools, colleges, and any other family-friendly we can think of. Once we get the list we will begin the cold calling to see what opportunities we have open to us. A location has to be fairly easy to get to. It must be able to fit around 100 adults. It must have space for children’s ministry as well as a bit of storage. And most important, it must be cheap! If you have any ideas or have a contact who might be helpful please let me know.

In addition I have called on the members of the Advisory Team to fast and pray one day a week until we find a new home for our morning service. I invite the rest of you to join us if you’re so inclined.

This is serious but it’s not the end of the world. The church is a community of people committed to Jesus and to each other, not a building. Yes this will be probably be a season of inconvenience and sacrifice but it could be the very conditions that brings the best out of us and causes us to experience the Lord’s presence and power in ways we’ve haven’t up to now.

So take heart. The Advisory Team and myself are committed to maintaining a healthy community life that will include meeting together on Sundays. We do have a temporary fall-back space in case nothing comes up by mid-February, but it doesn’t offer separate space for children or nursery so we’d have to all meet together in some creative way until we found an adequate home. Other churches have gone through similar crisis and gone on to thrive. So all hands on deck. If you’ve been away now’s a great time to show up and offer your support. Let’s close ranks and pray. I will keep you in the loop as things progress.

Sincerely,
Pastor Mike