December 5, 2022

“The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”

- John 1:14a The Message

Dear Christ Church Members and Friends,

I hope that this holy season of Advent and Christmas finds you and yours doing well as we journey together toward Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

Speaking of journeys, I recently had the opportunity to journey with one of our staff members to the Mosaix Conference outside of Dallas. The conference was for those who are either already part of a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-racial congregation or those hoping to help to lead their current congregation to become one. It was a great and inspiring gathering of leaders, both clergy and non-clergy, from across the country and various denominations who seek to help lead congregations to be reflective of the Kingdom of God here and forever more. After all, the book of Revelation teaches us that the Kingdom of God will be a place where everyone will be – all nations and tribes, all races and languages (Revelation 7:9 The Message).

Alongside passionate and diverse worship, we heard inspirational and challenging speakers throughout the conference. One thing that stuck with me was also about journeying. I heard several speakers say, “You’ve got to let people know where you (and they) are headed so that they know whether or not they want to go with you, and then you can go”

One of the speakers harkened back to a time when flight attendants announced the final destination of the flight before take-off and then invited folks to exit the plane if that wasn’t their destination. I never flew when this was a common practice, but I have seen enough movies to be familiar with the concept.

It is a powerful reminder for us all. For a flight, it reminds us that we are headed to a specific destination. Other destinations may be lovely, but those aren’t where this particular flight is headed. This also communicates clearly to everyone the purpose of the flight and offers an opportunity for folks to choose whether they wish to be a part of the flight. The destination, though, doesn’t change.

The illustration is a powerful one to me. I’ve mentioned it several times to many of you and our staff has and is discussing the metaphor as well.

I shared recently in our stewardship worship series that I am convinced (convicted even) that God is calling us to be an inclusive and multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural church that is doing its best to experience and reflect the love, hope, and joy of Jesus to our community. Our community, South Florida (and beyond), is an inclusive and diverse place. I believe wholeheartedly that God expects our church to be reflective of the community we are a part of. This is the direction and destination our church has been on and continues to be on.

I have had conversations with so many of you. You have shared that you are excited that this is where we are headed as a church. You are excited and proud to be a place that takes seriously the call of God to serve and love all people, especially those who have historically been overlooked or excluded from full participation in the life of the Christian Church.

We aren’t there yet, of course. We have much work to do together.

One of the things we heard over and over at the conference was that this work is hard. This work is uncomfortable. This work is gradual. So, as we continue to journey toward Christmas and beyond, we are reminded to follow Jesus’ example; to be present and to show up, to spend time with people where they are, and with all types of people especially those who have been overlooked by others. After all, Jesus came as one of us humans. Born to unwed and likely poor parents, Jesus came and lived with us humans. In fact, Eugene Peterson’s The Message says that Jesus came and moved into the neighborhood.

Over and over again throughout Jesus’ ministry and life, we see him proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is here, now! Now! We see Jesus breaking the social and religious boundaries of the day, inviting others to be a part of and to experience the Kingdom, now. We are called to do the same. This is where “our plane” as Christ Church has been and continues to be headed.

As we journey together, we’ll be doing our best to follow our discipleship practices and stated values as listed on our website. Pastor Josh and I have preached about these over the past several months to make it clearer where we are headed together. All of these predate me as your Lead Pastor, but I’m excited to help us live them out, because they will be life- and community-changing if we practice them together.

Here are the values again so that you can see just how life-giving they are. They also hang on the walls of our gym lobby as reminders for us all.

The core values of our ministry are:

• Driven by the Holy Spirit -- We want to be where God is leading us.
• Courageous Change -- We want to have the courage to change to reach new people in new ways, as God leads.
• Outwardly Focused -- We want to serve our community before we serve ourselves.
• Intentional Discipleship -- We want each ministry to help others take the next step in their faith journey.
• Congregational Ministry -- Ministry is to be carried out by the congregation, equipped by pastors and staff.

In the days, months, and years ahead, these values along with our discipleship practices will continue to guide us as we use and share our collective time, talents, and treasure and make decisions around these areas.

Indeed we are doing this work already!

We are using our time, talent, and treasure to pour into our community and the various neighborhoods we are a part of. This work includes investing in worship on Wednesdays at our Parkway Campus. We are buying more than 400 gifts this Christmas season for abused, neglected and abandoned children in our community. We continue to feed people throughout the week. We are raising awareness of and advocating for those in our church, school, and greater community who are marginalized because of who they love or how they identify. This is to say little of the ways we have been doing this work in areas such as worship at our Fort Lauderdale Campus, our ministries with children and youth, our school and partnership with Tedder Elementary, our various small groups, Grow Hour, Anti-Racism Task Force, Rainbow Alliance, and so much more.

As we concluded our stewardship worship series, Grow Together and Lift, based on the book The Gift of Lift, by David York, I invited each of us to name our own values. It is our values that will ultimately guide our daily lives and the direction of where we are headed. You can catch the interview we were able to have with David York here. You can also watch the sermon on values here. If you haven’t had a chance yet to do so, I invite you to take time to determine the values that drive and motivate you and how you use your time, talent, and treasure. Our values drive each of our decisions, whether we can articulate them or not. The same is true of our church.

Based on the values you all named years ago, I’m convinced that we will continue to grow into the church and the people God is calling and expecting us to be. As we do this, more and more folks will be able to experience and reflect the love, hope, and joy of Jesus.

Finally, a big thank-you to all of you who have filled out your 2023 Commitment Card! If you haven’t had a chance to do so yet, please take a moment to fill out one. You can fill out a hard copy the next time you are at either of our campuses, or you can fill one out online here. If you give regularly already and plan to do so in 2023, we’d still love for you to fill out a Commitment Card so we are aware of your commitment and can thank you better.

As Christmas comes near, I’m excited for us to continue to head toward the inclusive and diverse multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-cultural church that God is helping us become. We’ll do so as we live out our stated values. We’ll do so by showing up and being present with one another and others as Jesus modeled for us.

I look forward to seeing you in person or online for one of our many Advent events or for one of our worship services for Christmas Eve, Christmas, or New Year's Day.

Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Year's, everyone.

Peace,

Pastor Nathan