One Thing you need to know about Sarah Palin

I always find the political season interesting.  What seems very predictable one day, completely changes the next.  John McCain announced yesterday his choice of Sarah Palin as Vice Presidential running mate.  I’m surprised at how many haven’t heard of her.  I first heard of Sarah Palin 4 months ago, when her son Trig was born.  Al Mohler had a story on it, which you should take a few minutes to read here.

The national commentary on the choice seems to bounce back and forth between “brilliant” and “bust.”  For what it’s worth, my prediction:  brilliant.  Regardless of where you stand politically, you have to recognize how well Palin lines up with the majority of the conservative Republican base, which is consistenly underestimated in the national media.  The next few days should tell a lot…

The Story

The Story is our current 12-week series, designed to give an objective overview of the story of the Bible (more info here).  It’s on a level that anyone can understand, regardless of whether or not they have a background in church-related things.  We use lots of visual aids and multimedia to communicate the story.

We’ve gone for 2 weeks now, meeting at a local daycare center.  We’re looking forward to continuing to communicate this story, as we believe the story itself is powerful.  This is a great exercise for our core team, as well, as we gain a better grasp of the basic storyline of the Bible.

The approach we’re using borrows most heavily from By This Name, a book published by GoodSeed International.  It is along the lines of the biblical theology approach taught by Graeme Goldsworthy and others.  It’s been extremely helpful to me to study biblical theology, understanding the stories of the Bible as they contribute to the story of the Bible.

Picnic Wrap-Up

August 10 brought a window of sunshine, just at the right time.  Between the early morning and late afternoon rains, we were able to hold our community picnic at huffman park in Medina.  We had 19 visitors (10 adults, 9 kids) join our team and a great group of volunteers from other churches. 

We enjoyed cornhole and volleyball, and the chance to get to know a few people.  I was able to share our vision for a new church in Medina, and to invite people to a 12-week series called “The Story,” which is an objective overview of the story of the Bible, on a level that can be understood even without a church background.

All around, things went very smoothly, and we were greatly encouraged by the amount of support and help we received from other churches.  Now we’re into “The Story,” and praying about what’s next for ikon medina.

Medina County Fair, Days 6 & 7

(It’s so easy to fall off the blog wagon…7 days, just like that!)

The fair finished up on Sunday.  Saturday night was our busiest night yet, while Sunday was dead all day.  It’s hard to predict when the heavy traffic will be, but now we’ve got a pretty good idea in case we do this again.

All in all, I figure we gave out 12-14,000 freeze-pops, and 6-7,000 picnic invitations.  Lots of great conversations with people, and some promises to attend the picnic, too.  We also got a couple thousand door-hangers out, covering all of our highest priority neighborhoods.

Still no idea what to expect at tomorrow’s picnic – could be 10 people, could be 200.  I didn’t put a hit counter on the church website till Thursday of the fair week (duh!), but in the 9 days since then we’ve had over 225 hits.

This morning I read Job chs. 38-42, because I needed to be reminded of who’s really in charge.  I easily start thinking that this all depends on me, on how well I plan, on how well we execute our plans, on how well I speak at the picnic, etc.  Those are great chapters to shut yourself up when you start thinking that way.

I’ll try to get a pic or two from the fair up soon.  Praying that tomorrow brings us a number of people who need to hear the story of the Bible (check out our post-picnic plans here).

Medina County Fair, days 4 & 5

We’re still rolling – I think the fair has given us good exposure to the community, even though the building we’re in isn’t trafficked as heavily as the midway.  We’ve been able to hand out several thousand picnic invitations, and several thousand freeze-pops.

Still having good conversations with a number of people (mixed with a few I could have done without).  Day 4 brought “the gay question” a couple of times:  “Are you welcoming and affirming of gays?”  My answer to that has been:  Welcoming, yes.  Affirming, no.  I try to make sure people understand that while we don’t believe the Bible condones homosexuality, we don’t expect people to be just like us before they join in with what we’re doing.  In other words, you don’t have to reach a certain standard just to be welcomed at our church.  And all of us have things in our life that God wants to change as we learn what it means to follow Jesus.

I was also interviewed yesterday for a podcast (I’ll post a link once it’s up), talking about ministries that do outreaches at events like this.