Clear Lake Worship

Communion at 11:00

2008-11-10T17:40:00.000-08:00

In the United Methodist Church, there are two sacraments: baptism and communion. A sacrament is a way in which we believe God communicates an inward and spiritual grace through outward and visible signs. God imparts to his children grace through participation in the Lord's Supper (another term for communion...yet another term is "Eucharist," which simply means "Thanksgiving.")

In the Roman Catholic tradition, communion is always a part of the worship gathering. For many Roman-Catholics-turned-Protestants find it odd that Methodists don't have communion each week. On the flip side, many long-time-Methodists find it odd to have communion more than once per month. It is as if they believe that Jesus communicated to his disciples that they should "do this in remembrance of me [on the first Sunday of every month only]." On the contrary, John Wesley (the founder of Methodism) urged the frequent practice of communion so that the grace of Jesus Christ could have every chance to impact God's children.

It is our desire to allow every opportunity for God to move in our worship gatherings - every way for God to communicate the grace that we so desperately need. Thus we have begun offering weekly communion in our 11:00 worship gathering.

What do you think?

Finally, a NEW POST!

2008-11-10T17:38:00.001-08:00

Wow...it has been forever since our last post. Here's a new one.

Building Project Pictures!

2007-09-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed, we're going through a capital campaign this month! A major part of the new facility is being devoted to a worship space for Contemporary Worship (that's us!!). The architect has been working closely with our worshiping community to design an amazing space for us. We are excited about this opportunity, but the success of the campaign largely depends on your excitement! We need the financial commitment of members and "regular-attenders" alike.

Please take a moment to check out these pictures:

Christian Life Center - Phase One

Master Plan Floor Plan

Christian Life Center - 1st Floor, Floor Plan

Christian Life Center - 2nd Floor, Floor Plan

Christian Life Center - 3rd Floor, Floor Plan

Christian Life Center - Detailed Contemporary Worship, Floor Plan

If you'd like to see more, visit the website http://www.clearlakemethodist.org/ and click on the "Planning and Building Committee" button. After seeing the new space, there's no doubt that you'll want to get behind the project.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them here on this blog or email Andrew (andrew@clearlakemethodist.org) or John (john@clearlakemethodist.org).

Screen-less Bibles

2007-09-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

Let your voice be heard:

What do you think of bringing your own Bible to worship instead of reading it off the screen?

Is it more or less worshipful?

Is it helpful to your study and knowledge of the Bible?

Is it difficult to read the words?

Let us know...

The Great Gad-Speech

2007-09-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

Have you ever identified with Gad (or any of Joseph's other brothers)? They felt a huge burden of guilt from selling their brother into slavery. Then they were fearful that God was punishing them by causing a strange set of difficult circumstances to happen to them, when in fact, God was about to show them Grace.

When was a time that you experienced guilt and fear of God's "revenge"?

Did you experience Grace?

"Grace" Anatomy?

2007-09-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was our first week of a 5-week series called "Grace Anatomy." Yes, the name is cheesy and there really is no real tie-in to the TV show...sorry :)

Now the burning question in all of your minds might be...what does "Grace" have to do with the arrows on the backgrounds of all the media slides?

Good question...

Any guesses or comments?

Matt's Last Sunday

2007-08-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

Matt's last Sunday was yesterday. He has been a great pastor, preacher, leader, and friend.

Do you have a message that you'd like to send him? Feel free to post it here.

If you've got a chance to surf the web, check out Matt's new church at www.thewatershedchurch.com

The Kingdom of God

2007-08-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

John mentioned 3 parables that Jesus told from Matthew chapter 13. One was about a treasure hidden in a field, one was about a pearl of great value, and one was about fish. How ridiculous does it sound to sell every single posession just for a "treasure" or a "pearl"? Do we have that kind of passion for our own relationship with God?

How ridiculous does it sound that God "sold" everything he had (he became human - heaven came to earth) to be in a relationship with you? That you are God's "treasure" that Jesus Christ has "purchased" through his blood (perhaps it was the evil one who owned the world, but he was not aware of the great value you are to God)?

Ministry of All Christians

2007-08-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

We are all called to be ministers. In what ways are you serving in ministry?

John mentioned his friends Bob and Joyce, each who, because of the grace God had shown them, became "ministers" (literally, "servants"). They served in their everyday non-church-related jobs (one in a violin shop and one in Jazzercize). Their ministries were about giving, generosity, listening, and compassion.

Their ministries were more than just a bumper sticker, fish-on-the-back-of-their-car, Christian T-shirt, or crucifix jewelry. What about your ministry?

Calling to Ordained Ministry

2007-08-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, John told us the story of his calling to ordained ministry and the way he doubted his calling because he felt like Jeremiah (who said, "Ah, Sovereign LORD...I do not know how to speak; I am only a child." Jeremiah 1:6)

Have you ever felt doubts about your own skills and abilities that may have really been doubts about God's abilities? In other words, when have you not done something to which you felt called because you didn't have faith that God could use you for ministry?

8 Tips to discernment

2007-08-01T13:41:00.001-07:00

8 tips to trying to help us discern whether God is speaking to you (From sermon on 07/29/07):

1) If you are being moved out of your comfort zone . . . pay attention, it’s probably God. (The story of Abraham: Gen. 12:1-4)
2) If you don’t want to go where you are feeling led to go… pay attention, it’s probably God calling you. (The story of Jonah: Jonah 4:1-3),
3) If you feel unequipped to do something that is pulling you toward it…pay attention, it’s probably God. (Exodus 3-4)
4) If you find yourself arguing with the bible and trying to make it say what you want it to say . . . pay attention, it’s probably God. (Hebrews 14:12)
5) If you get mad at any person who tells you something that you didn’t really want to hear, but which is consistent with God’s nature and character…pay attention, it may be God. (Matthew 12:9-14).
6) Open doors or closed doors…pay attention, it may be God (Acts 12:1-5).
7) If the voice in your head or heart is inconsistent with the scriptures and the advice of other Holy Relationships in your life . . . run the other way . . . God is not talking to you. (2 Timothy 3:14-15).
8) If, despite the hardship and difficulties, the calling has led to a more abundant life in the end . . . Be thankful. It was definitely God. (John 10:10, Jeremiah 29:11)

Pay Attention...It May Be God Speaking

2007-07-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

Matt mentioned that he could not think of any instance in which God called someone to "sit back and relax while God goes to get us another soda."

In your study of Scripture, do you find this to be true?

Has God ever called you to something that made you feel uncomfortable or ill-equipped?

Are you struggling for clarity of God's call for your life now?

God speaks thru Holy Conversation & Holy Scripture

2007-07-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

"All Scripture is God-breathed," it says in 2 Timothy 3:16. What does this mean to you? How has God given us the Scriptures?

How has God spoken to you through Scripture before?

How have you heard God's voice through another Christian?

Is this blog a way for God to speak to us?

An Imperfect Church

2007-07-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

"Don't go around looking for the 'perfect church' because as soon as you find it, you'll mess it up!"

We are imperfect people and the church is an imperfect people. Nevertheless, we strive to glorify God and to be the loving people that God created us to be.

Matt challenged us on Sunday with the question, "What are you going to do to try to build yourself into a more perfect part of Christ's church?" How would you respond to this challenge?

Is it helpful or hurtful for you to know that the church (including you) is imperfect and will never be perfect?

Matt alluded to the story in Acts 5 of Ananias and Sapphira. What do you make of this story?

An Embodied Church

2007-07-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

Each Christian is a part of the "Body" of Christ. How has the church hindered people from being a functioning part of the Body of Christ?

How has the church empowered you to be a functioning part of the Body of Christ?

A Flammable Church

2007-06-04T08:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we talked about the Holy Spirit providing the "spark" to set us on fire. In what ways can we fuel ourselves to receive the Holy Spirit? In other words, what activities or disciplines would help the Holy Spirit's spark to catch us on fire?

Describe a situation in which you saw the Holy Spirit at work in your life or in another's life.

Baptism

2007-05-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

Did you learn anything new about Baptism this past Sunday?

How was your experience of touching the water and making a cross on your forehead?

If you have not been baptized already, what keeps you from "taking the plunge"? (pun intended)

Shared Experiences: Bad things happening

2007-05-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

When have you experienced suffering / "bad things"? What happened? How did you get through it?

Communion "Liturgy"

2007-05-07T07:25:00.000-07:00

As John mentioned, "Liturgy" is a churchy word that means "the work of the people." It is an opportunity for the whole congregation to take an active role in participating in worship. What did you think of your Communion experience yesterday? Was it worshipful? Did it make sense? Was it confusing?

How was our world really created?

2007-05-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

Prior to this Sunday's sermon (May 6), what would you have said was your understanding of how the world was really created? Would you say that you believed in...

Spontaneous Macroevolution (i.e. life arose from nothing [God was not involved] into a single-celled organism and then evolved into every form of life as we know it);

Theistic Evolution (i.e. God created the first life [a single-celled organism] from which life evolved into every form of life;

Creation Science (i.e. the world was created in 7, 24-hour periods); or

Intelligent Design (i.e. God created each species of life - similarities in certain species are a result of a Common Designer, not a Common Ancestor)?

Have your beliefs been changed or stretched in any way?

Big Bang

2007-05-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

Are any of the following theories or arguments interesting to you? Can you think of any objections to them?

Theory of General Relativity - Albert Einstein, Arthur Eddington (British Cosmologist), Alexander Friedmann (Russian Mathematician) – all uphold that “the universe appears to be expanding from a single point in the distant past.” In other words, the universe is not eternal (Geisler & Turek - I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist 73-75).

Cosmological Argument: everything that had a beginning had a cause (the Law of Causality); the universe had a beginning; therefore the universe had a cause.

Big Bang Theory – The universe had a beginning – everything natural began at the Big Bang. What caused the big bang? Something Supernatural – something outside of nature (Geisler 85).

Robert Jastrow, astronomer and founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies wrote in God and the Astronomers: 'I am an agnostic in religious matters.' Yet he also writes after explaining some of the Big Bang evidence – 'Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same: the chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy' (Geisler 84).

Interesting Genesis Tidbits

2007-05-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

Do you find any of the following information interesting? What difficulties arrise in your mind when you read the creation accounts in Genesis 1-3? What parts of the Genesis narratives do you find to be "right on"?

“The sun and moon are created only on the fourth day and are not named, but referred to only as the greater light and the lesser light. This may be an implicit polemic against the worship of astral bodies” … “A similar point can be made about the creation of the great sea monsters on the fifth day. In some ancient myths…creation results from the slaying of a sea monster" (Oxford Jewish Study Bible 13).

"While customarily translated rib, the part of the body out of which the second human being is made is uncertain, since this Hebrew term is nowhere else used for the human body” (New Interpreter's Study Bible 10 - Abingdon Press).

The name Genesis is from the Greek translation of Hebrew “Toledot” which means “story, record, or line." In Hebrew it is often referred to as “bereishit” – “in the beginning” (OJSB 8).

Abundant Life - Eternal Life

2007-04-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

In John 17:3, Jesus says, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know [the Father], the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." What does this statement say about the way we live our lives here on earth?

What can I do to help earth look more like heaven?

How do you picture heaven?

2007-04-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

How did you picture heaven when you were a child?

How has your understanding of heaven changed over time?

What do you hope heaven is like?

Do all roads lead to heaven?

2007-04-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

It is a common view in our culture that "all roads lead to heaven." But is it true? Do other religions contain truth?

Could you make the case that people from other faiths might be saved?

Could you make the case the only Christianity provides salvation?

Other Religions...(cont'd)

2007-04-22T07:21:00.000-07:00

As I said this morning in worship, I left out 2 pages from my sermon that dealt with challenges I saw for Christianity and the other religions as we consider their truth claims. This is not the end-all of the discussion, but I wanted to start the discussion with some objections and some biblical answers to them. Please feel free to post your comments.

It seems to me that any ‘works-based’ faith (which I consider to be Judiasm, Islam, Hinduism, etc . . . - these religions rely on our good deeds to get us to heaven or enlightenment or whatever, and where they run into trouble is if they get pressed to define, how many good works is enough. I mean, you either have to be perfect in all that you do – which we would probably all agree is impossible. Or someone would have to help us to understand, how good you do have to be. Pretty good? Very good? More good than bad? Is the percentage 51% good enough or do we need a passing grade like a 70 or something? What’s the percentage? How good do we have to be before a pure and perfect God decides to turn his head and let us come on in. That’s the question that any works-based system always has to answer. And I’ve never heard a good answer for that.

Now Christianity is not a works-based system because the Christian answer for that question is that no one is ever good enough. That God is perfect and for him to sort of blink, while we sneak in would not be an act of justice or righteousness. Well, the guy was a bully and he had an affair, but he was very generous to the community. Let’s let him in . . . Randy, Paula, Simon, what do you guys say? No, that would be an arbitrary God, who just set aside the demands of justice in order to help everybody out. So here there is no justice. God just sets it aside when he wants to.

But in Christianity, Romans 3:23 tells us “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . .

God can still be just because none of us is worthy to be with Him in eternity . . . but that’s not the end of the story or else we’d all fall short and no one would have a chance. We need God’s love and mercy here. And we find it in the second half of the sentence in Romans 3:24 . . . 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

We’re not eternally separated from God by the bad stuff we do, because Jesus has paid the price on our behalf. He has redeemed all of us freely by His grace.

God became human, lived a perfect life, and accordingly had the ability to pay the tab for us. When my family goes out to eat and my kids want to pay the tab . . . they always fall short. “Here’s our 18 cents Dad, we’ll pay this one!” I have to tell them that the bill is $35 and that their 18 cents just doesn’t cover it. “Why don’t you guys, let mommy or daddy pay the rest.”

That’s how it is with God. God is pure and holy and just, we are not - so God, the only one who could pay the difference, did so through the giving of His son . . . John 3:16 for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believed in Him would not perish but have eternal life. Jesus didn’t say “just Christians” or “westerners” or “Americans”. Jesus paid the price for whosoever would believe. So God is just and yet, God is still loving. That’s the historically Christian way of thinking. Faith makes eternal life available to all and that’s why Christianity is not a works-based system. It is a faith based system. We gain righteousness by faith

But then our faith-based system has a challenge too, don’t we. If salvation is only available to all who believe, then we have to worry about the tribe in Africa that has never heard the name Jesus or the Jews of the Old Testament for instance who had never heard of Jesus. How can they believe in Jesus and trust in His payment for their sins, if they’ve never even heard of the guy?

Let me first say that Christians throughout the centuries have answered this in different ways. Some Christians say that people who don’t make it to heaven were predestined not to make it anyway. Others say “Let’s get out there and make sure the people who haven’t heard about Jesus do get to hear about Jesus so they can be saved.”

Here are some thoughts I have about how the scriptures help us answer this challenge.

In Romans 4, Paul turns to that very question and he answers it in this way . . .3What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. 4Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

I think Paul is saying here that salvation has always been by faith (and here, He’s not talking about belief in God – even the devil believes there is a God.) He says Abraham trusted God and God credited it to Him as righteousness. It has always been by faith that people are saved. For those who have been exposed to the person of Jesus Christ, we understand how it works. But for those who have never heard the name Jesus . . . Paul himself, reminds us in Romans 1:20 . . .

“For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. “

Everybody can see God in His creation. We all have access to Him through prevenient or common Grace, as John Wesley called it. The tribe in Ghana or wherever, has the same access to God that all of us have. If they respond to it in faith, I believe the scriptures teach that it will be reckoned to them as righteousness just like it was to Abraham, whether or not they have ever heard the name of Jesus.

There’s more to say, but those are just some initial thoughts. What are your thoughts?

Reason #2

2007-04-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

Can you recall from Sunday a way that God spoke to you through Matt or Aaron? What stood out to you in the sermon, the music, the scriptures, or the prayers?

Does Everything Happen for a Reason?

2007-04-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

The Bible gives clear direction that we have free will. But the Bible also shows instances in which God, in his sovereignty, acts in ways that seem to be in opposition to free will.

The statement "Everything happens for a reason" seems to suggest that God is in control of EVERYTHING.

When was a time when you saw God clearly at work in your life?

Can you think of a time when something happened and you could not see a reason at all?

What's the best?

2007-04-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

What do you like about our Contemporary Worship services?

What would enhance your worship experience?

What detracts from your worship experience?