Light the Darkness

New Church at Sports Bar

I received this note from Mark Krenz, church planter with CMA and I thought you needed to hear the great things God is doing just south of Phoenix through ONE Community Church.

Just thought I’d quickly share with you about the Grand Opening yesterday of our second Sunday morning worship venue (9:00a) at a place called The Gym Sports Bar and Grill. The GYM is about 5 miles away from our other worship venue at a school where worship and ONEkids starts at 10:30a each Sunday.

We sent out the mailer (see below) to 10,000 homes last week. We opened the doors on   Sunday wondering what might happen. We were ready for 50-75 people to come. We set up a great looking stage, put the food out, hooked up the sound, dialed in our video projection and even put our “Church at the Bar” logo on most of the 20+ TVs in the place. We were still finalizing things when people already started showing up.

By 8:45a the place was staring to get really full. By 8:55a the line was out the door, we were scrambling to find seats…and more food, and more worship folders. When we started at 9:00a it was standing room only, and that’s what people did... for the whole worship service. A good number were even sitting in places where they couldn’t even see the stage, and they stayed too. In total 130 people were there. Only about 25-30 of those were people from ONE who came to help and show their support, the rest were all new.

The environment at The Gym was electric. Chris Gwaltney, our worship guy, began to jam on his guitar and lead worship – no band. We were blown away at how people got into it – clapping and even singing. We were having church in a bar! It was a blast. I shared a message in our series “All or Nothing” about overcoming our fears that hold us back from experiencing all God has for us. We looked at the story of Peter and Jesus walking on the water. As I was talking it was so cool to look out from that stage and see that restaurant packed from wall to wall. It's awesome to see the restaurant managers and bartenders behind the bar listening and taking it all in. I’m sure this was unlike anything they’d ever seen before in that place.

I challenged this crowd fill with many unchurched people and curious seekers to take one step toward Jesus on their faith journey. I asked them if they would say to Jesus, like Peter in the boat, “If it’s really you Jesus, then tell me come…” Or, to pray like Peter when he saw the wind and the waves drowning him, “Save me Lord!” Many people raised their hands in response.

We got great feedback as people left. Please pray that we can follow-up with these people. 35 new households gave us their contact info. Many of them indicated their response to the message on their cards saying that they were making a significant change in their lives or recommitting their lives to Christ today. Many told us they are looking for a church home. Pray that God’s spirit would continue to stir in them this week and that they would come back and give us a chance to lead them on their journey with Christ.

It’s neat to see that two years into this now people are contacting us to see if we would partner with them. We have no idea what to expect this Sunday. If the typical 50% of grand opening stat is true, we’d be thrilled with that, but of course are praying for a great return. Guess that’s the fun of walking this journey in faith every day.

Also… Shannon, my wife, gave birth yesterday to Anika Noel Krenz (pronounced On’-i-ca). Mom and baby are healthy and coming home today.  If only all weeks in life could be this grand! God is too good to me.  Thanks again to you Gary and everything CMA has done for us and been to us. Without you, none of this would be possible. Thanks for making a way for us to dream big and lead beyond convention to reach the lost ONE.  What a ride! God is so good. Thanks for all you love, support and prayers!

Mark

Hearing...from Belinda...from God

Just read Belinda's new blog.  It has lot's of pics.  You can find it at www.belindakendall.typepad.com.  I'm glad they are doing well.  It does my heart good!  Please keep praying with me.  I sure love that lady!  I'm so proud of their team.

God has been challenging me in my last two daily devotionals to look at things from His point of view.  These thought have come in when my mind was on a completely different subject.  Yesterday I was barely awake and not even out of bed when God pierced the sleepiness with a question, why do you think reaching the 5,000 is such a big number.  If you don' t know, at Indian Creek Community Church our vision to help people find their way back to God and we set a goal of reaching 5,000+.  Sometimes the goal feels a little overwhelming so God was challenging my thinking. Before I could even resond another question came to my mind.  I don' t know why but it seems that God often asks me questions. The second question was, how many do you think I want to reach.  I wasn't sure whether to answer in a number or a per-centage.  I thought about saying 500,000 considering that around half of Kansas City doesn't have a personal relationship with Him.  But I answered with the per-centage.  I said, 100%, you want everyone to know you.  I knew that was the right answer but He didn't seem impressed because the next question came before I could enjoy my response.  It was, how much is 5,000 out of 500,000.  I said, 001%.  Then He asked me the clincher, Am I the God of .001 or 100%.  Before I could even answer, He asked again, or am I even the God of .001 to you?  He followed with a statement before I could answer, you are looking at things from the wrong view.  Wow!  What a way to wake up! 

I don't go around doubting all the time but evidently God knew my heart wonders at time whether I am enough.  Obviously, He knows He is enough and that is what matters.  I'll tell you more tomorrow about what I heard today.  This is enough to digest at one time. 

I heard this thought from Petty Noble:  partial obedience = total disobedience.  Ouch!

Gary Kendall

Living It Out with the Prestons

Sandy and Steve Preston are living it out through Indian Creek and beyond. When Jim Davey, Olathe  Campus Pastor, and Margaret Outler, Outreach Project Manager, needed someone to lead our home build project it was Steve and Sandy Preston who stepped up. They worked with Tom Bassford and Steve Parker from Significant Matters to build a home for a family in our church we could gift the sweat equity to. Sandy used her project management skills and Steve used his talent for building. They scheduled teams of people and managed the work flow wonderfully. They needed more workers but they coordinated the flow of volunteer time, skilled and unskilled labor and materials in a great way—all as volunteers. Way to live out!

Steve offers his time and cooking talent to serve in the café on Wednesday nights to feed families coming to attend the Explore classes. Sandy is once again project managing the Father/Daughter Dance. This is something like 5 years running. They both participate in the Outler’s community group.

On most Sundays you can find Steve running a camera in the Auditorium. You won’t see Sandy but she is up in the Crow’s Nest, as we affectionately call the upstairs media room, running the sophisticated equipment. When you find talented, dedicated volunteers who have incredible attitudes, like the Preston's do, you have the whole package. Many thanks to all who volunteer! May the way the Preston's live out at the Olathe Campus inspire us all!

Living it out together!

Gary

Gary Kendall
Lead Pastor

Belinda's India Trip

I talked to Belinda this morning. The India team is doing well.  They now have a couple of days in Salem.  I said to her, "I bet that feels like being home."  And she said, "That's exactly what Kristen said when we drove in."  Isn't it funny how we can be so far apart and still know what the other is thinking!  I know because I've been there.  Salem feels like a paradise in the middle of...I think Jesus said it best when He acknowledged that then enemy has a stronghold in this world through sin.  There is a ton of bondage in India due to the rampant idolatry. 

Kristen is doing well.  Belinda said she is a powerful speaker.  I already knew that.  Kristen spoke three times in one day which is new for her.  Kristen had a powerful and disturbing dream.  I'll let her tell you about it but it reminded them and reminds us that there is a very real power struggle with the forces of darkness and they do not want them there.  In her dream there was an attack and a confrontation that was only won by Kristen boldly proclaiming who she is in Christ.  It reminds we must support them in prayer.  Whenever you think of them please pray.  The enemy isn't just playing, he is serious about preventing what they came to do and he is angry about it.  If he can stop them he will. But we have the power to bind the enemy and loose his captives, Matthew 18:18, 19, as the children of God and we must use it.  Thanks for standing with this team.   

Obedience Enables the Blessing

I ran across something in my devotions today that stopped me and made me think.  In John 11:53, 54 there is the story of Jesus stopping his public ministry and going into hiding.  It made me wonder, why did Jesus need to hide from anyone?  Why couldn't he just keep doing what He was doing no matter what came?  Think about that one! 

The thought that settled best was that even Jesus needed to be under the authority of the Father.  The Father has His own timing and His own way.  It wasn't that Jesus was afraid of the authorities as much as it was that the Father wanted contact and confrontation on His terms.  It wasn't fear that drove him into isolation it was timing, trust and obedience.  And it is obedience that enables blessing.

I've learned the hard way not to dive into every problem or to welcome every challenge from the enemy or from opposition.  I want to obey so that the Father can strategically apply my gifts as He sees fit.  Rushing in where the Holy Spirit doesn't send me or fighting the enemy or people in settings God didn't choose is a set up for a less than the best result.  If even Jesus needed to pick his battles surely I need to follow His example and obey--every time.

Gary Kendall    

The Rest of the Story

Here is an email that is making the rounds about Kurt Warner .  After reading it do what I did and check out Snopes.com.  The real story is even better than this fiction.

Kurtis the Stock Boy and Brenda the Checkout Girl

In a supermarket, Kurtis the stock boy was busily working when a new voice came over the loud speaker asking for a carry-out at register 4.

Kurtis was almost finished and wanted to get some fresh air, so he decided to
answer the call.  As he approached the checkout stand, a distant smile caught his eye ~ the checkout girl was beautiful.  She was an older woman (maybe 26, and he was only 22) and he fell in love.

Later that day, after his shift was over, he waited by the punch clock to find out her name.  She came into the break room, smiled softly at him, took her card, punched out, and then left.  He looked at her card, BRENDA.

He walked out only to see her start walking up the road.  Next day, he waited outside as she left the supermarket, and offered her a ride home.  He looked harmless enough, and she accepted.  When he dropped her off, he asked if maybe he could see her again, outside of work.  She simply said it wasn't possible.

He pressed and she explained she had two children and she couldn't afford a babysitter, so he offered to pay for the babysitter. Reluctantly she accepted his offer for a date for the following Saturday.

That Saturday night, he arrived at her door only to have her tell him that she was unable to go with him.  The babysitter had called and canceled.  To which Kurtis simply said, "Well, let's take the kids with us."

She tried to explain that taking the children was not an option, but again not taking no for an answer, he pressed.  Finally Brenda brought him inside to meet her children.  She had an older daughter who was just as cute as a bug, Kurtis thought, and then Brenda brought out her son, in a wheelchair. He was born a paraplegic with Downs Syndrome. Kurtis told Brenda, "I still don't understand why the kids can't come with us." 

 

Brenda was amazed.  Most men would run away from a woman with two kids, especially if one had disabilities ~ just like her first husband and father of her children had done.  But Kurtis was not ordinary he had a different mindset.

That evening Kurtis and Brenda loaded up the kids and went to dinner and the movies.  When her son needed anything, Kurtis would take care of him. When he needed to use the restroom, he picked him up out of his wheelchair,  took him, and brought him back.  The kids loved Kurtis.  At the end of the evening, Brenda knew this was the man she was going to marry and spend the rest of her life with.

A year later, they were married and Kurtis adopted both of her children. Since then they have added five more kids.

So what happened to Kurtis, the stock boy at a grocery store in
Cedar Falls, Iowa and Brenda the checkout girl? 

 

Well, Mr. & Mrs. Kurt Warner now live in Arizona where he is currently employed as the quarterback of the National Football League Arizona Cardinals and has his Cardinals in the
hunt for a possible appearance in the Super Bowl.  Is this a surprise ending or could you have guessed that he was not an ordinary person.

It should be noted that he also quarterbacked the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI...and he has also been the NFL's Most Valuable Player twice and the Super Bowl's Most Valuable Player.  He established the First Things First Foundation in the spring of 2001 with wife Brenda to promote Christian values and bless the lives of those less fortunate with
projects such as trips to Disney World for ill children, building recreation centers in
children's hospitals, helping single moms achieve the dream of homeownership and teaching Special Olympians the football basics. All projects are centered on Kurt and Brenda's life theme: faith and family come first. The official website is:  http://www.kurtwarner.org

Multiplication from Indian Creek

The first and most important thing I want to say right at the start of this blog is give the credit for this to the Vogts, Carnahans and their teams.  Give the glory to God.  But I do want to illustrate how faith in action can result in multiplication.  About two years ago the Lawrence Church of God board chairman called me at Indian Creek and asked for help.  The church was struggling for sustainability and looked to us for advice.  The question was, would we be interested in investing in the leadership at Lawrence (could we give a staff member) or would we consider taking over if the church was willing to give us the assets.  We discussed what we could and couldn't do and decided that the best option was to encourage Dennis Carnahan, who has roots in Indian Creek and a call to ministry, to accept the invitation to become interim Pastor.  That led to the congregation eventually calling Dennis to become their Pastor.  At that point they were at 15 regular attendees.  It has been a long uphill struggle with many challenges but Dennis and the church kept turning the crank on developing a missional church.  After a year there were signs of stability and growth.  They changed the name of the church recently to Bridgepoint to signal a new mission, a new start and a bright future.  This last Sunday they baptized 19 and had 79 in worship.  This is a resurrection story that is going in the right direction.  Yea God and way to go Dennis and Anita.  We are proud of you and the best is yet to come.  We invested one family, some coaching and some financial support and the result is 100+ lives impacted.

James and Tammy Vogt left Indian Creek a year and one half ago with the Teetzen family to plant a new church, Origins Faith Community,  in Ontario, OR.  They did what is sometimes called a "parachute" plant which means they moved in from out of town.  They launched six months later with about 125 in attendace.  That is a great start in a comunity of less than 10,000.  The next week they retained about half that number which is normal.  They grew from there to the point where last week they had a new high of 143.  They prayed for a one year anniversary total of 200+.  And they did it, they had 210! So the investment of two families resulted in impacting about 250.

We celebrate the lives that are changed because our vision is to help people find their way back to God.  I also want to point out the power of multiplication.  Three families invested in two years reach 300+.  As we look toward the plant of the Gardner campus I want to encourage you with what is already happening--and those stories are only going to get better.  It is worth the investment.

HPFTWBTG

 Matt Larson , an intern with Community Christian Church  and a church planter with the The New Thing Network , wrote an answer to the quesion, why use the phrase “Helping people find their way back to God”?

This is a phrase that I have heard repeatedly in my Residency at Community Christian Church. We decided to use it as our mission as well because it is an amazing point of connection with people who are at all points in their journey toward God.  If you’re curious about the theological basis of the statement, it goes like this:

Genesis says that we are created in the image of God and as we see God’s interaction with Adam and Eve in the garden, we see that we were designed for relationship with God. That’s how God intended it to be. We see in Isaiah 43:7 that we were created for God’s glory. This is how God intended things to be.

The problem came when sin entered the world. Romans 3:23 says that “All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory”. So we were designed to be in relationship with God, but sin has hindered that relationship.

1 Peter 3:18 says that Christ suffered and died “to bring us to God” and 1 Peter 4:1 says that we are to “arm ourselves with the same purpose”.

So we’re supposed to arm ourselves with the same purpose as Jesus who’s purpose was to bring us (people) to God.

We want to be a part of the reconciliation process between God and his people, our mission is to Help People Find Their Way To God.

I hope this helps. If you have any further questions on it, let me know.

Greater Things than what we Imagine

Today I cast vision for the next decade of multiplication at Indian Creek Community Church.  I'm posting the text on this blog.  Download Greater Things Than We Imagine 2003 ver  Feel free to share it and talk back to me.  I'd love to hear your comments.  I believe we are in a new day, new chapter, new book...whatever you want to call it God is doing a new thing and a great thing.  It isn't new in the sense that He has been preparing us since the beginning but we aren't building buildings now--we are helping people find their way back to God.  We are planting neighborhood churches that will reproduce and multiply.  It is all because God loves everyone as much as He loves us and we dare not keep it to ourselves.  It was great to pray for the Gardner core team at the end of the service and to commission those staying in the Olathe campus to step up.  I love what God is doing in this church!

FYI, for those praying for my wife Belinda, Kristen and the India team. They made it safely to Mumbai and now they are on their way to the first conference.  Thanks for keeping them in your daily prayers. 

Gary Kendall

A Giant of a Man

Meet Nick Vujicic

His name is Nick Vujicic and he's 25 years old. He was born without arms or legs and given no medical reason for this condition. Faced with countless challenges and obstacles, God has given him the strength to surmount what others might call impossible. Along with that, the Lord has placed within him an unquenchable passion to share this same hope and genuine love that he's personally experienced with more than two million people all over the globe. Traveling extensively to over 19 nations, he's been extremely humbled by the continuous opportunities that the Lord has given him to share his testimony along with the hope that he has in Jesus with people in so many nations and situations. His greatest joy in this life is to introduce Jesus to those he meets and tell them of His great desire to get to know them personally by allowing Him to become their Lord and Savior. http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org

Gary Kendall