Following Jesus Is an Adventure

Jesus invites us to follow him on an adventure,
an exciting, hazardous risky experience.

This is an exciting time at Salem. Our building project is underway. The Building Committee is doing a great job and making good progress. We have a completed contract with Point Builders and we’re working with them on expansion possibilities. This is an exciting and fun part of the process as we dream about how the new facility can be functional and beautiful. Soon we will interview companies to lead our capital campaign which could be this fall with groundbreaking next spring.

We will show the congregation a well-thought-out plan by the time we get to the capital campaign. I believe the congregation will be very excited to see what is being developed. In the meantime, it would be wise for all of us to start praying about and considering what God is calling us to give. As the pastor, I know my family and I will help lead the way, so we have already placed a line item in our family budget for the upcoming capital campaign. With one daughter going to college this year, braces for all three girls, and a car that’s older than all of them, it won’t be easy. And that’s just fine! We are called to something bigger than ourselves, an adventure that takes sacrifice and determination, a mission full of joy and grace.

As we move forward with this building project, we want to be intentional about reaching out to our neighbors. In fact, it is essential. I hope we will think about this in terms of mission rather than marketing. Sam Wells, Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Ethics at Duke Divinity School, was once asked in class what kind of advertising a church should do. He said, “If you need to advertise so people know you are there, it’s too late.” The question isn’t, what should we do so people know we’re here? Rather, how do we live as the church to our neighbors and our city so that we can show the world what it means to be the world God intended in creation?

That’s what it means to bring transformation to the world. We are God’s embassy in southwest Cedar Rapids, a mission outpost, an island of one culture in the midst of another. But each of us is an ambassador for Christ wherever we are, too.

As I shared last month, our Healthy Church Initiative consultation happens this September (20-22). I’m excited about this opportunity for Salem to be affirmed in what we do well as well as challenged in what we can do better. I’m excited about Salem’s future. We are not declining towards an end. We have just begun (again). We are a congregation not only with a long, rich tradition but now also with an exciting future. In our newness we are becoming something wonderful and beautiful and I’m very blessed to be a part of it with you.

Now that we have decided officially to sell the northern 1.8 acres of the Blairs Ferry land to help create a new neighborhood of homes, we need to start praying about and considering the possibility of creating a new place for new people in that location. The district’s sprung building (temporary building) will be available in another year, and we will have some resources from the land sale to reinvest on that property. Now is the time to discern what God is calling us to do in order to reach new people and create a new place for them.

With so much happening, we must prioritize. For instance, we need to make sure we focus on the building project at 33rd Ave before we think about any building project on the Blairs Ferry land. Still, God is already moving and acting and inviting us to follow into new places. We are forming a new Prayer Team to intentionally pray about these things and help us discern God’s leading. If you would like to be a part of that group, please let me know.

This is an adventure and God is good. All the time.