Thursday, November 25, 2004

Thanksgiving Day

We have much to be thankful for here at the Kuest household. We were able to celebrate this day of thanks with both Dean's parents and Leslie's parents under one roof. (And everyone gets along well!)

We are so thankful for our friends and family all over the United States who are praying with us as we start this new church in Seattle. You have no idea how much we cherish your support.

We are also thankful that we our trip to the Emergency Room was short today. What is Thanksgiving Day without a morning Turkey Bowl football game. I took my older boys with me to the local park where a group of guys were getting together a game. About an hour into the game, on a potential touchdown drive, Joshua stepped in and blocked a pass that would have been a touchdown. Unfortunately, in the process, he broke his wrist. He was incredibly brave and never cried through the whole ordeal, even as the doctor set the bones. He brought home his X-Rays to show off to the brothers and is wearing his cast as a badge of honor. He is looking forward to having all of his friends sign it. Can you believe it? Five boys and this is our first broken bone. (Where is the wood? I need to knock!)

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Snoqualmie, WA

I went on a trip with George Johnson this past week. He had a meeting with a struggling church in Snoqualmie, WA and he wanted me to see the area - not to mention that it gave us a good chance to talk.

It is a beautiful area, a bedroom community of Seattle on I-90, about 12 miles past Issaquah. Actually, it is a gorgeous area. If you were a Twin Peaks fan in the 80's then you probably already know that this little town is where the show was filmed. In the past it has been just that, a little, quaint town. But thousands of homes later, it is an amazing little planned community.

The next day, Leslie and I drove around out there. It was easy to picture our family living there, but we are not convinced that the town is quite big enough to sustain a church like we are hoping to plant. It is not likely that we will end up there, but it was fun to dream and help shape our ideas together of where we will likely end up.

I am attempting to meet up with two local pastors in the next couple of weeks to talk about working together in a partnership. We are praying that they could get excited about helping us to launch.

Lost in America

Was able to attend a seminar at Rainier View Christian Church last week entitled, "Lost in America", which is a book written by Tom Clegg. The book's focus is to help the church regain it's passion for evangelism, but in a relational way rather than in a programatic way. Clegg's argument is that the church has become irrelvant to our culture because it has programmed itself for the people who are already inside. Our programs keep our church members happy and busy and they eventually lose all contact with those outside of the church walls.

Clegg spent over ten years in Africa as a missionary and he brings that mindset with him to his new passion of planting churches in the United States. He contends that if the church is to be effective, then it must become missionary minded. The United States is no longer a Christian Nation. A quick quiz below will help illustrate this fact.

1. What country has the Christian church with the largest attendance in the world?

2. What is the dominant religion in that country?

3. What is the location of the world's second-largest Christian church?

4. What is the dominant religion in that country?

5. In what country do you think the world's largest Buddhist temple is located?

6. Where is the world's largest Muslim training center?

7. What country has the world's largest Jewish population?

8. Which country has the 8th largest Hindu population?

9. Where is the world's largest training center for Transcendental Meditation?

(Answers Below)

1. Korea
2. Buddhist
3. Nigeria
4. Islam
5. USA - Boulder, CO
6. USA - New York, NY
7. USA
8. USA
9. USA - Fairfield, IA

In the Great Commission, Christ told His disciples to "Go into all the world"... today the world is coming to us and we need to be ready with the gospel of Christ.

Good-bye In-N-Out / Hello Burgermaster

It has been a while since I have posted, so I have quite a few things on my mind. The first is simply this - The Baconmaster with grilled onions is now my favorite fast food burger of all time. I did not think that a Double/Double Animal-Style could be beat, but it has happened. Thought you might want to know.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

My Psalm 119

I had the opportunity yesterday to spend some time alone down by the Bellevue waterfront. It is incredibly gorgeous at this time of year with all of the trees ranging from green to yellow to bright, bright red. It was warm yesterday for November and so I found a lone dock and sat on it for several hours just looking across the lake to the Seattle skyline. (I need to do that more often).

I only had my Bible with me and spent some time reading. I ended up landing in Psalm 119. It is an epic, but I poured my heart into and tried to allow the words to flow over my soul as I read. It was fairly discouraging.

David was a way more holy and confident guy than I am. Stanza after stanza, David's confident refrain is his guiltlessness, his passion for God and His Word, and his cry out to God for the help he deserves (because of the two prior confidences). As I was praying over these words, I decided to let God know what my Psalm 119 might look like. I think it would be something more like this.

I desire the wisdom of your Word O Lord. My sould longs to know You.
I think about rising before the dawn to cry out to you, but my alarm clock rarely rouses me.
I have hidden small snippets of your Word in my heart.
I meditate on your Word every once in a while, but am usually more captivated by television programming.
Direct my footsteps in spite of my failings. Let no sin rule over me.
I don't deserve any of it, but let your promises wash over me. I am afraid.

From A.W. Tozer

"The Pursuit of God" - Written in the 1948

"Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hallowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all."


Saturday, November 06, 2004

Save Lauren Reed

One of the blessings of doing ministry in one place over the past 14 years has been watching the students that you have worked with grow up, get married and have children and pour themselves into ministry. As a pastor you get to share the best of times and the worst of times with people as they walk through life.

I want to ask you to pray for Brian and Carrie Reed. I have known Brian since he was in high school. He was extremely plugged into our college ministry and now works as a construction project manager in the Phoenix area. His family is very special to us and they need our prayers more than ever.

Brian and Carrie have a little girl named Lauren (about 3 1/2) who has a Sanfilippo Syndrome. I don't expect you to know what it is, nor could I fully explain it other than to say her body lacks the enzymes to break down old cells; thus, they are simply stored in her body where they continue to build up over time. Her life expectancy, for this reason, is around 10-12 years.

Just yesterday, Lauren underwent a bone marrow transplant from her two year old brother, Nathan. You can read more about it here.

God has already worked miracles in this little girls life. People have come through from all over the world to give them the money necessary for this procedure which will be the first time it is ever attempted at this hospital. Only a handful have ever had the procedure anywhere and there is no surety of success.

Please pray.

Friday, November 05, 2004

The Green Light

Well, our assessment is over and Leslie and I are so thankful for the time we were able to spend in Portland. I'll give you a quick run down on the happenings.

Arrived Sunday evening - Nice hotel and they put us in a suite. Very nice.

Monday - We meet for orientation. There are three other couples that are being assessed at the same time we are. Two couples are from Canada (two sisters with their husbands) and a couple from Spokane, WA. We also meet our interigators...errr...assessors as well. They are all church planters who have been through the wars...so to speak. It was cool to see that they included the wives in on the assessment. That was one of the really neat things about the whole process...they truly value the husband/wife team. At the orientation, which included a devotion and prayer and a look at the schedule, George and Dottie, the head of the Christian Evangelical Association and his wife shared their story. It was incredible in that it was truly a story of brokenness and healing as both of them had prior marriages in which their spouse left them for someone else. God has truly brought healing to their lives and families and it was such a good way to kick off the time together because it tore down any shred of feeling like you had to present yourself as "superhuman" - which is easy to feel because you are, in essence, trying to sell yourself to these people in order to win their support.

Following the orientation, we were sent to our rooms where the next four hours were spent with a rotation of people coming through our doors. The assessors were paired up and they came by in hour intervals to talk about key characteristics that are necessary for successful church planting. They asked questions about our past and how we handled different situations in our life. Then the next rotation came by. It was exhausting, but did not feel like an interagation, but more like a friendly interview. This rotation also occurred again on Tuesday morning.

That evening, after a dinner out on the town, we returned to our hotel and shared our stories. Basically, conversion to why I am planting a church. It's a great way to see people's hearts and connect with them. I wish we had done this first.

Tuesday, more rotations in the morning. In the early afternoon, we headed for downtown Portland to hang out together. This is where they observe us interacting with the environment and each other. We took the light rail system they have into downtown Portland and hung out at a mall. They had gotten their wires crossed and had expected to ice skate in the mall, but it was figure skating night, so I was the only one allowed on the ice. Right. After hanging out, we went to a brewery downtown for dinner. It was election night, so the place was pretty electric around the tv monitors. It was downtown Portland so you can guess that there was not much love for W as he moved into the lead. I'm not much of a political activist, but I have taken a great interest in this election on the basis of the polarization of America. I got to talk to some twentysomethings about the election while I was standing in the bar. Can't repeat what they said on a G-rated blog, but suffice it to say, they were unhappy with G.W.

Wednesday had us surrounded by the entire assessment team as they met with each couple seperately. First they gave us one word descriptions of us. I can't remember what they were, but I loved that one of the words they used for Leslie was "Witty." That proves that she was comfortable with them. They also used the word "authentic" for her. The best thing for me about this assessment is the way that they valued Leslie and built her up. It was so cool.

Following the one word descriptions they listed their concerns for us. They were not concerns about us planting a church, but concerns that they felt we needed to take into consideration AS we planted a church. The first, was simply that with our giftings, they felt that we needed to plant a church with a team approach, rather than solo. This was no new news to me as I have been telling them that from the start. I don't want to do a solo plant. Second, they said that going from a "super-mall" church to a church where we were starting from scratch was going to be a major culture shock for us. Again, nothing we were not aware of. Third, they said that we needed to be aware of the demands of starting a plant and how that would effect our family of seven. 90% of the energy require to launch a rocket comes at lift-off. Good words to consider, but we have counted the cost. Finally, they loved my passion and said it will translate even better as we get more details put into place.

They then gave us the green light. We are officially planting a church with the Christian Evangelistic Association.