Posts from 2012

Posts from 2012

Christmas Project – Hope of the Grand Valley

Let’s help Hope of the Grand Valley spread the message that this is a season of hope and that there are neighbors in this valley that care about their struggles and their family. The following is a note from Vickie McGee, Director/Founder of Hope of the Grand Valley, one of our strategic partners. In order to not duplicate services, and provide for more families in need, HOPE of the Grand Valley is focusing on our employed working families that are…

It’s Ok, We’re All Messed Up

So what does NineSevenZero Church look like? Who is it for? These are extremely important questions for a church plant to be able to answer, but they are surprisingly difficult to succinctly express. Looking at a spectrum of church types it’s easier to say what we don’t want to be rather than what we desire to be. On one end of the spectrum is the hyper liberal church that has abandoned the truth of the Bible and embraced cultural mores. They emphasize the love…

God`s Social Change Agent

Cultural norms and morals don’t originate in in the political and legal structures of our government. Our political leaders and systems are simply a reflection of the character and values of the people of our nation. Positive social change and movement rarely begins in our nation’s capital and usually is the last place it appears. Washington is a place where tenured bureaucrats are totally invested in maintaining the status-quo, politicians are consumed with managing public opinion and getting re-elected, and powerful special interest…

A Church Rising Up Out of the Culture

One of the books that we have referenced in the formation process of NineSevenZero Church is John Burke’s, No Perfect People Allowed. There he described a type of missional church that resonated with our hearts and our intentions – A Church Rising Up Out of the Culture. “This is…not a church for a post-Christian culture, where Christians huddle up behind the fortress walls and make forays outside into the messy culture, but a church molded out of a post-Christian people ~…

WATER – A Community`s Life Blood

The Colorado River is the life blood of the Grand Valley. It provides irrigation for our agriculture and homes, water for our ranches and their herds, supplies a majority of drinking water for our communities, and also supports the diverse wildlife of the high desert. Water is an integral component of the region’s agricultural, recreation, tourist, and even the oil/gas industries. People of the Western Slope understand the importance of water to life, economy, and enjoyment. Water is valuable and…
Sam and Frodo, Lord of the Rings

While There`s Hope There`s Life

Most people (me included) use the word hope as a verb, like in the closing of a conversation, “I hope things get better.” Honestly, it’s usually just wishful thinking and a way to sound compassionate but that’s not what people need. While there is a active part to the hope that people need, the first thing that our community needs is for us to be a people of hope. The noun form of the word, a hope that is as…

How Should We Respond to a Community Tragedy?

The mass shooting that occurred at a theatre in Aurora, Colorado, has once again reawakened societal fears, invaded the psyche of our nation and sparked another round of political debate. For Coloradans memories and feelings associated with the Columbine High School shootings in 1999 and the YWAM and New Life Church shootings in 2007 instantly came flooding back. Our state has once again been rocked by the senseless murder of innocent lives and we are left with a gaping range…
game of life

The Favor of God

The commercialization of the “Blessing of God” has become a multi-million dollar business that extends from the pulpit, to books, to television and to online media. The promoters of this other gospel have capitalized on our insatiable appetite for wealth and possessions and have put forth an ideology that is the American Dream with a supernatural spin. This gospel not only promises material wealth and success but also physical health and a pain-free life. It offers an all powerful genie-like…

DNA – The Primacy of Gospel Proclamation

This is part three of a series exploring the essence of the DNA strands that define the nature, appearance, personality, motivation, and purpose for all those that identify with the community of faith known as NineSevenZero Church. This process of definition will insure that as we grow, as we send out people, as we replicate groups, as we reproduce fellowships, that each one will contain an exact imprint of the genetic material necessary for life, growth, and reproduction. The primary…
Basilica of St. Louis

The Problem with the Big Box Church

The way we do church is working with fewer people in our culture all the time.The model of church that most of us are a product of is quickly becoming ineffective in today’s world. This isn’t about styles of worship, high church or low church, mainline or independent, protestant or catholic, liturgical or pentecostal. This is about all of the Christian churches. Just about every church in America can be described with three words: “Come to us.” That is it.…

DNA – The Missional Strand

Today’s American society has many similarities to the culture which surrounded the first century church: People are spiritually sensitive and hungry but they are not looking to the Christian church. The culture is pluralistic but intolerant of the exclusive claims of Christ. The Christian faith is politically maligned and culturally held in disdain. That first century culture was God’s incubator for the genesis of the Church. We know the sect of Christ followers grew rapidly. The Church multiplied at an…

A Pentecost Reflection

One of the things I love about the Scriptures is that they speak to me where I’m living. As I read the account of the Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 I was drawn to different passages as though they were highlighted. While I have to work at reading the Scripture though lenses that include all of the Bible and that recognize its first audience, it’s much easier for me to view it through the perspective of my life. As a…
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