Hitchhiking to Substance

People, I just got to do the coolest thing yesterday. Wow. I’m still buzzing over it.

For those of you who don’t know, I do a lot of mid-week speaking engagements at various colleges. There is something that is absolutely fun about speaking to college students! In fact, it was these college events that first sparked a desire in me to plant a church with young people. And last night reminded me again why we launched Substance.

Thursday evening I drove to UW Stout in Wisconsin and preached at the Campus Crusade for Christ group. Many of our original Substance launch team actually came out of this very ministry back in 2004. And, as usual, this Crusade is fantastic at getting nominal and unchurched people to be open to the Gospel.

Before I went, I had this super strong sense that God wanted to do something amazing. So, I spent the day fasting and off I went. When I arrived, the room seemed pretty packed.

And I’m telling you… I could sense the power of God like I haven’t in a long time. It was powerful. Before I even finished speaking, there was a girl weeping in the front row. And by the time I asked for a response to God’s Word, it seemed like the entire room was ready to fall to their knees. We saw a huge number of college students come into the kingdom.  The atmosphere was just electrifying.

Even now, I know that, forever, I’m gonna rejoice that God allowed me to be a part of that night.   So, if God leads you, pray for the Campus Crusade in Menomenie. God has blessed us through them. So let’s return the favor! All right?

Substance church, we had another wild retreat this weekend.  And no: it wasn’t for the guys this time.  To use disco-speak: “It was ladies night.  And the feeling’s right.”  And to boot: we had a  record number of ladies at it!  So hats off to my wife and all the leaders who made our Women’s Retreat a smash success!

Of course, I couldn’t personally participate (for obvious reasons); but, I have been blown away by the fruitfulness that resulted.  Like our men’s retreat, the retreat was dominated by a delightful number of new Substance members (as well as many new Christians).

So thanks for all of you lady-leaders who went:   I just want to say thank-you.  Our ability to attract new and unchurched people is easy compared to our ability to find mature Christians who are willing to lay it out in order to disciple others.  The sheer quantity of outreach and mentoring that happened during this retreat was staggering.

As for me, I was on Dad duty.  (& you have to realize, I don’t cook anything except for Ramen); so, this was a big ordeal for me to feed 3 energetic kids.  On Thursday night, I gathered my kids together to perform the opening ceremony for “Daddy Weekend Extravaganza” (which was a three day program of over-hyped events… designed to distract my kids from my obvious lack of maternal capabilities.)  And WOW, I am amazed how many diapers my wife changes on a daily basis.  (Thank the Lord!  I had only one wild diaper defecation experience.)  And finally, after eating candy and popcorn for breakfast on Saturday, my girls were pretty much sick-to-death of our “Extravaganza” activities.  The only thing on all of our minds was: “When’s Mommy coming home!?”  It suffices to say that I broke down and bought a Sony Playstation 3 to survive the weekend.

But overall, the Ladies Retreat was definitely worth it.  And I think I can say on behalf of all forlorn Dads that we’d do it again for you ladies anytime… well, at least once a year.
But, get ready guys.  The ladies are back.  And they are ON FIRE!

Are you getting tired of all of these political ads?
I think the ones that get to me the worst are the commercials that highlight all of their political opponents attack ads.  In other words, it’s an attack ad that is attacking the morality of their opponent’s attack ads?  Hmmm?  Something seems strange about that picture!

Equally bad are the pundits who grotesquely escalate the stakes of every election: “Vote for  [fill-in-the-blank] …or we’re all gonna die!” I.e., they make it sound as though almost every miniscule policy of their opponent is going to completely and utterly destroy life as we know it.

Don’t get me wrong, there are indeed a “few hills worth dying on”; but, we also have to acknowledge that desperate politicians, and desperate Christians — who have no faith in Christ are likely to make desperate statements.  Fear is a classic motivation strategy.  And, even Christians are likely to puke their fears on you before election day is over.  So be on guard.  Preachers and radio shows are especially good at this.

But it’s important to know this:   Fear is not of God.  For God is love.  And perfect love casts out fear.  Paul demonstrated this when he wrote his letter to Timothy.

At the time, Christians were experiencing the wrath of one of the most evil Roman Emperors ever, named Nero.  This man was notorious for deep wickedness – doing untold atrocities to Christians.  Yet, listen to how peaceful Pauls words were:

1 Tim.2:1-2 “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone- 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”
In other words, Paul was quite different than all of the pundits we hear in the news.  He wasn’t out there exaggerating and demonizing leaders with every breath.  And, I don’t know who you are voting for; but, I’m pretty sure that, either way, none of our options are as bad as Nero.

Even more, Paul said that we should give “thanksgiving” for “all” those in authority.  I.e., Paul didn’t exclude anyone – even Nero – which says numerous things about Paul.
1).  Paul wasn’t a fear-monger, he was a child of God!   When God is your Father you simply don’t need to worry or over-react.
2).  Paul was so secure in God, he could think about positive things – even during the worst of times.

So, if you find your own heart getting anxious this election season,  I give you a solid Biblical command:    Be At Peace!
(All right?)
I’m Peter Haas, and I approve this message!

P.S., Come on out for our new series: Jesus for President!

Well, I guess we are an officially “known” church in the Twin Cities.  After all, we just got our first Star Tribune article written!  We got two pretty large pics… one of which was a 8 x 10 spread across the front of the variety section.  Of course, I was uncertain how it would turn out; but, it happens to be a really nice article!

As I was sharing my crazy “coffee-in-my-lap” story in my message last week… I demonstrated how I was scooping iced-coffee out of my nether regions when the Star-trib photographer started taking pictures.  Suddenly, the thought occurred to me that I might actually need to pretend to look more dignified (but, there’s no sense in hiding the truth!)

So, If you’re wanting to read the online version, I’ve pasted the link right here:  http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/30269639.html?elr=KArksUUUU

And, if that doesn’t work, I’ll try to paste another copy down below.

But, isn’t it fun to start getting a reputation in the city?  I mean, we’re a brand new church.  We’re a four year old church — fresh out of our diapers.  I remember when we first planted, I tried to get a $10,000 line of credit at the local bank (to establish our credit and reputation for the future).  At my last church, I had numerous banks begging me to do million dollar loans, so I thought this would be easy.  After being denied, the banker said:  “I’m sorry.  You guys do not look like a very stable investment!”  (I was so shocked and mad!  After all, I was only doing it to establish some credit!!!)  But even still, I had to pick my fragile ego off the ground and look towards the future.  The bottom line was, our organization was too young — and had a weird name!

But doggonit!  We’re in the newspaper now!  So friends, let’s celebrate!  Twin Cities:  Here we come!