Search Results for: Friends and friends of friends

What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been!  Let me take a moment to update you on some of what’s been going on around here. I had a great swing through south Texas over the last couple of weeks and found myself with people who were at incredible points of joy, struggle, or temptation in their lives.  If you want to hear a bit more about that, I share a bit in the latest God Journey podcast.  I love the people God allows me to meet and encourage on this journey of sorting out what it is to live in the Father’s love and then learn to share it freely with others.  Trips in the new year may take me to Atlanta and New Zealand.  Stay tuned to our Travel Page for updates.  

For those who want a taste of what that’s like who live in the Southern California area, Sara and I are hosting a gathering next Saturday, November 22 at our home in Newbury Park.  You’ve got to RSVP for details and directions.  If you’re nearby and want to join us you’d be most welcome. 

For my friends in Russia and the Ukraine friends, an audio version of He Loves Me is now available in Russian.  I am so grateful for the people there who have recorded it and make it available free of charge for those who want to listen to it.  But, you have to understand Russian.  You can always check for other translations on our International Page.  

We’ve also had some new developments on the movie of The Shack.  You can read more here.  Having read the most recent screenplay I’m getting very excited about this adaptation and praying that all the pieces will come together to retell that story to a new audience who’ve never read the book.  Brad’s been working hard to accomplish that and hopefully it will be out sometime next winter.  

Finally, there are a lot of developments on the Finding Church front. We are just finishing up the audio version that will hopefully be out in the first part of December.  There are a lot of pieces to that puzzle and we hope to get them all done as soon as we can.  Also, Finding Church has risen to as high as #4 on Amazon’s list of books about Church Structures and Institutions.  Now, that’s fascinating. Thanks to all of you who have been writing reviews on Amazon and sharing youro thoughts about the book on Facebook and other social media.  It certainly helps get the word out for others.  

And I love the mail I’m getting from the new book.  Here’s an example from Jack in South Carolina: 

“I am finding difficulty reading it. The coffee stains are already bad enough that I won’t be able to give my copy away and the fluorescent orange highlights would indicate stops and starts that indeed added to the aforementioned coffee stains.  My difficulty is a good one, you have some one-liners that literally make me put the book down, look out the window and hold my breath. Almost as if I am letting something go that has held me back.  I am so encouraged to read what I have felt in my gut and the “letting go” has nothing to do with the system but in my hope that a system, any system, would or could incubate or sustain LIFE.

So, page 68 you wrote, “I was caught between two worlds—the self-effort of performance based religion and the new creation growing inside of me. I didn’t know it at the time, but the two are incompatible.”  How gut wrenchingly true that is!  How hard it is to come to that reality if your hope has been in a Sunday system or for that matter, a teacher, preacher or anything man-made. It is still something that is sorting out in my heart. Best put by you, “learning to live alongside Jesus in the new creation.” Thank you for writing this book. I see the years of your sweat and tears that have gone into ‘finding church”. I believe, in another sense, we are finding Jesus, our life. Thank you for helping peel back the curtain of the Father’s love.  

You can follow the ongoing discussion about Finding Church at FindingChurch.com where you can subscribe to the blog, or by liking the Finding Church Facebook Page. 

Good news for those of you waiting for Finding Church overseas!  Finding Church is now available everywhere, at least by e-book.  I’m sorry the expenses of International shipping are so exorbitant.  But if you want hard copies of the book sent to overseas destinations, please write our office for a quote rather than trusting the shipping calculator on the website.  It does not work well, which is why it’s best to write us first.  Please keep in mind that in most cases we can send four books to the same destination overseas that we can send one book.   If you do order through the site and the shipping cost is too high, Sara refunds the difference but there are some merchant fees that get attached to that as well.

In other news, I was invited on the Untangled Podcast with two good friends of mine, David Fredrickson and Loren Rosser to discuss Finding Church.  I enjoyed their enthusiasm for the book.  It is a Skype interview so the audio is a bit rough in places, but you can still enjoy the conversation with us.  
We’ve added a new page to Order the Book page at FindingChurch.com so that you can easily order it from Lifestream, Amazon, or the e-books from Kindle, iBook, or Nook.  Happy reading, everyone!  The way this book is touching people so far is way beyond anything we would have hoped for.

If you’d like to stay up with the growing conversation, you can subscribe to email updates at FindingChurch.com or “like” our new Facebook Page to get regular updates on the conversation there.  There’s a new blog posting today I think you’ll enjoy about The Day Finding Church Went to Seminary.  

I continue to be blessed and amazed by the early feedback from many reading Finding Church.  Thanks for letting me know how this book has impacted you.  Today we have revamped our FindingChurch.com website to help support this growing conversation, both for those inside out and outside of congregational settings.  I’ll be blogging over there from time to time, as well as blogging here.  If you want to keep up with that conversation, you might bookmark that page, or subscribe to the email updates from there.  I want to get back to blogging here about people who are on a journey learning to live inside the reality of Father’s affection and share that freely with others. 

Since we are publishing this book ourselves, the only place you can order the hard copy right now is through Lifestream.org and Amazon.com.  However, over the last couple of days the e-book is now available from Kindle, iBooks, Nook, and most other e-book outlets.  We do have books here available at bulk discount in quantities of 12 or a carton of 46.   And, please, if you are ordering from overseas, email our office for a shipping quote.  The calculator on the website adds exorbitant pricing.  

FindingChurch.com provides tools, links and encouragement to help expand the conversation on the web.  There are ideas and images there you can post on your website as well as ideas about sharing the book in your circle of friendships if you want to do so.  We also have a new Facebook page to help facilitate that conversatio and you can “like it” if you want to follow the conversation there.  I’m not sure how long we’ll host these additional resources.  It will depend on how well they work and how much time I have for it, but I am excited.  

This is today’s post at FindingChurch.com.  I will include some posts in both places while people are still getting used to following this conversation in both locations:   

When a friend of mine was reading an advance copy of Finding Church, he told me the phrase that kept coming to his mind was “an exhilaration of the heart.”  With every turn of the page he would find his own hopes for a church more real than he had yet known could be in the world.  That’s one of the best comments I’d had on this book.  We’ve let our human institutions co-opt the word “church” for so long, that we define it based on how well they are doing, instead of looking for the church whose builder is Jesus and transcends all the institutions we know.  She is all he promised she would be and as we begin to see her, I hope it exhilarates all our hearts.

Then, last week while I was in Ohio, I got this email from someone who had just started reading it:

Oh Wayne, the words fail.  Great doesn’t even come close.  Even while I am reading your new book I am thinking the thrill is very hard to communicate—the thrill and the freedom.  Sometimes its just too much and I think my heart will literally explode.

I hope that’s a good thing!  His church is that amazing, “a bride without spot or wrinkle”, “the fullness of him who fills everything in every way”,”the temple in which God dwells by his Spirit”.

What could be more exhilarating than that?

I know it’s been a long wait for many of you. I’ve had so many people cheering me to the finish line here in anticipation of reading my latest book, Finding Church.  They have arrived at last and today we were able to get out a good chunk of the first pre-orders. It will take us a few days to get caught up in the backlog, but we are now shipping the book for those who have waited. And it has seemingly been as much torture for those waiting to read it, as for those who got earlier editions to read.  I got this last week from someone reading a PDF version of the book in preparation for my appearing on a podcast that they co-host:

I’ve been reading the advanced copy of your book in preparation for the podcast (I’ll) be doing with you in October and I must say having to keep this under wraps until it’s released has been pure torture!  This is a fantastic book!  It really is a book I’d like to put in the hands of every hungry believer.  I’m only up to chapter 8 and already I’ve come across several quotes I wanted to share with friends.  Reading this book feels the same as when I attended a college football game a couple weeks ago and watched my team throw a beautiful pass and run it all the way down the field as I stood by screaming, “Yes! Yes! Keep going! Yes!”  Then they scored the touchdown.  “YES!!!!!!”  Many head for the goal but don’t quite make it.  This one is a touchdown!

Well, Loren, and others, you no longer have to wait. Feel free to post some of your favorite quotes from the book and let others in on it as well. I have to honestly say this is not the book I set out to write. Of all the books I’ve worked on this one turned out to be a total surprise to me. I discovered so much about my own journey and how all the facets of it brought me to this season of my life. It was a grand discovery for me to write it. I told Brad today on a podcast we were recording, that if I’d only written this book for me and no one ever read it, it would have served its purpose. Doing so has helped me see more clearly into a wider creation than I knew before I began. I never saw that coming.

While I am sure this book will be helpful for those who have already given up on institutionalized forms of church, it was not written for them alone but for anyone who is struggling between the promise of Scripture and the reality of “church” as we’ve come to know it in the 21st century. Since it is Father’s desire to bring all things together under one Head, Jesus, I wanted this book to invite all of God’s people into a more wholesome conversation about what the church is and how generous hearts can engage it most easily.  So this is not only for people looking for more authentic expression of Jesus’ church outside the box of organized religion, but also for those inside of it with the same hungers.  Here’s how I expressed it in the book:  

Since you’ve picked up this book, I suspect you might have concerns about the church as we know it today, or care deeply for someone who does. Maybe you’re an active part of a congregation hoping against hope that something can be done to make it more reflective of Jesus’ kingdom. Maybe you’ve already left your congregation and have given up hope that anything can fulfill your longing for his church. Or, maybe your parents stopped attending the fellowship they raised you in and you’re wondering if they’ve lost their minds.

Then I heard from a friend last week who was in a Sunday service recently at a Mennonite church. The speaker that morning was a Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at the local Mennonite Biblical Seminary.  He had read an advanced copy of the book and told them they all needed to buy it when it became available.  He said from the pulpit: “This Jacobsen is quite the writer! He writes in a way that grips you! I’m 84 years old and have only known the institutional church, but I know he’s right!”  Wow! Hearing that it had touched him so deeply took my breath away.

He later wrote me that he’d had a subsequent discussion with this man:  “We did have another discussion today about your book. He keeps thinking about it. He finds it very provocative. I think it was a good time for him to read it because the Mennonite church is undergoing some changes and the book charged his batteries on the subject.”   I’m excited to see who this book might touch.    

So they are here now and we are shipping them out as fast as we can catch up with the pre-orders.  We are doing a soft release now to friends of Lifestream and The God Journey. Amazon is taking pre-orders now will be releasing them on October 15. E-books should be available by then at all the regular outlets.  

We are also making them available in discounted bulk pricing for those who’d like to share them with others.   We will be selling a box of 12 for $86.00 and a full case of 46 for $260.00, which includes shipping to any US destination and is less than wholesale.  You can find our quantity pricing here.  If you have a retail business or website and want to re-sell these books to your customers, you’d have our permission and blessing.  

And if you want to keep up with the larger conversation we hope this book spawns, you might want to bookmark FindingChurch.com as I’ll be doing a bit of blogging over there as well as keeping people updated on tweets, podcasts, reviews, and blogs about the book.  

The team has just arrived back in Kitale from a visit to West Pokot and finalizing arrangements to open the dispensary.  As you know we’ve been heavily involved in this area since ouf friends there discovered 120,000 people starving from drought and dying from disease in a region of the country that is beyond government assistance and NGO help.  We sent $62,000 initially to help with immediate food, water, and medical needs.  We then added another $65,000 to build school rooms and a dispensary in the region and put in four wells at a cost of over $30,000 per well.  In the last month we sent an additional $140,000 to create an enterprise that will help feed the area and whose profits will be able to pick up the shortfall at the orphanage, due to lower than expected petrol sales, and also cover expenses at the schools in West Pokot.  

Our friends in Kitale have worked incredibly hard to bless their brothers and sisters to the north and none of this money has benefited them at all.  Even though their needs are great, they have shared it all with those in worse shape in North Pokot.  In fact they have been the volunteers that have gone up into the region to do the hard work to bring these projects to fruition.  

In theThis outpouring of generosity has also opened this entire region to the Gospel.  Since prayers for the ancestors failed them they are hungrily learning about Jesus and the life he offers.  

The team yesterday received approval from the Ministry of Health to open the dispensary and begin delivering medical care to people who have absolutely none available.  We had hoped the government would pick up the costs of medicines in that region or another NGO, but so far no one has stepped up.  They need $32,500 to equip the dispensary and that’s using volunteer doctors and nurses to care for the patients.  They have been able to do some care as the pictures below will show, but they don’t have the medicines they need.  I did not promise them when they wanted to build a dispensary or now that we would take responsibility to provide medicine for that region.  We have sent almost $400,000 into that region in the last six months just from the friends I have through Lifestream and The God Journey.  I’m sure everyone is getting a bit fatigued with the ongoing needs in Kenya.  I’ll admit that I am so I am only going to make it available in case people have it on their heart to provide this medicine. As always, Lifestream takes nothing out of the contributions given for any expenses, and in fact we have covered out of our own provision the shortfalls in each of these campaigns.  

So, what do you think?  If God has put it on your heart to help with these needs, you can direct it through Lifestream.  Contributions are tax-deductible in the US.  As always, every dollar you send goes to the need in Kenya.  We do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees.  If you would like to be part of this to support these brothers and sisters and see the gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Here is some of what’s going on at the dispensary now:

The Minister of Health is greeted by the locals as arrives to inspect the dispensary.

People waiting for services at the dispensary, or for those getting care. 

A doctor helping a young patient

Thanks for your thoughts, prayers, and gifts on their behalf.  They are overwhelmed with gratitude every time I hear from them, and so am I.

I am amazed at the magnificence of God’s timing that would allow Sara and I to spend a month with my father after the passing of my mom.  It not only allowed us to help him with all the details of her passing, planning her celebration, and dealing with the endless paperwork, but also allowed some amazing fellowship with him as his life gets rearranged.  Today we have to head for home and it will not be easy.  We have enjoyed this season and God’s timing.  (For those that wanted to see the video commemorating my mom’s life that I referred to in my last blog, you can view it here.)

It actualliy seemed like months ago when we arrived.  I had two weeks to finish Finding Church when I arrived amidst everything else going on and was able to get it ready to send to the copy editor.  When I get home I’ll be working to finalize the cover and finish all the copy so we can get it to the printer.  I’ve sent it to a number of people to get their reviews of it and am excited about the feedback I’ve been getting.  As we get closer to publication, I will also be sending out copies to those who would like to do reviews on their blogs or an interview on their podcasts about the book.  Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we’ll be able to open up pre-orders for the book.  We are hoping for books by September 20, but will probably aim for an October 15 release date.  

I’ve been glad to have that out of my head for a couple of weeks of celebrating my mom with family and friends that came in from every season of my parents’ lives.  I also have a lot of connections in this area having lived in the Central Valley of California for 47 years, so that means we get to catch-up with old friends, help encourage people on this amazing journey of learning to live in his love and love others in the same way.  We even had an all-day Saturday gathering in Clovis to explore that life and many other personal encounters.  

All and all this has been an amazing month.  I’m not sure I got all the rest in that I hoped for, or all the books read that I wanted to, but I have a sense that we did what pleased Jesus.   It will be good to get back home and get back to a more consistent routine, which will include trips this fall to Lake Tahoe, Bakersfield, CA, Lexington, KY, northeast Ohio, and south Texas.  I look forward to those engagements and whatever else God chooses to unfold.    Blessings to you all!  

Thank you for all the comments, emails, and cards expressing your love and concern for our family in this season.  It is all much appreciated.  Many want to know how we are doing, so I thought I’d let you know.  Surprisingly we are doing well.  There’s plenty of sorrow, certainly, but in it there is a deep peace knowing this was her time and that here life was a full and fruitful one, and yes, full of challenges and pain as well.  She was a great part of this family and is missed greatly.  My mom lived a long and fruitful life and her legacy is her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.  She always put family first and cared for us all as deeply as one can care.

Mom died almost three weeks ago now and the reality is setting in more and more, especially with our grandchildren who are sorting through the reality of death.  Her celebration service is this weekend, over three weeks since her passing and that has not been easy to wait so long but we had to leave time for friends and relatives to get here.   We’ve also been helping dad with all the paperwork and arrangements that have to be done.   The last six months was an incredible journey for both of them that drew them more deeply to a dependence on Father than they’d ever known.  Those days were so sweet, even in the conditions they endured that he is at rest.  His prayer a few years ago when he almost died following surgery that he would outlive her so that he could help her through whatever challenges she faced.  It’s not easy to watch him go on alone now, but he is most certain that God is having his way in all these things. 

Though Mom helped Dad on the vineyard, she was the consummate homemaker with a safe and nurturing environment for her children.  She loved us and our families well and would do anything to help us along in our adult years as well.   With an open heart and an open home she also found time to be a “mom” to hundreds of other young men and women who have written me with gracious words of the influence my mom had on their lives in the counsel and prayers she shared with them. 

Saying good-bye in this age is not easy, but it is joyously without regrets.  A few years ago God laid it Sara and my hearts to spend more time with them in these declining years and we’ve done that with them and will continue to with Dad.  Everything that needed to be said got said and letting her go into the Age to Come was incredibly graced with God’s presence, direction, and transformation for both Mom and Dad.  We will celebrate her life this weekend with lots of people from all across their path.  Yes, it will be sad, but grief is not something I fear when God is in it.  The tears only express the love and it is as much a part of life as the laughter of better times.  My brother has just completed a video celebrating her life and our family.  I’ll post a link to it next week for those who can’t make the service and would like to see it.  (Link to video here.)  For our Central Valley friends, here is her obituary if you missed it on my Facebook page last week: 

Jo Jacobsen

Joanne “Jo” C. Jacobsen, beloved wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother quietly passed away on Friday, July 25 in Auberry, CA with her husband at her side.

Born on April 9, 1930, in Selma California, Jo graduated from Selma High School in 1947 and was married shortly thereafter to Eugene Jacobsen.  They enjoyed sixty-six years together that included rearing their four sons and working the grape vineyard where they lived south of Selma.  A passionate follower of Jesus, she was active in the church congregations she attended and with community activities such as cub scouts and PTA.
She is survived by three of her sons and their wives, Bruce and Susan Jacobsen of Fresno, CA, Wayne and Sara Jacobsen of Newbury Park, CA and Clay and Cindy Jacobsen of Camarillo, CA.  Her eldest son, Rod, passed away in 1999 and is survived by his widow, Kathy Jacobsen of Hayden, ID.  Her surviving sister, Ranella Kindlund, lives in Kingston , GA.

She delighted in her children, and their families with nine grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren.  She worked with her husband on the vineyard and hosted numerous parties and gatherings on the ranch.  She enjoyed hand-crafting and quilting and her countless cookies, pies, and cakes were greatly appreciated by friends and family.  Her wedding cakes graced many a young couples wedding in the area.

In 1993 they sold the vineyard and retired to Shaver Lake, CA, where they relished their later years with family, close friends and active involvement in the Church of Shaver Lake where Jo played piano for the worship team.

Services will be held on August 16 at 1:30 pm at the Chapel at Shaver Lake, CA.   (41340 Tollhouse Rd)   Please dress casually.   Remembrances can be sent to the Benevolence Fund for the Church at Shaver Lake (PO Box 601, Shaver Lake, CA 93664), which will be used to purchase equipment for the Wish-I-Ah Care Center were Jo spent the last five months of her life. 

Late yesterday afternoon I sent Finding Church to my editor.  I have been inside this manuscript since last August and it is always a funny feeling to send it off.  Now I can’t touch it for the next two weeks and it couldn’t have come at a better time.  Afterwards Sara and I began our two-week vacation by going out on the lake with my daughter Julie and her three kids to watch a beautiful sunset develop in the west and the super moon rise in the east.  What a special, quiet, and awe-inspiring time. 

So I woke up this morning without that book in my head for the first time in a year.  I began it up here a year ago and it has been quite a journey getting all my thoughts down about Jesus’ church in one place.  I know there’s still some tweaking ahead, but we are on the home stretch to finally get it out to others.  I hope it will spawn a great discussion about what the church really is and how people engage her with freedom and joy.  

We have not yet made a final decision on the cover, but have appreciated all the help so many of you gave us.  I probably received over 400 comments and emails with opinions that were all over the map.  It’s amazing how passionate people can be for their favorite idea and how anguished they can be over ones they didn’t like.   It was a real study in diversity and how personal preferences are not a matter of right or wrong.  And you were all at a disadvantage because you hadn’t read the book yet to even know what’s inside.  We weren’t taking a poll anyway, just trying to get some feedback to help guide our thinking.  We got that and more.  In the end it will come down to what my artist and I both think best represents the content of this book.   We’re getting close now and hopefully will announce the cover in the next week or so.   It may be one of those three, or another idea we’ve been exploring of late.  We never thought we could make everyone happy, and after all it’s only a book cover anyway, not an art piece for the Louvre. 

Sara and I are with my father and we’re going to take a couple of weeks off to enjoy our kids, grandkids, and lots of friends and relatives that will be gathering next weekend for my mom’s celebration.  I’m looking forward to seeing lots of people that have shared life with this family for generations. 

I’ve got some new pictures to share with you from our friends in Kenya and some news to pass on.  The wells in North Pokot have been completed and are fully functional.  The schoolrooms and pharmacy superstructure is complete and they have begun finish work inside.  The people there are so grateful to the volunteers from IGEM and to those who have contributed money toward their need.  Over the last few months your generosity has placed almost a quarter of a million dollars and countless hours of volunteer work into their impoverished tribal lands of 120,000 people. If you missed the story of how all that happened you can read it here.  

The needs, of course, continue to finish the rooms, equip them, and help support the staff who will help with education and medical needs.  There is some talk now about expanding the dispensary into a small field hospital to treat those who have no place else to go.  We are currently working that through channels to see if that is a possibility.  I know we cannot meet every need in Kenya so I’m trying to remain sensitive as to what God has asked of me and what I have to say no too.  Coming from a wealthy country those lines are not easy to find.  My heart goes out to people who have so little when we enjoy so much in this country.  My prayer every day is that God will give us wisdom in all of this and that their depence will grow on him not on Lifestream or The God Journey.    This isn’t easy!

Also, Im wrote previously about a pharmicist from Australia who has taken a personal interest in this project.  Her name is Rashida Cottrell and not only is their family sharing in the need there, but she is also going to be competing in a Tough Mudder run as an incentive for others to give as well.  This is a great story of passion and support.   You can get more details here or you can Rashida her for more information.  If you’d like to support her efforts and you’re from Australia you can do so and get a donation receipt.  If you’re in the US and want to support her you can give to Lifestream in her name and we’ll forward the funds on to Kenya and let her know that you helped her. 

I find myself both overwhelmed with gratitude at the generosity of so many of you and by the ongoing need in that corner of the world.  Who knew that God could open a door for my connections on the web for just such a time as this for people who are in such great need.  Your prayers are most welcome for the people in IGEM and those in North Pokot.  If you can and want to help financially you can direct it through Lifestream as contributions are tax-deductible in the US.  As always, every dollar you send goes to the need in Kenya.  We do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees.  If you would like to be part of this to support these brothers and sisters and see the gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Here are the new pictures: 

The work on the dispensary continues

With grateful hearts the people of North Pokot say good bye to the well drillers.  

The water flows freely in North Pokot

The volunteers who built the schoolrooms and dispensary arrive back in Kitale

At 4:35 pm Monday afternoon, I wrote the final sentence in my new book, Finding Church:  What If There Really Is Something More?  That’s always a wonderful moment, akin to a builder turning the last screw in the dream house he’s been building for his family, or a trucker turning off the freeway toward home at the end of a cross-country trip.  It’s a wonderful feeling.  Part of what helped me get to the end was the cheerleading of a friend who said he had the sense that “this message is a modern version of what Christ was doing while he was here in human form, fighting for the freedom of his beloved.”  Gracious words, given that he hadn’t read it yet, but I hope that’s true and I’m blessed not to be the only voice in that fight.  I do hope, however, that for many for whom the term “church” conjures up images of pain, arrogance, or bondage, might look elsewhere to the church that Jesus is building that is filled with love, life, and grace.  

If you’ve been following this odyessy you know I was close to this point four months ago before I blew it all up on the advice of a good friend and first editor I ever had.  I love how it has come back together and hope now we’ve find the form that will best convey this material.  But even then I had yet to work on the final chapter.  Though I had some notes there, I was never sure how this book would end.  On this reformatting I kept wondering and it didn’t become clear to me until early on Saturday morning as I began to approach it.  I had no idea how to give a final summation given the fact that this journey is still unfolding for me and that I have great hope that God is still percolating something amazing beneath the surface of our world and that the church will yet take expression in ways more profound than any of us see at this point.  Finally I knew how to end it in the only way this book could end, in a chapter titled, “To Be Continued”. 

Here are a few excerpts:  

No, this is not a promise for a sequel called Finding Church Too!  I am simply acknowledging that this book speaks into a story that is far from complete.  Though Jesus is building his church in the world she is not yet all that she needs to be to bring this age to its conclusion and to be presented before him as his spotless bride.  He is still building his church though in ways that mostly go unnoticed and unnamed. 

And while I’m filled with anticipation at what might yet lie down the road, I have no idea what she will look like in the end as people are untangled from obligation to human systems and become more preoccupied with him and his kingdom.   What will it look like as we learn to love one another from the heart and care about each other the way God cares for us? The tastes I’ve had locally and internationally of this family when people are focused on him and generous with each other have fulfilled every desire I’ve had to experience his church in the world.  My heart yearns to see more of his children find their way into that reality and when they do, what will we look like then?  I told you upfront that I wasn’t an expert with all of the answers and now that we’ve arrived at the final chapter, hopefully you’re convinced. If you have more questions than answers, you are not alone.  I do too.  I want to keep learning how I can more effectively engage this church Jesus is building and I anticipate that to be a life-long adventure.  But to be honest, if I died tomorrow I could truthfully say that I’ve been able to participate freely in the incredible beauty and power of his church that I always hoped was possible. 

Finding church is not a matter of locating a group you like and joining it.   I hope many of you arrive at the end of this book as exhilarated as I am by the possibilities of finding a more vibrant church experience than you have found to date.  If you’ve wondered why you never seemed to fit freely into the human models we’ve created, perhaps now you understand why.  You weren’t rebellious or independent; you just had a seed of life in your heart that refused to settle for an illusion when something real beckoned you onward.

Finding church is not a matter of simply joining a Christian group, but actually embracing him and inside of him discovering how to live and think with others in the new creation.  We can’t describe her in intellectual terms and then implement our own strategies to fulfill it.  The church has to be experienced alongside others who are being transformed by him.  You don’t control that, and neither do I. We can only make ourselves available to him and see how he links us together. 

I hope this book is continued in a broader conversation of men and women worldwide who are passionate about Jesus and his kingdom that are willing to look past our differences to the common unity we have by virtue of the fact that we are children of the same Father.  It won’t be about the best way to do church, or to which one you belong, but how can we all belong more fully to Christ.  How can he be our shepherd and lead us to greater freedom from our own agendas so that we can truly be one as Father, Son, and Spirit are one?  How can we encourage each other on that path, and how might he connect us in conversations and collaborations of generosity and graciousness that will make him visible in the world…

Sharing my joy with friends I’ve been near over the last couple of days at finally completing this book, illicited the same question:  “So when will it be ready to read?”  So before I get those emails, I’ll answer as best I know.  I’m going to spend the next month polishing up the entire work. While I’ve already cut about 15,000 words from it, I want to streamline it a bit more and hoping find another 5,000. For those of you who don’t write, that may not make much sense. Why cut out something I might want to read?  I am not cutting it to leave things out; I’m cutting out the extraneous matter to make what’s most important stand out.  And believe me, there’s always extraneous matter.  If I was with a real publisher it would take another 12 months to get it ready for publication. But since I’m doing this one on my own I’m hopeful to get through editing, lay-out and cover design by early September and release the book in late September. That’s all best-case scenario.  If I have to blow it up again, it will take even longer.  But I’m hopeful that I won’t need to.  

Thanks to so many of you who have been an encouragement throughout this process.  I