Greetings to the BCC Family!

Melodie and I were gone last week, celebrating our 30th Anniversary with our dear prayer partners in ministry. Because of the vacation, we missed two Sundays with the BCC Family, and I really missed the chance to worship with all of you these past two Sundays! I also missed seeing the staff and interacting with them during the week. It is good to be back, and I can hardly wait until this next Sunday when we can meet together again for worship and praise. 

While in Seattle, we had a chance to worship with Mars Hill Church, pastored by Mark Driscoll. He is preaching through the book of Luke and we heard him teach about when Jesus chased the money changers out of the temple. I learned a few things, not so much about the text he was teaching on as I did about "doing church". Please allow me to share some observations if you will:

1st Observation - Church can be done in many different ways

As you may know, Mars Hill Seattle is a very big mega-church with a number of satellite campuses all over the city and country. On Sunday, we worshipped in a downtown satellite which was nothing more than an old building remodeled to accommodate church. It was just a one-story unimpressive building, pretty beat up, with a very small parking lot. The inside walls were painted black. They had a small little entryway, and a small little bookshelf which was their "bookstore". They had a small kitchen with the most gigantic expresso coffee machine that I have ever seen. (I guess in the birthplace of Starbucks, you had better have good coffee!) Their auditorium was just a rectangular room with comfortable, padded, moveable chairs. Their band had an electric guitar, bass guitar, acoustic drum set, and one singer. They played good Christian songs (Jars of Clay, a couple of hymns, and some other songs I didn't recognize) to very rock and roll music. Good lyrics; heavy metal. It was fun.

But overall, it was church! The campus pastor came out and first thing he said is, "We are all about Jesus! We are here to worship and praise Him." So they didn't try to hide anything; they just put it out there, which was very refreshing. We sang a couple songs; they introduced three small group leaders; we took an offering; had communion (That was interesting; they had us all line up, and walk forward, take the bread and dip it into the cup.) We listened to a message streamed live from the main church by Mark Driscoll. Then we sang a couple more songs and that was it. Very nice.  (BTW, it was strange to only attend one service on Sunday, since I'm used to being at three each Sunday morning!)

As I said, lots of ways to do church, and that was a true, vibrant, and Biblical experience of praising God together with other believers. We can never say that our way is the only 'right' way; there are lots of ways to praise God.

2nd Observation - What is required is God's Blessing!

I asked myself, how is it that Mars Hill Seattle has grown so greatly to reach the thousands of people for Christ?And I came up with a few guesses (these are just my little comments based on one visit, and a bit of previous study). 

Preaching - Solidly Biblical, but not flashy

With all due respect to the great things which God has done through their ministry, on this particular Sunday I found myself thinking that Pastor Max is a more engaging preacher to listen to than what I heard this particular Sunday. Mark was very biblical, which is good, but I found my mind wandering a bit.

Outreach - Engage with the culture around you

Mars Hill works very hard at reaching their city. They love Seattle and pray for it, and plant satellite campuses all around it to reach people for Jesus. They are sensitive to their culture. They listen and learn. They make it easy for people to come to church, find Jesus, or worship God. (And also to join a group, serve a ministry, or give.) They really work hard at speaking to their culture. They are creative and don't do things just like all the other churches have always done. They are unafraid to try something new.

Seek God's Blessing

When I see what is happening there, if people are getting reached for Jesus, it is ultimately because God has chosen to place His hand of blessing upon the church. There are a lot of ways to do church, and Mars Hill has shown us their way to reach Seattle. Now the question is, what is our way to reach Buffalo, MN? I know we need the three elements listed here: Preach the Word, Engage the culture around us, and Seek God's Blessing. 

We are starting up the Prayer and Care Team for this reason. We need to love each other, and we need to seek God's blessing. The Care & Prayer Team will help us to do a better, more organized way of caring and praying. We can do that corporately, and we must do it individually as well. So please pray that God would bless BCC for His glory! There are people to reach for Jesus.

It was nice to visit somewhere else and learn a few things, but it is great to be back with you all as we serve and minister together in Jesus name!

For Christ and for you,

Pastor Bill & Melodie