My name is Marlette, and I was privileged to help with Operation Christmas.  John wanted me to give you an update on what has happened so far. 

Thanks to your overwhelming generosity, by early next week we will have sent over 200 boxes to men and women overseas!  These boxes were chock full of great gifts - toiletries, food, games, and books.  We were able to send DVDs of John's sermons, and Jani Schaefer donated CDs of her beautiful music.  There were handmade Christmas cards from Kidsworld, school children and two Cub Scout troops.  And every box contained a Bible.

An army of volunteers worked together to sort, pack, label, and ship these boxes.  While we were working we had a great time imagining how the soldiers would feel when they received these gifts.

One week to the day after we sent the first wave of boxes, I received an amazing phone call from Miles, a soldier who had just opened his box.  He spoke through grateful tears - this is his first assignment overseas and he was very moved that we were thinking of him.  Miles will be coming home in late February, and plans to visit and thank you all personally when he returns.

I have since received emails from more men telling us they got their boxes.  We sent extras so they could share with other soldiers who don't receive packages.  We plan to continue to bless these men and women throughout the year, so this is only the beginning!

I just want to say how grateful I am to be part of a church that gets it.  You are always willing to open your hearts and give your money, your time, and your love to others.  Those of us who are on staff here are really the lucky ones, because we get to see right away the results of your sacrifices.  I'm so glad John asked me to share with you how much you have brightened the holidays for our brave men and women who are so far from home!

We appreciate all of you who brought gifts and packed boxes and gave us names of your loved ones so we could send them packages.  You are a wonderful family, and I'm proud to serve alongside you.

Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second greatest to love your neighbor.  Here is a picture of a neighbor that you have loved - his name is Nathan and he is in Iraq right now; and he was reminded that he is loved and remembered by you.

Thank You!

Hey there.

I was able to "live" my message this weekend, actually "during" my message.  Last weekend, we talked about the Prison of Guilt and how it can destroy you.  We spent time looking at two people who knew Jesus, walked with Him, learned from Him and a the end of their three year discipleship, they both failed Jesus.  How we respond to failure is one of most important things about you.  We celebrated communion and talked about how communion can't be a quick sort of drive thru thing, but rather a time to reflect, examine, and REMEMBER.  Who you are depends on your ability to REMEMBER. 

After the Sunday 9:00 AM service, I got a call from my grandpa.  His last remaining brother died in earlier that morning after a battle with cancer.  It is hard to pastor someone when you need to be pastored yourself.  I was filled with instant and all consuming guilt.  You see, I had been putting off what my pop had been asking me to do, which was visit my uncle at his home before, in my grandpa's words it was 'too late.'   

The issue for me wasn't our relationship it was my responsibility.  I kept putting off what was important because of tons of urgent stuff.  I should have went to see and talk about God to my uncle.  I didn't.  I failed.  Before I went up to talk about the prison of guilt, I put myself in it.    I stood in the back of the auditorium trying to compose myself, and AS I was speaking I felt God helping me to remove the guilt and slowing  put incredibly surely replaced it with an all consuming sense of peace and grace.   

Here's the thing.  I don't want to fail, but I will, and so will you.  When we fail, we have to LEARN from the past (not ignore it).  We have to LEAVE the past and then we have to LIVE today.

When I was done, my grandpa called and asked me to go to play bingo.  I was tired, but it is all that he wants to do in his life.  Spend time with people.  He loves it, and mostly it is because of all the memories with my grandma there and all the people he sees.  We played.  He kept saying, John isn't this fun.  I kept saying sure pop.  For me the fun was seeing him have fun.  Seeing him smile and seeing my daughter love on him. 

I have to say I think it would be more entertaining to watch my toenails grow, but that my friends is for another day.

Spend time with people you love.  They are worth it and you only have today.

Have a great thanksgiving.

John

A small group of us just finished a conference in Atlanta Georgia, at Northpoint Church.   A conference about church leadership.  We have had a great time together.  I especially loved hanging out with a few of our next generation leaders (Nathan, Bobby, Carly).    Good stuff.  I haven't been to a conference in over a year and love strategically getting away, trying to rest, recalibrate and get fresh vision personally and for us corporately.  The worship was so good for me, the teaching was challenging and encouraging and caused me to be so thankful (again) for the ministry of Living Hope. 

This morning, Andy Stanley introduced his dad Charles Stanley, who has made such a difference in my life.  He has pastored First Baptist in Atlanta for 50 years.    He has a radio ministry called IN TOUCH, which is in every country in the world, and translated in 103 languages.  He was SO encouraging, talking about ministry, not quitting, not running, staying centered in God's will.  It was really really good.   We are staying Thursday to check out Atlanta.  I am actually shooting a video I have been wanting to do here for a while, to close out our Prison Break Series.  Then Friday we check out, fly home, get into Portland at 5:30 pm, just in time for the Pastors Appreciation Dinner. 

When Dr Stanley was sharing, he told the leaders, and let me tell "us" that we have to continuously strive to fulfill the Great Commission.   To be about the thing Jesus was about, to reach people for Christ.  Last weekend, have you heard?  There were 370 people baptized, and almost 4800 people in attendance at 4 campuses in 9 services.

He said, the mission can never ever change, the message can never ever change, the methods have to.  He challenged the leaders who are mostly in Next Generation churches to not give up, to not give in, to not quit, because the stakes are higher than ever.   

Check this out.  In his Baptist denomination, there were 7000 churches last year that did not baptize one single person.  7000 churches, not ONE?  That is so messed up.  It just is.  He said there were another 3000 churches, that only baptized 1 person each in the year.  Again, what is wrong with this picture?  That is collectively over a million people in 10,000 churches (and that is a very conservative guess, because that would only be 100 people in each church average).   

As we enter our next decade of ministry, I want to thank you for being faithful to staying the course.  In 36 months, at Living Hope, we have baptized almost 2000 people.  God is working so powerfully to do something in our lifetimes, that is so beyond any of our abilities or dreams.

The best days are ahead of us.  It is all so good.   I have one request...  We have to try and free seats up at our 9:00 am and 11:00 am services.  Please don't take this wrong, but would anyone be willing to help us (we had 1050 people at our 11:00 service, and there are only 550 seats) 

A couple/few options for some of you to consider.   

1. Hockinson has available seats at 11:00 AM.  www.livinghopehockinson.com
2. Fisher's Landing (meeting at Cascade 16) has seats at 9:30 AM www.livinghopefisherslanding.com
3. Orchards campus is completely ready to be live with our main campus, at 9:30 am and 11:30 am.   (This weekend only we will have the service from 2 weeks ago, 11:30 will be a live overflow service)  It is a bit confusing, sorry about that.  After this week, we will be live with the main campus at both 9:30 and 11:30 on Sundays.  We need volunteers and we need people to pray about switching campuses even temporarily. 

We are thinking about a Saturday service at Orchards (7:30 PM) with live worship.
We are thinking about a Sunday evening service at Brush Prairie campus, at 6:00 PM which will be a family oriented service, where kids bring parents to church.  I am excited about this.   

Let me know what you think.  It isn't cool when people pull in our parking lot and because of spacial limitations (parking and seating) they leave.

What I love about Living Hope is we, as a church always do the next right thing.  Please hear my heart on this.  People matter to God.  These changes aren't a look how cool we are move, they are an attempt to reach more people, to make more seats available, to share this amazing message of God's love with our world.  Our next Baptism is in February.  Who's next?  Who will visit at Christmas for maybe the first time, have their heart invaded by God's love and eventually ask Christ to be their leader and forgiver? 

That you would even consider changing campuses to free up a seat blesses my heart.  On a side note, there have been so many people who have stepped up to give back to God what's His.  Thank you.  Your sacrifices will enable us to never stop doing what we are called to do.

I love doing what God has called us to do together.  There is nothing like the local church when it works they way it is supposed to. 

If you ever question if it is worth it, I have 2000 reasons why it is.

See you this weekend.

John