Ah, New Year’s Eve.  Gotta love it.  Whether you’re a “watch the ball drop no matter what” kind of person or not, there’s something about the fresh start of a new year that we all love.  It’s a time to break free of the mistakes, pain and poor choices of the past and set a new course for the year ahead.  Tonight we celebrate new beginnings, fresh hope and exciting possibilities.

As we sail into 2010, I wanted to remind all of us that God is very much into new beginnings.  Here’s Jeremiah’s celebration of that:

The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

-Lamentations 3:22-23 (NASB)

It’s absolutely impossible to outrun the grace, mercy and compassion of Christ.  It doesn’t matter what your year has looked like, how badly you have failed or how far you have wandered.  All that matters in the moment where we want a fresh start is the grace of the One who is Faithfulness.  He is true.  And kind.  And gracious.  He loves you.  His mercy is new every morning.  And it’s waiting for you.

Maybe today is the day where you make a break with the mess of the past and prepare to face the dawn of a new year fully in the arms of the God who made you.  It was the Apostle Paul who wrote, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Phillipians 3:13-14)  Where ever you are ringing in the new year, I pray you do it rejoicing in the mercy of the God who calls us heavenward.

Here’s to new beginnings anchored in the hope of an ancient cross.

Happy New Year,

John

Hello, friends.

All day long, I’ve been wanting to take a few minutes to wish you a Merry Christmas.  Wherever you are, however your day is going and whenever you read this, I hope you’re filled with an illogical joy over the whole mystery of Christmas.  I hope it’s a joy that goes beyond gifts, beyond family, beyond traditions, beyond holiday meals.  I pray it’s an unshakeable joy centered on the Child of Christmas.

Some of us are on cloud nine right now.  Others are struggling.  Maybe you got everything you wanted for Christmas or maybe there just wasn’t any money for gifts  this year.  Maybe you’re surrounded with family and friends or maybe loneliness is pressing in on you.  Maybe the smile on your face is real or maybe it’s masking a sea of turmoil.  I really don’t know.  But there is One who does.  He knows you.  He loves you.  He’s very much for you.  And He is near.

His name is Jesus.  And He is the center of everything.  Yesterday.  Today.  Always.

He is as accessible today as He was that first Christmas.  Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.  That’s the epicenter of joy for each of us.  Nothing else really matters.  The God of the Universe humbled Himself to walk among us as a man.  He was born to die.  His life, His cross and His empty tomb shout hope and life to you and to me today.  As long as King Jesus reigns, there is much to celebrate.  Today of all days, we should sing, we should dance, joy should be real and everything should seem possible.

Our King has come.  Joy to the world.

Merry Christmas,

John

Thanks to a pretty massive blizzard, this past Saturday is going to stand out in all of our minds for some time to come.  For me, it’s going to stand out for the rest of my life as the day Laura agreed to marry me.  So, yes, the rumors are true.  We’re engaged.  It’s official.  She said yes.  And I couldn’t be happier.

Three things to say, right at the outset:

1.  God is very good

If the story of Laura and I meeting, serving together, getting to know each other and falling in love shows anything, it shows His goodness.  More than anything, what we both feel these days is a tremendous sense of gratitude to Him.  We met serving His church, we’ve been sustained by His grace when things were hard and as we celebrate now it’s with Him very much in the center.

2.  We love you guys

The Gathering isn’t a job for me.  It’s a group of people I love very much.  You all have such amazing potential, a love for God that encourages me and questions that challenge me to no end.  There are so many moments when I wonder why God has allowed me to share life with you, to lead you and to serve you.  By the way, I’m not sure I’ll ever know the answer to that.  I just know how grateful I am.  And I know Laura would say the same.  We can’t wait to see what God has for all of us in the months and years ahead.  Discovering that together will make it all the sweeter.

3.  Pray for us

We both need a fresh wave of God’s grace as we step into this new phase of life.  Please pray we would stay focused on honoring Christ as we plan the wedding.  Pray we would treat each other well.  Pray we would be faithful and obedient to His call on our lives.  Your prayers really are the greatest gift you can give us.

Thanks so much for being a part of our lives.

For Christ’s Fame,

John

Pretty excited to spend the next 48 hours with The Gathering staff team planning the spring semester. Praying God gives us His wisdom and heart.

By the way, loving the view!

If you teach the Bible, you should watch Matt Damon’s new movie, “Invictus.”  In it, Director Clint Eastwood tells the story of South African President Nelson Mandela’s championing of the national rugby team as a way of unifying a country ravaged by years of apartheid.  It’s a pretty amazing story that I can almost guarantee will inspire you in some way.  But don’t watch it for the inspiration.  Watch it to learn how to be a more effective preacher.

I’m not a film critic and I’m certainly not trying to take on men far more talented than I am, but “Invictus” suffers from two mistakes that also plague the average sermon.

1.  Don’t Assume Your Audience Knows The Basics.

I sat in the theater for 2 hours and 12 minutes last night really wishing I knew the rules of rugby.  Maybe I’m just showing my sports illiteracy here, but I had no clue what they were on the way in and not much more of a clue on the way out.  We do the same in the church.  We use words people don’t understand, refer to authors they’ve never heard of and assume that everyone can give a textbook answer of justification by faith.  Not true.  There are people sitting in our churches (at least their should be!) who are more clueless about Jesus than I am about rugby.  Don’t leave them behind.

2.  Pick one point and focus on it.

I know I said it was a story about Mandela and a rugby team.  But it was also a story about leadership, sports, Mandela’s security detail, giving back to a community, politics, race and South Africa.  By the end of the night, I found myself wishing the film had focused on one story line rather than trying to weave all of them together.  Here’s where it gets tough – they were all interesting story lines!  Ever been in the same place when you’re preaching?  So much to say.  So much great truth.  All interesting.  All carrying the power of God to change a life.  So we throw it all at the congregation.  And they end up confused. If you can’t say what your talk is about in one sentence, you aren’t ready to teach it yet.

As preachers, we tell the greatest story the world has ever known.  My prayer is that we tell it well.  The apostle Paul says it this way, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.“(2Tim.2:15)  If watching a movie helps get us there, then I say go for it!

On this most brisk of December mornings, I have hiked up the side of a hill in search of that perfect Christmas tree. Despite the freezing temperatures, I would still like to say that trees come from places like this – not a box at a local store!! Here’s to real trees everywhere.

I loved ending the semester at Mason last night by commissioning the team of students who will head to Haiti on January 9th.  So cool to think of how God is going to use them over the Christmas break.  I’m trusting Him for great things in their lives, for the growth of His church in Percin and for His protection as they step out in faith.

The focal point of their trip is helping the community of Percin dig latrines.  Currently, the community has no running water or latrines – they simply use the ocean.  And, yes, that would be the same place they bathe and wash clothes.  Not a good scene.  We’re trusting God to use this team to work alongside the residents of Percin to build four latrines.

Each latrine costs $400 to construct.  I was thinking it would be cool if all of us who read this post banded together to fund at least one of those latrines in the next 24 hours.  Who knows – maybe we could even knock out two!!  If you want to make a donation (thinking $5 or $10), just click here.  You’ll need to create a simple user account but that just helps us process your donation more effectively.  When you get there, please make sure you select the Haiti (GMU) team.

Pretty cool to think we could make such a big difference in people’s lives.  Let’s see how it goes.

It seems completely impossible that the fall semester has all but come and gone.  AU is already in the midst of finals and Georgetown, Mason and Maryland will come together this week for their final worship Gathering of the semester.  I have no doubt that in the weeks to come, my heart will look back to all God has done in these 14 weeks and be filled with joy at who He is and what He allows us to experience together.  I love you guys more than you can imagine and can’t wait for the spring semester.

But we still have this week.  And God still has much to say.  We’re going to be talking a lot about Christmas – the arrival of God on the planet.  But we’re going to look at the story in such a way that we land in Hebrews 3:12-13 at the end of the night.  Let me share the verse with you now because I honestly don’t think you can read it too often.  Here it is:

“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

Such a picture of who we should be in each other’s lives.  I want to be that for you.  But I also pray we can be that for each other.  I can’t wait to talk more this week about how we live out that call on our lives.  See you then!

God has been doing some pretty amazing things this week at The University of Maryland.  I’m so encouraged by the faith, passion and dedication of a group of Gathering students on that campus who gave much of their week to bringing “Wells For Change” to life at College Park.  Wells for Change is an outreach dreamed up by GatheringUMD’s student leadership team and run in conjunction with our partners at Living Waters International.  The goal is simple – to ask college students to donate spare change to bring clean drinking water to people in Jesus’ name.  There’s two purposes in that sentence, by the way:  one, drinking water and, two, talking with college students about Jesus and His heart for the poor.

God was so faithful in accomplishing both through these amazing students.  It’s hard to measure the effect of spiritual conversations.  But I can share with you the effect the outreach made on people in need of clean drinking water.  Over 1,000 people will be getting clean drinking water for the next year thanks to Wells For Change.  That’s pretty unreal, if you ask me!

Just one example of why I love serving The Gathering and university students all over DC.

If you’re planning to go to Passion2010 in Atlanta this January, today would be the day to register.  There’s going to be a price increase tonight at midnight, so you really want to get in before then.  Wanted to toss this video up here to give you a taste of what’s ahead.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsDyAgKWA34]