Bill’s Blog

I think we’d all agree to some preliminary reasons as to why it is good to take a vacation. We get time away from work. We can rest and relax. We can go somewhere fun and do something exciting that we normally wouldn’t do. Some people go to Disney World or take a cruise. Others go camping, hiking, fishing, boating or to a cabin or cottage. Some even like to play golf every day. To each his own.

What is your favorite vacation memory? Mine is when I was seven years old and I spent a week with my family at my grandparents’ cottage on Lake Poygan on the Winnebago system. It was my turn to bring a friend along and I picked my best friend Gary to spend a week with the Lenz clan. I caught the biggest fish of my life that week: a 33-inch northern pike. We swam, water skied, hunted for frogs, dove for clams and even slept on the dock one night. We roasted marshmallows over an open fire and ate fresh fish almost every day.

I recently returned from a Canadian fishing trip with my three sons and my eldest son’s wife. My brother Bob and all but one of his children were along, plus a few other friends. We caught a lot of fish, and a few of them were especially big: three 30-inch walleyes and three northerns over 40 inches. I am happy to report that Ben’s wife Jess caught one of those 30-inchers, and it’ll go into the Lenz family record book as the biggest walleye caught in the Lenz family. I am also happy to report that I caught the biggest northern pike of my life—measuring 43 and 5/8 inches. So close to 44! To see pictures of Jess’ walleye, my northern or other photos of fish, click here.

The bottom line

If I had to boil it all down to capture the best reason for vacations, I’d say it is the opportunity for relationship. Vacations give you extended time with family or friends to be together, and to make new memories of each other. When someone says, “Let’s have coffee this Saturday morning,” what they are really saying is, “Let’s experience and enjoy being together and engaging in meaningful relationship.”

I’ve said for years that fishing for me is 90 percent relational. Going on a Canadian fishing trip for me is primarily about an excuse to be with people I love and want to spend time with. By far, the best part of our trip this year was not about the fish, but the incredibly wonderful people we spent a week with in a boat.

A wish for you:

I hope and pray wherever you go and whatever you do on vacation this year that you will be more intentional than ever about engaging in meaningful relationship with the people you are with. Connect. Communicate. Commune! Commend and celebrate the joys of the people God has gifted you with.

…and a reminder!

While you are away on vacation this summer, don’t vacate your relationship with God. Spend time daily in His Word, in prayer, and in fellowship with Him. Whatever city, town or village you are in, on Sunday find a local church to attend. And while way from Christ The Rock, don’t forget to send in your tithes and offerings to help us stay afloat during these summer months.

From the Dutch guy, have a great summer vacation!

Read more

As we head into summer, it’s great to look back at the 13-week series we just completed titled Body Building: The Essentials of a Healthy Church. I get excited to think about how we as a church can implement the truths and challenges from the series as we continue to focus on fulfilling our purpose to Love, Live and Reach on campus, in our communities and around the world.

If you missed any of these messages from the series, you can get them in a few different ways. You can listen to them on our Christ The Rock Web site, and we also have CDs and DVDs available at a reduced price in our lobby so you can study them again or for the first time. I’d like to especially encourage everyone to at least pick up the “Loving As He Loved” message from the weekend of April 5 & 6.

This summer we’re studying 1^st and 2^nd Timothy chapter by chapter and verse by verse, which is a great follow-up to the Body Building Series. Paul wrote these letters to young Pastor Timothy and they contain incredibly relevant instruction for us as a church today.

Let’s enjoy the summer and vacations with family and friends, but let’s not take a vacation from God or reading His Word and fellowship!

EASTER REPORT

What a joy it was to gather together and celebrate the resurrection of our Risen Savior. Including children, there were close to 4,000 people who gathered for our three services this past weekend. Even better, there were 150 people who indicated a first time commitment to Christ. Pray for each of them that they would take the necessary next steps in their relationship with God and get connected with other believers.

BODY BUILDING SERIES CONTINUES

We’re only three weeks into our new series and are hearing great reports from people in response to weekend services, as well as what is happening in small groups. Please continue sending us your stories of how you see God working through the series and in small groups – you can e-mail us at communications@christtherock.org.

We still have nine weeks in the series ahead of us. A few of the topics we’ll be addressing in the weeks to come include………A Healthy Church is…….solidly biblical, incarnational, missional, accepting, loving, forgiving, fully connected and serving.

We are really looking forward to some special Easter services this year. On Maundy Thursday, Pastor John Kieffer will share a teaching on the Seder meal followed by communion. On Good Friday two identical services will be offered at 12:00 noon and 6:00 p.m. At our weekend services we are going to look at how personal God is in how He calls us each by name. This would be the ideal time to invite family, friends, co-workers to attend a service. There will be a very clear but gentle explanation of the reason for the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and an opportunity for each person to consider how HE personally calls them by name.

Janet and I spent 12 days in Morocco and Western Sahara in Janurary. We met the other half of the Saharawi family that we have come to know and love in the “camps” in the Sahara desert in Algeria. Come and hear about the story of the Saharwi, their present plight, the Saharawi still living in thier homeland, and the wide open doors of opportunity for ministry offered to us from Morocco. It appears another entire people group has been given to us. Come and hear the stories, see the pictures and ask your questions about what this all might mean on Sunday evening, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. in L127.

I have been pondering a lot lately how grateful I am for the family at The Rock. What a great bunch of people to do life with and follow Jesus with. As I sit here, faces and names are running through my mind, and my heart is filled with gratitude. We have watched our great God provide for us over and over again. We have cried together, grieved together, laughed together and hoped together. We have witnessed first hand the faithfulness of God in our lives, in our families and in our Church family. Often people will ask me what it is like being the Senior Pastor at the same church for over 25 years. My answer is always the same. It is incredible. There’s nothing like the joy of long-term friendships as well as meeting so many new members of His family. Plus, we get to join hands and join in on what God is doing in reaching out to a broken world with His hope. We “get” to serve Him together.

So CTR family, just know that my heart is running over with gratitude for you and for the incredible crew of people that He has put together here to venture together into the future. What a joy.

NEW SERIES
I am so excited about the new three month series called “Body Building” that begins this weekend. We are asking that every one of you make a commitment to be there every weekend possible and journey with us in exploring what it means to be a healthy church. We also want to encourage EACH of you to participate in a small group in your city and neighborhood. That way you can discuss the Scriptures and dialog with others about how to apply what we are all learning together. All you have to do is go to our website and you can sign up for a small group in your area. This is also a good time to invite friends to come and investigate what Church is all about.

Becoming a healthy church is at the heart of the new series beginning the weekend of March 1st & 2nd.  What did Jesus have in mind when he said, “I will build My Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18)?  What would it look like for Christ The Rock as a local church to be healthy, holy, prevailing and on the cutting edge of impacting the world around us for Christ?

We encourage every one of you not only to attend the weekend services, but to also get connected in a small group to discuss, pray and apply what we’ll be learning about “being” a healthy church.  If you’re not in a small group, be sure to sign up soon.

Upon the invitation and expense of the Moroccan government, Janet and I visited Morocco and “Western Sahara” from January 10th to the 22nd. The first 5 days we met with top government leaders from Morocco and were given tours of major cities like Rabat, Marakech, and Cassablanca. Then we flew to Western Sahara, which is the original homeland of the Saharawi. There we met with top government leaders in their four major cites, and had the opportunity to meet many Saharawi families. It appears that God has given us a wide open door to another entire nation.

DO YOU WANT TO HEAR MORE?
On Sunday February 17th from 5:00pm to 6:30 at CTR (Room L127) we will be sharing more of the story and the opportunities that are before us.

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Morocco
Please pray for Janet and I as we will be in Morocco from January 10th to the 18th. We are going upon the invitation and expense of the Moroccan government. While there we will meet with several key Moroccan government leaders. We will also travel to Western Sahara, the homeland of The Saharawi and meet with some Saharawi who are live there under Moroccan rule. We hope, among other things, to be a bridge between these two nations.

Forecast 2008
If you were at the services the weekend of Jan 5th and 6th then you know how excited I am about our future as a Church. If you weren’t there, I would encourage you to get a copy of the message. I repeat, I have never been more excited about what God is doing and where He is leading us as I am now. The past couple of years have been difficult in many ways, but we sense He has and is using it all to work in our hearts and change us and prepare us for the next chapter of this story He is writing. There has been some major pruning and now we are starting to see more fruit being as a result. When pruning first happens, it is painful and makes you feel naked and exposed. But John 15 promises us that pruning happens because He wants us to bear more fruit. We are starting to see that happen and the potential is staggering. Just think what could happen IF every single one of us yielded ourselves to His Spirit and allowed Him to work in our lives and through our lives to touch a hurting world.

I am praying that this year would be the greatest year ever for us as a Church in realizing our destiny and being who He has called us to be. Let each of us join God in what He is doing and leave our agendas behind. May He increase and we decrease this year.

Message Series
Starting the weekend of January 19th and 20th we will be returning to our Real Life Answers to Real Life Relationships series. We will look at topics like parenting, sibling rivalry, dealing with inlaws, caring for aging parents, end of life issues and how technology has affected relationships, just to name a few. Then the first weekend in March we will start a brand new series we are calling Body Building. We will look extensively at what Scripture says about what a healthy church is like.