Soon the New Year will be upon us and the first decade of the 21st century will be in the books! Wow! Where did it go?

Each new year is a big deal at Wellspring. Our congregation was first gathered as a small group of Swedish believers on New Year's Eve 1883. So the turning of the year marks our anniversary as a church. First the Swedish Elim Baptist Church of New Britain; then Elim Baptist; next Kensington Baptist Church; and since 2005, Wellspring Church.

As a congregation January will mark an effort to Start The Year Off Right! This will be the teaching theme for the first four Sundays of the year.

On the weekend of January 7-9, we will hold a 36-hour Worship and Prayer vigil in the sanctuary. Beginning at 9:00 pm on Friday night, January 7, through Sunday morning services on January 9, there will be continuous worship and prayer in the sanctuary. (This will include the Saturday @ 5 service on January 8.)

What will happen during those 36 hours? A lot! There will be some sessions of worship led by our various bands interspersed with corporate intercession for the coming year. There will be some sessions in the deep night and during the day where individuals will lead in worship. Other times will be more quiet - times of "soaking" in the Lord's presence or quiet prayer.

Why are we doing this? We want to start the year off right! The foremost reason for this 36-hour initiative is to honor the Lord's presence amongst us with an extravagant offering of praise, worship and thanksgiving. To use a familiar metaphor, we want to stoke the fire on the altar. Secondly, as we go into 2011 we want to continue to seek the Lord for his blessing and provision for our ministry through the coming twelve months.

So, please won't you help us Start The Year Off Right? Mark your calendar; make your plans now to be part of this 36-hour vigil the first weekend after the New Year. You can sign up on the big board at the Welcome Center.

Blessings,

Pastor Rick

Greetings Team Wellspring!

Wow! What a weekend it was! What excitement and enthusiasm filled the house this past Saturday evening and Sunday morning! What a visual of all the different ways that so many of you are making a difference in the lives of others and in this world! What a sense of the Lord's presence in the time of worship and of his heart expressed through the various ministries on display!

You can check out an article that the New Britain Herald ran on Monday via this link:

http:www.newbritainherald.com/articles/2010/11/21/news/doc4ce9d62f409e3419764074.txt

I want to thank all of the team members who did such a great job in making this experience happen and--more importantly--for all the ministry that you are doing week in and week out. Remember, the purpose of Team Wellspring Weekend is to create on-ramps for more folks to join in the joy of serving in the Kingdom.

I also want to take this opportunity to reflect with you upon some numbers that were shared at the congregational meeting this past Sunday night. I think they are worth celebrating. Pastor Dave Luce put them together for us to review where we have been over the past few years in this journey together. Two indicators--attendance and giving--are recorded in numbers but they reflect precious people and faithful commitment.

Over the past five years our average attendance has grown from 387 in 2006 (our first full year in our new building) to 634 for the first ten months of 2010. That averages just under 13% growth each year. Team Wellspring has been growing!

Over that same time our giving has increased comparably--just about 13% each year on average. This has been true in flush economic times and even after the recent economic downturn. You have been faithful, reflecting God's faithfulness. Remember, there are no recession in heaven! And as Pastor Wes said over this past weekend--our giving honors God and goes to support the work of Kingdom ministry that was on display all over the building during our Team Wellspring celebration. Kingdom giving touches lives!

So I wanted to say thanks for the privilege of being part of such a wonderful team. And I wanted to congratulate you upon all that you are making possible by your faithfulness and glad-hearted efforts.

Blessings,

Pastor Rick

A few minutes past nine on Monday morning I heard a polite knock on my door.

"Come on in."

Miss Dawn Fischer peeked in and asked if she and her young charges from the midweek Welldiggers class of pre-schoolers could come in and pray for me. Anytime Miss Dawn offers to have the children pray for me I am sitting on ready.

Those of you who don't know about Miss Dawn probably don't have young children. She has a passion for children and for the Kingdom of God. She has a unique and effective way of teaching pre-schoolers the ways of the Spirit. They learn how to worship God freely and simply, how to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and how to pray in faith in Jesus' name. They also learn many other things from the Bible that will help form their spirits as followers of the Lord. We are so fortunate to have Miss Dawn as part of our fellowship! The world will be different because of her ministry to these children.

So Miss Dawn and the children drew around me. She explained that they were doing a prayer walk through the church on the way to their classroom. "How could they pray for me? What were my main duties as pastor?" I told them my main job was to study God's Word and listen to Him so that I could teach and lead the people.

Then they began to pray for me. Miss Dawn asked them to listen in their hearts to the Holy Spirit. One had a picture of a key (biblically a symbol of authority), and another had a picture of a walking stick, a big blue one (biblically the staff speaks of leadership). The children then began to pray for the Lord to release the things they had seen and for the requests I had made.

"In Jesus' name, Amen!" With that, Miss Dawn led the children out with a song. They left me with a smile in my heart; more importantly those simple prayers left their impression in heaven.

Thank you children and thank you Miss Dawn for your surprise visit!

So I have been interested in politics my entire life.

How many second graders do you know who requested and then received in the mail a signed family photo from a presidential candidate? Or middle schoolers who put up campaign bumper stickers in their rooms? Or high school juniors who campaign for a congressional candidate?

Yep--I did all those things.

I follow campaigns in states where I have never lived; know the governors of states where I hope never to live; know who are up-and-comers in both parties. I even follow politics in the United Kingdom. What else am I going to read about in the newspapers when I go to England a couple times a year . . . cricket?

But I have done one thing this campaign season I have never done before in my entire existence as a political junkie--I have put up a lawn sign in my front yard for a candidate. For the first time in my 24 years as a resident of Connecticut there is a candidate for statewide office I am excited about. The name of this candidate?

Martha Dean. She is running for Attorney General here in the land of steady habits.

I'm not going to try and convince you to vote for Ms. Dean. I'm not even going to tell you why I am so excited about her. But you can check Martha Dean's website for yourself. You can go to www.deanag2010.com Its up to you. And don't forget to vote Tuesday, November 2.

RM

'This one belongs to the Reds!' That is announcer Marty Brennaman's signature call after every winning effort by my hometown team, the Cincinnati Reds. Having grown up passionate about baseball and the local club, those words are music to my ears. Mind you, they have not been heard all that often in recent memory--it has been ten years since the last winning season for the Reds and fifteen years since they won their division to go to the post-season playoffs.

So last night when Jay Bruce homered in the bottom of the ninth for a walk-off win to clinch the National League Central Division, the joy from the ballpark along the Ohio river extended all the way to Mooreland Road in Kensington, CT!

It's an amazing thing about a baseball team and a sports fan. So much of my childhood memories are associated with the Reds and baseball--so much of my relationship with my father was built around baseball. So much identity is shaped by these memories. Then there is something about the annual six-month saga of a major league baseball season. The players become like people you know (though, of course, you don't). The sound of the broadcast over the radio becomes a companion for half the year. The daily box scores and stories in the sports section of the paper are soap operas for grown men.

So when Jay Bruce hit that home run last night, I celebrated with my son Mike--who came across the room to high-five me. Then I called Mark, who answered the phone, 'Jay Bruce!' Even Debbie recognized it as a special moment, though she is not the biggest fan of the hometown team. I'm looking forward to calling my mom and dad and celebrating with them--baseball is one of the few topics these days that my dad can stay engaged with in a conversation--dementia is taking its toll.

So--this day, this one belongs to Reds' fans everywhere!

So I just read a report that U-2 lead singer Bono's anti-poverty foundation ONE has made the news. This time the pub is not so good.

The New York Post is reporting that just a little over 1% of ONE's budget has actually gone to actual need. In 2008 ONE received 9.6 million British pounds in donations and dispersed 118,000 pounds to good causes. Salaries for the foundation were 5.1 million pounds.

ONE responded to the reports that they are not chartered to actually meet needs, but to raise awareness and to promote advocacy for the world's poor.

High profile, high-style, high-toned rhetoric about injustice among the worlds' haves toward the have-nots has been the way Bono rolls.

The staff of his foundation seems to be doing well with that.

I have stopped apologizing for my sketicism when the entertainers and pop-culture elites of the world take up 'noble causes' and heap guilt and disdain upon 'rich westerners.' It requires no courage for a Hollywood headliner or a rock star to champion a 'progressive cause.'

But week in and week out I live and serve with real people who regularly sacrifice real time and real dollars to make a difference in other people's lives. It may be in a housing project in New Britain or among orphaned children in Wakiso, Uganda. It may be in a grass-roots effort to fight an indifferent town council in Southington to root out a glitzy porn shop from their town. It may just be one single woman helping an older woman to navigate life and stay in her own home following a major injury.

These are my heroes.

Bono has his millions of fans. For his music--they are well deserved. But the ONE foundation is about 98.8% short of genuine.

That's all I'm gonna say about that.

"Here's the church,
and here's the steeple.
Open the doors,
and see all the people."

Idyllic structures housing great ideals--that is what church purports to be. Then the disappointment comes--when the doors are opened and it is revealed that the church is filled with people. Uggh! Less-than-perfect people. Sinners and seekers and sundry non-saints. People with problems; people who create problems; people who are problems.

It all goes back to God's incredibly bold experiment to entrust this venture of the Kingdom of God to ordinary people on an extraordinary mission. Jesus said it was the Father's good pleasure to give the Kingdom to ordinary people. God! What are you thinking?!! The apostle describes the church as Christ's body. Ordinary people have been entrusted to embody the Lord's presence here on earth. God! What are you thinking?!!

Years ago my heart was captivated by this wild experiment called church. I had grown up not liking church so much. Then being a teenager in the late 60's and early 70's I was afflicted with the same anti-institutional affliction that gripped most all my generation. I liked Jesus; not a big fan of the church.

Then God did something crazy. He gave me the opportunity as a very young college student to lead a small-town congregation. God what were you thinking?!! But in that little Presbyterian church in Hemingway, SC something amazing happened. I fell in love with another man's wife. The apostle also refers to the church as the "bride of Christ." What I had formerly disdained began to captivate my heart. Grandmas and little kids; indifferent teens and anxious parents; laborers and salespeople; farmers and school-teachers all in one little congregation. And real community. That is what captivated my heart--a community of very different people seeking to live out life's highest ideals as they cared for one another and sought to serve God in the midst of their issues and brokenness and real problems.

I fell in love and have never gotten over it. Lord, I love your bride! Not just the idea of the church, or the building, or even the ideals of the Kingdom of God. But real live people trying to do what's right and serve their world and follow after your ways. I have been captivated by this notion that the Lord has more faith in us than we ever have in him. It is his good pleasure to entrust the Kingdom to the likes of us--sinners and seekers and sundry non-saints. God, I love the way you think!!!

And I love the particular church called Wellspring. If you open the doors, yes--you will see all the imperfect people. People with problems. But you will also see people climbing out of their problems. People who are helping others with their problems. People who have signed on to tackle some very real problems in their communities and beyond. People who are embodying the Lord's presence in their world.

Wow! What a beautiful bride!!

At 8:40 AM our time on Wednesday morning—6:40 in Guatemala—my office phone rang with a call from Bob Switzer, our assistant pastor leading a mission trip of our teens and youth leaders to work in an orphanage and senior center in a fairly remote section of the country.

When Sandy, my administrative assistant told me it was Bob on the other end of the line, I thought to myself--this is either going to be really good or there are some big problems going on with this trip.

Turned out to be really good--really good.

Bob told me that the day before the team was slated to go to a small and poor village some distance away and distribute food to the people there. That seemed good. The students could get outside the bounds of the orphanage compound, do some very useful service and get a further sense of how blessed we are in our lives stateside. But then the director said that they would also be doing some evangelizing in the process.

"How is this going to work?" Bob thought. We can't speak the language; we don't know the people or the culture; these kids aren't Billy Graham. I hope that they aren't going to make the people file into the village church and get preached at before they line up to be given the meager bags of food assembled to distribute.

Then he had another thought, "We can evangelize in the way we are learning how to cooperate with God."

So the team travelled to the village. Bob spoke for a few minutes as the local village pastor translated. He told the people that the team had come from the United States to be a blessing to their country. He told them that they had come because the love of God was motivating them. He told the people that God loved them and had provided a Savior for them; that his name is Jesus. He told them that Jesus has brought us a better way to live--a Kingdom of love and forgiveness and the power of a new life within. Then he said the students would be happy to pray for any need that the people might have--any pains, sicknesses, infirmities, whatever. Or if they just wanted to be blessed the teens from America would pray for them. Again, the pastor translated.

The people lined up--not for the food, but for the blessing of the Kingdom of heaven. The students began to minister to them. Working their way through the English-Spanish thing the team listened to the needs/requests of the people. Then they did as they have been taught--they laid hands on the people and prayed. What happened next is why Bob called me so early.

Heaven invaded earth!

Fevers were dispelled in Jesus' name. Injured, hurting knees were healed. Pain and weakness was banished--to be replaced by comfort and relief. "These kids--our students--healed people!!!!" Bob said laughing and crying over the phone. Then he described more encounters with the radical goodness of God. The people began to be filled with the peace and love of God as the team prayed and they became overjoyed. Meanwhile, the pray-ers were also filled up by God's presence and power. Heat and power and tongues of praise broke out among the student ministers as they got filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit.

Time came to distribute the food. While that was going on the village pastor began relating the testimonies of the people who had been touched, healed, and blessed. Not all the students were needed to distribute the bags of food. So the others on the team began to ask the Spirit to direct them to those in the crowd whom the Lord was still moving upon--so they could give away more of the blessings of the Kingdom.

At the end of the day our students turned in--exhausted but exhilarated. Heaven had invaded a small village in Guatemala through their prayers and hands. In Luke 11:21 Jesus was "full of joy through the Holy Spirit" as he reflected upon his "mission team" having had similar experiences in ministering the good news and saving power of the Kingdom. I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

Another good day in the Kingdom!

Summertime Greetings!

Today is the first day of summer! Hooray! Wow--I can't remember the last time I said 'Hooray!'

Anyway, it is summer and I have not posted a blog for a long, long time. Was taking time off. And now all the articles in our e-newsletter at Wellspring are linked to our blogs, so here goes a blog-announcement. I hope to get to more randomitems-substantive stuff-opinionated rants in the near future.

But back to summer nights at Wellspring. Beginning Wednesday, July 7 and on every Wednesday evening through July and August, we will be gathering for worship, prayer and presence gatherings from 7:00--8:30 pm.

These gatherings have been very special over the past few summers as we meet primarily to worship the Lord and to host his presence. We will be led in worship by various worship teams from Wellspring--different teams each week. We have not planned a teaching emphasis for those nights--though on some nights there might be words of exhortation given. These meetings are not planned as healing services, though we will most likely be ministering in healing on several of these nights. They are not designed primarily for 'Body Life' and fellowship, but undoubtedly there will be the sharing of life between various members of the Body here at Wellspring. They are not designed to be unity meetings, but on some occasions folks from other area congregations may be joining us.

Our primary goal is the seek the presence of the Lord through worship and then host his presence as we entertain what he desires to do among us.

So you can mark your calendars for Wednesday nights in July and August--7:00--8:30 pm at Wellspring. We will offer childcare for children 5 and under in our nursery. Hope to see you there.

Pastor Rick

Shalom!

Greetings from Jerusalem.

This is quite a trip--literally and figuratively.

After a great week in Uganda with Terry Brennan at Kampala Childrens' Centre and at Pastor Arnold's pastor conference, I have come to Israel for a week.

The last two days I have spent touring Jerusalem with my good friend. He is a Messianic believer and a missionary to Japan. He also has a home in Jerusalem, where I have been staying. We have been touring the city of Jerusalem together and taking in the sights. We also have been meeting some very amazing believers in Jesus--some Jewish and some Arab.

Today we had lunch with a former PLO activist who came to faith in Jesus after he appeared to him in a vision. He is an evangelist and pastor, as well as a shop-keeper and dealer in biblical antiquities in the old city of Jerusalem. What an amazing man and a great heart. I was very encouraged by his testimony and love for Muslims. As he said--we love Muslims, Islam is the problem. That is, the spirit behind Islam is the driving force of so many difficulties--Jesus died for Muslim people and he loves them.

Tomorrow we go to the Dead Sea area and Jericho and then the next couple days to Galilee.

Got to go now. More thoughts later.

Blessings,

RM

The book is done and at the publisher. The project started ten years ago is now completed.

Thanks to all who have prayed for this book to come to fruition, encouraged me along the way and helped to make it a reality.

It is kind of weird to say, 'It's done.' To hold an actual copy in your hand.

The thesis of the book is that God's highest ideals for the genders is full and equal partnership. This was how he created us to operate and what got twisted through the fall has been and is being restored through the redemption Jesus brings. Mostly it is a study of pertinent biblical passages to demonstrate the thesis, along with some personal and practical stuff mixed in.

I wrote it because the Lord told me to write it. And because it is a message that needs to be repeated again and again until the church really grabs hold of it. And I wrote it because I needed to conform my own heart and practice to what my study has shown. Writing it down has a way of making one accountable.

Soon copies will be in for a gala book-signing at Wellspring. Plans are being laid for a conference by the same name as the title this spring. For those of you who can't wait--you can order your copy at Amazon.

Anyway, that's all I'm gonna say about that for now.

RM

After a month or more of abstaining from blogging I am renewing my efforts as we enter a new calendar year.

Why have I not been posting, you ask?

Not for lack of things to say, certainly. But I have felt the need to censor myself and purge this blog from the political rants and raves that characterized it much of the time over this past year. In coming days I plan to continue to share perspectives and thoughts about many topics, but I hope to do so with less rancor and (hopefully) with greater wisdom.

To begin this new 2010 edition of Blog 222 I want to quote a poem by Wendell Barry. It comes from a volume of his poems that I received from my daughter Kate as a Christmas gift (thanks Kate!). It is entitled "A Warning to my Readers." I think it applies here.