Not Without You

Pondering and Pressing Ahead Together

By Scott Anderson, Executive Pastor

I’m not a great “reflector” kind of person. I’m always in awe of people who actually take the time to ponder things, because I don’t do a lot of pondering myself. In fact, I think I was (and probably still am, to a large extent), ADHD, back when it was referred to as ”squirrely” by my parents on good days, and worse on bad days. But, I know it’s good to ponder from time to time, and so a pondering I will go….

The Not Without You campaign was a highlight for our church, and according to people who worked with us on it, was also a launching pad for other churches across the nation who had assumed that God was out of the church business right now. Our results proved that people still hold deeply to the mission that we have held to – and are willing to sacrifice to make it a reality. I am so proud of our church.

Since December, so much has taken place that have been either funded by or inspired by the NWY movement. It funded the largest portion of our costs to pack more than 2.3 million meals for starving kids in Haiti and other parts of the world. It funded the World Vision Step Into Africa experience, which was the jump start to our church sponsoring every child that was in need in the Mugeba province of Mozambique. Think of it—every child in this huge area of Africa has a sponsor, and has a chance at life, both physically and spiritually, because of us. Wow. Then, to cap it all off, something like 300 people have applied to go on short-term missions trips to places like Nicaragua, Ethiopia and Mexico this summer.

My wife and I had the great privilege to spend our 20^th anniversary in Hawaii a few years ago, and we had the chance to watch some amazing surfing during a particularly windy day off the coast. I could have watched all day, as people rode the waves. But even better, I could have rented a board and tried it myself. I didn’t do it, and I enjoyed watching people ride the wave, but I can’t help thinking what I missed by not getting in the water. A wave is building at Eagle Brook—will you ride it, or just watch from the sidelines?

If things continue to progress as planned, we should be moving dirt in Blaine by the end of March with a goal of holding services in September or October. All the background work is being finished up, and we’re pretty excited to get started! As exciting as that is, it’s even more exciting to know that the Blaine campus has already launched on Sunday nights at Spring Lake Park under the campus leadership of Matt Anderson. Matt has been our Groups pastor for a few years, and he will make an excellent campus pastor at Blaine. Come check out the Blaine service (anyone is welcome to attend) at 4:05 and 6:05 pm on Sundays. We’ve already got more than 300 Eagle Brookers coming and it’s only been running for a few weeks!

Woodbury is making slow, but forward, progress. Partly because our focus has had to be on Blaine, and partly because the city and planning process is always a bit slower than one would like. We’ve been learning patience on this one. The land is pretty well nailed down, and the building design, parking, landscaping, etc., are all in the last stages of completion so that we can submit to the city and get the process rolling. This should happen in March and April as far as we can tell right now.

From a financial standpoint, we have been surprised that the level of engagement has not been what we had projected, but thankful for everyone who has taken steps to get started on their pledge. I’m not sure why more people haven’t started, but it might become necessary to adjust our timelines to reflect reality. We’ll see—if you made a pledge and haven’t given toward it yet, it would help us to plan if you would start at some level now. Statistically, the vast majority of people who make a pledge and don’t give toward it within three months will never start. That said, so many have, and God has done amazing things through this little campaign in just a short period of time!

I guess that’s all the musing I will do for now, but it wasn’t too bad…I should do it more!

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