Bethany Community Church

Jim McClurg, Executive Director

After two-and-a-half hours, the demoralizing thing is not that my car is still waiting to have a flat repaired, but that many of the people who were sitting in the waiting room when I arrived are still here. Even same-day service in the middle of this winter storm is beginning to look unrealistic. The crowd of people searching for chains and studded tires now extends out the door.

How ironic to be reading Paul Young’s The Shack as I wait. “There is something joyful about storms that interrupt routine. Snow or freezing rain suddenly releases you from expectations, performance demands, and the tyranny of appointments and schedules.” Was this written for me – for today? I don’t feel released from anything. I’m expected to be in the church office, and that’s where I want to be. There’s esprit de corps to consider if nothing else.

The crowd around me ranges from young to old, passive to aggravated. Most of these people apparently find the interruption of routine no more pleasant than I do. It somehow makes my own pique more normal, more acceptable.

One guy has a smile on his face. He’s older, maybe in his 70s, and I’m guessing he has no place else to go. Is that the secret? He seems to find the whole situation humorous and keeps joking with the overworked folks behind the counter. I can tell the sales people find his attitude a nice respite from the demands of others. Amazingly, this one guy seems to be having an impact on the whole waiting room. Shamed a bit by his cheery demeanor or perhaps awakened to the reality that each of us can choose how to respond to circumstances, the atmosphere is definitely improving.

What an example of the believer’s role in a dark and traumatized world! This old fellow’s pleasant attitude isn’t mindless or manufactured. He has just lived long enough to see all this stuff before. Likewise, Christ has revealed to his followers the end of life’s story.

After the ice and snow blanketing Seattle melts away, deeper anxieties will remain. Do I have the ability to be the fellow in the waiting room? Can I influence my neighbors by exhibiting the reassuring, pleasant, community-changing demeanor that comes from knowing the end of the story?

The Minor Prophets spoke at a time in history when God’s people had become like parched ground. Greed, complacency, lust, pride, and other destructive forces had combined to cut off their individual and collective soul from the springs of living water. God responded by raising up spokespersons to point the way back to life. Set in an agrarian culture, these prophets lived among people who knew the ways of fruitfulness with the land. Their message was articulated in agrarian terms time and again, terms that we too understand best in the springtime of the year.

The prophets invited thirsty people not to become satisfied merely with their own spiritual well-being. Rather, they called the people to become rivers of living water—spilling hope into thirsty lands everywhere.

Our calling is the same. And we’re praying that, collectively, God will speak to us throughout the spring about what it means to be people who spill hope.

This focus will culminate, we pray, in our community contributing resources to drill wells in Africa—providing water, in the name of Living Water. I hope you’ll join us as we journey through the Minor Prophets, allowing God to speak to us so that we might become the rivers we’re called to be.

-Pastor Richard Dahlstrom

The good news of Jesus is far better than any of us realize. His healing is deeper, His reach farther, His love more profound than any of us really understand. The book of Acts is the story of the very first days of the church, days when the church experienced an ongoing awakening of just how profoundly different life must become because the resurrected Jesus desired to express life through them. This awakening has continued down through the generations, to the very moment. As the early church followed Christ, she found herself continually in uncharted waters, clinging to Christ, who proved to be more than faithful for the adventures. This must be our story too, both individually and collectively as we learn what it means to follow Christ. -Pastor Richard Dahlstrom

-Pastor Megan Dobrasz

Have we got a Snow Sermon for you! Grab a mug of coco, find a comfy chair, and enjoy the sermon people snowshoed to Bethany for last Sunday!
Jesus Encounters the World

There are gifts, surely, that never attain to their potential. They’re given, but never used. The critical thing to see about Christ’s birth is this: God’s gift, if it is to be truly received, will transform us – so that we join with Christ in becoming givers of gifts in this world -Pastor Richard Dahlstrom

Ted Trigg, Worship Director

As I was leaving work today, I called my wife to say that I was on my way home. Her reply shocked me: She told me not to get in an accident, because my four-year-old son was worried I was dead. He had asked her earlier in the day if I would die when he grew up. She gave him the brutal, honest truth: Yes. He had been dwelling on that all day and eventually started crying about it.

After I hung up, I started crying too. No four-year-old should have to think about this. I have only the Lion King to thank for this. Mufasa, father to Simba the Lion King, dies while saving his son’s life. This is where my son got this fear. From Disney for crying out loud!

So when I got home he and I did the usual stuff-wrestle, run around the house before bed, brush teeth, read stories, pray. Then I got him in bed and he asked me the same question. Will I die when he grows up? What ensued was a rather long discussion about heaven and who will be there. I told him about my life and the losses I had growing up. We talked about grandpa who passed away this past year. I cried through most of it.

I was crying for him, but I was also crying about a realization that I have kept under wraps for a long time. I’ve known about it, but this incident with my son pushed it to the forefront of my consciousness. I am waiting for God to take away from me the things I love. I am waiting for the axe to fall. I don’t trust Him.

What an odd realization. I work for a church and I don’t trust the God I supposedly serve? The fact is I want to be around for my kids. I don’t want them to grow up without a father. I want to see them play soccer or be on a swim team or learn to play an instrument. I want to see them graduate from high school and college. I want to be at their weddings and see my grandchildren. (I won’t hope for great grandchildren-I’m a little old for that.) Deep inside though, I’m afraid I won’t be.

The worst thing is that there are no promises that I will be around for any of these things. Indeed, the realization that I think God might just pull a fast one is more than disturbing-it is foundation shaking. I work for a church. I’m in the ministry. I’m supposed to believe God, trust that He ultimately has the best in store for me.

And He does. Here is the problem though: His best for us is not always our best for us. We don’t have much say in what we get and all too often what we get is never explained. Why did the cancer take a loved one? Why did the money I invested in the stock market for a nice retirement disappear? Perhaps even more importantly, why did terrorists go on a killing spree in Mumbai? What possible plan does God have in any of this? The only answer I can possibly come up with is that He wants us to believe in what we can’t see. Despite it all and through it all, He has the keys and we have to fall into Him with complete trust.

Today was rather existential. On some level, it suddenly all seemed very meaningless. Jean Paul Sartre would be proud. Albert Camus would quietly nod his head in agreement. Still, I realize I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams when I get the chance to talk to my son about Jesus and heaven.

As I lay in bed, the pain of our conversation is so palpable that I pray that God will grant me the desires of my heart and that if I don’t get what I want, I pray I would be content with what He has gives.

Julie Johnson is a Bethany attender who’s on staff here at the school where I teach. It’s been great to watch her working as the residential life person, caring for the students, leading a trip to Salzburg, cracking jokes during announcements, checking assignments, helping in the kitchen, and just generally doing whatever needs to be done in order for Tauernhauf to be one of the best 12 week Bible School options on the planet. She’ll stay on and teach snowboarding this winter for ski/snowboard camps, revert to the residence life role for spring school, and then be a mountain guide for their summer programs.

I love being part of a church that seems to always have people out and about, living the adventure of the Christian life in obedience to God’s calling to cross-over, whether that means crossing the room to talk to a stranger, or crossing the world to lead ski trips – all in order to be the presence of Jesus to some people who will be blessed by the crossing.

I’m also struck, while here, by the power of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s words: “it is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others” In this ministry, the teaching is upheld and reinforced by residence life, cooks, housekeeping, maintenance, administration, finances, and residential teachers. Together, Christ is seen. On our own, nothing happens. This is the case at home as well, at Bethany Community Church. Where there is interdependency, the functioning of a variety of gifts, and blessing of the Holy Spirit, there is life. This is the reality of being the body of Christ.

I’m looking forward to coming home very soon now, but I leave this place encouraged that Christ’s “Bethany” body is scattered, in the best sense of the word, around the world.

I would categorize myself as one who is not an admirer of surprises. I don’t care for surprise parties, or many unexpected things in general–nevertheless, life is full of surprises. God keeps showing me that life has to be lived trusting Him, and that His way is better than mine. For example, John and I found out that we are going to have a baby this May. It came to us as a major surprise! Previously, I struggled with quite a bit of anxiety about and fear of pregnancy, everything from morning sickness to labor. Yet so far, I haven’t had any nausea to speak of. How good the Lord has been to us! And what a joy it is to be expanding our family. I am so thankful my initial “plan” to wait longer out of fear was subdued by the Lord’s plan and His timing for us. This stage of my life has been such a clear testimony to how God is working despite our fears and how He even trades our fears for faith.

Another recent surprise in my life came in the area of my family’s housing situation. We moved into a cute, little one bedroom apartment last summer, knowing that it would help us save money and that we didn’t need much space anyway. Well, with a baby on the way and extended family coming to visit from out of state, a second bedroom started sounding pretty nice! I have been praying for the last few months for some specific and crazy things such as two bedrooms and two levels. Though I was praying for specific preferences, I was more than willing to take any two-bedroom place in our price range, which we all know can be quite the challenge in Seattle! To my surprise, I looked at a townhouse yesterday that is exactly what I have been dreaming of. I don’t think this is by coincidence! I have to admit I believed that God would provide, but I also knew it could mean that provision would come in the form of my contentment with staying in our small apartment. Instead, finding this townhouse has been a wonderful surprise and blessing.

I was reading my sister’s blog this morning and they were surprised to wake up to November snow on the ground in North Carolina. It made me think about my recent reflections, even about the weather. A sunny day, a peaceful snowfall, a beautiful sunset—we cannot plan these things. The truth is I can “plan” out my day, but I really have no idea what the day will hold. A meaningful conversation with a co-worker, a hug from a child, an encouraging word from a friend, a crisp fall walk in the sunshine could all be unplanned joys of a day.

Not all surprises are good ones—a heart attack, finding out you have cancer, a harsh word, and many more. No one plans that either. But all of these surprises remind me of what Christ said: “Do not worry about your life saying, ‘What will we eat? Or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the pagans eagerly seek all of these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all of these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself” (Matthew 6:31-34a).

In these days when there’s plenty to fear, it’s deeply encouraging to know that one of the main threads running through the Bible is the message “fear not.” Anti-fear is not available in stores. Luke 2:1-17. -Pastor Richard Dahlstrom

Mary and Joseph ENCOUNTER the Angel.

When Mary and Jospeh each encountered God through the angel Gabriel, their lives were changed forever.  As we read their accounts, we are invited to risk our comfort by encountering God on His terms.  -Pastor Phil Maulding