By Faith…

Hebrews chapter 11 tells the stories of faithful men and women who have gone before us. Their stories, seen most clearly through their actions, are meant to inspire us follow their example and live as a community that exists to be renewed and participate with God in helping to renew the world in the name of Jesus.

With these stories as our inspiration, God continues to write the story through the faithful men and women of The Renew Community.

In 2008…

By faith, the people of Renew attempted to live out the ways of Jesus through hope and love through various expressions in their homes, neighborhoods, workplaces and everywhere they went. By faith, they trusted that God could use them to be ambassadors and representatives of the Risen Christ.

By faith, J.R. and Megan Briggs followed God’s call to begin forming a missional faith community in the Lansdale region called the Renew Community.

By faith, 50 adults and 18 kids committed to join the Renew Launch Team over the summer by signing the Launch Team Covenant. In the midst of incredible uncertainty, they stepped out in faith to see this new faith community take shape.

By faith, Dave Allem, David Decker, James Chester, Tracy Commons and J.R. Briggs agreed to serve as Renew’s Board of Directors, praying that the formation of this new faith community that attempts to connect with skeptics and dreamers.

By faith, the Renew launch team met for the first time at 252 Underground on Main Street in Lansdale.

By faith, the launch team met in the Third & Walnut bar for two months, praying that we would build relationships with those who feel turned off by organized religion. By faith, we entered into spiritual conversations many times with Michael the owner and Maria the bartender.

By faith, James Chester agreed to become Renew’s first worship pastor, using his skills and passion for worship in order to see God become more famous in the region.

By faith, Bethany Paul began serving as the leader of Community Engagement, using her passions, skills and energies to see social justice and renewal happen.

By faith, Margie Scheetz agreed to fill the role as coordinator of children’s ministry at Renew, believing that God has a high value of children and their spiritual formation. Along with several volunteers, the children were taught Bible stories, eat snacks, learned – and performed – a song and built friendships.

By faith, Wendy Kratz has made sure there is a consistent presence at Manna on Main, Lansdale’s central soup kitchen and food bank, by serving a meal once a month, in addition to other areas of service.

By faith, Tracy and Jenna Commons sensed God’s Spirit moving them to obedience to have Tracy raise his own financial support and join the Renew staff.

By faith, several people shared their faith stories with the launch team with great courage and vulnerability. Sometimes involving laughter and sometimes involving tears of brokenness, people shared their journeys and how God has met them and shown himself to be faithful despite depression, sexual, physical, emotional and substance abuse, abandonment, broken families, loneliness, divorce and murdered family members – all the while believing that grace is what makes us whole again.

By faith, ten House Church Shepherds helped to start and form six house churches around the region in Lansdale, Souderton, Telford and Chalfont. These House Churches spent time getting to know one another, explored the Scriptures, celebrated together and served beyond themselves.

By faith, Jessica Salasin shared the needs of her high school friend Denise’s newborn daughter in the ICU at CHOP and experienced several people agree to serve to make meals and babysit Elijah and Jasmine.

By faith, Brian Kuhn became a follower of Jesus through the constant contact, patient conversation and compassionate friendship with several individuals who were a part of Renew.

By faith, Renew partnered with The Well to host the “Biblical Steps to Financial Victory” seminar in the fall, in addition to having Dave Briggs come and teach the launch team about stewardship, giving, faith and generosity.

By faith, Brianna Phelps shared her life story and gave faithfully and generously of her time and money to Renew at the ripe age of ten.

By faith, Bill Stevens led the initiative to approach the borough with the opportunity to start a Farmer’s Market. By the efforts of Bill – and others from Renew and Lansdale – the farmer’s market is scheduled to open Spring 2009.

By faith, several people from the launch team responded to the mayor’s answer to the question, “How can we best help Lansdale?” by cleaning up Railroad Plaza around the Kugel Ball.

By faith, Jessica and Rod Rodrigues’ house church threw a Christmas party for a halfway house for mentally unstable individuals, sering beyond themselves as Jesus would among a group of people that the world often neglects and ignores.

By faith, Bonnie Steich sought to use an opportunity in her life to bless others rather than receive more. She celebrated a birthday where – instead of presents – she encouraged people attending to bring canned goods to donate to Manna on Main.

By faith, several friends, family members, former co-workers and ministry partners of J.R. and Megan Briggs committed to financial and prayerful support of their salary for the first ten months of Renew’s existence. While many of these individuals live hundreds of miles away and most will never experience Renew first-hand they believed strongly enough in the mission to link arms with Renew in this practical way.

By faith, people gave generously and faithfully of their money, time, and prayer in order to live faithfully as men and women who seek to follow Christ’s example. Knowing that, by faith, anything we have been a part of in 2008 has only come by God’s grace working in us.

It would be impossible to chronicle all the simple, subtle, compassionate acts of faith – many of which happened in secret, anonymously and in the midst of the daily life and rhythm of this community.

By faith, people of Renew have loved when it has been easy and have loved when it has been hard. By faith, they have sacrificed for the sake of others. By faith, they have given out of abundance and given out of little. By faith, they have generously shared meals with strangers and shared meals with long-time friends. By faith, they have shared their faith in Jesus when asked and have had to ask forgiveness when opportunities have been missed.

By faith, the people of Renew have sought to do their best to live out our commitment to follow Jesus with all of our lives…

By faith, we enter into 2009 and beyond, knowing that God will be faithful to finish the work that He has started in this community, and in each of our lives, as we seek to humbly follow Jesus and be a blessing to the world…

Wednesday, January 7, 2009
7:00 pm at the Lansdale Public Library

Ever wish there was a farmers’ market in
downtown Lansdale?

You can help make that dream a reality!
Come to the community planning meeting
and learn more. Volunteers are needed in
all areas.

If you can’t make the meeting, let us know
of your interest at: lansdalefm@gmail.com

What are the driving questions of missional living?
There are many.
But if you had to boil it down we think you could boil it down to two:

(1) “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ famous parable of the Good Samaritan gives us the values of missional life – love God, love others.

(2) “How can we help?” This is a question that we ask several times a week at Renew. We should be constantly asking this of our co-workers, neighbors, those on the fringe, family members and the influencers in our community. By asking questions, specifically this one, we can communicate a spirit of humility and of listening (if we can be quiet long enough to hear the answer).
We truly believe that Tim Keller is right when he said, “Don’t try to build a great church. Try to build a great city. Because when you have a great city you will have a great church.”

Imagine if we all asked these two questions on a weekly basis.

Advent Readings
Preparing for the Christ Child
December 2008
_________________

<strong>Fourth Sunday of Advent: December 21 </strong>
12/22: John 1:19-23; Phil 4:4-7
12/23: John 3:27-30; Isaiah 40:9-11
12/24: John 5:36-39
12/25: Isaiah 51:3-5
12/26: Psalm 2:1-9
12/27: Isaiah 9:2-3, 6

“The Beatles song ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is a reminder of why I was longing to venture outside the lines of what I’d always defined as “church”… All the lonely people….
A desire for souls to connect far beyond the traditional Sunday morning smiles and hollow “How-are-you’s” , and to see love seep into even deepest crevasses of our culture are only a couple of things that have brought us together. Even beyond that, I’m still learning that it’s not our job as Christians to go into the margins and present the people there with our idea of a god who’s been neatly pruned and tied up with a ribbon. Our God has already saturated every part of the world outside our Christian circles. We need to be able to see that God in a different light, in away that the people out there will recognize.

In only a few months Renew has come to be just about all a community ought to be. A group of regular people who support, respect and care for each other and those around them, regardless of age, race, gender or a persons place in life. And being one of the biggest skeptics of all I’ve found hope in what Jesus can do through a broken dreamer with a crushed heart but a willing spirit. It’s the first time in a long time I can say I’m truly a part of something great, without having had to DO anything at all, other than allow myself to be present and emotionally available to others.”

-Jessica Salasin