Last month my husband and I attended the Weekend to Remember marriage conference that makes its way to Madison every year. That time together to do a “marriage check up” and be reminded to make our relationship a priority is always such a blessing. We learned many nuggets of wisdom that weekend. The first was that if we are not intentionally growing towards each other, we will drift apart. This surprised me. I always thought that if we just chugged along, we would at least stay on a parallel course. The truth, though, is that we will actually drift apart. The same can happen with God.  If we are not energetically nurturing our relationship with the Lord, we will drift away from Him (but He will never drift away from us)! Another golden nugget was that we need the Holy Spirit to love our spouse (or anyone) well. We need God (specifically the Holy Spirit) to empower us to love when our human nature says to run or fight, to see our own sin and forgive others’ sin, and to do the right thing. How do we become aware of the Spirit’s presence so we can be so empowered? We purposefully depend on God and invite Him into all of our interactions and decisions. It just so happens that our church has created a series of Life Marks to help see where we may need to make changes to grow closer to God.  You can read all four of them on our church website, but I’d like to highlight the “I AM Dependent on Christ” life mark, which is made up of these four attributes:

• Grace: Have I received Jesus by faith and do I allow Him to love and accept me in spite of who I am?
• Surrender: Am I giving up my idols to give Jesus center stage in my life?
• Focus: Do my calendar, relationships, and checkbook display that I am fully relying on God?
• Prayer: Am I pursuing a more intimate relationship with God by allowing time for conversation with Him?

How are you doing in each of these areas? We have been reflecting on these Life Marks at each board meeting and these questions have been quite convicting for me. I know I’m often guilty of scrolling through Facebook before I’ve spent time in the Bible. And there are days that I don’t talk to God until it’s time for bedtime prayers. After reflecting on these questions, I have scheduled a specific time to spend reading God’s word every morning. And before I open Facebook, I first make space for conversation with God so I can hear from Him before I hear from the world. Are there any changes these questions challenge you to make? By being dependent on God, we can rely on him to give us the wisdom we need to flourish in our marriage, faithfully raise our kids, and interact with co-workers, neighbors and friends.

Do miracles still happen today? What is the definition of a  miracle?  I looked it up  and here is a definition according to the Oxford dictionary: “A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.” Often It seems that miracles are written off and explained away by science or medicine or just happenstance. Or maybe we are not paying attention and we are missing out on noticing them at all.  How aware are you?  Do you pause at the end of the day or at the end of a week to take note of what took place during your days?  Are you in a rhythm of asking the question of those in your family or close circle of friends, “Where did you see God at work today?”  When you know that you are going to need to answer that question, guess what happens?  You start to notice and become more aware.  You start to see the miracles that are happening! This morning I noticed the bright yellow and purple crocus flowers blooming in the church garden - MIRACLE! The birth of a healthy baby - MIRACLE! A near miss of a car accident - MIRACLE! When someone is in remission from cancer - MIRACLE! Someone in a head on collision suffering only broken legs and a broken arm - MIRACLE! Working your way through a difficult conflict and getting to a place of resolution - MIRACLE! Finding a new job - MIRACLE! Getting along in a family with so many different personalities - MIRACLE! A caterpillar becoming a butterfly - MIRACLE! That God would send his only son to die on a cross to pay for our sin and rise again to make a way for us to live with Him forever and be welcomed into a relationship with him - MIRACLE! One of the blessings of being aware of the miracles that happen all around us all the time, whether we think they are small or huge, is that we can’t help but be filled with gratitude. And gratitude leads to praising God for who He is and all he has done for us.  It keeps our gaze on Him and off of ourselves. It gives us an eternal perspective and reminds us of what really matters.  Perhaps you can remind the people around you of the miracles that are happening and help each other to be on the lookout for them - call them out and give praise to God!  

Accepted.  That’s a beautiful word. It was even more beautiful to Micah and me when we received official pre-approval for a home loan. We have been waiting for a long time to buy a house. The time was right. We decided not to renew our lease for the coming year and all the signs pointed to this being the right time to find that perfect home.  We went into the process with hopeful expectations – tour houses, pick one, submit offer, done.  Maybe we would have to do that twice.  It didn’t end up working out like that.  Our family has loved living in Mount Horeb and we have felt very called to this community. Our top priority was to find a home in Mount Horeb and continue with the relationships and life that we have built here. Our first offer was on a house in Mount Horeb. Not accepted. We then submitted an offer on a house in Oregon. And then another house in Mount Horeb. Both were not accepted.  We were starting to feel slightly defeated. We kept holding on to the hope that God had the right place for us. So, we started packing. We had nowhere to go but a May 31 deadline loomed. We decided to act like God was going to give us a home.  We prayed together. We prayed separately. We asked friends to pray. And we hoped.  It was at that point that I had to accept that God may be calling us to leave Mount Horeb for a new place and a new community. It was also during this time that I really struggled. We had yet another offer turned down and it felt like this new home just wasn’t going to happen.  Micah and I were frustrated and confused. Was God really asking us to start over in a new place? But what about the strong convictions we had that God was using us here, in Mount Horeb? Were we not meant to buy a house? We know that God can work miracles. We have seen it countless times in our lives. And yet, as much as we were confident in God’s power, we were swimming in doubt. We needed a miracle and it just didn’t look like it was going to happen. I began questioning God, and the more I questioned, the less I trusted.  But, we kept packing.  We toured homes in Belleville, McFarland, Oregon, Mount Horeb. We widened our search to Stoughton, Black Earth, Brooklyn and Blue Mounds. Two more unaccepted offers.  After the last offer was declined, Micah and I were feeling incredibly defeated. We didn’t know what God was doing. We wanted to trust. We wanted to hope in that miracle. It was getting increasingly hard to believe that it would happen.  On Monday night, April 17^th, my sister sent me a listing of a house in Mount Horeb. It was a house that hadn’t come up on any of the apps we were using. It didn’t come up in our realtor’s search parameters for us. When I opened the link, I knew why – it wasn’t a fully detached house. It shared a wall, a zero lot line. It was nothing like what we had been looking at. I almost wrote it off.  On Tuesday, April 18^th, at 1:15pm, we toured the home. We left uncertain. We returned home and gathered as a family to pray. We asked God for clarity. We asked for him to give us the desires of our hearts and to unite us a family. And then we packed.  At 5:30pm our realtor contacted us to say there were no offers on the house and we could probably offer less than asking. Until this point, each home we offered on had 6-8 other offers and we were offering far more than the listing price for each one. This one had ZERO offers. The family wanted to close ASAP, and we needed to close before May 31. Every other home we offered on would have caused us to extend our current lease into June. At 6pm we submitted an offer. At 7pm we got the call– accepted! As of May 15 we will be home owners in Mount Horeb.  God heard our hearts. He had something far more beautiful in mind than what we were even searching for. He provided our unexpected miracle.  

I was asked a question in an email about an apparent discrepancy in the Bible. I answered it. And then I got to thinking:  Is that the best way to teach? How did Jesus teach? Something unexpected emerged. Instead of answering it, what might have happened if I would have led my friend to some resources and supported him as he searched for the answer himself? Now, I’m not suggesting that every time someone asks me a question, I should avoid answering it, and put the onus back on them.  However, often we fall into the role of “answer guy” or “answer girl” and in the process keep people from owning their own journey to discovery. If our goal is to encourage, empower, and equip missionaries, to help people own their own faith story, we need to grow in our ability to discern when to simply answer people, and when to lead them to discover for themselves. Here are four thoughts to consider as you decide whether you will answer or not:

1. Adults learn when they have to.

Let our first inclination be that of providing support for people where they show a passion to learn.  Let’s not take the growth that comes in the journey away from them.

Ask:  Is this question I’m being asked a Divine moment full of growth potential, or is it a simple question with little real upside for growth?

2. People grow as teachers when they put effort into their own learning.

Retention is more probable if I go through the journey myself.

Ask:  Is the person asking me the question likely to share the answer I am about to give with someone else?

3. To give a simple answer is often easier.

I’m busy.  Sometimes it’s just simpler to give the answer and move on.

Ask:  Am I tempted to give the answer because I need to move on with my day?

4. If I work harder to find the answer for someone than the one asking the question does, something is wrong.

The way we handle these situations can either reproduce consumeristic dependency or personal ownership.  I realize that people like to be needed.  But, God calls us to make disciples.  This is our missional calling.

Ask:  Is there value for the person who is asking the question to engage in their own learning and discovery?

Here are a few of my favorite questions to help people experience an unexpected discovery:

Tell me more.

What have you tried before?

What are you willing to try?

What is your gut telling you?

What is your head telling you?

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

What about this has you the most curious?

Here’s to your unexpected discoveries, teacher!

Super Bowl Sunday! Imagine getting to help lead a team onto the field for this game - what kind of a coach would you be? Are you a no-nonsense inspirational leader (Vince Lombardi)? Do you have an infectious love for what you’re doing and those around you (John Madden)? Are you just a grump who prefers to wear sweats (Bill Belichick)? No matter the coaching style, the one thing all teams must have is a strategy. We know that our goal (how we define “winning”) is “connecting people to life in Jesus.” Our strategy details how we go about achieving our goal. Here at the Church, we’ve broken this down into three components:

• lifeWorship - Whether in person or online, each we get the opportunity to worship together - as a team. And extending an invitation has never been easier thanks to our streaming capabilities. And if 9:00 AM on Sunday doesn’t work in a particular week, don’t forget we have past sermons available on our website (www.livelifetogether.com/video).
• lifeGroup - From our website: “At the Church we really do ‘live life together.’ In lifeGroup, we meet weekly in each other’s homes to share a meal and share our lives as we grow in Jesus. Our connection to other people is at the heart of our Christian experience. Authentic connections happen most effectively in smaller groups where there is opportunity for dialogue and relationships, and our primary place for these authentic connections is lifeGroup.” If you haven’t given LifeGroup a shot (ever or in a while), now is a great time to start. A new year can bring new habits! To learn more, contact Amy Meyer at ameyer@livelifetogether.com.
• lifeServe - Great teams don’t just show up on Sunday - they’ve been practicing. God gives all of us gifts: talents, interests, time, finances, etc. We have the chance to gratefully give back and serve communities both near and far. We spoke a lot about generosity last year, but serving never goes out of fashion. Remember that Jesus didn’t just talk for an hour or two once a week - he actively practiced what he was preaching.

Our strategic pillars don’t operate in isolation - they work together and often can overlap in service of our goal:

• Our services operate with the assistance of many fine volunteers
• lifeGroups occasionally choose to serve together
• Looking for more learning than just the traditional “church service”? NeighboringLife.com and our rotating 2*22 sessions provide a chance to dig in and apply our knowledge.
• The list goes on!

The possibilities are endless when these three items work in harmony. Whether you’re watching the big game or not (I get it, go Packers), think about how this strategy guides us in our walk with Christ - together.

Create a Comic from one of this month's stories of Unexpected Power.  And design your Household Well Superhero Badge.  We want to see your creativity!  Email epowers@livelifetogether.com with your creations or bring in a copy.  You can print these copies here: powerpage1, powerpage2                  

Life Marks are a set of attributes in an individual’s life that reflect the Church’s Mission. As a result of Connecting People to Life in Jesus, we expect that followers of Jesus who are actively engaged in our Strategy (lifeWorship, lifeGroup, lifeServe) at the Church will be able to say:

• I am Sustained by the Word
• I am Dependent on Christ
• I am a Visible Reflection of Jesus
• I am the Missional Heartbeat of God.

I encourage each of you to take 10 minutes to take a closer look at the Life Marks and consider how these look in your life. Are you actively engaged in following Jesus in each of these ways? Does looking through any of these give you an idea of something you want to follow up on?

• Set a timer and take two minutes each (eight minutes total) to look at the detailed descriptions/questions under each Life Mark. Write down your answers to each question.
• Take two more minutes to review all you’ve written and thought about and see if anything comes up that you’d like to change.

After doing this brief reflection, I feel led to take next steps on “I am a visible reflection of Jesus.” Specifically, I’d like to improve at listening to God, and noticing and taking opportunities to bless neighbors and friends. Whether this is your first time reading through the Life Marks in detail or you helped write them, reflecting on them and how they look for you today could help you find a way to draw closer to Jesus. And that is what we strive to do at the Church - connect people to life in Jesus. LIFE MARKS:

I AM Sustained by the Word.

Bible:  Am I reading, reflecting on, and responding to God’s Word daily? Grow:  Would people closest to me recognize that I have a growing relationship with Jesus? Worship:  Does personal and public worship hold a sacred place in my life? Community:  Am I being sharpened by God’s Word in relationship with other Christians?

I AM Dependent on Christ.

Grace:  Have I received Jesus by faith and do I allow Him to love and accept me in spite of who I am?  (Galatians 2:21) Surrender:  Am I giving up my idols to give Jesus center stage in my life? Focus:  Do my calendar, relationships, and checkbook display that I am fully relying on God? Prayer:  Am I pursuing a more intimate relationship with God by allowing time for conversation with Him?

I AM a Visible Reflection of Jesus.

Love:  Am I intentionally blessing neighbors and friends with a compassionate heart? Obey:  Am I listening for what God wants me to do and following through? Purpose:  Can I complete this statement:  “I am making disciples and glorifying God by ______________?” Team:  Am I playing my part well alongside others to make a Kingdom impact? (Ephesians 4:16 & Nehemiah 2:18b)

I AM the Missional Heartbeat of God.

Discern:  Who is God placing on my impact list? Friend:  Do I delight in sharing my life with others?  (1 Thess. 2:8) Proclaim:  Am I prepared and willing to speak the truth about Jesus when given the opportunity?  (1 Peter 3:15) Teach:  Am I helping another believer live life with Jesus?  (2 Timothy 2:2)

As we are learning about the unexpected beginnings in God’s Word it makes me wonder what it is that you are beginning in this new year? Perhaps you are beginning a new job or maybe being a parent for the first time.  Maybe you are beginning a remodeling project in your home or trying a new hobby. I have begun a reading plan that will take me through the Bible in a year. I read sections from two New Testament books and then from two Old Testament books. Beginning new things can be exciting as well as a little scary.  There are always a lot of unknowns as we begin new things.  And there are also a lot of exciting things that we discover along the way. We are beginning something new this year at the Church that I hope you are willing to participate in.  The last Sunday of every month we will have WELL connected gatherings.  These will happen right after worship and ALL households are encouraged to attend. There will be a different topic each month and they are designed to have you connect with other households, be equipped to continue living out your faith in your neighborhood and have some fun!  January 29th is the first one - you will get a WELL connected passport and you can see how many stamps you can collect throughout the year. You could consider beginning an extra intentional investment and focus on your marriage by attending the marriage conference, A Weekend to Remember put on by Family Life ministries. There are brochures in the welcome area and you can ask questions of Patrick and Michelle Tsai if you want more detailed information. (michelle.tsa@uwalumni.com)  On February 4th there is a day long event for men called No Regrets, more information is on the table by the Weekend to Remember. (rsvp to Josh: 608.333.6080) Could it be that you want to begin attending a lifeGroup in 2023?  Our lifeGroups meet on different nights of the week and are for all households. If a weeknight does not work for your family, what about trying a Saturday or Sunday during the day.  We strongly believe that authentic connections happen most effectively in smaller groups where there is opportunity for deeper conversations and close friendships. Reading God’s word together and praying for one another helps those connections happen.  Did you used to attend a group and now you have fallen out of the rhythm?  What might it look like to begin again?  Who could you invite?  (contact me, Amy,  if you want to get connected: ameyer@livelifetogether.com) Are you wanting to begin to use your gifts and serve at church or in the community?  Check out our serve page https://livelifetogether.com/lifeserve/ for lots of different ways to serve both in the community and at church.  If you are unsure of what it might look like to serve in a certain place or want to shadow someone before you give it a try just reach out to me.  If you have been volunteering somewhere out in the community and you think others may want to join you, please let me know. Have you begun meeting in a 1:1 relationship yet?  You might be surprised at the difference it makes in your journey with Jesus to walk alongside another person (or in a group of 3).  You can read scripture together, hear what God is doing in their life, hold each other accountable to follow through on changes that you may be led to make and have a trusted person in your life, walking WITH you and praying for you. What do you want to begin doing in your neighborhood?  Maybe you want to start by praying for your neighbors by name each day and asking God to give you opportunities to be used in their lives. Perhaps you know that someone in your neighborhood has a need that you could help meet. Maybe you want to reach out and connect over coffee or take a walk with them.  You could put a date on the calendar and invite some neighbors over and get to know them a little better and help them connect with other neighbors. Begin by saying yes to invitations that you receive.  God has placed you where you live on purpose and He is working, ask him to let you know where you can join in.  For some encouragement in neighboring and for inspiration from others who are on the same journey as you - check out www.neighboringlife.com. Let’s continue to fully participate in all God has for us - remember, He does the unexpected! “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might as or think.”  Ephesians 3:20  

As we come to the end of another year, the Leadership Board is reflecting on those who have faithfully served on the board as well as those who are coming onto the board, either as a returning member or as a fresh face. Serving as a member of leadership on a board of church or other nonprofit organization is no simple endeavor. I currently serve on two boards, both for the Church as the Vice-Chair and as the Treasurer for the Verona Area Performing Arts Series. Most leadership boards are unpaid, volunteer positions; those that join are donating their time and talents, and frequently, their treasure. This is why the Leadership Board is thankful for the years of service from both Bill Strange and Sheila Anderson. Both Sheila and Bill are visible fixtures at the Church; Bill also serves the Church as an Elder in addition to his board role and Sheila frequently delivers readings of the Word during Worship. Both Sheila and Bill are great examples of what it means to be a leader at the Church: they serve several different ways but always do it with a prayerful heart. We will miss their input and ideas in our meetings, but we are comforted in the fact that our two incoming board members are going to be able to fill Bill’s and Sheila’s roles in their own unique ways. The Vice-Chair of the Leadership Board is charged with chairing the Nominating Committee, which finds the next set of members of the board when vacancies occur. This year, the board refined what we look for in a new board member; we especially focused on spiritual gifts and the ongoing commitment of prospective members. When developing the shortlist of candidates, I had both of our new members in mind with our newly refined criteria. Michelle Tsai may have one of the most servant hearts of anyone I’ve met; she and her husband Patrick gladly open their home to my family and others for our lifeGroup, which my family has been a member of for over ten years. Always kind and conscientious, Michelle is rejoining the board after service in prior years. Courtney Shrader has been serving the youth alongside Emily, recently joining in on the Higher Ground mission trip earlier this year. I was excited when she talked to me about board service after one of my post-Worship appeals earlier this year; I didn’t even need to ask her to join! Courtney will be our rookie member in 2023, joining the Leadership Board for the first time. In closing, the Leadership Board also thanks you, our members and visitors. The Church would not be what it is today without you. We wish you a blessed remainder of 2022 and a healthy and joyous 2023.