Parking Lot Update

Schedule
We are very excited to announce that from July 6th to approximately August 8th our parking lot we will be undergoing a complete and much needed overhaul. While the lot is being renovated, parking will be temporarily relocated to the back field. The following schedule should give you a rough idea of how our regular services will be affected:

• July 12 | Regular Services, “Backyard” Parking
• July 19 | Regular Services, “Backyard” Parking
• July 26 | Outdoor Service @ Chapin Park (10:45 a.m.)
• Aug. 2 | Outdoor Service @ New Life Robinwood (10:45 a.m.)
• Aug. 9 | Regular Service (New Parking Lot Completed)

Opportunities
These next few weeks will provide all of us with a number of great opportunities. First, make it a point in your regular conversations to tell your friends, family, co-works and neighbors about what New Life Oregon City is doing and how excited we are about the future. Second, invite someone (or multiple someones) to either one of the irregular, outdoor services. Third, focus on the truth that the church isn’t a building (or a parking lot), it’s people!

Open Forum—“What About October?”

On Sunday, July 12th, immediately after the “Deli-Delight” luncheon, New Life Oregon City’s Leadership Team will be hosting the first in a series of Open Forums regarding the decisions our church will be facing in October. The purpose of this initial forum will be to outline the choices before us as well as how we’re going to go about navigating them. Please be in prayer for the Leadership Team as they plan, gather questions, listen to the body, and seek the Lord’s will. Both members and non-members are welcome to attend.

A Day of Prayer and Fasting
In preparation for our first Open Forum, Wednesday, July 8th, will be set aside as a special day of corporate prayer and fasting. Three separate prayer meetings will be held throughout the day here at our campus, each in correspondence to a regular meal:

• 6am-7am (Breakfast)
• 12pm-1pm (Lunch)
• 7pm-8pm (Dinner)

Please join us by attending and fasting during one or more of these special gatherings. Childcare will be provided in the evening.

Questions to Consider:

• How can we make the greatest impact for the kingdom?
• How can we demonstrate the love and unity of God’s people?
• What have been the benefits/drawbacks of this interim year?
• What will make us internally healthy and evangelistically vibrant?
• Who does the church belong to?

Diagnosing Idols - Clarkson

David Clarkson (1622-1686), “Soul Idolatry Keeps Men Out of Heaven”

1. Esteem. That which we most highly value we make our God. For estimation is an act of soul worship.
2. Mindfulness. That which we are most mindful of we make our God. To be most remembered, to be most minded, is an act of worship which is proper to God, and which he requires as due to himself alone.
3. Intention. That which we most intend we make our god; for to be most intended is an act of worship due only to the true God; for he being the chief good must be the last end.
4. Resolution. What we are most resolved for we worship as God.
5. Love. That which we must love we worship as our God; for love is an act of soul-worship.
6. Trust. That which we most trust we make our god; for confidence and dependence is an act of worship which the Lord calls for as due only to himself.
7. Fear. That which we most fear we worship as our god; for fear is an act of worship.
8. Hope. That which we make our hope we worship as God; for hope is an act of worship.
9. Desire. That which we most desire we worship as our god; for that which is chiefly desired, is the chief good in his account who so desires it; and what he counts his chief good, that he makes his god.
10. Delight. That which we most delight and rejoice in, that we worship as God; for transcendent delight is an act of worship due only to God; and this affection, in its height and elevation, is called glorying.
11. Zeal. That for which we are more zealous we worship as god; for such a zeal is an act of worship due only to God ; therefore it is idolatrous to be more zealous for our own things than for the things of God; to be eager in our own cause, and careless in the cause of God; to be more vehement for our own credit, interests, advantages, than for the truths, ways, honour of God; to be fervent in spirit, in following our own business, promoting our designs, but lukewarm and indifferent in the service of God; to count it intolerable for ourselves to be reproached, slandered, reviled, but manifest no indignation when God is dishonoured, his name, worship, profaned; his truths, ways, people, reviled.
12. Gratitude. That to which we are most grateful, that we worship as God; for gratitude is an act of worship.
13. When our care and industry is more for other things than for God. We cannot serve God and mammon, God and our lusts too, because this service of ourselves, of the world, takes up that care, that industry, those endeavours, which the Lord must have of necessity, if we will serve him as God; and when these are laid out upon the world and our lusts, we serve them as the Lord ought to be served, and so make them our gods.

Leadership Update - Giving Opportunities

With the new parking lot just days away from beginning, up to now the vast majority of our property improvements have been funded either by the sale of the Maple Lane campus or by previously collected building funds. While you may not be able to personally finance a project as large as the new parking lot, there are a number of ways you can support what’s going on. Below is a short of list of some miscellaneous improvements we’re still in need of.

Improvement Projects

• New Front Doors | $3,000-$4,000
• Restroom Shelves (6) | $24.99 (each)
• Paint (Exterior Building) | $1,200
• Dry-Erase Board (Fireside) | $500
• Sanctuary Chairs (30) | $70 (each)
• Blinds (Fireside)

Two Ways to Give
There are two way to give to these projects. First, you can choose to sponsor one or more of the projects either in part or in total. Second, you can give monetarily to the projects as a whole without specifying or sponsor a particular project. Forms for giving are available at the church office and will be distributed at service this week and next.

Beware the “Beautiful Things”

For obvious (political) reasons, last year Shane Clairborne & Chris Haw’s ironically titled Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals was one of the most popular Christian books on the market. It’s a pretty fast read, thanks especially to the book’s relentless graphic design (check the web-site out, you'll see what I mean). The book wasn’t without its share of controversy, but as I was preparing this week’s message on the topic of idolatry, I remembered the following quote:

It’s the beautiful things that get us. Perhaps the greatest seduction is not the ANTI-GOD, but the ALMOST*GOD. Poisonous fruit can look pretty tasty. That’s what is so dangerous about ideas like FREEDOM, PEACE AND JUSTICE. They are all seductive qualities, close to the heart of God. After all, it’s the beautiful things we kill and die for. And it’s the beautiful we market, exploit, brand and counterfeit.

WE FIND OURSELVES POSSESSED BY OUR POSSESSIONS . . .

and enslaved by the pursuit of freedom. Nations fighting for peace end up perpetuating the very violence they seek to destroy. Serpents are slippery and slimy things.

MOST of the ugliness in the human narrative comes from a distorted quest to possess beauty. COVETING begins with appreciating blessing. MURDER begins with a hunger for justice. LUST begins with a recognition of beauty. GLUTTONY begins when our enjoyment of the delectable gifts of GOD starts to consume us. IDOLATRY begins when our seeing a reflection of God in something beautiful leads to our thinking that the beautiful image bearer is worthy of WORSHIP (pg. 26).

Leadership Update - Property Maintenance

Moving into our newly remodeled building has been a tremendous blessing, one that would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of numerous volunteers. However, now that we’re securely in, we’re still in need of faithful volunteers to manage the regular upkeep of our property.

Maintenance Team
This past Tuesday night (June 2nd) the Property Maintenance Team met for the first time to recruit and organize volunteers interested in sharing their time and talents around our campus. Kevin LaChance graciously volunteered to lead the Maintenance Team. If you’re interested in helping out but were not able to attend the meeting, please contact the church office at 503.655.7390.

Maintenance Projects
The Maintenance Team will be responsible for coordinating a number of ongoing projects and needs including:

• Lawn & Grounds Care
• Outdoor Clean-up
• Painting & Siding Installation
• Plumbing & Electrical Issues
• Regular Safety Inspections
• And more . . .

Preparing for the New Parking Lot
One of the Maintenance Team's first jobs will be to condense, organize, tear-down and move the four sheds located immediately behind our church building in preparation for the new fire access road connected to our new parking lot. We've tentatively scheduled a work-day to take care of the sheds on Saturday, June 13th. Please mark your calendars. For more information, contact the church office.

The Overflow - Idolatry and the “Great Reversal”

Genesis 3:22

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.”

Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God

God accepts that human have indeed breached the Creator-creature distinction. Not that human have now become gods but that they have chosen to act as though they were—defining and deciding for themselves what they will regard as good and evil. Therein lies the root of all other forms of idolatry: we deify our own capacities, and thereby make gods of ourselves and our choices and all their implications.

At the root, then, of all idolatry is human rejection of the Godness of God and the finality of God’s moral authority.

Idolatry dethrones God and enthrones creation. Idolatry is the attempt to limit, reduce an control God by refusing his authority, constraining or manipulating his power to act, having him available to serve our interests. At the same time, paradoxically, idolatry exalts things within the created order . . . . Creation is then credited with a potency that belongs only to God; it is sacralized, worshipped and treated as that form which ultimate meaning can be derived. A great reversal happens: God, who should be worshipped, becomes an object to be used; creation, which is for our use and blessing, becomes the object of our worship (166-5).