Parents: Not your ordinary bedtime read:

Each of us battle the bounds of the small box that our world can become.  Even in our own community we go to the same stores, buy at the same coffee shop, engage the same people in our own circles. The danger is we can view anyone who is different as out of our world.  Jesus in His famous Great Commission worlds commanded His leaders "To make Disciples of all Nations" in Matthew 28:19.  The small circle of their reach, as well as their vision was challenged.  Apostolic doctrine changed from The people to All people, The temple to You are the Temple and The Holy Land to change All Lands!

The fact is if you grow up in America and if you make $10,000 a year you are better off than 90% of the world's population. If you have kids you have probably noticed when they want things in a store (over and over and over again) or they may take for granted the things that they have.  We are super blessed! I believe we are blessed to be a blessing.  Proverbs 11:25 says A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.  

I wanted to find a tool to not only give my kids a global perspective but also help them understand that they have it pretty good.  At first my wife thought this book may be too intense for our kids but I have had a blast reading, each night about a different nation.  There are facts and pictures and even my 3 year old has been moderately interested as we sit and read about a new nation each night and say prayers for people who are not like us and far less fortunate.  

Book Description

http://www.amazon.com/Window-World-Prayer-Atlas-All/dp/1932805915

Well loved by young and old - a book that will inform and inspire the whole family, this beautifully presented, yet practical book, is the ideal accompaniment to Operation World. Stunning photographic visuals complement this A to Z of countries and people groups providing an exciting learning experience and guide for prayer. Short stories about featured countries or people groups help relate foreign lands and people to children in the West. Each page includes a small map putting the country into perspective with neighboring countries, a fact box with essential country, and people information and prayer points that children can ask God for as well as thank God for.This invaluable resource develops cultural, political, and geographical awareness through a Christian lens. Families, churches, and schools will all benefit from this book and in turn be able to pray more effectively for their world.Winner of the 2002 Gold Medallion for Elementary Age Children.  

Some Great Books-

I wanted to recommend some great books that I have read over the last month or two.  The first two books would appeal to anyone looking for a great read.  The last books have to do with spirituality and faith, particularly in the Christian Church.

Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose is a fantastic read about the Lewis and Clark expedition.  The beginning was a bit slow for me as plans and preparations for the expedition were underway.  This may have just been a window into my own impatient personality as I wanted to get them on the journey.  However once I got into the latter chapters I could not put this book down.  Incredible True story that takes place in our part of the world!

Bonhoeffer, Wow!  I am just a third of the way through this book about a fantastic pastor and author who wound up leading a plot to assassinate Hitler!   http://www.ericmetaxas.com/books/bonhoeffer-pastor-martyr-prophet-spy-a-righteous-gentile-vs-the-third-reich/

We just had the privilege of hosting this author and his wife at our church last Sunday. Terry Virgo is one of the best bible teachers of our time.  Not only do Terry and Wendy have an amazing resume and have shared their gifts with the church- they are so down to earth and personable.  If you would like to see a picture of what a Follower of Jesus and the Church of Jesus should look like,  pick this one up.  You also may watch this interview with Terry Virgo and Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church about this book.  http://theresurgence.com/2011/09/23/the-spirit-filled-church

A fantastic book by David Devenish about apostolic doctrine and Church life.  A must read for any Church leader.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RuLiGddaHo  (to learn more)

Real Time Connections is about linking your Job with God's Global work.  This is a fantastic book for anyone missionaly hungry to see their life make a difference in the world.  This will challenge you to get out of your comfort zone and push the borders of your reach as a leader.

Your Life Has Something to Say

Your life is preaching a message whether you are religious or not.  You may not feel like it does but your life and your experience's have something to say.  I found it difficult believing that my life could in any way help people.  Although through sharing my story, both hilarity and tragedy, people seem interested.  People connect with story.  Jesus throughout the gospels encountered people and jumped into their story.  


You may feel like Joe-six pack or Average Jane.  But your life is not average especially when you find God has put a message within you.  When you find that message you become a messenger.  The Bible says in 1 John 5:10 "Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony of God in them."  


If you have a chance to visit Clark Fork City Church we are looking at several stories over the next 8 weeks. A woman who was a social out-cast, a man born blind, The Average Joe and several others.  These messages are sure to inspire you and your story and urge you into God's Story.  


There is a portion in “A River Runs through it” that balances the story with a line “What a beautiful world it was once.”  In this stretch of the Story Norman Maclaen described three parts of fishing water: The Rapids, The Deep Bend, The Tail of the Fishing Hole. When we back up from our life it is interesting to view life's parts and how they effect who we are. 

Each great story has different parts that are viewed by God in their entirety, our finite minds have a tendency to break down each part and in our (chronos) time frame see events as individuals.  God has been at work in our lives before we knew he was there.  When we couldn’t see him at work.  When nobody else was there, He was.  He see's the whole thing.  Maybe a bend in the River has thrown your story for a loop, but God will find purpose in it.  His River wants to flow through your life.

September 23rd-24th Leadership Event is for You!

"A Christian Leader is a humble, God-dependent, team-playing servant of God who is called by God to shepherd, develop, equip, and empower a specific group of believers to accomplish an agreed-upon vision of God." Dave Kraft

Next weekend, Friday September 23rd and Saturday 24th we are privelaged to host a leadership event with Dave Kraft.  Dave recently wrote a book called "Leaders Who Last."  Only 30% of Leaders finish well.  Each one of us is called to lead people.  Jesus didn't ask us to go make decisions, but to go make disciples.  We all have a story to tell and a minsitry to be a part of.  Whether that means full time staff at a church or a volunteer for an Awana program, or maybe you are on usher on a Sunday we all have a part to play.  Not to mention God's global call that compells us to reach into our cities and nations of the world. 

Dave Kraft worked with "Navigators" a christian ministry for 38 years before joining Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  Dave works as a leadership development pastor, training, recruiting and equipping leaders.  He has served as a leadership coach for very inffluenctial pastors as well.  

Dave will be speaking Friday evening and Saturday until Lunch.  This brief time will be packed with training and will challenge each of us to  grow in our leaderhsip capacity. Please set aside the time and if you lead a team please encourage all your leaders to participate.  You may not be leading a ministry but you need to be!  This would be a great event for you as well.

The 20$ cost associated with the event is helping us as a group of city churches to start a fund to bring in high end leaders to Missoula to impact our city.  This event will get the ball rolling for a ministry called "city forum." So we get the opportunity to sow into the next events which will be a parenting event ted Tripp called "shepherding a child's heart" followed by a marriage conference by Paul Tripp.

Please don't miss this opportunity to dial in your leadership skills and be challenged. Childcare will be provided.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=157497414318325

Don't Miss our new Sunday series "God's River Runs Through It"

http://www.clarkforkcitychurch.org/connect/the-river/

The Church has Left the Building

So often when we think of Church, we think of a building, a Sunday morning, songs, speaking and lunch afterward.  Many Pastors and Church leaders spend time at a desk or keyboard or trapped in an office somewhere.  It seems as if in Jesus ministry much of His time was not in a building but out with people.
We have been prompted to in the last few months to leave the four walls of our facility and move our office out into the streets.  More and more I want our church to be "In Missoula, for Missoula."

One project we have just started is called "Street Teams."  We were given a twelve passenger van, filled it with tools and lawn-mowers and we have started hitting the streets with a Free Yard-work Service.  Wait, whats the catch?  Many people are used to solicitors, Religion Peddlers, and Vacuum Salesman pounding on their doors.  We have been knocking on doors to serve those who cant serve themselves and love on the City  we get to live in.  We cant change the whole town but we get to help one home at a time.  We have found people seem suspicious at first and then warm up to the idea when we serve their needs.

We have several needs as this project starts to expand:
1) Workers:  We go out every Friday morning and need more help as work increases and we are still looking for a crew-boss to start a Saturday Street Team. You do not need to be a skilled craftsman, just have a heart to help people.  We mow lawns, clean yards, pick weeds, and more extensive projects as well.


2) We are meeting at 7am tomorrow for a special roof installation and need around 3-4 workers.


3) Finances for Vehicle Graphics:  we have a van that could be a rolling billboard.  It just needs the graphics.  If your business wants to sponsor our vehicle graphics we would love to note that on our van.  This will also give us credibility and exposure as the van goes through the city.

4)  Tools: if you have tools to donate they can be dropped by during regular business hours.

Thanks for your help!

Storms: Who is to Blame, and our Response?

I woke up Monday morning to catch and feed a couple horses and to my surprise the round coral they were in had almost two feet of water in it.  They were standing in a new pond.  It turns out neighbors up-river had opened a water gate to relieve flooding.  This spring has been a year of disasters: from Japan, to Joplin and even significant flooding here in Missoula Montana as well as across the states.  (Below picture taken in Missoula Montana: Third St Flooding 2011)

The Book of Matthew chapter 27 shares some of Christ's words that could relate to many situations we find ourselves in.  24Every one therefore that hears these words of mine, and does them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock: 25and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and if fell not: for it was founded upon the rock. 26And every one that hears these words of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand: 27and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof. 


The one thing both home owners in the above text had in common was a flood.  In the fifth chapter of Matthew talks about the sun shining and the rain falling on the just and the unjust.  I have often heard the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people."  I heard someone say "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond."  I recently shared a message on a Sunday morning called, "The way we see the problem is the problem."


I have had things in life I tried to or would like to blame God for.   It is important to not shrink away from problems but to allow them to test and try you.  If you find your house shaking, take inventory of what is shaking. Our growth in life doesn't come from the great times as great as they are.  I believe our spiritual and emotional maturity is grown through storms.  


Someone taught me gold is purified by fire.  If you want a pure metal, heat is applied so impurities can rise to the top.  When heat is applied in your life what comes to the top?  Who do you turn on- when things get tough.  We have to remember not to turn on someone but to turn to THE someone who can help.  Jesus said "Whoever hears the words of mine is like a man who built his house on the rock."  


A few things to remember while going through a storm...

1. God does not always work miracles and acts of providence for our deliverance from suffering; sometimes by faith God sustains his people through sufferings.

2. Having faith is not the ultimate determining factor in whether you suffer or escape, God is - God's sovereign will and wisdom and love.

3. The common feature of the faith that escapes suffering and the faith that endures suffering is this: both of them involve believing that God himself is better than what life can give to you now, and better than what death can take from you later.

 Take time today to thank God for what you have. Cherish the victories and long summer days.  But don't shrink from adversity and only cast blame.  Find the victory in adversity.  Is your house built on the rock? (Below picture of Surfers on Clark Fork River:Missoula Montana)

How are you in Adversity?

.....A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17


In my previous post I referenced the book "A River Runs Through It" by Norman Maclaen.  The story is about how Paul's brother Norman takes him fishing one last time to try and help him through a difficult season in life but his message doesn't seem to break through.   

                                   A picture I took of my brother David: Beartooths 2008, 11 miles in   
Being a pastor I have rejoiced with people who rejoice, and also mourned with people who mourn.  Why is it some of the most difficult situations, and some of the hardest struggles are smack dab in the middle of family? Why is it some people who appear to need the most help are the most difficult to reach? 


A popular English proverb says "when the going gets tough the tough get going."  Far too often this happens in a negative sense, usually one of two ways:


1) People who are wounded retreat and don't allow anyone close, because to be close equals too vulnerable
2) People near the wounded retreat and don't fulfill Proverbs 17:17 and they love only  when convenient or on their terms


Consider this sliver from :The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible
A true, hearty, faithful friend, loves in times of adversity as well as in times of prosperity: there are many that are friends to persons, while they are in affluent circumstances; but when there is a change in their condition, and they are stripped of all riches and substance; than their friends forsake them, and stand at a distance from them; as was the case of Job, (Job 19:14) ; it is a very rare thing to find a friend that is a constant lover, such an one as here described. The Jewish writers understand this as showing the difference between a friend and a brother: a cordial friend loves at all times, prosperous and adverse; but a "brother [loves when] adversity [is] born"

                                                        My two brothers and I in the Beartooth Mountains: 2009
Some of my favorite family memories have been an annual fishing trip to the Beartooth Mountains in Montana, just north of Yellowstone Park. My Dad and brothers went last year and we spent 5 nights around 12 miles into the wilderness area. We enjoy each other's company, catch tons of fish, get on each others nerves, and also challenge one another physically and spiritually.  A Proverb written by Solomon says "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."  
                                                                   
Far too often the iron in our lives doesn't sharpen but can do damage.  Remember the story of two brothers in the book of Genesis named Cain and Abel.  Because of jealousy, competition and anger Cain slew his brother Abel.  How many family feuds have there been or started in good intention and the outcome of adversity ends in emotional slaying?  


Community/Family is designed to:  
Help us in times of trouble
Challenge us not be independent
Cause us to overcome individualism
Forge us with accountability
Encourage us to keep going when the road seems to long 


This week we are mourning with those who mourn.  A great man, Brent James Schlimgen (see link) passed away last Thursday morning.  Leaving behind his beautiful wife Kristy, and two boys Andrew John and Luke James.  Not to mention so many in our own community who were dear friends.  


This event has cause several responses in my heart.  One of grief for his dear loved ones who have certainly walked through some difficult years.  Secondly I am reminded how precious are days our and not to take for granted even one day with those close to us.  Finally I am reminded of how to respond, that a brother is born for adversity.  Not for quarrelling.  But to stand strong when others fall.


Proverbs 17:17 is summed up well with these words,"To the second of these parallel clauses, there is an accession of meaning, that is, that a brother's love is specially seen in adversity"  - Jamieson-Fausset-Brown


We live in a land where dysfunction has become the norm.  Divided couples and friends, Divided families and a Divided Nation. Reach out, don't run. Dig Down and find a purpose in the middle of your adversity. 


JY

http://missoulian.com/news/local/obituaries/article_367f6f00-6e94-11e0-9842-001cc4c03286.html

Prodigal Son in Missoula Montana

Hi, my name is Josh Yakos.  I’m the lead Pastor at Clark Fork City Church in Missoula Montana.  

Missoula, found in western Montana, is known for outdoor activities and the University of Montana Grizzlies. Missoula was also made popular by Norman Maclean's book "A River Runs Through It”. Norman was a Presbyterian minister and author who moved to Missoula in 1909.  

The novel, based in Missoula, is presented from the point of view of older brother Norman who goes on one last fishing trip with his rowdy and troubled younger brother Paul in an attempt to help him get his life on track.

Looking back my life was more representative of a Paul than a Norman.  

Norman, the safe and calculating brother, is a polar opposite of his careless and rowdy brother Paul.  I was never the safe kid.  I always was hurt, wearing a cast, pushing the limits and trying what needed to be tried.  When I landed in Missoula in 1996; I felt as if I had spent the previous 6 years without direction, going any way the wind would blow. I heard a related quote by Seneca recently that summed up those days of my life: "If a man does not know what port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him."  

The most famous story of all time is found in Luke chapter 15:11-31 and is called "The story of the Prodigal Son." Everyone has heard this story or would know the gist of the text.  One son leaves home to squander his inheritancee, while the older son stays home and is faithful to work for the Father.  When the younger son returns home, he is welcomed with grace and mercy and the older brother is angry as he feels he stayed home and did what was asked of him. (Highly recommend Tim Keller's Book "Prodigal God").  


Have you ever felt like you wandered in your life?  The Bible says in Isaiah 53:6, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”  

If you spend more time lost than found, it’s time for a change.

I’m fascinated and encouraged in hearing people's journeys and stories and very grateful mine lead me here to what I would consider my hometown, Missoula. I wrote this blog with the "Paul's" in mind.  It’s easy to relate to someones story when you have been down similar paths.  If you have lost your way or turned to your own way, I want to let you know that there’s a future and a hope for you. 

I know it wasn't the city that did it, although I’m grateful God brought me to this place and my life seemed to turn around.  It was more of who I met here and I think of how in the Bible it talks about the River of God, bringing healing to the nations.  I met the God of the City, and His river has been running in my life, healing what needs to be healed, forgiving what needs to be forgiven, washing away what needs to be made clean and sending me on a whole new journey in life.  There have been rapids and there have been times of calm, but I’m a blessed man today.  I would also say there were some great "Normans" who went out of their way to impact my life.

If you spend a majority of your time apart and lonely, it’s time to connect.

Do you relate to Paul in the story?  Are you like the younger brother from Luke 15 and feel like days, months or years have slipped by and you are left with nothing but an empty feeling in your stomach?  The fact that you have air in your lungs and breath in your mouth means you have purpose.  A proverb that has grounded me is found in Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."

If your memories are bigger than your dreams, it’s time to wake up.
JY

Easter weekend is quickly approaching and I want to encourage you to find a church family?  If you are from Missoula and need to engage with God again, visit us at 9 or 11 AM this coming Sunday morning for Easter Celebration.  If you live in another town and don't know where to look, message me and I’ll try to help.
Visit www.clarkforkcitychurch.com for more info