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• Sunday Greeting (at the door) - would love to have folks who greet people at the door on Sundays. Would need to be at the church by 12:40. Coordinate with pastors to schedule.
• Call to Worship - 5-10 min. weekly Scripture reading with a word of encouragement. Guides us into our music time. Coordinate with pastors for schedule and theme.
• The Likeness (worship band) - looking for additional band members who can play a needed instrument and/or sing. Coordinate with pastors to see if there's a good fit.
• Art and Design - we want to do more in the way of art and design in the gatherings on Sundays, including a "Weekly Missioner" newsletter. There are also opportunities to show art during gatherings or sermons, if there is a good fit. Coordinate with pastors.
• Prayer Requests, Praise Items - during everybody time folks often share requests for prayer or items to give thanks for. We need someone to record these things and then post them on the Daily Missioner each Monday. Coordinate with pastors.
• Dinners, Potlucks - especially during our "celebration" week (2nd week of each month). We need people to plan and host these dinners, open to both dwelling communities (and those we may invite in). Coordinate with pastors if interested.
• fRepair and Restoration Arts - if you have either technical know-how, or an artistic streak, we could use folks to volunteer with these initiatives. Coordinate with pastors, and we'll plug you in with the folks leading these efforts. 
• Daily Missioner Articles - we need folks to write short essays for posting on the Daily Missioner blog. These should be Dwell-related thoughts about sermons, dwellings, etc., or pictures from Dwell events, or missional experiences. Send any post proposals to pastors via email, and we'll see if it's a good fit.
• The Kyrell Scholarship Fund - we are raising money for a kid at the Sara Holbrook community center to get him into Burlington football (because he loves football!). If you are interested in contributing to this over and above your tithe, coordinate with the pastors!

If you're interested in helping with any of these things, email Lead Pastor Zach Hoag (zach@dwellchurch.com) or Community Pastor Nick Hoag (nick@dwellchurch.com). 

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It's a wonderful thing to see gifts at work, serving the church. Our sound board restored. Thanks, Chad. - your genius knows no bounds!

Check out some of the before and after shots below:

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And the greatest of these is love.

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Nick, our Community Pastor, got some ink done today. 

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Sent from my iPhone

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I’ve really been struck lately about how different God’s ways are from the ways of the world, and at the injustice of Jesus’ death on a cross.  This is the Creator King Himself:

2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:2-3)

2 For you granted him authority over all people (John 17:2)

All of Creation is His and the fact that anything or anyone exists at all is as a gift from a loving God.  So there is really no greater act of injustice in all of history than Jesus, being the perfectly holy and only begotten Son of God and containing the fullness of God incarnate, is then sentenced to death unjustly by a lynch mob at a sham of a trial, by a judge who readily sees the injustice of the situation but gives in to the bloodthirstiness of the crowd anyway, and for crimes that He didn’t commit and not just any crimes but bearing the entirety of weight of the sins of the world.  Yet this is the King of all Creation, the one who was there in the beginning creating all things and who has authority over all things, who chooses not to come and establish dominion over His own Creation through power and subjugation but instead to submit in obedience to the unjust death of a common criminal hung between two thieves.  But this changes everything, because the injustice of this world is not able to extend into eternity, and Death can no longer keep its hold on our Lord as He returns to life leaving buried the entirety of the sin and punishment that was never His to begin with, freeing all of Creation through all of history from imminent destruction and firmly establishing a new Kingdom and new way of life with a new hope for a new future, all in the matter of a weekend.  So it always strikes me at how different God’s ways are from the ways of the world, and how His ways are continually bringing life and restoration into the world by such unexpected means.

Proverbs 10:16 says:

16 The wages of the righteous is life,

   but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.

and 2 Corinthians 5:21 says:

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

So in not deserving death yet receiving it anyway, Jesus is able to give us life who did not earn it for ourselves.

In John 15:15 Jesus declares that:

15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

And in 1 Peter 2:8-10 Paul says:

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

So we are no longer as servants to a master but friends, brothers and sisters, a royal priesthood in a new Kingdom with a new way of living.  Even the commands that Jesus declared to His disciples are unlike the previous ones held most dearly to God’s people in the 10 Commandments.  8/10 of the 10 commandments are “Thou shalt not” except for:

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. (Exodus 20:8)

12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12)

But Jesus gives us a postive command to love:

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. (John 15:12)

and again:

17 This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:17)

Even the structure of the relationships of God’s people operate differently than those of the world.  Under the Roman empire and all worldly empires, strict conformance to the established law is what is required, but Jesus prays for something better for His people in His Kingdom.

In John 17:20-23 Jesus says:

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

And in Revelation 7:9 John has a vision of God’s people finally together:

 9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

And even when God raises up leader in His Kingdom, they are unlike the world’s leaders. 

In Matthew 23:8-12 Jesus said:

8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Paul summarizes the contrast of God’s ways compared with the world’s ways beautifully in 

2 Phillipians 2:6-11 when speaking of Jesus:

 6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,

   did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 rather, he made himself nothing

   by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,

   being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man,

   he humbled himself

   by becoming obedient to death—

      even death on a cross!

 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

   and gave him the name that is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

   to the glory of God the Father.

So bring praise to this God who restores all things and redeems all things, who establishes a new Kingdom through love and liberation instead of conquest and destruction, who leads by serving and exalts the humbled, who subverts the injustice of the world into the eternal restoration of God.

--

by: Justin England

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We miss her dearly and, with her, yearn for resurrection.

Love you, Barb.

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I've been heavily impacted by Ecclesia Houston's on-going sermon series "The Gospel and Culture" (so much so that my wife and I are planning on getting some brilliant tattoos from the brush of @scottthepainter ...but that's another blog post altogether).

In the series, Chris Seay examines how we the church might avoid both sectarianism (the separatist, removed-from-the-world church) and synchrotism (the church that is so melded in with the world in both lifestyle and worldview that it looks no different, thereby losing it's 'saltiness'). All for a better way.

That way being, in short, "don't separate...engage culture...but remain faithful".

This topic is a big one for me, as I do life with my church community Dwellhere in Burlington, VT. So big that my brother and I have embarked on writing a book (ok, mainly my brother) about the gospel and how we might find and interact with it in the showtime series Dexter.

I highly recommend listening to some of the podcasts from Chris, located here. In post-christendom america, understanding the church's right place in culture is more important than ever.

Here are some great quotes on how scripture guides the church from this past Sunday at Ecclesia, courtesy of @PastorChrisSeay: 

There's not a superlative that's good enough to describe how perfect and remarkable the scriptures are. Call it inerrant, call it inspired, call it authoritative, throw all of them together...whtever you do it still doesn't sum up how remarkable this book is. How perfect in every way. 

The Bible stands over us and exegetes us...we have to make sure that it over-arches our lives and not the other way around.

At Ecclesia, you're going to be rebuked from time to time. And I tell ya, there's not a more loving and grace-filled place that I could experience God's rebuke...but there are often times I just need God's rebuke and he says, 'Listen, you don't get it. You're off-track. You know this and you're ignoring it'. And God begins to call us into a different path. The scriptures do that. Correction in places where you're off-kilter...and the scriptures say 'no, you need to go THIS way'. Instruction and training for a life that is right, so that God's people may be up to the task ahead, and have all they need to accomplish every good work. That's what the scriptures do. They give us everything we need to fulfill the good works of God. We're well-equipped to live in the culture and not be afraid of it because the scriptures equip us well.

If you don't read the passages of scripture in community, you will come up with some crazy ideas. You read it faithfully together...God sorts it out. 

We are submitting ourselves to the Bible. We're not wrestling it into submission as we exegete it. We're being submitted to it. And this is a place (Ecclesia) where you can have a lot of ideas. And you can get up and say, "Well I think the bible is wrong here, blah blah blah". Go ahead and say it all you want, just no that you're wrong. That where you disagree with the Bible, you're wrong. Okay? And you're allowed to be wrong! We're not gonna get so worked up about it. Just know that at the end of the day, the bible is right and you're not. And know that along the way, if you'll allow the spirit to lead you, your heart and your views will start to change. If you'll submit to the truth of scripture, it will change you.

If you're reading the Bible often, and you're living in anger and hostility and hatred towards brothers and sisters, and you're life is filled with contention...you're not in submission to the scriptures. You're not. The more you read the scriptures well, the more it will call out true love in your life. It will. Inevitably.

--

by: Nick Hoag

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And happy birthday Serene!

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sermon by: jim hoag (audio here)

The church at Antioch was one of the most important churches in the book of Acts, the place where the disciples were “first called Christians” (Acts 11:26). That community gives a blueprint for builders today…those committed to bringing forth a more faithful expression of Jesus Christ and His church…“a ‘city’ whose builder and maker is God

1. The new community at Antioch:
Last week we were in Acts 10 and as a result of Peter’s obedience in going to Cornelius’s house and the salvation of Gentiles, it set off a ripple effect, some of which can be seen in Acts 11 with the emergence of a new community at Antioch. Acts 10:44,45 says of Peter at Cornelius’s house, “While he (Peter) was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles”. This was huge, and we’ll be talking more about that in the coming weeks.

At any rate, as persecution led to a scattering of believers into other parts of the region, Acts 11:20 says, “There were those who came to Antioch preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them” and something began to form (I love that stuff; you know, the idea of “the hand of the Lord was with them“). Thirty-four years ago when all the ex-addicts and I first got saved, we’d be reading the bible together, smoking Marlboros, pretending we knew what those kinds of things meant, shaking our heads in unison and turning to one another and saying things like “Dude that’s awesome” and then we’d speed read past it, we had no clue. But it has to do with the endorsement of God, His stamp of approval on this new work: God was WITH THEMand a fledgling community began to form.

2. Barnabas saw something, discerning community:
Then Acts 11:22 says, “The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas, one of the leaders, to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God on the new community he was ‘full of joy’”. Barnabas SAW something…and this is the kind of unique, prophetic discerning we all have; Barnabas SAW the grace of God, the presence and REALITY of God resting upon this new community, something was happening…there was God’s LIFE. WhenWE find the community GOD is setting us in…we will know it…you will note the difference between religion and reality, superficial relationships and God-given FELLOWSHIP, the Elks Club and Hischurch. See God is about forming local expressions where the members really fit together as a body…where He is Head. I Cor.12:18 says, “But as it is, GOD has placed and arranged the limbs in HIS BODY, each particular one of them, just as He CHOSE…with the BEST FIT”.

3. A community of commitment…by revelation:
At any rate this community at Antioch was experiencing the Old Testament blessing promised Israel, now poured out through the Holy Spirit on Gentiles, forming ONE NEW MAN. But as I kept reading, this next part in Acts 11:23 resonated, “…and Barnabas continuously urged and encouraged them all to remain 1.FAITHFUL and, 2.DEVOTED TO THE LORD with 3.RESOLUTE (unshakeable) PURPOSE OF HEART. And you think “wait a second! How can you ask for that kind of commitment from new believers?” New believers during a time of tremendous persecution? I mean what about the whining and complaining and regression stages? It would have been MUCH easier for these Jews and Gentiles to stick with their former religions so as to not incur persecution…or even death, but that’s NOT what they chose. Instead they were kind of like Moses who considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt…and they’d put away some childish things. And Barnabas knew if the people of God aren’tprogressing, they are regressing…seems like there’s no middle ground…kind of like Jesus saying in Revelation 3:15, “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!”

AND I believe Barnabas knew the REALITY of what a TRUE understanding and revelation of Jesus Christ AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF THE SPIRIT could bring to a community in terms of commitment. It reminds you of Matthew 16 where Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” This incredible ONGOING, God-given REVELATION TO THE HEART of Jesus Christ is the FOUNDATION upon which His church is built and stands,against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. And so Barnabas IMMEDIATELY began urging and calling for a corresponding commitment. And as a result there was the emergence of a CULTUREOF COMMITMENT...based on this radical inner transformation and “gift” or revelation of Jesus; a commitment that was to set the precedent for all time. Something so REAL was happening in the early church, something so dramatic, that they abandoned their previous separate lives. They walked in a revelation of the resurrected, living, ascended Christ. They became willing to risk everything in order to be a part of that community, of experiencing the REALITY of God with one another. There are so many looking to give their lives to something or someone AUTHENTIC. I was. And over the years it has become increasingly clear to me that when you gather and build with others who desire the real thing, dude, THERE’S NOTHING LIKE IT.

So, how do we get this revelation? Paul says simply, “…whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the VEIL IS TAKEN AWAY”. It happened to me and many of you and I believe He is about to bring a FRESH revelation of Himself to all those who will ask for such in the coming year. This is why, in part, the local church is called a “Lampstand” in Revelation 1:10, it illuminates the Christ of God, a city on a hill, a light to the world. And in His church, in that presence collectively, you come into the reality that He is alive and among us…speaking TO us.

4. Two community essentials:
Anyway, anybody that’s been around me the past month or so knows that I believe 2012 is about two essentials, a greater and ongoing revelation of Jesus Christ the Head AND a more faithful expression of His body the church…with a special emphasis on foundation:individually, domestically and corporately. And as far as the church is concerned, it also includes discerning Christ in a DIFFERENT FORM,not only a greater consciousness of Him directly, but also through Hisbody. The “Head” of the church brings us into a greater consciousness of His body, of community, and our need for it. See, it’s WAY bigger then we’ve made it out to be. The treasure is IN EARTHEN VESSELS, in men and women…it’s not just in what’s written down, it’s also about LIVING LETTERS. He wants us to RECOGNIZE THE TREASURE the GIFTINGin our own lives and others’ as well, and receive it, benefitting from one another in MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. This is the church, it’s the invisible becoming visible; it’s His BODY…He obtained it with His own blood; “WE are the temple of the living God”. In Acts 9 Paul, then Saul, was persecuting the church, Jesus said to Him “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute ME?”

At any rate, this is what happened at Antioch, they came into a revelation by God’s Spirit of Jesus Christ and His church…not an ethereal Christ of men’s imagination, but Jesus… ALIVE, dwelling in the midst of them through a many membered body.

5. A community of Christ followers; disciples first called “Christians” at Antioch:
This was so profound that Acts 11:26 says that, “…at Antioch theDISCIPLES were first called CHRISTIANS“…meaning “anointed ones”— “Christ-ones”. It’s interesting, “disciple” and “Christian” seemed to be synonymous, a community of people equipped into Christ FOLLOWERS, called “Christians”. Those disciples at Antioch were evidently bringing forth an expression of Christ so real, empowered by His Spirit and so radically committed to Him (and one another) that it was representative (though flawed) of the Lord Himself. It reminds me of ICor.14:25 where it says an outsider walks in to a church and the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that “GOD IS REALLY AMONG YOU”.

6. Identity…individually and in community:
Their identity was based on their connection to Christ. Though many folks often have their identity wrapped up in their own opinions about themselves, including their own sinfulness or the opinions of others, Paul says that a believer’s essential identity is a result of the Spirit of Christ bearing witness with our spirits that WE ARE THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD and to walk in THAT identity. And add to that the INCREDIBLE GIFTEDNESS, AUTHORITY AND PURPOSE THAT HE’S PLACED WITHIN US, FURTHER DETERMINING WHO WE ARE.And this is realized in community where identity is clarified, strengthened and finds its context and fuller expression. Paul says that God Himself is active in the very spiritual core of our being,…he says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”. Everything that God wants us to have for everything that He wants to do IN us and THROUGH us is GIVEN to us by the indwelling presence and function of the living Lord Jesus. I mean we are CHRISTIANS, the church…the hope of sanity and freedom and change and justice in this world!

7. Equipping gifts, laying foundation in community:
Acts 11:22 says Barnabas went looking for Paul, an apostle…to the Gentiles, a wise master builder…a foundation man. And when Barnabas found him he brought him to Antioch where they dug in and laid foundation for an entire year. That’s, (hopefully), about 2012. A quick look at the origins of the church at Antioch show that apostles, prophets and teachers, the equipping gifts, called it home. (Acts 13:1,14:14). It seems proximity to Ephesians 4:11 DNA enables an Ephesians 4:12-16 church…that is, those of integrity…maturity: those “who walk in a manner worthy of their calling“. Paul and these others were not lightweights, they were totally given to the church. Like the apostle Paul I believe that equipping gifts today are folks given exclusively to the church…they are those who would waste away without giving themselves entrely to Jesus Christ and His body. For them, to live is Christ…and they want to impart that to others. You find that kind of commitment in HIS church. SEE, ANTIOCH WASN’T SIMPLY A STARBUCKS COMMUNITY…TWO OR THREE BELIEVERS CHATTING OVER LATTE…this was the real deal and in that next year they DUG IN to teach and equip, laying foundation and bringing folks into stability and maturity.

8. His church, His body…His community:
I believe everything comes out of Christ. The mystery of it however is that His church, the body, is the MEANS of that outflow, the increase of God in the earth. So….in essence, everything comes out of His church. And yeah, while God is everywhere, Paul says the richest measure of His presence is in and manifests through the body of Christ. That’s where His endorsement is and why God wants to touch us withHIS heart for His Son and for His church. The vision of His church, one of those two essentials, has more weight on it than any other vision…because it is about His dwelling place collectively, His body of which He is Head. And as that happens I’m believing that it will lead to this REALITY: a community of commitment to Christ and one another, growing, maturing, on solid ground, having genuine fellowship of the Spirit…recognized by others as those “who’ve been with Jesus”, impacting this city.

In the coming year I want to see Christ and His body marked by a passion for Jesus and His mission…built on rock-solid foundation. Folks coming into what they were BORN to do. This is what will prevail against the gates of hell and impact Burlington. And as we are proclaiming this, I’m believing signs will follow in 2012.

Prayer:
 

Lord, thank you for your word. My feeling is that we are only slowly beginning to grasp the revolutionary implications of a great shift back to You, Jesus, and YOUR church…IN REALITY, NOT THEORY, by fresh revelation…returning to a deeper love and dependence than we have ever experienced. 

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Every Sunday @ 1pm, First United Methodist Church in downtown Burlington.

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Today I want to talk about conviction, Dedication, and Believing in something bigger than yourself. Some thing you're so sure is true and real and will change the world as you know it, that you have to see it through no matter the cost. All in light of the brilliant Aaron Sorkin film Moneyball (don't worry, no big spoilers here).

When a person catches a vision for something meaningful, something different than the status quo, something that can change not only their life but the people and world around them for the better, that person HAS to pursue it. Has to see it through to the end. No matter the opposition and the naysayers, no matter how tall the mountain it presents, no matter how bleak things appear as you set out in that direction. 

That was Billy Beane. He recognized that things needed to change in baseball. That something wasn't right. Rich teams had all the money to buy championships, while poor teams were left to scrap away at the bottom of the pile, watching all the players they groomed into greats get stolen by the sox and yanks. It wasnt right. It was injustice. He knew things had to change and he believed he had found the solution, the thing that would save his poor team and other poor teams like his. he was so convinced that this new way would make things right that he had to pursue it no matter the cost. Despite the nay-sayers and the disbelievers and the haters. 

Billy Beane:

 THAT'S THE ONLY QUESTION THAT MATTERS! OTHER DETAILS DON'T.

There are huge similarities to this story and the early church we're reading about in acts. They saw the problem - the world was a broken place, they were under the unjust oppression of an evil tyrant named the yankees...I mean, Rome. In the midst of their yearning for things to be once and for all set right in the world, a man named Jesus appeared. And They believed that God himself was now king, Jesus was now in charge, and he was on the throne of the whole world. What they had been yearning for and dreaming of for so long was here! Their salvation had finally come in the form of a man who was indeed the son of god. An everlasting dominion was here, a kingship that couldnt be destroyed. And now they had to proclaim that reality to the world.

If we win the last game of the season, we change the game. That's what I want. I want it to mean something.  

And that is what we all want. We're all looking for a life that means something. For something more than the life we so often settle for. And God, through his son Jesus, says that He believes in you fully. And that the life of meaning and purpose that you know exists somewhere, is here. In his Kingdom. Through His son.

So believe that. Throw the weight of all your trust into the reality that the God of the universe really does love you and desire a life for you that is bigger and more meaningful than anything you could have ever dreamed of. Get caught up in his mission that is already underway, the one that will set all things right and bring an end to sickness, disease, injustice, and death and return us to the perfect earth we were meant for.

Believe. Give it all. And you will gain everything.

Let's worship our Redeemer.

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This Sunday, we gather at our new home - the First United Methodist Church of Burlington, 1pm.

We are so grateful to our new hosts, and can't wait to hear the sounds of the Likeness reverberating in such a beautiful historic space.

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