Weekly Blog

I would like to welcome you to the season of Online Church, I am your host and lead pastor, Andrew Burchett.

Last Sunday I spoke about the importance on having a "culture of generosity" (click to watch the podcast), which is in stark contrast to the self-protection, self-focused and selfishness we are seeing in this world today where people are getting into fights about buying toilet paper. This is what our world has become.   

As Christians we must come in the opposite spirit and practice the generosity that reflects our generous God.  It is in days like these that the Church of Jesus Christ must rise and reflect the hope, the peace and love that authenticates our faith. 

Honoring takes the form of using words to express what you have seen in someone, and publicly declaring it to be true. In this way you are giving thanks to God, and loving the other person.

We are working to cultivate the different aspects of culture here at Neighborhood Church.  “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, therefore continuing to shape the culture of our organization is vital to living fully into our vision for the future. 

Our foster dog, Molly, had 13 puppies on the 13^th of January. 

We've been nurturing this litter of Australian Labradoodle puppies at our house for the last 6 weeks. The breeder has been coaching us on how to wrangle this small tribe of canines and it has been more than a full time job for my wife, who is an expert puppy whisperer and ground traffic controller.  While Linda has really done the lion share of the caring for these cute piranhas, the rest of us have been trying to do what we can to help as well. 

Dream With Us...

Picture yourself driving into the parking lot of the Neighborhood Church campus at 2801 Notre Dame Boulevard on a sunny Friday morning. In front of you is the Dome, shining in the morning sun, our atrium coffee shop overflowing with people connecting over a drink, some enjoying outdoor seating. 

“Mamas and Papas” with life experience and wisdom are coaching young people who feel empowered and well loved.  Many of the interns who are learning about ministry while serving on staff and at the leadership academy are gathered, dreaming about their future.  Some people have their discipleship course materials on the table discussing another chapter about the Christian life.

In 1803 Thomas Jefferson was able to complete the Louisiana Purchase, a massive amount of land that bordered on the newly formed United States to the West.    

He chose two men, Captain Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to lead the expedition.  They were trusted men who had proven to be competent leaders, who knew how to put together teams that worked together and took care of each other.    

Their goal was also to map the territory and bring back scientific reports.   

This past weekend we talked about the core purpose and core values for Neighborhood church. 

Our core purpose is firmly rooted in the words of John 10:10. 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 
John 10:10 (NIV)

Jesus is offering us a life that is beyond our wildest imagination.

The future of Neighborhood church is seeded in our past. 

In order to understand what our future looks like, what our vision is for the next 20 years that will take us to our 75^th anniversary in 2040, we must look back. 

First, we look to Jesus, who gave his church a mission that will guide and inform any vision to which we would give ourselves.  Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave his followers this GREAT COMMISSION…

The Problem of Loneliness and Its Solution

On May 1st, 2018, global health service company, Cigna, released the results of a national survey exploring the impact of loneliness in America.

The survey of more than 20,000 U.S. adults ages 18 years and older revealed the following:

As we sat on the couch this week, our twelve-year-old, Mimi, looked up from her phone and asked, “Dad, are we going to have world war III?”

 She was looking at my face, trying to find assurance that everything is going to be O.K. She had been looking at the comments from her friends on the news feed on her phone that were escalating a rhetoric of war, she wanted to know what was true.  Not long after this our nineteen-year-old son asked about how the draft works and made statements about not wanting to die on a battlefield. 

This Christmas will you be more focused on Jesus than last year?

I am determined not to lose my grip on Jesus as we walk through the Christmas season.  There are so many distractions for all of us… with gifts to buy, meals to cook, family drama to navigate and for some of us, travel.