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Weekly Update from the Senior Pastor
March 3, 2006 
Dear Family and Friends,
Jehovah-Shalom! The Lord is our Peace—a peace in Jesus that transcends all human understanding.
If you’ve missed any message in this series on the names of God—get it! God is definitely at work in my heart—and Bob’s. As we prepare our messages, a great central theme is emerging from each of God’s names about what mature TRUST is, and why it is so vital.
From Gideon’s story remember: the critical battles of life are not the highly visible battles. Victory comes in personal, out of sight encounters with God where we listen and accept, or turn from, absolute trust in His purpose for us. If we lay down our insecurity, pride and lusts in these private battles and take up the armor of trust, the ultimate outcome of the visible battles is already settled. The Midianites were already defeated when Gideon determined to trust and obey God’s call.
CLAY PECK: On March 19 we have a very special speaker. Clay Peck is like a younger brother to me, a man I respect immensely and the gifted senior pastor of our thriving sister congregation, Grace Place, in Colorado. Clay was on staff here until he accepted the call eight years ago to plant a church on the front range of the Rockies, just north of Denver. For the next five years in many ways that congregation was our little sister, mirroring our journey in dozens of particulars on a smaller scale as Clay and I stayed in constant touch by phone and a few visits. The roles began switching about three years ago. Grace Place finished their own facility and became the spiritual and cultural center/meeting place for their town, and word spread of Clay’s great teaching and their highly creative worship services. In the last three years they have grown from a weekend attendance of 350 to over 1000 and are still growing strong. Now we’re the little sister and learning so much from them. Clay and his wife and son, Selene and Landon, lived in our home for a few months when they first came to Damascus—so they’re ‘coming home’ for a week in March to revisit Washington, renew the bonds of family friendship and to worship with us. Clay will share a message written with us in mind, called: "Experiencing the Miraculous”. Clay said: “I’ll trace stories through scripture illustrating that sometimes you must be willing to do the ridiculous before God can do the miraculous... Abraham, Noah, Jericho, Gideon, Jehoshaphat, Jesus and disciples. It has humor and momentum. At the end I’ll apply this principle to DRCC’s past and future.” I won’t say more and spoil Clay’s insights, but this will be a great day with high application and much encouragement from a guy who understands our journey well.
INPUT ON TEMPORARY SITE: Great thanks for the many, thoughtful, insightful and honest responses you’ve shared after our call for input on our top three temporary site options (Damascus High, Linganore High, and West Ridge Theatres in Frederick). Here’s the invitation again: Please share your hearts/best reflections with the Development Team. We’re listening! Financial reality may take West Ridge off the table of options. Estimates for the probable cost of a build-out there are around $600,000—plus rent, making a three-year lease even more expensive than we are currently paying. A new idea we’re exploring is renovating a barn on the property. If financially and structurally feasible, that could allow for mid-week, mid-sized meetings on the land during the interim. We have some ideas brewing for creative youth and adult gatherings if this option develops. So use the e-mail address above and let us know what you’re thinking. THANKS.
AFRICA AND INDIA: Rajendra is in India, visiting our many micro-businesses there, and our “adopted” schoolchildren. He’ll have a report for us at the end of March—a reminder that we are reaching to the “ends of the earth” for Jesus. Concerning Africa, when you have a heart to do a great thing for God, He never says “no,” period. He sometimes says “no”, comma, “wait, I have another plan.” It looks like the first hint of that other plan is already coming in the form of an e-mail from our mentoring mother-ship, Willow Creek. They are waist deep in AIDS-orphan and church building ministry in Africa and just sent out a report. There are definitely great opportunities to connect there and we will probably do an exploratory trip to meet with them in Chicago before we launch even a small team to Africa. I am sure of this: if we stay faithful and prayerful, what God has already begun in us He will complete to His glory.
See you this Sunday as Bob takes us deeper into the character of God with a study of
El-Shaddai: God-Almighty.
Richard
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