We seek to bless the greater Carlisle area.

//Ready for Company

Being ready for company. . .

**ATTN: If you are a leader or regular part of Engage. Please carefully read this.
Hey Engage Leaders and those serving Christ as Engage,

What’s up my friends? Many of you were with us when we first started Engage.  This past Sunday  looked out over the full house we had and thanking God for the community of people he is drawing together and expanding outward.  I just want to say thanks to everyone for how you serve Jesus at Engage.  I believe with all my heart that God is using Engage in a unique way in our community.  The life God is shaping in us is making a difference in lives, even for people who don’t even go to Engage.  Just last week I had lunch with a local business man who doesn’t go to our church. In fact, he’s not even a “church” type at all.  But someone close to him hangs out with some of people at Engage and they are being loved and accepted for who they are in a way they doesn’t experience with most people.   This business man is so intrigued with what Engage is about that he is going to pay for us to have an ongoing add in the Sentinel.  Again, he’s not church guy!!!  Another friend of Engage paid for us to have a 30 second video “commercial” in the  City Cinema Theater in Camp Hill. We are working on producing this 30 second commercial that will run before every movie in every theater for a year.  City Cinema has 46,000 people who attend their movies during a month’s time.  WOW.  Each week we are seeing new people “check out” Engage to see if this is an authentic place with real people where they can explore faith.

Many of you were with us the day we launched on Jan. 11th, 2009.  Remember how we thought of every little detail? We noticed if the chairs needed straightening. We jumped to make sure people were greeted and made to feel comfortable. We sat in strategic places so we could meet new people. We were aware if things were out of place or if there was trash lying around. We wore little name tags so people could address us without feeling awkward. We parked at Weis and walked a half-mile to make sure our guests didn’t have to walk as far.  Why? Because we believe in the mission. We know that there’s way more to being the church than Sunday morning, yet we also know that if we wanted to get people OFF the Front Porch they needed to be relaxed and safe ON the Front Porch.   We are still doing some of these things every week!! But I want to invite us to reignite our level of intentionality as we come to Engage on Sundays.  Think of it as being ready for company.  Being alert and intentional to the needs of others is not just the “responsibility” of those greeting or making coffee or doing set up on any given week. Being ready for company is something we ALL can do each week.  Here are a few thoughts I had based on some helpful feedback from this past Sunday.  This past Sunday we had a very full house of 134 people at Engage. We hit our highest ever attendance for the second time.   98 of whom were in the worship gathering.      
               
                                      4 Things you can do to be ready for company.

1. Be attentive to people and to the environment.  If you see people come in that you don’t know. Go introduce yourself and ask how they heard about Engage.  Ya, but what if they already attend Engage? Great, then you just learned someone’s name. No harm, no foul. 

2. Go out of your way to greet people in the chairs. You know who sits in the chairs? The people are who most disconnected or new to Engage. 

3. If you have to sit in the chairs due to space issues, don’t sit in the back row! Why? This last week a line of guests came in late and had to walk all the way through the table section to the other chair section and they had to sit on the front row.  No one wants to sit on the front row on their first or second visit. 

4. You have  permission! If you think we need more chairs when people are still coming in late and the tables are full–get some people together and add another row of chairs.  Take the lead. Go for it. Engage is a place where you have permission to go for it and, um, engage :) pun intended :)

Our dream is to not be a church that  grows so big that everyone can anonymously come and go for years on end.  No, we want to grow, raise us Jesus-mission -shaped leaders, and send out people to go start Engage Communities in neighboring towns and cities…. Being intentional now only helps us be ready for the growth and training it will take to be a part of that bigger story.  Plus, these are small things we can do to show people that we aren’t into religion and just “attending” church.  The gospel of Jesus is like nothing else when it’s authentically lived out in small ways!

Living a better story together.  Love ya,
Jon
 

Posted on February 18, 2010 – 2:29 pm
Leave a comment   Subscribe in a reader   

//It’s Complicated . . .

I was asked to be a guest columnist for the local paper’s Faith in Focus article.  February was the first submission so I thought I’d introduce myself and Engage to the community. The article will be published this Friday the 5th of Feb.  Here is what we said.

Why Another Church In Carlisle?

“So, why another Church in Carlisle,” he asked, “Isn’t there already like 400 churches around here anyway?”  I nodded, affirming his sentiment, “You’re right, there are many great churches already in existence in our community.”

My name is Jon Hand. I am the pastor of Engage Community Church.  I was recently invited to become a guest columnist for the Faith in Focus column so I wanted to introduce myself and share a little of where I am coming from. Engage Church started as a new church in our area one year ago last month.  We were sponsored by the Brethren In Chris Denomination of Churches (www.bic-church.org) to start a new church with a unique focus.  Over the last year, since January of 2009, we have had to answer that question on more than one occasion.

Here’s the deal.  Anecdotally and statistically our culture is becoming more secular and less culturally Christianized.  This means that growing numbers of people have grown up with less of an attachment to organized religion than say their parents and definitely their grandparents.   Statistically, church attendance in the Northeastern parts of the U.S. is in decline, especially among younger generations from eighteen yrs. old though their mid-thirties.  Over the past year I have personally met many in their mid twenties to mid to late thirties who are skeptical of organized religion and for a variety of reasons; they simply don’t have the same conviction about faith or religion or church as earlier generations before them.

Why another church? Because we believe that the message of Jesus is earth-shattering, life-changing, world-altering, and has the power to actually change the human heart at the deepest levels possible. But much of that revolutionary message is lost in translation for people standing on the outside looking in.   For many, all they see are stereotypes of judgmental religious people, slick televangelists bilking old ladies of what’s left of their retirement, and the satirical portrayals of White politically conservative Jesus on South Park and pop culture.  Right or wrong, they see church as a nice option for grandma but not a place that deals honestly with life in the way they experience it.

In a world where 24 hr. news coverage dishes out disasters in Haiti, economic recessions, corporate greed, or job loss, it’s easy to lose heart.  Whether you are trying to find your place in the world in your 20s or for those of us with 2.5 kids, trying to advance our careers, and saddled with a mortgage in our 30s,  life certainly feels like a facebook relationship status—“It’s complicated.”  It’s hard for many to see the connection between our complicated 21st century lives and the Jesus we find in the pages of the gospels.  Like background noise in our soul, often we aren’t even aware of how jaded or cynical we can be about life.  I believe the answer to our complicated skepticism isn’t more plastic coated “happy thoughts”.  The answer is genuine realistic hope. Not the kind we are promised in political campaigns.  But the kind we find anchored in a creator God we can relate to in Jesus.  One who knows us better than we know ourselves and loves us more than we can begin to comprehend.

For me that changes everything!  Why another church in Carlisle?  We don’t think we are better than anyone else. There’s no such thing as a one size fits all church.  But we all need people who can speak our language. We all need people who get where we’re coming from and help us live anchored in hope.  There’s more to life than our complicated lives can imagine. We all need people who help us live for what matters most—it’s a great question and that’s why another church in Carlisle.

Posted on February 3, 2010 – 9:17 am
Leave a comment   Subscribe in a reader   

//Helping Haiti @ Engage

On Sunday Jan. 17th we took a collection for Haiti. Our friends Doug and Randie Thomas who attend Engage are connected with an orphanage in Port-au-Prince called Good Samaritan Orphanage.  Really it’s not what you think of when you think orphanage.  Haiti has a huge population of children under the age of 18 due to shortened life-spans for adults, disease, death, and now earthquakes.  These orphans run the streets unless people take them in, care for them, school them, and give them the love they deserve as creations of God.  There are thousands of these little orphanages all over Haiti.  Good Samaritan houses 30 kids whom are supported by people like Doug and Randie and others from our sister church Carlisle BIC.  The bad news is that the orphans of Good Samaritan are not living indoors since the quake. They sleep in an open courtyard near their shattered home. They are running out of food and need help asap.  On Sunday we took a collection for these orphans. We can’t save everybody but we can be used of God to help and rescue 30 orphaned children out of the throngs of need.  That’s what we can do.

I am excited to share that Engage raised $1,190 in cash with an additional $970 pledged. WOW. That’s over $2,200 from the Engage. We are people who want God to use us as a part of his ongoing plan to bring his people and his creation back into harmonious relationship with Him.  God use us! Stretch us. May the grinding routines of life not suffocate the clarity of how good you are.  May our petty complaints be replaced by clear visions of what you could do…what you want to do..when we stand willing with ears to hear and eyes to see. Challenge our small notions of who you are! Challenge our small notions of ourselves and what we are capable of by your grace and power!

Stephen Santos wrote this song for Haiti last Sunday:

“Shatter our Hearts”

This old world shatters and shakes
This old world bends and breaks
God tell me what’s the place
For a big loss in the human race

And if God can’t break our hearts from across an ocean
He may come here to draw a tear
And if we stay afraid to show emotion
While one’s like us are dying there
Then I’m afraid we’ve become the saddest generation
That traded hearts for stone
God’s not satisfied with a part of your heart
He wants the throne

Tv man counts the numbers out loud
We’ll follow the story till a new one comes around
But there’s too much emotion in the end
We may realize those were fathers, mothers, friends

Stay tuned for more of how you can show mercy and love to Haiti….

Posted on January 20, 2010 – 12:16 pm
Leave a comment   Subscribe in a reader   

//Watch video and view pictures of the Baptism Celebration @ Engage, January 10th, 2010

Wow, this past Sunday was a highlight for Engage. We turned one year old and baptized seven of our friends as a statement of their faith and trust in Jesus.  As we baptized our friends I watched you.  Many of you were moved to tears and some of you tough guys even choked up a bit (I saw it :)). I thought about it for a while on Sunday. Why is baptism such a powerful symbol? Why does this symbol evoke such strong emotions deep in our souls?  I think it’s because of story and hope.  Each person who was baptized told their story.  The stories were laced with raw honesty and confession. The stories told of hurt and loss, pain and emptiness but they didn’t end there.  Each of the stories moved from void or loss or regret–to hope.   Hope that something better and fuller has been found through knowing and trusting the Creator who came to be with us in Jesus. I watched you grimace as you identified with the emptiness or darker sides of the stories.  I was moved as you teared up or broke a smile when you heard story after story.  Redemption breaking through layers of doubt and skepticism or hurt and loss.  Why is this?  Many of you didn’t even personally know those whom were being baptized?  The reason is simple. We want reasons to hope and when we find corners of this world where hope wins over our cynicism it moves us in deep ways.  My hope is that Engage is a community where hope is always winning.  Not fake, syrupy, conjured sentimentalism living in refusal to see reality.  No–more like the refusal to give in to the cynical impulses that so quickly leap, squelching our imaginations of faith.  There is a reason why Jesus was always pointing to little children when teaching about trust and faith.  Children aren’t cynics. They believed God could work in ways that are befitting of, um, God.  They have the faith to dream of God-shaped possibilities in this world.  May hope increase and fear be extinguished as we continue to get to know the ultimate source of hope–Jesus Christ.   I’m sure those who were baptized would love a note as to what their courage meant to you.  Click on the header title of this post and leave a comment for all or one of our friends. We will make sure they see all of the comments.

Follow this link to view more pictures on our Flickr account

Peace,
jon

Mike Greene Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Amy Greene Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Mitchell Greene Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Evelyn Cruzat Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Elijah Hyndman Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Desirae Moyer Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Anna Jane Friess Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Posted on January 12, 2010 – 12:14 pm
Leave a comment   Subscribe in a reader   

//Past. Present. Future. . . One year anniversary of Engage.

Reflecting on the PAST
One year ago, Engage Church was mostly just a dream lodged in the hearts of a handful of people.  We really don’t know how good our Creator is.  Even long time Church people don’t always live our lives with the confidence that God is more giving, more gracious, more compassionate, and loving towards us than we can imagine.  We believe God isn’t stuck in time on some rigid rail distantly overseeing his creation; watching us flail about trying to figure out life on our own.   Instead, God works dynamically to meet us where we are and fill in the needs of our thirsty hearts.  When we planted Engage, we saw a need in this community.  Who was going to be a church for all of the people who are maybe looking for God but are skeptical of church as they’ve known it?  We believe with all of our hearts that God raised up a group of people with a desire from God to meet that need.  We launched our first worship gathering on Jan. 11th, 09. Ninety-four people came to see what this was all about.  Over the rest of the year many people came to Engage and many (like yourselves) stayed at Engage because they’ve said, I’ve never met people like this before who are so open to friendship and who care about the things in life that matter most.   Most importantly we’ve heard people say, “I come to Engage because it seems like God is there.”  We’ve also heard people express the feeling of being pursued by a relational God when they recall, “Engage has helped us find something that we didn’t even know we were looking for.”

Fully engaging the PRESENT
On January 10th Engage Church will celebrate our one year anniversary by having our first baptism service.  Baptism is admittedly a weird act of faith.  But there is a megaton of symbolism packed into this out-of-the- ordinary act of faith.   If you consider Engage to be your community of faith, please be at Engage on January 10th to help us celebrate God’s goodness and lives deeply changed by Christ.   No party is complete without food.   So plan on sticking around on Jan. 10th as we will be having a meal to follow our celebration.  How can you help? Good question, thanks for asking. If your last name starts with an A-M please bring a side dish and a drink to share and if your last name begins with a N-Z please bring a main dish to share.

New Sunday Morning Series:
For the next five weeks starting Jan. 3rd we are doing a series called, “Cover Bands Don’t Change the World: Living Creatively in Mundane Life”.  Most people don’t associate “God” with creativity. In fact, most people have come to see religion as more dull and drab than compelling and innovative.  In Jesus we find a creative and innovative God who gives us new eyes and a deep motivation to live everyday life creatively.  Ever been to a wedding and danced it up to the old familiar cover band tunes? Cover bands just recycle what everyone else is doing.  They simply follow the crowd. It’s easy for us to just live life taking it as it comes and follow what everyone else is doing.  That doesn’t take much creativity.  Over the next month  we will explore  together  the intersection of creativity, imagination, and the life and teachings of Jesus.   The more you encounter Jesus the more your imagination grows.  You begin to see everyday situations, people, work, and family in God-infused creative ways. The call of Jesus is a call to create life around you with God.  Join us at Engage as we seek to live creatively.

Shaping the FUTURE
Well, ‘09 is now a thing of the past.  I don’t know how ‘09 was for you, but for me ‘09 was exciting and hard at times.  We had a dream to start a church for people who aren’t connecting with God at church as they’ve known it.  God did that this year through us!  That is no small feat. Only one in 7 church plants like Engage grow to a numerical size of 100 or more in the first 3-4 years of their existence.  That means God has greatly blessed our efforts at Engage.  People are coming, lives are changing, relationships are being forged, and we are engaging our community.

Now we look ahead into 2010. What does God have for Engage in 2010? When we started Engage a group of us asked God to show us what He wanted to do, who He wanted Engage to reach, what He wanted Engage to look like?  We built Engage on the answers to those questions.  As we look ahead, we realize Engage is not the same church as it was one year ago.  Leading up to the start of Engage we believed that God was speaking His vision for Engage to “us”, not just “me”.   So we want to hear your visions and dreams for Engage in 2010.  Over the month of January the Leadership Team at Engage (Harold Travis, Kelly Chripczuk, Jon Hand, Matt Tuckey, and Jeremy Owen) will be listening, praying, seeking, and planning ways we can live out God’s dream for Engage in 2010.  Please help us by leaving your dreams, vision, and what God is speaking to you by leaving a comment.  We need your input as we seek God’s direction for Engage in 2010. All of your comments will be read and considered by the leadership team.  Please leave your comments from now until January 15th. SCROLL UP AND CLICK ON THE TITLE OF THIS POST TO LEAVE A COMMENT. Thanks for contributing to the future of Engage.

Posted on January 2, 2010 – 11:17 am
Leave a comment   Subscribe in a reader   

//Why Baptism? …No offense,It’s kind of weird.

Let’s face it. It’s weird. When we read parts of the bible we see people coming to trust and faith in Jesus and getting baptized.  Why would Jesus ask those who follow him to go through this weird symbol of water and surrender?  I know, seems an awkward way to tell the world that you belong to Christ…but there is a lot of powerful symbolism packed into this mysterious act of faith.

Take a look at the pdf on baptism and find out why we encourage people to go public with their faith in this weird way…

engage_baptism_jan102010

Posted on January 2, 2010 – 9:46 am
Leave a comment   Subscribe in a reader   

//Still haven’t decided what do to this New Year’s Eve? Join Engage and the Green Door for Dance of the Decades

New Years Eve Dance of the Decades from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Looking for something fun to do for New Years Eve? Join the Green Door and Engage for the largest dance party in Carlisle.  Engage Church and Green Door Dance Club are teaming up to host a New Year’s Eve Party called Dance of the Decades.  Look, we all want to do something fun for New Years. So check out the video, link over to the Green Door and check out the Dance of the Decades. We will have catered food, live music by the Don Johnson Band, plenty of laughs, and a silent auction to benefit Project Share.  Dress up in your favorite decade apparel and get ready to get your groove on.

Link here to save money by registering early to party in style this NYE.

Posted on December 22, 2009 – 6:28 pm
Leave a comment   Subscribe in a reader   

//Counterfeit God #1. Romance

Click the header on this blog post to see comments or add a comment:

Right now I’m reading a book called Counterfeit Gods by a pastor named Tim Keller.  The book is based on the idea that we all have something or someone we hang out hopes on in this life to give us peace, security, hope, happiness, and relief.  We all feel restless and anxious and churn at times because we long for more from this life, but can’t seem to find it. Keller’s premise is that God is the only one who can fill the ache in our soul but we don’t always start there. So we fabricate meaning and hope or security and happiness in other things. Things he deems counterfeit gods.  We’ve always done this. Read your history, study the ancients. Deep in our collective human experience lies, well, lies.  Lies that we can find rest in almost any other place except in knowing and being known by our Creator.  So for the next several weeks or when it hits me, I will share some nuggets I’m collecting from the book. Maybe it will entice you to read it for yourself. I bought 12 copies of this book and will be giving it to key influencers and leaders at Engage. My hope is to spread this book like an idea virus through our community….if we take it to heart it will mean that Engage will continue to be a place that celebrates honesty about these parts of ourselves that go searching for life or salvation in everything else but God….I would love to have you comment and start some dialogue.  Check out the video teaser for the book. http://www.counterfeitgods.com/

page 39 - Speaking about our tendency to look for fulfilment in romance. No person, not even the best one, can give your soul all it needs. pg 40  The failure of romantic love as a solution to human problems is so much a part of modern man’s frustration…No human relationships can bear the burden of godhood….However much we may idealize or idolize him (or her, the love partner), he / she inevitably reflects earthly decay and imperfection….After all, what is it that we want when we elevate the love partner to this position? We want to be rid of our faults, of our feeling of nothingness. We want to be justified, to know our existence has not been in vain. We want redemption–nothing less. Needless to say, human partners cannot give this.

Keller at one point quotes C.S. Lewis about our human longings which nothing can satisfy:
Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. . . There was something we have grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry maybe a very interesting job: but something has evaded us.

U2 was right. We still haven’t found what we are looking for….

jon

Posted on November 4, 2009 – 1:37 pm
Leave a comment   Subscribe in a reader   

//is this shameless self promotion? you decide

As you may or may not know, Engage is a part of a family or network of churches called the Brethren in Christ. Great people, antiquated name.  The name was useful at one point about 100 years ago when everyone was your brethren.  Not so much anymore, eh? Regardless, we are proud to be a part of this family of caring, generous, and supportive community of churches.  Engage is funded in part from the generosity of the BIC. All of the churches who are a part of the BIC send a portion of their money (up to 10% per year) into a cooperative pot called “Cooperative Ministries”.  This past summer the CM people called me and featured Engage in their yearly publication that goes out to all of their churches to promote the great use of their money for places like Engage.  So here is a little snapshot of what they said, but after I posted it I realized you probably can’t read it. So I will include it at the bottom if your my mom or grandma and actually want to take the time to read it. Thanks mom!! I can always count on you to download my stuff :)

Really, thought, this article hits the reason why we started Engage and why we think it matters.  Last Sunday we interviewed some new friends to Engage. It was incredible to hear two very professional and seemingly self-sufficient people share how they are finding meaning, real joy, and contentment because of their new relationship with Christ. My friend (we will call him Jason) at one point choked up as he began to describe how confused or lost he felt on an existential level before beginning to explore faith in Jesus at Engage.  He said, “It’s like we were looking for something but didn’t know what it was or how to find it.” Jason and his wife were looking for what they could not find and are starting to find it in Jesus.  Again, I go back to my little blurb in the article. Unless people are becoming connected to healthy Christian community they simply will not be able to experience a real, life-changing, world-altering relationship with Christ.  Just doesn’t happen.  I am proud to be a part of this kind of imperfect community of faith.

cm09-booklet

Posted on October 22, 2009 – 11:09 am
Leave a comment   Subscribe in a reader   

//Top 10 reasons people give for not going to church . . .

Posted on October 14, 2009 – 2:44 pm
Leave a comment   Subscribe in a reader