This week we celebrate Worldwide Communion Sunday, purposefully connecting through the Holy Spirit with all believers across the globe as we proclaim “one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father who is over all, through all, and in all believers.” (Eph. 4:4-6) Last Sunday evening we had an opportunity to pray for persecuted believers around the globe, and it was inspiring to see so many people passionately giving their time and energy interceding on behalf of our brothers and sisters around the world. In staff meeting this week we also watched a talk from the director of International Justice Mission, an advocacy group who frees people from slavery and other injustices around the world. He challenged us to assess whether or not the things we care about and spend time and energy doing are really the things God really cares about.

Worldwide Communion, prayer for the persecuted church, and talk about fighting injustice leaves me asking hard questions. Can we really make a difference in these matters? What power do we have to fight injustice and can the gospel truly break forth into the darkest places in our world? Do we really care? If so, where do we begin? I don’t have all the answers, but I believe Christ can change any heart, and it begins with changing our hearts so that we care enough to stand up. I wrote this song to honor my good friend who fights sex-slavery in SE Asia: Cory Grimm

I’ll be a thorn in the side of complacent society

I’m gonna stand up and make some noise ‘til these children are free

I’ll be speaking the truth, a heavy dose of reality

I’m gonna stand up and make some noise ‘til these children are free

I’ll stick a knife in the back of the sex-slave industry

I’m gonna stand up and make some noise ‘til these children are free

We’ll put pressure on those who permit these atrocities

We’re gonna stand up and make some noise

Stand up and make some noise, ‘til these children are free

CHORUS:

There’s a little girl who just forgot her name

She’s trapped in a world where soulless men seek pleasure from her pain

How can I be at peace, while she remains a slave?

Surely this is what Jesus meant, when He said, “What you do to the least of them…

If you fight for the poor with the liberal community

Then stand up and make some noise ‘til these children are free

If you claim to believe the truths of Christianity

Then stand up and make some noise ‘til these children are free

CHORUS

(They should be) Free to be children, Free to have friends; To be human, and feel whole again,

Freedom to dance, freedom to play; To hope, believe, worship, pray

Free to forget, Free to ask, Why? Freedom to laugh, freedom to cry,

Freedom to love, and freedom to live, Freedom to hate, yet someday forgive

There’s a little girl who just forgot her name…

Ready for a Long Winter?

I haven’t consulted the Farmer’s Almanac or the old-timers getting coffee in Luverne, and I’m not a long-term meteorologist, but I’m predicting a long, hard winter.

Let me back up and explain how I arrived at that thought. Over the last couple of years my kids have enjoyed reading the Laura Ingalls-Wilder book series, as no doubt many of you reading this have as well in the past, and we recently had a chance to drive over to De Smet, SD, to take a tour of the 160 acres where the old Ingalls family homestead was located. If you’ve never gone there, take some kids or grandkids and you’ll have a wonderful day!

My favorite book in the series is “The Long Winter,” the majority of which took place in what was at that time the tiny new town of De Smet. I believe this is Laura’s masterpiece. What an incredible tale of survival, resourcefulness, and faith in God. The constant battering of blizzards, the lack of food, and even disunity in the community all threatened the existence of the people there that winter. What you may not remember is the fact that the previous winter the Ingalls family were the only ones in town (there was no town!), yet they were blessed to live in a cozy house with a huge supply of free food, and they enjoyed great weather that year. What a difference one year can make.

If we remain on our current trajectory in this nation, our days of enjoying easy weather will soon be past. A long winter is coming…a long spiritual winter, that is. Something like a famine:

Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”—“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.”   Amos 8:4-5a,11

Many Christian leaders might make a similar comment about where we are heading and cite loose morals, dwindling church attendance, and our growing lack of a “biblical worldview.” All of these are concerning, no doubt, but don’t miss what brought on the famine (or winter) in the Amos passage: Neglecting the needy and stealing time from God to make more money.

And yet in this long winter or famine likely to come soon, we will be presented with incredible opportunities to shine the light of the gospel of Christ in ways we have not yet experienced! This article is not intended to encourage defeatism or withdrawal from the world. Just the opposite… the truth is that if our light grows brighter and hotter in the years to come, as the world we know grows darker, we will attract (and go out to rescue) more hurting people than ever before for Christ’s glory. So bring on the long, hard winter!

Cory Grimm

ARC Family…

One project we are currently working on in the Outreach department is to explore the possibility of partnering with other churches and non-profits in the community to open a community outreach center. The source of this vision was God’s prompting to a few different individuals connected with our church. Each of these people felt a deep burden regarding unmet needs in our community and wondered how we might better serve those in difficult circumstances. More and more we are seeing people, especially young families with children and seniors on fixed incomes, who are not able to “make it” due to financial or other personal issues, and though each story is unique and challenging, these scenarios provide great opportunities to share the love of Christ in life-changing ways.

In Matthew 25 Jesus used the parable of the sheep and goats to illustrate the judgment at the end of times…

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

On June 30 we hosted an informational meeting regarding the Community Outreach Center concept. Invited to the meeting were representatives from all churches and non-profits in town as well as the general public. The meeting was held at the former Dollar Store/Grocery Store across the street to the East from Napa Auto Parts, one such building that could possibly fit the mold of what we were discussing. The ARC Youth Band kicked off the meeting with a few songs.

After that we began to identify the general unmet or under-met needs in Rock County and then progressed to a discussion of whether a large community center could help to meet more needs and create better collaboration among existing entities. It was good to hear various perspectives on these issues and questions, and there was a sense that if all churches, non-profits, and other organizations could better work together we could do great things. In the end we decided to continue gathering information about what services are currently offered in the community and create a survey for people accessing such services to allow them to have a voice in the process. We will meet again this Fall to continue this process of learning how to better outreach to “the least of these,” which may or may not involve opening an outreach center in Luverne. Please pray for this process, and your suggestions and feedback are welcome.

Cory Grimm

Introducing…The ARC Youth Praise Band!!!

As most of you are aware this past school year we have had the chance to allow many members of the middle school and high school youth group to begin experimenting with leading worship as a part of various praise teams on Wednesday nights. It has been a thrill to see the teens taking on this challenge with a real passion in their hearts, and how the other members of the youth group have gradually given themselves more and more to worship as a result. This summer we will be taking a group of these young people “on the road” to lead worship and share testimonies at various events around the community and region.

Beginning this Monday, May 19^th, the students will meet each afternoon for a full week to receive intense training in music, worship, personal faith, and prayer. They will also learn how to effectively share their testimony both with a large group and one-to-one. Over the course of the following weeks we will continue to rehearse and will also engage in team-building retreats which will combine work projects, worship, and other activities designed to enhance unity and faith on the team.

The youth team would like to ask all of the members of ARC to support them with prayer and encouragement as they take their faith to the streets this summer. This will take a lot of courage, and we expect God to do great things! We will keep you informed of the events as they are scheduled and would love to see you there! Below are the ones we currently have on the schedule…

June 18 (W)  ARC Picnic & Praise   5:30-8 PM

July 17 (TH)  Hot Dog Night (Wiener Dog Race)   6:15 PM-?

July 21-25 (M-F)  Worship @ Inspiration Hills   all day

August 31 (Su.)  Worship @ ARC   9:30AM

Other engagements we have in the works include leading worship at the State Park, Farmer’s Market, and the Southwestern Youth Center. If you have other suggestions for community events where we could share some music, please let me know!

Cory Grimm, Worship & Outreach Director

ARC Family,

Below you will find a few snippets from our most recent post on the H.I.M. (Haitian International Missions) blog. It comes from some teaching by Zacharie, the director of the ministry. He is an amazing and godly man. Please take a few moments to soak in his insights on wealth and faith… to read more go to www.ouradventuresinhaiti.blogspot.com

Cory Grimm

1. Where your treasure is your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-21)

…A treasure might be a person or an object that has great value in our eyes. God wants us to give him our (whole) heart. Therefore if we keep thinking of other things and forget God, we put God out of our life. It is not bad if you love your friends or family, but sometimes focusing on them too much can turn your heart away from God… It is the true sense of these Bible verses that we should not seek earthly things, but heavenly treasure. What treasure would you like to choose: earthly treasure or heavenly treasure? Unfortunately we can’t choose both…

2. No one can serve God and material things or the devil at the same time (verses 22-24)

…Those who trust in material things always think that the things of the earth are the greatest parts of life. They don’t know it is impossible to serve two masters at the same time. When your work compromises your spiritual life, that is materialism, because many people neglect their spiritual work to focus on material things. Some are too busy to study the Bible or pray to God because they choose to serve money instead of God…

3. We must not become anxious about our needs (verses 25-32)

These verses help us put material things in their proper perspective. Why do people look so energetically for money and the things money can buy?

1- To satisfy their desires and…

2- To find security

These reasons, neither one nor the other is acceptable for a Christian. The Christian must find deliverance of his desires or he will not be a Christian for long. A Christian finds his security in God through faith in His Word, and not in his earthly possessions or wealth.

4. It is much more important to be just than to be rich. (verse 33-34)

The last two verses conclude by stating that the most important thing we can do is to seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God. The material interests are not as important as the spiritual interests. We expect to live much longer in eternity than here on earth. Is it not absurd to amass earthly security at the expense of your heavenly treasures? These verses tell us that if we seek first the kingdom of God, all the things we need will be added to us as well.

ARC Family, I want to say thank you to all of you who participated with the recent Praise Sunday, especially those who “took worship outside the walls.” It was a fun morning, and I believe we saw God move that day in the hearts of everyone involved. This article is a brief follow-up to let you all know what happened at Southwestern Youth Services later that day. As I mentioned in the service that morning, I planned to take a small team over to Southwest to share a time of worship and devotions. The director, Randy Stoddard, was very gracious and kindly explained to me that the clients vary greatly in behavior and each week is so different that they couldn’t guarantee whether or not we could come until a couple of days before. Finally we got the word that a group could come at 1PM on Sunday. The members of the team included Joe Dorhout, Cheryl Thacker, Rick Dawson, and myself. We headed over, prayed together in the van, and then loaded in some music equipment. Pretty soon the boys filed into the room and we were thrilled to see around 20 or so young men wanting to participate in the event. We handed out song sheets, called up some volunteers to play various hand drums and other auxiliary percussion, and we had a great time of singing and jamming for the Lord! Here is how I saw God at work that afternoon: Through Joe… he got the boys involved, coached them on various drums, and got them laughing. Through Cheryl…she learned all the boys’ names, had good conversations with them, and led them in singing. Through Rick…after the praise time and devotions, we transitioned into a time of requests. The boys called out several classic rock songs like “Smoke on the Water” and “Hey Jude”, and of course Rick could play most of them on guitar! It was a hilarious time of jamming together and laughing. Rick yelled out, “How do you guys know all these old songs from when I was young?” They chorused together, “Guitar Hero!” Through the staff…what a great group of people serving on Sunday afternoon! God is at work there! Through the boys…they listened very carefully to the devotion time and many commented on how it touched them. We have no idea what they did, what was done to them, what struggles they are facing today, or what their future holds, but hopefully God touched their hearts that afternoon and planted a seed that will bear fruit in their precious lives. Thanks again and may we continue to take worship outside the walls every day! Cory

Greetings, neighbors!

Recently I mentioned in worship that my family and I are moving to Luverne, and by the time you all read this we should be here!  I also mentioned that we have seen God working in all the arrangements, and someone requested for that story to be written up and shared in the ARChive, so here you go!

As most of you know, after serving as part-time worship/music director for over a year, we began to discuss with the consistory the possibility of serving full-time and expanding to help out in the areas of outreach and missions as well.  This became a reality in December.  We hoped to move to Luverne as quickly as possible, but we were not sure if we should sell our house in Sioux Falls or try to move it.

The house is a manufactured home, which is essentially a double-wide trailer.  We bought it new for Lynn in 2008 after I finished seminary and began to work at a Reformed church in Sioux Falls.  We kept it through the years we served in Haiti, suspecting we might need it again one day.  We began to explore the option of moving the home to Luverne, or at least somewhere in Rock County, but so far that option has not materialized.

Finally we decided it was best to think about renting out our home in Sioux Falls and finding somewhere to rent in Luverne.  We began to pray in that direction, and within a day or two the Hup brothers contacted us and asked whether we would be interested in looking at John and Alvina’s home, as they had recently moved to Poplar Creek.  I went to take a look that day, and Lynn visited the following Sunday.  We decided that with a ramp on the front it would be a great fit for us!

The next step was to find a good renter for our home in Sioux Falls, which did not take long either!  To make a long story short, God sent us a family who really needed the home.  The father is a veteran of eight years of active duty with the marines, including two tours of duty in Iraq.  During his second deployment he was injured when a bomb blew up the vehicle in which he was being transported.  He received a head injury and severe injuries to the feet and ankles.  Now he walks with a cane, but he anticipates a series of surgeries in the coming months that will confine him to a wheelchair for a long period of time.  His wife is a neat lady as well, and they have four young children.  The house will be full and will continue to meet the needs of someone with limited mobility.  They said finding the home was an answer to their prayers.  Praise God!

We have thoroughly enjoyed the warm reception from ARC over the past year and a half, and we look forward to getting involved in the community in the coming years.  We hope to get to know all of you better, get to know unchurched people in the community, and seek Christ’s leading in each of our lives as we walk together day by day.

Blessings!

Cory Grimm & family