Lenten Worship Services

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people,
that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.” ~ Revelation 2:2-4

Sundays in Lent

Lent is the season of 40 days that lead up to Easter. This Lenten Season we will focus on falling in love with Jesus again. Each Sunday, we will look at one part of the passion narrative—that is the story of Jesus’ final days—to discover (or rediscover) why we love Jesus so much!

Wednesdays in Lent

To help us fall in love with Jesus, we will meet midweek during Lent to focus on Jesus “I Am” statements. These statements reveal why Jesus came and how much Jesus loves us.  These nights together are about an hour long, beginning with a meal and followed by a 30-minute reflective worship service. Meal serving from 5:15-6:15 PM, Lenten Service 6:30– 7 PM

2019 Lenten Service Schedule

Wed., Mar 6: Jesus: The Bread of Life (Ash Wednesday)
Wed., Mar 13: Jesus: the Light of the World.
Wed., Mar 20: Jesus: The Good Shepherd.
Wed., Mar 27: Jesus: The Resurrection and the Life.
Wed., Apr 3: Jesus: The Way, Truth, and Life.
Wed., Apr 10: Jesus: The True Vine.
Thurs,. Apr 18: Jesus: The Lamb of God (Maundy Thursday)
Sun., Apr 21: Easter services at 8:30, 9:45 and 11:00am.

To help us plan accordingly for the meals, if possible, please RSVP each week on your Sunday bulletin tear-off or by contacting the office (396-6608) and letting us know you will be dining with us.

Rediscovering Our First Love

First Love

“There’s no love like the first.” ~ Nicholas Sparks

Do you remember the first time you fell in love? Anna Godbersen describes the first stab of love as a sunset, “a blaze of color— oranges, pearly pinks, vibrant purples…” We talked about love at our recent leadership
retreat and our moderator asked, “What does love smell like?” She wasn’t referring specifically to First Love, but I think it still fits: love smells like fresh baked bread.

First love feels like a warm blanket or a lingering embrace. Love sounds like an animated conversation or a  quiet whisper. When you think of First Love, what do you see, or hear, or smell? When you think of first love,  do you think about your love for Jesus?

One of my favorite music groups when I was in high school was the group Petra. I loved their song entitled “First Love.”

Sometimes I feel I’m pulled
in so many wrong directions. 
Sometimes I feel
the world seducing my affections.
It’s not that I don’t know the
way, it’s just a heart that’s
prone to stray.
But with my weaknesses
admitted, You will keep all
that I’ve committed.
So I commit my heart to You
my first love.

First love, first love, my soul longs after You.
First love, my first love
and I want my heart 
to stay so true.
Because You first loved me,
Jesus, You will always be,
You will always be my first love.

Do you ever feel like you have lost your love for Jesus? Sometimes I do. I hear Jesus inviting me to rediscover my first love.

It’s taken me some time to try to comprehend. 
A love that doesn’t change,
a love without an end.
A love that keeps forgiving,
a love of sacrifice and giving.
I delight myself in You my first love. 

The Lord be with you,
Pastor Kent

LEAD Conference

Want to learn how to develop a culture of service and intentionality within your family? Well we can help, join us for the LEAD Conference on March 15, from 6-8pm (Childcare will be provided). We will hear from speakers who live and work with some of the most impoverished and voiceless.

If we are honest with ourselves, it can be difficult to develop a culture in our families of being intentional about the gospel and being a willing servant of the Lord. Especially when the “needs” of the world seem to be so daunting, where do we begin? Is a transformation even possible? Well we might have an idea of where to begin and what it could look like. We hope you’ll be able to join us at Cedar Hills Community Church to participate in the discussion!

View the Facebook event.

Jesus, the Woman, and the Pharisee

Jesus, the Woman and the Pharisee
by Alan Crandall, Pastor of Care

“Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him . . . .  When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that was Jesus eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears.  Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them” (Luke 7:36-50).

Here’s a woman with a crumpled heart, and a Savior with a heart of mercy.  Here’s a woman scorned by judgmental moralizers, but valued by Jesus.  Here’s a disreputable, tainted woman who crashes an exclusive banquet for the upright, and Jesus honors her for it.  She’s already fallen in love with the Galilean rabbi who unconditionally accepts shunned ones like her.  Now she falls at the Savior’s dusty feet, and drenches them with tears of gratitude.

To fix an awkward situation she lets down her hair to dry those feet and anoints them with expensive perfume.  Jesus tolerates her impulsive act, and the disgusted host condemns both Jesus and the woman.  The  Pharisee mutters, “Doesn’t he know what kind of woman is touching him?”  Meanwhile, a sweet fragrance fills the room, permeating the senses of all those gathered around Simon’s table.  Jesus tells his shocked companions that Mary loves much because she was forgiven much.  Nobody, then or now, can miss the magnitude of her love for Jesus.

We have reason to think the forgiven woman is Mary Magdalene, who went on to join Jesus’ band of followers.  She gave her time and treasure for God’s kingdom.  Along with Jesus’ mother, this Mary was keeping watch near the cross when he died.  She was the first to know Christ’s tomb was empty, the first to hear the risen One speak, the first to bear witness to his resurrection.

In this story, I identify with Simon the sanctimonious Pharisee.  By nature, I’m conservative.  I wear socks with my sandals and avoid bright colors.  I’m in bed by ten and don’t like spending money.  I steer clear of wild parties and people with questionable lifestyles.  I have a four-drawer cabinet full of alphabetized theology notes to keep myself on the straight and narrow.  I love boundaries.

Jesus is my friend, but he’s a problem for me.  I mean the way he surrounds himself with cripples, misfits and scoundrels.  People like Simon and me are restrained by common sense, but Jesus’s generosity goes to extremes.  I’m cautious with my time, Jesus is extravagant.  I keep a lid on love, he’s over the top.  Simon and I believe in God’s grace, but Jesus goes overboard.  Like a tsunami, his grace overruns all boundaries.  He’s crazy.  It’s love on steroids, and it makes me nervous.

Jesus’s compassion for lost ones is extravagant because he was sent by a God who passionately wills to heal every part of his broken creation.  The God of Jesus is a Niagra Falls of inexhaustible mercy.  He channels God’s irresistible love to everyone—rich/poor, Jew/Gentile, religious/irreligious, lovely/obnoxious, hero/schmuck, Simon the Pharisee and Mary the adulteress.  Jesus is on a mission for God, backed by omnipotent Power that sooner or later reaches everywhere and penetrates everything.

This is clearly a story of three extremes: 1) the immensity of God’s grace to this woman, 2) the woman’s extravagant response, and 3) the explosive  mission that resulted from this alchemy of grace and love.  For short, let’s call these extremes Hyper-Grace, Hyper-Love, and Hyper-Mission (or H3).

The word hyper means “over” or “above” as in hyperactive or hypersonic.  In the Bible it us used to describe the incomprensible greatness of God’s grace.  The church is where Hyper-Grace (the experience of salvation) and Hyper-Love (the experience of Christian community) propel God’s people into Hyper-Mission (the experience of being God’s agents to transform everything).

Saul of Tarsus was once the sort of Pharisee who could line up with Simon in condemning a sinful woman.  He was the strictest of the strict.  His boundaries were tight.  He was certain that Jesus was preaching heresy by granting divine mercy outside the Jewish law and temple regime.  But one day while Saul was righteously persecuting the followers of an obviously “fake” messiah, Jesus himself appeared on the road and overwhelmed Saul’s stubborn unbelief.

Saul had always believed that God is gracious, for God’s loving-kindness is a theme found throughout the Torah.  But for Saul, grace had to be “balanced” with Torah observance.  The kind of grace Jesus offered, grace without works, grace without boundaries, seemed utterly insane to this pious Pharisee.  Until, in a flash Saul realized that his supposed righteousness was like filthy rags, that his prideful goodness was the blackest evil.  The very Torah that was supposed to reconcile him to God had made him the chief of sinners.  Christ must save this wretched Pharisee by grace apart from law, by grace alone.

After that, Saul, re-named Paul, became a missionary to the far reaches of the Roman Empire and developed a special vocabulary to describe Christ’s redeeming work.  He calls it “hyper-grace.”  In science fiction, hyperspace is a faster-than-light, insanely fast, method of time travel.  English Bibles translate “hyper” as “super-abundant,” “overflowing,” “incomparable,” and “immeasurable.”  And this is not science fiction.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we hear him praying that people will be enlightened to know “the immeasurable (hyper-abundant) greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might . . . ” (1:19).  He exults that God raised us up with Christ “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable (hyper-abundant) riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (2:7).  He wants us to comprehend “what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses (hyper) knowledge . . . . who is able to do immeasurably (hyper) more than all that we ask or think, according to his power that is at work within us. . . .” (3:20-21; cf. Rom. 5:20-21).

Like the sinful woman, Paul recounts how he was once a hyper-blasphemer and persecutor of Christ’s followers, “but I received mercy . . . and the grace of our Lord (hyper) overflowed for me . . . .  The saying is trustworthy . . . that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:13-14).  For Paul, Jesus is the hyper-gracious Savior of hyper-sinners.

Too often, like Simon and Saul, we have a shrunken view of God’s grace.  Although we felt overwhelmed by God’s mercy when we first became Christians, we’re doing quite nicely with our religion now, thank you very much, and we don’t need grace anymore.  Consequently, our love for God is micro instead of hyper. Everything in moderation!  We love little, because we are forgiven little.  Our teensy-weensy sense of need for God generates micro-giving and micro-mission.

But we don’t need to despair.  Jesus intends to transform all the big sinners like us.  He did this for Simon by showing him how far his micro-love was from the mega-love of God.  Then he, too, could repent of filthy self-righteousness and join Jesus’s community of unconditional grace.  Simon couldn’t avoid the irresistible odor of love that filled the dining room that day.  We have reason to believe he became part of Christ’s reconciling kingdom (that’s why his name is memorialized in Scripture).

I’m hoping we’ll all be swept along by God’s infinite grace in a community of crazy love that transforms our world into an unbelievable new creation.  Let’s be extreme!   Maybe if we trust Jesus to make us H3 Christians, “they’ll know we are (hyper) Christians by our (hyper) love.”

Untitled Poem

May you be a clown and a fool
in all that you give to the world.
May you love unreasonably,
wastefully and unjustifiably.
Let there be whimsy and improvisation in the grace of your gifts–
spontaneous, joyful, laughable and unpredictable.
Love weirdly in ways that surprise and subvert.
Stand before the calculus of this world
and be accounted a shock and an embarrassment,
the circus of your life a scandal among those with proper, tamer tastes.
May your love be wrong in all the ways that are right.

–Richard Beck,
ExperimentalTheology.blogspot.com

Paul Donnan

We are deeply saddened by the news that our friend and Cedar Hills staff member Paul Donnan has passed away.  Please pray for peace and comfort for his family and friends as they grieve his death. Paul was the Director of Maintenance & Operations at Cedar Hills.

The visitation will be Thursday, Feb. 14 at 9:30am, followed by the funeral at 11:00am. A brief burial service at Cedar Memorial will follow the funeral, and then a luncheon will be served back at the church.

Directions to Cedar Hills

Obituary

(from cedarmemorial.com)
Paul D. Donnan, 52 of Cedar Rapids passed away at his home Sunday, February 10, 2019. Services at 11:00 AM on Thursday at Cedar Hills Community Church. There will be a visitation at Cedar Hill Community Church on Thursday from 9:30 AM until service time at 11:00 AM. Pastor Kent Landhuis will officiate. Burial at Cedar Memorial Park Cemetery. Cedar Memorial Park Funeral home is in charge of arrangements.

Survivors include two sons, Grant and Michael, his mother Sally Donnan all of Cedar Rapids and a sister Lisa (Pat) Kress of Hiawatha. He is also survived by a niece and nephew Courtnie and Connor Bartosh, and many friends. He was proceeded in death by his father.

Paul was born on June 8, 1966 in Cedar Rapids the son of Douglas and Sally (Day) Donnan. After graduating from High School, Paul graduated from the California Police Academy. He was a detective for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department where he was a member of both the Antelope and Lancaster Gang Units Tasks Force. Because of Paul’s work he received a Superior Dedication Award and an Outstanding Achievement Award for his work with the gang units. After 11 years at the Sheriff’s Department he returned to Cedar Rapids in 2000, and became the Director of Maintenance and Operations at Cedar Hills Community Church. Paul and Michael especially enjoyed the time they spent together plowing snow at the Church.

While in Cedar Rapids, Paul implemented the Community Service Program for individuals who were incarcerated.

Paul enjoyed the outdoors, baseball, and time spent with his family and many friends. Paul was always willing to give a hand to anyone who need help.

Paul will forever be remembered as a wonderful and loving father, son, brother and friend whose memory will be cherished by all who knew and loved him.

A memorial fund has been established.

Paul’s Staff Bio (cedar hills Website):

Paul grew up in Cedar Rapids. He began working for the church in 2003. Prior to that he was a Detective on the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. His parents, Sally and Doug, joined Cedar Hills Community Church in 1961.When not spending time with his two boys or at church, he enjoys the outdoors, baseball, and gardening. He is passionate about the commandment “Love your neighbor.” His favorite Bible verses are those that declare and describe Heaven.

175 Sub-Success!

Thank you to everyone who purchased a sub sandwich for the annual Super Bowl Sub fundraiser.  The Journey youth and leaders assembled 175 subs sandwiches.

“Last Sunday, 20 students and leaders from Youth Ministry made over 175 subs, which were sold out within minutes! Thank you for your constant support of the student ministry!” ~ Jeremy Van Genderen

Journey Student ministry is a place for ALL students 6th-12th grade to come walk together on their faith journey.  We meet on Sunday nights from 5:30pm-8pm.  Each night starts with a cafe time where you can purchase items like pizza, candy, chips, hotdogs, soda and Keurig coffee drinks.  Starting at 6:15pm, we rotate between large group teaching, small group discussion and games.  No matter where you are on your faith journey you are invited and welcomed to join us each and every week.

Family Promise Bright Spot

BRIGHT SPOT

Family Promise assists homeless families to get to a sustainable state with employment, housing, and other needed services. Our church hosted two families this past week with the help of caring volunteers.

Diane Potter did a special project with one of the daughters. They made a special blanket and scarf for her!

Family Promise of Linn County’s mission is to help homeless and low-income families achieve sustainable independence through compassionate care, hospitality and professional support.  Cedar Hills partners with them as a host site to house families overnight and providing meals.

Family Adventure February Events

Wed, Feb. 13 – Family Adventure Night

We hope your family can join us for a night of food, fun and discipleship, together as a family!

Dinner is offered from 5:30-6pm, program beginning at 6pm.

Nursery will be provided for the littlest ones.

View the event on Facebook.


Thur., Feb. 14 – Parent’s Night Out

5:30pm-8pm your kiddos can enjoy a fun night of STEAM activities, while you take some time to reconnect and recoup, your choice.

Oh, did I also mention…it’s free!

View the event on Facebook and reserve your spot!

More about STEAM On.

 

Love. Belong. Serve.