So this will be the first ‘digital’ Easter ever.  Right?

Crazy to think that this Easter will be the 2nd craziest Easter in history.  (The first Easter, of course, was by definition the craziest Easter ever.)  Church buildings around the planet will be empty on Easter Sunday.  All of the productions and plays, music and lights – gone.  All of the pomp and circumstance, the hype and the dressing up and eggs, bunnies, and chocolate – gone.

And maybe it’s better this way.

Over the last few weeks, families have had to CHOOSE to worship.  Yes, many churches have put their services online, but I’d argue that doesn’t necessarily make it easier for people to worship.  In fact, it may be harder.  It sounds crazy to say that, but it may be more difficult to worship in our living rooms than it is to drive to a different place to worship. Because when I worship in my living room, I feel like I’ve somehow invited God into my space instead of me showing up at His.

Theologically I know how ridiculous that sounds.  I do.  But it doesn’t make it any less true.  Or at least how it feels o

n Sunday morning.  We wake up the family, and we choose to gather around the TV.  We sing – just us.  No other noise to hide it.  We pray.  We take communion.  Our living room becomes our sanctuary, and that feels vulnerable.  There’s no buffer of the drive to another location.

Every time we gather in the living room now for food or play – we are reminded that God is here.  When we argue and fight – He is there.  When we cry and laugh – He is there.  This has become our… sanctuary.

I know how un-theological all of that sounds.  I know He is ALWAYS there, but now I’m more aware that He is there because I have purposely invited Him here.  The ottoman is both a place to put our feet and a place to kneel for communion.  And maybe that’s too sacrilegious, but then again maybe it isn’t.

Maybe that’s how it should be.  How it was supposed to always be.

Maybe this is not the Easter we wanted, but it is the Easter we need.

We need to invite the resurrection of Jesus into our homes.  The resurrection of Jesus matters in my living room MORE than it does in some building that happens to have the name ‘church’ on it.  Maybe we need a resurrection of our faith.  Our hope.  Our marriage.  Our children.  Our priorities.

Maybe this Easter will not be the worst Easter ever but instead will be most needed Easter ever.

And maybe empty churches will remind us of an empty tomb that promises a full heart and full life.  And maybe our living rooms will become cathedrals of praise and our front porches places of proclamation.

And maybe that will be more than enough.

Another week, another 1,000 changes to how we now “do life.” The Governor issued a “Stay At Home” order for the whole state that went into effect today at 12:01 AM, but not a whole lot will change for those of us living in Shawnee County as we were already under a similar ‘Safer-At-Home’ order.

What exactly does a “Safer-At-Home” order mean? According the Shawnee County Health Department, it means only essential personal are allowed to work away from the home. The County has a list of who exactly those essential people are, and if you are one, your employer would have already told you. It means NO public gatherings of ANY size. This is why we’ve closed the church these last two weeks and, there is to be NO activity up at the church at all.

You CAN exercise outside. Just maintain the minimum 6 foot distance. You can go to the grocery store or get food. You can go to the doctor to receive necessary care.

You can drive up to WHC and use the WiFi. We know that some families will start school this week, and they have no internet access. We are keeping the WiFi on for our community to use it as a hot-spot if they need it.

You can also drive up to WHC to use our locked drop-off box for your giving as well.

You can stay connected online.
Our Connect Groups, small group Bible studies, and ministry teams are still meeting. It’s all online, using tools like Zoom, Google Hangouts, and FaceTime, but it’s still incredibly effective in staying connected. If you don’t have a Connect Group, we can get you in one!!! It’s super easy and fun.

Our groups are telling us some incredible stories of connection, playing board games, and having ‘dinner’ with each other online as well as praying and getting into the Bible. In my own Connect Group, that time together has become the new normal for us, and just seeing those faces and hearing those voices encourages us so much. IF YOU DON’T HAVE THAT – YOU NEED IT! AND YOU CAN HAVE IT!

You can join us for LEAD Night.
Tonight (Monday) at 6:30pm, I will continue the tradition of LEAD Night. This is where our leaders get around the table and we get better. We take care of our souls. If you serve anywhere, you are a leader. If you are INTERESTED in serving, you need to be at LEAD Night. Heck, if you just want to hear what we are doing and wrestling with through this pandemic, you can be at LEAD Night.

I’ll be talking about how we are leveraging technology to stay connected through this time and how each of us can do the same. Plus what we are looking at in the future to continue to get better at being the church ‘scattered’ instead of ‘gathered.’ I’ll be issuing a prayer challenge for us through this crisis.

If you’ve never been to a LEAD Night… If you are feeling just a bit overwhelmed…. If you need just a little dose of encouragement… make LEAD Night a priority tonight. Sign up. We will send you a link to join us via Zoom. All you need is a device that can get to the internet OR just a phone that can dial a number. That simple.

UPDATE ON PASTOR TD HICKS
Many of you have asked about Pastor Hicks of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. He is improving every day! He’s walking. He’s getting his strength back. I’ve had many text and Face-time calls with him, and I’m very encouraged about where he is and where he is heading. He won’t be preaching for another month or so, but he really appreciates the prayers and encouragement from all. Keep praying.

Just a thought…
I wish we weren’t going through this as a community, as a nation. But I’ve purposed to not waste this opportunity either. To get closer to my family. To get better as a leader. To get closer to Jesus. How can I do that? How can you do that?

We’re going to be exploring this idea all this week. Together. So come take the journey with me.

Amy and I had plans to share this information with so many of you face to face, but then the world changed on us. That is obviously no longer possible. So many of you who have been more than friends to us, just know that breaking this news this way was not our first choice.

Cooper, our 22-year old senior at KSU, got sick over Christmas break, and after initially responding to antibiotics, the cough came back. Cooper’s doctor in Manhattan started a series of tests and investigations. After multiple x-rays, CT scans, biopsies, visits to oncologists, and trips to KU Medical Center, we finally got clarity on what was going on, and it was news that no parent wants to hear about their kid.

Cooper has cancer. It’s never good to get this diagnosis, but to get it in the middle of what our world is going through has been quite the challenge. A challenge that in some parts we are thankful for, but more on that in a moment.

It’s not all bad news. This particular cancer has not formed into a tumor that needs to be surgically removed. His blood work and other labs look very, very good. Plus, this particular cancer is very sensitive to chemo-therapy with a 92% cure/remission rate.

Our lives will be a little different as we take extreme cautions to protect Cooper, as he will quickly become immuno-vulnerable. We will basically quarantine the house from visitors and limit our exposure to the outside world as much as possible. He will start chemo on March 30th which will consists of 4 rounds of treatment ending hopefully on June 1st. (Each round consists of 5 straight days of IV treatment (port), followed by a 2-week recovery period.) There will be the normal side effects of hair loss, nausea, etc. (So don’t freak out if you see me with a bald head through this process as well.)

Given all that we’ve walked through and what could have been diagnosed, we believe this is the best bad news we could have gotten. And once again, we can see God’s hand in the middle of this.

MINOR RABBIT TRAIL WARNING:
I want to be clear by what I mean when I say ‘I can see God’s hand in the middle of this.’ I do not mean that I believe God gave Cooper cancer. Far from it. Cancer sucks. It is evil. There is nothing good about cancer. I don’t believe that for one second. He didn’t give Cooper this to show off His power or to deepen Cooper’s faith.

Cooper got cancer because we live in a broken, messed up world of our own choosing. It’s sinful. It’s gross at times. We screwed it up since near the beginning, and stuff like cancer is some of the collateral damage.  God valued something else MORE than earthly safety and security. He wanted a free-will love relationship with his kids more than he did a world where he was in total control of every decision ever made. He made that call. It was only His call to make.

Philosophically, I get it. Practically right now, I struggle with that. But as I get older, I’m getting okay with this, particularly as I look at this through the lens of a dad.

I look at my kids and our relationships.  Would I rather have a loving, deep relationship with my kids that was genuine, authentic and deep in exchange for some temporary uncomfortableness and safety? Absolutely. And I say that knowing that my kids have made decisions that I would never have made.  Ever.  Some of them have been really stupid decisions.  Really stupid.  (Just had to get that little extra punch in there.)

But they have also chosen to love God. And love me. And Amy. And each other. Even when we disagree and get on each other’s nerves.  There is nothing they are ever going to do that is going to make me love them less.  Ever.  And there is no earthly measure that I know of that can quantify what all that means to me.

I’m guessing this is but a glimpse of how deep the Father loves us as well.

KINDA BACK ON TRACK

Just like a loving Father, we can see how He is working good in the middle of this chaos.  His presence brings a comfort and peace that I can’t put in words.  And because of His presence, we have much to be thankful for… There is much we are thankful for.

We are thankful for Cooper’s doctor who wouldn’t ‘let it go’ even after the inital reports said there was nothing to be concerned about.

We are thankful for our oncologist who got us in at KU Medical Center when nothing seemed clear.

We are thankful for the doctors and nurses at KU Med Center.

We are thankful for the timing of this, before he graduated and moved to Austin.

We are thankful he is going to get to finish his senior year online without the exposure to so many other people.

We are so thankful for our church family.  Western Hills Church…the staff, our elders, the people… good night.  What a family, what a blessing this church is to our family.

We will be keeping info of Cooper’s journey up to date over on my personal blog, and we’d invite you to follow along there if you’d like. In the meantime, pray for us as we pray for you.

We love you dearly.
Grant and Amy
Cooper, Camber, Cayden, and Chewie (the rat dog)

Week of March 23rd, 2020

Another week, another 238 changes. Right? I wanted to tell you some of the things we’re doing to stay connected through this crisis as well as answer some frequent questions we’ve been getting.

Keep Up To Date
We are updating Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and this website all the time. We use our weekly and all-church email lists, AND we will be adding either text communications/push notifications to your phones. The point is – we are trying to stay in touch, but if you hear of someone missing out – let us know. And let them know. Let’s close that communication gap!

Online Worship Services
Coming this Sunday, we will have a test-run of live streaming our worship services. Technically, it will not be live streaming but will give us the capability of watching the service we’ve already recorded together and chatting with each other while the service is going on. We will be offering THREE services – Sunday at 9 and 10:30 AM, and Sunday night at 5:00. The link for those services will be posted on our social media sites closer to Sunday. We will have the ability to take notes online, chat, and interact with a live prayer room. Don’t worry if you can’t make one of those times, you will still be able to view the service online just like always!

LEAD Night is coming back! Monday, March 30th, 6:30 pm
Set your calendar for Monday, March 30th at 6:30. If you want to attend LEAD Night LIVE that night, click here to register for the event. We’ve got room for a limited amount of people. If you can’t make it OR we run out of invites – DON’T PANIC! We are recording it and will post the video later that night.

Serve All Opportunities
Starting this week, Cullen will be updating us on how we can keep serving our community. This will include feeding kids through the school programs and making grocery store or pharmacy runs for folks who can’t get out. We’ve been compiling a list of folks who need help as well as those who have offered to give help.

Now let’s answer some questions….

What about Super Summer/Trash Mountain Honduras Trip?
The short answer is – we don’t know anything yet. Obviously our first priority is safety, and we will not compromise on that just for the sake of taking the trip. As soon as we know something definitive, we will pass on the information.

How can I get in a Connect Group?
The first step is to email Parker OR sign up online. We will do the rest. You’ll be getting an e-invite to check out a couple of different groups that are meeting online. I know it sounds weird, but it really isn’t. It does take a little getting used to, and once you learn to mute your microphone before yelling at your kids to quit playing with the water in the house, things work out fine.

I’m technologically challenged. I need some help.
Outstanding! We can offer help. Just email us. Or text us. Or send us some way to connect with you, and we will send help your way.

How’s the staff doing? Are we paying the staff?
The staff is good. Well, we are scrambling just like you are trying to figure out the new normal. And the church is paying the staff during this time. The Council made that a priority, and we do have some reserves to meet this need for a season. Having said that…

How can those of us who don’t give online continue to support the church financially?
You can give by texting GIVETOWHC to 73256 or send an electronic check through your bank. You can give online here. To give by cash or check, you can mail it to us (2900 SW Auburn Road, Topeka, KS 66614), or you can “Drive-Thru Tithe”. (Okay, that was a little corny.) We have a locked mailbox and a locked drop-off box right outside the door of the entrance near the office. So whether you mail your check or drop it off, it will be secure and we have people who check the mail and drop-off box weekly.

As always, we are praying with and for you. If you have a specific need, please reach out to us! Use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, email, the website – just let us know!

Let’s go be the church,
Grant

Hello, Western Hills!

Can I tell you about my day yesterday?

9:00 AM
Emergency staff/pastors meeting. Closing the office and church for two weeks. Making sure we start leveraging technology with our Connect Group leaders – Zoom, Facebook live, FaceTime, etc. Start testing technologies on how to get interactive when we video our services later this week.

10:30 AM
Meet with Rick to talk about video options and live streaming. Discuss how we could help smaller churches video their services to get them online for them.

12:00 NOON
Cullen and I meet with clergy leaders and 501 School Superintendent Dr. Anderson. Look at ways to utilize the faith community to help feed kids in the school district on the free/reduced lunch program. 70% of kids in the system are on this program. 14,000 students in 501. Spirit of cooperation is incredible. Western Hills will be able to partner with Hope Street, Sheldon, and McCarter. Details will be coming.

1:30 PM
Fellowship Bible Church hosts pastors meeting. Close to 30 area pastors (with proper social distancing) meet to pray and encourage one another. Men, women, black, white, Hispanic, multiple denominations all praying for the city, talking through what we are learning and how we can help our city. Spirit of cooperation is awesome.

3:00 PM
Meeting dismisses. News hits about Governor’s executive order forbidding group meetings larger than 50 people for the next 8 weeks. Realization hits that most of the decisions we’ve made up to this point are rendered moot. We now have to rethink everything.

5:00 PM
Church Council Meeting. Prayer. Walk through decisions that need to be made over the next 8 weeks. Thinking through Connect Groups, worship, and all things. Incredible sense of unity and peace. No panic, just a desire to figure out how to do church and be the church in this new normal.

7:00 PM
Family dinner. Workout. Ice Cream. (Because you gotta have priorities.)
Realize that both college kids will finish the semester at home with online classes. Cooper will not walk for graduation, as commencement ceremonies were cancelled.

Here’s what we know and what we’ve decided… so far.

Due to the Executive Order of the Governor of Kansas, we will NOT meet in a large group setting of 50 or more until May 4th. This is a Monday night. Right now, we are planning to worship that night as a congregation in celebration, because who says you have to wait until Sunday? However, as we all have experienced this past week, this could change.

The CDC has suggested limiting groups to the size of 10 or less while maintaining at least a 6 foot distance between social interactions. Our suggestion is to honor this recommendation as well, which makes physically meeting in our Connect Groups ill-advised.

What this means is that we are going to have to reimagine how to be the church. And here’s what we are suggesting as we move forward.

Keep connecting with your Connect Group
We are currently training and equipping our CG Leaders on how to utilize some online tools to make this happen. As a staff team, we’ve been working with these tools, and they work. It feels like you’re in a room together. Check your email or reach out to your Connect Group leader. We are getting this in place for this week!

Join a Connect Group
What? Wait…how? If you’re not in a Connect Group, guess what you are probably going to need over the next 8 weeks? Community. Someone to pray and process with. Someone to laugh and play online board games with. We can still get you connected to a group VIRTUALLY. You can click here and we can get you started down this road.

Sign up for REALM and Right Now Media
REALM is our church database that allows us to communicate with you via email, discussion boards, and chat. This is another great tool for Connect Groups and Ministry Teams to stay connected. Email Jenny for an invitation to join Realm.

RightNow Media is an online resource of Christian training and Bible study materials, movies, and kids’ shows. Text RIGHTNOW WHC to 41411 to create your own Right Now Media account. Both services are completely free resources for you to utilize.

Online Giving
The Council has decided to continue to pay staff and support our missionaries through this crisis. We have some reserves to cover this. However, what we’d like to be able to do is increase our giving to our community through helping food banks and other local churches who may struggle through this time. Your continued generosity will allow us to be a blessing to our city.

If you are a regular at Western Hills Church, the easiest way is through Realm. If you don’t have a login, you can contact us. We’d be happy to help you get set up with Realm.

You can give via text. Text GIVETOWHC to 73256.  Standard text messaging rates apply.

You can login to ACS/Realm’s secure servers for a one time gift.

Online Worship & Trainings
We will continue to post services online WITH our worship team! It’s coming! And you will have the option to either watch just the message and Mission Moment OR the full-meal deal which includes worship through music. (I’d encourage you to take the full-meal deal.)

We are also going to try to do a LEAD night online. Some of our ministry teams are going to continue to meet online as well. We will be putting resources in your hands every day to help you lead worship in your living room, talk to your kids about what is going on, connect with others in the church, and point out some of our favorite RightNow Media studies.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Change is happening quickly, and we will communicate everything we are doing through these three social platforms as well as our webpage.

It’s a new day for us. Change is happening so fast. And what we see as obstacles now, may just be opportunities for us to do church differently. Take this time to look up and see your neighbors. Share resources like online messages and Right Now Media with them. Engage in some meaningful conversation with others about what this whole situation means eternally for them.

Wash your hands, then go wash some feet. Then wash your hands again!

WHC Family,

Our world has drastically changed this week due to the impact of the coronavirus. I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like this, and figuring out how to navigate it has been one of the most challenging issues I’ve ever faced.

After careful consideration, speaking with both doctors and healthcare officials in our county, and being in discussion with several other churches in town, we have decided to follow the leadership of Shawnee County Health Department and cancel our weekend services for the next two weeks. This includes LEAD Night (Monday, March 16th) and Wednesday night activities for the next two weeks. This means we will not have Sunday services on March 15th or March 22nd but will resume on March 29th. It is possible that this time frame COULD change, and we will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed along the way.

The Council and staff wrestled with this decision intensely, not wanting to give in to fear but to also be wise in regards to protecting those that may be most vulnerable to the virus. At the end of the day, we believe this is the wisest course of action. According to the CDC and Shawnee County Health Department, this two-week window is incredibly important to help prevent a potential rush on our healthcare system.

There is plenty of information on the CDC website (www.cdc.gov), but those over the age of 60, have respiratory issues, or have compromised immune systems (blood diseases, chemo/radiation treatment) are particularly at risk. A few other things the CDC is suggesting:

• Wash your hands frequently for 20 seconds or longer.
• Avoid touching your face with unwashed hands.
• Disinfect surfaces used regularly.
• Use hand sanitizer with 60% alcohol or higher.
• Avoid close contact with someone who is sick.
• Cover your mouth with corner of your elbow when coughing.

In the meantime, I’d encourage you to worship online with us at www.whillschurch.org. Parker Dane’s introduction to our new series on Colossians is already up and it’s so relevant for what we are facing in our culture right now. It’s the first message of this new series that we are going through with the RightNow Media study by Lou Giglio on Colossians.

I’d also encourage you to stay connected with your Connect Group (if you are healthy). I encourage you to worship together as a family. I encourage you to pray for our country and those working to end this pandemic.

I’d encourage you to spend some time in Psalm 91 this weekend. Here’s the start of the psalm:

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!”

3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day.

Let’s all remember that the church is NOT a building that we meet in. The Church is the people of God on the mission of Jesus under the power of the Holy Spirit. Now more than ever we need to “be the church” to our neighbors.

Go be the church.

Grant English, on behalf of the Church Council and staff

The sun was breaking over the hill behind my dad’s light blue Chevy Silverado pickup. He had both hands on the wheel but he was leaning back and forth across the cab, searching every yard he passed. He was looking for me, and my ‘run away from home plan’ was only 7 minutes old but in complete disarray. I was hiding behind a row of hedges in front of my best friend Stacy’s house. It was those sticky bushes, and I was soaking wet because of the morning dew. I was still wearing my pajamas with no jacket or shoes.

My dad was driving too fast to see me, but at that point I had already made the decision. I was going back home. I figured my parents had to take me back, seeing how I was only 6. To this day, I have no idea what pushed me to that place, but I didn’t forget the lesson.

Running away from conflict only makes it worse.

This past Sunday, Amy and I walked through some of our best and worst moments around the table concerning conflict. If you haven’t checked it out, I really think it will be helpful to you. One topic that we did not get enough time to discuss is forgiveness. It will be impossible to build an intimate marriage (or any healthy relationship for that matter) without forgiveness.

In Matthew 18, Jesus tells one of the most disturbing parables in the New Testament. A servant owed 10,000 talents which was an absurd amount of money. One talent was 6,000 days’ wages, so his total debt was 600,000 days wages. The servant gets called in to the master, and after the threat of jail and selling his family as slaves, he begs for mercy. The master is so moved that he forgives the debt.

The servant goes out to a man that owed him 100 days wages. Or 60,000 times less than what he owed his master. The servant jails the man and demands full payment. Once the master finds out about this, the servant is brought before the master and is jailed and his family sold into slavery.

Jesus ends the story with these words – So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don’t each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds.

It’s hard to forgive, and some of us may even think it’s impossible. But it’s not. At it’s core, forgiveness is the release of a debt. It is when the one wounded or hurt says to the one who has wounded or hurt, I no longer expect or demand you to pay the cost of your sin to me.

It is NOT forgetting the sin. It’s not condoning or excusing it. It’s not overlooking it. Forgiveness does not remove consequences. Forgiveness is NOT reconciliation, but it opens the door for reconciliation to happen.

This last phrase is what I think is important for today. The Christ-follower can forgive radically, because he(she) has been radically forgiven. It releases us from having to bear that revenge. The Spirit can and will give us the grace we need to do this. And we must do this to open the door for restoration.

Restoration is another process. Restoration is the work necessary to make that forgiveness experiential. Restoration may require time to heal, time to prove trust. Restoration may need a process to intentionally and systematically rebuild the relationship. All of that is restoration – not forgiveness.

Forgiveness opens the door for all of that to take place. It doesn’t replace the work necessary to repair trust.

When there is conflict at the table, I’ve got to forgive – sometimes before it is even asked for – if restoration has any hope. Forgiveness can remove my bitterness in order to make restoration possible. Forgiveness can be a one-way street. Restoration is always a two-way street. In marriage, the goal is always restoration. In my other relationships, that may not always be possible. But in both situations, I can choose forgiveness because of how God forgave me.

My prayer for your table is that it is a place of forgiveness so that restoration can grow there.