Category Archives: Church

Leaving a church

Posted on by mattlegere

If you have ever changed churches or found yourself without a church through no fault of your own (i.e. moral failure within leadership, etc.), then you know that it can be one of the most stressful experiences of your life.  It can also catch you off-guard.  In April of 2010, our family found ourselves without a church home for the 1st time in our lives!  During that month, while I was reading a book on the train while headed home from a hard day’s work in downtown Boston, I struck up a conversation with a man sitting across from me.  At some point in the conversation, he said:

I noticed that you are reading a Christian book.  Where do you go to church?

I’ve been asked this question many times before so I opened my mouth almost instinctively and, with my mouth hanging open, I realized I didn’t have anything to tell him!  I stumbled through a quick explanation that basically went like this: “Well..um….I don’t have one…”

I went home and cried.  I was embarrassed, frustrated, and angry that I had no church home.  As I was reminiscing of this crazy time of our lives, I thought it would be a good time to share a few tips to keep in mind if you are leaving or have left a church:

Tip #1 – Not everyone is going to be happy about you leaving the church, even if God told you to do it

This was a shocker to me!  :)   I spent a lot of time in one church growing up, but towards the end I had begun to feel like the Lord had something else in store for us.  I felt the Lord tell me in prayer that our time at this church was complete and that we had fulfilled God’s purpose for us in that body.  He was calling us to help out in a new church that was starting up in Framingham, MA and I received multiple confirmations evidenced by my boss transferring me out to the new location with a raise and our house selling in 6 weeks to the first people who looked at it. 

My assumption was that, if God is calling us to do this, then everyone will hear this and see the confirmations and be excited for us!  Not so much….  It was so hard to feel as though we were disappointing everyone in our lives by following God, but we did it anyway and we learned a lot in the process.

Don’t be shocked if not everyone is on board.  Hold close to the Lord during this time and ask Him to affirm His calling as often as needed.  He knows that leaving a church is tough and He’s happy to help you in the transition.

Tip #2 – There will be misunderstandings

You may have good memories of the church and you can think of times standing around the altar singing “Kum-ba-yah” and “You’re my brother, you’re my sister”, but be prepared that, even in the best of church transitions, there will be misunderstandings.  Don’t be blindsided by it, but instead just be aware.  You leaving a church doesn’t just affect you – it does affect those that are left behind as they wrestle with their own questions of “Why”.  Ask the Holy Spirit to help you work through these with patience, love, and understanding.

Tip #3 – Don’t defend yourself when people talk “smack”

People will talk and it will hurt.  At our last church, there was a bunch of discussion going around that I stole a car from the pastor.  This hurt and I wanted to defend myself so badly.  They had no idea of the thousands of dollars that I lost on that transaction by trying to help.  But when I went to prayer about it, I felt the Lord say to me:

If you defend yourself, then I can’t defend you.  Do you trust me that I can defend you?  I am your avenger.

Once I decided to keep my mouth shut (a miracle!), I felt peace and later there were people who were able to receive understanding regarding the situation.

Sometimes you just have to pity other people who don’t know the whole story.  You will find people making judgements with their eyes and listening to whatever they hear instead of just asking the person involved.   

Tip #4 – Be careful of the agreements you make in your mind

When we are going through difficult situations, there are times that we make what John Eldredge calls “default agreements”.  It’s assumptions about life to permeate our consciousness and guide how we think and live in the future.  It’s easy to find yourself sayings things like:

Well, I’ll never open myself up like that again!

If this is what church is like then who needs it?

All churches must be like this.

Have the courage to open up again, trust again, and have faith in this model (the church) that God has given.  People aren’t perfect, but God is and we need to trust Him and be careful about the thoughts we let into our minds during these vulnerable times.

Tip #5 – Trust that, if being involved in a community of believers is important to God, He’ll connect you with a new body of believers

This was one of the prayers I kept bringing to the Lord during this time of our lives.  I truly believed that, if belonging to a church family was a critical component of a strong walk with the Lord, then it would be a priority to Him to help us find a new place to be planted.  And he did!

Tip #6 – Gossip is sneaky

Even if you have resigned yourself not to gossip, what will be difficult is when it comes time for you to share your story to help others going through similar transitions.  Depending on the circumstances surrounding your departure, it can be almost impossible to share your story without entering into a grey area of gossiping about the character of the individuals involved.  As I’ve shared some of our own story in this post, I’ve tried to be very careful to not mention names.  Please just keep this in mind as you begin to share your story to help others.  Gossip is sneaky and will look for any foothold that it can.

Tip #7 – Don’t blame God

I had a minister that I trust share with me a story of what his pastor said to him as he was getting ready to leave for bible college.  His pastor called him into his office and said I want to share with you something that will help you in your future years of ministry.  This young minister was all ears and was prepared to write down what was about to be share.  The older pastor said “People are stupid and they’ll do things that won’t make sense”.  That was it!

Now we know that not everyone is stupid, but during church transitions, people will do things that do not always make sense, but we have to be careful to not blame God.  It wasn’t God that was talking about you, it wasn’t God that had a moral failure, it wasn’t God that is misunderstanding you….it was people.  Keep your heart open to God, especially during challenging times. 

Conclusion

I pray that this helps you as you work through church transitions.  I know what it’s like to have people scratch their heads when we left a church.  But the Lord has always been faithful and if I can help you and pray with you in your journey in any way, please let me know.

Servant of a wicked cool God,

Matt Legere

Sunday Recap @ Haven of Hope (4-5-2009)

Posted on by mattlegere

This past Sunday at Haven of Hope will go down as one of my favorite Sundays ever!! It was one of my favorite message that I’ve ever heard Pastor Jonathan preach!  Even more powerful is that the word that he brought causes people to spring to action and seek healing from harmful mindsets regarding righteousness.

The word “Righteousness” is basically a government term that means to be in right standing with the authorities. 

In the beginning, Adam and Even were in right standing with God; however, through sin/disobedience, they lost their identity and lose their right-standing with God – therefore becoming unrighteous.

Ever since that time, man has done everything that they could to become righteous again.  God wanted to show man that through their own power, they’d never be able to be righteous.  As we review the 10 commandments, all the feasts, and the 613 commandments found in the Old Testament, we see that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to actually do it all perfect and be righteous. 

On our own, we CAN’T be righteous.  We CAN’T do ANYTHING to EARN it!  The kicker is that, even though Jesus came to be our righteousness and justify us, we STILL live in the mindset of the law that says “I can earn this…if I just prayed enough..if I just fasted enough…if I just followed this rule or that rule better….I could MAYBE become righteous.  Jesus came on the scene and messed all that up.

Galatians 2:16 “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believe in Jesus Christ, that we miht be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law…”

Galatians 2:21 “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain”

If someone came into our home and told us that what Christ did on the cross for us was useless, unnecessary, and accomplished nothing, I’d be taking part in an impromptu Holy Ghost beatdown! 

YET…when you and I live our lives with the thought that what we DO can earn our righteousness, we frustrate the grace of God and act as though His death was in vain.  Our righteousness is like “filthy rags”, but He is our hope.

As soon as the message was done, we had a tremendous time of healing!  Everyone came forward and told God that we wanted to trust in HIS righteousness in our lives.  We asked that the law would be dead, but that we would be alive in Christ!  Awesome..that never gets old to see new people seeking God, enjoying His presence, and receiving physical, emotional, mental, etc. healing from harmful mindsets.

Embrace grace.  Trust in His righteousness.  Go kick some devil butt. 

If you are interested in buying a copy of this week’s audio CD, please contact Jonathan Jaynes at jonatikon@yahoo.com.

Haven of Hope update…

Posted on by mattlegere

For those of you who haven’t heard….God has been up to some AMAZING things at Haven of Hope!!  As of Easter 2009, Haven of Hope has been around for 3 years.  Pastor Jonathan and Pastor Rebecca started Haven of Hope with a consuming passion to see the Kingdom of God manifested in our city and in the lives of OUR generation. 

My wife Heidi and I came to Haven of Hope at about the halfway point in November 2007.  When the Lord first told us to go to Haven of Hope and move from Connecticut to Massachusetts, many people thought that we were nuts!  We had great jobs, great contacts with people, we were teaching tons of Bible studies, I was preaching almost weekly through Connecticut, we owned our own house, and my wife was 6 months pregnant.  All this translated to some people thinking that we had lost our minds! 

When we arrived in November 2007, we averaged anywhere from 12-15 people at our Sunday Encounter.  From November 2007 through March 2008, God was speaking to us as a church family to get ready for something BIG!  Here are some highlights of what God has done at Haven of Hope since March 2008:

- Over 130 1st-time guests have come to visit Haven of Hope

- Our weekly attendance between Sunday Encounter and Thursday night Life Groups has quadrupled and we now average anywhere between 45 and 60 individuals

- Haven of Hope is truly reaching OUR generation.  Our primary demographic at Haven of Hope is individuals (both single and married) in their 20′s and 30′s.  We do have a wide variety of age groups and we do seek to reach ALL generations, but we are thankful that we are being a light to our generation. 

- Individuals who walked into Haven of Hope as athiests have left having professed a belief in Jesus Christ and submitting to His Lordship!  We watched them as tears rolled down their cheeks and they enjoyed the presence of God.  They felt something that they can no longer deny!

- People have been baptized!  Please pray that we will have our own building someday.  Right now, when we do baptisms, it’s like a Holy Ghost drive by as we run into the Best Western, dunk ‘em, and then pretend to swim!  :)

- Multiple healings and deliverances!  Here is a partial list of the giants that have been falling: back pain, neck pain, depression, fear, anger, pornography & lust, etc.

- Each week, we declare things about the Kingdom of God coming into various areas of our lives and the Northeast region.  Jobs, raises, bonuses, favor with our bosses, signs and wonders, supernatural power, etc.  People have been laid off and hired back by their old company only 4 weeks later making more money than they were before (that one was me!), people have moved from various states and God blessed them with jobs here, we’ve seen breakthrough in the Boston Metrowest economy, etc.

This is only the beginning!  There is a passionate generation rising up at Haven of Hope that are not satisified with status quo.  We are seeking to be Ambassadors that will bring the Kingdom of God to earth in our circles of influence.

In the future, we’ll do a better job of keeping folks updated about what God is doing here.

Be encouraged and join with us in prayer that God will continue to show up in crazy, extravagant ways at Haven of Hope.

God bless!!

Matthew Legere

P.S. This blog post can also be found at http://www.champ.org/blogs.html courtesy of Dr. Wendell Hutchins of Church of Champions in Texas.

Haven of Hope – Weekly Devotional (Week of 12/07/2008)

Posted on by mattlegere

Each week, I post what the devotional that was used on the back of our Church Bulletin at Haven of Hope.  However, this week, this post would be the first time that anyone at Haven of Hope will end up seeing it because I forgot to print the backside of the Church Bulletin this week!  Oops!

Acts 17:28 “For in Him, we live, we move, and have our being…..for we are His offspring.”

 

I have been thinking about Acts 17:28 for the last few weeks.  That verse states, “For in him we live and move and have our being.” I have been mindful lately that I am totally dependent on God, sort of like a fish in water.  I doubt if a fish has to think (if a fish could even think) about being in the water.  I would suppose that a fish could even take being in the water for granted. 

 

But have you ever seen a fish out of water?  They thrash about, their gills desperately seeking the water from which they derive their existence.  If they can’t get back into the water, after a while they just die.  That is how I am in relationship to the Lord.  But sometimes I can forget that truth.

 

The verse says that we live, move and have our being.  There can be no better expression of our total dependence on God.  I think the psalmist understood this dependence as well when he wrote, “My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:15).   ~~  John Stanko

 

Quote:

 

Since you can’t imagine a place where He isn’t, you might as well imagine Him with you”

~~ Bill Johnson

I pray that this blesses you!

Sunday Reflections @ Haven of Hope (Week of 11/30/2008)

Posted on by mattlegere

Today, we had a lot of new faces at Haven of Hope!  It was great to have an opportunity to see people experience the presence of God!  We had 9 new guests and we were thankful for everyone one of them!  This week, Pastor Robidas brought us a message about the prodigal son!

  • The songs that we did for worship service were “Salvation is here”, “From the inside out”, “Healer”, “When I think about the Lord”, and more…
  • Pastor Robidas reminded us that there is nothing that we could do (good or bad) to change the level of love that the Father has for us….nothing!
  • Even though the prodigal son left the father and, through his actions, told him that he wished he were dead, the father never replaced his place at the table…..Thank You Jesus!
  • No matter how far you are from God or what you’ve done to grieve His heart, you still have your place at the table!!
  • We have a warped view of coming back to God.  We look at stuff in our life and we say “I need to stop doing this, this, and this before I can come back to God”.
  • What God wants is for us to come back to Him AS WE ARE and then He will give us the power to overcome the stuff in our life that we want victory over.
  • Come back to God!  No “if’s”, “and’s”, or “but’s”….He wants you back!
  • I love Haven of Hope and what God is doing here!

Haven of Hope – Weekly Devotional (Week of 11/30/2008)

Posted on by mattlegere

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruise” 

 

God is in the restoration business!  This Scripture is amazing because it is the words of Jesus Himself describing what the purpose was for the anointing resting on Him.  Every one of us can find ourselves in the areas of focus that Jesus mentions.  However, for today let’s look at one aspect of His declaration.

 

“to preach…recovering of sight to the blind”

 

Have you ever met a person who was completely blind and didn’t know it?  Yeah, I haven’t either.  Most people who are completely blind know it.  However, I can remember thinking that I could see just fine and then, once I put on a pair of glasses for the first time, it was then that I realized just how bad my eyesight was. 

 

Spiritually speaking, there are some of us who know that we are completely blinded to spiritual things and we need Jesus to restore our sight so that we can find Him.

 

There may be others of us here today who may not realize just how bad our eyesight is.  We think to ourselves “I have a church background”, “I’ve accepted Christ as my Savior in the past”, “I know about Jesus”, etc.  However, I would challenge you to give Jesus an opportunity to restore your sight and bring you to even greater levels of understanding.

 

As you journey closer to God, you will keep finding more and more amazing things.  Then, just when you think it can’t get any better, He outdoes Himself again and you find yourself in yet another amazing journey of revelation, breakthrough, and deliverance.  Let Jesus restore your sight so you can see Him truly as He is!

 

 

Sunday Reflections @ Haven of Hope (Week of 11/23/2008)

Posted on by mattlegere

Today, I had the amazing opportunity to minister at Haven of Hope!  I never take that lightly.  When we come to church on Sunday, we call it “Encounter” vs. “service”.  We do this because everytime we come to church we expect an encounter with God and want to walk in there every week with that that expectation.

§          Had a great worship service.  Enjoyed songs like “Again I say rejoice”, “Only One for Me”, “Healer”, “Desert Song”, and “All for love”

§          The bridge to “Healer” rocks!  “Nothing is impossible with you…you hold my world in Your hands!

§          The bridge to “Desert Song” ALSO rocks!  “All of my life..in every season..you are still God…I have a reason to sing…I have a reason to worship!!”

§          Had a visitor there who really felt the presence of God

§          I preached about how thanksgiving 1) deepens your intimacy with God, 2) opens up a pathway for you to experience the supernatural power of God, and 3) disarms hell!

§          I need to read that last one again: Your thanksgiving disarms hell!!  Whoohoo!!

§          Thanksgiving is not about goosebumps and it’s not about only being thankful when we feel like it.  It’s an act of our will through obedience to God’s will. 

§          This action puts us in agreement with God and His will for us. That agreement is what attracts the strength and reality of Heaven into our lives and circumstances.

§          Thus heaven’s reality becomes earth’s reality. Thanksgiving agrees with heaven by acknowledging the truth that our lives are a gift from God, and that He is sovereign over all.

§          Thanksgiving is an activity that draws our focus to Heaven so that we can agree with what is true, no matter what we feel or perceive with our physical senses and emotions.

§          Thankful means “full of thanks”.  If we are full of thanks, then we are not empty.  If we are not empty, then the enemy can’t make us feel as through we have nothing.  “Nothing” shall be impossible to them that believe.  This is more than activities or requests – the state of having nothing is impossible.

§          Can we thank God for the “partial”?  We all know that if the totality of His promises were completed in our life or our church, we’d go crazy!  How about when it is partially answered?  Can we pass this common test and be proven worthy by thanking God in everything – even partial victories?

§          Rejoice and be thankful for those that are in various stages of thanksgiving.

§          We owe it to our generation and the generations to come where being thankful is a lifestyle, where it’s our 1st response, where we model a life of thankfulness before God, where we remember the goodness of God (Psalms 145:4)

§          It’s the will of God that we be thankful – what more reason do we need

 

 

Haven of Hope – Weekly Devotional (Week of 11/23/2008)

Posted on by mattlegere

We are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27).  This is a profound teaching that means many things.  For example, it shows us that we, as God’s created people, like to be thanked and praised because that is how we are made.  God made us in His image.  He wants to be thanked and praised, and He made us to want praise and gratitude if only to send us a hint that He wants the same thing, too.  I might want you to thank me for something nice I did for you, and in the same way, God wants me to thank Him for the things that He has done for me. 

 

We need to be made conscious of how thankful we ought to be and to remind us to tell God how thankful we are.  I guarantee that thanksgiving has the potential to change our lives in a wonderful and permanent way. 

 

~~  R.T. Kendall

Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world?  It is not he who prays most or fasts most, it is not he who lives most, but it is he who is always thankful to God, who receives everything as an instance of God’s goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it.  ~~  William Law (1686-1761)

Haven of Hope Devotional – Week of November 16th, 2008

Posted on by mattlegere

Exodus 3:9-10 “Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.  Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

 

God always hears a cry for deliverance!  Here, early on in the Scriptures we read in Exodus that the Israelites were in bondage for about 400 years.  The very fact that they were in bondage was because of their sin against God.  However…(isn’t great when there’s a however!), God saw their oppression and heard their cry and he sent Moses to be their deliverer.

 

When it came to delivering his children, God pulled out all the stops.  He changed weather patterns, modified the behavior of animals, sent plagues, sent fire from heaven, etc. – He went all out!  His kids needed Him and He was VERY serious about getting their out of their bondage.  Through God’s help, Moses was able to free the slaves and God’s people eventually found their way to a Promised Land.

 

As happens many times, history has repeated itself.  Man has time and time again found new and interesting ways to sin against God.  As new cries for deliverance reached the throne, God decided that He was going to BECOME our deliverer!  He stepped down and became a man to undo the works of the devil and set us free.  Your cries for deliverance are important to God and they speak to the reason that He came to earth: To set at liberty those that were bound and restore that which was lost: The Kingdom of God and our citizenship in it!

~~  Matthew Legere

“D’oh!” Moment #2 – Wrong Sunday!

Posted on by mattlegere

One Sunday I was asked to preach for a church in Middletown, CT.  Because it was Pentecost Sunday, the entire theme of my message was about the Holy Spirit and how we can receive it today.  After the service, we went downstairs to have some lunch together and somehow (not sure if I read something or how I found out) I realized that Pentecost Sunday was actually the next Sunday. 

Oh well!  God still moved during the service and I guess every week can be Pentecost Sunday but I’m just thankful that I didn’t mess up on which Sunday was Easter.  That would have been unforgivable!  :)

Servant of a wicked cool God,

Matt Legere