The Way

The Way Church is now Christian Faith Center Middleton! We are so excited for what God has planned for the future. To stay in the loop on all the latest information and progress, please follow us on Facebook and instagram.
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Christian Faith Center We love people to life, a place where you’ll find the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of Jesus!

A long, long time ago, when I was just a little lad with wee little toothpick legs that couldn’t quite lift him up to a dining room table to squint at food, there was this place I went to visit about four times a month. Not… not went, I guess. Dragged would be more fitting, but that still counts….
It was called “New Beginnings,” this little building, a bit cheap, very small. It kind of had a storage facility feel…. There were mattresses stored on the walls, a hard floor in one very big room, and for fun I’d count the people who attended on my tiny fingers. About 7, I think it was… maybe 9.

A couple years passed.

Eventually the place was down to almost a fraction of a fraction, and the decision was made to rebrand into something different, try and revive what was dying, get a fire going from ashes, maybe pull in a few more people. As the pastor put it, she felt that God had told her “New Beginnings needs a new beginning” and so it was. All told, that came with a new building, a nice, hearty kind of log cabin, very homey, very rustic, and also a new name… The Way. The Way struggled for a time, but new people did eventually turn up. Soon enough there were more than I had fingers.

The next several years were spent in that cabin, probably a good 7 or 8… I honestly lost count. There have been weddings, parties, doubts, and dreams, always stretching a little past what the eyes can see on a bridge of faith, and we’ve never fallen off of that. In time it almost felt like a family, very welcoming, warm, and loving. Ask anyone (even today) and they tend to say the same….

The third phase of life came late, just about two years ago. We got the warning that our pastor was stepping down, that another would fill her shoes… which… would be hard. There was already kind of a lined-up star pupil, who… truthfully, never really left the running. Eventually that promise became prowess as she stepped up and, elected, took the podium to get things modernized. There was a new logo, amendments to our bylaws, more internet stuffs, Facebook, and the promise of streams, maybe, one day, as funds allowed…. On a personal note, I became part of the board! Huzzah! Official! It gave me a kind of behind-the-curtain look, more of a bird’s eye perspective now and again, before rejoining the flock. In hindsight it’s almost a little strange… but I kind of like things that way. The pastor settled well and was well-received. Things quickly fell into place. The future looked very bright. It really looked to be part of a new legacy, a lead-in to future steps further, and farther forward, but the news came recently that those steps were going to look a bit different.

The Way is no stranger to change. It never has been. Change is baked into the foundation. There is no tree without roots, no life without birth, no people without legacy (even footprints in the sand), and no branches without the central structure. Everything that is will eventually be something different, change, good, bad, but so it is. It’s just that that’s usually with the benefit of change moving slowly, steady, carefully. The way forward will be different this time. It’s sudden. We will be traveling the path forward as a great caravan, many new faces, many new ideas, a different tone, with a different kind of atmosphere, like a ballooning of what we have now into a more modern structure. There will be a similar benevolence with higher headcounts, heightened feelings, louder worship, and both more and less structure. Rather than an evolution, it’s more a metamorphosis, a merger with something different. We were walking the road to modernity before; now we will run it. That doesn’t make it bad, and doesn’t make it good, just different… like most change, but faster. I can’t emphasize that enough. There will be benefits, and with those benefits will come compromise. Just the same, God is still with us. Phase four is going to be one heck of a change…. A louder voice will reach more ears, but does cramp a little conversation. I’ll miss that.

What has been, has been great…. There are always flaws, but I enjoyed this time.

As a rule, I try to avoid breaking character. I talk under a banner; it’s the church, not the individual, at least that’s how I’ve always kind of seen it… like public relations. No “I”, no stories, but this is different. This is special. I feel a face is warranted here. And across these 7 to 14 years, I’ve been blessed to be one in this small, but very pleasant crowd. Good food, good people, good lessons… I’ve enjoyed my time here and, no matter where we go, that remains, all the lessons remain, and what memories were made will be etched into my roots as a person. Every road has its landmarks, and every place passed will ultimately fade away into memory. The impact they leave on you, though, that can be lasting. What’s done is done. What’s to be will be. Be it good. Be it different. Be it change…. Endings are always hard, and what’s coming will bring more memories, more positives, and more negatives, new landmarks on a new journey. No matter what happens, it’s been a pleasure to serve.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, God be with us all.

The years have been great. It’s time for a few new ones….

Much love,

- The Way's Facebook Manager Guy (aka David Clapp)

P.S. Happy Easter!

After the great success at Mt. Carmel and the end of two year’s drought, there was a metaphorical spear aimed specifically for Elijah in retaliation. The prophets of Baal were dead, the queen was mad, and that’s all very bad… at least, in the immediate, for survival. That sparked fear, and it was a fear that carried him far, far away, into the wilderness, and into a despairing stupor. It’s not the grandest of thrones for a newfound hero, but also a very common one….

We all fall down, from time to time.

Elijah was very human, and no matter what he did, or accomplished, that still remained. He made mistakes, felt fear, and after his greatest triumph ran into the wilderness before asking to die. God saw him through that, not only saw, but didn’t let him go. He reached out and, in time, recollected Elijah, just as he recollects many of us.

Faith is a hard thing in hard times. The roof is leaking, the bank is hemorrhaging, bad thoughts rule the day, and in times like that faith becomes something of a whisper in a cave. You hear it, you feel it, the challenge is believing in who else does.
This week we return to Elijah and his path paved with faith.

Among the prophets, Elijah was distinctive. Faithful, but sometimes easy to scare. Harsh, and very forward, but also could take a nudge to get going. He was the spitting image of a human being, flawed, but radiant in potential.
This week we’ll be starting a new series looking at Elijah, his faith, and what we can learn from it.

As a person, Jesus was someone with many distinct traits. Merciful, blunt, often harsh, but boundlessly wise and very candid, forgiving to an extreme while seeing everyone to the core, with no lack of understanding; he was a teacher and guide willing to die for everyone he was correcting. It’s a topic of much debate, but also something we can strive for, not a series of contradictions, but of greater purpose together with an awareness of the time and its standards while never bound by them. He was a piece of heaven brought down to us with all that that entails.
This week it’s the characteristics of Jesus, and how we can be more like him.

The wise men were following a star, just as most of us follow one of our own. It’s not always a good one. We follow desires, urges, callings, sometimes on detours and sometimes on pains, others for people, and even many on God’s call. Everyone has problems and everyone has strengths, just as everyone has desires and almost everyone has goals, but there’s no answer to everything except for the one God gave us. No matter which star we follow, all roads, eventually, lead to Jesus, be that in this life or after.

Snow is a set of tiny, glimmering little crystals, each with its own self-contained pattern. They come together first into a small sheet of frost and finally a blanket of ice like a plume of frozen wool, and this catches the light, blinding up close, but shining from afar like a heavenly lamp that lights up everything. Without the individual pieces in that puzzle, there's only cold air and barren ground.

Mary and Joseph had no idea what was coming, but God did. Even as the first pieces of something much, much bigger, God knew them personally.

Way, way back when, when the stars were younger and people slept behind more earthy walls, there were still problems and questions and worries. Taxes, drought, supplies, low finances, family; the “how” has changed a lot, and the details (a LOT), but not so much the core of what was needed or wanted. To change things, to make them better, we often need to solve these problems like puzzles. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t, but one of the first ingredients is hope… and that can be a puzzle all on its own.

It’s the holidays.

Whoo!

For our first part of a one-month special, we’ll be talking about when Zechariah and Elizabeth needed hope... and how God delivered.

This week we’re wrapping up Ephesians (and Sticky Church) with a review of one of Christianity’s most basic principles: that we are, in a sense, soldiers.
Once more, let's talk about that special set of armor....