This week is actually a request in our MusicMonday series. Have you heard the song Even So Come by Kristian Stanfill? The song contains a powerful image of the church. Let’s look at the words for a minute: Continue reading
Tag: Jesus (Page 65 of 68)
Wow! That’s a pretty powerful statement. I am a friend of God? But how can that be? How can I be His friend? Can an imperfect person like me be a friend to a God who I believe to be worthy of my worship? Is that even possible? This song is such a powerful statement for my life. Let’s think about it for a minute… Continue reading
Being a Monday morning it’s time for another song of the week. This one is a song that I really didn’t understand until I read the lyrics closely. The words are very easy to understand but maybe it’s because I only listen to the radio while driving with the sunroof open going down the highway. At any rate, I never really understood how powerful these lyrics were – then like a hero that takes a stage when we’re on the edge of our seats saying it’s too late well let me introduce you to amazing grace. Give it a listen here… Continue reading
While driving home from vacation a few weeks ago, I had the chance to listen to The Message on Sirius/XM. They were having one of their artist spotlights. As I listened to the story behind the song, I began to think that these songs all tell stories about our daily lives. For the next several weeks we’ll look at some of the more popular songs that tell a story about our day-to-day lives. Continue reading
The news media lately has been focusing so much on the recent SCOTUS ruling regarding same-sex unions that there seems to be an increase in negative reactions and even hatred flowing throughout our nation. What happened to the time when we could have a disagreement and deal with it through a healthy conversation? What happened to sitting down face to face and agreeing to disagree but still walking away friends, or at least not enemies? Continue reading
In the last post we dealt with bad 
choices
and the effects they have on us at the core of our day-to-day lives. These bad choices can ostracize us and make us feel unworthy. And if that weren’t bad enough, it’s often difficult to live on the other side of that bad choice. This difficulty is made worse because we continuously go backward fishing. Continue reading
The idea of chasing a storm may seem a bit strange. Storms can wreak havoc on entire communities. They can level cities and demolish landscapes. But there are people who will devote large portions of their lives to chasing down these storms and watching them. They do it so that they can learn more about them. Sure there’s a thrill of the hunt but for them there’s learning to do. Wind speeds, changes in direction, rainfall amounts, pressure changes are some of the things for which they look. Continue reading
Several months ago I read a book titled Joining Jesus on His Mission, by Greg Finke of Dwelling 1:14 Ministries. As I read the book, I realized that the stuff he was writing was stuff that I had always been teaching, just in a little different way. At first I had that why didn’t I write this book feeling, but after that subsided I began to see some possibilities and opportunities.
This began a several month planning session with my team at church. We all read the book and just about everyone said It can’t be that easy! But truth be told, it is just that easy. The long and short of the book is that the mission is not ours rather it belongs to Jesus. And the cool part is He just wants us to hang out with Him on His mission. Sounds a lot less scary now doesn’t it!
With some leadership buy-in, we decided to reach out to Greg and see if we could
host a training workshop at Living Word the church I am privileged to pastor. He was on the calendar and we were off to the races to make this the start of a movement in the congregation instead of a one weekend event. So we decided to launch a summer long party the day we wrapped up the training.
In the weeks leading up to the event, we had posters and fliers and even a few promo videos from members who have read the book. Then we started to look at follow-up for the event. How are we going to make this a movement and not just a one day event? Party was the answer! Everyone knows what a party is and the great thing is, party means something different to just about everyone. So we’ll help the congregation throw parties in their homes throughout the summer months in an effort to simply establish relationships with people where we live, work, and play.
Now here’s the hitch – there’s not catch to the parties. There’s no church t-shirts or bait and switch things happening here. It’s not a church party! It’s a party, gathering
of people where you happen to carry inside you all of the power of the risen Jesus. While you will not be leading a bible study or preaching anything at these parties. You will be on Jesus’ mission of redeeming and restoring the world unto himself. Pretty easy. Everyone likes food. Just about everyone likes to have fun. So why not put them together and have a little party?
It truly is that easy. Intentional missionaries strategically deployed around the community with the sole purpose of redeeming our community through relationships. Can’t get much easier than that! Want to join the fun and throw a party where you live, work, or play? Give us a shout and we’ll do what we can to help you get started!
Last week, I shared a book that I recently read titled Five Challenges for the Once and Future Church. The book was a quick read and offered good insight into some of the challenges that many churches are facing. While the book itself isn’t a newly published work, it does offer insight that can prove to be helpful as we navigate this new landscape of church in the 21st Century. Continue reading
The word love is just one
of those
words that has somehow lost its meaning over the years. We can love everything all at the same time but with different kinds of love. We’ve Hallmarked the word love to be flowery and well girly. Perhaps it’s time to take back the word love. Continue reading
