Several weeks ago I talked about not listening to the drips in your life. Don't listen to the individual voices of criticism that come into your life and try to do damage. Instead, listen to the beautiful rain of all the other voices of encouragement and support in your life.
But today, I want to encourage you to be a drip. What I mean is this: I often hear people say something along the lines of, "I'd like to do something about (fill in the blank), but I'm only one person. What can one person do? What difference can one person make?"
I confess, I feel this way sometimes, myself. Every year, when we go to Mexico at Christmas to give out blankets and supplies to people in need, I am encouraged by the great sacrifice people make to send blankets and go on the trip. I feel good about the fact that we are making a difference. But, inevitably, at some point in the trip, I am overcome by the immensity of the task. For all the people we are able to help, there are still thousands who we are unable to help.
I get that way when I think about the enormous task of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. There are currently somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 billion people in the world who are in unreached people groups. An unreached people group (UPG) is a group of people who share the same language and culture and among whom there are less than 2 Christians for every hundred people. What that means is, for people in a UPG, there is a really good chance that they will live and die without ever even having heard about Jesus unless something changes to give them access to the gospel. With so many billions of people needing Christ, how can I, one person do anything to significantly impact the lostness of the world?
I was confronted with this feeling of being overwhelmed a couple of weeks ago when I learned about child slave trafficking related to chocolate production. I realized that I have responsibility for the purchases I make each day. I was talking to our youth about this and about our need to consider the purchases we make and how those purchases impact other people's lives. One of the kids was insistent that there is nothing we can do. We are not responsible for what happens to other people in other parts of the world and what difference would it really make whether I stopped buying chocolate or not.
But we can make a difference. One drip may not make that big a difference, but put a whole lot of drips together and they create floods that can move mountains, create rivers, generate electricity. Your single drip, when joined together with others can make a difference. Don't give up because you think your one voice cannot make a difference. Throughout the Bible, God's justice is pictured as a mighty water. We can be the rushing torrent of God's justice making a difference in the world.
On any given Sunday in America, there are more people attending church than attend all professional sporting events in a year's time. What would happen if that force were set free, turned loose for God? What would happen if we let "justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24)? We have the ability to change the world, if we let our drips join together to form a flood of compassion and love and mercy and justice and righteousness.
What we think we can do and the difference we can make is often through the lenses of our own abilities and our own inabilities. But that has nothing to do with what God can do when we yield our lives to him. God doesn't ask us to make the difference. He just asks us to place our lives in his hands, at his disposal, and see what he can do with them.
One of my favorite stories in the New Testament is the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. It's been a long day. Five thousand men plus women and children have been gathered listening to Jesus teach all day. They are beginning to get hungry, and the disciples come and point this out to Jesus (Like he didn't know!). So Jesus says, "You feed them!" Jesus knows he is about to do something miraculous. Jesus could have just conjured food out of thin air. But he doesn't. He tells the disciples to feed them. Why? Because he wants them involved. He wants the offering of their lives. He wants them passing the food out to the hungry and needy in the crowd. He is going to do the miracle, but they are going to be the channel through which it takes place.
The disciples say it can't be done. The task is just too big. How can they do anything to feed this many people? And yet...they come to Jesus with what they've got. "Jesus, here's a little boy with his spiderman lunch box, and he's got some sardines and a few crackers. Haha. But what good are they among so many? Haha."
So Jesus takes that little boy's lunch and with it he feeds the entire crowd so that there are twelve basketfuls of leftovers (one for each of the disciples?). The disciples offer up the little bit they can come up with, thinking it won't be near enough, and God does a miracle. One other thing I am always impressed by in this story. Jesus does something incredible, that no one there would ever forget, but one little boy had to offer up his lunch. He gave the little he had, and God did something unbelievable with it. He was a drip.
So, I encourage you to be a drip. Whatever it is that God is calling you to, whatever the big, massive, overwhelming task that he is asking you to take on that will change people's lives and impact the world and extend the kingdom, whatever the thing that seems so big that there is no way you can do it, do it! Take on the challenge! Offer up the little bit that you've got and just see what God can do with it.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Don't Listen to the Drips
It's raining today in North Texas, just one of those slow, steady, all-day, beautiful rain showers. It is so incredibly relaxing listening to the rain as it falls to the ground outside my window where I am working.
I love the sound of a good summer rainstorm. But I hate the sound of a single drip. You know the sound. Like a leaky faucet with a steady drip that slowly pounds its way into your brain until the only sound you can hear is that drip....drip....drip...drip...drip. Somehow, the individual little drips drown out everything else. You cannot focus on anything other that the sound of the drips.
Funny how the individual drips can be so annoying, so aggravating, so contentious, while lots of drips together can be soothing, relaxing, and refreshing. It's all about focus. Do you focus on the sound of the single drip or the melody of all the drops of rain together.
The people in our lives, and the voices we allow to speak into our lives are often like those drips. The Bible says that a nagging wife annoys like a constant dripping (Prov. 19:13). Really, I think you can extend that verse to other voices of criticism in our lives. The critics, the naysayers, the discouragers, and complainers in our lives are like a constantly dripping faucet. They continue to hound us, continue to make their voice heard, continue to drip...drip...drip...drip...drip. They wear us down. They cause us to be distracted, discouraged, and frustrated. They demand our attention. And pretty soon, all we hear is the sound of the drips. Our focus gets off of other, more important things because we are so annoyed and overcome by the dripping.
But there are a lot of other voices in our lives. People who love us and encourage us and support us. People who speak words of love and affirmation into our lives. People who instruct us, challenge us, inspire us, pray for us. People whose drips do not annoy us, but who come together to form a beautiful symphony of raindrops that are relaxing, soothing, supportive, encouraging.
Really, we have a choice in life. Will we focus on the drips, the few individual voices that when heard alone, listened to in isolation, can annoy and even destroy us? Will we give more attention to the few voices of criticism? Or will we make the choice to listen to the beautiful symphony of raindrops God gives us in life? Will we choose to focus on the sound of applauding raindrops in our life?
I know I have been guilty of doing the former often in my life. In fact, it is one of my greatest weaknesses. I listen to the individual drops, focusing on the annoying voices of a couple of individuals, instead of listening to the crowd who cheers me on. But I would much rather listen to the rain. So that is what I am going to do. Focus on the beauty of the many instead of the sometimes annoyance of the few.
Don't listen to the drips in your life. Listen to the beautiful rain that God brings into our lives.
I love the sound of a good summer rainstorm. But I hate the sound of a single drip. You know the sound. Like a leaky faucet with a steady drip that slowly pounds its way into your brain until the only sound you can hear is that drip....drip....drip...drip...drip. Somehow, the individual little drips drown out everything else. You cannot focus on anything other that the sound of the drips.
Funny how the individual drips can be so annoying, so aggravating, so contentious, while lots of drips together can be soothing, relaxing, and refreshing. It's all about focus. Do you focus on the sound of the single drip or the melody of all the drops of rain together.
The people in our lives, and the voices we allow to speak into our lives are often like those drips. The Bible says that a nagging wife annoys like a constant dripping (Prov. 19:13). Really, I think you can extend that verse to other voices of criticism in our lives. The critics, the naysayers, the discouragers, and complainers in our lives are like a constantly dripping faucet. They continue to hound us, continue to make their voice heard, continue to drip...drip...drip...drip...drip. They wear us down. They cause us to be distracted, discouraged, and frustrated. They demand our attention. And pretty soon, all we hear is the sound of the drips. Our focus gets off of other, more important things because we are so annoyed and overcome by the dripping.
But there are a lot of other voices in our lives. People who love us and encourage us and support us. People who speak words of love and affirmation into our lives. People who instruct us, challenge us, inspire us, pray for us. People whose drips do not annoy us, but who come together to form a beautiful symphony of raindrops that are relaxing, soothing, supportive, encouraging.
Really, we have a choice in life. Will we focus on the drips, the few individual voices that when heard alone, listened to in isolation, can annoy and even destroy us? Will we give more attention to the few voices of criticism? Or will we make the choice to listen to the beautiful symphony of raindrops God gives us in life? Will we choose to focus on the sound of applauding raindrops in our life?
I know I have been guilty of doing the former often in my life. In fact, it is one of my greatest weaknesses. I listen to the individual drops, focusing on the annoying voices of a couple of individuals, instead of listening to the crowd who cheers me on. But I would much rather listen to the rain. So that is what I am going to do. Focus on the beauty of the many instead of the sometimes annoyance of the few.
Don't listen to the drips in your life. Listen to the beautiful rain that God brings into our lives.
Monday Morning Update
Yet another amazing weekend at The Crossroads. This is supposed to be the time of year when attendance dips, and church growth really is not substantial. People are gone on vacation, spending time at the lake, doing things with their family. It's hot, and people just like sleeping in during the summer months. So, typically, in church life, you just try to survive through the summer.
That seemed like it was going to be the pattern for us during the month of June. Attendance took a dip, and it was kind of discouraging. But something has happened during July. We kicked off a new message series called "God at the Movies" in which we are exploring blockbuster movies from this summer and seeing the greater story of God's love written in them. We have done a couple of block parties in the community and gave away helium balloons at the city's 4th of July celebration.
So, I don't know if those things are an explanation, but for some reason our attendance has taken off in July. In fact, it's the highest average attendance we've had for any month so far. We baptized four people this month, and have at least one more coming up next week. We are really excited, but this definitely represents a challenge for us. Looks like we will have to be moving into a new meeting space very soon. Please pray for us. This will represent a significant increase in our costs. We need at least ten people to commit to giving $200 a month to cover the cost of new facilities. We would love for you to partner with us in this way.
My wife did an awesome job with her Monday Morning Update, so I'm just going to modify it to give you the rest of the details on this weekend. Saturday we did another movie night/block party. This time we used Slater Creek Park, the local city park. It's new and a great location, but we had a very low attendance at this movie night. In our evaluation we came up with a few possibilities. 1. The park is not easily visible from the highway - no drive-by stoppers. 2. Have to do more marketing if we use the park - We advertised on a mailer that primarily focused on the sermon series. In communities, it is a lot easier to gather a crowd. Not so much so in the city park. In the future, if we do stuff in the park, we will be sure to get something in the newspaper. 3. It was one of the hottest days we have had in quite a while. However, we enjoyed meeting the people who turned out for the event and are already planning and looking forward to one more summer block party in August. We will be collecting school supplies to give away in a needy community at that block party.
Our Sunday worship celebration was really incredible. Robby and the band did a great job leading us. We had a new drummer sit in with us, and he did a really good job. We also had our bass player back with us this week. He's been out a lot this summer as he has been working at a church camp. It was great to have him back.
For the message, today's movie in "God at the Movies" was Terminator: Salvation. The movie is an illustration of sacrifice, and second chances. I talked about how to make your life count and pointed out that the answer to that question both in Terminator and in the Bible is sacrifice. The way to meaning in life is giving your life away for God and giving your life away for other people. The message will soon be online at www.welcometothecrossroads.com Be sure to download and listen to it soon.
We had several new families stop by to check us out. One of the coolest stories is that a lady who had never been to church - ever in her 41 years- came. And loved it.... wept through the whole service. A couple of our ladies got to spend some time sharing with her and praying for her after the service. It is so beautiful to see God at work. We also had the opportunity to pray over a new believer in our congregation who will be leaving tomorrow for basic training for the army. We have another baptism coming up August 2. I love this part of church planting - seeing God drastically and dramatically change people's lives.
Continue praying for a meeting place for us. We are in immediate need of space. We are now consistently running about 20 in children's church. We do not have space for them inside. Meeting outside with them works as long as it doesn't rain. When colder weather arrives, we will have to be in a larger space. Please pray for our workers. As we grow, we will have to pull in more workers and right now we are pretty maxed out on volunteers. Pray that those of us who volunteer will be very flexible during this time of growth. We need grace for the journey as we work with children who have not been to church before. We want to provide opportunities for them to hear about Jesus and learn how He can become their Savior. Pray that we will never lose sight of why we do what we do in children's.
Also pray that we will be able to increase Robby's salary. Our goal is to eventually bring him on as a full-time staff member. Every week many of you read about the incredible job he is doing with The Crossroads. What you may not be aware of is that he works a full time job in Dallas to support his family. We would love to be able to bring Robby on full time, but we need several more monthly sponsors in order to do that. If you are not currently giving, please pray about helping us meet this goal. Feel free to share this need with others in your congregations who are praying for us so that they will ask the God of the universe to meet this need abundantly.
That seemed like it was going to be the pattern for us during the month of June. Attendance took a dip, and it was kind of discouraging. But something has happened during July. We kicked off a new message series called "God at the Movies" in which we are exploring blockbuster movies from this summer and seeing the greater story of God's love written in them. We have done a couple of block parties in the community and gave away helium balloons at the city's 4th of July celebration.
So, I don't know if those things are an explanation, but for some reason our attendance has taken off in July. In fact, it's the highest average attendance we've had for any month so far. We baptized four people this month, and have at least one more coming up next week. We are really excited, but this definitely represents a challenge for us. Looks like we will have to be moving into a new meeting space very soon. Please pray for us. This will represent a significant increase in our costs. We need at least ten people to commit to giving $200 a month to cover the cost of new facilities. We would love for you to partner with us in this way.
My wife did an awesome job with her Monday Morning Update, so I'm just going to modify it to give you the rest of the details on this weekend. Saturday we did another movie night/block party. This time we used Slater Creek Park, the local city park. It's new and a great location, but we had a very low attendance at this movie night. In our evaluation we came up with a few possibilities. 1. The park is not easily visible from the highway - no drive-by stoppers. 2. Have to do more marketing if we use the park - We advertised on a mailer that primarily focused on the sermon series. In communities, it is a lot easier to gather a crowd. Not so much so in the city park. In the future, if we do stuff in the park, we will be sure to get something in the newspaper. 3. It was one of the hottest days we have had in quite a while. However, we enjoyed meeting the people who turned out for the event and are already planning and looking forward to one more summer block party in August. We will be collecting school supplies to give away in a needy community at that block party.
Our Sunday worship celebration was really incredible. Robby and the band did a great job leading us. We had a new drummer sit in with us, and he did a really good job. We also had our bass player back with us this week. He's been out a lot this summer as he has been working at a church camp. It was great to have him back.
For the message, today's movie in "God at the Movies" was Terminator: Salvation. The movie is an illustration of sacrifice, and second chances. I talked about how to make your life count and pointed out that the answer to that question both in Terminator and in the Bible is sacrifice. The way to meaning in life is giving your life away for God and giving your life away for other people. The message will soon be online at www.welcometothecrossroads.com Be sure to download and listen to it soon.
We had several new families stop by to check us out. One of the coolest stories is that a lady who had never been to church - ever in her 41 years- came. And loved it.... wept through the whole service. A couple of our ladies got to spend some time sharing with her and praying for her after the service. It is so beautiful to see God at work. We also had the opportunity to pray over a new believer in our congregation who will be leaving tomorrow for basic training for the army. We have another baptism coming up August 2. I love this part of church planting - seeing God drastically and dramatically change people's lives.
Continue praying for a meeting place for us. We are in immediate need of space. We are now consistently running about 20 in children's church. We do not have space for them inside. Meeting outside with them works as long as it doesn't rain. When colder weather arrives, we will have to be in a larger space. Please pray for our workers. As we grow, we will have to pull in more workers and right now we are pretty maxed out on volunteers. Pray that those of us who volunteer will be very flexible during this time of growth. We need grace for the journey as we work with children who have not been to church before. We want to provide opportunities for them to hear about Jesus and learn how He can become their Savior. Pray that we will never lose sight of why we do what we do in children's.
Also pray that we will be able to increase Robby's salary. Our goal is to eventually bring him on as a full-time staff member. Every week many of you read about the incredible job he is doing with The Crossroads. What you may not be aware of is that he works a full time job in Dallas to support his family. We would love to be able to bring Robby on full time, but we need several more monthly sponsors in order to do that. If you are not currently giving, please pray about helping us meet this goal. Feel free to share this need with others in your congregations who are praying for us so that they will ask the God of the universe to meet this need abundantly.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Apollo 11 and My iPhone - Potential
So, yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, an amazing moment in the history of the United States, marking the fulfillment of one of JFK's promises in his inaugural address and a significant statement about U.S. progress as opposed to the Soviet Union. Not to mention, it was an incredible feat of human daring do and ingenuity.
Something I heard on the radio about the landing caught my attention. Apparently the computers inside most of our cell phones today are more powerful than the computer used to send Apollo 11 to the moon. Seriously? And what do I use my phone for? Playing Star Wars the Force Unleashed? Checking my Facebook? Updating my Twitter status? Certainly nothing near as incredible as sending men to the moon.
Now, don't get me wrong. My iPhone is an important tool in my life and my ministry. Some of the significant things I am able to do in fulfilling my God-given mission in life happen because of that phone. I keep track of my schedule, my to do lists, organizing events, making contact with guests, setting up appointments. All of my contacts' phone numbers, addresses, and emails are in that phone. I use it to give me directions to places I need to go. I use it to keep connected with friends, family, and people in my community. I keep people posted about things that are happening in my life so they feel connected to their pastor. I use it for studying for my sermons while I am on the go, having my quiet time with my wife in the mornings, and keeping track of ideas that God is giving me for the church, my blog, messages, etc. All of those are important tasks, and my iPhone really is a tool that I use for ministry.
But sending someone to the moon? Not hardly. Locked inside that little iPhone in my hand is the potential to send someone to the moon. I think I hardly ever really put it to the limits of what it is capable of doing. I have found the same thing to be true about my life all so often. Locked inside of me is the potential to do some incredible things, to unleash the power of God's Spirit in my life and the lives of the people around me, to truly make a difference in the world, to boldly go where no one has gone before. But too often my life is consumed with the ordinary. I'm messing with apps on my iPhone, watching some pointless television show, figuring out how I can keep up with the Joneses (and I live in Texas, so the Joneses have a lot to keep up with), or a host of other things that really aren't spending my life to its fullest potential.
You see, God says that his goal for every Christ-follower is for us to become just like his son (Rom. 8:28). Jesus even said, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father" (Jn. 14:12). Seriously? I honestly cannot think of a time in my life where I have done anything even remotely close to the things Jesus did. Apparently I have within me somewhere the potential to do the things that Jesus did and even more. Now think about that for just a minute. What did Jesus do? He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, caused the lame to walk, raised the dead, walked on water, fed crowds of thousands with a can of sardines and some crackers, walked on water, calmed storms, cast out demons, loved the unlovely, comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable, hung out with the worst sorts of sinners, died on a cross for the sins of the world, came back from the dead defeating death and the grave and kicking the devil in the nuts in the process, and he did all that by the time he was in his mid-thirties. "He will do even greater things than these." Really?
It's like Jesus is the Apollo 11 lunar lander and I am the iPhone. I don't know that in this life I will ever live up to my potential, but I'd like to live a little closer to it. Here's the trick. It's not about me trying harder, striving more. The potential is already there inside of me. And that potential is the power of Christ living through me. The only way I can even come close to approaching my potential is as I allow Christ to live in and through me. And I want to do a better job of that. I want more of the power that raised Christ from the dead living through me and less of the power that put a Facebook app on the iPhone living through me.
Something I heard on the radio about the landing caught my attention. Apparently the computers inside most of our cell phones today are more powerful than the computer used to send Apollo 11 to the moon. Seriously? And what do I use my phone for? Playing Star Wars the Force Unleashed? Checking my Facebook? Updating my Twitter status? Certainly nothing near as incredible as sending men to the moon.
Now, don't get me wrong. My iPhone is an important tool in my life and my ministry. Some of the significant things I am able to do in fulfilling my God-given mission in life happen because of that phone. I keep track of my schedule, my to do lists, organizing events, making contact with guests, setting up appointments. All of my contacts' phone numbers, addresses, and emails are in that phone. I use it to give me directions to places I need to go. I use it to keep connected with friends, family, and people in my community. I keep people posted about things that are happening in my life so they feel connected to their pastor. I use it for studying for my sermons while I am on the go, having my quiet time with my wife in the mornings, and keeping track of ideas that God is giving me for the church, my blog, messages, etc. All of those are important tasks, and my iPhone really is a tool that I use for ministry.
But sending someone to the moon? Not hardly. Locked inside that little iPhone in my hand is the potential to send someone to the moon. I think I hardly ever really put it to the limits of what it is capable of doing. I have found the same thing to be true about my life all so often. Locked inside of me is the potential to do some incredible things, to unleash the power of God's Spirit in my life and the lives of the people around me, to truly make a difference in the world, to boldly go where no one has gone before. But too often my life is consumed with the ordinary. I'm messing with apps on my iPhone, watching some pointless television show, figuring out how I can keep up with the Joneses (and I live in Texas, so the Joneses have a lot to keep up with), or a host of other things that really aren't spending my life to its fullest potential.
You see, God says that his goal for every Christ-follower is for us to become just like his son (Rom. 8:28). Jesus even said, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father" (Jn. 14:12). Seriously? I honestly cannot think of a time in my life where I have done anything even remotely close to the things Jesus did. Apparently I have within me somewhere the potential to do the things that Jesus did and even more. Now think about that for just a minute. What did Jesus do? He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, caused the lame to walk, raised the dead, walked on water, fed crowds of thousands with a can of sardines and some crackers, walked on water, calmed storms, cast out demons, loved the unlovely, comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable, hung out with the worst sorts of sinners, died on a cross for the sins of the world, came back from the dead defeating death and the grave and kicking the devil in the nuts in the process, and he did all that by the time he was in his mid-thirties. "He will do even greater things than these." Really?
It's like Jesus is the Apollo 11 lunar lander and I am the iPhone. I don't know that in this life I will ever live up to my potential, but I'd like to live a little closer to it. Here's the trick. It's not about me trying harder, striving more. The potential is already there inside of me. And that potential is the power of Christ living through me. The only way I can even come close to approaching my potential is as I allow Christ to live in and through me. And I want to do a better job of that. I want more of the power that raised Christ from the dead living through me and less of the power that put a Facebook app on the iPhone living through me.
Monday Morning Update
Maybe I should change the name of this column to "Whenever I Happen to Get around to Getting It Done Update." Seems like I never can get around to actually getting this thing out on Monday morning.
Oh well, yesterday was another incredible day at The Crossroads. We went in on Saturday evening this week to get the truck unloaded in hopes that not having the doors to the cheer gym open on Sunday morning would help with cooling. No such luck. It was still HOT by the time we got through.
The amazing thing is that now that we are in the peak of summer heat, our attendance has hit all time highs. We had 77 people in attendance this weekend. We are growing to the point that we requested one of our sponsor churches to buy us some new chairs this week. Continue to pray for God to provide us with a new meeting place before we outgrow our current meeting space.
We started a new message series this week called "God at the Movies" in which we are exploring the greatest story, the story of God's purpose and plan, as it is reflected in some of the biggest blockbuster movies this summer. This week we started with Star Trek and talked about fulfilling your destiny. It was a tough message to preach. The notion that we have a destiny, that there are certain things that are determined in our lives, particularly that our relationship with Christ comes from God's predestination of certain people to salvation is not especially popular. I tried to introduce the subject in a manner that was easily understandable and just began to open the subject for people. It's really important for people to grasp that life is not an accident, and that God is working out his purpose in our lives for his glory.
During the service, we presented a check for $5,000 to another church plant to use for purchasing a truck for moving their equipment. It is our commitment to be involved in helping plant at least one church a year. This is the first time that we have done this. We are excited that in our first year as a church plant, we are already involved in spreading the kingdom by helping to plant another church.
Robby and the band did an incredible job this week. We had been without our guitarist for the last two weeks. Having him back really gave us that extra something. Our people were really engaged in worship. Another high from the service was that one person made a decision for Christ, and another one rededicated their life to Christ. It was an awesome service.
Then, in the evening, LaRissa and I got to go with three friends to see Terminator:Salvation again. This is the movie that we will be looking at next week, and I wanted to see it again so I could have a better understanding of some of the storyline. We were blessed to have a really good friend watch all of our kids so we could go. I look forward to talking about how to make your life count.
Oh well, yesterday was another incredible day at The Crossroads. We went in on Saturday evening this week to get the truck unloaded in hopes that not having the doors to the cheer gym open on Sunday morning would help with cooling. No such luck. It was still HOT by the time we got through.
The amazing thing is that now that we are in the peak of summer heat, our attendance has hit all time highs. We had 77 people in attendance this weekend. We are growing to the point that we requested one of our sponsor churches to buy us some new chairs this week. Continue to pray for God to provide us with a new meeting place before we outgrow our current meeting space.
We started a new message series this week called "God at the Movies" in which we are exploring the greatest story, the story of God's purpose and plan, as it is reflected in some of the biggest blockbuster movies this summer. This week we started with Star Trek and talked about fulfilling your destiny. It was a tough message to preach. The notion that we have a destiny, that there are certain things that are determined in our lives, particularly that our relationship with Christ comes from God's predestination of certain people to salvation is not especially popular. I tried to introduce the subject in a manner that was easily understandable and just began to open the subject for people. It's really important for people to grasp that life is not an accident, and that God is working out his purpose in our lives for his glory.
During the service, we presented a check for $5,000 to another church plant to use for purchasing a truck for moving their equipment. It is our commitment to be involved in helping plant at least one church a year. This is the first time that we have done this. We are excited that in our first year as a church plant, we are already involved in spreading the kingdom by helping to plant another church.
Robby and the band did an incredible job this week. We had been without our guitarist for the last two weeks. Having him back really gave us that extra something. Our people were really engaged in worship. Another high from the service was that one person made a decision for Christ, and another one rededicated their life to Christ. It was an awesome service.
Then, in the evening, LaRissa and I got to go with three friends to see Terminator:Salvation again. This is the movie that we will be looking at next week, and I wanted to see it again so I could have a better understanding of some of the storyline. We were blessed to have a really good friend watch all of our kids so we could go. I look forward to talking about how to make your life count.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
God's Travel Agent
On Monday, LaRissa and I, along with our friends Mark and Bridgette, had an exciting meeting that represents a significant next step toward the vision of The Crossroads. We met with God's Travel Agent, Tiffany Smith. Okay, that's not really her title. Officially, she is "Missions Mobilization Associate" for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Her responsibilities encompass learning about missions efforts around the world, identifying needs, connecting with missionaries, and mobilizing mission teams from within the state of Texas to go all over the world to carry out the Great Commission. Tiffany is also passionate about what she does, and she has an infectious joy that spills over to others. Our wonderful, mission-minded, team of believers at The Crossroads have fallen in love with Tiffany and affectionately gave her the nickname "God's Travel Agent" because that really is what she does.
One of the central elements of the vision of The Crossroads is a passion for taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, for significantly impacting the world for the kingdom, and for seeing the fulfilment of the Great Commission in our lifetime. One of the pieces of that is identifying an unreached or unengaged people group (UPG or UEG) and adopting them as our own as a church. Now, for definitions. An unreached people group is a people group (group of people who share the same culture and same language) in which less than 2% of the population is Christian. An unengaged people group is a people group in which there are no Christians. For most of these people groups, they do not have the bible in their language and do not have a sustainable Christian movement. To make it easier to understand, if you live in one of these people groups, there is a great likelihood that you will be born, live your life, and die without ever even hearing the name of Jesus Christ. The task of fulfilling the Great Commission is really about penetrating these groups with the gospel.
So, the missions strategy for The Crossroads involves more than just taking sporadic mission trips to different parts of the world and feeling good about doing something. We want to be much more strategic. Our vision is to identify and adopt an unreached people group that we will do everything we can to reach that people group with the gospel and be a part of creating a sustainable church planting movement within that people group.
Our meeting with Tiffany was the first step in that process. We met with Tiffany to learn about how we can discover UPGs and UEGs, learn more about them, and begin the process of identifying which people group we will adopt as our own. We also talked to her about what adopting a people group would actually mean in terms of what we do, how to connect with a missionary who is trying to reach a UPG or UEG, and how we financially support people who are willing to go on mission.
This is just the beginning of the process, but it is an exciting start. We are so thankful for a great resource like Tiffany and for a church with a passion for reaching the world for Christ. We are truly blessed as a church because we are already light years ahead of where most churches are at this point.
One of the central elements of the vision of The Crossroads is a passion for taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, for significantly impacting the world for the kingdom, and for seeing the fulfilment of the Great Commission in our lifetime. One of the pieces of that is identifying an unreached or unengaged people group (UPG or UEG) and adopting them as our own as a church. Now, for definitions. An unreached people group is a people group (group of people who share the same culture and same language) in which less than 2% of the population is Christian. An unengaged people group is a people group in which there are no Christians. For most of these people groups, they do not have the bible in their language and do not have a sustainable Christian movement. To make it easier to understand, if you live in one of these people groups, there is a great likelihood that you will be born, live your life, and die without ever even hearing the name of Jesus Christ. The task of fulfilling the Great Commission is really about penetrating these groups with the gospel.
So, the missions strategy for The Crossroads involves more than just taking sporadic mission trips to different parts of the world and feeling good about doing something. We want to be much more strategic. Our vision is to identify and adopt an unreached people group that we will do everything we can to reach that people group with the gospel and be a part of creating a sustainable church planting movement within that people group.
Our meeting with Tiffany was the first step in that process. We met with Tiffany to learn about how we can discover UPGs and UEGs, learn more about them, and begin the process of identifying which people group we will adopt as our own. We also talked to her about what adopting a people group would actually mean in terms of what we do, how to connect with a missionary who is trying to reach a UPG or UEG, and how we financially support people who are willing to go on mission.
This is just the beginning of the process, but it is an exciting start. We are so thankful for a great resource like Tiffany and for a church with a passion for reaching the world for Christ. We are truly blessed as a church because we are already light years ahead of where most churches are at this point.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday Morning Update
Wow, another incredible weekend at The Crossroads. On Friday evening, several of us got together and canvassed a neighborhood passing out fliers about our family movie night coming up on Saturday.
The movie night is something we discovered last summer as a fun and successful outreach to families in Anna. Some of the needs we have heard expressed from people about Anna are: there isn't really a sense of community, people don't know their neighbors, and there's nothing for families to do. So, we found that putting on a movie for families is a great way to meet these needs.
We have a twelve foot, inflatable movie screen that we set up outdoors. We also serve popcorn, drinks, and movie candy, and we set up a bounce house for the kids to play in, all this under the stars on a hot Texas evening. People really dig getting out with their families to watch the movie. This time, my awesome, beautiful, and super intelligent wife came up with the idea of showing "The Wizard of Oz." It was perfect. Many of the parents are the right age to remember when The Wizard of Oz came on television once a year, and families gathered to watch it. Many of their children, in turn, have never seen it. So, with one movie, we got children, parents, and grandparents out to watch a movie. We had about 100 people turn out for the event, and had a really amazing time.
Our team did an awesome job, as always, meeting people and serving the community.
Then, on Sunday, we geared up for another hot Sunday in the cheer gym. Middle of the summer, and we had almost 75 people in attendance. Awesome! This week, in lieu of the typical Sunday sermon, I did a thing called "The Hot Seat." I sat on a stool, and people submitted questions about life, God, and the Bible. They could ask questions vocally, by writing them out, or by twittering questions to us. We posted each of these on the screen, and I answered them as they came in. It's always fun for me, and people really tend to enjoy it.
I did discover, however, that this exercise is a little more difficult now that I am in a new church plant reaching people who haven't been plugged in to church. My answers had to be a little bit longer because I could not automatically assume that people knew the Bible stories. I'm not sure I was entirely successful with that. I will have to work on that a little more in the future. On the other hand, it is a good way to expose people to an awful lot of bible teaching/doctrine/scripture in one setting.
This was a different experience, too, from when I have done it in the past because of the nature of the questions. In traditional church, the questions often tended to focus on matters of Bible trivia, minutiae of biblical knowledge, or apologetic (defending the faith) types of questions. In the church plant setting, however, the questions tended more toward questions about dealing with life and struggles with faith and being a Christian. I thought that was very cool. It shows we really are impacting people right where they are living. Anyhow, it was a lot of fun, and made for a great service. The podcast will be up at www.welcometothecrossroads.com later this week.
Then, on Sunday afternoon, we went to the Collin County Adventure Camp and baptized four people, two husbands and their wives. One of them was a guy who is in our men's group and decided it was time to go public with his decision to follow Christ. His wife was baptized as a child, but wanted to be baptized together with her husband to reaffirm her faith in Christ and in support of her husband's decision. The other couple was a guy who is getting ready to go into active duty in the army and his wife. They came to our church for the first time just last week. She committed her life to Christ in the service and the two of them wanted to be baptized. Awesome! Afterwards, we went over to one of the couples' home to have a cookout and celebrate. Great way to cap off an incredible weekend.
Next week we kick off our new message series "God at the Movies." We are going to be looking at some of the biblical themes that run through some of this summer's biggest blockbusters. I hope to see you there.
The movie night is something we discovered last summer as a fun and successful outreach to families in Anna. Some of the needs we have heard expressed from people about Anna are: there isn't really a sense of community, people don't know their neighbors, and there's nothing for families to do. So, we found that putting on a movie for families is a great way to meet these needs.
We have a twelve foot, inflatable movie screen that we set up outdoors. We also serve popcorn, drinks, and movie candy, and we set up a bounce house for the kids to play in, all this under the stars on a hot Texas evening. People really dig getting out with their families to watch the movie. This time, my awesome, beautiful, and super intelligent wife came up with the idea of showing "The Wizard of Oz." It was perfect. Many of the parents are the right age to remember when The Wizard of Oz came on television once a year, and families gathered to watch it. Many of their children, in turn, have never seen it. So, with one movie, we got children, parents, and grandparents out to watch a movie. We had about 100 people turn out for the event, and had a really amazing time.
Our team did an awesome job, as always, meeting people and serving the community.
Then, on Sunday, we geared up for another hot Sunday in the cheer gym. Middle of the summer, and we had almost 75 people in attendance. Awesome! This week, in lieu of the typical Sunday sermon, I did a thing called "The Hot Seat." I sat on a stool, and people submitted questions about life, God, and the Bible. They could ask questions vocally, by writing them out, or by twittering questions to us. We posted each of these on the screen, and I answered them as they came in. It's always fun for me, and people really tend to enjoy it.
I did discover, however, that this exercise is a little more difficult now that I am in a new church plant reaching people who haven't been plugged in to church. My answers had to be a little bit longer because I could not automatically assume that people knew the Bible stories. I'm not sure I was entirely successful with that. I will have to work on that a little more in the future. On the other hand, it is a good way to expose people to an awful lot of bible teaching/doctrine/scripture in one setting.
This was a different experience, too, from when I have done it in the past because of the nature of the questions. In traditional church, the questions often tended to focus on matters of Bible trivia, minutiae of biblical knowledge, or apologetic (defending the faith) types of questions. In the church plant setting, however, the questions tended more toward questions about dealing with life and struggles with faith and being a Christian. I thought that was very cool. It shows we really are impacting people right where they are living. Anyhow, it was a lot of fun, and made for a great service. The podcast will be up at www.welcometothecrossroads.com later this week.
Then, on Sunday afternoon, we went to the Collin County Adventure Camp and baptized four people, two husbands and their wives. One of them was a guy who is in our men's group and decided it was time to go public with his decision to follow Christ. His wife was baptized as a child, but wanted to be baptized together with her husband to reaffirm her faith in Christ and in support of her husband's decision. The other couple was a guy who is getting ready to go into active duty in the army and his wife. They came to our church for the first time just last week. She committed her life to Christ in the service and the two of them wanted to be baptized. Awesome! Afterwards, we went over to one of the couples' home to have a cookout and celebrate. Great way to cap off an incredible weekend.
Next week we kick off our new message series "God at the Movies." We are going to be looking at some of the biblical themes that run through some of this summer's biggest blockbusters. I hope to see you there.
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