Enjoy Life

I was just thinking about how this time of year is really crazy. It's getting close to Christmas and everyone is worrying about getting everyone the presents they want and worrying about paying their bills with the leftover money they don't have. People are getting sick in the winter and the economy is still down. Some people are having to pick up second and third jobs to just get by. What was I writing this for? Oh yeah, for encouragement. Haha! I was sitting here in my office looking at this poster of Jesus. It's a shadow picture of Him looking up. For those of you out there who are so stressed by trying to do everything so that you can have everything, but you realize you have no time for anything (you following me?), I want you to just take some time to look up and know that God is in control. Read Psalm 46 for encouragement. It speaks of God being our refuge in times of trouble and in times when we are unsure of what to do or what's going to take place next. Then in verse 10 it says, "Be still and know that I am God." Sometimes we just need to stop and do that. So calm down a little. I don't know what you're going through, but God does. He doesn't want us to stress out. His words not mine. So my encouragement for you is to enjoy life. God wants us to. It doesn't mean we don't have responsibilities or work, but enjoy life where you are right now. I have to tell myself that a lot. There's a lot of times when I press myself too hard at the church or trying to figure out how to grow the church and reach as many people as we can. It's not bad things, but if I'm too sick to do anything or too stressed out that no one wants to be around me, then I need to slow down. So those of you who push yourself too hard, my advice is make a list of the most important things. If you are working for things that you don't need, then let them go. Then focus on the most important things. You'll be much happier then.

Why Not Us?

I just want everyone to know that I think I got all the whipped cream out of my hair and ears. I can imagine people who don't go to our church saying, "What is he talking about? What kind of church is this?" Hope that was fun for everyone. For our next goal I know now to specifically say what we're going to do...haha.
I'm having a great time doing ministry with you guys and with what God is doing through us! So with all my excitement I am always looking around at other churches and seeing what God is doing in other places with other Christians and it's pretty exciting. It's great to see how much God is moving all over the world and how we should be rooting for all God's churches to have huge impacts. And so when I see some churches that are being used by God and are absolutely exploding with growth, it brings me to a thought--why not us? I'm not going to say that the way to define a successful ministry for God is by the numbers. But I do know that the mission we've been called on is bigger than ourselves. And the mission is to praise God in everything we do and to reach as many people as possible. So we need to be thinking BIG! That's where I am right now. My mind is through the roof on all the possibilities that God can do through us. He is putting ideas in me that I pray about daily and I ask you guys to pray for it too. Pray for me as your pastor to faithfully follow and for you to understand where you are a part of this and where everyone fits in. We definitely need to be praying for each other.
God is starting something here that is going to be huge. I really believe that. I just want us all to be ready so that we can run with it. I think it's only going to be a short while before we start doubling and tripling in size and then who knows how far from there. Why not us? God is the one who ultimately does the saving and the changing of lives, but he chooses to work through you and I.
So my prayer is that everyone will understand from 2 Cor. 5:17 that when we have Christ we are a new creation. Let's live that way. We are called to a very important, exciting, and life-changing mission to lead people to Jesus and to be fully devoted to Him. So I'm asking you to take on this bold mission with me and pray for each of us to be ready for what God is going to do here. Why not us?

good times!

I'm not talking about the old show. No I mean that it's good times around here at the church. I don't know any other way to say it. I've told some of ya'll that when you see me kind of swaying back and forth to some song (maybe mighty to save, which is one of my favorites), that that means that I am really excited. I'm pretty cheesy and never been one to show a lot of emotion. However, I'm really pumped to be a part of this ministry. Remember everyone out there that we set our goal next week if we have over 50 people! It's been really great to see us do that and just how I can see us getting a lot of momentum and so many people getting involved. There are some who have gotten saved, baptized, and some feeling called into the ministry. That's what it's all about. Let's get some more people here and improve the chances for more and more people to get saved and feel called into ministry. So I want to encourage you guys to invite people and actually bring at least one person (or as many as you can)with you this Sunday. Then after this Sunday you guys can do to me whatever, because of us meeting our goal (*Remember that I would give my life for you all). Then we're going to shoot for an even bigger number. I knew we would hit this number this year, I just didn't know it would happen so early in the year. So our new number might be hit by next year, but I think we can hit it by summer. Let's shoot high!
I was also thinking about our study through Ecclesiastes and had a thought. I am in a high point in my life now, because of what God is doing in my life and the church. I know that our lives are not just high points through out though. There are times when things happen. I want to encourage you to live your life fully to God. That's the choice that we have. If you want to live this world all on your own, then you will have tough times just like everyone else. But on top of that you'll be miserable trying to find happiness and purpose in everything that Solomon tried. And you'll come up with the same answer: everything is meaningless. So don't try and jump from one high to the next. But live every moment fully devoted to Jesus and your life will be dramatically changed for the better.

Stick with God's plan

God never ceases to amaze me. First off I'll always wonder why He chose me to do His work. I know that so many other people wonder the same thing (about themselves, not me...come on!). It can be so easy to lose faith in what you feel that God is doing. Sometimes it can become a faint memory and we ask, "God was that what you were meaning or did I just hear it wrong?" He's got a plan for everything and it always works out in the perfect time frame. But our time frame is not always working the same as His and that's where the doubting and frustration comes in. The life of Joseph in Genesis is a huge testimony to this. What I beleive Joseph learned and I know I've learned is that God uses the time in between where you know He wants to take you and where you are in the moment to prepare you for what's next. It's all part of His perfect plan. God's a lot smarter than us and we have to understand this. I've seen this in our church too. I've seen the journey that He's taken us on and I'm just so excited to be where we are now! I want to encourage every one else to catch that excitement and keep following God's plan. He knows what He's doing. We're about to hit our first goal in numbers in the next couple of weeks. Then we're going to set a new goal that I believe will happen even quicker. So I encourage you guys to invite as many people as you can. Remmeber it's not about the numbers for the sake of numbers. But it's about reaching as many people as we can and bringing them to Jesus. Get involved and figure out what it is that God has planned for you to be a part of even before you were ever born. And just trust in His timing.

moving forward

This is my first blog. Blog. It sounds like you're about to throw up or something. I'm just trying to branch out in the tech world, so I started this. I know I'm way behind everyone. I figured I needed to start texting and blogging when my three-year-old starting texting me. (Huh? How da ya werk dis here thingy ma jigger?) Just kidding. I'm not quite that bad.
I'll occasionally put some thoughts that I have from the day or week and comment about them. I'd like to put some things that I'm reading as well. I just recently did a sermon on 1 Corinthians 9. I love where Paul is showing his willingness and the distance he will go to bring people to Christ. I believe all Christians need to be willing to do whatever it takes to reach people and lead them to Christ. I want to get to this point. I am constantly pushing myself to get to this point and I believe all Christians should do the same to each other. And so I'm trying with this blog and other areas that we're updating on our website to find all the ways we can reach people. I'm also working on some other outreaches that we can do to just get out there and be with people and make relationships and invite to church or just talk to them about Jesus.
So this is one of my first steps to reaching out to new crowds and using all the new and technologically advanced ways to be the most effective I can be and the most effective our church can be. I know that so many people are far more advanced than me when it comes to this and you've been doing this for a while. So to ya'll...shut-up! Just joking! Haha! I just wanted to post this to push you out there to take a step forward and try something new. If it's something that you can do and it will make a difference and open the door to more opportunities to reaching people. Then I believe we should do it. That's exactly what Paul was trying to get us to do. So take a step and move forward.