FaithEngineer

I’m excited about John Waller joining us this Sunday at Cornerstone Community Church. If you saw the movie Fireproof or listen to SpiritFM, you have heard John Waller’s music. His song, While I’m Waiting is a powerful song about waiting on God’s timing. He will be joining us and leading worship for our 10am service, and then going over to First Baptist to lead them in worship at their 11am service. At 6pm on Sunday night, we are moving our evening service over to the historic Rex Theater in downtown Galax for a special concert with John.

The great thing about this concert is that it was organized by a young man in our church. Isaac Larrowe has organized and promoted the concert and has raised the funds to allow John to come minister to us. Please help us get the word out about the concert. If you haven’t heard the song, check out the video below or check out John’s website.

Lately, I have noticed something that seems to be on the increase.  I am concerned with the boredom of an entire generation.  Check out the facebook and status updates of young adolescents and you’ll be sure to see the infamous statement, “I AM BORED.” I am sure that this isn’t something entirely new, but I do see it as a growing problem. In the midst of incredible advances in technology, entertainment, and communication, teens and children are complaining that they simply have nothing to do. With a 5 year old, 9 year old, and 11 year old, it’s a phrase that comes up often at our house. If we hear complaining about boredom at our house, the first step is usually cleaning their room or reading a book. But even with consequences, our children still want us to entertain them and help them find something to do.

I think this problem has huge implications for the church as well. If the younger millennials grow up in a society where they are constantly entertained, it will affect how we reach them. We must start getting to the root of the problem. One area of concern is the pace of our society. Everything is based on instant gratification and no waiting. From fast food to movies on demand to instant messaging, everything has been geared toward providing them what they want when they want it.  I still have hope, but it will require action on our part.

At the risk of sounding old, I actually remember before we had game systems, cell phones, and home computers. As kids, we spent much of our time simply being kids, playing and enjoying our time with friends. As adults, I feel we have a responsibility to help guide and direct the younger generation to learn how to live life to the fullest. I think we can teach and model some important truths.

So What’s the Cure?

• Let’s teach them to develop a Holy curiosity – When you look at the world with wonder and anticipation, you simply cannot become bored. When you explore and learn, you will grow in maturity and in knowledge.
• Let’s teach them to be still and know God – If we cannot teach our children to slow down, what will happen as they grow older? Jesus spent regular time in silence and solitude with God the Father, and we need to do the same thing. It brings us into God’s presence, it allows us to avoid stress by bringing our requests before God, and it strengthens us with the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Let’s teach them to use their imagination and creativity - I’m afraid we are preventing them from finding solutions to their problems. When they are bored, they can become incredibly creative. It’s in those times when they come up with new ideas and new ways of doing things. Let’s not stifle their creativity. Instead encourage them to discover something to do when they are bored.
• Let’s teach them to serve others – At the root of boredom is selfishness. Everything is focused on my needs and wants. When we find ways to serve others, it helps refocus our priorities on the two greatest commandments. Loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving others as ourselves.
• Let’s teach them the power of reading the Bible and other great books – I am thankful that my children love books. I love seeing them pick up books, but still way too often I hear the phrase “I am bored.”  I want to create in them a love of reading. It’s amazing what they can learn from great stories. And I especially want them to spend time reading their Bible. It is such a great joy to hear them reading Bible stories to each other.

I encourage you to join in the conversation. What else would you add to this list?

It’s been quiet here on the blog for the last few days. During my normal blogging hours I have been working on the site design. I’ve been using the same graphics for a while now and since I can’t leave anything alone for long, I decided to update the theme the blog is based on. I wanted to switch to one that is sleek, clean, and easy to customize. The Standard Theme is a newer Wordpress theme that I chose for the updated look. It is a great premium blog theme and I plan on using this as a framework for the blog for the foreseeable future.  I still have some customization to do, but I think this is a great start. Here are some of the features of the new theme.

• it’s coded to be fast and meet current web standards
• it’s SEO Friendly (Search Engine Optimization)
• it has multiple advertising options built in
• it is easy to customize and style using custom CSS
• and it has a great community forum where you can find support

So far, I’m impressed. I was able to eliminate several plugins because of built-in functionality, and it just looks sleek and modern. Let me know if you have any problems viewing the site. Especially if you are on older browsers in windows. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

NewSpring has relaunched their website for free graphics and print resources for churches. Check it out at

http://www.newspring.cc/resources

They are offering both print and video downloads for many of their sermon series. I’m a big fan of free graphical resources, because they enable churches who don’t have the technology, resources, or manpower to incorporate technology without spending huge amounts of money. It helps smaller churches like ours to focus on the message and not spend countless hours on preparing graphic files. It shows that churches like Lifechurch and NewSpring have a huge Kingdom focus to give away resources for free.

At the Unleash Conference yesterday, which was absolutely amazing, the team at NewSpring announced a new one-day leadership conference this fall. Mark your calendars for September 16th and make plans to drive down to Anderson, South Carolina. They’ve lined up an awesome group of pastors who are passionate about sharing the gospel.  Can you imagine hearing from Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll, and Perry Noble all in one day. It will definitely be powerful. Here’s the info from their website

The NewSpring Leadership Conference is a full day of teaching and worship focused on influence and how it affects our preaching of the Gospel. We’re passionate about the local church, and we believe in the power of the preached Gospel to show how Jesus Christ changes lives. There is no better goal to spend your influence on.

Join us in Anderson, SC on Thursday, September 16th to hear unique perspectives from our 6 speakers on leadership and influence. The event will run from 9:00am until your brain can’t process any more. Your ticket includes admission to the conference, all conference materials, a tasty lunch and plenty of southern hospitality.

Last month at Cornerstone, we shared the touching story of Rogers Kirven and his wife Christy.  Rogers was a former business partner with Sam who now lives in Florida.  Rogers and Christy have five children and have been married for 35 years. Three years ago Christy was diagnosed with three specific types of cancer. In addition to fervent prayer, Rogers has spent a fortune seeking the best treatment available from places like M.D. Anderson Cancer Center out of Houston, TX and Shands, the University of Florida Cancer Hospital. During Christmas, the medical community sent Christy home to die.

Today was the day when the Lord gave her ultimate healing. Christy passed away and I want to ask that you keep Rogers and his family in your prayers. If you missed the church service where we called and interviewed Rogers, then please watch the video below and listen to the audio of the phone call.

It was powerful, it was challenging, and it reminded all of us that love never dies …

Audio of the phone call with Rogers (Click here to play)

I’m getting excited about our trip down to Anderson, South Carolina this week for the Unleash Conference. We’re leaving tomorrow and hopefully heading into some warmer weather. Jennifer and I have been every year and I love the encouragement that we receive from the NewSpring staff. We try to take a different group from Cornerstone each year to expose them to the hospitality and vision of NewSpring. You can’t help but leave “fired up” about what God has called you to do. All the details about the conference can be found on the website, along with a listing of all the breakout session topics.

If you can’t make it to the conference, then you can join in and watch the main sessions online at http://unleash.cc/

Here is just a sample of what you can expect. I look forward to meeting up with some online friends. Leave me a comment or send me a message on twitter if you will be there.

Promo: “Unleash 2010″ from NewSpring Production on Vimeo.

A One Day Event focused on the church and it’s potential at NewSpring Church on March 4, 2010. Visit newspring.cc/unleash for more information.

As some of you may know, since the first of this year we have been working with First Baptist Church in Galax.  They are currently in between pastors, so Sam, my co-pastor at Cornerstone has been preaching and serving as their interim pastor. He’s still working for Cornerstone, but he is also helping them through their time of transition. We have stated that we want to be the best church for the community, not just the best church in the community. By being Kingdom minded, we are showing the local community what happens when we cooperate instead of compete. We have been preaching through the same sermon series and working together on the messages each week. At Cornerstone, we have wanted to do a baptism service during the winter months, so Sam came up with the idea of a joint worship service between the two churches.

This Sunday, we are moving our Sunday evening service to First Baptist and joining them for a combined worship service. We are coming together to celebrate. Our worship band will be joining with their choir as they lead the service in worship. They practiced together last night and everything really came together and sounded great. Even though the styles may be a little different between the two churches, we come together with the same purpose of lifting up the name of Jesus Christ. Join us this Sunday evening at 6:30 for a time of celebration through worship and baptism.

This past weekend, we hosted a youth conference at our church. Right before the conference started, we clicked on a message to update to the latest version of Adobe Flash Player on our main computer.  Did I mention this was right before the conference started  Since it was a windows computer, you can guess what happened. Constant crashing and serious stress. For the first fifteen minutes of the conference, Tyler and I were frantically doing a system restore to get the computer back up and running. Luckily our worship band was able to keep playing and we got everything running smoothly by the time the teaching started. Since one purpose of this blog is to share lessons learned, so I want to share some new policies that we will be implementing for our windows computers.

Scheduled Updates:

From now on, automatic updates are officially turned off on our main computers. All software updates will be performed on Mondays or Tuesdays so that we have time to troubleshoot and keep things running smoothly for Sunday mornings. Even updates that seem unrelated to the programs you use may render the computer unusable. Just last week, a family member had a windows update cause their Windows XP computer to Blue Screen during reboot. For your health and sanity, don’t do an update right before a service, wait until you have plenty of time to fix things when they go wrong. And it will happen eventually. Remember we are talking about Windows.

Restricted Access

I’m locking down the computer to prevent people from installing any programs or updates. I hate to do this, but with any computer that is used by multiple people, you have to protect it. I already use OpenDNS to filter the internet and Microsoft Security Essentials for Antivirus protection, but it is still too easy to install malware and viruses. And you need to check the computer regularly to ensure that the software and media installed are legally owned by the church.

Backup

Take advantage of the System Restore tool in Windows. It has saved me numerous times. I also backup the computer weekly, but System Restore works for most problems. Just choose a date and time when the computer was working smoothly and Windows will roll back your files to that date.

And Finally, Get a Mac

Make plans for switching over to a mac. Seriously, if we could afford it, I would put in a mac pro this week and make the switch. I use a MacBook Pro and have been spoiled by the ease of keeping things running smoothly. Macs are not without problems, but they have greatly simplified the user experience.

What else do you recommend? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Over the past 14 years, I have been to numerous conference for students. I’ve taken groups to all of the major conferences, but there is one that stands out as my favorite. I have seen how a weekend spent in the Bible can totally change a teenager’s life.  I started attending the PlanetWisdom Student conference when it was organized by Shepherd Ministries with Dawson McAllister teaching and Al Denson leading the worship (yeah, I’m getting old)  Mark Matlock has done the teaching for a while now, but one thing has remained the same.  While bands have changed (Dutton, Addison Road, Plumb, and Mercy Me), the quality of the conference is top notch year after year. You can expect great teaching from the Bible, great worship, and some times of great fun orchestrated by the Skit Guys.

I was really disappointed to see that the conference was cutting back this year and not coming to Charlotte. But when we found out they were offering the weekend as a simulcast, we immediately signed up. Tonight we are hosting this conference and are expecting teens from many different local churches to attend. I think it is a great idea to bring local teensagers together to worship and learn together.

It’s not too late to attend. The cost is only $15 at the door for the entire weekend. We open the doors at Cornerstone tonight at 6pm for pizza ($3 per student) and worship will kick off at 7:30. Our Sunday night worship team will be kicking things off. The conference will go to about 11:30pm tonight and start back up at 9am tomorrow morning. Everything will wrap up around 5:30 tomorrow night. For more information, visit the PlanetWisdom website, watch the video below, or contact me. Help us spread the word and get local teenagers to attend!

Over the past several years, I have had the opportunity to help organize several community church events and help with several others. It’s not always easy, but I want to be part of a church that takes the prayer of Jesus in John 17 seriously. That we would be one. Our church wants to be a resource to other churches by planning events and hosting conferences. We want to bring local Christians together and to reach out to those in our community who are lost and hurting. We have been able to break through some racial and denominational boundaries, but we still have a long ways to go. In our efforts, I have noticed two huge enemies of cooperation between churches.

Fear & Pride

For many churches, fear is a way of life. The pastor is afraid of helping another church because they might have a different style of music or be from a different denomination. Worse yet, the leadership can become paranoid about losing members to another church, so they work hard at keeping people involved only in their own activities.

For other churches, pride can prevent them from working with other churches. Some churches reach a point where they don’t think they need any help. They believe their efforts are better than anybody else and it’s just too much of a hassle to work with others. I have seen churches that constantly make fun of the efforts of others and refuse to be part of any community activities.

I pray that I will be a pastor that is not afraid to cooperate and work together with other churches. I pray that fear and pride would not control the decisions in our church. In the New Testament, we see churches referred to by their city. We read passages about the church of Ephesus, the church of Corinth, the church of Jerusalem, the church at Antioch, and many more. Now, local believers are fragmented a million different ways by denominations and egos. Let me challenge you to reach across denominational lines and join forces with other believers in your community. You will be amazed at the impact it will have in your community, and don’t be surprised if people see the truth of John 17:21 become a reality.

Let me just start off by saying, it was a great weekend. I wanted to share a quick update about some of the things happening in my world.

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  I love this sign

  Snow, ice, and cold temperatures.  That’s pretty much summarizes the last two months. Although everyone enjoyed the snow at first, it’s starting to wear out it’s welcome.  At least the kids finally were able to play basketball this weekend. The games have been canceled for the last several weeks, so they were glad to get back on the court. We have had snow on the ground here since the week before Christmas, and school was out again today. The sun did make an appearance and the snow is finally starting to melt, but that poses a problem for all the leaks we have in the roof at church.

• We had a great Valentine’s dinner at the church Saturday night. Fun times and great food.  And I can’t forget to mention that the guys won the quiz challenge
• I arrived at church Sunday morning to find my entire office covered in sticky notes.  Several of the youth woke up at 4am on Sunday morning and spent several hours sticking up over 10,000 post it notes. Everything was covered, even the bathroom. It was quite impressive. Now I’m just wondering what to do with all of them.  Check out the pics.
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• Sometimes, my job as a pastor is to get out of the way of the Holy Spirit, and this was one of those weeks. I stayed up late into the night finishing up my message and tweaking it, but ended up not even preaching it. It was a powerful service in many ways. Our Sunday night worship team switched with our Sunday morning team and did an awesome job. And then Sam shared a story about the heartbreak that one of his former business partners is going through. We showed a video of his story, and then using skype, we patched him in live to our service. He shared about his wife dying of cancer, and what true love really is about. We are launching a series called Love Is…, and the story of Rogers and his wife was heart wrenching. The band came back up and did a couple of powerful songs, so by the time I got up to preach, I knew there wasn’t much that needed to be said. I shared 1 Corinthians 13 and challenged everyone to live it out this week and to remember the love that God has shown us. We’ll pick up the series next week as we continue to look at what true love is. The Sunday evening service was just as powerful. It was great having the Sunday morning band experience the evening service and they did an awesome job as always. I shared just a little more, but again, there wasn’t much to add after we watched and heard such a moving example of love.

I’ve read several books by John Eldredge, and I have always been encouraged by his honest and engaging writing style. He has a way of helping you deal with your past so you can reach your full potential of a new life in Christ. In this book, he is joined by his wife Stasi as they talk about the challenges of marriage. Love & War: Finding the Marriage You’ve Dreamed Of is a great book that will encourage you, challenge you, and help you realize that “marriage is fabulously tough.” I want to share a few of my thoughts about the book.

Over the past few years, I have been discouraged seeing so many marriages end up in divorce. I saw people that I thought had it all together walk away from their families. As a young pastor, I sometimes feel a sense of helplessness as I perform wedding ceremonies. I want young couples to know that marriage is not always easy. That you must fight for your marriage so you can keep it alive and thriving. And I think most young couples don’t have a clue of what to expect.

This book really is an honest look at the battle that you face in marriage. Unlike most marriage books, this is not a book of quick fixes. It helps you to really dig deep into why you want to love and be loved by others. They share their own struggles and successes, and they give you hope that a marriage can go the distance.

I like that they share about marriage in the greater context of God’s plan.  Here’s a quote that I think really sets the tone for the book.

God created marriage as a living, breathing portrait laid out before the eyes of the world so that they might see the story of the ages. A love story, set in the midst of desperate times. It is a story of redemption, as story of healing: it is a story of love. God gives us marriage to illustrate his heart toward us. It is the deepest and most mythic reality in the world – that love is true, that God pursues us.

Overall, this is a book that I had trouble reading straight through. Not because I didn’t like it, but because it made me want to put it down to spend time with my wife. I am thankful for my marriage (we’ll hit 15 years in a few months) and I am thankful that our love is still growing stronger. I will recommend this to both new couples and couples who have been married for a long time as a reality check to help them navigate the troubled times that will surely be in their future.

I shared with my wife last week that I also want to start something new when I am counseling young couples preparing for marriage. If I am going to do the ceremony, I want them to promise me that they will come to me for help before they throw in towel and give up. I want to put this book in their hand and spend time with them. I don’t want them to feel guilty for having difficult times in their marriage. And I want them to know that marriage is worth fighting for.

Here’s some more info from the publisher:

What the Eldredge bestsellers Wild at Heart did for men, and Captivating did for women, LOVE & WAR will do for married couples everywhere. John and Stasi Eldredge have contributed the quintessential works on Christian spirituality through the experience of men and the experience of women and now they turn their focus to the incredible dynamic between those two forces.

With refreshing openness that will grab readers from the first page, the Eldredges candidly discuss their own marriage and the insights they’ve gained from the challenges they faced. Each talks independently to the reader about what they’ve learned, giving their guidance personal immediacy and a balance between the male and female perspectives that has been absent from all previous books on this topic. They begin LOVE & WAR with an obvious but necessary acknowledgement: Marriage is fabulously hard. They advise that the sooner we get the shame and confusion off our backs, the sooner we’ll find our way through.

LOVE & WAR shows couples how to fight for their love and happiness, calling men and women to step into the great adventure God has waiting for them together. Walking alongside John and Stasi Eldredge, every couple can discover how their individual journeys are growing into a story of meaning much greater than anything they could do or be on their own.

Full Disclosure: This was book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah. Click here for my full disclosure policy. You can purchase the book from the publisher or from my Amazon affiliate link.

Although it’s taken me almost an entire year to blog through the book, I want to finish sharing about each chapter of Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This has been one of the most popular series of posts on my blog, and I know that this book has made a profound difference on many people, myself included.

Do you consider yourself a person obsessed with Christ? The title of chapter eight is “profile of the obsessed” and it deals with the way we live our life for Christ. The dictionary defines obsessed as to have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic. Our culture makes us think that obsessed people are crazy. Words such as fanatic, extremist, weirdo, and worse are thrown at anyone who lives their life preoccupied with Christ.  However, Chan shares that “the idea of holding back certainly didn’t come from Scripture. The Bible teaches us to be consumed with Christ and to faithfully live out His words.”

This is one of the best chapters in the book. One passage that really had an impact on me personally was about the contrast between risk and safety. Chan says, “we’ve elevated safety to the neglect of whatever God’s best is, whatever would bring God the most glory, or whatever would accomplish His purposes in our lives and in the world. Would you be willing to pray this prayer? God, bring me closer to You … whatever it takes …” When we live in crazy love with Christ, we are not living in safety. We are called to take risks and follow Him no matter what the cost. That is the picture the Bible paints of the disciples, and it is what we are called to do as well.

Let me leave you with several quotes about what an obsessed person looks like. Read over these slowly and apply them to your life.

People who are obsessed with Jesus give freely and openly, without censure. Obsessed people love those who hate them and who can never love them back.

People who are obsessed with Jesus aren’t consumed with their personal safety and comfort above all else. Obsessed people care more about God’s kingdom coming to this earth than their own lives being shielded from pain or distress.

People who are obsessed with Jesus live lives that connect them with the poor in some way or another. Obsessed people believe that Jesus talked about money and the poor so often because it was really important to Him.

Obsessed people are more concerned with obeying God than doing what is expected or fulfilling the status quo. A person who is obsessed with Jesus will do things that don’t always make sense in terms of success or wealth on this earth.

A person who is obsessed with Jesus knows that the sin of pride is always a battle. Obsessed people know that you can never be “humble enough,” and so they seek to make themselves less known and Christ more known.

People who are obsessed with Jesus do not consider service a burden. Obsessed people take joy in loving God by loving his people.

People who are obsessed with God are known as givers, not takers. Obsessed people genuinely think that others matter as much as they do, and they are particularly aware of those who are poor around the world.

A person who is obsessed thinks about heaven frequently. Obsessed people orient their lives around eternity; they are not fixed only on what is her in front of them.

A person who is obsessed is characterized by committed, settled, passionate love for God, above and before every other thing and every other being.

People who are obsessed are raw with God; they do not attempt to mask the ugliness of their sins or their failures. Obsessed people don’t put it on for God; He is their safe place, where they can be at peace.

People who are obsessed with God have an intimate relationship with Him. They are nourished by God’s Word throughout the day because they know that forty minutes on Sunday is not enough to sustain them for a whole week, especially when they will encounter so many distractions and alternative messages.

A person who is obsessed with Jesus is more concerned with his or her character than comfort. Obsessed people know that true joy doesn’t depend on circumstances or the environment; it is a gift that must be chosen and cultivated, a gift that ultimately comes from God.

A person who is obessed with Jesus knows that the best thing he can do is be faithful to his Savior in every aspect of his life, continually saying “Thank You!” to God. An obsessed person knows there can never be intimacy if he is always trying to apy God back or work hard enough to be worthy. He revels in his role as child and friend of God.

Let me ask you again, are you obsessed with Christ? If you can’t answer that positively, then I urge you to fall crazy in love with Christ. This book is a great way to get started on the journey.

Posts in this series:

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8

With all the snow and ice we have gotten over the past few weeks, we were expecting a lower than normal turnout this past Sunday. God had other plans, and we had two great services this past Sunday. We did experiment a little by recording our evening service on video, so I uploaded the sermon so it can be viewed online.  If you did miss church Sunday, then here is your second chance to view the sermon. We wrapped up our series on 20/20 Vision by discussing our response to the Gospel.

As always, we will post the audio of the sermon on the church website and on the iTunes podcast. Let me know what you think. Is this something you would like Cornerstone to do each week?

The Gospel Response from Cornerstone on Vimeo.

Are you living your life in response to the Gospel? As Christians we have strong feelings about the gospel. We might not be able to express fully its meaning, but we understand that it is “the power of God for salvation” and that it changes everything. We will learn that the gospel is not just a message to those outside the faith who need Jesus. It also contains the resources we need to make a difference in the world by being different from the world.

This is the sermon from the evening service on February 7th, 2010