Sunday Wrapup

Wow, yesterday was a long day. I woke up in a cold sweat with my back hurting. I've had a bunch of kidney stones and apparantly I've got another one. It stopped hurting just in time to get to church and preach.

After church, we loaded up 3 vans to head to the beach with the youth for a retreat. We are talking about relationships, so it will definitely get interesting. Everyone is up early this morning, so it's a good sign.

Unfortunately, we were supposed to have internet access at our beach house, but we don't. So there won't be much blogging for a couple of days, but I will try to update twitter.

sent from my Smartphone

Youth Retreats

After church, we are taking almost 20 teenagers on a retreat to the beach. It's just us and one other couple spending 4 days with a great group of kids. We are focusing on relationships and dating. We have a beach house to stay in, so we want to just focus on getting away from the distractions and craziness of everyday life to really seek God and His Word. I always look forward to trips like these because I know transformation will take place. I love how teens respond to the truth of God's Word, and I love their passion and zeal for life. We adults might call it naivety or idealism, but in reality it is simply faith. Faith that God will provide and will equip them to do what He has called them to do. Pray that I will be able to teach and lead them to a closer walk with Christ.

The Agony and The Pain of Technological Failures

If you have a love-hate relationship with technology, then you have been through this before.
My 1 year old Sony Camcorder died a couple of weeks ago. The screen went out and is completely unusable. I called Sony and since it is out of warranty, it will cost me almost $400 to get it fixed. So it looks like I will be in the market for a new non-Sony camcorder. Then tonight, my big 12" powered home theater subwoofer started making this incredibly loud noise. I've unplugged it, but my guess is that it's fried as well. It is almost ten years old, so I'm sure it probably won't make sense to try to get it repaired.

I don't know if electronics go out in threes, but I really don't want anything else to break. If you live on the cutting edge, sometimes you do get cut.

One Prayer from the Youth

I challenged our youth to write out their One Prayer for our church during our last meeting. It was awesome to hear what God has put on their heart. Here are just a few of their prayers.

Lord, Make Us Ready
Lord, Make Us Aware
Lord, Make Us Grow Closer to You
Lord, Make Us Loving
Lord, Make Us A Lot More Passionate For You
Lord, Make Us Stronger
Lord, Make Us Listen
Lord, Make Us Passionate
Lord, Make Us Evangelistic
Lord, Make Us Obedient
Lord, Help Us Change The World!
Lord, Make Us Genuine
Lord, Make Us Compassionate
Lord, Make The Church about God and Only God
and finally
Lord, Help Us Drive a Bulldozer With a Stick??? (Don't you love youth)

Do you think they get it? I know they do. Teens are awesome and Cornerstone has been blessed with an incredible group. I am blown away by what they are learning and how passionate they are. We adults have so much to learn from teens. They aren't held back by the worries of the world, they are ready and willing to tackle any problem, and they do it all with enthusiasm and passion. I'm proud of our group and I will share tomorrow their thoughts on how to accomplish their prayers listed above.

In Memory Of ...

I was able to officiate a wedding for one of my former youth members last week. I had an awesome time catching up with a bunch of our former students. Their wedding was also special to me since they met at a Christian concert at Carowinds in Charlotte. But enough about the wedding, I didn't mess anything up and the bride looked beautiful as always. What I wanted to talk about was the church.

They were married in an old "First" Church in North Carolina (I'll leave out the name as a courtesy) It was a beautiful church, but as I walked around the church, I kept seeing something that bothered me. Around every corner, there were pictures of members from years ago, rooms that were named after people who had gone on to be with the Lord, and plaques that memorialized and honored people from the church's past. It honestly felt more like a museum than a church. Something just doesn't seem right to me to put up memorials everywhere in the church. How can you change a room or get rid of ugly furniture if it was left in memory of someone's grandparents? How can you stay relevant to reach out to your community, when all they see in your church is remnants of the past?

I'm all for honoring those who have served God, but do you have to do it with pictures, plaques, and memorials? I think it was Howard Hendricks who once told a church that he was consulting with that they needed to build a fence around the church and charge admission. Just so everyone could see what church was like 50 years ago. In this case it was more like 100 years ago. I'm sure that the church is full of great people who love God. But I wonder if they realize that to outsiders it feels more like they are worshiping their past instead of worshiping God? I wonder what will happen to all these old great buildings as these churches lose their connection to the culture they are in? I hope and pray that it won't happen, but my gut instinct tells me otherwise.

Every Time I Cancel Youth ...

I woke up this morning to this. The teens wrapped up my car with plastic wrap and tied fishing line all over the driveway and the house. My kids loved it because all the fishing line was like an obstacle course from Mission Impossible. We canceled our youth meeting last night because of our church picnic and baptism, so they had some extra time on their hands. Even after stuff like this, I still love teenagers and youth ministry. They just like to show you how much they care.

What a Day!!

Today was a great day of celebration at Cornerstone. It was one of those days that I will not forget. I am so thankful that we have people who are willing to answer the call of God on their lives and step up to serve Him.

• We were blessed to hear the mission team share about their recent trip to Nicaragua.
  
• We were blessed to start a sponsorship program for our sister church in Tonala, Nicaragua to help feed and provide for the families there.
• We were blessed to have a great picnic on the church land, and the rain held off until we were done!
  
• We were blessed to see 11 people baptized and show the world that they are following Christ.

I am excited that God still transforms lives. Those that went on the mission trip are transformed. They will never look at those in poverty in the same way. Those that were baptized are also transformed. Hearing their stories was powerful. From the teenager who comes to church alone without his parents, to someone who left the Mormon church, to someone who was just thankful that God had brought them out of their sinful lifestyle. IT WAS POWERFUL AND ENCOURAGING! I truly believe that Greater things are yet to come for Cornerstone. I pray that we will continue to impact our city and our world with the life changing message of Christ.

Here is the video that we showed today about the mission trip. You can learn more about the sponsorship opportunities on this video and at church. Please prayerfully consider making a difference in the lives of a family in Nicaragua. 100% of the money given will go to feed and care for the families there. We will try to get more information on our website soon.

Hiking with the Kids

Jennifer and I took the kids hiking to the Cascades yesterday. It is an incredible waterfall over 60 feet tall near Virginia Tech that we used to visit when we were in college. It has to be one of the most beautiful hikes anywhere in the Appalachian mountains. The 5 mile trail parallels a mountain stream all the way to the top and you feel like you are immersed in some type of tropical rain forest. The kids did awesome and I only had to put Drew on my shoulders for about half a mile. The pictures below really don't do it justice, it's one of those places where you really need to take in the sound and sight together. This website has some panoramic views of the falls. If you have never been then you definitely need to check it out. Their official website is here.

Alex Has Got Talent

A girl here in our town was on America's Got Talent last night. She's in our homeschool group that meets once a week so we know her well. She did a great job and yes, everyone around here talks just like she does. Check it out.

Another Resource for Worship Graphics

I have been on a kick lately sharing websites and resources for technology in the church. Sermonvideos is another site that has a great selection and an interesting subscription plan. For $150 per year, you get unlimited downloads of their videos, stills, countdowns, and illustrations. If you use motion graphics in your service, then this is another way to keep your costs down. By paying a set fee per year, it allows your church to download as many different backgrounds as you need, and it saves you all the hassle of dealing with receipts and reimbursements. Check them out, they have some good stuff available.

Awesome Cool Way to Do Picture Slideshows

Check out this online service. Animoto lets you import your pictures and your background music, and then it analyzes the pictures and music to create a custom video. This is pretty cool. I've typically used the free Microsoft Photostory or iPhoto to create slideshows, but this kicks it up a notch. The free service is limited to 30 seconds, but you can pay a small fee per video or per year for unlimited service.


This would be great for sharing pictures on your church website, especially for children's and youth ministries. Check it out, and thanks to Tim for post. Here is a video that a youth pastor in Minnesota did for their youth mission trip.



Belize Missions 2008 Pictures from rockinyp on Vimeo.

The Sunday Crash

It was great preaching again this Sunday. One Prayer has been great, but it felt good to get up and share this week. I know I have blogged about it before, but I feel like I have been in a street fight after I get done preaching. My body aches, my head hurts, and I just feel like I need to sleep. I've read it comes from the rush of adrenaline that accompanies public speaking, but I can't help but think that Spiritual Warfare plays a bigger role. But whatever causes it, I wouldn't trade this feeling for anything. I still can't believe that God chose me to share His truth in front of people.

We extended the One Prayer series out one more week and I was able to wrap things up by sharing what Jesus' prayer for the church is from John 17. In John 17:20-21, we see Jesus say

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I think it was a great way to wrap up the series by sharing how Jesus wants the church to be one. We didn't want to show another video, but I worked in some segments and points of Craig Groeschel's message for One Prayer. I'm looking forward to seeing how churches can be united and work together. I'll try to post the sermon online at our church website and sermoncloud later today.

The Story Behind the Song: Healer

Here are a couple of videos about the Hillsong song Healer. It's always helps to know the story behind the song. The first video is about how the song was written and the second video is the actual live performance. It's powerful.






(thanks to Stephen)

Updates from Nicaragua

I've been posting updates from our mission team in Nicaragua on the church leadership blog at http://conversation.mycornerstone.org/

Technology is amazing. They are using a skype internet phone to call home, and they are sending photos and updates over the internet. And they are doing this from one of the poorest countries in Central America. The world is getting a lot smaller because of technology.

Shift Worship Media

Some of the first worship backgrounds I used were from VMG. They have now added a subscription based pricing plan. For $99, you get unlimited downloads of all their motion backgrounds, still backgrounds, and countdowns. They have some really great backgrounds, so check them out. This is a really great opportunity for smaller churches that don't have a huge budget for media. Head over to http://www.shiftworship.com/ and take a look.

(thanks to ChurchyMike for finding this)

Engineering vs. Ministry - Part 2

In my engineering job, I focused on solving problems to create designs. People only complained to me when it was my machine that wasn't working. I had to spend my time fixing my mistakes and improving the machines that I was designing.

In ministry, people complain to me about everything. The pastor typically knows about most of the problems and conflicts and disagreements and break-ups in the church. You get to see the not so pleasant side of church life. At times it can be overwhelming, but in those times, you have to focus on all the good things that God is doing. I also have to realize that I cannot solve everything. Everyone won't always get along, feelings will get hurt and people will get mad. My job is to keep pointing people to Jesus, knowing that He is the one that can solve their problems.

Ministry is messy, more so than I expected. But when you see life transformation take place all around you, it makes all the mess worth it.

Engineering vs. Ministry - Part 1

After one year of full-time ministry, I want to take some time to point out some of the changes and challenges of leaving the engineering world to jump into ministry.

As an engineer, I was confident of my ability to solve problems. I knew that I could come up with a design for every project that I was working on. It wasn't arrogance, but I knew that I had the training and knowledge to do my job. It might take hard work and research, but I had no doubt in my mind as I worked on each project. My job was enjoyable, but predictable.

As a pastor, I constantly realize that uncertainty is part of my life. I doubt my abilities to lead a growing church. I doubt that I can find a solution to every problem that arises in the church. I doubt that I know what I'm doing. And that doubt is a good thing, because through that doubt in myself I learn to trust Christ. I'm understanding more and more not to trust in my ability, but to trust in God working through me.

For me, engineering equaled certainty and predictability. Ministry now equals uncertainty and unpredictability. But I'm truly living life now, instead of just working for a paycheck. So to anyone actually reading this, what is holding you back from following God wherever he is calling you?

The Evangelism vs. Discipleship Debate

It seems like the conflict within the western church regarding the priority of evangelism and discipleship has come to the forefront in recent years. So many articles, books, and blog posts have been proclaiming the importance of one or the other. Unfortunately, I have observed that many churches have elevated the importance of one over the other. To me, evangelism and discipleship are inseparable. You cannot be faithful to the Great Commission and not do both.

Some churches in reacting to the spiritual shallowness of churches that neglect discipleship, have abandoned their efforts to reach the lost and focused only on growing believers. Have you ever heard the statement that church is just for believers. Stop and think about the absurdity of that statement. Do we completely turn our backs to those who don't know Christ and turn church into some kind of Holy huddle where outsiders are not welcome? I know that we should live our lives in such a way that non-Christians are drawn to the hope that we have within us, but they catch a glimpse of a Holy God when we come together to see believers worship corporately. They are challenged and convicted when the truth of God's Word is preached.

Some churches in reacting to the spiritual elitism of churches that neglect evangelism, have focused entirely on reaching their lost and forgotten the command to "make disciples." Churches like this have a great outreach program but have become ineffective at leading people to a deeper walk with Christ. I know the Holy Spirit can work inside of us and can lead us as we grow, but that does not allow the church to abdicate our responsibility to teach people how to walk with Christ.

Instead of being reactionary and choosing one extreme or the other, I feel that the church must be focused and committed to both reaching the lost and leading them to obey Christ. Evangelism and Discipleship working hand in hand. It has been exciting to me to follow Willow Creek's story as they have realized that discipleship does not necessarily come through serving within the church. They have re-focused their Sunday morning service to both believers and seekers. I will share more about what we are learning at Cornerstone in a future post.

If we are fulfilling the Great Commission and the Great Commandment, we will always have both seekers and believers together. It is the church's responsibility to provide opportunities to seekers so that they can follow Christ, and then provide believers the training and knowledge to grow closer to Christ. As churches, we need to quit throwing rocks at each other and instead work together to make an impact in the Kingdom of God.

Staying In The Past

I went running yesterday, or at least I tried to go running. It's been a long time since I have ran any distance at all. I have been going to the gym, and I have been riding my bike, but I just couldn't work up the passion to hit the trail. Here's my problem. In high school I ran. I ran all the time. On most weeks in the summer I ran about 50 miles, with long runs on Sunday where I would typically run 10 to 15 miles. I competed in numerous 5K's and even ran a half-marathon. I wasn't the fastest runner in the world, but I could break 5 minutes in the mile. When I think about running, I think about myself 20 years ago.

Yesterday, I stretched, I warmed up, and then I started running. After about 2 minutes it felt like someone was stabbing a knife in my ankle. I sprained it badly about 6 months ago and it obviously is not fully healed. I tried to keep going and I alternated walking and running, but I just couldn't run through the pain. I know what I need to do to get back into shape. I know that it will take some time to strengthen my ankle and I know it will take some time to build up my endurance. But my problem is that I don't know if I am willing to put in the time and effort to start running again. I would rather remember the past instead of create the future. I'm not sure that the results are worth the effort. Even though I need to lose weight, even though I need to get in better shape, I would rather substitute the counterfeit workout at the gym for the real thing. I see a spiritual application here.

For too many churches, it's easy to remember the past ... the past accomplishments, the past successes, the past growth. But even though they realize that things need to change, they aren't sure that the effort to change is worth the results. They would rather live in the past and think about how it used to be. So they continue on, doing what they know and trust, taking the easy road, and miss out on the blessings of creating the future that God wants for them. Let's not be afraid to do what hurts, to do what is hard, to do what is needed, so that we can be healthy and used by God.

Weekend Wrap-Up

As the weekends get busy, I typically don't post here on the blog. But now that the weekend is over, here is the wrap-up.

• We had a yard sale on Saturday morning. Jennifer was busy all day on Friday getting things together and I was busy carrying and moving "stuff" up to our garage. We made about $200 selling our stuff, but we didn't get rid of everything that we wanted to. I am not a huge fan of having yard sales. People walk around and look at your stuff and try to act like you have it priced too high. It's all part of the bargaining game. You have to appear like you are too good to pay $10 for something that originally cost 10 times that. I wish people would just cut the attitude and games and either buy stuff or walk away.
• Jennifer and I also met with a former student and his fiance who are getting married in a few weeks. I'm helping officiate the wedding so we were working through all the final details. This wedding is extra special to me since I was there when they first met each other. We were on a youth trip to a concert at Carowinds when he saw her sitting in the next section. It took a little bit of encouragement (i.e. questioning his masculinity) before he finally went over and introduced himself. But here we are several years later and they are getting married. Awesome.
• We continued the One Prayer Series at church on Sunday. I had planned on showing Craig Groeschel's message on unity, but I changed my mind on Friday and switched to show the message from Greg Surratt at Seacoast about obedience. One of the great strengths of the One Prayer series is the many sermons to choose from. There are so many different teaching styles and we can learn from all of them. If the pastor loves God and loves His people, then we can learn and grow from what they share. The Seacoast message was a great "fit" for our congregation. I have visited there several times on vacation and they have been gracious about answering some of my questions about how they do church. I showed parts of Craig Groeschel's message during youth on Sunday night and they loved it, but I think for our congregation Greg Surratt's message was the right choice for this week. I am thankful to Craig Groeschel and the entire staff of Lifechurch.tv for getting this together. It's been great and it has given me a chance to focus on getting some planning and administrative work done. And have I mentioned that our attendance has been growing during the month of June! Typically June is a down month, so I'm super excited about what God is doing.
• And finally we had youth last night. We had planned on meeting outside on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but when there is a severe thunderstorm warning, you don't want to be around me (I'll have to share my lightening story in a future post). We instead met at the new building downtown. It was the first time in almost a month that I was really able to teach and I loved it. I always love teen's enthusiasm and their desire to learn and grow. They naturally have questions, so it is so important to create a safe environment for them to seek the truth.
  

Joe Sangl Featured in Money Magazine

For all of those who got to meet Joe when we hosted the Financial Freedom Experience, you'll be glad to know that his crusade is still moving forward. Joe was featured in Money magazine this month. See below for the links. Be sure to visit Joe's website and share your success stories. I've heard quite a few great stories from people who attended FFE. As part of the One Prayer series last week, we listened to Perry Noble from NewSpring church. For those of you who didn't know, Joe Sangl was part of the original group of people who started NewSpring.

Congratulations Joe and I look forward to seeing how God continues to use you to help people break free from financial bondage.

Money Magazine, has written an article that includes a profile about Joe and some of his story. You can read an abbreviated on-line version of the article on CNNMoney.com. They’ve also included an online profile of Joe.
(ht to Tony)

Improving Firefox

I posted yesterday about the official release of Firefox 3. I've been using the beta versions for several months now and I love it. It's stable and faster than anything else out there. However, I can't just leave it alone, so I had to trick it out with some add-ons. I think one of the great benefits of firefox is that many people are developing all different kinds of add-ins and themes to customize the browser. Here are a few add-ons that I use that have helped make my internet life a little easier.

• Del.icio.us - This one is great. Del.icio.us is a bookmarking service that lets you access your bookmarks from anywhere on the web. I have installed this on several different computers so I always have access to the same set of bookmarks.
• Google Gears - Google is working on several of their web apps so that you can work or read even when you are not connected to the internet. This one will be huge in the coming year. Google Reader is already using it.
  
• Greasemonkey - this one is a little harder to explain. It allows other custom scripts to run that actually change or enhance certain websites. I use this so that I can use the next two.
  
• Better Gmail2 - This is a collection of greasemonkey scripts to improve the gmail webpage. You can select themes, add html signatures, and do several other cool things. I like this one a lot.
• Better GReader - This is a collection of greasemonkey scripts to improve Google Reader which I use to track quite a few blogs.

Overall, these add some neat features. What add-ons are you using? Drop me a comment and let me know.

Download Firefox Day

I do blog all the time about technology, so I have to let you know about Firefox today. I have been using Firefox on all my computers for a long time now. I like it in both mac and windows. It's faster and better than Internet Explorer or Safari. I like the ability to use add-ons and custom scripts to improve web browsing. Today, Firefox is releasing their new version 3 and trying to set a world record for the most downloads in a day. They have been having server trouble most of the day, but hopefully they have everything up and running by now. Tomorrow, I'll share which add-ons I am using. If you haven't given it a try, then check it out. Version 3 is awesome.

Make Us Dangerous

We have never been afraid to try new things at Cornerstone and this week was no different. This week was a first because we did the sermon on video. I was a little nervous about showing a video. I didn't mention it the week before because I didn't want everyone bailing out and skipping this week. But when we decided to join the One Prayer Series, I knew this would be a great opportunity to expose our people to some great teaching and preaching from other churches. This comes at such a great time for me as well, since I am really working on some structure and administrative details for the church. I don't think I have to worry about how video teaching works after this past Sunday.

This week we showed a message from Perry Noble, the pastor of Newspring Church in Anderson, South Carolina. He had everyone on the edge of their seat, laughing, crying, and listening to every word. I started reading Perry's blog over a year ago and really connected with his vision for an evangelistic church. After hearing about the Unleash conference that Newspring hosted through several blogs, Jenni and I decided to go last year and loved it. We went back this year and took about 10 people from Cornerstone with us. Whenever you visit Newspring, you immediately notice the passion and vision that they have for reaching the lost and transforming their community. Perry's sermons and blog have had a great influence on my leadership.

Perry's message for the One Prayer series was "Lord, Make Us Dangerous" You can listen to the message on the Cornerstone podcast online, or in itunes. He had a powerful message from Luke 7 about being dangerous by walking with Jesus, listening to Jesus, and believing in Jesus. He ended up the sermon by sharing that God isn't done with us yet. That there is more to come. Our young adult band played this week and closed the service with "God of this City" I put together a movie background for the song with pictures from our city and it was a powerful moment. The whole service was great.

I had many requests for cd's and dvd's of the message. We will have more available next week at Cornerstone. You can also see a video of Perry's extended message at NewSpring by going to Newspring's website here. It's about 20 minutes longer than what we viewed in church and you also get to see their worship band open the service with a cover of the song Dangerous by our hometown friends in Decemberadio. Greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done in our city! Let's continue pressing on because God is definitely not done with Cornerstone!

Cardboard Testimonies

This is powerful. Check out the testimonies. Short, brief, and life changing. Mine would be

"thought I could do life better my way"
"Surrendered to God's plan and ministry"

What would yours be?
Leave a comment and let me know.



(thanks to Chris)