FaithEngineer

I had a great weekend.  Here’s a quick recap:

Church Camp

Friday night, I traveled with Scattered, our young adult praise team to a little Methodist church camp near the Tennessee/Virginia state line.  They had invited us to come lead the service one night at their camp.  We had a little trouble finding it, so they had to come find us, but we made it there and had an incredible night of worship and teaching.

• In the short time we were there, I felt we connected with the teens.  I wish we would have had more time just to hang out and get to know them, but I am glad they felt safe enough to respond.
• And respond they did, we had a number of youth come forward during the invitation to talk with counselors.  God’s spirit was moving and working in their lives. I prayed with an older teen who God was really dealing with.  I will continue to pray that this camp will be a turning point in his life.
• And finally, it was pretty funny to see all the younger girls go crazy over our band.  Not sure that their minds were focused on Christ after the service, because they were flirting pretty hard with our guys.   And here’s the best quote of the night from the girls, “the guys in the band were good and cute, and the pastor, he was good, but not cute ”

One Prayer: God is Love

We continued the One Prayer series by showing a video from Craig Groeschel, pastor of Lifechurch.tv.  He has ministered to me through his books (I’ve read them all), and through his messages.  I listen in to their online church services every week, and I have heard Craig speak at Catalyst as well.  I have a huge amount of respect and gratitude for their church as they develop and utilize new technologies for sharing the message of Christ.  From YouVersion to babelwith.me to ChurchMetrics to sharing their graphic resources for free, Lifechurch.tv has been a huge example of a church that is Kingdom minded. Craig’s message was powerful and it really connected with our church.  If there are those that doubt the effectiveness of a video sermon, then they should reconsider.  It’s not something that I would want to do every week, but for our church, this One Prayer series has shown that it works.  After the first few minutes, people don’t even realize they are watching a message instead of hearing it live.

Baptism

And finally, we concluded the weekend, by having a baptism celebration on our church property.  It was a great day, the rain held off, and we were able to baptize six people. It’s always special when you baptize the parent of a teen. I have seen so many examples over the years of teenagers bringing their parents to Christ.   I’m looking forward to many more baptism services in the future.   I’m excited about preaching next week, and I am definitely on a “spiritual” high right now.  I see evidence of God moving and working all around, and it both excites and scares me.  Our God is an awesome God!

As a pastor, one of the most encouraging and uplifting events is to see people publicly proclaim their faith in Christ through baptism.   I just wanted to share a few pictures from today.  We had a great time eating and playing on the church property and then topped off the evening with six people being baptized.  We have seen 37 people baptized so far at Cornerstone, many of them adults, and I am excited about seeing many more in the months to come.

Saw this over on Simply Youth Ministry this morning.  It’s a 4-year curriculum for doing small groups in youth ministry.  It looks interesting because it’s based online.  You can manage your leaders and lessons through the web.  It’s a little pricey, but it’s also for 4-years.   I’ll definitely check it out since we’re thinking about expanding small groups for our Cornerstone youth.

We’ve created Live Curriculum as a cohesive, four-year plan for your small group ministry, using a 36-week ministry year. The lessons are designed to flow from one topic to the next, and each year builds on the previous years. But we know that every ministry is different. That’s why we give you the option of taking it apart, shifting around the pieces, and using the lessons in whatever order you’d like. You can pick and choose which lesson you want to use when, if that’s what works best for you and your ministry. It’s all good!

(thanks to Josh for the heads up)

Live Curriculum

Just letting you know that I am still alive.  Our family has been on a short vacation for a few days. We spent a few days at the beach visiting family and getting sunburned. I’ll be posting about some things I learned and observed from our trip, but for now, I’m still getting caught up. It was an awesome trip, and I had so much fun playing with the kids and spending great quality time with Jennifer. These times away are so important to strengthening my marriage and showing love to my kids.

On a personal note, pray for me as I travel with Scattered, our Cornerstone Saturday night band and speak at a youth camp Friday night near Gate City.   It will be a very busy and crazy day, but I love the opportunity to share with teens.

First of all, I want to share a video with you that we showed at Cornerstone this morning.  Just look at the pictures of fathers and their children.  You can see the joy and pride in each picture.  Then think about how your heavenly Father views you.   Don’t forget this Father’s Day that you are loved!

I hope everyone had a great Father’s Day.  I’ve spent the day with my wife and children as we visited my parents and her parents.  We had way too much food and good times for one day.  I shared in church this morning about Drew making me a special Father’s Day card.  On Saturday night, he spent a long time coloring it and drawing on it and then it was time to give it to me.  He couldn’t wait until Father’s Day, so he presented the card to me, grinning from ear to ear.  As I opened it, a $1 bill fell out.  You see, he had emptied his piggy bank, found the bill, and happily gave it away.  I gave him a huge hug and let him know how special of a gift it really was.  Luke and Emma have also shown much love to me today.  I am so proud of my children.  I want to share a post with you from Mark Batterson at evotional.com.  In his post, All I Want For Father’s Day, Mark shares his hope and prayer for his children.  I hope reading it will bless you as it did me.

What do I want for Father’s Day? It’s so simple and so important. I want my kids to grow up to love God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. I know I cannot control it, but I can pray for it. I pray that they would personalize and internalize their faith. I pray that they would own their faith and that their faith would own them. I pray for an intense spiritual hunger. A hunger to know God. A hunger to serve God. I pray for a double portion just like Elisha. I don’t carewhat they do or who they become as long as their love for God grows deeper and stronger. That love will define them. That love will give them a sense of destiny. That love will sustain them through the ups and downs of life.

That’s what I want for Father’s Day.

I wanted to share some thoughts about another book I’m reading as part of the Father’s Day Blog tour.  The Disappearance of God by Dr. Al Mohler is a book about culture, the church, and our response.   First of all, I have the utmost respect for Dr. Al Mohler and his leadership at Southern Seminary.  I feel that reformed theology definitely should have a place in the Southern Baptist Convention.  I was excited about reading this book and I really wanted to like it, but with anything that I read or review, I must share my honest opinion.

Let’s start off with what is great about the book.  In describing problems with the church, Dr. Mohler accurately calls out churches who neglect to preach and teach about sin and Hell.  He also shares about the need to return to Biblical church discipline.  I feel like we are seeing a return to Biblical truth in many churches that were once more concerned about not offending people.   I pray that the trend will continue. Here are a few quotes that I definitely agree with:

• page 20, “A country without a sense of shame or of sin does not have a sense of what is right or wrong, just what is useful or what you can get away with or not get away with.”
• page 28, “Where sin is not faced as sin, grace cannot be grace.  What need have men and women of atonement when they are told that their deepest problem is something less than what the Bible explicitly teaches? Weak teaching on sin leads to cheap grace, and neither leads to the gospel.”
• page 38, “Our responsibility is to present the truth of the Christian faith with boldness, clarity, and courage – and defending the biblical doctrine in these times will require all three of these virtues.”

In this book, Dr. Mohler examines different areas of spiritual openness that are dangerous to the church. He spends a considerable part of the book examining and discussing the emerging church.  This is where I clearly have a different opinion.   Dr. Mohler paints with a broad brush as he discusses everything that is wrong with the emerging church movement. He uses Brian McLauren as the leader and representative of the entire emerging church (page 91).  McLauren is admittedly a very polorazing pastor who does not hold to traditional theological beliefs, but he is not representative of the entire movement.

Dr. Mohler also makes no differentiation between emerging and emergent, two terms that have come to mean very different things in the church today. Emergent churches are more aligned with the Emergent Village, and tend to be theologically very liberal.  Emerging churches are a very broad group, with some holding to very traditional biblical theology.  Both Ed Stetzer and Mark Driscoll have done a great job examining the differences, as I have posted about before.   I feel that Mohler is driving a wedge between the traditionalism that is rampant inside of the  Southern Baptist Convention and others who are trying new methodologies with the same truth.  It is not healthy or beneficial to the body to paint the entire emerging church as liberal theologians who do not hold to the inerrancy and authority of scripture, when the most pressing characteristic is new methodology.

And finally, although I enjoyed the book, I kept waiting to read his thoughts on how we can turn the tide.   On how the church can make a difference in the post-Christian culture that America is quickly becoming.   The hope and plan are simply not the focus of the book.  He ends with encouragement to preach expository sermons, but even effective preaching to empty churches will not change the culture we live in.  I still believe that the church must be the church, and engage the culture if we want to make a difference.  As pastors, we must preach with boldness, clarity, and courage as Dr. Mohler challenges us, but we can’t lose hope. Here is some information about the book from the publisher.

More faulty information about God swirls around us today than ever before. No wonder so many followers of Christ are unsure of what they really believe in the face of the new spiritual openness attempting to alter unchanging truth.

For centuries the church has taught and guarded the core Christian beliefs that make up the essential foundations of the faith. But in our postmodern age, sloppy teaching and outright lies create rampant confusion, and many Christians are free-falling for “feel-good” theology.

We need to know the truth to save ourselves from errors that will derail our faith.

As biblical scholar, author, and president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Albert Mohler, writes, “The entire structure of Christian truth is now under attack.” With wit and wisdom he tackles the most important aspects of these modern issues:
Is God changing His mind about sin?
Why is hell off limits for many pastors?
What’s good or bad about the “dangerous” emergent movement?
Have Christians stopped seeing God as God?
Is the social justice movement misguided?
Could the role of beauty be critical to our theology?
Is liberal faith any less destructive than atheism?
Are churches pandering to their members to survive?

In the age-old battle to preserve the foundations of faith, it’s up to a new generation to confront and disarm the contemporary shams and fight for the truth. Dr. Mohler provides the scriptural answers to show you how.

I just finished reading the latest book by Jud Wilhite. Eyes Wide Open is a great book about grace.  Let me share a question that Jud asks in the book, “Is it possible to be a Christian and be a miserable, life-draining, and negative person?”  As you have heard me say before, the church has become so well known for what we are against, that most people don’t even know the Christ we follow.   Where have the grace and love gone?

This book seemed like a continuation of Francis Chan’s Crazy Love.   We need to be reminded that God does indeed love and care for us, and our love for Him flows out of this realization.   We don’t follow Christ because of an obligation or because we are trying to be perfect, we follow Christ because we are seeking Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  I have to be honest, I was afraid this was going to be another book all about feeling good about ourselves, but after reading it, my fears were unfounded.  While the main focus of the book is grace, obedience and repentance are not left out.

Wilhite really challenges us that we don’t have to hide and pretend that we have everything together.  I love his description of Spiritual Growth on page 107,  Grace + Truth + Time = Growth!  All of these things must be working together.     If you are struggling with your identity in Christ, then this is a great book to read.  Here is some info about the book from the publisher.

I had it all backwards. The main thing was not my love for God, but his love for me. And from that love I respond to God as one deeply flawed, yet loved. I’m not looking to prove my worth. I’m not searching for acceptance. I’m living out of the worth God already declares I have. I’m embracing his view of me and in the process discovering the person he created me to be. Eyes Wide Open, Jud Wilhite invites you to discover the real you. Not the you who pretends to be perfect to satisfy everyone’s expectations. Not the you who always feels guilty before God. Not the you who secretly feels God forgives everyone else but only tolerates you. Not the you who looks in the mirror and sees a failure. The real you, loved and forgiven by God, living out of your identity in Christ.

A travel guide through real spirituality from one incomplete person to another, Eyes Wide Open is a book of stories about following God in the messes of life, about broken pasts and our lifelong need for grace. It is a book about seeing ourselves and God with new eyes–eyes wide open to a God of love.

Apple – iPod touch – Software Update

First of all, I really want an iPhone. There’s only one problem. There’s absolutely no coverage anywhere around us with AT&T.  The new Palm Pre looks nice, but … no coverage with Sprint. I really like the Android phone from T-Mobile, but … yet again no coverage. There are advantages to living in the country, but staying on the cutting edge is not one of them. So that brings me to my iPod Touch. If I can’t have an iPhone, at least I can pretend with my iPod.

I just finished updating my 2nd generation iPod touch to the new 3.0 software. Apple added some features and made some improvements, so the $9.95 isn’t too bad to pay.  Apple added bluetooth stereo headphone support, a cool new spotlight search, a landscape keyboard for all apps, and finally the ability to copy and paste text between apps. I’ve experimented with the new features and I like everything so far, except for the bluetooth support.

When I heard they were unlocking bluetooth, I immediately thought of the Motorola S9 stereo headset that I use with my cell phone. If it would work with the iPod using skype, then the iPod could function as a phone whenever I had wifi access. The headphones look a little dorky, but they actually sound pretty good.

I paired it up with the new iPod software and started listening to music without any problem. But when I went to try out the microphone that is embedded in the headset, the iPod wouldn’t recognize it. After some checking, it looks like the bluetooth support is only for the A2DP stereo headphones, without headset support. Apparantly, Apple was afraid of enabling full headset support, knowing that the iPod might become too similar to the iPhone. I’m hoping that they will change their mind, because that one feature would be huge. I know I can plug in headphones with a microphone, but wireless is definitely the way to go. If anybody figures out a way to make it work, please let me know.

One last thing, I was able to update Jennifer’s iPod touch as well without paying the fee twice. Since we share the same Apple account, it updated her touch without purchasing it a second time. Overall I like the update, I just hope it’s not the last.

Every year, I challenge our youth to read through the New Testament during the summer.  Reading three chapters a day, you can read through the New Testament in three months.   I’m a little late issuing the challenge this year because our schools are just now letting out, but I think we all need to read the Bible consisently.  The summer is a great time to start.  Here is some info that I have posted before about different reading plans.

photo by knowhimonline

I started this blog back in July of 2006, and much has changed since then.  That was before I was on facebook, before I was on twitter, and before I was in full-time ministry.  My blog mainly served as a place for me to share my random thoughts about life and family.   I’ve been thinking lately about my online responsibility to share and minister.  It’s a little scary when I realize that I minister to more people each week online through my blog, facebook, twitter, and podcast, then I minister to in my local church.

After coming to that realization, I want to take my online responsibility seriously.  I have tried to make my blog more focused on things that would interest and help others.  I have decided to post and tweet less frequently, hopefully so I won’t waste your time or mine.  I will try to post at least once a day, but I won’t throw something up here if I don’t have something to share.

The internet has made the world smaller, but it has also increased the noise that we have to filter through each day.  My prayer and desire is that I can share and minister through what I post online.

I’ve been promising my wife Jennifer for a while that I would move her blog over to wordpress.  She picked out a cool template, and I quickly setup her blog on my Bluehost hosting account.  I imported all her old posts and comments, and everything seems to be working great so far.  I plan on helping her setup some more plugins, but it’s a good start. Drop over and check out the new look at http://www.jennimorris.com.  She blogs about the adventure and everyday life of being a mom and pastor’s wife.

We’ve decided to shake things up a little this summer for the youth ministry at Cornerstone. Instead of regularly meeting on Sunday nights for our weekly time together, we have decided to leave the building.  Some of our activities will be fun, some will be challenging, and all of them will be focused on growing in Christ.

Last week we met at the New River Trail and had a joint meeting with the youth from Cliffview.  Yesterday, we all piled into several cars and showed up at a local trailer park unannounced.  We setup a bubble machine, and got out soccer balls and basketballs and frisbees, and then started rounding up the children.  It started out slowly, but by the end, we had a crowd.  We gave out free food and even flip-flops and shoes.   By the time we left, the children were giving us hugs and asking when we were coming back.  We plan on going back and even possibly leading a Bible camp for the kids.

Why did we do this? Just to show the love of Christ to our community.  We are serious about engaging our community for Christ, and by building relationships we can show the love of Christ in tangible ways.  The truth is that when we show love, we earn the right to share the Gospel.  We want to see lives transformed by God, and we want out teenagers to experience first-hand the thrill of serving their community.

Each week, we plan on providing different opportunities for service and growth for our youth.  Then this fall, we will be relaunching our youth ministry with some exciting new changes.  I’m excited as we pray and seek God’s vision and direction for the youth at Cornerstone.

Yesterday, we kicked off the One Prayer Series at Cornerstone.  We are excited to be part of this Global movement to fulfill the prayer of Jesus found in John 17, that we would be ONE.  We took part in this series last year, and it was a great experience. The theme this year is “God Is …..”

Just stop and think for a moment.  How would you feel in the blank?  How do you describe the character and nature of God in just one sentence?  The truth is that we could spend years just on this simple theme describing the Glory of God.

My sermon yesterday was God Is Enough and the audio will be up later today at our website and on iTunes.  God is enough for every circumstance, and we need to keep our eyes focused on following Christ through everything.  Through our success and our failure, through the good and the bad, we must continually seek Him.  I am excited about what we will learn together through this series. We will be continuing this series through the months of June and July.

I want to encourage you to visit the One Prayer website each day to find out how you can pray with other believers around the world.  You can also follow One Prayer on twitter,on facebook, and on YouTube.

One Prayer 2009: One Prayer began in 2008 with a simple idea: We pray to Jesus asking Him to answer our prayers – what if we became the answer to His? He prayed that we would be one, and One Prayer is an opportunity to see what can be accomplished when the Church works together.

Last June, thousands of churches formed unprecedented partnerships across cities, continents, denominations, and cultures. More than two million believers stood together to learn, pray, fast, and love others. This year, we’ll be joining forces once again as we go out into the world to share, serve and give during One Prayer 2009.

When I read through the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan, one quote really stood out to me. Chan actually quoted a paragraph from John Piper’s Book, God is the Gospel. That one quote was the inspiration for my sermon this week.  I’ll give you a sneak preview.  Read this slowly, and really think about it.

The critical question for our generation, and for every generation is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?

After reading this quote, I had to go and read the entire book by Piper. It dives deep into God’s Glory.  But the question that kept ringing through my mind was simply this, “Is God enough?”

I’ll be sharing more about the One Prayer Series that we are starting this week, but the theme is God Is …

Strip away all the stuff in life:  the good, the bad, the sickness, the success, the failure, the poverty, and the wealth, and simply look at your life. Can you honestly say that God is enough?

Fourteen years ago today, I was a nervous wreck.  I had just graduated from Virginia Tech and started a job as a Crash-test Engineer for an aerospace company in North Carolina, and I was getting ready for one of the biggest moments of my life.   On that day, I married my high-school sweetheart and we started on an incredible journey.   We had dated for over 5 years, and my only regret is that we didn’t get married sooner.

Fast forward to today.  Three children later with a career change into ministry, and our marriage is still getting better every day.   The above picture is from a parade back during winter, but I think it is an awesome picture of our family.

I am truly a blessed man.  I thank God every day for my wife and family, and I pray that I will be the husband and father that God has called me to be.  Thanks Jenni, for being an incredible wife and an incredible mother to our children.

My wife also has a blog about where she shares about our family and ministry.  Check it out at http://www.jennimorris.com