Watch this video, and then ask yourself how this changes the methods we use in church. If you wonder why I spend time on my blog, on twitter, and on facebook, here is your reason. Times are changing, but are we willing to respond to the change?
thanks to Chris Elrod for the link
While on vacation, we spent several afternoons in Barnes & Noble cooling down, enjoying the Starbucks and air conditioning. I saw a huge display of twilight books, and it made me do some thinking. I know many people who have read through the entire series in a very short amount of time, typically in under a month. I did a little research and found that the total number of words in the twilight series is very close to the total number of words in the Bible. You can do the math, most people don’t read through the Bible every month. So why do people struggle to consistently read through the Bible?
Is it a lack of passion? of time? of ability?
I have been reading through my Bible using a one-year plan, and I find myself getting behind when things get crazy. But in the last two days, I have read two complete books on my Kindle. Again, I find that disturbing.
I think the real reason we don’t read the Bible passionately is that we lose perspective of the incredible story of God.
When reading a novel, it’s easy to get lost in the story, to get consumed with the suspense of what is going to happen next. But for some reason, when we read the Bible, we lose sight of the incredible story of God’s love for us. We have the story of how God created the world, how he set everything in motion, how Adam and Eve sin, how the nation of Israel is established, and the story of how God redeems His children through Jesus Christ. The New Testament details the life of Jesus, his death, burial, and resurrection, the start of the early church, and how the Gospel message is spread throughout the world. It’s the most incredible story ever told! And yet I’ve heard people say that it’s boring and that it doesn’t relate to their life. When you see the Bible for what it really is, God’s love letter to mankind, it changes your perspective. You develop a hunger and a desire to let it speak into your life and transform you. And you can’t read it fast enough.
When I first started reading my Bible in college, I couldn’t put it down. I was fascinated by the New Testament. I had heard the stories as a child and as a teen, but I had never really applied them to my life. Looking back, I think it was the most intense and fastest growth I have ever experienced as a follower of Christ. I learned what it meant to follow Christ through reading the Bible. I truly believe that you will not see spiritual growth in your life if you neglect the reading of God’s word.
Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte has challenged his entire staff to read through the Bible in 90 days. When I first saw his reading plan, I thought it was a little crazy. But now I’m starting to see wisdom in his challenge. Yes, it is good to slowly read and meditate on scripture, but there is something about regaining our perspective of God’s compelling story. And when we are fascinated by a story, we can’t put it down.
We just got back home from a vacation to Washington, D.C. and Williamsburg, Virginia. We had a great time seeing all the historic sites and memorials for our great country. But the sights and sounds weren’t the focus of the trip. The time with family is the important part of any vacation.
It’s easy to fall into a trap of over-planning the places you visit. You can fill your schedule up with so many activities that you don’t make time to talk and laugh and play with each other. In D.C., I was slowly falling into the trap of trying to do too much. I’m a task-oriented person by nature, so it’s easy for me to go full-steam ahead. It was a little stressful walking all over D.C. and riding the Metro. I have always felt pretty safe in D.C., but with my family there, I was a little on edge. If you have watched Hillbilly Ninja, you know what this Southwest Virginia boy can do.
But after a few days, I’m glad to report that I finally unwound and slowed down and started having fun with the family. And by the time we got to Williamsburg, we were having a great time. The kids were wild, we were laughing, and we even saw a few great sights in the process.
You can plan a great trip, but I think it is much better to plan a great vacation with your family. Don’t forget what is really important. Create great family memories by having fun together.
It’s good to be back home in the land of sweet tea and friendly people. 
Here are a few pictures from our trip.
Our family is leaving in the morning for a vacation, so I’ll be unplugging from my internet world for several days. We’re going to Washington, D.C. and Williamsburg with the kids. I plan on attending Mark Batterson’s National Community Church on Sunday and also checking out Ebenezers Coffeehouse while I’m there. I’ll see if I can pick up any ideas for our Cornerstone Cafe. I’ll try to send a few updates over twitter, but for the most part, my blog will be silent. See you guys on the other side.
image by Darren HesterI have been meeting with a group of young pastors for the past several days. We are part of a leadership development program called uptick and we are being coached and mentored by a pastor who has a huge heart for helping younger leaders. Our topic this week has been accountability. We all know the importance of friendship and accountability, but why don’t we make it more of a priority in our lives?
A pastor who has struggled with an addiction in his life came and shared with us today. He shared the importance of finding at least one true friend who you can be open and honest with. I don’t know about you, but for me, this thought was scary. Outside of my wife, I really don’t have anyone who I feel I can confide in. That definitely needs to change. I will be praying and working on developing more accountability in my life, and I challenge you to do the same. In Hebrews, we are told we are naked and exposed before God. You can’t hide before God, so why do we try to hide all the problems we face in life?
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable. Hebrews 4:13 NLT
The following is part of a devotion that Craig Groeschel used at Lifechurch during the Life Development series. I was reminded of it during our talks this week, so I found it on my hard drive and decided to share it here on my blog. Accountability is so important in our life, so let’s commit together to taking it seriously. This is powerful, so read it slowly.
When I was in school, one of the things I often wanted to know about an assignment was if it was going to be graded. If it was, then I’d put more into it. If it wasn’t going to be graded, then I didn’t work as hard.
My life today demonstrates this principle just as much as it did when I was in school.
Accountability closes the gap between intentions and actions.
Most people prefer not to be graded in life. We need to embrace the truth that life is graded. Hebrews 4:13 says that nothing is hidden from God’s sight. At the end of our life on earth, we’ll stand before God and give an account of what we’ve done—or haven’t done—in His name.
There are four common reasons that most people resist accountability:
- We fear failure. If we have accountability, then people will know when we fail.
- We don’t see the value of accountability. We think we can do it on our own, but the truth is, we probably haven’t and won’t.
- We’re rebellious. We don’t like having someone else hold us responsible for our actions.
- We’re full of pride. We think we don’t need others. But we weren’t created to accomplish things alone. God created us to need Him and to need each other.
The Bible teaches us that we must overcome these barriers to accountability. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man that falls and has no one to help him up!” The truth is that it’s very unlikely that you’ll accomplish God’s plan without correction. Isaiah 53:6 says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way.” We’re prone to wander. We may start strong, but our attention quickly drifts.
I’ve found that I’m easily distracted from God’s plan by many of the cares of the world. That’s why I have people hold me accountable—they help me get back on track. When a rocket launches, headed for the moon, it’s only on track ten percent. Ninety percent of the time adjustments are being made, but in the end, they reach the goal. That’s what accountability does for us. We may start to drift off course, and then someone lovingly comes in to help us adjust. You cannot correct what you are unwilling to confront.
It was strange tonight having a cookout with the family instead of being at church. As many of you know, we have stopped having our Saturday night service during the month of August. During the past year, Cornerstone has had two services: one on Saturday nights at 7pm, and one on Sunday morning at 10am. If you have been at church the past few weeks, you have heard our decision to move our Saturday night service to Sunday night starting September 13th. It was not an easy decision to make, but we feel that it will be best for everyone involved. When you have to change something that you created, it is tough, but I am excited about the changes we are making.
So we decided to address the good and the bad by moving the service to Sunday night. We debated moving to two Sunday morning services, but we would lose the identity and environment that we have worked so hard to create on Saturday nights. Having a service opportunity for our younger band to lead worship was important, and trying to incorporate two different bands on Sunday morning would have been difficult. Already, we have had much more support from our volunteers about serving on Sunday night. It also worked well with our decision to start a mid-week youth service.
I hope that we will soon be adding a second service on Sunday mornings (that makes three services all together). That will be the next logical time to add. But for now, we are encouraging people to think about switching to the Sunday night service to free up some space for visitors on Sunday morning, especially our teenagers and their famillies. I’ll share more about our youth ministry and the new changes over the next few weeks.
I wanted to start a new feature here at FaithEngineer and share about some of the tech gear we use at church and some of the gear that we want to use (but can’t afford yet). I’m kicking it off by sharing about the new camcorder that we are using now to film video clips, announcements, and even our services. We have been wanting a camcorder for a while now, and we were blessed to receive this one for free from someone in our community.
The Panasonic AG-HMC70 is a HD camcorder that records in the AVCHD format. What makes it unique is that it records directly to small SDHC memory cards. It also has professional audio connectors including two XLR microphone inputs and one 1/8″ stereo input. It doesn’t have a ton of options, but it does what it is supposed to do, recording great HD video with excellent audio options. We will be editing footage from this in iMovie, Final Cut Express, and Adobe Premiere. I will probably transcode the video to 720p, since that is what our widescreen projectors use. It also has an HDMI output that we can use to send through a switcher or directly to a TV. It is a great entry level prosumer camcorder for churches that sells for under $2000. It is big and it is ugly, but it does exactly what we need it to. Here is a review that shares more about the camcorder.
At our First Wednesday Service at Cornerstone last night, Sam shared about Christian leadership. He shared some examples from a blog post by Tony Morgan. I also talked about the importance of leadership development this past Sunday. But you cannot talk about Christian leadership without talking about the character and integrity of the leader. We all have influence, how are we going to use it? Check out these passages that Sam shared last night.
Leadership is less about the words or actions of the leader and more about the character of the leader.
That’s the conclusion I’ve reached after revisiting what the Bible has to say about leadership within the Church. For example, we can look at a handful of passages and come to this “job description” for leaders:
- Encourage others. (Romans 14:19)
- Set an example with your speech, life and faith. (I Timothy 4:12)
- Remain pure. (I Timothy 4:12)
- Embrace humility and gentleness. (Ephesians 4:2)
- Promote peace and unity. (Ephesians 4:3)
- Avoid arguments and quarreling. (2 Timothy 2:24)
- Gently instruct others. (2 Timothy 2:25)
- Maintain emotional control. (Titus 2:6)
- Demonstrate integrity in your actions and speech. (Titus 2:7-8)
- Live your life above reproach. (I Timothy 3:2)
Cornerstone Sermons