Saw this today at Evotional. Good thoughts on knowing yourself.

John 1:14 says that Jesus was full of grace and truth.

Grace means I’ll love you no matter what.
Truth means I’ll be honest with you no matter.

Jesus was the perfect combination of both. Unfotunately, most of us aren’t

So here is my question: are you more grace-oriented or truth-oriented? Where do you fall on the grace-truth spectrum? I think it is important to know your tendency because it will dictate how you to respond to situations like this. And the truth is: one without the other doesn’t cut it.

Grace without truth is Christianity without a backbone.
Truth without grace is Christianity without a heart.

This past Sunday was unique. We had a joint service with Oakland United Methodist Church which is directly across the street from the school where we meet. Our praise band led the music and Sam had a great message about worship being so much more than the music you sing. Their church is looking toward transitioning to a more blended/contemporary style of music in worship.

It was awesome getting together with another church just to worship and fellowship together. We have such a culture of competition ingrained in the American church. It is great to just lay aside our differences and focus on our common goal of making disciples of Christ. They had some serious food after the service. They definitely have been blessed with some good cooks. There’s nothing like an artery clogging, cholesterol raising, church potluck.

As a side note, I hate labels because contemporary praise music is not really contemporary. What we sing in most churches is the style that was popular 15 years ago. Just ask a teenager if what we sing in church is contemporary and you will get a honest answer. If we stop and think about it, traditional churches were contemporary in style at one time, they just decided to not change with the culture. Honestly, shouldn’t churches be known more for what they believe in and what their mission is.

Our music shouldn’t define us,
but we should be known by our message.

Our style shouldn’t define us,
but we should be known by our hearts.

Our buildings shouldn’t define us,
but we should be known by our fruits.

As churches, let’s stop focusing on “labels” and start focusing on reaching people for Christ.

These are good. Geoff Surratt from Seacoast Church put together this list. I have visited Seacoast several times on vacation and have really enjoyed their church. You can really tell that God is moving there. Here are some good ideas to think about.

Ten Myths of Ministry

1. Being a Senior Pastor is the goal of ministry
   Having been the “Senior Pastor” of 11 angry Texans and a flock of very loud geese (its a long story), I can now attest that Senior Pastor is NOT the ultimate goal of ministry. I call this the goose poop revelation.
2. A good speaker makes a good Senior Pastor
   After a weekend of speaking at Seacoast someone will come up and say, “When are you going to start a church of your own” After I pat this poor misguided soul on the head and wipe the drool off of their chin I remind them that making speeches on the weekend is not pastoring, its preaching. Being an effective preacher does not necessarily make one a good pastor. It like saying, “You’re so good at carving a turkey, when will you become a brain surgeon?” A good speaker makes a good speaker.
3. A good pastor does all of the care giving at a church
   Pastors should be good at funerals, praying for the sick, and counseling. I’m 0 for 3. I once forgot a ladies name while conducting her funeral, I have told sick people in the hospital that I’d be really depressed if I was sick as they were and when people tell me their problems my first response is to tell they should probably just give up. I’m not much in the care giving category. Fortunately we have pastors and small group leaders at Seacoast who love that stuff and knock it out of the park. I told may family today that if I’m at a tough spot in my life, please go find Pastor Michael, he’s got it dialed in.
4. Lay people are way too busy to serve in the church
   People are waiting to be asked to serve in the church. Announcements asking for volunteers are worthless. An arm around the shoulder saying, “will you partner with me in changing the world” is what people are waiting for.
5. The church down the street is our competition
   We spend way too much time worrying about what the Baptists are doing, what we need to think about are what the heathens are doing. Our competition is the beach, the golf course, the football game, the bar. Jesus went to a lot of wild parties to reach the people he came to save, he didn’t worry a lot about what was happening at the synagogue one village over.
6. A church meets in one location
   Its funny that in 21st century America we’ve decided that every building should be a different church. What an incredible waste of energy and resources. Why should we reinvent the wheel over and over? If Fellowship is effective in Dallas AND Miami, isn’t that a win for the team? We are all on the same team aren’t we? Aren’t we?
7. Preaching has to be live to be effective
   Another 21st century American idea, live speaking is the key to spiritual growth. The ironic thing is that the people that push this agenda to most are the ones who spend the most time quoting the sermons of dead people. (I’d like some Spurgeon with a splash of Edwards please.)
8. People have to connect in person with the Senior Pastor
   This goes back to the idea that the Senior Pastor is the goal of ministry, that he is a celebrity that everyone needs to be able to touch in person. People need someone up close and person to connect with to grow spiritually. If that needs to be the Senior Pastor then churches should never get bigger than 10-12 people.
9. The key to growth is a larger building
   Churches are spending more than $100,000,000 to build bigger buildings. God have mercy on our souls. Can you imagine what could be done with $100,000,000 if it were put into campuses, or new churches or missions? Let’s move on…
10. You need a building to do church well
    I love stories of churches that grow without owning a building. While there’s a lot to be said for having a home, a church without a building is a cause. The people who attend have a passion for ministry you seldom see anywhere else. I think sometimes building stunt ministry rather than grow it.

Our local newspaper had a short article about Cornerstone in today’s paper. I think the article does a decent job of showing how we want to reach out to our community. We want to avoid just trying to create services for the community. I think that just increases the consumerism of the people we are trying to reach. We have to balance reaching out to our community with our purpose of making fully devoted disciples of Christ. It’s a tight rope that we will always walk. How do we contextualize the message to our local culture without losing the focus of the message? How do we make sure that we are challenging people to be transformed and still reach out to the lost? As I shared with the church at the first service on the land, God is writing a new chapter in the story of Cornerstone. We have started our church without marketing, direct mail, or any other advertising. This is really the first opportunity for many in our community to hear of us. I’m excited to see God move and create opportunities for us to reach out.

One of the area’s newest churches is making plans to build a permanent home on 18 acres in Carroll County near Galax.And those plans include more than just a place to have Sunday services, said Mike Morris, one of the leaders of Cornerstone Community Church. “We want to be good neighbors in the community,” he said. The congregation and church leaders want to include people from the community in planning for and using the property.

Ideas include a walking track, amphitheater and playground, though nothing is definite for now.The church is in early stages of planning for the tract on the corner of Timberline Drive and Cranberry Road. It will likely be next year before development starts.
…

“We want to provide opportunities to connect people with God. That’s our main purpose, develop fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ and encourage people to get involved,” he said. County Administrator Gary Larrowe said, “For it to be available to the community is one of the focuses of the group … that’s absolutely awesome to have another asset in that part of the county.”

I read an interesting article over at Evotional. Mark Batterson is pastor of National Community Church in DC. He has some challenging thoughts from his new book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. Check out his comments below. Are you holding back chasing a lion in your life?

At the end of your ministry, you won’t regret the mistakes you made nearly as much as the opportunities you missed. That conviction is based on the research of two sociologists, Tom Gilovich and Vicki Medvec. According to their study, time is a key factor in what we regret. In the short-term, we tend to regret our actions. Action regrets outnumber inaction regrets 53% to 47% during an average week.

Over the long-haul, however, we tend to regret inactions. When people look at their lives as a whole, inaction regrets outnumber action regrets 84% to 16%.

In theological terms, action regrets are sins of commission. And they cause a twinge of guilt. But it is the inaction regrets or sins of omission that haunt us the rest of our lives. We are left to wonder: what if?

… We’re not afraid of making mistakes. We’re afraid of not making mistakes because that means we aren’t stretching ourselves and trying to new things. We view every sermon series as a teaching experiment. Every outreach is an evangelism experiment. Every small group is a discipleship experiment. … I just don’t want to get to the end of my life and my ministry and wonder: What if?

There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet. Keep experimenting!

From Evotional

You know you’re a redneck if…

you have a set of salad bowls that say “cool whip” on the side!

you make change in the offering plate

fast food is hitting a deer at 65 mph

you have a race car on your prayer list

you stare at orange juice containers because they say “concentrate”

your mailbox is spelled male

your dad walks you to school cause you’re in the same grade

Jeff said a couple things worth contemplating:”Debating our righteousness is like debating about who can jump farther over the Grand Canyon. It doesn’t matter how far you can jump. You’re both going to fall the same distance.