I really had no idea what to title this post. I wanted to share a few things and all of them wouldn’t fit in the title to express more fully what this post would have. So hopefully the title I chose was enough to get you to check it out. And if you are reading this than it did.
I am so excitied that we are having Jason Dooley lead our music this Sunday. Jason has been filling in on the drums while Derrick has been out of town. I think that is about 5 weeks so far. What a guy! The coolest things is that he has agreed to lead the band for us this Sunday.
Jason’s style is an interesting one. I liken it to 80’s pop rock. It is very cool. If you would like him to lead more often be sure to tell him how much you enjoyed it and how awesome he is. The fastest way to a musicians heart is through their ego… j/k…kind of.
Now I didn’t ask for permission but I am going to take the chance that Jason doesn’t read this blog and share a song that he will be doing this Sunday. This is one of his originals and should give you a good idea what we can expect from him. The lyrics are below as well.
Bring Me Down
I’m letting go of all the things
that bring me down, that bring me down
because I see peace, it’s here I laugh aloud it’s here I dance about
because I believe
In the God I serve
who has parted seas
He sent his son who died for me
All my sins were nailed to a tree
To all my fears Christ has set me free
so what can bring you down
nothing can bring you down
nothing can bring you down
In my last post I shared my life motto, if God is for me, who can be against me. This song says the same exact thing in a much simpler way…what can bring me down…
A Video To Boot
In the spirit of our current series that starts this Sunday as well at LifePoint, here is a video that really sets a great tone. It’s for Apple but it is exactly what we are going to be talking about. Enjoy.
A friend and fellow LifePointer, Jeremy Moore, twittered yesterday that he was working on his personal motto. Which got me thinking that I have never talked much about the topic or even shared my own. So I thought I would share the reason for having a personal motto as well as share my own life motto and why I chose it.
What is and Why have a personal life motto.
In brief, a personal motto is a word, sentence or phrase that explains how you approach life in general. It’s a small glance at a much greater world view. The real reason for having a life motto, or creed if you will, is to choose how will live your life.
My Life Motto
My life motto is one I have had for years and comes from Romans 8:31. It’s simple and drives why I do what I do and how I face various challenges. Here it is.
If God is for me, who can be against me?
Why is my life motto significant to me. It’s simple really. The first part is a reminder of where Christ has positioned me. God is for me. The second part is really rich with meaning. The “who can be” in this passage can also be translated “who is”. As in, if God is on my side who is there to oppose me. What can possibly stress me out when I am walking with God? What can stand in my way when God has told me to do something? What trials, criticisms, disturbances, devils, financial woes, health problems, temptations or anything else for that matter, can stop me from living the life God has chosen for me?
God wants to do huge things through his children. If God is for us, what person or circumstance could ever stand in the way? This is not a question of uncertainty but a challenge to remember who I serve.
Here is the video that we showed this past Sunday as a teaser video to our coming Black Sheep series. It made me laugh and so I thought I would share with all of you who missed it.
I didn’t get to share a small but actually very important part of my message this past Sunday. In our current series, Tempting Faith, we are looking at the temptations that every human being faces during their life journey. We are joining Jesus through his three temptations to simply make us aware of some things we will face.
In the passage, I glazed over a small portion of the text. In Mathew 4:2 it says, “And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” I mentioned that it was kind of a strange and obvious thing to write and promised that I would get back to it. I didn’t, but here is what I wanted to say.
Sometimes, in the midst of our temtpations and wilderness periods, we wonder if God is even aware of our suffering. Does he know what we are going through? It’s kind of like when my wife wants to tell me how hard of a day she has had or how bad she is feeling. She usually doesn’t expect me to be able to solve the problem. She just wants to know that I am aware of it.
I feel the same way with God at times. I know that God is not always going to swoop down and solve all of my problems. Many times for reasons that I don’t know and probably wouldn’t understand, but it’s sure nice to know that he is aware of the storm. He was hungry, I’m weak and God knows. And somehow that’s conforting to me.
Well, not actually considering. In fact I am already sold on the idea of small groups. I believe very strongly that true spiritual growth comes from life experiences with people. I believe in small groups because I believe we never truly open up to a large group of people but we may in a small safe environment. Small groups are a great place to be vulnerable, open and raw. It’s also the place where you learn that you aren’t the only one struggling and gain perspective and empathy.
So that is all the stuff I do know. What I don’t know is if there is one right or wrong way to develop a small group structure. I don’t know if small groups should be study based, mission based or fellowship based. I don’t know is they should specialize in one or dabble in all three. I don’t know if we should insist on specified curriculum, let each group make it up as they go, or a combination of both.
So that is what I don’t know. Here is what I pray. I pray that everybody who considers LifePoint their home will get involved in a small group. I pray that they will establish relationships that will comfort them through hard times and challenge them to live the life Christ is calling them to. I pray that these groups will not become the destination but a launching pad for a greater walk with God. I pray I don’t screw them up.
Over the next week or so I will be sporadically posting on my thoughts and decisions concerning the future of small groups at LifePoint. Fell free to share your thoughts.
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you just have so much stuff to write that you don’t know where to start. I am in that place write now. I have been taking so much time off from blogging that I am clogged. With that in mind I am not going to write about anything. Well, that’s not completely true. I am not going to write about anything specific. Instead I am going to share all of the topic that I want to write about in hopes that some coherent thoughts might find there way to later posts.
So much has been happening at LifePoint. We have been growing during a time when our attendance should be at it’s lowest point. We have been financial stable when we should have been struggling. People are serving Christ like never before when they are usually on vacation.
I have heard amazing thiings from this past Sunday. Record attaendance, record giving, amazing music. It’s nice to know that things can go even better when I am gone.
We have been giving out free water on the greenway for a full month and we are going to try to keep it up through the remainder of summer. It’s neet the conversations that get started and the new friendships that are made.
I actually took a weekend off. Not just from my paying job but from LifePoint as well. It was really nice. We spent the weekend in Georgia and vsitied North Point Community Church. It was very refreshing and a very powerful message by Louis Giglio.
New message series starts on August 3rd. I am so excited about this series. I haven’t nailed down the title yet since it has kind of morphed from where it started but I can promise you that it will challenge the rhetoric of faith with the reality of faith.
God has been really challenging me to write about what he has been revealing to me through his word. I hope to start doing that soon.
I have a lot on my mind about the systems of LifePoint. There are a lot of things that we have implemented recently that are really working but God has me challenging everything we do. It makes for interesting discussions and even more interesting changes. God is calling us to take risks. They may not seem like risks to most other churches but for LifePoint they are risks. I am ready to take them.
I am working on a new way of planning our worship services. New for us anyway. I think iy will increase the quality and focus exponentially.
That’s it for now. Time for bed. Let’s see whate all these thoughts develop into in the days to come. Goodnight.
I know I haven’t been writing and I keep saying that I am going to get back to it but this isn’t the week it is going to happen. I will be taking the week off from all of this and most church stuff. This will carry on right through Monday morning of next week. I will still be doing things through out the week but nothing to intensive. For anything really urgent contact Kevin. ;)
I haven’t written one of these in a long time but now that I mention it I haven’t been writing that much at all. This is mostly becuase there is just so much going on and I haven’t had time to write now have I had any idea which things to write about. Anyway here are a few things off the top of my head.
Service today was awesome! Anyone attending LifePoint can tell that God is doing something big and preparing to do even more.
Attendance over the past seven weeks has been amazing. We have more than doubled our average attendance during that this time. This is crazy. Last summer we didn’t even know if we woulld be able to pay our rent from week to the next. This summer we are growing when most churches attendance is at their low point.
Speaking of strange attendance trends. Today we had our highest attendance since our preview services…on a holiday weekend. Crazy!
We had 10 First Time guests this morning. Very cool.
It felt really good to preach again but I will still be taking the next three weeks off from it. First Sunday of August I will kicking it into full gear. Can’t wait.
Although I won’t be teaching these next few Sundays, I can promise you they will be services you don’t want to miss.
The last two Saturday’s we have been giving out free bottled water on the Greenway. It has been a great way to serve the community with no strings attached. Some great conversations have come from it. Jenny & Clark will be out there this Saturday doing it again.
Last week we finished the One Prayer series and our small congration took up $300.00 to contribute to the missions initiative. It not much but when you add it to the offerings of over 1,000 other churches, most much bigger than us, it is quite a bit.
This Saturday I have the honor of officating the wedding of TJ Fettig and Sarah Warren. These are two awesome LifePointers who taking there next step toward God in an awesome new adventure. Keep them in your prayers this week.
In two week I will be taking my first Sunday off from church in about 5 years in celebration of my birth. I am going to hate being away but I think it’s important that I do it every once in awhile.
Well, that’s enough for now. Hopefully after this week I will get back into the swing of writing regularly again.
I am so late in writing this but that is not because I am not excited. In fact I am more excited than I have been in a long time. Thats not to say that I haven’t been excited throughout this journey of starting LifePoint but that I believe we are on the verge of something really great.
I am going to say something that some might not really understand…I feel the Holy Spirit stirring something within LifePoint as a whole but also deeply within many of us as individuals. Over the past couple weeks God has been prodding, poking and stirring something fierce (can I say fierce) inside me. Cleveland…lookout!
Now on to the weekend.
Saturday morning (tomorrow) we are giving out water at the Cleveland Greenway. It will be good, free, and cold. Come out and say hello. We will be there from 9am until we run out of water. It should be a lot of fun.
Sunday Guest Speaker: Pastor Steven Furtick
Some of you may have been like me and felt a little ashamed when Pastor Ed Young said the phrase “Off the Chain”. Not that there is anything wrong with that phrase other than a man of Pastor Ed’s age shouldn’t use phrases like that (I mean no disrespect). That is probably another post in and of itself.
Now if there were a pastor that I thought could use that phrase it is our guest speaker this Sunday. He is the Senior Pastor of Elevation Church and his message is Lord, Make Us Audacious. You do not want to miss it.
Goodbye
On a sad note, we will be saying goodbye to an awesome couple who have served God and LifePoint well in Cleveland, Tennessee. Please join us Sunday as we pray for them and send them off to the next phase of their journey.
This week we are continuing our series One Prayer with guest speaker, Pastor Ed Young. If you missed Pastor Craig Groeschel last week you do not want to miss the next two. Pastor Ed Young is the senior pastor of Fellowship Church located in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Don’t miss this Sunday at LifePoint where Pastor Ed Young will share his one prayer, Lord, Make Us Wake Up.
A Revolutionary Opportunity.
This Sunday we will also be taking up a special offering for a most amazing missions initiative. Instead of me telling you about it, hear Pastor Craig to give you the 411.