Death is a Part of Life

On November 15th two of my family members had birthday's. On November 15th a brother in the Lord died. Death for the Christian is moving from the temporal to the eternal. Celebrating a birthday is part of the temporal and death for the Christian is a celebration to the eternal. The day of ones birth and the day of ones death are worthy of celebration.

Paul said "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain". From the perspective of advantage, death has a greater return in terms of what we gain. We should live this life to the fullest as we prepare to graduate to what life really was mean't to be.

To My brother Bill I write, you really are in a better place and one day we who believe in Jesus will be with you as we celebrate our eternity with the Savior.

Brown Cow or Purple Cow

Mark Batterson really gets down to the bottom line when it comes to how to make and impact.
It seems to me that if we follow through on this chain of thought we could really see some results. Brown churches stay the same. Purple churches find ways to change things up.

1)Brown churches sit on the sideline and invite the community to come to them. Purple churches are always going and compelling. They are making such a big difference that they become a highly visible part of their community. And people drive by the brown churches--the churches that are invisible--to go to the purple church.
2) The greatest message deserves the greatest marketing. I know that marketing is a dirty word in some church circles, but does it get anybody else riled up that Madison Avenue is far better at pedaling its worthless wares than the church is at preaching the good news? I have a problem with that. We need sanctified competitive streaks.
3) The church ought to be the most creative place on the planet. Too many churches look too much alike. We need lots of different kinds of churches because there are lots of different kinds of people.

Every church has a unique churchprint and ought to be a unique expression of the gospel in their kingdom niche.So how do we paint ourselves purple? For starters, dare to be different. You might offend some Pharisees, but that isn't who you're trying to reach. Secondly, disrupt the routine. I think it starts with your personal routine. Change of pace + change of place = change of perspective.

You need to get out of your routine so you can have some purple thoughts. As a leader, you need to cause confusion. Jesus didn't do orientations. He did disorientations. You need to find new ways of saying old things (see the Parables). You need to find new wineskins. You need to sing a new song. Neurological studies have found that familiarity stimulates the left-brain. Novelty stimulates the right-brain. We need some Spirit-inspired, right-brained ideas that capture the imagination of the church and the world. the good news ought to make the news.

The Seeker's from the East

The story of the Wise Men has to be more than just a story that we connect with the Christmas Manger. The seeker's from the East were involved in a serious search for the truth concerning the Messiah. These were serious seeker's. Truth seeking is critical because at the root of the search is the difference between life and death.

Things to consider:

Seeker's ask questions - where is the King of the Jews?
Seeker's are given signs - They were given a star to follow
Seeker's have enemies - Herod wanted to use the Wise Men for evil
Seeker's bring gifts - They brought there gifts and worshiped Jesus
Seeker's receive experiences - They received great joy

God Is In Control

The election is over, the people have spoken, but more important we are reminded, God is in control. We have our convictions and our political persuasion's and those don't change but we are called to do the following:

Pray for our leaders.
Respect those in authority.
Follow the law of the land (except when it forces us to go against God's Word)
Remind ourselves that the only real hope for people is found in Jesus.
Remember that the heart of the king is in the hands of God.
Work to build the Kingdom of God.
Take courage for God is still on His throne.

The Seeker's Series

Starting this Sunday I will begin a new series entitled "The Seeker's". In this series I will address why people seek Jesus. While there are some who seem to not seek the Lord I believe all people seek truth and we know Jesus is the "Truth".

My first message will focus on the the Wise men who came from the east seeking the king of the
Jews. I will make the point that people who are far away from God many times come to the point of longing to draw closer to the Lord. Tragically it seem that those closest to the truth seem to ignore what is right in front of them.

The Bible encourages all of us to "seek the Lord while he may be found". I hope and pray this series will help all of us to draw closer to Jesus.

Thanking God

Last night Living Springs had there October Fest. I am not exaggerating in saying that we had a great response to this event. We had people all over the church parking lot. We gave away alot of hot dogs, sodas, juice, water, candy and popcorn. If fact we ran out of every thing and people still hung around. We had our big screen playing Christian music videos.

We gave out invitations inviting everyone to our church services and people asked a lot of question about our ministry.

The highlight of the night and the main reason we had the event was to present our live drama "I'm Not Afraid To Die! Or Am I? We had six showings and about 5o people prayed the sinners prayer. It was great and we give all the honor to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

A special thank you to all who made this wonderful outreach possible.

getting ready for 2009

We have 2 months left in 2008. For me 2008 has been a very exciting year for many reasons. I have learned a great deal about change and why it is necessary for progress. I have also learned that experience is a great friend when launching out in new directions. I want to list eight words I believe are important as we turn the corner to the final stretch of 2008.

1. Steady
2. focus
3. agressive
4. positive
5. faith
6. compassion
7. vision
8. humility