Hey Gang, I hope everyone had a wonderful CHRISTmas!!

I wanted to put down some reflections that are on my heart from Sunday morning. I hope that you all had the opportunity to be at Real LIfe with us this weekend (www.forreallife.com). If not, we celebrated our successes for 2008 and talked about Change for 2009, give Vanessa a shout if you want to hear the message. As I look back at the morning and the message, I get so excited about 2009 and the possibilites for us as a group of people serving God! We have been given an amazing opportunity(and responsibility) to reach out to people in our communities, and to share with them a message of Jesus.

**Here are a couple of thoughts on our opportunity/responsibility:

What are you doing to get out of your spiritual comfort zone?

• Are you reading: the bible, books, blogs, etc? Are you searching for knowledge to make you better? Remember, it is going to "Cost" you to go to the next level!! We have to get out of our comfort zone to move forward in our spiritual life.

Once out of your comfort zone, are you open to and willing to change?

• Are you ok with putting your personal likes and dislikes asside in order for another person to get a glimpse of God and what a realtionship with Him could be like? As followers of Christ, we must be willing to look at things through the eyes of person who does not know Jesus. We have to be intentional about providing an atmosphere where people can check out the temperature of water, before having to jump in.

Exponential Growth Factor!

• I touched on this a little on Sunday. When we take things on our shoulders and "get things done" on our hard work and effort, we can grow Christs kingdom, only as big as we are able to keep things from falling thru the cracks. When we try to keep working hard on our own and trust and consult God on for the things that are seemingly going wrong, we still can see some kingdom growth. But I think what God has been trying to get us to see is that we have to put His desires first and foremost. We have to let Him use us, instead of Us using Him for our wants and wishes. In order to experience this "Exponential Growth Factor", we have to surrender our wants, desires and wishes to Him. Put Him First always! If we, as a church, can figure this out......."hold on to you fork" as Perry Noble would say!!! There is some great stuff coming our way!

Hey, that's all for now, but remember this Sunday starts "30 days to Live". You do not want to miss this! This series will be a great step in the direction of change for 2009!! See ya there.

Got this today from TheDailyVerse.com
If you don't subscribe, I would encourage you to check it out...

"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ... 2 Corinthians 10:5

You can't control everything that happens to you, but you do have the ability to choose how you respond to things. Choose to run your thoughts and your actions through the filter of Christ, taking captive those that won't move you, your situation or the Gospel forward."

Apparently, the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan is AMAZING. Although, I haven't read it, many of the people that I love are RAVING about it!

These quotes are from Perry Noble's blog, but come from Chan's book:

• “Could it be your arrogance that makes you think God owes you an explanation?”
• “I quickly found that the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity. The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don’t swear, and good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ literally and seriously is rarely considered.”
• “Jesus’ call to commitment is clear: He wants all or nothing. The thought of a person calling himself a “Christian” without being a devoted follower of Christ is absurd.”
• “Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” (DANG!!!)
• “Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy. Something is wrong when our lives make sense to other believers.”
• “If a guy were dating my daughter but didn’t want to spend the gas money to come and pick her up or refused to buy her dinner because it cost too much, I would question whether he were really in love with her. In the same way, I question whether many American churchgoers are really in love with God, because they are so hesitant to do anything for Him.”

How's that for blunt? Talk about a smackdown! I'm feeling convicted...how about you?

A Quote from Mark Batterson on his blog today -

"I have a little formula: change of pace + change of place = change of perspective. Works like a charm! We have to disrupt our routine so we can think new thoughts."

What do we need to do to disrupt our routine so we can think new thoughts?

I read a blog by Jenni Catron daily...This was part of today's....

Just thought I would share today’s verse:

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”Philippians 1:6

Commentary:God is doing something in you. If the going is tough, keep pressing forward. One way or other, the work He’s doing is going to get done, so your cooperation and willingness to play ball will only add to your joy and the end result according to His perfect design. Embrace the journey!

You can sign up for The Daily Verse HERE!

Are you impatient with the process right now? Is God doing something in you that you wish would just be finished? Hang on and enjoy the ride!

From BEYOND RELEVANCE:
The Stadium Principle (part 3) (copyrighted by Richard L. Reisling)

This is the third installment in The Stadium Principle. Let’s finish this off.

After many years of playing, usually someone with great talent develops—from little league to college to the big leagues. Picture a rising star with me. He’s like a Nolan Ryan or a Roger Clemens. He’s Randy Johnson. Ok, imagine it’s the bottom of the ninth inning at game seven of the World Series. We’re talking intense—the President of the United States threw out the first pitch, Grammy-award winner sang the national anthem like you’ve never heard it before, the game has been back and forth, back and forth. Bottom of the ninth and everything is on the line. Randy’s on the pitcher’s mound and it’s the moment of a lifetime for him. All of the years or little league and college ball have built up to this. Randy has lived baseball—eaten, drunk, and slept baseball. His friends love the game and they love how he plays the game. Bottom of the ninth—it’s a full count, two outs, one strike and we win. People are tuned in around the world watching this.

Do you think Randy Johnson, at this moment, remembers what it feels like to not care about baseball? Do you think he’d be able to relate to someone who has never been to a game at this moment? Just like Randy, do you think pastors who have lived church—eaten, drunk, and slept church—with friends who love God and admire them…do you think they remember what it’s like to be a stranger to church and to not know God? Do you think most pastors routinely remember what it’s like to hear about Jesus for the first time? It is almost counterintuitive. After all, as church leaders, we spend most of our time with church folk.

I say this in prayer that we never forget what is going on in the hearts and minds of those people in the upper deck. Those are the most overlooked and least connected with. It’s easy to pitch for the lower deck—they are the cheers we hear the loudest. A good pitcher learns how to make the game great for people at all levels of the stadium. God give us a heart for the upper decker and allow us to never forget the first time we heard the crack of the bat.

© Richard L. Reising

From BEYOND RELEVANCE:
The Stadium Principle (part 2) (copyrighted by Richard :. Reisling)

Last time I gave a baseball analogy and talked about how I went from making fun of the baseball freaks to actually becoming one. I talked about the fact that I didn’t get there overnight. It was gradually through baby steps. I went from hating the game, to giving in and actually going to a game, to discovering that baseball might even be enjoyable, to going back to another game, to buying season tickets, and joining a softball league.

These baby steps could be paralleled to many people’s experience with the church and accepting Christ. I thought I would never set foot in a church until my friend pleaded and I gave in. I sat there feeling empty and full all at the same time. It was obvious to me that there was something more and when the pastor spoke, it was like that home run—in my heart. His words inspired me and I returned.

Later, I committed my life to Christ and I found myself more and more sold out. I was investing more--paying more for my seats. I wore the Christian t-shirt and I had the leather Bible. God was working in my heart and people began to see a change in me. I joined the church and solidified my commitment.

One day, as I was growing, God called me out to the playing field. I now find myself serving any time that I can. I can’t wait to see all of my friend and family come to know Christ. Sometimes, like Paul, God completely knocks you off your horse and you go from disconnected outside of the ballpark to the playing field in a very short time. Unfortunately, this is not the case most of the time. It’s a matter of progression over time. During that time, God works in our hearts and minds to change our perception. Now I am not saying we are not all immediately called to be witnesses, I am saying that we grow and progress in our walk with Christ at different rates, but in similar stages.

So what can we, as a church, do to help those outside the ballpark make it to the upper deck? What about the upper-deckers moving to the lower deck? How do we challenge the lower deck to get on the playing field and be part of the team? I’m sure you’ve seen the parallel that I’ve made by now and I pray that you understand I am not belittling the church with this illustration.

My heart is simply to understand that perceptions are quite varied in our churches. Whether it’s unbelievers, or scholars, we’ve got to learn to reach people right where they are and motivate them to the next level. Are you thinking about that every week as you prepare your messages? Make it so.

© Richard L. Reising

From BEYOND RELEVANCE:
The Stadium Principle (part 1) (Copyrighted by Richard . Reisling)

A scenario: ok, you and I are good buddies.

You are the world’s biggest baseball fan. I am on the other end of the spectrum. I can’t think of a more boring game than baseball. I’ve never even been to a game before, but I am absolutely convinced that I wouldn’t like it. You ask me constantly to come with you and I can’t wait until you’ll stop asking, but one day I give in to your request in the midst of a weak moment. So I’m going to this game with you, but you are most definitely buying my nosebleed ticket that’s approximately $2 and my hot dog as well.

We sit in the upper deck on a blazing hot day—you’re completely happy and I’m pretty much in agony. I’m eating my hot dog and slurping my drink when suddenly, the home team knocks one out of the park. We jump up and high-five each other! I’m totally caught off guard. Somehow the hit inspired me and I’m thinking that maybe I like baseball after all.

Not what I expected at all. I might have actually enjoyed a baseball game.

Of course you ask me to go again and I surprisingly commit. This time I’ll buy my own ticket and hot dog. I’m willing to spend that much, but not enough to sit in the lower deck with the $80/seat baseball freaks. They are just a bit much for me at this point. Although I like baseball, my commitment is minimum. After returning for a couple of games in my cheap upper deck seats, my passion for baseball builds. Now, the $80 seats don’t seem so expensive and I could even catch a foul ball down there. I find myself decked out in all the gear—hat, jersey, leather glove, the works.

I’m a sold out fan. I push it even further by getting season tickets. I want to make sure I don’t miss a single inning. People at work now know me as one of those baseball freaks and I’ve even joined a softball league. I plan on coaching my kids’ softball team.

The thing is, I didn’t get here overnight. I got here with baby steps. Something to think about and chew on for a few days. Were you ever the person who hated a particular thing and made fun of the so-called “freaks”? Paul was. And even he spent a short season getting prepared for the transition from onlooker to first baseman.
© Richard L. Reising

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From Craig Groeschel @ Lifechurch.tv comes this great post about Team Building:

"When you’re building a team, you have to remember a team takes time to build.

You must be willing:

To fight together. A team that can’t work through conflict will never be a team.
To be loyal to the death. Even though you can fight behind closed doors, you ALWAYS stand together publicly. Disloyalty is never tolerated.
To be transparent. If you can’t be brutally honest about everything, you don’t have a team.
To care for each other. A team that is “all business” will eventually deteriorate. A ministry team must become a family.
To have fun together. I always know a team is not healthy when I don’t hear them laughing often. "

This is a GREAT song... Love the words...

New Creation Video Content from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo.

From Steven Furtick's Blog today:

"God uploaded a verse in my spirit Saturday, and it refreshed my perspective in a profound way. I’ll try to pass some inspiration from the verse along to you piece by piece. I don’t have anything profound to add, but the verse is awfully encouraging all by itself.

1 Cor. 15:58 Therefore, my dear brothers,stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Stand firm. Nothing is move vital to accomplishing the purpose of God for your life than a spirit of resolve.

• When your stomach starts to hurt in the few days following a big, risky, God-breathed decision, stand firm.
• When you’re tempted to flirt with an old sin pattern, stand firm.
• When critics speak lies about you, stand firm.
• When friends forsake you, stand firm.
• When the money’s low, and your logic says to bail out, but the Spirit of God says don’t back down, stand firm.
• When what you’re preaching isn’t popular, but it’s Biblical and necessary, stand firm.

Let nothing move you."

GOOD ADVICE.

Ya know...for years I have heard the alarming statistics about how people age 18-29 view the church as irrelevant, judgemental, old-fashioned, out-of-touch with reality, insensitive, hypocritical, boring, etc... They're just overall disenchanted with the church, and it alarms everyone. There is a key point to the statements though...they all pertain to THE CHURCH. They have no problem with GOD or JESUS, but they have a problem with His FOLLOWERS and how those followers ACT. This used to alarm me, but even more so, it made me sad. It made my heart HURT because there was a gap between the people my age and Jesus because THE CHURCH is supposed to fill that gap. It is supposed to be the connector...and it is FAILING.



Well, today I was working and had a revelation. For the first time in my life I realized that I AM ONE of those statistics.

The only difference between me and most of those numbers...is the fact that I am trying to change the face of the church. I am trying to make the church more relevant, realistic, and accepting. I didn't run away from it. I am trying to help it fulfill it's mission of being the bridge between people and Jesus.....but I am still "disenchanted" with it. The overall church of today, I believe is irrelevant, hypocritical, unaccepting, and judgemental...so I feel JUST LIKE the people in those surveys. I just responded different.

There is a gap between what the church is doing and what Jesus created it to do. I'm trying to bridge it. I make mistakes... and I fix them. I fail, but I fail forward. I fall down, but Jesus lifts me up.

There's a gap....What are you gonna do about it?

From Gabe Lyons, co-author of unChristian:

"Ministry in general relates to mission, and mission in general relates to context. You need to understand the context of the world your ministry is trying to reach.

Non-Christians aged 16-29 years old were asked, “What is your current perception of Christianity?”

• 91% said antihomosexual
• 87% said judgmental
• 85% said hypocritical
• 78% said old-fashioned
• 75% said too involved in politics
• 72% said out of touch with reality
• 70% said insensitive to others
• 68% said boring
• 64% said not accepting of other faiths
• 61% said confusing"

Some things to think about:

Which perception most closely applies to your ministry or church in general?

How did we get here? Maybe we actually are these things.

What do you think?

I saw the video in my last blog entry and posted it for you all to see!! Then I saw that Vanessa had done the same one last night!!

WOW! Great minds think alike!! Guess I shoulda done my homework, huh?

Check out this video about how fast our world is changing!! Crazy!! I love it!!

Lots of info....

Now...whatchu gonna do with it...?

Or better yet....

What are WE gonna do with it...???

THIS IS SOOOOOO US!!!

CHEERS!

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Real Life just finished a series of 6 teachings on some of core values. The series was called "GET REAL", and we had a great time with them.

I was reading a blog from Mark Batterson (remember that name...you're gonna hear it a lot around here), the Pastor at National Community Church in Washington, DC (3 movie theater churches and a coffee house church). He shared some of their churches core values. Those were:

• Everything is an Experiment
• Maturity does not equal Conformity
• Expect the Unexpected
• Love People when they Least Expect It and when they Least Deserve It

I love that. Here's my translation of that:

Love people, do it in a UNIQUE way (even when it isn't easy), be flexible, and break the molds.

What's your translation of those values? Post a comment and share what that says to you.

Hey All,

It is a glorious Thursday morning and this is my first ever "Blog". I have read blogs from many different people about many different topics. I have to say, that the whole blog experience has been very enlightening for me. When I first learned of this "blog" thing, I really didn't get it. Why would I want to sit around and read random thoughts from someone else's mind? I have enough problems dealing with the thoughts of my own mind sometimes! But, as I have been able to learn over the past year, when you think that you have something, or anything for that matter, figured out, that is really when the world can come crashing in and let you know how small you really are. So as I have been re-focusing my heart this past year to be open to new and different ways to be taught, I have embraced the "Blog" in a major way. I have been challenged by the blogs that I follow in a major way. I am able to hear the heart and passion that others have for their cause, AND it helps me to process my own thoughts and grow and dream and LIVE for what makes my heart on fire! Any and all of you who know me, realize that passion is for Jesus and sharing His message to PEOPLE. Real People who are living among us who need to know CHRIST Loves them AND that no matter how screwed up things are in their life.........HE wants them and cares for them more than anything in the world! He wants their brokenness, their hurt, their pain, their incompleteness, their disease, their addiction, their sexual preference, their bills and debts, their broken marriages, their divorces, AND their desire to be in control........................................He doesn't need you, He wants you!!! Is this blog going to change your life? Maybe not. Will it challenge you to think differently than you have done in the past and ask you to get uncomfortable? Probably so. Guys, we have to share our All-Loving Jesus with those that don't know, don't care, don't want to know, in a manner that speaks to them and in a way other churches and people aren't. We have to be different. We have to think different. We have to act different.

I watched a video this morning that touched me in a big way! We all have our problems like I listed above, but God wants us to use the heart and the talents He has given us to share a relationship with someone so that they may come to know Him.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8616c1559ab4221b3910

I hope you enjoyed my first blog and come back for more..............
Loren

"The difference between impossibility and possibility lies within a person's determination."
-Unknown