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I need more depth

June 8, 2010 in Church Life, Miscellaneous, Spiritual Thought with 2 Comments

A rather common statement made by Christians is that they “want more depth”. While that statement can mean different things to different people, I think we need to be careful when we make that statement. I am all for growing deeper and expanding knowledge as long as it is not for knowledge sake alone. “Knowledge puffs up” if we are not careful.

Recently I made the statement in a sermon that “we are educated way beyond our obedience”. I was commenting to someone today about how I will discover a “new or deeper” truth, teach that truth, be totally excited from several different angles about the deeper truth and in a few weeks I can’t even remember what I sudied, discovered, prepared and taught. Perhaps that is a statement about my preaching but I think it is more about my memory. It also serves as just another reminder that I need to be concerned about doing what I know and not worry about the deeper truth that I have forgotten. If I never learned another biblical truth, I would still  not be able to obey all that I already know.

Pastor Steven Furtick had a recent post where he touched on a similar topic. He said, “The greatest problem of American Christians when it comes to the Bible is not that we are not deep in God’s Word. The problem is that we are not active in God’s Word. We have a lot more revelation than our current level of active application. And revelation without application leads to stagnation”. You can read his entire post by clicking here.

On my mind

March 16, 2010 in Miscellaneous with 1 Comment

  • leadership development
  • faithfulness is under-rated and skills are over-rated
  • leadership training this Sat
  • Leadership and Self-deception, it’s a book
  • Passing the Leadership Baton, another book
  • who am I handing the baton to
  • I really need to grow as a leader
  • Systems create behavior
  • We need better systems
  • Can’t expect what you don’t inspect
  • What gets rewarded gets repeated
  • Empowering leaders should be more rewarded
  • great leaders have character, strong theological world view and relational skills
  • elder expansion
  • thankful for my team of elders and staff
  • need to wrap up one important thing before we move forward to build
  • pray that happens soon
  • need to wrap up Easter sermon today
  • pray MANY will be saved
  • good weather for sunrise service would be a bonus

Quick Hit

March 10, 2010 in Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

  • Don’t forget to set your clock ahead one hour this Saturday night – spring ahead!
  • Can’t wait for this weekend – we will be looking at a passage that seems it was written specifically to us!
  • I am very thankful for all the people God has placed around me – such a great team of leaders!
  • Tomorrow I will pass along a great post from one of our people.

Hard Work

February 9, 2010 in Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

Relationships are a ton of fun, awesome times are often had and phenomenal memories are made; but the downside is they require a massive amount of hard work.  As we have been working through our series, Relationship Rehab, I have been reminded of just how much work relationships take.  I have labored so much over the last couple weeks messages because there is no simple solution and the topics of pain and forgiveness do not come with simplistic, cookie cutter answers. Last Saturday night about 90 minutes before the evening service I deleted all of my notes to my fourth point, which was the work of a couple hours of study. It had been a real long time since I was tweeking, rearranging and rethinking a message so much – that sermon was a ton of hard work. I do not say those things for your sympathy or applause, I say it because it is simply indicative of  relationships – they are hard work.  If relationships were easy it would be easy for me to write sermons about relationships and it would be easy for you to enjoy the benfits and fruit of relationships. Let’s just admit it – Rleationships Are HARD WORK!

Although they are hard work, relationships also bring incredible rewards.

Monday morning I had breakfast with a friend of almost 20 years and he talked about the joy of our friendship and how he is glad we have recently had a little more time together.  This morning at 7:45 I spoke with a friend from Texas for about 15 minutes.  Before he hung up he mused about what our friendship would be like when we are both grey headed (After I hung up I laughed because for neither of us is our problem greying hair, but keeping what hair we have!). I have also had a lot of fun lately with my best friend, Denise. She makes me laugh, she is a great hostess (she threw a mean Super Bowl party), she is an awesome mom and there are many other things I enjoy about her! But all of the friendships I just mentioned have taken me alot of hard work.

Just so you don’t think I am patting my self on the back, I also have screwed up alot of relationships. In fact, for whatever reason, I have a frinedship right now where I can’t get a returned phone call. I also told my wife a couple weeks ago that I was too hard on a friend and left them feeling drained when our conversation was over. I have another friendship where an apology is owed by me. Just typing this paragraph brings me stress.

Thankfully, hard work brings even greater rewards. Let’s do the hard work this week!

Two Thoughts

January 14, 2010 in Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

  • We must pray for the people of Haiti! We are collecting breakfast bars and peanut butter/cheese crackers. They will fly out of Orlando on Monday and will go to 3 Angels Orphanage – a Christian orphanage with 300 children in Port-a-Prince. You can bring the supplies to the weekend services or during business. The collection deadline is Sunday at 2pm.
  • Tonight is Volunteer Appreciation night!!! About 200 volunteers are coming for a phenomenal night of celebration! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME AND TONIGHT IS FOR YOU!!! See you at 6:30.

Wastelines and Wallets

January 12, 2010 in Family Life, Miscellaneous with 2 Comments

During the holidays our waistlines grow and our wallets shrink. As a result, I have a few thoughts to share. Perhaps only waistlines today and wallets tomorrow.

Random thoughts on waistlines:

  • To lose weight it requires a one, two punch – diet and exercise!!!!!
  • I pretty much hate exercising, although I do love the positive benefits, mainly physical and emotional energy.
  • I am a horrible eater – I love everything that is bad for me and hate everything good for me ( a little exageration but not much)
  • Denise is trying to help me eat better.
  • Some things I have eaten in the last few days – oatmeal with honey, fish with multi grain rice, celery and peanut butter, peanut butter sandwhich with 8 grain bread, scrambled eggs with hot sauce, sloopy joe with ground turkey on some wheat thin bread thing (actually was delicious), a lot of chicken. Yes, I have also had pizza, soda and some desserts but I am trying to do it in more moderation.
  • Soda is so good and yet so NASTY for your health. I am drinking more water this year!
  • For me the current goal is to run 10 miles a week. Last week I ran 7 and most of those were in temperatures around freezing.  Even though I didn’t hit my goal last week, I will shoot for it again this week.
  • I currently weigh around 203 and would like to get to 190. Saying that makes me a little more accountable.
  • Some good books I have read are – Body by God and Heart Health for Men.
  • Our bodies are a gift to us from God and also His dwelling place, we need to take good care of them.
  • One of the things we can give our spouses, children, friends and co-workers is a healthy self.
  • You are responsible for yourself. Nobody can take care of your body but you!
  • There are some of you at church who have lost some weight – Here is a SHOUT OUT to you – you look amazing! Way to go!!
  • What are you doing to get healthier and trim your waistline?

Good Stuff!

January 6, 2010 in Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

I promise, I will get to waistlines and wallets – in fact, I have several things on my “to post list”. Before I get to those,click here to read a great article by Mike Wise and click here to read a great post by Mark Batterson.

Christ or Buddha

January 5, 2010 in Miscellaneous, Spiritual Thought with 2 Comments

I know I said I would post waistllines and wallets, but this was too good not to post first. Click on the link below.

Brit Hume on choosing Christ

Missions Trip Wrap Up

December 7, 2009 in Church Life, Miscellaneous with 1 Comment

I know that it is such a cliche’ but I really don’t know where to start. Every time I go on a missions trip I return with a different outlook on life.

Our group did an outstanding job, they all had a tremendous servant’s heart!  We had the opportunity to serve two different churches during our time in El Salvador, one was in Metapan (a city of about 60,000 people) and one was in Santa Ana (a city of about 500,000). The church in Metapan is about 1 1/2 years old and the church in Santa Ana is 1 year old. Both of these works are bringing life change to the people in their cities. Meeting Rodolpho and Roberto was a real blessing to my heart! Both men were alchoholics very far from God, both have beautiful families and both men have come to Christ this year and have never been the same. I could share a number of stories but will save them for our missions emphasis weekend that is coming in Feb.

Kyle and Jodi Charters serve in Metapan. I have been friends with Kyle and Jodi for about 20 years. They got married 3 weeks after Denise and me and we went to their wedding. Kyle and I went to college together. Kyle and Jodi have 4 beautiful children who are really great kids. Seth cried when we left yesterday, he really bonded with the Charters’ children. The Charters served in St. Petersburg, Russia, for almost 10 years and have been in El Salvador for just over 2 years. Kyle and Jodi have a tremendous heart to reach people and have a tremendous work that God has given them in a very short amount of time.

Steve and Christine Cerna serve in Santa Ana. Christine’s mother, Athena and her sister, Katie, both attend Parkview. Steve is from El Salvador and is thrilled to be back in his home country.  Steve and Christine have two precious and adorable children, Rosa and Caleb. Steve and Christine are very hard workers and have a passion for both evangelism and discipleship.

The two churches are about 1 1/2 hours apart and both came together to have their first ever teen camp. The camp was awesome! Our team absolutely loved having the opportunity to serve these ministries and their students. Our team served as interpreters (it was so incredible to have 3 of our team members fluently speak Spanish and all 3 were born in El Salvador), room counselors, game participants, food prep, cooks, clean up, score keepers,children’s workers, etc.

After 3 days at camp we went to the church in Santa Ana on Saturday night, that is when they do there “Sunday morning service”.  The little house was packed and people were sitting in two different rooms listening to me preach.  Through a little courtyard were two children’s rooms. The church has quickly outgrown that facility. The people were so friendly and so appreciative of our visit.

Sunday morning we were with the Charters in Metapan.  I spoke in both the Sunday School hour and the morning service. Our people served in a variety of roles – children’s church, nursery and Rafeal translated both my lesson and my sermon (up to that point Steve Cerna had served as my interpreter). We had a wonderful morning. The city shuts off all of the elctricity a few times a year for maintenance – Sunday was one of those days. It was so hot and it just added to our long list of experiences!

Seeing and being a very small part of the Life Change taking place in El Salvador was an absolute privilege!!!

This post does no justice for our trip or our experiences. All I can tell you is, if you have never been on a missions trip YOU HAVE GOT TO GO!!!

Trip Update 3

December 3, 2009 in Church Life, Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

  • Our team is doing a great job job serving the Lord and others
  • Services last night and this morning went well
  • We have played alot of games today and we just finished up swim time
  • They actually grilled out steak for lunch – never had a piece that tuff!!!
  • The students are having a blast
  • For students who do not have much, the littlest things go a long way
  • Steve Cerna, the missionary that Parkview supports here in El Salvador, did a great job translating for me last night.
  • What a privilege to serve the Lord this way!
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