My wife is a genius -- here's the website she built for our church:
www.bethelwesleyan.net
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Keys!
This past Sunday, I drove to my new Pastorate -- Rose Hill Wesleyan Church -- and minutes after I walked in, the Vice-chairman of the board walked up and pulled out of his pocket -- KEYS! Keys to the church and keys to my office. My heart swelled as this was kind of the knighting ceremony!
As I thought about that, the scripture came to mind: Matthew 16:19 "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
I now have a renewed appreciation for what this means. This is kind of the passing of the authority baton. It's Christ saying, I'm leaving, you're in charge.
I hope as I am in charge of His kingdom, I take care of it as He, the King, would.
As I thought about that, the scripture came to mind: Matthew 16:19 "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
I now have a renewed appreciation for what this means. This is kind of the passing of the authority baton. It's Christ saying, I'm leaving, you're in charge.
I hope as I am in charge of His kingdom, I take care of it as He, the King, would.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Back in the Saddle Again
After 10 years of dodging from God's perfect will in my life, I have surrendered again and am back in the Pastorate. I just accepted the Senior Pastor position of Bethel Wesleyan Church in Rose Hill, NC. It's a small rural church, but that's the setting that I excel in.
The people are great and the setting is perfect. There is so much potential for this church to grow that it's unbelievably exciting.
Now, you know where I am headed and where I've been. Now look out, here I go!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
It's All in the Relationship!
I'm currently a car salesman. I'm in the process of getting back into the ministry this summer and have a couple of possibilities -- I have to decide which way to go. But, as I wrote in my last blog, evangelism is something I have really studied the last couple of months.
In my car training, you meet someone, greet them and develop some type of relationship. The better the relationship, the more likely you can sell them a vehicle. Relationships are key to evangelism as well. The better your relationship with someone, the more likely you can win that person to Jesus Christ. Work place relationships, family relationships, and community relationships -- they all play into this.
As convinced as we are that lost people will suffer for eternity away from God, we should be willing to work hard on these relationships and see our friends/family come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
In my car training, you meet someone, greet them and develop some type of relationship. The better the relationship, the more likely you can sell them a vehicle. Relationships are key to evangelism as well. The better your relationship with someone, the more likely you can win that person to Jesus Christ. Work place relationships, family relationships, and community relationships -- they all play into this.
As convinced as we are that lost people will suffer for eternity away from God, we should be willing to work hard on these relationships and see our friends/family come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Ineffective Evangelism
I've been studying a lot about evangelism. What's effective & not effective.
NOT EFFECTIVE: Build it and they will come. I am puzzled that we still think that if we build it nice enough and pretty enough, people will still come to our event. New church plants are often meeting in store fronts or shopping malls. Not trying to be churchy, but Christly.
EFFECTIVE: Friendship. Make friends with them and they will listen to you more quickly. Invite a stranger, they'll look at you like you're crazy.
NOT EFFECTIVE: Mass evangelism. Even Billy Graham was effective because people invited friends. THEN they heard and listened and believed.
EFFECTIVE: Event evangelism. "Hey, we're having a movie at our church and they're giving a prize to the person who brings the most. I need one more -- can you join me?"
NOT EFFECTIVE: Door to door evangelism. Face it, the cults have ruined this for us.
EFFECTIVE: Heart to heart evangelism. I read this week: Love them until they ask "why."
Just a few ideas. What do you think?
NOT EFFECTIVE: Build it and they will come. I am puzzled that we still think that if we build it nice enough and pretty enough, people will still come to our event. New church plants are often meeting in store fronts or shopping malls. Not trying to be churchy, but Christly.
EFFECTIVE: Friendship. Make friends with them and they will listen to you more quickly. Invite a stranger, they'll look at you like you're crazy.
NOT EFFECTIVE: Mass evangelism. Even Billy Graham was effective because people invited friends. THEN they heard and listened and believed.
EFFECTIVE: Event evangelism. "Hey, we're having a movie at our church and they're giving a prize to the person who brings the most. I need one more -- can you join me?"
NOT EFFECTIVE: Door to door evangelism. Face it, the cults have ruined this for us.
EFFECTIVE: Heart to heart evangelism. I read this week: Love them until they ask "why."
Just a few ideas. What do you think?
Thursday, December 11, 2008
God's Position on Sin
I know I often blog about funny things that my family does. This is an exception.
I have been impressed over the last couple of weeks about Jesus' response to sinners. I have though long and hard about this and the only people that Jesus got harsh with were the Pharasees of that day. All sinners who came to Jesus weren't criticized, they were loved! From the prostitute to the Tax Collector -- all received compassion.
A verse of scripture that I believe outlines the message and method of the church is when Jesus rebukes the Pharasees and tells them he came, not to the righteous, but to the sinner. It's the same place he said "we don't call the doctor for the healthy, but the sick."
The church has to be on task of being the hospital for the sick. We need to do what the people of Jesus' day did -- bring the sick to Jesus feet. That's our job. Our job isn't to heal them, it's to bring them to the healer.
Many churches miss our calling. We think we need to heal the sick. We DON'T need to heal the sick, forgive people's sins or straighten people out. We need to just bring them to Jesus, one at a time, and let him heal them! And whatever HIS version of healing is, we need to accept that they are healed and love them just the same!
I have been impressed over the last couple of weeks about Jesus' response to sinners. I have though long and hard about this and the only people that Jesus got harsh with were the Pharasees of that day. All sinners who came to Jesus weren't criticized, they were loved! From the prostitute to the Tax Collector -- all received compassion.
A verse of scripture that I believe outlines the message and method of the church is when Jesus rebukes the Pharasees and tells them he came, not to the righteous, but to the sinner. It's the same place he said "we don't call the doctor for the healthy, but the sick."
The church has to be on task of being the hospital for the sick. We need to do what the people of Jesus' day did -- bring the sick to Jesus feet. That's our job. Our job isn't to heal them, it's to bring them to the healer.
Many churches miss our calling. We think we need to heal the sick. We DON'T need to heal the sick, forgive people's sins or straighten people out. We need to just bring them to Jesus, one at a time, and let him heal them! And whatever HIS version of healing is, we need to accept that they are healed and love them just the same!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
What's That Song?
My phone has a cool feature on it -- you can play a song on the radio or cd, it will listen to it, compare it to a computer bank of songs and tell you the name of the song, the name of the artist and the album. It also gives you the option to buy the song from iTunes.
I was explaining this to my daughter last night in our car. We were watching "Cars" and a song was playing in the background. I turned on the feature on my phone and it gave me all the information of that song that was playing in the background of the movie. My daughter then took my phone and started singing to it. Thinking it would pick up on her song and tell her who the artist was etc.
I guess you had to be there.
I was explaining this to my daughter last night in our car. We were watching "Cars" and a song was playing in the background. I turned on the feature on my phone and it gave me all the information of that song that was playing in the background of the movie. My daughter then took my phone and started singing to it. Thinking it would pick up on her song and tell her who the artist was etc.
I guess you had to be there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
