Your pregnancy: 31 weeks

How your baby’s growing:

This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. He weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He’s probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby’s kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy.

Reality Check:

The moving is definitely a reality now.  In fact, Obadiah is moving more than I think he is staying still.  Now, I can actually touch Amanda’s stomach and think I am touch a foot or a hand or a nose.  I started pressing on something hard the other day on her tummy, and all of a sudden, he moved back at me with a vengeance!  I kept messing with him, and he kept giving it back to me.  I just hope whatever I keep hitting is a foot or a hand.  If his nose comes out crooked and I realize I broke my son’s nose in the womb, I’m going to feel really bad.

I blogged so much leading up to the Shane and Shane concert at North Side that when I got down cleaning up the church Sunday night at 12:30, I couldn’t even think about blogging. But alas, here I finally go. I think I will just hit some highlights for me.

Bethany Dillon – She’s getting married to Shane B. in a few weeks. I wonder if they will know any musical talent to sing at their wedding?! She opened up the concert in a great way. But my favorite part of the night was when she was getting into her jam, “All I Need,” when about half way through, she broke a guitar string. Instead of making us listen through the rattling percussive string rattlings and the out of tuneness we would have experienced, she graciously sang, “I broke a string, and the end.” It was fantastic. Her fiance ran out to the rescue.
Screens Galore – I am a visual learner. Sometimes I find myself liking songs that I don’t even know the words the lyrics too. I have liked the Shanes’ songs, but to many of them, I never realized how rich of lyrics they had until seeing the words on the screen. They had this three screen thing going where lyrics on the left screen could move over to the center and such and for me, it was pretty much a stellar visual. It enhanced the whole concert for me because I was able to connect with the lyrics much more and they also knew how to enhance certain words to make them stand out. And can you imagine the amount of coordination that has to go into all that? If they miss a cue, the whole song is messed up. To me, those screens changed the whole event.

David Nassar and World Vision

David Nassar gave a stellar message. You normally don’t hear a message at a concert, but this wasn’t just a concert. He gave an appeal to World Vision, an organization that not only gives kids in third world countries a chance at food, medicine, and education, but it also gives them a chance to hear the gospel.

With eloquence and passion, Nassar told us not just to financially support a child. We needed to get prayerfully involved in their spiritual condition. At intermission, it was amazing to see over one hundred children get sponsored through the people in attendance. It’s a beautiful thing when God’s people put feet to their faith (James 1:27).

Starfield

Starfield, a worship band from Canada, was great. Amanda noted that she didn’t know any of their songs coming into the show, but in the middle of each song, she found herself singing along to some pretty heartfelt worship songs. That’s a sign of great songs on which you are singing along by the second chorus.

They did a great job leading in worship. Their humility shone through as they said that it was an honor to open for a group that they admired and respected and expected to lead us in worship that night. They were a delight and had some nice rock anthems for the evening.

Shane and Shane

Working with these guys all day off stage and being led in worship by them on stage was a great dynamic for me. Since we only had a few hours to prepare for the concert after church on Sunday, we were working around the clock. And these guys were leading the charge. They worked hard. They served our church. And they invested in the lives of our volunteer team which spoke volumes to me.

Plus, they can just flat sing. I got my voice back a couple of days later but am still recovering from trying to sing along with them. I loved watching how their songs ministered to our family at North Side.

While at 12:30, I was tired and ready for my bed, I thought I don’t ever want to do a concert again. When I thought about those 100 kids who were going to get a chance at a better life and THE life, it made it all worth it. Thanks to the 800 plus who came out that night and our incredible crew of volunteers who made Sunday night memorable!

George Barna, author of Marketing the Church, is the founder and president of the Barna
Research Group. The Barna Research Group specializes in research concerning the state of the church and the culture in which the church attempts to impact. In addition to writing Marketing the Church, Barna has authored many other books concerning church health and the culture’s perception of Christians. In Marketing the Church, Barna uses his research findings to urge churches to rethink their outreach strategies. I recently read this book for my class requirements and it had some interesting thoughts on church issues and its presence in the community.
Summary
While the concept of marketing is not a common topic of development for most churches and ministers, Barna holds that a church that is serious about its outreach to the community will have leaders who will begin to seriously consider the idea of marketing their local body. Unfortunately, churches are not usually known for being trend setters, but Barna stated that marketing was a critical tool for churches which are concerned about the overall spiritual climate of the cities in which the Christians live (12). Barna held that churches are in fact involved in competition. Churches are not in competition with one another, but churches are competing for the devotion of people from other influences which makes the need for marketing so much more significant (28). In the process of marketing a church, Barna stated, “Our product is the development of a relationship with Jesus Christ and the development of secondary relationships with believers, regardless of what the marketing process looks like” (56).
By gleaning from the wisdom of secular marketing strategies, Barna holds that many churches would experience substantial growth within its congregation numerically if the members would just apply some simple marketing initiatives (40). Barna encouraged church leadership to alter their strategies for ministry to encompass a thorough marketing plan which could stimulate church growth (97). By identifying a target market and tailoring the intended message, Barna exhorted church leaders to take the concepts of marketing into their church’s outreach strategy (102).

Talk of marketing the church makes most people feel uneasy. Are we “selling” something? Don’t we just rely on the Holy Spirit? I think we have to work hard and trust hard at the same time. The reality is that every church already has a marketing presence whether they like it or not. What they put on their church sign is marketing (unfortunately, this is normally bad marketing). Your members are marketing. Your building says something. The way you dress communicates something. Regardless of if we like the terminology or not, people are watching and noticing something about your church.

The question is: is it what you want to communicate?

The Body of Christ
Another image that Paul utilized to describe the church was that of the body of Christ.  Paul’s use of the analogy of the church serving as a body was a common illustration utilized in the popular Stoic philosophy of the day.  In this context, Jesus is not seen as a part of this body, but individual Christians compose the body with different members serving as different parts of the body.  Paul desired to show the Corinthians that all of the members of the body were gifted and they all had a specific role in the body.  The imagery of the body of Christ should cause believers to recognize the need for one another.  A mutuality exists between members of the body.  Each member understands that they encourage or hinder one another’s growth.  By emphasizing the church as serving in the role as the body of Christ, Paul celebrated the “diversity within unity.”  As Jesus’ physical body was manifested during his personal ministry on earth, the church, serving as the body of Christ, is now his ministerial representation on earth.
The immense range of gifts represented within the church displays the need for one another, but it also showed God’s ingenuity concerning the differing types of gifts and special places within the body.  The spiritual life of believers was never intended to be viewed solely in a personal context.  As the body of Christ, believers are constantly to be mindful of the expected interdependency they have upon one another.  Paul taught the Ephesian church that they were to rely expectantly on one another to be bold enough to speak the truth in love when one member strays from obedience.  Within the body of Christ, the blood of Jesus has removed any blockades for admission and removed any stigma of preferential treatment.  The body of Christ does not recognize the difference between nationality, race, or gender.

Paul uses the terminology of the body of Christ slightly different outside the Book of 1 Corinthians.  In other contexts, Paul describes Jesus as the head of the church, being a part of the body.  Individual members are to perform their function in congruence with the head’s direction.  While Christ is seen as the head in this image and not in the imagery in 1 Corinthians, the functionality of the church remains the same.  The church is to view its members’ roles as serving a specific function, and Christians are always to be mindful of their reliance on one another for spiritual maturation.

Wow. I’m having to catch up on my blog posts rapidly – this has been a crazy weekend, but I want to share all that God did over the weekend.

Sunday was another great day at North Side. As we concluded The Original Blues, we talked about the “Fear Blues,” the ones that cripple us due to the large circumstances in our lives. Jeff preached from Psalm 27, and he brought it home for me when he presented the fact that if we realize that God is with us, there is nothing to fear. As long as we remain near God, we never have to be fearful.

Our praise band led the following songs this Sunday:

• On Our Side – Chris Tomlin
• Everlasting God – Lincoln Brewster
• Made Me Glad – Hillsong

After Jeff’s message, we were privileged to have Shane and Shane wake up early after a late night of packing and traveling to come lead us in worship. They were so great to come and lead us on Sunday.

• Psalm 145
• Before the Throne of God

We were so encouraged to hear from so many people at our church who said how looking into these Psalms over the last few weeks helped them deal with their own sorrow and despair. Keep looking to God and his Word – he will pull you through!

Next Sunday, we start a brand new series on what I think is probably the most neglected commandment in the Bible…