Travis Agnew

Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.

Major in the Minors: Micah

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We had another great week in our study, “Major in the Minors” as we got to the prophet Micah.  Micah prophesied to a people who believed to have a covenant but did not have the conduct to prove it.  In his book, he shows what mature spiritual living really looks like.

Today, we worshiped to:

Since we had a big choir concert this evening at church, we had the stage set for an orchestra, and I couldn’t let those wonderful instruments go to waste!  So, we had a mini-orchestral feel for this morning’s worship.  It was wonderful hearing our people sing out to our God.

In addition to a wonderful message, our church also worshiped through a church vote.  

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Ooh Child, Things Are Gonna Get Easier

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One of my highlights last year was North Side Worship’s Overcome project.  More than a simple album recording, our worship team really worked over and beyond to encourage those who were going through.  As we put together a 16-song album (15 originals) full of hopeful themes, we prayed that it would be encouraging to many people.

Just recently, I got a note from a church member who has had a difficult year.  That’s an understatement, it’s been downright awful.  She sent me a letter and told me that she had listened to that CD every day of the last year and how it had reminded her over and over that she would overcome.

Mission accomplished!  That’s what our prayer was for the project.  In fact, the album artwork was more than a simple design.  We had spent a Sunday morning filling out prayer cards by completing this sentence, “God, if you would only…”  As we lined the stage with those cards, our staff prayed over them that entire week.  The hurt in our congregation was staggering.  As we prayed, I decided to use our prayer cards for another purpose.  Check out the video below to see what we did with them (if you can’t see the video, go here):

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Bad Church Sign of the Week: Loving the…

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Someone sent me this church sign this week.  Theologically, I understand what they are trying to convey, but I am curious in your thoughts. Was this a wise phrase to put up on their church sign?

How Would Your Children Describe You?

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I had a wonderful Father’s Day yesterday.  I am so honored to have such wonderful boys.  As part of my Father’s Day gift yesterday, the boys made me a card.

Amanda gave them a simple instruction: “Tell me about Daddy.”

Now, they are 3 years old, so who knows what might come out when you ask them for that.  She sought, they delivered.

Here’s what they had to say (look for the “E” and “O” to see which ones came from Eli and which ones came from Obadiah):

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Major in the Minors: Jonah

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What a wonderful day at North Side!  So much happened today that we can celebrate our God for!  Focusing on Jonah, we talked about accepting God’s call throughout the service.  We were so blessed to hear from Hope Brown, student missionary, who just returned with a bunch of other students who served at M-Fuge Charleston.

Today, we worshiped to:

I always love worship with a missional focus!  It was great to hear our congregation say, “Where You send us, God, we will go!”  In addition to those missional worship songs, I also included a new song I wrote for my boys called “Like Father Like Son.”  I wanted to make our Father’s Day focus impacting and not something Hallmark.  The words of this song have caused me to think lately and I pray it was a challenge for all the fathers today.

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Will the Southern Baptist Convention Make It?

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The Southern Baptist Convention met this week in Phoenix for their annual meeting. I was unable to go, but I tried to stay informed through Twitter and such to see what was going on.  It was the lowest attended meeting in years (possibly because Phoenix is a far way away from the Bible Belt and the economy).  SBC has had the lowest number of baptisms last year that they have had in 50 years.  Not a good sign.  Many are wondering if the SBC will make it.

I will say this.  I have never seen such a rejection of status quo in our Convention as I see right now.  When theologians who are normally stereotyped for the lack of evangelistic fervor are leading the call for a resurggence on the Great Commission, we are heading in a good place.  When young pastors are heavily involved rather than choosing to steer clear of the Convention, that is a good sign.  When a Convention fights for the nations, ethnic diversity, and a desire to trim the financial fat that has been accumulated, we are heading in a good direction.

I know there are controversies where all this is going.  Many reading may think that some things could be handled differently.  Maybe it could be led better or in a different direction, but I am at least excited about that it is going somewhere!

Highlights:

  • New IMB President Tom Eliff sharing heart for unreached people groups
  • New NAMB President Kevin Ezell sharing strategy for church planting
  • First non-white man elected to office, Luter will serve as VP, many already campaigning for him to serve as President next year
  • Passion to see ethnic diversity in our churches and our convention
  • Desire for a greater sense of unity throughout the convention
  • Great promotion for churches to get behind Courageous

A lot of great things took place, and one of them being David Platt’s message Wednesday morning (his message starts at about the 8th minute).  You can view that here:

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Holding My Son Down in the Hospital

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This picture was taken a few weeks ago.  Eli was having some minor surgery, but as many of you know, surgery for a 3-year-old is never minor.  When your child is taken from you, knocked out, cut on, comes back loopy with tons of chords sticking out of him, it’s never a fun encounter.

I prize myself on being a tough father.  I’m that “it will be alright” kinda dad who can grasp that bumps and bruises are learning tools.  I was not expecting the kind of emotional turmoil that I went through that day.  I don’t know if it was the first time that my son was out of our protective care or what it was, but it was hard.  It was hard holding my son down for strangers to do things to him that hurt.

When he began to wake up, he laid on Mom a good long while and seemed content.  Later, they needed to check on him and begin to remove connected wires and such, so he was handed to Dad (thanks, a lot!).  Eli looked up at me and said, “Daddy, I want to go home.  Take me home, please.”

“I will in just a minute baby, but you have to let these people make you feel better.”

When they started to work on him and I had to hold him down, the look in his eyes was something I had never seen before.

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Voddie Baucham’s Problem with Worship Leaders

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When I was a senior at North Greenville, Dr. Voddie Baucham, Jr. was preaching at our weeklong Staley Lectures.  Our campus minister, Dr. Crouse, gave me the gracious opportunity to lead worship for all of the morning and evening chapels that week.

Hearing Dr. Baucham before, I was really humbled to be a part of this event and excited to spend some time with him.  In preparation for the week, I decided to check out his website.  On his FAQ’s page, I found something that scared me to death.

Q. Why do you place so much emphasis on who leads worship at the events in which you participate?

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Revival Through Repentance

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We had an awesome Revival service last night.  The picture above is of 2 of our former church members and 2 former members of my community group.  Jordan Wilson (left) and Brian Rackley (right) didn’t leave North Side because they were disgruntled members.  They left because they obeyed God’s call.  Both of them are on staff at Bethany Baptist Church in McCormick, SC and God is at work in their lives!

Brian, pastor of Bethany, came and shared his testimony last night to remind us all of God’s grace.  When he pointed up to a seat in our worship auditorium and said only a few years ago, he was running from God and now he is pastoring a church, I rejoiced in the gospel yet again!  He shared about leading an 85-year-old war veteran to Christ the other week in his church.  He shared about God using him and Jordan to unite churches together and hold a rally downtown this weekend.  It was amazing to watch God at work from transforming Brian with his grace and then allowing him to be used to change others by the grace of God as well!

Brian and Jordan, thank you for your obedience to Christ!  Your sending church loves you very much!

And that was only one part!  We worshiped to:

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Major in the Minors: Obadiah

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We had another great day at North Side as we studied a prophet that I am very fond of – Obadiah.  Jeff gave me the privilege to preach this message since I have a son with the same name.

The premise of the message was: Either you can humble yourself or you can let God do it.  It’s your call.  God specializes in humbling the exalted and exalting the humbled.  While this book is talking about nations uprising and falling, I gave 5 application points for this message that apply to every believer.

I carefully climbed a ladder during the message to illustrate some points.  I carefully climbed it because we have had 2 staff members fall of a ladder in that room.  We made it through with no more broken bones!

You can check out the message here to say you have actually heard a message preached from Obadiah.

Today, we worshiped to:

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