Worship in Spirit and in Truth

Our worship team is the best.  You can see from the picture above the sacrifices that each of them (and their families) make week after week.  This was taken during soundcheck early this morning where Cory’s son, Nate, asked if he could bring his pillow and keep sleeping.  The ability to sleep beside Cory’s amp is a very impressive feat.  So appreciative of all our volunteers on this Thanksgiving week that work tirelessly to lead in worship!

We focused on Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well.  Jeff’s message was incredibly powerful!  Never heard so much insight into this passage.  We also watched our Worship Preferences video this morning that we made with some talented folks (more on this later this week).

Today, we worshiped to:

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You Must Be Born Again

Powerful day of worship today!  Jeff’s message was spot on.  John 3 – you must be born again.  Incredible to watch people give their lives to Jesus!  Wonderful time of baptism and more children being baptized by their fathers – love it! Today, we worshiped to: Jesus Loves Me – North Side Worship All My

Cleaning Out the Temple


 
What a great day at North Side!  The big idea focused on Jesus’ cleaning the temple.  Whether you realized it or not, we attempted for every element to focus on this passage.  From song selections focusing on the sanctuaries of God, to praying for God’s work with other churches, to the message, we all tried to get this point across.

So appreciative for David Little, Director of Missions of the Lakelands Baptist Association, joining us today to remind of God’s work among our other churches.  It was wonderful to pray for other churches in our city.

Today, we worshiped to:

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Water You Turned Into Wine

What a great to day to be a part of North Side!  Grateful for all the wonderful things going on!  Remember: 1. The Fall Festival this Saturday from 3-5.  Thanks Georges for reminding us!  2. Africa interest meeting tonight at 6 pm in the chapel.  3. Families are growing stronger since this move to united worship.  It was awesome hearing those stories today!

Jeff’s message was the BEST message I ever heard on John 2 when Jesus turned water into wine.  It was the ONLY sermon I’ve ever heard on that passage, but even if I had heard tons, that dog would hunt (that’s country slang meaning it was great!).  I never knew all the implications of what happened.  Huge message!  Check out this Baptist preacher talk about alcohol in a completely different light!

We had a great family worship last night where we talked about this passage.  Getting ready for services this morning, I asked the boys, “What did Jesus turn water into?”  Since wine isn’t a word we use around the house often, they were trying their hardest to come up with it.  I helped them out by starting with the “w” sound.

Obadiah said, “Waffles?  Jesus turned water into waffles.”

Almost.  Well, he could have if he wanted to!

Today, we worshiped to:

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The Call

What a great day at North Side!  As we focused on Jesus’s saving nature and the fact that he still calls out disciples for his work, we got a chance to Skype in with one of our own serving on the mission field, Kim Tomlinson.  Serving in the American Samoa, Kim is reaching many families for Christ.  By her saying yes, she was not only obedient to Jesus’ call, but she served as such an inspiration to our church.  Kim’s Facebook status: definitely worth it to stay up from 130am-430am here in Samoa to be able to skype with my church family in Greenwood 🙂 🙂 So thankful to have an amazing church family that supports me 🙂  

This is a picture of the baptism service she talked about yesterday – I hope her description impacted your worship yesterday like it did mine!

Today, we worshiped to:

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Prepare the Way for the Lord

I was so thankful that my buddy, JW, got to lead us in worship today at North Side!  We did a highlight for our Sonshine ministry at North Side, and Greg Thompson and JW helped us be mindful of how God is using all of North Side.  After the video, they both shared, JW prayed and then led in worship to “I’ll Fly Away.”  Awesome time!

Today, we worshiped to:

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Why Many Student Ministries Are Failing

Since the inception of student ministry (not that many years ago), the growing belief is that parents should aid and assist the student pastor to evangelize and disciple the students.  By serving in either assistant teaching roles or crowd control, parents are expected to help the student pastor in his ministerial work focused on their children.  I cannot begin to tell you how many parents describe that situation and say that the student pastor spiritually “raised my child.”

If we were to follow the biblical example, we would reverse the trend.  Parents should not aid and assist the student pastor.  The student pastor should aid and assist the parent to evangelize and disciple one’s own child.

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In the Beginning Was the Word

 

Wow, what a stellar day to be a part of North Side!

We kicked off a new series today studying the Book of John entitled, “Knowing Jesus.”  To start things off, we celebrated some baptisms.  We sang “Come and Listen” as our candidates told why they were being baptized.  My favorite part of the day was watching fathers baptize their children!  Doesn’t get better than that for me.  Coming off the “Courageous” series, movie release this weekend, and our 1st family worship guide, it was incredible to watch!

Today, we worshiped to:

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Following Jesus

The day so many of us have been praying for and planning for finally came.  We did something that most church growth experts and consultants say should never be done.  With what we did today, we should have had a church split or people walking out in disapproval.

Instead, we worshiped as one family.

Today, North Side united 3 services into 2.  We got rid of 2 styles and united under the heading of “worship.”  We united families instead of segregating them.  And while I believe that God has been honored with our church before, I think this was another level of obedience and worship that we engaged into today.  I’ve heard plenty of encouraging words from this morning, but even if those weren’t there, God was honored and our church worshiped today in spirit and in truth.

Today, we worshiped to:

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I Love Jesus

The other week, I had one of those cherished moments as a father.  The pic above is a cropped pic of my son, Obadiah, in a restaurant bathroom.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he will hate me one day, I understand, but I couldn’t pass it up.

As I waited for him to complete his business, he looked up at the two rails on the wall and shocked me with what he said:

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