Being away from North Side was a bit different today. I can’t remember the last time I “went to church” without serving. I showed up at a place. I parked in a visitor’s spot. And I had to go to the help desk for info. Very different, but I learned a ton. We went to Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, …
Best line of my week thus far at seminary was from Dr. Chuck Lawless yesterday morning: “If you were God, would you call yourself?” He had just read Eph. 4:1 and told us to think about living a life worthy of our calling. He said that, as ministers, sometimes we have gotten comfortable with the fact that we have been …
The family and I are in Louisville for the next 10 days as I take a class up at seminary. I am working on another degree through the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth and this is one of the segments I have to be up at school. We have to do a lot of work before …
We got to celebrate fathers today at North Side in a fun way. At the 11:15 Obie, Cory, Cory’s son, Nate, and me started the festivities with some Father’s Day Superlatives. We couldn’t select any winners for the “Loudest Snoring Dad” award because there were too many people pointing fingers at the fathers in the house. After our time of …
Continuing on in our series, Waiting on the World to Change, our church studied what it meant to do in the area of “Practical Service” today. When it comes to mission work, I think the church (universal) has always fallen on one of two ends of the spectrum (this is the case in almost everything Christian it seems). One one …
Just the other day, we were at one of our doctor’s visits for Mr. Obadiah and I happenned to see a certain magazine in the waiting room amidst other publications: Under the Reader’s Digest’s cover on the vitamin hoax and above Golf Digest’s cover on fixing your swing, you can see North Side’s publication, The Compass. We mentioned one Sunday …
Shake-n-Shine is coming around the corner! Below is a message from our Project Love guru, Rick Hendricks. Read to see how you can help out: Hello: Shake N Shine, our camp for children in Greenwood, will take place July 14-18, again this year at Erskine College, and we need your help. We’re asking C-groups, Sunday School classes to assist us …
Our world needs some changing, and God intends to change it through the family. The most critical spiritual environment is the one in which you live. As we look at these up and coming generations, we must realize that trained church professionals are not the answer to our children’s spiritual needs. Our children need their parents to live for Christ …
I am getting back into the swing of things here at North Side since my time off. I loved being at home with Amanda and Obadiah, so it was a little hard getting back to the grind last week. I was getting used to a weird sleep schedule when I didn’t have to work, but now I am slowly adjusting …
What a great Sunday. As our church continues to heal, it was great to come together today and sing words like, “You are my shield, my strength, my portion, deliverer, my shelter, strong tower, my very present help in times of need.” In times of need like we are going through, it is comforting to know that he is presently …
Today was a special day at North Side. It was exciting on one end due to our youth praise band leading in worship. They did a fantastic job. They sang the following songs: Salvation is Here – Hillsong United Awesome is the Lord – Chris Tomlin Mighty to Save – Hillsong How Great is Our God – Chris Tomlin I …
Today was our second week in Credit or Debit? where we focused on “The Mind of Investment.” Every spending decision is a spiritual decision. If we are to develop a mind of investment, we have to realize that everything belongs to God – even our finances. And if all our finances belong to God, we must make sure that how …
Every financial decision you make is either a credit to your spiritual life or a debit from your spiritual life. Money is one of those areas that cause many headaches in our lives, but God has many commands concerning your finances that actually are meant to free you. The heart of stewardship begins with you realizing that everything you have …
Here’s a quick rundown of what’s going on in life and in ministry: Pancake Breakfast – all you have to do is eat pancakes to support our summer missionaries. O’Charley’s on Saturday from 7-9 at $5/plate. I think what I am so excited about is that we have non-rush North Side time. We can eat a plate and just have …
This may be one of my favorite church signs I have ever collected. I found this one on the internet a few years back and it reads, “Baptism by Fire! Enroll in Preschool.” It doesn’t take too long to see why this one is so fantastic. First off, the whole concept behind fire baptism is scriptural. In Matthew 3:11, John …
In our last week of God’s Believe It or Not, we focused on one last unbelievable claim from Scripture: believe it or not, Jesus is coming again. Concerning Christ’s Second Coming, Christians either try to figure out all the details concerning his return or forget about it altogether because it is too difficult to understand. While we will never be …
It’s true. It appears if Fusion is going on a sabbatical, restructuring, or altogether closing. Our college/20-something worship gathering and Bible study has reached a fork in the road, and we are going to have to take the next steps in faith. Before explaining why we are changing, let me tell you why Fusion started: Back in 2004, college students …
A couple of weeks ago, I conducted a theological survey of our adults at North Side. This is for a requirement for my next degree, but I tailored the questions to help our staff discern teaching and directional needs for our church in the area of evangelism and missions. Concerning conducting this survey, I was hesitant. A number of our …
At North Side on Sunday, Fred mentioned his support of an upcoming film entitled, Expelled. Ben Stein, who I thought was just that funny looking, boring sounding guy who played as random cameos in TV shows and movies, turns out to be a very involved figure in American classroom and political circles over the last few decades. He is very …
Today was week 4 of God’s Believe It or Not life focus series at North Side. We talked about whether or not Jesus truly stated if he was the only way to God. This issue is one of the most sensitive in our culture at this time. With so many different paths to God, people are very hesitant to claim …
Through the differing images of the church presented in the New Testament, God wove a theological tapestry concerning the doctrine of the church. More than a mere gathering, Jesus’ church was to be his holy and bold extension in the world. The apostles presented that believers should not view church as a building. Even though they would use …
Remaining Images The New Testament also contains a few more images of the church that are used less but still pivotal to the understanding of the church. First, Paul described the church as serving as the pillar and bulwark of the truth. In the Book of 1 Timothy, Paul urged Timothy to ensure that the church was behaving properly and …
God is a lot more concerned with your future than he is your past. Sometimes we keep a distance from God due to a sinful past. Some people keep God at a distance because of their self-proclaimed “righteousness.” But God isn’t concerned with yesterday. He’s really concerned about what you do today. That’s what North Side was all about this …
5. Worship is a powerful witness to unbelievers if God’s presence is felt and the message is understandable. Both of those are essential parts of a worship service when witnessing to unbelievers. Again, Acts 2 is a good example of this. God’s presence was so evident in the disciple’s worship at Pentecost that it attracted the attention of all the …
There’s a lot going on today, so I thought I would just give you a lil’ taste of what is up in my world today. Passion – we have a few spots left for the Passion Regional in Atlanta on April 11-12. You can bring your deposit in by Thursday, but if you were smart you would bring it tonight …
Today was the second week of God’s Believe It or Not. The service today focused on the fact that God is “In Control.” If you don’t know this about North Side yet, everything this morning was trying to lead you to that thought. It is this type of journey we try to take you through. Instead of just picking out …
A Field of Crops In another illustration of the church, Paul identified the church as a field of crops. Paul was seen as the planter, and Apollos watered the garden that Paul planted. More than solely evangelism, Paul had founded that specific church in Corinth. Apollos spiritually watered the church by continually discipling the members by teaching them the truths …
I wanted to recap Easter morning at North Side earlier this week, but since we left for Submerge an hour after the last service, I was kind of unable to catch up in the blogosphere. So here, goes: I haven’t received the official count for Sunday, but I believe we had approximately 2,000 adults come and worship with us on …
Wow. We have done the opening day and now (Tuesday), the first full day of camp! Everything has gone great at camp. It’s Wednesday morning and camp is going so smoothly, it makes me a little uneasy. I think it is honestly because we have such a great team of people putting on Submerge and a great bunch of students. …
This morning was incredible. Members from North Side joined together at 6:30 (that’s in the AM, people) to pray for our city. I was amazed for many different reasons – so I shall share with you faithful readers: The fact that you got up to pray at 6:30am. No preaching, no songs, just prayer – and God moved (imagine that?!). …
The Buildings The authors of the New Testament also record different building imagery for the church. While they never viewed the church as a specific building, the authors did use buildings as illustrations to explain the theological implications of the church. First, Paul described the church as a simple building. In this discourse, Paul’s logical flow of thought shows that …
4. While unbelievers can’t worship, they can watch believers worship. We see this truth lived out in Acts 2. “They worshiped together regularly at the Temple each day, met in small groups in homes for Communion, and shared their meals with great joy and thankfulness, praising God. The whole city was favorable to them, and each day God added to …
Today, we finished up the Balance series at North Side. I finished with a message entitled “The Rest of You.” As we studied the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3, we saw that the people there were a lot like us. They were lukewarm. They were too far from the source. And when we find ourselves deep in sin or …
I recently read a book by William Chadwick called, Stealing Sheep. Here’s my review: Introduction In Stealing Sheep, William Chadwick addresses the discreet yet volatile dangers of transfer growth within churches. Chadwick has served as pastor in different churches, and he currently pastors Stroudwater Christian Church in Portland. As a pastor, he personally witnessed and actually initiated change within churches …
This has been a random but busy week, and so much is going on. I love being used because you sleep well at night because you are so exhausted. A lot of things are coming up, so I thought I would update you on some pretty incredible things around the bend: Balance series is coming to a close this weekend. …
Yes, it’s true. I have accepted a new job. North Side has been great, but alas it is time to move on. I’m just kidding, but I do have a new job. The beauty of this job is I get to stay at North Side to do it! In the Fall, I am going to be an adjunct professor at …
Yesterday was fun at North Side. I preached a message on the Rest of God in our Balance series we are doing now. The big idea was: To experience the rest of God, you must set apart the Sabbath. The fourth commandment is what I think could quite possibly be the most neglected commandment in the Bible: Remember the Sabbath …
Don’t forget to spring forward your clocks Saturday night. You will lose an hour of sleep Saturday night, so make sure you don’t forget it and miss church on Sunday. Every year, we see people show up at 12:00 and laugh at them in their faces. Not really, but it is funny. Since you lose an hour of sleep and …
The people of America are becoming more and more spiritual. On one side, it is more acceptable to believe in a higher being and to adhere to certain spiritual practices. The other side of the spectrum is the backlash against anything remotely absolute. They don’t want anyone to tell them they have to believe a certain way or that only …
We started a new series on Sunday at North Side called Balance. I got the privilege to preach Sunday the first message on “The Rat Race.” Despite numerous technological advances in our day, it seems like we are running more ragged than ever before. We rush through life and seem like we will never catch up. The tragic accident is …
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