Today was a fun day at North Side. Filling in for Jeff, I preached on our “Mighty God.” I think sometimes we develop a small perception of God and it leads us to live faithless lives. My prayer is that we would walk away with a huge perception of our mighty God. I preached on Matthew 14-15 where Jesus fed …
This week’s book of the week is by Charles Spurgeon entitled, The Soul Winner. Spurgeon is the “prince of preachers” and had an incredible ministry during his lifetime. This great volume explains the need for personal evangelism. Top 5 Ideas: “Soul-winning is the chief business of the Christian minister; indeed, it should be the main pursuit of every true believer” …
I forgot that I never posted some photos of Obadiah in his Halloween costume, so here are some pics from Halloween:
I am filling in for Jeff preaching on Sunday. We made the substitution call this week due to some other church activities going on, we decided for me to pinch hit this Sunday. We are talking about Jesus as the Mighty God in “The Perfect Gift” series. As I began to pray and study for this message, I got a …
I wanted to inform you of a great event we are planning at North Side: Date Night. We’ve been talking about doing something like this for some time, but now we finally got the plan together and the timing is right. Here’s the specifics: Objective: A fun evening for married couples at North Side intended to jumpstart a romantic date …
Its 8:10. I am giving my final exam for RELI 101 at Lander. Don’t the students look so studious. They have worked so hard, they are all going to make A’s on this one. Well, maybe not everyone… It’s been an honor to teach this crew this semester. They have really thought through some sacred texts and ideas this semester. …
This Christmas season, please do not welcome your community in the following manner like this week’s church sign: “Think You Might Be Going to Hell? Skip Church on Christmas and Make Sure! Service 12/24 7:30 PM” Any church wants to see high attendance on Christmas, but maybe this method isn’t the best approach. Christmas is all about Jesus coming …
I have an important announcement to make: North Side has the best bricks in South Carolina. No, it’s true and it is official. Someone came to church on Sunday to hand us a nice framed award indicating that we have the best bricks in South Carolina. The Brick Industry (yes, there is such a thing) has annual awards that give …
Yesterday at North Side, we kicked off the Christmas season with a new series entitled, “The Perfect Gift.” In this series, we are focusing on each of the descriptions that Isaiah gave concerning the coming Messiah in Isaiah 9:6: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. …
This week’s book of the week is Thom Rainer’s Breakout Churches. Rainer, the president of Lifeway, used to be the dean for the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth. In this book, he studied churches who were making the leap to doing great things. It is a great read with some great findings. Top 5 Ideas: Rainer’s …
I taught my final class for the Fall semester at Lander today. It has been a whirlwind of a semester. I haven’t posted a ton on the class, because honestly I have been so busy just preparing for the class! That’s why I was crushed to find out the other day that my lecture notes were lost when my computer …
I have been so blessed to hear so much positive feedback from “The Time is Now” CD. If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, you now have some extra possibilities: iTunes – You can now download your CD on iTunes. Amazon – You can order a hard copy in the mail or by the mp3s on Amazon’s site. NS Bookstore …
This week’s bad church sign states: “NO OFFERING PEACE ON EARTH” As we have now entered the Christmas season, this sign strikes me as hilarious. I suppose they are advertising two things: They are not taking an offering this week A Christmas message: Peace on Earth What it appears they are saying is that their church is not going to …
I wouldn’t say I took a vacation last week. I didn’t come to the church last week, but I worked my lil’ tooshy off. Monday and Tuesday, I worked on my doctoral assignments. By Tuesday night, I had completed: Chapter 2 of my dissertation and mailed it off Received approval for chapter 1 18 pages of chapter 3 completed …
I love it when Jeff thinks his message isn’t going to be any good and it comes out fantastic. He was worried about today’s message, but I thought it was great. His message on how to use our words to point people to Jesus was both helpful and practical. You can listen to it here. I think the whole “Sticks …
This week’s book of the week is Charles Finney’s Experiencing Revival. “The fact is, Christians are more to blame for not being revived than sinners are for not being converted” (18). “There are two goals necessary for revival; one is to influence men, and the other is to influence God…I do not mean that God’s mind is changed by prayer …
In a time when our world is frantically grasping for the things slipping away and obsessively thinking of what they don’t have, I am truly thankful today for what God has already given me. If I never received anything else at all, I am spoiled rotten. This is a good Thanksgiving.
Somehow, when I think of abundant life, my mind does think about creepy clowns. This church sign makes me want to run. The only thing worse than Easeter clowns is the Easter bunny!
I have been a little late on my post from Sunday due to computer issues and the fact that I have been hauled upstairs writing straight for the last 48 hours. Sorry it’s late, but here goes: We worshiped (in a rather rowdy manner, I might add) to: Marvelous Light – Charlie Hall God of Wonders – City on a …
“The key ingredient for inspiring this participation in corporate worship and life-style of praise to God and service to others is personal piety and private devotion to God.” -Andrew Hill in Enter His Courts with Praise! In this quote, Hill proved to be able to move from the liturgical side of worship to the personal side of worship. His concept …
This week’s book of the week is John Maxwell’s Developing the Leaders Around You. Top 5 Thoughts: “The greatest leadership principle that I have ever learned in over twenty-five years of leadership is that those closest to the leader will determine the success level of that leader” (3). Maxwell quoted Winston Churchill who stated, “If you are doing big things, …
On Wednesday, I made my Greenville rounds. First, I went to North Greenville Universtiy, my alma mater, and spoke in chapel. It was fun to be back there and speak on Revelation 3. I also loved having my buddy Micah McMinn lead worship before I got to speak. He led them to the throne, all I had to do was …
This week’s bad church sign of the week states: “Ladies Invited Womens Fellowship Tuesday Nov 13 7 PM” I can just imagine the men riding by this church sign and just being so disappointed. They are riding by this church and see a sign for a women’s fellowship. They are brimming with excitment because these fellas have been wanting to …
In addition to his moral integrity and organizational ability, Billy Graham was also a media innovator. One of his memories of his pastor when he was a boy was that his pastor’s sermons were “biblical but boring.” Due to this model he experienced, Graham displayed a passion to minister in innovative ways to ensure he captured the attention of his …
Today’s service continued in our “Sticks and Stones” series at North Side. This week, our church focused on “Godly Words for Personal Gain.” As we have talked about our speech, it is important to emphasize number 3 on the 10 Commandments: thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain (or as Voddie Baucham would say, “Don’t mess with my …
During a time when modernism was spreading through the evangelical world, Billy Graham’s good friend and coworker, Charles Templeton, began to reject the Bible’s authority. Due to Templeton’s questions, Graham began to personally struggle with the authority of the Scriptures at a frightening level. Acknowledging a deep time of turmoil through which he personally struggled with these issues, Graham himself …
This week’s book of the week is John Maxwell’s Developing the Leader Within You. This book is one of Maxwell’s older books, but I had it on a list for an upcoming class, so I decided to read this volume on developing personal leadership skills. Top 5 Thoughts: “Leadership is influence. That’s it. Nothing more; nothing less. My favorite leadership …
In class today, we talked about the “Messiah Tension.” Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all disagree with how the person of Jesus changes the search for truth. As part of the discussion today, we looked at Jewish reasoning behind why Jesus was not the Messiah. We also looked at why Christians believe that he matched all the prophecies of the coming …
Due to Graham’s popularity, a large portion of his crusades’ attendants were church members. According to their records, sixty percent of their converts were church members. While Graham’s heart was for the unchurched, he never discouraged Christians for attending. Graham was not ashamed of his Baptist affiliation, but he consciously and wisely refrained from ever getting entangled in Baptist political …
This week’s bad church sign states: “Just a moment with us can mean eternity, with God!” What they are trying to communicate is: If you would just take a moment to stop in on a Sunday morning, we would communicate a message with you that could change your life. You could hear the gospel, become a Christian, and spend eternity …
While Billy Graham is most famous for his preaching ministry, he also served as the head of a complex ministry for years. In fact, much of Graham’s ministerial career has actually focused his energies on organizational elements within his ministry organization. “Dr. Graham gratefully testifies that it would be impossible for him to lead such vast crusades of evangelism if …
What a great Sunday! Today we make our pledges for the Now campaign in all three services. A group of our leaders have already made their pledges, and before the service today, we have had over 1 million dollars pledged to the campaign to date! That small group of people showed up in a big way, and we are believing …
This week’s book of the week is 11 Innovations in the Local Church written by the uber-talented team of Elmer Towns, Ed Stetzer, and Warren Bird. Each chapter focuses on different types of innovative churches. This book contains great stories of how Jesus is using some pasotrs and churches to do some incredible things in this country for Christ. This …
I was just driving away from class when I heard James Dobson talk on the radio about Tuesday’s vote. There was a pretty shocking vote in California where they overturned the right for homosexual marriage. Since most people would think that California would support it, I was shocked to hear that it got stopped. I was overwhelmed when I heard …
One of the major hallmarks of Graham’s ministry has always been his scandal-free ministerial career. When ministers speak of how to handle oneself in ministry while maintaining integrity, Graham’s name is frequently cited as a model for all ministers in which to aspire. “His crusades, his leadership, and his personal character serve as a model for those who would be …
I stayed up way too late last night watching everything come in; it’s not that it is too late, but it is when your six month old still wakes you up too early! It was a historical night, and here are some of my thoughts: Regarding Civil Rights: Our country has come a really long way. Regardless of what you …
This week’s bad church sign is a church who has on their sign: “VBS Walk thru the Bilbe.” While walking through the Bible at VBS is a daunting task, it is even more daunting to walk through a bilbe. What exactly is a bilbe? It sounds like a flying creature on Hoth in Star Wars. “I would take off in …
Jesus has truly used Billy Graham in this world, and since I read his 700 page autobiography, some things really stuck out to me: Few people have experienced a more significant influence on the spread of the gospel throughout the entire world than evangelist Billy Graham. Many people have praised Graham’s integrity, ability, and ingenuity, and no one can deny …
We started a new series today at North Side entitled, “Sticks and Stones.” I was pretty excited about this series starting. Jeff did a great job talking about a murmuring mouth this morning. When Jeff said this morning that we all know people we avoid due to their complaining mouth. It made me wonder, “Am I that person for anybody? …
This week’s book of the week is An Emergent Manifesto of Hope edited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones. This book contained 25 emergent leaders writing on differing issues within the church from the emergent church perspective. If you are not savy on the emergent church, it is a group of church leaders who believe that the modern church needs …
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