Yesterday, I was so thrilled to be in attendance at the 2008 State of the University Speech at Lander University, Dr. Ball presiding. He spoke of where Lander is going, all the accomplishments of the last year, and some recognition of some special people. One such special person that was recognized was Scott Smith. Scott and his wife, Judy, have …
Today we started a new emphasis at North Side. The next few months are going to be pretty critical times – we really feel that God is leading us to do some pretty big stuff, and the only way it can happen is if a sovereign God steps in and shows up! Jeff’s message was on “The Harvest.” We have …
Yes, it’s crazy to think that Obadiah is already over 4 months. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!
This week’s book of the week is D. A. Carson’s Becoming Conversant with the Emergent Church. The emerging church is a relatively new movement in church world. What’s hard about this movement is that there is a wide spectrum of people who are categorized as emergent. I know of “emergent” church leaders who keep the gospel at the center and …
In selecting a partnership for a church’s mission’s strategy, on what priorities do you focus? The first three were finding the greatest need, the greatest match, and the greatest impact. But what is the fourth? Greatest Team What is the greatest team your church can assemble to evangelize with this particular partnership? The goal for a mission trip is not …
That’s right! North Side’s worship CD is officially in the mail on its way to be mastered and duplicated! I feel such a sense of relief to have that task done, but even more than that, I am extremely happy with the way it turned out. Anthony, the band, and the singers made this project even better than I imagined …
Yesterday, we finished our 12-week Experiencing God series at North Side. It was a great finish to a great series, even if I haven’t heard the message yet (I was working on getting power for our bluegrass band at the YMCA). Yesterday, our church was truly offering sincere worship to Jesus in all morning long. The songs that you sang …
When a church is looking at developing a partnership with a mission organization, what’s the priority? The third priority should be: Greatest Impact What is the greatest impact your church can have working with your strategic partnership? As we prioritize mission endeavors, we must also be intentional to select opportunities that have the greatest possible impact. By working with the …
Well, I have gotten a lot of questions from friends and family about my first week of class teaching at Lander, and there is a good reason I haven’t been able to blog about it yet: because I was teaching my first class at Lander this week. This week was extremely crazy for a few reasons: class did finally start, …
This week’s book of the week is Firefall written by Alvin Reid and Malcom McDow. This book is a great commentary on the movement of the church over the last two centuries. It highlights revivals that spread when God’s people sought his power to come and change their land. Top 5 Thoughts: “Revival is God’s invitation into the lives of …
When a church is establishing a strategic partnership in the area of mission or ministry, how do you pick ’em? With all the needs, how do you know which ones to get involved in? The second priority is: Greatest Match What is the greatest match with our church’s giftedness? When ascertaining the greatest need, we must also determine what mission …
Continuing our discussion on our North Side mission strategy, I now want to indulge a little deeper. Our mission strategy focuses on three things: personal evangelism, strategic partnerships, and cooperative program. For the next few days, I want to explain how we prioritize our strategic partnerships: In addition to the task of personal evangelism, North Side will also impact the …
This week is a busy week at North Side and at Lander, so here is a rundown of what is going on in my world: Worship CD – listening to worship CD today, possibly making some tweaks, and sending it off this week (woo hoo – go Anthony) AVL Extravaganza – Dave and I have some more work to do …
Another great Sunday today. We have one more week of Experiencing God after today, and this series has been huge in the life of our church. Each week, I hear more and more of all that God has been doing in the lives of people at North Side. People are truly living with their eyes wide open and God is …
Pretty disappointed to read this article this week: KIM WHEATLEY, CHIEF REPORTER August 22, 2008 01:10am PASTOR Michael Guglielmucci has been told by church officials to report to police, who will investigate what has happened to money raised during his cancer deception. The Australian Christian Churches told The Advertiser yesterday that it was auditing Mr Guglielmucci’s bank accounts, which included …
This book of the week is none other than John Mark Terry’s Evangelism: A Concise History. This book hits some of the greatest evangelists and the greatest evangelistic efforts since the beginning of the church. It’s one of those books that gets you excited about what God has done and what we can anticipate him doing again! Top 5 Thoughts: …
This picture makes me laugh. I guess this is pretty official – I’m teaching at Lander starting Tuesday! How official, you say? Well, I have: Gotten an ID card Gotten a faculty parking sticker Seen my classroom Tried out a presentation on it Met some faculty Got a textbook Printed off a syllabus Found the nearest parking lot Found the …
Third personal evangelism point: Invite that person to experience life with Christ. If all we do is pray for someone’s conversion and invest in them spiritually without sharing the gospel, we have missed the entire reasoning for the first two emphases. Evangelism does not take place without an adequate presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to reconcile …
For those of you who “came to church” today, I hope that God changed your mind. Hopefully, after today, we will stop coming to church and we will start being the church. As we have continued in this Experiencing God series, I thought today was so helpful to remember that we are the “called out ones.” I loved Jeff’s illustration …
Second point for a personal evangelism strategy: Invest spiritually in that person. One misconception of personal evangelism comes in the form of our role in the task. We are called to do more than transfer information. We are called to do more than leave a gospel tract. The biblical mandate calls all believers to invest spiritually into the lives of …
I’m starting a new feature on my blog this week: the book of the week. If Oprah has a book club, why can’t I? Each week, I will post a book I am reading or have read recently and give you the top 5 thoughts from the book. You might even want to check it out. This week’s book of …
Studio work is going great. The North Side crew has been cranking it out with Anthony over at Addeybug and we are getting real close. All the instruments are tracked (unless we hear something else we need), and the majority of vocals are done. We went through five vocalists yesterday! We had already gotten three, and now we have four …
North Side’s entire mission strategy is only as strong as how active its members are in the area of personal evangelism. Since we know that everyone will not come to the doors of North Side to pursue Christ, North Side must go to the people of this community and beyond. Christ’s command was to go and tell, not come and …
If you weren’t aware of the Saddleback Civil Forum that happened on Saturday night, you missed out. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, wrote one of the greatest-selling books of all time, trying to take on all the world’s problems through his PEACE plan, and all around great guy, he decided to bring the two presidential candidates together for the …
I finally finished a pretty daunting task on Friday. I finalized what the course reading would be for RELI 101: Sacred Texts and Ideas. After spending hours of reading the scriptures of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, my mind is very overloaded. The way these scriptures are written can be so completely different than another one. Selecting passages to …
I love getting together as a church on Sundays. Today was another great day! In our series, Experiencing God, we arrived today at the message, “Speaking Through Circumstances.” This is such a needed message. Overwhelmed with the circumstances in our lives, it is normally hard to decipher what God is trying to say. When you see a commercial on TV …
Sunday is going to be a pretty stupendous day for North Side. First, this is the Sunday before school starts which normally means that everyone comes off of summer vacation and comes to church all on the same day. Normally, this is the largest day attendance wise next to Easter all year. So, we look forward to seeing everyone together …
We took Obadiah for his three month checkup yesterday (even though he’s 14 weeks old). Obadiah is now 17lbs and 1 oz. He is in the 95th weight percentile and the 50th height percentile. He weighs what the average six month old should weigh! You think he is eating OK?! So, I thought you might enjoy some new pictures of …
Here is the third rationale for my doctoral project: A third rationale behind this project is a desire to achieve a partnership between parents and the local church. If parents are to teach their children the ways of the Lord, they must be intentional about bringing spirituality into their conversations. Many parents, upon realization of the biblical mandate for parenting, …
So, yesterday, I started with a whiteboard that looked liked this: I was spending some quality time working on the Religion 101 class I will be teaching in less than a month, Sacred Texts and Ideas. I was a tad bit overwhelmed. I’ve read. I’ve thought. I’ve read some more. But I wasn’t sure how to you cram all the …
This next video chronicling the studio development for the upcoming North Side worship album is of JT himself, Eric Bryant. Eric is working on the arrangement and recording the acoustic track for “God of This City,” a fabulous worship tune penned by a band called Bluetree out of Ireland. I make a cameo in the video as well, and somehow …
My doctoral project rationale #2: The second rationale behind this project is the significant investment that is made in church ministries geared towards children and youth that are providing a minimal return. While these students are very active in church when they are at home due to sincere desire or parental prodding, once these students leave home for college, churches …
Another great Sunday at North Side. We talked about the Living Word today in the series, Experiencing God. Today, we worshiped to the following songs: Forever – Chris Tomlin Holy is the Lord – Chris Tomlin Magnificent – Hillsong There is None Like You – Don Moen We Fall Down – Chris Tomlin We were supposed to talk about experiencing …
Here is another video update from the studio for the North Side worship upcoming CD. Here’s Cory playing on “Friend of God.”
Why I am doing this doctoral project? Rationale #1: Above any other notable rationale behind this project, the greatest reasoning behind equipping parents to be the primary evangelists in their children’s lives is because the Bible commands it. The biblical mandate for a child’s spiritual development is unashamedly centered around the home. The family’s role in the spiritual rearing of …
Whew. As I am continually working on my doctoral project, there is a certain time line you have to work through. And if you get held up at any place, it effects everything else! I printed and proofed chapter one which serves as the official project proposal. It has to be approved through three different layers, and once I get …
For your studio video #7.2, I’ll give you a screen shot of me working on a Reason loop for the song, “Make Me Holy.” I wrote that song over the last year and a half, and we have used it a few times at North Side. This is just some of the possible instrumentation we might place in the finished …
Here is some footage from this weekend’s continuing studio work for the upcoming North Side worship CD. I’ve posted other videos here. This clip is of the guitar hero, John Kennerly, rolling out some rhythm tracks for the song “Everlasting God” by Brenton Brown. Enjoy!
As the recording is shaping up, we have now brought in the illustrious Woody Nivens to put down the keyboards on the CD. Not only an impressive keyboard player, you got to see what he can do in the math classroom! You can view the previous studio videos here. In this clip, he is working on “Amazing Grace.”
Today was another great Sunday at North Side. So much is happening around our church this summer, that every Sunday, it is like a celebration of what God has done in our midst the previous week (um…what an interesting concept, maybe we could do that each week…). Jeff’s message on prayer was fantastic. God has gifted him in such a …
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