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?
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):
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.
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:
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:
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.
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?
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:
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:
Today, I have been married for 7 years. I have heard that, around this time, people who have been married began to reevalute their choice. The 7-year itch begins to surface. Supposedly, statistics say this is one of the hardest times of marriage. If this is as hard as it gets, I love marriage. And I don’t know if I …
“We must face the sad fact that at 11 o’clock on Sunday morning, when we stand to sing…we stand in the most segregated hour in America.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoken in 1963 Almost 50 years ago this line was delivered, and have we gotten any better? Are more churches open to multiethnic congregations than before? I think more …
What an incredible night of our 3rd Revival service for the summer. We focused on Psalm 23 and God reviving our hope even when walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
The service was built around that passage and included Stacy Wideman’s story (pictured here with her daughter, Savannah, and son, Stephen). After being born with Down’s Syndrome and a heart defect, Stephen fought gallantly during his time, but eventually, God brought about his healing in heaven and not on earth.
Stacy’s honest testimony was more than powerful. Her desire to let God “heal the wound but leave the scar” was seen in her desire to share God’s faithfulness with others during this difficult time. After her testimony, Stacy led us in singing “It is Well.” I have never been a part of a time when that song was sung more passionately and honestly than it was tonight. The commitment in the room to those words was breathtaking.
In addition to that song, we worshiped to:
Great time today of focusing on our 3rd prophet Amos in our series “Major in the Minors.” With a full day ahead for our church body, I can’t think of a better focus than what God pointed us to this morning.
Today, we worshiped to:
I decided a while back to do an acoustic service this Sunday (the picture above is of the boys playing the cajon which was played today, well, they didn’t play it during the service, just after ;)). I honestly didn’t have a reason to, I just felt like doing it. I didn’t know at the time that God was going to lead Jeff to preach out of Amos concerning worship that God hates.
At Passion 2011, Andy Stanley gave a great message concerning temptation. One of the lines he repeated over and over is that temptation is the act of “trading the ultimate for the immediate.”
The ultimate is faithfulness to your spouse, the immediate is the temporary meeting of a desire.
The ultimate is a godly legacy engraved in your children, the immediate might be another round of golf.
The ultimate is heaven’s rewards, the immediate is the passing riches of this world.
When we encounter temptation, one verse helps me more than any other verse in the Bible:
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:
What a powerful week 2 of “Revival.” Studying Psalm 15, we talked about what it means to have integrity. We also had a Memorial Day special prayer time for one of our own currently serving in the military led by one of our own who is also in the military. Powerful time.
Tonight, we worshiped to:
I was kind of blown away by what happened in worship tonight.
We had another great morning at North Side as we continued in the “Major in the Minors” series.
We got the privilege to commission a bunch of graduates this morning. That’s always exciting seeing how committed these students are to Jesus!
We focused on the prophet Joel today. As Jeff discussed this message with the staff this week, it couldn’t come at a more appropriate time. In light of all the natural disasters happening across America this week, many people are asking the question “how could God let this happen?”
As Jeff pointed out, when natural disasters happen, 3 main positions arise:
I first mentioned hosting a Worship Academy back at our Lift Worship Workshop, but today I am happy to give you the details of this summer leadership group.
During the summer, I am inviting any worship leader, musician, vocalist, etc. to be a part of a small group with the intention to develop one’s biblical, musical, and logistical understanding of leading worship. We will cover theological concepts of worship, songwriting tips, arrangement procedures, band dynamics, vocal techniques, music theory, and so much more!
Here are the details:
My ideas usually start small and then grow into something bigger.
It’s a problem, really. When I decided to make a book for my sons’ birthdays, I first thought that I would write something, and figure out how to import images for the illustrations. As the idea grew, I wanted to teach them a spiritual lesson about life being all about God, then I decided to use them as the main characters. As it developed, I eventually self-published a children’s book entitled, It’s All About God, with Obadiah and Eli as the main characters.
I’ve had some very kind comments from people who picked the book up online, and I have had some questions how I made it. First off, I am not an artist and I’m not that talented. I just learn to be clever (aka budget, ghetto, whatever adjective you might use here). So, here is a step-by-step guide on how to make a children’s book on a budget.
1. I take lots of pictures of the boys. I then put them in iPhoto. I changed some effects on some of the shots to give them a bigger color boost.
Above is a video of Harold Camping, the man behind the prophecy that the church would be raptured on May 21, 2011.
It’s now May 23rd.
While so many of made jokes concerning his prophecy, I honestly feel pity for him.
It appears in all that I have seen and read that he honestly believed it. He also believed it the first time he made the prophecy but then figured out he had made a mathematical error in his equation. And with numerous followers supporting and funding his cause, he is left to deal with the people on the earth he was so sure he was leaving behind.
So did you believe the hype? Did you secretly wonder? Did you wonder if the cicadas were more than a mere nuisance and they were actually a sign of the times?
I was asked a lot of questions over the last week, and this was my response:
“O God, unite us together, Your church living as one, giving ourselves to one another, and this world will know us by our love.”
Last night, we had our first united worship service. So much prayer and preparation went into this service. I was so humbled at what God did last night.
We worshiped to:
So excited to start our new series this morning entitled “Major in the Minors.” Walking through the 12 prophets over the summer months is going to be a great study and I pray we hear and do!
Hosea was a prophet called to demonstrate God’s love in a powerful yet hurtful way. Hosea was called to buy his wife back from her life as a prostitute and love her again as his bride because that is the depth from which God has loved us. Considering God’s great love, will we stop running around on him?
Jeff and I have been wanting to do this sermon on Hosea for over a year now. We saw another preacher role play Hosea during his message and it was probably the most powerful thing either of us had ever seen in our lives. So when God seemed to be leading us to preach through these books, we couldn’t miss the opportunity. Jeff did a fantastic job of playing “Hosea” as he looked desperately for his bride. It was so powerful to experience the dedication that God has to buying us back as his own. You can check out the message here.
Today, we worshiped to:
“Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord, children, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons born in one’s youth.” -Psalm 127:3
Happy birthday, Eli! You are most definitely a reward! We treasure every day getting to be your mommy and daddy. You are a precious son in whom we are so proud. Here’s just a few of the reasons why we love you:
We are so excited that our first Revival service starts this Sunday at 5:30.
Since this is an addition to our schedule, we want to make sure you have all your questions answered:
I’m heading back from Nashville today from a busy few days at LifeWay. I left Sunday in the middle of the last service to get to GSP to make a flight. Monday and Tuesday were full of ideation for LifeWay’s 2012 curriculum. I was humbled to write for this great team again when they asked me to write a unit on selected Psalms entitled “The Heart of Worship.”
It was great catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. While I was there, I also got to spend some time with the editorial team for Courageous.
It doesn’t take children too long to figure out there is a difference between genders. For some reason, when those children become parents, they forget the difference altogether. The American approach to cookie-cutter parenting is unfortunately emasculating boys and making girls unhealthily dominant. The Bible speaks to the difference between men and women, and, as parents, we would be wise to remember that end goal in mind as we raise our children. We want boys to grow up to be godly men. We want girls to grow up to be godly women.
As we are celebrating my boys’ birthdays this month, I thought long and hard about what to give them. I decided to write them a book. As with most of my projects, it started small, then grew into something a lot bigger!
To make it, I decided to use the process I used when I wrote Freshman 15. Once I went down that route to make it for my boys and their friends attending their birthday party, I decided that it would be just as easy to make it available to you!
What a great day at North Side! We finished up week 3 of “Wise Counsel” as Jeff tackled some marriage counseling. I felt like I was drinking from a fire hydrant! Such good stuff.
Today, we worshiped to:
1 As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God. 2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long people say to me, “Where is your God?” 4 I remember this as I pour …
This summer, we are praying for a revival!
During the summer, we will be having Sunday evening services from 5:30-7. We will be teaching through the Psalms in a series called, “Revival.” All ages will be studying the Psalms in order to revive our hearts towards God. The schedule will only have two breaks during the summer (June 19th for Father’s Day and June 26th for the Homeland Choir Concert at North Side).
Here’s the summary of the time together that will begin on May 22nd:
What a great Sunday at North Side! Continuing on in our “Wise Counsel” series, we did a little more group therapy.
We all have lost something. Some of those things were our fault and some the fault of others. But God has a plan for all of us to heal and to reclaim what has been lost.
Today, we worshiped to:
This children’s book reminds young minds that all good things come from God and all of our lives are for God. Every page of every story has one main character: it’s all about God. Get Copy on Amazon
After reading and hearing so many interesting takes on feelings concerning the death of Osama Bin Laden, I had decided to write what I believe would be a proper biblical take on the subject. In my own hometown, people have been very supportive or very offended by our local newspaper’s headline. Can we actually rejoice that he is dead? Some people say as an American we can, as a Christian, we cannot.
As I started to write a post, I found a link to where John Piper wrote on the subject so wonderfully. He is smarter and more godly than me, so I am sharing his post in lieu of mine for your reading pleasure. This post is from his Desiring God website:
God’s emotions are complex—like yours, only a million times more. Right now, your emotions about bin Laden are not simple, i.e. not single. There are several, and they intermingle. That is a good thing. You are God-like.
In response to Osama bin Laden’s death, quite a few tweets and blogs have cited the biblical truth that “God does not delight in the death of the wicked.” That is true.
It is also true that God does delight in the death of the wicked. There are things about every death that God approves in themselves and things about every death that God disapproves in themselves.
The situation is all to common. A mother is concerned that her husband isn’t spending adequate time with the children. His job is requiring extra attention. With his seasoned efforts, promotions increase and so does his responsibility. When she asks him to spend some time with the kids because she is worried they are detached from him, the husband responds, “Why do you think I took this job? I’m doing all this for them!”
Most men are natural providers. By providing food on the table and a roof to sleep under, children ought to see the depth of their love. Unfortunately, while children may be grateful for those met needs, they are longing for connection and affection from their father. “Do I have to say I love them?” Yes, you do. “They should know I love them by what I provide for them.” Well, they don’t.
To ensure that your children know you love them, you need to get intentional.
It’s hard to think that we celebrated Eli’s 1 year being home anniversary yesterday. We took the boys up to Dollywood this weekend to celebrate our wonderful year and had a great time.
It’s impossible to use words to adequately describe how God has moved over this last year. Last year, I placed our son in the hands of his mother in an airport with him crying in terror that he was being left again. This year, they are inseparable (actually, they were inseparable within two minutes, but that’s another story). Last year, my son couldn’t walk or crawl on all fours. This year, he was running up hills at an amusement park. Last year, my son didn’t want to eat any type of food and only knew one word. This year, he asked to pray over his fajitas, chips, and salsa at La Hacienda. Last year, he was afraid to get buckled in the car seat. This year, he begged to get strapped in a roller coaster (see below).
Today, we started a new series at North Side called “Wise Counsel.” Jeff’s description of this series: “As a pastoral counselor for the last 25 plus years, I have noticed that there are some things that just keep causing people problems. Therefore, I am going to address some of these issues from a biblical perspective and provide some biblical counsel to some very common problems. Call it group therapy if you want to, but it will also be biblical therapy. While this series will only be for three weeks, I think it will prove helpful to a lot of folks and give some very specific counsel to some very common problems.”
Today’s topic: Sharing wise counsel from counseling experiences, our pastor shared the answer to a question he has never received: “Should we get engaged?” Marriage is a very serious step, and there are 5 questions each person should think about before going forward. It was a wonderful message. The married guys in my C-Group told me they still learned a ton even though they are already married. You can watch or listen to the message here.
Today, we worshiped to:
What are you willing to do to protect the people in your home? If you lived in a dangerous neighborhood, more than likely you would make sure you made every effort to lock up the home before you went to sleep that evening. Having children in the home makes most parents even more likely to take precautionary measures. Whether it …
The following is an excerpt from a document North Side’s elders gave out to our church body on April 17th. As we have prayed concerning the direction of the church and studied Scripture together, we are under conviction that we must be a church according to scriptural mandates. Our church currently uses different styles of worship to relate to different groups of people. Our time in the Word has changed our heads and our hearts. The following is a brief excerpt, you can get the rest of the document here.
A passion for the glory of God is the hallmark of the redeemed. Because it is God’s passion, it must be our passion. To live passionately for the glory of God means that our greatest delight is found in delighting Him and our greatest fear is found in displeasing Him. When we fall short of living for His glory, (Romans 3:23) we fall into a life lived for the glory of self. Living life for our glory is sin. When we lose the great, high, noble calling of living life for His glory, the results are disastrous for the church. Worship is reduced to a consumer-driven personal experience, discipleship is reduced to a self-help program, and evangelism is reduced to a goal-driven sales pitch. Living as a church for the glory of God will redefine our purpose and redefine the methods we use in pursuing that purpose. Corporate worship, or worship as a church family, becomes a priority.
Psalm 133:1 reads, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!”
Most of us have been conditioned to think of salvation in terms of the individual. The truth is, however, that God has saved a people unto Himself.
It is impossible for you to try to raise your children in a godly manner.
You can’t do it, but Christ in you – the hope of glory – can (Col. 1:27). Too often, parents attempt to raise their children with godly intentions minus the godly interventions. Instead of relying on our own strengths, we need to learn to abide in Christ.
Presently, many cars come with On-Star capabilities. When in trouble, the driver can push a button, and help comes to him. Once the crisis is averted, the driver dismisses the On-Star helpers and goes about on his own for the rest of the journey.
Many parents approach life the same way. When crisis hits, they hit their knees and beg for divine intervention. Once God helps them out of the situation, they see little use for him anymore. This approach is worse than shameful, it is ignorant. If we think we can make it one step without God, we really don’t comprehend who we are dealing with here.
What an incredible Easter Sunday! 3 services full of the truth, the Holy Spirit, and serious worshipers! Today was such a special day as we were among many who gave their life to Christ for the first time. Jeff’s gospel presentation was so spot on. It is always so humbling to be in the room when people pass from death to life. Unforgettable!
We concluded our 1 Corinthians study, “Derailed,” today as we focused on 1 Corinthians 15. Paul told the Corinthian church that the resurrection was the greatest hope for believers. On Easter, we remember that Jesus lived, died, and was raised back to life. This truth changes everything.
We also got to Skype with our buddy Rachel, a college student who is spending her semester as a missionary in an undisclosed location. Being able to hear how God was using her, how she spent Easter, being able to pray for her, and have her pray for us was a true gift! It reminded us all of how the Church (big “C”) is celebrating our Risen Savior all around the world.
Today, we worshiped to:
I really don’t have too many words to describe North Side’s Good Friday service. I have never heard our people sing out so much, and I have never seen such expressive worshipers. We remembered the cross, and we could barely contain ourselves!
We celebrated communion, baptism, read Scripture, and worshiped. I loved that one of our elders, Jerry Rentz, led the communion. Most visitors would have imagined he was a staff member by how great of a job he did! After the service, John Kennerly did a coffeeshop performance for us that was pure delightful. Great day.
I kinda imagine that may be the 1st Good Friday service in a line of many more. Just a hunch.
We worshiped to:
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