Hopefully, you are connected with a local church. None of us should be left alone in this Christian walk by ourselves. Your church is a wonderful expression of God’s grace, and while it is not perfect, it is God’s vehicle to make disciples.
You need your church, and your church needs you! Read Romans 12:3-8 to see your role concerning your church.
As we finish up our Christology, we must take a good look at the commission of the Christ.
Matthew 28:16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them int the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to hundreds of followers during a span of 40 days. At the end of this time, the disciples saw him ascending into heaven. His final words were words of sending the disciples out. Matthew’s account is what is usually quoted. Let’s look at some of the key things to note:
“The recent church history in America includes a lot of good men doing nothing. Men who are wired, called, and empowered to be men of action, yet who choose to be soft, insensitive, and passive – men who fail to remember that ‘to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin’ (James 4:17). Passivity is a curse.” –The Resolution, page 137.
Louie Giglio tweeted it best days ago when he said: Props to @invisible children for creating a twitter tsunami and continuing to shine a light on the evil of #KONY2012.
It is true. If you haven’t heard about Kony in the last couple of weeks, you must be in a coma. They have raised awareness on this horrible situation on a massive scale. I have been exposed to Invisible Children’s work since 2003. While they have faced some scrutiny in the media in recent days, as far as I can know, they are legit and I support them 100% (and a whole lot of other more qualified people do too). Media has criticized their handling of the situation. I don’t know if there is a proper way to handle a man who is gathering thousands of children and training them to fight in an army in the Lord’s name.
You may not like how they are going about pursuing justice, but here’s what you have to say about it: at least they’re pursuing justice.
The above picture is of the boys joining the choir for warmup this morning. As people were coming in for practice and we got things rolling for run-through, the boys joined the choir. Obadiah especially liked pointing in the air like McFadden and making his “Mommy” singing face with the open mouth and dropped jaw. Fun times!
It was a wonderful day of worship! Even in the giving, we were reminded of how everything we do is an act of worship. In addition to some baptisms this morning, we also had Jeff share a way that people could financially support our missions effort in Africa. After sharing how to do this, it seemed so fitting to sing: “Let the glory of Your name be the passion of the church.”
Today, we worshiped to:
Whoa.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
This morning at North Side was ridiculous. Jeff’s message from John 5 was one of the most powerful messages I have heard. The thought that there are many people complaining about their situations but really don’t want to get well resonated so much today. Still processing all of that goodness. If you didn’t get to hear it, check it out here on Monday morning.
Today, we worshiped to:
How many mission trips have you been a part of in which the evangelistic focus was centered around children? In my mission and ministry experience, the most common demographic for evangelistic efforts are children. Energetic teams hop off a bus armed with balloons, refreshments, and gospel presentations ready to win the next generation to Christ.
Going through different ministry trainings, I heard numerous times that the chance of someone becoming a Christian dramatically decreases once that person reaches the age of 18. In my experience, I would agree with that assessment. Due to that belief, great focus is reasonably put on reaching younger people with the gospel.
But is it the best approach? Imagine that one day, on your drive home from work, you notice a lot of activity in the park near your neighborhood. As you drive by this festival-type atmosphere, you realize that your 7 year-old daughter is sitting down with a bunch of other children listening to some type of story time. You recognize many of the children, but the storyteller is unknown to you. After parking your car, you see your daughter raising her hand. One of the adults begins to talk with her and it looks as if they are praying together.
Curiosity turns into concern, and you start to pick up your pace a bit only to realize that a group of Bahá’í missionaries have just converted your daughter to the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh without your permission or approval. Outrage is an understatement. You are considering calling authorities to address this unthinkable situation.
I paint that picture because our method of carrying out the Great Commission must be addressed.
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:
What a great way to start out the new school year today at North Side! We had packed worship services with passionate worshipers – what else can you ask for? We started a new series entitled “Intentional Discipleship” geared towards people who are ready to stop being stagnant and start growing in Christ!
Some service highlights were having Ben Ridgeway, one of our high schoolers, pray for all students, teachers, and faculty members going into their mission field tomorrow. It was great having a video testimony of my buddy, Brian Rackley, who was a self-proclaimed “back row Baptist” until God called him into ministry. This morning he wasn’t with our church anymore because he has accepted a call to preach at Bethany Baptist. The whole service was geared around following Christ with no turning back.
Today, we worshiped to:
I was thrilled to find out the other week that the movie Courageous will be showing on opening weekend in Greenwood! We were able to get a private screening for leaders in Greenwood, and the response was incredible. Church, ministry, and business leaders got behind this and we made a plea to get it here, and God obviously wants this movie on fatherhood to impact this community.
We are working out the details for advanced tickets, and I should be able to give you some info on that soon. I am indebted to Alan Quigley and others for doing so much to help get the movie here. This movie will impact homes, and churches need to be ready for what the next step is if you can get the people to the movie. It’s a great, emotional experience, but don’t leave it there!
For those of you who follow my blog, you are aware that I have been blessed to be a part of writing a Bible study to accompany the movie entitled “Honor Begins at Home.” Since so much of the study has critical clips to the movie, it won’t be released until after opening weekend. I am planning on leading the study at some time in some place, but just waiting on some few details. So any fathers, aspiring fathers, mothers, empty-nesters, etc. who want to hear more of what God expects in the home, I would love to have you join me in this 8-week curriculum. You can see an early sample of the curriculum here.
Here’s the synopsis of the movie:
I first read this writing when I was in college, and it had a profound impact on me. Stories are disputed upon who is the original author. I have heard that a pastor in a hostile country wrote it on the walls of his house before radical militants came in and killed him. I have heard other people say the
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