Pastor Willy Burns

2012-01-21T20:23:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share this article, I found it to be very interesting! I hope you enjoy.

Pastor Willy

John Wesley: A Biography

Edward T. Oakes

John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of Methodism, proves to be a biographer’s dream come true. The man was a bundle of contradictions—and what biographer does not love to portray a human life torn asunder from within, thrashing about on the stage of history? As Stephen Tomkins explains at the conclusion of his almost novelistic biography, Wesley fascinates because he embodied so many of the conflicts of his age and fused them into a life of remarkable achievement:

He combined a Catholic devotion to the sacraments of the Church with a Pentecostal welcoming of healings, ecstasies and Low Church spontaneity. He had an evangelical horror of trying to satisfy God by good works, but an even greater horror of trying to satisfy God without good works. He was a founding father of evangelicalism, but for his last twenty years, he consistently retreated from its stark certainties.

But Wesley’s contradictions were more than theological; they were personal too, especially in his relations with women. After nearly marrying twice (and leaving both women feeling jilted), Wesley eventually married Molly Vazeille, a widow of French Huguenot descent with four children of her own. The marriage was not happy—indeed, the spouses proved scarcely able to tolerate each other. When Wesley, at a Methodist conference in Bristol, got word that his wife was dangerously ill, he headed back to their London home. Arriving at their apartment at the ungodly hour of one o’clock the following morning, he discovered that her fever had abated—and he turned around and headed back to Bristol an hour later.

When Wesley suspected his wife of reading his private mail, he had his desk outfitted with a secret compartment in which to hide his sensitive papers from her. These presumably must have included portions of his famous Journal, for in one bitter letter to her he explained that his indictment of her character was incomplete because he did not have his journal with him at the moment: “I have therefore only my memory to depend on; and that is not very retentive of evil.” No surprise, then, that he did not attend her funeral, and of her own legacy of five thousand pounds (holdings from her first husband, a wealthy merchant), she bequeathed to him only a ring.
Tomkins does, however, absolve Wesley of the charge of adultery, a charge hurled at him by none other than his ultra-suspicious wife. But while always faithful to his marriage vows, Wesley, as his biographer freely admits, “suffered from a failure to discern between the romantic and pastoral, which blighted his romances and cast a shadow over his pastoring.” This was a blind spot that afflicted more than one early Methodist preacher. Perhaps the most disastrous of these philandering clerics was Westley Hall, one of Wesley’s first converts while they were both students at Oxford. Auspiciously enough, Hall married Wesley’s sister Martha; but then, after a string of seductions among his flock, he began to preach a gospel of polygamous deism and finally deserted Martha after most of her ten children had died, fleeing to the West Indies with another woman.

According to the famous twentieth-century Catholic writer, Ronald Knox, the real problem here was “enthusiasm.” But Tomkins shows that such an interpretation goes too far. The real problem was that legitimate religious enthusiasm had become too bottled up by the established church. The author recounts the rather amusing tale of one budding Quaker who quit the Church of England because, when he approached various curates and vicars about his oppressive sense of sin, he was told to go see a doctor. Such anodyne advice was clearly not for Wesley, who advocated what he called “heart-religion,” meaning “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” For Wesley, these fruits of the spirit must be felt, or else they have no being, and when excluded from the devout life religion becomes but a “dry, dead carcass.”

All well and good, and no one doubts that the enthusiasm that greeted Wesley’s sermons owed at least something to the starved condition of souls planted in the fallow soil of a desiccated, established Christianity. Unfortunately, enthusiasm sometimes bursts its own bounds, especially when sexual energy gets commingled with spiritual fervor. But of the authenticity of the fervor, both in Wesley and in most Methodists, there can be no doubt. “At fairly sober estimates,” Tomkins writes, Wesley “rode 250,000 miles, gave away 30,000 pounds, . . . and preached more than 40,000 sermons,” while the published version of his Journal ran to over twenty volumes. Moreover, under his influence England became, in all its classes and throughout the land, a thoroughly Christian nation, so much so that nonconformists grew from six percent of churchgoers in Wesley’s youth to over 45 percent by 1851.

Most remarkably, much of this growth came from the zeal of just this one man, and yet Wesley never seems to have attained the inner peace that was the goal of his entire adult life. In perhaps the most astonishing passage in this riveting book, Tomkins quotes John writing to his brother Charles in these stark words: “I do not love God. I never did. Therefore I never believed, in the Christian sense of the word. Therefore I am only an honest heathen.” But unlike similar-sounding crises of faith in later times, this did not cause Wesley to despair of his mission: “And yet I dare not preach otherwise than I do, either concerning faith, or love, or justification, or perfection . . . I want all the world to come to what I do not know.”

Without quite saying so explicitly, Tomkins implies that Wesley’s dilemma, expressed so poignantly here, came from an unresolved tension located in the Christian religion itself, above all in the still unresolved interpretation of the letters of St. Paul regarding justification and sanctification. While fully admitting that salvation is pure gift (in fact his early preaching was entirely premised on this foundational Reformation doctrine), Wesley also knew that static, untransforming faith was valueless; and so he came to advocate his most distinctive doctrine, claiming—against St. Augustine, Luther, and Calvin—that perfect holiness can be attained in this life. But with such an ideal in mind, dissension was bound to arise within the Methodist ranks between those who claimed such perfection and those who were all too aware of their ongoing sinfulness.

The irony of this dilemma is easy to picture, and Tomkins captures it well: “The immoderately perfect condemned ordinary Methodists as thoroughly as the Methodists condemned the ‘almost Christians’ of the Church of England, and complained of persecution from the ordinary Methodists as the ordinary Methodists did from the unregenerate Anglicans.” To make matters worse, preachers soon sprang up who began to claim that “a believer till perfect is under the curse of God and in a state of damnation.” Wesley rejected this teaching, but as Tomkins says, “he did not distance himself very much from it.” How could he? For the doctrine of perfect holiness had finally become both the wellspring and the goal of his apostolic zeal, the one doctrine that could resolve all his personal and theological tensions: “The conquest of sin, and not just its forgiveness, was what he most hoped for from his evangelical conversion.” Faith, Wesley said, was the door of religion; holiness was “religion itself.”

St. Augustine often insisted on the ineluctable sinfulness of Christians, no matter how seemingly perfect they might be. To him innate, incorrigible imperfection was one of the legacies of Adam’s sin. Original sin, he said, turned the human heart into a fomes peccati (tinderbox or powder keg of sin), operative at all times, even in the regenerate. This teaching Wesley seems never to have taken to heart, although the experience of his flock often told him of it, especially when those supposedly “perfect” saints later returned to their previous lives: “Formerly we thought,” wrote Wesley, “one saved from sin could not fall; now we know the contrary. We are surrounded with instances of those who lately experienced all that I mean by perfect. They had both the fruit of the Spirit, and the witness; but they now lost both.”

Recounting Wesley’s story this way might make it seem that he ended his life a tragic failure. But just as dissenting Christianity in England grew to encompass nearly half of English worshippers by the middle of the nineteenth century, so too Wesley’s insistence that holiness is the substance of religion (with faith but its portal) soon gave birth to the various “holiness churches,” and these later gave birth to Pentecostalism, now the fastest-growing form of Protestant Christianity in the world.

Whether Wesley himself would have counted these vast numbers of nonconforming Christians as representing “success” might be doubted, for it was never his intention to break away from the Church of England (in which, like his father Samuel and his brother Charles, he was ordained). But by the end of his days the split was becoming inevitable. Indeed, Wesley himself provoked the split (which took place only after his death) when he went ahead and ordained ministers for America. That move proved Wesley’s Rubicon, for to ordain without his bishop’s permission meant a de facto break; and we are not surprised to learn that at this point he was finally claiming that priests and bishops are the same, so that he had the authority to ordain.

How non-Methodists react to his innovations no doubt depends on their attachment to the ancient creeds and to the apostolic succession which they express. But for me the greater interest in Wesley’s life comes not from his break with Anglicanism, determinative as that was for the paths taken by American Methodism, but from the constancy and consistency of his zeal, often in the face of ferocious persecution (he escaped death several times by only the narrowest of margins, merely for preaching outdoors and to all comers). Yet he kept doggedly on, never wavering, always preaching, always writing in his journal, always on the go, always interrogating his own soul, but never on that account cooling his zeal for the gospel, which he preached in season and out. Perhaps the final word on this remarkable man can only be made by that apostle on whom he most modeled himself, St. Paul: “We are only the earthen vessels that hold this treasure,” he said in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “to prove that such an overwhelming power comes from God, not from us.”

Edward T. Oakes, S. J. is co-editor, with David Moss, of The Cambridge Companion to Hans Urs von Balthasar.

2012-01-18T17:38:00.000-08:00

Another one by Geoff Surratt:

Five Simple Ways to Make Your Church Stickier (Pt 2 Navigating the Maze)
Posted: 17 Jan 2012 08:54 AM PST

This week we are talking about simple ways to make your church stickier. The idea for this series came from attending nine different churches recently and running into the same challenges (except at your church). Yesterday we covered one of the biggies which is helping your people be friendly and hospitable to new attenders. Today we’ll look at an area that is so obvious that many churches overlook it.

Make your church easier to navigate
One way to solve the personal debt crisis in America is to make stores as difficult to navigate as many churches. Just figuring how to park is often an irritating early morning brainteaser. At a church we recently attended the main entrance to the parking lot was blocked by orange cones. There was no sign, no parking attendant, just orange cones screaming, “No room in the inn”. Because we were determined to attend we found a secondary entrance and parked in the lot with the blocked entrance. We often see signs at large churches that say “Lot full” with no indication of where we might be allowed to park. At one church we kept following signs and lot full signs until we were eventually dumped back out on the main street. Again, we eventually found ample parking on site, but we had to be determined. I have seen Do Not Enter signs on auditorium doors with no explanation or alternative. Can you imagine a sign on the entrance to Target "Store full, do not enter"?

Once we park it is often difficult to figure out where we should go. Which building is the auditorium? Where are the children’s rooms? Should I bring a pee cup, or does this church have onsite restrooms? These are the questions that many churches do not provide obvious answers to. On more than one occasion I have stood in the lobby and waited to see where the majority of the people seemed to moving toward to find the auditorium. Imagine standing with the fam at the front gate of Disney World with no indication how to enter the Magic Kingdom. That’s how new attenders feel when they arrive at your church.

Once inside church the challenges continue. Can I bring my soda (or coffee if you are one of THOSE people) into the auditorium? Do I find my own seat (like a movie) or will someone find a seat for me (like a play)? When do I stand, sit, hand over my wallet? Will I be forced to sing a solo? Approximately how long will this service last? Am I supposed to wash down the stale bread with a big swig from the cup of wine? These are the kinds of questions that normally I have to figure out on my own. Printed program guides are helpful, but I'm not sure if I should really sit and read while everyone else is standing and singing.

The challenge is what the Heath brothers in Made to Stick call The Curse of Knowledge. All of the regular attenders know how to navigate the church experience and they’ve forgotten what its like not to know. So how do you make your church easier to navigate? Here are a couple of ideas:

Get fresh eyes
As often as possible ask new attenders what obstacles they faced when they first attended. Get someone who doesn’t attend to try to navigate a weekend and give you feedback. Hire one of those “Secret shopper” services and see what they say. You can’t know what its like because you have the curse of knowledge, you need an outside opinion.
Retrain your host team
Make sure your host team is thinking constantly about the new attender. What message does this sign send? If we have to close an entrance how can we best explain the alternatives? Are we always scanning for that bewildered look and are we proactive about helping? What can we do each weekend to make the experience for the first time attender easire to navigate?

Start Here
A very simple but powerful idea of I’ve seen is a Start Here sign for new attenders. Most churches have welcome centers, connect tables, get acquainted tables, but a very prominent place that clearly instructs new attenders to Start Here would be awesome. (Even awesomer would be a cookie crumb trail from the parking lot to the Start Here center) The center needs to always be manned with friendly volunteers who can help navigate the experience. A simple one-page guide would be great. Not every small group and upcoming event, but a Disney type map and explanation of everything you need to know to expertly navigate the weekend experience. And a clearly defined Next Step. But we’ll get more into that tomorrow.

The bottom line is we should do everything we can to make our church at least as easy to navigate as the local Target. How has your church tackled this challenge?

Five Simple Ways Ways to Make Your Church Stickier

2012-01-16T12:33:00.000-08:00

Five Simple Ways Ways to Make Your Church Stickier

For the first time in our lives Sherry and I have the freedom to choose what church we attend. When we lived at home our parents chose for us, and after we got married we always attended the church I (and sometimes she) worked at. But now we are free to visit any church we want, so over the past couple of months we have visited nine different churches. In most cases we have gone as anonymous visitors and it has been an eye-opening experience. We have been surprised how difficult it is to fit in and connect at a new church. (If you know we attended your church recently I’m obviously talking about one of the other eight.) So this week I thought I’d share some tips on how to attract, connect and retain new attenders: Five Simple Ways to Make Your Church Stickier. None of these ideas are new or revolutionary, but I bet you think you’re church is a LOT better at each one than you really are. Trust me on this, they're not.
Let’s dive in with Simple Way One:

Make your church friendlier
I’m sure you assume your church gets a pass on this one; your church is one of the friendliest churches on the planet. When you walk in everyone says hi, you have a built in greeting time in your service when all the new people feel welcomed, and after church people hang around forever laughing and connecting. You’ve got the friendly thing down.
Let me give you an outsider’s perspective on the friendliness of your church. When I arrive one or two assigned people with big nametags smile and say hi. (At some churches the assigned greeters are either engaged in conversation with someone else, grunt hello, or just frown and hand me a bulletin.) Once I navigate past people in the lobby talking to people they already know I am placed in an isolation bubble called the auditorium. I sit with people who don’t acknowledge my presence in any way until the forced greeting time. “Turn and greet your neighbor before you sit down.” At most someone might crack a half smile, give their name and shake my hand. Normally I get a grimaced look, a quick handshake and a short, “Hi”. I don’t realize it at the time, but that is the last time anyone will make any contact with me at your church. After service I again have to navigate the lobby where people who already know each other have exclusive parties with other people who already know each other. Sometimes I stand in the lobby looking bewildered and feeling as out of place as a bikini in aDenver snowstorm, but no sees me. Finally I find my way back to the car feeling more alone than I did when I arrived. And in case you think its because I’m an introvert, my extroverted wife feels the same. Feeling alone and disconnected is the one experience we’ve had at almost every church we’ve attended.
So how do you make your church friendlier? Here are a couple of ideas (most of these I stole from others):

Teach on hospitalityTake a weekend (or a month) and teach your congregation how to be hospitable at church, in the workplace and at home. Hospitality has always been a hallmark of Christianity, so we need to teach on it.

Create a “gorilla greeter” team
Get as many people as possible to be gorilla greeters. Their job is to make sure they talk only to people they don’t know for the first ten minutes after they arrive and for the first ten minutes after the service is over. They don’t need lanyards or nametags (in fact that would defeat the purpose.) Their job is to find people who seem disconnected and figure how to connect them.

Adopt a “neighborhood”Divide your auditorium into sections and get leaders to adopt a section as their neighborhood. They commit to attend the same service each week, sit in their neighborhood and watch for new people who sit in the section. They become the small group leader of that section.

Give the greeting time a purpose of kill itFind a way to make the greeting time in your service purposeful. Why are you doing this? How can you make it more effective? Is it accomplishing the purpose you designed it for?
How has your church worked on friendliness? What has worked and not worked?

2012-01-02T10:26:00.000-08:00

How an Idea becomes a Reality

Vision
1. Can come to a leader or from the leader
2. Something new to try, a new idea, a new goal or plan
Plan
1. Answering the questions
2. Can we do this
3. Should we do this
4. Who will it involve
5. What will it cost
6. What staff or volunteers do we need
Implement
1. Date is set
2. Resources allocated
3. Notification given
Manage
1. If not managed well, will die
2. Volunteers drop off
3. Money dries up
Review
1. Evaluate the goals and performance
2. Is there a good return on investment
3. Has it lost its mission and vision
4. Corrections made here
5. Modify or Kill happens here

Adapted from Mark Driscoll

2011-12-01T17:51:00.001-08:00

The Christian Post > U.S.|Tue, Nov. 01 2011 06:43 PM EDT

Ore. Pastors Speak Out About Churches Meeting in Public Schools

By Jeff Schapiro | Christian Post Reporter

Many churches, especially start-ups, rent public school facilities on weekends in order to house their worship services. While opponents to these arrangements say that religious organizations have no business holding services in a government institution, the pastors of these churches say their presence is in the best interest of the community.

Willy Burns, pastor of Southside Community Church in Newberg, Ore., said his congregation met in a public elementary school for three years, and during that time they had a few “scares” from school board members who complained about the church's presence but had a good experience overall.

“To say that churches that are renting the facilities are being supported by the schools is nonsensical,” Burns said in an email to The Christian Post. “If any group wants to come in and rent the facility they may, and I think that is a real win for the school district, especially given the harsh economic times we live in where schools are being hit hard and teachers are being cut.

Meanwhile, Michael Gaffney, pastor of Ascent Christian Church in Prineville, Ore., said his congregation meets in a local high school auditorium because the cost of rent is a good alternative to being “handcuffed” to a mortgage payment. Renting from the school allows his church to reserve more of its money for ministry, he said, and all of the rent money goes toward the high school's auditorium and theater program.

Gaffney doesn't want the church to have a mortgage, because, "like it does in a marriage, it becomes a stressor on the church, and then sooner or later, usually sooner, the church finds itself in a position where it has come to serve the building rather than the building serving the church.”

Eight out of 10 of Oregon’s largest school districts are currently renting their facilities to religious groups, but not everyone is happy about it, according to The Associated Press.

In September, Gladstone, Ore. resident Wilford Bearden became upset after he received a flyer inviting him to a church service at a nearby middle school. He later contacted the school district's officials to complain.

"I don't think it's something that schools should be doing," said Bearden to AP. "I think the general public would probably be appalled as I am that my tax dollars are promoting religion."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a group of non-theists out of Madison, Wis. that fight for church-state separation, says it is unfortunate that the U.S. Supreme Court has rendered decisions that continue to allow churches to meet in schools.

“Start-up churches often take advantage of low school rental to establish themselves,” says an article on FFRF's website. “They obtain a prominent site for a new church, collect church donations on public property, and use their savings to eventually buy their own tax-free buildings. No wonder many taxpayers are concerned!”

But Steve Crampton, general counsel and vice president of legal affairs for Liberty Counsel, told The Christian Post Monday, “It is a sad commentary on the state of our nation and our so-called 'tolerant' society, that when churches seek to exercise the same rights as any other community group to use the facilities at our public schools – on the same basis, same terms as other groups – they are singled out for this kind of hostile treatment.”

The Liberty Counsel, founded in 1989, is a non-profit legal group dedicated to promoting religious freedom and defending religious rights. Crampton said, under a pure interpretation of the law, churches in American shouldn't fear being excluded from public schools, but said they should be concerned about a growing hostility toward Christians in our society.

“It's as if we've gone from sort of a privileged status, as the First Amendment religion clauses make clear, to really being almost second-class citizens because we belong to a Christian church today,” he said.

He also said he is afraid that some school districts might close off access to their facilities for all community groups, in order to avoid lawsuits from both churches and organizations like the FFRF. When that happens, he said, “the whole community suffers.”

"Groups like ours exist to, on the one hand, protect the churches free of charge, but on the other to render defenses to school districts, free of charge, when they're sued by the left on these baseless grounds,” said Crampton.

Patrick Bowler, lead pastor of Valley Life Church in Lebanon, Ore., told CP via email that, despite what others argue, his church is not an opponent of the state. His congregation has volunteered to help the local school district with tasks like landscaping, trash removal and providing food to hungry children in the district.

He said his church, which has met in Lebanon High School for the last five years, has given the district tens of thousands of dollars in rent and doesn't expect to receive any preferential treatment.

“As believers in a God who humbled Himself and set aside His glory to live among us and to die for us to close the gap between himself, a holy God, and ourselves, a broken people, how could we posture ourselves as entitled to anything?” he asked.

“Jesus would have us love the city, and that is increasingly what we want to do.”

Hell is HOT!! Tartaros... It's not just on your teeth!

2011-10-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

2 Peter 2 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does[a] not slumber. Doom of False Teachers 4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, 11 whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.

In studying hell we will take one stop off for 2 Peter 2:4. Peter makes mention of hell in this verse and it is the only time it is used in the N.T.

The word is from the Greek: ταρταρόω tartaroō tar-tar-o'-o From Τάρταρος Tartaros̄ (the deepest abyss of Hades); to incarcerate in eternal torment: - cast down to hell. 2Pe 2:4

5020 tartaróō – properly, send to Tartarus ("Tartaros"). The NT uses 5020 (tartaróō) for the netherworld – the place of punishment fit only for demons. Later, Tartaros came to represent eternal punishment for wicked people.

(tartaróō) is a Greek name for the under-world, especially the abode of the damned – hence to cast into hell" to send into the subterranean abyss reserved for demons and the dead. In Greek mythology, Tartarus was a "place of punishment under the earth, to which, for example, the Titans were sent"

Adam Clarke reasoned that Peter's use of language relating to the Titans was an indication that the ancient Greeks had heard of a Biblical punishment of fallen angels. As such, the terminology would have made sense to the early readers of the N.T.

The Holy Spirit through Peter wanted us to understand that the punishment would fit the crime. The bottom line here is that first, God takes our sins in context and will judge accordingly. Second, there is a more severe punishment for those who lead others astray. Bottom line, God hates sin, no doubt about it, but he hates it even more when he sees one person mess another person up, that is why this lower part of hell is reserved for Satan and his demons.

2011-09-28T12:34:00.001-07:00

Fall Video Update 2011 from Southside Community Church on Vimeo.

Erasing Hell by Francis Chan

2011-09-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

2011-09-10T23:36:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I worked for a man in Washington state, he was a good guy and had all the best intentions in the world... he was a Christian and was not afraid to share his faith. At work there was a 20 something coworker who was not a believer. One day I came into work and found my boss trying to convince my coworker that a group of scientists had actually drilled a hole into the center of the earth, lowered a microphone and recorded the screams of those below suffering in hell... I wanted to curl up in a little ball in the corner and pretend this had been a bad dream, I was embarrassed. I remember going home that day and looking up this claim on www.snopes.com found that it was a scam that a guy had actually used to swindled a local church out of several thousand dollars to get more money to "keep drilling", and "keep the research going". I printed out the papers and took them into work the next day and ever so humbly shared what I had learned. My ex-boss looked at me like I had just slapped his mamma... It wasn't long after that that he fired me.

This experience brought up a really good question though... where IS hell?
for this blog I want to focus on one of the words that I mentioned in my last post, Gehenna (ghe-hen-nah).

Gehenna is the Hebrew gê-hinnom(Nehemiah 11:30), or the longer form gê-ben-hinnom(Joshua 15:8), and gê-benê-hinnom(2 Kings 23:10) "valley of the sons of Hinnom". Hinnom seems to be the name of some lucky mystery guy.

Whoever this guy was, he had a valley that was SO bad they use the name synonymously with hell.

This Valley of Hinnom is south of Jerusalem and is now called Wadi er-rababi. It was notorious as the scene, in earlier days, of the horrible worship of Molech. For this reason it was defiled by Josias (2Kings 23:10), cursed by Jeremias (Jeremiah7:31-33), and held in abomination by the Jews.

The reason why the history is important is because Jesus made it important. Jesus was a master story teller and he used every day object lessons to drive home spiritual concepts. In the N.T. Jesus refers to "hell" just under a dozen times.

In the King James Versionof the Bible, the term appears 13 times in 11 different verses as "valley of Hinnom," "valley of the son of Hinnom" or "valley of the children of Hinnom."

The traditional description of the valley is that it may have been the town dump and had fires burning all the time to consume the trash and even cadavers that were thrown into it.

There is evidence as shown in the picture that it was a graveyard and had tombs... bottom line, really creepy valley.

When speaking of hell, Jesus uses the term Gehenna 11 times to describe hell. It would have been a powerful word picture in the mind of the Jewish listeners and also helped them understand that hell is a real deal.

Soooo, am I saying that THAT is where hell is located? No. But, I think it does illustrate for us that fact that hell is not only a spiritual realm, but it can in fact be here with us now, right here, right now.

A few years ago I took a group of teenagers on a mission trip to Matamoros, Mexico where we built small homes for people who lived IN the dump.
Not by the dump or near the dump, IN the dump.

These people lived in and by the dump, the dump provided everything they needed, it was their mother... it was disgusting.

I will NEVER forget the smell of that dump, the children playing in bare feet, the maggots, the families digging through the trash to get food and things they could recycle or sell for money.

I will NEVER forget the garbage truck pulling up and dropping a load in the "front yard" of one family so that they could pick through the trash.

I will never forget the rabid dogs with mange wandering around with gnashing teeth. I will never forget the fires that would randomly start and burn day and night there from all the decomposing trash... it... was... hell.

We have all seen different pictures of hell, stories that we could tell that would fill up this blog.

Jesus point was simple, hell is a very bad place and we should do all that we can to make sure we are living in the kingdom of heaven now, that we are bringing the kingdom of light here and that we are pointing the way to His kind of living not only in THIS age but in the AGE TO COME!
Pastor Willy

Hell is HOT!! Introduction

2011-09-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

Well, here we have it. I have finally decided that I would bite the bullet and write about hell. Not exactly the funnest subject, clearly an odd one for me to tackle. As odd as it may seem, the thought of hell has been in my mind as of late. We all know and have heard our whole lives about this place of misery... what is it, where is it, who goes there, for how long? These are just some of the questions we have all pondered and over the next few blog posts I will share with you my study, my reflection and some of my conclusions about this murky, mystery. My hope is that by studying hell, we will solve some of the puzzles and misunderstandings about this place. So with no further adieu, we will begin our study.

The first thing that I would like to consider is the fact that the word "hell" is not really found in the bible, there are actually a few different words in the O.T. and N.T. that we have translated to the word hell. I have added a scripture reference for each so that you get the idea. The first step to understanding the scriptures on the subject of hell is understanding what the scriptures are referring to when we read the word hell. I would also suggest doing a word study on Hell to prepare for upcoming teachings, a great resource for studying the scripture can be found here: e-sword.net. My hope is that you will all feel free to post what you are thinking and learning so that we can discuss together what we find out!

Pastor Willy
www.southsidenewberg.org

ταρταρόω

tartaroō tar-tar-o'-o From Τάρταρος Tartaros̄ (the deepest abyss of Hades); to incarcerate in eternal torment: - cast down to hell.

2Pe 2:4

5020 tartaróō – properly, send to Tartarus ("Tartaros"). The NT uses 5020 (tartaróō) for the netherworld – the place of punishment fit only for demons. Later, Tartaros came to represent eternal punishment for wicked people.

"5020 (tartaróō) is a Greek name for the under-world, especially the abode of the damned – hence to cast into hell" (A-S); to send into the subterranean abyss reserved for demons and the dead.

[In Greek mythology, Tartarus was a "place of punishment under the earth, to which, for example, the Titans were sent" (Souter).]

Γέεννα

geenna

gheh'-en-nah Of Hebrew origin ([H1516] and [H2011]); valley of (the son of) Hinnom; gehenna (or Ge-Hinnom), a valley of Jerusalem, used (figuratively) as a name for the place (or state) of everlasting punishment: hell.

Matt. 5:22

ᾅδης

hadēs

hah'-dace From G1 (as a negative particle) and G1492; properly unseen, that is, “Hades” or the place (state) of departed souls: - grave, hell.

Rev 20:13

שׁאל שׁאול

sh e 'ôl

sheh-ole', sheh-ole' From H7592; hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat), including its accessories and inmates: - grave, hell, pit.

Psa 16:10

2011-09-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

The Great Recovery is a grassroots movement spread by people who are tired of looking to Washington for answers. The truth is that the government can’t fix this economy. It’ll be restored one family at a time, as each of us takes a stand to return to God and grandma’s way of handling money.

Together, we’ll bring this country back on track—one family, one church, one community at a time.

As part of The Great Recovery movement, this fall Southside will be hosting two Financial Peace University classes. We want everyone to be involved, so don’t delay and sign your family up today.

If you would like to be a part of this movement and join one of the Financial Peace University classes happening this fall at Southside, then simply fill out the information for the class you’d like to join and the leader for that group will contact you with more information.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Evelyn Barnes by EMAIL.

Class # 1

Saturday Mornings – 9:30 to 11:30 (breakfast at 9am)
Barnes Upper Room – 429 S Main St
Preview Session on Sept. 10, 2011 – First Class Session on Sept. 17

A great article by: Tera Castile

2010-03-12T00:55:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!

I wanted to share with you an excerpt that shares the meaning of a teacher term called “disequilibrium,” one that I think is relevant to Southside as we do the work we have ahead:

“According to Piaget, reorganization to higher levels of thinking is not accomplished easily. The child must "rethink" his or her view of the world. An important step in the process is the experience of cognitive conflict. In other words, the child becomes aware that he or she holds two contradictory views about a situation and they both cannot be true. This step is referred to as disequilibrium. According to Piaget, learning cannot occur without disequilibrium.”

Disequilibrium is the name for the place between old understanding and new learning. It is an often uncomfortable place for students to be, but a necessary one if they are to grow. It is a place that teachers strive to put their students in, in order for them to do the hard work of discovering new learning. However, it is also the most difficult time to be a teacher. When students are in a state of disequilibrium they often want to know the answer because they are too frustrated and tired to work through their confusion, or simply too lazy to even try. As a teacher, I often want to show them or tell them the answer myself because it seems easier or less time consuming. However, I am learning, that if you guide students by asking the right questions and offering some support without telling them the answer, they will come to the new understanding with much more depth of knowledge and excitement for having come through the tough parts.

God is the master teacher. He knows how to lead his children into disequilbrium and then patiently guide and question to bring them to a place with greater understanding and passion than before. I think that this is where we are at Southside. We are on the cusp of something really great, we just don’t know what it is yet. We wish our teacher would just tell us already, but we must let him guide us to greater understanding. It’s an exciting place to be! I will be praying as to what my role is in his plan for Southside, as I know you are too.

-Tera

2010-01-25T09:49:00.001-08:00

Young Life

2010-01-02T12:34:00.000-08:00

My Friend: Rev. Greg Knox Shares About Christmas

2009-12-18T07:09:00.000-08:00

Is Santa Satan in disguise (there is after all, the same letters in both names, as some guardians of all that is good remind us). Or is Santa a Christian after all, since he really is St. Nicholas, a Christian bishop of the fourth century? So which is it? Is Santa Claus harmless or spawned in hell or something in between? Though knowing his origin can't decide all these questions, it still is an important point to ponder.

Actually, the truth of the matter is that the modern Santa Claus is a conglomeration of sources, a legendary being that has evolved over the years. Along the way, pre-Christian legends, the story of St. Nicholas, Dutch immigrants to America, Washington Irving, Clement Moore, Thomas Nast, and the Coca-Cola company, all made their contributions.

If you've ever seen "The Santa Clause" then you will agree that it's well known that the name "Santa Claus" comes to us by way of the Dutch "Sinter Klaas," which in turn, was a form of Saint Nicholas. Our modern Santa Claus took his name from the Christian Saint Nicholas so we need to begin with a look at this Christian bishop of the fourth century.

Throughout history Nicholas of Myra (A.D.350) has been one of the most beloved saints even apart from the Santa Claus context. In fact, George McKnight claims that both in the eastern and western Church, Nicholas is "the object of extreme veneration, to a degree unequaled in the case of any other saint." (George H. McKnight, St. Nicholas: His Legend and His Role in the Christmas Celebration and Other Popular Customs (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1917), 29).

The first historical record of his veneration is the fact that the emperor Justinian built a church in his honor in Constantinople around the year 540 AD. Nicholas is patron saint of entire nations, including Greece, Russia, Sicily, and Lorraine, and many cities throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, and Italy. He is also patron saint of children, bakers, merchants, and mariners.

Ironically, very little factual information is actually known about this most popular of all the saints. There is scarcely any definite historical fact known about him except that he was bishop of Myra in Asia Minor; that he was cast into exile and prison during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian and released by Constantine the Great; that he died in Myra about 350, and in the year 1087 his body was brought by Italian merchants from Myra to the city of Bari in Italy, where his relics are still preserved and venerated in the church of San Nicola.

The Feast of St. Nicholas on Dec. 6 has been observed with great enthusiasm throughout Medieval Europe over the centuries. This enthusiasm was due to the many legends that had grown up around Nicholas: that he had distributed gifts to the poor at night through their windows, had fasted while a baby, had helped dowerless maidens, saved a city from famine, had aided a ship in distress, etc.

Because of the gift-giving legends associated with Nicholas, it was held (especially in Belgium and Holland) that on the Eve of the Feast of Nicholas, the bishop himself would come from heaven and visit children in their homes, giving gifts to those who had been good. Nicholas, decked out in full ecclesiastical garb (bishop's robe), would arrive on a flying gray horse (or white donkey, depending on the custom). In some variations of the legend, he was accompanied by Black Peter, an elf whose job was to punish children who had been bad.

It's held by some scholars that the legends of Nicholas as gift-giver drew in part from pagan, preChristian sources. For example, the Teutonic god of the air, Odin, would ride through the air on a gray horse (named Sleipnir) each Autumn - so did Nicholas; Odin had a long white beard - so did Nicholas; a sheaf of grain was left in the field for Odin's horse - children left a wisp of straw in their shoes for Nicholas. Others claim that attributes of the Germanic god Thor, the god of thunder, were transferred to Nicholas. Thor was supposedly elderly and heavy with a long white beard; he rode through the air in a chariot drawn by two white goats (called Cracker and Gnasher); he dressed in red; his palace was in the "northland;" he was friendly and cheerful; he would come down the chimney into his element, the fire. No definitive correlation has ever been found between the "visit of St. Nicholas" and pagan gods such as Odin and Thor. However the similarity is striking and some relationship seems likely.

2009-11-20T18:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Southside Family,

I am excited to share with you information regarding the Showing We Care Special Offering that begins now and continues through January 31, 2010.

Over the last 3 years we have been a part of God planting a new church in the south side of Newberg. Southside was planted as a church that would show the love and healing that only comes from Jesus. Along the way we have used the resources that God has entrusted us with to tell our community, "God loves you and so do we". With this Special Offering we have the opportunity to deepen the impact on our city, enlarge our ministry to our regular attenders and engage those without a church in our country and world.

The offering will be designated for supporting global and U.S. missions, sharing God's love with our city through Servant Evangelism, fund our benevolence ministry that will assist the poor and needy and enhance the Southside Kidz experience on Sunday.

I hope you will carefully read over the enclosed documents to learn about this exciting opportunity for us to give sacrificially.

Will you begin praying now about what God would have you give, over and above your regular giving, to this Special Offering? Allow God to stretch your faith!

Your Friend,

Pastor Willy Burns

willy@southsidenewberg.org

P.S. The following post will give you an overview of the special offering and answer many common questions. However, if you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to contact me by phone (971*832*2427) or e-mail.

OVERVIEW

The SHOWING WE CARE Special Offering is a call to sacrificial giving with a goal of $3,000 for four ministry initiatives:

• To support Global / U.S. missions

• To share God's love to our city through Servant Evangelism.

• To tangibly support Love Inc. and to fund the 2010 Benevolence Ministry.

• To enhance the Southside Kidz experience on Sunday and address key capital improvements.

This Special Offering will be received through January 31, 2010.

Use the giving envelope or mark your checks with "Showing We Care."

THE PURPOSE OF THIS OFFERING

To support Global / U.S. missions.

Over the next year we will be doing missions work in the U.S. and Globally. This offering will help fund out missions outreach for 2010.

To share God's love to our city through Servant Evangelism.

We want to continue to be aggressive in reaching our city through Servant Evangelism by the combined efforts of our attenders We believe that together we can continue to show God's love in a practical way when we make it a priority across our church.

To tangibly support local organizations that assist the poor and needy in Newberg and to fund the 2010 Benevolence ministry.

We have a unique opportunity to help those in the greatest need in our community! We want to partner with local organizations that are really making a difference in peoples' lives and at the same time sharing the love of Jesus in a very practical way. That's why we partner with Love Inc. – because they have consistently made a difference in peoples' lives and demonstrated effectiveness in seeing lives change.

This year, we want to invest in them and join them in making a big difference in meeting the most basic needs of our city. This offering will go to support that effort.

We are anticipating and preparing for an increase in benevolence requests in 2010 due to the current economic climate.

To enhance the Southside Kidz experience at Southside.

We are a church that loves to invest in children and families. We consider it an honor to help a family make the best spiritual impact on their children's lives, help them raise a child that will choose to follow Jesus, and have a strong home. To do this, we have designed a fantastic experience for children on Sunday called Southside Kidz.

We are always looking to make BIG improvements in Southside Kidz, and 2010 is no different! We have several planned improvements over the course of the next year that will help you ensure that this is the best hour of your child's week, and that will put us in the best place to invest in your family spiritually.

To sum it up we want to provide the best opportunity for the people of Newberg to become fully-developing followers of Jesus! We want to use the best resources, offer the greatest opportunities to grow spiritually, and create unique and creative settings to consider a relationship with Jesus.

We know that in order to do that, we need to stay ahead in our equipment, facility setup, and resourcing to see this happen. In 2010, part of this offering will go to make significant investments in capital improvements to allow the church to stay ahead and remain relevant to this purpose.

Why a Special Offering?

As part of God's plan to grow the faith of the people in His church, He calls us to sacrificial giving from time to time. This Special Offering is an opportunity for us to grow in our faith and to prepare us for what God wants to do through our church in 2010. This offering is not because we are behind on budget, but rather is to position us to make a greater impact in our city, in our church and around the world in 2010.

What's the Difference Between the Regular Offering and this Special Offering?

The regular Southside offering is the proportional amount (the full tithe of 10%) that we set apart on a systematic basis and give throughout the year. From time to time there are opportunities to give in a sacrificial way. This Special Offering is one of those sacrificial occasions that stretch us and allow us to grow in our faith. The special offering should be over and above what you regularly give.

When Should I Give?

The best time to give will be the first Sunday after you receive this packet. Please pray about making your best gift on that day. However, you can continue to give until January 31, 2010.

Remember, consistent gifts over time add up – a person giving $50 per week over a ten-week period will give $500 to this Special Offering.

How Much Should I Give?

Since the goal is $3,000, this Special Offering will involve everyone. Please prayerfully consider a sacrificial gift that will stretch your faith. The precise amount you give is between you and God. Many in our church can give a $500, $750 or even a $1000 gift. Others will be able to give between $100 and $500. The issue is not equal giving, but equal sacrifice. What amount can you give that will stretch your faith?

Why is the Goal So Large?

We have been a church that has dared to dream big dreams for God. The ministries supported by this offering are BIG – supporting global and U.S. missions, sharing God's love with our city through Servant Evangelism, supporting local organizations that assist the poor and needy, funding the 2010 Benevolence ministry and enhancing the Southside Kidz experience on Sunday. Big dreams require big faith and big funding. The accomplishment of these big dreams will be determined by your gifts to this Special Offering.

FREQUENTLY-ASKED QUESTIONS

Can I Give In-Kind Gifts of Stocks or Bonds?

Of course! Since Southside is a 501c3 organization there can be tremendous tax benefits for you by giving in-kind gifts. For information on this type of giving, simply contact Pastor Willy at: willy@southsidenewberg.org

Are My Gifts Tax-Deductible?

All gifts to Southside, whether via the regular offering or this Special Offering, are completely tax- deductible. Your gift will be deductible in the tax year given (i.e., gifts given in 2009 will be deductible on your 2009 taxes). Please be sure to include your name and address when you give so that a receipt can be sent to you for your tax preparations. You are not required to utilize a tax-deduction for your gift, but it is available for all gifts.

How Did We Arrive at a $3,000 Goal?

The $3,000 goal was prayerfully set by the Southside Leadership. It is approximately three times our regular weekly giving. It is a God-sized goal that can only be accomplished through 100% participation and sacrificial giving by our Southside attenders and members. Since we are expecting God to bless this Special Offering, it has been determined that any amount over and above our goal will be divided equally between Missions and Ministry Advancement.

How Will I Know if We Reach Our Goal?

Please pray for God's guidance as we all give sacrificially. You will be updated on our giving progress during the service, beginning this Sunday, and continuing through the last Sunday in January. Reaching this goal will be a celebration of what we can do together as we stretch our faith under God's leadership.

Have additional questions? Please contact Pastor Willy Burns at: willy@southsidenewberg.org, or call 971.832.2427.

2009-11-12T11:42:00.000-08:00

Over the last month I have been reading a series of email teachings put out by my lifelong pastor, Greg Knox. They have been discussing the anthropic cosmological principle. Basically it outlines what conditions would be necessary for life to exist on this planet and the mathematical odds of life occurring.

It is important as believers that we grapple with the claims of the Bible and science to prepare ourselves to always be ready to give a defense for the hope that lies within us.

Over the next few weeks we will be exploring some of the fine tuning that is required for life to exist on planet earth.

We will learn how everyday conditions on Earth are necessary for life to continue, even conditions that we wish did not exist, such as earthquakes and lightening.

Here is a layman's definition of the anthropic principle:

In physics and cosmology, the anthropic principle is the collective name for several ways of asserting that the observations of our physical universe must be compatible with the life observed in it. The principle was formulated as a response to a series of observations which seemed to show that the laws of nature and its physical constants were uncannily set in a way that allowed conditions for life.

Let's get started with this brief intro... I am looking forward to this discovery together!

Pastor Willy

Quotes from Scientists Regarding Design of the Universe

by Rich Deem

Does science lead us down a road that ends in the naturalistic explanation of everything we see? In the nineteenth century, it certainly looked as though science was going in that direction. The "God of the gaps" was finding himself in a narrower and narrower niche. However, 20th century and now 21st century science is leading us back down the road of design - not from a lack of scientific explanation, but from scientific explanation that requires an appeal to the extremely unlikely - something that science does not deal well with. As a result of the recent evidence in support of design, many scientists now believe in God. According to a recent article:
"I was reminded of this a few months ago when I saw a survey in the journal Nature. It revealed that 40% of American physicists, biologists and mathematicians believe in God--and not just some metaphysical abstraction, but a deity who takes an active interest in our affairs and hears our prayers: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
The degree to which the constants of physics must match a precise criteria is such that a number of agnostic scientists have concluded that there is some sort of "supernatural plan" or "Agency" behind it. Here is what they say:
The quotes
Fred Hoyle (British astrophysicist): "A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question."

George Ellis (British astrophysicist): "Amazing fine tuning occurs in the laws that make this [complexity] possible. Realization of the complexity of what is accomplished makes it very difficult not to use the word 'miraculous' without taking a stand as to the ontological status of the word."

Paul Davies (British astrophysicist): "There is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all....It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s numbers to make the Universe....The impression of design is overwhelming".

Paul Davies: "The laws [of physics] ... seem to be the product of exceedingly ingenious design... The universe must have a purpose".

Alan Sandage (winner of the Crawford prize in astronomy): "I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing."

John O'Keefe (astronomer at NASA): "We are, by astronomical standards, a pampered, cosseted, cherished group of creatures.. .. If the Universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in."

George Greenstein (astronomer): "As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency - or, rather, Agency - must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially crafted the cosmos for our benefit?"

Arthur Eddington (astrophysicist): "The idea of a universal mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory."

Arno Penzias (Nobel prize in physics): "Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying (one might say 'supernatural') plan."

Roger Penrose (mathematician and author): "I would say the universe has a purpose. It's not there just somehow by chance."

Tony Rothman (physicist): "When confronted with the order and beauty of the universe and the strange coincidences of nature, it's very tempting to take the leap of faith from science into religion. I am sure many physicists want to. I only wish they would admit it."

Vera Kistiakowsky (MIT physicist): "The exquisite order displayed by our scientific understanding of the physical world calls for the divine."

Robert Jastrow (self-proclaimed agnostic): "For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

2009-10-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Nov. 7th @ 6pm

Powerful Praise!

Church Development Network is sponsoring a night of worship hosted in Beaverton and facilitated by this summer's Conference Camp worship team.

If you love great music and want to experience a powerful night in God's presence, join us! Come be filled, refreshed and renewed!

See you all there!

New Vision Fellowship

5525 SW Menlo Dr.

Beaverton, OR. 97005

Forward this to a friend!

Questions? Contact Kathy King at 503.641.5305- kathy.king@vision1.org

86400 Second Every Day... Use It Or Lose It!

2009-10-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

About a year ago I listened to a talk the Rick Warren gave on time management. I thought It was very good so I wanted to share my notes with you from that talk... enjoy!

If we live an average life of 70 years that will mean that each one of us will spend:

A. 23 Years asleep
B. 17 Years Working
C. 11 Years Watching TV / Playing
D. 6 Years Traveling
E. 2 Years Getting Ready
F. 1 Year in Church

Ephesians 5 tells us to live life with responsibility. What does that mean?

1. First we have to understand that time management is life management. When we are just killing time we are in essence committing suicide! We all have 168 hrs. per week... how do we use them?

2. Ephesians 5:17 Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.

We need to understand what our purpose is, (that's why we are doing the Purpose Driven Life this fall as a church).

       1. Know God / Worship
       2. Grow Like Jesus / Discipleship
       3. Over Flow with Love / Fellowship
       4. Show your gifts / Ministry
       5. Go tell others / Evangelism

Every person needs 2 things:
1. Ministry (if you are not involved in serving, you should be)
2. Mission

You are not accountable to the expectations of others, only God, you cannot please everyone! We have just enough time in this life to do God's will.

Here are some tips on how to prioritize your life:

1. Keep a journal of how you are using your time for a couple of days, look back over it and ask the question, is this how I want to use my time? " An unexamined life is not one worth living" -Socrates
       a. Just because something is prior does not make it a priority... something more important may come up!

2. Say NO to a lot of stuff.

3. Group similar tasks together: phone calls, meetings, errands...

4. Plan your week in 21 segments: 7 Morning / Noon / Evening segments.

5. Use all of your "free time". Loose change time, redeem your time. Cary a book or audio resource to help you grow when you are "stuck waiting" somewhere.

6. Maintain a "relaxed attitude". Proverbs 14:30 A sound mind makes for a robust body, but runaway emotions corrode the bones.

7. Put God first by scheduling time for Him first every day.

8. Utilize the present... there is no time like the present, don't waste your days.

5 things to do EVERY day:

1. Use today to worship God
2. Use today to fellowship
3. Use today to Grow
4. Use today to serve others
5. Use today to share your faith

Given all of this advice... what would be some next steps that you could take to help you improve how you use your time?

Be blessed and make the most of your days!

Pastor Willy

Running Like Your Pants are on Fire

2009-09-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a busy fall. We have so many exciting opportunities comming up:

1. C.S. Lewis Work Days: This Sat. the 26th & Oct. 10th - 9am

2. Leadership Summit Oct. 2nd - 4th

3. Community Groups Begin the week of Oct. 4th – week of Dec. 13th

4. Prayer Service – Oct. 10th @ C.S. Lewis

5. First Service @ C.S. Lewis Oct. 11th - 10am

6. The Harvest Outreach – Oct. 24th - 10:30-2:30

7. Grand Re-Opening @ C.S. Lewis – Oct. 25th – 10am

And that is just October!

If you love to serve than this October is going to be packed with a ton of opportunities for you to reach out with love.

There are a lot of changes taking place at Southside and you might feel like your head is spinning... I want to encourage you to hold on and dig in with me. We are going to work for the Lord with all of our hearts and at times it may feel like we are running with our pants on fire, but the call has never been greater. We live in a time when people’s needs are the greatest and we have to get mobilized to help meet some of those needs.

This October we are going to meet some of those needs by having a Harvest Outreach. While this summer we got busy sowing the seeds of love, this fall we are going to reap a harvest!

We are going to spend the day feeding our neighbors, loving our neighbors and inviting them to hear the gospel and be a part of a ministry where they can plug into a community group and begin the journey of learning who God is..

This is going to be so exciting! Are you catching the vision? God is going to do a miracle in some people’s lives this fall and we get to be a part of it.

All of this hard work, all of this labor is to prepare US to be ready to receive all who God brings us. I know that if we are faithful to do what God has called us to, then He will be faithful with the increase.

Jesus said that He would build His church, and what a partner to have!
Southside... Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up! (Gal. 6:9)

Looking forward to the harvest with you,

Pastor Willy

Community Groups

2009-09-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

Well August has come to a close and so has our summer term. I know that it was a great time for me to get to know families in the church better, as I am sure, you did too!

September there will be no groups going on. It is a busy time, getting back into the swing of school and work. Nick (my son) starts his first day of 1st grade today! Angel is home schooling, so it has been a little crazy around here. Yesterday we went to a school supply store and picked up last minute stuff for this year of school. There is something about the way freshly sharpened pencils smell that I really like. Probably just another case of “grandma’s cookies”.
This fall (October) we will start our new community groups. They will last only 10 weeks ending the second week of December and not meet at all during the week of Thanksgiving. We are going to be doing a church wide study this term of the Purpose Driven Life and serving once together, probably at the Burnside Shelter.

WHY!!!

Let me give you 5 good reasons:

1. People live a far more satisfying, contented life when they know what their purpose is. The book, teaches us about our 5 purposes in life. Although many of us may have gone through this before, it is probably time to do it again! After all, most likely none of us can list all five of the purposes... or even one!

To further illustrate the point let me show you something:

Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve. Ebbinghaus studied forgetting in the late 1800s. He found that retention and forgetting occur over time and plotted his data: the famous forgetting curve. Look at the diagram, after just 9 hours we have forgotten 70% of the data!

Sooooo, if it has been more than 9 hours since you read the book, you have most likely fogotten 70% of the content. By the way, that is why we keep on preaching out of the Bible every week... we need it because we forget it!!!

2. We already have all of the books and teaching DVDs. The book retails for $14.95 and you get one FREE when you join a community group this fall!

3. You will grow spiritually when you go through this study in a group, and the entire church will grow when we are all learning the same truths at the same time!

4. Even Jesus was in a group! You should be too!!

5. Groups are an opportunity to let God speak into your life, you don't want to miss THAT opportunity!

Group sign-ups will start next week; if you are interested in being in a group you can sign up online: www.southsidenewberg.org OR sign up at church Sunday mornings.

Be blessed,

Pastor Willy

P.S. this is going to be a great study to invite a friend to. Now is the time to start asking your friends if they would like to attend with you, remember, most people never come because they are never asked!

There is Power at work in YOU!

2009-08-27T18:14:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading in Ephesians 3:20 and I was struck by an overwhelming since of nostalgia. I grew up in the Redmond Free Methodist church and nearly every Sunday, Pastor Greg Knox, (my pastor for 23 years) would end the service by quoting this verse as a closing prayer:
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Sometimes you hear a message so often that it can lose its impact. Today, as I read that scripture I was challenged in a fresh way.

You see, the devil will do everything in his power to stop the church from reaching lost people that he can do... one of the best ways is to get our focus off of God and making disciples and onto ourselves and our problems. The fact is, the devil IS going to attack us and try to destroy us. The scriptures tell us the he has a plan for our lives. He wants to KILL, STEAL and DESTROY YOU... and ME... and the church.

Southside is encountering some big attacks in this season of ministry and I want to ask you to be in prayer for our church.

One of my colleagues preached a sermon on this verse and I wanted to share part of it with you as an encouragement:

You know, I believe in Ephesians 3:20, "Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church." I believe He wants glory in His Church and I believe He gains that glory by allowing the Church through His power to do things beyond what we can even dream, and I think God wants to go way beyond where we are now. I think we're just beginning to see what God would do when a group of people as totally committed to walk a worthy, when a group of people is totally committed to live the kind of life that Ephesians 4, 5, and 6 calls for. But as soon as that begins, Satan will oppose it. We see it all around us. You go back into the Old Testament, for example, and you see God sending an angel in Daniel chapter 10, and a demon withholds that angel so that that angel cannot accomplish the divine purpose, and God had to dispatch a greater angel, a stronger angel, to blast that demon out and send that angel on his way.

You find in Jude 9 Michael the archangel having a battle with Satan over the body of Moses. Satan trying to restrain Michael from claiming the body of Moses for God. So there is a high level spiritual struggle and we're even involved. Ephesians 6:12, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. So we're engaged in this tremendous conflict, and that's why I say it's way. I think American Christianity is become very smug and very content and it is almost sub cultural, rather than confronting we're just kind of waltzing along with the system, trying to accommodate. We believe we can win them by becoming what they are. But just the opposite is true--we have to counter the system.

Well, we need to be aware of the fact that Satan's going to attack. You know, James in chapter 4 says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." I Pet. 5:8,9 Peter says, "Be sober, be vigilant." Why? "Because your adversary the devil like a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." In other: words, Satan is going to be there. Resist him. Be sober. Be vigilant, be aware. Be alert, and know what he is doing

Southside, now is the time to be bold for God and not to shrink back! Here is my parting prayer for you and for the ministry of Southside.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen

Pastor Willy

The Only Wise God

2009-08-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

Job 38:31-33 (The Message)

31-33 "Can you catch the eye of the beautiful Pleiades sisters, or distract Orion from his hunt?
Can you get Venus to look your way, or get the Great Bear and her cubs to come out and play?
Do you know the first thing about the sky's constellations and how they affect things on Earth?

OR

Job 38:33 (New Living Translation)

33 Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?

One of the things I often think on is how remarkable God is. Now I don't mean that in a hackneyed kind of way but more in the splendid, awesomeness of the God of the Universe, kind of way!

Do you ever stop to think about all of the "stuff" that God knows? Sometimes I sit and think about that. He's probably watching our scientists right now saying, "ooohhhh you are sooo close to getting that, come on, you can do it... keep it up!"

Have you ever thought about how God already knows how every substance in the entire universe will react with every other substance in the universe at every level and in every quantity!

Things that we are exploring and pioneering God is already intimately aware of.

Think about how long it was that man believed that we were the center of the universe and that everything was swirling around us, then one day a scientist came on the scene and said, "no, I think the sun is in the middle". It was still a couple hundred years before main-stream scientist caught up with this new idea. All the while God must have been watching the argument and chuckling to himself. NOT laughing at us, but laughing with delight, the same way a parent of a toddler laughs as she tries for the first time to feed herself.

It is amazing when we consider the universe and all of the details that we are discovering that one by one drive nails into the theory of evolution and focus us more and more on the reality of I.D. (Jesus).

You know when you watch Star Wars and you see two distant suns setting in the distance and think how very, very cool that would be! The reality is that two suns would produce too much radiation and everyone on the planet would be nuked!

Our moon... we take it for granted, but it has so much to do with life on this planet. All of the systems that God has designed that we are yet to discover.

And then in Job we read this passage in the oldest book of the Bible, this statement: "Do you know the first thing about the sky's constellations and how they affect things on Earth?"

What is amazing to me is that I know we, with all of our modern day knowledge and sophistication, do not know the full implication of what God was saying to Job.

Do we know every way that the stars influence life on this planet, I am sure we do not. Yet somehow all of the mystery of this universe pales when compared to an eternal, all powerful, all knowing God.

We will know him for eternity and yet never fully know all that He is, of this I am convinced!

Be Blessed,

Pastor Willy

Top ten reasons why sharia is bad for all societies

2009-07-30T16:36:00.000-07:00

I am writing a paper on Pakistan and reading a great book (so far) "Three Cups of Tea" (thanks Chris) I found this article on the American Thinker Blog and thought that it may be useful to you in understanding Islamic Law a little bit better. Now, regardless of what you think about the American Thinker I want to encourage you to read it and think about how this has impacted our culture and cultures around the world.

Be blessed,

Pastor Willy

Top ten reasons why sharia is bad for all societies

2009-07-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

Southside,

We are in the midst of one of the biggest economic crisis since the great depression and many independent forecasters agree that the hemorrhage is not over and we may enter into a second depression that will dwarf the great depression. Some have dubbed it "The Greatest Depression".

As believers we should be prepared to help as much as possible in time of crisis. We should have three priorities, listed in order of priority:

1. Take care of our families
2. Take care of our church family
3. Take care of our community

In order to be able to do this we need to make sure that our house is in order. Here is a check list that will help prepare you and your family for emergencies, including natural disasters.

Be blessed,
Pastor Willy

Here is the link to that check list: www.safetycentral.com