Stephen Akins

New Sermon Series

2012-01-26T10:26:00.000-06:00

I am REALLY excited about a new sermon series that we are starting at the GBC on February 5. It's called "Jesus." I know its a REAL creative title but this series will focus knowing the "why" behind Jesus. A lot of people believe in Jesus but haven't taken the time to really look at why. This series is going to last 8 weeks and it will be our build up to Easter on April 8. Really looking forward to it!

Here's a preview:

Sunday, Chick-Fila, buildings and wet cell phones

2012-01-16T13:40:00.000-06:00

Yea I know random title cause i feelin in a random mood. It is Monday after all! So let's get right to the randomness.

Sunday

It was a GREAT day yesterday at the GBC.
Band was rockin. They did a great version of this song. One of my favorites
Yesterday we talked about Toxic Influences in our lives. Movies, music, facebook, magazines,etc...
I didn't go all legalistic and proclaim a ban on all such things like back in the day (which made us want it more), but asked is this an activity I would invite Jesus to participate in.
Lots of new faces again!!!

Chick-Fila

I love Chick-Fila
They are a great company that was started by a Christian man, Truett Cathy.
They are closed on Sunday and still make the same amount of profit percentage as other fast food chains.
I went the other day and was VERY impressed with their service. I was referred to as a guest not a customer. Big difference between the 2 terms!
The church could learn alot form Chick-Fila
Tim Hawkins has a great song on the subject.

Building Update

The building Team will meet with our architects this Sunday, January 22.
Our first draft of our master plan is up and generating lots of excitement.
We are waiting on God's timing in all of this (just in case your asking)

Wet Cell Phones

It's true that I dropped my iphone in the toilet (water was clean)
I am devastated.
I'm thankful for good friends who loaned me a phone to use.
I will have to pay about $150 to replace. Thinking of starting a charity fund for this.
Never realized how dependent I am on my Iphone.
It did make for a great sermon illustration on Sunday.

Well that's whats rattling around my brain today.

Love.Grow.Serve.

Random Musings on a Monday

2012-01-09T13:05:00.003-06:00

It was great to be back to our normal service times yesterday at the GBC.

Great crowd yesterday with many new families
Started our new series called Toxic which will deal with getting rid of those things which are toxic to our spiritual lives.
Heather DeBord led worship for us yesterday and did her great job as usual.
Yesterday's communion service was one of my all time favorites! Great spirit in the house.
I REALLY believe that this will be the greatest year of ministry that we have ever seen.
I also believe that this will also be one the greatest seasons of change that we have experienced.
We displayed to initial concept of our master plan. Excitement was high.
Met with the building team last night and we have come to agreement on the first phase we will be pursuing. Exciting to be around a group that really believes that the best days of this church are ahead of us.
Overheard a older, long term member who said she hoped she was still around when the new church campus was completed. I hope she is too.

Big reminder:

That's it for a Monday

Love.Grow.Serve

2011 Year in Review

2012-01-04T11:32:00.000-06:00

Well I had meant to post this a few days ago but the flu got in the way. 2011 was an exciting year at the GBC. A lot of things were absolutely amazing moves of God that only He could accomplish. Last Sunday I recounted them for our church (you can watch it here) and even when I was speaking them I was thanking God for the privilege of serving Him in this Church. My biggest prayer is that God will show us His glory and it will be enough for us and this year He showed us His glory in amazing ways. I will recount some of them here:

In 2011

we saw about 150 people come to know Jesus as savior
We saw over 50 people baptized
Largest Easter ever over 700 people, 50 people saved
Largest mother's day 435
Largest non holiday attendance 403
Largest Christmas service 662
14% increase in attendance

Those numbers are AWESOME and they are all a God thing!!!

We also purchased 26 acres of land for our relocation and we took steps to go mobile by putting the building up for sale and working with the school district to move forward with us meeting at the community School. On November 27 we did a trial run of meeting at the community school. 425 people showed up and 25 people gave their lives to Christ!!!!

Amazing things take place when we do exactly what God tells us to do.

But we haven't seen anything yet because the best is yet to come!

2012 is going to be a GREAT year!

Reflections on the BEST service we ever had

2011-12-20T10:02:00.000-06:00

This past Sunday was the BEST Christmas service we have ever had at the GBC.

A few key points:

The volunteers were off the hook. From setup to greeting to teardown, production, band, children's workers and everyone who made cookies. Thank you for giving of your time and talent to making the day a success. Lives were changed because of you.
The Choir and band were amazing! I thought that they really to it to a whole nother level and Oh Holy Night was off the hook.
Big shout out to our production crew who worked long and hard to make it happen; especially Chad Mayer who works hard on every event.
We had 662 in total attendance. A record for a Christmas service with many first time guests.

There were a lot more things that I can take away and post but the biggest thing is that God was glorified, Jesus was preached and lives were changed.

There is nothing better than that!!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope that God blesses you greatly!

Hey Church here's what's coming up.

2011-12-13T10:31:00.000-06:00

A few things to share with you today:

This Sunday will be the BEST Christmas service we have ever had. We will be at the High School at 10am. It will be an amazing time of worship and we expect to pack the place. I hope that you have made your invites. People are most open to invitations to Church during Christmas. We expect to see people come to know Jesus as we will clearly present the Gospel.
Sunday, December 25 we will have one service at 10 am to celebrate Jesus. This service will be about 50 minutes long and there will be NO kids ministry that day as families can worship together.
December 31 we will be serving communion at the church from 6-7:30 pm. This candlelight communion is one the best things we have all year. Come as a family or with friends and spend as much time as you like.
Sunday,January 1: we are having 1 service 10am
Starting , Sunday, January 8 we are starting a new series called Toxic. This series will talk about toxic influences in our lives and as we start a new year these will be things that we want to get rid of.

I hope that all of us will have a joyous Christmas season and a prosperous New Year. Church lets make 2012 even better than 2011.

Love.Grow.Serve

A incredible weekend

2011-11-28T12:43:00.000-06:00

Haven't blogged in a while but wanted to update about one incredible weekend.

The weekend after Thanksgiving is typically slow because lots of people are gone; but not this year. This year we did church at our community school as a dry run for becoming a mobile church. We had been asked by the superintendent of Schools to do a dry run before she would approve us for a longer term. It went better then we could imagine. The place was packed!! Doing this showed us that we can do this on a temporary basis until our new facility is built. It also showed us that people will come to a gym for church as we have many first time guests.

A few quick thoughts:

Our volunteers all weekend were fantastic. We had many people come out on Saturday for setup and we completed setup in just over 2 hours. After church on Sunday we were tore down in 1.5 hours. AWESOME!
Our greeters were out of this world. It was raining and our guys in the parking lot made a HUGE impression by escorting people with umbrellas. It was one of those impressive touches that was noticed. Our folks at the doors and inside the gym made everyone feel comfortable.
The service was great! Heather and the band knocked it out and the sound was amazing! Due to such a short notice we did hire a sound company. Concept Sound came in and helped us do an amazing job. Mark is a true professional! We have used them twice before and they are always great to work with and great partners in ministry. They will be designing our sound and lighting for our new facility and they are worth every penny.
Robin and her volunteers in our kidz ministry really brought it and the kids had a blast!!
That night Amped, our student ministry held and event there and drew over 60 for a fun time. Bart and his crew went the extra mile!

But the biggest part of Sunday is that 25 people raised their hands at the invitation indicating that they had prayed to receive Jesus as their savior. The previous line is why we will leave our church building and become a mobile church. It sounds crazy to religious types but we are ready to go ALL in to see this county turned upside down for Christ. Join the adventure!

love.grow.serve

Last Week

2011-10-26T10:49:00.000-05:00

This past week was one of those weeks you wished you could have more of. Here are a few snapshots:

- Got to do an amazing wedding. I've done over 150 weddings but this was one of the best. What was great was the attitude of the bride and groom. They were not just focused on the wedding date, they were also focused on what happens after the honeymoon. The groom is on active duty in the Marine Corps and I was honored to do their wedding. Very few young men show such a tenderness with their new brides as Ryan did on that day. What he takes serious is the call to lead his family as they pursue a life with Jesus.

- Worship on Sunday was amazing as usual. Talked about controlling wives and wimpy husbands. Really hit some nerves that day. Saw many in tears and have heard of some tough but necessary conversations taking place. Our country and our churches DESPERATELY need great marriages. Too many people are settling for just making it through. This often leads to delayed divorce once the kids get out of the house. God has a better blueprint for marriage. Small changes in your relationships can produce HUGE results. You can start by reading here .

- Last thing about this weekend was I got to participate as a spiritual director at the Great Banquet. You maybe familiar with a Walk to Emmaus weekend. The Great Banquet is similar. For three days we had a group of guys who were able to come closer to Jesus and I young guy who came accepted Jesus as his savior. IT was a great weekend and I enjoy being on the team.

I am really pumped about November 27. That Sunday we will preview being a mobile Church as we will do a test run at the Fort Branch Community School. We will have full church services, including ALL children's environments. We are billing this as a community service and we are inviting everyone. We hope to move out of our church building by April. This week the church building went on the market and we are praying for a buyer.

Trunk or treat happens 6 hours from now!! We expect over 1200 people. Praying the rain holds off.

Love.Grow.Serve.

Yesterday

2011-10-10T14:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was an AWESOME day at the GBC. The whole service from top to bottom was amazing. If you weren't here you can see it here. Heather introduced us to a new song called Alive in Us from Hillsong. The lyrics of that song are amazing and our band, as usual, knocked it out of the park. We also sang one of my favorite songs Overcome. Sabrina Newton brings that song up a notch when she sings it!

I finished the series "Plan B" and talked about how we are always not ready for Plan B but we can take heart because Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33) I talked about what we consider to be a Christian doesn't square with how Jesus describes a Christ-follower. Overall it was a good series and ended great.

Next Sunday we start a new series called "Once upon a Marriage." This series will focus on 4 biblical couples and some of the struggles that we have in common with them. I believe that God will do some healing in this series. Right now there is incredible pressure on marriages because of the economy and the church needs to step in and provide biblical hope.

I am really excited that trunk or treat is coming on October 26. This is our largest outreach of the year and we are expecting over 1200 to show up.

Lastly, on November 27 we will be doing church at the Fort Branch Community School. This is a dry run for us to see if that facility will be sufficient for us to meet in next year. It is also a opportunity for the school to look at us. It will be a BIG day!

LOVE.GROW.SERVE

This Sunday

2011-10-05T15:19:00.000-05:00

A Sad day

2011-10-03T10:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday a friend and fellow pastor was fired from his church. Why was he fired? It wasn't that he didn't do his job. It wasn't that he had a moral failing, it wasn't a fall from grace. What it was is that he initiated change.

I am heart-broken for him and his family. I count him as one of best friends in the ministry and we have laughed together and cried together. Last night I went to his home and sat with him and his lovely wife while they waited for the news. To say that they are devastated is an understatement. Yesterday morning they celebrated in church as 7 people walked forward to go public for Jesus through baptism. If fact all signs were moving up for this church. The ministries had never been better. They were drawing many new families, people were going from death to life by accepting Jesus--in every regard they were fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.

So what happened? The same thing that seems to be happening in churches all over the U.S. some chose religion and tradition over the move of God in their church.

Right now as I look across the landscape of the Church in America I see the Laodicean Church mentioned in Revelation 3. In the first 3 chapters of Revelation Jesus writes to 7 churches in which he gives a mixture of rebuke and praise; all except the Laodicean Church. To them he only gives rebuke. He tells them that they are a lukewarn church, which means that they were content to allow the world to go to hell because they were already saved. He tells them that while they are rich in material goods they " don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." (Jesus) Those are some damning words!
They are naked because they have a form of Godliness but they are denying the power of God (2 Tim 3:1-6). They are blind because they cannot see what God is doing in their midst (souls being saved).

This is what I see going on in the American church, where it has become about being happy instead of faithful, it's become about our rights instead of God's kingdom. it's become about the Pastor meeting my needs and following my desires instead of him following God's. (2 Tim 4:3) and the rallying cry is "This is OUR Church"

We are missing God moving in our midst and it is breaking His heart!

In my denominational movement we had 40% of our churches not record one baptism last year and 80% record 5 or fewer. That is reprehensible! We are literally telling the world that they can go to hell because we care more about our comfort, our happiness and our tradition to want to change to reach you. After all this is OUR Church. To many of us Christians are living our lives like God doesn't exist or that God doesn't matter. Do we really think that God is not paying attention? Do we really think that he was pleased that a church ran off it's Pastor, who HE put there? Do we really think that God will let it pass when we ignore the the Great COMMANDMENT and the Great COMMISSION? Do we really believe that God will not hold accountable those who destroy the church from within with the rallying cry of this is OUR church?

or do we just not care if He does?

Church, Jesus is coming back and He WILL judge the church and everyone of us will stand before Him and answer for our deeds. Do we really want to tell Jesus face to face all of our excuses as to why we ignored His word and His commandments?

I am sad for my friend, but he and his family will be all right and he will continue to serve the Lord but I am most sad for his former church. They have destroyed their witness and have heaped shame upon the kingdom of God.

Awesome Weekend

2011-09-26T13:55:00.000-05:00

A quick note about this past Sunday at the GBC.

Sunday was one of the BEST worship services that we have ever had both first and second service.
The worship set from top to bottom blew doors and the singing from the seats was off the hook!
The last song Waiting here for you was AWESOME. You can hear it again here.
Continued our series "Plan B" talking about waiting using the story in John 11 about the raising of Lazarus.
We all hate to wait because it makes us feel powerless.
We love the idea of following Jesus until it disrupts our plans and dreams.
Hope does not come only from believing God’s power, but also from accepting and trusting his timing.

Made a big announcement on Sunday about our future. On November 27 we will be holding church at the Fort Branch Community School. This will be a test run for us to go mobile. I really believe that God wants to reach alot of people in this area but it is going to take a church that is doing something different than all the rest to reach them. There are over 150 churches in our area who pretty much all do the same thing on Sunday mornings. It will take something radical.... like when God took human form and lived among us and died for us.

It should be fun!!!

Have a GREAT week.

Love.Grow.Serve.

Safe Jesus

2011-09-22T11:44:00.000-05:00

I was working through my sermon today and a stray thought came to mind:

Am I following SAFE Jesus or the REAL Jesus?

Many Christians I know like safe Jesus.

Safe Jesus wants us to be comfortable in life
Safe Jesus doesn't ask to much from us
With Safe Jesus we don't have to say anything about our faith, we just have to live "right"
Safe Jesus understands that we're not perfect, so it's ok not to give our best
Safe Jesus is ok with us having more important priorities than him
Safe Jesus just wants me to be happy.
Safe Jesus is a figment of the American Church's mind

Where does safe Jesus reside? In Churches like the one pictured in Revelation 3:14-22. In this church the people were rich, happy, comfortable and lukewarm. They were like Goldilocks; not hot nor cold, just right. They believed that they had everything they needed.

Growing up there was a hymn that we would sing called "Leaning on the everlasting arms." The refrain went:

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

That hymn is an old favorite and it expresses a nice sentiment of faith and trust, but it couldn't be farther from the truth. Following Jesus in this world is not safe at all and Jesus never said it would be. In fact Jesus said that people would hate you if you followed Him. He said nations would hate you and persecute you because of Him. He even said that people within the church would hate you if you followed Him and he even said that you would be blessed when they do.

Think about this:

Out of the original 12 disciples, 10 were martyred.
In the 20th Century it is reported that 45 million people were martyred for their faith.
In just 2009, 176,000 Christians were martyred for their faith.

That sounds like anything but safe. So in light of this why not follow SAFE Jesus? Because safe Jesus leads to sin because Jesus NEVER called us to live safe lives, He called us to put it ALL on the line for Him and His glory.

So, Are you following SAFE Jesus or the REAL Jesus?

Excuse

2011-09-20T09:44:00.000-05:00

In Luke 14 Jesus tells the parable of the Great Banquet, which is about how God calls us. In this parable Jesus tells of a wealthy man who invited alot of guests to a lavish banquet that he is preparing. When the banquet is ready he sends his servant out to bring the guests but they began to make excuses of why they can't come. The master gets angry and and tells the servants to invite everyone they meet.

Reading this passage got me thinking about the excuses we make to God. In this story 2 of the men make a financial decision. One had bought land the other oxen and their financial transaction was more important to them then attending the banquet. They would receive a greater return on investment by putting their time and attention to these matters. The other man made a relationship decision. His relationship was more important then the invitation.

Each of them made a decision that was beneficial to them at the exclusion of someone else. We may ask what's wrong with making a decision that is to our benefit? Nothing, except when the invite is from God. God invites us into his family through Jesus Christ and then He invites us to participate in His plan to save the world. I've known many who joyfully accept the first invite--salvation but reject the second as though each invite was mutually exclusive. The problem--- is that they are not. With one invite comes the other.

When God calls us to salvation and we accept, comes the call to deny ourselves and follow Him. It is noteworthy that right after this parable of the banquet Jesus talks about what it means to be a disciple.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26-27

Jesus clearly and in stark terms lays down what is expected of those who accept the invitation. To many of us believe that this second part of the invite is optional. That we can accept the free gift of salvation but then we have an option as to whether we participate in God's plan to save the world. We often think that is what God gave pastors, and teachers, and elders for. Our attitude seems to be "I'm in why worry about anyone else."

But really if we are honest, the real reason that we make excuse is because following Jesus this way is not to our advantage. I mean who really what's to break from family our relationships to follow Jesus? Who really wants to carry such a burden?

In response to this Jesus issues a warning:

Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? ³⁵ It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

God's plan

2011-09-19T16:34:00.000-05:00

I was talking with some leaders the other day when the subject of compromising in the church came up. As we tossed this around Acts 4:1-20 came to mind. In this story Peter and John are arrested and threatened that if they continue to talk about Jesus they would be punished. Peter says in verse 19-20:

But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! ²⁰ As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

As I talked with these friends I talked about the dilemma that we have: To listen to God or to Man. Now some may see no dilemma at all but I would probably point out that you are not a Pastor.

As a pastor I am anointed and called by God, I answer to God, not to man. Therefore I have to obey God-no matter what! But that doesn't always make me popular. Some say to me why don't you compromise? To which I would reply, as Peter did, "do I listen to you or to God?" Trying to appease both God and man is compromise and it is sin because partial obedience is still disobedience. Now i could play the game and get along with everyone but Jesus warned of this:

There's trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.

Luke 6:26 (msg)

That's my calling: to be true, not popular. If I listen to man and turn my back on what God is saying, then I am being an unfaithful servant and I am sinning. If I listen to God and do exactly as He says it may cause the loss of friendships and other heartaches. You see the dilemma?

When Jesus called me to Pastor 15 years ago, I told Him that I would go where he wanted and would do what he told me to do. With that 15 years has come great joys of seeing people accept Christ, marriages saved, sharing the joy with new parents; but there has also come the crushing lows, the funerals of friends, the loss of friendships, the moving, the sleepless nights, the heated arguments and frustration.

So why keep doing it?
But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62

So I am going to just have to believe that His plan and His timing are perfect because I have no other choice.

Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. John 6:68

There really is no dilemma if I am to be faithful to Him.I have no where else to go. But sometimes it really sucks.

Crazy

2011-09-14T11:31:00.000-05:00

Maybe (or maybe not) you might know that some people think that I am crazy, among other "kind" things. I am a crazy because I literally believe Philippians 4:13.
I announced about 3 years ago that I believed that God wanted our church to relocate. That where we are is a hindrance to our effectiveness in reaching others for Christ. Some thought I was crazy and scoffed. In January of 2010 I announced the beginning of our Forward campaign to raise money for the purchase of land. More crazy, but in the last year we have raised $120,000 on TOP of our tithes and offering, in a BAD economy and now we own 26.6 acres of prime real estate. Then back in April I announced that I believed that God had clearly spoken and that He was calling us to step away from our building and go portable as a church, meeting in the local school. Extreme crazy, but we are getting ready to do just that.

Now it may sound like I am tweeting my own horn here and talking about how great I am but that couldn't be farther from the truth because to tell you the truth: I HAVE BEEN SCARED THE WHOLE WAY!

People have asked how do I know this is from God?

Here are 7 ways to tell it may be a God thing:

by Ron Edmondson

Everyone says it can’t be done…
You feel you aren’t qualified…
There aren’t enough resources available…
It makes no rational sense…
People call it (or you) stupid…
It would give God all the glory…
It honors God and is true to His Word…

All those things above are true, so yes I'm nuts! I have just chosen to believe that what God tells me to do He is going to accomplish . I don't have all the answers to all of the questions, but I am learning to just trust God one step at a time and when He's ready He will open the doors and reveal it all.

Love.GROW.Serve!

Love and religion

2011-09-12T18:18:00.000-05:00

I was watching a video earlier today from Mark Driscoll, in which he talked about how the religious leaders asked Jesus by what authority was he doing these things. Jesus answers their question with a question of his own at which point the religious leaders duck the question and walk away. Driscoll went on to explain that, that is the reaction of religious people... when truth is exposed religious people leave without admitting fault or saying their sorry. They just leave. Usually bitter.
As I thought on this I was drawn to the words of the apostle John in 1 John 4:20

If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?

"Well I don't hate them... i just wish to avoid them"

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:35

"Well... it would be awkward."

“If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. Matthew 18:15

" You don't understand what they did to me!"

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Matthew 6:13-15

It takes grown up, mature people to forgive. Are you one of those people? Am I?

Reflection-Newspring Leadership Conference

2011-09-10T11:55:00.001-05:00

I'm sittin on a bench in Walmart reflecting on 3 great days from this past week. I had the privilege of going to the Newspring Leadership Conference with the rest of the staff and our spouses. It was a AWESOME day of learning; with some of the best speakers. Guys like Andy Stanley, Mark Driscoll, Craig Groschel, Steven Furtick, Judah Smith, Jud Wilhite and of course Perry Noble. The insights were great, the worship was off the hook and the atmosphere was electric. All those things I expected from a church of 15,000 but what continually blows me away everytime at Newspring, and this was my 3rd time there, is the quality of their volunteers. I have been to huge churches before but none of them match the warmness and genuineness of them. From the time you pull in till the time you leave they are smiling & helpful. When they ask where you are from they genuinely want to know. If you need something they get it. It's nit just a few who do it it's all of them -young and old alike. They apply 1 Peter 4:9 "Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay."

Bottom line: They are NICE!

I wonder how many could be reached for Jesus Christ if the Christians were nice to those they meet?

I hope to send many of our volunteers down to Newspring in March for Unleash to experience this great church and to learn a little about being nice.

Love. GROW. Serve

Fresh Mercy

2011-09-06T09:52:00.000-05:00

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 (NLT)

Yesterday I did something I have never done....I went shooting. Until that moment I had never held a gun let alone fired one. I was alot of fun and Janet and I had a good time. What made it more enjoyable is that we went with some friends who knew what they were doing. As we shot each gun they would walk us through the gun showing us where to insert the ammo, where the safety was, how best to hold each weapon, etc.... I knew going in that guns were nothing to play around in so i took the instruction very seriously and it made it a GREAT day.

The same thing that is true about guns is the same thing that is true about our relationship with God... the more serious we are about our relationship with Him the more enjoyable it will be. Because of the world we live in, it is easy for us to get in spiritual funks.; to get into a woe is me attitude. It happens to me and usually it's because I forget the promises of God. Someone gets mad at me or someone decides that they want to attend another church and I can get into a downward spiral. i want people to like me, I want everyone to come to my church and so I can get this dark cloud over my head. I forget the promises of God.

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!

No matter what others think about me, The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
If someone gets mad at me, The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
If someone decides to go somewhere else, The faithful love of the Lord never ends!

His mercies never cease.

When I screw up, His mercies never cease.
When I act like a jerk, His mercies never cease.
When I sin, His mercies never cease.

HIS mercies begin afresh each morning.

I'm not living on stale mercy
He's not remembering my past
He's always redeeming my future
He has NOT given up on me!

Great is his faithfulness

LOVE.GROW.SERVE.

Do results matter in the Church?

2011-08-30T15:50:00.000-05:00

Do results matter in the Church?

I worked for over 15 years in the corporate environment and the answer to this question was a without a doubt YES! In fact if you didn't see positive results you eventually ended up unemployed. In the church world we are very hesitant to even consider this question. I have heard people say that we are just to love Jesus and the results were up to Him. We get uneasy with this question because it brings us to a place of comparison with others. I believe that results DO matter in church because of the parable of the talents that Jesus tells.

In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus tells the story of a man who gave each of his servants various amounts of money for them to manage and then left. When he returned he inspected how well each servant did. The one he gave the most to double his holdings, the middle one doubled his as well. The last one did nothing but hide the money in the ground so he wouldn't lose it. To the first 2 the man speaks words of commendation but to the last man he calls him a "wicked, lazy servant." The ironic thing about this is that the man did NOT lose the money, he just did nothing with it.

This story can be applied in many ways but for the church I believe that the implication is that whatever God gives us he expects us to use it and get results for His glory. When he sends unchurched people to us he expects us to tell them the Gospel and to lead them to Christ. When he gives us faithful givers we are to use that money to reach more people for Christ. When we have the opportunity to open our doors to the community, we are to do it, When he tells us to feed the poor, take care of the sick, and visit those in prison, we are to do it. Results in the Kingdom DO matter. 2nd Corinthians 5:10 tells us that we will be judged one day for the deeds that we have done both good and evil.

It is not enough to have good intentions. Any Christian, if asked, will say that the mission of the church is to reach the lost but few back this up with results. Why? Because to reach those who are far from Jesus requires us to die to our-self. To give up our selfish desires and wants.

³⁴ Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. ³⁵ If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.

Mark 8:34-35

We can not be a follower of Christ and demand our way. Rick Warren once said that it takes unselfish people to grow a church. I have found this to be true. We must die to ourselves every day or we stop following Jesus and start following ourselves.

Love.Grow.Serve

Quick Update

2011-08-17T14:10:00.000-05:00

Hey folks

We are in an AWESOME season of ministry right now at the GBC. I believe that the next 6 months are going to be incredible and I am challenging EVERYONE to not miss a Sunday. This past Sunday was totally off the hook. Worship was powerful and we talked about Quitting complaining. If you missed it you can watch it here. I know I complain alot and I have challenged myself to letting it go. This Sunday we will talk about Living in fear. It should be a great day!

There are some exciting things that we are praying for right now and God is definitely moving us in exciting directions. I have had some very good meetings lately and praying that God revels His will to us.

Love my Church

Love.Grow.Serve

An Exciting Weekend

2011-08-08T11:36:00.000-05:00

Great weekend all around at The GBC:

On Friday we closed on the deal for our new piece of property. 26.65 acres of beautiful property that will be our home for generations. The deal was sweet as 3 years ago we believed that we needed 20 acres and that it would take $200,000 to purchase it. We got our land for $199,800!!! The sellers were awesome as they told us that they were excited that a church was going to be built there and they definitely want an invitation when we open the doors. God was at work there.
We should have the land paid off within a year. We had half and God has greatly provided.
We started a new series this Sunday called "I Quit" talking about quitting excuses. If you missed it you can watch it here
Our worship team introduced us to a new song this week. God is Able by Hillsong. It was amazing! Hillsong is just putting out amazing music that I believe will last because they are writing songs to be used for worship by congregations!
Had our annual church picnic and pool party this week. GREAT turnout and GREAT food. We baptized 7 in the Princeton pool and celebrated with Heaven with a loud shout!!!! (which is how it should be... not with quiet amens)

Looking forward to a great week as I have been given the opportunity to go to the Willow Leadership Summitt at Crossroads in Evansville. My friend Todd Bussey honored me by giving me tickets and I am humbled that he would invest in me and our church.

Church we are entering an exciting season of ministry!!! The next 6 months are gonna be off the hook!

Love.Grow.Serve.

A few Monday Thoughts

2011-07-25T06:15:00.000-05:00

It's very early on a foggy Monday morning. I'm up early as I head to the Mission and Ministry Summit. it's our denominational yearly event.

A little randomness

looking forward to going back to 2 services on August 7th. It means more work but love being in the groove. July is killing me.
Our church-wide picnic and pool party will be great. We will baptize several!
Love the direction we are going as a church. Praying that God will blow things up this fall.
Christmas is around the corner :) The Christmas service on December 18 at GSHS will be amazing.
Glad when July is over (think I said that)
Loved this series of Q&A the questions have been great and well thought out.
Looking forward to our new series in August called "I Quit."
Our small groups return in September. We will be going through the study "Plan B" by Pete Wilson. Sign up in August for a small group.

LOVE.GROW.SERVE. is the name of the game!

This weekend and change.

2011-07-18T12:00:00.000-05:00

Sunday was text in your question day at the GBC. This is one of my favorite series all year when we take live questions and answer from a biblical perspective. Lots of good questions and we will continue answering them next week. If you missed it you can watch it here. I love this series because it stretches me and my Bible Study and causes me to re-look at things that I have learned before. That's what growth is supposed to do is stretch us.

Let me tackle growth for a second because I believe that there is a fallacy in the Church concerning growth. Often I have heard people in church comment on how painful growth in the church can be; people leaving for another church, changes in worship styles, preaching styles, etc....; but it brings up the physical reality All growth leads to change and change often means pain.

Let me illustrate: Between 7th grade and 8th grade I grew 8 inches over the summer. I like the growth because I was 5'4" in 7th grade but i was 6' in 8th grade. Those who picked on me in 7th grade, left me alone in 8th. It was great but throughout that summer I often experienced pain in my legs as I grew. We call these "growing pains" and everyone experiences them.

The same is true in church. We often pray for God to grow the church not really understanding what we are asking for when we pray that because to grow means change. The reason a church declines is because it needs to change it's methods because the people we are trying to reach change but we are often unwilling to accept the pain that goes along with the change.

What I have seen is that we think that if we just change the Pastor then the church will grow and in some cases new leadership is needed but that also brings change and pain for some may have liked the old pastor. The church that is declining must change it's methods and as a rule we hate change to things in which we are comfortable. We like Church the way it is because it is what drew us and often we can't understand why people can't like it the way we like it.

The Bible says that only 2 things don't Change... God and His Word (See Malachi 3:6 and Luke 21:33). Everything else changes.

Same Message....different language

Q&A Week 2 You ask the questions

2011-07-13T10:38:00.001-05:00