Ever wonder who can sit in a church service? Check out who came to the first service following the rebuilding of the wall in the book of Nehemiah. Although it says “all” in vs 1, the writer is more descriptive in vs 3. The “all” is not everyone of all ages, and every family member. All who assembled were those who were “able to understand”. Then check this out… they had the ability to sit through a service and not care if it went more than an hour. WOW. I can guarantee Ezra wasn’t using funny illustrations, media, or anything other than reading verbatim the word of God. I can’t think of many in this day and age of any age who can do that. I know churches running 1000+ who still don’t have a youth minister because their Sunday service functions just fine.
So we have to expect that in that day and time the community helped to raise and look after those who “could not understand” their friends, neighbors and their own children during the service in the square before the watergate. It was just an understood behavior. I want to communicate this philosophy with Scripture otherwise it would just be my opinion.
Every week we allow parents and families the opportunity to worship together and children the opportunity to worship and learn in an environment that is conducive to “understanding.” We have multiple services to provide families choices of times. Our services are time structured so families aren’t sitting from sunrise to sunset… Although I’d be fine with that.
We have families serving during all of our services and their children need the opportunity to sit in a different service at least once. We also offer a lobby where families can sit together and see the service even if the kiddos have to get up and run around. Bottom line, Scripture says the ones who sit in the service are the ones who can understand and aren’t going to keep looking at their watches. We try to keep it biblical and provide an environment for those with watches and without, for moms with babies and those without, those families who wish to sit together and those who need that time in specific and different environments to focus, connect, grow, serve, share and have a blast. So yes you can sit in a church service!
from The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers.
O My God, thou fairest, greatest, first of all objects, my heart admires, adores, loves thee, for my little vessel is as full as it can be, and I would pour out all that fullness before thee in ceaseless flow. When I think upon and converse with thee ten thousand delightful thoughts spring up, ten thousand sources of pleasure are unsealed, ten thousand refreshing joys spread over my heart, crowding into every moment of happiness.
I bless thee for the soul thou hast created, for adorning it, sanctifying it, though it is fixed in barren soil; for the body thou hast given me, for preserving its strength and vigour, for providing sense to enjoy delights, for the ease and freedom of my limbs, for hands, eyes, ears that do thy bidding; for thy royal bounty providing my daily support, for a full table and overflowing cup, for appetite, taste, sweetness, for social joys of relatives and friends, for ability to serve others, for a heart that feels sorrows and necessities, for a mind to care for my fellow-men, for opportunities of spreading happiness around, for loved ones in the joys of heaven, for my own expectation of seeing thee clearly.
I love thee above the powers of language to express, for what thou art to thy creatures. Increase my love, O my God, through time and eternity.
We begin a new series on Sunday we are calling Stories. So many people choose to over look their story, but your story was meant to be heard by the outside world. It’s time for you to say, “Here I am.“
This Sunday we will tackle the silent killer that feels like our culture thinks silence is the way to deal with this painful life taker. As much as Pain is real there is an even more real HOPE that can be found. This week we will discover how to be an overcomer of and with depression. You don’t have to let it overtake your life forever.
I also want to share a great sight on movement To wear love on her arms. They have a mission to make you and I aware that depression is real and to embrace it not deny it. As we embrace it we will embrace those who struggle and carry it and love them through it. If you read this and are coming to The NPC Campus this week I have something to ask you.
I would like you to write LOVE on your arm. You can use a pen. You don’t need to tattoo it but wear it. I will be wearing it on my arms. Imagine what we can do if we as a church will embrace those suffering with arms of love. No longer will it’s silence cripple. No loner will the pain have to be carried alone.
If you know someone dealing with it, you need to bring that friend this weekend. This is their time to be an overcomer with depression.
Christmas Series
Here is an out of the box idea that goes against every church planting network out there. Many denominations are letting church revitalization fall to the side. There are many reasons for this. Little fruit. Not as exciting. Excuses like: “can’t put new wine in old wine skins.” Then there are the statistics that show how difficult it is to turn around a church. So what can we do?
I have an idea. Whether it is revitalization or resurrection It may take “Elijahs” to do it. Not fresh seminary students, not the experienced pastor who has hummed along in their ministry career. Maybe, just maybe those pastors who have been burned and burned out, tossed out, not met denominational expectations are the Elijahs who need to go to these widow churches to see a resurrection in the house of God (2 Kings 18).
2 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. Kerith means “cut off,” or it means “cut down.” 2kings17
A few verses later after being alone and cut off he goes to a widows home and raises a boy back to life. First time in the Bible we see such a supernatural act. All of these pastors/planters who have been cut off, run away, been depressed, everything Elijah went through, are the keys to resurrecting and reviving such churches and not the cookie cutter, model planters in PQ Magazine. Maybe the Elijahs need called back and revitalized first so the Elishas in Seminary can come behind and get a double blessing.
Maybe something needs to be done to encourage such planters and pastors. Maybe they need free tickets to conferences. Maybe, these Elijahs need to sit in on some successful staff meetings. Maybe these Elijahs need a card sent to them and their families.
The challenge is how to find the great Elijahs who can get a fire going again from those who have been burned beyond recognition and are too bitter to serve again? Finally, you have to ask how to teach an old dog new tricks? How can you get these planters and pastors to recognize that they can learn some new things and dove tail them to their experience that will bring about resurrection?
You are entitled to over come. Find out why: Entitled to Overcome.
Halloween has become a major unofficial American holiday. Researchers at Hallmark Cards report that 65 percent of us decorate our homes and offices for the annual event. It is second only to Christmas in retail spending at about $5 billion, and it is the third biggest party day of the year in the U.S.
The treat ends there for many thoughtful Christians, however, who understand a very troubling reality. Halloween is the high holy day for real witches and pagans, not just a night of “pretend.” Several hundred thousand American pagans, Druids, and witches celebrate Halloween as a holy day called Samhain (pronounced “sow-en”) or Shadowfest, a 2,000-year-old Celtic festival held to honor Samhain, the lord of earth. Pagans considered it to be the end of “life” (summer) and the beginning of “death” (winter).
Although today’s pagans don’t roam in black or bloody garb, snatching children, they nevertheless gather to sing ritual songs and chant ancient prayers, most of which were condemned by the early Christian church. Some still put out food offerings for the dead.
October 31 is also All Saints Day is when the Church commemorates all saints, known and unknown. The eve of All Saints is known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. All Saints Day is November 1.
Christians have been honoring their saints and martyrs since at least the second century AD. The Martyrdom of Polycarp, probably written near the middle of the second century, attests to this reality:
Accordingly, we afterwards took up his bones, more precious than the most exquisite jewels, and more pure than gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, so that when being gathered together, as opportunity is allowed us, with joy and rejoicing, the Lord shall grant us to celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom, both in memory of those who have already finished their course, and for the exercising and preparation of those yet to walk in their steps (18).
So what do we do with Halloween if you are a Christian. Here is where I turn to Colossians 2. 16Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.18Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. 19He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
I see God’s word saying for us to keep the main thing the main thing. That main thing is Jesus Christ. If your Christian brother is taking their children out dressed like Bob the Builder and Dora out to collect candy don’t loose sight of whose they still are. They are children of God. For those who don’t wish to celebrate it do it so those around you see you as a child of God not a judge.
What I don’t understand is why we stop at Halloween? There are so many more common practices in our daily life that are rooted in anything but Christianity and we practice them all the time. The common handshake came as a result of distrust not friendship. It was to hold the fighting hand of the other person. Then there is saying God bless you when you sneeze:
The connection of sneezing to the plague is not the first association of sneezing with death. According to Man, Myth, and Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Unknown, many cultures, even some in Europe, believe that sneezing expels the soul–the “breath of life”–from the body. That doesn’t seem too far-fetched when you realize that sneezing can send tiny particles speeding out of your nose at up to 100 miles per hour!
We know today, of course, that when you sneeze, your heart doesn’t stop, nor will your eyes pop out if you can keep them open (www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_30 4.html), nor does your soul get expelled.
So here is my suggestion. Whatever you do keep it biblical and don’t loose your head this Halloween. More specifically don’t loose Christ’s head. “19He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” It is Christ who will keep you doing the wise thing. That’s my take.
John Wesley said it “When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn.” He was speaking of the martyrs who where burned alive for their faith. Right now the news is all over The LosAngels fires. It reminds me of the Florida fires we had a couple summers back and how the news media were all over that too. Why? People are drawn to fire. So where is the spiritual fire?
Many in the church have been living their spiritual life in the same way we were taught to deal with fire by Smokey the bear. Smokey taught us to 1. Stop 2. Drop. 3 Roll. We were taught to stop drop and roll and put out the fire and so it has quenched a spiritual fire too. Maybe that is what has happened in the church throughout this country.
They say if you can’t handle the heat get out of the kitchen. There are a lot of wrong leaders in the kitchen. Rather than getting out and letting a spiritual fire burn with the right people, many “spiritual rangers” have almost made it impossible to keep a fire going let alone start a fire. Fearing burns, fearing chaos the church has run from fires when Wesley knew best the missing and the lost run to them. Rather than fanning in to flames a gospel message we have stopped, dropped and rolled our way from revival fire.
My prayer is that these natural ecological fires be a reminder to those of us in the spiritual kitchens and churches throughout our country. The church core must be hot as a forest fire so the city and the curious see the ash & smell our smoke @ the fringe. “Only u prevent church fires.” So Don’t! It is the fire that attracts the city.
- Brokenness can lead to the greatest relationship
In Luke Jesus broke bread… Jesus is like this isn’t what you think it is.
Mark 14:22-31 22While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”23Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.24″This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25″I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.”26When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.27″You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written: ” ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. 28But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” 29Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.” 30″I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.” 31But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same.
Jesus says, this is my body which has been broken for you. I don’t want to hear the negative talk. If you are from God there needs some positive thinking. We want to hear about you political platform. What’s with all the metaphors and parables? We never got them before. What makes you think we’ll get it now?
Think about the setting. They are eating together. It’s the most intimate of settings. You eat with family and friends. We spend time cooking. Invest in Kitchen upgrades not to dine with people who have broken up with us or will be breaking up with us in the immediate future… That’s why I never liked homecomings in school… I’d pay for a nice dinner then I’d get dumped at the end of the night…
Could you do this? have the very ones who would deny you, leave you, and turn you over to die? Would you do this? Let’s keep it real? Imagine inviting someone over for dinner and then accuse them they are going to cheat on you, stab you in the back, ditch you. Peter says I won’t ditch you, but later that same day and all that faith of his , he hears a young girl and denies him three times. What will come out of this broken relationship?
New Life! You didn’t see that coming did you? God takes what is broken, sets it, repairs it, heals it. Jesus can take what is broken in your life and do the same . When uncertainty and brokenness shakes our world it can bring you into a greater relationship with Christ.
