- First here is Bill’s message from today. 168-Hour Energy.
- Had a great week in Williamsburg, VA on vacation.
- Kind of weird though since the city was without power for much of the week.
- Thankfully our resort had power all week long.
- Guess you see where priorities are. :)
- Saturday we drove to WV to spend the night with our friends Bill and Nicole.
- Andy and Gayle came down as well and we celebrated Andy’s birthday.
- Really it was just an excuse to eat Gayle’s mom’s cupcakes!
- Today we went to church at New Life Christian Ministries.
- I got saved at New Life, discipled there, went on staff there and eventually became a pastor there.
- They were one of the 30+ churches that supported us as we launched 10 1/2 months ago and they have a part in the now 100 salivations that have taken place. Thanks NLCM.
- It’s been 8+ years since I left staff so there are now far more people there that I don’t know than I do.
- It’s always good though to see some familiar faces.
- Especially good to see the founding and Senior Pastor of New Life, Ken Harris.
- PK next to my wife Lisa has probably been the greatest spiritual influence in my life.
- When it comes to my love for Jesus and His Word, you can look no further than him.
- Through the years our ministry styles have greatly differed but even in that, he helped influence one of our core values which is, “It takes all types of churches to reach all types of people”.
- It was great to be back in their new facility they moved into last year and see the growth they’re experiencing even with it being a holiday weekend.
- Pastor Ken apologized when we walked in that they were doing a retro day music wise.
- However, I liked it because it meant all songs I knew so it was nice to be able to worship without having to look at the screens.
- New Life likes to worship and after 40+ minutes of music and their extended greeting time, PK began his message on persecution.
- As always it was a good message…here are a couple of quotes I wrote down in my notes.
- “People point out the wrong in you so they feel better about the wrong in themselves”.
- “It’s hard to grow a garden but it’s easy to grow weeds”. This was said in the context of it’s easy to do the wrong thing but often hard to do the right thing.
- “One of the best ways you can witness to people is to clean up your dirty mouth”.
- After this quote, PK told a story of how he recently posted a scripture on Facebook (can’t remember which one) about watching your language. He said he put it as a witness to unbelievers but had about a dozen Christians comment saying they were guilty. This doesn’t read funny but it was when he told it. Regardless, hope people take it seriously…and as I’ve said recently myself, abbreviating it Facebook is just as wrong.
- “It’s more important to win someone to Christ than it is to win an argument with them”. That’s good preaching.
- Ok now for the funny part…or at least the part I found funny.
- PK likes to preach…I mean an hour+.
- He himself used to joke that the week after vacation was the worst because he had 2 weeks of talking to get out. :)
- In any case, his outline today was 4 points. Point 3 had 4 subpoints.
- The funny thing was I preached an entire 30+ minute message on just 2 of those sub-points just a 2 weeks ago.
- I kept thinking…”Kenny you’ve got an entire series in just today’s message…save it man, save it”. :)
- Again though our styles are really different and for that I’m grateful. As the old saying goes, “If two people are exactly alike then one of them is not necessary”.
- The really funny part was in my message I actually told a story of his about how he used to get raises at work when nobody else did. Then today he tells the same story. Weird.
- In any case, the message was really practical. New Life’s motto is, “Learning Real Christianity in a Real World”.
- Persecution is definitely a real thing and PK gave some great advice on how to deal with it from a biblical perspective.
- Afterward we stuck around and talked to as many people as we could…until finally getting kicked out.
- So I got kicked out of church today…how about you?
- Wait is that persecution for being friendly? :)
- Double wait…did I just use myself and the word friendly in the same sentence? What is this world coming to?
- Ok seriously, I can’t wait to get back to work this week.
- Next Sunday for 9-11 we’ll be doing a special look at the hope that was found in the tragedy through a film called, “The Cross and the Towers”.
- Invite as many people as you can to take part in this special event unlike anything we’ve ever done.
- I’ve created a Facebook invite for you to share on your wall.
Inside Today’s Experience
- Don’t know if I’ll do this every week, but we’ll call this one, “The Time Change Edition”.
- This is actually the first time in the past 4 years that the time change has affected me.
- Why you ask?
- At my old church I convinced them not to observe the time change until after we were done on Sunday mornings.
- In other words, everyone got up at the normal time, came to church and then once we were done, everyone moved their clocks forward.
- It was awesome…you didn’t lose sleep and we even got a write up in the paper about it.
- The only people it affected were people who had to work around noon, but better to affect a few than affect everyone.
- Problem is this only works when you have your own building.
- At the theater we couldn’t do this because it would affect movies.
- So the morning got started earlier than normal but I felt good because I went to bed earlier last night to try to make up for it.
- Today was a big day because Andy and Gayle were away for the first time since we launched.
- For those that don’t know Andy, he’s a tech wiz and designed our system.
- This is the 3rd church now that Andy and I have been together and not only are we best friends but he gives me a high degree of comfort on Sunday mornings because I know he can handle just about anything thrown at him.
- However, we’ve assembled a great tech crew at ExponentialChurch.tv and so I wasn’t too concerned unless something completely out of the ordinary happened.
- When you’re doing portable church that’s not completely out of the question, but today we got lucky…or prayer really does work. :)
- We ran into a few minor problems but the team of Mike, Cris, and Benji were able to handle it.
- Great job guys and gal!
- All in all the entire day went very smoothly. The band did great as usual…the flow of the day went well…our volunteers are world class…I felt good about today’s message…just one problem…
- Hardly anyone was there.
- I’m talking we just barely had half the normal size crowd.
- Had a few of those tell me that unless they had gotten my email reminder they would have forgotten as well.
- My feeling is two things were at play…
- First, many people just forgot the time change…already gotten some messages to that regard.
- Second, we’re doing a pretty good job of reaching people who either have no church background or little church background.
- While they’re making good spiritual process either as now baby Christians or investigating the claims of Jesus…church attendance still isn’t high on their list and even the slightest little thing (like the time change) can get them out of rhythm.
- That’s one of the challenges of doing “church for people that don’t like church” but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
- Regardless of the small crowd, we still had 2 more people today pray to become followers of Jesus!
- My first pastor used to say that if you don’t preach the same regardless of the crowd size then you’re probably doing it for the wrong reason.
- I’ve always remembered that and so whether it’s a small crowd like today or 13000+, I always try to preach, speak and teach to individuals in the crowd so it doesn’t matter how many total are in attendance.
- That philosophy has served me well not to get discouraged by small crowds and too nervous for big ones.
- Again today was excellent…sorry so many missed it.
- Jump online to listen to the message about the “One Simple Truth” that will transform your life.
- And don’t forget we’re still in the midst of reading the Book of John together as a church. Today is John 7, tomorrow John 8 and so on.
- Then go to the Exponential Facebook Discussion page to share your thoughts via the SOAP method. Not sure what that is? It’s all explained online.
New Life Christian Ministries
Today I had the opportunity to speak at New Life Christian Ministries. It was 17 years ago this past Tuesday that two men from this church led me into a relationship with Jesus. I eventually became the churches Associate Pastor from 2000-2003. The man in the picture in this post is Ken Harris who planted NLCM back in the 1980’s and has continued be the pastor ever since. Pastor Ken was probably the most influential person I’ve ever had in my life when it comes to personal spirituality. His love for Jesus and His Word is contagious.
Today PK was on vacation and asked me to come speak and gave me the opportunity to take an offering for ExponentialChurch.tv. It was great to see so many old friends and to get to speak in their new building they just moved into a few months back. Many people afterward said how inspired they were to do more and be more for Jesus and the offering taken on our behalf was quite generous considering the smaller summer crowd size they had.
Thanks Pastor Ken and New Life for the many years of support. Please know that everything I’ve ever done for Jesus in the past and future would not be possible if you hadn’t taken in a young, bible illiterate, 17 years ago and taught me how to love Jesus with all my heart, mind, soul and strength!
Random Thoughts on a Thursday
- Had breakfast/lunch with my first pastor from after I became a Christian, today.
- Great to catch up and hear what God is doing in his midst and ministry.
- I’m feeling much better today!
- Had some bad news today that hit me pretty hard…still processing.
- On the other hand, there is some exciting things that happened today which I’ll share in a post right after this one.
- I got a treadmill delivered this week and so far have been faithful to be on it every day.
- Figured I’m not getting any younger and should get some exercise from time to time other than the Wii. :)
- Really excited about the REWIND series coming up in August…don’t forget to be in your seats on time for the wild stuff we have planned!
- I’m working on a huge project right now for the entire church that is going to be so awesome when it’s done, but right now is kicking my butt and everyone who helps…quite overwhelming, so we could use your prayers.
- Ok…can’t wait to tell you the exciting news…so time to hit publish and get to that.
New Levels=New Devils
The saying “New Levels = New Devils” was a popular phrase that my first pastor used to say a lot and it is so very true. Satan doesn’t attack as hard those who are not doing anything for God because why would he want to arouse them from their ineffectiveness.
However, when you are making a difference for God, Satan will attack like crazy because he wants to discourage you and get you to quit. Honestly that’s where we are at right now. We just completed our highest attended month and quarter ever…people are having their lives changed by the power of God and people are continuing to come into a relationship with Jesus!
The good news/bad news is Satan is on the prowl. You wouldn’t believe some of the crap he is throwing at us. Just this week alone has been attack after attack like you could never possibly imagine…I’m talking 3 instances where we are literally talking about matters of life and death and then a barrage of other things as well.
So on the one hand I’m emotionally exhausted and would love your prayers. On the other hand, I’m jumping up and down on the inside for joy because I know Satan wouldn’t be working this hard if he weren’t really scared about what we’ve already done and what we can and will do in the future.
United and CFCOG…this is the adventure of a lifetime we are getting to participate in. Stop right now and thank God for the privilege of being able to participate in something so much bigger than ourselves. Then ask Him to draw you closer to Him because, “New Levels=New Devils”.