Ten Questions for the New Year

My friend Bill Streger posted these questions. I am going to be reflecting on them this week as I rest.


What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

Christmas Eve Reflections

Well Christmas is over. I write this in Galveston at a Beach House my in-laws (incredible people) rent for their whole family. Here’s the breakdown; 8 adults and 9 kids, 1 is on the way, not from us though!

Anywho, I am so thankful to the Lord for our Christmas Eve service. We had our highest attendance ever at this event. We had 600 people! I do not know yet if anyone indicated that they made any faith decisions but I personally had several good conversations with people.

I am so pleased to be with a church that does whatever it takes to bring the Gospel to people. I am especially proud of our Worship Team and Worship Pastor. They rehearsed hard on Thursday, got to the service to set-up at 2:30 and stayed after everyone left to tear down! Wow! They were off the chain too! Wow! I think musically it was one of the best services we have ever done.

I have to admit I had the last minute “is anybody coming” panic! I saw how big the room was we rented and how many chairs we had out and I thought, “oh my goodness, no one will come!” My amigo Brandon Baca calmed me down and assured me people were coming. I prayed, took a deep breath and the night went on!

It was ended by the third annual Christmas Eve meal at Chili’s!

Christmas is Here

Well it's here! This Sunday is Christmas Eve. We have signs up, we have done the promos, we have had over 600 hits on our website. This Sunday night will be our last service of 2006.

I will be off with family for a week and not preaching for two. I am excited about that because rest is good. I hope to do a lot of reflecting over the next couple of weeks. There is alot before us at Crossbridge. I believe our best days are ahead of us.

I finished planning the sermon calendar until Mother's Day of this year. I'm excited because it is a mix of topical and expository. There is also even a little vision casting thrown in here and there too! The new year will bring our annual Partners Dinner Meeting, where we review where God has brought us from and look at where He is taking us in the new year.

We announced the hiring of our Children's Director last Sunday! We are very excited about her coming on board. Children's Ministry is huge for us! We have needed this for a while. Our Director of Ministry development is transitioning his role a little bit. His new role is Connections Pastor. He will be overseeing connecting people into the life of Crossbridge. The biggest addition for him is the overseeing of our small group ministry. I am pumped about what God is putting on his heart and mind these days!

So enough rambling. I felt like I needed to write something because it's been a while.

Sunday Recap

This past Sunday we kicked off our Christmas series "Blue Christmas". We opened with a video that I hope to post later today that was hilarious!

We started the series with "The Blues of Anxiety"

We spent some time in Philippians 4:6-7

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. "

This passage has really hit me. Do not be anxious about my weight, my family, my finances, basically NOTHING!

John Piper in his awesome book "Future Grace" (Okay so I think all Piper's books are awesome!) says the following about anxiety....

"Anxiety is a condition of the heart that gives rise to many other sinful states
of mind. Anxiety about finances can give rise to coveting and greed and
hoarding and stealing. Anxiety about succeeding at some task can make you
irritable and abort. Anxiety about relationships can make you withdrawn and
indifferent and uncaring about other people. Anxiety about how someone
will respond to you can make you cover over the truth and lie about
things. If anxiety could be conquered, a mortal blow would be
struck to many other sins."

Paul gives us some God-focused responses to anxiety...

1. Prayer

Many of us have tried to pray about our troubles but we still worry. I would challenge us to take a hard look at the way we pray. Are we praying "prescription prayers". You know if you could go to the doctor and tell them you were sick they would write a prescription of what to take that would make the illness go away. Many times we pray like that. "God, I have this problem will you make go away by doing such and such." This kind of prayer can border more on wishing than releasing our concerns into the hands of our Father trusting that He knows best.

Prayer is not prescribing it is releasing.

2. Thanksgiving

Now thanksgiving is not something you find in most self-help books on how to deal with anxiety. Thanksgiving helps us remember that life is not a series of random events but God is in control and is concerned about our lives.

So do we thank Him for loosing our job and our debt? Don't start with the problem. Thank Him for the Gospel. Thank Him for taking the nails and the suffering for you. Thank Him for being willing to endure this pain for you. Thank Him for paving the way to Himself with His own blood. Thank Him for your blessings in your life.

The Result is not that all our problems go away. The result is that we get His peace. His peace that human thinking can't quite get. A calmness that is beyond human reasoning.

I'm the Reason for the Season

We are moving pretty fast toward our Christmas Eve Services. I have been pleased with the response from Crossbridge in reaching out to our community and inviting people to this. One of our main things we are doing to promote the services is t-shirts that we have asked our Partners and attenders to wear as they shop and do life in our community.

Our Worship Pastor and his wife we wearing their shirts out while they were shopping. Two people asked them about it and they got the opportunity to invite them to the services. One guy brought his wife that very next Sunday!

We are praying that God will use this time of year to reach people with the message of Jesus!

It's the Busiest time of the year

December is one my favorite months and one of the most stressful. I just finished a meeting with out Pastoral Advisory Team (our elders) and it was awesome! We finalized next years budget, talk about adding a member in the new year, confirmed a new staff hire and talked about our plans for a facility! It was high leverage and awesome!

I don't think I ever been this excited in the history of our church. I will be announcing a whole slew of things over the next couple of months. Next Friday we have our Annual Leadership Christmas Party and I will be announcing a new staff hire! Then in Jan or Feb (we're still trying to finalize location) we will be having our annual Partnership Vision Dinner (not the coolest name but it is what it is). I am already working on now what we will be talking about there and it should be awesome!

Crossbridge is a great church! God is doing amazing things here!

New Series - Blue Christmas

This Sunday Crossbridge will be diving into our Christmas series entitled "Blue Christmas: Breaking the Seasonal Blues". Christmas is suppose to be a time of joy and celebration at the coming of Christ and what He has done for us. Unfortunately many people don't experience that joy that angels came announcing. 45% of a recent poll said they dread the holiday season. I googled "Christmas Depression" today and got 2,330,000 responses! We will be exploring what the Bible teaches about handling the blues we face not just at Christmas time but all year as well.

This is a great series to invite someone too who you would like to expose them to the message of Christ!

See-ya Sunday!

Series Breakdown:

December 3rd - "The Blues of Anxiety"

December 10th - "The Blues of Depression"

December 17th - "The Blues of Anger"

Sunday Recap

Well this Sunday was an Adventure! I was not scheduled to preach but at 5:30 Saturday got the call that our scheduled speaker would not be able to make it. So after a quick dinner I went into crazy prayer and study mode. Stayed up till about 2:30 working on the talk and slept till about 4:30 when my girls decided to get up and start their day!

When Tim and the set-up team got to the school they discovered the set of a castle on the stage for the school's performance of "Beauty and the Beast". We had to completely change our set-up! The castle looked like a cross between a haunted house and the gates of hell! Our team did incredible thought rolling with the punches! Ahhh being portable it's the life!!!!

During our first service we blew a breaker and lost power in the middle of the worship set! Thankfully we had power in one speaker and in my mic so I got up and preached a little bit earlier than scheduled. Overall Tim handled it great and God seemed to move! The second service went over like a dream and God seemed to very thick in the room!

Church Planting is a never ending adventure! Our team at Crossbridge is amazing. Our program director, head sound guy and Road Crew coordinator have assembled a great team of Kingdom minded servants that will do whatever it takes! It is such a joy to be a part of Crossbridge!

Book Review - The Jesus of Suburbia

I love Mike Erre's new book "The Jesus of Suburbia". I mentioned it in a previous blog. What a great book.

The book basically compares the Biblical Jesus of Nazareth with the Jesus of Suburbia. The Jesus of Suburbia is a god in our own image. All the mystery, paradox, and uncertainty have been taken out and this Jesus offers us a wonderful plan for our life that is wrinkle free. Mike says this is the Jesus most Americans worship. Mike asks "Have we tamed the Son of God to fit our lifestyle"?

I minister in Suburbia. In fact Money Magazine said that my neighborhood was one of the most desirable places to live in America. Mike is right on. We in the suburbs want Jesus to enhance my life and not follow the Jesus that calls me to abandon my life for His life and agenda.
I was very convicted and will be thinking about for a while Mike's thoughts. Am I presenting to Crossbridge the real Jesus or a clean shaven upper/middle class version of Him? Is my church just a vendor of religious goods and services; are we just an institution? Or we are an authentic representation of the organic revolutionary movement that Jesus started?

These are the questions Mike explores! This book is great and should be read by all!

Bond is Back!

Friday me and the Mrs went to see Casino Royale, the newest James Bond movie. I saw my first James Bond movie in 1979. It was Moonraker with Roger Moore. I have seen all of them several times. I know he is not a Christian and that he sleeps around but I like the spyness (is that a word) and the action.

I going on record. I loved this movie. It was good clean fun! It is what a spy/action movie should be. I have been disappointed with many films over the summer that were supposed to be blockbusters but this one did not diapppoint. Go see and enjoy! My wife liked it too! It was first Bond movie. We may go back and watch the Sean Connery ones now!

The Flag and The Cross

Last night I saw "Flags of our Fathers" with a group of my friends from Crossbridge. What a great movie. It is excellent. My friend Diego and I talked after that we don't go to movies like that because it is an action/adventure film. We go to learn something. We go to learn history and ponder the message we can learn. Clint Eastwood did not disappoint.

The movie brought about the same feelings that "Saving Private Ryan" did in many ways. I am so grateful for ordinary people who do incredible things for our country. I don't care what your politics are they should be respected. In both films something else came out in me and I'm not proud to admit it. I don't want to go to war. I think about my beautiful wife and precious children. I think I would fight if I had to but the bottom line is I know I would be scared to death. I'm no hero. The movie makes me pray, "Jesus please come back now!" I think about my new son and what if he has to go off to war.

Then this morning I'm reading from kickin book by Mike Erre called "The Jesus of Suburbia." In the book Mike reminds me of the truth. I am in the middle of a war!

"To say yes to Christ is to enter actively into the war that rages around us while most of the world remains blissfully unaware." page 26

"We all want the life that Jesus has for us, but few of us are willing to fight for it. Do we really believe that Satan kills, steals and destroys? Do we really believe he devours?"

We must learn to live in this reality. Not to fear it, but rather be aware of it. Stepping out in obedience to Jesus is dangerous on two counts. First, Jesus is wild and radical and will lead us to places we would probably not go otherwise (though they will always be worth it). Second, we place ourselves in the middle of the great conflict that has raged against God's people for centuries." p. 27-28

"When Allied soldiers invaded Normandy on D-Day, none of them were surprised to find themselves shot at. Nobody was shocked that there was blood in the water or that were casualties in the battle. But when we accept the reality of the spiritual world and the forces within it-good and evil- then we cease being surprised that marriages blow out or that children rebel or that bad things do happen to good people (sometimes precisely because they are good). We will be aware of the temptations, the subtle or overt accusations, or the deceptions that are set against the children of God with staggering effectiveness." p.28

I need to live like everyday is a battle. I don't need to be surprised that war is all around us and the weapons are not guns but prayer, Truth, and kindness. We don't fight for a flag but because of a blood stained cross and an empty tomb. We are a part of a divine conspiracy as the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ.

May we have the guts to follow our dangerous messiah who is good but not safe into the battle!

Excerpt from UNTAMED pt 4

This is from this weeks message - UNTAMED pt 4 - "Lord It's Hard to be Humble" from Daniel chapter 4.

Humility attracts God and pride repels God.

"Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon Him." CJ Mahaney

"This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word." Isaiah 66:2

"I hate pride and arrogance." Proverbs 8:13

"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6

We are at risk of coming to the end of our life and find that God was opposing us?!

How can we cultivate Humility and weaken pride in my life?

1. Meditate on the Sovereignty of God

meditation is taking a concept and mentally chewing on it. If we will mentally chew on the absolute control of God will cultivate humility in my life! Meditating on the absolute control of God means everything we have has passed through the hands of God. Our nice house, big house, good health, hefty salaries, sharp intellects and everything in between has been granted to us by God. It is Him who moves us and shapes us and places things in our life and upon our paths and when we forget that when our lives are adversely affected.

Meditating on the sovereignty of God should breed in our minds and hearts a need to acknowledge your need for God and your dependence on God.

2. Meditate on the Grace of God

Chewing on the grace of God through the cross of Christ will cultivate humility. The Gospel gives us a humble confidence. As we meditate on the Gospel we see, "I am more sinful than I dared to believe". Think about your best day. You helped an old lady cross the street, you were kind to a small animal, you gave your money to the poor, and you did some relief work. The truth of the Gospel shows us that on our best day we are still wicked before God. That brings humility. The confidence comes from the other side of the Gospel; "I am more loved and accepted in Christ that I dared hope." Jesus took our place on the cross. He lived the life I should have lived and died the death I should have died.

3. Live as a Servant to All

Living as a servant puts our mediation into action. Serving shows me that I'm not that great. Serving shows me that I don't have to be the center of attention in the world. We can become self-righteous though in our service if we are not continually chewing on the sovereignty and grace of God.

True Confessions

My blog used to be called "Confessions of a Pastor". I liked the title but when I heard Craig Groeschel was coming out with this book I decided to change it.

I liked the book overall. I love the subtitle "Adventures in Dropping the Pose and Getting Real with God". I so identified with many of Craig's struggles in hiding behind the "pastor's mystique". I have told I can never be real with church people.

I remember a conversation with one guy that was a part of our core group. I asked him what he thought of me being a senior pastor. He looked at me saw what I was wearing and said "I think you won't be wearing shorts anymore." That really bothered me but it affected me. I remember the first time I wore jeans on a Sunday morning. I felt so self-conscious. I quickly got over that though. I also wear shorts to the office. Houston gets hot!

To be fake, to strike the "pastor pose" is sin. I am not talking about living above approach according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. I am talking about being something I am not. I will go so far as to say to strike any pose is sin. We need to be real and live out the truth of who we are with humility. We also need to keep seeking to grow into all God wants us to be.

A few years back I believe that the Holy Spirit gave me my personal mission statement. One of the lines is "to be me freely". This is a constant struggle because I feel like Craig writes in one chapter, "completely inadequate" but I keep moving with God working me.

I want to keep dropping the pose today. Thanks Craig for the encouraging book.

Lost for Three Months

Well last night was the "fall season finale". It was okay. I am disappointed with Kate and Sawyer. Jack continues to be my favorite character, next to Locke. I am disappointed that we have to wait till February! I will say it is cool that there will be no repeats!

So 2007 will have the new "24" and "Lost". It's going to be a good year. Tonight is the Office. Good times!

Partnership/Membership

Right after we started the church we went from having members to having partners. We did this not so we could be cool and have a different name but to reflect what the New Testament teaches about involvement in a local church. Biblically I think you become a member of the church, God's family, when you become a follower of Jesus Christ by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. Ephesians 4:2-5 and 1 Corinthians 12:13 seem to indicate this to me.

There is only one church in our area or the world - The church of Jesus Christ! The Bible though does communicate that there are many local fellowships that gather for encouragement and scatter to spread the Gospel in the area. You see this in the book of Acts, the New Testament Epistles and the book of Revelation.

In the Bible belt Christians think being a member of a local church is a lot like being a member of a health club instead of joining a revolution! Church leadership have unfortunately many times adopted ideas to woo people to join our flavor of church but do we ask them to join the mission of the Gospel in our community?

This is why at Crossbridge we have decided to call people who have joined our church, "Partners" and not members.

The main inspiration for this has been Philippians 1:4-5.

"In all my prayers or all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now."

The word for partnership in the Greek is "Koinonia". It means "fellowship with, and deep participation in anything."

Being a part of a local church is not about "what you can get out it". You should get support, encouragement, care and equipping but the church in America leans more now toward consumer's rather than mission. The church is here to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the world. We are hear to be salt and light in our community so that we might point people to the hope of the world - the Gospel.

We invite people to participate with us in bringing the Gospel to our county. We invite people to lay down agendas and expectations and to throw a servants towel over their arm and play!

When people want to join >Crossbridge we have a partnership class called "ENTRO" that we require people to go through. In this class we try to cast the vision of what it means to be a community of people that partner together in the Gospel mission.

I believe in the church. I pray the Lord will keep purifying us so we might be about His mission to redeem people for His glory and their joy!

Staff Reading

My new friend Bob reminded me of a practice that I had gotten away from with my staff. Over the years i have had my staff read a number of books together but have gotten away from it in the past year. The truth is I got lazy and didn't think about it. Well we are back in it today and are beginning our discussion of a book that will be a little stretch for my non-reading staff members.

We will be going over chapter one of "Nine Marks of a Healthy Church" by Mark Dever. I highly respect the man even if I don't agree with everything he says. Which actually isn't much. This morning we will be discussing Mark 1 "Expositional Preaching".

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

In their killer book “Simply Strategic Growth”, Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan 99 great ideas to help your church grow. One of the ideas that hit me on the head when I read it was idea number 40 “Prepare for Christmas in September”.

Every year in December I usually do some kind of Christmas series. Last year we had our first ever Christmas Eve service too. We did not expect much of a turn out for the service but we were blown away when over 300 people showed up! So this year we took the “Simply Strategic” guys advice to heart.

We have been planning for months not our Christmas season and today had a major meeting about it. We walked through in our programming meeting the entire Christmas Series. I am very excited about it! As of right now I wonder if it will be the most personal series I have ever done in my life! The series is called “Blue Christmas: Breaking the Seasonal Blues”. We walked through everything from décor, videos, props and it was a blast. I love working with my worship pastor and programming director, I really feel like we are starting to jell like never before.

Then we had a major Christmas Eve planning meeting! If you are a Crossbridger, make plans to join us! This will be a great service! We see the Christmas Eve service as our gift to the community. There will people at this service that haven’t been to a church service all year! The creating planning was so fun! Lost of hard work and vision casting is ahead of us! We’re going to pray like everything depends on God and work like everything depends on us!

Excerpt from UNTAMED pt 3

This is from Sunday's message on faith from Daniel Chapter 3.

"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, o king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, o king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the imagine of gold you have set up." Daniel 3:17-17 (NIV)

Faith is not trust in a certain outcome. We can easily fall into thinking that faith is thinking that a certain thing will come to pass. True Biblical faith is not wishing. Faith is not believing in a certain outcome to your prayers. True faith is not believing in your ability to believe. Faith is trusting a person! Faith is trusting in CHRIST!

Faith is not about pumping up yourself emotionally. It's not positive thinking. Faith is not a mind game you play with yourself. God doesn't ask you to believe in your ability to believe. God asks you to believe in Christ!

As we believe in Christ, we trust that He is able. Nothing is too hard for God! He is able to reconcile broken marriages. He is able to liberate people from addiction. He is able to heal damaged bodies. He is able to forgive the darkest sin, provide for the greatest need, and soften the hardest heart.

"God can do anything you know - far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!" Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)

We trust that He is better than His gifts!
"but even if He does not."

This is one of the most personally challenging statements to me in the whole book. God is able to do amazing miracles but what about when He chooses to not? Will you continue to follow Jesus when He doesn't give you the outcome you had in mind.

God is able to heal your marriage but even if He does not will you still follow Him in it?

God is able to bring you a mate that loves Him and will honor you but even if He does not will you honor Him in your relationships by staying sexually pure even when you feel pressure?

God is able to provide for you in amazing ways financially but even if He does not. Even if you never have the financial life you dream of will You follow Him and be faithful to Him in the way you handle money?

Many of us want a certain outcome to our faith more than we want to know Jesus! True faith through is not trust in a certain outcome, it is trust and devotion to the person of Christ!

You Can't Beat The Real Thing

This Sunday one of my childhood dreams came true. I got to administrate the "Pepsi Challenge"! I challenged out congregation to see if they could tell the difference between Coke, Pepsi, and Sam's Choice Cola! We had one volunteer in each service come on the stage and take the challenge! The first one was able to name all three drinks correctly! The second one was only able to tell the Sam's Cola one. I gave them both gift cards for being a good sport! I then preceded to tie this into my message for the day.

I was swarmed with people afterwards telling they could have done it. One guy said he could tell by smell alone! I didn't realize how passionate people were about their cola!

Book Review - Church Marketing 101

I like Richard Reising's "Church Marketing 101". The title made me a little skeptical but I tried it anyway. This book is not ten easy steps to advertise and grow your church. In fact I loved that Reising wrote that some churches shouldn't even promote themselves! I've worked for a few of those. Now some people might say the church shouldn't be in marketing but I would say they don't have a clear understanding of what marketing is. Reising says, "There is not church in the world that does not participate in marketing; there are just those that do it well and those who do not."

I highly recommend this book to pastors because of the questions he asks. They have made me stop and think. I will be discussing this book for a while with our church board and staff as we seek to continually create environments for people to experience God in a fresh way.

Several of the questions that hit me were...
* What do people in your community think about your church?
* What do different types of people in your church think about your church?
* What do you want them to think
* What are you doing right now to change that?
* What things in your service might be a stumbling block for a non-Christian?
* What can you do to help ensure an unbeliever is not distracted from the apparently to hear the message of Christ?

There are tons more! Buy this book it will stretch you!

This Weekend - UNTAMED continues

I am excited about my talk this week. I was totally finished with it on Wednesday! I am now about three weeks ahead and in knowing where I am going in my sermon series. It requires alot of discipline and alone time for me but I believe it is worth it. My worship pastor loves it!

We are having a major planning meeting about Christmas Eve this Monday. Last year was our first ever Christmas Eve service and we were totally blown away by the turn out. We thought there would be like 75 people there and 300 showed up! So this yea we are really trying to plan big. We hope to create a buzz that will generate interest in the Gospel.

I'll be posting more about this planning next week.

UNTAMED Reading List

One of the things I do when preaching a series is of course study the passages in detail. One of the things that helps me in personal Bible Study and in getting ready for a series is to use the fantastic resource "Search the Scriptures". I also get commentaries to help with passages, esp if I'm doing a book study like "Daniel" in this series.

One thing I do is try to read books that go along with the theme of the series. I am rereading one book and reading another book for the first time.

The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus

This is a great book! I got our series title "UNTAMED" from the tag line of the book "Unleashing the untamed faith within". I have read this book several times and always been pushed to stay on the edge of my faith in Jesus and following His way.

In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson

I usually don't recommend a book I haven't finished yet but after reading about a 1/4 of the book last night I can't help it. Chapter 2 for me was very cool. Mark focuses on our view of God.

How you think of God will determine who you become.

The more we grow, the bigger God should get.

The reality is nothing is too difficult for God.

One thing that really stuck with me was praying "ridiculous prayers". I think of Daniel praying to in Daniel chapter 2. I think of some of things I'm asking for God to do at Crossbridge right now. Thanks for the inspiration Mark!

So if you want to continue focusing on this theme of having an UNTAMED faith I highly recommend these two books!

Happy Halloween

Well today is Halloween and yes we will be celebrating. Now we're not celebrating evil but celebrating people! I'm not sure how the discussion began but a couple of years ago we were thinking about what we as a church could do on Halloween. Let me be frank here and this is just my opinion but Harvest Festivals are kind of lame. Lame candy and just a bunch of Christian mooching. One church in our area did it and had over 5000 people come. They later reported that they only saw one family get connected to their church over it. So we had the thought let's bring the Harvest Festival to the people.

So we have for the last couple of years had various Commmunity Groups at our church host block parties. A family friendly way to meet neighbors. Groups have games, hot dogs, awesome candy, and other fun stuff. We don't have witches and ghosts, maybe a Scooby Doo costume but we also don't have Jesus junk either. You know what I mean! All those lame cards with lame sayings that I have never heard change someone's life!

The block parties are a part of our culture now. Groups on their own do them to invest in their neighborhood. One guy went so far to build his own putt-putt golf course! His neighbors were so touched that they have been asking for weeks if the block party was still on! Another guy in our church has actually had an unchurched neighbor come over and offer to do all the cooking for the event. Wow, an unchurched person is helping a follower of Jesus invest in his neighbors!

I am so proud of our church on Halloween. They really show that it's now about us! It is about taking the message of the Gospel through words of truth and deeds of love to our neighbors and world.

For more great thoughts may I recommend my friend Bob's blog. Gary Lamb's imfamous blog about Harvest festivals is also worth reading.

Weekend to Remember - the memories

Well we made it back! It was great to be with my wife and spend a lot of time with her. She really is the love of my life!

Well the conference was good too. It really spurred me on to think about how Crossbridge can be investing more in married couples. Last April Kathleen and I did a one night workshop on cultivating intimacy in marriage. We had a full house and a great time. Monday we talked at staff meeting about doing something like that every quarter in 2007.

If there are any married people reading this blog, what would be some topics that you would be interested in coming to a one night interactive workshop about?

The Church You Know

Just read this on my buddy Bob's blog. Hilarious! You have got to check this out.

www.thechurchyouknow.com

Weekend to Remember

>"...husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way..." 1 Peter 3:7

Part of my personal mission statement that I believe God gave to me several years ago is to "love my family fully". So this weekend I am seeking to do lean into that by taking my wife on a marriage retreat. We are headed to Family Life's "Weekend to Remember". If you are a pastor it is free for you! Wow, major thanks to Family Life for supporting pastors. I hope any pastors out there will take advantage of this.

I want to encourage you men to really seek to live out what Peter writes about above. What he is saying here is get to know your wives! Pursue your wife! If we are suppose to be modeling Jesus to them (Eph 5) then we should pursue our wives with love just like our Savior pursues us with love.

Let me give you a great first step. In his marvelous book "Sex. Romance and the Glory of God", CJ Mahaney exhorts husbands with a way to apply 1 Peter 3:7

"Do you know how to surprise and delight your wife in specific ways in each of the following areas?

* Sex
* clothing sizes, styles, and stores
* jewelry
* health
* exercise
* books and magazines
* movies
* the arts
* sports
* food
* music
* entertainment
* places to visit
* intellectual interests
* hobbies
* vacations/getaways
* and of course, sex

Do you know how your wife is faring in each of these areas?

* theological knowledge
* practice of spiritual disciplines
* growth in godliness
* spiritual gifts that can be used to serve others
* involvement in the local church
* relationship with children
* relationship with parents
* personal retreats
* fears
* hopes
* dreams
* disappointments
* temptations

How much of this information do you have readily available to you, preferably in written form? How much do you really know about your wife in each of these areas?"

CJ Mahaney: Sex, Romance and the Glory of God p. 32-33

Lost Rocked Last Night!

Wow! I love this show. The twists, the turns, the excitement. If you are not into Lost don't shoot yourself in the foot by just watching it on Wednesday nights. You should go back rent or buy Season 1 and take your time to get caught up. It's better than a lot of movies I have paid money for this year.

Racquetball and Community Groups

This morning I got to play Racquetball for the second day in a row with my good friends Tim, Brandon and Joe. I love that game. It is so fast spaced. You hit the ball, you're running, dodging, and even lunging! Today guys were running into walls, hitting themselves in the face with their own racket(a form of punishment for missing an easy shot?),and getting hit with the ball! Wow! We even saw bloodshed in the game.

I have been wanting to get into better shape for a while and honor God with my body. One thing I don't like to do though is work out alone. To be quite honest I cut myself a lot of slack and don't push myself to the limit. I also not quite sure if I am even doing the right things when it comes to training and exercise. I have read books but they didn't do for me.

Now I am in week two of working out with my friends. Joe is our trainer. The guy knows so much about fitness and weight training. He is also quite buff. Joe though is training too. He knows he hasn't arrived and keeps an eye on his health. I have learned that I am weaker than I thought in some areas but just knowing these guys will be showing up helps me get there. I am using muscles I have never used before and really didn't even know that I had!

These same ideas are true for us on our spiritual journey. We can do things by ourselves to grow close to God and we should. We should spend quality time in study, prayer and solitude. But if you are like me you hit a wall sometimes. What am I suppose to be doing? What would be good for me to work on? Then there is self-deception. I'm in pretty good shape spiritually right?

I believe one of the best ways to stay in shape spiritually is to be in small group. At Crossbridge we call them Community Groups. In CG you get to be with people in all different kinds of spiritual shape with all the same goal. Let's get closer to God and grow in our character. There is usually someone guiding the group who is further down the road than other but by no means "the expert". That person is growing too and keeping an eye on their relationship with God. You learn quickly in groups areas where you are weak. For me I learn how impatient I am with others but how I want everybody to be patient with me. Group push you to grow and bear with people. Groups push to exercise spiritual muscles maybe you haven't used before.

This month three new Community Groups will be starting at Crossbridge. If you are not in a group I highly encourage you to check them out. My prayer is that you will be encouraged in this environment to grow spiritually in ways you never have before!

Best Comedy since Seinfeld

Last night my wife and I finished watching the second season of "The Office" on DVD. I want to go on record. To the millions reading (hah!) that this is the best comedy show I have watched since Seinfeld and maybe even better than Seinfeld!

So if you want to laugh and laugh and waste alot of time go out and buy this.

Got Groups

Just had a great lunch meeting with two leaders in our church. We hashed out a strategy to try to go from 6 groups to 18 groups by Feb at the soonest and April at the latest.

We have struggled over the last couple of years with our groups. I feel like we are actually headed somewhere now.

UNTAMED: starts Sunday

New Series - UNTAMED

This Sunday Crossbridge will launch into a new series called "Untamed". I am very excited about it! We will study the first six chapters of Daniel.

We cannot let the culture tame our faith in Jesus. Daniel and his friends are a great example of how to live in a culture that is dishonoring to God but not let it tame their confidence in their heavenly Father.

I'll try and post the logo soon!

Preaching is Freaky!

I have issues. I just wanted to get that out on the table. I am a sermon addict. I have listened too probably 1000's of sermons. Some have been good and some have been bad. What it used to do was feed my soul with God's word and inspiration to keep after Him. What it does now is confuse the snot out of me.

I get all caught up on stuff like: is it bad to preach topically? Are the best sermons just going verse by verse through a book. Is it the only way, God's way to take three months to go through a book or even a year. I have read a ton of preaching books, listened to a ton of sermon seminars, had a ton of conversations about this and read probably a ton of articles about this topic. I just finished Andy Stanley's book last night "Communicating for a Change". It was very helpful.

I think in the end I am somewhere in between John Piper's "The Supremacy of God in Preaching" and Andy's book. That sometimes makes me feel a little alone in the evangelical world.

As I have been praying about this, I have been convicted about many things....

1. I have been seeking men for God's word to the church instead of seeking God for His specific word for the church I pastor. I know that sounds mystical but that is how I am wired. What God seems to be teaching me, I seem to teach with passion and clarity. The Spirit seems to move as well.

2. As I seek God for His direction I find that sometimes He leads me to preaching through a book and sometime to preach on a topic. This past Spring I felt led to preach through the book of Colossians. I did it in ten weeks. Our team felt good about the series. This fall though I felt like I had to do a book study again because some of my heroes only do them. But I think God wants to say something else this fall. Jesus is the leader of this church, not my favorite Bible teacher, that I want to emulate or make proud of me. I have got to stop preaching for people that don't come to my church and preach for the glory of Jesus and the good of the people that do come to my church!

3. The Bible must be central and authoritaive in all of this! So as I am sensing God leading me to some topics, the Bible isn't an add on to what I want to say. The issue if what does the Bible say on this topic and let's unleash the lion to devour us!

So this fall we are going to do a series on handling temptation. I will be using Matthew 4 as my guide for this. We're calling it "Tempted...Everyone is". I have also been drawn to the book of Haggai. What an incredible little book! It speakes to suburb Christians in a powerful way. I was turned on to this book from Francis Chan who did an awesome talk on it at this years Thirsty conference from Passion Conferences . I might do three or four weeks on that. I am really praying through a study of the "I Am" statements of Jesus from the writings of John's Gospel and the Revelation. I want to do something with Galatians but I am not called to be a "talking commentary" of it. I also am praying through a series on how to practice the presence of Jesus through out the day. If I do that series I may call it "24"! - Oh yeah Season 6 coming in January!

Okay so what do some of you yahoo's think out there? Should we be only book by book, only topical, a mix or what?

Discuss!

Wow, It's been a while!

Hi.

I know if you are going to have a blog you should write more. I'm still working on this. I think I will will write some more this week.

Later

The Great Work of the Gospel

I know it’s been a while, but hey life is more than blogging. I have been trying to get into a new habit of reading two books a week. I am up to about one and half depending on length of the book and my schedule for that week.

I am about half way through a great book entitled “The Great Work of the Gospel” by John Ensor. I highly recommend it. I have been a Christian since I was 12 and have known that Jesus died for my sins since a small boy. It is only in the last few months at the age of 35 that I think I may actually be moving out of a kindergarten understanding of Christ’s death and resurrection.

I wanted to post an excerpt from the above book to get my 5 readers thinking about the Gospel in new ways.

Ensor tells a story about a guy in prison that he is interacting with. The guy is seriously jacked up. He was fatherless and his mom was an alcoholic. He was brash and cocky but with no future ahead of him. He ends up in jail for raping a girl. Ensor applies to this guy what he says through the whole book. People are wounded and wayward. He begins to reach out to this guy….

If not for the cross, I would not have known what to say…. I told him that God is a God of love, and therefore a God of mercy and forgiveness. But I told him first that God is a God of holiness, that he loves righteousness and is angry at him for the harm he had done. I assured him that God could show mercy to him, but not until he saw how wicked and evil his action was and how much he deserved to be punished.
I did not say, “Hey, God loves you, so let’s forget that you forced yourself on that young girl, and how much pain and terror you brought her.” I said, in effect, “If you agree with your accuser and admit that you did evil and deserve to be punished by God, and if you turn to Him who is rightly angry and ask Him for mercy, then you will find that He is able to forgive you. How so? Because God calculated the full amount of punishment needed to vindicate the young woman’s dignity, and He calculated the punishment needed to repair the glory of God defaced by your wickedness. Then He totaled it all up and inflicted the full punishment, in righteous anger, on Jesus Christ on the cross. And if you will entrust you life to the living Christ and obey Him, trusting that the cross is sufficient payment for your sins, God will credit it as your own and will redeem your life.” John Ensor p.99-100 “The Great Work of the Gospel”

Continuing Conversion

I have been reading, learning about and treasuring the Gospel of Jesus Christ more and more these days. It seems that over the last few months that God has been bringing this before me. It really all started with the reading of a book by John Piper called "God is the Gospel". As usual Piper nails it. Then I began to have interaction with several leaders in the Acts 29 movement. Guys like Chan Kilgore and Darrin Patrick have been so encouraging to me in how they present the Gospel.

Mark Driscoll's latest sermon on "Missional Ministry" really hits the nail on the head for me about our calling as Pastors/church planters. We have to contend for the Gospel and contextualize the Gospel.

Reading Tim Keller's articles have also been very encouraging and soul giving. I love how he writes that the Gospel is not the ABC's of Christanity but the A-Z of Christanity.

I have a lot in me to get out on this and what it means for our church to be a Gospel-Driven, Christ-Centered and God-Dependent community.

My one true desire today is to "repent and believe in the Gospel" from Mark 1:15. I am seeing more and more that is not only how I became a Christian but how I am to to grow as a Christian. Daily there are new areas for me to repent and believe in.

It is my continous conversion that is blowing me away. That I so easily treasure everything and everybody other than Christ.

I am reading three great works right now to help me in my thinking.

"The Bible in 90 Days". - this is a new product from Zondervan that I am taking my staff through right now. As I read it I am looking for Jesus and the Gospel everywhere!

"Renewal as a Way of Life" by Richard Lovelace - Great book recommended to me by my friend Chan Kilgore. The subtitle says it all "a guidebook for spiritual growth". It is a book about applying the Gospel to our daily lives.

"Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands" by Paul David Tripp - I love this book! It is a book on living our the Gospel in my relationships. As I am going through it I am considering giving it to our Community Group leaders at our Momemntum Weekend in August.

Inside Out Leadership

I have cleaning out stuff recently and found and old notebook from a Willow Creek Student Ministry Conference I went to back in 1998. I flipped through the notebook to see if I should give it away and found a session by Dan Webster. The notes really struck a cord in me since I have been thinking a lot about leadership lately.

Anything good give Webster credit for. Anything bad or not clear, that would be me!

"Facing Change from the Inside Out" by Dan Webster

Change Leader - recognizes that he/she must lead himself into God's presence before he leads anyone anywhere.

What Does a Change Leader Look Like? - Matthew 23:1-12

1. They are teachable vs. Arrogant
* Great leaders stay teachable and attentive.
* Be humble enough to listen.
* Are their areas of pride in my heart that I need to repent of?
* Where are you resistant to learn from those that God has placed in your life?

2. They are known for integrity vs. Talking
* There is a huge difference between a life that speaks than a mouth that speaks.
* Leadership is not about words but the life we live that is worth following.
* Does our life back up our teaching?
* Integrity - living one life
* Where are you living two lives instead of one?

3. They pursue character vs. Persona
* Persona is guided by image, control, fear, self-interest, and avoidance.
* Character is guided by ethnicity, purpose, openeness, compassion, courage, tenderness, gentleness, and inclusion.
* When people bump into you does Christ or Charisma come out?
* Where and when in your life should you live more out of character rather than persona?

4. They are Christ-dependent vs. co-dependent
* We like the approval of people more than the approval of Christ.
* Don't over exaggerate your own importance.
* Do you live spiritually vicariously through other leaders or do you have your own life in Christ?

5. They are about second vs. first
* Great people have killed the disease of me in life.
* Being a servant is having my heart crushed by Jesus.


So that's that. I hope you will be blessed and challenged by these thoughts.

The Gathering at Clear Creek

Last week I began a four week teaching series at Clear Creek Community Church (www.clearcreek.org) at their midweek series called "The Gathering". It is a great church led by great guys. I had so much fun last week. These people came ready to worship and learn.

Why is it when you teach in another enviroment you feel a freedom that you don't feel normally at your own church? Is it because they don't know me or that I'm trying to impress them? Maybe since they don't know me, they don't see all my inconsistancies like my church does.

Is it that these believers come ready on Wednesday night to worship and learn but Sunday morning is hard because of the heavy weekend and it's a mix of believers and unbelievers.

The crazy thing is that Tim and our worship band was there. They thought I spoke different that I normally do on Sunday. Tim said there seemed to be more freedom. This isn't the first time I have had this happen.

I'm just trying to figure it out. Sorry for the rambling.

Crossbridge Thoughts

Well we kicked off NameTag this past Sunday. We talked about Elohim - The God of all Creation. We talked about how the God of all Creation is also the God of the New Creation. I am really trying to tie all my sermons to the Gospel and have Jesus be the hero.

We are really blessed wiht a great pastoral team. Tim is my favorite worship leader. I have seen the big guys but Tim is my favorite. Brandon is making things happen. He is a doer, which helps us so much. Crossbridge is blessed to have them.

I was a little nervous about attendance going into the summer. We launched two services back in April and it has been great but with a low Memorial Day I was a little anxious about the dreaded "summer slump". To my great delight and surprise we had a one of our highest attended days since going to two services.

This Friday we are having a family movie night and I am wondering what that will be like. I do not believe the church is in the business of providing non-alcoholic social events for people who don't want to be "in the world" but we are experienmenting with trying to develop some "connecting" events to help move people into friendships and relationship with other Crossbridgers. This is our first such an event. I would be interested in other "connecting" events that portable churches have done and how they worked. We really want to keep moving people from being an attender to a contrbuting partner of the church living on mission.

See-ya

Holy Pastor Batman!

Yesterday I wrote about being a leader that is worth following. For me these days it seems that God is showing me that this has to do with holiness.

I recently listen to an incredible CD by Brian Bloye (pastor of Westridge Church - www.westridge.com) and he talked about being a holy leader. He said that alot is being talked about concerning church leadership today but we aren't talking about the purity and holiness of a church leader.

It so easy to get to pornography as a Pastor. It is so easy to let your mind and imagination run wild. It is so easy for me to watch something inappropriate for my mind but say I'm "exegeting culture".

What does it mean to be serious about holiness as a pastor. So many times I think that means I won't laugh and have any fun. This quote from CS Lewis really helps me with that...

"How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing...it is irrestible."

Today my office is being worked on for some electrical problems so I am off to Barnes and Noble to study. As I go the quote above and these will be on my mind...

"Oh for holiness! Oh for more of God in my soul! Oh this pleasing pain! It makes my soul press after God." David Brainerd

"Oh God, show me more of your holiness. Show me more of my sinfulness. Help me to hate sin and to love righteousness as You do. Grant me a deeper conviction of sin and a more thorough spirit of repentance. And make me holy as You are holy. Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Are you following me?

It is a great and sobering thing to be a leader in a local church. i have been thinking alot about leadership lately. How can I be a better leader and lead myself, family and church to another level.

Hebrews 13:7 says, "Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith."

What a sobering verse. The question I have been kicking around is why would anyone want to follow me? Is my faith producing a kind of life that people would want imitate? Not just do I say cool and trendy things, have a blog, and stuff, but is there something about my way of life that would cause people to say, "I'm following that guy!"

I know we are suppose to follow Jesus but Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ."

Is my faith something people would want to imitate? Does the way I handle my money, time, marriage, kids, relationships, driving, lawn mowing, shopping, eating, and etc reflect that Christ is my all surpassing treasure to the people in my church?

If you are a church leader I hope you will ponder this question with me. I hope you will decide like me to be the real deal. I have decided that I want to be like Peter and John who in Acts 4 it says that rulers and elders of the people "took note that these men had been with Jesus."

Are we living the life we are calling others to?

Do we have an imitable faith?

Are we smoking what we are selling?

This Weekend - Nametag Begins!

This Sunday I begin a new teaching series called "Nametag: Discovering the Names of God". I am excited and nervous about it. i always get nervous and excited before a new teaching series. Nervous because I wonder if it will be any good and is this really what God wants me to talk on. Excited because it is something new. New content, new books to buy and study, new logos and stuff.

The series comes out of a deeply held conviction that the church needs to talk about GOD! We talk about movies, iPods, reality TV, and every felt need but do we talk about God?

One of my favorite quotes that I wil use this weekend - "...the gravest question before the church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at any time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like." AW Tozer - "The Knowledge of the Holy"

Gospel Quotes

Here are some great quotes about the Gospel

"If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself." (Augustine)

"The whole gospel is contained in Christ." (John Calvin)

"Whenever the gospel is preached it is as if God himself came into the midst of us." (John Calvin)

"There is nothing attractive about the gospel to the natural man; the only man who finds the gospel attractive is the man who is convicted of sin." (Oswald Chambers)

"A gospel that elevates man and dethrones God is not the gospel." (Will Metzger)

"The world has many religions; it has but one gospel." (George Owen)

"The man who does not glory in the gospel can surely know little of the plague of sin that is within him. (J.C. Ryle)

"The revelation of the gospel is to a world that is already under indictment for its universal rejection of God the Father." (R.C. Sproul)

"If the Lord's bearing our sin for us is not the gospel, I have no gospel to preach." (C.H. Spurgeon)

"The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ." (C.H. Spurgeon)

"When we preach Christ crucified, we have no reason to stammer, or stutter, or hesitate, or apologize; there is nothing in the gospel of which we have any cause to be ashamed." (C.H. Spurgeon)

Death by Ministry

Mark Driscoll's blog is one of my favorite reads. Anyone in ministry or married to someone in ministry should read it.

http://www.theresurgence.com./mdblog_2006-05-24_death_by_ministry

Lost Finale

Well, it was okay. I liked it but it didn't have the terror of last seasons finale. I love the show though and am committed to be here in the fall. What will I watch this summer though?

Article and Envrroments

http://pf.fastcompany.com/magazine/84/starbucks_schultz.html

You should read the above article. It is an interview with the Starbucks global strategic officer.

He talks about Starbucks being the "third place". Fascinating concept.

We are talking alot around our staff on creating enviroments. We really want to move our church toward a strategy of creating relevant ministry enviroments. Now i know that is what North Point says and does but that doesn't mean they own that. Over the past two weeks I have had my staff listen to a great CD called, "The Breakthrough Principle of Irrestibility" by Jeff Henderson. Jeff is the campus pastor of Buckhead Church, which is a campus of North Point. You can order the CD from www.268generation.com, it is from the "Thirsty" conference they just put on.

We then went to Ikea, Memorial City Mall (coolest mall in Houston), Eatsi's (one of the coolest resturants in Houston) and talked about what makes these enviroments inrresistible.

Yesterday we watched a talk Andy Stanley gave at the C3 conference in 2004 at Fellowship Church. His whole talk was on creating relevant enviroments. It was amazing! We are going to show that at our leadership retreat in August.

I am so excited about the clarity that our staff and church is getting about our mission to make growing followers of Jesus and now the clarity on how we are going to do it.

out.

Crossbridge today

Well we made it!

We went to two services on April 2nd. We have since added 100 people!

We're moving into the summer now and we are concerned that we will loose some momentum. We are looking at making our Community Groups stronger. I'll post stuff on that I hope.

I'm so excited about the new series I'm doing called "Nametag". It's a series on the names of God. I start it in two weeks. I may even write a book and self-publish it but that will be in the Lord's hands.

It's good to be back.

out.

Lost Season Finale Tonight!

This is it sports fans! I am so stoked. We're going to put the kids down early pop the popcorn, make some slice n'bake and chill the milk. I love this show! I am a JJ Abrams fan!

See-ya

Well, we haven't died yet.

Hi,

We announced the move to 2 services this Sunday. To be honest I can't tell how people feel about it. I am seeing more and more the bad health in our church. i am seeing that people's first response is self-protection and skeptism.

I wrote a FAQ booklet for people. One of the questions I answered was "Is this God's will?" The answer I wrote there and here is "I don't know". Nelson Searcey on his CD of breaking the 250 growth barrier says that Pastors should believe it is God's will for our church to grow. I struggle. I struggle with not wanting the church to grow and to see more and more lives transformed by the Gospel. To see more men and women and children cross the line of faith and be baptized. I don't struggle with wanting to see more followers of Jesus be made and those followers getting stronger and stronger in the faith.

I struggle because the only thing I am sure about that is "God's will" is what is written in the Bible. I have been looking for the chapters and verses about how to pastor a growing church and I can't find it.

Is is God's will for Crossbridge to go to two services? I don't know. I do know that we are to serve the Gospel. That we have been entrusted with the Gospel and that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

I don't know how this is all going to work out but I want to hide in the text, preach Jesus like a mad man, love people, and reach out to my community. I think that is God's will.

Where are the pastors who are God-Centered and Gospel-Driven that talk realistically about church growth. Who can mentor the young pastors in these transitions without giving me the cup of church growth watered down kool-aid that everybody else is drinking from?

I am rambling.

This is hard. This is exhilerating.

Church Planting.....I need a stiff drink.

Later

2 Services: Let's Pray We Don't Die

Hi,

I have not been writing. I have been trying to figure out the benefit of blogging and I think I am starting to get it.

Anyway after 3 1/2 years and now right around 300 people we are moving to 2 worship services on Sunday April 2nd. We have told a few of our leaders and the rest today and then the whole church this sunday. I also turn 35 this Sunday.

We just hired a dude to direct all the ministries and make this transition happen. He is awesome. Yesterday we sat down with his colorcoded timeline and walked through where we are at and what needs to be done. Wow! At the bottom of the timeline is our little staff slogan for this move, "Let's pray we don't die".

What we mean by that of course is that the church just sits there and says big deal we are not serving. We mean we hope we don't kill ourselves with all this hard work that will be happening over the next month.

As I am studying for my message Sunday I am beginning to see that there are in some ways I hope God doesn't answer that prayer. I am preaching through Colossians right now and will be in Colossians 1:21-2:6 this Sunday. In this passage Paul is sharing his heart and his commission to be a "servant of the Gospel". He writes about how he "struggled, and labored" in his ministry.

Ministry is work. Ministry is hard. In what ways do I hope God doesn't answer that prayer?

I hope God let's us die to consumerism and captures our heart with the attitude of being a "servant of the Gospel".

I hope God let's us die to our addiction to convience and gives us the power to live sacrifically to serve others.

I hope God let's us die to an inclusive atmosphere and gives us the power to reach out to people who are lost and needing to encounter the heart of the Father.

I hope God let's us die to a sacricity mindset. This mindset keeps us from stepping out on faith and saying God will provide the time, people, resources and rest for our souls as we seek to obey Him in kingdom ministry. May He empower us to have a kingdom mindset.

Bottom line - I hope God let's us die to sin. That we would put to death the things that keep us from loving God and loving people.

2 services for me isn't about becoming the biggest, baddest church in the area. It's about seeing lives transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For Crossbridge to become that kind of Gospel-Driven Church then some dying has to occur.

Let's pray we don't die.

Let' pray we do die to things that displease the heart of God.

What's on your bookshelf

My confession today: I want to read books that help me know Jesus better and grow as a leader.

Now the last part of the confession is easy to talk about. You go to any of the cool blogs out there (that I soon will provide links too) and they are talking about all the cool leadership books. Books that I want to and have read.

I want to confess though that a steady diet of Tipping Points, Good to Great, and Purple Cows doesn't make me love Jesus more.

Why is it that books about God aren't on the more innovative churches top reading list?

I am reading "The Nature of God" by AW Pink right now. No, he doesn't pastor a megachurch or have an emergent church with candles. He was born in 1886 and died in 1952. He uses the KJV in his writings and he writes thick words about a majestic God. He doesn't cite any movies or quote the hottest songs or use the newest lingo but he does write brief chapters about our Creator. It is an incredible book. When was the last time you read a book that made you think God was huge? When was the last time you read a book to meet Jesus in and not to get sermon ideas or good illustrations or to grow your church. I have done all that and it isn't necessarily bad, it just makes my soul small and sick if i do it for long periods of time. So maybe i have issues.

Why is it that people are raving about Brian McLaren's books but nobody seems to stop and ask, is he right? I like some of the stuff he says but overall I have serious concerns but others have said that better than me (www.reformission.com and listen to Gerry Breshears do an excellent job talking about his work). Have you read "God is the Gospel" by John Piper yet? What a great book to remind us that are we preaching the good news that people can know through Jesus the most exciting person in the universe? Or are we studying culture so much we are forgetting to study God.

I don't want to get lumped in with those guys that say "Church Growth is from hell" and you should only read dead guys, but as a young pastor of a contemporary suburban church that has attended his fare share of Willow Creek and Creative Church Conferences I do want to raise a flag and ask the pastors of the new hip churches to consider reading a book that is focuses on God and God alone. You might find that it creates a hunger to know Him more.

Let me give some book recommendations.

Knowing God by JI Packer
The God You can Know by Dan Dehaan
The Nature of God by AW Pink or Arthur Pink
The Knowledge of the Holy by AW Tozer
The Holiness of God by RC Sproul
The Sovereignty of God by AW Pink
Desiring God by John Piper (okay anything by John Piper)
Close to His Majesty by David Needham

Of course the Bible is the best book to read! My I recommend "Search the Scriptures" by Alan Stibbs to help you in your studies. It's fantastic.

See-ya

I'm Back

Hi,

I know that i am not a very good blogger because I have not been writting or is it blogging alot. Does anyone know a good blog tutor? Oh well I want to confess today that i am excited about 2006!

I am excited because of the newness. New calendars and fresh starts. I feel energized to preach and lead and seek God and love my family this year.

Starting this Sunday we are starting a new series called "My Life, My Money?" Go to our website and check out the promo video we made. It is a take-off from the American Express card commericals.

We had about 300 at our Christmas Eve service and it was great. Next year we hope to pour more into it.

I am presently interviewing a guy for a full time position. What are some good interview questions that you have used? The position is for "Director of Ministry Development". This guy will be over all out ministries, kinda of like old school "minister of education" and a precursor to an "Executive Pastor."

I am going to be writing more this year. I do want to write things that people will be blessed by and not just my ramblings about stuff.

Till later