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!