What I'm Reading and Listening Too

I figured I'd let everyone know what I'm reading and listening to. In case anyone was wondering. (I am hoping to do this more often so that people have a list of books and CD's to look into buying.)

What I'm listening to... The Glorious Unseen. I heard about them from David Santistevan, worship leader at Allison Park Church. Great music. I'm enjoying listening to this CD called "Tonight the Stars Speak". They also have a new CD coming out in August.
On another note, I'm looking forward to a new Jesus Culture CD coming out in August. And the new David Crowder Band CD coming out in September.

I finished up a book by Wayne Cordeiro called "Leading on Empty." It deals with ways to keep from burning out in ministry and if you have burned out in ministry, how to slowly find healing. Another book I finished was, "The Covenant" by James L. Garlow. I plan on doing a small group on this book starting in September.
Currently, I am reading a book by George O. Wood, Gerneral Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, called "Living in the Spirit." This book offers a comprehensive compilation of perspectives concerning the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. He shares his desire that Pentecostals resist being content with memories of powerful past experiences and instead seek to be overwhelmed by the Spirt and demonstrate the enduring evidence of His fullness.
And "Spiritual Leadership" by J. Oswald Sanders. A book that has principles of excellence for every believer.

When Life Gives You Lemons

We began a new sermon series called, "When Life Gives You Lemons" last week. When I say lemons, I mean the troubles in life that come our way that are expected and unexpected.

I started off last week by putting lemons into perspective with who God is. I showed parts of a video by Louie Giglio from the How Great is Our God tour. Did you know that there are stars in the universe that are way bigger than the earth? In fact, you could fit 960,000 earths in the closest star that we know which is the sun. Putting that into perspective, if the earth was the size of a golf ball the sun would be equivalent to 6 Empire State buildings on top of each other. And that is only half of it. Check out the video. They are both 10 minutes long, but well worth the watch.

Part One


Part Two


This week we will look at why lemons come into our lives. If you don't have a church, stop by. We would love to see you.

"Finally"

Yesterday, I spoke on James 2:14-26 and putting your faith into action. I also hit on Acts 16:16-18 which says:
16Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." 18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
I have really been meditating on stepping out in faith. The Christian faith is supposed to be an adventure but we seem to take all of the adventure out and make it a safe walk full of hand rails, parachutes, foam, and every other safety device that we can think of to keep us from getting hurt in the everyday. We pretty much take all of the faith out of it and make it a, well, a ritual. But faith, when excercised with deeds, is exciting.
The Lord gave me a picture. So picture yourself in a fruit tree. The fruit is always out of reach, or on the branches that we know cannot support our weight. We can choose to leave that fruit alone and continue to hold to the trunk of the tree (the Church) or we can let go and crawl out on those limbs and trust God for whatever happens. If we want to see miracles and people getting saved, we have to step out in faith into the unknown of what might happen.
But what will it take to get you there? For Paul, it was after many days of being followed by a demon possessed girl shouting at him and Silas that he finally had enough. Why didn't Paul do something sooner? After all, this girl was a slave to Satan and the men who made money off of her. Whatever the reason, Paul had a "Finally" moment. He "Finally" couldn't take it anymore and turned around casting the demon out.
I pray for us all to have that "Finally" moment where we get fed up with the status quo, mediocrity, complacency, laziness, the sin that has so many people entangled and we say, "Enough is enough," and we begin to live out loud for Jesus putting our faith into action. The world needs men and women to walk in faith, not afraid of what others might think. Who have a "Finally" moment that leads them to greater living for a greater purpose. It will enhance your life and change your family, work place, church, and community.

Check this Out

A spiritual mentor of mine, Gerry Stoltzfoos, pastor at Freedom Valley Worship Center (where Kaitlyn Brumbaugh goes and Anna Marie will soon go to Masters Commission), made the news when he was asked to pray but was not allowed to use the name of Jesus. He refused. Read the article here.

Sacred Cow

Well, about a week ago I posted on my twitter and Facebook that we were making a big decision at our recent board meeting. I've been wanting to share about that big decision and have not gotten around to it. We decided to cancel Sunday School. It was a big decision. But when you are only averaging 3 kids, we had to do something. After we made this decision, I felt like we had killed a sacred cow.
Now don't get me wrong, I believe that Sunday School is important and that it has served a great purpose in our history and the history of the church in general, but at the same time, I'm wondering if there are better options?
Sunday School requires willing parents. Parents who are willing will bring their child to Sunday School and attend themselves. But it's like that for anything the church does once you turn your life over to Christ. Our church asks you to give up one evening a week and one morning a week to gather together to worship and be discipled. To some, that is asking to much. But I have to wonder if that is asking to little? When I played basketball, I committed to practice six days a week for two hours. And that was only with the team. To get better and develop what I learned at practice, required time on top of that. That is a lot of time into becoming a better basketball player. Shouldn't we want the samething when we think of growing in our walk with the Lord?
Back to the subject, are there better ways than Sunday School? I feel like our Children's Church ministry has grown leaps and bounds in just a few short weeks. We are averaging more kids for Children's Church than for Sunday School and I believe that this is because Children's Church is the new Sunday School. When I was young, I went to Sunday School and then stayed with my parents and listened to the pastor preach. Now days, kids have their own church service that is geared towards them, teaching them the same stuff they would learn in Sunday School. I feel in the long run, our kids are going to grow just the same.
Numbers 21:4-9 talks about the bronze snake. It served its purpose in saving those who were bitten by poisonous snakes. However, it became sacred and the people began to look at it and worship it as a god. God gave it to them for such a time as this time and that was all. After it had done its thing it was useless. But instead of turning to God and seeking Him for continued direction, they held on to the snake and they even give it a name. (Check out 2 Kings 18:4.) And it was a stumbling block until king Hezekiah came along and destroyed it.
I feel like God is shifting our church and our focus so that we can better disciple children, youth, young adults, and adults. I believe we must fall in love with God and obey His command to make disciples and not fall in love with the methods that come along to do it. God will show us what must be done to disciple His children that are drawn to Him by His Spirit and that is awesome.
So let us all fall in love with God and whatever He has for us to disciple His children and not in the methods.

UNITY...

I just read a quote from Johannes Amritzer off of Pastor Jeff Leake's blog. He said that, "Focusing on the harvest will bring unity. Focusing on unity will bring division." After the Mark Cahill outreach I say, "Amen!" to this.
Sometimes I feel like we get so caught up in looking for unity that we fail to see what truly unifies us. And that is the desire to see souls saved. That is why this Charles Spurgeon quote carries a powerful message, "Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that."
If we are all desiring to see souls saved, it shouldn't matter others personalities, their quirks, how loud their voice is, how they laugh, etc. The only thing that should matter is the expansion of God's Kingdom. The disciples were unified in the upper room and the Holy Spirit was poured out on them. This was a supernatural unity that could only be brought on by the Holy Spirit since we all have opinions. But they knew their opinions didn't count. They needed to stay in that upper room till the Lord sent the Holy Spirit so that they could go to preach the gosepl and see souls saved. That was what it was all about.
So think about that as we think about unity. What unifies us? The desire to see souls saved here in Ford City, Kittanning, and all of Armstrong County.

It's a Conversation, Not a Presentation!

After a powerful challenge from Mark Cahill, I knew I had to change the way I walked through my day. If you missed it, Sunday morning he kept clicking his fingers representing seconds gone by. Every second two people die. And by the time you lay your head on the pillow at night, another 150,000 have gone into eternity. He then asked if we cared about those 150,000, and if we did were we willing to do something about it. That something was sharing the good news of Jesus!

He challenged us by saying we can worship God declaring how awesome He is and how wonderful He is, but we don't obey His command to go make disciples. Powerful stuff.

It challenged me because I need to share my faith more often. So today at the YMCA playing basketball, I began a conversation with a man. It was really hot in the gym, so I used that to start a conversation. I said it was hot but not as hot as they say hell is. It lead to a great conversation where he told me he was a born again Christian. Praise the Lord.

I want to grow bolder and bolder by the power of the Holy Spirit everyday. If I want to see great change in Ford City and Kittanning it isn't going to happen inside a building, namely the church. It's going to happen outside the 0hurch on the streets.

Let's all hit the streets. I look forward to hearing testimonies of what God does through us all as we share the love of Christ. Be ready to share this Sunday.