"Does your church teach people to love other people? What do you think of gays? Other religions? Races? I could never attend a church that teaches that it is ok to hate other people."
What do we need to do to become a church of all nations & races? How do we bridge the gap? Music on the welcome cd isn't enough. We need to invite another church to partner with us. Have their band come play with ours and ours with theirs. Have the bands switch places, have the pastors switch places? We need to talk about it more; we need to get it in front of the congregation and keep it there.
Its true. The only place in America, and most of the world for that matter, that will tolerate segregation is the church. Its openly accepted and participated in freely! What can we do to change this? What needs to happen in the church, in our church, to change this? We need to make folks see it as an issue, educate them; but how? Worship styles are different; teaching styles are different; how do we blend them? Can we? Would that help?
I need to start with my team. It's not ok to change songs because you don't like it... If we want to have a multi-cultural church then we need to start by being multi-cultural...
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Greater Things
"Greater things have yet to come
Greater things are still to be done in this city"
Malachi 3:10"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows."
Are we bringing the whole tithe? Are we allowing Him to bless us beyond meassure? Greater things... Are we watching for them? Waiting for them? Listenning and obeying when He shows them to us and says go?
Malachi 1:10"...nor will I accept an offering from you. "
He wants our best and nothing less. 'Don't bring Me your blemished offerings'
Our BEST...the WHOLE tithe...GREATER THINGS
...
Greater things are still to be done in this city"
Malachi 3:10"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows."
Are we bringing the whole tithe? Are we allowing Him to bless us beyond meassure? Greater things... Are we watching for them? Waiting for them? Listenning and obeying when He shows them to us and says go?
Malachi 1:10"...nor will I accept an offering from you. "
He wants our best and nothing less. 'Don't bring Me your blemished offerings'
Our BEST...the WHOLE tithe...GREATER THINGS
...
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
what is good stewardship?
we have an individual on our team, a true member with a servants heart, that is also an A/V/L contractor. a relatively well know and well respected guy here in VA. he is a member of our church and has offered to design and install the A/V system in our new building at cost. he has already done most of the design and is spec'ing equipment that will serve us well for the long term without breaking the bank today. he's dealing honestly with us and even though he is much smaller than the supply house i normally deal with his prices are competitive. so i have started moving some of our smaller purchases to him; the biggest reason is i have begun to feel lead to do so, he has put in an incredible amount of time designing and spec'ing our new system asking for nothing in return while i continue to purchase most, if not all, of our new equipment from someone else. thee only things i have purchased from him are the items spec'd by him for the new building that we have to purchase now for use while we are still mobile; which has been next to nothing...
that changed this week. i called him & my normal provider a week or two ago and had them both spec and quote a wireless production intercom system for us to use now that can be built on in the future with wired units in our new building. my guy has put some significant time into this, making sure we got the right headsets to go with them, got a system that we could use in-doors with out spending too much money, called the manufacturer several times to check and double check. came back with a reasonable price, one i had expected to pay, so i ordered the system from him this morning. turns out that my normal provider had been out of the office which is why i had not heard back from him yet. he came in $900 cheaper, same base system, don't know about the headsets.
the $900 comes in close to a 1/4 of the cost of this system. i have always purchased from the bigger guy in the past because of the difference in cost and honestly i have felt guilty for doing so because of the time and effort put into designing our new A/V system free of charge to this point and because he is on the team he knows that i am purchasing a considerable amount of equipment from a competitor while he is spending professional time, to include paying his employees for working on our design, while asking for nothing in return.
so what is good stewardship? was i a good steward for investing in a relationship and throwing a team member a little business? or would good stewardship be spending less of His money and potentially damaging our relationship with a member of the body?
what say you?
that changed this week. i called him & my normal provider a week or two ago and had them both spec and quote a wireless production intercom system for us to use now that can be built on in the future with wired units in our new building. my guy has put some significant time into this, making sure we got the right headsets to go with them, got a system that we could use in-doors with out spending too much money, called the manufacturer several times to check and double check. came back with a reasonable price, one i had expected to pay, so i ordered the system from him this morning. turns out that my normal provider had been out of the office which is why i had not heard back from him yet. he came in $900 cheaper, same base system, don't know about the headsets.
the $900 comes in close to a 1/4 of the cost of this system. i have always purchased from the bigger guy in the past because of the difference in cost and honestly i have felt guilty for doing so because of the time and effort put into designing our new A/V system free of charge to this point and because he is on the team he knows that i am purchasing a considerable amount of equipment from a competitor while he is spending professional time, to include paying his employees for working on our design, while asking for nothing in return.
so what is good stewardship? was i a good steward for investing in a relationship and throwing a team member a little business? or would good stewardship be spending less of His money and potentially damaging our relationship with a member of the body?
what say you?
we can do better
3-1-1
we've gotta get out of that rut
big stories II is a good place to start
Abraham & Isaac a drama to tell the story B + 1 at a table in a coffee shop. 'What does he want from me?... He wants to be your #1; first in your life, the pilot(not the co-pilot), more important to you than anything or anyone else.' flip side; God calls Abraham, act out the story intermittently with the conversation at the table. God provides the ram; God provides His Son. He is not asking us to do anything for Him that He has not done for us. How can we apply this to our lives? Practically speaking what does this mean for us in this day & age? How can we evaluate our own lives to determine where we truly stand in our relationship with God? What are we going to do about it...
we've gotta get out of that rut
big stories II is a good place to start
Abraham & Isaac a drama to tell the story B + 1 at a table in a coffee shop. 'What does he want from me?... He wants to be your #1; first in your life, the pilot(not the co-pilot), more important to you than anything or anyone else.' flip side; God calls Abraham, act out the story intermittently with the conversation at the table. God provides the ram; God provides His Son. He is not asking us to do anything for Him that He has not done for us. How can we apply this to our lives? Practically speaking what does this mean for us in this day & age? How can we evaluate our own lives to determine where we truly stand in our relationship with God? What are we going to do about it...
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