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first off, i’m trying out a new background. i think it’s time for a change. if you like it, let me know. if you don’t, keep your judgmental, narrow-minded opinion to yourself. the management thanks you.
what an awesome day! great experiences…and lessons learned.
before i give you the highlights, i need to remind you of some truth. i don’t obsess with our attendance on sunday mornings. i really don’t. i’ve moved beyond that years ago. god does not evaluate the depth of our discipleship simply by what we do on sunday mornings. i don’t…and won’t…either.
i’ve also moved way beyond the mickey mouse ways we judge and rank and evaluate the worth and value of a church family by looking at it’s size. i don’t…and won’t…measure the importance or success of north point by what happens during an hour on sunday mornings.
with that said, i also know that a full house always feels better. a full house communicates something powerful to new people. a full house inspires me.
a small attendance can effect our attitudes and confidence. a small attendance can cause us to question our worth and value and even our calling. a small attendance almost always insures a smaller offering…and for a church family that doesn’t have a huge emergency fund, a small offering on any given sunday has a huge effect on ministry decisions the very next week.
i was concerned that our attendance was going to be down today. i knew of so many of our family that were gone on vacation or out because of family commitments. i hate admitting this, but my heart was heavy as i woke up on sunday morning…
we started off with a great prayer time. our leadership team takes some time each sunday morning to pray for the service and for our church family at 9:25. you can come and join us in my office anytime.
i walked out of the room with a renewed spirit and a huge confidence that god was completely in control of the morning. i was ready to go!
in spite of all of our vacationing family, attendance was great. in both hours.
hope you have gotten a good taste of rich mullins over the past week. it was pretty cool to hear his music in our building as the services started. what a legacy…
new faces all over the place! gotta get our act together when it comes to helping new people find a way to connect. do you want to join that team?
there are a group of us who have been praying over the past year for god to bring some new people to north point…people with a passion for the lost, a heart for our community, and a commitment to doing ministry a little “outside-the-box”. i think god is in the process of answering that prayer.
my story about being falsely accused (“slanderized”) was a little more painful to re-live than i thought it was going to be.
i am loving this part of james’ letter. so practical. so confrontive. pretty hard to run and hide from the truth.
there are some who say that the value of a sermon can be found in it’s length…if a preacher is really serious about his study and presentation of the word, it needs to be longer. 45, 55, even 60 minutes long. sort of the more is better mentality. i’m not convinced.
there was a time in our past where we never started on time. it was a joke around our church family to talk about “north point time”. i’m pretty proud of the fact that nobody ever brings that up anymore.
i’m pretty sure people would have continued to stay in our building loooong past 1:00 if i hadn’t kicked people out. as it was, i didn’t get home from lunch until nearly 3:00.
speaking of lunch, jason’s deli was pretty good today. the time with friends was even better.
who are you going out to lunch with on sundays? it’s time to get connected!
on a related topic, i’m going to do a little follow-up on a reference i made in my sermon this morning. i told the story of phil aguilar, a thug-herion addict-gang-leader-turned-preacher from back in my old days in so cal. i didn’t really have the time to tell the whole story…and i won’t here either. what i will say is that phil’s ministry, called “set free”, has been blanketed with controversy since it’s beginning, way back in 1982.
the media, the church, the police, and even gangs like the notorious “hell’s angels”, all have differing opinions…judgments…about phil and what “set free” does. i will admit that much of what they do is extremely controversial. but like most things, there are always two sides to most every story. “set free” was, and currently is, a ministry on the edge…trying to reach the most hardened, abused, darkened, deviant, anti-social, and lost souls in our society. extreme jobs sometimes call for extreme measures. that would characterize “set free”.
i’ll let you be the judge. just joking. honestly, this whole story is a perfect example of today’s sermon…the potential harm of slander…the need for biblical and relational accountability…the power of reputation…and the need to let god be god. phil and a few of his biker crew are currently up on assault charges (a brawl with some hell’s angels). he maintains his innocense.
if you’re interested, here’s a link to pastor phil’s myspace. it will give you a look into the heartbeat of their ministry. i am not comfortable with everything they do. way too authoritarian. but from my personal history with urban ministry, i also know that strong leadership is often the key to respect for people who grow up on the streets.
like i said. you be the judge. just not the jury.
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