Join The Party

I have never noticed someone who was a watching a bunch of people have a great time and said to themselves, "eh, who likes to have fun anymore."People don't want to look at a good time and not join.  As Christians every time we get together as believers it should be a time of celebration and rejoicing because our lord and savior came and freed us from the bondage of sin. Isn't that a glorious thought that our sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and we bear them no more, Praise the Lord! ok so i took that last sentence from a song but we should feel this way, and when we do people that have yet to know Christ see the party and will want to join. Isn't that our mission, to bring people to christ? we should set out to be happier to each other, more encouraging to one another, and most important start showing love to one another because as it says in 1 peter love one another because love covers a multitude of sins. lets start living more fully what we preach about so that others will see how amazing it is to be followers of christ.

FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT FRIDAY @ 630pm

Nothing is Impossible for God (Growing pains)

As a minister I have found that the idea of growth brings concerns, but why? The best example of this would be as a young skinny 12 year old i went through a summer where I grew 7 inches, you hear it right 7 INCHES! In one summer I became the most clumsy lanky and awkward kid, my joints all hurt and it took me a while to get used to and fill into my new size. Growing hurt but soon, I would fill into my body and there were great benefits of being big. I understand that many people enjoy feeling comfortable,especially when it comes to their roles in church or as an employee, or even as a parent or spouse; however in our efforts to stay comfortable we can become complacent. It is easy for us to see something in front of us that seemingly is too daunting for us to overcome, however today I want you to understand that there is nothing too big for God. This can be on many levels, as a Church thinking we can't grow because its too hard or too much work is an example of not having faith in God to work within us. As individuals, coming up with excuses of why we are not good enough to allow God to use you, or why you are not worthy of God's love and forgiveness, can keep you from reaching the relational and  . Ezekiel preached to dry bones and brought new life to his people by allowing God to use him for His glory, Ezekiel had faith in what God was calling him to do and he did it. Where are you at? Are you allowing past failures to keep you away from the future and present successes? Are you allowing the idea of future issues or stressors keep you from even trying to reach your potential? Watch this video clip from the movie "Facing the Giants" I hope that it helps you to be motivated to push harder to give your all and that you may see the Glory God has set for you and that nothing is impossible for God, especially if you give him everything. 

 

Missional Church VS Maintenance Church

I read this in someones blog and i thought it was pretty good, so for all my pastor friends out there check this out or just people in general. Now being the minister at Elk Grove Church of Christ I am striving to get our congregation to think more about how we can reach our community so that more people may know and understand the love that only comes from God.


Missional Church VS Maintenance Chuch


1. In measuring its effectiveness, the maintenance congregation asks, “How many visitors have we attracted?” The missional congregation asks, “How many members have we sent?”

2. When contemplating some form of change, the maintenance congregation says, “If this proves upsetting to any of our members, we won’t do it.” The missional congregation says, “If this will help us bless and touch someone outside of our faith community, we will take the risk and do it.”

3. When thinking about change, the majority of members in a maintenance congregation ask, “How will this affect me?” The majority of members in the missional congregation ask, “Will this help align our activities around the missio dei — the mission of God?”

4. When thinking of its vision for ministry, the maintenance congregation says, “We have to be faithful to our past.” The missional congregation says, “We have to be faithful to our future.”

5. The pastor in the maintenance congregation says to the newcomer, “I’d like to introduce you to some of our members.” In the missional congregation the members say, “We’d like to introduce you to our pastor.”

6. When confronted with a legitimate pastoral concern, the pastor in the maintenance congregation asks, “How can I meet this need?” The pastor in the missional congregation asks, “How can we meet this need?”

7. The maintenance congregation seeks to avoid conflict at any cost (but rarely succeeds). The missional congregation understands that conflict is the price of progress, and is willing to pay the price. It understands that it cannot take everyone with it. This causes some grief, but it does not keep it from doing what needs to be done.

8. The leadership style in the maintenance congregation is primarily managerial, where leaders try to keep everything in order and running smoothly. The leadership style in a missional congregation is primarily transformational, casting a vision of what can be, and marching off the map in order to bring the vision into reality.

9. The maintenance congregation is concerned with their congregation, its organizations and structure, its constitutions and committees. The missional congregation is concerned with the culture, with understanding how secular people think and what makes them tick. It tries to determine their needs and their points of accessibility to the Gospel.

10. When thinking about growth, the maintenance congregations asks, “How many Christians, who aren’t currently members, live within a twenty-minute drive of this church?” The missional congregation asks, “How many unreached people groups live within a twenty-minute drive of this church?”

11. The maintenance congregation looks at the community and asks, “How can we get these people to come to our church?” The missional congregation asks, “How can we go and be engaged with these people?”

12. The maintenance congregation thinks about how to save their congregation. The missional congregation thinks about how to plant new missional communities to extend the Kingdom of God.

Heart of Jesus

Could you imagine if God took over heart for one day how your life would be? Think about it what if God took you where you are at, same body, same job, same family, same life, the only thing that changes is that he is now in control of your heart. What do you think would be different? Would your family think you are different? How about your boss? What about your enemies would they see something different in you? Would you still freak out and stress in traffic situations or when someone cuts you off? God wants to have your heart he wants to lead your life, if you were a car he wants to be the engine that runs you, if you were a computer he would be the hardware and software that makes you function. Basically God wants to be more in your life than someone you talk to on Sundays and Wednesdays. If you are going to call yourself a Christian (which means Christ like) then we need to be striving daily to emulate Him.  If your life would be drastically different if God were in control of your heart maybe that means you haven’t let him truly into your heart yet. In order for God to take the reigns in your life you have to let them go. Max Lucado in his book “Like Jesus” stated “God loves you where you are but he refuses to leave you that way.” God loves us where we are at but he wants so much more out of us he wants us to be like his son. Hear me out on this I know that Jesus is perfect and we are far from that but he did leave us a pretty great example on how to live our lives, and the good news is he had it written into a book so we could read about it. So I guess the first step into living a life more geared like Christ would be to start reading his word more, start praying more, start building a relationship with him more. When I was a boy I wanted desperately to be a famous soccer player, my favorite player back then was a US national team player named Alexi Lalas, part of it was because he had red hair and he was a defender, I too had red hair and I loved playing defense. So what I did was I grew my hair out like him I studied his moves and started to copy him, I started to play like he played. There are many people out there with similar stories Kobe Bryant studied many superstar basketball players like Michael Jordan and copied him to the point his highlights on Sportcenter looked identical to MJ’s. What if we took this same approach to being like Christ? What if we studied the bible examined his life and started to emulate it? Wouldn’t we be better people? Better at our jobs? Better at raising our children? We would have a life that was filled with love and forgiveness. Lets start to take on Jesus and maybe we will start to shed some of the world's ugliness and start sharing the beauty that is Jesus Christ!

Follow me on Twitter

i figure there are sometimes you do not want to read an entire essay to feel blessed, maybe you want a quick pick me up, follow me on twitter my name is @ghavinnc.

Have a blessed day, may God enrich your life and put his had of love on you this week.
Ghavinn

The Joy of the Lord

The Joy of the Lord

          Have you ever realized that Joy comes from the Lord? If this is the case then why is it difficult to see that Joy when we all meet together as a family? I understand that families notoriously have that weird uncle or the black sheep siblings that know how to stir things up especially around the holidays. Do we carry this over to our spiritual lives also? I have noticed more and more during my almost 10 years in ministry now that it seems more people are having to drag themselves to be in the presence of other Christians instead of celebrating it, and running in to see if they can even get a seat because they are so excited to be there.  Could you imagine what the church would be like if everyone had a joy in their heart of longing to be together with one another, after all isn’t that what we are longing for in heaven? I will speak honestly and say that not everyone I worship with I get along with, some I may have a hard time even “liking” but I love them greatly and I have a joy within me that wants to celebrate something that is bigger than us, and my joy is in doing it together. Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say REJOICE!”  

          I was talking to someone I grew up with and they were telling me why they left the faith, they stated that it was getting depressing that every Sunday when they would arrive into the parking lot it seemed as if people were looking as if they would rather be doing anything else than being at church. Imagine if you were someone that didn’t know God or did not have a relationship with him and your first impression of the church were people that didn’t want to be there, it would make you think twice I’m sure.  I have traveled the world and seen many cultures, in one of my journeys I ended up in a small village in Honduras.  This town at one point because of a hurricane was shut off to the rest of the country for over a year, there was nothing coming in or out people had to rely on living off what the land could provide. There were many that still lived in mud houses with thatch roofs and had nothing (at least in the standards of our overly blessed country). When we arrived at the church to worship with the family out there I was overwhelmed with their excitement and connection with Christ. The gathered early and stayed late, they sang with their hearts (not caring of their pitch or tune) and would blow the roof off of the church because they were excited to be there. In this society the Church is the only thing that gives them hope, and through their hope they have such great Joy, even in the hardships and the great poverty they find richness in the word of God and celebrate is as a family. sometimes i feel that the simple and difficult life they have creates in them the desire to be close to the creator because the need the help, and we as a country dont understand poverty and we see church as another person trying to sell us something or another thing taking up our time, we become stagnant and settle for being mediocre unhappy Christians. 

          Questions to end on, what is taking your JOY? Are you always comparing yourself to others, or wanting more in material items, relationships, are you looking for approval,  or are you feeling like you don’t belong? There is joy in Christ but you have to be opened to receiving his love, hope, and spirit… you will be blessed and you will be joyful.  My hope and prayer is that we as Christians can lay aside our personal feelings, our baggage, and our pride at the feet of Jesus so we can have perspective on life and maintain a JOY in him knowing that our futures are so bright because they are illuminated by the holiness of God. May God bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and give you peace!

I will leave you with the lyrics of a great song

The Joy of the Lord

The joy of the Lord
Will be my strength
I will not falter
I will not faint
He is my Shepherd
I am not afraid
The joy of the Lord
Is my strength

The joy of the Lord
The joy of the Lord
The joy of the Lord
Is my strength
Thy joy of the Lord
Will be my strength
He will uphold me
All of my days I am surrounded by mercy
And grace
And the joy of the Lord
Is my strength

The joy of the Lord
Will be my strength
I will not waiver Walking by faith
He will be strong
To deliver me safe
The joy of the Lord
Is my strength