Click the link below to see a few of them from the past.

Bad American Idol Singers

Yesterday at church, we studied Revelation 3:14-22, as a part of our Traits of a Growing Disciple series.  Verses 15-16 in this passage say that lukewarm believers disgust God.  We need to be growing disciples, not self-absorbed, halfhearted believers who have been deceived into thinking we have it all together, when in reality, we are not anywhere near where God wants us to be.

One way to keep from being lukewarm and be a growing disciple is to share God with others.  The goal, of course, is to lead people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, but the path to this does not have to include an in-your-face confrontation.

There are several good ways to reach out to people to open up a door to share the good news of Jesus.  Here are a few:

1) Evangelism – taking the initiative to share the good news of Jesus and the love of God through regular conversations.  These conversations can be:

a) a quick word – like reminding the check out clerk at the grocery store that God loves them as you’re checking out

b) a short conversation – sharing the plan of salvation or your personal testimony about coming to know Christ as Savior with someone that you may, but probably won’t see again, like someone who comes to work on your house, someone in the waiting room of the doctor or mechanic, or the person next to you on a snow ski lift or on a plane.

Gospel tracks are a good way to share the Gospel when you don’t have time for a long conversation.  You can let people know God loves them and has an incredible plan for their life then give them a gospel track that points them to God.   You can read through it with them or leave it with them and ask them to read it when they get a chance.

c) a part of an ongoing relationship – perhaps with a neighbor, a family member, a co-worker, or a person you see regularly at a store, like a waiter, a bank teller or a hairdresser.

I heard about a man who went to share the Gospel with his ailing brother a few weeks ago.  He took a 4 Spiritual Laws gospel track with him and went through it with his brother.  The brother prayed to receive Christ as a result.  The brother died this past week.  Good thing he took the initiative to share when he did.

2) Serving in His name – this is serving others with no expectation of thanks or reward in mind.  You’re simply serving to impact another person by serving in the name of God and showing the love of God.

Examples of this include: taking food to teachers at a school, cutting a single mom’s lawn, visiting a nursing home and reading, talking and/or playing music to the elderly, feeding the homeless/needy at a feeding ministry, etc.

3) Praying for people – this is taking time to pray in person with someone, not just telling them you’ll pray for them later on.  Prayers can be short and simple, but they must be honest, heart-felt and faith-filled.  You’ll be surprised how this simple gesture lifts people up.

Next time you’re at a sit-down restaurant, before you thank God for the food, try asking your waiter or waitress if there is anything you can pray for him/her about and see where it leads.

4) Notes of encouragement – writing a note via text message, email or note card is a significant way to brighten someone’s day, especially if they are going through a difficult time.  Maybe you can share a key Scripture verse with them in your note or write out a short prayer for them.  Everyone needs encouragement and you may be the one that gives them that extra little push that they need to keep moving forward.

5) Intentional acts of kindness – investing time and energy into specific people with the goal of building a relationship that more easily allows you to share the good news of Jesus Christ.  Examples of this could be taking some food to a new neighbor, doing something nice for a co-worker, or helping someone you see a lot with a need that has gone unmet.

Keep your eyes open to opportunities all around you and share God every chance you get.

We got to see Andrea’s grandfather for just a little while before he had to go to his own doctor appt.

All in all it was a fruitful trip — long, but fruitful.

Please pray for Andrea’s grandmother to heal quickly.  Also remember her grandfather, they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary this year, so it’s extra tough for her grandfather during this time.

We’ve had some terrific times in those 17 years.

• I finished grad school and she finished her undergraduate studies, early in our marriage thankfully
• We have three healthy kids
• We have lived in five different cities in two different states
• We’ve served on staff at six churches
• We owned a pull behind camper for a short while and had some really fun camping trips
• We’ve spent our lives trying to serve others and have made a ton of friends in the process
• We finally gave in and got a black lab for the kids (it’s like having another kid)
• We’ve seen many of the students we poured our lives into at various churches continue to follow and serve God faithfully
• God had always provided for our needs and allowed Andrea to stay home with the kids

None of the above things are wildly amazing, but we are thankful for 17 great years of marriage, for our kids, and for the many great friends we’ve made in our years together.  We will continue to follow God’s lead in our lives and trust Him to continue to bless us in the coming years.

We still have another 53+ years to go to break Andrea’s grandparent’s marriage record though, and they’re still adding time to it.

In response to my words of encouragement to these employees, I’ve heard comments like:

“I asked if I could say it and management said I could, but I would have said it anyway.”

“I don’t know why people make a stink about it anyway.  After all, it is a federal holiday.”

and “I don’t say it to people who are obviously Muslim or Jewish.”

Most everybody I’ve talked to thinks the whole political correctness thing over Christmas is stupid.  I’ve had more fun saying those two words this year than every before, haven’t you?

I hope the persecution over saying “Merry Christmas” (although slight in comparison to persectuion around the world) will cause Christians and others to think about the wonderful religious freedoms we enjoy in the U.S.A.  I hope it will also cause them to reflect on the cost of being a Christian.  It’s not fun and fellowships all the time.  Persecution will come at times if we’re truly living a life of bold faith.

God was probably not for either McCain or Obama.  He is, I believe, for what will further His kingdom and encourage believers to be on their knees before Him, seeking to know Him more, pleading for revival and searching for His will on how to impact this world for Him (Matt. 28:18-20; Eph. 2:10; Acts 1:8, among others).  God’s focus is bigger than one person, even if that person is the President of the United States.

Obama ran an excellent campaign; no one can dispute that.  He has massive appeal to many in this nation.  Even those who disagree with im politcally say he is a likeable fellow.   But here’s the thing, despite his appeal, enthusiasm, hope and plans for our nation, he will not be the redemptive agent for this nation or the world because that is not the role of the president and it is not the role of government.  The government should protect freedom and provide an environment of equal opportunity and legal justice, but it will not solve all the problems in the world, no matter how big the government is.

As long as people look to the government to solve the problems, our nation will continue to suffer and decline.  The problems in our nation are inherent within humanity (that is, sin!) and the only solution is salvation through Christ and a renewed mind and heart through the Spirit of God.  The solution can never be legislated.

I believe that the redemptive agent in the world is Christ through the Church and the believers within it not the government or government workers.  Though Expedition Church is still small, we’re already investing in our community and in leaders who are working to make a positive impact on children and families.  We are also encouraging our members to individually invest in the lives of others in our community, not simply rely on the institution of the church to impact people.   As we grow and God provides us opportunities, we will expand our influence for His kingdom on stateside and international levels.

The primary mission of Expedition Church is to help people know and experience God so that together we can impact the world for Jesus Christ.  We’re only one church, but we’re going to do what we can to make the world a better place with the Gospel being proclaimed all the while.  We can’t meet every need, but we’ll do our part.  If every church prayed more and focused more effort outside of its walls, seeking to fulfill its redemptive mission, the world would be a much different place.

Our nation is made up of individuals.  Those individuals combine to form families.  Those families together make communities.  Those communities together make states, which together form a nation.  If our nation is to be truly changed, it will start with a focus on individuals not a nation.  Ask Obama if this is true or not from a political standpoint.  He wil say a resounding, “Yes!!!”  That’s how he won the election.  Individuals coming together to influence families, communities, states and now the nation.  Commercials didn’t win the election for him, individuals did.

That being said, now that we have a new president, whether he was your candidate or not, we have a mandate to pray hard for him and our nation.  I prayed for Obama this morning.  Most of all though, we need to pray for revival in our nation, and take the message of Christ to individuals everywhere we go.  That will change our nation!

Keep the faith.  Point others to the only true Hope, that is Christ.  May believers everywhere be instrumental in taking that Hope to the world around us.

Peace to you all!

Many Christians live as “one day Christians.”  Some are “one day Christians” because one day a week is all these folks give God, and they don’t even give him much of that day.  Some are “one day Christians” because they say “one day” I’ll have more time to give God or “one day” I’ll commit myself wholeheartedly to God or “one day” I’ll get around to doing what I know God has called me to do, but for now, I don’t think I can do it.

The mindset of the “one day” Christian is what has made Christianity so unappealing to the world.  If God is so unimportant to those who call themselves Christians, why would a non-believer want to spend ANY of their already precious and scarce free time pursuing Him?

Our church will have five key program areas that we focus on:
1) Corporate Worship
2) Group Bible Study: children, youth and adult groups
3) Church Ministry Service: various ministries on Sunday mornings and during the week to help the church carry out its mission
4) Community Ministry: taking the Gospel to our community
5) Missions: taking the Gospel beyond our community

All of these are not isolated ministries, however.  We must build them all around the core belief that God wants us to personally know and experience Him every day. That means everything we do must help encourage and enable people to spend personal time with God not only on Sundays, but throughout the week.

We need to encourage individuals and families to pursue God because when we seek Him with all our heart, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:11-13, 2 Chron. 15:2, Matthew 7:7).  As we find Him, we find Life (John 10:10 and 14:6) and Wisdom (Prov. 2:3-5).  God longs for us to spend time with Him and it is through that time with Him that He moves mightily in our lives.

So the question again is,  how can we best maximize what we do on Sundays, to help encourage, motivate and enable people to spend time with God each day of the week, not just on Sundays.

That’s part of what we’ll discuss on Sunday.

Our missions emphasis comes from our vision statement which says, “Expedition Church exists to help people know and experience God so that together we can impact our world for Jesus Christ.”

Our missions emphasis has two aspects to it, the local aspect and the stateside/international aspect, but both will be built around 1) helping people know and experience God and 2) impacting our world for Jesus Christ.

Boiled down this means we want to help people grow in their personal relationship with God through worship, helping people develop spiritual habits, and by being involved in serving and spreading the message of Christ.  Funny thing about serving and sharing the Gospel…these actions not only impact others but they also help the one serving and sharing know and experience God in ways they could not otherwise.  Pretty cool, how that works!
Here are some further details about our local missions emphasis.

Help People Know and Experience God

1) Encourage Development of Personal Spiritual Habits  (especially Bible Study and prayer)

If people are not growing in their personal relationship with God outside the church then they are missing out on the most important part of being a Christian.  That’s why we must focus on this so much.

a. We will work especially hard to help people learn how to effectively read and study the Bible
b. We need to personally distribute Bibles and challenge people to read them
c. Group Bible Studies will be a big part of encouraging consistency of spiritual habits and providing a forum to talk about what God doing in one’s life
2) Provide a list of devotional resources

Several great online devotional resources are…

a)  podcasts through iTunes.  You can subscribe to through iTunes (available for Mac and PC).  Simply go to www.iTunes.com and download iTunes.  Once installed, from the main iTunes menu you can go to the iTunes Store and search for pastor/teachers whose  podcasts you want to hear.

Some great teachers that I really enjoy are:
Francis Chan – pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, CA
James MacDonald – pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel and teacher on Walk in the Word
Andy Stanley, pastor of Northpoint Community Church
Craig Groeschel, pastor of LifeChurch.tv
The Catalyst Podcast

b) www.oneplace.com allows you to search for various ministry website and hear various pastor/teachers

c) www.biblegateway.com has the Bible online in many translations with great search capabilities.

d) www.crosswalk.com also has many online articles and search capabilities

If we depend on God’s power and keep our focus on these areas, we will see lives changed.  As lives are changed, we will see our community and world changed.

3) Offer special spiritual emphases – like camps and retreats

4) Provide opportunities to serve and minister (people grow in unique and powerful ways through serving)

5) Provide opportunities for corporate worship

Locally Impact the World for Jesus Christ

1) Discipleship through groups and one-on-one or one-on-two efforts

2) Evangelism – personally and in groups

3) Serving in the church and in the community

a. Some opportunities to serve in the Church:
Children
Youth
Adults
Tech Team
Hospitality
Set-up/Tear Down
Connections – getting people more involved the church and ministry
Missions coordination

b. Opportunities to serve In the community –   We’ve already served food to the teachers at Cass MS and Cass HS for their parent/teacher conference nights and taken a Moon Walk to Hamilton Crossing Elementary School for their fall festival.

4) Connections ministry  – getting people more involved the church and ministry

5) Supporting and assisting local ministry & evangelism efforts – Like Heaven Skates, a local ministry to skaters, to which we gave $300 last Sunday.

The twelve spies come back with fruit from the land.  The 12 spies initially agree that the land has wonderful fruit, but then 10 of them are scared of the inhabitants of the land because some of them are giants.  Caleb and Joshua are the only spies who believe they should enter the land and take it, based on God’s promise to give them the land and drive out the inhabitants.

Because of the lack of faith of ten of the 12 spies, the entire nation of Israel is punished by God and they will have to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years until all of the rebellious people die off.  Only Jacob and Caleb were allowed to enter into the Promised Land 40 years later.

Here are some points to consider from this story:

1.   Expedition Church has a core value entitled Adventure, believing that God is leading us all along a journey of faith to see His will accomplished through us in our world. He has not called us to sit idly by and learn about Him.  He has called us to follow Him as He leads us into the world to accomplish His will.  This requires a constant close relationship with Him and great faith because He does not reveal to us the entirety of His will to us at once.

2.   There were giants in the Promised Land that needed to be conquered.  There are giants in our land the need to be conquered. Here are a few of them.
a.   Greed and self-serving business practices
b.   Drugs, alcohol, pornography
c.    Crime
d.   Political agendas
e.   Bad spending habits among Americans
f.    Lack of moral compass in many people’s lives and families
g.   Neglected children and broken families

3.   It will take great faith in God to see these giants conquered.

4.   God’s miraculous working among the people in the past should have built more faith in God. This goes to show that faith in God is always a choice, despite what God has done in the past.

5.   It is easy for us to look at the obstacles and ignore God’s promise to bring His will for us to pass, despite the obstacles.  Faith is ALWAYS required to follow God and see His will accomplished through us.

6.   Fear was the driving force behind the response of the 10 spies.  Their lack of faith in God showed what they truly believed about God!   Fear is reigning in our nation right now.  We must remember God is still on His throne and He is ABLE to deliver us and bring about revival in our land.

7.   Numbers 14:18 – If God causes the consequences of sin to reach forward three and four generations, can he also cause the faith of some to reach to future generations?
a.   Numbers 14:24 seems to indicate so: “But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.
b.   I believe our faith today can inspire our children to have greater faith in God.  Our lack of faith will hinder the growth of their faith.

8.   All of the spies were leaders (13:2-3).
a.   If anyone should have had faith it should have been these leaders.
b.   The lack of faith attitudes of the 10 spies negatively influenced the entire nation.

9.   Of the spies…
Two were…                Ten were…
Remembered              Forgotten
Honored                     Despised
Lived                          Died immediately
Were blessed              Were cursed
Had great faith           Had no faith
Spoke truth                Were liars

10.    Our church must be filled with leaders who have great faith.  We must be leaders who are faith filled in the following areas:

a. Spiritual disciplines – Bible study, prayer, worship

b.  Boldness in witness – taking the opportunities to share with those around us and going on mission trips to share the Gospel beyond our community
Eph. 6:19-20- (Paul asking people to pray for his bold witness)  “…and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”

c. Finances and giving

d. Sharing stories of God’s faithfulness as you follow Him
1)  Do you have any of these stories?
a)  If not, you should evaluate your relationship with Him
b) If so, they should compel you to steps of greater faith

We need to be praying that God will show us His will for us as we seek to conquer the giants in our community.  He will be faithful as we keep our faith in Him.
Remember:

Eph. 3:20-21  “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

And

Hebrews 10:23  “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

We got to walk inside a C-5 and got to see all sorts of other jets and helicopters.  We could not have asked for a better weather day.

The Thunderbirds were okay, but they were definitely shown up by the F-22 pilots and Sean Tucker, a stunt plane pilot.  Sean Tucker’s routine was insane!  I don’t have a clue how he was able to keep control with all the spins and dives.  Very intense!

The kids loved it.

Advice if you go in the future: 1) Wear earplugs.  Thankfully we had some.  2) Find a place within one mile of Dobbins to park then walk to the base.  It will be much faster.  Since they did not allow any cars to park at the base, people had to ride buses from White Water, Lockheed and some place called Hanger 5.  We chose White Water.  It took us about 10 minutes to get from White Water to Dobbins, but it took another 45 from the entrance to Dobbins to the time we actually unloaded the bus.

Leaving was worse!!!  There were 2000+ people waiting in lines to board charter buses that were showing up in random order.  I’m amazed that people didn’t begin to riot.  Thankfully we were ahead of most of the crowd (we were about 300th in line) so we got out of there after waiting in line about an hour.  I felt sorry for the poor souls behind us.

It was defintely worth it though.  If you get a chance to go in the future, plan to make a day of it.  We were there three hours, but didn’t get to see nearly all of what we could have seen.  The air demonstrations that we saw were incredible.  I’m sure the others were fantastic also.

I am so thankful for all my friends that were able to attend.  The sad thing is I didn’t get to spend bu a few short minutes with each person.  I was VERY glad to see everyone though.  It was really cool to see folks from several different churches hanging out together and having a good time.  It was a great place for some folks to reconnect after not seeing each other for many month, since various families that used to worship together are now at different churches and don’t see each other as much.

After it was all said and done, and I got home to take a shower, I realized how good my clothes smelled (BBQ is one of my favorite smells).  right then and there, I had an epiphany.  I decided I would create a new cologne with the Pig-n-Pit BBQ scent (in honor of now extinct, but once famous Big Ed’s Pig-n-Pit in Marietta).  I’m going to call it either Porcinity or Bovinity depending on whether it is pork BBQ or beef BBQ.

All in all it was a great birthday weekend.

Last week, we began sponsoring another person overseas, adoption #2.  His name is Ramesh and he is a missionary in northeastern India through Gospel for Asia.

Gospel for Asia is an amazing organization.  Founder K.P. Yohannan, a native of India, was burdened to reach the millions of people in Asian countries who are not Christians, especially in places where Western missionaries cannot go.  God gave him a vision of how to accomplish this.  The vision was to get Westerners, especially Americans, to use part of the wealth that God has blessed them with to support indigenous missionaries on a monthly basis, much like a World Vision sponsorship.

The missionaries go through an intense three-year training to be ready for the difficult and often life-threatening mission field.   Below is a description of their training. God is using the financial support to sustain and enable these foreign missionaries to spread the Gospel, plant churches, and raise up other missionaries.  Click here to watch a video of a missionary named Joseph.  His story is similar to many GFA missionaries.

We are excited to sponsor Ramesh and trust that our financial support and prayers will help reach untold numbers for Christ through his ministry.

GFA Missionary Training summary (from the GFA website)

Gospel for Asia has established 54 Bible colleges in the heart of the 10/40 Window. Currently more than 10,000 students are going through the three-year training program, after which they will go to unreached areas to plant churches.

The training is intense. Their day begins at 5 a.m. The first hour is spent in prayer and meditation on God’s Word. Teaching and practical training take place throughout the remainder of the day. Around 11 p.m. their day ends.

Each Friday evening is set apart for fasting and over two hours of prayer. Every weekend the students go to nearby unreached villages for evangelism. Before the school year ends they will have started dozens of house churches and mission stations through these weekend outreaches. Before they finish their three-year training, each student will have carefully read through the entire Bible at least three times.

The students spend the first Friday of every month in all-night prayer, praying especially for unreached people groups and other nations. Through these times of prayer, the reality of the lost world becomes very close to their hearts. Throughout the three years at the Bible school, each student is given the opportunity to pray for dozens of totally unreached people groups. At the same time each one seeks the Lord’s face as to where He will have them serve after graduation.

• People sharing their faith: Those being scattered because of the persecution, were going out and telling people about Jesus.  It was not only the apostles doing the preaching.  Many people believed because of their witness.  (vv. 19-21)
• Discipleship begins: Because of the great things happening in Antioch, Barnabas was sent from Jerusalem to Antioch to encourage and strengthen the faith and commitments of the believers there.  While he was there, even more people came to faith in Christ (vv. 22-24).
• Ongoing discipleship: Then Barnabas went to find Paul to bring him back to work on discipling the believers in Antioch.   Barnabas and Saul stayed for a whole year discipling people there. (vv.26-27).  I’m sure the discipleship happened in large group settings and smaller settings as the believers met in homes, which was a common practice among believers (Acts 2:42,46).
• Support for suffering believers: A prophet made the people in Antioch aware of a coming famine.  The believers in Antioch took up an offering to support the believers in Judea, which Barnabas and Saul delivered (vv. 28-30).
• Prayer: If you continue on into Acts 12, you see the believers gathering together to pray for Peter (v. 5) who has just been put in jail by Herod.  They fear for his life because John, the brother of James, has just been put to death by Herod (v. 2).  God answers their prayers, Peter is miraculously released, and they are drawn closer together through their intercession for a fellow believer.

Here are some words that describe what we see in these verses.  All of these are important in and through groups for spiritual growth to happen.
Teaching
Evangelism
Relationships
Care in the midst of trials and hard times
Compassion
Encouragement
Spiritual Growth
Salvations
Teamwork
Prayer support

All of the above things happened because believers were following God, making Him known and investing their lives in the lives of others.

When you think about spiritual growth, the thing that helps us grow most, spiritually speaking, is interpersonal relationships that spur us on to grow in Christ-likeness and live our lives fully for Him.  So many people want to be a spiritual hermit – keeping their faith to themselves – and, as a result, they never reach their full potential as a disciple of Christ.  In today’s culture, it’s great to be challenged by what we hear in sermons and what we read in the Bible, but all that we learn from these sources is reinforced and expanded through relationships among groups of believers.

That’s why groups will be such a huge part of what Expedition is all about.  We serve in groups.  We go on mission trips in groups.  We should study the Bible in groups, pray in groups, and care for each other in groups.  Relationships in these various groups allow us to sharpen one another (Proverbs 27:17), and encourage one another to hold on to our faith, and also spur one another on to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:23-25).  As we do these things, we will see spiritual growth and an ever increasing impact for Christ in the world.

In my last post, I stated that I told some employees at a local restaurant that I’m an eternity consultant.  Well, here, as Paul Harvey says, is the rest of the story…

I eat out at a lot of restaurants.  Not because Andrea is a lousy cook (she is actually a fantastic cook), but because meet people a lot and conversations are always better when you’re eating.  I try to frequent the same restaurants because I can get to know the employees, which leads to friendships, which may lead to deeper conversations at some point.

So at the restaurant mentioned above, I have been able to get to know the owner and several of the employees.  That particular day, when the two guys asked me what I did for a living, I ended up telling them I was a pastor and was able to share a short presentation of the Gospel.

The next week, I was able to talk to one of the guys. I’ll call him William (not his real name).  I talked to William for a few minutes then gave him a gospel tract for him to read and I told him I’d like to meet up with him in a week or so to discuss his thoughts on the tract.  We scheduled to meet the following Wednesday to talk on one of his breaks.

I had a great discussion with William the following week.  He told me all about his background, dad who abandoned the family, getting in trouble a lot as a kid, bored in school because it was not challenging enough, etc.  I was able to go through the Gospel with him more thoroughly.  I asked him if there was any good reason to not put his faith in Christ right then and there.  He said, “anything I could say would just be an excuse.”  But he did not trust Christ as Savior for some reason.

Last week as we were talking, the topic of work ethic came up and that led to a discussion of “how good is good enough” in relation to his perfectionistic personality.  It was a God-thing that the conversation ended up there because I had in my back pocket a copy of Andy Stanley’s book, How Good Is Good Enough.   I gave it to him to read so we can discuss it.  I’ll meet him again this week.

I pray that God will impress on his heart his need for Christ to the point that he cannot rest until he crosses that line of faith.

Keep your eyes open.  God is working around you too.  He wants you to join with him to point and lead people to Him.

I shared with him some of my thoughts and insights from 12 years of doing student ministry, but what I emphasized most to him was that students do not need another best friend. If the youth pastor is simply a “best friend” type, then the student ministry is just a glorified babysitting service. He must be a friend to students, but that is what he should be to anyone. His role as youth pastor is far above the level of friend. Students need their youth pastor to be a mentor and a model.

As a mentor, the student pastor must realize his job is to move students toward fulfilling their God-given potential. He must cast a compelling vision that will motivate students to want to live a life fully sold-out to God and he must give them opportunities to live out their faith. His job is to help students become the disciples of Christ that God intends them to be. Though the youth pastor cannot mentor everyone personally, he must lead the discipleship charge and the missions mandate. He sets the tone of the ministry for all the students and adult leaders.

As a model, he realizes that students, parents, adult leaders and others are watching. He is called to a higher level of accountability in all things because he is in the spotlight. His life has the potential to inspire people to steps of greater and greater faith and Christ-likeness, but it can also have the opposite effect.

Being a mentor and a model is not just for youth pastors though; it’s for all of us.

I am going to be talking to this former student of mine regularly, seeking to be a mentor to him in the coming days. As for modeling a life of faith, I realize this student and many others are watching, even if it’s from a distance. Here’s a quote from a guy I have only been able to spend a little time with, but he’s been watching me.

I feel like God is leading me to jump out in faith (you taught me a little about that just by watching your story unfold)…. Thanks for the prayers and the encouragement. it means a lot! and thank you for being such a good friend and mentor. God has taught me so much through you and you didn’t even know…thank you for being so committed to serving and trusting Him.

Who are you mentoring? Find a couple of people who are not as far along as you and pour some time and energy into them. A little bit of time and wisdom goes a long way.

And who is watching you? Let me give you a hint… if you’re an average person, hundreds of people are watchng you. If you’re in the spotlight, the number may be thousands or tens of thousands.

Make your life count!

Though I’ve heard and even taught on a similar subject, it is always good to be challenged to re-evaluate our current lifestyle and priorities.

I recently read a book by Andy Stanley, entitled Choosing To Cheat. Stanley’s point in the book is that we live in a world where we’re torn between the priorities of work and family, but we choose which one gets cheated by how we allocate our time. There is only so much time in a day, so we must wisely choose how our time is spent because our days turn into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. What we invest in now, is what we will reap down the road.

Five, ten, twenty years down the line, when we look back through the years, we all want to have no regrets. That’s why it is important to ask questions like, “If I only had one month to live, how would I live differently?”

Here’s one of my favorite quotes on the subject of time:

“Every moment comes to you pregnant with divine purpose; time being so precious that God deals it out only second by second. Once it leaves your hands and your power to do with it as you please, it plunges into eternity, to remain forever what you made it.” – Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Here’s God’s Word on the subject of time:

Ephesians 5:15-17 says, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”

Take some time to evaluate your priorities and time allocation. I’m trying to spend more time praying and more time with my wife and kids. What do you adjustments do you need to make?

Our church web address is: www.expeditionchurch.org.

Here are some prayer requests for the new church:

1) Pray for us to be sensitive to God’s leadership in all aspects of planting this church

2) Pray for God to direct us to the facility He wants us to use for the rest of the year with the Launch Team and children who are involved. We’re currently meeting in someone’s home.

3) Pray for God to provide us a permanent facility to meet in once we “go live” each week with public worship in March, 2009.

4) Pray for God to provide the resources we need to get things up and running.

5) Pray for us to know God’s strategy for discipleship and outreach in this community.

For those who want to contribute to Expedition Church, you can send checks made out to “Expedition Church.”  Our mailing address is: PO Box 200596, Cartersville, GA  30120.

All contributions are tax deductible and contributors will receive an annual giving statement after the first of the year.  Please make sure your correct mailing address is included with any contributions sent to the church.

As a side note, we are going to give away 20% of undesignated offerings.   This money will go to support missions locally and around the world, missionaries, church planting efforts, and other things that promote the spread of the Gospel.  It’s pretty cool to think that part of each one of these contributed dollars will have impact outside of our church.

Second, was the fact that this church has its own distinctive personality. There were lots of trucks and several really nice Harleys in the parking lot, the music had a country-western flavor to it, but it was solid – the main worship leader had a powerful voice and the band was really good. The pastor is a kind, salt of the earth, love on ya – but tell it like it is, sort of guy. He gave a strong message on something or other. Just kidding; he spoke on forgiveness. There was no rush to the service and people seemed to be enjoying themselves. There were a lot of people there too – close to 300 I’d guess, in the second service.

They are definitely impacting a segment of Bartow County that needs to be reached and they seem to be doing a really good job at connecting people with God and each other.

I think it is unfortunate when a church body thinks it has to be just like another church in another place. I think it is impossible for this to be a real success because no two towns are exactly the same and certainly no two pastors are exactly the same. Even churches in the same town should not try to be exactly like one another. God has a distinct purpose for each church and each pastor has a distinctive style.

Churches need to strive to be who God has called them to be, but this only comes by spending time seeking God’s will for that local church and then following His lead.

So I give kudos to Pastor Jim for leading his church to be who God has called them to be. May God continue to bless their efforts!

After the game we hung out in the parking lot and let the kids do some sparklers while the traffic dissipated.

It was good hanging out with lots of old friends for the evening.

When God released us from our ministry at Cartersville First Baptist, we sensed God telling us to sell our house. We had a contract on it within two weeks. We were ready to go anywhere that God led us. The only direction we had at that point was knowing that God wanted me serving in a position of greater influence in the life of a local church – an associate pastor type role.

As we prayed about where we would go, we did not sense God leading us to leave Bartow County, so we began looking for houses in the central and north part of the county and waiting for God to show us what to do ministry-wise. We closed on our old house and our new house the last week of January, 2006. By this time we knew we were being led to help start Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, but we didn’t know when we’d actually leave CFBC to join the new church plant. God had not given me an exact time to turn in my resignation, so I waited and prayed.

On Super Bowl weekend, 2006, God was speaking to me all weekend, telling me to have my resignation ready to turn in on Monday. I followed God’s lead and resigned after staff meeting on Monday.

As we headed out to help start the new church, I had no promise of a salary and no idea when it might even begin. The new church would not hold its first public worship service for another seven months and no place had even been secured to start the church. There was no guarantee of success, but we knew God would take care of us.

I sent out a slew of support letters asking folks for prayer and financial support. I know there are more people praying for me and my family than I know about, but I send out an update email periodically to 117 folks currently. Their prayers for me and my family have sustained us and helped us determine God’s plans for us throughout the past two years and a half years. There are also 53 couples or individuals who have sacrificed financially to help support us during our time at Oak Leaf. We started off living on total support for several months then the church salary gradually kicked in. As I finished up my time at Oak Leaf, one third of my salary came from support that friends and family sent in. AMAZING! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!! You each played a significant part in what God did in my life and in my family’s life, but also in the lives of people impacted through the ministry of Oak Leaf during the time I was there.

Now we’re on the threshold of another adventure starting a church in the north part of Bartow County and we’re just waiting to see how God provides. Once again, we have no guarantee of success, no idea where my salary is going go come from, and no idea how we’re going to secure all the gear we need to start this church.

We’re starting a Launch Team in July and plan on beginning weekly worship services sometime between January 11 and April 12 (Easter), 2009.

If you’d like to be a part of launching Expedition Church or supporting this endeavor through prayer and/or finances, please contact me by leaving a comment on this blog or the church blog and I’ll forward you some information.