I have seen and heard some interesting material on the definition of church lately (that is a Biblical church). I missed the last blog on this topic, however it is worth the time to rehash. There is no point of having "church" if we don't know what it means. There is a lot of talk about the kinds of churches today (e.i. reformation, seeker sensitive, multi-campus, you name it.), but those are not definitions. So the question is what is church?
I am reading a new book titled "It" by Craig Groeschel the founding and senior pastor if LifeChurch.tv a mutlicampus church that has 13 locations.
During the early days his congregation borrowed a two-car garage with ratty furnishings and second hand audiovisual equipment that frequently went haywire during services. But people were still drawn there. (Sound familiar). Why? They sensed a powerful, life changing force that Groeschel came to call it.
In the preface of the book he writes: “It. Some ministries have it. Some don’t. Most churches want it. Few have it. When a church ha it, everyone can tell. When one doesn't … everyone can tell. It is always unique. It is always powerful. It is always life changing. That’s its upside. It has another side too. It attracts critics. It is controversial. Many people misunderstand it. It’s hard to find but impossible to miss.”
He goes on tell share if you have ever been involved with a ministry that has it, you knew you were apart of something special. I certainly feel CCJ is an "it" church. The it is a place where the Holy Spirit of God is working. You just know that it is a God thing. Because we still many times don’t know what we are doing. We are all flawed human beings. Yet God is working through the ministry of CCJ to transform lives.
I look forward to reading this book more and finding out some of the principles that allows it to work. Hopefully we will come to a greater understanding of how God will keep it alive and growing.
Labels: Spiritual Stuff
On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut and had only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea. With no thought for themselves, they went out every day and night, tirelessly searching for shipwreck victims. Many lives were saved by this wonderful little life-saving station, and so it became famous.
Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and give their time, money, and effort for the support of its work. New lifeboats were bought and new life-saving crews were trained. The little life-saving station grew. Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt a little more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those who were saved from drowning. So they replaced the emergency cots and the emergency beds and put in better furniture. Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely because they used it as a sort of social club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions so they hired lifeboat crews to do the work.
The life-saving motif still prevailed in the club’s decoration and there was a liturgical lifeboat in the room where the club met. About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in loads of cold, wet, half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick and some of them had black skin, and some had yellow skin. The beautiful new clubhouse was considerably messed up, so the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where the victims of the shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside. At the next meeting there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the life-saving activity because it was unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted on life-saving operations as the primary purpose and pointed out they were still called a life-saving station. But they were voted down and told if they wanted to save the lives of shipwreck victims in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station down the coast, which they did. And as the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that occurred in the old and it evolved into a club and yet another life-saving station was founded.
History continued to repeat itself. And if you visit the coast today you find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, and most of the people drown.
Mike W. sent this to me today after hearing the latest from Metallica ("The Day That Never Comes"):
...............................
Think about bands when then start, they have all of this anger built up. Perfect song material
These are the ingredients:
No kids
No wife
No food
No money
No home
Oppressive parent(s) (as needed)
Strange Religious beliefs (to taste)
Cooking instructions: Bake at drunk and stoned for 3-5 years.
You have the perfect Metal Band.
But at time goes on the ingredients get changed.
3 Kids
1 Wife
Buffets
$$$$$
2 Mansions
Parents like you making lots of money
Strange Religious beliefs (to taste)
Cooking instructions: Organically cook at sober and reflective until your late 40s.
One of my new favorite preachers, Matt Chandler (of The Village Church in Texas), has a new blog.
In this post, he details the things that stir his affections for Christ and the things that dull those affections. Some of that stirred his affections were things from "early mornings and hot coffee" to "walks through graveyards" and "The Book of Hebrews." Some that dulled his affections for Christ included "too much time online" to "following sports too closely."
What are some of the things in life that stir your affections for Christ and what are some that dull those affections?
Things have been, well, not too alive, around the blog for a bit. Time for a reading, watching, listening check-up.
What are you currently or recently ...
- Reading
- Watching
- Listening to
"We live as though our life belongs to us, and God gets his own compartment. This, for followers of Jesus, is (backwards). God owns all of life, and worshiping God means we must revolve around him, not he us."
Read more here. It's true. Often not easy, but true.
Labels: Spiritual Stuff
I like looking at stats.
I've had to report to our licensing agency (CCLI) every song we've done from April 1 to September 30 - so, yeah, only one more month-plus to go in my reporting period). I think it can safely be said that we sing a good number and variety of songs at CCJ.
Here's some stats regarding the music we sing together at CCJ.
120: Songs played since April 1 (A.M. Services & 1 Burner Coffeehouse)
71: Total DIFFERENT copyrighted and non-copyrighted songs we've sung since April 1.
57: Number of copyrighted songs we've sung.
31: Songs we have sung only once in the reporting period.
26: Songs we have sung more than once in the period (20 of the multiple-sung songs have been sung 2 times).
14: Public Domain hymns sung not reported to CCLI (some hymns we do are still under copyright so this isn't the total number of hymns, just the total number of non-copyrighted hymns).
13: Songs written, co-written or hymns arranged by Chris Tomlin that we have sung.
5: David Crowder's numbers (Tomlin & Crowder are numbers 1 & 2)
4: Times we've sung "Mighty To Save" and "O, For A Thousand Tongues To Sing" (the most sung songs in this period).
3: Times we've sung "Give Us Clean Hands," "Love the Lord," "Mission's Flame" and "Your Grace Is Enough"
2: Number of times we've played a song written by the guy who sung "Your Cheatin' Heart" (Hank Williams Sr.)
1: Songs written by CCJ'ers that are not reported to CCLI (soon to be 2. I hope we can get this number up in the coming years).
Labels: Stats
I was going through some of my files here at work and came across this from when Jim Priest was collecting items for CCJ's fifth anniversary. This just shows you what God can do from very humble beginnings. (I think you can blow this up to read it by clicking on each image.)
Have you been watching or reading about the Olympics? Some of the stories have been great and some not so great especially about the stabbing incident. The story of Dara Torres has really impressed me. If you haven't read it, I will post it here.
Dara Torres is Taking the Plunge at 41
Don't Let Age Keep You From Your Dreams
By Jason Anderson, Certified Personal Trainer from SparkPeople.com
As the Summer Olympics are beginning, we hear more and more stories about the athletes who are there to compete. Every competitor is special and has an inspiring story of the determination, setbacks, and hard work that got them there. But I can't think of anyone more inspiring to me than Dara Torres. After winning her first Olympic gold medal 24 years ago (she's 41 now), she's come out of retirement twice, won nine Olympic medals, and will compete in Bejing as the first swimmer to quality for five Olympics games.
Being in her 40’s also brings a new set of challenges for this Olympic athlete to contend with. As we age, our bodies need more recovery time after working out, and Torres is no different. She told Glamour magazine (where she was featured as one of "The 11 Greatest Bodies on Earth") that she has to keep her workouts shorter, which means they have to be very intense. And like the rest of us, she struggles with the workouts sometimes. She says there are days when she feels like she is swimming with a piano on her back. Since I am just one year shy of 40 myself, it sounds younger all the time. But to be 41 and an Olympic athlete is very uncommon. The average age on the U.S. Swim team is 22.8 years—Torres has most of them beat by 18 years.
In one TV interview, she talked about stepping onto the blocks to race. She looked at her teammates on her right and left and thought, "I am old enough to be their mom!" And Torres is a mother. During her pregnancy with her now two-year-old daughter, she swam (non-competitively) for fun and to stay in shape. Although retired at the time, she was eager to get come out of retirement yet again. The moment after giving birth, Torres asked her doctor when she could start working out again!
At the U.S. Olympic trials in July 2008, Torres told TIME magazine that she literally nursed her child before jumping on the blocks and racing. There, she set an American record in the 50-meter freestyle and won the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter freestyle race. She swam 2.47 seconds faster than her 1988 Olympic effort as a 20-year-old! Many people say that people get slower with age, and most female athletes reach their peaks before they're 25. Good thing Torres didn’t listen! So What Keeps Torres Going? She told Women's Health that “dreams can’t stop because you’ve hit a certain age or because you’ve had a child.” After winning five medals at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Torres hung up her swimsuit for the second time and took seven years off.
By 2006, she was getting the competitive itch again. By her own admission, racing is embedded in her. She simply loves to compete. Torres could have retired for good after her first, second, or third Olympics but she didn’t. She wanted to pursue the dream. Like other athletes, she has also experienced her share of challenges outside the pool. She has known the heartbreak of two divorces (but is now happily married) and also struggled with bulimia throughout her first two Olympics. Now fully recovered, she admits that she still has to watch out for it. She told Women's Health that depriving herself can lead to problems. Today when she has a craving she goes ahead and eats. But with her level of training, she can afford to splurge a little more often!
How About You?
What limitations have you placed on yourself or allowed others to place on you? Have you used the excuse of age, size, work or parenthood to rob you of achieving something you have always dreamed of? If so, it's never too late. Now you may or may not win Olympic gold but you can get healthy, become fit or lose weight. Where would Torres be if she listened to everyone who told her that she can't? She's living proof that you do not have to give up on your dreams—whatever they may be. In the August 4, 2008 issue of TIME magazine you’ll find Torres on the cover. In the story, she told the writer that she wanted to convey a single idea: She wanted the middle-aged women who look up to her to feel proud of themselves and believe that they could do whatever they set out to do!
Remember, it is never too late to be what you might have been. Believe in yourself and dream big!
Labels: Olympics
Our 24/7 group has really enjoyed going over the “Study Questions” sent out weekly by email. This week we had a great discussion while going over this weeks 6 questions and comments, but # 4 got the most attention.
4. In this passage (Matthew 22:34-40) Jesus lists off three different areas of life in which we are to love God……..our heart, soul and mind
The original text (Deut 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. NIV) says “strength” instead of “mind”. “Strength” is added to the text in Mark 12:29. We were trying to figure out the differences and importance of the four ways listed. It’s an interesting study. Can’t wait to hear the message Sunday!
What questions provoked your thinking?
Labels: sermons