Life, Money, Hope Recap

We finished the Life, Money, Hope message series a couple of weeks ago at New Season Church. You will find the messages from the series below. For those wishing to explore these topics further I encourage you to take advantage of the Financial Peace University class we will be offering at New Season beginning next Wednesday June 16th. You can sign up here.

The Basics of Biblical Finance

Breaking the Bondage of Debt

The #1 Myth About Money

Free HTML Newsletter Resource

I stumbled across this free HTML Newsletter resource via the good folks over at the 8 Bit Network. I have already begun using it and it seems to do the job if you have a list under 500 people. I would recommend you try MailChimp for your e-news or event announcement needs.

I have previously used Constant Contact which did the trick as well but of course was a fee based system though I am sure they too have a free or trial component but perhaps not as generous as MailChimp.

You can sign up to start using MailChimp for free here.

Total US Churches No Longer in Decline

According to research by Ed Stetzer from Lifeway Research and Warren Bird more churches were started than closed last year. This is good news though there is more to be done according to this article here to see church planting move from fad to multiplication movement.

I would be interested in the numbers for United Methodism and for the Virginia Conference as to the number of churches started this year versus the number closed.

Here are some highlights from the article:

• "[C]hurch planting is on the mind of North American Christians at unprecedented levels," they (Stetzer and Bird) write.

• That means, church planting must move from being a fad or "the next big thing" to a "passionate pursuit of the lost."

• Another obstacle is getting past the "don't we already have enough churches?" mentality. There may be a hesitancy to having a church planting emphasis because "the thinking seems to be [that] there's a church on every corner and most of them are empty," state the authors, who have led and studied church plants.

• But research shows that new churches fare better when it comes to drawing new people and they have a higher ratio of conversions and baptisms compared to more established churches, according to Viral Churches.

• Ultimately, Stetzer and Bird are hoping to see a multiplication movement, similar to what occurred between 1795 and 1810 among Methodist and Baptist churches. Within that time span, some 3,000 churches were started.

• "If church multiplication like that happened again today, it would be characterized by a 50 percent conversion rate (new believers) and a 50 percent reproduction rate (new churches) sustained for at least three generations of churches," they explain.

Read the full article here.

New Message Series- How Could God Allow Suffering and Evil?

We are beginning brand new series of messages tomorrow at New Season.

Have you ever wondered why God allows bad things to happen? If God is so loving then why doesn’t he just make things good all the time? Come and explore biblical answers to these questions at New Season Church during the upcoming message series “How Could God Allow Suffering and Evil.”

Please join us for worship at 10:30AM on Sundays at the Four Mile Fork Shopping Center (next to Hard Times). Come as you are to discover why there is suffering and evil in our world.

Invite a friend, relative, co-worker or neighbor to this message series by clicking here.

Church Planting and Revitalization Breakfast

I am working on putting together the Church Planting and Revitalization Breakfast at Annual Conference this year. The breakfast is coming together and we are lining up some great speakers again this year. Please find he details below. You can register here.

The Church Planting and Revitalization Breakfast at Annual Conference sponsored by the Church Development Team and Office of Church Development will be Tuesday, June 15, 7 a.m., at the Marriott Waterside. The cost this year is $15.45 and is inclusive. The Church Planting and Revitalization Breakfast is an annual event held at Annual Conference. The breakfast is held to celebrate the ministry of church planting and revitalization across the Virginia Conference. There will be speakers who will talk briefly about works they are currently engaged in by either planting or revitalizing churches. The breakfast is open to all clergy and laity and children are welcome. If you want to hear some dynamic speakers and be inspired by how Christ is working in the Virginia Conference as we seek to begin new faith communities and revitalize existing faith communities, then this breakfast is for you.

The breakfast will include scrambled eggs, skillet potatoes, country bacon, breakfast breads, orange juice, and coffee or tea.

Registration and payment this year is being handled online through the Conference website. Please follow this link.

Plastectomy UPDATE!

This past Sunday a number of people took their credit cards and credit card solicitations and we enjoyed some plastic surgery in the midst of our worship time as we held our plastectomy as part of the Life, Money Hope message series. Each credit card cut and each solicitation shred was a statement of faith that:

All we have comes from God.
God is our provider.
We will have one Lord- and it is not debt.
We will trust God!

So good bye American Distress, Master Fraud, and Discover Bondage and all the other store cards and hello to freedom in Christ as we begin and continue this journey. I am so proud of the people of New Season Church!! Way to Go!!!

Financial Peace University Coming to New Season Church

I am excited to announce that New Season Church will be hosting Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University Class beginning June 16th at 7PM at New Season Church.

If you...

• are sick and tired of being sick and tired when it comes to your finances
• have had a student loan so long you have given it a name like a pet
• want to be done with Master Fraud, Discover Bondage and American Distress
• want to learn biblical principles for managing God's resources
• want to learn how you can do the most fun thing of all with money- give it away

Then...

Sign up for Financial Peace University today. It will change your life. You can sign up here.

100 Holes of Golf- Oh My!

On Monday May 24th I will be playing 100 holes of golf to raise funds for Westview on the James, a camp ministry sponsored by the Ashland District of the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. That's right 100 holes!! For those who have been with me to play 18 holes you know this will be an adventure. I bought a bunch of X out balls the other day for all the balls I will lose because I won't have time to go look for them.

If you desire, you can sponsor me per hole. Example: if you sponsor me 25 cents per hole you would give $25 if I finished all 100 holes. Please use this form to make a pledge. Collection will take place after the golf is played.

You can learn more about Westview on the James here and the awesome things that go on there.

Thanks!

When Can a Miracle be a Miracle?

Some time ago I was at a meeting and someone mentioned the feeding of the 5,000 by Jesus where he multiplied loaves and fishes and there were still a bunch of leftovers. This follower of Jesus mentioned that they preferred to view this event as miraculous because what probably happened was that the people just shared their food. Implicitly, I guess this person was saying that Jesus did not multiply the loaves and fishes.

I wonder why some of us as followers of Jesus just have a hard time accepting that Jesus (God with us), the one through whom all things were created, the one raised from the dead, the only Son of God, the Messiah, the leper cleanser, blind man healer of Galilee can perform miracles? Why is it so hard? Good grief!

Call me a rube, or maybe I did not go to seminary long enough and become sophisticated enough, but if Jesus was who he said he was, if the Bible can be taken with any certainty, then why can't we say that Jesus took some bread and fish and multiplied it to feed five thousand plus? Or, that God parted the Red Sea or any other miracle.

I for one am glad that we can move from the "modern" skepticism of the power of the divine and accept the mystery of God's power and resulting grace.

Plastectomy at New Season Church

On Sunday May 23rd we will be having a plastectomy at New Season Church. No- no one will have any work done on their nose and there won't be any bodily enhancements but what we will do is perform plastic surgery of another kind.

As an affirmation of faith in a God who provides and whose word says "the borrower is slave to the lender" we will be cutting up credit cards during our worship celebration experience. As we cut the card we will be saying that we only want to serve one Master and it is not Master Card but our Master, Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ.
Also, bring your credit card solicitations too and we will put them through the shredder!

I am excited for some plastic surgery at New Season on May 23rd!! We'll provide the scissors.

I Have a Friend Who...Message Series Recap

A couple of weeks ago we finished the I Have a Friend Who... message series. You can find the audio below.

I Have a Friend Who... Isn't Sure About this Whole Resurrection Thing

I Have a Friend Who... Struggles with Doubt

I Have a Friend Who... Struggles with Worry

I Have a Friend Who... Struggles with Guilt and Shame

Subscribe to receive messages at New Season Church via Apple ITunes here.

Saturday of Service

This Saturday is the Saturday of Service at New Season Church. In this season of sacrifice and preparation known as Lent we are preparing for new life in Christ through prayer, fasting, worship and SERVICE at New Season Church. While we strive to demonstrate a lifestyle of service we will be having a time of focused service this Saturday, March 20th. There are a variety of projects to get involved in. If you haven't signed up yet, then go here and do so.

The projects include:

• Helping to plant a summer garden at the Thurman Brisbane Homeless Shelter.
• Assisting Eastland UMC with their Angel Food Ministry.
• SPCA Un Birthday Party (Youth and Children's project).
• Volunteer at the New Season Thrift Store
  

Wild Goose Wrap- Up

A couple of Sundays ago we finished the Wild Goose Chase Series here at New Season Church. Here is the audio for most of the messages. Remember you can always access the audio and text of messages from the "Message" page of our website and you can subscribe to receive the audio via Apple ITunes here.

Cage of Responsibility

Cage of Failure

Cage of Assumptions

Craig Groeschel- Suggestions for my United Methodist Friends

Craig Groeschel, a former United Methodist pastor, and lead pastor at Life Church in Oklahoma was recently asked by a United Methodist leader to give some suggestions for the United Methodist Church. He has done so on his blog. You can find links to the posts below.

In addition to being a dynamic, effective, and thriving church, Life Church, is in my opinion one of the most generous churches in Christendom. Here are Craig's suggestions:

Part 1 On Rethink Church
Part 2 On the Itinerant System
Part 3 On Young Leaders and the Ordination Process
Part 4 On Apportionments
Part 5 On Merging Churches
Part 6 On Parting Ways

You can agree or disagree with Craig's suggestions but they are food for thought! Enjoy!

Sinner Friendly Churches

I am re-reading Sally Morgenthaler's book "Worship Evangelism." I read it pretty early on as we started New Season Church and it helped to form the vision and direction for worship for us. Sally will be coming to Virginia to speak in a couple of weeks and thus why I wanted to brush up on what she wrote.

She talks in one part of her book about "sinner friendly churches." She asks, "How has the church typically responded to people's mistakes, hurt, and pain? Judgment. Guilt. Yet I do not know anyone who wants or needs more of either."

She then goes on I believe right on target to say, "...what most of us desire is truth in the context of God's unconditional love in Christ." She cites the woman caught in adultery in John 8 where Jesus famously told the women he did not condemn her (THE GOSPEL) but go and sin no more (THE LAW). To use Morgenthaler's phrase this was "God's standard in the package of grace."

And that to me is a sinner friendly church- God's standard in the package of grace. It is a place where I and all of my sinner friends can go that is not overly permissive, overly condemning, but instead offers the Gospel (forgiveness, Christ's love) along with God's standard (a call to repentance and holy living). It reminds me of the idea that God accepts us where we are but never leaves us where we are or Martin Luther's rubric for preaching to balance "law and Gospel."

I'LL FIGHT

Here are some words from William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, and former Methodist. I have used these words as part of my devotional life. Maybe you will find them helpful as well. It helps to shake your fist at the devil as you say them, give the devil the middle finger (the Christian kind of course- the raised index finger!), or imagine you are kicking him in the teeth. :)

WHILE WOMEN WEEP, AS THEY DO NOW, I'LL FIGHT;
WHILE LITTLE CHILDREN GO HUNGRY, AS THEY DO NOW, I'LL FIGHT;
WHILE MEN GO TO PRISON, IN AND OUT, IN AND OUT, AS THEY DO NOW, I'LL FIGHT;
WHILE THERE IS A DRUNKARD LEFT, WHILE THERE IS A POOR LOST GIRL ON THE STREETS,
WHILE THERE REMAINS ONE DARK SOUL WITHOUT THE LIGHT OF GOD,
I'LL FIGHT- I'LL FIGHT TO THE EVERY END!
---General William Booth

Wild Goose Chase this Sunday

This Sunday 10:30AM at New Season Church we will be starting a new message series called Wild Goose Chase. You seriously won't want to miss this series if you are interested in becoming all God has wired you to be.




Invite someone to come here.
Watch the series trailer here.
Directions to New Season here.

Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something…

Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.

—Introduction to Wild Goose Chase. Mark Batterson

Haiti- How You Can Help

This note uploaded to Facebook via the author's blog.

Dear New Season Friends,

All of us have witnessed the television images of the destruction in Haiti after the devastating earthquake this week. In these times it is necessary for the church to be the church and step up to be Christ’s hands and feet to a suffering people. Many have asked, “How can I help?” At New Season Church we will be responding to what has happened in Haiti in the following ways:
• Through prayer.
• Through giving.
• Through collecting items for and assembling health kits.
• Through soliciting volunteers to be on work teams that will go to Haiti when it is safe and needed.

You can find information on each of these actions below.

1. Prayer. Please be in prayer for the people of Haiti. Pray for those who have survived, those who mourn, for rescue workers and all affected in any way by this earthquake.

2. Give. Obviously the rescue, clean up and rebuilding will be huge and take human and monetary resources. We will have special offering envelopes in the worship program for Sunday January 17th and January 24th. You may make checks out to the church and put in the envelope so they can be properly designated. You can also give online directly to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) by going to www.umcorhaiti.org. 100% of your giving will go directly to relief efforts- none toward administrative costs.

3. Health Kits. The United Methodist Committee on Relief’s two relief supply warehouses are asking persons to make health kits that will be sent to Haiti. We will begin collecting kits immediately and will coordinate getting them to where they need to go. Simply bring them to church with you. Here is what goes in a Health Kit and how to put one together. It is best is you can put the whole kit together but we will also receive just the items if you are unable to do that. Alternatively, you can also write a check for $12 which is the approximate cost of one health kit.

Place these items inside a sealed one-gallon plastic bag.
1 hand towel (15" x 25" up to 17" x 27", No kitchen towels)
1 washcloth
1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)
1 nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers)
1 bath-size bar of soap (3 oz. and up)
1 toothbrush (single brushes only in original wrapper, No child-size brushes)
6 adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages

Important Kit Assembly Information
All items included in kits must be NEW items.
All emergency kits are carefully planned to make them usable in the greatest number of situations. Since strict rules often govern product entry into international countries, it is important that kits contain only the requested items-nothing more.
Do NOT include any personal notes, money or additional materials in the kits. These things must be painstakingly removed and will delay the shipment.

4. Volunteer in Mission Teams. After the initial rescue efforts have been completed and the long process of clean up and rebuilding happens volunteer teams will be needed to go to Haiti. Persons from New Season interested in serving in this capacity in the future will be connected with teams from other churches and from the region. Please let Pastor Robb know if you are interested in serving in this capacity.

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Here are the first two messages of the Crazy Little Thing Called Love series that we have been doing at New Season Church.

Crazy Cycle

Crazy Respect

You can watch the message trailer below.

Fearless

This note uploaded to Facebook via the author's blog.

They're talking layoffs at work, slowdowns in the economy, flare ups in the Middle East, downturns in the housing market and on and on and on. All these things bring fear to the surface and it can take up a long term lease in our lives. Fear, though, can herd us into prisons and binds us from being who God designed us to be and doing what God calls us to do. Wouldn't it be great to break the chains of fear in our lives?

Imagine your life, wholly untouched by unhealthy angst. What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats? If you could hover a fear magnet over your heart and extract every shaving of dread, insecurity, or doubt, what would remain? Envision a day, just one day where you could trust more and fear less.

Can you imagine a life without fear that binds?

I will be leading one of the Men's Journey Group this semester at New Season Church and we will be studying "Fearless" by Max Lucado. 7 weeks, every other Thursday night at 7PM. If you are ready to replace crippling fear with life giving faith through Jesus Christ then you will want to be here. All men welcome. Sign up here.

Know Your Rhythm

I have been sharing some ways to be good stewards of time in 2010 that I have learned along the way and am working to put into practice.

I have the worst rhythm in the world. I can't clap to a song to save my life. Well, I can if I watch somebody else clap, but then don't ask me to clap and sing at the same time. You get the picture.

But all of us have natural body rhythms that affect how we use our time. For example, some people are morning people (larks), others are evening people (owls). Larks do their best work and are most creative in the morning. Owls do their best work in the evening.

I am a lark. I like to get up early and get the day going before anybody else is up and spend time with God. But when 2PM or 3PM rolls around I am largely useless. I am dragging. This is my body rhythm. In light of this I made a change. Like many, I used to work out in the morning then go to the office. Inevitably, every afternoon I would hit the wall and be less effective. Noticing this I switched my routine and most times go to physically exercise in the afternoon. This allows me to use my best time in the morning and early afternoon before I hit the wall so that I can be most effective and creative.

Don't let your body rhythms control you. You exploit the rhythm.

Delegate

I have been sharing some ways to save time and to be good stewards of our time this new year that I have learned along the way. Like everybody else, I have not arrived but am working to not only to know such principles but put them into practice!

One way to be good stewards of our time is to delegate. This is a huge one and the hardest one for many of us (especially type A personalities). But delegation is a spiritual issue in many ways- remember Moses and his Father in Law Jethro who taught Moses how to delegate lest he burn himself out. Theologically, when we delegate we are admitting we cannot do it all and we are not God! The question when it comes to delegating is "can someone or should someone be doing what I am doing?"

Many of us don't want to let things go because we are afraid it won't get done up to our standard. But, if someone can do it 70% as good as you let it go. When we delegate and give away authority with such delegation we actually free people to use their God given gifts and talents.

I believe leaders always need to be ready to do anything they ask anybody else to do. However, I am learning more and more that the best leadership isn't the leadership that does everything but is leadership that creates opportunities for others to serve so you can focus on your strengths.

The "Not" To Do List

This note was uploaded to Facebook via the author's blog.

Yesterday I began sharing some things I have picked up along the way as time savers and ways to be a good steward over the time God gives and to be organized. I am no expert and have a long way to go but have picked up some of these things a long the way.

Yesterday I shared about the importance of the "to do" list. Some would argue that just as or more important is the "not" to do list. Just like its name suggests these are the things we need to stop doing. These are the things we need to delegate (more on delegating in a later post). These are the things that are time wasters. They might be simple things we are doing at our jobs that somebody else can do or they might be something more serious such as an addiction that needs to be broken.

I find it helpful to keep a running list of "not" to dos that I am actually doing so I can look for ways to stop doing those things. This serves as a reminder. Then from time to time I pray about those things that God would help me to stop or bring someone alongside me who can do what I need to stop better for example.

New Year Time Savers and Strategies

This note was uploaded to Facebook via the author's blog.

In the new year many of us will focus on ways to save time and make better use of our time. How we manage our time is actually an issue of stewardship and is so very important in our fast paced world. Mr. Wesley certainly had some things to say about time management for the people called Methodists and especially for clergy. What I offer is nothing new, nothing earth shattering, just some things I have picked up on along the way that have helped me.

One strategy to make better use of our time is to use the "to do" list. This is a simple list of tasks that need to be done that day, that week, that month. I actually keep two "to do" lists- one long term and one that is daily.

The thing about "to do" lists is if you are not careful they can become overwhelming. You look at all you have to do and say "ugh!" and become paralyzed into inaction. I have found it most helpful to prioritize the "to do" list into the things that absolutely must get done, those things I would like to get done, and those things that I will do if I have extra time. Inevitable, there will be divine interruptions but one way to honor God and make use of the precious time he gives to us is to be organized about our time. One way to do that is through the "to do" list. After all, God is a God of order, not chaos.