Purpose Driven Life Health Assessment

I think it’s good to take these once and a while.  Click here for the test.

Did you do better or worse than you expected?  Honestly, I’m lacking in a few places and I expected that.  I think we are always in a position to improve.  One of my self admitted short comings is that it’s tough for me as leader keep the ‘blinders’ off.  By that I mean that I have a tendency to focus in on certain aspects of the ministry that I enjoy the most or do the best when in reality each is equally important.

No Work @ the YMCA Tomorrow

For all of those who volunteered for work at the YMCA tomorrow, our work day has been postponed.  Stay tuned here for further info and dates.  We’ll also be making announcements this Sunday when to anticipate our move back to the Y.

Challenges

Just some food for thought from me today…

Everyone faces challenges in life.  Some challenges are small, some large.  Some even appear devastatingly impossible to attempt, much less overcome.  A simple question to any Christ follower would be this.  How do you face your challenges?  Do you face them head on with faith and hope or with bitterness and despair?  Maybe that’s an easy one to answer at this point if everything is quiet on the home-front.

One of the books that I’m reading right now is Twelve Ordinary Men, by John McArthur.  I’m learning a lot about myself through learning about the lives of Jesus’ Disciples.  Compared to those guys I’m learning that my challenges in life thus far have been pretty insignificant on the overall radar, so to speak.  However, I pray that my faith would always remain strong and my passion for Jesus and the ministry continue to grow when those tougher challenges do pop up.  With God, there’s always a purpose even in struggles…especially the struggles.  I hope I don’t lose sight of that fact in the midst of those struggles.

Read Romans 8:28-39.  Just a little confirmation.  It says in EVERYTHING God works for the good of those who love Him.  That means the good AND the (seemingly) bad.  Now being reminded of that scripture, I’ll ask again…how do you face your challenges?

Personally speaking, my family is currently going through the struggle of losing my very dear uncle to cancer.  However, I can’t help but see some of the very cool ways in which God is already working in this tragedy.  More on this personal matter later…

Weekend Recap

What a weekend!

On Friday, I took half of the day off from work and spent it with my wife.  We had lunch and an afternoon of shopping without Jacob.  It felt like a date…it was wonderful!  We love our son, but we both admit to the fact that we don’t spend enough “alone” time together.  We’re working on that though.  The one thing I did learn on Friday is that I will never ask for Julie to buy me gifts BEFORE Christmas ever again.  The amount of money you can save on shopping the following weeks is incredible!!  Trust me when I say that I’m not cheap, just frugal.  I don’t like to waste money.

Saturday was a day spent at the Ellis house doing some long overdue chores and cleaning.  Enough said there.

Sunday at the UC was great!  Talk about a spirit moving, soul convicting service…if there ever was one, that was it.  I would say that it was one of the best yet for the year we’ve been in business.  The worship with Erica Hastings playing the Cello was off the chain!  (I’ve been wanting to use that phrase).  Dave Sims and the entire group did a fantastic job.  Joe followed up with the “in your face” truth about compassion.  God showed up and knocked one out of the park!

For the coming week, we’re still finishing the final details of moving and getting resettled back at the YMCA of Bellevue.  We’ll start work on the storage building this coming Saturday morning (1/26) at 8 am.  Stay tuned for more info.

It Snowed

I’ll bet you can’t find a gallon of milk or loaf of bread within a 50 mile radius today.

God Doesn’t Need ‘Superstars’

There are so many of us that sit around and wait for some defining moment in our walk with Christ to get in the game.  I can say this because I confess that very same problem from years ago.  After Julie and I got married, we spent the better part of first years together doing squat for the Lord.  That’s right…squat, meaning nothing, zilch, z-e-r-o.  My excuses for not getting involved varied from being an unsatisfied church-shopper to a feeling totally inadequate as a Christ follower.  I’ll admit it.  I was lazy and didn’t feel like I had much to offer.

Maybe you’re in the same boat.  So, answer a few questions.  Are you perfect?  Do you lead a flawless life?  Are you a religious scholar?  Have you served in a position of leadership at a respected religious institution?  Do you have complete spiritual understanding of God and the Bible?  Are you a successful individual that has a lot to offer God?  If you answered ‘NO’ to any of those questions, then GREAT!!! 

What? 

That’s right, I said GREAT!!!  You are ready to become a disciple of Christ. 

Am I nuts?  What do I mean by this?  If we look at the Bible, when the twelve disciples were chosen, they were not considered credible, even in that time.  These guys were not very bright, self centered, full of pride, seen as lower class, and lacking in many areas.  There was nothing really appealing about them.  They wouldn’t even stand out in a crowd.  Yet Jesus took these very ordinary, dull, non-religious, and unintelligent men and began to work with them.  For the better part of a couple of years, He molded these dudes into some serious Jesus Freaks.  And after Jesus left this earth, these guys started a revolution that continues on this very day. 

What I’m basically trying to say is that Jesus took nothing and made it into something.  A very big something.  We tend to look at the disciples as these larger than life and ‘holier than thou’ type individuals.  But in reality, they we’re just regular old, run of the mill dudes.  Nothing special or outstanding at all.  It was only because of Jesus and the Holy Spirit did they do great things.

1 Corinthians 1:27 - But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

As always, God went against the grain of conventional, worldly thinking.  He took the what appeared to be a foolish investment in twelve regular guys, and built His church.  He used some of the weakest of this world to display His perfect strength. 

Like I said in the beginning, God doesn’t need superstars.  Don’t feel like you have to be some spiritual athlete to simply get in the game.  Don’t be fooled into thinking you have nothing to offer.  As with the twelve, there are no prerequisites or formal training needed for Jesus to be able to use you.  He doesn’t need anything you have other than you.  On top of that, He’ll teach you all you need to know.  Never forget what Jesus originally had to work with in His disciples.  Let that be a simple reminder of what He wants to do with you.

Skillet

I listen to various types of music.  Right now I have Comatose by Skillet in the CD player of my truck.  It’s definitely the harder end of the spectrum for Christian music but I love it.  People probably get a kick out of watching me rock out in the truck.  The CD was a Christmas present to Julie, but I’ve managed to ‘borrow’ it for a while.

They’re playing the Sommet Center in Nashville this March.  We just might have to go.

Bowling with the guys

Well, last night was a lot of fun to say the least.  Lincoln, Andy, and I went the Strike-N-Spare to bowl a few games and just hang out. 

Over the weekend, I specifically remember Lincoln saying how he wasn’t that good and that he only played for fun, yada, yada, yada.  Yeah, this was before his five consecutive strikes during the first game.  Anyway, Lincoln had the ’spin’ working in his favor where as my strategy is to pick a very heavy ball and bowl so hard that enough collision action is created to knock all the pins down by force.  Sometimes it works, sometimes not.  Didn’t matter much though because I was getting spanked!

You see, one thing about me is that I’m very competitive.  It doesn’t matter if your young, male, old, female, or even an old female, I like to win or at least be competitive.  (In fact, there was a women’s league in session there last night at the Strike-N-Spare and I was trying to see how good they were…funny, huh?)  I may not show it outwardly, but in my head that’s what I’m thinking.  I’m also very hard on myself If I don’t play well no matter what the sport is.  Just ask my wife, it drives her crazy.

In the end, it was lots of fun.  Can wait to do it again.  Thanks guys!

Connect Groups

As we continue to move forward into the new year, I want to encourage everyone who is not already involved in Connect Groups to find out what your missing.  These groups are great way to grow in Christ, make new friends, and get more connected with the church.

Real quick…let’s take a look at the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).  Yes, we are to be focused on people so that they establish that relationship with Christ, but we also are intent that people grow in Christ as well.  In fact, I read this from another blog this morning that “God didn’t call us to make Christians, he called us to make disciples.”  Absolutely.  God used the word ‘disciple’ intentionally.  As a disciple (meaning student), you and I should be studying.  We are people called to help lead people to Christ AND grow in Christ.

Especially if your a Christian and you’re not growing, you probably feel that very fact deep down inside.  If you’re not sure whether you are or not…my bet is your probably not.  So, with that being said, 1) get into the word, 2) strive for growth to be more like Jesus, and 3) get in a Connect Group to grow even more and help others grow as well.

Did I say the word ‘grow’ enough?

Headed Back Home…

In cleaning up and clearing out some of the files on my computer, I’ve come across photos from the night before our practice service about this same time last year.  I can remember being so excited about the launch and the reality of actually starting what had been in planning for almost a year at that time. 

As the UC approaches it’s first birthday, I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am (again) about moving back to the Bellevue YMCA in just a few weeks.  We still have plenty to plan out as it pertains to the physical ‘move’, but overall I’m just plain pumped about it.  One of the coolest aspects of our relationship with the YMCA is that they want us back.  That in itself is very encouraging.

As it stands, we will move our equipment out of the Bellevue 12 Regal Cinema on January 27th.  If possible, please make plans to help load and/or unload that day after the service is over.  Any and all assistance will be greatly appreciated.  Also, we are searching for more volunteers to help set up for less than one hour on Sunday mornings (that’s right!!!…..no Saturday night setup!).  Please contact me at jonathan@uprisingchurch.com if you are interested in serving in that fashion.  Again, you can volunteer for as little or as many days that you would like.

You know the old saying…’you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.’  Well, if the applause from our church congregation for the past three weeks has been an indicator, it appears that more than just a few of us are happy to be headed home again.