Archive - October, 2009

Worship Confessional: October 25th, 2009

October 25, 2009 in Service schedules, Worship, Worship Confessional with 2 Comments

purp_confessional

We had a great kick-off to our missions emphasis month.  The service had a lot of elements to it, and we actually went over time a bit in both services which we rarely ever do!  It was jam packed!  Today, we centered our theme on influence in our life.  It is easy to talk about missions in a global context, but much harder to put missions into action in your own life and sphere of influence.  We had a neat little twist to the message as well.  Our pastor spoke, but he had a gentleman from his past also speak a bit.  This man had a lot of influence in our pastor’s spiritual life, even though he did not realize it at the time.  Great point to this is that we never know who we are influencing in our life!  On to the set-list!

Operation Christmas Child Promo

  • Forever – Tomlin
  • Glory To God Forever – Fee/Beeching (This was our first time doing this as a church… loved it, and I think the people did too!)
  • Take My Life – Dykes/Havergal

Glenville Happenings (Announcement Video shot this week)

Special – The Lost Get Found (Britt Nicole) Jeri did a great job on this!  Way to go Jeri!

Message (We had a drama and a testimony within the message)

Time of response

Offering (Women of Faith promo video)

Upwards promo video

As I said, it was just a great start for missions emphasis. I am really looking forward to the next few weeks!

This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.

Caption Please…

October 21, 2009 in family, humor with 1 Comment

jayde

I took this at Jaidyn’s birthday party the other day.  My baby is now 4 years old!  What do you think would be a good caption for this?

Catalyst Take-Aways #5

October 20, 2009 in change, leadership, the church with 0 Comments

Ctlyst

Take-away #5 from Chuck Swindoll

“You will have people that worship you and those that criticize you.  Neither deserve much of your time.”

  • The first thing I thought of was a statement I heard in my first ministry; “Praise is like perfume, it smells nice, but you don’t want to drink it!”
  • Praise from people is something we all like to hear, but none of us like to admit.  It is good to get a pat on the back once and a while.  We all need that, and as a leader, I should make sure that I do that regularly.  But, the end results of the day are not how many atta-boys we get, but how many lives are changed.  That is all that matters.  How well we did or did not do is of no consequence.
  • That does not excuse proper preparation.  We need to prepare as if it is the last message we will ever speak or sing.  But the results are up to God, not us.
  • The praise of man can be dangerous, almost intoxicating.  But it means nothing if we are not speaking what God tells us to speak.  We should never prepare a message for the atta-boys!  We should prepare it for life change in people.
  • In the same way, criticism can not the strength out of you.  It can take away any motivation that you have to serve people and make you think that you are making no difference or very little impact for the Kingdom.
  • The difference in critiquing and criticism is this: criticism is based on a preference that someone has and a motivation to make you what that person wants; critiquing is a desire to see someone succeed and become what God wants you to be.  Getting advice and counsel from people is wise.  The wisest man to ever live wrote a lot about getting counsel.
  • We must be careful that we do not base ministry direction on the criticism of people.  We must do what God calls us to do.  It is HIS church, not the critics. (That does not discount wise counsel, but wise counsel does NOT come from someone who constantly criticizes, no matter how much they may give or how much influence they may have.)
  • At the end of the day, we have to answer for our obedience to God’s plan for our life, not the critics plan and not the plan of the person who constantly praises us.

Worship Confessional: October 18th, 2009

October 18, 2009 in Service schedules, the church, Worship, Worship Confessional with 5 Comments

purp_confessional

What a great day to be in God’s House!  We have a TON of people that are sick, but we still had a pretty good attendance in both services today. I am hoping that people get better this week and we can get over all the sickness that has been going around.  Everyone did a great job today!  It is an honor to serve with the team at out church!  Here is the setlist for this week:

Special music – Strong Tower (By Kutlass – Our band did this)

Baptisms – This never gets old!  Love to see people take their first step of obedience!

  • You Never Let Go – Redman/Redman
  • From The Inside Out -  Houston
  • Your Name – Baloche/Packiam

Video Intro to message

Message – “The Storm Before The Calm”

Time of response

Offering

Dismiss

(First service we did Your Name and ‘Tis So Sweet and the special was sung by our pastor’s wife – great job Leslie!)

This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.

Disturbing…

October 17, 2009 in change, church philosophy and methods, the church with 0 Comments

All I know is that I get sick of hearing and seeing stuff like this.  I wish I could apologize to the community this church is located in…

Comments?

Catalyst Take-Aways #4

October 16, 2009 in change, church philosophy and methods, Conference, leadership, the church with 0 Comments

Ctlyst

Take-away #4 from Chuck Swindoll

“Tradition is the living faith of those dead passed down.  Traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living.”

(Yes, another one from Chuck Swindoll!  I have one more from him, as he is such a well of wisdom!)

My thoughts:

  • I think too many people buck tradition because it is tradition and no other reason.  I used to work for a pastor that said,  “tradition is good, if it is good tradition.”
  • I also think too many people hold on to tradition just because it is tradition.  Not all tradition is good.  Just because it was done does not mean it should still be done.
  • When your focus is on Jesus, and helping people take steps towards Jesus, you will hold on to some tradition.  Even if you are a progressive, contemporary church, you will still have some tradition, and you will create your own tradition.  That is not a bad thing.
  • The difference between tradition and traditionalism is where it lies in your worship.
  • Tradition is good when it is used as part of your worship.  Traditionalism is taking tradition and making it the object of your worship.
  • Is does not matter if you use hymns or contemporary music, whether you dress in a suit and tie or wear blue jeans; both extremes can be a focus of traditionalism.
  • The key: Keep your eyes on Jesus and be who God called you to be.  Realize that there are differences.  Learn to celebrate the differences and be glad that those differences allow us to reach different people. And remember, God is the focus of our worship.
  • Use tradition to worship Him, but do not let it become the focus or our worship and turn in to traditionalism.

Catalyst Take-Aways #3

October 15, 2009 in change, church philosophy and methods, commitment and surrender, Conference, leadership with 0 Comments

Ctlyst

Take-away #3 from Chuck Swindoll

“When God wants to do an impossible task, He takes an impossible person and crushes them. Leave room in your life for the crushing”

  • If this is true, then I should welcome the valleys and struggles in my life as opportunities for spiritual growth.
  • It is easy to plan everything so well that we forget to include God and His plan in things. We plan for all kinds of success, but very rarely plan for tough times.  They will come!
  • With this take-away in mind, Chuck also said, “Brokenness and failure are necessary.”  That hurts to hear.  That is not what I want. It is not really what anyone wants.  But we grow more in the hard times than we do the good times.  The good times show us how good we can be.  The times of brokenness allow us to see how good God can be.
  • This also reminds us that God’s way is better than our way.  Our way would be easy, God’s way is never always easy, and often causes great pain.
  • Chuck also said, “It is painful to obey.  You will be giving up your way for the cross.” Man, that is tough to hear, and harder to practice!

Catalyst Take-Aways #2

October 14, 2009 in change, church philosophy and methods, Conference, contentment, leadership, the church with 3 Comments

Ctlyst

Take-away #2 from Rob Bell

“When you live a life of obedience to God, you will not want anybody else’s life“

  • If I am obeying God, and walking the the path that he has set before me, I will not want anyone else’s life.  I will be satisfied knowing that I am doing all that God has called me to do, whether it is in a church of 50 or 5000.
  • When I am living a life of obedience, I will be satisfied with what God has called me to do, and therefore I will not question the motives or seek to criticize someone else for what they are doing in their church or ministry.  I will be content, knowing that God has placed me where I am.
  • Because I will be content, and because I will not criticize other people’s ministries to try and minimize their success (and God’s blessing) and lift up my ministry, I can celebrate with others when they achieve great things for God, and be happy that the Kingdom is being enlarged through their work (and God’s blessing!).
  • This frees me up to be who I am, who God created me to be, and keeps me from trying to be someone else just because of their size and influence.
  • This also will give me a team mentality.  The church down the street is NOT my competition in any way. If they are preaching the Gospel, they are my team mate, and as such, I will do whatever I can to help them reach people as well.

Catalyst Take-Aways #1

October 13, 2009 in change, church philosophy and methods, Conference with 1 Comment

Ctlyst

I spent last week with some of the pastoral staff at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. I have wanted to attend this conference for quite some time, so it was a a blessing to be able to go and learn from so many leaders.  There were many things that struck a cord with me while I was there, so, I thought I would take this week and go over some of the take-aways I had from this meeting.

Take-away #1 from Andy Stanley

“God wants us to be more interested in making His mark than our mark”

  • It is easy to get caught up in trying to build something for our sake rather than God’s sake.  In fact, when we get caught up in building rather than obeying we are missing out on God’s best for our lives and for our church. It is God that builds the church, we are just to walk in obedience to Him as we serve.
  • We should not be concerned about if God is on our side, but rather that we are on God’s side, because His is the only one that matters.
  • Living to make my mark is too small of a thing to give my life to, but God’s mark is worth giving my life to.  No matter how great I am (or think I am), it is but a drop in the bucket compared to the greatness of God!
  • God takes full responsibility for a life wholly devoted to Him.  What a great thought!

I would love to hear some of the take-aways that you got from Catalyst if you attended!  Leave a comment and share!

Worship Confessional: October 11th, 2009

October 12, 2009 in Service schedules, Worship, Worship Confessional with 1 Comment

purp_confessional

I love it when we have days where everything just clicks! Today was one of those days where it just all came together musically as far as execution and participation.  The church sang out very well in our second service.  It was awesome!  Here is the setlist:

  • Friend of God – Gungor/Houghton
  • Everlasting God – Brown/Riley

Greet time

  • Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone – Excell/Giglio/Newton/Rees/Tomlin

Special – One of our guys did his own arrangement of How Great Thou Art.  Great job Justin (and band)

Message – We had a guest speaker today.  Otis Nixdorf, pastor of River of Life Baptist Church spoke for us and did a great job!

Time of response

Offering

  • God You Reign – Brewster/Fieldes
  • Revelation Song – Riddle

This post is also part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.

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