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i don’t know why i care but it seems that baptist are shooting themselves in the foot again with the issue of signing a “loyalty”, “purity” whatever document to keep their positions at shorter university…

our church had an outreach event before Easter. we all wore our t-shirts…a lady walked up to me and said, “well tell me about your church…she took a look at my t-shirt that said, “GracePointe Marietta Baptist Church” and she then immediately said, “nevermind you’re not my kind of church.” well i wouldn’t let that go and engaged her in conversation as much as she would…but in one brief instance she judged us…and i know that is her problem…but it is also ours…when we allow one word and one reputation keep someone from hearing the gospel… and things like what is happening at shorter is the reason…

if you ask me perhaps instead of worrying about a professor having a drink or dancing maybe the loyalty oath ought to ask are you living up to Galatians 5…”the acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkeness, orgies and the like. I warn you that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

so maybe we ought to ask them will you sign a pledge:
will you live a sexually pure life, leave students alone, stay away from pornography, keep your spouse your primary focus and satisfy his or her sexual needs, will you keep you focus on the family and not neglect your kids and wife to promote yourself,
will you pledge not to go into a rage at your spouse and children, and publicly honor other people without anger as the cashiers at walmart
will you promise to live in unity with the body of Christ and not cause dissensions, factions, and jealousy, and not promote yourself above the needs of others
will you promise to attend a church that doesn’t practice hatred and that doesn’t discriminate against other races (this maybe a pledge the entire gbc ought to sign as there are still churches that exclude African Americans still in good standing with gbc)
will you worship God and Jesus passionately and withhold from worshipping any idols
will you not envy the possessions, gifts and talents of others
and oh yeah, if you decide to have a drink, stay in control of the Holy Spirit and not get drunk and don’t supply alcohol to underage students…
and, then that stuff about thinking pure thoughts in Philippians, and controlling your tongue in James, and

why do we single out our pet sin, somewhere in scripture it says something about taking the full counsel of God…

i am a certified baptist, baptized, educated, ordained, and committed to the cooperative program as a great way to do missions, and i know there must be standards, but we are supposedly a “royal priesthood” if you hire the right kind of people you don’t have to coerce them to sign a “loyalty oath” ….trust God folks, trust God…

this past weekend…a tornado ripped through the community i live in…in fact it hit the school that WRC uses as a multi-site…one of the homes destroyed was of a young man and his family that was a part of the church i planted in the 90′s…so it hit home pretty close…when it was coming through the area my wife and i could hear the roar from a distance…we were never in trouble, although for the first time we did head to the basement…after hearing the roar…

on saturday the wife and i and dozens, no hundreds of volunteers swarmed the area to do what we could…of course there were the gawkers but the police established a perimeter and soon controlled that…but here is my ultimate point in all of this…

within a few hours of dawn some of the local churches had equipment, volunteers, and relief supplies at the ready…WRC had dumpsters on the corners before lunch…peole were being fed by some churches, the community came together…but one thing i noticed from this was that these churches were staff led churches…they didn’t have to gather committees and vote on whether the money could be spent, what fund it came out of…

advice: create a budget that is flexible to meet emergency needs in the community…have staff that you trust to administer those funds and sometimes maybe switch some priorities around when needed…

i know some of you will ask about accountability…the staff is always accountable because there are boards that can fire anybody…and there are parameters that safeguard the church…but if you have to gather a team in a crisis just realize you probably are going to be left out when the community needs you…

preparing sermon…looking ahead at sermons in the series…preparing for the future series…looking at a preaching calendar…think i’ve got a theme going here…

looked at and discussed some ministy opportunities in the area…discussed some ministry opportunities for church and community…

joined a business association in the area went to first meeting…interesting…even met a friend there that i haven’t seen in a while…

prepared a bible study for Wednesday evening…Wednesday evening…bible study and prayer…

prepared and planned for a Saturday morning staff meeting…

discussed joining a pastor’s group for coaching…networking…support…etc…met with a group of guys for about 2 years when i was a senior pastor the last time and i really enjoyed it…i’m gonna try it out but most of the guys are really young…and i’m on the oldish end of ministry…maybe one of the young guys will nudge me in the ribs when i go to sleep…

met with a building and grounds team…great group of guys…but it reminds me that having a building means a lot of responsibilities…having an old building, even more responsibility…seems you can’t keep up with the things that need fixin’…

did some planning on this summer’s adult mission trip…need about $12,000…want to contribute: GracePointe Alaska Mission Trip, GracePointe Church, 505 Atlanta St, Marietta, 30060…send me your address and i’ll send you a picture of a mooose if i see one… this will be the first adult mission team from this church ever… 8 committed to go…gonna be a fun team…

i’m loving being a pastor again…love that my day changes from hour to hour some days…i don’t know that i’ve got add or adhd, or today maybe i’d be on that autism scale they put every kid in elementary on nowadays…but anyway i sure like the variety of tasks, leadership responsibility, and communicating…

i know this…Jesus said, “I’ll build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail…” we’re beginning to get the battle in the streets, it will not be won in my office or the sanctuary… got plans for the summer and fall that will move us into the battle even more…can’t wait…we’re praying Jesus build!

shakespeare “a rose is a rose, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet…” or so i hear, must admit never read much shakespeare, never seen it on stage, and just one of his movies, if you know what i mean…

i hate to get mixed up in the controversy but i keep reading on people’s facebook pages how the southern baptist do not need to consider a name change…and i promise this will be my only comments on the subject…one because it’s a ridiculous fight if you ask me…and fought mostly (not all) by people who have not traveled much in the mission world…last week Rainer posted results of a survey and the negative attitudes about sbc in the nation…it was not a surprising result, except sbc has a better name in the midwest than the south, it is terrible in the north and west…

so reason number one…the negative attitudes that exist in the nation toward just the mention of the name…i believe somewhere in scripture it says that Paul became all things to all men that he might win some…i think we have forgotten that admonition…

two…it’s about theology…if we were as careful to protect doctrine as we were a name we’d be much better off…the resurgence in the 70′s and 80′s was about doctrine not a name…i doubt notables such as A. Rogers, P. Patterson, and C. Stanley would have taken such huge stands on the name of the denomination and fought so hard…

three…it’s about cooperation…if we can agree on our basic belief’s and a brother can agree to cooperate why should we care what he calls his church (well with the exception of another denomination)…it’s about missions…theology…practice…not a name

four…i’m really gonna upset some people with this one…but i really am starting to believe that this is an issue like the stars and bars “rebel” flag…we’re still fighting the battle of the war between the states…folks, the south lost, it’s time to give it up…would we be so tolerant of Germans and Japanese if they continued to hold forth their heritage of the swashtika and the rising sun…i think not…i’m proud i’m from the south…i love our traditions, politeness, our character, our accents, our pick-ups, i even still believe in states rights, but folks it’s time to give it up, the war was fought and it was determined that states could not secede as they wanted, so now we need to be one nation…maybe we need a denominational name that reflects that….

five, which will make you even madder…the sbc was formed because of slavery and our rejection of the northern baptist churches denunciations of slavery and abolitionists stance…in 1996 at the convention we even brought some Af-Am leaders on stage and made a formal apology, the only denomination to do so by the way…but maybe it’s time to take the next step of repentance and change the name so that we disassociate with our sin of supporting slavery…repentance is never complete until you make a full turn…

now that being said…i sure do hope they don’t come up with something hokey…saw a suggestion this morning that i liked…North American Baptist Convention…except that we’re also international…but that sounds like a wrassling association…which is also no longer a southern thing…

here’s my vote…change the name…although it probably still won’t go on the sign…but i still believe, still cooperate, and still contribute to the sbc because i still believe they do the best missions…if that ever ends i might change our name to the FUNDAMENTAL, INDEPENDENT, BIBLE BELIEVING, SPIRIT LED, JESUS IS COMING BACK SOON, SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIPPING, WEDNESDAY NIGHT PRAYING, NO TIE WEARING, BLENDED WORSHIP BAPTIST CHURCH…anybody want to join…

this week i have been trying to develop a “wedding policy” for the church i serve…in order to do that i had my assistant call a few churches around us and ask for their policies…so i’ve read about 6 or 7 church wedding policies this week…

interesting…i found that most of the churches i researched (not all but most) charge non-members double and triple what they charge members to use the facilities…i just don’t get it…a wedding for a non-member, like anything else can be an outreach to a couple that may one day be open to your church or even the gospel one day and yet we want to charge them double.

it doesn’t cost anymore for the lights and air conditioning to run whether they are church members or not…i understand if the participants (pastor, musicians, tech people, etc) want to wave their fees for a friend…but why charge more for the building?

i had a pastor explain to me one time well members already support the facilities by regular giving and support and that’s why we charge more…so membership (like american express) has it’s privileges… but what that means is that we built the building for us and we’re gonna charge others so that we can pay for it…

so, what’s your opinion? same pay for same services or do we hit’em where it hurts in the pocket book…

btw: we still require them to have a Christian pastor…show that they’ve received some pre-marriage counseling, etc… what do ya think?

i love sitting around the table “remembering”, sharing stories with old friends…remembering times when we saw God do something really cool among us…or even times when we stumbled, not in a sinful sense but did something stupid and years later you can laugh about it…or watching others do something stupid and laughing about their misadventures…

what brought this to mind was quiet time this morning…Acts 19…Paul was preaching and praying with such power that even when people would touch him they would be healed…some Jewish exorcists saw this and began to try to accomplish the same things and say “in the name of Jesus, that Paul preaches” and they wondered why it didn’t work for them…

i just bet that Paul and the gang sat around one day, maybe on that ship headed to Rome – or having dinner at some seaside cafe and they began to reminisce about the old days and someone said, “remember those exorcists in Ephesus” they thought it was Paul’s name that made this happen…” and they laughed…

then i get to thinking, we do church like that sometimes…”it worked for them, let’s put their bullets in my gun and see if it fires…”

and so the lesson goes…you’ve got to find God’s plan for you…you were created uniquely by God for good works, he created you to do…not someone elses… and because it worked in Ephesus doesn’t mean it will work in Georgia, USA, or wherever… and God also gifts people for the work of the ministry…your calling may be entirely different…i pray for healing for individuals often…God has answered a few of those prayers the way i prayed them, but a lot less than my spirit would want, but no ones ever said to me, “i was healed just by touching you.”

a reminder again, there’s a ministry God created just for me…gotta live that out to be effective…

not that anyone is asking but, here are some thoughts on the passing of Whitney…

Whitney was possibly one of those people with everthing…she was beautiful…she had a talent that very few of a generation ever attain…the rendition of the national anthen that made the rounds the other day…i will always love you…classic…her voice will be missed…

i am thankful that in every interview, even when discussing her drug, alcohol, addiction problems that she always talked about knowing Jesus (at least in the three is saw on the news)…i believe that on Saturday afternoon that she met Jesus face to face…all of the personal demons, addictions, doubts, fears, relationship issues, are gone…her gain, heaven’s gain is our loss of talent…

the shame is that she couldn’t rid herself of these things in her earthly life…i think sometimes the church is guilty of not holding our own accountable…and by the church i don’t mean the institution…i mean you and i who call ourselves believers…i write not to condemn her or people like her…i write to wonder why we don’t and how we could hold our own accountable…i think the biggest problem with success for so many people are that people around them suddenly feel they can no longer say no…why didn’t someone around Whitney say “no” to the drugs, the alcohol, why didn’t someone encourage her to live better, move closer to the faith she expressed instead of to the lifestyle she was choosing…

from the outside…it appears to me that no one cared enough, or was brave enough to challenge Whitney to look inside for that “peace that passes all understanding” instead of constantly feeding the party life that she apparently used to tried to fill that void…

addictions, habits, hang-ups, hurts all things that we experience and yes even “while still sinners Christ died for us” he takes us as we are…but the truth of the gospel is that he came to take us away from these things that bind us – to freedom…if you aren’t preaching that and giving license to sin…then you’re not preaching the entire gospel…transformation…read Ephesians, Paul talks about the way we formerly walked…we preach today as if the ticket to heaven is our only need and we can live like hell the rest of our lives…that simply isn’t true…

Whitney, I’m glad you’re singing with the angels today…i’m sorry you won’t be here to sing for us any longer…it didn’t have to be that way…

i made the last payment on my truck a couple of months ago…i realized that for the first time since i was 16 i do not owe a payment monthly on a vehicle…i was always one of those people that when the payment got short i started to look for another vehicle….my reasoning was, “you’ll always have vehicle payments, it’s a part of life…”

after listening/attending Dave Ramsey, Financial Peace University and Joe Sangl and Clark Howard i decided that my truck was okay and i didn’t have to replace it…my life satisfaction and quality of life would not be dampened by having a new truck or not…

honestly that is maturity to which God has grown me in the last couple of years…i used to envy anyone with a new vehicle…i still long for a new jeep, because i would love a convertible to run around in when the weather is nice…and it would probably be a mustang or camarro if i could get in and out of one … but in my new mature understanding my standing is not determined by a shiny new vehicle…

i think sometimes we in the church are the same way…we are constantly looking for new models to make us look good…to make us appear up to date and “with it” … i remember when every growing church had to have awana program for children…realized we were really just supporting an awana missionary… i resisted because the church was barely paying me at the time and we didn’t have money to pay for missionaries when we were already supporting missionaries through our denomination… it wasn’t a bad program, it just didn’t do something i thought we could already do…

we need to know OUR vision, values, and mission…choose programs or develop programs that fit US not everone else…

and sure like having that extra cash in the bank each month…but if you want to give me a jeep…give me a call… “)

last week i got to meet with another ministry in the area and discuss how we could partner to serve some kids in the area this summer…exciting to think and plan and begin to set in motion some activity that will make GracePointe a witness in the community…

i met with someone from another organization today that will be a networking opportunity with business leaders in the community…

in March the outreach team will partner with the parks department to help with an easter egg hunt for children…another great opportunity to get the church name out to the community…

thinking about an opportunity to do a children’s program at least once a week during the summer to reach kids in our community…

some asks why we would do these things…
1. acting with others and serving others opens the door for sharing the gospel.
2. in yesterday’s message i shared that if the church doesn’t go into the community and serve these kids then others would…and not other churches…but the pusher, the pimp, and the pervert…i believe with all my heart the church needs to be there with a gospel so attractive and so compelling that these children will accept Jesus and avoid the negative influences in the world…that is our goal…
3. then when people know we care, they will learn to trust us and then perhaps they will be our guests at church…too often the church has said “we care about you, but only if you come to our door”…Jesus said, “go”… he didn’t say sit in our pews and wait for people to come to us…

the church, at least in my opinion, ought to serve the community so well that if you closed your doors the community would cry over your departure… a concept shared from Robert Lewis, in “the church of irresistable influence.” … my hope is that we become irresistable to south marietta…

i’m about a month and a half into my new ministry…i am enjoying the challenges of being a senior pastor again…obviously some things more than others…i forgot how challenging it is to have to teach each week a vibrant, holy spirit anointed, interesting, and challenging message…that’s a lot of work…

one of the greatest challenges is managing the expectations of an older church and congregation…two things i’ve heard this week…

one, “we expected you to”…(the issue is really not important)…every ministry comes with expectations…i know there are probably some things that i expect from a pastor that some of my brothers do not live up to…i understand that, and i try to have grace toward them…when the comment was made i tried to be gracious and simply replied, “i didn’t know that…” and I didn’t…i had actually considered the issue and made a decision on my part that i didn’t think the issue would be important…and honestly will probably make the same decision next time…

here’s my response to expectations…you called me to be the pastor…you didn’t call a pastor from the past…i know he loved and cared for you and you enjoyed his ministry among you…and i hope we learn to love and care for each other, but it will be different…God has called me and gifted me and i intend to follow His lead…i hope we can manage your expectations but i have to first answer to God and on that day i didn’t feel called to meet expectations…sorry

second, i preached on values that are important to me and i feel should be important to the church…one of them was unity…just after preaching that message later in the day i got another question that went something like this, “someone asked me to ask why you don’t ______________” … truthfully i appreciate this man’s willingness to ask the hard questions, i really do… after preaching on unity and discussing that one of my pet peeves is the “meeting after the meeting, or people attending a meeting and then calling others to discuss the topic after a decision is made and questioning leadership” … i was a little disappointed that the individual did not come to me to ask the question… in a very real sense i feel this was gossip… if you are talking to someone about me or complaining about me and don’t come to me, you have gossiped and gossip is a sin… gossip has killed more churches than bad theology, bad preaching, or bad pastoral leadership… and i realize that pastors are just as guilty some times… now, i would confess that sometimes my wife may hear about someone, but rarely have i ever talked about someone behind their back, particularly pastoral leadership…i’ve spoken my mind several times…something my former pastor will attest to…i’m not very good at hiding my opinions…but they were always spoken to him not behind his back… that is my expectation… unity is important… let’s live it out, not just talk about it…