Friday, February 15, 2008

Strong Men Chellenge

The Mark D videos (on the bottom of the page) are strong.
If you watch them and you don't like them or get mad, good. Don't come to our church.

If you watch them and you are a young man who is stirred up and wants to know what to do next, contact me. We are all about making men. Strong broken men who will follow King Jesus into the teeth of the enemy.

If you watch the tour videos too, you'll see what I did from age 20-23 when I wouldn't go to church because I thought it was for girls.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

What Will It Take

...for God's Kingdom to come 'on earth (or in Smyrna) as it is in heaven'?

JT, a friend of mine with a PhD in anthropology mentioned an interesting study to me. (Contrary to appearances, I do have an intellect and like to read nerdy things like anthropological studies and dissertations). He said that a few years ago an Eastern European anthropologist came to our beloved US of A to study our culture.

See, we can't really study our own culture too well because we are immersed in it. (Like a fish swims in water without thinking 'Oh, I'm swimming in water, let me analyze what I am doing.' They probably aren't really thinking about water, or thinking at all for that matter.) Painful truth is we can't be very objective inside the culture we live.

Anyway, the study revealed that the number one thing Americans value most is ... self-reliance. Yep, the exact opposite of humility. We are all about faith in me.

So if the Kingdom of Heaven is going to come here, the kingdom of Me and the kingdom of Self-Reliance is going to get overthrown...

I'm going to go ahead and sign up for some more brokenness and humble reliance on Jesus.

Putting Off Prayer

So many things are going on
in this young church, I find myself putting off an ask for prayer. Now we need prayer just as much or more!

Would you pray for our church retreat this weekend? We are going up to the Winshape Center at Berry College for a time to love God and each other. Pray for safety and developing deeper trust as we share life together for the weekend

Would you pray about our stretching to two services beginning on March 16th? We want to make room for another 60-70 people.

Would you pray that Jesus Kicks Satan’s ____ in Smyrna? The pastors group I pray with (sr. pastors from Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal churches) is planning another prayer walk or two for this Spring. Pray that the wind of the Strong Holy Spirit convicts of sin and that Satan wouldn’t snatch the seed of the gospel as we preach it.

And pray that I and the other pastors in the city would preach the gospel of the kingdom of Christ, not a false gospel. I am amazed at how kingdom and gospel minded these men are. It is a work of God!
Thanks for praying!