The Importance of a Local Church for College Students

College is a wonderful time of learning, growth, and freedom. There are boundless opportunities to fully become the person that God has created you to be. Let me encourage you to explore new subjects, make new friends, try new food, and take a class or two that has nothing to do with your degree. You may be an athlete, you may be in 15 different student organizations, you may be in Greek life, you may be a transfer student, or even a non-traditional student.

Don't miss out on opportunities to build lasting relationships and opportunities for you to grow in your faith or even begin your faith journey. Get involved in one of the great campus ministries on your campus! BCM, RUF, CCF, CRU, Wesley, UKirk, and whole host of others are staffed with college ministers and interns who want to help you navigate the seas of college. Don't stop there though, visit some area churches, find one that is a good fit for you, even if it is different denominationally or theologically than what you experienced before starting college. Visit several churches before you make that final decision to associate yourself with a local church. Look for a local church that will love you and help pour into your life. Look for a local church that will provide you with opportunities to be around different generations of people. Look for a church that will offer you a place to serve and minister to others rather than simply being a consumer of the worship or Bible study opportunities. Campus ministries are phenomenal but they can't offer you everything a local church can. If you don't know which churches to visit, ask your college minister or campus ministry staffer, they will point you in the right direction.

Get engaged in a campus ministry where you find community and a faithfulness to the Lord. Attend or even join a local church that will provide a broad community of people who love God and long to see the community and the world changed by Jesus!

Great Thoughts on Church/Community

THINKING ABOUT CHURCH/COMMUNITY:

      No legalist about church attendance, I have thought for a long time now that something has happened in the life of a Christian when she stops meeting other Christians at the Meeting House on the Lord’s Day. When the worship of God is not important anymore, hasn’t something serious gone awry?

     Moreover, I have observed that Christians who never find a place of service in and through a local church often end up with a trainload of complaints and criticisms of that church. Affection evaporates. But those who know the church best, warts and all, and who give of their time, talent and treasure to the life of the local church----those people usually “put up” with church.

     Eugene Peterson said, “Our membership in the church is a corollary of our faith in Christ.”

     “Church”/“Community” is more than an abstract theological concept; it is a way of life. “Church” has an address, such as 511 High Place, Macon, GA 31204. “Church” is a forgiving place, a growing place, a giving place, a sharing place. “Church” comes down with both feet in the midst of sinful, petulant, often repulsive, people. “Church” is impossible without presence, without two or three gathering together.

Taken from Walter B. Shurden's Preaching Journal Vol. 5. No. 43

Missional Lifestyle

Proverbs 31:8-9 (New Living Translation)

 ⁸ Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;
      ensure justice for those being crushed.
 ⁹ Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless,
      and see that they get justice.

This past week we had 60 adults and students from our community who put these verses into practice as the served and met needs by building wheelchair ramps, painting, spending time ministering to apartment complexes, scrubbing graffiti and praying for the people they came in contact with through a Kingdom Builder's Spring Break Project. It's good for us to be reminded that the cause of the "poor and helpless" is something that God cares about...and so should we.

Ash Wednesday Readings

Joel 2

Locusts Invade like an Army

 ¹ Sound the alarm in Jerusalem^[a]!
      Raise the battle cry on my holy mountain!
   Let everyone tremble in fear
      because the day of the Lord is upon us.
 ² It is a day of darkness and gloom,
      a day of thick clouds and deep blackness.
   Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains,
      a great and mighty army appears.
   Nothing like it has been seen before
      or will ever be seen again. ³ Fire burns in front of them,
      and flames follow after them.
   Ahead of them the land lies
      as beautiful as the Garden of Eden.
   Behind them is nothing but desolation;
      not one thing escapes.
 ⁴ They look like horses;
      they charge forward like warhorses.^[b]
 5 Look at them as they leap along the mountaintops.
      Listen to the noise they make—like the rumbling of chariots,
   like the roar of fire sweeping across a field of stubble,
      or like a mighty army moving into battle.
 ⁶ Fear grips all the people;
      every face grows pale with terror.
 ⁷ The attackers march like warriors
      and scale city walls like soldiers.
   Straight forward they march,
      never breaking rank.
 ⁸ They never jostle each other;
      each moves in exactly the right position.
   They break through defenses
      without missing a step.
 ⁹ They swarm over the city
      and run along its walls.
   They enter all the houses,
      climbing like thieves through the windows.
 ¹⁰ The earth quakes as they advance,
      and the heavens tremble.
   The sun and moon grow dark,
      and the stars no longer shine.
 ¹¹ The Lord is at the head of the column.
      He leads them with a shout.
   This is his mighty army,
      and they follow his orders.
   The day of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing.
      Who can possibly survive?

A Call to Repentance

 ¹² That is why the Lord says,
      “Turn to me now, while there is time.
   Give me your hearts.
      Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
 ¹³ Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,
      but tear your hearts instead.”
   Return to the Lord your God,
      for he is merciful and compassionate,
   slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
      He is eager to relent and not punish.
 ¹⁴ Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve,
      sending you a blessing instead of this curse.
   Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine
      to the Lord your God as before. ¹⁵ Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem!
      Announce a time of fasting;
   call the people together
      for a solemn meeting.
 ¹⁶ Gather all the people—
      the elders, the children, and even the babies.
   Call the bridegroom from his quarters
      and the bride from her private room.
 ¹⁷ Let the priests, who minister in the Lord’s presence,
      stand and weep between the entry room to the Temple and the altar.
   Let them pray, “Spare your people, Lord!
      Don’t let your special possession become an object of mockery.
   Don’t let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say,
      ‘Has the God of Israel left them?’”

The Lord’s Promise of Restoration

 ¹⁸ Then the Lord will pity his people
      and jealously guard the honor of his land.
 ¹⁹ The Lord will reply,
   “Look! I am sending you grain and new wine and olive oil,
      enough to satisfy your needs.
   You will no longer be an object of mockery
      among the surrounding nations.
 ²⁰ I will drive away these armies from the north.
      I will send them into the parched wastelands.
   Those in the front will be driven into the Dead Sea,
      and those at the rear into the Mediterranean.^[c]
   The stench of their rotting bodies will rise over the land.”   Surely the Lord has done great things!
    ²¹ Don’t be afraid, my people.
   Be glad now and rejoice,
      for the Lord has done great things

 Thus saith the Lord through the prophet Joel. Thanks be to God.

2 Corinthians 5:18-21
¹⁸ And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,^[e] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
The reading of the second Epistle to the Corinthians, thanks be to God.

 Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are repentant: make in me a clean heart, a heart that hates...laments sins and readily acknowledges my wretchedness, grant your perfect cleansing and forgiveness of sin; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Speaking without a Sound

I read Psalm 19 early this morning before the sun even began to peek out of the darkness and it struck me how much the heavens and the earth proclaim God's glory. Proclamation is a buzzword in my vocation. In fact in many ways, it is the essence of what I do as a minister. Proclaiming the gospel, the good news, that even when we hated God, He loved us! Without the proclamation of the gospel everything else that we do as believers, as the church even, lacks meaning and substance. As believers in Christ, we proclaim his salvation for all who will believe, we proclaim his Lordship over all the earth, we proclaim his truth into the culture we are immersed in...ultimately so that His Kingdom purposes will be fulfilled. 

Psalm 19 (New Living Translation)

¹ The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
      The skies display his craftsmanship.
 ² Day after day they continue to speak;
      night after night they make him known.
 ³ They speak without a sound or word;
      their voice is never heard.
 ⁴ Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
      and their words to all the world.

Something else that struck me about this passage is found in verse 3, David is describing how the created order declares God's glory and majesty yet they do it without speaking a word. I have long believed that some of the greatest witnesses that we can offer to the hurt world around us in not in our words but in our deeds. Does your life and my life point others to God without even saying a word about Jesus? Don't get me wrong we still need to speak the truth of God and boldly proclaim the gospel but if all we ever do is pay lip service to our faith what good is that to God or anyone around us? Let us proclaim the gospel and the glory of God with our words but more importantly with our lives!

High School Winter Retreat 2011

We are nearing the end of day 2 of our High School Winter Retreat and I can honestly say that it has been an incredible week so far. We had safe travel and a safe day with no injuries on the slopes. the one negative setback was having to move meeting room space because the band was "too loud". All in all it has been a great couple of days as our group has grown closer to God and each other.

Our theme this week is Old School: Liars, Murders, and Thieves. We have been looking at the lives of some of the characters from the Old Testament. The worship time has been really cool and God is working in the lives of our students.

Have I mentioned lately that I love what I do? I love working with students and seeing them come alive for Jesus!

The Reformer? and the Future of a Denomination

Here is an interesting article on Al Mohler, President of Southern Seminary in Kentucky. Mohler is someone that people tend to love or hate for who he is, what he stands for, his involvement in reshaping Southern Seminary and the Southern Baptist Convention. I was initially put off by the title of the article, because I thought it would be all about how great of a person Mohler is and how he is next John Calvin, but the article seemed to be a fair description of the man and his mission over the past 20 years.

There is a reaction to the article posted on Scot McKnight's blog as well that's very interesting, especially the comments section.

What does the future hold for the SBC? What does the future hold for evangelicalism? What does the future hold for untold numbers of church leaders who find themselves somewhere in the middle of the theological, political, and ecclesiastical differences found in many churches today?

For me it means moving past a 30+ year old battle and moving forward with the story of the gospel, the hope of redemption!

Ancient-Future

A great post over at Internet Monk about Ancient-Future stream of the post-evangelical world. The more I search, read, think, and reflect the more I am drawn to the thoughts behind Ancient-Future rhetoric. A dear friend told me last night that if he wasn't Baptist, he would be Anglican...a sentiment that I have heard time and time again from others, myself included. Perhaps the biggest need in the church is for a renewed passion for what is good from the history of the faith (Hebrews 12:1-2) as we live out our faithfulness in our own traditions.

http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/dont-misunderstand-the-ancient-future-path

For more on Ancient-Future Faith check out: http://www.ancientfutureworship.com/index.html

Youth Week 2010

I am super pumped about the "wicked awesome" Youth Week we have planned for 2010!! Josh Burnham, a good friend is going to be speaking and our worship band will be leading us in worship this week. I can't wait to hear what God has laid on Josh's heart for our students and see how God works this week. We are kicking things off with a trip to Wild Adventures in Valdosta tomorrow (how I loathe theme parks!).

Wednesday: Worship @ 5:30 PM followed by the 135th annual Redneck Olympics

Thursday: Mexican Frisbee at Mill Creek @ 9:30 in the AM (Ultimate Frisbee and lunch at El Som)

Friday: Worship @ 7 PM with game night/Lock-In to follow (Lock-In)is for Rising 7-9th graders only!

Can't wait to see God rock our faces off this week!

Wrightians and the Neo-Reformed: 'All One in Christ Jesus' | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

This was an article that I read after a recent post, http://tonypags.blogspot.com/2010/04/theological-happenings.html about the theological rumblings within conservative, evangelical groups. I thought it made some interesting points. Let me reiterate to anyone who questions my own theology, I have a great appreciation for both John Piper and N. T. Wright, as well as R. C. Sproul and others for all of them have been influential in helping to shape my own understanding of scripture, God, and my wicked heart. However, I am increasingly burdened that the prayer of Jesus in John 17 for all his disciples to be one, seems to be moving backwards rather than forward in realizing that goal.

Wrightians and the Neo-Reformed: 'All One in Christ Jesus' | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Church These Days

So I got a pre-release copy of David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, book that is to set to release in a week or so and I have been challenged and convicted of how and why we in the west, particularly America "DO" church. The title of the book is Radical. Platt believes that we have bought into the "American Dream" mindset even with our faith and our churches and that we have lost sight of the true gospel...very challenging to someone who is in ministry full-time!

Then this morning after I got to the office I was looking through some mail that came on Friday and saw this quote from Stanley Hauerwas, a renowned theologian who I believe currently teaches at Duke University's Divinity School.
The church has lost its ability to be a disciplined community because we're now, religiously, in a buyer's market. Christianity has to bill itself as very good for your self-realization, and that's killing us because we're not very good for our self-realization. We're good for your salvation, which is not the same thing.
Quoted in Christian Ethics Today (Vol. 16, Num 2)

Sometimes we in the church have to pull back from what we immerse ourselves with, or sprinkle ourselves for any non-Baptists and ask the tough questions? Is what we are doing really making an impact for the Kingdom of God? Are we following God's desires or our desires? Are we seeking to make disciples or to make people feel good about themselves? Are we just a club that has a cross or a fish plastered somewhere or are we completely sold out to the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Easter Thoughts

As I celebrated Easter this week, I was reminded of the pain of loss, the sacrifices that have been made for me. I was also struck by the inability we have as humans to really market the empty tomb. I was continually drawn to some quotes from Jurgen Moltmann and Frederick Buechner about the cross and the empty tomb. I was drawn to the accounts of the death of Christ and the resurrection, for they are the key to our faith as Christians, yet the gospel writers seem to lack a uniformity, perhaps because their own story shines through their accounts of the miracle of the resurrection. Ultimately, Easter leaves us knowing that something great happened on that morning in the garden with the empty tomb, something that in many ways is beyond description, words, and categories...God's love is perhaps the best way we have of putting a label on it. THANKS BE TO GOD!

More Wisdom from a Great Preacher

"No matter how hard we try in the church, we will always mess some things up. And no matter how badly we mess some things up in the church, other things will keep turning out right. Because we are not, thank God, in charge. "

Barbara Brown Taylor
Home By Another Way

Doesn't that give you comfort to know that even in our flawed, sinful states we cannot thwart the purpose of God? The church is perhaps the greatest institution in the history of the world, but there are also a lot of very dark blemishes on our transcript...thankfully God works in and through and many times in spite of our human frailty. Thanks be to God!

Christmas Eve Services

I love Christmas Eve services! I really enjoy the candlelight and communion (somber, reflective type services) but it seems to me that perhaps that first Christmas night was more like the Family Service we have at FBC Statesboro. There are children all over so it's not quiet, it's not somber, yet it holds a great measure of reflective potential if one will open his/her eyes. Don't you just know that Joseph and Mary looked at each other and at Jesus and thought what in the world do we do? How do we raise him? How do we provide for him? How are we gonna make this work? All the while, the Father was observing this and probably mumbled, "Let me worry about that." And so it is each time a baby is born or a loved one passes, at least to me...the Father is saying, "Let me worry about this, you just trust me."

The Manhattan Declaration

I'm usually not one of those Christians who waves the battle flag for issues like abortion, the biblical definition of marriage, etc., not because I don't believe in those things...it just seems that too often Evangelical Christians are too busy waving those banners rather than the banner of Jesus. It's a fine line to be sure, but it seems to me that the more important thing for me to do is to tell them about Jesus and how he can change their life rather than championing causes or fighting over morality, which cannot be legislated I might add, as hard as some Christians try to do that. In reality what the world needs is a group of believers who are so consumed with God that it radiates out of their lives and instead of defending our issues we can live subversively to impact culture and people for the sake of the Gospel!

HOWEVER, as I read through the Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience, I found the language, the tone, and the issues it addressed almost exactly what I would have said and written. It is worthy document for Christians of all persuasions to sign and support because it unifies us as the Body of Christ, the Church universal, to boldly stand for the cause of the widow, the orphan, the forgotten, and the down-trodden of our society...there seems to be several of each category in America...sadly the church has either been too loud in condemning culture to rescue the widows and orphans or too focused on gospel presentations and altar calls to make much of a difference for anyone or anything, especially God. The Manhattan Declaration is call for believers to put faith into action, I'm prayerful that it will happen.

Quality Time

It's only December 6th and life is already hectic for the holidays. This weekend I was in our Christmas Celebration which took me away from my girls. Yesterday was cousin Jackson's one year party, which the girls went to and I had to miss because of the Christmas program. When life is crazy, especially at Christmas time, it's great to get to spend some quality time with Cyd and the girls. Snippets here and there like a conversation with Cyd, those are rare when you have a 4 year old and a 20 month old. Or getting up before the crack of dawn because Claire has been asking to get up for an hour. Little moments seem to make big memories these days.

Ecumenical Evangelical

One of my core values in ministry and in my personal theology is a commitment to ecumenism. Not the everyone's going to heaven regardless of what you say, do, or believe, but a genuine respect and willingness to work together with brothers and sisters in Christ who are a part of other Christian traditions than my own. I saw this post at Internet Monk that reminded me that even though some are drawing the circle tighter and tighter, that many are willing to find commonality in "one faith, one Lord, and one baptism.

Fleeing Sin

Last night I had the opportunity to teach on the subject of "Dating, Relationships, and Sexuality". Always a hot topic for teenagers! As I had been preparing I was more burdened than ever for students (past and present) who are wrestling with issues of purity in the context of relationships. I relied heavily on some great input from former students and many parents to help navigate my way through this topic while allowing scripture to speak clearly and plainly. One of the resources I looked at was Mark Driscoll's newest book. In one of the chapters he says that when it comes to purity so many people ask where is the line of how far I can go...in his opinion that's not the point at all, he even considers asking that question a sin. I'm not sure I could go that far, but he is correct in saying that as Christians we should be running as hard and fast as possible away from sin instead of seeing how close we can get to it without getting sucked in. Are you fleeing from sin in your life?

Reformation Heritage and Ecumenism for 2009

I have posted here before about my convictions in a broad circle of ecumenism among the body of Christ. I strongly admire the work of groups and individuals like Evangelicals and Catholics Together, Timothy George, Chuck Colson, and others. I saw this article this morning. I thought it fitting since tomorrow is Reformation Day for many, many protestants, particularly of the Reformed and/or Lutheran heritage. There are differences between Protestants and Catholics, let's be clear about that fact, but there is more that unites us than divides us. That being said I am alarmed at this article and what is going on within subgroups of the church among minor differences and distinctives. (I acknowledge that most of those who would have issues over these "minor" differences actually argue that these are major differences of doctrine, you can be the judge of that.) I really liked what Timothy George had to say in the article:

"The gaping divide between evangelicals and Catholics is ecclesiology and authority, not justification and salvation, as important as that debate remains," George said. "There is enough commonality that evangelicals and Catholics with a living faith can recognize one another as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ with a common Lord and common grace that brought them together. The hard issues are questions related to the church, such as the Petrine office [the papacy] and the Eucharist. Those discussions will occupy us for the next 100 years."


Conscience will not let me dismiss my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, but I am thoroughly Protestant. I am ever grateful for the work of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli, and others who realized that the core values of the reformation really were important enough to fight for. It is Luther's work that allows us to read the Bible in our native tongues all over the world. It is Calvin's renewal of systematic and organized theology that has influence every one who has attempted to do theology since then. This Reformation weekend I will be grateful to God for working throughout the years, from Christ to Augustine to Benedict to Aquinas to Luther to William Carey to Billy Graham to ????.

Happy Halloween!!

I know Halloween is tomorrow but for us it seems like it started four days ago with goodie bags from Claire's friends at school, a wonderful Fall Festival at FBC Statesboro, watching the Great Pumpkin and making fall themed sugar cookies with the girls. Today was Claire's class party, Grandmother coming to visit, and trick or treating tomorrow night with cousins! Whew! I briefly considered dressing up as Michael Jackson as an homage to the late "King of Pop" but I figured that doing that once in a lifetime is probably enough. It has been one crazy week, but so many great memories with family and friends (old and new). Whatever your plans for October 31st, I hope that you get scared just once, it does a body good!