Why Worship?

I grew up as a pastor's kid - Sunday morning worship wasn't optional. God called me into ministry - again, Sunday morning...not optional. I have always lived in the world where worship is simply part of the week. It isn't an enormous effort to go or something that would even occur to me as an option for consideration. It simply is.

It occurred to me recently that not everyone has the same story (I know, one of those rare moments of non-self-centeredness we humans experience from time to time). It made me wonder if I would go to worship every week if I wasn't the pastor's kid or the pastor. I would like to think the answer is yes, but the only thing I can base that on is my four years of college when I wasn't under my parent's direct purview or on a church's payroll and I still went to worship every week. I'm not looking for a gold star here, I get my genetic and habitual presets, I'm just sayin'...

Anyway, since it is summer and the temptation to not worship seems greater, I thought I would take a moment to offer a few reasons why we worship so that the next morning you wake up and ask "Why?" you have some motivators to push you to worship over the extra sleep/boat/beach/pool/to-do list/or whatever else seems more engaging or pressing at the moment. Here goes:

1. God is worthy of all the worship we can give. He created us. He loves us. He provides for us. He saves us from our selfishness, foolishness and daily bad decisions. He forgives us. He gave us Jesus. Enough said.

2. Worship is what we were created to do. You know those moments where everything in your life seems to feel right or in place? Those are the moments we're living fully into our design - a design to know our Creator. It can happen in lots of times and places, but none more so than in times and places of worship. I don't know about you, but in my chaotic life, I crave those moments where things make sense - why miss the place I know it happens?

3. Worship reminds us that we're part of something much bigger than ourselves. It's easy to get caught up in our own world and develop tunnel vision. That's great when things are going well, but when things aren't going so well, it's easy to get despondent. In worship, we see other people who may have an encouraging story to tell of where God has been active in their life. In worship, we read Scripture together that reminds us of God's faithfulness and Jesus' incredible love for us.

4. Worship is an opportunity to say thank you to Jesus for saving our lives and drawing us back to the God who is love. I do a lot of meaningless things in my week, including the hours of mindless television I watch and the solitaire I play on my phone at night to make my brain stop working so I can fall sleep. It's nice to do something with so much meaning to start the week and to start each day.

I could go on, but you get the point. I'm not writing this as a guilt trip for all the times you may have missed worship (I don't have perfect attendance either). Instead I want to encourage you for all the opportunities you have in front of you to worship. Worship is a gift from God - an opportunity to be with Him, and there's no better place in heaven or on earth!

After the Message

Unstoppable Ashley Ridge

Are we fighting an unstoppable God or

are we part of God’s unstoppable movement?

Other people are inconvenient…

Which is why most of us are slacktivists (a term coined by Don Miller in his May 6 blog post). A slacktivist is someone who finds the most convenient way to help others, or perhaps better said, the least inconvenient way to help others.

Luke 10:25-37 – a slactivist’s story (and an anti-slactivist's story

v. 25 – expert in the law, i.e. that guy who memorized his Bible and uses it as a weapon

v. 29 – but he wanted to justify himself, i.e. feel good about himself, add a gold star to his chart

vv. 33-35 – the anti-slactivist who embraced inconvience for the sake of another person

God chose inconvenience for the sake of you and me – Jesus left heaven and came to earth, God moves mountains if it means reaching us

“Go and do likewise” – choose people over convenience

At Ashley Ridge, we could start a bunch of programs and you could give money to those programs and show up every now and then to help out and we would all feel better about ourselves, but what if it weren’t quite so convenient – what if actually started to share our lives? What if we took seriously Jesus instructions to go and do likewise?

Maybe that’s how the world will know our God is the God who saves.

Take a Listen

I decided to break form today and share one of my favorite artists with y'all. His name is Foy Vance and he is an Irish musician. One of my life goals is to go to Ireland and see Foy Vance play live in a pub. What can I say - I'm a sucker for guys who can sing and play the guitar. (I could really embarrass Clark here and share with y'all about him sitting with me by the ocean and playing his guitar and singing for me on one of our early dates, but I won't do that - oh wait, just did :)

Foy Vance is not identified as a Christian musician, but, like myself, he is a pastor's kid. His music has an unmistakeable theme of hope that is somehow haunting and incredibly authentic. My favorite song is called "First of July" that talks about heartache but it carries the constant refrain "but that was the end of June and this is the first of July." We all have moments, days and sometimes seasons of frustration, anxiety, and hurt, but we always have hope that another season is coming and God walks with us through it all. I included my husband's favorite Foy song below called "Indiscriminate Act of Kindness" - enjoy!

After the Message

Unstoppable Church

I John 4:7-12

Are we fighting an unstoppable God or part of God’s unstoppable movement?

Annual Conference – doesn’t always make me very excited about the church

Debating pensions and budgets and organizational charts, closing local

churches - it can be discouraging

How do we know the Church isn’t dying or lost?

1. Jesus is the foundation – may change forms, we may make a mess of things on our own, but Jesus cannot be stopped

2. Where there is love, there is God and there is the Church of Jesus Christ

I John 4:7-12

Since God loved us, we also ought to love one another. If we love one

another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us

Here's one way we're being the Church...

Rwanda

- passion for me started about 4-5 years ago

- the world watched as love overcame the worst humanity had to offer

- Land of 1000 Hills Coffee – largest cash crop in Rwanda is coffee

o 500 orphans in Bukonya, 280 in child-led homes, 95% of the orphans show signs of malnutrition

o $30,000 will start the initial sustenance farm to feed the orphans in Bukonya

Ashley Ridge Church will give $15,000 to Bukonya over the course of the next 6 months, starting this week with a check for $7,500

*And, start praying now about whether God is calling you to be part of our Summer 2011 Team that will travel to Bukonya, Rwanda

“If we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”

Step One to being part of God's unstoppable movement is loving each other in real, tangible, life-giving ways because that’s how God loves us

Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?

(Yes, that is a "Dumb and Dumber" reference - my apologies to those of you whose humor is more refined :)

When my son is fussy or discontent with his current situation he scrunches his face and makes a sound halfway between a yell and a grunt. It's his way of communicating "I'm not happy!!!" but it's also his uninhibited attempt at working out his frustration and releasing tension. He can't explain it to me, but I think he feels better after yelling and not just because he's made his feelings known. It's an actual release.

Sometimes I wish it was socially acceptable as an adult to express my frustration in a similar manner. On the other hand, how annoying would it be to walk around and have people constantly yelling out. But this also leads me to think, how much do we hold in on any given day? Do we exponentially increase our stress levels by suppressing our thoughts, feelings and emotions?

I'm at a conference this week where the comment was made at a break that you can tell we're a dysfunctional community because we don't fight enough. Our discussions are civil and restrained and then we gather in corners to vent. As a result, nothing is solved, tensions aren't released and we walk away with more wrinkles and frown lines.

How many marriages are like this? Businesses? Parent/Teen relationships? What if we stopped learning to stop fighting and instead learned to fight better? I'm not talking about punching and yelling. I'm talking about honest and respectful disagreement, a forum to be honest about our frustration without fearing ostracism - loving each other enough to risk upsetting the status quo.

I'm as guilty as the next person. Too often I wait until I can't control my anger to express my dissatisfaction and the results are never good. I'm resolving to start sharing my feelings while I'm still in control - how about you?

How do you deal with frustration? How do you express dissatisfaction in ways that produce actual results instead of shared misery?

Rejection

I woke up this morning with a clear sense of what was on my plate for the day. I had two meetings scheduled for the morning and the agendas for both clearly organized in my head and on my iPhone (the note-taking app being one of my favorites). Long story short - both meetings were canceled due to conflicts from the other parties - I was rejected. So I did what any other affirmation-seeking, extroverted-thinking person would do - I contacted a few other people to set up a new meeting over lunch.

Healthy? ...Maybe. On the one hand, I recognized my need for input and feedback from others and I sought it out. My lunch meeting was incredibly valuable and I greatly appreciated my friends with administrative gifts helping me out in an area that I tend to avoid. (I like preaching and teaching and writing - I'm still in administrative training wheels that need to come off quickly). On the other hand, I fell back into the habit of taking rejection personally.

Every time someone visits the church and doesn't come back, I immediately assume it was because of me. The truth is, sometimes it is because of me. However, just as often it was some other circumstance or situation that led them away or elsewhere. But, nevertheless, I take it personally. I lose sleep and I begin thinking about what I can do to be more likable and popular and before I know it, I'm in all-out people-pleasing mode.

A friend asked me this weekend what my greatest personal challenge has been so far in planting a church. The answer - getting over myself and learning to deal with rejection. People rejected Jesus, why do I think everyone should accept me? And if I'm working for affirmation, I'm not working to please God and that's just not cool.

This is and will continue to be a growth curve for me. I like to be liked and I think I'm a pretty likable person. But, there will always be people who don't like me or don't agree with me or don't make time for me or don't want to be part of what I'm doing for whatever reason. I'm learning that's okay and even healthy. And, if I can continue to work to please God, hopefully my friends won't have to put it so much overtime building me back up.

After the Message

Are we fighting an unstoppable God or part of God's unstoppable movement?

Our God is huge and unstoppable and His pursuits include righteousness, justice and, above all, you and me!

We're going to spend the rest of the month talking about being part of God's unstoppable movement as part of the One Prayer movement. But, if you missed yesterday and you need your perspective updated on how big and unstoppable God is, please check out Louie Giglio's "How Great is Our God" tour on youtube.

Louie has had an incredible ministry worldwide reaching out to college students as part of the Passion movement and now he is planting Passion City Church in Atlanta. He does an amazing job re-sizing our understanding of God - check it out!

Veritas

I mentioned yesterday that Clark and I drove to Cambridge, Massachusetts last week to attend his brother and sister-in-laws graduation from Harvard. I had been to Yale and Princeton, but this was my first trip to Harvard. As you would expect, it was beautiful and full of history. We went for a run by the Charles River and I got to re-enact the running scene from "With Honors." I felt smarter just being there.

Anyway, the Harvard mantra is Veritas, which means truth. The word is printed all over campus on every post, pillar and written document. As we went from ceremony to ceremony the speakers reflected on truth and what this means and how we understand it and how we seek it. No one said anything about Jesus. It started to really bug me by the end of the festivities (it's not like I was expecting it, but still...). It was at the moment of my greatest irritation when I made a stunning discovery that put everything back in perspective.

The graduation was set up on the steps of Memorial Chapel in the middle of Old Harvard Yard. They had blocked the front doors and pillars with a backdrop and there was a huge tent spanning over the platform, podium and speakers. There were trees throughout the yard so looking straight ahead all you could see was what looked like the front of an assembly. However, if you let your eyes wander straight up, rising high above the trees, into the sky and far above the heads of the esteemed speakers was the high steeple adorned with the cross of Jesus Christ.

The ultimate irony. Unspoken and unacknowledged as some of the brightest minds in our world reflected on truth was the cross rising high above. I smiled and I think I even giggled a little to myself.

We can deny God, we can ignore God, we can pretend to have the world figured out separate and apart from God, but God is always there. Veritas = Jesus.

So Much to Say...

I've learned that when there's so much to say and so much to catch up on, it's usually best to keep it brief and spread it out over time.

In the last week and a half, I celebrated my 5th wedding anniversary with my husband, made Ashley Ridge Church worship outside in 90 degree heat for Pentecost (trying to drive home the point that we shouldn't aim to be comfortable as a church, I think it worked :), drove from Summerville to Boston by way of Richmond, Pennsylvania and New York City to see family and ultimately witness my brother-in-law and sister-in-law graduate from Harvard Law School and Ed School (huge congrats to both on their incredible accomplishment, and even more on their desire to use their degrees to be public servants in the truest sense - so proud!!), and celebrated Memorial Weekend by marrying a remarkable young woman and man who is deploying to Afghanistan in August and spending time with friends out on their boats.

All in all, it's been busy and crazy and wonderful in so many different ways. I find God showing up and reminding me of things in places I never expect. So, in short, thank you God for always being a million steps ahead of me and yet right beside me every step of the journey.

After the Message

Mama Said, “Say Please”

Matthew 7:7-11

Finishing “Mama Said” – simple instructions we understood as a child that seemingly get more difficult/complicated as we get older

Say Please…Asking for things

Matthew 7:7-8

As kids, we’re good at it – and not only are we good at it, we learn a simple lesson that, for the most part, getting what we need is as simple as asking and using the word “please”

It doesn’t seem as easy as we get older. Oh, we still ask, we just don’t get what we think we need nearly as often – usually b/c we’re asking for more than a bike or a piece of candy

20-year old girl praying for her mom to find a great son-in-law

Parents praying for healing for their sick child

Everyday, you and me praying for help, praying for salvation, praying for

answers that don’t seem to come

Matthew 7:9-11 – are we asking for good gifts, or are we asking for easy answers?

It’s easy to confuse “good gifts” with getting what we want. And too often we either don’t get what we want and after awhile we stop asking; or, we ask, but for the most part we’ve figured out how to meet our own needs so our asking is for show or habit more than anything else and we settle for okay gifts instead of good gifts.

Need to work from the core conviction that above all things God loves us – and if we who understand only a glimpse of love give good gifts, how much more so does the God who is love give good gifts!

After the Message

We spend so much time searching for comfort – comfort food, comfort clothes, comfortable people, air conditioning

Acts 2:1-13 – What in the world? This is uncomfortable, and it continues…

Acts 2:14-21

Not only are we not often there as a church, we’re not even sure we want to be there

Let’s be honest, someone starts speaking in tongues this morning and I’m a little

freaked out

And so, we search for comfort…

Ashley Ridge Church, are we already comfortable?

We’ve created a great environment, great music, great coffee, it feels good, it looks good, it sounds good (people ask me all the time, “how’s it going?” and I have lots of great things to tell them)

But the truth is, this isn’t good enough. We ought to be uncomfortable b/c it’s no longer just about what Jesus has done, now it’s what He’s going to do through us…and that’s not comfortable

For the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and those He came to save, are we willing to be a Pentecost church?

The "E" Word

One of my son's favorite books is the old Sesame Street book with Grover called "There's a Monster at the End of this Book." Grover spends the whole book trying to keep you from turning the next page so you don't get to the monster, only to get there and discover that he, the lovable and friendly Grover, is the monster at the end of the book and there was no reason to be afraid.

In keeping with that idea, I would like to warn you now that at the end of this post I'm going to challenge you to share your faith - I know, you're already sweating.

Evangelism has become a very taboo word in many of our churches - it's that thing the scary churches do. We associate it with the tracts about hell that are left in bathroom stalls and the people who stand on street corners yelling or the people that go door-to-door. Don't get me wrong. I find those practices as alarming as everyone else - alarming and ineffective. Nevertheless, we've let those negative examples be our excuse for not sharing our faith.

I do it as a pastor with people who've taken enough initiative to visit the church. I don't want to come on too strong, or talk about faith too quickly and thus get labeled or perceived as the scary, stalker pastor. So, I just act friendly and assume they'll ask me if they want to know anything about Jesus.

Here's our hold-up (aside from the scary evangelism tactics that have turned us off), we think that sharing our faith means we have to give someone a long, drawn-out, thorough explanation of who Jesus is, how Jesus works, what the Bible means and more. We think we have to know everything and have a great way to explain it.

This isn't true. We simply need to take the opportunity to invite people to experience something that has been powerful, important and life-changing to us. We can't have the experience for them, but we can invite them to the party.

Donald Miller says it this way: "Introducing somebody to Jesus is not about presenting ideas, then, as much as it is introducing the person to a Diety who lives and interacts. Evangelism, then, looks like setting somebody up on a blind date: God does the work, we just tell them about him and where they can find him."

It's not pushy and it's not about how much we can memorize. It's as simple as inviting someone to worship with you or, better yet, taking a genuine interest in someone else's life and story.

So, here it comes, the challenge: Think of someone you know who doesn't go to church, or even someone who does go to church but doesn't know Jesus - take your friendship to the next level (see yesterday's post) and take the risk of inviting them to come to worship or small group with you - point them to an opportunity to experience God for themselves.

I think you might find it's not as hard or scary as you think.

(And if you're the competitive type and need extra motivation, Jamin is trying to invite 25 people to worship before Sunday, and he's monitoring his progress by handing out our Ashley Ridge cards that have a place on the back for you to write your name and number - I'm looking for someone to show up on Sunday having invited more than 25 people! - But remember, the ultimate goal isn't quantity, it's building quality relationships that lead to the highest quality relationship with Jesus!)

Am I Worthy to be Jesus' Friend?

Right now, my Bible reading has me in the book of Ephesians along with the end of Judges. In Ephesians 4:1, Paul says, "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." He goes on to talk about how some of us are called to be apostles, others prophets and so on. But the thing that jumped into my brain that I can't get rid of is that Jesus told his disciples in John 15:15 that he no longer called them servants, he called them friends.

Jesus calls us his friend, which begs the question: Am I living a life worthy of being called Jesus' friend?

Have you ever spent much time around name-droppers? (That would have been a good Seinfeld episode, perhaps it was and I'm just forgetting). Name-droppers are those people who meet someone once or know a friend of a friend of a friend of someone significant, but they act like they're best buddies. Name-droppers are people who feel good using a name when it gives them an advantage, but beyond that they stick it in their file and don't do anything with it.

The truth is that it's really easy to slip into the category of name-dropper as opposed to friend when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. I'm not proud of it, but this happens to me more than I like to admit.

Here's another way to put it. In the book "Same Kind of Different as Me", a wealthy white man asks a homeless black man to be his friend. The homeless man tells him he will need to think about it. The wealthy man is taken aback by the response, but the homeless man takes his question very seriously and spends a few weeks considering it. When he comes back to respond, he asks the man if it's true that when white people fish do they really "catch-and-release." He tells him that the idea really bothers him because everyone he knows that fishes does it to survive and wouldn't dream of dropping a fish because they had no need for it. Then he looks at the white man and tells him he won't be his friend if he's going to catch-and-release, but if he truly wants to be his friend, then he'll agree to it and be his friend forever.

Jesus calls us his friends and you don't have to read much further to know that Jesus is not in the catch-and-release business. Jesus was in the whole-way-to-the-cross-lay-down-your-life-for-a-friend business.

Are we going after that kind of friendship with Jesus or are we settling for being name-droppers? Paul urges us to be more.

Loving the Unlovable

I don't know who you have trouble loving, but here are some of the people on my current top 10 list:

- the guy on the infomercial selling mineral water that is "anointed" so if you BUY it and drink it all of your debt will be miraculously erased

- the people who call themselves Christians and spend their Sunday mornings protesting outside of other churches with signs that say things like "God hates people that _______." (I've read the Bible several times and I've never read anything about the people God hates.)

- the people taking hatchets into schools in China, using them to hurt and kill little children

- the people kidnapping 5-year old girls and using them in the sex trade

...this list could go on and on.

It's interesting in some ways because, if I'm honest, there are people on death row who I could find a way to love a lot more easily than the guy on the infomercial blatantly misrepresenting Jesus and people who follow Jesus. Don't get me wrong, I get that I'm being self-righteous by loving people who haven't directly impacted my life and thus feeling good about my forgiveness-meter while despising the people who make my life and my job and my convictions more difficult. In addition to being self-righteous, that's also called hypocrisy because I preach forgiveness all the time and only practice it when it's convenient.

And so, I'm constantly convicted by the fact that Jesus loves every person on my unlovable list - even the guy going out of his way to make Him look bad. Jesus says in Matthew 5, "Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you."

Here's the thing, I don't have to love, like or condone a lot of what people do - there's even such a thing as righteous anger. But I do have to love people and see far enough to know that they are fellow children of God and people in need of God's grace just like me.

Who are you wasting time and energy hating today? What unlovable moments has God loved you through lately?

After the Message

Mama Said, Part 2 - "Say You're Sorry"

Here’s the thing – very few of us have mamas following us around all the time as adults, and even teenagers. Which means, for most of us, no one is following us around at home, at work, or at school and calling us out on our junk, making us say we’re sorry.

It’s hard to say you’re sorry – it’s humiliating. It’s also interesting how we make our kids say it all the time, but as adults we very rarely use those words. We self-justify, we ignore, we move on. After all, saying sorry makes us look weak and vulnerable, right?

We all do things we should be sorry about from time to time, and how we deal with those things matters eternally.

2 Corinthians 7:8-13,

Paul had a very special relationship with the Corinthians – often to their dismay and discomfort, Paul didn’t let them get away with stuff and called them out on their junk

- Godly sorrow leads to repentance, which leads to salvation.

How man times do we say “I’m sorry” and simply move on?

- their “I’m sorry” didn’t make them look weak, it made them look human and passionate and responsible

We can spend our whole lives brushing things aside and pretending “I’m okay, you’re okay,” but that’s to deny that we are human. We are human. We all make mistakes. We all do things and say things we regret. We have two choices:

1. Pretend they never happened and move on, tucking them away in our box of regret

2. Acknowledge we’re humans in the need of a gracious God who sent us a Savior to drive our sins away once and for all – in other words, deal with our sin and let Jesus’ forgiveness make us clean and new and more able to do and be all that we were called to do and to be

"Same Kind of Different as Me"

by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

It's been awhile since I've written about books I'm reading, but I couldn't let this one pass by. After numerous recommendations, I picked up the book "Same Kind of Different as Me" last week and read it. It was exceptional! I'm not going to tell you much of what it's about because I really want to encourage as many people as possible to read it.

I will tell you this much, it's a story about what happens when our faith in God becomes more than a Sunday event. It's about faith in action - the kind of action that leads to dirt under the fingernails and not just a nice plaque on a wall. It's about the power of Jesus to transform lives - homeless lives, wealthy lives, our lives. It's about what happens when we get truly relational and decide to love our neighbors like Jesus said.

I walked away from the book convicted and excited - not just to do more, but to do better. Do you know what I mean? I'm talking about the fact that I do a lot of stuff, but my heart isn't always in it, my motives aren't always to dig deeper and know God more, but instead to make it through. That's boring, that's meaningless (as Solomon points out repeatedly in Ecclesiastes). I want to do everything for the purpose of loving the God who made me and loving the people He loves. And that includes everything from washing dishes to preparing a message for Sunday morning. It includes talking to my neighbor across the street who lends us soy sauce when we need it and talking to the annoying people at the pool who sit in the corner and smoke.

Read the book - you might get something totally different out of it, but I promise it will be worth it.

The Day the Salsa Died

At the risk of being overly dramatic (read "exaggeration coming for purposes of conveying my point"), my heart broke last week when the manager of the Summerville Moe's told me they would no longer be making their mango salsa. The mango salsa was AMAZING (see this post). I loved Moe's before mango salsa and I will continue to love Moe's in the post-mango era, but there will forever be a void without the mango salsa. It was new, it was different, it was the perfect combination of fruit, vegetable and cilantro goodness, but now it has been tossed aside and replaced by the roasted corn salsa (also good, but nowhere near the level of the mango).

Interestingly, when the mango salsa was introduced I used it as an opportunity to wax eloquent on the necessity of change and the importance of mixing things up. I would be a hypocrite to use its demise to lament inevitable change.

You see, we all herald change when we want things to be different, but as soon as things are to our liking, we're done changing. It's the height of hypocrisy and we all do it.

And so, it's time for a gut check (myself in the greatest need). We're rocking and rolling at Ashley Ridge - things are going great! I don't have to make anything up when people ask how the church is going. I can brag for hours about the power of the Spirit, the people, the passion, the outreach and more. But, we're only 4 months in and so far we've successfully created something we love...and now, the change process begins. I can't promise a lot of things on our journey, but I can promise that Jesus will be our constant and everything else will change throughout the course of time. It has to, it must, it's an inherent feature of living organisms - and make no mistake, the body of Christ is a living, breathing, unstoppable force.

We can't afford to get comfortable with what we like, especially if our purpose is to ignite passion for Jesus Christ. When He is the one waking us up in the morning and setting our hearts on fire we will always be changing, being made new and stretching far beyond our comfort zones.

And so, farewell sweet mango salsa, you enhanced and enriched my life. Next adventure, here I come!

After the Message

Mama said, “Say thank you.” To this day, calls to see if I’ve written thank you notes. But, the thank you my mama was talking about was in response to something someone said or did for me – makes sense

I Thessalonians 5:18, Paul told us to give thanks in all circumstances - I get that we should be thankful people – lot to be thankful for, but to give thanks in all circumstances seems more than extreme

Surely he didn’t mean today’s circumstances…

Flood in Nashville, senseless murder at UVA, oil spill in Gulf Coast, bad economy, bomb scare in NY

Surely he didn’t mean "mine"…

No job, marriage in trouble, kids misbehaving, mortgage payment behind, scary medical diagnosis, etc

Really, Paul, I’ll give thanks for a lot of things I should be thankful for, but this?? They don’t make a Hallmark card for this

Only possible if we read the whole verse, “for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Without Jesus, no hope, no future and no reason to give thanks when times get tough. With Jesus, in the best and worst, we have hope and a reason to give thanks

So, we give thanks that we can be "pressed down but not crushed, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed" (2 Cor 4:8-9)

Having a forest perspective - we get into bad situations and think, “how could God let this happen and not do anything about it?” He did do something about it and His name is Jesus.

Give thanks in all circumstances, not b/c all circumstances are good, but because God has redeemed the best and the worst in Jesus Christ.

Prayers

It's National Day of Prayer and everywhere churches and communities are gathering to pray for our nation and its leaders. Many of these prayers are eloquent and prepared with a lot of thought and consideration. Many are simple yet fervent prayers prayed in the hearts of those who are hurting in places like Nashville, the Gulf Coast and the University of Virginia.

My favorite prayer of the day so far is the one shared by a friend who prayed early this morning, "Dear God, it's National Day of Prayer and I know there are lots of people waiting to talk to you, so this morning, I'll be brief."

The prayer I'll pray with Jacob tonight as I put him to bed goes something like this:

"Thank you Jesus for another day - for time to learn and grow and play. Be with all of the world you made, my family and friends and those in need. Bring me safely through the night to serve you in the morning light."

No matter what you pray today, let it be a sincere conversation with the God who made us all and holds us in the palms of His hands.

And make sure you do it again tomorrow - after all, every day is a day of prayer.

A Prayer

God, today I'm willing to do whatever you ask. Today, I am making myself completely open and available to you. Open my eyes to see you and hear you. Give me courage to go to the places where you send me and even more courage to go to the people you send me to meet. Jesus, as you have given your life for me, let me give my life to you. All that I have and all that I am is yours.

Accountability is More than Asking Questions

I've been talking A LOT lately about small groups, community and accountability - don't expect this to change anytime soon :) God is a relational God who created us to live in relationship with Him and with each other. We were designed to need each other. We were not designed to function as self-sufficient islands.

A big part of our need for each other is accountability. We are imperfect, sinful people; but, by the grace of God, we don't have to stay that way. Jesus made a way for us to be made new and overcome the sin and death we fall into all the time. But to consistently choose Jesus, to consistently choose to accept God's grace, to consistently choose to make room for God's Spirit to work in our lives, we need a gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) nudge from our friends.

But here's the thing, true accountability doesn't end with a nudge. Truly holding people accountable to a life of faith and integrity means getting involved in each other's lives, it means being willing to get dirty and even uncomfortable at times.

In his book, "Confessions of a Pastor," Craig Groeschel tells the story of a small group he was in where a woman in the group was an exotic dancer. She didn't want to live that life, but she didn't know how to get out of it. One night as their group gathered a guy in the group shared that he had a major problem with pornography. Instead of everyone pulling away from him, they surrounded him and prayed for him and the guys in the group told him they would help hold him accountable to not looking at those things. The woman watched this with tears in her eyes, and having witnessed the grace that was shown, she decided to share her story. Immediately, the group told her she needed to quit what she was doing, but they also took it a step farther. They told her they would help her find a job and they would help support her financially until she did. In other words, they made it possible for her to do what she needed to do.

It would have been a very different story if the group continued to meet every week and just ask her if she had quit, but never offered to help. I'm guessing that eventually she would have stopped coming b/c it would have felt like a place of guilt instead of a place of freedom - a place of shame instead of a place of grace.

It's not always that dramatic. How many times have you and your friends talked about your need to read your Bible and pray but your inability to find time and make time to do it? Maybe it's time to not just hold each other accountable, but get involved in each other's lives to make the time available. For example, maybe you need to carpool to get your kids to school so your friend can use the time to spend with God. Maybe you can take turns cooking enough for your family and your friend's family so the saved time can be spent with God.

I don't know what's going on in your life and where your weaknesses are, but it's time to share them with someone and it's also time to involve yourself in each other's lives.

A Fabulous Tent

God called Abraham in Genesis and Abraham spent the rest of his life moving from tent to tent as he followed God's lead. God called Paul in Acts and Paul spent the rest of his life moving from tent to tent as he followed God's lead (heck, Paul was a tentmaker). Jesus told those he met, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Follow me." (Matthew 8:19-21 and Luke 9:57-59).

These stories are inspirational and motivational, but I admit I was worried heading into the church planting world about the horror stories I'd heard from other planters about being portable. But, my friends, God has been beyond good to us and today we meet in what I think is the best "tent" anywhere. Take a look...

This is Ashley Ridge High School - the best high school in South Carolina! (This should be especially good news for the person who asked a few weeks ago how we were fitting all the people coming into our trailer for worship :)

God had greater plans than we had thought to imagine when He sent us to start Ashley Ridge Church at Ashley Ridge High School. God knew the plans He had for us to partner with the best principal, the best staff, the best teachers and the best students to make a difference in His kingdom. I get excited every time I drive out to the school b/c of the incredible energy and people who are there.

On Friday I had an opportunity to go and check out the second annual Swampfest at the football stadium - wow! Swampfest is an event put on by the Ashley Ridge students for all of the special needs students in the district from elementary schools, junior high schools and the other high schools. It was amazing to see the students reaching out to their peers and genuinely enjoying the opportunity to do so. It was inspiring to see kids giving their time to bring joy to others. Here are a few pics below, but become a fan of Ashley Ridge High School Swamp Guide on facebook and you can see lots more pictures and hear the powerful stories of what's happening at the school.

Thank you Jesus for a fabulous tent!!!!

After the Message

Final Week of Course Correction:

Setting up for long-term success means surrounding ourselves with wise counsel

Captain Obvious, right?

Solomon was the wisest guy in the world and even he went on and on about getting advice from other people

Proverbs 1:5, 2:2, 4:5, 4:7, 13:10, 16:16, 19:8, 23:23

Whether we know it or admit it, we’re all getting advice from somewhere

Who do we often ask? The people in our life who tell us what we want to hear, or the people who love us enough and are grounded enough to tell us the truth?

It makes a big difference

I Kings 12:1-11 – Rehoboam seeks the advice of those who had counseled his father; rejects their advice and goes with the advice of his buddies – things don’t turn out so well (Rehoboam replaced as king)

v. 6 – we learn two things, 1) Solomon sought advice/counsel; 2) Based on all that Solomon accomplished, we can put a lot of stock in the advice and wisdom of his advisors

v. 8 – Rehoboam rejected the advice of his father’s advisors because it wasn’t what he wanted to hear, and instead sought the advice of some childhood buddies who he knew would tell him what he wanted

Who is speaking wisdom and truth into your life?

Do you have yes-men?

Or, do you have people of faith, people who are walking with Jesus everyday

If you haven’t pro-actively sought wisdom, I promise you you’re getting it from the wrong places.

Let’s talk about the right places:

1. Bible – full of wise guys, “the Lord gives wisdom,” “from the Lord comes wisdom” – Bible only makes sense when you’re reading it as a conversation with God

2. Other people who have the same picture in mind or who have already gotten there; said last week our pursuit is God’s glory (what’s the story you want to tell?), who else is working on the same story? Who has lived the story you want to tell?

3. Come to Jesus

I LOVE IT when Churches Talk about Money!!!

Seriously, I do. I know people always say the exact opposite. And I know I had a post about money last week so I'm really making a lot of people mad. But, here's the thing. Jesus talked about it all the time and so I'm thinking we should to. I'm also being honest when I tell you that I seek out sermons from other pastors about money all the time. (Craig Groeschel, who I quoted in yesterday's post, is one of my favorites. You should check out his "Blessed" series on iTunes).

"Why?" you ask. Well, the truth is I'm not all that financially savvy and I need all the help I can get. I've got the whole 10% to God part. I'm good at that math b/c I just have to move the decimal point one spot to the left. I do that first, that money never gets touched, but then there's this other 90% leftover. It's the 90% that I need help managing.

I was taught the principle of savings at a young age - amounting to the basic idea that for every $10 I had, $1 went to God and $1 went to my piggy bank. It all made sense at the time and it all worked out. Of course, I was 10-years old at the time and so I wasn't paying for my food, clothing, shelter, cell phone, car, education, etc., etc., etc. So, $8 felt like a fortune.

Today, $8 flies out the window as soon as I pull in the Target parking lot. And, truth be told that ninth dollar that should be in my savings account often gets lost in the shuffle. There are lots of good rationales - Jacob's diapers are expensive, medical expenses are a given, car troubles can't always be accounted for, I can't wear the same shirt I wore last Sunday (as if everyone is paying attention).

It's simple but true - we all need a plan and we all need some built in safeguards to help us manage our money well, i.e. be good stewards of what God has given us. Times have been tough and the economy is still getting back on its feet, but God is faithful to provide for all we need. And He's faithful to create and use our abundance if we'll take the time to be responsible and prayerful and open with all that we have.

We've been talking for the last 3 weeks in worship about making a course correction. Do your finances need a course correction? Maybe it's time to seek some wise counsel - start in Scripture, then spend some time in prayer, then start asking people whose faith you respect and whose responsible financial choices are evident, then pray some more and read some more. Jesus said that where our treasure is our hearts are also. Let's take account of our treasure.

What's the story you want to tell someday?

Failure

"Failure is an event, not a person." -Craig Groeschel, "Confessions of a Pastor"

Have you had a really good failure recently? That's right, I said a "good failure." It's not an oxymoron. So often the best things we do happen immediately following a failure. Failure can mean we're stretching ourselves. Failure can mean we're open to creativity. Failure can mean we dared to try.

Here's the thing - it's cliche but true, if you haven't failed recently than you haven't tried to do anything extraordinary. Some people are okay with boring, but I'm not. I don't want to live a boring life and I don't think God created me to live a boring life. God created me and He created you for greatness. After all, that's why God made us in His image. If God wanted boring people He would have picked a different mold.

What is God pushing you to do that you've been pushing off? What are you dreaming about at night and working toward when you get out of bed?

Get to it, the time is now!

After the Message

(but first, a few comments/corrections/etc. - for those who found their way to this blog via the article in the Summerville Journal Scene, Welcome! And, please allow me to correct a few details: first, our worship on Sundays is at 10am, not 10:30, but we're happy to have you early, on time or late :); second, I was quoted as saying "I like to be flexible with the Scripture." I'm sure it was not intended, but this was taken far out of context. The reporter asked if I use the lectionary in my sermon preparation and I said, "Sometimes, but I like to be flexible with the Scripture I use." Meaning, I don't always use suggested readings for the week; more often I let God show me the Scriptures and the places I need to go for given Sundays and specific sermon series. I take the Word of God very seriously and I spend hours in study and prayer doing my best to be faithful to what it says and not what I want it to say.)

This Sunday was week 3 in our Course Correction series and we were talking about where we're heading. Now that we've realized how we got where we are, turned the corner and realigned our priorities, we need to have an idea where we're going and what we're aiming for. Here are the notes:

We all have images given to us in commercials and brochures of smiling, happy people and what life can look like at its very best; often cheesy and fake, but nevertheless we’re told that’s what we want

What’s the picture in your head?

Like restoring a car – we have a picture of what we want it to look like when

we’re done

Andy Stanley asks, “What’s the story you want to tell someday?”

Some would say – why bother to think about it, we can’t control the future. No, we can’t, but you’ve probably heard the expression that if you aim at nothing, you’ll probably hit your target.

What are we asking for? What are we working toward?

1 Kings 3:4-14 – Solomon, the son born to David and Bathsheba, is now king of Israel. God tells Solomon to ask Him for whatever he wants, can you imagine??

Solomon’s answer: wisdom, knowing right from wrong and acting on it,

wanting to tell a story of integrity

Doesn’t ask for fame and riches – those things not bad, but not meant to be

our pursuit. Our pursuit should always be to honor God.

If you have a clear picture of where you’re going and what you’re aiminig for, you have a better chance of getting there - and more importantly, if you have a clear sense of Who you’re trying to please, the decisions and the moves get a whole lot clearer (no one said easier, but clearer for sure)

On any course correction, on any journey… You’re going to get tired along the way and you’re going to face difficulty, but that’s all part of a good story

Donald Miller defines a story as "a character who wants something and overcomes obstacles to get it." (from his book "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years")

Pictures of Our Lives – we take pictures of the stories we want to remember to tell, what stories are we planning to tell in the future?

Giving Back

Whether you are or are not an American Idol fan, you have to give it to them that "Idol Gives Back" is an incredible thing. Last night, American Idol raised many, many millions of dollars to go to children in need around the world. Because they've been doing this for a few years, they had lots of stories to tell through the evening about places and people where the money is already making a difference. I'll admit it, I cried as I watched kids from Arizona to Africa whose lives have been changed forever by the donations given and the people who've given their lives to do the work paid for with that money.

I like the name too. Idol makes a bazillion dollars doing what they do and the people on the show profit big-time. It's fitting to see them acknowledge that they are giving back just a little of what they've been given. The money, the fame, the success - it wasn't simply theirs, it was given to them. They were given an opportunity, given a stage, given encouragement. And all through the night, as they interviewed the contestants and superstars who were there, they each said it was a privilege to be participate in Idol Gives Back.

I'm pretty sure this concept isn't new. We've all been given everything by the God who created us, and it's our privilege to give back just a little of what we've received. After all, just a little in the right hands makes a huge difference.

Imagine what just a little in the hands that created the universe does.

(As an aside, I know the church is often criticized for talking too much about money - interesting when Idol is revered for doing so - but, I wonder if it's often because people don't have certainty about where the money they're giving to the church goes. If you are part of Ashley Ridge Church, never hesitate to ask. I will show you personally where every dime goes. And, hopefully, you won't have to ask too often b/c we'll always do our best to make it apparent for all to see so that Jesus gets the glory for the great things being done in our community and around the world.)

A Few Shout-Outs

Happy Birthday to my good friend, Kevin Carter, as he celebrates his 21st! Okay, it's not really his 21st, but we'll call him 21 with 22 years of experience :)

My mom, the rock star, who drove 10 hours by herself from PA to Charleston, SC to spend the weekend with me and is now driving 9 1/2 hours by herself from SC to Ohio to meet up with my dad and spend a few days with my sister and her family - you're amazing, Mom!!!

To Wayne and Sandy All, who know how to throw a great party and cook a really good pig - loved hanging out with the Ashley Ridge family this past Saturday at our first annual pig pickin'!

To Donald Miller, a Christian author, speaker, blogger, whom I thoroughly enjoy. It's probably bad practice to send people on to other people's blogs (especially to other people's blogs that are much better and more frequently updated), but Don's is good and worth reading. This entry in particular is fantastic and fits the series I'm currently preaching.

To Jesus, who should come first, but I'm putting last in this particular case b/c He's the most important. Jesus walks with me everyday, gives me breath to breathe everyday, shows me grace everyday and so much more.

Who needs a shout-out in your life? Maybe you should stop what you're doing and call them right now.

After the Message

Course Correction, Part 2

Have you ever renovated a house or restored a car? It always takes longer than you think, you get tired along the way, frustrated, angry, run out of money, run out of steam

Driven by the idea - In the end, it’s all worth it

But it’s got to be first-things-first – if you get over-eager and paint first, you

end up redoing it or slowing the whole process

2 Samuel 12:20-31 –

Context – Nathan confronts David, the baby born to Bathsheba dies

v. 20-21 - David turns the corner and faces reality; first he goes and worships,

v. 22-23 – he realizes the past cannot be changed (we’ve got to accept God’s forgiveness and we need to give forgiveness, can’t hold onto the past)

vv. 24-25 - then he cares for his family

vv. 26-31 - then he gets back to work

Priorities re-align, we could live forever in the guilt and despair of where we are and never make the correction or we can put first things first and get back at it

God, Family, Work – always in that order

God wants to take the brokenness of the old you and make the adjustments

Now you have a story – a story of grace, a story of transformation, a story of

hope

The world needs those kinds of stories – too often the stories end at broken

when we serve a God who makes all things new

Now that we've turned the corner and made the correction, we're going to talk about staying on the path. This Sunday, we're painting the picture of where we're heading. Start thinking and praying about God's will for you and your heart's desire.

Um, really?

The woman on the treadmill in front of me at the gym last week was walking uphill at maximum incline, sweating, working hard...and drinking a large soda from McDonald's. I'm hoping the soda was at least a Diet Coke, but even still.

How often do we do things that totally contradict each other?

For example, I ran 3 miles yesterday and walked for an hour this evening. I also ate ice cream last night and I have every intention of eating ice cream tonight after I write this post. (the 1/2 fat stuff, of course :)

Another example, I cut my prayer time short this morning so I could get to church earlier. Um, really?

Here's the thing - some contradictions are just silly like the diet coke and treadmill, but others are dangerous and detrimental to people who don't know Jesus yet. Brennan Manning said, "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him with their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

We've got to get our message straight.

After the Message

Course Correction, Part One

2 Samuel 11

"How did I get here?"

Somehow along the way, we get off-course – a bad decision or two, often subtle

It’s like cutting a curb in your car – you know your SUV can take it, you’ve done it before, but there’s a long-term effect

If we’re going to make a course correction,

we need to recognize how we got where we are

2 Samuel 11, David is God’s man and yet he veers way off course – what happened?

v. 1 – David wasn’t where he was supposed to be

v. 2 – It was evening, David had been in bed, he knew people bathed at that time – let’s not pretend this was an innocent, “woops, look what I saw”

v. 6-13 – David opts for a cover-up instead of dealing with the consequences and facing up to truth – the plot thickens, and David is in a lot deeper

v. 14-17 – David gets desperate and his desperation leads to murder

We all end up here, hopefully not to this extreme, but we’ve all ended up in this place of being off-course at some point in our lives, often with the best intentions

Here’s the good news – Jesus went to the cross and already took care of all

our sin!

Here’s the follow-up – He didn’t do it so we could keep on sinning!

Some of you have decided it’s easier to continue in the sin you’re caught up in

than turning around, facing the consequences and dealing with it.

Gotta build a hedge, have some accountability

This week's assignment - spend time with Jesus, find someone in your life to hold you accountable.

Get Wisdom

We started studying Proverbs this morning in my small group, and in my personal reading I've been reading a chapter of Proverbs every day since January along with my other OT and NT readings - which means, for those of you doing the math, I'm at the beginning of my fourth time through the book. Some may call that repetitive (and redundant :), but I have to say the repetition has been really good for me. After all, it's a book of wisdom and goodness knows I need as much of that as I can get everyday.

Several times in the opening chapters of Proverbs, we're instructed to "get wisdom." Specifically in Proverbs 4:5, it says "Get wisdom, get understanding." Often we think of wisdom as a virtue that comes with age and experience. That's true, but it's also something we should actively pursue and not just wait to be struck with.

Here are some ways I have been pursuing wisdom recently:

- I read a chapter of Proverbs everyday (you didn't see that coming, did you?)

- I pray specifically for wisdom - wisdom in decision-making for me and for Ashley Ridge Church, wisdom in parenting, wisdom in speaking with grace and truth, etc.

- I call my mom everyday - she's a fount of wisdom and she's unafraid to set me straight

- I meet once-a-month with a woman I greatly admire who is about 5-6 years older than me, which means she's a few steps ahead of me in marriage, kids, walk with Jesus, etc. I share my life with her and she holds me accountable

- I surround myself with people who ask questions and don't just tell me what I want to hear

How are you pursuing Godly wisdom?

JESUS IS ALIVE!!!!

and

Duke is the National Champion

The Masters Starts This Week

It's Gorgeous Outside

You better believe this Jesus-followin', Blue Devil livin' in the sunny South is a happy girl! But you know what...

Butler could have won, the Masters could have been cancelled and it could be raining outside and I would still be singing because JESUS IS ALIVE and nothing can take that away!!!

"Pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire!" 1 Thessalonians 5:17-19

One (John 17)

As if Jesus hadn't done enough for the disciples already that evening (washing their feet, feeding them, sharing what the future held for them), as the meal ended Jesus prayed for his disciples - a beautiful, passionate, heartfelt prayer.

In fact, if you only have a few minutes to read today - go read John 17 and skip the rest of this post.

Jesus told God the Father that we belong to Him. Jesus asked God to protect us and sanctify us. And then, Jesus prayed that we would be one so that the whole world would have an opportunity to know Him.

Do you think Jesus knew in that moment that we were going to have a bazillion denominations, schisms within denominations, in-fighting in our own churches? Do you think Jesus knew there would be blog posts and newspaper articles from pastors bad-mouthing other pastors? Do you think Jesus knew we were going to look at each other and say, "You're not as good a Christian as I am b/c you fall short in a particular area of sin (you know, the one that doesn't get to me even though I probably fall short in an area that doesn't get to you)?"

I'm guessing he had a pretty good idea, b/c of all the things Jesus could have prayed, he chose to pray for our unity. Jesus knew that the world would look to the church as an indicator of who He is and what faith is all about. And so, Jesus' prayer for future believers was that Christians (people like me and you) wouldn't mess them up.

In this world, there will always be differences of opinion, style preferences, and doctrinal debates, but this week of all weeks, let's agree to agree on what all of us can agree on - JESUS.

Jesus is the one who gave EVERYTHING for you and me. And not just you and me, he did it for the world, and if the world is going to hear and know that Jesus is Lord than we have to pull together and let that be the message we send.

What messages are we sending to the world that get in the way of others seeing Jesus? What messages are you sending with your own life that keep people from wanting to know Jesus?

There's good news - Jesus died for all of those imperfections in us and in the church. Now we need to move forward together, with one voice, shouting the name of Jesus from city to city and house to house.