Tag Archive - Atlanta

se7en

March 6, 2011 in se7en with 0 Comments

bono

Bono on Jesus, grace and religion. His answer for those who argue about the differences between the Old Testament portrayal of God and the New Testament portrayal of Jesus is probably the best I’ve heard or read. HT: Tyler Braun.

A recent study revealed that white Evangelical Christians are the group least likely to support politicians or policies that reflect the actual teachings of Jesus. While I don’t completely agree with the Huffington Post’s assessment, the Pew Forum research itself does beg the question: do Evangelicals hate Jesus?

When Truth Is the Enemy of Truth.

Tyler asks a great question: What shifts in Christianity and within churches have you seen already taking place in the last 2 years?

Speaking of shifts, Shaun King announced that today he will begin his final sermon series at Courageous Church. No, Courageous Church isn’t shutting down, and Shaun isn’t leaving either. Instead, Courageous Church is making a huge shift in their ministry philosophy and the way they approach discipleship, service and living out the gospel, which has me greatly intrigued.

Three More Books

September 30, 2010 in Reviews with 1 Comment

153

Because I posted my review of Free Book* yesterday, I was eligible to request another book from BookSneeze, Thomas Nelson’s book review program for bloggers. The setup is pretty simple: I request an available book, they send it (FREE), I read it and then post a review on my blog and a consumer purchase website (Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million or ChristianBook.com) and then I’m eligible to request and receive another book. Sometimes the selection is slim (in my opinion). But then there are times like last night…

So I logged into my account at BookSneeze, provided the links for my reviews and then clicked on “Available Books”. All I could say was WOW. It’s one thing when there’s only one book that looks interesting, but they had three!!! How do I choose from three that I’ve heard about for awhile now and want to read?

The first book listed was Andy Stanley’s latest, The Grace of God. If you’ve spent any time browsing through this site, you know I love Andy Stanley. He is definitely in my top three preachers I enjoy listening to, but I haven’t (regrettably) read too many of his books. So the chance to get one sent to me for free was definitely appealing. Not to mention the fact that I just recently bought three books and received three others as gifts around my birthday, so my budget for buying more books has pretty much been put on hold, at least until I finish reading the ones I already own.

The next book that caught my attention was Transforming Church in Rural America, by Shannon O’Dell. I’ve never heard of O’Dell, but the title is what caught my attention. If you’ve stepped foot into a Christian bookstore or the Christian section of a mainstream bookstore anytime over the past decade, you’ve probably seen dozens upon dozens of books aimed at “new” ways of doing church. Whether it’s resuscitating a dying church or transforming a traditional church or starting a missional church, if you are looking to “do church differently”, there’s a book for that. However, many of those books seem to have one thing in common: they’re all focused on churches in large metropolitan areas. Don’t get me wrong – I love guys like Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, John Burke, etc. But the majority of books I’ve read on church transformation, church planting and church growth are centered around churches in large, sprawling metropolises. It’s the same argument I hear about many church conferences as well. And I get why guys like Mark Driscoll, Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel are mainstays at many church conferences – they’ve been there and done that. Buckhead Church (Atlanta, GA) likes to use a certain statistic to create a sense of urgency amongst their members when it comes to sharing the Gospel: there are approximately 300,000 unchurched people that live within a 10 mile radius of Buckhead Church. That gets me excited, and I don’t even live there. But here’s the thing – I don’t live in a metro area. I live in West Monroe, LA, which is located in Ouachita Parish. According to the U.S. census website, the 2009 population estimate for Ouachita Parish is 151,502 people. If you break it down by city, the two major cities are West Monroe and Monroe, with 2009 population estimates of 12,910 and 51,640, respectively. My point is not that there isn’t a mission field in Ouachita Parish – quite the contrary, I know there are many young, unchurched seekers in their 20′s and 30′s, who have been both completely turned off by the church and, in large part, neglected by the church. I know this because I see them every day I’m at work, hang out with them in my spare time and, to be quite honest, have more in common with them than with the Church in Ouachita Parish, seeing as how I’ve yet to find a local church home since moving back to Louisiana two years ago. My point is, there are so many people in a metro area that reaching people is not the problem. When I lived in Atlanta, I remember my pastor, Brent, telling us, “Getting people into church won’t be a problem. Keeping the church on mission will be the problem.” And he was right. We had no problem attracting people to our church plant (which is about to celebrate it’s second birthday this weekend!!), but for every unchurched person that came out, there seemed to be a disgruntled Christian who had just left their church, and it’s people like that who hijack the mission of the church. Being in a smaller environment is one of the reasons O’Dell’s book intrigues me. Many of the unchurched people I encounter have a history with the Church and Christianity. And for most of them, it’s not a good history. As Dan Kimball would say, “they like Jesus, but not the Church”. Yet I believe the local church, in one form or another, is part of God’s plan for redeeming communities and bringing people to Christ. Whether it’s a traditional church that meets in a building on Sunday mornings or a home Bible study that meets on a Thursday night, it’s church. So Transforming Church in Rural America intrigues me because not everyone is called to move to a big city to start a church from the ground up. Some are called to start churches in smaller towns and cities, while others are called to work in existing churches and be used of God to transform those churches and get them back on mission.

The third book that caught my attention was The Gospel According to Jesus, by Chris Seay. I’ve always heard good things about Chris Seay and the church he pastors, Ecclesia Houston, and the synopsis by BookSneeze sounded rather interesting as well.

True Christianity is about restoring what is broken.

Surveys indicate that 84 percent of Christians have a misunderstanding of the true meaning of the word righteousness. Referring to God’s restoration of our sinfulness and not personal piety or some code of moral purity, pastor Chris Seay offers that Jesus came to breathe life and light into the depths of all darkness.

This gospel that lives according to the ways of Christ is the true Christianity. It gives us a new way to see the world and brings God’s restoration to marriages, to the sick and diseased, even to the environment, and he offers a deeply personal spiritual transformation for all followers of Christ.

Whether it’s building a park bench at a bus stop or bringing groceries to the sick, the gospel of Jesus restores the heart, the mind, and the body.

So I finally decided to go for Andy Stanley’s book, The Grace of God. But when I clicked on the request button, I was greeted with a message which said, “This book will not count toward your total of one book request allowed at a time.”

SWEET!!!

The catch? I have to post my review of the book on October 19. Not before, not after, but on October 19.

I then moved on to Shannon O’Dell’s book, Transforming Church in Rural America. Shockingly, I got the same message, except the review date is October 11. That may cut my time to read somewhat short, depending upon how long it takes them to get the book to me.

So I then clicked on Chris Seay’s book, The Gospel According to Jesus, and thankfully, no due date on it. So sometime within the next 2-9 days I should be receiving these three books, which means throughout the month of October you’ll be getting three more book reviews.

Losing Your Religion

August 12, 2009 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

Promo: “Losing Your Religion” from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Sunday, August 16 Andy Stanley will begin a new series entitled Losing Your Religion.

Why am I writing a post about it?

Because this new series is also the kick-off of North Point Online.

Go check out their site and tune in Sunday nights at 6pm eastern/5pm central.

North Point Online

July 28, 2009 in Church with 2 Comments

North Point Online launches August 16, 2009, live from Buckhead Church at 6:00 pm eastern (5:00 pm central). Steve Fee will be leading worship for the first service and Andy Stanley will be kicking off a new, four part series called Losing Your Religion. The bumper for the series looks awesome (as always with NP); hopefully they’ll make that available to the public to embed in blogs, Facebook, etc. soon.

Anyways, new promo video just released today.

Here’s the manly, Terminator version, as Andy called it.

Next Is Now

September 24, 2008 in Church with 1 Comment

**UPDATE**

You can now watch the entire service from the final 7|22 at 722.org Click on the all access link and Next Is Now should be listed first. Just make sure to mute the audio player that is floating on the right side of the page.

 

Last night was the final 7|22.

 

Ever.

 

The theme of the night was Next Is Now, mainly because ever since Jarrett announced the end of 7|22 in July, everyone has been asking “What’s next?”. They even passed out business cards with the Next Is Now graphic on the front and nothing on the back, along with golf pencils. 

 

Jarrett began his message with 1 Chronicles 28:1-6.

 

1 David assembled at Jerusalem all the officials of Israel, the officials of the tribes, the officers of the divisions that served the king, the commanders of thousands, the commanders of hundreds, the stewards of all the property and livestock of the king and his sons, together with the palace officials, the mighty men and all the seasoned warriors. 2 Then King David rose to his feet and said: Hear me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God, and I made preparations for building. 3 But God said to me, You may not build a house for my name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood. 4 Yet the Lord God of Israel chose me from all my father’s house to be king over Israel forever. For he chose Judah as leader, and in the house of Judah my father’s house, and among my father’s sons he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel. 5 And of all my sons (for the Lord has given me many sons) he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. 6 He said to me, It is Solomon your son who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.

 

If you want to know about the layout of the temple and it’s history and what all went on there, you can Google it or go to Wikipedia. The one thing Jarrett made mention of was the Holy of Holies. This is where God “resided”. Of course, we know that God is everywhere, but this was where the High Priest would come once a year to make an offering to God. Solomon’s temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. It’s replacement was built between 537 B.C. and 515 B.C. and later renovated by Herod the Great. Jarrett compared Herod’s renovation to our churches in 2008 by saying “How often do we as Christians, and especially church staff, think ‘We should add ministry department XYZ to our church; that’ll bring in more people.’” And he’s right – I’ve heard plenty of messages that were really just pep rallies for a new ministry or idea that was supposed to flood the church with unchurched people. And it didn’t. 

 

Jarrett continued by quoting Matthew 27:50-51

 

50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

Not going to go too deep here, but what happened was at the exact moment Jesus died (thus becoming the ultimate sacrifice for our sins), the curtain separating the people from the Holy of Holies was torn down the middle, thereby ending the separation between God and man. God was no longer restricted to a certain space; no longer did you have to go to a certain place to worship God. 

Jarrett then quoted 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Growing up in church, this scripture was used many times; but not in the context in which Jarrett used it. This was always the “Don’t get tattoos, don’t get piercings, don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t do ANYTHING!” scripture. I have two tattoos and you would not believe how many times I’ve had this scripture quoted at me. “You have tattoos!?! Don’t you know you are the temple of God? 1 Corinthians 3:17 says that you are the temple of God and that you aren’t supposed to destroy that temple and a tattoo is destroying your body because Leviticus says no tattoos!”

However, here’s how Jarrett used this scripture: YOU are the temple; YOU are the church. It is not about this building (i.e. wherever you meet for services). If you’re sitting here waiting for the unchurched to come here to this building to hear the Gospel, you’ll be waiting a long time. YOU are the church.

Before someone misunderstands me, church (corporate gathering) is a good thing. At least, its supposed to be. But if we are not going out into the world and being God’s light, then what’s the point? That doesn’t mean to go to your local mall and ask every person you see “Do you know Jesus?”. You don’t want to alienate people. But you don’t want to ignore divine appointments either. Each of us should know someone who doesn’t know Jesus. It could be a friend, coworker or relative. And if you don’t know any non-Christians, what are you doing? Get out there; befriend people. Invest time in people’s lives. Love them. I have a friend that I’ve known for nearly twenty years; he still isn’t a Christian. He knows I am, he knows what I believe. He’s been to church with me many times; yet, he still is not a Christian. I don’t know why; that’s between him and God. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to give up and cut all ties with him. Why? Because, our friendship is not dependent upon his salvation, but his salvation may be dependent upon our friendship. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” I may be the only Jesus he ever sees.

 

By this time, Jarrett was at the end of his message. He reminds us of the cards and pencils we received when we arrived and says, in essence:

Sure, we could continue 7|22. Or we could replace it with another ministry. And it could bring in thousands more. But what if doing so would cause us to miss out on something huge God is doing now? What we’ve been asking God for the past few months is, “What are you doing now? Where is God working now?”. It’s a cliche now, but it still applies: Instead of asking God to bless what you’re doing, maybe you should ask God to show you what He is doing.

Jarrett then asked us to take the next couple minutes to write on the back of our card what we feel God stirring in us. He gave some examples that people had emailed him. One was a couple that had met at 7|22; they’ve started a small ministry where they cook food and then take it to the homeless. Instead of making the homeless go to a soup kitchen or food pantry, they go to the homeless, wherever they’re at. Another person emailed Jarrett saying that he was starting a website where people could anonymously ask questions about God, Jesus, Christianity, etc. that maybe they wouldn’t feel comfortable asking face to face. So here’s what I wrote: Northeast Louisiana. Ever since I left last year, I’ve felt a burden for my home. And seeing what God is doing through churches in the Atlanta metroplex actually makes that burden more painful. The churches here aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty; they’re not afraid to go into the world and love. And they aren’t afraid to help each other. That alone made a huge impact on me – to see churches lift each other up in prayer, to see churches offering resources and training to each other instead of competing and tearing each other down. But while all that is awesome, it reminds me of Northeast Louisiana, where churches don’t get along very well. They aren’t very open to helping each other. It is more about who has the largest attendance, instead of being about going into the community and making your community a better place. We’ve forgotten what it’s all about: it isn’t about who has the best music department, or children’s department, or youth group, or holiday celebrations – it’s about Jesus and making Him famous. We’re focused more on doing church than on being the church.

 

What does this mean for me? I don’t really know. I’m still waiting on an answer from God. The only thing I know for sure is it means spending more time in the community than in church. I’m sure some people will ask, “Why’d you leave in the first place?” God. I truly believe God brought me to Atlanta, even if only for a year, so I could see examples of the Great Commission being done correctly. Church done right. Some may say this is a financial decision, but the truth is, I’ve been feeling this way for several months now; finances have only dictated that I leave now, as opposed to putting it off. To be honest, if I had spent less time wrestling with God maybe I would have left earlier, before finances became an issue.

So what’s next? Only God knows, but next is now.

 

J

Staying Focused

July 16, 2008 in Church with 0 Comments

For those who’ve been living under a rock the past two months, Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin announced in May that they are going to plant a church in downtown Atlanta. And since that announcement I’ve heard nothing but worry from people in this area. From friends (from my church and from other churches), other pastors and even on blogs written by area pastors. The recurring theme seems to be, “Great. How are we supposed to compete with that?”.

YOU DON’T.

I believe that every church should seek the will of God so they may find their own identity, but not to set themselves apart from the pack. Church isn’t about making your service and atmosphere unique so that you attract Christians to your church. I don’t want more “Christians” joining churches!

Don’t misunderstand that last statement; being part of a church plant, I totally understand you need Christians in church to lead and for structure. But the primary responsibility of the church is to reach out to the lost. If your biggest concerns are centered around keeping the current members happy and having the coolest services so you can impress other “church people”, you are shooting yourself in the foot. I’ll say it right now: if you come to Four Points expecting a North Point, Fellowship, Gateway, Mars Hill, etc., atmosphere, you will be disappointed. Not that I have anything against those churches. They are all doing great work in their communities and are great churches to admire, and to some degree emulate. However, we don’t have the budget or resources of any of those churches. But if you visit Four Points I can guarantee this: you will see us using what we do have to the best of our abilities, you will see us doing everything with excellence, you will experience genuine worship, you will hear a Biblically sound message and most importantly, you will be loved.

 

To wrap things up, here’s the point: do what God has called you to do and do it with excellence. Four Points has a different calling on it than the churches I listed above, just as they each have different callings than each other. If you’re worried about competition from the church next door, you should rethink things a bit. We’re all on the same team; no one church can do this on their own.

 

J

AtlantaFest

June 21, 2008 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

So I just got back from day two of AtlantaFest at Stone Mountain. Wow. First, I have to say thanks to Telitha; not only did she get me free passes to the concert, but the passes she got for me allowed me access to pretty much anywhere I wanted. The only restrictions were that I couldn’t go on the stage itself or in the office without being accompanied by someone with an all access pass.

So day one was pretty cool. We ate dinner in the artist/staff cafe and then wandered around the grounds a bit. Took the cable car ride up to the top of Stone Mountain which was cool and then got back to the concert grounds in time to catch tobyMac’s performance, which was amazing. Especially considering that he is 43. He had more energy than most of the audience. Of course, Ignition and Boomin‘ were awesome live, but for a guy that grew up on dc Talk, getting to hear In the Light and Jesus Freak live was priceless.

Day two we showed up in time for dinner again, but this is where things got interesting. Telitha, Dan and I are eating dinner when a guy asks if he can sit with us. I look over to say yes and it’s Mike from Tenth Avenue North along with his wife. So they joined us and we chatted for awhile. Got to talk about the church plant with him a bit and I gave him an impact card. Not that I expect him to visit, since they live in Nashville, but who knows; networking? Anyways, we’re just talking and then Mark from Sanctus Real comes over and sits down with us. By now I was totally stoked. And both guys were so down to earth. I know that sounds cliched, but there was no attitude or ego from either. Just really genuine, honest, open nice people.

So dinner is over, we say our goodbyes and go our separate ways. Dan and I decide to go back to the car and get the video camera, cause wouldn’t it be cool if we could get someone to do a little Four Points promo on camera? We get back to the cafe area and guess who just happens to be hanging around outside the Chick-Fil-A bus?

Jeremy Camp.

Yes, the Jeremy Camp.

And guess what?

We got the video.

I’ll post it soon enough. I’m gonna edit it a bit so we can display it at church. Then I’ll put it online. But that was just flippin’ awesome.

So after that, we wandered around a bit more. Dan decided he wanted to ride the cable car again, so I went and listened to Barlow Girl for a few minutes before heading to the second stage to check out Day of Fire. Awesome band live. What was really cool was that their front of house mixer was on the floor level, so I was able to go and sit with the engineer and just watch him do his thing. Really cool for a geek like me.

After Day of Fire, it was time to head back to the main stage for Jeremy Camp. What can I say, it was an awesome set. Little bit of new stuff, several classics and even a worship set thrown in. Great show. I was a little skeptical, but I really enjoyed myself the past two days. Really wish I could be there tomorrow (okay, tonight) for Big Daddy Weave, but I’ve got my own band to take care of and I wouldn’t trade them for any band at AtlantaFest.

 

J

UFC

June 6, 2008 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

So I check my voicemail earlier and there’s a message from Dan.

 

Rumor has it that UFC 88 will be in Atlanta!!!!

 

If you aren’t a fan of UFC, then you probably won’t care; but for anyone who is a fan and lives in the ATL area, this is huge. Think of it this way: the Superbowl is in your city and you actually have a chance at getting tickets WITHOUT selling your firstborn for them. The UFC holds the majority of their events in Las Vegas and there is stiff competition for the handful that are held outside of Vegas simply because an arena knows they will have a guaranteed sellout. The only other arena I can think of that the UFC frequents in the United States would be the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA.

 

On top of all that, the other part of the rumor is that Chuck Liddell will he headlining the card.

 

For me, it’s a done deal. The chance to see Chuck fight live is worth the price of admission alone.

 

As for location and date, most of what I’ve read is pointing to the Philips Arena on September 6.

 

J