Thought Provoking

As I was reading this morning I came across a quote from English spiritual writer Anthony Bloom. Regarding prayer he said,

"We complain that God does not make himself present to us for the few minutes we reserve for him, but what about the twenty-three and a half hours during which God may be knocking at our door and we answer, 'I am busy. I am sorry.' Or when we do not answer at all because we do not even hear the knock at the door of our heart, of our mind, of our conscience, of our life. So their is a situation in which we have no right to complain of the absence of God, because we are a great deal more absent than he ever is."

It really made me stop and think about how much God desires communion with us. God desires to commune with us through every part of the day, not just the times we traditionally set aside for prayer. He wants to give us an awareness of his presence even in the mundane and ordinary experiences of life.

3 Aspects of a Leadership Culture

We just finished our first all-church leadership meeting! Ministry is definitely done best as a team. Such a privilege to dream and serve with such amazing leaders. I gave short talk on building a leadership culture. As Jesus is leading us into a new season at ACC, He's calling us to do three things. This was my basic outline:

Permission to:

Dream Big
- Mark 9:23 “Everything is possible for him who believes”
- Don’t let how keep you from pursuing the dream
- There’s nothing we can’t do, there’s only things we haven’t done

Take Risks
- Have you ever played a risky game? The fun starts when someone gets really daring.
- “The greatest risk is taking no risk at all”
- “Our greatest regrets in life will be the things we didn’t do, the opportunities we didn’t seize”

Make Mistakes
- If we’re not making mistakes, we’re probably not doing things right
- It’s ok to make mistakes. We just don’t want to make the same mistakes twice.

In other words, Go for it!

Coffee Tip

Many of you know that I love coffee and am a Starbucks frequenter. Through my experiences I've developed a stirring method which I would love to pass along. Because I like to stir in my cream and sugar for more than five seconds I've found it necessary to avoid using the wooden stirrer they provide.

In my experience, if you stir too long with the wooden stirrer, your entire cup of coffee tastes like wood. Unless you like that effect I suggest a different approach. Instead of using the wooden stirrer, I prefer to use one of the short, green, plastic straws for my stirring. This will enable you to stir for as long as you want without having to worry about your coffee tasting like wood.

I know that you will sleep better tonight now that you have this knowledge :)

Spiritual Intensity

As I was reading through Romans 12:9-21 I got stuck on a pretty cool insight. It says in verse 11, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." I don't know about you, but I think sometimes we tend to view spiritual intensity as something that just kind of comes on us during revival moments or special services. Kind of like something that just happens in seasons and comes upon us unexpectedly. I'm not discrediting revivals and special seasons of God's blessing, but I think Paul is getting at something that transcends meetings and events. He's talking about a day to day lifestyle of spiritual passion.

What Paul is teaching here is that spiritual intensity can be cultivated and sustained. He even dares to say "never be lacking in zeal." Not only can it be nurtured and kept alive, it must. It's sort of like logs on a fire. If we refuse to continually put fresh wood and fuel on it it will eventually die. A spiritual fire is maintained the same way.

When it comes to sustaining a passion for God, intimacy sustains intensity. If we aren't spending time experiencing God in a fresh way daily, our spiritual fire will burn out. I'm not talking about doing "chore" devotions out of a sense of obligation. I'm talking about really encountering the living God through his word. In other words, we need to be cultivating a daily, interactive relationship with God.

I really believe our souls were created for fellowship with God. That place of intimacy with him is the only place we will ever truly be fulfilled. Experiencing God's unconditional, limitless love for us awakens and fans the flame of love and passion in our hearts back to God. So, Paul's exhortation to "never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord" is really an invitation to experience life to the fullest, the life we were created to live.

20 Exhortations to Maintain a Healthy Church

Just finished our board meeting for April! It's a privilege to minister and work with such amazing people. I shared a basic list of exhortations from the Apostle Paul. Thought I might blog about them here:

This list of exhortations from the Apostle Paul describes powerfully how a healthy church should operate. The church is not primarily a building or an organization but people. It is the community of believers in Jesus Christ sharing one heart and mind, wholeheartedly pursuing the mission of Jesus here on earth.

For the mission to be fulfilled in its greatest capacity there are certain characteristics that it must embody. Here in Romans 12:9-21, the Apostle Paul gives a straightforward list of exhortations that need to define the way the church relates to itself and to the world.

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice;mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him;if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

1). Love sincerely
2). Hate evil
3). Be devoted to one another
4). Keep spiritual fervor serving the Lord
5). Be joyful in hope
6). Be patient in affliction
7). Be faithful in prayer
8). Share with the needy
9). Demonstrate hospitality
10). Bless persecutors
11). Rejoice with those who rejoice
12). Weep with those who weep
13). Live in harmony with one another
14). Do not be proud, associate with the lowly
15). Do not repay evil back with evil
16). Do what is right before others
17). Live at peace with everyone
18). Do not seek revenge
19). Bless enemies
20). Do not be overcome by evil, overcome it with good

I love how straightforward Paul is on all this. You can't go wrong working these characteristics into the heart of your church. This is definitely the kind of church I want to be a part of!

Weekend Reflections

Saturday morning we had the privilege of joining the committee to clean and beautify Ambridge for their Spring kick-off. A group of about 12 of us from ACC hit the streets with probably about 40 other people for a couple hours of spring cleaning! I can't think of a more appropriate way of demonstrating love for a community than helping to clean it up.

In service on Sunday I really felt an exceptional spirit of joy and enthusiasm during the worship time. The atmosphere was just charged with expectancy. I gave a message called "The Unstoppable Church" from Matthew 16:13-18. We looked at the importance of having a right belief about who God is, how Peter's confession, "You are the Christ the Son of the living God" is the true foundation of the church, and the indestructability of the church, which the gates of hell can never overcome.

The gates of hell will never prevail against the church of the living God! Gates are stationary, defensive structures. So many times, as the church, we take a retreatist mentality. We go into hibernation mode and hide from the world. There's one problem with that: The church is called to play offense! There is nothing we have to fear because we are being led by the One who has all authority in heaven and earth. It doesn't matter what sport you're playing, you won't win if you don't play offense. I think a lot of times we disguise our fear as caution. I'm not saying that there won't be times to scale back and huddle, but when it's motivated by fear it's not of God.

We concluded by illustrating this with the story of Esther. She decides, despite the risk to her life to go before the king and plead for her people. I love the resolve she displayed, "If I perish, I perish." She wasn't going to be remembered as a loser. She knew she was created for "such a time as this" and she didn't retreat in fear.

Really makes me want to go for it!

Jephthah

I'm really enjoying the current Bible reading plan I'm working through right now. I appreciate it because it helps keep me accountable to read through the Bible in a year. I haven't done it for a couple of years and I'm really getting a lot out of it. If you're like me, if you don't have a plan it won't get done :)

I was reading through Judges the other day when I came across the story of Jephthah. At a time when Israel was in bondage to the Philistines and Ammonites because they were worshipping idols and other gods, the Lord raised up Jephthah to deliver them. I like how the Bible first describes him. It says "Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute." Isn't it awesome to see that some of the people most greatly used by God came from the most unlikely situations? Jephthah didn't allow his scandalous heritage to keep him from becoming a mighty warrior in God's sight. In Judges 11:3 his family actually drove him away because he was the son of a prostitute!

I just love his reaction. "So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a group of adventurers gathered around him and followed him." I love that!

Jephthah eventually led Israel out of Ammonite captivity. I think the Christian leaders of the future won't necessarily be the ones with the best heritage, but the ones willing to stand up and become warriors despite what the world thinks of them. Oh that God would raise up leaders and adventurers to bring freedom to people shackled in darkness!

(I think I might have to preach on this sometime :)

LSBC

Had a great time this morning at the Leader's Serving Beaver County quarterly breakfast. It was a privilege to meet so many people serving in leadership in different parts of Beaver County. This quarter's meeting was in Aliquippa and the keynote speaker was Keith Starcher, a professor at Geneva College. Great to see so many people committed to God's purposes in revitalizing Beaver Co. I'm learning the importance of connections. God's heart for our communities is so much bigger than any one church or business. The more we can link arms with one another the more we can accomplish for his Kingdom!

Book: Next Generation Leader

Just finished reading Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley. It's pretty much one of the best books on leadership I've ever read. It's pretty small and very easy to read. It's already on my list of re-reads! The book is centered around five principles which he says are the fundamentals of leadership.

These five principles are:
competence, courage, clarity, coaching, and character.

The competence section focuses on identifying your core competencies and discovering the gifts and strengths that God has given you. He talks about how you don't need to be good at everything and that good leaders focus on developing their strengths. They realize that their weaknesses are somebody else's strengths. Some of the things that are hard for you to do actually energize other people. So, by focusing on your strengths you are giving someone else the opportunity to flourish. Conversely, if you are always micromanaging your weaknesses, you're robbing someone else of the opportunity to leverage their strengths.

The courage section talks about how wherever there is great fear, there is great opportunity. He used the story of David and Goliath to demonstrate this reality. He talked about letting your vision drive you. Let the what precede the how. We should not let the how questions deter us from pursuing what could be and should be. We should not let the how questions, no matter how impossible, paralyze us and keep us from going after the dreams God has given us. He also talks about having the courage to say no, the courage to face current reality, and the courage to dream. He says, "The leader who accomplishes great things will not always be the most talented or the best educated - it will be the leader who refuses to put brackets on his thinking. It will be the leader who refuses to limit himself by what others have done or failed to do."

The clarity section discusses how uncertainty underscores the need for leadership. He says that clarity of vision is more important than certainty of outcome. He talks about how every great idea came in contrast to someone's current reality. He says, "In the beginning there is always enough uncertainty to shut down a vision - thus the need for leadership."

The coaching section develops the need for a leadership coach. We will never grow in our leadership capacity without someone pushing us to become better. A good leadership coach doesn't measure us with other people, but against our own potential. They push us to be the best "us" that we can be. A leadership coach can give you honest feedback on how you're doing because he is helping you see yourself from a different perspective than you may not have seen before. Having a leadership coach requires the leader to have a teachable spirit and not limit himself by thinking he has all the answers. He ends the section by encouraging us not only to find a leadership coach, but to be a coach for someone else and help them to become better.

The character section was probably the strongest section of the book in my opinion. He talks about how character makes you a leader worth following and that your character determines you legacy. He says "Character is the will to do what's right even when it's hard." He talks about the importance of deciding ahead of time what your reaction will be when faced with a decision to compromise your values. He talks about how "there's no cramming for a test of character, they are always pop-quizzes." They'll come when your not ready for them. When they come, who you really are will come out. Another good thing he talked about was how we never need to violate the principles of God to maintain the blessings of God. He says, "To become a leader worth following, you must give time and attention to the inner man. To leave a legacy that goes beyond accomplishment alone, a leader must devote himself to matters of the heart."

Really good stuff. I heartily recommend this book to anyone in leadership.

Bush At Virginia Tech

Here is a quote from the President which he gave at a convocation today on campus. His comments were directed towards the student body and those affected by the tragedy.

"People who have never met you are praying for you, they're praying for your friends who have fallen and who are injured. There's a power in these prayers, a real power. In times like this, we can find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God. As the Scripture tells us 'Dont be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good'."

Current Podcasts

I was recently asked which podcasts I subscribe to. Thought I might share them here. As of now my podcast subscriptions include Desiring God, Mosaic, Northpoint Ministries, National Community Church, and OneThing.

Desiring God is basically the preaching ministry of John Piper from Minneapolis, MN. John is a master exegete with a traditional flavor. Mosaic is the ministry of Erwin McManus from LA. McManus is a great, non-traditional communicator. Northpoint is Andy Stanley from GA. Andy is another good communicator, very down to earth. National Community Church is Mark Batterson from DC. Mark is a very innovative and creative pastor. OneThing is the young adult ministry from the International House of Prayer, KC, MO. OneThing is very passionate and focused on prayer, worship, fasting, healing, prophecy, and preaching.

Each is different, but all are good!

Weekend Reflections

This past weekend was awesome. Friday night we got to attend the Rochester High School play "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." So proud to see Mike Winich, one of our youth students play Judah. It was a great show.

Had a great time Saturday night giving the prayer at the Beaver County Young Life banquet at Geneva College. Young Life is an amazing ministry reaching junior high and high school kids for Christ. At the banquet we got to hear a testimony from Neil Berger, a Sophomore at Ambridge High School who gave his life to Christ through the ministry of Young Life and is now actively involved in our church. My friend Jason Smith, Area Director of Young Life in Beaver County and his staff are doing a phenomenal job reaching teenagers with the message of Jesus Christ!

Church Sunday was great. We concluded the series "Fit To Be Untied" with a message called "Freedom Catalysts." We discussed how each of us are called to know God and make him known. Each of us were created to leave a mark in history. God has given each of us the calling and responsibility of spreading his kingdom. In a way, all of us are preachers because our lifestyles proclaim something. We looked at how God desires that our lifestyles would in every way proclaim his life-transforming power.

We saw from Matthew 9:35-10:8 that ministry flows from compassion, calling, and his power that we have received. Each of us are called to be catalysts, sparking a chain reaction of freedom in the lives of the broken and hurting people around us. The closer we get to Jesus the more of his compassion we will feel when we see people. Christ's calling qualifies us for ministry, not our abundance or lack of credentials. True spiritual authority comes not from paper, but from God. What matters is not education or titles, but a burning passion for Jesus and a love for people. We certainly shouldn't downplay education or training, but it can never substitute for relying on God's power. What a privelege we have been given, to freely give to others what God has given to us!

Finishing "Fit To Be Untied"

This weekend we will conclude our 3-part series called Fit to Be Untied after a brief break for Resurrection Day. In this series we've been examining the subject of freedom in Christ.

In the first message we looked at Isaiah 61 and saw how Jesus came to proclaim freedom to the captives and release those bound in darkness. We talked about how, apart from Christ, we are powerless to do anything about our sinful condition. We need to be delivered by someone with greater authority than the sin which holds us captive. Since all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ, then when he sets you free, you are free indeed!

In the second message we looked at how there's more to freedom than just being set free. We have to choose to live in that freedom every day. Sometimes, in our humanity, we end up having to learn things the hard way twice, or more than twice :) We don't have to ever go back to our old lives because we've been set free. We saw from Galatians 5 that we can stand firm in our freedom and resist going back into bondage. Freedom is maintained and sustained through a daily interactive relationship with Jesus.

So we've looked at getting free, staying free, and now this week we will be looking at freeing others. This chain reaction is not meant to stop with us. God wants to use us to spark the same reality in the lives of others!

Love Ambridge

I'm very excited about an opportunity we have to reach out and love our community. Saturday, April 21 we are going to join with the Committee to Clean and Beautify Ambridge for their Spring Kick-Off! As you may have already guessed, we will be cleaning and beautifying Ambridge.

In John 13, Jesus served his disciples by washing their feet. We get to serve our community by washing it's streets. I love opportunities like this to tangibly demonstrate Christ's love!

If you're interested in going with us, send me an email here. We'll be meeting at 8:30am on 4.21 at 552 Merchant St. Love for you join us!

Pirate Game

I had a great time today at the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener on my day off! Today they played the St. Louis Cardinals. While I don't think the temperature ever got quite up to 40 degrees and the Bucs lost 3 to 0, I still had a great time :)

I even received a sweet fridge magnet with this season's schedule on it. Baseball is awesome. It definitely brought back lots of memories from my little league days. It also made me look forward to playing on our church softball team this year! Thanks Jesse and Chuck for giving me a ticket and letting me tag along! Had a great time.

Easter Sunday

I love Easter Sunday! I love seeing new faces and meeting new people. We had a great service with about 85 people in total attendance. I spoke about the resurrection from 1 Corinthians 15:1-16.

I'm really excited to welcome Pastor Cal to lead our Children's Ministries on Sunday mornings! Pastor Cal comes to us with 32 years of experience as a children's minister. Today was his first Sunday with us. Really looking forward to partnering with Cal to reach the kids in the Ambridge Area.

ACC History

Pastor Jeff from Allison Park Church is currently writing blog articles about the various churches that they have planted. Ambridge Christian Center is the second of six churches they have started in the Pittsburgh area. Jeff does a really good job retelling our story. Check it out here.

Undiminishable

As I was studying today, I was encouraged by the reality that God's love is undiminishable. It can't be diminished or changed in any way. That idea is completely different from human love. Human love at one point or another will let us down. We eventually will let down those closest to us in one facet or another. I think sometimes, because of our experiences with human conditional love, we tend to automatically think that God relates to us like everyone else does.

The truth is that God loves you as much on your worst day as he does on your best day. There's nothing you can do that will ever change or diminish the way God feels about you. His love in not conditioned on our worthiness or loveability (thank God). If that were the case, none of us could ever dream of earning up to his love.

It's precisely our unworthiness that makes God's love so powerful and unique! If we got what we really deserve... ... ... (maybe we shouldn't go there!)

It's definitely not cheap grace either. It doesn't mean that God's cool with us living in sin. But, if we are true believers, even our mistakes don't change the way God feels about us. In the conviction process, his arms are open wide so that when we fall or mess up we can repent and run to him rather than from him. Even in the moments of our greatest weakness his love factor never changes. "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 Jn. 1.9).

If we live in that reality, he will never condemn us or reject us. It's actually his love that invites us to leave our sin and live pleasing to him (Rom. 2.4). Satan would have us believe that God's love for us changes based on our performance. That way he could get us to run from God rather than to him when we mess up.

Thank God that when we are his, the death we deserve is completely obliterated by his unconditional, boundless, and undiminishable love!

How should we respond?

Recommended Podcast

In my line of work, preaching is very important. Therefore I try to surround myself with good preaching. I typically listen to anywhere from 1-4 sermons a week. One of my favorite preachers is John Piper. John is the Pastor for Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. He's also the author of numerous books including his best known, Desiring God.

If you're looking to listen in on some great preaching, Check out John Piper's podcast here. You can also get it by going into the itunes store and typing "john piper" in the search engine and click subscribe to Desiring God Sermon Audio. If you don't have itunes, you can download it here for free. Enjoy!

Fit To Be Untied

Today we concluded the second message in our sermon series called Fit To Be Untied, exploring freedom in Christ. This week's message was called "Living Free." We discussed that there's more to freedom than being set free. Sustaining freedom requires a living, daily relationship with Jesus Christ. Our main passage was Galatians 5:1.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let ourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

We talked about how God created us to be free, but we are all born slaves of sin. Since we are free in Christ we can and must choose to stand firm in that freedom. The world, the flesh, and the devil will all try to drag us back into slavery, but we can live free as we live by the Spirit through daily dependence on Christ.

God created us to be free and slaves to nothing. The free you is the true you.

Just as we were under the influence of sin, the good news is that we can live under the influence of the Holy Spirit every day.

We can walk with God every day. He calls us to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Stepping implies walking, and walking implies motion. As we are moving through life, we can stay free by walking in step with the Spirit of God.

Just like when Peter was walking on the water with Jesus, he was all right as long as he kept his eyes on Christ. When he looked away from Jesus and focused on his impossible circumstances, he started sinking. There's nothing we can't overcome as long as we are walking in the Spirit with our eyes fixed on Jesus.

We also got to hear a testimony from Kim Berger, one of our young adults who was a former drug addict who found freedom in Christ and the power to stay free. I never get tired of hearing real stories of the life-changing power of God!