Beck and I are excited today because we get to volunteer and be a part of Angel Flight and pickup someone from the airport and drive them to Duke for medical care. We are now a part of the ground transportation team in our area. It’s great to be able to give back to those in need, especially when we have the compassion and understanding for their situation. The pilots who fly people do so for free and take people with medical needs who may not be able to afford it to places like Duke, UNC, John Hopkins and others for their medical care. If you want to know more about angel flight and what they do click here.
Compassion
I was really excited that I found the perfect resource for our teens to use when they needed to talk with someone and they could not reach one of our adult leaders. It’s a 24 Hour Counselor that’s available, well… 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Wrong.
It’s a page of articles put out by lifeway where teens can click a link and read something posted by a counselor on that related topic. I’m sorry but this is just a horrible idea for the teen who has a gun in his mouth because he no longer wants to live. To me this type of 24 hour help says “I really don’t care.”
The Austin Stone is not going to be just a church in the city of Austin…it’s going to be a church FOR the city of Austin.
I read these words over on Bush’s blog yesterday and I feel God really convicting me about this as it relates to our church and more specifically REFUGE our student ministry here. What would happen if we as believers took this idea and actually did something about it in our communities, our neighborhoods, our cities? Man students what if we took this to our schools? What if we as a church moved from being in our cities to being FOR our cities? Check this video they made to share this vision with their people.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv99xCdEFUA&hl=en&fs=1]
It also brought to light a song I heard at a worship service for a World Changers Mission project we helped with this summer, check it out too.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d61LamkXfwk&hl=en&fs=1]
Try this…
(your church name here) is not going to be just a church in the city of (your city)…it’s going to be a church FOR the city of (your city).
Is this your prayer? Your hope? Your desire? The desire of your church? The desire of God?
Hey ya all… my friend Aaron over at aaronivey.com has a post up about helping Haiti, specifically REAL HOPE FOR HAITI an organization he and many others support. It seems from the post that they have pretty much lost everything in the wake of the storms that have hit them. If you would like to help them out you can donate via paypal and you can also check the above links to Aaron’s blog and Real Hope for Haiti for more info. If your worried about where your money goes I promise you if it’s posted here… it’s for real.
How can churches ever do any kind of ministry or help people out if no one is there any time you call during the day? I’ve called 7 churches in the Triangle area today to enquire about their Angel Food Ministry & bring them the money to get started and not one answered the phone. I have called them all at different times and different days over the last two weeks and nothing. I’ve left messages and nothing. I AM FRUSTRATED WITH THE LOCAL CHURCH AND I AM A STUDENT PASTOR IN ONE!!!
What are we in ministry for?
Today I dropped by Family Christian and saw that you can purchase a Bible and put a personal note of encouragement into it that will be sent to our troops over seas. As a added bonus they will send a copy of Third Day’s Album “Wherever You Are.” So for less then $5 bones you can give a Bible, a word of encouragement & some tunes out to a soldier and show your support for them as we reflect on our Independence this week.
Support a soldier… I did.
This is the group of students and adults our church is feeding this week from World Changers. I’ve been impressed with the work they are doing and the heart they put into it. Today they will finish up their project and tomorrow they will go and help other students to finish up in other areas of Durham, NC. Please continue to pray that they would reach the communities they are ministering in.
This new group of students here at Farrington Road Baptist Church where just amazed that students would actually pay money to do work and give up a week of their summer. I just smiled. I love it when students see that there is more to the Christian faith then just Wed. & Sun., that God can and will work through the hearts of students, and that Christianity is more then just “being saved.”
Could you imagine if we really walked like Jesus walked?
I hear the stories out of Africa of God’s people walking miles through the night to worship together in a building that we here in the states would call condemned. Yet they worship. They come. If I called you up and said “Hey, we are going to worship in this field.” Would you come? What if it was 38F out? You say you would come, but I bet I would be standing alone, in fact I bet if you did come there would be a chance you would stand alone.
What if we as Christians in America gave up all the lights and glamour of our worship services and moved toward a more authentic, Christ centered faith? Can it really happen?
Doesn’t God want more from us? I think that sometimes, more often then we like to admit, our offerings are like Cain’s. You know, the just not good enough offerings. We bring the 2nd best of our “stuff.” We throw the envelope in the plate with a few bucks we had in our pocket or we lead in the band or choir out of obligation instead of an act of worship.
I come back to God wanting more and think that if we where authentic in all we do like those who walk for miles to worship together that I would not think God wanted more. In my authenticity he would have everything.
Final score UF::51 USC::31
Someone is going to be wearing my Gator hat here in South Carolina!!!
That little chicken tasted good tonight!!! Yum!!! Stay out of the swamp chicken!!!
“In this culture we often feel guilty for taking time to rest. Downtime seems inefficient, unproductive, and useless. We tend to perceive ministry and the Christian life as a series of outward activities. We dismiss warnings from author and Episcopal priest Morton Kelsey that an efficiently busy life is “more potentially destructive of spiritual growth than debauchery or alcohol or hard drugs.”
::Mark Yaconelli, Contemplative Youth Ministry::
How often do we as pastors/youth ministers/workers/volunteers feel that in a moment of rest we are “inefficient, unproductive, and useless?” I look back on this week and have felt that way. I felt that I did not accomplish anything on Tuesday even though I spend time with a family in the hospital. I left feeling unproductive and was reminded that I was not. As pastors we can be consumed by the daily routine of working on our messages, or blogs, studying, or whatever distracts us from actual “ministry.” These are the outward activities, the concerts, football games, etc…
I thank God that he reminded me more then once this week to take time to rest (even though I did it briefly). I pray that God would remind me and you as well that in those times of rest we are efficient, productive, and useful. May we seek God in the stillness, in the quiet hours we find solitude. Instead of go, go, go…
Stop.