Taking Jesus To The World One Town At A Time

  If I’m going to explain to you what Crosswalk is all about, I might as well start with the most outrageous part of the vision God has given us.  We are going to take Jesus to the world one town at a time!

 

You may be thinking, “But Chris, there’s already SO MANY CHURCHES out there!  Why plant more?”  Simply put, there aren’t enough churches for everyone to go to.  Here is an excerpt from www.barna.org :

When these statistics are projected across the aggregate adult population, the numbers are staggering. An estimated 73 million adults are presently unchurched. When teens and children are added, the total swells to roughly 100 million Americans.

To put that figure in context, if the unchurched population of the United States were a nation of its own, that group would be the twelfth most populated nation on earth (trailing only China, India, the churched portion of the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, Japan and Mexico).

Included among the unchurched is an estimated 13 to 15 million born again adults and children.

Instead of starting one church and having everyone within driving distance to attend that one church, God has told me that he wants us to start a network of churches.  Each church will be linked with the others on some levels while also being able to target their specific community.

 

This presents numerous benefits:

1. Good churches located right in your community.  People will not have to drive long distances to churches that don’t exist in their community.  It is easier to get your unchurched friends and family to Sunday services if they don’t have to run out of town to get there.  And just think of all the gas money you’d save! :) 
2. Because the church is in your community, it exists to help those in your community.  You can know that when you volunteer your time and resources at a church, it will be helping those around you (your neighbors, friends, and co-workers) to come into a relationship with Christ.
3. The network allows for all of the benefits of a large church.  Imagine for just a moment…A church that has the financial resources to pull from in order to reach the lost.  A church network united under qualified leadership who offer even the campus pastors opportunities to learn and grow.  A time of fellowship between all churches of the network (This could mean large scale youth conferences, worship concerts, and regional outreach).

I’m really pumped about this.  It may seem pretty ambitous but there’s one thing I AM CONFIDENT OF…  God is authoring this thing.  That means He will finish it.  I’m so blessed to be along for the ride!

Coming To Loogootee, Indiana…

Crosswalk Logo

The time has come to make the BIG announcement…  Marilyn and I are stepping out from Powell Valley to launch a new church in Loogootee, IN called CROSSWALK.

The 1st launch day will be August 3rd at the Martin County 4-H Fairgrounds.  Service will begin at 10am.  If you’re in the area and are not attending church anywhere, come on out and see what we’re all about!  This week, I’m dedicating all of my posts to the launch of the church.  Keep checking in to find out what this is all about!

How Much For An Autograph?

Last night, mom and dad wanted to know if we would meet them in Shoals for the annual kickoff of the “WORLD FAMOUS” Catfish Festival.  At least the sign as you come into town claims it is world famous!  They always kick things off with an auction.  This year’s auction included some common yard sale items, a few nice gift certificates, and some autographed balls.

 

Dad used to own his own auction house when I was younger.  He had me working the concession stands (which is how I got to drinking coffee…just to stay warm in the winter months).  So anytime he hits the scene of another auction.  All it takes for him to get to raising that numbered card like a guy in a Sure Deodorant commercial is to win one bidding war. 

 

To make a long story short, we walked away with three of four autographed balls last night.

 

  MATT PAINTER–Purdue Men’s Basketball head coach.  I love the way this guy puts a team together!  Dad and I have been lifelong Purdue fans, so I was thrilled that he got this one :) 

 

  TOM CREAN–Coach for the Indiana University WHOsiers???  Just kidding.  But if you’re raised to be a Purdue fan, liking IU is like breaking the 11th Commandment.  This guy has got his work cut out for him thanks to Kelvin Sampson!

 

  DAMON BAILEY–This guy is a local legend.  He played HS ball at Bedford North Lawrence and went on to play guard for IU back in the ’90s.  He came out to the school I teach at for a basketball camp this year. 

 

  PEYTON MANNING–Now dad didn’t get this ball.  Not because he didn’t want it though.  It may have had something to do with the ball going for $500!!!!  Now, I’m a Colts fan.  But I can think of a lot of things to do with $500.  Buying a football I would never get to play with is probably not one of them.  But hey, if the man wins another Super Bowl, the price could very well double.  Maybe it wasn’t such a bad investment!

Please Pass The Bread

In some posts I recently wrote titled “The Building Blocks of Faith—Parts 1, 2, 3” I taught that the basic blocks of faith are:

1. Believing
2. Speaking
3. Forgiving

Today’s post is going to break down #1—Believing even farther.

 

Yesterday’s post talked about fleshly minded people.  One of the things I said about these people is that while many of them could speak the Word of God, they do not let the Word of God speak to them.

 

Jesus told the crowds in John 6 that he was the Bread of Life.  Many Americans do not understand the symbolism of bread for the rest of the world.  We tend to view bread as a side item to our steak and baked potato.  But bread is the universal symbol for “sustaining life”.  Jesus was saying that he was the only way to have a sustained life on earth and in the world to come.  But verse 66 says that many could not receive that teaching and stopped following Jesus on that day.

 

John 1 calls Jesus the Word.  “In the beginning was the word.  The word was with God and the word was God…And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us…”.  Now if Jesus is the Bread of Life, what is the purpose of bread? 

 

Bread is meant to be consumed and digested.  Once digested it then becomes a part of whoever it was that consumed it.  So if Jesus is “the Word of God”, then He’s telling us that God’s Word is meant to be consumed (read and heard) and digested (meditated upon).  Once digested, it becomes a part of the person who consumed it!

 

THIS is the difference between fleshly minded people and spiritual minded people.  Fleshly minded folks are ruled by their senses.  Spiritual minded peeps are ruled by their spirit (belief system) which for a Christian is the Word of God.  Rather than speaking what they sense or feel, they speak God’s Word!

 

My prayer is that you become SPIRITUAL MINDED.  Consume God’s Word like crazy, but then allow it to digest.  KNOWING AND APPLYING GOD’S WORD IS THE ESSENCE OF FAITH!  So, who’s ready for some more bread?  J 

Are You Fleshly Minded?

You might be wondering, “What kind of question is that?”.  The answer—an ugly one!  No one likes to think of themselves as being fleshly minded.  We’d like to think of ourselves as spiritual people.  Romans 8:5 says, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”

 

Every person is made up of three parts:

1. Flesh—This is your physical body and all of it’s senses.
2. Soul—This is your mind, will, and emotions.  This is what makes you unique from everyone else in the world.
3. Spirit—This is what many refer to as your heart.  It is your belief system.  When you speak, you speak out of your spirit.  Matthew 12:34 says, “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”.  So we can tell a lot about what you really believe by what you say!

 

A fleshly minded person’s thought process moves through this progression:

1. The senses experience something and begin to dominate the other parts of the person.
2. The physical senses tell the mind how it should feel.
3. The emotions then tell the spirit what it should believe.

 

The crowds that followed Jesus in John 6 were fleshly minded people.  They saw Jesus perform the miracle of feeding 5,000 people with a few fish and loaves of bread.  They automatically began to think of Moses that God used to feed the Hebrews for years in wilderness.  They held a weak allegiance to Christ as the Messiah because their understanding of the Messiah was a man that would come set up an earthly kingdom to rid them from Roman persecution and from being at the bottom of the socio-economic barrel.  But who could expect more?  Fleshly minded people only think about earthly things!

 

Jesus came to prove that someone MUCH GREATER than Moses was here.  But their fleshly interpretation of Scripture gave them a warped understanding of the character of God.  WHILE MANY OF THEM COULD SPEAK THE WORD OF GOD, THEY WOULD NOT LET THE WORD OF GOD SPEAK TO THEM!

 

This is so important to understand…Check back tomorrow for more.  It will strengthen your faith, guaranteed!

The Building Blocks of Faith–Part 3

The final building block at the beginning stages of faith is something that is so vital that if we skip this building block, we won’t even make it to heaven.  What could be so important?  FORGIVENESS!   Mark 11:25 says, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”  If you think about it, unforgiveness sending someone to hell and hindering your prayers from being answered makes complete sense.  Jesus forgave us when we didn’t deserve it.  If anyone deserved punishment, it was you and me.  But HE LOVED US SO MUCH that He was willing to offer us forgiveness before we even asked…heck, before we were even born!  So if we are so undeserving of forgiveness, but it was given to us out of love, then shouldn’t we also forgive others?   I was watching a show on TBN last night called the Lazarus Phenomenon.  It talked about near death experiences.  I don’t know what you believe about them, BUT I TOTALLY BELIEVE IN THEM!  Just look in your Bible for folks like Lazarus, a centurion’s servant, a man’s daughter, and ummmm….maybe even a man named Jesus of Nazareth!  Anyways, one of the most interesting stories was that of a pastor in a country in Africa.  He and his wife got into a fight the night before he was invovled in an automobile accident.  He talked about the beauty of heaven and the torture of hell.  The angel that was standing with him through this experience then turned to him as he was observing the torment of hell and told him that if the book of his life were to be closed that day, that this is where he would spend eternity.   The man quickly responded, “But I’m a pastor!  I’ve preached all over this country!”  The angel replied, “But today you asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, but you would not grant your wife forgiveness.  Because of this, your sins were not forgiven.”   WOW!!!!!!  Nothing is worth missing heaven over…Especially unforgiveness.  Who do you need to forgive today?

The Building Blocks of Faith–Part 2

Once you believe a word from the Lord, the second block to build your faith is speaking.  Matthew 12:34 tells us taht when we become conviced in our heart, our mouth will reveal it.  “…Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”  You can tell what a person really believes by what’s coming out of their mouth.

 

Satan loves to attack this particular building block by speaking thoughts into your mind, “Don’t tell someone that you believe ____.  They’ll think you’re crazy!  What if it doesn’t happen?  You’ll look like a fool!”  But without speaking it, you’ll not receive what it is that you’re believing for.  Mark 11:23-24 says,

“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.  Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive thm, and ye shall have them.”

These are the first two keys to receiving what you’re praying for.  1)  Believe the Word of God, and 2) Speak the Word of God.  Check back tomorrow for the final building block of this series of faith.  I guess you could call it FAITH #101!

The Building Blocks of Faith–Part 1

  We had some really awesome services yesterday.  The message I preached was titled “The Building Blocks of Faith”.  God really taught me a lot about faith in preparation for this message.  Here are some main points.  I hope they help build your faith to finally get your prayers answered!

 

1.  Ther first building block of faith is belief.

• Belief is a heart condition, not a mind condition.  There are lots of times I’ve had to believe God for something, all the while my mind is screaming “IT WON’T WORK!!!”.
• Belief even works at the ground level of Christianity–salvation.  “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART that God raised Christ from the dead, you shall be saved.”    –Romans 10
• In order to believe, you have to convince your heart that it is so.  The only way I can believe that you will pick up my kids at school is if you tell me that you will pick them up.  The same thing works with God.  If you have a WORD…A PROMISE from God, then you have a foundation for belief.  Without a word from God to back your belief up, you’re walking in presumption and will most assuredly fall.  Belief is fed by good preaching and study of the Bible.  “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Check back this week for parts 2 and 3 of this series.  And within the next couple of weeks, I’ll post a huge announcement that God is putting together…STAY TUNED! :) 

A Lesson From The Celtics

 

  How does a team go from losing to championships in one season?  The same way a church can go from ineffective to a powerhouse for the Kingdom.  Both basketball and church are team sports.

 

The Celtics possessed three men who were superstars in their own right.  They each could have hogged the ball, whined about not much playing time, focused only on leading all scores each game, etc.  But not this team.  Garnett, Pierce, and Allan all understood that in order to become champions, they were each going to have to work together and sacrifice together.  Most churches, sadly, practice neither.

 

What would happen if each of us tried to “assist” the others on our team?  Who could we “win” to Christ if we would work hard individually and work hard with our team?  How many “games” could we win during our life if we would sacrifice the spotlight, to do what our team needs us to do.  Maybe it’s offense and we need to step up to be the leader.  Maybe its defense and we need to be there to stand up for our coaches and teammates.  Maybe we’re to play the point and help direct traffic out in the parking lot.  Maybe we are to play down in the post where we’re rubbing shoulders with some of the toughest, meanest people on a daily basis.

 

The point is this–Our prize is something so much greater than a piece of hardware.  When we work together, and run the plays the Lord told us to run (The Great Commandment & The Great Commission), we will most assuredly be the champions we’ve always wanted to be.  And celebrating with our teammates in heaven will be a party that never ends!

 

PS…For all you Laker fans, MAYBE there’s something we can learn from them too.  I just haven’t figured it out yet!

You’ve Got Something In Your Eye

  Luke 6:41 says, “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”.  It seems to be human nature to point out the failures and problems in others.  But wouldn’t it be much more productive to do a self-check?  After all, once I get my life straight, then I’ll be in a much better position to help you with yours.

 

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is turn down the chance to judge another person so that we can first judge our self.  Maybe judging others makes me feel better about myself.  Maybe it makes my sin look not as bad.  Regardless, the time has come for us not to take off the judges robe, but to put our self on trial.  THEN, we can really help others overcome their issues.

 

Verse 39 says, “Can the blind lead the blind?  Shall not both fall into the ditch?”.  So the next time someone says, “Hey, you got something in your eye,”  take that as a healthy reminder from God’s Word to judge yourself first so that you can be in the position to help someone else later.