Managing As Jesus Managed

This past Wednesday night I witnessed something that is simply amazing. I watched over 250 people pour into our church to start a thirteen week course called "Financial Peace University" by Dave Ramsey. We have been told that this is the largest FPU training for the spring semester. That's awesome!

What excites me about having so many people attending this class is what I know can happen in the next 24 months. Dave Ramsey teaches people to manage their money according to Biblical principles. To me, that is managing as Jesus managed.

When people learn to manage as Jesus managed several things can happen. They can become debt free. They can have resources available for emergencies. They can plan for future events like college and retirement. They can give abundantly and cheerfully.

Being a Pastor that is committed to being and building disciples, I can only give God thanks for such a great response to this training. I know that making disciples involves making better managers. For the next twelve weeks I will be praying for every person in FPU. Stay the course- you will be glad you did!

Simplifying As Jesus Simplified

Jesus lived a very simple life. It was a busy life at times, but it was always a simple life. He did not get incumbered by the things of the world to the degree in which he was unable to maximize his influence for eternity.

This coming weekend I am teaching on how to navigate a financial crossroads in life. One of the keys to doing so is to restructure your financial priorities. I just finished reading a great book that addresses this very issue. It is called "Simplify" and is written by Paul Borthwick. I highly recommend it if your goal is to walk as Jesus walked.

Crossroads Church: Now more than Ever

Today Crossroads Church of Newnan celebrates her 19th anniversary as a church! To God be the glory for all the good things that have happened in the past nineteen years. Many disciples have been made for the sake of Jesus Christ because Crossroads Church was started by a handful of people who wanted to see a church do ministry like Jesus did.

As I reflect on our journey as a group of Christ followers I want to thank those people who paid the price to get our church started in those early days. To those folks who met in a home as a core group. To those people from our sponsoring church who helped us launch. To those leaders who had a vision for this work and believed in my leadership. To those people who sat up and took down chairs in a lunchroom week after week. To those people who opened their homes for small groups and still have them open nineteen years later. To those people who have given faithfully in tithes and offerings. To those people who have led teams and organized ministries, outreaches, and events. To everyone who has passed out an invite card and encouraged someone to attend our church. Thank you to everyone who has ever done a single act of service to make God's church at Crossroads a place that honors Him!

As I reflect on our journey I truly believe our best days are ahead of us. This past weekend we had over 6500 people attending in seven different Crossroads Churches in the U.S. That wouldn't have happened if this church had not been planted nineteen years ago. At Crossroads of Newnan we had over 3900 people walk in the doors of our church this past weekend. Dozens of people raised their hand indicating they had accepted Christ in our services. Right now, construction on a brand new worship facility is taking place on our Highway 16 campus. The future couldn't look better!

As I reflect on our journey, past and future, I am convinced that the world needs churches like Crossroads now more than ever! The world needs disciple making churches. The world needs churches that will do ministry the way Jesus did. The world needs churches that present an unchanging message to an ever changing world. The world needs churches where people can find true Biblical community and a place to serve in ministry. The world needs churches that help people know what it means to be and build disciples of Christ. The world needs churches where people get saved and Jesus is glorified with an uncompromising commitment to His word.

Yes, the world needs churches like Crossroads Church now more than ever. Crossroads is not the perfect church, far from it. In fact, if it were perfect I'd have to leave and so would you. However, Crossroads Church is an authentic church. It is a church filled with people who are real and who are seeking to honor God by fulfilling the purpose of his church- to make disciples!

On this the 19th anniversary of Crossroads Church I can sum my thoughts with this...Thanks God for letting us partner with you (what a ride), thanks everyone who has stayed the course and stayed committed to this church (what a team), thanks for letting me serve you as your pastor (what a risk).

Oh yeah, I'm signing on for nineteen more, how about you?

Persistent Praying

We've all heard stories of people who have prayed for others to come to Christ for ten, twenty, or thirty years. We read these stories in amazement and long to see God do the same in our lives. Guess what? This week- God did!

A woman started attending our church about ten years ago. She was married, but her husband never attended services with her. As I got to know her I decided to place her husband on my prayer list. I began praying that he would connect to God and to God's church. I have prayed off and on for this guy for ten years. I actually have the prayer journals to prove it.

Check this out! This week I had lunch with this guy I had been praying for these past ten years. He began attending services around the first of this year and we finally had the opportunity to set down and discuss his relationship with Jesus Christ. Discussing his journey was an answer to prayer. It wasn't my timing, but it was God's. He is doing some amazing things in this man's life.

This past week our church gathered at our new building site to pray for the people we want to see come to faith in Christ. We wrote names of people who are far from God on the beams that are being erected in this new building. This week God reminded me that he hears those prayers! He may not answer them on our time table, but he will answer them. Don't stop praying! Be persistent in praying for people who need to know the Father.

232- Preparing for Easter

Easter means two things to me. First,it is a chance to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Secondly, it is one of the best opportunities I'll have all year to invite someone to church.

My opportunity to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ actually takes place all year long. My chance to invite someone to an Easter service is a once a year opportunity. People are much more likely to attend a church service on Easter weekend than any other time of the year.

This window of opportunity to invite someone to church is too good to pass up. With only a few weeks to Easter I need to be praying and looking for people to invite to church. Once the Easter weekend is gone it will be a whole year before I get this same prime time opportunity.

Acts 2:32 says, "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact." That verse sums up Easter for me. Because Jesus is risen from the dead, I am a witness. This year let's all take seriously our witness to the fact of the resurrection. Let's fast and pray for God to open doors for inviting people. Let's open our eyes and see the people in our lives that need and invitation. Let's give people an invitation and care enough to ask them to come. That's what Easter is all about.

Building Buildings to Build Disciples

Let me be totally upfront with you. In my opinion buildings are a necessary evil. They are in many ways like automobiles. They take a lot of money and effort, but you can't make it without them. You have to have some form of transportation and you have to have shelter to do ministry. Buildings are simply a necessary part of fulfilling the Great Commandment and Great Commission in our cultural context.

As much as I struggle with the need for buildings, I look back at how God has used the buildings of our church to make disciples and that excites me. I am very thankful God has provided us with the necessary physical structures to create environments for disciple making to occur.

Knowing that we need buildings to help make disciples makes me all the more excited about the expansion plans for Crossroads Church in Newnan. As I watched the steel frame go up on our new building this week I was overwhelmed with thoughts of how many disciples will be influenced for Christ through these buildings. The more I think about how many disciples we can make the more excited I get about watching this building come together. Check out the pictures of this brand new disciple making complex!

Obviously this building comes with a fairly large price tag. A price tag God will cover through our giving. We get to make an investment in a building that God will use to make disciples! How much better does it get. Please pray about your investment in this disciple making venture. You will never regret putting your money in the very thing God blesses. He blesses disciple making, so why not invest in something that will make disciple making happen?

Old School Jesus Music

This past week I came across a podcast on itunes called "Full Circle". It is a radio show featuring Christian music from the 70's and 80's. It's good stuff! You can also google the phrase "Full Circle Jesus Music" and find the website for the show.

The music on this podcast is the first Jesus music I really listened to. I went to all the concerts, bought the albums and listened to the radio when Christian Music was only played on an AM station. People like Larry Norman, Paul Clark, Keith Green, Second Chapter of Acts, Randy Stonehill, and Steve Camp were writing songs that fueled my faith and gave me a great alternative to secular music.

I laugh these days when the majority of people I discuss music with have never heard of these once "cutting edge" artists. These guys made Christian rock music before it was popular and before big record contracts were available. I love the fact that the name "Jesus" was a regular part of their lyrics. It maybe old school muisc, but it is still real cool music!

If you get the urge to listen to something new I suggest you listen to something old. Find the Full Circle podcast and get a dose of old school Christian rock music. You might be surprised how God will speak to you. In fact, I think even Jesus would listen to old school Jesus music.
Listening as Jesus did!