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!