After wondering for some time about this new thing called Twitter, I finally decided to give it a try to see what the buzz was all about. Been Twittering for about a week now and have had a great time staying in touch with friends throughout the day.
Watch this 2.5 minute video to see what it is all about.
See my Twitter page at http://twitter.com/ipastor. Click "follow" and join me.
What Are You Doing?
Making It Fun
At Grace Point our stated purpose is to Love God and Love Others to God. With that we have established five core values. They are...
- A simple and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Cor. 11:3)
- Commitment to grace and truth. (John 1:14)
- Trusting people to live for an audience of One. (1 Thess. 2:4)
- Diligent commitment to the cause. (2 Peter 1:5)
- Finding a way to make it fun. (Prov. 17:22)
Seems to be the case with the folks at WKRC-TV in Cincinnati as well.
May we never take life too serious to have fun.
HT to Gman for video.
Fighting Pastors
So when two high school students are producing an action film and need two extras for a fight scene, what is the responsible youth pastor thing to do? Join in!!
On Tuesday two of our students were making a film and asked Aaron and I if we would help. Being the committed pastors that we are, we stepped up for our ground breaking acting debut.
There is something therapeutic about beating up your students.
The Cost of Grace
From Randy Alcorn's book, The Grace and Truth Paradox:
Hounded by the Pharisees, betrayed by a friend, forsaken by His disciples, brutalized by police, beaten by His inquisitors, led in disgrace to a rigged trial.
Arrogant men sitting in judgment over Him, crowning Him with thorns, mocking and disdaining. Beating Him without mercy, nailing Him to the cross, the worst of tortures, stretched out between thieves.
Miserably thirsty, utterly forsaken by His Father for the first time, the picture of complete aloneness.
Hell on earth! Not just one man's hell, but the hell of billions. At any moment - in a millisecond - He could have called legions of angels to deliver Him and destroy His enemies. Instead, He bears forever the scars of sin, rebellion, mockery, and hatred ... the scars of God's grace. [p. 29]
Amazing.
Sunday's Coming
Last night we enjoyed a great night of reflection and worship at our Good Friday service.
I'm sure glad Friday is not the end of the story. Sunday's coming!
HT to Adam
Awareness
Life is busy. Life is too busy. I often feel like we get so drawn in by the business of life, and so focused on our worries, cares, and responsibilities, that we miss much of the beauty of life. There is much God has for us, and desires for us to notice and appreciate. One of the things I enjoy most about being the parent of a toddler is seeing life through his eyes.
My three year old son doesn't seem to miss much. He never misses the beauty of a flower or a squirrel scurrying along the fence. He never fails to stop and enjoy a passing train, or an interesting rock on the ground. He appreciates the "little" things in life, the things of life that we are so prone to miss. He reminds me that I need to take the time to slow down and smell the roses once in a while.
Watch this video and take the Awareness Test. You may be surprised! Let me know how you did.
May we never be so focused on the minutia that we miss the big picture God has for us.
HT to Rodney for the video.
A United Church
This last Saturday our church had our annual Easter Super Saturday event. It is an event created for the purpose of drawing in the community during the Easter season to make connections with our neighbors, and to share story of Jesus with children. There are egg hunts, carnival games, music, puppets, lots of food, and the presentation of the gospel. It's a fun event each year and gives us opportunity to meet many in our community.
This year we invited my good friend Marshall Snider, director of Bridgetown Ministries to be a part our morning. An arm of Bridgetown Ministries is B-Town Kids, a ministry program targeted at children. As Marshall arrived at the church in their B-Town Kids truck he made a very astute observation, one that has had me thinking all weekend.
As he approached our church, he noticed our Easter Super Saturday banner up in
front of our church, and then noticed the Easter Eggstravaganza sign in front of the church next door. Sandwiched right between our two churches was a car parked in a driveway with a bumper sticker that simply read, Coexist. 
I would like to believe the bumper sticker was not placed on their car to communicate to us ... or perhaps it was. It's not that our two churches are unable to get along, or are competing, or unable to peacefully coexist. What got me thinking though, is why are we not doing events like these together? Are we not trying to reach the same community with the same Gospel?
I have been encouraged lately by the recent formation of our youth pastor network here in town. We have been enjoying great times together and are looking forward to doing ministry with one another. I have to believe it really makes God smile when He sees the Church, His people, coming along side each other to serve in community with one another. I also have to believe that our church buildings would be a lot fuller if that was the picture the world saw of us.
It is my prayer today that that is what the world will begin to see; a united Church. A Church that can see past petty differences, and can see the big picture of together loving people to Christ. I plan to meet our neighbors soon.
Grace and Truth
I am about half way through Randy Alcorn's book The Grace and Truth Paradox. It is a short little book that packs quite a bunch. It deals with the apparent conflict that exists between grace and truth. He contends the conflict exists because we lack the perspective to resolve the conflict. Alcorn states, "We should never approach truth except in a spirit of grace, or grace except in a spirit to truth. Jesus wasn't 50 percent grace, 50 percent truth, but 100 percent grace, 100 percent truth." (John 1:14)
Through an amazing analogy, Alcorn illustrates the power of God's grace.
Imagine a great an generous king. In the midst of his benevolent reign, he hears that his subjects have revolted. He sends messengers to investigate. The rebels kill them. So he sends his own dear son, the prince. They murder him viciously, hanging his body on the city wall.
What would you expect the king to do now? Send his armies and take revenge, right? Kill those rebels! Burn their villages to ashes! The king certainly has both the power and the right to avenge himself.
But what if the king turned around and offered these criminals a full pardon?
"I will accept my son - whom you murdered - as the pyment for all your rebellion. You may go free. All I require is for you to admit your transgressions and embrace my son's purchase of your forgiveness."
We'd be stunned - blown away - to hear this, wouldn't we? But the king's not finished.
"I invite any of you to come live in my palace, eat at my table, and enjoy all the pleasures of my kingdom. And I will adopt you as my own children and make you my heirs, so everything tht's mine will be yours forever."
Incredible.
Then he says, "I won't force you to accept my offer. But the only alternative is spending the rest of your life in prison. The choice is yours."
That is a grace that is hard o comprehend. That is the grace we have been given. Yet some still want to point a finger at God and call Him unjust and unfair.
One Eighty In The News
As stated in a previous post, 180 Student Ministries was featured on the news during our 30 Hour Famine event. KATU came and did a story on our service project at Northwest Children's Outreach. A lot more was said in the interview, but this is what they captured.
Hermeneutics Quiz
Ever wonder how two people can interpret the same passage of Scripture differently? It all comes down to how you read and understand the Bible. Are we to take all Scripture literally, or is some only relevant within the historical context in which it was written? Where do you fall?
Scot McKnight along with Christianity Today have but together the Hermeneutics Quiz to uncover and reveal people's bias to reading and interpreting Scripture. Take the quiz to see where you fall, Conservative, Moderate or Progressive. I landed in the Conservative camp by a small margin.
Go here to take the quiz. Read McKnight's thinking behind the quiz here.
Where do you land?
A View From The Ride
One of my favorite things is worshiping with a group of people, especially our students. We have great worship in our two morning worship services, but there is always that constant tension of making sure the music connects with all the generations of our church; can't rock too hard or the older crowd may not like it, can't be too tame or the younger may not enjoy it. I think this is wise, and creates a valuable learning opportunity for showing grace toward others, and learning what it means to worship together in unity. Worship with our students though is a whole other matter.
We have a great worship team led by Aaron, and they know how to bring it! Occasionally I play bass myself. I love to worship with the raw youthful energy that they put out. It's music that you not only hear, but feel. The way I like it!
Today's View From The Ride comes from our worship time this morning. So good!
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