Monthly Archives: September 2008

A week in Pic’s

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Monday was boring… Tuesday I went to 10 fold our student ministry meeting… it was sweet. I took Noah with me, we rode the motorcycle -making any trip twice as good. There were 26 people crammed into a living room. Bryan, our student pastor did a great job with Acts 6-7 and one of the guys (Bobby O) told about how Jesus saved him.

We have this great family in our church (Alex and Kate) who offer up there home every Tuesday night for the 10 Fold Meetings. They provide food and a place for God to work in the hearts of teenagers.

Usually there is a good crew of people from Stafford who come to support Bryan and help the group get started but the group is becoming more and more teens from the community surrounding our church. The picture is of a everyone’s shoes stacked in the foyer. Please pray for Bryan as they point teens to Jesus each week.

The next night we headed to our foster care training for Prince William county. We have been going to this every Wednesday for the past month. God is using this class to open our eyes to all of the horrendous things that happen to children in our community. Jennifer and I are considering fostering children in the future and this class is helping us become prepared for some of the realities we will face when we bring hurting kids into our home.

There is a lot of paperwork we have to fill out for the class. One of the things we had to do was have our fingerprints done. The teacher told us that we could have it done at a local police station for a few dollars each or we could do it ourselves. In an effort to save a few bucks I decided I could fingerprint myself. I went downstairs and grabbed one of Jennifer’s scrap booking stamp pads and went to town. Three days later my hands are still stained.

Thursday I prayed with the pastors from Image church in the morning then headed up to CPN (church planter network) this is where all the SBC church planters from Northern Virginia get together for prayer and encouragement. The picture is of Chris Rhodenhizers‘ faux hawk.

That night we headed to the ACTS homeless shelter in our town to serve a meals to some families that are going through a tought time. This shelter is really doing a great job to help families in need. The picture to the left is of one of our deacons and his wife talking to the director of the shelter. The place only has 17 beds and it has a waiting list 150 deep. They provide a 28 day stay, job training, clothes, haircuts, the whole nine yards. We were shocked by the way the bad economy is effecting our community.

Our Home is for rent!

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A few years ago Jennifer and I built our first home. It was a great process. We found a builder, picked a lot, chose a floor plan and picked every feature in the house. The whole experience from start to finish was outstanding. The only catch was… the house was an hour away from our church. We got into the whole thing as an investment hoping that we could live in it for a few years, gain some equity and turn our earnings into a downpayment on some shack up north. The plan worked with the tiny exception that the housing market took a nose dive. So… instead of selling we rented. Everything was going smooth until yesterday when our renter called to tell us that she was moving out and breaking her 3 year lease only 5 months into it! So plan B is in full effect and we are looking for a renter. Here are a few pics of the place and a link to the website we have set up for our beloved pondorosa.

Tithing Adds to Woes of U.S. Homeowners

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The housing crisis is causing people to evaluate their budgets in unusual ways. A friend in the mortgage business sent me this story and it raises some important questions. My first instinct is to be really proud of the article and the fortitude of those who refuse to “rob God”.

“Housing counselors say they often have to bring up the issue of tithing to borrowers who are struggling to keep up the payments on their homes. They say tithing is a sensitive topic, considered to be a mandatory item by many homeowners; but many of those who faithfully give 10 percent of their income to their church are in the lower income brackets. Some borrowers have been willing to give up their homes rather than stop tithing. “For those people, a contract with God is worth more than their home,” says Roger Oldham, a member of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.”

So, there are some folks who are making the decision NOT to buy a house because they refuse to exclude the local church from their budget. This is honorable and right, no question from me on this one.

This brings up another question though… When forced to choose between “a contract with God and a Contract with a bank” what decision honors God?

Do we have a “contract with God” related to tithing?

Please comment, I suspect that we will have opinions on both sides of this arguement.

Church Planting from MCC

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Related to my previous post I have learned two things… #1 – this is old news that I Just learned of… sorry for being so out of touch. #2 – About half of the christian community that I hang with has no idea who Ray Boltz is! Wow…. anyway.

I was surfing through the websites of the Gay, Lesbian & Transgender chruches (one just up the street from me) and realized that they have a pretty aggressive church planting plan. I also noticed that their theological stances are frighteningly similar to ours.

They are running a campain called “Would Jesus Descriminate?”: So… for all of us who don’t believe we should be endorsing the GLT lifestyle and church planting among the GLT community. I think we should answer the question. So… comments open, Would Jesus Descriminate against the GLT community?

Gay Ray?

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Christian music super star Ray Bolts published the following announcement on the home page of his website…

A few years ago I made the decision to retire from contemporary Christian music. I had won awards, performed in front of thousands of people, and sold millions of records. Still, I believed that if people knew who I really was, I would never be accepted. During the last few years I’ve learned that there are many people who feel the same way I did. One church in particular has helped me in many ways. The Metropolitan Community Church (www.mccchurch.org) was started forty years ago by Rev. Troy Perry in the Los Angeles area and has an outreach to the LGTB (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community. I am happy to announce that I have accepted an invitation to perform at two of their churches. On September 14th, I will be singing at the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church (www.jesusmcc.org) in Indianapolis at 6:00p.m. On September 21st, I’ll be singing at the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C. (www.mccdc.com) at 3:00p.m.

Sometimes I forget (I’m Not a Jew)

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Teaching the book of 3rd John this week and was mesmorized to really get to the bottom of what it’s about…Discipleship. So there’s this guy Ray Van Der Lann, he’s smart, in fact his teachings are often credited to other, younger, trendier types that present his research as their own. So he talks about discipleship in a Jewish contest like THIS

So…The word DISCIPLE means “learner” and is a Jewish idea that involves two aspects of learning. #1) learning (often memorizing) Jewish teaching  (Torah, Prophets, and Talmud) #2) living closely with your Rabbi not only seeking to know what he knows but seeking to do what he does.

In contrast, a western learner is encouraged only to know what his teacher knows and not to do what they do. We are called to make Disciples (Mt. 28:19-20). This means that our commitment to those we teach and lead will be much more consuming than it would be if we were simply conveying information to them. It stirs two questions in me…

  1. In the people that I “disciple” am I seeking to give them information or to produce transformation?
  2. Is my walk with Christ worth reproducing?

So if Jesus wants me to make disciples and I dont know what that is (because we don’t do that in my culture) than it becomes nessary for me to learn jesus’ culture to really get a grip on what he want’s me to do.

New Digits

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For all those who care, I have some new digits. The old number is dead effective immediatly. My new number is 703-508-9985. Please make note of the change. Also, just as a side note my email that went down a few months ago is back up… you can now reach me at clint@pillarchurchsbc.com

My Shiny New Church

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We have been changing a lot of things at pillar over the past few weeks… Here are a few of the changes that we have made.

  1. We are revamping children’s ministry – My lovely wife has a boatload of plans for the children’s ministry and she has been unfolding those over the past several weeks. HERE are some of the changes she is making.

  2. We hired a new Associate Pastor, Bryan is focusing on student ministry but also helping our church plants establish student ministries that are effective.
  3. We brought on a ministry assistant, bobby. Bobby is a 19 year old guy that God has called to plant a church. He is going to work with us as he finishes school then head out to plant a church.
  4. We remodeled our offices in our sponsoring church and made room for Bryan and Bobby.
  5. Keilan, who has been serving as a ministry assistant and co-worship leader for the past year moved to Richmond to work with Alethiea.
  6. We revamped our weekly creative planning meeting.
  7. Planned a Christmas Bonfire in our community. We are doing it a the “Old Mine Ranch” a ranch just outside of our community.
  8. We are re-ordering our worship service, placing most of the music and the Lord’s Supper at the end of the service. We are also bringing children above 2 back into with their parents to blend torward a family integrated service.
  9. Giving our church a Christmas list… for the churhch. Encouraging them to consider praying for or providing some items the church is in need of. See it HERE

Door’s Closing

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My college buddy Joel Davis posted the following video on his blog. Joel just resigned his church to take the plunge into God’s heart by planting a church. If your a church planter, I encourage you to visit Joel’s blog and encourage him for his gutsy step into the unknown.

The metro in DC says, “doors closing” right before it rips your arm off. That’s what THIS VIDEO says is happening to churches in W. Europe and beginning to happen in the US of A. I’ve done a some ministry in W.E. and have seen seen this first hand.

Here’s my question:

Should we be concerned about this?

Part of me says, “YES! the enemy is convincing a generation that the gospel is irrelevant” but another part of me says “No” and is reminded that the church, now and forever, belongs to Jesus. He has not left her nor has He stopped drawing his children.

One guy I read on this subject said, “This assumption seems at odds with biblical teaching that demands of us faithfulness and that recognizes God as the source of any increase. Is it not possible that God sometimes is pleased to remove His truth from a block, neighborhood, or city? Is it not possible that God sometimes is glorified by the closing of a local church? It is unhealthy to create in church leaders the expectation that they can, simply by making a few changes, ensure that their local church will rebound.”

I am sturred by statistics and the Christ rejecting culture that abounds around me but I am infinitely more sturred by the Lordship of Christ in all things. I desperately long for Christ to be glorified in every place. But Given Jesus’ propensity to work in backward and unexplained ways I wonder what He is up to.

Should I continue to plant churches because we are loosing the fight or I belong to Jesus and he tells me to? Maybe it’s both… What do you think?

I Agree With God

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It is rare that I so passionately experience the teaching of God. THIS VERSE has been ever with me this week as Jennifer is attending her beloved grandmothers funeral in TN. Here are a few things Jennifer does to make my life pleasant that I rarely acknowledge.

  • She picks up my junk.
  • She takes care of the kids while I drive.
  • She cooks food.
  • She talks about things other than snacks and cartoons.
  • She never needs help in the bathroom.

I await your return my love.