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Massage, Ministry and Chaos Theory

Tonight Gabriel decided he wanted to become a massage therapist (at least for the night). Far be it from his parents to discourage his dreams. So, he took over an hour to rub our backs. What a great kid.

The great part was that as he rubbed my back, we talked about ministry, church (yes, they are two different things), stress, family, scripture, business, probability, the beach, CS Lewis and chaos theory. You read that right, chaos theory. The cool thing is that we talked about all of these things and he is only 10! Gabriel, you ROCK!

It was enlightening to hear his observations of church, ministry, stress and family. He has much better insight to what is important than many adults. His insights of the scripture, the importance of church and the stress of ministry reminded me of the glass house we live in as a pastor’s family.

As we talked about our family, all three boys seperately said, “I’m glad I am a pastor’s kid.” That was good to hear since I did not always feel that way personally. To always on display for a whole church to watch, critique and use as a standard is a bit much for a kid. Especially since they did not ask for the job.

With all of the stress of living in a glass house, would I choose a different path growing up? I would not change my ministry home. But, I would have ignored all the eyes watching my every move even though the stares were invited.

I have decided to not invite everyone to watch my family. Our children are a gift from God to Jennifer and me to nurture, protect, guide, discipline and love as they fulfill their destiny. Instead, I invite you to watch my life. Follow me as I follow Christ. Watch as I love my wife and children. Watch as I live a life that honors God. When I mess up (you won’t have to wait long to see it), look for a heart that repents and gets it right. Look to see if what I do bears fruit. Watch me and how I care for, protect, nurture and lead my family. But don’t use our boys as a guide for how your children should act.

Please don’t use our boys names as examples when teaching or (heaven forbid) disciplining your kids. Why? It will affect their relationship with our boys. It breeds contempt among children that hurts relationships because they don’t measure up. This is so important for kids, especially if their parents are pastors. I ask this because my desire is that our boys will always be able to say, “I’m glad I am a pastor’s kid.”

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I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu

This weekend has been a blast! Here is a quick recap:

On Friday, Jen and I drove up to Raleigh to see Faith Hill and Tim McGraw in concert at the RBC Center for their Soul2Soul II Tour. What a great show! Jen scored us some amazing tickets on the ground floor about 15′ from the stage. WOW! My only regret is that I left my camera in the car thinking they would not let me bring it in. Once I got inside, everybody and their brother had one. But they would not let me leave the stadium to retrieve it. They sang for over 3 hours straight and it was awesome! I am not your typical country music fan. Mainly, because I do not listen to country music. But this show was mesmerizing. If you haven’t seen their show, you should check it out.
On Saturday, we came back to Wilmington in time to pick our kids up from their Uncle Don and Auntie Abbye’s house and make the graduation party rounds for a couple of our graduates at The ROCK. It is such an honor to pastor Matt and Jayson. These two young men honor God, their parents, family, church and pastors by the way they live.

Matt plays bass in the youth band at The ROCK, is very involved with PT in FlipSide and has a tremendous heart for ministry. He will be attending CFCC in the Fall.

Jayson and his family have been at The ROCK for as long as I can remember. Jayson has mowed my yard, babysat our kids and been an awesome example for my boys. He plays drums on our worship team as well as in the youth praise band at Scott’s Hill Baptist Church. Jayson will be attending NC State in the Fall. We love you anyway!

Today was another amazing day at The ROCK. We are in the middle of our God’s Ink Series and it is so much fun! We are hearing testimonies almost daily of how lives are being changed. Many people are accepting Christ or recommiting their lives to Him. I am hearing many testimonies of people who had become disillusioned with church who are now excited about what is happening. Today, Lindsey sang Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” to kick off my message “God’s Ink: What is a Christian.” Yeah, you read it right, Avril Lavigne. I figure if Paul could quote the great philosophers of his day, I could do the same. OK. So, maybe Avril is not one of the great philosophers of our day, but she is a philospher that relates to youth and the lyrics are profound.

So, there were a lot of people there today and a LOT of people respond for the call for salvation. What more could you want? The church is being added to almost daily. Souls are being saved. People are excited about their church. I am excited about my church. My God is bigger than your god (unless, of course, your god is God… then we are even).

Stay tuned for more. We’ve got some big things coming for the Small Group Ministry at The ROCK. It is going to be HUGE I tell you HUGE!

This afternoon, I get back home sick. I may or may not make it in to work. If not, I will have to tele-conference for our presbytery meeting in the afternoon. But that is OK. Because I love my job and I am excited about what is happening in my church.

Why?

Because I got buzzed at The ROCK!

Have you been buzzed yet?

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the BUZZ of NEW LIFE

Recently, Holy Spirit has reminded me of the excitement that comes when a child is born. New life brings a buzz to every family. Parents, brothers and sisters, grand parents, aunts and uncles, cousins – everyone wells up with pride over the new addition. When Jennifer and I celebrated the birth of our first son, Gabriel, we did not focus on what we were giving up to nurture the new life God had entrusted to us. On the contrary, we were filled with excitement, hope, expectation and renewed devotion to our growing family. With each of our boy’s birth, we celebrated all over again.

You know, it’s the same way in God’s Kingdom. In Luke 15:10, Jesus said,

“That’s the kind of party God’s angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God.”(MSG)

Did you get that? Heaven throws a party! Over one soul! Heaven must be throwing some kind of party over the new lives turning to God at The ROCK!

I have to say that I have a renewed excitement for church. Do you want to know what has me all excited about my church? I have a new anticipation for what is going to happen each week in our services. It is fueled by the increasing number of stories of changed lives at The ROCK. My excitement is energized as I see more and more people giving their lives to God.

The letters, emails, phone calls and conversations relating HUGE dreams, overwhelming joy, renewed excitement about coming to church and rekindled passions for God continually remind me of this awesome new season of blessing God has us in. The buzz of new life is growing. We have been blessed with new life, fresh vision and a clear direction.

The cool thing is that, if you give in, this buzz is infectious. Everything is contagious. Just as frustration breeds frustration and negative attitudes breed more of the same, so does excitement breed excitement. Big dreams pave the way for even bigger dreams and BUZZ breeds more BUZZ.

In I John 2:16-17, we read,

“Practically everything that goes on in the world – wanting your own way,
wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important – has nothing to do
with the Father. It just isolates you from Him. The world and all it’s wanting,
wanting, wanting is on the way out – but whoever does what God wants is set for
eternity. (MSG)

What does He want? In Luke 10, Jesus was asked by a certain man how to have eternal life. Jesus’ answer was very uncomplicated, “What is written in the Law? What is your interpretation of it?” The man?s reply was, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (NKJV) God’s own son said the way to heaven was by loving our God with everything AND loving our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.

Too often, we forget the second part of that verse and love ourselves (our desires, our wants, our own ways) more than we love our neighbors. But just as I was filled with new hope, destiny, joy, responsibility, delight, anticipation and adrenaline with each of our son?s birth I am excited about our new life at The ROCK!

My prayer is that as we continue to allow Christ to write the story of our lives you will become infected with the buzz of new life at The ROCK! Are you feeling the buzz? I think a great “unofficial” slogan for our church should be,

?I got buzzed at The ROCK!?

Why not? Heaven?s pretty buzzed about what?s happening, why shouldn?t we?

You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter
that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it ? not with
ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into
human lives ? and we publish it. We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this ?
that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation.
We wouldn’t think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can
write such a letter. His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of
action. The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of
legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It’s written with Spirit on spirit, his
life on our lives! – II Corinthians 4:2-6 (MSG)

I invite you to send me an email at buzz@rockwilmington.com and share your buzz with us all. What is God doing in your life? How is He using you? What great things are happening in your life? Has He saved you? Has He done something great in your life, family, marriage, job, ministry or health? How is God writing the story of your life with the Ink of His living Spirit? Send me an email and tell me about it.

Clear your calendar and join us this Sunday, June 18 at 10am as we welcome Karen Wheaton and Chosen. You can find out more about Karen’s ministry over at karenwheaton. com. Don’t miss their ministry this Sunday. It’s gonna be awesome! FO SHIZZLE (translation: FOR SURE)!

I love my God, my life, my growing spiritual family and I Love My Church!

Can you hear that? That is the BUZZ of NEW LIFE at The ROCK!
I got buzzed. Did you?

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Weekend Reflections

This weekend was awesome! There is definately a new buzz around The ROCK now. Every week, we are seeing new faces and more and more people are responding to the call for salvation! If you can’t get excited about that, why do you even come to church?

We are in the middle of our God’s Ink series and the feedback we are receiving is very encouraging. We are all learning how to let God write the story of our lives with us instead of doing it all ourselves. It is a cool series, with wonderful set design, electric worship, hip t-shirts, ultra hip invite cards and, most importantly, a message that is bringing life change to many (including me).

Yesterday, I had the privilege of team teaching our membership class with dad. It is always exciting to teach these classes. I have been given the responsibility of teaching the sessions on Tithes and Unity.

I am shocked that more churches avoid the subject of money. Why, why, WHY? Why would a pastor charged with caring for his congregation withhold teaching that would bring blessing to the church and the congregation? We believe that if God’s people hear His plan for any area of their lives they will say “YES!” We don’t just believe this as a principal, we see it over and over again. Over 80% of our church family tithe. Yes, you heard that right… tithe! And because of this, they are blessed by God and His ministry is supported.

We recently changed our membership class to be more accessible. Instead of taking five weeks of classes that each take an hour and a half, it now only takes one day! I can remember when our membership class took 12 weeks. UGH!

We are looking for new ways to present this gospel that we live by so that it is accessible to everyone. Why? Because God desires that every person comes to know Him. This is an awesome time to serve at The ROCK. I love seeing God’s plans coming to past and bringing change, growth, blessing and excitement!

Guess what. We are just getting started. I love my job! I love my church! I have an awesome life!

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I have been humbled…

One of the young men at The ROCK posted to his blog back in March an observation that sounded a lot like the Apostle Paul rebuking the church and himself at the same time. I encourage you to read it with an open heart and mind.

Way to go Zeke! I am encouraged to see you grappling with issues like this. I love to worship God in all His power, majesty and grace! Your post reminds me why I am here… to love God AND His people.

Check it out here.

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