Near and Far Faith

You must check out this blog post by Perry Noble - a pastor at a church of 7000 in S. Carolina. A few weeks ago their congregation took permanent sharpies and wrote the names of their unsaved friends on the walls of the sanctuary.

click here:

perrynoble.com

How sweet is that!

Clicking on this picture will take you to my flickr account where you can see more pics of me and my family and the Students and V-Staff of Ignite. I'm married to the HOTTEST woman alive. I call her Cher, but her name is Cherie (actually, that's short for Cherisa - sher-EE-sah). For the first three months that we dated I spelled her name like this - Cherrie - like Cherry but with an "ie". She was too awesome to tell me though.

Just a tid bit about my ignorance.

Now don't get me wrong - I love our small group and and I believe that small groups are Biblical and crucial to spiritual growth. And know that I'm writing now to myself as much as anyone else (I usually am). But today I got a call from some of our best friends. We met them at the Evangelical Free church we attended in Scranton a few years back and instantly got along. Months after getting to be very close, they left the EV Free church and began to attend the Catholic church. They were in search of true Christianity and that is where Christ led them.

Today on the phone with... let's call her Jane... she was asking if we had attended a church in Palmerton when we lived there right after we got married. I told her no and asked why. Jane said that she had been taking the kids to a play group at a local church and thought we may have gone there. The she said "they keep trying to save me." They assume that because she and her family are Catholic they must need salvation.

I can just hear the small group conversations now: "There's this girl that comes to our play group and she's catholic - can we pray that she gets saved?" or "I know who I'm inviting to the Christmas Cantata! That Catholic girl! I think she really needs Jesus." or "God I just lift up (what does that really mean? Is God really up?) that Catholic girl. She's misguided and thinks she's following You, but show her the True Path."

Whatever.

I'm not saying that everyone who is Catholic is saved. But you and I both know that there is most likely as many in evangelical churches that are not as well. Christ himself said that there will be many that claim to know Him but do not.

Now please know that when we watched our dear friends go through their faith transition, I had all the same questions that the typical Evangelical would raise. But as we journeyed through life together with... Dick and Jane... we realized that their God was our God and at no time did eternity hang in the balance for our friendship.

We who have grown up in church (what a paradox) have a closed mindedness that many times blinds us. Myself included. God is God. God is not religion. I know that we say that often but our parents taught us such fouled up things about Catholicism that I believe we often are trying to "save" our own brothers and sisters from the same God we love.

Let's (you and me) grow up a bit, eh?

Rory turns 2 today. She's 2 on 2/22. I thought that was really awesome and deserved like a circus or something. It doesn't. But it's still really cool.

How my life's changed since Rory:
-It's a heck of a lot more fun
-I worry more
-I have someone to put to bed (I love doing that)
-I have someone to read to
-I've realized how great a sense of humor is (Rory's hilarious)
-I have to watch what I say when I hurt myself

Because of her I want more kids. Have kids. Lots of them. They simply make life better.

Every once in a while I'd like to pump up one of our students. When we notice them taking big growth steps on Tuesday nights, I give out super hero characters. Here, I'd like to blog a bit about them.

Our IMT, or Ignite Music Team (how original is that), has a drummer. His name is Jaryth and I just have to blog publicly that he is one of the best drummers I've ever worked with. I have been in bands and worship teams since I was 16 years old and Jaryth simply gets the simplicity of drumming. I've tried. I am not a drummer. Jaryth can juice up a song to supper heavy or help with the honing in of the Spirit on the symbals. The cool thing is, I know that "worship" music is not what Jaryth listens to on a regular basis. He likes the screaming of bands like Disciple (so do I - They're awesome). To be able to set aside your own preferences and take direction is one thing, but to succeed is another.

This past Tuesday I tried something risky. Tuesday afternoon I wasn't happy with my set list for that night. I'm all about new music but nothing was coming to my heart. I was listening to Hillsong United's latest "United we stand" and heard a song that I thought we might be able to pull off. Now you worship leaders out there know that their stuff is hard, especially for drummers (I've tried and failed many times - in fact we only do one of their songs regularly out of all 4 of their albums and it's a slow one). The song was "The Time Has Come". Awesome lyrics and high energy. The team listened to it once and come performance time, they nailed it.

Jaryth, you have a gift and a talent for worship drumming. I will miss playing with you. Don't get rusty.

Alright this book has changed my life in the past few months. Not in a "I'm gonna love everybody more" kinda way, but in a "I will now do this differently" way.

It's written by Andy Stanley who pastor's a church in Atlanta called North Point. It's all about public communication and ANYONE WHO SPEAKS PUBLICLY AND ESPECIALLY PREACHES must read this. The idea is the one-point message. In Bible college we're taught to find the 3 - 5 points of concern to our audience and illustrate them. This book challenges you to find the one thing - the ONE THING - that will change the audience and pound it. Bottom line is that one point is easier to remember than 3 or 4 or 5.

It also gives you a great way to outline or map-out a one point message - ME-WE-GOD-YOU-WE. Since reading the book it is how I consistently write my messages and I've seen a big change. ME = "I've got this problem or issue". WE = "Don't we all struggle with this in some way?". God = "What does God say about it?". YOU = "What should you do based on what God says?". And WE = "What would it look like if we all did this?".

It's easier to remember one point with a few different aspects. It's easier to internalize so you're not tied to your notes as much. If you preach, or want to preach, read this book.

If you're not into world war two stuff than this won't interest you. However if you liked the HBO mini-series as much as I did... well... I read the book. The book is what the miniseries was based on and is basically the 10-part series in more detail. I just love WW2 stuff. I have a helmet. And a mess kit. Got them from my step dad.