I have had a fast and furious past few weeks. From a nice extended weekend at the lake to a week with 200 children at Children’s Camp to this week which has been full of meetings, it seems as if it never slows down! That being said, I love so much being a pastor that even though my schedule is full, I couldn’t be happier! Tracy and I were talking the other day about how unique it is that each of us is getting to fulfill our dreams for our lives. She is a stay at home mom and I’m a lead Pastor at an amazing church which is being used by God to take the gospel to the world. What a blessing!

Coming up this week, however, is a couple of very exciting events. We start our new sermon series this week entitled “Oasis”. Just as an oasis appears in the midst of vast desert, so to Christ appears out of the midst of our depravity and offers us hope in a hopeless world. I’m excited about the new series. On top of the exciting series, the good folks who design our stage for each series have built a 10 foot waterfall which looks incredible! I’ll try and post pictures in the upcoming weeks once the stage design is complete.

Beyond that we start VBS next week. Last year we had over 200 children and this year we are praying for 400! We’ll see how God blesses our prayers and how God uses our VBS to draw children to Himself.

Finally, below is a picture a friend took of my wife and girls as we played with fireworks last week at the lake. I thought it was particularly good so I thought I would post it.

Dr. Don Whitney, who used to be one of my professors at Midwestern, and is now a professor at Southern was the topic of an article that was published today over at Baptist Press. Actually it would be more accurate to say that a recent message on the topic of Church Discipline. I was just speaking yesterday with a group of area pastors about the need to be more faithful in implementing church discipline in the local church. We worked hard for a number of years at my last church to implement discipline and thankfully it was already part of our dna here at Frederick when I got here. I am convinced that the American church is need of many things. We need more consistent evangelism, discipleship, worship and fellowship. We need more effective pastors and more committed laypersons. What I think we need more than anything, however, is repentance. As pastors we have an obligation to lead our people to treat sin as serious and the biblical practice of Church Discipline is a necessary ingredient.

I would really encourage you to read the article. You can find it by clicking here.

I spoke yesterday on the Laodicean Church in Revelation 3. I closed the message by quoting Francis Chan, of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, CA. Chan has offered 18 signs that you are a lukewarm Christian. I thought they were powerful enough that I would reproduce them here. Be warned, however, that they can be very convicting.

1. Lukewarm people attend church fairly regularly.  It is what is expected of them, what they believe “good Christians” do, so they go. Isaiah 29:13

2. Lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church as long as it doesn’t impinge on their standard of living.  If they have a little extra and it is easy and safe to give, they do so, After all, God loves a cheerful giver, right? 1 Chronicles 21:24, Luke 21:1-4

3. Lukewarm people tend to choose what is popular over what is right when they are in conflict.  They desire to fit in both at church and outside of church; they care more about what people think of their actions (like church attendance and giving) than what God thinks of their hearts and lives. Luke 6:26, Revelation 3:1, Matthew 23:5-7

4. Lukewarm people don’t really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin.  They don’t genuinely hate sin and aren’t truly sorry for it; they’re merely sorry because God is going to punish them.  Lukewarm people don’t really believe that this new life Jesus offers is better than the old sinful one. John 10:10, Romans 6:1-2

5. Lukewarm people are moved by stories of people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act.  They assume such action is for “extreme” Christians, not average ones.  Lukewarm people call “radical” what Jesus expected of all His followers. James 1:22, James 4:17, Matthew 21:28-31

6. Lukewarm people rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends.  They do not want to be rejected, nor do they want to make people uncomfortable by talking about private issues like religion. Matthew 10:32-33

7. Lukewarm people gauge their morality or “goodness” by comparing themselves to the secular world.  They feel satisfied that while they aren’t as hard-core for Jesus as so-and-so, they are nowhere as horrible as the guy down the street. Luke 18:11-12

8. Lukewarm people say they love Jesus, and He is, indeed, a part of their lives, their money, and their thoughts, but he isn’t allowed to control their lives. Luke 9:57-62

9. Lukewarm people love God, but they do not love Him all their heart, soul, and strength.  They would be quick to assure you they try to love God that much, but that sort of total devotion isn’t really possible for the average person; its only for pastors and missionaries and radicals. Matthew 22:37-38

10. Lukewarm people love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves.  Their love for others is typically focused on those who love them in return, like family, friends, and other people they know and connect with.  There is a little love left over for those who cannot love them back, much less for those who intentionally slight them, who kids are better athletes than theirs, or with whom conversations are awkward or uncomfortable.  Their love is highly conditional and very selective, and generally comes with strings attached. Matthew 5:43-47, Luke 14:12-14

11. Lukewarm people will serve God and others, but there are limits to how far they will go or how much time, money, and energy they are willing to give. Luke 18:21-25

12. Lukewarm people think about life on earth much more often than eternity in heaven.  Daily life is mostly focused on today’s to-do list, this week’s schedule, and next month’s vacation.  Rarely, if ever do they intently consider the life to come. Philippians 3:18-20

13. Lukewarm people are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor. Matthew 25:34, 40, Isaiah 58:6-7

14. Lukewarm people do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty.  They want to do the bare minimum, to be “good enough” without requiring too much of them. 1 Chronicles 29:14, Matthew 13:44-46

15. Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control.  This focus on safe living keeps them sacrificing and risking for God. Matthew 10:28

16. Lukewarm people feel secure because they attend church, made a profession of faith at age twelve, were baptized, come from a Christian family, vote Republican, or live in America.

17. Luke warm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to.  They don’t have to trust God if something unexpected happens-they have their savings account.  They don’t need God to help them—they have their retirement plan in place.  They don’t genuinely seek out what life God would have them live—they have life figured and mapped out.  They don’t depend on God on a daily basis-their refrigerators are full and, for the most part, they are in good health.  The truth is, their lives wouldn’t look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God. Luke 12:16-21

18. Lukewarm people probably drink and swear less than average, but besides that, they really aren’t very different from your typical unbeliever.  They equate their partially sanitized lives with holiness, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Matthew 23:25-28, Luke 14:34-35

Thanks to Don Brown who pointed me to the quote.

The Presidential election is coming up and once again Americans have a difficult decision to make. Do we vote for Barack Obama? Do we vote for John McCain? Do we vote for a third party candidate? Do we write in a candidate? Finally, do we simply sit by and not vote at all? From a biblical perspective I am convinced that it is our obligation to vote and to vote for someone who reflects biblical values. Recently in a conversation with my dad, we were discussing the church’s obligation to vote for someone who reflects godly values. The refrain that I consistently hear from believers is that they may not love any candidate, but they will vote for the “lesser of two evils” in order to not “waste their vote”. This is an interesting thought process, and honestly, is one that I embraced for a while. The problem arises when it is pointed out, as my father lovingly did, that to do so is to admit that you are voting for evil, albeit “less” evil than you might otherwise vote for.

As believers we need to think and pray deeply about the upcoming election. We need to evaluate each candidate, not against each other, but against God’s Word. If a candidate is found that is suitable to consider voting for, do so. At the same time, if you are convinced that none of the candidates are viable, biblicallly, than write a candidate in. You might argue that to do so is to waste your vote. I would strongly disagree. Remember America is not our home, our allegiance is ultimately to the Kingdom of God and not to an earthly political process. To vote in amanner that would reflect the most politically expedient option is to unfortunately believe that pragmatism, rather than holiness, is our highest aim.

Our goal is to please God, and not man. It’s often difficult, in our political climate, to remember that. I’ll be honest with you that I have not decided, at this point, how I am going to vote. I am convinced, however, that I will study and pray and I will vote this year for the candidate that most reflects my commitment to God and His word, even if that means writing in the name that I think be represents those characteristics.

What do you think?

As technology increases, so does the opportunity for churches to take advantage of it. Take a look at this video and see if you can come up with ways that the church could harness this technology in the coming years as the technology comes down in price.

HT: Kent Shaffer

It’s the end of another Sunday and what a good Sunday it was! When you look at numbers it wasn’t incredible, in fact we had the lowest attendance of the year I believe. It seems that summer vacation has hit us hard. In spite of that, however, we had a phenomenal day. It was exciting to watch as God moved in our hearts as we took the Lord’s Supper together. I’m always profoundly moved by the opportunity we have to remember His sacrifice.

The choir rocked this morning! Wow! They sang Thou Oh Lord for the second time and I am blown away every time I hear them perform it. I’ve had it in my head all day and I can’t stop singing it. I found a video of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir singing it, in case you’re not from Frederick, and they do well but they’re not as good as Chad and our Celebration Choir. Man, I am in awe every time I hear this. If you’re listening to it for the first time, it starts a bit slow but the second half of the song will knock your socks off. There was a time when I just didn’t like choirs in church very much but I’ll tell you what, Chad and our choir have changed my mind. When they begin our services they do a phenomenal job of setting the table and preparing our hearts for worship. Thanks choir!

It was a privilege to watch as God brought one family and another individual to join the Frederick family this morning. I’m always thrilled to watch as God brings more people to be a part of what He’s doing at Frederick!

For some reason God’s presence really seemed strong as I taught this morning. There are days when I struggle through messages and then there are days when it seems as if God is really speaking and it’s easy to move through the message. This morning was exciting as I taught about the church at Philadelphia. I’m working on uploading the video from the message given in the second service and I’m hoping to have it posted in the morning.

We got the privilege of spending this afternoon with our band and worship team enjoying lunch together which was a privilege. I love spending time with the special people that God is using at our church in powerful ways!

The day ended just right as Tracy and I sat on our front porch and watched our girls chase and catch lightning bugs. The little things like that are the best parts of life. We finished up with our girls by sharing in our devotion time and we just put them down for the night.

I hope that your Sunday was as good as ours was!

I try to let you know anytime that a new resource is available that will be of benefit to churches. I ran across a new site that offers free open source graphics for churches to use. This would be incredibly helpful to you in case you are working on a sermon series and don’t have graphic design help. Take a look at OpenResources.org

HT: Jason Allen