We had a HUGE potluck lunch afterwards. As we were walking in, one of the teens remarked to an older woman, “What’s that smell? It smells delicious!” and the lady told her, “Here in the South that’s the smell of love, honey!” We had everything from ham and potato salad, to corn puddin’ and macaroni and cheese and meatballs, to pies and cakes and pudding and oh my. Had to roll ourselves out!

We got to visit with Pastor Phil and Marie a bit more, and forge some friendships with some of the folks at their church. We’re all feeling led to partner together to encourage and pray and exchange ideas… it’s a God thing, and some good thing

Ken and I have looked at a couple of books on church planting, read a lot more blogs about it, and devoured a couple of websites. MUCH of what I’ve seen not only hasn’t impressed me, it hasn’t answered my questions. Their advice seems to be to turn the pastor into a cheerleader/controversy-maker instead of a gospel preacher. Don’t get me wrong – a good pastor WILL encourage his/her flock, incite them to be stirred up, and the Gospel is certainly controversial… but do we really need churches with sex billboards out there? Sure, they entice some folks to come to church to see what it’s about. And sure, the church should teach about sex and holiness along the way. But do we need those pews filled? Or do we need disciples made?

Check out Carl’s post – it’s good… and honest.

Vistaprint offers a staggering array of advertising materials on their site, which gets bonus points from me for being VERY easy to use! Some of their products are free, but if you’d like to really customize you’ll pay. Their prices are far more reasonable than what Staples and the print shop quoted me for fully customized two sided business cards. The car door magnets are a GREAT value. You can upload your logo and everything… and if you don’t have one, they’ve got logo design for free!

Another thing they offer is window decals (among other promotional give-aways). I think those are a little bit expensive, but I’ve never priced them so they might cost a lot more than I realize.

I’m considering getting 250 business cards, 2 sets of car door magnets, rubber stamps (return address and check), and maybe some wall decals (cool idea!). I’m also going to compare their prices on postcard marketing with that of another company who’s contacted the church.

I’ll post back with a review of their products and services, and would love to hear feedback from anyone out there who’s used them!

Baby dedications are fairly simple and don’t need an elaborate ceremony, and it all lends to a message that’s easy to preach and won’t require more preparation than others.  Weddings, on the other hand, are almost always elaborate, with many customs and such attached (such as whether the bride’s mother or groom’s mother gets seated first.) Not our forte – so we’ve found a couple of websites that outline wedding ceremonies from plain to extravagant. Not easy. But not rocket science for the pastor.

Funerals, on the other hand, are thorny. I think I could preach the funeral of a relative stranger or acquaintance, but how do you preach the funeral of someone you love? Our church members are our family – we’re united by the Blood, even if not by direct genetics. I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. And I suppose that preaching the funeral of someone we know is in heaven won’t be so difficult.  It is, after all, a celebration of one’s homegoing.

But what of funerals for children? That’s got to be hard. Families don’t want theological or intellectual explanations. Or worse, for someone we are 99.9% sure is unsaved (can’t discount that last-minute confession of faith, but I’m convinced they’re rare)?

I’ve tried googling about for examples on that last… and all I’ve found either comfort the grieving that because God is merciful, their loved one will find mercy. Er… no. If their loved one got judged on his own merits, rather than those of Jesus, that person is in hell. That’s a stark, cold, slap-you-in-the-face reality. I hate the thought so much that as I typed it, tears formed. Yet we can’t change reality. Truth is truth, no matter how unpleasant. At the same time, though, we can’t slap that family in the face with this fact. If they’re believers, they know it already; if they’re not, parading it around surely will not help. I’ve read sermons which are like this.

So – how do you preach the funeral of someone who wasn’t saved?

If you’re ever in Level Cross, you are most welcome to come to our services!!

I’ll warn you though, the site’s still very much under construction. I’ve got 1001 things I’d like to add, but haven’t had time to do it yet!

Acts Temple is a wonderful church. Pastor Jury Price and Co-Pastor Mike Dixon and all the leaders and people are just *awesome*.  If someone was to come to Flowing River Fellowship (the church we’re planting) and they felt like they weren’t a good fit here, I wouldn’t hesitate to send them to Acts Temple. If we weren’t called to ministry / called for now, Acts would definitely be our home church.

 But.

For a while now, we’ve been hearing from God that it’s time to start Sunday worship at Flowing River Fellowship. We’ve been meeting on Tuesday nights, and it’s been good. If we were to continue on Tuesdays, it would likely still be good. But it wouldn’t be God’s best for this church, and that’s what we want!

We’re sensing something with Acts Temple. A disconnect. We’ve felt this feeling before when it was time to move on. It’s always been immediately preceded by hearing from God about it.

See, we thought we could be part of one congregation while growing another. We’d started to get comfortable there, to go with the flow of things, to step into roles. It felt good and right. But it wasn’t what God really wanted for us. Oh, I do believe that He brought us there… but I think we overstayed His welcome. We should’ve gone when we started FRF, regardless of whether we met on Tuesdays, Sundays, or whenever.

The point isn’t that we’ll be busy in one place on Sunday so we can’t be at another… the point is that we can’t have our time and efforts divided between two congregations. If we’re going to be a part of a congregation, we need to focus on the needs of that congregation. Not another. I’m not saying that two churches (or ten) can’t be a help to one another, work on joint projects, learn from one another, and so on. I AM saying that each church needs to focus on its own efforts (without being inwardly focused!!) – whether as an individual congregation, or as a cooperative effort.

For example – Acts Temple put on a wonderful hot dog supper a ways back. It was a great thing and really ministered to some of Level Cross’s low-income residents. At least one family hadn’t had anything at all to eat recently! Yet when we went door to door, Ken and I felt very conflicted. Here we are planting a church, and inviting people to come to another church that we’re a part of. It’s a bit illogical. Not because FRF and AT are in any sort of competition… we should each be building the community of our own congregations.

I could draw a picture of what I’m trying to say, and maybe I will, because I don’t feel like I’ve expressed it well.

So – next Sunday morning we’ll be having services here. Hopefully our people will be able to handle the rapid transition.  This isn’t how we like to make changes – but obedience is what counts here.

Today we’re hanging out. We’ll pray, work some on the logistics, keep plugging away at the Articles of Incorporation, and get some housework done. It’s been a busy week, ministry wise, and the housework seems to always come last.

What is the church? A country club, where only the elite can hobnob?

Some people have a terrible, rude awakening coming to them… see Matthew 25.

I’ve been sick for -it seems like forever- first stomach, then flu.  But it’s been an interesting week. Tuesday I hadn’t been feeling TOO bad. Sick, yes, but not like warmed over food from last Thanksgiving! I had to run to the post office and grocery store. Between here and Randleman I started to cough, and I proceeded to cough, shiver, shake, sweat, and cry through the next hour until I got home. Went to bed and huddled there miserable.

So a friend called Tuesday night. She’s really been going through some unpleasant things and I wanted to minister to her. Between coughs I did. Woke up Wed morning and promptly went back to bed. I decided I just wasn’t getting up, period.

Well. God had other plans.

My friend called back. We talked on the phone a good long while and I really wanted to pray with her. I don’t like to pray over the phone about things which are highly emotional. So I asked her if she was willing to risk the flu and come over. She was willing. TECHNICALLY we shouldn’t be contagious any more (5 days from 1st symptoms) but given that we’ve still got symptoms we want to be sure.

But get this — over the hour or so we talked on the phone, and the rest of the afternoon and into last night, I barely coughed at all and I went from feeling so tired I didn’t want to remain standing, to having a LOT of strength. God did it

We ended up praying for a good while and then we went to a church service at a place which has special ministry of the sort my friend needed.  I ended up being ministered too. Awesome stuff that God was doing last night!!

Then I made Ken take me out for a chocolate milkshake

Yet reading what others are doing is fun and often inspiring. Sure, we can glean ideas… but reading about exciting things tends to get us excited, too. Sites open us to possibilities.

I make it a practice to read the blogs and church websites of folks I disagree with. I routinely read reformed, complementarian, cessationist, liberal, and even some decidedly non-Christian views, in addition to reading the sites of folks who think pretty much like I do. This practice stretches me and gives me glimpses into the great diversity that exists in the church and in the greater world.

Today I ran across a Presbyterian church in South Carolina – one of many churches in Greenville SC area. Now, if I had to pick a polar opposite for myself, it might be a Presby. They tend to be far more liberal than I’m comfortable with, and they tend to do things that I’m just not sure about (like centering prayer). Yet I know many Presbyterians who adore Jesus – they’re my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Looking through their site (which has a nice design), several of their programs and efforts leap out at me. One is called Stephen Ministry… “a Christ-centered ministry of presence by lay persons in the congregation. The confidential, one-to-one care is available to all in our church home and in the community who are experiencing all of life’s joys and challenges.”

I like it.

They’ve also got a theology reading group, a commitment to being eco-friendly, and their members are involved in a staggering number of outreach opportunities.
One thing I found interesting was their spiritual gifts list. Obviously, we’ve drawn differing conclusions regarding this subject. Their list of spiritual gifts focuses on the natural outworking of gifts (such as leadership and mercy) rather than on the supernatural/sign gifts (such as prophecy and healings). However, their list offers concrete ways for people to participate, and a person who can help them plug into ministry. Often, people fail to step up and minister because they’re not sure in what area they’re able to serve, and once they figure that out, they’re not sure how to get involved. This church seems to make it easy.

I enjoy getting ideas like this. Sites like Westminster Pres. has help me to see potentials, areas for teaching, ways to minister that I might not have seen if I only gleaned ideas from other Pentecostals (we have this awful tendency to assume that everyone in a Pentecostal church has received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, spoken in tongues, and knows how to open up and let the Holy Spirit work through us. Um… in a word…no. I’d say the vast majority in today’s (American) Pentecostal churches either have never received, or spoke in tongues once 20 years ago and therefore “got theirs”, or they only operate in spiritual gifts within the four walls of the church when everyone’s really excited. (uh-oh, I might’ve gotten myself started…)

We had a nice time last night. We were few in number – there’s a lot of people who are sick – but it was good. I need to sort out sermon prep better… somehow I feel compelled to say everything I’ve got written down. I’ve thought about going note-less, but I’m just not sure what would happen ::makes face::

One thing we’re praying for is that God will make a way for us to either sell this house and buy another, or for us to be able to refurbish this house and add on to it. We like where we live, like having a little land, and love having some of the best neighbors anyone could ask for. The problem is that our house isn’t conducive to having gatherings in. Not sure who designed the layout, or why they set things up this way. I’ll just say that they don’t think, move, or live the way we do. I’d love to tear out a few walls…