we must never forget

Yesterday I had a very sad hospital visit at Henry Medical Center.  I went to see a young man and his family who had over dosed and was on life support.  They will be removing it this morning at 10am.  It was so sad to look at the pictures of this young man that were around the room, so healthy, so happy and yet he lay there so broken.

Alan Greene went with me and we had prayer for the 20 year old who given up hope and bought the lie of the devil that he would be better off dead.  Jesus reminded us in his Word of the devil’s main objective. 

John 10:10 (NIV)   The thief (the devil) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I (Jesus) have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

As I was sharing with this mother that I believe God can still speak to people when they are in a comatose state, her reply to me was, “I hope he finds the peace he has been looking for.”

My friends, that broke my heart because somehow this young man who lived in Henry County didn’t have a chance to know the love of God and the peace of God. 

Stockbridge Community Church, we must never get slack or lazy in doing all the good we can for all the people we can because that is what God has called us to do.  He has called us to give hope and without it, people will die. 

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)   Where there is no vision (of God), the people perish:

People only see God in the good that his people do.  So let’s keep doing good that people may see God through us and find hope.   Remember, it feels good to do good and you are the most like God when you are doing good.

What holds you back?

Last night was a great small group meeting. I really enjoy breaking up into a smaller group with the men. Last night we talked about the things that hold us back like fear, guilt, worry, doubt and pride. The question was asked, “Which one of these do you think you struggle with the most?” My answer was, “It just depends on what is happening that day”. As we are finding out in our Life’s Healing Choice series, the greatest choice is to trust God. When we as humans admit that we are not God and that we need him, it removes pride. At this point we stop trying to control things that are out of our control. It’s only after this point that we can move to the next level of trusting God and that is to believe he has the power to change me and my situation. From there, we move to the next step of giving our will and life to Chris’s care and control. Here’s the bottom line that is being revealed to me… If I want to live without fear, worry, guilt and doubt I have to choose to trust God. The result of trusting God with my life is peace in my mind and heart. Someone said in my group God doesn’t want to take the steering wheel out of our hands he just wants to be the GPS that we follow.

 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

sunday….wow

What a great day for Stockbridge Community Church.  We had 503 in attendance, over 40 first time guests and over 200 people committed to being in a small group.

I just stand amazed at what God is up to. Rhonda and I invited the young man’s family who I get the privilege of being a mentor to at Stockbridge Middle School.  His whole family came and it was great having them in church with us.  We took them out to eat after the second service was over and we had the best time sitting and talking with them.  My respect for the mother went up as I talked with this lady who has the responsibility of raising four children by herself.  All I could think about was how much Stockbridge Community Church could be a help to her.  I just wanted to say, “Why don’t you come and let the people of SCC love on you?”  When you have four children and you are single, you don’t get love returned to you in the measure that you express it to them when they are teenagers.  So, God has put the church in place to be a place that we can give and receive love.

Our small group time last night was the best ever.  When it came time for discussion we divided up into two groups, men in one and women in another.  It was great just to talk with men and share life with them and I know the ladies felt the same.  This series “Life Healing Choices” is changing me already.  I am becoming more aware of small things that I do that hinder my relationship with others.  I love “seeing the light” rather than having to feel the pain because of my problems.

I hope you will continue to walk this road of hope, help and healing with us over the next 8 weeks.  I know God is up to something big in your life as well as mine.

thank you angie benton

Today I would like to give honor to a very special person who has served me and this church for almost 14 years.  Her name is Angie Benton.  Today is her last day working in our office as the accountant.  She was my personal secretary for 10 years and moved in an accounting role after her first baby, Lindi was born.  Now, after her second child Allison has come, she is going to be a fulltime stay at home mom. 

Words cannot say how much I appreciate her.  She walked with me through all the good and bad times.  There have been many times her words of, “we are going to make it” have given me the assurance that I needed.  She was one of my first employees and she has stood with me and was patient with me as I grew as a pastor and employer.

Words cannot say I how much I appreciate her for her love and loyalty that she extended to me and my family.  I am going to miss her being around the office, but will always be thankful for the impact on my life and SCC.

My life is better because of the people like Angie that have been apart of my life. 

So I would like to say, “Thank you Angie for 14 wonderful years of believing in the vision of SCC.”

better together

I have spent the last three days with six other pastors that I call my Pastors Covenant group.  This is a group that is basically a small group for pastors.  Not only do we encourage each other, but we also hold each other accountable for our continued pastoral development and personal commitment to our families.

You may not believe this but most pastors are so concerned with taking care of everyone else’s family, sometimes we can neglect our own.  When this imbalance occurs, bad things happen in a pastor’s families just like anyone else’s and the church will suffer.

Not every pastor has a great church family like me who understands the importance of family time and down time.  As I listen to those that were around me this week it just made me so thankful that I am the pastor of the greatest church on the planet. 

You hear me talk all the time about the importance of being in a small group.  I believe I it so much that I am apart of two, one with my church family and one with my pastor friends.  I always draw strength from my small group, especially my church family group that meets weekly.  I love them.

I hope you will take advantage of the strength that you can receive from joining a small group at SCC.  This Sunday we will begin our sign ups for our fall spiritual growth campaign called, “Life’s Healing Choices.”  This will be a great time for you to get to know some new friends.

We are better together!

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIV)   
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls
down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him
up!

feels good

Today I am still overwhelmed with the generosity, love and patience of the people of Stockbridge Community Church.  Yesterday we had over 90 people attempt to give blood of which 75 made it through the interview process of eligibility which resulted in 59 pints of blood in a 6 hour period.

I am so proud of our usher team who helped take care of 535 people. They did an outstanding job finding everyone a seat and taking care of the all those who came in later.  What can I say about our outreach team who organized such a great day with our blood drive?

If you are reading this post and are not apart of the family at SCC you may not understand why so many people serve in their church family and their community.   I will let you in on the secret.   Are you ready?  Here it is, “WHEN WE DO GO WE FEEL GOOD.”

Could you use a good dose of feel good?  God has a way for you to stir up that feel good feeling.  It is not in a pill bottle, liquor bottle, beer can, illegal drug or a new sexual partner.   God’s way for you to stir up the feel good feeling is for you to do something personally to help someone else.  You know most people say I pay taxes and our government helps people so I am doing my part or they say I go to such and such church and give my offering and they help people so I am doing my part.

People who think like that are missing it and if the truth is known, they are miserable.  There is nothing that can take the place of personally getting involved and giving of yourself to do good for someone else.

So I have a question for you.  Will you join those of us who are apart of the happiest people in the world?  We are called the “Do Good Crowd.”

Acts 10:38 (NIV)   how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

 

on purpose

I am writing this post in the afternoon.   I have just met with our staff as we talked about many things that will help us to continue being effective for God’s kingdom.  One of the things that we are doing again is reading a book by Rick Warren called, The Purpose Driven Church.  I shared something with them that I would like to share with you today about this book.  As I began to reread it I got a little emotional.

In 1999 I had been the pastor of this Church for four years and we had relocated it from Forest Park, GA to Rex, GA.  Our church in those four years had grown form 80 people to 180.  The only problem was that being the traditional church that we were, not a lot of people came to Christ.  Yet, we had a lot of people who came from other churches and brought all their options and ideas with them.  Let me tell you, you will go crazy trying to be everything to everybody.  That is exactly what I was trying to do.  I never will forget when we were trying to buy more property to build a new church and all the issues that came along with that.  Trying to keep people happy was more than I could handle. 

So, one summer Monday morning I got up to pray and to read my bible at 6 am which was the same time I always did.  Except that morning as I opened my mouth to pray I could not believe the words I was saying to God.  I said, “God today I am quitting as a pastor.  I am going to take my family back to our home town and live there and be a great church member because I am not quitting as a Christian, I am just not going to be a pastor anymore.  I don’t want to waste my life.”  Here is the option I gave God, “Unless you show me something today, I am done wrestling with church members.”

You have to get the picture.  I was weeping and not being arrogant.  At that moment of my being honest with God, I can tell you in my mind I saw the cover of the Purpose Driven Church book and heard a still small voice that said this is what I want you to do.  I want you to lead a church that will reach lost people.  The crazy thing is I had read that book in 1995 when it came out, but put it on the shelf and had not thought about again.

For the last ten years, I have tried my very best to lead our church to become a Purpose Driven Church.  Today, as I write this post and I looked at our attendance for this past Sunday, it was 457.  I say praise God.  The road to becoming what God has called our church to be has not been easy at all, but it has been very rewarding because I have seen God save so many people and connect them to this church family.  I have seen many grow in the likeness of Christ.  Many have founded their God given gifts and have begun to serve our church family.  Many are sharing their experience with Christ with others and they also have decided to follow Him.  So, when I open this book and begin to read, I realized how faithful God had been to keep his promise.

 1 Corinthians 1:9 (Msg)   God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that.

Remember

Yesterday I had the privilege of going down to Heritage Park in Henry County for a memorial service to remember our soldiers who have given their life for our freedom.

I had not planned on being there, but after the service Sunday something inside of me was moved to want to take a moment with those who have given their all for our country.  I also wanted to, in some strange way, be around the loved ones of those who had suffered the pain of losing a family member or close friend to war.  I just wanted to be there to comfort them and support them.

I didn’t know who would be there at the memorial or what a memorial service would look like because I have never been to one.  When I walked up to the memorial site, I was pleasantly surprised to see 50% of the people were from SCC.  As I moved around I could see the determination on each ones face to honor those who had given their lives.

You know, I don’t want the sacrifice of our soldier’s blood to be wasted.  They died that we could live in this country and be free to say the name of Jesus and share the name of Jesus.  So today, I guess I would say I am thankful to Jesus for dying that I can call him my savior and I am thankful to the soldiers who were wounded and died for my country that I may be free to publicly share the name of Jesus with others.

Remember!!!

1 Thessalonians 1:3 (NIV)   We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you SCC

When I began this Blog in November of 08, it was to let the people of SCC get a little closer to me.  The goal was if I could have a three minute conversation with every person each day, this is what is on my mind.

 

Today, I am so thankful for all the goodness of God that is expressed through the people of SCC every day.  That goodness has never been more expressed than this past weekend when 82 people showed up at all five Kroger stores of Henry County and bagged groceries, pumped gas, greeted the customers, all to benefit A Friends House in Henry County.  It is our belief at SCC that, “when we give, people live.”  Thank you SCC for your God-like heart.

 

I want to say thank you for bringing all the supplies to help the Haven House in Henry County.  It was an overwhelming sense of gratitude as I looked at all the bags of supplies that lined our sanctuary.  I know that many women and children will receive hope and help as a result of the love you expressed by your unselfish gifts to broken people in our county.

 

It is just amazing to me the more I see people reaching out to help other people who are broken, that the person who gives the help is automatically helped.  I have found out in my own personal life that when I give, it brings alive the spirit of God in me more than anything.

 

Stockbridge Community Church, I want to tell you I love you and I am so blessed to be able to serve with you as we make a difference in the lives of the people of Henry County through the power of God that is expressed through love.

 

Matthew 25:34-40 (NIV)   ”Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

 

 

Easter ‘09 Reflection

 

Today I am still trying to put my mind around all that God did yesterday on Easter Sunday.  I am so proud of the people of SCC.  You were the best hosts to every person that was our guest in church yesterday.  Which the quick count was 626 people in service.  That is a record for us.

 

I say praise God. God has done a great work among us and He continues to do so.  I couldn’t help but to think back to that little house that had been turned into a church in Forest Park.  14 years ago is where it all began. That first Easter in 1995 we had maybe 120 people show up, but it began a dream inside of me that has only grown over years. 

 

I dream of a church were every member and regular attendee shares a common belief that God has placed them here on this earth to give hope to the hopeless and help through the power of God to all who are down.  It is my prayer that every person will open their heart to see how great and how good God really is. 

 

I think the people of SCC are getting very close to becoming that kind of church.  Stockbridge Community Church you are the best people I have ever had the privilege to be around.  I count it a joy to be able to be called your pastor.  Thank you for allowing me the privilege to serve with you in this great work God has given us.  Many lives have been changed because you are so selfless and compassionate.

 

If you can’t tell I am overflowing with thankfulness today for what God is doing.  I love the Church and Staff I get to serve with every day.