“Last sunday, i got to see something very exciting.. Something that made me feel so good inside, brought tears to my eyes. I was sitting in service, listening to you (Pastor) .. you were talking about the connection cards.. and the first box on it. you were doing the prayer for those who were inviting jesus into their life.. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw a man. He grabbed a pen out of our cups, and he looked at you, took a deep breath, and filled in that first box. He held onto that card like it was hope. I smiled.. It is truly amazing to see what God is doing with and through the dialogue church and its people. Thank you guys for doing what you do. Lets change one life at a time ♥ See you sunday.”

That is why we do what we do. Your ministry matters. Are you serving Christ in the local church? For more info on how to serve at theDC.tv visit www.TheDC.tv/volunteer.

Have you ever wondered what St.Patrick’s Day is really all about? Me too.

Clearly, we don’t need another excuse to get wasted and do things we’ll regret that end up holding us hostage for the rest of our lives.

So, I did a little digging.

St.Patrick was really a pastor to the Irish people (Bishop). When Patrick was a teenager he was kidnapped by Pirates (I’m not making this up) from his home in Britain and sold into slavery in Ireland.

St.Patrick’s father was a pastor. So he met Christ at a young age, but it was during his years of slavery, suffering, and torture that he learned how to draw closer to Christ.

Eventually Patrick broke free, got back to Britain and the only thing on his heart was freeing Ireland from human slavery.

Patrick went back to Ireland after Britain made it clear that they weren’t interested in helping the Irish.
When Patrick returned to Ireland he was able to break Ireland from slavery by SHARING JESUS CHRIST WITH THEM!

Here is a song credited to St.Patrick which shows his devotion to Jesus:

“Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me. Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.”

“I bind unto myself the Name, The strong Name of the Trinity; By invocation of the same. The Three in One, and One in Three, Of Whom all nature hath creation, Eternal Father Spirit Word: Praise to the Lord of my salvation, Salvation is of Christ the Lord.”

So, how should we join in on the St.Patrick’s Day celebration and Party? How about you look to imitate St.Patrick in your own life by helping others find freedom from slavery to sin, addiction, drugs, alcohol, sleeping with everything that moves, adultery, greed, selfishness, and pride.  How about giving your life fresh and anew to the mission of Jesus Christ!

Here is one more closing thought from an article in Crosswalk:

“Modern St. Patricks are people who (a) love God deeply and are able to discern His calling, (b) are able to teach deep truths by illustrations from common experience, and (c) demonstrate their faith through a genuine love for people, advocating the cause of those who cannot defend themselves; often this advocacy is motivated by personal experience. Patrick’s life was full of obstacles for those who would want to become leaders in a local church: he lacked education and experienced a terrifying adolescence. Yet those experiences prepared him to become a leader able to reach out to those outside the walls of the church. Patrick’s lack of formal education made him a practical theologian, but a theologian none-the-less. Church leaders: look for the Patricks in your own congregation; then recruit and train them for leadership roles. On St. Patrick’s Day we should be reminded that the world still needs leaders like St Patrick.

Church members: pray that the leadership in your local church will recognize, recruit, and reward such people -practical theologians who speak out against injustice.”

Excerpt taken from http://www.crosswalk.com/11646816/page3/

Here is what else I observed, learned, and experienced at MOVIE NIGHT:

• Big props to Maria and the ladies on the DC STAFF for coming up with the bubbles idea. KIDS LOVE BUBBLES. God loves to make kids smile (Jesus loves being around kids and so should we). Churches are a place for kids; let’s never forget that (I know I do sometimes and I have two of them:) WE STARTED A BUBBLE REVOLUTION IN DOWNTOWN MANCHESTER. Kids were blowing bubbles all over the place, it looked so cool. As I saw those bubbles floating through the sky I thought of the impact we could make for Jesus on every soul represented there.
• We’ll never have 500 souls GATHERING ON THE WEEKENDS if we aren’t reaching out to 500 souls by SCATTERING ON THE WEEKDAYS. If we want people to gather on the weekend then we must scatter during the week. A church that gathers is a church that scatters. We must first reach out to 500 souls if we want to bring in 500 souls. We must first invest in 500 souls far from God if we want to invite 500 souls to encounter Christ in our churches. Then we can introduce them to the Jesus who died for them.
• IT IS ALL ABOUT JESUS, EVERYTHING WE DO IS ALL ABOUT JESUS AT THE DC! Thanks to all the mentors who have invested in me and The DC Team: big props to Rob Willis at thejourneynh.com, Anthony Milas at graniteunited.com and my new friend Josh Gagnon at nlc.tv.

Here is what I observed, learned, and experienced at MOVIE NIGHT:

• Our volunteers (GO TEAM DC) stepped up to the plate and they were ready to BLESS 500 PEOPLE WITH FREE WATER (and bubbles). There is no doubt in my mind that we as a church family were blessed just as much by giving away free ACTS OF KINDNESS as those on the receiving end (thank you Jesus, it is more blessed to give than to receive).
• I got to do a simple commercial for the company who hosted the event (they were promoting their giant inflatable movie screens, COMMUNITY EVENTS LCC). They asked why I was there, I said, “The Dialogue Church came here to bless this city with free water and to start a BUBBLE REVOLUTION”. They loved it. Seriously, every kid in that park had a bottle of bubbles with a DC tag on it.
• Get permission to invade an event with FREE STUFF (oops:)!
• Towards the end of the night I was talking with a young mom, we were both waiting for our children to come out of the restroom. She was frustrated, but clenched tightly in her hand was a DC tag, with an invitation to bring her family to The Dialogue Church. I was reminded that Jesus is already drawing people to Himself and we GET TO PARTNER IN THE DIVINE PROCESS OF LOVE. Seriously, its not complicated (it’s not easy either), but people want and need love and who better to hand it out than the unstoppable church of Jesus Christ! I know there were many moms and dads hurting from life, they need the living water of Jesus Christ. We are praying hard that our free water will many to the LIVING WATER OF JESUS CHRIST! Thank you Jesus for giving OUR CHURCH AND OUR CITY a LOVE UPGRADE THIS WEEK!
• We should steal great ideas from other churches and organizations in order to promote Jesus in our own local communities. Rick Warren (saddelbackchurch.com) says, “God gave us eyes – plagiarize”. LOL – I love that guy (and yes I do believe God is all over him and his ministry). We stole the idea to BLESS 500 PEOPLE WITH FREE WATER from our friends at Next Level Church (www.nlc.tv). They are doing something freak-tastic here in New England. We like to adopt and adapt great ideas from other churches. We take, make it better, and thus make it our own. Thanks to Joshuagagnon.com and the team at NLC.tv for the idea.
• If we want to go to the next level then we must study and investigate those already at the next level and beyond; we are fools if we don’t. We are prideful and insecure if we don’t want to expose our team members to other dynamic ministries; make sure the DNA matches but then let your team loose to investigate other ministries that are blowing up for Jesus.

Here is what I observed and experienced at MOVIE NIGHT:

• As organizational leaders and church pastors we must stop making excuses for why people STEP DOWN and start creating expectations for people to STEP UP. Ministry is hard work – get over it:) That is my nice way of saying, Jesus gave His life in service to others so we might take a hold of salvation (forgiveness of sin and life everlasting, the sweet life forever with God, which starts NOW on earth). Jesus is our example of sacrifice in ministry – He gave everthing, so should we. I was PROUD OF teamDC last night. They sacrificially gave of themselves and poured love into the cracks and crevices of downtown Manchester (I love MY CHURCH and I love this CITY)! Thank you Jesus for calling me and my family to this amazing MISSION OF LOVE.
• As far as marketing goes, GIVING TO THE COMMUNITY IS THE WAY TO GO. Marketing for us is all about communicating the greatest story ever told (the story of God’s love for humanity and how He sent His only Son to die on the cross for our sin-stained souls to be saved forever). We want to promote Jesus, not the pastor, not even the church per se, but we want to MARKET JESUS TO A MARKET WITHOUT JESUS. We want to bring the love and message of Jesus Christ to those far from God, and the only way to do that is to get outside the four walls of the church and share love, serve the people, and reach the culture. I really dig sending mailers but what we were able to do last night put us in direct contact with people. Jesus was infamous for touching the untouchables and loving the unlovables. I love that about Jesus and I love that about The Dialogue Church! We want to love the unloved, we want to bring the touch of Jesus to those who have never experienced his soul-morphing touch before.

He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. (Eph.4:16 NLT)

Last night we had the privilege of BLESSING 500 PEOPLE IN THE NAME OF JESUS with free water and bubbles. We gathered at Manchester’s downtown Film Festival in Veteran’s Park (the movie was funny, Hotel for Dogs) and the event coordinator, COMMUNITY EVENTS LCC, really did a fantastic job (big props to Chris).

And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded. (Matt.10:42 NLT)

JESUS IS STILL IN THE BLESSING BUSINESS. Seriously, I was blown away last night by the response on both sides of the blessing: those who were being blessed and those who were doing the blessing (GO TEAM DC).

As the Church of Jesus Christ seeks to be all that Jesus dreams her to be, then we must seek an UPGRADE, A LOVE UPGRADE. And we must seek to bring that upgrade of love to all the hurting, broken, and confused here in our city. I can’t help but believe that Jesus has placed us right in the heart of this city because that is where we can make the biggest impact for God and His love story. There are so many thirsty for real life, the kind of life that only God can give. AND LAST NIGHT, THE DC MADE JESUS REALLY PROUD, IT WAS ALL ABOUT MAKING JESUS FAMOUS & BLESSING OUR COMMUNITY IN A SIMPLE AND PRACTICAL WAY (way to go Dawn, Lissa, and the rest of the DC Team for pulling this off – and Manchester, you ain’t seen nothing yet)!

One of my greatest fears is that many of our churches are full of people with a false spiritual confidence. I heard a great pastor and communicator say this, “I like to tell young preachers, you don’t fail when you invite people to repent and follow Christ and no one responds. You fail when you don’t invite people to repent and follow Christ.”

There are going to be times, just like Jesus and His ministry, when we invite people to follow Christ and they refuse to follow; but that is not failure for the church. The church fails when we refuse to invite people to follow Christ, to turn from their sin and follow the Living God.

We might become critical of ministries like Noah, which didn’t have a single convert (other than those in his own family). But God used him to save the world. Let’s face it, none of us would be around today if it were not for God using Noah and his ministry. But the failure is not in having people refuse the gospel or the invitation to meet Jesus, but the failure is when we (the church) refuse to invite people to join the soul revolution of Jesus Christ!