Archive for Why Church?
Lessons from NorthwayChurch.tv, Pt.2
Posted by: | CommentsRecently, my wife, Dawn and I had the privilege of traveling to Northway Church (www.northwaychurch.tv) in Albany, NY to spend some time with Lead Pastor Buddy Cremeans and his amazing staff. I am still trying to process all that I learned from this trip, but let me try and unload some here:
HONOR
The number one thing I picked up from the culture of Northway Church was HONOR. WOW! They have created such an amazing culture of honor in their faith community. Let me try and break that down for you.
Brian Howe (the Campus Pastor at their Colonie location) truly modeled honor for us. The staff reserved front row seats during the worship experience for us, they brought us into their Green Room to help review the worship experience immediately afterwards; and then they took us out for dinner. That is called honoring your guests. I was overwhelmed with their hospitality! Thank you!
And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of My followers, you will surely be rewarded.” (Mat 10:42 NLT)
1. HONOR GUESTS
I want to create a culture of honor like northwaychurch.tv. I want the guests at TheDC.tv to be treated with such amazing honor. I want guests at TheDC.tv to feel the love of God oozing through our faith community because we speak to them with honor, we treat them with honor, and we appreciate them as people made in the image of God. I want us to honor our guests by following up with them in genuine and caring ways. I want to shower our guests with honor when they visit our worship experience on Sundays.
We can show people how special they are in the eyes of God when we honor them appropriately. What better way to display the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross than to honor every guest who comes to TheDC.tv to experience God!
Thank you Buddy Cremeans, Brian Howe, Kevin Murrell, Chad, Kevin, and Jeremy, and the rest of the NorthwayChurch.tv staff for showing us how to honor our guests. I am praying we can emulate the spirit of Jesus in this same way.
To be continued…
Lessons from NorthwayChurch.tv, Pt.1
Posted by: | CommentsThis past weekend my wife (Dawn) and I got the privilege of visiting Northway Church (www.northwaychurch.tv) in Albay, NY (actually two locations, Clifton Park and Colonie). WOW! Jesus is really in this place. Jesus is all over this church and its pastors. I was so blown away by their heart for Jesus and His mission. No doubt their program and facilities were amazingly impressive, but it was their hearts that really grabbed me. They were so focused on lifting up Jesus no matter what the cost!
The Lead Pastor, Buddy Cremeans (www.buddycremeans.com) recently spoke at our WARRIOR CONFERENCE in May. Buddy’s willingness to invest in my wife and I was just humbling. We travelled to Northway with our friends from Next Level Church in Dover, NH (www.nlc.tv) and their lead pastor, Josh Gagnon (www.joshuagagnon.com). I am still trying to process all that I learned from this trip, but let me start to unload a bit here:
HONOR
The number one thing I picked up from the culture of Northway Church was HONOR. WOW! They have created such an amazing culture of honor in their faith community. Let me try and break that down for you.
First, my wife and I were honored as their guests. Seriously, when we first arrived on the scene at Northway Church their staff gave us a guided tour and introduced us to their people like we were CELEBRITY SUPERSTARS. And it wasn’t that they had nothing else going on (it was packed with people, plus they had a special guest preacher in town Mac Richard from Austin, TX (www.macrichard.com). Every chance their staff could get they honored us by lifting us up as daring church planters in New England (which anyone who is willing to plant a church in New England is crazy for Jesus to begin with:)
A Church Jesus Wants to Be In, Pt.6
Posted by: | CommentsNow I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. (Mat 16:18 NLT)
Number Six: all the powers of hell WILL NOT CONQUER IT
If we are to be a part of the UNSTOPPABLE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST then we can not settle for mediocrity, the status quo, or half-hearted ministry efforts. Honestly, I know that I have made plenty of excuses in my life for WHY I JUST CAN’T GIVE 100% TO JESUS AND HIS MISSION: “I can’t afford it, I don’t have the time, I am not smart enough, others can do it without me, I don’t want to fail, I don’t want to be rejected, I don’t want to take a risk, I need to play it safe, I need more down time, I need more money, I need less stress, etc… Sometimes we simply ignore what Jesus has told us to do in His word, the Bible. Other times it is more subtle, and we just get comfortable in a pace that is not rocking the boat or causing a lot of “anxiety” and stress. God knows we like to “keep the peace”. Unfortunately, “keeping the peace” won’t win this war against evil and darkness in our world, only as we engage in the battle for people’s souls can we be a part of JESUS UNSTOPPABLE FORCE, THE LOCAL CHURCH!
We must strive for excellence in everything we do. Every missional effort must be filled with a passion to DO IT ALL FOR GOD’S GLORY – to do our absolute best with whatever resources we have been entrusted with. Whether it is leading people in worship during a weekend gathering, facilitating discussion in a small group bible study, or helping a neighbor paint his house – we should do it all with excellence (even when we don’t have great skills in that particular area). By the way – IF IT WAS EASY, EVERYONE WOULD BE DOING IT!
Let’s make this about the SUCCESS OF JESUS AND NOT OUR OWN SUCCESS!
