As we look back at the Easter morning experience we can celebrate the fact that Jesus IS alive.  Not that he was alive – he IS alive.  You see, the story didn’t end at Mark 16:6,

“”Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.”

It didn’t end after verse 19,

“After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.”

It continued in verse 20,

“Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.”

Do you see what happened?  The disciples went out, they preached, they helped poor, the widows, the sick and the lame.  We can read in the book of Acts that they were filled with the Holy Spirit just as Jesus had told them it would and the church was started.  But still, they didn’t just sit around and talk – they went out into the world and did the work of Christ.  They DID church.

So – when we look at our churches are we doing church or are we just going to church?  As I look at my new role and some of the tasks before me I am putting this type of a filter on most of what I’m doing.  At the end of the day, when I’ve designed a new service, selected the music, scheduled the small groups, put together all the teams, rehearsed the band and finished my first service on a Sunday evening will I have just gone to church – or will I have done church?  Will I have taken the time to get to know the people I am serving with?  What about the people I am serving?  Will anything I have done made a difference in my community?  Will we have helped the Holy Spirit ignite a fire of servant-hood within someone in the congregation?  Will I have taken the time to get to know the needs of those I am serving so that I can walk beside them as they come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior?

I hope when I look at these questions in a few months I can answer with a resounding YES!

The United Methodist denomination is about to kick off a major campaign called “Rethink Church“.  The idea is to think of church as a verb.  It’s a God thing that as I came onboard in Rittman as the Director of Outreach Ministries this was something that was on my heart and a week later the pastor came to me with some literature from the United Methodist Communication group about this.  I’ve got to say that I’m excited to see how God uses this to futher his kingdom.

So, how do YOU think we can rethink church?  How can we BE the church?  Let me know?

Oh – and for some other great thoughts about what the church is check out my amazing wife’s latest blog entry called “What Is Church?“

“And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.” (Col 1:10-12 NIV)

Right now I’m trying not to be overwhelmed.  As I begin to dig into my new role at Rittman UMC I am seeing a ton of things that needs to be done and a ton of opportunities for things that could be done.

I’ve got four or five lists of things to do and questions that need answers and it’s going to take time to get it all under control.  I would love nothing more than to just grab a hold of everything and start running like crazy with it all but I also know I that I need to get a feel for where everything is so I don’t just trip and fall.  

A lot of the work ahead is changing the way people think about church.  Thankfully, I believe that there are others right there with me as well.  We need to get people to stop going TO the church and get them to start BEING the church! 

Here’s the thing – I know I can’t do this alone – I need to completely surrender it all to God and let him guide my steps.  I know that he will place the people around me that need to be there so that the work will be done.  I know that he will provide the resources and opportunities for the work to be done.   

Thankfully, he’s put my wife beside me and I know that she and I will be able to do great things there for the Lord.  There are a others that I have met – and hopefully more that I haven’t met yet – that I know are going to a big help in getting all of this going as well and I have no doubt that God will continue to provide.

As I was reading this morning I opened to Colossians and the opening prayer of Paul really hit me hard.  He’s telling the people of Colosse how he’s heard of how the gospel is growing and bearing fruit in them.  He then tells them starting at verse 9 that they haven’t stopped praying for them.  What really hit me was in verse 11 when he tells them he is praying so, “that you may have great endurance and patience”.  The people of Colosse are doing all these things and all this good is coming out of it, but they still have to remember to have patience.

I feel like that’s what he’s telling me right now – have patience, it’s a long road – and that’s hard for me to deal with right now because there is so much opportunity.  But I know that I still have much to do, much to plan, much to plant – and with God’s help it will bear good fruit.

So, earlier this week I posted the story about Jason McElwain.  An example of a school getting behind one of their classmates and supporting him and loving him.  Then there is this story.  Maybe you’ve already seen it – I first saw it a few months ago – but it’s worth watching again.

This is the story about a coach that had an idea…and a community that embraced that idea and didn’t just TALK about showing God’s love to others – they put it into action.  They took the words of Jesus literally when he said:

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  (Matt. 22:36-40)

They loved God by loving others – by loving those that some might even say were unlovable.  They didn’t just do it a little – they went all out.  They could have just sat over on the visitor’s side and cheered a little bit every now and then – but they cheered like it was their own kids.  They could have made a sign and hung it up, but they made a spirit line and a banner for them to break through and run through.  They showed those kids that someone out there loves them.  They showed those boys – and everyone that watches this – what the love of Christ can do.  They gave these kids hope!

So, what can we do to show the love of Christ to someone this week?  How can we step outside of our comfort zone at school, at work, in our neighborhood?  How will you respond to Jesus’ call to love your neighbor as yourself?

Having grown up on 80′s hair bands and now as a father with a son who plays Guitar Hero and is learning about a lot of these bands seeing something like this is just cool.  Credit goes to Take Your Vitamin Z where I first saw the story.

Apparently, C.C. DeVille, the lead guitarist for the rock band Poison has recently become a Christian.  Head over to Without Wax to read the whole story and check out a video with Pastor Pete and C.C. backstage at a recent Poison concert.

ROCK ON!!

Check this out – FREE CONCERT!! How often do you hear that? Not too often! Well, I’m really excited about this so check out the info below. I’ve had the opportunity to see Shaun in a setting like this a few years ago and it was really cool. I also had the opportunity to sit in on a session of his at last years National Worship Leader Conference and it was great. He’s a fantastic artist, a great speaker and the message he brings and his passion and heart for seeing kids saved through Compassion International is just awesome!!

Hope to see you there next Saturday night!!

Contemporary Christian singer/songwriter Shaun Groves will be at the Wadsworth United Methodist Church for a free concert on Saturday night, June 7th at 7:00 p.m. Shaun released his first album, Invitation to Eavesdrop, in 2001, featuring the songs “Welcome Home”, “After the Music Fades” and “Abba Father”. He followed this up with the release of Twilight in 2003 and White Flag in 2005. In addition to his music Shaun is a gifted speaker – bringing humor, insight and a passion for sharing God’s Word and work through outreach. Shaun is a spokesman for Compassion International and has a passion for seeing lives changed one child at a time. In addition to ministering through his music he will also share of his recent trips to Uganda and the Dominican Republic with Compassion International. This event is free and open to the community. Shaun regularly updates his website at http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog and you can see a bunch of his videos at http://youtube.com/user/shaungroves – if you aren’t familiar with his music one of his more familiar songs is this one: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CRMyAPW0bDg

This is going to be a really wonderful night and I would love to see you all there. If you can help me get the word out by sending this on to others I would really appreciate it.

The church’s address is 195 Broad Street, Wadsworth, Ohio 44281. If anyone has any questions they can contact me for information at jeff@thehonnolds.com.

So, Over at one of my favorite blog sites – Ragamuffinsoul.com – Carlos hosts a weekly post called “Creative Chaos” where a bunch of people have an opportunity to share their stuff and learn from each other. 

As I mentioned in a previous post this past Sunday was our Youth Sunday and the theme was “Silence is not an option” with an emphasis on evangelism.  As part of the Sunday morning service someone came up with the idea to put together a video to help punch some of the points home.  The video starts off asking a hypothetical what if – what if you had found the cure for AIDS and could save millions of lives.  Would you share that life saving information or keep it to yourself?  Since we know the answer to how to save our eternal lives – Jesus Christ – why aren’t we sharing it? 

Here’s the video that the youth put together with the help of the youth group director and one of the advisors. 

So – what will YOU do?

Wow – been a few days since I’ve updated this.  I can be such a slacker sometimes.

So this past weekend was Youth Sunday at our church.  I’m going to get a post up later tonight on that with more details, but for now I just wanted to throw this out there.  The theme for this year was “Silence is not an option”.  The message was that we can not stay silent about our faith, we need to spread the good news to those in our lives that need to hear it.  This was spurred by a trip by some of the youth and some of the advisors to a Dare to Share conference a few months ago.  The conference was very powerful and really challenged the youth (and us as adults) to step out of our comfort zone and share our faith with others. 

So, I’m wondering?  Why don’t we share our faith?  I mean, if we believe that Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God and that he died so that we may be forgiven of our sins and be saved why don’t we tell others?  And please know – when I saw “we” I mean “ME”.  I’m just as guilty about this as anyone and I’ve been challenged a number of times to share my faith with others.  I mean, I talk about it with people.  People that I work with know that I am a Christian and that I lead worship and that I work with the youth at church.  But I don’t go deeper.  I don’t ask that tough question – “What do YOU believe”. 

I’ve got a good friend who I am not sure exactly where his beliefs stand.  I know he knows what I believe, but I’ve never stepped out of my comfort zone to ask him what HE believes, whether HE has a relationship with Jesus Christ, whether he has truely acceppted him as his Lord and Saviour. 

So – it’s time for me to step up and talk with him – to ask the questions that need asked.  I’ll post an update here and let you know how it goes.  My challenge for you is to pick one person – someone you know needs to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and take that step and share it with them.  Remember that we are to do this sensatively, loving and with Christ in our hearts and in our words.  Remember the words of when he told the disciples in Matthew 10:19-20,

“…do not worry about what to say or how to say it.  At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”

I would ask that you pray for me and my friend and if you let me know via the comments that you will be doing this as well I will be sure and lift you and your person up in prayer as well.