I’ve been evaluating the church as late.  Not my specific church, the church as a whole.  I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve misunderstood a particular scripture.

John 17:14-16  I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one.  16 They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard ministers or other Christians say, “We’re in the world, not of the world, so though we live here we can’t interact with the world or they may contaminate us.”  Or some other ridiculous version of that.

I’m here to say, emphatically, that is wrong!

Let me ask a few questions:

Did Jesus shy away from the world? NO!  Wasn’t his first miracle at a wedding, didn’t he turn the water into wine?  And don’t try to tell me it was grape juice, I think the master of the feast would have known the difference, and he said it was the good stuff.  Matthew was a tax collector, a word in those times synonymous with sinner and he became a disciple.  According to the Pharisees, Jesus, himself, could have been considered a sinner, didn’t he heal on the Sabbath day? 

Did the apostles shy away from the world?  NO!  Peter went to everyone, even, ugh, a gentile home and shared Christ with them.  Paul even took it further, going to almost the whole known world at the time and sharing the love of Christ.

Anyway, to be in the world, and not of the world doesn’t mean that we need to be separate from the people of the world.  It means that we need to be involved in the world, but not fall into the sin that they participate in.

Is it possible to enter a night club and not fall into the temptation that is there?  Yes!  Is it possible to enter a bar and not get drunk?  Yes!  Is it possible that there are a large number of people who need to know Christ that go to the places that Christians don’t want to go to? Yes!

We need to get out of our comfort zone.  It’s time to drop the Christian-eese and start being Christ-like, after all, that is what Christian means, to be a little Christ.  We need to forget the little slogans we learn in the church when we exit the door.  Some of them are nice and may help you, but if you walk up to someone who doesn’t know Christ and say, “Would you like to fellowship after …”  How many people would know that you meant to hang out.

It’s OK to speak that way around people who understand you, but you are not sharing Christ with those who already know him, you share Christ with the ones who don’t know him.  When you speak to people with Christian dialect you push them away.  The will reject you because they don’t understand you.

Let’s get to the point where we can speak to people on their level and not expect them to raise (or lower) to ours.  Can we relate to people without alienating them?  Can we be real and honest with the lost?  Is it possible for us to break down our walls and show them that we hurt and we bleed the same as they do?  Can we do it without passing judgment on them?

We can do that.  When we start doing it we will become agents of change in the world.  This next generation is not like the last, the way to reach them is going to be different.  We must not be afraid to build relationships with them.  We will have to get our hands dirty, so to speak, to see this generation know Christ. 

The 3 minute sales pitch of yesterday is done.  It’s not going to work in the microwave generation.  If we want them to have staying power, we’ve got to show them that we have staying power.  We need to have that relationship with them, so they can see us struggle and not give up, to not give in.

In conclusion, we need to learn new techniques to reach new people.  We need to relate to people, not just preach to them.  In the true meaning of St. Francis’ words, “Preach the gospel always, if necessary, use words.”  I know it’s a paraphrase, but it’s the gist.

I've been quiet on here for a while.  For that I apologize.  It's been kind of intentional, however, I'm going to invoke my right not to explain why.

I've been doing a lot of studying lately, though.  I recently started using a new bible study software package that is just incredible.  I'll do a full review of the package at another time.  I want to make sure that I have a grasp on all it can do before I start talking about it.

My goal with this post is to go over some of the things that I'm studying, not to go in depth of any one of the passages or topics.

My most recent study has been on 1 Timothy.  As I prepare for the Sarasota ministry, I wanted to refresh myself on Pauls admonition to Timothy on how a church is meant to be run.  Let me say, for being an instructional book on how to run something I walk away with a look at a lot of why's.  From the qualities of an elder to fighting the good fight of faith, there are a lot of answers to why these things are needed.

I think I'm going to do a whole study on fighting the good fight of faith in the near future.  Which is in part due to the new software package that I've been using.  One of the nices features of this package is that you can hover over a word in the text on certain version of the bible and it'll pop up the Hebrew/Greek definition from Strongs and show an expository on the passage from, I think, The Matthew Henry Commentaries.  I used to take Fight the good fight of faith at face value, when you fight the fight of faith, fight well.  Well, when I looked at the passage and hovered over the two words fight, I discovered that they were two different words, The first fight, means, well, fight.  The second fight however, means the place in which you fight.  So when you read fight the good fight of faith, you could read it as Fight well in the areana of faith.  Faith is the battlefield in which we fight!  LEt's fight for victory on that battlefield.

Anywho, that was for free.

Some other passages are Mark 4, since that is what we're studying on Sunday mornings.  I've been looking at Romans 8 as well, since it is one of my favorite passages. 

In the near future I'm going to jump into studying the Church of Leodicea from Revelation 3 again.  Now that I have all of these tools at my fingertips I want to re-visit some of my favorite scriptures.

I'm going to delve into Jude, Hebrews and start going through the minor prophets soon as well.

Eventually I'll start putting some of the things I'm learning into the blog, but for now, I just wanted to let everyone know what I'm studying and going to be studying.

So look forward to all that, a book review for Obstacles Welcome and a Software review.  That should put me in a position to be busy for a while.  Now that I've promised it, I must deliver. :)

I tweet.  I like twitter for it's simplicity.  I like that you are forced to be pithy with your comments, you have 140 characters to make your point.  If you'd like to follow me on twitter, click here

You also have the opportunity to run into some entertaining characters that say, well, some interesting things.  Today I read someones tweet that asked the question, "Where would Jesus go to church?"  Now, looking at this persons other tweets it wasn't hard to figure out what point of view he was coming from.  This is a person who dislikes organized religion in any form and specifically doesn't like that Christians gather in a specific building for services.

First, I'm not going to judge this persons spiritual condition, it's not my job.  Really, I'm going to ignore them.  However, I think the question posed, paying no regard to their opinion on the matter, is an interesting question that I do have an opinion on.

If Jesus were to come down to the earth today, walk into your, or my, town, what church would he go to?  Well, none.  He wouldn't go to the church.  He didn't come for the well, afterall, he came for the sick.  That's why he hung out with tax collectors and sinners.

The early New Testement church didn't meet in church buildings, they met in houses.  In Acts 20:7-12 it talks about Paul teaching at a house until midnight and a young man falling asleep, falling from the second floor window, dying and being raised from the dead.  I'm sure Paul would have went into a church building if they were available, but in that day and age you couldn't just decide to build a huge building, so they taught were there was availability.

In the modern age, what is the purpose of the church building?  I'm talking about what it is intended to by, not what it has largely become.

Today the building is meant to be a training ground.  It is a place to learn, to be refreshed and a place for the faithful to come together for fellowship.  However, it has become a social club in many areas and like the old farmer said, "Us four and no more." becomes the attitude in the church.

We need to treat Sunday services as a corporate celebration of the greatness of Christ, a place to rejoice in the battles of the past week and a place to prepare for the battles of the next week.  A place where brothers and sisters in Christ hone each other like iron sharpens iron.

I believe that most churches get the first point above.  However, too many have no battles to celebrate and no battles for which to be prepared.  There is more back-biting than sharpening and people trying to build their internal political power.  There are to many people trying to advance their personal little fiefdom inside of the local church instead of advancing the kingdom of God in the world.

Jesus wouldn't come to the church today, not because we are so far off the mark, but because he would be out serving the lost.  He'd be serving the lost hoping that we, the church, would join him.  We can have our church services, but we can't have that be our spiritual life.  Those services are not to be the rule of your life, they are meant to be the culmination of your life's work, spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.

We, as the church, need to remember that being the church has nothing to do with a building, a name on a sign or a person who stands up behind the pulpit and speaks.  It has everything to do with bringing the good news to the broken hearted, bringing healing to the sick, bringing prosperity to the poor, bringing food to the hungry and visiting the fatherless and the widow.  If we do all of those things, when we enter the building on a Sunday morning or Wednesday evening we can go in to be armed, to be healed and to be restored ourselves, so we can go into the world and do what God has called us to do, to be what he called us to be.

The key leadership has been asked to research a few topics individually to help build a Bible Basics Curriculum. The first topic I was asked to research is the Fall of Man. These give me a good opportunity to write a couple posts on what I'm doing for the research.

The criteria of each topic are to have one scripture as a summary of the topic. For "The Fall of Man", it's Genesis 2:8 - 3: 22. That is the obvious passage and easy enough. The next is to have 3 supporting scriptures to back it up, for "The Fall of Man", that won't be too hard, though I haven't done the research to get them yet (one step at a time.)

The two topics that I've been give are the afore mentioned, "The Fall of Man" and "Healing and Devine Health". I'll probably be doing several posts on both of these topics as I do the studying. I've already gotten one heavy revelation from reading the Genesis passage. The next post will be an exposition of the revelation.

I hope you will enjoy this as much as I will. I also hope that as I go through the process you learn something about studying the Bible. I do wish I had my laptop at work today, I could do a much more in depth word study. That will have to wait until tonight. For what I post today, it'll have to be the non-Hebrew interpreted version of things.

Well, as a follow up to this past weekend, I thought I'd give the updates. 

In my last post I mentioned all of the things that were going on this past weekend.  To Recap: I was performing my first wedding, we had the funeral for Janny and I was looking forward to an amazing worship service on Sunday.

First, I want to go through the events in the order the happened, then I'll talk about each.

• Friday night, I went to the wedding rehersal, Jen went to the viewing for Janny.
• I went to the viewing right as the funeral home was getting ready to close up shop.  Got to say goodbye to Janny and talk to her husband and son, trying to encourage them.
• Saturday morning, 11 am, went to the funeral services.
• Saturday, noon, went to wedding. 
• Saturday, 1 pm, performed wedding.
• Saturday, 2 pm, went to the reception for the funeral at our church.
• Saturday, 4 pm, went to the wedding reception.
• Saturday, 8 pm, finally got home for the evening.
• Sunday, 9:30, Arrived at church for worship practice, expecting great things.
• Sunday, 10:30, worship started.
• Sunday, 12:30, worship ended, yes, worship ended not the service.

Now, the funeral was nice, knowing that Janny knew the Lord was encouraging and a lot of the conflict within her family was put aside, at least for those couple of days.

The wedding went off without too much of a hitch, however, I struggled with the King James that is in the wedding ceremony.  It's been so long since I've read King James it was throwing me off.  I think I'm going to rewrite that ceremony using NIV or NLT.  However, other than stumbling over the thee's and thou's I did pretty good, accourding to my lovely wife and the couple that I married.  I think that is all that was important.  The reception was also very nice.

Now, Sunday service may have been the single most awesome service that I've ever been part of.  First, the worship didn't stop after 30 minutes, which is the norm.  We were going for the whole service.  Many people were baptized with the Holy Spirit.  Many more were just plain blessed.  There were even a couple families that were healed of some things that were tearing them apart.  Benny stepped up and started to take his position as the next pastor of FFCCPA and we even started collecting money to go toward starting 5 international training schools.  I believe we collected enough to start the first one Sunday alone.  Only $4K more and we will have reached our goal!

If anyone wants to help with that, let me know, I'll let you know how you too can help us start some training schools in other countries.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend, and by the end, I was worn out, but I would be happy if every weekend happened the same way.

Anyone who knows me, knows that right after being a minister and a christian, I am a geek.  I love technology and I love all most things geek.

Right now I'm looking for the best bible study software that I can find for under $50 USD.  I want a nice UI with a wide range of bibles.  The bibles that it must, absolutely, have are the KJV, NKJV, NIV,the NLT and the Amplified Bible.  Other versions are bonus.  I'm looking for a solid version of Strongs Exhaustive Concordance and Vine's Biblical Dictionary.  Other references = bonus.  I would like to have a couple devotionals and commontaries as well, but they aren't needed.

Right now I'm playing around with a few free software packages, but I can't get any bible versions past KJV and to add the other ones that I want will cost over my budget.  For free software I have to settle for public domain bibles, which includes the KJV but not many others that I want to use. 

The reason I'm in the market for the software is that I want to start some serious Bible study.  Since I'm a geek, I want to have my study materials available on my laptop.  I wan't all of the materials there.  I don't want to have to have a library of books just to do the simplest of studies.  I'll still have my hard copy Bibles that I will use for ready and as my pulpit bible, but I want the software for study.

The ones that I'm playing around with now are the Bible Explorer and the e-Sword.  These are nice, but not overly intuitive.  Getting add on material can be a pain. 

I'm all about downloading things, but the pain I've gone through to get these packages working well hasn't been real fun.  I'd much rather have the material on an install disk that I can reuse when I reinstall windows (I do often as a software developer just to keep my system running fast.)

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.  I'm anxious to see what alternatives other people are using, and maybe one of them will be the right fit for me.

Majestic & Glorious, the first CD from the Family Fellowship Worship Team with Nazaria Music hit the shelves yesterday!

What makes this CD so special to me?  My wife and I are both on the worhsip team.  We both sing, so on most songs she's one of the female voices and I'm usually the only male voice.  The last song on the disk the male voice is Chuck Bihun.  For those in Sarasota eagerly awaiting our arrival this is important because Chuck is going to be coming down with us. 

Anyway, all in all, we're just excited to have something we've worked so hard on for so many years finally get out there.  Go to the Family Fellowship or Nazaria Music websites to get your copy today.

There are many things I love about being in the ministry.  I love being able to help people find Christ.  Love watching a person go from decrepit to Christ-like.  These things bring me great joy.

One of the things that I don't like about a lot of churches is how many of them avoid technology.  I personally love technology.  My chosen career, after ministry, is that of a web developer.  I program websites.  My whole life is infused with technology.  I wish the church, as a whole, would grasp onto technology and use it in effective ways to minister the gospel.

Really this isn't about railing about technological short comings, this is about a great tool that exists for any owner of an iPod, Zune or any other media player.  I'm speaking of the power of the podcast.  I know that Family Fellowship, every week (for the most part) puts its services out on the internet as a podcast.  This is one way to use that technology.  However, there is so much more out there in the podcast universe than just adding your messages to the vast array of information out on the web.

One of my favorite podcasts that I've recently discovered is called The Bible Podcast.  The Bible Podcast features Michael Lee reading through the New English Translation of the Bible.  He goes through one chapter per day.  Michael has a very smooth voice that brings out the emphasis of scripture nicely.  This is one of the better readings of the Bible I've ever heard.  I've heard some other readings of the bible and I've been bored to tears by the person doing the reading. 

Having an audio Bible is nice.  It's no replacement of Bible study, but it does allow you to hear the Word of God when you're not in a position to read yourself.  Personally, I like to listen to this podcast at work.  I can do my job of programming and still be edified by the Word of God.  It's an important thing to me, to be able to hear the word, even if I can't read it.  It also gets rid of other peoples opinions and just delivers the word.

Right now I'm listening to the book of Acts.  Chapter 15 to be precise.  I've read Acts several times through out my life, so I generally don't go there for general reading.  The podcast is one way to go back to those passages of scripture that I haven't read in a while and keep myself familiar with it. 

I'll add a link to the podcast itself later.

This also goes back to the other bit of technology that I mentioned above.  I own a Microsoft Zune.  I love my Zune.  There is a good chance that I will never go back to an iPod.  I realized yesterday how much I miss it at work when I don't have access to it at work.  I was kind of lost through out the day.  I'm used to having something on in my ears all day and it helps me keep focused.  Oh well, I have it back today and that is what is important.

When the ministry in Sarasota open there is one guarantee that I will make, technology will be used to its fullest extent.

There are many things that I've learned over the past 15 years.

It seems that every major event in my life brings new revelation.  I'll lay down the timeline of these major events and how my perception has changed.

1994 - I was just returning to the church after having walked away for about three years.  I walked away because of my arrogance, plain and simple. I learned from my return to Christ is that I cannot out run him.  There was no where I could go, no where I could hide, I would return, though the choice to return was mine, I didn't really have a choice, I would have been pursued for the rest of my life had I not come back when I did.

1997 - I left the church to which I had originally come back.  I had realized that the church was putting on a display.  It was a place to see and be seen to the people who were going there.  I learned that no matter what I had done for the advancement of that ministry, when I was in need of help, I would be thrown under the bus, and that is what happened.  At that point in history I was leading worship at the church, driving the church van, working full-time and going to school full-time.  I was running on empty and after service one night, I had a breakdown.  The youth pastor, who was awesome, by the way, came to me and helped me out.  He said he would go to the pastor and see if we could find a replacement to drive the van.  The biggest thing was driving the van after church.  I was so tired from my day, knowing that I was going to have to do it again the next day.  That day marked the last time the pastor ever talked to me while I was attending there.  Previous to this I spoke to him regularly.  That marked the last time he said anything other than "Hello".  He never talked to me about removing me from any positions, I just simply was not asked to participate.  I was devastated.  I was so mad at the church I left.  I wasn't mad at God, I was mad at the people.  I told God I would give him four churches to find one that I could feel at home in and I would stay in a church, if not, I would still serve Him, but I wouldn't attend a church to do it.

I went to three churches that I couldn't attend.  They were too dead for me.  I would shrink in those churches.  The fourth church I attended was Family Fellowship Christian Center, and I am still there today, now serving as an associate pastor, elder and worship leader.

1998 - Was the year I found FFCC and the year I met my wife.  I was still in school and working full-time, so any socialization that I was going to get was going to be at odd hours, which led me to the internet and the World Wide Communities Online Christian chat rooms.  It was in this chat room that I met Jen, who was also going to school, in North Carolina.  In January we started chatting, at the beginning of May we met in person, May 25th we were engaged and December 5th we were married.  I learned that it is not good for man to be alone and that God had designed a helpmate just for me.  Our relationship moved so quickly because we had no doubt, from the start that this was meant to be.  We only waited as long as we did so that I could graduate and get a real job and so she could make the move from North Carolina.

2000 - Probably the biggest change of mentality that I have ever had occurred this year.  That was the year Josiah, my oldest, was born.  This was a profound moment for me.  Up until this time I had no idea what it meant to be a father.  I have never known my earthly father, so I never had an example upon which to draw.  I was scared to death in the months leading up to his birth.  I hope that I didn't let my fear show too much.  I really was trying to put on the brave face.  However, the first time I held that 8lb bunch of flesh, I fell in love.  He was everything to me from that moment on, and for the first time in my life I realized why I would never have been able to outrun God.  He loves me the same way I love Josiah, but with even more passion and intensity.  I knew that I would lay down my life for that little man and I would kill to protect him.  How much more was it for God to not protect His son, but sacrifice Him so that we may enter into His plan for adoption.

In 2003, it was Braedon who changed my life.  I wasn't afraid of having another child.  Josiah had been around for three years now and I knew that I could be a good dad.  The question that was answered for me was this.  How can I divide the love I had for Josiah and share it with another.  The answer was poignant.  I had made a mistake in my math.  My love would not be divided, it would be multiplied!  That is how God can love us all; His love is multiplied every time someone comes to Him!

In 2006 I learned patience.  Actually that probably really started in 2008, but the cause of this lesson was born in 2006.  Thorin is the model of a strong willed child.  Go ahead; look up strong willed child in the dictionary, yea, that's his picture.  I have to be careful with him because the spirit in him that drives me nuts is the same spirit that will make him a success in the future.  I don't want to break his spirit while molding it into a useful tool.  I want the passion he displays every day to be focused on God.  This has shown me the patience that God has shown me as I've rebelled and thrown tantrums.  He doesn't want to break my spirit, but he wants to direct me in the way I should go.

In 2009 came Rilian.  He’s only a couple months old now, but he makes me laugh.  The simplicity of a baby brings me joy.  He is my reminder that a merry heart is like a medicine.  He reminds me that sometimes it is important to play the jester, because the jester brings joy in the moment of sadness.  When all else fails, make a funny face, produce a funny noise, it turns tears into laughter, at least in the eyes of a baby.

I say all of that to say this...

We were bought with a price.  We were brought to the Father in the spirit of adoption.  We are, in every sense of the words, Children of God.  Let's remember that in our everyday walks.

On occasion, everyone needs to do a personal inventory of themselves.  This is one of those times for me, as I prepare for my future.

As part of my personal preperation for starting a church in Sarasota in the next couple of years is the need to discover all of my strengths, weaknesses and short-commings.

To define these three areas can be like splitting hairs, except for strengths, that one, not so hard, but to differentiate between a weakness and a shortcomming, that can lend to confusion.

• Strengths are the areas of my life that I am good at.  These are the things that I need to build my ministry upon.  I need to identify, with clarity and distinction, what my strengths are.  This is a process that I don't mind undertaking, considering that the process will uncover this that are positive for me.  However, I must discover my obvious and not-so-obvious strengths, so it won't be as easy as it sounds.
• Short-commings are those things that should be strengths but are not.  I may look at these things as weaknesses, but in reality, they are not.  This will be a little more painful of a process because it will uncover the areas where I have just plain dropped the proverbial ball.  I've fumbled these areas of my life.  I've been lazy at developing these areas.  These are things that I will need to work on to become strengths.  This will take work.  I'm not as young as I used to be and I'm stuck in my ways.  My task is to unstick myself and become the man I am meant to be.
• Weaknesses are going to be tough.  These are areas at which I am just not good.  These areas are the ones that I will hand over to other people when someone who is good at them comes along.  One of my mentors told me a long time ago, staff your weaknesses.  That is my intention on these particular areas of my life.  This will be painful because I don't like admitting that I am not good at something.  This will be a humbling process.  It's a good thing, but it will hurt.

A sample of something that is a strength of mine is my ability to program computers.  I'm a technological guy, so technology needs to be a part of this church.  God didn't make me a geek for me to not use it.  The church will take part in things that most churches won't take part in, but I will always be open to getting involved in areas that are not comfortable for most churches, if it means that we can be ministers of gospel to people who need it.

Another thing that I'm good at is that I'm not afraid of turning people against me if it means that they will get their lives right with God.  I have a tendancy to not give people an answer, I put them in a position to come up with their own answer.  I believe that if I make it easy for someone by giving them the answer, they will still struggle with that area of their own lives.  However, if I make them discover the answer on their own, they will become successful in that area of their lives.  If they hate me for doing that... so be it.

One of my short-commings is witnessing.  I'm not real good at being the instigator of a conversation.  Once the conversation is started I'm the champ, but I have always wanted someone to ask me about my beliefs.  At that point, I know they want to know and they will be open to what I'm going to tell them.  However, I need to be bolder at the outset.  This is a short-comming, because I know the material, I just don't have the confidence in myself to go up to someone I don't know.

My biggest weakness that I need to staff almost immediately is in the area of finances.  I'm not compitent at keeping them in line.  I like to spend money to advance the kingdom of God.  I'm a firm believer in prosperity.  However, in my zeal I, sometimes, tend to spend foolishly.  I want to make sure that all areas of spending in the ministry are in directions that God will approve.  I need someone who is financially saavy to make sure that I always stand with that goal.

Ultimately, this can only be accomplished to its fullest through alone time with my Daddy.  After all, he knows more about me than I do.  I trust His judgement far more than I do my own.  I really look forward to this experience.  It may be painful, but I know that the end result will be like being gold going through the furnace.  It may be painful removing the dross, but once it's gone I'll be much purer for having gone through this.

Pray for me over the next 6 months or so as I go through this process, I'll need all the prayers I can get.