5 Reasons Small Groups Matter

It doesn’t matter if you call it “small groups,” “life groups,” “home groups,” “community groups,” “Sunday School,” or any other myriad of names.  What matters is that your church has them.  Here are 5 reasons that small groups matter.

  1. They provide opportunity for stronger relationships.  Small groups allow for people to get to know each other better than simply sitting next to them in a large sanctuary.  They give a chance for more and better conversations.
  2. They provide opportunity for deeper study.  Typically the lessons are heavier on the application but they often allow for more personalized interaction in fuller conversation regarding the topic.
  3. They provide opportunity for more in depth prayer requests.  Usually small groups give time for more specific prayer requests that allow someone to not only be prayed for but also to be followed up with.
  4. They provide opportunity for more specific service projects.  As a result of deeper relationships and more in depth prayer requests more specific service projects can be developed and carried out.  These points of ministry can be extremely helpful to those within the group.
  5. They provide opportunity for initial introductions.  The fear of a large group can often be intimidating for a first time guest to attempt a visit in a sanctuary.  However,  a small group provides a more casual and comfortable atmosphere for a first time guest.

If you aren’t in a small group at your church, find one and give it a try!

Songs that Speak #1

Sometimes songs do more for us than simply provide a good tune or give us something to listen to when we are bored.  There are songs that truly speak to us in the depths of our being.  In fact, we know that songs have often been a way for the believer to express himself to God when mere words aren’t enough.  I hope to periodically provide songs on here that have spoken to me over the years.

Today, I would like to start with one that I have just recently been challenged by.  Psalm 46 has been put to a new set of music by Shane and Shane and certainly is a great reminder of who God is to us.  He is with us wherever we go and is our strong and mighty fortress!

3 Reasons Churches should Plant Churches

There are probably multiple reasons that churches should plant churches.  However, there are three specific reasons that come to mind.

  1. It’s biblical.  We see in Scripture that as the church expanded it multiplied.  It multiplied by establishing churches in surrounding communities as well.(Honestly- if this is reason number one do we even need more than that?)
  2. It’s challenging.  As people from one church step out to help plant a new church we find that they often leave leadership vacancies in the sending church.  This forces less active members to get more involved and step into those roles.
  3. It’s evangelistic.  Statistics tell us that a church has some of its most fruitful evangelistic work within its first couple years of life.  This is most often the case because of the great urgency that is felt by those charter members.

God’s Perfect Plan

Tonight I once again sit at the bedside of my daughter at the hospital.  This time, like all the others, we are trusting in God for His perfect plan to be unfolded.  I sit here, not in a tizzy, not worried about the outcome, but instead confident in what God has in store.

As an update: Lottie has recently been having strong abdominal pain.  This has brought about a few different doctor visits, finally resulting in a hospital stay to rule out anything major.  The surgeons seem quite confident that all of her organs are in healthy condition and do not believe that they will need to correct this issue surgically but instead will be working to bring about the best result with the use of medicine.

Back to God’s perfect plan…my good friend, Jeff Jones, called tonight to get an update on the situation and to have a prayer with me.  During his prayer he praised God for having the ability to heal Lottie and displayed confidence that there are no question marks with God.  This prayer was a great reminder of to me of the three A’s of God.

  1. God has complete AUTHORITY. – He reigns over all.  He is sovereign King.  Remember that all authority on heaven and on earth is His.
  2. God has total ABILITY. – He has power over nature. He has power over people.  He has power over demons.  He has power over death itself.  Remember that He wields His power in His timing for His purposes.
  3. God has ultimate ALTRUISM. – He loves His creations. He loves His children.  Remember that God so loved the world that He gave His only son.

With that in mind it is much easier for me to sit at the hospital bedside of Lottie knowing that the one true God, who hears and answers our prayers, has complete authority, total ability, and ultimate altruism.  As a result, He will use His sovereign power to display His love for His people in a way that brings about His greatest glory.  May we all find greater rest in these truths.

A patient caution

My Grammy is one smart lady.  She knows the Lord well because she knows His Word well.  She has often offered incredible wisdom to me and given me much to think about over the years.  One of the most poignant statements she made to me was this, “Don’t ask for patience if you don’t want to have to use it.”

I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by that but the more I thought about it the more it began to sink in.  If you ask the Lord for patience and then get frustrated when we get put in situations that require for us to use our new found patient attitude we don’t really want patience.  What we really want is less situations that make us have to be patient.

So when you ask for patience expect for God to grant your wish and then provide wonderful opportunities for you to give Him glory through your patience, your gift from above.

Hope without the heartache

I recently read a post from a guy right after he had left a church service.  He was frustrated with the fact that the entire service was focused on having hope during hardship.  He went on to explain that he didn’t want to always be reminded of the difficulties going on in the world, he didn’t want to hear about the struggles, persecutions, and tragedies.  Instead, he said, I want to simply hear about the hope without all the heartache.

This thought led me to wonder about my own feelings.  Isn’t that how I act sometimes.  I want the hope of what is to come without having to experience the heartaches, the difficulties, the tragedies, and the hardships that come with life.  Interestingly enough Paul speaks to this when he writes in the book of Romans that for us to fully experience the hope we have as adopted children of God we will experience the sufferings of Christ as well.

This is hard for us to acknowledge and it is certainly not what we long for in our own daily lives. We are longing for hope that is guaranteed for all of us that are called according to His purpose.  The hope that tells us that nothing separates us from the love of God!

The truth is that there will be a day when we have the hope without the heartache.  The day when there will be no more night, no more weeping, no more sorrow.  But until that day we must feel the pain so that we can feel the joy on the other side.  We must experience the struggle so that we can enjoy the pleasure.  In order for us to embrace the light we have to know the difficulty of the dark.

Children are a gift?

I have three children.  Abigail, Luke, and Lottie are their names and they all carry very unique characteristics and personalities.  These kids have brought incredible challenges to our family.  I mean from the very get go, before they are even here they make sleep more difficult and they make money more tight.  By the time they come into the world you are hoping (or at least mom is) for a nap.  When they do arrive they are constantly wanting something.  Hold me, change me, rock me, change me, feed me, bathe me, change me, feed me some more (and thats all before lunch).

And what about as they get older.  They need help learning…everything.  How to get dressed, tie a shoe, brush teeth, eat with a fork, write, throw a ball, shoot a ball, share, be kind, and the list goes on and on.  They have an endless supply of questions that are impossible to know all the answers to (google is not even equipped enough for all of them).  And it is your job to answer them…or they will just keep asking until they get a satisfactory answer.

I was recently shown a picture of a first time dad.  He had a big smile on his face and was just elated to have this new responsibility.  I heard that he said, “I am just wanting to do everything right.”  WOW!  What high expectations, do everything right.  That’s just not possible, and the reality is, even if we do everything right the child is still going to mess up.  Because they are sinners just like us.  Flawed individuals.

All of this caused me to think about what a blessing my kids are to me.  If you read carefully up to this point in the post you might think I am crazy.  But the frustrations, the difficulties, the late nights, the tear-filled hospital stays, the endless questions, the constant teaching responsibilities, the high expectations, all of those things pail in comparison to the delight that my children bring to me.

Children are blessing because they bring a undeserved trust, and undeserved love, and an undeserved faith in you as their parent.  They believe what you tell them about the world.  They love you even when you spank them.  They are confident that you are doing what is right for the family.  They are a blessing because amidst the heartache they bring warmth and comfort that no one else can provide.

This is why it is so hard to fathom God the Father giving up His Son for our sake.  His Son is a blessing to Him.  And yet, the Father willingly offered His Son to take on the punishment that we deserved.  Now that is a blessing!

I am an Antinomy

An antinomy is when there are two things in existence together that should not be able to coexist.  They are diabolically opposite in their nature but somehow both exist simultaneously.  For example, light is an antimony.  Light is both waves and particles, its unique that way.  It should not be able to be both, yet, it is.  I feel like I myself am an antimony right now.

I am both sad and happy at the same time.  You see, we regularly assume that if we are sad we cannot be happy, and if we are happy that we cannot be sad.  However, I am finding more and more in myself this reality is true.  I am sad because I am selfish but I am happy because I am hopeful.  Let me explain.

During times of difficulty I find myself being selfish.  I want things to go my way, in my time, for my “good” reason.  I want things to be adjusted to make my life more comfortable.  I want irregularities to cease so that I won’t have to adjust.  And the more and more I think about these wants and desires the more and more I think about how selfish I am.  I want, I desire, I wish…and the list goes on.  And my heart begins to break because my selfish thoughts and wants aren’t often enough the wants and plans of God.

However, simultaneously, I am happy because I am hopeful.  I am hopeful that God will mold my heart to be more like His.  I am hopeful that God is for me not against me.  I am hopeful that my victory is found in Christ alone.  I am hopeful that my eternity will not have times of struggle, but instead will be filled with the glory of God.

So, while I weep in my selfish sadness I will rejoice in my happy hopefulness.  I will be burdened that I think too much of my wants and desires while I am delighted that I have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ instead of my own filth.  I will confess my sin of selfishness to the Lord and will celebrate that He is faithful and just to forgive me my sin!

Marry Up

It is pretty often that I am reminded that I married out of my league. Sometimes it is more noticeable than others but most of everyday it is evident to everyone.  I mean lets be honest, my life, our household, our children’s doctors, schedules, teachers, and plans would simply fall apart with the organization, planning, and forethought of my wife.  Anyone with two eyes is aware that she is the good-looking one, and anyone who has very lengthy discussions with us knows that she is the grounded one, and the smart one.  So, yeah, I married up.

Earlier this week someone commented to me how amazing Gloria, my wife, is.  I agreed, and then I commented that I married up.  This led me to think…who wants to marry down?  Hopefully, everyone wants to marry someone that they consider out of their league.  You should want to marry someone that you find to be the standard of beauty, the epitome of delight, and the perfect match for you.  Marry up.

Marry someone that pushes you to be better.  Marry someone who makes you want to love them more each day.  And, if you haven’t done that – than you be the one to help them want to be better by loving them endlessly.  You be the one to love them more than they can imagine so that they want to respond with love in return.

This post is not designed to get you to think just simply about how great my wife is (again, its true but not the point).  This post is not to get you to feel bad for her that she got stuck with me.  This post, instead, is intended to get you to realize that marrying up is the only way to go.  Reflect on your own marriage and celebrate all the ways that your spouse is better than you!

The Lord’s Supper and Pain

These last couple weeks have been far different than we anticipated them to be.  While we anticipated a recovery time for Lottie after her surgery, it has been weeks longer than we expected.  We are still watching her recover with great effort and observing her strive to maximize her recovery time to gain strength and independence in every way she can.  The reality of dependence on us for her movements and her general needs is difficult to accept and often times hard to understand.  However, God is graciously showing small steps of improvement as we see more signs of our lionhearted Lottie rising to the challenge.

This past Sunday evening during worship we observed the Lord’s Supper.  I have always considered this event a celebration, a worship opportunity for believers to rejoice in the saving death of Jesus.  During these observances I have often pondered the realities of the brutal beatings of His body, the crown of thorns on His head, and His brutal murder on the cross.  As Scripture instructs, I have regularly reflected upon my life and confessed my own sin prior to partaking of the bread and the cup.

While all of these elements still took place for me this past Sunday, there was also another element that happened inside.  This time I was hurting.  I was not physically hurting; I am not being persecuted, beaten, imprisoned, ridiculed, or even offended.  I was not spiritually hurting; I am not far from God, nor have I strayed from His mighty hands of grace.  However, I was emotionally hurting; I am sad that my daughter is sad, and confused, I am sad that my family is having to walk through this time, I am sad that it is Lottie going through this pain instead of me.

This hurt brought a wonderful realization to me that I would never have been able to experience apart from walking through hardship at the very time of our observance of the Lord’s Supper.  This time, as I held the bread in my hand, I thought about the sacrifice that the Father gave in watching His son be beaten, bruised, spat upon, and ridiculed.  This time, as I held the cup in my hand, I thought about God the Father watching His son be nailed to a cross and shed His blood when He did not deserve such pain.  I thought about the Father and what it must have taken for Him to send His Son for our sin, our punishment, our penalty.  And I ached.  I ached because it is immensely difficult to watch your child suffer needlessly, but watching Lottie be sad and confused is nothing in comparison to what God the Father must have felt as He chose to pour out His wrath on His righteous son as the atonement for our sin.

The Lord’s Supper is beneficial to all believers as a reminder of the death, resurrection, and return of Christ.  However, for those who are hurting, it is a beautiful reminder of our opportunity to share in the sufferings of Christ (Romans 8) for the glory of Christ and for the good of His people.  I am more confident in God’s glory being made known through this trial than I ever have been and am leaning more heavily on his perfect plan for our future.