De-Compartmentalize

After almost 10 years of vocational ministry and teaching that it is a mistake to compartmentalize our lives into categories like home, work, school, and church.  I am finally learning just how difficult that is.  For years my work, school, and spiritually where all the same.  They were all church and ministry related thereby putting them in the same compartment, which is the way we were intended to live.  Now, as we plant a new church and I manage a CiCi's Pizza I can see how easily one could fall in to the trap of compartmentalization.  God is clear in His word when He tells us to walk by Faith and not by sight.  Therefore, I am learning the true value in allowing all the areas of my life be under the heading of the Holy Spirit.  Enabling me to walk where He leads and minister to my co-workers, employees and guest.  I have seen the value and importance of being the spiritual leader in my home, as a vocational minister and now I am overwhelmed by the potential for God to move and use me in ways I have never before experienced.  It is truly an adventure when we step out of the boat and follow Jesus!

Grace

The insight of a 4 year old can surprise us all.  Several weeks ago Joel said "God turns bad guys into good guys!"  Wow!  Of course in his mind he is thinking of enemies of superheros, but the theological implications could not be more clear or true.  God does turn bad guys into good guys, or more specifically by His grace we become His children.  By His grace the bad in us is used for His glory and kingdom growth.  Ephesians 2:8-10 reminds us that we cannot make this transition by ourselves but only by Faith through grace.

Change of Direction

It's official God is in complete control of my life and Launch Point Church!  As if my family and I have not had enough change in our life recently God has opened a door for a new job for me.  For the past 8 weeks I have been working at CiCi's Pizza.  I finished training and I am managing store #90 at 91st and Memorial!  We are so excited about all the opportunity this provides.  The schedule allows me time to continue the most important work in my life, Launch Point Church.  All this is to say my blogging/facebook hiatus is over.  Now that I'm done with training I will be refocusing on Launch Point!  God is good!

Super Hero

A couple of weeks ago I was asked by a friends to write a session for his DNow weekend.  I thought I would share it with you!

Thinking back to your childhood who was your favorite super hero and why? My personal favorite is Batman.  I like Batman because, to the best of my knowledge, he is the only superhero without super powers.  He is just a man who trains his body and uses his resources to buy cool gadgets.   Ok, now it’s your turn. 
1.      Which superhero is your favorite? 
2.      What is it that you like so much about your superhero? 
3.      Did you ever dress up like your superhero for Halloween? 
4.      Are you just thinking right now that superheroes are for nerds? 
5.      Does your hero’s power come from an event that changed them?

The Great Commission!

In Matthew 28:18-20 we find Jesus’ final command to His disciples.  He told them to go and make disciples of all nations and reminded them that He would be with them always!  Check it out!

Read Matthew 28:18-20

Now let’s walk through each verse together and see how Jesus’ words can and should impact our daily lives.

Verse 18 – I have often wondered why Jesus would tell His disciples that He has all authority in Heaven and on earth, they are listening to a man who was crucified and is now alive.  Do they really need to be told He has all authority in Heaven and earth?  Yes they do and so do we!

Verse 19 – Go and make disciples!  There it is plain and simple we are to play our part in evangelism.  We should both tell about and show others the love of Christ.  This is the Gospel or Good news that we are compelled to tell.

Verse 20 – The most frequent promise made in God’s Word is that He will be with us!  Jesus reminds us that when He commands us to do something we are not alone in that action but rather it is the Holy Spirit in us that enables us to obey.

Next Level!

Let’s take it to the next level.  Sometimes we allow ourselves to think that things like, telling others about Jesus or doing mission work in a foreign country or being a minister, or starting a new church is only for the super Christians.  We couldn’t be more wrong.

In 2004, Brad Bird wrote and directed a Pixar movie entitled “The Incredibles.”  In interviews Brad said the whole idea behind the story was the “mundane and fantastic sharing the screen.”  In other words a mixture of the ordinary with the extraordinary, and that is what a superhero is.  That is what we become when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior!   Below I have listed some of the ordinary things we encounter in life.  Take a minute and see if you can find ways to show God’s extraordinary love in our ordinary days.

Being a Superhero!

Remember at the beginning I asked you to pick your favorite superhero and to recall why you chose that particular one.  I hope you can see the ordinary and extraordinary in your hero and realize that you are just the same.  In fact when Jesus said “Go and make it disciples,” He literally meant as you are going through your life make disciples.  It is a mixture of the mundane and the fantastic!

Here are few scriptures that help us to better understand God’s command for us to evangelize.

1.      Acts 1:8

2.      Matt 22:37-40

3.      1 John 4:19

4.      1 Corinthians 9:22

5.      John 14:6

6.      Matthew 9:37

Prayer Ideas

1.      Think of 3 people in your life about whom you are unsure of their salvation.  Pray for them to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

2.      Pray that you could be the one to share and show Christ’s love to them.

3.      Pray that God would reveal to you the extraordinary moments He has set up for you to be a witness.

4.      Pray for your Christian friends that they too would realize their superpowers!

Validate Me Please

     Maybe you have noticed them too, the commercials for a website where you can find out who your ancestors are.  They always feature someone who found something cool or unique in their past.  I don't know about you but my wife and I both have a strong desire to go and try it out.  As I was thinking about why we have that desire, it hit me.  Everyone needs to feel validated.  Everyone as a desire to know that their existence is important and valuable, and if we can find some historical event or important person in our past it helps us to feel more important today.   Or, maybe we are just look for a rich relative that left a ton of money to the next of kin!

     The beauty of knowing Christ is that we don't need anything else to validate us.  We are important and valuable because of who He is.  1 John 4:19 says we love because He first loved us.  We are, because He loved.  Romans 5:8 says "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."


It is not about who your ancestors are!  It's about who you are in Christ.  Loved!

Core Values Part 2

We are continuing our core values post.  The next three core values are:  Serve, Give, and Grow!

Serve

Jesus said he came to serve not be served.  In John 13 He washed His disciples feet to make that point evident.  Launch Point Church is about serving others.  We want to build God's Kingdom not our own.  We will seek to serve each other and the community around us.  In time we will be known as a church that serves!

Give

We know that all things are made by Christ and for Christ.  We are the stewards of the gifts and resources we have.  Therefore, we desire to honor and glorify God with all that we are and all that we have.  We will give of our money, time and possessions to see the Kingdom of God grow.  We believe that our treasures are in Heaven and we will live our lives that way.

Grow

We desire to see people launched and fueled along on their journey with Christ.  We will evangelize the lost and disciple the believers.  Through these two things there will be numerical and spiritual grow.  The church that is alive and active will be a growing church.

Our remaining core values are Truth, Family and Excellence.  We will post the details in a few days.

Daniel 11:32 says "The people who know their God will display strength and take action."  Launch Point Church will always seek to be driven by the Holy Spirit through doctrine (understanding of scripture) and our core values.  These two things will cause us to be a church of strength and action!

Core Values

Every so often we load up in the car and head to Bartlesville for the Kiddie Park.  If you have never been it is sort of like a carnival for little kids and most rides only cost a quarter!  We can go and ride rides for 3 hours on less than $5!  A fun night out with my wife and children, throw in dinner and it all cost less than $20, that is value!  But, there is more to value than a monetary amount.

We all have values.  Whether we realize it or not we all place value on certain things in life.  It is said that you can discern what a person values by simply watching where they spend their time and money.  It is necessary then that we as individuals determine what is valuable to us as that will guide who we are and what we do.  At Launch Point Church, we have a set of core values.  Now, it is important to distinguish the difference between core values and a statement of faith.  Statements of faith are  belief systems based on one's interpretation of scripture and subsequent understanding of who God is.  Core values are often similar because they are ideas that come from scripture, but rather than trying to be comprehensive, core values are more narrow and will be different for different people at different times.  In other words, you can tell from our trip to Bartlesville that I value time with my family and saving money.  These are two things that I can find in scripture, but they would be important to me even if they were not in scripture.

Over the next few days I will be posting and discussing the core values of Launch Point Church.  They are as follows: Love, Serve, Give, Grow, Truth, Family, and Excellence.


Love
God's love is the central theme of the Bible.  We were created to be in a love relationship with God.  It is His love that causes Him to pursue us even though we rebel.  Jesus commands us to love God and love people.  It is His love that fuels us to love Him and love each other.  His love will give us the desire to uphold every other core value.  Love is foundational.  Love is essential.  God is Love!(Matt. 22:37-39)(John 13:34-35)(1John 4:7-21)


It is our prayer at Launch Point is that we would be satruated with God's love!