I might have been just a wee bit guilty of just a wee bit of hype for this Sunday, but I'm not the wee bit sorry for it! (No more 'wee's' in this blog!) This Sunday we put the BBQ series on the grill for one last time and it is going to be quite a service. The final question in the series is, "What's the Deal with this thing called 'the rapture'?" We have a very solid service taking shape and there might just be a special treat @ the bbq after the service!
Why put so much effort into summer services?
Why tell everyone that they might not want to miss church on a long weekend?
Because, we really, really believe that Jesus is the real deal. We're excited about changed lives. We believe that church should never be boring. We believe that if we do our part, God will do His part, and none of us will ever be the same again!
Back in June I announced that we weren't going to go into typical summer mode and just piece together half-baked services for people who would rather be on a beach or at the cottage. You cheered! We put a lot of time, effort and energy into the services this summer and you have shown up in great numbers. Way to go.
How 'bout just a little more hype? We were working on some elements for The Groove today. I won't give it away now, but you are really going to want to invite someone to these services. Let's pack this place out in both services.
Friday, August 29
Tuesday, August 26
In Awe
Just heard a great line. Dave Workman, preaching last Sunday @ the Cincy Vineyard, speaking of awe and how great God is...
"You might get a rug burn on your forehead..."
When was the last time you were totally and reverently in awe of God?
"I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene..."
P.S. It's an excellent video stream if you are looking for some good online worship.
"You might get a rug burn on your forehead..."
When was the last time you were totally and reverently in awe of God?
"I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene..."
P.S. It's an excellent video stream if you are looking for some good online worship.
Monday, August 25
3 x 8 Relay
Yesterday's BBQ theme was "Heaven". In the spirit of the Olympics three of us delivered the message in a 'sermon relay'. Each speaker had 8 minutes on the clock (countdown). It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of positive comments on it.
John Sherwood did an excellent job of leading us in worship yesterday. Way to go John!
We had another great summer crowd in church yesterday. Awesome!
I mentioned yesterday that this Sunday's theme is "The Rapture". It was one of the questions that 'you' submitted way back when we were soliciting questions for the BBQ series. I also mentioned yesterday that we want you to be praying for anyone who will be there and has not yet become a Christian. We're hoping that Sunday will be a day that many will remember for eternity. More than anything, we want to see people cross the line of faith and publicly declare that they believe in Jesus and they are inviting him into their lives.
Here is something I saw on the wall in a customs office in South Africa:
South African Welcome
Show It - Smile and give your best South African Welcome!
Share It - Tell people about our beautiful country and different experiences.
Live It - Be a tourist and enjoy all that South Africa offers.
Feel It - Be proudly South African and encourage visitors to come back.
Hmmmm, what if we did this @ Crosspoint every Sunday? Every day?
Show It - Give your best Crosspoint welcome to everyone you meet!
Share It - Tell people about Jesus, about your church, and your experiences!
Live It - Enjoy your church, know what is going on!
Feel It - Be proud of Crosspoint and proud to be a Christian. Encourage visitors to come back!
John Sherwood did an excellent job of leading us in worship yesterday. Way to go John!
We had another great summer crowd in church yesterday. Awesome!
I mentioned yesterday that this Sunday's theme is "The Rapture". It was one of the questions that 'you' submitted way back when we were soliciting questions for the BBQ series. I also mentioned yesterday that we want you to be praying for anyone who will be there and has not yet become a Christian. We're hoping that Sunday will be a day that many will remember for eternity. More than anything, we want to see people cross the line of faith and publicly declare that they believe in Jesus and they are inviting him into their lives.
Here is something I saw on the wall in a customs office in South Africa:
South African Welcome
Show It - Smile and give your best South African Welcome!
Share It - Tell people about our beautiful country and different experiences.
Live It - Be a tourist and enjoy all that South Africa offers.
Feel It - Be proudly South African and encourage visitors to come back.
Hmmmm, what if we did this @ Crosspoint every Sunday? Every day?
Show It - Give your best Crosspoint welcome to everyone you meet!
Share It - Tell people about Jesus, about your church, and your experiences!
Live It - Enjoy your church, know what is going on!
Feel It - Be proud of Crosspoint and proud to be a Christian. Encourage visitors to come back!
Thursday, August 21
The Groove
Here it is! Your first look at the artwork for our kick-off series this Fall @ Crosspoint! Get back into "The Groove", September 14th, 9:00 and 10:30 a.m.
Dust off your polyester suits and your white platform shoes!
Prayer
The church wants me to pray for them? What's up with that? I thought the church was supposed to pray for me? I thought I went to church to pray for myself and others?
We all need to be praying for Crosspoint. We've been experiencing a ton of growth lately and we're truly expecting more miracles to happen this Fall. I honestly believe that you are going to be inviting people to church, talking about our kickoff series, talking about Youth and Children's ministries, etc. And I honestly believe that we're going to continue to break barriers and see many more changed lives for Jesus. But it's going to take prayer.
Pray for your Pastors. Moi, Conard, Mark, Amy & Ruth
Pray that our plans will be God's plans and God's plans will be ours.
Pray for the new people who will be @ Crosspoint.
Pray for all of our ministries and the people who lead them.
Pray for our offerings (church finances) to grow. (Ministry costs money)
Pray that our services would be memorable times of worship.
Pray that many people will choose to believe and receive Jesus.
If you are praying for us, drop us a line sometime.
"The greatest answer to prayer, is more prayer".
We all need to be praying for Crosspoint. We've been experiencing a ton of growth lately and we're truly expecting more miracles to happen this Fall. I honestly believe that you are going to be inviting people to church, talking about our kickoff series, talking about Youth and Children's ministries, etc. And I honestly believe that we're going to continue to break barriers and see many more changed lives for Jesus. But it's going to take prayer.
Pray for your Pastors. Moi, Conard, Mark, Amy & Ruth
Pray that our plans will be God's plans and God's plans will be ours.
Pray for the new people who will be @ Crosspoint.
Pray for all of our ministries and the people who lead them.
Pray for our offerings (church finances) to grow. (Ministry costs money)
Pray that our services would be memorable times of worship.
Pray that many people will choose to believe and receive Jesus.
If you are praying for us, drop us a line sometime.
"The greatest answer to prayer, is more prayer".
Wednesday, August 20
Heaven
There are 2 Sundays left in the BBQ Series - Big Bad Questions. Your question that we are dealing with this week is, "What does the Bible say about heaven?" I recommend Randy Alcorn's book, "Heaven". I also recommend the bible. ;-)
In true Olympic spirit we are going to deliver this Sunday's message via the "Men's 3x8 Sermon Relay". Conard, Mark, and Tim are each going to have 8 minutes to preach on heaven. When the timer hits "0" the person preaching has to hand their bible (baton) over to the next preacher. Should be fun. I'm running the last leg. You can expect me to grab the Canadian flag, drape it over my shoulders, and run laps around the sanctuary. Or not.
Coming Soon...
August 31, final BBQ Sunday, we're planning a 'don't miss' type of service. Hope you can be here!
September 07, The Mozambique Team is going to share, we're also going to have a special prayer of blessing for the school year, for our students, teachers, and all who work in the school system.
September 14, Kickoff Sunday, launch of our Fall Series: The Groove, return of two services 9:00 and 10:30, all ministries back up and running.
In true Olympic spirit we are going to deliver this Sunday's message via the "Men's 3x8 Sermon Relay". Conard, Mark, and Tim are each going to have 8 minutes to preach on heaven. When the timer hits "0" the person preaching has to hand their bible (baton) over to the next preacher. Should be fun. I'm running the last leg. You can expect me to grab the Canadian flag, drape it over my shoulders, and run laps around the sanctuary. Or not.
Coming Soon...
August 31, final BBQ Sunday, we're planning a 'don't miss' type of service. Hope you can be here!
September 07, The Mozambique Team is going to share, we're also going to have a special prayer of blessing for the school year, for our students, teachers, and all who work in the school system.
September 14, Kickoff Sunday, launch of our Fall Series: The Groove, return of two services 9:00 and 10:30, all ministries back up and running.
Sunday, August 17
Crocodile River, South Africa
The locals said he was yawning to cool himself off.
I think he was waiting for an over-zealous Canadian to fall off the bridge.
Kruger National Park
Kruger pretty much blew me away.
I'm not sure what I expected, but I can't imagine any other Africa experience coming close to Kruger. The park itself is huge, wild, and beautiful. I didn't expect the camps within the park to be as nice as they were.
We were probably in the park 3 days and we didn't get to see a leopard. Maybe next time. We did see some lions though.
Baptisms!
I love baptisms!
Today @ Crosspoint 3 people stepped into the water to proudly declare their faith in Jesus. Very cool! Let's pray that we'll continue to see many more changed lives and many more people taking the plunge.
Pastor Conard (newly licensed minister!) got to dedicate his new grandson, Oakley, today. What a special privilege it must have been for Conard to stand with Josh and Brandi and dedicate Oakley to Christ. It doesn't get much better than that.
Worship was more unplugged, acoustic, and awesome. If you like the quiter stuff, you would have loved today.
Pastor Mark had the unenviable task of preaching on "Can I Lose My Salvation?" Great job Mark. The bottom line in Wesleyan verbage is that we believe a person can be saved and choose on their own will to throw the whole thing down the sewer. It's not that God let's them go, it's that they tell God to take a hike. It boils down to semantics on whether or not they were really saved. Whatever side you are on, you would agree that what we all need to do is get our hearts right with God and not take advantage of grace. We used to preach that you could quite easily lose your salvation. This led to people getting saved over and over again. Mark did a great job of helping us see that grace is there for forgiveness when we mess up. We don't need to go back to square one. We need to confess, learn, and move on - growing more and more into the likeness of Jesus.
HUGE summer crowd today! We ran out of burgers! We'll be ready for a crowd next week.
I posted some Africa shots on Facebook if you are interested in seeing what our trip looked like.
God is good!
P.S. This week's BBQ question is "What Does the Bible Say About Heaven?"
Today @ Crosspoint 3 people stepped into the water to proudly declare their faith in Jesus. Very cool! Let's pray that we'll continue to see many more changed lives and many more people taking the plunge.
Pastor Conard (newly licensed minister!) got to dedicate his new grandson, Oakley, today. What a special privilege it must have been for Conard to stand with Josh and Brandi and dedicate Oakley to Christ. It doesn't get much better than that.
Worship was more unplugged, acoustic, and awesome. If you like the quiter stuff, you would have loved today.
Pastor Mark had the unenviable task of preaching on "Can I Lose My Salvation?" Great job Mark. The bottom line in Wesleyan verbage is that we believe a person can be saved and choose on their own will to throw the whole thing down the sewer. It's not that God let's them go, it's that they tell God to take a hike. It boils down to semantics on whether or not they were really saved. Whatever side you are on, you would agree that what we all need to do is get our hearts right with God and not take advantage of grace. We used to preach that you could quite easily lose your salvation. This led to people getting saved over and over again. Mark did a great job of helping us see that grace is there for forgiveness when we mess up. We don't need to go back to square one. We need to confess, learn, and move on - growing more and more into the likeness of Jesus.
HUGE summer crowd today! We ran out of burgers! We'll be ready for a crowd next week.
I posted some Africa shots on Facebook if you are interested in seeing what our trip looked like.
God is good!
P.S. This week's BBQ question is "What Does the Bible Say About Heaven?"
Friday, August 15
Back in the Ville and Stoked!
Thanks to everyone for praying for our trip to Mazambique! We arrived home, safe and almost sound, Tuesday eve. South Africa, Mozambique, the ministries, the sights, the people already seem somewhat surreal as I look back at my photos. Just Monday morning we were sitting at our lodge, overlooking Kruger National Park, while 26+ elephants came down over the hill and into the Crocodile River for a drink. Crazy!
We'll have time to share many of our stories. I'll sum it up for now by saying that some very real and powerful work is being done in Mozambique and Crosspoint has a huge privilege in being a part of it. We could see first hand how God is changing so many lives in that country. They are planting new churches and training new pastors as quickly as they can. We found joyful people who were filled with praise for how God has blessed them. May we each learn to be more content with what we have and where we are in life! They see God at work everywhere. We often wonder where God is.
We heard very good reports from back home while we were away. Pastor Mark, Ruthie, John, Amy, Laura and many others have stepped up to make this summer what it has been so far. Way to go Team! Thanks to Mike Saunders for preaching last Sunday. We heard that it was an excellent message and service and the rain actually held off for a BBQ. Pastor Mark is preaching this Sunday on, "Can I Lose My Salvation?". We're looking forward to a great day of worship and celebration and hopefully some sunshine too!
Other notes:
- www.crosspointchurch.ca is coming soon. We saw a proof this week and it looks excellent. It'll be a site that you'll want to forward on to people you know as a way of inviting them to the church.
- Our Fall Kick Off Series begins on Sept 14th!!! Every ministry of the church will be back in full swing for the 14th. I hope you are all 'walking across the room' and thinking/praying about who you can invite to church. Most of us are where we are at spiritually because of a relationship with someone else. There are people in your circle of influence who would come if they were simply invited.
- Crosspoint received an 'Excellence in Ministry' award from our denomination back in July. You all should celebrate by having a coffee! Haha. Seriously, we share this together as it takes a community of believers working together to see great things happen. To God be the glory, great things he has done.
We'll have time to share many of our stories. I'll sum it up for now by saying that some very real and powerful work is being done in Mozambique and Crosspoint has a huge privilege in being a part of it. We could see first hand how God is changing so many lives in that country. They are planting new churches and training new pastors as quickly as they can. We found joyful people who were filled with praise for how God has blessed them. May we each learn to be more content with what we have and where we are in life! They see God at work everywhere. We often wonder where God is.
We heard very good reports from back home while we were away. Pastor Mark, Ruthie, John, Amy, Laura and many others have stepped up to make this summer what it has been so far. Way to go Team! Thanks to Mike Saunders for preaching last Sunday. We heard that it was an excellent message and service and the rain actually held off for a BBQ. Pastor Mark is preaching this Sunday on, "Can I Lose My Salvation?". We're looking forward to a great day of worship and celebration and hopefully some sunshine too!
Other notes:
- www.crosspointchurch.ca is coming soon. We saw a proof this week and it looks excellent. It'll be a site that you'll want to forward on to people you know as a way of inviting them to the church.
- Our Fall Kick Off Series begins on Sept 14th!!! Every ministry of the church will be back in full swing for the 14th. I hope you are all 'walking across the room' and thinking/praying about who you can invite to church. Most of us are where we are at spiritually because of a relationship with someone else. There are people in your circle of influence who would come if they were simply invited.
- Crosspoint received an 'Excellence in Ministry' award from our denomination back in July. You all should celebrate by having a coffee! Haha. Seriously, we share this together as it takes a community of believers working together to see great things happen. To God be the glory, great things he has done.
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