Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Farmer’s Day Fun
Last Saturday the Kannapolis campus went to Farmer’s Day in China Grove. We went there to give out water, Chillie Willie’s, tent cards and to meet some people. It was hot early so people started taking the water at 9 o’clock in the morning. We blew through the all the water we had (about 650 bottles) in about 2 hours. Often it is hard to give something away without asking for something in return. People are just skeptical because nothing in life is free, right. Not on Saturday. People took the water early and often. So I went and got ten more cases (240 bottles) of water and that was wiped out in about 15 minutes. Then we gave out all the Chillie Willies we could in about 30 minutes. The kids and adults loved these. So did I every time I broke one trying to break it them apart. LOL A couple of really cool things happened on Saturday. First we fulfilled a need for people without expecting them to do something for us. We ran out of tent cards in about 1 hour so most people might not have even known the High Rock Church was giving them water or Chillie Willies. That’s so awesome because that is pure service not intended to increase church attendance. The next cool thing is that someone came to church, for the first time, that we meet at Farmer’s Day. That’s so amazing because I didn’t expect anyone to come but God Rewards Our Work. Thank you God. Another really cool thing that happened was we got our picture in the paper, on the front page. We set up late and left early and still made the paper. That is so funny. We had our huge feather banners set up on our tent. The picture was taken looking down the street and the feather banners are what you see. I didn’t realize you could see those things from one end of China Gove to the other. Wow. I did notice that a ton of people would step back from our tent and look at them. Those things are awesome. I wish all the campuses had a few. Everyone wants to attend Farmer’s Day again next year. I will make sure someone besides me is in charge so we can give out about 5000 bottles of water. Anyway here are a couple of pic’s from the day (thank you Rita for the pics).
Monday, July 7, 2008
Just Waiting
I wanted to give everyone a quick update on the up fit of the new building in Kannapolis. We are waiting. Just waiting. Waiting on the architect to give us a quote for drawing the plans for the up fit. This is really hard to do because we know what we want to do and need to do, but the county has to agree with us. After we wait on the architect to get the quote and make the drawings we are going to have to wait on the county for the permits. Getting the permits from the county to do the up fit work is usually slow but very important. I know we could have done the work without asking, I even got advice to do just that. However, the last thing we need is an article in the Independent Tribune with the heading “Church shut down, not up to code.” So as we wait be praying for two things: first that God will move, specifically with the county to get the permits back in under four weeks. Next that the Kannapolis campus will grow during this time so we can have a grand opening with two services. I will be fasting and praying, until we move in, for God to do these things. I would love for each of you to join me.
Anxiously waiting,
Doug
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
What I’ve Seen and Heard
It has been a crazy few weeks for me. I know most of us have times like this in our lives. Times when things are happening so fast you can barely keep up or even hang on. At the Kannapolis campus we had the door hanger event where 84 people passed out 4500 or so door hangers to the community. The next week we had a family day in the park where we gave away 300 hot dogs, 250 snow cones, 6 iPods that 98 people signed up for, and had a ton of fun. Added to these events we still had church on Saturday in Salisbury and Sunday at all 3 campuses and I gave the message in Kannapolis two weeks in a row. Finally last week my family and I took a vacation to the mountains. It was wonderful and couldn’t have come at a better time. It was funny, Dana and I were talking about taking this trip for a few weeks and were trying to figure out when. One day I was sitting at my desk and looking at all that was coming up. I knew that I would be exhausted after all the events and sermons so I emailed her and said "book the camp ground." By the way I forgot to mention that I was supposed to teach Salisbury’s 301 class that week also but no one signed up so we didn’t have it.
This was an absolute blessing from God because that Sunday’s message was the hardest message I have ever had to give. Not because of the content or any emotional or personal feeling I had, but because of one lady who chose to speak her mind in the middle of the sermon. That’s right she interrupted me in the middle of the message and gave her opinion of what was being said. I was giving a message about wives respecting their husbands. I read Ephesians 5:33 that states the husband is to love his wife and the wife is to respect her husband. I said that God wants the wife to respect her husband even when he is not worthy of respect. Now I was only one third of the way through the message when she spoke up about this. Her compliant was that she could not respect a man who didn’t love her first and did not earn respect. She actually had a legitimate compliant. This is very hard and I never said it was easy.
Needless to say this surprised me and threw off my train of thought and broke the attention of everyone in the room. I just asked her to give me a few minutes to finish the message, we would get to her complaint and I would talk to her after the service. However, I don’t think she was listening anymore after that because the message addressed her complaint with biblical reasons why this is true and after the message she still didn’t believe it.
As you can imagine I have thought about this moment for more hours than I care to count. I have ran through this scene in my mind over and over wondering what went wrong, what did I say to set her off, why didn’t she believe or understand what I was saying, and even if what I was saying is true.
The last question to myself is the hardest one for me to get over. I may never get over that and in some ways I never want to. You see, I know this is true in my heart and mind and believe it for two reasons.
First, I know this is true because four to five men and women that God has entrusted to lead High Rock sat around a table and wrote this message. We looked at it from many angles and debated the meaning and studied the context of the verses. Even while I was giving the message I thought about the day we wrote this message and I know that all of us couldn’t have been totally wrong about this. So I know in my mind this content is true, however my heart was wondering.
About an hour and a half after finishing the message I was driving home alone just thinking about it when God spoke to me very clearly and told me what I should have said. He told me why in my heart I know why the wife showing respect no matter what is how He designed marriages. He told me I should have talked about what I had seen and heard. The problem is I already knew that I should have done this.
When God spoke to me it hurt and I wanted to cry because I missed an opportunity to affect someone’s life for eternity because of what I have experienced. I wished I would have told this lady that when my marriage was going to end, because I was a piece of crap husband, my wife chose to stay. My wife had been told that I didn’t love her and my actions didn’t say that I loved her, but she stayed. I wished I would have told her that my wife chose to begin praying for me and respecting me, when I didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. I wished I would have told her that my wife found a church with people in it that told her truth about what marriage is and gave her examples of how a godly marriage looks. They encouraged her stay with me and not leave me. I wished I would have told her that when my wife went to church she gave me a kiss and said she would “be back home soon” when she left. I wished I would have told her that I know this is true because when my wife started respecting me unconditionally and praying for me and our marriage, God’s promise came through for us. God’s promise that the wife who respects will win her husband over happened in our marriage. I wished that I would have told her that I would not be standing in front of her today if my wife would not have done these things. I wish I would have told her she could dispute the meaning of the verse all day long but she can not dispute the results of the changes in my marriage. She can not refute the things that I have experienced and that have changed my life. I wished that I would have told her that my marriage is stronger today than it has ever been and is getting stronger everyday because of the decision my wife made to obey God in our marriage. I wished I would have told her what I have seen and heard.
The pain of not doing this, of not doing what should be natural for me, I hope I will never forget. Because of me not doing the natural, I feel kept me from seeing God do the super. God may still do something super in her life but I may never know it this life. It’s painful because I feel like, in trying to reach people, all God is asking from us is to talk about what we have seen and heard. To talk about the experiences in our lives. To talk about how God has taken something that was dead and brought it to life, and I did not do that this time.
In Luke chapter 2, the shepherds came to visit Jesus. They were amazed at the sight of Jesus, the Savior. When they left they returned to their community “glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.” They did not quote scripture from the old testament or give a 3 point sermon about why Jesus is the Savior. They just talked about what had happened to them that changed their life forever.
In Acts chapter 4, Peter and John were in prison for preaching about Jesus in the temple courts. They had to explain their actions to the highest ranking ruler and the ruler before him. Men who had the authority and power to have them killed. Peter and John told the officials to judge them however they wanted to but they “cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Peter and John were ready to face death, not because of what they read, but because of what had happened in their life. Because they had seen something that was dead come back to life forever.
I have learned a valuable lesson from this experience and I think others can learn also. People’s lives change because of what happens to them. Because of things they experience in their life that leave a lasting impact. It is not often that someone begins believing in Jesus because of what they read or having all the information or having all their questions about how to follow Jesus answered. People follow Jesus because of what he has done for them. People follow Jesus because of an experience that changes their life forever.
I have learned that God wants us to tell others what we have experienced in our life. To tell others about the changes that occurred in our lives because of choosing to follow Jesus. To tell others what we have seen and heard. I feel that if we do this natural action God will do the super action and lives will be changed for eternity.
This was an absolute blessing from God because that Sunday’s message was the hardest message I have ever had to give. Not because of the content or any emotional or personal feeling I had, but because of one lady who chose to speak her mind in the middle of the sermon. That’s right she interrupted me in the middle of the message and gave her opinion of what was being said. I was giving a message about wives respecting their husbands. I read Ephesians 5:33 that states the husband is to love his wife and the wife is to respect her husband. I said that God wants the wife to respect her husband even when he is not worthy of respect. Now I was only one third of the way through the message when she spoke up about this. Her compliant was that she could not respect a man who didn’t love her first and did not earn respect. She actually had a legitimate compliant. This is very hard and I never said it was easy.
Needless to say this surprised me and threw off my train of thought and broke the attention of everyone in the room. I just asked her to give me a few minutes to finish the message, we would get to her complaint and I would talk to her after the service. However, I don’t think she was listening anymore after that because the message addressed her complaint with biblical reasons why this is true and after the message she still didn’t believe it.
As you can imagine I have thought about this moment for more hours than I care to count. I have ran through this scene in my mind over and over wondering what went wrong, what did I say to set her off, why didn’t she believe or understand what I was saying, and even if what I was saying is true.
The last question to myself is the hardest one for me to get over. I may never get over that and in some ways I never want to. You see, I know this is true in my heart and mind and believe it for two reasons.
First, I know this is true because four to five men and women that God has entrusted to lead High Rock sat around a table and wrote this message. We looked at it from many angles and debated the meaning and studied the context of the verses. Even while I was giving the message I thought about the day we wrote this message and I know that all of us couldn’t have been totally wrong about this. So I know in my mind this content is true, however my heart was wondering.
About an hour and a half after finishing the message I was driving home alone just thinking about it when God spoke to me very clearly and told me what I should have said. He told me why in my heart I know why the wife showing respect no matter what is how He designed marriages. He told me I should have talked about what I had seen and heard. The problem is I already knew that I should have done this.
When God spoke to me it hurt and I wanted to cry because I missed an opportunity to affect someone’s life for eternity because of what I have experienced. I wished I would have told this lady that when my marriage was going to end, because I was a piece of crap husband, my wife chose to stay. My wife had been told that I didn’t love her and my actions didn’t say that I loved her, but she stayed. I wished I would have told her that my wife chose to begin praying for me and respecting me, when I didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. I wished I would have told her that my wife found a church with people in it that told her truth about what marriage is and gave her examples of how a godly marriage looks. They encouraged her stay with me and not leave me. I wished I would have told her that when my wife went to church she gave me a kiss and said she would “be back home soon” when she left. I wished I would have told her that I know this is true because when my wife started respecting me unconditionally and praying for me and our marriage, God’s promise came through for us. God’s promise that the wife who respects will win her husband over happened in our marriage. I wished that I would have told her that I would not be standing in front of her today if my wife would not have done these things. I wish I would have told her she could dispute the meaning of the verse all day long but she can not dispute the results of the changes in my marriage. She can not refute the things that I have experienced and that have changed my life. I wished that I would have told her that my marriage is stronger today than it has ever been and is getting stronger everyday because of the decision my wife made to obey God in our marriage. I wished I would have told her what I have seen and heard.
The pain of not doing this, of not doing what should be natural for me, I hope I will never forget. Because of me not doing the natural, I feel kept me from seeing God do the super. God may still do something super in her life but I may never know it this life. It’s painful because I feel like, in trying to reach people, all God is asking from us is to talk about what we have seen and heard. To talk about the experiences in our lives. To talk about how God has taken something that was dead and brought it to life, and I did not do that this time.
In Luke chapter 2, the shepherds came to visit Jesus. They were amazed at the sight of Jesus, the Savior. When they left they returned to their community “glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.” They did not quote scripture from the old testament or give a 3 point sermon about why Jesus is the Savior. They just talked about what had happened to them that changed their life forever.
In Acts chapter 4, Peter and John were in prison for preaching about Jesus in the temple courts. They had to explain their actions to the highest ranking ruler and the ruler before him. Men who had the authority and power to have them killed. Peter and John told the officials to judge them however they wanted to but they “cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Peter and John were ready to face death, not because of what they read, but because of what had happened in their life. Because they had seen something that was dead come back to life forever.
I have learned a valuable lesson from this experience and I think others can learn also. People’s lives change because of what happens to them. Because of things they experience in their life that leave a lasting impact. It is not often that someone begins believing in Jesus because of what they read or having all the information or having all their questions about how to follow Jesus answered. People follow Jesus because of what he has done for them. People follow Jesus because of an experience that changes their life forever.
I have learned that God wants us to tell others what we have experienced in our life. To tell others about the changes that occurred in our lives because of choosing to follow Jesus. To tell others what we have seen and heard. I feel that if we do this natural action God will do the super action and lives will be changed for eternity.
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