Archive for November, 2009
Highlights from a long weekend…
Football: watched it & played it
Food: ate lots of it
Family & Friends: enjoyed hanging out with them – movies, games, golf, and lots of laughs
Naps: took a couple
Grace Point:
– Started our Christmas series – Xmas. This series focuses on our tendency to leave Christ out of everyday life.
– Solid attendance in spite of the holiday weekend
– Incredible set design
– Really enjoyed teaching … some of my favorite thoughts from the message:
“I am far more concerned about our tendency to live everyday life unaffected by Jesus than I am people trying to remove Christ from the word Christmas”
“Our tendency is to make Jesus a piece of the puzzle we call life”
“Herod is an example of a man who created his own life puzzle with power, possessions, prestige, and paranoia. He had no room for a King”
“Most of us are not Herod but many of us are living a life where there is no room for a King”
The Power issue: we like to be in control. Jesus demands we relinquish control.
“We want Jesus to be a piece of our puzzle but we do not want him to control our life”
The Possessions Issue: we live life obsessed with the visible. Jesus calls us to focus on the invisible.
The Prestige Issue: we tend to live life trying to get ahead regardless of the cost – trying to make a name for myself. Jesus calls us to find our identity in Him.
The Paranoia Issue (a fear of trusting): we tend to talk about trusting God but rarely live out a radical faith. Jesus calls us to live a life that requires faith and to trust in what we cannot see.
“If Jesus were removed from many of our lives, I am afraid very little would change”
“Jesus does not want to ‘just fit’ into our lives – He is not a piece of the puzzle. Jesus is the puzzle. He wants to be our King – to lead and control our lives.”
“Let’s keep Christ at the center of life”
I am a self-admitted control freak so this week’s message really spoke into my life. The question with which I finished the message yesterday is “of what do I need to relinquish control?” This issue is a constant struggle for those of us who are leaders and who tend to take the reigns and get things done. I sincerely want Jesus to be in control of my life and to learn to trust Him even when it does not make sense to do so. It is an ongoing struggle for me and a constant surrender of my own tendencies. One of the things I love about teaching is how God speaks into my own life as I prepare to communicate to others.
Back to work…
On December 6th Grace Point will celebrate baptism. Baptism is one of those practices of the church that can seem a little “weird” or “dated” if you do not understand its significance. So let me take a few minutes to give you a quick overview of baptism and then talk about a few common objections.
Baptism 101
Baptism has a specific purpose. In the New Testament, baptism is an outward demonstration of an inward reality. In other words baptism is an outward symbol of what God is doing in your heart and life.
Romans 6:1-4 teaches that baptism symbolizes death to my pre-Jesus life and resurrection to my new life in Jesus. Colossians 2:11-13 links baptism to the Jewish practice of circumcision, which was an external marking of a covenant relationship with God. Nowhere in scripture do we find evidence that baptism plays a role in our salvation but it is often closely tied to our salvation as evidence of a genuine faith. Matthew 28:18-20 indicates that baptism is to be one of the first steps of obedience for a Jesus follower.
So the purpose of baptism is to “go public” with my faith in Jesus. It is about identification – I am publicly identifying myself as a Jesus follower.
Baptism has a specific order. If baptism is an outward sign of salvation, then it makes sense that it should happen after salvation, which is exactly what we find in the New Testament. In the first church (Acts 2:41, Acts 8:35-39, and Acts 16:30-33) people were baptized immediately after they believed in Jesus. Both of those words are very important.
After: Every person baptized in the New Testament did so after their commitment to Jesus. There is no indication of anyone being baptized prior to their salvation (which is why we do not baptize infants). Obviously many traditions practice infant baptism but they do so based on tradition alone and not New Testament examples. Immediately: baptisms most often occurred immediately after a person became a Jesus follower. It was an immediate way to show the genuineness of a person’s faith.
Baptism has a specific method. The word “baptize” in the New Testament is the Greek word baptizo, which can only be translated one of three ways: to dip, to submerge, or to plunge. The only mode of baptism practiced in the New Testament was baptism by “immersion” (being dipped, submerged, or plunged under the water). Some Christians began to baptize by sprinkling somewhere during the Middle Ages (around 1311). The practice originated in France – which says everything we need to know (sarcasm alert). The point is Jesus was the one who commanded and modeled baptism by immersion and I don’t believe I have been given the right to change it!
Objections 101
“I was baptized when I was a baby!” We have many people at Grace Point who were baptized as a baby. We have no desire to denigrate a special or significant moment in your life from another church tradition. We just encourage those who were baptized prior to their own decision to follow Christ to a) consider the teachings of the New Testament and b) ratify your decision to follow Christ as your own (not your parents) through baptism. Baptism is a symbol of your personal faith in Jesus Christ.
“I’m already a sincere follower of Jesus… why do I need to go through this ancient ritual?” This objection seems reasonable considering the seemingly antiquated nature of baptism. But let’s put this objection in perspective: Jesus commands very clearly that baptism is to be one of our first acts of obedience to His control of our lives (Matthew 28:18-20). It is not our choice to decide which commands are important and to be obeyed and which ones we just ignore. Think of it this way: if you will not even follow Jesus in this most simple act of obedience, can you really say you’ve come to terms with his call on our life?
“I’m not sure I’m ready, or that I understand enough.” I understand how people want to understand more before getting baptized or how a person can feel “ignorant” or “unworthy” to be baptized. But let me assure you that you do not have to be a seminary-trained theologian to be baptized. You only have to be a genuine Jesus follower who is ready to go public with your faith. Thousands of new believers were baptized on the spot in the books of Acts before they understood any theology or basic Christian teachings. They went from not believing in Jesus to baptized Jesus followers in a matter of minutes!
If you would like to talk to someone to make sure you are ready for baptism, we would love to provide you that opportunity. Please contact us at info@gracepointvegas.com or indicate you would like to talk to someone on your contact card this Sunday.
“I’ll feel weird getting wet in front of strangers.” One of my favorite concepts related to baptism is that you are identifying not only with Jesus but with millions of other Jesus followers who have been baptized to show their faith in Jesus. Baptism brings together this jacked-up movement of people that we call Christ followers to say “We belong to Jesus!” Getting baptized is one of the first steps of obedience that may seem a little uncomfortable at first but is actually an incredible way to join together with this family that we call Christians.
“But I don’t want to waste water.” Now you’re just making stuff up.
To learn more about baptism at Grace Point or to sign-up for our December 6th Baptism Celebration, contact us at info@gracepointvegas.com.
Some of our videos from yesterday…
Overview video of 2009:
Grace Point Church – 2009 Overview from Grace Point Church on Vimeo.
The next video is a brief testimony of Julie Cole a former atheist turned Jesus follower. Community Service was the key means that God used to bring her to faith in Christ. Two notes: 1) the “beer tent” reference is not a GP sponsored beer tent. We simply serve the City at this event and one of our service opps is checking IDs. And 2) yes we know that technically Jesus finds us.
Community Service – Julie Cole from Grace Point Church on Vimeo.
We like to use humor in our services. In case you have not noticed, a lot of people are going through a tough time right now so a little humor always makes people relax for a moment from the struggles of life. We TOTALLY ripped this video idea from Forefront Church where my friend Vince Antonucci was the pastor before moving to Vegas to plant Verve. So the credit for the original idea goes to the Forefront guys.
Let me apologize for my minimal blog posts. It seems most of my energy is directed toward Facebook or Twitter these days. I find myself blogging less and less. I will have to wait and see what the new year brings. It seems blogs are slowly becoming a thing of the past. Anyway some of you still follow my blog and it is a great place to post videos and pictures so don’t lose all hope. I will try and post some videos from our Vision Sunday yesterday.
Randomness from the weekend:
- Finally saw Paranormal Activity on Friday night to see what the buzz was about. It was little freaky for sure.
- We had Zac’s birthday party on Saturday. He had a Mario birthday. Fun time with a LOT of energy.
- Can’t believe my buddy is 8!
- UFC 106 Saturday night. I thought Tito would win it but Forrest pulled it out. I was glad but considering Tito did not even try the third round it makes me question the validity of the fight. I am sure Dana White would love to see Tito-Forrest 3.
- Ragan attended a “mystery” birthday party on Saturday. She dressed as a nurse. She was a cutie.
- Kayleigh has already seen New Moon twice.
- Sunday was another good day at GP. We had our annual Vision Sunday.
- Vision Sunday helps us see clearly where we have been and where we are going.
- Although the economy hit our area very hard, we had a good 09 overall.
- We were able to hear from some GPers during the gathering yesterday. That is always inspiring.
- It is so great to be part of a church that focuses so much “outside its walls.”
- We cast the vision for our Vision 2010 offering yesterday. Goal: $40,000
- All of our vision offering will go outside our walls!
- Great buzz around GP right now.
- There are some potentially really big things happening that could help take GP to a whole new level.
- God uses us in spite of us!
- Watched the Cowboys-Redskins game after church. Ugly win but a win.
- I was exhausted last night. Up early and a long hard day took its toil.
- Busy and short week ahead.
Happy Thanksgiving!
- Really had a great time hanging out with a group of young pastors of great churches in San Diego last week.
- I deeply appreciate mentors who are willing to invest in those coming behind them.
- Very few things are more frustrating than a flight delay that takes longer than actually driving the trip would take.
- Our offices are b-u-s-y right now. A lot going on.
- Sickness invaded our house this weekend. Thankfully I have avoided the plague so far.
- Hung out with my friend DB on Friday night while our wives did their jewelry show thing. Watched a good movie.
- Served with City Mission on Saturday morning. Always enjoy serving with this incredible organization.
- City Mission was given a new warehouse that is awesome. Really helps makes the process more effective.
- The guy I served with on Saturday is a MMA fighter. We had some great dialogue.
- Over 135 GPers served last week alone.
- Watched college football on Saturday afternoon.
- Went to a UNLV game on Saturday night. I am still not impressed with UNLV basketball. I miss tobacco road.
- Another solid day at Grace Point on Sunday. A lot of people sick but still a good day.
- The band opened with MMJ’s I’m Amazed. Good tune.
- Our music has really been kicking the last few weeks. Good job team.
- We introduced our new family discipleship paradigm on Sunday. It is based on the Orange concept of Reggie Joiner and co.
- Ty Neal, our Family Ministries Pastor, helped me teach on Sunday. The Neals are so valuable to our ministry.
- Some of my favorite quotes from Sunday’s message:
“Disciples are called to leave behind more disciples”
“The gospel paradigm includes: receiving, protecting, and passing”
“The pastor cannot be your primary means of spiritual growth”
“There should be a natural transition that occurs in our Christian journey from primarily being discipled to being a discipler of others”
“What am I giving? is a more important question than What am I getting?”
“Parents are called to love God completely and to lead our home intentionally”
“It is the parent’s responsibility to lead and disciple their kids – not the churches or Awanas”
“True discipleship at homes happens with a deliberate plan”
- We also introduced our new resource table on Sunday to provide “tools” of spiritual growth. It was a huge success.
- Watched the Cowboys choke against the Packers. You never know which team is going to show up.
- Finished my Sunday with an In N Out burger – which meant treadmill time this morning!
- I sure hope I can avoid the sickness this week.
- Vision 2010 next Sunday!
- Exciting days ahead
Have a great week
Here is a picture of Daniel James Gonzalez.
It’s Sunday late afternoon. I am getting ready for the Boys-Eagles game. Just some random thoughts…
- Emotionally draining weekend. The funeral of a 22-year-old will do that to you.
- Most of Friday was occupied with getting ready for the funeral.
- I sneaked away early Saturday morning to clear my head on the golf course. Didn’t really work.
- Saturday afternoon and evening was dominated by the funeral.
- The church where the funeral was held was packed.
- The memorial service itself went very well. Good balance of personal memories and the gospel.
- I love talking about Jesus in front of dozens of people who are not really “church” people.
- Through tragedy, God is bringing life and forgiveness.
- We started a two-week series today at GP called Disciple.
- We are talking about what it means to follow Jesus.
- Christi led a new song for us today – The Revelation Song – one word: WOW! Definitely a top 5 worship music moment in GP history. I was blown away – which is difficult to do.
- Our first service was jammed. Second service was decent.
- I talked about living and loving like Jesus.
- DJ was a great example of an authentic and passionate follower of Jesus.
- We celebrated his life as we closed the service with Blessed Be Your Name.
- Weekends like this remind us of why we are here.
- GP is hitting on all cylinders right now.
- I am traveling this week to San Diego to spend a few days on the beach hanging out with a group of young leaders.
- If you ride a motorcycle, be careful and slow down.
Can I be real honest for a moment? Sometimes I do not like ministry. Yesterday was one of those days. I had to sit in the living room of a family who just lost their 22-year-old son in a motorcycle accident. In those moments, there is nothing to say or do. There is no explanation. No answer. And a lot of questions. Sometimes I do not like ministry.
DJ was an active part of our student ministry. He was a genuine Jesus follower (which is rare for a 22-year-old male living in Sin City). He was a talented musician (his band just got their first record deal). He was a leader. He had a great personality. He was sincere about missional living. He was pursuing God. He was fun to be around and brought life to those with whom he interacted.
And now he is gone.
That reality is hard to swallow. Why? Why does God allow a solid, vibrant, young, Christ follower to die in a tragic accident. Why does God allow a person full of potential to be taken before he has really even started making his greatest impact? Sometimes I don’t like ministry.
I don’t have answers. I don’t know why. I can’t make sense of this seemingly harsh reality. But I do have hope.
I have hope for only one reason: the gospel. Only through the cross do we find hope amidst tragedy. “For God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Because of the cross, I know that God loves. God is not whimsical or capricious or malicious or inadequate. He is love. And because He is love and “demonstrated” that love for us by sending His Son to die for us “while we were sinners,” because of that reality, I have hope. I don’t have answers but I have hope.
We mourn the loss of DJ. Our hearts hurt. The pain his family and friends will go through is real. But we do not mourn as people with no hope. We mourn as people who have eternal life. We mourn as people whose hope rests in the One who conquered death by being raised from the dead.
Jesus: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Sometimes I don’t like ministry. Loss hurts. Questions frustrate. Pain injures. But through the gospel, there is hope. And that’s the only thing we can offer during tragedy – there is hope in Jesus. There is hope in the One who became sin for us, who conquered death, hell, and the grave. There is hope because there is life! Death does not have the final word. Death does not win. Death is defeated.
Death stole DJ from us but guess what? Death is a defeated foe. Death was simply a door. Death ushered DJ into the presence of God. He who has the Son has life! Welcome home DJ.
Our monthly staff day is today so this will be short and sweet…
- Had a great time with the kids this weekend: trick-or-treating, haunted housing, laughing, hanging out
- 4 day weekends always affect attendance but we had a good day overall
- We shared our sign-up numbers from last weekend. GP came thru in a huge way.
- We finished our “Do What” series in Matthew 5 talking about the “turn the other cheek” passage.
- Our band was unbelievable yesterday. Good work team!
- We signed up several more people for our holiday service yesterday.
- Our first service has been packed the last few weeks.
- Extra hour of sleep does not equal getting to church on time!
- Some of my favorite quotes from the message:
“Jesus was a revolutionary. His words created division and sparked a movement.”
“We live in a ‘charge the mound’ culture”
“Does retaliation define you?”
“As a Jesus follower, there are times I must sacrifice my rights to serve others”
“How you react says more about who you are than what you do”
“When is the last time I sacrificed a necessity for someone else?”
“A transfer of thinking views needs as opportunities not inconveniences”
“My possessions are actually His possessions given to me to invest in others”
“Jesus calls upon us to love and pray for those who are the opposite of us”
“Love those it does not make sense to love”
“The story of Jesus is the greatest ‘do what’ moment in human history”
“Grace is God’s greatest do what”
- Took the kids to the new In n Out burger near our house last night
- Disciple starts next weekend
- Great days ahead
off to bowl