Next Steps

This past week Sandy and I traveled to Savannah, Georgia, to visit my brother and his family. My brother moved to Savannah about six months ago to serve in their global and local outreach ministry. But after being there for just a brief time, they gave him a new position, and he is now the pastor of what they call their east campus (Savannah Christian Church is one of the largest Christian Churches in the country with a main campus and three different satellite campuses). He’s very excited about this new opportunity. Not only am I excited for him, but I’m very proud of him.

Normally everything at the satellite campus is “live” except for the message which is a video from the main campus. But this last weekend my brother brought the message. He preached from Psalm 51 and talked about how important it is, if we’re ever going to changed into the person God wants us to be, to be honest about our sin.

I’m eight years older than my brother. He and my younger sister were still at home when my parents divorced, and life for them got pretty difficult. Everyone deals with difficulty in different ways, and, for a time, my brother made some really bad choices. But one day when he realized things needed to change, he called me. We talked for a little while, and then I said, “I want you to come and go with me to church camp.” I was scheduled to be the dean of a senior high week at Tanglewood Christian Camp in Lexington, TX. So he went. While he was there, God dealt with his heart, and he made a commitment to turn away from his sin (the Bible calls that repentance). He also made a commitment to enroll at Dallas Christian College (he had already been to two different colleges where he spent most of his time…well he doesn’t really remember much about that time). So my brother enrolled in and graduated from Dallas Christian College. While he was there he met his wife Jolene, and they have been serving the local church together now for almost twenty years. And it all started with a moment of recognition followed by a phone call.

I imagine there are many moments of recognition in all of our lives. The problem is we don’t always take that next step. For my brother Kenneth, it was a phone call to someone he could trust…someone he knew loved him. What would it be for you? One of the great examples of that next step is found in the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. After this son had demanded an early inheritance from his father and wasted it all on wine, women, and song (loose translation), he found himself with nothing but a job feeding pigs. Luke 15:17 says, When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ (NIV) You know how the story ends. The father was actually waiting for him to come home. And when he did, the celebration was incredible.

Is there some next step you need to take? Is there something you need to do? Don’t let anything stand in your way. Somewhere there’s a celebration waiting to happen.

Jesus cares,

Pastor Chris

P.S. The weather in Savannah and Hilton Head was perfect every single day. I ate a lot of Blue Bell ice cream and played a lot of golf. How cool is that!

The Evolution of a Blog (one pastor’s experience)

Monday, October 12, 2009 (10:15 a.m.)

Wow! That’s all I can say about this past weekend’s worship experience. I could feel the power of the Holy Spirit in each service, and I know that everyone who was present was blessed and challenged. But I have to be honest and tell you that I was really disappointed (It has always been hard for me to hide my disappointment) in the number of empty chairs…especially at our 9:00 service. Several months ago when I first began to imagine this series, I actually checked the Colts schedule and the school calendar so that I could schedule this particular weekend at a time when there were no obvious conflicts. That’s because I knew how powerful it would be. That’s why I took the time to encourage everyone a couple of weeks ago to make sure they didn’t miss the last two weeks of this series. The end result was our lowest “What’s Your Story” weekend attendance…almost 500 fewer people than previous weeks. Someone told me they believed the low attendance was due to the temporary seating in the Worship Center. I suppose that could be a possibility, but I just can’t bring myself to believe that something like that would really keep someone out of church, not unless they had some genuine physical disability. Someone might read this and think that I’m overly concerned with numbers. That’s really not the case. I just know how much time and effort went into last week’s service, as well as how important the message was. (Whoa. There’s no way I can publish this. It’s way too negative/honest. I should know better than to try and write a blog on a Monday.)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 (8:45 a.m.)

Wow! That’s all I can say about this past weekend’s worship experience. I could feel the power of the Holy Spirit in each service, and I know that everyone who was present was blessed and challenged. But I have to be honest and tell you that I was really disappointed (It has always been hard for me to hide my disappointment) in the number of empty chairs…especially at our 9:00 service. Several months ago when I first bean to imagine this series, I actually checked the Colts schedule and the school calendar so that I could schedule this particular weekend at a time when there were no obvious conflicts. That’s because I knew how powerful it would be. That’s why I took the time to encourage everyone a couple of weeks ago to make sure they didn’t miss the last two weeks of this series. The end result was our lowest “What’s Your Story” weekend attendance…almost 500 fewer people than previous weeks. (Apparently Tuesdays are not much better)

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (2:37 p.m.)

(Nope)

Thursday, October 15, 2009 (5:14 p.m.)

This weekend marks the conclusion of our special “What’s Your Story” campaign. I hope you’ve been blessed by what God has done each and every week. I have been particularly thankful to those who have had the courage to share their story whether it’s been in the main service, on our web site, or in a small group setting. One of my main goals for this series was to try and communicate that we are not a church filled with “stained-glass saints” but real people with real lives in real need of God’s grace. We have a very special element planned for this final weekend that I believe is something we will all remember for the rest of our lives. I hope that you are planning to be present at one of our four services so that you can be a part of what God is going to do. I have to tell you that we will once again be sitting in temporary chairs. It’s painful for me to have to write that. We tried to synchronize our re-model schedule to only have to do this for a couple of weeks, and this will be the sixth straight week with the folding chairs. It’s not our fault. The only thing we’ve been guilty of is believing the people who sold us the new seats when they gave us our delivery date(s). I apologize for that. Please don’t let it keep you from worship this weekend. Thanks for your patience.

Jesus cares,

Pastor Chris

My brother, who recently moved to Savannah, Georgia, to work on the staff at the Savannah Christian Church, called me recently to ask me about some details related to the spiritual heritage of our family. He’s writing a sermon about “change” and wanted to tell the story of my grandmother’s conversion. Because he’s eight years younger than I am, he doesn’t know or remember the story as well as I do.

I’ve told you before about my grandparents who owned a bar on the west side of Tulsa, Oklahoma. That was the life they lived for several years. That was the life that my mother was raised in and influenced by. That was the life that led her to make some of the choices she made as a young woman. But a little over fifty years ago, my grandmother was in a serious car wreck that crushed her pelvis. She ended up in a hospital, flat on her back with a long recovery ahead of her. It was during that hospital stay that some men from the Osage Hills Christian Church visited her and told her that God loved her and explained to her how she could have her sin forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life. That visit was the beginning of an incredible transformation. Once she was out of the hospital, she had to wear heavy metal and leather braces. But she was so anxious to obey the command to be baptized that she wouldn’t wait until she was free of the braces. So she went to church, answered the invitation, made a confession of faith, and two men carried her into the baptistery on a metal folding chair and baptized her into Christ. Not long after that, my grandparents sold their bar, and my grandmother became the secretary at Osage Hills. She spent the next sixteen years of her life in that position until she was diagnosed with breast cancer. One weekend they had a special service where the people were asked to bring or wear a pair of shoes that had a significant meaning for their spiritual life (I know this because the preacher told this story at my grandmother’s funeral). My grandmother brought those leg braces. I can still remember, as a boy, seeing them hanging on a nail in her garage. I’m sure that every time she looked at them she was reminded ofhow God stepped in and re-wrote the story of her life.

But God didn’t just re-write the story of my grandmother’s life that day in that hospital room…that Sunday in that baptistery. He re-wrote the story of my mother’s life and my uncle’s life. He re-wrote the story of all of their children’s life, including me. And he re-wrote the story of my children’s lives. And the story goes on and on and on.

That’s one of the things that makes this What’s Your Story campaign so special, and one of the reasons why it’s important for all of us to take the time to recognize and tell our story. My life has not been perfect. I’ve made and make a lot of mistakes. But because of the faithfulness of ordinary men who were making a hospital call on a woman they had never met, my story is covered by grace. And if I were ever asked to wear or bring a pair of shoes that had a significant meaning for my spiritual life, I’d have to find those braces.
What’s your story?

Pastor Chris