Last Sermon

 Church, Faith, Leadership  No Responses »
Mar 112009
 

Winters family

Please pray for Dr. Fred Winters family and church.  Dr. Winters was pastor of First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois. He was shot and killed this past Sunday morning while preaching. 

You can see coverage of the story at this site, and read more here. 

Mark Driscoll has some interesting questions regarding security in the church in this post.

I can’t help but wonder what Dr. Winters last sermon was about.  I can’t help but think what I would want my last sermon to be.  Look at this interesting post regarding this line of thought. 

Pray for FBC Maryville and the Winters family. 

A special thanks to my friend Steve Whipple and his blog post links.

 Posted by at 10:47 am

Church planters and The Circus

 Church Planting, Culture, Entertaining, Family, Jesus, Leadership, Missional  No Responses »
Mar 102009
 

Last Thursday was a crazy but great day! 

The first Thursday morning of the month I get to spend my time with about 15-18 crazy guys who have either started churches or are looking to start a church.  They are insane!

It is an honor for my friend Chip Wheeler and I to help plan and lead these Church Plant Network Coaching events.  I love hanging out with guys that want to reach people and transform a community utilizing the best strategy that exist today on the planet–Church Planting!

We meet at FBC Conyers, GA and spend time in prayer from 7:30am-8:45am.  At 9am we have a guest speaker that leads us on a specific topic related to church planting and pastoring.  After our speaker leads us in a Q & A time we break out into coaching groups where we can apply the learned lessons to our specific context.   It is a blast and another way to broaden CATGrove’s Impact in the world for Jesus!

Circus

Thursday evening Jill and I took the kids to the Big Apple Circus that was showing at Stone Mountain Park.  I know it may seem funny to mention church planting and the circus in the same blog post but they do have a lot in common especially when you think of how church planters and clowns……………..well, I won’t go there!

It was a blast!  The clowns are my favorite part of the circus!

Here is the deal!  We all need to laugh.  Life is just hard at times and the recent pressures in our culture necessitate us find an outlet to relieve the pressure.  Church planting is a lot like the circus!  The Pastor and staff could possibly be confused with the ringmaster and some clowns.  The circus tent is always full of a bunch of hungry animals and people waiting to be entertained! Ouch, did I just say that!  Yep!  I’m sorry, I just needed to relieve some of the pressure from running a circus. 

I don’t know why I thought of writing a post on church planting and the circus, but somehow they just seemed to go together! 

Be Blessed!  And laugh a little this week.

 Posted by at 6:34 pm

Thankful Thursdays

 Church at the Grove, Community, Jesus, Missional  No Responses »
Mar 102009
 

This past Thursday was the last of 4 consecutive Thursdays we served at Youth Middle School for what we called “Thankful Thursdays“.  We began this last year as an opportunity to simply show God’s love in a practical way to the staff and faculty of Youth Middle School.

Here is what takes place:

We turn the stage in the cafetorium into a cafe where we served coffee, drinks and an assortment of food all day.  We also set up two Wiis for the teachers to compete in a bowling tournament and Guitar Hero contestfor prizes awarded later.  The teachers are given permission to come to the cafe for their planning period rather than working in their rooms and they come up for lunch.  They absolutely love it.  We (staff and awesome volunteers) provide a lot of goodies and then hangout and talk and play Wii with the teachers and faculty. 

The purpose and reasoning behind it is that February is the worst month of the year for depression and it is usually a grueling month for teachers.  It brightens their day and gives us a chance to have some conversations about life and hope found in Jesus.  Thank you to all the volunteers that pour your time into making food and snacks for us on those days and giving your time to help us out up at the school.

This year I have had at least 5 other churches contact me to tell me they have incorporated the same ministry in the schools of their community after reading my blog last year or hearing us talk about it while training in a conference this year. 

Yeah God!

 Posted by at 6:15 pm

Sunday Reflections and Discipleship Notes

 General  No Responses »
Mar 092009
 

Big Idea:
People Matter to God and they should matter to us.

Scripture Memory:
Matthew 20:28 (NIV)
28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Action Step:

Take the Red Cord and tape it to your bathroom mirror to remind you of your worth and identity in God’s eyes.

Random Thoughts:

  • I loved the services for a lot of reasons Sunday, but I loved it most because we had a few people turn to trust Jesus as their Savior for the first time.  I love that!  That is what gets me jacked up about what we do! YES!!
  • My heart goes out to the church and the family of the pastor who was shot yesterday morning in Illinois.  Someone walked in during their early service and started shooting at the pastor as he preached.  He was rushed to the hospital where he died.  I can’t even imagine…
  • It is absolutely hilarious how the time change impacts our early service. 
  • I am looking forward to “Love Loganville” on March 21. 
  • I love seeing new people come to our services.  I love it even more to see people come back for the second and third time. 
  • I am having a blast with this “THREAD” series as we look at the “Thread” of the gospel throughout the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures.
  • I had a blast going to see the DAWGS play baseball Sunday afternoon as they defeated the college baseball powerhouse Quinnipiac University.  They are 12-0 and ranked #1 in the nation! 

I would love to hear what you think about our “THREAD” series. 

 

 

 Posted by at 11:12 pm
 Older Entries  Newer Entries
© 2012 russbutcher.com Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha