Sunday Reflections & Easter is Coming!

 Church at the Grove, Church Planting, Culture, Faith, Jesus, Leadership, Missional, Random Thoughts  No Responses »
Apr 192011
 

I heard a story recently of a family that tragically had a little girl die at a young age.  They made arrangements to have the little girl buried in the cemetery on the property of the church they had been attending.  Months after the girl had been buried one of the members of the little church discovered that the little girl was not a member of the church.  Some of the leaders in the church had her body exhumed and forced the family to have her buried somewhere else simply because she was not a member of the church!

This explains why this church has remained small and had little “gospel” impact on the community around it! I simply can’t believe that people would resort to such a thing over whether or not that little girl was a “member” of the church.

I believe strongly that this explains in part why the church in our American culture is in decline and losing influence in the community.  This is why we work so hard to stay focused on what our mission is at CATGrove!  It is also why we need to plant more churches!

It was such a powerful Sunday of worship this past week and it was a blessing to have Matt Papa share in the sermon:

Here is what we focused on for this week:

Colossians 4:5–6 (ESV)
5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

  • Live Loud
  • Focus on the mission in the midst of the madness
  • Talk to people about what matters most.

CATGroves Values that impact outsiders:

  • Persuasive Compassion
  • Missional Responsibility

Let’s stay focused on reaching people with the gospel for God’s Glory!

Take advantage of Easter and invite your friends, family and neighbors to Church at the Grove this Sunday!  Remember we have two services this Sunday only at 9:30am and 11am!

Keep praying, Keep investing, keep inviting!

 Posted by at 10:39 am

Question on Homosexuality and This Week at the Grove!

 Church at the Grove, Culture, Faith, Jesus, Leadership, Missional, Random Thoughts  2 Responses »
Mar 252011
 

I love my church!  Well, its actually God’s church but I love His church and especially the part of His church called Church at the Grove, or as we affectionately refer to it, CATGrove, CATG, or The Grove!

God continues to blow me away with how he is moving in so many ways!  I am exciting out of my mind that we are training around 100 adult leaders this Saturday night at Leadership Community!  We will have training for our SundayServe teams on how to create an environment to WOW guests.  We will also have training for our Children’s ministry.  Oh yeah!

Easter is coming April 24!  Who are you praying for and preparing to invite to come with you?

This past Sunday we addressed our second Question of our “Questions Uncensored” series:  What does God say about homosexuality? Whoaa!

Here are some thoughts from Sunday:

The cultural issue of homosexuality is a hot issue politically, socially and morally and it is not going away.

If you’re like me, more than once you find yourself reading an article or listening to a story, and you think, “How am I supposed to feel about these things? Do we have the right to set boundaries around human behavior and relationships? If so, where do we draw those boundaries? And how do we respond civilly and Christian-ly to people who live outside those boundaries?”

We must approach this issue in humility!
Luke 18:9–14 (ESV)

First, we must look at what God says about marriage from the beginning!
Check out Genesis 2:18-25

In marriage, he brings a man and woman back together to reclaim the fullness of the divine image— masculinity and femininity.

Jesus confirms God’s plan in marriage.
Matthew 19:3–6 (ESV)

God’s design for sexuality is that it is to be a procreative and intimate celebration of love within the context of marriage.

There are 2 primary purposes for marriage:

1. Procreation – Genesis 1:28

2. Illustration – Ephesians 5:25-28

God does give us some specific prohibitions concerning sexuality:

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19

Leviticus 18 & 20

Romans 1:24–25 (ESV)

Romans 1:26–27 (ESV)

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (ESV)

Regardless of our beliefs concerning this tough issue, our response should be the same as that of Jesus as He encountered people:

Matthew 9:36–38 (ESV)
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

At CATGrove we will stand for truth but we will model Jesus’ example concerning GRACE & TRUTH.  John 1:14

As we stand for TRUTH we will also create an environment and atmosphere where:

  • Everybody’s welcome
  • Nobody’s perfect
  • Anything’s possible through Jesus!
 Posted by at 11:18 am

The Legacy of St. Patrick (repost)

 Culture, Faith, Jesus, Leadership, Missional  No Responses »
Mar 172011
 

On March 17 every year we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but most of us don’t know the true story of St. Patrick.

We should all be familiar with Saint Patrick’s missional pursuit of taking the gospel of Christ to Ireland.  Patrick was born in the Roman Empire and was taken as a slave to Ireland.  He left after hearing God speak to him and returned to the Roman Empire for the purpose of preparing (educationally and theologically) to return to Ireland for the sole purpose of sharing Christ with an uncivilized people.  As a result, many Irish monks were equipped and ready to leave Ireland and travel east to Europe where they would share the hope found in Christ.

The message of Christ spread throughout Europe and filled a huge vacuum left as a result of the Barbarian Invasions.

 Posted by at 8:16 pm

The Homeless Heckler & why it matters!

 Church, Church at the Grove, Church Planting, Culture, Faith, Jesus, Leadership, Missional, Random Thoughts  9 Responses »
Feb 242011
 

This past Sunday I was heckled by a homeless person! I experienced something I have never experienced before!  I have had people walk off the street and come to worship before and I once had a teenager get up and slam his metal chair down and walk out because he didn’t like what I was saying but I have never had a person verbally respond during the entire sermon.

Here is exactly what happened.  We have a group of  men in our church that have been burdened to reach out to the homeless community and have begun to build relationships with people living in a tent village in Lilburn and tent village in the Athens area.  This past Sunday a man came to church with them from the Athens community.  He suffers from an injury to his head that causes “Tourette” type responses.  He was excited to be at Church at the Grove and could not contain himself during our worship service and wanted to respond and be a part of what was going on.

Was it a distraction?  I can’t lie! Yes!  But is it a distraction that we will learn to live with? YES! Here’s why:

We set out over 4 years ago to reach out to those “least likely to go to church” and God has blessed our heart, mission and vision.  We will not stop now!

  • Everybody’s welcome!
  • Nobody’s perfect!
  • Anything’s possible through Jesus! Philippians 4:13

Keep Praying, Keep Investing, Keep Inviting!

 Posted by at 5:17 pm
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