New Standard Website

I'm so proud to be associated with Standard Publishing.

I've been a Contributing Editor the Christian Standard for about five years and I've been blessed to have written two books that have been published by Standard (Remember Who You Are--2007 & Go!--Summer 2009).

The people at Standard are a first-class group of people who are committed to the "restoration of New Testament Christianity, its doctrine, its ordinances, and its fruits."

Standard Publishing just launched a new website that I think is just great.One of my favorite features is the Daily Devotional page.

Check it out: Standard Publishing

Talking of Sleep

As I write this, I'm at work having a hard time staying awake.

It's the end of a long work-week--heading into a busy weekend--and I'm feeling really tired.

As I was counting the hours until bed-time I started thinking about how much we sleep.

If I live to be 90 years old and average 7 hours of sleep a night then I will sleep 229,950 hours of the 788,400 hours of my life. This means that I will be asleep for 29.1% of my life which means that of my 90 years I’ll be unconscious for about 26 of them.

Yikes!

(I need to invest in a more comfortable mattress.)

Sleep is a good thing for people. If we don’t sleep, we die. If you’re like me, when you think about sleep it makes you happy. There is nothing better than a Sunday afternoon nap while the steady and slightly muffled hum of a NASCAR race drones on from the TV on the other side of the room.

To people sleep is an enjoyable and essential part of healthy human life, but just the opposite is true of the Church.

Sleep is a bad thing for the Church.

Whenever God thinks about his Church sleeping it makes him anything but happy.

God has plans for his Church to be “at rest,” but not on this side of Heaven.

On this side of Heaven God expects his Church to be awake, so, through the Apostle Paul, God issued a universal wake up call to His Church when he said:

The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. (Romans 13:11, TNIV)

Are you awake?

Is your church awake?

Do you need an alarm?

Alarms are designed to confront silence, ignorance, lethargy, improper behavior, apathy, and sleep and—if an alarm does what it is designed to do then it is an instrument of hope.

Your first thought when you think of an alarm may be negative--and that’s understandable since most of us begin our day with the sound of an alarm startling us out of a completely snug and relaxed state and signaling the start of the day. But, alarms aren’t completely negative. If we stop to think about it—and focus on the results—alarms are actually quite positive calls to action.

The sounding of an oven alarm means the cookies are done.

The sounding of a dash-board alarm means that you’ve left your headlights on . . . and you’ll not be searching for someone with jumper-cables in the parking lot after work.

The sounding of a smoke alarm means that there is a fire in the building and you now have a chance to get out before it gets too bad.

The sounding of an alarm clock means that a day full of opportunities has begun.

The sounding of a security alarm signifies—hopefully—that an evening of crime is now over.

And, the sounding of a car alarm means absolutely nothing!

But I digress.

Today, reading Romans 13:11, was an alarm for me--a reminder that the clock is ticking and there is still so much work to be done.

My favorite server at the restaurant across the street doesn't know Jesus, yet.

My neighbor isn't saved, yet.

My three youngest kids still need to be discipled.

So many people in Greeley are yet to hear about Christ.

It's time for me to wake up . . . it's time for us to wake up and get to work.

Key S.T.E.P.S. on the Journey

Things are buzzing here at Journey Christian Church. We had a record crowd yesterday, six additions, and a bunch of people who are expressing interest in accepting Christ. It's all so exciting and overwhelming at the same time.

I'm spending a lot of time in these first months of my ministry working to build infrastructure, identity, and a clear vision for the future.

One of the tools I'm using to help communicate our vision has proved really helpful. It's an acronym designed to communicate the key S.T.E.P.S. we want everyone at Journey to take.

Here they are:

Service
Serving allows you to experience the joy of contributing to God's work. There is nothing better than letting God use you exactly where He has gifted you to serve!

Teamwork
At Journey, we want you to experience the blessings that can only come from building meaningful relationships with other people.

Equipping
Through Bible study we can be “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17), so at Journey we provide many opportunities to study God’s word. Through our equipping ministry at Journey Christ followers are equipped, built up, and encouraged through teaching, fellowship, prayer, and communion.

Praise
Praise reflects our commitment to gather together and celebrate what God is doing in our lives and in the church. We desire to praise God with every part of our lives, including our finances. We believe God is calling Journey to be a generous church. Generosity requires our hearts, our relationships, our time, and our finances. We want to help encourage and challenge one another along this journey of generosity.

Seeking
At Journey we are committed to building intentional relationships through which we can introduce people to Jesus Christ. We want to go to heaven and take as many people with us as possible.

Yesterday I was asked, "What does it mean to be a member of Journey Christian Church?"

I began my answer by saying, "It means that you are taking the following S.T.E.P.S. . . . . "

It was nice to be able to communicate our expectations so clearly and concisely.

I'm truly enjoying the journey!