Blessing a Trailer Park…
Nestled in the middle of our city is a trailer park. You may or may not know lots of stigma surrounds being a resident of a trailer park. Often people are frowned upon, looked down upon, and even discriminated against because of where they live. Trailer parks are the brunt of many jokes. But the trailer park in our city is going to receive a blessing. This Saturday Mercy’s Cross is descending on this park to clean up, pick up, finish projects, to pray with residence, and to celebrate this unique community. It is a chance to get dirty, sweaty and put a smile on someone’s face for Jesus sake. Just a random act of kindness with no strings. More information here iServOthers
June 22, 2010 Leave a comment
Devonte Part 2
June 21, 2010 Leave a comment
Ridiculous Generosity
There are moments in ministry that you are in the right place at the right time. Today was one of those days. Something happened today that I will remember for as long as I live. First, we acted on something God told us to do, we reversed the offering. What I mean is instead of taking up the offering, we put money in the baskets and passed them out to the church with the invitation that if you have a need take money out. I watched as single moms with tear filled eyes pulled out gas money for the week. I watched families take money for their electric bills. In one instance a homeless man took lunch money, $15 dollars, he could have taken more but he was concerned there wasn’t enough for others. He let me know that $15 was enough. It was truly love in action, a demonstration of faith, hope and love. People hugged, smiled and cried as we fellowshipped around the love of giving. Time will pass and lots of things will be forgotten, but this day and this moment of watching Jesus visit, comfort and provide in such an amazing way will long since live in my memories.
Today, we also unveiled the family we have chosen to bless in a ridiculous way. The Pippin family was chosen on day seven of our fast and have been confirmed every step of the way. Devonte` is a ten year old child that lost his mom last year. He also suffers with cancer. He is cared for by his aunt (she is amazing). Today was the first time I made them known to Mercy’s Cross and ThatChurch. I let the church know that this family needed money, a washer and dryer, a car, and lots of financial help. This next part is the reason I love my church. In one day a new car, a new washer and dryer, and thousands of dollars were given. Medical care costs a lot but we are thousands closer to helping this family with what they need. The following is part one of Devonte’s story…
If you would like to give to help this family click here: Help Devonte`
June 6, 2010 Leave a comment
As your pastor I can’t do everything but I can do something. This is my something…
I can’t make your decision to choose Christ for you but I can provide a pivotal moment every weekend that will cause you to think and engage God.
I can’t make you apply what you hear but I can teach in practical & relevant ways who God is and what your life could be if you surrendered to Him fully.
I can’t be at every event in your life but I can listen to your life’s moments and celebrate with you.
I can’t make you do the right things but I can give you the truth so you know what is right.
I can’t parent your children for you but I can provide time each week for your kids to hear the truth in an inspiring way.
I can’t save your marriage but I can give you the tools so you can.
I can’t undo all the damage done but I can care, pray and help you to walk out of the dark places in life.
I can’t give you easy answers to hard questions but I can help you discover God’s answers for your life’s questions.
I can’t live up to all your expectations but I can stay focused on God’s expectations to pray and deliver His Holy Word.
I can’t be Jesus to your community but I can equip you with the right understanding and information so you can.
I can’t be at all your kid’s ball games, graduations, or events but I can celebrate you experiencing your child’s life.
I can’t make every hospital visit, house call, or funeral but I can pray for you and love you regardless of where I am.
I can’t repair all the financial problems you are having but I can give you the truth you need to avoid materialism.
I can’t make friends for you but I can provide a place where you can engage others in relationships.
I can’t be the church for you but I can help you to understand how Christ can be the church through you.
I can’t make you be the person to others you should be but I can teach you how to love, learn, serve and share with others.
I can’t be your best friend but I can provide you a place to make friends.
I can’t serve for you but I can teach you how to serve.
I can’t make everything about you but can help you to live all about God.
I can’t always make you happy I can show you where true joy comes from.
I can’t be everything to you but I can introduce you to the One who gave everything for you.
Acts 6:4
“But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” NASU
May 19, 2010 Leave a comment
Leadership Lab-Relational Chemistry
One of our Great door prizes an iPod touch!
This Saturday I’m hosting a Leadership Lab at my house. It will be three hours of action packed learning about how to design, build and be a high octane leadership team. Come learn how to target high performance volunteers and ask them the right questions mixed with just the right information to build amazing earth changing relationships. How much would you pay for this information? No matter, its free! More than that we have door prizes that will rock your world. A new iPod touch, and books from Driscoll, Groeschel, McManus, Maxwell, David Platt’s new book “Radicals”, Groeschell’s new book “the Christian athiest” and so much more. What better way to spend three hours than learning from apex leaders, getting free stuff, and eating up some great food?
If you need directions email me Scott@ThatChurch.com.
Because of space no children.
Bring a dish, dessert, and a drink. Simple as that.
See you here!
May 14, 2010 Leave a comment
Generosity
Funny thing, this past weekend was the grand opening of ThatChurch.com. It was the first service and hopes were high. As I prepared for the service, I felt God telling me that He wanted to make sure that I remembered His desire that we would be a church bent on serving the city of Conway, a church that would be known for our love for this community and each other and a church that is amazingly generous. Our goal is to give away our time, energy and money with no strings attached. I confirmed with God that I did remember.
It was on the trip from Sherwood to Conway for the first service that God told me that if ThatChurch.com was going to ask people to be generous, ThatChurch.com would have to demonstrate that type of generosity. I confirmed with God that we had done just that, by giving away 3500+ bottles of water over the past weekend, among other community projects we had taken on. He let me know that He wanted more….This is where the story gets good. God told me simply that we should give our first Sunday’s offering away as a demonstration of who we are. You have to understand that things financially are tight, so it took me a moment to let go of control and admit; “It’s Your church, I’m Your servant, it will be Your way”. So Sunday morning, to the surprise of my staff and financial team leader, I let everyone know that what was just taken up in the offering would be given away, all of it, to those who had suffered because of the devastating storms in Arkansas. Everyone smiled, some clapped and others swallowed deep.
Today, we were scheduled for the Chamber of Commerce in Conway to come for the ribbon cutting ceremony at ThatChurch.com. I can’t tell you how nice everyone was. I was given the opportunity to share with this group the heart of ThatChurch.com and our desire to love and serve the city of Conway with no strings attached. I told them about the offering and how much joy it gave us to give it away. The smiles served as confirmation they understood what I was wanting to do.
After the ribbon cutting, we were all in the lobby talking and exchanging stories. A woman approached me with a smile. And with a whisper she told me that while I was speaking God told her to give this to me. The “this” she spoke of was a check folded and put in my hand. She did nothing to bring attention to herself in a simple and quiet low key way she gave and she turned to walk away. I thanked her and hugged her before she slipped out. Later, I opened the check and it was more than three times the offering we gave away. After everyone had left I pulled my leadership team together and we celebrated how God provides for us as we trust Him. There were lots of tears and we all dreamed how we can serve more. This wonderful ladies generosity encouraged everyone on staff at ThatChurch.com.
I don’t feel at liberty to share this woman’s full name since I don’t have permission to do so. I will say if you are ever in Conway and run into a real estate agent named Pat and if you ask her if she has ever heard of ThatChurch.com, if she smiles with a wonderful glow you’ll know you have found her.
May 5, 2010 3 Comments
A conversation that changed my life.
This weekend ThatChurch and Mercy’s Cross crowded the streets of Conway during Toad Suck Daze (an annual festival in downtown Conway). It was amazing the number of conversations we had just simply wearing our ThatChurch.com shirts. One of those conversations helped confirm what we will and will not be as a church. It was Friday evening and a young college age girl stopped me as I was traveling down the street headed back to the ThatChurch campus. She asked “Hi I’m Amy. What kind of church is That Church?” I was super excited to answer that question… “What we are is a church that isn’t hung up on our name or our building. We are about people. We work to create deep relationships where people can know each other as we learn about who God is.” She interrupted me with tears in her eyes “Do you know each others names? My church doesn’t even know my name.”
I could see the hurt all over her face. It was at that moment I realized the city of Conway needs a place that isn’t corporate, hung up on buildings and image, or bound in traditions, but a church that longs to love people and to know them. A place where people are more important than promotional hype. No one wants to be known as a number. Of all the places on this planet the church should be a place where you are known. She went on to tell me that she had tried to get involved but at every turn she couldn’t. She finally told me that she had just about given up on “God”. That isn’t how this journey is supposed to end…
So here are some of my convictions:
We have to be a place that has room for the next person who wants to come to God without sacrificing those who have been here.
We must be a place where EVERYONE has the opportunity to serve and share.
We won’t use people to get things we will use our things to help people.
Jesus will be the only famous one at Mercy’s Cross or ThatChurch.
We must never forget each other, because Jesus never did.
Grand Opening of ThatChurch.com
May 3, 2010 7 Comments
Dreamless
Today I looked for one of my favorite movies. Shawshank Redemption. I think it is the best prison movie ever made. Fair warning there is some graphic scenes and even more graphic language but it is a raw look at the prisons of humanity that far transcend the walls of Shawshank. It is a movie of dreams, hope, and prison cells. It is a creative contrast between those who are imprisoned in their freedom and those who are free in their imprisonment. Sad truth is you don’t have to be in a jail cell to experience the suffocation of incarceration.
Have you ever noticed that we all dream? Long before we can even hold a job we dream of the careers we would like to have. Little girls dream of the prefect home with babies needing to be fed and their diapers changed. From the time we are born we are filled with hope, dreams and endless possibilities. Einstein attributed his discoveries to his willingness to continue to dream and explore long after his childhood was over. We no doubt are built to dream.
Our dreams open us up to hope. Hope is oxygen to our souls. It has been said you can survive forty days without food, seven days without water, five minuets without oxygen and not one second without hope. It is amazing how our dreams and hopes are sometimes replaced with life. I have seen people at one point in their lives filled with aspirations and expectations only to find them years later hopeless and dreamless. Physically you can see they are aged. The moment we release the treasure of hope it is as if our life hemorrhages out of us. Dreams are replaced with drama, hope is replaced with have-to’s, freedom is replaced with the prison of fear.
Where there are no dreams there is uniformity. It seems the older we get the more we are forced into the press of sameness. If you continue to dream past a certain point in life and you are willing to pursue those dreams you are considered immature, or childish. The problem is when we loose our dreams we loose our opportunity for uniqueness. Standardization makes us easier to control and manage but it kills our spirit. The Army has complete control through uniformity but cannot unleash the human spirit. That spirit that was placed in us and made us like the One who created us thrives in the amniotic fluid of our dreams. In the image of a creative God we were created. A God whose tireless creativity overwhelms even the most brilliant imaginations planted inside each of us the spark of a dreamer, and the fuel of a dream. I believe He completely desires for us to ask the question “Imagine if…”
I didn’t find my movie. It seems that its sales (or lack of) as of late have made it hard to come by. I’ll continue to look, and I will also continue to dream.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is life and joy.
Prov 13:12 NLT
April 28, 2010 1 Comment
WWF-Wrestling With the Father
When facing God you think of choir voices, a holy moment but what if God came to you to pick a fight? Imagine God saying “you want some of Me?” This weekend we will be talking about when God comes to you ready to rumble. It is sad to say but way to often we think of God not fighting for us or fighting with us, it is as if He is not willing to step into our world, but wait, isn’t that exactly what Jesus did? This weekend we will unpack a fight between God and a man that may very well change the way you see your relationship to God.
April 17, 2010 Leave a comment