I don’t normally celebrate lent or follow the religious calendar very closely. I don’t abstain from anything particular for this season. And I didn’t this year.

But as I prepare some of our teaching materials for Palm Sunday and the week leading up to the cross I can’t help but have a heavy heart. There are times this week where I just feel like crying out.

I’m not sure why it’s different this year, but I feel like I’m experiencing the weeks leading up to Easter in concert with those same weeks in the Bible. And it hurts.

Knowing that Jesus will soon be in the garden begging God for another option.
Knowing that He will soon be betrayed.
Knowing that I put Him in that position.

It’s almost more than I can take.

Read Genesis 3 and then Mark 14-15. You can’t get away from it.

It is our sin that put Him there. There’s a heaviness that I can’t shake.

But Easter is coming. Like a freight train you can’t stop – it doesn’t end with death. Jesus didn’t end in the grave. God’s work didn’t end in without grace and mercy…and a path to redemption.

And so I glimpse the light at the end of the tunnel. But the worst is yet to come. It’s always darkest right before dawn.

Dawn is coming.

(more…)

I just bought my first house so I find myself watching HGTV a lot more than I ever have before. My personal favorite is Holmes on Homes. Each week Mike Holmes takes on a project that was done incorrectly (or left unfinished) and “makes it right.”

I was watching a few nights ago and I heard him say the following:

I don’t want to do this, but right now this is my house. As long as this is my house, I’m gonna do it right.

Man.
That’s quality and commitment.

Imagine what would happen if we, as leaders in the church, thought about our people that way.

The students in student ministry are ‘my kids’.
The visitors in the services are ‘my brothers and sisters’.
The children in children’s ministry are ‘my kids’.

There would be things I wouldn’t want to do for someone else’s kids…but that I’d do for mine. There would be an urgency for my brother to see Christ that might not be present for someone I’ve never met. But what if it was?

This morning Stephen Proctor and I were chatting over breakfast about Passion Conferences (among many other things) and one thing came out that we were both so attracted to:

As leaders, we’re attracted to the boldness by which they pursue their vision

God has given them a vision and they are unapologetic about achieving that goal. They could probably make more money if they started “Passion for Singles” or “Passion for Adults” or “Passion for High School Students”…but they haven’t. Those people are welcome to attend, but their audience is and always has been college students. And they don’t apologize that a Passion event might not connect with you if you’re not a college student.

How often to we allow the people in our congregation to determine what we do? Why is that we, as leaders in the church, are so drawn to people who are bold about what they are going to do (and what they are NOT going to do)?

It’s vision and the boldness to support that vision. Everyone wants to follow a leader who is passionate about where they are going – and not willing to waiver to public opinion.

Give me a leader who is boldly following God and His vision and I’ll follow them anywhere. Give me a leader who bows to public opinion and I’ll be out of there pretty quick. We don’t have time to mess around.

P.s. I also need someone to put me in my place and tell me that my great idea doesn’t serve the vision of the church…gently of course.

I love to read. I read a lot. Something happens when you sit down to read someone else’s ideas and synthesize that with your own ideas and your own experiences.

I wrote a tweet last week about reading Sherlock Holmes on my Kindle. I got a few responses from that and thought it might be interesting to share what else is on my Kindle right now (which I absolutely love – my backpack got 5 pounds lighter overnight).

Less Clutter, Less Noise by Kem Meyer*
Sherlock Holmes, the complete collection by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle*
Visual Faith: Art, Theology and Worship by William Dyrness*
Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully Engaged Members by Searcy & Henson
The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
High-Tech Worship? by Quentin Schultze
Art and the Bible: Two Essays by Francis Schaeffer
Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes your Faith by Shane Hipps
Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad
Tribes by Seth Godin
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller

*denotes a book I’m currently reading.

Lots of wisdom up there.
What are you reading and how is it helping you grow?

It’s been forever and a day since I’ve blogged seriously, though I doubt anyone noticed. Either way, here’s why I haven’t been around:

In January, we launched our new Ministry Center. This building is used for Children’s Ministry on Sunday mornings and small groups throughout the week. It features two theatres and a complete streetscape on the lower level. Below are some pictures from our very own Aaron Thomason of ARC Studios and Cogun Inc. (or click HERE.) I love this building. 

In January, we launched Rock Bridge PM. This Thursday night service features the same great service as Sunday morning (preceding, not trailing). We chose Thursday night because it reaches a completely different audience. We live in an area overwhelmed by carpet mills and support industries. Because of that, a lot of people in our community work the weekends. Thursday night gives them the opportunity to come too!

In January we launched a new logo and started work on a completely new website. We decided that our previous logo didn’t accurately represent our identity moving forward. It wasn’t particularly distinct and wasn’t identifiable without our name. We wanted something that people would immediately recognize and captured our identity well. Click HERE to download wallpapers for your computer or iPhone.

For our website we wanted our developer to be the best of the best and a site that would allow us to support multiple campuses seamlessly and intuitively. We chose to partner with AM Design. Their previous work speaks for itself with websites for Passion Conferences, John MacArthur, AT&T and Watermark Church among many others. We’ve spent a lot of time working on an all new site map with some great new features and a new way to organize all of our content. We expect it to be easier to use and more effective at communicating who we are and connecting people to the community here at Rock Bridge. We expect to launch in mid-summer and can’t wait to see what the final project. (Secretly, we’re toying with some options for mobile applications as well.)

In February we launched Rock Bridge Chatsworth, the newest Rock Bridge multisite campus. Launching on February 28th, Rock Bridge Chatsworth meets at North Murray High School…in the cafeteria. I guarantee, however, that you’d have no idea you were in a school if it didn’t say so on the side of the building. The amount of volunteer work that goes into transforming that environment is nothing short of incredible. Here are a few shots of the incredible transformation.

In January, we launched Rock Bridge Fuel in print and online. This weekly devotional was designed specifically to target topics and scripture passages that match the weekly message and allow for people to easily dive deeper into the scriptures on their own. Of all the things we’ve implemented to encourage spiritual development, this has to be one of the most successful.

So yeah, we’ve been very busy. I’ve got topics busting out of my head so I hope to get back to blogging soon. God has blessed us incredibly through this season and we’ve seen significant growth because of it.