Brandon@Random

Book Recommendation~ The Complete Bible Answer Book

This is a very nice, concise book that covers a wide array of theological issues. 

Hank Hanegraaff (aka "The Bible Answer Man") answers 170 questions, and his responses are short and sweet.  You can order the book here.

  5 out of 5 stars

Witnessing Clip~Ron

Here is a clip of Ray Comfort sharing the Gospel with an interesting man.

Are we ready to share our faith with everyone?

Quote: Andy Stanley on FEAR

"You're afraid?  So what.  Everybody's afraid. 

Fear is the common ground of humanity. 

The question you must wrestle to the ground is, 'Will I allow my fear to bind me to mediocrity?'"

From Andy Stanley's book, The Next Generation Leader

An Essential Element of Pastoral Ministry

Pastors.com has a great leadership article this month.  Check out this quote from its author, Kevin Harney.

"When Jesus was reviled, he did not retaliate. When he was mocked, he prayed for forgiveness. When the Savior was denied three times by Peter, he willingly died on the cross for his sins. Then he rose from the dead, and called Peter back to himself and a place of fruitful ministry.

As pastors, we will have plenty of opportunities to forgive people in our church, on our leadership team, and even our closest friends in the Church."

Uprising in The Vertical Church (Yuma, AZ)

Check out this post from Jason Taylor's blog.  He is the pastor of a Free Will Baptist home missions project, The Vertical Church in Yuma, AZ.  The Vertical Church has only been around a few years...but is reaching 1000's with the Gospel.  Here is what Jason had to say about this Sunday's service.

This Sunday we kicked off a new series called “Uprising”.  In this first message, I talked about the “Uprising Challenge”.  Here is what that challenge means and also what the Big Announcement was all about:

We had many take the challenge and here is how the Sunday went:

- We restated our vision of “Being the hands and feet of Jesus” during the message and talked about why we exist as a church, then I challenged everyone to join me in a “Uprising Challenge”

- The first part of the challenge was for everyone to read through the New Testament in 63 days.  We provided a reading plan along with the NT on Audio CD.  I publicly committed to spend 63 hours in prayer along with the 63 day challenge.  Most of the crowd signed up for this

- I talked about how that if we are to be the hands and feet of JEsus, we need to know how Jesus lived and how the Early church lived.  So we joined together to read the New Testament

- The second part of the challenge consisted of a plan that will help us as a church touch 5,000 people in Yuma with Random Acts of Kindness.  We unveiled a schedule of 2 corporate Kindness Projects a week for 10 weeks and several big events through the end of the year, including a One Day VBS, Yuma Free Family Swim Day, Back To School Party for Pueblo Elementary, Trunk or Treat, and Surprise Christmas in December.

- Not only did we want everyone to work together to see 5,000 touches made by the end of 2009, we also equipped everyone Sunday with a $5.00 bill and some connection cards to do an act of kindness on their own.  Everyone that came on Sunday got a 5 dollar bill from The Vertical Church to go out and be the hands and feet in this city.

- The third part of the challenge included a HUGE announcement that made the crowd cheer and clap. On July 5th, we are moving to our own building.  We will be leasing a 15,000 square foot movie theater.  The Old Mandarin Cinema on 32 street and Arizona Ave.  We will be able to grow into this building and in August hopefully start 2 services.

- The fourth and last part of the challenge included a commitment to give in our “Uprising Offering” on June 28th to help fund the Kindness Projects and some building renovations.  In fact, if you want to give to this offering and you don’t go to our church you can go to www.yumauprising.com and give online.  80% of the money will go to help us touch 5,000 lives for Jesus the rest will go to help with last minute renovations on the new building!

- Oh yeah, everyone got a free t-shirt that says, “A Church being the Hands and Feet of Jesus”

So if you missed Sunday, you can still join us in this challenge.  You can listen to the message online later this week and you can join us in touching 5,000 lives in Yuma with the kindness of God!!

Check out what Jason is up to here.

Rendering of New Church Facility

Howard and Associates in OKC sent us some renderings of the new facility we are building in Stillwater.  The building is 12,000 sq. feet and will sit on 5 acres on the NE corner of Brooke and Jardot. If things go smoothly, we will be able to start moving some dirt in August.

From Sunday's Message, Handling Finances

⁹ Honor the LORD with your wealth,
               with the firstfruits of all your crops;

              ¹⁰ then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
               and your vats will brim over with new wine.

            We feel toward verses about money the same way we feel toward a solicitor who comes and rings our doorbell at 6:00 in the evening.

We automatically start thinking, “What’s it going to take for me to get this guy to go away.”

We read Proverbs 3: 9,10 and start thinking, “What is God asking me to give up?  What percentage do I need to give?  Is God really going to bless me?”

 
I want us to toss those questions in the trash and ask a new question: 

 
The new, illogical but essential question we need to ask about handling our finances is, “Who is God?”

Loved It

I think today was my most favorite experience at Highland Park.  I can't even begin to tell you all the ways God revealed himself today!  After lunch, I came home and wrote 3 pages in my journal...thanking God for as many specific blessings as I could remember.  I don't want to forget this day. 

I loved it!!!

If the whole body were an eye...

I love this portion of scripture in 1 Corinthians 12.  The Apostle Paul is using very vivid imagery to convey the idea that we are all important to the body of Christ. 

Sometimes I am guilty of thinking, "If everyone else could be just a little more like me, then the world would be better off."  To that Paul would say, "If everyone were just like you, Brandon, we'd be as useful as one giant eyeball roaming the earth."

"If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?"  1 Corinthians 12:17

Group Ideas

Small groups are the best way I know of to get people into closer relationships with each other.  The closer we are, the more we can enjoy life together.  We gain trust, concern and strength from each other.

Some ways I would like to see groups form in our congregation.

Study groups-10-15 people getting together to pray and discuss/study God's word.

Service groups-people getting together to perform a service for the Kingdom.

Go groups-people getting together for informal gatherings; bowling, craft fairs, parades, football games....lot of potential here.