Reveal Worship

Changing Directions

2010-03-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

Every new venture comes with risks. Launching Reveal as third worship service in January of last year brought with it new difficulties and different obstacles to overcome. No matter how well planned you are, there are always unforseen issues that arise once you begin.

With that in mind, we announced yesterday that we will be ending Reveal as a third worship service on May 2.

Let me give you a little backstory to the issue and then catch you up-to-date on where we're headed. Almost from the moment we began our pre-launch services in September 2008, the time of Reveal became an issue. Even back then, when we were finishing at 12:30 or 12:45 some Sundays, we realized that families with young children were going to be at a decided disadvantage should they choose to be a part of Reveal.

In fact, within a month of beginning the pre-launch services, one of our launch team families approached me about dropping out because of it. So when we launched in January, 2009, we weren't completely caught off guard when we weren't reaching a ton of families with young children. What did catch us off guard were the number of singles and college students who visited but told us that same thing - the time was an issue.

While the time was an issue, for the first 10-12 months, it didn't seem to hurt us tremendously. But slowly late last fall, we began to see a slow decline in attendance and participation. In the past few weeks, we began discussions about possibilities for Reveal. Steve, Will and I all had a tremendous desire to see Reveal succeed. We looked at changing times, changing places, changing days. We talked about taking a break for the summer and re-launching in the fall. Throughout the process, we prayed a lot about the future of Reveal and the people who had become a part of it. At the same time, as we looked at the time and energy that was going into planning and producing Reveal, we wanted to make sure that we were being good stewards both.

Our attendance in late February and early March had gotten to about 50 people each Sunday. While new people were coming each week, fewer were coming back long term. Finally, it was decided that we would end Reveal as it is currently constituted on May 2. The plan is to look for ways to incorporate more elements of Reveal in the 10:30am worship gathering as well as to explore bringing a Reveal-type service back in the Fall on a monthly basis.

As I talked to people yesterday about Reveal, most were saddened by the developments but happy to have been a part of the Reveal experiment. Almost all had a positive experience because of Reveal and the connections that were made through Reveal.

There is sadness as we grieve. That's ok. But let's not linger too long thinking about what might have been or what should have happened. Reveal is not the central point. Reaching people for Christ is. For some time, Reveal was a part of our journey. But the ultimate journey is the journey we take with Christ and there's no telling where that journey will take us.

Thanks for the prayers and the support over the past 20 months. I remember even before we knew that Reveal was coming, we just had http://1145atfbc.blogspot.com/. Things changed quickly and will continue to do so.

Remember, we will still be in the Apex at 11:55am until May 2. We would love to see you drop in at least a few more times.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 03.07.10

2010-03-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 03.07.10

[Opening Song]
D - So Good To Me - Evans/Jones

[Worship Set]
D - Our God Saves - Baloche/Brown
D - A Love Song - Stellar Kart
D - You Are My King (Amazing Love) - Billy Foote

We had a good day yesterday. about 60 people in REVEAL. We also had lunch after the service. It was a good time to sit and talk with some people. Great times!

Check out what other worship leaders are doing over at Sunday Setlists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Set List 02.28.10

2010-03-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 02.28.10 - Commitment Sunday:

[Worship Set]
Bb - How Great Is Our God - Tomlin/Reeves/Cash
Bb/C - You You Are God - Walker Beach
D - All Creatures Of Our God And King - Crowder/Draper/Milligan/Assisi
G# - Let My Words Be Few - Redman/Redman

[Closing Song]
A - Offering - Third Day

This week was "Commitment Sunday" where we go over what it means to join FBC. Jamie preached in REVEAL today and did a great job with a passage from Acts 8:26-40 on the Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. We opened with the Miller Lite commercial where the guy can't say "Love" to his girlfriend, but he can say that he'd "love" another beer. (NOTE: We at FBC do not in any way endorse Miller Light or any other alcohol manufacturer.) Here are the main points of the message:

4 Facets of Commitment

Commitment to a relationship not a religion
Available to all not limited to a select few
Based on the work of Jesus not on our efforts
Leads to Action

3 Questions

Why are you doing what you're doing?
What limits have you placed on God?
When is the last time you said yes to God?

Remember that next week we are doing lunch after REVEAL so don't make other plans!

See what other worship leaders are doing here at Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Set List 02.21.10

2010-02-22T08:15:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 02.21.10 - Red Letters - Week 3:

[Opening Song]
D - We Have Overcome - Israel Houghton (Elevation Worship Version)

[Worship Set]
A - Not To Us - Tomlin/Reeves
A - Beautiful The Blood - Fee/Giglio
A - The Stand (w/ Glory To God) - Houston/Fee

[Closing Song]
G - By His Wounds - Mac Powell

This week Steve preached on Mark 15:34:

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

which is a quote from Psalm 22:1:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?

The thing that stood out the most to me about this sermon was the fact that when you feel far from God, Jesus understands because he felt far from God during his time on the cross.

Steve closed with a note from Kelley Mitchell. For those of you who don't know, David Mitchell is our Youth Pastor here at First Baptist Church. His youngest daughter, Belle, had a brain tumor removed back in October and Kelley and Belle have been at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for the past 4 months. You can check up on Belle's progress on CaringBridge.

On Saturday, we also had a Acts 11:29 Project. We helped out at the United Way's Project Connect event. This is a event to give immediate help to the homeless people here in York County. The turn out was not quite as big as the organizers had hoped, but a lot of good was still done. There were opportunities for the homeless to receive medical screenings, clothes, socks, haircuts, food, jobs, housing, chiropractic help, dental screenings and much much more. It was great seeing people come in and have their lives changed by something as small as a haircut.

Next week is Commitment Sunday. This will be a great opportunity for people to find out more about First Baptist Church and for people to join the church. Looking forward to it.

Check out what other worship leaders are doing at Sunday Setlists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Set List 02.14.10

2010-02-16T08:05:00.001-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 02.14.10 - Week 2 of "Red Letters":

[Opening Song]
Bb - O Praise Him - David Crowder

[Worship Set]
E - King of Glory - Third Day
E - Enough - Chris Tomlin
E - Better Is One Day - Matt Redman

[Closing Song]
A - It Is Well - Todd Fields

This week we looked at the saying of Jesus in Luke 14:26 where he says:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.

We had a great crowd this week at REVEAL. There is a lot of energy in the services and it is just a blast leading worship.

This weekend we have our Acts 11:29 Project on Saturday morning. We are partnering with Project Connect this month as they do a "fair" for the homeless of York County. Last year the event went great and I am sure that this years will be even better.

You can check out what some other worship leaders are doing here at Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Sunday Recap

2010-02-15T07:03:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a very good day at Reveal. Attendance was up and we had a few first time guests hanging out with us. We are in week 2 of our Red Letters series and Steve preached from Luke 14:25-27.

Here are some of the highlights:

We like to look at Jesus's command to 'hate our mother, father' as just him saying we are supposed to love Him more than you love others including your family. But that doesn't go far enough.
The Greek word translated 'hate' in Luke 14:26 literally means 'hate.'
Our connection to Christ has to be stronger than our any other connection that we have.
Family connections are never to get in the way of following Christ.
How much did Jesus give for you? Everything. What does Jesus then expect from us? Everything. It's a high calling.
Jesus calls us to come to where He is. To do that we may have to leave others including those we love behind.
Then He calls us to follow him. Once we've gotten to where He is, then we are to follow Him wherever He leads us.
Steve loves Kentucky basketball.
Steve's favorite place he's lived is Louisville, KY.
Things (sports teams, places, people) become important in our lives.
We can't let our attachment to those things become so important that we're not willing to give them up to follow Christ.
One day, Steve is gonna die and all those things (including his UK memorabilia) are gonna get left behind.
When we follow Christ, the things we 'give up' are replaced by things that are much more satisfying and fulfilling.

I had someone ask me yesterday if we had already done a Red Letters series. And, yes, yes we have. We did a Red Letters series last February and the plan is to make Red Letters an annual sermon series where we look at some of the teachings of Jesus that are radical and that call us to a new way of life and living.

If you didn't make it yesterday, hope to see you next week.

-- Peace, Jamie

Super Bowl XLIV

2010-02-10T16:05:00.000-08:00

The National Football League is somewhat of an obsession of mine. As soon as the clock ticked to 0:00 on Sunday night, I was beginning to think about free agents, drafts, and OTAs. NASCAR will get me through to the Fall but the NFL is the sport that I'm most passionate about.

I was pulling for the Colts on Sunday (and actually thought they would win). Anybody who knows me understands that I am terrible at picking winners. I thought the Jets would beat the Colts and the Vikings would beat the Saints in the Conference finals. So I'm not surprised that the Colts lost.

But football is not what I'm here to talk about. I drove around to a few different places on Sunday night and so I missed a lot of the commercials. Sometimes this can be a good thing but other times I truly enjoy some of the commercials. Anyway one of the things on my to do list on the week after the Super Bowl is catch all the TV spots. I think I saw them all!

Here are my top 3:

THIS (and reruns of the Vikings-Saints game on my DVR) will be my football fix until the fall.

*************************************

Sometimes using your imagination is better than any image that can be put on the screen. Google gets the award for doing the most with the least.

*************************************

http://www.snickers.com/ads/superbowl.html

Then the Betty White/ Abe Vigoda Snickers commercial which apparently Snickers doesn't want shown anywhere but on their website. Not sure when I'll be involved in a football game like this but if Snickers can make feel that much better, I buying.

*************************************

Of course there were some bad ones: the Monster.com Casual Friday ad, the Dockers I Wear No Pants ad and all of the Denny's chicken ads. Whoa, those just creeped me out.

I'd love to hear what some of your favorites were.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 02.07.10

2010-02-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 02.07.10 - "Red Letters" - #1:

[Opening Song]
G - All We Need - Charlie Hall

[Worship Set]
D - Everyday - Joel Houston
D - My Savior, My God - Shust/Greenwell
C - Restore To Me - Powell/Nasser

[Closing Song]
A - Mighty To Save - Fielding/Morgan

This week we kicked off our new series "Red Letters". For those of you who have been coming to REVEAL for a while, you may remember that we did this series last February as well. We are planning on doing this series each winter to take a look at some of the radical things that Jesus said.

Steve preached a great sermon about protecting yourself from temptation using Matthew 5:29-30. He also used the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:2-5) to further explain the Matthew passage.

We also had lunch this week after REVEAL. It was a great time to meet some new people that are coming to REVEAL as well as connect with some people that we had not spent time with in a while. If you are looking for a way to get connected with REVEAL, this would be a great first step to meeting some people.

You can check out what some other churches are doing for worship each week at Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Reveal on Sunday (Plus Lunch)

2010-02-04T11:28:00.001-08:00

Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will be back to a normal schedule this week. Reveal should be back at its normal time and place (11:55am in the Apex).

We are kicking off week 1 of the Red Letters series. For those of you who are Reveal vets, yes, we did a Red Letters series last year. We are planning on making it a regular series during which time we look at some of the truly radical teachings of Jesus.

Also, since this is the first Sunday of the month, we will be serving lunch in the cafe immediately following Reveal. Invite a friend to join you for the worship gathering and lunch.

Hope to see you Sunday.

-- Peace, Jamie

The Sacred Echo

2010-02-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

I recently read Margaret Feinberg's The Sacred Echo: Hearing God's Voice in Every Area of Your Life. In it, she asks some great questions about prayer like: "Why pray a prayer a hundred times when God knew my heart's desire before the words left my lips the first time? Why cry out for justice repeatedly when God knows the depth of need more than I ever will? Why echo a prayer when God has already heard it countless times before?" (20). I love those questions. How many times have I tossed out those same and similar questions to God? I love that our God is big enough to listen to our questions, to hear our questions, and to respond simply with His presence in our lives.

Sometimes my problem is that I want concrete answers to everything. I want to know and I want to know now. The reality is that answers to our questions are much less important than God. When our prayers open us to the presence of God in our lives and we begin to hear His voice (the sacred echo) in the everyday events and encounters, we begin to experience Him more intimately.

In the opening chapter, Margaret says that "prayer is the place where I'm invited to present the parts of myself that no one else sees to a God who already knows and loves me anyway" (26). What an awesome and yet somewhat terrifying picture of prayer. Hopefully, my prayer life can be much more than a recitation of a list of people who are sick (both physically and spiritually). Hopefully, it can be about hearing the persistent echo of God's voice and presence in my life.

-- Peace, Jamie

Sunday, January 31

2010-01-30T12:56:00.001-08:00

Reveal is canceled for Sunday, January 31.

There will be one worship gathering at FBC at 3:00pm. There will be no small groups, no Sunday school, and no evening activities at the church.

If you are unable to make it and want to give your offering online, go here.

See you next Sunday as we kick off the Red Letters series.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 01.24.10

2010-01-28T07:06:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 01.24.10: Every Believer A Witness (Week 4):

[Opening Song]
E - Undignified - Matt Redman (David Crowder Version)

[Worship Set]
D - Our God Saves - Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown
D - Rescue - Jared Anderson
D-E - Praise The Name Of Jesus - Roy Hicks (Shane Barnard Version)

[Closing Song]
D - The Heart Of Worship - Matt Redman

We finished up our series with Session 5 of "Every Believer A Witness". Larry preached a great message on "How Can We See Results?".

This upcoming week is Commitment Sunday and Steve Hogg will be back preaching. Commitment Sunday is a focus that we do each year to try and get people that have been attending to go ahead and take the step to become members of First Baptist. It is a great time and I'm looking forward to seeing all of the people that are going to be joining us in the journey of faith over the next few weeks.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Set List 01.17.10

2010-01-28T06:59:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 01.17.10: Every Believer A Witness (Week 3):

[Worship Set]
A - The Stand (w/ Glory To God) - Joel Houston (Steve Fee)
A - How Great Is Our God - Cash, Reeves, Tomlin
A - Breathe - Marie Barnett
A - Beautiful The Blood - Fee, Giglio
A - The Stand (w/ Glory To God) - Joel Houston (Steve Fee)

[Closing Song]
E - Doxology - Crowder, Ken

This week we changed it up a bit and I did an acoustic set. I bookended the main set with an arrangement of the chorus from "The Stand" and the chorus from "Glory To God". I kept the whole set in A so it would flow better. It was a great time of reflecting on God and just soaking in the spirit of worship that was in the room.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Set List 01.10.10

2010-01-13T12:55:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 01.10.10 - "Every Believer A Witness" (Week 2):

[Opening Song]
B - Glory To God Forever - Steve Fee & Vicky Beeching

[Worship Set]
Bb - Everlasting God - Brenton Brown & Ken Riley
Bb - Blessed Be Your Name - Matt Redman & Beth Redman
Bb - Walk By Faith - Jeremy Camp

[Closing Song]
B - Calling Out To You - Tommy Walker

Well it is good to be back in Reveal. Because of the way Christmas and New Years fell on the calendar, we decided to have one church wide service on 12-27 and 1-3. It was nice to have a break but it is also very good to be back in Reveal. Our pastor, Steve Hogg, was sick today so Larry Sizemore, our Pastor to Median Adults, filled in for Steve.

This weekend we will be continuing our series called "Every Believer A Witness" - Look forward to seeing you there.

Dream Big...Prayer Bigger!

Will

Set List 12.20.09

2009-12-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 12.20.09 - "Christmas 101" - Week 3:

[Opening Song]
G - Jingle Bells
D - Deck The Halls

[Worship Set]
C - Joy To The World
E - Go Tell It On The Mountain
Em - We Three Kings Of Orient Are
G - Away In A Manger
G - We Wish You A Merry Christmas

This morning Steve preached the third message in our series "Christmas 101: Lessons from the first Christmas". The message today was on The Wise Men and the Scribes.

I hope everyone has a save and happy Christmas season. Remember that for the next two weeks we will not be having Reveal. On the 27th we have one service at 10AM in the Worship Center. On Jan 3rd we will be having breakfast at 9:15 in the Worship center followed by a service at 10AM. Looking forward to seeing everybody in the new year.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Set List 12.13.09

2009-12-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 12.13.09 - "Christmas 101" - Week 2:

[Worship Set]
Bb - O Praise Him - David Crowder
D - Beautiful One - Tim Hughes
D - Born In Bethlehem - Third Day
C - O Holy Night - Third Day

[Closing Song]
Bb - Silent Night - Gruber/Mohr/Young

This week Steve spoke on the shepherds and their part in the Christmas story. It was a great talk and opened up some new thoughts on the shepherds.

We also played one of my favorite new Christmas songs - "Born In Bethlehem" by Third Day. This song is currently in second place in my favorites list behind "A Strange Way To Save The World" by 4Him.

We closed the service with a Will Beaty arrangement of "Silent Night". (For those of you musically inclined, all I really did was take a song in 3/4 and put into 4/4 by holding certain notes a little longer.) I thought it went over pretty good, once everybody got the grove down and realized it wasn't the traditional version.

Next week is the last REVEAL of 2009. Dec. 27th and Jan 3rd are going to be special "One Service" days at 10AM in the Worship Center (a.k.a. Big Church). Also on the 3rd at 9:15AM we are having our traditional church-wide breakfast before the service so come and eat and enjoy the fellowship before the service.

I hope everyone has a safe a enjoyable Christmas season.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Set List 12.06.09

2009-12-17T06:42:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 12.06.09 - "Christmas 101" - Week 1:

[Opening Song]
G - O Come All Ye Faithful - Third Day

[Worship Set]
E - Angels We Have Heard On High - Third Day
E - May The Few - Shane Barnard
E - Cannot Say Enough - MercyMe

[Closing Song]
E - I Still Believe - Jeremy Camp

This was a great week as we kicked off the Christmas season with our new series "Christmas 101: Lessons from the first Christmas". Steve did a great job explaining the angels and their part in the story.

We also had lunch after service. One of our small groups through Reveal graciously provided the side dishes and the church provided the chicken for what was a great time of food and fellowship.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Sunday @ Reveal

2009-12-07T06:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we kicked off the Christmas 101 series with a message from Steve. We also had lunch following Reveal so I missed most of the worship gathering getting ready for that. We did show one video during the gathering that a couple of people asked about. It was called "Retooning the Nativity" and here it is.

We had a great time at lunch. I left around 2:15 so that I would have time to get ready to participate in the Live Nativity at Christmasville and there were still a lot of people hanging around in the cafe. Thanks to Allison Platt, Dale and Stacy Cooper and Trevor Ashe for helping get everything set up and for serving. Thanks also to the people that brought side dishes for lunch. It's great to have people who are willing to be servants!

-- Peace, Jamie

Christmas 101

2009-12-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, we kick off our Christmas 101: Lessons from the First Christmas series. Steve will be taking a fresh look at the story of the wise men, the shepherds and the angels and what we can learn from their experiences from the first Christmas. Hope to see you Sunday.

-- Peace, Jamie

Sunday Recap

2009-12-01T06:27:00.000-08:00

We had a special guest for Sunday. Enrique Ramirez, the pastor of La Red, spoke at Reveal. Enrique is a Hispanic church planter who was born in Mexico. He and his family moved to Rock Hill in January to plant a network of Hispanic churches in the area. Their first church began meeting at First Baptist in October on a monthly basis and will begin meeting weekly in January. His text for Sunday's message was Joshua 1:6-9.

Here are some of the highlights:

Joshua did not have an easy job. He was following a charismatic leader and he would be leading a stubborn people.
What made Joshua successful?
First, he stood on the promises of God. God's promise to the Hebrew nation did not change just because Moses had died.
When we don't stand on the promises of God, we are not satisfied with anything and we will blame others for conflicts and tough times.
Joshua was able to stand on the promises of God because he took God's word seriously.
Second, Joshua stood with the presence of God.
Third, he remained faithful to God's word. He did not turn to the right or the left.
Finally, he was successful because he started the process. He did not get discouraged. Instead he took action because he believed that God was with him.
Enrique closed by reminding us that the greatest promise we have is God's presence in our lives.
How does that promise change how we live our lives?

Enrique did a great job. Spanish is his first language so preaching in English was a somewhat new experience for him. We are already making plans to have him back at Reveal and possibly do a joint Reveal/ La Red worship gathering.

We had a good crowd Sunday even though a lot of our regular attenders were out of town. This Sunday we kick off our "Christmas 101: Lessons from the First Christmas" series. Steve will be back. Following Reveal this Sunday, we will have lunch in the Apex. Hope you'll join us.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 11.29.09

2009-11-30T08:47:00.001-08:00

Here is the music that we used for the week 11.29.09

[Opening Song]
B - Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin

[Worship Set]
B - You Never Let Go - Matt Redman
B - Glory To God Forever - Steve Fee
C - It Is Well With My Soul - Bliss/Spafford

[Closing Song]
G# - Let My Words Be Few - Matt Redman

We had a great treat today. Enrique Ramirez, our Hispanic church planter, spoke today on Joshua 1:6-13. Even preaching in English, Enrique gave a great message on being "strong and courageous".

Hope everyone had a great T-Day and is recovering from the carbohydrate hangover that we all inevitably have after eating for three straight days.

Next week, we are starting our new series "Christmas 101: Lessons From The First Christmas" and we will be having lunch together in The Rock after the service. Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Bohemian Rhapsody

2009-11-27T04:13:00.000-08:00

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. For your entertainment, here's a video that I found last week. Enjoy!

-- Peace, Jamie

Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T13:13:00.001-08:00

It's late Wednesday afternoon and the office is almost deserted. So I thought I would take a minute to share some things for which I'm thankful.

I'm thankful that against all of my desires I ended up at Baptist College of Charleston in January of 1988. Seven months later I would meet the girl who in a moment of blindness agreed to go on a date with me. Thank you, Baptist College. Thank you, Marjorie.

I'm thankful for the two daughters that God has blessed me with. They are best friends with each other and the joy of their mom and dad's life. Thank you, Elizabeth and Victoria.

I'm thankful for my bed. I've tried to remember to say that to myself every night this week. Thank you, Rooms to Go.

I'm thankful for parents who gave me a Christian heritage that has enhanced my walk with Christ and who continue to give me a model of Christianity to this day. Thanks, mom and dad.

I'm thankful for a church that is willing to take risks and think outside the box so that ministries like Reveal can exist. Thank you, FBC Rock Hill.

I'm thankful for Honey Nut Cheerios. They taste great and lower my cholesterol. It was the best use of a coupon by me this year. Thank you, General Mills.

I'm thankful for DVR. Nothing else needs to be said. Thank you, Comporium.

Above all else, I am thankful that my Savior Jesus Christ did not give up on me. But gave His life as a sacrifice for my sin to give me hope and joy and peace and the opportunity to be a part of His plan.

Tomorrow millions of people will gather around tables filled with turkey and dressing and gravy and sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes . . . Well, you get the picture. In the midst of the food, the football, and the fellowship, be mindful of the things and the people and situations in your life that are there only by the grace of a loving Father.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-- Peace, Jamie

Links

2009-11-24T12:33:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I let links that I want to share with you pile up and I forget to pass them on. Since it's a short week and a lot of people are off tomorrow, here are a few links for you to read during your down time over the next few days.

Tony Morgan talks about clutter.
Perry Noble asks you the question that changed his life.
Rustin Klafka (yeah, gotta love his name) encourages you to do more than just point people to Jesus. (Seriously, this is a pretty awesome read.)
Looking for a new office? Here you go.
This guy had the pleasure of speaking to Clemson's FCA last Thursday. But something was amiss.
Finally, Mark Batterson, author of In A Pit, With A Lion, On A Snowy Day, wants us to read Scripture in a new way.

I hope the links will keep you occupied until Sunday. Don't forget that Enrique Ramirez is preaching this week at Reveal. You don't want to miss it.

-- Peace, Jamie

Sunday Recap

2009-11-23T07:42:00.000-08:00

It looks like it's been a while since I've posted anything on here and even longer since I've posted anything other than recaps. There will be a couple of posts forthcoming this week. Until then, here's a quick recap of yesterday at Reveal.

Steve gave me the opportunity to speak at Reveal this week and since it is the week of Thanksgiving, I used the time to focus on living a life of thanksgiving. Here are the highlights:

Colossians 2:6-7 says that our lives should overflow with thanksgiving.
What happens when our lives overflow with thanksgiving?
Proverbs 11:24-25 gives us a good picture of the life that overflows with thanksgiving.
Living a life of thanksgiving requires accurate vision.
We have to see things differently than the world sees things.
Commonsense says that the way to wealth is to save, spend wisely and invest.
The Bible says the way to wealth is to give freely.
Of course, the God's definition of wealth is completely different than the world's.
Wealth does not equal money.
We have to see how blessed we are. I used this clip from The Blind Side and asked the question, "Do you see your bed as a blessing?"

Living a life of thanksgiving will lead to giving.
The little translation of the first part of verse 25 is "The soul of blessing gets fat."
When we become a blessing to others, our lives do not just illustrate the grace of God to others it also enriches and satisfies us.
Living a life of thanksgiving is rewarded.
I closed with another clip from The Blind Side that illustrates how our lives are changed when we give our time, our gifts, our possessions, our lives for others.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 11.22.09

2009-11-23T04:55:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 11.22.09:

[Opening Song]
B - Glory To God Forever - Steve Fee

[Worship Set]
Bb - You You Are God - Walker Beach
E - Open The Eyes Of My Heart - Paul Baloche
D - Rescue - Jared Anderson

[Message]
Jamie Burdette

[Closing Song]
D - You Are My King (Amazing Love) - Billy Foote

We started off this week with a new song by Steve Fee. We used the short chorus that he used at Catalyst 09 to kick it off.

"There is no one higher, no one greater, no one like our God
There is none more able, Christ our Savior, Great and Glorious."

I thought that it went well. The congregation seemed to pick up on it quickly.

I put in two songs this week that are "memory" or "go-back" songs. Just like places can have memories associated with them that make the location seem more holy or special, songs have the power to carry that same emotional connection. "Open the Eyes of My Heart" and "You Are My King" are two songs that have been around for 10+ years and people have had time to connect to them.

I thought that overall worship went very well today.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Set List 11.15.09

2009-11-19T08:58:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 11.15.09 - IMPACT:

[Opening Set]
C - What This World Needs - Casting Crowns
C - God of This City - Bluetree

[Closing Set]
E - 'Til I See You - Joel Houston
E - Beautiful Scandalous Night - Daugherty/Hindalong
B - Calling Out To You - Tommy Walker

This week was our IMPACT conference (i.e. Missions). What a great weekend (well really Wed through Sun) of talking to missionaries from all over the world. It is so encouraging to hear stories of how God is working in every corner of the world.

Lori and I also had the pleasure of hosting a missionary this year - Tom Holloway. Tom serves in Slovakia.

Although this was a crazy busy week with something almost every night, we had such a great time.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Set List 11.08.09

2009-11-09T11:25:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 11.08.09 - "Marriage For Dummies" - Week 9:

[Worship Set]
G - Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) - Brown/Doerksen
G - All We Need - Charlie Hall
Bb - Everlasting God - Brown/Riley
Bb - How Great Is Our God - Tomlin/Reeves/Cash

[Closing Song]
E - Open The Eyes Of My Heart - Paul Baloche

I was not at church this morning because I was on a retreat at Pawley's Island with some of the couples in our Sunday School Class. Instead, Dave Kerns led in Reveal. I was told that he did a fantastic job.

This week is going to be a crazy one with our yearly IMPACT Conference starting on Wednesday. IMPACT is our churches yearly missions conference. We have several missionaries coming for the week and we have events all week long for them. This is a great time for our members to get to learn from and talk to these missionaries.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Sunday Recap

2009-11-09T06:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we wrapped up our Marriage for Dummies series. It was a very good series that gave us some awesome insight into what God's plan is for our marriages. Steve was back at Reveal. His sermon focused on taking care of our spiritual lives and keeping our hearts focused on our spouses.

Here are some of the highlights of the sermon:

Divorce is always a result of us allowing our heart to be something that God did not intend.
Unless we are intentional, our marriages will become dull, lifeless, and boring.
Marriage is ALWAYS a work in progress. He shared the story of a lady whose husband had an affair after 40 years of marriage to make his point.
Feelings matter but should not be an excuse to avoid the responsibility of intentionally nurturing our relationships.
Actions drag feelings along and not the other way around.
How do you sustain love? By acting in loving ways.
Wives - develop an inner beauty that exceeds your outer beauty.
Husbands - pay attention to your attitude.

He ended that sermon and the series by asking some pretty good questions:

Do I cherish my spouse?
Am I honoring my spouse?
Am I acting in a loving way to my spouse?

It was an excellent sermon series. If you missed a sermon, you can go to www.marriagefordummies.net to catch up.

Also today, Dave Kerns filled in for Will who was away on a retreat with some of the couples in our church. Dave did a great job as always leading us to worship our God through music. It is great to have people like Dave who can fill in so capably.

Next week, we will focus on missions as a part of our Impact Conference. Hope you will join us.

-- Peace, Jamie

Beauty Will Rise

2009-11-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

Steven Curtis Chapman has been around for a long time. There's a reason why - he makes great music. His newest CD came out yesterday. It is filled with the introspection that you would expect from a father whose adopted daughter died tragically just a few months earlier.

In the music, SCC grapples with questions that anyone who has experienced such devastating tragedy would ask. Amidst the lean, acoustic and mellow set are lyrics that express grief and anguish but ultimately profess faith in God and hope in Him.

Enjoy!
Jamie

Beauty Will Rise - Steven Curt...

Sunday Recap

2009-11-03T06:40:00.000-08:00

It was not a normal week at Reveal. With Steve fighting off bronchitis, I had the opportunity to speak yesterday and focused on the power of our words. Using James 1:19 as a backdrop, I compared the words that we speak to a tube of toothpaste. Yep, that's right, a tube of toothpaste.

Here are the highlights:

I used this clip from Everybody Loves Raymond to point out that we all say things we wish we could take back.

While the word immoral brings with it images of sexual sins, addiction and the like, it also applies to the abuse of others with the words that we speak
Like toothpaste, we should be careful that we don'.t let too much come out at once. We have to guard the words that we speak.
Before you speak, ask two questions. One, Would I want someone to say that TO me? Two, Would I want someone to say that ABOUT me?
Remember that what you say can never be put back in. Gossip that is spoken can't be taken back. Neither can the lies that we tell or the insults that we dole out or the angry words that we speak.
Because there will never be an invention that will permanently keep us from mis-speaking (Duck tape was mentioned as a possible solution but I think that would only be temporary), we will always have messes to clean up.

After Reveal, we had pizza from Domino's in the cafe area and had a pretty good turnout. It was great getting to interact with some new people as well as re-connect with a few people that I haven't had a chance to sit down with in a while.

Hopefully, Steve will be back and ready to go next week. We will be wrapping up the Marriage for Dummies series next week.

-- Peace, Jamie

Couple Talk 11.01.09

2009-11-02T09:09:00.000-08:00

Score Your Romantic Love:
On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being very high and 1 being very low) each of you score the level of romantic love in your marriage (as you perceive it.)

1___2___3___4___5___6___7___8___9___10

Reflection:
How do you feel about your scores? Why?

What habits/routines do you have individually and as a couple that keeps the romantic love healthy in your marriage? Write them down.

What habits/routines do you have individually and as a couple that hinders romantic love in your marriage? Write them down and discuss them.

Your Most Important Emotional Need:
Willard Harley ("His Needs Her Needs" and "Fall In Love Stay In Love") identifies the ten emotional needs that are common to most couples. Five of them are more important to the typical man and five different ones are more important to the typical woman. While the list is not absolute and men/women may feel a need from the opposite list, the groupings hold true for most men/women. Here is the list:

His Needs:
Sexual Fulfillment
Recreational Companionship
Physical Attractiveness (in his wife)
Admiration
Domestic Support

Her Needs:
Affection
Conversation
Honesty & Support
Financial Support
Family Commitment

When these needs are regularly met by our spouse, romantic love remains strong. When they are ignored, romantic love dissipates.

Discussion Questions:

What are your top three emotional needs?
Do you know what your spouse's top three needs are?
What are you doing to intentionally minister to the top three emotional needs of your spouse?
Are you ministering to you spouse's needs in a way that makes them feel happy or in ways that make you feel happy? Let your spouse share with you how you can make them happy.

Growing Romantic Love:
What specific actions can each of you take to allow romantic love to flourish in your marriage? What specific actions can you take as a couple? Will you?

Set List 11.01.09

2009-11-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

Here is the music that we used for 11.01.09 - "Marriage For Dummies" - Week 8:

[Opening Song]
B - Hold My Hand - Hootie & The Blowfish

[Worship Set]
D - Everyday - Joel Houston (Lincoln Brewster Version)
D - I Am Free - Jon Egan (Promise Keepers Version)
A - Mighty To Save - Reuben Morgan
A - Nothing Compares - Third Day

We had another good crowd this week at Reveal. It is so encouraging to see new people coming to church. Tommy did the lead vocals on "Hold My Hand" and did a great job.

Steve Hogg, who is still recovering from bronchitis, preached the 9:15 and 10:30 but Jamie preached in Reveal this week.

We also had lunch (pizza) and it was good to see people mingling and talking after Reveal.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Couple Talk 10.25.09

2009-10-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Read:
Proverbs 31:30

Brag on Her:
The above verse tells us that a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Husbands, share with your wife something you appreciate about her spiritual life.

Husbands, share with your wife some of the other things you appreciate about her. The subject is wide open. Just spend a few minutes bragging on her.

Husbands, share with your wife what you would miss if she was no longer with you.

Both of You:
Take a moment to see your wife or husband the way you imagine God sees her or him. What does God see in them that you don't give them enough credit for? Share your thoughts with each other.

Discuss when you tend to give each other your undivided attention. If this doesn't happen often enough, discuss ways to schedule more time for each other.

Tell Her:
Husbands, share with your wife the area or areas where you would like her to give you more support or help. This may not be easy for some guys, but give it a shot. Trust that your wife loves you and wants to support you. Remember, she can't read your mind anymore that you can read her mind.

Pray:
Discuss what you think God may want you to pray about as a couple. Then go ahead and pray about it.

Set List 10.25.09

2009-10-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 10.25.09: "Marriage For Dummies" - Week 7

[Worship Set]
E - Famous One - Tomlin, Reeves
E - Doxology - Crowder, Ken
E - Jesus Lover Of My Soul - Ezzy, Grul, McPherson
E - The Wonderful Cross - Tomlin, Reeves, Mason, Walt, Watts

[Closing Song]
E - Beautiful Scandalous Night - Daugherty, Hindalong

Steve Hogg was sick this week so we didn't do the scheduled "Marriage For Dummies" talk. Instead, Pastor Larry Sizemore, our Pastor to Adults, preached instead. He spoke on Luke 14:16-24 - The story of the man who threw a party but everyone who was invited turned down his invitation.

We changed up the way that we did worship this week. Normally, we have the full band and it is rocking, loud and upbeat. But this week we all sat on bar stools across the stage and did a acoustic style set. It was great to change it up and worship in a different way.

We had a lot of new faces in Reveal today and I hate that I didn't get to meet them all. Overall, it was a great day and I am looking forward to all that God is doing here in Reveal.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Catalyst - Malcolm Gladwell

2009-10-21T04:18:00.000-07:00

Since Will gave a brief recap of Andy Stanley's first session at Catalyst, I thought I would continue by giving you a recap of the second session featuring Malcolm Gladwell. While much of the focus of Catalyst is aimed at churches, Catalyst is designed as a conference aimed at leaders of any type of industry and they usually try to bring in speakers that reflect that. Malcolm - a journalist, author, and pop sociologist - is considered by many inside and outside of the church to be at the forefront of thinking about culture and its influences on society.

Malcolm tackled the issue of mistakes that leaders make. Using the story of the Battle of Chancellorsville and General Joe Hooker, he illustrated one of the biggest mistakes that leaders make. Even though Hooker and the Union army far outnumbered Lee and the Confederate army, the Confederate army ended up defeating the Union army in large part due to mistakes that Hooker made.

The night before the battle began, Hooker made the infamous statement that "God Almighty could not keep us from victory." It was Hooker's hubris that led him to make tactical mistakes that led to his army's defeat and ultimately his removal as leader of the Union forces.

Gladwell pointed out that most leaders fail not because of incompetence or a lack of knowledge. People who are incompetent or ignorant rarely ascend to leadership positions. Most leaders fail because of an over-confidence in their knowledge or control of a situation.

Ironically, during times of crisis, many people want leaders who are bold, daring and decisive. However, the greatest need during a time of crisis are leaders who are humble and willing to listen to others.

-- Peace, Jamie

Sunday Recap

2009-10-20T03:34:00.000-07:00

This was week 6 of our Marriage For Dummies series and Steve dealt with two needs of husbands and wives. The first part of the sermon dealt with a wife's need for spiritual leadership from her husband. The second part of the sermon dealt with man's need for sex. Here are some of the highlights:

Men WILL set the spiritual tone for the family.
74% of children attend church when both parents are active. Only 39% will attend if only the mom is active. 66% will attend if only the dad is active.
"Sex for men is like talking is for women with respect to feeling loved, cared about and special." Dr. Laura Schlessinger
"Wives might be able to better understand this if they think about how they would feel if their husbands didn't want to talk or listen to them." Emerson Eggerichs
If sex is a problem in your marriage, what can you do? Talk about (seek counseling if needed) and be willing to learn (read)
The biggest obstacle to a great sex life can be time, especially after children come along.
"The sexual relationship progresses or regresses in direct proportion to how much attention you give it." David and Claudia Arp

Steve has recommended a lot of books during this series and quoted from them a good bit today. Here are some of the books that he recommends.

No Time For Sex by David and Claudia Arp
Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs
His Needs Her Needs by Willard Harley
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

As Will pointed out, Sunday was a crazy day at Reveal. There are four people trained to work in the media booth and none of them were able to be here. That left me to try to figure out lights, sound, and presentation. Additionally, we dismissed middle school-age and under just before the sermon because Steve wanted the freedom to say things about sex that needed to be said. So we also had to make sure we had extra adults to assist with that. All in all, it was a very good week at Reveal.

Next week, Steve will talk about two more needs of husbands and wives. We're getting to the end of the series. If you have missed any messages to this point, go to www.marriagefordummies.net to catch up.

-- Peace, Jamie

Couple Talk 10.18.09

2009-10-19T05:58:00.000-07:00

Spiritual Satisfaction
Do you feel God is satisfied with where you are in your spiritual life right now? Share with your spouse your thoughts about yourself and some changes that could help you to grow spiritually.

Spiritual Leadership
Several issues cause some men to think that they can't be spiritual leaders for their family. Just know that it does not mean you have to be a great teacher. In fact, most of us are not teachers. Neither does it mean you have to be a better communicator than your wife. It does mean you will have a genuine, growing relationship with Jesus. It means you will serve Jesus and openly live for Him. It means you will study the Bible and talk openly about your faith. It means you set the tone for your family and lead by example. Share with your wife your thoughts about the following:

Things you currently do to show your commitment to Jesus
What you would like to do, but may be afraid to try of feel you don't know how to do them
Ways your wife can encourage or help you be a spiritual leader

Expectations
Each of you has expectations for your marriage. Using a scale of one to ten, with one meaning "you definitely do not understand my expectations," indicate how well you think your spouse really understands what you expect and need in the following areas. Make sure you understand each other and then agree on steps to better meet each other's expectations for each area.

Intimacy and closeness
Romance
Sexual fulfillment

Comparing Notes
Take a few moments of alone time for each of you to write your answers to the following questions. Then come together and discuss your answers.

What are the positive aspects of your love life?
What changes do you need to make as a couple so your love life can be fresh and growing?
What do you want your love life to look like in ten years? What will you do now to begin moving in that direction?

Help Needed
If you would like the Pastor to recommend a counselor or book to read, email him at steveh@fbcrockhill.org (Emails sent to this address go directly to the Pastor and will remain confidential.)

Set List 10.18.09

2009-10-19T05:24:00.001-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 10.18.09 - "Marriage For Dummies" - Week 6:

[Opening Song]
A - Keep Your Hands To Yourself - Georgia Satellites

[Worship Set]
D - We Have Overcome - Israel Houghton (Elevation Worship Version)
Bb - O Praise Him - David Crowder
B - Jesus Paid It All - Grape/Hall/Nifong (Kristian Stanfill Version)

[Closing Song]
B - Calling Out To You - Tommy Walker

This weeks sermon title was "What Husbands and Wives Need: Sex and Spiritual Leadership" so we thought that it would be kinda humorous to play "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" as the opener for a talk on sex. I mean it's not every Sunday that you get to play your favorite 80's tune in church. It went over great! Exactly what I had hoped for.

Overall, this was a good weekend of worship even though for me it was extremely stressful. Steve White, our choir director, was at a wedding this weekend so that meant that I had to lead worship in the 9:15 Traditional Service this week. It also meant that I had to wear a suit and tie - which for those of you that know me only happens for weddings, funerals, and 9:15 services! I also decided this time to not use my guitar at 9:15 like I did last time, which made me a little more uncomfortable. But it went off well.

In 10:30, things were very normal and I thought that worship went off well. The audience was engaged and the team did a great job.

In Reveal however things got off to a rough start. Normally I am done with the 10:30 service by about 11:00 and have time to prep things and get my mind switched from one set list and band to the other. But because I had to lead the invitation song this week in Steve's absence, I didn't get into the other service until 11:45. To compound this problem, La Red (our new Hispanic Service) kicked off Saturday night and the sound board was still set up for them. So I was kinda running ragged trying to get the sound board ready (especially since we didn't have a sound tech for Reveal this morning!) We finally got going, but my in-ear monitors were pegging out on the box and it made everything muddy so I just took them out and played with no monitor.

It continues to amaze me how God seems to really show up in times like this though. Even though I was very stressed and my mind was running crazy from 3 music sets with 3 different bands, God showed up in a powerful way during the singing portion of worship this weekend. Praise Be To God! Because I know that it wasn't me.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Catalyst Videos

2009-10-16T05:44:00.000-07:00

Will shared with you some of what Andy Stanley said at Catalyst which was absolutely incredible. I wanted to share two videos with you. The first is a quick, funny video that involved 12 inches of water in an inflatable swimming pool. We had a great view of 'the leap' and I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cheer so I did both.

Professor Splash Breaks World Record! from Catalyst on Vimeo.

The second video is longer (almost 20 minutes) but it made 13,000 people cry in unison. Will said he had seen something like this happen before. It was a first for me. Let's just say that this video took 19 years to make and is well worth the 20 minutes of your time.

Catalyst 2009 Compassion Moment from Catalyst on Vimeo.

-- Peace, Jamie

On Your Mark

2009-10-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Andy Stanley kicked off the Catalyst Conference with a great talk on Joshua.

His two key verses were Joshua 23:8 and Joshua 5:13-14.

He talked about how Joshua's life hinged on the event before the battle of Jericho when he meets the Angel of the Lord (5:13-14). Joshua is out surveying the city before the attack and meets the angel with his sword drawn. Joshua asks a question that most of us would ask: "Are you for us, or against us?"

The angel has a great answer: "No."

Here are some blurbs from Andy's talk about this:

"God is not coming to be a part of our story, He is asking us to be a part of His!"
"Wrap your identity around who you are for, not who is for you."
"Whose side are you on, not whose on your side."
Charles Stanley - "God takes full responsibility for a life wholly devoted to Him."
Charles Stanley - "My responsibility is to be obedient to God and to trust Him with the consequences."
"God has designed, created, gifted and positioned you!"
"You have no idea what God wants to accomplish through you."
"Our mark isn't worth our life"
"Living to make my mark is to small a thing to give my life for."

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Couple Talk 10.11.09

2009-10-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

Words have power for good or bad, and we are responsible for the words that come out of our mouth. When we're upset or having an argument with our spouse, we must be especially careful. Below are some questions for you and your spouse to answer/discuss to see if you are on track with God's plan for your speech.

Each of you are to choose the response you think best describes yourself and your spouse. Then discuss your choices.

1. Are you quarrlesome? Do you have a need to prove you are right or have the last word?
__Never __Seldom __Occasionally __Often __Habitually

2. Are you hot tempered and defensive? Do you get angry easily?
__Never __Seldom __Occasionally __Often __Habitually

3. Are you reluctant to admit when you're wrong?
__Never __Seldom __Occasionally __Often __Habitually

4. Do you make assumptions about your spouse and assign motives to what they do?
__Never __Seldom __Occasionally __Often __Habitually

5. Do you hold grudges against your spouse and bring up past hurts when discussing a new issue?
__Never __Seldom __Occasionally __Often __Habitually

6. Do you use sarcasm and negative humor to put your spouse down?
__Never __Seldom __Occasionally __Often __Habitually

7. Do you use harsh words that cut and wound your spouse?
__Never __Seldom __Occasionally __Often __Habitually

8. Do you fail to listen? Do you jump to conclusions before you fully hear what your spouse is saying?
__Never __Seldom __Occasionally __Often __Habitually

Set List 10.11.09

2009-10-14T07:14:00.001-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 10.11.09 - Week 5 of "Marriage For Dummies":

Eb - I Run To You - Lady Antebellum
E - Undignified - Matt Redman (David Crowder Version)
G - Born Again - Third Day
D - Hope Now - Addison Road
E - I Still Believe - Jeremy Camp

I was off the stage for the second week in a row. This time because our staff went to Catalyst in Atlanta. While there Jamie and I visited two churches, Perimeter Church on Saturday and 12Stones on Sunday.

I was told that Allison and Tommy did a great job leading the musical portion of worship Sunday! So many thanks to them for their hard work. I am looking forward to being back in Reveal this week after two weeks off.

As always part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Lines

2009-10-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

This has been a wild week. I spent the first two days doing five days worth of work so that I could spend the next three days at Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. Spending time listening to Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Chuck Swindoll, Francis Chan and more great speakers was tough but someone had to do it.

For those who hear my sermon in August about my extreme distaste (e.g. hatred) for anything resembling a line, I thought you would enjoy both my tweet and my picture of the 'line' to get into the conference on Thursday morning.

I don't like lines, but I especially don't like lines that have no semblance of order to them. The lines at Catalyst were the definition of unorganized lines. I called them blobs.

Anyway, Will and I haven't posted much this week because we've been busy being inspired and challenged. We will not be at Reveal tomorrow but will be capably replaced by others.

If you're reading this late on Saturday night or early Sunday morning, enjoy Reveal. We will be back next Sunday.

-- Peace, Jamie

Couple Talk 10.04.09

2009-10-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

Read: Ephesians 5:33

Discuss:
God tells husbands to love their wives and then tells wives to respect their husbands. Why do you think God gave different commands to husbands and wives?

Communication:
It is important that we talk to each other about our relationship. But doing this is not always easy. Men and women tend to communicate differently, and this often leads to miscommunication and hurt feelings. Sometimes we communicate our feelings in very negative language, causing our spouse to become defensive. The issue we mention may not even be the real issue. We even attack each other and assign motives. Try this exercise:

Ladies, think of something your husband did that made you feel unloved. Share it with him this way..."I know you love me - but when you did (name what he did) - it made me feel...I don't think you intended it that way, but this is how it made me feel."

Men, think of something your wife did that made you feel disrespected or like you could seldom do anything right in her eyes. Share it with her this way..."I know you love me - but when you did (name what she did) - it made me feel...I don't think you meant for me to feel rejected...but this is how it came across to me."

Discuss:
God created women to need love and affection. He also created men to need respect and admiration. Yet often we don't know how to express love or respect in the way our spouse needs it. We may think we are expressing love or respect, but our spouse doesn't see it of feel it. Talk about the following questions so you can better understand how to show love and respect to each other.

Husbands, how do you currently try to show your wife you love her?
Wives, how do you currently try to show your husband you respect him?

Husbands, what can you do to show your wife more love? Ask for her suggestions.
Wives, what can you do to show your husband more respect? Ask him for suggestions.

Celebrate:
Men - share with your wife some of the reasons you love her and what you think makes her a very special person.

Wives - share with your husband some of the reasons you respect him and what you really appreciate about the person he is and the things he does.

Weekend Recap

2009-10-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

It was an exciting weekend. I had the privilege of heading down to Camp Longridge for an overnight trip with the students from First Baptist. I think I tweeted this at some point on Saturday. I was indeed reminded what I loved most about student ministry and at the same time reminded what I don't really miss about it.

The Friday night - Saturday event was a good get-away. We got to focus on worship as well as spend some free time on Saturday hanging out by the lake at Longridge. With no cell service, it was easy to feel disconnected. I think that most of us would benefit from unplugging more than we do. As we approached civilization and cell service returned, my phone buzzed for a few minutes catching up on all the text messages. Don't worry, I'm not that popular, most were scoring updates from the Gamecocks and Tigers games.

Sunday at First Baptist was another exciting day. I spent most of the morning getting things ready for lunch at Reveal. But I did get the privilege of baptizing two people at our 10:30 worship gathering. Our attendance was down some on Sunday but we did have some new faces at Reveal. This allowed a lot of our regular attenders to spend some time after Reveal eating lunch with some of our guests. There was a good vibe going on in the cafe as we ate, talked, and hung out. Lunch is becoming an integral part of Reveal, even if it does mean missing the first 100 laps of a race.

Next week we will continue our Marriage for Dummies series at Reveal. Will and I will be out of town this week. We will be in Atlanta visiting a couple of churches in the area after wrapping up Catalyst on Friday night. I look forward to hearing some great things from Reveal!

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 10.04.09

2009-10-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 10.04.09 - Marriage For Dummies - Week 4:

[Worship Set]
Majestic - Lincoln Brewster
Awesome Is The Lord - Chris Tomlin
Holy Is The Lord - Chris Tomlin
You'll Come - Brooke Fraser

[Closing Song]
Beautiful The Blood - Steve Fee

We had guest band leader today - Matt Garner. He came down from Kentucky to lead for our Youth Retreat this weekend and stayed over to lead at church this morning. It was great to have a week to just sit with my wife and worship and not have to worry about things going smoothly and stuff.

We had lunch this week after Reveal and it was great to chat with some new people and catch up with some familiar faces.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Lunch

2009-10-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that we will be serving lunch in the Cafe immediately following Reveal this Sunday afternoon. We will have BBQ with sides. There is no charge for the meal but we will have a basket for donations to help defray the cost of the meal. Take the opportunity to invite someone to join you at Reveal this week.

-- Peace, Jamie

Sunday Drive

2009-09-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

I bet your Sunday wasn't as exciting as Joey Logano's. I am proudly a NASCAR geek and this happened during Sunday's Dover race. OUCH! The fact that no one was seriously injured in the wreck says a ton about the safety of those cars. My favorite Logano quote after the wreck was, "It was an exciting ride. You won't find any roller coaster that will do that." To that I say, "Thank goodness."

-- Peace, Jamie

Belle Mitchell

2009-09-29T05:45:00.000-07:00

If you were at REVEAL on Sunday, then you heard me talk about Belle Mitchell. She is the youngest daughter of our Youth Pastor, David Mitchell.

Last Thursday (9/24) she went to see a neurologist for some strange symptoms that she was having and they admitted her to Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte. The initial MRI results showed that she had a mass on the left side of her brain. The decided to operate on Monday morning (9/28).

The surgery went well yesterday, but unfortunately, the tumor was malignant and there are spots on her spine. It has not yet been determined if those spots are cancer. Belle will be having another MRI this morning (Tuesday). Her team of doctors will be meeting Wednesday to decide on treatment options.

Please pray that she responds well over the next 48 hours from the surgery.

Pray for her recovery from cancer and for her parents, David and Kelley, to experience God's peace. Also pray for her siblings (Taylor, Emily Beth & Jack).

You can follow the updates on Belle here.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger! (Especially in Belle's situation)

Will

Sunday Recap

2009-09-29T04:19:00.000-07:00

Every Sunday seems to be busy these days. But yesterday may have been one of the busiest. Left the house yesterday morning at 8:30 and didn't walk back in the front door til almost 10:00 last night. Here are some of the highlights of yesterday's Marriage for Dummies worship gathering at Reveal:

We kicked off the worship with a video from Worship House Media called "Now Is the Time." I thought it was a great intro to the gathering and got a lot of positive feedback from it.
The band had a great worship set planned that wrapped up with a version of "I'll Stand By You" which I first remember from The Pretenders but was later covered by Carrie Underwood.
We made a transition from music to message with a video that Hunter Platt did using the Plain White T's song "1,2,3,4." (See below). As always, he did a very good job, although he did get the length of my marriage wrong. For the record, Marjorie and I have been married 19 years, 9 months, 11 days, 21 hours and 10 minutes as I type this.
Steve sermon focused on why men and women need each other using Genesis 2:18-24 as his text.
"God was hands-on in Adam and Eve's relationship. He wants to be hands-on in our marriages and relationships."
"Most of the problems in marriage are caused because we make marriage about 'me' instead of about our spouse."
"If you care about your spouse, you don't use or deny your spouse out of selfishness or ignorance" - Willard Harley, His Needs Her Needs
"Marriage is a relationship of mutual ministry."
Steve also used Harley's book His Needs Her Needs to highlight the five most important needs of men and women in relationships.
Men's five greatest needs - sexual fulfillment, recreational companionship, attractive spouse, domestic support, admiration
Women's five greatest needs - affection, conversation, honesty, financial support, family commitment

We had another great Sunday at Reveal. Attendance has been very good this month which has led to some awesome times of worship. Next week, we will continue our Marriage for Dummies series. If you need to catch up, check out www.marriagefordummies.net.

-- Peace, Jamie

Couple Talk 09.27.09

2009-09-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

His Needs
Sexual Fulfillment
Recreational Companionship
Attractive Spouse
Domestic Support
Admiration

Her Needs
Affection
Conversation
Honesty
Financial Support
Family Commitment

Get Started: Each of you take a moment and pick the two needs in the above list that are most important to you and explain why to your spouse.

Affirmation: Share with your spouse what he/she does that meets any of the needs listed above.

Sunday's Sermon: Pastor Steve mentioned during the sermon that marriage is a relationship of mutual ministry, in which each spouse has an unqualified commitment to be an instrument of God to meet the other one's deepest personal needs. What does this mean for you and how do you feel about it? Do you agree?

Learning: Share with your spouse the one need from the above list that you wish he/she did more to meet. Discuss the ways he/she could meet that need.

Discussion: Identify which issue listed below is the greater hindrance to you meeting your spouse's need and discuss it.

I didn't know he/she really needed that
I'm not convinced that what he/she says they need is a legitimate need
I'm not sure how to meet his/her need
I'm afraid to try...because...
I'm waiting for my spouse to meet my need first
I'm afraid my spouse will not return the favor and meet my need
I'm the way I am and I'm not going to change
I don't care
Some other reason (what is it?)

Commitment: Based on this conversation, what will you do in order to better meet your spouse's need? Share your commitment with your spouse right now.

Celebrating: Share with each other what you enjoy most about being married to each other.

Set List 09.27.09

2009-09-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 09.27.09 - Marriage For Dummies (Week 3):

[Opening Song]
G - You're Worthy Of My Praise - David Ruis (Jeremy Camp Version)

[Worship Set]
G - Nothing But The Blood - Robert Lowry
G - All Who Are Thirsty - Brenton Brown (Kutless Version)
D - I'll Stand By You - The Pretenders (Carrie Underwood Version)

[Closing Song]
E - Hosanna, You're The King - David Bell

Once again we had a great crowd in worship. Loved it. Besides having no drums in the mix for the first song, I thought that worship went really well.

Steve's messages have been great during this series. If you have missed them, make sure that you check them out on www.marriagefordummies.net

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Marriage for Dummies

2009-09-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

We are two weeks into our Marriage for Dummies series and are hearing some great comments about the series. In case you have missed one of the sermons, you can go to http://www.marriagefordummies.net/ to listen to sermons.

Also, the website has an evite feature that you can use to invite your friends to the service. If you haven't checked out the web site, let me encourage you to check it out. It's a very simple site but a great way to introduce someone to the series, to Reveal and to First Baptist Church.

This week's sermon is Men & Women - We Need Each Other. Hope you'll join us and bring a friend with you.

-- Peace, Jamie

Weekend Recap

2009-09-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

Sunday capped off one of the crazier weekends that I've had in a while. Since you've stopped by the blog, you'll be lucky enough to hear my whole story. I ended up with tickets to the Clemson-BC game on Saturday thanks to Terri and Chuck Hood. So Saturday morning at 7:30, I hopped in the car with Elizabeth, Victoria and Sara Catherine Watts and headed toward Clemson. (My directions were to drive on I-85 till I smelled and turn right on Hwy 76 till I stepped in it, but they were wrong.)

Because I had plans on Saturday night, we knew that we would have to leave at halftime. For the first half, the weather was great - overcast with a nice breeze and very little rain. At halftime, we headed to the car. It started to rain as we headed out of the stadium and was raining pretty hard by the time we got to the car. Before we got back on I-85, the game was being delayed because of the weather. Very few times in my life have I felt smarter or luckier, which means you know what's coming next.

Our Saturday night plans were to go to Heath and Joy Dick's neighborhood for a cookout. My job was to bring a cooler of ice. When we pulled up, there were lots of cars parked on the side of the road, so I decided to drop the ice and Marjorie and the girls off and park further away. In the process of dropping ice and people off, I ended up locking the keys in the van with the van running. Yep, not so smart or lucky. Luckily AAA bailed me out because the coat hanger that Heath found for me was pretty useless.

With that as a backdrop, Sunday turned out to be a great day. Attendance at Reveal was close to the highest it's ever been. There were a number of new couples and college students visiting with us. We had lunch for our college students immediately following Reveal and had an awesome time hanging out together. I capped it off with a college Bible study on Sunday night at Heath and Joy's house. Our college Bible study for the fall is based on Lee Strobel's The Case For Christ. I have read The Case For Faith but this is my first time through TCFC.

While Sunday's can be long days, it's the day that I look forward to the most. So much cool stuff happens. I get to see people that I haven't seen all week. I get to hear stories about what's happening in people's lives. I get to see how God is moving and working in different areas of our church body. Plus, I got to tell my Clemson story coupled with my locking-my-keys-in-my-van story multiple times.

-- Peace, Jamie

Couple Talk 09.20.09

2009-09-21T04:30:00.000-07:00

Read: Genesis 1:26-28 and 1 Peter 3:7
God obviously made men and women different, even though both are created in His image. Peter tells us to live together with understanding or knowledge.

Discuss:
How well do you and your spouse understand each other? Do you think your spouse really understands you?

How are the two of you different (not just physical differences)? Make a list of the top five ways you are different.

Are these differences a source of tension and conflict? If so, why?

Do you have negative attitudes toward these differences that prevent you from blessing each other and developing the oneness that God intends?

Have you allowed conflict over these differences to harden into inappropriate attitudes and behaviors that are damaging your relationship?

List the advantages of your differences. How can they bless your marriage? How can your spouse's uniqueness bless you?

Do you celebrate the positive contributions your spouse's uniqueness can bring to your marriage, or are you more focused on trying to change one another?

Husbands, do you ever try to make your wife act more like a man?
Wives, do you ever try to make your husband act more like a woman?

Husbands, what do you do to make your wife feel like a woman? Ladies, does it work? Does he make you feel like a woman often enough? Do you have any suggestions for your husband?

Wives, what do you do to make you husband feel like a man? Men, does it work? Does she make you feel like a man often enough? Do yo have any suggestions for your wife?

Decide:
Share with each other the one thing you will do differently because of this discussion.

This discussion probably identified something each of you does that hurts your spouse. If so, ask his/her forgiveness.

Set List 09.20.09

2009-09-21T04:10:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 09.20.09 - "Marriage For Dummies" Week 2:

[Worship Set]
D - We Have Overcome - Israel Houghton (Elevation Worship Version)
Bb - You You Are God - Walker Beach
B - Song of Hope (Heaven Come Down) - Robbie Seay Band
B - Collide - Howie Day

[Closing Song]
F# - Come Ye Sinners - Robbie Seay Band

We had a great crowd today (~85). I truly believe that people are hungry for truth in regards to their marriages/relationships and this series is giving them exactly that. PRAISE GOD!

Worship went really well today. I decided to bring back "We Have Overcome" for a second week since it was new and I think that people responded better to it this week having heard it last week. The Elevation Worship version is a great rockin' version of Houghton's tune. "Collide" was a great fit for the sermon "Men & Women: As Different as Night and Day"

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Forgotten God

2009-09-17T05:48:00.000-07:00

I read Francis Chan's book Crazy Love earlier this year and enjoyed it immensely. So I was excited to see Chan had written a book on the Holy Spirit and subtitled it "Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit." The book is really divided into three parts. The first deals with how the theology of the Holy Spirit has been neglected and abused. The second deals with who the Holy Spirit is and what His role is in our lives. The third is a challenge to overcome the obstacles in our lives so that the Holy Spirit can lead us.

The book is a good primer on the theology of the Holy Spirit as well as challenging call to yield to the His leading in our lives. If you liked Crazy Love, I think you'll enjoy Forgotten God.

Here are some of the quotes from the book that caught my attention.

The Spirit is more obviously active in places where people are desperate for Him, humbled before Him, and not distracted by their pursuit of wealth or comfort.
We are not all we were made to be when everything in our lives and churches can be explained apart from the work and presence of the Spirit of God.
The truth is that the Spirit of the living God is guaranteed to ask you to go somewhere or do something you wouldn't normally want or choose to do.
The Holy Spirit does not seek to hurt us, but He does seek to make us Christlike, and this can be painful.
A sure sign of the Holy Spirit's working is that Christ is magnified, not people.
It is true that God may have called you to be exactly where you are. But it's absolutely vital to grasp that He didn't call you there so you could settle in and live out your life in comfort and superficial peace.
Nowhere in Scripture do I see a "balanced life with a little bit of God added in" as an ideal for us to emulate. Yet when I look at our churches, this is exactly what I see: a lot of people who have added Jesus to their lives.
It is impossible to live in the power of the Spirit and sin at the same time.
I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit.
What disturbs me most is when we're not really bothered that God living in us has not made much of a noticeable difference.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 09.13.09

2009-09-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for Sunday 09.13.09 - Week 1 of "Marriage For Dummies":

[Opening Song]
D - Forever and Ever, Amen - Paul Overstreet (Randy Travis Version)

[Worship Set]
D - We Have Overcome - Israel Houghton (Elevation Worship Version)
D - A Love Song - Stellar Kart
D - Rescue - Jared Anderson

[Message]
Marriage For Dummies - Rev. Steve Hogg

[Closing Song]
F# - We Fall Down - Chris Tomlin

This week kicked off our new series called "Marriage For Dummies". We are going to try and do a secular song each week that has something to do with relationships and/or the sermon topic for the week. I am looking forward to this series. I believe that it is going to impact our church and community in a powerful way.

As always part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Couple Talk 09.13.09

2009-09-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

Spend a few minutes together as a couple doing the activities described below. Begin with one of you reading aloud the following piece of prose titled "Marriage":

"When God made light, the angels drew near to let the refractions roll over their faces like a symphony. When God made earth, the poked their fingers into its moistness: they put a fleck to their nose and smiled. When God made a rose, they parted it's petals and passed it among themselves saying, 'So fragile, yet how it grasps the soul'. When God made a giraffe, they touched the strange hide and murmured to themselves that God was up to something magnificent. When God made man, each one retired to his chamber and peered into the writings, looking for some clue to the mystery. When God made woman, they came back out of the chambers and gazed, their jaws slack with awe. When God joined man to woman and said, 'Let them become one flesh,' everything suddenly made sense. And the cheering still shakes the galaxies..."

Answer This: Does our marriage make the universe cheer? Does it make me cheer? Why or why not? Talk about it!

Read: 1 Peter 1:7
Wives: Share with your husband what he does that makes you feel like he honors and respects you. Share what he does that makes you feel "put down" instead of honored. Talk about it!

Read: 1 Peter 3:4
Husbands: Part of a wife's inner beauty is her ability to be a calming and restful influence in her husband's life. Share with your wife what she does that brings a sense of peace and calmness to your life. Share with her what she does that creates turmoil and frustrations for you. Talk about it!

Read: 1 Peter 1:7
Discuss: We have the same eternal destiny and share equally in God's grace. What are we doing to support each other's relationship with Jesus Christ? Are there ways we discourage each other's spiritual growth?

Decide: What changes are we willing to make to improve our marriage?

Pray: Thank God for each other. Talk with God about the changes you decided to make. Ask God's forgiveness for actions that hurt each other. Don't forget to apologize to each other as well.

Plan: Agree to attend worship at First Baptist Church next Sunday.

The Acts 11:29 Project This Saturday 9-19-09

2009-09-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

"A ministry that gives of our extra time, talents, resources and labor to those in need in our community."

This Saturday (Sept. 19th), we need your help. We are serving a family in Edgemoor who has a leaking roof. We need people who will follow instructions to repair parts of the roof. We also need folks who would be willing to help with cleaning in and outside the house. Also, if your gift/talent is to minister to people, we would love for someone to be available to just hang out and talk to the family members who are there. Please sign up at Reveal or email loribeaty@gmail.com to let us know your planning to come.

Who: Anyone willing to serve, and others who are gifted in construction
What: Repair a roof, serve a family and their needs, fellowship
When: This Saturday, September 19th (9:00am - 1:00pm)
Where: Meet at the Church in "the Rock" parking lot at 9:00 (possibly earlier for roofing crew)

Winthrop BCM

2009-09-09T07:09:00.000-07:00

Life can get busy and last week was one of the busier weeks. Between getting ready for Refresh and a singles conference at Ridgecrest, I got to spend all day Thursday cooking supper for Winthrop University's BCM. Then on Thursday night, I got to hang out with and speak to the coolest BCM in the state.

For the uninitiated, BCM stands for Baptist Collegiate Ministries. It's the college ministry of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. It's a place where Christian students from all across the state and the nation can connect and grow in Christ and, hopefully, impact their campus for Christ.

This year, the leadership team at Winthrop chose Colossians 4:5 as their theme verse. I had to pleasure of speaking on making the most of every opportunity in college.

Here are the highlights of the night:

Cooking and serving supper with Heath and Joy Dick was a blast. I didn't get a chance to taste Joy's spaghetti bake but I am sure that it was better than mine. I'm glad I got a bite of my famous (at least at my house) dessert. It's oreo cookies soaked in milk and covered in whipped cream. After a couple of hours in the fridge, it's a goey, delicious mess.

The Reveal band led worship. It's great to have people who are committed to Christ and willing to give up their time to serve him. You can check out their set list here. Suffice it to say, they did an awesome job.

I committed to driving the church's van on the Winthrop BCM spring break mission trip. I wonder if anyone will ride with me after my stories from last year's trip to Baltimore. For the record the thirty minute detour in West Virginia was Ross's fault.

The talk centered on what you should do at college so that when you walk away from the campus for the last time, you've been a hero to someone. I gave them eleven ideas and challenged them to come up with their own list. Here are some of the ideas that I gave them - get involved in Student government whether by serving or connecting with the leaders and praying for them, be a summer missionary, take a road trip with a group of friends, go on an international trip (either mission or international studies), make cookies for someone (a residence hall, office, fraternity, sports team, etc), serve a staff or faculty member for a year.

All of us can come up with ideas that will help us make the most of the time that we are given. We can find people to serve, ministries to support, places to go. What is God calling you to do today to make the most of the opportunity He is giving you?

-- Peace, Jamie

Connect

2009-09-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to be in Charleston for Connect, a conference aimed at helping churches reach and keep young adults. At one of the sessions, Sam Rainer spoke about why 18-22 year olds drop out of church. Here are some of the interesting takeaways that Sam gave us.

The dropout problem begins at age 16. Spending 18 years in student ministry, this didn't surprise me. I think this has a lot to do with the freedom that comes from getting a drivers license and a car. They may already be looking for a way out of church because they are bored, are not challenged, have friends who don't attend a church, sense hypocrisy, or get busy with school, job, etc. The freedom that comes with a car allows them to make the decision to drop out of church.

Many drop out because they become tired of 'doing church.' They don't see faith as an important part of their families' lives. They are not given a reason for being at a building on Sundays other than it's what we do as a family.

Activity does not equal active. In other words, being involved in church programs and events will not keep someone active in his/her faith. It is not wrong to have students and children involved in stuff at church but it is NOT enough.

There are three markers for keeping a student active in his/her faith. The first is having a family that regularly discusses spiritual matters. The second is having a family that serves together in and through the church. The third is having a family that prays together. If a student's family is not spiritual or intact, the key is to get other adults involved in the lives of the student.

Great info and ideas. I'll share some more in the coming days.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 09.06.09

2009-09-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 09.06.09:

[Opening Song]
G - Creed - Rich Mullins (Third Day Version)

[Worship Set]
B - Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
B - Marvelous Light - Charlie Hall

This week, our church held a service called "REFRESH". It was a chance to look back over the last year of ministry and look forward to this upcoming year. The Reveal Band played the three songs above and then the 10:30 band played two songs and the choir/orchestra played two songs at the end.

Last Thursday Night, the Reveal Band also had a chance to lead worship for Winthrop's BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry) meeting. Here is the music that we used:

D - When Love Comes To Town - U2 (Todd Agnew Version)
C - Everlasting God - Brenton Brown (Lincoln Brewster Version)
E - Undignified - Matt Redman (David Crowder Version)
E - I've Always Loved You - Third Day
G - Nothing But The Blood - Robert Lowry
E - How Deep The Father's Love For Us - Stuart Townend

As Always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Refresh

2009-09-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

Another reminder that there will be no Reveal this Sunday, September 6. We will have one worship gathering at 10:00am in the main worship room upstairs. We are calling this worship gathering Refresh. We are focusing on the 8 passions of FBC, how they have been vital to our church for the past three years and how they will help direct us in the coming year.

Refresh is going to be an amazing time of worship. Don't miss it. There will also be a picnic at the church following Refresh. For more info, go to www.fbcrockhill.org.

Have a great weekend. I will see you Sunday morning at Refresh!

-- Peace, Jamie

Links

2009-09-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

The past two weeks have been crazier than normal and it doesn't look like things are slowing down any time soon. Here are some links that have caught my attention lately. Enjoy.

-- Peace, Jamie

Perry Noble says you're not crazy.

Ed Stetzer gives some practical advice for accountability groups.

Sam Rainer observes a new way to reach new guests.

Seth Godin tells us to get creative with our invitations.

Finally, a video to remind you to persevere.

Sunday Recap

2009-09-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

As Will stated below, it was a crazy weekend for our pastor so I volunteered to give him a much-needed break by preaching at Reveal on Sunday. Here's what we learned:

I HATE lines. I know hate is a strong word, but that's how I feel about lines. They make me wanna punch things.

I will go to great lengths to avoid lines. I skip drive-thrus. I leave restaurants. I drop people off to wait in line for me. I go to Disney during the off-season. Yes, I will spend time thinking of ways to avoid lines.

Traffic jams are basically lines in cars. I will drive an hour out of my way to avoid sitting still for 15 minutes in a car. Can't tell you how glad I am that I don't live in a city like Atlanta where traffic is unavoidable.

I used the story of a mission trip to Zambia. In 2004, twelve of us were flying out of Atlanta to Johannesburg, South Africa on the way to Lusaka, Zambia. A strike by South Africa Airways left me standing in line at the airline counter from 6am to 1pm for four straight days. Needless to say, I was READY to leave the Atlanta airport. Once we did get on the plane, I got bumped to a first class seat for an 18 hour flight. Nice, very nice.

My Zambia experience taught me a few things. First, the journey prepares us for the destination. Joshua spent a lot of time waiting to take possession of The Promised Land. But he wouldn't have been ready to take possession if he had not spent those 40 years remaining faithful to God.

Second, the God of the journey is the same God at the destination. Read Revelation 21:1-7. That's the God that we serve. Too often we doubt God or place more faith in our abilities. The God of Revelation wants to invade our lives with His power today, right now. What's keeping you from letting Him do it?

Third, God has a passionate desire to have an intimate relationship with you. Joshua 1:9 says that God is with us wherever we go. He's waiting for us to engage Him every moment of every day. Why would we pass that up? End of sermon wrap up.

Pray for Steve. I know that most of you pray for your pastor everyday. Make a special time this week to pray for him to be refreshed, strengthened, and inspired. He faced a lot last week because of deaths and other emergencies.

Just a reminder that there will be no Reveal next week. We will have one worship gathering at 10:00am in the main worship room followed by a picnic upstairs.

Have a great week!

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 08.30.09

2009-08-31T04:22:00.001-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 08.30.09:

[Opening Song]
D - Everyday - Joel Houston

[Welcome]

[Worship Set]
Bb - You You Are God - Walker Beach
Bb - O Praise Him - David Crowder
E - King Of Glory - Third Day

[Message]
Rev. Jamie Burdette

[Closing Song]
E - Your Love Is Extravagant - Darrell Evans

Our Senior Pastor Steve Hogg had a really busy weekend. So Jamie filled in for him at Reveal this week in order to give him a break. Jamie gave a great talk about Joshua staying focused on God even during the 38 years that he spent wandering in the desert before entering the Promised Land.

We had a great crowd (~70) this week and several Winthrop students came to worship this morning which was very encouraging.

This week the Reveal Band gets the privilege of leading worship at Winthrop's Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) meeting on Thursday Night. We led back in the spring for them and had a great time. I am looking forward to this so I hope that you will come out and join us. Dinner at 7pm and Worship at 8pm.

As always part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Set List 08.23.09

2009-08-30T04:21:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for Sunday 08.23.09 - Week 4 of Indescribable

[Opening Song]
G - Creed - Rich Mullins (Third Day Version)

[Welcome]
B - Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
B - In The Light - Charlie Peacock (dc Talk Version)
D - Desert Song - Brooke Fraser

[Message]
Rev. Steve Hogg - Indescribable (4)

[Closing Song]
A - Mighty To Save - Reuben Morgan

This was a crazy Sunday. We had the opportunity to lead worship for the Youth Group's kick-off event called "Rock The House" at 9:15. Then I had to run upstairs for 10:30 worship. The Reveal band played "Desert Song" for the offertory special in that service and then I had to run back down stairs to prep for Reveal at 11:55. On "Let God Arise" I broke a string and played "In the Light" with 5 strings. I got a back-up guitar for the rest of the set, but then when we came up to sing the closing song, the batteries died in my microphone. Thankfully, Stacy (one of the BGV's) picked up and led out on the song so that it was not too awkward. Anyway, Steve used it as a teaching moment that seemed to go over well.

Here's the set we did for "Rock The House"

G - Creed - Rich Mullins (Third Day Version)
E - Undignified - Matt Redman (David Crowder Version)
B - Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
B - Marvelous Light - Charlie Hall
D - Desert Song - Brooke Fraser
A - Mighty To Save - Reuben Morgan

As always part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Help Us Out

2009-08-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

If you are a regular at Reveal, I have two requests for you.

1. Can you be in the Apex by 11:45? This will help guests who show up feel more comfortable in a big room. It will also be easier for us to get started on time if more people are in the room beforehand.

2. If you're not volunteering, would you be willing to help with childcare or greeting? Because of schedule changes and moves, we've lost some committed volunteers. If you can help in either place, email me (jamieb@fbcrockhill.org). We are going to have a brief meeting on Sunday, August 30 immediately following Reveal for everyone who is already part of the greeter ministry and for anyone who is interested in volunteering for it.

Thanks for listening.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 08.16.09

2009-08-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 08.16.09 - Indescribable (Week 3):

[Opening Song]
Eb - The Solid One - Jeff Zabel

[Welcome]

[Worship Set]
B - Counting On God - Jared Anderson
G - Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) - Brenton Brown
G - Indescribable - Laura Story (Chris Tomlin Version)

[Message]

[Closing Song]
C - Everlasting God - Brenton Brown (Lincoln Brewster Version)

This was a crazy day for me. I felt really out of sorts. We changed up the service order for the 10:30 service on Friday afternoon but I wasn't in the office to find out about it because Lori and I closed on our house. Then because we were moving on Saturday, I didn't have internet for the weekend. So I found out at 8:00 when I got to church that we had made some changes.

We also planned to do an extended invitation time which meant that I was not able to practice with the Reveal band much before our service. I finished upstairs at about 11:35 and ran downstairs to practice. We had to run a song that we were not planning to do because Pastor Hogg wanted it close the service with it. So I had to also change the Song Show Plus show for the morning. When I finally finished, there was about 3 minutes left on the countdown.

During the first song, I messed up going back to the intro and could find my place for about 8 bars but the band did a great job just playing along and letting me get back together. Then I dropped my pick and didn't have an extra one on the stand. Luckily, I had the welcome to kind of re-group.

After that, worship went really well, and the sermon was one of the best that I have heard from him. All three services had a ton of energy and the invitation was strong in all three services. Steve preached on the omnipotence (power) of God and then he closed the sermon talking about how when we don't have any strength, God's strength is there for us. When we are tired - He's not. When we are ready to give up - He's not! We then closed the service with "Everlasting God" which was a great fit.

A friend of mine was really struggling during the invitation so at the solo break, I went down to pray with him. I wanted the vocalists to keep the song going after the solo, but the message did not get passed to them and there was kind of an awkward stop, but we sang the song again at the very end and everything went well. I'll discuss that situation at practice on Tuesday and we'll work out some arrangement if I need to step down from singing during a invitation again.

Overall, this was one of the best services we have had a FBC since I have been here.

As always, a part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set-Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Night

2009-08-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

Elie Wiesel in his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance speech uttered the following:

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.

After spending a year in concentration camps in WWII Germany, Wiesel witnessed firsthand the terrible evil that is possible in mankind, the utter depravity that man apart from God is. Upon entering Birkenau for the first time and seeing the crematorium, he was astonished that such evil could happen in this world during this time without an outcry from the ends of the earth. He has dedicated his life to being the voice of the tormented and the victim.

What does this have to do with Reveal? Too often, we see those who aren't Christ-followers as the enemy. We condemn their lifestyles, their choices, their actions, and, in a very real way, we condemn them. Instead, we should see those who are follow the ways of the world as the tormented and the victim and Satan, the prince of this world as the true enemy, as the tormentor and the oppressor. More than that, we cannot remain neutral in the fight. We must take sides and overcome the darkness of this world with the Light. If the goal of Reveal is to shine Light into darkness, what are we as individuals going to do today to make a difference? Are we conscious of who the real enemy is? Are we aware of the brokenness around us? We must make sure that we aren't neutral, and, as a church, we must make the lives of those living in darkness the center of our universe.

-- Peace, Jamie

Friday Thots

2009-08-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy and crazy week. The crazy Monday and the trip to Atlanta on Tuesday has kept me running to catch up. Will and Lori are moving on Saturday so Will has been busy as well.

Here are a few nuggets from the week, especially from the Atlanta trip:

The Georgia Aquarium is really nice. While it should take about 2-2 1/2 hours to get through the whole place, part of our group went through the entire aquarium in 47 minutes.

I got to see the whale sharks being fed. Finally, I found a shark that doesn't frighten me. I've never seen Jaws all the way through. I have read the book. I do NOT like sharks.

We got to the ballpark an hour before the game started and I got to watch batting practice. The down side is that I was ready to go sometime during the third inning.

I don't know if it's because I knew we had a four hour drive back or if I'm getting older, but I have a hard time sitting through a full baseball game. Can't they shorten the games to seven innings? Three hours plus for a ball game is a LONG time.

On the way back, I ate a bag of salt and vinegar chips and drank an extra sweet Lipton sweet tea. Then I followed that with a bag of Peachie O's. My stomach was not amused.

Because of the sugar rush and caffeine high, I didn't get to sleep until almost 5:00am on Wednesday morning.

The rain on Wednesday made me want to move to the Pacific Northwest. I love rainy, cool days. If I could order up about 250 of those a year, I would.

On Wednesday, Hunter and I had a great time planning some videos for the upcoming Marriage for Dummies series.

On Sunday, we will be in week 3 of Indescribable. Steve will continue a sermon series on the attributes of God. I hope that we will see you at Reveal!

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 08.09.09

2009-08-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for Sunday 08.09.09 - Week 2 of "Indescribable"

[Opening Song]
Creed - Rich Mullins (Third Day Version)

[Worship Set]
Desert Song - Brooke Fraser
My Savior, My God - Aaron Shust

[Sermon]
Rev. Steve Hogg

[Communion]
Communion - Third Day

[Closing Song]
Nothing But The Blood - Robert Lowry

Well this week, I was totally immersed in "Creed". We had practiced the song for two weeks or so and I had been struggling with the intro vocals a lot. So I just decided to listen to the intro over and over and over...You get the idea. And that is exactly what I did...ALL WEEK! Needless to say, I became a little tired of the intro to the song after about a hundred run-throughs of personal practice. And I guess that I had psyched myself up about how well the song was going to go over. Because I was hoping for more energy from the congregation, but I felt like it was a little flat. Don't know if I was expecting too much or if people just were not familiar with it or what it was. We are planning on kicking off the "REFRESH" service on Sept 6 with that song, so we may bring it back once more to remind REVEAL of it so that they can kick-start the energy that morning.

On a much more positive note: Stacy was supposed to sing "Desert Song" again this weekend. But Saturday morning she came down with some kind of head cold thing. She texted me and my wife, Lori, to let us know. Lori basically learned the song Saturday morning and led it in worship on Sunday and did a GREAT JOB! For those of you who lead on a regular basis, you know how hard it is to lead a new song on short notice. Thanks Lori, for all your hard work on that song.

Finally, I broke a string during the set this week, but thankfully it was on the last 4 bars of the last song - PRAISE GOD! It is really distracting to break a string and I am grateful that it lasted through the service.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Manic Monday

2009-08-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

At about 10:00am I started a blog entry that recapped yesterday. Then the phone rang. Twelve hours later, no new blog, no recap. A lot of things can happen when we answer the phone.

I spent the rest of the day 'putting out fires' which is really just another way of saying I was doing ministry, maybe unplanned ministry, but ministry nonetheless.

Also at some point during the day, I found out that a question I sent to Andy Stanley had been published in Outreach Magazine. So I guess you could say that I've had a conversation with Andy Stanley AND my writing has been published in Outreach Magazine.

You could say that. I don't think I will though.

Tonight, I had a planning meeting for Refresh (September 6 at FBC). I tweeted after the meeting that I'm pumped about the worship experience that is being planned. Two hours later, I am even more pumped.

Refresh is September 6 at 10:00am. Put the date on your calendar. You do NOT want to miss it.

Tomorrow, I will be leaving for Atlanta with our college group in the morning to go to the aquarium and a Braves-Natinals game. We won't get back until 2 or 3 in the morning on Wednesday. No blog post from me tomorrow.

I will try to get a recap of Sunday up then. It was a really good day at First Baptist and Reveal.

-- Peace, Jamie

PS - I misspelled Nationals above on purpose. This happened at the beginning of the season and PTI hasn't let them live it down since.

View From the Top

2009-08-08T05:42:00.000-07:00

On Thursday morning, I headed out of Rock Hill with Elizabeth and Victoria to go to Crowder's Mountain State Park. Our goal for the morning was to take the Tower Trail up to the top of Crowder's Mountain. A couple of years ago, we had made a similar drive and hiked to the top of King's Pinnacle.

My confession is that while I am not much of a camper - my idea of roughing it is a hotel room without ESPN - I enjoy hiking a lot. I like seeing the wildlife on the trail. I love hiking beside streams and waterfalls. But my favorite part of the hike is getting to the top and looking down over the houses, trees, and cars and seeing the landscape roll off in the distance.

When we crested Crowder's, we walked past the communications towers and up a small path to a rock ledge that gave us a great view to the east. We ate PB&J sandwiches, drank a bottle of water and took some pictures.

We'd been there about 30 minutes when I noticed that off in the distance I could see the skyline of downtown Charlotte. WOW! Thirty to forty miles from downtown and yet I could see the skyscrapers in the distance. In a few hours, we would be in the parking lot at the base of the mountin and not able to see the Charlotte skyline. We would drive toward Charlotte on I-85 and still wouldn't be able to see the Charlotte skyline. It was only from the top that we were able to get a different view on our surroundings, to see things in the distance, to see things that we wouldn't otherwise be able to see.

I don't get to the top of enough mountains. Life gets busy. Schedules get squeezed. I get too tired or lazy to make the climb. But when I do, I am always amazed by the view and awed by the perspective.

-- Peace, Jamie

PS - If you want to check out some pics from the top of Crowder's Mountian and you're on Facebook, go here.

This Weekend

2009-08-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick update on Reveal for this weekend.

We are in week 2 of Indescribable. Steve will be touching on the eternal nature and personality of God. God is much more than an impersonal force or idea. He is a personal God who desires a relationship with each of us. Some verses to check out to get ready for Sunday - Psalm 90:2; 102:12, 24-27; John 4:24; and Malachi 3:6.

We will celebrate the Lord's Supper together. To me, this is one of the highlights of worship. Joining together as a community to remember and to celebrate the work of Christ should be both sobering and encouraging.

Here are a couple of Scripture passages to look at to get ready for Sunday: Luke 22:14-20 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.I look forward to seeing you at Reveal this Sunday.

-- Peace, Jamie

Community

2009-08-05T06:29:00.000-07:00

A book that I am reading has a quote in it that intrigued me: “There is a reason the word belonging has a synonym for want at its center; it is the human condition.”

The more I thought about that quote, the more I realized that much of what we are about in Reveal and in First Baptist is helping people find a place to belong, a group of people who are doing life together, a way of life that reveals to the world around us the fantastic, overwhelming, amazing love of the Father.

People in our culture are looking for connection. That's why Facebook and MySpace and Twitter have become so popular. But there is something lacking in those venues - the face-to-face interaction that brings with it a human touch. That's why we have small groups. That's why we do lunch once a month together. That's why it's so important for us to connect with one another.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 08.02.09

2009-08-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for Sunday 08.02.09: Week 1 of "Indescribable"

[Opening Song]
(F#m) - My Glorious - Martin Smith

[Welcome]

[Worship Set]
(B) - Song of Hope (Heaven Come Down) - Robbie Seay Band
(A) - God of Wonders - Steve Hindalong
(G) - Indescribable - Chris Tomlin

[Message]
Rev. Steve Hogg

[Closing Song]
(C) - Word Of God Speak - MercyMe

This Sunday kicked off our new series "Indescribable" - we are going to spend 5 weeks trying to describe something that we are telling you from the beginning is indescribable. (Insert laughter here). Actually, this series is about the Doctrine of God. I am so pumped about this series. I have been re-reading one of my systematic theology books from seminary (you know, just some light reading) and God has been blowing my mind and I know that this series will continue that trend. It has been my prayer for this series that the congregation will have their myths about God shattered and that truth will "flow down like rain" over them.

"Indescribable" was the only new song for us this week. All of the others we have done before. Once again we had a great crowd for the summer. Like I said before, I was really thinking that we would be doing good to be around 35-40 for each week during the summer. Boy did God blow that one out of the water. We have been averaging 55-60 each week. We have a ton of momentum going in to the Fall and hopefully with another marketing push, Winthrop students coming back, and a great relationship series coming up (Marriage for Dummies) in September/October we will be poised to get our average over 100 for the fall.

Lunch was great. We had subs from Wal-Mart, and it was good to chat with some of our peeps after the service. This has been a great time of fellowship for our group and I continue to look forward to what God is going to do in our church and our city through our people.

As always part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Sunday

2009-08-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was week one of our new sermon series, "Indescribable." Steve was back after a well-earned vacation. The goal of Indescribable is to help us know God and what He is like so that we can experience life-change through His transformation and shaping of us and also so that we can explain more about Him to others so that they can experience life-change through knowing Him.

Because I was signed up for childcare for Reveal, I knew I was going to miss the message so I slipped into our 9:15 gathering for part of the sermon. Here are some of the highlights:

Knowledge of God is intended to change who we are.
Our view of God shapes our lives, our values, our priorities, our focus, our spending, our morals.
The Bible assumes that God exists. (In fact, Psalm 14:1 says that those who deny God's existence are fools.)
Knowing doctrine is important. It helps us with questions and different views that many people have.
God reveals Himself to us through General Revelation (Nature) and Specific Revelation (Jesus & Scripture).
We can learn a lot about God but it is useless if it doesn't change our lives.
Steve ended with a great question - what are you doing with what you already know about God?

While I was supposed to be in childcare, I was in reality running around helping some of our volunteers get set up for lunch following Reveal. We have GREAT volunteers. We definitely could not have pulled off lunch yesterday without them.

I missed being in the room for Reveal but there was a good crowd there again yesterday. It has been a great summer and there are only two more Sundays before school cranks up again.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 07.26.09

2009-07-27T12:03:00.001-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 07.26.09:

[Opening Song]
This Is Who I Am - Third Day

[Worship Set]
Desert Song - Brooke Fraser
Ready - Third Day
Born Again - Third Day
I Still Believe - Jeremy Camp

[Message]
Matt Rogers

[Closing Song]
Glory Revealed - Candi Pearson Shelton

I scheduled myself off this week (I did play guitar on two songs, but didn't sing). Tommy Sayle and Stacy Brown led the music this week and they both did great jobs. "Desert Song" had a lot of energy even though the congregation was a little unfamiliar with it. We'll do it some more and it will soon be a favorite.

Matt Rogers was our guest speaker this week. He is planting a church (Renewal) in Greenville, SC but he grew up right here at FBC-Rock Hill. He spoke on John 17, specifically verse 18. "As you...so I..." He reminded us that we are all missionaries - to our neighborhoods, to our workplaces, to our schools, to our families. He asked a great question for everybody to think about: "If your job transferred you tomorrow to another place, would your neighborhood be any different because you weren't there anymore?" Then for the church: "If the church building was to be flattened tomorrow, would Rock Hill be any different without First Baptist Church?"

Next week, we are having lunch and Steve Hogg is back to kick off the August series "Indescribable" which will be discussing the doctrine of God. I am really looking forward to it.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Random Notes

2009-07-24T06:36:00.000-07:00

Some random thoughts for the weekend.

Matt Rogers will be speaking at Reveal this weekend. FBC is Matt's home church. He is part of a team that is planting Renewal Church in Greenville in the coming months. He has also been the speaker at Summersalt for the past two summers. Should be a great message this week.

I love Seth Rogin's blog. In this post, he does a great job helping us get creative in how we approach people. He doesn't say anything specifically about evangelism but the implications are there.

Having kids is one of the greatest ways to get a fresh perspective on God and His love for us. Charisse Noble teaches here dad another lesson in this post.

Yesterday, I watched all or part of the best and the worst that Star Wars has to offer. In the morning I watched The Phantom Menace. In the afternoon, I watched Star Wars (aka A New Hope - but it will always just be Star Wars to me).

Next Sunday (August 2), we kick off our Indescribable series. Steve Hogg will be back from vacation. We will also have lunch in the cafe following Reveal.

I leave for Ocean Isle Beach tomorrow morning. While I'm out of town, don't look for any posts from me. You can however follow me on Twitter and get all of my captivating tweets from the beach. They will mainly say "Reading a book while sitting on the beach" and "Eating seafood from Calabash." But I might throw in the occasional, "Going to take an afternoon nap" tweet.

Have a great week while I'm gone.

-- Peace, Jamie

Faith is...(Part 6)

2009-07-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

Faith is...the conviction: the promiser keeps His promises.

In baseball, batting .300 is really good. That's 3 out of 10. In building bridges, that ratio is really bad. You would not trust a heart surgeon if that was their success rate. But how about God? He has a perfect record. Every promise He has made, He has backed up. Now I know that there are some promises that He has made that have not happened yet, but so far He is perfect and I have no reason to believe that the future will be any different.

Here is a quick survey of some of God's promises:

To Eve - "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth." - Gen 3:16

To Adam - "Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it" - Gen 3:17 (labor to make a living)

To Noah - "never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh." - Gen 9:15

To Abraham - "I will make you a great nation." - Gen 12:2

To Moses - "I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt." - Exodus 3:10

To Moses - "Surely all the men who have seen my glory...yet have put me to the test...shall by no means see the land..." - Num 14:22-23

Of course I could list many, many more but in this short list we can see that God keeps his promises. So what does this mean for us? Let's recap what we have already seen over these past 5 posts:

God has a pattern for my life
God is the Lord of time
It is His strength alone
We have an assurance of heaven
God controls the future

This means that no matter what we see our circumstances to be, we can trust God's plan, timing, strength and promises to work for our good. It may not happen how or when we think that it should, but be assured, it will happen.

It all comes down to faith.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Costa Rica, Pt 2

2009-07-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, we returned to one of the areas where we had passed out groceries on Monday. We spent the morning on the side of a one-lane dirt street playing with some of the children of La Carpio. We were fortunate that the week that we were in Costa Rica was one of two weeks that the children are on vacation from school.

We had lots of children to show up. Most of the children brought an opportunity for us to build a bridge for Mark and the missionaries to share the gospel with older brothers and sisters and moms. We spent about three hours face painting, making balloon animals, blowing bubbles, tossing frisbees and making salavation bracelets.

While the language barrier can be frustrating, we all learned that a smile and a hug say a lot in any language. While I was making balloon animals, the kids would come up to me and start talking. I would say, "No espanol" with my best southern accent. Then they would start pointing and talking and I would try to figure out what they were saying. When I thought I knew I would say "Si" and start doing whatever I interpreted them to mean. I got it right about half the time. The other half, they would go "No. No." and we would start all over again.

In the afternoon, we worked around the mission house. I mention this only because my daughter and her team left without me to pick up trash in the streets and at a park near the mission house. I ended up having little to do and they came back to find me taking a nap on the couch. They're still reminding me about that one.

On Thursday evening, we went to Teracillos (pronounced - terr-uh-see-joes) for a mother-daughter banquet. The church that is meeting in the area is relatively new. The pastor and members had gone out the Saturday before to pass out invitations. It was the first time they had tried a mother-daughter banquet and were unsure of what kind of response to expect.

We were supposed to start at 6:00pm. At 6, there were only about 20 people there. We waited to start and by 6:30, the room was full. Amanda Rollo shared the gospel using the salvation bracelet. It took about 30 minutes to go through the entire process of explaining, translating, and passing out beads. Amanda did a great job and then the pastor of the church gave the ladies a chance to pray to receive Christ. Afterward, we served a meal of rice (of course, EVERY meal, including breakfast, had rice), beef, and cole slaw to the ladies.

The night ended with us saying "Adios" to a lot of the nationals with whom we had grown very close. The week was awesome. Again, if you've never experienced missions in an international setting, you need to plan a trip.

That's all for me from Costa Rica. If you want or desire more info, I'll gladly answer questions. As always, thanks for praying for the team as we went. Thanks for reading about the experience. I hope it inspires you to go and be the hands and feet of our Savior to those near you as well as those around the world.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 07.19.09

2009-07-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 07.19.09 - Blockbuster (Week 3).

[Music Set]
Counting On God - Jared Anderson
Marvelous Light - Charlie Hall
Days Of Elijah - Robin Mark
Mighty To Save - Laura Story

[Closing Song]
Medley (Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus/Cannot Say Enough)

This was a crazy weekend for me. Saturday was my 34th birthday so we had family in town. We had a family dinner on Friday night, then I played basketball with some of the young men of the church. My brother and his family stayed at Lori and my apartment so we spent some time catching up on Friday night after I got back from basketball. Saturday morning I had a men's small group meeting followed by a trip down to Chester for a family reunion. Then my parents came over Saturday night for dinner. So by Sunday I was really tired.

This was one of those services when it seemed that everything went wrong. I felt that the band was a little flat this week. We had a few people out and some others had other commitments during our normal practice time so maybe we just didn't have the chemistry that we would normally have. We also had some technical difficulties during the video clips for the sermon. And to top it all off, I had a flat tire when I was done with church. Lori and I did however have a great lunch with some missionary friends of ours that were in town.

Jamie used the movie "Bedtime Stories" to bring out some truths from the book of James. You can read more about it here.

As always, a part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Faith is...(Part 5)

2009-07-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Faith is...ceasing to worry leaving the future to the God who controls the future.

Worry. Wow this could be the word of the year for 2009. We are worried about our jobs. We are worried about our finances. We are worried about North Korea, serial killers, plane crashes, government leadership, healthcare, the moral compass of America...I guess I could go on and on about this topic, but I think that you get the idea.

I remember hearing somewhere that anxiety is the Holy Spirit's beeper system to let you know to pray. I liked that thought, but I think that it is more accurate to see anxiety as our spirit's reaction to God being taken off our throne and us sitting down. I think that when we worry we in essence tell God that we are going to take care of something ourselves because the situation is too big for Him to handle.

Seeing that in print makes it seem foolish, but don't we all do this in some way? Here's a crazy thought: What if we prayed as much as we worried? How much more could God do in our lives?

Now I am not saying that I never worry or get stressed or get anxious. I am by far perfect in this regard. So I am preaching to myself as much as you. But this is perhaps the biggest area where we can be different from the surrounding culture.

It is said that the religions that have the biggest growth are the ones where the followers are sold-out and are different from the surrounding culture. So in this time of worry in our culture, what a better witness than the calm that comes from knowing that "the God who controls the future" is interested in my personal well being. That is something that all the other world religions can't say! Because no other religion has a personal god like the God that we serve. Now that is different! But...

It all comes down to faith.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Costa Rica, Pt 1

2009-07-21T05:57:00.000-07:00

Because I didn't get to blog much last week while I was in Costa Rica, I wanted to share a little about the trip. This was my 7th international mission trip. If you have never had the chance to go to a third-world country and experience the culture in a missions setting, I highly recommend everyone take a trip like this at least once. It will change the way you view your lifestyle, your possessions, and your standard of living.

While we were in Costa Rica, we spent most of our time in the barrio of La Carpio, which was described to us as the most poverty-stricken area of Costa Rica. About 90% of the 40,000 poeple who live in La Carpio are Nicaraguan refugees. They are looked down on by the people of Costa Rica. (This was brought home to me on Tuesday when our guide on the whitewater rafting trip shared that he was Nicaraguan and had experienced discrimination first hand because of his accent.)

Here are a couple of pictures of La Carpio:

La Carpio is literally built on a trash dump. The city of San Jose dumps its trash on one side of the barrio. On the other side is a huge limestone quarry. While some of the homes are larger and made of stucco, most of the houses are little more than a maze of corrugated metal. Sewage runs through the streets carried to the river at the bottom of the hill.

On Monday, we passed out bags of groceries (beans, rice, sugar, salt, butter, and more staples) in an area that was new to our missionaries. While our team carried and handed out the groceries, a team of teenagers from a local church shared the gospel using The Bridge illustration. In about six hours, we handed out almost 100 bags of groceries and 67 people prayed with our Costa Rican team asking Jesus to be their Savior. It was an awesome experience.

Later, Mark, our lead missionary, said that they would go back in to the area where we passed out groceries and begin discipleship groups led by Costa Rican believers. The hope is to begin having worship gatherings among the people of La Carpio once they have established enough discipleship groups.

Here's a picture of the bags that we passed out as well a couple of pics of us passing out the groceries:

If you want to catch up on the team's day-to-day blog, check out kudzas.com.

I'll blog some more about the experience later this week.

-- Peace, Jamie

Bedtime Stories: Who Controls Your Life?

2009-07-20T13:22:00.000-07:00

It was great to back at Reveal yesterday. As has been usual for the summer, the attendance was good even with some of the band and tech team gone.

Here's a quick wrap-up of yesterday:

We finished our Blockbuster series using Bedtime Stories as a launching point to look at James 4:13-16.

I had the pleasure of teaching for the second time in three weeks.

One of the truths of Scripture is that planning is important (Proverbs 20:18, 14:15; & 16:13; Isaiah 32:8). But just as important is how you plan.

I had a nine point sermon, which I had never come close to doing before.

Here are some of the points: Looks can be deceiving (we think we know the correct path in life by studying a situation but sometimes (well, a lot of times) God calls us to do something that makes no sense to us. The struggle between the eternal and temporal is enormous and can be harder the more possessions that you have. Life on this planet is short. Live like today is the last day you have. Because Jesus WILL have the final say in our lives.

Next week at Reveal, Matt Rogers will be speaking. I will be heading out of town for a family vacation with my mom and dad, and sister and her family. In two weeks, Steve will be back in town and we will begin a new series, "Indescribable."

-- Peace, Jamie

Faith is...(Part 4)

2009-07-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

Faith is...not a vague hope of a happy hereafter but an assurance of heaven based on my trust in Christ's death as payment for my sins.

A vague hope is a ungrounded, unsure feeling that something will happen. Basically it is a guess. However, an assurance is grounded and sure.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." - Hebrews 11:1 (NASB)

I really like this verse in The Message: "The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see."

These words seem much better to me: assurance, conviction, firm foundation. Much better than vague hope. And if we can have an assurance in what God says, then we don't have to understand everything about it, we can just have faith.

After all Jesus said: "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you." - John 14:2

It all comes down to faith.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Faith is...(Part 3)

2009-07-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Faith is...keeping on keeping on when I am dog tired, discouraged, disillusioned, deserted, dusty dry cast on His strength alone.

Are you tired? Tired of trying to do the right thing when everyone else seems to not care? Tired of your schedule? Tired of never having any "You" time? Maybe just tired of being where you are right now?

In Part 1 and Part 2 of my "Faith is..." blog series, I talked about God's pattern and God's timing. And I could be a poster child of being "tired". Many of you know that I only work part-time here at the church (~25 hrs/week) and so to help make ends meet and to provide insurance for me and Lori, I have been working at Home Depot for the past year and a half (~20 hrs/week).

But of course, I don't just work at Home Depot like a regular associate. I work from 4am to 8am. Yep you read right. 4am to 8am. That means that I get up at 3:25am and leave the apartment at 3:40am.

Now most days I get a nap in the morning before I head to FBC, but there are mornings that I don't. Now, as you can imagine, I tend to always be tired - physically.

But what about spiritually? Just as we can be tired physically and need to sleep and rest and recharge, there are also times when we can get tired spiritually. There are going to be times when you will feel like you are hearing God on a loud-speaker and then there are going to be times when you feel like you can't hear from God no matter how hard you try.

What do you do during those times? Do you give up and quit reading your Bible, quit praying, quit seeking Godly-counsel?

In many ways, it will be in these dry times that our faith grows. It will be a challenge to stay with your devotional and prayer life when you don't feel that you are getting anything out of them. But later, you will see what a blessing it really was. Remember that it is easy to trust God when things are easy and everything seems to be going our way.

It all comes down to faith.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Set List 07.12.09

2009-07-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 07.12.09 - Blockbuster (Week 2).

[Opening Song]
Undignified - Matt Redman (David Crowder Version)

[Worship Set]
Keep On Shinin' - Third Day
Bless The Lord - Jeff Deyo
Better Is One Day - Matt Redman (Kutless Version)

[Closing Song]
Rescue - Jared Anderson (Desperation Band Version)

[Walk-Out Song]
Everyday - Joel Houston (Lincoln Brewster Version)

Well back in June I promised y'all that we'd bring back two of the new songs that we introduced, "Undignified" and "Bless The Lord". So, true to my promise, we brought 'em back this week. I was very pleased with worship this morning. The congregation was into the worship and after two weeks off, the band was energetic. Lots of energy and a great time of worship.

David Mitchell opened up James Chapter 1 for us and used the movie "Yes Man" staring Jim Carrey for our second week of the Blockbuster series. David's basic premise was what if we said yes to God in areas where we would normally say no? What could God do through us? He challenged us to do that in one area this week and to share the stories. I'm looking forward to hearing what we allowed God to do by saying yes!

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists - where you can see what other churches are doing for worship.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Costa Rica

2009-07-14T04:32:00.000-07:00

The week in Costa Rica is flying by. I can't believe it's Tuesday morning already. While we do have internet access and some down time in the evenings, blogging hasn't been a priority.

If you want to know about what's been going on here, the best place to check is at http://www.clfcostarica.com/FBCRockHillJuly09.html. Each night someone posts something about our day.

As always, being in a foreign country is an eye-opening experience. Hopefully, when I get back I can share with you some pictures of our time here as well as some of the experiences.

Now it's off to breakfast and then a free day of exploring some of Costa Rica's natural beauty.

-- Peace, Jamie

Faith is...(Part 2)

2009-07-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

Faith is...recognizing that God is the Lord of time when my idea of timing doesn't agree with His.

Where are you at with God's timing? Are you dying to get out of High School and out of your parents house? Are you are in college and tired of studying and projects? Are you ready to have a real job with a real paycheck? Are you are single and wanting to get married? Are you wanting to start having kids? Are you ready to have a house instead of an apartment?

In part one, I told y'all of some experiences that I had that caused me to have to rely on God's pattern for my life and not my own. God's timing and God's pattern tend to go together. Just as it is hard to see a pattern when things "seem" meaningless - it is hard to wait when human timing and God's timing don't line up.

Needless to say, that summer that I had to move back home was tough. I had been "on my own" (not literally of course, but you know what I mean) for 6 years and it kinda felt like a step back to go move home. After all, I had an Engineering degree from one of the top schools in the nation, it couldn't be that hard to find a job - my timing, not His.

The year after seminary...once again hard, probably even harder. I mean, come on God, I just spent three years studying You. Why can't You give me a job? - my timing, not His.

Funny thing, when I try to do things on my timing, I usually screw up. But when I wait on God's timing, things usually work out for the best - even if I would not have chosen that path or timing. Funny. Well...Not really, just truth.

It all comes down to faith.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Costa Rica & This Week @ Reveal

2009-07-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Unbelievably, in just 24 hours, I will be sitting in the Charlotte airport waiting to catch a flight to San Jose, Costa Rica for a week of mission work. There will be 10 of us from First Baptist going.

While there, we will be working in some of the poorest areas around San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica. We will be delivering groceries, working on homes, playing with children and sharing the Good News of Jesus with everyone who will listen.

Please pray for us while we are gone. Obviously while I am gone, I will not be blogging. However, when I get back, I hope to have the chance to share with you some of the happenings from the trip. If you want to keep up with the team while we are gone, check out this link.

I am going to miss being in Reveal this week. Since Steve is on vacation this week and I will be out of the country, David Mitchell will be speaking in Reveal. Carrying on the Blockbuster theme, he will be using "Yes Man" as a jumping off point to look at James 1. Next week, I will be back and using "Bedtime Stories" to look at James 4.

I haven't checked with Will, but I am assuming that the band will be back at full strength this week. It should be a great week at Reveal. Don't miss it!

-- Peace, Jamie

Faith Is...(Part 1)

2009-07-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

In my office, there is a framed print that my mom gave me when I went off to college. On it there are six statements about faith. Here is the first one:

Faith is...reliance on the certainty that God has a pattern for my life when everything seems meaningless.

Where are you in your life right now? Do you feel like you are floundering? Maybe just treading water? Do you feel like if ______ would just happen everything would be ok and your life could move forward?

I think that we have all felt like that from time to time. And more than likely, we will all feel like that again at some point in the future. But could it be possible that God has you right where He wants you at this point in your life? I think that I can honestly say that when I have been in those places in my life, that I was right where I needed to be. Now, I was not always in places that I enjoyed (most of the time I was not happy at all), but I was in the position that God needed me in.

When I graduated college, I moved back home for the summer while I was looking for my first engineering job. The one that I found was in a place that I was not thrilled to go too. But I soon made some friends and got plugged into a church. And I met my wonderful wife while I was there.

When I graduated seminary, I spent ten months looking for a job and after I found it and moved back to South Carolina, it lasted 4 days. I then spent three months looking for another one. But I heard about this position in Rock Hill at a family dinner that I would not have been at if I was still in California.

Those are just two personal examples to help illustrate that God is working in your life and has a pattern even when things seem meaningless from a human stand point.

It all comes down to faith.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Random Thoughts

2009-07-08T01:30:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for Reveal news or spiritual enlightenment, move along. Nothing to see here, just random thoughts from yours truly.

The MLB All-star game used to be a big deal for me. Debating who got left off the team, handing out the mid-season report card, and wondering who was going to make a run and who was going to fade were all a part of my regular summer schedule. No more. Don't know if it's because NFL training camps open in about three weeks or if it's because I'm more interested in who's making The Chase in NASCAR.

I have never been a huge Michael Jackson fan. I enjoyed some of his music. However, he may have been the last truly worldwide music star left. The news coverage of his funeral has been unbelievable on some level.

The news that Switchfoot's new CD, "Hello Hurricane" will be out in October gives me three exciting events in October to look forward to - "Hello Hurricane," Catalyst and a Disney trip with the family. I'll let you guess which one I'm most excited about.

I have become slightly addicted to Twitter and, as usual, slightly obsessed with what Twanalyst says about me.

-- Peace, Jamie

Up and Perseverance

2009-07-07T12:36:00.001-07:00

On Sunday, we kicked off our Blockbuster sermon series and used the movie Up to illustrate Galatians 6:7-10. We used the trailer to introduce the characters.

Then we discussed what perseverance looked like using the clip where Russell knocks on Carl's door. Looking at the Galatians passage, we asked three questions:

Why persevere or what compels us to persevere?
Why don't we persevere?
How do we persevere?

The main reason we can persevere is the nature of who God is and the reward, both in this life and in heaven, that He promises.

To look at the question, "Why don't we persevere?" we checked out the video of Russell and Carl as they pulled Carl's house through the jungle. The truth is many of come up with excuses to not persevere in our faith so that we can do what we WANT to do. The NLT translates the first part of verse 7 as "Don't be misled. Remember that you can't ignore God."

Sometimes we are looking to get God to bless our plans instead looking to follow God in His plans for us. Mark Batterson calls that 'inverted Christianity.'

How do we persevere? By surrendering each moment to the Holy Spirit, we look for opportunities to serve others. In other words, when we look outward (to others interests instead of our own), we can see the God's big picture and gain eternal perspective during the good and bad times.

Selfishness has a way of making us give up. Surrender goes a long to helping us persevere.

-- Peace, Jamie

Set List 07.05.09

2009-07-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

Here is the music that we used for 07.05.09:

[Worship Set]
Enough (Chorus Only) - Chris Tomlin
May The Few - Shane Barnard
I Will Not Forget You - Ben Pasley (Waterdeep)
The Doxology - David Crowder Version
Enough (Chorus Only) - Chris Tomlin

[Closing Song]
The Beauty Of Simplicity - Josh White (Telecast)

So with this weekend being the 4th of July and two of our band members being on vacation, I decided to do a acoustic set. This set worked really well I thought. I put all the songs in E and played with a cut capo on 2. I started off slow with the chorus to "Enough" twice and then went into the chorus of "May The Few". I then brought "May The Few" up to tempo which flowed well into "I Will Not Forget You" - a new song for us, we'll have to bring it back with the full band later. For "The Doxology" I wanted to do something a little different so I started just picking out the melody for one verse, then added some strumming for one verse then started in with the vocals. I did the chorus of Amen like David Crowder did on the Passion album. Then with the tempo down, I went back into the chorus of "Enough" to book-end the set. I thought it went really well.

I was blown away by the number of people that we had in REVEAL on Sunday. Jamie and I were honestly thinking that we would be around 30 people and maybe more like 20. But to our delight we had around 50. And that is without at least 5 families that I know were on vacation. We also did lunch again this week (Dominos Pizza). Great fun was had by all.

God has really blessed us this summer with great momentum. I am really looking forward to the Fall when we can get on the Winthrop campus and talk up REVEAL. I truly believe that once we get up to around 150 people coming, the room is going to take on a whole new dynamic and the worship is going to be even more awesome that it has been these first 5 months.

Next week we are bringing back two songs that we did in June that went over really well, so get pumped and come ready to worship.

As always, part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

--Will

Cartwheels

2009-07-06T05:21:00.000-07:00

Yes. I did a cartwheel off of the stage at the end of Reveal yesterday. Actually, I was informed that it was only half of a cartwheel. But that's about the best that I can do. There may be video footage to confirm that I did the cartwheel but I haven't seen it yet. [UPDATE: There IS video and it proves that I am no gymnast. If I get a chance to post it later, I will.]

Being the day after Independence Day and knowing that a lot of the 'regulars' at Reveal would be out of town, I told my daughters on the way to church that we would probably be very low in attendance and that I would do a cartwheel if we had more than 35 people at Reveal.

At 11:50, my cartwheeling abilities didn't look like they were going to be tested. However, by the time it was all said and done, we ended up with almost 50 people in the Apex and I cartwheeled off the stage after the closing song.

Thanks for a great attendance. Thanks for being faithful during the summer.

I will be in Costa Rica next week and will miss being in Reveal. I look forward to being back on the 19th.

-- Peace, Jamie

Computer Update

2009-07-02T06:22:00.000-07:00

For those who read the blog regularly (both of you), I thought I'd give you an update on my computer situation. While I was in New York, I turned my laptop over the Miller Pitts, the church's computer master, who installed a new hard drive and upgraded my memory.

I spent most of Monday re-installing programs like Firefox and iTunes. Now the computer is running smoothly. The biggest challenge I've had is getting iTunes back in shape. I can be a tad OCD on certain things. For example, I stack plates when I'm finished eating.

My OCD-ness extends to my iTunes. I keep track of my plays. I want to have all of my album artwork showing. Getting the music back into my iTunes was only half the battle. I still have to get everything organized.

I want to do it all right now. But I've tried to take things slowly because of everything else that I have going on.

I'm sure there's a spiritual application somewhere in my experience. But, for today, I'll leave it to you to make it.

-- Peace, Jamie