It looks like The Harbor is going to go play in the Mud Volleyball tournament in Roscoe.  I have heard a lot about this but this will be my first time there.  We are actually going to help with parking and clean up, but we are also trying to form a team.  I have found out that this event gets pretty crazy.  What can you expect when you combine a hot day, a bunch of mud, and a whole lot of alcohol?  I know some will say why are you taking a church group to this event, aren’t you just encouraging this type of behaivor.

As I thought about this I am reminded of what Jesus said to the Pharisees when they asked him why he was eating with sinners.  He said in Matthew 9:12 “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”  Jesus was sitting around a table with a bunch of sinning tax collectors.  He was sharing a meal with them.  This was something the Pharisees would have never done.

Jesus was spending time with these men and talking with them and building a relationship with them.  No one else would even talk to them.  Jesus went to the people who needed to know him and he spent time with them and built a relationship with them.  That is what we must do.  We can’t just expect people to come knocking on our church doors.  We must go to them.  We must be spending time with them, we must be building relationships with them.  I want to be like Jesus.  Jesus spent time with drunk and dirty people, so can we.  We need to remember that we are all sinners and Jesus died for all sinners.  We cannot think that we are better than anyone simply because we go to church, or because we don’t drink, or anything like that.  We need to be spending time with people who need to know Jesus.  That is what The Harbor will be doing on August 8th.  Come join us if you want!

Here is a link to my sermon podcast.

Podcast

Last night was a major milestone for The Harbor.   We met for our first public worship service at Nikki’s Cafe.  Nikki’s is a local coffee shop in Roscoe.  Since February we have been meeting in our homes on Sunday evenings for a time of worship, prayer and bible study.  We decided that it would be good to have a more public location to meet and invite people.  We have still not officially launched our new church, we are simply gathering in a more public location.  We are still planning on an official launch in September.

For the summer we will continue to meet at Nikki’s at 5:30 PM.  If your in the area stop by, have a cup of coffee, and stay and worship with us.

Have you ever tried walking through the woods at night?  If not, let me tell you that hiking in the dark is hard!  You can’t see the trail very well, you can’t see the trees lying on the ground, you can’t see the holes and ditches in front of you.  If you are going to hike in the dark you really need a flashlight.  This morning I was reading proverbs 4:10-19, and it talks about something very similar.  The proverb is not about hiking but about how we walk through life.  As I read the proverb I thought about the illustration of a flashlight.  Just like a flashlight illuminates the path to help you avoid danger, wisdom also illuminates thing to help us avoid danger.  

The proverbs talk a lot about wisdom.  They say that wisdom is a priceless treasure that should be searched for.  It says that we should hold on the the wisdom that we get.  The wisdom it talks about is not secular wisdom, or something that can be measured with an IQ test.  The wisdom it talks about is wisdom from God.  The only way to judge the amount of wisdom from God that we have, is to look at the way that we live our lives.  The more righteous we live our lives, the more wisdom we have.

God’s wisdom is what keeps us from spiritual dangers.  God’s wisdom is like a flashlight because it helps us to see the evil things infront of us.  God’s wisdom illuminates our path and shows us the things that will cause us to stumble.  God’s wisdom shines in front of us so that when we come to a fork in the path we can look ahead and see which path is the path of righteousness. 

Proverbs 4:12 says “When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble”  If we have God’s wisdom, not only can we walk on the Path, but we can run and not stumble.  How much more could we accomplish for God if we were running.  Here’s what really struck me this morning.  With God’s wisdom I can run and get more accomplished.  If I want to be a productive servant of Jesus Christ, I need to get all the knowledge from him that I can.  I need to constantly seek to gain knowledge from God, so that I can run on the path and not stumble.  Can you imagine what our churches would look like if we all started to really seek out God’s wisdom, and start running!

Check out our new website for The Harbor.  Click on the logo below.

I think this is fixed, sorry it didn’t work!

Well I have been threatening to leave the PC world, and I did.  That’s right I bought a MacBook.  I crossed over!  I feel so hip and trendy with it.  I think I’m just going to carry it around to make me look cool.

It all started about a month ago when I got my I-phone.  Then I had to take the next logical step, a Mac.  I really like it so far.  I am still learning about it, but it is a great computer.  I love that I can shut my screen and it goes to sleep, then I can open it back up and in a mater of seconds it is back up and ready to work.  I haven’t made any movies yet, but I can’t wait to do some video work on it.

I am sitting at the Orlando airport waiting for my plane to fly back to rockford.  It has been a great week!  Not only has the weather been amazing, the conference was outstanding.  Sometimes I am reluctant to go to conferences because I have been to so many bad ones, but this was not one of them.  I had the opportunity to hear some great men of God, Guys like Ed Stetzer, Erwin McManus, Francis Chan, Darrin Patrick, John Burke, and Efrem Smith, along with many others.  I know most of you reading this have no idea who these guys are.  They are all men who have planted very successful churches.  They are the Rock Stars of church planting!

 

It was great to here there stories, but it was even greater to hear there hearts.  They all have a passion to grow the Kingdom.  They all want to make an impact on their communities.  But, these men take a different view on the community than most christians.  For years I have heard people talk about our culture and how bad our culture is.  I have heard Christians talk about culture like it is enemy territory, that we have to sneak into and rescue people from.  These men view culture as the places we live that needs to be impacted by Jesus Christ.  They don’t view culture as the enemy, only Satan is the enemy. They are not afraid to do things different so that people will come to know Jesus Christ and the culture and community will be impacted.  They are doing things that would seem very foreign to many people who have been in churches very long, but the thing is they are reaching people and changing the way people live.  

(OK, now I’m sitting at home, had to get on the plane)  As I look back over the conference there are a few things that really stuck with me

1. We should not be trying to change our culture, we must impact the culture and create a way to serve Jesus Christ in that culture.  John Burke put it this way ““If the culture around us is not becoming the church, the church is dying”
2. We must not see the culture as our enemy.  We must guard that we never have the “Rock music is from the Devil” mentality.  We must embrace the culture around us, and make an impact on them. 
3. If we are going to impact our culture and community we have to understand the community and culture.  Ed Stetzer put it this way “We must exegete our community”.  We must know what make up our culture and community.  We have to study the history and trends of the culture.  We need to know more than just what people do, but why they do what they do.  We can’t assume anything, we must research, dig, and ask lots of questions about the people God calls us to reach.
4. Starting a church that truly engages the culture, reaches the lost, and makes an eternal difference is HARD!  I am convinced this will be the hardest and most challenging thing I will ever do.  I am certain that I am going to face persecution, but I am so excited about what God is going to do.

I really hate it when people make me rethink what I think I know?  One of my struggles in planting a church is what do we do with messy people.  What do we do when someone comes to church who is having an affair?  What do we do with the guy who comes to church hung over every time?  What do we do with the gay guy.  What about the women who beleives God is a woman?  How do these people fit into the church when they are so messy? 

Here’s the problem, these people go to all kinds of places everyday and they fit in just fine.  So why don’t they fit into the church?  Here’s my question, is the problem with us or the church?  I think our problem is with the church! 

We have countless numbers of churches who are dead or dying because people don’t fit in in those churches.  We just expect people to come into church and change and be like us.  I don’t think this is biblical.  I think the bible teaches us as the church to go into the messy community, live, eat, play with messy people, be like them, and at the same time tell them the wonderful story of Jesus Christ.

I think I am starting to understand what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

¹⁹ For although I am free from all people, I have made myself a slave to all, in order to win more people. ²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win Jews; to those under the law, like one under the law—though I myself am not under the law —to win those under the law.  ²¹ To those who are outside the law,  like one outside the law—not being outside God’s law, but under the law of Christ—to win those outside the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some.  ²³ Now I do all this because of the gospel, that I may become a partner in its benefits. 

I think about all the gentiles that Paul ministered to.  They were not Jews,  they weren’t even circumcised!  Yet Paul ministered to them by being like them.  That meant he went to them, lived with them, ate with them.  Paul got it!  What will it take for us to stop thinking that we are better than people because we know Jesus Christ.  The gift of salvation is great and it does change us, but we are still messy people.  The problem is we just sweep our mess under the rug, so people don’t see it.  We must stop avoiding messy people, and get out of our buildings and build relationships with messy people.  They are just like us, they just don’t know Jesus yet.  Who’s going to tell them the story!

The life of a Church Planter is a tough one.  Right now I am sitting beside the pool drinking coffee in Orlando.  The Sun is out and it’s in the 70′s.  Man this is hard!  I am in Orlando this week for the Exponential Church Planting Conference.  Even though it is rough being in this harsh climate, I am very excited about this conference.  The speakers include some men who have had great success in church planting.  My prayer is that God will give me the tools and resources I need to plant a Kingdom focused, relationship building, church.  To all of you in illinois, or other places where it is in the 30′s I’m sorry (OK maybe not).