40 Days

Today we launch our 40 Day spiritual renewal. I can't say enough about how excited I am to see what God is going to do in the next month as we focus in on Him. Yesterday I encouraged our church to fast one thing to the Lord and also read the entire New Testament in 40 Days. I know that God is going to stretch us in ways that we have never been stretched but I am excited to hear the testimonies of what God is going to do. I have heard of some of our people fasting television, some cigarettes and I even heard of someone fasting "MySpace" (that's interesting.) Whatever it is, I know God will bless as we intentionally seek after Him.

Handling Criticism

I was grieved this weekend as I heard that one of our own ministers in an area not to far away from us was voted out by his congregation. This young man and his wife recently moved to this church over a year ago and poured their heart into this church. Every time I spoke with him, he was upbeat about what was happening there. To my surprise, I heard that the people decided to let him go. This man did not have a moral failure of any kind and was simply trying to do his best. Someone commented to me about this church simply saying, "The people are just plain mean there." This is something I do not understand when it comes to churches around our area. I was searching some blogs on the internet and I found an interesting article from a pastor in Ohio. He is simply quoting Spurgeon from years ago. Here is what Spurgeon said;

“Many hearers lose much blessing through criticizing too much, and meditating too little; and many more incur great sin by calumniating those who live for the good of others. True pastors have enough of care and travail without being burdened by undeserved and useless fault-finding. We have something better to do than to be for ever answering every malignant or frivolous slander which is set afloat to injure us….there are tender, loving spirits who feel the trial very keenly, and are sadly hindered in brave service by cruel assaults. The rougher and stronger among us laugh at those who ridicule us, but upon others the effect is very sorrowful…
As ministers we are very far from being perfect, but many of us are doing our best, and we are grieved that the minds of our people should be more directed to our personal imperfections than to our divine message….

Filled with the same spirit of contrariety, the men of this world still depreciate the ministers whom God sends them and profess that they would gladly listen if different preachers could be found. Nothing can please them, their cavils are dealt out with heedless universality. Cephas is too blunt, Apollos is too flowery, Paul is too argumentative, Timothy is too young, James is too severe, John is too gentle…

Well then, let each servant of God tell his message in his own way. To his own Master he shall stand or fall…

Judge the preacher if you like, but do remember that there is something better to be done than that, namely, to get all the good you can out of him, and pray his Master to put more good into him.”

Amen to Spurgeon! I am very thankful for our church as we do not deal with much criticism here but my heart goes out to the pastors around the world that deal with it day in and day out. Remember to pray for your pastor and pray as Spurgeon as said, "That God would put more good into him."

Snow Day

Do you remember when you were a kid and you looked forward to snow days and you got to get of school? Well today is one of those days. There is no way we are getting out of our drive way anytime soon. I'm just glad I took my computer home last night to work on my message for Sunday. I took a little break this afternoon and the whole family went outside and threw snow balls at each other. Had a good time! The kids are having blast enjoying just the day and having fun. I guess that's what snow days are for.

Basketball

Olivia has just started in basketball camp for the first time and I think our lives is going to get officially crazy for the next couple of months. We have practices now on Monday nights and then she will play a game on Saturday. She really seems to enjoy it and she has the height for it. (Definitely didn't get that from me.) I really feel strongly that activities are good as long as you don't have too many activities. Olivia had the choice between basketball or cheer leading camp this winter. We would not allow her to do both simply for the reason that as a family it is important that you keep your sanity. She chose basketball all on her own. (Which I was excited about.) I see too families having somewhere to go every night of the week and I really feel that it is unhealthy. Families need time to connect with one another relationally and we cannot do that if we are constantly going from place to place.

I am excited to see how the next couple months will go and by the way, Olivia's team name is "Crusaders". Go Crusaders!!!!!

Annual Meeting

Last night we had our annual meeting and what a wonderful night it was. I have been in some nightmare annual meetings in my years in ministry. Last night was was definately not a nightmare but a dream come true. I gave people the opportunity to share testimonies from this past year and what an awesome thing it was to hear all that God is doing in people's lives. It was also so cool to hear how the church has impacted many of them in different ways. It makes it worth it all when you hear stories of how people have been touched. I shared with everyone last night a word that I feel that God spoke to me in September. I don't feel that God speaks prophetically that much to me but I know that I heard God speak to me on this occasion. I felt God say that if we continue to do what we are doing and obey and follow Him that what we see now will be nothing compared to what we see in the future. I believe this and accept from Him. I am excited about this year and I believe that this will be a year of growth. I spoke yesterday about our plan to go into a 40 day spiritual renewal and fast. I want encourage everyone to give up something for God starting on Feb. 10th and continue to give it up until Easter. During that time I would like us to read the entire New Testament and seek God like never before. If we honor God in this, He will honor us back. I want us to be spiritually prepared for what God wants to do this Easter and Spring. I am believing God for a great harvest and would like you to agree with me on this. I am looking forward to seeing what God is going to do in the months ahead.

Reflections

Christmas is over and it is time to take a breather. It has been a wild month but a fruitful month at that. At our Christmas Eve service, we broke all record attendance with almost 180 in attendance. We had people all over the place and we had to bring out more chairs just to fit everybody in. It shows that people are truly hungry for something this time of year. I pray that seeds were planted and hopefully we will see some of those faces this Sunday at church.

As far as the Jones family, we had a great Christmas as well. I love watching the kids open their presents. It takes me back to the magic of it all when I was kid. Jen even surprised me this year with a new t.v. (Score!) I want to thank everyone for their gifts and cards to our family this Christmas, it is highly appreciated and we feel so blessed to be a part of such a great church. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas as well and looking forward to the New Year.

Christmas Craziness

I have to apologize that I have not blogged as much as I want lately. Things have gotten really crazy as of late. We wrapped up the adult musical "Imagine Christmas" this past week with four nights in a row including our dress rehearsal. I was so proud of all those that particpating in this great event. We have lots of talent in our church and it was neat to see that talent used for God's glory.

We also had our Santa outreach that Saturday and due to the snow that turn out wasn't as great as expected. Needless to say we had some families that came through our church door that might have never came if it wasn't for the event. We gave away bags of candy along with the Christmas story of Jesus.

This week we are gearing up for Christmas Eve service. I'm planning on doing this a little different this year then past. It will still be a wonderful time with family and celebrating our Lord's birth.

Remember in all the busyness of the season, don't forget to put Christ first. He is the reason for this season!

Sick Kids

This has been a wild week for the Jones family. We have had sick kids all week. Sunday night we had to take Olivia to the hospital as she had the flu and was not getting enough liquids in her body. Caleb has also been sick with the flu as well. Thankfully Ethan has avoided it. (I'm praying that he continues to avoid it.) Jennifer has missed church now for four weeks because of one of our kids having a bad cold or flu. YUCK! Anyways, I hope we are getting over all of this. Sure would like to see my wife in church soon.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. For our family we headed to Des Moines, ate some good food. On Friday Jen and I decided to be crazy and go shopping. Our first stop was Toys R Us and that place was a mad house. We ended up turning around and leaving. The rest of the day wasn't too bad. Jen and I ended the day by celebrating her birthday at Olive Garden. All and all it was a great weekend. I hope everybody else had a great Thanksgiving weekend as well.

Having some fun with our heroes series. Here is a great video we did last Sunday.

Having fun with our new series on "Heroes of the Bible." We are diving into some of the characters of the Bible. This Sunday we covered Elijah. When I take a look at Elijah he can almost seem like a super-prophet with all the miracles he did. It is amazing that he was fed by ravens, multiplied food, raised the dead and even called fire down from heaven. But these miracles do not make Elijah a hero. What makes Elijah a hero is found in James 5:17. James tells us that Elijah was a man just like us. He was man just like us that understood how to pray. James 5:16 tells us that Elijah prayed powerful and effective prayers. The point is, we can pray powerful and effective prayers, just like Elijah. All of us can be used by God in incredible ways like Elijah if we learn the power of prayer. If you need a miracle today, don't underestimate the power of prayer!

Fun Fest

Last night was our first Fall Fun Fest with the Giant Haystack and I got to be honest because I really didn't know what to expect. At 5:00 there were only a handful of people and I got really nervous. Thankfully about ten to fifteen after we had a decent crowd. I think everybody had fun and we gave away lots of prizes and candy. Also had a good time talking with some families that do not attend our church. Definitely think we will try it again next year with some modifications and additions to the night. Thanks to everyone that helped out with the outreach, couldn't of done it without you!

Happy Birthday Olivia

This has been a month full of birthdays! Sunday was Olivia's 8th birthday. My little girl is growing up so fast. We had a slumber party Friday Night with three other girls and Jen took the girls to Libbi Lue at Jordan Creek Mall in Des Moines. I think I heard the Chicken Song a hundred times Friday and Saturday. Time goes by so fast, so remember to cherish those special moments with your kids while you have them!

Why Money?

We just got through with our Missions Convention yesterday and I feel that I need to address an issue that was brought up at church in the middle of the service of "Why Money?" Mark Oberbeck who is our Iowa Youth Director was talking about Speed the Light which is a missions organization that raises money for missionaries so that they can have vehicles, sound equipment and other tools to effectively preach the gospel in other nations. The question was basically why do we need to talk about money or can't there be other ways of helping? There are other ways we can help our missionaries, first of all by praying for our missionaries. Many missionaries will tell you that they covet our prayers while they are on the missions field. Another way is going on a missions trip ourselves and helping the missionaries with projects that they may have. About six years ago, I went to Peru and helped build a Teen Challenge Building for a church. It was an awesome experience. The third way is by giving. The fact of the matter is, it takes money to live and to have the tools necessary to do your job. For example, if our missionaries didn't have vehicles they could not reach some of the far reaching areas and villages in their nations. Our missionaries are 100% supported by the local churches. Just as we need a home to live in and food on our tables, so do missionaries. Many of the places that they live are very poor regions and the people there cannot support them. It is the local churches job to do that. These missionaries have given up their lives to the call of going over seas and reaching areas that we simply cannot reach. They will be honored in heaven because of their call and we need to honor them now on earth. Missionaries should be our heroes! I am not ashamed as your pastor to ask for money to help missionaries. We are obeying the command of Jesus to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel." Jesus said that He would come back here on earth after the Gospel has been spread to the ends of the earth. Think about that for a moment. The only thing that is holding Jesus from coming back and taking us home is His love for people who have not heard His message yet. This should show us, His concern for other nations and those who still need to be reached. One of our core values at Community Hope is "Missions Minded." If we are missions minded, God will bless. I know this, because I've seen it time and time again. Let's be about the priorities of Jesus and have a heart to reach our world with the love of God.

Missions Weekend

This Sunday is our annual Missions Convention. I am really excited as this year as we are having Mark Oberbeck who is our Iowa Youth Director speaking in the morning service. I have known Mark for years and I know he is very passionate about Missions. In the evening we are having missionary Brad Tucker speaking who is a missionary to Africa. We are also having the ministry team from Evangel University in Springfield, MO to come and lead worship and do a special drama for us. This is an exciting time for us as a church because Community Hope was built on Missions. I want us to be a church that Prays for Missions, Gives to Missions and Go and be Missions ourselves. Please be in prayer for this powerful weekend!

Truth or Snare

Wrapped up our series yesterday on the mind. I felt it was a good three weeks on study on how we must renew our minds in Christ. Yesterday we talked about the lies that Satan throws at us. Here are the three most common lies.

1. Lies about yourself- My self-worth comes from what I do and what others think.
2. Lies about the meaning of life- The meaning of life is about how much I can accumulate.
3. Lies about God- Many believe lies about God- here are a few lies that people believe;
- I am saved by what I do
- God is out to get me lie
- What I've done is too bad for God to forgive.

Satan throws traps for us all the time. Remember that Satan is the father of lies. The way we defeat the lies is by the truth of God's Word. Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word is the discerner of our thoughts. In other words, when we have these lies enter our minds we must judge that thought by God's Word. What does the truth have to say? If it's not according to the Word, then it is a lie. Don't be caught in the snare of lies that Satan throws at us. Be free by the truth of God's Word.

Breaking 250

This last Thursday I started meeting with my coaching group in Des Moines on how to break the 250 barrier. I'm really excited about meeting with this group of guys once a month. This past meeting most of our time was spent on why we lead the way we do. I was reminded once again that my past has been pleasing people and many times I lead to please. This is all right at times but dangerous in other times. My focus needs to be pleasing God and what God wants. Especially when it comes to church, many people have their own ideas on how the church should run. This is ok but we must remember that God is the one who leads and we must always listen to His voice and the leading of the Holy Spirit. This should be our main priority. Looking forward to the next six months with these guys and seeing how God moves in our churches.

Here is the video for all those that missed it yesterday. We talked about mental strongholds that can hold us captive. I believe that fear and worry can be huge mental strongholds in our lives. I hope you enjoy!

Today is Ethan's birthday! He is officially two years old today. Ethan loves music so naturally we got him a little guitar. I think Ethan is going to be our future worship leader. He loves music, especially the Wiggles. We will have a party for him on Sunday with the family so I'm sure there will be lots of presents. The picture we took here was when we were at the Omaha Zoo. Love the pic of the bear behind him. Pretty cool! Happy Birthday Big Guy!

Sunday Reflections

Sunday was a great day for us as a church as we had 147 in attendance! Praise God!!! The last few weeks we have seen several new faces and commitments to Christ. Yesterday we had many college students from Grinnell and their families. I guess it was parents week at the school. It was awesome to meet some the parents. We had people all the way from Washington to Connecticut. It is pretty cool to think that a church in a small town like Montezuma would have people from all over the United States in it. It is amazing to me how God continues to work in His church. The church is definitely an awesome thing to be a part of!