It is Good to Pray

I spent a good portion of this morning in prayer and I've got to say to is good to pray. There is something about prayer that allows you to release your burdens and just give them to God. I always feel so much better after spending time with God and I always feel so much worse when I don't. When I don't pray I feel spiritually drained. Prayer allows my spiritual tank to be refueled. Here are some tips when you pray:

1. Find a place with no distractions- I find that I need to find a place where I am away from the phone and when I am at home behind a closed door so I will not be interrupted.

2. Have a Bible with you- I sometimes read the scriptures out loud when I pray. This allows the Word to speak to me in a personal way.

3. Be vulnerable to God- In other words, be yourself. You don't have to pray in the King James language. God wants us to come to Him as we are and share whatever is on our heart.

4. Take time to listen- This is hard because our minds are constantly filled with thoughts but I find it good to sometimes just be still and allow God's Spirit to speak to me.

Sunday Reflections

Here are some thoughts from Sunday:

- I thought the worship team did a great job with the song "I know who I am" by Israel Houghton. Our worship team is going through some huge transitions right now and they are doing a great job using the talent they have.

- I enjoyed Jerry Minner and Brenda Smith's special music. I am excited to add some specials to our services. I had one gentlemen I took to lunch tell me that out of our whole service, he enjoyed their song the most.

- Our first video of the "New You" was a home run. Vanna Bushong is AMAZING with video editing. Thanks to Derek, Amber, Katy and of course Jason for being a part of this video series.

- Our attendance was really low considering all the promo work we did for this series. We are definitely feeling the affects of summer.

- It was great to preach this Sunday after having two Sundays of not being in the pulpit.

- I am totally excited about recording our messages now on Sunday. After church I went home and listened to the CD of the message. ( I know that may sound weird but I am constantly reviewing my self)

Officially Podcasting

Today we recorded our first message and we are up in running with our podcast. It sounds really good besides the worship song in the end. You can listen on our website or subscribe with I-Tunes. I am totally pumped about using this as an outreach tool. Make sure you tell everyone you know!

We are starting our new sermon series on Sunday called the "New You." We will be talking about who we are "In Christ." I am really excited about this series as we will be having special videos that will go along with each message. I will try to post the videos if the files are not too large.

Keep Shining!

I was over to my friends house Sunday in Des Moines and he shared some exciting news about a friend we both had in high school. My friend recently gave his heart to the Lord and got baptized and I just found out that he is now a deacon in the church and even leading Bible studies. What is so cool about this is in high school he didn't want anything to do with God. I remember praying for him and inviting him to church. Now almost thirteen years later he is serving God and his church. Almost five years ago I ran into him and he told me that I made an impact on him in high school and that he was searching. I had no idea that I had made an impact during those years but something was working on his heart. My point is, don't give up on those you are praying for and those you are witnessing too. You never know when their heart will open. Keep shining your light and continue to be salt. It could be a week, a month or even years before you see fruit but remember that your witness does count and you are making a difference!

Website

Our website is officially up and running. You can check it out at www.communityhope.org. I encourage everyone to use this as an outreach tool. If someone isn't quite ready to walk through our doors they can check us out on the web. They will even be able to listen to the messages if they would like. Thanks again to Victor Bushong for his hard work on this project.

Happy 4th

Celebrated the 4th yesterday in Des Moines with a parade, bbq and fireworks. Always fun getting with the family. Today was Monte's 4th activities. We walked in the parade and handed out candy as a church. It seemed like there were more people this year then years past. Thinking maybe we should do something on the square afterwards as well. Tomorrow is the community service with all the other churches. It is always neat to get together with the other churches and celebrate not only our freedom as a nation but our freedom in Christ. See you at the courthouse!

Kids Crusade

We finished our Transformers Kids Crusade last night. Pastor Keaton did a great job teaching transforming truths of the Bible to the kids each night. We wrapped up with an offering contest between two teams of the autobots and the decepticons. I was representing the decepticons and Pastor Keaton was representing the autobots. Whoever lost the offering contest got slimed at the end of the week. As you can see, I lost and got slimed. This was the first year my team lost. It was all worth a good cause though and the kids had lots of fun seeing me covered in slime. Pretty disgusting to get off though.

Question of Discipleship

I just got done reading Perry Noble's blog on "The question of discipleship?" This is a great article and I encourage everyone to read it. Perry's blog is on my blog list so just click the link. I have had the question thrown at me many times about how Community Hope disciples people. This is a very difficult question and I like Perry's insight to this question. Let me know what you think.

Coming Soon

I'm really excited about some new tech things coming up for us as a church. We are working on a new website that will allow you to listen to my messages on the web. Also if you have an ipod you can subscribe to the churches podcast. We will also be recording the messages on CD in the coming weeks. The website will be communityhope.org so stay tuned as we will be up and running soon. Thanks to Victor Bushong for all his hard work on this project.

Camping Reflections

Just got back camping with the family. We had a great time at Yogi Bears Campground in the Wisconsin Dells. Did a lot of swimming, played mini golf and went to Story Book Gardens and actually got to pet a giraffe. Pretty cool! My favorite part was stopping at the Cheese Factory and getting some Wisconsin Cheese. Now I understand why they call them cheese heads. Wow, that was some good cheese. It is always good to get away, clear the head and get a break.

Off to Camp

We are off to Wisconsin today to go camping for a few days. We will be camping at Yogi Bears Campground in the Dells and also going to Noah's Ark Waterpark. Lots of fun and the kids are really excited.

SIMPLE part 4

Today we finished our series called "Simple". We wrapped up with the teaching on the Holy Spirit. I know that there are many misunderstandings when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Many choose not to talk about Him while others associate things they have seen or heard with the Holy Spirit. As you look at the scriptures the scriptures are quite clear when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Jesus said wait until you receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses. First of all Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as a gift. He is a gift for us to receive. Second He said that gift gives us power. The word means ability. What is that ability for? That power and ability is for enablement. I am so thankful for the power of the Holy Spirit upon my life. I can honestly say that without the Holy Spirit I wouldn't be where I am today. There are times when I don't know how to lead a church, pray for someone or counsel someone in their need. But with the power of the Holy Spirit working in me, I can pray, speak and lead knowing I am doing these things in His Spirit and power and not my own. That is so gratifying to me to know this. If you have not received this supernatural power that the Bible talks about I encourage you to read the scriptures especially Acts, begin to pray and seek the Holy Spirit. If you do these things I believe the promise of Luke 11 that says that if any ask the Father in heaven, He will give you the good gift of the Holy Spirit.

Indy Cars

Today I got the chance to hang out with the kids and the Bushong family and go to the qualifying races for the Iowa Corn Indy. I was never a race fan and I have always been one of those that said 'how in the world can you sit for hours a watch a bunch of cars go around in circles?' Now after two years of watching a few races I would have to say that it is pretty cool live. I will probably not be an avid fan of watching NASCAR on television but the whole feel of being there and hearing the sounds and being a part of the live action is pretty cool. It was definitely a fun day at the races!

One Prayer

On Thursday nights we are doing something little different then we've ever done. We will be showing the One Prayer videos that thousands of churches are showing across the nation. The purpose is for churches to be united all across the world. Each video has a pastor who answers the question, "If you had only one prayer, what would it be?" Last week we showed Craig Groschell from Life Church. Craig had an awesome message about the his prayer of the church being one. If all the churches came together in the world we would see God do some awesome things, for example we would be able to end starvation and poverty to name a few. Pretty cool if you think about it. Instead of churches competing against one another, let's unite together so that the unbelieving world would see what the body of Christ is really about. Looking forward to hearing the others messages in this series. Tonight we will be showing Ed Youngs video.

New Camera

Just used our new video camera on Sunday. It is a Sony HD Handycam. It has a pretty decent picture and I'm really excited about using more video in our services. We have even talked about the possibility of doing our announcements on video. We live in a generation that is used to visuals. As a church we must keep up with the times without watering down our message. I believe that if Jesus was alive today and preaching, He would probably use video as well to get His message across.

Sunday Thoughts

Had a great Sunday today. Chad Varga really hit a home run in service this morning. Chad is obviously very passionate about reaching the next generation for Christ. We were very blessed to have him in service today. What I enjoyed most though is the opportunity to sit down with him at lunch. It is awesome to talk with like minded people when it comes to the future of the church. One of the things we talked about is simply our mindset to reaching people. The only way we can reach today's generation is through building relationships and being truly authentic. Some where along the way Christians have got a mindset that we should live in a bubble and get as far away from the world as possible. When I look at the ministry of Jesus and how the first church in the books of Acts ministered it was far from that. Chad is effectively reaching teenagers and business people today by going into the public schools and also speaking to highly influential business people. He is an example of building the bridge and thinking outside the box. I was truly blessed today and how you were too.

Visioneering

I am currently reading "Visioneering" by Andy Stanley and I just got done reading his chapter on warding off criticism. There are a few things that really hit me hard as I read this. First of all, every vision will have criticism. Whether that's vision for a church, vision for your relationships, vision for your future, etc. Vision is usually something that is not yet but someday will be. People are sometimes uncomfortable with change and the unknown. The Biblical example in the entire book of "Visioneering" is the story of Nehemiah. Nehemiah had a vision to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah knew what the walls represented to God's people and he had a dream of what should be. With Nehemiah's vision came criticism. People in the surrounding nations did not want the walls to be rebuilt, it was a threat to them. Even though Nehemiah faced criticism, he remained vision centered. The reason Nehemiah was able to remain vision centered was he prayed. Every time a criticism came to Nehemiah he went directly to the Lord. Here is what Andy says in his book,

"Our natural response to criticism is to defend ourselves. This is especially true when our vision is under attack. We are tempted to begin a dialogue with our critics or with those who are parroting their criticism. Consequently, we waste energy and thought trying to answer questions for people who are not really interested in the answers. Without realizing it, our focus begins to shift. Instead of being vision centered, we slowly become critic centered."

Ouch! I know for me personally my first response is to defend myself and try to dialogue with the criticism. The better thing to do is to pray and give it to my heavenly Father. That's what Nehemiah did. Because Nehemiah gave it to God, he didn't loose sight of the vision God gave him and eventually he was able to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. If you are facing criticism today for a vision that God has birthed in you, give that criticism to God and keep moving forward with the vision God gave you. It's not easy, but its God's plan that you stay on course!

Chad Varga

This Sunday we will be having special guest Chad Varga with us. Chad played college ball at the University of Pittsburgh, recruited by the Dallas Mavericks and played pro ball in Spain. He averaged over 20 points per game and was the Slam Dunk Champion at the Spain All Star Game. Chad has a powerful testimony he is going to share with us. Please make plans to attend and invite a friend.

Simple part 3

Yesterday we continued our Simple series as we talked about the word 'obey'. I know that this word is often misrepresented in church circles. The reason is we often get things backwards in the church. Jesus first started with the invitation to follow and as we follow we have a choice of whether or not to believe. For those of us who have believed that Jesus is who He claimed to be the next step is to obey. God's plan for each of us is to practice His teachings. God wants us to live out the things He taught. Matthew 5 through 7 is a great example. In these chapters Jesus was teaching some hard things to actually practice in this life. Things like, love your enemies, give generously, don't lust, go the extra mile when not asked, etc. At the end of chapter 7 Jesus closes with the parable of the wise and foolish builder. He basically says, if you do the things I just taught you will be like a wise man that built His house on the rock. When the rains, wind and the floods come, you will be able to stand. Jesus was giving us His teaching to actually protect us. The opposite of the person who does not practice His teaching was compared to a foolish man that built His house on sand. The house built on sand was destroyed because there was no foundation. Here is the point: Jesus wants us to obey, not to earn His love but simply because it is the wisest thing to do. When we actually live out God's Word we will be able to survive the storms of life. Obedience is not something God forces us to do against our will. It is something that as believers we want to do because it is the wise thing to do. I hope all of us are practicing the teachings of God's Word in our everyday life. Why? Because we all face storms one time or another. Let's be prepared for those storms by having the right foundation.