What a great week we had at Sports Camp! Here are some of the pics I promised. Make sure you come this Sunday for our special awards ceremony. The kids will be singing the songs they learned plus we will show a video of the week.

Sports Camp

Sports Camp is officially underway! We've had a great couple of days so far. Yesterday we had 44 kids and today we had 54. Thanks to all those who are helping out and making it a great week so far. I will try to post some pictures if I can.

Planted Seeds

Yesterday I got the chance to slip away and go to Des Moines to celebrate my bests friends accomplishment of being recruited to the Des Moines Fire Department. My buddy and I have been best best friends since kindergarten. While I was there I got to see some old friends from high school. One of these friends I had worked on and witnessed too about Jesus the four years in school. Sometimes it just seemed like a dead end. A couple years ago I saw him for the first time and I could tell that he was searching for something but had not yet crossed that line of faith. I once again was given the opportunity to share with Him about God's love. Well yesterday at the party my old friend came up to me and told me I would never believe that he had become a believer and was actively involved in a church. He and his wife had also been baptized together as well! He is even serving in his church's VBS this week. WE SERVE AN AWESOME GOD! My point is sometimes we may not see the fruit for our witness at the time but the seed has been planted in those that we share. I wasn't the one that harvested the fruit of my friend but I was able to plant the seed years ago in his life. How rewarding it is to see the seed grow and have someone come to faith in Christ.

Power of the Spirit

Yesterday we wrapped up our series on "Help Wanted". Yesterday was one of those challenging messages I believe for some of our people. We covered Acts 2 and the day of Pentecost. Three things happened on the day of Pentecost.

1. Given a new language
2. Given boldness
3. Given a heart to share with other people

I believe that God's Holy Spirit will do the same three things in our lives as well. When someone is filled with God's power they will receive a new language, they will be given boldness and they will be given a heart to share with other people. One of the things that stands out to me in this passage is it says that when the followers were filled with the Holy Spirit, the crowd that had gathered and witnessed this were "amazed and perplexed". I believe that Holy Spirit is amazing and perplexing at times. Our God is a supernatural God and will do supernatural things. We cannot fit God into our image and try to explain everything there is about Him and what He can do. The power of the Holy Spirit is a supernatural gift and is given to those who seek it. It is available so that we can receive empowerment from on high. This Thursday we will be giving opportunities for those who would like to receive this gift. Come for a time of worship and seeking God. I believe it will be a wonderful time in God's presence.

Camping Idea

Last weekend I took my family camping to Iowa Lake. We had a great time with the kids at the beach and also took a paddle boat on the lake. While we were there I noticed that the lake does a lot of family activities. One of the activities is they show an outdoor movie for the campers. They have built an outdoor theater screen and campers can bring their blankets and lawn chairs and watch a movie in the evening. As I was there, this thought came to me.....What if we built an outdoor theater behind our church? We can host family movie nights for the community and show some good wholesome movies. I presented this to some of our team members on Monday Night and they thought it was a good idea and are looking at plans on how we can build the screen. Let me know your thoughts, do you think Family Movie Nights would go well in the community?

Only True Church?

I don't know how many of you read the newspapers or watch the news but last week the Pope came out with a pretty bold statement. Here is the quote from MSN.com:

"In the latest document — formulated as five questions and answers — the Vatican seeks to set the record straight on Vatican II’s ecumenical intent, saying some contemporary theological interpretation had been “erroneous or ambiguous” and had prompted confusion and doubt.
It restates key sections of a 2000 document the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, “Dominus Iesus,” which set off a firestorm of criticism among Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the “means of salvation.”
In the new document and an accompanying commentary, which were released as the pope vacations here in Italy’s Dolomite mountains, the Vatican repeated that position.
“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church,” the document said. The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles."

Basically this statement is saying that the Catholic church is the only true church and all other churches are not the "means of salvation." This is a pretty bold and scary statement from the Catholic church. First of all, no church can bring salvation to anyone. Only Jesus Christ can do that. It is not faith in a church but faith in Jesus that brings true salvation. Jesus clearly said, "I am the way, the truth and life, no one comes to the Father except through me." Jesus did not say, the Catholic church was the way, the truth and the life. When you take a look at the Catholic church there are many doctrinal errors that are outside the Word of God. First of all, they believe in a purgatory (place where people go after they die and the saints basically pray them into heaven.) They also believe in praying to other saints besides in the Name of Jesus. Many Catholics pray to Mary as if she was a god. Thirdly, the Catholic church has established the Apacrapha books that are added to the Bible. Scripture clearly tells us to not add or subtract to the Word. Scripture tells us that in the last days, many will try to deceive us from believing the true truth of Jesus Christ.

I believe that we need to stay away from groups that claim to put your faith in their church and their particular teachings. Jesus never put His faith in institutions but rather simple faith in Him.

If you missed this past Sunday, we started a new series called "Help Wanted." We are talking about how we can receive guidance from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is such a vital part of our walk with God. Without Him, we could not do it. Jesus said it was to "our advantage that the Helper would come." Over the next few weeks we will be talking about how the Holy Spirit can help us with our walk with God. I am excited to see what God is going to do in the coming weeks!

Conflict Resolution

Spent all day yesterday in Des Moines for District Meetings. The District has appointed me as a part of a Church Health Team. It is pretty exciting to think and strategize how we can plant new churches and revitalize others. While we were there Glenn Reynolds did a teaching session on conflict management. It was really good so I wanted to share some of the points that he made.

There is a good way to handle conflict and then there is a bad way to handle conflict. If conflict is handled in a bad way it can result in 1) Damage to individuals 2) Loss of personnel 3) Damage to organizational trust 4) Loss of learning opportunity 5) Root of bitterness. These are five costs of poor conflict resolution. If conflict is handled the right way then; 1) Surface key issues and tensions 2)Build relational currency 3) Produce new and creative ideas 4) Cause organizations to re-evaluate and clarify goals and mission. 5) Allows for experiential learning. I have been on both sides of conflict and believe me, I would rather be on the healthy side then the unhealthy side of conflict.

So how do we resolve conflict? One way is use the triangle of Satisfaction. On the top of the triangle is the "What?". What is the tip of the iceberg? What is the conflict about? After you deal with the what, we then need to deal with the "Why?". Why did this conflict happen? Is there any Psychological or Emotional Issues behind this? One District Leader met with a board member who gave all his pastors a hard time. Each pastor ended up leaving the church because of this particular board member. Finally, a District official asked the board member if he ever met a pastor that he actually liked. The board member replied, "Yes, one and that pastor molested me when I was a child." The "Why?" behind why that board member was so mean to all his pastors was because of something that happened to him as a child and to this day he could not trust any pastor. Usually in conflict, there is an issue behind the issue. We need to discover the "Why?" of conflict. The final stage is the "How?". How do we resolve this issue or heal the past? In other words, how can we move forward? Is there issues that we need to deal with in our past? Do we need to go and ask for forgiveness to someone? Do we need to forgive the past? Conflict is not resolved unless we move forward from it.

I hope this helps anyone with dealing with issues of conflict. Conflict affects our marriages, our family and our churches. If we know how to deal with conflict when it comes, it will be a lot less painful when it happens.

Community 4th of July Service

Today we had our community service on the lawn of the courthouse. It is truly amazing that all the churches in our area can get together and worship, especially on the court house lawn of all places. What incredible freedom we have here in the United States. There are many nations that surround us that do not have the freedom to worship as we do. I know there are a lot of things wrong with our nation, but let us also be thankful for the things that we have. I am thankful for the right to go to church, play worship music in the great outdoors, and hear the Word of God preached without being scared of the government coming and arresting us or even killing us. Praise be to God! Let us be thankful for the freedom's God has given us.

Looking to be used

I was standing in Casey's yesterday talking to one of the members in our church when a gentlemen came in with no shirt, shoes and socks. He was buying some cigarettes and you could tell he was pretty distraught. He went on to say that he just got out of jail and was told he had to walk home with no shoes. (His home was about 20 miles away.) I told him that I was a pastor of the church right across the street that I could find him a shirt. I was able to take him to the church, find a shirt that was exactly his size but no shoes. I then called Virgil Scott who is in charge of our food bank and clothing shelter and he happened to be home and said he had some shoes his size as well. What was the best part of all was I was able to pray for this gentlemen and then invite him to our Celebrate Recovery ministry. I don't know if he will come or not, but I was able to plant the seed.

What do you think?

This has been passed on to me by several people in our church and I wondered if anyone had thoughts on it.
National ID Cards/REAL ID Act & Prophecy in the News
"A few weeks ago I heard something from a televised Christian news channel that sent me reeling. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, so I spent a few minutes one morning verifying the information. My husband shook his head at me when I told him about my findings… he had known about it for some time. Where have I been? Hmmm, have you been in the dark with me?The House and the Senate are debating immigration bills that include provisions broadening the uses of REAL ID cards and licenses, which do not exist yet. Both bills create a national employment eligibility verification system, which would use REAL ID cards for identification and eligibility. The Senate bill forbids the use of non REAL ID cards in the verification system after 2013. Both bills permit the DHS Secretary to prohibit the use of certain documents for employment verification. This would give the DHS Secretary the power to mandate the use of national ID card,such as REAL ID card, as the sole acceptable document for employment eligibility in the US. The US Congress has passed the REAL ID Act of 2005 which mandates federal requirements for driver’s licenses and state compliance by May 2008. If the Department of Homeland Security Secretary doesn’t grant a state an extension to meet the certification requirements, then by May 11, 2008 if your state hasn’t met the requirements—you will not be entering a courthouse, onto a plane, receiving federal benefits such as SS or Medicare. Do you get the idea of where this may be heading? DHS contemplates using the REAL ID system as part of its Federal border security program and would like to know how States could incorporate long-range radio frequency identification (RFID) technology into the REAL ID card so that it could be used as part of the Western HemisphereTravel Initiative. What does the next 5 years hold? Will we be “chipped” or have some sort of bar-code for a scanner to “read us” just to have the liberty to hold a job or drive a car? What else? Come quickly Lord, Jesus!

We know what the Bible says about end times and that everyone will be forced to take the mark on the head or arm. Could this be the mark the Bible prophecy's about? We do know for sure that Jesus is going to return soon. All the signs are here so let's be prepared.

Sunday

Another Sunday in the books! We had more in the early service then the second service which was different from most Sundays. I think everybody wanted to get to the races. I finished our series today on the "Sickness Within". I finished by talking about envy. Envy is one of those things we don't talk about much yet we deal with it all the time. At least I know I do. I've really had to search my own heart this week as there are times that I can become envious of other pastors or churches. It is easy to look at others and play the compare game or the what if game. God has shown me in the Word to learn to be content with "Who I am" and "What He has given me." Along with celebrating the successes of others that I envy, I believe that envy can loose its grip on our hearts. I hope this series has been a help to all to clear our hearts of some of the junk that clogs it up so quickly.

Indy Cars

Friday I took Caleb to the track in Newton to see the Indy Cars. Thanks to the Bushong family for the tickets and Victor for showing us around. I was amazed on how loud those cars can get. I think Caleb thought it was pretty cool but possibly a little too loud for him. I should have brought him some ear plugs. The top speed while we were there was 182 miles an hour. I can't imagine going that fast! Probaby the best part was we were able to go down to where the cars have their pit stop. It was pretty cool to see the cars up close. I've never been a racing fan it was awesome to see the look on Caleb's face as he got to see some real racing cars for the first time. It was good day all and all.

Scary Thought

I've been thinking about a post from my friend Glenn Reynold's blog; here is what he says'
"Most Christians are a major tragedy away from giving up on their faith. I think it's true. Here's an even scarier thought--Many Christians are a minor inconvenience away from giving up their faith, or at least their church. If something goes wrong in a relationship, if the worship music isn't right, if someone doesn't call them back then they can easily give up church altogether. How do we build more commitment into the hearts of people?"

Good thought! It seems that some people tend to give up on their faith or church because of simple inconveniences. I think Satan sometimes works in the small ways more then the big ways. He knows that if he can get a person offended, busy, or away from the Word and prayer, he has a great advantage of getting people to slip from their faith. As a pastor, I've seen this far too many times. As my friend Glenn said in his blog, "How do we build more commitment in the hearts of people?"

Van Ministry

Today we start our new van ministry to the community. We will start out by offering rides from Monte to Grinnell for those who may need rides for medical appointments once month. This has been a need in our community as many people here do not have the transportation to get to a larger city. We are praying that God will use this to touch people by meeting their physical needs. If you take a look at scripture, you will notice that this is how Jesus often ministered. Jesus often met the needs physically before He met the needs spiritually. For example, Jesus healed the sick, turned water into wine and fed the 5,000. Jesus understood that if you want to touch the heart you must meet the outside physical needs first. As a body, let's look for ways to meet the physical needs of the people around us and as we do this, we will pray that their hearts will be open to the spiritual need as well.

Happy Fathers Day

Yesterday was Father's Day so the family and I went to IA City to celebrate by eating lunch at the Olive Garden and going to the mall. My kids got me a shirt that says coolest dad on it, pretty cool! All in all it was a great day to spend with the family. I hope all you dads out there had a great day as well.

The sickness of Greed

Continuing our series on the sickness within, and my message Sunday was on Greed. We often don't think of greed as being a sickness but Jesus identified it as an issue of the heart. In fact, Jesus taught more about money and possessions then He did faith. I often wonder why people get upset when you talk about money in church when Jesus sure talked about it a whole bunch. Money and possessions can easily consume us. So what is the cure for greed? Naturally it should be giving. Sunday I used the illustration of the cantaloupe. God has given us all cantaloupe. (Some large piles, some medium, and some small.) The pile of cantaloupe doesn't matter, what matters is what you are doing with it. God says to give a portion of your cantaloupe back to Him. Scripture calls it the tithe. (10% of the increase.) God is always a God of firsts in the Bible. (Firstborn, First fruits, etc.) God says give to Him first. In other words don't eat the cantaloupe which is rightfully His. Adam and Eve ran into this problem in the Garden of Eden. They ate of the fruit that God said was His. Because of their sin, Adam and Eve were cursed. When we eat of the fruit that God has given us, we are throwing away the seeds of blessing that God wants to pour out on our lives. When we decide to give God our firsts, we are scattering seeds of blessings on our lives. Time and time again, the Bible promises us that if we give, God will take care of us. Malachi tells us that we will not have enough room to receive the blessings that God has if we give to Him first. So the question for all of us is, what are we doing with the cantaloupe that God has given us. Are we being greedy and holding it dear to our hearts, or our we giving back a portion that is rightfully Gods? When we give, greed's grip lets go and we set ourselves up for the blessings of God.

Church Planting

We had our church planting meeting once again in Iowa City today. Pastor Keaton got to be there for the first time which I was really excited about. Today we talked about Self-Awareness leadership. This was really good for me as we talked about how God can you a crisis in our ministry and use it to shape us and our church. To be honest, I'm not to fond of crisis' and I especially hate conflict. (I usually run from it.) What is amazing though is through a crisis situation, we grow closer to God and rely on Him more. Isn't that what God wants from us as leaders? I'm amazed that it is usually a crisis situation that ministry emerges and God births something new if I'm relying on Him and not myself. So instead of running, I need to embrace and let God do what He needs to do. This only happens through prayer and servanthood. It is through this process that God usually works on our character and shapes us to be more like Him. This is the ultimate goal of every leader.

Caleb turns 6

Wow, I can't believe my buddy boy is turning six today. Time seems to fly. I will never forget the moment the doctor told us that we had a boy. A lot of emotions that day. First of all, Caleb's middle name is Donald after my dad. My dad wouldn't be more prouder of having a Jones boy. I was the last one in the family to carry on the name. ( I know that sounds weird since there are so many Jones' but in my family blood line, I was the last one.) Now we have Caleb and Ethan! Tonight we will be having a birthday party with lots of Disney Cars stuff. It will be a lot of fun!

Celebrate Recovery

It's almost been a year that God birthed Celebrate Recovery in our church. I will have to say, it's been a roller coaster since we started. I will never forget the conversation I had with the leader of the Celebrate Recovery leader in Des Moines when he told me that it was going to be a spiritual battle. Boy was he right! I was encouraged last night not by the numbers but by the Spirit. There always seems to be a sweet Spirit in Celebrate Recovery. Props goes to Fawnda Roberts for sharing her experiences this week. It was really encouraging. Who knows what God is going to do in the following months with CR, but I know God is not finished.