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.

Caleb's Birthday

Today is buddy boys birthday. He officially turns seven today. We will be having a party for him this afternoon with cake and presents. This picture was taking at his kindergarten graduation. I was so proud of him as he won the Principal's award for his class. The Principal's award is based on attitude and kindness to other classmates. Way to go bud! What can I say but I'm a proud parent.

Creative Meeting

We had our first creative meeting last night with a group of young people to talk about upcoming sermon series and ideas for what we can do. I was really excited with some of the ideas that we came up with as a collective team. In July we will be starting a series called "The New You". We will be discovering who we are in Christ. We will be going off theme of "What Not To Wear." I can't give away everything so just stayed tuned to find out all the exciting things we will be doing with this series.

Sunday Reflections

Summer has begun and boy could you ever tell at church today. This weekend seemed more like Memorial weekend then last. We had a lot of people gone at church. We had beautiful weather which probably meant people were out enjoying the sun.

Today we were in part two of our series called "Simple." Jesus Christ came to make God known. We all have a decision that whether or not we will believe that Jesus is the Christ of the Son of the living God. Romans 3 gives us a map of how we can come to belief in Jesus. I normally don't go verse by verse and explain what each verse means but I believe it was important that we understand what it means to come to faith in Christ. I encourage you to look Romans 3 for yourself and even try the new You Version website Bible. It has a lot of different versions to check out.

Flood

Yesterday was my moms birthday so we were headed to Des Moines but before we went I decided to stop by the church and I couldn't believe it but the church building had water in it once again. This time it was all in the sanctuary, the nursery and foyer. We just tiled all around the two buildings hoping it would solve this problem. I heard we had 4 inches in matter of a few minutes Friday morning. We called a cleaning crew and thankfully with a lot of fans and dehumidifiers we got it dried out. I am so thankful to those who came in today and helped put the church back together for Sunday. We are very blessed with great people who step in in a time of need. Thankfully we are all set for church tomorrow!

Quick Happenings

Lots of things going on lately. Here are just a few things;

- Had our work night last night- Cleaned up the storage area (What a mess!!!!!) Also did some painting in the new Sunday School rooms. Honestly, we could of used more help.

- Today is the first day of summer. (Kind of) The kids are officially out of school and I've already heard the famous sentence of summer, "I'm Bored!"

- Met with Heath Adamson today about the 7 Project. I'm really pumped about the 7 project coming to Montezuma. We have three schools booked including BGM and English Valley. The hard work begins now with prayer, getting the other churches on board and raising funds necessary.

- Also met with Vanna Bushong today. Vanna is going to help me out this summer with video projects and other projects in the church. Really excited about having an extra hand.

Missions Meeting

We had our missions meeting last night and I've got to say that it is always exciting giving money away. Our church was founded on the principle that missions is a priority. That is why we take 10% out of our general offering every week that goes towards missions on top of what is designated. Even when didn't have money to give, we gave and that is why I believe our church is blessed. Here are a few things that we did:

Gave $200 to the new church plant in West Des Moines
Gave $208 to the Key Bearers Ministry (Pentecostal Evangels to Prisons)
Gave $250 to one of our own church attendees missions trip
Gave $25 gift certificate to Walmart for graduation gift for Missionaries son.

Also we are starting a care package ministry for those overseas and college students and looking at possible visitation to nursery homes on a regular basis. I hope this gives everyone an idea of what we do with our Missions money. Every time we give towards missions it is making a difference.

New Look

I decided to give the blog a new look and new name this week. I've changed the name to "Hope Filled Thoughts" going off the name of our church Community Hope. I plan on blogging more as lately I haven't done a great job at keeping up. Let me know if you like the look and name or if you have any suggestions on what you would like to see on this blog.

Memorial Day Fun

Had a great day today just spending time with the family. We went to Diamond Lake and played on the playground, went fishing, took a hike and then ate a picnic lunch. I really cherish these times together as a family. We even took Maggie our dog with us!

SIMPLE

We started our new series called "Simple" today in church. I really feel that we often make the Gospel more complicated then it really is. When Jesus came to earth, He made it really simple on how we should follow Him.

Today I talked about the first step which is simply "Follow Me." The story we read was from Matthew 9 and the story of Matthew the tax collector. It is interesting that Jesus asked Matthew who was a tax collector and sinner of his time to follow. Jesus didn't say, 'get your act together' and then follow nor did He give him a bunch of rules that he had to obey before he could be a disciple. Jesus simply said "Follow Me". Somehow we have gotten this backwards in the church today. We think that people have to have it all together before they can follow. Some how we have thought that even church is for church people. The more I study Jesus the more I find that people unlike Jesus liked Him and those who were unlike Jesus were attracted to Him. Which makes me think that if we are true followers of Christ then those who are unlike us will like us and those who are not like us will be attracted to us.

Jesus extends the invitation for everyone to follow Him. As we follow, God begins to do a work in our hearts. But before He even has a chance, we must first start following. Let's remember that very important but simple step.

Children's Ministry Revamp

Tonight we had our first meeting on some of the changes in our children's ministry department. I feel that this is our number one priority right now as a church. We will be making changes to our nursery, starting a preschool ministry (3-5 year old) and also changing some of things in our Kids Church (K-5) I was a children's pastor for 10 years before entering adult ministry and I know the importance of a good kids ministry. I have seen first hand how a children's ministry can not only reach kids but also adults. There are nine references of Jesus ministering to children or referring to how we should be like children in the Bible. If Jesus thought it was important then so should we. There is a staggering statistic that says that when a kid is between the ages of 1-14 we have a 32% chance of reaching them. After they reach 18 that chance goes down to 4%. What should this teach us? We should try to reach people when they are young. In order to do this we need volunteers in all our children's department. We basically need to more then double our volunteers on Sunday morning. If you would like to be a part of reaching the next generation for Christ, we can definitely use you. Let's take the opportunity that God gives us and reach kids for the Kingdom of God.

Think like child

Sunday was definitely one of those wild days. We started at 9 a.m. with Baccalaureate at the school and then we had our own service at 10:30 a.m. Graduation was at 1 p.m. and then after parties all day. It was still great day as Pastor Keaton got the opportunity to speak at graduation and did a great job talking about becoming world changers. At church I talked about how to see life through the eyes of a child. Here are the four essentials in seeing life through the eyes of a child:

1. Walk in the wonder of worship

2. Trust with child like faith

3. Be bold and unashamed

4. Learn to walk in innocence.

At the end of the service we handed out little play-doh containers to remind our selves that being child like is not necessarily a bad thing. Jesus said if you want to be great in the kingdom than begin to see life in this way. I hope everyone has a great time playing with their play doh this week.

Mothers Day

I hope all the moms had a great Mothers Day yesterday. We had a great day in church as we had 154 in attendance! I challenged all of us to honor our mothers not just one day a year but honoring our moms and our dads on a regular basis. Remember the three A's of honor:

Acceptance: I accept that God chose you to raise me
Appreciation: I appreciate everything you have done for me
Affirmation: I affirm and respect you by listening and praying for you on a regular basis.

I hope most of us took the time to write our letter of honor which includes all three of these important things. I took my letter of honor to my mom yesterday after church. I could tell she was really touched. I hope your mom was too!

Drive Conference

Just back from Atlanta and the Drive Conference. What an amazing week of learning. I was privileged to bring the team with me this week and we even got the chance to meet Elvis. (As pictured). Every workshop and main sessions was just what I needed. I want to share with everyone five random thoughts that Andy Stanley shared about church and leadership.

1. "To reach people no one else is reaching, we must do things that no one else is doing." Wow, what a thought. As a church, let us not be satisfied with what we are currently doing but let us always find new ways to reach new people.

2. "The next generation product almost never comes from the previous generation." The takeaway is, we can either fight it or fund it? Are we willing to risk failure for the next generation? Let us not be critics, lets be students.

3. "What do we believe is impossible that could change our church." We must not put limits on God. He is the God of all possibilities!

4. "If we got kicked out of leadership and came back with fresh eyes, what would we change?" This is a good question as it is easy to become emotionally attached to the things we are comfortable with. Are we doing ministries and programs that are ineffective? What are manufacturing energy in? We must own up to the things that are not working and why they are not working?

5. "When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near." I've heard a lot of people say, "We need to go back when........." We can't be experts on the past. If the vision isn't driving the church then the past will. When the past is driving us then the end is near. We must always look towards the future and what God is in store. Vision comes from a burden within. What do we have a broken heart for? These are the things that should drive us into the future.

Andy closed by saying that the real issue in America is not the high price or gasoline or the war in Iraq or who will be the next president. The real issue of America is the heart. Only the Gospel of Jesus can penetrate the hearts of people. This should drive us as a church because we are ones with the incredibly important message. We carry the hope of Christ with us. Let us do what is necessary to continue to reach this generation for Christ.

Grace vs. Truth

Last Sunday I preached on Grace and Truth the real balance. I think if there is any area that the church and people can get unbalanced in, it is this subject. We can either side with grace in which we get this picture of God as a nice a cudly Granfather figure or we side with truth in which God becomes angry and always ready to strike us down. We look at God through these lenses, it affects who we are, how we live and how we treat other people. John 1:14 says that Jesus came to this world full of Grace and Truth. Jesus wasn't just full of one or the other. He was full of both. At times Jesus showed grace and other times He showed truth. John 8 is a great example of how Jesus showed both in one situation when there was a women who was caught in adultery. Jesus showed the woman grace by telling her that He did not condemn her but He also pointed her to truth by telling her to go and sin no more. Jesus first showed grace in order to point her to truth.

In our culture, we need to show people grace in order to point them to truth. People don't care what we have to say unless they know that we first care. The only way we can do this is by building relationships with those that need both grace and truth. If you are a parent, it means building that relationship with your child. If you are teacher, it means building that relationship with that student. If you have a person that you want to reach for Christ, it means building that relationship with that person no matter their lifestyle or opinions are. Let us learn how to show grace so that we can point people to truth. Remember it's not one or the other, it is both. Go walk in grace and truth!

District Council

Just got back from a week of District Council. I will have to say that this was probably the best Council we have had in a long time. Ron McManus was the special guest speaker. Ron pastored a church in North Carolina and the church grew from 300 to 3000 while he was there. He then went on to start Injoy with none other then John Maxwell. John Maxwell is known for his many books on leadership. Wednesday nights service was awesome as Ron talking about getting to the top of the mountain. When we don't make it to the top, we later regret not making the trip. Many leaders stop short feeling its just way too hard. Ministry is not always easy as there will always be ups and downs. But the key is holding on to the promises of God and allowing God to speak to you in the times you feeling like giving up. When we hold on and make it to the top, we will be glad we made the trip. (And don't forget to bring others along with you!)

Also, congrats to Pastor Keaton who received his credentials Wednesday night. We love you bro!

Variety is a good thing!

I'm taking this Sunday off from preaching and handing the pulpit to Gary Smith. Gary was one of the originals that started the church. I've got to be honest, I'm looking forward to taking this Sunday off. When I preach for so many consecutive Sundays I get a little burned out. I'm always fired back up the next week when I preach. I think it is good to have variety in the pulpit as well. It is good to hear numerous voices and we are very blessed at Community Hope to have several people who could do just as good of a job as me. I know we will be blessed as Gary is ending our series on God at the Movies with Lord of the Rings.

God at the Movies

We are in the middle of a series right now called, "God at the movies." I got this idea from Mark Batterson who is the pastor of a church in Washington DC. Every year he does a series on some current and past movies. When you think about it, when Jesus taught He always used illustrations that were current to His day. In 2008 we live in media centered culture. Most everybody goes to the theater or rents a movie. Why not take current cultural movies and bring out the spiritual principles in them? Easter we did Narnia and last week we did Evan Almighty. Two great movies! I'm looking forward to this week as I am doing "Meet the Robinsons." Gary Smith will conclude this series with "Lord of the Rings." Take the opportunity to invite a friend to this series.

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter Weekend. The Easter Egg Hunt was a success as we had over 300 kids register. We filled over 12,000 eggs! We even made the front page of the paper this week. Thanks to everyone who helped make the Easter Egg Hunt a success.

On Easter Sunday we had 193 people in service. We kicked off our new series called God at the Movies. We will be taking four popular movies and bringing out some spritual truths from each of them. I'm praying that many of our guest will be back this coming week.