Did yesterday's post leave you wanting more? How to stay Relevant

Did yesterday's post leave you wanting more?  I hope so...  

How do we become irrelevant, is the question asked by the best-selling author and church leader Rick Warren. By answering this question, we will find how to move forward and stay relevant.

Never stop learning. Leaders are learners. Always ask the right question!

 

A Must See Video - Eight Nations of Innovations

Here is a must see video that has helped me so much during the re-enter time of my sabbatical.  Innovation often comes from asking the right questions, according to best-selling author and church leader Rick Warren who referred to his list of essential questions as the "Eight Nations of Innovation"

Never stop learning. Leaders are learners. Always ask the right questions.

A reflection from the message today at NRN - The Called

A reflection from the message today at NRN:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee. He preached God’s good news.  “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Turn away from your sins and believe the good news!”

One day Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee. There he saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were throwing a net into the lake. They were fishermen.  “Come. Follow me,” Jesus said. “I will make you fishers of people.”

 At once they left their nets and followed him.

Then Jesus walked a little farther. As he did, he saw James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat preparing their nets. Right away he called out to them. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men. Then they followed Jesus.

                                                                                                          Mark 1:14-20 (NIRV)


When Jesus called Peter ( from the Gospel of Luke - the Bible mini-series)




I shared this reading as part of my message today:
A good friend, Chris Conrad shared this in a church planters training guide:

I’ve had the privilege of spending most of my life in what most people would call “successful ministry situations.”  I’m humbled by the fact that I’ve had the privilege of being used by God to lead “successful,” high-paced, life-changing ministry.  I know what it is like to feel like I’m going Mach 2 above the desert floor, having the time of my life as God pours out more blessings that we could ever deserve. To Him be the praise!

 I also know what it’s like to crawl in the sand on that very same desert floor. To have sand in your hair, in your mouth, in your eyes…longing, pleading for a drink of refreshing ministry…but nothing comes.  And all you can hear are the sounds of planes overhead as the break the sound barrier with their fast-paced, awe-inspiring, high-profile ministries.

 That’s what a tough ministry challenge feels like. Crawling in the sand of the desert floor while others fly high overhead.

 The temptation to give up is intense. So is the temptation to develop “ministry envy.” To look at others who, for whatever reason, have been given easier ministry assignments and ask, “What’s up with this, God?”

There have been times like this in my ministry.  Since 1991 I have gone back to a song a number of times to encourage myself in the Lord and be reminded of the call of God upon my life.  Here is that song:






          What is the call of Jesus upon your life?

Here is a great bonus today:  Please take time to watch this great clip about a recent presentation of the song "For the Sake of the Call":

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Preparing for Worship on Sunday March 16 - Pastor Rick is back from Sabbatical!

Pastor Rick is back from sabbatical!

 

I am so excited about our time together at North Raleigh Church of the Nazarene!  I am so thankful for the awesome Sabbatical Preaching Team that has served for the past six weeks.  My time away has truly been filled with rest, relaxation, renewal and reflection.  Over the past 6 weeks I have travelled over 5,000 miles; interviewed 6 pastors; attended an awesome one day conference in Atlanta, Ga.; worshipped in 8 different churches - over 6 weeks; received several gifts from churches as a first time guest; read 4 books; enjoyed an entire week wearing sweats and enjoying sleeping late every day; played with my grand children; and created a short journal of the lessons learned and ideas for the years of ministry ahead.

 

This past week I have spent the final week of sabbatical in a time of re-entry.  I am very stoked about preaching tomorrow.  Come and see if there is any change in my preaching style. Why not call a friend and encourage them to join you tomorrow at NRN!  I believe God has given to me a life-changing message!

 

Tomorrow I launch a new teaching series: 

 

 

Here is the planned song list for our time in worship:

 

 

 

We begin with a loud shout of praise to our Great God!

 



Let's quiet our heart before the Lord and prepare for prayer...

God longs for us to not only lift our voices in songs and words of worship but also to quiet our hearts before Him and speak to Him in prayer.  Prayer is a means of grace that God uses to sanctify His church. A praying church becomes a different church. Through prayer we become more like Jesus, we take on God's values, and we come to see that God really does reward "those who earnestly seek Him." ( Hebrews 11:6).  The less we pray, the more disconnected from God we become. The more seriously we pray, the greater our chance to become what we were called to be: the body of Christ!


Hear the Word of the Lord:   Mark 1:14-20

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee. He preached God’s good news. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Turn away from your sins and believe the good news!”

One day Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee. There he saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were throwing a net into the lake. They were fishermen.  “Come. Follow me,” Jesus said. “I will make you fishers of people.”

 At once they left their nets and followed him.

Then Jesus walked a little farther. As he did, he saw James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat preparing their nets. Right away he called out to them. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men. Then they followed Jesus.

Friday - Funny: Do Las Vegas Churches accept gambling chips?

Here is a little something funny that was sent to me by a friend this week. Check it out:

 

 

Do Las Vegas Churches accept gambling chips?

 THIS MAY COME AS A SURPRISE TO THOSE OF YOU NOT LIVING IN LAS VEGAS, BUT THERE ARE MORE CATHOLIC CHURCHES THAN CASINOS.

 NOT SURPRISINGLY, SOME WORSHIPERS AT SUNDAY SERVICES WILL GIVE CASINO CHIPS RATHER THAN CASH WHEN THE BASKET IS PASSED.

 SINCE THEY GET CHIPS FROM MANY DIFFERENT CASINOS, THE CHURCHES HAVE DEVISED A METHOD TO COLLECT THE OFFERINGS.

 THE CHURCHES SEND ALL THEIR COLLECTED CHIPS TO A NEARBY FRANCISCAN MONASTERY FOR SORTING AND THEN THE CHIPS ARE TAKEN TO THE CASINOS OF ORIGIN AND CASHED IN.

THIS IS DONE BY THE CHIP MONKS.

YOU DIDN'T EVEN SEE IT COMING DID YOU?



Pro Football was my god - a testimony from Derwin Gray

While on Sabbatical I visited several great churches.  One church was Transformation Church located just outside of Ft. Mill, S.C. in Indian Land, S.C. 

Here is the testimony of the founding pastor: Derwin Gray. It is printed in this month's edition of Christianity Today Magazine:

Pro Football Was My god

Growing up on the west side of San Antonio, I believed in god—the god of football. The game was my ticket out of an early life saturated with violence, addiction, abuse, and chaos.

I was raised by my grandmother, because my parents were only teenagers when I was born. They were children bringing a child into the world. As much as they wanted to care for me, the hurt and brokenness in their lives prevented them. "Grannie" was a Jehovah's Witness, so that was the religion I knew. After a while, even that went away.

We were not poor. We were "po." We couldn't afford the other o and r. We didn't eat meals together. We didn't pray together. There were good times, like when we'd go fishing or when my grandfather would come home after work in the evenings. By the time I was 13, however, I looked at my environment and told my grandmother, "I'm going to do something with my life."

Football was my way out of the hell I was living in. I believed it would lift me into the heaven of the American dream.

Football functioned as my savior. It gave me love: If I played well, I was loved by fans. It gave me an identity: I was Derwin, the football player. It gave me significance: I was somebody because I was a great player. And football gave me a mission. My mission was this: Derwin, you can go to college and make something of your life.

Running from Naked Preacher

During my sophomore year of high school, I started to do just that. I transferred to Judson High School in Converse, a suburb of San Antonio, where I played for D. W. Rutledge, the Texas High School Hall of Fame coach. My senior year, I accepted a football scholarship to Brigham Young University (BYU). So, you have a black kid from a lower socioeconomic, multiethnic context with a Jehovah's Witness religious background (whose god is football) attending a Mormon university.

On January 15, 1990, during my freshman year at BYU, I met a beautiful young lady named Vicki Ensign. She was a javelin thrower on the track team. We fell in love fast and married on May 23, 1992, during my senior year. The first wedding I had ever attended was my own.

At BYU, my god had come through for me. I had an outstanding career and later was named to BYU football's "All Time Dream Team." Plus, I was loved at the school. I had the girl of my dreams. I was making something out of my life. On April 25, 1993, I was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts to strong safety. I had made it!

Then I met the Naked Preacher, a linebacker for the Colts in 1993.

It was impossible not to notice a linebacker who would take a shower, dry off, wrap a towel around his waist, pick up his Bible, and ask those of us in the locker room, "Do you know Jesus?" I would think, Do you know you are half-naked?

I asked the veterans on the team about him. They said, "Don't pay attention to him. That's the Naked Preacher."

At this point in my life, I did not want anything to do with Jesus or a half-naked man talking about him, so I tried to avoid him. One day after practice, I was sitting at my locker and saw the Naked Preacher (whose real name is Steve Grant) walking toward me.

"Rookie D. Gray, do you know Jesus?" he asked.

I pretended to not hear him and turned my back. He repeated the question, but this time he was at my locker. Even though I was not a churchgoer or involved in any religious group, I gave what I thought was a very religious answer: "I'm a good person."

I explained to Steve that I was one of the only men in my family who had not been to jail, who did not have a substance abuse problem, who had graduated from high school and college, and who did not have a child outside of marriage.

The Naked Preacher opened up his Bible and shared two verses with me: "And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone'" (Mark 10:18, ESV); and, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).

Steve explained that according to the Bible, only God is good; he is the standard of goodness and righteousness. Everyone else has sinned and falls short. This disturbed me.

I said, "Naked man, you are telling me that my moral comparison is to God and not to other people?" He said, "Yes."

"God is perfect! What can I do to be perfect?" He answered, "Nothing."

I said, "I'm in big trouble."

"Rookie D. Gray," he said, "now you are starting to get it. You can't do anything to reach a perfect God. But Jesus has done everything for the perfect God to come down and reach you."

I sat in silence. I needed time to think through what he was saying and what I was experiencing in my heart.

Left with Nothing

Over the next five years, I watched Steve live out the gospel. When my teammates needed advice, they were at the Naked Preacher's locker. Steve was involved in the greater Indianapolis community. He displayed Jesus in the way he loved his wife and children. He preached through his words and actions.

As the Naked Preacher preached, God's love crushed me. I had achieved the American dream, only to realize it could not empower me to love my wife or forgive my father. My fame and money could not erase my sin, shame, guilt, fear, and insecurity.

Then, between 1995 and 1997, I started getting injured on the field. When a professional athlete's body starts to fail, he knows his career is coming to an end. I was letting my god—football—down. I was unable to serve it.

My body was how I made my living. As it began to give out, I was stripped of everything I thought gave me meaning. I was left with nothing, even though I seemingly had everything.

On August 2, 1997, after lunch at training camp for my fifth season with the Indianapolis Colts, I walked to my dorm room at Anderson University in central Indiana. As I walked, I sensed an emptiness and brokenness like I had never experienced. When I got to my room, I immediately picked up the phone and called my wife. "I want to be more committed to you," I said. "And I want to be committed to Jesus."

At that moment I realized that God loved me. Not because I could run fast or jump high or because I was good, or even for what I could give him. I realized that as Jesus hung on the cross, I was forever loved and accepted by God. I realized my sin had been erased by Jesus' blood. It was as if I could see for the first time. That day I got infected with a virus called grace. The symptoms are now full-blown.

Ongoing Story

In the fall of 1999, I retired from the nfl after six seasons. I then began to travel to youth events and churches to speak about God's love. This itself was a miracle, not only because of my background but also because from an early age I had been a compulsive stutterer. All my wife and I knew was that Jesus loved us and that if he could transform my life, he could transform anyone's. So I took every invitation I received to share my testimony.

Eventually Jesus gave me a love for his bride, the church. My wife and I sensed deeply that we were being called to plant a church that reflects the diversity of the eternal kingdom and the New Testament churches of the first century (Rev. 5:9–12; Eph. 2:14–22).

On February 7, 2010, alongside many faith-energized, love-filled people, we launched Transformation Church, a multiethnic, multigenerational, missional church in Indian Land, South Carolina. According to Lifeway Research and Outreach Magazine, Transformation was one of the fastest-growing U.S. churches in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

This is my story of grace, one that Jesus continues to write to this day.


Derwin Gray is the author of Limitless Life: You Are More Than Your Past When God Holds Your Future (Thomas Nelson). Get the first chapter free at LimitlessLifeBook.com.

From Issue:  March 2014, Vol. 58, No. 2, Pg. 80, "Pro Football Was My God"
 

Prayer that produces Power - A primer for prayer at NRN this evening

Tonight at 6:30 many will gather in Room 133 for a time of prayer at NRN.

Here is a great primer for the time of prayer.  Take a piece of paper and jot down these great promises.


Dr. Denny Davis and Dr. H. B London are two retired pastors who serve and share the preaching responsibility at Friendship Church in Sun City Palm City, Ca.  This message was presented on Sunday February 2, 2014.


Pastor Rick returns from his sabbatical leave this coming Sunday.  Please pray for the anointing of God to fall upon the preaching of God's Word this Sunday. Plan to attend and invite others to join you for a great day as we welcome Pastor Rick back to NRN!