Understanding Misunderstanding

huh

Miscommunication is nothing new. From the dawn of history, people have always struggled to understand exactly what the other person was saying to them. That’s because we all have our own “accents”—our own way of getting our message across.

This is hard enough when trying to discuss something like politics, relationship likes/dislikes, or even movie preferences. But what about when you’re trying to communicate something intangible? Like your personal faith.

Most Christ-followers communicate their faith with the same “style” that they communicate their menu preferences, political persuasions, or music choices. But there is an added element of misunderstanding built in to the spiritual dimension. Even Jesus’ own disciples said “Huh?” many times to Him.

This Sunday, we begin a brand new series in our 6:00 PM service simply entitled Huh? We will be learning some very practical ways to communicate our faith to others by learning their unique communication style. If you have ever felt that you’re just not getting through, feel free to join us.

League Of Extraordinary Christians

Good friends of ours, Jeff & Becky Kennedy, were at church this morning. Jeff brought us a challenging word entitled “The League Of Extraordinary Christians.”

I love the narrative in Acts 4:13: When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Peter and John were ordinary men who walked with Jesus.

By ourselves, we are ordinary; Jesus is the extra.

Extra Time With Jesus + Ordinary Me =
Extraordinary Christian

Ordinary people don’t change their worlds. Ordinary churches don’t attract hungry, hurting people.

But extraordinary people and extraordinary churches are world changers!

I desire for 2009 to be an extraordinary year. I desire that people take note that I have been with Jesus.

Are you ready to spend that extra time with Jesus? Are you ready to be extraordinary this year?

All Means, Um, All

allWe started a new Sunday evening series called “All.” At least that’s the abbreviated title—the full title is “all the church taking all the gospel to all the world all the time by all the means necessary.”

Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-19). I am more and more amazed and disappointed in how this gets watered down…

  • “All the church can’t mean me because I’m nothing special.”
  • “All the gospel only means the part about ‘getting saved,’ right?”
  • “All the world is only for people who are called to be missionaries.”
  • “All the time is just for special ‘evangelical outreaches.’”
  • “All the means is just whatever happens in a typical church service.”

I checked Webster’s Dictionary and all means “wholly, entirely, completely.” I even checked my Greek Bible dictionary and discovered that all means, um, “all.” I think the problem comes from another word in that verse: therefore. If I don’t believe that I belong to Christ, then I’m not operating in all of His authority. If I’m not operating in His authority, I will more than likely find all the excuses I can to avoid being a part of the all Jesus intended.

Thank-Fullness Challenge

Write down 50 things for which you can give thanks

The Challenge: Write down 50 things for which you can give thanks

We began a new series on Sunday called “A Season Of Thanks,” by seeing how we have the ability to program our reticular activating system in our brains to allow in what we choose. If we are truly overflowing with thanks (thank-fullness) then we will see more things for which we can give thanks.

Here’s the challenge. We handed out the Full of thanks worksheet you see here, and I challenged everyone to write down 50 specific things for which they are thankful. I’ll admit to you that I had only filled in 23 blanks before my pen started slowing down, and by 36 I thought I was out of things for which I could give thanks. But then a quick look around and my pen started moving again and I could finish up all 50 blanks. I have so much for which I can give thanks!

How about you? Can you fill in all 50 blanks before Thanksgiving Day? Feel free to comment on what number you slowed down.