The Five Renewals

The Five Renewals
Personal ∙ Relational ∙ Missional ∙ Structural ∙ Cultural
Based on talks by Rick Warren
If you are being led to change the way your church serves God’s purposes, it is helpful to understand the process of renewal.  Many leaders want to start by changing the structure of their church.  However, this can be destructive for you, your leadership and your church.  People don’t like to change unless their hearts have been warmed and prepared for change.  We believe that when God wants to work in a church he takes it through five renewals. [Read more...]

Share

Awesome Sunday!!!

Services located at the Fine Arts Building on the campus of LSSU

I am very excited about this weekend’s services.  We are so blessed that our music will be lead by the Irish worship band Bluetree.  I have had the opportunity to hear and meet these men of faith.  They don’t come to put on a concert for us Sunday morning but to lead us in a time of worship to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  I know that you will be blessed as they lead us in worship.  They will also be putting on a concert at 6pm on Sunday sharing much of their popular Christian music.

Bluetree coming alone is very exciting but to add even more blessing to the service is our other special guest that we will be interviewing during the service.  [Read more...]

Share

Time Management

“To everything there is a season.  A time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; a time to….”

No, I’m not quoting the lyrics to a song from The Byrds but from the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3.  In this passage we are told there is a time for everything.  I started to think about time this morning.  How much “time” do you give to thinking about your time management?  I’m not talking about being to work on time, following you to do list but I am thinking about how much we make the things of God a priority in our time management. [Read more...]

Share

Transformation

I started reading a new book today called “Transformational Church” by Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer.  I’m only about a chapter into the book and it already got me thinking about this term “transformation”.  I think this is a term we all like.  We like the idea of being transformed.  But it is curious that we don’t like that other word that has similar meaning—change.  The authors talk about how the concept of transformation is something followers of Christ treasure.  At the heart of the Christian message is radical change because the power of the Gospel changes everything—lives, churches and our communities.  In fact, “the truth is that transformation is non-negotiable for the Christian church.

So all of us who have had the veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord.  Ad the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.   – 2 Corinthians 3:18 [Read more...]

Share

From my laptop

Happy midweek!  What an awesome rainy day.  I think God was really blessing me today by sending this rain.  First of all I always feel productive on rainy days.  Second, it seems like everything slows down a bit.  Finally I like these rainy days because I can’t mow the law tonight!  My wife may disagree on that last one.

We had a great time in worship this past Sunday.  I appreciated the sermon Jonny shared with us, the great time of worship though music and the fellowship.  I am really looking forward to gathering again this Sunday with each of you to worship our awesome God.  My prayer is that you are worshiping him daily and preparing your hearts for what He has for you this week. [Read more...]

Share

Thoughts of the week

Memorial Day meat tray...mmm, mmm, good.

I hope you all had a great week.  We are just a couple days away from Sunday and coming together as a family to worship Almighty God.  I am thankful for such a great God, His love, mercy and grace.  When I think of all He has, is and is about to do for me I get very excited to join with other followers of Christ and worship together. [Read more...]

Share

Keeping Focused

By: Pastor Chad McDonald

Pastor Chad and Pastor Luis

Pastor Chad and Pastor Luis

As God continues to bless our church and we see so many new people I have felt the necessity to step back and ask God what I need to keep focused on as the pastor and what the church needs to be focused on.   The obvious answer is to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and be led by His Holy Spirit.  This is what we want to continue to do.

The church board has approved for me to take the month of June off from preaching to focus on some other important areas that need my attention in the church.

1. Work with church leadership to lay out organizational needs in the church.  As we continue to grow and expand our ministry we want to make sure we have the right administrative system in place.  We want to provide the best communication with our congregation, work on needed policies (child protection, financial, etc…),   and other administrative areas needing attention. [Read more...]

Share

Time to Remember

By: Pastor Chad McDonald

Yesterday morning I was visiting with a gentleman over in Brimley.  He is suffering from various medical conditions and is living with one of his daughters.  We sat down and enjoyed a cup of coffee together and I just took some time to get to know him.  He is in his late eighties and shared with me a life-time of experiences.  One of things we talked about was his service in the Navy during World War II.  He shared about his experience in the Pacific on a destroyer searching for Japanese submarines.  Every night when he would go to bed he wondered if he would wake up with a torpedo in his bed from the constant threat of these subs.  He shared how he went nine months without his feet touching land.  This is a life most of us could never imagine but was very real for a time in his life.  [Read more...]

Share

Reading Recommendation

Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney

C. J. Mahaney paints a striking picture of the daily battle quietly raging within every Christian and asks whether you will passively accommodate the enemy of your soul, pride, or actively cultivate your best friend, humility. When you acknowledge the deception of pride and intentionally humble yourself, you become free to savor abundant mercies and unlikely graces. You will find a new life is yours—a life God richly favors. A God-glorifying life you don’t want to miss.

This is a must have book for every Christian’s library.  It is probably one of my most recommended books I encourage people to read, outside of the Bible of course.  This book describes what humility really means.

* Purchase this book at Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover or click HERE.

Share

From the Pastor’s Laptop

I pray you are having a great week walking with the Lord. Samantha and I just got back from “Evening with the Arts” at the high school. There are a lot great artists in our schools and it was great to see many of the kids and teens in our church display their art. I also enjoyed seeing a lot of you their tonight and meeting new people in our community.

I really enjoyed our worship service this past Sunday (and every Sunday). I really appreciate the Christ centered time of worship. I pray each of us were able to get a better understanding of humility. Remember, true humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God’s holiness and our sinfulness. This is the twin reality that all genuine humility is rooted in: God is holy and we are sinful. Without an honest awareness of these truths, humility is not possible.

This Sunday we will be continuing with our series “The Journey” as we start Acts 4. We will look obstacles and overcoming them. I know I encounter obstacles all the time on this journey of faith and want to know what to do to overcome them. We will see with the power of God and as we walk in humility we are can and will overcome. Remember, the Bible tells us that we can “do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Take some time this week to look over Acts 4 and prepare yourself for an awesome time of worshiping together this Sunday.

Have a great week and I’ll see you Sunday.

Chad

Share