ServeFest

I’m thinking this morning about a ServeFest in our community.  The IDEA was sparked by a conversation I had yesterday with someone about a community-wide worship gathering to demonstrate that Christians are “taking back” our community.  That idea doesn’t sit well with me.

However, showing love through acts of service does.  And gathering to celebrate 100’s of demonstrations of that love gets me pumped up.

Here’s what I’m thinking:

1. Churches in our community would partner together for a massive weekend of service beginning Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon (yes, no worship service on Sunday morning–community service instead).
2. Sunday night we would all gather together for a community worship service and celebrate all that happened.

Right now, it’s just an IDEA.  But I’m interested in your thoughts.  Let the comments begin.

Sunday Reflections – March 7, 2010

Today was a God-Movement day at Hill Country Bible Church Leander.  Here are some thoughts I have this evening:

28 Days In Acts is opening a lot of hearts to “next-level” commitments of listening to and following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  What more could I ask for as a pastor.  Thanks to all of you who are reading, and especially to all of you who are posting what you hear the Spirit saying to you about your life and expanding the Kingdom of God! If you’re not signed up to read with us, click here and follow the instructions under HOW TO PARTICIPATE on the menu bar.

Serving IN the Church: I am so grateful for all those who serve God by serving others at HCBC. From the set up team to the tear down team, and all the teams in between, it’s a God-glorifying event each week that you serve!

Serving AS the Church: WOW! Kelly’s story of God’s work THROUGH her and IN her during her relief trip to Haiti moved me!  Check the HCBC Leander website this week to see the video again as well as find links to what you can do to Serve AS the Church!

Fishers of Men: Our own Clark Wendlandt has won the Angler of the Year Award three times.  No one has ever done that.  Awesome.  Read the story by clicking here.  However, this is what’s AWESOME!!!–He and some other professional fisherman conduct “Meet the Pro Night” events in many of the cities where their tournaments are held.  Last week 21 People made commitments to follow Jesus as their LORD & SAVIOR!  46 others recommitted their lives to the GREAT ADVENTURE of following Jesus!  Like we said in today’s message: God can and wants to use who He has made you to be and the skills he has given you to do AWESOME things to expand His Kingdom.  We just need to step into the water.

My Wife: Lisa serves first hour and worships during the second hour.  Friday we celebrated 27 years of marriage! During the sermon, as I spotted her in the congregation, I thought, “You are a very blessed man, Peter Horn!” (Sorry, I should have been paying attention to the message.) I love you, Lisa!

All in all, it was another great day of worship!  Thank You, JESUS!

Reading The Book of Acts

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

In the space of almost 200 years the number of people who claimed to be followers of Jesus grew from around 25,000 in AD 100 to 200 million by AD 310!  Put another way: Without GMC pickups, iPhones, YouTube, etc., a collection of Christ-followers the size of Leander, Texas, reached 2/3rds of the United States of America from 1800 to 2010!

“Are you kidding me?  How’d they do that?”

Great question.  The answer, in large part, is public information.  It can be read in its entirety in three hours or less by a slow reader.  It’s all right there in the 28 short chapters of The Book of Acts–a New Testament book that informs us of the foundation that was laid by the People of God who obeyed the Word of God and lived under the control of the Spirit of God to expand the Kingdom of God.

So, “Put your seatbelt on, I wanna try something.”

28 Days In Acts is designed to take us as a church family through this remarkable God-movement of the middle years of the 1st century AD.  Together, reading the chapter corresponding to the day of the month, we will read the 28 chapters in Acts from March 1-28.

Is this only for members of Hill Country Bible Church Leander?  No.  This is an “all-play” experience.  Here’s how you can participate as well.  Click here and follow the instructions found under HOW TO PARTICIPATE on the 28 Days In Acts blog’s menu bar.

All of this is in preparation for our celebration on March 28, 2010 of our 3rd birthday as a church family.  Our desire is that by reading through Acts each of us (and thus, all of us) will be just as motivated and intentional as the disciples in the early church were to make a huge impact for the Kingdom of God, just like they did.

So, other than reading The Book of Acts, what else fuel your passion to expand the Kingdom of God?  Please post your comments so we can talk about it.

Best Blogs I Read This Week: 2/6/10

Here is a list of the best blogs I read this week.  Simply click on the title and it will take you to the blog.

By Michael Hyatt:  “How to Have Better Dinner Conversations”

By Bob Roberts, Jr.: “Apostolic Leadership”

By Ed Stetzer:  “What is a Missional Church?”

Question: What’s the best blog you read this week?

Strength through Weaknesses – Part 4

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you… from 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)

God has a goal for us; a plan that’s been in place since before we were born.  (Check out Jeremiah 1:5!) Now, it’s helpful to realize that God’s goal for us is not necessarily deliverance from our circumstances, but is always the development of the character of Jesus in us.

Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” created pain which resulted in prayer for its removal.  And while God’s answer was, “No” (see Part 3), God also answered, “Grow.”  And to fuel that growth, his Heavenly Father provided grace sufficient to transform Paul’s weakness into an opportunity for God to show Himself strong on Paul’s behalf.

God gives us transforming grace when we step into a personal relationship with Him through the LIFE offered to all through Jesus.  As we say around Hill Country Bible Church Leander, the life-change of salvation leads to the life-change of transformation.  For that to happen, God allows some thorns to remain in our lives.  He knows that to deliver us from the thorns would be to remove some of the means of living in the fullness of His grace.

Ironic, isn’t it.  But then again, His ways are not our ways, are they?  He is God.  I am not.

Question: How has God used a thorn of weakness in your life to lead you into a richer experience of His all-sufficient grace? Post your comments to start the discussion.

Strength through Weaknesses – Part 3

…there was given me a thorn in my flesh…Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said…“No.” (I added the “No” because that was the short answer.)

From 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)

Nothing frustrates us quite like “unanswered prayers.”  In times like those, it’s good to remember that even people like Paul don’t always get the answer they want.

However, not getting the answer I want doesn’t mean my prayer hasn’t been answered.  As Bill Hybels states in “Too Busy Not To Pray,” God’s answers can usually be summarized by one of four words: “Yes,” “No,” “Slow” (not yet), or “Grow” (there’s something I want to teach you).  It’s a great book.  You should read it.

Fortunately, God hasn’t always answered my prayers for the removal of my weaknesses.  But He has taught me a lot by allowing them to remain; by answering, “No!” & “Grow!”  It’s in these situations that great lessons about His grace and power are introduced and built upon.

I can honestly say that His refusal to do it my way has resulted so many times in answers that were so much better than my original requests.  Because of this, I find I’m desiring His desires more and more, and I want Him to protect me from my own desires.  No, those aren’t always easy answers, but the best answers aren’t always, “Yes!”

What are your ideas: What has your Heavenly Father taught you by responding to your prayers with answers other than, “Yes”?

A Harmony of the Four Gospels

A Harmony of the Four Gospels, by Orville E. Daniel, is a great tool to use for reading through The Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  The book synchronizes the four Gospels in chronological order.  Therefore, you are able to read about the life and ministry of Jesus in timeline fashion and, at the same time, compare similar accounts in each of the Gospels in a side-by-side format.  On several occastions over the years, I’ve used this book as a means of reading through the Gospels in my time alone with God.  I promise you this, you will love it!

Strength through Weaknesses – Part 2

⁷To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

From 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)

 Since my weaknesses—like my strengths—are by God’s design (see Part 1), how does God use them to strengthen me?

 One way is “to keep me from becoming CONCEITED” as God uses me to accomplish His purpose.

 When I was a kid, we spouted phrases at our “inferior” peers like, “I’m not conceited, but if you were me, you’d be” or, “I’m not conceited, but I have every reason to be.”  Pretty lame as I look back on it.  But the truth is, we all have the capacity to develop a disposition of conceit.

 One arena of life where conceit can raise its ugly head may surprise you: When you are being used by God to do what you could never do own your own.  What’s not always obvious to others, but should always be crystal clear to me, is when I’m being used by God in ways that are beyond my human strengths.  To that end, weaknesses remind ME who I really am, and they remind ME that without the strength that God provides, MY efforts are insignificant.

Thus, though I don’t like them, and may even pray for them to be removed (more on this in my next post), MY WEAKNESSES serve God’s greater purpose…to show the POWER of HIS STRENGTH.  And that’s where I want to live.

How about you?  How are you learning that, “It’s not about ME!”

Strength through Weaknesses – Part 1

⁷To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)

This passage of Scripture is a huge challenge for me, both as an individual follower of The Way of Jesus and as a servant-leader in His Kingdom.  Over the next few posts, I want to share some insights I’m gleaning from meditating on this passage.

Here’s the first:

I have strengths.  Maybe that’s not what you thought would come to mind first, but it’s what comes to my mind first.  Maybe because I’ve become such a fan of maximizing the strengths God has wired into me vs. spending too much of my time trying to deal with my weaknesses.  More on this at another time.

But here’s the insight that challenges me:  It’s what God teaches me through MY WEAKNESSES that has the largest impact—an exponential ripple effect—on God using my strengths.  What God powerfully, yet graciously, teaches me due to my weaknesses (which are also by His design) serves to mold me and shape me into a BETTER servant and leader; a STRONGER servant-leader BECAUSE OF my WEAKNESSES.

How about you?  What has God taught you through His gift of your weaknesses?

New Blog – New Year – Next 10 Years

It’s January 1, 2010.  As I begin this new blog at the beginning of the new year, several elements are syncing up.

I began reading through the gospels using the Reading Plans tool of the YouVersion Bible.  I’ve set it up to guide my reading so that I complete the gospels by the end of February.  You should check it out.

I also read Seth Godin’s 1/1/10 blog post on our choice between change and frustration in the coming decade.  It stimulated my thinking about the next decade for the church…especially Hill Country Bible Church Leander where I’m privileged to serve.

Here’s what I wrote in my Journal after reading Matthew 1, Luke 1, and John 1:

• All the elements came together for the introduction of Jesus and His ministry in this world.  Parents, preparation, prophet (John the Baptist), public ministry launched.  Many people played a part, but Jesus was the focus; not Mary, not Joseph, not John, not the early disciples – JESUS was the FOCUS.
• So many great pieces of the plan of God are coming together right now for us at HCBC Leander.  People serving in strategic roles, plans to leverage the opportunities that are before us, and all for the purpose of expanding our pursuit of the Vision God has given us to Go into Our Community and Give Every Man, Woman, and Child Repeated Opportunities to Experience the Life-Changing Reality of Jesus. However, among all the people and plans is the PERSON – JESUS!  He is the focus.  All roads, lives, and plans lead to Him.

Here’s how I see the next ten years:

• Great advances of the Kingdom of God will take place throughout our community (our spiritual & geographical community) are in store for 2010 and beyond…provided we keep our focus on JESUS.
• The blog post by Seth Godin begs the question: will we be a church that changes or a church that frustrates?  I’m convinced that, based on the people in our church family, we will be a church that changes.
• One of my expectations is that we will look back ten years from now on 1/1/2020 and realize that “church” has changed.  It’s likely we will have decentralized our weekly expression.  “Church” will be much more about a life-style of service to others and pursuing individualized spiritual growth opportunities, and the Sunday/Weekend time slot will be much more about celebrating the works of God in our midst during the week which will serve to increase of love for and worship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• I’m certainly not alone in my thinking on this.  And personally, I’m quite excited about becoming just such a church family.

Put your seat belts on.  We’re gonna try somethin’!

See these links to explore sites referenced above:  Reading Plans, YouVersion Bible, Seth Godin’s 1/1/10 blog post