Here is a short recap from a couple of weekends ago at Faith Apostolic. June 14 2009.

• AM Service - Dealt with the question - Why Don’t I Always Feel the Presence God?

• Maybe you have over hyped how to feel the presence
• Maybe your heart has grown hard
• Maybe you haven’t been obedient
• Maybe you have built a wall of sin
• Jesus has got grace and the power to transform your life, and He loves to reveal Himself to those who seek Him. 

•  PM Service - Dealt with the question - Why Didn’t God Answer My Prayer?

• Maybe you have a broken relationship. A relationship that is not where God would want it to be. Relationships matter to God.
• Maybe you do not believe God will.  Another words, low expectations.
• Maybe God has something better in store. His will and His way, are higher then ours.
• Need to pray to understand what the will of God is for the situation or need.

Tags: FaithApostolic, Cornwall, weekend service

I read the following post on Rhett Smith’s blog, called “The Values of Generation Y/Millennials That Will Help Transform Work and Church”.  I recommend you read the post and also the watch the clip from 60 Minutes, which I have embedded.

After reading through Rhett’s post and watching the video, even though I am of Generation X, I would say there are items in this report that fit me well.  Like Rhett, I feel at home and operate well with this generation due to being involved in youth ministry and college/career ministry over the past 10 years.

I have noticed in my 9-5 workplace……even if they wouldn’t admit to it, they have a long way to go to adapt.  I find my current 9-5 employer is very old-school when it comes to things in this report.

Watch the clip and head over to Rhett’s blog he has lots of posts and resources.

Yesterday was different. Rather then being in Cornwall speaking in both the AM and PM service, we were in Ottawa at our home church, Calvary. The new pastor that was appointed in Cornwall was at Faith Apostolic and he was in Cornwall trying to secure some work for when they move at the end of June. So he was speaking in the service there.

In three weeks we will be transitioning out of our interim role at Faith Apostolic and back in Ottawa. I have already been discussing with Pastor Jeremy the next steps for my family and I.  He announced a couple of weeks ago to the church that we would be back on the team at Calvary at the end of the month. We have had some preliminary discussions on what that will consist of. I plan on posting more to this blog on how all that will unfold and maybe even try to use this blog as a way to mind dump and work through some different ideas etc.

I did notice that when I was sitting in church this Sunday, I looked around and noticed some faces that were not there.  I asked myself, if that was just this Sunday that they were missing?  I also saw some faces that I didn’t recognize, which is good thing, I thought is this their first time at Calvary and what is their experience like so far?

Here is this past weekend’s recap at Faith Apostolic.

In the AM service, I continued the “Unstoppable” series. This was the third message in the series. I spoke on how everyone needs to see themselves as a minister. Sometimes we can think we do not have the ability, talents, or calling to minister.  But everyone needs to be a minister, and are uniquely positioned to carry out their ministry. Programs do not equal ministry.  Sometimes we think if we fill the church schedule with programmable activities we are fulfilling our mission to lead people into being fully devoted followers of Christ. That is not the case.

God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things for the kingdom.  God doesn’t call the prepared, rather God prepares the called on their journey. Using ordinary people is a specialty of God. I lot of times today churches are looking for the exceptional to perform certain roles, those with the “talent.”  However, Christ also uses just ordinary people, those that know who Jesus is, who believe in Him, and are willing to follow Him no matter what the personal cost is.  They are all in. They give their whole lives to Him. They become unstoppable.

This kingdom thing is serious, it is time to stop just playing it safe, it is time to be all in. If your serious, let’s do it.

In the PM service, I took all three messages in the series for “Unstoppable” and combined them into a summary message to recap the last three Sunday mornings.  It was a nice way to pull everything back together and close out the series. Brought things back to the forefront about what this series presented.

I ended the service with a song from Jon Foreman, “Your Love is Strong”

Here is the recap from a couple of weeks ago at Faith Apostolic Church.

We continued the series in the AM called “Unstoppable.” I talked about how we need to be a church that is focused and committed on leading people to be fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. We jumped into the Books of Acts (2:44), where we read about a powerful church, a small church with a large impact. The early church that we today say we want to be like, it was a church that was together. They believed scripture was important so they studied together. They believed in relationships, so they lived life together. They were also generous people.

They had unity. They were in agreement. They were together.

Instead of thinking of ourselves as members of a local church, we need to be partners together.  We need to bring what Jesus Christ has put inside of us to the table. You bring you. Others bring themselves. Everyone partnering together in agreement and the local church becomes unstoppable in the local community. Making a difference.

In the PM, I spoke on “Social Justice”.

I talked about a couple of steps to take

1. Cultivate Compassionate Awareness.  We need to go from hearing and reading about injustices around the world to action.

2. Prepare Our Mind for Action. The Bible declares the world’s need for salvation and justice. Preparing our minds for action means coming to grips that we were sent into a world as salt and light because the world is full of corruption and injustice.  Scripture speaks of the world into which Jesus sent us.  Job 24:2-4, 9-10; Psalm 37:14; Isaiah 3:14; Lamentations 5:11-13; Ezekiel 22:29; Joel 3:3; Amos 1:13.  So the last people that should be caught surprised that injustice is happening in the world are Christians.

Even Christ was born into a world where a ruler gave a order to commit injustice, something that if it was broadcast on CNN would be shocking to most people today. Matthew 2:16.

I will be posting the recap from this past weekend soon as well.  I have been recovering some major laptop failures last week, and am now just getting everything reinstalled.