What is a Family?

What is a family? It seems like there use to be an obvious answer to that question, but in this day in and age people see a different answer to that question. Some say specifically a man and a woman that are married with kids. Some say people who live together. Someone you care about. Man with man. Woman with woman. Blood relatives. People who love each other. Many opinions.

It is astonishing how many definitions, values and beliefs that people put into what they think a family is. If you are a follower of Jesus, then you look to the Bible for that definition. If not, then you can look to whatever or whoever you want to and hold whatever kind of beliefs you want to. As a follower of Christ, the Bible lays out the best definitions of what a family is and how it should function.

In the month of January we will talk about Family and the roles in a family at Awaken.
01/03 - What is a family? What is a family not?
01/10 - Role of the wife...
01/17 - Role of the husband....
01/24 - Role of the kids....
01/31 - What is your Vision for you family?

What does a family look like to you? Come join us in January and get you family back on track. This will be an encouraging series. We hope to challenge to live out a biblical family, see husbands mature and become men and Biblical leaders, wives encouraged and lifted up and learn how to raise kids.

Here are a few definitions of family: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/family

A New Year, A New Life

A New Year, A New Life.....

Faith and I just watched a movie called “Couples Retreat” and I was challenged to change my marriage. Don't get me wrong, it was not a life changing movie. It was a Hollywood movie, but it made me think. I was challenged to put more time, energy and creativity into the relationship with the woman I devoted to spend the rest of my life with. So off I go.

This is not a spontaneous change, but a change that makes me think. The movie showed four different marriages and all of the problems in the marriages. It showed the things that they fought about and how they handled conflict and confrontation. Of course at the end, everyone was happy. Unfortunately most people do not work at marriage hard enough and quit. My challenge is to take our marriage to the next level.

This Sunday at Awaken Community Church, we are going to be challenged on how to have a new life this next year. Maybe some people need new marriages (not meaning get divorced, but renewed =-). For some it may mean to balance their finances or for others to stop watching porn. There are so many things in our lives that we are lazy with or we do not do well. It is time to make some small goals (take out the trash without being asked), medium goals (take more time daily to seek the Father), large goals (Take a nice trip with just my wife this year) and God goals (that God would fill Awaken with 200 people by the end of 2010 of lives that would be challenged and changed).

What are your goals? Take a minute and think of some small, medium, large and God goals for your New Year. Start 2010 off with a bang. A New Year, a New Life.

Thoughts on Church Planting

We launched our church in September and we are entering into our fourth month at Awaken. Here are some thoughts so far:

1. Must make time to pray.

2. Must make time to study.

3. Most things I have planned have not worked out the way I thought... different, better. Before you plan your church, become your church.

4. Give lots of money and invest lots of time in the community.

5. Family first.

6. If Jesus is not leading, I should not be going.

7. Always.... Always cast vision. Don't just cast vision, fulfill it.

8. Preach with the power of the Holy Spirit with confidence.

9. Be you, not the church down the street or on the internet.

10. Preach series, topic or verse by verse depending on your style and where your church is and what your church needs.

11. Build people not numbers.

12. Need to start baptisms and communion.

13. 65 people strong! - lots of responsibility.

14. Delegate, even if you can do it better.

15. Accountability and mentors are good to pray with and to gain wisdom, insights and share mistakes and successes with.

16. Find your identity and be you.

17. Never forget vision.

18. Be in the community, always meeting people.

19. Be with your church always mentoring someone. Set up leaders in your church to mentor others.

20. Get good small group leaders.

All or Nothing

DREW BREES: It is amazing to see people who are good at what they do. For example; Drew Brees is the QB for the New Orlean Saints and he is also my favrite football player (and won me my FF league last year). He has been the best QB in the NFL the last few years. What makes him good? The time he puts in to what he does and the passion he has for the game. It is amazing to see how all in he is at what he does.

STORY: I often think of people that I admire and why I admire them. Today at Awaken we looked at the rich young man passage found in Matthew chapter 19. This man was wealthy and maybe even well educated and probable had many people admire him, but there was one thing he did not have; a relationship with God. He obeyed the commandments, but by the end of the story we see that he could not go all in and sell everything he had to follow Christ. On the other hand, as the passage continues, the disciples gave up everything to follow Jesus. Results: The rich man walked away sad with his temporally wealth while the disciples are getting blessed with 100 times and eternal life.

ARE YOU ALL OR NOTHING: In my city their is a lot of religion, tradition and obeying commands, but I wonder how much of giving up everything there is in my city. Do you control most of you life? Your time, money, thought and plans or have you given that to Jesus? He doesn't just want us to obey commandments, but to give up everything in our lives. I think Christians should seek the Father so much and be so passionate about what he wants for our lives, that people see that we are all in.

PEOPLE I ADMIRE: The pastors that I have looked up to in my life have carried these attributes in their lives. Here are a few people that I admire and listen to: Matt Evans, Mark Driscol, Francis Chan, Stephen Furtick and John Piper.

FINAL THOUGHTS: The more you have, the less you need to depend on God, but the less you have, you find that your dependance has to be on God. Go all in.

I Love my Church

I love my church. I have been attending churches most of my life and have been a Christian for 11 years now and I can honestly say that I LOVE MY CHURCH. I have liked many of my churches in the past, but I love it here at Awaken. Here is what I love about it:

1. The Gospel: It is preached; not weak or watered down, but just truth.

2. Music: I can relate to the music and worship God with songs that are relevant, meaningful and true.

3. The People: The people here at Awaken are awesome. Everyone is caring and real. They are the church, not a club.

4. Community Groups: I can meet with people every Tuesday night with laughs, food, the Bible, maybe tears and come away feeling like I furthered my walk with Christ.

5. The Place: We meet at the YMCA in Hixson. The Activity Center is where we meet. There is nothing amazing about it. It is small and old, but it is us. 

6. Age: Most people that do not go to church are between 16-29. We are 93% 29 and under. We are reaching the ones falling away. With that said, we need people 30 and above for leadership and wisdom. 

7. Mike Lamb: Mike Lamb goes to our church. Thats all that needs to be said.

8. Church Plant: We are a church plant, which means we can have new creative things that change the way people think and feel about church. 

9. Love and Honesty: Everyone loves and is honest about who they are.

10. Giving: Half of our money goes back into our community and missions.

I hope you have a church and love your church. If not, come become apart of us. If you do not live in Chattanooga I can network and find a church in your area.

Get Your Mind SET!

So I just started P90X this past week and its kicking my butt. I threw up 20 minutes ago because I had acid reflux coming up. I guess I need to learn not to eat pizza and drink coke and hour and a half before the workout.

My goal is to change my mind and set my mind for action. I am trying to set out an hour - an hour and a half each day to do this workout. I obviously learned that I have to change my mind about eating as well. Someone said workout is 20% and eating is 80%. If I do it right, then by day 90 I will be healthier and ripped!

I think about my life and how I live. Just as I have to get my mind set on my workouts, I have learned that I need to get my mind set on life as well; on my relationship and time with God. I have been growing a lot with my wife lately by spending time with her and hanging out. How much more time should I spend with the God that made me. Whenever I get a lot of time in with God, the more I have joy, peace and love.

Not sure if you have these same struggles, but if you do join me and change your mind about how you do life and what you set your mind and your time on and in the end our God will say to you "Well done my good and faithful servant".

What You Can Do With Your Time?

A lot of our lives are consumed with our wants, desires and our world to TAKE UP OUR TIME AND ATTENTION.  You agree? We are thrown a lot of things our way that make us lazy/self-centered creatures. Take TV for example. They go out of their way to make a good show that will make us turn on the TV every Thursday night at 8 just to watch "the show of our week". Facebook takes our minds and thoughts (at least for me) and captures my attention enough to tune into it a few times a day.

What can we do in life to make more of it? Not sure if you are a Christ follower or not, but if you are, we should focus our lives on what we can do with our time. In 1Peter chapter 1, Peter talks a lot about time and the coming of Jesus. We are not promised tomorrow here in this world, so what can we do tomorrow? What will you do with your tomorrow? More TV and Facebook? Maybe, but what about more serving the poor, loving our wives, taking out the trash, inviting a neighbor over for dinner, spending reserved time with just God, encouraging someone, showing love, hope and patience to others. Tomorrow is yours, you can use your time wisely or waste it. What Can You Do? What Will You Do? 

If tomorrow is given to you make the most of it. What Can You DO?