Five Months of Church Planting

Today I realized how much I love my job. We launched Awaken Community Church five months ago and it is going strong. We had one of the highest attendances this week (around 65) and at least ten new visitors. The two main groups we are trying to reach are the non Christians and the de-churched. These are people who grew up in church and for whatever reason, they were done. Here is what I have been learning to do lately:

1. Delegate and follow up with those who are taking on new responsibilities.
2. Always cast vision and actively do the things it takes to fulfill it.
3. Meet with leadership weekly.
4. Ask everyone committed their gifts and get them plugged in.
5. Make sure your main leaders are not getting burnt out.
6. Meet with people in your church weekly.
7. Always try to have a visitor over to your house to get to know them.
8. Focus on your strengths and fill your weakness when people come to fulfill them.
9. Be in the community meeting people and challenge your church too as well.
10. Develop leaders that develop leaders.

... And Their Wives Left

One guy was stuck on porn and his wife finally found out his grueling secret. He was so addicted that it meant more to him than she did. After eight months of battle she left.

Seeing it from his father, Jim bullied his wife; cutting her down in front of his friends and so on. She cried at night while he slept beside her. After 12 years, she left.

Everything looked fine in public, but behind the scenes he really did not care. She cooked. She cleaned. She got the kids ready. She taught the kids. She paid the bills. She even changed the oil. Once all five of the kids were out of the house, she left after 32 years.

Bars, beer and the night life filled his life. It was like that before they got married, but she thought it would change after they were married. It didn't. After 3 short months, she left.

The divorce rate in America sucks. It seems and looks as if no one knows about commitment, love, loyalty, sacrifice and selflessness anymore. A lot of them never had a role model, mentor or even a clue. Around the country though, things are starting to change. There are men of God and churches of God leading healthy marriages, because they are reading and living what the Bible says.

We will talk about the roles of the husband and wife in their roles at Awaken January 24th and 31st. We meet at the YMCA in Hixson and are currently at once service that starts at 10:30am. www.awakencc.org

Wake Up Christians

Acts is my favorite book of the Bible. I like it so much because it is so action packed. Think of all of the action packed movies that we all like: Braveheart, Gladiator and Lord of the Rings just to name a few. All of these movies made a lot of money and are famous for being action packed and great war scenes. Many of us, especially men, cannot get enough of these kind of movies because we love action, adventure, passion and challenge.

This is a lot like the book of Acts. There was a lot of action, adventure, passion and challenge. In Chapter 2 and 3 over 5,000 people give their entire lives over to something that will out live them. They gave their lives over to a higher calling and purpose in life. They gave their lives to God. Take 5-6 minutes and read Acts chapter 2-3.

Christianity today in my city looks absolutely nothing like Acts... and that is a problem. One of the main reasons is because we are all distracted. We are distracted by our pride, selfishness, money, family, hobbies etc.. When will we wake up and realize this life is not about us? I need some men to join beside me to become a church like Acts 2-3. We should wake up and lead ourselves, our families and our community to the feet of Jesus. It is not about the tradition and programs in our churches, but about the blood of Christ and the depravity of humanity. We have a huge mission. What day and hour will we wake up? Will we ever wake up? I am challenging you to wake up now and come with me to seek God and change a city. We are going into war.

I am sending this out to some men that are on my heart. Send me a message or leave a comment below. It doesn't matter where you are at in life at this point, it just matters that you act now and let God do the rest. I would like to meet with many men in our city in the next few weeks. Send me an e-mail to justin@awakencc.org. Thanks for your time and lets Let God be the God of our city.

Cute Little Christians

If you have grown up in the Christian life, you may not realize it, but many of us have grown up with a cute little Christian life. We listen to our Christian music and wear our Christian T-Shirt while driving in our car with our Christian bumper stickers. Pretty cute huh? "Not really" says the world. What is Christian about that. The world needs and wants to interact with real people. People who cuss and cut. People who struggle with their marriages and their money. In our "cute" little lives it can come across like we are perfect inside and out. The world see's us as phonies. So what do we do?

Try this: Be real. Get help where you need it, because even though you may be seen as perfect, you know that you are far from it and have so many areas where you need to be fixed. Interact with people. Get out of you comfort zone and go talk to people who may not look, smell, dress or act like you.

Notice Jesus. He was anything but a cute little Christian. He was a man, a radical, associated with sinners, prostitutes and scum of His day. And what do we do? We go to church.... are you kidding?? Seek Jesus, not tradition and change Christian. If you are not a Chritsian, I would like to appoligize for my life and the lives of many Christians or "Christians". I hope I would change and start to be more real and honest with God, myself and you.

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.