The Old School and New School Gospel.

I spoke at Student Venture, Chattanooga last night. I always enjoy being with that group of believers. The staff walk by faith and challenge the kids to share their faith and disciple them.

I compared our cultural gospels (which is really no gospel at all) to the true gospel of Christ. We talked about the Old School Gospel and the New School Gospel. Here is how I broke them down:

The Old School Gospel says" What You Do" gets you to heaven. Read your bible, pray, don't cuss, quit dipping, pull up your pants and go to church. This is a more legalistic or Pharisaical type "gospel". How good can you look and be, determines if you can go to heaven, and then they add Jesus. This is not the gospel, but a man made attempt to get to heaven and add Jesus name to it.

The New School Gospel says "How You Feel" gets you to heaven. You see this in our culture and many churches when you hear an alter call and someone says to you, "You don't really want hell do you?" Then the person says, "No, of course not" Then the preacher or whoever is getting ready to lead them into a man centered "gospel prayer" says ok repeat after me and then proceeds to lead the person in a felt need prayer that has a lot to do with the persons emotions and little to do with the King Jesus. They just Him on.

The Biblical gospel says that salvation has nothing to do with you. The Bible speaks that we are dead in our sins (Romans 3:21-23), but God has given a gift of life. He actually became our sin. It has nothing to do about what we do or how we feel, but who He is.

If you have lived or are living in the Old School or New School Gospel, I pray that you would leave it and turn to the true gospel. If you are a pastor, church planter or a spiritual leader, lets keep the gospel about Jesus and not what we can do.

Can You Play Poker at Church?

Top 10 list on why we can play poke at church:

10. To engage our community.
9. Wings!
8. Men need a time for healthy community.
7. Prizes are involved.
6. Change peoples mind's about church and God.
5. Wings!
4. Men have a competitive nature. Why not fulfill it with the gospel in mind.
3. I will beat down CaseyB in this tournament.
2. Church is not about preaching at people, but being real with them.
1. Men can finally tell their wives that they are going to church.

You are invited tonight to Awaken Community Church to play Texas Hold'em. No sign ups, just show up around 6:00pm. Those who place in the top 3 will win prizes. We have the cards, chips, prizes, drinks and food; you just show up.

Located at 8609 Walnut rd Hixson, TN 37343. email justin@awakencc.org for ?'s.

Community Now: "Show Some Love Week"

If you think about the American life and the American dream, they both have an "I" right in the middle of them. Your American dream is about you, your car, your house, your family, your money, your stuff. Most of us live life for us. It is just natural; I live for me. But what if a culture changed? What if a whole culture changed the way that they lived for something bigger than themselves? It is hard to imagine, because again, "I" would not be in the middle.

The gospel of Christ calls us to give up our lives because He gave up His life for us. As obedient believers in Christ we should Enjoy what God has done for us; given us grace, but we should also be extending His glory to the nations like He commanded. (Matthew 28:18-20)

Awaken Community Church is getting ready for a blitz in our community. We want to open our doors and also be out in the community to get to know people. November 14th -22nd we will have a week long community focus. The goal is to target people that may be sketchy about church and therefore they do not go. Here is the lineup:

Sunday the 14th - Community Wide Coupon class
Monday the 15th - Community Texas Hold 'em - There will be wings there!
Tuesday the 16th - Community Raking Leaves. We will rake your leaves. Just ask!
Wednesday the 17th - Craft Night.
Thursday the 18th - Community Open Mic Night - Show off your talent: song, poem, comedy..
Friday the 19th - Family Movie Night. Bring the kids to this one!! Big screen and food!
Saturday the 20th - Hungry? - Thanksgiving dinner for anyone in the community.
Sunday the 21st - Community Town Hall meeting. What do you want to see happen in the community?

Church address is 8609 Middle Valley rd. I hope to see you there one night. Its about getting the focus off of us and reaching out to others.

reFocus: God and Your Job

For some reason it seems odd to hear a sermon about God and your job, but the reality is, is that your job consists, for most people 1/3 of your life. If you are an entrepreneurial or a stay at home mom, then even more time. There are many observations that you can have concerning God and your job, but we focused on three. They are:

1. Your job is not about your job, but God's glory. We exists to enjoy Gods grace and to extend His glory. This includes work. Work is not about the check, the promotion or any kind of status, but about the glory of God.
2. Your job is not about your job, but responsibility. Even before sin entered the world, we were required to be responsible with work (Genesis 1). Then we sinned (Genesis 3) Now work will be tough, but the responsibility is the same.
3. Your job is not about your job, but relationships. Consider the people you work with. Your buddy, the guy that gets on your nerves and the girl that joins you in conversation as you both make fun of the guy that gets on your nerves. All of these people matter to God and should matter to us, even if they are just our "co-workers".

God ultimately challenges us to carry our cross's for His glory even in work (and school). I hope this encourages you to reFocus your job.

No More Pressure

Well I wish this post was completely true, but is seems that there is always some kind of pressure in my life. I am the kind of guy that will put the world on his back and want to change everything. Trying to work out of this mind set will make you go insane, frustrated and very tired. I am reading "Radical" by David Platt and it is rocking my world. He writes the goal of Christianity in one simple phrase: Christianity is to "Enjoy His grace and extend His glory". Enjoy and Extend. Grace and glory. What that does for me is life changing. It says Christianity is simply about enjoying God's grace for me and as a result I will extend His glory. Its about God and not me. The pressure is off.

My life and church life is usually tied up in programs or preaching. Having the next biggest or best thing. Well, the Bible says that life does not have to be about any of that. No more Pressure. Its not about you and it is not about me. Its was and is about Jesus the whole time. Enjoy Gods grace today and extend his glory.

How are Your Relationships?

Life gets busy. As a pastor I have to continue to remember to be with my people. I have a deep desire to preach truth with passion, creativity and with excellence. I have a desire to make sure our church greets people with love as they enter the foyer. I want to go to the next conference and learn a lot and come back and unleash on my city. I want to change the world! I can have all of these things, but if I do not have love, I have nothing. If I do not love the people in my church, then all of this is in vein. If they are not sitting in my living room playing with my kids and eating off my table, then what am I doing?

I am in the middle of rethinking, reFocusing and reanalyzing my relationships. I am beginning to pour specifically into a few leaders at my church. My goal is that my family and I would love them, mentor them, equip them and lead them well. The goal is that they would do the same to the people serving under them. If this is a trickle effect, then I believe God will use this to change our city. The neat thing is I did not even come up with this idea. I read the Bible. This is how they set up church: The pastors (apostles, elders) prayed, preached and equipped a leadership team. The leadership served and took care of service needs in the church.

Who is in your life? Who is mentoring you? Who are you pouring into? Lets not get caught up in all of the "stuff" of ministry and forget the people. Invite someone over this week to eat with you.

Dancing in the Club

So, I was driving back from a conference today scanning through the stations. I found the beat. I do not know what it was, but it had "the" beat. My wife was dead asleep, I was cruising about 78mph and started the head nod. And then it hit me... I need to go to the club. What club? Its doesn't matter. I started to think of the social scene in a club and how everyone wants to stay fresh and act like they're somebody. I thought of grabbing my boy Joey and heading to the club one night. We could get some 80's clothes on and crash the party. It would be fun. Make some people laugh while the cool cats role their eyes. It would be a great way to build relationships and conversation. Bringing Jesus to the club in 80's fashion. What do ya think? Anyone want to go to the club? Will you be there? You know Amber will be.