This past Sunday was one of my favorites. I have corralled my thoughts over the last couple days (as I’ve been home sick) for my weekly Weekend Wrap. Enjoy.
9AM
- Pretty full house
- Crowd little more reserved than normal
- Seemed extra attentive during delivery of message
- Good response to altar call
- Song Lineup: O Praise Him (Crowder), All For You (Lp), Those Who Trust (RCBand arrangement), Hallelujah (Echoing Angels)
11AM
- Jam-packed house
- Energetic crowd
- Seemed to be pretty engaged during message
- Great response to altar call
- Song Lineup: Same as 9AM, but added How Great Is Our God (Tomlin).
4PM
- Unusually slim crowd
- Service had the same feel from several years ago when we met in a hotel
- I wasn’t feeling too hot physically, but still tried to give my all during message delivery
- Overall good service but makes me long for larger sanctuary so we don’t need overflow service
- Song Lineup: All For You, Those Who Trust, Hallelujah
I felt RCBand sounded exceptionally tight and Jake was just flat-out wailing on the drums. Loooooved it! Lp & Kristie nailed Magnificent (U2) to set up the message. In fact, it’s still in my head. Mission accomplished.
I was pretty excited about beginning our new series Organic Discipleship. Here are some takeaways and highlights:
1. Discipleship Begins With Repentance
- Repentance is only the first step in our Christian walk.
- Had fun demonstrating how the Confession App for iPhone works. (Yes, I paid $2 just to make a point during a message.) Explained how only Jesus can wipe away our sins, not a priest with a white collar. Yes, the Bible says to confess our sins to each other so we can be healed, and we need to forgive those who do us wrong, but only Jesus can completely blot out our transgressions.
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 (Commit your life to Christ = new life.)
2. Discipleship is a Way of Life
- Organic Discipleship is natural growth as a follower of Jesus.
- Mark 8:34-38 (Turn, Take up Cross, Follow)
- Discipleship is not a class you take at church, but our entire Christian walk.
- “I think for too long discipleship became a word that, in certain circles, conjured up early morning meetings at Denny’s and reading a book and filling in blanks and ‘accountability’ to make sure other people filled in their blanks.” ~John Ortberg
- Had fun with a farmer joke and a Brian Regan stand-up bit. Gave me flashbacks of being on stage at the Tulsa Comedy Club years ago.
- John 4:34-38 (Jesus’ nourishment came from doing His Father’s will)
- Had fun reading a few tweets on discipleship. Cheedee was my favorite. I recommend the podcast for this alone.
- Timothy was discipled by simply doing ministry w/ mentor Apostle Paul, not by completing a 12 week Sunday school class.
- 1 Peter 2:1-3
- 2 Peter 3:17-18
3. Discipleship is Life Lived Before the Face of God
- Coram Deo is a Latin term meaning “Before the face of God.”
- We live our entire life Coram Deo.
- Jesus commissioned us in Matthew 28:19 to GO and make disciples.
- The Greek word for church in New Testament is ecclesia = called out ones.
- We are called out (the doors of RC) to go and make disciples.
- Find someone, lead them to Jesus, and do life with them.
- Closed message with powerful testimony of saved marriage (through being discipled by attending RC).
Feedback (from our Facebook page):
- The music was over the top. The jokes were great and totally enhanced the commitment message … especially the one about the hen and the pig. 🙂
- We loved it!! It was a little crowded, but I loved the message and the music of course!! My kids loved kids church as well. ~First-time visitor
Our combined attendance for Sunday was 487 and we are averaging well over 400 each Sunday in 2011. This is the first-time in our history we have put up these numbers. What’s even more exciting is the spiritual growth that’s taking place each week and the response to the Word!
We truly are making disciples.
Focused On Discipleship,
~PC
