Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Thank You Graphic Designers

Recently Jubilee Church was recognized with an award from the US Local Business Association (USLBA) for "Best in St. Louis" in the "worship" category. We received this award because of our positive image in the community. Now normally, I would be a bit shy about this and even a bit turned off by it. However, I wanted to use it to bring two things to our attention (those who are a part of Jubilee Church).

1) We do have a positive image in the community. I have received several comments from business owners, local politicians and citizens over the past year that they are glad we are here in South St. Louis City. One of the marks of a Biblical community is to have your good deeds praised by those outside the church, even though they may not like our message. Consider 1 Peter 2:12, "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles (non-believers) honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers (they reject our message), they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation (when Jesus returns)." This verse says that an authentic, Biblical church will be both vilified and validated. Some will say, "I don't agree with them". But they will also say, "But I'm glad they're here". That's happening with us. We should rejoice about that.

2) We have talented people. Another big reason why we got this award was our website. I would like to publicly thank my wife Rachel and Dan Brindley for playing a key role in the design of our website. They worked tirelessly on this project as they have on many other projects. There are many others in the church who offer their gifts and talents to the church in an excellent way. This is the way the church should function...people offering their best and performing at the best of their ability. After all, we are going for an imperishable wreath! (1 Cor 9:25-26)

Anyway, we are not in this to win awards. Like I said earlier, I'm kind of embarrassed to even mention this, but it highlights for us a couple of positives that I thought I would point out. Happy Thanksgiving.

New Preaching Series

I hope those who are apart of Jubilee St. Louis City are enjoying our current series in Philippians. The ninth and final message in the series will be preached by David Herrington this Sunday (11/30). The following Sunday (12/7) we'll begin our Christmas series titled, "Christmas 360". In this series, we will be looking at Jesus' birth from three different perspectives: The Shepherds, King Herod, and Joseph. On that final message (12/21), we will conduct a special service where we will worship to traditional Christmas music. It will be an excellent time to invite your friends.

On a different note, this is my 200th blog entry. I didn't know what I was getting into when I first started blogging. A few from Jubilee encouraged me to and in a moment of weakness, I set up an account and went for it. Well, I hope that this blog is of benefit to you in some way. Thanks for tuning in.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

8 Year Anniversary

This past week, my wife and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary. The actual day is November 11 (also Veteran's Day), but we celebrated it by going to Kansas City on November 13 to see Coldplay at the Sprint Center. For those who care, they put on a very good show.

The next day we went to shop down in the plaza area of KC where the economy seems to be doing fine. Later on that night we had dinner with Rachel's brother and his wife before driving to Lee Summit to stay with the Stanleys (Tommy leads Grace Church in Lee Summit and his son Elijah is doing the fyt in St. Louis and lives with us).

On Saturday, Rachel and I spent the day with the leadership of Grace Church teaching and encouraging them (that was the idea anyway). And this morning, I have the privilege of speaking to this wonderful church who have sent away leaders to plant in 4 of the top 100 cities in the USA. I'll miss being with the Jubileeites down in the city, but it is great to be with the extended family here in Kansas City.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Sharing the Gospel with Our Kids

At Jubilee, we make a big deal of sharing the gospel to the next generation. That would of course, include our children. I found this post by Jen Whitmer (one of our members) helpful and inspiring. I would encourage you to read it.

Friday, November 7, 2008

An Opportunity to Serve Abused Children

I love the people at Jubilee. They are highly motivated by love and the gospel to serve others. Recently, Gabe and Ali Dunn put together a way for Jubilee to help abused children. Maybe you can help to. Here's how:

Family Resource Center is a non-profit organization (that is right down the road from Jubilee) that does a number of things related to preventing and treating child abuse within the community. AMEN :)

They have a christmas holiday tradition of providing toys to the children they serve. They have asked us, Jubilee, for our help collecting these toys. They need new and unwrapped children's Christmas presents for the free store they set up, where the families they help can select Christmas presents for their children.

Attached is a flyer that contains more information. The toys are to be dropped of at Jubilee Church by Nov, 30th. Mike Lawson is going to set up a crib where people can put their toys in. If you can pass this information along to your groups that would be awesome!! We will be making an announcement next week sunday at church.

If you have any questions, email Gabe and Ali Dunn at gdunn77@gmail.com

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Grace Kills Bitterness

I'm catching up on some of the blogs I follow. One of those, which I high recommend, is the blog of Terry Virgo. He recently posted an entry titled "Grace or Bitterness" that I recommend you read.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

More on Humility

Here are some more quotes and resources from this past Sunday's message on Humility.

Charles Spurgeon on Humility

Book Recommendation: "Humility" by C.J. Mahaney

Quotes:

"The real issue here is not if pride exists in your heart; it’s where pride exists and how pride is being expressed in your life. Scripture shows us that pride is strongly and dangerously rooted in our lives, far more than most of us care to admit or even think about." — C.J. Mahaney, Humility

"Pride is our greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend." – John Stott