Single & Rocking!

This Sunday we will conclude our XXXposed series with a Q&A session with myself and Licensed Professional Counselor Christi Brandenstein (of Crossroads Counseling). I believe it will be extremely helpful and encouraging as we seek for a Path to Purity.

In this series, we have talk a lot about being married or the process prior to marriage. I think it has been applicable for everyone because a) 93% of singles will be married so this is excellent stuff to help you in your pre-married years and b) even if you plan not to be married, as a member of a church you have both the responsibility and privilege to support and encourage other members of the body. This series can be instructional for you to know how to counsel, pray for and encourage those who are married or plan to be married.

However, I don't want to underestimate or ignore the vital role and importance that unmarried people play in the church and want to encourage you in your current status as single.

I have provided a link to PJ Smyth's outstanding essay on Single and Rocking. You may also check out my message on Being Single through our audio archive from 5/31/2009.

What Season is Your Dating Relationship In?

Song of Solomon 2:10-14
10 My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, 11 for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. 12 The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing [4] has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. 13 The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.

If you're in a dating relationship, I think a good question to ask yourself is, "what kind of season is my relationship in?" Is it spring? Are flowers appearing? Is your relationship producing fruit? Is it good fruit? Does your relationship have the life of Christ all around it? Are you encouraging one another into the things of God? The relationship we see here between Solomon and his bride had life. Spring was in the air!

However, what if there isn't life in your relationship? It is life-draining vs. life-giving. What if you are not encouraging each other in Christ? Your relationship could be in a season of winter and it could be time to re-access or at least slow down until the time is right. It could be dangerous to move forward in a relationship whose season has not yet come.

Getting Your Questions Answered

Don't forget to ask your questions for the XXXposed series. I, along with a male counselor and a female counselor, will answer the most popular questions you submit surrounding the issue of sex, sexual sin, abuse, relationships, marriage, being single, etc, on Sunday, February 21 at all Jubilee locations and services. So far, we've got some great questions so it looks to be very a very interesting and helpful time together.

You can text 314-827-4334 or email xxxposed@jubileestl.org. You could also submit your questions on Sunday morning. All questions will remain anonymous.

Why I Give Online

One of the best kept secrets around jubilee for the past few months is that you can now give online (see the main page of either the City or Wentzville). For many, this is long-awaited and good news because everything else you do is online and perhaps the only reason you even write a check is to buy girl scout cookies and give to jubilee. OK, I will admit it, we were slow adapters on this one.

Now for some of you, you may not like the idea of giving online because for you, the moment you drop the check or the cash in the basket is the moment when when giving becomes worship for you. I have to say, that is a great moment. Especially, on Gift Day and the band is playing an update, God-centered song...it's a great moment. However, to be clear and to guard from false thinking, the real moment of worship is when you (and your spouse if you are married) are sitting at the dinning room table with all your bills and account statements in front of you, and you first make the decision in faith to give a certain amount/percentage to God. It's God-honoring worship when it is pre-determined and is amount that represents sacrificial and generous giving. What is not worship, is last minute giving that is more of an after thought after you paid the rest of your bills. That, perhaps (emphasize perhaps) is giving done more out of compulsion rather than worship. Of course, spontaneous giving is great and is also God-honoring, but should not represent the bulk of our giving. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 8 & 9 that our giving should be off the top, regular and generous.

You can accomplish this kind of giving whether you give by check or whether you give electronically. Now my wife and I give online (auto debit from checking account...do not recommend using your credit card) because it helps us stick to our predetermined amount and keeps it regular (it's automated) because to be honest with all that I do on Sunday morning, I can forget.

The point of this post (if you're beginning to wonder) is to say that whether you give by check or online is not the determining factor in whether you are worshipping God in your giving. The determining factor is 1) the first spending decision you make? 2) is it sacrificial and generous? and 3) Is it regular? After those questions are answer, quite frankly it is just a matter of preference.

Donate your Facebook status and Twitter tweets to Jubilee!

So as you likely already know, Jubilee Church is launching a new series this Sunday (Jan 31) that has already produced quite a buzz. We’re advertising on billboards, bus stops, passing out postcards out all over our college campuses (recycle please!) and we’ve relaunched a website with a great new video we produced.

As great as all of the promotional stuff is, chances are you know people in St. Louis that we may not reach… but you can! So we’re asking you to help us out by donating your Facebook status and Twitter tweets to Jubilee for one day between now and Sunday to help us ramp up to the XXXposed series starting this weekend. We want as many people as possible to post one of the following:

• St. Louis love sex. God loves sex. Check out my church's upcoming series --> http://xxxposedchurch.com
• Check out my church's new sermon series starting this Sunday --> http://xxxposedchurch.com
• Contrary to popular opinion, God is not against sex—He's 100% for it! --> http://xxxposedchurch.com
• Join us starting this Sunday 01/31 as we take a raw & unfiltered look at --> http://xxxposedchurch.com

So that’s it! Easy! If you’re up for it, post that for 24 hours and then you can get back to using your status to tell the world that you ‘have a lot to do today’ (don’t we all?) or that you ‘can’t wait till Friday’ (everyone loves Friday! That isn’t news!).

Thanks for reading!

Thank You

I think my family and I are on the road to recovery after an intensely crazy week. January is by far my busiest month for a few different reasons: 1) Taking care of end of the year and beginning of the year church business, 2) Gearing up for a new trimester of Action Tracks (if you go to Jubilee, sign up today!!), 3) Gearing up for our February sermon series (this year: it's www.XXXPOSEDchurch.com), and Mobilise USA (a conference for 400 students and twenties).

This year, God added a twist to our month: the birth of a precious little girl named Josephine Rose Mowrey. We had expected her to come around February 8th, but she came a month early. This put us in a bit of a tail spin, but we have been so blessed by all the prayers, good wishes, gifts, meals and much more. The outpouring of support for our family has been overwhelming and humbling. I want to thank all of you and say how blessed I feel to be a part of such a great community. Love you guys!

Life Change

In my recent blog series, Looking Back at a Decade, I recounted all the life change that has occurred because of Jubilee's ministry. Here is an example from a wonderful family that used to attend Jubilee, but has since moved to North Carolina.

Bryan,

I saw your post and felt inspired to write something. Jubilee Church will always hold a special place in my heart. I will always consider you guys family, even the new ones that I don't know. I look back at the past ten years and remember where I was emotionally and spiritually. Drugs, Insomnia, Rage, Anger, Pain. We had just lost my dad to suicide and had uprooted ourselves from "home." (Franklin NC 1999) My mother was falling apart and could not maintain employment. I was LOST! After many months of searching, God placed her with Pat Donjon, She will forever, in my eyes, be a "proverbs 31 woman". I remember meeting her family and going to Alpha at there home which consisted of the Poe's(senior) and Abbie, Dusty, Susan. I remember thinking I have never met people who really love like this. I want what they have. The way they interacted together, to their families, was something I had never experienced before. It truly drew me in. Steven was pretty much on the same path, the wide one. Even though the first few years of being saved we continued to mess up, but we were always welcomed. I remember being blessed at our wedding and having total support. I appreciate the leadership and elders who counseled us, it took us a while but we eventually got it. Many of those voices are the words of wisdom we still hear today. I know for a fact if it were not for Jubilee and prevalent truth that is preached on how to love some one, Steven and I would not be where we are today. We now have four children, I am able to home school them and we are both still desperately seeking the Lord. Our oldest Cora-8, was baptised this year and our second daughter, Lilly-6, was saved at VBS over the summer. Thank You Jubilee for your obedience in Christ, and your persuit of the Lost, because I know with out a doubt we were Found.

Much Love, Erin Willis