Martha Mason Shed Destruction

Here are a few pics from our service work over the weekend we did for Martha Mason. We tore down an old shed behind her house that was in bad shape. If you don't know Martha's story you can read about her book here. Martha is a wonderful person and is thought to have lived in an iron lung longer than any other person.

WARNING! Contents Under Pressure May Explode: Warning Signs of a Church in Danger

When I was younger and still to this day I have an obsession with fire, danger and anything that explodes. I guess you could call me a high-tech-pyro-redneck! One thing I used to enjoy doing back in the glory days was making Draino bombs. With the right combination of tin foil, draino and plastic, one can take a 2 Liter bottle and have some fun. Once the ingredients are mixed and the lid screwed on, the bottle begins to expand, very quickly. The contents become under great pressure and eventually "bam," the bottle explodes from the pressure. (metal trashcans sound the best, haha).

The church is similar. Churches have life cycles. Churches are born, churches grow, and churches die. Here are four warning signs of a church in danger:

• Lack of Vision: What is vision? Vision is a specific, detailed statement of direction, unique to an individual or church’s ministry. Its clear. It concentrates on the future. It's from God. It unifies, it empowers, it’s inspiring, and it’s contagious. It creates passion, it creates action. It challenges, It separates. It's a ministry's strategic game plan. Vision is key.

Vision Killers: Fear of change, fear of failure, fear of the unexpected, Tradition for the sake of Tradition, Complacency, and Lukewarmness(Rev. 3.14-22).
Results: Apathetic Christians. No passion. Shoulders sag, hope fades, and the dream of doing something great for God diminishes. No direction.

• Lack of Leadership: In case you didn’t know, the Pastor isn’t the only minister in the church. We place the responsibility on other people's shoulders and then complain when things aren't the way we want them to be. Pastor's are burdened down by having to spend all their time workin IN the church and don't have time to work ON the church.

• Lack of Growth: Healthy things grow, period. A thriving ministry should be growing. And yes, numbers matter. Numbers represent souls and souls matter to God. Many times we get comfortable with the size of our ministry or church, while there are still numbers of people all around us in the community dying and going to hell. A ministry should be growing. True disciples create more Christ-followers.

• Lack of Unity: Division in churches is the biggest danger of them all. This happens as a result of all of the above warning signs, but goes much deeper. This is the result of sin in the church. Pride, selfishness, and gossip are the big ones the divide a church quicker than anything.

Relieving the Stress

• Cast Vision- Jesus said we are to be Fishers of Men. Vision is like the bait. What good is bait if its stuck in the tackle box of the fisherman? Can’t catch a fish is you don’t cast the bait. So as a church we aren’t gonna catch men unto Christ is we don’t cast a vision.

• Creat Disciples-We will be much for effective in creating geniune Christ-following disciples if we quit teaching people a set of "Do Nots," on how to be like us, and instead challenge and teach them the person of Jesus and encourage them to fall madly in love with Him.

• Be Relevant- Meet the needs of the community around you. Tradition for the sake of tradition isn't going to cut it. As the needs change in the culture around us the church must change methods to reach the lost. Change the method and hang on to the same Message.

• Be Unified- Quit sinning habitually. Stomp out gossip. Humble yourself and squash pride. Be servants. Take ownership and responsibility for how the church is.

( These are some notes from the sermon I preached at Sandy Run for those of yall who were not there)

Service Project Saturday

If any of yall are interested in helping us out over at Martha Mason's to tear down and old wood shed for her let me know. We are going to get busy on Saturday and see if we can't have some fun tearing down the shed and haulin it off. We'll meet over at the SnackShop for breakfast on Saturday at 8am and then head over to Martha's at 9am. If you don't go to breakfast meet us at the Lattimore Fire Dept. at 9am and we'll head on over to Martha's. Bring a sledge hammer, crow bar, and anything else you may have that can cause destruction.

What's Happening this Week?

This Wednesday the HangOUT will be going over to Crossroads @ Gardner Webb University for their evening worship service. We'll meet in the gravel lot behind Hardee's at 6:45 Wednesday evening. Carl Cartee should be leading worship and Clayton King preaching so it should be awesome as usual.

Those who are going rafting. We have 12 spots reserved so far. Bring your money on Wednesday to cover the rafting ticket. Cost= $45. If we have more than 12 pay, we'll try and reserve a few more spots. Remember: cost is free if you want to go just camping, so come on! Any questions email thecorefoundation@gmail.com.

This Saturday we will be doing some service work in Lattimore. The plan is to tear down an old shed behind Martha Mason's house and haul it off. More details later.


Foundation Worship Gathering is happening again this Sunday, July 23 @ 1:30 in the Aldersgate Gym. Feel free to invite whoever you'd like, last service went well and we are expecting even more this time, so come on out.

What does God want to be called?

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has just approved a new phrase to describe the Triune God. Along with “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” the PCUSA has voted to use the phrase “compassionate mother, beloved child, and life-giving womb.”

Other contestants such as "Rainbow, Ark and Dove," "Speaker, Word and Breath," "Overflowing Font, Living Water and Flowing River," “Sun, Light and Burning Ray," "Giver, Gift and Giving," "Lover, Beloved and Love," "Rock, Cornerstone and Temple," "Fire that Consumes, Sword that Divides and Storm that Melts Mountains," and "The One Who Was, The One Who Is and The One Who Is to Come” put up a good fight, but in the end they couldn’t match the creativity and genius of “compassionate mother, beloved child, and life-giving womb.”

The concept of the Trinity has been a major doctrine of orthodox Christianity since the beginning. It deals directly with the nature of God, and the Gospel can’t be understood fully without it. It teaches that they are not three separate Gods, and that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not secondary or created gods that are subordinate to the Father. It teaches that God has always existed as a Trinity, and that each are distinct but inseparable persons that are fully and equally God.

These new names for the Trinity don’t do a good job at conveying the nature of God. Most of them don’t make a lick of sense and the others do a good job of confusing you and can give you the wrong idea about God’s nature.

Take "The One Who Was, The One Who Is and The One Who Is to Come” for example. It can give you the idea that they are separate gods that exist at different times, instead of the three persons of the Trinity that are coexistent and coeternal. And how can anyone believe that "Rainbow, Ark and Dove" is a reference to the Trinity.

It seems that some women somewhere were offended by God being portrayed as male, or maybe it was some men who were concerned that women could get offended. Anyway, so what do they do? They give Him a new name since the Bible was written long ago and our society is different from the society back then, forgetting that God has called himself Father, and that the language He used to describe himself was not feminine but masculine.

I am not saying that God is a male. I am just saying that God has the right to name himself, not us. Everything that we know about God has been revealed to us by Him, not something we have made up or come up with.

Anyway here is an article you can check out, and their website.

Third Base Coach

It occurred to me after our softball game tonight that God is kind of like the third base coach of our lives. During the last inning of our game, we were losing badly and I got on 1st base after hitting a ground ball to the short stop which resulted in the consequence of Jimmy getting thrown out at 2nd base. So there was one out, with only me sitting pretty on first. We had not scored a run the entire game. Ross came up to bat after me and I thought to myself, “ I don’t really care anymore, I’m going to just run as hard and as far as I can after he hits the ball. Before I rounded 2nd base, Tater, who was acting as 3rd base coach, was yelling “Go three Webb, Go three.” As I came near 3rd, Tater screamed with bouncing enthusiasm, “Go home, Go home, Get you one Webb.” So I never looked up the entire time, never tried to listen to anyone else, just heard Tater’s words echoing in my head and ran like there was no tomorrow. After my foot slapped home plate, I turned around to see Ross not far behind me. He got home safely as well.

How does this apply to anything related to God? Psalm 119:33 says, “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.” During the game, I ran as hard as I could and only listened for Tater’s voice. We must do this for God. We run as hard as we can in the things that we already know constitute God’s will for our lives. Then we listen for his voice to tell us which base to stop on. For example, I already know it is God’s will that I live a holy life and live as an example to others, so I try to do that and then listen for His voice to guide me in what to do for specific situations or major decisions.

It is however, hard to run in God’s commands if we are not aware of them. Interestingly, Colossians 1:10-13 tells us four things that help us to live a live worthy of the Lord and please him in everyway. Seldom do we read scripture that specifically and blatantly tells us, ‘this is how you please God.’ However, these verses instruct us to bear fruit in good works, grow in our knowledge of God, be strengthened by God’s power to live a life of endurance and patience, and lastly, to joyfully give thanks to God for providing redemption to us through Jesus. How are you doing in these four things? Go home; get you one.

Rafting/Camping Retreat

The Foundation will be going to Ocoee, Tennessee for a Rafting/Camping Retreat July 28-30. We'll be leaving late that Friday and coming back sometime Sunday afternoon. We'll camp in a campground and hit the whitewater in the Upper Ocoee which is where the Olympic Course was held in the '96 Olympics. The cost of the trip is $45 a person which will cover your rafting ticket. We'll provide food/ transportation. This should be a great time to get away and reflect on God's greatness and grow closer to God together. We will be doing some Scripture Discussions and other cool things, so if you want to go, email us at thecorefoundation@gmail.com, call me 472-5576, or leave a comment before next Wed. 7/12.

1st Worship Service Announcements

In case you didn't catch the announcements, Lattimore Cop Style, here they are:

• The next worship gathering will be on July 23rd @ 1:30 in the Aldersgate Gym*

• The HangOUT @ Steve's is every Wednesday night at 8:00PM. Check for directions in this blog.

• Rafting/Camping Retreat coming up toward the end of July. More info later.

• Small Groups starting in the fall.

• There will be upcoming local ministry opportunities for those looking to serve our community- check blog for details later.

• Sign Up on the Email List. Leave a comment on this blog with your email or send an email to thecorefoundation@gmail.com to be added to the list.
  

*(if location changes, blog will be updated and email sent).

Directions to the HangOUT @ Steve's

The HangOUT @ Steve's is relaxed environment where we just hangout and spend time together in a laid back atmosphere. The typical night includes a short Scripture Discussion, food, loud music, and crazy games of Cranium or Scattergories. And no there isn't a guy named Steve who lives there. Suppossedly Steve is the ghost of an old blue tick hound who got run over in the front yard of the house and still haunts the premises. Sometimes you still hear the old boy howl. Maybe that's why the house is still empty?


From Shelby:
1. Head West on 74 out of Shelby.
2. Turn Right onto Plato Lee Rd. (Pantry near Crest Middle)
3. Continue on Plato Lee until you reach stop sign at PPG
4. Turn left onto Washburn Swith Rd. Continue Half mile.
5. Turn Right onto Double Springs Ch. Rd.
6. HangOUT is in the third brickhouse on the left across from church.

From Boiling Springs:
1. Head towards Crest Middle School on E Homestead/ Beaver Dam Ch. Rd.
2. Go straight across at stoplight at 74 Pantry onto Plato Lee Rd.
3. Continue on Plato Lee until you reach stop sign at PPG
4. Turn left onto Washburn Swith Rd. Continue Half mile.
5. Turn Right onto Double Springs Ch. Rd.
6. HangOUT is in the third brickhouse on the left across from church.