Featured Blog of the Week

Gary Lamb

Blog: Mad Babble From a Church Planter

Lessons learned from NOT attending church...

...

1. The large majority of people DO NOT go to church - Every pastor who has ever said we don't need more churches or that their church is reaching the community just fine is simply an idiot. I got the family up this morning and took the family to eat breakfast and run some errands and every place we went to was SLAMMED. Driving through the neighborhood I saw the large majority of my neighbors home. The church parking lots were empty as well. As pastors we are in church on Sunday mornings and as a result we don't see the facts about our community. The large % of people are not in church and see no point in it. The church better wake up and accept this fact and they better do it soon.
2. Men don't go to church - Yep, this is my hobby horse and I make no apologies about it at all. I would say there were 3 men out for every one woman we saw. I heard three different men at three different times at three different places make some type of comment about the wife and kids being at church. The church has become to feminine in it's methods and practices that men look at it as something women do and the kids should do. This is a hill I am willing to die on and as such RSC will always focus on reaching men because if you reach the man, you reach the family.
   

continue reading here...

Israel

Do you know what the name Israel means? In the Old Testament in Genesis 32, God gives a man, Jacob, the new name of Israel. Jacob had 12 sons. His sons multiplied and became the 12 tribes of the nation Israel, God’s people. The name Israel is made by putting two Hebrew words together, isra = to fight or wrestle, and el = God. What you end up with is a word meaning God fights or one who struggles and wrestles with God.

It is interesting to me that God would choose to give this name to his people. I think this may show us a picture of a relationship, two people wrestling together. It is interesting to think that God wrestles with his people. It reminds us that God is a relational God. In order for two people to wrestle, they have to be latched on to one another. Sometimes God allows us to grapple with him, to plead and petition for things, and sometimes God grabs us and pins us down, placing us where we need to be. It gives us greater cause for thanksgiving, comfort, and celebration to know that the LORD is deeply involved in our lives and is a relational God, not just a far removed deity who simply watches as things happen on Earth. On the contrary, he does stretch out his hand to comfort, to build, and to wrestle.

Top 100 Guitarist of All Time

I ran across this the other day on Guitarport online. http://www.guitarport.com/top.html

Here is their Top 20, you can get the rest of the Top 100 from the link.







1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Eddie Van Halen
3. Eric Clapton
4. Jimmy Page
5. Steve Vai
6. Stevie Ray Vaughan
7. Joe Satriani
8. David Gilmour
9. Brian May
10. B.B. King
11. Carlos Santana
12. Jeff Beck
13. Mark Knopfler
14. Angus Young
15. Les Paul
16. Slash
17. Yngwie Malmsteen
18. Eric Johnson
19. Randy Rhoads
20. Ritchie Blackmore

It is always hard to pick the top guitarist, but I think guitarport did a decent job, especially on the top 10. After that it gets kind of hard to rank them.

For the Top 10, I would proably move Eddie Van Halen down to spot 4 and move Clapton and Page in front of him.

I don't agree with some of the later ones. I think Wes Montgomery is way better than 59, Gary Rossington should at least be in the Top 50, not 96. Duane Allman and Prince should probably move up a few spots also. And where in the world is Brad Paisley, country and southern rock don't get any respect.

But anyways, I thought it was a decent list, way better than Rolling Stones list, which is a joke.
What you think?

HangOUT Thursday

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and all the turkey that came along with it. The HangOUT this week will be back at the normal time and place...so don't miss out. We'll be meeting at the Center @ 7pm on Thursday night. Directions to the center can be found here.

Eat & Treat

Hey Ya'll. I know many of you may be out of town or busy this week but Wednesday night 11/22 we are going to go out and have a good time. We'll have a little eat&treat action up in Forest City...eating and bowling.


We will meet at 6pm over at the Renfro Center and leave from there to go eat at Fatz followed by another night of bowling at the Autumn Lanes.

The cost of bowling was 6 or 7 bucks last time. If you have any questions, email me back or give me a call at 472-5576. And all ya'll OG's who have been gone to college all semester and will be home this week, we'll expect to see ya there so we can show everyone how the L-Town Crew rolls!

Spoon

Feature Blog of the Week

Yeah so being the single guy that I am, as soon as I ran across this blog the other day I knew it had to be the featured blog of the week. Oh and let me remind you that I didn't write this blog, I wish I did...except for the fact that Perry was slappin me around with some of these comments, so just remember that as you read this because I wish I had the whole single dude thing down as he describes it...

Perry Noble

Five Things A Single Dude NEEDS To Know…

OK guys…here we go…I’ve been wanting to do this one for a long time. Please keep in mind that I made TONS of mistakes as a single dude…so these lessons are NOT all as a result of my success stories. BUT…I did manage to do some things right…and I have a red hot wife to prove it. (Thank You Jesus!!!)

#1 - If You Are Interested In A Girl…YOU Need To Talk To HER.

The Bible says in Proverbs 18:22 that he who FINDS a wife finds what is good (AMEN!) Men…it is up to you to FIND a wife…that means YOU are to be the one to initiate things…if you want to be the leader IN the relationship then you should take steps to be the leader at the beginning of the relationship!

This means, if you are interested in a girl…you talk to her!!! You don’t call HER friends and ask them to drop hints for you…unless you are a pathetic wimp. You don’t get YOUR friends to drop hints to her friends. BE A MAN! If you want to ask her out…ASK HER OUT! Trust me…her friends don’t want to talk to you about it anymore…and if you keep bothering them they are going to tell HER to stay away from you!

continue reading the other 4 things....

CCC HangOUT THIS week

This week marks the first ever CCC HangOUT!! We'll be meeting @ 7pm on Thursday in the auditorium inside the main building on the Cleveland Community College campus. This will be a fun time as we are basically getting a feel for what a service would be like in the auditorium. The band is going to be there and will definitely rock the house and we'll just have a good time of fellowship with each other.

The auditorium is just inside the front entrance, closest to Post Rd., and is just across from the college library. Since it will be a Thursday night you will have to park in the student parking lot which is across from the main entrance of the fairgrounds. We'll have someone outside to meet you @ 7 in front of the Visitor Entrance. I'm sure many of you will get lost and not know where to go...so if that happens just give Chance a call at 472-5576.


(click to enlarge)


Driving Directions: (click for map)

• Remain on 74 East into Shelby
• Turn left onto Highway 180 North (South Post Road)
  (This turn is at an intersection of Gasland/Bojangles and Keeter Ford)
• Go through one stop light (.4 miles)
• Turn right at the second light (Elizabeth Elementary School is located on the left). Visitor parking is after you pass the James B. Petty Amphitheater (right) in the visitor parking lot on the left.

John Piper and John MacArthur Release Rap Songs

Haha, well not really, but these are great. You can listen to John Piper's rap rendition of Michael Jackson's "Bad" by clicking here. Indeed, Piper is Bad! Gotta love some Piper.

And not to be outdone you can check out MacArthur's rap by clicking here.

Feature of the Week- Oxymoron-Liberal Evangelical

Tony Campolo on "Being an Oxymoron"


(excerpt from the Huffington Post)

A few weeks ago I was a guest on Steven Colbert's popular television show, The Colbert Report. He introduced me as an Evangelical who is liberal on social issues. Then he added, "He's a living oxymoron!"

Sadly, his words reflect the way Evangelicals are regularly perceived. Here in the United States, Evangelical Christians have become so married to the Right wing of the Republican Party that it is hard for those outside our faith community to imagine that a significant minority of Evangelicals have socially liberal politics.

....

The word liberal has become a political label of ill-repute among many Evangelicals. But if by social liberal, you mean someone who believes America should guarantee medical coverage for all of its citizens; fund the public schools in poor urban and rural communities at the same level as those in rich suburban neighborhoods; be committed to progressive environmental policies; give more than four-tenths of one percent of its federal budget to help the poor of other countries; and give up its militaristic adventurism--then I embrace the label with enthusiasm.

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Thoughts from New Orleans mission trip this past Aug.

For a year seeing photos, videos, and hearing stories on the TV and Internet increased my desire to go to New Orleans and minister to the people. After driving almost 1,000 miles, the two girls in my car and I finally passed a sign that read “New Orleans.” I still remember how it felt to finally arrive in New Orleans this past August. My heart went out to the people of the city as my friends and I approached the crest of a hill and drove past buildings with windows blown out and tarps still covering their sides.

I looked out in front of my car and took in the sight of New Orleans. It was a broken city that still had so much work needing to be done to restore it- both physically and emotionally for the people living there.

Our team of 3 girls and 3 guys ranging from ages 17 to 21 were ready to arrive at the Vieux Carre Baptist Church where we would be staying for the week. We had worked with this church a year ago and were excited to come back and minister with them again. The Vieux Carre is in the French Quarter, just a couple streets over from the well-known Bourbon St. and close to where numerous homeless people line the sidewalks to sleep at night.

What a strategic place for ministry outreach the Vieux Carre has in the French Quarter! The placement of this church provides its leaders a great opportunity to minister to the storekeepers and the homeless in the quarter.

Depending on where people live, whether in New Orleans, a third world country, or in the foothills of N.C., the way for Christians to minister to people around the world can differ. Some people have physical needs that must be met before they will give somebody a chance to tell them about salvation through Jesus. Other times people are open to debating theological issues with anyone who will talk. However, in other situations people may be so turned off to religion that they won’t listen to what a person has to say about faith or salvation until they see that person live out what he or she believes.

One of the main things I have learned at GW as a Religion/Missions Studies student is that wherever Christians are, we should find a way to make the Gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ understandable and relevant to the culture in which we live. Ministry techniques often need to change with culture, age groups, and more. This concept of ministry is something that became heavy on my mind particularly while in New Orleans.

In the blogs I hope to post in the near future, I’d like to discuss some ideas about new ministry techniques Christians are using to make the Gospel relevant to cultures around the world, as well as here in the U.S. While the ministry techniques change so that the needs of the people are met accordingly, the message remains the same- salvation through Christ.

Alright…so there’s more to come!

Service Poster

NO HangOUT Tomorrow!!

Hey guys. There will be NO HangOUT Tomorrow night (11/2) :-( We are taking the night off after having the Halloween party on Tuesday. See everyone Saturday night @ 7 for the service! :-)

Halloween Party Pics

Check em out! Click the picture to visit the album.

Halloween Time

Worship Gathering This Saturday

Just a reminder that there will be a Foundation Worship Gathering THIS Saturday @ 7PM in the Aldersgate Gym (directions/map).

Last service was really awesome as we had a special guest speaker, Steven Staton come from Ohio and deliver the message. This time you are in for a treat again. Josh Childers is driving up from Alabama to speak to us on Saturday night. Josh is a commissioned Air Force Officer and is currently stationed in Guam (the other side of the world), but is in the States for a few weeks and is taking his weekend off to come share with us.

Last service was the largest service to date and I hope that all of you are working as hard as you did the last service to invite your friends to come check it out. Please try your best to come and bring someone new with you, because who knows it could possibly change their life. :-)

Yall have an amazing week!