Hey Friends,

Well, Thanksgiving is behind us and December will be here tomorrow. This is the downhill slide for me. 2009 will be gone before we know it. Next year I will turn 50 and it seems as though someone has turbo charged time and it is racing down the track. I know for many this is a very hard time of the year, but I love it. I love celebrating the advent of the Christ. I also love the fact that many people will attend church this month. I love the thrill of it all.

As leaders we must learn to leverage everything at our disposal for the cause of Christ – that means this Christmas season. People are more open to spiritual things at this time of year. Even Hollywood lets down its politically correct guard and allows some Christ in. Yes, let use the season for the advancement of the Savior.

Let me give you some helpful hints:

1. Lovingly say, “Merry Christmas!” to everyone – and mean it!

2. Don’t fall prey to the promotion of the secular side of Christmas.

3. Invite folks to church. At FPC we are calling our December teaching series, Christmas Classics. We will use a movie theme each weekend, starting with “A Christmas Carol.”

4. Give to others without waiting, or wanting, to receive.

5. If you decorate, use the manger scene or something that will cause people to ask questions. Use your decorations to witness to them.

6. Pray for God to use you to help some of the millions who are depressed during this season.

Remember what Scrooge said after his salvation: “I will keep Christmas in my heart and celebrate it every day of the year.”

I pray this December finds you in great spirits and you find many to share your joy with.

Merry Christmas!

Pastor

P.S. Leaders will find a way to use Christmas to spread the Kingdom of God. We use  everything we can! Love ya!

Hey Friends,

For a Christ-follower Thanksgiving is a 365-day per year deal. Our hearts are to be marked by gratitude. You have heard it said that salvation is more than we ever deserved so all we get is grace. It’s easy to say we are thankful, but in our culture it’s hard to live. If our hearts really are Christ’s home then we should be filled with thanksgiving for all He has done for us. An attitude of gratitude is at the core of our worship.

How can we worship a God we are angry with?  How can we worship a God we feel let down by? How can we worship Him when we are not thankful for our lives? It won’t happen. We must develop a heart of gratitude in order for worship to flow from it. Would you agree?  I am sure that depression and praise can’t reside in the same heart and mind at the same time. 

“But Chris, you don’t  know all that’s happening in my life.” I don’t, but one of the most awesome attributes of God is that, “He works all things together for good.” You can thank Him that He is going to make something good out of all you are facing.  In fact, you worship and you give thanks by faith. You know God is going to move, so thank Him now.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The future is unseen and hoped for. I’ll bet it will go better for us if we are praising and thanking God for what He will do, than if we are complaining about what we don’t have or the problems we face.

Come on, tomorrow is Thanksgiving – Praise God! Give thanks. Spend some time and list the things you are grateful for. I am grateful for you and I look for God to use us together to make a difference. I pray you have a great holiday and you experience God’s richest blessings.

Love you,

Pastor

Hey Friends,

Let me give you a challenge today: be grateful. Work on, develop and increase in your attitude of gratitude. The Bible is full of admonitions and encouragements to be thankful, grateful, and worshipful. It is almost impossible to have a great attitude if you are not grateful. The Scripture says, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

This is a great command for us! One of the words in this verse is small but packs a powerful punch – in, not for! We are to give thanks in everything, not for everything. If we thanked God for every bad thing that happened in our lives we would be in need of some serious help. We are to give thanks in every situation, not for every hurt and difficulty.

With that thought in mind, it is far easier to live with an attitude of gratitude.  Here are four ways to help you develop that attitude:

1. Make a choice to be thankful.  Just decide right now you will be grateful for God and all His blessings, no matter what.

2. Start saying it! Today start to tell God, “Thank you!” for all He is doing.

3. Make a list. Write down everything you are grateful for. If you read it daily and expand the list you will grow in gratitude.

4. Make sure every day is Thanksgiving for you. Let everyone around you see how grateful you are to God and how grateful you are for them. People will want to be around you more. It will affect and effect every area of your life and make worship much more enjoyable.

Leaders, you and I are supposed to model this daily. Walk it and talk it! No one should wonder if you have an attitude of gratitude.

Just a thought to prepare  you for Thursday.

Love you and I am very grateful for you.

Pastor

Hey Friends,

It’s a new week and I have never been more excited about the future. Not because I will eat FRIED TURKEY this week, although that is a big deal! No, I’m fired up about the future. We all move from vision to victory. I want to ask you guys to really pray with me about something I have mentioned before on this blog.

You know I am starting a leadership ministry for church leaders. This is a burden I can’t leave alone. We are planning a conference at FPC on April 29, 2010 and also one in New Orleans in October 2010. I have put a lot of time, sweat, effort and money into impacting church leaders because so many are hurting and need help.

Please pray for these two events and the HUGE amount of work that goes into planning and presenting them. I am asking the Lord to make this day the best day ever in the ministries of all who attend. I am praying for 1,000 pastors, staff, leaders and spouses to be at both events. Imagine 2,000 leaders fired up at a conference we are calling LIT! I believe some will GITLIT and go back and change lives forever.

I desperately need your help in two ways:

1. Pray, pray and pray even more.

2. Help me get the word out. The cost will be approximately $90 for leaders and $50 for spouses - a value beyond imagination when we see all the Lord will do.

Together we can make a difference!

I already know I can count on you.

Pastor

Hey Friends,

I have been an avid student of church growth for over 25 years. I actually have a doctorate degree in the field. Who knew? I have watched many transitions in the church in this quarter century. I know many of my contemporaries dislike the new model – I guess that is an understatement! Whether your church is traditional, contemporary or somewhere in between is not the real issue of the day.

Where is the power? Is it in the choir? Pulpit? Programming? What about the moving lights and the hazers? How about the new music? Maybe it is in drama, video, or even creativity. NONE of the above is the answer. The power is still where it always has been – with God and His Spirit among us!

I have watched and been in the middle of worship wars, stylistic skirmishes, decibel debates, Sunday School verses Cells, and programming pounding. It really doesn’t matter in the end; the major issue is the power of God to change a life. We all want the same thing and yet we argue over style. It’s sad that saints are that easily taken out of the game. We must wake up and smell the coffee, or lose the war altogether.

Creativity is awesome but it does not change a life. Creativity gets someone’s attention and then the anointing of God is able to move in. The power of God comes on the man or woman of God who gets with God, hears from God, and obeys His leading. Let’s not lose the power of God by fighting the form over function.

The question for every church leader is not, “How do you do it?” but, “Is God in on it?” Is the Word cut loose to do its work? Is the Spirit of God free to convict, encourage, save and deal with hearts? If we are going to fight, let’s fight hell and the devil for souls before it is eternally too late.

So, leader, where is your focus?

Just a thought,

Pastor

Hey Friends,

We have been talking about spiritual war for two weeks and we must live out our faith for all to see. Paul told others, “to follow him as he followed Christ.” We set the stage for them – speed of the leader, speed of the pack. This is part of the job of the shepherds.

My hope and prayer for you and me is that we are digging deep into the life of our Lord. We must be filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit. You and I must spend some extra time in the prayer closet seeking the heart, mind, and will of our Heavenly Father. People look to us to chart the course and only Christ can lead us. So, I hope you are seeking Him with all you have.

I pray your faith is growing and expanding exponentially. I pray as you lead, speak, and share, the anointing is felt by all. We need men and women of faith that walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. This will enable us to speak by faith and lead people to make a difference they never thought possible. This is our calling, our job, our heart. I pray you are walking under an open heaven. I pray you are having the most significant times with our Lord that you have ever had. I pray you have the glory of God on you as Moses did when he came off the mountain.

Gang, the most important thing we can do as leaders for those we lead is to stay close to Christ. When Peter was close he was bold, but when he was separated that is when he denied! Walk, lead and speak by faith and in the power of God and we will see biblical ministries explode and souls converted to Christ.

How is your walk? How is your faith? How is your attitude? Time to get close.

Just a thought.

Pastor

Hey Friends,

You will never understand today’s blog if you don’t check out Monday’s and Tuesday’s first. Please let the Lord use this blog because the topic is too important to miss. We have read a very graphic accounting of the flesh monster that is within us all. Does God have a way for us to win? You’d better believe it and He bought our victory on the cross. The following steps for victory are only for a Christ-follower:

Step 1. Realize you can’t fight alone. Your will is way too weak. Romans 7:18 says, ”for the willing is present in me, but the doing of good is not.” There you have it –  Paul’s will was weak and insufficient to win this war of all wars.

Step 2. Galatians 2:20 says to ”crucify the flesh.” The flesh is like a snake –  if you bring it in, it will bite you.

Step 3. Romans 6:4,6:11-13: “Consider yourself dead to sin.”

Step 4. Ephesians 5:18 tells us to, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit.” This is not a one-time event, but is to happen daily. Surrender and seek Him. “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.”

Step 5. Romans13:14: “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” Stay clear away from anything that would tempt you. 

For me, I try to make Jesus Lord of my heart freshly every morning. I seek to be filled, yielded, and controlled by the Holy Spirit every minute, for the flesh can cause problems in minutes. As leaders, we always have people watching us. They use us as models and follow our faith. We can’t let one of them fall because we failed in the fight. Winning this war is essential for every Christ-follower, especially leaders in the church.

How are you doing in the war that rages inside of you?

Yours to count on,

Pastor

Hey Friends,

If you did not get a chance to read the blog yesterday it would help you to go there and start. This week we are going to build on the previous day’s blog. This topic is tantamount in each of our lives if we are to win the war raging in each one of us. Don’t miss this biblical illustration given by the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:24: “Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death?”

This image is gross but should be simple for every saint to see. In Roman times a murderer that was found guilty was condemned to the Body of Death. The victim of the murder was strapped to the back of the condemned. As the body started to decompose, swell, ooze, and rot, the DEATH would seep into the body of the murderer. This would cause a slow and painful death, as you could only imagine. Remember, the Romans were the same people that invented the cross.

Now imagine you, with a dead body strapped to your back. Gross, yes! But in the spiritual realm that is exactly what we have – every one of us. Our old nature is evil. “The heart is evil and desperately wicked.” This slow death of sin permeates, saturates, and dominates all of us until we turn to Jesus. Let me repeat, once you are saved the two natures war within you. If you would meditate on this it might answer some questions as to why you do some of the things you do.

Paul said, “the things he wanted to do, he did not and the things he did not want to do, he did.” Can you relate to this? We all can. The only way to victory is to open your eyes to the war and surrender to the Spirit of the Living God.

Step one is full disclosure. We all face this war. Sometimes I think thoughts that sicken me. Why? The flesh…

Think about it and how it affects you.

Pastor

P.S.  Leaders, we seem to face even more battles than others. More to come tomorrow.

Hey Friends,

Last week we talked about the spiritual war we all experience and the attacks of the devil. No one is immune to his wiles.  This week let’s look at a force and foe we ALL face, called the flesh. It is the enemy within each one of us. There are several names the Bible gives it: “the old man, sin nature, law of sin, wicked heart…” From the moment that you are born again you have within you two natures and they are in direct opposition of each other. As a matter of fact, they hate each other and they will war until the day we die and meet Jesus.

It is critical to our success in life and the Kingdom that we realize and recognize our inner struggle. This is why so many fall by the wayside in the race. One of the keys to winning this war is to daily allow and ask the Lord to take His rightful place as the Lord of our hearts. He should always sit exalted on the throne of our  lives. The problem is that the old nature wants back on the throne. He likes getting his way! The question is - whose will will win?

We blame a lot on the devil when it is the flesh tempting us to do wrong. We know sin will hurt us and yet we are still drawn to it. How many hearts and homes have been torn apart by our old nature wreaking havoc in our lives? As leaders, it is up to us to win the war within us and help those we influence to do the same. I would encourage you to read Galatians 5:19-21 as it lists some of the actions of the flesh.

• Who is on the throne of your heart?
• Are you daily surrendering to the Spirit to have full control of your life?
• Are you daily dying to the old life and living the life purchased for you on the cross?

Tomorrow we will talk more about this evil foe from within.

Think about it!

Pastor

Hey Friends,

All week we have been talking about spiritual warfare and the enemy, Satan. As leaders we must be armed with information and inspiration. The Bible says Satan is a hinderer! This should perk up all of our ears, especially leaders. As leaders we are taking people on a journey to impact the Kingdom and to make a difference. KNOW that the hinderer will block us at every turn.

He does not sleep or take a vacation. He is out to destroy us or at least stop our progress. He does not fight fairly and he fights for keeps. He wants to hinder your family, your private life, your ministry, your walk with God, your leadership, and every other thing you want to do that honors God. So you ask, “Chris, what are we supposed to do?”

Great question. First, you must be aware! Know you have an adversary that wants to hinder you. Second, know his M.O.- how he operates. He has not changed since his first invasion in the Garden of Eden. His M.O. doesn’t change, he is a liar and the father of lies. So, we must  know the truth if we are to stand firm against his schemes.

Don’t forget he wants to hinder your kids, family, coworkers, friends, and everyone you love and long to see progress. Satan loves to stop our forward progress for God. Be ready! Know forward progress is hard. And never think just because it is hard that God is not in it. If it is easy, maybe you have no opposition from the hinderer. Just a thought.

Sadly, saints put more energy in scholastics, sports and success in this world than in preparation for battle. The field is littered with those fallen who disregarded the warning of the Word. Are you ready and covered in the armor of God? Do you think about the war that rages? Have you prepared those you love?

Yours to count on,

Pastor