Hey Friends,

As you undoubtedly know by now, this weekend is a weekend of miracles. Not only for a million dollar plus offering, but for so many needs in the body that they can’t be counted. That only leaves one possibility –  WE NEED GOD! Obviously we need God every hour of every day. This weekend you can put that need on steroids! He is our only hope and He always has been.

O God our Father, we need You more this weekend than ever before. I know I have said that before and I probably will again. Please show up in Your supernatural power. There will be lost people with us and they will go to hell forever without Your convicting power. There will be captives from every walk of life and need. You, and You alone, can set the captives free. You said it was Your will in Isaiah 61 and we pray Your Word back to You, Great God. You said if we called on You, You would answer. Here we are Father. Please show up in power.

We ask You to defeat hell that is destroying Your people and this culture. God, we ask You to save, move, challenge, encourage, and give the hope for the future that You own. You, Great God, have all power and all authority and all ability. We put all of our hope and trust and faith in You. God, we believe this is Your revealed will and You will move.

Even today, stir the body to give sacrificially and willingly. Some have even left the church because of this offering. God, You have called for a perfect bride, spotless and holy. That is what we want to be. Stir Your church and grant revival to break out. Pour out Your Holy Spirit. Send the Wind, the Breath of God. Let the Fire of God fall and let us have church under the chairs. To You be the glory for the great things You have done and will do.

In the strong name of Jesus, I believe and I receive.

Please agree with us by faith for the Fire to fall.

Pastor Chris

Hey Friends,

We all know it is hard not to be self-focused and self-absorbed! Come on, let’s be real, you know it to be true. The number one word used in the English language is “I.”

As leaders it is beyond imperative that we carefully consider those who will follow in our footsteps. This is even more important for those of us leading in the Kingdom of God – His Church!

Henry Ward Beecher said: “We should so live and labor in our time that what came to us as seed may go to the next generation as blossom; and what came to us as blossom may go to them as fruit. This is what we mean by progress.”

This is awesome, written by a Tennessean named Will Allen Dromgoole:

The Bridge Builder

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the evening, cold and grey,
To chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned when safe of the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“Your wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head:
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pit-fall be,
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”

Look behind you. Do you care to help those who will follow in your footsteps?

Just a thought.

Pastor Chris

Hey Friends,

As you know, we are asking FPC to give our Lord a million dollar offering this coming weekend. I know the economy is horrible and many of our church members are out of a job. How could I believe this could happen NOW? Great Question! Let me tell you how. I received this letter yesterday from a lady who has recently been visiting:

“Dear Church Family,

I have recently started attending Faith Promise. I am a member at another church in Knoxville, but never really felt welcome or challenged to serve the Lord. You all are so wonderful to me and my granddaughter who comes with me every Saturday night. I always feel such a spirit of love when I am here. I have been challenged by the Holy Spirit to empty out a small savings account and trust it to God’s work at the Miracle Offering. Please pray that I will have the courage to go through with this as it is all we have. I want to do great things for God and I know He will provide for my every need. So if you all could pray for me and my family that we will trust God for the increase, I would appreciate it.”

That is one of the reasons I believe God will come through. We all have read how the disciples continuously failed the Lord with unbelief and hardness of heart. Let’s not  make the same mistake. We have more than they did. We have the Holy Spirit in power. We have the full revelation of the Word. We also have a track record of watching God come through.

If we are going to change the world we have to believe! Do YOU? I pray so.

Let the miracle weekend flood.

Pastor Chris

P.S.  For those of you in the area, you won’t want to miss an awesome opportunity for personal growth tomorrow afternoon.  Join Chuck Carringer, our Pastor of  Family Ministries, for his monthly leadership seminar on August 19 from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. at Faith Promise Church.  The topic will be, Enlarging Your Leadership Credibility.

Hey Friends,

Today is day eight in a two-week preparation for a weekend of miracles this coming weekend. I have never been so excited about a weekend, ever! We are praying for over a MILLION DOLLAR offering. I believe it is done; we just need to count it. Secondly, we will be praying for healings, jobs, financial issues, relationships and the lost. It will be a weekend that many receive more from the Lord than they expect. I’m so fired up!

Pray with us. Fast with us. Join your faith with ours and let us know how we can pray for you. Three things we have asked the church to do:

1. “Whatever He says for you to do, do it.” When the wedding party ran out of wine, Mary, the mother of Jesus, told the servants to do whatever He said. They did and the first miracle happened. This week I believe God will speak to thousands of the FPC family. Let’s obey whatever He says. It doesn’t matter what He asks – money, apology, forgiveness… Just do it.  Obedience draws the attention of God!

2. Fast and Pray. Jesus promised in Matthew chapter 6 to reward fasting and prayer. What could He do with thousands of us fasting and praying? The sky is the limit.

3. Get on Board. There are hundreds of people hanging around FPC and it is time to get on the Jesus Train. It is leaving the station. We have a vision to change the world and to make it hard to go to hell from Knoxville.

If you are not a part of our family, let us know your needs and we will pray that you receive your miracle along with us.

This weekend the fire will fall! Hope you experience it, too.

On your team!

Pastor Chris

Hey Friends,

One of the greatest issues holding back leaders today is their yesterday. I thought that on the cross Jesus paid for ALL of our sins and shortcomings! If you are going to reach your peak performance and potential you must put the past where it belongs: behind you! If you don’t let go then you’ll never go forward.

I love what Zig Ziglar used to say all the time: “Yesterday really did end last night and today really is a brand new day.” I couldn’t agree more and so does the Lord. You must let go of successes, failures, wins and losses and move into the future. “Forgetting what lies behind me I press on…”

John Maxwell said of the past-dwellers:“They spend too much of their lives recycling a junkyard of regret.”  The cross applies to you and your past just like it does to those you lead. If you continue to replay the past, that is all you’ll ever get out of life. Time to put on a new tape. This tape has not been recorded yet; it is your future and it is great. Focusing on yesterday pulls you farther away from the opportunities you have today. Today is what matters and where your focus must be.

Most car accidents happen because the drivers are not focusing on where they are going. As you drive, you glance in the rear view mirror and focus on the windshield of where you are heading or you will crash. Leaders must keep the organization going forward. Let it never be said that we stalled out the progress because we were focused on where we had been.

Where is your focus? Have you let the past loose and let yourself off the hook? Proclaim I John 1:9 and move ahead with the power of God.

Just a thought,

Pastor Chris

Hey Friends,

I have watched so many entering the workforce, and even ministry, who just want to do the minimum. Is that your experience? Somewhere, someone needs to reteach a biblical work ethic. One thing is for sure, great leaders expect more from themselves than others do. The reasons good leaders become great leaders is the standard they set for themselves. Who sets the bar for you? The Scripture states: “Let everything your hand finds to do, do heartily as unto the Lord.”

The only way for you to achieve the peak of your potential is to go farther than others expect. Since average has gotten so low, you don’t have to go far to beat the crowd. Higher standards will help you reach peak performance. Pat Riley said, “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” Do you? I love what Coach John Wooden said: “Never try to be better than others, but be the best you can be.”

As servants of the most high God, doesn’t He deserve our best? I want to challenge you to give God all you have. I promise if you give Him your best you will never regret it. The inverse is also true; if you do not give Him your best, one day you will regret it.

In the book of Jeremiah it says, “Cursed be the man that does the work of the Lord negligently.” He cares more than we can know. Are you setting the standard very high for yourself? Do you believe God can and will do great things in and through you? I challenge you to push it to the max in your ministry and your leadership and watch what the Lord does.

God gave us His best on the cross –  I can do no different.

Love ya,

Pastor Chris

Hey Friends,

What will you do with your influence? This is a critical question for every leader. Can you inject your influence into younger leaders around you? This is something I have tried to do for many years. Now that I have watched leaders develop or fail to develop over almost 30 years of ministry, I am more careful about injecting my influence than I used to be.

Early on, I gave my influence to anyone I could. I thought everyone could be a leader and just needed some help. I have since learned that many do not want to be leaders. Some of the people I gave my influence to did not steward it well. They would continue to come back and ask me to bail them out with more influence. I learned in the process to loan my influence, not to continue giving it away!

Today, I am even more careful. I have watched some I have given influence to turn it on me and try to hurt my leadership. Sad, really. Today, I do love to loan influence to help younger leaders get started. I also try to leverage my influence to help younger staff members get started. My influence can be the added momentum they need to get rolling or to go to the next level.

If I inject influence on someone who does not use it well, I will not continue to give it to them. You must choose to whom you add value. There are some younger leaders around me who demonstrate that the more influence I inject into them, the farther and faster they climb. I love to watch it.

To whom are you adding value? To whom are you giving your influence? As leaders we must raise up the next generation and your influence is a big part.

Yours to count on,

Pastor Chris

Hey Friends,

We have all heard the old saying: “You have to give up to go up.” I believe this is totally true. Sadly, many are not willing to give up what they have or where they are to go to the next level of leadership or ministry. Comfort can be a crippling disease for Christ-followers.

If you want to soar to new heights you have to remove the ballast. Ballast is weight that is used to hold down a helium balloon. The ballast must be jettisoned for the craft to go new heights. Rick Warren said, “The greatest detriment to tomorrow’s success is today’s success.” For many leaders in the ministry the greatest obstacles they face are their own achievements.

As a senior pastor, I have watched the church grow from 25 on the weekend to almost 4,000 today. The tradeoffs we have made over the years have been staggering. To be truthful, many have chosen to leave the church because they thought our tradeoffs were too great. There is no success without sacrifice and some of what we have to cut loose is loved by many.

I remember cutting Sunday night services loose when we moved to home small groups and did away with adult Sunday School. Wow, the ballast there was beloved. I can remember meeting with about 50 “not so happy” members about the decision to cut Sunday night. It was not a pleasant meeting. Today, 60% of our adults meet in homes for community and life transformation.

I could list many tradeoffs we have made, both corporately and personally, and I would do it all over again. Painful? Yes! Fruitful? You bet! You cannot keep growing and reaching an ever-changing culture and not change yourself and your ministry! 

Too many today continue to do what they did 40 or 50 years ago without the same results. Do you want to reach the lost? Do you want to grow? Do you want to see life transformation? It’s time to cut the ballast that is tying you down.

Just a thought.

Love ya,

Pastor Chris