Many Thanks!

Thank you to all who continued to stay connected via this blog and twitter.  We were gone from Monday to late Thursday night.  Had a great week of learning and fellowship with mentors, coaches and members of the NEXT Initiative network.  Thanks to Ron Sylvia for driving through the Next Level Leadership network in spite of a brain tumor (some people will do anything for attention).  Thanks to Ron, Teddi and Luke for their friendship and hospitality! The Springs in Ocala is the mother-ship for Crossroads and there is no doubt we would not be doing what we are doing, the way we're doing it, as well as we're doing it (and I don't mean me and Leslie - I mean ALL of us at Crossroads) if it wasn't for Ron and Hal Mayer and Jan Greggo and those who have supported The Springs and their commitment to church planting.

Thanks to Danny Schaffner and his team at Common Ground in Tampa.  What a great church with a great facility and a God-vision for inner-city ministry.  It's a privilege to know and work with you!

Thanks to Hal and Sandy Mayer for their tremendous hospitality having us in their home in Tampa.  It was great to finally meet the staff at Church at the Bay.  Looking forward to having Hal IV and the CATB youth group up here the week before Easter.

Roadies, we are truly blessed to have such committed and influential people speaking into our lives and ministry.  I am awed by what God is doing in Enterprise and all those who work so hard at NEXT need to know that they share abundantly in the kingdom harvest at Crossroads.

Looking forward to tomorrow morning as we kick off a new 6-part series called GOD LOVES U2.  Invite big and share with others what God has given us.  It's a privilege to serve and worship with you all!

  

BLOGGING ON TWITTER

Check out the column to the right.  For the next three days we'll be out of town and I will post from the road 140 characters at a time in hyper-intelligent micro-blogs (or I will ramble about what I had for dinner and why it took so long to get seated).  Either way, let's stay connected.

MONDAY MIND DUMP (Whole 'Nutha Level Edition)

Wow.  Amazing.  Stupendous.  Outrageous.  These are just the first four words that come to mind when I think about what God is doing at Crossroads, and what kind of day Sunday Feb, 22nd was! Truly this was yet another turning point experience.  Here are some of the reasons I say that:

1. Highest attendance since our premier service.  167 in the building.  Huge!
2. Almost a dozen people made first-time decisions or rededicated their lives to Christ this morning!  That's why we're here.
3. Looking around at the crowd in the lobby it is becoming obvious that God has given us something that has wide appeal.  We are seeing people from all walks of life come through our front door, and return.
4. Two words: COMMUNITY GROUPS! six of our small groups kicked off tonight with their first meetings.  I heard from many Roadies that their gatherings were great.  I know our Starting Point group was a fantastic experience.  As I sat there tonight, I thought about all the other Roadies out there gathering together in small groups, and I was overcome with the sense that were are experiencing another BIG STEP in the growth of our church, and our own lives as well.  HUGE DAY!
5. We wrapped up The Game Show with The Price is Right this morning - a straight up GRACE message.  I was really blown away by how well the service flowed and I felt a tremendous sense of connection with the people gathered in Cinema One as I shared the message.  It was a powerful and really sweet encounter with God and each other.  Very cool.
6. February - the shortest month of the year - saw Crossroads receive the LARGEST AMOUNT OF GIVING for any month since we started.  Amazing!
7. TONS - TONS - TONS of first-time attenders.  Were you in the main service on Sunday?  Did you SEE how many FTA's raised their hands?  AWESOME!
8. We had a few technical glitches this morning, but in true overcoming style, we wore it, owned it, and rolled with it.  And it didn't impact the momentum of the service in any way.
9. The worship band was TIGHT this morning.  We had some real difficulties with the sound system which is NOT their fault.  They really brought it today, and I apologize to them for not reproducing their sound as well as we should have.  Look for us to overcome that difficulty quickly.
10. Fantastically excited for our new series GOD LOVES U2, which starts next Sunday morning and runs for the next six weeks.
11. So many people working to make Crossroads what it is.  As leaders we will meet later this week to organize our efforts better to help hook people up with volunteer opportunities.
12. Overall it was a FANTASTIC day.  Even the areas where we had some difficulties were great and I'll tell you why:  We wouldn't HAVE the opportunity to experience the glitches (technical or organizational) if we weren't GROWING and striving to be BETTER at what we are doing.  I LOVE that about Crossroads.

So many more GREAT things from today, the people - oh my gosh - so many people and so good to see them.  What a privilege it is to get to do what we are doing at Crossroads.  Thank you God for letting us do this!

There is so much more I could share about today, but I gotta go.  Me and Leslie are off to Ocala tomorrow morning for my Next Level Leadership Network meeting.  Tuesday night we'll jhead down to Tampa and have dinner and stay the night with Hal and Sandy Mayer.  We'll be back late Wednesday.

God bless you and keep you this week.  We'll be praying for you all, and look forward to the next time we get together.  Until then - let's keep up with each other on twitter!  Have a GREAT week!

 

GAME SHOW CLASSIC

I've gone positively buggy watching so much game show footage over the past month. Here's one of my favorite finds.  Enjoy!

Classic Game Show from Gene Oden on Vimeo.

Farewell Game Show

This Sunday, February 22nd, we bid a fond farewell to our current series The Game Show.  The Dating Game, the Newlywed Game and Family Feud have given us powerful insight into God's plan and purpose for our lives in the area of dating relationships, managing expectations in marriage, and forgiving family members who have mistreated or hurt us in the past, helping us to move forward with our lives.

Thanks to Natalie Lurie for sharing in Week Two, and thanks to all whos hard work made this series a success! Tomorrow, we close with The Price is Right - a message of God's great grace to you and me.

Just for grins, I'll be posting an old game show video clip of "What's My Line" featuring Groucho Marx.  Look for it.  Lotsa fun!  See you Sunday at Crossroads! 

Why Come On Sunday?

Hey guys, just a quick post to encourage you to INVITE BIG this weekend.  Yes, I say that often, but this weekend it is particulary important.  Not only will we have coffee, donuts, great music, and a chance to laugh, but we're going to have something even longer-lasting.  

The final installment of our current series The GAME SHOW will be "The Price Is Right", and I ain't talkin' about what a gallon jar of pickles or a roll of aluminum foil costs.  I'll be talking about the price of peace, the price of healing, the price of forgiveness, the price of joy, the price of abundant provision, the price of freedom from the bondage of addiction, depression, anxiety, fear, guilt, remorse and sorrow.  I'll be talking about the price that needs to be paid to ensure that life doesn't end in the graveyard, but lasts eternally in the presence of a loving Creator.  I'm talking about the price that we could never pay.  But Jesus Christ, God's only Son paid that un-payable price Himself, and God called the price, the cost, the debt - paid it in full.  And we got it all for FREE!  The price IS right.

This Sunday will be the most straight-forward, evangelistic GRACE message we have ever shared from the platform at Crossroads.  BRING SOMEONE.  If you know someone who has never heard the message of the Gospel, or someone who has heard and never responded: BRING THEM.

I make you this promise: You get them there, they will hear the truth about salvation and have an opportunity to respond.  Just BRING THEM.

And if you think you've heard it all before and you don't need to hear it again, I make you another promise: If you come, you will hear and learn things you never thought of before. Not just things that are interesting, but things that may change the way you think about salvation forever.  See you Sunday!

Peace

   

We Don't Have a Sin Problem.

Years ago when I began a path of recovery they told me something that has always stuck with me.  They said, "We don't have a drinking or a drugging problem, we have a living problem.  We simply do not know how to live, and we medicate ourselves to keep from facing real life".  When I embraced God through Christ, I embraced real life, and the drinking and drugging fell away.

I was thinking about that in the context of just plain old sin in our lives.  You know, the everyday stuff we ALL do that we know we really shouldn't, no condemnation no bondage here, don't get uptight and say you don't because you know you do, and it's different from person to person, and if we are Christ-followers, we know EXACTLY what it is.  At least, we should.  (If you're not sure what yours is, spend some time with a few well-meaning Christians, I'm sure they'll be able to point it out for you).

Look, because we were ALL sinners, before we received forgiveness through the sacrifice of Christ, we cannot say we have not sinned.  I think we can all agree on the truth of that.  But many of us (if we're honest) still struggle with areas of just plain old sin in our lives. Whether is something we do, something we say, or some attitude we allow ourselves to have - it's all the same.  Why?  Why, why, why?

You may disagree (and that always makes for great conversation), but I have come to believe that we really don't have a sin problem at all.  What we have is a GRACE problem. That is to say we have great difficulty at times LIVING under, LIVING by, LIVING in, or LIVING because of God's great and complete grace through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  We view grace as an "act", not something that is alive in us.  Oh, we live by FAITH, but do we live by faith in faith, or faith in grace?    

Is it possible that if we truly understood that the grace of God was a power that is ACTIVE, on-going, life-sustaining, and all-encompassing, we'd spend a lot less time wrestling with sin? I think maybe so.  Perhaps the reason we run headlong into sin (and we ALL do at times, whether a one-off, once in a blue moon type sin experience, or some form of habitual sin - I'm not qualifying sin, you do it), is because we look at grace as a one-time event; "God saved me by grace, I received it by faith".  And our understanding of grace becomes past tense.  

Looking at that "act" of grace as something that happened, rather than something that happens causes us to fix our gaze backwards saying, "there's the place I was saved by grace and forgiven for all my sin"; rather than embracing the reality of grace as something that is eternally active and dynamic.

In the same way "reformed" old druggies and boozeheads like me learn to embrace real life, and that propels us forward in sobriety, what if we endeavored to (because we're already empowered to) embrace the grace of God as something that propels us forward in holiness?  

Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law.  Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace.  Romans 6:14, NLT

We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have lived with a God-given holiness and sincerity in all our dealings.  We have depended on God's grace, not on our own human wisdom...  2 Cor 1:12, NLT

In light of these (and other) scriptures, is this grace and freedom from sin only for the life to come?  What do you say about sin and grace?  Do you think we have a sin problem, or a grace problem?  Speak out.

Mother Teresa Was An Atheist?

Wow.  Just read Seth Godin's blog where he included this inflammatory line not as I have, as a question, but as a statement of fact, but I include it today probably much for the same reason that he did...simply to get traffic going.  The Intersection (or any intersection for that matter) is a dry and dusty place - like the crossroads of ghost town somewhere in the old West - without traffic.  So let's hear from you on this one.

In Seth Godin's blog post 'Authenticity'  he says, "Mother Teresa was an atheist, filled with self doubt.  But she was an authentic saint, because she always acted like one".  Apparently for Godin (one of my personal favorite new media, new marketing,Web 2.0 guys), ACTING (or doing what you promised) is more a measure of authenticity than BEING (as in, 'being who you are').  Somehow, for reasons that escape my understanding, Godin (remarkably observant and complete in the work that I have read) equates "self" doubt, with doubt in the existence of God.   

So here are some questions to get you thinking and responding this morning (laying aside the whole Mother Teresa argument - it's old news, Google it, you'll find thousands of entries that try to prove her atheism by parsing the words of her personal confessions):  Does self-doubt equate to doubt in the existence of God?  Do you ever doubt yourself?  Do you ever doubt your faith?  What do YOU do when you find that you are doubting your beliefs?

Mouth off.  Speak out.  Let's get the conversation going.

Here's Godin's original post: Authenticity

      

MONDAY MIND DUMP

Hey guys, what a great day today at Crossroads.  Though I spent most of last week battling the crud, and I was feeling the effects of congestion and cough medicine this morning, I had my wits about me long enough to recognize that God is doing something really cool in our midst.  Here's a few quick takes from the weekend:

1. I was blown away by how HUGE the crowd was today considering the icky weather.  GREAT turnout!
2. The people of Crossroads continue to exhibit overwhelming faithfulness and generosity in their giving.  It is always inspiring, but especially in difficult economic times, to see people rely on and trust in God as their ultimate provider.
3. Great to welcome so many first time attenders this morning!
4. Really great also to see those who have hooked up in the last few weeks!  I don't know if you have noticed but we have a couple of dozen new folks that were at church for the third or fourth week in a row...and threatening to return!  Awesome.  Nothing like repeat offenders!  Very cool.
5. We live in a military town and one of the realities is that we only get our faithful flight school families for a short time.  But what an important part of the fabric of the church these families are!  Always sad to see families leave, but encouraging to see more and more of them coming and making their home at Crossroads. We need to find ways to connect with flight school students and their families EARLY ON when they just get to town, so we have maximum time to spend together!
6. The message today was needful on many levels.  Though it wasn't a laugh-a-thon (and I was not on my A-game due to the crud effect), I had more than normal people comment on how important it was that they heard what they did today about reconciling with others.  Thank God that He knows what we need to hear, when we need to hear it!
7. How amazing it is to see so many who come each week experience life change, true transformation, as they come in direct contact with the love of God.  I see it over and over again.  (If you are not seeing happen, grab me some Sunday morning - I'll show you MANY examples...starting with me!)  
8. I heard from MANY out in Roadie-land what a tough week they had last week.  I had many calls and spoke and corresponded with many people who were really struggling in the area of relationships with God and with other people.  Add to that the many who were fighting colds and flu, and those who were simply worn out and stressed out from their work life - it was good to gather together today, to worship, to pray, to hear Gods Word, and to recognize that God cares about EVERY area of our lives.  We can count on His grace and mercy to lift us up even in the really hard times.  Seeing that happen was probably my biggest "get" this weekend.
9. Thanks again to Brett Himes for allowing us to use so much of his sound equipment.  Though little by little we are getting our own stuff, we could not have done what we did to this point without his help!
10. To all who come early work hard and stay late to clean up each week - transforming the college cinema into the place we call home - THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.  Our amazing high output staff, leaders and volunteers are the backbone of the Crossroads community and cannot be praised enough!

Okay, 'nuf for now.  Have a great Monday and a fantastic week!  I look forward to connecting with you throughout the week, until we meet again next Sunday at Crossroads.  I will sleep well tonight, counting myself as the most blessed and fortunate man on the planet, to get to pastor this church.  How did I get so lucky?     

       

It's Gotten Worse...Where's My Bell?