Preacher's Ponderings

Getting Ready

2008-02-21T09:43:00.004-06:00

It has been a while since I have made a post on the blog, and I am sorry. I have been sick since Sunday, and today is the first day that I have felt like sitting at the computer. On Sunday, I handed out Missional Church surveys. I was very excited to see how many of the surveys were returned to me, and also very pleased to look at the results. The surveys are the first step in my D. Min. project that will begin this Sunday. This week we will begin a study of what it means to be a missional church. The study will be divided into three components.

1. I will preach a sermon series for the next month on what it means to be a missional church. I will lay out four dimensions of the missional church.
2. During our Wednesday Night Bible Study time, we will continue the study of the missional church. This time will allow us to have discussion and dig deeper into an understanding of the missional church.
3. I will be posting to this blog every week for the next month in regards to the missional church. I am working today to make sure that all the kinks are out of the blog site so that you can post your comments and we can have an online discussion for the blog.

I am excited about this project because I believe it will greatly impact our church's undertanding of what it means to be missionally faithful which will lead us to an even greater practice of being missioinal. I love you dearly church, and I look forward to the next month. - CP

A Prayer of Saint Augustine

2008-02-14T09:59:00.002-06:00

You called you cried, you shattered my deafness.
You sparked, you blazed, you drove alway my blindness.
You shed your fragrance, and I drew in my breath, and I pant for you.
I tasted and no I hunger and thirst.
You touch me and now I burn with longing for your peace.
Yo have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rest in you.
(Source: Soul Feast)

A prayer for each of us everyday. CP

Fire truck

2008-02-09T17:47:00.000-06:00

Noah and I took a ride on a new Fire truck today. Barry Riggs stopped by the house and invited us to take a ride. We loaded up in the truck and rode around town for a few minutes, and then went back home. If there had been a fire, we would have looked the part, but the crew of Barry, me, Noah, Timothy, and J. would most likely not have been very helpful. I am afraid that there are many people out there that are driving through life looking like Christians. They know all the right things to say, and the right things to do, they will always tell you they are Christians, but if a fire really broke out they might not be any better than the f-Troop I was with today. (We won't lump Barry in that group because he knows what he is doing.) We need to be faithful to pray for the people in our community that do not know Jesus Christ. There are lots of people moving through the motions, and we should pray that God would open a door for us to share the saving message of Jesus Christ with them. -- CP

A thought on Prayer

2008-02-06T17:09:00.000-06:00

Quote from Jim Cymbla...

"Prayer is the source of the Christian life, a Christian's lifeline. Otherwise, it's like having a baby in your arms and dressing her up so cute-- but she's not breathing! Never mind the frilly clothes; stabilize the child's vital signs. It does no good to talk to someone in a comatose state." (source: Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire.)

Are we breathing? How is our prayer life? Last night we had a lengthy discussion about the need to revitalize the prayer ministry of our church. Several ideas were talked about, including reactivating the prayer chain, designating a day of prayer, and prayer partners. If you have other ideas and suggestions, please feel free to share them here. Also, if you are willing to be a part of the prayer ministry, let me know.

Prayer truly is our lifeline. --CP

IPOD

2008-02-06T09:09:00.000-06:00

For Christmas I was given a new IPOD, but I have not had time to really put any music on it yet. I have one CD on it, but it gets a little bit old listening to that one CD over and over. I was also given a gift card for the itunes store where I could go and get music, but again time has not been my friend. I think this is a picture of how many of us know the Bible. We have access to the entire Bible, ( ibible store, if you will), and yet we don't go and take the time to download the words of life. I wonder if we were to take all the bible verses that we as a church have memorized, how many verses would we know? Some people would have quite a few, and then I suspect that there would be some that would be able to quote John 3.16, and perhaps "Jesus Wept." (Which is found in John 11.35). Do we have IPODS that are empty?

Sunday morning the sermon was titled "Faster is Not Always Better" and I encouraged you to slow down and experience Jesus. This week take the time to spend with the Master, spend time in word, and make sure that your IPOD is full of the word of God. Hopefully this week I will finally put some music on my IPOD. -- CP

Keep Austin Weird

2008-01-31T20:30:00.000-06:00

This is my last night in Austin, and I promise you that the city has lived up to its catch phrase, "Keep Austin Weird." I went for a walk down Guadalupe(You pronounce it "Guadaloop") Street today to get some lunch, and I saw all sorts of things you would never see in Big Lake, Texas. But I am reminded of a book by John Ortberg, Everyone's Normal Till You Get to Know Them. Ortberg essentailly says, we are all weird. (O.K., maybe there are some that are a little bit more weird, but I won't call your names here.) What is normal for me is not normal for you and vice versa, but the great truth is God loves us all, and he takes us to himself exactly the way we are. That is one of the amazing parts of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus loves us exactly the way we are, but then he goes about the task of changing us to be just like him.

I look forward to being home tomorrow, and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.
-- Chris

By the way, don't forget that we have our church fellowship Super Bowl party Sunday night. I plan to win the chilli contest this year, I hope! Chris

A Prayer

2008-01-29T15:07:00.000-06:00

I came across a prayer today that I simply would like to share with you. May we all pray this prayer.

Lord, Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace. So clothe us in your spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your name. Amen

(source: The Book of Common Prayer, 1979.)

Is there someone that you need to reach out to today?

Renewing Old Friendships

2008-01-28T20:50:00.000-06:00

Today was a great day! I had the opportunity to catch up with some old friends. I traveled to Lampassas this afternoon to see the pastor of FBC there. Rick was the pastor of the first church that I served in when I was in college at Roscoe, Texas. Rick, D'Anne (his wife), and I had time to talk about old times and remember our time that we served together before, but we also spent a great deal of time talking about the future and what God is doing in our lives and ministries. Rick is hopefully going to serve on my final doctoral committee here at the seminary, so we spent a lot of time talking about that project. It was good to get with these friends.

As I was driving back to Austin tonight, I thought about how important it is to renew old friendships. We have a tendency to take friends for granted and just believe the relationship will stay the same, but that is not the truth. If we don't invest time into our relationships they will dissolve, or at the very least loose their importance. This is true for human relationships, but also for our relationship with God. When is the last time that you took time to catch up with Him? Maybe we need to stop and spend time talking to him, recall the old times, and then look with wonder at the future. Habakkuk 1.5 "look and watch and be utterly amazed for I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told." Take the time to catch up today.

Finally, I am so excited to let the church know that we will also have an old friend joining us for Mission Big Lake this year. David Crain will be joining us for the evangelism rallies each evening. David was with us two years ago, and I cannot wait for him to join us again. Be sure and mark the dates for Mission Big Lake, July 20-25. David will lead our worship time from Monday- Wednesday each night after we have invested ourselves in a full day. I hope that God blesses you tomorrow. Chris

Praying for You

2008-01-27T20:23:00.000-06:00

I got several reports that services went very well at the church this week. I am so glad that Brother Robert was able to worship with you this morning, and was able to bring the word that God had placed upon his heart. I am praying for you as a church this week.

Paul writes in Philippians 1.3-4, "I thank my God every time I remember you. I all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership. (NIV)" I am so glad to be your pastor, and I thank God for that privilege. I am also thankful that we are partners in the ministry. First Baptist Church is so blessed because there are so many people that see they have a role to fulfill in the ministry personally. I pray for you this week as we serve God together. I go back to class tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. See you at the end of the week. - Chris

P.S. I have had many people let me know that they are having problems getting in to the blog to leave posts. Krista said that she had the same problem, but that when she went in through Mozilla instead of Explorer she did not have a problem. I am working on the problem, and hopefully by the time that I get home next week the problem will be solved.

This is the Day!

2008-01-24T17:13:00.000-06:00

I believe that we can always remember scripture better when it is put to song, and this afternoon I have had a song moving through my head all day long. "This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it." Now I know that you are hearing the song as well, and that song is Psalm 118.24.

I have just arrived back in my room from a long day of class, and it is cold and dreary outside, but God has put the song in my heart. I completed my evaluations for one class, found out that I will only have to come for one week in May, which is my last class, and I just thank God for nearing the end of this doctorate. (Melissa will be happy, I don't have to miss VBS!) Also some great plans started taking shape today for Mission Big Lake, as soon as I have a confirmation I will let you know about them. The bottom line, God is good today, but the truth is God is good all the time. "Let us rejoice and be glad in it" -- (go ahead- sing along)

A New Song

2008-01-22T21:26:00.001-06:00

Trying to get on the road for another term really filled up the first part of the week, but I did arrive in Austin this morning. Please pray for me as I study and work.

On Sunday the sermon was titled "The Soundtracks of our Lives", and I called us as a church to embrace the music that Jesus plays for us. The scripture tells us in Psalm 40.3, "He put a new song in my mouth." Jesus is the one that provides the music.

One note(I suppose that is a musical note) that should be made is that the music may not always be to our exact taste. There will be times that we would rather Jesus lead us in a different direction, but the truth is we must continue to listen for his song and follow his lead in the dance we call life. I am so glad to be your pastor. Chris

A New Frontier

2008-01-16T16:36:00.000-06:00

I am entering into a new frontier, the frontier of Blogs. This is a relatively new venue, but it is one that I believe that God can use in our church. My hope and prayer is that this blog will be a place that we can carry on dialogue as a church family, a place that we can grow and learn, and a place that we can discover God's mission and vision for our church. I believe this will be a tool to help us build a healthier church. I will blog several times a week, and the topics will range from worship and devotions to issues that may arise in the life of the church. I hope to make a post each week about the Sunday sermons so that you have a place to ask questions, offer feedback, and yes even provide criticism (But let's be constructive). I would love to hear your feedback, and know perhaps some things that would be helpful for you in this forum. I will be leaving for seminary next Tuesday, and I plan to continue to blog throughout the two weeks that I am in Austin. My hope is that you can be a part of my school this term via this blog. I am so grateful to be your pastor, and I look forward to this new ministry that we will have together on the web. Join me in my ponderings. CP