Private Practice
“Not enough hours in the day” and “the work of the Lord is never done” are common expressions I hear (and maybe even utter) a lot in my line of work. As you may know, “church work” is not the 9-5 kind of career. I have a hard time “leaving work at the office” because ministry happens anytime, anywhere. Therefore I try to be efficient with my schedule, but even then it feels like I need an extra day just to catch up (or just breathe).
We often wonder why God not only wants us to take a sabbath, but took one Himself after creating everything there is to see. Making the most of the time we’re given is important because a lot of our days and nights are wasted, even when it feels like we’ve been busy.
Back in the summer of ’96, I was a 14 year old kid that got sent away to the first ever “Herb Sendek Basketball Camp” at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC.
Believe it or not, I wasn’t being punished! I wanted to attend, being the avid Wolfpack fan that I am. That, I was eagerly looking at ways of improving my “game”. I was a good, but nowhere near great player in Jr. High. (kind of like Herb’s tenure at State)
While I can’t say I turned out to be an even better shooter or rebounder, one of the things I took away from the experience was the lesson of time management.
I could practice for 2 solid hours… shooting 3′s, playing H-O-R-S-E, but get little done in advancing our skills. Growth only occurs when practice “the right way” by concentrating on a few things and mastering them before moving on to the next goal.
Our spiritual growth should look a lot like this model! Instead we…
- Open up our Bible… turn to a random passage and try to get something out of it
- Say our prayers at several points throughout the day… but we let them be consumed with our needs and desires
- Attend a worship service… but are there to “observe” rather than “participate”.
- Listen to a sermon… but “forget” to bring our own Bible or take notes
- Go to a small group… but not take the time to get to know anyone there
There are countless ways we can feel like we’re practicing our faith, but in reality, nothing is being accomplished!
Not only is growth not happened, but we’re putting on a show. We’ll look like Joe or Jane Christian on the surface, but underneath is a shallow and underdeveloped faith. But to us, we feel like we’re good ol’ church members that are doing all the right things!
The Pharisees were a lot like that. Jesus didn’t like these guys a whole lot and it showed when He referred to them as “hypocrites” (which might be the lesser of the insults). They would flaunt their generosity, pray loudly and often in public places, and disfigure their appearance while fasting. This would all would be a show to others that they were “righteous”, “holy”, and “religious”.
This was wrong then and it is now (it’s still happening today). As a result of this, not many people of need were truly touched and their communities weren’t impacted positively. The sect remained isolated and ineffective, both of which are the exact opposite of what God expects out of us!
If you want to get a head start on Sunday’s message, “Private Practice”, read Matthew chapter 6.
God’s House: A Look at Church Health
This month’s series, “Are you LIVING?” is about how we can be a healthier church. If we really believe that we are a living & breathing body, shouldn’t we get a “check-up”?
One way we can learn how we can “live better” is to take a look at what we can kill us. Yes, a church body can die (just like any other living body).
The New Testament describes the church being made of people, not brick and mortar as we tend to think.
Let’s look at a few verses that show this:
1 Corinthians 3:16
“Don’t you realize that all of you together are the house of God, and that the Spirit of God lives among you in His house?”
Ephesians 2:21
“We who believe are carefully joined together with Christ as parts of a beautiful, constantly growing temple for God.”
Using this idea that the church is us and is one body, there are many different parallels/metaphors that you can use to further illustrate the issue of bodily health. But let’s look at churches more closely…
What kills a church more than money, boring preaching, bad music, the location, or little-to-no programs, is the lack of communication. I’ve seen it too many times before! I’m not just writing about the usual church politics, gossip, and rumors. No, this is more about the lack of sharing our struggles and vital information in regards to our well-being. We often hide the pain before it’s too late and has done significant damage to us and possibly others.
Using one of those metaphors, it’s an infectious disease that’s gone too far. Had the person sought “medical treatment” earlier, then the results might have turned out different. One member down often means one family down. Then another. The trickle-down effect is obvious and it’s pretty sad to witness in person (and many of us still carry the scars).
The communication breakdown that infects churches is caused by several factors: trust, pride, and fear (just to name a few).
- Lack of trust… in sharing personal information with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ (that includes pastors and other leaders).
- Too much pride… by believing you can figure it out and do it all yourself.
- Fearful… of what others might think of you! (God forbid!)
Paul’s description of the church in the earlier passages reflects unity with one another to form one body. If we’re not united due to this lack of communication, then that means we’re not functioning well… much like our physical self when wounded.
Keep in mind here that the books that he wrote, like Ephesians and first Corinthians, were not actually books… they were personal letters written to the local churches in those particular areas. These letters were dripping with love, concern, discipline, and Spirit-lead guidance all with the aim of making that particular body healthy.
Why was it so important? Because a church that’s doing well points back to (glorifies) the God that they serve! More people come to Christ when He is seen in us more clearly. When we cover Him up with the pain we hide (and refuse to let go of) then we’re putting a roadblock to being used by God. So what should we do instead?
What we see in Paul’s letters was honest correspondence. 2 Corinthians 1:8 is a great example…
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.
“Uninformed” is the perfect word to describe the problem at hand with many churches (and the members that they’re made of). If we’re not at least semi-transparent with each other about what is going on in our lives, then how do we know what to pray for?
Paul preceded verse 8 with this…
“If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”
- Telling about our distresses leads to comfort and salvation in others…
- Comfort produces patience/endurance when similar sufferings arise…
- Sharing in sufferings is paired with sharing in comfort.
Looking at it through Paul’s eyes, disclosure isn’t only limited to “good news”. In fact, Paul talked quite a bit about the pains in ministry and sharing the Gospel to hostile environments. But there was purpose and glory to be found among it all!
In order for The Living Church or any other church to truly thrive, we must learn from the early Christian leaders and believers: communication is key to living better, both personally and collectively.
Join us this Sunday at the Center Theater, 11am, to hear more about having a healthier church body!
Single?
We’re wrapping up our “meHarmony” series this Sunday by talking about the most over-looked aspect in relationships – ourselves!
The truth is, many of us have rotten self-esteem. There are a plethora of reasons as to why (and I’ll address those Sunday), but what ends up happening is that this usually bleeds into our interaction with others. “Others” includes our relationships with boyfriends or girlfriends, husbands or wives, and they’re all feeling the brunt of our insecurities. As a result, we’re in a constant struggle trying to cover up old wounds and using someone else to do it.
What does the Bible say about all of this? Plenty. Let’s just take a look at a few.
For those who have low self-worth, guess what? We are valuable to God!
(shouldn’t that be enough for us?)
Jesus says in Luke 12:6-7…
“What is the price of five sparrows? A couple of pennies? Not much more than that. Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And He knows the number of hairs on your head! Never fear, you are far more valuable to Him than a whole flock of sparrows.”
If you think you’re Mr. or Mrs. “Big Stuff”, guess what? You’re being deceived.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:3…
“Do not think of yourselves more highly than you should. Instead, be modest in your thinking, and each one of you judge himself according to the amount of faith that God has given him.”
These two passages seem contradictory. However, we find that the best measure of our self-worth is our identity in Christ! We alone are not worth much, given that we’re “damaged goods” in a lot of ways. Yet, here is the Creator of the entire universe who knows us intimately and loves us beyond our human comprehension. In fact, He came to Earth in the form of a man and died for us, just so we could be closer to Him!
The message this Sunday will be for everyone – single, married, or dating. It’s for everyone because at any stage in our relationships, we should look deep within to see how much of Jesus Christ we’ve allowed to reside in us! The more of Him we have, means there’s less of us (and that’s a good thing considering the junk we carry around).
Come out to the Center Theater this Sunday at 11am to hear more about how our self-image deserves to be looked at more closely!
Is Your Marriage a Success Story?
We’re on the second week of our relationship series, “meHarmony”. This Sunday we’re dealing with marriages, specifically how to build a Christ-centered one.
The message is called “Success Stories” because a healthy relationship between husband and wife should be modeled after the God we worship! We want to see as many of these “stories” as possible around Hartsville because marriage affects a variety of tangible aspects in our community.
Education, drugs, crime, the economy… all are shaped by what happens inside the home!
So what does the Bible say about marriage? Plenty, actually. But it’s in Ephesians 5 where we find an oft-repeated passage most commonly used in wedding ceremonies (and with good reason).
Let’s get a refresher course…
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body.
31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Here it identifies the roles and responsibilities of both husband and wife. It also points these qualities back to Christ’s relationship with the church (His bride). In the last verse, we see what our primary desires are…
For the husband: respect.
For the wife: love.
Now examine your marriage. To the men, do you wish your wife respected you more? To the women, does your husband not show enough affection?
Has this raised any issues in the past and are they possibly still lingering today? The answer to resolving it is obvious, yet something that we all struggle with: humble submission.
What’s that? Does “submitting to your spouse” sounds a little too “old school”? Take another look at that opening verse…
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
If you’re unwilling to fulfill this vital part of marriage, then your relationship with God needs a check-up!
I hope you are able to join us on Sunday for what will be an in-depth look inside an institution as old as mankind. We want your marriage to be another “Success Story” that will inspire others!
Empathy: A Community Investment
This happened in downtown Hartsville on Sunday afternoon. It was a rare, if not surreal sight to see. Christ-followers gathered as a response to a violent crime that occurred in our downtown to Claudette Hulsey at the Jack-Be-Nimble Children’s Boutique.
The event wasn’t a “protest” as reported in our local paper. No, it was a moment of community prayer where we humbly sought God’s protection, prosperity, and grace for our city and everything that its made of. The people there came from all backgrounds, races, and denominations.
Crowds were stretched from the end of Carolina Avenue at 4th St. (by the Hartsville Pawn Shop) all the way across to 6th St. (past Foxes Corner gas station). This was no mere prayer circle!
The prayer chain was a moment that no one there will soon forget. While it was the Holy Spirit that did the leading, much thanks go to the many different church pastors, our mayor Mel Pennington, the Hartsville Police Department, Darlington County Sheriff’s Office, and countless other leaders, churches, and volunteers, who helped make it all happen effectively, efficiently, and safely as possible.
Our efforts as the Church (“church” with a big C… the collective body of Christ) shouldn’t stop with that one afternoon, but should spark revival within all of us to work together proactively and to pray for our community daily!
The event’s reputation grows in mythic proportion by the day. At the time, we conservatively estimated the turnout around 1,000 in attendance. It later climbed to 1,200. Then 2,000.
Now it’s reported at 2,500. This is what we call, “church math”… 
While I doubt it grew to be that large at the time, thanks to the online realms of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, more folks have been able to “participate”. The number will grow well beyond 2,500 before you know it.
Why did the attack on Mrs. Hulsey at her store resonate so profoundly? Downtown Hartsville and its shops, restaurants, and offices are all tied to us somehow. The business owners might be our family, neighbors, church members, etc. When they’re hurting, we’re hurting!
The Apostle Paul said in Romans 12…
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
This is basically a way of explaining empathy . That is when we’re personally invested in the lives of other people, whether we know them well or not. What’s the connection there? It’s our faith in Jesus Christ that unites the body of believers, through both good times and bad. That faith, when fully engaged, opens our hearts up to the experience of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
So when a horrible crime like this happened downtown it’s as if it happened to us! But instead of using anger and hatred to drive us, we take that same effort into prayer and seeking God’s strength, healing, among other things that we simply cannot obtain on our own.
One of the qualities that President Bill Clinton had down pat was empathy. He often used the statement, “I feel your pain!” on the campaign trail. This was during a down economy in 1992 when frustrated everyday American workers would vent about their personal losses. Whether it was sincere or not (he was a politician after all), it was effective and helped carry him to a victory on election day.
Expressing that kind of connection with someone is far different than sympathy which is where we offer some sense of understanding for them and the situation, but it doesn’t feel personally attached. Empathy takes a lot more personal investment than sympathy, but it certainly yields bigger and better results! Among them: more genuine relationships… better communication… and a far more enjoyable, active life in this world. No longer are we living on our own islands away from each other!
So what is the lesson to learn from all of this? It is to sincerely “love thy neighbor” as Christ commanded. Pretty simple, yet so rarely lived out.
This means:
- More concentrated prayer efforts for our city, its leaders, the local Church, and businesses that employ our citizens. This should be in our personal time and also demonstrated publicly as a Church.
- Opening our eyes to the city-as-a-whole. Breaking away from our comfort zones and reaching out to those areas that we shy away from due to the whispers of fear from the enemy.
- Less “hi and bye” conversations and more face-to-face time with those people we often give little thought to. I passed by the Jack-Be-Nimble shop on a near daily basis without a second thought of who owned the place. That needs to change!
- Further cooperation with local area pastors and churches. We’re on the same team, guys… let’s win together.
I pray that what happened Sunday is just the beginning. Let us listen more to the Spirit and ignore the roadblocks in our head that prevent us from truly impacting our city!
meHarmony – True Love Begins Here
One of the things I come across often in ministry is dysfunctional relationships… between family members, parents and children, husband and wife, friend and friend, boyfriend and girlfriend, cats and dogs, and just about every other combination one could think of.
I felt lead to respond to the dysfunction by addressing it head on with a new message series we’re calling “meHarmony”.
While there are many different causes for relationship issues, the primary one I know of is what our relationship (or lack thereof) with God looks like. Which is why we’re kicking off the series about just that!
We’ll also be talking about this month…
- What to be looking for in a spouse
- Improving your marriage
- Being confident and content with yourself
Join us this Sunday, 11am at the Center Theater, for what will be a great time of Biblical insight and worship!
Meet Josh Woods, Community Pastor
You may have noticed a new face around here lately…
Josh Woods recently joined the TLC team as our Community Pastor. What does that mean? Josh will be heading up our “LIVING groups” (Bible studies/small groups), helping lead our LIVING youth ministry, organize outreaches and volunteering opportunities for our members, and doing graphic design for our website. In other words, we keep him busy!
No matter what he’s doing, his purpose will be to help grow a healthier church community with our members while also reaching out to our local community of Hartsville in various ways.
While many of you have already met Josh, I wanted to take the time to formally introduce him to the rest of the world.
Josh is 27 and has been serving in Christian ministry for the past nine years. Originally from the Pensacola, FL area, he has a heart for social justice and a desire to see believers reach out and connect to their host communities in new and creative ways. He graduated from Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL with a Bachelors degree in Religion and later received his Masters of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.
His favorite verse is Galatians 5:13…
For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.
Josh enjoys hiking, camping, as well as spending time with his girlfriend Laura (who’s back in Alabama) whenever possible.
You can connect with Josh by:
Following him on Twitter – @joshwwoods www.twitter.com/joshwwoods
Adding him on Facebook – www.facebook.com/joshwwoods
Visiting his blog - www.emerging.me
Or just come to one of our LIVING groups during the week or our Sunday morning worship service at the Center Theater!
B90X
It’s over two weeks into 2011 and many have already given up on their so-called “resolutions”. Those $60 a month gym memberships, weight-loss books, nicotine patches, are all starting to wear off!
But what I’m excited about is something that should never lose it’s luster: a deep, lasting habit of reading God’s Word!
Last time I blogged about the “practice of prayer” and it’s importance to our everyday life. The same sense applies to our devotional time spent with God and The Holy Bible.
So what’s a good way to go about it? Where do you start? How do you keep yourself motivated? All good questions to ask and there are many answers to it. One way that our church wishes to address it is with a program called B90X.
Most of you have heard of “P90X”, the crazy workout and diet program designed to “get you in the best shape of your life!”. Having done P90X before (read my blog post about it here), I can assure you it’s no joke! It requires self-discipline like you may never had before. But if you stick it out, you’ll be glad you did!
When planning out our LIVING groups for this year and after speaking with people about their needs, I came to the conclusion that something must be done to address the spiritual laziness of today! Most “believers” just don’t read their Bibles enough and when they do, they get lost and confused by it all. They believe the lie that they don’t have time for that, so they’ll just get their fix on Sunday mornings. That’s why we chose to offer B90X.
What is it exactly?
“B90X is an intensive 3 month Bible study and prayer commitment designed to put you in the best shape of your spiritual life! This is not a Bible study for wimps! B90X is a serious program that will deliver serious results! Have you ever wanted to read the Bible the whole way through? You can do it in just 90 days! We’ll show you how!
You will learn how to read and apply scripture, as well as how to develop a daily prayer life… all while getting to know others in your group!”
Sounds good, right?
What’s been cool to see is that a nice variety have already signed up for it: members from TLC, their friends and family, complete strangers (but not for long), and to break out some Christianese terms: the “churched” and “unchurched” alike. It has excited some folks that would have never joined a “normal” Bible study! (and that’s a good thing)
If this interests you, the first meeting is tonight (Monday, January 17th) at 7:00pm at the Midnight Rooster Coffee Shop in downtown Hartsville. It’s FREE and open to anyone who wants to participate!
You’ll receive a daily reading schedule, a simple 5 step guide to scripture application and prayer, and be assigned an accountability partner. We’d love to see you there!
Be sure to visit our Facebook event page to connect with others who have joined.
The Practice of Prayer
One of the things people do every year is make “New Year’s Resolutions”. Lose weight. Stop smoking. Read more books. The list goes on… yet, hardly ever do such new habits stand the test of time. Why is that? I think part of the reason is that they’re solely focused on ourselves!
With this in mind, I believe one of the best practices you can commit to is daily prayer! In reality, most Christians shy away from an active prayer-life where they set aside a part of their day to address the needs of loved ones, their community, their country, and the church (both locally and worldwide). But when we neglect this great privilege we have, why are we so surprised when the world crashes down around us?
What do we consider prayer to be? If it is truly us “talking with God”, then shouldn’t that make it much more important to us somehow? Shouldn’t we be more excited about the prospect of the Creator of the whole entire universe is listening to us? I mean, HELLO! This is mind-blowing that we, mere mortal human beings, have the ear of a loving God that only wants our affection! He loves us so incomprehensibly, but yet we ignore Him like the ugly classmate with a crush on us! (That is until they’re the only one who’ll pay us any attention!)
If prayer is what we usually treat it to be, like we barely have the time for it, then it is just lifeless words dripping from our mouth every once in a while with no sense of His reality within us (and boy, it shows). The old saying of “you are what you eat” could be similarly applied here: your God is as big as your prayers!
How about this: let us treat the practice of prayer for what it really is… not only a line of communication with our Heavenly Father, but a powerful weapon used to accomplish supernatural things in a natural world! Let us be renewed with a sense of eagerness and expectation to see God move in awesome ways around us! That word, “expectation” applies here well because we know we serve A GREAT MIGHTY GOD THAT CAN DO ANYTHING! Our prayers should reflect that!
1 John 15:14-15 says:
“14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.”
Pray BIG because our God is BIG!
Now do something tangible with this realization:
For this next year, will you commit to pray…
- For our ministry (and every other local church!) to make an even greater impact in Hartsville?
- For our city’s leaders, businesses, and those in uniform (police, fire department, military, etc.)?
- For our church’s Sunday morning worship services?
- For our members and their families?
- For our community care programs?
- For our missionaries around the world?
- For our youth and children’s ministries?
- For our worship leaders?
- For me as the pastor?
I ask for all of this because I know 2011 can be a BIG year for not only TLC, but also for our community and everything that is tied to it!
Sign your name to this commitment by emailing us at: prayer@thelivingchurch.tv
This email address also serves as a way to communicate your prayer needs!
Please know that your support is always welcomed and your prayers will not fall on deaf ears!
Merry Christmas from TLC!
While some folks will going out of town this weekend, The Living Church will be holding a Christmas Worship Service on Sunday, December 26th at 11am. This is our way of celebrating God’s gift to the world! It also serves as a reminder on how this gift keeps giving to us and through us!
This will be the perfect opportunity to bring those family members, neighbors and friends that may not normally go to a church service on a Sunday!
If you are traveling, please drive safe as they are calling for possible rain and snow on Saturday! We may just get a “White Christmas” here in South Carolina… for 10 minutes anyways!
And let us remember that while all of the parties, decorations, lights, gifts, songs, and food are all well-and-good… take a moment at some point to reflect on just what all of the fuss is really about: Jesus Christ! Without Him, we would never get to enjoy this holiday we call “Christmas”, much less know what salvation is like!
The birth of Jesus is told in the book of Matthew 1:
21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through His prophet:
23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a Son,
and they will call Him Immanuel,
which means ‘God is with us.’”
This changed everything! It wasn’t just about some baby being born… but rather God, the creator of the whole entire universe entering our world! He put on flesh and lived among us! In other words, it was a pretty big deal! The significance remains to this day with us, when we recognize Jesus as our personal savior!
Knowing the “reason for the season” puts the holidays in proper perspective (and that means more joy and less stress!). The things we often attach to Christmas are temporary and vain… which is quite unlike the gift we received from God more than 2000 years ago!
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To our church family, ministry friends and loyal blog-readers… Heather and I wish you a Merry Christmas! We have been blessed this past year to serve you and the city of Hartsville. We’re looking forward to even greater things for 2011!
