Who’s your neighbor . . .

I can remember a time when we knew all of our neighbors. A time when we went to the neighborhood store or gas station – which at the time had a working garage - and people would stand around and talk. Talk was often about work, family, church, community – in short it was about life. Today I’m not sure that we know our neighbors. Life is at a dead run. We seem to only be at home to sleep and then it is off to work, school, ball games, church, and the thousand other things that we feel are important to life as we know it. We have phones, computers, PDA’s and several other ways to keep connected. Although it seems strange that I barely even know what my neighbor’s names are, much less if they have a relationship with Jesus. It seems that if the schools that our students go to everyday are their greatest mission field, then our greatest mission field is our own neighborhood and most often right next door. I’ll develop this thought more in the days to come. Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and go find out who you live next door to.

What’s next . . .

To all that were at New Hope this past Sunday night and to those that were not – I have resigned my position at New Hope as Youth Pastor. Let me get a few things straight up front – I love the people at New Hope, especially the students. This ministry has seen greater growth for the kingdom than any ministry that I have ever had the privilege to lead – 10 students gave their life to Christ in the last year. Yet God has changed the direction that I am to follow and in all honesty I am really excited and more than a little apprehensive. I wonder if this is how Abraham felt when God told him to move but did not give him a destination.
The direction that God has set for me is to help start a new work here in the upstate. I have prayed over this and believe that this is what God wants me to do. This direction change will take me way outside my comfort zone into an area that I have never traveled, but have often wondered about. I have taught and preached to the students and occasionally the adults that we should be living and witnessing in the world in which we live everyday. I believe that our greatest mission field is in our own backyard. This new work will focus on that very area of my life.
I told the students Sunday night that I would be the greatest among hypocrites if I had walked away form this opportunity after asking them to be witnesses on their school campuses for the last year. I believe that the best is still in the future for New Hope, as well as Irene and I. I ask that you pray for us in our new ministry together. I will continue to blog on this site until our website is up. In the days and weeks to come I will be posting about what God is teaching me about this new adventure as well as sharing the vision of what we will be doing is the new work.
I thank New Hope for the opportunity to be the Student Pastor of a great group of young people. Irene and I are not moving and we will always be as close as a phone call away.
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and follow His lead.

Who do you smell like . . .

We are definitely a sensory society. Everything we engage in seems to explode in our senses. I know that I can be walking through a crowd during the summer and smell sun tan oil on someone and suddenly I am 18 years old again and hanging out at the pool (at least in my mind anyway.) If you are wondering where this post is going – I ran across a scripture - 2 Corinthians 2:15 – that says we smell. To be exact – it says that we are the aroma (fragrance, smell, etc.) of Christ to God among those that are being saved. I wonder – do I smell like Christ or do I smell like Allen. I think the Allen would leave a stench in the nose of God, but to smell like His son would bring joy to the Father in heaven.
In a world where a lot of the commercials on television have something to do with either deodorant, body spray, or some perfume – I would rather smell like Christ among those being saved. So, until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and lets make the world smell better.

Follow-up to - Things that I learned on vacation - Part 1 . . .

First impressions are important. You will never get a second chance to make a first impression. The way that I learned this on vacation was dealing with hotels. What I noticed at one hotel that we dealt with on vacation – and had a bad experience with was the following:
No one smiled – they did not act as if they were happy to be where they were. If they are not happy where they are, what are the chances that I will be happy where they are?
No one smiled – they did not act excited that we had chosen their hotel from all of the other choices that were available.
They acted inconvenienced - they acted put out that they had to pay us attention, to register us, to give us keys to our rooms.
They acted inconvenienced – they had to deal with us and others who were not happy with what we had received for our money.
In our churches today, we can not afford to make bad first impressions. A bad first impression on our part may mean someone walks away without hearing the gospel because they have already formed an opinion before the message comes. When people arrive at our churches – we should be smiling when we greet them to show that we are excited about where we are and that they have chosen our group to join for part of the day. We need to go out of our way to make visitors feel that we are happy to be of service to them and their family.
First impressions are important to the person that you are meeting and to the kingdom that we are supposed to be growing.
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and greet people the same way that you would greet an angel. Who knows – maybe they are.

Things that I learned on vacation . . .

Well, here we are at the end of the week and I have to come home tomorrow to the real world. Actually, at this point, I am looking forward to coming home. I can only stand to have my mind in neutral so long. So the following is what God has taught me on vacation this year:

Customer service is ultimately important. Some of you may have read about our problems in the early part of our vacation. The hotel that we left last weekend was a huge lesson in customer service – very bad customer service. The people who worked for the hotel never – smiled, acted like they were happy that we had come to their hotel, or appreciated our business. They did act inconvenienced, inconsiderate, and basically put out to have to help us. My prayer is that our churches never act like this. Any time we have people come to our church, everything we do should be to make them feel that we are happy that they have come to visit us. I’ll Blog again about this in the future.

This evening Irene and I went to see the new show at the Black Bear Jamboree. The meal and show were both good. What I saw was a group of people who had prepared at length to give their very best to the people who had come to their show. In the past we have gone to the Fiddler’s Feast Dinner Show. The difference that you will experience between the Fiddler’s Feast and Black Bear is this – those who perform at the Fiddler’s Feast also serve the tables. If their service is off when they are serving your meal, your opinion of the show will be settled before the show starts. How many people have already formed that kind of opinion of our churches before they ever get to a worship service? Are we meeting people with a smile? Are we working hard to make sure that they are taken care of or are we to busy doing church to make them feel comfortable?

The biggest lesson that I learned was a shock. It took me almost a full week to calm my mind down and calm my life down. I have been way to busy doing stuff and that is not healthy – physically or spiritually. In order for God to make changes in my life, I have to be still enough to understand Him when He speaks. I am also less effective for God doing a lot of stuff than when I am doing only one or two things that God wants me to be doing.

Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and slow down and watch the parade or you will miss the bands.

Hello from the land of vacations . . .

Well, Irene and I are back in the room on Monday afternoon doing what all people with good sense do on vacation – taking a nap – at least Irene is. Just thought that I would do a short post and let everyone know how things are going.
We had to change hotels on Sunday. The long and short of it – no one should use The Grand Hotel in Pigeon Forge. The situation was bad and is not finished yet – we still don’t have our money back yet. The James Manor is incredible. The rooms are great and the people are wonderful to work with. It is easy to get in and out of also.
We had a great time the first two evenings with our friends from here in Tennessee. It is always fun to catch up with friends. They introduced us to a great resturante at the Tanger Outlet Mall called the Chop House. The food was over the top.
Yes- we have eaten at the Apple Barn every morning so far.
Today, we went to the craft show in Gatlinburg. This is always fun and filled with great ideas. For those that don’t know – my wife is not the only crafty person in our family.
As for my study time – I have started over in the book of Acts. As I read in this book in God’s word – I also brought along one of my books by Warren Wiersbe. I was reading last night a stumbled upon something that Wiersbe said that started me thinking – Christian faith was a day to day reality, not a once a week routine. Christ and His resurrection power was a reality to the early believer. I wonder – with each of us – is faith a day to day reality or a once a week routine? May God make it a day to day reality for each of us.
Well, I’m going to stop now and see if Irene wants to go get something to eat. Maybe the Old Mill tonight – one of my favorite spots here.
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and don’t sit down in a bucket of paint.

Adventures in the book of Acts . . .

To those of you that read my post daily – I am sorry that I have not posted this week. Things here at work are crazy, trying to wrap up this project before I leave on vacation this Friday so that I can start a new project when I return. So just a few things that God and I are dealing with right now . . .

I have been reading in the book of Acts in my time with God. The following are a few things that jump out at me:

• Church was done much simpler in the beginning. The focus of the church was on the teachings of the apostles, worship, fellowship and prayer.
• A lot of what was happening - happened in the homes.
• People were sharing the gospel with everyone they came in contact with.
• When the Holy Spirit was involved, big things happened.
• I would really like to be there when 3000 are added after one sermon.

There are also questions that I have rattling in my head after reading these scripture:

• Have we overly complicated the church?
• Should we be doing more in our homes and less at the church?
• Do we share the gospel as freely as those people in Acts?
• Why don’t we depend on the Holy Spirit more and expect more?
• What would a church do today if there were 3000 added to their number after one sermon?

Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and remember – its hard to roller skate up hill.

The end of a great week . . .

WOW! Has anyone else ever had week that seemed long and short at the same time. This has been one of those crazy weeks – but it has been great. I thought that I would share just a few high lights from this week . . .

At my job that pays all the bills – we are finally getting to the end of the project that I started back in March. I was also introduced to our next project. I say this – between now and the end of the year, I will not be bored.

I had the honor of having a friend of mine from college and the ministry at my house Tuesday evening. It was great to catch up on what God has been doing in both of our lives. It is amazing what God is doing and what God is going to do in the future.

I had the privilege of hearing one of my favorite preachers this week – Dr. Johnny Hunt. Listening to this man of God speak on missions was amazing. Thanks to Eric Spann for taking care of the teenagers so that I could take advantage of this opportunity.

I’ve been able to get into my shop two nights this week and this afternoon and tomorrow some. I’m beginning to make some headway into my back log of projects that I need to get done for Christmas presents to be ready.

As I sit here, I am one week to the day from leaving on vacation. I can hardly wait. We’ll make the home made ice cream tomorrow. Pull down the luggage and begin packing. My goal is to be able to get off next Friday at lunch time, go home, pack the car and be on the road by 1:30 pm. We want to be in Pigeon Forge by supper time.

I am looking forward to speaking Sunday evening to the youth. God has shown me a great message from the Old Testament. If you want to study ahead – look at Jonathan, Saul’s son.

I’ve finished the book of Romans and am now starting through the book of Acts. I am really looking forward to reading about the early church.

Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and peanut butter and jelly is always great with vegetable soup.

A time to get aggressive . . .

According to Matthew 16:16-18 the gates of hell can not stand, prevail, or over power the church, and since the word of God is true and perfect - I have a question – why is it that the church has a tendency to be passive about reaching the lost and be aggressive about things that really make no difference.
In my life time I have seen the church take a stand against Disney, video poker, and several other causes. Yet for the most part we sit in our pews, thinking that people who do not have a relationship with Jesus will just walk through the doors of our church, sit down, listen to a sermon and have a life changing experience. Now before I get a hail storm of e-mails – I realize that some people have had a life changing experience just that way. But my opinion is that sitting around waiting for someone to join our church is a poor way of reaching a lost and dieing world. If we believe the Bible, then we should believe that the gates of hell itself can not stop the church from pushing forward. God has given His church a mission – to carry the Gospel to the world around us – and we should be about that mission aggressively.
Instead of sitting around waiting for someone to walk into our church, why aren’t we aggressively seeking new and exciting ways to reach the lost where they are – in the market place of life. Instead of standing in protest against Disney – why not show Disney what the Lord of life was willing to sacrifice for each and every one of its employees. Instead of trying to pass laws to have prayer re-instated back into schools – why not aggressively seek to take our campuses back one changed life at a time. If we pour enough Jesus into the school system – there will be prayer in our schools again. All of the drug, alcohol, promiscuity problems will disappear when our students stand up for what they believe, live as a child of God, and they aggressively force those problems off their campuses.
The most aggressive way that we can influence this lost and dieing world around us is to live our faith out loud and seek the lost where they are – we need to take the church to the people. This aggressiveness will cost us money, time, effort, comfort and even cause us to do things in a different way than we have ever done them before. But that is ok. We would never be a fan of a passive ball team. If the football team that you pull for walked onto the field and every time the opposing team ran the ball your team just got out of their way, we would have a major problem with our team’s concept of the game. God did not call us to sit in our churches and be spectators two or three time a week. God put us on mission to meet people where they are.
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and get in the game.

Milk vs. Meat

Have you ever noticed that since you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and Lord, that you have a desire to learn more about Him? If you do not have that desire something is wrong. In the New Living Translations, 1 Peter 2:2 says this, “You must crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your salvation. Cry out for this nourishment as a baby cries for milk,” Peter is telling us that we should grow. In order to grow, we must start with the basic nourishments and as we grow, we leave the milk and eat soft foods then to solid foods. Same goes for our spiritual growth. There are times that I can look at someone or listen to someone who says that they are a Christian and tell if they are still being spoon fed God’s word or they have been studying it on their own. You may ask how I know this, well in Hebrews 5:12-14, NLT tells me this “You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food.” I was spoon fed for many years but since I have grown, I have a strong desire to know my Lord Jesus more and more. A person who is living on milk isn't very far along in the Christian life and doesn't know much about doing what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong and then do what is right.”

For some time now, Mr. Allen has been challenging the youth group at New Hope to be witnesses, to tell their friends about God. Now, my challenge to you is to examine your walk with God, are you being spoon fed or are you eating the real meat of God’s word? If you are being spoon fed, then you will struggle to share the gospel much like a baby struggles to share his or her needs with their parents, but if you are to the meat stage, then you have a responsibility to share.

Are you satisfied?

I’m sitting here working away and listening to a sermon by a pastor in the upstate and a question hits me – have I become satisfied? Has the church become satisfied? Does everything that our lives revolve around – revolve around satisfaction? I am going to deal with each of these questions in reverse order.
As far as our lives go – a great deal of our lives do revolve around being satisfied. We are satisfied after a good meal. We are satisfied after a nap. We can be satisfied with our jobs, the home we live in, the hobbies that we have, the life that we live. With satisfaction there is no struggle, no discomfort, no inconvenience, just an easy life without struggles – just comfort and often laziness. Yet, I’m sure that is not what God would have us be. God sent His Son to enable us to have life in abundance – not a life of satisfaction. We, as Disciples of Christ, are children of a King and yet, we live as if we would be satisfied to be the child of a ditch digger.
Now on to our churches. I don’t think that there is any doubt that there are a lot of churches out there that are full of satisfied people. They come to church once, twice, maybe even three times a week. They sit in their pews, sing their songs, listen to a sermon and leave very satisfied. As we look around us at a lost a dying world – how can the church be satisfied? What we have lost is the knowledge and emotion of how much God loved us and how much we should love Him. We no longer grasp the concept - that God has sent the church on a mission – and mission work is far from comfortable. If we are doing the work that God has called us to do we will be – stretched, uncomfortable, inconvenienced, pushed to do things that we would normally not do.
Now to the last question – have I become satisfied? I can honestly answer a resounding NO! I have become more and more dissatisfied over the last year than any time in my life. God has place anxiousness in me that has never been there before to see God work in miraculous ways and see people come to a saving knowledge of Him. I have a need to see people walk closer to God in their daily relationship. This all comes from not being satisfied with my relationship with Christ. I want to grow to know Him and love Him more each and everyday. That can only be done through my relationship growing. Through me being stretched, pushed outside my comfort zone, by me being inconvenienced.
My prayer for all that read this post is that God would stir a holy dissatisfaction within them about their personal walk with Him.
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and let’s get to work.

Morning overload . . .

Just a few things from this past weekend and the week to come:

I had the privilege of going to Rocky Creek Baptist Church last night to see Spencer Ledford ordained into the ministry. The greatest compliment that I can pay my friend is this – Spencer is a for real man of God. I am proud to call him friend and even prouder of the memories of working along side him and his family as we served God together.

Spencer’s night was a special service of ordination. The creative ministry team blessed those in attendance and blessed God in their special form of leading worship. The creative ministry team was awesome.

The sermon’s that were brought from God’s word for the ordination were brought from 22nd chapter of Genesis and the 1st chapter of the gospel of John. Two great words to challenge and encourage.

Union has no idea that Janet is on the way; but they will. Satan, pack your bags, your days are definitely numbered now.

Yesterday was a good day. Shoot this past weekend was a good weekend.

Irene made a chocolate- chocolate chip cake yesterday. WOW!!

Two weeks til vacation. If I had the money and time off – we would start today.

I turned four pens and a bird house in my shop this past week. I am so happy to be back a work in my shop again.

The music at Rocky Creek was over the top last night.

Worship at Rocky Creek was like going home. It was nice to relax and just be fed.

I ate a Taco Salad at Fuddruckers last night. Awesome salad. Careful of the jalapeños – they are righteous.

Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and remember – you can’t go fishing in a baseball pool.