Jeremiah Richards
Map for that
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Ok, I love my IPhone!, but this is funny and pretty accurate.
Enjoy
Ant Hills or Mountains?
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So a few days ago a good friend of mine, David, shot me this passage via text message:
David pulled a thought out that was pretty interesting. He said that we, like the Pharisees, become paralyzed by the voices of the crowd. When we do this, Jesus chooses not to act.
Great point!
I continued to think through this a little more over the next day or so and went and read the passage again and this time read Matt. 21:18-27.
Matthew 21:18-27 brought some context to my thinking. Jesus tells the disciples that with faith and prayer nothing is impossible and that they could even move mountains. For me the issue here is that I often limit God to moving ant hills and not mountains. Most people don’t dream mountain sized dreams and pray mountain sized prayers. We are satisfied with God helping us close this next deal, helping us get a passing grade on a paper, or adding another 3% growth to our church again this year.
What if God’s real desire was to move a mountain on your behalf? How would you pray? What would you dream?
Then I read Matt. 21:23-27 and now Jesus is limited when we listen to the voices of the crowd instead of doing what He has asked. That lead me to post this Twitter update that still has me dreaming God sized dreams today.
via Twitter…
“Matt. 21:18-26 Will u be limited by the voices of the crowd or will Jesus move mountains on you behalf? Dont listen to the crowd. Pray big!”
What God sized dream has been growing inside of you that you have pushed aside because of the voices of the crowd? What great thing do you believe God can do through you if only you had the courage to start asking for it through prayer?
Buckhead Church – Good Friday Video
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Check out the awesome closing video Buckhead Church put together.
A Meaningful Easter
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For those of us in church world we should be the most attune to the amazing events that Easter celebrates, but sadly many of us have been guilty of letting the production and stress of getting everything right get in the way that we miss the simple message.
An innocent man died a criminals death to save me! Jesus did everything required to give me life and freedom from my sin.
So this Easter, 2 days ago, I determined to not allow that to happen. I am currently not committed to any church on the weekends so I often travel and serve other places. Columbia Church does not have a weekend service and will not for some time so we are always looking for places to serve.
On Good Friday I got a phone call from Jay Hardwick, a church planter and friend here in Columbia. Jay is the lead pastor of Awaken Church. They will not launch a public weekend service until this fall, but they did have a number of people who were going to be baptized on Easter. You can read about that on Jay’s blog. The people who were being baptized invited a TON of friends and family and all the sudden Jay needed help running and serving that morning. He asked if Columbia Church could help.
It was late notice, but I wanted to do anything I could to help. We were able to put together a small team of 11 to go and help. We set up the sound system, worship environment, children’s environment, served as host team, and ran the media presentation. It was awesome! Our Easter celebration was spent serving. I could think of no better way to thank Jesus for His sacrifice than by serving His church.
That day 7 people professed Jesus as their Lord and were baptized. I know we only had a small part in it, but we were blessed to have been used. God moved in that school cafeteria and eternity was changed.
I was never more proud of Columbia Church than I was this Easter as we served another church and watched and celebrated God changing lives.
After a great morning at Awaken Church I came home and took a 2 hour nap then went to my mother and father in-laws home for a wonderful dinner with family and Columbia Church friends. It really was a beautiful day celebrating all that Jesus has done for me.
Thank you Jesus!
Our First Columbia Church Info Meeting
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1st Information Meeting
On Thursday March 26, we had our first Columbia Church information meeting. It was awesome to uncork some of the excitement that has been building over the last 2 months as we have been meeting in launch groups.
There were exactly 30 people in attendance and 9 of those we had never seen before. We were praying for 30 people so that was great to see. Those 9 individuals represent 5 unique families so the potential for growth is certainly there.
One thing that continues to surprise me is the balance of the demographics we are attracting. It is great to see us attracting those 40+ as well as the 20-30 crowd. This simply reinforces the idea that a dynamic relevant church is not a young person thing. This type of church is desired by everyone.
Take a minute to check out some of the set-up pics. You can click on the Flickr sidebar on the right side of the page or click here to go directly to my Flickr page.
A HUGE thank you to all the volunteers who made that evening happen. You served with excellence. I am humbled to serve you and excited to see what God does through us. THANK YOU!
JD
When God Acts On Our Behalf…
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“I am convinced that God longs to put His fingerprint in our lives, to act on our behalf and surprise us with His magnificence. I am equally convinced that most of the time we do not give God a context in which to do this. The mundane is not really the best context for a miracle. When we play it safe, we squeeze God out of the formula. If we go only where we know and do what we’re certain will succeed, we remove our need for God. Whenever we respond to God’s invitation, our need for God becomes heightened. Whenever we take on a God-sized challenge, self-sufficiency is no longer an option.”
Erwin Mcmanus – Chasing Daylight (formerly Seizing Your Divine Moment)
Andy Stanley at Inaugural Prayer Service – Live feed
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Our Sr. Andy Stanley will be speaking at the Inaugural Prayer Service today at 10:00am EST. You can watch the live feed here.
What needs to die?
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Yesterday I was reading John 11. This is a story I had read hundreds of times, but today I saw something new. Quickly, this is the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus gets sick and Jesus does nothing except let him die.
Bummer!
Lazarus’s 2 sisters were trusting Jesus to come heal their brother, He had told them He would.
Jesus doesn’t show up.
Certainly Jesus understood the pain Mary and Martha were experiencing. He knew His poor time management would lead to their pain. He just let him die! The pretty ending is that Jesus raises this man from the dead, which is miraculous and amazing, but John 11:4 really made me stop.
4When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
My question to myself and now to you is this:
Where in your life does something need to die so that Jesus gets the glory when He brings you back to life?
What relationship needs to die? What habit? What attitude? What behaviour? What buisness practice? Where in your life are you sick, but in denial? Maybe the thing you need to let die isn’t even a sin. Maybe it is simply holding you back from the fullness God has for you. The pain is real, the mourning will hurt, but it will not end in death. God’s plan is to bring life, John 10:10 and to bring glory to God through your life.
Where in your life does something need to die so that Jesus gets the glory when He brings you back to life?
Put that bad habit to death. Let that bad relationship die. With all the pain it might bring put that thing to death.
Let it die and trust God to bring you back to life!
Columbia – We are not okay
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I was reading this morning and read through one of Seth Godin’s recent posts and it challenged the heck out of me. Read it below and I will make a few comments to contextualize the ideas at the end.
“Is everything okay?
Unless you work in a nuclear power plant, the answer is certainly no (and if you work there, I hope the answer is yes.)
No, everything is not okay. Not in a growing organization. Not if your company is making change happen, or dealing with customers. How could it be?
And yet, that’s what so many managers focus on. How to make everything okay.
We spend so much time smoothing things out, we lose the opportunity for change, or for texture or creativity.
Instead of working so hard to make everything okay, perhaps it is more helpful to work hard at living with a world that rarely is.”
That should push every student, housewife, engineer, leader, pastor, and everyone else! In church world this is so easy to fall prey to. Having to produce over and over again each week, it is easy to set the standard at “okay” and not push to change the world. There is enormous pressure in leadership to sell vision to the popular majority and never see the awesome world changing consequences of following Jesus completely.
I am printing this statement out and plastering it on my office wall, while I have an office wall, and on a notebook. “We spend so much time smoothing things out, we lose the opportunity for change, or for texture or creativity.”
I will lead a church that brings change, texture and creativity to Columbia, SC. This will happen not because I am any more skilled than anyone else, or because we have more resources, but because when it comes to reaching the unchurched in Columbia we can not be okay with “okay”. Jesus didn’t come just for church people. He came for everybody!
