Kick Him Out! from Jon Allen on Vimeo.
Guess you will have to watch this one to figure it out... here's a hint (Nehemiah 13).
Glad God is Who He Is from Jon Allen on Vimeo.
What if God was only one piece of who He is?
Separation of Church and State? from Jon Allen on Vimeo.
What a funny phrase! It makes me giggle. The only way this could ever happen is if we separated Christians from the country. As Christians we have an obligation and opportunity to be involved in our government. We should take it very seriously and make sure that our representatives stand on Godly principles.
Jon Allen shared a video with you on Vimeo
One of the most important questions we can ask as a Christian is "Why?" It leads to a deeper understanding of the scripture than just the surface level.
The house is packed...
What is it that makes a church grow and be effective? It’s the age-old question pastors ask themselves. I know of many churches that are really struggling and in most cases it is not for lack of effort by the pastor, it’s not a lack of leadership, and it’s not a lack of resources. So what is the issue?
There is a line in a song by TobyMac… “Momma always says, ‘it’s a matter of fact, that when love is in the house, the house is packed.’” This problem can be summed up in one word I believe… love. At our 101 membership class on Sunday we asked everyone what drew them to High Rock. We had several answers that came up more than others… the passion of the church and pastors for God and His work, the love and acceptance they felt when they walked in, and the involvement of the church in the community. If we break that down we see two categories… loving God and loving others. Not a big surprise when Jesus said those were the two greatest commandments. What I tend to see in churches that are declining is that love has been replaced by complacency, pride, arguments, and resentment on many different levels. It’s logical that the church would struggle because those are all contrary to the desire of God for the church.
So how does a church grow and mature? Have deep love for God, consistent love for each other, and active love for people outside the church. So the question to ask is, “how much love is there our church?”
Weekend Reflections
Wow. God is so good. There is certainly no one who deserves more credit for what is happening at High Rock and beyond. God has blessed us with many different talents and passions which are being used faithfully. It is only through His blessing that we have been able to do what has been done.
This morning we really didn’t know what to expect. Statistics tell us that on the second week of a new church/campus the attendance will drop by 50% on average. This makes sense because people come out for the first week out of curiosity or because they are family and they come to support the launch but don’t intend on attending regularly. First weeks are great, but second weeks are really the test of what foundation you will have to build on. We went into this morning fully expecting to drop in attendance. We would have been fine with that considering the fact that both services were full last week. I was actually thinking it would be okay if we dropped because it would give us some space to grow over the next few weeks/months.
Man, was I disappointed when we didn’t have any seats at all at the 11:00! It was insane. We had people standing because we were out of chairs! So much for the second week slump… Last week we had 358 people in attendace and this week we grew to 389. That’s a 9.2% increase (thanks Stephen for doing the math). God has blessed us so greatly and has given us an opportunity to minister to a growing number of people. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but it is worth it because EVERYONE NEEDS JESUS!
