New Blog

There is a new blog for our class. It can be found at

http://ourjourneyclass.blogspot.com

all about Christ,
David

The Church

I wanted to add another dimension to our class blog...the video! A few months ago I was asked by a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, very cool experience by the way, when our church relocates are we going to be using a “megachurch” model, such as Saddleback or Willowcreek? I understood what she was saying (Suzanne Saddeline, the reporter). She was saying are we going to be a cookie cutter church? I answered her with a simple, “no.”

Our job is to minister (serve) to Saint Petersburg, FL, specifically central St. Pete. That means we have to decide what works for our community and then do it. I told the reporter, and I firmly believe this, the reason that the Willow and Saddleback models work so well for those churches is because it was designed and built for and by the communities those churches were ministering in. Community takes on many different forms across this nation and I say that as someone who has driven through at least the Willowcreek community. As we relocate we also have to change some of our status quos. Some things that we have done (or not done) before have to be stopped (or started).

I was shown this video and thought it was quite humorous as it shows several different types (examples) of churches. I can't help but wonder, where would we fit? Would you invite your friends and co-workers to our church (do you)? What would they learn about Christ? What would they learn about us?

As we relocate I hope, no I challenge you to do your part to make the bride of Christ here at Central as beautiful as possible for the day her bridegroom, Jesus, comes for her...and He will.

all about Christ,

David

The Vote

That's it. The votes have been cast. Did you know votes weren't used by the Church in the Bible? Ah, America...

In case you were not able to be at thecongregationl meeting here is the .25 cent version. We, as a church, have voted to go deeper into the waters of relocating. What that means is that we are officially signing a contract with Garden of Peace (on 22nd Ave N) without having secured a buyer for our property. We do have a church very interested in our property, but we have heard that before. All indications are that the financing is there and the interest is there. Now all we need is a contract...

The other vote was cast to give the finance team/relocation task force permission to negotiate the bottom line. (The bottom line is adjusted by things like lawyer fees, taxes, dudiligencece and so on.) Without permission there would potentially be several three-week intervals to negotiate as a church, since that is what our by-laws mandate. We didn't put a figure on the negotiating because we are not lowering our price and if we put a number on it, at a public church meeting, then we have just said okay we will take this amount for it...

With that brief update, we are going to need your help and your prayers. Even though we have voted yes, no papers are signed, so PRAY. We have been boxing up the church for months now. As Laura Philips said in the meeting, "the boxes are in my garage". We will need help moving the boxes, setting up classrooms and so on. I don't know when the church will move but the school is potentially moving VERY soon. If everything (paperwork and so on) moves as planned, and it needs to, we are talking last week of July, first week of August.

When Israel was getting ready to leave Egypt, the Israelites are told in Exodus 12:11 to tuck (gird) their robes into their belt because when the time comes to move, we gotta move! It's actually, I think, the first description of a fast food restaurant, go check it out and let me know what you think! I digress, so that is just what the Israelites did. Let me encourage you to tuck your robes into you belts, nay, gird your loins and get ready to move when the call comes.

I know there is not really much to respond to in way of a blog, and I don't expect much of a response (but what will probably happen is that all of you will respond to this blog), but I did want to update you all on what was going on.

all about Christ,
David

Everybody Wants to go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die

Sorry for such sporadic posting but here we are again.

I just read an excerpt from a book coming out this fall (9/12/06) by David Crowder of the David Crowder* Band, of which I have been a big fan of for several years now. This will be his second book and if it is anywhere near the depth of his first book (Praise Habits: Finding God in Sunsets and Sushi) I eagerly wait to devour this book. The book is called, Everybody Want To Go To Heaven, But Nobody Wants To Die. It is based on a song, by the same title, written by the original queen of country music herself, Loretta Lynn, back in 1965. David Crowder Band did a remake of the song and it is just as wonderful.

Think about the thought behind the title. It’s somber. It’s awakening. It’s true. We all want to go to Heaven, but how many of us are ready right now? Maybe you are tempted to say, “but David, to live is Christ, to die is Gain” and before you think or say it let me explain my feelings. I want to hold another little Buckham. I want to see my son graduate and get married. I want to, one day, hold my grandchild. These are things my dad never got to experience as he unexpectedly died when I was in high school. I wasn’t born to die. God did not create me to die…at least I don’t think so, not yet. I was created to live and to live life to the fullest UNTIL I have completed what He wants me to do.

The David Crowder *Band members had experienced much death in recent years. Maybe you know what that is like…I do. It was with much thought about death they created and released their latest CD, A Collision, which won this year’s Dove Award for Best Rock Album of the Year beating out Third Day, not an easy task. It was right around the time of the release of the album that Kyle Lake, the friend and Sr. Minister from David Crowder’s home church in Waco, Texas, was electrocuted to death in a freak baptism accident. The album ended up ministering the very band who created it just as much as it did to everyone who listened to it.

On the linear notes for David Crowder *Band’s B Collision, a follow-up acoustic version of A Collision (catchy, I know) it says this:

Death does NOT win.
It is NOT the end.
It is the Beginning…

If I could humbly add a thought to that…“to live is Christ, to die is gain”. :)

all about Christ,
David

Lost Coin

This is from my sermon Sunday night. I am posting it here because most of you were not at the service and I feel this ties in with the last blog post very well. This whole commitment thing has really been heavy on my heart lately.

Luke 15:8-10 in the NIV says, "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Although, I am actually a fairly organized person, my desk has a tendency to get cluttered. Several of you can probably testify to that. A few weeks ago a friend from out of town was sitting at my desk “admiring” my clutter and looking at a few books that were arranged in a particular order on my desk. He moved one book.

Now I knew where that book was before he moved it, but it took me 2 days to find it once he moved it. Ironically, it was ON TOP of another pile on another portion of the desk. It was IN PLAIN SIGHT!!! I had to get reorganized because for some reason what worked for me before wasn’t working for me now.

Does that sound familiar? The woman lost a coin for some reason that was there before. I had to change my ways to find what was lost. Even though my organization was still working for everything else on my desk I wanted that one lost book. It was for that one book I changed everything. That was only a book. So what about a person? In the previous Sunday night sermon, it was said that the under 40 crowd (not just a few individuals), the 20’s and 30’s (that’s my group), are not at this church service. So the question was posed, “Where are they?” Let me ask, what are you (the over 40 crowd) willing to change, clean up, or adjust for just one under-40 person who is lost or missing to now be found? What do you want to clean up and change to bring them into this service…or any ministry at Central?

The woman (the Church?) in this parable made a change in the way she was living. She decided to light a lamp and look. Upon looking she noticed the dirt. It was then that she decided to clean up her house. Which leads us to the next part of this parable, she FOUND the coin.

As Central goes through the relocation process we as individuals and as a church need to determine what needs to be cleaned up…or maybe I should say we need to determine what needs to change. With that in mind…go find a broom.

all about Christ,
David

Commitment? Help Me!

I have been told that "my generation" (which refers to the 20s and 30s) is uncommitted. What gives? What are we uncommitted to? What are we committed to? I look at marriages...I look at jobs...I look at church (I am a minister I have to do that)...I look at houses...I look at trends in pop culture…how long has it been since I updated my own blog? There are a lot of things we are just going through like water. These are things that generations before us have claimed as important and holy (in the non religious since of the word…holy simply means “set apart”). I am not saying it’s right or wrong, just stating what some apparent trends are.

So, are we committed or not?

Our generation (from what I have read) is more involved in social activism (like the AIDS epidemic in Africa, or pollution) than any other generation has been, this is funny because two of the biggest leaders in social activism are not of our generation but have impacted this generation TREMENDOUSLY!!! There is Bono of U2 and Bill Gates of Microsoft. As far as other apparent commitments let me throw in Church with a capital “C” which connects to the whole “emergent” church trend (House Churches and Small Groups). Do a google search on it!!! We want spirituality. Maybe that’s because God wants worshippers who worship Him in spirit and truth. Another area of commitment…the family (even with a high divorce rate) there are Soccer moms and NASCAR dads, I read the average age is 35. We are committed to T.V. shows!!! I know people who set their DVR’s if they are going to miss Grey’s Anatomy or American Idol. By the way they are not even real. What does that say?

So maybe you can see my dilemma. I have really been struggling with this? Are we committed or not?

What are we committed too? How do we form commitments? What do we want to be committed too? Are we committed or not?

all about Christ,
David

Foundations Defined

Maybe this should have been my first post. I live and I learn. I frequently get asked the following questions from newer members and others who have been here for a while. What is the purpose of our class? Am I welcome to come to your class? What foundations are we talking about?

The purpose of our class is personal growth. I desire to create a place that is the crosspoint of reverence and relevance. We must have a reverence for the faith of our fathers and our fathers fathers. We must have reverence for a faith that was first not ours but belonged to many before our time. Relevance is important because without that we will spin our wheels (and maybe wills…think about it) to little or no avail. Relevance is important because we must live in this world and know we are not of it. We must not withdraw from this world, but embrace it as a vehicle to bring others to Christ. We must understand this world in order to reach this world.

So who is welcomed in this class? You are. I don’t care who you are. While I do attempt to create lessons with a certain age group in mind, I do not limit our group to any age. Anyone and everyone, I feel, can learn in our group. Some of those in our group bring great wisdom others great knowledge. It takes all of us working together for personal growth to occur though. Growth does not come from one person. If you think about it our greatest times of growth have occurred when someone else has had some type of influence or impact on our life.

I loved reading the Hannibal series a few years ago. There was a scene described in the last book where someone was trying to get a fingerprint of Hannibal the Cannibal. The person put on a polished silver bracelet and tried to steal Hannibal’s wallet, causing Hannibal to reach out and grab the boy by the wrist. The purpose was to get a fingerprint. Most of us have polished fine metals or heard someone else complain about it. It is hard work because of how easy it is to smudge polished metal. I think of our class as a polished silver bracelet. Everyone who interacts with it leaves a fingerprint.

Finally what foundations are we talking about? Foundations are always the start of something better and bigger. Regardless of the size structure you are building you have to have a foundation. The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans because of an insignificant foundation. I read somewhere that the foundation for the tower is only 10 feet deep. Don’t quote me on that but I am pretty certain that is the case. It does not matter if you are a brand new Christian or a lifelong Christian. Whether you are not a believer, a new convert or an elder, I believe, with each lesson there is something we can all add and grow from. This is where the foundation comes from. In the future these foundations will be called upon to hold the load of the structure we are building. That structure is your family, your job, your church. My prayer is that our foundation would not be shallow as the Leaning Tower of Pisa but deep and strong, like a mountain.

all about Christ,
David