Mel Gibson

I was saddened to hear about Mel's drunk driving arrest this weekend. He has tried to take a stand for a lot of things, and only looks ashamed at best.

To his credit he has since apologized and said his behavior was "despicable." Which I applaud him doing. Most men would just hide.

As to the anti-Semitic words he used. I don't know. Was he reacting with some Jewish disdain or was he just drunk and rambling about the danger and peril in the Mid-East? I don't know, nor can I really speculate. I just know that it was an unfortunate event, and he does seem to be very remorseful.

Pray for Mel. He really has a heart toward God. Pray he has clear direction to the feet of the cross and to the resurrection of the living savior.

Sunday

All I have to say about Sunday is Awesome!

From the music to announcements -Awesome!

We had 82 in service another high for us in the summer! I am blown away by Gods hand in this. I was reading another blog earlier by scott hodge , a great blogger from IL. He has experienced the same thing...

I can only think about the return of Christ. I have always believed it is imminent, but with all the turmoil in the Middle East and the growth of churches... imminent means more than it used to.

515 Alive

Wow What an amazing event this was. There were over 6,000 people in attendance and it was smoking hot! We passed out 2500 water bottles with our name and logo on it, and we were out by 9:15! I keep going back to that scripture were Jesus says, "if you give a cup of water in my name..."

Here are some of the break dance competition. These guys were off the hook! Crazy in shape!

The event cooridantor called me today to thank me for such an awesome booth and the service that we provided. He said more than once, "that we kept a lot of people from taking an ambulance ride." He said if it wasnt for the water we gave out, he would have been one of the passengers.

We were thrilled to have been a part of this urban event. We didnt see anyone in church yesterday from event. (which we expected) But we know that those people who were there saw the love of Christ and realized that Christians arent so crazy after all. The next time they are in a hard spot, they are going to think about Jordan Creek Family Church. The church who cares enough to give away free water....

Bread Drops

I love doing bread drops during the week. What we try to do is connect with the guest during the week by dropping them a loaf of bread at their home.

It is great. Mostly we have a welcomed and surprised responses. Last night I attempted 7 drops. (I couldn't complete one because security doors in the apartment.) At Paul and Sandy May's house I was greeted with super enthusiasm! They connected with the church a few weeks back at Super Saturday, they have loved it!

They had some friends over and took me in the back yard to meet them. Everyone was friendly and excited. It is so awesome to be around people who just want to know more about Jesus and are pumped to tell their friends! Paul and Sandy, Way to go!

I am just stoked about the next few months. Looking forward to this Sunday morning when I will be speaking on the series Zip It. This week is "Criticism Gone Bad." Use the E invite to invite a friend. This is tag team deal ya know!

515 Alive

Well tomorrow is the day! We have got out water bottles, stickers, and 9 foot banner ready to go. It is going to be blazing hot tomorrow as we try to touch the loves of thousands. There will be all kinds of things happening tomorrow, but we are trying our best to be right in the center of the marketplace.

Just were you would find Jesus, sitting at the well. Talking and sharing his heart. We want to be that kind of servant. We will only be giving out physical water that can only quench the thirst temporarily, but we pray with each water bottle given out it will symbolize the living water they can find at JCFC.

We are definitely outside the box on this one. But I firmly believe that God is in the business of redeeming people as well as events. Pray with us.

Oh and bring Ice... To cool the water off!

See ya between 5 and midnight. 4th-6th and court downtown.

Office Lease

Well I met with Heath Bullock today to discuss our new lease at the the office at One Corporate Place. Everything looks great, and we are on track to get in by August 15th. Our attorney will be looking over the lease papers before I sign. Just to keep everything on the up and up!

YEAH!

Lead Pastor at Point of Grace

I had coffee and chatted with Jeff Mullens, the lead guy out at Point of Grace. What an amazing guy to connect with. He has been at PoG since day one, and has been apart of the growth process the whole time. They currently meet in Waukee and run around 2000-2100 in Weekend attendance. They started 10 years ago in a rented facility in West Des Moines.

He really bore his heart to me and I tried to soak up everything he had to say. I left the meeting with some new insight and great ministry ideas for the upcoming future.

They are very open to help us in any way possible. I am going to try to jump in to a few of their staff meetings and glean some insight from their team.

It was a real encouraagement. Great to know that others in this city are really kingdom minded and want to connect as the Church not just on a superficial level.

Truth Project

Starting after August 16th, following Rich Farthing coming to share about Bolovia, my Life Group is taking a hiatus.

We have decided as a group that a short time off is going to be good, and allow us all the be refreshed and start again in Septemeber.

The hook is that is won't be at my house any more for a while. The location is yet to be announced, but we will be going through the Truth Project. It is a DVD curriculm that Mark and Amy Main have been trained to lead. It is going to be awesome. Check out the link.

Our group will be oponed up to anyone who wants to attend. We will have some sign up sheets and registration online coming soon. If we need to we will do it two nights a week.

I challenge everyone to prayerfully consider making thia a part of your fall program.

Check it out!

Ministry Opportunity

Well I spent a better part for the day yesterday developing ministry descriptions, and working through what each of our ministries really are for the church. Upon further investigation we have a lot of things going on or in the works right now.

Here is a basic list of ministry options we have right now.

Worship (band, worship team)
Media (Song Show Plus, projector, videos (production, editing, etc)
Creek Kids (children's ministry 4 yrs to 5th grade)
Baby Steps Nursery (infants to 3 years old)
Life Groups
Leader, or house host
First Impressions
Greeter, Usher, Parking Lot attendant, Info Table, Coffee/food
Sound Tech
Set Up
Tear Down
Connections (follow up)
Girls Night Out Coordinator/ assistant
Guys Night out Coordinator/ assistant
Adopt a Missionary
Single Parents
Graphics Team
New Moms Help (hospital, meals after birth etc)

I am sure this is not an exhaustive list, and we have ministry descriptions for some of these. I will continue working on that this week!

Leave a post if you have a comment or thought about this.

515 alive

This is the banner that will be hanging on our tent/booth at the 515 alive event this weekend. We are a corporate sponsor for the event. We have chosen to step outside of the box and do something a bit risky.

One of our core values is "playing it safe is risky." This is probably the "riskest" thing we have done yet. We are the only church that is a sponsor which I really like!

We will also have water bottles with our logo. Lastly we have stickers to match just to give out. The idea is to get people to our website! They are expecting between 7 and 10,000 people ! Awesome!

Infrastructure

How important is the foundation or the infrastructure to a building? Paramount. Have you ever seen a building that was leaning or crumpling under the pressure of the building itself.

I know of a man who helped build a building in the DC area. He was a stone mason and was doing some stone work on the building as they were building up. The general rule of thumb at the time was 5 floors of poured concrete need to stay formed up as they continued to build upwards. Well some body got the bright idea that they could go ahead a pull the forms. It seemed strong enough.

After a few days of continued work above the 5th floor, a huge collapse happened and the entire building was left in rubble.

One decision effected the entire support base of the structure leaving it vulnerable and broken. The same if true for a new church. We are still in the building stage. We have come to a few places with in the different ministries we have at the church and feel stable, yet we are still actively building infrastructure.

With out this groundwork and internal workings layed correctly, the whole thing will be shaky and unsteady at best. It is my goal to establish a church that is not just a mediocre place to exist, but a dynamic experiential place of worship where peoples lives are changed for all of time. A place that is impacting the community and effecting the world until Jesus returns.

So ask yourself, "Where do I fit into this mix?" A great question, glad you asked.

You fit in by doing what you are passionate about doing. There are several needs of ministry in the church.

First thing, we all need to understand that ministry is so much more than just the sermon on Sunday. If you love kids and enjoy working with them. Volunteer in Baby Steps Nursery, or Creek Kids once a month or more if you like. If you love video editing lets get in touch and get the ball rolling in that direction. If you have a passion for the arts then lets talk and get you plugged in. Maybe you want desperately to help people feel welcomed and informed on Sundays, then you need to get involved with the First Impressions ministry...

the list goes on.... Maybe I need to post a ministry opportunity list? I will work on that.

Sunday

What a Sunday! We had 89 in service yesterday morning! Amazing. Several were here due to our signs we placed out and around the city! God is really great.

We really have some momentum here in the middle of the summer. I am excited for the fall. People have really been connecting lately and we are starting to solidify as real group.

I will post the sermon notes for the Zip It series later today.

Take advantage of our e invite cards on the web with the new Zip It logo...

new office

Our new church office is scheduled to be ready around the 15th of August. Now I try to be a realist and I know construction workers, and it might be later than that. Anyways whenever we get moved in it will be great!

Pray. August the 15th.

Do we wanna vote on the carpet color? Maybe we can have an all church meeting and decide?

just kidding....

welcome back to the blogoshpere

I am back... I know I know I have said it before, but here I am.

This has been another eventful week. God is so good, we have had great services the past few weeks and have been growing all summer!

Now is the time to really get plugged in at JCFC. We are excited about this summer and the fall schedule.

This weekend starts a new series called Zip It. It will be dealing with how our words effect us and others all around us.

You will be amazed at what Gods word has to say about our words. Speaking of words, when was the last time you used your words to invite someone to church?

Hmm. nervous to do that? Just send your friends and e invite from our home page at www.jordancreek.org The e invite is located in the bottom right corner of page. Soon there will be a new e invite card for every new series.

You can also now subscribe to our weekly podcast of the sermon on sunday. It is a great tool to let someone check out the church before the check out the church.

We are redeeming technology for God's glory. God is in the redeeming business so I dont know maybe we can be like him?

Sunday, Holiday and becoming a lure

This Sunday I spoke about our second sermon in our Identity Theft series. We had 62 in service and it was great. I will be posting the notes from the sermon later today. It really is my goal to have them posted every monday! Sorry guys.


The next line under that is the reason I have been away this week is we have spent the holiday weekend redoing our living room. We have painted everything a soft yellow. I installed all new trim, casing, and crown molding. Then we trimmed the window out as well. All white trim, beautiful.

I did however take a couple hours on monday for me to become a lure on the lake. I was doing great at being drug behind the boat but not so great at skiing. I am working on it and will do it the next time....

I have real good understanding of the back side of the boat and my sinus are real clear now. (if you have struggled water skiing you know what I mean)

New office space

Well I am securing new office space for the church. We are to a place now where our home office just isn't cutting it any more.

It looks like we have found a space at 1 Corporate Place at 42nd and Westown PKWY. Soon they will begin revamping the office and in a month or so we can get moved in!

Hurray!

Why Church Planting?

I get asked sometimes why did you want to create something new in a city full of churches? Part of my answer is why answer when the question is so good?

The real reason is that in the United states today only some 30% of our population are actually attending any kind of service on the weekend. As a matter of fact I just read in Outreach magazine the other day only 24% of Iowans are in some kind of worship experience on the weekend. That scares me to death.

My fear is that we are quickly becoming a post-Christian nation. Jesus came to change the world, and often what has happened here in the west is that we have had some change, then settled into a religious tradition of "this is what church is" or it "has to be done this way" or "you cant do it like that because its not in the rule book that." Jesus faced that same problem with the Pharisees in his day. They knew about God and knew all the rules, but had nothing on the inside to go with their knowledge.

As far as the rules go they even created new ones that they thought were almost on an equal plane with the text. These oral and written traditions became rules for sin and righteousness. Actually there were 618 of them. Many of them were absolutely ridiculous. Like a woman wasn't allowed to look in the mirror on the Sabbath because she might see a grey hair and pluck it. If she plucked it, that was considered work and you weren't allowed to work on the Sabbath. The list goes on and on.

They only held to the letter of the law and missed the spirit of the law. Jesus called them white tombs, painted and pristine on the outside but hollow and empty on the inside.

So why church planting? Because many western Christians fit that catergory. They may not have all the rules down just like the old Pharisees, but they are just a form of something that isn't real. A very religious society, but not at all really knowing who God is. That is were I find myself meeting people in the western suburbs here often. They may attend a church on a regular or semi regular basis, yet they just are kind of "clocking in" for their weekly time duty with God.

They have missed the point.

So why church planting? Because 17 out of 20 churches are either plateaued or in decline in the United States. 2 of the 3 that are growing are only growing by what is known in church circles as transfer growth. People are moving to these "happening churches" because they are bigger, and cool lights etc. So while the church is growing its not growing by fulfilling the Great Commission Jesus gave us in Matthew 28:18-20 to take the Gospel, the Good News, to all the world. It is simply moving people around.

Now that 1 of 20 church that is growing is actually growing by evangelism. They are growing by people who haven't had constant church background, or no church background at all. It is people who haven't had a real experience with Jesus. People are accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior who have never done that before. Those churches are growing quickly and by leaps and bounds. The funny thing is that those 1 or 20 churches, that 5% the majority of them (upwards of 80%) are churches that are less than 10 years old.

They are new churhes. To me it seems like a no brainer. Why do we want to act like an established church of 50 plus years when many of them aren't doing what God commands us to do.

It is our goal, that every single person in the metro would become a fully devoted follower of Christ. No matter what their background. Whether they are "churched" "unchurched" or "dechurched" (had a church experience earlier in life but for whatever reason have left the church) I believe according to God's word, it is his plan for all of them to know Him.
So why church planting? There isn't a better thing to be doing. I know its hard to be in a catergory where real growth is only happening in 5% of the churches, but no matter how hard it may be isn't it worth it in the end...

Itunes

In the upcoming weeks we will be officially podcasting on the itunes music store. You can now subscribe for the podcast via RSS, but we want to be even easier. (since I struggle with stuff like that I want it to be easy for a guy like me to make happen) In the near future there will be a link on our website that allows you to subscribe to the podcasts! Awesome.

Paul Hansen is our master techy and he is really helping advance us. I believe that we need to be redeeming technology for God's glory. We are going to be a local church with a global impact!

Amazing. In the words of Kip from Napolean Dynamite, "I love technolgy...."

Our Nursery Doesn't Stink!

Well we have made a few adjustments to our nursery environment. Starting in the next week or so we will have a beautiful motion background on the screen with our new projector. We have a lightboard and professional theater style lighting. Our service structure for the babies and toddlers is based around a toddler table. It is a unit designed to let the children sit inside the table so they can learn in one space. It is going to be awesome. It should be here the first of next week!

We also have just added a pager system that allows the parents to reciever a pager or beeper so that they can be called anytime if their child should need assitance. It is going to be great!

I am a firm beleiver in having a nursery that doesnt stink! Ours doesn't! It is a safe place for kids to learn about Jesus and have a great time doing it!

Weekend Update

This weekend was tremendous weekend.

First Andy and Chelsea Reed were with us this weekend to speak about there upcoming missionary assignment to Mexico. Soon they will be heading to the Gaudalajara area to help serve. They shared their story and their heart! Awesome. I am working on uploading their video to the blogosphere so all can see.

We also had 66 in attendance which puts us at and average for the month of 69. Our all time high. This is amazing since it shows summer growth. I am believing God to help us grow all summer.

This fall we will be celebrating our 1 year church anniversary a few weeks into September! We will be working hard to get as many people there as possible! We are starting a new sermon series called Catalyst. Finding the Catalyst to jumpstart your life in the direction in needs to be going.

I have this conviction that it is never too late to become what you might have been. Many of us have been simply existing. Its time to start living! In everyone's life there are times you want to quit and never go back in all parts of life, but once you make it you can look back and say "man I am glad I didn't quit!"

Sometimes we just need that jumpstart to get us there! The Catalyst that starts it all. Pray with us as we begin this new series in September!