Preacher Gets Pie in the Face

True story. A man was recently arrested for hitting a preacher with a pie in the face during the pastor's sermon. The pastor of the church in Colorado apparently received the unexpected dessert due to a controversy going on in the church organization. The headlines covering this story were all pretty humorous, although I have to feel sorry for the pastor. As funny as the tactic seems, bringing to mind images of circus clowns and fundraisers, it was certainly a major disruption to the service.
So, have you ever wanted to paste a preacher with a pie in the face? I once sat through a two hour sermon and if I'd had a banana cream pie on hand, the preacher would have had a banana cream pie on his face. Just kidding, of course. But it was an agonizing two hours. As one of my seminary professors once said, "Anybody that preaches over forty-five minutes makes me so mad I could punch them!"
All this is my roundabout way of saying thank you to the members of Joyful Life Ministries for not throwing pies or punching their pastor after a Bible study that went a little later than usual on Wed. night. There was a lot to cover on a very important topic. As I said after the conclusion of the study, thanks for your patience. It meant a lot to me that there were no pies hurled my way. It meant even more that after getting done later than usual, some of you still stuck around and spent time in fellowship. It was nice to enjoy some conversation instead of all of us going our separate ways.
And don't worry, no two hour sermons on the horizon for us. Ever.

Where Should a New Church Meet?

Ed Stetzer just posted an interesting article about new churches and where they should/can meet when they get started. It's encouraging to realize that most people (in the survey, anyway) aren't going to be turned off by meeting in a non-traditional church building. http://www.namb.net/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=9qKILUOzEpH&b=2027651&ct=3912107&tr=y&auid=2717330
We started our church in a local coffee shop, held our first Sunday service in a hotel conference room, and now have services in a former office building. We're seeking the unchurched people of our community (those not attending church anywhere) and I like to think we've taken down some traditional walls that kept people away from the church. It is a struggle sometimes, though, to balance our need for space, i.e. separate classrooms, youth center, fellowship hall, etc. We're just over a year old and we're still looking for the right mix for our church location.

Newest Adventure Church a Success

Special Thanks to the JLM Adventure Team: Eric and Mandi Prigge. Their first adventure church for JLM took us to the Lexington Ice Center for a time of fun and falls in the form of ice skating. Our short devotions included a message from Psalm 40:1-3 "After You Fall Down." We all fall in life (and most of us fell on the ice). It's what we do after the fall that determines our direction. Will we stay down and make excuses or get up and try again? I'm glad to say that everyone demonstrated the right choice during their ice skating adventure. Time and time again I saw young people fall, get back up and keep on skating, in spite of being soaking wet and sore. That kind of persistence will get us through the falls and pain of life. The Romics, one of the couples in our church, joined us for their first Adventure Church and were able to tell someone at the center about the church. We took the church out and we're praying that it made a positive impact in the community, in addition to the impact we made on the ice!
We've got some great pictures of the trip on our myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/jlmrichmond and our website: http://joyfullifemin.tripod.com Enjoy!

Fighting the Fall Into the Rut of Sameness

One of the things I consistently ask God for is creative ways to share His message. It's easy to allow ourselves and our churches to fall into a rut of sameness and traditions that require no thought or active brain cells on our part. If we're not careful we find out too late that we're running on auto pilot. God deserves more, His message means more, and we were meant for more than this. So we pray for God to stir our creative instincts (instinctively ours because we're children of the great Creator). We need to go out on a limb in our preaching, teaching, church services and outreach. How we can present an age-old message in a new and exciting way? How can we take this Gospel to people that are turned off to the traditional church and its oft-times stuffy presentation? For us, the answers are ministries like our Adventure Church, Spreading Smiles, meeting in local coffee shops, The Daily 180 Show, and creative ministry through dramas, skits, humor, and object lessons. For you, the answers might be different. That's the point, though: the need for creative and unique ministry ideas based on the people and communities for which we're reaching. May God bless you with new and creative ideas to do your work for His Kingdom.

The End of Part of Our Beginning

I'm sad to announce the closing of LiveWire Coffeehouse in our downtown community. Livewire has been one of the highlights of downtown and it has been great to walk there for drinks and to enjoy the local music scene. Livewire has been the starting point for many local musicians. It has a special meaning to us, also, since it's the first place we ever met when we started Joyful Life Ministries. Our church started there as a Group Bible Study, "The Word on Life." Occasionally we would go back and have a Word on Life session there, even after we got our own building. We made many new friends there and will greatly miss the atmosphere!

For All Its Worth

Last night's Word on Life Bible Study group was a great example of a balance between group interaction, involvement, and depth in the Scriptures. It seemed like everyone took something home with them from the Word of God. Each person participated in the "Create Your Own Religion" activity, which demonstrated the dangerous and crazy things we can get from the Bible when we only read part of a Scripture. This activity launched our new series, "Reading Your Bible for All Its Worth." We discussed the importance of taking Scriptures in context and of comparing them with other verses in the Bible.
Our Scripture passages demonstrated the right and wrong way to do this. "Matthew 28:19 versus Acts 2:38" took a look at the way many people have taken sides and chosen between these verses. The real power of these Scriptures comes from understanding how they merge and agree. In other words, there's no versus between the verses. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." (II Timothy 3:16)
Read your Bible for all its worth and watch it work wonders in your life!

The Lord of the Harvest

I am encouraged today by the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 9:38; words that seem especially relevant to our church as we continue to build His kingdom. Jesus said, " Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." I like how the God's Word Translation (GWT) puts this verse also: "So ask the Lord who gives this harvest to send workers to harvest his crops." It really puts things in perspective for those of us involved in church planting and growing. We can pray, "God, this entire process is too big for us, but not for You. There's nothing we can do on our own. We need Your help in everything. Not only do You bring the harvest, You also send those that can help bring it in."
We're thankful to each person in Joyful Life Ministries for the service they give and the ministries they help lead. Even still, God's planned harvest is too big for us to reap by ourselves. We need to pray that the same God Who provides us with the harvest will also provide the hands to bring the harvest in to the storehouse. I believe that there are a great number of people in our community who would come to Christ. So many, in fact, that we could feel overwhelmed by the vastness of the job of reaching them. Like David, though, we will pray: "When our hearts are overwhelmed lead us to the Rock that is higher than we are." Lord, send laborers to help us realize the great miracle You have planned for this community.

Sow Seed Everywhere

S.S.E. Sow Seed Everywhere. It's a slogan we've repeated over and over again at Joyful Life. This month as we focus on the roots of JLM and our core group, the principle of sowing the seed of God's word everywhere we go is as powerful and necessary as ever. When Jesus told the story of the man who went out to sow seeds, He gave an amazing lesson for the Church and spreading the Gospel. Some important lessons to learn from the farmer:
1) Sow Seed Everywhere--the farmer planted in good soil and bad soil, rocky and thorny. You can't just judge the soil by the surface. You have to plant everywhere and let "God give the increase."
2) There's Nothing Wrong with the Seed--Any lack of growth from the farmer's seeds wasn't because of a problem with the seeds. It was the ground and its acceptance or rejection of the seed that stunted or stifled the growth. There's nothing wrong with the word of God and the Gospel message. It is still Good News. We don't need to alter the Bible we just need to plant it in as many places as we can.
God bless you as you sow seed everywhere,

Brush Arbor Flashback

We were blessed to have my family visit the church this weekend and it was good to share with them the vision of Joyful Life and see them take part in what God is doing for us. They have been supporting the church since the beginning and I was glad to introduce them to some of the people whose lives are being changed by the ministries of JLM. During the service on Sunday, my dad testified and shared a quick recount of being in brush arbor revivals when he was a kid.
For those of you who haven't heard of these churches from days gone by, a brush arbor is basically a tent revival without the tent. Picture a giant lean-to made from trees and branches and you've got a good mental image. What really stood out in my father's testimony was his statement, "We never had anything this nice back then." He was referring to the building we rent for our church. It's a former office building, and not near as large as we'd like. The sanctuary is narrow and I can't move around too much when I'm preaching or I'll quickly run into a wall. Our "foyer" quadruples as a Sunday school classroom, fellowship room, baptism area, and youth game area!
We have a vision for a bigger building as we grow, but in spite of its limitations, our current building is a blessing. The flashback to church pioneers who persevered and sacrificed reminded us of how far God has brought us in such a short time. They fought bugs and snakes to be in church. We sit in padded chairs in an airconditioned room. It's important to look back occasionally to remember how God has brought us out and moved us forward by His grace and mercy.
God bless,
Pastor Rick McGee
P.S. Special thanks to http://www.brusharbor.net/about_brush_arbor.html for the image below. You can check out their site for more info on brush arbors and also sign up for their quarterly newsletter.