All of Us Are Smarter Than One of Us

The Word on Life gave us an opportunity on Wednesday to hear from each person in the group as we discussed "God's Customer Service Department." It's always great to draw from the unique insights of each person as we have our Bible study discussions.
I appreciate the input and the wisdom apparent in the comments. It's obvious that the people of Joyful Life Ministries have a love for their church and a vision to see greater things accomplished by the hand of God. I'm looking forward to continued labor in the harvest field with each of them.

Mind Expansion Doesn't Have to Hurt

What an amazing time we had together on Sunday! It was so good to feel the presence of God as the people of Joyful Life Ministries came together for worship, Word, and fellowship. Thanks to everyone who helped create an Apostolic atmosphere that allowed God to move like He always wants to!
I'm remembering the words of a college professor who told our class, "Once your mind has been expanded it will never go back to its original state." While you might be thinking of someone right now who seems to disprove that statement, I happen to believe it is absolutely true. I think our minds were expanded yesterday as we saw what's possible every time we meet as believers. Now that we have seen how God can move we won't settle for less than His perfect plan for us each time we meet again.
Thanks again for your sacrifice in our quest to find Christ more completely!

We're Moving!

We're only one week away from moving to our new location! Everyone at JLM is excited about the direction we're headed and it's awesome to see that we're all on the same page as we move forward with God's vision and purpose for us.
The new location on West Main Street has so much potential and offers us some great opportunities to expand our impact in the community. We've seen good, steady growth and progress over the last year in our current location and it's time to move to the next stage of God's plan. It's always nice to outgrow where you are when you know that God has something bigger and better in store!
We're planning some great events to celebrate the new location and the surge of God's Spirit that we are experiencing together. We'll keep everyone informed and hope to see you there!

There is a Tide - JLM Flood Update

Just wanted to put my thoughts down in writing before life speeds forward and covers the moment and the memory in its dust.
I am so thankful for the great people who are coming together at Joyful Life Ministries. Last night was a perfect and inspiring example! There was such a sense of unity that I felt like we could take on the whole world. And we can! Even the crazy Lego Sculpture Event allowed us to grow together and get a vision of what lies ahead for us :)
I shared my favorite Shakespeare quote with everyone last night: "There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries."
We're experiencing that tide and flood right now at JLM. I'm so glad to see each person sharing in the same vision and moving forward to catch the wave of opportunity and promise that's building for us. The people and events God is putting in the same place at this moment are a great indicator of things to come. I look forward to seeing the spiritual fortune that God has in store.
Dedicated to the Vision for Richmond,

Talking to God

It was great to see everyone at our Word on Life Bible Study Discussion last night! We had a great time discussing prayer and getting into the history of why we do some of the things we do, in prayer and in church services in general. Everyone had excellent comments and really added to the discussion.
Afterwards, it was fun staying later than usual and just talking about relationships. We're really growing as a church family and the relationships we're building when we come together give us something to look forward to each service.

Adventure Church - July 8th - Treasure Hunt

Our most recent Adventure Church, a treasure hunt at the Pinnacles in Berea, was a great success! Thanks to the JLM Adventure Team for their hard work. Eric and Mandi prepared and studied for this event for two months and their preparation was obvious. It was great to see Nikki and Tim at the event. It was also great to see how much fun the Word of God can be when we share it in a creative way. Check out our church myspace site for some funny pictures that illustrate the zany events of the day.

Beyond These Walls

Jesus spent time at the Temple, but more often we find Him on the mountaintop teaching the crowds, somewhere feeding the multitude, or working His way through the press of hurting people that tried to get a glimpse of His face or a touch of His garment. How did Jesus find people with needs? He went beyond the walls and reached out where the people were.
Lately, we've tried to focus more intensely on this ministry of Reaching Out. Our recent "Rock the Block" community event was a success the day of the event as we provided food and fellowship to the neighborhood around our church building. Equally rewarding was the arrival of three new visitors at our Daily 180 Show a few days after Rock the Block. Reaching Out brought people in and we were able to share the life-changing message of Jesus Christ with them. Going beyond the walls of a church building and becoming the Church to the community around us is rewarding and it mirrors the ministry of Jesus.
If you want to help or encourage someone this week, you won't have any trouble finding them. Just go where people are and let God's Spirit increase your sensitivity to the needs around you. God bless you as you reach beyond the walls!

Rock the Block - Success

We fulfilled one of our primary purposes this weekend--we got together and ate lots of food! Just kidding. While we did have a great dinner, the greater accomplishment was our first "Rock the Block" neighborhood cookout/block party. Part of our goal is to Reach Out in our community and Saturday gave us an opportunity to do that. We enjoyed meeting new people, grilling and eating good food, and passing out balloons to the children that attended. Overall, Rock the Block was a great success. We're already looking forward to the next one. Thanks to everyone for your hard work in putting this event together!
You can check out some of the event photos in the "my pics" section of the church myspace page: www.myspace.com/jlmrichmond Just click on the Rock the Block photo album.

It Came a Long Way Baby

In our Wednesday night Word On Life Bible Study we set up a Bible Museum as a tribute and look at what it took to get the Bible into our hands. The story of the Bible's passage through time is an amazing narrative of how God's hand led people in history to get involved in the development and continuation of the great Gospel message. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to men like Gutenberg, Wycliffe, and many others who risked and ultimately gave their lives to get the Bible to the "common" people. Our museum looked at the Bible's development from parchment, papyrus, scrolls, and illuminations to the printed pages of Gutenberg's amazing converted winepress, to the mass availability that exists today. How many Bibles, and translations, do you have in your home?
The summary of our museum? People went through enormous risks and dangers to get the Gospel message to us. Let's not allow their efforts to be in vain for our lives. May we have a renewed love for the Bible and a greater appreciation as we read it each day.

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.

A Go and Get Church

I believe it was Rick Warren or Andy Stanley, in their books Purpose Driven Church or Can We Do That?, who said "We are dedicated to being a 'go-and-get church.'" They were opposing the trend of churches that take an attitude of "The lost know where we are and they can come to us when they're ready."
That's a terrible attitude for a church to have and completely against the Biblical madate conveyed by Jesus Christ--"Go ye into all the world..." Or in more modern terms, "You Go."
With this Great Commission in mind, Joyful Life Ministries started a ministry known as Adventure Church! It fulfills one of our primary purposes: "Reach Out." Adventure Church takes our church services outside the walls of the church and plants it in other areas where we can reach people who might not come to us. We've had church services, music and devotions at state parks, hiking areas, homes, and coffee shops. Following the service, we enjoy the outdoors and get some excercise hiking, etc. You can check out some of the event pictures over at http://joyfullifemin.tripod.com
In May, our newly appointed Adventure Team, a recently married couple in the church, will take the reigns of Adventure Church and choose a monthly location to go out and reach out to people in our community. I'm looking forward to the locations these two "adventurists" choose for our church services. And I'm looking forward to seeing what God will do through a "Go-and-Get Church."

Seek and You Shall Find...Worked!

Last week while I was praying at the church, specifically talking to Jesus about His success rate with seeking and finding the lost and needful people of His day, I heard the sounds of wheels rolling in the church parking lot. I really felt like the Lord told me to put my praying on hold and go check out the source of the sound. Outside I saw two teenagers skating around the blacktop. (Our church has the best parking lot in town for skateboarding, and is one of the few places where boarders haven't been chased away). I introduced myself and ended up having a nice long conversation with the guys about skateboarding and JLM's Daily 180 Show. I invited them to our church services as we continued talking for awhile.
Tonight they both showed up for our Youth Game Night! They met everyone in the church and had a great time in our group reading of John 3 and a time of fun playing games and eating pizza. It was great to have two new visitors!
Once again I'm amazed at how quickly God answers prayer when we stop long enough to listen to His response. His promise still holds true: Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. It's true for so many things, including seeking and finding people who need Jesus Christ in their lives.

Seasons of Life for the JLM Family

It was a busy weekend for us as we celebrated some great events in the lives of JLM members! A young couple from the church got married on Saturday. They have been friends for several years and have been part of Joyful Life almost since the very beginning, back when we were just a Bible Study Group meeting in a coffee house. It was wonderful to see them take the next step in their lives together, and it was a great honor that the first wedding I performed was for two friends who we love so much.
On Sunday, we helped a young lady in our church celebrate her 19th birthday with cake and ice cream and fellowship. This party and the wedding on Saturday made me think about the Church as the family of God. We truly are brothers and sisters in Christ. Times like these bring us together and remind us that we should always be able to count on our church family to share in both the joys and sorrows we go through--in other words, the Seasons of Life. There are people at Joyful Life Ministries whose parents live in other states, even other countries. There are times when we want to share our lives with others, but our natural families can't always be there. It's in these moments that so many of us are thankful for our spiritual families. This is one of the great attributes of the Church and one that I think we should promote more. If you don't have a home church and church family near you that you are an active part of, I encourage you to find one. Become part of a group of believers who will walk beside you through the seasons of life.
God bless!

Operation Seek and Save

The Agent: Jesus Christ. His Mission: "To seek and to save the lost." (Luke 19:10)
I have been thinking and praying about this Scripture this week and realizing it is the key to building the Church as God desires it to be built. As we grow a church from the ground up, we always try to think of new and creative ways to reach people and minister to them. Nothing wrong with creative ideas. In fact, as children of the Creator, we should be some of the most creative people in the world. Sometimes, though, it's equally effective to go back and look at past methods that have worked for the Church.
Jesus' mission and purpose is a key example. Can the mission of the Church be any more clear than stated in Luke 19:10? Many times I think we consider and focus on the saving portion of the mission. Maybe we don't realize how vital the seeking part is to the equation. How did Jesus always manage to find the hurting and the needy, in spite of the large crowds in which they were often hiding. The answer seems so obvious now: He found them because He looked for them. He sought them out. He had to seek the lost before He could save them. He had a sensitivity that led Him to people in need, even taking Him so far as Samaria to a woman all alone at a well; a woman who, because of racial tensions of the time, would not have been reached by the disciples that day. That 's the kind of sensitivity we need to reach out with in our communities. I want to be tuned in to the Spirit of God that empowers us to witness (Acts 1:8) and to the needs of those around me. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is not impossible at all. Go out to seek and save the lost, knowing that Jesus Christ already set the perfect example of how it can be done.

Prayer Warriors and Persistent Prayers

Last night we changed things up a little bit from our normal schedule. The ladies of the church had their Persistent Praying Women meeting. The men of JLM met for M&M--Mighty Men of God. While we understand the need for us all to come together as a church, which is how we operate in every other service and ministry, we also felt the need to separate for the evening and discuss the different aspects of what it means to be men and women of God.
I felt like we discussed some important topics, and also used the time to build closer relationships; the friendship of Jonathan and David serving as our Scriptural example. We ended the meeting by giving each man a pack of M&Ms, that supposedly melt in your mouth and not in your hand. Although, no one confirmed this claim.
The women reported a good meeting and time of discussion also, as they talked about the Importunity of Prayer and many examples of persistent women in the Word of God. They also spoke of women who demonstrated Deep and Undying Compassion.
Much of the outline I used to speak to the men was inspired by Stu Weber's book Tender Warrior. He discusses the balance a Christian man should have: King, Warrior, Mentor, and Friend. I highly recommend this book to all men. Fathers, this would be a great source and legacy to pass on to your sons. They, and someday their wife and children, will thank you for the gift.
God bless!

Pastor's Blog

We often get requests from friends and family for updates on Joyful Life Ministries' progress. I've started this blog to give you the inside scoop on the church, events past and planned, and maybe even some soapbox comments about church, ministry, and home missions in general.
April 16th was the one-year anniversary of our first service held in 2006! God has blessed us in this first year and we've seen positive improvements in people's lives, as well as growth in the church. It's encouraging to see the new people that have become a part of Joyful Life; people we didn't even know a year ago. As always, we take these moments of victory to realize that if God did anything once He can do it again. We're expecting and preparing for greater things in our community and I hope to let you know of some exciting new ministries in the coming weeks; ministries that will enable us to reach our purpose as a church--RuRoBiBuSo!
God Bless!