thechurchblog

Shame on you. Shame on me. Yes, we’re all sinners in a fallen state, so shame shame SHAME!! Actually, one of the coolest things that Jesus did (besides providing for our eternal salvation and fellowship with God the Father in heaven) was take away our shame (see Romans 9:33). Shame is “the painful feeling arising from the consciousness of something dishonorable, improper, ridiculous, etc., done by oneself or another.” So, shame is a feeling. Well I can understand how there is no shame in being a sinner in the eternal sense, but what about the daily stuff that goes on in the life of a believer?
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One of the goals of Crossroads Church is to be able to take the church to the people, not just wait for the people to come to the church. We do that by being ministers at our jobs, at school, in coffeeshops, etc. Jesus regularly held meetings where the people were. We need to do the same — and get over our hangups regarding what constitutes a “legitimate” meeting of the church.
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On Saturday, November 11, the core members of the new church got together for an all-day retreat to do some planning, visioning, and organizing of the new church. Perhaps the most significant event of the day was the development of the name for the new church. We are now officially calling ourselves CrossRoads Church of Las Cruces!
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People are tired. They’re tired of working for unappreciative bosses (supervisors, teachers, pastors, etc.), tired of wasting time on repetitive tasks, tired of having to work a job to make a meager living. People are tired of the way things are — and they wish things could change.

I’ve had the chance to talk to a large number of people as part of the process of planting this new church. Many seem interested in the new church — but often because of the simple fact that they’re tired of their old church. (Lots of them have in fact been through several churches in their past.) They’re tired of “not getting fed,” tired of “too many glitzy programs,” or even tired of “spending so much money on staff and buildings.”

You know what I’m tired of? I’m tired of lost people going to hell.
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As part of the process of starting a new church, the topic of how we intend to raise up leadership always comes up in discussion when we talk with folks about how things have been going. Now, there are the usual “pat answers;” such as, “Our leadership is comprised of elders who are qualified according to what the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and Titus chapter 1.” While these principles are undoubtedly true, we feel that a few more qualifications need to be true as well.
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I’ve found that this kind of work is full of “ups” and “downs” — and most of the time it is somewhere in the middle. A good friend of mine who is currently living overseas sent this story which clearly illustrates this (albeit from a slightly different cultural perspective). Enjoy! And be encouraged. . .and if you’d like to check out her blog, it can be found here.

There is a trickster character in my country’s folklore named Jhooha. It’s almost like if the guy in the “So a guy walked into a bar…” jokes had a name. There are tons of these jokes / stories. We have read and heard several of them, and the people here think they are hilarious. Sometimes, the humor doesn’t quite translate, but this one was pretty funny.
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My mother sent me an encouraging email forward today. It is a copy of the October 18 message from D. Max Whitfield, Biship of the Northwest Texas and New Mexico Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church. As some of you know, I grew up in the Methodist church and still have a soft place in my heart for those Methodists. Anyway, Biship Whitfield’s message is all about how in the year 1910, the Northwest Texas Conference had 8,900 people accept Jesus Christ for the first time, resulting in a 25% increase in overall church attendence. The second point of the article is that only 189 out of 415 churches actually met in their own buildings at the time — the rest met in people’s houses! Read it for yourself – I’ve included the complete text of the article below.
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It’s been a little over three months since my wife and I stepped down from our ministries at Mesilla Park Community Church to help plant the new church in Las Cruces. I’ve included the text from a newsletter article I submitted for Mesilla Park’s new monthly newsletter to get everybody up to speed on what’s been going on in that time!
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I’m writing this from Milagro’s coffee shop in Cruces — my first try at posting to the Blog from my Palm handheld. Coffee has become an important element of our new church. It gets us going in the morning, it gives us something to do in the evenings when we meet as a leadership team, and it gives me a good reason to get together with people who I’d like to get to know better.
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The new church is starting to gather some momentum — to “get its feet under it,” so to speak. We’re in the process of recruiting and evaluating leadership, both in people and in policy. We are striving to start with the strongest leaders possible. The leaders will define the church’s mission, will defend the church’s mission, and will reproduce to carry the church’s mission to the field. Those who desire to be leaders “desire a noble task” (1 Timothy 3:1). However, there is a test in the end. . .
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