This is Not a Game

This week I heard some news about a fairly new church in South Carolina that knocked the wind out of me. The details are not important, but suffice to say that there are some differences of opinion among the leaders of the church that appear to be unresolvable. First of all, I am sad whenever people who claim to be following Jesus cannot resolve their differences. I do not think that is what Paul means when he uses the words “one body” to describe the unity that we should have. Second, I am sad about all of the people within the church that will get caught in the crossfire. People will have to “choose sides” on the issues, which leads to all sorts of confusion, gossip, and bitterness, and can literally wreck lives.

But the thing that weighs the heaviest on me about this situation has nothing to do with this other church. It is the seriousness of my own role in helping pastor a church. Contrary to many of the attitudes in the “church planting” world, this is NOT a game. This is not a contest to see who can come up with the “coolest” church and get the most people to show up. People’s eternal lives are at stake. And as I have written before, that scares me to death.

As much fun as we like to have at Midtown, I hope that we will never be flippant with or cheapen the name of Jesus. I pray that God will continue to use us simply to point people in Columbia towards him. That He will give us unity and protect us from the many pitfalls that could destroy our church and damage people’s lives. And that I and the other leaders of our church will be the kind of men that are worthy of leading others in this mission.

I Almost Forgot…

…to update you on our church’s building situation. Most of you Midtown folks know by now, but the option that we were pursuing appears to have fallen through. There were some zoning issues that could not be resolved so we are back to square one. Although it seems like a really bad thing to us, for whatever reason God apparently wants us to be at the SC State Museum a little longer. In order to accommodate as many people as possible, we are doing 3 services and have set up an overflow room. The room worked well in its first use this past Sunday, having multiple video screens, a solid sound system, and even refreshments. The atmosphere and overall feel of the service in the overflow room was surprisingly good, and we have asked people who have been around Midtown for a while to sit in there if at all possible to free up seats in the auditorium for new people. It will be interesting to see what God does with all of this in the coming weeks and months as we continue to look for a new location.

Coaching

In addition to being one of the elders of our church, one of my specific responsibilities is leadership development. For the most part, this consists of mentoring/coaching/discipling (more on the differences between the 3 some other time) several of our staff on an individual basis. This type of thing is a personal passion of mine, and is something I have been doing informally for the past 15 years mostly with college students involved in FCA. Although I try to continually grow and improve in this role, I am pretty much self-taught and have never had the privilege of being coached myself. Until now.

Through our denomination, I have recently had the opportunity to get involved in a coaching certification program which will not only give me some formal training but also will provide me with a personal coach for the next few months. Today was my first coaching call, and I can already tell that God is going to use this to stretch and grow me in many ways. I am looking forward to having someone help me set and achieve some goals that I have been keeping on the back burner for too long, but even more I am looking forward to learning a lot more about coaching and how I can better help others in pursuing the things that God has placed on their hearts.

Writer’s Block

It has been a while since I have written, especially anything of substance. The past few weeks have been an interesting mix of thoughts and emotions for me, some good and some bad. I have lots of things swirling around in my head that I hope to write about eventually, but so far none of them have really settled into anything coherent.

On an activity level, lots of things have been going on. Last week I got to spend a little time at the beach with my cousins who are in the country from Brazil, which was a lot of fun. Then this past weekend, we had our bi-annual Midtown Family Vacation. (retreat for members) It is one of the best things we do as a church, and was incredibly encouraging and challenging.

I have also been continuing to work on securing us a place to meet for our worship services in the near future. We have decided to pursue a particular possibility that we think God is leading us to, and should know something for sure very soon. It is going to be a wild ride once we pull the trigger, seeing as how we will need to cram about 6-8 weeks of renovation into as little time as possible. Any volunteers to help out?

Meeting Space Update

Thanks for the prayers, phone calls, and texts about the meeting this morning. Things went pretty well. There are a lot of details that would have to be worked out in order for us to use the space, but they all seem to be manageable. As we are working through those details, please keep praying that God would make it very clear what He wants us to do.

Meeting Space?

Tomorrow morning Dustin and I are looking at and hoping to work through lots of details on a possible new location for Midtown’s worship gatherings. As many of you know, we have been looking at every piece of property and building imaginable in the downtown area for the past 6 months and nothing has worked out so far. With only 5 weeks to go till USC students are back for the fall semester, it is definitely “crunch time.” We are praying that God will make it very clear tomorrow whether He wants us to be in this potential space or not, and would appreciate your prayers as well.

Go Camp

What do you get when you cross kickball, slip-n-slide “bases”, and water balloons? Just another late night game at Go-Camp!

Go Camp is a camp our church puts on each summer devoted to teaching students how to show Jesus’ love to the world around them. In addition to some students from Columbia, several youth groups from SC and GA are attending again this year. Each day, students serve in various ministries and roles around the city of Columbia, then each night gather back at the campus of Columbia International University for teaching, worship, and of course the famous late-night games!

So far this year’s camp has been great. I am looking forward to hearing all of the stories over the next few weeks that come from what God is doing this week at camp.

Thank You

Last week some of the ladies from Midtown threw a little appreciation party for the staff. They went all out with a superhero theme, catered bbq dinner, a rap video, and a sweet coffee table book with some cool pics of Midtown stuff over the past 2 years. They gave each of us superhero names, and made us capes with our names on the back. (mine was stunningman, of course) It was a great evening, and definitely encouraged me in the middle of a stressful time in my life. (see previous post) Thank you ladies for all your creativity, hard work, and even lying to your husbands to pull the evening off!

Movie Stars?

Look for myself, Will Grubbs, and Drew Mendoza in the upcoming extremely short film (20 seconds or so) by Midtown Pictures, “Forgetting What is Behind.” Filming took place today in western Lexington County, and the film is now in post-production.

Written by: Beau Bailey, Jay Hendricks, Dustin Willis
Directed and Filmed by: Patrick Coker
Key Grip: Josh White

Lake Days

In light of the awesome Midtown lake party today, I decided to post some of my favorite lake pics from over the years. Enjoy! (click the picture to go to the album)