Filed under: Family
Here are the kids having a good time listening to music on Anson’s computer. Anson gave me the crazy eyes when I tried to take his picture tonight.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I just got off the phone with Dave Hoffman who is the VP of John Stott Ministries. Dave is coming to Texas and will be in worship with us on March 9th. He is going to do a presentation before worship on “What in the world is God doing.” It is a presentation/statistics on what God is doing throughout the world. I am glad to have Dave coming and look forward to seeing how Dayspring can partner with John Stott ministries in the future.
Filed under: Uncategorized
February 17th – this video will be the sermon.
Filed under: Dayspring
This Sunday we are going to have an “Ash Wednesday Sunday” Service. Since we are portable and only meet on Sunday we felt making up a new liturgical day was our best option. We are going to fill little plastic zip lock jewelry bags full of ashes and staple them to this bulletin insert (insert snorting ashes and dead jokes here). We are not actually going to do the imposition of the ashes on Sunday, however. Everyone can take the ashes home and use them (in a number of ways) on Wednesday to mark the beginning of Lent.
Here are the graphics that our worship leader created for this Sunday:
Filed under: Dayspring
Here is the final installment of our spoof for our DISCIPLE series. We ended our series by talking about evangelism. Enjoy the video!
Filed under: Dayspring
- This is not being said lightly – we had an incredible day at Dayspring! We finished up our series today on what it means to follow Christ (DISCIPLE).
- We played our fifth and final video for the series which was by far the best one yet (I’ll post it tomorrow).
- We had 185 people at church today (this is the exact number we had two weeks ago – strange but true) and for about 15 minutes we had the kids in our service with us which just about filled up the theater we worship in.
- I don’t have an official count (official count coming this week) but we had about 60 adults join Dayspring today on our first day of membership. Two adults joined on profession of faith today!
- Two families joined today who first encountered us at our Christmas Eve Service in the Park.
- The band was really great today!
Filed under: Uncategorized
I ran 11 miles today and it took right at 2 hours. I wanted to run 12 but I was just too slow today because of the cold. Next week I will run one more long run (12 miles) and then taper back for the “Texas Half” on the 9th. My goal is to run the half in about 2 hours and 10 minutes. Looking at the real competitive athletes that is really slow, but if I can run thirteen 10-minute miles then I will be more than happy!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Authenticity is a buzzword in church these days. Everyone wants to be authentic. Yes, even Dayspring desires to be authentic in our worship and the way we live out our ministry. Yesterday, as Aaron (Dayspring’s Worship Leader) and I were driving back from Henderson we started to talk about authenticity.
Aaron had a great comment about authenticity. There is a car dealership in town that is placing “down to earth” ads on the radio, where the owner talks about what buyers really want and that he understand his customers. In one commercial, he talks about people commenting on his realness, and authenticity and about how customers will ask him why other dealerships aren’t real like his.
Aaron pointed out that all of these messages are highly crafted and scripted messages that the owner is reading and re-reading in a studio in order to get it just right. And yet, he is talking about his authenticity at the same time. For him, authenticity is just another tool for his ultimate purpose of selling cars. He is just trying to sell goods and will use whatever method he thinks will work best. He is manufacturing authenticity – which is an oxymoron. This is the ultimate insult.
Which brings me to my point about churches. Are churches manufacturing authenticity? I just counted and we (Dayspring) use the word authentic three times on our web-site. Should I take it off the site or claim instead that we are TRYING to be as authentic as we can? Does the act of proclaiming authenticity betray the truth that indeed you are not? It seems to me that we, indeed, have a lot of people and churches manufacturing authenticity as a tool or commodity today.
All of this writing reminds me of THIS POST that I wrote last year. Ultimately, being authentic has always been a struggle for me. I try and will continue to try to be as authentic and real as I can but I know that I will always guard part of myself from others, just as we all do. I think we should be weary of those who boldly proclaim authenticity because claiming the title destroys any authenticity that is truly there. When is the last time you heard someone rave on about how humble they are?
Filed under: Church Planting
This Sunday Dayspring is going to offer people the opportunity to join. Since it is the first chance, it is a big deal to us. I have had many people tell me that they are ready to be part. I am so excited to see people come and commit themselves to serving Christ through Dayspring.
Membership, however, is not about having privileges but about servant hood. I am making clear to people that our expectations of their involvement is high. I want them to be involved not because we need them but because in order to become fully formed Disciples they need us. They need a place to serve within the body of Christ and we give them that opportunity. We are not a club that gives privilege to its members, instead they come to work.
I am glad to see people interested in joining, but in the end, I am more concerned about people’s participation than I am their membership. After all, the only role that counts is not the church role, but the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Filed under: Uncategorized
In a few weeks (Feb. 17), I will be showing the movie “MOST” in our service. “Most” is an allegorical foreign film that is based on a Christian story. The story puts a father in a difficult position of deciding on the life of his son or the lives of a train full of passengers. The movie is in Czech with English subtitles. We are going to structure our entire service around this 30-minute short. I think it will be a memorable worship service.
