Andrew Lemon

Philly-Area Wide Young Adult Worship Gathering

2011-08-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

It has been on my heart now for over 1 year to see an Area wide Worship Gathering for Young Adults and College Students from all over the Philadelphia area. How powerful would that be to see 1) unity throughout the body of Christ across denominational lines 2) hundreds of passionate young adults/college students crying out in worship to God to see their generation and this city of Philadelphia changed by the power of God.

Young Adult ministry is still new and many groups can be on the smaller side. My heart would be that those existing young adult/college groups would take part in this and it would ignite passion and fervor into their local group by coming together with young adults from all around the Philly area. A friend of mine who has been doing youth ministry in Philadelphia for 13 years keeps telling me how there are not many young adult groups or ministries out there in the city.

My prayer is that this monthly gathering would provide a home to young adults seeking a faith community, as well as help start new young adult or college groups or ministries in the area. God has stirred my heart to stop thinking about this, but to make it a reality.

So on Sunday September 11th at 6pm at Calvary Assembly of God in Wyncote (www.thce.org) , it begins. We will be having a special kick-off service with Special Guest Worship form Four24 music. www.four24.com. As well as special music by Justified and BandTastic. And a relevant life-changing message by myself, Young Adult Pastor at Calvary Wyncote.

I can’t wait to see what God starts on Sept 11th and see what happens each 1st Sunday of each month. I’m excited.Flyers, Website and Promo Video coming Soon!

Easter Thoughts and Reflections - All about Surprise

2011-04-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

So every major Christian holiday I always have an urge to not just go with the flow and get caught up in saying and thinking the same things that we all do every holiday. I try not to get caught up in the hype and everything, but seek to reflect and ponder and authentically seek contemplate about what happened.

Why? Maybe bc I'm young, I like to go against the grain and i'm just idealistic. Maybe becuae I really do seek and strive after authenticity and dont want something so special to become a mere routine or religious exercise. Maybe a little bit of both.....

Anyway here are my thoughts.....

First... in thinking about the routine and the expected of Easter Sunday at church... I was reminded of the importance of Christians all around the world celebrating the day that Jesus rose from the dead.... Bc as the Apostle Paul says... everything is in vain if Christ did not conquer death..... Everything we do in church would be pointless if not for this one day in history.

So while its easy to think of all the cheesy stuff that goes on on Easter, how routine and commercialzed it can become... even in the church.... We still must not forget the significance of celebrating this day..

Second .... a big theme that stood out to me this Easter was that of "Surprise" in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Surprise throughout the story of the Bible.

The Mystery that is our salvation - Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
Why would God chose to work this way to bring salvation. To our logic it makes no sense, to us it would seem folish... But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to shame the wise (1 Cor 1:27)..

This mystery is the surprise of Hope.. God doing things that totally catch us off guard and surprise us... it makes it that much more beautiful.

Surprises throughout the Passion Narrative

Religious Leaders killed Jesus
-Becuase they were unwilling to accept the surprise of the Messiah coming in such an unexpected way with such an unexpected plan... We always think we have God figured out and have him in our little box, that we totally miss his plans and ways... bc we are not open to surprise.

God takes on human flesh
-why the religious leaders accussed Jesus of blasphemy, becuase they expected a messiah, a representative sent of God, not God Himself to show up.... They couldnt even see the beauty and hope in this surprise bec they were too wrapped up in thier own expectations.

Wheat among tares
-the people expected the Messiah to bring his kingdom to power with a military arm and by force... They missed the beauty of the kingdom showing up by death that would lead to life...
...They missed the beauty that the kingdom of God would grow up among and amidst the other kingdoms of this world...

So this brings me to my reflections upon the traditions and things that happen on Easter Sunday in churches

People who have been out of church for a while come back
Its easy for us to think, what is going on in this person's life, they havent been to church in so long, glad they made it out for easter, maybe they'll get saved today for real...
...But do we forget that Story of Easter... It was the relgious people who killed Jesus... the theives and sinners were the people who actually recognized who Jesus was before His crucifixion....
Surprise

We act like the religious people who killed Jesus
-We want Jesus to be the way we want and expected him to be and when He's not... when He surprises you.. how will you act?

God is moving outside the church as much as inside during Easter
-I expereienced this on Good Friday.. Challenged with the idea if we should cancel our community coffee house becuase of good friday.. We didnt... we stayed open.. and had great intereactions with the people who came out... If I had been stuck in my way of expecting God to only move in the church.. I would have missed interactions and missed seeing God at work outside the church

Wheat among the tares
-The day after Easter Sunday speaks volumes in determining the wheat among the tares... Will your life still celebrate the resurection of JEsus the day after Easter
We sing all about Jesus being Lord of our lives on Easter Sunday... what about Easter Monday...the things that you sung that Jesus can save, heal and restore.... will you now live in such a way?

Stop and let God do something in you, before you can do something for Him

2011-02-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

"Be still and know I am God"

We need to let life happen to us more often, and stop trying ot make life happen for us

We wanna do so much for God
-But how about simply wanting and letting Him do something in us and to us

The ministry can get so productivity focused at times
We feel we must make things happen for God
We feel we must keep producing fruit
And this is ALL GOOD

Just like it is good to produce fruit as a Christian, the problem is when we get too wrapped up in producing fruit in and of ourselves. And forget that fruit is simply a by-product of what God is doing in us.

Stop and take time to let God do something in your life and ministry, slow down, if He is not working in you and speaking to you, your no good to those you lead or your ministry.

Plan more white space (empty space) in your calendar. Leave time for God to speak and do something in you.

Learning from the Unexpected

2011-02-03T09:22:00.001-08:00

You ever learn from someone you think you have nothing to learn from?

It's humbling, but powerful.

It's humbling for my generation (18-30 year olds) especially.

Recently heard an elderly lady in the faith, a devoted follower of Jesus Pray
"Sometimes I just get happy all by myself when I think about your goodness Lord"
Sounds cheesy,but it was at a time when God spoke to me very specifically that day that I needed to learn and hear from those older in the faith then me.

Humbling for a young guy in ministry with all his idealogies and everything still.

But I think in general my generation needs to learn from those who have gone before us in the faith. While our approaches to church and how ministry is done are worlds apart. And while we have seen the mistakes of those who have gone before us in the church and we don't want to repeat them.

There is something that we can learn from the consistency of those in the Faith, who have been for years and still are following Jesus. Their consistency, dedication, persistence. I hope that can be me. So while that line in that prayer sounded very cheesy, there was a lot of power behind it.

someone who for years has followed Jesus and still can get happy just sitting there thinking about God's goodness to her. There is some power in that and i respect it.

In the News

2011-02-03T09:17:00.000-08:00

Common Grounds Coffee House made the ChesnutHill Local Newspaper

http://chestnuthilllocal.com/blog/2011/01/21/also-serving-sweet-music-thanks-to-lemon-free-food-and-coffee-at-the-new-coffee-house-in-g’town/

Also made the Penn-Del District of the Assemblies of God paper.

www.penndel.org/connexions (page 8) Winter 2010-2011 edition

Post-Holiday Blues and a longing for something more

2010-12-31T09:50:00.000-08:00

The longer and longer I live (only 24 years so far, but I feel older) I realize more and more that any longing and desire for anything in this world will always dissapoint. If you are like me this past week (that week between Christmas and New Years) may have been pretty blah, boring, a let-down, felt some sort of disallusionment.

I have been busy a lot this past fall, so was really looking forward to relaxing and doing nothing this past week and a half. Now that I've been doing absolutely nothing this past week., I feel lazy and that I should be doing something, accomplishing something. And as soon as I am knee deep in business in the next week or two, I will want rest again. So it seems with everything in life, the presents and all the hype around christmas time esepcially point this out to us. All the hype building up to the holidays, then they dissapoint, and we are off looking for our next high. The next thing we can look forward to, hoping that will totally fulfill us.

I think C.S Lewis sums this unmet desire in our hearts up best.
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my own true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”

This rings so true

Now many Christians would point out and say, that means we must then never seek pleasure or have any fun and make our sole goal to honor God and nothing else matters. And would point to the book of Ecclesiastes to make this point. That the message behind Ecclesiastes is that all is vanity in this life, only God will fulfill. And this is definately the main point. But I have now read Ecclesiastes many times and it always intrigues me. I see now that obviously the main point is that we should pursue God, but this however does not mean neglecting earthly pleasures all together. It means we enjoy them with proper perspective and understanding.

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 reads " I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime, morever, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor- it is the gift of God"

A commentary on this verse reads " As we do good work in our generation, the preacher gives us permission to celebrate the good things of life -eating and drinking and enjoying the pleasures that God has made for us to enjoy. Of course, it is always a temptation for us to live for earthly pleasure, serving our appetites instead of serving Jesus. The good things in life so easily become our gods, which is absolute vanity. But the way to resist temptation is not by avoiding everyting. Rather we avoid idoaltry by gratefully receving the good things of life as blessing from God."

So that longing in your heart, will never be fulfilled here on earth. Our job is simply to do good for God, love Him with all of our being. Work hard, but also enjoy life and the pleasure of it, such as friends, sporting events, entertainment, food, festivals and such. Just don't let it be your God.

In case of creative emergency break the glass cage of routine

2010-08-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

I've heard this before, but haven't acted on it much. Why? prolly b/c my routine is comfortable and safe. Why would I leave it. But when I leave it, is when God speaks the clearest to me. Perhaps b/c I have stepped out in faith, I have given up my comforts, to be on God's timeline, to be at His decision to speak to me, relying on him and Him alone, beucase all I know is gone.

Especially in creation, perhaps b/c it is something God has created, but so are humans, the internet, books and coffee. But perhaps in creation, or at least parts of it that have not been misused and abused yet, help us feel God more clearly, it is unadultered beauty.

It helps us re-create and create. Perhaps when I have nothing I am comfortable with or acustomed to, to help me hear God's voice; is actually when I hear His voice best. Becuase His ways are higher then ours.

Simple Faith

2010-08-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

No doubt I appreciate my PC Study Bible, google search, youtube, commentaries, internet and books. And no doubt I do believe that they are tools that God uses to help equip us to expound upon His word. But just as any tool, they can become a crutch and can soon control us. They can control our creative process, they can even hinder us from hearing from God, when they are supposed to help us better understand what God has spoken to us.

Sometimes my faith is in my tools to help me communicate God's word. I believe more in the tools then the toolmaker. Today I had just my Bible and a notebook. All I could do was listen to God speak and write it down. I was stuck, but stuck with the only things I needed, a heart to listen and faith that God would speak. And that He did.

God often speaks most clearly to us when, we are most desperate for Him. When we have exhausted all other options, we seek His face. God lvoes to use our weakness and foolishness and remind us its not about us. But its all for His glory

Are we working for God or allowing Him to work through us?

2010-06-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

Discerning between the lies of the devil and the Holy Spirit's conviction can be often difficult. Difficult in ministry as well. Becuase in ministry your goal should be to let God do things through you, but we are often faced with the rival idea and concept to do things for God, instead of letting Him do thigns through us. So we can have all the right intentions in ministry and want to do all the right things, but we can have all the wrong motives, or attitudes. In such a peformance driven society, especially in the workplace, it is easy to succumb to that mentality in ministry. When something is not going well or not succedding, not succedding fast enough as we want, not going the way we want it to, we try to reconcile it, by figuring out what is wrong with what we are doing. And it is then that we get to focused on us. And the devil will creep in and feed us those that it is all up to us to make things work.

And we get caught in that trap. And we forget that in ministry we are simple the pipes, the tools, the conduits, that bring what is most important God, He does the work, He just works through us. We forget that it is God who orders our steps. That it is He who places the vision and plans in our hearts to begin with. It is His plan. It is Him who changes peoples lives, it is Him who brings in the people, not us. But the devil wants us to believe that it is up to us and we start to believe him. Next thing you know we begin to question. Not only do we question what can we do to fix the situation. But then we begin to question if we should even be doing what we are doing. We question if we should be doing what God calls us to do. And that is doubting God. WE lose our fatih, our faith becomes weak, we want to give up. This is a dangerous place to be, trusting in our own efforts and not God. WE believe the lie that it is totally up to us to bring in the people, change their lives. And we begin to believe that it is entirely our fault that stuff doesn't work. It is then that the enemey has us trapped. WE are believing it is our job to do everything and leave God out of the equation and we doubt Him. And then we wann quit becuase everything seems too difficult. Everyway we turn is a lie from the devil, if we secced, we are caught up in our own ego and pride. If things are too difficult we wanna quit, becuase we forget that God brough us there.

We get so wrapped up in all that, that we miss the most important part of just simply staying faithful and obedient to what God has called us to do, and the vision He has given us. This is all that matters in ministry, staying faithtful and obedient to what God has called us to do, regardless of how difficult it may be. Becuase God brings the results, not us. And staying faithful to God can be just as difficult when things are going very well. Becuase then comes the temptations to think it is something we are doing to make ministry succeed. And we get stuck in the ministry games and forget to stay faithful to God.

I am not saying that we play no part in a ministry succeding or not. I believe that the Holy SPirit reveals to us things that we may be doing wrong. I have found that the voice of the Holy SPirit has beeen that still small voice reminding us of the simple, basic things that are so very important though. Like one on one time with people, instead of programs. I find that I usually brush these things off as small little things, but then come to learn the are the most powerful.

And I find that the things I worry about and try to control so much are the things that my flesh speaks to me to worry about. I find that my fleshly fears, that I usually can't control, scream the loudest. While the things I can control and that the Holy Spirit is convicting me of, I ignore and waste my time on things I can't control. And again I forget to stay faithful and obedent to God;s plans and vision and leave the rest to Him. It is so important to learn how to hear the Holy Spirit's voice in our lives. That small, consistent, voice, that you know is from God. We find it in the the quiet. WE find it when we put things in persepective of who God is. We find it when we renew and transform our minds (Romans 12:2) We need that time with God in stillness, we need to learn to listen to God. We are too busy listening to ourselves

It is also so very important to have a clear vision and clear calling from God before starting anything. Becuase when things get difficult and the enemy is telling you to quit, you will have something to stand upon and say this is what God called me to do no matter what happens, good or bad. I will stay faithful to the vision. And this can be difficult, you will start to 2nd guess if you were called for that vision. So it needs to be clear so you have something to all back on and say I will do my job and do my best with this vision God has given me and leave the rest up to Him. I will do my best for my audience of one, God. Staying faithful to what He has called me to do, nothing else.

What is the vision God has called you to do?
Are you doubting it?
Are you listening to yourself or God?
Are you trying to do God's job in your ministry?
Are you letting God work through you or are you working for God?
Are you playing the game of ministry or staying faithful to God's vision?

Greater Song - Paul Baloche

2010-06-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

" I see the heavens proclaiming you day after day and I know in my heart, that ther must be a way,.... to sing a greater song to you..." - Greater Song -Paul Baloche>>>Creation cries out showing the goodnes of God, the greatness of Him. Everyday they bring glory to God and sing a song to Him.

How much more should God's people, who are created in His image be singing a greater song than creation. Becuase we are the apex of His creation. Humans should be sining the greatest song to God. A song with our lives. A song by singing through our righteousness, a song through our love, a song by bringing justice to others. A lifesong if you will.All God's creation is created to bring Him glory.

And we see the mountains singing to Him and creation all around us. But the pinnacle of His creation, us, we fail to at times.If the creation around us can tell people about God, then we, being made in God's image, should be able to so much more...

So Imma try to blog more

2010-05-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

So I'm gonna try to blog once a week now, I think its a reasonable goal for myself... Leave some comments and read what I write so I'll be inspired to keep writing and not take 6 months at a time off....

Common Grounds Coffee House

2010-05-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

The Vision

1) First and foremost this will function as mainly and solely a coffee house. To be missional >> to give the Germantown/Mt.airy area a free coffee house
>>place for local musicians and artists
>> Safe place for people in Germantown/affordable as well
>> For the community
>> Not going to be marketed as Christian at all
>> But we want people to know that we follow Jesus through our conversations with them and the people they meet there
>> We want deep spiritual conversations to happen naturally and organically

2) Gives people of Calvary a tangible place to be missional.
Instead of always having to try to bring people to church, this provides a place to be missional, to go out among the lost. Go have a cup of coffee and listen to them, find out what the gospel means to them. Gives a perfect example of what it looks like to be missional for people at Calvary and us.

3) Functions as a place for hope Re-Found to meet
-helps give us validity in neighborhood by having no hidden agendas as a coffee house
-but people will trust us and when we let them know about our services and other things, they will feel comfortable, b/c relationships will be developed >> relationships are key today
-helps us reach those who would not come to church
-we are trying to reach a disillusioned generation
-many see no need of a traditional church

4) Creative ministry approaches through our Friday night coffee house
-once a month on a Friday or occasional Saturday nights we will have creative ministry nights to further engage the community in a deeper presentation of the gospel
Examples>> worship nights, movies, creative ministry approaches, doubt nights, dialogue nights, connections with arts community to talk about arts and God

The vision for the site at Wayne Ave is for Hope Re-Found and Calvary as a whole to have a tangible, on-going, relational way to be missional. The vision for a coffee house God placed on the heart of Pastor Andrew and was confirmed by the core members of Hope Re-Found and God working in their hearts. It made sense in terms of an ongoing mission to be a part of. To impact a community, to impact the arts/music community with truth, beauty and goodness, a place for people to go to have deep, meaningful, personal conversations about God with friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Also this will serve as a place to connect with young adults and serve as the new meeting place for Hope Re-Found.

This vision fits the God-given talents and gifting of a lot of the people in Hope Re-Found. This vision has also excited a lot of other people as well, who realize we need new creative, ways to reach people where they are at. It helps connect with people who would normally never be reached on a Sunday morning. In the words of Mark Batterson in the book UnChristian on page 146 says “So why did we build a coffeehouse instead of a church building? Because Jesus didn’t hang out in synagogues. He hung out at wells. Wells weren’t just places to draw water. Wells were natural gathering places in ancient culture. Coffeehouses are postmodern wells. To borrow sociological term, our coffeehouse is a third place where the church and community can cross paths.”

Big things in Philly

2010-05-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

So for this past year now I feel like I have had the privelage to hear bits and pieces of different plans and passions God has laid on so many peoples hearts for the city of Philadelphia.

1) A bunch of my friends from Valley Forge Christian College, you know who you are... who all wanna start churches in Philly.

2) A huge convoy of hope this year in Philly. @ 10 different locations this time, they usually only do 1... And this one is interdenominational... how awesome.... September 25,2010. http://hope4philly.org/

3) The Philly Project by Allison Park church, Jeff Leake and Brad Leach from Detroit, Michigan... check out their video http://vimeo.com/11930369... its pretty hott
... They want to plant a church planting church network in Philly

4) Philadelphia Tabernacle of David http://phillytod.org/ A group that wants to pray for the city and undergird local ministries and churches with prayer.

5) Alan Vincent - a guy who has helped churches all around the world. And God put Philly on his heart

6) Destiny Church http://destinychurchphilly.org/ a chuch plant in port richmond section of Philly

7) Coffee house scene ... I've met quite a few of these people who wanna connect to outsiders through coffee hous venues

8) My small part >> Common Grounds coffee househttp://www.commongroundscoffee.org/
Our small part in the NW section of Philly. We are in for an awesome ride...

A Greater Song - Paul Baloche

2010-05-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

" I see the heavens proclaiming you day after day and I know in my heart, that ther must be a way,.... to sing a greater song to you..." - Greater Song -Paul Baloche

>>>Creation cries out showing the goodnes of God, the greatness of Him. Everyday they bring glory to God and sing a song to Him. How much more should God's people, who are created in His image be singing a greater song than creation. Becuase we are the apex of His creation. Humans should be sining the greatest song to God. A song with our lives. A song by singing through our righteousness, a song through our love, a song by bringing justice to others. A lifesong if you will.

All God's creation is created to bring Him glory. And we see the mountains singing to Him and creation all around us. But the pinnacle of His creation, us, we fail to at times.

If the creation around us can tell people about God, then we should be able to so much more...

Been a long time

2010-05-27T17:22:00.001-07:00

So......where to start.........

1) I got married...... December 20th, 2009..... the day after a 20 some inch snowstorm.. interesting wedding day... most of the people, except for a few out a staters, surprisingly showed up.... reception was awesome....... so many people that made our wedding happen ... def God don't know how we coulda pulled this out on our own..........Def gotta thank the body of Christ....all our friends and family and Calvary Assembly of God family... from our photpgrapher, wedding cake maker, caterer to everyone else who helped us out free of charge your awesome all of you

2) I'm on staff as a young adults pastor....awesome opportunity to start a young adult ministry and everything..... and I'm a school bus driver too, ironic b/c i've had to drive people around my whole life and hate it lol..... God works in mysterious ways

3) Opening a coffee house ....Common Grounds coffee house www.commongroundscoffee.org
A totally different kind of Christian coffee house... we have no agenda each night and we allow non christian artists to play... we just want the church to meet culture and interact with them... its in Germantown/Mt.Airy section of Philadelphia.....a great arts scene...........and best of all we dont meet in a church basement, we meet in our own place which is totally awesome (thanks to me) jk.... more like God's providence and awesomeness

4)Awesome stuff is happening in Philly and i am so glad to be a part of it.... can't wait to see what God does with common grounds.

5) I added to list of things I wanna do... so far..... plant a bunch of churches in philly, open an actuual coffee shop (business), open a barber shop, open an after school program center, open a tech school,

So still haven't had any time to process graduating over a year ago now, bc my year has been so crazy

body of christ

2009-10-20T17:54:00.003-07:00

Body of Christ
The Bible clearly states that as followers of Jesus, as Christians that we are the body of Christ. It is clear that Jesus is the head of His body, that we are not under subjection to priests or pastors or any man, but only under Jesus Christ Himself. He is the head he motivates our responses and actions as part of the body. It ultimately comes from the head and the brain, being Jesus. Furthur proving the point that there is nothing in us that is good, but it all simply flows from Jesus. We are just the conduits in which He has chosen to reveal himself in the world today. This is a very awesome opportunity, this means we actually get to have God live through us. That He has chosen to now intervene with this fallen world through us, of course mainly through Jesus. But we being the body have a part of this. The head is what motivates the action. But the body is what is seen doing the action. We have the awesome opportunity to have our lives used by God to show Himself to the world. So when we really think about phrases like "preaching with your life", "living out your christianity" or things like this. This is really what we are called to do. We are not called to do it on our own. We have Jesus. God actually lives through us. It is our job to be humble enough to admit that we are just the body that we can do nothing without the head. That we can't function without it. That the head must get all the credit for what the body does. So we need to stop trying to live our lives for God and just let God live through us. We need to recognize that we ourselves can not do any good a part from Christ. This is a difficult thing to swallow sometimes as human beings, that the first step to honoring God is not doing good things for Him. but rather admiting our frailties and our inabilities and then just being obedient and letting God live through us.This task of being the body of Christ is very challenging at the same time. That often times being the body of Christ and claim that we are, all eyes will be upon us and that is what should happen when we let others around us know that we are followers of a living God who choses to reveal and interact with mankind and has chosen us as followers of him to live our lives in a way that points to Him. But with all the eyes on us, people will often see how often we fall and misrepresent Christ. And this happens a lot. This bothers me a lot too. Becuase of all the people who claim to follow Jesus, but yet refuse to yeild their bodies and lives to allow God to live through them and to be living glimpses of God and redemption to people aroudn them through the way they live their lives. But I also must remember being human beings, being prideful, which is at the sinful nature of every human being I believe, we will fall and misrepresent Christ often times. And this is unfortunate, but this happens all the time to even the most passionate followers of Christ. This happens when our fallen sinful nature wins out over our redeemed, new nature that Christ has given us in salvation.The whole concept of Jesus being the head of the church also has implications in the realm of the structure of churches today. The question that has been buggin me lately is the concept of the pastor leading and running a church. Nowhere in the Bible is the term pastor a position, it is used mostly as a verb. Yes there is the need to for church planters, apostles, prophets and teachers today. But is the way we have churches set- up unbiblical having one person run the church, the body. Shouldn't the body function as a unit, each memeber contributing equally, with Christ as the head?Anyway enough rambling.....Confessions of a recovering pharisee, hopeful church planter, young adult/college group co-ordinator, follower of Jesus.

2009-10-20T17:54:00.001-07:00

Re-Jesus

2009-06-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

Oh yea forgot to mention that the reason I feel like this young adult ministry will be able to partner with other churches and denominations is becuase we want to focus on the person of Jesus and Re-Jesus ourselves and go back to the founder of our churches Jesus and actually try to live out his teachings and recognize him as truly God, which we often forget. We want to major on the majors and we feel there is not better place to start than that of Jesus.

2009-06-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

Hope for people who have given up on church. Re-calibrating ourselves around the person of Jesus and submitting ourselves to his teachings. A community for young adults that provides a safe place to ask spiritual questions. To know Jesus and make him known. To love God and love people. - This is the mission statement of a young adult ministry i'm starting at my church. Now I jus need a name for the group that describes this. And it can't be something too churchy and un-original. I want it to be so that you can't recognize that this a a church related group at first, just by the name.

God is really beginning to broaden the vision for this young adult ministry. And it is a lot bigger than me, calvary, the young adult ministry, the AG, our jus the immediate area. I feel like this is gonna be about young adults all over the philly, wyncote, glenside, jenkintown area and its gonna involve other churches and other denominations which is awesome to see churches able to partner like that. And its starting to take shape in some talks with other college ministries in the area. We must not forget the big picture of what God is doin in an area, not just our own ministry or church or denomination. God do your thing, thanks for letting me be apart of it.

Sermon/Sermon series ideas

2009-05-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

Just was thinkg about some sermon/ sermon series ideas to start off our young adult ministry here they are:

-1st week> this is actually the one i'm least sure on, but thinking a gospel passage that talks about Jesus calling his first disciples, to introduce people to who Jesus is and to show that people didn't accept Jesus as God/a savior when they first starting following him. They eventuall found that out, but not right awa

-Luke 15 - the prodigal son, such a great story to show God's love for those who have gone astray and how much He loves them and favors them in some senses over those who have not gone astray

-Matthew 15 > a great passage talking about how obeying God and scriptures should be valued higher than the simple traditions of church. We need to remembe this today. So relevant

-Sermon on the mount and the conclusion with the parable of the two foundations/ builders
talking about actually putting the sermon on the mount into practice, how Jesus intended it

Then thinking about going into a sermon series about Jesus views on different things
Jesus on:
- religion/christianity
-who he is
-the poor
-ethics
-salvation
-following him
- heaven/hell
-the kingdom of God
-the Holy Spirit

Just some ideas, but really feeling God has placed them in my heart.

Grace and Peace,

Good to be home

2009-05-14T22:02:00.000-07:00

Never really thought I'd be back home in the area hanging out with old friends when I was in college. But God has lead me back to the area for ministry at this time. And it has been really cool to connect again with old friends who I havent seen in a while. Its funny who God works things out sometimes.

a "God thing"

2009-05-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I had no idea really what I was going to be doing when I graduated. Me and some friends were talking about planting a church and all and I was all for that. But that didn't exactly develop all that well. So then I really had no idea what I was gonna do. Everyone else was off getting youth pastor positions or other open positions in a church. And I didn't wanna do something I didn't wanna just be a part of a church that is just existing, I have some things I wanna see changed in churches. So there I stood having no where to go upon graduation. But no I am starting a young adult ministry at my church, I am creating sermon series already, meeting with a campus pastor at a local college about connecting with different churches in the area and laying down denominational issues and partnering for the caused of Christ. I have no idea how these all came to be really, all I know is that this a "God thing" as Pastor Gerry Stoltzfoos would say. And he is really just bringing this all together for his glory and his purposes, I am just a vessel to bring about what He is doing. Its easy to forget that it is God doing it all and bringing it all together. We can get exciting about what is going on, but we must not forget that it is God bringing about His plans and purposes, it is nothing that we are doing in or of ourselves. I am definately exciting about what God is doing with this ministry and in this area with college aged students. Its something really big, I can feel it. God wants to reach people in this greater Philadelphia area who may have given up on the church and may have issues with all the stuff that goes on in a church, but wants to bring them back and unite around the person of Jesus. God let your will be done here, let me never forget that it is you bringing about your purposes. "Let him who boasts, boast in Christ alone"

Balance and Love

2009-05-06T15:57:00.000-07:00

We need to be aware and open to all of God's truth in the Bible. In different denominations and movements we can get so wrapped up in certain truths and preach them so much, that we are in some sense putting down other denominations or movements. We so this in the liberal vs. conservative Christians. Rob Bell vs. Mark Driscoll. Emerging Church vs. Reformed movement.

They all focus on truths within the Bible. But we get so wrapped up in having conversations within our own groups that we forget to conversate with the other movements and groups that can focus on other issues. But the truth of the matter is they are all God's truths and we are all family and followers of Christ Jesus. So why the need for denominations or movements today, we do we need to seperate and and form little groups within Christianity that makes us so closed minded to other movements. We tend to only preach out of certain books of the Bible as well tha contain the truths that we like to emphasis. The pentecostal circles have Acts and 1 Cor. as their books that they often preach out of . The reformed movement overuses Romans and Galatians. The liberal and emergent movement emphasis some of the O.T prophets and O.T in their empahsis on social justice.

But we need to preach out of all of the books of the Bible and we need to be about all of the issues that different movements are about today. I love the reformed movement and their leaders >John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chanlder, and the Acts 29 network. But they can be so exlusive at times. Only listening to people within their own movement. And often bashing on some of the liberals like Rob Bell and Brian Mclaren.

I try to take truths from all the movements out there today. But im just so tired of seeing so much division today within the body of Christ. John 13:35 says you will know that they are my disciples by their love for one another. Do we have this today? We get so passionate about some issues that we put down what others are passionate about. And we have no love for one another

We need to have balance in our views today and hold one movement as right or better thatn the others. WE need to be open to all of them and learn from each. I am tired of denominations and moveemtns that just divide Christians today.

Keywords: balance> balance in our views on things, taking the whole Bible into account
love > loving fellow believers, so that unbelievers will see our love for one another and know we are Jesus disciples. not quarelling and causing divisions among us, so that unbelievers may be turned off to our message.

Showing rather then telling

2009-05-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

Emodying Christianity and being God's people literally living to represent Him is kinda a new popular thing to emphasis in Christians circles. The come and see the gospel lived out in my life, as opposed to the listen to the story and respond gospel.

There are many reasons for this becoming popular today. One reason I would say is becuase it is biblical and logical and also effective. Another reason would probably be the culture today and that is what people respond to is actions. And also people dont wanna listen to people or they dont see actually living out what they are talking about, we want authenticity. And I am very passionate about embodying the gospel and living it out, truly loving people as I would love myself, blessing those who persecute me, giving to those who steal from me. Praying for terrorists of foreign countries who want to kill us.

But embodying the gospel and living it out is very difficult. This may be why it is so popular today b/c want a challenge theyre tired of the gospel that just gets people to heaven and thats it, they want more than that. They want a radical Christianity that people want today. There bored with the Christianity that says be holy and set apart, put yourself on a high horse above everyone else and live that why for ur life and then you get to go to heaven. People want to embody the gospel that they believe in that has changed the world. We are understand Jesus for who he really was and how he loved. We want a radically challengin Christianity of being able to embody it and actually love people truly and change the this world that we live in.

And we talk about it a lot today becuase it is definately relevant and all these a forementioned things are true. But this is very difficult to do. To truly live your life loving others and God and embodying Christianity is very difficult I have been coming to realize. I have been struggling with this lately how I want to do all this things, but they are honestly just really difficult. My sinful nature totally fights against it and so does everything in this world. So I want to stop talking about it and just be about it. Easier said than done I know. But we need to act. The time is now. Lord help me. It is not me who can do any of this, but you in me Lord

why are we so passionate about some things?

2009-05-06T15:23:00.001-07:00

I have come to notice lately that the things that we are often so passionate about, value highly or are strongly against are often things that we struggle with ourselves. This is often the same case for things that annoy us about people are often the same things that we do ourselves. I don't know why we do this, maybe becuase it is a lot easier to hate and point out the things that bother us in other people, rather than dealing with it in ourselves, becuase we love ourselvs too much and have too much pride. I know theres probably pyschological reasons behing this and all. But I think we need to be aware of this so when we go on rants about things that we are passionate about, that we first check ourselves first and try to live it out ourselves.

This is one thing I struggle with. I can be very passionate about getting people to understand that Christianity needs to be lived out and embodied, not just preached. But this is often one thing I struggle with doing myself. Its a lot harder to be passionate about something and be able to back it up with your lifestyle then just being passionate about something. This is one thing I have been feeling very convicted about lately. And I hope I can change it.

But I think there is something to be said to understand what we are passionate about being related to things we struggle with ourselves. And also I think that the things we are passionate about have alot to do wit the way we were raised or what we have been taught. And then when we get older we realize that what we have been taught is often only one side to the story, so we go to the other extreme and are totally for the other side of the issue.

You can probably tell what a preacher is struggling with by what he is always preaching about or emphasizing within their sermons. I have realized this about myself lately too. We need to be aware of why we are so passionate about some things and must learn to check ourselves first in these areas. And we also need to be balanced about things and learn why we are so passionate about some things.

first thoughts on a college/career group

2009-04-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

This is written to some friends of mine who want to start a college/career group. So figured I'd copy and paste the email on here. to share some thoughts. So just ignore it if your not interested.

What does God want to do, what our our motives of us or from God?
-We need to honestly examine our motives
-is this a God idea or is it from our own nature?
-some ideas may be very good, but if they are not of God and God is not behind them they will ultimately fail
-don’t just think that jus b/c it is ministry related and church related that it is necessarly from God, it may not be. So recognize if this is a God idea or not
-how to determine, pray, what our your passions?
-why do u want to do this? Just something to do or to know Jesus more and share him with others?

Who will do it with me?
-donzel, grantley, kyleigh,
-brent? Phil Malone? Marynissi? Chris D?
-to be sponsored by calvary or not??
-weigh pros and cons
-pros and cons of being sponsored >> support (financial, building space, base of people to start with) connections through AG
-pros and cons of not being sponsored >> no enigma of a church and presuppositions, no building to use at first, no connections or umbrella grouping for support through AG

Mission Statement and vision and goals
-hope for people who have given up on church or have negative presuppositions of church
-need to ReJesus and re-imagine church
-starty everything over upon basics of following Jesus
-use intentional language around Jesus
- focus on essential issues, not non-essential
- embody the kingdom of God here on earth
-Highly relation focused
-through small groups
- and ministry to unbelievers
- comteporary/ connects with culture
-open to outsiders, can talk about issues of Bible in language so non-church people can understand
- focused on social justice issues and the poor and disenfranchised

What it will look like
-weekly service >> Sunday afternoons?
- worship, short dialogue (not sermon), break into groups maybe to discuss or just discuss as whole group. – meet in round, not everyone facing stage, in round
-have people involved (priesthood of the believer), have many people involved, even unsaved people in worship, helping out with various things
-not focusing on just core leaders (which there will be) but getting everyone involved, taking ownership
-add weekly small groups in peoples houses as well, as we progress
-have monthly meetings in public settings so unbelievers feel at home and open to ask questions on their on ground
Ex) spiritual shots http://www.spiritualshots.com/
- meeting in a coffee shop, bookstore, bar whatever venue may be and let play some music, have food, and then let outsiders ask spiritual questions and attempt to answer them
-goal to build relationships with those outside the church and talk about spiritual issues, on their terms not ours
-week or bi-weekly ministry to homeless
- make sandwiches and food and go and just hang out with homeless people w/ no agenda of trying to intentionally witness but just hang out with them and share lives together b/c that is what ministry is

Please prayerfully consider the first part of this and if God is behind this. If He is not I don’t want to do it, and I myself am prayerfully considering it. This must be our first and foremost thing to do. Secondly if you feel God is leading you to do this, who else do you think could assist us with this. They don’t have to be people that you would normally think of that would be helping in a church. IF you know someone that can play and instrument that may be neceassarily be a christian, that’s ok. If someone is good with media and all and not a christian that’s ok. But also we do not people who care about truly following Jesus and helping others know Him. People who are good with people and relationships. And also share your heart and God’s heart for this plan with people who might want to attend Christian and nonchristian. But don’t forget people who may have grown up in church or youth group, but now are not wanting anything to do with God. We want to break down peoples presuppositions about what church is about. I feel at least personally that is what our mission statement should be to reach people who have given up on church. Feel free to share this email or word document with anyone you may feel God leading you to. Thank you for your time. Reply with any thoughts, comments, concerns, ideas. Grace and Peace

Andrew Lemon ajlemon123@gmail.com
215 301 2916 ajlemon.blogspot.com

the message were presenting

2009-04-13T13:26:00.000-07:00

So over the past weekend I went to my 7th PennDel youth convention in a row with my home church b/c they needed an extra chaperone. So this convention was a little better than the ones in the past. But still I question the way they do things with the Penndel youth, especially conventions.
But besides complaining about another convention I just wanted to write about a thought that sparked my imagination from convention. On the last night's service the speaker proceeded to tell a story about a kid who went to a secular universtiy and was taking a world religions class. And the professor kept saying how ridiculous Christianity is and how the Bible is a bunch of made up stories and all. And then the kid finally got up enough courage to stand up in class and ask the professor to stop talking about Christians and stated his beliefs. So then another kid stood up and said the same things, he was a Christian and all, and then another and another. And then some kid gets up and says he is not a Christian but would like to learn how to become one. The story is inspirational and all and everyone cheers at the end of the service. And everyone is encouraged to take a stand for their beleifs and all. And we need to reach people by taking a stand and all. While the story is inspirational and all. It just seems to me that we are always triumphing the ideas of telling other people of what we believe in standing up and stating our beliefs. But we never emphasize simply just living them out and acting upon them, following through on our beliefs. We emphasize telling other people that they are going to to hell, if they don't believe what we believe. We focus on taking a stand by just simply what we say and state. Taking a stand for Christ as we present to students is just simply telling other students that Jesus loves them and that we don't agree with what their doing and we won;t do it. We just encourage the attitude of presenting Christians as people who are better than other people, b/c they won't do certain things. But these ideas just encourage unbelievers to view Christians as judgmental and to be just moral people who think they are better than others.

But this is not at all what Jesus did, Jesus loved people through his actions and simply. Jesus gave ther sermon on the mount as an example of how the Kingdom of God is supposed to be lived out on earth. Blessing those who persecute us, praying for our neighboors, giving more to those who take from us. Being humble in spirit, being peacemakers, the beattitudes. Therse were all examples of how the kingdom of God was to be lived out. The Kingdom of God lived out is to be radically counter-cultural. Its not easy at all and we can't do it alone, we must realy on the spirit of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirt. But why don't we emphasize this the actual sayings of Jesus. Instead of encouraging kids to take a stand through simply stating their beliefs, while there is nothing wrong with it, it must be embodied it must be lived out in our lives. Most people in a world religions class aren't going to want to be a follower of Jesus simply becuase you stand up and say you believe in Jesus and all and how He has change your life. But if you demonstrated how He has changed your life, they might. Live and embody Christianity. In the words of St.Francis of Assisi said "preach often, when necessary use words." Love Jesus, Love people. Grace and Peace

Andrew Lemon

ramblings of an almost Bible college graduate who wants to plant a church in philly

2009-04-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

So I want to plant a church in Philadelphia. I have thought over many different models of how church is done, who to reach people who don't like church and have been very critical of other methods that seem to me ineffective. Well I have been coming to notice that there are a lot of different ways and methods to reach people. The key is having them centered around Jesus, without Jesus being the center and focus all methods of doing church are useless and ponitless, even my ideas which I often think are best.

But recently I have been noticing I am so focused on the ideas of how to follow Jesus and they plans to show other people how to follow Jesus, I often forget to follow Him and really listen to Him. I was just reading this book Victorious Christian Service by Redpath about Nehemiah. And I was talking about how we often need to weep over the city and the ruins before we can do anything. We need to have a heart for the city and the ruins that is in and the people who live there. And I have been noticing that I need to take the time to rely upon God and take time in prayer to ask God what He would have me to do, what I can do for Him. How often I want to go ahead and do things for God, but without first taking the time in prayer to see what God really wants me to do. We have no reliance upon God. We need to recognize that "unless God builds the house, the laborers build in vain." God needs to establish His plans through us. Too often we seek to do something for God and then ask Him to bless it.

I have plans and ideas of how I can change Philadelphia through the message of Jesus. But the problem is I am relying too much upon myself. God break me and my heart, so that I may rely fully upon you.

frustrations of an almost graduate of a Bible college

2009-04-01T20:54:00.000-07:00

So originally this blog was for a class I was in at Valley Forge Christian College. We were supposed to blog about the people who came and spoke in classes and all and our thoughts about them and the ministries that they are doing. So thats kinda cool if you wanna check that out.

But now I have decided to start using this blog again to put down my thoughts and ideas that I feel about life and ministry and Jesus and all. Nothing mind-blowing just thoughts as I process life.

Today I was jus thinking about how I am so worried about graduation and starting in ministry and what is the right fit for me and all. And what I will be doing with my life and all. But I have been realizing lately life is just meant to be lived. We focus so much on "getting our lives together and figured" whatever that means. Especially when graduating from a Bible college. But life isn't so cookie cutter. We focus so much on the titles of what your job will be, if your married, if you have money, what your major was, what your job is. We let this determine who we are and we focus on trying to figure these things out. But I feel more and more lately life is just meant to be lived. To rely on Jesus and just do things that He has asked us to do, like the sermon on the mount. The sermon on the mount was supposed to be theorized about and thought about 2,000 years later. I was meant to be lived out. We focus so much on figuring life out before we live it. I think sometimes we just need to live it. Just love Jesus and love people.
Lord, let my goal in life be to know you and to make you known to people. Whatever it looks like, help me to live out and embody the Kingdom of God on earth. Let me truly represent you through my life.

Signed, a confused, frustrated about to be college graduate of a Bible college, who is feeling the pressures of having to have my life all figured in the next 5 weeks of school.

Brian Knorr - Mountaintop Assembly

2008-04-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

Brian Knorr is another church planter in the Penn –Del district that started his church from scratch with no mother church or anything, no community contacts or anything like that whatsoever. Brian Knorr and Mountaintop Assembly of God is yet another example of how being connected to the community and having contacts is so important in church planting. When starting the church, I wonder how it may have been a lot different starting if they had contacts in the community. They seemed to have challenges in finding a building and all with a lot of disagreements with the school that they were trying to rent from. Especially in this community where a lot of people didn’t respect a church that did not have their own church building. I think that a lot of people like Brian Knorr are realizing that they need more relationships with people outside the church, for many reasons. One that it is healthy and we are called to witness and be a light to the world. And secondly when growing a church or planting a church, people don’t always want to just go to a church, unless the church is doing something for the community. People no longer want to hear just what the church says, they want a reason why they should listen to them. They don’t only want to hear they want to hear and see today. I think that in Brian Knorr’s position having a church full of people that have never really been churched before, have a challenge and a great opportunity as well. That they have a great opportunity to reach those and train them correctly in the Bible and they don’t really have any previous bad experiences in church or have been taught false doctrines. And at the same time can be frustrating if you are used to preaching in a church where for the most part the congregation are disciple Christians. I think it is a great opportunity for them.

Bill Ellis - Riverside Community Church

2008-04-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

I loved a lot of things that Bill Ellis had to say about the church and consumerism and also about the church and politics. I agreed a lot with him and had many of the same thoughts. And I can very much appreciate his desire to learn about the community that he is reaching and just the every changing culture and how the church should reach it. He seemed to be very up on the latest trends, but not carried away with them, but rather educate himself so that he could better reach his church. But also before you can appreciate that about him, I must respect his sacrificial attitude to go from a church of 700 where he was getting paid a great amount of money and was in a very comfortable position at that church . To a plant a home missions church, which is very difficult to do, especially at the time that he did it, I think that that is a very noble thing to do. And he didn’t give up on the church and grew it slowly, I think that that is awesome. Bill Ellis and his church are yet another church that I really love what they are doing with going to reach their own culture and realizing that they are missionaries to their own culture. I loved their go and be mentality. Another great church that is very missional and externally minded. What he said about if your church was removed from the community, who beside your attendees would miss it, really got me. I really think that is a great philosophy to live by when starting a church. I also agreed a lot with what he had to say about the church and politics and how the church can try to force its religion upon people, which it should never do.

Mike Hammer - Dillsburg

2008-04-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

I can definitely appreciate Mike’s desire for people to have real authentic relationships with other believers within the church. I think that that is very important within discipling people. It is great to see churches look at these matters and not trying to always over –spiritualize things. And see the need for people’s lives to be changed and realizing the great impact that our early relationships with our parents and those who raised us have on our lives. It is important to look at the psychology of that. I think that it is important to look into our lives first and figure out our own issues before trying to help others and be in relationship with others. I can see this bridges program being extremely helpful for church leaders as well as for pre-marital counseling. Mike’s life is an example of how we need to work out these issues in our lives first before we try to lead others. But I can definitely appreciate his honesty while pastoring to go back and look deeper into those issues in his life that where there from before. And it does show that God can use every aspect of our lives to His glory. Even through our mistakes and life struggles we can be used to help others. God still uses broken, hurting people to help other hurting people as long as we can be honest with ourselves first. I think another thing Christian can struggle with as well is having a false idea of what humility is. We emphasize not being prideful so much and being humble, but we forget that we also need a correct view or our self and must not forget that we our created in the image of God.

David Kennard Riverside Community Church

2008-03-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

I think that “seeker sensitive “ churches get a bad reputation sometimes of people saying that they are not Biblical or other reasons. But what they are really doing is trying to take the same message of the gospel that most churches are trying to reach the people with and just re-packaging it. There definitely is a need for churches like Riverside Community Church with the whole idea of free market small groups and attracting people to interests that they already have and just trying to provide community for people who desperately long for it in today’s society. And as there are doing that the sharing of the gospel comes more naturally and is a lot easier. I think that seeker sensitive churches can definitely be a great example for discipleship programs. The example of discipleship being relationship plus intentionality is great. But I think a lot of churches forget or leave out the relationship part of it sometimes. They can be very intentional about it, but they forget that people want relationships as well. I think that seeker sensitive churches get a bad rap a lot, but they can be very effective in discipling people. And also the can be very missional in their idea of free market small groups. Because they are reaching people that normally wouldn’t come to church, but are building relationships with them in their small groups. I think that seeker sensitive churches can be very much missional at the same time.

New believer number 2

2008-03-24T17:16:00.000-07:00

The person I interviewed for my new believer survey was a student in my youth group at my home church that I help out at. His journey to Christianity seems quite interesting. He said he came from a very legalistic church. He said that it was hard to accept Christianity at first, but eventually got it. I would think that maybe coming from a very legalistic church that the thing that might have been the most difficult to accept was the simplicity of Christianity perhaps. Coming from a very legalistic church I could imagine how difficult it would be do accept that there is nothing to do to accept Christianity, but to accept it and let God do the rest and He already has. Another thing he said was that the best part about becoming a Christian was “the joy that is always inside of you all the time.” And when asked what would be the most helpful to help others grow in their Christian faith would to let them know about God’s love and to let that change them and not try to change them by yourself. I guess it goes to show that the Jesus’ yoke really is that light as He states in Matthew 11:28 when talking about the difference between the Pharisees legalism and Christianity. I think that sometimes it is so difficult to accept Christianity and it’s simplicity is because of our pride. Sometimes it seems like we want to be able to get to God on our own sometimes by however it may be legalism, trying to be a good person or whatever else it may be. But Christianity is all about giving up on our own efforts and accepting that it is only through Jesus that we can be saved. Maybe sometimes in Christianity today we do not stress this enough?

Nick Poole - Allison Park Church

2008-03-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

Listening and hearing from Nick Poole is encouraging to see someone be able to do something right out of college, that many people are not able to, especially in church planting. And it is encouraging to see someone be able to be involved in something right after college and also it being church planting, something that I am interested in. I appreciate Nick Poole’s humbleness in his position. It seems like it would be easy to kind of get a little proud when going around to other churches and looking to see what they are doing right and wrong for a job. It could become much of a pride thing in doing that or it could be very difficult with people in the other church congregations as well. But Nick seemed very humble in his job and his passion to help church plants. It is kind of amazing to see someone who has just graduated from college three years ago and now being the pastor of church planting at a church, where his job is to go around to evaluate the churches. But his humbleness and personality allows him to be able to be effective at what he does. It shows how important being humble is and that is one thing that I know I need to work on in my own life as well. Also what he said about the one thing he regrets is not being involved with as many internships and hands on experiences and volunteering. And this is someone who was heavily involved with volunteering at different churches while in college, but still wished he did more. I have usually been involved with churches my first two years at school, but this past year I have kind of taken a little break from volunteering at churches and have been trying to focus on studying, but I have been realizing the importance of volunteering, but this just enforces that even more.

Unchurched Survey 3

2008-03-16T13:54:00.001-07:00

For my unchurched survey number 3, I interviewed a friend in work. I thought that he would give some well thought out answers to the questions and some pretty good insight, being kind of an older guy and been around longer. But I was surprised that when He gave the survey back to me, it was filled out with all one sentence answers and a lot of them seemed very vague. Like when the question was asked why don’t you think many people go to church he replied, because it’s not a whole lot of fun. And when asked if you were look for a church to attend what would you like for, he responded “ a good time.” Answers like these always make me seem like the don’t really have much interest about church or things of God at all. But I began to think maybe this man can be very curious to spiritual things, but just does not see the church as a place to provide that. Possibly he was raised and has had assumptions that church was just a place to go to, just to get preached at and is very boring. Or possibly that the church should be a show. I would think that someone like this may have had a bad experience or experiences with church before. Maybe the church has let him down on things that are spiritual and helping people and had a become a place just to tell people what to do and perhaps the church wasn’t a very fun place to people because it was very legalistic and all. I sometimes struggle with the whole idea that church should be fun sometimes, but I guess there should be some kind of aspect involved with it though. The church should be a place where people are happy and are able to show the love of Christ. But at the same time there are churches with people who have a higher view of God and like to meditate on God and enjoy Him that way. I don’t know where you draw the line with church being fun, how much fun it should be and all of that.

Courtney Bancroft - Chi Alpha - Philadelphia

2008-03-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

I can definitely appreciate the willingness of Courtney to be able to go into a tough city like Philadelphia and a tough college like temple to minister. I know rough Philadelphia can be, living there myself, seeing everything that goes one there. And for her obedience to God to come up here from maybe a comfortable place in D.C where she had a lot of support to here where there is basically known. I thought that it was very sad and a disgrace that a lot of the local churches would not even return her calls. I think that is a big thing that needs to be addressed in churches today and in the AG as well. There are not many programs for college age students or college groups. And there is a big turnover rate of people leaving the faith after the graduate from high school. Churches are willing to help other programs like youth, children or missions and they to need to focus on them, put not many are willing to give much support to the college age students. One of the things I like about Chi Alpha is that they focus more on discipleship than just reaching the numbers and get people saved. I mean it is very important to get people saved, obviously. But they focus on building people in Christ and their relationship with Christ which is very important as well. And especially in the college groups, because that is one of the main things that college students struggle with after graduating from high school , having a deep relationship with Christ, which can cause a lot to doubt, struggle or even leave their Christian faith and beliefs. I think that is great that they are able to reach out to and focus on reaching the unsaved and at the same time be able to disciple people and lead them in deeper relationships with Christ.

Courtney Lien

2008-02-26T16:37:00.000-08:00

One thing that I can learn from Courtney is her patience in waiting for God to provide her with a position in ministry that she had a passion for. She gave up trying so to speak and trusted in God to lead her and possibly open up a position for her. It can be hard to be patient sometimes waiting for a position that you are passionate about sometimes. But it showed her humbleness in doing the job that she had been doing in administration. It shows that being patient and serving in the little things that God will honor you in that. In their approach to outreaches and discipleship I like their approach of getting away from the big, huge events of attracting people. That I think sometimes can be a waste of time, money and energy sometimes. But they have realized that they need to focus on people and discipling them. The idea of getting away from outreaches scares me a little, if they are not focusing on the community or the youth of the area. I think that it is very important for small groups to be a part of churches. But maybe they are putting too much emphasis on small groups. I think small groups are important, but they are just a part of outreaches and ways to disciple and outreach people. But I think sometimes small groups have too much emphasis put on them, there seems to be a lot of interests in small groups in the church today. But with all the emphasis on small groups they forget the other aspects of relationships between people. Small groups focus on intimate space, but forget the areas of public, social and personal space. People connect healthily through all four space public, social, personal and intimate. I think some churches focus so much on the two extremes of public spaces and intimate spaces in small groups. When there doesn’t always need to be so much focus on just one of the spaces at a time. With all the small groups, the church or youth group can be divided sometimes and are not unified.

David Crosby Jr. Pocono Community Church

2008-02-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

I loved the focus of Dave Crosby’s church, to reach out and their commitment to reach the lost. I love their so practical ways to reach the community and just show love to the community. They had a vision of commitment to the lost and that’s what they focused on, their vision, reaching the lost. Again I saw a humbleness in a great leader, one of the main things I have been seeing over the past weeks in this class. He gave no credit to a specific recipe to doing things in the church or a specific model. But instead just want back to basics and relied on them, things like prayer. They built the church out of prayer and a love for the lost and love for people to grow in their relationship with Christ. One thing that he also said that encouraged me was that there are no philosophies that are the same in church planting and that any philosophy can be used as long as it is Biblical. I think that is important to be realized in church planting today, that with all the books out there and models of church planting and growth. He realized that no set model was to be relied upon, but only reliance on God and soaking the church in prayer. The idea of having a very diverse church I think is a good idea today in trying to reach many different people. The idea of having 33, 33 and 33 percents of people in the church, of those investigating Christianity, those just saved and those deep in their Christian walk. People today are looking for ways to incorporating all three different groups and reach each effectively. But I think that first needs to be an awareness and intentional focus on each group balanced in their message. I have been seeing humbleness in many speakers these past few weeks and have been realizing that that is a key aspect in ministry and especially in church planting. And also the need to love the community and reach them first before building their own church buildings even is a great idea.

Dan Miller Back Mountain Harvest Assembly

2008-02-07T13:48:00.001-08:00

The one message that really stirred in my heart after hearing Dan Miller’s passion and the interview with him was what he said about the church’s role in the community. He said that “if you want to change the community, you can’t think about the church first, you must think about building the community.” What I have been hearing over these past two weeks with Gerry Stoltzfoos and this week in Dan Miller is really a heart and passion for those who aren’t in the church, but just for people in general. I think that’s is what sometimes we as Christians struggle with is what to reach people and love them, but wanting to do it our way, bringing them into the church first in order to minister to them. But I think now with the whole emerging church and the idea of being missional we are realizing that we need to meet and reach people where they are at. We don’t need to bring them into the church first. These past two week I’ve always seen the idea of reaching people who may have been hurt by church or don’t really want anything to do with the church because of their presuppositions about the church. And I think that is important and always I think being recognized in the idea of the missional movement. The idea of reaching people where they are at and just loving them, breaking down their presuppositions about the church that they may have had. And we do this by making them realize that we just want to love them and share what God has done in our lives with them and we don’t want to mold them into the image of the church and bring them into where we are comfortable, the church, in order to minister to them. My heart and passions have really been moved these past few weeks in realizing the need for church planting and the need to have the church re-imaged in a sense and think that it is very vital for the church to continually be the best means to change people’s lives.

Gerry Stoltzfoos, Freedom Valley Woship Center

2008-01-30T15:29:00.000-08:00

Right off the bat I appreciate Freedom Valley Worship’s Center’s goal of reaching the unchurched, people who have been hurt by the church, and people who have negative preconceptions about the church and Christians. I think that there is definitely a need for that I think in my opinion. In all the creative outside the box ideas you see from Gerry Stoltzfoos, like the therapeutic horse riding, coffee shop, the band scene and all the other creative ideas that they have done, I think they are all great and are reaching people. I think it’s great that they are not afraid of failure at Freedom Valley. But in all the creative things I heard about what they were doing at the church you can begin to question their motives kind of and wonder if there just trying to be relevant, creative and maybe they have forgot about reaching souls. But then I saw and heard Pastor Gerry’s heart as he shared that it’s not all about the creativity, but it’s about a passion to reach souls that are going to hell. That the creativity part flows out of that desire and that is their main purpose to reach unsaved souls. And you can see and hear that when he talks about it. He stressed that the passion is the key component of evangelism and the creativity just flows out of it. One question I have been thinking about the past couple days as I am becoming more and more interested in church planting and hearing all the statistics and all. That question is what becomes of the churches that are already established, what becomes of them if everyone is being encouraged to start a new church? Are the already established churches forgotten about, it’s apparent that they are not reaching the people that are already solid Christians as the study at Willow Creek has shown. And they are not reaching unsaved people that effectively, according to the statistics. So what becomes their purpose, what are they to do?

Unchurched survey 2

2008-01-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

This interview right off the bat brings up the same issue of that with my last interviewer. Before my interviewe, Jim, would respond to my email answering my survey questions. He emailed me and asked me before he would answer my questions if I would be able to listen to his thoughts, beliefs and lifestyles without judging him or think less of him. I guess my first interviewe is the only one who thinks Christians can be judgmental or prideful. Just thought that was ironic, but sad as well. The one thing that got me in this interview was that one asked why do you think most people don't attend church he said "If they are like me , I could say lazy. I would much rather take that hour or two or three and help my fellow man, and I do volunteer to be with and help others. I don't think going to church on Sunday makes one a better Christian, especially, if they act like a jerk the rest of the week. I don't need the show." Well I guess that shows that he thinks were hypocritical. What is happening in most churches when they can go to church weekly, but during the rest of the week be a jerk and a hypocrite. This makes me ask the question, what is the church doing wrong in this matter? Also maybe we aren't representing God and Jesus in the manner that he should be represented and really is. I think that we make Jesus look bad a lot. Maybe this is why so many people have more problems with Christians or the church then they do with Jesus himself. He also brought up a point about wars generally being fought for some religious reason and almost always being fought in the name of God or some religion. I haven't really thought about this until now, but I do see some truth in it. What is it with Christians always having or wanting to fight for their beliefs to be shoved down people's throats?

unchurched survey 1

2008-01-27T17:22:00.000-08:00

I found this interview quite refreshing and also upseting at the same time. I interviewed my friend phil who does not regularly attend church accept for a college and career group occasionally. The one thing that he brought up in the interview was about Christians being judgmental and I'v heard this many times and this is a criticism that Christians get a lot and I believe we can be too judgmental a lot of times. But the thing he said was that "Most pastors start off with a tender heart, but develop a bitter condescending attitude over time as they begin to realize their success as a Moral Ruler." I think that this can be true sometimes and can happen when Christians especially pastors give into pride. I find it ironic that one of the main concepts of Christianity, well at least in my opinion, the idead of being humble. Being humble because we can't earn salvation and we can't receive it on our own and this is what we preach. But then as Christians I think one of the biggest things that we struggle with is pride. We can be judgmental sometimes and think that we are better than others just becuase we are saved. And I find this very said. He also shared with me, some of his bad experiences with Christian leaders and counselors, also we being judgmental and being ignorant I would say in the situation that he shared with me. I have been finding the issue of being judgmental as Christians very real and disturbing recently. I have also noticed this in my work, where I work as a banquet server working many events from weddings to business meetings and all. And I notice the people that are rude to me or usually condescending or ignorant are usually the Christian church groups. This problem with pride I think is a big issue for the church and needs to be talked about. I'm not saying that we need to change what we believe or our message but can we go about it in a way that is not prideful, especially if that's what were preaching?

Jason Lamer, Youth Alive

2008-01-22T16:49:00.000-08:00

I like a lot of the ideas I see by Jason Lamer and his philosophy to go out into the schools and reach the students there, where they are at. I also like the ideas of his youth ministry and church that he started in the ideas of going along side local community projects and partnering with them. I think sometimes that the church today can miss those concepts of partnering with secular outreaches and programs. I think that youth alive’s ideas are good in their outreaches into school with assemblies and all and how to reach out. I feel that sometimes that while so much emphasis has been put on the outreaches and sometimes I see the Assemblies of God failing at discipleship once the students are in churches and youth groups. I do like the ideas of partnering with other churches in the community in doing these school assemblies and partnering with the schools. It seems like it is a lot easier to get into schools and places that are in the middle of nowhere. In the cities, such as Philadelphia that I have grown up in would not allow churches so easily into schools and have assemblies within the schools. Also a lot of the programs that I see being used seem to be very effective in rural areas, but in the city I have seen these same programs in the city and not very well responded to. I wonder if there are any different approaches in the city or even many of these projects in the city, as I have not seen many of them there. I do really feel for the idea of going to where the people are such as the schools in youth ministry and being able to connect with the community and partner with them.

Brian Bolt

2008-01-15T15:04:00.000-08:00

One of the things that I appreaciated the most about Brain is his almost child like faith in believing God so passionately and faithfully. From the beginning of his salvation you could see and hear his passion for the lost and those that have real problems. I love the philosophy of his church with their full reliance on the Holy Spirit and looking for and expecting the supernatural. The belief that these people can have no other help and they need to see the supernatural in a place like that. And also their relization that it's all about God and his power. I think that his experiences have definately helped me in his inner ciry efforts. But you can also see his call by God and his passion for the inner city as well. His idea of having accountability as looking at their tithing is very interesting. I think ideas like that are very good, going back to the idea of where your money will be, their your heart will be also. His reliance on the Lord is incredible and its great to be able to see someone fully rely on God and the power of the Holy Spirit, I think it can be a great lesson for all of us. I appreciate his passion and full reliance on God.