Posts tagged kevin gerald
You might want to check out this video from Pastor Kevin about Team Church 12 Conference…
Weekend RECAP: How What We Do on Earth Matters in Eternity
Pastor Kevin began his message last weekend with a confession: “Every week at Champions Centre things happen that we don’t know how they happen.”
He went on to explain a couple truths to further clarify his confession:
- There are things we do that we know how to do.
- There are things that God does that we cannot do.
- There is a link between what we do and what God does… God does what we cannot do when we do what we can do.
LIVE BLOG | ONE DAY (Dr. Dave Martin)
Dr. Dave Martin shared an incredible word with Champions Centre this weekend. We’re still talking about the power of ONE DAY, and how everything can change in a single moment. Today, Dr. Dave focused on our giving. Our everyday giving affects somebody’s ONE DAY. How, you might wonder?
Well, when God blesses you, He has more than you in mind. Can you imagine the impact it would have, if a group of us made it our every day habit to bless people in our world the way that we have been blessed? People wouldn’t even notice anymore, because the volume of good reports and changed lives would be impossible to keep track of. We wouldn’t physically be able to receive all of the emailed/submitted testimonies, because there would be so many. What a beautiful problem that would be!
God is about giving and receiving. Sowing, and reaping. It’s the beautiful cycle of giving. It’s like breathing in and breathing out; you cannot have one without the other. More giving leads to more generosity!
Dr. Dave talked about the Three Gives, today. The first of the Three Gives, is give as it has been given to you. Check out Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” As you can see, everything we have is from God. The first breath we took this morning, God gave to us. He graciously gives us all things—we are blessed to be a blessing. Don’t let His blessing stop with you.
The second one is give now. Why wait? Don’t wonder if God wants you to give; we already know it’s His will. Some people like to pray over the amount, and that is totally understandable—but whether or not to give has already been addressed.
The last one is give to the degree that you want to be blessed. It’s right there in the Bible: sow sparingly, and you reap sparingly. Think of it like this: the purpose of a water pipe is not to get wet; it is to move water from point A to point B. In the same fashion, the purpose of blessing isn’t to BE blessed, it’s to be a catalyst of blessing…we want God to make us a distribution center of His blessing! Sure, during the process of moving the water, the pipe gets wet. We can be blessed—and yes, we can even enjoy our blessings! But we have to understand it’s purpose, and never let those blessings end with us.
It’s so important to truly understand that your every day giving effects somebody else’s ONE DAY. Dr. Dave told the story of his grandfather who gave his life to the Lord at 75 years old! Went back to college and got his contractors license and started building houses for Habitat for Humanity; at 75 years old, he had his ONE DAY…and now, his everyday is filled with giving, so that someone else can have a ONE DAY too. How inspirational is that?
What can you do to help bless someone else? Don’t give just enough. Give more than enough. Give over and above. Don’t let the blessing end with you.
Let’s have a high tolerance for differences but ZERO tolerance for divisiveness.
Dumb Dichotomies
The Church at large today is living in the greatest opportunity for widespread unity, but it’s up to us as church leaders to rise above pointless arguments that create division and move to higher levels of agreement. One way to move to greater levels of unity is to keep the main thing the main thing! So often churches and their leaders can create unnecessary dichotomies from the Bible which create unnecessary disputes. Instead of always being known for what we are against as Christians, we’re on a mission to be known for what we are FOR.
Recently, during our monthly staff leadership training, a couple of us (Brandon Stewart & Jodi Cameron) talked with Pastor Kevin Gerald about “Dumb Dichotomies from a Leaders Perspective.” The full message*, in addition to the leadership focused talk, is continuing to peak people’s interest since Kevin basically outlines a few hot topics that sometimes become massive issues between people in the church. Sometimes in our human limitation we try to put an either/or where God wants us to put a both/and. When it comes to trying to elevate one truth by diminishing another very valid truth, we need to ask ourselves, “Why not both?”
Our hope is that the “Dumb Dichotomies” message helps you find your footing and take a stand for unity!
Here’s a short video from Kevin:
Let’s make God famous this week and build greater UNITY in his kingdom!
* If you’d like to hear the full Dumb Dichotomies message that Kevin spoke at C3 Conference in Dallas in February check out Champions Centre On Demand here.
To find out more how you can have access to audios like the leadership talk we did for our One Degree members check out here.
We are declaring at Champions Centre, 2012 will be a year of Greater Things. We’ve experienced some great things, but God always has greater things in mind for the future.
There are 4 specific areas that contribute to where we are going as a church:
1. Big Vision
It’s a great day to be a part of the Church. Big things are happening all over the world among the church. The top 100 largest congregations in the US together total over 1 million people. Churches are creating Bible apps for phones, they are fighting Human Trafficking and producing chart topping worship albums. Let’s embrace the idea that we are a church with big vision. William Carey said, “Expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God.”
2. Small Groups
We are encouraging people to do life together. Church is not just a place to attend, it’s a community to belong to. The real vision of the house happens in small groups. It looks like people meeting together, learning and growing together. This year groups will be taking on community initiatives together to show love to our great city.
3. Generous Giving
Being a giver is a fundamental part of being a Christian. People who not generous are missing out on Gods best for their lives! The Bible says, “Give and it shall be given to you” (Luke 6:38). There’s so much good that we can do by giving. When we give our churches are healthier, stronger, more influential and effective. Let’s be rich minded in our giving this year.
4. Champion Living
One of the great things about the church is being around people who are overcoming. God is glorified when we declare His goodness, confess God’s greatness when we are going through trials, when when we overcome our failures. Continue to press on through adversity. Believe God’s best for your life this year.
It’s so inspiring to be around people who are winning! Let’s believe together that this is going to be our best year as individuals and as a church. Greater things are ahead in 2012!
The reality is that a lot of the Sun Stand Still prayers we are praying are somehow connected to resources and finances. And oftentimes this is a subject that gets swept under the rug at church.
Pastor Kevin bringing us a word today on Audacious Action!
LIVE BLOG: Sun Stand Still Pt. 2-Pastor Sheila Gerald
We’re excited to have the first lady of the house, Pastor Sheila Gerald, bringing the message this weekend - “There’s Something In Your Hand”. She brings and incredible amount of faith and encouragement to the platform. Here’s a look at the message she shared:
Have you ever felt like you didn’t have a Sun Stand Still prayer for yourself? Believe it or not, this is a common feeling. It’s easy to look at other’s lives and see the extraordinary, but look at your life and only see ordinary. For anyone who has ever felt ordinary, rather than extraordinary, this message is for you.
Exodus 3:11-13 - Moses is talking to God, and questioning wether or not he was extraordinary enough to lead the nation he eas called to lead. ”Who am I?” was his response! Can you hear the doubt? Ordinary was all Moses saw.
The truth about a Sun Stand Still prayer is that God will usually ignite the seemingly ordinary things in our lives to do the extraordinary. He did it with the stick in Moses’ hand, by turning it into a snake, and he’ll do it for your in your life as well.
The most negative situation that surrounds your everyday life, offers hints of possibilities in your world. As Sored Kierkgaard said, “Possibility is a hint from God. A person must follow it. If God does not want it, let him hinder it. The person must not hinder it himself.” Finding your sun stand still prayer begins by looking in your everyday, seemingly ordinary life, for the greatest need you have.
The hints of possibilities in our life often look like…
1. Broken relationships/Communication breakdown
2. Barries to your progress
3. Negative habits
4. Unsaved or unchurched people
5. Financial struggles
6. Injustice and offenses in the world
Begin this week to look around at the ordinary in your life, and believe God to ignite it with the extraordinary!
If you’re not in a small group, we invite you to host or join one for the next few weeks. You can find an open group to connect with here.
Other resources:
TALK IT OUT questions (for small group discussion)
Sun Stand Still: onDemand
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