I got an email last week from a church in Peoria, Illinois that was inspired by our Faith Stimulus to do one in their community. How awesome is that, that this small act that we made is still going strong. Northwoods Community Church gave $60,000 to their people in white envelopes encouraging them to make a difference in their community. They’ve even set up a ‘Stories‘ site as well to hear first hand what’s happening with the money, check it out here.

I am blown away by how far God is taking this… I pray it goes where He wants and may it be a movement of love and compassion that changes our world.

To read a few of the stories from the Faith Stimulus that we did click here. Also, if you’re thinking about doing a Faith Stimulus in your community and you’d like a few pointers, leave a comment and I’ll get back with you.

Last weekend we started a new series with 1855 other churches around the globe called One Prayer. The concept is simple, we’re all standing together to finish the statement: God is ______.

So far we’ve heard two amazing messages, God is Love by Craig Groeschel & God is Good by our Pastor, Jerry Taylor. In the coming weeks its just going to get better and better.

Do me a quick favor and fill that blank in, what is God to you? Take a second and really think about how you would describe God, what one word would you use to capture who He is to you?

God is _________.

You can read a few of the stories from the stimulus here: stories.baycommunity.com. They are slowly coming in and some of them are absolutely amazing. There’s one particular story that I like a lot, one that truly reveals the heart of this project:

I just ran across this website and was really inspired. I am not a member of the church, but last week, I was pumping gas in Fairhope and went inside to pay. I never go inside to pay  and I also never pay with cash at the gas station. This time, for some reason, I decided to go inside. The woman in front of me was counting pennies to get enough money to buy a few dollars of gas. I have had that feeling before, of barely having enough to get home. I put down an extra $20 over her pile of change and said, “that is not enough, you need more than that.” The look on the woman’s face was priceless! She was shocked , and so was the attendant. I said, “Jesus loves you” She was still in shock as she was pumping gas, it was hilarious. I just kept saying, “Jesus loves you!” as I got in my car. I road away with the biggest smile on my face. -Amy

Anytime Bella pitches a little toddler tantrum (which is almost never mind you – ha), she does the typical squeal, kicking, and of course the gymnast-like back bend. The last few times we’ve had this kind of quality time together and she gets to the part of the routine with that crazy back bend I’ve just started letting her. I used to try to stop her (mistake), hold her up and fight it, but the other day I decided to just let it be, and something amazing happened. She stopped crying. I noticed that she’d stopped because she was seeing those extremely familiar surroundings upside down. She had a new perspective and immediately she stop crying. It changed everything.

About a month ago, we played a little game around here called “musical offices” in which we basically just rearranged everyone’s world, and combined a bunch of offices into an open environment. So for the first time in 5 years I’m looking at new walls everyday, working in a brand new atmosphere, and its helped me tremendously. The change in my perspective and surroundings has helped me be more creative, more productive, and my days seem to moving a lot smoother.

Sometimes we just need a new way of looking at the world, a new lens to see it through, a fresh vision for what’s to come or even for where we are now.

How are you seeing your problems, your circumstances, or your future? How long are you gonna keep looking at them from that same ol’ perspective until you realize its just not cutting it anymore, maybe its time for a new way of seeing old things.

The critical question for our generation – and for every gerneration – is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?

If you are truly in love with Christ, you could never be satisfied with heaven without him. So whats the verdict? Are you really in love with Christ? Is your life a reflection of Psalm 63:1-5?

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

When I read this last Thursday (no coincidence it was Jan 1), it rocked my world, made me really evaluate my heart toward my Savior. Maybe your not like me, but I need that kind of gut check as often as I can get it. I hope it does the same for you.

Can we get back to where we started
When creation lived peacefully in Your hands
Before the wars began

And all these years we have been divided
Jesus’ voice has been gently calling us home
And we can’t wait anymore

Lord we feel You now
Wanting to come down and teach us how to

Sing oh sing
With one voice how sweet it will be
When we sing oh sing
One church under one King and we will sing

Pride has no purpose in God’s kingdom
Now’s the time for His church to join hands again
Oh together we must stand

Lord we need You now
Send Your Spirit down and free us as we

Sing oh sing
With one voice how sweet it will be
When we sing oh sing
One church under one King and we will sing

Hear the voices ringing out (You are King)
We will stand together now (You are Lord)
Hear the voices singing loud (You are King)
Live in peace
Live in peace and

Let the church of God ring out (You are King)
We will stand together now (You are Lord)
Hear the voices singing loud (You are King)
There is only one King

So what do you think?

Get the song (or the whole album) on iTunes.

We just started a new series called Christmas Stories. It’s about the smaller stories of Christmas that are somehow interwoven in The Christmas Story, and how miraculously all Christmas stories always come back to the ultimate one. This past weekend we looked at Giving and we used the story of the Little Drummer Boy as the launching pad for the message. When you stop and look at this season, giving is the one thing that makes the most sense, its the one truth that we can’t overlook. As told through the story of the Little Drummer Boy, even if you don’t think you have anything to give, you can and should always give yourself. 

To open the message we used a clip from the classic stop-motion version of The Little Drummer Boy and mixed it together with Mark doing his new version of the song live. I think it turned out pretty awesome, it was a really cool moment.

Here’s the Little Drummer Boy opener. Enjoy.

Also, let me just drop this in, this song is from Mark’s new Christmas From the Writers Room Ep. For those of you who don’t know, Mark is our Worship Pastor and he is an extremely talented songwriter and singer. Definitely stop by his site and check out the new album (which will be available on iTunes in a week or so).
 

What are you guys doing for your Christmas series this year?

Here’s her story…

I wish we were all a little more like Sydney Jane. Her story was told this past weekend in part 1 of our new series Christmas Stories (I’ll tell ya more about the new series in tomorrows post).

Everybody is going to give someone something this year just like every other year, but what if this year you do something out of the norm and without expecting anything in return. What if you and your family found another family to bless. What if you got your kids involved and excited about helping someone else. What if your children got just as excited about giving gifts on Christmas as they did about getting gifts on Christmas. What if you spent less or close to nothing by making gifts with the whole family and take the money you saved and gave it away. 

Can you give BIG? Can you give SELFLESSLY? Can you change the way you do Christmas? What a beautiful Christmas story we could create for someone else that will last forever.

Check this out.

There are lots of ways you can give to those less fortunate. Here are a few to check out.

• Merry Christmas Baldwin County
• Advent Conspiracy
• TOMS Shoes
• Soles for Souls 

If you’ve already got plans to do some selfless giving this year, please share it, we’d all love to hear your ideas.

Beck and I start making small adjustments like buying local produce, changing out our light bulbs, using biodegradable diapers (which is a big deal) and keeping lights off to save energy. Most everything that we’ve done have been small things that overtime will make a big difference. 

All of this was stirred back up last week in a conversation I had with Chad and Shannon. Chad shared a couple of ideas with us that he had about the importance of taking care of our earth. He called it Environmental Stewardship, and I gotta say, I love that term. It’s from Tri Robinson, who defines it like this…

“Environmental Stewardship is the idea that we should care for, manage,
and nurture the creation we have been given.”  

 
Chad reminded us of a line from In a Pit in which Batterson said… 

“At the end of the day, success equals stewardship and stewardship
equals success.  Stewardship is all-inclusive.“ 

Stewardship doesn’t end with finances, its all-inclusive, it carries over into every part of life. Everything we have is a gift from God, and its our responsibility to take care of the gifts given to us. We’ve got to realize that God values creation, every part of it. And whatever he values we should value, right?
Tri points out that one of God’s first commands to Adam was to “tend His garden.” He challenges Adam and Eve to be caretakers of the gift of creation.

In our conversation last week, Chad mentioned that it would be so cool for a church to begin making changes that would reflect this idea of Environmental Stewardship… and I totally agreed with him. It’s a stand we need to take, as a church. And its something that I feel so strongly about that I’m going to be more conscience about it at Bay. 

I brought it up to Jeff today, so he went and did some checking and I was very excited to learn that the company we use (Jakprints) to do the bulk of our printing has already taken major steps in making printing “green” very easy. So all of our print pieces are now printed with Soy & Vegetable based Ink, most of them are on 100% recycled paper (with a every piece having a minimum of 30% recycled content), and the paper is chlorine & bleach free. 

Let me challenge the church leaders out there all the way to the stay-at-home moms… there are small steps that we can all take – I’m not saying you become a fanatic, only that you start somewhere. Whether its recycling or buying a hybrid car, we can all do something. 

Here a few resources to help you along the way.

• Deep Green Conversation
• Creation Care 
• The Green Routine 

So what do you think… is green for you?