Creation Resources

Several people asked about resources on creation after Part 1 of In the Beginning.

Here is the definition known as the Doctrine of Creation: God created the entire universe out of nothing; it was originally very good; and He created it to glorify Himself.

Websites:

• Answers in Genesis


• Institute for Creation Research

Books: (You can order any of these books at www.amazon.com)

• How Now Shall We Live by Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcy.  Absolutely one of the best books I have ever read on having a biblical worldview, understanding how we are to live in light of God's truth, and explaining the false views that are deceiving untold numbers of people.


• The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel.  Very scientific, academic, and detailed but a good resource on what some of the leading scientists are now saying about intelligent design, the cause of the universe, and the origins of life.


• The Answers Book (Volumes I & II) by Ken Ham.  Ken Ham is one of the most prolific writers on creation vs. evolution.  He answers the most often asked questions about this subject: dinosaurs, fossil records, 6 literal days, etc.


• The Battle for the Beginning by John MacArthur.  This book focuses on the biblical explanations of Creation. 

Weekly Rundown (4.26.09)

[caption id="attachment_626" align="alignnone" width="221" caption="Birthday dinner"][/caption]

• Enjoyed a great "surprise" birthday dinner with Beth at P.F. Chang's ... of course :)


• Great kick-off to our new series today.


• Several people asked about the research used for today's message ... I will blog about it later this week.


• The ball is moving for us to start a 3rd campus in Murray County.  I am so excited!!  God has really given us a sense of urgency for discipling people and for spreading His Gospel.


• The initial meeting for Rock Bridge going to Murray County will be on Wednesday evening, May 13th in Chatsworth.  Details to come ...


• Great Elders meeting this week!  We talked a lot about our small groups & discipleship ministry and how best to staff it as well as about multi-site.  Rock Bridge, we are serious about making disciples AND about spreading the Gospel!  Please pray for God to open doors!!


• Some exciting possibilities developing in Calhoun ... too early to say but just pray for God to keep opening doors for us ... (I know I am repeating myself about "opening doors" but I believe that prayer is crucial to the spread of the Gospel -- check these verses out!!)


• Beth & I had an incredible dinner Friday with a man from Kenya who has an amazing ministry there.  It is so awesome ... the blood of Christ creates a special family that is not limited by culture, geography, skin color, past, present, or future.  God is moving all over His planet!!


• Spring is finally here!!


• Matthew Stafford was the NUMBER ONE draft pick yesterday!!  That's a lot of pressure ... and money.  I hope he can deliver up in Detriot.


• Got the bikes out for the first time yesterday.  We rode along the River Walk park in Chattanooga and then ended up at Tony's Pasta ... I bet we consumed more calories eating than we burned biking :)

Why Do You Want to Go to Heaven?

I've been reading a lot of John Piper's stuff lately and it is so profound and amazing.  I want to share a few thoughts from his book, God is the Gospel. 

In this book, he challenges the notion that salvation is just about getting forgiveness, going to heaven, and obtaining a life purpose.  The essence of the Gospel is God Himself as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4-6:  "... this message [the Good News] is about the glory of Christ ... God ... has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ."  Consider the following thoughts:

• The good news is not just about getting forgiveness.  "Forgiveness is good news because it opens the way to enjoy God Himself."


• Being made right with God (given the righteousness of Jesus) "is good news because it wins us access to the presence and pleasures of God Himself."


• Going to heaven is good news because it allows for the unending "enjoyment of Christ" without distraction.

How does this differ from your understanding of the Gospel? Why do we really want to go to heaven?  Did Christ die just to pay our sin debt, provide forgiveness of sins, and satisfy the wrath of God? Or are each of those things a prerequisite for us to get God Himself?  (See I Peter 3:18 -- "Christ died for sins ... to bring you to God  ...)

New Message Series: IN THE BEGINNING

In the Beginning starts this Sunday!! 

Remember you can INVITE a guest ONLINE right here, right now!!

To get ready for Sunday, read Genesis 1:1-23

The Next Step, Giving, & the Recession

A frequent topic of conversation among pastors is about how the current recession is affecting giving in the local church.  The bottom line answer is that it is affecting the church.  Some churches are having to cut staff, salaries, and ministries.  Others are just being a lot more conservative, and some are delaying any new initiatives. 

At Rock Bridge we are right in the middle of a major campus expansion at our Dalton campus and the people at the campus are in Year Two of a 3-year pledge campaign.  All of this while Dalton has record high unemployment and our local industry, carpet, is struggling.  What do we do with this information? How do we process it, keep our vision for connecting people to Christ and His community, and maintain a biblical world view at the same time.  Here are some initial thoughts I have:

1) God knew we would be in a recession.  He knew this when our church voted to expand our campus.  He knew this when the Dalton campus collectively pledged $4.5 million over 3-years to fund this vision.  He knew this when He sent more and more people to our church who needed Him and needed care.  He knew this when we started Rock Bridge Calhoun.  Why? Because God is sovereign and omnipotent; therefore, He foresees things like recessions and either causes them or permits them.  What God causes or permits He does so with a greater purpose in mind (i.e. He permitted Judas to betray His Son for the greater purpose of defeating sin & Satan on the Cross;  see also Proverbs 19:21; Isaiah 46:10).  We must TRUST in God's greater purpose.

2) God is always asking us the question, "Is Jesus enough?" We are so prone to lean on our own understanding and to seek to increase our self-sufficiency.  God aims to increase our Christ-sufficiency.  Recession helps crucify the god of money so the Son of God is seen in His sufficiency and supremacy.  In tough times, if God is our treasure, we endure;  if our treasure is something temporary or vulnerable, then we faint.  God wants His people to endure so He is always working to be the source of our endurance and joy. (Hebrews 12:3; Isaiah 40:31).

3) Hard times force us as a church to really care for and love one another.  We must always remember that buildings exist for people, and as a church one reason we exist is to care for and love people.  So a rececession during a building campaign & expansion forces us to keep our priorities straight, practice wise stewardship, and love each other in tough times.  Acts 4:34 must be our model in good times and in bad.

4) When human resources are scarce and God's work still moves forward, it's gotta be God!  His grace is sufficient and nothing shows that like times of adversity!  In this way, we won't be able to look back in a few years and say, "Look what we did!"  Instead, we'll drop to our knees in humble worship and proclaim, "Look what God has done!"  God is not glorified when we are so self-reliant that we don't have to depend on Him.  However, in tough times, we have no choice but to trust God's sovereignty, faithfulness and provision and just obey Him even when it doesn't make sense.  In this way, God is honored by our trust and glorified by the results of our radical obedience ... to God be the glory!!

Weekly Rundown (4.19.09)

• Today's message topic on our identity in Christ is one of my favorites ... love teaching that truth and how it applies to our life ... even thinking about an entire series on the subject for down the road.


• Baptism celebrations are coming up at BOTH campuses!! Check out the web page here!


• Beth's birthday is tomorrow (Monday) ... she's a blessing and gift from God in my life!


• New series starts NEXT Sunday ... In the Beginning ... prime time to invite a guest!!!!


• Had some great conversations and discussions about multi-site that we believe will strengthen our approach and strategy for being a multi-site church.


• Look for some initial discussions & meetings to begin soon about Rock Bridge Chatsworth-Murray County!!


• Two neighboring church plants launched around the Easter season (one in Ringgold and one in Elijah) ... BOTH had great services and I'm excited for these new works of God!!  Pray for church plants and church planters!!


• The Next Step construction is rocking!!  Brick is going on the new ministry center building and it looks great!


• Can't believe it is almost May and almost summer!


• Don't forget to follow Rock Bridge on Twitter!


• Have a great week!

Multi-Site Musings (Part 3)

Here's a summary of multi-site at Rock Bridge: {continued from Part 2}

1) Multi-site is part of Rock Bridge's strategy to spread the Gospel and make disciples where & when God in His sovereignty opens doors.  (Colossians 4:2-6; Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8)

2) Rock Bridge's campuses are unified more by our vision, beliefs, philosophy of ministry, "DNA", and common biblical teaching than our geography.  (I Peter 1:1-2; Acts 15:22-23)

3) Leadership is shared among staff, elders, and volunteers.  Leadership is centralized in some ways (administration; teaching) and decentralized in others (ministry execution; volunteer development; pastoral care).  The goal is to be build up the body and point people to Jesus! (Ephesians 4:11-15)

4) The Head of the Church is Jesus and He leads His body by each "part" doing its part.  (Colossians 1:18; I Corithians 12:12-20).

Multi-Site Musings (Part 2)

{Continued from this post.}

Who are the "pastor" and "staff" in a multi-site church?  How are things structured & organized?  We must realize that in the New Testament, leadership & responsibilities were "shared" among people within the church.  A great mistake we have made in the church today is to ask the "Pastor" to do everything -- preach, teach, counsel, visit the sick, marry, provide vision & leadership, conduct weddings and funerals, leap tall buildings and move mountains.  This explains why most churches cannot grow past 150-200 people because that is the physical limitation of the "single" pastor.  {See Acts 6:1-7 for an example of how the first church spread ministry out and how certain people focused only on certain aspects of ministry. I am so thankful our elders have an Acts 6 view of ministry!} 

However, in the NT church we see in effect that these duties were never given to just one person but instead spread out among the church as people were gifted and equipped for ministry.  What Paul did in the NT was establish elders (plural) or elder-pastors to provide leadership, teaching, volunteer development, care, doctrinal purity & protection, and direction for the local church.   

Some elder-pastors (those who directed the affairs of the church and providing teaching for the church) are mentioned as worthy of double-honor (I Tim. 5:17) which refers to being paid by the church.  However, this "honor" was because of the specific work they performed and the time it took to perform it; this was not because they were superior or of higher rank than any other elder, pastor, or member.  One of the distinguishing marks of the NT church is that is lacked a special priestly or clerical group of people.  It is a family of brothers and sisters with whom the Spirit of God indwells to manifest Jesus' life to world.  We are all part of one body, united by one faith, in the one true God.  We each are equipped to do our part to build this body up to fullness in Christ!  This NT approach keeps the church from identifying with one particular person or personality who will eventually retire, die, or move; and hopefully, this model helps people identify more with JESUS than a single individual. 

So at Rock Bridge we believe in "campus-specific" staffing and empowered volunteers where roles are divided and leadership is shared.  For example, I am the primary "teaching" pastor for both campuses; however, in Calhoun, Carll is the primary pastor-shepherd-overseer on site, and he also teaches some.  The same applies for Children's Ministry where Amanda leads Children's Ministry in Dalton and works alongside Stephanie in Calhoun to provide direction over the children's programming but Stephanie is the Children's Minister in Calhoun, not Amanda.  This also works for students and worship ministries as well. 

This model contains some centralized administrative & strategic functions but it decentralizes ministry.  In the Book of Acts you see this same pattern of the apostles in Jerusalem providing direction, clarity, & vision while the church began to spread its message & ministry beyond the geography of Israel (see Acts 6, Acts 13, and Acts 15 for examples).

Multi-Site Musings (Part 1)

Our staff had a great discussion about how we do "multi-site" this morning.  I thought I blog some ideas and thoughts we had. 

Why multi-site?  Numerous factors result in a churching going "multi-site"; however, I think the number one reason is because the Gospel message of Jesus Christ is designed by God to spread (Colossians 1:6).  The church (which includes its people) is the primary instrument for the spread of the Gospel.  The church is also commissioned to "make disciples" (Matthew 28:19-20). 

I believe every church must have a strategy to accomplish this mandate from Christ.  Some churches simply do not want to grow and that is their strategy.  Others raise up church planters and local missionaries to start new congregations.  Some opt to big bigger buildings.  Some use multiple venues and multiple service times.  More and more churches are turning to multiple sites, becoming "one church, in multiple locations." And of course, many churches use a combination of these strategies.  With 3000 churches closing a year in America we must have a strategy to reach and disciple people.  Not having a strategy is not a biblical option.

One of the reasons I like multi-site as a strategy is because it is biblical.  The church at Corinth for example consisted of multi-site house churches that were considered part one, city-wide church.  Another strong reason for multi-site is that it leverages the healthy, stable leadership and vision of an established church in a localized setting.  In multi-site the limiting factor for "Gospel-spreading" & "disciple-making" is no longer geography. 

What is meant by multi-site?  Multi-site simply means that the church "assembles" in multiple locations, venues, and times but has covenanted together as ONE in the following ways:

• One vision


• One budget


• One mission


• One God-centered, Christ-worshipping theology & beliefs


• One philosophy of ministry for children, students, and discipleship


• One army of missionaries, ambassadors, and servants of Christ


• One unifying message each week delivered weekly in person or by video

Weekly Rundown (4.12.09)

• Great day today at RBCC!  Our staff and volunteers did an amazing job executing all of our services and I even managed to preach < 40 minutes :)


• Here's the link to the opening video from today.


• Today's message was just a clear, basic message on why the resurrection matters to us ... we would be "dead" in our sins & stuck in our sin nature without it.  Our goal for today was simply for people to know, understand, and be able to respond to the power of the Gospel (Romans 1:16).


• I continue to hear stories and just "sense" that God is doing a "deepening" work in many of our lives.  He is drawing our "roots" deep into Him and building our lives on Himself like Paul spoke of here.


• I'm already pumped about next week's message!!  Talking about a very important subject that affects us all.


• I don't think my voice can handle another message just yet :)


• We're starting to have some great discussions about our 3rd Rock Bridge campus.  This week at staff meeting we're spending some time discussing our overall multi-site approach.


• Seeing several young adults (18-20s) ON FIRE for Jesus ... their passion & hunger for Jesus is inspiring.


• Our administrative staff is involved with a big changeover of the software we use to keep up with our members, small groups, financial giving, budgeting, etc.  We're going to a system called ACS.  You'll be able to create an online account from our web site to see opportunities to serve, small groups, and track your giving.  You'll also be able to give online through a bank draft feature.  Details to come but this will seriously enhance people's ability to interact and stay informed via our web site.


• Baptism celebration is coming up next month!!


• New series starts April 26th: In the Beginning.


• Pray hard and keep the faith!

Ready for Easter Sunday?!?!

Our staff is all fired up for Easter Sunday!!  I just finished watching the unfinished version of our opening video ... GOOSE BUMPS! ... so be sure to get to church on time :)

CALHOUN @ 10:30 am (Calhoun High School/Civic Auditorium)

DALTON @ 8:00, 9:30, or 11:00 am (Wink Theatre or Stage 123)

Sunday's Scripture: Ephesians 1:17-2:10

My Only Boast

¹⁴May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  {Gal. 6:14}

Why is the cross our only "boast"?

• In the cross I see a true picture of myself -- horribly sinful yet tremendously loved.


• In the cross I see a true picture of God -- perfectly holy & just yet unbelievably gracious & merciful.


• All blessings flow to me because of the cross -- I am made blessable there.


• I receive a proper view of suffering at the cross -- God the Son suffered unjustly yet God the Father used His suffering and was ultimately glorified by it.


• Because of the cross I never have to fear God's wrath or punishment.


• I can drop pretensions at the cross and just be myself ... trusting God with me.


• At the cross I learn that God never gives up on me.


• At the cross I can quit striving to earn points from God and simply receive what God has already given.


• All hope springs forth from the cross.


• At the cross I gain access to God and adoption by God into an eternal family.

Weekly Rundown (4.5.09)

• Wrapped up our Stimulus series today!  I pray everyone can discover that the "joy of the Lord is our strength"!!!


• Great job to our 'tech' team today for troubleshooting a problem before it became a big, disrupting problem!!


• We are making a lot of progress in small group development.  We have increased adult group participation dramatically in the last 8-10 months.  We've still got a ways to go but it is exciting to see more and more people experiencing community!!


• Shane Craven and the folks at Origin Church launch today in Ringgold!!  Pumped about more churches in NW Georgia seeking to help people connect to Christ!


• First Wednesday services continue to rock my world every month.


• We took our first ever staff pictures this week.  Check out the pics here.  (Some of) our staff ain't right :)


• Galatians 6:14 is really speaking to me right now.


• We're going to spend the next 2 weeks dealing fully with the resurrection and its effects on our lives.  Then we start a series called, In the Beginning.  We'll be in Genesis talking about creation, evolution, purpose, and answering the BIG questions of life: who am I? what am I here? what is wrong with the world? is there an ultimate purpose?


• Easter is next Sunday!!