blog.arrowheadchurch.com

We took 3 weeks in April 2011 to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. We really celebrate it every week, but our leaders and I felt a sense that we should focus in on a powerful move of God during this Easter season. I don’t like to over-hype certain days or over-hype anything we do as a church, because every Sunday matters. I did sense, though, that God wanted to bring many people to a point of decision to follow Jesus in this season.

Walking with God is a series of next steps, and someone may be at any point on that journey, but there is a point in time when the journey must clearly begin. For many people in the Bible belt, that was at a very young age. They were sincere when they asked Jesus to be their Savior at the age of 5, 6, 7, or 17. Many then stray away from God and come back to Him later in life. Lots of Arrowhead attenders fit into this category.

But, many also think they know God because they’ve heard the story so many times. I was this way for many years. For whatever reason, I had confused knowledge of God with knowing God. So I have a unique passion for people who find themselves at this stage. And again, many Arrowhead attenders are surely in this category. We spent the last 3 weeks trying to clarify what it means to make a decision to follow Jesus and be set free.

In the month of April, approximately 35 people came to this decision to follow Christ! And I believe many more will in the weeks to come. We are following up with those who have let us know about their decision and seeking more and more to bring clarity.

Why is this such a big deal? 823 people worshiped Jesus and celebrated His resurrection here on Easter. That’s amazing. Let me say this again - 2 years and 3 months as a church, and 823 people were at Arrowhead on Easter Sunday! That only happens if people experience something powerful in their relationship with God and invite their friends and family. Arrowhead parters and attenders: you are doing an amazing job inviting people. Thank you so much for what you do! If you volunteer here on Sundays, let me clearly say again: thank you for what you do. You give up your dress-up, family-picture, religious exterior-focused Easter to roll up your sleeves and make it possible for lots of people to hear from God for the first time or the first time in a long time. I would go to war with you!

But, we’re not all about 823 people being here on a Sunday. We’re about genuine faith and genuine relationships, both with God and with others. It’s not enough to gather a crowd. In 100 years, no one will care how many people came to church here on Easter 2011. Everyone will care where they stood with God while they were here on earth because eternity is a long time.

If you are reading this and you don’t go to church here, you may respond a million different ways. It may be that you think we’re bragging or focused on ourselves because a lot of people are going to church here or because a lot of people “got saved” here this month, and I totally get that. I want you to know there are a lot people here who are not perfect but know God is doing something to help them start over in life. Many of them didn’t even know they needed to start over until they came here. We really hope you’ll do the same. Maybe He wants you to start over or maybe you just need a little re-focus, like we all do (put me at the top of that list every day). I hope you’ll come worship with us one week if you don’t have a church home.

Arrowhead Church - I love you and am celebrating everything about who you are this week.

Great day as usual! While I was in Knoxville watching Sara run her very first half-marathon (which she did incredibly, by the way), Arrowhead Church had an amazing day on a 75-degree spring day.

Tim Miller taught from 2 Corinthians about facing the unexpected. We learned:

• It’s ok to ask God to change our circumstances.
• God has the right to do the unexpected.
• God shows off His strength in the midst of our weakness.
• God promises grace when He does the unexpected.

I’m going away more often. There were over 10 first time guests! I guess word gets out that you’re not going to have to listen to me!

The worship set was: Rise and Sing (Fee), All Creation Sings (Newspring), From the Inside Out (Hillsong), and Stronger (Hillsong).

This week we start a brand new series called Ransom, and I’m more than a little excited. I think we’re about to have the best 3 weeks the church has had yet leading up to Easter. Pray hard. More details to come this week in your small group.

Spring break week 2 edition! Great energy and a great response to our Forgotten Virtues series conclusion. We talked about forgiveness from Genesis 41-50. Joseph’s perspective to be able to forgive his brothers is so needed in our lives. He teaches us that something good can come from every offense and that forgiveness doesn’t wait for an apology.

We wrapped up the book of Genesis. Here are the stats:

• 22 weeks!
• 4 series
• number of times Ben said the word Genesis: 1,689,412
• number of times Ben messed up who was married to who or whose son was whose: 1,145

Worship set for Sunday was You Are (Todd Fields), Let God Arise (Chris Tomlin), Hands of the Healer (Fee), and Give it All (Newspring).

We received an offering for Churches Helping Churches in Japan, and you gave $3,770.00! Thanks! Let’s continue to pray.

I said it earlier, but I’m praying so hard for the month of April. Whether Arrowhead is your home or not, I’m asking you to pray like never before for God to move over the next several weeks. I believe great things are in store!

Spring Break week 1 edition…It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with gratitude on the 3rd week in January when church is bursting at the seams. Spring break brings fear in the heart of every pastor! Even with CNC, Hamblen County, and Jefferson County all on spring break at the same time (how did that happen??), we still had an awesome day. Worship isn’t dependent on the presence of a crowd, though the crowd was still good!

Week 3 of Forgotten Virtues was about Gratitude. Joseph was falsely imprisoned in Genesis 39 and had his way out in Genesis 40, but the cupbearer forgot him. Ingratitude is present whenever we forget the blessing someone has been to us and simply get on with life. We do this with both God and people.

Worship (led by Jamie McGregor) was O Praise Him (David Crowder), Grace (J. McGregor), Death in His Grave (John Mark McMillan), and Jesus Paid it All.

We received an offering for Churches Helping Churches in Japan. Take some time to check out their website. They’re doing great work with and through churches on the ground in the midst of the tragedy. If you haven’t supported Japan in some other way, come prepared to give this week as we receive an offering again.

Week 2 of Forgotten Virtues from the life of Joseph…integrity! Such a big topic with application for all of us to make. We defined integrity as refusing to distinguish whether the door is open or closed. Behind closed doors there is potential for things to go wrong, and unfortunately all of us have times when the door is closed.

Time change…ugh. Seems like nobody likes it on Sunday morning and the day was so perfect that it was hard to make it back for the 5:00 for some people too. Oh well…

Worship was Your Love Never Fails (Jesus Culture), Blessed Be Your Name (Matt Redman), The Wonderful Cross (Chris Tomlin), and Arms Open Wide (Hillsong United).

Remember that we have a partnership class on Saturday morning from 9:00-11:00. If you’re interested in finding out more about who we are and what we do, we hope you can make it!

Cold, snowy, rainy, freezing rainy, sleetish kind of morning but it was still good to be together. Week after week people are so hungry for worship and for the study of the Word and today was no different.

Week 1 of a series on the life of Joseph called Forgotten Virtues. We talked about honor, which is all but completely missing from our culture today. And where there is no honor, there is jealousy, revenge, deceit, and callousness. We’re called to honor those who lead us, those we stand beside, and those we lead - and, yep, that’s everybody.

Worship was Awesome is the Lord Most High, Your Love Never Fails, Our God is Greater, We Exalt Thee, and How Great is our God.

Also, please remember to pray for Traci Bishop, our Kids Director, and the passing of her step-dad!

A near record crowd from out of nowhere is usually a good day. We capped a short 3-week series on the life of Jacob with a look at the fact that sometimes a blessing has to be wrestled from God. Jacob knew the man he was wrestling with had the power to bless him in Genesis 32. Often we aren’t willing to wrestle long enough to get the blessing offered to us. We must wrestle with our questions, wrestle in prayer, wrestle with the Word, and wrestle with our circumstances.

Worship was Hosanna (Hillsong), You Never Let Go (Matt Redman), Mighty to Save (Hillsong), and Your Name (Paul Baloche).

Hard to believe, but we’ll wrap up the book of Genesis in the next 4 weeks with a series called Forgotten Virtues. Don’t miss it.

Sometimes on a Sunday it’s possible to present a truth from Scripture, tie up all the loose ends, and put a bow on top. But sometimes that’s just not possible. Genesis 27 is a hard passage to wrestle with. Jacob is blessed through the result of a lie and a scheme. And God lets it stand. All we can know for sure is that he is running for his life for the years following. So, it’s possible that we could live life with the illusion that everything is good only to secretly be running for our lives.

Worship was You Alone Can Rescue (Matt Redman), Beautiful the Blood (Fee), How He Loves (JM McMillan), and Grace (the one and only Jamie McGregor).

4 services is working…I think! Thanks to everybody who’s coming or volunteering at that hour. Some people are loving it, and that’s a good thing. Despite half of East Tennessee being sick (including me), attendance has stayed strong.

Have a great week!

Four times the fun for the first time. Our first Sunday with 4 services had me in awe all day of new volunteers. I’m so grateful for how people have stepped up to make this possible. So proud to pastor Arrowhead Church! And attendance was really strong despite major sickness in the area.

We are looking at the life of Jacob for 3 weeks in a series called Behind the Scenes. In Genesis 25, Esau sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for bowl of stew. His appetite got the best of him, as can ours. Our appetites for food, alcohol, sex, money, power, and anything else have the power to set the direction for our future.

Worship was Everlasting God, Hands of the Healer (Fee), Til I See You (Hillsong), and Jesus Paid It All.

Join us this week at 8:30, 9:45, 11:00, or 5:00 for another look Behind the Scenes at the life of Jacob.

Sitting on the couch pre-Super Bowl thinking about what it will be like to come back next week for a 5:00 service and I’m so excited! Today I had several conversations with people about how having the night service will allow them to come every week regardless of work schedule. I love that.

Next week make the move to 5:00. All the cool people are doing it. Just as a reminder, we’ll meet beginning next week at 8:30, 9:45, 11:00, and 5:00.

We wrapped up Once Upon a Marriage today with a look at how to stay married. It’s a battle, and it always will be. Marriage is work. In the beginning, fight through the expectations. Later on, fight through the familiarity. Near the end, fight for the legacy. Next week we’ll backtrack a little and kick off a 3 week look at the blessing of God.

The band played Stuck Like Glue, and Rachel Tucker is a rapper =). Worship was Sing Sing Sing (C. Tomlin), From the Inside Out (Hillsong), and Lead Me to the Cross (Hillsong). The band also played Love Is Not a Fight by Warren Barfield. So thankful for our band. I challenge anybody to find a church our size with our resources who has the music we have. The Lord has blessed Arrowhead with awesome musicians who sing and play their guts out for 3 (now 4) services every week.

That’s it for now. Go Packers, or Steelers, or whoever you’re for. I’ll watch without being emotionally attached, which is just fine with me!