John's Blog about life, love and other mysteries

I am so excited about the new things getting ready to take place in ministry. Lots of Changes. I am so stoked! God is amazing and working amazing things in peoples life. I cant wait to see what more is to come. God said Go and we aren't missing a beat!!! So EXCITED. SO AMAZED that God would involve me in something this great!!!

FOR THE KINGDOM!!!

John

When did the Christian life become so complicated?
Your greatest desire is to please God, but with each passing week, your spiritual to-do list grows longer. As you strive to fulfill a never-ending inventory of requirements for being a godly parent, spouse, voter, employee, and more, you feel increasingly disconnected from the God you’re trying to serve.
It’s time to cut through the clutter and get to the heart of what it means to please God. In this liberating look at the core principles of faith, Dr. Robert Jeffress reveals the truth about what God really wants from you–and what He wants to do for you.
Through solid biblical teaching and practical insights, Dr. Jeffress points you toward a revitalized faith centered on becoming more like Jesus in action, attitude, and affection. You’ll learn how to partner with God in the process of spiritual transformation as you choose to follow Christ in forgiveness, obedience, trust, contentment, service, and prayer.
Through a renewed focus on experiencing the kingdom of God right now, you’ll find your to-do list shrinking and your spiritual life deepening. It all comes with embracing Clutter-Free Christianity.
Includes a Bible study guide for personal growth and group discussion.

Author Bio:
Dr. Robert Jeffress is the senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas, one of the most historic churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. The author of sixteen books, he is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition, live broadcasts of Dr. Jeffress’ weekly messages reach millions of listeners and viewers each week, while his daily sermon series airs on 1,100 television stations and cable systems nationwide. Dr. Jeffress and his wife, Amy, are the parents of two adult daughters.

It is amazing that people just read your blog to find anything that they can use to distort the truth to hurt you and the kingdom of God. Which God really turned around to be a good thing... NA NA NA NA BOO BOO (HAHAHAHAHAHA YOUR PLAN FAILED ) But, In a way it really does not amaze me that people would do this. Lost people act like lost people. It makes me sad to think that people have so much hate that they would rather see a ministry crash and burn and people go to hell than to see God work mighty in peoples lives. Again, they just don't know Jesus. If they knew Him they would know how He feels about His kingdom. I just love Jesus and I want to do what He says. If i don't i am a Whore of the Gospel of Christ, only doing what makes me and the church feel good for God's money! I must follow Him. I will follow Him, I will do what he tells me to do or bust Hell wide open with water pistols! Put that in your pipe and smoke it!!!!! There are people going to burn in Hell without the message of Christ. I want them to know Jesus. I want them to know Jesus' love for them. I want them to not burn in Hell forever and ever. If you don't have the same desire, you need to get saved. God places that burning desire in every believer, if you don't have it, get saved and get it! Church is not about You! it never has been! It's bigger than us. And by the way God is bigger than us. We limit what He wants us to do by being disobedient and complacent! We just have to keep moving forward and sometimes use a spiritual enema to flush out the problems that hinder Christ from moving! Just remember what Perry Noble said, " Ignore the Jackass"!!! you can watch it at http://www.newspring.cc/unleash/2009/

*****A wise friend suggested that I explain the Jackass statement in detail. Some people will not follow the link and take the time to see the story for themselves. Pastor Perry Noble was on a mission trip to Kenya and was observing a leader of the tribe casting vision to his people about the village. A Jackass, only a few feet away totally freaked out, kicked, screamed, hee hawwed and went nuts. The leader never missed a beat, he kept focus, kept casting vision. He ignored the Jackass. As people following God we must always ignore the things that would hinder us from following God. We must ignore the Jackass. AMEN *********

--john

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Details and Questions for New Children's Worship Area and Small Groups
1. Why we feel that change is needed.
a. Our children today are faced with many allurements of worldly things. Companies like Nickelodeon, Disney, and many more have our children's full attention. If you take you child to Disney you know that they will beg to come back. The reason that companies like these are reaching kids is because they are exciting, fresh, and current. We believe that as a church we should do everything we can to reach out and win these kid's heart. It is a race to the heart of a child and the first one to get there wins. These companies are great at what they do and what they do isn't always wrong, but they have a totally different focus, revenue. We as missionaries and believers in Christ have a much different focus, which is Jesus Christ. We want everyone to know His love, grace and salvation.
2. So, How will this change enhance the Children's ministry of First Calvary?
a. We want to create an environment that children can learn on their level that is exciting, current and fun. Today children are learning by what they see, hear, taste, smell and feel. They learn by what is made real to them. It is one thing to tell them about the burning bush that was not consumed, but how much more can they experience the miracle that took place by actually seeing it. One of our teacher's burnt leaves to show them how amazing the miracle was just for the bush not to be consumed. The kids will never forget that lesson. By adding a worship service to our children's area we will have a greater opportunity to show the realness of the Bible that will keep them interested and will make it fun. We want them to experience God and His word on their level. They will be able to worship with their style of music, they will be able to learn by getting involved with the lessons, they will have fun learning about Christ and beg to come back. We want them to be so excited about coming to church that they tell everyone about how much fun it is and pester their parent to death about coming back to church. With this new area and change, we know God is leading us to do it will create that environment!
3. What Will Happen to the Sunday School Teachers?
a. We want every Children's Sunday School Teacher that is willing, to lead small groups during a service that they do not attend. They will now have the option to go to Sunday School or attend Children's worship as a volunteer. We want the volunteers to arrive 15 minutes early to prepare. If the teacher chooses to attend Sunday School they would need to make preparations to still arrive 15 minutes early before there scheduled time. The lesson material will be available to them 4 weeks in advance. The props for the lesson will be available 2 weeks in advance and will be set up every Thursday before the small group meeting. Also, we want every volunteer involved with the children's ministry to attend a VIP meeting (vision, information & prayer) once per month. We will equip our teachers by making the material ready in advance and providing classes to train them on how to use the material.
4. Where do the teachers get their material?
a. The material will be provided for the teacher in the Small Groups Material room beside the children's worship area. By arriving 15 minutes early they will have ample time to get this done, if they need anything else that what is in their room. Their material will be laid out in order with the additional materials need. A volunteer will be there to assist them with any questions about their material. Also, drinks and snacks will be available to the volunteers in this area.
5. How will the Children be divided into small groups?
a. 2yrs - 5yrs old
i. This is for children that are not in kindergarten
b. K - 1st grade
i. Even if the child is 5yrs old or younger they will be in this class because they have classroom experience.
c. 2nd - 3rd grades
d. 4th - 5th grades
6. Worship and Small group settings
a. Because First Calvary has 2 services there are different families that come at different times. This is why we will offer 2 small group settings. The first SG will begin at 8:45am and the second will begin at 11:00am. We believe that it is important for them to worship together as a large group. We know that this will cause excitement and growth when they are together & more learning when their groups are smaller and more personal.
7. Will the 2yrs - 5yrs old children participate in the same worship as the older ones?
a. No. We do not believe that we can teach pre-school children on the same level as a grade-school child. The way that they learn is very different and e want to create an environment where they too can learn on their level. They are just as important .
8. What will they do different?
a. Their small group time will be the same as the others, but they will have a different material that will be on their learning level. Elevate Jr. is design for this particular age group. They will have their worship in a different room than the older children. It will be in the current children's church room. It will take place the same time that the other children's worship service will. This will create a more exciting environment for that age group. They will participate in just as much or more hands on learning and crafts.
9. What will this new Sunday look like?
a. Here is a schedule of the children's events for a typical Sunday morning.
i. 8:30 Checkin (For Traditional Attendees)
ii. 8:45 Begin Small Groups (For Traditional Attendees)
iii. 9:45 Snacks
iv. 9:45 Checkin (For Contemporary Attendees)
v. 9:55 Move to worship area
vi. 10:00 Begin worship
vii. 10:55 Check out (For Traditional Attendees)
viii. 10:55 Move to small groups (For Contemporary Attendees)
ix. 10:55 Begin small groups snack time
x. 11:15 Small group lesson
xi. 12:00 Final Check out
10. What will the worship service look like?
a. The worship service will be a very exciting time! Our children will participate in live worship music and hear a Bible story from their children's pastor that relates with their small group time. The worship time will include games, trivia and prizes to keep the children's attention and involve them in the lesson. There will be a Skit preformed by volunteers or watch on the screens in the worship area. They will be able to sing along with the songs by watching the screens with the lyrics and exciting backgrounds.
11. What will happen on Wednesday night if the rooms are now the worship area?
a. As of now there is only 1 room out of 6 being used in the current preschool area. They will move to these rooms.
12. What will happen on Sunday Nights if you are using Elevate on Sunday Mornings.
a. Elevate Kidstm has over 3 years worth of material available. We will use a different section of their material on Sunday nights and will still have Elevate for K-5th grade and Elevate Jr. for 2yrs - 5yrs old. The schedule will be the same as it is now, just relocated.
13. What happens if the Children's pastor is terminated or dies?
a. We hope that neither of these happen, but in the occasion that it does he will have already begun the training of a Godly volunteer leader to run and keep growing the ministry until a replacement or other arrangement is made. We are committed that no matter what we must keep ministering because Hell is still very real and without Jesus people are going there.

We know that this vision is what God desires at First Calvary. We believe that it will aid in the reaching of many for the cause of Christ. If we are to be a church we need to do everything we can to follow God's plan and reach people for Christ.

If your money was declining like the church you would so something
about it. --perry noble

Last week the unleash conference opened my eyes to many things I have been overlooking in ministry. It is amazing how people put their personal preferences before Jesus. Perry Noble asked a question, “How many Grandparents are willing to give their lives for their Grandchildren”. All grandparents raised their hands! Then he asked, “ How many Grandparents would change their music style at church to see their grandchild come to Christ?” There was a dead silence over the entire place. It is a sad thing that most people are willing to give their life for someone but are unwilling to change their ways and preferences to see someone come to Christ. IT is because the cause of Christ and Christ Himself is not real to them. It is not real to them because they truly do not believe in Him. If their belief and love for Christ were as strong as their love and devotion to their preferences, what could be done for Christ would be amazing. If people could just see that it is bigger than them and change their ways it was be unimaginable what could be done for the glory of God.

Why is change so hard? This is the #1 thing that causes churches to die off, they would rather die than change. 2 Kings 7:3-10 tells a story of 4 lepers who were dying. Their people were under attack. As they were waiting to be overtaken by the enemy they discussed with each other this very important statement that we as believers and the body of Christ must ask ourselves, “Why sit here until we die?”. This is what is wrong with the church today. We have become so comfortable in our own cesspool of complacency; we would rather die and rot than to make a move. These lepers made a decision, they would rather die trying that to die rotting. They thought that it couldn’t be any worse with the enemy; they would either kill them or imprison them and at least feed them. To them it was better to die trying to live than to rot. When they arrived to the enemy’s camp, there was no one there and every thing was abandoned. There was plenty of food and supplies for everyone, including the ones that stayed behind awaiting death. Just like these people the church is dying, should we die and rot? Or should we seek God’s face with everything, make a change, risk everything and thrive? It is up to you as an individual to pray for the church. It is up to us as believers to make the changes necessary to uplift and magnify Christ.


John Baker