Just A Little Advice From Uncle Robin

What have we been doing?

2011-12-28T10:00:00.002-06:00

As we get ready to start a new year, let's ask ourselves one very important question: "Why have we been doing the things we do?" (I'm referring to our spiritual lives, our church life, our serving and working in the kingdom.) Why do we do what we do? In Zechariah 7, the people of Bethel have sent messengers to Zechariah to ask him a very important question. The question: "Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple's destruction, as we have done for so many years?" Seems like a very good question. I mean these people have been getting together to fast and pray, to remember the destruction of the place of God's presence among His people. Wow, they are so faithful and they want to know if they should keep it up or is there something else that they should be doing? Sounds pretty legit to me.
But then I read on and wow, it hit me in the face of what I or we as a church have been doing this past year, this past decade and on. In verse 5, God says to ask the people: "During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in the aryl autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting? And even now in your holy festivals, aren't you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?" Wow! God comes off the top rope to hit the real issue. Haven't all these festivals, weeks of fasting and praying - hasn't it really been about you? When you come to church on Sundays, when you serve or get involved in a family group - has it been about God or has it been about yourself? Has it been about loving God or loving yourselves and hoping to impress God and/or others so that they will think that you are spiritual and worthy of great blessings from God? What has it all been about?
You see, in church and in our private spiritual lives, it's not about the fasting or the serving - it's about loving God and thus we serve, we give, we sacrifice, we share of His love because we have experienced the true love of God. How about 2012, we focus on loving God first, then we will see that our rituals and traditions are there to enhance our lives, not to make them worthy of God! Love God, love others, serve the world!

Be a Blessing

2011-08-03T14:05:00.002-05:00

I want to share another blessing story that came our way: one of the C3 members wrote this: I just wanted to share my attempt at a blessing for someone that I have seen before on a few occasions, but never really taken the time to get to know. I frequent a convenience store on south Rangeline. Often times, I have noticed a homeless man sitting against the ice cooler with his canine companion close by. He always has a sleeping bag, tent bag, and a backpack. I took the time to introduce myself this time, taking the time to get his name and talk about the storm we went through, God and where life was taking each of us. We talked about how much we both appreciated the volunteers and first responders that had come to our community.
When I went inside to get a soft drink, I decided I wanted to do what I could to help this man. so, I folded a bill up and put it in my pocket to slip to him. I returned to have a final few words and to let him know he was be in my prayers. in the middle of our parting words, I stuck my hand out to give him another hand shake, and slipped him the folded bill. We said good buy to one another, he glanced into his hand knowing what I had done and to look at what he thought would be a dollar or two. The shock on his face as all i needed when he realized it was not a dollar but a $100 bill I had been saving. His face became blood red and his eyes began to water. As tears came down his cheeks, he said, "You got to be kidding me? Are you serious? I don't even know what to say to you, man! God bless you!" I told him that the man to be thanked was God. He is the One that takes care of me and my family. It is Him that allows me to give to others. Jesus is the Man!

Somebody bless somebody!

Blessings Story

2011-07-31T18:39:00.003-05:00

I said this morning that I would start putting some of our blessing stories up on my blog. Without using names, here's my first one. Thanks for sending it to us. If you have blessed someone, write us and tell us what happened.

I left church Sunday morning with a list forming in my mind of the people I wanted God to bless. When Robin said not to exclude our enemies, I knew I had the right plan.

Although my enemies are few, there is a family member that I have lost contact with over the years that I felt needed God's blessing more than anyone I have ever met. She has suffered from a bitter heart and mean spirit for so many years and needed my prayers, so I had a plan forming on how to do it.

I left the church and stopped by my sister in law's house and she told me about her friend who's husband was very ill and would no live much longer. It came to me then that I should ask God to bless her and I was so happy to do so. She was a total stranger, but it felt that God was telling me to bless her, so I did!! Her response was positive, full of gratitude and came at the right time.

Went home and sent a message to the family member, telling her I asked God to bless her and her family and was pleasantly surprised that she responded. She seemed surpised at the time, although two hours later she reminded me of how she is a victim of mean people who make her unhappy, and I realized then that she really did need God's blessings and I had made a good decision choosing her.

My third choice wasn't my last choice, but was someone I love very, very much and am so grateful to have her in my life. At first, I was hopeful for a response and when I didn't receive it, I must admit I felt a bit disappointed. However, it occurred to me not long afterwards that I wasn't blessing my three choices to receive a response or a "thank you" or any sort of self gratification. Robin just wanted us to bless three people.....

The Fire is Burning!

2011-07-18T08:39:00.003-05:00

"Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. and now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The Son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God heaven. This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names." Hebrews 1:1-4. God spoke to man through the prophets, then through the Son and now the promise: The Holy Spirit lives in all those that will surrender themselves to God and obey his will! Today, the church doesn't have to wait for a prophet, we don't have to burn a sacrifice, we have to die to this world, and let the Holy Spirit come into our lives to give us the peace and satisfaction that can only come from the Creator of our lives and souls! Turn your life over to Him today and begin to experience the fire of God burning in your life!

C3: Experiencing the Presence of God

2011-07-17T17:26:00.003-05:00

What an amazing week at C3! Camp Firefall was an incredible week of kids experiencing the presence of God! There was 375 kids between the ages of 4 and 12 year olds that were involved in our VBS this week and over 250 volunteers working, what an incredible time. Our children's staff and a dream team of people worked hard on writing all of our own lesson plans and music - what an incredible team of people. It was just an incredible week!!!!! Make plans for being here this next week when we will look at how to overcome the doubt that attacks us when we start proclaiming the good news of Jesus!

Moses & The Burning Bush Pt. 2

2011-06-30T13:41:00.003-05:00

So, Moses and the Burning Bush is really about the Holiness of God and Moses experiencing that Holiness or Presence. But there is so much more to Moses and how he stands as a shadow of something greater!
In both the Old Testament and New Testaments God is revealing His redemptive plan for man. He does it by His encounters with man. Moses and the Exodus is the central act on God in the Old Testament by divine intervention into the history of mankind by liberating His people from oppression and slavery. Also, the decisive act in the New Testament is the divine intervention of God into human history once again, to free mankind/his people from oppression and slavery. Moses in the Old Testament takes on Pharaoh to free his fellow Israelites (interesting that we talked about Sunday: he was one of them, yet he was not one of them). Jesus in the New Testament takes on sin, death and Satan to bring about deliverance of mankind (once again, Jesus was one of us, yet not one of us) from sin and death. And here's the kicker: both deliverances were not from something but to something!
The people of Israel were free now to go to their land of destiny: The Promised Land. Jesus promised us abundant life also, which is abundant because of our relationship with Him and He throws in heaven to boot!
The central theme of both: God wants a relationship or experience with us! And He will pay the ultimate price for that to happen!

VBS: Moses & The Burning Bush

2011-06-29T14:37:00.002-05:00

Every summer five weeks out from out VBS week, we start a sermon series that covers the nightly themes of our VBS, so that the adults that attend C3 can experience the same Bible teachings that our children are learning throughout the week. This past Sunday we started with Moses and The Burning Bush. This summer we are hoping that our children will learn that throughout the Bible that people were often meet by God and experienced His presence by fire!
Moses was one of those people and his experience is one that is a centerpiece of both the Christian and Jewish world. Moses was an adopted Israelite son of the Pharaoh of Egypt! What a lineage! But Moses, choosing to be identified with his Jewish brothers, kills an Egyptian and then accused by his Jewish brothers of possibly killing one of them.
Moses chooses to run for his life and 40 years later God comes to him in the form of the Burning Bush. Moses experiences God in the fire of a bush. He experiences the Holiness of God.
God is not holy because of what he does - God is holy because that is exactly what he is: HOLY! Holy means to be pure, it is the loving nature of God, separate from evil. When we surrender our lives to Jesus he takes over our bodies, we are living sacrifices, Romans 12:1,2; we are the temples of God, 1 Cor. 6:19. If we are the living/dwelling places of God, His command to us in 1 Peter 1:15 & 16, to be holy is to be like God, to have his very presence flowing through our veins. To be holy means to be separate from evil. We need to separate ourselves from evil, by not associating with evil, being found in a situation where one could get the idea of being evil.
Moses covered his face because he was looking at God and he realized that he was in serious trouble. But we, the temples and very home of God are to shine the light of a holy God! Live as the burning bush - burning with a passion that will draw all men to Jesus!

CCC Public Statement on Tornado Relief Efforts

2011-05-27T12:23:00.001-05:00

We appreciate so much your willingness to be a part of the rescue and clean up effort that is taking place here in the Joplin area. We have been working tirelessly around the clock to help in rescue, clean up as well as the gathering and distribution of supplies.

We have come along side area churches and para-church organizations in relief efforts as well as distributing supplies to victims and volunteers. If you are calling about volunteering at this time please call College Heights Christian Church @ 417.624.6915 or visit 211missouri.org

If you have supplies that you would like to donate, at this time Joplin is asking you to wait, as the initial response has been overwhelming however, Please consider giving financially at cartervillechristian.com by clicking on the donate button.

If you are a church or group that would like to come volunteer at a later date please leave us a message at 417.673.1245 and we will contact you with future opportunities. You can also visit 211missouri.org and signup to be contacted through united way.

We are working hard as a church and staff to cover every base that we possibly can with man power, financial help and supplies in taking care of the victims displaced and hurting from the tragic storm. We are doing everything we can to help return them to normalcy and get back to the life that they were used to before May 22.
Thank you.

Robin Sigars
Senior Pastor
Carterville Christian Church

Sunday Reflections

2011-05-02T08:23:00.002-05:00

What a great day May 1, 2011 was at C3! For the past three years, God has blessed us with amazing growth on our Easter Sunday experiences. The staff make big plans for this day and our volunteers work hard to make all of our guest feel at home and they try to stir a desire within the hearts of our guest that they would want to come back and worship with us again and begin to seek God's will and direction here at C3. But every year, after the BIG DAY, we plan for a big crowd to follow and we have been a little upset because the very next Sunday, we have gone down lower than we had been in some time in our attendance. This year, we planned and God blessed us with the greatest Easter day we have had over the past four years. It was AWESOME! And this Sunday, plans were in place to do it all again, just the same, the same energy, a sermon series beginning that will be very relevant to almost every person that was there on Easter, everyone was set and ready to go. And then - WOW! God did it again, we had a tremendous crowd yesterday, more baptisms of people that had realize over the past two sermons that they needed Jesus. Baptisms of some of our children that had been asking their parents to teach them about Jesus and his call to grace and salvation. More guest yesterday than what we prayed for and more excitement over a series on marriage than we could of every hoped for. This next Sunday is going to be just as relevant. A sermon asking our men to "Man Up!" And our "Women TOO!" As men and women what has God given us to do to be suitable for our mates, to fulfill what God has called us to in the world as a light that is shining in the darkness. Make plans to be here next Sunday and see what God has said and what God has in store for you in your marriage relationship and all other relationships.

From Robin to C3:

2011-04-26T12:28:00.003-05:00

I want to first of all I want to say to CCC, that I am still overwhelmed, amazed and thankful for all that took place at CCC this past weekend. From our live stream internet communion service on Friday night, our packed out Saturday night service and the three services on Sunday morning - it was all tremendous!
So #1 - THANK YOU to the over 100 volunteers that worked so hard here on Saturday and Sunday nights. You did an incredible job with greeting, hosting, setting up, parking, working in our nursery area, ushering and be available for all the guest that we had. THANK YOU, you made it all possible.
#2 - I want to thank all of you that invited and invited and invited. It was incredible to see the new guest that we had on Saturday night and Sunday morning. We are hearing back from the guest, raving about what they experienced and how much they appreciate you for inviting them to C3. If you invited someone and they didn't come this past weekend, please don't stop asking. God does not want you to give up on your friend or family. He is still working in your invitation and you love to them afterwards if they didn't make it. We try each week through our planning of worship, preaching and even our announcements to make every week seem like this is the biggest Sunday that we have here at C3. So, keep asking them, we'll make every Sunday, Resurrection Sunday and let God wow them with his Holy Spirit.
#3 - Continue to pray for what is happening here at C3. We had over 100 people take the 7 Day Prayer Experience home with them before Easter and begin praying for all that was going to be going on here at C3 over the past weekend. I want to ask you all to continue to pray just like that. God is still giving us opportunities this week and for this next Sunday to bring people to a saving and restoring relationship with Jesus Christ. Your prayers for our vision and freshness of presentation of the Word of God is so vital to our spirits here on staff and for the many volunteers that each week come to smile, lead and teach our people. Pray over our "Masterpiece" series. A look at marriage and relationships from God's Eyes and from God's design for our lives.
#4 - Pray for those that came forward for prayer and salvation this past Sunday. They need you to be lifting them up and standing beside them in your prayers and words of encouragement. We have many that this week we are talking to about their decisions for baptism and direction in life so please be praying for our staff and these people as we meet and open God's word to seek His divine will in their lives.

We have a great opportunity in front of us here at C3, let's stay on our knees before God seeking Him and asking Him to lead us as we continue to try our very best to share the word and grace of Jesus with every person that we possible can.

See you this Sunday for "The Masterpiece" - 9:00 and 10:30 a.m.

Led By The Spirit

2011-01-11T12:00:00.002-06:00

When a preacher steps up in front of his people he should have all ready spent many hours in prayer that God would anoint that moment. That God would anoint his words and the ears that ear the message that he has prayed would come from God.
This past Sunday once again I had the privilege of experiencing the anointing of God upon my own live and the lives of those that heard his message. Many people came forward for prayer and repentance. They were coming to confess anger, greed and pride. They were convicted by the anointing of the Holy Spirit to say NO to their sinful deeds. It was humbling to listen to them and to be able to pray over them.
Remember what the Apostle Paul tells us from Romans 8:12-16. If we are children of God, we are no longer under the obligation to sin! Sin and Satan do not have any power of us to continue in our sin. We must first simply OBEY God. Do what he asks us to do. To know that, we've got to get into the word. We've got to be listening to His voice through our teachers and through His Holy Word. Secondly, we've got to accept the love of our Father. We let Satan get into our heads with the whispers of how terrible we are because of our sins. When in reality, Jesus Christ died for our sins and they are washed away. We need to be diligent to continue confess our sins to Him and then accept His forgiveness and lived as if we were the most loved children in the world. Then Paul basically tells us to STOP IT! Starve our sins. But most of us will feel bad and guilty about our sins, but we won't stop sinning. The power of the Holy Spirit will give us the power to stop. But we have to start the engine by submitting to the Spirit's leading and then we can STOP IT! Lastly, realize who we are: WE ARE CHILDREN OF THE KING! Act like we've been redeemed. Act like our Father has the power to release us. Live for Him! Outlive the world, Satan and his lies about our sins. We are not what he says, we are CHILDREN OF THE KING! Say it again: WE ARE CHILDREN OF THE KING!

Dreams for 2011 Pt. 3

2011-01-02T18:18:00.002-06:00

I dream that C3 will continually be adding staff, both paid and volunteer to minister to this church and to the 4-State area.

We can’t ever be settled with what we are doing. One of the biggest mistakes that the people of Israel made when they began to possess the Promise Land was, that they settled! They settled for what they thought was enough. Then ended up only possessing 1/3 of the land that God had promised them. One of the keys to being an effective church is to continue to reach out and evangelize and minister to more and more people. To do this, we must always be recruiting with our own ranks for volunteers to work and serve. Also, we must continually be adding staff to our minister and develop those volunteers. It is a cycle that must be cultivated and worked to be able to reach out to more and more people. I dream that C3 nor I will ever settle, but will continually be stirred to do more for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom!

Dreams for 2011 Pt. 2

2010-12-31T11:03:00.003-06:00

I want to see families come here with their children and teens because here parents know that their children will be taken care of and taught the good news of Jesus Christ.

Yes, one of my #1 concerns is that C3 would be a leader in reaching out to our families and their children to teach them about Jesus. I don’t want our children to just learn about Jesus, I want them to learn how to live out Jesus in their everyday lives and then continue that circle to their families until Jesus comes. I want our children’s ministry and minister to our teens to be the very best that it can be and to let families all over the four-states know that we love them and their children.

I dream of the day that 70% of our people will be involved in our C3 Family Groups.

Think of what would happen in our church if this was a reality. Our families groups would be functioning as small churches all over this area – reaching out in service projects, teaching the word of God, and learning to fellowship the way that our ancestors did in the first church. Family groups are a great way to get involved in spiritual growth and discipleship. If you are not involved right now, please sign up over the next couple of weeks to be involved in a group. Maybe you could be a leader of a group and see what God can do through His people when they come together to build each other up and reach out in love to people that don’t know Jesus as their Lord and Savior!

I dream of a Missions’ Ministry that is investing into the lives of our people and teens in such a way that our adults and teens are traveling all over the world to help and get involved in the ministry of our Missionaries.

We may not all be able to go and spend extended times on the mission field, but I dream of a church where we are raising up teenagers who want to be involved in both short term and long term mission work. I dream of a church where our adults are coming along side our missionaries in going to work with them on their fields of service and bringing a little of C3 to their lives and the people the minister to wherever that may be. This kind of a ministry has to start with how we give of our money and our time right here at C3. We must begin by prayer and investment. Investment will take our hearts farther that our minds or imaginations could ever think!

Dreams for 2011

2010-12-30T08:42:00.003-06:00

C3: For the next couple of days I want to share with C3 I’m going share some of my dreams for this awesome and wonderful church. These aren’t just dreams or plans that I just came up with here over the Christmas – New Year’s vacation time. No, these are dreams that I have began to work on right after I got here. I want you to know them! I’m afraid that over the past year, I have not let enough of you know about these dreams. I don’t think that I have talked about them enough from the stage and I want to apologize for all of that. I want you to know that over this next year, I’m going to try to talk about them, use them in our sermons, and just let you know about them as much as I can. I hope that these dreams will be the dreams of every member here at C3 and that you will realize that the leadership and staff of C3 are living their lives daily to see these all come to reality.

I want to see the people of CCC fall madly in love with Jesus!

I know what you are thinking: DUH! That’s okay, you can think that this is a “given” or an “obvious” fact. But I’m afraid that I haven’t mentioned it to you enough. I want you to see that my heart and desire as your pastor is to help every person that walks through our doors to fall madly in love with Jesus. Everything that we design as a series, event or just our daily duties are for helping each one of us grow madly in-love with Jesus! That’s why I beg you to get into our worship, find a place to study with us and why I am always letting you know of all the areas that we could use more and more volunteers. You get into worship, our studies and family groups, you volunteer and invest your time. You’ll start to see how much in love with Jesus you are.

I want to see this church become a place where people without Jesus, come to, because of the grace that they experience here.

Yes, I want us to be a place that the people who do not have a relationship with Jesus will feel comfortable to come to and know that here, not just a few, but an entire group of people love them and care about them. The grace of Jesus must be felt as well as heard! Please realize that every new person that walks through our doors is a person or family that is desperate for something to happen. The prayers of the leadership and staff have been over the week that that is exactly what will happen here every Sunday. That someone that needs to hear and feel grace will have that experience through parking attendants, our greeters, Welcome Center volunteers and through what takes place up on the stage. It’s not easy, I know that we all have our own set of problems and issues, but we must give them over the God so that he can use our lives to touch and help Him redeem the souls of those that are lost.

"The Real Thing"

2010-12-26T20:16:00.001-06:00

Next Sunday we start a new series at C3, a series that you don’t want to miss out on. The series: The Real Thing is going to be looking at the beginning of the church in the book of Acts. In Acts 2, we see the birth of the church and the empowering movement of the Holy Spirit. From there we see what began to happen as the first Christian began to live out the leading of the Holy Spirit.
In Acts 2:42, we see that they “devoted” themselves to the “aposteles teaching, fellowship, sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper) and to prayer. From that formula the church in Jerusalem grew and influence the world.
Why can’t that happen again? Why can’t that happen right here at C3? It can and we want to address what C3 is going to be striving for this year in 2011 to make sure that the Holy Spirit has every opportunity to use us all!
Make plans to be here every Sunday in January.

Sunday Reflections

2010-12-21T09:32:00.002-06:00

Look what we did at CCC this past Sunday morning!

2010-12-06T16:18:00.002-06:00

I had to go to mall today to meet someone. I don’t go to the mall very much anymore. I don’t like to go to just shop and if I’m eating out, I can’t see going to the food court in the mall to get a good meal. But today, it was convenient to meet someone at the mall for a meal.
It’s Christmas time and everyone in Joplin was at the mall or trying to get there. (I know you are saying that’s an exaggeration – but it’s not, everyone was at the mall or trying to get there and it’s only December 2. What’s the rush?
But back to my pet peeve! I only go to the mall once every three months and that’s not to shop, oh yeah, we’ve all ready discussed this. I’m at the mall and it’s crowded out in the parking lot. Now, I’m not looking for the closest place to the mall, I’m just looking for a parking place, any place within 3 miles of the food court doors would be great. So, like any good mall parker, I sought out someone that was leaving the mall. They are easy to spot. They are walking away from the doors with packages in their arms, looking as if they had just spent their very last dollar and maybe they just had done that, I really don’t know, but it is obvious they are leaving.
So, I begin to stalk the shopper. I say stalk, but because that was what I was doing. I had to quickly turn from the parking isle I was in and race around to get behind this shopper. It is as if I in my car are providing protection for them incase a thief is lurking somewhere between cars to pounce upon her and steal all of her presents. So, I am there not just to get a parking place, I am providing a service to this very tired and poor mall shopper.
I am proud because not am I just coming to meet with someone, I’m providing protection for the weary and going to get a pretty good parking place.
We arrive at her car; you would think that it is obvious that I have in my car been slowly driving behind this person the entire time. She opens the back latch of her minivan; she takes every package and meticulously places each of them in the back of her car. After this, she slowly closes the back hatch, looks around at the warm sun and has to see that I have been protecting her this entire time.
Finally, she finds her keys, opens her car door, gets in the car and starts a 10 minute routine of: looking through her purse for her makeup bag, taking out some of the contents to now rearrange her eye makeup, lipstick, touch up a spot on her nose and fluff up her hair. Now she goes through her purse to check for her phone, which obviously has suddenly come alive with messages that she needs to take care of right now. Doesn’t she see me waiting patiently for the spot that I protected her for? She now answers a few of the messages, starts her car and rearranges her mirror, seat-belt and suddenly gets another call that has to be taken care of while her car is in reverse and she sets there with her foot on the brakes. Oh, if only I had parked on the other side of the mall.

Sunday Night Reflections

2010-11-14T20:07:00.003-06:00

Influence! We all have it, but how are you influencing. What a great day and sermon at C3 today. Bek Hannum spoke for us today and she did a great job of challenging us all that it's not about what we look like, but who we look like!
1. Do we Reflect the Word of God?
2. Do we Reflect the Grace of God?
3. Do we Reflect the Glory of God?
Well, do we?
Last week and this week were amazing at C3. Two baptisms last Sunday and another one today. I wished that I had the room to tell about two of these baptisms, of how God has been working in the people's lives and how they felt his moving in their prayers and lives to get them to where they are today. These stories are incredible and miraculous!
We've got two weeks left in our "Finish" series. These last two weeks we will get to see the very last written words of the Apostle Paul. Don't miss them.

Sunday Reflections

2010-11-02T10:21:00.002-05:00

Well, it happened: someone contacted me and made fun of me because I am always saying on here how awesome our worship, or our church is fantastic. They were waiting yesterday morning for a blog on how great things went on Sunday and I didn't get anything out.
Well, here it is: we had a great Sunday service. Well over 700 people here in worship, people bringing their burdens to Jesus and once again, we had over five families and individuals as new guest here at C3. Keep asking and inviting your family and friends to come and experience the power of the Holy Spirit here at C3. It is awesome!!!!
Then Sunday afternoon at the Fall Festival, we estimated somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 people attended. It was amazing to see all the people out in the parking lot and in the gym. The games were always full of people and children playing and receiving candy. The chili line was unbelievably long and the chili was excellent. The judges didn't want to open up the line and let others in on all the great chili! The visitors that were invited were having fun and you could see on the faces of everyone the joy of having a church that is so active in our community. What a night!
Here is a little video of the "hot dog gun."

Sunday Night Reflections

2010-10-24T20:46:00.002-05:00

Don't quit! Finish! Don't give up! These are the cries of an apostle to his young apprentice. Paul writes to Timothy and gives him in 2 Timothy 1:6 & 7, the advice of not letting his passion die out. Matt, did a great job today of giving us the answers of how we can let our passion and fire go out.
1. A lack of fuel will cause the fire to go out.
2. A lack of oxygen will cause the fire to go out.
3. The presence of foreign matter will cause the fire to go out!
Wow, he hit the nail on the head and we must wake up and check out life out. Are we daily spending time with God in reading His word to see His plan for our life. Are we praying constantly asking for His wisdom and guidance as we walk through this life. Are we letting the Holy Spirit take over our life and refresh and give us life? Get involved and feel the life of God flow through your veins. Finally, REPENT! Matt did an awesome job of pointing out that God's promise has always been that when His people will humble ourselves, repent and call upon the name of God, He will show up and save us, stir up our fire and refresh our life for Him.
Let God stir up your fire this week!

If God truly lives in you...

2010-10-21T08:36:00.003-05:00

Ask yourself this question, "If God truly lives in me, shouldn't I expect to be different from everyone else?" (Not my question I got it from someone else.) What a question? Really though, if you have the Holy Spirit, then shouldn't your life be totally different than everyone you work around that doesn't have the Holy Spirit? Shouldn't those people be so amazed at your peace and hope in life that they are constantly at your desk asking you how you do it? I mean, if the Holy Spirit is truly living in you, shouldn't He be shining out of you?
You see if we trust in God and let Him have us, we should be able to live in this world with self-control and the people around us will notice without us saying a word. Do you really have more joy than the person at the next desk? Or are you today fretting because your life today is hard? Yes, life is hard! It is hard for your neighbor, but shouldn't they see that when life is hard for you, they see something different in the way you handle it?
Right now, they (the world) is looking for peace and you have it right inside your body/life. But you've got to trust God with your life and then, He will shine out of you. "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13. There it all is: God is the source of our hope. But we've got to trust Him and then He will overflow in our lives. People will see a difference.
If God truly lives in you...

2010-10-20T08:41:00.002-05:00

At C3 we have started a new sermon series over the second letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the his "son in the faith", Timothy. We have called the series: "Finish". We would love for you to stop by on Sunday at either 9:00 or 10:30 am or you can catch it live at 10:30 am from our web site: cartervillechristian.com.
We are using the encouragement of the Apostle to remind ourselves that we must never give up or quit. The race of life isn't just to the fastest! No it's really the opposite. This life isn't a sprint, it's a marathon (26.2 miles) and for most of us it really is an Ultra-marathon (100 miles, yeah, I know what happened to just doubling the marathon - well some do, but the granddaddy is the 100 mile ultra marathon). And that is exactly what some of you reading this blog are thinking that you are in right now. You can't imagine that things can get any worse for you and you just don't see how you can take one more step in the right direction.
But Paul writes to Timothy and he encourages this young man with all kinds of things against him to not stop, to not give in and to not quit.
We love to watch the sprints at the track meets, they are exciting and they don't take much of our time to watch. But when it comes to the 2 mile, or all the cross country meets that I've witnessed (thanks Courtney), something else happens. Suddenly at the track or out on the course you realize that you are not there to just witness a race, you have to become a part of the race. Yes, you suddenly really that you have to yell and encourage the runners along. You can see because of the length of the race their faces and the agony that they are going through. When it's a sprint, you don't have time to see their face, watch the expression on their faces as they push themselves for one more step. Suddenly along the cross country course you catch yourself calling out the competitors that you don't know and you start encouraging them to not quit. You tell them that they are doing great and they can catch up to the next person. At a cross country course you even find yourself running from one part of the course to another to catch your child or the person on your team to give them another round of encouragement. After I witnessed Courtney's first cross country race, I also prepared myself for the race, by wearing my running shoes and sweats, because although I didn't run the course, I did run and it seemed to me that I had to run pretty close to the 3 miles that she ran. Why? To encourage her and the other runners along the course. I found myself not just cheering for her, but for her competitors, because I knew that they wanted to quit and quitting wasn't option.
We are all along the race course of life and it isn't a sprint. Some have lost their jobs and they are worried about the future and what it holds for their families. Who will pay the bills next month? Where will we get our insurance from? Some people have just been told that their wife or husband is leaving them. How will they tell the children? What will they do about the bills, they've never paid the bills? Who will show them the love that they so desperately need right now. There is sickness and disease. Death and darkness are stalking people all around us and Paul is shouting out to us: DON'T QUIT!
You maybe alone in your town trying to shine the light of Jesus: DON'T QUIT! You may have to be mother, father, bill payer and hall monitor tonight but: DON'T QUIT!
I can't promise light at the end of the tunnel. I'm not God, but I can stand on the course with you and encourage you that God is right there with you. I could never run with Courtney, which I'm sure she was happy about. (I would certainly slow her down.) It was against the rules, but there is one that runs with us everyday and through ever storm that we face. He hasn't left you and he is there encouraging you to not quit. Don't stop now, the prize will go to the person that simply stands up and runs five minutes longer. The race isn't over, it may have just begun so look up to Him and let Him guide you to the finish!

Sunday Reflections

2010-10-19T10:18:00.002-05:00

What another incredible weekend at C3! Once again the altar up front was filled with people coming at both services for prayer and guidance in their walk with Jesus. Please don’t forget all our people at C3 that are facing some great struggles in their lives.
Sunday afternoon a ton of people, (I couldn’t begin to count the number of people) that left C3 at 2:00 to go out and begin working on homes and yards in the Carterville area. It was incredible at the house where I was working. That house literally was transformed before my eyes. I couldn’t believe it when we were done. From the other house we received this e-mail: “I just wanted to drop a line to say thank you. I was fortunate enough to be one of the homes that your church family came to help today. It was a very humbling and also an awe-inspiring day to see that so many people cared. I am looking forward to bringing my family to come visit your church and get to know all of you better. I don't think I can say Thank You enough and I'm not sure if I can ever express how your church family touched our lives in such a profound way. Thank you a million times over.” That makes it worth all the time and effort.
From the Pastor’s Heart – THANK YOU C3!
As a church we have another opportunity here in just two weeks. Our Fall Festival will be on Sunday, October 31, from 4:00-6:00 pm. This is an opportunity for us to ask young couples that may not have a church home to come and have a great evening with us. There will be inflatables for kids, games for them to play; of course candy will be flowing freely. But for the adults there is a chili cook-off and of course the Hot Dog Gun is back. (I say that for the adults because there is always as many dads out there trying to catch hot dogs as there are children.) This evening is designed for you to ask a young couple to come and let their kids have an evening of fun without any hassles or dangers. Over the past two years we have seen families come and make C3 their home because of just this event. So, start now asking and inviting, sign up to be involved and watch what God can do with an evening of fun.
What I want you to know though, is this: We know here at C3 that all of our programming and events can in no way compare to what the power of God through the Holy Spirit’s anointing can do with us. In the first century the church didn’t grow like wildfire because of programming and events – NO! It grew and effected people by the movement of the Holy Spirit. So, right now, we are praying for God to anoint everything we do here at C3. From our Super Moms, to all our weekly Bible Studies, our Family Groups and Wednesday night Station 4:19 and Axis. We are asking God to anoint us with His power through our tragedies and through our victories of life. We want more than anything His anointing upon us even when our ideas don’t work as we like. But His power still reaches through and touches the lives of people that need Him. Come and let Him anoint you today and get going where God is moving. Hopefully all the rest of us at C3 will be right there with Him.

Sunday Reflections

2010-10-11T08:36:00.003-05:00

The past two Sundays here at C3 have been incredible. The last Sunday we had a great crowd of people and the amazing thing is that when we get crowded in auditorium, it seems to just ignite the worship and relationships in our church. Our Children's ministry is busting at the seams and we are every week exploring alternate plans on how to minister more effectively to our children and their families. It is exciting problems to have around here.
Please be praying for the leadership as we explore all the avenues that God seems to be opening up for us. We are working hard to cause some real physical things to start happening around here so that people can remain excited and enthusiastic about the anointing of God that is happening at C3.
Yesterday we saw two more people come to Jesus and name Him as their Lord and Savior. It is incredible to witness this almost every week.
We started our new series yesterday, "Finish". A series that will take us for a while through the second letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to his "son in the faith" Timothy. This week you can read the entire letter in about 30 minutes and see how Paul encouraged this young man to live so that the church and the city of Ephesus could see Jesus at work. This next week, we'll be looking at what Paul tells Timothy about his "remembrance" of Timothy and Timothy's faith.
But as I begin this week, I want to share a fear that I have for all of us. A fear that is constant with me as your pastor and leader up front. It isn't the fear of you falling away because of great sin, no I fear that what will happen to us is that we all will get so busy that this week we forget what God has called us to do. We get so busy with our chores, work and family activities that we take our eyes off the goal of us letting God use us to shine the light of Jesus into the hearts of people that are desperately searching for answers to the storms taking place in their lives.
Don't forget what Jesus said in John 16:33: first we can have peace, but that peace come truly only happen in Him. Secondly, we are all going to have troubles and sorrows, there is no escape from them, no matter if you are a faithful believer or not. Lastly, he promises that He has overcome so keep your faith and trust in the One that has been there before. Don't Quit!
Is your answer, YES? What's the QUESTION?

Sunday Reflections

2010-09-20T07:56:00.003-05:00

Wow! That's just one of the many things that were said about yesterday's services. The parking lot was so full that many, many people were parking out in the grass. People were coming forward for prayer and seeking to repent of selfishness and asking God to show them where they can serve here at CCC and in the world. Two baptisms in the second service, it was a fantastic morning.
Then yesterday afternoon a group of men that are leaders here at CCC met to pray and listen to the upcoming events and to dream about what else we need to do here at CCC. It was a great time together. One of the major dreams is that we need to provide more room for our nursery area, early-childhood area and much more room for our Station 4:19 and Axis ministries. So, we are praying as a group and ask you to begin praying on what we need to do. Build on looks like the first part of that dream. No matter how big we grow here, we first must begin to provide more room for our babies and children. Shane is putting around 90 people in the Axis room each Wednesday night and we are using every available room on Sunday morning as well as one closet - yes we have turned one of our storage closets into a place for the band to meet and pray before the services. These are some great problems but we need CCC to begin praying and asking God to give wisdom to the next few moves that we make that they are only made to and for the glory of God!
The Leadership of CCC do not want to miss the opportunities that God is bringing to this church and we certainly don't want these opportunities to become about us. We agreed unanimously that it is all about God and not about an individual or about a church. We are seeking God's glory and God's leading so please be in prayer as we set out to follow God into a raging river of growth and influence in our community.
Don't miss the next two Sundays. We will be preaching from the book of Acts on being a "Dangerous Church." Come and learn, come and be convicted by the Holy Spirit to be the church that Jesus died for!
"The Dangerous Church!"

Pursue the ONE

2010-09-13T07:52:00.003-05:00

According to the stats of 2008, Jasper County has right at 117,000 people. So, we have a great assignment before us. The George Barna group has said that in America, among the un-churched, of those asked only 4% responded to the invitation to come to church. 23% declined the invitation and 73% of the un-churched in our county last year were not asked to come to church.
We don't have to look very far to see that there are plenty of ONE's out there. The real question is have we experienced Jesus Christ and His grace in such a way that we will move to reach out to them.
As a person that has chosen to walk down "The Road Less Traveled" we must move from: "I haven't yet experienced Jesus in such a way that I'm willing to respond to this call." To: "In response to what Jesus has done for me, I am willing to tell others about Him." Where are you on the road? Pray over and plan on how you can talk to your ONE this week.

Sunday Night Reflections

2010-09-12T20:36:00.002-05:00

This is a broken record I know: but it was another fantastic day at C3! We had another great time of prayer together: today praying for THE ONE! In both services we had people coming forward asking for prayer for their lives so that they might be a witness to their families and to their ONE. We had another baptism of an adult, and what a crowd: final count isn't in yet, but we had close to 750 in church. What a day! Then tonight one of women's Bible Studies started at church and we had our Family Group Leaders' meeting. We are going to have a great fall of study and fellowship through our three women's Bible Studies, our Wednesday Night Men's Bible study and with all the Family Groups meeting throughout the week.
Let me encourage you to keep your focus on the ONE this week and let's see what the Holy Spirit will do in our lives to be able to see the open doors of opportunity to witness and to see how He moves in the ONE'S life!
Next week is going to be AWESOME at C3!

Sunday Reflections

2010-09-08T10:18:00.002-05:00

Sorry that this week's reflections is running a little late, but with the holiday, I got behind, I lead tonight at the men's Bible study, speak tomorrow morning at a local FCA meeting, and tomorrow afternoon I speak at the WC football devotions, so I've gotten a little behind.
But what a great Sunday we had here at C3! Many people have written and called about the anointing of the Holy Spirit that we experienced and felt here this past Sunday. When God's people do as God commanded in 2 Chron. 7:14, we humble ourselves as we did and we pray, God begins to move in the hearts of people. God is still moving through the stories and circumstances of disciples taking a road that is less traveled and serving the people around them. There is still plenty to do and more people than we can count that need to see Jesus in our lives, at work and simply living in our community. But it won't happen in our lives until we come to God constantly in prayer.
Jesus has promised us that when he left that he would send the Holy Spirit to be our Counselor and Guide. He even said in John 16:7, "it is best for you that I go away, because if I don't, the Advocate won't come." Just think of it, Jesus says that it's best for us that He go away. Why? Because then, He can send the Holy Spirit, to take over our lives and guide us and be with us. I know that we all think and have stated, that it would be so much better if Jesus was right here so we could see Him or feel Him. But Jesus himself says no! No! It is better for me to go, so that I can send the Holy Spirit.
We must realize that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, that He is here right now to empower us, use us and lead us to where He can use us the best. The Holy Spirit is leading here at C3, we must continue to ask to see Him and feel Him!
Have you felt Him today? Ask Him to reveal Himself to you and use you today!

Today's Thought

2010-09-02T20:33:00.001-05:00

This week, I have been consumed with speaking at OCC, the last night night at Axis and preparing for this Sunday here. For here all week, and at the end of last week, my focus has been on this Sunday where we are focusing on the prayer life of a disciple. I have realized that for the Holy Spirit to work we are going to have to be more than anything else a praying church. Our worship can be the very best, our technical issues and creative side of what we do can blow people away (two Sunday's ago we have 3 families visit, they came together and their comment as they were leaving was that the tech stuff here was amazing and they loved it), we can have the best preaching around, but with out people in prayer, without the moving of the Holy Spirit we accomplish all this by our own efforts.
Please be praying that the Holy Spirit will be moving to heal our sick, to use them as witnesses wherever they are. To heal our broken families, it is amazing how many of our families are suffering with bad relationships, work situations, financial problems, they are being torn apart and they are making bad decisions. We have many people right now dealing with sins that they are refusing to deal with or let the Holy Spirit move in their lives. We need more things around here to make what we do in our minds more effective, but more than anything we need the Holy Spirit to move.

"If the Holy Spirit moves, nothing can stop Him. If He doesn't move, we will not produce genuine fruit--no matter how much effort or money we expend. The church becomes irrelevant when it becomes purely a human creation." Francis Chan

Men's Bible Study

2010-08-30T13:12:00.003-05:00

Men of CCC: on Wednesday, September 8, we will start our fall Men's Bible Study at Chatter's in Webb City. Don't miss this study and discussion time about learning to get through the tough stuff that life brings our way.
We'll discuss how to get through the temptations that we face, anxiety, doubt and other tough situations that we face. We will start our study at 6:30 so that we are done by 7:15 and can head back to church to pick children or head home to be with our families before bed time.
See you at Chatter's, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 6:00 p.m.

Need Some Room...

2010-08-29T21:15:00.003-05:00

CCC we need your help. For the past three years we have been growing like wild. We have added staff, we have added part-time staff, we have added an extra service and we have grown, grown, grown. It has been amazing to see people coming week after week to worship and study God's word. It has been refreshing to see the people of CCC asking their family and friends to come and worship with them. We have had some incredible Sundays with multiple baptisms week after week. We have been over 1,000 people twice, and now we are consistently going over 700. Our problem is this: we are out of room for our children. We have asked adult classes to move to other rooms over and over. Those adults classes every time have had the spirit of God and have moved with great joy, but now we are out of room.
We need to do something. I want to ask you to be in prayer - big time prayer. We need to get some rooms and we need them soon. Prayer for wisdom and a way to get some modulars for our church. Right now, there doesn't seem to be any money available, so we are asking God to show us His incredible power to supply when we have nothing to give to Him. If we could put two modulars on our parking lot we could make more room for our Sunday School classes for children to grow. (This morning our 3 year old class had 33, 3 year olds - that's incredible.) Pray!
The Road Less Traveled is Traveled by People on their Knees!

Don't Waste Your Life...

2010-08-26T14:08:00.002-05:00

Being the chaplain of a football team is a great opportunity. Not only to stand on the sidelines and see the game up close and personal, but to hear some of the plays before the team gets to hear them, to see the looks on the faces of young men as they accomplish a great goal is incredible and to see the potential of young men come out on the field.
Sometimes you are able to be there when some great things happen or are said. I remember standing next to the coach as he watched one young man. He started shaking his head as if he were disgusted. This young man, a great picture of potential and power was just not getting it. He looked at me, knowing that I had senses his emotion and saw him shaking his head. He said, "That boy has a ton of potential and he just won't use it! If I could just get him to use his full potential he would be a champion, possibly helping this team to be a championship team. But he just won't use all of his potential."
I know that this is something that we say about so many individuals when looking at their lives of work and sports. But as the coach walked away it hit me that maybe that is what God is trying to tell us so often. We preach and warn about people messing up their lives with sin and not ever fully being used by God because of that sin. We plead with them, we try to make the angry, we ourselves become angry with other people's sin. But the reality is this: I wonder if God sometimes doesn't look at us with the same thoughts of this coach. Are we truly living out the potential that God created us with? Sin is wrong, bad for us, but I wonder if sometimes we've hidden behind sin for not living out what God has created in us. When in reality, it isn't sin, but our own laziness or fear of what might happen that stops us.
God has created us to do great things. Why don't we accept that and run out into the game so that we can give God our best. It won't be sin that will stop the church, it will be our complacency and unwillingness to go and risk it all that will stop us. Get off the bench and do something. Fail if you must, but do something.
"Playing it safe - is risky!"

Sunday Night Reflections

2010-08-22T21:15:00.003-05:00

What an incredible day at CCC! WOW is all I can say. This morning we had over 750 people in church today. What an incredible number. It started with a great Minute to Win It game between Matt and myself! It was hard to say who won, even with the stop action video.
Today we started the first week of Five Marks of a Disciple in The Road Less Traveled Series. The first one: A Heart for Jesus is a must if we are going to chose to follow Jesus in discipleship. A heart that is totally sold out to letting Jesus have everything in your life. We will move on to looking at our Mind for Christ, our Love for Christ, our Life of Prayer and finally our Service for Christ. The next five weeks are incredible for our lives as disciples. Be here and start your walk down The Road Less Traveled, find out a life of excitement and joy.

Sunday Reflections

2010-08-09T14:34:00.002-05:00

Wow! God did it again! If you weren't here at CCC yesterday, you missed another incredible day. We once again had people coming forward seeking prayer and guidance, people taking a stand for the Lordship of Jesus in their lives and the wonderful miracle of new birth that we got to witness was awesome. We had made plans for Kennadi (one of our high school kids) to come forward to have her dad, David baptize her, but what a joy when Wayne and Jack saw the need in their hearts to make Jesus Christ the Lord of their hearts.
I once again have to tell you all, you just don't understand how awesome it is to stand before you when we offer the invitation for souls to come up and name Jesus as their Lord and you see a grandpa make his way down to the front and in tears say that he wants Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. To watch a granddaughter's prayers being answered, what an amazing sight.
But it all happens because a granddaughter had all ready made Jesus her Lord and she was going to do all that she possibly can do to let her family see this new life that she shares with her husband and daughter.
Over the next seven weeks we are going to be looking at what Jesus has said about being His disciple. It will mean totally giving up yourself and your will to Him. That will take all the trust that you have to let him have your life. But you'll never truly experience what real abundant life is all about until you let Him have you.
Don't miss any of these sermons. Don't miss the chance to bring someone in your family to CCC this next Sunday. Don't miss out on the experience of seeing people come to Jesus and naming Him as their Lord and Savior!
Don't miss it!

VBS Videos Outtakes

2010-07-21T13:19:00.000-05:00

Hey, if you haven't seen the outtakes from Hero Headquarters here they are.

Sunday Night Reflections

2010-07-18T20:45:00.003-05:00

I know that all of you that have been reading my blogs are probably wanting me to say something else, but: once again, it was a fantastic day and week at CCC. We had our VBS this week: Hero Headquarters and it was fantastic. I can't say enough about my staff here at CCC. Stacey, Miranda, Gwen, Eva and all the children's workers are amazing. Our actors for the week: Ryan, Gala and Wade got into their parts and they worked hard behind the stage, out in the hallways greeting kids and on the stage to teach the lesson every night. All the nursery workers - watching and loving all the volunteers' babies and changing all those diapers, thank you so very much for taking the pressure off all the volunteers. Oh, and the kitchen workers, wow what a great job they did. Some of us are going to be missing them this next week, when suppertime rolls around. The meals were fantastic. Keith and the tech crew did a great job! All the videos and the actors in the videos (by the way you can check them all out on on YouTube channel) they all did a great job!
But the greatest part of it all was the fact that after a week of lessons on unnamed heroes, all the kids and volunteers became heroes! Katie, one of our adults that was helping and watching came forward Friday night to be baptized by Matt. What a great night, what a great week! Sorry, but I've got to say it over and over, CCC and all the people of this church, God is blessing you and this community. I just got a note from Honduras from one of our members that is down there serving right now - "thanks for cleaning up her yard while she and her son are serving God there!" What a great church!
But CCC is a great church because in the midst of all these great things, Satan is attacking and striking out to destroy so many of our family and friends. In the midst of all these attacks, family and friends are surrounding them with prayer and encouragement. People are rising up to meet the attacks by the power of the Holy Spirit.
What a day! We aren't sure yet on how many people were here today, but wow weren't those hot dogs and hamburgers great today!!!!

Sunday Night Reflections

2010-07-11T21:02:00.005-05:00

Well, it's been a couple of weeks and what a couple of weeks it has been. We have felt here at C3 the up front attacks of Satan and his demons. But in the midst of his great attacks we have been able to come together as a family and kingdom warriors and see God do some incredible work.
God has helped us all realize how precious life is. With the lose of a great friend and leader we begin to see that Satan will use anything to get to us. We have had to come together again and again to remind ourselves that we are constantly under attack by Satan to destroy us and the church, Rev. 12:17. (But we have relied over and over on Christ's promise that the gates of hell can't defeat the church.) Tonight during our prayer time for our week of VBS, we were reminded by one of the people there that if Satan isn't really bothering us, we are really bothering him.
A group of people gathered tonight to pray as the church was a buzz with workers getting rooms together, the drama people practicing and the band working hard to get every song ready for this week. It is amazing to see all the people working so hard for this big event.
Please be praying for C3 this next week. There will be a bunch of kids and well over 120 workers every night here at the church.

Sunday Night Reflections (Monday evening)

2010-05-31T19:46:00.000-05:00

Don’t you love it when you have church and God shows up? That’s what happened at CCC yesterday. Our Christian Atheist series has been great! A Christian Atheist is a person that says they believe in God but they don’t know Him. Yesterday we addressed the issue of saying that we believe in God, but we don’t trust Him with out money, a huge problem in the church today. A problem because if we never trust Him with our money, how can we truly serve Him when we have made our money and stuff our master instead of Him?
But really what made CCC great was that four people came forward to call upon Jesus as their Lord and Savior and be baptized. I mean how many times have you been to church where the sermon is about us managing our money, turning it all over to God and people come forward to call upon Jesus as their Lord and Savior?
But if you missed church it was awesome when the invitation during both services, people started coming forward to lay their offerings on the stage. It was incredible, some people where dancing up the isles to lay down their offering to God. It was a tremendous time of sharing and praising God.
Make sure you watch it on the podcast, it was a moving day at CCC.

Sunday Night Reflections

2010-05-24T08:20:00.003-05:00

I know that I sound like a broken record, but it was another incredible day at CCC! Andrew Kirshner, a prof. at Ozark Christian College and a member of our church did our speaking. He spoke on: "A Christian Atheist Believes in God, but Doesn't Trust Him!" What a great topic for Andrew. He is a great witness to people that are totally against God. His knowledge for the word and culture is incredible.
As I listen and was convicted in my own heart to be a person that more and more "kills myself" daily, I realized how many of us setting right there listening were holding on to our lives and saying that God wasn't fair to us. So, men: I know so many of your are holding on to the feeling that God isn't fair and you are using it to keep your wounds of crisis, comparison and Christian exclusivism fresh and as a wall to not turning your life over to God.
This entire series is really just that - letting go and turning your life over to God. We must start with self-crucifixion! If we don't let God have us, we'll never experience his grace and mercy. But we will someday truly experience His fairness and justice!
What a day with Michele coming forward to join the church and Tarah and Kenneth stepping out to be baptized into Jesus.

"Accountability"

2010-05-20T11:13:00.004-05:00

"Accountability" is a "hot topic" in the church today. It's been that way for about 30 years now. But I'm afraid that in the church we still haven't gotten the idea and action down. God almost always spoke to His people through one man or woman, but those people usually had someone that was keeping them in contact with the real world, the spiritual world and purpose that God had designed for them.
So, if we are going to have accountability, let me suggestion 5 steps of Accountability for us:

1. Trust someone else with out weakness!
What we are doing when we have someone that we deem as our accountability partner, is letting them in on our weaknesses. That’s why it is so hard. We don’t want anyone to know that in our lives there might be a weakness. Yet, to achieve growth in our lives, it only happens when we admit our weaknesses and start letting God use people and circumstances to overcome them.
2. Get into the Word!
(You knew that this one was going to have to be in here somewhere. So, why not get it out of the way soon.) In reality, the only way we can see our weaknesses for what they truly are is to see what God has to say about them. Also, somehow the Holy Spirit is the only one that can take our reading and discussing God’s Word and turn it into strength for our lives. We experienced this over the past 4 months at CCC. We were as a church reading through the Bible together and the testimonies of strength and growth has been phenomenal. People are seeing that as individuals and as families that God is doing incredible things through just reading His Word.
3. Find someone who will be honest with you.
(This is what our marriages are supposed to be about also – having a spouse that is open to communicate with us honestly.) Find someone that you can look at in the eye and ask them: “If you could tell me anything (might be good to start with just one thing) about myself and you knew that I would not react back, but accept responsibility and begin working on this, what would it be?” Honesty is the secret to growth in relationships!
4. When you are facing a hard time – take someone with you, never go alone.
In kindergarten we were taught to never cross the street alone. Why do we think that when we are older that the problems we face should be faced alone? We need help in facing our problems. It maybe having to go someplace that we know will cause us temptation beyond our power to withstand, but we have to go – take someone with you. It maybe a storm of life that is just too hard to face alone, take someone with you. Don’t go it alone, we’ll certainly fall.
5. Don’t let the guilt/failure of your past life take you down!
Too many of us are failing because we haven’t let go of our past. We let it determine our experiences of the present and future. If you’ve had a hard time being a good parent or spouse, stop and find someone who can help you deal with the past and look to how today and tomorrow you are going to be better. Then let the failure of yesterday go! Jesus came to die for our sins, let him do it! Forgive yourself and then you can begin to forgive others and see God move in your life.

Great Story

2010-05-19T10:53:00.003-05:00

I usually don't do this, but this to me is an incredible story and I want to share with you all.
Note: This story was written during and immediately after the recent Masters golf tournament.

For the past few days, while I tried to enjoy one of the greatest golf tournaments in the world, all I was entertained with was the Tiger Woods show. As soon as one golfer hit a tee shot or made a putt, it seemed that the next view would be that of Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods just missed a putt that would have put him in contention with the other golfers. Tiger Woods, hooking his drive, which showed how his time off had hurt his game. Tiger Woods, trying to "respect" the game. How it seemed that the Tiger was able to put his past transgressions behind him and was able to concentrate on the job at hand. It just kept going on and on about Tiger this and Tiger that.

On the other hand, a little miracle was occurring at the Masters: one golfer just kept smiling. He smiled if he made a good drive, or if he made a bad drive. He smiled if he made a 50-foot putt or missed a 5-foot putt. As he walked between holes, he smiled and shook hands with the crowd. He never cursed a bad stoke or blamed another person for a miss. All he did was smile.

Why would Phil Mickelson be smiling? Here is a man whose wife has breast cancer, a man whose mother has breast cancer. Here is a man who, rather than allow his wife and mother to fight this battle by themselves, took time off from the PGA tour to be with them. Here is a man, who returned to the game he loved only when his wife ordered him to. Here is a man, who is so glad for the miracle that's happening, as his wife moved closer to a cure, that he rewarded her oncologist by allowing him to be his guest caddy at last week's golf tournament. This move, which could have cost Mickelson thousands of dollars in prize money, was his gift to a man he knew he could never thank enough for what he had given to Phil and his wife.

During the last round today, Phil's wife was staying in their hotel room, since she was still weak from the chemo treatments she is receiving. Phil did not know, as he walked up to the 18th tee, that his wife would be there. All Phil did was smile. He smiled to the crowd, he smiled to the TV audience, he smiled to God. After his last putt found the bottom of the hole, winning the tournament, Phil hugged his caddy and others, and he walked to the scorer's shack. He then gave the biggest smile of the whole four days, because he saw his wife standing there, cheering for him. He hugged and kissed her and held her tight. Even in the midst of thousands of people, it seemed as though only the two of them where there, tears streaming down their cheeks.
---

Tomorrow I am going to smile. I am going to smile whether it is nice weather or bad. I am going to smile at the driver, who honks his horn at me, or the driver, who cuts me off. I am going to smile if I get the order or not. And when the day is done, I am going to save my biggest smile for the person, who makes me complete. Then I am going to look to the heavens and give thanks for being able to smile.

Sunday Night Reflections

2010-05-17T08:19:00.003-05:00

Another great day at CCC! We have started our sermon series: "The Christian Atheist." A series that confronts the fact that as Christians we come to church, we say we are believers and most of the time there are certain events that we get involved with that make us look good to our family, certain friends or co-workers, but in reality, we really don't know God. Knowing God is what he calls us to throughout the Bible. Our problem is this: we say we believe, but in reality we don't trust God with certain areas of our lives. You can chose the area of your life that you don't trust God with and it instantly makes you a "practical atheist". You say you believe, but you don't trust Him with your faith, you money, you time and you certainly don't want to be a part of the church. When we do this - we make up the rules for following Jesus and we saw yesterday that that just doesn't work.

Don't forget if you are out of town, or can make it to church you can check out CCC live on Sunday mornings at 10:30 am on live.cartervillechristian.com. Three Sundays ago, one of our men that works as a fireman had to be at the firehouse on Sunday morning, so he set up his laptop, got out the firehouse video projector and invited the guys in the room to watch his church services with him. Yesterday one of the men came to church with Joe and at the end of the service came forward and simply explained that he needed Jesus. What a great testimony of this young fireman that simply wants Jesus in his life and realizes that Jesus isn't a part of his life or heart. What a great testimony of Joe, who stepped out of the box with us here at CCC and invited some guys to watch his home church with him. Wil, you've got a great friend in Joe and a great future with God in your life. Invite a family member to watch at home and then come with your to CCC this next Sunday.

Sunday Night Reflections

2010-05-09T20:24:00.002-05:00

What another incredible day at CCC! 791 in attendance on Mother's Day 2010. It was fun to watch our children singing for Mother and Matt hit what we call in the ministry world - "A Home Run!" God was moving in people's lives as they were coming forward seeking prayer and guidance from the elders.
And when we shared about the work that we are going to be doing in Nashville, you the people of CCC responded in a great way. We had close to $1500 given to take to Nashville to use for the North Point Community Church and three more people volunteered to make the trip tomorrow with the group that is all ready going. It is going to be an incredible time of service and sacrifice for those people. Please keep the team in your prayers this week as they travel and serve in Nashville. We'll getting a report from them next Sunday.
And next week we start a whole new sermon series: The Christian Atheist. Don't miss it, it is gong to challenge us to truly live out our faith the way God has called us to live. Please invite your family and friends for this series.

Sunday Night Reflections

2010-05-02T21:01:00.002-05:00

Wow! I feel like I say that every Sunday after a great day at CCC. But once again, it was an incredible Sunday. Brad and the Band did a great job for worship, they helped set up the message and atmosphere for hearing God’s voice. Sy’s communion meditation did an awesome job of helping us see communion for what Jesus meant for it to be.

Are you ready? That is the message of the last book of the Bible: “Are you ready?” Are you ready for the seconding coming of Jesus? In Acts 1:11, after Jesus has ascended into heaven, while the disciples stood in amazement, angels appeared to the men there and asked them one simple question: “What are you looking for?” They were looking to see Jesus! They were looking to see if would return, but he wasn’t coming back down. The angels told them to go and obey His words of being His witnesses and gave them the one promise that they lived by for the rest of their lives: “He will return!”

Are you ready? It maybe today! It maybe tomorrow, but he is coming back. Are you ready?

Sunday Night Reflections

2010-04-25T15:32:00.004-05:00

What another awesome day at CCC! I know some of you get tired of me saying that - so, you simply need to come and experience a Sunday morning with us and you'll understand. Again today God blessed us with a great crowd of enthusiastic worshipers. It was awesome to hear everyone singing and worshiping God. Two of our teens stepping forward at the end of the second service to be baptized, what a day! That makes close to 30 so far this year! But the humbling experience is to watch so many people coming forward for prayer and rededication of their lives to Jesus. So, many people with addictions and attacks from Satan and to watch them come to the altar and pray for God to move in their lives to heal their families and to give them strength to fight their addictions. What a day!
Don't forget, this was the second week in a row that we live streamed the worship service and the sermon. If you are out of town or can't get to church on Sunday morning but are where you can get around your computer or iPhone, you can watch the service live. Just go to http://live.cartervillechristian.com and you'll be able to watch it as it happens. That is awesome!

Sunday Reflections!

2010-04-18T21:29:00.003-05:00

What a day at CCC! Again there were baptisms, people coming forward for prayer and rededication and just an awesome worship experience.
But these were not the most incredible experiences that took place today at CCC. This afternoon, a large group of people from CCC met to go out around the Carterville/Webb City area to help people with various yard work and home improvement projects. I was a part of two groups and what a great time it was. One large group of people descended upon a home that had two lots of yard work that needed to be done. What a great time it was, but the real experience was not just the work that was going on, but it was watching the cars that drove by very slowly and watched as all the people were working on the yard. A couple stopped and asked what was going on and joked about being able to get us to come over to their yard and working at their house. A couple asked about who was doing the work and why? You see serving other people always draws a crowd of people that cannot truly comprehend that other people just love to help out.
At the other project that I was involved in was at a house where one of our family groups of young couples were working to build a walking ramp up into the house of a very elderly couple that could hardly get up the steps of their house. It took much longer than they expected, but it was a joy to be there with them and to watch and help as these young men worked hard to help out a couple that could of very easily been their grandparents. The woman was overwhelmed with the kindness as she watched from the chair on her back porch. When finally done, the guys knew that they had made a difference in a couple’s life that will help them enjoy life in their late years. (This couple has never claimed Jesus as their Lord and Savior and so this made the work even more important for this family group. I know that they truly hope that their unselfish love and service will help this couple call upon Jesus as their Lord.)
What a day at CCC! People loving God, loving others and serving the world! We did it again!

Easter Sunday 2010

2010-04-14T12:23:00.002-05:00

What a great day! Resurrection Sunday 2010 was phenomenal! One lady told us that it was the greatest Sunday she has ever had because her son said he would go to church with her on Easter Sunday, but they had to come to C3 and not any other church. She, he and his wife attended for the first time on Easter and she was blown away with all that took place.
We had 1188 people! Of course I keep saying that somewhere we must of over looked at least 12 people, weren’t their some sleeping babies that didn’t get counted? We had 12 baptisms and people coming for prayer, it was awesome. We planned and planned, our people were in place out in the parking lot, greeters where all over the building, the Guest Services Center was manned and ready to go with volunteers excited and anticipating a great day. And a great day it was.
For the first ever, we had three services and they went off without a hitch. Well, of course if you mean without hitch you don’t count in the second service (our biggest with over 500 people in it alone) when someone flipped a breaker and the entire place went black for a split second. It took at least 4 to 5 minutes for all the computers to reboot, all the screens come back on, but no one seemed to notice as people were coming forward and people were praying with them and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.
What a day! And here’s the vision for every Sunday after that – we want to repeat it all over again and again. Yes, we are excited as leadership that God is wanting to continue to bring people to C3 for revival in their lives. As a staff we all made calls on all our visitors the entire week afterwards and we found that every person that was our guest and signed up at the Guest Services table wanted to come back or more information about C3. We are excited because this means that we are going to have to have more volunteers in our children’s area (by the way there were over 140 babies through 4 year olds for the entire morning), add another classroom space for them and then take a look at making some changes in our Station 4:19 for the fall. All this says: EXCITEMENT!
So, if you are attending C3 and you’re not involved, give us a call at the office and get signed up to help in the nursery, children’s education area, Station 4:19 or with the Axis Student Ministry. Some great things are going to be happening and you can be a part of it all!

2010-02-15T13:31:00.000-06:00

From this Sunday’s Epic sermon, we had the opportunity to see The Beginning of the Journey. God telling Moses that it is time for him to lead the people of Israel to the land the He had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But God told Moses that He would not go with them. He knew what the people of Israel were like and he would destroy them because of their rebellious nature and their stubborn hearts.
Moses made his plea to God and God responded with agreeing to go. He agreed to show his favor upon Moses and upon His people. He even agreed to show his glory to Moses. Now, not all of His glory, for to see God face to face, no man could live from that, but only to see God has He had passed by.
But from that something incredibly important happened to Moses.
When you look into Exodus 34, you see what happens when we experience the glory of God.
In Exodus 34:8, after Moses has gone back up on the mountain and once again received the tables of testimony, he throws himself down before God in worship. In v. 29, Moses comes down the mountain and he so moved with humility that he doesn’t even know what has happened to himself. (I would guess that is because he is so much awe of Jehovah God and no longer looks at himself.) In v. 29, we read about his outward appearance change. Moses didn’t recognize it because of his humility but the people certainly did. And it caused a fear among Aaron and the people. Finally in v. 34-35, Moses has now a special relationship with God. A relationship that God desired with his creation since Adam and Eve, and He still desires today.
But the real question is: do we want to experience God like that? Do we want to be so close to him that his power changes us so drastically, that even when we don’t realize it, all of our family, friends and co-workers can see it and are moved by it? Do we want a relationship that causes us to place our gaze upon God and never take it away?
Well, we’ll have to do some evaluating just like Moses did. “If you are going to send us, that’s fine, but don’t send us unless you go with us.” Are you ready to say that? You had better be!

Our Vision

2010-02-15T08:40:00.002-06:00

Since we are moving into our third week of B90X, into the third week of the sermon series: The Epic, I thought that it was time to remind us of a few things here at C3.
The Leadership of C3 desires that the people of this church grow deeper and deeper into God’s word and deeper in their relationship with God. The way to do that is to dig into the word of God, pray to Him about our life’s needs, about the community of people around us and about our relationship with Him/Jesus/the Holy Spirit. We desire that we all find peace in the grace that God gives us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Along with the depth that we desire for every person that comes into this church and leaves this church to serve on a daily basis is that we don’t forget our mission. We want every person to experience a deep love for God! A love so deep: God describes it like this: that love Him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our body, all of our strength. He just didn’t leave anything out; he left no relationship stone unturned. God calls us to uncompromised love and service to Himself. We have read in our B90X reading that God told the Israelites that He was a jealous God, one that didn’t want any other gods to be worshiped! We want this church to be one that people can see, hear and feel from us that we love God more than anything else in this world.
We also, pray that the people of this church will begin to love the people that are their neighbors, their co-workers and every person that they come in contact with. As we strive to let the Holy Spirit take over our lives He will direct us to people and situations that will let people see in us something different. He will shine out His light to people that have been blinded by the things of this world and with that light he will draw them to Himself because in our lives we will be loving Him and the world.
With that kind of love, we pray that we will be overtaken by an urge to serve those people around us. Our families will be made better because of our love and service to them. Our neighbors will notice a service that we extend to them for no other reason than the fact that we care about people. Our co-workers will notice something different about us. May they see that our attitudes about work and about the people around us are different.
C3 is striving to simply let the world see Jesus! We want to love God with all of our hearts, love others as if they were our own bodies and to serve the world wherever we can find a place to serve. The world will notice, the world will respond to God!

B90X: Stick With It!

2010-02-11T11:02:00.003-06:00

Well, we are in the middle of the second week of B90X. We've just got done with the slow part of Numbers and are entering into a part where we see people acting just like us today. Or is it that we act just like them?
You have to listen to God and obey Him. He knows the path of your life and we can only find protection when we go along with Him on that path. So, let me encourage you to dig in this week. This is a section of scripture that people give up on and let their reading drop. KEEP IT UP! YOUR DOING GREAT!
Let me share a word that we got from one of our men that works at "Turn Around Ranch" here in Joplin, MO. He is working with boys that are definitely having a hard time adjusting to life and have gotten themselves into some pretty major trouble. But Charlie had this to say: "Hey just wanted to let you know... I took some of the B90x cards to work and let the boys have them. They are going nuts! There are 5 of them that are on track and doing it on their own. They have asked me questions for clarity and 1 is even reading ahead! You might share that as an encouragement to everyone else. There are young men who are being affected by CCC... time to celebrate!"
Yes it is! We are hearing from people from all over the country that are reading with us and watching the sermons on line to keep with what has been read during the week. Tell you friends, share with them what God is doing in your life because are you doing one of the simplest things we can do as a follower of Jesus Christ - reading the Word of God!
Keep it up! On to day 12 for me.

B90X

2010-02-05T15:03:00.005-06:00

Well, this past Monday, Feb. 1, the people of Carterville Christian Church started reading a very intense Bible reading program, entitled: B90X. We didn't think it up, but the idea of this very intense reading program comes from the very popular and intense excercise program right now: P90X. The excerise program takes you through a very intense excercise program everyday of the week to help you lose weight, build muscle and get in better life shape. The program is very hard and intense with the object of shocking your body into submission and eventually into better shape.
Well, B90X is a very intense reading program that takes you through the Bible: Genesis to Revelation in 90 days. Yes, that's intense. We have asked out people to accept this challenge and to set time aside everyday to read the portion of the Bible for that day that will get us all closer to the end - reading the Bible in 90 days.
We are getting back some tremendous testimonies of our people that for this first few days they are loving it. They are setting aside time and reading and finding little jewels from the Word of God that they have never seen or heard before.
Now, here is another incredible thing: our Children's Minister is in the process of taking the program and working it down for their children's minister here at CCC. They aren't reading the entire Bible, but they are reading various sections each day that will help them move through the Bible so that when their parents are done with their reading of the Bible in 90 days the child would of read through the Bible also.
It has been a great five days so far reading and listening to our people talk about what they are learning. Also, check out our web site, you can down load the reading program and the sermons each week that will go along with a section of the Bible that was just read from the past week! CCC is on fire!!!!

Sunday Reflections!

2010-01-24T19:38:00.002-06:00

Wow! What a day at CCC! Another baptism of one of the men of CCC! The numbers aren't in yet, but one of the largest crowds that we've for a Sunday that isn't a special day that we've every had. The numbers are going to have to be close to 700! What a great worship with the CCC band and then on top of that - tonight we started a couple of new studies at the church building.
Our Financial Peace University group met for the first time tonight and there was 100% attendance of the people that signed up. As a matter of fact: today at church three more couples signed up and were there tonight. Just think about how this is going to change their lives and families forever.
Then tonight was the first night of our study: "How to Study the Bible". It was great to see the people that were in the Axis room to learn about "How to Study the Bible". Tonight it was lead by Doug Aldridge, professor at OCC. Those students are going to love learning how to dig into the word and put it to practice.
It was exciting to see the numbers of people just standing around and visiting and introducing our guest to other people. We have been talking as a staff and leadership for a long time about being a church that strives to have "It!" We desire and pray to be the church that has the power and love of the Holy Spirit flowing through everything that we do. It means that we have to strive to keep our focus on loving God with all of our hearts, souls and strength. It means that we have to keep loving people just like we love ourselves and like today - (one of our small groups were out during the first service fixing breakfast at Watered Gardens) we need to be serving the world!
What a day at CCC!

The Elephant in the Room!

2010-01-08T12:36:00.003-06:00

Okay, it's time to talk about Elephant in the room. Have you heard that expression before? It's when there is a problem and no one wants to talk about it, but the problem is as big as an elephant standing right there in the room with you. You can't ignore it! It's pushing you around and you sooner or later for your mental and physical health have to address it.
Here it is: Have you noticed how cold and snowy it is? Okay, okay, give me a break, it's winter time and I'm watching weather.com right now and it's telling me that it's now 3 degrees outside, while out my window it is snowing again.
Let's talk about that elephant. You all that are hating this weather - Jayme, I'm talking to you right now. Let's don't forget that back 6/7 months ago, you were cursing the weather for how hot it was. I don't like being cold, but I love to watch it snow! I think snow and lightning are two of God's most incredible creations.
I'm afraid that because we have grown up, we adults have lost our "wonder" of nature and what God has done to show us that he is truly there and in charge.
I know the elephant is large and very cold right now. But take the time to think back when all that mattered was that it was snowing and that meant playing in it and getting out of school. I may have to work, I may not like to be out there anymore, but as I watch it snow, I remember some great times when nothing mattered but that afternoon up on Amos Hill and we were sledding until we couldn't move any more. Nothing mattered and the elephant was sledding with us!

Here's a Question:

2010-01-06T14:36:00.002-06:00

Here's a question for you, well let me say this first. As I begin 2010, I have some directions that I want to go. I want to be a better father and husband, a much better preacher and church leader. I want to be a better fisherman and I would love to get out doors more to enjoy God's great earth. But for each one of these goals, directions of dreams that I've got, I have to ask myself one big and great question: (Here you go, here's your question too.) "Am I doing anything today to get me closer to where I want to be tomorrow?" Wow! That begins to take my dreams, my goals, my desires for my personal life and family, my hopes for CCC and for reaching people that do not have Jesus in a totally different light. What did I do today to help me become a better father and husband? Am I willing to go home tonight and spend time in talking to my children about the important things of life? Am I willing to put my feelings and needs to the side to take care of Jayme and make sure that her life is secure and that she knows that I love her with all my heart. Did I truly open my heart today to the leading of the Holy Spirit in study and prayer. Did I take a closer look at my dreams for CCC and wonder what did I really do today to get one step closer to seeing them become a reality.
What did you do today, to get to where you want to be tomorrow? Maybe you've never thought of it, or you've just wishfully thought of some of the same issues, but what are you doing today? Make a list of the things that you want to see happen in your life. Both spiritually and physically. Write them, share them with someone else and then today start doing something. Don't just make the plan, plan to start doing something today.
"What are you doing - right now - to get closer to where you want to be tomorrow?" If you don't see me around, I'm out doors doing something probably with my children and always with my God!

Dreams for 2010

2010-01-05T14:59:00.003-06:00

Last year, as we began 2009, I shared with CCC my dreams for this church. Dreams that I and the staff have been working on all year long. Dreams that we talk about every week in our staff meetings and dreams that we go out of this building everyday and talk with our neighbors and people that we meet on the street. These dreams eat me up. They cause me to lose sleep at night. These dreams are with me everyday of my life. I don't go on vacation without thinking about these dreams. I ask myself at night, "Did I do anything today to help me accomplish my dreams?" I ask God to give me wisdom with these dreams, to not just make them my dreams alone, but to share with my heart and mind His dreams, so that I might live out his will in my life daily.
What are these dreams? Well, here they are, read them with me. Ask God to help you make them your dreams for CCC.
• I want to see the people of CCC fall madly in love with Jesus.
• I want to see this church become a place where people without Jesus flock to because of the grace that they experience here. Bringing more and more people to Jesus every month.
• I want to see families come here with their children and students because here parents know that their babies, children and students will be taken care of and taught the good news of Jesus.
• I want to see our Children’s Ministry grow to be the best in the 4-State area.
• I want our 70% of our people involved in our C3 Family Groups.
• I want the other 30% to either be involved in serving the community through CCC or serving here on a regular basis.
• I want to see CCC become the place where people can come and be trained in the arts, job & professional skills all to be used to the glory of God and to the increasing of His Kingdom.
• I want to see people that are hurting because of bad choices in life to come here and receive the counseling and love that they were meant to receive in the first place as a child of God.
• I want to see us take pride in our facilities: by paving the parking lot, expanding our existing facilities to handle larger crowds and events for the church and for the community.
• I want to see a Missions’ Ministry at CCC that is investing into the lives of our students and adults by offering multiple opportunities of cross-culture experiences as well as inner city trips to help minister to people lost and hurting by life’s situations.
• I want to see CCC continually planning on adding staff, both paid and volunteer to minister to this church and to the 4-State area.
• I want to see our Axis Minister (Student Ministry) become the premier ministry to junior high and high school kids in this area.
• I want to see volunteers in our Axis Ministry that can take our Students to a deeper and deeper relationship with Jesus.
• I want to see CCC become more and more creative with the way we present the gospel, more relevant and more precise and Biblical message for today’s world.
• I want to see CCC become a church that is dedicated to prayer. Both through prayer chains and this building be a place that all-night prayer vigils are help multiple times a year.
• I want to see more and more people involved in serving right here in this church for it’s growth and for the message of the kingdom.

Jesus, this is my prayer, I trust you to guide everything that takes place. Lord, use us to bring people to You. Use us to be a light in this community. Jesus, I say thank you in advance for all you are going to do with us and through us. And most importantly all the glory for every single thing that happens goes straight to You. May we decrease so that you may increase in us. Jesus, thank you for my task of being a worker in your kingdom. I ask for forgiveness for anytime that I fall short of what You want me to be. God move in us! Amen.

2009 Reflections!

2010-01-04T10:22:00.003-06:00

Wow! What a year! I know that many people say the same thing but they are saying because they are regretting the past year. There has been health problems, family issues that couldn't be resolved, financial upheaval, loss of jobs, the list of problems and troubles goes on and on.
But here at CCC we had an awesome year. Oh, that doesn't mean that we didn't have any problems at all, we had our share of things that Satan threw our way. There were obstacles that seemed larger than our plans and hearts could overcome, but somehow, someway God was there and led us to do the right things to tear them down and see God move in great ways.
We started the year averaging right at 547 and by October/November we were averaging 630. That was almost a growth number of 100 people. We had more baptisms in 2009 than CCC had ever had before, we had more people join the church than ever before. Our children's ministry and junior high and high school ministries have all grown at least 20 to 30 young people.
Thus our volunteer issues were a problem, but every week people step up to help and be a part of the minister here at CCC.
Our "First Impressions" ministry started this past year and is a ministry in growth mode. They are always trying to think of ways to show our first time guest that they are one of our first priorities here at CCC.
This fall we added our fifth full-time minister to our staff. All together that takes our staff with our administrative workers and part-timers up to 11 people working to make CCC the most effective church that we can be.
What a year! As a staff our prayers and dreams are that we can be more and more open to the leading of the Holy Spirit to be more and more of what God desires for us here as a church. If you are a member of CCC and you're not involved, please ask God this week to help you see where you can help us, whether it is greeting and working out in the parking lot, to passing out bulletins, to helping in the nursery. Ask God to open more and more doors for us to reach out to people that aren't going to church anywhere right now, to find CCC as the church that leads them to Jesus.
I can't wait to see the obstacles and victories of 2010!

Sunday Reflections!

2010-01-03T20:47:00.002-06:00

What a great day at CCC! During the night SWMO was hit with another snow storm. Calls were made, text were sent and finally the decision was made to go ahead and let's have church services. What a great day! Although the crowd wasn't what we always hope for - at least in numbers, but in fellowship and decisions it was a great day!
We had two families join the church, out of one of the families a father was baptized and then he in turn baptized his son. Another family that has been attending for about a year and a half came forward to join the church and another one of our ladies that have been attending for some time now stepped out to join forces with us here at CCC.
But the fellowship among those that were there this morning was awesome.
Sy Huffer, our Ministry Intern did a great job this morning preaching about the need for Spiritual Disciplines. Not that these disciplines are to be the end in themselves, but that each spiritual discipline that we will talk about the next four weeks are disciplines that will help us grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Sy had some great thoughts and applications for us as we begin our new series: "There's An App For That!"
Don't miss it for the next four weeks, it's going to be an awesome series and opportunities for us to grow in the Lord!

Change! Get out in the Game!

2009-11-30T08:21:00.003-06:00

Change!
For the past two weeks we been looking at the series: Change! Not necessarily changing who we are but changing our mind about our money and stuff. God has blessed everyone of us with certain material wealth. Now, you may look around and realize that your neighbor, friend, co-worker or just the individual in line at Walmart has more wealth than you and you are questioning God with what his logic is. That's a big question and the answer may not always be to your liking. So, my advice is: "just let him work with you where you are right now - today!"
But the reality is this: we will never manage our money well, or be generous with it until we change on how we look at our wealth and how we see God's vision for the future. Many of us are like the Monday quarterbacks after the football filled Sunday. They set in their lazy-boys spending the entire afternoon (except with they are over taken by the food nap) yelling at their televisions.
You know how it goes - your team is losing, they make a wrong decision or better yet the referee basically a few feet closer to the play than you makes a call that goes against your team. You begin yelling out commands of what you saw, what you perceive would be the best move, the best call, the best player to have in at that precise moment. Too often the criticizers are the ones that are even in the game. They are inviting, working in the nursery, helping with the children's ministry, leading a family group, even tithing, yet they are yelling at the team for trying. From far away they go to others and let them know that they aren't happy with what is going on - the growth, the effort to reach people that are lost, the lights, the dreams of trying new methods, etc. I think you get my drift.
We are trying to change the world at CCC. We are trying to get every person from in front of the preverbal church television and get people out into the field of play. Get them to see that they need to manage their money is such a way so that they can give to see children and young families reached with the grace of Jesus. So, stop yelling at the TV! Get out with us in the game and see how much better you will feel. A little spiritual exercise will draw you back to your family group, you Sunday School class, back to the worship experience that we offer here.
Get in the game!

The Vow

2009-10-27T10:37:00.002-05:00

We’ve just completed the second week of our series “The Vow”. This past week we looked at the vow of pursuing our Number Two!
Now you would think that this would be a very easy thing to do. You would think that it would be something that we all would be excited about. You would think!
But what I am finding out by listening to our married couples so far this week is that we have a hard time pursuing anymore. I don’t think it’s because we don’t think we need to, no it’s not that. I could list a lot of questions to ask ourselves, but I think it boils down to what our vow this next Sunday is all about.
You see, we will grow weary of pursuing when we think that it is about ourselves! When our pursuit is still about what we can get out of our relationship, we will grow weary.
Maybe it’s time to really put ourselves back a step or two and let God be our #1 and our spouses – really be our #2. If God is #1, our spouse #2, then we will serve, we’ll do whatever it takes to bring happiness into their lives and we’ll eventually find that our hearts will be at peace and our relationship will begin to grow strong.
It’s about the “WE” not the “ME!”

The Vow of Priority Pt. 2

2009-10-26T08:35:00.002-05:00

Last week I wrote about what a husband can do to protect his wife. Let's finish real quick with three more things that a husband can do to be the great protector of his wife.
4. Relationally: in our relationships (marriages) we too often forget that we must constantly be working to keep them fresh and right. In the marriage relationship we must also strive to keep them pure. Guys, lets be honest, we have a problem with this. We have the tendency to not show our wives that they are the greatest thing that has happened to our lives. One big thing you can do is "guard your eyes." Job said in Job 31:1, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman." Wow! What honesty and courage. This man, let us see into his heart and mind and let us know that he had to make it a daily thing to not look upon another woman with lust. It's one thing to notice beauty, it's another thing to linger and begin to imagine things in our minds. Your wife can see your eyes. She knows when you linger and are probably not thinking holy things. Guard your eyes!
5. Emotionally: remind her constantly that she is your #2! Yes, we all know it! Woman are wired differently than us guys! But just because she may cry because the kids are singing louder than anyone else in the program, or because a card came in the mail from her mother, doesn't mean that we make fun of her. What we need to do is keep her emotional well full. She is drained everyday and we must work hard to keep that well of emotions ready by letting her know daily how important she is to us. Let her know that there is no one else, let her know that God is your #1 and she is your #2!

Strive this week to make God your #1 and your spouse your #2!

Sunday Reflections!

2009-10-21T16:21:00.002-05:00

The Vow of Priority

This past Sunday at CCC we experienced once again another first. This was the second week in a row that we have had the largest crowd we’ve ever had outside of our special day crowds. It is pretty exciting around here. Another first: we have experienced 44 baptisms so far this month, that is the largest number of people to be baptized in one month ever! We have quite a few more people reading, studying and praying about this decision.
But one of the most exciting things to happen is what is happening with our married couples. This past Sunday we witnessed a large majority of our married couples promising to make God their #1 priority and their spouses #2! But on top of that we had an overwhelming number of hands go up when husbands and wives alike promised to spend 30 seconds a day praying with each other.
I’ve gotten e-mails, twitter updates, Facebook status reports of our couples praying together everyday. It is transforming our marriages right before our eyes.
One thing that I want to encourage you men about is this:
1. Protect your wives Physically!
By first of all protecting your own eyes. Be careful with what you put in front of your eyes. Don’t be fooled, your wife knows when you let your eyes wonder. (Some of us aren’t the least bit deceptive about this.) Protect her heart by having only eyes for her.
2. Protect her Spiritually!
Make God #1! For too long we’ve made ourselves #1 and we’ve chased after what we want in life. It’s time to let her know that God is your #1 and she is your #2. Start or continue with the act of praying with her everyday. And when you pray with her – hold her hand! (I’m telling you guys, you’ll move up the Prince Charming ladder real quick.) Don’t worry about your words, talk to God about your wife, her needs for the day, her heart as she tries to navigate the waters of being a God Follower, a wife, mother and all the other stuff that she has to do.
3. Protect her Financially!
Guys don’t go the way of the world. The world’s philosophy is to get all you can while you can and that means going into more and more debt. If you are in debt with credit cards, tear them up today! Start with a plan on how as a family you can get those paid off. Think of all the things you can do together as a couple and as a family when you have protected your wife in financial areas.

We’ll cover some more areas of protection later. But the real issue is this: When you are striving to make God your #1, you’ll grow closer and closer to him. When both spouses working to get closer to God, you will eventually grow so close to each other that the world will see you as a couple with God as your strength. Your children will be happier. You jobs will be more fulfilling and your neighbors will want what you’ve got – God!

Sunday Reflections!

2009-10-12T10:43:00.003-05:00

As Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009 comes to a close, I have to reflect on how awesome church was again at CCC. We had a great crowd of over 650 people here for our Missions' Fair. We had all of the missions that we support represented around the hallways of the church. It was just awesome to see our people visiting with and picking up the information of everyone of our missions so that we can all as a church be in prayer for each and ever mission that we support.
Also over the week, we saw four more people come to Jesus through Christian baptism. What a week!
But with all this, we've got to as a church really begin to see into the future. We are quickly (once again) running out of room. Our Station 4:19 on Sunday mornings are running well over the 70 mark each Sunday with the adult volunteers and children in that room. We are maxing out the second service with well over the 80%. (Church growth people tell you that once you get over the 80% mark in a room, you probably won't grow anymore, so you have to start thinking outside the box of what you are gong to do.) A little over a year ago, we made the decision to go to a second service and have simultaneous worship and Sunday School. Over that time we have grown over 150 people and we are faced with what to do to keep reaching out to people that aren't going to church anywhere. We've got to get out of the box in our thinking this time.
Starting last week, all our departments starting working on and turning in their budgets for 2010. What an exciting time, because instead of dreading the year ahead, we are asking everyone to dream of what they can do to grow their area and how we can do it with Godly stewardship. So, people are passionately putting together their ideas and numbers for what they want to do in 2010. This is exciting, but the reality is this; we are going to have to give to make these things happen. We want to give more to our missionaries that we hosted yesterday. We want to expand our children's area more. We are looking at what we can do to reach out to more and more people through the internet and streaming our services live, but we can't do it unless our budget grows and it can only grow when we all realize that we need to be tithing and giving to the cause.
It's pretty exciting around here! God is blessing us and we aren't going to pray save prayers for the future. We need to face these obstacles so that we can see that our real dependance isn't upon our money as individuals and a church, but our real dependance is upon our God!
Start praying today for all that needs to be done here at CCC. In two weeks we have an opportunity to reach out to a ton of young couples that aren't going to church anywhere and need a church home that they can trust their children with. Our Fall Festival is three Saturdays away (Oct. 31). Think of a young couple with children that need a place to come and worship and know that their child will be taught how to follow God.
Start praying now for Oct. 31, no safe prayers, let's pray for miracles and opportunities to show God to a world that is hurting and lost with Him.

Sunday Reflections!

2009-10-07T08:34:00.002-05:00

What a Sunday we just had at CCC! For us it was an amazing day in the history and passion of this church. Sunday we finished up our series on "The Journey" a walk with God! We had been looking at the conditions of salvation that God has laid out for us through the commands of Jesus. We looked at faith - without it the writer of Hebrews said, it is impossible to please God. We looked at Confession of who Jesus is: our Lord and our God! We looked at Repentance and how we must repent. Finally we looked at Baptism, what it means and what it is.
The Journey in this life is filled with turns and twist, sign post telling us where to go and where not to go. These four conditions are much like those signs. If we don't follow them, we'll never get to our destination: Heaven.
Sunday we came to a time where we knew we would have to challenge the people of CCC that had never been baptized before to move and do it now! We prayed about what to do, what could we do that would move them to step out on their faith and name Jesus as their Lord and God through Christian baptism.
We decided to just get in the water and invite. Take a chance to be ridiculous and look foolish if it didn't work.
Well, those that were here this past Sunday know what happened next. In the first service three men stepped up and were baptized, what a great and awesome sight.
But then for our second service we had six teens step forward and want to be baptized. It looked like that might be the only ones that were coming, not bad, but I knew that there were many, many more adults out there that needed to make this move. One of our gentlemen that has been an elder and a very spiritual and knowledgeable man - came up while I was in the baptistry and took the microphone. He looked out into the crowd and just challenged our adults to look and see what our students were doing and what were they waiting for. The flood gates opened and adult after adult started making their way to the front of the church. Our ladies back stage helping in the changing rooms and preparing people said it was a holy revival back there. One man said he was ready to just jump in. One guy didn't change clothes he just wore the one's he had on for church, as a matter of fact we had to ask him to take his shoes off or he would of wore them in the baptistry as well.
What a day! And we've been talking this week to many more that will be making the same decision this week and this next Sunday!
What a day at CCC! If you missed it - don't worry, we are praying for even more ridiculous things to happen at CCC! You'll have something else to be praising God about here in the next few weeks.

Sunday Reflections!

2009-08-24T08:18:00.003-05:00

What another great day at CCC! Although many families were hitting the camping trail, vacation one more time and getting out of town just because we had a great day at CCC! Visitors all over the place, excitement in our children's area: Station 4:19. (By the way 4:19 comes from Matt. 4:19, "Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people." We are trying to get our children to reach out and bring their friends to Jesus.) The CCC Raceway was another great hit for us this year. We have seen God each time we set out to do something where we have the opportunity to invite neighbors, family and friends bless us beyond our wildest dreams and imagination. Parents and children working hard together to build pinewood derby cars to race against each other. It was awesome! Some of the cars were unbelievable - which means dad spent some quality time with the router and wood carving knife. But it was still fun to watch all the people gathered in the Axis room cheering each other on. And how many churches have the Corvette Club of SW MO come out to your church on a Sunday. It was Awesome!
But what really struck me was the number of people out on the new parking lot around tables eating and fellowshipping together. I saw visitors talking with members and I heard the conversations of the members talking about all the activities that we have for their children outside of CCC Raceway Day. I heard them talk about our small groups and about the opportunities to meet new people and get a handle on what God is doing in all of the lives that they saw working hard on that particular Sunday. It was AWESOME!
Well, I've got to get going, got a hamstring that is calling for some relaxation and ice! Don't know when that can really happen, but it's yelling at me anyway!

The Abuse of Grace!

2009-08-19T14:36:00.001-05:00

Let me address a very important subject. (And if you don’t like me getting up in your grill, then go ahead and read someone else’s blog.) Well, honestly I don’t have to address it, the Apostle Paul has all ready addressed it in Romans 6:1-4, “Well, then should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?” Over the last few months I have been approached by people (mainly people that say they want my counsel – that’s their first mistake) and they start telling me about their life – how bad their life is, how bad their jobs are, mainly how bad their marriages are. Then they tell me that they can’t stand their boss and they are going to mess them over, or that they hate the way their life is going and they are just going to give up and give up on God and live life without him, or that their spouse is terrible and they are going to divorce them. Then they tell me that they know that what they are about to do: lie to someone, hurt someone, cheat someone, etc. is wrong, but then, they look me in the eye and they say to me (like I didn’t know it or believe it), “God is a God of grace!” Sure I knew that, and I believe that with all my heart. As a matter of fact, I’m basing my entire eternal life upon it! I BELIEVE IN GRACE!
But as Paul asks, if God is graceful and our spiritual, eternal lives depend upon it, should we go ahead and sin anyway? His words after that are pretty strong: “Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.” No, we don’t just go ahead and sin because we are going to claim that God is bond by his grace to forgive us. Grace is NOT the license to live a life of unrepentant sin! When we use His grace as an excuse to go ahead and sin, to do something that we know is wrong, we are not worshipping HIM as God…we are worshipping ourselves!
So, please before you say you know that this is wrong, but you are going to go ahead and do it no matter what God has said, realize at that time, it’s not grace that you need – it’s a good evaluation if grace or the death of Jesus has ever meant anything to you in the first place. Have you forgot – you died with Christ, well maybe you didn’t.
See, if you read this whole thing and you are mad – well, maybe you should of listened to me in the first place and gone on! I’m claiming grace oh yeah, that doesn’t work here does it? Grace, funny thing when something done against or to you!

A Hand That Touched Me!

2009-07-28T15:50:00.004-05:00

This is Caleb and me - two guys that love football, father and son! This past week I was speaking to a group of teenagers in Carbondale, IL. Caleb, who lives and works in Champaign, IL drove his Harley over to hear me speak. (He ended up having to stay all night with me because of the rain.)
We spent a lot of time just talking and taking in the worship and celebration. We were just a few feet off to the side of the stage and there was only a couple of minutes before I was to go out and preach the good news to a group of teens. Caleb has traveled with me to many places where I have poured out my heart for people to hear God and change their lives. But this time something happened that may never change Caleb, but it touched me and I hope that I never forget that feeling or experience.
The director of the event came over to me and asked if he could pray for me, of course I said yes. He reached down to lay his hand on my shoulder as we prayed for God's spirit to anoint my mind and heart.
Then suddenly I felt it - I had to open my eyes to see who else was there, but there wasn't anyone else around. It was Caleb, he had placed his hand upon my shoulder as his head was bowed in prayer for his father to go out and give those teens all that I had.
I've watched him play many sports, stand on stages and play an instrument. I've seen him drive off for a prom in one of the fanciest cars I've ever see (he rented a pretty fancy car for his senior prom - it was worth more money than I ever had in high school). I had to walk him into a huge room with his other siblings to say good bye to his mother, but tonight was the night that I pray I'll never forget. It was the night that he touched me and changed my life forever.
My son is a great guy! (All three of my sons are awesome guys.) Tonight he touched me - that is awesome. Some dads will never get what I got tonight! My son touched me!
You can't beat that!

"For Sale" Sunday Reflections

2009-07-27T09:25:00.003-05:00

Isn't it amazing what a small sign can do? It's got to be a small sign with a very simple, yet direct message. Also, it counts where you place it - that makes all the difference in the world.
Last Thursday, Brad (our fantastic Worship Leader) placed a Pro 100 "For Sale" sign out in front of the church. Wow! What a stir - we were out to create a buzz and we did it. The calls, text, Facebook messages, Twitter messages, etc. started coming in. What have we done, what are we doing, people were asking at Walmart (you know you've done something if they are talking about you at Walmart). Are we selling the church? Well, the building may be for sale, but the church, the body of Jesus is all ready sold-out!
In Matt. 13:44-45, Jesus gives the direct command that we must sell everything we have to have the Kingdom of Heaven. It won't be hard if we truly realize what the Kingdom of heave is all about. This world promises to take care of us when we are old, but it can't, it's a lie! The world promises that if we drive the right truck, we can take care of all our construction and hauling needs, but it can't stop the husband from leaving his family for what he thinks is a better deal. The right deodorant, soap, fragrance for the house, more of this and more of that won't make you happy!
Only God and his peace, his hope, his grace can bring you and I the things that really matter - the things of heaven. Sell it all, give it all up, this man did - he sold it all and found the Kingdom of Heaven. One other man in the Bible was told by Jesus that if he wanted heaven he would have to sell it all. Now, unlike our other man, he had it all and only had to give it way to have Jesus and His Kingdom. But he couldn't do it, why? Because he had what he thought was going to bring him happiness and satisfaction. It's amazing that he walked away sad! Why saddness? Because maybe he knew that he wanted what Jesus was giving, but he couldn't let go!
What sign is on your life? All it has to say is "sold-out!" It's position is essential and will tell everyone all that they need to know!

VBS - Studio Go! What a Week!

2009-07-16T13:45:00.002-05:00

This week at CCC has been a whirlwind. Over 400 kids and adults here each night for our VBS program: Studio Go! We have some tremendous volunteers - we have greeters for two and half hours, at the doors greeting people all evening long. At the end of our evening we have at least an extra 75 adults that show up to see and experience it all.
Here's a testimony from a lady that volunteered but was to late: Not that I’m telling you anything you don’t already know about how great our church is, but I thought I would share my conversations with people this week.

Of course its bible school time for all area churches and all my friends are scrambling around because they don’t have enough help at their churches and people aren’t jumping in, typical issues. Anyway they’re like what are you having to do this week and I laugh and said Stacey said she had enough helpers and I just needed to buy dish towels and they would call if they needed more desserts and I haven’t had a call for food, so it sounds like they have that also. The looks I’m getting are hysterical, they’re like you have a big church how is that possible to get enough workers and I said I know but we have so many I see extras standing around waiting to help. It’s opened doors for me to talk to them about our sermons about service and even though they’re already Christians, you can see the motivation in their eyes to go back to their churches and get things going. I told them my job for the week was Anna has invited a car full of friends and I’m the taxi for them, good girl that she is even picked a couple of families who don’t attend church and I made one group come last night to pick their daughter up so they could see it and she commented today how much fun it looked.

Children work miracles, when we moved to WC we couldn’t find a church we liked and Baylee was in 2nd grade and after about 5 different churches she says a boy in my class Breck Mitchell says we need to try his church and 7 years later, we’re here because Breck invited Baylee.

It’s fun to watch God working in our lives and how awesome is it that our church has so many people wanting to serve God, that you even see extras standing around just in case help is needed somewhere.
Wow! God is blessing and people all over the area are catching it! Praise God!

Sunday Reflections

2009-07-14T15:13:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday we were looking at one of the sermons from our series: Studio Go: Obey! (Our VBS theme for the summer.) We looked at the courage of Peter especially. He had run from a threat on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he ran even after he had told Jesus that he would even die for Jesus. But Jesus knew - he knew what Peter was made of and he knew that Peter didn't yet have what it would take to stand up to the threats that would come because he was a follower.
But after the resurrection, Peter had something. All the disciples had something: They had knowledge, coupled with the conviction that Jesus was truly alive and that gave way to courage. Courage to face anything - later on: even death.
Do we accept the challenge of Jesus to follow Him at all costs to ourselves. Have we really been touched by the reality that Jesus is alive?
During the Spanish Armada, one of England's greatest naval commanders was a man by the name of Sir Francis Drake. Drake commented on how he recruited so many young men to join him on his long and hard trips into battle all over the old and new worlds. His sailors would set around and tell the young men stories of the sea. But the sailors didn't talk about the pleasures of the sea. They proudly spoke of the sea's dangers, they shared tales of high waves and tough winds and gallant ships riding out the storms. The young men were so compelled by the thought of such adventure that many of them ran away from their homes to join Drake and his men on their many battles of war. Jesus called Peter to leave his nets and come and He would make him a fisher of men. The seas wouldn't not be calm and the battle would be fought at the expense of his own life, but Peter, when faced with the reality of Jesus' resurrection, he was ready to go.
Do you want adventure? Come follow Jesus! Do you want real challenge? Come follow Jesus! Do you want real excitement? Come follow Jesus! do you wot to fulfill your destiny? Come follow Jesus! Do you want to experience transformation in yourself and in others? Come follow Jesus!
The waves are high, the world is changing and challenging, but the rewards are worth it all.

Know Sweat at CCC

2009-06-16T19:44:00.003-05:00

This week at CCC we are hosting about 220 junior high kids and their adult sponsors for a week of Know Sweat from Christ In Youth. The energy level is incredible. Brad Moss (our worship leader and band) is leading the worship. He and the band are awesome. Johnny Scott, the Believe Director is the speaker. The kids are spending the week in the Joplin area working on various service projects while at night time they are here worshiping together and studying God's word about the heart of God.
If you can, come on over, every evening at 7:30, until Thursday evening. What a privilege for us here at CCC to host a great group of followers here. What a privilege to have a couple of the guys that head up the Know Sweat program worshiping here with us every Sunday.
The real privilege is to have a church that is open to reaching out to young people from all over the Midwest to come here and use our facilities to worship, study and just be together to celebrate their love and devotion to God.

Sunday Night Reflections

2009-06-14T20:17:00.002-05:00

If you missed worship at CCC today, you missed a great day. Satan thought he was being funny for our first service and did something to the electricity and we had to do worship and the main part of our sermon with no power on the stage. But God had the upper hand, He showed up and we had a great time of worship together.
For the next five weeks we are going to be taking our VBS theme and use it to preach from for the next five weeks. So make plans to be here at CCC for the next five weeks to experience what our children will be learning at Vacation Bible School.
We will be closing out our VBS program on Sunday, July 19 with a great day of fellowship and a celebrate in a miracle offering. On July 19, we are going to be taking up a one time offering, trying to get enough money to pave our parking lots with our having to borrow any money at all. Think of it: a one time offering paying off at least $60,000 and hopefully being able to do more. We've got to replace the carpet in our worship center. Since it also plays as a gymnasium three nights a week, we have warn it out. So, we need to replace it.
So here's what I'm asking. We talked about giving, prayer and fasting today. God is waiting for our hearts to turn to him in how and why we give, how and why we pray and of course how and why we pray. So, for the next five weeks, let's ask God to bless us financially so that we can give generously and see how God can take CCC and continue to use us as an effective church for the kingdom of God. Let's start praying and fasting to seek the satisfaction of God, to gain a spirit of enthusiasm and to be able to have the vision of God.

Another Last at the Sigars House

2009-06-12T16:21:00.002-05:00

This is our family. Jayme and I have been married 12 1/2 years. I know sometimes to her it must feel like 120 years, but only 12. Now for those 12 1/2 years we have always had a teenager in the family. We have never been along - well okay, last night they all were gone from the house for a couple of hours, but to be alone we have to make them all mad and go on an overnight trip with taking them. They don't like us until we leave for some fun on our own and then they want to go because they know that deep down we are the coolest parents in the world and other.
We have always been raising a teenager. It has been a great experience, but not always easy. We've had late night discussions about boys, not getting dates with boys, the boys you can go out with, the girls you can go out with, how late you can stay out, the rules of dating, going out, alcohol, drugs, people you'll run with and so on and so on. Somedays it's a breeze, but most of the time there is something to worry about and fret over while trying to reach out to other people who need Jesus.
Well, this past Wednesday we did one of our last things as a Mom and Dad. We've quit a few of these over the past few years. Some very emotional, some very funny and some we didn't realize was the last until a few months later when we showed up for a parents' meetings that we didn't have to go to. This time, it was one of a little more importance. This time it was the right of passage for our youngest one: Jake. This past Wednesday I had the privilege of taking Jake to get his driver's license. Jake is a very competent driver who is really very safe. But still there was the anxieity of both Jake and his mom and dad. Jake passed! Stay off the sidewalks! When you see him in his truck - run! Go ahead, I did it when he took off for the first time by himself.
But for Mom and I, it was one of those last things that we will do. No more going and getting the driver's ed books, no more letting the drive for the first time and mom sitting in the back seat barking out instructions, while a 15 year old, who thinks that a driver's permit means that they can forgo the backseat instructions from an over-protective parental unit.
Amazingly enough - it was his right of passage, but it was a right of passage for mom and I also. We had to realize that our little boy is there - he is growing up. He can drive off by himself. Although we will still give him rules and advise of how to act, it is really now all up to him.
I hope that we did a good job. The other six are great adults, I'm sure he'll do the same. It's a last - but we still won't quit wondering if we have done all that needs to be done. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Life's Worries

2009-06-03T07:36:00.004-05:00

(I just love this picture - don't you?) It signifies how many of us are going through life worrying and crying about life. This past Sunday at CCC we looked at the Parable of the Sower. Jesus was now having to teach away from the synagogues and so he was using parables to share eternal truths. This one dealt with God having our hearts. The weeds of life come and choke out the truth of the word of God in our lives. Life's worries, riches and pleasures come and choke out the word of God that is starting to grow in our lives, but we let the world destroy our faith.
Sunday night we listened to the Dave Ramsey "Town Hall for Hope." And the truth to all that he shared with us was this: "God is in control and there is hope, but it must first be in Him!" But we let life's worries come and choke out the hope that we have in Christ. We whine and cry about the economy, with our mouths full of food from the buffet line. We wring our hands because spending is out of control while we drive around in our new $50,000 truck. Do, you see what I'm trying to say?
We are all worried about things that we can't change. These things have become our gods and they are controlling our lives. Jeremiah 10 addresses our worry attitudes and what we are worshiping: vs. 1, "Do not act like the other nations" Vs. 5, "Their gods are like helpless scarecrows in a cucumber field! They can't speak, and they need ot be carried because they cannot walk." The gods of this world - the economy, jobless statistics, housing prices, bankruptcy, etc. are all "worldly gods" that are causing many believers to run around worrying. Jeremiah goes on to say, "Lord, there is no on like you! For you are great, and your name is full of power." Why worry? Our God is powerful and really, there is no other gods. Money will fail, houses will eventually be destroyed and fall down, but God is there for us right now. Stop worrying! Stop crying about what is going on and get up and do something today for God!

Sunday Night Reflections

2009-05-25T20:09:00.003-05:00

Another great day at CCC! Although we were down in attendance, we weren't down in enthusiasm and new guest at CCC. What a great day.
But as we move away from Jesus words called the "be-attitudes" we see Jesus bringing us to a very serious realization. He tells us that we are going to be persecuted and that because of persecution he gives us a double-blessing. But we don't like persecution, as a matter of fact - I don't like persecution. If we hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God - we will be persecuted.
But if you want to escape persecution it's simple, just do these things:
1. Live like the world. It's simple just do what the world does, talk like them, think like them and get caught up in the things that the world gets caught up in. (It seems like to me that most of us in the church are acting like the world - we certainly aren't be persecuted.)
2. Mimic the world's standards. The churches divorce rate is the same as the world.
Too often the morals of the church is as low as those lost and without hope.
3. Just keep quiet about the hope and grace of Jesus Christ. Just remain politically correct, don't speak up that Jesus and faith in Him is the answer - no matter what the world says!
4. Go along with the world, laugh at its’ jokes, enjoy its’ entertainment, smile when it mocks God and his name. Sad, but I see it all the time.

Just worry more about fitting in than being blessed by God. You can achieve it - but there is a big price to pay. I'd hate to be you on judgment day!

Sunday Night Reflections

2009-05-21T10:45:00.002-05:00

Sorry that it's taken me most of the week to get this blog done, but it has been quite the weekend and week for me and it has just now slowed down enough to reflect back on the weekend.
First it all started with Courtney's graduation from Ozark Christian College. Saturday morning we were able to celebrate with the families of over 130 graduates from Ozark. We had lunch with Courtney's in-laws and had a great time reflecting back on her college life and now married life. Congrats Courtney! Mom and I are very proud of you and all that you have been able to accomplish - keep up the great work, we love you.
Then on Sunday (that's what this blog is supposed to be all about) Dusty Frizzell preached at CCC. It was a great day: we have four baptisms in our second service, and people coming for prayer and guidance for their lives. It was awesome. But what was truly awesome was Dusty's message. Taken from Matthew 15, Dusty challenged CCC just as Jesus did to take a close look at what we have adopted into our lives and into our church as traditions. Have we let our church become a place of tradition instead of a place of love and obedience to Jesus and His will. He reminded us of something that we talked about last summer: people see Christians as judgmental, anti-gay, and hypocritical. Now, that's certainly not all of us or we might even say that it's not us here at CCC, but that is how the world is seeing us as a church in general and we need to do what Jesus has called us to do so that when they see us as a group or hear of our name as a church they will realize that we are not those things. But we are a group of people that represent the love and grace of Jesus Christ.
Then Monday, I had the awesome opportunity of speaking the Webb City Baccalaureate. This year they held the Baccalaureate and Graduation on the same night. Probably not the best idea, but that's what was done and I had the opportunity to speak. I'll share more about that later, but the thrill was this: Kally our fifth child was graduation from Webb City. So, I finally had the opportunity to speak at one of my children's Baccalaureate and Graduation. Congrats to you, Kally. You are certainly one incredible young lady. We are so proud of your accomplishments. You were a great student, an awesome tennis player and one of the greatest children that any parent could ever want. Project Graduation was a blast and all of you will want to see Kally's video of being hypnotized. It was hilarious. It might come up in a sermon sometime.
It was a great weekend, people saved, souls changed and experiences that will live in the hearts of people forever.

Interview with Dusty Frizzell

2009-05-13T08:44:00.004-05:00

We had a great opportunity yesterday - as a staff we got to set down with Dusty Frizzell and talk with him about church. Dusty is a timothy of CCC and a guy that right now is on the forefront of what is happening with the youth culture today. Dusty is the lead senior high pastor at Shepherd of the Hills church in Los Angeles CA.
Dusty is speaking for us this Sunday so, we wanted to pick his brain for a while.
We asked him the difference in church work here in the Midwest and on the west coast. He said that the pace of what he does is so much different. Here he had to do more program stuff because of our way of thinking here is on doing more and more programs to look like we are accomplishing stuff. In CA right now, he is doing more stuff, but it is the simple stuff (Umph - I wonder where he got that simple church stuff?) Programs, programs, programs - it seems like we think that doing more stuff at church is the secret to winning the lost. The reality is this: we've got to take the Spirit of God that is implanted into us and we must live Him (the Spirit) out there in the world. Church is a simply thing: it is a living organism of people, living out their faith before a world that is dark and lost without Jesus. That is exactly why we are trying to do the simple here at CCC.
I asked him, "If you were to give us some advise on what could we do to keep CCC healthy?" He said, "Keep the vision of your heart for God and for CCC out in front of your people. Don't let them/the people ever forget what God has called us to do." We began '09 with a three month sermon series on our vision: Love God, love others, serve the world. We have adopted a process of worship, study, serve and live to try to help us all see that vision and live it out before a world that can't see Jesus and his grace.
We asked many other questions concerning "student ministry" and life in so. CA. But what we learned more than anything else: "people are lost and we have the answer." They won't find that answer because we set down in a church or come here 3/4 nights a week. They will only be drawn to Him when we show them the love of God, His grace and the peace that Jesus gives when we surrender our hearts and lives to him.
Our job: Love God, love others and serve the world. It won't happen here in the building we call CCC - it will only happen when we get out and serve!

No Electricity - Plenty of Power

2009-05-11T11:03:00.002-05:00

This past Friday there was a storm that moved through the SW MO area that was devastating, yet no fatalities. Thousands of people lost power and CCC was one of those places. As of Saturday evening we still had no power at the church - at least that's what Satan thought. Some of us got on the phone and tried to call as many people as we could but there were plenty of people in the church that were without power - our idea: let's go and see if we can help people with downed trees and destroyed property.
There may not of been power at the church, but the power from the church was lighting a part of our world that needs to see Jesus. A couple of large groups went out from the church Sunday morning to work and to show Jesus. It was amazing as neighbors were coming out of their houses to ask who we were and what we were doing. It is Mother's Day and we had mothers out working with their children to help other people out. The neighbors were shocked and couldn't believe it. One man just kept telling us how much he appreciated it. Others just stood and watch as the church showed the power of God.
The lights haven't come back on at the church yet - it's Monday morning at 11:00 a.m. but it doesn't matter - the power and light of Jesus is shining brightly from CCC.

Giving God the Glory!

2009-05-05T14:06:00.002-05:00

We have a lot of things happening here at CCC. The big thing right now is that after five years, we are going to finish paving our parking lot. Since the very beginning of the building out here at CCC we have dreamed of the day that we could finally finish off the first phase of our building which would simply be to pave our parking lot. Not a big deal to some people, but after have an Easter Sunday downpour and trying to get 1,000 people in and out of our parking lot, it became apparent that we needed to do something that it needed to be done now.
So, we have the plans in hand and soon the asphalt company will be here and we will start the moving of dirt, gravel and start the paving project. But the most important part of all this is the people that have been praying for not just a few months, but for five years that this will all happen. It is here and we are praising God for his answer to our prayers. We are giving glory to God everyday for what is going to happen in the near future here at CCC.
I want to ask you all to join us in praising Him and bringing glory to His name by inviting your friends to be our guest here at CCC every Sunday. This Sunday we will be having our children's choirs sing for us in honor and memory of our Mothers. (You can't beat little children singing in church.) Also this week we will be having at least four more baptisms on Sunday and we are praying for many, many more.
More than anything, I want everyone at CCC to realize that God is working and answering our prayers. People are visiting, people are coming, people are praying: asking for God to work in their lives and to work in the lives of their family members and friends. God is moving and we just want to say: "Glory to God in the highest!"
What a great God we serve.

Sunday Night Reflections

2009-05-03T21:07:00.003-05:00

What another great day at CCC! If you missed it, you missed a great day. Another video baptism - it is so awesome to have people calling us in the middle of the week realizing that they want to submit to baptism and they want to do it that night.
Today we looked at Matt. 5:6, "God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied." Are you truly hungering and thirsting for the things of God? What are those things?
We had the greatest closing illustration that you could ever hope for as a church. When you hunger after God you truly hunger after the great things of this world, but when you want to find something that truly puts it all in perspective you hunger for: KRISPY KREMES!
Author John Darby said: "To be hungry is not enough; I must be really starving to know what is in God's heart toward me. When the prodigal son was hungry, he went to fee the pigs, but when he was starving - he went to his Father!"
Then tonight we had one of the greatest Women's Banquet that we have ever had at CCC. Jeannie Richardson shared the story of her daughter's journey with cancer and her dealing with her daughter's death. What a powerful story and testimony.
Now we are off on another week of preparation as we begin the journey of getting a new parking lot and many other new happenings here at CCC.
Don't miss them!

Story Time...

2009-05-01T09:22:00.003-05:00

How 'bout a little basketball story? Well, not really, it's a testimony but basketball is involved. Yesterday after one of our baptisms the lady that had done the baptism was telling me a story of a lady she had just done some home decorating for. As the day was ending the lady said that she had to leave to take her son to basketball practice. Kandra asked where that was. The lady couldn't remember the name of the church that the practice was at, but she shared the story of how they came to practice there. A few years a go the club had to find a new place to practice. Every church that she called only wanted to know if she or anyone from the team was a member of their church. She of course said no (she and her husband didn't go to church) and was always met with a flat no then. Finally she said we made contact with a church that said sure come on out. This was the church that she was heading to. Kandra asked her the name of the church. She couldn't remember, but she said that every time they are there the staff greets them so nicely and friendly, so friendly that her and her husband have said that if they start going to church somewhere, that is the church they will attend. Kandra asked more questions and got to the fact that the church she was speaking of was CCC. Kandra was excited telling that this was her church, right her at Carterville.
I told Kandra that there is more to the story. The head of the club had just been in my office asking how many people we could seat in our second service. I asked him why? "Well," he said, "on May 31, I am asking all our parents to bring their boys and girls here to CCC to go to church that day to say thanks to CCC for all we have done for the Rainmakers." Wow! Somewhere between 150-200 people are visiting us on May 31.
I then told Kandra, "I guess your friend will be coming to church here sooner than she thought. God was beginning a long time ago to set her and her husband up to visit us, she just didn't know how God was going to get her here. Now we know."
So, I'm praying for May 31, not that we just impress, but that the Spirit of God is on us all on that Sunday. The Spirit working through our parking lot attendants, through our greeters and through every person that is here on that Sunday to greet our guest and to let them know that God loves them and so do we!

I do feel a little lighter!

2009-04-29T08:53:00.004-05:00

I spent an incredible weekend in Linton, IN. This isn't my first weekend there, I've been going to Linton now for about 12 years. It all started back in '97 with a young lady's mission to start a youth revival in her home town and church that would influence the world. It started small - very small as matter of fact. It started with more adults working to make it happen that students that attended it. But she and the church didn't give up. It has grown to 50 times bigger that first group of students that attended. It hasn't always been that big, some years it down, some it up, but every year something great happens. Two years ago because of prayer and God's power working, on Sunday night we started the invitation of asking students and adults to come and give their lives to Jesus and eventually the invitation and response got going so long that the band had to pack up while their were preparing to baptize people and I had to drive 8 hours home to Webb City. We left students calling their friends on the phone to tell them to come to church and see what was happening and many of those teens gave their lives to Jesus.
This year, the calendar dates were terrible for all the school events that were going on, but God still worked. He worked in the lives of many people there - for the first time of the event we had someone come forward on a Friday night and to be baptized.
The young man was Collin (love him all ready, because I have a Collin). He just told his mom and dad that night he needed to be baptized. As the band played some more worship songs just to close down, they went to the youth minister that talked with quickly and the young man was determined that tonight was the night and he didn't want to wait. So, he and his dad went down into the water and he named Jesus as his Lord and Savior and his dad baptized him into Jesus.
But the story gets real good when his mom and he came to me the next night to tell me what had happened. She asked him after his baptism if he felt any different now. She said he tilted his head and thinking hard and slowly shook it "No, no not really." But then she said he stopped and looked up at here with a smile on his face, "Well, now that you ask, I do feel lighter!" "LIGHTER!" What a response and from such a young guy. He captured it all in one word! When we submit to God, we submit to baptism, something is lifted from us - the price of sin! No more death for Collin, at least the death that controls our lives and leaves us with the grace of Jesus Christ.
Are you lighter? Do you have the simple faith of a child? I guess the real question is: "Do you want to be lighter?"

What do we need? Pt. 3

2009-04-22T07:36:00.002-05:00

One of the statements that I often hear around church, especially when the church starts to grow: "I just don't know everyone around here anymore. And I don't like that!" Or another one is: "I know that we have to change, but I don't have to like it!"
Unfortunately both of those statements are a very sad statement of our unwillingness to see that for a church to grow, the culture of the church has to change. By culture I don't mean our message. Our message must always be about the man, the Messiah: Jesus Christ. But the culture, the thinking, the methods of how a church handles the growth must change.
When we were a church 150 people, we began to make some changes in how we handled things: we suddenly realized that a newer building was needed, finances had to be handled different and that if we wanted to reach more people we would have to add staff to the growing situation. Well, many years later: we have a new building - two new buildings since that time, new staff members, and now we must begin to stress that our culture of meeting people and bringing them to Jesus has to change. We can't just expect people to come to us - we must change the thinking, the culture to realize that we must (really it was Jesus' command) that we must go to them. We must take from Acts 1:8 that we are on a mission whether it is right in our homes, where we work, go to school, play or vacation. We are on a mission to show the world the culture of grace through the blood and life of Jesus Christ.
If we are going to be an effective church in this world, we must change our culture - starting right here at CCC. We must look at the places that are not just our size, but those that are growing bigger and reaching more and more people. What are they doing to change the culture in side their buildings and inside the hearts of their people. We must strive to let God work in us to accomplish His great mission: "to build his church." Upon the rock of Jesus Christ, upon the rock of His Salvation.
The world is waiting - your world is waiting for someone to come to them with the hope of eternal peace and life free from the worry and heartache of this world. To live in a world here that has the answer for our situations and problems. Jesus is that answer, are we in the right culture to bring Him to them?

Sunday Night Reflections

2009-04-20T12:24:00.000-05:00

We officially started “The Red Letter” sermon series. We are starting with the Sermon on the Mount and the “Be-attitudes” until the middle of May – so if you are with us on Sundays or just listen to the podcast, you can start reading Matthew 5-6 and keep up with what is going on.
Of course our attendance was down this Sunday after having the biggest one-day crowd that we have ever had at CCC. But the enthusiasm and excitement was just as high as it was for Easter Sunday. We also had another great group of guest with us Sunday morning and a couple of the families that I got to meet were very excited about CCC and what they had experienced with us.
This week I’ll be meeting with Collin Swift from Swift Asphalt, talking about what we are going to do with putting in our new paved parking lot. Hopefully within the next month we will have the east side of the church done and begin working on the front and adding about 15 spaces on the west side. Oh, how our new parking ministry will like that. Just keep praying and asking God to bless all of our hearts as we set out to in one day raise all the funds to pay for this and bring glory to God.
This week, calls and visits are being made to talk with people about making decisions for God – so keep the servants that are calling and visiting in your prayers. We’ve all ready got two baptisms planned for this next week and hopefully two to four more.

What do we really need? Pt. 2

2009-04-16T10:45:00.002-05:00

To often the church (CCC also) has turned into a group of Christians that are always asking God to bless us! We claim that we want more from God. We ask for more stuff to get the work done. More people, more, more, more. The sad thing is that most of the time, the asking eventually becomes a list of things to make our church life and our personal lives more and more easy! We want ease of life, while the world is hurting and lost with Jesus. We don't realize that all the stuff that the world has isn't making their lives any easier than ours. Yet, we keep asking for the "blessing."
Maybe instead of a group of people that are looking for blessings from God, maybe our prayers should be that we become the "blessing" of God - to a world that is hurting. To a world that has all the "stuff" but is missing out on the real blessing of God - GRACE!
We have it and if we are going to touch a hurting, lost world, we are going to have to stopping asking for more stuff and start asking for God to help us lose, so that the world will look at Jesus in us.
We don't do church to get more stuff from God! We do church to get from God the strength to go out and live Jesus to a lost world. So, if you are hurting today - maybe someone that is hurting in the world, not know what to do is looking right at your life. Pray for grace to get through it, to lose and show Jesus. Even when you don't think anyone is watching. Then, we will grow the kingdom!

Sunday Night Reflections

2009-04-12T21:20:00.002-05:00

What a day! What a day! This is my third Easter at CCC (really my second as the senior minister) and all of them have been incredible. Every year we have experience an incredible worship time, great volunteers and more visitors than we could of ever imagined. This year we planned for a time during the sermon called "cardboard testimonies." Many churches have done this simple little time of testimony by their people, and each one has a great effect upon all those who are in the service to experience the testimonies. Well, ours was amazing! After each person walked out, showed us their testimony on a piece of cardboard the church sent up applause of praise to God, but the real incredible part was when we were finished the response by all the people there - a standing ovation in both services. Wow!
Then to have people come forward and give their lives to Jesus, it was incredible. (Can I use that word enough?) But on top of that, the volunteers we had working in the rain, the first time ushers working to seat people and the tech crew that was simulcasting the worship into the Axis room for an overflow.
Then above all else - our baptisms, it was incredible.
Oh, and for the first every CCC went over the 1,000 mark. It was incredible! Come on back this next Sunday as we start the ReD Letters sermon series. It's going to be, you know what I'm going to say - INCREDIBLE!

The Light's Green...Let's Go!

2009-04-09T09:34:00.003-05:00

Okay, I'll admit it - "I'm not perfect! I'm not without sin!" I love to get out and drive. Driving to me is a sport. I don't know why, maybe because I am a guy, or maybe it's just because over the years I have had to drive 1,000's of long, boring miles between CIY Conferences - I don't know why.
But from the beginning I have made driving a sport. I'm not reckless or drive against the law, but I drive to win. Living in St. Louis, I would always be trying to find the short-cut to my next destination. But of course there were 100's of other drivers just like me, looking for the same short-cut so it never turned out to be such a great short-cut. Then when I'm on the highway traveling on a long trip, I'm always checking to see if I can catch the next car or truck in front of me, while hating the fact that others are passing me - of course they have to be breaking the speed limit.
In the church we should have this same attitude: the attitude of action! (Not breaking laws or speeding, of course.) Jesus and his disciples were constantly on the move. Oh, I know some of you are all ready pointing out that Jesus took time to pray all night - I'd say that is action, action that very few of us have ever done. Jesus was always looking for something else to do. He didn't set back and wait, well there was the Lazarus thing - but hey, when he got there, he did a pretty awesome miracle.
Jesus was looking for people of action. How do you think Peter got the job. When Jesus needed a boat to preach from it was Peter's boat that he asked for and Peter obliged. Then after being up all night, Peter obeyed the Master and caught more fish than his boat or his partners' boat could almost hold.
Jesus chose Paul because of his action spirit. He was on his way to Damascus to kill Christians, now that's some action. But Jesus stopped him and put him on a detour. So, why? Why in the church are we so prone to set back and not take action? Why are we so afraid of doing something, even if it does go wrong? We are working for the Master of action and even if we do screw it up, hey don't forget Peter at Jesus' arrest kind of screwed things up when he cut that guys ear off. Jesus didn't give up on Peter (and there is that denial thing). No, he loved the action of Peter and told him to keep doing things, just keep his sword in his pocket!
If you are afraid to move and do something for God, maybe you should check some things. Like if we don't move, God can never move - it is better to see what he can do than simple look at how things are right now and be afraid to move. Don't look at what we/you can lose. My word, it all belongs to God, look at what can happen if God is behind what you are doing. Yes, you can't do it - but that's why God has promised to be with us, even in defeat. It is His power that will make it all happen, but it won't happen until you move. Pray for action and then move.
Church - don't worry about safety, nothing is save without God! Let's not forget that the safest place the night Peter walked on water, wasn't in the boat. It was where Peter was - on the water, wet and in the arms of Jesus! Look at the sovereignty of God, that will keep you safe while you are moving fast for God.
Oh, and watch out, that might be me behind you at the green light ready for a race!

What do we really need?

2009-04-08T07:20:00.003-05:00

Maybe a better title today is: What do our churches need? But that certainly opens up a whole 'nother can of worms! But really what do we need?
This past Sunday at CCC, we addressed that question. We need...could I have a drum roll please: "We need our eyes to opened - to see the things that God sees." I so often get so into myself, my problems, my health, my family's health and situation, the economy, my debt, my addictions, MY WANTS! That I never really see what God sees.
Remember, I can only see the now! I can only hear what the Dr. says today. When the bank calls I only know that today I have no money, I only know that today my child has done something wrong, won't listen or obey. But I have no clue at all about tomorrow.
In 2 Kings 6, Elisha prayed that his servant's eyes might be opened. Opened to see what God sees in our lives and around us. When Elisha's servant saw it all, the angels the chariots of fire, he realized that God was in control and that God had a plan.
I wonder if I have missed so much of what God wanted to accomplish because I don't open my eyes to see Him in my situation. I wonder if I have seen the enemy, the situation surrounding me and I run to take care of things the way that I see them and God is left out of the situation and eventually, I miss what God really had in store for me and those around me.
Not only do I think that we need to see what God sees, but we need to feel what God feels. God is pleading with us - the church to have his heart. If we are truly going to live out his call in our lives as disciples we must ask for and strive for His heart. His heart was passionate, his heart was one of brokenness to those that had been captured and taken away by Satan and his demons.
Elisha wasn't done with his praying in 2 Kings 6. He prayed that the army that had surround him and his servant be blinded. They were and Elisha led them right to the King of Israel. Now, the King of Israel wasn't very gracious, but Elisha was. Elisha told him to feed them, and not just a little bit, but set out a feast for them. After they had their eyes opened and a feast prepared and served to them, they set out on their way. Saved and fed! What a day in their lives: they came to destroy, they were blinded and then stood ready to die, but they were treated like kings in a foreign country. Oh, what grace we don't see or experience when we don't see and feel like our God Jesus. He came to give grace and we are the administers of that grace here on earth. Who needs your grace today? What do you need to see today? What do you need to see surrounding you instead of the enemy? What do you need to feel today? The key: pray for opened eyes and broken hearts. Those are the eyes of God and the the heart of a Savior!

Sunday Night Reflections

2009-04-05T19:14:00.002-05:00

What another great day at CCC! Once again, there was a ton of people at church this morning and a ton of new visitors. Wow, new members at both services, a baptism and lives being changes. One wife coming to ask for prayers over her life and the healing of her marriage and home. Wow! It was incredible. More than anything else was listening to husbands and wives talk about their growth in Jesus since coming to CCC. Also our CCC Fireproof Marriage Retreat this past weekend at Tablerock Lake and Branson, MO was awesome! 34 couples gathered together at The Bradford Inn & House Resort Center for study, laughter and fellowship. It was a great time together. I hope that those who didn't get to go, will make plans to be with us on the next one.
Oh, and I want to thank my wife for a great time. She is an incredible woman that keeps me going all the time. She is so encouraging and keeps my walk with God on line! What a woman!

Church on Fire! Pt. 2

2009-04-02T15:19:00.002-05:00

For a church to be effective not only do we have to the hearts of our leadership and people broken and soft to the mission of Jesus, the hurts of the world and the those around us that are lost. We need to get our sights set on ending the war or wars we have with other people.
For too long people within the church have acted like and taught as if our battle is with other people but they are not our enemies. Sure they are lost and without grace. Sure they are doing some things/sins that we know are wrong in the God’s plan for our lives and yes, they sometimes treat us with hatred and ill contempt. But just as we plead with them that we are not their enemies. Neither are they ours.
Satan has stolen the hearts of every soul on this earth. At one time: ours as well. Our job is to bring these people back to the grace and love of God. Our focus: love God and in turn we will love other people. It’s an easy formula, just spend you time loving God and he will turn your heart into a heart that reaches out to others to serve them by the name of Jesus.
When we begin to truly love God, love others, we will truly serve the world. I challenge you – try it for one month. Love God with all your heart, soul and mind. Spend one month not saying anything bad about anybody, but spend the free time you have now loving someone close by you that needs to feel Jesus touch them. Things will happen! Great things will happen. To either your friends or to you, but something will happen.

Church on Fire!

2009-03-31T08:08:00.002-05:00

A few years ago CCC wrote out a strategic plan. That plan was all about reaching out and being a church that was effective in evangelism, thus a church that would be growing. We compared ourselves to other local churches to see that more than anything else - growth in this area was very possible. Another big thing that was found: we weren't being effective in doing this at all. In a five year period we grew 22 people. (Praise God this has changed, over the past 2 years, we have grown 200 people.)
What will it take for us to be an effective church for the kingdom of God? Well, it's got to start with the "heart." The hearts of our pastors and people! Pray that our hearts (both of the staff and church as a whole) will be stretched beyond the little boxes that we have put ourselves in over the years. God is a big God and He only has the boxes that we put ourselves in. God is a God of creation and excitement. He is the God of storms that destroyed the earth and can be heard in a small still voice. His creativity and enthusiasm has been give to everyone of us. Let's use it!
Pray that God will break us as leaders and a church. "Broken hearts" is what God wants. David told us that what God really desires is our hearts - broken and laid open for his healing.
And that would bring me to the last prayer that I would ask you to be praying for CCC about. Ask God to heal us and put us back together as a body that He can use to effectively change the lives of people that surround us everyday.

Sunday Night Review

2009-03-29T19:16:00.004-05:00

Today at CCC, it was another great day! The services were filled with enthusiasm and love. As I looked around before and after ours services I saw many new guest, visiting for the first time. At the end of our second services we had the experience of people coming forward for prayer, two families stepping forward to place their membership here at CCC.
Then we had our second New Members' Lunch. WOW! What a lunch. It was a great time of fellowship and study. About six weeks ago we had our first official New Members' Lunch and it proved to be very successful for teaching people about what we believe and what we are asking people to do to be involved here at CCC.
The big things are our numbers. Number of people that were there was up again and our offering was amazing. We've had five Sundays in March and we had some of the greatest giving weeks that we've every experienced. God is truly blessing CCC!

Painted Pictures

2009-03-25T09:41:00.002-05:00

On my drive to church this morning I was greeted by a painting by God Himself. I realized that every morning somewhere God paints a picture for people to see. (He does it in the evening also, but I'm talking about this morning.) The question is: "Are we looking at the painting or are we squinting and complaining because the sun is in our eyes?"
Do you see the blessings of God? Or are you complaining because life is hard to day? You see, these clouds and the sight was following up 3 days of bad weather forecasts. Yesterday driving to work at the same time - it was windy and rainy! Severe weather warnings and the chances of tornadoes all over the mid-west. Today, the sun is shining!
Do you see the blessings or do you see the storms?

Real Players Get Hurt - Fans Don't

2009-03-10T09:27:00.003-05:00

(This isn't necessarily a picture of an injured player, but it's the best I had) I coach baseball at a local college (part-time assistant). One of the things that you stress is to take care of yourself at practice and during the off days, because you need healthy, ready players. But one thing that you realize as a coach and player. Real players, men/women, boys/girls that really get into the game, really lay it all out there for the team and victory, eventually are going to get hurt. Real players, get hurt! Fans on the other hand, never get hurt. (Unless you are like me and can trip going up the bleachers and certainly coming down them.) Churches are full of people who have never been hurt! (I don't mean their feelings.) They've never put themselves out there and let Satan attack them because they are on the front lines. Complainers never want to play, they just want to give advice. They don't want to get in and work at solving the problem, they just want to remind you that there is a problem and they don't like it. Leroy Lawson, who once was the pastor of a mega-church in Mesa, AZ said, "Every week I've got 2,000 advisers, but not one worker!"
Real players get hurt and they learn to play hurt. Jacob limped for a reason, are you limping for God?

Fail Big Pt. 1

2009-03-02T08:42:00.004-06:00

This is a multi-part blog - why? Because I have failed so often! You see, I am the master of failure. I was raised all by myself, my half-brother is 12 years older than me and my parents had 3 other children in between us and one after me that all died from cystic fibrosis. So, I spent quite a bit of time all alone. I had to use my imagination big time. In my imagination I always won, whether on the battle grounds of war, against the Indians - sorry, to all you politically correct people. I was playing cowboys and Indians, and since I wasn't a real Indian, I had to be the cowboy. I played every sport imaginable, all by myself. I had to pitch the ball to the plate, hit the ball, field the ball and throw myself out. Depending upon who I was at the time, I was always safe or always making a diving catch.
But in my mind, I was always the winner. Then real life started to set in. I didn't make the starting lineup. I didn't make the winning basket or catch for the winning touchdown. I didn't ever get elected class president, I did get nominated for the student council once by a girl that like me.
I prayed to God a ton about making it big! I wanted to be carried off on the shoulders of my teammates because I had helped them win the big game. I wanted to safe the poor people of a foreign country. But I never did.
You would think that since I am such a good failure that it wouldn't bother me so much in the real world of adulthood. I really don't think that any of us are real good at failure. Yet, in the Bible, God's greatest are pretty big failures. Men and women that failed and failed pretty big. The difference? They got back up and got back to the promise that God had given them. God had made promises and they believed them. Me, I often have looked at God's promises and only wished they were true. I really don't believe them with all my heart. If I did, I would get back up and get back int here to fight for the cause of the Kingdom.
Well, from now on, I'm failing and I'm failing big. I have realized that I don't have a long lifetime left. I am going to give it all and fail BIG!!! So, watch out, the failure is coming and somewhere right behind my greatest failure, will be my greatest success. Right behind my greatest failure will be my Father God waiting to do something great because I am going to lay it all out there for Him.
If you are going to do something - do it big! Don't be afraid to fail big.

The Uncomfortable to the Comfortable

2009-02-26T13:31:00.001-06:00

i just listened to this great sermon by Jentezen Franklin (what a first name, huh?). It was from Gen. 28:10-22, Jacob's Ladder. He told the story of who Jacob really was: a cheater and liar. He was running for his life because he had cheated his brother out of the birthright. So, he comes to Luz and picks out a rock - a hard place to lay his head. He makes the uncomfortable, comfortable. We do all we can to stay out of the uncomfortable, we do what we can to run from hard times, we cry and complain when things don't go my way. I am mad at God when my children are sick (of for us, they won't do their homework), loved ones are dyeing, marriage is on the rocks, etc. But it is during the hard times I can see the vision, I dream the dreams, it's in the hard times that God can bring me comfort. When I'm comfortable, I don't need God - when I'm uncomfortable, I 'm looking for the supernatural. Well, Jacob has a dream, a ladder or stairway to heaven. What does he see at the top? God! What's at the top of your ladder? Money, success, power, fame - or God! But it's still not over, when Jacob awakes, he realizes that this is not just a rocky place, it is actually the place of God. And Jacob says, "What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!" Can you see it - the hard, uncomfortable place is AWESOME! The house of God, the very entrance to heaven. It is in the hard times that we can see God, it is in the hard times that I can feel him and more than anything it is in the hard times that I long for him like no other time. Then Jacob anoints the rock with oil. Why? So, that from then on, he could come back to the place, Bethel the house of God. (It was near Luz which means separation) He could always come back to the house of God and remember his hard times! The times where he saw God!!!

C3 Discipleship Process

2009-02-05T18:48:00.003-06:00

At CCC we have been sharing about our vision and discipleship process. Our vision to love God, love others and serve the world. Our discipleship process is worship, study, serve, live. We need to come to God in love and seeking him in worship. When we truly seek him in worship we will move to dig deeper into the word of God. We study to know God more and more. Paul wrote Timothy and encouraged him to make sure of one thing: teach the word of God, teach it true and teach it straight. Many are goingto fall away, many will chase after teaching that are demonic and wrong, but Timothy, he was to continue to teach the truth of God and the Cross of Jesus Christ. We are teaching and preaching to bring people to be spiritually fit and willing to stand up for the truth of God. The truth, the good news, the resurrection of Jesus, we are striving to teach and preach that simple message. The message of love, service and the life that God has called us to - the life of Christ.

20/20: How's Your Worship?

2009-01-21T11:08:00.003-06:00

Since we are looking at our C3 Discipleship Process now as a part of our vision series. I thought I'd bring back a previous blog from 2007. We are talking about being a part of worship as a disciple of Jesus. Really, you can't help it - if you are a disciple, you've got to be a part of worship. What I've seen so far from the Bible - worship of God is BIG and it is LOUD!
Here's my blog: Here we go, another person writing about "worship wars." No, I was just struck this morning about what God really wants. I know, Samuel asks King Saul that, David asks himself that and Micah writes to the people of Israel and tells us what God really wants. But still we bring so many false sacrifices in the name of God and worship that really doesn't bring our hearts or lives to God, but they look real good. Micah is asking the same question that Samuel and David ask, but gives us a little more insight than just a "contrite heart." In Micah 6:6-8, Micah asks the question again, "With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?" Burnt offerings? Calves ready for sacrifice? Thousands of rams? Ten thousands rives of oil? My firstborn? Man, those are some pretty impressive objects and acts of worship. The person that does all these must be a pretty spiritual person and should be exalted in our churches and asked to give us ideas on how we can be better worhippers, because they have it down. NO! Micah reminds us that these are not the things that God is looking for. God is looking for vs. 9, "to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." You mean, I don't need to play the guitar or have the right worship leader and band to do what God wants. No, the wars have been over methodology that really doesn't matter. As a matter of fact, while we've been fighting over the right way, lost people have been over looked and or used as excuses for our actions. They don't care what we do inside our buildings, they care that we care about them. And the only way that we are going to care about them is to come to God in the right attitude and posture of worship. That kind of worship comes to learn truth and obey it, to love people and give mercy and to walk with God, which you can't help but humbly when you walk with the God of the universe. So, let's get down to the right methods of worship. Not our music style or the smoke and mirrors. Let's start doing what is right, showing mercy and walking with God. People will respond and we won't be able to stop them.

2009-01-18T21:11:00.000-06:00

For 2009, I have a list of dreams that I want to see us strive for. Here they are: Dreams for CCC – 2009

• I want to see the people of CCC fall madly in love with Jesus.
• I want to see this church become a place where people without Jesus flock to because of the grace that they experience here. Bringing more and more people to Jesus every month.
• I want to see families come here with their children and students because here parents know that their babies, children and students will be taken care of and taught the good news of Jesus.
• I want to see our Children’s Ministry grow to be the best in the 4-State area.
• I want our 70% of our people involved in our C3 Family Groups.
• I want the other 30% to either be involved in serving the community through CCC or serving here on a regular basis.
• I want to see CCC become the place where people can come and be trained in the arts, job & professional skills all to be used to the glory of God and to the increasing of His Kingdom.
• I want to see people that are hurting because of bad choices in life to come here and receive the counseling and love that they were meant to receive in the first place as a child of God.
• I want to see us take pride in our facilities: by paving the parking lot, expanding our existing facilities to handle larger crowds and events for the church and for the community.
• I want to see a Missions’ Ministry at CCC that is investing into the lives of our students and adults by offering multiple opportunities of cross-culture experiences as well as inner city trips to help minister to people lost and hurting by life’s situations.
• I want to see CCC continually planning on adding staff, both paid and volunteer to minister to this church and to the 4-State area.
• I want to see our Axis Minister (Student Ministry) become the premier ministry to junior high and high school kids in this area.
• I want to see volunteers in our Axis Ministry that can take our Students to a deeper and deeper relationship with Jesus.
• I want to see CCC become more and more creative with the way we present the gospel, more relevant and more precise and Biblical message for today’s world.
• I want to see CCC become a church that is dedicated to prayer. Both through prayer chains and this building be a place that all-night prayer vigils are help multiple times a year.
• I want to see more and more people involved in serving right here in this church for it’s growth and for the message of the kingdom.

20/20: How's Your Vision?

2009-01-06T13:42:00.002-06:00

One of our greatest physical attributes is our ability to see. Some of us can't see as well as we used to so we have help: glasses and/or contacts. I had always been bless with great eyesight, until I was 42 years old. Then it was as if over night I couldn't see anymore. I was puzzled, because, I didn't know that I couldn't see anymore. It had happened so slowly that I didn't realize that I couldn't see what everyone else was seeing. Until I made a comment while trying on some lost glasses that we had found about how big the words on a screen in an auditorium looked. Everyone with me just stared at me. Staring because they knew that I was not seeing things as well as I could if I had glasses, but me, I just thought someone had made the words bigger.
In the kingdom the same thing seems to have happened to many churches and individuals. We have become nearsighted and some almost blind, but we don't realize it. We have had an eyesight problem for so long that we don't realize that we can no longer see the world, the church and our own lives the way Jesus sees them.
Jesus sees our lives as an opportunity for him to shine his glory through. We see them as ours and we pray like that: "God, give me this, give me that..." We ask for God to bless my plans, but seldom do I seek his plans. I slowly but surely go blinded to Him working and wanting to shine His light out of my life.
Or I look at the church as the place I go to experience comfort for my soul and look to see what I can get out of church. Where church is still not about me, it's about God. It is the body of Jesus, never the body of Robin. But I have been blinded by my own selfishness of what I want out of church.
I don't look at people in the same light anymore. I begin to see them as a nuisance, a bother and a bad example. Instead of seeing them as a child of God, one that He loves and that Jesus sacrificed His life for, even if that person doesn't care. My eyes have been blinded because of my own unwillingness to accept the grace that Jesus offers to myself and to a world that needs His grace so badly.
I'm working on my eyesight! My vision! I'm putting on some new glasses - glasses that see things through the eyes of Jesus! How about you?

What a year at CCC

2008-12-29T21:21:00.003-06:00

What a fantastic year at CCC! We started the year with an average of 350 people on Sunday mornings. We had the largest service ever with 750 people for Easter 08. Also because of our growth in the spring, we had to go to two services. We did that for 8 weeks with steady growth throughout the spring. We went back to one service in June, knowing that we would suffer that summer slump. But wow what a summer! Our theme for the summer was "God's Big Back Yard!" This was also our VBS theme for the week of July 21-25, which was one the best attended VBS's that we have ever had. Our theme was to end on the final Sunday of VBS, with a big barbeque and fellowship for people after church on that Sunday. We had the biggest summer attendance that we have ever had - it was big Sunday after big Sunday.
We knew that we would have to get ready for a great fall and a great fall is exactly what we had. We began our two services again in September and in October we had a one Sunday attendance of 605. That number was signifigant because in 2006 for our first Easter Sunday at CCC, we had 607. We averaged 580 for the month - think about it! In 10 months we had 230 people. What a year!
For our children's christmas we put a lot into it. We had an evening congregational meeting, our program and a special fellowship time: "A Taste Of Carterville." We had over 350 people here for our program on a night that the weather was very threatening.
What a year! I want to thank and praise our God in heaven. We have had a great year, because you could feel Sunday after Sunday the anointing power of God working in people's livse. We experience more baptisms this year and more people placing their memembership at CCC than ever. What a great year!
Thank you all for being a part of a great year and a great church.