Unleashed Answers

A few weeks ago I did a post on 3 Challenging Questions that were raised during the last session of the Unleash Conference at Newspring Church in South Carolina. In that post, I said that I would get back to you on the answers to said questions. Well, after much prayer and reflective, heartfelt dialogue with the Leadership Team at MCC ...here's what we came up with for our church.

Question #1: What is it that God wants to do in my church?
Answer #1: M-O-V-E! He wants to move in the hearts & lives of every person who comes into MCC, and He wants us to go out into our community and tell others about Him. He also revealed that He wants us to move forward, as a church, in a BIG way! [I'll have more on that topic as it develops.]Basically, He doesn't want us to sit back on our family values and wait for things to happen ...He wants us to get out there and make it happen according to His plan!

Question #2: What barriers stand in the way?
Answer #2: Could list the obvious barriers such as time, money, space, facilities, commitment, volunteers. However, we came to the conclusion that the biggest barrier is us! [and we didn't even mention the "obvious barriers" listed above, they never even came up in our conversations!] You see, God has such an awesome plan for us & sometimes we limit in our minds what He (and we through Him) can do! I've heard it so many times...don't put God in a box. I'd like to think I don't, but His creativity goes way beyond what I can imagine...which I guess means that I do enclose him in that tiny little cardboard structure. [Or I try to anyway...not that He would stay there, or even fit, or go in willingly..well, you get the idea!] Just when we thought we had everything all figured out & that we had done all we could do in our given situation...BAM [sorry, Emeril I had to use your catch phrase here for effect!]He shows us something awesome that we had never thought of doing before and shows us a new direction to follow towards accomplishing the mission that He called us to. Wow, God IS great -and- VERY creative!

Question #3: What is it that we as a church want to celebrate?
Answer #3: The most obvious thing is when a soul gets saved, which is a BIG deal and comes with a huge celebration in Heaven. BUT, [yes, I know I'm not really supposed to begin a sentence with but!] we should also celebrate growth and life change taking place around us. At MCC we don't have an altar call every Sunday, and we offer people the chance to pray for salvation in their cars, at home, at work, etc. So, it's hard to tell sometimes how many people are giving their lives to God. BUT, [here I go again with the but!] we can see evidence of spirtitual growth in those around us and we can certainly see those life changes in process. [Way to go God!] We also decided that as a Leadership Team that we need to celebrate our ministry teams a little more often and the milestones [I like to say "mile markers"] that come our way as we head down the road of ministry.

Just to let you know, as soon as we opened up our minds and let God answer these 3 Challenging Questions for us - things began to happen around our church and in our ministries. All I can say is, God is up to something BIG at MCC...and I can't wait to see what He is gonna do next! He continues to blow my mind daily, and I've come to the conclusion that I'm just along for the ride!

I'll post the updates on our BIG news and happenings as they develop, with photos to follow. For now I'm gonna go celebrate God [probably gonna celebrate in style with a Blizzard from DQ, I'm sure it's somewhere in the Bible that celebration is achieved through ice cream!]and tell Him how thankful I am for all He does and will do.

It's a joy to serve such an AWESOME God and an AWESOME church. :)

I Have A Sock In My Pump!

So, the repairman finally came out to look at my washing machine [praise God!] and it’s good news [praise God, again!]. . . doesn’t cost a lot to fix . . . no major problems . . . no parts to order . . . or back order . . . for it seems my friends that I have a sock in my pump!

When I heard the news, I had to laugh - and out loud, very loud at that! In my twisted mind, it kind of sounded to me like a Dr. Seuss book. . . you know, could be the sequel to “I Have A Wocket In My Pocket”. Once the amusement (and the relief of not having to spend much money) wore off, I found a little lesson that I could use [there goes God talking to me again through my washing machine, and if I start to hear voices coming from the dryer – I’m out!], so I thought I might share this life lesson with you today.

You see, I actually created the problem that broke my washing machine! The repairman said that I overloaded the washing machine, which in turn caused one little sock to be pushed over the edge of the tub and into the pump. I know I often “over-stuff” the washing machine, it is after all a “heavy duty” model & I’m guilty of pushing it to the limit to see just how “heavy duty” it can be – not to mention that bigger loads cut back on washing time! The repairman’s remedy for avoiding this problem in the future is to simply cut down on the size of my laundry loads (he says medium-size loads work best) and this should never happen again.

When I was thinking of how my overloaded machine took all it could take & then just shut down . . . I thought of how true that is with life! Sometimes I just push as much “laundry” as I can into my “machine”, in other words I fill my life & schedule as full as I possibly can, and then BOOM out-of-nowhere something breaks! If I don’t take the time to be mindful of my limits, then something small (as small as a sock) or something extra added to an already full load will cause me to breakdown. Wow, something very important to consider here! It seems as though something as practical, and as easy, as cutting down on the size of my life-loads will help to prevent life-breakdown! Sounds easy enough in theory, but now to put this into practice!!!

So, what about you? Got an overloaded schedule? Got too many extra things going on in your life? Why don’t you reduce the size of your load? After all, the repairman says that medium-sized loads are A-OK!

On a side (but related) note, the repairman noticed the smell of my stinky water! [read my last post for an explanation/definition of “stinky water”] I thought that I had taken care of that problem, but it seems that in my haste to bail out all that stinky water from the washing machine I inadvertently left some in the bottom of my mop bucket that I was using to transfer the stinky water to the toilet for disposal.

After he discovered the source of the stink, the repairman was gracious enough to dump the remaining water outside in my front lawn - only after he regained consciousness from inhaling the toxic fumes! [jk – about the guy passing out, not about the toxic smell!] Guess I won't have to worry about weeds growing in that spot any time soon. Oh, and he did save my sock (it was on my front porch by the mop bucket when I got home)so it looks like I won't be having another addition to my "odd sock drawer". [I think the repairman is now my hero!]

Anyway, think I’ll go get caught up on some laundry . . . and from now on I’ll be doing medium-sized loads only!

Dead Things Really Do Stink!

This is a late Sunday evening p.m. post...actually I think it's now Monday a.m.

After today’s message at church "Dead Things Stink!"(please read my previous post), I came home to a nasty stink going on inside my house, and started to wonder...what is it with this recurring "stink" theme of the day! As I started to investigate the source of the smell, and after I had already blamed my dog, I noticed that the smell was coming from my laundry room. As I got closer to my washing machine, it was evident that the smell was coming from here and it was like the green "Scooby-Doo fog" that was creeping through the whole house and permeating the air in every nook and cranny! [side note: not many nooks & crannies in my house, it's too small...which makes the smell even more potent!]

You see, last night when I was doing laundry – my washer decided to quit! I thought it was a sign from God that I didn’t need to be doing laundry (ha, ha) but then realized that doing laundry was a necessity [if I wanted to wear clean clothes, that is!].

When the washing machine stopped last night, it didn’t drain the water from the final rinse & spin cycle, leaving a load of sopping wet towels and a tub full of water. I knew there was nothing I could do, so I left it all over night...thinking that after all, it was clean water.

After sitting in the washer for several hours, the water began to become stagnant and took on a “funky” smell of it’s own…a smell so strong that when I entered the house this afternoon it almost knocked me back out the door. [ok, so a small exaggeration…but it was bad!]

I became desperate to get that smell out of my house, so when I began to furiously bail the water out of the washing machine – God spoke to me about today’s message from Pastor Jason.[not that Pastor J's message stank, but the fact that his lesson was on things that stink!I guess God was really trying to bring this whole stink thing to my attention...and he was very creative about how He revealed it to me.]

You see, as I started to bail the water out of my washing machine it became very clear to me that a small amount of stinky water, hidden in my laundry room inside of my washing machine where nobody could see it, was effecting my whole household. To guests who came through the door, they didn’t know about the water in the washing machine…but they sure could smell it!

I think this was just what God was trying to tell me through Pastor J's message (and through my washer troubles)...that things that don't move(or live),can become stale and stinky(or die). Yesterday, the water that was trapped in my washer was fresh & clean – but because of the stagnation over night (and all day today) it had become dirty & stinky. It’s amazing what just a little bit of water trapped inside a washer will do to the whole household. And it’s even more amazing at how quickly fresh water can become stale and stinky! Just a little bit of stink can fester [like the water in my washer, uggghhh!] and can become a real problem in just a short amount of time.

You see, my washer water is a lot like my relationship with God. If I neglect spending time with God…I get stale, I shrivel up and die inside. If I allow death into my body, soul, spirit, attitude… everything will stink! And it will effect everything else around me!

In a nutshell, if I don’t DAILY spend time with God and grow in Him, I will become stagnant like my washer water and I will die and begin to stink like death!

I don’t ever want to be walking around in stink (death) I want to be alive in Him! I want to be so passionately in love with HIM that my life, my attitude and my “smell” shows it!

My prayer this evening is that God will breathe life into my EVERY situation and that I will answer His call to life. What about you? Does your attitude stink? Are you alive in Jesus or are you just existing? Don’t become stagnant…don’t allow death to creep in. Let Him breathe life back into you, let Him change your life!

Well, that’s all for now, it’s way past my bedtime and I’m praying for the washing machine repairman to come tomorrow…think I’ll head off to bed and spend some time telling God just how in love with Him I really am!!!

P.S. Guess I don’t have to fret over what I’m going to wear to work tomorrow…that’ll be whatever is clean!

Be blessed :)

Dead Things Stink!

Pastor Jason preached an awesome message today (Sunday 4-13) entitled “dead things stink”, and here are the highlights…
-Have you ever been driving down the road & suddenly you smell something “funky”? You then blame everyone in the car & make the mistake of rolling down your window…only to make the smell worse.
-Or, have you been walking in the woods & come upon something dead. It appears like a fresh kill, but then when you poke it with a stick you hear the hissing sound of the gasses (that have been building up inside the carcass) escaping …followed by a terrible smell.
-Some of us have that same stench of death upon us – death of a marriage, finances, you’re dead spiritually.
- Life stinks for you, how come everybody else has things going for them & you don’t? Why, God? What’s the problem, God?
-One of the greatest things we like to do in our circumstances is to blame God, it’s more convenient to blame others – even God.
-John 11: 38-44, story of Martha blaming God for her brother’s death.
-Ezekiel 37: 1-7, story of God taking Ezekiel to the valley of dry bones.
-Ezekiel must’ve been thinking that those dried up bones used to be people who were full of life.
-God says, “I’m not scared of dead-end situations”. He’s not scared of death, He’s not nervous about what you are going through…He doesn’t “freak out” over your messes.
-God loves you, He is for you and He is not playing games with you.
-In Ezekiel, God took a situation that looked hopeless and breathed life right into it, the bones came back to life as an “exceedingly great army”.
-That’s exciting…God specializes in this!
-God is a perfect gentleman, He invites you and calls you out of your “death”; He asks you to choose Him (free will) and He invites you to let Him change your life.
-When Lazarus died, Jesus shouted “Lazarus, come out (of the grave)!”
-If you’ll listen, you’ll hear him calling your name…to get out of that dead situation.
-He wants to be the God of your life.
-When He called Lazarus out, Lazarus didn’t come out in a 3-piece suit, smelling like roses!
-Lazarus didn’t come out all clean, he still had his grave clothes on and still stunk like dead things.
-When God calls us out, it’s just as we are. Don’t try to clean up your act first, come to God and let Him do it.
-When a person answers this call, it’s the responsibility of the church to come alongside him and help him.
-Jesus instructed the Disciples to help take off Lazarus’ grave clothes, it’s the responsibility of the body of believers (church) to come alongside and help take off people’s grave clothes.
-Pastor Jason wants to see us as a church come alongside people and help them to come out of their sin. “Here’s what it means to follow Christ” not necessarily “here’s what it looks like to be me”.
-Are you tired of dead things that stink in your life?
-How’s your relationship with God? On a scale of 1-10, where 10 represents you’re passionately flaming on fire for Him.
-Do you have a hunger and passion for God all week long in your private life when nobody’s watching?
-Are you reading and praying and getting the Word into you?
-Do you spend time growing yourself spiritually?
-God is ready and is calling you to let him breathe life into your situation.

During this message, God said to me “Candy, why don’t you spend more time with me?” “Why don’t you let me breathe life into all of your life situations?”

I said, “OK, God…I’m yours!”

Today was a good day!

Today was a good day, and here are some random thoughts about what went down.
1. Tibetan monks on the way to school. This morning on my way to school I passed a couple of Tibetan monks strolling down the streets of Berea with their maroon colored dress flapping in the wind. I thought to myself, "well, there's something you don't see everyday on your way to work! But after all, this IS Berea!"...so it didn't shock me. I must say that it did start my day off with a chuckle though.

2. Laughter IS the best medicine. God has really been emphasizing to me lately that we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously and that we should kick back and relax (especially in the presence of others) a little more. The past couple of days He's really been telling me to not put such a focus on the "academic" aspect of my job and to have fun with my kids while I've got them. Well, all I can say is that both yesterday and today I have never laughed so much with the little fellers! And to see the glow on their faces (that hasn't been there in a while) and to see them not want to leave my classroom at the bell...that's what it's all about! The memories that they have of me and the time spent with me won't be the verb conjugations or the vocab lists that we suffer through together - but the fun times we had and that they had an adult who enjoyed being with them, that's what they'll take away! [sorry to all those College Professors out there who thought they'd bring their verb skills along with them to college!] And just to show you how God speaks to me...I came home at lunch to enjoy a leisurely lunch at home and lo and behold when I turned on the TV, the topic on the noon news was that "laughter is the best medicine" according to experts who say that even so much as anticipating watching a comedy flick wil have a great impact on you're well being! [OK, got it God!]

3. You can find encouragement in the smallest and the BIGGEST of things. Today a small email that I received from a former church ministry teammate, who has since come back home to join up with the team again, sent me a little email & the last line said how much she cared about the church and what we are doing. That little email not only made me smile, but made me appreciate the fact that somebody was "on my side" in ministry. And the BIGGEST of things happened at the end of my day to just put the cherry on top of today's goodness. A very special church ministry teammate & adopted twin sister (separated at birth, 8 years apart, and born to different parents!)did the BIGGEST thing ever! She stepped out in faith and did exactly what God asked her to do by leading a Bible study for women on a topic that is not such an easy one to address! Sometimes the hardest step is the first one, but she did it and now I'm as encouraged as ever before to see God at work in her life. AND I can't wait to see Him at work in the lives of those women who she ministered to today!

WOW - God is Good! Like I said, today was a good day...and tomorrow will be, too!

Til then,
Be Blessed!

Pyromania Part 1

Rise Up, Gather Round
OK, so I’ve been wrestlin’ with something ever since I left the Unleash Conference at NewSpring a couple of weeks ago and here it is…

I got so FIRED up to see the people of NewSpring Church making such a huge difference in their community and so ON FIRE for God that they couldn’t help but breathe the flames right back at the people who walked thru their church doors. (At one point I even thought I felt the heat from the flames on the back of my neck – and then I realized it was just the guy behind me in line at the snack table, and I think he must’ve enjoyed some extra mustard on his Chik-Fil-A from lunch!)

I’ll have to admit I was a little envious of what was going on here at this church. It was evident to me that the people of NewSpring were genuinely serving with passion and with FIRE and this church was reaching their community for Christ. They weren’t sitting around talking about doing church, they were actually doing it …and with excellence and creativity, I might add!

At this point I wanted to move to Anderson just to be a part of what they had going on there [was even dreaming about the CM Director position that was open for their new Greenville campus – like that would ever happen!] and was longing to be a part of a body of believers who were so ON FIRE for God that they were willing to do whatever it takes to reach their community for Him..

Seeing this FIRE in Anderson, SC moved me so much that it prompted me to ask this question of myself and of God: Why can’t we have that FIRE in our people at Madison Community Church in Richmond, KY?

After thinking and thinking and thinking [I’m from KY, it takes me a little longer to process things!] about this question, it finally hit me. You’re probably asking yourself – what is it? Well, it was not a definite answer to my question [that’d be too easy!] but the answer does lie within it. … as it is a principle that goes back to the song that I woke up singing a couple of days ago.

You see, God talks to me in a variety of ways and one way He talks to me is through a song [mostly old 80’s tunes that once ruled my life as a teen…strange, I know!] that I hear on the radio at the right moment, or a song that out of nowhere pops into my head but fits the situation I’m in. Not just any song, a song that stirs such a powerful reaction deep within my soul that I can’t deny it was a message directly from God.

This time the song that He chose to share with me was “Rock of Ages”, and it came to me as soon as I got out of bed & my feet hit the floor. By the time I hit the shower, I was singing the chorus to the top of my lungs in my “full glory”.

Now I wish I could say the song I was singing was the old hymn “Rock of Ages” but I actually mean the song by Def Leppard from it’s 1983 Pyromania album! “Why this song?”, you say. I think because the principle of Pyromania can be directly applied to finding the answer for my question above. [still follow?]

Maybe the FIRE that we saw at NewSpring was a FIRE that we have to ignite ourselves back in Richmond. Think about it, could this song that God brought to my brain be a call to action, a call to set things on FIRE? [now that I think about it, I guess fires just don’t “happen” on their own, now do they?] Could God be trying to tell me/us something here? Could He be trying to lead me to answer my own question?

I’ll try to share with you what He said to me through this song (in reference to my question above) in 2 more blog posts to follow. Til then, just think about how powerful this song really is when given the context of starting a FIRE for Him.

After all, the song does start out with a battle cry using four words that I don’t even understand [“Gunter glieben glauchen globen” hope I just didn’t cuss somebody out in German or anything!] but nonetheless four words that seem to get me FIRED up ‘cause I know what’s coming next… “Rise up! gather round. Rock this place to the ground”.

Isn’t that what we should be doing to start the FIRE for Jesus? Risin’ up, gatherin’ round and rockin’ this place to the ground…all in His name!

Just something to consider…

It’s now late and it’s back to school for me tomorrow after a week of Spring Break. Think I’ll go listen to my I-pod before hitting the hay, I think I hear Bon Jovi calling my name…

Plan B, C, and D?

OK, so I wasn't going to post anything this week right? But I didn't say I wouldn't read any of the good blogs out there in the blogosphere...and I couldn't help sharing this post with you (and with my peeps at KidzTEAM). Sometimes we feel like we're the only ministry out there who has trouble pulling off a Sunday session with excellence, especially when we're minus the bells, whistles and people that make that happen. If you saw me last Sunday at MCC, you probably noticed the frazzled look on my face as we were scrambling to make sure all of our serving spots were covered. You see, we had several bits of "switching spots" going on within our serving schedules(not to mention keeping the kids in grades 2-5 out in family worship for Big Church Sunday) and several volunteers were out on Spring Break. The good news is that the right people stepped up and all ministry areas were covered (and with excellence I'm sure!), the not-so-good news is that I was highly stressed and left the service questioning the quality of our Children's Ministry [leadership, that is] since this same problem has been plaguing us for the past several months now. I ran across this post today from Matt Mckee and was highly encouraged as I realized that others share in the very same problem(s) that we often encounter. The answer to the problems is clear, make sure you have a PLAN...B,C and D just in case you can't bring your A-game! Please read the post that is linked below and I hope everyone on my TEAM will receive some encouragement from it...thanks Matt!

Meanwhile, I'll be working on our Plans B,C and D for next Sunday (just in case!).

matt mckee live: Ministry Monday: Plan B, C, and D?