Brethren, Dwell in Unity

This weekend I was in Bainbridge, GA. It is in the middle of nowhere, just north of Tallahassee. This spring our ministry Ignite Mission has joined up with MissionLab and the Andrew Ogea Band to lead mission weekends in other cities. We showed up in this little town and got quite a surprise. There were around 400 kids from over 5-7 different churches. That wasn't the most impressive part. Those 5-7 different churches were from 5 different denominations. We led worship on Friday Night, they served and did mission work all day on Saturday, and then we had a worship service on Saturday Night. The Holy Spirit came down on Saturday Night as we saw around 40 kids respond to the Gospel. May God forgive us for not assembling in unity.


My fraternity (GHETTO) used to sing this song at the end of our Bible study in my first two years at Covenant College. This is how it went:

"Oh...how good and oh...how pleasant...it is when the brethren dwell together, in UNITY! It is like a precious ointment upon my head, that flows down the beard...even Aaron's beard...in UNITY!" (Psalm 133)
Lord, this is my prayer for the Body of Christ in New Orleans.

Organic Weed and God's Dust

This past week God gave me a great lesson on how clueless people are about reality. On one side of the spectrum we have the sheltered Christian that has spent their entire life within the walls of a Christanese Culture. On the other side is the person who has never been exposed to true faith and doctrine and has lived like a freak, lunatic....unChristian.

Picture of this Spectrum

Christian <-------------------------> UnChristian

I was sitting in class this past Thursday next to my good friend Wendy. Wendy and her new fiance (congrats guys!) Scott go to our new church. They are passionate about international church planting. I love having them on the team. The night before I gave our church the mission of going out into our neighborhood to survey them about our new church name. Our church came up with a top four: Metro Church, Ecclesia, Vintage Church, and Organic Church. Wendy told me that after church a group of members went out to eat at a local restaurant. There was a table of guys from Tulane University at the restaurant. Ben, another stud from our church, went up to them and asked them what church name they would choose and why. One of the guys looked at Ben and said, "Organic Church". Ben asked, "Why?". He replied, "Because ORGANIC WEED is the best kind of weed". Ben laughed and asked the rest of the table. They were sold on the first guys reason and unanimously voted for Organic Church.

After Wendy told me this we laughed our heads off and I told her how much I loved being the church in Uptown. I love the people in Uptown, but most of them don't have clue. They have been hypnotized by Satan and his heretics. This mission is going to be extremely difficult. I am praying that God will use our church to display true faith and true doctrine to a truly lost world.

As we sat in that class, I was exposed to the other side of the spectrum. Our professor (who is a good man with a good heart) began to teach us about real worship. He began to teach us that true worship comes when we realize how amazing God is and how pathetic we are. He talked about the discipline of laying face first on the group before a great and sovereign God. And then he began to share with us that he would love to develop a bumper sticker to display to the world. On this bumper sticker would be "LICK GOD'S DUST". It is kind of like the cool church signs you see around the country. Check out my good buddy Perry Noble's blog. He came across some classics.

Now I don't disagree with the basic concept. But put yourself in the organic weed dude's shoes. Can you honestly say that this will be a great way to display true faith and true doctrine in his life?

True Biblical evangelism has become nothing but a variety of cop-out options. Don't lead someone to Christ...bring them to church. Don't talk to someone about Christ...put a bumper sticker on your car, wear a t-shirt, or pass out a tract. Don't love the world...get behind a so-called Christian political party. It seems like Non-Christians aren't the only ones who don't get it.

I don't have all the answers, nor have I ever claimed to. But I have united with a small group of people in New Orleans that have a desire to learn how to bridge this gap with the purpose of proclaiming God's glory. I would recommend two books to start this journey.

Book #1: UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
(This book will help you understand how the world views Christianity because of the misrepresentation of so-called Christians)


Book #2: Starving Jesus by Craig Gross and JR Mahon (XXX Church Pastors)
(This book will tick you off and I struggled with a lot of their input, but if you want to be challenged "off the pew, into the world"...this is a great book for you)


By the way...the new name of our church is Vintage Church.

New Church Start

I haven't written a blog in a long time. Honestly, it has been the last thing on my mind. Our new church has gone through some new challenges. Here is a basic summary that I shared with our church this past week:

Brothers and Sisters,

God is leading our group in a new direction. Over the past 4 months, we have served at the Valence St. Baptist Church with hopes of revitalizing and replanting a church. During this time we have grown as a church, improved and revived the church, and spread the love of Christ in Uptown. Unfortunately, the original church pastor and membership has chosen to go a different direction. God has led our new core team and leadership to voluntarily resign from VSBC and begin a fresh vision and work in Uptown NOLA. This past Sunday Night the core team unanimously approved the recommendation by the pastoral team to love and leave VSBC. There are a lot of uncertainties as move into the future. But one thing is for certain: Christ has called us to an amazing opportunity in Uptown and He is in complete control. On behalf on my family and the pastoral team, we are so grateful to God for giving us the privilege of serving with a group of people who desire to "Love God and Love People" above all else. We are excited to see where Christ is going to lead us as we make disciples in New Orleans and beyond. See ya on Wednesday Night at Tulane University!

Rob

Pray for us as we launch this brand new mission in Uptown. We are extremely excited as God leads us into the future. I will keep you posted on what God is doing through our church and I will also keep you connected with what Christ is teaching me through this process.

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to all my friends and family! I have had a blast celebrating this great time of year with my favorite people in the world. I pray that you and your family experience the greatest joy and peace as you celebrate the birth of our Savior and Lord. Jesus we worship you alone this season.

Little Wilton On The Way!

Annabeth and I are going to have our our first child. We are absolutely stoked! Annabeth is 9 weeks and 4 days into her pregnancy. The projected due date is on July 9th. We wanted to make sure that we had this baby in the middle of the New Orleans summer heat. Please pray for me, because you know how tough it is on the dad. This is an amazing gift from God. We have actually known about it for about a month, but were unable to get a doctor's appointment. We waited to share this with everyone when we got back from Israel and went to the doctor.

The doctor experience yesterday was one of the most amazing moments of my life. I am completely clueless with the whole baby experience. Annabeth spent most of the time laughing at me. When they hooked the machine up and we saw our baby for the first time, I was speechless. I honestly couldn't say a word for the first time in my life. I really don't cry for anything, but I definitely got a little misty. Annabeth and I held hands as we saw our baby wiggle and as we listened to the heartbeat. The heartbeat was pounding extremely fast, which the doctor says is a great sound of a healthy baby. Amazing.


"Thank you Jesus for blessing us with a child. This baby is for Your Glory. Give us wisdom to become parents that love and direct this child towards your purpose and will. Protect my beautiful wife and child throughout this pregnancy. You alone are worthy of our praise!"

Perfect Timing

I love preaching and serving Christ like an Armenian and sleeping like a Calvinist. The mission that He has called me to at this point in my life has been completely joyous and completely frustrating. Over the past month we have seen a dead church in Uptown begin to wake up, and I have also experienced some of the thickest spiritual warfare in my life. I know that God has great things in store for us in New Orleans because of the attacks that we have encountered.....I will unpack these at a later time.


Paul encourages us to "rejoice in our sufferings". This is easier said than done. Christ doesn't promise us a limo ride. In fact, if you are serving Christ and you are "sipping on a martini in a limo" I highly doubt that you are obeying God's call on your life. Satan doesn't give a crap about those who are of no threat to him. When I played college ball, we never spent time scouting the bad players. We studied tons of tape on the studs from the opposing team. When the game started, we would do whatever we could to stop the star player from getting in the groove (double teams, elbows, blind-side picks, trash talking, biting, etc.). I was a pretty dirty player (mainly because I was white, thick, short, and couldn't jump). I had to find some way to get an edge. If you are currently experiencing no spiritual warfare, you are NO THREAT TO SATAN. Quit being a sissy, and man or woman up for Christ. This life in Christ is not about you. Act like it.

Why did I title this blog, "Perfect Timing"? Because in the midst of all this warfare (which may I remind everyone that the warfare and persecution that we face in America is nothing compared to some of our brothers and sisters around the world. Go to www.persecution.com and get a dose of reality. Mourn, weep, rejoice, and pray over the names. God's glory is being proclaimed through the suffering of man), God has given my wife, brother, and I a gift. We are leaving this Monday to join my dad's church in Israel. We will be in Israel for over a week. Here is the trips itinerary:

Day 1-Depart USA
Day 2-Arrive Tel Aviv
Day 3-Tel Aviv, Joppa, Caesarea, Megiddo, Nazareth, Tiberias
Day 4-Tiberias, Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Caesarea, Philippi
Day 5-Tiberias, Beit She'an, Gideon Springs, Amman
Day 6-Amman, Petra, Aqaba
Day 7-Aqaba, Eilat, Dead Sea
Day 8- Masada, Ein Gedi, Qumran, Jericho, Good Samaritan Inn, Bethlehem, Jerusalem
Day 9 - Mount of Olives, Walking Tour, Gethsemane
Day 10 - Model City, Shrine of the Book, Yad V'Shem, Jewish Quarter, Upper Room, Tomb of King David
Day 11 - Western Wall Tunnel, Jewish Quarter, Mount Zion, Upper Room, Caiaphas' House, Calvary, Garden Tomb
Day 12 - Jerusalem, Back to USA

I am so grateful to God for this opportunity to rest, learn, pray, weep, dream, listen, and refuel in the Holy Land. I am not sure if I had hit my breaking point but it was certainly getting close. God's timing is always perfect. I am praying that Jesus would unleash His presence upon my life as I travel the land where He walked.

Bragging on Jesus!

The picture above is a picture of present day Corinth. The apostle Paul did an amazing work in this area as he spread the name of Jesus and planted a church. I love the passage of I Corinthians 2:1-5. I was directed toward this text in my Proclaiming the Bible class at Seminary. My good friend, Tony Merida, is one of our preaching professors and Dean of the Chapel. He is the Interim Pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, MS. God is definitely using him to spur me on in the ministry. Anytime he preaches God's Word, I feel like I have never preached in my life. I thank God for surrounded me with people like this. I thank God for pointing me to this passage. Read it a thousand times below.

"And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

This was my passage for my first sermon at Valence Church. I titled the message, "Bragging on Jesus". Paul helps us see that this life is not about us, it is all about Christ. I was challenged to remind our church that if we had any hope of making an impact in Uptown, it was going to be because the members of Valence Church understand that this life is not about us...it is all about Jesus. God has definitely humbled me through this opportunity.


I am an extremely independent and self-motivated person. I always have been. Because of this fact in my life, it is difficult for me to accept help from people. But God has completely broken me of this stubbornness. With this new opportunity I have learned two important lessons. First of all, I recognize that I am completely unqualified to be a pastor of a church without the grace and power of Christ. Second of all, I recognize that I am completely dependent upon friends, churches, associations, etc. for help in the rebuilding of this church. This is exactly where God wants me and our church.

Paul reminded the Corinthian Church that he came to them in weakness and fear, and that Christ alone was his strength and power. The Corinthian people had begun to lose sight of the supremacy of Christ. Paul redirected all personal praise to Christ. The city of Corinth was very similar to New Orleans. It could have easily adopted the name "Big Easy". God used Paul in a mighty way in this city. I Corinthians 2:1-5 reiterates that when he came to Corinth, Christ took over.


Holy Spirit, I have to have you within me to equip me to do your work. Brothers and sisters in Christ, I need your prayers and partnership in order to complete the task. My good friend Travis has put up a website for the church, www.valencechurch.com. You can read about our church strategy and plan. Join us as we are going to have a blast "bragging on Jesus".