New (USED) Car

OK, so I recently sold a car that I really enjoyed but owed more on than a church planter ought to! With the uncertainty of income right around the corner, we made the decision to sell the Xterra. I liked the Xterra - comfortable, sporty, reliable, great at towing, room for the fam. Over the past weeks I have looked at hundreds (if not thousands) of vehicles. I have looked online, I have driven by dealerships, and searched the papers as well as local parking lots - exhausting and a little depressing! I concluded that my taste was much more expensive than the wallet. I have test driven some real rags!
So - this week I ran across an add online - made a call. We went yesterday and took a look and a drive - clean interior, drove good. So, this morning we met, signed paperwork, and made the exchange! So, we are the proud new owners of a new used car!
Now here's a fun game - see if you can spot the differences in these photos???

<--Old New->

Isn't God funny! To look at the new Xterra, you wouldn't really know it was any different than the old Xterra!!! Both black with gray interiors - same wheels, roof rack, EVERYTHING. Its a year older with more mileage and its a lot less expensive than the one I just sold. So - my new old vehicle is comfortable, sporty, reliable, great at towing and has room for the fam.

Packed Up

I spent yesterday, and a bit of today packing up the Mabel White office. Man I have lots of office stuff!
I would love to say that I had mixed emotions about the packing up of all my stuff - but I didn't! (I think its probably the politically correct thing to do) All I could think about as I packed my boxes is how much I look forward to digging into all of my books and resources again. I have missed the hours of study that are spent week in and week out for sermon prep and teaching.
Yes, I will miss the great staff I worked with for the past 2 years, but I am also seriously PUMPED about what God has in store as we take our next steps of faith with NCCd.

Gospel Work

I love to see God moving in a person's life - especially when it seems that God is destroying the darkness of religion with the beautiful light of the true gospel. For those of us who have grown up in religion and a gospel relegated to heaven or hell, this is sometimes a process years in the making.
I went to college with Chuck - we laughed a lot and had some fun times. We have reconnected through facebook and I am excited to see the Gospel light burning brightly in Chuck! Here's a link to some good thoughts on the Gospel and Worship.

Informational Meeting (TWO)

Before our September service we held an informational meeting to share with those interested our vision for New City Church. It was a great meeting, but since that time we have picked up quite a few more people! Some of our college students suggested that we do something like that again, and have a Q & A - so we are!

What: NCCd Informational Meeting and Q & A

When: Monday January 7, 3:00PM

Where: Shelly's Corner Cafe / 440 Martin Luther King, Jr Blvd Macon, Georgia 31201

Who: Anyone interested in more info on NCCd and able to attend a 3:00 meeting!

New City Leadership - Music and More...

If you read the post entitled New City Church and a Vision for Community you know that the primary context for the discovery and training of future leadership will be in our small community groups (Life Groups - based on followers of Christ "doing life" together). Our Life Group leaders will be equipped to spot future leaders and to begin the process of training those future leaders primarily within the Life Group.

We are still months away from the addition of our Life Groups, but that doesn't mean that leadership training is not already underway. In fact, I am excited to say that Chuck Ray will be taking a worship lead role in the coming weeks. Chuck has been with our band from the start, and has been a part of a worship team for quite a while. It has been our intention from the start to see Chuck move into a lead role. The hope was, and is, to see Shannon leading one band, and Chuck leading another. This will allow diversity in our worship music (which is reflective of the diversity of our city's music) and keep the pressure off of one single leader. Again - this has been intentional. It is our intention to raise up leaders from within the body rather than seek leaders outside of our particular body of believers.

We believe that raising up leaders from within is the New Testament model. Elders were appointed from within each church body (see particularly Timothy and Titus). There was no ad run and resumes taken to fill the leadership roles - God provided and continues to provide from within the body. This was also modeled by Jesus who trained His leaders from within, and then sent them out. Raising up leaders from within is much more likely to provide leadership on the same theolgical, missiological, and ecclesilogical page.

We also believe that this will allow us to more easily add campuses and plant churches in the future. Six or eight months ago when I first sat down with Shannon and Chuck to talk about the new church, I shared with them that we will be starting another campus within three years and we will be active in planting other churches as well. I explained that my expectation was that we develop three or four worship bands and leaders between now and then so that the worship teams can rotate between campuses and/or church plants. We will not have to search for a band and leader in three years, we will have raised up leaders between now and then.

I look forward to seeing God work in and through Chuck, as He has Shannon and will continue to do so with both. I also look forward to seeing God fill our church with potential leaders as He uses us to train and equip them to lead in the days to come.

Our Final Monthly Service

Last Sunday was our final monthly service! We had a great day. We missed a good number of our college crowd, but we were excited to see a lot of new faces. It was another great Sunday thanks to our many volunteers who helped across the board. Mostly, it was another great day because God has chosen to bless us - with volunteers, with a great place to gather, great people to work with, and especially with His presence! Looking forward to January and all of the new challenges!

New City Church and a Vision for Community

One of the essentials of the healthy Christian life is true community. When we look at the life of Jesus we see that He spent time with large crowds - multitudes of people adding up to thousands at a time. But most of his teaching seemed to take place within the smaller gatherings with his disciples. We know it included the 70 that were sent out, but even more, we see Jesus spending time with the 12. Within the 12, we see Jesus spending even more time with 3 - Peter, James, and John. These guys did life together. They ate together, traveled together, ministered together.
We see the same thing in the life of Paul. He preached to very large crowds, taught many, but spent a great deal of time with guys like Timothy and Titus.
It seems that the greatest development of disciples took place in the smaller groups who shared life. That is the essence of what I mean when I talk about community. We realize that the heart of Christian growth - discipleship and development doesn't take place during the Sunday morning time of corporate worship. Therefore, we will be a church with a heavy emphasis on COMMUNITY. (Notice I said - WILL BE - It will be a little while before we are ready to take any major steps in the area of establishing community groups - but it will come!)
I have been reading a number of guys and their approaches to community and wanted to point you to one of them - Drew Goodmanson and Kaleo church. Kaleo is moving toward community as I have envisioned it, so I encourage you to check out where they are headed. HERE'S a link.
In the end, NCCd will resemble 1st Century house churches in many ways - we will have people meeting on various days of the week functioning as the church all over the city. These groups will minister to one another, will learn together, will serve our city together and on Sundays, we will come from all over middle Georgia gathering for worship.

SOLD

Sold! The Xterra is gone - on its way to Columbus with its new owners as I type!

So - WANTED - cheap (free is OK) transportation!

Reminder...

Just a quick reminder - Tomorrow is our final monthly service! We'll meet again January 6 to kick off our weekly gatherings.

Don't Forget: We are collecting canned goods and dry goods for the Macon Salvation Army. The Salvation Army does a great deal to help middle Georgians who need help - so let's help them help others! We'll have a drop spot in the foyer of the Capitol Theater.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Missouri Baptists Cut Ties With Acts 29

I have been watching this one for a few days in silence - waiting to see what would happen. It saddens me to see what the Missouri Baptist Convention is doing. Here's the story in part:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (BP)--The Executive Board of the Missouri Baptist Convention met Dec. 10 in part to discuss their concerns about alcohol use and alcohol-based evangelism strategies within the greater Missouri Baptist family. They concluded by taking significant action on the issue. In an historic move members of the board voted by a nearly 3-1 margin to cut off state convention Cooperative Program support to Acts 29 Network churches/church plants in Missouri. The vote does not impact MBC churches who, on their own, are assisting Acts 29 churches.The controversy over Acts 29 began when one church, The Journey, started holding regular discussion sessions in a bar where some participants drank alcohol. The "Theology at the Bottleworks" (the name of the bar) sessions were the focus of a handful of secular media reports, including one on NBC's "Today" show. Acts 29 is a nationwide non-denominational organization that receives funding from multiple denominations...

The result is that all Acts 29 church plants, not just those with barroom ministries, are being de-funded. And the decision was not tied to just one issue. Board Member Vic Borden of Kansas City broadened the debate beyond alcohol by stating he is even more offended by The Journey's movie ministry that includes R-rated films."There is becoming more and more of an abuse of Christian liberty, and it is most prevalent in the churches that have been connected with the Acts 29 Network," said Marr, who was part of a theological study committee that examined this issue from February through July. "That's why this motion is stated this way."...
(full story)

The events that led to these actions in Mo took place at one church. As a result, 9 churches will lose funding. One new church is set to lose $12,000 in support for the pastor and his family in 2008. The MBC voted to go back on their pledge to support 8 churches and pastor's because one church apparently did not fully keep its pledge.

I ask again, where would Jesus be in all of this? A recent post should answer that for us! He wasn't called a friend of sinners, a drunkard and a glutton because he lived life apart from "such evils." Jesus should be our model.

Addicts, Divorces, and Homosexuals - Oh My!

Life is NOT really a bowl of cherries!

Life is filled with difficulties, hurts, and disappointments - thanks to sin and the fall. Life is not always pretty, perfect, or even neat. The truth is, life can be quite messy. That's the kind of week its been - a messy week, filled with the fall's consequences. As I have talked with people this week about the messiness of life I have been reminded that THIS IS LIFE. Life is not really what we see on Sunday morning at most churches - happy faces, happy places, pretty people. It is, however the reason that Jesus came. It is for addicts, divorcers, homosexuals, and whatever your problem might be that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It is for us - with all of our problems, weaknesses and hang ups that Jesus came - light to darkness. And I am reminded of Hebrews 2:17 Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. 18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

An Invite to the local Christian TV Station

I received a gracious invite as pastor of a new church start in middle GA to appear on "A Pastor's Heart" on WGNM. I will be heading over to record the segment a little later. The show will air January 2, the week of our launch into weekly services - great timing! Part of the show is the sharing of a "devotional" - so here's the basics of what I will talk about:

John 17:15-20 Jesus High and Priestly prayer - prayed just before His death.
Jesus prayed for His disciples and their future.
BUT verse 20 says
that He not only prayed for those disciples present with Him - but for all who would believe in Him through them - that means that Jesus was praying for us as well!

There are many great things that Jesus prays for us in these verses that we could talk about, but the one I want to focus on is verse 15.

In verse 15 - Jesus prayed that God would do something and that he would NOT do something.
He prayed that God would protect His disciples - and us today who are true Christ followers from evil. (Some translations say the evil one - Satan, the Greek is unclear, evil or evil one.)
That is easy enough to understand one way or another - evil or evil one.
BUT
We have trouble - particularly in the cultural Christian, religious Bible belt with what Jesus prayed that God would not do:
I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world.

In verse 11 Jesus said of Himself - I am no longer IN the world, and yet they are IN the world.

We have - in our desire to protect ourselves from evil - which was not Jesus' prayer (God protect, not you guys protect yourselves) - We have withdrawn from the people who need the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have withdrawn from the "world."

Example - A new believer associated with New City, but currently attending another church has been told that she cannot go out with her "old" friends anymore because they drink and smoke go to bars. She doesn't desire to drink and smoke - she does desire to BE Christ in the midst of friends who do not know Him!
Jesus did not wait on people to come to the Synagogue - He went where they were!

We cannot be a light - or salt when we have withdrawn. The only people who see light in the church are largely churched people! The only people who taste salt when it is in a container are the people in the container!
The Church - the Body of Christ - we who believe are not to withdraw - we are to be in the world - where people who need Jesus are.

Our model for this kind of living is Jesus Himself! You know - WWJD? What DID Jesus do - he hung out with sinners, tax gatherers, and drinkers! (Matthew 9:11-12)

The segment is done conversationally with the host, so this should be fun!

This Coming Sunday's Passage...

John 1 - The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15( John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") 16And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Jesus v/s Religion

Macon GA is my home town. For the most part, my life has been lived here. So, I say this from life experience - Macon is a religious, bible belt city that needs Jesus!
Here's Mark Driscol on the subject of Jesus v/s Religion:

NCCd is an Official Acts 29 Network Church Plant

New City Church downtown is now an official Acts 29 network member and church plant! I am thankful to be a part of a great group of like-minded, Jesus loving, church planters. Here's the e-mail from Tyler.

Keith,

I would like to be the first to welcome you into the Acts 29 Network! All of your paperwork has been received and you’ve been officially approved as an Acts 29 church planter. As you know, your assessment team recommended you during assessment and the Lord is obviously working in New City Church. We are here to support you in any way we can as you move forward. We look forward to getting to better know you, serve you and offer any assistance that you may need. NCC’s information will be posted to the A29 website by the end of the day (you will receive a registration email once your church is posted allowing you to update additional information) and your church will be welcomed as a new member in the Network in the next A29 newsletter.

Welcome to Acts 29!

soli Deo gloria,
Tyler Powell

If you haven't visited the Acts 29 site, you should. It is loaded with great resources.

The Christmas Jesus... or what's your picture?

OK, for some I know this scene from Talladega Nights might be a little sacrilegious - so if that might be you, don't watch - for everyone else this was a really funny scene!
So, what's your picture of Jesus?



Want the real picture of the Christmas Jesus?
Come catch a glimpse of the real christmas Jesus December 16 at New City Church!