Filed under: Church, Pop Culture | Tags: Answers, Auto Industry, Christ, High Gas Prices, Hummer H1, Toyota Camry
I am a crazy car freak. What is happening right now in the American Automotive industry is nothing short than auto history in the making. Four dollar a gallon gas has changed the automotive history here in the United States forever. US consumers have enjoyed cheap gas forever which has fueled American’s taste for big cars, big trucks, big SUVs, everything with four wheels has been big, big, big. The auto industry as a whole has known that the party would end eventually but they were not quite sure when. Detroit’s big three wanted to ride the wave as long as they could and blindly turn away from the inevitable end of cheap gas here in the US. So instead of investing in the development of smaller more fuel-efficient cars they kept investing in the big trucks and SUVs which brought big fat profits. So here is the deal, the wave finally broke and washed out and Detroit’s big three are left high and dry standing on a surf board on a sand dune acting like they are hanging ten.
As a result of their lack of planning and foresight, the US auto industry is swimming drowning in red ink, scrambling to produce some smaller more fuel-efficient cars that Americans now want like never before. Last month for the first time in over thirty years the top two selling vehicles in the industry were not the Ford F-150 and the Chevy Silverado, full-size pick-ups. In fact the F-150 and Silverado were number 5 and 6 respectfully. Number 1 was the Honda Civic, number 2 was the Toyota Corolla followed by the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord. This is literally like the fall of the Berlin Wall in the auto industry.
The catalyst to all of this market shake up in the auto industry is none other than 4 dollar a gallon gas. American’s appetite for large fuel-inefficient cars has changed over night. Why am I going over all of this? Well this can be a great example for the church as a whole. The church has been riding the wave for many years of plenty of people attending church on Sundays, because that’s just what people were expected to do. Just like cheap gas will never return, the hoards of people that automatically attend church will never happen again either. Just as Detroit is scrambling to make more fuel-efficient cars to make the most of 4 dollar a gallon gas, the church should scramble to attract people that don’t have a relationship with Christ. The church should stop building the proverbial 10 miles to the gallon SUVs when gas is 4 dollars a gallon. People are hurting and want answers. The church has the answer, it’s Christ. We just need to deliver Him in a “Toyota Camry” instead of a “Hummer H1”.
Today was one of those Sundays where there was a whole bag of emotions. It had some very high, highs. Attendance was up again crazy crowded (absolutely incredible for summertime), Pastor Byron preached a great message as we wrapped up the Hey Jude series, and the music was great as we started out “old school” with “Hey Jude” by The Beatles and was God honoring all the way to the end.
Then our hearts went out to the Gonzalez family (please pray for them) as they came to worship while dealing with such unbelievable grief as they deal with the loss of their 31 yr. old son who just gave his life to Christ last Sunday morning.
Like I said it was a whole bag of emotions and a truly powerful morning that spoke deep down in your soul. Thank you God for moving in a way You only could! Thank you God for C3 Church!
Filed under: LOVE, Personal | Tags: Christ, Defeat, Expectations, Failure, Grace, Victory
I know that Saturdays are horrible blog stat days. No one reads blogs on Saturday so that might be the best time to write an introspective kind of blog of whatever is on my mind or not. Oh well, I’m going to write it anyway. This morning I am sitting at my desk in my office just thinking about expectations. Let me stop right here and just apologize to all the guys for not coming out to play football with you today. I promise I will make it out to play with you guys but I feel I need to get in a little better shape (code for losing a few more pounds, which is happening) before I feel I can play without looking like a total fool as I carry my fat butt around. Alright then, I was talking about, expectations.
Just like I couldn’t meet the guys expectations today as they were wanting me to come play some football, a lot of times we have trouble meeting peoples’ expectations. Just as we miss expectations a lot of times, we also place expectations on people a lot of times and don’t even realize we are doing it.
Most of the time I expect people to do the right thing. I expect this or that of churched people. I expect this or that of un-churched people. I expect this or that of people that report to me for whatever the occasion is. It is also expected that we perform with responsible actions in our jobs, our marriages, our relationships, on and on etc.. Expectations, expectations, expectations.
In our minds we have to eventually learn how to deal with expectations. We need to learn how accept when people don’t meet ours and even accept when we don’t meet our own. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that living a life of mediocrity is the best life to live. In fact improving ourselves and living a life of excellence is a great thing. I believe that Christ gives us the ability to live a more excellent life, a life of abundance (i.e. read John 3:16).
With the abundant life also comes freedom. Freedom from the expectation trap. The only standard that means anything is God’s standard. If we are striving to be more like Christ then we are truly living in an abundant life, free from expectations. Not expectations from God but expectations from others. The only expectation that God has is to live a life in the pursuit of Christ. God realizes that many times we fall short of being like Christ but the expectation from Him is not that we get it right all the time. The expectation from God is that we keep trying. Unlike people who place expectations on results (me included), God places expectation on our efforts.
When we do or say something that is not Christ-like, it is not that particular action or deed that Christ focuses on. It is what we do after we have failed that Christ is concerned about. Because Christ’s grace already covers for us when we mess up. God’s grace is like the insurance policy that fixes the car when we hit someone. After the accident the car is repaired like new so that we can drive again. So God’s expectation isn’t focused on the “damage” to the car, it’s focused on us “driving”again. Not just driving but driving better. Just like Pastor Byron talked about on Sunday. Accepting Christ is not just a one time act that allows us to live however we want or “sin” and not care about the consequences. A true walk with Christ is pursuing Him and trying to do better the “next” time. So the insurance or “grace” not only allows us to drive again but to become a better driver or “Christ-follower” in the process.
The effort to be more like Christ is the expectation of our Lord and in that pursuit there is true freedom from “people’s” expectations. I will never be able to meet everyone’s expectations and not everyone will always meet up with mine. In fact I might not even meet my own expectations but the important thing is that we do not get caught in the expectation trap because the only thing that is found there is a feeling of defeat. So the only expectations that really matter are those from God because grace is a ladder out of the pit of defeat and the willingness to climb onto the ladder is the victory of an expectation met!
All you C3’ers out there don’t want to miss the final sermon on the Book of Jude, on Sunday. It has been an incredible, little, action packed series. Don’t forget to check out the Hey Jude Blog for some thoughts each day from the Management Team here at C3 on Sunday’s sermon. C3, you are an amazing group of people! I look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday and learning more about our identity in Christ through the eyes of Jude!
Remember, Love Wins!
Tomorrow a great family at C3 Church is saying good bye to a loved one. Pray for the Gonzalez Family as they have a memorial service honoring Victor tomorrow morning. They have gone through a very tragic week and need all of the prayers they can get from the entire C3 Church family. We love you, Yvonne & David and our prayers are with you.
This is definitely a cool you tube video. Love is eternal and I don’t care what anyone says, cats are cool, especially big ones.
Today was one of those incredibly perfect days. It wasn’t perfect because of the weather or where we were at. It was a perfect day because we got to spend it with some of the closest friends we have. These are friends that you would walk to hell and back with because God has given us a bond in ministry, vision and purpose. When God puts those kind of friends in your life, hold on to them and cherish them. Andrea and I have had the privilege to find out which friends were only acquaintances that were in our lives for just a season and who are true life-time friends who will be around for many years to come.
I truly define moments by who I spend them with not necessarily where I am at. So today was perfect not because I was at the beach or that the weather was great. It was perfect because of who we spent the day with, friends who are true and real for a lifetime.
Filed under: Personal, Pop Culture | Tags: Adam West, Batman, Bert Ward, Heath Ledger, Jack Nickolson, The Dark Knight
I am a fan of Batman. I remember growing up as a kid watching re-runs of the “campy” Batman TV show with Adam West & Bert Ward. I always enjoyed the show and all of the subsequent movies. Before today my favorite Batman movie was the last one with Christian Bale, “Batman Begins”. Well, I saw “The Dark Knight”, and just let me say it was incredible. One of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. I am by no means a Batman fanatic but I like the character as much as any normal person does. I think the acting and writing in this movie was incredible and of course Heath Ledger brought a dimension to the Joker like no one has, including Jack Nickolson. I think Heath deserves an Oscar for his performance. Anyway, if you have not seen “The Dark Knight”, I would highly recommend it. It is truly what a movie should be, entertaining.
Filed under: Church, Pop Culture | Tags: C3 Church, Change, Evaluation, Strength
As most of you know I love cars. My favorite magazine is Motor Trend. In the current issue MT had a “first drive” of the brand new, “from the ground up”, Mazda 6. The last Mazda 6 had not been redesigned since 2002 and was showing it’s age compared to the mid size class of cars it competes with. Now you might say, “What does this have to do with ‘true strength’?” Well let me tie it in by quoting the first two sentences of the article.
“True strength comes from knowing your own weaknesses. While that type of insight can cause short-term pain, it also fine-tunes your focus when you need to fix what’s broken.” Obviously MT was referring to the new Mazda 6 (which got a good review) but I think its some profound insight that can be applied to any arena in life, including church-life.
C3 Church is not perfect but we are always striving to be the absolute best we can be for the glory of God! The management team at C3 is always looking for weaknesses and when we find them it can hurt but its necessary in order to make C3 Church second to none. I think that church staffs so many times are afraid to take an honest look at themselves because they are afraid of what they might see. Honest evaluation requires courage because what you find will result in hard work to correct what’s broken, and a lot of times, people just don’t want to do the hard work that fixing something requires.
So have we arrived, absolutely not, but are we strong? You bet, because true strength requires honest evaluation and honest evaluation is an integral part of C3 Church. Knowing your weaknesses and having the willingness to fix them makes C3 Church the best it can be for the glory of God!
We kicked off the sermon series “Hey Jude” on Sunday and it was great. We heard a great message by Pastor Byron on how we are kept “by”, “in” and “for” Christ. This series is going to be great as we are able to find out “who we are” in Christ.
You definitely need to check out the “Hey Jude Blog” that all of the Pastors on staff at C3 are contributing to everyday. It will kind of be like a thought for the day that goes along with the “Hey Jude” series.
I can’t wait until Sunday when we find out what else Jude has to say about our identity in Christ. Have a great week C3’ers.
loveworshiplovelife 