Step Out of the Boat

Save the date…

Messiah Men’s Conference
April 13-14, 2012

The theme is: “Step Out of the Boat.”

Men… are you ready for a challenge? Are you looking for new focus? Are you fired up to serve? Are you prepared to be changed?

Join us on the campus of Messiah Lutheran Church for a powerful speaker, stimulating workshops, great food, and manly conversation.


Keynote Speaker: Keith Rhodes

Keith Rhodes

• CEO of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Orange County;
• Grew up in rural Alaska;
• Recruited to play basketball and football at Grambling;
• Recruited to play for the NFL;
• Endured the devastation of Hurricane Katrina;
• Worked with abused and neglected children in various levels of residential care for 20 years;
• Holds degrees in Criminal Justice and Criminology, with an emphasis in Juvenile Delinquency and Domestic Terrorism;
• Has worked with counterdrug taskforce and gang suppression in 87 cities over the past 20 years, and also trains federal, State, and local law enforcement worldwide.

Keith has a great personal story and a great challenge for every man!

Your $20 ticket includes Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast, and all workshops and materials.

Register:

• Online at http://www.messiahyl.com
• At the Messiah Church office;
• At the registration table on Sunday.

If We Are the Body

We are progressing through a Sunday sermon series called:

“Tough Questions About the Christian Faith.”

Today’s topic in that series was:

“But isn’t the church responsible for so much injustice?”

I’m not going to give you a blow-by-blow of Pastor Bob’s awesome teaching, except to state that his answer to the topic question was: “Yes.” If you want to listen to Pastor Bob cover the many injustices perpetrated by Christian churches, check out the MP3 library on the Messiah site (it will be filed under today’s date: January 29, 2012). Besides the obvious injustices like the Crusades, the Inquisition, Witch Trials, the selling of Indulgences, and forced mass conversions… there are other, less obvious, injustices that pastor Bob covers. If you listen to his sermon, let me know if he left out your pet-peeve injustice.

He spoke of how the church went from being focused on the servant ministry of Jesus, to being so successful that it turned its focus on ruling, administration, law-making, judging and condemning, and protecting its power and holdings. When you are busy ruling you cannot be busy serving.

As Pastor Bob spoke of the servant heart of Jesus and His ministry, and what WE should be doing, I suddenly heard the song “If We are the Body” by Casting Crowns playing in my head. OK… maybe I was just recalling the lyrics. Here’s a video set to the song. It looks like something from a time capsule from another age. I think it’s very well done.



Are you part of the ministry body of Jesus? Where are your arms reaching? Where are your hands healing? Where are you teaching God’s Words? Where are your feet going? Where is your heart showing… that Jesus is the way?

Your brother in Christ,

Dave