Jeff's Blog: Positive Change: New Campus Pastor’s Announcement

If you want to be average you don’t have to change anything. If you want to be good, there are a few things that will need to be changed. If you want to be great, much must change. The DNA of Alive church is that we want to be considered by our Heavenly Father as Great. A Great Church is a church that lives out the mission and values of Jesus.

As a leader I have listened to not only God through prayer a lot over the last few months but to our people as well and to the wise counsel of those who have gone ahead of me. As we look at the exciting changes that are taking place at Alive, they are definitely a result of living out our values and mission. One value that is important for us is “Community and Life Transformation.”

This last weekend, after talking about the 106 “Hands” on the wall (each Hand represent a person who has made a faith commitment at Alive Church in 2011) a lady came to me after our Saturday evening service and said “I want to get my Hand on the wall.” After asking a few questions and talking with her, myself and one of our pastors had the privilege of praying with her as she invited Jesus into her life and began her faith journey with Him. We immediately printed out a hand and had her sign it, changing the title of my message from 106 to 107. She is anxious now to take her Next Step and get baptized. Our next baptism is planned for June 25^th & 26^th, if that’s your Next Step in your faith journey, start making plans.

Sunday we baptized several of those who have made faith commitments. What an awesome time and incredible honor for us as a church family to be a part of that moment in their faith journey. What you don’t know is that afterward a young gal, whose mother was one of those being baptized, made a decision to give her life to Jesus for the first time and now she is ready for baptism. “Leading people who are far from God to be followers of Jesus, who are leading people who are far from God to be followers of Jesus, who are…”

I praise God for all He is doing as we see lives being “Transformed” before our very eyes. I praise God for the “Transformed” lives and communities that He is going to use all of us at Alive Church in as we continue to partner together in the future. Thank You for all each of you do to make the weekend experience at your church a “Wow” experience that we can all invite our friends and loved to so that they can experience the love of God. As we go forward I am thrilled to be announcing and putting into place the leaders who will lead each of our campuses into the future God has for us. God has assembled a team of 3 Campus Pastor that I know will lead us toward being a Great church that continues to live out the mission and values of Jesus.

At Alive Church we never want to settle for average or good, not when we serve such a Great God. My goal is that I will be able to teach a message titled 250 (those who have made faith commitments this year) by the end of 2011, because of what God is doing in and through you Alive Church and with the Campus Pastors that I will be announcing this weekend that will continue to lead us to be a Great church.

In Christ, Pastor Jeff

P.S. Be sure and reserve the date on your campus to for a party to meet your new campus Pastor and his family. Twin Peaks Campus, Friday, June 3^rd @ 7pm. Oro Valley Campus, Monday, June 6^th, @ 7pm. Online Campus Pastor will be at both parties, streamed only from the Monday party. Let’s encourage our Campus Pastor and show our appreciation as they step into these leadership roles.

Living A Productive Life

Growing up my Grandparents had a large grapevine that followed the path from the house to the barn. It probably measured around seventy feet. I remember helping Grandma picks grapes when they were ripe knowing that she would be making some of her famous Grape Jelly, which I loved! (Store bought brands couldn’t hold a candle)

Jesus used the Vineyard as a picture for us and our lives. The Vineyards were not producing grapes for jelly but rather wine. The one thing that a Vineyard and my Grandmother had in common was both want their grapevines to be productive. In John 15:1-2 Jesus said: "I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.”

We see that God the Father is the gardener and He wants His garden to be productive. Jesus goes on to say: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5) We are the branches that are to produce fruit. What is the fruit that we are to produce?

God intends for our lives to be productive, first, as we use our gifts and talents hopefully through our work environments. Specifically Jesus tells us that we will be productive in our prayer life when we remain connected to Him as the vine: “But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples.” (John 15:7-8)

We also see throughout the Bible that we are to produce the “fruit” of the Spirit; “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal 5:22-23) God the Father wants us to be productive, we are created to be productive. Nobody wants a vineyard that does not produce fruit.

We live this productive life by making a moment by moment decision to follow Jesus. That is where we get nourishment and life. It is natural for us to be productive, just like a grapevine naturally produces grapes, it is the natural restful product of our inner life as we follow Him.

Music For The Soul

I love music, listening to it and playing it. I spent most of my youthful years studying, practicing and leading music. It is a powerful tool for the human soul. A well written lyric still gets me, regardless of the subject matter. I am especially interested in the music of the church, both past and present, present for reasons not only that I am a pastor but as a follower of Jesus I am a part of His church. As a musician I love to see the history of music, in fact in my office I have a collection of old hymnals from the early church, some dating back to the late 1,800s.

There are hymns (a hymn just refers to the structure of a song) that go back much further than any printed hymnal that I will be able to collect, one such song of the church is found in 2 Tim 2:11-13:
“If we die with him,
we will also live with him.
If we endure hardship,
we will reign with him.
If we deny him,
he will deny us.
If we are unfaithful,
he remains faithful,
for he cannot deny who he is.”

Music was much more than just a melody and words to the early New Testament Church, it was a tool to teach and to chronicle their thinking. Can you picture us getting together and singing those words in the modern church in America? Singing about martyrdom? For the early Christians these were not just symbolic words, they were reality. They sang these songs in their services knowing that the melody and lyrics would encourage them throughout the week as they faced life threatening situations because of their faith in Jesus.

These are the songs of a Fearless people. They were a people who were given to victory in their faith regardless of the cost. This song was not a theological dissertation, rather it was like most of the songs of the church a reflection of the culture and all that these early Christians were going through and their attitudes. Music is always a reflection of the time it is written. That is why even today if you travel throughout the world you will find songs sung in churches where Christians are being oppressed by their governments and communities much different than songs sung here in America.

This song from the early church reminds me that I need to take advantage of the good times in my life and get prepared with the full armor of God, (Eph 6:13-17) because there will be a day when my songs change. Remember you are either in a crises just getting out of a crises or headed toward a crises, that’s just life.

How To Control Worry And Fear

Are you tired of worry and fear stealing all your peace? Not that you live in worry and fear every moment of your life, but you have those moments. Someone says something that pushes your button, or you hear something that causes you to spin out of control. The apostle Paul gives us some great truth to help us deal with all worry and fear: “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7, NLT)

There is so much to encourage us in those two short verses, but there are two things in particular that jump out at me today to encourage me regarding God’s peace. First is the word “exceeds”, it’s a compound word in the original text that means to be way beyond anything we can measure, superior, incomparable, unsurpassed, unequaled, excels, surpasses, rises above, beyond any other kind of peace. According to this verse there is nothing in the entire world that can even compare to God’s peace. Yet, we search for peace in many different things.

The second word that jumps out at me regarding God’s peace in this verse is the word “guard”. The picture of our mind is like a control tower at an airport. The condition of our minds is the condition of our lives. When Paul says “His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus”, he gives us a picture of a military guard who never leaves his post. One who faithfully protects, monitors, no one or nothing can get by without their approval. Gods peace will faithfully guard our hearts and minds.

This means all the worries and fears of this world and all the garbage the enemy brings our way cannot have access to our minds and hearts when we allow Gods peace to rule. His peace keeps worry and fear at bay. His peace keeps our minds and hearts from spinning out of control.

In everything you face today let Gods peace dominate your heart and mind. Ask God to place His peace as the guard of your life this very moment and in every moment as fear and worry begin to attack. In prayer begin to declare that Gods peace is at work in your life and is dominating all of your thinking, ultimately determining the condition of your life.