Monthly Archives: January 2009

January 22, 2009 · 4:11 pm

God in planes and presidencies

This morning I read an article from John Piper where he discusses God’s hand in “the miracle on the Hudson” and the Obama presidency. It’s a great article with a God-centered perspective on the only major news events of 2009.

Here’s an excerpt regarding the Miracle on the Hudson:

If God guides geese so precisely, he also guides the captain’s hands. God knew that when he took the plane down, he would also give a spectacular deliverance. So why would he do that? If he means for all to live, why not just skip the crash?

Because he meant to give our nation a parable of his power and mercy the week before a new President takes office. God can take down a plane any time he pleases—and if he does, he wrongs no one. Apart from Christ, none of us deserves anything from God but judgment. We have belittled him so consistently that he would be perfectly just to take any of us any time in any way he chooses.

And another excerpt regarding Obama’s presidency:

As much as I reject Obama’s stance on abortion, I am thankful to the bottom of my soul that an African-American can be President of United States. The enormousness of it all is unspeakable. This is God’s doing. The geese were God’s doing. The landing of Flight 1549 was God’s doing. And the Obama presidency is God’s doing. “He removes kings and sets up kings” (Daniel 2:21).

And I pray that President Obama has eyes to see. The “miracle on the Hudson” and the “miracle in the White House” are not unrelated. God has been merciful to us as a nation. Our racial sins deserved judgment a thousand times over. God does not owe America anything. We owe him everything. And instead of destruction, he has given us another soft landing. We are not dead at the bottom of the Hudson.

This article really forces you to evaluate how you view and discuss the major events of our time. Do you marvel at man’s abilities or recognize God’s hand in all things? Too often I lean towards marveling at man, though God’s mercies are right in front of my eyes.

Check out the rest of the article.

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January 9, 2009 · 11:08 pm

10 Reasons why we love The Austin Stone

ascc

 

The overall primary reason we go to and love the Austin Stone is that Jesus Christ is exalted as Lord and Savior in the preaching, teaching, the mission of the church and infiltrates all aspects of the church. God is worshipped as a Sovereign King, who passionately loves and pursues His people and He has called us to invest our lives into the church.

 

Aside from that, if I had to add 10 maybe not completely spiritual reasons we go there, they would be these in no particular order.

 

  1. Community – The Lord has blessed us with a community of friends who have become our family that love and care for us and our family, and we care passionately about them as well.
  2. College Ministry – We’ve been doing college ministry since we came to Austin and at the beginning of this year I thought I would be done this coming May, but as the year has unfolded the Lord has increased my passion for it and given me vision for its future that I hope to be a part of. We love the UT students we get to spend time with it, it’s been used by God tremendously in our lives.
  3. Get Trained – The pastors and staff take seriously the call of God for them “to equip the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” from Eph. 4:7-16. So seriously, they spend their summers investing into their leaders, our Get Trained Classes (most people’s Sunday school) consists of classes with theology coupled with life application seeking to transform our minds through the Word of God.
  4. Worship – We love the style of worship, our worship pastors, Andy Melvin and Aaron Ivey, value exalting Christ in worship through intimacy with the Lord. They choose music with meaning which involves lots of hymns with a contemporary rock style. We love it.
  5. Our elders pray and lead well – Though rarely thanked and I’m sure oft criticized infinitely more than they deserve, our elders seek the Lord and follow His vision. They are godly men whom we trust and follow.
  6. Constantly being challenged – The bar for personal holiness is held high challenging every attempt I make to compromise in every area of my life, calling me to repent and love Jesus with my whole life.
  7. KidStuff/Next Gen – They love our kids well, they want Amber and I to know how to love them well and they have a plan to spiritually assist us and care for our kids from 6 weeks to graduating high school. As a parent, I can’t thank them enough. (I feel super old saying stuff like “As a parent”)
  8. We get to see lives changed by the gospel – The extremely fun aspect of our church is seeing person after person encounter the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and see their lives change over and over again. Names just flood my head of people who didn’t completely understand why they came, but have been transformed by the gospel here. This includes us. Obviously it’s not simply the church, but God is moving and that’s fun to be around.
  9. They want to plant churches – They are committed to raising up leaders and sending them as missionaries locally, nationally, and overseas (glocally for those who speak Christianese). They have hired 2 church planting residents, 1 church planting intern and are working on a training program to raise up leaders to see the gospel advanced outside of the realm of the Austin Stone.
  10. Simply stated, we just love our church – We became partners at the Austin Stone over 3 years ago, have watched it go from 1 service to 4, and we simply love being a part of the mission of the church to our city. It’s one of the primary reasons we love Austin.

 

We love the church.

 

 

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January 8, 2009 · 9:43 pm

spotlight: Re:Wilsons highlight Jim Elliot

Our good friends, Lee and Beth Wilson, posted today about Jim Elliot. In our last post recapping the year, we explained how Calvin’s middle name, Elliot, is after Jim Elliot, amd briefly attempted to explain who he was with one sentence.  

Today’s blog by the Wilsons referenced an article by Fred Sanders titled Today Jim Elliot was killed. It is a great follow-up to assist us in explaining how impactful Jim Elliot was and how his wife, Elisabeth, has been since his death at the young age of 28.

The Wilsons blog is amazing and they update it more frequently than I even think about blogging.   Check it out today, and then tomorrow and I promise you’ll be hooked.

We were blessed to be able to see them over the Christmas holidays and listen to what God is doing in Jackson, TN at Union University and in the church plant they are a part of in their city.  He even inspired me to attempt to grow a beard (pics coming soon) which may or may not be a good thing.

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January 1, 2009 · 6:32 pm

As the year ends…Part 2

Austin Stone Vision Series – For the City

forthecity

Starting back in September, our church went through a Vision Series focused on what it would look like for a church to seek the holistic peace and renewal of a city. It involved weekly prayer meetings, hundreds of small groups, a building campaign unlike any I have ever heard of and it truly led us to take more concern for our city and be more broken for the people we live near.

Check out more here:

Vision Series

The Building Project

 

Project 297

This is a cheesy name from a cheesy pastor that I love (Stew). 297 is for Jeremiah 29:7 which says “Seek the welfare(shalom) of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.” Welfare or shalom is the idea of holistic peace. This is a pilot missionary training program at our church, The Austin Stone Community Church, to train global, urban, and church planting missionaries.

 

We are blessed to be a part of the Church Planting track as we seek the Lord to see if that is where He is leading us in the future. We are 1 of 5 couples who have grown closer over the past 3 months. It’s been challenging, at times exhausting, but extremely beneficial for Amber and I. I’ll tell you more about it another time.

 

CCDA Conference – Christian Community Development Association

I attended this conference with about 10 other Austin Stone people in October and it was an amazing opportunity to learn about seeking the peace of the city through urban ministry from people who have given their lives to do it. I learned a ton, the top things were understanding redistribution (different than you may think), immigration, building a community to be self-sustaining, and the need for racial reconciliation. It was amazing.

 

The end of Group-K

This past September, we got booted…er, I mean “graduated” from the discipleship group that the Lord has blessed us with for the last 3 years with Kevin Peck. My life is forever changed by high bar of holiness, passion for God, and challenge that Kevin laid out for our lives. The community that developed among these guys and our families will never end, but our Thursdays in Manor did. We miss it.

 

College Ministry at ASCC

Amber and I continue to be involved with college ministry at the Stone and we love it. Our involvement continues to change, my role is Community Director for the college ministry, which means I lead our coaches, who lead our small group leaders. We’ve been going through Church Planting Movements and I am grateful for the leaders the Lord has provided for us. Amber and I also disciple a handful of college students and we love those times with them.

 

Sabbath

We guarded our Saturdays more these past 4 months than we ever have before and feel like we’ve reaped the benefits of not working or doing anything for the responsibilities that we have outside of family. It was really refreshing and we hope it continues.

 

These were the highlights of the year and they are likely incomplete, but hopefully it gives you more insight into our 2008.

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