shawnlovejoy.com

It's not always happily ever after...

Can not WAIT to start this new series, Sunday, Aug 8!

Who are you inviting to this series?!

Fractured Fairy Tales: Coming August 8 2010 from Mountain Lake Church on Vimeo.

Sunday Reflex 7-25-10...

 I can not believe what I sense God is doing in our church, right now! I sensed His presence in our services yesterday in ways that are simply unexplainable! God is up to something! Here are a few reflex from yesterday...

* Micah Massey helped lead worship again 2day. It's been such a joy to have him lead us to God! Thx, Micah!

* Todd Nichols is a VERY good song writer! His song: "I Will Worship" could go BIG when it's released next year! It's SO GOOD and SO SING-ABLE!

* Week Two of our "OMG!" series.

* I think this is the best msg series we've ever done on WORSHIP!

* I LOVED teaching on the NAMES of GOD yesterday!

* "God is with us. We R never alone. God is R Provider. We can trust Him."

* People once again TEXTED, FACEBOOK'D or TWEETED these phrases to someone they knew down in a valley right now! I love the fact that we are proclaiming God's Name & Character to people all over the world DURING our worship services! That's church!

* I don't know what God is about to do in our church, but here during the SUMMER, our attendance is up nearly 25% over last year!  

* We showed our new "Volunteer Opportunities" video yesterday. Mitch Corn, yu rocked it! You may have a future in broadcasting!

* We unveiled our new "Fractured Fairy Tales" Msg series. I'll post the video here later! This one's gonna rock like no series ever has!

* Blake Stanley looked over at me during the last song and said: "Shawn, you better be ready. God is about to BLOW UP this church!". I THINK He meant that in the good way...

* Another awesome day @mtnlakechurch...

Sunday reflex 7-18-10...

God is SHOWING UP in Gr8 power at our church right now! Here are a few reflex from yesterday:

• Great to have Micah Massey helping us lead worship yesterday. Micah has been leading worship for our Student Ministries for some time and will be working with us in our Adult worship services some going forward! Great job, yesterday, Micah! BTW, I almost named my son Paul... Micah! 
• Always love singing "Jesus Paid It All." 
• Kicked off our "OMG!!!" series yesterday. 
• Re-ordered the service to allow more time for worship and response to God AFTER the msg. LOVE shaking things up!
• We has asked everyone to bring their cell phones to church and be prepared to use them during the service, though no one knew how or why til yesterday. 
• "Text Education" was a big hit. 
• "OMG is just another indication that we have reduced God down to a common catch phrase or cliche'!"
• "This series is all about taking God out of the bubble we've placed Him in; enlarging our perspective of God; who He is and the role He plays in our lives!"
• You can view the msg HERE later Mon AM. 
• I'm amazed at the # of people who were shocked that using God's name flippantly is taking God's name in vain!
• "The construction of the Golden Calf was an attempt to shrink God down to something they could comprehend, understand, and control.
• "However, we also take God's name in vain when we try to make Him part of our lives, rather than the essence of our lives!"  
• "The question is: Are we willing to make "THE LORD" "OUR LORD" today!"
•  To proclaim God's character and name to people all over our community, we texted, tweeted, and facebooked: "God is Gr8-er. We don't have 2 B N control."
• Hope we actually believe it! 
• Responded to God yesterday by singing: Here I am to worship (Here I am To Bow Down)" and "How Gr8 is R God".
• Hundreds came and bowed down, kneeling at the stage yesterday, releasing control and acknowledging His!
• Another Gr8 day @mtnlakechurch...

What stands out to God about us?

The book of Job is an amazing book. The most shocking part of it to me? That out of all the people in the world, Job was the one that stood out the most in God's mind:

  Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.” Job 1:8 (NLT).

What is God looking for from us? What stands out about us to God? 

What stood out about Job? What was it about Job that caught God's eye?

"Blameless": Integrity: Honesty; Truthfulness; A Good Reputation; 

"Fears God": Someone who is keeping God is in first place: with their Time; Talents; and Treasure. Someone who honors God above all else; Someone who spend time with Him in His Word and prayer; Someone whose life is full of worship!

"stays away from evil": Someone who is allowing Christ to change them from the inside out. Someone who is living like an "alien": IN the world; but not OF the world; 

Because this is the way Job rolled, He caught God's eye!

What about you? Would these three areas stand out to God in your life?

If so, how and why?

OMG!!! New Series @mtnlakechurch this Sunday!

OMG Message Series PROMO from Mountain Lake Church on Vimeo.

Sunday Reflex 7-11-10...

Another great day at Mountain Lake yesterday! Here's why:

• Did you know that  the song we sang: "Worship will Rise" was written by our Worship Pastor Todd Nichols? GREAT SONG, TODD!

• We closed out our ALIENS msg series.

• Btm line: "When we become Christians, we don't just become aliens, we become part of an alien family."

• "Because God views us differently, we ought to views each other differently. If HE is our Father, then what does that make you and me? Brothers and Sisters!"

• "You've heard that blood is thicker than water?As Christians we are bonded together through the blood of Jesus Christ! That's a POWERFUL common bond!"

• Unveiled for the first time our initial plans for our new paradigm of small groups being rolled out this Fall: "Life Groups. Doing Life. Bringing Life."

• I REALLY shared my heart with the Mountain Lake family about our heart for our church and our church family. If you're a Mountain Laker, I PRAY you'll watch the msg online HERE later in Monday.

• "Our understanding of the church as a family should be reflected through the way we prioritize each other, send time with each other, and stick by each other, even we disagree or have conflict!"

• The band came and performed a song called: "This is Home" by Switchfoot, and I asked for a commitment from every person in the room. The chorus says this: "This is Home; Now I'm finally where I belong; Yeah, this is home; I've been searching for a place of my own; Now I've found it,Yeah this is home."

• "A key represents the fact that THIS HOME is where I belong.When I take the key to a new home, it is a great day; but it is also a scary day, because I realize that I have to pay for this home! Keep it up! Maintain it! Protect and Defend it! And love the people in it!"
  

• We had keys strewn across the stage and I asked everyone to come take one expressing their commitment to embrace this as their home whether, they were:
• • coming home to God for the first time, with Jesus as the key
  • making a commitment to call Mountain Lake home for the first time
  • getting plugged into our family through service and giving
  • come BACK off the sidelines
  • express their desire to stick by our family through thick and thin!

• Announce our upcoming series starting this next Sunday called: "OMG!!!" We are encouraging everyone to bring their cellphones to church this Sunday. Just get here and you'll know why!

• Another great day @mtnlakechurch.

Resolving Conflict...

The church is described in the Bible as a family. Other Christians are our our brothers and sisters, and together we make up the family of God. Question for you: Does your family ever have conflict? Do you think it would be possible that a family made up of HUNDREDS of people would ever have conflict? In fact, I will promise you this: If you hang around church and Christians long enough, someone is going to hurt your feelings; someone's going to make you angry; you're going to disagree with someone about something; you're going to have conflict! Welcome to the family! 

God never promised that as Christians, we would never have conflict. He DID say, however, that the way we DEAL WITH, and RESOLVE conflict, should be different from the way everyone else does it! So here's the #1 distinct, different way Christians should deal with conflict, versus how everyone else deals with it:

• Instead of avoiding it,  deal with it head on. 

Everyone HATES conflict, and avoids it at all costs. However, as Christ followers, Jesus taught that not only are we NOT to avoid it, we are to meet conflict head on, brother to brother and sister to sister. “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.” - Jesus, in Matthew 18:15 (NLT).

So what does this mean?

• "Venting" is not Biblical. We're not supposed to talk about our "struggle" to anyone else. We are supposed to go talk to the person who offended us. Talking to ANYONE else about it before we have talked to that person is SIN, and we need to repent of it. Venting our anger, struggles, and questions to anyone else, only further spreads and perpetuates the problem and can cause huge problems in the church! 
• We work out conflict face to face. Not email, facebook, or even over the phone. We need to do this WITH our brother or sister ONE ON ONE!
• We should NOT wait for the person to come to us. We must be the initiator of reconciliation. Isn't that what Jesus did for us? We must be proactive. Go to them. Go talk to your spouse. Go talk to your co-worker or even your boss. Talk to your parents. Go talk to you pastor. He won't bite. In fact, I respect a person so much MORE when they say to me: "Pastor, I'm struggling with something you said (or did) and I just need to talk to you about it."
• Don't wait until there's a big deal. Keep the the slate clean and the air clear. Even when there may not be a HUGE deal between us and another person, even if we sense something is there, we need to call it out brother to brother; sister to sister:  "John, it could just be TOTALLY me, but I just sense things haven't been right lately and I just want to make sure we're OK." 
• Don't let Sunday get here before we do this. Jesus was also teaching here that our worship of God and our spiritual growth will be limited as long as there is unresolved conflict in our lives. Jesus said, BEFORE we try to worship again, go and deal with this?

Question: Who do you need to talk with, and what do you need to talk about, before your next worship experience?



 

Sunday reflex 7-4-10...

I never thought I would say this about a Sunday that fell ON JULY 4TH, but yesterday was one of the best Sundays EVER at Mountain Lake. Here's why:

• Knowing that any time July 4 falls NEAR a weekend that our attendance plummets because of vacations (and that's OK, people deserve a vacation now and then), we made a strategic decision to pack everyone into one service yesterday. That alone made the environment so much better for a holiday weekend!  It felt awesome!
• We turned what could have been a DIFFICULT Sunday (July 4 weekends are typically our lowest attended of the year) into a BIG WIN simply by by coming together to worship!  Awesome! 
• Austin Sisk, our Worship Leader did a great job leading us to God yesterday! Austin, you've grown so much as a worship leader these last two years! Awesome!
• Blake Stanley, our Student & Teaching Pastor,  taught for the first time at Mountain Lake yesterday. You may or may not know it, but Blake was on the teaching team of a church of 10,000 before coming to Mountain Lake. However, he had never taught HERE before, so I think we BOTH were a little nervous. For no reason. Blake knocked it out of the park yesterday!  Yesterday's msg was one of the best messages I've ever heard on being salt & light in out world! Awesome!
• God is going to use Blake mightily here at Mountain Lake. As a matter of fact, He already is! Did you know that our Student Ministry Attendance is already up 63% on average (in the middle of the Summer) since he took over our Student Ministry? This number may double this Fall when school gets back in! Awesome!
• "Jesus was not from this world; He was different from the people of this world. But He didn't separate Himself from people in this world! And we are supposed to follow His example!"
• Every family brought BBQ potluck stuff to church yesterday, and after the service, we shared a meal together! Awesome! 
• Mountain Lake people eat a lot. just sayin'. Twelve food lines! Awesome!
• Mitch & Jennie Corn, Courtney Templeton, and the Children's Ministry team NAILED the FAMILY events yesterday!  Obstacle, courses. Moon walks, Tye-Dye's, Face painting, Bean Bag Toss, QB Challenge; Volleyball; and a DJ! AWESOME! 
• Best Family Event we've ever had at Mountain Lake. Period. Awesome!
• The best part: I didn't have to lift a finger to organize this day! I was out of town last week with my family! I simply envisioned the event under the Lord's leadership, and watched our team make it happen! Awesome!
• It was SO GREAT to be able to just watch everything work together yesterday and watch a GREAT TEAM do GREAT MINISTRY! Awesome!
• Mountain Lake Ministry Team: Thx for laying it on the line for our families yesterday, and thanks Mountain Lake family for an awesome day of worship and community! Awesome!
• Can't wait to get back to teaching this Sunday. Be here. I have some things close to my heart to share with you this Sunday! It's going to be ...AWESOME!