The Orchard BLOG
About The Author
The Orchard Blog is written by Steve Dusek, Founding Church Planter here at The Orchard Church. Steve is a father of two kids, both leading worship in the student band at The Orchard. He and his lovely wife, Sherry, celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in January of 2010.





Ellijay
The Orchard BLOG

Rewritten

Sep/16/2011 10:32 AM
rewritten1

I am really thrilled to get started on this new series. This one will really be a challenge to us in very different ways than some others. Why? Three reasons… Ephesians contains:
  • DEEP theology. We will cover the nature of our salvation, (it’s different than what you might think!) the blessings of our riches in Christ, and look at predestination vs. free will!
  • PRACTICAL teaching. Paul (the author of Ephesians) takes that deep theology and works it into nearly every area of your life: your relationship with your spouse, your kids, your parents, your job, your individual life, and the way you do church.
  • BATTLE prep. BECAUSE that deep theology is working into your practical life, you have an enemy that wants to stop you. SO Paul tells us exactly how we are to prepare to fight the good fight.

I have been away for the last few days praying, studying, and writing. I’m trying to be as prepared as possible for this very important series.

Are you ready? You need to be. Frankly, some of this stuff is pretty heavy, and will knock you down if you aren’t ready. So how can you be prepared?
  1. Be praying.
  2. Read ahead. Start this week in Ephesians 1 and read the whole chapter. I will be using the New Living Translation and the ESV during this series.
  3. You Version. Get on their APP with your iPhone or your Android and let it READ Ephesians to you! It is awesome.
  4. Life Group. This will get intense quick. I’m just sayin’. You will need to talk it out with close friends. There is no better format than LifeGroup. If you aren’t in one, we will link you up with a LifeGroup leader this Sunday morning. Just ask at the information desk!

I hope this helps! See you on Sunday!

Five Strands of Evidence

Aug/27/2011 11:11 AM
Here is an excerpt from one of John Piper’s messages about church membership. He presents “Five Strands of Evidence” from the New Testament that formal church membership is a presumption for all Christians. He says, “Each of these reveals something in the New Testament which would be minimized or denied if there were no definable local church membership.”
I thought it was great background info and thought it would supplement this weekend’s message nicely. You can find this entire message online in audio and HTML right here.


1. The Church Is To Discipline It’s Members
Church membership is implied by the way the church is supposed to discipline its members. Consider the implication of Matthew 18:15–17 where “the church” (ekklesia) appears to be the final court of appeal in matters of church authority as it relates to membership.
If there is no church membership, how can you define the group that will take up this sensitive and weighty matter of exhorting the unrepentant person and finally rendering a judgment about his standing in the community? It’s hard to believe that just anyone who showed up claiming to be a Christian could be a part of that gathering. Surely, “the church” must be a definable group to handle such a weighty matter. You know who you mean when you “take it to the church.”

2. Excommunication Exists
Church membership is implied by the simple fact that excommunication even exists. Paul implies this in 1 Corinthians 5:12–13 where he deals with the necessity of putting someone out of the church. He says, “What have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you.’”
There are two implications here: One is that there is an “in the church” group and an “outside the church” group. Being in the church is definable. The other implication is that a person can be removed from being “in the church.” Such a formal removal would not be possible if there were no such thing as a clear membership—who is an accountable part of this body, and who is not?

3. Christians Required to Submit To Their Leaders
Church membership is implied in the biblical requirement of Christians to be submitted to a group of church leaders, elders, or pastors. The point here is that without membership, who is it that the New Testament is referring to who must submit to a specific group of leaders? Some kind of expressed willingness or covenant or agreement or commitment (that is, membership) has to precede a person’s submission to a group of leaders.
Consider the way the New Testament talks about the relationship of the church to her leaders.
Hebrews 13:17
1 Thessalonians 5:12–13
1 Timothy 5:17
How is this leadership and this submission going to work if there is no membership defining who has made the commitment to be led and who has been chosen as leaders? If we downplay the importance of membership, it is difficult to see how we could take these commands to submit and to lead seriously and practically.

4. Shepherds Required to Care For Their Flock
Church membership is implied in the way the New Testament requires elders to care for the flock in their charge. Of course elders can extend their love to anyone and everyone, and should, within the limits of their ability. But the question is whether the Bible tells elders that they are to have a special responsibility and care for a certain group—a group of members. Consider Acts 20:28 where Paul tells the elders how to care for their flock.
This verse does not say elders cannot visit unbelievers or those who are not yet members. But it does make clear that their first responsibility is to a particular flock. How are they to know who their flock is? Who are we as elders and pastors responsible for? For whom will we give an account to God?
The way Peter speaks to the elders in 1 Peter 5 is even more clear on this point. Verses 2–3: “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge (tov kleron), but being examples to the flock.”
“Those in your charge” (your portion, your lot) implies that the elders knew whom they were responsible for. This is just another way of talking about membership. If a person does not want to be held accountable by a group of elders or be the special focus of the care of a group of elders, they will resist the idea of membership. And they will resist God’s appointed way for them to live and be sustained in their faith.

5. The Metaphor Of The Body
Church membership is implied in the metaphor of the body in 1 Corinthians 12:12–31. The original meaning of the word member is member of a body, like hand and foot and eye and ear. That’s the imagery behind the word member in the text. Verse 12: “Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”
So the question this imagery raises for the local church that Paul is describing in 1 Corinthians 12 is: Who intends to be treated as a hand or foot or eye or ear of this body? There is a unity and organic relationship implied in the imagery of the body. There is something unnatural about a Christian attaching himself to a body of believers and not being a member of the body.

Expectation For All Believers
So for these five reasons and more we believe that membership is a New Testament expectation for all believers. Each of us should be a member of a local body of believers. That is God’s plan for us and for this church. That’s what we mean by membership. All of those aspects of membership are rooted in the truth that the local church is an expression of the universal church. Part of what it means to belong to the body of Christ is to belong to a body.

Forward Thinking

Aug/26/2011 04:15 PM
I was thinking about a friend’s very, very traditional church this morning. They are stuck in their old old mud and refuse to ever change. It reminded me of this great quote from Erwin McManus in “The Unstoppable Force.”

If you don’t like change, you’d better not become a Christian. Once you belong to Jesus, change is inevitable. Our whole Christian experience is an experience of change. it is an experience of putting off the old and putting on the new. It is an experience of no longer being conformed to the pattern of this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds.


He also says, “the Scriptures are a document about change.” and to the church he says “We must go beyond accepting changes of reality and become agents of change.”

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” -2 Cor. 5:17

Mcmanus also says

We must never forget that we serve the changeless God of change. God is not satisfied with the status quo. He is not trying to keep up with culture. His greatest ambition is not for the church to become a great imitator of generational trends. He is the God of creativity, the God of imagination, and the God that chose- through his Son- to ignite a revolution. The implications that begin on a personal level always extend to the whole of the people of God.

Getting Ready for Sunday

Aug/25/2011 08:26 AM
“Can I Be A Christian And Not Go To Church?”
As I am getting ready for this weekend’s question, I remembered that I had a sermon about The Church back in January of this year while we were in the “Epic” series. You can listen to it right here.

I Have Some Questions

Aug/20/2011 02:43 PM
“I notice you preach from notes… Why aren’t you ‘Spirit-Led?’”

Since moving to the mountains of North Georgia, I have heard this question a time or two. I’m not sure exactly where this particular view of being “Spirit-Led” comes from, but it seems to be from that group of people who believe that a preacher should “receive a word from God,” stand up in front of a crowd unprepared, and just let fly whatever comes out of his mouth. Now, I’m not positive, but I think the mentality behind this method comes from the passage in Matthew where Jesus is talking to his disciples, and he tells them the following:

Matthew 10:18-19You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me. When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.



I think it is a mistake to interpret this passage the way some seem to. Why? Because Jesus here is NOT talking in this passage to pastors… He is training his disciples who he is sending out on their very first missionary journey to begin spreading the Good News. These guys are brand-new at this, and they aren’t shepherding a group of people. They are heading out for the first time to spread the Gospel. If you’re going to apply this verse to all Christians as a general rule, then you have to apply the whole of Jesus’ training here, which starts out with “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but only to the people of Israel—God’s lost sheep. Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (Matt 10:5-6) In other words, if you apply all of this equally, then NONE of us as Gentiles should have ever heard the Good News to begin with!

Now, contrast that with what you read in the three books written specifically to pastors; 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. They’re called the “Pastoral Epistles,” and they are written to instruct pastors in how they are to be most open to being used by the Holy Spirit in people’s lives… These letters are filled with language such as

1 Timothy 4:14-16Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you. 15 Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.2 Timothy 2:15Work hard (“study” in the KJV) so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.


2 TImothy 4:2-4Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. 3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths.


Titus 1:8Teach the truth so that your teaching can’t be criticized.



Simply put, God has clearly instructed pastors to “study,” to “work hard,” and to “be prepared.” I have a divine responsibility to keep a “close watch” on staying with “good teaching” that is “sound” and “wholesome.” This means being responsible for what I say… Praying, studying, and researching so that what you hear me say is truly HIS Word, and not simply my opinion.

I believe that I am VERY “Spirit-Led.” I do not believe that the Holy Spirit only moves on Sunday mornings… In fact, I believe that I am led by the spirit IN EVERYTHING I do. The Spirit leads as I:
  • travel
  • pray for the church
  • meet with our board
  • plan out our next big event
  • have coffee with a lost friend
  • take out the trash
  • pray with a lonely person
  • write this blog entry
  • have dinner with my family
  • AND as I prepare for Sunday’s message!

And, guess what… YOU have the Holy Spirit in you, too! If you are in Christ, then the same Holy Spirit that lives and operates in me lives and operates in you as well.

Romans 8:13-17
For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature,* you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.

Sunday Rundown

Aug/11/2011 05:41 PM
Wow. I am really surprised at the amount of response that I’ve received from this past Sunday’s message on what the Bible has to say about divorce. As I stated at the beginning of the message, this topic obviously touches many, many people. I believe that the broken marriage is one of the biggest indicators of the spiritual health of our nation, and of the church. What a difficult position we’re in!

I don’t know about you, but I am THANKFUL to God for marriage. What an awesome idea that was, huh? I am so grateful for a Godly wife who loves me and shows me Jesus every single day.

I’ve always said that the key to a successful marriage isn’t FINDING the right person, it is BECOMING the right person. That’s what love is, isn’t it? It is being willing to lay down your own personal preferences… YOUR OWN wants and needs… Living completely for the other person. That’s what Sherry does for me, and for our children.

If you want to hear Sunday’s message, you can find it right here.

Also, I know that we were a little short-handed in Kidmo this weekend, and I just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone over there for flexing around to make it happen. (Thanks, Crystal for stepping it up!) You guys really make ministry to young families possible. You are awesome.

Dealing With Questions

Jul/27/2011 04:53 PM
The “I Have Some Questions” series begins this Sunday! This will be a bit of a departure from our normal practice of digging through books of the Bible, so I thought I’d give you the quick rundown on how this series has been pieced together.



First, I spent some time praying about the idea and direction of this series. I knew that some people would prefer the ability to submit questions anonymously, so in addition to our weekly “response card” that is handed out in the service, I set up a web page where questions could be submitted without names or email addresses. Over the course of several weeks, we received well over 200 questions on cards and on the website. Most came in online. Nearly all were anonymous. Some questions were very general, some were very specific. Some questions were theological in nature, and some were obviously very personal.

A couple of weeks ago, I printed all the questions out on cards and spread them out on a big table in our conference room. As best as possible, I grouped the questions into categories. (I landed on seven of them... One category being “questions that don’t fit into the other six categories.”) After grouping them, I spent some time thinking through and praying through them. I did my best to distill each category down to it’s own central question, which became the individual message titles for the series.

Once I had the questions formulated, It was time to start gathering resources. Books, articles, podcasts, lectures... Anything that could help shed light on these very difficult answers to some very personal questions.

The ultimate goal is NOT to discover what Steve says about these questions... Not to discover what individual authors say, or even what the church says. The objective in this series is to go back to the Word of God to discover what HE says about them. HE is the truth, and He is all we need.

Study Week Continues

Jul/13/2011 02:33 PM


My study week got off to a great start on Monday... I spent the afternoon making notes on Ephesians 1-3... I now have a bunch of these big pages covering my living room walls! I am really excited about this study, which will begin in September, right after Labor Day.

Here are some of the resources I am using to study with this week:

Logos Bible Study Software
Indispensable! I literally have nearly a THOUSAND resource books on my hard drive, cross-referenced, and instantly accessible. It contains original language study material, commentaries, theological resources, and tons of other stuff... HOURS of work completed with a few mouse clicks!

An Exposition of Ephesians
This awesome 7-book commentary by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is just amazing. It is actually one of my Logos resources, and I’m finding it to be invaluable.

New Testament Commentary
William Hindriksen
This is one of my favorite old standbys from college days. You can’t get a digital copy, but thank God for Amazon.com! I bought some of this commentary series for $30-50 back in the day. Now you can pick them up for under $5 used!

Blue Letter Bible
This is a great free resource for anyone to use... Has commentaries, articles, charts, maps, and links to all kinds of other cool stuff.

Youversion.com
This is QUICKLY becoming one of my favorite resources... I’m amazed at how many people are using their FREE mobile app to study God’s Word, to formulate reading plans, to take notes in church, and to even have the Bible read to them! It is really very cool... I had to drive from Ellijay to Blairsville today, and I listened to the entire book of Ephesians each way!

Study Week!

Jul/10/2011 04:46 PM
Well, my family is leaving me.

Okay... It’s just temporary. But it will feel like forever, I bet. My girls (Sherry and Lauren) are heading to Florida for two weeks, and my son, Zac is out of town for the week, leaving me at home here in Ellijay all alone with the dogs. Man, it will be QUIET around our house!

I am actually looking forward to it a little bit... I’m planning to hole up here at home for the week, without the cellphone or TV, just focusing in on the upcoming school year. I am praying through, reading, studying, and mapping out what may be the next message series or two. Here is what I’m thinking right now... It will be interesting to see if God confirms or readjusts during the week.

“Questions” series: July 31- September 4
Ephesians: “Rewritten” September - January??
“2012” series January??
“Making Love Last” February
“Parables” March - April
??? May - July

Please pray for me during the week. I will let you know how it goes!

Repentance AND Faith?

Jul/04/2011 09:15 AM


It is easy for us to forget that repentance is a vital part of our saving faith. Let’s be real clear... Salvation is based on the gift of God in Jesus Christ alone. Anything besides faith in Christ leads you into a “works-based” salvation. Your works just cant save you.  But this is important: Faith is BASED ON repentance. They are two different sides of the same coin.

Repentance without faith (changing your mind about sin, but not trusting in God) is simply you trying to work it out on your own. It is law... Not grace. It is a works-based salvation.

Ephesians 2:8
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

Faith without repentance (believing in God without turning from sin) is not real faith... God says trust ME with your life by turning it over to me and living the way I have called you to live. "belief" without repentance is not really belief.

James 1:17
So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”
19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God.* Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?

The very first sermon that Jesus preached in his ministry was simple...

Mark 1:15
"The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News,"

This is an important concept for all believers. You can listen to this week's message about repentance in Jacob's family right here.

All Orchard messages are also available on iTunes as podcast downloads.

Got more questions?

Jun/20/2011 05:36 PM


Wow! I have been totally amazed at the questions that people are asking. Our next series, “I Have Some Questions,” begins in July. This afternoon I printed out a consolidated list of questions that have come in on response cards, email, and via the website. I’ve roughly organized them into several categories, and am starting to think and pray through these. Obviously, we won’t be able to answer ALL of the questions, but we will give it our best shot!

It’s STILL not too late to ask your question! You can do so anonymously right here!

Turning Two...

Apr/26/2011 07:47 PM
Has it been two years already?

Our first “official” worship service in the movie theater. It was Easter Sunday, 2009. We had been praying, planning, and working hard at getting started for several months. Our very diligent launch team had mailed out several waves of postcards, had ads in the newspaper, and had been talking to anyone that would listen. But twenty minutes before the service, NOBODY WAS THERE! My friend Doug and I had just come back downstairs from setting something up, or getting something ready... I don’t remember what. But we looked out the front window of the movie theater, and the parking lot was empty. Had we failed? Did Ellijay want nothing to do with us? This was going to be much harder than we thought. We prayed. “God, we will obey you, even if nobody but us show up.”

By the time we looked up from our prayer, the parking lot was filling up, and people were streaming into the building. We launched The Orchard Church officially that day with about 120 people in attendance. Many of them are still with us two years later. (Some I’ve never seen again!)

I remember a lot of great things about these first two years... Our first baptism service. (The river was COLD!) Cleaning the theater late on Saturdays. (and calling Mucho’s our “fellowship hall”) The movie mini-series that we did our first summer in the theater. (Wish we’d done Star Trek) Starting the BRANCH ministry, launching Lifegroups and youth ministry. Watching God provide the money to buy all our portable gear, and moving into the school. (Back to one service!)

Yep, there have been a lot of changes at The Orchard Church. There will always be change. But the MOST IMPORTANT thing will always stay the same...

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. -1 Corinthians 15:3-4


Our location, style, and schedule may change from time to time, but the Gospel will always remain the center of everything we do. It’s in our DNA. it is who we are. That’s not our definition. That is God’s. That’s why the church is the hope of the world. It isn’t about good teaching, or social justice. It isn’t about being “the place to be.” It is about believers walking in the pattern of the Gospel and preaching that Gospel to a generation desperate to know Him.

Two years? We’re just getting started.

EASTER service rundown

Apr/25/2011 11:18 AM
Yesterday’s Easter celebration was just awesome! It was great to just be able to worship together with everyone and know that we were celebrating the resurrection of Jesus with the church all around the world.



Here are a few of my thoughts from yesterday’s service:

  • Our regular band members continue to have to flex around each other’s schedules. Thanks, guys, for being so flexible. As always, we are looking for more people to join this team. Let Rachel know if you’re interested.
  • Loved the “It Is Finished” song that we ended with! If you liked it, you can listen to it right here.
  • Our Children’s Ministry volunteers are OFF THE CHAIN!! You guys just plain rock. I hope I get to be like you when I grow up.
  • The message of “The Veil” was very meaningful to me, personally... I hope you liked it too. It can be download from our podcast feed right here. It will be on iTunes by Tuesday.
  • We had lots of video yesterday! Five of them all together! That was a lot.
  • What a great feeling that auditorium had with so many people in it. We were just shy of 300 people... Not bad for a two-year old rural church!

For me, the BEST things about yesterday’s service had to do with God moving among us. Not only was it incredible to really sense the Holy Spirit’s presence in a vibrant way, but to look around and SEE so many people who were specific answers to very specific prayers over the last few weeks. LOTS of our body had been praying for individuals who just needed an encounter with God... To stand there and watch as person after person who we had been praying for walked through the doors was just a moving experience. I have to admit getting a little choked up before the service even started.

All in all, I know of several people that crossed the line of faith and stepped into a new relationship with God yesterday. The Kingdom is forever changed, and we had a hand in that! Praise God!

Why Reject Esau?

Mar/01/2011 07:49 PM
Occasionally, people ask really, really good questions.

On Sunday, we talked about God’s unconditional love for us despite our sin... If you missed it you can download it here. We looked at the life of Jacob a little bit, and we concluded, based on Genesis 27 and Deuteronomy 7:6-8 that “it was simply that the LORD loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. In other words, He loves us because He loves us!



On a response card, someone asked the really great question... “If God loves us because He loves us, then why did he reject Esau?”

I think this is a great question. I was talking with a friend about it on Sunday afternoon, and I pointed back to the passage in Romans that we had looked at earlier that day in the service...

Romans 9:11-16
But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”
Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”
So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

The point being that God DIDN’T choose to love everyone equally! He chose to love Jacob and he chose to reject Esau. Esau was outside God’s promise to Abraham.

Well, this did NOT sit well with my friend. She said “I just don’t like that. I can’t believe that my God would love some and not love others. That just makes me mad.”

“But,” I said, “don’t forget that God CREATED us to represent HIM on the earth... To reflect HIS glory and to be in relationship with Him. But God didn’t break that deal... WE did. We broke the deal when we chose to rebel against him by sinning in the Garden of Eden. We rejected God. At that moment, ALL of us were guilty of being criminals against God, and we fell under the death penalty. None of us any longer deserved God’s love at all. But God chased after us by CHOOSING to love one people among this world of sinners. He called Abraham and promised that the entire world would be blessed through his offspring. That line of offspring went from Abraham through Isaac, to Jacob, and then to all of Jacob’s children, who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Israel was the chosen nation... Unique in this world because they were loved by God.

And then it happened. The fulfillment of the promise as God wrapped himself in flesh and became a Jewish man, living without sin while here. He took my punishment and opened the door for me to have a relationship with God. That same passage goes on to say:

Romans 9:25-26
“Those who were not my people, I will now call my people.
And I will love those whom I did not love before.” And,
“Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ”

So, in the Old Covenant, you were born into God’s promise and His love. In the New Covenant, you are BORN AGAIN into His family!

Romans 10:9-10
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

Living as Representatives

Jan/19/2011 12:22 PM


I think this “Epic Life” flashback series that we’re doing right now is one of my favorites. If you haven’t been around for it, you can listen in right here. It is cool, because each message kind of builds upon each other, and it is all tying together very nicely.

I really got a lot of comments on this past week’s message, called “Epic Life: Work.” In it, we talk about the difference between our JOB and our WORK. It was really a good one for me, personally. One great passage that we didn’t get to this past week, but that we’ll be touching on this coming week is found in Colossians, where Paul gives us some really very practical ways to represent Christ in this world. If we can bear God’s image in these ways I think it would result in some amazing life change!

Colossians 3:16-4:5
Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.
19 Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.
20 Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord.
21 Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged.
22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord.
23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. 25 But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites.
4:1 Masters, be just and fair to your slaves. Remember that you also have a Master—in heaven.
2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart...
5 Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity.
6 Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.

So, I have to ask the question... How am I representing God in Gilmer County this week? What about in my family? Am I loving as a representative of God? Am I working and obeying as a representative of God? Am I devoted to prayer? Do I live wisely? And who’s life is being changed as a result?

Happy New Year

Jan/05/2011 03:56 PM
I received this in an email this afternoon. I thought this was a great thought to start off the new year!

If you Google the statement “A New Year, a New You” you will find a myriad of companies making the promise that their product is exactly what you need for a better new year. 
 
Each year, millions of people make a list of resolutions for the New Year. The fitness center fills up, budgets are made, and diet plans are forged. Come February, the gym is half empty, you’ve lost track of your checkbook, and that cheeseburger tasted delicious at lunch. 
 
According to Opinion Corporation of Princeton, 8% of people are always successful in achieving their resolutions, 19% achieve their resolutions every other year, 49% have infrequent success, and 24% (one in four people) NEVER succeed and have failed on every resolution, every year. Whew, that’s depressing.
 
It’s the same with our spiritual life. We all have good intentions, but often times lack the structure to follow through on our resolutions to grow deeper in our relationship with God.
 
Recently, we talked to John Ortberg, author of The Me I Want to Be, about unique plans for your spiritual growth. He said, 
 
"What would grow an orchid would drown a cactus.
What would feed a mouse would starve an elephant.
The key is not treating every creature alike.
It is finding the unique conditions that help each creature grow.
God never grows two people the same way."
 
This year, a worthy resolution is to be intentional about discovering the unique conditions that help you grow closer to Christ. 
  
"God is a Hand-Crafter not a Mass Producer." John Ortberg

Hope Tree

Dec/21/2010 10:52 AM
This church is amazing. You know, as much as I feel the pressure for us to be a fully mature church, we are still a brand-new little baby church. YET, God is really using us so much! That Hope Tree thing that we just did was really something! In case you missed it, we were able to provide Christmas Gifts to supply basic needs for school kids around Ellijay and Gilmer County. We literally BOUGHT OUT the WalMart kids shoes. We delivered TUBS and TUBS of stuff to schools for distribution. We impacted approximately 130 families! Unbelievable! Thanks, church, for being the church.

Epic Study

Dec/21/2010 10:42 AM
We just finished up “Epic Gift,” a mini-series in our “Epic” study through the book of Genesis. This walk through the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph began back in September when we moved into the Elementary School for Sunday morning worship. We started in Genesis 12 with God’s call to Abraham to “get up and go” and we have just witness the culmination of his learning to trust God with the near-sacrifice of Isaac on the altar in Genesis 22. I am really enjoying this story so far. What do you think? Send me an email to let me know what you’re thinking about this series so far.

We have the rest of Genesis tentatively mapped out... It goes like this:
Epic Life (January-Feb)
Epic: The Next Generation (Feb-Mar)
Epic Family Issues (Mar-April)
Epic Dreams (May- June)

As always, God reserves the right to change our plans at any moment, so you may not want to put these in your calendar.

Celebrate Christmas Eve

Nov/19/2010 09:44 PM
Our team has been working behind the scenes for the last month or two, planning out our SECOND ANNUAL Christmas Eve Celebration! I know a bunch of you were exposed to The Orchard Church for the first time at last year’s event. This year’s event will be much bigger and better than last year’s!



This year, we’re going to have:

Two venues under one roof
Last year’s event all took place in one room at the Conference Center. This year, we will be having an EARLY venue at 6PM in the cafeteria with food and live music, in addition to the MAIN VENUE at 7PM.

Much higher capacity
We’re in a much larger space this year with a 600-seat seating capacity in the main venue!

Presentation that will knock your socks off! (bring extra socks)
We’ve been working to plan out what looks to be an amazing presentation... You are going to LOVE it! I wish I could tell you about it now, but I can’t give it away just yet! It will have a lot of our regular Sunday morning feel to it, but with some added coolness that will make it sweet!

This is really going to be a great opportunity for us to serve Ellijay and Gilmer County on Christmas Eve. I hope you’ll plan to be part of it, and that you will be intentionally praying about who you will be bringing with you.

Sunday Rundown

Nov/01/2010 04:03 PM
We continued our “Epic Fail” mini-series this morning in Genesis 16. As you probably guessed, I spend a good portion of my week preparing for the weekly message, and it is always good to see what God does with it. LOTS of you responded, and I always love getting your feedback. Here is the brief rundown:
  • Message for the morning: We fail to receive God’s promises because we just don’t trust him to come through, so we resort to our own plan, rather than relying on HIS plan. (Genesis 16:1-3)
  • Passage for next week: Genesis 16:4-16 (Ishmael is born)
  • Children’s Ministry- things are smoothing out nicely with check-in procedure over there, from what I understand!
  • For some reason, we still have people straggling in to services late... Don’t know what that’s all about, but I love the worship time we have together toward the beginning of the hour.
  • What do you think of the “Epic Fail” mini-series?

After the service, a bunch of us went over to Lafayette, GA for an afternoon/evening of exploring Pettyjohn’s cave. What a blast! I’m not gonna lie... It is a HARD cave! LOTS of vertical ascending and descending, plus lots of mud in parts... But a LOT of fun. We were EXHAUSTED when we finally returned late last night! It was a great chance to bond together and to make new friends. Thanks to everyone that went. I had a great time.

What do YOU think?

Oct/24/2010 07:41 PM
Hey, I’m just looking for a little feedback here... Since we’ve moved to the school auditorium, we’ve been using our two brand-new HD projectors and screens to show some pre-service “announcement slides.”



These are cool, because they say “welcome,” and call attention to upcoming events and activities. Plus they make people aware of LifeGroups and the podcast and so forth. BUT, I am thinking that we may move back to only having a countdown on the screen before the service, rather than the announcement slides. It’s a lot of work to create all the graphics, and it seems like few people are in the auditorium before we start, so they can’t be too effective. NOT TO MENTION that all the same information is available in the newsletter handout each Sunday morning.

So what do you think? I’d love to know. Email me and give me your opinion!

Epic Miniseries

Oct/19/2010 11:02 PM
I hope you are loving the EPIC series that we’re doing in Genesis! We’ve learned about God’s promises, our obedience, His consistency, and who Melchizedek represents in our lives today!



The rest of this EPIC journey of knowing God is broken up into epic miniseries. The first one starts THIS SUNDAY, and in it we’ll ask the question, what happens when we FAIL at what God has called us to? How should we respond to our own failure, and how does God respond to it? Join us as we look deeper into the story of Abram, and see how it parallels our own.

If you need to catch up on our series to date (we’ve had SIX in the series so far) you can hear them all on our podcast page.

Settling In

Oct/07/2010 07:56 PM
I can’t believe that we’ve already had four worship services in the Ellijay Elementary School! Honestly, we expected there to be a BUNCH of weird kinks that we’d have to work out. While we definitely have to “grow into” a few things, I have been amazed at how smooth the transition has been!



I have to give a HUGE SHOUT OUT to our teams, because that have really gone the extra mile to iron out any wrinkles BEFORE they had the chance to pop up! Of course, our Logistics team is thrilled that they don’t have to be on at the theater late on Saturdays... And they’re doing a great job getting everything set into place early on Sundays. Our Hospitality team makes everything warm and welcoming. Our CHILDREN’S MINISTRY team are just plain knocking it out of the park with GREAT environments for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary school kids every weekend. Get this... We’ve seen our children’s ministry EXPLODE from an average of THREE kids in preschool & nursery to over 40 kids in just four weeks! WOW!

Here are just a few observations that I’ve noticed in the past four weeks:
  • We’ve had over FIFTY first-time visitors since our big move! If you’re one of them, thanks for visiting!
  • We’ve seen 12 people turn their lives over to Christ for the first time! Praise God!
  • Kidmo is a LOT more fun than I thought it would be! I sneak in there sometimes during worship in big church.
  • Everything is WAY spread out now... I can’t just leave my notebook lying around somewhere or I will NEVER find it in time for the message!
  • There are LOTS more people in the room now!
  • We have a “confidence monitor” on the back wall now. It has the same image as the screens in front. It doesn’t instill me with confidence. Why is that?
  • ONE service is easy.
  • ONE service allows us to get everyone together
  • ONE service gets us to lunch quicker, too!
  • Ken Neybert is an encouragement BEAST. Thanks for lifting me up, dude.
  • Green signs everywhere!!!!!

If you haven’t joined us yet on a Sunday morning since we’ve moved, you really should... We are the SAME church that we were in the movie theater, but there are some very different dynamics going on now, and I love it!


Epic Beginning

Sep/18/2010 06:16 PM
We’re off to a great start in our new meeting location, and our new message series through (most of) Genesis is going to be great.



So, several people have asked me, “If you’re going to do a study on Genesis, why begin in chapter 11, instead of... You know... At the beginning?” I say, “Great question!” I usually give a short, fairly concise answer... But the truth is a little more complex.

The PENTATEUCH, what we know as the first five books of the Old Testament, (also known as Torah) were penned by Moses originally as a single story with basically five chapters. It was much, much later that we further subdivided them down into chapters and verses as they are today. The Pentateuch is the foundational teachings of the Hebrew faith. The first section, “Genesis,” is really the BEGINNING of the redemptive work of God in humanity.

Typically, when we think of Genesis, we think of the act of creation, Adam and Eve, and the Garden story. But the real story of Genesis begins with the call of Abram in Genesis 12. (45 out of 50 chapters in Genesis are NOT about creation.) All of Genesis 1-11, including Cain & Abel, Noah & the Flood, the Tower of Babel... All of it should be regarded as PREFACE, or SETUP for the story of Abram, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Their story is our story. It is all about a group of people trying to stumble their way through a relationship with God.

That’s why I’m excited about this series. I think we’ll find a lot about ourselves, and about how God works in and through us right here in Ellijay. I hope you’ll join us for it.

Moved!

Sep/15/2010 09:27 PM
What can I possibly say after that? God moved. It was INCREDIBLE to see how SO many people pulled together to make this past Sunday’s FIRST SERVICE in the Elementary School happen. EVERYTHING was fantastic... From the signage, to the Children’s Ministry, to the worship service. What a blessing!!



We also had a BUNCH of first-time guests as well! And FOUR people turned their lives over to Christ for the first time! God is at work at The Orchard Church, and I am just thrilled that I get to be part of it. Bring it on!

Getting The Word Out

Aug/26/2010 06:57 PM
The buzz is happening again! It feels like our initial launch all over again... Everywhere I go, SOMEONE says “I hear you guys are moving this fall!” People are talking and it is because of YOU! Keep up the good work!!! We only have TWO MORE WEEKS in the movie theater... And we have plenty more cards for you to use to invite people to come join us at the Ellijay Elementary School on September 12! More details right here.

Office Space

Aug/26/2010 06:45 PM
Great news! The Orchard Church has finally acquired some temporary office space that will get us through the next year or so! As you know, our space beside the movie theater is no longer very useful, AND we have several staff members that will be needing to work together. SO, GOD has made available the basement of the Blue Ridge Log Cabin model home for us to work out of! This new, convenient location is on the north end of The Highlands Shopping Center right beside highway 515 here in Ellijay. It is just two doors up from Larry Vorpahl’s Rocky Mountain Log Home sales center.



This spot will not only provide office space, but it also has a large enough room for us to have team meetings, small groups, training, and maybe even the Orchard Orientation in! The old tenants moved out this week, and I got the keys today. I’m hoping to get a little time to clean the carpets and everything sometime this weekend, so we can move in early next week!

EPIC Trailer online!

Aug/07/2010 02:10 PM
It’s here! The awesome trailer for our new “EPIC” series that begins on September 12! Show it fullscreen to all your friends!

Final Answer: The Resurrection

Aug/06/2010 01:33 PM
“If the cross is the payment for our sin, then the empty tomb is the receipt!”
-unknown

You probably know that the Gospels tell seemingly very different stories about the resurrection. IN fact, to the casual reader, it seems almost like this is where the whole Jesus story breaks down. We’re getting ready to deal with the resurrection on Sunday, and I thought I’d pass on a couple of great resources for you to read up on the apparent discrepancies. There is good news! The SCRIPTURE is proven true once again!

This first article is a LONG study of the evidence and testimonies of the Gospel writers. It cites arguments from an historical and legal perspective. It is an awesome read, but will take you a while.
Do the Resurrection accounts HOPELESSLY contradict one another?

The second is a much more concise rendering of the Gospel accounts into one cohesive progression. This is a shorter read, but I highly recommend at least skimming the first one before looking at the second.

Can the various resurrection accounts from the four Gospels be harmonized?


The Other Jesus

Aug/06/2010 01:06 PM
The OTHER JESUS series is coming to a close this Sunday. We’re on our FINAL installment in the book of Mark. It has been great to run on this track for the past year. It has been an awesome study, and I have really enjoyed it. I hope you have too.



When we originally started this series, I thought it would last from August to November. I figured we’d move on to something completely different for Christmas... BUT God had other plans. As God led me to draw this out more and more in order to go deeper and deeper into the Word, I decided to break this (now very, very long) series up into a bunch of MINI-SERIES. Here is a quick look back at those series titles. OF COURSE, you can download ALL of the messages in The Other Jesus series from our Podcast page.

Bold Moves Family Meeting

Jul/29/2010 01:05 PM
Thanks to EVERYONE who came out despite the heavy rain and took part in the family meeting on July 25. A BUNCH of you have called or emailed and requested the info that we passed out there... SO, I thought I would create a little “video blog” and communicate it. Just watch the 10-minute video below for MOST of what we covered last Sunday.



Bold Moves Update!

Jul/06/2010 07:09 AM
Things are really rolling along as we get ready to roll out our big, BOLD MOVES! Last week was HUGE for progress on Bold Move #3, “Moving into a new field.” I am SO proud of our board, because we have all agreed that our greatest resource is not money, but people. We would rather spend money and save people, than spend people and save money. You may know that we currently spend HOURS on logistics each weekend, moving things around, cleaning things up, patching cables, etc. I’ll just be honest... Weekends are hard. BUT, we had a consultant come in from “Portable Church Industries,” who showed us a LOT of things about reducing our effort and maximizing our potential. We are VERY excited.

One of the many things we saw were these amazing cases that roll into a venue (say, preschool, for example) and contain everything you need for the morning! These things are an amazing time saver, equipment saver, and effort saver!



They make cases for everything that we will need as we move into the elementary school. If you have 8 minutes, you should definitely check out this video... It shows what an “efficiency upgrade” (like the one we’re getting) looks like!


Bold Moves Update!

Jun/11/2010 07:27 PM
Okay, here is the first quick update on our THREE Bold Moves that we’ve undertaken. It is summer, and some of these things are starting off slowly, but we are building up steam quickly.

Move 1: Mentor Training
On Sunday, Gail is holding our first Mentor Training since we set our goal of thirty mentors in the Gilmer County School System this coming year. She’s received a lot of support and response on this, and it seems very exciting! We still have room for more mentors, though... If you haven’t already planned to do so, please plan to be at the Deli Junction after the second service for the training.


Move 2: Family Ministry Core Team
Doug held the first core team meeting on Sunday at the Log Home Sales Center in East Ellijay. His turnout was good, and everybody there had a definite sense of excitement. WE NEED MEN! We aren’t doing classes or anything boring on Sunday mornings. We are going to be pouring into the lives of some young ones in a fun and engaging way. Guys will LOVE this. If you want to get involved, you should email Doug

Move 3: Moving Sunday Morning Services
Wow! Logistically, this is going to be a big, big deal. We’ve got to buy a BUNCH of equipment and gear to add children’s ministry, and to make ourselves portable. We’ve decided the best way we can be good stewards of our people is to NOT burn them out, so we’re meeting with a portable church consultant in a couple of weeks. He will come out from Tennessee and evaluate what we want to do and help us figure out the best way to go about doing it. We’ve got to figure out lighting, stage/set design, projection, and lots of other things. I will let you know how it’s going.

Bold Move #3

Jun/05/2010 08:44 PM
Man, I am just as thrilled as I can be to announce that beginning in September we will be meeting in the Ellijay Elementary School on Sunday mornings! This big, bold move will allow us to go back to having ONE service, AND allow us the space to do ministry with all ages of children!!


A year ago, meeting in the school was simply not possible. For whatever reason, God has seen fit to throw the doors open for us to be in this beautiful auditorium right near downtown. You’ll be hearing LOTS more about this in the coming weeks! (our first Sunday will be September 12... That’s 14 weeks from now!)

Bold Move #2

May/24/2010 10:13 PM
Open our Arms to All Children
That’s right... We’ve been talking about adding “children’s ministry” for about a year now.. But God has kept that door firmly shut. BUT NOW THINGS ARE CHANGING! Not only has God thrown open doors in miraculous ways for us (read: Bold Move #3) BUT, He has clearly given us a vision for HOW we are to go about it.
Here’s the deal. Parents want the church to influence their kids for Christ, right? The truth is that we only have about 40 hours per year to influence them, compared with a parent’s 3000 hours! Seems like very little influence. Well, what if we teamed our 40 hours with mom & dad’s 3000 hours to send a single cohesive message all the time? If we can resource parents on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, wouldn’t that make for much more powerful influence?
This fall, we’re NOT “adding” children’s ministry to our lineup. We aren’t creating a whole new department. We are putting together a cohesive strategy to influence kids Sunday through Saturday every single week from diapers to graduation. Doug gave us the brief overview on Sunday... You can listen to the podcast here. (it’s OtherJesus37.mp3)
What this will mean is a whole new scope of ministry for us at The Orchard! We are now going to be able to have a reach into the lives of parents with kids all over Gilmer County! HOW in the heck are we going to do that? I hope you’ll join us this coming Sunday to find out in Bold Move #3!

Bold Move #1

May/19/2010 04:38 PM
Branch Wide Into the Community
I know it sounds a little vague... Maybe it doesn’t even make any sense. I wanted to let you know about the FIRST BOLD MOVE that we are making as a church here in our community.
We have a UNIQUE opportunity! A few of us began mentoring some students at Clear Creek Middle School a little over a year ago, and we got HOOKED! We have seen some real life change begin to happen, and it is awesome. I wish I could just begin to go into some of the details... But suffice it to say that THIS is the KEY ELEMENT of our BRANCH ministry. It is all about Building Relationships, Answering Needs, and Changing Hearts.
The big problem has been the system of red tape. We’ve been severely impaired by a system that hasn’t been able to handle more than a few people getting processed to get into the schools. It has been a long-term issue for us... but we have been patient and prayed for God to open the door.
The GREAT news is that HE HAS opened the door in a HUGE way! The Orchard Church, and ONLY The Orchard Church has been given special permission to operate under a different system! NOW we can answer the loud call for MORE MENTORS in the school. Not only that, we’ve also been contacted by Gilmer Middle School... They are asking for mentors over there as well! Our goal is to have THIRTY mentors in the schools this fall!
This is an AMAZING thing. Some churches’ mission is to feed people. Others are to do door-to-door evangelism. Our call from God is to build relationships, answer needs, and change hearts. I’ve talked with pastors from all over the country, and it seems like NOBODY else has this kind of connection to the schools! What an incredible opportunity!
There is SO much more to it than I can share in a short blog entry. If you can, please take some time to listen to more details from the most recent podcast located here. It’s called “OtherJesus36” and the caption is “Bold Moves 1.”
This is such a vital move for us... A BOLD move. This is who we are, and God is using us in the lives of middle schoolers and their families. Join us! If you’d like to become a mentor, let us know via email. We will hook you up!

Bold Moves

May/15/2010 01:53 PM
It started on an airplane two weeks ago. I was flying back from a church planter's Conference in Florida when God rocked my world.  Frankly, I had come to feel pretty good about how things were going at The Orchard.  We were just about to celebrate our first year of ministry, we had just baptized another small wave of people, our numbers were good, and everyone seemed generally happy.  At the conference, everything I heard and saw told me that we were doing great!



That's when God rattled my cage.  The Holy Spirit began to call my name on that airplane.  He reminded me once again that building the Body of Christ was HIS job... Not mine.  He also showed me that He was at work all around me, and that HE WAS JUST GETTING STARTED!  He began to stir in my heart on that plane about making some big changes in what we're doing. 
Over the next two weeks, as I prayed and investigated... HE continued to reveal ways that He was working, and to show me things that I had been blind to.  Here's the kicker.  Over the last two weeks, GOD has opened some doors that had been FIRMLY SHUT before that airplane ride.  Miraculously, God has begun to make possible what seemed impossible. 
I hope you can join us for this THREE-WEEK MINI SERIES here at the end of May about three bold moves that I believe God is calling us to.

Easter is Coming!

Mar/02/2010 05:05 PM
Wow! It is MARCH, and we got our brand-new mini-series kicked off this past Sunday! This will be a good series to be in for a few weeks, and we find Jesus doing a full-court press with miracle after miracle that are very important. This series is also important, because it will take us all the way up to EASTER, which is just a five Sundays away!



Speaking of Easter... You know, that is a really big deal for us. It is the holiest of holy days for all believers, and we want to treat it right. We’ve already begun to pray and to talk about what that morning will look like at The Orchard Church, and we know that God will show up in a big way! BUT, we also have a bunch of other stuff that we need to get on top of! We will most likely have a record attendance that day... Where will we put all those people? We’re already feeling pretty full in both services! Should we add a third service for that morning? What about video projection in the other theater? Would that just be awful? Will the parking lot be able to handle all the cars? Should we offer nursery and preschool in TWO hours? What about the already crowded lobby? How will we get 200+ people through there? I know, I know. Easter is about GOD and the incredible miracle of redemption because of his blood. BUT, we DO have to plan for everyone to get together and celebrate, too... And there is an awful lot of planning to do! Do you have any good suggestions about it? email me!

sixtyforty

Feb/24/2010 10:49 PM
A group of us spent an awesome couple of days at the Velocity 2010 Conference at Mountain Lake Church. It was my second time to this conference. I learned so much, and came back with my head just SWIMMING with stuff to process.

One of the single biggest things that really stuck with me was something that Alan Hirsch, one of the speakers talked about while we were there. He gave a long, highly intellectual, academic discussion about who the church really reaching with the Gospel... He had studied and studied, and had come up with some very interesting results.



Alan stated that in our culture in the United States today, “The Church” has a pretty clearly defined target: people who are LIKE THEM. Most churches fit within a clearly established “norm,” with similar dynamics of family, socio-economic context, style, and other factors. In other words, the way we “do church” really appeals to a CERTAIN group of people within our population. His calculations put this group at around 40% of the whole. Churches are “attractional” to this group. We attract approximately FORTY percent of the population... Those that are similar to us. ALL churches do this.

In other words, ALL churches are working hard to try to attract the SAME 40% of our population... Which means that NOBODY is fighting for the OTHER SIXTY! Are you serious??? Can that really be true?

It really made our group head back to the hotel and question what we are really all about, and who we are trying to reach.

What we discovered is that in reality, we don’t need to be just planting “a church.” We need to be planting THE GOSPEL. THE GOSPEL RESULTS in the church. It isn’t that the Church has a mission... The MISSION has a church! We are the result of the Gospel being planted, and our job is to plant the Gospel.

So, in our community, WHO IS the “Other Sixty?” How can we plant The Gospel for these people? We’ve got some great ideas, and we even have some things going on already... Do you have any thoughts on that? Email me!

Sunday Rundown

Feb/08/2010 03:58 PM
The “Sent” series has been been great so far, hasn’t it? Thanks so much for all of your positive, encouraging comments about it. I really feel that this has been a great mini-study. We’re not done yet! There is still another week in the series!



Okay, here is the quick rundown from Sunday morning:

  • GREAT to have a week with no threat of snow, ice, or even dew.
  • GREAT to see so many people that we haven’t connected with is quite a while... The weather has been so UNPREDICTABLE that we’ve just not been able to do what we always do!
  • The band sounded better than ever! Finally, thanks to the continuing efforts of John Crawford, we have ALL SOUND coming through the main speakers, and NO sound being heard from amps on the stage. The sound was awesome.
  • Casey was really sick yesterday, but he just did what he does. Thanks, Casey!
  • Okay, so, beyond the sound and the sickness... The worship was really wonderful. I love worshipping together with the body!
  • Paul and Mary Berger just rock my world.
  • Thanks to everyone who hung around after the 2nd service to help with the clean-up. It went pretty quickly! You are greatly appreciated.
  • We had a bunch of visitors! I hope you guys enjoyed it! AND, I hope you like the little something I put in the mail to you today!
  • How insensitive of us! It was Super Bowl Sunday, and we didn’t even mention it in the service!! In fact, I had a big basketball illustration in the message.
  • Most importantly, we had at least one person turn her life over to Christ for the first time on Sunday! Praise the Lord! That’s what it is all about.

Christmas Eve

Dec/26/2009 11:36 AM
The Christmas Eve Celebration was just fantastic. SO many people were involved in making it a success, that I couldn’t possibly thank them all. It was great to see so many of our folks work so tirelessly to just tell the story of JESUS here in Ellijay. To all of you that helped out before, after, and/or during our first Christmas Eve event, THANK YOU!

Here are a few of my thoughts about the event:

  • That “He Loves Us” song was a real winner. I know lots of people have asked about it. It was written by John Mark McMillan, and recorded by Kim Walker and most recently, David Crowder. I find myself listening to it all the time lately.
  • The setting of the Gilmer County Bank Conference Center was just great. It was exactly what we needed it to be... But we couldn’t have fit 10 more people in there. It was PACKED.
  • Somehow, we got the time published wrong somewhere, or something... We had quite a few people arrive early and we didn’t get to finish our rehearsal beforehand! Even so, it still came off very well
  • We experienced a few power surges, but nothing blew up.
  • The bottom line that it always comes down to: The Gospel. Christmas is all about the fact that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

All in all, it was just a great Christmas Eve. Can’t wait for next year!

Seven Things: Second Service

Nov/17/2009 11:01 AM
This blog entry is part of an 8-part series on “Seven Things in Seven Months.” It is all about the fact that God is growing The Orchard Church much faster than anyone expected or hoped. The LAST thing we want to do is to LIMIT that growth, so we are going to jump on preparing the ground by doing these “Seven things” over the next “seven months.” To see all SEVEN of the things (so far) just click here to list the Seven Things blog category.

I think I am just as shocked as anyone at what we’re seeing. Did you know that 75% of churches in North America have fewer than 100 people in them? Our goal will never be to post great attendance numbers... Our goal is to see God glorified, and to contribute to building the Kingdom! And we are seeing that! There were four people that turned their lives over to Christ in the service just last week!



After only 6 months, our weekly worship service is already crowded. Packed. As in, FULL. The researchers tell us that once your room gets to about 80% full, that growth stops happening. In other words, people will only come if they feel like they have somewhere to comfortably sit! For us, our capacity in the movie theater is only about 140. That is packing it in shoulder-to-shoulder with no chairs to spare. This past Sunday, AFTER you subtract the children’s ministry, we had 168 in the main room (and “The Overlook”). Nearly EVERY chair was full in the big room, EVERY seat was full in the overflow room, and people were standing and sitting in the aisle. God is up to something!

Now, I fully expect that we will see a bit of a lull on Sunday mornings over the next few weeks, due to the holidays being here, but in January, if we hope to be able to see any new growth AT ALL, we have GOT to open up more space. SO, adding a second service is the route we’ve chosen to do that. Some of the advantages are:
  • immediate seating capacity increase from 140 to 280.
  • No extra cost
  • No extra equipment to buy

VERY IMPORTANT: The purpose of adding a second service is NOT to “divide” our group into two smaller groups. The goal is GROWTH. We simply want to be more available for more blessing. If a farmer wants a bigger harvest, he’ll have to plant in a bigger field. This is one of our ways of increasing the size of the field for the seeds of God’s Word to be sown into. The harvest is plentiful.

There are plenty of logistics involved that we will still have to work out. It is harder than just saying “okay, next week we will have two services.” Nope, we have to work out scheduling, logistics, and staffing for quite a few positions. But, if God continues to lead us this way, HE will work it all out! Praise God that we get to be part of something so incredible!

Seven Things in Seven Months

Oct/31/2009 12:17 AM
You may have noticed that my good friend, Tony Balfa built a brand new sign for the corner near the Wal Mart! The new sign is perfect... It is much more permanent in it’s build quality than the old one ever was, and we got a new, RED banner to go in it! It just looks great!



With this new, more permanent sign, I feel like we are making a real statement. Doug Moore calls it “staking a claim on Ellijay,” and I think I like that. We just celebrated our six-month anniversary since our launch, and I feel like we are really getting some momentum going. We are HERE TO STAY, and we are HERE to CHANGE THE WORLD. We have a real heart to see God change hearts in Ellijay, and we just want to be part of it!

They told us that we would probably stall out at around 30. Fifty, if we were lucky. And that is after a year of ministry in Ellijay. The church growth experts say that all churches experience a growth barrier at 65. The next barrier is at 120. Churches all over the world just plain hit these barriers, and tend to stop growing.

The Orchard Church has been amazingly blessed by God. We’ve blown right by all of those expectations. After praying and seeking wise counsel, I believe that our first growth barrier is going to be at 250! Yep, 250. Nobody could have forseen that we would be having over 120 on a regular basis just six months into our ministry here in Ellijay. Nobody would have known that we would see dozens of people turn their lives over to Christ. We literally have people WAITING to be baptized!! How cool is that?? We are feeding families, clothing people, and doing all sorts of ministry in the name of Jesus.

We are SIX months old, and we are already bumping up on the capacity of our auditorium. Our life groups are already filling up. If we don’t watch out, we are going to LIMIT our own growth potential just because we aren’t ready for what God wants to do NEXT.


God has called us to something HUGE!
We’ve only just gotten started, but we have a lot to do. We’re experiencing much more growth that we ever anticipated, and we are seeing God do some incredible things. I was talking with our board this week, and we are setting some pretty high goals, aiming for these SEVEN things over the next SEVEN months. These are BIG things, requiring us to really buckle in and get it done... Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Develop a deeper PRAYER ministry
2. Have several BIG DAYS, including Christmas Eve, Super Bowl Sunday, and Easter
3. Add a SECOND SUNDAY AM SERVICE
4. SECURE and BUILDOUT the ERA for Children’s Ministry
5. Launch Elementary-age Children’s Ministry
6. Launch Youth Ministry
7. Launch more Life Groups!

This represents a lot, and it will mean a lot of people getting in on serving on a regular basis, but we are SEEING GOD WORK, and it is our privilege to partner with Him! Keep watching this space for more detail on what each of these seven things mean for our group. The fact is, we are running out of space in the movie theater, the lobby, and in the preschool area (the ERA next door to the theater). What a great problem to have!

As I look at this list of seven things... I can’t help but think that the answer to all of these things lies with PEOPLE. You know, it isn’t my responsibility to grow the church... it is God’s. Jesus called the ball on that one in Matthew when he said “...I will build my church.” But, I also know that it is my privilege to partner with him in that growth! God has given MANY people with gifts to the church to build it up into maturity and unity in Him! (Check it: Ephesians 4:11-16) So, I have to wonder... As we move into each of these seven things... WHO will God use? Who will God send? Who will God work through? Will it be you?

To see all the “Seven Things” blog entries so far, just click HERE.

R.I.P. Green Sign

Oct/19/2009 10:16 PM
After six months of standing at the prominent corner just south of WalMart, our big green sign bit the dust today. Actually, it wasn’t a big surprise... We’ve been patching, repairing, re-working, and propping it up on an almost daily basis. You may have driven by it a time or two over the last couple of weeks and seen it sagging. Despite our best efforts to keep it alive, it finally gave up the ghost today.



We were given permission to put the sign up on that corner just before we launched at Easter, just a little over six months ago. Even though we mailed out thousands of cards, put ads in the paper, and handed out invitations, most of our first-time visitors indicate that they discovered us by noticing the sign as they drove by.

We are hoping to have a new sign up in the same spot soon... Be watching for it. In the meantime, we will each just have to invite people on our own!

Launched!

Apr/15/2009 12:37 AM
Just now recovering from Sunday morning. I am just stunned. There was definitely a sense of eagerness on Saturday night... The cleanup crew, who ISN’T supposed to set up all the tech, stage, and stuff ended up staying until TOO LATE because they were just excited and wanted to get stuff going. The band worked really hard and pulled it off really well. Those guys just rocked. The nursery and preschool groups were awesome. Everyone in front and behind the scenes just went after it and knocked it right out of the park!

Everyone told us to keep our expectations low, and not get disappointed when turnout wasn’t high. Your first official service, after all, will be pretty small. You have to build a crowd over time. We were hoping for 60... Praying for 80. When I was told that there were over 120 present, you could have knocked me down. A church-planting friend of mine emailed me when he heard that and said that 120 was a great number for a growing metropolitan area... He couldn’t believe we had that in little Ellijay!

We received great responses from people, saying things like “Ellijay needs this,” “we have been looking for you for so long... where have you been?” and my favorite, “I love my new church.” (thanks, Amy!) I was nearly in tears as people expressed their excitement about this NEW THING in Ellijay.

My favorite part of the service was when we sang “Wonderous Cross.” I love that line that goes “O the wonderful cross, bids me come and die and find that I may truly live.” It really summed up the message of Easter, and the reason we’ve come together to launch this church. I also really loved watching people leave with handfulls of seed packages. (you had to be there.) It was just another signal of the LIFE that we had been talking about all morning.

So it was a pretty incredible morning. We met lots of new friends. We caught back up with some old ones. God was with us, and it was good. There are some GREAT things in store! I can’t wait to see what happens next!

The BUZZ

Apr/08/2009 02:36 PM
Man, it really feels like people are talking about The Orchard Church! I have had emails, phone calls, and heard story after story of people who have been BUZZING about the start of something new in Ellijay! One lady stopped on the side of the road as Doug was putting the banner up near the Wal Mart... She had seen us in the paper, had received some our our “GREEN CARDS” in the mail, and now had discovered our banner at Highlands Crossing Shopping Center. She said “you guys are EVERYWHERE!”



With only a very few days to go before the launch, we are making TONS of last-minute preparations... new paint in the toddler room, lights, sound, and video installed in the preschool room, Signs ordered, videos prepared, songs practiced... and most of all... PRAYER happening. Things are really getting into place. Our team is really pumped about the big launch this weekend.

Whether you are part of our “launch team,” or if you are just curious, you can sign up for FREE text updates on your cell phone via Twitter. It is easy, and there is NO cost to you, (except for your phone’s text plan costs) Just send a message as follows:

text to: 40404
message: follow orchardellijay

You will get updates 1 or 2 times per week about what is happening at The Orchard Church.

Looking forward to THIS WEEKEND!

21 Days of Prayer

Mar/23/2009 07:34 AM
We are in the final phase before the Launch! It is coming up really quickly. Most of the technical pieces are now in place, our team understands their roles, and we’ve sent out the flyers and run the ads in the newspaper. For the most part, the logistics are handled. Now, the REAL work comes... Our group launched into 21 days of prayer beginning yesterday, March 22. We are going to be crazy praying people over the next few weeks as we head into this HUGELY important time!

Why don’t you join us? You can download the Orchard Prayer Calendar right downloads-&-stuff/Blog/OrchardPrayerCal.pdf" rel="self">HERE.

Ways to be connected to the Orchard in PRAYER:

  • Daily Twitter Prayer Updates: @orchardprayer
to get text updates on your phone, just text follow orchardprayer to 40404.

  • Twitter your prayer requests TO @orchardprayer

  • Send email prayer requests to prayer@orchardellijay.com
Please partner with us in prayer during these 21 days. We would love for you to pray with us. Also, we will pray for YOU and your needs when you send us your requests online!

Why A Preview Service?

Mar/11/2009 08:35 PM
I am getting so pumped about our first PREVIEW SERVICE coming up this weekend! All the little parts and pieces are starting to fall into place. Man, putting together a rockin’ sound system is a lot more work than I thought it was! When it is all together, it will raise the roof! Doug, Zac, and I spent some time in the movie theater today reworking and adding lighting. Larry built a makeshift “tech table” that fits over the bolted-down movie theater seats! It is really cool.



Someone asked me this week, “Why a ‘preview service?’ I’m not familiar with that term.” SO, I thought I would try to answer that question two general ways...

First is an external purpose... We want to build a little momentum before the launch. We hope to create something of a buzz about what we’re doing. I don’t expect that we’ll blow the doors off the movie theater this week, but I do hope that we will get people talking. I am hoping that people will try us out for the first time and tell their friends. Hopefully, this momentum will build for our March 29th preview, and really explode for our April 12 Launch!

Second is an internal purpose... Engaging people in the Body of Christ. Let’s face it... If this is important to Ellijay, it is going to take a lot of people to pull it off. And I mean a LOT. People with ALL KINDS of gifts and abilities. We want to serve people on all kinds of levels in this, from parking, to greeting, to children’s ministry, to singing, to tech... You name it. We are going to blatantly ask people to jump in and start serving!

Our first preview is going to KICK. The theme for this one is “Meant To Live,” which is a popular Switchfoot (iTunes link) song from a couple of years ago. Chad, Casey, and the band are working hard on the song, and I know it will be cool. We’ll use the message of the song as a tool to reinforce Jesus’ purpose of coming so that we could have life, and have it abundantly. We also have other creative things planned that I think you’ll really like. You’ll definitely want to be there if you can. Hope to see YOU on Sunday!!

Meeting Needs

Feb/17/2009 09:39 PM
In some ways, the I Love Ellijay thing was not what I was hoping. I had my own picture of what I thought it should look like, and how it would impact people. I kind of wanted us to have a big splash, meeting the needs of a ton of people. But, working with the counselors at the school, it seems that they wanted to scale us down a little more each day. Finally, they narrowed us down to just the two families that they put us on to. Frankly, it was a much smaller scope than I had hoped for.

A little disappointed, I went into the weekend with low expectations.

Something really cool happened, though. Instead of just handing out stuff to random people, we got a little involved in some families' lives. We were able to get into homes and actually get our arms around some people that really needed to see some love in action. We had a chance to chase that towel, like we talked about on the previous Sunday. I think being in those homes and sharing in their stories really had an impact on all of us this weekend. It was powerful. I don't think any of our group walked away the same.

There is something about serving others that just changes your perspective.

It sure has changed conversations in our home. We aren't talking about "me" so much lately... My 14-year old daughter come home, looked around her room, and said that she felt like she was just selfish, and that she needed to give more. She was really impacted by the stories of a couple of sisters in her school that are living with great need.

We've talked about it several times since. I've asked her, "Where can you start?" You don't have much to give right now... You're 14. Both of us agreed that being a friend would go a long way. Building a relationship will open the door to so much more in the near future than just handing stuff over like some sort of charity case.

Be her friend, not her savior. Jesus will take care of that one. Our job is to help open the door.

What is the future? What will happen tomorrow as a result of our simple need-meeting today? I can't wait to see what happens next.

Church In A Movie Theater?

Feb/17/2009 09:39 AM
What a weekend!! I was so blown away by each of you guys that came out ALL DAY on Saturday to set up, experiment, practice, set up some more, tear down, clean up, and set up again. It was so cool! My mind was all about the lights and sound, so I barely thought about the lobby, coffee, and all that stuff... But you guys HANDLED it, and it was awesome!

Sunday morning was a great taste of what is to come. I was really pumped. All the tech was really basic, and everything kind of came together at the last minute... But I am feeling pretty great about it all.

So what do you think of the whole I Love Ellijay thing?? Is that gonna rock, or what?? Man, there are so many needs right in that one school that we are going to be able to meet. Have you started multiplying your little picture yet? I don’t know about you, but today is Tuesday, and my $5 has already turned into $30! How is yours coming? Shoot me an email to let me know.

I Love Ellijay

Feb/12/2009 07:28 AM
This thing is going to be CRAZY. Sure, we are going to start out small, but I think that God is lining people and circumstances up for us to meet some critical needs right away! I can't wait to see what is going to happen! Be praying right now for how HE wants to use you to meet needs and love Ellijay. Come on Sunday to get the full story! We are going to kick it!