For this morning’s message in Ephesians, we’re looking at how Paul the apostle prayed for the church. I thought it would be helpful to link back to an older message on the basics of prayer, so here it is!

SHIFT: Prayer

What a great privilege to be able to recognize our Everyday Heroes during yesterday’s service. The impact of September 11, 2001 still ripple through time, and it is great to be able to use it in a positive way.



These really are a tremendous group of men and women that protect and serve us on a daily basis. I hope you had a chance to shake some of their hands and to say thanks.

Some of my thoughts from the morning service:

• Our first responders have awesome vehicles!
• Always double-check the video BEFORE you play it.
• Coach Tank gets what Coach Tank wants.
• Impressed by the great turnout of uniformed men and women.
• Did you see the kids getting hosed off after church?? Come on. That was awesome.
• The Gospel is relevant no matter what the context.

Thanks again to everyone who made yesterday’s service possible.

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.

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!

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.

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!

It has been a long, long time since I posted one of these “Sunday Rundowns.” It’s just a chance for me to get some thoughts out about the morning worship time together.

• Even though we were a bit short-handed in all areas today, it really feels like everyone is “in the groove” of the whole setup/teardown thing.
• The HARDEST PART is lining up the projectors and screens! Yikes, that takes a long time!
• John and Lolita, you guys are the BEST. And thanks for the cookies.
• Great kickoff to the “Epic Fail” series
• LOVED the U2 song, “40” this morning! Original right here.
• Good GRIEF that chicken plant STINKS at 7AM. Welcome to Ellijay.
• “Epic Fail” is a great title for this miniseries. WAIT TILL YOU SEE what Abram and Sarai do next!! (Genesis 16, if you’re up to reading ahead!)

Of course, I have to say a big thank you to our board members, Larry Vorpahl, Chuck Vautrot, and Dennis Bailey. These guys don’t let their “office” go to their head... They are there at the school just after 7am, unloading, building Kidmo and Lil’ K, installing signs, putting out tables, and whatever else needs to be done. And they aren’t the only ones.. There are a BUNCH of other volunteers, as well. Thanks so much!

Hey, the podcast from this morning is up right here, too. Have a great week!

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.

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.

“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?

Well, having the last couple of Sundays off from preaching was really a nice break. BUT, I am ready to be “back in the saddle” this weekend. We only have THREE more weeks in our study of The Other Jesus in the Gospel of Mark before we’re DONE. Can you believe it?

I’d also like to say a special thanks to John Bailey, who really made some extra study time possible. I really believe that it ALREADY IS paying off in big ways! In fact, yesterday I delivered a “series overview” to our board and our creative team that lays out how we are going to approach the book of Genesis beginning on Sunday, September 12, all the way through May of 2011. (That’s right... We should be able to handle 38 chapters of Genesis more quickly than we took the 16 chapters of Mark!) I’ve also written up synopses for all of the first 10 or so individual messages. This will allow us to pray ahead on the preaching AND the creative communication! SO, we’ll be able to use music and other resources much more effectively! I am really excited about this series. I think it will be a blessing to Ellijay and Gilmer County.

NOT ONLY are we GOING to be more creative in the upcoming weeks, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret... I’ve already had enough extra time to piece together a little “teaser trailer” for our upcoming series that we will show in church later in August. BUT, we will give a SNEAK PREVIEW of the trailer this weekend at the Family Meeting! I showed it to the board this morning, and they were excited about it. I hope you’ll be there with us on Sunday evening for that meeting.

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!

Our SHIFT series got underway this past Sunday! (you can download the message right here) As you know, this series is all about FOUR things you can do right now to shift your spiritual life into high gear. This week was great, since we talked about prayer... I am pumped about this coming week, as we’re talking about hearing God through His Word!

Here are some of my thoughts from Sunday morning:

• We love Camp Highland!
• Kirsten and Jill took care of the coffee and food this morning since Tracy was gone. Thanks!!
• I LOVE having the whole band, but Casey and Rachel are an awesome team.
• The Holy Spirit speaks. Thanks, Kaylene for being sensitive and allowing Him to speak through you. What a difference it made in the rest of the service!
• That movie screen is big.
• We have a GIVING group of people. When a need is presented, we have some folks that just plain jump at the chance to serve in that way.
• Operating an excavator is fun.
• I have GOT to get more sleep on Saturday nights.

It seems like summer time is keeping everyone busy... Even though we were DOWN quite a few of our regulars on Sunday, we still managed to have just under 100 people together at the theater! (hey, we were down SEVEN from our setup/worship team on Sunday morning!!!) In some ways I am looking forward to summer coming to a close. I am especially excited about the new series on JESUS that we are doing as soon as school starts back. More on that later!

This morning was really a lot of fun. We had a great service... The band sounded awesome, and we had a ton of great people there! It was awesome to have the group from Camp Highlands come for a visit... I know they’re sort of checking out different churches in the area, but I sure hope they come back. I know summer is here and people are away on vacations, or out of town for whatever reason... Seems like the size of our group fluctuates pretty dramatically.



I am really having a good time with this marriage series that we’re doing right now. It is really a big challenge for me in several areas. Having been a youth pastor for such a long time, I’ve never really had the chance to do a marriage series before. I owe a big thanks to Patrick Lencioni, who wrote the great book, “The Five Dysfunctions Of A Team,” which has a bunch of the principles that we’re studying in this series. This morning, I asked people in our group to write some nuggets of marriage wisdom on cards and pass them in to me... Man, there were some great thoughts on those. I am looking forward to sharing some of them with the group next week.

It is Sunday night, and it’s time for another round of “Steve’s Random Sunday Thoughts!”

• Six weeks in... triple digits in attendance!
• Technical stuff- AWESOME this week. Transformers trailer was fun.
• Music- I think the band just gets better each week. I am listening to the recording of the music from this morning right now. I loved their rendition of “Holiness.”
• The whole “Reel Life” thing is great. I am really glad we’ve gone this way for now. We’re halfway through!
• Tracy Crook is just awesome.
• We were visited today by some old friends from “back in the day,” people that influenced me from when I was very young. Great to see you, Reagan and Pat!
• Today was church planter visit day, I guess. We had a church-planter friend of mine from Tennessee come to check out what we were doing. Also, a great guy named WIll, who is planting a church in Brisbane, Australia hung out with us today! How cool is that?
• 41 sounds OLD.
• I liked the text message feedback thing. That worked well. What did you think?
• P31X! It is the next wave to sweep the nation!

Over all, it was a pretty good morning. I felt like not only did everything seem to go really well, but I really felt caught up in worship during the music set. I really appreciate the band... I just felt like they got right out of the way and allowed us to have some quality time with God! Man, that was great.
We recorded the message this morning. I will get the podcast up later tonight or tomorrow.