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12 Ways you can serve in 2012

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-12-31T10:29:22-05:00

We serve God by serving others, right? And with the new year upon us, people are looking for new ways to be used by God in others’ lives. Here are just 12 ways you can serve God by serving in the church in the new year.

1. Bring supplies for children's crafts on Sun
2. Join the Sunday Setup crew
3. Volunteer 1x mo in Kidmo or Lil’ K
4. Join the worship team (we need instrumentalists!)
5. Seamless Summer
6. Join the Hospitality team to serve coffee, greet, and smile.
7. Deliver clothes to schools with BRANCH Ministry
8. Join our Tech Team
9. Be a Disciple Now host home in March
10. Give regularly
11. Sponsor a kid for Camp
12. Special event volunteer: Easter, Christmas, etc.

Choosing to Cheat

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-12-17T22:55:21-05:00

Who are you cheating?

You love your family. You love the challenges of your job. But there’s not enough of you to go around. Somebody isn’t getting as much of your attention as they want or deserve.

This little book presents a strategic plan for resolving the tension between work and home—reversing the destructive pattern of giving to your company and career what belongs to your family.

But be forewarned...you will have to cheat.

Making Space

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-12-11T16:34:39-05:00

You might have noticed that it’s been nearly two months since my last blog entry… Been really busy the last little while. You know how it goes, right? I just tend to get caught up in too much stuff sometimes.

It’s kind of an ironic situation… MAKING SPACE is what our Christmas series is all about. Sherry told me this afternoon that “this series seems like it is for you as much as it is for anyone else.” She’s right. To be honest, this wasn’t the original series at all. In fact, I had been so overloaded lately, that I had intended to preach through a book about a different topic during these three weeks to reduce the load on my personal schedule. But God very clearly led me in a different direction. This is definitely a series about a topic that I haven’t fully worked out in my own life, and I suspect there are many others out there that struggle with the same issue. I hope this series is a blessing to you this season. You can get the series right here.

Shift your prayer life

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-10-16T07:26:22-04:00

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

Blessings Delivered in Christ!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-10-08T11:50:06-04:00

Isn’t it great to know that God has already delivered to us EVERY spiritual blessing?? IN CHRIST, we have been given ALL that we ever will need.

Ephesians 1 describes these blessings very nicely… Among them, we are chosen, graced, redeemed, reconciled, destined, and sealed! I love the fact that in HIM, we have been given all we need, and in Him, we lack nothing.

It’s not like we have to hope or wish or pray or somehow earn every spiritual blessing. We HAVE BEEN GIVEN them ALL! Many Christians think that growing in Christ means earning more and more of these blessings over the course of their life. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Maturing as a Christian means GROWING INTO the blessings that I ALREADY HAVE in CHRIST!

Colossians 1:11-14 tells us that I have already been qualified, already been delivered, already been transferred, already been redeemed, and I’ve already been forgiven!

God doesn’t withhold his blessings for us. ALL are delivered freely in Christ.

Reading Ahead

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-09-21T10:18:49-04:00

If you’re reading ahead for this weekend’s service, we’re covering Ephesians 1:3-14. There is a LOT of information there… Some really deep theology. BUT don’t let that scare you. We’ll spend the next few weeks looking at this passage and we’ll look carefully at what God says to us there.

One of the things that strikes me about this next section is verse 13… “And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.”

The words here literally say that “he put his seal on you” by giving you the Holy Spirit. I love the image here! A seal signified the ownership of the king. Anything bearing the king’s seal would carry all of the power and authority of the king himself. Also, anything bearing that seal would come under the full protection of all of the king’s resources. Whoever bore this seal was acting as the king’s representative on behalf of the king himself.

Verse 14 goes on to say that this same Holy Spirit that seals you and me promises that “he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.” We can rest assured that we are “marked…” We are “sealed” by God in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit! That seal forever binds US to HIM!

Speak with, like, conviction?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-09-21T10:16:43-04:00

I saw this and thought it was funny… But true for people like me, who speak in front of people!

Rewritten

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-09-16T10:32:18-04:00

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?

Be praying.
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.
You Version. Get on their APP with your iPhone or your Android and let it READ Ephesians to you! It is awesome.
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!

Everyday Heroes

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-09-12T10:49:24-04:00

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.

Five Strands of Evidence

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-08-27T11:11:27-04:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-08-26T16:15:58-04:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-08-25T08:26:28-04:00

“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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-08-20T14:43:24-04:00

“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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-08-11T17:41:11-04:00

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.

Sunday Morning Worship

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-08-05T16:17:04-04:00

Lots of you guys have asked for our worship music… I thought I’d just help you out a little.

There are more of those available on YouTube.

First Question

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-07-27T22:24:43-04:00

Why Does God Allow Suffering?

This is the first, and possibly the hardest question that we’ll be answering during this series on Questions. This one was pretty popular, as a lot of people asked one variation of this or another.

Think Ahead:
You don’t have to look far to find suffering. Scripture says that there are basically THREE types of suffering that we humans must endure:
>Suffering caused by particular sin
>Suffering leading to God’s greater good
>Suffering caused by cosmic evil forces

Read Ahead:
Psalm 102:1-28 (what the psalmist says about suffering and crying out to God)
Hebrews 12:5-12 How does God use suffering in our life?

Listen Ahead:
These are some of the songs we’re singing on Sunday morning
My Glorious
We Are Hungry
Sing Sing Sing

Faith in the midst of suffering:
We had some very powerful testimonies along these lines just a couple of weeks ago at our Lord’s Supper service... You can download the podcast right here from our server, or here from iTunes.

Dealing With Questions

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-07-27T16:53:28-04:00

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.

We Aren't The Only Ones

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-07-19T17:17:07-04:00

Hey! Does this look familiar?? (in some ways.)

• A USA TODAY look at the five largest and five fastest-growing school districts in the continental USA found that all 10 had granted permits for religious congregations to hold weekend worship.
New York City, the largest, is typical: Christian churches are the primary clients because Muslims and Jews worship on Fridays and Saturdays, when school spaces usually are being used for student activities.
• Acts 29 Network, an inter-denominational, Seattle-based evangelical coalition that has started 350 churches across the nation in the past five years, estimates about 16% of these meet in school spaces.
"We don't have a hidden agenda. Our heart is to serve the community just like schools serve the community. ... They're designed for large groups, and they've got parking," says Scott Thomas, Acts 29 president.
• A 2007 national survey of newly established Protestant churches found that 12% met in schools, according to LifeWay, a Nashville-based Christian research agency.

Epic Ending This Week

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-07-18T18:11:48-04:00

After beginning our walk through God’s EPIC work of redemption beginning last September, we are finally bringing it to a close this coming Sunday. I really hope and pray that this has been a beneficial study for you during this time. As you know, we broke this long study up into seven smaller series. Do you remember all of them?

... ...
... ..

As I was putting these pictures on here, it got me to thinking about some of my favorite quotes from this series... Here are a few of them:

“The journey is not about doing what He says, but being where He is.”
Epic 01: What Are You Waiting For?

“You can’t grab hold of God’s promises until you let go of everything else.”
Epic 03: When God Doesn’t Speak, Return to the Altar

I loved both of those Melchizedek messages.
Epic 05: “Who Is Melchizedek?”
Epic 05A: “Let’s Make A Deal?”

“God’s delays are not necessarily denials.”
Epic Fail 01: “How Long?”

“Prayer is about us joining God, not God joining us.”
Epic Gift: Naughty or Nice

“Living enslaved to the Law is a mockery of God’s gift”
Epic Gift: All I Want For Christmas

Walking in patterns of blessing... This was a good one, too.
Epic Timing: Obey and Pray (short version)

Possibly my two FAVORITE messages from the whole series came during the Joseph story:
Epic Dreams 07: “Forgiveness and Trust” (Forgiveness)
Epic Dreams 08: “Change Is Good”(Repentance)
In fact, my favorite quote from those is right here:
“The sacrifice of Jesus was sufficient to buy forgiveness FROM God FOR you... So effective that it buys forgiveness FROM you FOR others.”

As always, all the messages from this series can be found on our podcast page. I hope they’re a blessing to you. If so, be sure to share them with others!

Study Week Continues

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-07-13T14:33:17-04:00

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!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-07-10T16:46:01-04:00

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?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-07-04T09:15:21-04:00

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?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-06-20T17:36:02-04:00

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!

Got Questions?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-06-13T22:33:28-04:00

Getting ready for this next series we're doing, called “I Have Some Questions.” its all about some of the confusing, or unanswered questions on people's minds. Here are a few of the good questions I've received so far:

I am a strong believer. I know I have been saved and blessed beyond belief. Yet still, I occasionally have thoughts of unbelief. Why?
Why is homosexuality wrong and will they go to heaven?
Where is Children/Youth Ministry in the Bible?
The Bible says divorce is a sin, but what if the marriage is abusive?
If we are forgiven for all sins, is there still punishment for those sins in Heaven? also are all sins forgiven?
What is the deal with the naked guy in Mark 14?

These are just some of the questions that have come in so far... What are your questions? Email them to me here, or submit them anonymously right here. I would love to read them. Who knows? Maybe we’ll base a message on it.

Storm Relief

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-05-10T17:53:36-04:00

As I’m sure you’ve seen, the damage and destruction in Catoosa County around Ringgold is just unbelievable. Seeing the way homes have been completely wiped out brings back memories of the aftermath of Hurricanes Andrew, Hugo, and Katrina. Much of downtown Ringgold is simply destroyed. 8 people lost their lives in this little county... 7 of them in this valley where we worked last week. There is far, far more help needed than we can possibly provide.

I’ve got to give a big shout out to our church, though. I am so proud to be part of a group of people so willing to drop everything and head over to help out. These people have spent their own money, and used their own equipment to help in any way possible. I watched our people work it all day long, never complaining, never slowing down. What an amazing job!

It was so touching to talk with one homeowner, who said that he had been a Christian and a church attender most of his life, but never really given “missions” a second thought. But, after seeing the outpouring of assistance from us and other groups like us, he said he was changed, and would never turn a blind eye towards this important work again.

A mom cried with us as she talked about the way God had been the one constant in her life throughout this entire ordeal. Her faith was just as strong as ever, even though the valley she lived in was nearly destroyed.

There is more to be done, and we’re heading back tomorrow. If you want to contribute, it is NEVER too late! You can click over to our giving page and contribute right to the disaster relief fund. Please join us in this important effort of serving others for the sake of the Gospel.

Turning Two...

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-04-26T19:47:46-04:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-04-25T11:18:43-04:00

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?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-03-01T19:49:16-05:00

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.

Blessings

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-02-07T21:22:09-05:00

This past Sunday, we talked about moving in the patterns of God’s timing. The big key was that “the servant’s obedience put him into position to receive God’s blessing.” In Matthew 5, Jesus preached his famous “Sermon on the Mount,” where he described what the Christian life looks like. His message starts off with specific characteristics of movement in His timing. He gave clear instruction on how to step into the blessing that He desires to give. Have a look!

Matthew 5:3-10 (NLT)
3 “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
4 God blesses those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 God blesses those who are humble,
for they will inherit the whole earth.
6 God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they will be satisfied.
7 God blesses those who are merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God.
9 God blesses those who work for peace,
for they will be called the children of God.
10 God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

Lots to Cover

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-01-26T08:43:33-05:00

One of the things that the Board and I have been talking about is a better process for new members and new believers at The Orchard Church... You know... Someone makes a decision to join the church, or to become a believer, and we shake their hand and welcome them. We invite them to the Orchard Orientation. We invite them into a lifegroup. We recognize that this isn’t really sufficient, and we are talking about what to include in the process.

In reading through “Essential Church,” a book by Thom and Sam Rainer, they suggest the following topics be included in the New Member’s Class.

1. Doctrine/beliefs of the church
2. Polity/government of the church
3. Church constitution and bylaws
4. Purpose of the Lord’s Supper/Communion and Baptism
5. Church covenant and church discipline
6. Expectations of members
7. History of the church
8. Tour of church facilities
9. Denominational information (if applicable)
10. How to become a Christian
11. Budget/financial support of the church
12. Requirements for church membership
13. Ministry opportunities in the church
14. Overview of spiritual disciplines
15. Introduction to church staff
16. Church mission statement
17. Spiritual gifts inventory
18. Support of missions
19. Brief evangelism training

Whew! That’s a lot, isn’t it? How long should this class be, exactly? Currently, our Orchard Orientation covers a lot of these bases. What do you think should be included? Email me and let me know what you think!

David Nicholas

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-01-26T07:50:44-05:00

My good friend and one of my fathers in the faith, David Nicholas passed away last night in Florida. I don’t know if you had a chance to meet David. He wasn’t just an active participant at The Orchard Church, where he attended Chuck and Gail Vautrot’s lifegroup...

David Nicholas planted churches. He started with Spanish River Church way down in Boca Raton, Florida over 40 years ago. While he remained the pastor of that great local body, he was bitten by the church planting bug. Hard. He went on to plant churches all around the United States. He started a church planting network in Haiti, where literally thousands have come to know Christ. David was a man gifted in evangelism, always clearly communicating the “Bad News/Good News” as he called it.

Since retiring from Spanish River Church in May of 2009, David started “The Church Planting Network,” assisting church planters in spreading the Gospel. David happened upon The Orchard Church while we were meeting in the movie theater. He and his wonderful wife Nori owned a retirement home here in Ellijay. David told me once that he would NEVER have planted a church here in North Georgia... “Hearts are just too hard here,” he said... But David became instrumental in helping us clarify our mission and purpose as a church. As an experienced pastor, David invested into me personally. God used David in a powerful way in my life and in the lives of many other church planters.

Speaking of Living as Representatives...

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-01-20T10:42:39-05:00

I don’t know if you saw it or not, but we got another “thank you note” in the newspaper this week from some of our local schools! Shhh... Don’t tell them, but it is really OUR HONOR and privilege to be able to represent God into the lives of kids. Thanks, church, for continuing to be image bearers of GOD, making the Gospel relevant to our community!

Living as Representatives

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-01-19T12:22:50-05:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2011-01-05T15:56:31-05:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-12-21T10:52:20-05:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-12-21T10:42:52-05:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-11-19T21:44:30-05:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-11-01T16:03:45-04:00

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?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-10-24T19:41:28-04:00

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!

Sunday Rundown

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-10-24T17:32:23-04:00

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!

Epic Miniseries

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-10-19T23:02:28-04:00

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.

Spiritual Retina Damage?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-10-19T22:02:53-04:00

Did you see the incredible rescue of those trapped Chilean miners on the news last week? It was amazing that they had survived in that mine with very little food and water since August... That’s 69 days trapped in a black hole over two thousand feet below the surface... Longer than any humans have been trapped underground. Doctors were concerned about lots of health issues that these miners could have faced, but one of the main concerns was that after being in such darkness for so long, they could have developed some significant retina damage. So, before returning to the surface, each man had to wear specially selected $180 black iridium-lens sunglasses to protect their eyes from the sunlight and other harsh lighting. The very sunlight that they depend upon for life itself could now permanently blind them.

It got me to thinking. You know, we’ve grown very accustomed to stumbling our way around in this sin-darkened world that we live in. We are used to dealing with a lot of gray in our lives... Often dark, dark gray. We have clouded judgement and corrupted morality due to the influence of sin blocking the light from God. And before you go to thinking that it is just “our generation,” or the recent state of our nation... Don’t. This is an issue that has been around for a long, long time. It goes almost all the way back to creation.

What would it be like to suddenly have our spiritual darkness suddenly pierced by the pure light of God? How would that change us? How would we respond? Paul’s first letter to Timothy tells us:

“For at just the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only almighty God, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. He alone can never die, and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him.”1 Timothy 6:16

So, his holiness is so bright that we in our sinfulness can’t go to him... BUT, isn’t it great to know that when we couldn’t get to him, he came to us? John 1 says that Jesus came to earth and “brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

“I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”John 8:12

When we surrender our lives to him, HIS light enters us! He changes us from the inside out!

No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.1 John 4:12

So, I’m asking the question again... What if his light suddenly pierced our darkness? What would that do to us? Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus to show how it should affect them:

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.Ephesians 5:8-9

Has the holiness of God impacted your life?

Settling In

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-10-07T19:56:02-04:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-09-18T18:16:25-04:00

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!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-09-15T21:27:01-04:00

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!

First Practice Run

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-09-05T23:09:08-04:00

This weekend, we had a great opportunity to get into the Ellijay Elementary School Auditorium and have a short little run-through of the sound and lighting systems. It was great to try out the equipment in there and get a little bit of a feel for it.

Getting The Word Out

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-08-26T18:57:18-04:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-08-26T18:45:29-04:00

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!

Getting ready for tomorrow

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-08-21T23:03:59-04:00

This is typically what I look at when preparing for Sunday mornings. I’ve got my laptop computer (MacBook Pro) connected up to my little external monitor... Logos for Mac v. 1 open on main screen with New Living Translation open, along with the exegetical guide and a couple of other tools. Microsoft Word on the external monitor, typing up the message as you’ll hear it on Sunday.

Yep, I have several bookshelves full of old-school paper books, but I am able to use FAR MORE resources in my wonderful Logos Bible Study software for Mac! I can literally carry around an entire library of study material in my laptop! It is great. I’ve been really excited about Logos for Mac v.4, which is due out in October. They are having an awesome giveaway right now as a pre-sale event before the new version! You can check it out via the link below.

EPIC Trailer online!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-08-07T14:10:08-04:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-08-06T13:33:04-04:00

“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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-08-06T13:06:22-04:00

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.

The Final Answer

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-08-05T00:57:42-04:00

The Women’s Ministry will be taking on REVELATION with Beth Moore starting September 17! So... it’s Genesis on Sundays and Revelation on Fridays, huh?

Beth Moore Revelation Promo from Mark Moore on Vimeo.

Bold Moves Family Meeting

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-07-29T13:05:16-04:00

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.

Back in the Saddle

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-07-20T16:25:23-04:00

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.

Study Break!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-07-11T23:55:26-04:00

So, I’m up at Carter’s Lake for a couple of days taking a “study break,” where I’m not breaking FROM study, but breaking TO study. I’ve hauled our Starcraft popup to the campground and set up shop to have some study time with a little peace and quiet.

I don’t normally do this... I just wanted to get a little ahead on the NEXT big study that we’re going to do... I think we’re going to spend some time in Genesis, looking at the beginnings of our faith. Starting with Abraham, we will explore how God began to interact with man in his redemptive work.

You can see my “study setup” in the picture above. Here are some of the books that I brought with me:

The Holy Bible: NIV, NASB, ESV, NLT, and others
Genesis 12-50, Baldwin
Primeval Saints, James B Jordan
The Patriarchs, Beth Moore
Joseph, Charles Swindoll
Plus, of course, the many commentaries and other sources in my Logos Bible Software program... An entire book case on my laptop!

When I get back, I hope to have at least a good part of the series mapped out, and be able to begin to meet for creative planning with Sherry, Rachel, and Casey. I am really excited about this next study! More details to come!

Bold Moves Update!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-07-06T07:09:47-04:00

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!

Sunday Rundown

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-07-06T07:00:23-04:00

It’s been a long time since I posted a Sunday morning rundown... So here are some quick thoughts from this week:

Holiday weekend... strange things happen; half the band didn’t show up! Weird! Don’t worry... Everyone has been communicated with, and I don’t think that will happen again.
Even though it was a holiday weekend, it was great to see lots of new faces. Still even in summer we continue to meet new people on Sunday mornings!
Final Answer Game Show is fun... Needs some sound effects, or music, or SOMETHING... Just needs a little kick.
Whitney Crouch did a good job hosting “Final Answer.”
How did you like those “portable church” pictures? I am pretty excited... See the next blog entry for more on that.
Despite having only a partial band, Casey, Sherry, and Zac did great.
Everybody commented about the message, I think they liked it because it was short.
The Lord’s Supper is always a sweet time. I love that. It was our first on a Sunday morning! We’ve done it in smaller venues on several occasions. Thanks to East Ellijay Baptist for letting us borrow the plates!
Fireworks on Lake Blue Ridge... Awesome!

Camp Week

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-06-18T15:53:07-04:00

I got to spend a little time up on Fort Mountain right outside Ellijay with our youth group at Camp this week. Worship at camp is always awesome. Some days I miss working there, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has called us to do what we’re doing right now!

I am hoping that the youth can give us a quick report on camp on Sunday morning. Hope you’ll be there.

Bold Moves Update!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-06-11T19:27:29-04:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-06-05T20:44:02-04:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-05-24T22:13:54-04:00

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!

GREAT Note!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-05-24T22:13:31-04:00

This is the newspaper ad that I read to our second service crowd during the welcome. We love our partnership with Clear Creek Middle School. They are the best! Thought you guys would like to see this.

Bold Move #1

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-05-19T16:38:42-04:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-05-15T13:53:29-04:00

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.

Birthday Weekend

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-05-06T22:45:32-04:00

Hey! I haven’t been keeping up the whole blog thing very well... Things have been kinda crazy lately! BUT, it feels good to get back to it.

Last Sunday was a great day! First, we had our regular morning worship services, where we continued our “Other Kingdom” mini-series. If you weren’t there, we saw what Jesus said about Kingdom Marriage. The big question, of course, was “Am I in motion toward the Cross?” In case you missed it, the podcast can be found right here. Lots of people have asked me about it, so I got it up as quickly as I could.

AFTER the service, we had a GREAT time out at the field celebrating ONE YEAR of ministry as a church! The weather was very threatening all weekend long, but the day turned out to be just beautiful! Thanks SO MUCH to all our volunteers who really pulled it off. There was a ton of food, and everyone got a chance to relax and enjoy the day. I’ve got a bunch of pictures for you to see right here.

Sticky Church

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-03-30T18:13:33-04:00

Our lifegroup leaders and I are reading a book together called “Sticky Church,” by Larry Osborne. In it, he talks about the need for “closing the back door” of the church. Many churches have a wide-open front door where all are welcome, but many of those same churches also have a wide-open back door, where people leave the church and their relationships with other christians. I thought this was a great excerpt:

To be structured for spiritual growth, a church (whether front-door, or back-door focused) must have some sort of method in place to consistently connect people to both significant relationships and the Bible.In a very small church, that might be nothing more than the weekly worship gathering. But in any church of more than eighty to ninety people, it takes a PLAN or it won’t happen.Front-door churches that fail to structure for spiritual growth risk becoming merely a birthing center, the telltale mark of which is a back door fueled by maturity migration- a steady flow of people who complain, “I got started here, but I can’t grow here.”Back-door churches that fail to structure for spiritual growth will end up with programs and ministries that keep people from leaving but do nothing to help them grow or reach out to those who need Jesus.To combat that, the simplest and best tool I’ve ever seen for connecting people to one another and engaging them with the Bible for the long haul is a sermon-based small group. It offers a format that fits the way we spiritually grow, while providing a framework for a healthy and sticky church. Nothing compares.

We’ve been looking at this “sermon-based” model of lifegroup for a while... Some of our groups are even doing it already. I’ve got to admit, I always looked at these groups and thought “those only happen in churches with narcissistic pastors. They just like to glorify themselves!” BUT, as I’ve been reading this book, my mind has really been changed, and we are looking into implementing this church-wide pretty soon. What do you think? Email me and let me know!

Sticky Church, by Larry Osborne is available at Amazon.com.

Great Point

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-03-05T17:05:46-05:00

I was just reading back over some notes from last Sunday’s message, and I came across a GREAT point from an unnamed author that I left out of the message, but I thought was very valuable to pass on...

Mark 6:41Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and asked God’s blessing on the food. Breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples to give to the people.

The disciples had come to Jesus with a problem... They didn’t have enough food to feed everyone. Jesus told them to bring Him what they had. They did, and Jesus gave thanks. he asked God’s blessing on the food. “By that act, He reminded the hungry people that God is the source of all good and needful gifts. This is a good lesson for us: instead of complaining about what we do not have, we should give thanks to God for what we do have, and He will make it go farther. “

Easter is Coming!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-03-02T17:05:56-05:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-02-24T22:49:35-05:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-02-08T15:58:45-05:00

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.

Unpredictable

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-01-31T09:31:14-05:00

You know, it is a day like this one that makes me realize what a unique position we are in as a church... For our Sunday morning services to happen, a LOT of things have to occur in a specific order and within a very specific time frame!

Yesterday, we were thinking that things were going to be rough overnight. The drizzle continued late into the day, and temperatures were supposed to drop rapidly. People lined up in the stores, preparing for the worst. I consulted with Larry, who heads up our cleanup crew on Saturday nights at the theater. We were both a little nervous about road conditions for those guys who are mopping, cleaning, setting up, and taking care of us. They ususally work the theater until around 12:30 or 1AM.

Not to mention the fact that once all the staging, speakers, and tech stuff is all set up, the band has to arrive at around 7:30am to begin practice so they can be tuned and ready for the 9am service. Man, it is a lot of work, but we have a bunch of very dedicated, dilligent and loving people that PULL IT OFF week after week. THEY make Sunday mornings possible.

ON top of all that, Casey and Rachel are out of town again this week, and we had invited our friend Kevin Wilhite to come down from Fort Mountain to lead us in worship. Well, Fort Mountain apparently is topped with a pretty thick layer of ice, and he is trapped up there.

Someone had suggested that we do only the 10:45 service, which sounds like a great idea, except that all that midnight and early morning setup stuff still has to happen... and we just didn’t feel safe pulling it off.

SO, we made the call late yesterday afternoon, posting the news on the website, Facebook, our Twitter feed, and email. THEN, we woke up on Sunday morning finding clear skies, dry roads, and no problems. Seems like a bad decision, until I think about all the Saturday night stuff that goes into Sunday morning.

Ugh. It is a little frustrating. Man, I LOVE our Sunday morning worship services. I enjoy the music, the prayer times, and the fellowship with brothers and sisters. Most of all, I love seeing and hearing about how God is at work in and among us. Well, next week will work out better. We will worship together and celebrate all that God is doing. I hope you have a great week.

Snow Days

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-01-13T10:02:11-05:00

You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail
Proverbs 19:21

Who would have figured that a little snow would have effected Gilmer County the way it has? Once again this morning, all of us are at home... The family sleeping in due to the fact that school is out yet again. Today marks 4-1/2 SNOW days that we’ve experienced. Some roads are still reportedly impassable. Some people have yet to leave their homes since last week’s snow event.

Of course, it isn’t the snow alone... It’s the temperatures. Yesterday was the first day in over a week that we saw temperatures above freezing! It isn’t the AMOUNT of snow... but it’s resilience. We’re used to snow falling, then melting right away. We just aren’t accustomed to seeing snow hang around day after day.

And of course, the roads are shut down at a time when we as a church have been so poised to launch such a big, new phase of our ministry. On the big “SNOW Sunday” we had two services for the first time. Tonight we are set to relaunch youth ministry, but haven’t had the chance to actually invite students, due to school being out. This coming Sunday is our LifeGroup Connection, where we hope to connect people into community.

It seems like we’ve just picked the absolute worst time for just everything, doesn’t it? Did we miss it? Should we have done something different? Was our two-service schedule a mistake for this past week? Will our youth ministry kick off with a whimper instead of a roar?

You might not have known it on Sunday, but we had more first time visitors on our big snow day than we’ve had on any one Sunday in months! Not only that, but we presented the truth of God’s love and grace, and we saw one of those first time guests turn their life over to Christ for the first time! Praise God!

We may not have posted our best-ever numbers on Sunday morning, but ETERNITY was changed that day. So, if you’re all into sheer numbers, maybe you’re counting the wrong thing. Life change is what counts, and THAT is what God had planned for Sunday.

Maybe tonight at the youth ministry launch, we won’t have a ton of kids... But GOD will do the work that HE wants to do, DESPITE what our numbers show. Our plans are good, but God’s purpose will prevail!

Guard your heart

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-01-03T18:40:54-05:00

During this morning's message, John Bailey talked about "guarding your heart" in the new year... This really resonated with me, and I felt like God was sending me a message.

I thought to myself about how permissive I have been with the things that come into my heart lately... I've heard the "f-word" more than a few times in a couple of the movies I've watched. I've listened to individuals talking about others in what turned out to be a gossiping manner.

It's funny, isn't it, how we justify the outright contamination of our hearts to ourselves... For some reason, we think that we can just put whatever we want in there, and it won't affect us.

Proverbs 4:23
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Notice the importance of guarding your heart... Why? Because your LIFE is determined by it! Think that isn't true? You wouldn't put motor oil in your dishwasher, would you? Or dish detergent in your truck? What would happen if you did that?

But, we think that it doesn't matter what we listen to... What we look at. "It doesn't affect me," we think.

Yet, Madison Avenue advertising firms spend BILLIONS of dollars each year to affect your buying decisions by putting their ads in front of you on TV. Somebody thinks it affects you.

God's Word doesn't just tell us that we ought to guard our hearts, but it tells us HOW... Read the next few verses:

Proverbs 4:24-27
Avoid all perverse talk; stay away from corrupt speech.
Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.
Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path.
Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.

Where you look is the direction you will head. I learned this lesson while motorcycle riding on North Georgia's curvy mountain roads. If you keep your eyes on the road immediately in front of your bike, you will have great difficulty navigating the tight curves on that steep mountain... You will likely not be able to make your turn, lose control, and end up in a disaster. BUT, if you look farther ahead, THROUGH the curve and keep your eyes on where you WANT to be, rather than where you ARE, you will sail through much more easily. Where you look is the direction you will head!

Are your decisions resulting in growth, or stagnation? Are your actions resulting in steps in the directions you desire? Are you being transformed into HIS image? HE does the work in you... But WE make ourselves available to HIS work in us by keeping our eyes and lives focused in the right direction.

Philippians 4:6-7
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Happy New Year

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2010-01-01T00:01:35-05:00

2009 was a wild ride, wasn’t it? We started out with an incredibly historic inauguration in Washington, and ended up with a failed terrorist attempt in the skies over Detroit. Through it all, the economy was on everyone’s mind. We finished off the first decade of this new milennium with a mixed bag, didn’t we?

Here in Ellijay, though, we have seen some incredible things! God is at WORK all around us, isn’t He? I am amazed to see what has started here in The Orchard Church, and am excited about where it is all heading. We’ve really begun to get our feet underneath us, and are beginning to move forward. We started morning worship services back at Easter time, we launched Life Groups in the Fall, and there is even more to come this month.

Like everyone, we reflect a little bit as the new year comes, looking back on where we’ve been, and make resolutions for the new year. Here are some of the things I am praying for in 2010 for The Orchard Church:

That we would LISTEN to God and follow Him closely
That Life Groups would become a priority in everyone’s life
That our ministry would continue to extend into farther reaches; through the Women’s ministry, Youth, Men’s, the Branch, and the partnership in Mexico
That our Children’s ministry would flourish to minister not only to kids, but to moms and dads
That God would provide the financial and physical resources not yet present so we can accommodate the growth He is bringing

Would you join me in praying for these things in the new year?

Christmas Eve

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-12-26T11:36:53-05:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-11-17T11:01:34-05:00

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!

Sunday Rundown

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-11-15T22:39:21-05:00

Thanks to everyone who invited friends and family to the “Storm Story” service this week! Wow, what an amazing crowd we had! It’s a great thing that we decided to open up “The Overlook” for the teenagers upstairs, because we barely had enough seats for everybody downstairs. I think the only available seats were on the front row. PLUS, we had over 20 people in the upstairs room. Seems like we are getting closer and closer to having to start that second service!

Sunday’s message was one of my all-time favorites. Not just because I really loved the truths there, but because of the incredible testimonies of some close friends. Those videos were very powerful, and even had me teared up. A BIG, BIG thanks goes to Chuck & Gail Vautrot, Amy Balfa, and Steve & Saber Marks. You guys are awesome. Thanks for sharing your hearts and your storms with us on Sunday. In case you missed it, you can download the message from the podcast page. I will check and see if we can get the videos up online, also.

So, here are a few of my thoughts on this week’s service:

It was awesome to see so many new faces in the service! Great to meet new friends. I could tell that a lot of our folks went out of their way to invite people.
Big key: God doesn’t morph to my circumstances... He morphs ME in my circumstances into HIS image!
We STILL NEED HELP in the nursery and preschool! There were only a few kids this week, but the SAME people are ON week after week.
We need more comfortable furniture for those kids in “The Overlook.”
The band does a great job
John Crawford is an amazing individual... Thanks for loaning the drums to us.
I hope everyone has a great week!

Seven Things: ERA

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-11-07T12:21:34-05:00

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.

We love children! What an awesome blessing we have in the ERA space right next to the movie theater! It provides a space that we can store our equipment in during the week, but much more importantly, it gives us a place to create an environment where kids can be secure, fall in love with God’s Word, and begin to discover their role in the Body of Christ!

Just in case you don’t know the situation, we currently rent that space on a month-to-month basis. We also sub-lease to the ERA so they can maintain an office and signage in Ellijay. (their main office is in Canton.) This works out very well for us, because we pay a greatly reduced amount for rent. BUT, we have a couple of drawbacks:

First, since we don’t hold a lease on that space, it is possible that the landlord could rent it right out from underneath us. We know the economy is bad, and that this isn’t that likely... But it is possible, therefore, it is a little irresponsible on our part.

Second, since we don’t hold a lease, we are unable to reconfigure the space to more fully meet our needs. It is very functional now, but with some wall-moving, it could really become sweet.

If we are going to have over 200 people in worship, we will just NEED to make more room for preschoolers and babies... SO, that’s why we really need to secure the ERA and reconfigure it. This will mean a significant jump in the amount of rent we pay each month, because the lease price is higher than the current month-to-month price. This represents a challenge to this young, young church. We haven’t reached the stability/maturity position of being able to pay that monthly rent money yet, and choosing this course will mean that we all have to step it up a little bit.

The GREAT news is that I have several church-planting friends who’s churches are meeting in schools, movie theaters, and other public venues. THEY are all paying TONS of money each month to rent their auditorium space, IN ADDITION to the money they pay to rent their children’s space. AND most of have to pack up everything the church owns into a trailer and haul it in and out each week. One friend of mine pays $500 each WEEK to rent out the school gym for their services, plus money for children’s space on top of that!

Our great friends, Jeremy and Hannah Towns own the East Towne Cinemas movie theater and are EXCEEDINGLY gracious to us by letting us meet RENT-FREE! This is SUCH a blessing, and creates a lot of breathing room in our budget to be able to do some other things.

Still, we are brand new, and our money is very tight. Please be in prayer that God will work this all out for HIS glory!

Seven Things: Prayer

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-11-07T11:54:08-05:00

“I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.”
1 Timothy 2:1

Prayer isn’t for changing God’s mind... Prayer is getting our hearts in line with His will and His Spirit. It helps us continually recognize our complete dependence on Him. Nothing we do as individuals, or as a body, will ever matter outside of prayer. I have been a christian for over two decades now, and am still amazed that the King of the Universe would allow me the privilege of boldly His throne!

Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.
Ephesians 3:12

God has DEFINITELY been blessing us in an amazing way, and we want to be sensitive to Him, and to what He wants to do next. He is sending us out to do battle in a dark, dying world... We need the covering of prayer protecting us, guiding us, and opening doors for ministry. I believe that ongoing prayer is vital to what we are about. Here are just a few ways I would love to see that happen:

Prayer during the worship services each week
Daily/Weekly prayer team meeting to pray for specific prayer requests
Prayer for our Partners, who are working hard in ministry
Prayer for our strategic partnerships as God works through us and them

Man, I really love the Prayer Twitter feed that we have set up... It is a great way to get immediate prayer needs out in the open so people can pray right away. (if you haven’t signed up for our prayer feed, check the bottom of this blog entry for how you can do that!) BUT, not all prayer requests really need to be that open. Some people have some specific requests that need to be between a small group of people and God. It would be great if we had a team that prayed on a daily basis in this way.

I would like to invite you to pray about joining our prayer ministry as we get ready to get it started. If you’re interested, I would love to know about it! Please email me at stevedusek@orchardellijay.com.

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

To join our Prayer Twitter, just use your cellphone! Text follow orchardprayer to: 40404. It really is that easy. From then on, prayer notifications will be texted right to your cellphone. You can also follow us on your computer by going to www.twitter.com/orchardprayer and clicking the big green “Join Today” button.

Sunday Rundown from Montana

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-11-02T09:30:46-05:00

Well, I got in the car right after the service yesterday, and spent the next nine hours traveling to Missoula, Montana for a church planter conference! What a day.. Lots of car time, airplane time, and now experiencing a little jet lag on my first morning here on the other side of the continent! Here is the view this morning out my hotel window. Some of the mountain peaks around here have snow on them.

Well, here is the Sunday Rundown, from my perspective here in Montana:

We saw several decisions for Christ yesterday!! THAT is what we are all about! Praise God!
The big room felt pretty full yesterday, but very few kids in Preschool/Nursery! I know we have a lot of kids out sick right now. I hope all our families are doing well and returning to health quickly.
Casey is really doing a GREAT job picking songs... I feel like our crowd is responding more and more each week!
BIG SHOUT OUT to JOHN CRAWFORD! He provided us (temporarily) with the electric drum kit that REALLY made a huge difference in the sound quality AND he helped us tweak out the sound board for optimum sound enjoyment by all! I actually received several comments on the response cards about how good it sounded yesterday.
I am still LOVING the series we’re doing... Normally I get pretty tired of a series after a few weeks, but I am having a blast going through the book of Mark.
We had several first-time visitors yesterday, and it was great to meet them.
Our cleanup crew is doing a FANTASTIC job on Saturday nights. They make life SO easy for us on Sunday mornings. You guys are our heroes.
Chuck Vautrot just sacrifices for Saturday nights to happen... His truck suffered serious injury in the movie theater parking lot just because he was there. You are the man, Chuck. God will honor you.
I am really excited about the next two weeks in our series. NEXT week, we are going to talk about what GOD does when we LISTEN and UNDERSTAND! The week after, we are going to look at the story of Jesus in the boat during the storm. That will be a great time to invite your friends to church. Everyone needs to hear about what to do when the storm comes.

Seven Things in Seven Months

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-10-31T00:17:16-04:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-10-19T22:16:23-04:00

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!

Sunday Rundown

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-10-04T22:10:21-04:00

Another great morning at The Orchard Church. If you were there, it won’t surprise you a bit to know that we hit our all-time high attendance number of 155 people! There was pretty much STANDING ROOM ONLY in the big room. Some friends of mine arrived after we started, and I just had to apologize. The only seats available were on the front row, so they just decided to hang around in the back. Man, that’s frustrating, but a great problem to have. In case you’re curious, we have been targeting January for adding a second service, but maybe we should rethink that? What do you think? Email me and let me know!

Here are my thoughts from this morning:

Once again, astonished at all the PEOPLE! Man, we’re having a blast. It is always exciting to see that place fill up!
Hello, Mark chapter 2! It’s about time after 8 weeks in chapter 1.
No new songs this morning... But the music was fantastic. I really think people like singing when they feel comfortable with the songs. I was out of the room by the end of the service, but I heard that Agnus Dei was awesome.
Doug Moore cleaned the carpet in the ERA this week, and it looked GREAT!
What the heck is with that scary “Final Destination” movie poster right beside the lobby door at the theater?
a bunch of people signed up for the mentoring opportunity! THAT is exciting!
Met a lot of new friends this morning.
Thanks so much for all the encouraging words. Many of you had great things to say after the service.
Amy Balfa rocks. As always.
My personal favorite point from the morning: Jesus doesn’t always give us what we WANT. He gives us what we NEED.
My other peronal favorite point: Physical healing is TEMPORARY. Spiritual healing is ETERNAL.

I hope you all have a great week!

LifeGroup Ministry

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-10-03T09:13:26-04:00

This is exciting.

In case you missed it last week, we rolled out our partnership with Clear Creek Middle School to mentor students and meet needs of families in Ellijay. Through this important relationship, we are going to be able to touch lives the way Jesus did in some incredible ways. We have already been “piloting” this program in small ways, and it has been incredibly effective!

In just our initial discussion about it on Sunday morning in the church service, we have already seen quite a few of you donate food, clothing, and even freezers to store stuff in for the upcoming winter season! The church response has ALREADY been amazing, even though we really haven’t even gotten started!

If you want to hear some of the details, they come towards the end of last week’s message, which you can pick up on our podcast page. That message is right here.

Don’t worry! Never gotten involved in a family’s life that way before??? No sweat. We are here to support and resource you. There will be a mentor training on Sunday, October 18 right after the service. Lunch is included. Sign up at the service this week, or RSVP via email.

This is really exciting. Who would think of a church that would be ministering INSIDE it’s own group and OUTSIDE in the community? That’s what we’re here for.

James 2:14-20
What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
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.” 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. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?

Role Reversal?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-09-29T13:16:11-04:00

Mark 1:40-45
A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said.
Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed.
Then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning: “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.”
But the man went and spread the word, proclaiming to everyone what had happened. As a result, large crowds soon surrounded Jesus, and he couldn’t publicly enter a town anywhere. He had to stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him.

Leprosy was (and still is, in some parts of the world) the worst disease imaginable. It smelled. It disintegrated. It killed. And there was no known cure. Once you contracted it, you were put out from the community, and made to live isolated and alone, letting everyone know that you were “unclean,” and that people had to stay far away from you. Even your family members would have to make wide circles around you if they passed you on the road outside of town. You were alone and literally falling apart. Death had gripped you, and it wasn’t going to let you go. It was going to eat away at you piece by piece until it completely consumed you. And there was nothing that you or anybody could do about it.

I can’t help but notice the response to Jesus’ instruction that the leper has. After Jesus did the unthinkable and TOUCHED this untouchable leper, notice that Jesus is “stern” with the former leper, and “warns” him to keep this quiet! Jesus instructs this man to obey the Levitical law, and report his cleansing to the priest only. Jesus tells him that this quiet report “will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.”

In other words, Jesus tells the newly-healed leper to keep it quiet.

But look what he does. Instead of obeying Jesus’ command to him, he runs around telling anyone he can. He is so amazed, and so blessed that he can’t help but blab his new condition to anyone that will listen. His life has just been changed! He has been pulled back from the brink of death and restored physically and restored to his family by one simple touch of Jesus. This encounter with Jesus has left him so radically changed that despite Jesus’ stern warning, he can’t help but tell everyone about it! He can’t hold it in! It sort of reminds me of the prophet Jeremiah, who said:

Jeremiah 20:9
But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord, or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!

This is the Good News, isn’t it? We were once DEAD ourselves, with sin consuming us completely.

Colossians 2:13-14
You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

Because of this radical life change that we have experienced, Jesus gives us instructions, too. But they aren’t the same instructions as the leper received. Some of Jesus’ last words while here on earth were to commission us to be his ambassadors to the world:

Matthew 28:18-20
...go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

In other words, Jesus instructs us to tell everyone!

but like the leper, we disobey, don’t we? We keep our faith quiet and we hide it? Why is that?

Could it be that we haven’t experienced the radical life change that the leper experienced? Could it be that we either don’t understand, or don’t really care that Jesus has pulled us back from the grip of death to give us new life? Maybe we don’t understand or appreciate the full measure of what He has done for us?

Maybe we should stop living in disobedience. Maybe we should live in the command of Christ and make disciples. That is what we’re all about. That is what HE is all about. It starts with telling people about what HE has done. If a leper can do it, so can you.

Sunday Thoughts

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-09-29T12:11:03-04:00

I have to say a big thanks to everyone on our setup and leadership teams for flexing and filling in the gaps for a few missing key people. You guys did great. We missed the Whites and the Vorpahls, but you guys really filled in nicely and helped out. Here are my thoughts for the day:

Chad, you really stepped it up this morning. Thanks for doing a great job filling in for Casey. Several comment cards echoed that same sentiment.
Lauren, thank you for filling in at the tech booth.
Steve M, John C... We have no idea what we’re doing with our continuing sound issues. Thanks for coming in and smoothing out all the wrinkles. You saved us from what could have been a disaster, and turned it into something great!
That new song “Faithful” by Steve Fee is cool.
We had over 130 again today! Our seating capacity is nearly maxed out!
The lobby is difficult. It definitely isn’t designed for the traffic that we’re putting through it. We are going to have to figure something ELSE out. (and we are definitely talking about it.)
Chuck, Gail, Larry, and Angela did a fantastic job making everyone feel welcome.
Mark chapter 1! Done! Moving on...
I keep hearing lots of positive responses on studying through the book of MARK. In 20 years of ministry, this is already the LONGEST series I think I have ever done... and we just finished CHAPTER 1 of 16! Chapter TWO will go MUCH, much quicker.
I am really... REALLY excited about our Life Groups starting to minister in Ellijay outside our current sphere of influence.
I am LOVING this! We are having the time of our lives! Thank you, God for making all this possible!

Greeters Make Me Happy

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-09-23T11:13:37-04:00

One of the most consistent positive comments that I get from first-time visitors is that they are made to feel very welcome from the moment they enter the movie theater on a Sunday morning. I just want to say a big thanks to everyone who is intentional about making this happen week after week. People LOVE being smiled at and greeted in the mornings. They LOVE the chance to grab some coffee or juice and a donut. They love to know that we care enough about them to go out of our way to make them feel warmly welcomed.

Larry Vorpahl has been consistently making this happen, along with the awesome and incredible Tracy Crook, who provides all the snacks each Sunday morning. Larry will be conducting a brief Greeter Training on Sunday, October 1 for anyone interested in jumping into this ministry. This is a GREAT way to serve by showing that we care!

Oriented

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-09-14T22:30:36-04:00

Man, Orientation Sundays are LONG! We get to the movie theater around 6AM, and we didn’t return home until after 3PM! That is a long day after only a few hours sleep. BUT, we had a good time, and the Orientation went well. We had quite a few people decide to partner with us! We had several people that had to drop out at the last minute because of other commitments, but we will catch them next time!

I really enjoyed Sunday’s message... I warned you that I was excited about it, didn’t I?? Several of you commented positively, and I hope nobody was offended in any way. If you missed the message, it’s called “Holy War,” (OtherJesus6.mp3) and you can find it on the Podcast Page. How are you liking The Other Jesus series? Nearly all of the comments that have come back to me have been overly positive. Why don’t you email me and let me know what you think?

Oh, I am sorry about the loudness of the band during the opening song, Meant To Live. We’ll keep a better eye on that in the future.

Growth Pains

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-09-07T22:46:20-04:00

Turns out I miscounted.

I’ve been all excited recently, telling people that this coming Sunday will be our six-month anniversary. Man, was I wrong! This coming Sunday will be our FIVE-month anniversary since we launched The Orchard Church here in Ellijay. That’s right... Five. We started on Easter Sunday, which was April 12. I re-counted just now (even used my fingers) and we have been going strong for FIVE months.

You’ve got to be kidding me! In five short months we are already filling up the movie theater on Sunday mornings! Last week, we saw three people turn their lives over to Christ for the first time. This past Sunday, another person made the same decision! We consistently have at least a handful of visitors each week. Lately, I feel like I have to apologize to people for having difficulty finding a seat when they arrive a few minutes late.

Sunday mornings are going pretty smoothly so far... The band rocks, the videos are cool, Tracy Crook keeps everybody smiling with just a trace of white donut powder on their lips. There is a buzz of excitement about Life Groups starting up next week. AND we have over THIRTY people signed up for the Orchard Orientation this coming Sunday!

Everybody seems to be excited about the growth we are experiencing, and the life change that is going on all around us. I hear people talking about it all the time. AND, they are excited about the fact that we’re filling the theater. This is great, but also an impending problem. We don’t want our space to be a limiter of growth for us! So what do we do next? Well, there are a dozen different opinions, ranging from adding a SECOND SERVICE, to renting bigger space, to buying a building. We are talking and praying through all those right now.

IN THE MEANTIME, we are taking some immediate measures to alleviate the space issues, and I wanted to let you know about some of them...

First, I am asking EVERYONE to help by arriving just a little earlier, and taking a seat near the front and toward the middle. This will make it easier for visitors to find seats more easily.
Second, I will be talking with Jeremy Towns (theater owner) about using the “party room” overlooking the theater (behind the big glass window). We have a couple of pretty good ideas on how to do that, already.
Third, I’m asking that all people with odd-month birthdays sit on laps of people with even-month birthdays during the service. (okay, I’m just kidding about that one. I wanted to see if anyone really reads this. if you do, email me and let me know.)

All in all, these are really good problems to have. God is blessing us tremendously, and I know that He has GREAT things in store that are yet to come! We’re only a few short months into this journey! Just THINK about what He will do when we really get our feet underneath us!

Sunday Thoughts

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-09-01T06:36:52-04:00

Sunday was yet another great day of worshipping together!

The band kicked it this week. Great job!
Once again, GREAT to meet new friends.
We have GOT to figure out a way to spread everyone out more in the lobby. That place is just PACKED with people before the service.
We are going to have to free up more seating before the end of the year. This morning we were at 85% capacity.
6AM is earlier on Sunday than 6AM any other day of the week.
That buzz in the amp has GOT to GO! Hopefully getting that taken care of this week.
We are definitely still having sound control issues... My mic flipped out at the beginning of the message, EVEN THOUGH we checked it twice before the service.
The Other Jesus has got to be my favorite series so far. BUT, at this pace, how long will it drag out? I love it, but is it going to be too long? I just looked through it again, and believe that we will AT BEST be in chapter 5 by the end of the year. Maybe it is time for a rework.
Loved the flow of the service today. I feel like we really got it right. I enjoyed the worship songs at the end, especially.

My biggest thought is that, as I look around the filled movie theater on Sunday morning... I listen to the band play, I hear the voices of people singing songs to God... I wonder, “How in the world is all this really happening? How amazing is it that God would do such a thing? It was only five short months ago that we stood in the movie theater lobby on a Sunday morning, wondering if anyone would show up... Wondering if we had really heard the call of God to do something new... Wondering if we hadn’t in fact made a big mistake. Did we hear God right?

On this Sunday morning, I wonder... What is about to happen next? Already, we’ve had several weeks of near-capacity crowds. Seating is harder and harder to find. (especially if you arrive just a little late!) The lobby is jam-packed full of people. We are seeing people make decisions for Christ. And we aren’t even six months old yet.

What an incredibly humbling experience. Who am I that God would use me in this way? What business do I have in leading a group of people in a closer walk with God? It is simply amazing that God would choose to use someone like me to be part of a team like this that would raise up a local body in this way. Thank you, Lord for your call, your faithfulness, and your goodness. What you have done is amazing. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

LifeGroups Starting Soon!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-08-27T08:22:11-04:00

So here we are in the FALL... School has started, and we are almost in SEPTEMBER!!! Where has the time gone??

Many of you were there on Sunday when we took the Life Group Survey, and discovered that MOST of you were interested in being involved in a Life Group! That is awesome! Now, our small group leaders are making plans and preparations to get rolling. This is going to be a very exciting thing. If you didn’t know him already, you met Jeff Langley this past Sunday. He introduced himself, and walked us through the survey. You will get to meet more of our life group leaders over the next few weeks leading up to the start of our groups the week of September 13. Each of our Life Group leaders will also be at the Orchard Orientation on Sunday, September 13, so you can get to know them a little bit before jumping into their group. I hope you’re planning to be there.

For more info about our Life Groups, just visit this page. For more info on our Orchard Orientation, there is a blurb about it on this page.

The Most Important Thing

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-08-19T16:33:49-04:00

We have been rolling along for several months now at The Orchard Church, and I really like what we are doing. The food each Sunday morning is great, worship music is awesome, the videos are fun. The Truth of God’s Word is life-changing. We do a lot of great things. But are we doing the most important thing? Paul, writing to the Corinthian church clearly explained what the most important thing is:

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

Over the past few weeks, we have been SO blessed to have a huge group of first-time guests. Our Sunday morning crowd has swelled from around 90 just a few weeks ago, to over 130 this past weekend! Man, that rocks! But, the lingering question continues to ring in my head... Are we doing the MOST IMPORTANT thing? We eat, sing, teach, fellowship, laugh, and learn. These are all important. But are they the most important?

I honestly believe that, as important as these things are, they all hinge on ONE thing. The most important thing... The good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins. Without this as our foundation, none of the rest of it matters. We fellowship because of the good news. We sing and are able to worship because of the good news. The Gospel is the key to everything that happens in church. Without it, nothing else matters. At all.

Up to now, we’ve been intentional about sharing the Gospel at The Orchard Church, but we haven’t been as consistent as we could be. We haven’t always explained the Gospel as clearly as we could. My desire is that we would be known all around as a church that preaches the Good News.

For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes- the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
Romans 1:16

Sunday Rundown

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-08-09T17:32:31-04:00

Today we kicked off our brand-new series on Jesus in the book of Mark. I will get the podcast up online later today. We talked about “the beginning of the gospel,” looking at John the Baptist.

The big question this morning was, “who are you the beginning of the Gospel for?”

Today was our 18th Sunday morning worship service. In some ways, things are really starting to feel very routine, but some things really continue to astound and suprise:

Routine: 6AM curtain call for setup crew is getting pretty worn.
Routine: People really have the whole name tag thing down.
Surprise: We had our second-highest attendance posting this morning! Second only to Easter!
Surprise: We continue to be amazed at the number of first-time guests on Sunday mornings.
Routine: Saturday night cleanup crew continue to sweat and serve
Surprise: The comment cards each week contain new insights into peoples’ lives and what God is doing.

Several of you listed public prayer requests... I will be making sure those go out on the Orchard Prayer Twitter this afternoon/evening. If you aren’t already following our Twitter feeds, (we have two!) you can sign up straight from your cellphone... Here’s how...

To follow our PRAYER feed,
text to: 40404
message: follow orchardprayer

To follow our GENERAL feed,
text to: 40404
message: follow orchardellijay

I hope you have a great week!

Giving Message

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-08-06T10:18:52-04:00

Wow. I really can’t believe how many people have spoken, called, and emailed me to request this past Sunday’s message on giving. (okay... it isn’t a TON, but it is definitely more than for any other message before!) I was really sweating this message before Sunday, and it seems to have generated lots of response. You can stream or download the entire SHIFT series, including “Give” from the podcast page.

A podcast is a recording that can be played directly over the internet, downloaded to your computer, put on your iPod, or burned to a CD. They are really simple to use. iTunes came along a few years ago and really standardized this format. (Go, Apple!)

Weird Things We Do and Why (part 2)

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-08-06T09:50:49-04:00

This is the second in our “Weird Things” series of blog entries... We do some different things at The Orchard Church here in Ellijay, and my hope is to help you understand why.

Newer Bible Translation
My friend, Matt Evans at Rockbridge Church in Dalton covered this topic himself in a blog post back in March. Rather than try to duplicate his, I just thought I would copy it over for you. Here is what Matt has to say about Bible translations:

Why are there multiple translations? First of all, there are more ancient Greek (the language of the New Testament) words than English words (i.e. - 3 Greek words for “love”, but only 1 English word). This makes translating even more difficult because translators have to decide how to best convey the meaning of the original Greek texts. Second, the Bible was written in common language or “street” language Greek so sometimes the way the words translate do not give the full meaning or intention of the author. For example, in our language if we said, “It’s raining cats and dogs outside”, what we mean is different from what we are actually saying. Translators have to account for these type of variations and nuances as well. Another variable is that the English language has changed over the years, demonstrated by the New King James Version (NKJV) which sought to “update” the KJV into a more readable and understandable form for readers and listeners. Therefore, translators have to decide how to actually translate the Bible. There are roughly 3 options available (besides a corrupt translation such as the Jehovah’s Witness translation, the New World Translation, which tries to eliminate the truth that Jesus Christ is God).

Word-for-Word translations make a concentrated effort to precisely translation and interpret each word from Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic into English. They strive for precision and exactness with the key word being ACCURACY. These translations are generally at a high school reading level and can lose some of the poetic beauty of the original languages. There are three primary word-for-word translations: New American Standard Bible (NASB); the King James or New King James Verision (KJV/NKJV); and the English Standard Version (ESV). I generally use these as part of sermon preparation and research.

Thought-for-Thought translations try to give the full meaning of the verse or passage and not just focus on the individual words. The goal is to give the reader the same thought that the reader of the original languages would have enjoyed. These type of translations are easier to read and understand. The key word here is CLARITY. The New International Version (NIV) and New Living Translation (NLT) are two well-known thought-for-thought translations.

I prefer the NIV because it is a balance between word-for-word and thought-for-thought. The translators of the NIV uphold the inerrance of the Bible and have the stated goal of “accuracy & clarity.” They also wanted a translation that could be used for teaching and preaching. Interestingly, the NIV is the most published translation and accounts for 30% of all Bible sales. It was first published in 1978.

Paraphrase translations combine translation with commentary … sort of like an editorialized news article or a news article that is not “fair and balanced” but biased. These translations are easy to read and understand but we must remember that the translators’ commentary and narrative is not divinely inspired and authorative as is the inspired and literal Word of God. I use paraphrases for general reading and to get another perspective on a text. These translations can help provide a general understanding of a text or passage. It is wise to always read a word-for-word or thought-for-thought translation along with a paraphrase to avoid unintentionally compromising God’s truths & teachings. Examples of paraphrases are The Message and The Living Bible (TLB).

Conclusion: Personally, I own copies of all three types of translations and use them all in my study and devotional times. While personal preferences do play a role in selecting a Bible translation, here are some general guidelines:

For indepth Bible study, word-for-word or thought-for-thought translations tend to be better.
Paraphrases are good for quick reading, getting a devotional thought, or helping to understand a passage better.
For Scripture memory paraphrases should probably be avoided.
You can even purchase a “parallel” Bible that has different translations side-by-side. This is a great study tool!
Someone new to Bible study might try the New Living Translation (NLT).
My personal recommendations: the ESV for indepth study and reference; the NIV or NLT for personal quiet times, Scripture memorization, and church services; the Message for quick reading and a general overview of a passage.

Sunday Thoughts

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-08-02T15:30:50-04:00

I am still jazzed from this morning’s service. We had a real surge in first time visitors today, which really brought a lot of energy into the morning. Although Casey had been really sick, and we were missing Zac on the drums (visiting relatives) the worship was sweet.

15 first time visitor cards today! I know there were even more than that, they didn’t all turn in cards.
Man, I was really sweating that message on giving all week. Thanks for all your kind comments.
The SHIFT series is over. You can download the whole thing on our podcast page.
Our Saturday night crew rocks. Thanks for all you guys do to prepare for our setup crew on Sunday morning!
Jeremy and Hannah, the new owners of the movie theater are rockin’ it out!! You really can’t help but notice how nice the theater is becoming. The bathrooms smell nice, the big room is much cleaner, the carpet is great, the murals are awesome! They are just doing all the right things.
My favorite comment on a card from this morning, from a second or third time visitor; “I like it. It feels like home.”

Long Day

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-07-27T12:44:35-04:00

Who says that The Orchard Church only has morning services??

Morning Worship
Our setup crew met at 6AM as usual, surprised to find a lot of OUR job had been done by the cleanup crew the night before. Thanks for the blessing! We had a great morning service, with Doug Moore, our resident “youth guy” bringing the THIRD message in the SHIFT series, about serving. As usual, Doug did a great job. Here is a quick rundown:

Great message, Doug!
Setup time DRASTICALLY reduced with help from Sat Nite Cleanup Crew!
The band keeps blowing me away
(hopefully) the last round of family vacations taking place, so all our team members can get back to being together.
I love hanging out in the lobby before the service. It is great to meet new friends and hang with older ones.
Dennis Bailey has installed some new lighting in the theater lobby... It looks awesome!
The other movie theater improvements are really coming along very nicely. Have you SEEN those MURALS??
Tracy Crook is simply amazing.
Camp Highland Staff made my day!! They all jumped right in and helped us tear out all our Sunday morning stuff so we could get to the funeral home. Wow!
Still meeting lots of “first time guests” each week. Always very exciting!

Afternoon Funeral Service
After the service, Casey, Rachel, and I headed straight over to the funeral home to help out. The funeral was beautiful and very touching. Family and friends all gathered around Mike and Christy to love, pray for, and otherwise support them as they continue to grieve the loss of their little girl. Jill Crook read a poem that she wrote that was very, very touching. Rachel worked really hard on an excellent video slideshow that was played before the service began. All was very moving. Mike and Christy send their thanks to all the Orchard family who have helped out in their time of grief and need.

Evening Worship
After a short break, we were off to Camp Highland, where Casey and Rachel led in some worship. Zac from the staff there had set up a really cool outdoor candle-lit worship time overlooking Carter’s Lake. It was really unique and special. It was a fantastic time of quiet prayer and meditation and corporate worship. I hope it was a blessing to Camp Highland. I know they have been a huge blessing to us this summer. The staff wraps up their final week of camp next week, before going back to their homes. We will miss you guys, and we hope each of you will return to visit us in Ellijay!

Boot Camp

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-07-24T17:33:56-04:00

Sherry and I just got back from a “Church Planter’s Boot Camp,” where we took 16 units of coursework, learning about establishing core values, strategies, small groups, administrative issues, and lots of other helpful things.

I was really encouraged that among the seven church planting teams at the small conference, there were three Caucasian teams, two African American teams, and two Hispanic teams. Not only that, but one of our exercises was to diagram out the structure of our church. It was really cool to see how each church was modeled differently... None of them were the same. Isn’t it great how the Holy Spirit works differently in different people groups and in different places to reveal the same God?

We learned a lot, and we made some new friends. Now, we just have to process all the stuff we learned!

More Than You Know

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-07-19T23:53:45-04:00

Man, I am really surprised at all the great comments about the SHIFT series that we’re doing right now. I really feel that it is sort of a “back to basics” kind of thing... But that is necessary even for mature christians every now and then. You sure can tell that it is still summer time. But it seems like most everyone is winding down their time away.

I just want to let everybody be aware that the BAND (Casey, Rachel, Chad, Sherry, Zac, and Caleb) really do very much more than you know. In fact, I feel like they are over-burdened. Here is the Sunday schedule for these guys... You should check it out.

6:00 ARRIVE at Movie Theater
6:10 set up speakers, staging

pull cables, connect power
hang lights on light bars
wire up all video connections
wire up all audio connections
wire up all lighting connections

7:30 Finish up general setup
7:45 Warm up begins
8:00 Practice
9:00 “Talk Through:” go over schedule for day
9:15 Team Prayer time
9:45 Doors open
10:00 Worship
11:30 power down everything

disconnect all lighting, sound, etc
take down lights
disassemble staging, carry out, put away
put away speakers, stands
clean up around area

12:30 done for the morning.

That’s right... That is over SIX HOURS of effort to pull off a single Sunday morning worship time. This doesn’t count clean up on Saturday night, or even the lobby/welcome/food area on Sunday mornings. PLUS, getting everything together in a timely manner can be very stressful at times.

So what am I saying here? I’m not really sure. I just have a burden for these guys... They work SO hard all week, then come and bust it so that we can all worship together in music. They are just awesome. I think we rely on them a whole lot, and even take them for granted a little bit. Okay, maybe a lot. What do you think we should do about this? email me your thoughts!

Weird Things We Do and Why (part 1)

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-07-15T11:17:47-04:00

You know, some of the things we do at The Orchard Church may seem a little different... We are, after all, doing church differently, right? Some of those weird things are kind of a big deal, and others are just minor. Either way, I thought I’d help everyone understand some of those things with a periodic blog entry about some of those things. My hope is that once you understand them, they might not seem so weird after all! So... Here goes weird thing number one:

Response Cards
Each week we hand everyone a card when they come into the movie theater. On it, there is room for basic personal info, like name, address, etc. In addition, there is space for response. You can record a decision that you made, and/or you can write down comments, prayer requests, or whatever you want to pass along.

We encourage everyone to fill out a response card each week. They are great for several reasons:

Gives an opportunity for someone to respond who doesn't feel comfortable talking about it out loud, or feels like they could be singled out.
Gives everyone a chance to comment on what they heard, saw, or otherwise experienced in the morning service.
Makes responding easier for everyone
Empowers us to better follow up with prayer requests and other needs.

I personally love the response cards. I can't wait to tear into them and start reading through and praying on Sunday afternoons. I don't always get a chance to talk with everybody, so it is a great way for me to know a little about what is happening in peoples' lives.

Sometimes, some of our regulars choose not to fill out a card on Sundays, which is fine... I just want you to know that it isn't just about passing along contact information... I really love to hear from you. I enjoy your thoughts on the message, your comments about church, and the stories of what God is doing in your life. I have found cards like these to be a great tool for basic communication. Sort of like a text message on paper. It is great because it can start a conversation that goes much deeper than a card allows for.

New Series Gets Going

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-07-14T14:52:46-04:00

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!

Reconnecting

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-07-06T23:09:08-04:00

I got to spend some time reconnecting in with some of our core group families tonight. We used to meet together weekly, but everyone has been so busy that we haven’t made the time over the last couple of months. It was great to spend some time with these close friends, renewing the relationships a little bit. It excites me about small groups starting up this fall. Those deeper relationships are what the Church is all about!

Incredible Day!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-07-06T12:47:27-04:00

I’m just in awe of yesterday’s Baptism Party. My amazement began at 4:30AM as I checked the radar, and saw the storms moving in. But they never materialized. All through the morning, the storms were knocking right on our doorstep according to the radar, but GOD held them off, and we had an awesome time out at the ETC Pavillion!

We fed nearly 80 pounds of chicken, we painted faces, jumped in the inflatables, played volleyball, sang, and had a great time... But best of all, we baptized a bunch of people! Even some that weren’t planning to be baptized! What an incredible day!

How can I even begin to say thanks to the selfless people who jumped in and pulled this event off?? Very special thanks to:

Kenny Crook and John Steinmueller for cooking all of that chicken
Angela and Jeff Langley for coordinating all the food stuff
Chuck and Gail Vautrot for the inflatables, and for getting the chicken
Rachel and Casey for getting up and setting up
Larry and Donna Vorpahl for coordinating the baptisms, greeting, and lots of other stuff
Amy Balfa for being the face of the event
Chad and Summer Mahan for making sure the place was spotless and put back
Doug and Naomi Moore for coordinating all our volunteers

These people and many others did a WHOLE LOT of work, and it couldn’t have happened without them. Way to go! It was EXACTLY what it needed to be. Thank you so much.

Are You Ready to Party?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-06-28T22:57:44-04:00

How cool was the wrap-up of our first-ever marriage series? I felt like today was one of the best services we’ve had since we started. The music was great, and the message was fun. And how about that wedding? That makes the second Orchard wedding we’ve had since we started, and the first one to take place DURING a Sunday morning service! It is so cool that we are beginning to really tighten up as a family. Not only that, but we continue to grow! Even though we continue to be down several of our regulars, and key volunteers during the summer months, we continue to have lots of new visitors! Today the nursery was full of kids! (there was definitely some serious cuteness going on there, too!)

Next Sunday’s Baptism Party is going to be off the chain! Are you planning to be there? If you haven’t invited someone yet, you still can. All the info is right here on the website. Just click onto the Party page from the main “home” page, and you will find it all! Come party with our church in Ellijay

Summer Lovin'

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-06-14T18:38:03-04:00

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.

Summer Vacation

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-06-04T08:23:18-04:00

The Dusek family just spent a week of summer vacation at Hunting Island, SC. We camped in the popup right on the beach, and had a great, relaxing week. I’m not one to blog too much about our personal lives... BUT, I can’t overstate the value of unplugging from the everyday schedule, and reconnecting with family. We’ve been pretty focused on launching The Orchard Church over the last 8 or 9 months, so there hasn’t been a lot of quality time for family, as you can imagine. This break was just what we needed. Long walks on the beach, exploring the island, fishing and more fishing. Zac caught a big shark! (we threw him back.)

I find myself becoming more and more aware of a season of life coming to a close. Zac is 17, and Lauren is 14, going into high school this fall. We probably only have a handful of family vacations left. Before long, their jobs and extended families will prevent our kids from being able to get away together like this. How can this all happen so fast? Weren’t they toddlers just last week?

So, I know a lot of you guys are away here and there for the summer. I hope that each of you get time to connect with those close to you. I really believe that God gives us EACH and EVERY ONE of our relationships SO that we can demonstrate CHRIST in them.

Minor Improvements

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-05-19T22:08:08-04:00

Today, Doug Moore and I spent MOST of the day in the movie theater executing yet another upgrade on the big room. As you know, we’ve been using these really ugly light tripods to put our stage lights on. They sit near the front of the room, take up space, look bad, and get kicked from time to time. On Saturday, Darron Chastain hung some AWESOME light mounts on the walls for our stage lights. We couldn’t use them yet, because we had to rewire the room first. (again.) Today, we got it done! The new light mounts look GREAT, and free up seating space! Thanks for your help, Darron and Doug!

Also, you may have noticed that the projector image was improved on Sunday. The projector has been sitting on the ledge just over the entrance to the room, and has been throwing it’s image at a low, shallow angle. The result has been singers and speakers with their faces oddly lit. Well, no more! Kenny Crook constructed a new mount for the projector that raises it up to ceiling level! Thanks, Kenny!

Sunday Thoughts

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-05-17T23:50:41-04:00

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.

The Proverbs Experiment

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-05-12T11:41:30-04:00

On Sunday, I challenged our group to do a 10-minute recharge each day from the book of Proverbs Today I was reading Proverbs 12, (on May 12) and I found a few great nuggets...

Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and become a slave.

Worry weighs a person down; and encouraging word cheers a person up.

To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction.

There is a lot more than just this, too. What have you found in your recharge time? Email me at stevedusek@orchardellijay.com to let me know what kinds of things God is teaching you!

Church Hop

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-05-11T23:03:27-04:00

Someone emailed me this week with a really good question. She says that she goes to one church on Sundays and another on Wednesdays. Neither of them “feels right” to her, and she had just received an invitation to come to The Orchard Church. She was conflicted, and didn’t know what to do about it.

I emailed her a response back, and I thought I would share my thoughts on this with you.

First of all, I never really liked the whole “church hopping” thing. I don’t think that is good for you. I am pretty sure it isn’t God’s plan for you, either. See, I am convinced that God creates each and every one of us with a specific purpose... A specific way that YOU will function in the Body of Christ. He couples that with a gift (or gifts) to be used intentionally for HIM. It is your ministry... The way you impact the KINGDOM. If you are a follower of Christ, YOU have a purpose... And it is all about HIM.

Your purpose in The Kingdom, and your gift is to be used as part of the Body of Christ, otherwise known as The Church. This is where we get tripped up. We think we “find a church that we like” and we “go there” to “get fed,” or whatever. With American consumerism, it is easy to fall into this trap of thinking.

The reality is that GOD places you into a local body on purpose. Your church experience shouldn't be based on what "feels right" to you, but on where GOD has CALLED you to be. Has God called you to the church you are in now? How do you know? What is your ministry there? How is HE using you among those people?

If you aren't in a church now, please, BY ALL MEANS check out The Orchard... But before you join our church, or any church... Seek God's will on it. He won't put you in a place by accident. He wants the BEST for you... And HIS BEST is always when HE is bringing out HIs best in YOU.

1 Corinthians 2:7 (Message)
God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene.

Romans 12:3-8 (NLT)
Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

The Five-Week JUMP?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-05-11T21:51:46-04:00

Didn’t get a chance to update yesterday... Busy with Mother’s Day and all!

I just wanted to jot down a few random thoughts about Sunday’s service. Here they are, in no particular order.

What happened?? After four weeks of relatively “smooth sailing,” it seems we had every technical glitch that we could think of!
What happened?? After three weeks of double-digit attendance, we suddenly jumped up to nearly 110! Wow!
We had a record number of kids in the toddler and preschool rooms
Kirsten did a great job on behalf of all of us.
Practice is important
Proverbs is awesome
Always great to see new faces, and meet new friends.
The air conditioner in there works REALLY WELL when it wants to.
We didn’t get the message recorded, either. Hope to have everything fixed next week.
Star Trek: best movie of 2009. Should have done THAT trailer.

Even though the Night At The Museum 2 trailer didn’t work on cue, I am still really excited about this message series. I hope it is a blessing for you. Next week, we’re doing our take on Transformers 2. Should be fun! If you haven’t been to The Orchard Church yet, I think you will love it.

The Three-Week Slide

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-05-04T22:41:50-04:00

Well, we’ve just completed our first message series at The Orchard Church. It sort of feels like a landmark for us.

I am really proud of our worship band. They’ve worked hard, and have done a great job. Not only is the music awesome, but the Spirit is evident.
Shout out for the tech crew, also! We have people running sound, lights, and video week in and week out that do a great job.
Every week, our CLEAN UP CREW works the movie theater very late on Saturday nights. Great job, guys.
The church-planting gurus say that we should have expected a “three-week slide” of 50% from our launch day attendance numbers. Well, we are WAY above that! It is amazing the spiritual hunger that is so evident all around us!

I have been thrilled at the great comments I have heard and read from people who have visited with us over the last several weeks. I love it when I hear people say things like, “we feel so welcome here,” “this place rocks,” and “this is like coming home.” I am most thrilled that we have seen at least eight people turn their lives over to Christ!

Our next series, “Reel Life,” begins on Sunday. I think you are really going to like it. If you haven’t been with us at The Orchard Church yet, you should give it a try. Have a look at the details here.

Next Steps?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-05-02T22:55:12-04:00

I am so pumped up right now. We just got back from an abbreviated leadership mini-retreat... It was just me and some of our guys that have been with us since the beginning of this whole process of launching The Orchard. I’m excited because even though we DIDN’T get to everything I wanted us to get to on our retreat, we definitely covered some very important ground!

FIRST, we took our first chance to step back and evaluate the run-up and the launch, all of which happened from January through April. Everybody there felt that we met and/or exceeded our goals, expectations, and hopes. We reflected back on those initial intensive prayer times, and looked at how God has worked and answered prayer time and time again in this process. We are so blessed to be part of this!

NEXT, we began to dream about what THE ORCHARD is really ultimately going to be all about. ALL of us agreed that we DO NOT want to be simply a weekend worship service. That is fun, and it is important... But ultimately, what does it produce? EACH member of our group desires for us to be a DISCIPLE-MAKING FACTORY. We talked in depth about what that looks like, and it is exciting. We do NOT have all the pieces in place... In fact, we just got the general structure down. Next, we will have to spend some time putting the “meat on the bones” of how that will look for us. I know you will be hearing more and more about this in the coming weeks and months.

Just a little insight... we hope to launch small groups this summer! (as in, just a few weeks from now!) BUT, we have a LONG way to go before we’re ready to do that, so please be praying.

My favorite quote from the weekend: “We can’t ENABLE the old habit of sitting and soaking... We want to EMPOWER people to step up and lead!” You will DEFINITELY be hearing that from me again.

Exponential

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-04-21T18:20:03-04:00

Doug and I are down here in beautiful Orlando, Florida (my home town) at the Exponential New Church Conference at First Baptist Church of Orlando (my home church) It is CRAZY! We got to hear Erwin McManus (great author and speaker) talk to us about what is really important. We’ve been in breakout tracks learning about some of the nuts and bolts of church planting. Favorite quote of the conference so far: Alan Hirsch (church guru) says “Holiness is not about withdrawing from the culture. It is about how we engage the culture. In fact, it creates culture.”

As good as the conference is, my favorite part has been reconnecting to some great old friends and seeing what God is doing in their lives. I really had a blast talking with some of those guys, and I feel like God is really reconfirming a lot of things in my heart and mind about all the stuff we’re doing in Ellijay! Check back in the next day or two for another conference update!

The Bailout Has Begun

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-04-20T08:24:25-04:00

Funny how things work sometimes. Yesterday was full of little technical glitches. The AC didn’t come on in the big room until pretty late in the morning. At one point, Sherry thought there was smoke in the room, which turned out to be dust floating in the air. (the theater doesn’t normally have that many people and that much commotion in it!) The screen temporarily went blank for a few minutes. (tech crew still learning Pro Presenter) and I couldn’t figure out how to put the giant puzzle pieces together during the message. With all that stuff going on, you might think yesterday’s service was a train wreck. BUT:

The music was GREAT... I thought having an extended set of songs was fantastic, and Man, the band was really sounding good.
I got to meet quite a few new friends, (where are all these awesome new people coming from???)
I have to admit, I wasn’t super excited about doing this bailout series right at the start of everything, but, man I really LOVE the direction it is taking, and I think we really got off to a good start yesterday. I can’t wait for the next two weeks! PLUS, the plan for the next two weeks are really cool.
ON TOP OF THAT, we had several people turn their lives over to Christ for the first time!

After the huge response we had last week with so many people showing up on our launch service, I was really looking to have our group drop down to around 60 or so. After all, you don’t have to be doing ANYTHING right to have a crowd on Easter Sunday, right? BUT, God proved me wrong again, and we were blessed with 85 people worshipping with us for our second service!

Man... Stuff is happening. God works in crazy ways. There are BIG things in store for Ellijay!

Launched!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-04-15T00:37:32-04:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-04-08T14:36:45-04:00

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!

Children's Ministry

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-04-04T20:16:51-04:00

This is a long story, but I will try to keep it short.

God is blessing. Our lands are increasing.

We have had a plan for children’s ministry in the movie theater for quite a while now. Our plan stinks, and we know it. The theater is a terrible place to have children rolling around on the floor. It just wasn’t built to accommodate that.

So we prayed. We knew that God would be working SOMETHING out.

Suddenly, as of this weekend, GOD has worked it out that we are “sharing” space with the Movie Theater’s next-door neighbors, the ERA Realty. They have LOTS of space in their offices that they are not using, and NOW we have GREAT rooms for babies and preschool. In fact, we will start out with a smallish preschool room that we will likely very soon be able to EXPAND and grow!

NOW our children will have some space to be loved and cared for! It is awesome what God is up to!

This Morning... WOW!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-04-05T22:38:05-04:00

I just have to shout out a huge THANK YOU to everyone involved in this morning’s launch preparations. I was shocked at the energy level and enthusiasm for what is going on here! First, since we were on a “week off” between preview service and Launch Sunday, I really expected our numbers to be quite low... The plan was to make today a work day, since Spring Break is on, and people are out of town. things ought to be kinda quiet... Right?

So here we are with no real plan for a service, no “message” ready, and didn’t even set up the curtains, or make everything look pretty. It is just going to be “us” today. We’re wearing our work clothes and are going to be taking care of some last-minute business.

Well, I turned around, and the theater lobby was PACKED with people who had come to be part of the morning services! I was amazed to see some friendly faces that I hadn’t seen in a long time. I was even more amazed to see so many faces that I just didn’t even recognize! So, at 10AM, we quickly threw together a plan, prayed, and had a short mini-service. And it rocked. Thanks, Casey, Chad, Zac, Caleb, and Sherry for pulling together on that.

After I did my best to explain what it was we were trying to do here, I asked if people would be willing to spend some time working our launch preparations with us. I thought, “okay, now all these visitors will go home (and probably never come back) and then our group can work the stuff and get a few things done.

I was wrong again! I think nearly EVERYBODY stayed for the rest of the morning... We had people labeling mailer cards until EVERY SINGLE CARD had an address on it! (usually takes us DAYS to complete!) We had people I didn’t even KNOW vacuuming floors, I saw people cleaning walls. New people were setting up toys for babies, and visitors from out of state cleaned out the kitchen cabinets and washed all the dishes! Now, walk through our new children’s space, and it smells fresh and clean.

I was truly amazed at what I saw. I was amazed at these people’s willingness and PLEASURE in serving. Everyone was smiling, laughing, and just enjoying each other. For me, it was one of the best Sundays we’ve had.

What if The Church was like that all the time? What if, as Henry Blackaby puts it, we could look around and SEE where God is working, drop everything, and just JOIN HIM in that work? What would God do in us and through us? Isn’t THAT what The Church is all about?

Thanks, everyone. You made my week. I am praying for you as we tear through our FINAL WEEK before LAUNCH SUNDAY.

Children's Ministry Big Focus

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-03-31T10:06:02-04:00

Check Out Our Target Wish List!

Okay, it’s the last two weeks before the big launch day, and WE NEED YOUR HELP! Whether you are part of The Orchard Church or not, YOU can be a blessing to children and to families as we get started in the next couple of weeks. There are still some resources that we just really need to get our Children’s Ministry going. Will YOU be willing to help us out with one, two, or three of these items?

Summer Gilliam, our volunteer Children’s Ministry director, has set up a Wish List at Target.com for our Children’s Ministry. You can log on right here, and be a blessing by ordering something off the list! It will be shipped RIGHT to us, so you won’t have to worry about it one bit.

We’re looking at a pretty short turn-around time, so have a look at it, and invest a little into our children and families. Our launch date is coming up VERY SOON! This thing is going to be awesome!

In The Final Stretch

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-03-31T02:21:11-04:00

It is hard to believe that we are in the final TWO WEEKS before the official LAUNCH! Man, things are busy these days. It seems that my “to do” list is longer than my days can handle.

I have to give a big shout out to the entire worship and tech teams... Man, there were quite a few curve balls thrown at us at the last minute, from Casey’s finger getting sliced, to the words being switched up in the computer. BUT, these guys (and girls) all handled it like pros! It all worked out, and GOD was glorified!

I was really encouraged by everyone’s response to the second preview service. SO many positive words of excitement about what lies ahead. Thanks to all who stayed afterwards for our first ever “Orchard Orientation.” I have to admit, I was a little nervous about how we were going to pull off some of the stuff we were hoping to do... But after talking with you guys, I am ready to run screaming at the enemy! (Judges 6&7... Okay, maybe you had to be there.)

It was great to see some familiar faces on Sunday. What a blessing to see many new ones, as well. Cool new kid of the week: Haley. Anyone who draws exclamation points with big hearts is cool in my book.

21 Days of Prayer

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-03-23T07:34:29-04:00

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!

Preview Was GREAT!

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-03-16T22:16:49-04:00

Wow. I have GOT to say a big thanks to everyone who worked hard to pull off this weekend’s preview service. It was really awesome. What a great kickoff!

Here are my quick thoughts on the morning:

It was awesome meeting new friends and seeing new faces.
The tech stuff was really hard and time-intensive during the week to set up, but it was SO worth it!
The message was consistent from the opening video, through the songs, the “Meant to Live” theme song, and the message
Our team seems to have an unlimited amount of drive and ability to pull stuff off
Conner did a great job with the lights
So glad we went with the “Meant To Live” theme.
“Dare You To Move” is going to be GREAT on March 29th!

Overall, I felt like the preview was a great start to what will be an awesome, growing, vibrant ministry. I expect we’ll see God change a lot of lives as a result of all this. Wednesday night is our “Orchard Orientation,” and even if you didn’t sign up, we’d still love to have you. Shoot me an email (from the CONTACT page) or give me a call to let me know you’re coming.

Why A Preview Service?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-03-11T20:35:12-04:00

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!!

Transforming Power

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-02-27T13:54:33-05:00

The Church Planters Conference in Cumming, GA on Monday and Tuesday was great. Mountain Lake Church simply does an awesome job at what they do.

The worship times were unbelievable, and I learned a whole lot. Summer, Doug, and I really loved hearing from Bob Roberts, who really encouraged us that God leads through broken people. He asked 500 church planters, “Is the Gospel powerful enough to transform your community?” Of course, the resounding answer all over the auditorium was an enthusiastic “YES!” We’re church planters... Planting the Gospel in a new, different way in communities is what we are all about! These are people of vision and drive. They dream of what God can do in a community through the power of the Gospel.

Then, he asked them, “Is the Gospel powerful enough to transform YOU?”

A hush fell over the crowd. Everyone paused, as the question sunk into our minds and hearts. Dr. Roberts said that church planting is not about our ability to speak, build teams, or put systems into place... It is about the ability of the Gospel to TRANSFORM ME into HIS image. Nothing else really matters.

What he said really lined up with the words of John the Baptist, who, toward the end of his ministry, verbalized the process by which we all glorify God: “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” (John 3:30) That’s what our process is all about. At The Orchard, we’re all about engaging in the process of CHANGE, GROW, and SERVE. When we do that, it results in less and less of us, which allows for more and more of HIM to consume us. It is a lifelong endeavor that will result in our being transformed into HIS image. (Romans 12:1-2)

Sunday Random Thoughts

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-02-23T07:15:46-05:00

Okay, I just felt like doing a little bit of a brain dump on how Sunday went. (I’m sitting at Starbuck’s on Monday morning, waiting to meet with someone, so I have a few minutes to get some thoughts down.)

First, I just can’t get over the wilingness and generosity of Tracy, Kenny, Chad, Summer, and Sherry. All of you guys just keep giving and giving. Man, it is HARD to motivate yourself to head to the movie theater to clean up and set up BEGINNING at 11PM on Saturday night. But you guys just keep giving and giving each week. You rock.

I also have to give a shout out to Angela Langley, who brought the food last week.

Chad and Sherry didn’t have a chance to practice this week, for whatever reason, but I thought worship went well. The song set was great... I really love doing songs that we know... Once I really know a song, I feel much more free to worship with it. Sometimes I think learning new songs is what CDs are for. When is the new Passion CD coming out?

Speaking of that, if you want to clue in to where we get a lot of our music, you can just click one of these iTunes links to Passion, or this one to Chris Tomlin or David Crowder Band. There are plenty of others, but those will get you started.

I don’t know if my message even made any sense to anyone yesterday. I kinda felt like even though I had a specific direction to go in, I sort of mixed two thoughts together, almost trying to get two messages out at the same time. I’m sorry if it was messy, but I really felt like some things needed to be said. In a good way. You know, we’ve spent several weeks now really laying the foundation of who and what The Orchard Church is really going to be all about. I really get the sense that, at least in concept, everyone gets it. Seeing how that works out in practice may be a completely different thing... Who knows? We will see very soon. Our first preview service is JUST a few weeks away. I think this will really be a big test for us. No more sitting and watching. We are going to have to get all in and fight together like those soccer players we talked about on Sunday.

The best thing about Sunday was cleaning up in and around Chad’s house. You know, when a member of our body has a need, we should jump in there to meet it however we can. It was a great feeling to be over there, spending time with brothers and sisters just helping some of our church family members out. Chad sent me an email to let me know what a blessing you were to him, and how much he appreciated the help. Jesus said to love as we have been loved. One of the things we like to say at The Orchard Church is that “love comes out.” What a great way to see some love demonstrated. Thanks so much... Not just for showing that love to Chad, but for showing it to me. I was blessed just to be part.

Meeting Needs

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-02-17T21:39:02-05:00

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?

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-02-17T09:39:24-05:00

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

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-02-12T07:28:00-05:00

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!

Becoming a Blessing

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-01-28T11:29:06-05:00

Yesterday, Zac and I went over to Athens to see if we could find any deals on used sound equipment at a nightclub auction that was going on there. It was a very interesting day, as we got to talk with a bunch of local bar/club owners and see what they were doing, and how the economy was affecting them. There were a bunch of people there... Maybe 30 or so, all bidding on barstools, tables, neon lights, speakers, intelligent spots, and so forth.

I met a kid named Chris. He's a college student trying to make a little bit of a living DJ'ing parties and other events in and around Lawrenceville. Great kid. He is just a poor college student, showing up at the auction looking to get a little bit of a deal on something small that can help his struggling business. His main goal was to get two microphones and a snake, which is a bundled set of microphone cables with a connector box on the end. He was disappointed to find that the microphones (Shure Beta 58's) he wanted were being sold as a set of six, which he likely couldn't afford. He could probably swing the two he needed, but definitely not six. We talked for a little while, telling me about his girlfriend, and his dreams of having a local small-time recording studio.

I told him about our church plant, and how we were looking for some of the same things he was looking for, plus some speakers and other items. He was very interested, and asked several questions. Before we knew what was happening, the bidding began!

I watched him bid on and lose some XLR cables. He bid and lost some direct boxes. Next up came the snake that he wanted. Even though everyone had their bidding "poker faces" on, I could see his disappointment when he lost the snake to a higher bidder. Even at incredible auction prices, where things were going for pennies on the dollar, this guy just didn't have the cash to buy the smallest of things available.

Next up were the Shure Beta 58's. Nice set of six microphones. (they retail for $160 or so each.) He started the bidding at $30 per mic, but was immediately priced out when the cost rose rapidly. Just as they were about to go for $57 each, the final bid was made and they sold for $60... To The Orchard Church. I looked across the room to where Chris was standing and he shot me a quick smile. He knew what we were there for, and was very supportive about our new church start.

As soon as I could get to him, he shook my hand and congratulated me with a smile. He offered to hang around and help us load up the equipment we had just bought. I thanked him, and handed him two of the microphones, telling him that we wanted to be a blessing to him. He was a little stunned, suprised to see someone thinking of others in the midst of this "get-it-for-myself" free for all. He ended up paying us for one of them, saying that he wanted to support The Orchard, and that he felt he should be giving, not taking from the church. I let him pay his original bid price of $30, and both of us were thrilled.

It is awesome that even 3 months before we have our first church service, The Orchard is blessing a kid in Lawrenceville, and we are blessed by him.

Exciting Times

stevedusek@gmail.com — 2009-01-21T00:58:08-05:00

So this is the START of the whole church-planting blog thing. I've never been one to blog before... Never really felt like anyone would spend the time reading my blabbering. My hope is that this blog will inform, open doors, and facilitate dialog.

Did you get all sucked in to that Inauguration this week? Wow, what history we're priviliged to witness. Whether you agree with his politics or not, you have to be proud to be part of the generation that put the first African American in the White House. I have to admit that I had a tear in my eye when I thought of how far we have come in just a few short years.