This Sunday is Pentecost, a celebration of the Holy Spirit being poured out on and empowering the early church. In my sermon a few weeks ago, I read this quote from Rick Kirchoff describing what happens today when the Holy Spirit comes on a church:

"When God sends forth the Spirit amazing things happen:
barriers are broken,
communities are formed,
opposites are reconciled,
unity is established,
disease is cured,
addiction is broken,
cities are renewed,
races are reconciled,
hope is established,
people are blessed,
and church happens.

Today the Spirit of God is present and we're gonna have church.
So be ready, get ready...God is up to something...

discouraged folks cheer up,
dishonest folks 'fess up,
sour folks sweeten up,
closed folk, open up,
gossipers shut up,
conflicted folks make up,
sleeping folks wake up,
lukewarm folk, fire up,
dry bones shake up,
and pew potatoes stand up!

But most of all, Christ the Savior of all the world is lifted up."

Lord, may it be! and let it start with me.

Pastor Joey

Last month, I and several board members attended a seminar for church leaders. It was called, "Reaching People under 40 while Keeping People over 60," and was led by Eddie Hammett, who has written a book by the same title. The title intrigued me because we have a balanced representation of generations within our church, and yet there is a challenge to minister to each generation simultaneously. We can much more easily do ministry separately. The youth have had a loud worship service in a mostly dark room for years. Adults may not enjoy it, but it does not directly affected them. (By the way, if you did not like the black walls, you need to check out the new "bright" color scheme in the Youth Center now.) The JOY group likewise has meetings which would be equally uncomfortable for many young adults. The challenge comes when we all try to come together - namely for a weekly worship service.

I believe there is a benefit to being a multi-generational church. I love interacting with men and women almost twice my age. I love and respect them and can learn much from their years of service to the Lord. I also am challenged when I work with Christians almost half of my age. They have a different and challenging perspective on issues of the faith, many of which I have taken for granted. We basically have 4 generations in our congregation, each of which are fairly evenly represented. Hannah Faith Jacobs was born this month and comes into the church to worship with her parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and numerous aunts and uncles.

The biggest challenge of the seminar was to realize how quickly the culture is changing. If you view the generations as floating circles, the circles are spreading further from each other. The generations used to be pretty similar, and there was a large common ground.
But with the increase of information and technology, the generations find themselves floating further apart with little or no overlap.

What does this mean for the church? One challenge we face is working with those who were raised in the church and are part of a new generation. While this is difficult, it is possible to "train up a child" to appreciate certain traditions and show respect for those who are older. However an increasingly large percentage of our population is completely unchurched - as much a 70% of our community. It is unrealistic to think that they will cross this generational gap in order to encounter the power of Christ.

Partly because of this dynamic, 92% of churches in North Carolina are declining or plateaued in attendance. Eddie Hammett told us that his research speculated that 60% of the churches could close in the next 20 years. Unless the church recognizes the challenge and determines to do something, the church in our culture will become like the churches in Europe - beautiful structures without a congregation within them.

Now I am not suggesting that we get louder or alienate the older generation in order to reach the young. I am advocating that we take hold of the challenge to reach the lost. I think we have a lot of work to do to improve our worship service. Some changes, I think you will like. Others, you may not. But understand that our future is dependent on how quickly we can respond to the changing conditions of our culture. I want to try in the next several months to make our service more worshipful to every generation. I am asking you to accept the challenge and be willing to do whatever it takes to reach those who do not know Christ, whatever their age.

With love and prayers,
Pastor Joey

Economic Virtues

God calls our faith to impact every corner of our lives. Yet some of our most stubborn attitudes to surrender to God are the attitudes toward money. God has clear direction for us, whether we are in an economic boom or bust. Though there are several specific directions in scripture, let me focus on three basic attitudes.

1) BE PRODUCTIVE　
God calls us as Christians to work hard. Even if we could somehow get by without it, we need to work. Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus:

"Serve wholeheartedly,
as if you were serving the Lord, not men."
Ephesians 6:7

Our work is part of our worship. As we surrender our lives to Christ, everything we do is to be done to bring glory to God. God needs doctors, farmers, educators, manufacturers, and most others jobs just as He needs pastors and missionaries. So each of us is to conduct our work as if our job was fulfilling God calling. Our work is also part of our witness. People see the attitude you bring to your work. Work in such a way that your employer sees your integrity and diligence and admires God’s work within you. It seems that much of the turmoil in certain sectors of our economy is the result of a loss of this culture of work. People have stopped working hard and expect wages and benefits because they showed up in the morning. If you run your own company, or work on commission, you have to work hard. I think God would want every Christian to work with this same level of intensity.

Let me balance this by encouraging you to set limits on the amount of time we spend at work. You should never allow your work to interfere with your relationship with God. He must be the highest priority in your life. You should also protect the time with your family. This is one of the primary responsibilities that parents have been assigned. We also need to make the time to stay healthy. Don’t let your work be an excuse to cut corners on any of these other responsibilities.
　

2) BE CONTENT
We do not need most of what we have and even less of what we want. In fact, we would probably be better off without some of what we have. The virtue of contentment is the state of trust that God knows what you need better than you do, and He is faithful to provide.
It is desiring all that you have, rather than having all you desire.

But godliness with contentment is great gain.
For we brought nothing into the world,
and we can take nothing out of it.
But if we have food and clothing,
we will be content with that.
1 Timothy 6:6-8

For the past several months, we have heard rumors that our country could enter another depression. Only God knows what is in store for us. There are those in our church who lived through the Great Depression. They survived the hardships and through this God developed this virtue of contentment. Most of these still do not have what the world would call wealth, but they have peace and joy that are the envy of the world.

"Do not waste any part of so precious a (dollar) merely in gratifying the desire of the eye by superfluous or expensive apparel, or by needless ornaments.
Waste no part of it in curiously adorning your houses;
in superfluous or expensive furniture; in costly pictures, painting, gilding, books;
in elegant rather than useful gardens."
- John Wesley

3) BE GENEROUS　
If we are not careful, being productive and thrifty will lead to us slowly becoming wealthy. While there is nothing wrong with being rich, if we are not careful, this could lead to far more dangers than being broke. Jesus told us to store up our treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). This is the safest place for our money. The act of generosity is the best way for us to store up this treasure where God desires us to invest it.

If anyone has material possessions
and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him,
how can the love of God be in him?
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue
but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:17-18

Let us start by committing that no one in our church family would lack food or clothes. From there, let us reach out to our community with these basics. Ultimately, let us do our part to share Christ’s love throughout the world. As God provides, let us pass on His resources to those in need.

With love and prayers,

Pastor Joey

Revealing Our Deepest Need

Our nation is in a severe crisis from which our very survival is at stake. I know we have faced financial crashes before and if this were the primary issue, experience tells us that we will eventually bounce back. For the past few weeks, I have watched experts and politicians scramble for answers as to what is to blame for the current crisis. Many culprits have been offered. Yet, it is clear that the root cause of each of the contributing factors boils down to a moral void - among consumers, business leaders, and politicians. Dishonesty, greed, selfishness, deception, and covetousness have become normal. We can attempt to fix it with trillions of dollars in stimulus programs, but the problem cannot be fully resolved until the moral environment has changed.

There is no political solution. While I believe it is our duty to vote, I do not put much hope that the answer will initially come from the political system. Most of our leaders do whatever we tell them we want, so they can get re-elected. Politicians will only reflect the desires and standards of the population. I doubt they could make any moral progress if they tried. If they were to attempt to push us where we do not want to go, they would be viewed as an intolerant and heavy-handed morality police.

As I have studied and preached on this crisis, I have become convinced that most, if not all of the problems we are currently facing can be traced to the moral poverty of our general population. This may be most evident in our public figures, but has also drained the energy out of the church. While the church should be the moral compass for our nation, we have become almost morally indistinguishable from the rest of our society.

The hope for change must come from the Church. More precisely, we must hope in the power of the Holy Spirit to work through the church. For several years, I have felt led to pray for revival and have challenged you to pray for revival. I am now beginning to question whether or not our nation can survive many more years without a revival of authentic biblical Christianity. This will certainly be quite different from revivals of past generations. But it must start with a fundamental change in the very character of those who claim to follow Christ. When this happens, two things will flow from such a change:

1. We will have a renewed passion to spread the gospel to those who have not experienced grace, both in our own community and throughout the world.
2. There will be an increase on our dedication and ability to live a holy life, thus producing an increasingly pure, moral and loving lifestyle.

As Christians, our ultimate desire is not that our nation would just become moral, or that it would simply prosper. Our yearning is that our people would experience the forgiveness and grace of knowing Jesus and have a destiny with Him in heaven. However, a genuine Christian life is accompanied with the spiritual power to live holy, loving, and moral lives which is required for a democratic nation to flourish. I plead with you to pray for our nation, for our president and "for all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." (1 Timothy 2:2 ) Pray diligently for the movement of God's Spirit upon us that would enable this to happen!

With love and prayers,
Pastor Joey

Back in the day when the West was being settled, one of the primary forms of travel was stagecoach. I was surprised to read that even though most stagecoaches could only seat about six people, you had a choice as to which kind of ticket you bought: either first-class, second-class, or third-class. Now the difference was not the size or comfort of your seat, nor the food they served on the way. Rather, it had to do with your responsibility if the stagecoach went through difficult terrain such as steep hills, if the coach got stuck in the mud, or if a wheel broke.

Those with a first-class ticket were allowed to stay in the coach without being troubled. There would obviously be a delay, but they could just sit back and let others take care of the problem.

Those with a second-class ticket were required to get out of the coach to make it easier on those working on the problem. They would either watch as the coach was pushed out of the mud, or walk up the hill alongside the carriage. They didn’t have to do anything, but they were not allowed to make the job more difficult.

But those with a third-class ticket were expected not only to get out of the coach, but work to get the coach going again. They would help the driver fix the wheel, push it out of the mud, or whatever else they were needed to do to keep the coach going.

Imagine a church with all first-class ticket holders. When they get stuck, everyone looks at each other to solve the problem. Even a bunch of polite second-class members would not be enough to make it through tough times. What we need are third-class workers. Men and women who are not only willing, but consider it their responsibility to help each other through the difficult terrains. This is exactly what Jesus taught his disciples as they approached the final and turbulent days of His life:

Matthew 20:25-28
Jesus called them together and said,
"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and their high officials exercise authority over them.
Not so with you.

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,
and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Jesus, though He is Almighty God, the omnipotent creator of all the universe, came to give His life as a ransom for each of us. The purpose of his time on earth did not include being served and pampered. Rather, Jesus came to serve. By living with this attitude he also served as an example to us of a humble servant's heart. He, who offered His body on the cross to pay for our sins, calls each of us who follow Him to offer our bodies as living sacrifices for His Kingdom.
Jesus' servant's heart not only paid our ransom, but showed us the way we ought to live. Let us roll up our sleeves and work together on this journey. For this is the only coach that can take our families and our community to eternal life!

With love and prayers,

Pastor Joey Jennings

It doesn't take an economist to discern that we have run into some financially hard times. The housing market has slowed down dramatically in the last year. While those in the construction business are especially hard hit, the effects have seemed to ripple through the economy. Yet I am still full of faith that God will provide and is working even through these struggles. He sometimes works in curious ways. Let me tell you about a season of even worse economic uncertainty and how God worked back then:

It was a time of political unrest and a civil war seemed imminent. The economy was struggling, banks were failing, railroads were declaring bankruptcy, factories were closing, and unemployment was increasing. In every outward appearance, circumstances looked hopeless. Many had become disillusioned with religion because preachers had repeatedly and falsely predicted the end of the world. There was a church in Manhattan that was steadily losing members. So they hired Jeremiah Lanphier to visit those who were left and reverse the trend.

The visitation program met with little success, so Lanphier decided to start a businessmen's prayer meeting. He set the meeting for noon on September 23, 1857 and advertised throughout the city, but only six people came. The following week there were fourteen, and then twenty-three. A few days after their first meeting, the Bank of Philadelphia failed. A few weeks later, the stock market crashed. Those who had been praying decided to meet everyday. As the economy in the city plummeted, there sprung up among the businessmen an awareness of their need for God. The lunchtime prayer meeting became an opportunity for these businessmen to touch something that was solid and eternal - Something that could never lose its value.

By winter, the prayer meetings were filling that Dutch Reformed Church. They started additional meetings at the Methodist Church on John Street, and then Trinity Episcopal Church on Broadway at Wall Street. By March of 1858, every church and public hall in downtown New York was filled every noon with men reaching out to God in prayer.

The New York Tribune sent a reporter out to the prayer meetings to see how many men were praying. In one hour he could get to only twelve meetings, but he counted 6,100 men attending. The momentum of prayer overflowed to the evenings. People egan to be converted, ten thousand a week in New York City alone. The movement hen spread throughout New England, with church bells bringing people to prayer ateight in the morning, twelve noon, and six in the evening. One church in Chicago, Trinity Episcopal Church, had a hundred and twenty-one members in 1857; three years later, they had fourteen hundred. It is estimated that out of a population of thirty million in the United States, more than a million people were converted in this revival of prayer.

The effect a poor economy has on us is no small matter. Even as Christians, some of us have lost our homes, others their jobs. Almost every family is cutting back where we can. But if a struggling economy can awaken our community and our nation to the reality and strength of God, and the fading quality of material possessions, perhaps they will turn to God as their unfailing anchor.

This is no time for us to be lukewarm. We, who have received eternal life, who know that only that which is unseen will last forever - need to be bold witnesses of the Truth to a world that is craving something authentic. When the houses built on the sand come crashing down, we can show them what it is to build your life on the solid Rock of Jesus Christ! Will you join me in praying for God to move in our community and throughout our nation? Join me in the Sanctuary early on Sunday mornings. Find a day when you can come to the prayer room during your lunch hour. Seek God to bring hope to those who are searching for answers!

With love and prayers,

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,

where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

where moth and rust do not destroy,

and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

A Parable

My brother called my parents to let them know that he would not be coming home for our family Thanksgiving dinner. He is becoming a vegetarian and decided that he did not want turkey being served at our meal. He has been uncomfortable at the past several family gatherings and has decided that he would not be coming. You can only imagine my parent’s disappointment. We’ve tried to tell him that it was important for our family to be together and that there are only a few times each year when we get together like this. The grandkids love getting together with their cousins. Our parents love having all of the gang together in their home. There is plenty of other delicacies for him will enjoy. But he insisted. "The turkey is the centerpiece of the meal and the meal is the centerpiece of the gathering. I would not enjoy it."

The problem, as I see it is that he has missed the essential purpose of the gathering. It is not about the food at all. It is about relationships and being thankful to God for the blessings we have received this year. It is narrow minded to pass up all this just because you don’t want to eat turkey. He probably could find some vegetarian friends to get together with for Thanksgiving, but if he is going to sacrifice relationships for his personal preferences, I imagine other preferences will hinder his relationships with anyone.

I share this fabricated crisis to illustrate what I have heard some people say about coming to church when they don’t think they will like the music. On one side, people complain that Southern Gospel is not their first preference of musical style. On the other hand, others poke fun at the newer songs which they feel are repetitive and overly emotional. The younger generation follows our leads and criticizes some of our hymns that we hold sacred. Occasionally I’ll hear an objection to the instrumentation, but most often the complaints are that they are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the songs themselves.

Sunday, one of our seniors was sharing with me that when Rev. C.C. McMasters came as our pastor (his ministry here began in 1936), he introduced the church to "all these new songs." This person, probably a teenager at this time, loved the new variety of songs. I wonder if some were not complaining then that they were singing all these songs that no one knew. I am thankful for the variety of ways we have to praise our Lord. I loved the Rally Day worship service with the Primitives and I love going down to worship with the youth on Wednesday evenings. Not because this is my favorite style of music, but because they are genuinely worshiping my Lord.

But back to my brother’s fictitious quandary: the turkey may have been an obvious aspect of the holiday. But there were more significant underlying reasons for us to gather together. It doesn’t matter what kind of music you have on your Ipod, or playing on your car radio, but pray that our worship gatherings will have the anointing of the Holy Spirit to change lives and bring us into the presence of Almighty God.

With love and prayers,
Pastor Joey

Let us not give up meeting together,

as some are in the habit of doing,

but let us encourage one another-

-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:25