In Christ Alone

2010-02-05T20:59:00.002-05:00

This past week we sang the hymn Before the Throne in corporate worship and you guys knocked it out of the park. The voices of God’s people singing such great theology to God and one another by memory was beautiful. Thanks for taking this exercise so seriously.

This month we’re gonna memorize In Christ Alone by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend. I wish more current singer/songwriters would write songs of such depth and beauty. I’ve talked to folks who assume that this is a hymn written hundreds of years ago, but it was written in 2002. The reason it has that feel is that the songwriters wanted to create a “modern hymn”. Another one of Townsend’s songs we sing, that has that same feel and teaching depth, is How Deep the Father's Love for Us.

Stuart Townsend was the youngest of 4 kids and raised in West Yorkshire, England. His dad was a vicar in the Church of England. He desires to write songs that capture biblical truth in ways that prompt believers to worship in singing, but even more be built up in their living for Jesus. Getty, an Irish composer, shares that same passion for songwriting.

In 2002 with a melody in Townsend’s head, he and Getty, they started writing and in their words, “the theme of the life, death, resurrection of Christ, and the implications of that for us just began to tumble out”.

Townsend’s commitment to singing theology are reflected in this statement, “I think content is vitally important to our corporate worship, sometimes great melodies are let down by indifferent or clichéd words. It’s the writer’s job to dig deep into the meaning of Scripture and express in poetic and memorable ways the truth he or she finds there. Knowing the truth about God and who we are in Him is central to our lives as believers. Songs remain in the mind in a way sermons do not, so songwriters have an important role and a huge responsibility.”

Sounds like our kind of guy.

Sean, has prepared an mp3 for you to download and serve you as you memorize this classic: In Christ Alone

Here are the lyrics and they speak for themselves:

In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! who took on flesh
Fulness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

Disaster Relief for Haiti

2010-01-14T16:22:00.003-05:00

Hey guys. I’m posting to let you know how we can partner with some relief organizations to serve Haiti. Crew’s setting up a relief fund that we’ll distribute across 3 streams (Compassion International, Worldvision, and Samaritan's Purse). On Sunday, we’ll be collecting funds that Crew will match and send in the name of Christ. Pray about how much of our obscene wealth Jesus would have us give away to show His love to Haiti.

Video from Churcheshelpingchurches.org:

Next Coaching Network Month 3

2010-01-07T16:54:00.001-05:00

I’m Minneapolis for month 3 of 6 with the EFCA. They’ve given me and 10 other pastors the opportunity to sit with some great leaders in order to evaluate where our churches are and how to effectively lead them into the future. A more exhaustive look can be found here, here,here, here, & here.

Alright, this session is called Breaking Growth Barriers. And it’s going to be long. So come back when you have time. I’ve tried to break it up under headers for easier reading in one sitting. Also, you can take it bite sized chunks. Now, I know, trust me I know, this topic can be controversial. I don’t want to go there in this blog. Feel free to push back in the comments and ask questions. I’d love to talk through this with ya’ll. But I’m going to resist to go into all of the nuances here. Instead, I’ll take on the role of reporter and simply summarize the discussion we’re having for you to follow. Fair?

A Foundational Assumption of the Session

The leaders of the session and the training is working on the assumption that healthy churches grow numerically. There are periods of plateau and decline, but the trend should be numerical growth.

Growth Barriers

With the evaluation of church history and of the experience of many church leaders has emerged this term called “growth barriers”. These are places, things, or season where churches get “stuck” or “stalled” in their numerical growth. These barriers can be anything from lack of effective systems, leadership, sin, meeting space, culture shift, and/or inward focus. The most common barrier is 200 people.

I personally have been aware of this term and way of thinking for a decade now. I’ve had tons of questions and dialogue with folks on both sides whether or not this is valid, biblical, or helpful. So, rest assured that I’ve thought deeply on this and continue to think about “growth barriers.” This isn’t new revelation, but I share this with you in order to get you informed.

Next, we’ll address thoughts/tools that “experienced leaders”, who have broken through barriers, have discovered are helpful and useful to pass on those who come to the barriers.

Change Your Focus

Ed Stetzer, a missiologist, who I greatly respect, says that churches that break through growth barriers focused on two groups: leaders and folks who don’t know Jesus. In regards to leadership, if the growth barrier will be overcome, the leadership will either change or be replaced. So, focus your time, energy, and resources on developing godly leaders and reaching unbelievers with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Less time needs to go toward maintaining status quo.

Release Members

This brings with it the idea that every member needs to be engaged in the work of the ministry. Not just paid staff, not just visible leaders, but everyone. This is deeply rooted biblically. Eph 4 is a slam dunk teaching on this. Many leaders, don’t trust the membership do the ministry and put to much on a select few to do everything.

Hire Additional Staff

Crew is 150. The average size of the American church is 100 folks. Why? This seems to be the number of people one pastor can reasonably lead. Therefore a single staffed church is a bottleneck to growth. Now, obviously, the tension is that most churches of 100 can’t paid two dudes. A healthy rule of thumb is that 50% of the church’s budget should be invested in staff. I don’t know who’s rule or who’s thumb but that’s out there. Crew is just under that 50%. Crew invest about $4k into staff with a budget of a little over $8k.

Again, let me emphasize, there is debate over such things, but the materials and coaches here counsel that a church must take a plunge and hire staff rather than wait until you grow to need it. In their words, “You will never be able to afford additional staff for growth”. But you still staff for growth, not staff when there’s growth. The theory is that bringing on that staff will grow the number of the church that will increase the $$ and then pay for the staff. I think I just felt some of you shudder. Another option is to raise the money for the staff salary above and beyond your budget through saving or a campaign.

Begin Multiple Worship Services

Not sure this applies to Crew and our massive space right now. The corporate worship gathering is the front door for many folks into the church community. So, the space in which corporate worship happens can hinder growth.

A church should consider doing an additional worship service when the following things are 80% full: (1) seating capacity, (2) parking space, (3) kids space. If that’s happening then start another gathering. Also, this should follow hiring additional staff. And both service should have at least 100 in each of them. A great benefit to your current members who serve in kid’s ministry will be that they can serve the church and never miss worship. They can serve in one service and worship in the other.

Manage the Room

Now we’re really going to jack some of you out. This is the layout of the gathering space. I told you this is a pragmatic session. So relax. This greatly affects the “mood” or “vibe” of the room. Here are the tips:

Set up fewer chairs than you need. You want it to feel full regardless of size. This also can build morale and excitement when you add chairs.
Curved rows with plenty of space between. This adds warmth and avoids a feeling of institutionalization. It also allows space to move. You don’t want folks squeeze and bump into one another.

Walk through the Facility

Over time, members will become accustomed to negatives about the space. We don’t even notice, the smell, the burned out lights, and the dirty carpet. Newbies will notice and it can communicate poor values.

Pay Attention to the Kid’s Ministry

Families will struggle being a part of a church that doesn’t value their kids. Parents and kids want a worship environment and community that kids want to participate in, equips parents/kids to grow, and are safe. If you reach kids, you reach parents. It’s a exponential investment into people.

Well, there you go. That’s what’s been going on here. We’ll continue to pray, talk through, and plan with this information in front of us. Feel free to comment and give a take. I’d love to know.

Time to Hymn Again

2010-01-06T16:39:00.001-05:00

Well, we’re entering month 3 of our blatant knock off of the idea of memorizing hymns as a church. You can get caught up here as to why we’re doing this.

This month we’ve come to one of my favorite songs we sing in worship at Crew and probably the one that I get the most comments of God bringing folks to tears, for what that’s worth. It’s Before the Throne by Charitie Lee Smith, later to become Charitie Lee Bancroft. She got married. Good for her.

First a bit about the author. Smith was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1841. She was a pastor’s kid. She wrote this hymn, her only well known one, at age 22. Other than her dad, this song, and who she married, not much is known about her. How encouraging to know that cultural unknowns can have such a legacy in the gospel. By the way songwriters so you can you. We need you to write music of depth and glory. We want to use the local gifts and the talent that God has given to our body. Write stuff that moves our affections for Christ for us, will you?

Now, the song itself. The song was originally titled “The Advocate” because of it’s teaching on the doctrine of Christ’s role as the believers advocate. We see :

Verse First

Christ at the right hand of the throne of his father praying and pleading and interceding for those he died for.
He is our priest and our advocate before God.
He knows us intimately and deeply
But our sin cannot accuse us. Through his blood we have bold confidence to approach God with our prayers and praise. He will never tell us to get out.

Verse Second

Satan, the accuser, has no power with our advocate, nor should he with us.
Guilt and despair in the inner part of our being are attacked not with shallow self esteem, but a right view of our sinfulness and the forgiveness that is offered through the satisfying (propitiating) death of Christ for us.
We are pardoned.

Verse Third

Look on Christ, who has conquered death and sin through the gospel
He never stops forgiving, he’s unchanging and eternal
Our identity and destiny is tied to Christ through faith in what he has done. To reject us is to reject himself.

Great song. The tune to which we sing it was added in 1997 by Vikki Cook. Sean’s going to load a demo for you to download, listen to, and memorize this month. Buy in with us. Great theology like this needs to be sung to ourselves constantly.

Before the Throne

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea,
A great High Priest whose name is love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart;
I know that while in heav’n He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart,
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free,
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me,
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there! the risen Lamb,
My perfect, spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of Glory and of Grace.
One with Himself I cannot die;
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God,
With Christ my Savior and my God.

Text: Charitie Lees Bancroft, 1863
Tune: Vikki Cook, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Sovereign Grace Worship

Two-Year Bible Reading Plan

2009-12-28T06:49:00.011-05:00

Several years ago I came up with a two-year Bible reading plan. There are two reasons I did this. First, I always seemed to drop the ball on the one year plans, usually around Deuteronomy. A two-year plan is more manageable for me in my busyness, because I have smaller daily readings. Second, because a two-year allows me to read through the Bible a little more slowly, it also allows me more time to meditate and reflect on what I'm reading rather than rushing to get my chapters done.

The plan basically, with a few exceptions, has you read two Old Testament chapters a day for the first year and about three months; the final 9 months or so have you read one New Testament chapter a day. There are also some make-up days built into the last part of December. I thought I'd share this with the Crew family, in case anyone else finds it helpful. Go here to download the whole TWO-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN. Print it off and keep it with you in your Bible.

Whether it's this plan or another, I hope we all commit to regularly reading through the Word. Reading through the whole Bible gives us a "big picture" view of God's message to us. Especially in light of Josh's message Sunday, I encourage you to look for how God unfolds His plan to redeem fallen mankind through the Savior Jesus Christ. This is the main storyline of the Bible, and if you look for it you'll see it everywhere. Whether it's through God's slaughtering of an animal to cover Adam and Eve's shame, or Abraham's willingness to not spare His own Son, or the Messianic Psalms, or prophecies of men like Isaiah (see chapter 53)-- the whole book is this: God saving undeserving people by sending His Son to die in their place. May we all be caused to worship the Savior with greater fervor as we read through the Scriptures!

-phil

Post Xmas Blues and Teaching Moment

2009-12-26T10:00:00.001-05:00

Feeling sad after the big day? Good. That’s a teachable moment for you and your kids.

Are We Enjoying Christmas Rightly?

2009-12-24T09:44:00.001-05:00

C.J. Mahaney reminds us that we must be disturbed before we're delighted by Christmas.

Getting Together with Family This Week

2009-12-21T09:27:00.001-05:00

I needed this article by a fella named Russell Moore today and unless I miss my guess, you do too. Sarah and I are going to be reading his book Adopted for Life.

Tacky Christmas Sweater Sunday

2009-12-18T14:01:00.000-05:00

Tis the Season to pull out your tacky Christmas sweaters and come to Crew! This Sunday, December 20, is going to be the 2nd Annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Sunday. Go to Goodwill, your grandma's closest, or make your own, but come to Crew donned in festive apparel!

Oh, and pass the word!

The Beatles: A 1000 Years Later

2009-12-09T09:13:00.001-05:00

(HT: TwentyTwoWords)

Having Folks Over?

2009-12-08T09:16:00.001-05:00

Great blog on doing hospitality. Hope it helps.

(HT: Challies Dot Com)

The Song We’ll Own in December

2009-12-03T13:48:00.001-05:00

Last month we started memorizing songs as a church. You can look at the previous post, Crew will be memorizing hymns, for the reason we want to do this.

Before I introduce this months song, I want to thank Sean, our song guy, and ya’ll for your full participation. Sean, you served us well in explaining and leading us each week through memorizing the song. Crew, you have served your leadership well by taking this seriously and passionately singing to Jesus in gathered worship. I had tears in my eyes as we sang, by memory, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross with you this past week.

Ok, this month being Christmas, we decided to a Christmas song. Some of the best theology set to music are in Christmas hymns. But Sean and I decided that the best one out there was, Hark the Herald Angels Sing by Charles Wesley.

First, let me give you the skinny on who wrote it? It was a fella named Charles Wesley, who was a leader in founding the Methodist movement with his brother, John Wesley, and close friend George Whitefield. He wrote over 6500 songs to serve what was taught in churches and published over 50 hymnals. Once again, Mars Hill Church has served us well with their gift for technology:

Although, Charles Wesley is the author, it has been altered a few times before making it to the version we have it today.

First, Wesley published it as a Hymn for Christmas Day with 10 four line verses.

Second, Wesley’s close friend, George Whitefield, a Calvinist, dropped the last several verses and changed Wesley’s “Glory to the King of Kings” to “Glory to the Newborn King” in order to focus the attention more on Christ and eliminate what he saw as less accurate theology. Wesley was a little peeved at Whitfield doing this and refused to sing his version, although Whitfield’s was more popular.

Third, while Wesley wanted a slow solemn tune to accompany the lyrics, it was not to be. An organist named W.H. Cummings adapted from a Felix Mendelssohn cantata celebrating the invention of the printing press.

While the Wesley/Whitefield disagreement may be instructive and the Mendelssohn tune may be interesting. The reason we chose it are the lyrics, which are essential. (We chose Whitefield’s version)

I mean look at the theology in this song:

Christ centered
Reconciliation of God and man
Jesus’ virgin birth
Hypostatic Union (Full Deity/Full Humanity of Christ)
Kenosis (Christ emptying himself)
Immortality of the soul
Resurrection of the dead
New birth
The protoevangelium (The first preaching of the gospel in Gen. 3:15)

So, buy in again. The payoff of having this type of theology to a compelling tune in our head is worth it.

He’s Here—Jesus Storybook Bible

2009-12-02T10:57:00.001-05:00

I’ve mentioned before on this blog how much our family loves the Jesus Storybook Bible. They are currently putting some of the stories to video. One of their first is perfect for this time of year: He’s Here. Enjoy watching it, especially with the kids as Christmas gets closer.

(HT: Take Your Vitamin Z)

Resource For Sharing Your Faith in Jesus

2009-11-23T09:23:00.002-05:00

We just finished a series on sharing our faith at Crew. Still hearing stories from what God is doing through that. In fact, over the last 12 hours, Crew baptized a fella, I was able to share the gospel at Starbucks this morning through the telling of my story, and I got an email from a Crew regular who has been engaging a close friend with the gospel. Fun stuff.

Anyway, a very common part of the dialogue is the articulation of well thought out and respectful doubts about Christianity. Good honest reflective questions about our faith. Why is there only one way to God? Why is their suffering in the world. Etc?

So, for those of you who have an intellectual style, this is right up your alley. But all of us need to be able to engage in these types of discussion. There is a great resource out there by Tim Keller called The Reason for God.

I won’t go on and on. Just click the link and discover who Keller is and what the book’s about. Then buy it.

Jeremy Walz Baptism, November 22, 2009:

Tools to Gain Perspective

2009-11-05T15:52:00.001-05:00

In the afternoon session we talked about using a handful of tools that would help us gain perspective when planning strategy for our churches.

Here are 3 of them:

1. Turning Points

The leaders shoot out the God moments
Tell the story of the church or ministry
Put it up on a big stick it note and see it as a timeline
Don’t rush it, let it take time
What you’re doing is gaining perspective and where you’ve been together
This lasts about 2 hours

2. Four Helpful Lists

Four Questions to See Where We Think We Are

What’s Right?
What’s Wrong?
What’s Confusing?
What’s Missing?

You’re attracted to the What’s Wrong first, but don’t go there
Don’t try and fix or defend. We’re just dreaming
The beauty of all of this is that everyone sees it together
Do this for kids vols meeting

3. Opportunity Mapping

Allows us to celebrate the present and dream about the future
Four Questions
- Sensing: What do we sense God is calling us to do?
- Seizing: What opportunities are begging to take?
- Building: Which opportunities are normal part of our church?
- Reaping: Which opportunities are gaining wins?
Churches that are plateaued or declining don’t have much in the sensing

Session 2: Good to Great Debrief

2009-11-05T12:00:00.001-05:00

One of the disciplines/homework for each of the participants in the training the EFCA is providing for me is to read a book a month to be discussing at this meeting. This past month it was the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. It falls into the genre of buisness, but can be applied, at some level, to any organization.

The book is the unveiling of a study that was done by a well degreed, insightful research team that asked a question. What are the common denominators, if any, of every company that turned from being a good company to a great company. They define the terms of good and great.

I don’t want to do a book review here, but I do want to share some of the takeaways that impacted the way we do leadership, systems, evaluation, team building, technology, and decisions.

1. Level 5 Leadership: This was one of the first common denominators discovered. The team discovered that every CEO of the good to great companies had leaders who were extremely humble but had intense personal will. They were extremely concerned that the mission succeed and were willing to do whatever it took to make that happen. However, they cared none that they get credit or that they get applause and accolades. This is how God defines greatness, regardless of the results of the organizations we lead. So “ level 5 leadership” needs be an aspiration of mine even if Collins had shown that it kept us from being great in the eyes of his study or others (Luke 24:24-27). It’s nice to see they discovered as true what God had already promised (James 4:6-10).

2. Create a Culture of Discipline, Not a Bureaucracy. Page 121 describes exactly where we’ve been and where we are. It describes what can happen when systems and policies are put in place so that organization results, but it snuffs out creativity and enables incompetency. This page alone may have saved our future from being described as bureaucratic oversight. Crew recently brought in a disciplined, executive minded leader, Tim Holmes, to bring order from chaos. Chapter 6 vividly woke us up to the need for less systems (though systems are badly needed), but the real need is for disciplined people with discipline thought who make disciplined decisions. Crew needs to be developing leaders that lead, not implement what other leaders tell them to do.

3. Stop Doing List. Not only should leaders have a list of things to be doing, but they should also regularly evaluate what they need to stop doing. This task is helpful across every ministry team. But we’ll be specifically thinking this way as we go into our budget planning this month. We structure our budget across our ministry priorities (i.e. Evangelism, Community, Training, Equipping, and Multiplying). This is helpful in that keeps us on mission to develop disciples. But we’ve not been disciplined in making sure that every program, process, and ministry fits our mission. We’ve faked ourselves out because we were able to put each program somewhere in those 5 priorities.

4. Long Obedience in the Same Direction (The Flywheel Chapter). This chapter talks about how when you push a flywheel at the start it’s hard and it moves in small increments. But by continue to push regularly the momentum builds so that it takes less effort and makes larger gains as you go. This was one of the most encouraging and empowering points in the book for me. Two reasons I say this. First, it makes every single task important. There are no little decisions. There is no reason to get sloppy with the tiniest choice. Second, it builds confidence. It would be easy to get overwhelmed with the thought of becoming what we dream of becoming as the church. But this gives me confidence that if we keep making the right choice little by little in seemingly insignificant decisions, that one day we’ll look up and see significant strides.

5. Balance Between Right People & Training. This may not qualify as a takeaway. But I see it as one because it’s a question I struggled with. It has to do with looking for the right people (discipline people with disciplined thought making disciplined decisions) to put in the right place on the team. What is the balance between saying this person is not disciplined in character, thought, and action so they cant’ be in a leadership position on the one hand. But on the other hand, let’s train, challenge, and equip this person to become a disciplined person.

Thanks for allowing me to learn by sharing this with ya’ll. Any thoughts? Questions?

Hymn Help

2009-11-03T12:08:00.001-05:00

Hey guys. We kicked off our hymn project this past Sunday. Sean Knisely, Crew’s song guy, decided to record this month’s hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross to help us memorize it. You can download it here.

The Story of When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

2009-10-29T14:22:00.001-04:00

In 1707, Isaac Watts wrote what many consider to be one of the greatest hymns of all time: “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”. It was written for his church to sing during communion under the title, “Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ”.

It stirred a great amount of controversy (nothing new) because it was written in the first person as a personal experience rather than simply singing doctrine. Watts wanted music that would give the church a way to express personal devotion to God instead of exclusively singing the Psalms and other Scripture set to music.

Although 5 verses were written, it was eventually reduced to only 4 being sung. Watts placed the abandoned fourth stanza in brackets indicating that it could be left out. It reads:

"His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o'er His body on the tree:
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me."

As the title indicates and the context prescribes, it is to be sung with communion in order to look upon the cross of Christ. It is a song of contrast:

The prince of glory dying on a cross
The greatest gain being counted as loss
Love and sorrow mingling in Christ’s blood

A weakness in the song would be that it doesn’t mention what the cross of Christ actually accomplished. The vindication of God’s glory and the salvation of believing sinners. This is clearly not a blight on Watts, as his songs are extremely salvific. However, we’ll be careful to place songs in our set that allow us to survey the cross as well as it’s results for us.

Isaac Watts Bio

2009-10-29T13:59:00.001-04:00

The writer of the hymn Crew is memorizing this month (When I Survey The Wondrous Cross) and likely the one we’ll memorize next month (Joy to the World) was written by Isaac Watts. He is regarded as one of, if not the, greatest hymn writer of all time. In order to deepen even further our appreciation of what we sing I thought it would serve us well to get a brief look at the man behind the story.

Mars Hill Church created a short well done video of his life:

Some other resources for Isaac Watts Music are:

A modern album of all Isaac Watts hymns: Sojourn Music
The Preface to Hymns and Spiritual Songs, his hymn book published in 1707
The Psalms. He wrote a hymn for all 150 Psalms in the Scripture. It is amazing how he maintains integrity to the Scriptures while using vivid and compelling poetic language of his own.

Crew Will Be Memorizing Hymns

2009-10-29T13:20:00.001-04:00

Recently, I discovered that Covenant Life Church started memorizing hymns as a church on Sunday mornings. The reasons they give are:

Memorizing hymns is one of the ways we can obey Scripture’s command to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:16)

We’re doing this project because we want to benefit not only from the songs written in our lifetime, but also from hymns that have served the people of God for generations and will endure long after we’re gone. They are time-tested and true. They speak to every circumstance of life and point us to the wisdom, love and power of our gracious God and Savior.

This completely fits with our philosophy of corporate worship. One of the surprising things that folks discover when worshipping with Crew is our commitment to Christ’s work throughout church history. We intentionally use ancient songs that add depth of theology and style to our time together. We badly want to be connected to our past even as we add our present contribution to the body of Christ.

So starting this Sunday morning we’ll be adopting this project for ourselves at Crew. The hymn we’ve chosen for November is When I Survey The Wondrous Cross by Isaac Watts. To make this project most meaningful and Christ centered, here are a few things to serve you in this project:

We’ll be singing the hymn for that particular month on each Sunday in November. On the last Sunday of the month (Nov.29), we’ll sing the hymn completely by memory, without projecting them on our screen.
We’ll post the story behind the song as a blog post in order to give us a fuller appreciation of the context in which it was written and the greatness of God that it points to.
Sean will be creating an audio file of the song that we’ll make available for you to download in order to facilitate memorization through the week.

Enjoy.

Should Crew Preach A Sermon Series on Converting People To Christ?

2009-10-22T12:06:00.001-04:00

John Piper answers the question well. Check it.

Community Wins

2009-10-17T17:34:00.002-04:00

I want to take this opportunity to tell you all about some of the good things that have been happening recently as a result of the community being developed in our small groups. When Clay Holmes had surgery Greg Lucas dropped by and spent significant time with the family in the hospital. Brian and Sunny Patton also dropped by to love on them as well. This activity is real ministry that anyone can do, but few do. We appreciate Greg and the Pattons taking time to love on the Holmes family. These are all members of the same small group. It is great to see real community in action.

Another example is that when Anna Keffer lost her grandfather several members of her small group made the drive to the Ironton to spend some time loving on her during the funeral home visitation.

It is great to hear about these types of ministry being performed by members of our small groups. I look forward to relaying more of these type of stories to you in the future.

A Christmas Album Like No Other

2009-10-13T11:48:00.001-04:00

Christmas has officially started. Dig it.

Crew Small Group Micromission in the News

2009-10-10T21:38:00.003-04:00

Cleaning Graffiti: Church Group Spends Saturday Scrubbing City's Eyesores

Reported by: Bryant Somerville
Reported: Oct. 10, 2009 5:01 PM EST

Eyewitness News Photo

"It's part of micro-missions for our church," Jonathan White said. "We really want to reach out to this city."

"We just really love our city and want it to look as best as it can," Lauren White said.

The old saying is "every little bit helps," and if you add that with a bucket full of cleaning supplies and a little bit of good old fashioned elbow grease, you get what members of the Crew Community Church are calling a solution to Huntington's black eye, also known as graffiti.

Tim Bailey doesn't mind getting up on Saturday, working and righting the wrongs of someone elses mistake. He doesn't even mind not getting payment, because for him it's about the payoff.

"Doing this, making Huntington look better, helping Huntington be a more inviting place benefits everyone," Bailey said. "I don't care to give my time to benefit the city."

White feels the same way, and he and his wife, Lauren, believe if you want to see change in your community...do it yourself.

"That's been an attitude I've seen since I've been here," he said. "Let somebody else do it...we don't feel like we're responsible for it. Christ didn't do a thing...He died for us."

"If every person does their little part, it's a lot easier than to depend on 10-20 people for the entire city," Lauren said. "If everybody did their part, it'd look really nice."

Doing their part, following in the steps of their Savior, forgive the sin and the sinner...and wash it away.

VIEW THE FULL STORY ON WCHS-TV 8

SO... What can your small group do as a micromission? E-mail info@crewcommunity.org if you have an idea and want to take advantage of the monthly $250 funds set aside for the Micromission ministry. Talk to one of our leaders for more details.

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