To the angel of the church in Birmingham write...

This Sunday we are wrapping up our #sevenletters series with an 8^th letter – one to the church in Birmingham.  As a disclaimer, right from the start, I did not receive a revelation from God while in a cave in Clemson (Clemson fans usually don’t head into our caves until later in the football season).  What I’ve imagined is definitely not Scripture but as I’ve worked through these 7 letters this summer I have wrestled with what specifically Jesus might say to His church today and this Sunday’s message is my best sense of what that might be. 

It’s a message I’ve been working on for months now as God has been burdening my heart about His vision for Mountaintop this fall.   This may be the most important message I’ve shared with you since I arrived last November.  To help you prepare here’s what I imagine Jesus might write to His church at Mountaintop:

To the angel of the Church in Birmingham write:  These are the words of the Lord of the Banquet who satisfies those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  I know your deeds and your heart for those who have wandered away from Me.  You have opened a door and welcomed them home.  Yet I have this against you; you have grown complacent and there is still room.  Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town, to the roads and country lanes and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.  Compel them to come so that My house will be full.  All who respond to My invitation will come from east and west and north and south and sit with Me at the feast in the kingdom of God.  Whoever has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the church.

Sunday morning I will be unpacking what I am convinced this means for you and for me as we join in the new things God is doing all around us.  This is a Sunday you don’t want to miss.

Zapped!

I've been trying to share this video for weeks - finally figured out how (tech challenged).

This video is a great reminder of a zappedtastic, zapptabulous and zapperiffic week:




Thanks to everyone who helped make Zapped 2012 a place to love, laugh and learn!

Needed: 10 to 12 Talented Tailgaters

On Sunday morning August 26 Mountaintop is going to offer Tailgate Training.  Here’s our vision:  

We need Ten to Twelve Talented Tailgaters to come early that Sunday and set up a tailgate in the parking lot – just to show us how it’s supposed to be done.  

You won’t have to feed the entire church – we will provide hot dogs for everyone – but it’s your chance to show that you – and your school – knows how to tailgate better than anyone.  

As a Clemson alum I am used to exceptional tailgating and I don’t really imagine that either Auburn or Alabama fans (or Troy or UAB or any other school) can put together a tailgate that comes even close to what I grew up with outside of Death Valley – but this is your chance to prove me wrong.  

It’s also the chance to show that other school what real tailgating looks like.  And wouldn’t you hate it if there were more Orange than Crimson in the parking lot – or is it the other way around?

If you are up to the Taking on the Tailgate Challenge just email me and I will get you details Doug.Ferguson@mountaintopchurch.com

Top 25 Most Played

Programing Team this morning evolved – after we had the next couple of weeks updated in Planning Center – into a discussion of favorite songs.  It made me curious to check my iPhone list of my top 25 songs played.

I was a bit surprised – it’s quite a mix:

Boston – Augustana

Not Even the Trees – Hootie and the Blowfish

Speed of the Sound of Loneliness – Nanci Griffith

Apron Strings – Everything But the Girl

Something Beautiful – Needtobreathe

Fool With a Fancy Guitar – Andrew Peterson

Jar of Hearts – Christina Perri

The Boys of Summer – Don Henley

Painting Pictures of Egypt – Sara Groves

Angel At My Door – Needtobreathe

All This Beauty – The Weepies

The House That Built Me – Miranda Lambert

Many Roads – Andrew Peterson

Shake It Up! – Jenna Kuykendall

Against All Odds – Phil Collins

Oxygen – Colbie Cailat

I Was Made for Sunny Days – The Weepies

Magnolia – Ellie Holcomb

Come Back Song – Darius Rucker

To Do What I Do – Alan Jackson

Able – Needtobreathe

As She’s Walking Away – Zac Brown Band

And Can It Be – Becki Ryan

Middle Ground – Mary Chapin Carpenter

All Good Things – The Weepies

I’m not sure if this reveals anything about me – or my playlists but it makes me curious what are the most played songs on your playlists?

First World Pain

Back in January I stared working out at a gym – with a trainer – seriously working out.  It was a combination of recognizing that I had fallen into very bad habits, wanting to start a new call with better patterns and hoping to be in better shape (than I was) when I turn 50 – which is just a little over a month away.

I think I am making progress – but it’s not been easy.  My 49 years and 11 months old body is constantly finding new places to ache.  I am learning to embrace phrases such as “pain is just weakness leaving your body” and the classic “no pain, no gain.”  I am also learning the joy of Epson salt baths and icepacks.

Recently I cleverly decided that my gym verse should be:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Romans 8: 18

My paraphrase:  This present suffering at the gym (of trying to do three more reps – every notice how it’s always just three more reps) isn’t worth comparing to the glory of my new and improved, physically fit body.

I thought I was very clever – until, as I was finishing up my message for week 2 of #sevenletters #Smyrna, I was reminded of the intensity of the sort of suffering the Bible is talking about. 

The church in Smyrna knew a lot more about pain and suffering than I suspect (and hope) I will ever know.   The details of the Roman persecutions are just gruesome.  Because the Christians in Smyrna – and throughout the Roman Empire – refused to declare, “Caesar is Lord” and boldly affirmed that “Jesus is Lord”– their bodies were torn apart on racks. Their fingernails were pulled off. They were hung by their thumbs, sometimes for days. They were wrapped in animal skins and thrown out for bulls to gore and to pitch around. They were covered with tar and set alight in the gardens to light parties and burned at stakes.  Lord, forgive me for even considering my “present sufferings” in the same thought as what the church in Smyrna – and so many throughout the centuries have faced.  

There’s a twitter feed a love @FirstWorldPains – the suffering I face is clearly a “first world pain” – I need to remember that.

The evangelist Leighton Ford once commented that Christians today – perhaps especially in North America – are more fearful of a raised eyebrow than a raised sword.  The church in Smyrna faced raised swords – and we too often forget so do churches around the world today.

Last Sunday – as we were safely in our churches worshipping and in many cases far too lightly celebrating our nation’s Independence Day and our religious freedom – a very different story was taking place in Kenya.   Last Sunday at least 17 Christians were killed in simultaneous attacks on two churches near the Somali border. A group of masked assailants launched grenades and opened fire with assault rifles on a Roman Catholic Church and an African Inland Church located about two miles apart in Garissa, Kenya. In addition to the 17 killed, more than 40 people were wounded in the attacks.

I have friends in Kenya.  I’ve traveled there to visit and work with their churches.  I’ve sent my youngest daughter there to share in that same work. 

Pray for the church in Kenya.  Pray for the persecuted church around the world (and here’s a great link to learn more:  Voices of Martyrs).  Pray that we never compare our “first world pains” with what so many are facing today.  And pray that we can learn from the church in Smyrna and so many others how even in the face of suffering and persecution – love remains faithful.

a Tigger having an Eeyore afternoon

I posted most of this a little over a year ago – but I’ve had an Eeyore sort of afternoon that led me to revisit the thoughts – with a few additional comments.

If you know Winnie the Pooh then you likely know the difference between Eeyore and Tigger.  Eeyore is pessimistic, depressed, and deflated. He has no self confidence and doesn’t think he does anything right. Tigger is energetic, joyful, enthusiastic, and positive.  For Tigger every day is a new adventure filled with promise, potential, possibility and fun!

Eeyore’s favorite book of the Bible is Lamentations:

People have heard my groaning, 
   

but there is no one to comfort me.

Lamentations 1: 21

Tigger loves passages like those in Psalm 66:

Shout for joy to God, all the earth! 
 

Sing the glory of His name; 
   

make His praise glorious.

Come and see what God has done, 
   

His awesome deeds for mankind!

Psalm 66: 1, 2 and 5

Tigger even has his own song:

A wonderful thing is a Tigger;

A Tigger's a wonderful thing.

Their tops are made out of rubber,

their bottoms are made out of spring

They're bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy,

fun, fun, fun, fun, fun,

The most wonderful thing

about Tiggers is:

I'm the only one!

Most of the time I am a Tigger (though certainly not the only one) in fact my persistent Tiggerness can be annoying (or so I’m told) especially when I over-Tigger around perceived Eeyores.

This afternoon – after a frustrating lunch workout Session (the squat machine owns me) I found myself in a terrible mood -  I became an Eeyore and it lasted all afternoon – in fact tonight’s rain is finally improving the mood a bit.  This is an atypical feeling for a natural Tigger.

When I first posted this I asked people if they were Tiggers or Eeyores but the question on my mind tonight is this:  When a Tigger dips into an Eeyore mood what should they do to get out of it?

PS – to face what the church in Smyrna faced and remain faithful there must have been a lot of Tigger in them – there’s the sevenletters connection!  

anything for a good cause

You’ve probably heard the phrase:

“Anything for a good cause…”

Well here’s a good cause:  Getting Off the Mountain to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

And here’s the “anything:”  A 5K Mission Run (or walk or crawl or some combination of all 3).

The 5K will take place on July 14 in Helena (starting at the Helena Middle School). This is our first Mission 5K Run/Walk to help raise support for our worldwide Off the Mountain mission efforts.

I don’t like running – that probably doesn’t express how much I don’t like running – I REALLY don’t like running… but anything for a good cause, right?

So I’ve signed up to run, walk and maybe crawl 5K to raise support for to help us Get Off the Mountain.  You can join us. Just go to Mission 5K  or visit the Compassion Desk at Mountaintop on Sunday.  Everyone who registers gets a cool T-Shirt and the joy of helping support our mission efforts.

AND here’s an added benefit – I will provide free ice cream for everyone who registers AND finishes the 5K before I do (and that should be everyone – you could run in cowboy boots and beat me).

I know it’s hot and you may not like running any more than I do – but I promise it will be fun and after all it’s for a good cause.