FBC Waco

I just wanted y'all to have my new FBC Waco contact information:
254-752-3000
http://www.fbcwaco.org/
msnowden@fbcwaco.org

New

I love this time of year.  Baseball overlaps football. The leaves on the trees start to get cranky. Yellow school buses fill the morning and afternoon streets.  I saw a few of them on the way to the office this morning.  I thought of Eleanor and bus 493. They were both something!

Late August always gives me butterflies.  Ever years it makes me think back on the twelve "first days" I had as a public school student in Meridian, Mississippi. Those new days still stick with me. The first day of something new is filled with excitement, hope, and fear. What a gift. 

We serve the God of new things.  He is working his good pleasure in all of our lives and we need to celebrate it.  New seasons are still occasions for hope, excitement, and a dose of healthy fear.Well maybe not fear but at the very least some focused sobriety.

Here's my challenge for you today.  Get a few #2 Ticonderoga pencils and sharpen them yourself. Breath in a good smell of the tip. Find some wide ruled loose leaf paper. You may have to buy some or borrow it from a kid. Write out a prayer of gratitude for the new things God is doing in your life. You may need to ask him to show you the way.

"So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new" 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NRSV).

Mavis' Trump Card

I preached at First Baptist Church Waco, Texas this past Sunday. Those wonderful people took a vote and asked me to be their pastor. We were humbled to tears and are excited about serving God with them.

We are also grateful for the prayers of our friends in Meridian, MS. The gracious spirit of our church family is a testimony to their unshakable faith in Jesus. Their encouragement was bread for our journey and I'll always be grateful.  I also took courage from a strange place as I approached our weekend in Texas. I said a prayer of gratitude this morning for Mavis Staples, Wilco, and Lollapalooza. Let me explain.

We spent the first night of our trip in Bossier City, Louisiana. We hunkered down in a budget motel just off the interstate.  One of the perks of our stay was a free USA Today.  They ran a great article about Mavis Staples, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and Lollapalooza. I've always loved Sister Mavis and Wilco is incredible. I keep up with them trough Mr. Tony Sansone. Mr. Tony is a member of FBC Meridian and one of my favorite people. His son Patrick is in the band and Mr. Tony is proud.

Mavis and Jeff Tweedy have started working together and that opened a door for her to play the big show in Chicago.  She's not the normal fare and was a bit concerned about what to wear and how to act. Mavis leaned on a lesson from her father Pops. He would say, "You're singing God's music. You be sincere. What comes from the heart reaches the heart." She reflected, "So whatever audience it is, that's my trump card." Great advice!

Every congregation has a voice. Let's sing God's songs from the heart. It's the only hope we have of touching the hearts of others.

Where is your church?

I normally have a few books going. I just finished two that dealt with some important aspects of missional Christianity. Stetzer and Rainer’s, Transformational Church, was really good. I also enjoyed a book by a Foursquare pastor named Jerry Cook titled, The Monday Morning Church: Out of the Sanctuary and Into the Streets. Each one these asked a version of the question, “Where is your church?”

Cook talked about his seminary days at Fuller. He said that Richard Halverson, a longtime Presbyterian minister in Washington D.C., would visit the campus yearly. One day a student asked him, “Dr. Halverson, where is your church?” This was his response - “Well, it’s three o’clock in Washington, D.C. The church I pastor is all over the city. It’s driving buses, serving meals in restaurants, sitting in board meetings, having discussions in the Pentagon, deliberating in congress.”
Stetzer and Rainer concluded their book with a comparison of two types of churches. The fictional missional church was named Riverview. Here how they characterized the congregation. “The ministry with Riverview is not based on the location of the church campus but the location of the church members.”
Were is your church?
It is at least partially present where you are right now. The life you live and the ministry you pursue are as important as anything that goes on in a collectively owned building somewhere in your town. We ARE the church. We’ll gather later but we’re scattered now.

Let get in on God’s mission in the world!

Hills of Copper

Sermon Preview: "Hills Of Copper" Deuteronomy 8:1-10

Copper is valuable. It has been important and pricey for thousands of years. In Deuteronomy 8 Moses paints a vivid picture of the land of promise. He includes hills of copper in the description of God's good work. He wanted the people the envision the collective future God planned for them so that they would order their lives accordingly. He was making the future present and using it to motivate.

God has prepared good things for us as well. He wants us to grow and increase in our love for him and others. He wants our lives to be more fruitful. As we live and increase there are important realities that we need to keep in mind. Between here and the hills of copper we will experience: God's discipline - the Enemy's confrontation - the Work's challenge. When we experience these "slowing" realities we need to deal with them according to wisdom and remember that there are hills of copper in our future.

Read Deuteronomy 8
Spend some time remembering the way God has led you to this point in your life.

Join us at FBC Meridian this Sunday. Have a great weekend y'all!

Preach on Mr. T

I went to see the A Team with some friends a few weeks ago. It was fun. The movie was more crass than the old tv show so I wouldn't recommend it for all ages but it did bring back some great memories. What child of the 80s doesn't remember Mr. T's line, "I pity the fool." Fools should be pitied for sure but we also need a strategy for dealing with them. If you shake a magnolia tree ten of them will fall out so we need to learn how to live wisely among them.

I will lead a bible study tonight on 1 Samuel 25. It's a great story with interesting characters. David, Nabal, and Abigail's interactions give us some great principles for living wisely among the foolish.  This is how I've distilled them:
1. Do not become a fool dealing with a fool.
2. Remember God.
3. Remember your purpose and identity.
4. Value a clean conscience.
5. Refuse personal vengeance.
Lagniappe - Pity the fool.

Read 1 Samuel 25 and see if you can identify these principles. Come to The Gathering @ FBC Meridian tonight if you can. 6:30. Have a great day y'all.