What love will do

I thought this was a great article to follow up our What Love Does series. Enjoy.

Loving Each Other Will Help Your Church Grow byRick Warren “And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met.” (Acts 2: 44-45, MSG) It is the too-little told secret of church growth. Loving churches grow. Cold churches don’t. That’s the story of the early church, too. They loved each other deeply. Acts 2:44-45 says, “And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met.” (MSG) That’s radical love. The Roman government hated Christians. It was illegal to be a Christian. The Romans often tried to kill believers. But even the Romans would say that Christians really loved each other. You know it must be true if the enemies of the Church would say that! But the early Church was known for exactly that kind of love. It is the same kind of love that drew people to Jesus. The Bible said the early Church grew on a daily basis. We all want that kind of growth in our churches. The way to achieve that is to love like the early Church. We call that fellowship—or being as committed to our fellow believers as we are to Jesus. There are two reasons people haven’t come to Christ. They don’t know any Christians–or they do! People want to be around those who love them. When a church genuinely loves others, you will have to lock the doors to keep people out.

Come September

I am really thankful for the Hub City Church family. This past weekend, many of you have gone over and above to make Patrick Georges, co-director for Alex's House Orphanage, feel welcomed and cared for. Thank you.


But what I'm really pumped about is that come September, 12 of us are headed to Haiti to work with Alex's House. We'll get to love on kids, serve the community, and let God use us in ways that are beyond any of our comfort zones. 


And I have more good news. We have two trip dates lined up to go to Haiti in 2013. The dates for 2013 are March 16-23 and August 3-10. So, if you've yet to go to Haiti, or you've gone and want to go again, then go ahead and put one of those dates on your calendar.


I love our partnership with Alex's House. I love being about so reach out to the world.

Viral - a review

I am a big fan of Leonard Sweet. He always makes me think and doesn't spout the same-ole party line that is recycled throughout most Christian books. 


But I did not like his book Viral. It never captivated me. I struggled to read it.


Basically, in one sentence, Viral is a sociological comparison of two different generations and the importance of relationships. That's why I got the book. Relationships are so important. But unfortunately the book was just too difficult for me to plug through and enjoy.


I am not saying there is no good information in the book. There is good information. It may even be worth reading for some.


For instance, I think this book would be helpful for someone who is older who finds themselves working with young adults that they don't understand. It would give them insight and help bridge the gap. 


But for me, it used too many words to say something that I wasn't interested in. 


Like I said, I like most Sweet's writings. I just didn't like this book.


I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Review Hub City

I don't know about you, but I always read reviews. While in Port Canaveral last week, we were looking for a local pizza place to eat at for supper, so Liz looked up some places on her iPhone and we read all kinds of reviews. Why? We wanted to find the best place to eat. We figured if someone else thought it was good, then maybe we'd think it was good.

I read reviews about everything: Books, hotels, restaurants, TV's... and then I read the following post from Vince Antonoucci:

Yelpby Vince Antonucci:One Sunday morning a couple weeks ago a guy here in Las Vegas woke up and had a thought that surprised him, "I think I should go to church today." It had been years since he'd been. He had no connection to any church in Las Vegas. So how does he choose where to go? What do you think he did?
He decided that he would go to the church that had the best reviews onYelp. So he got on his computer and started looking, and decided to try our church, Verve. Not because of an advertisement we had paid for. Not because a friend had invited him. Just because people had given us good reviews on Yelp.
What does this mean for those of us who are pastors and church leaders? I'm not exactly sure, but it definitely means we live in a new world and we'd be dumb to ignore the implications. And so we better be thinking about Yelp and Facebook and how our website looks on mobile devices, and if your service sucks or is irrelevant to people who don't typically go to church -- don't think that's gonna stay a secret, and ...

I'm pretty sure there are some people reading church reviews. It's the culture we live in. So why don't my Hub City peeps write a review of Hub City? Who knows, God might use it to influence someone to become a follower of Jesus.