Rewind back to Sunday…

I will post tomorrow to finish up on our history…Sunday was absolutely off the charts! Again and I know that I say it all of the time but our volunteers, leaders and staff are the best around. Thanks to everyone of you that worked so hard to pull off our birthday event! The worship was awesome, the preaching was phenomenal, Thank you Father for all of the salvations…the food was excellent…thanks to every one of ya’ll that made it happen…Crossway Church you are the BEST!!!

My Father in the Lord, Pastor LA Joiner preached an awesome message entitled “Building Principles that Transcend all TIME”. You can check it out online, but I thought that I would insert the key points…

Matthew 16:18 (KJV) And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

The Process of Building…

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,  in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Eph. 2: 19-22

Have a specific word regarding a location…

Acts 16:19 “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

Make Jesus The Focus…

Heb. 12:2 “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…”

Make People The Target…

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world…”

Build On Integrity…

Prov. 10:9  “He who walks with integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will become known.”

Train and raise up leaders that you are not afraid to release…

Look for the leadership gift…Train, delegate and release slowly…Follow carefully the qualifications of 1 Tim. 3:1-7 and Titus 1:3-9…

Make The Scripture Your Center…

Gain a working knowledge of the Scripture so that you build the Kingdom of God and not a counterfeit.

Always let the Scripture adjust your steps and define your vision.

Seek The Power Of The Holy Spirit To Accomplish All That You Do…

Zech. 4: 6 “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.”

Allow The Holy Spirit To Do A Complete Work Among You…

1 Sam. 17:50-51 “So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.”

Build A Church That Releases Ministry Through The People And Not Upon One Leader Or A Small Group Of Leaders…

Neh. 4:6 “So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.”

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…”

Build A Church For The Long Haul…

Isa. 9:7 “of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end…”

Until Tomorrow,

Rodney

History 1…

Job 25:5 (NLT) “God is so glorious that even the moon and stars scarcely shine compared to him.”

Before I look back at how awesome God has been to us over the last seven years I thought that I would just share this passage out of the Book of Job. We are celebrating how good God has been to us and my personal reading is in Job right now. I love all the references to how unfathomable our God is by all the people in Job. This passage out of Job 25 rocked my world this morning. God’s glory is so bright that even the moon and stars are not bright compared to Him…if you are Pentecostal that should make you want to run a lap around your house! Anyway just thought I would give glory where it is due! I was at spin class @ 5:15 or I think I might would take a lap…

HISTORY…I was telling my wife earlier today that it just does not seem possible that we have been leading this wonderful ministry for 7 years now! I am absolutely humbled and amazed at what God has done! This dream all started in a deer stand in November of 2001. I felt like the Lord told me on a cold and rainy fall morning to move from Atlanta to Waycross and start a church that would primarily reach out to unchurched and dechurched  people. I started looking at the demographics and found out that in my home town on Sunday morning that over 40,000 people were not in church on any given Sunday of the year. This broke my heart and I asked the Lord to give me a passion for Ware County and the 7 counties that surround this county in Southeast Ga. Rewind just for a moment…When I felt that the Lord had first told me to move back I was very stubborn and did not want to leave the Atlanta area where we were ministering. After 7 confirmations in 3 different states and events I thought maybe I should be obedient to the Lord. I did not want to get swallowed by a whale! After a season of prayer and fasting we spoke with our Pastor and leadership team at the church where we were serving and they thought it was the Lord. We set the ball in motion and found a team of people in the Waycross area and began to pray, fast, and meet monthly until we felt like it was time to launch…In the early days we met on Saturday Nights in homes and stayed under the radar until we felt like it was time to go public with the launch. We eventually went public and our small team of people began to grow! More tomorrow…

Until all have heard,

Rodney

Sunday Night Reflections…

Great day @ Crossway!!! I just want to say that our staff and leadership teams are the best around…thank every one of you for all of your hard work and desire to see the Kingdom of God pressed forward in this region of the nation. We had two people give their lives to Jesus today! Go God! It is always awesome to watch people who are far away from God take the first step in getting to know him. Just a few things that we are learning as God is gracious enough to trust us with more people…

• We have to have systems in place to disciple people…(we are kicking our small groups back off in 3 weeks)
• We use our service teams in the discipleship area as well…
• 5 Star Service to everyone that comes on our property…coming in and going out…no exceptions…and we are still learning how to do this!
• Make sure that you have enough space and workers for all of the children that adults bring…keep it clean and safe…we are learning this too!
• Communicate daily at least weekly with all of your teams…communicate, communicate, communicate…this is one of our key watchwords…
• When you start videoing and put stuff up for everyone to see…you get to see all of your flaws magnified 100 times…okay maybe only 50 times…also people have a hard time getting used to the camera guys…
• Practice still makes perfect!!! Even though we will never be perfect…
• Always, always, always walk slowly through the crowd…people enjoy seeing you and talking to you…especially the kids!!!
• I know this has been said a lot…and we still do not do it enough…but celebrate all of your wins with your teams and key people…
• Last but not least today…have someone keep you accountable with this…STAY HUMBLE…all the GLORY is God’s!

Just a few thoughts from today…we are celebrating our 7th Birthday as a church this week. Our church is very excited and we cannot wait to see what God is going to do this year! I will try to post daily this week and share a little each day about our history. Blessings until tomorrow…

Until all have heard,

Rodney