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Archive for First Woodway
It’s a dark picture, but it’s of some of the worship at Sondays Camp in Mt. Lebanon. Each year, Abigail & I take some time to be with our church group. It helps us know our church more and more, and communicates to graduating seniors a little more about our ministry too.
This year, our Youth Ministry took 384 students! Amazing!!
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Tags : First Woodway
Today somewhat marked the end of Homecoming week – a week that was simply INCREDIBLE for Baylor University. There was a special buzz on the campus this week despite the rain and two hour rain delay at the football game… This will be short, but here are some of my reflections from College Hour today:
-Seeing the faces of so many parents is affirming – one, the fact that students want to bring them to our church; two, the conversations I’m able to have with them and be encouraged by them… so good!
-We’ve got people wanting to be baptized – this is AWESOME! Be looking for a Sunday morning when we’ll dunk them.
-We’re in the middle of the B-B-Beatitudes (I made a Community reference and nobody got it, looks like I’m the dork).
-Everyone hungers and thirsts for something. Everyone has desires. There is by nature a built-in ambition in our lives. If you claim to have no ambition, you’re a liar. The question is whether you’re ambitions are godly.
-Godly ambition is to hunger and thirst for the right thing.
-”One way to clarify your spirituality, is to clarify your ambition.” Donald Whitney
-I can know the depth of your relationship with Jesus when you tell me what you’re passionate about.
-This beatitude is about what we care about. We should care about being righteous.
-Our part is to seek; His part is to satisfy.
-Jesus will tell the crowd that he’s just fed: “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). I say this because when we hunger and thirst for Jesus and His righteousness, we’re satisfied beyond comparison and understanding…
-As Sören Kierkegaard once said, sin is “when we look to something or someone other than Jesus Christ to gain our primary significance and baseline security.”
-My God is near. My God is constant. He is Faithful. BELIVE IT!
-The band sounded A-W-E-S-O-M-E today. SO thankful for Greg Foster and his leadership this year.
-Ummm… on a personal note – did you see the dress on my daughter today? SHE LOOKED ADORABLE!!! Her Grandmama made – that’s right, MADE it.
-We also had a meeting with our leadership team. I LOVE these men and women. They are SO faithful to our ministry and our church and mostly to THE JESUS and His Gospel. I love them. I’ll post later this week the notes from my talk to them.
It’s going to be another full week – but God by His grace keeps pouring out mercy and love on us. I’m so thankful for the opportunities Abigail and I have been given to serve at First Woodway. God has been and IS faithful.
enjoy.
Below are some of my reflections from our first college hour this Sunday. Let me just say… it was so great. I have big hopes for this year!!!
-If you missed the 9AM worship service, it was one of Pastor Toby’s best sermons ever! But that is for another day… On to College Hour.
-We started by singing ‘Chainbreaker’ – there were two words that stood out to me in that song “heart Savior”; I didn’t want to move too quickly from those two words because it runs to our deepest need & our deepest hope we have for students.
-There’s just something powerful and excited seeing new students along with old faces – it was like a big reunion – good times.
-BY FAR one of the BEST first Sunday’s we’ve ever had.
-Greg’s leadership along with the band was POWERFUL!
-We love the gospel. At the same time, we want to be people who are loving the gospel well…
-We ran out of donuts. (10 dozen folks… T-E-N)
-Since Satan is the father of lies, we’ve got to know his lies – BUT MORE important is to know BIBLICAL TRUTH so that you might dispel such lies.
-Satan can attack us but he can never ultimately destroy true Christian faith, because we are preserved by God’s grace.
-Satan ultimately seeks to destroy our enjoyment of the grace of God.
-God seeks to restore our enjoyment of Him.
-Paul tells us to put up the shield of faith to fend off the “fiery arrows” of the enemy – you know what that means? Put up the shield!
-I quoted John Owen today but didn’t give him credit… so here is me giving him credit: “there is a difference between the knowledge of the truth and the knowledge of the POWER of the truth.”
-We do not base God’s love for us on our circumstances; rather His PROVISION.
-The only way you can really feel the security of God’s love is by beginning to understand the inner meaning of the death of Jesus on the cross.
-Our God!! AWESOME song, right!?
-Absolutely LOVE hearing students sing “we are Yours!”
-LIE: God is not for you. – TRUTH: If God is for us, who can be against us!?
-How can you know that God is for me?
-Rom. 5:6-8 – “For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
-Rom. 6:7-8 – “For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
-Rom. 7:24-25 – “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
-Rom. 8:31-32 – “What then shall we say of these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
-Thank You Jesus for the cross!
-We prayed that we’d have a fire code violation because of how many students were at church… we came close!! We had more students come to College Hour today than ever before (every student matters, but shouting the number to the world is a little pretentious, IMO).
As a final note, a BIG thanks to all of our volunteers. We had a lot of people jump in and just help without being asked. SO – THANK YOU!! YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!! Also, thanks to all those who prayed for us and have been praying for us… we can feel it!!
It was a great day, and I’m ecstatic as to what God has in store for us this semester! If you weren’t able to join us, check out www.fwcm.org to check out what took place. God has been very kind to us today… we plead that it would continue!
By michaelcriner · Comments (0)
Wednesday,
September
23rd,
2009
OUR FOUNDATION IS JESUS
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
5 REALITIES OF THIS TEXT // C2S2I Model
1. The Command – ‘make disciples’
2. The Context – ‘as you go’
3. The System – ‘baptizing & teaching them to obey’
4. The Scope – ‘panta ta ethne; all people groups’
5. The Influence – Jesus’ power & presence… He will be the guiding force.
*thanks to Todd Engstrom for pointing some of these things out to me. Based on his observations, I was able to clarify my thoughts on this matter. Todd is the Minister of Connections at Austin Stone Community Church.
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-Baptizing college students will never get old.
-My wife lead the church in worship with one song and it COMPLETELY changed my entire day!
-One of my biggest sins this week was worrying about what people would think of the message rather than what God thinks.
-I love being able to worship with Abby’s & my family that loves loves LOVES Jesus… it’s a blessing I cherish.
-I’m deeply humbled by the fact that students came to church today & they brought their parents.
-Singing about the fact that Jesus has died; rose; & has conquered death & sin… Oh how wonderful this is to talk about.
-It is significant for me to worship alongside Abigail… I’m so grateful for a wife that loves Jesus more than me.
-I have been deeply humbled and moved by what God is doing amongst us.
-Telling students to not idolize their parents is EASY. Telling parents to not idolize their children is much more difficult.
-When Jesus calls a man, he calls him to come & die… end of story.
-We multiplied our small groups this week – that’s pretty cool.
-Got to see some students from our first year at Woodway – we will not forget their influence and impact on us and this church.
-2 girls came up to me today and said they wanted to go to N. Africa over Spring Break… ummmm… AWESOME!
-Jesus says some hard things in the Scriptures… we NEVER want to avoid hard things; we want to OBEY them.
-I love Dave Bottoms… period (along with all of our adult volunteers!)
-I love Jesus more. 
enjoy.
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Tags : Baptism, First Woodway
We had another great morning… I tell you what – I love working with College students! Here are some of my reflections from College Hour today:
-It is good for my soul to worship with students.
-Greg & the band’s leadership ROCKS!
-It is SO cool to see our volunteers serve – they don’t complain – they just SERVE.
-It’s good to see people return week after week – it’s AWESOME to see NEW people.
-Unresolved conflict breaks trust; breeds division; and does not build up the church.
-I love the fact that students are so eager to share their story with other students.
-Put your fingers on your neck and find your pulse: you don’t control that.
-Forgiveness frees – bitterness binds.
-So many people brought their roommate for ‘how to change your roommate’ – suttle hint huh?
-We’re expanding our small groups – that’s awesome!!
-I just love our leadership – they really are examples to their peers.
-There is just something about the reading of Scripture that stirs my heart.
-The movement/set-up team blows my mind at how fast they get our room set-up for College Hour.
-Now is the time to seek the Lord.
-Next week is baptisms… SO PUMPED!
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Categories : Uncategorized
Tags : Bible, First Woodway
Today was a well, not-so-crazy Sunday for us. Mostly because many/if not most students were absent since they have Labor Day off at Baylor Monday. I happen to have the day off as well, and I’m just a little excited about a day full of labor-some activity at the house. The next couple of weekends are jammed full of visitors/family/parties. TOTALLY not complaining, just a reality that before we know it, it’ll be October.
This past Sunday Brett Gibson, International Pastor at First Woodway, shared his heart for what it means to be ‘on mission’ for Jesus… let me just say this: I spent a large part of my afternoon reflecting on some of the things he had to say… below are my reflections from the day:
- We do not belong to ourselves… we belong to God – MAN is that ever good news to hear!
- it is always so refreshing to worship with college students
- “STUDENTS – add to your passion for Christ, understanding.” – Brett Gibson
- “Everything is a loss in comparison to knowing Jesus Christ…” – Paul
- THE ABOVE STATEMENT NEVER GETS OLD.
- “The Bible has little patience for believers… even the demons believe.” -Brett Gibson (OUCH)
- Reconcile, reconcile, reconcile… did I miss something there?
- You are a new creation. This is about your personal salvation… BUT it’s about so much more than just that too… it’s also that Jesus is ushering in HIS KINGDOM.
- By being a new creation, you are marked by something different now.
- We don’t own the gospel… it owns us.
- We don’t present a message – we are the message.
- We don’t need more information… we need transformation.
- How was Jesus Sent? – By the way of the Cross. Therefore, you must come and die.
- We missed our adult volunteers… but ADDED more this Sunday – thank the Lord!!
All in all, it was a blessing to be with students and sit under Brett’s incredible teaching – I was rebuked and encouraged. May we engage the world with a heart to reconcile.
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We would love for you to be praying for us this weekend. When I say us, I mean the Leadership of our College Ministry. We’re going to be praying together; playing together; & they’ll hear my heart for this upcoming year…
We’ve developed a little booklet for our leadership; it’s called the Sherpa which I think is a ROCKING title that I didn’t come up with. Sherpas are traditionally people of Tibetan descent living on the southern side of the Himalaya Mountains in Nepal and Sikkim. In modern times Sherpas have achieved world renown as expert guides on Himalayan mountaineering expeditions. We want our Leadership to be Sherpa’s for the College Ministry… they’re to be guides for their peers using their gifts and experiences to lead others to new and exciting places.
This quote in the book keeps ringing in my head over and over (hence the ringing):
“Don’t rely too much on labels, for too often they are fables.” – C.H. Spurgeon
ALSO – there is the FREAKING HUGE announcement that we’ll be sharing with them in regards to our (Abigail & my) future. I’M TOTALLY STOKED about it! I’m way more STOKED about this than I was for our first Sunday. No really. I’m FREAKING PUMPED about it.
[And to those of you who think that the announcement has something to do with Abigail & I leaving First Woodway - don't be a hater - that couldn't be further from the truth. There are just some BIG things we're planning for this upcoming year - ESPECIALLY during Spring Break. It's going to be AWESOME!]
enjoy
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