Sad to Leave, but not Sad to Go...

Jodi and I announced our plans to move from Manchester a few weeks ago. We shared with our family and our church (Encounter Life Church) that we believe God is calling our family to move to Oxford, Pennsylvania to plant a new church in that community. We're excited to follow God's leading, as best we know how. I wanted to share with you the letter that I shared with our church a few weeks ago. Jodi and I appreciate your prayers and support as we continue to take steps toward moving. As best we understand God's timing and plan, we're aiming to arrive in Oxford on December 1, 2016. At that point, we'll have already had our fourth child and should be in a decent position to move without causing Jodi too much stress with a brand new baby.

Below you'll find a link to the letter that I shared with our church. I hope you'll take a little bit of time to read it, so you'll know what we're thinking. Along the way, I'll share more about exactly what we believe God is calling us to do, other ways you can pray for us, possible ways you could walk alongside us in support (I'll post a link to our church website below so you could give if you're already familiar with our plan and might want to support the work), and other thoughts as we run through a wide range of emotions and experiences before we move. I'm sure Jodi will even jump in and share some posts from her point of view. We'll also plan to use this blog to keep people updated about how life in Oxford is once we arrive there! 

Thanks for taking the time to check on us and find out what God is doing in our lives!

Click here to read the letter I shared with our church on July 10th.

Interested in supporting our efforts financially? You can give a one-time gift or a recurring gift through Encounter Life Church's website, by clicking here and following the steps. On the review page, you can leave special instructions, simply say "Oxford Church Plant". You could also mail a check to:
Encounter Life Church
PO Box 375
Manchester, TN 37349

Greater Things Yet to Come!

We've spent the month of January and first couple of weeks in February talking about "Life Together" at Encounter Life. I've spend time talking about our 5 membership covenant commitments that we make to God and to each other. These commitments are grace, growth, gifts, giving and going. To hear any of the talks click here and click on the sermon you'd like to hear. Week one is Grace and following to week 5 covering Going.

Yesterday, Feb. 9, I finished the series by talking about why covenant membership matters and what I believe God is capable of doing when we commit to do life together for the glory of God to accomplish the mission of God. In summary, seriously, I mean it, I know you don't think I know what that actually means, but I can do this. The same covenant commitments we make to each other in our local church are the commitments the 1st Century Christians made to each
other. We have not invented something new and trendy. This is not a magic potion. We've just clearly seen how they did things in the beginning of the church and we've asked ourselves how do we apply that to our lives as individuals and corporately as we gather. I hope if you call ELC home that you've been to most of the series. If you haven't, would you go back and listen to the messages you've missed? If you're a covenant member, we're counting on you to live for the glory of God as we pursue these commitments together. Together, we believe God is doing something in us and through us. Together, we believe God desires to transform our lives and to use us to reach people where we live, work and play. Together, we believe God desires for people around us to cross over from death to life. Together, we believe God is able to do more!

At the end of our worship time together yesterday I aimed to close with a verse that I hoped would encourage us to run hard after what God's calling us to do...together. John 14:12 was the verse. The ESV says it this way, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father." You might wonder, how could you ever do anything greater than Jesus? How is this possible? Friends, by God's grace, Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God. He came to preach the good news. He came to extend an invitation to a new life and home in the Kingdom to anyone who would respond in repentance and faith, trusting in Him alone. He's gone to the Father and given believers the gift of the Holy Spirit. As Christians, the Spirit of God lives in us. 2 Cor. 5, tells us we are God's ambassadors. We're his representatives for His Kingdom. Again, you might ask, greater? How? Jesus lived in a point in history, in a place, and knew certain people while in flesh. I understand God was fully God, but in his full humanity, he was limited by the distance he walked and relationships he built. But, he's given us the Spirit. We represent him everywhere we go. God's using us to make his appeal. God is using us to invite others. There is a gathering of people who are Encounter Life Church that he's sending out. There's a gathering of people he desires to use to do greater things. He'll use me to Live His Mission and Love People where I live work and play. He'll use you to Live His Mission and Love People where you live work and play. When we all realize this truth and begin running after it so that we can Lead Them to Follow, then we'll see God doing greater things. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people we're connected to. You have family members that aren't in my family. I have friends that you don't know. You have people that you work with that I've never heard of or met. You have hobbies that don't interest me one bit, but you have people that you're acquainted with through them. Your kids play sports that my kids aren't old enough for. The list goes on and on. I just refuse to believe for a second that we're connected to all of these people and God's not at work among them somehow or some way. God's desire is to make his appeal through us and then, day by day he'll add to the church those who are being saved, those who are crossing over from death to life as they trust Christ.

The mission of Encounter Life Church
is to reach people with the life-giving
 message of Jesus Christ and help them
become fully devoted followers of Jesus.
This diagram help demonstrate how we
believe God is calling us to accomplish this.

Would you begin living as though this is true? What keeps you from believing it? What causes you to think God can't use you? What causes you to live in a way that says "God's probably not doing anything around me?" What can you do this week to engage those around you to see where God might be working? Who can you serve and share with this week to see where God's working? Who can you embrace and invite that God's brought into your life? By God's grace and for his glory, my prayer is that we recognize the truth of John 14:12 in our lives, as God does greater things as we share the good news and invite others into the Kingdom of God.

For His glory and the Fame of His Name,

Transformation Series Post #3

My beautiful wife, Jodi, on our wedding day!

 This week we're talking about our union with Christ! I'm constantly blown away by the reality of this relationship. I can kind of think in terms of a marriage relationship because I am married. When Jodi and I dated, I recognized certain strengths in her and I knew I had certain strengths I was going to bring to the marriage. For instance, when we married, we agreed I would handle keeping up with the finances. I obviously thought she was cute, had a great personality, and a thousand other things that certainly told me I was marrying up! We each brought a certain amount of strengths (assets) and weaknesses (liabilities) to the marriage.

Our union with Christ has many similarities. We bring a lot of things to the relationship. However, if we're honest, none of them are assets. We bring sin, death, struggle, and a lot of things that we think make us good people. All of these are liabilities to coming to faith in Christ. The good news is that Christ brings everything we need into our relationship. He brings forgiveness, hope, life, wisdom, power and more! We have hope and life because Jesus has given them to us, not because we had something awesome to offer.

There's one more thing I want to mention before I end this post. Marriage is more than a ceremony! Marriage is without a doubt the most crucial relationship, between two human beings, on the planet in my mind. It is not a time and place where people gather to hear two people profess their love and make a lifelong commitment to each other. The marriage is the relationship that follows the ceremony. It doesn't end with a ceremony! It really just begins at that point. So is a relationship with Christ. Many people today when asked if they're a Christian, say yes and share about how they "asked Jesus into their heart" or had some other religious experience at an earlier point in their life. However, their is no practical outworking of their faith at all. They have no love for the Lord, no desire for obedience toward Christ, and no willingness to be in community with God's people. Salvation is not a date on a calendar 25 years ago, but it works itself out in a practical daily walk with Christ now. Imagine getting married and them moving out, never calling, never spending any time with your spouse, hooking up with all kinds of other people and then telling people you were married so everything was fine. That's crazy! Please don't be persuaded that just because you prayed a prayer or raised your hand when a preacher talked that you've trusted Christ. The reality is that many have had an experience, but have no concern for Christ and think they'll be in Heaven because "they're good people." If you've been around me for any amount of time, you already know what I think about that! In the paragraph above this one I dealt with what we bring to our marriage with Christ and what he brings. Our stuff is nothing...it's all baggage! It's all liabilities and frustrations! Christ brings everything we need for a relationship with him. If you're hope is in a prayer and your own self assurance that you're a "good person" I encourage you to repent and turn in faith to Christ today! The bridegroom is waiting! Trust Jesus today!

I'm praying for you as you rest in Christ, knowing that transformation is possible through your relationship with him! Email, Facebook, text, or call if there's anyway I can help you this week.

Billy

Transformation Series Post #2

Perspective Matters! My dad used to love to go to yard sales. He consistently said, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." I know that quote isn't original from him, but it seemed like his yard sale "philosophy". He constantly reminded me that you'd never find anything if you didn't look for it. When we'd be out looking through yards and garages, dad would pick up a lot of things, most of which I thought was junk. However, dad would occasionally see something and he'd buy it and take it home. I remember one occasion when he spent time digging through boxes of records. (I'll gladly go on record as acknowledging I know nothing about records, except what they look like and that there's more than one kind.) However, he picked up a couple and decided they had to go home with him. I'm sure this story would be a lot better if I could remember exactly what they were, but I don't remember. Use your imagination and pretend like they were the one's you're still looking for!

What if we viewed our lives in the same way Dad viewed those records. I saw them as only junk: outdated, useless, impractical, uncool, pointless, and a waste of time. Not Dad, he saw them as enjoyable, usable, worth sharing with others and worth spending the time and money on. Sure, they might need to be cleaned and they might skip sometimes, but all in all they were a treasure. Do you only see the problems, frustrations, negatives and want to give up? Or do you see your life as a treasure that God's given you? Sure it'll require some work and some time, but God's doing something big in your life!

Can you see and believe that God is at work? Do you have hope knowing that God is working to change you for his glory? Dad was willing to spend the time on the record because he knew the sound it could make. God's working in your life because he knows, by the Spirit's power, you can and ultimately will glorify Him. He's at work! Have hope!

Here's a couple of additional questions (not in your Life Group questions already) that you can ask yourself. These are taken from the "How People Change" study guide. Read Philippians 1 before answering these questions.

Based on Philippians 1:3-11, what do you think God wants you to see?
As you consider your own life in light of Philippians 1, how is this moment a step toward the destination God has in mind for you?

I'm praying for you as you meet with your Life Group this week!

Transformation Series Post #1

Welcome to the Transformation Series. I'm praying for you as we journey together through the process of Gospel-Centered life change. If you were at the Mid-Week Gathering then you've started the How People Change Study. These posts will supplement those studies and our Life Group Curriculum. I want to give you every tool possible to help you as we go along. These blogs posts will mostly be modified portions of the study guide that goes along with "How People Change." My hope is that these posts will help you as you think through the Life Group questions and begin making application to your life and others. Let's get started with the first thing I want to cover.

Tim Lane and Paul David Tripp write, "Human beings are 'meaning makers.' We are constantly searching for answers and seeking meaning and purpose for the events and activities in our lives." Isn't this true for all of us? It seems like the first questions I ask myself when I don't know what's going on or if something doesn't go the way I planned is "Why did this happen? What's the purpose behind it?" I want to know "why" as quickly as possible. If I can find an answer to the "why" then often I can figure out how to handle the situation. Lane and Tripp say, "The answers we give ourselves--the meanings we give to our thoughts and actions--are what keep us on a certain path or move us in a radically different direction."

If we don't think it has meaning, value or significance, we're quick to discard it from our lives. Many people do this with being involved in community, being a part of a local church. They think that if the pastor's not talking about an interesting enough topic or the music isn't catchy enough, then the church has no significance.   The problem for most of us is that we often look for the wrong purpose in things. If we're honest, we find ourselves being selfish. We're often trying to fix other people and situations instead of seeing that God may be using these things to change our lives.

When we're crying out for an answer about an injustice or a misunderstanding, we're declaring the need for change. We all know things aren't the way they're supposed to be and we all know something should be done differently, yet we don't usually know what to do differently. Here's where we often find ourselves in trouble. We don't recognize that God is using the very things were so frustrated about. God is using the things we want changed in an effort to bring out change in us.

Lane and Tripp correctly acknowledge "it doesn't come naturally to us to connect the ways we think, feel, and act in the midst of struggle with our ultimate destination of life in heaven with Christ. It is a work of the Spirit in our lives." On this journey together, it is my prayer that we would begin to connect that and know that transformation can and will happen in the midst of these life situations. God's grace is able and sufficient to bring about change in your life.

Together, we can pray for and encourage each other along the way. As we move through the next several weeks, prayerfully, we'll see how God is at work in our lives and we will love and trust Him more.

Real Disciples

On Sunday I spoke about the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and talked about God's plan for our church in the coming year. If you weren't there, you can take a listen here. We're the people of God on the mission of God! We're confident in the truth that Jesus has all authority! We're commanded to share the good news, making and teaching disciples, wherever it is that we're going! We're comforted to rest in the promise that our God is with us every step of the journey! Churches are talking a lot about sharing the gospel and making disciples, yet it seems as if many are wondering, how is this supposed to happen?

Thinking about making disciples leaves me pondering one thought: life change. No one can come to faith in Christ without experiencing a changed life. No one can become a follower of Christ, a learner, or disciple, without their life being changed by God. The gospel is not about attracting a crowd. Making disciples is not about getting people to attend classes. Both are grounded in life change. This is what I believe God's desire is for us to focus on this year. Since we launched in 2010, I have consistently encouraged those who attend to love people and build strong relationships for the purpose of sharing the gospel. I know and you know that if we don't have relationships with others we'll never have an avenue to share the life-changing message of Jesus Christ! I want to see God do amazing things through our church (as individuals and as a whole).

I know God desires for those who attend Encounter Life to continue to grow as disciples! As we grow in Christlikeness and have greater love and trust in the Lord, we'll desire His Kingdom, both in the here and now and the then and there. That's why the year of teaching is laid out the way it is. We want to spend most of the first part of the year talking about personal gospel-centered life change and the second half of the year we want to talk about how God desires to use his children as tools to reach and help others. I believe it's going to be a great year and God has great plans to work in our lives. I'm praying many will join us on this journey. If you're not a regular at Encounter Life, I want to invite you to worship with us at 9:30 a.m. each Sunday Morning. We meet at 1006 Oakdale Street in Manchester, TN. It's right next to Westwood Elementary School in the old Westwood Baptist Building.

The new series "Transformation" will kick off January 27. I plan to write another post explaining each part of the study and share with you other exciting things that will happen around the series. As always, let me know if you have any questions. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Thoughts on the Upcoming Fast at Encounter Life

For those of you who have been at Encounter Life the last few weeks this won't be new, I just hope it's an encouragement. For those of you who haven't been there the last couple of weeks, this may be new or it may just be the information you've been looking for!
I've spent the last two weeks asking us as a church to consider participating in a 40 day fast based on Chris Seay's book entitled "A Place at the Table". This is not a "water only" for 40 days fast, but rather it's a "consider your portion size and eat a diet similar to those who are less fortunate" fast. I know this seems a bit ambiguous and I really meant for it to be that way. My hope is not to create a list of legalistic rules for you to follow, but rather for you and/or your family to evaluate and discuss the best way for you all to participate in a way that glorifies God and serves others.  Over the last couple of weeks, I've thought of a few things for you to consider that might make you and/or your family prepare to get the most benefit out of the fast. In no particular order, here they are:

• For the "rule followers" this is probably particularly difficult because it isn't spelled out exactly. The fast isn't designed to put a weight around your neck and drag you down, but to free you to honor Christ in your effort to sacrifice as you serve others. My encouragement for you would be to talk as a family and develop a plan and aim to stick to it. Perhaps, if you have kids, you don't make them fast at breakfast or lunch while they're at school, but they participate in the fast by eating healthy snacks, not drinking super sugary drinks and eat whatever the rest of the family has for dinner.
• For those who might be thinking "I'm free because of God's grace, I don't need any rules", you're right, but practicing spiritual disciplines is a great way to worship God. Perhaps for you this process might help you sacrifice some of your freedom for the glory of God and for others good. As you do this, perhaps you'll be able to better understand that Jesus was willing to put on flesh, be under the law, walk in perfection and still be crucified for other people's sin. His death was for the glory of the Father and the redemption of others. That's the greatest sacrifice ever. Use this time to enjoy some time with your family encouraging them to consider what Christ has done to make your freedom possible.
• The only "rules" that exist are really the dates. The fast begins October 14 and ends on November 22, which is Thanksgiving. One of the unique aspects of this fast is that Sundays (including Oct. 14) and Nov. 22 are feast days. On those days, you're free to enjoy whatever you want. 
• Ok, maybe another "rule" would be that we're providing you with a copy of "A Place at the Table" at some point each day, you should read the day's reading together. 
• You might be wondering how "forceful" you should be with your children who are very young and don't yet understand the gospel or with children who are unbelievers. For young children, go at a pace that works for you. You can probably make some healthy snack choices and if they eat what you eat for meals that might work, but don't feel like your life has to be miserable for the next 40 days because your child doesn't like refried beans. For the child that may be old enough to really understand the gospel but isn't yet following Christ, I'd encourage to give grace. Encourage them to participate with you, pray for them, tell them you're praying for them, be humble, use the fast to teach them the gospel. If they refuse to do the fast, model sacrificial behavior as best you can by maybe providing an alternative meal option, and invite them again each week to join you. Above all, try not to get frustrated with them, love them, pray for them, ask God to help you model the gospel by serving them and pointing them toward Christ. 
• I've asked you to consider the amount of money you usually spend on groceries. If you're eating smaller portions, only what you need, not what you want, then you'll probably save some money. You might be wondering what to do with that. Remember, I want you to consider doing an Operation Christmas Child shoe box (which will be brought to the church in early November) and adopt an angel through the Angel Tree program (which we'll partner with Westwood Elementary). You won't give the money to the church or anything like that, just invest in these areas. 

My prayer is that if you're still on the fence about what to do or if you aren't sure if you want to participate you'll consider Christ and his love for you and that it would stir your affection for him and give you a desire to serve others. We're a blessed people and I pray through this fast we'll begin to understand just how true that is and we'll more effectively use our resources for His glory as we worship him. My desire for this time together is "whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31) May we exalt Christ and more fully understand the reality of his sacrifice for us.

Feel free to let me know if you have any more questions or how I can pray for you or your family through this time together. I'd love to know what your thoughts are leading up to the fast.

In my life, Lord, Be Glorified...