Celebrating 31 years! And an update on CCI

On Sunday, March 25, 2007 we will celebrate 31 years of ministry with our annual "Jubilee". (See our bulletin.) It's an anniversary/homecoming with special music, a special speaker and dinner on the grounds. Alan Stroud, who was a member for 11 years and now is helping raise up a church in San Antonio, will be speaking Sunday. That should be a blast! We also have some special music, a musical drama as well as an awesome slideshow of CCI through the years. The meat is being cooked by Pineville City Marshal Larry Jeane who always does a wonderful job. All the families are bringing delicious side dishes, desserts and drinks! It's going to be a great day!

This past week someone asked me to give an update on how things were going in the leadership transition at Christian Challenge. I thought I might share my response here. Here's the question and then below is my response (written on Wednesday night, 3/21, after church):
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I want to ask you a question Nathan, if you don't mind.
When I was helping at a small church in WV, a nearby
larger church had recently gone through a change in
leadership with a new pastor. They started making some
changes. Boy, was there a lot of mumbling and grumbling
going on (for various reasons).

So how has the change gone over with your transition to
Senior Pastor and has there been any murmurings over
changes (even in decor)?

Interesting question, Lois. And I don't mind, at all.

The short answer is that the transition is going very well. I think it helps that I have been on staff for 16 years so I'm not just a "new pastor". I know the people and they know me.

Another positive is that my dad (Bro. Buddy) has always allowed me to minister and be myself and not try to fit his mold or be a "little Bro. Buddy." So the people were already aware of my distinct style of teaching and leadership. That has been helpful.

We are going through some significant changes both in style and decor. We have modernized the look of our platform, which has caused some discussion but not a lot of grumbling (that I'm aware of). There have been a couple of questions but when I explain my heart for outreach and our desire to make the entire facility as inviting and welcoming as possible, they seem to agree. I also explain that I don't want us caught in a "time warp" of looking stale. It's not change for the sake of change, but it's change for the sake of allowing us to be more accessible, more inviting, more engaging.

There has been a significant change in our view towards the community. Christian Challenge has always been (and always will be) a discipling congregation. In the past our focus has been on discipling the ones the Lord brings to us. We have done some outreach but it hasn't been a primary focus.

I feel strongly that the Lord is leading us to become more outreach oriented. So in building on our tremendous foundation of discipleship, we are now actively pursuing "out of the box" avenues of reaching out to our community. We strongly desire to demonstrate the love of Jesus in tangible ways.

For example, next Saturday, March 31, we will be handing out 500 bottles of ice cold water on one of the busiest intersections of town. With each bottle will be a small card that says:

We hope this small gift
brightens your day.
It is a simple way to say God loves
you - no strings attached.
Let us know if we can help you.

The opposite side of the card has our address, phone number, website, service schedule and map. I'm having 2,500 cards printed up to use in future giveaways and outreaches. The goal is to impact our community with the idea that "Christian Challenge Cares".

We've started the idea of a "Care Team" and encouraged everyone who wants to be involved in outreach to get a "Care Team" t-shirt. On the back in small letters it says "Christian Challenge" then in HUGE letters it says "CARE" and underneath that it says "Team". We will wear our shirts whenever we mow lawns, rake leaves, clean highways, give out water, serve at public functions, etc. When I shared the idea with our church last Sunday we had 3 times as many shirts ordered as I had anticipated! So it appears the people are really catching it!

We've had quite a few visitors since the transition and have had a few indicate a desire to officially join. I don't think we've lost a single member since the transition! So all-in-all I think it's going well.

The Lord is indeed doing something deep and real in our hearts. We're seeing reconciliation happening between members who may have been holding some resentments. Last Wednesday night we had a testimony of forgiveness and reconciliation. Tonight we had two different people publicly ask forgiveness of someone they had held resentment towards. It was an incredibly moving service.

I believe the Lord is healing us so that we can reach out with His healing to our hurting community. The vision I'm sharing with the church is that we need to serve our community with an open hand ... holding nothing back and expecting nothing in return, except to honor God. There are a lot of hurting people who want to know if anyone cares. We don't have answers for everyone's problems, but we do care. And we're going to demonstrate it.

I shared the illustration with our people that we should constantly have the smell of singed hair about us - because the hair on our hands and arms is singed from us reaching into the flames and rescuing those who are perishing.

Our congregation is palpably excited about what's going on. We are being given the opportunity to be real and we don't want to waste it! So we're building on the tremendous foundation that has been laid for 31 years. We will continue to disciple and train ... we're just going to have more people to do it with and more opportunities for them to put their training into practice!!!

Thanks for asking. I know this is a much longer answer than your question and if you've read this far, congratulations! (Or condolences! ) But seriously, I hope this answers your question.
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Well, I know that was long ... sorry 'bout that! But it gives a good overview of where we are as a congregation, going into this celebration of 31 years of ministry in Cenla. I'm looking forward to what God has in store for us!

I LOVE serving Jesus with you!
Nathan

What an Experience!

Last week Jeff Murphy and I attended a conference for church leaders at Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge. The conference was called the "HPC Experience" because we got to experience the way Healing Place does things. They're a fast growing church that's doing a lot of things to impact their community. They get asked all the time to share how they do some of the things they do and they've created this conference to provide some hands-on experience. It was a wonderful conference.

In addition to the ideas we picked up and the inspiration we gained I also got to visit with an old friend from my Mexico missionary days. Joel Dyke and I served in south Mexico as missionaries during the late 1980's. I returned to Pineville in November of 1990 and Joel now pastors Life Church West Monroe. We got to spend a lot of time together, including a wonderful evening with HPC Pastor Dino Rizzo in his home.

One of the things that came out of this conference was a deeper understanding of our vision with regard to the community. I had a clear understanding of how we were to relate to one another within our four walls, but I wasn't clear on what Christian Challenge was supposed to look like to the larger community. The HPC Experience helped me gain a clear perspective of how we are to relate to our neighbors. And it can be summed up in one word: CARE. Christian Challenge Cares. We want to reach out to our community with an open hand, seeking to serve without expecting anything in return.

Out of this is coming an exciting outreach philosphy. We are forming the "Christian Challenge CARE Team". Whenever we have an opportunity to touch our community with the love of Jesus, we want to do that as part of the Christian Challenge CARE Team. We've ordered yellow t-shirts with that phrase on the back, with the word "CARE" being the largest. We want to demonstrate with our actions that Jesus cares for those around us. He cares for the thirsty, the hungry, the poor, the hurting. We desire to be a tangible demonstration of that very real care that He has towards all people. The Lord said it best through the prophet Ezekiel when He said, "As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered..." (Ezek 34:12 NASB)

I'm excited about what the Lord has for Christian Challenge. I look forward to demonstrating the love of care of Jesus. I thank God for Jeff Murphy who went with me. He has really caught the vision and is providing valuable leadership to our efforts. I appreciate my friend Joel Dyke for telling me about the HPC Experience and for being a friend who always believed in me. I thank God for Dino Rizzo for inspiring me to believe that we really can touch our community. Fasten your seatbelts, Christian Challenge! It's about to get exciting!!!

Blessings,
Nathan

Simply Amazing

You MUST see this movie!

I just returned from 2 1/2 days in Baton Rouge at the Healing Place Church attending a leadership conference for a small group of pastors. I got in after midnight this morning and we had a Habitat for Humanity work day scheduled so our day was pretty full. At the end of the day we decided to go see the movie "Amazing Grace" and I'm so glad we did!

The movie is the story of William Wilberforce's tireless efforts to end slavery in the British Empire, entertwined with the writing of the much loved song, "Amazing Grace," written by former slave ship captain John Newton. William Wilberforce has long been a hero of mine and, in fact, I preached a sermon about him back on April 19, 2002. (Unfortunately it's not available on our website as we didn't start recording on computer until July 21, 2002.) Nevertheless, his story had a strong influence on me and he has always been a personal hero.

Wilberforce impacted me in two areas. One was his desire to be used by God in the public arena, in shaping public policy and opinion. He had considered entering the ministry and visited with the 60-year old John Newton to discuss this option. Newton urged him not to cut himself off from public life, to use his gifts to serve the common good. Newton wrote him a letter in which he said, "It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of His church and for the good of the nation." This has been one of my motivations to become involved in the public discourse and even to enter politics in an attempt to serve both the body of Christ and the community.

Another area in which Wilberforce impacted me was the cause of abolition. He saw it for the evil it was. Even though he was born into a wealthy family and much of the wealth of those days depended on or came directly from cheap slave labor, he saw it as an evil on society. He wrote in his diary, "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Morals." It took him 20 years of untiring work but on February 24, 1807 the British Parliament voted 283-16 to abolish slave trade. Even then he had to continue to fight to outlaw slavery itself, which didn't happen until July 26, 1833, just 3 days before his death.

It is both his perseverance and his passion to fight for the cause of justice that inspire me. His passon is what gave him his perseverance. Because he had a true cause, a true calling from God, he was able to persevere. When John Wesley was 87 years old he wrote Wilberforce and said, "Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of man and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you..." God had indeed raised up Wilberforce for this very thing and as a result he was able to rely on that fountain of strenth to pull him through the discouraging days of failure. He truly had a marathon mentality.

I've asked the Lord to let me be a blessing to both His church and our community. I thank Him for the opportunity to serve the community through the City Council. And I am most honored by the incredible privilege of pastoring such a wonderful local church. Now, may I have both passion and perseverance in doing the Lord's work in every arena of influence. And may I always remember that it's only done by God's "Amazing Grace!"

I LOVE serving Jesus with you!
Nathan

P.S. GO SEE THE MOVIE!!!

Introducing a new blog

I know, I know, it's been awhile since my last post. I'm supposed to update this regularly so people will keep coming back and reading. But I'm so busy living life that I don't have time to update my blog! Good problem to have, no?

The thing that prompted me to write today's entry is that I wanted to introduce you to a new blog written by my father. It's called "Pastor Buddy's Blog" and it's hosted at our church's website. Dad was recently diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and is beginning to walk through the journey of dealing with this disease and the treatment. I convinced him that it would be a good thing if he were to keep a blog about his experience, to sort of let people "look over his shoulder" and "peek into his heart" as he walks through the journey of healing. I feel like it will help our church as well as potentially help others in the future who may stumble across it.

The good news is that NHL is treatable, although the treatment is difficult (4-6 months of chemo). The 5 year survival rate is over 60%. Dad's being treated at the Cabrini Cancer Center by Dr. Halewani who is very upbeat about his prognosis. (Of course, Dr. Halewani doesn't have to go through chemo ... he just prescribes it!)

Dad has a great attitude about NHL and this journey he's embarking upon. His greatest desire is that God get glory out of this somehow. He knows God could heal him instantly. He also knows God could use medical science to bring healing. Beyond that, he knows that whether he lives or whether he dies, he is the Lord's so he wants the Lord to be honored through this journey.

I hope you'll check out "Pastor Buddy's Blog". I think you'll be blessed. While you're there remember to register or subscribe so you can be automatically notified whenever he puts a new post there.

That's all for now. Blessings!
Nathan

God the Artist

The other night I stepped outside the doors of the church and this picture is what I saw. As people often say there's no way the picture from my cell phone can do justice to the incredible spectrum of colors that was displayed across the sky. All I could do is stand there and marvel at the handiwork of God.

As I looked at this majestic display of the setting sun and the palette of colors used across the western sky I was reminded of the verse from Psalm 104 where it describes God:

You are very great;
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
Covering Yourself with light as with a cloak,
Stretching out heaven like a tent curtain.
Ps 104:1b-2 NASB

God indeed is an artist. But His most beautiful work of all is not the setting sun, nor the intricacy of a butterfly's wing. It's not the architecture of a spider web glistening in the morning dew, nor the aerodynamics of a hummingbird. No, the most wonderful work of our artist God is YOU!

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
Psa 8:3-5 NASB

You are God's masterpiece! You have been crowned with glory and majesty! YOU are made in HIS image, to be like Him, to be with Him! God's fingerprints are all over you since He is the artist and you are the canvess. Or, as Jeremiah describes us, we are the clay in the Potter's hand. Indeed His fingerprints are on our lives. Can you see them? Do you notice the impressions He's left? If you'll look closely enough you'll see not a series of unexplainable coincidences but the distinct imprint of God's fingerprint. Because you are indeed His finest work!

Blessings,
Nathan

What will you look like in 20 years?

Christian Challenge produced a drama entitled "The Father's Heart" that attempts to show the emotions of the Father in heaven while Jesus' life is played out on earth, both the joys of the birth and miraculous forgiving ministry as well as the sorrow and horror of the cross. I directed the drama the first two times we presented it (at Christian Challenge and at 1st Assembly) but the 3rd time we were to present it the gentleman who plays the Father was not able to be with us. So, as his understudy, I took on the role.

The brother who played the Father originally has a beautiful head of white hair and a distinguished beard. I have red hair and goatee. Since I only had a week from the time I was to play the part until the actual presentation, I didn't have time to grow out my beard. (I tried ... just not enough man enough, I guess! [G]) So we looked for alternatives and settled on a white hair paint from a local beauty supply store.

The night of the drama arrived and I dressed in one of the small Sunday School rooms behind the platform area at Sharp Baptist Church. There was no mirror there so I was not able to see the effect the hair coloring had after a member of our drama team sprayed my hair.

The drama went off well and afterwards we received many compliments as well as quite a few comments about my hair. I finally got to see what I looked like and had my daughter snap the picture above with my cell phone camera. The most frequent comment I got was something like, "So this is what you'll look like in 20 years." That was usually followed by someone else commenting, "Nathan's got three teen-aged daughters ... that's what he'll look like in FIVE years!"

I took all the good-natured ribbing in stride. But it got me thinking. What will I look like in 20 years, 30 years, 40 years? Obviously that picture doesn't capture it becuase it's just grey/white hair. What about the wrinkles, the crows feet, the sun spots?

The more important question than what will I look like in 20 years is what will my spirit look like in 20 years? Am I continuing to nurture my spirit with the rich food of God's table? Will I be stronger, more mature, more patient, more caring, more compassionate? Or will I be harder, tougher, more cynical?

I recently met a man who is the director of planning for Lafayette Consolidated Government. He gave me two cards, one for his contact information and one for "Lafayette in 100 Years", a long-range plan and vision for what the leaders want Lafayette to be like 100 years from now. That kind of planning is taking place in communities across our nation because people realize that growth without planning is a recipe for disaster.

The truth is we have a lot to say about what we'll look like spiritually in 20 years. The choices we make today affect us then. And the truth is, unless the Lord comes back or we go to Him soon, 20 years will come and go in a snap. Who will we be? If I make no plans and just go with the flow, there's no telling what I'll look like spiritually in 20 years. But if I continue to do what's right, seek God's face, order my steps according to His word, then I will not have to be ashamed of what I look like. Just as Paul writes in 2 Tim 2:15

"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."

So what will you look like in 20 years? What do you want to look like? You get to choose.

Blessings,
Nathan

Crawfish taste better when you catch them yourself!

Here's a photo of a recent outing ... that's my brother André and his son Justin emptying a crawfish trap at a friend's crawfish pond a couple of weeks ago. (Thanks Brian!) We all gathered for an afternoon of crawfishing and regular fishing. After working the traps we went over to the stocked pond to let the kids catch some bream, bass and catfish while we boiled the 80 or so pounds of crawfish we had "harvested". They were succulent!!! I don't know if it was us gathering them or what but they tasted even more delicious than usual.

I've recently taken up golf again, at the urging of a couple of dear friends. I've made an outing to LSUA's course as well as to the driving range and we're going again tomorrow so I guess I'm a hacker again. I have thoroughly enjoyed the time with my friends ... and the exercise hasn't hurt. (Hasn't helped yet either! )

Today we were talking about the different phases we go through. A little while back it was paintball ... what a blast! Now I'm into motorcycles and golf. It's interesting how people get involved in hobbies and throw themselves into them wholeheartedly. And then try to convert others to their hobby. (Thanks, but no thanks on going back to the gym! ) Some people eat, breathe and live deer hunting. For others it's quilting, or fishing, or knitting, or genealogy, or _________ (fill in the blank). None of the hobbies are bad, as long as we don't become obsessed with them.

My question to myself (and you too, if you're reading this) is, do I invite others to know Jesus with the same passion that I invite them to go motorcycling, golfing, paintballing, crawfishing, etc? These things are great but they have only a temporary reward. But what about the truly eternal reward of knowing Jesus? All the other things provide a temporary high that we enjoy sharing with others. Maybe we need to share that eternal high as well. At least invite them to the party! ;)

Blessings,
Nathan