I know many in the religious world who completely separate church and social activities. Example: Two men (good friends) ride 4 hours each way six times a year to see their favorite college team play. They do NOT discuss religion. They do passionately cheer for their team and enjoy a big time. Both have agreed not to “fellowship” with the other because he is “not a real Christian” but don’t let it affect their friendship…….

I feel that Jesus should be the center of all our life! He should be discussed by friends! Shared and enjoyed. Jesus should be taken to the game! You can’t have a church life and a social life. You cannot have Christian friends and act differently with them than you do with your real friends. You are a Christian! Period! One expectation!

Scouting notes or thoughts! It is good for parent child relations. Yes, my back is sore today from sleeping on a rack on the U.S.S. Alabama with the scouts last night. Yes, I came home tired. Jameson and I spend quality time with other dads and their boys exploring the ship. We enjoyed (extra) time with church members Kelly, Joey and Thomas. We met another family. The Dad is a deacon in a local church. He expressed interest in our homeless outreach. We invited him to come observe/ volunteer next month! Many good dads spending time with their sons! A goog thing!…..badges- kids learn and demonstrate skills and are rewarded with badges (knot tying, do a good deed, history, fire safety). They earn the reward. This helps prepare for the real world where nothing is free!…..cookies- Girl Scout Cookies are BIG business! My wife (Rachel) works hard to keep up with the inventory and money (she is the scout leader). The scouts learn basic business and marketing skills. Lessons are also learned in approachability and courtesy……The Boy Scuts offer a badge for religious mastery of one’s faith. The curriculum is tough. I would be willing to say that many adults don’t know enough about their local church’s teaching to get a badge. Good stuff!

Did you know that kids involved in scouts, sports and community organizations have more success in life? Less temptation. Less drugs, sex, alcohol abuse, etc. Works for the grownups too!

Other great options are tutoring, Big Brother/ Big Sister or volunteering a day at a local charity.

Excuses? Yes, there are many you can use. “Many are affiliated with the United Way which supports ________ (insert your sin). ” or “That group supports alternative lifestyle #7″  or “I don’t feel that we should be unequally yoked with people like those________”

Get over it! All 3 major automotive manufacturers hire and support people from alternative lifestyles (alternative to GOD). So does Wal Mart, K Mart and the mini mart. Your favorite entertainers often are living a non Christian lifestyle (do you turn off your TV or radio)?

The final decision (opinion). Get out there and meet some new people. Be a Christian in your community. Mentor, assist, tutor, whatever…..JUST DO IT!

H.O.M.E. – the ministry to Pensacola’s homeless……The facts: about 100 attened and ate lunch today. Many showered and changed into clean clothes. Some ate and ran but 4 stayed for Bible study. Several had medical questions which were answered. Hygiene items like shampoo and  soap were distributed along with candles and bug spray. About 35 believers served today. The food was good! The clothes given away were nice and clean on hangers. The fellowship for some was sweet and others simple necessity.

Why serve the homeless? Many churches do not! You could point at the fact that 100 ate a meal and only 4 attended Bible study. Aren’t some of them criminals and addicts? Aren’t most just opportunistic visitors who take what they can get free? Most will never become church members.

Why serve the homeless? Because it is right! Jesus closed Matthew 25 by stating in verse 45 that if you don’t serve them, you don’t serve Christ. v. 46 says “then they will go away to eternal punishment….”. Why serve the homeless? Because many of us (all….) are basically criminals and addicts in  the eyes of a perfect GOD. You can argue and be offended but we are all sinners. You may not be addicted to crack or liquor but something has your attention. How well do you manage you money, pay your taxes, etc.? How many spend more money at McDonald’s every day than they give to support widows or orphans. How’s that anger issue? Do you watch more TV than read your Bible? Are your perfect?

Why serve a group that only 4% are interested in Bible study? Isn’t that a big waste of time and effort? Here is my counter argument. Does your outreach or occupation have a 4% success rate. If a car salesman sells 4% he will make ALOT of money! If the local evangelist studies with 4% of the people he meets each day, he will have accomplished tremendous things. Thing about it. 1 out of every 25 is INTERESTED!

Why serve the homeless today? If nothing else, my 9 year old son is learning to serve others and to be useful. That in itself would be enough.

JUST DO IT!

LAUNCH SINGLES WEEKEND IN APPROX. 4 WEEKS (FEB. 17-19) – see upcoming events!

WHY?

1. It was easy and pleasant…. a day on the beach in Florida (even a cool, breezy one) is always a welcome treat.
2. It encourages me to see 2500 college students praying, reading the Bible, singing and fellowshipping through competition. instead of getting involved in all the garbage I did when I was that age.
3. I can afford it! Half a tank of gas and $20 in supplies and I met and interacted with 250 people.
4. Contacts? Yes, the college ministers and students are VAGUELY aware of the need for adult singles ministry.
5. MY Jessica is learning to SERVE……………

You don’t have to go on a foreign mission trip or donate a trust fund to work in the kingdom. Keep your eyes, ears and heart open and you will make a difference wherever you are! Just do it!

30 DAYS TIL LAUNCH 2012! BE THERE!

• We served refreshments at the Gulf Coast Getaway for the 3rd year. 2500 college students and few of us family folks enjoyed fellowship!
• LAUNCH 2011 IN ORLANDO was a blast! Thanks again to Donna Brown and the West Orange congregation for hosting this event! Thanks to our KEYNOTE, Will Smith, for great lessons! Singles attended from Washington (State and DC), Colorado, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida!
• TORNADO cleanup in Tuscaloosa!
• Great roadtrips to St. Augustine and Savannah!

The work continues. 2012 will be BUSY! Stay tuned for events…..INCLUDNG LAUNCH 2012- OCEANSIDE! The Singles Committee at the Oceanside Church of Christ has an awesome weekend with NASA’s Mike O’Neill planned for February.

The church environment is still disengaged from most singles nationwide, especially if you are divorced are a young widow. We must continue to teach about the forgiveness provided by the shed blood of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins. People are hurting and GOD gave us answers to share!

Here’s to 2011!

DAY 2: BLESS friends with a Christian or Christmas movie. Rent it and hang out! Talk about it!

DAY 3: BLESS a senior citizen who lives in a nursing home. Visit, Carol, Read! Give gifts of socks, hard candy, etc.

DAy 4: Mentor! A boy or girl would love some time with you!

DAY 5: Make someone feel special today! Acard or phone call would do it!

DAY 6: Carpool as you shop (and share the experience!)

DAY 7: Flower Power! Gather discarded bud vases. Insert a nice, inexpensive flower. Bless a life!

Day 8: Flower Power TOO! Fill a coffee cup with gravel. Insert a BULB (paperwhites work best). Water! In two weeks you will amaze! A gift that lasts a lifetime!

Day 9: Call 10 random friends! Say “merry Christmas”

Day 10: Alternative happy hour! Meet after work (maybe at a coffee shop). Make new friends without alcohol involvement. Catch people before they get home and get comfortable.

Day 11: Bowl Game party! Pick a team and invite friends over to watch the game. Dress in the school colors!

A $10 bill is a joyful sight for a server. But when one waiter went to retrieve such a note out from under a diner’s plate recently, he reportedly noticed something curious. The tip it provided wasn’t monetary, but took the form of advice. “SOME THINGS ARE BETTER THAN MONEY,” it said on the back, “like your eternal salvation, that was brought and paid for by Jesus going to the cross.”
The waiter, who makes $2.65 base pay an hour, didn’t take well to getting so self-righteously stiffed. He posted photographs of the scene to the social newspaper Reddit, and wrote: “P.S. I have never been more atheist.” “That’s not very christian like behavior…” wrote one commentator.
But while that behavior certainly isn’t the rule among Christians, it also isn’t necessarily an exception. One waiter complained about the proffering of fake scripture-laden bills as tips on the “Friendly Atheist” blog in January 2009.
These phony bills appeared at least as far back as the summer of 2006, at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Greensboro, N.C. One blogger tells of going to a restaurant then and speaking to a waitress who was on the verge of tears. The convention attendees had been atrocious with their tipping, she said, but very generous with Bible verses and phony money.
“She asked us if we knew what it felt like to pick up what you thought was a great tip, only to find out that it was not real, and that the patron had actually been a cheapskate, after she served them well?” Study: Christians More Likely to Stiff Their Server The idea that Christians are poor tippers apparently has been whispered in service circles for a long time. Many waiters try not work Sunday brunch, so as to avoid notoriously stingy churchgoers, claims Justin Wise, the director of a Lutheran ministry in Des Moines, Iowa.
“Christians don’t tip very well,” he wrote for The Lutheranmagazine in January 2009. “As a matter of fact, we’re pretty cheap. What makes this worse is that we paint ‘cheap’ with a religious-sounding veneer and call it ‘being a good steward.’ Nothing like hiding behind the Bible to camouflage your stinginess.”

One woman wrote back: “It was almost 100 percent true that the worst tips were on a check with a Bible verse or fish symbol.”
This is a particularly uncomfortable phenomenon to face for a community that values generosity, justice and service. “By leaving tracts and not tips, that person is saying to their waiter or waitress, ‘You are not a person, but rather just a notch on my belt of evangelistic pride,’ ” explains Daniel Readle, a pastor at a Baptist church in Cleveland, on his blog “Christ and Culture.”

An empirical study on this topic was conducted recently by Michael Lynn of Cornell University. He found that Christians are not in fact bad tippers; they gave an average of 17.3% for good service, well inside the 15% to 20% norm.
Only 13% of Christians left less than 15% for good service. That’s a small minority of Christians, but still almost double the percentage of unaffiliated diners who left that amount, and more than six times the percentage of Jewish diners who under-tipped.
So while it is statistically false to say that Christians are bad tippers, it is true that Christians are more likely to stiff their servers than people of other religious (or non-religious) bents.
Because of these penny-pinchers, waiters are more likely to give bad service to anyone who appears outwardly Christian, Lynn suggests, or to call in sick for the Sunday shift.
Some things may be better than money, like trust, fairness, and tolerance. But a decent tip to your server can go a long way toward those goals.

The HOLIDAYS! A time of celebrating, family, feasting and friendships. The happiest time of the year, right?

Unfortunately not! It is a time of excess in both alcohol and drug abuse. A time of depression. A time of exclusiveness. A time of neglect. A time of much selfishness. And, a time to argue…….

” Put the CHRIST back in Christmas”, scream some! Others counter with “nobody knows it’s Jesus’ birthday.” Some are offended with the abbreviation of X-mas (putting the cross in Christmas). Others remind us that Augustine (who might not have been a “real” Christian….not my opinion) forced a pagan holiday on us. Jesus wasn’t born in December anyway……

Ok….for the fanatics who hate on Xmas or who shove it down the throats of others…..niether shows Chistian love and consideration. Be kind, understanding, joyful, helpful, supportive and loving of each other EVERY DAY! GOD niether commnded nor forbade celebration of Christmas. Be nice! I have heard sermons about why we don’t celebrate Christmas in buildings with decorations or when Elders are wearing REINDEER ties.  Celebrate it as you like. Just act like you know God, however you do it!

The holidays are a time of relationship! It should be a time when church buildings open their doors to the cold, the hungry and the homeless. Christmas plays and parties are cool but SERVICE is where the heart is!!!! Unfortunately, most church buildings are CLOSED for the holidays and staff gets so wrapped up doing Christmas that they forget to be Christ!

NOW, if you are single………..go to the parties and shows and find a place to serve. And if you are lonely and brokenhearted, find Christian family to spend time with. We always have room on our couch and will get up for church Christmas morning. I’m sure others will also offer their space and time. JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON….EVERY SEASON!

25

Funny, you say! PAINTBALL isn’t assembling of Saints…..it’s a game! A redneck exercise in futility, running around in the woods shooting your friends with paint. THe assembly that Paul was ytalking about was the 10am and 6 pm service on Sunday and the Wed. night Bible study. That’s what Christianity is all about, isn’t it? Honestly, Bible Christians didn’t socialize. Right? What’s the church  coming to when Christians want to play together, eat together, hang out together…………….???????

Well, I have noticed in my study that Jesus ate many meals with disciples and sinners alike.

The believers met daily in the early chapters of Acts.

The first day of the week was a WORK DAY and the believers met after the workday (knocks out the 10 am service). Paul preached til midnight (knocks out our blueprint of the pm service).

Seems that the believers shared all time together.

So, here’s why you paintball!

• Teamwork! You have to work together to capture the flag.
• Exercise
• New friends
• Escape (from the routine and mundane
• Fellowship during family time and Dinner in the Barn

Saturday will be a time when about 100 men, women and children will get together to paintball (all ages), have a hay ride and eat dinner. Church members from PC to Enterprise to AL will be there! You should too!

Why go to St. Augustine? Savannah? The annual LAUNCH Weekend? Bible Camp?  The same reasons (minus the paint)

    NOV. 12, WE ARE ……..HAVING….PAINTBALL! Alot of fun in the woods of the panhandle. Dinner in the barn afterwards. $20 should cover everything. Bring your gear!

NOV.18-20- COOKOUT IN JAX ON FRIDAY NIGHT, ST. AUGUSTINE ALL DAY SAT. AND WORSHIP AT SAN JOSE SUNDAY AM.

Last week we talked about “Bowling alone”. People aren’t getting out and spending time with one another. A problem, not only for singles seeking a mate but for church fellowship and married couples. We have to get out of the house and do something!!!!

Speaking of “do something”, we took the kids to the SKILLET CONCERT last Friday at the fair. Sat a couple of hours staking out our seats (4th row) and watching people. SKILLET has a good message, summed up by the quote “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ…..” They are a headbanging, hard alternative rock Christian Band. No, they do not qualify for the “SINGOFF”……But, they are reaching the kids who have alot of need and angst that we don’t even see (unless you were one growing up….). And, it was important to my children that I would spend the time with them!

Are you Thankful? I am. GOD has provided too much in the way of FOOD (yep, still need to diet), shelter, etc. Tell me what you are thankful for!