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Never Escaping the In Crowd

Sometimes I can't help but feel like high school follows us our entire lives in some way shape or form.  We all seem to be constantly trying to get into the "in crowd" (the people who we see as successful) of our respective social networks, I know I am.  There are celebrities in every field and industry with no exceptions.  We borderline stalk the people who are the "in crowd" and we give little attention to people who aren't, unless it is some sort of benevolence of sorts.  

I find myself caught in the dreaded middle of this because I would consider myself in the "in crowd" in some networks and then there are others that I am not.  I know that something inside me screams every-time I hear someone name drop or I notice them trying to position themselves to be noticed, and that same scream gets louder every time I do it.

I have always wanted to be the greatest leader and speaker in the world, so I intuitively am always looking for, reading, and listening to great leaders and speakers.  I have had a great opportunity over the years due mostly to my previous Church and previous School to meet and even dialogue with some of what in my opinion are the greatest leaders in the Church world (my industry).  I'm still trying to figure out if knowing and meeting those great leaders brought me more confidence or insecurity.  One thing I have figured out though is that we are never going to be able to escape the "in crowd".

I will however state that I am not an idiot, and I know that they can't just be friends with every wacko or even normal person that wants to be their friend.  Those who are in high demand must be protective about their relational margin, or they will not give their best time and energy to the things that God has called them.  

However, I would be so impressed with the "in crowd" if I saw more risk on their part in looking to those who are behind them as well as those ahead of them.  Most church leaders would all agree that God rewards faithfulness and fruitfulness but we seem to only want to learn from those who have very fruitful ministries.  We only invite people who have larger churches or some sort of reputation to speak into our lives and the lives of our people.  The scary thing is that we are many times so pragmatic that we don't even care if the relationship moves us closer to Jesus as long as it helps with our attraction or systems.  Right now Origins is in the greatest growth season yet and it seems God is giving us more momentum with each day, and I am trying to look more toward the people and relationships that inspire me more toward Jesus rather than just growth regardless of whether they are in front of me success wise or behind me.  We are never gonna get away from it entirely but maybe we can get better at it together.

Who has God put in front and behind you for you to learn from?  

Who inspires you to get closer to Jesus rather than just be successful?

Sunday Night Notables

• Aaron and the band opened with Im Yours by Jason Mraz and they killed it.
• The theater was full and Life at the OC (Membership Class) was full also. 
• God has us in a great season of growth and unity right now and I am enjoying every minute of it.
• I am so pumped up right now about what God is doing in the area of our student ministry, we are about to turn it up a serious notch so all the OC teens better get ready. 
• We have got some exciting things planned for Easter, I was showing my boys one of the songs we are planning and even they were excited about it. 
• Its awesome to see everyone hanging out after the service getting to know one another better and enjoying community.  
• I had a great time hanging out with our volunteers bowling on Friday Night it was so nice to have the whole place to ourselves just enjoying each other, if you are currently not serving at Origins now is a great time to get plugged in. 
• Two weeks ago I mentioned that I was looking for a sword to use as an illustration and since then I have had about 20 people tell me that they have one if I ever need one again...yeah if there ever comes a time in my life when I am getting threatened I feel pretty confident that I have some serious backup :) 
• We have a meeting this week discussing some of the details for our upcoming trip to peru, I know many of you are chomping at the bit to hear about our trip and about our upcoming one...you wont have to wait much longer but keep praying. 
• If you have prayer concerns or anything related you can email prayer@OriginsChurch.tv. 
• If you haven't set up your profile yet on our website then now is a great time, I am not kidding it is a great resource for you to get to know others and for them to get to know you while keeping all your private info secure.  Go here to get it started. 
• I love Origins, and I can honestly say that I would rather attend and Pastor Origins than any Church in the world....and I have been to alot of great Churches, thank you so much to all of you who have made Origins your home and who make it work each week with your effort, money and prayers. THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

Aint No Party.....

....Like an OC Bowling Volunteer Appreciation Party!  This friday we are going to be getting our bowl on, so if you serve at Origins make sure you are ready for some fun.  I've also got some exciting news that I will be sharing with you all and we will be sharing some stories and giving a few gifts away to those who have really gone above and beyond.  I promise you don't want to miss this great night we have planned.  It doesn't cost anything, just come ready to have some fun.

Here's the address for the camp so you can map quest, google, or gps it: 9985 Camp Trail, Miamisburg, OH 45342.

Faith becomes Obedience

In Scripture, we read that strong faith is essential for facing life's uncertainties. It prompts us to look beyond our trials to the One who's promised to guide and sustain us. 

As trust in the Lord increases, obedience becomes a higher priority than pleasure or profit. We talked about Moses' faith a little yesterday, well Moses' life illustrates this also--he chose to forsake the advantage of Egyptian royalty in order to be identified with God's people. Placing his future in the Almighty's hands, he became the Israelites' leader and gave precedence to the Lord's interests over his own.

As devotion deepens, a second outcome is spiritual discernment--believers develop an ability to look beyond the external appearance to see things as God does. The attractiveness of sin will decrease, and its offer of satisfaction will be recognized as false. At the same time, eternal matters will become more valuable to us. Moses left his livelihood of 40 years to become God's appointed leader. Pursuing the Lord's plan became more important than anything else in his life. Despite his misgivings and sense of inadequacy, he placed trust in his heavenly Father.

Finally, a growing faith will not permit misunderstandings and criticisms to deter us from pursuing God's plan. The Hebrew slaves didn't make it easy for Moses to lead, but his beliefs enabled him to move forward.

The Hebrew leader's faith became the defining quality of his life. The Lord wants the same to be true of you. By trusting God deeply, you, like Moses, will be able to meet each day's challenges with courage and determination.

Living in the Unknown

I have some close friends who are in the midst of some serious unknowns pertaining to their marriages, health, and vocations.  As their Pastor and friend I hate it so very much and I honestly even lose sleep because of it, but I regularly remind myself that uncertain circumstances characterized Moses' whole life. He was born in Egypt, at a time when the growing Hebrew population was seen as a threat. The king enslaved the community and had their male infants killed (Ex. 1:22; 2:1-4). To protect Moses, his family let others raise him as an Egyptian.

As a grown man, he had to flee the land and live far from home (Ex. 2:11-15). Later, in a personal encounter with God, Moses learned that he was the Lord's chosen leader of the Israelite slaves (Ex. 3). In this new role--for which he felt ill-equipped--he had to approach Pharaoh to request his people's release. And then imagine how he must have questioned his ability to lead more than a million people while contending with their ingratitude and rebelliousness.

Yet Moses steadfastly carried on. Scripture tells us that what enabled him to persevere was faith, which Hebrews 11:1 defines as "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (niv). Moses had learned how to see "Him who is unseen" (Heb. 11:27). As a result, he was able to grasp the reality of his invisible God's character and promises. Since encountering the Lord at the burning bush (Ex. 3:2), he viewed life differently: his new purpose was to rely on God and follow His plan.

Though Moses did not live perfectly, the Scriptures commend him for walking by faith. From his example, we can learn how to persevere through life's unknowns. And with the Holy Spirit's help, we, too, can become people of great faith.  So whatever unknown you are facing, please know that Origins is here for you encouraging and loving you as you move toward great faith.

Sunday Night Notables

Guest Blogger: Joel Megee

Before I get started, incase you haven't heard this Friday night we're throwing a party for all of our volunteers to honor them for their service at Origins. If you volunteer in any area at Origins bring your family to Camp Chautauqua in Franklin OH at 6:30pm. We'll be kickin it in the bowling alley. There will be food, obviously some bowling, and we'll be giving away an Over Achiever Award. If you'd like to nominate another volunteer for the award, please email shannon@originschurch.tv and tell her why.

Here's the address for the camp so you can map quest, google, or gps it: 9985 Camp Trail, Miamisburg, OH 45342.

OK, now for the notables:

- Someone accepted Christ today!
- That has been happening a lot lately, keep bringing your friends!
- We opened up with The Fray today, felt like doing something a little different. Got any favorite songs you'd like for us to play? We take requests.
- If it's country, you'll have to convince our Bass player Wes to sing it, he's the only one with a country voice.
- Bobby filled in today for Wes on short notice and did a great job. It's great having extra players who are willing to put the time in to help out. Thanks Bobby!
- speaking of extra players, we'd really like to add a good lead guitarist. email joel@originschurch.tv if you know someone.
- Clay's message was great. Right now I'm picturing him getting on his elliptical with some Usher playin.
- God is definitely moving at Origins right now
- I love serving here.

Pastor Appreciation

Every year Cincinnati Christian School does a Pastor Appreciation chapel and lunch event. It's so much fun for me cause I get to hang with them in their environment- I gotta go cause we are going outside for recess.

Sunday Night Notables

• We had two people accept Jesus today!
• Stacy's Dad and Stepmom who live in Chicago and are unchurched were with us in the service and said they loved it and would drive at least a half hour every week if they lived closer, which was huge for Stacy cause she has invited them several times. 
• The theater was packed today as it has been now for a few weeks, we are praying through two services now. 
• I had a goofy moment where I acted like Dave from Alvin and Chipmunks, it was not planned and it gave Stacy "bad tingles" but at least everyone laughed and so I didn't feel like a complete moron or that I lost too many "cool points".
• Stacy bought me some new shoes that I wore today and Wes my bass dog was making fun of me so next week during the service Im going to shoot spit wads at him during the music :) 
• So excited to hear that my boy Jeff had over 800 people at their 3 year anniversary this morning, and when I talked to him this afternoon he didn't have the final number of people but there were for sure some people who accepted Jesus. 
• We are having baptism and some other exciting things that we are going to do on our 2 year anniversary coming up this may so stay tuned :) 
• We have several people from Origins who are starting to twitter and I am really enjoying seeing them getting closer over twitter.
• If you aren't already twittering join the conversation and you can follow Origins here and get updates sent directly to your phone.
• We also are working to get a new website up which is going to make it easier to connect with other OCers online while still keeping all your information completely secure which is going to be awesome.  
• If you want to get a little ahead of the game and get your profile up and rolling then go here.
• We seem to really have found our groove with production, the lights and the music and the transitions have been all right on the past two weeks. 
• This past week I had a quick trip to Atlanta to participate in my buddy Todds ordination and had a great meeting with a couple leaders of a Church Planting Network that God might have Origins partner with in the future so please pray with me about our involvement.
• It is so awesome to see our band growing and getting better all at once, I am so grateful that God has given us the talent He has and I'm betting there is more out there that probably need to step up to, if you are one of them email joel@originschurch.tv 
• We have given out so many Bibles the past few months that we ran out last week and they didn't come in yet but we will prayerfully have plenty next week, I meant to say something this morning but forgot to so just so you all know we still believe that what I have to say is kind of important but what God has to say is major important. :) 
• I am absolutely loving this series, I feel like God is truly uniting our entire Church under one mission and vision to reach our City for Jesus.  
• If you have prayer requests or you want to be part of our prayer team then you can email prayer@originschurch.tv  We are forming a team to be praying consistently for those requests of our Church.
• I got the chance to meet a bunch of first time guests today and I can't tell you how awesome it is to continue to hear the amazing stories of how God is using Origins in peoples lives. 
• We have some of the most solid singles I have ever met in my life, they own the mission of Origins just as much as anyone else and I am so proud to be their Pastor.
• We are still looking for a few guys to step up and start serving in OC Kids so how about some of you dudes step up. 
• God is giving us some amazing momentum right now and I am so excited to see where He takes us.
• I love Origins! 

Computer Issues

Hey just wanted to throw a suggestion out to all you Cincy peeps out there.  If you have some computer issues that are a bit outside your expertise and you can get ahold of Chuck then I recommend you call Peter who is for sure the next best thing. :)

Name:  At Home Computer Services
Website:  www.athome-computerservices.com
Phone:  513-755-2764
E-mail:  help@athome-computerservices.com

I offer in-home computer repairs, maintenance, and upgrades.  That's really nice of you to pass my info on.  I really appreciate it.

Sunday Night Notables

• We had one person accept Jesus today!
• Aaron and the band had some serious energy today and it was incredible. 
• The production of the service was great today, our team was firing on all cylinders for sure. 
• The theater was packed again, mare seats are necessary in our near future. 
• God is doing some amazing things right now at Origins and Ill just share a couple things from today.    

A lady who accepted Christ recently wrote this on her card " I really love it here. This is the first church I have been to where all types of people are accepted no matter what their struggles are. I have been hurt in the church and so have others I am close to. I’m glad I’m here. 

Right after our launch we had a service for our launch team and charter members where we asked them to write down names of people that were not in Church that they desperately wanted to come to know Jesus as Savior. After they wrote them down they placed them in a time capsule and committed to pray that God would use them and Origins as a bridge for the gospel to come into their lives.  A guy who was put in that time capsule has been at Origin for the past 4 weeks and he wrote me this text today after the service "I just want you to know that your helping me make the best of my life and helping me and my kids grow closer to God, thanks I love Origins".

• I love all of you OCers so much because along with the Holy Spirit you make Origins the amazing place of grace and truth that it is, where stories like this come in all the time.
• Some of the OC Community is going through some difficult times and my heart is aching in many ways right now, Ill share a little bit tomorrow about what I'm feeling as well as some scripture that will prayerfully comfort any of you going through tough times.