We had a fun chance to incorporate multiple forms of creative worship in this series. One of our attendees Brett is skilled with computer graphics and created a 30 second video to introduce each sermon. You can see the video below. One part humor, one part summary, the video got a great response from the congregation, and was a great expression of worship for him to create.

Jonah Series Intro Video from Antioch Community on Vimeo.

Another young woman Kristina has a wonderful ability to memorize and recite Scripture. During the four-week series, she recited one more chapter than the week before. The last week she recited all four chapters. It was an inspiring and humbling realization that the rest us need to put a higher priority on memorizing Scripture.  Our Community Groups are memorizing verses together, and we are excited to get other people involved in the memorization and proclamation of Scripture.

Fight Club 2010: Minneapolis is a one-day Acts 29 Network regional conference in Minneapolis, MN that exists to rally and challenge men of all ages to fight for radical gospel transformation in their lives. This event will feature both local and national speakers. We pray that God will use Fight Club 2010 to help raise up a generation of men who will make a massive impact in the world for Jesus and his kingdom.  Register now and join us from 9am – 5pm on May 1st!

There are a couple excellent books by Randy Alcorn that I’m using during preparation for our current preaching series at Antioch entitled “God, Stewardship, & Giving.”  The first book is The Treasure Principle.  This is a great introduction to an eternal perspective on money and possessions.  It’s very practical and best of all, very short!  Our Community Groups are going through this book in conjunction with Sunday’s sermons.  The second resource from Alcorn that I would highly recommend is called Money, Possessions, and Eternity. This is a longer, more thorough treatment of the topic.  It goes into great detail regarding many of the questions one might have.  Also, Alcorn does a great job interacting with key biblical passages.

Mark Driscoll (Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church, Seattle) and James MacDonald (Senior Pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, Chicago area) recently launched a non-profit organization named “Churches Helping Churches” to come to the aid of the Church in Haiti.  The global body of Christ has a responsibility to live out the Apostle Paul’s words from Galatians 6:10: “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Visit www.churcheshelpingchurches.com for more information on this new organization and how you can give to the cause of Christ in Haiti.

1) Work at raising up leaders from the start, especially Elders. Church planting is exhausting, back-breaking work.  You’re initial servants and leaders will grow tired eventually.  If you don’t have some sort of process to identify, develop, and deploy new leaders it will come back to bite you.  Four or five years into the church plant, you’ll realize that you have a leadership vacuum and you’ll be in big trouble.  Elders are the most important leaders to raise up.  These are the godly, qualified men that God has designed to spiritually shepherd his people (cf. 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1).

2) Plan to multiply or you won’t. This is true on the level of small groups or church planting.  Most churches that don’t plant in the first 5 years of their existence never will.  You must have a strategy for reproducing even before you think you’re ready to expand.

3) Deal with sin, conflict, and relational issues as soon as possible in a biblical and Christlike manner. Sweeping hard issues under the rug doesn’t work.  They tend to fester and grow there, and eventually emerge as ravenous beasts in the church.  As hard as it can be to tackle things head-on as a leader, this is far better than ignoring issues are putting them off.  The health of Christ’s church is at stake.  Unresolved issues can kill a young church.

4) “Success” in ministry is less from the right models, strategies, and tactics and more due to prayer, the power of God’s word, and the work of the Holy Spirit. Planning and forms are not bad, but there is just no substitute for the spiritual resources God has given his people.

5) When it comes to programs and ministries, less is more. Especially in the first years of a new church (if ever!), you cannot be all things to all people.  Too many programs will spread you thin, drain the energy of your people, and distract a church from the mission of reaching lost people with the gospel.  A young church should do a few things and do them well.  Leave the programmatic smorgasbord to the big box churches.  Your best commodity is relationships.

6) You must be both internally and externally focused. This balance must be tenaciously fought for.  Outreach to lost people must flow out of authentic community where the gospel is being lived out and proclaimed.  On the one hand, you must avoid becoming an ingrown Christian club.  On the other hand, you must avoid becoming so focused exclusively on outreach that the people already in the church shrivel up and die on the vine.