Ridge Church

A Final Goodbye to the Ridge Church Site

2010-06-15T13:33:00.004-04:00

Hey! I just wanted to make a final post on the Ridge Church blog/website, and this is it.

Baby #2, Chloe, Emily and I will be moving to Charlotte on June 25, 2010 where I will be the new Student Pastor at LifePointe Christian Church. It's a five-year old church plant, and it will be a very challenging role for me. I would expect no less of the Lord! ;)

We are very excited about the new path that God has laid out for us, and ready to start serving in a new area of a town we loved living in!

This will never change the love that we have for the Ridge Church folks, those who supported us through prayer and finances while we planted The Ridge, and the fine staff of OneLife Church in Powell, who welcomed us with open arms. We care about you all and will miss each of you.

Please pray for us, and if God so leads you, consider financially supporting us in our 1/2 salary, 1/2 fundraised monetary situation in Charlotte. (You can learn more about all that in my personal blog, kevinlayne.blogspot.com.) I'm calling it "Life in the Fast Layne," but of course Emily thinks that's lame. The name of the blog is subject to change...

One final note: This blog will continue to exist as long as blogger lets it. I am planning to keep it as a record of our church plant, and my church planting thoughts and efforts, even before Ridge Church started meeting. To that end, I've imported my original blog posts from a couple years ago, so all the church planting stuff is on one blog. Doesn't mean a ton to most people, but it's a big deal for me... Feel free to read anything you want!

Until we see you again, God bless you and keep you!

Kevin

"New Baby" Layne's first picture...

Final Ridge Church Financial Update

2010-01-21T15:58:00.007-05:00

Hey! I hope you all are having a great 2010! It has been a wild ride for Emily and me (and Chloe!) the last few months. That's life I guess!

I mentioned in my last post that I would have at least one more blog entry here to discuss the final financials of Ridge Church. I can say that winding down a church's bank accounts takes a little time! However, we're done, the bank statement says "$0" and we have the final info to share with you here. Our totals below include all the finances we shared at any time from The Ridge with missions organizations, missionaries, church planters, and church planting organizations.

Church Planting: $5,157.00 (The Axis Church in Nashville; Journey Church of the Highlands in Boone, NC; and the Acts29 Network in Seattle)

Regional Missions: $1,204.00 (Jimmie Hodges Ministries to the people of Appalachia)

Local Missions: $843.00 (Fountain City Ministry Center here in Knoxville)

International Missions: $56.10 (special offering from Ridge Church folks for persecuted Pakistani Christ-followers)

The total of all of this giving is $7,260.10! That's not too bad for a little church plant! I have to say, I am filled with excitement when I think back to the generosity of our Ridge Church folks and the way you all shared with others and kept your focus on God's Kingdom expansion, instead of on yourselves and your own comfort! Great job! I am proud of you (in a good way!) and will always have fond memories of our church plant together.

Thank you once again for allowing me to lead you as your church planter and lead pastor for a time. I pray that God would continue to use you in obedience wherever you go as you keep placing your faith in Him and keeping your eyes on Jesus and His harvest fields--those who don't have a relationship with Christ and desperately need one!

Again, have a great 2010! If you'd like to contact us, just email us at kevandem@yahoo.com.

For Jesus,

Kevin

Ridge Church Update for October

2009-10-13T20:48:00.007-04:00

Hey, everyone! It's been a few weeks since my last blog update. I wanted make sure you know what's been going on with Ridge Church and also Kevin and Emily (and Chloe!).

First, God has been so gracious to us; we have much to thank Him for.

Our former Ridge Church folks have the best hearts! They have done a great job of humbly joining the OneLife Church team. Many of our former Ridge Church people are serving at OneLife, most in the children's ministry area of the new church. That's great for the former Ridge Church folks, because everyone is finding a place to serve God and others. It's great for OneLife too, because they've had more children than they anticipated this early in the life of the church and needed our great volunteers. Awesome fit between Ridge Church and OneLife. That's a God thing!

OneLife has seen 6 people commit themselves to being Christ-followers already! That's an awesome thing for a church that's only had 5 public Sunday worship services. Also, OneLife continues to grow each Sunday in numbers. This is a blessing from God, as people who are not connected to God by a relationship with Christ are inviting others who do not know God. This is great!

We are currently in the process of finalizing the "winding down" of our Ridge Church financial situation. We will be giving some monetary gifts to some important people: Ken and Christy Garrison, the owners of Panache Hair and Body where Ridge Church met on Sundays; Andy Hughes and Journey Church of the Highlands in Boone, North Carolina; and Jeremy Rose and The Axis Church in Nashville, Tennessee. More information will be available soon on our final financial stats. I think it's important and cool to see a tally of how much of God's money Ridge Church folks sent back to church planters and missionaries! New Churches and Serving Others were two very important values at Ridge Church. We are going to live out those values all the way through to completion. Those financial numbers will be available soon here on the blog.

If you'd like to keep up with what's going on with me and Emily, here's a link to our latest prayer letter to our prayer team and financial partners. Feel free to check it out. If you have any questions about supporting our ongoing fundraising as we trust God to provide for our financial needs while I am a volunteer staff member at OneLife Church, email me!

Thank you all so much for reading the blog over the last 15 months... I have one more post, at least, that I will put up soon. Have a great night.

A Ridge Church Update

2009-09-23T15:09:00.000-04:00

Hey! Sunday was the first day of Ridge Church folks going to OneLife Church. I have to admit, this week has been a little weird for me.

Last Sunday, Emily and I shared with you all that Ridge Church would be folding into OneLife. It was our prayer (Emily and me) that everyone would see a couple things in this decision.

First, we wanted people to know that Emily and I came back to Knoxville after 10 years of ministry in other places because God told us to and we plan to stay as long as He wants us to. We have been committed to and remain committed to God's plan for this city. We love Knox Vegas, we love the people here, and we want to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ bear great fruit and transform this place one life at a time.

Second, we wanted people to know that Emily and I are committed to church planting. The Core Values of Ridge Church were Truth, Grace & Faith, Community, Serving Others, New Churches, and Fun. It just so happens, OneLife is all about those values and that shows that this is a great place for our people.

Third, we believe that the Church (big "C", meaning all Christians throughout time and place) is Jesus's bride, as spoken about in Scripture. (This isn't creepy, it is a way of sharing just how much God loves us and how important we are to Him.) That means that God is the leader of the church (little "c", meaning individual churches everywhere). The Bible teaches that we are all one body as the worldwide Church, and we should answer to God. That means that if God wants to connect 2 churches (local manifestations of the worldwide Church) and make one, He has the right to do that. In many cases, as in ours, we can see the wisdom in it. In some cases, churches really need to combine, but we resist it, for whatever reason. I think church connections should occur more often, but that's another discussion! Anyway, we want to exhibit humility in our commitment to Christ. God is in charge here, and we know that we are obeying God and advancing the Kingdom of God by folding into OneLife. That's enough said right there. Any personal ambitions we have must be subordinated to the goal of getting the Gospel out to other folks.

Fourth, by folding into OneLife, Ridge Church will cease to exist, but how we do this part is almost as important as how we started. Even during this transitional time, we have a great opportunity to share Jesus with folks. When people ask, "Why are you doing this?" you can tell them that God said for us to, we are all part of God's body, He can do more when we team up, we want to obey God... All of these reasons are true and any one of them is a great answer! But one thing you won't tell them (because it's not true!) is that we "failed" or God let us down, or there was "sin in the camp" (there's not) or that we gave up or that we didn't want to share the Gospel with other people. We are folding into OneLife so that we can accomplish the mission God gave us His way, as part of a team of people leaning on each other and God. That's simple and good! No "church splits" or "personality clashes" or "differences of opinion" or whatever other excuses people give for not living out the Christ-following life in harmony with other believers. Nope, we are making a healthy move to honor God; we're moving as one small healthy church plant into fellowship with another healthy church plant. It's a great example to those who don't follow Christ, and also a great example to churches out there that constantly fight and bicker over stuff.

In the end, God wins through what we are doing! I want you all to see that and believe that. I do. I love you all and pray that you will continue to explore what God has for you, be willing to try new and challenging things for Jesus, and obey with all your hearts!

By the way, God does move in weird ways! Last Sunday, all I knew was that I would show up at OneLife this Sunday and pitch in however I could. Today, I'm a part-time staff member, continuing to raise financial support so that God can use the gifts and talents I have to support the OneLife staff team. I'm honored and humbled and excited about what He has in store, all at the same time. For those who are supporting us financially, thanks so much! We will continue to rely on you so that we can serve in Knoxville. More info on how supporting us works out will be available soon.

See you this Sunday at OneLife! 11 a.m. at Powell High School... If you have questions or want to get involved (since that's part of my job!) email me!

The Letter We Sent to Our Prayer Partners

2009-09-16T21:30:00.004-04:00

I didn't know exactly what to write here, so I'm posting the letter we sent to our many prayer partners. Here goes...

This prayer letter began when I asked Emily to help me with it... I have had a tough emotional ride of late. Just so all of you know that God uses Emily all the time to speak with, to, and even for me sometimes... - Kevin

After a very difficult yet very blessed 15 months, God has led us to join forces with another church plant in the Knoxville area. We have had quite a bit of time to pray, think, and talk with others about this, and we have come to a simple conclusion. We believe God led us to plant Ridge Church as a part of His sovereign plan. We have seen people who had given up on church become interested and involved again. Others had a renewed excitement about God and some were introduced to a God they had never met before, one that was not concerned with the rules and legalism that is so prevalent in this area. All of these things would not have happened if God hadn’t sent us here with the intent to plant. For whatever reason God has seen fit to greatly bless our efforts, protect us from any type of unhealthy, negative or “bad” situation, yet at the same time draw Ridge Church as we now know it to a close. This has been a very crazy time and we have sought very wise counsel and prayer from our outside advisory board, other pastors and other godly men and women.

In church planting, you never know what's going to happen... It's always a risk and success in God's eyes is not always the same as success in our eyes. Based on a ton of Scripture I've read lately, God sees human success as equal to obedience to Him. We have seen the next step God wants us to take and rather that fight for “our” plans and our own personal ambitions, we believe God wants us to obey His leading, continue serving in Knoxville as missionaries, and join the team of this new church plant. We have a network of well over a hundred “unchurched” people that we are still in contact with, still are interested in what we've been talking to them about (God), but will also take more time to be willing to check out God or understand what a relationship with Christ is.

We shared this information with our core group Sunday morning at our Prayer Gathering and were not sure what to expect. God gave me the words to say and had already prepared the people's hearts. They were sad on the one hand but excited about the future as well. Church plant core group members are typically risk-takers themselves. God has really blessed us with them and we are so thankful that this move will bring glory to Him.

Obviously, we have some massive prayer requests. First, that God will continue to give us wisdom and sensitivity as we draw our time as a Ridge Church body to a close. We want to honor those who support us financially and through prayer and ask that you continue in your support. Our work here is far from done and we plan to continue serving as missionaries in this area. Sadly, in the “Bible Belt” so many people think they know God but are just going through the motions. Then there are those that are so “righteous” they have made it incredibly hard for other committed Christ-followers to reach non-believers.

Second, pray for this transition time for God’s people. They will be walking into a new environment and a larger group. This will be exciting for some and difficult for others.

Thirdly, pray for Emily and me. It is hard to not struggle with the “success syndrome.” Pray we remember all that God has done and the amazing ways He has used us instead of focusing on what could be perceived by others as a failure. Please pray that He would guide us on the next phase of our church planting and missionary journey here in Knoxville.

A few weeks ago Emily and I went on a walk to pray in a local park. There was a really nice paved path around the entire park that we walked in silence as we were there to be quiet and seek God. When we neared the end of the paved path, there was a little beaten-down dirt path that took us off the paved path, but it was clearly a path. Most people would pass it by but we, of course, had to check it out. Emily noticed it first, quickly stepped onto it, and I noticed and followed her. It was beautiful and ran along the creek. Along the way we were poked by some thorns, but Emily saw where it ended up and we returned to the main paved path. I asked her where the dirt path led and she said, “It joins back up with the main path.”

A realization hit both of us like a ton of bricks: We are THOSE people. We are the people who will always get off the smooth, easy, well-traveled path, in search of those hidden treasures that require getting your arms and ankles scraped along the way. In the end, God brings us back to the smooth path. Some would say we’re the dumb people who don’t know how to follow directions. But we look back and know that we follow the dirt paths in life because of how God has wired us. He uses that wiring to accomplish His greater purpose in our lives. God has created us all differently and each one of us is a special and wonderful creation of His.

So, we are now continuing on the path God gave us over a year ago, planting a new church in Knoxville. We remain focused on missions, service, and evangelism, driven by the desire to reach this community for Christ, throwing aside anything that hinders us in that pursuit. We pray that you would continue to support us in this effort! We will continue to keep you updated.

We love you all!

Kevin and Emily

A Sick Kid...

2009-09-06T01:04:00.003-04:00

Well, Chloe got sick again this week! It's been several months since she's been under the weather, but this weekend has reminded us of just how often kids catch bugs. Emily took her to the doctor on Friday, and she got a shot of antibiotics and a prescription. It's a blessing that she started having a fever on Friday instead of before the long weekend... Especially for Mommy and Daddy!

Everyone who's been a parent has experienced sick kids and the stresses that they cause you... If you haven't been a parent, then you've been the sick kid! (I think we all have done that one!)

In our current Bible teaching series, we're talking about "Things I've learned from Chloe." Last Sunday, we discussed how I've learned some things about God and prayer from our daughter. The first thing I've learned: we need to pray BOLDLY and PERSISTENTLY. Babies have both of those things down... When they need something, they make sure you are aware of it. Jesus' teaching in Luke 11:5-8 shows us that we should communicate in similar ways to babies when we pray about our needs! God wants us to seek Him with boldness and persistence. How often do we fail to do that? Alot, in my case at least. The challenge: approach the "throne of grace" with boldness and persistence when you pray!

This Sunday, we'll be worshiping with the folks at the Catalyst service at Central Baptist Church of Fountain City. Snacks are available at 10:10, and worship starts at 10:30. Emily and I will be there for snacks... But Chloe is going to sit this one out with Grandma Sue to be on the safe side. See you there!

A Good Weekend

2009-08-23T23:37:00.005-04:00

Yep, it was a good weekend... I had to work Saturday, but I talked to a couple of good friends, too. First, I talked to my friend and a former missionary with us in West Virginia, Malcolm. Malcolm lives in Ohio now... If you'd like to pray for something, you can pray for his part-time job situation and also pray for his wife Emily to find a new job. She and "my Emily" are good friends!

Later, I talked to my friend Andy Hughes, another Acts29 church planting buddy. Andy is the pastor of Journey Church of the Highlands in Boone, NC. The Ridge supports Andy, his family, and his church financially with 5% of our tithes and offerings... This is part of our commitment to one of our six core values: New Churches! Many of you got to meet Andy when he drove here one Sunday this spring to share about his family and their church plant in Western North Carolina. His church has a new website in the works... Check it out!

Today was a good day, too! I attended the second "preview service" of One Life Church with Emily, Chloe, and Becca Thiele, our children's ministry intern. Becca just got back for the fall semester at Johnson Bible College and is excited about being back and working with our kids! She'll be back in action on Sunday, August 30th at 10 a.m. at our next Ridge Church Worship Gathering at Panache Hair and Body in Fountain City. We'll again be having child care for kids age 0-5... Make sure to say "hey" to her!

Later on, Emily and I met some new friends for coffee at Starbuck's in Powell. It was cool... They just moved back to Knox Vegas from North Carolina (alot like us) and we have alot of things in common. That's cool... New friends are great! Chloe got tired on us at Starbuck's, but all in all, she did pretty good! She's such a "big girl."

If you'd like to pray for us this week, feel free to! Emily, Chlo Chlo and I are heading to Indianapolis, Indiana for a denominational church planter assessment Monday morning. We have been invited for some free training by a leader in that denomination... We'll be back on Saturday and look forward to seeing you Sunday!

Prayer and Pakistan

2009-08-18T19:36:00.006-04:00

I had a great time Sunday at our monthly Ridge Church Prayer Gathering. I always enjoy getting together with you all, and Sunday was cool because we got together to pray!

Last month, we prayed through the ACTS process. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, ACTS is a "recipe" to follow in prayer so that your prayers make sure to honor God and "cover all the bases" that you want to pray about. This is way better than the random "beef stew" prayer that we often send up to God, full of all kinds of stuff that just gets added into our prayers willy-nilly. (Maybe this isn't a good analogy, but it's what I got right now.)

Anyhow, A stands for adoration; it's the time for adoring God for who He is. C stands for confession; it's the time for admitting our sins to God and requesting His strength to obey Him in our lives. T stands for thanksgiving; it's the time to thank God for all kinds of stuff. Finally, S stands for supplication; it's the time for praying for others and ourselves, and is at the end on purpose!

Anyway, this week we decided to pray through the Ridge Church values. In an hour, we got through the first 3: Truth, Grace & Faith, and Community. I had a great time, and I hope you all did, too. The Krispy Kremes that Sue Irving brought were a nice treat! At our next prayer gathering in September, we'll "pray through" our other 3 values.

On Sunday we also took up a special offering for our Pakistani brothers and sisters in Christ. You all shared more than $50 that will go directly to Pakistan to provide clothes and lodging for Christ-followers who have had their homes burned by angry Muslims. Thank you for sharing what God has trusted to you so that we can be an encouragement to others in Jesus' name!

This Sunday, we'll meet at One Life Church for worship. At our Prayer Gathering, I said we'd meet at 9:45 at Powell High School. The time for their worship gathering is 11 a.m., not 10 a.m. as I thought. So, we'll gather at 10:45 at Powell High School this Sunday the 23rd. Childcare is provided by OneLife, so kids are welcome! After worship, everyone is welcome to eat lunch with us as always!

See you at small group and on Sunday!

An Important Cause for The Ridge to Get Behind...

2009-08-11T23:28:00.001-04:00

This Sunday is our monthly large group prayer gathering at Panache at 10 a.m. This is an important time for us to gather as Christ's community. We praise God, get right with God, thank God, and ask God to intervene in others' lives and also in our own lives.

It is a great time to get together. It's informal and anyone interested in praying with us is welcome. After we pray, we'll eat lunch together afterward! Child care is not provided, but kids are welcome and parents can always step out with them if they need to!

This week, we are going to pray especially for the Pakistani Christ-followers who have recently been viciously attacked by their Muslim neighbors. You can read a Washington Post article about the Muslim arson and murders here.

The Christians in Punjab are showing Christlike hearts by not retaliating and by publicly praying that those who perpetrated these attacks are changed by God. I pray that we would offer so much grace in the same situation!

The truth is that there are Christ-followers in many nations who, even in the 21st century, find themselves persecuted or killed for their faith. Voice of the Maryrs is a great organization that has much information and serving opportunities regarding persecuted Christ-followers.

Our friends and sister churches in the Acts29 Network have committed to provide food, clothing and shelter for 315 Pakistani Christ-followers whose homes have been burned. The cost is $47,250; American dollars go a long way in Pakistan. An Acts29 pastor friend of mine in Raleigh, North Carolina, Elliot Grudem, has put up a webpage on his church website with more information about this tragedy and some pictures here.

Because the need to help our brothers and sisters in Christ is urgent, we are going to have a special offering time at our Ridge Church prayer gathering on Sunday. All the funds that we collect in the offering will go directly to an Acts29 church in Washington State with direct wire capabilities to Pakistan. 100% of your offering will go to Pakistani believers to provide for their basic needs at this difficult time. We will pray for these families on Sunday as well.

If you'd like more information, please email me.

Have a great week, and thank God for the blessings you have... See you at small group this Wednesday at our home, or have fun at small group on Thursday at the Irving home!

KidFest Slideshow

2009-08-08T01:30:00.004-04:00

Here is the slideshow from Ridge Church's two day KidFest. Thanks to everyone who made it possible. Enjoy the pictures!

SkateTown was Awesome... Info Meeting this Sunday!

2009-08-06T23:28:00.005-04:00

I had a great time with you all and our community at KidFest! I also really enjoyed our first-ever worship gathering and skating party at SkateTown in Fountain City. The worship and skating time is something that we hope to do again sometime!

Thanks to all the Ridge Church folks who worship God by giving financially. Your obedience to God and financial giving makes events for our community like KidFest possible. Also thanks to the churches who support us!

It was good to be able to celebrate the results our first KidFest at SkateTown on Sunday. Emily made a PowerPoint presentation of pictures of kids and their parents, as well as our awesome Ridge Church volunteers who made the event happen. (Also Trey and Kitten McClain and Keith Zenker, the Discovery Church folks who came down from Evansville, Indiana to help us out!) We hope to be able to put a version of the pictures Emily presented up on the blog for you soon.

This Sunday, we're having a Ridge Church Info Meeting at Panache at 6 p.m. We haven't had one of these for a long while... Basically, this meeting is an opportunity for new people at The Ridge or people who are investigating Ridge Church to come and learn more about us. We'll talk about our Vision and Values, get to know each other better, and answer any questions folks may have. It's gonna be a good time!

We are not gathering as a fellowship on Sunday for worship. My encouragement to you is to get out and worship at a good, Bible-believing church near you. Emily and I will be investigating a church we haven't been to before, in anticipation of bringing all of you there with us in the near future. As long as Chloe cooperates... She has her first "real" virus right now. Feel free to pray for her to feel better! It's so sad to see babies sick, especially your own!

Have a great weekend!

KidFest was Awesome! SkateTown Tomorrow!

2009-08-01T19:10:00.004-04:00

Wow! Today was our second and final afternoon doing KidFest in Fountain City Park! It was a blast. It was very cool to be part of it, and as your pastor, I am very proud of you, Ridge Church!

For those of you not aware of KidFest or the reasons behind it, the two day event had a simple purpose. We believe that people are important, because God believes that. We believe we should love people, because God does. So, we asked ourselves how we could show our community they are important and we love them. We came up with doing all kinds of fun stuff in Fountain City Park for kids and families absolutely FREE! It turned out to be awesome and fun for everyone... I have a feeling we may very well do another KidFest again someday!

I am proud (of course that's the good kind of pride) that 23 Ridge people volunteered on Friday and Saturday to love our community and serve as part of KidFest. We had folks painting faces, painting hair, putting on temporary tattoos, playing games, doing crafts, watching babies, and participating in object lessons that were fun and shared Bible truths... I saw people come out of thier shells, I saw people doing things they had never done. I saw, most of all, people realizing that we can ALL be "ambassadors for Christ" and share Jesus' love with others, even strangers!

I am proud of everyone who pitched in with their time, money, and stuff. Great job loving others in our community, with no strings attached or expectations for "payback" of some kind.

I want to especially thank Trey, Kitten, Alyssa, and Morgan McClain and Keith (I can't spell your last name, email me it dude!) for coming down from Evansville, Indiana to help us serve our neighbors this weekend! Trey is the pastor of Discovery Church. Emily and I have been best buds with Trey and Kitten for a decade. His young church supports The Ridge financially and prayerfully. They came to join hands with us in loving our community, and they rock! Thanks!

At The Ridge, two of our six core values are Serving Others and Fun. These last couple days, you did both. Great job!

Tomorrow (Sunday), we will have another big day! We've rented SkateTown in Fountain City so that we can have some fun together. We'll have worship at the usual time of 10 a.m., followed by FREE stating for us and our friends and neighbors from 11:30 until 1 p.m.!

Make sure to bring a chair to sit in for worship! If you have more than enough for your family, please bring the extras for others to use!

This will be another day of fun, worshiping God and rolling in circles together! See you there!

Cool Weekend Ahead!

2009-07-27T21:29:00.008-04:00

This weekend is our first KidFest! I'm excited about the great opportunity that's before us.

Most churches, when they want to do something fun for their community, invite the community to come into their building. This is nice, and really is a good idea. For many people, however, it is not enough. Especially for those who have been burned by "church people" or have misconceptions about what "church people" are like, it is scary. Have you ever been somewhere for the first time and not been at least a little nervous? I haven't. Especially if that place has to do with your "immortal soul."

Always having community-friendly activities in our church edifices doesn't show the people in our community that we really want to hang out with them where they are. It doesn't show them that we care enough to leave our secure base camp and come out and rub elbows with them.

Of course, The Ridge doesn't have the temptation to invite people into our building all the time... We don't have our own place! Although we meet on Sundays for worship and prayer at Panache, we don't have our own building. So, we are often faced with the challenge of being creative with our meeting locations! One of the several benefits of not having our own permanent location is the flexibility to meet where we need to or want to. We also have great opportunities to be "ambassadors for Christ" in the places where our friends and neighbors live and work and play.

In the past, we have met for various gatherings in a restaurant, a storefront, a cafe, a pizza place, a bowling alley, and in homes! We still meet in homes for our weekly small group gatherings.

We've also met at Fountain City Park! We last met together at the park for our Easter worship gathering. It was a ton of fun! This Friday and Saturday, we will meet there again for our KidFest.

KidFest is simply a fun way to love on the people in our community! We believe that Jesus commanded us to love Him, love others and share His Gospel with them. (See the "Great Commandment" and the "Great Commission" in the Bible.)

KidFest is a two-day fun event, from noon to 2 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, July 31 and August 1. We'll have spots where kids can get their faces or hair painted, play games, and other interesting and fun stuff. There are no strings attached! We won't ask people to sign up for anything or fill out any cards. The idea is simply to bring Christ's love in front of people in the form of simple and caring people (us!).

Then, to add a fun finale to the weekend, we'll have our Sunday worship gathering at SkateTown USA in Fountain City! We're gathering at our usual time of 10 a.m. We'll have worship, and then FREE skating for our church and community from 11:30 to 1 p.m. It should be a blast!

We could certainly use some more volunteers to help out on Friday and Saturday. If you're interested, please email Emily or call her at 244.7278. Thanks and see you in the park!

Moving Stinks, but God is Cool

2009-07-18T18:54:00.005-04:00

Well, I sit here on Saturday evening in the Panera Bread in Fountain City. I love this place (except for their new coffee style, not a big fan of that), especially when I'm in an "Internet pinch."

I'm in just such a pinch now. We just moved from a rental home in Gibbs to a rental condo in Fountain City on Thursday. (P.S., I'm a big fan of "Two Men and a Truck!" Shout outs to Eddie and Anthony, if they read this!) The Internet is set up with Comcast, but we just cleared out enough room in the condo to actually get the cable jacks within arm's reach last night at about midnight. I had to work at my "real" job all day today, so no Internet at the condo yet.

The great thing about Panera is that Emily and I can meet here for a pre-birthday supper (her birthday is tomorrow...) and then I can stay and "compute" and finish up my sermon and stuff for tomorrow's worship gathering at Panache at 10 a.m. Love to see you there, by the way!

Now I totally believe moving stinks, since packing up and then living out of boxes, and trying to do it all with a Chloe in the room, is tough. But, God has provided us a cheaper, and closer-in place that will be great for our small group to meet in. We loved the green spaces of Gibbs, but we are committed to our ministry in the more urban areas of our town. So, this is great for us!

Finally, many of you have been praying that God would send our core group the worship leader and ministry partner that He wants us to have. As a result of an ad on craigslist, and also putting the word out to some pastor friends, we have been connected with several prospective dudes. So, your prayers are working... Keep praying that the Holy Spirit would work in the heart of the right guy and he would be as excited about loving Knoxville with Christ's love as we are!

See you tomorrow!

Prayer and a Wedding

2009-07-09T00:35:00.005-04:00

Well, I had a great time this Sunday at our first Ridge Church corporate prayer gathering. We have committed for the near future to have two gatherings each month at The Ridge. The first is a "regular" worship gathering, where we will enjoy musical worship, teaching from the Bible, and communion together. The second gathering is one devoted to prayer.

Jesus was God's Son, "God in a bod." And, He prayed alot. You could easily make the case that we should pray 24/7, since we're not perfect, as Jesus is! Fortunately, Jesus had alot to say about prayer and how to pray. We are told to pray constantly by the Apostle Paul.

So, prayer is important! And, I think you would probably agree that we don't pray enough, either as individuals, families, or churches. So, at Ridge Church, we are aiming to change that part of our lives and approach God more often in many different settings and styles. We will praise Him, repent of sin to Him, thank Him, and intercede for the needs of others and ourselves. It's good stuff for the Christ-following soul!

This Friday through Sunday, Emily and I are going to Charlotte, NC to participate in a wedding. One of our former student ministry members is tying the knot and we've been invited to be part of it. I'll be co-performing the wedding, and Emily will be reading Scripture as part of the ceremony. Speaking of prayer, please pray for the couple, Daniel and Vanessa. They are great "kids" (not anymore!) and we want God's blessing on their lives. Please also pray for our travel to be safe and for Chloe to hang in there during the drive and non-Mommy time... Thanks!

This Sunday, we are not having a gathering at The Ridge. Most weeks when we don't gather, we'll go to another local church together and then eat lunch at a local restaurant to fellowship. This week, since Emily and I are out of town, I want to encourage you to visit another local, Bible-believing church. If you learn anything interesting or "steal" any cool ideas, let me know!

Have a great rest of the week!

A guest blog from one of our own...

2009-07-01T10:30:00.007-04:00

Today, I thought it would be cool to have a guest blog post. Today's post is from one of our Ridge Church folks, Bill Irving. He and his wife Sue host a Ridge Church small group at their home in the Alice Bell area. (They are also Emily's parents and Chloe's grandparents!) They had a super-cool fun night last week that I thought you'd like to hear about. Here's Bill's post:

"Acts 1:8 talks about Christ-followers being 'witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' On Thursday, June 25, the small group that meets at our home had a watermelon slicing. The main families that we invited were the eight households that touch our property. The people we invited are our immediate Jerusalem.

There were about 18 people who showed up, with half of the households that we invited being present. We got better acquainted with people we already knew, but met people that we did not know, too. We also took watermelon to one of the families in our neighborhood that is homebound.

There was not a lot of pre-planning. Each family in our small group brought a watermelon and on the previous Monday, Emily and I passed out invitations to the surrounding homes. We used the postcards that Kevin had given us the week before, which included the church's website. So there was not a lot of prior notice. This is something that we will try again not only in our neighborhood but it could also be tried in the neighborhoods that our group members live.

With the modern inventions of air conditioning and TV most families don’t get out of their houses as much and talk with their neighbors. This will give you an opportunity to meet your neighbors"

- Bill Irving

What Bill and his small group did was awesome! Their whole idea was to get to know their community, have some fun, and share God's love with other people, while enjoying an evening together as a small group. This is a great idea, because God has called us to live as witnesses to Him starting in our neighborhoods and moving out from there.

One important thing to note is that Bill and his small group didn't "push" Jesus on anyone at their watermelon slicing. They didn't all bring Bibles out and hit their neighbors over the head with them. They did, however, show that they cared about their neighbors, and they did make their neighbors aware of their small group. They made sure folks knew that they were welcome to come to their small group and our Sunday gatherings. Awesome!

Great job Ridge Church people! May your example serve as a reminder that we can all reach out to be witnesses for Christ anytime, anyplace. Enjoy the pics of the watermelon slicing below!

A Year One Update and Some Important Changes at The Ridge

2009-06-23T22:03:00.001-04:00

Hey everybody! I just wanted to take some time and put out here on the blog some important changes that are taking place at The Ridge. It's hard to believe, but it's been nearly a year since Emily and I moved back to Knoxville (June 30 of last year)!

The last year has been a tough one for Emily, Chloe, and me. Emily's pregnancy was stressful, but Chloe was our "little" miracle child when she was born in November. There's too much to share about that here, but Emily will if you want!

Chloe has had a disposition toward giving us first-time parents little scares by being sick a lot. Fortunately, after getting ear tubes about a month ago, Chloe has only had one infection of any kind! That's kinda nice, because since leaving the hospital in November, three month-long ear infections (requiring 3 different meds and two shots), and five other infections. Chloe's went to the doctor more than 20 times this year from January to April... And to Children's Hospital for tests twice.

We are by no means complaining, since we have a healthy child! Many other parents care for chronically ill children with major health issues. We have been very blessed to have Chloe and have all her "issues" be minor. But, as a first-time Dad, this has not been something I could have been ready for, that's for sure!

Talking about numbers, Emily and I have driven more than 4,500 miles since our church planting journey began, visiting churches to raise support for our plant, meeting other pastors, and being the subject of prayer from entire churches (thanks alot for those prayers!). Chloe has already been to 7 states outside Tennessee!

So, it's been a wild year in several ways, incuding being a church planter and first-time dad while also working full-time at a retail establishment (HoneyBaked Ham Store) and watching our old townhouse in Charlotte sit on the market while we have been unable to make payments on it.

To be completely honest, much of our human "planning" for our church plant has been completely tossed asunder over the last 12 months by God. I have come to realize over the past year that the church planting experience is a wonderful tool that the Lord uses to enact major remodeling in the spiritual, physical, emotional, and social world of the church planter and his wife and family. I have found that this "remodeling" has to occur before the church planter and the church plant can be effectively used by God to lead others to Christ and to spiritual growth.

Relatively little has gone "according to plan", from the recession affecting the lives of so many of our Ridge Church folks and our personal fundraising efforts, to Chloe's doctors' visits, to needing to work full-time at a non-church job to support our little family.

I was once pretty upset at all the stuff that didn't go the way I wanted it to over the last year. However, God has changed my mind about all of it. I have been supremely humbled by the Lord since June 30, 2008. He has grown me in many, many ways. I have seen Him at work, come to a new realization of His Sovereignty in my life, and finally given the totality of my life over to His control and guidance. This is tough for a Type A kinda guy and Type A kinda girl (Emily).

Anyway, with regard to our important Ridge Church changes: We've found that we are a little "ahead of ourselves" in acting our age as a church plant. Just like Chloe should be expected to act like a 7-month old, our church should act its age as well. We want to offer God a Sunday worship gathering that is worthy of His greatness. We want other people as the Body of Christ at Ridge Church to be involved in serving and leading. We want to be a healthy church planting family and make sure that we have healthy time and involvement boundaries. This way, Emily, Chloe and I have our priorities in order and enjoy the family God has blessed us with.

Last Sunday at The Ridge, we shared that our church is going to move to meeting twice monthly on Sundays. We are seeking to "act our age" and strive to be a place of spiritual health for the planter, God's people, and our city as we remember our focus must be upward on God and outward on others, not inward on ourselves.

I have created a PDF document from my PowerPoint slides that we talked about last Sunday. I'd love for you to read it if you'd like to learn more about our re-commitment to our Ridge Church Vision and Values and also to the Lord, each other, and our community. Feel free to check it out here, and also feel free to email me any comments or questions you may have.

Emily, Chloe and I continue to be committed to this great adventure that God has called us to, and we want to encourage you to stay the course with us as we move forward under a renewed sense of the Holy Spirit's leadership.

Have a great week!

Great Small Group Opportunities This Week!

2009-06-16T21:23:00.006-04:00

We have two small groups at Ridge Church. They are our first small groups, and they've been meeting for about a month... They're awesome!

One thing that we believe is very important as part of our small group concept is "knowing and being known." They idea is that when you participate in a small group, and really buy into the concept of living as part of a community of Christ-followers, you will know others, and you will be known by them as well.

It's a cyclical, building-on-itself process. As you share about yourself, you show you trust others, and they get to know you. As others share about themselves, they show that they trust you and you get to know them. All the time that this sharing is going on, you are building community.

As trust is built in Christian community, people allow others to be God's "broken tools" that He uses to help us fix our brokenness. As wild as it sounds, God is glorified when we help each other, even though none of us are anywhere near perfect. This is part of God's plan of helping us to grow spiritually. It is part of the "discipleship process" which means that you are becoming a more devoted follower (disciple) of Christ.

Things work really well in relationships when we consider others as more important than ourselves (Philipppians 2:1-11), when we "speak the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15-16), when we don't make assumptions about folks and try to fix their problems while ours are obviously hindering us (Matthew 7:1-5), and we truly submit to the useful assistance others can provide us in our lives (Proverbs 27:17).

In Ridge Church small groups, we love the verses above (and other verses), because they guide our behavior and attitudes in our small groups, and they show us how God wants to work in our lives.

Of course, part of "knowing and being known" is having fun together! Fun is even one of our Ridge Church core values! So, each of our small groups has a "fun night" each month.

This week, the Alice Bell small group, (led by Bill and Sue Irving) is meeting at Bill and Sue Irving's house at 6:30 pm on Thursday night. Everyone is welcome! You can click here for directions to the house. Their small group's fun night is coming up soon, and I've heard something about a watermelon slicing!

The Gibbs small group (led by Kevin and Emily Layne) is having a night of Lunar Golf at Knoxville Center Mall this Wednesday night at 7 pm. Anyone is welcome to come to this group, as well. Click here for more info on Lunar Golf.

If you're not involved in a small group, this week is a great time to jump in! It's also a great time to bring a friend to check out your group and make some new friends.

Have a great week!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

2009-06-11T23:07:00.003-04:00

Sunday Sunday Sunday! See the alcohol-burning funny cars at the Bristol WinterNationals! Tickets go on sale Friday! Your ticket gets you the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge!

I've always wanted to be that guy that does the drag racing commercials... Maybe someday I'll get scouted to do that and make the big bucks!

Seriously though, we have a big weekend coming up for Ridge Church! Saturday, we are having a picnic in the park at Adair Park in Fountain City. It's a laid-back, bring-your-own-food type thing, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. You can come and go as you like, and feel free to bring food, football, a frisbee and a friend to have some fun!

We'll be gathering together at the parking lot near the playground. Please join us for a time to hang out and enjoy each other's company!

Sunday, we're going to be talking about our Ridge Church core values and what you can expect for the next few months at The Ridge. We'll talk some about our plans for the future, share about a cool summer event coming up, and put something cool in your hands. It's going to be a great time to be there on Sunday at 10 a.m. at Panache!

See you this weekend!

Cleaning Up First Creek, Stewardship, and Sovereignty

2009-06-02T23:58:00.000-04:00

Hey! A big public thanks to all the folks who came out on Saturday and helped us to clean up First Creek as one of our Ridge Church service projects! Thank you for sharing your love for our city with others who enjoy nature!

First Creek is one of the city's major tributaries that runs through Fountain City area (apparently it starts up near Parkdale Road where it traverses Black Oak Ridge) all the way to the Tennessee River. It is a historic part of Knoxville's very existence! In 1786, James White built White's Fort right near where First Creek runs into the river. And White's Fort became Knoxville, and Knoxville is where we live!

For you history nuts out there: In 1863 during the Civil War, First Creek became a strong part of the Union defense line during the siege of Knoxville. The Yankees damned it to flood the area and keep the Confederates from attacking on that side of town. You can read about Knoxville Civil War battles here. (It's a cool driving tour. OK, at least I think it's cool...)

Anyway, why do we do stuff like cleaning up First Creek? Because we believe that God has called us to be stewards not only of our funds but of the planet He made for us to enjoy. That means we are supposed to manage it well, and it means that the Earth is God's and it is good. We should take care of it; it is not merely ours to abuse as we see fit.

All in all, it's an issue of Sovereignty. We believe God is our King, and our world is part of His Kingdom. As members of God's family due to our faith in Christ, we have a responsibility to take care of His stuff and set an example for others to follow. So, that's why we cleaned up First Creek! (Incidentally, that's why the Layne family recycles everything Knox County will accept. It's not hard and it keeps nasty stuff out of First Creek!)

To be very clear... At Ridge Church we are not "Tree Huggers" who worship nature, we are "God Lovers" who believe that His trees and flowers and mountains and "critters" are awesome and give us a small glimpse of God's majesty and glory.

As Romans 1:19-20 notes, nature points Christ-followers and even those who have yet to place their faith in Christ to our Creator and Lord and Father. So, we should enjoy and maintain it with care, as this was God's command to Adam and Eve. That's our approach, and it's really pretty simple. Besides, who wants bikes and monster truck tires and road signs in First Creek? Those aren't good for the ducks and who wants to wade in that? Haha!

Anyway, thanks again to those who served, and have a great week! See you Sunday at Panache at 10 a.m.!

A Wedding, Small Groups, and a Service Project

2009-05-26T22:59:00.001-04:00

Hey! Hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day Weekend! I know I did. It was tiring, but good! I also learned that it's hard to drive 10 hours in 2 days with your 6-month old little girl. Lesson learned!

Thanks to those of you who prayed for Hugo and Emily. Their wedding in Charlotte went off just fine... Nobody objected to the marriage, so that was good! We also got to visit the church where Emily and I served in student ministry there for 6 years, and have a special Sunday lunch (at Bojangles!) with some of our "old" students there... They are growing up so fast! Many of them just graduated college, and one of them just bought a house! How time flies...

We have a great week of Ridge Church ministry going on this week! Wednesday and Thursday, we have our two small group meetings. Pick one and come see us! Our Wednesday night small group is led by Emily and me, and meets at our house in Gibbs at 7 pm. Our Thursday night group is led by Bill and Sue Irving, and meets at the "Irving Estate" in the Alice Bell community at 6:30 pm.

Small groups are where we study God's Word in a small group setting, some really great relationships are built, we pray for each other, and we have fun together! For more info call me at 865.244.7279 or email me.

We have a Ridge Church service project this weekend! Meet us at Fountain City Park Saturday at 9 am as we participate with Keep Knoxville Beautiful in cleaning up First Creek. We'll be working in the park area, so this is a great opportunity to serve our city with your kids as we live out our value of Serving Others! Come on out and work those muscles improving our community. Email Emily if you have questions.

See ya at one of our small groups, on Saturday, and Sunday morning at Panache!

No Worship Gathering This Weekend...

2009-05-23T07:43:00.003-04:00

Hey, everybody! Just wanted to remind you that we're not having a worship gathering this weekend. Emily and I are about to leave to go to Charlotte for a wedding today... It's a young man who I had the privilege to lead to Christ several years ago. It's very exciting for us to be part of it and see old friends!

It just so happens that it's also Memorial Day Weekend, so we made the decision to hold off on a worship gathering this week. That way, folks can travel, hang out, or visit another place of worship if they like. Enjoy your time! We'll be back at the same bat channel and same bat time next week, May 31, at 10 a.m. at Panache.

By the way, feel free to pray for the young man and his new wife. They are Hugo Muraco and Emily (Newton) Muraco. Thanks!

Awesome Child Dedication Last Sunday, Communion/Lord's Supper This Sunday!

2009-05-14T23:40:00.000-04:00

Hey! We had a great time Sunday at our first Ridge Church child dedication. Our daughter Chloe and Kahlan Carter were dedicated to God by their parents. It was a great time of worshiping God for the gifts of our children. It was also a great time of community, as the Christ-followers in attendance all committed to pray for the children and their parents, and provide any assistance possible in helping the parents to raise their kids in a way that glorifies God.

As part of a Christian community, we all have a responsibility to each other. The Bible refers to us as all parts of the "body of Christ" with Him as the head. Paul talks about this alot... Check out 1 Corinthians 12 for one cool passage on the topic.

Here's a pic of our child dedication... My prayer is that there are many to follow!

The parents all thanked God publicly for their children, praising Him for His gift. They all also publicly committed to raising their kids in God's paths, teaching them about Him and Christ's gift for us on the cross. The parents' prayers are that their kids would some day make their parents faith their own, and will become Christ-followers who in turn will raise their children to follow God. Cool stuff!

This Sunday, we are enjoying another worshipful Sunday gathering. We are going to share Communion or the Lord's Supper together. At Ridge Church, all Christ-followers are welcome to share in Communion with us. Anyone who has placed their faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins and committed to follow Him all their days is welcome to participate. This is a wonderful time of community and sharing together the grace that God gave us in sending His son to die for us. This is a great time to teach your children about Jesus and His love for us, and an awesome time to praise God for Jesus' victory over death.

So, join us this Sunday at Panache at 10 a.m.! We look forward to seeing you there!

Mother's Day this Sunday!

2009-05-07T22:44:00.003-04:00

Hey! Mother's Day is this Sunday. This is a cool holiday for Moms to be celebrated and encouraged for all the hard work they do. But, it's also a cool holiday to recognize our kids and what a huge responsibility we parents have toward them.

This week at our worship gathering, we'll be dedicating several children to God. What does that mean? It simply means that we recognize that our children are a blessing from God, and they belong to God entirely. If we are followers of Christ, then we want to raise our kids in a way that would honor God. But, that's no easy task!

Sunday is an opportunity for parents to dedicate themselves to raising their children God's way, with the dual gifts of Grace and Faith. Of course, parenting isn't easy, which is something Emily and I have already learned... and today is just Chloe's six-month "birthday!"

So, here's how it goes: On Sunday, our parents will acknowledge publicly that their children belong to God. They will commit to striving to honor God in their parenting, and ask for His help in doing that. We will pray for them, encourage them, and thank God for their children. Then, we will also, as a church, commit to encouraging and supporting the folks in our midst who are raising the kids. This is a great picture of the body of Christ working in harmony!

So, be sure to be there on Sunday and encourage our parents (Emily and I included!). It will be a great experience.

Of course, not everyone is a Mom, and not everyone has kids. And, that is OK! Emily and I didn't have kids for the first 10 years of our marriage; God just chose to bless us in other ways!

Because Moms are important, and because we value everyone at The Ridge, we want you to come even if you're not a parent. Get behind our parents and support them, and praise God for all the kids at Ridge Church. Again, it's a great picture of the Body of Christ!

Speaking of Chloe, she finally had ear tubes put in this morning! And, she seems to be feeling much better. Will this result in less crying on Sundays? Come this weekend and find out! Hahaha!

A Prayer Request from Fountain City's Firemen

2009-05-02T16:14:00.004-04:00

Hey! I hope you all are having a great day today... Hope you're staying dry in this rain!

I have a minute to post a blog update, and was reminded of a visit I had earlier this week with some guys at the Knoxville Fire Department's Station 15 in Fountain City. I've driven by the fire house at the corner of Jacksboro Pike and Essary Road alot lately. God put it on my heart more and more each time to stop by and ask the firemen (firepeople?) there if The Ridge could serve them in any way.

So, this week, after a visit to our dentist (praise report: "Look Ma, no cavities!"), I stopped by the fire house at about 4:30 in the afternoon. The guys in the kitchen were making Sloppy Joes for supper and just hanging out. I introduced myself, mentioned that we were a new church in the area, and asked if there was any way that we could support them in their dangerous work to protect our families and property from perhaps the most feared manmade scourge: fire.

The guys were a little surprised: 1) to see me enter the firehouse (I assume it's kinda rare for a civilian to roll up in there), 2) to have a local pastor ask if there was any way his church could pray for them.

This is sad, but beside the point, I guess. The main point is that the guys took a couple minutes to come up with an answer to my question, but when they did, they simply asked for prayer. They mentioned the dangers of their jobs, and that their families worry for their safety. I told them I would pray for them, which I have. I also told them I'd pass the request along and that they could ask for us to support them anytime.

This is a really simple thing to do, but it means alot to folks! So, next time God tells you to pray for someone or speak a kind word of encouragement to them, do so! The guys were curious where we met, and I told them. You never know, you may get to meet one of them some Sunday at Panache! Inviting the guys to our worship gathering was not the reason I went to visit the fire house, but God opened a door. He may do the same for you to present Jesus' love to someone in a special way.

People are curious when they hear of a new church where God is worshiped and the people are serious about serving others. So, keep all this in mind, pray for the fire"people" and have a great Saturday! See you tomorrow at 10 am!

Small Groups at The Ridge!

2009-04-29T23:14:00.004-04:00

Yep! We're starting our first small groups at Ridge Church. And, they begin just one week from tonight!

Small groups are awesome! What are small groups? Small groups are groups of people from The Ridge who gather together during the week to share a time of fellowship and friendship, Bible learning, and care and encouragement. Gathering together on Sundays for worship is awesome and VERY important to our Christian growth and maturity. However, small groups are the best environment for people to "know and be known" by others, because there is a greater opportunity for closeness and true personal interaction than we can have on Sunday mornings.

Our core values at Ridge Church are:

Truth
Grace and Faith
Community
Serving Others
New Churches
Fun!

Small groups provide a wonderful venue for Truth from the Bible--the Gospel--to be discussed and learned, Grace and Faith to be shared and encouraged, Community between believers to be built, and Serving Others to be practiced and enjoyed. Our value of New Churches may very well be lived out sometime soon as small groups assist new churches in creative ways. Finally, our small groups will be Fun! Fun is an important part of small groups... You'll learn more about that when you get to that first gathering!

Wednesday, May 6, we'll start our first two small groups. One will be led by Bill and Sue Irving, the other by Kevin and Emily Layne. This Sunday, we'll share all about times and locations and what you can expect. So, keep your Wednesday nights free, and be at Panache on Sunday to worship with us and get all the info you'll need about small groups. See ya soon!

Lotsa Good Stuff Coming Down the Road...

2009-04-24T21:45:00.006-04:00

Hey! I hope you all are having a great week!

Just wanted to touch base, say hey, and let you know a brief summary of what's coming up in the next weeks at The Ridge. God is up to alot in our midst!

First, I want to thank Ken and Christy Garrison for hosting our Sunday worship gatherings at Panache. Thanks guys... You set a great example of hospitality and service.

Here's a little bit about what's going on:

We're meeting every Sunday morning for worship at Panache from 10 until 11:15 (ish) a.m. We have graciously been invited to stay as long as we need to meet there. So, invite a friend, family member, or co-worker and come join us Sunday! After a week off after working hard to prepare for our Easter celebration in Fountain City Park, our worship team returns this week... Thank them for their faithfulness!
Our Ridge Church small groups start on May 6! I can't begin to tell you how pumped I am about this... Small groups are where we believe the local church finds its greatest and purest expression. Sunday morning worship gatherings are wonderful and necessary for honoring our God and building community. But worship on Sunday is not personal enough to stand alone as a discipleship tool. Along with the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives and personal prayer, we need the community, encouragement, and discipline that only real relationships with other believers in the name of Christ can give us. So, make plans to "know and be known" in one of our first two small groups starting Wednesday, May 6! More info on Sunday!
We're having a special "baby dedication" time in our Mother's Day gathering on May 10. We'll be dedicating our children who have not already been dedicated to God. Really, this time is a time for the Christ-following parents of "Ridge Kids" to dedicate themselves to raising up their kids in a way that God would be honored by. See Ephesians 6:1-4 (there are many other verses on parenting in the Bible!) for an idea of what we mean. If you have questions or are interested in dedicating your child to God (and any age is appropriate!) let Emily know. We're taking a break from our awesome study of Colossians on Mother's Day for a chat about kids and parenting. As a new parent, I don't have all the answers, but God certainly does... See ya there. Bring a friend!
We're taking a break from our Sunday worship gathering schedule on Memorial Day Weekend, Sunday May 24. This is a way to honor our hosts at Panache, our worship team, and me (hey, the pastor works too!) with a break. It's also a way for Emily, Chloe and me to take a trip to visit our old friends in Charlotte and attend the wedding of two of the students from our student ministry there. So, worship at another local Bible-believing church, or take a trip out of town... Have fun!
We're having our regular Ridge Church Service Project on Saturday, May 30 from 9 to noon. We're helping the folks of the Fountain City Town Hall clean up First Creek in the Fountain City Park area in partnership with Keep Knoxville Beautiful. This is a great way to serve our city, get to know our town leadership, and honor God's creation as stewards of His wonderful Earth. Parents and kids both are very welcome! You will need to make plans to hang with your kids in the park area if you bring them, however.

Well, that's a bunch of cool stuff! Rest assured that The Ridge is not all about programs. However, because of our core values, we are committed to small groups, Sunday worship gatherings, and regular corporate service projects (and fun events!). See you soon, and don't forget to tell someone about The Ridge so they can hear about Jesus and get to know us!

Easter

2009-04-15T22:25:00.008-04:00

I couldn't have imagined a more enjoyable Easter Sunday than Easter 2009!

God truly has been good to us! Although we lost our awesome free meeting location last Sunday, God gave us a beautiful day on Easter for us to enjoy our worship gathering and picnic in Fountain City Park. Of course, He gave that day to everyone in our area, but maybe we appreciated it more than most of Knoxville did!

This was our first worship gathering outside. More importantly, it was our first worship gathering where we shared the Lord's Supper or Communion together. After the teaching on Jesus' identity as fully man, Jesus' crucifixion--taking the punishment we deserved for our sins, and Jesus' proof that He is fully God through His resurrection, sharing the Lord's Supper as a community of believers in Christ was extra meaningful for me. I hope it was for you, too. We will observe Communion regularly as a church, so look forward to it!

As I mentioned Sunday several times, Jesus has done all the "heavy lifting" (as well as the "light lifting" and "any lifting at all") to secure our forgiveness from God for our sins. We cannot earn our forgiveness from God no matter how badly we may like to try. We can, however, respond to God's calling in our lives and trust Him with our entire selves in faith. This all can happen because of God's gift of grace in Christ's death on the cross. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper together, we celebrate God's love for us, and Jesus Christ's obedience to die on that cross. We also look forward from the cross to the resurrection of Christ three days later on that first Easter. The Lord's Supper is so much to celebrate in such a simple act... It's a big deal and it's awesome to participate in it with you.

I pray that every Ridge Church Easter gathering is as glorifying to God as this one was. And, I pray that you are here to enjoy it with us!

As I mentioned Sunday, we have moved meeting locations... This Sunday, we will be meeting at Panache Hair and Body at 3501 Tazewell Pike in Fountain City. We're still meeting at 10 am (we'll keep as many things "regular" as we can!) until 11:15 or so. Ken and Christy Garrison have been very generous in allowing us to use their facility on Sundays, although they are already there six days a week!

If you read my last post, you know that having a building to meet in isn't everything and doesn't make a church. However, it does make things easier when, for instance, it rains! We'd also of course like to have more room as God blesses us and more people join into community with us. We want every friend and family member and neighbor who is invited to come to The Ridge to hear about Jesus to have that opportunity.

Rest assured we are keeping our eyes peeled for available, affordable meeting locations near I-640 and the general Fountain City area. Consider this an open invitation to participate in the search! Feel free to email me any ideas you have. No stone will be left unturned... Either way, we trust God will send us to our next location in His perfect timing!

One more thing you don't want to let get past you... Our April fellowship time! This Saturday, at Cris Patterson's house, we are having a cookout! This event is open to anyone who is interested in coming... Ridge folks and their friends and family and anyone else who is interested! This is another great time to bring someone who isn't too sure about Jesus or His people so that they can get to meet us and find out we're "normal" and really do care.

We're hanging out from 5 to 10 pm at Cris' house at 1718 Woodhaven Drive. If you want to eat, bring your own meat (and buns)! It's a really casual evening, so come and leave when you need to. Thanks a ton to Cris for hosting this evening. Hope to see you there!

Hello on Good Friday...

2009-04-10T23:33:00.005-04:00

Well, today was Good Friday, the ironically-named day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem at the end of His earthly ministry. The day is named "Good" because although Christ's death was absolutely horrible, it is unbelievably good for us that He chose it. Because Jesus took the punishment for our evil and sinfulness that we deserved and surrendered Himself to die on the cross, the way for us to be forgiven by God through faith in Christ was created. The Gospel, the Good News of Christ, is right there before us in the story of Jesus' act of obedience.

So, Good Friday indeed is a memorial to the greatest, best Good ever to happen in time. Our sinfulness met its required perfect substitute and sacrifice in God's Son Jesus. Thank God for His perfect plan to fix our relationship with Him, His perfect Son, and His perfect sacrifice of Himself for us... Even us.

Sunday at the Ridge, we will honor Jesus for His gift of life that was made possible by His gift of death on the cross. There will be some quiet time to worship and thank Jesus for His death. Then, we will celebrate His resurrection... Proof that He is Lord over death! There will be some happy, joyful time to worship and praise Jesus for His Lordship and status as God. At the end of our gathering, we will celebrate our first Communion together as believers and as a church. You definitely want to be there!

This Sunday, we will meet at Fountain City Park. We lost the meeting location we have been enjoying for free this last Sunday. Our landlord has been great to us, and even called me this week to check on our arrangements for Sunday. The time just came that he needed to rent out the space to someone else.

So, we don't have a whole lot of leads on new, fancy meeting locations. We do have a place to meet next week, so no worries there. (We'll let you know that on Sunday, so come to our Easter gathering!) But, it's OK that we don't have a new fancy meeting location!

So many churches are so hung up on their building/facility/fortress/comfort zone/idol. Unfortunately, many Christians are so dependent on their church buildings that they can't imagine "doing church" outside them, rarely seem to have any gatherings or fellowships that aren't at them, and even are confused about "the church" being a building.

This is unfortunate and so sad! I can go on, as this is one of my pet peeves... But just let it suffice for me to say two things:

1) Jesus (our Great Shepherd) didn't have a building. Luke 9:58 (ESV) says: "And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.'” Jesus wasn't a building manager. He was a guy who went all over talking about His Kingdom to people (who act just like sheep!). He preached in houses, on a boat to people on shore, and on hillsides. He loved His Father's creation and hung out in it with others. That's pretty cool to me.

2) The early church had no buildings. Folks met in the homes of those who would open them in hospitality. Believe it or not, Christianity had very few dedicated buildings until Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity a legal religion in 313. In fact, worshiping openly would in many cases result in arrest and did result in death for many believers. Many Christians even today meet in homes for fear of their government (China, North Korea, Iran) or due to financial constraints (Brazil, etc.). Meeting in a home or other location makes sense for alot of reasons!

So, we'll keep our eyes open for a new place to meet... And we'll keep you updated on our progress! But, we're not too worried about it because having a building has absolutely nothing to do with spiritual authenticity. It just makes things easier, in exchange for costing some of the money God provides to His people. God will provide a new location when He's ready, and his church (His people) will keep on being the church at The Ridge. We'll keep on worshiping Jesus and focusing on our Core Values. No matter where we end up, we're Ridge Church!

A Great Month of Worship Gatherings...

2009-04-04T12:44:00.004-04:00

Hey! We've had a great time at our Sunday morning worship gatherings together over the past couple weeks, and there's more to come...

Two weeks ago, we had a special guest, Andy Hughes of Journey Church of the Highlands in Boone, NC. Our church supports Andy with our finances and our prayers. We want you to get to know all of the church planters that we support, so we invited Andy to visit and have some time to share with us on a Sunday morning. He had hoped to bring his wife and kids, but he had a sick child in the house, so that didn't work out. Maybe next time!

Andy drove nearly three hours to be with us because he is excited about what's God is doing in Boone, and also because he is excited about what God is doing through Ridge Church in Fountain City. Please pray for Andy and his family... Boone is a tough place to plant a church. If you'd like to send an email greeting or prayer to Andy, just email me, and I will get it to him.

Last week, we discussed the future of The Ridge and what you can expect to see, hear, and experience with our church in the next year or so. Believe it or not, Emily and I have been back here in Knoxville for 9 months, and we're pretty pumped about what God is going to do through our church in the next 9 months!

We talked extensively last Sunday about what commitments are expected from everyone who calls Ridge Church home. We also talked about what you can expect The Ridge's leadership to commit to as part of our relationship to each other. Being part of a community of faith is a big deal, and we take that "community" and "faith" stuff seriously at Ridge Church! (As a matter of fact, those words are both in our Core Values!)

We shared last week our core values and also our statement of faith. I will be adding these to the website soon. Also, if you don't have a copy of those from our worship gathering, keep your eyes open for them this week and pick 'em up. Or, you can just let me know and I'll email you a copy.

This week, we're celebrating our first Palm Sunday together as a church! This will be a great two gatherings... Next week is Easter!

This is a perfect time to bring a friend to check out The Ridge. For those of you who've been bringing friends and family to see what Jesus and Ridge Church is all about (and there have been several of you)... Awesome! It's the invitations of family, friends, neighbors and co-workers that carry the most weight and are most often used by God to draw people into a relationship with Himself. Keep it up!!!

A Thank You to The Ridge from the Fountain City Ministry Center!

2009-03-31T22:26:00.016-04:00

Hey, everybody! I had a great time serving with you this Saturday morning at the Fountain City Ministry Center. I'm excited about everyone who came and lived out our core value of Serving Others! I'm proud (the good kind) of all of you who shared your time to help the less fortunate in the name of Christ.

Here's the highlights of a nice email I got from Becky Warwick, the Chairperson of the Board of the ministry center

"Dear Kevin: What a great day we had Saturday! You've got some wonderful church members. I look forward to getting to know them better in the future. I just thought Saturday went wonderfully well... I hope it was a good experience for your family and members.

From all of us, thank you for all the laundry detergent and diapers that you brought AND for all the volunteer hours given. The detergent will be given out this week and the clients will be thrilled to receive it... Your group is to be commended! I can't say enough good things about your members. What a great day we had serving the Lord together.

...Sure do appreciate you and our new friendship! Look forward to working together in the future!

Becky"

Great job giving of yourselves, everyone. Here's some pics of the day for you to enjoy. See you this Sunday for our worship gathering!

MInistry Center Service Project and Sunday Gathering!

2009-03-27T23:07:00.006-04:00

Hey! Just a a couple reminders!

First, I hope to see you all tomorrow morning at the Fountain City Ministry Center for our Ridge Church service project there!

We're meeting at the Ministry Center, in the back of Central Baptist Church of Fountain City, at 10 am. We'll serve until lunchtime, and then eat lunch together in Fountain City Park (as long as the weather is OK.) If we meet in the park, everyone can bring their own food and then we'll camp out in a pavilion. You can check out a map to the Ministry Center here.

Feel free to bring your kids, but make sure that you are ready to keep an eye on them, as there is no child care. Also, please bring along some diapers and/or powdered laundry detergent. We're going to give a gift of diapers to the ministry center for their patrons, and also divide up laundry detergent into sandwich bags so it can be distributed to those who visit the center. Whatever else they have for us to do, we'll pitch in there as well.

The Ministry Center does some great work helping our neighbors in Jesus' name, and we're glad to be able to partner with them. It's important that we, as Christ-followers, care for those who are less fortunate or going through tough times. Jesus had alot to say about how we treat the poor and needy in our world, and we do too! One of our core values is Serving Others, and we take it seriously. (But, serving can be fun, too!)

The second reminder: We're having our Ridge Church worship gathering on Sunday! I know it's just been a week since we met, and we've been meeting every two weeks. But, we've got some important things to talk about regarding our Core Values and how they apply to all of us, some future things going on in the Spring and Summer, and also information about how you can become more involved in living out the love of Jesus in our community.

I won't be continuing my preaching on Colossians this week, but sharing some information and challenges for our people. Also, our Children's Ministry will not meet. We want our kids' volunteers to participate in this time with our entire group.

See you tomorrow and Sunday on this big weekend!

Andy Hughes This Sunday and St. Patrick

2009-03-20T00:56:00.005-04:00

Hey, everyone! Just wanted to remind you of a couple things heading into the weekend.

First, we are meeting this Sunday at 10 a.m. at our new location! Join us at the Conference Center at Smithwood Corner at 4901 Jacksboro Pike in Fountain City. It's actually just across Sanders Road from our previous location, Marli's Restaurant.

Our special guest this Sunday is Andy Hughes and his family! Andy is the planter at Journey Church of the Highlands in Boone, NC and a fellow Acts29 planter. We support Andy financially as part of our commitment to New Churches (we give 10% of our offerings to church plants). Andy sets a great example for us in our town as he serves as a missionary in the culture in Boone. He'll be sharing some ways that God is working and we can pray more specifically for him, his family, and his church.

Bring a friend or two to connect with God and us and see what He's up to in our midst! Feel free also to join us for lunch... Those who have the time always head someplace together!

Also, here's a little something that goes off the Ridge Church blog into the mind of a guy I really respect, Mark Driscoll. He's the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle and the co-founder of Acts29. In honor of the recent celebration about an Irish dude and the color green, here's Mark's cool blog post about St. Patrick. That dude had it right, we'd do well to imitate his commitment and creativity in sharing the Gospel over 1,000 years after he died... Enjoy!

A Full Week!

2009-03-13T18:51:00.001-04:00

Wow, what a busy week. I'm beginning to learn just how crazy life can be when you have just one kid, and two part-time jobs, and a spouse! I really feel for those of you out there who have 3+ kids and a job and still have your wits about you... Props to you if you're that person! I can only hope that I learn to manage my life a little better each day with God's help... Emily and I would like to have another child someday, Chloe isn't even old enough to crawl and get into stuff yet, and we're already feeling a little wave-tossed!

I want to keep you all updated on some things going on with us and Ridge Church... Here's a list of some things that went down lately.

Sunday, we had a great final worship gathering at Marli's restaurant! We have been given a multimedia projector by a generous local church, Knox Life, and we used it in our gathering for the second time on Sunday. I really enjoy teaching God's Word using PowerPoint, and I think we all find it easier to have musical worship with the words on a screen instead of on a sheet of paper. For those who like paper, we still have a "handout" that has our weekly Psalms chapter that we're reading together, some announcements, and an area for you to take notes!
Two weeks ago, Emily and I met with Becky Warwick with the Fountain City Ministry Center. She's a really cool lady and loves the people of Fountain City! She and I have been trying to get together and chat about ministry since just before Chloe was born (it took about 4 months!). Emily and I finally got to visit the ministry center, and we saw that they are doing some great stuff in Jesus' name for the less fortunate and down on their luck folks in our community. We are looking forward to serving with the Ministry Center (it matches our value of Serving Others). Come join us there on Saturday, March 28 at 10 a.m.! Mark your calendar now and look for specifics about what we'll be doing and some things that you can bring with you soon.

Many of you have been keeping up with Chloe's several infections and issues... A week or so ago, she had her second trip to Children's Hospital for a test on her bladder and kidneys. It was not fun! They strapped her down to a board to take X-rays of her after filling her bladder full of liquid. She made it, though, and after a visit to the urologist last week, she is over the infection she had and the doctor gave us a good report! Last night, Emily took Chloe to the UT Hospital after-hours kids' clinic and she got a new diagnosis: her first ear infection. Nothing that more meds can't solve! Thanks for praying for Chloe with us through all of her many, fortunately minor, health issues.

I still work my part-time job at the HoneyBaked Ham Store, which is a blessing in this economy. It's hard work sometimes, but I'm making some good friends and meeting alot of people. Stop by and see me sometime at the store in front of Kohl's at Knoxville Center!

Enjoy your weekend, and since this is an "off Sunday" for us at the Ridge, why not visit another place to worship and see how other churches' Sunday mornings go? Feel free to bring ideas back and email them to me!

See you next Sunday the 22nd at our new meeting location, and on Saturday the 28th at the Fountain City Ministry Center!

Marli's, Becca, and My Friend Jason

2009-03-06T22:39:00.001-05:00

Most of you probably have heard by now that Marli's Restaurant, where Ridge Church meets for our Sunday morning gatherings, is closing. It's been difficult for many restaurants to stay afloat in our current economy as people stop eating out as much and stay home to save money.

In these times, it only takes one problem to be "the straw that breaks the camel's back." For Marli's, it was a plumbing problem. A plumbing issue forced them to close down temporarily; now the cost to repair the issue and to restock the food that Marli's was unable to prepare and sell is going to keep the restaurant from reopening.

So, we are losing a great place to eat in Fountain City... But, God has provided for The Ridge's long-term and short-term future. Leo Cooper, who runs Marli's, is going to allow us to continue to meet in his restuarant until he leases it out. This is very generous! Please pray for Leo and his family, as well as the Marli's employees who are now unemployed. Like many people out there, the recession is changing their lives in some difficult ways.

Joe McTeer, who runs Frontier Pest Control on the second floor of the building across the street from Marli's, also rents the Conference Center located on the first floor of that building. Not too long ago, we asked him about using his space as a meeting location for our adults, while our children's ministry would continue to use Marli's. The idea was to expand to two buildings as we grow numerically and prepare for weekly Sunday morning gatherings. We would also increase our parking exponentially.

Joe, who is a Christ-follower and goes to Corryton Church (in Corryton!), quickly and graciously offered to let us use his facility on Sunday mornings! That means that we will be moving there for our Ridge Church worship gathering on March 22. We will still be at Marli's this Sunday, March 8... So, come on out this weekend! (Make sure to set your clock FORWARD an hour Saturday night!) We will discuss our "move" a little more on Sunday.

Please pray for our Children's Ministry Intern, Becca Thiele. Her pickup "died" the other day, and she is without a way to drive to The Ridge on Sundays from Johnson Bible College. That stinks! Please pray for transportation to happen soon for her. She loves Jesus and our children and really wants to serve on Sundays! If you can help, let me know!

Please pray also for my friend and fellow Acts29 church planter Jason Martin of Journey Church in Austell, GA, west of Atlanta. He has a passel of kids, loves Jesus very much, and is in difficult shape financially. The short story is that he is "replanting" an existing church. That means they have a building (and all the costs that go with it) but they are still numerically and financially small. Jason is a carpenter and had been paying his bills by making cabinets, since his church can't pay him a salary yet. Unfortunately, there is no work available in his area. His family is really hurting financially. Please pray that God would provide for him.

I could go on about how life can be hard even for those who love Jesus, but that's a different blog post for a different time. The big thing to take out of this is to pray for Leo and his family, the folks who worked at Marli's and their families, Becca, and Jason and his family. It's about people. That's why Jesus dropped into Bethlehem in a stable with a bunch of furry critters. Because it's about people.

See you and all the people God has blessed me to be the pastor of this Sunday at Marli's at 10 a.m.!

70's/80's Bowling Saturday Was Fun!

2009-03-03T22:49:00.005-05:00

Hey! We had a great time Saturday night at the Down Under Rec Center at UT. Pretty much everyone dressed up as a 70's or 80's character or in retro gear. That was a sight to see... I wonder if we freaked out any of the other folks there?

It was great seeing all of you at the rec center... It's fun to worship together on Sundays, but it's also fun to get together outside of the Sunday gathering and share "regular parts" of life together... It's also fun for me to have student-age people participating with The Ridge. I love students! As a student pastor for 10 years, I learned that students are lots of fun, good for giving you funny stories, and love your time and interest. We want Ridge Church to always be a place where students are welcome to come and worship and learn about Jesus.

The fun night Saturday is important... Get-togethers like that are right in line with our core value of Community. We plan on always continuing to do things like that together as a part of who we are as a church. Hopefully the weather will be warm next time, and we can enjoy the outdoors!

Have a great week... See you on Sunday! Oh, yeah, don't forget that this Saturday night, you need to "spring forward." That means, before you hit the hay on Saturday night, roll your clock forward 1 hour. That way, you won't show up for our gathering right as we finish up! (Although, you'll be just in time to help us "tear down" and can also go to eat with us!)

Here's some pics:

70's and 80's Bowling Night Tonight!

2009-02-28T11:56:00.005-05:00

Yep! That's right folks... We're having a 70's and 80's Bowling Night tonight, Saturday the 28th, at the Down Under Rec Center under the University Center on UT's campus! It should be alot of fun for all ages!

Just show up at the Rec Center about 5:30 so we can get everyone organized on lanes, and bring $6 for shoes and 2 hours of bowling. (I know, great deal, right?) Kids are welcome to come and have a blast with us. Oh, yeah, and dress up like a character from the 70's or 80's, or just wear something that people wore during the 70's or 80's.

If you're looking at a last-minute decision to come or not, come on! Don't let a lack of "retro" or "vintage" attire hold you back! Remember, they wore jeans and shirts in the 80's. I mean, it might have been a mesh Joe Montana jersey, or a purple Pink Panther shirt with my name on the back in iron-on letters (sorry, no pic!), but it was a shirt, right? (Go here for more fun shirts!)

For more info, email Emily or call or text her. This is a great opportunity to get to know other peeps at The Ridge a little better and have some fun... That's one of our core values: Fun!

See you tonight!

Last Sunday and This Sunday at The Ridge!

2009-02-19T22:37:00.000-05:00

Two Sundays ago, at our last Ridge Church gathering, we talked about Colossians chapter 1 and the fact that the Gospel is a living thing. Living things grow and bear fruit. We talked about how the Gospel changes everything about a person, from the heart out. If you have a relationship with Christ, you are adopted into God's family. Because of that, everything is new--based purely on that relationship with God through faith in Christ.

As an object lesson about the Gospel and growth, I gave everyone at our gathering a plastic cup, some cotton balls, and some green bean seeds. The idea was to put damp cotton balls in the cup, put the seeds on the cotton balls, and then keep the cotton moist so that the seeds can grow.

When we look at the seeds growing in our cups, we are reminded that having Christ in our lives should lead to spiritual, social, emotional, and pretty much every other kind of growth. Being a Christ follower means that we can expect to experience spiritual maturity and our lives should "bear fruit"--others should be drawn to Jesus by the things we say and do.

I asked anyone who wanted to take a pic of their beans to send them to me, and I would post them here for others... Here's a couple from Ken Garrison (Thanks Ken!):

Seeds soon after "planting" them in the cotton balls.

Seeds really growing after about a week... Ken looks like he's got a serious green thumb!

See you Sunday at 10 a.m. at Marli 's in Fountain City! Bring a friend and introduce them to all the great folks that are part of The Ridge!

Trey and Kitten, Evansville, and Discovery Church

2009-02-18T20:56:00.015-05:00

Last weekend, Emily and I drove to Evansville, Indiana to visit our friends Trey and Kitten McClain and their church plant, Discovery Church. Discovery has committed to supporting The Ridge financially each month with 5% of their offerings. They also financially support a church literally "on the Strip" in Las Vegas called Verve.

Pretty cool! Both Ridge Church and Discovery Church are committed to planting churches. The first church plant we are supporting at The Ridge is Journey Church of the Highlands in Boone, NC. You can learn more about Journey in an earlier blog post. We will be supporting more churches as time goes on because New Churches is one of our core values!

Trey had Emily and me come up front at their gathering and share a bit about what God is doing here in Knoxville through The Ridge and the awesome folks who call Ridge Church home. It was good to be there and be encouraged, and it was also good for the Discovery folks to meet firsthand the real live church planter types that they are supporting with their prayers and God's money. We did a little Q&A from the stage, and then their church prayed for Emily, Chloe, me and all of the Ridge Church folks. So, know that there are people in Indiana behind us!

Here's a pic of all of us (including Trey and Kitten's kids Alyssa and Morgan) together at Marx Barbecue on the West Side of Evansville this Sunday after Discovery's worship gathering. There's also a purely gratuitous one of Chloe asleep in the car when we stopped for gas:

Discovery has been great to us! We thank God for their support and the support of other churches like them, including many Acts29 East Coast churches.

God is up to big things in Knoxville, but that's not the only place! There is a new generation of churches that are serious about living life transformed by God and His love and truly loving their communities... It's pretty exciting... It's great to be part of something bigger than ourselves!

Recap from Last Sunday!

2009-02-13T22:33:00.009-05:00

Last Sunday (or "this past Sunday"...) we had another great Ridge Church worship gathering. God has blessed us in so many ways! We have been having a great time getting to know each other as a group of believers and people exploring Jesus over the past 6 months as The Ridge moves toward having weekly Sunday morning gatherings.

Being a church isn't just about having formatted services on every Sunday morning. We believe that the local church should be a healthy community of God-followers and a welcoming, Christ-glorifying place to include and involve others.

God has been great to us recently! This Sunday, our worship team used our "new" sound system for the first time; we bought it for a great price from a guy in Bean Station (incidentally one of Tennessee's earliest settled places) who had used it in a church singing group. Gotta love Craigslist! Our worship team enjoyed having a good system to use as they led us on Sunday.

Another local church, Knox Life Church, has blessed us with some other equipment needs! Knox Life is a church that reaches out to the folks who live and work downtown in our fair city. They used to meet in the Regal Riviera Theater in the heart of downtown on Gay Street but have moved to the Old City and started a coffee shop called Remedy. Knox Life gave us the use of their multimedia projector. What a great gesture of sharing with another church! Our style of ministry is different than Knox Life's, but that's OK! We're all on the same team.

We haven't used the Knox Life projector yet, but it will make its debut soon one Sunday at Marli's. We also are the happy recipients of some of those cool squishy puzzle-piece floor things in our children's ministry area for our kids to sit on during our gatherings. Those were also a gift from Knox Life! Thanks so much!

So, God has been really providing for our fellowship's needs. Our goal has always been to honor God with good stewardship of the Ridge Church finances. Instead of spending a ton of God's money on new and fancy stuff, we can direct more of God's funds to church planting, missions, and helping those who need it in our town. It's also a great picture of the Kingdom when one church can help build up another by sharing gently used things that they no longer need. After all, it's all God's stuff, and we share a common mission--spreading the Good News of Jesus!

Emily and I are headed to visit our friends Trey and Kitten (and thier kids!) and Discovery Church in Evansville, Indiana this week. Discovery is one of the churches that has been financially supporting The Ridge. We are excited about seeing them, and also hope that one day they will be able to come to Knox Vegas to meet you all!

Prayers for safety are appreciated...

By the way, if you're interested in being part of the Children's Ministry Volunteer Interest Meeting at Marli's this Tuesday evening, email Emily and make plans to join in. She'd love to hear from you!

Enjoy these pics from last Sunday!

Acts29 Boot Camp in Raleigh

2009-02-09T16:33:00.005-05:00

Hey! This Sunday was another awesome Ridge Church gathering... But, I'm still kinda "gathering" it all in my head, so I thought I'd share with you a little about our trip to the Acts29 Boot Camp in Raleigh last week.

After being laid off (for lack of a better word) for two weeks at the HoneyBaked Ham Store while they restructured their workforce, I was fortunate to start working there again last Monday in a new position with more hours per week. That was a blessing for sure... Money is tight for all of us these days. Tuesday, after I helped close the store, Emily, Chloe, Sue (Emily's mom--Bill couldn't go due to work stuff) and I left for Raleigh and the conference.

Of course, the night we needed to drive through the Smokies would be one of the worst nights ever for accidents in the snow through the North Carolina side of the National Park on I-40. We spent over three hours stuck and/or crawling through there. We finally made some progress by following a salt truck at about 1 a.m. while dodging jackknifed and sliding 18-wheelers. You can read about the fun evening if you like.

Then, east of Asheville, the roads were worse than they were in the mountains. There was pretty much nothing on the roads with us except a few tractor trailers... But then again, it was about 2 am by the time we left the snow-covered parts. Of course, once we got down the mountains into the flat places, the roads were perfect!

We finally got to our hotel in Raleigh at 4:30 a.m. and slept for about 2 hours before the conference started. I drank a ton of coffee that day, that's for sure!

The conference was awesome... We did Track One and had a great time. As Emily and I have already attended a previous boot camp in 2008 and been approved as church planters, it was an enjoyable (and less anxious!) time. We saw some familiar church planters, met many new ones, and heard some great speakers.

We learned a great deal, were challenged in our spiritual lives and church planting ideas, and met a ton of new young couples who are being assessed as potential church planters. There were 25 total couples being assessed on Friday. God is certainly using Acts29 and raising up those who He is calling to expand the Kingdom of God!

Anyhow, it was a great couple days. We're glad that we were able to go, regardless of the difficulties in getting there. To think we almost spent the night in Asheville and went back home because of the scary weather... Sometimes the hardship on the journey is difficult, but worth the reward to be found at the destination. I believe church planting is just like that!

On a totally unrelated note, we've posted our 2008 Ridge Church Financial Report on the website for you to have access to... The link in the "Simple and Secure Online Giving" area at the right side of our homepage.

We want to be totally transparent at The Ridge about where our funds go and what they are used for. It's God's money, so there's nothing to hide! You can expect future financial reports to occur each quarter. If you ever have questions about our funds, please ask!

More later this week on the Gathering from Sunday!

Our Last Gathering, The Ridge, and New Churches

2009-02-07T20:08:00.005-05:00

Last post we talked about Ridge Church's commitment to Serving Others and missions. We are committed to supporting missions with both our time and our funds. As a part of that commitment, we give 5% of every dollar that we receive in our offerings on Sunday to missions activities. Serving Others is one of our six core values, and we mean it when we say that!

(On a somewhat irrelevant side note, when you come to our gathering tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. at Marli's in Fountain City, you'll notice we have a new "offering basket." It's made of banana leaves and it's pretty cool... It must be cool cause I got it at Target. Fits right in with Marli's Caribbean theme! Haha.)

The Ridge is also strongly committed to church planting. New Churches is another of our Ridge Church values. It's also a core value of the Acts29 Network, to which we belong. As part of our commitment to planting churches, we give 10% of every dollar we receive in our "offering basket" to church planting.

The first church plant that The Ridge is supporting is Journey Church of the Highlands in Boone, NC. The pastor of Journey is Andy Hughes. In the six months or so that I've known Andy, we've become friends and I have become excited about his work in Boone. It's an honor for us to send him a $400 check to support his church from our 2008 offerings.

We hope to have Andy make an appearance at one of our Sunday morning gatherings in March. Until then, here's some info about Andy and his family, as well as his church's vision and values:

"Andy Hughes is married to Tonya. Together they have two kids, Charis and Owen. God began to lay upon Andy and Tonya’s heart a desire to reach the unreached and poorly churched in Boone, NC."

"Journey Church of the Highlands exists to be a renewed authentic community learning to rejoice in the infinite value of King Jesus as we journey together to make known His transforming grace in word and deed in all things to the High Country Community."

Core Values:

a) God: We rejoice in the reality of the Triune Infinite personal God.

b) Gospel: Transforms how we think and live before God and others as reconciled people of God.

c) Community: An authentic community of friends who are committed to Christ and one another.

d) Mission: We exist to bring God’s Redemptive message to our culture and the world.

e) Culture: We value displaying the truth of the Gospel in all aspects of culture by thinking and living to His glory in all things (art, vocation, family, society etc…)

I'm excited about what God has in store for both The Ridge and Journey Church of the Highlands! I'm also excited about our gathering tomorrow... There are new things every week (such as a sweet new offering basket). This week, you might just see a new sound system, too!

See you in the morning...

Our Last Gathering, The Ridge, and Serving Others

2009-02-03T01:46:00.005-05:00

At our last Sunday gathering after our Bible teaching time, we heard from Jimmie Hodges, the first local missionary that The Ridge is supporting. Jimmie shared some really cool stuff--like how God can call you at any time to be a missionary, even if you're retired. How God can use a simple trip to Canada, and a simple concern for some poor Native American kids, to create a desire to serve others with your time in Christ's name. How God can use one man's energy to serve hundreds of people in the poor areas of Appalachia and impact dozens of small towns.

Jimmie shared some great stuff, and if you heard him I'm sure you were motivated! God can and will do anything with anyone, often through the most unexpected ways. What better way for God to glorify Himself?

The Ridge is committed to supporting Jimmie financially, as well as in more tangible ways. Jimmie spends around $700 of his own money each month in gas on his nearly daily trips to Kentucky to deliver food, clothes, and all kinds of other stuff. So, we gave Jimmie what he needs most to make his ministry successful--money for gas.

(Believe it or not, Jimmie has more stuff to give away than he can find space for... His uncanny ability to attract massive amounts of free stuff is a story in itself! Ask him about the jelly sometime. By the way, if you know of a cheap place that we can use to help Jimmie store things, like, say, 6,000 t-shirts, let me know, OK?)

We also took up a collection of baby clothes for Jimmie to deliver to the people he helps in the mountains. We'll do things like that for Jimmie (and other ministries) enough that you should have no problem keeping your closets and garages well-organized... You're welcome!

The Ridge has been committed from Minute One (as I say it) to supporting missions with our time and 5% of every dollar that our people give in our offering at each gathering on Sundays. We gave Jimmie $200, or 5% of our 2008 financial offerings from Ridge Church folks. At the end of March, we'll distribute 5% of our January through March offerings to missions. It's simple and it helps those who've committed their lives to taking the Good News of Jesus to others through both word and action.

The Ridge has also volunteered with KARM twice already, and we will again in the future. This summer, we helped set up the KARM thrift store on Merchants Drive. At Thanksgiving, we helped distribute over 1,400 turkeys to needy Knoxville families. We really mean it when we say we're serious about missions at Ridge Church!

We're also very serious about church planting. Our next post will discuss the first church plant that The Ridge will be supporting. Again, we will support church plants both financially and in tangible ways.

Serving Others and New Churches are two of our six Ridge Church Values, and we will stay true to them through thick and thin! We will always give 5% to missions endeavors and provide ways for you to become involved with your time and talents as well. Stay tuned for more missions opportunities all the time!

Thanks to some special people!

2009-01-26T23:37:00.007-05:00

This Sunday our Ridge Church gathering was a blast! I have to admit I was a little nervous about how things would go. We had several new things going on, and they were all important things that we were praying would go well. And they did! Our children's ministry's first week, our first musical and financial worship time (we had an offering) and our first interview with the first local missionary that we are supporting went great! It was a great week in general.

I want to thank a few people who helped make Sunday what it was. Obviously, we want to thank God for heading up this whole enterprise! It's also important that we thank the people who serve well at our church. Not because we want to puff anyone up with pride, but because we want to encourage those who humbly serve to continue to do so, and also encourage those who aren't serving to do so for God's glory.

There are a ton of Bible verses about serving others and the proper healthy interdependence of the people who are the church. 1 Peter 4:10-11 says, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

Just because I'm the "Lead Pastor" doesn't mean I'm any more important or valuable to The Ridge than any other person who calls our young church body home. We are all valuable in God's plan for the local church, we all need each other, and we all benefit from serving each other in our areas of gifting and expertise.

That said, I want to thank a few folks who served humbly and well as a way to honor God this week. First, my wife Emily, who is a great administrator and does a ton of stuff I stink at! She also sang as part of our worship time. Thanks to Tom Kerley, who led worship on his guitar and brought some of his own sound equipment, and Pat Norris who stepped up to the plate on Sunday morning and rocked the congas.

Thanks also go to Becca Thiele, who is a college freshman at Johnson Bible College and serves as our Children's Ministry Intern. She is serving because she comes from a church plant in Charlotte, she loves kids, and she is excited about gaining ministry experience. We are blessed to have her with us for this semester. Other children's ministry thanks goes to Sue Irving, Emily's mom, who is committed to doing what it takes to serve in our children's ministry and make it a safe place for kids to learn about God and be loved by caring adults. Karen Norris also assisted in the kids' area, and we thank her for her willingness to jump in and help with no notice!

Finally, we should thank Cris Patterson, who is part of the management team at Marli's, where we meet. She's part of our happy crew, and also is the one who locks up after us and arranged for us to meet at her place of employ. Leo Cooper, Jr., the owner of Marli's, is also a great guy, and he has given the OK for us to meet at his restaurant on Sundays out of the kindness of his heart.

There are other people who should be thanked, like Ken Garrison for being part of our offering counting team. Many of you also helped to clean up Marli's after we concluded our gathering. I don't even know who all of you were, but you know who you are. Thank you!

I'm sure I've missed someone, but I want to make an important point here. Our church is all about the Gospel and Jesus Christ. You're going to hear me say that so much it will seem to get old. That's fine by me. The Old Testament looks forward to Christ's coming to earth and crucifixion for our sins, and the New Testament explains His activities and looks forward to His return. The whole Bible is God's Word to us, and the most important message of all is how to be reconciled to God. And that can only happen through a relationship with Christ.

Our church is all about Christ, but the ministries of our church happen because of the humble hearts and devoted service of those whose lives are oriented around Jesus and work as part of our local church body, our team. It is a truly a team ministry!

For that reason, you will often read blog posts where I thank and encourage those who serve in our midst, those who serve those outside our midst, and those who make huge steps of faith and honor God in outstanding ways. Those folks are an inspiration to us all. The great thing is that many of you are those people! My prayer is that all of the folks that call The Ridge home will find their way onto the blog, because we are all seeking to honor God with our entire being.

Until next time...

A Good Remedy for Losing a Basketball Game

2009-01-24T21:38:00.008-05:00

Well, the Vols lost to Memphis tonight. It was Chloe's first basketball game! It was close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, as we used to say...

Anyhow, here's a great fixer-upper for those who feel down after the loss today. Come hang out with us Ridge Church people tomorrow! That's right, we're meeting tomorrow, Sunday January 25th, at Marli's Caribbean-American Cuisine in Fountain City at 10 a.m. (Check out the panel on the right of the main page for directions.)

Tomorrow is going to include several firsts for The Ridge:

First opportunity to worship God with music and singing.
First opportunity to worship God with a monetary offering.
First time for our children to share a time of their own during our gathering (we're starting with ages 5 and under this week, it's the beginning of our children's ministry).
First interview with a local missionary--Jimmie Hodges.
First financial gift from Ridge Church to a local missionary (Jimmie).
First financial gift from Ridge Church to an Acts29 church planter--Andy Hughes and Journey Church of the Highlands in Boone, North Carolina. (We're working on getting Andy here soon so you can get to know him.)

So, tomorrow should be pretty fun! (That's one of our Ridge Church Core Values). So, if you're looking for a place to worship God or investigate the claims of Christ tomorrow, please join us! We meet from 10 to 11:15 a.m.

By the way (I forgot to mention this) bring any extra baby clothes you may have tomorrow morning to our gathering. We'll give them to Jimmie for his ministry to the underprivileged people in the mountains of Kentucky.

Have a great night!

Last Week's Recap... Part Two

2009-01-19T23:06:00.006-05:00

Last Sunday, we learned some very basic stuff about what worship is. God's Word tells us in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, English Standard Version)

In the New Testament, Jesus tells us that this commandment is actually the most important one we have from God: "And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:28-31, ESV)

Worship of God is defined simply here. I especially like the last definition that Webster's gives: "extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem." When God is our object of worship, we are in good shape!

God has made us all differently... I'm sure you've heard since you were a little kid that people are like snowflakes? I guess it's true... And he's made us all to with different personalities and ways of connecting with Him.

At Ridge Church, we believe that however you worship God privately, if it finds its background in biblical practice and solid orthodox theology, is great. If you like to read the book of Psalms as a quiet reflection, swell. If you enjoy spending time outdoors and connecting with God there, great. If you paint or sculpt or enjoy other arts as a way of worship, awesome. If you like to read devotional books or theology books or listen to worship music, rock on!

A couple things to remember: God wants ALL of our being as our worship of Him. Romans chapter 12 verse one says, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." Verse two goes on to say, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (ESV)

God wants all of us, body and mind and will. All of our life should be an act of worship of the One who made us and then loved us enough to send Christ as a sacrificial substitute to take the punishment for our sins. God has provided the only way to true life in His Son. When we place our faith in Christ, we become a permanent part of God's family and we are a totally new person forever. That's the Gospel in a nutshell.

God wants us to enjoy our relationship with Him and each other in community. Hebrews 10:24-25 states, "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." (ESV)

"No man is an island." We all need a relationship with God through Christ. As Christ-followers, we all need each other. (See 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 for a great discussion on the church as the Body of Christ). That is simply how God made humans.

So, connect with God often privately in ways that you enjoy. Also, remember to gather together with the rest of us regularly to worship God together corporately. We may or may not enjoy the mode of worship you practice privately when we gather on Sundays, but we will always be willing to consider different worship modes and practices, because we are all important members of Christ's body.

Want to learn more about how God wired you to worship? Check this out and do the simple survey on the website. Feel free to email me if you have questions.

Weekly Recap... Part One

2009-01-19T22:06:00.010-05:00

Well, what a week it was!

Last Sunday, Ridge Church enjoyed our first Sunday morning Gathering at Marli's Caribbean American Cuisine in Fountain City. We really appreciate Leo Cooper allowing us to "borrow" his dining area on Sunday morning and Cris Patterson serving as our host!

Our Gathering went from about 10:15 to 11:30 a.m. last week. We were shooting for 10 to 11. So, we live and learn! This Sunday, we're meeting at the same place, but we'll aim for starting on time at 10 a.m. Doors will open at 9:45 a.m. so you can come in out of the cold to have a cup of coffee, hang out and meet some new friends!

We're not perfect people, so we're going to be learning each week as we grow into meeting on Sunday mornings... We'll be adding new experiences each week, as we discover together what type of Sunday morning gathering fits us best and is most honoring to God for our Ridge Church community. So, remember we haven't "arrived" and we'll be growing in lots of ways pretty much every time we meet. Isn't being part of a baby church interesting, fun, and exciting?! Just like having a real baby! (And boy, do I know that now!)

So, that said, make plans now to join us this Sunday at Marli's from 10 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. Since last Sunday didn't involve anything super embarrassing on my part that might make Jesus look bad, please feel free to invite a friend to come check things out and investigate The Ridge this Sunday!

By the way, this weekend we will be having some new opportunities that we have not enjoyed before. We are planning for a time of musical worship, as we work toward our goal of having a worship team. (If you're interested, please email Emily!)

We will also be providing a children's lesson for kids up to age 4 or 5 in a separate area of Marli's. Chloe will be there... Hopefully not crying! Our college student children's ministry intern, Becca Theile, will be in the children's area. So will Sue Irving. This is just the beginning of our Ridge Church children's ministry, and it will surely change a great deal over time. But, rest assured, our focus kid-wise is on providing a safe place for children to learn about Christ. Very simple, and very important.

We'll also have some other cool stuff on Sunday that will allow you to see, hear, and experience the Core Values of Ridge Church. Enough for today. More tomorrow!

Reminder: First Sunday Morning Meeting Tomorrow!

2009-01-10T23:39:00.004-05:00

Hey, everyone! Just wanted to remind those of you who are still up and those of you who get up early to check your email on Sunday morning (Wow, those are usually two distinct types of people... Kind of like those who like Neil Diamond and those who don't...) that The Ridge is meeting for the first time on Sunday morning tomorrow at 10 am at Leo's restaurant in Fountain City! The restaurant is soon to be called Marli's.

For more info, check out this earlier blog post.

So, see you tomorrow! We're going to have an interesting day. We'll talk about Acts chapter 2, introduce an element of worship (not music, but we'll talk about why) and also talk about some special ministries that we'll be supporting with the money you give to Ridge Church. It's never too early to spread the Kingdom of God beyond ourselves!

Good stuff. See you tomorrow... Have a great night!

Thankfulness Train Keeps Rollin'...

2009-01-08T23:54:00.011-05:00

Well, while we're talking about Thankfulness here at the start of the New Year, it's only appropriate that we publicly thank all the folks who have supported the Layne family prayerfully and financially for the past six months while we have been planting Ridge Church.

There are many folks who have donated their hard-earned funds to provide a way for Emily and me to pay the bills as we have been meeting folks and gathering people into The Ridge. We can't thank them enough! Although I have a part-time job at the HoneyBaked Ham Store near Knoxville Center, and I work with some really great people, that job isn't designed to supply the pay, hours, or benefits to provide for a family.

Our church is associated with the Acts29 Network, a group of churches that plant churches and agree on a common theology. A29 churches connect for prayer, advice, support and encouragement. However, The Ridge is not connected with a specific denomination. We are "nondenominational" or independent.

There are certain benefits from being nondenominational, like not having an outside entity tell you how to do everything or being forced to give your money to a certain fund. But, being nondenominational also means Emily and I don't get a "paycheck" like most people think of it.

All the funds that Emily and I get from Ridge Church while our church is young and small are funds that have been donated to The Ridge for our support. The donations come from friends, family, and churches. When we grow larger, Ridge Church will become financially independent... But that takes a little time.

So, for making life possible for us, we thank our supporters! And, we thank God for creating a spirit of generosity in your hearts.

Although I don't think it's appropriate to share the names of all the individuals and families who are supporting us financially, I'd love to share the names of the churches! Some are part of the Acts29 Network, and some aren't. But, all of them are important to us and we thank them very much for committing to us as a couple and to the vision God has for The Ridge!

Christ Community Church - Watkinsville, Georiga
Discovery Church - Evansville, Indiana
Exmore Baptist Church - Exmore, Virginia
Redeemer Community Church - Johnson City, Tennessee
Sojourn Church - Huntsville, Alabama

Thanks again to all our prayer and financial supporters. You rock! By the way, if you're reading this and would like to join the list of our supporters, please do not hesitate to let me know... We can find a way for you to help The Ridge get financially on our feet!

Yep, we're meeting on Sunday mornings now...

2009-01-06T23:59:00.001-05:00

Hey! You read that correctly... We are moving our Sunday night Ridge Church gatherings to Sunday mornings from our usual Sunday evening time slot. We're also changing our location.

Christy Garrison of Panache hair salon at 3501 Tazewell Pike in Fountain City has been graciously allowing us to use her location for our gatherings. She's a great lady, and we're thankful to Christy for letting us use her facility!

Starting Sunday, January 11 from 10 to 11 a.m.., we will begin meeting at Leo's Cafe (soon to have a new name: Marli's) at 3029 Tazewell Pike in Fountain City. (Just down the road from Panache.) Leo and family have been great in allowing us to use their restaurant for our new location.

So, what does it mean that we are meeting on Sunday mornings now? A couple of things. First, it means that you need to come out a little bit earlier for our gatherings. Seven and a half hours, to be exact. Also, it means that several people who are part of our "launch team" but were unable to come on Sunday evenings will be able to come. Finally, it's closer to the meeting time we hope to have when we gather weekly on Sunday mornings.

That said, remember that we are still a "baby" church! Just because we are meeting on Sunday morning doesn't mean we have "arrived." We are still getting to know each other and what Ridge Church is all about. This is still a great time to bring a friend who is not so sure about what Jesus or church is all about. As a matter of fact, at Ridge Church, every week will be a good week to bring a friend who doesn't know Jesus. So, consider inviting a friend on Sunday!

Since we are a baby church (fortunately minus all the crying that Chloe's been doing), we won't be pulling out all the stops just yet with a sound system, worship team, and handouts! But, we will have friendly faces, name tags to wear so you can get to know each other, a great time to learn about Acts chapter 2 from God's Word, and a time of worship together. (Hint: Worship is NOT just singing!)

So, see you Sunday... Come at 10 am to Leo's/Marli's and come with expectation for all the great things God has done, is doing, and will do with our lives and Ridge Church.

More Thankfulness Action!

2009-01-05T00:46:00.006-05:00

Hey! A bunch of you participated in the Ridge Church November service project. We helped Knox Area Rescue Ministries (KARM) distribute hundreds of turkeys and food boxes to the less fortunate in the Knoxville area just before Thanksgiving (right after our little Chlo Chlo was born).

I didn't thank you all for participating in that yet, but I hope you know that you rock! Here's a cool email we got from KARM the other day. Thanks for loving folks in Knoxville in Jesus' name with us! You Ridge Church peeps are pretty cool...

Dear Thanksgiving Basket Volunteer,

2008's Basket Assembly was the fastest ever….and Basket Distribution allowed us to give away more than just food….

A great event was made even greater! Over 200 volunteers served with love and sacrifice by sorting and counting food, decorating all 1300 boxes with willing hands, filling them with meals for 1300 families (fastest year ever!), or being a face of hope at distribution. An extra 100 boxes were given away this year! Whatever your role in this year's event, you were a part of a successful effort to provide the Love of Christ to those in need.

We are thankful for your sincere efforts this season.

Have a great New Year!!

The KARM Volunteer Team

A Season of Thankfulness

2009-01-01T15:24:00.000-05:00

I wrote in my last post that our family has just (hopefully!) come out of a very busy season, and we hope for a more restful one for a while. This is also a time for us to look around our lives and be thankful for what God is up to. The Laynes kind of missed that at Thanksgiving time due to all the insanity that has been our lives of late.

So, here's some things we're thankful for lately:

Jesus coming down here to hang out with us in bodily form, and everything that follows His Incarnation.
A healthy baby Chloe.
A healthy Emily.
A warm home when it's cold outside.
The love of friends and family.
All the Ridge Church folks we've met and reconnected with since June.
The opportunities to serve our community in two service projects.
The prayer and financial support Ridge Church has received from families and churches who are behind us, all over the country.
The opportunity to support church planting and missions with the finances shared by Ridge Church folks (more info on that soon).
All the help we've received with shower gifts for Chloe and all the babysitting offers.
A "new to us" vehicle for Emily to drive when I'm at work that was given to us by a kind and caring Christ-follower here in Knoxville.

The list could go on, of course, because even when times are tough, God provides blessings. Life is like that... For all the tough things in this world, it is still God's world, and when He made it He said it was good. Check out Genesis 1 for more info there...

Have a great New Year!

Hello!

2008-12-28T14:52:00.005-05:00

Hey, everybody! Long time, no post. I apologize for my absence... It's been a wild ride these last 7 weeks since our daughter was born on November 7.

A little update: Chloe is fine, finally putting on some weight. She's still a little thing, but healthier and getting happier. Her trip home from the hospital was followed by an eye infection, major gas issues, and then acid reflux. We've had two different eye medications, changed formulas, found out the value of those gas drops everyone uses, experienced projectile vomiting, and received a prescription for her acid reflux. Now, she's kinda colicky! But, things are improving for Chloe.

Mom is doing well, too, but she's had her own issues. Emily had a nasty case of mastitis (mentioned in a previous post) and finally started getting over that, only to have some serious bleeding the week before Thanksgiving. We spent an afternoon in the Emergency Room at Ft. Sanders Hospital downtown, where Chloe was born. In the end, they chalked up Emily's issues to "abnormal bleeding" and sent her home. She has a prescription for iron supplement pills since she lost to much blood through all of that.

Finally, right after all that fun stuff, the holiday rush started at the HoneyBaked Ham Store, where I've been working a seasonal job since August selling hams and turkeys to business customers. Things just died down the day after Christmas, but boy is that place wild from the week before Thanksgiving to the day after Christmas! I worked 34 hours on my feet, "slinging hams" outside in the cold from December 22 through 24. I was a tired puppy after that.

Throw in all the visits of family and friends, having some issues with our former mission organization, and a few other surprises, and we are all three worn out. But, that's how life goes sometimes! There are seasons of rest and seasons of business. Hopefully we are entering a season of rest for a bit!

Just wanted to let you know what's been going on with us. I hope your holiday season has been great, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and you have a great and safe New Year. There's some great Ridge Church stuff coming up after January 1, including opportunities to be involved in our new small group gatherings and Sunday large-group gatherings... So, be ready for more info soon!

Specific Info about This Sunday's Service Project

2008-11-18T22:03:00.004-05:00

Here's the information about Sunday's service project that my wife put on our Ridge Church Facebook group and emailed to folks. Not on our email list? Let me know and we'll take care of it! If you haven't signed up for Facebook, it's a great place to stay connected to other Ridgers, keep up with what we're doing and RSVP when we have events.

The Ridge is helping KARM with their Thanksgiving Basket Giveaway on Sunday, November 23rd, from 2-4 pm. We must meet at the KARM parking lot at 1:15 pm to meet up and check in as a group at the volunteer table. There will be NO parking there, but attached is a parking pass with places you can park. (Since there's no attachment, email Emily for one if you need it.)

Here are some helpful hints:

You will be outside, so dress accordingly.
No one under 16 is allowed at this event. We try to make all things kid friendly but this is not! So, we will have childcare available at Nicole Johnson's home. Emily will be staying there and Becca Thiele will be there as well. If you need childcare please email Emily or call her at 704.579.2022 to get the address. Also, Emily needs to know how many children we will have in case we need additional help, so please let her know before Friday November 21st! Kiddos will need to be dropped off at the Johnson home by 12:45 pm. We will NOT be providing their lunch, so send it with them or feed them before they get there.
You will need to fill out a Volunteer Waiver and bring it with you. Email Emily to get one.

Please call us with questions! 704.579.2022 (Emily, the event planner) or 704.579.2235 (Kevin).

Directions to KARM are below. We look forward to partnering with you on Sunday and serving our community together! Serving Others is one thing The Ridge values greatly--it's not just something we do at the holidays.

Thanks guys! We are excited to hear who is able to participate so please RSVP...

Emily

From West:

Take I-40 East to exit #388.
Take the right hand split on the exit ramp labeled "Western Ave./Summit Hill".
At the end of the ramp, turn left at the light. This will put you on Western Ave.
Go to the next traffic light and turn left. This will put you on Broadway.
Follow Broadway until you go under the Interstate overpass. We are the first building on the right after you go under the Interstate overpass.

From East:

Take I-40 West to the 5 th Ave. Exit.
Turn right onto Gill St. that is the second street to the right after coming off the ramp.
Follow Gill Street to the first traffic light and turn left. This will put you on Broadway.
Follow Broadway through the next two traffic lights. After you go through the second light, we are the last two buildings on the left in the next block. If you go under the Interstate overpass you have gone too far.

MapQuest Map to Knox Area Rescue Ministries

Why This Sunday's Ridge Church Gathering is Cancelled...

2008-11-14T22:02:00.009-05:00

Hey, everybody! I hope you're having an awesome week. Our little girl Chloe is a week old today... God has blessed us with a healthy baby girl.

We have two prayer requests this weekend that are sickness-related. First of all, Christy Garrison's grandmother Virginia ("Tootsie") is very ill. Christy has been spending nights at her grandmother's bedside at the hospital and is exhausted. I spoke to Christy's husband Ken this evening and he let me know that they will be unable to host our Sunday evening gathering at our announced location, Panache Salon in Fountain City. So, we are cancelling this week's meeting, originally scheduled for 5:30 to 7 pm.

Second, Emily is sick with mastitis. She has been running a fever for several days now (pretty much since we brought Chloe home Monday night) as a result. It looks that God is answering our prayers and she is not going to need to be re-admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics. (She has antibiotics in pill form instead.) She's also in alot of pain from her C-section and is still on pain medication.

Needless to say, our first week as parents has been a struggle, with Emily sick and me basically clueless about how to care for a baby! I'm learning slowly what to do... But we are both exhausted due to lack of sleep with a crying baby. Also, we're stressed out more than we have ever been in our lives due to being new parents. Your prayers on that front are appreciated!

I want to encourage all of you in two ways with this post:

It's all about God and people! Our gathering on Sunday is not as important as our hosts caring for their family in a time of sickness and need. It's also not as important as me attempting to care for my sick wife and our new child.
That said, everyone who is a believer in Christ is called to worship Him with our lives daily and with other believers regularly. Since there's no Ridge Church gathering on Sunday, check out a local church in our area Sunday morning or night. If you need a list of cool churches we've visited, let me know!

Our Ridge Church service project is still on the calendar for Sunday afternoon, November 23, at 2 pm. Please make plans to be there and join us as we "tip off" (Vols basketball, anyone?) the holiday season by serving those less fortunate at Thanksgiving!

Pics of Chloe

2008-11-07T19:34:00.003-05:00

Hey! Here are some pics of Chloe! There's a bunch that Emily picked out for your viewing pleasure, courtesy of box.net. You should try their file storage site if you haven't yet.

Have a great night... And thanks for your prayers and concern!

Our Little Girl is Here!

2008-11-07T17:15:00.009-05:00

Yep! This morning at 10:29 am, Chloe Fionna Layne was born at Ft. Sanders Regional Medical Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. We thank God for her! She is and will always be a blessing to us.

Chloe weighs 6.0 pounds and is 19 1/4 inches long. She's got all her fingers and toes... Mother and baby are doing just fine.

We were also blessed to have Emily's parents, Bill and Sue, along with Emily's aunt Rosie come and stay the day with us. They live here in Knoxville and are a wonderful support to us.

My parents, Roy and Frances, also came to see us. They drove in from Chilhowie, Virginia and spent most of the day before driving home. I'm sure Chloe will see a lot of all her grandparents!

Here is a link to video I think you'll like, it's on Google Video and can be downloaded there... (Sorry the video disappeared earlier.) Links to pics are in the next blog post.

God, Sovereignty, and Our Kid, Part 2

2008-11-03T22:54:00.007-05:00

The reason I shared all the info about Emily and having a child is to help state our belief that God is sovereign.

What does that mean? You can click on the definition above from Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, but what does it mean for us, in real life?

I've been reading through the book of Job. Not that I feel like him, not by a long shot! But, there is much to be gained by reading about how a man who encountered difficulty dealt with his own life and his relationship with God. One verse especially, Job 1:21, is an awesome one. After God allowed his entire family (except his wife) and all that he had to be destroyed, Job refused to abandon his God: "And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'"

Now those are some big words! Could you say them if bad stuff happened to you? We pray that God allows little Chloe to be born "just fine" and score well on her first test: the Apgar test. However, we would love her no matter what happens... That is because we believe God is, as I said last time, "large and in charge."

Here's some reasons we believe God is sovereign. (Really, maybe you should click that definition above!) I've stolen the list from Norm Geisler. He's a smart man... A good representative Bible verse is after each point below.

God is prior to all things. (John 17:24)
God produced all things. (Colossians 1:16)
God sustains all things. (1 Corinthians 8:6)
God transcends all things. (Psalm 8:1)
God knows all things. (Psalm 139:4)
God can do all things. (Matthew 19:26)
God owns all things. (1 Chronicles 29:14)
God rules over all things. (1 Chronicles 29:11-12)
God is in control of all things. (Proverbs 21:1)

This is a pretty good list of ideas and biblical passages to support the concept of God's sovereignty. The good thing is that just as the old song says, "He's got the whole world in His hands!"

Please pray for us as Emily goes to the hospital tomorrow morning (Friday) to have Chloe! We will post info here when we have a chance!

God, Sovereignty, and Our Kid, Part 1

2008-11-03T22:17:00.006-05:00

Today was another tough day on the "having a baby" front. Emily and I went to the doctor for her second amniocentesis this morning. I had a good feeling about the test showing that our baby was ready to be "taken out of the oven" but I was wrong. The lung-readiness test showed that she isn't.

The new plan is to have another growth ultrasound on Thursday morning, and if everything looks OK, have the C-section on Monday. If everything doesn't look OK, we will have a C-section ASAP after the ultrasound. If Emily goes into labor, we will have a C-section immediately. So, we don't know when little Chloe will be in this world!

Emily's pregnancy has been a difficult process for us. Many of you know that we've been married for 10 years. And, this is our first child. For a long time, we didn't feel led by God to have kids. We were student pastors for 10 years, and loved students. We were told more than one time that we had "plenty of kids already." And, for a long time, that was just right for us.

But, a couple of years ago, we really felt that God wanted us to adopt a child. Since we had already "adopted" tons of other people's kids, that just seemed natural for us and felt as if it was God's plan. However, after a couple years of pursuing adoption, we finally got a straight answer: we did not have the net worth, financial stability (living on support is not a plus to social services!) and residential stability that the child-placement agencies wanted.

So, we didn't know what to do. Then, we felt that God told us it was OK to try ot have "our own" child. That was a step of faith for us, since Emily has some major physical issues (I call it "battle damage") from a car accident in college. Her pelvis is plated together, and won't expand for natural childbirth. She also has a hip replacement (a residual problem from the car accident) and epilepsy that is controlled by medication. All in all, Emily is as healthy as any young woman her age, but for having kids there's lots of potential issues. Besides the structural stuff, epilepsy leads to a much higher risk of birth defects.

So, with God's leading, we attempted pregnancy early this year. To be honest, we didn't even really believe that Emily could get pregnant. We didn't know what kind of issues she might have with her plumbing as a result of her surgeries. But, God blessed us and Emily got pregnant almost instantly!

That was a buge blessing, but then came the waiting game for weeks and weeks as we had test after test to check for the possibility of birth defects and major spinal issues. We knew that our baby could have serious problems. We also knew that no matter what happened, we'd love our baby and treat him or her as a blessing from God. We were repeatedly offered extra tests that were intended to allow parents to abort their unborn children if their kids had major birth defects. We rejected the ones that we could, but doctors insisted on several.

To make a long story short, this has been a stressful time for us. (Plus, we just moved to plant a church, and we rely on the gracious financial gifts of others for our living expenses.) So, if we sound super-ready to have our little girl, we are... We just want to get the pregnancy thing done and see our little girl. But, no matter what happens (and thank God, all systems are go so far!) we will love little Chloe.

I want to ask you all to pray tonight for another Acts 29 Network pastor, Brad Hovis, and his wife Haley and son Owen. Brad and Haley's daughter Molly was born two months ago. She was expected to live just a few minutes after she was born. But, she held on until last night, when she died on the operating table as she received an organ transplant. Brad and Molly and Owen could really use your prayers, so please remember them.

God is truly large and in charge. His ways are not our ways, nor can we always understand them. Some children are born healthy, and some are not. We'll talk more about this in the next post... But for now, please pray for the Hovis family. They are hurting in a way I hope I never feel.

On God and Autumn Leaves

2008-11-02T20:01:00.009-05:00

Yesterday, Emily and I drove up the road to Maynardville to look at the autumn leaves... We didn't have a ton of time on our hands since it was kinda late in the afternoon. But, I wanted to drive her someplace out in the country where we could get away, have a nice drive, and check out the colorful leaves as the valley and Knoxville gave way to the bigger hills and smaller towns. We hope Emily is going to have a C-section on Tuesday, so this was probably our last chance to drive around "peacefully" for awhile.

The funny thing I noticed was that the further we got from Knoxville, the less colorful the leaves seemed to be. There were some really cool colors, like lemon-lime, UT orange, and maroon-red. (I won't say 'Bama crimson!) But, the intensity we expected just wasn't there. Apparently the weather hasn't been all that great for leaf colors. It was a little disappointing, until we drove back to Knoxville late in the afternoon.

What we noticed is that some of the most beautiful colors are just outside our front and back doors! Black Oak Ridge is showing some beautiful fall colors. And Emory Road from Halls to Gibbs and Tazewell Pike from Gibbs to Fountain City feature just about the most colorful displays we've seen this year.

So, on the day that we left town to "see the leaves," we realized that the very trees I pass every day on the way to work at the HoneyBaked Ham store, and the leaves we pass on the way back from Wal-Mart are just about as cool as any out there this year.

Isn't it true that we often fail to see God at work around us, in our lives, and in the lives of our friends and family because we are too focused on other places, things, and people? Sometimes we just need to open our eyes to things around us. Sometimes, we will see God at work in our lives. Other times, we will see ways that we can love others in the name of Christ. It's something to think about as you go about your daily routine, whether it's driving down the road or in your daily relationships.

There's no super-duper verse in the Bible that talks about fall leaves... But Psalm 1 is a cool chapter in a cool book. Check it out and enjoy a book that's been the favorite of many over the years.

Have a great week!

A Spooky Holiday...

2008-10-31T16:50:00.004-04:00

Today is Halloween! Everybody seems to do something different for this holiday. Many folks take their kids trick-or-treating, all dressed up as Hannah Montana, Batman, Peyton Manning, or Sarah Palin. (That's a joke...)

Anyway, it seems alot of churches have taken the stand of being totally against celebrating Halloween by trick-or-treating, and they are instead having Trunk-or-Treat things at their church parking lots. While I applaud the attempts of churches to do cool stuff for kids and their parents, I wonder if there is a better way to love folks at this time of year?

I guess the big question is, how can God work through our culture's celebration of Halloween? (Yes, I know it is a pagan holiday at heart.) How can we represent Christ in such a way as to make the biggest possible positive impression on our neighbors on this night? How can we best take the Gospel to others and allow Christ to shine through us on Halloween? I think that's the most useful question, with the greatest possible result. I believe it's nice to invite people to your church building. But, I think it's always better to hang out with people in their neighborhoods and invite them right up to your front door!

Ryan Mobley of Delta Church in Springfield, Illinois has written a cool article about Halloween in his blog. Ryan is a fellow Acts29 Network pastor, and shares some good, simple wisdom about how God can use us to engage folks with love as Christ's representatives on Halloween.

You may be seeing more links to trusted pastors' blogs in the near future, as Emily and I hope to have a baby here real soon! She is scheduled for an amniocentesis (don't worry, it's a very safe procedure at 38 weeks) on Monday, with a possible C-section on Tuesday. We'll keep you informed and post pics, but for about a little while I may need the backup of other good bloggers while I figure this whole sleeping thing out!

Have a safe and fun night...

RIdge Church Value #6: Fun

2008-10-29T17:18:00.010-04:00

Well, we're finally to our final Ridge Church value! It may be the last one on our list, but it's pretty important, because it affects the way we approach our other values.

This weekend, when we held our first Ridge Church Pumpkin Carving, we had fun. When we meet in our small groups early in 2009, we will make sure to have fun. When we start our weekly worship services, we will have fun elements then as well.

It's evident that many churches have eliminated the concept of fun and enjoyment from their activities and programs. Step into many (but not all!) churches' Sunday worship services, weeknight activities, or whatever else is on the schedule, and you are likely to become bored and disinterested very quickly. This is so sad, because the Bible is a pretty exciting book, and the Gospel of Christ is the one thing that all Christians believe can completely transform a person's life!

Did you know that the Bible doesn't prohibit fun? Nope. Never. Does it say that you can't poke fun at things? No way. Smile and laugh? Nada. Does it have things to say about disrespect toward God and others? Yep. Cruel and biting sarcasm? Roger that. Dirty jokes? You betcha. So, we'll avoid those... They hurt God and others and therefore are not a good route to take.

That said, I like to think that Jesus and His 12 disciples didn't walk all over Israel in silence and with a frown on their faces. I like to think that maybe Jesus told them "the one about when the Father, the Spirit, and I were talking about making the platypus." Maybe Peter and the boys even played some games by the campfire, like the one where you assign a person to be "it" and they blink at people, and then other people have to figure out who is "it" before they get blinked at.

Anyway, I digress, but the point is that it's OK to have fun and talk about God or praise Him at the same time! Fun is just the polar opposite of boring, lame, and forgettable. David, the King of Israel, even had some fun worshiping God way back in the day. And, so will we! We are committed to doing things that are interesting, engaging, and fun, because they are cool to do as a group and result in enjoyable times of fellowship, learning, and worship. We believe the Bible is interesting and God is pretty engaging!

So, here's what Ridge Church has to say about our value of Fun, specifically in regard to our worship times:

"Worshiping our holy God should be an enjoyable activity. Although there must be serious times of repentance and spiritual challenge in the lives of all believers, the experience of meeting God in worship should be exciting, anticipated, interactive, and practical."

Some Bible passages that support our value of fun in worship and group life are Exodus 15:19-21, 2 Samuel 6:12-19, Nehemiah 8:10, and Matthew 26:17-20.

Since you read the whole post, here's a link to a funny video that brings back memories from my youth pastor days! Enjoy!

Big Orange... Pumpkins!

2008-10-25T23:26:00.009-04:00

Today was a fun day for Ridge Church! We held our first Pumpkin Carving at Fountain City Park today from 2 to 5 pm. A bunch of cool folks came out and brought a bunch of melons and creative attitudes as we shared the afternoon together carving away.

Congratulations to the winners, both kids and adults, in our three carving categories: Most Creative, Most Fun, and Best Craftsmanship!

The prizes for our winners came from 4 cool local sponsors from Fountain City:

Gift certificates for kids' ice cream cones from Baskin-Robbins at 5228 North Broadway.
A $15 gift certificate from the Fountain City Creamery at 114 Hotel Road.
A $20 gift certificate from Leo's Cafe at 3029 Tazewell Pike.
A gift certificate for a free haircut from Christy Garrison at Panache Hair & Body at 3501 Tazewell Pike.

To our sponsors... Thank you very much! You helped us to have a great time!

There's some great pics from our Pumpkin Carving below for you to check out. We did have a couple of carved hands, so here's best wishes for those that left with band-aids to heal up fast.

If only the other Big Orange could have had a good day... But, there's always next Saturday!

"Battle for the Bible"

2008-10-22T20:15:00.009-04:00

Tonight, I watched a show on PBS called "Battle for the Bible." It was a great show... for the first 30 minutes. The second half was a bit too much commentary and too little history, but that's PBS for ya. The topic of the show was the difficulty that English people went through to get a translation of the Bible in their own language.

Even as a church planter, I often forget just how much struggle, sacrifice, and even martyrdom precluded our modern English Bible translations. We have so many Bibles available to us today, from the Bibles for sale at Christian bookstores, to the Gideon Bible you can find in a hotel room, to the Bibles (dusty, maybe?) that most of us have in our homes.

But the truth is that for hundreds of years the Catholic Church (the only one in Europe until the 1500's) prohibited the common folk (like you and me) to possess a Bible. On top of that, the only Bible available to the priests in the Catholic churches was written in Latin. The Catholic worship service, called Mass, was recited in Latin. Only Catholic priests and a very few other elite, educated people were able to read Latin or understand spoken Latin. So, knowledge of what the Bible said was pretty much out of reach for almost all people who called themselves Christians.

In the 1380's, Englishman John Wycliffe took it upon himself to translate the Bible into English, so his countrymen could finally read it. He believed that only good things could come out of people having access to God's Word. The Catholic Church condemned Wycliffe and other Bible translators who attempted to render the Scriptures in English and other vernacular languages. The new translations threatened the power of the Catholic Church, because they called its leadership out on many teachings that were not found in Scripture.

Wycliffe and his assistants had to translate the Bible painstakingly by hand, since Gutenberg had yet to invent the printing press! Wycliffe died of natural causes, but for the next couple hundred years, the Catholic Church labeled those who attempted to translate the Bible into English as false teachers. They chased them around Europe and repeatedly burned them at the stake when they caught them.

Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation in 1517, when he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany. During the struggles that followed this event, many men rose up to translate the Bible into the languages of the various people of Europe.

In 1525, William Tyndale was the first man to have his English New Testament translation mechanically printed. He was burned at the stake by Catholic authorities in 1536.

Myles Coverdale and John “Thomas Matthew” Rogers had worked with Tyndale on his New Testament. On October 4, 1535, they published the first complete Bible in English. This translation is known as the Coverdale Bible. In 1537, Rogers published the second complete English Bible, and the first to be translated from the original languages (Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament).

In 1539, the King of England finally allowed the Bible to be legally printed in English and read on English soil. Thus began the era of widely-available English Bible translations, although there were still periods of persecution of those who cherished the English Bible. For instance, during the reign of Catholic Queen "Bloody" Mary, hundreds of people (including John Rogers) were burned at the stake for being Protestants.

These days, hundreds of years after Wycliffe, we take our English Bibles for granted. Today, why not think about all that went into giving you the Bible you read today, and thank God for courageous men who would not give up until they made it possible for you to hold that priceless Word of God in English.

A Great Night Together with Ridge Church

2008-10-19T22:38:00.006-04:00

Hey, everybody! Emily and I had a great time with you tonight at our second Ridge Church gathering! It was great to see all of you folks that we've been talking to about The Ridge. We're so glad we were able to get together, share our hearts and get to know each other better. It was good to talk about our vision for Ridge Church, our values, and what those values will look like "lived out."

Toward the end of our meeting, we talked about our timeline for The Ridge for the next couple of months and how you can be involved in helping us launch our Sunday worship gatherings in the new year. That said, if you have any musical ability, like playing an instrument or singing, and you'd like to learn more about using that ability as part of the Ridge Church worship team, contact Emily. If you'd like to learn more about working with children and being part of our children's ministry team, contact Emily. You guessed it, Emily is the admin part of this couple... You can call her as well, just dial 704.579.2022. (Only 2 months before we are out of our North Carolina cell contract!)

For those of you who weren't able to make it, we missed you! I've posted our Ridge Church Vision and Values on our website for you; check out and download the PDF document here.

Our next Ridge Church gathering is scheduled for Sunday, November 9, from 5:30 to 7 pm at Panache hair salon at 3501 Tazewell Pike in Fountain City. It's a great location, and we're thankful to Christy Garrison yet again for sharing it! One of the things we'll be doing at the November and December gatherings is discussing the second chapter of the book of Acts. This chapter is the description of the first Christian church in Jerusalem in the early days after Christ returned to Heaven... It's a great passage to talk about when your new church is in the same situation!

The gathering schedule is November 9, November 16, December 7, and December 14 (all Sunday evenings). More info on our Sunday, November 23 service project will be posted soon, but you can mark the date.

We're excited about our next Ridge Church Event this week! We're having a Pumpkin Carving at Fountain City Park this Saturday, October 25th, from 2 to 5 pm. It's gonna be a great time for all ages... Who doesn't like using a knife on a defenseless late-season fruit of the vine?!

BYOP (Bring Your Own Pumpkin), and have a great time carving up that big gourd with us. We'll have prizes for Most Creative, Best Craftsmanship, and Funniest categories. Kids can win, too! Our prizes are gift certificates from local businesses in the Fountain City area.

Note: This is an excellent event to bring your friends to who may be interested in The Ridge! It's a comfortable place to be (outside in the Fall) and a fun thing to do (chop up produce) with cool people (all you Ridgers!). So, bring a buddy or a neighbor family and make sure to introduce me to them so I can make new friends!

If you're on Facebook, join our group, and also check out the Pumpkin Carving event page. If you're not on Facebook, make sure we have your email address so we can keep you updated with Ridge Church happenings... Then think about Facebook... It's fun and safe!

See you Saturday!

Important Ridge Church Gathering This Sunday!

2008-10-17T19:21:00.006-04:00

Hey, everybody, just wanted to make sure you are all aware of the Ridge Church gathering this Sunday (the 19th) and are making plans to come! We're meeting at 5:30 pm at Panache salon in Fountain City. The address is 3501 Tazewell Pike. Kids are welcome, so bring 'em along. We'll be done by 7 pm, and Emily and I will be grabbing supper afterward; anyone who'd like to join us is welcome!

I want to thank Christy Garrison for generously allowing us to use her awesomely-located place of business for our gathering. When you're a new church, finding space to use for getting together can be tough... Thank you a ton for sharing what God has blessed you with!

As far as the meeting on Sunday goes, it's an important one. We wouldn't invite you if it weren't!

We'll be talking specifically about what you can expect from The Ridge for the next couple of months as we move toward the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. We'll talk about the ways that you can connect relationally with other Ridge Church folks in this foundational time as we plan for regular Sunday worship meetings. We'll talk about ways that you can be involved in ministry teams both within The Ridge and outside it in our community. We'll also share a little about how Ridge Church will look in the new year.

Of course, all of these things are crucial, but one thing is super-important: your involvement! We want everyone interested in Ridge Church to feel welcome at all our gatherings, feel like an important part of our group, and have the opportunity to serve and support The Ridge.

On Sunday evening, we'll talk about this and also give you time to ask specific (or not-so-specific) questions about our vision, values, beliefs, plans, structures, hopes, dreams, you name it. Just don't ask what our baby's name is gonna be... We may not quite be there yet! (She's not probably gonna be here for about 10 days... We'll get it figured out!)

So, see you Sunday! And, feel free to bring a friend or two. New things in life are much easier to try when you have a buddy with you.

If you have a Facebook account (if you don't, you should sign up!), check out our Ridge Church group page and our event page. This blog post is your invitation to join the group so you can stay updated! Also, let us know if you're coming on Sunday on our event page so we can plan ahead... Thanks and see you Sunday evening!

Monday, Monday

2008-10-14T22:56:00.007-04:00

Yesterday was a long, but good day! I think the tiredness factor was due to my big trip this weekend to Georgia... But, sometimes you have to pile a bunch of stuff together and make a crazy week out of it. I'm sure you've all been there!

First, I went to work at my part-time job at the HoneyBaked Ham Store near Knoxville Center. I've worked there for about 6 weeks now selling holiday hams, turkeys, and gift certificates to local businesses and manufacturers. Having the job allows Emily and me to not take a salary at this time from the funds that we are raising for our new church's financial needs... We want to be good stewards of God's funds and provide for as much of our financial needs as possible, therefore freeing up money for some of God's other purposes.

My job at HoneyBaked is an interesting one that puts me in contact with a ton of people in the area, even though it's usually on the phone! I also deliver lunchtime catering to our customers on most days.

A cool thing about my job is that I work with some really nice people. Most of them don't go to church, and so I've had some cool opportunities to talk to them about The Ridge and its values, and how we're going about starting a church. I learn every day more and more about why folks around our area have chosen not to go to church, and I believe more and more each day that Ridge Church is "on target" for what Emily and I moved to Knoxville for: "to be a community of people transformed by Christ, reaching out to share Christ with others."

Monday afternoon, Emily and I met with Grant Standefer, the Executive Director of the Compassion Coalition. I was connected to Grant through Jim Thompson, the Executive Director of the Coalition. I was connected to Jim through Max Reddick, the Senior Minister at Fountain City Presbyterian Church here in Knoxville. Max is a great guy who gave up a couple hours one afternoon last week to share with us what he knows about the area (he knows alot!).

The Compassion Coalition is an awesome ministry connecting over 150 churches in the Knoxville area to local government and non-profit agencies for the purpose of serving our community. It's a great concept that is long overdue, and it sounds like every city in America would do well to copy it!

As you can see, networking when you're planting a church is a pretty cool thing... There are alot of people out there who want to help those in need and reach our community with Christ's love. Every day, Emily and I are more glad to be here and more excited about continuing to serve our city in the future.

To top off a great, but long day, we had a great time at our "Man Night" at Spicy's in Powell. Some of you guys out there mentioned that you couldn't make it, and we missed you. Stay tuned for our next guys' thing... We'll have another one sometime soon.

Another cool weekend on the road...

2008-10-13T22:59:00.007-04:00

This weekend was a great experience. Except for having to leave my 8-months pregnant wife at home and spend 10 hours driving solo, it was a cool 36 hours.

Saturday, I drove to the Atlanta area to visit with Jason Martin, the Lead Pastor of Journey Church. He is doing some really cool stuff down there, although his celebration of the UGA victory over UT Saturday was a tough intro for me.

Journey is a "restart," which basically means taking an old church that is slowly dying and "restarting" the church in the same location, but with a new energy and focus. He's got a great thing going down there. Jason and I spent about 3 hours Saturday evening talking about church planting, connecting with those who don't follow Christ yet, and Acts29. He's a cool guy. If you're in the Austell/Mableton area, check out Journey Church!

Saturday night, I stayed at the Hyatt Place in Duluth, GA. You should check out that Hyatt Place decor. I don't know if people aren't traveling as much due to the cost of gasoline, or if everyone and their mom was staying in Athens for the UT/Georgia game (listened to it on the radio, very sad), or if there are too many hotel rooms in the Atlanta area...

All I know is that I got a 3-star hotel room in Duluth for $34 on Priceline. Sweet, sweet deal. I had honeydew and cantaloupe for breakfast, and some awesome Starbucks coffee. I love sugary melons and fruit big-time. And, having them already cut up and in a bowl for me to grab in the morning is super cool. Big check plus for the breakfast! Unfortunately, I found the room to be too New York/European/modern. I mean, I like a 42" plasma as much as any guy, but I like my hotel room to feel warm and inviting, not cold and feng shui or something.

Anhow, Sunday morning I visited Christ Community Church and hung out with their Teaching Pastor, Matt Adair. Matt is a 'Bama fan who leads a church down the road from Athens and has 100 UGA students in his crowd. Go figure on that one! Definitely cool to see so many 20-somethings excited about God.

Big thanks to Jared Bryant, Christ Community's Director of Ministry to Parents and Children, for showing me around the campus of the Christian school where they meet. I really enjoyed worship with Christ Community, especially Matt's comments at the time that we took Communion.

Matt mentioned something that really struck me... So often, when we share the Lord's Table, we Christians focus on ourselves and how unworthy we are to share in Christ's sacrifice for us. However, we should focus on Christ, because it's His sacrifice on the cross that makes us worthy. We can never ask forgiveness enough times of God to be worthy of having our sins forgiven. Christ has done all the work of being punished for our sins and making a way for us to connect to God. We should focus on Christ during Communion, not ourselves. Heavy stuff, and very full of grace. I think I will quote Matt when his sermon gets on the Internet.

You should definitely drop by Christ Community if you are ever in Watkinsville or you go to UGA to watch the Vols beat the Dawgs in 2010... Ha ha.

This weekend was another reminder of how cool the Acts29 Network is. I met with two guys from historically disconnected denominations who share a common theology and commitment to new churches. Worship and teaching styles may differ from church to church, but it's awesome to be part of such a focused group of guys who are impacting our world with God's love.

Ridge Church Value #5: New Churches

2008-10-09T23:48:00.011-04:00

People ask me all the time: "Why are you starting a new church? Why are you "planting" a church in Knoxville, Tennessee? Aren't there a million churches there? Isn't church planting something you do in Africa or Asia?"

These are great questions! And, if I didn't have an answer for them, you might assume I'm a little nutty. But, I do have good answers for those questions...

The first answer is that planting churches is a biblical idea. Here's what Ridge Church has to say about New Churches:

"We believe that beginning and supporting new churches is a healthy, noble, and God-honoring activity. New churches are the most effective means for Christians to reach to others with the grace and love of Christ; all Christians should support the planting of new churches."

Some Bible passages that support our value of New Churches are Acts 16:6-15, Titus 1:5, Romans 15:19-24.

Planting churches is also a logical and intelligent thing for those who want to share God's love with others and spread the truth of Jesus Christ in our country (as well as the rest of the world). Here are some interesting stats:

There are 120 million secular people in the US.
The number of "unchurched" people in the US nearly doubled from 1991 to 2004.
In 1900, there were 28 churches for every 10,000 Americans. In 2004, that number had fallen to 11 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
3,500 to 4,000 churches close each year in the US.
New churches are 6-8 times more likely to bring people into God's family as new believers in Christ than older churches.

In short, church planting is a biblical, wise, logical and loving way to engage our culture and bring the truth of the Gospel to the toughest audience: people who do not go to church and are not interested in God. That's why we're planting Ridge Church in Knoxville and why Ridge Church is part of the Acts29 Network.

Because we are a church plant that believes in church planting, we're "putting our money where our mouth is." Ridge Church is committed to giving 10% of all the finances that we receive once we start meeting regularly toward supporting new churches. We believe that is a worthy way to share the money God gives us with other churches who are seeking to share Christ with thier communities.

I can talk for a long time about church planting! Feel free to email me if you'd like to talk about Ridge Church or why church planting is so important.

Man Night next Monday

2008-10-07T21:59:00.000-04:00

Hey, all you guys out there... I've been looking for a good place for guys to hang out. It had to be a place that had good food, stuff to do, and plenty of TV's. Last night, Emily and I went to Spicy's in Powell for a "date night." It's a cool place! They've got pool tables, a bunch of TV's, and a friendly staff.

Mondays at Spicy's are 30-cent wing nights. You can get all the wings you want and just chill, you can shoot some pool, and you can watch Monday Night Football with your buds.

So, if you're checking out Ridge Church and you're a guy, come on out to Spicy's and join me for some Monday night wings and football next week! If wings aren't your thing, they've got sandwiches, burgers, and even salads, and their Ranch Fries are pretty awesome. Bring along any of your buds that you want and hang with us.

Spicy's is at 950 E Emory Road in Powell, right off of the Emory Road exit off I-75, and not far from Halls. We'll get together at 7 for dinner. Then, anybody who wants to can stay and see Peyton's little brother and the Giants try to stay undefeated against the Browns starting at 8:30.

Just drop in and have some fun hanging out! Could be lots of touchdowns in Cleveland for Eli...

Two opportunities for you to help Ridge Church

2008-10-03T22:21:00.000-04:00

Well, Emily and I have been back in Knoxville for 3 full months now. We've got settled into our rental house in Gibbs, and we're getting ready for the birth of our daughter in about 4 weeks. We've reconnected with a bunch of people we haven't seen in years, and we've met a ton of new people as well.

Now, there are two very important ways that you can help The Ridge as we continue to add interested people to our group and prepare to someday soon meet on Sundays!

First, we are looking for people who are interested in serving as part of a band. We are excited about having a worship team to lead us in music on Sundays at our weekly worship times. If you play an instrument or sing, or you know someone who does that might be interested in The Ridge, just let Emily know! She loves singing and knows way more about music than I do... She's excited about being part of a fun Sunday worship Team.

Second, we are looking for a place to have worship once we start meeting on Sundays. There are a ton of options out there, from movie theaters to schools to who knows what! There are probably alot more places that we don't know about that would work for a Sunday worship gathering. Since kids are really important to us, we want a place that ideally will allow us to have an area for young children while we are having a worship gathering for "big kids." So, just email me if you have any ideas... And remember, there are no bad ideas!

One note about locations... We want to extend a big thanks to the Christy Garrison for allowing us to use her hair salon, Panache, for our next Ridge Church gathering on Sunday, October 19, from 5:30 to 7 pm. Panache is a great meeting spot, at 3501 Tazewell Pike in Fountain City.

Everyone (including children) is welcome for our gathering! We'll be talking about what The Ridge will look like, what we will be about on a weekly basis, and also some things that we won't look like and be about. There will be time for your questions, so join us in a couple weeks and get them answered... Feel free to bring a friend!

Serving together Saturday was cool

2008-10-02T23:00:00.013-04:00

This past weekend, before the glory that was the UT/Auburn game (very sad sarcasm there), we had our first Ridge Church service project.

KARM (Knox Area Rescue Ministries) is a great ministry here in Knoxville. Their mission is "to seek to rescue the poor and needy of the Knox Area by providing services in Jesus' name." They do great work with the needy and homeless folks in our area. To give you just a glimpse of the scope of KARM's ministry, they served 371,876 meals last year (that's over 1,000 per day!). To get some other cool facts about KARM, check out this page.

Saturday, a group of Ridge Church peeps served at the new KARM thrift store on Merchants Drive, helping to sort the clothing donations they've received. The store will be open soon (if it's not already!) so check it out! KARM's thrift store operations pay for about 25% of the meals they serve at their ministry center. The other 75% is paid for by the donations of "viewers like you."

The Ridge is looking for "a few good ministries" to partner with as we move forward with our church plant. We are committed to seeking the welfare of the city we live in. (See Jeremiah 29:3-7--but rest assured Emily and I do not feel "exiled" to Knoxville!) We also want to follow Jesus' last directive to his followers: take His Gospel to all the nations/peoples of the world. (Acts 1:6-11) Since we're in Knoxville right now, Knoxville is where we'll start!

It's important that a church be about both helping the needy and sharing the truth of Christ's life, death, and resurrection with them. Many churches have created an imbalance there. Either they only help the needy and never share the story of Christ's love with them, or they only preach to them and never help them with thier problems.

The Ridge firmly believes in ministering to the poor as a way to "earn the right" to tell them about Jesus and help them in their suffering. We also believe in telling the poor about Jesus so that our ministry can have a spiritual impact as well as physical, social, and emotional impact. It's kind of like the old "chicken and egg" riddle...

Deuteronomy 15:11 is one Bible verse (of a great many) that supports helping those who are in need. However, Christ also strongly commanded us in the Great Commission to "make disciples" (followers of Christ) in the whole world.

Perhaps the Great Commandment sums it up best in Mark 12:28-31: "And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, 'Which commandment is the most important of all?' Jesus answered, 'The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.'"

So, in short, we're going to be all about loving God and loving people at Ridge Church. And serving our community's ministries, schools, and neighborhoods is one way we're going to show that love. Join us and see God do some awesome stuff!

An update on my sister-in-law, Tina

2008-10-01T19:05:00.008-04:00

My mom, Frances, emailed me this info today about Tina, my sister-in-law. I mentioned an important prayer request for her a couple days ago.

My mom and dad, Roy and Frances (you can pray for them too, if you want!) heard from my brother Keith last night. He and Tina "learned that the nasal tumor was indeed a pregnancy - related thing that just happened to end up in her nose. Apparently the spot in front of her ear has gone down some. She still has headaches, too, but maybe they are better. The great news is that the situaion seems a lot better than we originally thought. Praise the Lord! It sounds like she is seeing a group in El Paso who will decide Friday about when to do the surgery."

The quotes contain most of the email from my mom. Below is the final sentence of the email:

"Kevin, someone misunderstood the info earlier and there is apparently no spot in her brain, so that needs to be clarified on your website."

So, I guess that clarifies it! Such awesome news! No "spot on the brain." (Wow, isn't it hard to pass along information that doctors share? Who knows where that misinformation/overreaction occurred, but who cares. Ever try to play "telephone" with about 5 friends? You get the point.)

Please join me in praying that Tina's nasal tumor and other spot can be removed easily and harmlessly.

I choose to see God at work here in Tina's life! I have no problem believing that He can heal anyone, anytime, anyplace.

On a continued happy note, here are some pics Keith sent me of their new little girl, Isobel! The last two are pics of Aiden (their middle kid) and Jeremiah (the oldest).

Of financial crises and daily life...

2008-09-30T22:54:00.009-04:00

This has been a weird last week or so... Banks failing and people losing their homes. Accusations of lying, stealing, and corruption at the highest levels of corporations and government. Inflation (or maybe deflation), oil prices, lending rates, lack of liquidity in lending, debt, and repossession.

So much stuff is going on that it's hard to get your hands around the problem to figure out what to do about it. Such is the way things go when money becomes a problem.

Maybe the only good thing in all this is that we have some simple principles from God that we can follow to help us with how we deal with money.

In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, God speaks about the evil of corruption (Proverbs 15:27) and the dangers of chasing after wealth. (1 Timothy 6:9-10)

In a crucial discussion of wealth and money, Jesus told us about the importance of spiritual wealth and the shortcomings of greed and material wealth. (Luke 12:13-21) He then goes on to share about how much God loves us and how we don't need to worry about material things... There are more important things for us to be concerned with, like following God. (Luke 12:22-31)

The Bible has much more to say about money, stewardship, giving, and everything about living life in a way that is both enjoyable and brings honor to Him.

For more info at a great website, check out Crown Financial Ministries. It's a great place to start exploring ways God can give you financial peace and contentment, and take away worry and concern!

An important request...

2008-09-25T21:55:00.006-04:00

Hey, everybody. I'd like to deviate from the values discussion we've had lately and focus on something that's much different. I want to ask you to pray for my brother's wife Tina.

She just gave birth last week to their third child, and had been dealing with some type of mass in her nasal cavity for awhile during the pregnancy. She's been having horrible headaches. Doctors ran a scan on her this week soon after delivery and are very concerned about the nasal cavity mass and another one they found in different location in her brain.

My brother Keith is in the Army, so Tina's doctor is attempting to help them get a referral outside the Army system, in the expert civilian hospital community. Whatever is done as a treatment, it will be difficult, since surgery in the facial and brain area is never easy.

My brother is stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX (a long way from our family already) and is due to ship overseas to Kuwait early next year for 12 months. So, there is even more drama in this whole thing.

Please join me, Emily, and the rest of my family in praying for Tina, my brother Keith, and their kids Jeremiah, Aiden, and little Isobel. This is a super-trying time for them and they need God to show up in their lives on this!

Please pray that this issue turns out to be something small and easily-fixable or that God provides healing outright for Tina. Please pray that God would comfort Tina and Keith, and help them to comfort the kids. Please pray that God would give them strength to face this difficult time and that He would show His grace to them and draw them close to Him.

Thank you for praying! I will keep you updated.

Ridge Church Value #4: Serving Others

2008-09-21T17:10:00.012-04:00

The fourth core value of Ridge Church is "Serving Others."

Here's what our Launch Proposal says about Serving Others:

"We believe that serving others is a natural lifestyle of committed believers in Christ. Christ-followers should seek to serve both those we encounter in our community and those at the far ends of the earth as a means of sharing the Gospel with all people."

This value flows forward from our third value, Community. There is one very foundational difference between the two values, however. We use the words "serving others" instead of just the word "serving" because our fourth value, Serving, is not aimed at those who are already part of our church or fellowship.

Serving Others means serving those outside of our current group, church, or fellowship (you pick the word you like best). Serving Others means serving people in our neighborhoods, communities, schools, and workplaces. It means serving those in other cities, states, and countries. It is a way to show the world that those who follow Christ care about them, love them, and are representatives of Jesus Christ. It is a way to bring the truth of the Gospel to ears who have learned that they can trust us.

It is important to remember, however, that Community and Serving Others are related. Those who are part of the Ridge Church family should serve each other; we should just remember that serving each other and Serving Others are two different and equally valid expressions of love. One is love for a brother or sister who is in Christ with us, the other is love for a neighbor or friend who may not know Christ. Matthew 20:25-28 links the serving found in our value of Community and the serving found in our value of Serving Others very well.

Proverbs 14:21, Matthew 28:19-20, Isaiah 49:6, Acts 1:8 are just a few of the many verses that support our value of Serving Others.

We have a great opportunity for you to practice this Ridge Church value next weekend! We are helping to set up the new Knox Area Rescue Ministries Thrift Store at 314 Merchants Drive (the shopping center with Outback Steakhouse and the Mandarin House restaurant) on Saturday, September 27 from 12 to 2 pm. Everyone is welcome to join us as we serve our community together. Bring your friends if you like--it will be a great time to meet people who are interested in The Ridge. Kids are welcome, and we'll be done well before game time!

If you'd like to chat about Serving Others or have questions about our service project, just email kevin@ridgechurchknoxville.com. Have a great week!

A lesson from the latest gas craze...

2008-09-18T17:34:00.001-04:00

This weekend was a pretty weird time here in Knox Vegas. Friday after work at my part-time job (as a business-to-business sales rep for the local HoneyBaked Ham Store), Emily and I headed to Charlotte for her baby shower. That morning, rumors began circulating that there would be a gas shortage in Knoxville. I filled up at about 10 am, with prices at $3.69 for regular gas. Friday afternoon as we left town, many stations were out of gas, and prices at the stations with gas were hitting $4.49.

Our trip was great, but I worried about not being able to buy gas on the return trip Sunday. However, it soon became evident that although there were stations throughout the Southeast that had run out of gas, most stations had at least regular fuel available at a pretty high price. Driving through South Carolina was nice, since they had ample fuel at pretty low prices. (We usually drive to Spartanburg and up to Charlotte, since it's easy and there's cheap gas.)

Anyway, Monday and Tuesday were strange days. Gas at local stations that had fuel was at least $4.99, and many stations were over $5. We officially had the nation's most expensive fuel prices. It seems that the stations that didn't order more gas from distributors at inflated prices and therefore ran out were not upsetting people nearly as much as those with gas that were charging high prices. (People are funny like that...) Most stations simply had no gas and removed the prices from their signs as an indicator of that fact.

The big takeaway for me in all of this comes from the scene at the local convenience stores that had run out of gas. Our local Weigel's is usally a busy place. It's a neighborhood market and deli as well as a gas station. But when they didn't have gas on Tuesday when I bought milk there, business was dead. There were just a handful of cars. Folks that wanted milk (They have the cheapest, and some say best, around. Maybe due to the Weigel family history as dairy farmers?), beer, bread, and random sundries were in there, but that's it. Checkout ladies were bored. It was surreal when compared to the usual long lines in the store and jostling for a parking spot outside it.

Gas drives our culture's habits. People spend money at Weigels for lots of stuff, but they come there because they can also buy gas. As our nation spends less money on gas and we put more fuel-efficient cars on the road, convenience stores will suffer. They exist to serve the needs of gas-fueled car drivers. When the internal combustion engine really starts to decline with the advent of electric cars and vehicles powered by who knows what, convenience stores will really be in a pickle.

I read recently that The Pantry has 1600 stores. What will they do when everyone is averaging more than 40 miles per gallon in their Civic Hybrids and Toyota Priuses? What will they do when people plug their cars in at home? It seems only the cleanest, brightest, best-located and cheapest convenience stores have a future. Time will tell how it works out, but the future was here this weekend when $5 gas hit Knoxville.

The question is, how flexible are our churches and church leaders? How flexible are our ministries and our denominations? Are we flexible enough to respond to the needs of our extremely fast-changing culture? Are we flexible enough to respond to the changing beliefs of our community members? Are we flexible enough to respond to the next major 9/11-like crisis?

Churches that have Kingdom impact are like the Boy Scouts. They live by the motto "Be prepared." Let's hope that we, as church leaders, are ready for all contingencies and changes in our local communities and we also have prepared ourselves for the likely futures that we will soon live through. Let's not be prepared to serve just the person who lives in our community today, as the convenience stores serve the gas-hungry car. Let's be ready to serve the person in our community 5 or 10 years from now, who is totally different from the current resident. Let's keep an eye to our culture and community's changes so that we can always proclaim the Gospel in ways that resonate with our culture and our people.

Ridge Church Value #3: Community

2008-09-18T17:12:00.003-04:00

As I said recently, Ridge Church has six core values. These are the core beliefs that guide our new church, both now and in the future. They are the concepts we stand behind and the hills that we will fight on, the things that make The Ridge unique!

Our third value is "Community." Here's what our Launch Proposal says about Community:

"We believe that all people need healthy, growing relationships based on biblical ideals. These relationships are best found in the Christ-centered family and in a small groups of Christians meeting regularly to encourage and support each other as part of a larger local church community."

It's pretty simple, really! We believe that everyone was created by God to live in community with other humans. We also believe that every Christ-follower needs relationships with other Christians in order to grow to be more like Christ. We believe that God created us that way, and that community is a deep emotional need of all humans. Regardless of how modern and post-modern Western philosophy and culture tend to individualize life, we need each other to be all God wants us to be.

Not only do we believe in community, we believe that community starts in the home. For too long, churches have been willing to take on the responsibilities of the parents in spiritually educating our children. Churches have said, "Here, drop your kid off on Sunday for an hour, and we'll handle all the teaching about God that they need." This is both insufficient in providing a quality spiritual education for children and also unbiblical.

Check out Deuteronomy chapter 6. The Bible clearly teaches here and in multiple other passages that the spiritual guidance of our children should start in the home. We believe that at Ridge Church and are committed to it. Because we are committed to the concept of parents teaching their kids about God, we are also committed to helping parents learn how to spiritually educate their kids.

The bonus prize is that when parents answer their kids' questions about God, it motivates them to learn and apply spiritual concepts in their own lives... Isn't God smart in planning things that way?! (The answer is "YES!")

Ridge Church is committed to providing small group environments for parents (and all those who call The Ridge home) to grow to be more like Christ. We look forward to a not-too-distant future in which Ridge Church has small groups for all age groups. We see groups where mature believers in Christ help both new believers and non-believers to interact with the Bible and life experience in ways that draw them toward faith and surround them with grace.

Finally, we believe that folks at The Ridge should look out for each other. This means that small groups will serve their group members. During tough times like illnesses in the family, small group leaders will provide "triage" care. When new babies come home, small group members will bring food to new parents. When small group members' kids make poor life choices, other members will rally around the family in crisis and provide support and encouragement. When a bread-winner loses a job, small groups will be the at the "front lines" in battling for the family and helping them through hard days.

The list can go on... And it will! Community is a crucial value at The Ridge. And, it leads to another one: Serving Others. Stay tuned for a discussion of that value soon!

There are several verses in the Bible that support our value of Community. Check these out: Proverbs 27:17, Acts 2:42-47, Matthew 18:19-20. If you want to chat about our value of Community, email kevin@ridgechurchknoxville.com.

A Bunch of Thanks!

2008-09-15T23:18:00.010-04:00

I think tonight is a great time to issue a massive "Thanks!" to a bunch of folks that have really blessed my life and Emily's life lately... And also the life of Ridge Church!

First, a big thanks goes out to John Fooshee, Jim Fickley, and Kurt Hannah. John and Jim are pastors (lead pastor and leadership coach, respectively) at Redeemer Community Church in Johnson City, TN. Kurt is the lead pastor at Missio Dei Church in Asheville, NC.

These three church planters have graciously accepted my invitation to form Ridge Church's first Outside Advisory Board. Our outside advisory board is a group of men who are qualified by the Bible's standards for leadership to serve as "elders" in a local church setting.

The reason that we need an outside advisory board is to provide wise "elder-level" leadership to The Ridge at a time in our church's life when we do not have "in-house" elders. Discovering who should serve as a local church's elders is not an overnight process, and a time of service and training is required to identify these kinds of men.

I, as the lead pastor, serve as the sole local elder at this time. John, Jim, and Kurt are the outside board members. All of us have been rigorously evaluated and assessed by other pastors and have been approved as members of the Acts29 Network. Together, the four of us form the elder board that oversees major decision-making at Ridge Church.

Over the next few years, Ridge Church will become self-supporting financially and leadership-wise, and we will have a full board of local elders that will replace the outside advisory team. Until that time the people of The Ridge can know that they have a group of qualified men who are committed to their growth and spiritual maturity.

This post isn't really the place for a further discussion of elders, but we will have that one later... Until then, if you'd like to read about the Bible's qualifications for elders, check out 1 Timothy 3:1-7 (The version here uses "overseer" instead of "elder," but these words are often used interchangeably for this role.)

Second, I would like to give a huge thanks to Redeemer Community Church for giving a sacrificial financial gift to The Ridge. Finances are crucial to a church plant, not because "it's all about money" but because all the materials a church needs, from a facility to meet in, to paper to print info on, to "Pack 'n' Plays" for kids to hang out in, costs money.

It is a huge honor to have the support of other churches who are committed to being behind new churches. Prayers, encouragement, and finances are all vital in the church planting process, and Redeemer has provided all of those to me, Emily, and Ridge Church. Thanks, and thanks to other churches and people who are supporting (or considering supporting) The Ridge with finances, prayer, and encouragement!

Third, I want to thank all of our friends in Charlotte who gave Emily a wonderful baby shower this weekend. She and I appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts. We've never done this baby thing before, and all the wisdom and "stuff" we can get is deeply appreciated! Also, since as church planters we are relying on God to provide for our financial needs through the support of other people, very little money is available for baby stuff. So, for several reasons, this weekend was a massive blessing. Thanks!

Finally, I want to thank the folks who braved the highest gas prices in the United States over the weekend to come to our Ridge Church gathering at Mr. Gatti's in Halls on Sunday night. We had a great time stuffing ourselves with pizza, getting to know each other better, and talking about Ridge Church's values. Thanks for being part of a group of people who are becoming The Ridge and for bringing your unique personalities and gifts into our midst. Things are getting pretty darn exciting and I'm honored to be part of God's work in and among us!

Until next time, have a great week!

Once again, an awesome weekend on the road!

2008-09-10T17:33:00.007-04:00

This weekend, Emily and I visited Evansville, Indiana and our friends Trey and Kitten McClain, and their two girls, Alyssa and Morgan. Trey and Kitten are planting a church on the West Side of Evansville called Discovery Church.

Sunday morning was Discovery's first weekly worship service. They have been having monthly "Preview Services" for the past 3 months. Preview services are a way to "practice" how the public worship services of a church plant will look. They are a great opportunity for the children's ministry, worship team, pastor, setup and tear-down teams, and everyone else at a church plant to prepare for weekly worship services.

We took Emily's mom, Sue Irving (and her truck!), who along with her husband Bill have committed to helping us plant The Ridge. Unfortunately, Bill couldn't go due to some other responsibilities here in Knoxville. It was great for Sue to help in the children's area at Discovery, since she will be helping lead Ridge Church's children's ministry when we begin our weekly worship services.

Although it's fun to visit other churches and learn from the way our friends are leading their church plants, it's also nice to be home, too. We've been on the road a bunch lately and we're about ready for a break.

Emily and I are looking forward to spending some time with new friends (and old friends) who are checking out Ridge Church this Sunday night at Mr. Gatti's in Halls... I'm excited to share about the Vision and Values of The Ridge and for us to share some time chatting about what our church will look like.

So, join us (and feel free to bring your kids and your friends) this Sunday from 5:30 to 7 pm at 6903 Maynardville Highway. Gatti's has graciously offered us a meeting room, so everyone can eat pizza until about 6 pm, and then we'll talk about the future and The Ridge.

If you have questions about Sunday or Ridge Church, just email kevin@ridgechurchknoxville.com. See you Sunday!

Some Pics from our Picnic at Fountain City Park

2008-09-08T23:59:00.001-04:00

Emily took these shots, and I wanted to share them with you.

Don't forget, our next Ridge Church gathering is this Sunday, September 14 from 5:30 to 7 pm at Mr. Gatti's in Halls! You can get directions and more info here.

If you have questions, just email kevin@ridgechurchknoxville.com or call 865.223.5851. See ya Sunday!

Another wild week...

2008-09-03T19:20:00.007-04:00

Well, I made a big mistake in my last post. I pretty much promised to post a couple times last weekend, and obviously, that didn't happen. So, I apologize. Life intervened last weekend, and my schedule didn't go as I planned. Maybe I should apply James 4:13-16 in my life next time! I guess the lesson to be learned is that life is always apt to change your plans and schedule.

Anyway, this weekend was a strange mixture of fun and difficult. Our friends Josh and Maria, and their son "little Josh" drove up from Jacksonville on Thursday and stayed until Monday. We stayed up far too late each night talking about old times. Friday, we explored the area and ate at Zaxby's on Cumberland. On Saturday, the five of us spent the day at Cades Cove and pretty much wore ourselves out. On Sunday, we visited a local church and had lunch with Emily's parents, Bill and Sue Irving.

At lunch, I got one of those calls that you hate to think about. My mom called to tell me that my grandmother (who lives in West Knoxville) had a stroke. So, Emily and I left lunch and drove to the hospital to visit her and my grandfather. It was a pretty stressful time. We arrived and saw my grandmother in the emergency room, unable to speak.

Praise God that His grace was present in abundance, and my grandmother has improved steadily since Sunday. She's moved from the ER to the critical care unit, and finally to a "regular" hospital room.

I'm going to share a little more about what happened to my grandparents here. I hope they will forgive me if it's too personal, but there's a reason for it.

My grandfather had to make a momentous decision on Sunday. He had to choose whether or not to have the doctor at the ER give my grandmother an IV medication that could break up the clot in her brain and help her condition. The problem is that my grandmother is already on blood thinners, and too much thinning of the blood can cause hemorrhaging and even more problems than a blood clot.

My grandfather, mom, and dad all chatted with the doctor, and it finally came down to a crucial question. My family asked the doctor, "Would you give your own mother this medication?" The doctor said that he would, because there was a 60% chance that the medication would help my grandmother and a 40% chance that it would cause more problems. My family had to choose between the advice of their expert adviser and their own gut. Fortunately for everyone, they took the wise advice of the expert and my grandmother is steadily improving.

The point is this: How often do we trust our own "gut" about what is best for us in life, and reject the "advice" of God that is found in the Bible? Pretty much daily, with repeated negative consequences. We struggle so much in life because we think we have the answers to our own spiritual, social, emotional, and family problems and we choose to live outside God's best plans for us.

In truth, God gives us a 100% guarantee that if we operate in the truth that He presents to us in His Word, our lives will be lived to our fullest potential. This doesn't mean we will have a life devoid of pain and difficulty, but it does mean we'll live a life that is deeply meaningful and fulfilling.

So, when faced with difficult life decisions, we need only look to the examples laid out for us in the Bible. When we trust God's Word and place our faith in Him, we are free to let go of worry and allow Him to guide our paths.

An Awesome Picnic and Our Next Ridge Church Meeting!

2008-08-27T20:51:00.007-04:00

Well, it's been a nutty, busy week for Emily and me, full of great stuff, but I wanted to post about our awesome picnic last Saturday! I'm also committing to posting tomorrow evening and Friday, so stay alert...

We had a great time at Fountain City Park Saturday afternoon hanging out in one of the pavilions there, sharing lunch and dessert, getting to meet and know everyone who joined us, and enjoying the day! It was awesome to get to meet some folks who we've merely heard about, and also to chat with special people who we haven't seen in years.

Since our picnic, we've had several meals with folks we've been introduced to who are interested in learning more about The Ridge and getting to know us personally. We love that!

Our idea is not to rush getting to know each other, since it's such an important thing. The plan is to have a gathering for those interested in learning more about Ridge Church (or just curious about us!) every few weeks through the rest of 2008. Our goal is that our gatherings will reflect what The Ridge is all about, so that every time we meet, you will get a taste of Ridge Church's vision and values.

After the purely social time of this week's picnic, our next gathering will be an opportunity for us to chat about Ridge Church's values and talk about what Ridge Church will "look, sound, feel, smell and taste" like. Because we want to be a family and kid-friendly fellowship, we have worked to find a great spot that will give us a chance to spend relaxed time together and also make safe provisions for kids.

On Sunday evening, September 14, from 5:30 to 7 pm, we will meet at Mr. Gatti's at 6903 Maynardville Highway in Halls. Gatti's is a great spot, since it's easy to get to, it has affordable food, it has a meeting room reserved for us, and it has an arcade if parents wish to let their kids roam that realm. All in all, a great location for a Ridge Church gathering! (Of course, we're open to other locations for future gatherings... Justlet us know your ideas!)

So, you are invited to join us in a couple weeks to as we continue down the path that is The Ridge! We'll be eating at Gatti's from 5:30 to 6 or so, and then we will talk about our new church until 7.

If you have any questions, want to learn more about us, or have someone you'd like to introduce us to, please don't hesitate to email kevin@ridgechurchknoxville.com or call me at 865.223.5851.

One way to make friends in your neighborhood

2008-08-25T12:36:00.000-04:00

Emily and I have lived in our subdivision in Knoxville for almost 2 months. And we've been struggling pretty much that whole time with figuring out some good ways to meet the neighbors immediately around us. It seems that no matter where you live, people are just very busy these days, and also very private about their home lives. It's not as easy as it used to be to meet your neighbors.

We want to make some friends, and also just establish ourselves as kind and positive additions to our community. We want to do this just as "regular" people, not as a pastor and his wife or church planters. We don't want to have any agenda when meeting our neighbors right now, although in the future we hope to have the opportunity to talk with them about God.

Well, Emily had an idea that turned out to be great! She baked about 100 chocolate chip cookies (of course, I got some!) and then wrapped them up in six different packages. Then, she made a greeting card with our name, address and phone number on it for each package. From there, we just went door-to-door and gave the cookie packages and cards to our neighbors! It's kind of like a reverse housewarming gift... And it worked!

Last night, we finished giving the cookie packages to the neighbors who weren't at home on Saturday. When we went outside again several hours later to take a walk around the neighborhood, our neighbor across the street stopped us and told him how much the gift meant to him. He is a widower and lonely. He probably bent our ear for 15 or 20 minutes, telling us about his situation. It's sad that he's lonely, but the good thing is that he knows we care. It was an awesome interaction, because at the end he perked up and told us if we ever needed anything we should just ask. A great connection was made!

We also met a neighbor who just had a baby in March, and a guy with a teenage daughter. There are all kinds of ages in our neighborhood, and now we actually have exchanged names with them.

Finally, we gave some cookies to a neighbor who lost his father last week. This guy's father happens to be an old family friend of Emily's parents, and by happenstance he lives in our subdivision. When we walked up to him, he was actually going through some of his father's stuff. He was visibly upset, but the cookies put a smile on his face, at least for a little bit. We had the opportunity to talk to him about his father and show we care.

So, if you're wondering about how to meet those neighbors and start representing Christ to them (after all, every church planter should be a good neighbor first!) may I suggest chocolate chip cookies? You may be surprised at how well they break down barriers!

About today's sad event...

2008-08-21T20:46:00.007-04:00

Today, a young man shot and killed another young man in the cafeteria at Central High School in the minutes before school started. It's a horrible thing that you hope never happens in your community... It's a shame and there's no way around that fact, regardless of the reasons that may come out for the violence in the future.

What made me want to post is some of the discussion that I heard today about the shooting. I heard some folks talking at lunch, and one made the comment that "this wouldn't have happened if we still had corporal punishment in schools." He claimed that students misbehave in school because they aren't paddled anymore.

Going back to "the good ol' days" will not make everything in our society better. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure child abuse, alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, and other social ills occurred 50 years ago, people just kept that stuff quiet.

But, just as people weren't "better" 50 years ago, people aren't going to find themselves in some state of utopia in another 50 years. If you believe what God has to say about the matter, reactionism won't save our society. But, then again, neither is humanism the answer. Like legalism and license, both of these philosophies are in error; one is just erroneous to the rght and the other is wrong on the left side of the truth.

The Bible has a great deal to say about this type of thing, and Romans 3:9-24 is a great passage to read.

The Bible shows us that the real illness humanity has to deal with in order to find peace is our sin problem. Our sin caused a severed relationship with God starting with Adam and Eve. The root of our behavioral and emotional problems that lead to things like school shootings is simply our separation from God. The true answer to all the problems taking place around us is a restored relationship to God. And that can only happen via a life-transforming faith in Christ.

The Gospel has the power to change individuals and has done so for 2,000 years. Not only can the Gospel change individuals, it's truth can change families, neighborhoods, communities, towns, cities, and nations. If we truly care about our world and want to see it reconciled to God, we must do what it takes to earn the right to share the truth of Christ with others.

That way, instead of bringing back paddling to public schools to keep kids from "smarting off," we'll do the smart thing and help people to discover what they really need--Christ.

Right between two great weekends!

2008-08-20T18:54:00.007-04:00

This weekend, Emily and I visited Rick Long and The Point Community Church in Frankfort, KY. I touched base with Rick, the lead pastor there, a few weeks ago. I invited myself to visit his church plant, and then he generously invited me to share with his church about God's vision for Ridge Church and our hopes and dreams for how God can transform our area of Knoxville. Rick and The Point also prayed for me, Emily, and Ridge Church. It was a cool day!

I can't say enough about the guys like Rick in the the Acts29 Network. The network is great for church planters--it's an awesome group of guys who are always there to pray for each other, assist each other, and encourage each other.

Today is Wednesday, and that means we're halfway through this week and almost to another weekend... And this weekend is a big one for us! We're having a Picnic in the Park this Saturday from noon to 3 pm at Fountain City Park. It's an opportunity for anyone interested in The Ridge and getting to know other people interested in The Ridge to come and hang out together as the summer winds down. Bring your own lunch and we'll provide dessert!

Bring your kids (if you have kids) and join us for a relaxed, no-pressure time to get to know each other a little better. If you have any questions, just call Emily on her cell phone at 704.579.2022 and she'll be glad to help!

The Gospel is the Focus of Ridge Church

2008-08-17T23:54:00.001-04:00

A couple days ago, I listened to a podcast of an excellent talk by Daniel Montgomery, Founding and Teaching Pastor of Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY.

Daniel is a member of the Acts29 Network and often is asked to speak at A29 functions. His talk at the 2007 Church Planter "Boot Camp" (basically a church planter training conference) in Raleigh, NC was called "Gospel-Centered Theology." You can listen to it here.

One of the difficulties (at least one that I've found) of being a church planter is adequately conveying the driving force behind the church that you're planting--the most central focus of the church. That's one reason that I'm sharing our core values with you (we've done 2 so far, there's 6 total).

However, just sharing your core values sometimes feels like you are using happy words to describe something; anyone can use positive language to describe a particular vision that they have for the future. What Ridge Church will be (and really is already) is a church that is focused on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The word "gospel" simply means "good news" and is the English translation of a Greek word. The good news that we are excited about at Ridge Church is Jesus! The Gospel, the Good News (massive understatement), is found in simple terms in such places as Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth: 1 Corinthians 2:2 and also 1 Corinthians 15:3-5.

Jesus should be the focus of everything we are at Ridge Church. Everything we believe, value, talk about, think about, and do. The Gospel transforms people completely, from the inside out. It is profoundly robust in its scope: it makes everything about a person totally new. The Gospel's power changes people, families, churches, communities, cities, and nations.

A Great Vacation and Sunday at Redeemer Community Church

2008-08-14T23:06:00.008-04:00

Emily and I had a great vacation in Charleston, SC last week! It was a relaxing time for us to visit our favorite town and enjoy the beach as well. We stayed in a great location in Mount Pleasant, SC, just a few minutes from the beach at the Isle of Palms and a short drive to downtown Charleston. I highly recommend the location if you like both the historical and market stuff in Charleston, but also want to hang out at the beach.

Saturday and Sunday, Emily and I spent some time with our friends John and Lindsay Fooshee (pronouned Foo-shay--it's French) and their son Sterling. Their daughter Kate was at a sleepover, so we missed her... But she's great too!

John is the Lead Pastor of Redeemer Community Church in Johnson City, TN, a member of the Acts29 Network, and my church planting coach. He invited Emily and me to worship with their church on Sunday and graciously invited me to preach. We enjoyed spending the morning with Redeemer and it was rewarding to share from Romans 7:1-6 as their church moves through that great book of the Bible.

Emily's parents from Knoxville and my parents from Chilhowie, VA were there, which was really cool. Also super-cool was enjoying the Redeemer worship team. Jim Fickley, the Leadership Coach on staff at Redeemer and an Acts29 member, played the piano and also has a fine singing voice... I was impressed at how good he was on the keys just a couple weeks after shoulder surgery!

This weekend, Emily and I are visiting The Point Community Church in Frankfort, KY. Rick Long is the Lead Pastor there and another Acts29 member. He's generously invited Emily and me to visit and share with his church on Sunday morning about the vision God has given us for the new church we are planting in the NE Knoxville area. We're looking forward to enjoying Sunday with his church and seeing what The Point's worship time is like.

It's always nice to make new friends and have people to encourage you... The Acts29 Network is a great organization for a church planter to belong to and the member pastors have proven to be a wonderful group of awesomely supportive guys!

A simple request...

2008-08-03T23:05:00.005-04:00

Hey all you folks in Knoxville (or who know people in Knoxville) who are checking out our blog: I'm going to make a request of you.

Emily and I are going on a little mini-vacation this week to Charleston, South Carolina. It's where we went on our Honeymoon 10 years ago... And our favorite place to go. I wanted to take Emily there for our 10th anniversary, but with all the stuff going on with moving to Knoxville from West Virginia, we didn't get to celebrate our anniversary.

My friend John Fooshee (who pastors Redeemer Community Church in Johnson City, TN) has an awesome mother-in-law named Jayne who is allowing us to use her condo in Charleston for a week!

So, while we're gone relaxing, spending our last vacation together before our baby is born (either the last week of October or first week of November, probably), thinking and praying about The Ridge and the next few months of preparation, will you do me a favor?

I've been looking for a part-time job. As a matter of fact, I've interviewed for two of them. One of the jobs turned into a full-time job (which I don't have time for as a pastor). The other one didn't work out, probably due to my inability to commit for longer than a year or so.

If you know of anyone who's hiring for part-time help, would you let me know? I believe I've been spending too much time scouring the Internet and paper for the right job. It's been taking away from other things, like meeting new people and spiritually preparing to lead Ridge Church.

So, I am going to rely on the folks who read this blog (surely there are millions by now) to hook me up! I'm just looking for something around 20 hours a week with a regular paycheck that allows me to have a relatively-regular schedule and meet as many folks as possible.

There's a bunch of good reasons for a pastor to have a part-time job, by the way, in case you're wondering:

I can make a little money, allowing The Ridge to save some cash it would normallly pay me and reserve that dough for launch needs like a sound system, video stuff, children's ministry stuff, etc. Just an FYI: I am paid on a part-time basis by Ridge Church right now from charitable donations that friends and family are sending as financial support for The Ridge--they believe God wants to do big things in Knoxville and so do I! (If you'd like to pitch in, let me know!)
I am not tempted to be "super-pastor" and try to do everything, but will need to gather a ministry team and work hand-in-hand with other people to do "God stuff." Believe it or not, pastors often try to do it all and "burn out" every day. The healthy thing (and much more fun thing!) is to serve as part of a team.
I can meet new people who I may be able to invite to Ridge Church events so that they can get connected.
I can network with businesspeople-types who may be able to introduce me to their networks... Who may be able to introduce me to their networks... So we can invite people to Ridge Church events so they can get connected.
I can have a front-row seat to the culture around us... And even be on stage a little! Too many pastors are holed up every day in an office someplace, away from the people they hope or claim to serve... Not so with The Ridge! We don't envision our future offices as places to spend our entire workdays. Although there certainly are times for study and prayer, we want to be among the people of Knoxville on a daily basis and serve our community. How can we serve a community we don't move about in? We can't.

I'm sure there are more reasons for me to be a part-time employee, but you get the point! I plan to have a part-time job for at least a year, maybe up to three. We believe that The Ridge will be self-sufficient financially by that time, and I will me a much busier bee with Ridge Church stuff by that time as well.

More discussion of that stuff later, but for now, if you have good job ideas for me, just email them to kevin@ridgechurchknoxville.com.

We're a team--no one person can do it all, and that includes everything you might think of. Thanks so much!

Kevin

Picnic in the Park Day!

2008-07-29T17:05:00.003-04:00

Today's post is an easy one... My lovely wife Emily is a great emailer. She just sent out an email to those we have on our email list about our first Ridge Church event, and it's a good one. So, here you go (links added by me).

"Hey guys!

I wanted to give everyone a heads up about The Ridge's first fun social thing! Saturday, August 23, from 12-3 (show up anytime you like) we are going to have a fun hang out time for people at Fountain City Park! It's B.Y.O.F. (Bring Your Own Food, haha)! We thought that might be easier since some people have kids and some are picky eaters, as are some adults! So, you can pack your own lunch or pick something up on your way here along Broadway, there are PLENTY of options! We will provide some additional beverages and dessert! We will have some fun activities for the kiddos, the playground is completely accessible and there's A LOT of space for a game of frisbee or football for the adults!

The goal is to meet people, get to know each other better, hang out and have a good time! It's a fairly low-key thing. Please feel free to invite your friends to come and hang out! So, bring a friend, some food, chair or a picnic cloth (we will try to get a pavilion, they are on a "first-come" basis) and hang out with us at Fountain City Park!

Don't forget to mark your calendars and we'll see you there!

Emily

P.S. If anyone is interested in helping out just email me at emily@ridgechurchknoxville.com or give me a call at 704.579.2022!"

Here's Some Baby Pictures...

2008-07-27T21:26:00.008-04:00

OK, due to popular demand (or, due to the person who commented on a post asking for baby pictures!) here are a few ultrasound pics of our baby girl. Enjoy and have a great week!

By the way, don't forget our Ridge Church Information Meeting tomorrow evening if you're in Knoxville!

Ridge Church Value #2: Grace and Faith

2008-07-25T22:17:00.010-04:00

Yes, it's true! Ridge Church does have more than one core value. (As a matter of fact, we have six!)

Our second core value is "Grace and Faith." Below is some information on our value of "Grace and Faith" from our Launch Proposal. (That's a document church planter dudes share with folks who are interested in supporting a church from afar with their prayers and finances, or supporting it locally by being part of it.)

We'll be sharing our Launch Proposal with everyone who comes to our Information Meeting on Monday the 28th at 7 pm at the Kroger Community Center in Halls. We'd love to have you come and learn about The Ridge and ask all the questions you want!

Here's what our Launch Proposal says about Grace and Faith:

"We believe that all people, especially those who do not already follow Christ, matter to God. They should be offered grace by the local church and actively and continually invited by Christians to place their faith in Christ and His Gospel."

There's always a little "unpacking" to do when someone says that some concept is a core value. For me personally, Grace and Faith are crucial.

When I was a younger believer, I was a very legalistic individual. I believed that even though I was a believer in Christ, there was a ton of stuff I had to do to please God, and those who didn't do the right things (or, conversely, did do the wrong things) weren't pleasing Him. Then, I kind of oversteered to the other side and spent some time believing that as long as folks believed in Christ, they could do pretty much whatever and God was cool with it. (Don't get me wrong, I thought that within good reason... You could say I just was very "anti-rules.") This is often called "antinomianism" in theological-speak. Here's a good definition of that word.

We believe that Christians and the local church must always offer God's grace to everyone with whom we come in contact by sharing the Gospel (or "Good News") of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. When those who aren't Christ-followers respond to God's call on their lives and accept God's gift of grace through faith in Jesus, they become Christ-followers and are adopted forever as part of God's family.

Of course, those who are Christ-followers sin or mess up daily in their lives. Often our difficulty is that we aren't willing to allow Christ to live through us as we selfishly attempt to control every aspect of our lives. But this doesn't mean that we are "losers", useless, or are not loved by God!

So often through the years, our churches have "shot our wounded"--people who are hurt or struggling with sin or pain or some other "issue"... At Ridge Church, that's not going to be the case!

At The Ridge, everyone who is not yet a believer in Christ will be showed God's grace and challenged to accept Christ in faith. Those who are already believers will be shown grace when they "mess up" and challenged to allow Christ to be the Lord of thier daily lives as they walk with Him in faith. Put another way: forgiveness, grace and love will be offered to all with one hand, and faith and discipline will be a challenge presented to all with the other hand.

As always, a blog is an imperfect place to share one's most theological thoughts... If you have questions about grace or faith, email me at kevin@ridgechurchknoxville.com!

There are several verses in the Bible that support our value of Grace and Truth. Check out these: Acts 2:37-41, Matthew 18:21-35, Acts 8:26-40.

A Great Weekend and My Prayer Philosophy

2008-07-21T17:07:00.000-04:00

Hope you all had a super weekend! I did...

I took Emily to Panther Creek State Park in Morristown, Tennessee for her birthday (Saturday was her "exact" birthday, which was cool). We hiked to the exact spot overlooking Cherokee Lake where I asked her to marry me 11 years ago. (The pic is from the Internet--just a representative shot!)

It was a great day! We went to Panther Creek quite a bit when we were students at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City. Of course, with Emily being pregnant, it was an interesting 2-mile hike in the heat, but we took plenty of water and everything was fine... It was beautiful and everything is a healthy green!

After changing into something a little nicer, we ate supper at El Sazon, our favorite Mexican restaurant while we were in college. (After 10 years of travel, I must say that nothing has beaten Campestre in Princeton, WV. It's the bomb! Cheap, wonderful food, great service, a nice new restaurant, and clean bathrooms! What more can you ask for? And in Southern West Virginia, no less!)

So, it was a good day. I hope your day was as nice as ours.

Today, I wanted to share a little about my "prayer philosophy." There are about as many ideas about prayer as there are well-meaning Christian folks. (That's alot!) My ideas about prayer used to be pretty simple: God is perfect and unchanging, so prayer doesn't change God, it just helps us to get "on the same page" with Him and is an opportunity to connect with God and worship Him.

Since Emily's been pregnant, though, I think I understand the depth of meaning in some biblical passages on prayer a little better. Don't worry, I haven't changed my mind on God's perfection or unchangableness, I believed I've just gained a greater appreciation for and a greater understanding of the biblical concept of prayer. (And, In case you haven't noticed, I'm always learning about more about both the Bible and God's nature... We all should be!)

When Jesus speaks in Luke 11, He is speaking for the Father (as He always does). As we talked about in an earlier post, God owns it all. The Luke 11 passage is obviously teaching that we are to be persistent in our prayers, and to ask God for good stuff--even if it's just stuff that we perceive is good in our imperfect humanity. God is "omni-sapient" (all-wise) and it's not a problem at all for Him to decide what we should have, and what is not so great for us to get our hands on. (See "Adam and Eve" for an idea of a seemingly-good thing that wasn't so good at all.)

As a father-to-be, I can far more easily see the comparison between earthly fathers and our Heavenly Father. Each is in a setting where they are able to offer wonderful things to their children. In God's case, the supply of blessings is unlimited! (In my case, not so much, but I can afford candy and some cool toys! Transformers action figures, anyone?)

However, each father also desires for their children to do the following (Disclaimer: this is my own list, you won't find it in any Bible passage, but I think you'll find it useful.):

1) really figure out what they want by themselves or with the help of others as a process of becoming more mature
2) think seriously about whether they really want it and if they're pretty sure it's a good thing to have
3) realize who has the goods and the power to provide them
4) actually humble themselves before their provider and honor them by asking for what they want
5) trust their provider (who has greater wisdom than they do) to judge the reasonableness of the request,

and finally,

6) appreciate the decision that their parent/our Heavenly Father makes in the matter, and be willing to have a good attitude regardless of the decision.

Of course, a post on the topic of prayer could go on forever. I have many more thoughts on prayer, and I'm sure you do too!

So, feel free to email me if you want to continue it at kevin@ridgechurchknoxville.com or call me at 865.223.5851. Or, we can do coffee someplace! :)

A Little Voyage on the "Steward Ship" - Part 2

2008-07-19T21:38:00.002-04:00

So, in continuing from yesterday's post, here are some Ridge Church guidelines that we believe fit well with Jesus' financial ethics:

1. A "tithe" of 10% of all regular donations and offerings given to Ridge Church will be set aside to support church planting and church planters.

2. We will set aside 5% of all Ridge Church donations and offerings for missions causes and missionary support, and a further 5% will be set aside for Ridge Church's savings fund.

3. The salaries of all Ridge Church staff members will be set and approved by an outside advisory team of trusted pastors (who are also members of the Acts29 Network) until we have our own local leadership in place (2 to 3 years probably). Then, the local elders of Ridge Church will set and approve salaries.

4. Our launch budget and operating budget will be approved by those same guys; again this will last until we have our own local leadership in place. (We are in the process of hammering out our relationship agreement with our outside advisory team. I'm pumped to be accountable to them and their wisdom! More info soon.)

5. I will never write checks for Ridge Church, nor will Emily. Right now, we have two volunteers who both must sign any Ridge Church checks. They are Sue Irving and Rose Stapleton. These fine ladies also process the financial donations for Ridge Church.

6. I will not count or handle the money we receive when we meet on Sundays, nor will Emily. We will have a volunteer team for that. My goal is to get as far away from the receiving of donated funds as possible! :)

A Ridge Church goal is to move toward full compliance with the best practices (PDF document) of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. They're an honorable and reputable organization. Their financial accountability standards are high and will take time for us to reach, but isn't God is worth full commitment in every phase of our lives? (That's an easy question...)

Finances really are a big deal in life... The good thing is that we don't have to worry about controlling our funds and be "all about the Benjamins." God says He owns it all, and Jesus talked quite a bit about money.

Mark 6:21 is a big Bible verse about cashola, and there are many others. You can use StudyLight.org (a really sweet FREE site) to find more Bible verses about pretty much anything! If you're looking for some ideas on handling your personal finances in a way that will honor God, please your spouse, and set a good example for your kids, I highly recommend these guys.

Until next time, have a great weekend!

A Little Voyage on the "Steward Ship" - Part 1

2008-07-18T18:51:00.005-04:00

Hello! I've been working on this particular post for a while, since I think it's important stuff. I didn't know when the right time would be to share it, but I have a good reason today...

We just got set up with Google a couple days ago so that Ridge Church could receive online financial gifts. I even blogged about it. Unfortunately, there are some issues with Google's Merchant Services and it looks like they will keep us from processing gifts with them any more. (I gave twice to check out the service and it worked fine... What can you do?)

I'm not going to "hate" on Google, since I like Google, I use GMail, Google Reader, Google Apps, pretty much Google everything, and this blog isn't going to be a place to make angry comments about anyone or anything. I will give "props" but not criticisms. My belief is that criticism belongs in a personal conversation, preferably face-to-face. So, let me just say that we're exploring some other options for online giving, and we are committed to making giving easy for all of you who plan on financially supporting Ridge Church!

Fortunately, this ride on the "Steward Ship" won't be a "three-hour tour!" I just wanted to share a little bit about Ridge Church's financial philosophy. (It seems like that should be two "f" words or two "ph" words. English is weird that way.)

Anyway, there are a few "bullet points" that should serve to make our financial ideals clear. Since we are a "church plant" (a new church, from scratch, from the ground up) this kind of stuff is important to share clearly and publicly. We want to be people of the most reliable stewardship ethics. We serve a holy God, and He deserves our commitment to honoring Him with our funds. (If you think about it for very long, you'll realize it's all God's anyway.)

While the Bible is quite clear that greed is a very naughty thing that can lead to big personal issues, and it says alot about personal financial management, it doesn't tell the local church many specifics on how to spend its money! But, that doesn't mean that it's impossible to come up with some solid standards for churches in the realm of financial management.

Tomorrow, we'll talk about some simple Ridge Church guidelines that we are committed to and we believe fit well within the Bible's teachings on financial ethics.

Now, go enjoy your Friday night... Do something fun! :)

Ridge Church Info Meeting in Knoxville!

2008-07-15T23:41:00.004-04:00

That's right, everyone. We're having our first "official" Ridge Church meeting in Knoxville on Monday, July 28th at 7 pm at the Kroger Community Center in Halls, and we hope you'll join us!

The address is 6943 B Maynardville Highway, Knoxville, TN 37918. The Kroger Community Center is right behind the Kobe Japanese Restaurant. Thanks to Kroger of Halls for allowing Ridge Church to use their facility free of charge!

This meeting will be an important one in the life of Ridge Church. We will take the time to share our "launch plan" and vision for our new church. We will talk about dates for having some hang-out activities so we can get to know each other and you can bring friends to check out "The Ridge." We will also introduce you to some fellow pastors from our church planting network, Acts29, who know Emily and me and are part of our advisory team.

There will be time for you to ask any questions you may have and get to know other people at the gathering. We will provide drinks and light snacks, so just plant to eat supper either before or after you come. The meeting should last about an hour. We will open the doors shortly before 7.

Please do us the favor of an RSVP so we know how many people to plan for. Just email Kevin at kevin@ridgechurchknoxville.com or call 865.223.5851. Those are also great ways to contact Kevin if you'd like to get more information before you come.

See you soon!

Online Giving to Ridge Church Now Available!

2008-07-14T18:03:00.007-04:00

Well, you asked for it, and it is here! You can now make tax-deductible financial support/donations to Ridge Church online!

It's simple. Just go to the bottom of this webpage and put the amount you want to donate to Ridge Church in the Online Donations box. Then click "donate" and follow the instructions on the webpage that comes up.

This awesome service is provided FREE to non-profits by Google Checkout. Google is a trustworthy company, and their transactions are secure. To donate this way, you will need a credit or debit card and a Google account. If you do not have a Google account, just follow the directions on how to get one. If you do have a Google account, just follow the directions to log in. If you don't have a credit or debit card, we can't help you there... :) Please send us a check instead!

When you donate to Ridge Church using this method, your funds will be automatically deposited into our operating account. You will receive a receipt from Google via email indicating that your transaction is complete. At the end of every month that you donate to Ridge Church, you will receive an email receipt from us indicating the amount of donations that we received from you that month.

At the end of January, you will receive a yearly statement for tax filing purposes. All gifts to Ridge Church are tax deductible to the extent of IRS regulations.

If you have any questions about online giving, please do not hesitate to ask via email to info@ridgechurchknoxville.com. You may also call Kevin at 865.223.5851.

Thanks for giving online as a way to make our paperwork easier... We hope it makes your life easier, too!

Ridge Church Value #1: Truth

2008-07-09T22:32:00.010-04:00

As I mentioned in my last post, this week we will begin to share Ridge Church's values with you. Values are some of the most important things look for when you check out a church. There are so many churches out there, with so many programs and so many styles of worship, preaching, and teaching. But values are the things that really drive the leadership of a church (or any organization for that matter).

Aubrey Malphurs (who is a seminary professor and also works as a consultant to help churches with issues) wrote a book called "Planting Growing Churches." It's like a textbook on starting new churches. He defines a new church's values as "constant, passionate, biblical core beliefs that drive its ministry." I like this definition.

Ridge Church's first value is "Truth." Here's what we have to say about Truth:

"We believe that truth is found in the Bible. This truth (the Gospel) leads to new spiritual life in Christ and fulfillment in daily living; the Bible's truth must be taught honestly, effectively, and practically by the leaders of the church so that those who hear it can apply it to their lives."

One thing to note is that we have a firm belief in the validity and relevance of the Bible. We really do believe it is God's Word to people, and it's the most important information that's ever been communicated. This belief will guide us in all of Ridge Church's future paths.

There are several verses in the Bible that support our value of Truth. Check out these: John 1, John 14:6, 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Ridge Church Info Meeting in Charlotte!

2008-07-06T22:52:00.009-04:00

This Friday night, July 11th, Emily and I will be in Charlotte for the first information meeting about Ridge Church! We are going to share about the vision that God has given us for the Northeast Knoxville/Knox County, Tennessee area, what that means for us, the church planting process and timeline, and how you can be part of our support team. (Or maybe you can move to Knoxville and be part of our "on the ground" team!)

Bill and Margaret Branigan are graciously hosting our gathering at 7 pm at their home in Indian Trail. Anyone interested in supporting us and learning about Ridge Church is warmly invited! We won't keep you out all night--as a matter of fact, Emily and I will be in town through Sunday to visit.

All we ask is that you RSVP via email or phone so that the Branigans can be prepared for our crowd. If you need directions to the Branigans, just let me know. I want to respect their privacy and not list their home address here.

You can email me at kevin@ridgechurchknoxville.com or call me at 704.579.2235 or Emily at 704.579.2022 to RSVP. (Yes, we're still in that wonderful two-year contract with Alltel.)

This week: a discussion of Ridge Church's six core values... Come back soon!

Our First Few Days in Knoxville!

2008-07-04T13:50:00.012-04:00

Well, Emily and I are officially residents (again) of Knoxville, Tennessee!

Saturday, with the generous help of our summer interns and friends in West Virginia and our in-laws (Emily's parents) we moved our stuff out of our apartment and into our rental truck. Then, on Sunday afternoon, again with the help of friends and family, we moved into our new rental home in the Gibbs area of Knoxville. Thanks so much all of you who helped us!

Please mail us or call us at our new home! Our address is 7509 Lyle Bend Lane, Knoxville, TN 37918. Our cell phones will remain the best way to call us until December, when we are finally set free from our cell contract. Mine (Kevin's) is 704.579.2235, and Emily's is 704.579.2022. We have much better reception in Knoxville than we did in West Virginia...

On Saturday after emptying our our apartment, we took Emily's parents to the Exhibition Coal Mine in Pocahontas, Virginia. The mine is the first place coal was mined in the area, and it became a tourist destination years ago. (The coal seam is so big there that people used to be able to drive through the mine--it's now a walking tour.)

The big thing you realize when you visit the mine is how fortunate we are to live the way we do now. 100 years ago, 16% of all coal miners died in the mines. Working was dangerous and life was hard. Sometimes I think we should thank God simply for technological progress... Our lives are are a far cry from the lives of folks 100 years ago, in many good ways!

On Monday, our friends John Hightshoe and Maleigh York came to visit us. John was one of our students at Charlotte South Fellowship, and we have become friends with Maleigh as well. They stayed until Wednesday, and generously weaved in and out of our multiple moving boxes that were yet to be unpacked. We enjoyed visiting with them and hope to have more friends come see us soon!

The past couple of days have been spent humorously... driving around looking for free Wi-Fi in our area, since we don't have the Internet at the house until Tuesday. Fortunately, two excellent (but very different) places to eat offer free Wi-Fi: Krystal in Halls and Panera Bread of Fountain City. I like Panera Bread alot, and the people who work at the Fountain City location rock! But I have had a special connection with Krystals since I was a kid... I love those tiny little burgers of joy. Some may call them mean names, but I love 'em and I will eat 'em anytime I can. If you've never had a Krystal, you've really missed out!

Since it's July 4th, I wish you and yours a Happy Independence Day. In the spirit of the real meaning of the holiday, why not read the Declaration that made our country a reality? Hope you get to have a cookout or watch some fireworks too!