Cool Weekend Ahead!

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!

Easter

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...

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!

Special Guest This Sunday and St. Patrick

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 a fellow Acts29 planter. We support him financially as part of our commitment to New Churches (we give 10% of our offerings to church plants). Our special guest sets a great example for us in our town as he serves as a missionary in the culture in Western North Carolina. 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!

Last Sunday and This Sunday at The Ridge!

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!

Thanks to some special people!

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...

Last Week's Recap... Part Two

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.

A Spooky Holiday...

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

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!

Ridge Church Value #5: New Churches

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.

Ridge Church Value #4: Serving Others

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!

About today's sad event...

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.

The Gospel is the Focus of Ridge Church

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.