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.

Man Night next Monday

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

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

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

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...

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...

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.