Truly Beggars

Sarah, Caleb, and Steve

2007-07-02T14:54:00.001-04:00

Steve Goes Deep

2007-07-02T12:47:00.000-04:00

Not Just Peter

2007-06-28T11:58:00.000-04:00

Where does real love for people come from? Here's something I read this morning from Paul in his letter to the Colossians:

Colossians 1:3-5 (ESV) 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

When do we experience the hope laid up for us in heaven? the past? the present? the FUTURE!

Because we hope in the grace that will be brought to us in the future (remember 1 Peter 1:13), we love others now. Let's believe God's better promises today - and love our brothers.

Let's Pray

2007-06-28T09:32:00.001-04:00

Guys, don't forget to pray for Josh Miller and his gospel opportunity today at 11:00.

What is Humility?

2007-05-31T23:11:00.000-04:00

Here's the rough sketch of Guy Night from last week. Take a look at the passages again and ask God to continue to work in your heart to pursue humility. How will you pursue humility today?

What is Humility?
Phil. 2
1 Pet. 5:5-7
James 4

Luke 18:9-14: Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
The humble one comes to God realizing that he has nothing of any value to bring. Christ has already brought the valuable sacrifice. We must trust his work, and not ourselves.

Matthew 18:1-4: Question of Who is the Greatest?
Jesus answers that whoever humbles himself and becomes like this child is the greatest in God’s kingdom. What does that mean? What quality is it about a little child that Jesus is pointing to in this example? Dependence is the quality. Humility is dependence on God – pride is dependence on anything else.

1 Peter 5:5-7: What is One Way to Humble Myself?
Humble yourselves by casting all your anxiety on Him, trusting that he really does care. Oh, and he is mighty (humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God).

Proverbs 15:33; Proverbs 18:12; Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; Philippians 2:1-11; 1 Peter 5:6; Humility Leads to Exaltation
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Humility comes before honor.
The reward for humility and the fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.

James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5 God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

Psalm 138:6 God regards the lowly.

From Guy Night, but For Everyone

2007-05-25T09:55:00.001-04:00

In what specific ways will you fight against pride and pursue humility today?

Memorial Day Summer Kick Off

2007-05-24T11:43:00.000-04:00

Event: Summer Kick Off

Date and Time: Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day); 3-9 p.m.

Activities: We'll be going boating*, tubing, and water skiing on Lake Keowee.**

Food: We'll have a cookout around 7 p.m.

Cost: Please bring $5 to help cover the cost of gasoline for the boat.

Location: The Hockema Residence: 304 Crossover Dr., Seneca, SC 29672

Directions: Take 123 south through Seneca to 28 North - turn right on 28. Take 28 to 188 and turn right onto 188. After crossing one bridge, at the first intersection you will turn right on Biggerstaff Rd. Take your first left - Fairview Church Rd. God to Crestview Subdivision (Crestpoint Rd.) and turn left. God to Crossover Dr. and turn left. House is on the right.

* If you have your own life jacket, you are more than welcome to bring it. Of course, there will be life jackets for everyone, even if you don't have your own to bring.

** The guys and the girls will be taking separate boating trips to tube and ski and will be wearing shirts and shorts when they are together in the cove area near the Hockemas' home and dock. The changing areas for guys and girls will also be on separate levels of the house.

Please let me know if you are planning to come for our Summer Kick Off on Memorial Day. Feel free to leave a comment here or give me a call at 864-508-0153.

Graduation Tonight

2007-05-24T11:35:00.001-04:00

Jenni Miller's graduation from Oakwood Christian School in Anderson will be at 7:30 tonight. I know that she would appreciate you being there to support her. We will look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

Guy Night

2007-05-17T09:51:00.000-04:00

Here's one more text to help us think about our work and God's work in our growth in Christlikeness:

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

1 Corinthians 15:10 (ESV)

Pics from Joe's Birthday

2007-05-10T13:20:00.000-04:00

Ryan has several pictures from Joe's Birthday Party last week. They are posted over at Hegreness.net. Go check 'em out!

The Winners!

2007-05-10T13:03:00.000-04:00

Amy's (Early) Birthday!

2007-05-08T11:00:00.001-04:00

Upcoming Events

2007-05-07T12:24:00.000-04:00

What's going on in the next few weeks? Here we go:

This Wednesday, May 9: Crossfire, followed by a rehearsal in the Middle Room for the special Mother's Day song.

May 11, 12: Clean-up crew will make sure the church is ready for Sunday following Katherine Millsaps' wedding.

This Sunday, May 13: Youth Night - we are responsible for the evening service. Be thinking of testimonies. If you have anything ready on the piano (or with another instrument), please let me know. We'll talk more about it in Crossfire on Wednesday. Please come at 5 p.m. on Sunday so that we can be prepared for the service.

Monday, May 14: Graduation Open House for Katherine Whitwell, 7-9 p.m.

Saturday, May 19: Visitation at 10 a.m. We will be canvassing for the Steve Pettit meetings the next day.

Sunday, May 20: Combined Sunday School in the main auditorium.

Thursday, May 24: Jenni Miller graduates from Oakwood Christian School.

Monday, May 28: Memorial Day Summer Kickoff - details to come!

Note: the SNAC scheduled for May 13 has been postponed. The Graduate SNAC will be held (Lord willing) in early August, the next Sunday that we will have all five graduates here.

We should have seen it coming

2007-05-04T15:01:00.000-04:00

You may wonder how Allison could look so scary in the two recently posted pictures, but when we take a look back at a picture from last year's mission trip, we really should not be surprised at all. Everyone was trying to look tough in this photo, but I think Allison wins the prize.

Another One?

2007-05-04T14:16:00.000-04:00

Just for Mike

2007-05-04T14:14:00.000-04:00

One of our more serious youth group members!

2007-05-04T10:31:00.000-04:00

Hegreness.net

2007-05-01T10:40:00.000-04:00

Everybody, be sure to check out Ryan and Amy's website, hegreness.net. It has exclusive photos from Sunday night's surprise SNAC, the Cookie Night and Welcome Back Carl Night! All great stuff!

We Heart Carl!

2007-05-01T10:35:00.000-04:00

Graduate Honor Night Video

2007-05-01T10:32:00.001-04:00

from Ryan and Amy

2007-04-30T09:48:00.000-04:00

We just wanted to again say thank you! Tonight was such a blessing to both of us. We appreciated all the things you said about us. You were all so nice! We love the framed Clemson emblem. We love that everyone signed it--now we'll never forget you (except maybe Josiah and Michael Layne, since we can't read their signatures--just kidding).

We really have enjoyed the last 1 1/2 years or so that we've been doing stuff with the youth group. It has never been a hard thing to do or a choice to make. We've wanted to be with you guys. We will miss you all so much! Please come visit Vermont! We'll teach all of you how to ski, or you can come in the summer and cool off from the hot southern weather.

Thank you for everything--letting us be part of the youth group, making us feel young, opening up to us, and everything else you've done. You're all great! Stay that way!

We love you!

Ryan and Amy

Cookie Night!

2007-04-28T20:17:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow Night!

2007-04-19T11:06:00.000-04:00

Don't forget the activity tomorrow night from 6:15-9:15. We promise to begin and end at church. You'll have a hard time getting your clothes dirty (please don't take that as a challenge). As always, if we do travel anywhere as part of the activity, it will be with responsible adults (Happy Birthday, Ryan! - he was an adult yesterday, too, but he's even more of one today, I'm sure).

And, of course, following the official portion of the evening we will be heading to the GSP airport to welcome Carl Horton back to our hemisphere, continent, nation, state, etc. We will probably be returning from this "unofficial" activity between 11:45 and midnight. Communicate with each other to make sure that we have the t-shirts to spell "WE [heart] CARL." I hear that Nick has the heart.

We're Moving to Philadelphia

2007-04-12T11:08:00.000-04:00

So, why Philadelphia – and why now?

I’ll start with a little history. We have always wanted to be careful to follow God’s leading and walk through the doors that He opens.

In August of 2002, God led us to University Baptist Church. We knew we were going to be living in Greenville for a year and we wanted to get away from Greenville for church. Bert Campbell had talked to me, back in February of that year, about coming down to UBC to help with the campus ministry. So that is what we came to do. We joined on September 1, 2002, attended the college and career Sunday School class, and thought that would be our area of service here.

Sometime that next month, Pastor Coleman asked if I would be willing to teach the Sr. High SS class. Since we came to serve wherever we could be used, we agreed – and loved every minute of it. By that summer we were putting about 20 hours a week into the youth ministry here. God called us away for nine months to lead Ministry Teams for Bob Jones University, and we returned in May of 2004, the same month Pastor Dave was moving here.

By that time, we knew that God was moving us, ultimately, toward urban church planting. In fact, I mentioned that to Pastor Dave in our very first conversation that May. So, in one sense at least, this has been a long time coming. God continued to open doors for service here at UBC. I was working with the teens on an intern/ part-time status in 2004 and part of 2005 and went full time on September 1, 2005. Another opportunity came last year to help with the music ministry here. When Pastor Dave asked me about that, I told him that I wanted to do whatever would best serve the church, not just what was part of my “job description.”

God began to narrow our vision toward urban church planting with our first mission trip, back in June of 2005. Pastor Dave really wanted us to take a survey trip up to Philly – and it was on that trip that God knit our hearts with Ian and others. From that point we began to talk in general terms about moving to Philadelphia to be a part of the ministry there.

When we went again this past summer, God confirmed that desire in our hearts even more, though all the conversations with Ian were still in very general terms.

On our trip to New England last fall, the first serious talks took place about actually coming up to be a part of Grace Bible Church, then to go out from there to plant a church in another part of the city. After that, Ian called looking for a specific time-frame commitment. In December, we agreed to come, pending the decision of the leadership of the church there. When Ian was here preaching at Hampton Park in February, that commitment was finalized as Ian presented a specific plan for our participation in the life of the church there.

Pastor Dave has been aware of what has been going on at every step of the way. I want to thank him publicly for how supportive he has been (like allowing for an extended trip last fall and sending me to Minneapolis to see two other ministries last month).

Grace Bible Church is a “church re-plant.” When Ian became the pastor about two years ago, there were 14 people in the church. Now there are about 90. At this point, the church cannot take us on financially, so I will be pursuing full-time employment while we settle into the church and our role there. If the church continues to grow, I would move to full time staff at the church in about a year. Then, about two years after that, we would look to go out from Grace Bible Church to plant a new church in another part of Philadelphia.

So we are planning, by God’s grace, to move to Philadelphia around September 1, 2007, to serve at Grace Bible Church while we build a team to go out from there to plant a new church in the city for God’s glory. Ultimately, we would love to see many churches planted in cities across America and the world. If God allows Urban Imperative to grow, we may be a part of that dream becoming reality, too.

Tomorrow!

2007-04-09T23:08:00.000-04:00

Gym Night at the Doghouse in Pendleton is from 6:15-8:30 tomorrow night! Be there! It should be tons of fun. Bring a friend. See everyone there.