5 more days

Just a few days left before our concert. We have been praying and getting things ready. Remember we would like to start around 6:30pm on saturday night. Bring your friends and come expecting a great time.

Remember each of the groups coming have their own 'my space'. So check them out.

some reasons for a school

Here are a few of the reasons I gave to our church Sunday for starting our own Christian School.

1) Many of the other schools in the area are expensive. It would be nice to offer a affordable alternative (prayerfully in the $200.00 per month range)

2) Many Christian schools take kids that have serious discipline problems, kids that have been kicked out of public schools and in some cases other Christian schools, just because they need the money.....We will not be a reform school, we believe in giving everyone a second chance and even a new start, but kids that come in because of previous discipline problems will be held on a short leash. The reason for that is because those kids become and cause distractions to the other kids who may be trying to learn something. We want to get the kids who want to learn or at least be motivated to learn.

3) Our history as a church started as a school. The fact being we were probably a school before we were a church. Meaning that whoever started church in this area probably came here first to start a school.

A new vision

there is that saying, "attempt something so great for God that if he does not do it, it will be a miserable failure"

Yesterday I presented to the church just such of a thing. I feel possibly the Lord leading us to begin laying the ground work to start a Christian day school next school year. It is going to take alot of work and prayer, but if it is Gods will He can make it happen.

I will post later on in the week on a few of the reasons I feel that this may be a good thing. In other words why I feel we ought to start a Christian school.

quote

"Frequently, when we reduce the time it takes to do something insignificant, we end up using the saved time on yet another insignificant activity." by

The Age of Speed: Learning to Thrive in a More-Faster-Now World by Vince Poscente.

Concert Details

We have worked out the details regarding our 2nd rock concert. It will be Saturday Nov. 3, around 6:30pm. We have 4 bands scheduled

Send Out Scuds (SOS)
David's Victory
A Fight to Remember
Surprise Attack

They all have my space sites....Check them out.
These are all hardcore rock groups and SOS is a ska band. Hardcore dancing will be allowed and expected :).....Come expecting to have a good time. (Party poopers will not be allowed in).
If you need more information you can email me at bkjohn777@aol.com put 'concert' in the subject line

O did I mention that this concert is FREE!!!!

A Prayer for Enemies

Bless my enemies, O Lord.Even I bless and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me more into your embrace than friends have.
Friends have bound me to earth; Enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world..

by Brian Mclaren

One of the highlights of our vacation was that we went to see the church location of the first church we pastored in the Cincinnati area (afton). We were thrilled to see not just a new building but also a new educational wing and also they were starting a daycare/preschool. And their attendance in the 70's. Please pray that God will continue to bless the Afton Wesleyan Church.

E mail

Some have wondered where the email to the blog is. Check the profile and you will find or look right here

bkjohn777@aol.com

prison ministry

Kairos prison ministry will be having their weekend retreat the weekend of September 22 in Polk County. Please pray for Bro. Emmett Harrington and others who will be ministering at that time.
Also a big thank you for everyone who brought in cookies to be used (eaten) that weekend

Beatitudes

We have been preaching/teaching on the beatitudes for the last number of weeks. I have been challenged by the fact that if our lives lined up to the beatitudes what would we have?.......

The kingdom of God

Vacation

We are leaving this week to go on vacation. A niece will be getting married this Saturday, in Indiana
My son, Aaron and his wife will be filling in for us this coming Sunday.
We would appreciate your prayers for our traveling

10 Things I Think...OK, 12

This is from church growth and evangelism department of the Wesleyan Church

10 Things I Think…OK, 12

1. The gospel informs the doctrine, not the doctrine the gospel.
2. If we don’t multiply as a denomination we will die.
3. If we can simply agree on where we are going, we’ll be able to figure out how to get there…together!
4. Loyalty does not mean we always agree, but it does mean we will do all we can to get along.
5. A genuine multiplication movement will never happen until it is driven by the local church.
6. Denominational structure must adjust to allow for a movement to be empowered, not endangered.
7. Freedom without responsibility is anarchy.
8. I don’t know everything, but this I do know: I don’t know everything.
9. Church planting and church planters can make denominational leadership uncomfortable, but I’m not sure “comfortable” is a Kingdom value.
10. God is God, we are not. We need to get used to it!
11. When it comes to church planting we just need to “get ‘er done!”
12. If you haven’t thought about planting a church…you ought to!

TV devotion

I was asked to do a 15 minute devotional for the "Good Samaritan Village' yesterday morning. they have their own TV channel which is watched by those who live there. I started with the beatitudes (what we are doing in our services on Sunday). it was a interesting experience, the only problem is trying to get what you want said in exactly 15 minutes. You cannot run short and you cannot go over. What I had planned took about 10 minutes so I had to adlib the next 5 which was kind of hard......Maybe if they have me back I can improve words with time. :)

Mother Teresa

Here is a good article from Time magazine regarding a upcoming book on the letters of Mother Teresa. Is seems she spent much time feeling that God was not near or with her, I cant wait for the book


http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415,00.html

Celtic Prayer

I muse on the eternal logos of God,and all creation is lit up.
I muse on the eternal Light,and every person is lit up.
I muse on the eternal Life,and God’s heaven is lit up.
I muse on the beloved disciple at the Last Supperand God’s sacrament is lit up.
I muse on the loved mother and apostle at the Crossand Christ’s church is lit up.
I muse on the risen Christ at Lake Galileeand all our Easter’s are lit up.
I muse on the eternal Lamb of Godand eternity’s tenderness is lit up.
I muse on the radiance of the Eastern lightand pray that it becomes the transforming glory of the West…

from Exploring Celtic Spirituality, 54
found at www.nextreformation.com

While at the hospital visiting yesterday we seen a young man (20 something) who use to live here in the community. He said he had been kicked out of his house, was taking drugs and cutting himself and thus was in the process of admitting himself into Park Place (rehab). We offered to take him over there and while in route tried to encourage him to look to God, he did not seem too interested in looking to God though.....

I have to wonder how low do some people have to go before they begin to think about God? How many more options does this young man have? SAD. Please pray for him

Crime watch meeting

We had our crime watch meeting here in town this past Tuesday (14th). There was a good crowd there, probably the biggest I have seen.
One of the concerns was with the drug selling businesses going on here in town and why they have not been shut down.
We asked what we could do to bring those dealers to justice....the best advice the officers could give us was to keep calling the drug hotline when we see or suspect drug activity. If we all strive to call when we see such activity maybe it will help. We can only pray that it will.
The phone number is 407-348-1174...please use it.

From the Bishops in Albania

Dear Prayer Partners,
We wanted to bring you up to speed on what’s going on with the Bishop family here in Albania… We have been very busy also here as we continue reaching out to the people here and growing our relationships. We are excited about starting some small group meetings in several peoples’ homes. One of those homes is our landlords, and I have attached a letter about my landlord and friend Mustafa. I hope it helps you pray for him and me as we continue to build a relationship in Christ.

Thank you for all your prayers,
Ken, Dawn, Eva, Joshua and Stephen

I wanted to introduce our landlord and a dear friend, Mustafa Dëlehu to you. We have been growing to love he and his family and wanted to introduce him to you so you can pray for him.

Mustafa was a merchant marine for 28 years under the communist system. Wow, the stories he can tell about traveling around the world during the cold war. He has shared many with me and I find it hard to imagine some of the conditions he has been in. Once, he was interrogated for over 9 hours by the communist government for suspicion of talking against the communist system.

He is a hard working man and built the house where we occupy the 2nd floor all by himself. He continues to get up, although retired, at 5:00 in the morning and put his mind to work on finding something to do on the house everyday. Usually repairing or working on the unfinished portions of the house in the first floor.

He loves to drink coffee at least twice a day and I am often found joining him as he invites me to sit and talk with him. During these conversations I often share with him about God and His son Jesus. We often discuss the many differences between the Muslim religion and our faith.
He was able to travel to Italy for a few months to visit his son, so I gave him a stack of books to read during his rest time there. Over the period of three months he read the entire bible and about 6 other Christian books I gave to him. He has a lot of questions and is now reading through the Bible a second time. He is also now attending church service along with his wife (Shpresa) and sometimes his adult daughter (Dora). Please pray for him (them) as we continue to share the Love of Christ and the need for a savior in his life. We have a desire to study the bible together with his family and are praying about actually inviting others to join us. Pray with us as we continue to reveal God’s word to him and His plan for their lives

good story

Willamette Valley Wesleyan Church is located in Wilsonville, Oregon. They were sensing they needed to repurpose themselves for greater effectiveness. It was believed that replanting themselves in a new ministry field would be a great contributor to this. As God was prompting this in the hearts of the leaders, Pastor Jim Winters received a phone call from the City of Wilsonville. It seems they wanted to purchase the church property for over four million dollars. This was a confirmation of the stirring leaders were receiving. They are in process of selling!

An exciting sidebar is that this church wants to invest in church planting around the district. They will invest these dollars into a Wesleyan Investment Foundation account as they search for their new ministry field. During this time 50% of their interest income will be given to the district to help fund new churches. This is a church that is moving toward fitness!

Crime Watch

There was a murder in town a week ago today. Following on the heels of that there will be a crime watch meeting in the civic center at 7:00pm Tuesday August 14th...Everyone in town needs to be there to express their concern to the authorities.