New Podcast

Calvary Chapel of Raleigh Podcast

A task that has been on my to-do list for months is to set up a podcast for our church body.

I just know that I’m ten times more likely to listen to a teaching if it’s already on my iPod because iTunes put it there when I sync’d up, and I have a feeling that many other folks are the same way.

I also know that it’s a great way to make our pastor’s teaching available to those who might never otherwise find us. I often listens to pastors from around the world who I’ve never met, just because I found their podcast.

But I was always intimidated by the technicality of it. The first thing that iTunes asks you for when you go to setup a podcast is the XML document. “What XML document?”

But I found a great tutorial and it turned out to be pretty easy!

So click here to see our new podcast on iTunes, and if you’re looking for some teaching to listen to, why don’t you subscribe?

(Oh, and if you want to hear the teachings but you just don’t want to use iTunes, they’re all available on the website here)

Calvary Chapel Raleigh Facebook Group

Hey Kids,

If you consider yourself to be part of the Calvary Chapel of Raleigh community, and you sit in front of a computer on a regular basis, then you should join the Calvary Chapel of Raleigh facebook group. It’s simple, just click here and join!

What’s that? You don’t have a facebook account? Well take off those bell bottoms and join the 21st century! I personally guarantee addiction within one week or your money back… especially since it’s free.

Is this true?

I’ve read on three blogs (here, here, and here) that Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin will be starting a church fellowship together.

Human3rror reports:

It’s true.  Chris Tomlin announced today, in a partners/members meeting after the 9:30am service, that he is planning to leave the Austin Stone Community Church to pursue God’s calling to start up a new church with long time friend and partner Louie Giglio in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

Has anybody else heard this?

I’m skeptical, but really excited!

Some recent thoughts about the Church

We’ve been going through this book, “Using Your Spiritual Gifts”, by Eddie Rasnake at our men’s Bible study lately. I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed it and been challenged by it.

It has also coincided really well with the series on the Church by Francis Chan that I’ve listened to over and over again (if you haven’t heard that series, then you need to stop reading and go download the podcasts right now :0)

Here are a few quotes that I wanted to share from this morning:

The body of Christ was God’s idea.

The earthly ministry of Jesus did not end when He ascended.

…On Pentecost …the Spirit of God too up residence in the people of God, so God could still be seen. This new entity, called the Church, would be the way God would manifest Himself to the unbelieving world.

Who Jesus was as an individual — teaching, encouraging, confronting, and manifesting the power of God — the Church now is as an entity.

God… manifests some of God through each of us so that through all of us God can be seen and glorified. The net result of all of us put together is one picture — God.

Without a doubt, job one for church leaders is equipping the saints to serve.
This direct focus should result in the body being edified and everyone moving toward maturity. Much like an athletic coach, church leaders can’t measure their success by what they do, but by what others do as a result of their efforts. If the saints aren’t engaged in serving, and the members of the body aren’t maturing, then the leaders are not succeeding, no matter how dynamic they are.

Jesus chooses how I am gifted and He chooses to what extent I am gifted.
He chooses.

New Tomlin Record

Got this in my inbox today.

I heard this on the radio a couple of days ago and I was like, “That sounds like Chris Tomlin… but I don’t know this song.”

It made me happy :0)

You can download the song on iTunes or Amazon.com.

Did you hear it yet? What did you think?

Something I heard yesterday

Yesterday, while working, I listened to a message by Rob Bell on Philippians 2:1-2 called “One Mind” (click here to download the mp3 :: click here to view the past 12 sermons from Mars Hill Church).

The talk was very interesting and certainly kept my attention. Rob even played highlight films of Larry Bird (a great basketball player from when I was a kid).

At one point during the talk — and I think you could reasonably say that this is the thesis of the message — Rob makes this statement:

“What if the cross was God’s way of asking, ‘What do I have to do for you to get along?’ ?”

At first I thought, “Wow, that’s powerful.”

But then, the more I thought about it, the more my eye brows went up…

what do you think?

The Church

I’ve been thinking about this song a lot lately, so I figured I’d make sure you know about it.

It’s called “The Church”, and it comes from Derek Webb’s first solo album, “She Must And Shall Go Free”.

It starts like this:

i have come with one purpose
to capture for myself a bride
by my life she is lovely
by my death she’s justified

i have always been her husband
though many lovers she has known
so with water i will wash her
and by my word alone

so when you hear the sound of the water

you will know you’re not alone

‘cause i haven’t come for only you
but for my people to pursue
you cannot care for me with no regard for her
if you love me you will love the church

You can read all the lyrics from that album here.

Our Lobby On Sunday Morning

This is our church lobby this past Sunday morning. I started recording about 30 minutes before service, and stopped about 20 minutes after.

Notice a couple of things:

• There is a ton of activity after 10:00, when service starts.
• The fans look like they could cut through steel.
• Larry works very hard to make sure every person who walks through the door is greeted :0)

What else do you notice?

For Stephen and Mike D.

Speaking of Worship

I had the great privilege of teaching our main service this Sunday at church, and it didn’t take me two seconds to know that I wanted to teach on the topic of worship.

As luck (or providence) would have it, the mic battery went out half way through, so the sound guys or going to see if they can get me one mp3 file so I can share it with all you wonderful people.

But in the meantime, Flowerdust and Ragamuffin Soul have some fantastic dialog going on about the topic of worship.

In particular, Carlos is asking:

Question One: What do you see the purpose of a church weekend gathering is? (I emailed him and asked him to ask this question on the blog MONTHS ago :0)
Question Two: Do you believe God can engage a persons heart in a weekend service where there is a goal to help manifest this through musical worship, production, creative video elements??

This should be interesting and could be very beneficial!