Hey Friends…
Let’s get back together again this Sunday! Three reasons: First, simply because we miss seeing everyone all in one place together. Now that summer is over, let’s meet! Secondly, we are launching a brand-new fall teaching series that I believe will have profound impact on how we follow Jesus. But perhaps most importantly, I want to find out if you and I are weirdos, or if we are just plain normal. “Whoa, Chris… hang on… did you just call me a weirdo?” Well, before you get offended, hear me out… more on this in Deeper Thoughts below. But first…wow… a TON of stuff happening as we kick off our fall season: · TOMORROW, September 7, 11:00 a.m: join us for a memorial service to celebrate the life of our dear friend Chris Nicholson and share a delicious meal afterwards in his honor. For those able to bring a potluck dish, please click here to sign up for what you’ll bring. If you want to try your hand at one of Chris’s great recipes, click here for some of his favorites! o IMPORTANT: So our hospitality team who worked so closely with Chris can attend the memorial service--rather than being downstairs fixing everything up—if you are bringing food, please arrive no later than 10:50 a.m. so we can get your items staged and the team upstairs for service. o If you are unable to attend, you can click here for a livestream of the service in real-time. This link may also work for later “on demand” viewing. · THIS Sunday, we launch our new fall teaching series “The Normal Christian Life: Not Weak, Not Weird, Not Wandering.” This series will be an intensive study of the Book of Acts—a bold snapshot of what following Jesus looks like when it is truly “normal.” More on this in Deeper Thoughts below. · Also this fall, look for a series of powerful prayer and worship gatherings, prayer vigils, and at-home guided prayer experiences. As a church family, let’s seek the face of God for our future, to believe God for supernatural provision for our facility expansion, and to listen to the Holy Spirit for each of our individual callings. I’ll tell you more about this on Sunday. · Jump into a small group this fall! We’ll be working through the Book of Acts together, and there’s no better time to get involved with a fresh start. We’ll tell you more and give you a path to involvement on Sunday! · Ladies: Put on your cowboy boots and hat and come line dancing with us on Saturday, September 14 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Click here for more info and to RSVP! PLUS… save the date for Saturday, October 19 from 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. for a One-Day Women's Retreat at the Mt. Hope Pavilion! More details to come! · All-Church Workday… come hang with an amazing group of people while helping spruce up the church facility and campus on Saturday, September 21, 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and you who are very certain you’re not weird. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… What has been your experience with religion? With Christianity? Can I tell you mine? I grew up in a fairly agnostic home. My folks never really wanted much to do with religion. We had a perfunctory little bit here and there—Christmas Eve and occasionally Easter; for a couple of years, we tried the “family goes to church every Sunday” thing at the local Presbyterian church. It was mediocre at best. Anyone remember those little clip-on neckties? They were a perfect fit for miniature 8-year-old Chris. I got very little out of church. All I remember the minister talking about were the funny cartoons he read that morning in the newspaper. For real. That’s all I remember. Nothing about Jesus. Nothing about the power of God to transform me. Nothing about the need to give my life over to Jesus and be saved. And certainly nothing about being filled with the Holy Spirit and God’s anointing. Simply put, to me, religion was lame. Church was even more lame, Christianity irrelevant. And I never heard about the radical, life-transforming, world-altering, filled-with-power side of Jesus Christ. This led 8-year-old Chris to grow up to be the very wise 10-year-old Chris who boldly declared on the religion page of his Cub Scouts badge book that I was an atheist. I did not believe in God. When I told my parents that was what I was writing in my book, they shrugged. Then at age 14, I met Phil and Carolyn Holliday. Their son Brian promised a robust social life at their church’s youth group which might satisfy my new-found interest in young ladies. So, I went. And hated it. At first. But then I saw the power. The youth pastor was a total fanatic, his eyes filled with fire and passion. Many of the students would raise their hands and adore God--sometimes even weep—during worship. Teens were devoting all their energy to living for God. They prayed with authority and boldness. They expected the miraculous, and at times, they saw it. They went “witnessing”—a 1980’s version of going door-to-door to tell strangers about Jesus Christ and ask them if they wanted to be saved. New teenagers came to youth group in droves, and almost every one of them gave their lives to Jesus the first time they showed up. One night, we went “witnessing” at the Park View High School football game over in Sterling. The fire in our souls was so intense that for hours after the game, we sat in the back of Guy Wilson’s pickup truck and prayed for the Holy Spirit to baptize us with His power—just like Jesus instructed his disciples to seek in Acts 1:4-8. Jesus answered. I was forever different. My parents thought I had joined a cult. But what I had tapped into was real Christianity—not the stale, lifeless, going-through-the-motions drudgery of the old churches we had visited. This was authentic. This was power. This was transformation. Why am I telling you this? I believe that far too many Americans—even many American “Christians”—experience faith as a drudgery at worst, and at best, a mediocre adjunct activity to their otherwise super-busy lives. What’s worse, most Americans think that’s the normal state of religion. To them, it’s all that Christianity is meant to be, and all that it is capable of being. When Americans see someone over-the-top, super-devoted to Jesus Christ, they consider them a fanatic. Someone weird. Someone really abnormal. But when we read the New Testament, crazy intensity about Jesus is described as if it were just plain normal. The power of the Holy Spirit is standard. Seeing the promises of God fulfilled is ordinary. Radical Christ-following--even to the point of persecution and death—is typical. Do you see this kind of Christianity these days? Do we see it even here at Mt. Hope? Let’s go “all in” to look at the vibrant Christianity of the Bible. Let’s be bold and honest enough to look in the mirror and see if we are anything like the “normal” pattern of Holy Spirit-filled, supernaturally empowered Christ-following that the New Testament describes. Or are we something less “normal”? “The Normal Christian Life: Not Weak, Not Weird, Not Wandering.” Are you up for discovering what this really looks like and how to step into God’s very real plan for your life? I am. I need this. I hope you’ll join me. Here we go… Sunday morning, 10:00 a.m. Let’s meet!! Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend
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