KennyB
glorifying & growing

“Nonprofits work to get people to embrace change.

But the irony is they are usually the most resistant to accepting organizational change”

Chris Forbes (Twitter Feed)

Chris Forbes is a marketing guy and speaker in Oklahoma. I think when Chris speaks of non-profits we can apply that to churches as well. Think about how we get people to worship or Bible study, if we are trying at all.

We speak to, let’s say, Bob and tell him that God loves him. We talk about how man is sinful (deserving hell) and God is holy. We truthfully speak about how man cannot earn his way into heaven, God’s home. We then ask Bob to completely give up on his own striving for righteousness and to trust in the work of Jesus Christ, God’s own Son.

Bob must stop trusting in his own work and begin trusting the perfect sacrificial work of Jesus. That is a huge jump. A jump so big that God Himself gifts Bob with grace and faith to believe in His Son (Ephesians 2.8-9).

When Bob trusts in Jesus as Savior and Lord, he is a baby believer needing a more mature believer to guide him through the difficulties from secular to churchy culture.

Bob needs to learn to think differently, speak differently, sing differently and that is just the beginning.  We change from doing these things for our glory to doing these things for the glory of God.

When Bob is unluckily enough to go to a “business meeting” at his home church, he hears “that’s not the way we have done it in the past!” 1950s building, preaching, singing, and casseroles. Casseroles never go out of style.

Not all churches are stuck in the fifties, but most do struggle with change. We need to learn to change as Bob has had to learn to change. Not theologically of course, but methodologically. What worked yesterday does not necessarily work today. People change and so must the way we engage them for Christ.

As a church planter, I live in a tornado of change. The plans I make the night before are changed in the morning when I wake up. But, there will be a time when I will get to a place where change is harder. I pray that I will have the trust in God to leap out in faith and change in order to minister to an ever-changing culture.

Godbless, kb

I have been messing around with WordPress, Joomla and Drupal on my personal site in order to better administer the church’s website. I have messed with the background and tried my hand at photo editing. I have improved a little, but any tips would be greatly appreciated.
In today’s techno-savy, MTV, microwave culture, of which I am a card carrying member, many times I look for the whizz-bang. Meaning, the look and feel of a site plays a huge role in my determination whether to visit that church. This is not the best means of choosing a place of worship. However, with the many good evangelical churches out there, I find that the organizations which utilize tech appropriately tend to get my vote.
What does this mean for churches and their websites? Maybe it simply means, at least for me, that tech is an important tool to be utilized for the glory of God. When we throw up dumpy church websites, what are we saying about our understanding of God, our commitment to Christ or our willingness to do everything short of sin to win the lost.

IDK, just the ramblings of an untalented tech geek.

God Bless,

I recently received an iPhone as a gift from my wife. Understanding that “there is an app for that”,I searched out a WordPress app for posting to my blog. Confirming the above app declaration, there is an app for posting to WordPress blog from my iPhone. . Now I will be able to post as life runs before my eyes.

Have a great day and God bless.

Had an interesting conversation this morning.  We spoke about the sliver in your brothers eye and the plank in your own.  We spoke about the mature and the immature Christian.  Then somehow we got onto the topic of pastoral/Christian church attire.

That makes me think…. hum?  What does a pastor look like, or for that matter, what does a Christian look like?  Does he/she even have a look?  Traditionally in the United States, quite possibly still the majority belief, a pastor looks like a businessman.  A businessman wears a suit and tie.  He wears nice shinny shoes and maybe a tie pin.  I am a church planter who does not like to wear suits, ties, and tie pins.  Does that make me less of a church planter/pastor or Christian?

One might say, ‘if you truly desire the things of God and desire to fully respect God’s Word as you teach it to others, you will dress appropriately– like a businessman.  Well, what about missionaries (church planters) among various people groups around the world, such as pastors in Africa or Arab nations?  Are they any less a pastor, or any less respectful of God’s Word if they do not dress businesslike?

Here in the US, I have heard that only 25% of the men in the US even have a suit parked in their closet, let alone take it out for a spin.  Are pastors/believers less respectful, less Christian if they do not look “the part”?  Should pastors/believers be forced to conform to a church culture that demands business attire in worship?  I say church culture, because the unchurched culture does not wear business attire most, if not all the time.

Regardless of what your beliefs on the subject – suit, or no suit, there is nothing wrong with wearing a suit.  They are sharp and they do promote a serious, businesslike, no messing around aura.  There is nothing wrong with that.  I have a suit, but I doubt it fits anymore and I can’t afford to buy another.  (That is not a plea for a  free suit.)

What does this appropriate attire debate tell people?  What does it tell people who can’t afford a suit – like me?  Does it say, ‘aaaah how cute you want to be a church planter/pastor, come back when you can afford a suit,’ or ‘new Christian the first thing you need to do is buy appropriate clothing (a suit)’?  Is true Christianity symbolized by the “clean cut” man wearing a suit?  Are non-suit wearers not welcome?  Are they any less a minister, or any less a sincere believer in Jesus Christ, as perfect all sufficient sacrifice for salvation, if you do not wear a suit?

So what is the answer?  Suit or no suit?  I think it is up to you.  If you want to wear a suit to church, go for it.  If you do not want to wear one, go for it.  But please, wear something.  The one thing to remember though is salvation is not contingent upon what we wear, which makes me very glad, because if it were we would all be wearing robes.  I don’t look good in robes.  The big and tall store just stocks fluffy robes. Yuck!!!  Harley Davidson does not make a robe…i think.

Thank you Jesus that it is not anything I can do to gain or earn your favor for salvation, but what you have done for me (despite me).  Thank you LORD that it is all you and not me.

God Bless, kennyb

I get so sick of Christmas even before it arrives. I see stores slapping a cross or Jesus on something and selling it to believers. You can find pens, pen holders, coffee cups, letter openers, and clocks “sanctified” by a cross or Jesus because the believers will buy anything with Jesus on it. Christian commercialism drives me nuts and I let it ruin my Christmas season for many years.

I heard this same thing expressed from a gentleman the other day and it made me think. Why do I let this seasonal commercialism ruin my praise for a glorious God who invaded creation? Why should I think people would act otherwise when they are unaware of the “Reason for the Season” (thanks Stryper––great song).

So what is it that I will do? I will live for Christ and celebrate His miraculous virgin birth. I will not let the world dictate my praise for my Savior. I will do my best to unveil the mystery of the season.

What is this mystery? The mystery is… That baby that was born to a virgin, grew up and was a man who did everything God desired of Him. He was called and actually was the Son of the Living God. He came with the purpose of bringing reconciliation to man with God. He died a miserable death so that man would not have to die a second death, due to sin. He brought love to the unlovely, forgiveness to the unforgiving, faith to the faithless, and salvation to sinners.

The most incredible thing about this whole story is that He did this without requiring payment from us. God paid for it with His Son. His Son paid for it with His life.

Jesus, this Son, didn’t stay in the grave, but is alive and reigning in Heaven. Today is the day of salvation, given freely from a Great God and Savior.

God bless,
kennyb

What an awesome movie. I love God and football. The story of Michael Oherr is incredible. From lost, without a place to live, to safe in the home of a loving family.

What a great picture of what God has done for us. We are all born lost and warring against God. Without the ability to desire God at all and deserving punishment, God sent His Son into His own creation to pay the price for our rebellion.

When you realized that there is nothing you can do to earn God’s rescue and rely on Him only for that rescue, you are adopted into His family. He takes you, cleans you up, gives you free reign of His home in heaven and an inheritance. I know…what a gift right?

Well it is free for all who ask for His rescue.
-Understand you are a sinner (we have battled against God)
-Understand you deserve punishment.
-Ask for forgiveness
-Welcome to the family.

God Bless,

kennyb

I love meeting with my buds for Friday morning breakfast and Bible study at Denny’s Tooele. We have some great discussions. Sometimes we begin with our week and sometimes we get right into what is new with Apple, Inc. For we are rabid Mac maniacs. Well, David is not rabid, but I am fairly sure that I am.

Today was no disappointment. In addition to my bud David, he brought his daughter, which was great. Also, Don and his son Mike were able to make it. It was a great turn out.

Our text (between forks of biscuits and gravy) was 1 Jn 2.23 – “No one who denies the Son can have the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.”  It was said, referring to this verse, ‘If you are wrong about Jesus, you are wrong enough to lose your soul forever.’

Many people have an understanding of Jesus, but few have an understanding of the Biblical Jesus.  People understand Jesus as a “good man,”  some as a prophet, while some have many off the wall views.  Many “religious” people get there theology from a religious buffet.  They take a little of this and a little of that, mixing Christianity, eastern philosophy and many other belief systems.  The same is true of people taking from the theological buffet of Jesus.  They say, ‘I will take a slice “Jesus is good”, a scoop of “Jesus is love”, and a heap of “Jesus the cosmic slot machine”; while passing on “Jesus the only Son”, “Jesus the only way”, “Jesus the only truth”, and “Jesus the only life”.

We build our own plate of Jesus.  The problem is that we build a false Jesus, a false christ and we begin to follow that false Jesus.  Jesus, the only Son of the almighty God, has given us the Bible, which reveal to us the true Jesus.  He is love and justice.  He is the Savior and also the Judge.  He is God the Son, holy and righteous in every respect.  The point is that we make Jesus to be a soft teddy bear Jesus, but forget the righteous God, Lord and Master.

Are you getting your Jesus from the world’s buffet or the love letter (Bible) He sent you.  Because where you get your belief of Jesus is of great importance.  For…’If you are wrong about Jesus, you are wrong enough to lose your soul forever.’

God Bless.

My wife and I had dinner with some great friends one evening and they told us about a great little documentary called “Nanook of the North” filmed in 1920-1.

We ordered and received the DVD from Netflix and watched in wonder.  ”Nanook of the North” is about Nanook and his family in  the Canadian Artic struggling to survive following the food wherever it may surface from beneath the ice.

We saw him kill fish with his teeth, stab a seal through the ice with a harpoon.  This movie is definitely not PETA safe.

I began to wonder, what would happen if believers lived as Nanook did?  Not stabbing the unchurched with harpoons through an Artic ice sheet, but living and relying on God for each day’s sustenance physical or spiritual.

What if each day we woke searching/hunting for our spiritual food in Scripture that sustained us the remainder of the day?  What if we took our family along with us in our hunt in God’s word, as Nanook did?  What if we did whatever it took to feed our family with God’s Word?

I often fail to do whatever it takes to spiritually feed my family.  But what if I was like Nanook, beginning each day understanding it is up to me the spiritual leader to feed my family not only physically, but spiritually.

Oh, God give me the since of urgency that Nanook had in feeding his family.

God Bless, kennyb

Last Sunday I had the privilege of baptizing Nika, one of our youth at Stansbury Park Baptist Church.  It was especially fun because we baptized in the lake for the first time ever.

It is wonderful seeing a young woman in our church put her faith in Christ.  We talked before the dunking about baptism.  We talked about her being under the water was a symbol for Christ having died and having been buried for our sins.  Because I did not leave her under, but brought her up out, we spoke that this is a symbol of Christ’s resurrection and His promise to raise us up to His home in heaven.

The church body celebrated this great time afterward with a bar-b-que, which was awesome.  You can’t beat burgers and beer of the root (rootbeer).

Baptism is not salvation, salvation comes through no one but Jesus Christ.  It is through His works, not ours, that we are saved by grace through faith.  Baptism is our way of showing people we believe in the death, burial and resurrection of our Savior.

God Bless,

kennyb

Gabe Taviano is a podcaster (God’sMac), a blogger, and a web designer from Columbus, Ohio.

He, with his wife and children, are traveling the country visiting 52 zoos in 52 weeks.  It is an incredible adventure trusting God as they travel.

Alma and I were blessed to be able to have them over for the night before they went on to Salt Lake City to visit Zoo number 44.  We didn’t have much time to talk, but being able to help a brother not to have to spend bucks on a hotel was a blessing.  Previously we had only corresponded by instant message and twitter.  It was fun responding to my daughter’s question, why are we hosting a family from Ohio we didn’t know?’.  That is the point of this post.

Besides Kevin Harvick (the best NASCAR racer), and Apple (the best computer), we have the Lord Jesus Christ (the only Savior) in common.  Both of us, as well as our families, have given our lives to Jesus Christ and rely on Him soley for our salvation.  Because of our faith in our heavenly Father, we are brothers in Christ.

God desires His children to act like family.  As brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to want the best for each other and desire to help one another.

It was a pleasure to help a brother and his family with something so simple as a place to lay their heads and a cinnamon roll in the morning.

Believers, treat each other as family, even if they are family you might not YET know.

God Bless,

kennyb