No sermon from me today, but I thought you might like to know what we
did on our day away. Joleen and I are, of course, in Wilmore, Kentucky this
week for a class at Asbury on "Transformation of the Church," taught by
Drs. Jim and Molly Scott (more on that later).
Whenever we’re away from our own churches (on vacation or at school) we
like to visit cutting edge churches for inspiration and as part of our
ongoing education and formation.
We had trouble settling on a church; there were several good choices.
But as we neared the end of our 10.5 hour trip, we considered the possibility of driving
73 miles (about 1.5 hours) to Louisville to visit Southeast Christian Church
where Bob Russell is the senior minister. Southeast is the seventh
largest church in America. It’s also the largest church we’ve ever
attended; it’s currently running about 18,000 in three weekend services
(one on Saturday evening and two on Sunday morning).
We’ve been to other large churches — North Point in Atlanta, Cincy Vineyard in Cincinatti, Ohio and Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio, but those were smaller, 6,000, 6,000, and 3,500, respectively, as I recall.
Southeast has an awesome campus — a huge entrance and an unbelievably
large atrium, with steps, escalators, and elevators leading to multiple
levels, it appeared. We parked in the back of the lot (as we always do;
although in Alexandria, Barree, and Petersburg, that usually takes no
more than 30 seconds to get to the entrance, while at Southeast, it
took 5+ minutes, and that in extreme heat!).
Even though the sanctuary seats several thousand people (18,000 in
three services, with plenty of available seats in the 11:15 am service
we attended), I was surprised by the intimacy of the room — there
wasn’t a bad seat in the room. The sanctuary is in-the-round and has
two balconies (though the top one wasn’t being used).
Dave Stone
(one of two preaching associates in addition to the senior minister)
preached today and did a great job. They’re doing a series called, "You
asked for it", based on questions congregational members asked. Today’s
message was on "Questions I have about family." Again, I thought it was very well done.
For the preachers who read this sermon blog, you might be interested in
the following observations …
- The message was conversational
- Dave
stood the entire time behind a clear, pexiglass pulpit, and appeared to
preach from a manuscript. - Dave used humor very well (which means it was
just enough, but not too much).
BTW, you can listen to the latest week’s
sermons here.
Well, back to our class that begins tomorrow. I’ve had a sense for
several weeks that this is going to be a great experience. It’s not going to be simply an ivory tower, academic exercise; rather it looks to be a course
that is designed to be experiential and transformational. In reality, how do you talk about spiritual transformation without experiencing
it?
Because it will be transformational, it will also be extremely intense,
spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. It will be both draining and energizing/empowering as we
are stretched by the Scotts, by other students/pastors, and mostly as
we encounter and are stretched by the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit!
I am very excited, and I want to get out of it all that I possibly can,
so I would appreciate your prayers this week. I don’t want to return to
be the same person I was when I left. I want to be a transformed
person, a transformed Christ-follower and pastor.
We submitted our
pre-class work to the Scotts last Monday, and on Friday, the professors informed
us (the class) in an e-mail that a number of their friends are praying for us,
"prayer warriors," who "are praying for miracles for each of (us)." In
their e-mail they expressed great expectations for this class as well,
affirming the work that we had submitted earlier in the week, and
saying that they sensed that this class is "different." They are
"thinking that (this class is) more spiritual, deeper in the faith, and
more spiritually hungry than (they) have seen through the years."
Because of that, i believe it will be an even more
meaningful and impacting experience for all involved. As you can imagine, Friday’s e-mail
from the Scotts caused my anticipation of what God is going to do
(which was already higher than usual) to go off-the-charts!
So, please pray, and all check back here throughout the week. Time permitting, I hope to write something here each evening about something that God really presses upon me on that
particular day. So, you may want to check back here during the week.
So we would appreciate your prayers that this will
be a great week for us, our classmates, and
our professors. Pray that it may be a week that will impact not only each of us, but also the
people we serve, and the communities we all seek to reach for God’s
revolution!
Thanks!