Author Archive

What do you suppose the most frequent command in the bible is?

Is it “Be good” or “love one another”? Or is it ” don’t sin” or ” don’t be mean”?

No

The most frequent command in the bible is: “Do not be afraid” and “Fear not”

Lets be honest, that’s exactly what we want to hear. We want to know that we don’t have to be afraid. We want to know that God is in control of things and that we dont live in a ever changing web of happenstance. Then why is this the least followed command? Fear dictates our day from the moment we wake up. From what clothes we pick to how we perform at our jobs, fear is our guide. There is fear of rejection, fear of commitment, fear of death, fear of embarrassment, fear of failure.

Can you live a normal, responsible life without the sense that everything is going to go terribly wrong. It’s why we have insurance, security systems, and mirrors!

By following the command that was stated by God, angels, prophets, and Jesus himself, we can have freedom from fear. The God who made this world is the God who raised Jesus from the dead, and is now calling you to follow him.

The only thing to fear is…well…nothing. Trust that God is in control.

Joel Beckner will be graduating Saturday, May 8 2010. The Commencement Ceremony will be held at 1:30pm in the Bernie White Gymnasium at Ell-Saline High School.

Joel would like to invite to the Commencement Ceremony and also a reception in his honor. The reception will be held at 1433 Austin Circle Salina, KS on May 8th, 4-6pm.

Congratulations Joel!

At least a couple times a week I check in on a few of my favorite blogs. Sometimes they are encouraging, sometimes funny, but almost always convicting.

Perry Noble is the Senior Pastor at NewSpring Church in South Carolina. His blog perrynoble.com is one of the blogs that I frequent. He seems to always challenge me, so I thought I would share one of his latest post:

Jesus made it pretty clear in John 13:34-35 as to how the world would know we are His disciples…notice He did NOT say, “They will know you are my disciples…

#1 – By the way you forward really stupid, ridiculous emails to one another…and if you refuse to forward them to everyone you have in your contact list then you don’t love me.

#2 – By the way you yell at people who don’t know me for living as if they don’t know me.

#3 – By your T-shirts and bumper stickers!

#4 – By the music you listen to!

#5 – By the political party you support.

#6 – By the denomination you belong to.

#7 – By the way you protest.

#8 – By the products and companies you boycott.

#9 – By the way you look down on those whom you perceive aren’t as good as you.

#10 – By the way you take from one another!

Nope…John 13:34-35 is clear, Jesus didn’t mix His Words…we are called to live this out.

EF

Its the weekend! (insert confetti and favorite party song)

Here are a couple of things to be looking for this Saturday night at CrossPoint:

Iowa Trip – There will be a meeting immediately after worship Saturday night w/Cheryl Cooke to talk about some details for next weekend. If you are interested in going or you have already signed up, plan to stick around to get the scoop.

April 24th – We will be having a parents class right after worship on the 24th. This meeting is for parents of all ages of kids. Hopefully we can be a resource for you in raising Children who know that God loves them and teaching them to love Him back. This meeting will also address our plans and philosophy of Parents and Childrens ministries for CrossPoint now and in the future.  Put this one on your calendar for sure!

See you tomorrow night!

EF

Here’s what to look for this weekend:

College World Series Mission Trip – June 18-20 is a date to set aside for a road trip. We are going to Omaha, NE to hand out bottles of water to people who are thirsty. The bottles will have a label that explains who Jesus is and how he is the only one who can quench our thirst (John 4:13-14). If you have never been on any kind of mission trip or you or would like a way to help people with your whole family (all ages), then this trip is for You! There is a sign-up sheet at the back of the chapel and there will be more information there for you this week.

GPS Lunch, Divide, and Conquer – This Sunday the 28th. Come to Webster at 12:30pm for lunch and to get to know your staff and their God story. After lunch we will divide up and take the 500 GPS packets all over town. We need your help!

Remember the Cafe is open from 5:30pm until worship starts and will be open after worship until 9:00pm. Bring a friend!

EF

One of the biggest concerns of a pastor (whether or not it’s right) is to keep the status quo. We don’t want any one that comes to the worship service to feel uncomfortable or out of place. We don’t even want that in our weekly encounters and relationships. The problem is when it comes to following the spirit, there is no status quo. And comfort, that’s out the window. When things get awkward…well…it’s just weird. Anxiety sky rockets, blood pressure rises, and panic usually ensues. Awkwardness, surprisingly enough, isn’t a feeling that always need to be avoided. On Evotional.com, Mark Batterson gives a new perspective on feeling awkward:

I think awkwardness is one key to spiritual growth. Are you willing to do things that feel awkward like kneel at an altar or obey a spirit-prompting or have a hard conversation? If you are, then God can use you! Those things involve a degree of awkwardness but they often lead to spiritual breakthroughs. I’m at a place in life and ministry where I crave awkwardness. I want to look awkward. I want to feel awkward.

On Friday I met with a group of students and something came over me as I prayed for them. I’d never even met any of them before but I cried as I prayed. It was a little awkward. But sometimes that is the difference between generic prayers and prophetic prayers. At our Saturday night service, I didn’t feel like God was done with us so we went into overtime. I felt like there were things that people needed to submit to the Lordship of Christ. It was a little awkward. But one of our prayer leaders told me that she prayed with someone who gave her life to Christ during that time.

Let’s not avoid awkwardness. Let’s create it, cultivate it, and celebrate it.

You can check out Mark at Evotional.com

EF

Back for another edition of Weekend Prep… Hope your ready!

Saturday night will be the grand opening of the newest addition to our repertoire here at CrossPoint Salina.

“The Point Cafe” will be open at 5:30pm this week. Come to worship early and enjoy a drink and something to eat. The Cafe team has been working really hard to make this a place for you to relax, reflect, and relate. Bring a friend!

Just a reminder to bring all of your “Buckets of Hope” items Saturday night so we can put those together and send them off to Haiti. Please feel free to stay and help put the buckets together and have a cookie! Lets be honest…we are definitely bribing you with cookies.

Sunday, March 28th we would like for you to meet us here at Webster for lunch and to help us pass out our GPS (God’s Plan for Sharing) packets. These packets are directly tied to the commercials that you might be seeing on national prime time TV. Both the TV ads and the packets will point people to www.findithere.com. You will also get to hear some of the staff share about their story and testimony. We will be hanging the packets on doors throughout Salina so that people might get to hear about how much Jesus loves them and wants them to know who he is! Lunch will start at 12:30. Don’t miss this!

Hope to see you Saturday night as Andy is continuing his series on “The Gospel”.

EF

Happy Weekend!

So many cool things are coming up for CrossPoint Salina! Here are a few of the things you can be looking forward to this weekend:

• This week we start an new series called “The Gospel”. For the next five weeks we  will be really digging into the testimony of the four men who wrote about living with Jesus. This is better than any Barbara Walters interview! The last message of this series will be on Easter weekend. Don’t miss this great opportunity to invite people who need to understand who Jesus is and what He did for us.
• We are collecting items for “Buckets of Hope” to send to Haiti. There are specific instructions on what they need and how to pack it. Click here for more information. Find out more Saturday night.
• Only one more week to invite people to the CONNECT event at Central High School. We will have more flyers for you to pick up tomorrow night. If you have not already joined the CrossPoint Salina Facebook page, sign -up and then you can invite as many people as you want from the CONNECT event page. Over 200 invites have already been sent, I think we can double that this week!

See you tomorrow night

EF

A whole new way to present the gospel. Put this one in your tool bag, but only if you plan on using it!

CrossPoint Salina is packing-up our things and bringing it to you for a night of Worship. Bring your friends, family, and co-workers to Salina Central High School on Friday, March 12th at 6:30pm. Andy Addis will be bringing a message and the CrossPoint worship team, led by Jason Waller, will be guiding us through a worship experience.

This is a free event, so bring as many people as you can.