Hey, the Harvest Carnival rocked! All of you who served: GREAT JOB! Thanks for making it so much fun for the kids, and so warm and inviting for the adults.

Highlights for you?

Update: I’m told that we hosted something like 250 guests.

Categories: five15 blog
11 Comments »

SENIORS!

By now you should have received a letter from Seita inviting you to the Seniors Meeting THIS SUNDAY evening (November 4) at 7pm.

Lord willing, you will all graduate from high school in June, which means that you will leave five15 behind.  Many of you will stay here and join Crossroads, some of you may move on to other things.  Whatever your plans, this meeting is for you.

The main purpose of this meeting is to give you an idea of what the transition out of five15 into the singles ministry will look like.  Seita will be giving an overview of the singles ministry, and we will also have a time of Q&A.

Even if you’re planning on going  away to school, this meeting is important in case you want to become a “student member” of Sovereign Grace Church while you’re away.

We are also giving away fabulous prizes, so please don’t miss out!

If you want to get a feel for what Crossroads is like, check out the Crossroads blog:

Categories: five15 blog
16 Comments »

Don’t forget the Harvest Carnival tomorrow night!  Officially, the event runs 6-9, but I know that many of you are scheduled to serve both earlier and later than that!  THANKS to all of you who signed up to serve: I know it is going to be a ton of fun because of your hard work and sacrifice!

And it’s not too late to invite your neighbors!  See you tomorrow night!

Categories: Announcements
3 Comments »

The Sovereign Grace Ministries Mission Video yesterday rocked. I can’t believe that we get to be a part of this at all. Hearing about what God is doing through Sovereign Grace in Juarez, Aguascalientes, and La Paz was tremendously encouraging, and I couldn’t help but think about how privileged we are to be enjoy such freedoms and comforts. It’s amazing.

If you want to see more, don’t miss MissionVideos.org, a section of the Sovereign Grace website devoted to previous other encouraging reports of the work God is doing through Sovereign Grace Ministries. I’ll let you know when yesterday’s Mission Video is online.

Categories: five15 blog
No Comments »

Today marks the 1695th anniversary of the Battle of Milvian Bridge. This interests me because we just studied it in my church history class.

If you are a little rusty on your church history, it was in this battle that Constantine fought and defeated Maxentius to take control of the Western portion of the Roman Empire and march on Rome itself. He would soon after become Emperor. This battle would probably have been lost to history—one more bloody coup in a long string of bloody coups—had it not been for the remarkable vision Constantine saw the night before the battle.

As the story goes, Constantine saw a symbol used at the time for Christianity called the Chi-Rho with these words in Latin: in this sign, conquer! He apparently took it as a sign that God intended to help him, and after his victory, he began to openly endorse Christianity, dramatically halting the persecutions against Christians begun by Diocletian and Galerius.

This turn of events began a dramatic change in the religious atmosphere of the Roman Empire, eventually leading to Christianity becoming the official religion of Rome.

It was this battle that prompted me to post the G. Campbell Morgan quotation about the persecution of the church.  This turn of events changed the experience of the church.  No longer rebels and outcasts, it became politically and socially expedient to become a Christian.  The upside of Constantine’s “conversion” was that Christians no longer endured the grinding persecution they had suffered at the hands of Diocletian.  The down side was that it became much harder to tell who was really a Christian: guarding the purity of the church became very difficult.

There are lessons here for us.  We talked in class (and I see you’ve discussed in the last post) the status of the modern church in the eyes of the world.  We certainly aren’t being persecuted as the early church was before Constantine, but we also aren’t being  patronized like the church was after Constantine. Our experience is as mixed a bag as it was after Milvian Bridge.   While we are right to thank God that we don’t experience persecution, we should also not become too comfortable with our position in this culture.  We must not look so much like the world that we can’t be distinguished from the world.  We need to be able to call people from the world out of the world and into the church.

Cool historical bit: the Milvian Bridge is still standing in Rome. It is clearly visible on Google Maps.

Categories: five15 blog
1 Comment »

Here is a quote we talked about in my church history class today. I’ve always found this compelling:

“The Church persecuted has always been the Church pure, and therefore the Church powerful. The Church patronized has always been the Church in peril, and very often the Church paralyzed.” – G. Campbell Morgan, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 465.

What do you think we are? The Church persecuted or the Church patronized?

Categories: five15 blog
8 Comments »

This quotation that Mark read on Sunday should give us all faith for reading our Bibles:

“Once the mind of God had been reduced to writing, each mortal and individual man, to whom the Scripture may come, has God speaking to them no less directly than if he were hearing God speaking with His own voice to them, exactly as did Adam when he heard the voice of the Lord in the garden… It is in no way diminished by being reduced to writing.” John Owen, quoted in Bruce Waltke, Old Testament Theology, 36.

Categories: five15 blog
1 Comment »

The New Attitude blog today announced a new album by Pat Sczebel and his sons, Joel and Josh.  It’s called You and You Alone and is scheduled for release on November 9. You probably know of Pat Sczebel already even if you don’t know his name: he was written some worship favorites like “Jesus, Thank You.”

Here is description of the album from New Attitude:

We love fresh music coupled with old truth. We love it when generations work together to help us see truth in a fresh way. And we love that we get to hear both on a new album from Pat Sczebel and his sons Joel and Josh.

The Sczebels talked to us about their album, creativity, and working together with another generation for God’s glory.

Check out the blog to read more. Don’t miss the demo track download for free.  More importantly, don’t miss the affection and respect Joel and Josh have for their dad.  Read carefully: this is an example to follow.

Categories: five15 blog
No Comments »

Our meeting Saturday night was a blast. I love doing these discussions with everyone. Thanks for speaking up; I’m glad I didn’t have to call on anyone and embarrass them.

We reviewed some key points from Mark Mullery’s message from 1 John entitled Picture of a Christian: What a Christian Loves. Then we talked about it. This was based on 1 John 3:14-16,

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

First we answered the question, “What is a definition of love?” You guys had some great ones. Mine was something like this: Action, for the good of another, that comes with a cost.

Next, we made a list answers to the question, “Who are the kinds of people that we are called to love?” Examples included siblings, neighbors, parents, and friends.

Then we talked about: “How are we called to love others?” We came up with praying, serving, speaking the truth (which especially means preaching the gospel), encouraging, and when necessary, confronting sin. This was the real meat of the discussion.

From here, we began to talk about ways that we sometimes see our friends sinning, but no on ever says anything about it. Doing this is not loving, and a person who does it is not a good friend. We made another list on the whiteboard of things that no one ever seems to say anything about:

• Disrespecting parents (in front of them OR in front of friends)
• Language: taking the Lord’s name in vain, cussing, dirty jokes
• Music & movies that are ungodly
• Flirting
• Anger & impatience
• Gossip & slander
• Drugs & alcohol

I hope by now it is clear to everyone that watching your friends sin in serious ways and not saying anything is not loving. It is not being a good friend to them.

We are called to love each other by speaking up, by throwing our bodies in front of someone who is sinning so they don’t run off the cliff. I’m not saying it will be easy, but it will worth it, and it will be the kind of love that we are called to as Christians. Let’s get to it.

This is a very important topic to talk about with your parents. Be honest, and love your friends enough to speak up. Talk to your parents about where you have not been loving your friends, and what steps you need to love your friends enough to go help and help them obey God.

Here are some more questions for discussion:

1. What is love?
2. Who are the people YOU are called to love?
3. What are some ways you are called to love others?
4. What makes it hard for you to love others?
5. What is one thing you can do this week to lay down your life and love others?
6. PARENTS, ASK YOUR TEENS: Where do you think I need to lay down my life in order to better love our family and our church?

Categories: five15 blog
3 Comments »

In case you missed the meeting or dozed off for this part, here are the announcements from Saturday night:

1. HARVEST CARNIVAL

• The Harvest Carnival is in 10 days!
• We still need volunteers to sign up, particularly parents.
• We will need help blowing up balloons during the afternoon of 10/31.  If you’re available, please sign up!
• There will be a volunteer meeting for ALL VOLUNTEERS on SUNDAY at 12:15 in the basement auditorium.  Please plan on attending if you are serving!

2. Mx08 REGISTRATION BEGINS
I’ll summarize this announcement in another post.

3. FALL CLEAN

• On Saturday, November 17, we will have a fundraiser for the Mx08 trip.  Here’s how it works: 1)People ask us to do work like leaf raking.  2) We go do the work.  3) They make a donation that offsets the cost of the trip.
• Even if you’re not planning on going, you can think of it as a service project, and a way to send your friends to Mexico.
• Plus, there is no better way to get to know people and build friendships than serving together.

4. TRUE CONVERSION SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS

• Vince and I will be teaching a three-week Sunday school class called true conversion.  This is for you if:

• You wonder what true Christianity is or if you are a true Christian.
• You lack confidence and assurance in the faith.
• You wonder if you should be baptized.

Categories: five15 blog
No Comments »