Mike Edmisten

Spending the afternoon hanging out with my family. We ordered dinner from Parkers, one of my favorite little restaurants in Georgetown. It’s a little hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but it’s good. Love their Strombolies!

Heading out to take in some fireworks tonight in the little town of Ripley. Can’t wait for Ryan to experience that. Should be a good time down on the river tonight.

So Nicki and I are at the Reds game last night. I could have almost written the script of the game before the first pitch was thrown.

1. Reds fall behind early.

2. Reds get the lead on a Josh Hamilton homer.

3. Bronson Arroyo pitches well. (I think he’s back on track now.)

4. Then the 8th inning happens. Bullpen comes in. Lead is gone.

5. Game is lost.

6. Mike is frustrated.

Got this in an email from a church member today.

“Tomorrow is Friday. No blogs, no work, just enjoy!!!”

So cool that members of our church understand and respect my need for downtime on my day off. I’m lovin’ it!

We’re kicking off a new sermon series on Sunday called

No flashy title. No slick packaging. I’m just going to break the Bible open and start teaching. Looking forward to that.

A lot of people have a one-sided view of God. Maybe they think that God is some big Santa Claus in the sky. Or maybe they believe God is some cranky old man that you’d better not mess with.

The truth is that God’s nature and character are not one-sided. God’s personality is multi-faceted. It is varied and complex. We’re going to spend the next eight weeks (yep, this is a monster series) exploring this great question: What’s God Really Like?

Got this quote from PastorHacks. Wise words.

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Still trying to work through my backlog of servant-heroes that I want to highlight.

As Jim Willison faithfully serves in Iraq, his wife, Jenny, is making preparations for their new baby due to arrive in the next couple of months. We had a ton of heroes who came to Jenny’s baby shower this weekend. I wasn’t there (baby showers aren’t exactly my thing), but I heard that she made out like a bandit! So cool to see so many people loving on Jenny and giving her stuff that she needs.

Special props to Julie Bach and Shelley Turner for organizing the shower!

I was reading through the Old Testament book of Hosea this morning and I had one of those experiences when a verse almost jumped off the page at me.

Hosea 8:11, NIV: Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning.

What was built to seek forgiveness of sin actually turned into a means of sinning. That’s a powerful picture…and a relevant one.

The problem was that the Old Testament Israelites were becoming more religious. Instead of seeing the sacrifices on the altar as a means to an end (being reconciled to God), the sacrifices themselves had become the end. They were worshipping their religious traditions. They were worshipping their worship.

This is what happens to religious people. I love what Harold Shank wrote about this section of Hosea. “As the people become more religious, they move further away from [God]. The worship they offer displeases God, who treats their worship as sin which leads to punishment. They build altars…but they forget God in the process.“

The implications for the church are many. We can never become so tied to a tradition that it becomes the object of worship. When that happens, we’re living out Hosea 8:11.

It’s important to remember that God doesn’t care about the style of worship. He doesn’t give a rip about religion. He cares about us. Our hearts. Our souls.

Think about another verse from Hosea. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6, NIV)

God cares about character issues (mercy) instead of religious ceremony (sacrifice). He cares about true worship (acknowledgement of God) instead of religious displays (burnt offerings). This is so important to God that Jesus quoted this verse in the New Testament (Matthew 9:13).

It all comes down to authenticity. Worshipping God truly, authentically, in your mind, heart, and life.

You don’t have to like everything in your church. In fact, I hope you don’t like everything in your church…because it’s not about you. If you don’t like something, chances are that it is reaching somebody else. It’s ok to have your preferences on issues of style. It’s not ok to assume that your preferences are also God’s preferences. Truth be told, style makes no difference to the Lord.

Some questions to consider…

Are you more focused on the style of worship music or are you focused on living out the truth expressed in those words that you’re singing?

Are you more concerned about the style of the preacher or the content of his preaching?

Do you simply see the way a person dresses, or can you see the passion for Jesus in that person’s life?

Has communion become a religious tradition for you to observe or a time for you to connect with the crucified Christ?

The church has morphed into something that it was never intended to be: a religious institution.

To quote Harold Shank again: “More religion [is] not better, but worse.”

Just read this stat in an Enquirer article. Can you explain to me how a team (aka, the Reds) can lead the world in home runs and still own the very worst record in Major League Baseball?

Our beautiful new sound area is complete and running on all cylinders. It is so much nicer to have the sound and media equipment on the floor instead of in the balcony (not to mention the fact the fire code mandated that we move the equipment out of the balcony).

Several guys worked their tails off to make this project happen. Some helped with the construction of the sound booth. Others ran all the wiring and moved the sound equipment to its new home. These servant-heroes are:

Terry Waters
Nevin Reese
Brian Morrissey
Josh Young
Brian Davis

And a HUGE thank you to Joe Turner for leading the charge by planning, designing, and coordinating the project!

Thanks to these servant-heroes!

Did you know that a member of our ACC family was recently included in an article in the Wall Street Journal?

You can read about it on his blog here.

And then you can read the WSJ article here.