Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

I Love My Church

This is going to be unbelievable! ACCers, if you miss this, you'll be kicking yourself for a long time.

This Sunday, we are launching a two-week series called I Love My Church.  You are going to hear stories of how our church is changing lives, but I won't be the one telling the stories.  You'll get it straight from the people whose lives have been forever altered by ACC.

ACCers, I know you already love your church.  But trust me…after this series, that love will go to "a whole nutha level." A word of caution…bring some tissues.  After you hear these stories, there won't be a dry eye in the room!

I don't know about you, but I get so sick of hearing about what's wrong with the church. People everywhere are very quick to criticize the church.  And, I'll be the first to admit that there is room for a lot of improvement. The church is made up of imperfect people, so it's no surprise that it is imperfect.

But it's not all doom and gloom.  Yes, there are some things that are wrong with the church. But there is also a lot that is right about the church.

You can't miss this series.  We're going to spend two weeks celebrating everything that is right about the church. I promise that you will fall even more in love with your church!  I can't wait!

Pino Neglia

ACC, we've got a very special event this weekend that you don't want to miss.

Pino Neglia will be at ACC on Sunday night at 6:30 pm. Pino is our missionary in Italy & Albania.  He's a fun and energetic speaker and he flat out loves Jesus.

I've met some Christians who won't attend an event like this because, "It's just a missionary." If that's you, you need to stop reading this and repent of that sinful thinking.

Pino has given his life to take the gospel to people who would never hear it otherwise.  We have partnered with him in this work. If you are part of ACC, then you are part of this work and you absolutely need to be there on Sunday night.

It will likely be several years before Pino is back at ACC, so take advantage of this opportunity. Sunday night at 6:30 pm.

Go To Another Church

You need to plug into a local church. If you're just bouncing around from church to church, you need to stop. Choose a local congregation, put down some roots, start serving, and stick with it.

But if you have done that, there is a potential pitfall.  Your vision of God's Kingdom can completely revolve around your church. The Kingdom of God is much bigger than your church.  The best way to combat this Kingdom myopia is to go to another church from time to time.

I was reminded of how important this is when I preached at Horizon Christian Church on Sunday night.  Worshiping with another church gave me a fresh perspective. It reminded me that God's Kingdom is much bigger than my church.

You need to worship with believers in another church.  You don't even have to miss a service at your church to do it.  If your church has services on Sunday morning, find a church with services on Saturday or Sunday night.

I realize that time is at a premium for most families, but this is a time commitment worth making. You need to go to another church once or twice a year.  It will enlarge your vision and increase your excitement about what God is doing, not just in your church, but in His Church.

You First

After David's adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah, he wrote these words in Psalm 51.

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you." (Psalm 51:10-13, NIV)

When I read this yesterday, God used the simple word "then" to rock my world.  David was broken by his sin. He was desperate for God's mercy and grace.  He prayed for God to cleanse his heart and give him a new, steadfast spirit.

In other words, David prayed, "God, forgive me.  Give me a new heart and mind, so that I will hate sin the way you hate sin. Change me from the inside out."

Only after that prayer does David write the word "then."

"Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you."

David knew that he couldn't teach or lead people until his own life was changed first. And that's where God drilled my heart.

I have no business preaching, teaching, or leading people if I'm not allowing God to change my life. If I'm not desperately seeking Him, I have no business speaking for Him.

Yesterday, God reminded me of this critical truth: you first. He told me, "You have to be changed first.  You can't teach others unless I change your life first."

If you lead or teach in the church in any capacity, you've got to understand this "you first" truth.

If God isn't doing a work in your life, don't pretend that you can lead others to Him.

If you're not desperate for Him, don't act as if you have something to offer others.

If God isn't changing your heart, mind, attitude, and life…do yourself and everyone else a favor: be quiet. Keep your mouth shut until you reconnect with the Lord and He reignites His work in you.

You first.

Celebrating Wins

Several local churches had huge wins this weekend…and I want to celebrate them.

• We had a huge win at ACC this weekend.  We wrapped up our Simple Church vision series.  I absolutely believe that, as we implement this vision, God is going to blow the roof off of our church.  This vision will reach our community, take us to a deeper walk with Jesus, and plug more people into a serving ministry than ever before.
• I had the opportunity to preach at Horizon Christian Church last night.  I had a great time!  I love this young church. HCC received some bad news in the last couple of weeks.  At least it appeared to be bad news. The facility they were meeting in was taken away from them quite abruptly.  But what appeared to be a setback turned out to be a set up. God directed them to a brand new, and far better, facility.  God is setting them up for even greater things.
• Bethlehem Church of Christ baptized 21 people into Christ this weekend.  Talk about a huge Kingdom win!  I started my ministry career at BCC.  I had the privilege of serving there for nearly 7 years and I still have many, many friends there.  I'm so excited to hear about the victories that were won there this weekend!

God is on the move in churches all over our area.  Greater things are coming!

Why Do You Want It?

Steven Furtick ripped me apart with a recent blog post.  He is the senior pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.  This post was a HUGE reality check for me…so much so that I'm including his entire post verbatim.

Why Do You Want It? – Steven Furtick

God began to deal with one of my friends recently about the motivations of his heart.  My friend, who is a senior pastor, had been praying that God would bless his church in a big way.  Something like this:

“God, may we reach our city with the love of Christ.  May tens of thousands come to Christ through our ministry.  May millions of dollars be given to this community through our ministry.  May governments and businesses and educational systems be turned inside out for the glory of God through this ministry…”

And my friend felt like the Lord responded to him with a challenging thought:

“What if I do everything you’re asking me to do in your city, but I do it through someone else’s ministry?  Would you still pray as passionately?  Would you be okay with that?”

I’m not sure I’m entirely ready to wrestle with my own motivations at that level.  This is pretty advanced stuff. But ultimately, I’d like to get to a place where my heart rejoices with the same intensity because another church in town baptized 100 people as it does when Elevation baptizes 100 people.

I’m not there yet.  And let me throw in a caveat: it’s right for me to give most of my focus, attention, emotion and spiritual energy to the work God has called me to do-just like it’s right for me to love my kids more than I love anyone else’s kids.  That’s only natural.

I guess I just want to get to the point where at the end of the day, my main concern is that the CAPITAL C CHURCH wins…no matter which lower case c church is putting the points on the board.

Big Day Tomorrow

We're wrapping up our Simple Church series at ACC tomorrow.  This has been the biggest, most important series in years at ACC.  We're going to cap it tomorrow in a BIG way.

Tomorrow evening I'll be preaching at Horizon Christian Church.  So excited about the opportunity! This young church has been thrown some curveballs, but God is propelling them forward in an incredible way.  Pray that I can be an encouragement to them.

Another Big Announcement

ACC, the good stuff just keeps coming.  Our Simple Church series has been amazing…full of big news and even bigger vision.

We're wrapping up the series this Sunday, and we've got even more big news for you.  You don't want to miss it!

Horizon Update

Earlier this week I asked everyone to pray for Horizon Christian Church.  God came through big time!

Check out Joel's post for the awesome details.

Horizon Facility Update – Joel  Young

Tradition vs. Getting It Right

If you've been watching postseason baseball, then you know that the umpires have missed more calls than a teenager with their cell phone turned off. (I owe that line to Hal McCoy.)

Major League umpires are usually amazing. They see a play in real time and get the call right…most of the time. But I've seen several calls in this year's playoffs that were wrong, and you could make a case that these bad calls changed the momentum, and therefore the outcome, of the games.

I think it's time for Major League Baseball to begin using instant replay. This is a very controversial issue in baseball.  People on both sides of the issue are passionate about their position.

But for me, it's simple.  The most important thing is to get it right. We now have technology that will be a huge help in making the correct call on close plays.

A lot of traditionalists object. Reds manager, Dusty Baker, is one of them.  He argues that it takes the human element out of the game.  I would argue that getting it right is more important.

This same debate arose when ballparks started installing lights for night games.  "Baseball was meant to be played during the day" was the mantra.  Look at where we are now.  The vast majority of games are played at night, and the game is better for it.

In my mind, this really comes down to tradition vs. getting it right. And in the end, it's more important to get it right.

This is indicative of discussions (or in some cases, arguments, battles, and all out war) in churches all over the world.  The church has been around for over 2,000 years, so we've had time to develop more than a few traditions. And not all of those traditions are bad.

But many times, churches have to decide whether they will hang onto tradition or if they will get it right. If God is leading the church to give up a tradition in order to reach more people with the gospel, the decision should be easy. But most of the time, it's not.

I'm not suggesting that change is easy. It's very difficult.  But it's also very necessary.  No tradition is sacred. No tradition should stand in the way of the Great Commission.

Do we want tradition?  Or do we want to get it right?  In some cases, we can have both.  In many cases, though, we have to choose.

Jesus told the Pharisees, "You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." (Mark 7:8, NIV)

I'm afraid he is saying the same thing to many of His churches.

Let's choose to get it right.