It’s been a busy week but we made it!
Highlights from the weekend…
- On Saturday night we hosted Charles Billingsley in concert. Several hundred people showed up (we’re still trying to get a total number on that)
- This weekend we began a new sermon series entitled, “How to Know You’re A Christian.” We’re going to be hanging out in 1 John. The outline for this series… 1) Faith makes you; 2) Obedience marks you; 3) Love molds you; and 4) The Spirit manages you.
- We ministered to 988 people this week!
- We had nine more people give their lives to Christ today! That’s fifty people who have given their lives to Christ since the beginning of the year!
- People are still hearing about my resignation. This is a paradox for me – sad to leave friends and a church I love, on the one hand, and excited to answer the call of God on my life, on the other hand.
- Time for confessions… last week on Sunday I left my sermon at home! I was in a panic for a few moments when I got to church and couldn’t find it! I was thinking, “This is the biggest sermon of my life and I don’t even have it here!” I realized that I could freak out or step up… so I stepped up. I preached last week’s sermon, including the resignation, from my heart and head! The moral of the story? MAKE SURE YOU KEEP YOUR NOTES CLOSE or, maybe even better, make sure the message is burning a whole in your heart!
- A number of people have asked if I’m going to keep blogging after I leave… the answer is “Yes.” The link to this blog will not be on the Northgate website, but I will continue to blog at this address.
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Been reading your blog for some time, and I appreciate your honesty and transparently. Northgate will definitely miss you, but it sounds like God is taking you toward new places. Calling is a powerful thing. It is hard to shake and impossible to ignore.
Great sermon today Paul!! It’s sooooo true that we want to keep doing, doing, doing in order to earn God’s love and forgiveness, but the only thing we have to DO is trust in Him and have faith in Him. Such an easy concept, and yet sooooo hard to practice!!
You did a wonderful job last week, especially going without your notes!! You couldn’t tell at all. Isn’t it fun to let God speak through you, even giving you the words to say when you don’t remember what you were supposed to say??!!
Thanks for continuing with your blog too because I know that’s one of the ways I’ll keep connected to you and your family.
Have a great week!
I see you’re reading McLaren’s book. I read A New Kind of Christian and I was deeply challenged and moved by his thoughts. Taught me to approach christianity from another direction. Great material
Paul,
Once I was asked (when I was in campus ministry) to present a 2-3 minute thing on our ministry during the worship service. That was it. So, I got up, did that, and sat back down, prepared to enjoy the rest of the service.
The church’s minister got up and said, “And, please welcome back to the front, Brandon, who will be bringing our message today.” I sat there for a few seconds, dumb-founded. I hadn’t been told I was preaching.
So, I got up, walked slowly to the front, and thumbed through my Bible for a passage to preach from. I found one and sort of “made up” a sermon as I went.
It was one of the most nerve-wracking things I have ever done. Blessings on you for internalizing God’s word and being able to speak it with knowledge, love and authority.
–brandon