Our Resurrection Sunday Core Gathering

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Well we had a great time yesterday morning at our Resurrection Sunday Core Gathering. We wrapped up discussing our "Lifestyle of Worship" value with a discussion on what it means to have and express freedom in worship (I'll give you a hint, it really doesn't have anything to do with how you physically conduct yourself in a worship gathering.) Keep in mind, a lifestyle of worship is what's important, not how you act and express yourself in collective gatherings (or worship services, if you're not sure what a worship gathering is)...check out the link to the forum for more info about our study.

We also spent some time serving each other communion!! Our very first time!! How exciting that was!!! We had some time of reflection and confession, though this time was not merely directed toward outward "sin" that we fall to, but also confession of the motives of our hearts while we do "good" things--even things for the Kingdom. As Shaunna pointed out, God looks at a man's heart (motives), not what he is doing. It is verrry possible to do "great things" for the Kingdom of God, but if the motives and attitudes behind the actions were selfish, bitter, begrudging, or any other negative adjective, the action was all for naught. After our time of confession (so that no one would eat and drink in an unworthy manner), we added a little liturgy to our gathering.

Each person broke the bread and passed the cup to the person on their right as they spoke a blessing and gave instruction of what to do with these elements. It went something like this, "Gina, this bread represents Christ's body that was broken for you, and this juice represents His blood that was poured out for you which washes allll our sin away...do this (eat and drink) in remembrance of Him..." And then the person being served dipped the piece of bread (we couldn't find unleavened, but its the thought that counts) in the cup of juice and ate. It was a great time of celebration!!!

Fishing or Catching?

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Last night Shaunna (my wife) and I were invited to a dinner with other church planters where the President of the SBC would be hangin out and speakin a lil bit. One of the things he said was pretty interesting. He talked about the difference between the love of fishing verses the love of catching . What's the difference? the former involves a passion simply for the adventure and enjoyment of the sport, the latter denotes the love of the sport from a performance and results based motivation.

A great thinker and truly a theologian here in the Nashville area posed the question over coffee a few weeks ago, "If we (friends of Jesus) woke up tomorrow and realized we've been wrong all this time, and everyone in the world is and has been going to Heaven when they die, would our mission stop? Are we simply in the business of getting people's butts out of Hell, or are we about sharing our lives with and meeting the needs of people?" I couldn't help but think about this question last night as we listened to the differences of fishing and catching.

So what are we about? Fishing or catching? If we're about catching, over time we'll believe we've failed at mastering the sport--but as I recall isn't it God who brings the exact fish to the exact pole at the exact time He intends? (see Matthew 17:27) So what's our job? To fish--to throw out the line and know it has nothing to do with our eloquence, presentation, or methodology, but about a love of fishing, not catching.

Spring Break

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What's up...so normally we post a lil something about each Sunday night's core gathering, but you may have noticed there is no such blurb this week. Why? Do to spring break we decided to take this past Sunday off. We'll resume again this Sunday(3/27/05)--one change to make you aware of...it will be Sunday AFTERNOON, not evening. The time is not set in stone yet, but I'll post it once it is. It'll probably be sometime around 2:00 or 3:00, at the Dane's place, as normal--anyone who wants to drop in is welcome.

If you're interested in coming to hang out, get to know some peeps in Mt. Juliet, and talk about what it means to worship with freedom (boy, that's a refreshing word in the church world isn't it?), email me at JSDavis82@aol.com for directions and more info. Holla...

A Mind Bending Core Gathering

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So who's head is hurting from last night's (Sunday's) core gathering? We are currently engaging in discussion of the things that drive us as a church. Last night we discussed "orderly worship", a stereotypically boring and condeming subject, but in depth study and deconstruction of the term and the Scriptures that address it produced a new and refreshing understanding of the concept. To see more details of our study and the meditations proposed for this week, check out the "forum Gathering".

What a Wedding!!

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Congrats to the newly wed Mr. & Mrs. Steven Bush!!! On Saturday, March 12th, Maris (formerly Wainright) and Steven Bush (of the most rocking band on the planet-Spur58) sealed their overflowing convenant of marriage in the chapel at TRBC in Nashville, TN...and might I add, who'd have thought the chapel would ever look that cool?

It was an incredible celebration with the unique flare that could be expected from these two. May the Lord bless them and keep them and make His face shine upon them; may He turn His face towards them and give them peace...what a pair!!

Forum Help

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Ok, so the blog and forum have been up for about 5 days or so, and its come to my attention that the forum is a little intimidating and foreign to some of us (but don't worry, it was to me at first too). So let me put your mind at ease, it is supposed to be a place where we can connect amidst our busy lives and have discussions about culture, family, theology, what God is doing in our lives, and pretty much whatever else you want.

If you you're having trouble registering; figuring out how to post, reply, or work the forum in general; or don't understand the reason for the forum; feel free to email me and we'll see if we can work it out together. I have also put together a very brief and simple tutorial on how to navigate and operate the forum if you'd like to check it out too--a type of forum 101, perhaps that can be of some aid as well.

e-v@ngelism neXt: An Innovative Evangelism Conference

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Here it comes! A revolution in thought on how we should "do" evangelism for a postmodern (and post Judeo-Christian) world. It all goes down on April 25-26, 2005 in Smyrna, TN. Ed Stetzer, Leonard Sweet, and Randy Frazee, well known leaders in the "Emergent Conversation", will lead the conference in a format true to the basic principle of postmodern evangelism--conversation (not lecture).

If you're sitting there thinking, "Emergent who? Postmodern huh? what in the world does that mean" (and there's nothing wrong with those questions by the way), then let me spell it out for ya... this is a conference where we can sit down and TALK with very well respected practicioners, speakers, and authors about how we can reach the younger generations with the ever relevant message of Christ.

If you're interested in going, we can go as a "team" and save some money on the registration fee (which is minimal by the way). The more people on the "team" we have, the less it will cost each of us. The only stipulation is that we have to be registered by March 31 (to avoid late fees)--which means I need to know if you want to go by then. So if you want to know more about the conference, here's the link to the website. And if you decide you'd like to go, email me so we can register as a team for the discounted rate.

Forum Power!

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Woo hoo! The forum is finally up and running. It took some work to get it more user friendly, but now there's all kinds of forums to post in. "Music, Movies, and More"; "Postmodernism"; "Theology"; "General discussion" and so on and so forth. Always feel free to begin your own topic in any forum of your choice. If you wish to begin a topic, but think there's not an appropriate forum, just email me and we'll get it set up for ya.

Oh yeah...thanks to Gary Morgan at Mosaic Nashville for helping me with the user friendly format of this forum, since I used their forum format as a reference.

Sunday's Gathering

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Wow what a night! We had our best "core Gathering" yet this past Sunday! If you're wondering what our core Gathering is, its the weekly gathering of our "core group" (that's just churchinese for "the people who've been here since the beginning"...lol). Anyway, we had a great discussion of what worship REALLY is and what it means to live a LIFESTYLE of worship--I'll give ya a hint, its not something you "go to", leave, and then talk about in the past tense. If you'd like to join the conversation about this week's core Gathering just check out the forum.

What We're About...

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AUTHENTICITY: We long for all people to be real, honest, and open. No "churchy" attitudes needed here ;o). We expect people who do not have a relationship with Jesus to act just like what they are...people without a relationship with Jesus. For far too long these people have been held to the standards of those who are followers of Jesus and the followers of Jesus have not engaged in the fullness of a life in Christ which should produce joy and obedience. (Matthew 22:37-40; 2 Corinthians 5:16-17; Ephesians 5:8)

RELATIONSHIPS: The Church is a living organism. It is made up of people who love and follow Jesus Christ and is held together and characterized by the strongest bonds possible--relationships rooted in unconditional love. It is in response to the love of Christ for us that we love each other, and by His standard and demonstration, that we love and serve everyone--no exceptions! We long to interact with and meet the needs (as God provides the means) of the people in our community through real and loving friendships--that's right, real friendships. Then as Jesus draws and reveals Himself to them, we may have the privilege of leading our friends into a relationship with Jesus! (Matthew 9:9-12; John 15:13-17; Romans 5:8)

SPIRITUAL FORMATION:Just as a child naturally progresses through different stages of development, it is our privilege as a community of faith to press on toward maturity into the many nuances of the Christian life while still embracing the mystery of all we cannot understand about God. We understand that it is not by our knowledge or intellect that such formation occurs, but by being transformed into the likeness of Christ by the work of God. The involvement of everyone is essential for the church "body" to function, so as God begins to reveal what part of the "body" He has designed each of us to be, each person will be able to utilize their giftedness and talents accordingly. Jesus did not call his disciples to live a life of inactivity, but to be involved and active. (Matthew 28:18-20; John 3:5-8; 1 Corinthians 12:12-26)

MISSIONAL: It is important to us that we live our lives as followers of Jesus in the culture in which we live, not create a "churchy" subculture. (1 Chronicles 12:32; Luke 5:37-38; John 17:15)

EXCELLENCE: Since we as the Church are the children of a Father who originally designed us to be perfect and then, after we screwed up, still made His design attainable, everything we do will be set to the backdrop of excellence. (Genesis 1:27 & 31; Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 5:48; Romans 3:21-24; Hebrews 10:13-14)

MARRIAGE & FAMILY: The Bible holds the God-centered marriage relationship between man and woman above all other things. This is because this relationship reflects the primary illustration of how Jesus interacts with us--He as the bride groom and we, the church, as His bride!! In light of this, we value the individual family as a whole, but specifically the health of the marriage and the time the husband and wife spend together above all else. (Genesis 2:18 & 24; Deuteronomy 24:5; Isaiah 54:5; Ephesians 5:22-33; Revelation 19:6-7)

LIFESTYLE OF WORSHIP: Our idea of "worship" can be summed up in three words: Authentic Orderly Freedom. This description is a little bit long, so if you want more info, email me. Nevertheless, here are the Scriptures that drive this value--meditate on them if you so choose.
Authentic: Matthew 6:5-8 & 22:37-40; John 4:23-24
Orderly: 1 Corinthians 10:23-24 & 14:26-33; James 3:13-18
Freedom: Deuteronomy 16:17; Psalm 139:13; Romans 12:1-8

Vision!!!

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Our vision & dream:

We envision being a Gathering of the church-regardless of location.

We envision being a DYNAMIC Gathering of the church to form a "new wine skin" that remains flexible in order to relationally engage an unreached generation with the ever relevant message of Christ.

We envision being a MOBILIZED Gathering of the church who initiate real friendships with "normal" people in Mt. Juliet and the surrounding areas, with the hope of discipling them from little or no knowledge of Jesus through to conversion, and then into a passionate and exciting relationship with Him where they can't contain the realization of His love and thus begin making disciples themselves.

We envision being a MISSIONAL Gathering of the church who fluidly and naturally participate in God's work in our community and beyond...from building relationships to planting churches and everything in between.

We envision being an INTEGRATED Gathering of the church who discovers how God has knit each individual together uniquely (spiritual gifts, natural talents, personality type, etc) in order that the whole Body of Christ may be as effective as possible.

We envision being an AUTHENTIC Gathering of the church who are open and transparent with each other and our community & who believe and engage in a lifestyle of multi-sensory worship in Spirit and Truth. We long to live in the understanding that authentic worship of God is a lifestyle, not merely an event.

We envision being a RELATIONAL Gathering of the church who interact, support each other, and grow together in small group settings throughout the week. It is here that we will share in the passion, excitement, and mystique that are involved in a relationship with Jesus.