university parkway baptist church

hey everybody... i promised directions to university parkway baptist so here they are. lets start off with a picture:

View Larger Map
this is what you will see from the road. experiment with the picture.. it does cool stuff.

if you are coming from highway 26, get off on the elizabethton exit and turn LEFT (it doesn't matter what direction you're coming from) onto university parkway. you will see the church on your left shortly after getting on university parkway. after passing the entrance to the church, make a U-turn at the next break in the median and turn RIGHT into the entrance. here.. have a map:

View Larger Map

if you're not coming from the interstate, or if you are just feeling very special today, click here, and enter your address in the highlighted box.

following the break...

hey everybody... it's been a while since i last posted anything. i was in virginia for march break. had a dandy time. hope y'all had a good break too. location april was announced last week. we will be back at university parkway baptist church for the month of april. i will have directions up shortly. march 28, which is the last saturday in march, we will meet again at pinecrest baptist church, which i've got directions posted for further down on this page. i'll post again soon.

stand firm in the faith
coupe

the mighty oak

how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. (psalm 1:1-3 nasb)

trees, in their own special way, are quite beautiful. imagine hiking through the appalachians with nothing around you but rocks and moss. it would be so barren and lifeless. trees are an emblem of strength, of life, of perseverance. when i truly stop to consider my heart, i desire to be a tree. a tree that has withstood the storms of life. a tree that people would run to when the winds come their way. a tree planted firmly in the Soil that gives me life.

the wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. (psalm 1:4 nasb)

in case you're not up on your agricultural lingo, chaff is the dry, inedible covering around grains. the whole "wind driving the chaff away" business comes from the process of winnowing the grain. the grain is tossed into the air and the wind carries off the lighter chaff, as the heavier grain falls back down. kudos to wikipedia for being so smart.

obviously, being worthless chaff is not something most people would aspire to be. but people are impatient, selfish creatures. we want to be cool. we want to be popular. we want to be tall and strong. we want to be trees. . . now. but trees don't work like that. if an acorn and a seed of grain were planted at the same time, the acorn would shoot up very quickly and become a mighty oak tree in a matter of weeks. no, maybe i have that mixed up.

chaff sprouts up almost immediately. these are the cool kids. they are the rulers of their tiny worlds. most of them won't be remembered past graduation.

guard yourself against the seduction of instant fame and popularity. have confidence in God's unending love for you. let your life speak for itself. ask God to stir up a true passion and yearning for Him. delight in the law of the Lord. live your life quietly and confidently for God's glory.

don't be afraid to be average.

stand firm in the faith,
coupe

pinecrest baptist church

hey.. this one is a little more complicated to get to...

from the south:
coming from an erwin-ish direction, take the okolona off of I-26, take a right onto okolona, and then a quick left onto south roan street. after driving about a mile, turn right onto old lewis road, and the church will be on the right about a mile down that road. here, have a map...

View Larger Map

from the north:
coming from a kingsport/johnson city-ish direction, hop off I-26 at the elizabethton exit and turn right onto university parkway. take the milligan highway exit immediately afterwards and turn right. chill on milligan highway for a little more than a mile, then turn right onto old lewis road. the church will be on the left shortly thereafter. a map might help this mental picture as well...

View Larger Map

from your very own house:
if you really want to feel super special and have your own personal map, click here and enter your address in the space for point A.

the end of all things february-ish

so i looked up that quote from the last post to make sure i had it right... here it is in full: "hello again to all my friends, i'm glad you came to play. the fun and learning never ends; here's what we did today." that being said, today was our last intensify service at boone's creek baptist church (at least for a while) and we are moving to pinecrest baptist church for the month of march. pinecrest is right between the okolona and university parkway exits on 26. more detailed directions (with a shiny new map) to follow soon. we will not be meeting for intensify on march 14 because of spring break and such. thats about it for now... time to sleep.

stand firm in the faith,
coupe

last week of february

hello again, to all my friends, i'm glad you came to play.... wow.
....
was that like... Barney? anyways....

intensify will once again be at boone's creek baptist (click 'directions' on the right side for directions) for the last saturday of february. 7 o'clock in the night time. regular service this week, and by regular i mean sweet-awesome. bring $10 for a shirt, which you will doubtless be convicted by the message to purchase. should end around 8 or 8:30, but you can stick around for a while if you want.

next month, the month of march, we will be at a new location again. i think this one is called location C, and will be revealed this saturday at intensify and will subsequently be posted on this blog. if you paid attention last week, you may know location C, as it was announced from the microphone, but i totally forgot it, so i'll put it up as soon as i remember or re-find-it-out.

lastly, just so you know in advance, intensify will be cancelled the saturday after spring break so people can go have fun without feeling guilty for not going to church :B

i'd say that's about it.

stand firm in the faith,
coupe

second-class

IS IT A SIN TO BE AVERAGE?

By Larry Osborne | Senior Pastor, North Coast Church

As a young pastor I had the idea that God calls every Christian to do great things. My faith heroes were all mountain-moving, charge-the-hill spiritual warriors. I assumed full submission to Jesus would transform anyone into a spiritual Braveheart; kicking-butt for Jesus and marshalling a battalion of others to do the same.

It sounded good. It was motivational. It was pure baloney.

Worse, it was spiritually dangerous. Not just for me, but for my flock. It filled me and the rest of our leaders with pride. It overwhelmed my congregation and non-leader types with unrealistic and unreachable standards of spirituality. And, I'm pretty sure, it ticked God off.

Are Average People Second Class?
The problem was that, like many leaders, I believed there was something seriously wrong with low-drive Christians. I tended to project my own passion and calling onto everyone else. Since I'd heard my call so clearly, I assumed anyone who didn't share the same vision and fervor must not be listening to what God had to say.

But then he brought two remarkable people into my life. They weren't remarkable for what they accomplished; they were remarkable for who they were.

Both were as godly in character as anyone I've ever met, but neither one had a leadership bone in them. When it came time to charge the hill, they opted to serve on the supply line. When I called on people to step out and do something daring, they smiled and politely demurred. And they weren't much for "spiritual disciplines" either. They couldn't point to a lot of kingdom accomplishments.

But when it came to obeying scripture their character, relationships, and integrity, they were two of the most Christlike people I'd ever met.

Frankly, I didn't know what to do with them. Their godliness messed with my head. It contradicted all my paradigms of spirituality. For the first time, I began to wonder if God could actually be pleased with simple folks who love him, love their family and friends, and then die without ever having done (or wanting to do) anything significant. To put it more bluntly, I began to wonder if there was room in the kingdom for mediocrity. Could someone be average and still please God?

I've come to the conclusion that the answer is yes — a resounding yes.

Now it's important to note that I am not talking about cold and lukewarm Christians who wave the banner of Christ but live as they please. I'm talking about wonderful people of integrity and obedience to God's Word who simply don't register much on the intensity or impact meter—and never will.

They aren't second-class citizens.

If you think about it, by definition, half of any group will always be below average - no matter what scale we use. These people matter to God. Yet I viewed them as subpar. And in so doing, I did them and our Lord a disservice every time I beat them down with exhortations and pathways of discipleship designed primarily to motivate and produce leaders.

I've since come to realize that if our church doesn't provide pathways of spirituality that work for everyone, we're presenting only a partial gospel; good news for leader types, but a suffocating and harsh yoke for everyone else.

Studies show that over fifty percent of men will never read a book. Yet most of our models of discipleship emphasize reading and personal Bible study. It's as if we can't conceive of anyone being spiritually mature before the Guttenberg Press.

Or have you noticed that most of our books on spirituality are written by hard charging type-A personalities or introverts, with bright minds, a passion for reflection, high self-discipline, and good education?

There's lots of good stuff in there. But to the dyslectic, the adult with ADD, the overwhelmed mom with three preschoolers underfoot, or the shy types who get tongue-tied and panicked when asked to talk to a stranger about Jesus, the path they offer isn't one of knowing God better as much as it's a path of shame and inadequacy.

Those of us with hill-charging vision have to find ways to grow and disciple those who want to stay and live in the suburbs while we conquer the world. We have to affirm the kind of folks Paul was addressing when he wrote: Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

What I Learned From A Shoemaker In Corinth
My heart for non-leader types was awakened by my two friends mentioned above. But it solidified while reading through the New Testament. As I was reflecting upon the early church and the church-planting efforts of the apostle Paul, it dawned on me how much my leadership bias had blinded me to the reality of life in the first-century church.

For instance, I'd always assumed that Timothy, Titus, Silas, and the rest of Paul's missionary partners represented the standard fruit of his ministry, that they represented what every Christian under my leadership needed to know and what they all, ideally, would become.

But I was missing the obvious. Timothy and Titus were not the standard fruit of Paul's ministry. They were the rare and unusual; they were leaders. Most everyone else (the vast majority of the people Paul led to Christ and the vast majority of people in the churches he planted), never became leaders or joined Paul on one of his missionary journeys. Instead, they stayed behind as the farmers and merchants, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters who did nothing more than quietly live out changed lives through Christ.

I began to recognize the miracle and majesty of what I now call the "Cobbler in Corinth." I don't mean the pie. I mean the Corinthian shoemaker who after turning to Christ stopped visiting the temple prostitutes, became scrupulously honest in his business dealings, and started treating his wife and children with a love and respect unknown in the pagan and Roman world. And though he may have never planted a church, spent hours in study or solitude, or courageously preached on a street corner, he crossed the finish line still loving and following Jesus.

In God's eyes his life was a win-a big win. But in my eyes, up to that point, he was a loser, a pew sitter, a drain on missional focus.

Yet in reality, it was the "cobblers" left behind in Corinth who turned the ancient world upside down just as much as the zealous missionaries bouncing from town to town. Both were needed. Someone had to be out on the edge, spreading the word; someone had to stay behind and live it out.

All this has radically altered my approach to ministry and discipleship. It's not that I've stopped focusing on leaders and leadership development. It's not that I've lost vision or the drive to do great things with God.

But I have stopped trying to make everyone into a leader.

I no longer confuse spirituality with leadership, or zeal with righteousness.

As a result, our church has leaders AND followers who honor one another and live out their different callings to the glory of God and the expansion of his kingdom. For me and our leaders it's been a great thing — it's undercut our pride. For the average guy and gal in our church it's been a freeing thing — it's released them from the false guilt of comparison and gift projection.

And I'm pretty sure God is no longer ticked off. Because my zeal and passion is no longer leading our flock toward a land that was first settled by a previous group of spiritual zealots. The folks we call Pharisees.