Jason in Mansfield Now

March 12, 2010 — 0 Comments

jasonsmall2

Our very own Jason Nix was featured in the March edition of the Mansfield Now Magazine. If you’d like to see the entire magazine, you can download a digital copy by clicking here. Jason’s article starts on page 30.

For those of you that do not know, Jason joined our church staff several years ago. His coming to Mansfield was actually preceded by his brother Josh who first came to work for us doing music for our student ministry back when I was working in that area. Josh was a High School friend of our current Student Ministries Director, Johnny Brower, and we were super excited to have Josh. [Josh still works with our Student Ministry and helps lead our 9:30 Contemporary service as well]

From my recollection, it was probably 6 months after Josh arrived that I started hearing about another Nix brother who also played guitar named Jason. Long story short, Jason moved up here to be with his brother, he eventually started playing music at the Saturday service I was leading at the time called Mosaic and then later joined our Saturday Night band after Mosaic and our current Saturday service combined.

In September of this last year when Doug Peak left our Saturday Band to start our new Sunday morning service called The Well, Jason stepped into leadership of our Saturday band.

Jason has been on an incredible journey these past few years, and I have really enjoyed seeing how God has been working in his life and growing him into a great musician and leader for Saturday Night. He has also gotten married to a lovely girl named Jamie and they bought their first house here in Mansfield just a few months ago. Jason is a passionate guy who cares deeply about his faith and providing an environment where people can meet with God.

Jason is one of the many gifts that God has brought to First United Methodist Church in Mansfield over the past several years and another example of what I wrote about two days ago. God is certainly being honored by Jason’s life and his service to our faith family.

I’m blessed to work with him.

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Lost & Redemption

March 10, 2010 — 1 Comment

During this past weekend’s message, I referenced one of my favorite TV shows, LOST. I hesitate to share illustrations like this because I am mindful of the fact that not everyone watches the show, and some have no idea what the show is about.

But this one was too perfect a connection. If you want to hear more about that illustration, you can listen to the sermon here.

For those of you who are fans of Lost, I had previously posted about a great book I read recently from a Pastor in Houston named Chris Seay. The book is titled, The Gospel According to Lost. You can read more about that here.

As a supplement to that resource, Chris is recording some video diaries after each episode of this final season. Normally, this isn’t something that I would post here because it makes me feel too much like a dork, but Chris has some great insight as to some of the “spiritual” themes that are at work in this TV show.

The only thing I will add to what this clip is my agreement with Chris that last night’s episode was my favorite of the entire series… The scene at the last when Ben says that he is going to Locke because, “he is the only one who will take me,” was powerful. Who among us haven’t felt like that before? Kicked to the curb trash with no place to call home?

And yet the words of the Savior still echo… “I will have you.”

Beautiful scene.

Now, here’s Chris.

In Teaching

How is God being honored?

March 9, 2010 — 1 Comment

Our Executive Team had a meeting this morning and during our discussion our Senior Pastor, Mike Ramsdell, posed some questions to help us evaluate where we are right now as a church. One stuck out to me in particular.

How is God being honored in our church?

My comment was that I answer that question a bit differently than I might have a few years ago. My mind was immediately drawn to individuals who have shared with me how this church is blessing their life and directing them in their journey of faith.

Two weeks ago in my message, I shared one of those moments.

Several weeks ago I got an email from a mom in our church. She wanted to tell me about what her 6 year old had done in response to one of our recent message series where we looked at the Lord’s Prayer. Here is what she said…

My youngest daughter has been diligently trying for weeks to learn the Lord’s Prayer. Well, she finally got it…all by herself at the end of last week. At bedtime, she said the whole thing perfectly without any help from me and boy you would’ve thought she won the lottery…or the Cowboys won the Superbowl…lots of whooping and hollering and victory dances. Too cute, and made me so proud.

So then Sunday at The Well when the service started, she starts nudging me and whispering in her stage-like 6-year-old whisper, “Mommy, The Lord’s Prayer?” “Mommy, The Lord’s Prayer?” “In a minute. In a minute,” I whisper back. I bet she did that a dozen times before it was time to say The Lord’s Prayer. Then, she was absolutely beaming that she’d been able to say it out loud correctly with the Congregation for the first time.

I can’t think of a better illustration for how God is being honored by our church!

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Doug’s new song: Love Wins

March 7, 2010 — 1 Comment

Love Wins

By Doug Peak

Love carried a cross, love was betrayed,
love saw a close friend, deny his name
Yet love surrendered, love remained,
and gave his life, gave his life away

Savior, Jesus, Holy One, Messiah, Redeemer, Lamb of God
Your love broke the chains of sin, and spoke into the heart – of man
Love wins

You could have called your angels,     to carry you away
From the hurt of our words, from the nails we made
Still you surrendered, love remained, and gave his life, gave his life away
Savior, Jesus, Holy One, Messiah, Redeemer, Lamb of God
Your Love broke the chains of sin, and spoke into the heart – of man
Love wins

You are Savior, Jesus, Holy One, Messiah, Redeemer, Lamb of God
Your love broke the chains of sin, and spoke into the heart – of man
Love wins, Love  wins

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Starting a daily Bible Study pt. 4

February 26, 2010 — 0 Comments

This is the last in a series of posts with ideas on how to implement the GPS Bible reading guide. So far, I’ve written about the need to find a specific time each day to spend in daily devotion, the importance of establishing a “sacred space” for you to focus, and spending time reflecting over the scripture that you have read. Today I want to talk about creating an “archive” of our devotional life.

About four years ago, the fruit that I was experiencing in my life as a result of my daily disciplines increased dramatically. Key to that change for me was that I started journaling. In fact, I started carrying a small black journal with me almost everywhere I went. I now have a stack of about 10 of these black journals in my office which represent the ups and downs of the last four years of my life.

I had never been serious about keeping a journal prior to this, and I frankly did not understand how it could be of benefit. Today, I would describe the benefit in this way.

We often assume that the benefit of our daily devotion time is that we will get a chance to hear from God every day and receive direction from God for that day. Now, that does certainly happen. This time for me usually happens in the mornings, and the days when I have a dedicated time with God, my day goes smoother.

But there is something much larger going on here than investing in that particular day.

To engage in a daily time with God is to invest in every day for the rest of your life. In other words, the fruit that we receive from this discipline is often “slow developing” but at the same time, “long lasting.” Understanding how God is speaking into our lives and directing us by God’s grace over the course of time is just as important as receiving something for that particular day.

Journaling facilitates this more subtle process, and I truly believe that staying committed to this daily discipline is fueled by the fruit that grows slow. If you miss this fruit because you are not paying attention to it’s growth, I think that increases the chances that this new discipline will fade.

Buy a journal.
Share your thoughts.
Archive where God is leading you in your life.

In Teaching
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