Message from RML

Unpack Invite from FBCMcKinney on Vimeo.

Go and Be on April 3rd!

Go and Be is this weekend! Please remind your people that we will be worshiping through service at Garage Giveaway on Sunday. There will be no worship services at the church building on Sunday, April 3rd.

Please also remind your group that the Transform Your World offering will be collected on Sunday, April 10th. Encourage those who you lead to be in prayer about how they will participate in this offering and come ready to give on that Sunday. These funds help us demonstrate Christ’s love in word and deed throughout the world!

Have a great weekend!

Closing the Doors

The following is a post from last year. As we enter the Transform Your World Season at FBC McKinney I wanted to revisit it.

My life is committed professionally and personally to the growth and development of the church (both little “c” and big “C”). Because of that, it might seem counter intuitive that I would be passionate about closing the doors one Sunday out of the year. The church where I worship and serve did this for the first time last year and will do it again on May 3^rd. It is part of our “Go and Be” weekend that we don’t hold regular scheduled worship gatherings as part of the weekend but instead focus on being out in the community serving.

My passion for this stems from both an organizational and educational perspective. It is an organizational challenge to plan, prepare, and mobilize to be closed on Sunday. There are real financial issues of not having a time of offering. What about the people who are new to the community or maybe trying church for the first time and they see that our doors are closed? The issue is that we don’t just want to close the doors but open up service opportunities. Those opportunities remind us that we are the church and the church is at its best when is engaged in the community serving.

From personal, educational, and teaching perspective, some of the best lessons I have experienced come from giving practical application to ideas or principles. The principle that the church is not the building comes alive when we see the doors locked and God’s people still gathering in service. I love explaining to my children why today is different from every other Sunday…much like on Easter, Christmas, Good Friday, or any other special moment in the life of the church.

Closing our doors helps us to create a conversation that is desperately needed in the life of church culture. It is largely symbolic but symbols are important. If you don’t believe that try removing a cross or a steeple or an American flag. Symbols communicate powerfully what is important. For the other 51 weeks in the practice of gathering together, we meet at the same place and for all practical purposes do the same thing. The rest of the world moves along pleased for us to practice what we believe in our places of “worship.” But what happens when those places or worship move into their backyards, their business, their schools, their homes, their hurts. Just maybe we will begin understand on a deeper level what Romans 12: 1-2 means when it says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Questions

One of Jesus' primary means of communication to unbelievers was asking good questions…Francis Schaeffer used to say that if he had only on hour with someone, he would spend 55 minutes asking them question, and 5 minutes trying to say something that would speak to their situation once he understood a little more about ...what was going on in their heart and mind.
Learning Evangelism From Jesus by Jerram Barrs

Christmas Journey is on its way!

Christmas Journey is fast approaching! Here are a few pressing needs:

• A few good MEN! There is still a need for men who can serve one, two, or three nights. Please sign up here and make sure to attend the dress rehearsal on Sunday at 2:30 PM in the Sanctuary.
• In Myron's own words: "WE REALLY NEED HELP THIS SATURDAY…PLEASE COMMUNICATE THE WORKDAY GOES ON NO MATTER THE WEATHER. We’re not from North Carolina or Tennessee…we’re Texans and we can handle a little cool air". The workday is on Saturday from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Anytime you can give would be great!

Video Annoucements for 11.15.09

The Great Encourgagement

The following prayer is from a book titled, The Valley of Vision. It is a collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. I find it a wonderful resource for me at times when words in my faith journey fail me. The full collection can be found at the Banner of Truth website under devotions.

Glorious God,

I bless thee that I know thee.

I once lived in the world, but was ignorant

of its Creator,

was partaker of thy providences, but knew not

the Provider,

was blind while enjoying the sunlight,

was deaf to all things spiritual, with voices

all around me,

understood many things, but had no knowledge

of thy ways,

saw the world, but did not see Jesus only.

O happy day, when in thy love’s sovereignty

thou didst look on me, and call me by grace.

Then did the dead heart begin to beat,

the darkened eye glimmer with light,

the dull ear catch thy echo,

and I turned to thee and found thee,

a God ready to hear, willing to save.

Then did I find my heart at enmity to thee,

vexing thy Spirit;

Then did I fall at thy feet and hear thee thunder,

‘The soul that sinneth, it must die’,

But when grace made me to know thee,

and admire a God who hated sin,

thy terrible justice held my will submissive.

My thoughts were then as knives cutting my head.

Then didst thou come to me in silken robes of love,

and I saw thy Son dying that I might live,

and in that death I found my all.

My soul doth sing at the remembrance of

that peace;

The gospel cornet brought a sound unknown

to me before that reached my heart – and I lived –

never to lose my hold on Christ or his hold on me.

Grant that I may always weep to the praise of

mercy found,

and tell to others as long as I live,

that thou art a sin-pardoning God,

taking up the blasphemer and the ungodly,

and washing them from their deepest stain.