A Thought for Every Man

I am not a completely original thinker. Others' ideas often influence me. Sometimes reading a quote makes me laugh hysterically. Other times a quote will provide me with a romantic text to send Sarah in the middle of a busy day. Then there are some things I read or hear that challenge me as a man, husband or pastor.

Here’s a recent example:

The question for every men is not: “Are you a leader or are you not a leader?”
Instead the question is: “Are you a good or bad leader?”
Quoted by both Mark Driscoll and David Platt

A Biblical principle of manhood laid out in Scripture is that the spiritual, emotional, physical well being of a man, his wife and children is partly his responsibility. As men our masculinity centers primarily on how good or bad we are leading our wives and children. In fact being a good man who leads, loves and cares might be one of the greatest needs in communities today. In response to this need especially within the city of New Orleans and Vintage Church, the Vintage Church pastors have organized an opportunity for our men to be challenged, developed and grown as men. Pastor Rob’s father, Pastor Don Wilton, will be speaking to us on our priority as Christian, family and community men.

On a personal note, I want to encourage the men to join us for this retreat. Last fall I had the opportunity to study the life of Paul under Pastor Don. He is such an inspiring communicator of Scripture especially to men. You DO NOT want to miss this weekend

Vintage 2012 Men’s Retreat

• Camp Living Waters
• The MAN - Judges 6:12
• March 23-24th
• Speaker: Don Wilton

• Who: Men (high school and up)

Sessions:

• The Man
• The Man’s Family
• The Man’s Mission

Sign up here

Total Cost: $35

Includes:

- Retreat Fee & Materials
- Housing (Dorm Style)
- Meals (Dinner, Breakfast, Lunch)

Follow us on twitter: @vnolamen

Let's BE the MAN

Mardi Gras Sunday 2012 Report

Our Mardi Gras Sunday this year for the Uptown Sunday parades might have been the best so far since we began in 2009. One of our church partners, Temple, brought 100 volunteers to serve alongside Vintage. I'm especially thankful for Pastor Philip Slusher, the mission pastor, for bringing these families who were so excited to serve our city. I also want to especially thank Matt O, Mikey P, Craig, Lenny, Josh and Alex from Vintage Church for their service during the day.

We gave:

• 1,500 sausage dogs
• 600 burgers
• 1,200+ bottles of water w the Vintage information
• Tons of potato chips
• Clean toilet for every use [Yes there were individuals who cleaned after every flush]

We served:

• 236 registered
• 109 follow-up letters were sent
• 160 follow-up emails were sent

Now these numbers are just statistics if not understood to represent individuals, couples and families in our city that came in contact with Vintage Church. Maybe there are two other figures that would help communicate this opportunity:

• 167 of 236 who registered indicated they had never heard of Vintage Church
• 79 of 236 who registered indicated they have no involvement in a local church

Our challenge:

We are following up with those who registered this Sunday with letters, emails and phone calls. We ultimately served on Sunday with the hope that God would bring Gospel fruit in individual's lives as a result. Our prayer is that those who came in contact with Vintage Church experienced the difference of Jesus Christ. As a result of our hospitality, service, love and care we pray that people will connect with Vintage Church. Acts 13 tells us that Paul and Barnabas travel to different cities and served people. In one instance, as a result of their love towards others, the Bible says "The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord." [Acts 13:44] When I read that I say....Wow! May the Lord work in such a way this week in New Orleans.

So here's our challenge this Sunday when we gather as Vintage Church in Metairie and Uptown there will not be a small army of volunteers to greet, welcome and connect with the new guests. Uptown averages about 5 new guests per weekend. Instead this weekend will be the time for Vintage Church to BE the church in New Orleans.

My encouragement:

• Pray God will work in hearts over the next 3 days as people receive follow-up. [Use Mark 4:1-20 as a guide]
• Come to our gatherings early
• Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading in relation to those sitting on your row
• Engage those who gather this weekend
• Be expectant that God truly wants to work through you

Live the Gospel, Love the City, BE the Church

Mardi Gras Weekend [Feb 18 & 19]

Carnival Season is one of the most joyous times in the city of New Orleans. Outside of the French Quarter, Mardi Gras is actually a pretty family-friendly event. In the Uptown, Mid-City and Metairie neighborhoods people host dinner parties with neighbors and friends to hang together for the parades. This provides our Vintage Church family with one of the most important times to connect with people outside our church family. This also provides the opportunity to bring the Gospel into the community.

So as an Uptown campus family we want to throw a great party this Sunday, February 19th. We will concentrate our efforts on the 3 Sunday parades which pass right in front of the Uptown Arts Center (our Magazine location). We will have one of our church partners help serve alongside our Vintage family on this Sunday.

- Mardi Gras Weekend Schedule -

Sunday on Saturday:

• Carrollton Location 5pm - Weekend Worship Gathering

Mardi Gras Sunday:

• Uptown Arts Center (Magazine Location): 4523 Magazine Street

• Set Up: 8am-9:30am

Parade Times

• Okeanos - 11am
• Mid-City - 11:45am
• Thoth - 12pm

• Clean-up: around 3pm

Our Goal:
- Create a hospitality center at the Uptown Arts Center (Magazine location)
- Provide food (Burgers, Dogs, Chips, Soft Drinks) for 150 Vintage Church family & 900 Parade spectators
- Provide clean bathrooms for parade spectators
- Provide 1,000 Vintage Logo Waters
- Provide parade music between parades or dead time
- Follow-up with those who register
- Send about 250 follow-up letters including information about Vintage Church.

I hope you'll join us.....Let's BE the Church!

A Video from Jeff Vanderstelt about joining parties:

The Blessing of Childishness

This past weekend as a Vintage Church family, we had the opportunity to celebrate God's gift of children [Psalm 127]. We dedicated 7 young children to the Lord as the parents and our church family both made commitments to allow God to work through us to raise and train each child to follow and serve Jesus Christ.

As I reflected on our vKids this weekend, God gave me a new understanding for why they are a blessing for both the parents and church family. One of the main ways they bless is the way in which they help teach us some of the spiritual realities that can be hard to grasp at times. By this I mean that children provide a picture of our relationship with God.

Jesus knew this and even used children as an illustration in this way. In Mark 10, as he discusses the faith needed to enter the Kingdom of God, he says "I assure you, anyone who doesn't have their [children around him] kind of faith will never get into the Kingdom of God." Jesus is referring to the innocence and complete reliance that children naturally have in their parents as a picture of the way each of us should relate to God the Heavenly Father.

This picture shows our relationship with God in this way: new life always comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul discusses this in Romans 3:22-24. You and I can have all of the knowledge in the world about God and Scripture, but experiencing the full effect of salvation in our lives happens when we trust in God's work through Jesus Christ. No matter how much you learn the point of transformation in life only comes when you trust in that which you know about Him. Children are trusting by nature. Humans have been made in such a way to trust in God the Heavenly Father.

For me this is a liberating truth that breaks my reliance in myself and my performance. The Gospel isn't about what you do or don't do for God. The Gospel is about what God has already done for you and I through Jesus Christ. "The Gospel isn't based on your goodness, it's based on His goodness" - Scott Thomas Gospel Coach.

So the lesson is that in the same way that a 3 year old trusts in his/her father's love to care for, provide for and protect him, so you and I trust in the Heavenly Father. As our Father, He loves us, cares for us, provides and protects us. I pray you will believe this truth and maybe surrender your life to Him today.

We are thankful for all of the families that are a part of our 2 campuses. Children, with their joy, energy and excitement truly are such a blessing. I don't know what it's like to be a father yet, but Pastor Rob and Pastor Dustin continually share lessons they are learning through the children God has given them.

• Some of Pastor Dustin's thoughts here: "What God is Teaching Me Through Gabe."
• Some of Pastor Rob's thoughts here: " You Killed My Son."

Some other blogs:

• Fathers read: "How I Pastor My Family" - Justin Hyde
• Mothers read: "Missional Mothering" - Jani Ortlund
• Singles read: "8 Reasons Why Single Men Should Work in the Church Nursery" - Mark Driscoll

How does the Gospel change my ___________ ?

Have you ever asked yourself this question: "How does the Gospel change my _______?"

Maybe the blank is your life, heart, marriage, relationships, church, life purpose, neighborhood or city.

To answer this question you must first know what the is Gospel. This means you must understand who Jesus is, what Jesus did and therefore what that says about who you and me are and what you and me do in response. Thankfully God has answered this question through Scripture, which is why every person's greatest need is to hear and respond to the Gospel.

Since this is the case I wanted to share with you a link that came across my twitter feed early this morning - Advance 2011 media -

This is a media page for the teachings given at Advance 2011, a conference that happened in North Carolina. You can download each of these for free.

I would encourage you, as I tweeted this morning, to use these to redeem your commute this week. I haven't listened to any of these yet and will be doing this myself.

Listen to 1-2 of these this week and watch how God will transform our hearts for our communities and cities.

-Brick

A story of being Christ-like in our community

As a Vintage Church family we have been discussing our identity. "Go BE the Church" is one of the phases we most frequently use as we close out our gatherings at Vintage. The concept of being the church is of vital importance as we discuss who we are as a church family, and we are able to accomplish this only by the power of the Gospel. Being the church happens in our everyday lives with those in our neighborhoods, at our workplaces and in our circle of friends.

I recently had an opportunity to hang with Chaz Churchwell. This guy was someone who God used in a big way during the early stages of Vintage Church. Check out a story and a challenge from his time being the church in New Orleans.

***I misquote the percentage of Evangelical Christian in this video. 1.1 million people, with 7% Evangelical Christian.

I love the passion with which Chaz still speaks of our city, New Orleans. To follow God's work in San Diego through this new work for the Gospel check out Restore San Diego Now

Go BE the Church

Being Christ through out Campus

I had the privilege of teaching our Vintage Uptown Campus family again this weekend at our worship gatherings. We are closing an "Identity" Series. This has been a rich time of growth as we have talked about who we are as Vintage Church. This weekend I walked through Acts 10 and applied the truth from this passage into what being the Church in our community, city, nation and world would look like.

Listen here

Acts 10 is simply a story of 2 men in whom God is working through the Gospel to transform lives.

The 2 Men

• Cornelius - a God-fearer, a Gentile who needed the Gospel
• Peter - a Converted Christian, who shared the Gospel

In Acts 10, God is showing us that His Church will include all people from all nations. This is because our God is a global God that is working throughout the world through His Spirit. He is also working through sending of His church, an important note is that he sent Peter to share the Gospel.

It is particularly intetesting to note that America has become a global nation with people from across the globe moving here. Many American cities, from San Francisco to New Orleans to New York to Miami to Chicago, are experiencing explosive growth from people of all countries. I have heard that America is quickly becoming a majority-minority-nation.

Here are some of the ways that I have seen this in New Orleans:

• Restaurants from every country in the world [Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, American, Mexican, French and New Orleanian]
• The Magazine Street pavers who I have met that don’t speak fluent English.
• The chef of my favorite Mediterranean restaurant speaks very broken English.
• The large number of Asian students studying at Tulane and Loyola.
• A drive from Nashville to Louisiana shows that there is not an overwhelming majority race living in Uptown.
• The Hispanic population has doubled in Metairie over the last 10 years.

I believe that God is working in these demographic shifts for His glory. And this provides the Church a great opportunity. In Acts 10, God works in 2 men in order that the the Gospel can transform lives. Note what Peter shares with Cornelius - "The Gospel says":

• the forgiveness of sins is available for every person in every nation [v. 35]
• the forgiveness of sins is possible because of what Jesus Christ has done [v. 39-40]
• the forgiveness of sins comes through believing in Jesus Christ [v. 43]

I'm thankful for the way God is working through the Church in New Orleans. More specifically I'm thankful for God's grace in the life and ministry of Vintage Church over the last 3 years. I hope that we will continue to pray for God's favor and grace.

This fall I'm praying we will apply the truth of Acts 10 in 2 primary ways:

• Individually

At Vintage Church, all mission and ministry begins with the individual. This is because every person who is saved by the Gospel is then empowered through the Gospel to be a witness for the Gospel.

I've encouraged our campus to begin to ask "Spirit-sensitivity" questions last week.

This week I encouraged them to begin to ask this one question:

• Who is my Cornelius?

- Someone who looks different than you ~ racially
- Someone who thinks different than you ~ religiously
- Someone who smells different than you ~ economically

• Corporately

As a family we also want to take time when we unite together to serve our community, city, nation and world. So here's some of the plans for this fall:

- Serve our Community

One of the biggest ways that God has worked in our community over the last 3 years has been the outside volunteer teams that come every summer and daily serve our community. As a campus we are going to gather 3 Saturdays this fall to serve our community, doing many of the same things that these groups have done throughout the summer.


- Serve our City

There are about 1.1 million people in the Orleans, Jefferson & surrounding parishes. NOBA has shared that about 7% of the population in the Orleans and Jefferson parishes are connected to an evangelical church. This has led Pastor Rob and myself to begin to pray for more churches and campuses. This city needs thousands of more churches. As we prayed, God worked. On September 9, 2011 the Vintage Metairie Campus will launch. God has already been moving and transforming lives since January. We're excited to see how God will continue to work in this community. Check out Vintage Metairie webpage for updates.

- Serve our Nation

As a church family we want to be sent like Peter was to other Corneliuses that are in cities throughout America. An opportunity in August is a trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We are going from Wednesday Aug 17th to Saturday Aug 20th. I will be giving more information and details soon about this trip.

So there's our prayer along with some of the plans for the fall. I pray God will work in you and through you in whatever city or country that He has placed you.

One final thought: below is a video that I believe gives a visual picture of our Identity journey.

VIDEO

This is Discipling from The Foursquare Church on Vimeo.

This is who we are, this is what we do as Vintage Church

Go BE the Church

-Brick