Lance is on the left

Guest Post by Lance Howerton. Lance is not only the Director of Children’s Training and Events for LifeWay, we are also blessed to have him volunteer in the role of Elementary Ministry Leader in Bridge Kids!

Did you know that most people make their decision for Christ when they are children? 43% of decisions are made before age 13. That is nearly one-half of all believers. Children are a gift from God and are a gift that we need to hold precious and sacred.

I have spent all of my adult life in ministry to either students or children. I believe there is simply no greater calling than to teach kids about our Savior. In March, you will notice some significant changes in our children’s ministry.

First, you will see some physical changes. As we continue to grow, we need to break our kids into smaller groups that are age-specific. Currently, we have large group time followed by either continued large group or two smaller groups, kindergarten through 3rd grade and 4th and 5th. This works fairly well when you have 15 kids, but not when we are running 30 plus (in each worship gathering). Kindergarten and first graders are in very different educational and developmental stages than a 4th and 5th graders. Our strategy for now will be to break them into Kindergarten and 1st grade, 2nd and 3rd grade, and 4th and 5th grade. We will do that by setting up tents on the second floor for each group. Kids will love going to their tent each week after large group time.

Another significant change coming in August will be new curriculum. We love our current curriculum that teaches strong Biblical character values; however, we want more for our kids. We want more Biblical content, more of the major Bible stories driven by a strong Gospel-centered message. Therefore, we will be switching to The Gospel Project curriculum. Each lesson has one of the major Biblical stories with the gospel at the center of everything we do and teach. Not only will it have strong Gospel-centered Biblical content, but it will have all the major biblical stories IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER! Can you imagine what it will mean to our kids to learn about the Gospel of Christ through stories in the order they actually happened?

I hope you are as excited about what God is going to do as we are! If so, we need your help. We need volunteers who are passionate about our kids knowing the Gospel. We don’t want them just to know about the Gospel, but for their lives to be completely shaped by it. Uncle Sam use to say “we need you.” We need you to be one of the many volunteers who cares about the lives of our kids. If you think that God might be calling you, contact Craig McKown at craig.mckown@bridgesh.com or me at Lance.Howerton@lifeway.com.

The local business we visited this week has become kind of a “heart of Spring Hill” kind of place for locals – we headed over to Old School Cafe for breakfast.  Located in the old building for Spring Hill High School at the corner of Duplex Rd and 31, this place has done the city a REALLY cool service by turning a historic Spring Hill landmark into a nostalgic – and EXTREMELY good – breakfast and lunch cafe.  The vibe of the cafe shows you how they’ve embraced its history…

Coolest part of Old School, to me, is the fact that when you’re there you feel like you’re stepping into a nostalgic movie scene in a 1960′s diner.  In all the cool ways and none of the bad ones, it feels like you’re stepping back in time 50 years. Very cool vibe.  The food is AWESOME.  Bill, the owner, has been a high-end chef in multiple locations and apprenticed under a German chef for a few years. Even though the food is classic diner food (eggs, bacon, potatoes, biscuits, etc) it’s seriously incredible. Everything hits the spot and all three of us ‘gents cleaned our plates  Ours was $6/person but you get a LOT of food.

Breakfast is classic breakfast foods and the lunch menu is a solid “meat and 3″ menu.  Old School is apparently renowned by its regulars (of which there are many) for its Derby Pie

Bill Corbett: owner, chef, cool dude

Old School cafe is owned by Bill and Maude Corbett.  One of our favorite aspects of Old School Cafe was why they’re closed for dinner. Bill and Maude have a special needs son with Down Syndrome that they love very much.  Even though it might be good for their business to be open for dinner, they’ve chosen to stick to breakfast and lunch so they can be home in the evenings with their son, who needs extra attention from them.

Other facts about Old School Cafe…

• Located in the old Spring Hill High School building, which closed in 1992
• The cafe closes at 2pm and is closed on Sundays
• It’s cash only, so bring yo’ wallets
• Famous for their Derby Pie… save room for dessert
• You can expect to spend around $7-8 for a REALLY GOOD breakfast or lunch

All in all, we LOVED everything about this place – food, vibe, and ownership – and will be having meetings there in the near future.  Help out “Old School” by sharing this post on your Facebook pages and dropping by for breakfast or lunch!

10 FROM THE VAULT

1. How do I decide which Christian preachers, teachers, and authors to listen to and which to avoid? In the over-churched Bible Belt where which Christian author(s) you read is kind of a weird status symbol, this post was both highly-trafficed and highly-important.

2. Profiles of the Religious, Irreligious, and Gospel person. The Bible doesn’t teach – like the church often does – that there are “two ways to live – God’s way and Man’s way”.  This post covers the “3 ways to live” that Jesus talked about and helps you figure out who you are.

3. Some thoughts about church size. I wrote this post for everyone who – like me – has either felt that “bigger churches are better” or felt that “smaller churches are better”.  Some thoughts from the Bible about church size.

4. Suburban Christians: change your fuel. A post about why many suburban Christians seem tired in their zeal for God.

5. Why aesthetics and media are important to Jesus’ mission. I wrote this post to help people understand why our graphics, video, multimedia are really important to us as good missionaries in our culture.

6. Will people just keep sinning if you preach too much grace?  This was a followup post to a sermon that highlighted the scandalous nature of grace. Many people left this sermon wondering, “But won’t people just keep sinning if you preach too much grace!?”  Here’s a Biblical answer to that question.

7. Is church membership Biblical?  Is church membership just a social construct? An organizational necessity? Or is it actually Biblical?  If so, why don’t I ever read about it in the Bible?

8. A third way to read the gospels.  This post highlights why many people read the story of Jesus’ life and come away discouraged instead of hopeful.

9. Why does our staff schedule meetings away from the church building?  For everyone who asks the question, “Why do those guys schedule meetings at Starbucks when they could have meetings at the church building for free!?”

10. What are proper and improper ways to express yourself in corporate worship?  Am I OK to raise my hands during worship? What about running flags down the aisles?  Can I set off M-80′s in response to God’s greatness in worship? This post answers all the questions many Christians have about how they can express themselves in worship.

UPDATE: someone asked the very good question, “Well then, what is forgiveness?” in the comment section. Click there to see that definition.

First off – HUGE thanks to our Kids’ Ministry workers (Kids’ Ministry was PACKED today) and another HUGE thanks to the people who stood during the first half of our 2nd WG to make room for guests to have a seat. THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH!  I will not be preaching a 45 minute sermon again soon, I promise… probably

After WG’s today, people had a lot of questions about the “10 things forgiveness is not” list. This list is originally from Mark Driscoll.  Because there were so many questions, I wanted to repost here…

10 things forgiveness is not

1. FORGIVENESS IS NOT APPROVING OR DIMINISHING SIN.

2. FORGIVENESS IS NOT ENABLING SIN.

3. FORGIVENESS IS NOT DENYING A WRONGDOING.

4. FORGIVENESS IS NOT WAITING FOR AN APOLOGY.

5. FORGIVENESS IS NOT FORGETTING.

6. FORGIVENESS IS NOT CEASING TO FEEL THE PAIN.

7. FORGIVENESS IS NOT A ONETIME EVENT.

8. FORGIVENESS IS NOT NEGLECTING JUSTICE.

9. FORGIVENESS IS NOT TRUSTING.

10. FORGIVENESS IS NOT RECONCILIATION.

FORGIVENESS AND JUSTICE

Now, in hearing this, some of you, like me, will have strong sense of justice. You say, “But if I forgive them, where’s the justice?” Justice comes, friends, ultimately from Jesus. Either they will come to faith in Christ and you will get your justice at the cross, where Jesus’ blood was shed in their place for their sins as Jesus’ blood was shed in your place for your sin, because Lord knows we’ve hurt people too, or, if they remain unrepentant, your forgiving them does not mean that they are ultimately forgiven. They’ve sinned against you and God, and as you forgive them, you’re leaving them to Jesus. And if they live in a state of unrepentance and they don’t come to Jesus for forgiveness, they will stand before Jesus in the end. And they will be judged and sentenced to the conscious eternal torments of hell to suffer forever for all of their sin, paying their eternal debt to the living God. So, in forgiving someone, we are not neglecting justice. We’re leaving it to the perfect judge to enact perfect justice, either at the cross or in hell, but either way justice will be served. And we forgive in light of that.

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The first local business we went to was Jack of Hearts BBQ! Pastor Craig and I checked out Jack of Hearts for the first time together and we were more than pleased with what we got.  Not only does it have a very cool vibe inside, but it’s a homemade BBQ joint with EXCEPTIONAL BBQ – seriously, both of us thought it was some of the best (if not “the best”) we’ve ever had.  And again, everything is homemade by their staff from their owner’s (Todd Masters) personally crafted recipe.  It’s easy to drive by without noticing this place, but its business has quickly grown because IT’S SO DANG GOOD.  Jack of Hearts is located right off of Hwy 31 in the little strip of stores behind The Cigar Station (another business we may review soon) and directions can be found on THEIR WEBSITE.

I, regrettably, tried their MBF (Mans Best Friend) Challenge, which was 6 pounds of food.  If you eat it, you get it free (over $20 of food). If you don’t – like me – you get your picture on their “Wall of Shame”… unfortunately.

Yes, it was a lot of food. I was full.  The first three bites were awesome, but after that point I was merely figuring out a way to finish. I failed, miserably.  I ate about 2 1/2 of them. All in all, Craig and I enjoyed our experience greatly.  The staff (Maddie and JT!) were very cool and friendly.

Other facts about Jack of Hearts:

• Open for 17 months
• Todd Masters – the cool looking dude below – is the owner
• Named after Todd’s first son
• Everything is homemade
• They do have Kids Meals
• Their Cole Slaw is named Simon Slaw (after Todds second son)
• No person has ever completed the Mans Best Friend Challenge (not even this manly man)
• Closed Sundays and Mondays

We also got a cool interview with the owner:

All in all, we LOVED the place and seriously highly recommend it to anyone who even has a vague affinity for good BBQ.  If you’ve been and enjoyed it, let us know in the comment section and you can help out the business by “sharing” this post on your Facebook wall. Click the “Facebook” icon below this post and give Todd and his staff some love!

But in the midst of all of those things, this definitely happened…

Our first ever “worship injury”.  That’s how Spirit-filled WG’s were this morning