Le Fete de la Musique - NHC Band plays on the streets of Grenoble

Monday night was the annual Festival of Music in Grenoble, France. I was there with our church band, which was invited by two Grenoble Churches, Le CEP and the International Church of Grenoble, to be part of the festival.

Imagine every street corner and many spaces in between occupied by bands and musicians, all playing for whoever will stop and listen and all for simply the love of music. Downtown Grenoble was full of thousands of festival goers. Our band had an extra motivation - that of sharing the message of Christ through their songs.

For me as a pastor it was one of the highlights of my years of ministry to see a team from our little church in NC being able to do something so special. The crowds gathered to hear this American band (we may have been the only such in the city) and to find with surprise that the band was not only very good, but sang about Jesus Christ in ways that implied they knew Him.

Enjoy the montage, prepared by our friend in Grenoble, Matt Glock.

Sunday Flashback

(Note: I've missed entering these posts the last few weeks and have been chastised for it!)

After a major weather event the wind has died down, the seas are calming (slowly) and the sun is back out. It was good to be back together for worship after such a dreary week.

Today was "Shoebox Dedication Day" for us. For 15 years Nags Head Church has participated in Samaritan's Purse's Operation Shoebox. This year we promoted it a bit more by using some of the excellent videos they provide each week for the past few weeks and by encouraging everyone to bring in their shoeboxes today. Burnie Staples, our Missions Pastor, explained the purpose behind the shoeboxes and introduce a powerfully gripping video story that illustrated how these simple gifts open doors to sharing the Gospel with children around the world.

The MP13 Band then stepped up and played "The Power of Your Name", Lincoln Brewster's challenge to confront the world's needs with Christ. And while they were playing those with shoeboxes brought them to the front, presenting them to the Lord. Burnie then led us in a prayer of dedication that the boxes would not only bring joy, but bring the Gospel. It was a powerful moment as we realized God can use little things to accomplish wonders.

My message today was the finale of "The Journey - Tracking the Life of Moses". I gathered comments from emails and our church blog on the lessons we learned from Moses' life and we listened to Buddy and Aleena read them as they were projected on our screen for all to read. It was rich. You can listen in, not only to today's message (which should be up by mid-week) but to the entire series on our podcast.

I met several first time guests today. A couple I knew. Another was invited by one of our ladies in the parking lot of CVS last week.

At the end of my message I also shared a story about going through the motions but never experiencing new birth. One of our ladies realized that her new life began a few years ago, and now wants to celebrate it with baptism. It's going to surprise a lot of people! But how many very religious people have never truly believed?

Great day today. Now I'll take the next two Sundays off to prepare a new Christmas series to follow.

Another way to support Operation Back Pack this week!

Ocean Baptism Nags Head Style

Click here to see the video of our recent baptism Nags Head style!

Song "Carried Away" by Sonic Flood.

Patriot Day Appreciation Lunch

Nags Head Church collaborated with several local restaurants to put on a lunch spread for our public safety community today on September 11. It was our first attempt at this event and it blew me away. I'm usually pretty good at estimating response, and had guessed about 30 would attend. Wrong. Double that amount.

Represented were:

Dare Co. Communications (the 911 people)
Dare Co. Emergency Management
Dare Co. Fire Marshal's office
Dare Co. EMS
Kitty Hawk Fire Dept.
Kill Devil Hills Fire Dept.
NC Highway Patrol
Nags Head Ocean Rescue
Nags Head Fire Dept.
Nags Head Police

Restaurants participating (they all rock!) were:

Tropical Smoothie
NY Pizza Pub
The Butcher Block
Pier House Restaurant
Sooey's Barbecue
Maximus Pizza
Applebees
The Dunes
Mulligans

Volunteers from NHC who made it happen were George and Paula Farah, Tina Hughes, Jan Martz. Barbara Kay and Andy also worked hard setting up and cleaning up.

So thanks again to our public safety men and women who serve us all so well. And thanks for a church that reached out to them in appreciation and service. God will bless it, I know.

Plan on it being an annual event. I'm going to encourage other churches in our neighboring communities to do the same next year.

Appreciating those who serve on Patriot Day

We're partnering with a number of local restaurants to host this lunch. I hope you'll say a special "Thanks" to a police officer, firefighter or EMT/Paramedic on Thursday.

"...should you choose to accept it"

I grew up watching the Mission Impossible TV series back in the day. It always began with the introduction of the next mission on a reel to reel tape (high tech in the late 60's - early 70's) and the words, "This is your mission, should you choose to accept it". Then the tape burned itself up.

Our mission as Christ-followers is not impossible. Taking His love to those who need it can be done by all of us. But we have to make the choice to take it on.

One of those who has chosen to accept the mission is Marie. It thought I took her picture to post here (much to her chagrin) but it's not on the camera. And she'll be relieved because she doesn't want attention focused on her. Sorry, Marie, but I'm going to talk about you for a minute.

Marie volunteers at our church by serving in our youth ministry. She leads a group of teenage girls every Sunday night. You can find her on Sunday mornings helping check children into our Kids Church. She's consistent.

And this week Marie took vacation time from her job to lead teenagers on missions projects in our community during Operation Impact (see my previous post). She's one of my heroes. She gets it. She's made the choice and it has cost her something. I guess there are about 20 adults who, like Marie, have given up their time this week to influence youth and reach out into the community.

Because of volunteers like Marie, the mission is a step closer to being accomplished.

Pictured above are the youth right after grouping for prayer and getting ready to "go into the world" this morning.

The Launch Pad

About 3 years ago as we began to unveil the vision God had given us to build a totally new and different facility at our church (that's it in the picture at the top of the blog) I used the phrase "a launch pad for missions" time and again to instill in the church the purpose for the new building. When we gather here as a congregation it's to be energized and equipped to fulfill the Great Commission during the rest of the week as we go into the community.

Our purpose statement is pretty simple: "Reaching people to discover life in Christ". It's our purposes that drive what we do as a church, and that included our reason for building. What's happening this week has been the best fulfillment of that Launch Pad philosophy that we've seen so far in our 16 months since we moved in.

This week youth groups from our beach are uniting together for "Impact OBX", a four day missions blitz right here in our own back yard. I'm not involved, so I can't give a lot of details about what all they're doing, but I do know teams have done such things as spending the day at the NC Aquarium with Downs Syndrome children; preparing and delivering lunches to the Nags Head lifeguards; cleaning out the cages at the animal shelter; doing yard work for some seniors; leading activities at the YMCA day camp....

Interestingly, Impact OBX began last summer with one church (not ours - not even our flavor). Then they thought, "What if we got other churches involved?" Great thinking!

And it begins each day right here at the Launch Pad. Our MP 13 Band kicks each morning off with worship, then they get some encouragement from God's Word and then they're off for the day.

I'm sure time will tell of the impact this week has had on our community. But frankly, I'm just as stoked about the impact this week will have on these 100 teenagers and adult leaders and the ten churches they represent. Maybe they can ignite whole churches (ie. adults) to see their mission!

It all concludes Thursday night with a huge outreach event - Community Collision - at First Flight High School.

Hopefully next year this thing will pull in even more to work together to accomplish the mission of pointing others to Christ.