Upcoming Stuff

My life has gotten extremely busy in April. Tons of things going on.

Tonight April 4th, my church is having a youth night beginning at 6pm at DRCF. I will be running sound as well as speaking for a few minutes to the teens. Admission is free.

Tomorrow April 5th, I have my first rehearsal playing trumpet with Mariachi La Diferencia. Yes, I am still white.

Immediately after that, my friend Larry has organized Street Beat Music Festival, an all day concert-a-thon. I will be playing keyboard with a few other guys from church to open up that. I will be there on and off for most of the rest of the day. Admission is free.

Sunday April 6th, some of the bands and Puppets For Christ will all be at DRCF for the Sunday morning service. I will be running the technical aspects of the show (video, sound, words for songs, being made fun of by the puppet, etc.). After that, we have a Fellowship dinner afterwards. The theme is International Food. I am brining Julio’s chips and making my world-famous salsa. Yes, I am still white.

Tuesday April 8th is 8th grade math TAKS. Woo.

Wednesday April 9th my band has our final full band rehearsal. Girls track meet happens at the same time, so it won’t really be the full band. Again.

Thursday April 10th, we go to UIL Concert & Sight Reading at CC Winn HS in Eagle Pass. My band performs the concert at 5:45pm and sight reads at 6:10. I will also be sight reading with the Symphonic band at 7:50. Come support the DRMS Bands! Come bring me dinner also!

Friday April 11th, I have Mariachi rehearsal again.

Saturday April 12th, I go to San Antonio with the SFMMS Band to compete in the Bluebonnet Classic and then go to Fiesta Texas.

There’s some other stuff going on, but that takes you through the next 10 days pretty well. My public mariachi debut will be Saturday April 26th. Mark your calendars!

Do You Have To Go To Church?

Keith Green says it well:

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to McDonalds makes you hamburger.

That’s all well and good. We know that those people who go to church are not all saved. Salvation is the result of dying to self. It is the result of becoming alive in God through Christ.

So when you’re saved, you have to go to church, right?

NO!!!

The whole concept of “going to church” is not in the Bible. You don’t go to church, you are the church. The Greek word for church is transliterated eklesia and it means those who are called out.

So if we’re called out of the world (Revelation 18:4), then we should be a separated people. But that doesn’t mean we need to “belong to a local church.” On the contrary, it means that we, as saints, should be in ongoing fellowship with one another, serving each other, and encouraging each other.

That doesn’t have to happen in a local church fellowship. It can, though.

I think that when we “go to church,” too often we run the risk of thinking that simply punching the time card is enough. Before the world was formed, God prepared good works for us to do (cf. Ephesians 2:10). “Going to church” just to sit there and passively listen to someone else tell us God’s word is not a Biblical concept.

I want to challenge you to stop sitting on your blessed assurance and start living for the Lord God Almighty. Live your life. Quit being a spectator.

Stewardship

I am scheduled to preach on the subject of stewardship for the next two Wednesday Evening services at Del Rio Christian Fellowship.

Over the next two and a half weeks, I will be posting some blog entries on the subject. Please feel free to give me feedback on what I write!

At this point, the plan is to teach on:

Stewardship Part 1: A Living Sacrifice - 01/09/08
Stewardship Part 2: A Lifestyle Sacrifice - 01/16/08

The way it works is that we have sort of an informal, question and answer kind of deal. Much of my own life experience will come into play and be included in these discussions. These both look to be among the most personal sermons I have prepared to date.

I am really excited about where God is taking me this year, and I really do hope you can join us!