blog.arrowheadchurch.com

We make a big deal out of Easter, and we should. It’s more than pastel clothes, eggs (no comment if you know our past…!), and a bunny. Jesus Christ lived a real life, died a real death, and came back to life (for real), and that’s reason to celebrate.

We also make a big deal about Easter because in our culture it’s a Sunday where many people are open to go to church when otherwise they may not. Take some time to invite someone that God puts on your heart. It’s not a trick or a gimmick - it’s an opportunity to see God move in their lives.

This week we begin a look at 1 Corinthians 15, the most clear passage in the Bible about what the resurrection is all about and what it means to us.

After a few weeks off from recaps, I feel better and am ready to go keeping you posted again. =)

We wrapped up a series on repentance called Spring Cleaning this week. It’s been really personally challenging for me, and I hope it has been for the church. We never move on past repentance. Repentance is what the Christian life is all about. We turn away from our sin and turn toward Jesus every day. Sometimes we feel dirty and have no reason to. We are forgiven and should move on, but this week’s message was on what to do when you feel dirty and you really are dirty. From Psalm 51, David tells us how to deal with our sin:

1. Go to God.
2. Appeal for mercy.
3. Recognize that your sin is against God, not just yourself.
4. Deal with your heart, not just your actions.
5. Pray for a new start.

We also celebrated the Lord’s Supper today. It’s the best visual image of why repentance is possible. I love what the Lord does when we celebrate Communion.

Songs were: Sing Sing Sing (Chris Tomlin), Inside Out (Hillsong United), Lead Me to the Cross (Hillsong Untied), and Hank sang a song called I Repent (by Derek Webb) that kicks my butt. If you’ve never heard it, check it out here. Ouch.

We’re praying for the Lord to do incredible things over the next few weeks with all that is going on (more details to come here on the blog), but it won’t happen if we as His church aren’t aware of our need for repentance. I’ve said every week that God will not pour out His Spirit on people who refuse to change.

This is the blog formerly known as benshoun.com. You can read the post below for the lowdown on why it’s happening, but we’re transitioning to the official (as if there was an unofficial one) blog of Arrowhead Church. Stay tuned for an updated look and focus.

I started this blog for 3 purposes that I can put my finger on.

1. To offer devotional thoughts and leadership lessons to the people of Arrowhead Church.

2. To keep people who aren’t from Morristown in the loop with what’s happening here.

3. So I could become a widely known Christian celebrity.

I feel really stupid writing number 3, but it’s true. And I’m not alone. Blogging is many pastors’ secret sin. How did this happen?

The best I can tell, in the middle of the last decade, ministry blogging took off. Guys like Justin Taylor, Perry Noble, Ben Arment, Todd Rhodes, and then others (Steven Furtick, Craig Groeschel, and too many others to count) joined the game. They were all (and still are) offering great content for church leaders, and the Lord is still using it in great ways. You should read them all.

However, along the way, every church planter in America thought he was going to speak at Catalyst one day because his blog was just one click away from making him a star. Seriously, almost every church planter is buying into this junk. Including me. Okay, not really the Catalyst part, but all of us tend to think that more people will read our ramblings and musings and one day we’ll be a household name in church leadership circles.

It’s ridiculous. And I’m ready for that ambition in me to die.

If you are a church leader, I am not saying there is anything wrong with promotion that would lead you to a bigger platform so that you can impact more lives with the gospel. I’m just saying I’m not strong enough to separate impacting lives in this way from my own ego right now, and I think it’s worth a check from all of us to make sure we can all make the separation.

I’m really grateful for you if you are a regular reader, but honestly there aren’t that many of you! That bothers me, and it shouldn’t. It reveals my pride. I catch myself thinking, “I need to come up with a blog post or people are going to quit coming back.” Which is silly to me.

So, you say, just write what you want to write and when you want to write it. But, unfortunately that’s not how blogging works! If you really want anybody to ever read it, there needs to be some content there when they click.

So, benshoun.com is goin’ away.

There are better ways to offer devotional thoughts and leadership lessons to the people of Arrowhead Church where they’ll actually be prompted to read them, and I’ll be doing that.

If you’re from somewhere else besides Morristown or if you’re from here but don’t go to Arrrowhead and you’d like to be kept in the loop, send me an email at ben@arrowheadchurch.com and I’ll add you to a newsletter list. We’ll also add a news and announcements section and maybe even a church blog to the Arrowhead website.

If you wanted to feed my ego by adding to my blog stats, you missed your chance!

I’m still sticking with Twitter and Facebook and practically everything helpful I have to say can be said in 140 characters so I should be fine!