“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”
On Wednesday two very interesting things happened to me. I was sitting on my couch watching "Reign over Me" with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle, when I began hearing our youngest beagle Whitley barking like crazy. It is strange for Beagles, but our dogs don’t really bark so this was a little weird. I got up and went to window to look outside. As I peered out the window I saw Whitley barking at our other dog Erwin who was lying on the ground. Now Erwin has this habit of getting out of the yard so we have him on this tie down that connects his collar to one of our porch posts. After barking a few more times Whitley grabbed part of Erwin’s tie down rope about three feet from his collar and began to pull him across the yard. Erwin laid on his back and let Whitley drag him across the yard. She really wanted to play and he really wanted to just sit there and do nothing. Now when we take Erwin to walk in the park we have to make sure that we walk him in the center of the track, because when all four of his paws feel grass he will turn over on his back and let us drag him. He is just weird like that. But, I couldn’t help feeling that what I was witnessing was something I felt was happening at the church.
Later Wednesday afternoon I went to the mall to watch "No Country for Old Men" by the Coen brothers. It was an amazing movie. I really can’t ring it’s praises enough and as I have read other reviews of the film, neither can anyone else. The movie poster you see has a line in the movie that struck me, "You can’t stop what’s coming. Trying makes it all about you and that is pure vanity." This moved through me with clarity as I thought about how we sometimes refuse to change because we like the way things are and we don’t want them to change because WE don’t want to change. Change in the church is hard and it means that some of us will have to learn something new or become "divinely uncomfortable" in order for the message to reach different people. Divinely uncomfortable refers to an Ed Young, Jr. message where Ed said that God is going to change us and move us in uncomfortable ways. And for many us, in order for the message to be communicated to different people we are going to have to change our approach or methods. Otherwise, like what I saw with the dogs, us older believers began to waste the talent, time, and resources of younger believers who have a vision for reaching their generation. They end up spending their time getting us to change instead of causing life change in the lives of unbelievers. Vanity. It becomes all about us. We must remember that there needs to be an element of the church that is about spreading the Gospel to people who are different than us.
Guitarmageddon was huge success last week. There were over 150 students in attendance, including the two skaters I blogged about recently. The place was packed. The AHBC students told how awesome they thought the event was. We are beginning to follow-up with our visitors and hope to continue to minister to some of them through our student music ministry and a newly forming skateboard ministry. I had 7 students respond to being interested in a church skate team. I am looking forward to calling these guys and having a first practice. Skateboard ministries have proved to be very successful in reaching out to students in cities and neighborhoods like ours. We are beginning to build relationships with students who are not part of a church and may be several generations removed from a member of their family who attended church. I would to hear from anyone with some skateboard or park experience on ministering to this crowd.
The response to our call for computers and parts has been tremendous. I have collected 10-15 machines so far and I am continuing to receive emails and call from people. I am looking for a date next month when a team will be able to help me sort through these computers, install software, and place them into the lab. I am also looking for someone who has LINUX experience to help install IPCOP onto our open network side, where these machines will run. Please contact me if you have any interest in helping with any of the opportunities listed here. Thanks.
Bless God,
Jeremy Davidson
Media and Marketing Director
Arrow Heights Baptist Church
jeremy@arrowheights.org
Office (918) 455-5020 ext. 222
Cell (405) 615-3666
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Visit us online at www.arrowheights.org.
I spent some time working outside on a project with two students yesterday. Kyle was helping me with setting up for a photography project and Andrew was our subject. We heard some kids skateboarding between the south fence and the strip mall. I walk over to the fence to investigate and met two of our local skaters, Kyle #2 and Jesse. Both these kids live in the neighborhood east of the church and love to skateboard. I have a passion for skateboarding. I grew up in the country and had a small concrete back porch where I could skate. Everything else was grass or dirt, not really a skating landscape. We talked with Kyle #2 and Jesse for about 20 minutes and invited them to the upcoming 5th Quarter and Guitar Hero 3 tournament. Jesse told me that he loves Guitar Hero and was definitely coming to play. When I told them about the skateboard we were going to be giving away their eyes just started to bug out. Kyle #2’s skate board was really thrashed and ready for retirement. I told them that www.ArrowHeights.org is planning on resurfacing the parking lot and we have looked into starting a skate ministry they were excited. Jesse told me that several of the neighborhood kids will walk the 5-6 miles to the new skate park to skate for several hours and then walk the same distance back. They thought that if there was a skate park here at the church we would start meeting a whole new group of kids that are not interacting with www.ArrowHeights.org. I watch students walk across our parking lot every day after school. They seem to unaware of our Student Building and some of them are walking across our parking lot to catch a bus that takes them to another church where there is a skate park.
What can we do to become a relevant church to generations of students that surround www.ArrowHeights.org? We can start by getting involved or more involved in the Step up to Faith campaign. One of the next projects in this building campaign is to resurface the parking lot, which will make it a more inviting environment for or neighborhood skaters. Another project will be adding a sign to the Student Building letting those kids that are walking across the parking lot know there is a student building here and that there are activities for them nearly every day of the week for them inside. Pray that God will put me into contact with all the students that are walking across the parking lot. Pray that God would provide people to help sponsor the skate ministry, the skate team, and to help build and construct the park next year. These kids need to feel the love of God through our congregation. Step up to this new ministry and step out on faith and talk with some of these kids. Don’t just invite them to come to church on Wednesday, but find out their names, begin to pray for them, and look for opportunities just to talk with them and see how they are doing. We are all ministers of this Gospel. Pray for Kyle and Jesse.
Jeremy Davidson
Media and Marketing Coordinator
I have been working on a new webpage for www.ArrowHeights.org. I recently went live with a new draft. We are looking into some CMS solutions for our site next year. I have heard great things about ElementFusion and EE. I have been impressed with both of their portfolios. I have set all of the staff members here up with blogs that can be accessed at www.ArrowHeights.org/feeds. I am looking forward to seeing how they use them.
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