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WEEKEND ARTS 012310 Dustin Brown 2 blogby Lead Pastor Mark Beeson

Dustin is a volunteer. He runs a very successful business, enjoys a great marriage and inspires a lot of people. He’s über-talented. He’s a great man. Why do people like Dustin—great people with full and busy lives—volunteer?

Let me offer a few reasons why good people volunteer. It’s not an exhaustive list, but it summarizes a few key points for team-building and might be worth considering.

Eight Reasons Good People Volunteer to Help You:
  1. They want to see done the thing you’re trying to get done. What you're doing is clear to them, and clearly important to them. Because they value what you value, what you’re doing is clearly worth their sacrificial effort.
  2. They see the need and want to help meet the need. Whether they jump in to help for a moment (helping with one step of the process) or stay with you for the entire mission (laying down their life for ultimate mission success), they see how they can assist you and they do.
  3. They want to be involved. After considering their other options (how they could otherwise be using their time, energy, knowledge and skills), they prioritize your mission above other competing values. The success of your work—for one reason or another—is important to them. They believe the work is worthy.

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by Lead Pastor Mark Beeson

Back in the day, when visitors came to the Houmas Plantation, they sometimes stayed for weeks. They often stayed for months. It was a big place (300,000 acres) and it was a busy place (producing 20,000,000 pounds of sugar each year).

To get to the plantation, travelers braved brutal people and brutal challenges: the turbulent Mississippi, swamps filled with gators, outlaws, poisonous snakes, impenetrable undergrowth and mosquitos carrying a deadly Yellow Fever virus. Some died trying to make the trip. There were settlers, pioneers and merchants among them. They were slaves, refugees, wholesalers and traders.

Most visitors expected something upon arrival.

Some hoped for a little food, shelter and rest. Others expected to stay with the family in the main house. They assumed they would dine at their table, drink their rum, smoke their cigars and be treated as part of the owner’s family.

It’s easy to see why expectations developed. You can imagine the expectations you would have if you were arriving at this incredible plantation after a long, grueling journey.

It’s almost Christmas. People are on their way and they’re bringing their expectations with them.

The question isn’t whether travelers will arrive at our place with expectations. The question is what we expect when they get here.

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by Lead Pastor Mark Beeson

When I braced my camera against this old fence, I noticed it didn’t move. Upon inspection I surmised the fence didn’t wobble because new screws were holding the weathered rails against its well-worn pickets.

An old fence like this one will stand as long as its connections hold fast. And its connections are more likely to hold when they’re maintained. The integrity of the whole structure depends on what holds it together.

What holds you and yours together?

Who secures your life when life gets difficult? How do you and yours stay together when it feels like everything is falling apart? What keeps you connected in a loose and shaky world?

It’s time to ask the One who holds absolutely everything together to hold us together too. Our Savior has come and He is far more powerful than any of the trials threatening to wear us down, shake us up or tear us apart. It’s not time to give up and let go. It’s time to get a grip. Jesus is leading His Church into very difficult fields of ministry, and in a world where folks will publicly behead young children because they refuse to renounce Jesus as their Lord and Savior, this is not the time to get wobbly.

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WEEKEND ARTS 012310 Dustin Brown 2 blog

by Lead Pastor Mark Beeson

Dustin is a volunteer. He runs a very successful business, enjoys a great marriage and inspires a lot of people. He’s über-talented. He’s a great man. Why do people like Dustin—great people with full and busy lives—volunteer?

Let me offer a few reasons why good people volunteer. It’s not an exhaustive list, but it summarizes a few key points for team-building and might be worth considering.

Eight Reasons Good People Volunteer to Help You:
  1. They want to see done the thing you’re trying to get done. What you’re doing is clear to them, and clearly important to them. Because they value what you value, what you’re doing is clearly worth their sacrificial effort.
  2. They see the need and want to help meet the need. Whether they jump in to help for a moment (helping with one step of the process) or stay with you for the entire mission (laying down their life for ultimate mission success), they see how they can assist you and they do.
  3. They want to be involved. After considering their other options (how they could otherwise be using their time, energy, knowledge and skills), they prioritize your mission above other competing values. The success of your work—for one reason or another—is important to them. They believe the work is worthy.
Continue reading on Mark Beeson’s blog...

by Lead Pastor Mark Beeson

Whoever said life gets easier must have been very young when they said it. Those who’ve lived a while know the opposite is true.

When you can lift more there’s more to lift. Learn to talk and you’re soon expected to make sense. Spend two or three decades living in your parents’ house and eating their food, and suddenly (because it’s a new day) you’re face-to-face with a big new challenge.

Here’s what’s true. If you handle today’s challenges correctly, your right responses will produce tremendous benefits in the days ahead. So face today’s adversity.

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by Lead Pastor Mark Beeson

Three years ago, I got “weathered-in” on Kodiak Island in Alaska.

Planes were grounded for days. There was no way to leave the camp and no way for supplies to reach us. I had my camera, shelter and food. I had a great big gun ’cause there’s a reason they call them “Kodiak Bears.”

It was awesome. It was challenging. It was an opportune time.

A few random moments of internet access during those days opened the floodgates for a torrent of questions from the caring and the curious:

  • Are you OK?
  • What’s it like?
  • What are you eating?
  • When will we see you again?

The concerned wanted to know my status. They wanted the truth about my current situation. They wanted to pray. They wanted to know if they could help me, or if they could do anything to help Sheila while I was away from her.

“The Truth is your friend,” so I offered an honest update about the conditions I faced, along with specific plans for the days ahead.

Now, three years later, I’m not on Kodiak Island, I’m home, and I recently offered my honest update about The State of the Church and the conditions we face. I presented specific plans for the days ahead.

If you’re interested in what’s going on at Granger and what we’re focused on in 2015, watch the full service now.

Church of St Anne 05 2014 Mary’s MotherChurch of Saint Anne, Israel
by Lead Pastor Mark Beeson

After worship last night I spoke with some young adults who asked me if they could ask me something.

“Sure, ask away.”

“Why do you think so many people our parents’ age are here?”

I was their parents’ age, so I replied, “I’m old enough to be your dad. Why do you think I’m here?”

“It’s your job?”

“Besides that.”

“I don’t know,” one said.“It just seems like there are a lot of young people here; and there are a lot of people my mom’s age here; and I don’t get that because people my mom’s age dream about church like it was in the old days.”

“The old days?”

“You know what I mean,” she said, “Old people want the ‘good old days’ more than these days. My mom talks about “the good old days’ like she’d go back there if she could.”

“Does she come to worship here?”

“No. My parents don’t live here.”

I said, “I think a lot of people your parents’ age aren’t old because they’re old; they’re old because they don’t dream anymore. Everyone gets old when they stop dreaming. They don’t stop dreaming when they get old; they get old when they stop dreaming. I think GCC is filled with people your age, and your parents’ age, because we’re all dreaming about doing something great for GOD. Young or old, the people who like GCC tend to be people dreaming GOD’s dream for tomorrow.”

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by Mark Beeson, Lead Pastor

I went to the very center of the room, adjusted the settings and laid my little camera on the floor. With the lens aimed straight up at the ceiling, I set the timer for a two-second delay and pressed the shutter. The result is this picture. It’s the ceiling at the site of Caiaphas’ Palace—the place where Peter denied Jesus.

I was profoundly moved in the dim light of that lonely moment. I prayed a quiet prayer: “Strengthen me Lord. I am certainly no better than Peter. When I’m tempted to fall away, help me stay true. Make me a faithful disciple.”

Unfaithfulness is disappointing.

All of us long for honorable relationships. We want those committed to us to be faithful. We long for people to keep their promises. Even as sin breaks relationships, we still desire faithfulness. We want it. We need it.

I have good news.

No matter what, even when we sin and fall away, GOD remains steadfast, faithful and true. We can count on GOD. His unfolding plan of redemption and restoration intercepts our free-fall in sin.

GOD is faithful.

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