Centre Church

What does it take to be a great leader? Charisma? Charm? Power? Money? Centre Church is a recent member of The City Church, a group of eleven+ local congregations seeking to please God in his desire to see unity among His followers across “denominational” lines. At a time when Centre County has lost a centralizing figure in Joe Paterno and is struggling at best to trust the leadership at Penn State, questions of unity and leadership could not come at a more opportune time. Read more

So there’s another 21 day fast coming up at Centre Church and a little bit of pre-buzz happening out there. Some of you are getting pretty excited about what has become our bi-annual Daniel Fast. Some of you are new kids on the block and this will be your first go-around with fasting, or at least fasting for this amount of time. But I wonder if some of us greet the fast with a little bit of dread… after all, it is not designed to be an easy time. Read more

Why Fast?

• Fasting and Prayer can restore the loss of the “first love” for your Lord and result in a more intimate relationship with Christ.
• Fasting is a biblical way to truly humble self in the sight of God (Psalm 35:13; Ezra 8:21). King David said, “I humble myself through fasting.”
• Fasting enables the Holy Spirit to reveal your true spiritual condition, resulting in brokenness, repentance, and a transformed life. The Holy Spirit will quicken the Word of God in your heart and His truth will become more meaningful to you! Read more

Been thinking a lot lately about this word: BUSY

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Daniel 12:4 Read more

It was pretty cool last Sunday at the end of Centre Church, seeing so many people come down to the altar to pray for a filling of the Holy Spirit. After all, The Big Red Tractor won’t run without Him, right? (Psst… the correct response is “Right!”)

Cooler yet was praying WITH people who had come forward and the chance to get a glimpse at their hearts. It is nothing short of a blessing to be part of a church where so many people really do want to be a city on a hill and the light of the world. But if you’re anything like the person in the chair next to you on any given Sunday night, you struggle a little bit with exactly what that means. How am I supposed to address the big “E”… evangelism?

Saying that we are a city on a hill or that we are called to be the light of the world simply draws attention to the fact that we are very much seen in this world. Our day to day lives and our character as followers of Jesus may be honored and respected… or they may be hated and maligned. But one thing they are for certain is seen.

And this is really what evangelism is all about. While there is nothing amiss with methods of evangelism, such as The Gideons, Evangelism Explosion, or The Way of the Master… in fact, these ministries should provide great conviction that we should, indeed, be proactive in all of our relationships… the Bible itself provides only one piece of instruction for evangelism. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Without getting too technical, the Greek word for “Go” in this passage is not active, but passive. Many theologians say that this verse translates loosely to, “As you go about your lives, make disciples…” This being said, new light is shed on the question one Centre Church couple posed Sunday night. Wanting very much to be salt and light in their new neighborhood, they were at the altar praying earnestly for ways and means to share Christ with new friends. “What do we do now?” they prayed.

As we spoke I could see the stools from The Dollar Club still in place behind them. We exist to help people rethink church, rediscover Jesus, and allow Him to redirect their lives… as we go. Hopefully we are being built together as a picture of completeness – a machine whose well-oiled cogs produce good, good fruit for not only our village, but for others around us as well. Here is a picture of how that machine might work:

There are people in and around Centre County doing amazing things. We get to hear from a lot of them through Dollar Club. Sure they need financial support, but we realized long ago that our $100 gifts are not making the truest difference. Our service is. If you think about it, nearly every organization and ministry we have interviewed has expressed needs for volunteers, prayer, visitors, patrons, audiences, and time. Men and women all around us are involved in life-changing pursuits, if ever we wanted to go about our lives serving, and inviting others into the fray with us.

True… you could invite someone to Centre Church (and that’s not a bad idea). On the other hand… you could invite someone to attend The Ballet Magnificat when Abbie Helsel brings them to the State Theatre. You could take someone for a cup of exotic coffee at Johnny Pons’ cafe “The World Cup”. You could take your neighbors, the ones you hope to build a relationship with, to wrap gifts for Toys for Tots. Soon, we’ll be asking you to ring those Christmas bells for the Salvation Army.

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. The opportunities to serve and shine and be salty are abundant. We are not lone rangers at Centre Church, but part of this big ol’ world around us. As we serve our community and God’s Kingdom, inviting our friends and neighbors to serve along side us, I’m pretty sure the part about their eventual visit to Centre Church on a Sunday night will fall right into place… because you have already been the light of the world.

Do you have personal goals? I mean written, specific, measurable goals?

We’re not talking “New Year’s Resolutions” here. Everybody knows “NYR” is just a euphemistic term for “good intentions”. I do apologize if you’ve ever made New Years resolutions that you have actually kept and bettered from, but if you’re like me you have a long list of resolutions gone bad – still great ideas, but they’ve really gotten away from you. Do you have those, too? Read more

Happy Valley is, much to our chagrin, experiencing its fifteen minutes of fame right now. How about it. Headlines everywhere are doing a decent job of reflecting the mood around here, just in case you’re not a local. It’s not really much of a happy valley these days. Read more

Okay boys and girls… today you are receiving permission. Permission to ask questions. Permission to have thoughts that fly in the face of all you were once taught. Permission to doubt. For as we go through our series called THINGS I DON’T BELIEVE ANY MORE we find ourselves confronted by an old belief recently dismantled for us by Bob Gresh:

A CHRISTIAN SHOULD NEVER DOUBT. DOUBT ON OUR PART UPSETS GOD AND REVEALS A LACK OF FAITH. Read more

Most people have routines. That may be a gross overgeneralization – a rhetorical fallacy for certain. After all, I bring no research to the table. Still, I have eyes to see and I have observed:

Students attend the same classes week to week. People come to church and sit in the same seat week after week. We take the same route to work, apply make up in the same order, and even organize our social media sites according to routine.

Even my Bernese Mountain Dog has a routine. Each night Hero begins his sleep pattern on, yet at the foot of the bed. Within an hour he becomes too warm and moves to the cool wooden hallway floor outside the bedroom door. Around 3 am he awakes with night terrors – he is afraid of thunderstorms (among other things… we should have named him Adrian Monk). It doesn’t matter if it is raining or not. Even a clear, starry evening will bring him panting, wide eyed, shivering to the head of our bed, where, ironically, our own heads are sleeping. He sits and shakes the bed for a while, turning it into a retro-fitted Holiday Inn massage bed. Then he lays prone between Jonathan and myself… finally he crawls onto Jonathan’s pillow, placing himself perpendicular to his now pillow-less master. It’s like clockwork. We can count on him.

Which brings me to our question of the week… What is your quiet time routine? I am fully aware, mind you, that this is likely to be where my fallacy about “most people have a routine” is likely to catch up with me. One thing we are learning in our early days of DC Culture (our Centre Church accountability groups) is that we may need to use this first go-around though the book of Mark as a routine building exercise. Many of us, it turns out, do not have a routine when it comes to spending time in God’s Word.

I have a simple suggestion – give it a try and let us know how it works.

1. Identify the first element of your daily routine. Perhaps it is a cup of joe, a shower, walking Fido, or hitting up your social media network. Once upon a time for me it was the daily crossword puzzle.

2. After you have identified your morning go-to, make this simple covenant: Each morning, before embarking on step one of your morning routine, you must first spend time alone with God. No crossword before God’s Word. That was my covenant.

3. Share your intentions with one or two other people. Give yourself a few months to truly fall into ROUTINE. And don’t pull out the monk costume and self-flagellation tools when you miss a day. There is no condemnation in this, only promise for a healthier, more fruitful you.

Routine up! And like Hero, go ahead and hit it no matter what the sky looks like.

God decided to take me through a parable today in real time. Read more