Micah 6:8

I am very excited to begin our Advent series based on Mike Slaughter's and Rachel Billup's book called Down To Earth (Mike used to be the pastor at Ginghamsburg Church as lead pastor, Rachel is Ginghamsburg's Executive Pastor). This book has inspired our sermon series as we look at Jesus' down to earth qualities: love, humility, lifestyle, and obedience. This week we focus on Jesus' wonderful, world-changing love! If I were to write the book on my expectation of who the son of God would be, that person would probably look like Alexander the Great, Augustus, or Winston Churchill. Great leaders who, according to human standards achieved great things. Yet, what they did pales in comparison to Jesus. He was born to a poor family and was a refugee from a powerful tyrant who desired his death. He walked everywhere he went and never wrote anything down. And he definitely never used force or violence to achieve his goals. Jesus saved our planet of this by world-changing

It was early in my ministry career and I came across an idea in outreach magazine: cancel worship and get out into the community to do projects. It seemed like a great way to both love neighbor as you love yourself AND to make disciples. Fast forward to my appointment this year as the pastor at Rockbridge Church and it just so happens that Rev. Wade Killough, the founding pastor at Rockbridge, had started a Be the Church Sunday. The idea was the same! One more reason that I love my appointment at Rockbridge and that we are such a good fit. It may seem like a crazy idea, to go out into the community on a Sunday morning! What if people get mad that you don't have worship? What if a visitor shows up? Why are we doing this? I wanted to take a few moments today and explain BTC, why we do it and why you should participate! 1. Be the Church Sunday is a gathering of local churches in Cedar Park and Leander. For 2 Sundays out of the year, we live out our call to serve others by leavin

I have to say that when I first heard about the shooting in Sutherland, Texas, that I started to panic. What if this were to happen to my church (for those that don't know, I am the pastor of Rockbridge Church in Cedar Park)? I still have not figured out the answer to that question, and honestly, whatever the answer is, I hope I never have to put it into practice. Right now my heart is broken for this small Texas town and First Baptist Church. My heart is broken for the families who lost loved ones, especially those who lost children to this horrific attack. My heart is even broken for this young man who chose to execute people in a church. My heart breaks for our country that has more gun violence than it should. I am not going to get into any policy suggestions because frankly, I do not know the answer to how we stop having nearly as many mass shootings as we have days in the year. I do want to be a part of the solution. So I am going to pray, invite dialogue and see where we c