Shannon Chapman

Weather

Ok peeps here is the deal.  Ethos is going to be on tomorrow!  There is no way in this world we can let 2 inches of snow stop us from meeting.  We have a great morning ahead and to top it off we have baptism.  I can't tell you how pumped I am about starting this new series "Compelled by Love." I think it might be the best one yet this year.

So, don't this weather stop you from being here in the morning.  If for some reason we get a blizzard please check here and here and will let you know what is going on.  We are doing one of my all time favorite songs by Jon Foreman tomorrow and we are so honored to have two special guys leading it.  Well, I am out i must put my final thoughts on my message.  My soul is dreaming tonight about what a community of love could actually do for the mission of Christ.  As I type this i am listening to the new mutemath EP, man it's so moving me right now.  

Catalyst OneDAY

Tomorrow morning Mande and I leave at 630 am to go to Catalyst One Day event.  To be honest since money is not so good at the church right now I had planned on not going but then out of no where Chad Johnson from Catalyst emailed and said he had two tickets just for me and Mande.  I was SO excited when i read that. To top it off he also gave us a VIP ticket to a special lunch.  I am no VIP for sure but free lunch I will take any day.  It will be a long day but for sure it will be well worth it!

As I looked about this past month I am so pumped about what it going on at CC.  Not only do we have 64% of the people that attend Ethos attending small groups but we are up 30 people per Sunday since 09 started.  This past Sunday we were PACKED like crazy.  We are also baptizing 5 people from Ethos this Sunday which always reminds me why we do what we do.

Sunday is only 4 days away and i can't express how I feel about it!  I believe that God is going to do amaizing things in this series "Compelled by love."  Please do whatever you can to invite someone to come with you.  I will be teaching very clear on the love of Christ and how to connect with Him.  We are going to be doing some special things so don't be late.  

I will do some post-highlights from tomorrow. See everyone soon!

Sunday REwind

• I spoke at both services today at central - 9:15/11:00
• I must admit only having a 30 minute break in between services is very hard as a speaker 
• We had two great service as we inspired people to Get in the game 
• Jason and his team did a great job of leading worship  
• We did a sports center video today with Ernie R and Jason H to show case some of our volunteers serving - thought it came off great 
• I really felt that I presented the message very clearly of why getting into the game is vital to the health of the local church 
• While all this was going on Mande we preparing to speak at Ethos 
• I must admit I was nervous  not being at ethos today but i want to thank Cheryl K and all the other volunteers that helped make today a success
• We had baptism orientation today at Ethos and we will be baptizing 6 next week - so excited about that!
• Word has it that people were sitting every where at ethos today, I love the fact that people are connecting to our community of love, faith, and change   

As I look at my week coming up there is a lot coming up.  Tomorrow night we have small group at my house.  Then on Thursday due to Chad Johnson from Catalyst I will be going the Catalyst One Day event in GA.  I was so happy when he told me he had 2 tickets for me.  

Also, we must get everything ready for our new series we start next Sunday called - Compelled By Love.  I am really praying that people begin to get a deeper understanding of the Love of God and how that should compel us to reach out.  I am still trying to make connections for our Good Friday service - for the city in the city.  Really going to try to nail this down this week.  Well, thats it for this Sunday REwind!

Asking Questions

Today I went to Cleveland, TN to a book store that was having a 40% sale on ALL books.  It felt like I was in heaven lol.  My dad was with me and we spent way to much money on books but man it was a lot of fun. For some reason today feels like Saturday but thank God its just Friday.  I still have so much to get ready before I am ready for to speak on Sunday.

Ok, so here is what I have been processing lately.  In order for us to keep processing the mission of God we must learn how to answer tough questions.  Here are my three simple questions we must answer as we move forward.  

Is what we are doing:

• Biblical
• Anti-biblical 
• Extra-Biblical 

I really think we struggle with this whole concept. You see I don't think that extra-biblical things are bad necessarily but the problem is we try to make them biblical.  When we do this we discredit the living Word of God.  

Here is a quick sample of what I mean.  I have grown up in church all my life and I have seen and participated in alter calls.  The reality is I have now come to realize that alter calls are not biblical but they are extra-biblical.  When we begin to get clarity on issues like this we begin to understand what we really need keep in front us as the movement of God.  We need to move beyond traditions of extra-biblical things and make sure above all else that we seek biblical ministry.  

There are many other samples I could give and I just gave this one to get us thinking.  Again I am not against alter calls but lets just make sure we understand that there is no scriptures that support having them.  As we seek to keep moving the mission of God forward lets keep asking questions about why we do what we do and move beyond answers like this, "we do this because this is what we have always done."  

Not to sure why but this has been going through my mind lately.  

The City

Hey everyone hope you are having a great day.  I wanted to ask you to pray about something.  I have a BIG burden to have a special night "For the City - In the City."  As many of you know Easter is coming in April and the Friday before Easter is called "Good Friday."  For some crazy reason God has been talking to me lately about doing a special gathering for the city in the city on April 10.

This is what I need you to help me with.  Pray that God will open the right doors for our location for this special gathering.  Pray that I, as well as the Ethos team, will have clarity on exactly what God is asking us to do.  Pray that as we gather that night God will bring healing and restoration to our city.  I would love to tell you more but this is all I have right now.  We have no exact details, but I hope to soon.  Thanks for your prayers and support.

in the city - for the city

Gossip

Today I am reminded that gossip is a SIN.  I'm not sure why so many people feel the need to spread information around to others when it in NO way has anything to do with them.  The fundamental principle of gossip is sharing information about a situation with people who are not the cause of the problem or the solution.

Here is how Peterson describes it in 1 Peter 2:1-3, "So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You've had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God."

So, if you are gossiping grow up and stop!  Stop trying to bring attention to yourself as if you have a clue what is going on.  Stop writing things under false names and shut your mouth to the public. The enemy loves to use people who get off on gossiping as if they are somebody because they have information to share.   

Lord may we seek unity among your body and not fame.  May we STOP sharing stats about how many people come to our blog sites as if that really matters, as if that is really making a difference for your kingdom.  I pray that we will STOP speaking hate about our brothers and seek the bond of peace.  I pray that we will STOP evaluating churches.  As if to say we are doing a better job.  Lord stop this foolishness and bring us back to just loving people and bringing the good news of the "GOSPEL" to the world not our opinion.  

Sunday REwind

• I pulled into the church parking lot today at 7:37 a.m. and I was the only car there
• I then headed to the East Auditorium to get things ready for the service
• The band arrived at 830 and practice started around 900 
• I had to be in the Central Auditorium  at 900 because I was doing the Q-cards and another transitions
• To say the least I was running all over our campus this morning 
• We opened Ethos was a song by The Glorious Unseen called "Burn in me."  I thought Casey did and outstanding job on that song. 
• Bryant Underwood was in town believe it or not and he helped us out in the service 
• During our worship set today we did the new Steve Fee song "Glory to God, Forever" 
• I ended up our series on Habakkuk with looking at Chapter 3
• All I have heard is that people really got a lot out of this series  
• The only thing that was bad with the message today was that I spoke to long lol 
• We tried something new today to assimilate first time guest and Krista Reno said it worked a lot better.  I was very happy to hear that she liked the change. 
• There just seemed to be a lot of energy in the building today 
• At 400 today I had a creative meeting for our next series called "Compelled by love."  Cheryl Koch our creative director, Jonathan Savage, Bryant Underwood, and myself met to think through some ideas starting in March.  It was a great time. 
• Well, that all I can get out tonight.   

The Point

Tonight we having our Leadership gathering called "The Point."  We invite those that already serve at our community or if you would like to start serving to attend the point.  We hangout. laugh, talk about the vision, and talk about why we do what we do.  

As I was preparing for tonight I was reminded of some important things about our community.  We are entering into our third year and here are three things that I have learned leading this community.  

1.  Its all about people.  So, many times we can get caught up with the programs and forget why we do what we do.  

2.  My personal relationship with God matters!  I cant' get so distracted helping others that I forget about my own relationship with God.  

3.  I am more committed than ever to the vision of Ethos.  I feel so blessed to lead this community of amazing people.  I believe with all my heart that the momentum that we are experiencing right now is just the beginning of our amazing future.  

So, I can't wait to be with everyone tonight.  Our theme for tonight is "Bigger than Life."  Well, there is many more things to finalize so thats all I got for now.  

So what did I do today?

• Ok so I got to work this morning and had 1 hour to work before our executive meeting
• I quickly uploaded the small group questions for this week 
• I made some changes to the CC website and then off to my meeting I went 
• We ended up meeting until lunch time.  There is so much coming up and we are still trying to make some big decisions to keep us on track.
• During lunch today my dad and I took our next series called Compelled by Love coming in March and laid out every week in detail of the what we will talk about.  I am going to tell you right now it going to be an amazing series for our community.  If you have been thinking about inviting someone to come with you on Sundays this series will be a great one to bring someone with you. 
• Then I got back to my office and checked emails and returned some phone calls 
• Mande is speaking at Ethos on Feb 22 and I designed her look and feel for her message called "involved."  I can't wait to hear her speak.  She always does an outstanding job. 
• I stopped working today at 6 and then went to Upward practice  

As I worked today I was reminded of how honored I am to work at City Church.  I love the fact that I work with people that have the courage to make BIG changes.  It was my turn yesterday to lead our staff meeting and I asked everyone if they felt that we had momentum in our community right now. Everyone of them said "YES."

The reality is I feel the same way.  My prayer is that we keep moving forward with this momentum. We must keep dreaming about the future and continue to stop leading from imagination.  The best days for our community are ahead of us.  

I want to encourage those of you out there that are in a dip spiritually to keep moving forward.  Don't stop...Don't give-up!  God has big plans for you and you must keep moving forward.  Like we have learned from our current series Habakkuk we are called to live by faith.  Don't let your circumstances keep you from pursuing God.  

-Peace

Sunday REwind

Ok here is how it felt.  I struggled BAD during my message.  I am very sick today and even felt worse on stage.  I was sweating, trying to hold back from coughing non-stop, and could not keep my focus but in the end God still used the whole day to shine His light.

At the end of service a guy came up to me to talk and with tears in his eyes he said,  " today changed his life."  He said he never has felt welcome at church until today.  He said he always felt like they were pointing fingers at him.  I was blown away and reminded again how God works.  What I thought was a bad sermon ended up impacting someone's life instead.  God I am so greatful that you work in spite of how we feel we did.

The music was totally on today.  Ok I might be a little bias but they rock it every week!  We opened up with Lead me to the Cross (Christina J. it was just for you) and then we did Jesus paid it all and Glory in the highest.  I checked today to see if anyone used our family room and there was mom in there feeding her little girl in the highchair.  They loved the fact that they could see the service.  

Our volunteers did a great job today like always.  There just seemed to be a great feeling in the air today.  We are in our second week of small groups and looking forward to anther great week.  Well, there you have it another Sunday REwind