A Burden for Marriages!!

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(This is a long post, but please read it!)

I am burdened for marriages!! This is a burden that has been strongly increasing in the last 1-2 months. My heart is heavier than it has ever been for them. The number of marriages under attack at CCF right now is higher than it has ever been (or at least higher than we have ever been aware of). "I'm in the middle of a divorce" seems to roll off of people's tongues as easy as "I subbed my toe." This breaks my heart and troubles my spirit!

While we were at the Drive Conference 2 weeks ago, we heard a man share about his burden for marriages. He said this:

  • In the 80's every church needed a youth ministry to be a thriving church with a future.
  • In the 90's it become popular that every church needed a thriving children's ministry to be a successful church.

Then, he made this point:

  • We can have the most amazing youth and children's ministry under the sun, but if Mom and Dad are a wreck and the home is falling apart, it will not mount to a hill of beans!
  • This proves the thing we always hear: The church cannot raise and disciple your kids, they can only assist YOU in doing it. Home will matter more than church any day of the week!

Look, let me just put it out there. In just our (small) church, I am currently aware of more than 10 marriages in big trouble. Then there are all the people that would never tell us anything and keep it hidden. Then, add to that all the people that have been impacted by divorces that have already happened! Run all that math, and I am willing to venture to say that way more than half of Capital Christian Fellowship has been stung by the pain of marital attack and divorce. That is an epidemic issue, folks! I am seeing this through some very different lenses these days.

I am not the kind of guy to sit and do nothing. We must act! I'm racking my brain, hitting my knees and asking God what he wants us to do!! Some of the things that I am considering and praying about for us as a community are:

  1. Increase awareness among the body. (this blog post is a step)
  2. More Teaching and Preaching on God's design for healthy marriages.
  3. Perhaps launching a Small Group for people who need marital restoration.
  4. Fasting for marriages!
  5. Intense and devoted prayer for marriages!
  6. Married Life Live event on May 30th at 8pm! (This is AN initiative, not THE answer)
  7. Professional Christian Counseling referrals made available.
  8. Intense marriage healing events suggested.

Some fights are won with one stone (David vs. Goliath). Others require an arsenal. I see this battle as one that "...is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph. 6:12)

I have thrown out some thoughts here and some possible tactics for engaging this. I am really in the middle of seeking the Lord on this!! What are your thoughts? What is in your heart? What may the Lord be saying to you on this? Please join me in this conversation. Leave a comment.

CCF Advertising

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This general CCF advertising piece just came off the press! It meets a lot of needs and requests that have come our direction.

  1. It serves as a generic invitation to CCF!
  2. It invites people to the Large Group/Worship, Small Groups and EntryPoint!
  3. It clearly states all of our contact info.
  4. It tells people about and invites them to EntryPoint...the best next step!
  5. It will be given to every first time guest in their welcome package.
  6. They will be available every Sunday at the Welcome Center.
  7. Put some in your car.
  8. Take some to work.
  9. Give them to your neighbors.
  10. I love that they are NOT for a specific event or driven by a date.
  11. They look professional and represent us well!
  12. The format matches our website homepage!


Full of Questions but Full of Faith

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It has been a few months since I preached a series out of Habakkuk. Learned so much myself from it! After mentioning it to someone the other day in EntryPoint, I decided that I needed to re-read it. Been doing that yesterday and today. This 3-chapter book ends with these verses:

Habakkuk 3:17-19 (The Message)

Though the cherry trees don't blossom
and the strawberries don't ripen,
Though the apples are worm-eaten
and the wheat fields stunted,
Though the sheep pens are sheepless
and the cattle barns empty,
I'm singing joyful praise to God.
I'm turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.
Counting on God's Rule to prevail,
I take heart and gain strength.
I run like a deer.
I feel like I'm king of the mountain!

This is the Prophet's stance after loads of questions and complaints and wanting to hear from the Lord. He resigns himself to the fact that:


Even though everything really stinks right now...I am going after God!

Gotta love this guy!

Yard Sale FOR MISSIONS This Sunday

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Hey, seriously!! I KNOW that you have stuff in your house that you could afford to get rid of. Grab a few bags or boxes and breeze through your house for stuff you could sell or donate. This Sunday, May 17th from 2pm-4pm our Youth Ministry is having a BIG Yard Sale at the church.

You can:

  1. Bring stuff with you to church on Sunday, donate it to you youth and THEY will sell it.
  2. Bring stuff, buy a table for $10.00 and sell your stuff yourself.
  3. Donate some money to the youth missions trip. $10-$20 makes a big difference.
  4. Stay and hang out during the yard sale serving and helping where needed.

Here is the flier for the event. Click on it to enlarge it:
All proceeds will go toward the missions trip that the youth will be doing in Baltimore this summer. Here is more info on the trip. You can read all about it on their website by clicking here! Or you can watch the video below.

Be Faithful and Let God Make it Happen

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Just ended a lunch meeting where I shared with a friend the importance of being faithful. (Note: We often tell others what we need to hearing...so that we hear it when we say it!!) Especially coming off of a conference experience last week, it seems that all the deficiencies in my life and in the church seem to be staring at me with more intensity than they were before I left.

As I sought the Lord this morning, I heard him gently reminding me to stay faithful. I do not need to figure tomorrow out....today has enough mystery of its own!

So, I just looked up the word faithful in a dictionary. It said: "Loyal, constant and steadfast. True to the facts or the original."

I just want to be faithful:

  • Faithful to my time with the Lord and increasing my relationship with Him.
  • Faithful to his word.
  • Faithful to my wife.
  • Faithful to my family.
  • Faithful to my call.
  • Faithful to my ministry at the church.
  • Faithful to the fact, to the original.
  • Loyal.
  • Constant.
  • Steadfast.

I don't know about you, but there are a whole lot more things that I want to see happen before I die. I am not settled in. There is a lot more that I long for in my life and ministry than just maintaining what I have. But, I keep learning that...

  • It is my job to be faithful. It is God's job to bring the increase.
  • It is my place to remain faithful. It is God's place to bring blessing.
  • It is my call to be faithful. It is God's plan to grant me the desires of my heart.
  • It is my responsibility to be faithful. It is God's greatest joy to glorify himself in me.

I feel that someone (in addition to me) needs to hear this today. Maybe you are struggling. Maybe you are reaching. Maybe you are trying to make it happen. Be faithful! Let God make it happen.

Can you connect? Can you relate? What is being faithful going to look like for you?

My 2 Mother's Day Highlights

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I am not a Mom, but I have 2 Moms in my life that rock my world! I want to share something about each of them this Mother's Day.

  1. Tricia is my wife and the wonderful mother of our son Davis! This morning, she preached the Mother's Day message with me at church!! Yes, you read that right. We team taught a message called "Hats Off" out of Proverbs 31. Hats off for the job well done. And hats off..and on and off and on...it is the story of every Mom that is breathing. You wear many hats with care and dedication and we thank you! Happy Mother's Day, Tricia! You did a fantastic Job today and you looked amazingly hot!!!
  2. Second. many of you know that I am a list person. Well, ever since the first time I ever preached as a teenager, I began keeping record of when, what and where I preached. To date, I have a log of every message I have ever preached. It is now almost 10 pages long. This morning, I preached my 200th sermon. My mother, Pam Kaye is the other special mother in my life...this mother gave me life. She has been a HUGE encourager in my call to ministry. As a result, I dedicated this mornings sermon to her (#200). Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you ladies...the ones that wear any of the hats that we illustrated this morning (all of which are descriptors of the Proverbs 31 woman):

  1. The Wife Hat
  2. The Mom Hat
  3. The Hard-Worker Hat
  4. The Selfless Hat
  5. The God-Fearing Hat

Naylin and Anthony, A Sad Goodbye

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Many of you know that my Sister, Selah and my Brother-in-law, Randy live with us. For the last year, they have been preparing to foster with hopes of adopting.

Well, on April 2nd, we welcomed 2 beautiful kids into our lives. Click HERE to read the post from the day that they arrived!!

Today, we say goodbye! The mother has been approved to regain possession of Naylin and Anthony and the Hunts will be taking them to her this morning at 9:30am.

Last night was hard. Really hard. Harder then any of us thought. You can get really attached to a child in 5 weeks. Last night, Selah and Randy asked me, Tricia, Mom and Dad to have a prayer of release over the kids. Each of us lit a candle for a different purpose. We all wept as we placed the future of these two babies in the hands of a God who loves them with the deepest passion.

  • We thanked God for the seeds of love that were planted in the kids.
  • We thanked God for the seeds that were planted in Selah and Randy's marriage through this.
  • We prayed for their Mom, Sandy. We prayed that salvation would be near!
  • We affirmed Selah and Randy for a job very well done!
  • We dedicated their destiny to the Lord!

If you know Selah, Randy, Naylin and Anthony, I ask your prayer for them. Pray especially for Selah this Mother's Day weekend.

--Noah

What a blast!

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I love people! One of the greatest highlights of the Drive Conference was the people I got to go with! Here we are at a gas station in VA at like 11pm last night. We laughed so much. We processed so much. What a great trip!

(Photoshop me, my Mom and my Sister, Selah in...and you have the whole group. They flew home.)

Main takeaways:

  1. Our vision is not final. We have come a long way. It has made a big difference. But, it needs honed in a tad more. We will get there.
  2. We need to all dream ourselves into our ideal role and place in ministry! If we do not dream it and picture it, we will never see it. (more later)
  3. CCF is unique!! We need to stay way more focused on our potential than our success! What dent are we going to put in the universe? The next 10-20 years are going to be off the chain!

Pumped for what God is going to do next,
--Noah

Increase

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Every time I attend conferences, I see the possibilities. I sit and wish that one day we could do _____________. I drool. I struggle with feelings of inadequacy. I wonder why we are not __________?

I want nothing more than to lead a church that is making a massive impact on the Kingdom of God! There is so, so, so much that I dream of that we are not doing yet. But I think that creates a healthy tension. OK, so, I've done better this conference. I have been more at peace. I feel like the Lord has been showing me these things:

We plant, we water, GOD brings the increase.

Our attention needs to be on increasing our faithfulness to Jesus and His church.

Our efforts need to be directed at walking in increased character.

Our seeking needs to be after an increased anointing.

God will bring the increased vision, increased numbers, increased offerings, increased influence, increased impact...IN HIS TIMING!!

We ARE in the day we are supposed to be in. We are not SUPPOSED to be any other church. We are having our own unique story written.

I don't want to compare or compete. I want to say thanks to God for the call on my life and his move in his church!

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33

Uncertainty?

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  • Uncertainty is one thing that is always promised. And Christians should thrive in uncertainty. It is our story. It is the story of scripture.
  • God shapes us in uncertainty! Ask someone to tell you the place that they grew the most. It will not be when things were peachy and certain!
  • The higher you get in an organization, the more uncertain things get!
  • If everything was certain all the time, we would not need leaders. We would just need people to manage the certainty. Uncertainty IS the job description of leaders. Leaders are willing to step out in the middle of the uncertainty and make a move!
  • Leaders can afford to be uncertain, but they cannot afford to be unclear!

In times of uncertainty, leaders must be:

  1. Clear...about your vision...that does not change!
  2. Flexible...with your plans...they do!

Application: I cannot tell you how many times people look at me for answers that I do not have. Sometimes, I JUST DO NOT KNOW!! You may think I do. You may think that I am supposed to. I just don't have all the answers. God did not call me to know everything he called me to lead. Here is what I know:

I know that God called me! And I know that we are to love God, love people and live as Disciples!

If we keep our eyes on the vision, we will make it through any uncertainty we face.

--Noah

Hello from Atlanta

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Just checking in. No deep thought today, just a little hello to my faithful blog friends. A few thoughts...

  • After we left church yesterday, we drove to "Drive". This week, 8 CCF leaders are attending the Drive Conference at North Point Community Church.
  • Myself, Pastor Nelson and Pastor Mike attended last year and when it was over I said..."I WILL be back next year with a group of people!" It was far and away the best church conference I had ever attended. We are here! God is good.

Attending the conference with me are:

  1. Caleb Kaye (Director of Worship)
  2. Pastor TC (Youth Pastor)
  3. Carrol Grizzle (Head Usher and Treasurer)
  4. Pam Kaye (Women's Ministry Leader and EntryPoint Coach)
  5. Selah Hunt (Head of Greeters and Worship Vocalist) flew down yesterday.
  6. Carol Roberts (Small Group Leader and Support Groups Leader)
  7. Jaye Lindo (Director of Operations)
  8. Me

Over Lunch today, we took some time to go around and state what 2 things that we were most looking to get out of this experience. Loved hearing the answers. My main one was this: Watching what God is about to do in the 7 leaders with me!!! I have been to these conferences. Most of our team has not and they are about to have a whole lot of lights turn on for them! I CANNOT WAIT to see this happen. I am telling you right now, these next few days are going to be an anointed time of growth in this group.

More later...

I will be tweeting throughout the conference and may blog some of it if I can.

Ted Hagard Interview

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I know that there are an increasing amount of Pastors that read my blog. I need to make a recommendation....

Watch the Ted and Gayle Haggard interview that Pastor Steven Furtick did at Elevation Church this past Sunday. Powerful! Inspiring! It was evident to me that the Lord has really done a work of renewal in their lives and marriage! Tricia and I found it especially powerful to watch it together as a couple and then pray that the Lord would protect us from the schemes of the enemy for all of our days!

(You do not need to be a Pastor to watch it. All of you should take the time to see it. But, especially those in full time ministry. You will need to set aside 40 minutes to do it.)

Click here to connect to it!

Depression? Anxiety? Emotionally Low?

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This Sunday we continue in our Staying Connected Message series.

Title: "Staying Connected When I am Feeling Low"

We are going to look at Elijah and Paul. Two examples of guys that knew a thing or two about depression, anxiety and feeling low.

In I Kings 19, Elijah goes through some full blown depression stages. This Sunday, we will examine this and see how God handled it.

What is the best response to depression?

How does God treat it?

What role should medicine play?

How do we balance practical tools and spiritual power?

See you Sunday! Hope that we learn a few things together from scripture!!

Bless you!

CCF Information Technology!

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I am increasingly convinced that God has already sent us many of the people that we need to do what we need to do as a church. They are here. We just have not found some of them yet.

For example...I KNOW that there are some CCF members and partners are out there that work in the Information Technology field. Are you one? Do you know one? If so, reveal yourself or rat someone else out. Please come out of the wood work.

We are looking for some people that will join Perry Lynch on our IT Team really soon! Are you out there? You will be assisting by responding to trouble tickets from the staff along with a team of other IT folk!

Email me at noahkaye@capitalchristian.org or leave a comment here and let us know! Come on, you can do it. If it is not you, snitch on someone else that you know is an IT guy or gal!

Two Debuts this Sunday

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There are going to be two things making their debuts at CCF this Sunday:

New Service Endings:
After years (literally) or not really being satisfied with how we close our services at CCF, we have finally landed on a plan that is consistent with our vision and that I am very, very excited about. At the close of every Sunday service, the church will be invited to respond in one of 3 ways:

  1. Love God! Stay in the Worship Center, at the altar or at your seat. Pray alone or with a prayer partner. Connect to God, love on Him and experience his love. The Worship Space will be dedicated to loving God at the close of each service!
  2. Love People! The lobby, the halls, the parking lot, local restaurants and your homes are great settings to love each other and build relationships. We will ask that those wishing to connect in relationship will head out of the Worship Center and go for it! It is our vision and it is sacred! Love on each other, church!
  3. Live as Disciples! Discipleship is about following after Jesus and taking steps of growth in Him. Each Sunday we will encourage those people wanting to take the next step in their relationship with God and CCF to head out to the lobby and connect with our EntryPoint coaches at the EntryPoint Lounge.

Which naturally leads me to tell you about the second thing that will be debuted this Sunday...

New EnrtyPoint Lounge:
When you come into the building this Sunday, you will see an attractive EntryPoint Lounge in the opposite corner than the Welcome Center. There will be couches, lamps, and a comfy place to hang out along a BIG EntryPoint Banner. You will not miss it. Coaches will be there to assist people after every service.

It is thrilling to watch the way that our vision is positively impacting everything that we do!! See you Sunday!

--Pastor Noah