Archive for September, 2007
September 25, 2007 at 12:34 am · Filed under DC
Well that was the message this weekend as we covered part two of our View Master Series. This week I shared a message entitled: Shedding Light on God’s View of His Church. In this message I covered some classic myths about church including that church is: boring, exclusive, fake, and weak.
Instead of church being all of those things we discovered that God views church for us to be:
1. Enjoyable (Arent you glad?)
2. Accepting (Just Like Jesus…)
3. Real (Authentic Relationships are Sooo Good!)
4. Powerful (My Personal Favorite!)
If you did get a chance to be with us in church this Sunday, you can always check out the message on our podcast…
I hope you all are having a great week so far…
Pray for Taryn and I as we will be traveling tomorrow (without Isaac, sad).
We love you guys and we’ll see you at church!
Go God!
David
September 25, 2007 at 12:21 am · Filed under David
Our Daily Bread
Have you seen this show on TV called: My Life After Winning the Lottery. In this show there are many different lottery winners that show how much better their lives have gotten since they won the lottery. As my intrigue led me to watch yet another episode, I started to sense a common pattern. Once the individual or family or group of people “won the lottery†they all stopped. That is right they stopped… working, going to school, parenting, being married, or really doing anything accept buying “stuff†(Which in most cases became the equivalent of a full time job.) Their lives that they had worked so hard for just stopped and their new lives were carefree, stuff filled, and quite frankly had gotten boring.
OK if you are honest with yourself, you would have to admit that there has probably been some point in time where you wished that you had won the lottery… (Come on now?)
Personal Confession: (I know I have!) And as a bi-vocational pastor, there are still days where I would probably love to give it a try as a lottery winner (Maybe even on the show?)
Personal Conviction: But is this taking some of my personal independence just a little too far away from healthy (and necessary) dependence upon God. After all Jesus said, “I will supply all of your needs according to my riches in heaven.â€
It seems as though the area of finances, is simply another area where God wants us (me too!) to have a deeper relationship with Him. If we had it all by winning the lottery, we would not need Him, nor His help in this area of our lives. Thus, we give out of obedience and we trust out of relationship that His Word is true, AND that He will supply for all of our needs. School, House, Car, Bills, etc…, even our daily bread…
It also seems as though a lottery win may not be the best thing for our Most Prize Possession – Our relationship with Our Father.
Matthew 6:9-12 “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.â€
September 18, 2007 at 4:41 pm · Filed under DC
Thank God for another great weekend at DC Metro Church!
The Leadership Team at DC Metro Church (a.k.a. Dream Team - The Team that is pursuing God’s Dream for His Church) was in full effect this weekend as all of the different teams did an incredible job and we saw many new visitors!
We had a wonderful time with our two Sunday Morning Services and the start of our new series: View Master - Shedding “Light” on God’s View of… Himself, His Church, His Son, and His Home.
The way the idea has evolved is from a toy that we have all played with in our younger years (OK, Some of us still play with it!)called (you guessed it) the View Master. The premise is this: The ViewMaster shows a clearer view of the images inside - the more light you shine in through the lenses. This is very similar to our lives, the more “light” (truth) that we shine on our own views (The sometimes wrong view! Come on somebody), the more clearer God’s View (View Master’s View - also the right view!) becomes to each one of us.
As the bible states in Psalms 119:105 “Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a “light” unto my path.” When we look at our lives through the light of God’s Word we see the truth from the Master’s Point of View. Afterall, He is the View Master…
Be Encouraged & Have a Great Week!
David
PS - You can check out: Viewmaster Part 1 at the DC Metro Church Podcast to the right!
September 11, 2007 at 12:28 pm · Filed under DC
Upon a successful launch of a space shuttle from the NASA Space Station Central Command Center you will hear a common phrase. In our case at DC Metro Church, this weekend, it went something like this: “DC We Have Lift Off!!!”
Yes that is right, we had a Very Successful Launch! Although it felt as though we were launching a space shuttle into outer space, it is very fair to say that God used the DC Metro Church “Dream Team” to “Launch” a new (and Exciting) church into the DC Metro Area this past weekend…
I am so proud of our “Dream Team” (The DC Metro Leadership Team) as they are “the team that is pursuing God’s Dream for the DC metropolitan area.”
The Scary Stuff: I was informed Saturday afternoon (right before launch Saunday) that our mailer (Sent to 50,000 homes throughout the area) only had reached around 1/3rd of the homes by the weekend. With that said, I was freaking out a little bit (ok alot!) the night before as I was not sure if anyone was going to come, when I caught myself… I went back to Jesus and let Him know of my concern and He let me know (Again - Don’t you appeciate the transparency) that it was not about a mailer, a radio ad, or people inviting their friends, but instead it was all about HIM building His Church, not me (Little “me”). After our quick talk I was back on the faith trip again knowing that it was going to Launch and it was going to be ALL God!
The Fun Stuff: God sent around 250 people to our first Sunday Services! Praise God as He has never let me down as His word clearly says “I will never leave you or forsake you.” He is with us!
The Big Win! We had 13 wonderful people give their lives to Jesus Christ this weekend! Thank God as this makes all the hard work totally worth while and is really the only important number that we record! Thank You God!
I also want to thank everyone who has been praying for us all this time as we have had the faith journey of a lifetime! We thank God daily for all of the people who are praying for us all over the world. Your prayers have availed very much! James 5:16
Don’t stop praying for us (Second Sunday this weekend & our Intro - New Member Orientation)
We love you all,
Pastors David and Taryn
PS- In the photo above is some of our Friends, Family, and Incredible Dream Team Members outside the theater after services…
September 4, 2007 at 1:22 pm · Filed under Taryn
We had a BIG Birthday to celebrate this week in the Stine Home…
Taryn aka - “My Punkin” turned the BIG Three-Zero on Monday! We thought about having a party and doing it up BIG, but instead we decided to just go out to dinner on a romantic (aren’t you scared now!) date in order to have GREAT conversation with each other…
We ended up having a wonderful night on the town and some “Great Conversation” (Parents, are you feeling me now?) Our topic of discussion was the highlight of the evening as I asked her to share her “Top 10 Greatest Experiences (Of the last thirty years of her life (OK her whole life)).” Let me just say, It was quite a “Greatest” list!
It was so nice to see how God had blessed my wife over the years (Did I mention?, 30, to be exact!) and to hear how incredible the “Top 10 Greatest Experiences” were.
Since then I have been thinking of my own top ten greatest experiences in life, and they are pretty significant as well. In fact, I feel rather encouraged everytime I think of them because it reminds me just how much God has blessed me!
I wonder, what are your top ten?
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers (Sistas too), whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatevesr is pure, whateveris lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things!”
Enjoy writing your own “Top Ten Greatest Experiences of Your Life”
Bless You,
Pastor David
PS - Happy Birthday My Punkin, This is just the beginning of your top ten list!!! (Thanks for letting me be on your list.)
PSS - Three of my greatest expereinces are in the photo above (Meeting Taryn, Being Isaac’s Dad, and Having New Baby Boy too…) More Greatest Experiences to come soon…
September 4, 2007 at 12:57 pm · Filed under DC
We had another great practice weekend with our Launch Team! What a team they are…
We are all getting very excited about the Official Launch This Weekend! I can not believe that it is almost upon us…
Pray for our mailer and our Radio Ads that we are doing this week on Christian and Secular Radio Stations…
We are still believing God for 400 people this Sunday!
Thank You all so much for standing with us in prayer,
David & Taryn (Isaac and Team as well…)
PS - What do you think of our first mailer??? Go God!
