6 things for pastors and ministry workers to keep in mind...

From R. Albert Mohler Jr.'s He Is Not Silent...


1) "The preacher must stand up and speak with confidence, declaring the Word of God to a congregation many of them delivered with a sound track or moving images. The audacious claim of Christian preaching is that the faithful declaration of the Word of God, spoken through the preacher's voice, is even more powerful than anything music or image can deliver." - R. Albert Mohler Jr.

2) "The clear presentation of the gospel must be a part of the sermon, no matter the text." - R. Albert Mohler Jr.

3) "One can only conclude that God's professed children are bored with Him, for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games and refreshments." - A. W. Tozer

4) "Do those who come to our service of worship come face-to-face with the reality of God? Or do they go away with a vision of some lesser God, some dehydrated deity?" - R. Albert Mohler Jr.

5) "This is the age of the sermonette, and sermonettes make Christianettes." - Michael Green

6) "If we as pastors are truly serious about giving our people a true vision of God, showing them their own sinfulness, proclaiming to them the gospel of Jesus Christ, and encouraging them to obedient service in response to that gospel, then we will devote our lives to preaching the Word." - R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Coming this summer...

UNIGHT: Summer Evenings in the Park will be hitting Clarksville parks this summer every Saturday evening from 6-8pm beginning July 11 and ending August 29. We'll have free burgers and hot dogs, activities for the kiddos, fellowship, and just a good old time. We'll wrap up each evening with a short devotion from the Bible. We'll be sharing the Gospel with those who come and inviting people to join us as we begin Awaken Church.

One of our first things when we get to Clarksville July 1 will be to nail down locations for UNIGHT (in addition to looking for a place to rent for our first church service in September). If any of you Clarksvillans have any suggestions, let me know! Stay tuned here and to our Facebook page for more info coming soon!

Lots of hurting people

Everywhere we go, there are hurting people. From Albuquerque to Africa, from California to Clarksville. This news story is just one example of the hurting people that are everywhere. I praise God for the churches that are already in Clarksville reaching out to people who need the good news of Jesus and I look forward to serving alongside those churches. For Campbell, the military base talked about in the following story is just a couple miles away from Clarksville. Here's the rest of the news story...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. —
A Fort Campbell commander says the installation has the highest number of suicides among soldiers in the Army.
The post began a 3-day stand down Wednesday to refocus efforts on suicide prevention in the wake of 11 confirmed suicides this year. More deaths are being investigated.
Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend said from January to March, the installation was averaging one suicide per week.
The post on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line took part in an Army-wide prevention campaign in March, but commanders at Fort Campbell felt additional training was needed.
Townsend will speak to every single soldier, emphasizing the need to look after their battle buddies and speak up about concerns.

I wonder how differently this news story may read if these people were awakened to the relevance of God's Word!

Are You Awake?

In just about 1 month, the city of Clarksville will begin to see business cards with the question "Are You Awake?" all over the place. It's the beginning of our summer outreach that we'll be kicking off Saturday, July 11 in parks across the city. For 8 straight Saturdays from July 11-August 29, we'll be grilling up some food, hanging out, and sharing the Gospel with people who show up. Everywhere we go, we'll be leaving these cards (not all will look this creepy, but they will be eye-catching) that simply ask the question "Are You Awake?" and refer people to awakenchurch.org.
With the goal of the church to focus on awakening people to the relevance of God's Word, our hope is to point out their need for it and stir up a hunger in the city. As each week of outreaches goes by, we hope to develop a core group of people who will begin to reach out to the city with us and eventually become the congregation for Awaken Church. Pray for the outreaches and pray for us as we do our best to do something we've never done!

Stay tuned here for more details. You can also follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/awakenchurch or by texting follow awakenchurch to 40404. Enjoy!

On your marks, get set, GROW!

This weekend, Skip is teaching on the first half of a very famous
verse- Acts 2:42. He's talking about the purpose of the church and
about growing through systematic Bible study and application of God's
Word. Each Saturday night after service, he has a call-in radio show
from 8-9pm where he discusses the message a little further. Since I'm
leaving in a month, and have GROWN at Calvary and now am GOING from
Calvary, they asked me to come on the show and talk about what I'm
doing. It was a lot of fun! Of course whenever someone said I'm moving
to Clarksville, Skip had to interject that I'm taking the last train
to Clarksville (as the old Monkees song says). I shared about the
process I went through in being trained in ministry, and the years of
prayer that went in to this move. It was great being able to share and
really exciting to continue to think ahead about what God will do with
us! We pull into town exactly one month from today- June 17th!

Consumed

Psalm 119:20 - My soul is consumed with longing for Your laws at all
times.

Today is the National Day of Prayer and I was just reflecting on how
easy it is to take prayer and God's Word for granted. We have one day
set aside each year to pray together as a nation, but I had to
consider today what my daily life looks like. Can I say, like the
Psalmist, that I am consumed by longing for God's Word?How powerful
our lives could be if that were the case!

-Kevin

Sent from my iPhone

Along For the Ride - Luke 5:1-11

I got to teach at Renovate for one of the last times last Thursday. It was fun as always. I shared what God has been speaking to me about stepping out in faith. It's a lesson that I'm currently learning and certainly NOT one that I've already learned. If you'd like the hear the message from Renovate, head to the messages page at renovateabq.org. I love that God has chosen us to begin this new work inn Clarksville. I can't wait to see what happens!

140 days till Awaken's first church service! Go to awakenchurch.org to follow the countdown. Get the word out about the church by putting an Awaken banner on your blog, profile, or website by going to the banners page at awakenchurch.org. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook and Twitter.