April showers bring...more hours to read the Bible?

It's Thursday, and raining once again here in White House. What that means for my family, and likely yours, is another cancellation of games for spring sports, the single most popular event in Sumner County for many years. The spring sports programs here are diverse and populated, and rain just destroys the schedule.

So chances are, you're all bummed out. For parents, this might be a time to adjust the schedule and catch up on housework and homework before Friday. Perhaps you get the kids in bed early for a change. So I want to issue a challenge. Take a few moments tonight to open your Bible.

When the schedule gets squeezed, so does our time with the Lord. Take your kids - or if you are just a empty nest couple or an individual - and open Matthew 5 through Matthew 7. It's the three chapters showing the Sermon on the Mount.

The Bible says "blessed are those which hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled" in Matthew 5:6. This Sunday, we begin a series called "The Hunger Games" which gets in depth with the Beatitudes (the Blessed Are's) and the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to get down to earth about the simple teachings of Christ.

A Bible reading church is a world-changing church. Did you feel the energy in church Sunday for Easter? In my opinion, it wasn't because we put on a good show for the holiday. It was because people spent time last week reading the Word and when we showed up for church, the Holy Spirit was already moving in our lives before we got to the building.

Let's do it again. Read hungry, and be filled.

And let it rain. Until tomorrow. I would prefer some sunshine then.

I love you, and these are my thoughts.

Pastor K

Oh, and for good measure, here's a little fitting worship from Michael W. Smith.

The most important blog I've ever written

It's Wednesday, matter of fact the Wednesday after Easter. You feel attacked because you have emerged from a spiritual high this weekend and the enemy is doing everything in his power to bring you back to earth. After all, earth is Satan's domain. He can't touch the high places so he just strives to keep you out of them.

So let's keep this short.

1. God loves you.
2. God understands your frustration.
3. God hears your prayers.
4. God's timing is different than yours.
5. God is faithful.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. This is the most important blog I've ever written.

Because I'm the one that needed to hear it as much as you did. So share it, say it and pray it.

I love you, and these are my thoughts.

Pastor K

Easter recap at Revolution...

WOW!!!!

What a great weekend at Revolution. I want to take a moment to say thank you to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that each of you got the opportunity to celebrate the resurrection together. It was amazing.

Here are some fantastic highlights of Easter weekend at Revolution:

- Three people gave their lives to Christ. One person signed up for baptism. Seventeen people made re-commitments to Christ through their prayers, starting by hammering a physical nail into the cross and letting their past go. Thanks to Drew for the cross and to Glinda for the prayer shroud for the cross.

- Worship was amazing. If you appreciate the quality and excellence in our worship and tech team, please let them know. Justin Goff and his team are not on stage for glory, we just want to be sure Christ receives his. But there is no harm in saying thank you when it is a job well done. We are SO blessed with talent and gifts in our worship and many of those people are running switches and buttons behind the scenes and never get any visual recognition for it. Those people are Pastor Joe, Steve, Layton, Tracee, Sonya, David, Matt, Stephen, Tim, Amy, Michael, just to name a few and I am sure to have left someone out.

- You did AWESOME on the #sevendays scriptures. No one said you have to stop! A countdown video was made with screenshots and we will put it online this week.

- I wore a tie. Don't get used to it. ;)

- RevKids - gosh, that was fun. You all did such a great job but you brought the fun right into the Easter service. Thank you so much to our volunteers. The inside egg hunt? Yeah, that was insane. We had more eggs than square feet in the building which is a little crazy.

- We received our largest in-service offering of the year, and we able to give ten percent back into a church that helped us launch. A check was sent today to Pastor Brent Johnson and Calvary General Baptist Church in Adairville, KY. They started in a funeral home in the 1990s and recently completed a building addition on their property. A church of less than 100 people invested over $3,000.00 in Revolution and we are blessed to be able to give back.

- Our attendance was fantastic. Honestly, the number is very important, but not if that means bragging about it. If you'd like to know our attendance numbers, I will be happy to share it privately as we report to our denomination. But I will say that combined, this weekend was the third largest attendance in the history of our church. The largest ever was Easter 2011 at the elementary school and we were very close this time. Please don't let that be our focus, but it's important for you to know that we value you sharing the message of Christ with your friends. YES! We want you to fill it up and two services continues next week at 9:00 and 10:45 a.m. And guess what...the people who attend next week are JUST AS IMPORTANT as the ones who attend on Easter. We value EVERY DAY, EVERY PERSON.

There's a reason that attendance number isn't important to be broadcasted. First, scripturally, I have no doubts God is not really that interested in churches and pastors competing about numbers. But for all the blessing we might have received numerically, there is a struggling pastor who worked HARDER than we did this weekend and maybe this season wasn't the harvest for his congregation in the number of attendance. But that ministry has value, just like the church of 20 people down the road and the thousands who gathered at the mega church in Hendersonville. IT ALL MATTERS. Everybody matters. And I am so thankful you chose to worship with us and pray you will continue to be a part of a church family. Celebrate, don't compete!

- I love my wife. She didn't feel well this weekend and she worked hard. I appreciate her so much. Don't forget the best way to bless me, is bless her.

- Saturday night, we stayed late after the egg hunt to clean up and get prepared for Sunday. A dance party erupted in the youth center. Sweaty kids and adults were laughing, playing, and even though I spent part of the time listening from a computer desk, it was so nice to have some fun. Leaders - don't forget to play, it's important. Love the people and spend time with them.

- We served over 325 items at the hospitality area. For free. We don't charge, we don't sell, hospitality is our gift. You made a difference. The retail purchase price of what we served this weekend was almost $1,000.00 we were able to do it for free. Church, you did a GREAT job of helping us keep cleaned up for each service.

- Greeters were awesome. I love seeing the yellow vests in the parking lot and cars waving as they go by. Do you know what kind of impression that makes for complete strangers who pass our church? You guys for two straight weeks have done it in the rain. That's commitment.

One note: When turning into the parking lot, do not drive head first into another vehicle. Almost, while waving. Ahem. Chris Alsup. I'm talking to you.

- Tim and Amy make that facility pretty. Thank you team for stepping up to clean and organize even when time is short.

- Next week we start the Hunger Games. Read your Bible from Matthew 5 to Matthew 7 and study the Beatitudes (the Blessed Are's from Matthew 5).

A Bible-reading church is a world-changing church!

P.S. Within the next two weeks, we are praying to unveil plans for a building remodel concerning kids and youth to free up more space and put a huge facelift on our kids area. Can you pray with us for God's perfect direction as we seek him?

I love you all. You are the greatest church. Just keep bringing your friends and family, and we are going to develop leaders and disciple people as we change the world.

Get some rest and no slacking next Sunday!

Pastor Kris

P.S. Clay Harris looked pretty in his Easter dress. Just seeing if you were still reading.