My Church-Planting Heritage

This is 1935 footage of my Great, Great, Grandfather - Hampton House Stratton. He was born in Obion County Tennessee on June 24, 1843. Hampton fought in the Civil War - originally for the south, but after being captured by the Union Army he agreed to fight for the North. After the war ended he became a Christ-follower and eventually was called into ministry. He planted over sixty churches in his life time. His brother, Uriah planted forty churches and the two of them, along with Uriah's Father-in-law established the General Baptist Organization in Missouri. On September 18, 1937 - After preaching a sermon about Heaven in the first church he had planted in Ellsinore, Missouri - Hampton House Stratton collapsed dead in the pulpit. They literally had to pry his hands from the podium.

I've just recently learned about Hampton. My father never mentioned him - I don't think he ever knew anything about him. It's so interesting that I would learn of this heritage after recently feeling God call me to begin planting churches across the country. This is no coincidence - This is confirmation! I can't let that old man plant more churches than me! We've got to get busy! I pray one day they'll have to pry my hands from a pulpit as well!

The Story of Toys

The people at Pixar can do no wrong! They keep cranking out some of the absolute best entertainment in the motion picture industry today. The incredible thing is it's all clean, family-friendly fare. Each offering they've given us over the past twenty years has been solid! Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc., The Incredibles - even the short films they produce are better than most of the stuff coming out of Hollywood! And then there's the staple: The Toy Story Trilogy!

I watched the third installment last night and I was just blown away! Once again - a great story line, remarkable animation, hilarious dialog, the pulling of the heart strings - It was all there! What a classy way to say goodbye to these characters we've fallen in love with through the course of the three films! It is arguably the greatest film trilogy of all time. I know there will be those who will point to The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars movies, but no other film trilogy has been as consistently good and has had the ability to have each film potentially stand on it's own merit more than Toy Story.

At the end of the day, the charm of the Toy Story franchise is it's familiarity - It's our story. Any one who ever had a toy box as a kid can relate to the nostalgia that Pixar invokes with these wonderful films. Thanks Pixar for giving us the story of these unforgettable toys that have helped us remember what our own childhood was like!

A visit with legacy

I had an incredible visit this weekend with my Uncle Vernon and Aunt Carolyn Ables and their son Greg. Last year, not long after Father's Day, God gave me an idea for this year's June message series: A series called Legacy that would include my Father's Day message. The whole idea revolved around bringing my uncle and cousin in to present our church with an example of Spiritual Legacy. You see, both my Uncle and my cousin are pastors. My Uncle Vernon pastors a great church in Searcy, Arkansas outside of Little Rock and my cousin Greg pastors a wonderful church in the greater Tulsa area in Oklahoma. Most of you know my dad was a pastor and I followed in his footsteps, just like Greg followed in his father's footsteps. My dad and my Uncle Vernon have another brother, my Uncle Tracy who is a pastor as well and he has sons who have followed him into ministry! 

So many people in our church are first generation Christ followers. Meaning, their parents and grandparents didn't serve Christ - They are the first in their families to make that decision. I wanted to provide them with an example of multi-generational Christianity so they will have the faith to believe God to help them begin their own legacy of faith! 

What a great weekend it was! Greg and Uncle Vernon preached an incredible message and Greg even surprised me with an old film strip of our Great, Great Grandfather from 1935 who was a pastor and church planter. (I'll post more about him in a blog entry soon including the afore mentioned film strip!) Both my uncle and my cousin commented this weekend on the impact my dad had on their lives and I realized that all of us have been effected by the legacy my dad left behind. Along with the joy of having my family in services with us this weekend, we also had some awesome time to hang out with them along with my sister Holane and her family, laughing and talking about all the great times gone by. Today was the first Father's Day Greg was able to spend with his dad since 1994! I'm glad we were able to arrange that! It was a great opportunity to visit with legacy! 

Camp Courageous 2010

For over ten years, our church has been offering a summer day camp for kids ages 5-12 called Camp Courageous. Our Children's Pastors Marty and Anna Hoey do a fantastic job hosting the camp with the help of dozens of volunteers. This summer, over 400 kids are enjoying the camp. This year's theme is "Toys!" Along with awesome chapel services every morning the kids get to go swimming, bowling, ice skating, to the movies (this year they're seeing Toy Story 3 - Do you see the theme reflected here?) and on Friday they get to enjoy a lot filled with fun jumps to play on!

My kids always enjoyed attending the camp when they were younger and for the last several years they have volunteered as junior leaders. All the camp staff and volunteers really go all out to promote team spirit and unity and hopefully this pic shows how enthusiastic my guys are about their team assignments. (Maybe you can tell Chase is on the Blue team!)

At Crossroads Church we believe in leading our kids into a personal relationship with God at the earliest age of accountability. Camp Courageous is just one of the ways God is using our church to impact kids for Christ in a powerful way! Thanks to all who make our ministry to children possible!

Greatest of all time?

            Michael Jordan                                                                                                        Kobe Bryant

Not even close - MJ is the greatest of all time! 

This ain't milk - go ahead and cry!

What a disaster! I am so torn over this whole situation. On the one hand I hate what this is doing environmentally. The effects it could have on our marsh, wildlife and seafood industry are staggering. I understand the argument that regulations have pushed drilling further and further offshore, but someone should have had a contingency plan for this! There are those who say the spill won't have a long lasting effect on the environment, that many are making a bigger deal out of it than it really is for the sake of their agendas. I hope they're right! 

The thing that bugs me so bad is our President placing a 6-month moratorium on drilling. Like that's going to help the situation! Talk about pouring salt into the wound! He has taken a tragedy and made it much worse. How many plane crashes have their been through the years, but they don't shut down the airline industry! The green agenda may be a noble cause, but right now the world needs crude oil and Louisiana needs jobs!

Please consider signing the petition found here:  

http://www.crt.state.la.us/GEST/petition.aspx

I think the best quote I've heard so far about this situation came from my friend Jimmy Malone. He said, "Let's put a 6-moth moratorium on the Federal Government!" I'm with you Jimmy!

Stone the Fornicating Teacher?

Faith in the public arena can be a difficult balance sometimes. A perfect example of this is the case reported in Florida today where a teacher who has been fired from a private Christian School is suing the school for discrimination. According to the article, Jarretta Hamilton went in and asked for maternity leave and the director of the school suggested they really couldn’t afford it. Later in the conversation, the director asked Hamilton, who has only been married for a matter of months, if she had conceived before getting married. When she admitted that she had, she was terminated for moral reasons (fornication).


Okay – wow! I believe as the head of a Christian organization, I have a right to hold my employees to a moral standard, but this is really a horrible mistake by this school! Yes it was immoral for the woman to have sex before marriage, but the couple got married and they’ve had the baby, so doesn't it seem pharisaical of the school to conveniently file moral charges against someone they obviously didn’t want to have to pay maternity leave to? This is the kind of thing that so often gives Christianity a bad name.


On the one hand, I hate the state is getting involved in a case like this because there are times when a Christian organization needs to act to protect the moral standards it’s trying to uphold but on the other hand this is not one of those cases and this should have never happened! If Jesus were down there is Florida I think he would have probably asked those school officials which one of them is sinless enough to cast the first stone! 

A Nostalgic Trip To The Grocery

When I was a boy, I spent many a Saturday morning accompanying my mom to the grocery store. I'm pretty sure it was called Hogans and it was on Cypress Street, in West Monroe. Mom would do her shopping and I would stand at the comic book rack and read about Kid Colt and The Rawhide Kid. If I had been a good boy, which wasn't often, I would get to bring a couple of them home. If I remember correctly, they cost 25 cents. I don't have any of those old comic books I collected in the early 70's - I sure wish I did!

What I remember best about those trips to the grocery store were the western comics, the orange sherbet push ups and the chocolate soldier cold drinks. I don't know where all the nostalgia is coming from this morning, but it might have to do with the fact that I'm starting a series called "Legacy" this weekend or the fact that Toy Story 3 comes out next weekend just in time for Father's Day. Regardless, I cranked up the search engine, found these pics and enjoyed a nostalgic trip to the grocery! 

Spear-throwing Narcissism

I was reminded today just how dangerous it is to become self-absorbed, especially as a leader. When a leader becomes self-absorbed and narcissistic he begins to see everything that happens through the lens of egotism and that is an extremely volatile world view.

It is God that places us in positions of leadership. Romans 13:1 states  that everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. If that's true, then any position we have is God-given and He determines how long we will keep it. It is not ours to defend! David understood this, Saul did not. When Saul felt that his position was threatened, he reacted by throwing spears! David on the other hand, when he saw a threat to his throne, reminded himself that the throne wasn't his, it belongs to God! 

We have to choose: Will I be a Saul or a David? We've got to quit throwing spears at those we think may be trying to take our throne! Let God decide how long you will hold the position of authority you've been given. I know there are times when it looks like people are plotting against us and we think that political maneuvering might result in us being unseated. Do we really believe people have that kind of power? Do we really think God is helpless against the plans of man? Give me a break! If that were my view of God I wouldn't even bother with Him! God is bigger than people, politics or positions. So I've decided to let God be God. It is His prerogative to give positions and take them away. I want to humbly lead when He chooses and humbly get out of the way when He's done with me. Anything less is just narcissistic spear-throwing! 

The Death of An Era

Dana Key - Founding partner of DeGarmo & Key (One of the pioneer rock duos of early Contemporary Christian Music) died today at age fifty-six. For me this is more than just the loss of a fellow Christ-follower or artist, this is the death of an era: An era of my faith when everything about it was brand new - Including the music! I became a Christ-follower when I was twenty years old - The year was 1982. I felt that it was important to leave everything about my former life behind including the music I had always listened to. I burned it all in a big heap. The problem was that, at that time, there wasn't a lot of Christian music available that was the style of music I enjoyed. Those CCM artists that did exist became very close companions. They weren't just singers and songwriters, they were teachers. Their lyrics helped shape my doctrine. DeGarmo and Key was one of those bands that God used to help shape what I believe today.

Now I don't want to give you the wrong idea, not everything these guys did met with my artistic approval. It was the eighties and they were trying to compete with bands who were creating what we now know as eighties music. It was horrible! And sometimes D&K's offerings fit that same description. However, it was all we had and we were glad to have it! Thank God they also gave us some really good music and their CDs stayed in our CD players, our boom-boxes and our walkmans! I only saw DeGarmo & Key in concert once, but it was quite a show!

They gave the world one of the first Christian music videos - A song called Six, Six, Six that MTV refused to play because it was too graphic (what a laugh!). Dana was the cool front man of the group. He had true swagga! He and Eddie DeGarmo wrote the band's music, and I'm sure no one was surprised by his songwriting abilities as he was a direct descendant of Francis Scott Key who wrote the Star Spangled Banner.

Christian music has drastically changed since those early days. There's so much variety and so many options now. More and more Christian artists are crossing over to the main stream and MP3's have made the purchase of albums a thing of the past for many of us. So the death of Dana Key, in my opinion marks the passing of a way of life, a way of artistry and ministry that God used in those days when I was just starting out as a follower of Christ. God has new ways of doing things now and that's okay because, in the words of the old Billy Preston song that DeGarmo and Key covered on their 1983 album Mission of Mercy, that's the way God planned it.

Here's one of my favorite D&K songs. We used to sing it as a worship song. The words of the chorus say, "I don't want to be a casual Christian." I'm so glad Dana wasn't a casual Christian. I'm so glad he let God use him in a very special way in a past era. It was my era, and I'll miss you Dana! 

The Graduate

Well, the time has arrived. This Friday night at Crossroads Church, my baby girl will graduate High School. She will be honored in a ceremony with eight of her friends from The Faith Fellowship Home School Network. We are so proud of her. She is graduating with honors: She has qualified for a full TOPS scholarship to any Louisiana University. Donna has done an incredible job home schooling Robin and Chase and I'm very proud of her as well. 

Robin will be attending Master's Commission here at Crossroads in the fall and plans to get her degree in Biblical Counseling through The West Coast Bible Institute. She has a desire to be involved in ministry to troubled girls and hopes to intern with Nancy Alcorn of Mercy Ministries. Nancy has invited her to spend some time with her this summer at her Nashville location and Robin is so excited about it. 

We are so very proud of Robin and the young woman she has become. She's never given us a minutes trouble and she has such a genuine passion for God. We could not have asked for a better daughter and we're so thankful for her!