kylegilbert

I love being the pastor of our Internet Campus, and I love the people who gather there each week. It’s an eclectic group from all over the United States (as well as a few from other parts of the world), and I get to listen to the stories as we see people’s lives impacted by God. It’s amazing.

Some people who log on there are just checking out our church before they visit. Others are attending because they’re sick, home with a new baby, or home bound. Some attend because they are Deaf, and we offer ASL interpreted worship services. Even though it’s different from traditional methods, God is meeting people there.

Let me give you one recent example:

Last week I made a follow up phone call to a young woman who lives out of state but attends online each week and wants to start serving through our Internet Campus.* After a short conversation with her, I realized that she hadn’t committed her life to Christ, and I got to lead her to the Lord. Since then, we’ve connected a couple of times, she’s going to be visiting Faith Promise over the Christmas holidays, and I’m scheduled to baptize her during the service when we do the recording for iCampus. Amazing.

While some are suspicious and fearful of this kind of ministry, we see both the current impact and the future potential. Because of that (and a group of people who have stepped up to the plate in service), I’m very pleased to announce that beginning this Sunday, our iCampus will now feature three service times: 10 am, 11:45 am, and 9:00 pm.

I couldn’t be more thrilled.

Please join with me in praying that God would continue to bless this online ministry – to impact lives for His Glory alone.

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*In case you don’t know, we have online greeters, prayer volunteers, administrators, and soon we’ll have our first online small group. There’s room for more, so shoot me an email or drop a comment on here, if you’re interested.

It’s a little bit difficult to tell from the photo, but at my request, my daughter took the time out of her playing at Chick-fil-A to wipe her brother’s nose.

What did people ever do without camera phones to capture these moments?

Keri and I just got back from a fantastic night at the Whitestone Inn. It’s really an amazing place. The rooms and scenery were very nice, and the food was delicious.

With little kids, it’s hard to find the time and resources to get away like that, but we’re more committed than ever before to carve out time to spend together.

The top image below is a panoramic image that I created from our photos, so you can click the left and right buttons to pan across the view.

A few months ago, I had the privilege of working with Jason Davis, a local photographer, on the redesign of his blog.  He and I collaborated on the design, and I built out the site.  It features a huge area for content and lets you add a comment without having to reload the post (something I probably need to add here).

If you’re looking for a photographer in the Knoxville area, you need to check out his site.  You’ll see that he does some first-class work.

Some of my favorite freelance website and graphic design website work I get to do is for Tamra Novak and The Cashmere Bouquet.  Unlike most of my clients, I always wonder if the design is crazy enough.

The image above is a small piece of the front and back of their new business card that they hired me to design.

Home Invasion, Sacred Storm was a powerful reminder of the danger and bondage that can be caused through sexual sin, and it made me realize that I haven’t posted on the topic in a long time.

Just like any other guy I know, I am vulnerable to temptation in this area.  And especially because of the amount of time I spend online, I have built up a series of roadblocks to help keep myself on course and keep my mind focused the right things.  I thought I’d post some of those here in case others might find the list helpful.

Limiting Suggestive Media - Let’s face it, there’s a ton of junk out there that can get our minds going in the wrong direction.  I’m careful about the books I read, the movies and shows I watch, the music I listen to, and even the apps I have on my iPhone, which leads me to the next point….

Blocked iPhone Applications – I’m one of the only people I know that’s never used Safari on my iPhone, so I know this makes me very strange.  When I bought the phone, the first thing I did was hand it over to my wife and show her to lock the Safari and YouTube applications.  For a long time, I wasn’t able to browse the internet at all on my iPhone, until I found a terrific free filtered browser for the iPhone….

Filtered Internet – Both my home PC and my iPhone have filtered internet.  The cool part is that I’ve found good free software for both.  For the PC, I use K9 Web Protection, and for the iPhone, I use Mobicip.  If you haven’t tried these, you really need to check them out.  (I also use the AdBlock Plus plugin for Firefox on my work and home computers to get rid of almost all internet ads.)

Accountability – All the other things are helpful, but alone they’re not enough.  I need people who I can count on when I’m facing temptation, who know my weaknesses, who will graciously shine the light of truth into my life, and who will hear my confession to God, if I give into sin.  I have about a dozen of these awesome people in my life (including my wife).

In this sin-saturated world, I really desire to walk in purity.  I want to be totally committed to God and be careful about what I hear and see.

“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” – Phil 2:13

Prior to coming to Knoxville a year ago, I spent two years as a Campus Pastor at a second campus of my church. It was a great experience, God opened all of our eyes to new ways of doing church, and I built some lifelong friends, but we didn’t see a lot of growth or people coming to Christ. It was a time of enormous sowing, but very little reaping.

In some ways, things did not go the way we hoped and dreamed. It caused me to question my ability to lead and my capacity in ministry, and I began to work through my insecurities to rediscover that my personal worth has nothing to do with my performance. Through Christ, I have worth. I don’t have to spend my life trying to prove myself.

Now, a year later, I’ve found myself in the totally opposite situation. Things are going well. We’ve launched a new website, an Internet Campus, and done a bunch of other cool projects this year. The list of accomplishments is impressive, and people’s lives are being impacted each week through new initiatives.

Now that things are different, who gets the credit?

God, please protect me from my pride. Show me how to give you the credit and glory – for it all belongs to you.

Thanks, Keri, for the great pic!  As much as I love being a dad, being your husband is even better.

All of these photos were taken within an hour drive of my home.  Coming from the flat lands of Lubbock, Texas, it still blows my mind that I now live so close to this kind of view.