kylegilbert

I never thought that a video about Google searches would nearly make me cry. What a great example of engaging people’s emotions through media.

Today was the day of group presentations at Faith Promise, and I have to say that I was totally blown away by the quality and creativity of the presentations presented by our staff today. Each had a unique approach and a fresh way of communicating their ideas.

My group decided to do almost the entire presentation through video, and you can watch it below.

(better quality video coming soon – Done, thanks to Matt James)

In case you weren’t able to attend our last First Wednesday service at Faith Promise (or if you just want to enjoy it again), this is the “Jesus in the Manger” skit from that service. The two guys carrying Jesus around are the Pastor’s sons.

I think it’s amazing how a short presentation like this can be so funny and yet also get to the heart of things.

Things have really busy since the Thanksgiving holiday, largely due to a group project that I’ve been working on. Our entire staff was divided up into interdepartmental teams to compete against one another as we each worked to come up with solutions to various problems that are facing our church body. (You can get Josh’s perspective here.)

Like normal, I’ve found myself in the position of project manager. The process has been both very fun and very challenging at times.

We’re putting the finishing touches on our presentation now, and I hope to share it in video format once the presentation is over. I was tempted to put a couple of behind-the-scenes photos in with this post, but I don’t want to spoil any surprises (or give away any ideas to the other teams).

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.

This is a new installment in a series of videos that LifeChurch.tv has done where their Senior Pastor interviews Satan to get his perspective on a subject.

I love it. These guys are so clever.

One of the many things I love about my job is the opportunities to build out event-specific websites. The screen capture above is from the re-launch of the Sacred Storm website to promote the upcoming Halloween production at Faith Promise Church called Home Invasion, Sacred Storm.

Even if you’re not in the Knoxville area, you can still be a part of this event since there will be three broadcasts on our Internet Campus on Sunday, November 1st:

• 9:45 AM
• 11:45 AM
• 9:00 PM

We’d also love it if you’d do us a favor and help us spread the word by sharing this event with your social networks. I believe God will use it to make a significant impact in people’s lives.

A few weeks ago we had a staff team building day at Pastor & Michele’s house. Check out the brownies:

I came across this in the boys bathroom up in the Children’s area of the church campus the other day. I thought it was so funny that I had to share it.

Really, I’m speechless.

I recently started reading a book called Holiness by J. C. Ryle. As soon as I heard of the book (I saw it mentioned in another blog’s comments), I knew that it was something I needed to read.

There were a couple of reasons in particular that it interested me:

1. With the nationwide push for churches to be cool and relevant, holiness seems to be often overlooked.
2. I really desire holiness in my life, but honestly, I fall so short of it even with my best intentions.

I’m only a few chapters into the book, but nearly every paragraph contains a powerful nugget of truth. I’ll share a few of my favorite quotes just in case you’re interested.

Here’s one of my favorite lines: “A true Christian is one who has not only peace of conscience, but war within. He may be known by his warfare as well as by his peace.”

Contrasting justification and sanctification: “Justification is a finished and complete work, and a man is perfectly justified the moment he believes. Sanctification is an imperfect work, comparatively, and will never be perfected until we reach heaven.”

“Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God… agreeing in [His] judgment, hating what He hates, loving what He loves, and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word.”

“I do not say for a moment that holiness shuts out the presence of indwelling sin. No, far from it. It is the greatest misery… that the old man is clogging all his movements and, as it were, trying to draw him back at every step he takes (Rom. 7:21).”

“In short, to talk of men being saved from the guilt of sin, without being at the same time saved from its dominion in their hearts, is to contradict the witness of all Scripture.”