Sunday, May 16, 2010

This weekend we sang Tim Hughes song, "Everything". The bridge of the song has the lyrics "Christ in me, the hope of glory". Preparing for the weekend, I found myself dwelling on that phrase, asking myself what that really mean. It's very poetic, and sounds really churchy. In fact it is a biblical phrase found in Colossians 1:27, but what does "the hope of glory" really mean? The passage that comes to mind is the Romans 3:23 passage regarding our own sin, in which Paul writes, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." So then, what is the Glory of God? As I read and study it, it is the fullness of God's being. It is his splendor, his brightness, his goodness, his greatness, it is everything of which God is. It is his glory.
Genesis speaks of us being created in the image of God. Unlike any other created thing in the universe, we as people were created in the very image of God. Though we were created in his image, due to our sin nature, we fall far short of his glory. We may try to be "good enough" in all that we do, but the truth is, we will always fall short of the greatness and fullness of God in and of ourselves and our own will and efforts. Our glory is far less the God's glory. We do have a glory of our own. You have often heard it said of someone naked, "there they are in all their glory", meaning there is nothing hiding who they are. But our glory, even fully revealed falls far short of the Glory of God.
But therein lies the beauty of the mystery of the gospel revealed, that what I am unable to do in my own pursuit of personal righteousness, is offered to me in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I cannot achieve God's glory by my works, but since Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" and that "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus)", that when I surrender my life and invite Christ to live in me, I have now attained the hope of the glory of God. What a beautiful picture.
It is so easy to fall back into the efforts of attaining or representing God's glory by my own works, but I will always fall short. When I surrender, and lean into the spirit of Christ living in me, I now begin to represent the glory of God here on earth, and maintain the hope of achieving fully the glory of God in heaven.

"Once you were alienated
from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
But now he has reconciled
you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his
sight, without blemish and free from accusation–
" Colossians 1:21-22


Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Fireproof Ministries

I have been familiar with Fireproof ministries for quite some time. Craig Gross and I went to PCC together and worked together at Eastside Christian Church in Yorba Linda many years ago. We have had Craig and Jake at some of our Jr. High events back when they were big. But it is really the ministry they have been emphasizing the last few years that I find myself applauding and desiring to bring attention to and support with all my energies. A number of years ago now, Craig and a friend of his decided it was time the Church really took a head on approach to the issues of pornography and the whole sex industry both within the church and in the world. I believe they have been the most significant and impacting ministry ever to do this. They have a two fold approach to it.

First, they deal with the users, men and women, many in the church and in ministry, who struggle with this addictive and destructive behavior. Not in a condemning way, but in a direct, hopeful, and honest way to help bring people together to honestly deal with and find freedom from it. They have developed tools that promote accountability, tools I have on my own computer, as well as helping with support, prayer, and the development of local support groups. This has been huge. We have had a couple of "Porn Sundays" in which we have taken our weekend services and really challenged our congregation to take serious the issues both personally and corporately, all under the grace of God found in Christ.

Second, they have chosen to build bridges with those in the sex industry. They go into the Erotica conventions and share the love of Jesus with the buyers, vendors, and those who work in front of the camera with a continuous message that Jesus loves them and desire to bring them to a place of freedom, dignity, and wholeness. They do not stand outside of these conventions shouting curses and condemnation, but rather choose to take the message of Jesus Christ to love those who are hurting and to help set the captives free, and they do it with great compassion. This is a powerful, powerful example of the love of Christ in action!

They have also begun a new ministry called Strip Church, which is similar to the porn show model, but to many of the other major conventions that take place regularly in Las Vegas. Church groups can come in, sponsor a booth, and spend the convention building relationships with people attending and vending, using every opportunity to share the gospel.

The bulk of this ministry, like many ministries happens on the basis of fund raising and donations. I have been asked to help with this effort by committing to help raise $2500 through sponsorship and donations. I am asking for your help. If you are willing to sponsor me $1 a frame for 100 frames of bowling, your money will go to continue the life changing work of this ministry. I understand times are tight, but it is often during difficult times that people look to medicate in destructive ways, often with porn. Please prayerfully consider supporting me support this great work.

To sponsor me, please go to https://fireproof.donortools.com/my/funds/13188-BOWLFEST-Perry-Emerick and make a donation today.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Setseller is up and running!



I am very excited to announce the SetSeller.com is up and running and ready for listings. It is currently only available for Arizona, but we will be pushing it nationally in the near future. In case you haven't heard, I have been working on a new website for churches, theaters, and production companies to list and sell their used sets, props, printed stuff, and equipment. There are so many of these types of pieces that are produced that end up being pitched in the end because of a lack of space and time to save it for reuse. I believe this can be a huge benefit for the kingdom especially in the sharing of creative resources and stage equipment.

Go to setseller.com and check it out. Let me know what you think, and if you have some stuff, list it. And if you know anyone who could benefit from it, pass it along. Thanks

Sunday, January 10, 2010

The Next Stage


Well it's that time again, where we take down the old stage decorations and get ready to build the new stage set. We put a lot of effort into our stages here because we believe it helps create a conducive environment for communicating and remembering the content of our weekend messages and the series they are connected to. I can look back over the past number of stages and I think there is a lot of creativity in them which I love being a part of.

We are starting a new series this coming weekend at Central which is a study through the book of Ephesians, one of the new testament letters from the Apostle Paul. I believe this is going to be a great series, simply because it is a powerful book of the bible and you can't go wrong when you study God's word.

As for the stage, we are trying to tap into some of the retro look of the route 66. As a church, we are challenging our congregation to read through the entire book of the bible, all 66 books of it, in one year. You can find a reading guide on here and here.

This last Saturday, a few of us got together to begin building a large marquee type sign that will hang above our stage, complete with chasing lights. It is going to be pretty cool. In addition, we have a member of our church who has "donated" for a while a couple of classic corvettes for the stage. I think it is going to be amazing. If you are in the area, I hope you will take a weekend and visit with us at Central.



Monday, January 04, 2010

Setseller.com


For some time now I have been actively involved in the creative development, design and construction of the different stage sets we use here at Central. We have been blessed with some very creative and innovative people, and access to quality resources. Over the last few years we have designed some pretty cool stages based on different teaching themes that we have done that have really added to the overall impact of our weekend services. It has been a lot of fun.

The downside however, is what to do when the teaching series is over. Some of what we use we can take apart and use again in a different application with minimal waste. However, the majority of what we use has a direct thematic or visual connection to a particular series and are difficult to reuse, and even if we could reuse it, we would not want to any time soon. And like most places, we simply do not have the storage space to save all these great sets for long periods of time.

I have often felt that it would be great to find other churches or presentational organizations that might be able to benefit from our work by using what we have already made. I've also thought it would be great to be able to sell some of these items to recoup some of the cost to build them, which would allow us to continue to be creative in developing new stage sets. But the more I searched, the more a realized there was not a very good tool available for that purpose. So, I decided to figure out how to make one.

I am very excited to begin sharing the vision for setseller.com, a tool for churches, schools, theaters, and other presentational organizations to list and sell their used sets and stage pieces. My hope is that these different groups will have a common location on the web to share and sell their creative work for the benefit of all. Setseller.com will feature an easy to use platform that will allow for local, state, even national searches, and the opportunity for groups to buy and sell these great resources for the benefit of all.

We are hopeful this new tool will be online and ready to use very soon. If you are interested in using this tool, or you know a church, school, local theater, or other group that could benefit from it, then go to setseller.com and sign up to receive email updates on the progress of the new site.