RUSSJONES.US

During this month I have been preaching about, 30 Days To Live. What would you do if you only had 30 days to live? We would change a lot of our priorities and practices wouldn't we? Then we ask ourselves the question, "Why don't we do it now?" Then again, life doesn't afford us that luxury. A great friend of mine lost his job today. No fun. Been there and done that. What is most important now? All of a sudden - things change drastically. A lot of you reading this post maybe identify with what is going on. Life dictates to you what you are going to do. We think that it is a luxury to live life on our terms, to do what we want to do. But as I think about it, that isn't right either, is it? We are here to live the way Christ wants us to live. To do what He wants us to do. In His time, to do it His way. Life will overwhelm you so much that you can't even think about what it is your suppose to be doing. Then at night when you lay your head dow

So while Anneka was at her spanish lessons, Betty and I go to Starbucks. As we are getting out of the car we see some of their tables and chairs sitting out back. We asked them what that was about? Well, they were just going to throw them away. We asked if we could have them and they said, YES! Well that was nice. The reason we wanted these tables was to help facilitate our ministry hour before Sun AM service. From 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. we are encouraging everyone to come and spend some time together. The coffee is FREE. The bagels will be FREE. The fellowship will be FREE. Someone who will pray with you will be FREE. We will enjoy this time around our FREE tables. (Looking for some FREE chairs too.) Bring a friend and let them enjoy the hour before service and let them meet the church (that's us) called Faith Family Worship Center.

Ever get those PDF's in your email that say (Sign here). It can be done if you have your signature already digitized, but what about when you get them on your iphone and you need to sign it NOW!! Then go to Zosh. The guys over at pastorgear.com are the ones who blogged about this first. I read about it and though, "Yea, if I got a lot of that kind of traffic, I would need that." Then two days later - BOOM! I needed that. One of the youth in our church needed a form sign for school. (Community service) And there I was, on the road and couldn't get it back to him in time. Ah ha! Zosh! Upload it, and got to work. It was worth the $3. Check it out at iTunes or go to zosh.com (No services or products were solicited or given for this review.)

A pastor called me today and told me that pastoring is fun and frustrating. That is the truth. I know that it seems that Pastors are gluttons for punishment - but really we are not. Now the question is, is pastoring suppose to be more fun or frustrating. The quick answer most people would give is fun. After all, who likes frustrating? But I have to disagree. However, I don't think that pastoring is suppose to be more frustrating. On the wall in my office is a saying. "Frustration is eventually productive." That's true! There are somethings in life worth being frustrated over. Waiting for someone to ask Jesus into their heart. Believing God for the right place and time to fulfill a dream. Waiting on God to answer a question for you. All of these can be frustrating but they also are very rewarding. If you want to know some things that will help increase the "fun" factor for your pastor and decrease his level of "frustration", here are

A missionary actually showed me this one. Wix.com This is great for small churches and medium sized churches who want a nice looking website. You can go on and try it out for free. If you want to use your own domain, then it will cost you a little money. Pros - Build everything on their server. Easy to run. Fast uploads (according to your connection of course.) Nice templates to work with. Plenty of options to allow nice creativity. Cons - Some limitations as to what you can do. The contact gadget only allows you to forward a contact to 2 emails. If you don't have a creative eye to build a website, you will still build an ugly website. Every once in a while, the server has a fit and fusses with you. I just hit save and refresh - then it returns to its right mind. This isn't a church specific provider. It is more for the artistic and personal expression. But churches and businesses are picking up on it and making it work for them. I ma currently rebuild our websi

I remember when Ray Boltz came out of the closet. I was on the phone with a friend who was driving through a fast food restaurant. I told him what I had just learned and he super-sized his order. That was a odd response I thought. So when Jennifer Knapp came out to announce that she is gay, I really wasn't surprised. You can read her interview here at Christianity Today. Jennifer is another name among a number of musicians and artists I've known over the years who have struggled with homosexuality. Now I am not saying that those who love music are more or less prone to homosexuality, but I have witnessed the attack on this ministry through homosexuality for over 25 years. Jennifer is quoted as saying, "But if you remove the social problem that homosexuality brings to the church—and the debate as to whether or not it should be called a "struggle," because there are proponents on both sides—you remove the notion that I am living my life with a great deal o

A local minister, and if your reading this I am NOT insulted, came up to me the other day and said, "Your the tech guy, right?" How in the world did he come to that conclusion? Who had he been talking to? I don't know and I don't want to know. I was just shocked that he said that (we hadn't seen each other in years). So he asks me a tech question and I give me a tech answer. There are some things in life that you do as a hobby, or out of general interest, or just by accident that will put you in the middle of something that you neither wanted nor planned for. It happens, just expect it. I heard Marcus Buckingham speak once and one of the things that he said that impressed me went something like this. If you don't like something that you do, it's probably because your good at it. Doesn't seem to make sense does it? But the fact of the matter is, we either get bored of doing it or we get sick and tired of being stereotyped. There are things

All the work and preparation paid off. Leading 2 people in service and 3 more in children's church to accept Jesus as their Savior is worth it all. Watching a baptism at the ocean was just icing on the cake! But Easter is over. Now I have to tell you, in all honesty, that I am glad that it's over. There is no way that most church would be able to do what they did last Sunday ever Sunday of the year. So if church doesn't seem "as good" as it was last Sunday - don't be disappointed. But the reason why I am glad that Easter is over isn't the one that you are thinking of. You see, when Jesus walked out of the tomb on that faithful Easter Sunday over 2,000 years ago, it changed everyday since then. No longer do we live under the law (Old Testament) we now live under grace (New Testament). Salvation, grace, mercy, love, healing, miracles, the power of the Holy Spirit and much, much more was made available to us TODAY! Easter means that ever day, from