Jon McClarnon

Tomorrow is our day to serve and love people in our community through the ministry of With Love From Jesus. Any time you can give between 9:30 and noon is greatly needed.

Address is 421 Chapanoke Rd.
Park in the back and come through the overhead garage door.

A few years back my boss had a little exercise he wanted everyone to complete on a monthly basis. The 6 R’s. R stands for Result Producing Activities. So, every month we wrote out and handed in a list of 6 things we were working on, as well as providing an evaluation of how last months 6 R’s and the result.

As an example, here’s how one of my months as youth pastor would have looked:
- Plan and execute a retreat for middle school students
- Eat lunch at two different schools every week
- Launch a new small group study for high school students
- Recruit 2 additional adults to join the youth team
- I always included whatever preparation I had for teaching
- I always included something I was reading

I’ll say that as much as I hated doing the exercise, it was a good practice to remind me of being intentional about what I do so that I get the results that I really desire.

On the flip side – I found it easier to make a list of Result Reducing behaviors for the month. Rather than go back in time on this one…let’s make it current.
- Facebook and Twitter – both are great ways to connect with people and share information…but it’s very easy to get stuck over-connecting and knowing worthless information about what time people are going to bed and who needs what to have a better district on the Frontier.

- I can’t sit still for more than one hour straight. Rather than walking outside for 5 minutes I find myself wanting to drive around town in the name of something “good”. “Don’t we need some new batteries for the wireless microphone? I better compare shop between WalMart and Target too.”

- YouTube and other Video Watching. Sometimes in the name of sermon research you have to do this…but then it just goes from there. And then I can’t figure out how I ended up watching Jim Gaffigan talk about Hot Pockets.

- Disc Golf. This is a recent addition to my sports menu. You don’t need tons of skill or a lot of equipment. Usually it’s Trevor talking me into a “quick round” and because there’s not a course in Garner (yet, I’m campaigning soon to join the Parks and Rec board) it ends up being a big endeavor. Now we have to work in lunch too.

- Parks and Rec. I will not comment while I’m lobbying for a Board position. Still waiting on an answer to a question from June 21st.

- I could go on…but this blog post is quickly becoming “Result Reducing”. I will get back to work and doing things that help me achieve something!

Yesterdays message is on the website – you can listen to the first of Jesus’ Teachings @ the Lake HERE.

A group of our high school students and leaders spent last week at CIY youth conference in Cleveland, TN. Check in on Trevor’s blog to see his posts about the week.

I’m doing a little reading…actually I have a load of books in the works right now – here’s a few:
Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne
Fusion by Nelson Searcy
Stuff Christians Like by Jonathan Acuff
I’ll Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse by Michael Franzese
The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg

This weekend we are starting a new mini-series for Summer @ the Lake by looking at a story Jesus told. Thought this video was a good introduction to it – and I liked the animation.

I’m in the middle of a 12 week teaching series called “Summer at the Lake” which is simply built around Encounters, Teachings and Miracles of Jesus from the Sea of Galilee.

To bring you up to speed – the first 4 weeks are Encounters @ the Lake, the next 4 will be centered on Jesus Teaching @ the Lake on the Sower and the Soils, and the final 4 weeks will be Miracles @ the Lake.

Yesterday we hit the 4th Encounter and you can find it here. If you haven’t been around for all 4 weeks – we’ve been having a great time and personally, I love talking about the stories of Jesus. If you only have time to listen to one message on Encounters – this one probably sums it all up the best.

Thanks to Jess who handles all of our recordings and getting messages on the site!

Sunday night I had two dreams that I still remember quite vividly. I’m going to roll them out to you – see if you have any insight as to what they could possibly mean…

Dream One – I’m playing 3 on 3 basketball in some kind of low key competition. My son Jordan is on my team too. It’s the closing seconds, I drive the lane to the hoop and I’m fouled. Only the defense can call fouls and since they don’t – we lose by 1. We are playing the soccer team from Argentina and Maradona is the one who hacks me. I bump him into the wall and voice my displeasure…he smiles smugly.

Dream Two – I’m sitting somewhere…working on a message and Jon Weece (Jon is an old friend, basketball teammate and now pastor of Southland Christian) walks in, with his Bible and notepad. He’s behind on his own message for the week and wants to know what I’m working on. We sit together and churn out a sermon together.

Since I rarely remember dreams, recollecting two in the same night is somewhat interesting. What do you think?

If you haven’t seen it yet – the vehicle is in operation and headed to the valley right now. Thanks to the generosity of TrueNorth people, we helped Chatty buy this vehicle. Read about things that are happening in Kenya on her blog.

It doesn’t get much more simple than this past weekend’s Encounter at the Lake. Jesus asks a guy, who is an outcast in society, hated by most people – to follow him. Compelled by his love perhaps OR simply seeing a better possible life ahead…he follows…and throws a party in honor of Jesus. It turns out to be the perfect scenario for more hurting and broken people to rub shoulders with Jesus. And, in these moments, there are always people who think Jesus should behave differently.

If you missed it, check out the message HERE.

Jesus said for himself: “it’s not the healthy who need a Dr., but the sick; I’ve not come to call righteous people, but sinners.”

Author Phillip Yancey writes this: “The poor, the sick, the tax collectors, sinners and prostitutes crowd around Jesus, stirred by his message of healing and forgiveness. The rich and powerful stand on the sidelines, testing him, spying, trying to entrap him. I know these facts about Jesus’ time, and yet, from the comfort of a middle class church in a wealthy country like the US, I easily lose sight of the radical core of Jesus’ message.”

So how is it that churches, people, and myself miss this about Jesus?
1. Confusion – maybe we’re just simply confused about Jesus. Maybe we bought the idea that Jesus likes good people and doesn’t have time for bad people.

2. Comfortable – alot of people who come to follow Jesus at some point in their life fall into a comfortable place. It’s a dangerous place though – to be comfortable knowing you’re “with” Jesus and being uncomfortable around people who don’t know Jesus.

3. Consumed – this is the answer to embracing life as Jesus did. To love seeing “the sick” get help. The answer…being Consumed with Christ. Seeing needs, accepting people, loving them…as Jesus did.

So…”WHAT IF”…?
-You started a list of 3 people who need Jesus…posted it on your fridge…bathroom mirror…in your Bible – simply started to pray for them every day? That they would be receptive to Jesus…and you’d have opportunities to show his love.
-What if…you took cards from the Info Table…wrote notes to 4 people…invited them to come with you to True North? The reason there are 4 – the numbers tell us if you invite 4, 1 will come.
-What if…a group of us got together some Friday/Saturday night…we spent ½ hour walking through a shopping center – all we did was pass out Invite Cards?
-What if…someone got really crazy…and threw a party at your place…you invited your whole cul-de-sac OR block? Like Levi, it was a combination of friends from TNC and your neighbors? It simply set the stage for those who are in need of a touch of grace to rub shoulders with those who trying to follow Jesus.

As a church, I’m calling us to pray to this end; that God would use us to be more influential in our community as a place of grace.
To be the kind of people, who are NOT perfect by any means…but trying to better follow Jesus and care for the sick and hurting…just simply because that’s what Jesus does.

How are you going to respond?

Wanted you to have a picture of the vehicle that was recently purchased in Nairobi. Chatty is headed off in it now to the valley.
Thank you True North for making it possible!

Yesterday the Garner Citizen published the story about our in-service wedding.

Take the time to read it here…and leave a comment!

Aside from the miscalculation of attendance and cutting it in half AND saying that I was more excited about the wedding than Charles and Nikki – it’s a pretty good story