Mike Henderson

Don't Miss God's Power and Presence

 

Christmas and More

Christmas is a great time of year for many.  It's a fun time to give and receive gifts and spend time with our families.  However, somewhere along the way Christmas has turned into the Holiday of More.  I am not against having more, but getting more can get us into problems.  Rarely do we think more will cause more headaches for us. 

For the last few weeks we have been bombarded with advertisements, sales, and extra store hours so that we can pursue more.  Now I am all for whiter teeth, closer shaves, cleaner laundry, and discounted prices.

But do we really need more?  Lucifer thought he needed more and it led him to rebel against God.  Adam and Eve went after more when they ate from the tree.  Israel constantly wanted more.  Dissatisfaction ultimately led a downfall.

Yet how many of us contemplate the negatives of getting and striving for more and more.

In fact, one of the fascinating things about the holiday season is that right after Christmas we once again slam the stores in search of more sales.  The chase continues as we pursue even more.

More gets us into trouble.  The two biggest examples are debt and obesity. 

While things and stuff and toys and gadgets get all the attention there are at least three things we could use more of.

Family-It's fun to reconnect, share old stories, open presents, and sit around the dinner table.  Personally I'll miss seeing Rachel this year during the holidays.  When you have five kids schedules do not always work out, especially with her living in Pittsburgh.  Last Christmas she was in South Korea. 

Friends-This is popular time of year for parties and get togethers.  These can be extremely uplifting for those from broken homes. 

Faith-December is a good time to set aside extra time for prayer and reflection on Jesus, His birth and the Christmas Story, and the New Year, 2012. 

So this holiday season it's fine to buy and exchange gifts.  Yes, that will result in you having more.  But hopefully it will be more as the result of love and not covetousness.

 

 

Easter Reflections

WOW!  What an incredible day.  It all began with lots of volunteers showing up early to get ready for Easter and the Egg Drop.  My hats are off to them for a great job.

Here are just a few of my thoughts from the day.  I may sound a little disjointed.  Tired, but wanted to comment on the day.

Let me say we have never had that many show up on a Sunday ever.  We have not figured out all the numbers due to the size and the chaos.  We had over 300 show up and somewhere above 200 actually attend the service.  Some came late, etc. so to get an actual count was hard.  Who do you count as attending the church service and who don't you count.  But with those two numbers you get a pretty good idea.

The auditorium was full and we had to set up a couple more rows of chairs.  The unique part of the day was that 90% of the crowd I preached to I had never met.  They were all new and we had most all of our regular attenders serving outside the main service. 

To give you another idea, Melody, who does a great job in our children's ministry said she could not have handled any more kids.  And she had extra help!

Also we began the day with four or five rooms for nursery and preschool.  Everything was full.

Then the band.  They absolutely knocked it out of the park.  John did a great job putting it all together for the day. 

We had people make commitments to Christ and baptism. 

We had friends bringing friends.

We had recent guests return and bring family and friends.

Then there was the Egg Drop.  A BIG hit.  Even made the evening news as cameras were on the scene.  CBS 19 came out. 

The weather was perfect.  Here is a link to the video:  Charlottesville New Hope Egg Drop

To give you an idea of why the numbers tend to be a little fuzzy, we had 300 water bottles to give to the kids and they are all gone.  So does that mean we had over 400, counting parents?  Don't know.  As I said, some stayed for the service, and some came in to register and then just hung outside until time for the Egg Drop. 

Here is what I do know.  It was the largest day in the history of New Hope and perhaps the most memorable.  And it was our people who made it all happen.

 

It's Friday...But Sunday is Coming

Easter Brings Clarity

In my last post I mentioned how Walmart got a little confused as to what their mission was, "Low Prices. Every Day."  The fact is, life happens.  What is important gets forgotten.  As pastor of New Hope I cannot forget that prayer and preaching are my top two priorities (Acts 6:4-"Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.”).  People are my third.  No one is around to watch  me pray.  Everyone gets to hear me preach.  You get the picture.  It's easy to let something slide.

That's what I like about Easter.  This year I have challenged our people at New Hope in three areas.  P.F.I.  Before I explain the three letters, let me add that everyone can clench their fist tightly, but only for a short time.  That's Easter.  Here are three things every believer can do a lot of for a short period of time.  Actually, these are constant things, but once again it's easy for some of these things to slide.  Easter has a way of reminding us as to what's important.

P is for prayer.  Yes, we should pray every day.  We should as a church be praying for the service, the music, and the message every week prior to coming.  Do we?  As least with Easter coming up it gives everyone an extra incentive to pray for a great day.

F is for fasting.  This year I encouraged everyone to pick three times or three days and fast and pray for Easter, opportunities to invite, and boldness to get the word out.  Fasting is overlooked by many.  I shared with the church how that last Easter I fasted and prayed three separate days for three big requests and all three prayers were answered.  I am always a little hesitant to share, because it is not like you can just fast and pray and you get automatic answers.  However, fasting is an important spiritual discipline.  Let me go a step farther and say that fasting may be the key to letter I.

I is for inviting.  The challenge this year has been to invite 5 families.  5!  Sometimes I think we look around and feel like we don't have 5 people to invite.  Have we fasted and prayed for 5?  It could be that having 5 families to invite is the big answer to prayer that I get.  I don't know.  I do know that people outside the church are overwhelmed and overloaded with something.  That's why we need to pray and fast.

And so let's remember that Easter brings clarity.  This may be our greatest Easter ever at New Hope.  That is, if we pray, fast, and invite. 

New Hope Christmas Eve and End of Year Schedule

The next couple of weeks will go by quickly and the New Year will be upon us.  During this time of year our schedule departs from the normal.

On Christmas Eve we will have a Candlelight service that will last about an hour.  You will not want to miss the start.  If you do it will be like missing the opening scene of a movie.  We have some nice battery operated candles so all the kids can have one also.

The service starts at 5pm, but come early.

On Sunday, December 26 we will have no service.

January 2 we will launch into 2011 and all month long we will be taking about the Vision for New Hope in 2011: Living in 3-D.  The title for the message series in January will be "212."  Trust me, this series could greatly impact your entire year.

Plus be sure to use Facebook to invite your friends to Christmas Eve.

Right now we are ending the year strong, and I am excited about what's coming in 2011.

New Hope Christmas Schedule

December is a great time of year to invite people to church.  In fact, Christmas Eve has now become the #1 time of year to invite.  Easter is still popular at #2.  However, it does underscore the need to invite those not connnected to a church.

During the month of December I will be teaching on Jesus: No Ordinary Man.  We will begin a journey through the life of Christ.  We will learn what was important to Him, what He preached about, and lots of other principles and practices from His life.

Our Christmas Eve service will be at 5pm and last approximately one hour. It will consist of music, multimedia, readings, candlelight, and a message.  It is designed for the whole family, but we will have a nursery and preschool for those who need it.

There will be no service on December 26.

Then we will return January 2 ready for a great 2011!  The best is yet to come!

Easter 2010

What a great day at New Hope!  Easter is always a popular day and a day of high expectations.  As for me all of my expectations were met.

The crowd was about 50% larger than our normal attendance.  Many invited and brought friends and family.  Some who attended have been out of church for some time.  Some had not been to church in their entire life.  Enjoyed meeting so many new people.

To simply preach a message on the cross and the resurrection was a highlight for me. 

John has been working on involving more musicians and the band knocked it out of the park today.

One thing I am constantly reminded of is our need for the power of the resurrection in our every day lives.  Yes we need to trust Jesus Christ for eternal life, but He wants to help us live for Him in this life.

My prayer this week is that many who came will seek God this week, begin to live again for Him, and be back at New Hope next week.

Think One Month

It's too easy to jump on the bandwagon and make a one year New Year's Resolution.  Nothing wrong with that, but you may be setting yourself up for failure.

Why not take a different approach?  Why not think 'one month?'  One of the biggest resolutions is to loose weight.  So many sign up for a gym membership.  How much of that money goes out the window?  Gyms are full in January and empty in February, or should I say mid-January?

Perhaps our focus should be to develop new habits during the month of January.  Just one month.  After all, if it takes about one month to develop a new habit why focus on the whole year?  Why not just start with one month, then go for another month, etc?

If we enter the year with a whole year's resolution and quit after two weeks or two months we consider ourselves a failure.  That's not necessarily the case.  Perhaps the goal was too big or just not very smart.

I may set a goal of reading 100 books.  That's two books a week and probably not a reachable target. At least for me.  I am not a speed reader and will probably come in at about 50 books for the year.  So with that in mind my goal would be 4 books during the month of January.  Much more doable.

So start with one month rather than the whole year.  This past week at New Hope I talked about reading your Bible all the way thru in 2010.  But focus on January first.  

Think One Month.  Develop the habit and you may very well be on your way to your New Year's Resolution.

Making Christmas Last, pt. 6

This is my last post on 'Making Christmas Last.'  One of reasons the spirit of Christmas does not last are the gifts.  One week later and we can't remember what we got.  So we are left feeling empty.  That's because we were looking forward to the gifts we were about to receive.  Now the excitement is gone because there is nothing to look forward to.  Sad.

The Magi were more concerned with the gifts they were giving.  After all it is Jesus' birthday.  What if the focus changed more to giving to Him, something we can do year round.

Over this past week we have looked at several ways to make Christmas last.  It does not have to end.  Keep it going.  Give gifts to Jesus all year long in 2010.