Great day today at Rocky River Church! We baptized two people today and it was awesome! All I really want to say is that I'm so blessed to lead the people at Rocky River Church. I feel so fortunate. I'm excited about the week coming. There is much to do. Your prayers and support are appreciated!

J

I'm not going to say too much about Michael Jackson. Usually when someone dies we forget about the bad and remember them for the good things they did. That's what I'll do with MJ. For all of his freakiness and accusations of sexual misconduct, he's dead. So, I'll bury the bad and remember that even for a kid like me - who loved Iron Maiden, KISS, AC-DC and the like, Michael Jackson made me want to like pop music. That dude was just bad! I think I even did the "moon walk" a couple of times at the Magic Attic at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion.

RIP Michael Jackson.... Thank you for music that will be forever tied to some of my greatest memories growing up.

I'm really disappointed. I had planned to take my family to a late movie tonight after VBS. We were going to see Transformers! But after getting a bad review about it from a good - and trusted friend, and hearing all the critics talk about how sexual the movie is, we're not going. And it is a shame - and a sham. It just really ticks me off that Michael Bay has turned a children's toy into a movie so crude that I can't take my nine year old son to see it. AND, if I can't take my kid to see it, you can bet that I WON'T buy him any of the toys they want to sell to him - which is apparently the only reason they make movies now anyways....

Hey. Just wanted to invite you to Rocky River Church this Sunday. I'm preaching a sermon called "Between A Rocky And A Hard Place" from Exodus 14. God has never given me insight into a passage like this one. I'm serious! I think it is going to be THE most exciting service ever at Rocky River Church (www.rockyriverchurch.com). It's going to ROCK! No lie.... If you are living between a "rock and a hard place" right now, don't miss out this weekend!

If I don't use this blog to let you know when we need prayer then what good is it. So....

I found out tonight that to get our building plans approved by the city of Concord, it is going to cost us $38,000.00 for sewer taps and such. It's just makes the money we need to get our building out of the ground seem like a bigger pile.

I haven't said much about it publicly, but this building process is extremely stressful. I really need your prayers. Our team needs your prayers. We have great folks - capable folks - working on this. Please ask God for His will to be done. At this point, that is the only thing I can think to pray for. And of course, that is the most important thing.

We need God to do something supernatural.

Thank you!
Jimmy

Just thinking tonight that maybe we have over-thought church. For example, preachers don't want to be preacher's anymore - they want to be teachers or speakers. Some pastors don't call Christians "Christians." Instead, they call them "Christ followers." And now the big thing seems to be to move away from being a "member" of a church to being a "partner." I've even heard of churches calling their members "staff."

Well, I'm still "old school" enough to be a preacher. A speaker is something on our stage that amplifies the sound of my voice. I am a preacher. We still have members at Rocky River Church because the Church is a Body, not a business. Businesses have partners, the Body has members. And those "members" are Christians.

Sometimes I feel like the contemporary church (whatever that means) has gotten too cute and cool for its own good. We've tried to change the terminology around to sound better to us. In reality it is just confusing to the people we lead - YES - even those are not yet Christians.

Someone smarter than me will have to explain to me how Michael Vick gets 2 years in prison (23 months and he served 19) for killing dogs and loses his NFL career, but Dante Stallworth kills a man (DUI) and gets 30 days in jail and may make the end of summer camp for the Cleveland Browns. How is this justice? It makes me sick!

Do you remember this - 15 years ago today? This is actual conversation with OJ and the police department.

I have been to High School graduations where I thought things got a "little" out of hand. But this school superintendent must be out of her mind. She took something from this kid that can never be given back. This is a total overreaction, in my opinion.... Here's the video (For some reason the video is recorded twice. It is really only about 2.5 minutes).