Building or Being a Remarkable Church?

While the girls were shopping on Fifth Ave. during our recent trip to NYC, I was standing outside watching the traffic on the street and the sidewalk. H&M was one of the clothing stores on Bailey’s radar that she just had to visit. There were several H&M stores in the area. We chose the one across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

St. Patrick’s is an incredible building. There’s no doubt why it is a must see for tourists. It is an architectural and historical monument and the largest Gothic Catholic Cathedral in the US. (See photo taken w/ my trusty cellphone. Apologies to Mike Adams.)

An Asian man stopped in front of me to take some photos of the church. I wondered what he was thinking. Of course, he was in awe of the beauty of the structure itself. While watching him snap pictures, it dawned on me that if I were a tourist in Asia witnessing grand Buddhist or Hindu temples, I would be awe-struck with the mastery of the building but deep down I would think, “What a waste for such an empty religion.”

Then it dawned on me. The Asian tourist may be thinking the same thing.

Do we show the power of the Church through more than just architecture? Does the world witness the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives? Do they know more about Christ because of the magnificence of our faith or the magnificence of our buildings?

Building remarkable church buildings is one thing. Being a remarkable church is another.

A New Entry into the Top 10 List

Beth and I watched The Bucket List last night starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. It's one of those movies that we immediately said that we wanted to see when it first came out but busy lives prevented us from seeing it in the theaters. I looked forward to it because I knew it would be funny but I didn't expect the significant meaning and emotion that I got from it. Bottom line: At the end of the movie, our den was full of tears and snot. A great message in this movie. I highly recommend it. I think it would be in my top 10 movies of all time (even though I've never really made that list.)

Have you? What are your top 10 movies of all time?

What Would Happen If...?

New York City is a truly incredible place. The diversity is unreal. NYC is a melting pot of every nation on the planet. We heard so many different languages and saw so many different people. I knew that about NYC before we went there but it was even more than I expected. It made me think missionally, “What if we (the Church) put more effort in reaching the 8 million people in NYC? How far would the gospel spread from there? How many different nations would be impacted by something that started in NYC?” It’s happened before. Let me explain:

We walked to the intersection of Fulton and Williams Streets while we were there. I wanted to stand at the intersection where a great spiritual awakening began and have my picture taken. (I would post it, but it’s still in Bailey’s camera.) In September 1857, Jeremiah Lanphier started a series of prayer meetings at a Dutch Reformed Church that once stood at this intersection. He passed out handbills and flyers advertising the first meeting at noon on September 23. His intention was to meet the spiritual needs of businessmen in the financial district of New York City during the lunch hour. After waiting alone for a half-hour, six men finally came and joined Lanphier. The next week that number doubled. Week after week the numbers grew. When the stock market crashed later in the year, panic set in. People began to pray.

Within six months, 10,000 people gathered to pray at noon in New York City. This was the beginning of one of the most significant revivals in history. The movement swept up and down the eastern seaboard to cities like Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore. It went south as far as New Orleans and Mobile. It spread west to cities like Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, even to the West Coast. The New York newspapers created a daily column to report “the daily progress of revival.” Ships that ported in New York City left with changed men and the effects of the revival swept through Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Europe, South Africa, India, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.

It happened once. It can happen again. What if we started praying fervently for NYC everyday? Pray for NYC.

PS - To see a video about the Fulton Street Revival, look at my September 14, 2007 post.

We Love NY!

Returned home today from a brief trip to New York City. Beth and I took Bailey for a few days as a high school graduation present. She wanted to see some Broadway Shows and shop for purses in Chinatown. More about that later...

The trip started and ended with cancelled flights. That's right. Our original flight with Delta was cancelled Wednesday morning so we had to fly with American Airlines later that day. 5 hours late arriving. Our flight home on Saturday afternoon was cancelled also - due to bad weather. So we had to stay an extra night and fly home Sunday morning. I've flown a good bit and had some problems before but I've never had cancelled flights on both ends of the journey.

Once we made it to NYC, it was a great experience. I've been through NYC many times but never stayed there for long. I was always on my way to another destination. This was the first time I've really spent much time there. And where else would a guy from Belvedere stay? The Belvedere Hotel, of course.

We did a lot of the touristy stuff:

The Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center) which offers a classy view of the city.

Ground Zero - which is obviously quite humbling.

Staten Island Ferry (to see the Statue of Liberty for free)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art & Central Park

St. Patrick's Cathedral

We watched a Hare Krishna parade go by during our lunch in front of the Empire State Building on 5th Ave and we saw The Phantom of the Opera and Legally Blonde. It was a fun trip. It's late and I'm going to bed. I'll post more thoughts about NYC later. Stay tuned.

The Cross & The Hitchhiker

TNC meets at North Augusta High School each week and as a result of our being a portable church, we have a lot of stuff that is stored in trucks and storage rooms all over town. Last Saturday, I promised Paul (our fearless leader who supervises setup/teardown for TNC-NA) that I would clean up the storage area while his crew set up. While sweeping, cleaning, disposing, and organizing things under the designated areas as labeled on the walls (e.g., sound, tech, band, guest services), I moved the cross that we've used in past services to the Miscellaneous spot. I couldn't help noticing what I had done so I prayed, "Lord, don't let this happen to us. Don't let us get so caught up in doing church and having 'cool' services that we forget the cross and put it in the miscellaneous pile of our lives."

I took a picture to serve as a reminder to me and you that we must keep the cross first and foremost in our lives and in our churches.

The Hitchhiker

We picked up a hitchhiker on the way to the Big Mo last Thursday night. We had Volunteer Appreciation night at the Big Mo Drive-In Movie Theater in Monetta, SC. I actually liked the VeggieTales movie better than the new Indiana Jones movie.


We stopped at Exit 18 on I-20 to get gas and a big green grasshopper landed on our windshield. We just knew that he would get blown off as we got up to speed but the rascal hung in there at an average speed of 73 mph until we got to Exit 33. He stayed with us 7 more miles to Monetta and got in the movies free.

The Big Mo is a great night out with friends and family. I definitely recommend it.

Dunk'd

Take a look at some pics from our Dunk'd service last night. We had over 500 people attend to worship and watch about 40 people proclaim their faith in Christ at the Riverwalk Amphitheater on the Savannah River. Probably the most exciting and moving baptism service I've ever participated in.

Check out Mike Adams' blog and the Augusta Chronicle site.