Monday Memo

Here are most of the comments and questions from the weekend Communication Cards: Chandeliers

// Shout out to the people who decorate the stage! We are blessed by your creativity! You’ve out done yourselves. [I can't believe they found all those chandeliers! Unbelievable. That same team has been busy also working on the Christmas decorations that will be up by next weekend. Creative and tireless!]

// Appreciated Henry’s honesty and show of vulnerability! Leaders don’t do this enough.

// I wish you had a women’s Bible study in the evening as there are a lot of women who work and can’t attend a women’s Bible study in the morning. [It may not be what you're looking for, but women's BSF meets on Mondays at Five Oaks in the evening. Several of our women are involved in that. You might want to check it out.]

// I brought three friends with me today and I truly couldn’t be more proud to call Five Oaks my church home.

// Love the new set! Great job worship team!

// Love this message and three tips! Thank you!

// Excellent service.

// Opening worship set was powerful, as was the response set.  [I thought the worship team was incredible. The songs, the number of folks who led songs so well, Dan's guidance though the readings, etc. were all powerful.]

// Great worship, thank you band. Great message Henry!

// This is our last Sunday here. We are moving to FL. We will miss Five Oaks. Henry, thank you for always teaching God’s Word and desiring that we should learn and know God’s story and the love of Jesus.  Cathy Mahlum [God bless you as you make FL your home and as you look for a solid church.]

// Love the chandeliers – if I were a visitor I would want to go to this church – glad it’s my church home. Thank you Henry, life-changing fresh shift from sharing my “early Christian four-year-old conversion story and bringing faith messages” to my day to day conversations.

// Our worship team has so much talent. Thank you for your hard work! The new decorations on stage are beautiful – thank you! Happy Thanksgiving Five Oaks Church!

// Dan prepares us for the word, even when he is not leading the vocals. So effective with congregational readings. Thanks for being so transparent that we see Jesus – the love of Jesus. How Great Thou Art (Amen).

// Pastor Henry, by far one of the best studies you’ve ever done! Thank you.

// Loved the worship tonight!

// A minor issue, but have noticed for many weeks that some of the rows of chairs are quite close together and others far apart. [I know. We have to fix that.]

One More Thing

Hi Five Oakers, The weekend's coming and I have a few things I want to share with you.

INVITE_Main-Slide

The Weekend

Have you ever wanted to share your faith with someone and you didn't want to blow it? We're going to look at one of the most powerful ways to share your faith this weekend as we conclude our "Invite" series through the book of Acts. It sometimes feels counterintuitive, but it works.

I can hardly believe this journey "Invite series is over this weekend. What began for most two months ago started for our staff in the summer. Writing The Story of Acts even goes back farther. But it has been a great journey. And with the Invite challenges there is a sense in which we're just getting started.

FYI

Gerald R. McDermott on "Why You Can't Read Scripture Alone: Studying the Bible in light of the Great Tradition"

The real question is not whether tradition influences our interpretation of the Bible, but which tradition does so. And the best way to judge that tradition is to regularly compare it to the Great Tradition—another name for the great “cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) down through the centuries. It’s what C. S. Lewis called “mere Christianity,” the consensus on belief and behavior that the historic church has agreed on for the past 2,000 years.

Guillaume Bignon on "How a French Atheist Becomes a Theologian: Inside my own revolution"

If French atheists rarely become evangelical Christians, how much rarer it is for one to become an evangelical Christian theologian. So what happened?

One More Thing

Check out this great INVITE video. (If you are looking at this in an email, go to my website here.)