10 Tweets

Here is Tim's sermon in 10 tweets, The Most Scandalous, Mysterious, Barbaric, Controversial Christmas Series, “The Angels & the Shepherds”

1/ The angels and the shepherds together are a scandalous contradiction. It's the glory of heaven running into the manure in the field.

2/ God speaks good news, and we need to hear it from scripture and from each other.

3/ "God doesn't just do things; he also says things, and we need to know what he says so that we can believe in what he has done." - Phil Ryken

4/ "Aren't you going to introduce me?" Thankfully, the angel knew who he was introducing.

5/ The baby in Bethlehem wasn't just a savior. He was a savior who was the promised king, and God himself - a savior who could truly save.

6/ The sign wasn't the 10,000 angels that were about to light up the sky. The sign was the baby!

7/ At the center of Christianity are the facts of real events with real people. A baby was born, he lived a sinless life, he taught, performed miracles, and was crucified, then rose from the dead.

8/ Don't make the mistake of just assuming the gospel accounts aren't true. But also don't make the mistake of just assuming they are true.

9/ The image of the glorious angels and the humble shepherds point us to a glorious God, who became a humble man, a servant.

10/ The same scene reminds us that God, in his glory, accepts sinners like us, in our filth, because of Jesus.

Behind the Scenes

Here are some of the things going on behind the scenes at Five Oaks:

// 80 ornaments: That's how many went out over the last two weeks, each representing gifts for kids and families at Woodbury Elementary, a ministry initiative between our Kid's Hope USA ministry and Woodbury Elementary.

// Youth Specialties: That's the organization we're working with in our search for a new Student Ministries Pastor. Prime objective: We want a real youth pastor this time. Okay, that's what I said at staff meeting today and Tim said he knew I was going to say something like that. I have to joke about it so I don't cry in public.

// 3 million meals: That's the goal for the Woodbury community Feed My Starving Children event planned for October 8-11. We and other churches in Woodbury will forgo our own events this year to combine forces with the community and reach this massive goal.

// Two new staff: Melissa Borner has starting working in the Student Ministries department and Carol Jorgensen is heading up First Impressions. Here's a weird fact: Melissa lives on Jorgensen Lane.

// Rowdy and Reverent: That's a good description of the baptisms I witnessed at Sojourn Church (Midtown) in Louisville on Sunday. Big whoops and hollers celebrating like they do in heaven. Great faith stories and even congregational participation in the baptism. We're going to take a page from their book when we have our next baptisms this winter/spring. It's going to be a blast.

// Death by Meeting: At our monthly staff training today we watched Lencioni give a great talk that basically summarizes his book, Death by Meeting, in 20 minutes. Good stuff. Check it out here.