Love Granbury

Be Cheerful - wikiHow

2011-07-06T09:30:00.000-05:00

How to Be Cheerful

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Cheerfulness and kindness comes from the heart. However, sometimes it's hard to be cheerful and optimistic towards others. Here are some ways to draw out these wonderful qualities.

Steps

Be comfortable in your own skin. You are your own special person, with your own individual traits and strong points. Be proud of these abilities and be happy about who you are. Understand that even though you're not perfect, you can still soar to your full potential.
Help someone who is in need. Not everybody is as fortunate as you are, nor do some people have as much love as you do. Try to help them out by donating to charities, running a food drive, or even offering a simple smile. Your dedication will shine- and you'll make someone else happy along the way!
Look on the bright side, but be honest. If you're having a bad day, identify it! You shouldn't just ignore the fact. Then, after you've analyzed the fact that you're experiencing a bad day, think up ways to make it better. For example, say you're stuck in a terrible rainstorm, and need to get home. You should certainly identify what a problem this is. However, you can remind yourself how lucky it is that you're only 5 minutes away from your house- while your friend Mike is 40 minutes away. There's always something positive.
Listen. Reassure others, and listen to their thoughts. You may find some insight, or even a laugh!
Keep an open mind. Let the chips fall where they may. Something may look worse than it actually is.
Don't put people down. Instead, encourage them to rise and accomplish their goals. Display optimism, and cheer them on each and every step of the way. Your optimism will become contagious.
Never judge too harshly. Never judge a person by physical appearance. That quiet girl in the back of the room may look scary, but inside she may like soccer just like you! You never know if you'll be in that position someday and need a friend. Be a friend.

Tips

Don't be negative, cynical, or deceitful.
Always be sure to smile. It'll make everyone around you feel good!
Get out of the house. Sometimes being alone is good but loneliness can consume you. Take a bike ride in the sun or ask a friend out for coffee.
Say hi to people, not just the same people every day but let others know that your willing to be friends with everyone.
Listen to your mind some of the time, and your heart all of the time.

Warnings

Although you should always feel good about yourself, never become conceited. We all have our negative points too- no one is perfect, not even you.
Cheerfulness is often mistaken for being fake. Don't talk in little high voices and pretend to be perfect. You'll just end up annoying everybody.
Be careful; with the opposite sex, sometimes kindness can be misconstrued as a come on. Make sure your intentions are clear, if unwanted.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Be Cheerful. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Introducing Word Poets

2010-09-06T23:09:00.000-05:00

One of the most beautiful, yet challenging, books of the New Testament is the Epistle of James. Written by the brother of Jesus after he became a leader of the early church in Jerusalem, James stressed that an authentic faith is a faith that works; it is not merely verbal, but visible through our attitudes and actions. James is addressed to Jewish believers who were scattered throughout the Roman Empire who were struggling with spiritual apathy, disunity and materialism.

Through his letter, James encouraged these believers to obey the truth and to apply a living faith in Christ to attitudes and actions. He contrasts profession of faith with possession of faith, and argues that a genuine faith is expressed in deeds. James stressed that while faith alone justifies us before God (Romans 4), it is only by the works of faith that we are justified before others.

In James 1:22, James beautifully illustrates this point by saying "be doers of the word, and not hearers only." In the original Greek, the word for "doers" is "poietes"...a theatrical term meaning performer or poet. So James is telling us literally that we should be poets of God's word; that we would live our lives in such outward obedience to God's word, that we would be God's poetry to a watching world. What a beautiful image!

Beginning today, in the spirit of James 1:22, Love Granbury is starting a new email devotional called "Word Poets". Word Poets will be a short, weekly scripture passage and devotional thought focusing specifically on how the local Body of Christ can be God's poetry in our community. Look for it each week!

Help Others.org: For Children, Kindness Is Impulsive -- A Kindness Story

2010-06-26T17:58:00.000-05:00

Help Others.org: For Children, Kindness Is Impulsive -- A Kindness Story

The Baptist Standard :: The Newsmagazine of Texas Baptists - Granbury churches show love for their community

2010-05-23T22:40:00.000-05:00

The Baptist Standard :: The Newsmagazine of Texas Baptists - Granbury churches show love for their community

2010-05-03T23:11:00.001-05:00

Stay tuned for our announcement later this week about our May Love Granbury servant project! 

Kindness Explosion 2010 Wrap Up Summary

2010-04-22T07:30:00.003-05:00

"When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade"...so goes the old saying. The Apostle Paul put it like this in the book of Romans...

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

Such was the case with this past weekend's Love Granbury Kindness Explosion. Not even an all day torrential downpour on Saturday could deter the Church from sharing God's love with the greater Granbury area! In fact, the rain only served to make most of our kindness projects even more powerful than they normally would have been! How's that for God working things out for the better?? :-)

So here's a run down on the weekend's events:

The Friday night worship service was nothing short of amazing. To kick things off, we had a skit called "John's Creed" that was written and performed by a drama group made up of students from a number of different student ministries. The skit illustrated - in a pretty humorous way I might add - our focal scripture found in 1 John 4:12.

Lincoln Wiseman and Carolin George led us in worship on Friday night, and as usual, were superb! Then, our special guest speaker for the evening, Dr. Al Tizon, brought a great message about the true meaning and importance of unity in the Body of Christ. We hope to have Dr. Tizon's message uploaded to the Love Granbury blog sometime later this week so that you can listen to it or download it if you would like.

Dr. Tizon then led us through a time of repentance and renewal as the altars were filled with God's people pouring out their hearts. It was truly an amazing sight! Suffice to say that the Church went out of the Acton Baptist sanctuary on Friday night challenged, fired up and ready to spread God's love on Saturday during the Kindness Explosion.

We know they must have been fired up because the rain that had started on Friday evening and that continued pretty much all night long and on into the morning hours didn't even slow down most of Saturday's kindness projects. The cookouts at the city park and the couple of car washes that had been planned were scrubbed...for obvious reasons...but everything else went forward as planned! And by the way, those cookouts at the park have been rescheduled for this Thursday evening (Granbury Church of Christ) and next Saturday morning/afternoon (Lakeside Baptist). So instead of Kindness Explosion weekend, we are having Kindness Explosion week!! Actually, we did have one group that held their cookout in spite of the rain, and they had a great day basically delivering their hot dogs and hamburgers right to the neighbor's doors!

By the time the 10:00am start of Kindness Explosion rolled around, it was pouring down rain by the bucket full. As I said, this only served to make the kindness projects even more powerful. The groups doing carry out at Walmart, Brookshires, Big Lots, and David's Supermarkets were very popular people as they were ready and on the spot to help shoppers get to their vehicles under the cover of huge umbrellas. Those same people were simply blown away when the Love Granbury people let them get in their vehicle while they loaded up their groceries!

Others helped out by drying off the shopping carts as they came back in from the parking lots so shoppers would have dry carts to use. Still others grabbed mops and started mopping up the wet floors at the store entrances. It was a phenomenal sight! In the time that I was there, I can't tell you how many times I heard the question, "why are y'all doing this?" What a great opportunity to explain to people exactly why we were doing this...to show them an example of God's free and unconditional love!!

Then we had others pumping gas for people at several self serve gas stations around town. People were pleasantly surprised when they were greeted by one of our Love Granbury folks who offered to not only pump their gas (not much use in washing the windshields though) but to take their money in and pay for them as well!

We had one group standing out in the rain handing out bottled water to people as they entered one of the local gated communities...we had two groups on the Square - one handing out brownies - and one handing out fresh cut flowers to passersby.

We had a number of groups that visited some of the local nursing homes delivering cookies, singing for the residents and painting finger nails and toe nails for the ladies. One group even adapted to the bad weather and went and cleaned a senior citizen's home.

One of our groups served those who serve us by baking cookies and taking them to the local police station, the Sheriff's Department, the hospital, and the local fire departments!

We had one group that had a gigantic free garage sale that had been advertised and promoted in it's Healthy Kid's neighborhoods and through some of the local food pantries. There were tons of people who got items they desperately needed. One family came in that had had to sell just about everything they owned, including all of their furniture, in order to pay their bills after the husband had lost his job. They were able to get their entire house re-furnished through the free garage sale!!

Finally, after all the kindness projects were completed, a bunch of soaked and soggy saints gathered back at Acton Baptist Church for lunch with food donated by a number of local eating establishments. After a great lunch, we all gathered back in the Acton Baptist sanctuary for our closing celebration service. We were led in worship by the Acton Baptist Student Praise Band and if you were there, you know how great they were! Actually, this group had already played for several hours down at the town square under the Granbury Plaza pavilion, so they played their hearts out Saturday!

We heard testimonies from each and every congregation about their kindness project(s) and how they saw God work through their servant efforts. There were some awesome testimonies!
All in all, it was a fabulous day!! So many seeds of God's love were planted all around the community this weekend.

A special thank you to Jason Turbeville, Pastor Glen Ward and all the wonderful folks at Acton Baptist for being such incredible hosts this year! You guys did an awesome job and were so very gracious!

Thanks to all of you for making Kindness Explosion 2010 a wonderful success!!

Welcome to the Love Granbury Blog

2010-04-20T22:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the Love Granbury Blog page. We invite you to subscribe to the blog so that you can stay up to date with all that's going on with Love Granbury activities and service projects as we seek to Love Granbury into a relationship with Jesus Christ!

It's Time for an Out of Church Experience!!

2010-04-16T01:12:00.002-05:00

Are you ready for an "out of church" experience?? After months of planning, Kindness Explosion 2010 is here, and it's time for the Church to leave the building...time to get out and Love Granbury in Jesus name!

Be sure to join us tonight at 7:00pm at Acton Baptist Church for our community wide worship service that will kick off the Kindness Explosion weekend event. Great worship being led by Lincoln Wiseman and a great message brought by Dr. Al Tizon. You will not want to miss this worship service. Christians from a vast array of denominational and non-denominational backgrounds will come together as one unified Body of Christ to worship our awesome God! It will be an experience you'll not soon forget.

For more information about any of this weekend's Kindness Explosion events, call Micky Shearon at 817-408-5273.

Final KE2010 Meeting Tomorrow (April 14th)

2010-04-13T23:02:00.002-05:00

Please remember to be with us tomorrow, April 14th at 12:00 noon at La Fiesta for our FINAL meeting before the Kindness Explosion 2010 kicks off this Friday evening at Acton Baptist Church at 7:00pm. As always, we will have the back dining area reserved for the meeting.

I'll have everyone's tee-shirt orders ready for you to pick up, so if you have not already given me your tee-shirt money, please be sure to bring it with you to the meeting tomorrow. We will also be going over the final kindness projects everyone will be doing and I'll answer any final questions anyone might have. If you cannot be at the meeting tomorrow, please have someone attend in your place if at all possible.

Finally, I'll ask you all to be in prayer specifically for the following:

For Dr. Al Tizon, our Friday night speaker. I will be picking Dr. Tizon up from the airport on Thursday evening, so please pray for safe travel for him and that God will continue to impress upon his heart the message he wants us to hear on Friday night.

For Lincoln Wiseman, our worship leader for Friday night. Pray for God's annointing upon Lincoln as he puts together the worship service for Friday night. For the Acton Baptist Youth Praise Band as they will be leading us in worship and celebration at our wrap up service on Saturday afternoon.

For Tatianna Benson, our speaker for the Saturday afternoon wrap up service. Tati is coming in tomorrow afternoon from Atlanta, so please pray for her safe travel and God's annointing on her as well.

Pray for all those, who are yet unknown to you but not to God, that you will be touching on Saturday through your respective Kindness projects throughout this community. Pray that seeds of God's love will be planted in the hearts of every person touched by this weekend's Kindness Explosion and that the Holy Spirit will do it's work of drawing people into relationship with Christ.

Finally, pray that this weekend, especially Friday night, will be a time of repentance, renewal, restoration, fellowship and unity among the Body of Christ here in the greater Granbury area!

God is great!

Micky Shearon

On Mission: Shift from local to global thinking

2010-04-06T23:04:00.002-05:00

Send us around the world with the news of your saving power and your eternal plan for all mankind. Psalm 67:2 (LB)

God is a global God. He has always cared about the entire world. "God so loved the world...." (John 3:16) From the beginning He has wanted family members from every nation He created. The Bible says, "From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be." (Acts 17:26, CEV)

God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him.

Much of the world already thinks globally. The largest media and business conglomerates are all multi-national. Our lives are increasingly intertwined with those in other nations as we share fashions, entertainment, music, sports, and even fast foods. Probably most of the clothes you're wearing, and much of what you ate today was produced in another country.

We're more connected than we realize and God can use that connectedness as a means for us to fulfill his Great Commission. Jesus gave us a pattern for such involvement: "... You will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world." (Acts 1:8, CEV)

His followers are to reach out to their community (Jerusalem), to their country (Judea), to other cultures (Samaria) and to other nations (everywhere in the world). Note that our commission is simultaneous, not sequential.

We are called to be on mission to all four groups in some way. How would you identify these groups in your community? What nations do you believe God has called you to serve in some form?

On Mission: Shift from 'me-first' to 'God-first'

2010-04-04T12:15:00.002-05:00

Jesus said to his followers, 'Go everywhere in the world, and tell the Good News to everyone.' Mark 16:15 (NCV)

People with "me-first" faith ask, "How can God make my life more comfortable?" They want to use God for their purposes instead of being used for his purposes.

'God-first' believers know they've been saved to serve and made for mission. They're eager to receive a personal assignment and excited about the privilege of being used by God.

Their joy, confidence, and enthusiasm are contagious because they know they're making a difference. They wake up each morning expecting God to work through them in fresh ways.

Which type of believer do you want to be?

God invites you to participate in the greatest, largest, most diverse, and most significant cause in history - building his Kingdom. History is his story; he's building his family for eternity. Nothing matters more and nothing will last as long.

From the book of Revelation we know God's global mission will be accomplished, that someday the Great Commission will be the Great Completion. In heaven, an enormous crowd of people "from every race, tribe, nation, and language" will one day stand before Jesus Christ to worship him. (Revelation 7:9, CEV)

Becoming a 'God-first' believer will allow you to experience in advance a little of what heaven will be like.

Getting Your Church Noticed: Sticker Shock, of a Good Kind!

2010-03-02T15:16:00.002-06:00

Sticker shock at the gasoline pump is a subject on nearly everyone’s
mind these days. Ease a little bit of the burden in your own community
by lowering the price of gas at a chosen gas station for a few hours one
Saturday. You’ll see lines at the pump, but drivers will all have smiles on
their faces for a change!

Here’s how it would work: Your church would pledge and collect a
specific amount of money. Before your event, go to your congregation
to raise the necessary funds. Explain that your church would like to
offer a benefit to the community by helping people lower their gasoline
prices at the pump. That money would be used to allow customers at a
specific gas station in your town to pay less at the pump for a few hours
on a given day. For example, if the regular price of gas is $3.00, your
church could enable customers to buy the same gas at $2.75 from 11
a.m. to 1 p.m. on a specified Saturday.

Next, find a local gas station at a prominent intersection. Ask the
owner if your church could take two hours on a Saturday to offer
gasoline at prices lower than the regular cost. Explain that your church
will make up the difference. Say that your church simply wants to do
something helpful for the community. (It wouldn’t hurt to point out that
the event will probably garner the gas station lots of free publicity!)
Ask the owner approximately how much gas the station sells during
the specified two hours on any given Saturday. This will give you an
idea of how much money your church needs to raise.

This event will likely result in long lines at the pump. For once, that’s
a good thing! So don’t be conservative in your fundraising estimations.
The more money you collect before the event, the more you can give
away!

Before the big day, make lots of signs that tell the “new” price of
gas and the hours it will be offered. Make sure your church’s name is
clearly displayed.

If you want to go the extra mile, have church volunteers offer
drivers soft drinks as they wait their turn at the pump. Kids from your
youth group could be available to wash windows as an added service.
And when anyone asks why your church is sponsoring such an event,
just say that you want to help people and spread the love of God
around town!

KE2010 News

2010-03-02T11:08:00.002-06:00

Hey all you Kindness Explosion church reps...don't forget to make arrangements with your church's media person this week to have the Kindness Explosion intro video shown this next Sunday sometime during your service. Since the video is only 2:38, it fits perfectly into the beginning, middle or end of your service. Hint - it works really well in place of special music during the offertory!

But whenever it runs, lets try to have everyone run it this next Sunday. Also, if you run the video, you need to start having sign-up sheets available for people to sign up. I know a couple of you were planning on running it today. Thanks for the head start!!

Also, Janie Walker has graciously agreed to facilitate a weekly prayer calendar for us in the weeks leading up to KE2010. Each week, Janie will be Emailing out a scripture for us to meditate on, a short devotional thought, and a suggested prayer focus for that week. Actually, her first email went out yesterday for this week. Please make sure that Janie's email (office@paluxybaptist.org) is in your address book so her emails don't get spammed :-). I really want us as the corporate Body of Christ to spend some focused time in prayer asking God to bring together His Church in this community in a spirit of unity and worship that will result in an outflow of God's love to the hurting and unchurched people in this area!

Have a great week, and if you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call at 817-408-5273 or email me at micky@lovegranbury.org.

Love Granbury Announces KE2010 Speaker!

2010-02-23T00:10:00.001-06:00

Love Granbury is excited to announce that we will have Dr. Al
Tizon, Assistant Professor of Holistic Ministry at Palmer Theological Seminary of
Eastern University and Director of Word & Deed Network (www.worddeednetwork.org)
as our guest speaker for Kindness Explosion 2010! Dr. Tizon is a nationally
acclaimed speaker and we are thankful that God has opened the door for us to bring
him to Granbury! You will not want to miss hearing Dr. Al Tizon!

KE2010 Meeting Recap

2010-02-18T23:36:00.001-06:00

We really had a great meeting on Wednesday for Kindness Explosion 2010! My thanks to Jason Turbeville and Acton Baptist Church for hosting our meeting and for providing our lunch. If you were not able to make it, we really missed you! We are so excited about what God has in store for Kindness Explosion this year as the Body of Christ in the greater Granbury area comes together to love God with all we have (worship) and to love others as we love ourselves (community service).

Here's a recap of what we talked about at the meeting on Wednesday:

Each person needs to go back to their respective congregation and:
Begin talking up Kindness Explosion
Start getting people in your congregation signed up for Kindness Explosion (don't forget T-shirt sizes!)
Start brainstorming about possible service projects for your congregations and then let me know what projects you've decided on
Begin showing the Kindness Explosion information video in your worships service, to your Bible study classes, etc...
Utilize the Kindness Explosion flyers and bulletin inserts to spread the word in your congregations
For those of you who were not able to make it to the meeting, all of the resources (flyers, bulletin inserts, etc) are available on DVD. If you will call me at 817-408-5273 or email me at micky@lovegranbury.org, I will send you the Resource DVD.

As for the Kindness Explosion info video, you can download it by clicking any one of the following links:
http://www.youtube.com/user/lovegranbury
http://vimeo.com/groups/34998/videos
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Granbury-TX/Love-Granbury/76575694388?ref=ts

Please download the video and ask if it can be shown to your congregation at least twice between now and the end of March. When it's shown, be sure to have plenty of informational flyers to hand out as well as sign-up sheets.

In the meantime, should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. God bless!! 1 John 4:12

KE2010 Planning Meeting

2010-02-16T19:38:00.000-06:00

If you're in or around the local Granbury/Hood County area, please join us tomorrow, Wednesday, February 17th at 11:30 at Acton Baptist Church for our Kindness Explosion 2010 planning meeting. A complimentary lunch will be served. So come get your congregation signed up for Kindness Explosion or just come get the information to take back to your congregation!

Servant Series: Servants Do Every Task with Equal Dedication

2009-12-04T16:54:00.003-06:00

"Unless you are faithful in small matters, you won't be faithful in large ones. If you cheat even a little, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities." Luke 16:10 (NLT)

Servants do every task with equal dedication. Whatever they do, servants "do it with all their heart" (Colossians 3:23 NIV).

The size of the task is irrelevant. The only issue is, does it need to be done?

You will never arrive at the state in life where you're too important to help with menial tasks. God will never exempt you from the mundane. It's a vital part of your character curriculum. The Bible says, "If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody" (Galatians 6:3 NLT).

It is in these small services that we grow like Christ.

Jesus specialized in menial tasks that everyone else tried to avoid: washing feet, helping children, fixing breakfast, and serving lepers. Nothing was beneath him, because he came to serve. It wasn't in spite of his greatness that he did these things, but because of it, and he expects us to follow his example (John 13:15).

Small tasks often show a big heart. Your servant's heart is revealed in little acts that others don't think of doing, as when Paul gathered brushwood for a fire to warm everyone after a shipwreck (Acts 28:3).

He was just as exhausted as everyone else, but he did what everyone needed. No task is beneath you when you have a servant's heart.

Great opportunities often disguise themselves in small tasks. The little things in life determine the big things. Don't look for great tasks to do for God. Just do the not-so-great stuff, and God will assign you whatever he wants you to do.

There will always be more people willing to do "great" things for God than there are people willing to do the little things. The race to be a leader is crowded, but the field is wide open for those willing to be servants.

Sometimes you serve upward to those in authority, and sometimes you serve downward to those in need. Either way, you develop a servant's heart when you're willing to do anything needed. Remember, "small things done with great love, will change the world."

Servant Series: Servants Serve With What They Have

2009-11-27T13:50:00.003-06:00

"If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done." Ecclesiastes 11:4 (NLT)

Real servants do their best with what they have. Servants don't make excuses, procrastinate, or wait for better circumstances. Servants never say, "One of these days" or "When the time is right." They just do what needs to be done.

The Bible says, "If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done" (Ecclesiastes 11:4 NLT).

God expects us to do what we can, with what we have, wherever we are. Less-than-perfect service is always better than the best intentions.

One reason many people never serve is that they fear they are not good enough to serve. They have believed the lie that serving God is only for superstars. Sadly, some churches have actually fostered this myth by making "excellence" an idol, which makes people of average talent hesitant to get involved.

You may have heard it said, "If it can't be done with excellence, don't do it." Well, Jesus never said that! The truth is, almost everything we do is done poorly when we first start doing it...that's how we learn.

We need to practice the "good enough" principle: It doesn't have to be perfect for God to use and bless it. Remember, small things done with great love will change the world!

Servant Series: Servants Pay Attention

2009-11-25T17:33:00.002-06:00

"Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now." (Proverbs 3:28 TEV).

Real servants pay attention to needs. Servants are always on the lookout for ways to help others. When they see a need, they seize the moment to meet it, just as the Bible commands us: "Whenever we have the opportunity, we have to do what is good for everyone, especially for the family of believers" (Galatians 6:10 GWT).

When God puts someone in need right in front of you, he is giving you the opportunity to grow in servanthood. Notice that God says the needs of your church family are to be given preference, not put at the bottom of your "things to do" list.

We miss many occasions for serving because we lack sensitivity and spontaneity. Great opportunities to serve never last long. They pass quickly, sometimes never to return again. You may only get one chance to serve that person, so take advantage of the moment.

"Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now" (Proverbs 3:28 TEV).

John Wesley was an incredible servant of God. His motto was:

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can."

That is greatness. You can begin by looking for small tasks that no one else wants to do. Do these little things as if they were great things, because little things done with great love will change the world.

Servant Series: Serving God by Serving Others

2009-11-24T15:39:00.003-06:00

Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Mark 10:43 (MSG)

The world defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, and position. If you can demand service from others, you've arrived. In our self-serving culture with its me-first mentality, acting like a servant is not a popular concept.

Jesus, however, measured greatness in terms of service, not status. God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you.

This is so contrary to the world's idea of greatness that we have a hard time understanding it, much less practicing it. The disciples argued about who deserved the most prominent position, and 2,000 years later, Christian leaders still jockey for position and prominence in churches, denominations, and parachurch ministries.

Thousands of books have been written on leadership, but few on servanthood. Everyone wants to lead; no one wants to be a servant. We would rather be generals than privates. Even Christians want to be "servant-leaders," not just plain servants. But to be like Jesus is to be a servant. That's what he called himself.

God created us for service, not for self-centeredness. Without a servant's heart, you will be tempted to misuse your gift for personal gain or even tempted to use it as an excuse to exempt yourself from meeting some needs.

God often tests our hearts by asking us to serve in ways we're not gifted. If you see a man fall into a ditch, God expects you to help him out, not say, "I don't have the gift of mercy or service."

While you may not be gifted for a particular task, you may be called to do it if no one who is gifted at it is around. Your primary ministry should be in the area of your giftedness, but your secondary service is wherever you're needed at the moment.

Your gift reveals your ministry, but your servant's heart will reveal your maturity. No special talent or gift is required to stay after a meeting to pick up trash or stack chairs. Anyone can be a servant. All it requires is character...the character that comes from maturing walk with Christ...the suffering servant.

It is possible to serve in church for a lifetime without ever being a servant. You must have a servant's heart.

How can you know if you have the heart of a servant?

Jesus said, "You can tell what they are by what they do" (Matthew 7:16 CEV).

Servant Series: Servants Make Themselves Available

2009-11-22T18:12:00.002-06:00

"No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier" (2 Timothy 2:4 NASB).

Real servants make themselves available to serve. Servants don't fill up their time with other pursuits that could limit their availability. They want to be ready to jump into service when called on.

Much like a soldier, a servant must always be standing by for duty: "No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier" (2 Timothy 2:4 NASB).

If you only serve when it's convenient for you, you're not a real servant. Real servants do what's needed, even when it's inconvenient.

Are you available to God anytime? Can he mess up your plans without you becoming resentful? As a servant, you don't get to pick and choose when or where you will serve.

Being a servant means giving up the right to control your schedule and allowing God to interrupt it whenever he needs to.

If you will remind yourself at the start of every day that you are God's servant, interruptions won't frustrate you as much, because your agenda will be whatever God wants to bring into your life. Servants see interruptions as divine appointments for ministry and are happy for the opportunity to practice serving.

The Mystery of Grace

2009-11-20T15:42:00.001-06:00

"I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us." - Anne Lamot

Faith is Something We Do

2009-10-24T10:12:00.003-05:00

“Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15-16 NIV).

Faith is more than something you just feel. Many people confuse emotions and feelings with faith. They come to church and they’re moved emotionally, they're inspired, and they're stimulated. But that doesn’t mean they’re walking in faith.

The Bible says faith is something we do, not just what we feel: “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15-16 NIV).

In other words, faith is not mere sentimentality. Let’s say I go out on the street and I see someone who is homeless and destitute. I see that person is hungry, cold, in need of clothing and shelter or in need in some other way. Would I be showing great faith if I walked up and said, “Cheer up! Don't worry, be happy! Feel good! Put on a happy face?”

It doesn’t take much faith to do that. Faith carries compassion and compassion is love in action! Faith says, “I’ll do anything I can to stop your hurt.” Throughout the New Testament, the witnesses say Jesus was moved with compassion for people. Jesus showed us that faith is practical.

When we see a need, we do something about it. We don't just toss out a quick --“Well, I'll pray for you.” Faith also doesn't judge. Jesus never commanded us to "evaluate" the situation before showing compassion. We are commanded to be faithful and God is responsible for the results. The Bible says, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.” If we see a Christian in need, we respond because that brother or sister is part of our family.

When you become a believer, you became part of God’s family. And as a result, you have some family responsibilities: You care when other Christians are hurt, or in pain, or in grief, or in sorrow, or in need. You show your faith by what you do.

It’s easy to think, ‘But I can't meet everybody's needs!’ That’s right. None of us can. But we can meet some. What we can do may not make a difference to everybody, but it will make a difference to those we help.

Think of it like this: When the tide went out, hundreds of starfish were stranded on the beach. A little boy began to pick them up and throw the starfish back into the ocean.

A man came along and asked, “What are you doing?” The boy said, “I’m putting the starfish back in the ocean.”

The man said, “But there's too many! You can’t make a difference for all of them!”

The boy tossed another starfish into the water, and said, “I bet it makes a difference for that one.”

One-by-one. Great opportunities to serve God often come as small opportunities to serve those right here in the greater Granbury area who are in need.

Love Is...

2009-10-07T23:06:00.002-05:00

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. ~ Luke 6:32-35

"To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name." - Thomas Merton

All that and a Bag of Chips!

2009-09-27T14:06:00.002-05:00

We had a great time this weekend with our first Love Granbury servant evangelism project of the fall. We had a great turnout and it was a huge success. We had hot dog cookouts at three different locations yesterday...two at the Granbury City Park and one at the Granbury Middle School football stadium.

We were able to give away over 700 free hot lunches to people who were out at soccer, baseball and football games at those locations on Saturday. With every free lunch, each person was given a "kindness card" expressing to that individual that just as the hot dog lunches were absolutely free, so is God's love! How awesome that a hot dog, a bag of chips and a bottle of water can be such a tangible expression of God's love! So more than 700 people were told yesterday that God loves them freely and without condition.

Pray with us that the seeds that were planted yesterday will be be watered and nurtured and that they will take root in the lives of these folks!

We now look forward to next months Love Granbury Fall Festivals in Indian Harbor, Canyon Creek and Comanche Harbor! Make plans now to join us for the fun and excitement of sharing God's love in such a simple and natural, yet profound way!

Neighborly Love

2009-09-06T22:29:00.003-05:00

"The second most important command is this: 'You must love other people the same as you love yourself.' These two commands are the most important."

-- Mark 12:31 (ERV)

The second great commandment also deals with love. This time, however, Jesus focuses our attention on our love for other people -- our neighbors. In giving these two commandments -- love God and love neighbor -- Jesus has summed up the heart of the Ten Commandments Exodus 20), God's blueprint for morality. The first four commandments focus on honoring God. The remaining six focus upon treating our
neighbors fairly.

However, Jesus takes them a step deeper and makes them simpler to remember. More than honoring God and treating others honorably, we are called to love them. Our motivation and passion are suddenly at issue and not just our behavior. God made us for relationship with him and with others. Our relationships are to all be marked by our love, the same type of love that sent Jesus to the cross for us.

Love Granbury Fall Service Opportunities

2009-08-28T23:12:00.003-05:00

Well the kids are all back in school and summer is winding down (at least according to the calendar), and Love Granbury is getting ready to kick off it's Fall and Winter schedule of servant evangelism projects! Here's what we've got scheduled so far:

September 26th 12 noon - 2:00pm
Hot dog cook-outs at City Park soccer fields, Moore Street Baseball Complex and the Granbury Middle School football field (Pee-Wee Football Assc.). Free hot dogs, chips, and soft drinks/water.

October 31st 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Fall Festival Block Parties in Indian Harbor, Comanche Harbor and Canyon Creek neighborhoods. Free hot dogs, chips, soft drinks/water, bounce houses, face painting, kids games and lots of other fun stuff!

December 19th 12 noon - 2:00pm
Free gift wrapping at Walmart. Free Christmas gift wrapping for anyone who wants to bring their purchases to be wrapped. We will also be providing free coffee and hot chocolate.

Please come out and join us for any or all of these service opportunities!

Radical Forgiveness

2009-08-28T22:50:00.002-05:00

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, when my brother won't stop doing wrong to me, how many times must I forgive him? Should I forgive him as many as seven times?"

-- Matthew 18:21 (ERV)

Like so many of us do, Peter wants to know the limits of the Lord's demand for radical forgiveness. While by human standards Peter's "7 times" principle is quite generous, in Jesus' Kingdom, to even ask for a limit to forgiveness is to reveal that his mind is still dominated by worldly thinking. Heavenly thinking means going to a cross and forgiving your crucifixion executioners! Jesus takes the heavenly
number of 7 and multiplies it exponentially to stress that we are to forgive as we have been forgiven and want to be forgiven. In the Father's Kingdom family, the children must forgive like the Father!

Service Gives Our Lives True Meaning

2009-08-21T23:04:00.003-05:00

“Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body” (Romans 12:5 MSG).

We are going to give our life for something. What will it be—a career, a sport, a hobby, fame, wealth? None of these will have lasting significance. Service is the pathway to real significance. It is through ministry that we discover the meaning of our lives. The Bible says, “Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body” (Romans 12:5 MSG).

As we serve together in God’s family, our lives take on eternal importance. Paul said, “I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less . . . because of what you are a part of” (1 Corinthians 12:14a, 19 MSG).

God wants to use us to make a difference in his world. He wants to work through each of us. What matters is not the duration of our lives, but the donation of it. Not how long we lived, but how you lived.

There really is no reason good enough to not be serving in some manner. Consider these excuses from scripture:

• Abraham was old,
• Jacob was insecure,
• Leah was unattractive,
• Joseph was abused,
• Moses stuttered,
• Gideon was poor,
• Samson was codependent,
• Rahab was immoral,
• David had an affair and all kinds of family problems,
• Elijah was suicidal,
• Jeremiah was depressed,
• Jonah was reluctant,
• Naomi was a widow,
• John the Baptist was eccentric to say the least,
• Peter was impulsive and hot-tempered,
• Martha worried a lot,
• The Samaritan woman had several failed marriages,
• Zacchaeus was unpopular,
• Thomas had doubts,
• Paul had poor health, and
• Timothy was timid.

That is quite a variety of misfits, but God used each of them in his service. He will use each of us, too, if we stop making excuses.

Accepting Children

2009-08-20T21:31:00.004-05:00

"If a person accepts a little child like this in my name, then that person accepts me." -- Matthew 18:5 (ERV)

There are two key thoughts here. First, Jesus is talking about actual
children. His rebuke of the disciples when they didn't welcome children, but pushed them away, is clearly an example of that.

But, there is a deeper issue that will dominate the rest of the chapter. Because children in Jesus' culture were powerless, without rights, and vulnerable, they became the symbol for people who are powerless, without rights, and vulnerable. On the surface, they may not have anything to offer the community. But Kingdom thinking is upside down to "the way men think."

To be on the side of God means to be on the side of welcoming, accepting, and receiving "little ones" whether they are actual children or simply people who are little in the sight of the world. Because Jesus adamantly rejects the normal channels
to fame and fortune and instead walks the way of the cross -- the punishment reserved for the powerless, those without rights, and those who are vulnerable -- his disciples should welcome and care for those like their Savior!

A Christian Who Doesn't Serve is a Contradiction

2009-08-19T22:46:00.001-05:00

The Bible says, “He saved us and called us to be his own people, not because of what we have done, but because of his own purpose” (2 Timothy 1:9 TEV).

Peter adds, “You were chosen to tell about the excellent qualities of God, who called you” (1 Peter 2:9 GWT).

You are called to serve God. Growing up, you may have thought that being called by God was something only missionaries, pastors, nuns, and other full-time church workers experienced, but the Bible says every Christians is called to service (Ephesians 4:4–14; see also Romans 1:6–7; 8:28–30; 1 Corinthians 1:2, 9, 26; 7:17; Philippians 3:14; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Peter 1:3).

Anytime you use your God-given abilities to help others, you are fulfilling your calling. The Bible says, “Now you belong to him . . . in order that you might be useful in the service of God” (Romans 7:4 TEV).

How much of the time are you being useful in the service of God? In some churches in China, they welcome new believers by saying, “Jesus now has a new pair of eyes to see with, new ears to listen with, new hands to help with, and a new heart to love others with.”

Giving Respect

2009-08-15T17:12:00.004-05:00

In community outreach, there are many variables that can determine success or failure in terms of our effectiveness. One of those variables is attitude. The attitude of the one serving toward the one being served can either be the "attraction" to Christ's message of unconditional love, or the "distraction" from that same message. Simply put, our attitudes many times determine the results of our outreach. One component of our attitude is respect...respect for those we encounter during the course of our outreach. Many times you'll hear the saying, "respect has to be earned." However, Christ's example shows us a different way.

Respect is given automatically, it is not earned.

When we set ourselves up as people that insist on having others earn our respect we are not living in a serving capacity. If we are living from that perspective we are really asserting that all others serve us. We are living from the vantage point that it is within our capacity to discern the motives of people. I in fact don’t understand the motives of those around me very well at all. I am pretty well convinced that this level of discernment is better left in the hands of God.

I don’t know about your life but mine happens at a rate that is so fast that I can’t manage to keep ahead of the pace of things in such a way that I can conceivably make people earn my respect. I meet a lot of people. I am therefore more or less forced to believe the best about people on a regular basis. If it were necessary that I had to make each person earn the right to be respected there would be very few functional relationships happening in my life. Most people would never know where they stood with me because they would be waiting for me to let them know that they had earned my respect. What a horrible, arrogant way to live.

I figured out a long time ago that I must defer to people, even when sometimes those people don’t seem to have the same values as me. Sometimes the differences are even more subtle. We can differ on the grounds we come from different backgrounds, thus we don’t communicate in the same way. When we get to heaven some of us are going to be dismayed to discover that the people we categorized as being unworthy of our puny respect were great in the eyes of God.

As we serve people is it essential that we show respect to every single person we look to serve. We don’t have the time to play a game of “Who is worthy” and who is not. If we were to wait until all earned our respect before we gave it, life would look quite odd. We would live standoffish lives that would hold off from getting involved with others until we felt they were somehow worthy of our little bits of respect and adoration. Life moves at a rapid pace. As we give respect to all, we are behaving like Jesus. We are assuming the best about the person in question and we are not placing ourselves above that person as their judge. Truly, the last place in the world a person needs to be who is jaded is involved in outreach. We need to assume the best about others before we connect with anyone.

The question comes up “Is it ever appropriate to use the term ‘respect’ as something we earn?” I want to suggest this is entirely the wrong word to use. Most of the time when people use this word they are really searching for the term “trust.” One can speak of having a relationship of high “trust” with someone else and speak in truthful, healthy communication. To have that is to possess a beautiful and rare thing. When that is called for, use it, but realize it is going to be the occasional relationship, the rare connection. That type of relationship is so rare, you will only experience it during a handful of occasions in a lifetime.

(adapted from Steve Sjogren's "Serve" E-Zine)

More Healthy Kids Praises

2009-08-09T16:02:00.003-05:00

From Thursday, June 4th through last Friday, August 7th, a total of 29,561 hot, delicious, and nutritious lunches were served to the children of the greater Granbury area!

A very sincere and heartfelt thanks to all of you and your volunteers who worked to deliver and distrbute the lunches, to Alicia Hernandez and her amazing Child Nutrition Department at Granbury ISD, and to all the rest of you who supported the effort through your prayers.

Many of our churches have committed to the extended summer program and will be preparing their own lunches and delivering them to their respective lunch sites for the next two weeks before school starts. Please pray for these churches and their volunteers as they continue the work of Healthy Kids. God bless.

Here are the final numbers for each of our four Healthy Kids lunch sites for the "official" Healthy Kids Summer Lunch program:
Brazos River Acres (Triple Cross Church) 5,081
City of Granbury City Beach (St. Francis Cabrini) 1,475
Oak Trail Shores Pool ( First Baptist Granbury) 1,759
Oak Trail Shores Ruth's Place (FUMC Granbury) 2,226
Montego Bay (Acton Baptist) 1,268
Sky Harbor (First Baptist Granbury) 983
Whippoorwill Bay (First Baptist Granbury) 846
Arrowhead Shores (FUMC Granbury) 1,416
Rancho Brazos (Acton UMC) 2,311
Sandy Beach (Acton UMC) 746
City of Granbury City Park (Granbury COC) 1,631
Lake Granbury Harbor (Granbury Baptist) 3,843
City of Granbury City Beach (First Presbyterian) 1,039
Indian Harbor Teen Center (Lakeside Baptist) 937
Comanche Harbor (Lakeside Baptist) 1,548
Canyon Creek (Lakeside Baptist) 1,382
Indian Harbor Pool (Lakeside Baptist) 1,070

If you or your church would like to volunteer to work with Healthy Kids this summer, you can contact Micky Shearon at 817-408-5273, or Norma Wright at 817-279-0313, and for further information you can visit the Granbury ISD web page or the Love Granbury home page.

Redemptional Wisdom

2009-08-08T16:47:00.002-05:00

Then Jesus said to his followers, "If any person wants to follow me, he must say 'No' to the things he wants. That person must accept the cross (suffering) that is given to $him, and he must follow me. The person that wants to save his life will lose it. And every person that gives his life for me will save it. It is worth nothing for a person to have the whole world, if he loses his soul. A person could never pay enough to buy back his soul." -- Matthew 16:24-26 (ERV)

Up is down. Down is up. The high cost is cheap. The cheap cost is high. First will be last. Last will be first. The least will be greatest. Jesus preached an upside down Kingdom. In many ways, his values are against "Conventional Wisdom." Instead, Jesus teaches a "Redemptional Wisdom" -- a wisdom that calls us to surrender our lives to the will of God, live for him, and serve others. It is in giving up our lives for something and Someone greater that we truly find life.

There are so many things we can invest our lives in that ultimately become our masters. The harder we work to attain them, the more we find we have lost that vital essence of living that is God's gift to us. The radical example and call of Jesus is to follow him in laying down our lives to honor God and redeem others -- there are no short-cuts.

God's Economy

2009-08-06T23:11:00.002-05:00

Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received ... but only what you have given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.

- St. Francis of Assisi

Tell It Like It Could Be

2009-08-03T21:47:00.003-05:00

"Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you;' and their sight was restored” (Matthew 9:29–30 NIV).

You can set people up for success or failure by your expectations.

People tend to become what they think we expect them to be. If you communicate to the people around you that you expect them to be lazy, uncreative, and negative, that’s probably how they will respond to you. On the other hand, if you treat people like winners, they’re likely to become winners. In the same way, if we treat people like they are unimportant and don't matter, they will respond in that manner. Psychologists call it “The Pygmalion Effect.”

• The best salesmen expect customers to buy their product.
• The best executives expect employees to have creative ideas.
• The best speakers expect audiences to be interested.
• The best leaders expect people to want to follow.
• The best teachers expect students to learn.

Would you like to bring out the best in those around you? Here's the key: Treat them the way they could be! Don’t just “tell it like it is.” Tell it like it could be.

Jesus said, “According to your faith it will be done to you” (Matthew 9:29 NIV). What are you expecting this week from yourself . . . from others . . . from God?

Think About It

2009-08-02T23:26:00.000-05:00

There are only 2 reasons everyone is not a christian: 1) They do
not know a Christian or... 2) They do.

2009-08-01T23:05:00.001-05:00

Sunday...assemble...Body of Christ...the Church...Sunday...worship...discipleship...service. This Sunday, as we assemble as the Body of Christ...the Church...may we focus on our corporate worship of the God who loved us so completely that He literally laid down His own life for us. May the realization of that great love move us to a deeper level of discipleship-desiring to know more intimately this God who so passionately and radically loves us. And as we come to know him more intimately, may we be moved to a life of service to others as we realize that God's most intimate desire is to love others through us...so that they will come to know Him. Enjoy your Sunday!

Capitalize What We Prioritize

2009-07-31T13:03:00.004-05:00

Have you ever wondered (like me), why the English language capitalizes the word "I" and lower-cases the words "you" "they" "we" "us"? Could it be that we capitalize what we prioritize? Just sayin'. :-)

Ruined for Love’s Sake

2009-07-29T21:31:00.001-05:00

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

- Hosea 6:6

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we as Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined.

- Søren Kierkegaard,
Danish philosopher, theologian, and ethicist (1813-1855)

Significantly Insignificant

2009-07-29T07:17:00.001-05:00

Then turning toward the woman, [Jesus] said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."

- Luke 7:44-47

Every spiritual master in every tradition talks about the significance of small things in a complex world. Small actions in social life, small efforts in the spiritual life, small moments in the personal life. All of them become great in the long run, but all of them look like little or nothing in themselves. One of my favorite writers, Steve Sjogren, says that "small things done with great love will change the world." So whether it's quietly and anonymously picking up someone's check at lunch today, lending an ear to a friend who has a problem, or just simply holding the door for someone, remember that small, seemingly insignificant things become holy moments in time when done out of a heart for Christ.

Blessed to be a Blessing

2009-07-28T07:50:00.001-05:00

Jesus told the people to sit on the ground. Jesus took the seven loaves of bread and the fish. Then Jesus gave thanks to God for the food. Jesus divided the food and gave it to the followers. The followers gave the food to the people. All the people ate and were full. After this, the followers filled seven baskets with the pieces of food that were not eaten. There were about 4,000 men there that ate. There were also women and children that ate.

-- Matthew 15:35-38 (ERV)

Jesus gave directions, gave thanks, and gave food so the disciples could give what the people needed to be filled and satisfied. These are wonderful blessings that Jesus gives. When we look to him and seek to really serve him, he blesses us with power and ability above our normal human capacity. This zone of blessing and ministry can also be ours if we will offer Jesus ourselves and remove the things we allow to get in the way of our faith in him. Bless you as you go through your day today quietly being the hands and feet of Christ.

2009-06-28T16:54:00.001-05:00

Did you ever stop to think about what a worshipful experience it is to sit and watch the weather channel? Our God is an awesome God indeed!

Love Granbury May Project Report

2009-05-23T23:23:00.001-05:00

What a great time we had this morning during our May Love Granbury service project.

This month we were asked by Mission Granbury to assist one of their clients in getting his property cleaned up around his house. It seems the elderly gentleman has fallen on some pretty tough times the last year or so. In fact, he just got released from the hospital a couple of weeks ago after suffering a mild stroke. His property had become so littered with trash and debris that the Hood County Health Department was getting ready to condemn his home...which would effectively evict the man from his home, making him homeless.

So this morning, the Church stepped up and showed up to be the hands and feet of Christ. On Friday afternoon, we had a 30 yard capacity trash dumpster delivered to the man's home, paid for by Mission Granbury and the Love Granbury ministry at Lakeside Baptist. In a little less than 2 hours this morning, our crew had completely filled the 30 yard dumpster.

While we didn't finish the project today, we made great progress! The man was so excited and happy! He just kept saying over and over again, "thank you so much for all you're doing." On Tuesday, the filled trash dumpster will be picked up and an empty one delivered. We are planning on returning to the man's home next Saturday, May 30th to finish the job.

If you'd like to join us and help out, we will be meeting at Lakeside Baptist at 10:00am next Saturday morning. What an incredible privilege to serve others as Ambassadors of Christ!

Kindness Explosion 09 Wrap Up

2009-04-19T22:55:00.001-05:00

"This was so much fun…I want to do this every week" was what one participant of Kindness Explosion 09 had to say during the closing testimony time on Saturday afternoon. That pretty well summed up what most people said was by far the best Kindness Explosion yet. Twenty churches, hundreds of Believers from all different denominations, all coming together for the purpose of worshiping God and loving the community in His name.

Friday night's Kick-off service really set the tone for the weekend as Lincoln Wiseman and his band led in worship. The Rev. Tim Adams, who drove all afternoon through torrential downpours from San Antonio, delivered an inspiring message about the Good News that we have been entrusted to share and the power that it has to not only change individual lives both spiritually and physically, but to renew and transform entire neighborhoods and communities as well. Especially when the Body of Christ comes together to join our hearts, our hands, and our resources!

Then on Saturday morning, under cloudy and threatening skies, the Church went out to blanket the entire community with the love of Christ. What an incredible day it turned out to be in spite of the weather…which by the way, turned out to be not so bad. Well over 1,800 hot dogs, over a 1,000 bottles of water, hundreds of soft drinks, nearly 100 dozen homemade cookies and brownies, dozens and dozens of cars washed, dozens of bags of trash and litter picked up, countless smiles, and so many other acts of humble service done in the name and kindness of Christ…all with no strings attached!

Then after the Kindness Explosion ended at 2:00 pm, the Church came back to Granbury Baptist for an "agape feast" of food donated by numerous local eating establishments. Already the stories about the day were beginning to pour out as we gathered around the tables to eat. After lunch, everyone gathered in the sanctuary to hear the reports of how God worked throughout the day. Over the next few days, I'll be sharing some of those stories with you on this blog, so stay tuned!

I just want to thank all the congregations that took part in this year's Kindness Explosion and I hope you truly received a blessing for taking part. If you were a part of Kindness Explosion, be sure and spread the word about your KE experience to your brothers and sisters in your congregation and start encouraging them even now to plan on being a part of Kindness Explosion 10. Speaking of, be sure to go ahead and mark your calendars now with the dates for Kindness Explosion 10. Kindness Explosion 10 will take place on Friday, April 16^th and Saturday, April 17^th, 2010.

The Church has left the building!

Gas, Groceries and God’s Love

2009-01-25T00:46:00.001-06:00

"Looks like you guys picked the wrong day to be out here," was the first remark we heard this morning a little after 9:00 AM as we gathered for our January Love Granbury service project. The temperature was a crisp 25 degrees and the wind chill was down around 15 degrees as we arrived at the Brookshires Gas Station on Morgan Street to pump gas and the Brookshires Supermarket to bag groceries and do carry out and cart return.

And even though it was pretty chilly, the look on people's faces when confronted with the unconditional love of God was more than enough to keep us warm. The people's reactions were varied…ranging from "I can't believe you guys are out here today," to "Why would you do this on such a cold day?" One of the students in our group had a great response when asked why we would be doing this on such a cold day. He simply replied, "hey, anybody can pump somebody's gas when it's sunny and seventy-five, but it really means something when it's cloudy and twenty five."

It never ceases to amaze me how God's love can be shown and shared through something like pumping someone's gas or bagging their groceries and carrying them to their car.

KE09 First Organizational Meeting

2009-01-14T00:05:00.000-06:00

We are going to be having our first organizational meeting for KE09 on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 11:30 AM. We will be meeting at the Hood County Justice Center, located at 1200 W. Pearl Street (right next to the Granbury City Park) in the Hood County Court at Law jury meeting room. Just come in to the Justice Center and we will have signs and directions for where you need to go to find us. Also, we will have a light lunch provided for you at the meeting at no cost to you.

We are so excited about this year's Kindness Explosion. Every one of the congregations who participated last year have already indicated that they are going to join us again this year, and we know of at least several new congregations joining us this year! That's one of the most exciting things about Kindness Explosion - seeing God bring His church...His Body - together in unity and in love to reach out in His name to the greater Granbury/Hood County area.

We look forward to seeing each of you on Tuesday, January 27th at 11:30 AM.

Love Granbury Announces Host for Kindness Explosion 09!

2009-01-09T16:31:00.002-06:00

Love Granbury is excited to announce that Granbury Baptist Church will be our hosts for the third annual Kindness Explosion 09, April 17-18, 2009!

Granbury Baptist is one of the fastest growing churches in Hood County and they have a tremendous passion for reaching out to the community, and we are so excited that they have agreed to host this years event.

The Kindness Explosion is a two day event where local churches of varied denominational backgrounds come together to worship and pray together, and then go out into the community and serve the community as one church - all to the glory of God! We believe that there is no greater witness than the church, as one unified body of Believers, reaching out in genuine love and compassion to the community through humble acts of kindness. We seek to redefine the church in our community by actively planting seeds of God's unconditional love in the hearts of every man, woman and child in this community.

Stay tuned for more details about KE09 coming in the next few weeks!

December Love Granbury

2008-12-21T16:32:00.002-06:00

Hey, it's been a while since we've posted anything to the Love Granbury site...not that we haven't been "loving Granbury" for past six months...to the contrary...that's one of the reasons we haven't made any posts is because it was an enormously busy summer and fall! So many awesome things have been going on in the world of servant evangelism...or lifestyle evangelism...or outflow...or whatever you choose to call the act of the church getting outside the brick and mortar and into the community.

This past Saturday was a great example of that as we did what has become our annual December service project - free gift wrapping at the Walmart Supercenter here in Granbury. We were doing free gift wrapping and giving away free hot chocolate and coffee to all the last minute shoppers ar the Granbury Walmart Supercenter. It's always great to see the looks on people's faces when you tell them that what you're doing is absolutely free...no strings attached! A big "thank-you" to Damon Johnson at Walmart for allowing us to take over the front of his store for a few hours on Saturday.

Teaching Our Children Well

2008-06-08T23:40:00.003-05:00

The old saying goes that "children live what they learn and they learn best what they experience." Indeed, if you think about it, life's most important lessons are best learned experientially. There are just some things you can't learn through classroom theory. You simply have to get out and get your hands dirty. This fact occurred to me again this afternoon as I watched our middle school students pull out of our church parking lot today to head off to Mission Arlington for their summer mission trip. They will spend the week helping those in the greater Arlington area who are in need. They'll be doing everything from helping serve meals, picking up donated food, clothing and furniture items, to general maintenance work. They will also be putting on two VBS sessions each afternoon for children living in low-income apartment complexes. Some of them will experience things this week they've never experienced before. Some have seldom, if ever, been outside the very sheltered world of Granbury, Texas, and many have never experienced being around abject poverty and all that goes with it. The lessons they will learn this week will stay with them for the balance of their lives and it will impact them in ways that will change how they see the world. My 19 year old daughter went to Mission Arlington in her 7th grade year and it had a lasting impact on her. She has turned out to be one of the most loving, caring, compassionate and empathetic young adults I know of, and I credit much of that to what she experienced at Mission Arlinton on her first mission trip. Even as a 7th grader, it was easy to tell that that mission trip changed her. As a parent, when you ask your teenager how a youth activity went, you're generally lucky if you get much more than, "fine" or "it was okay." The night Courtney came home from Mission Arlington, she started downloading everything and she didn't stop for several weeks. Every time she had the opportunity, she was telling someone about the different children she had encountered during that week. I have no doubt that this years group of middle school students will come back changed as well. My prayer for them this week, along with the obvious prayer that God will minister His love through them to all the children He brings into their path this week, is that God will change their own hearts...that their hearts will be broken for others and filled to overflowing with God's unconditional love. Please join with me in praying for our students and the wonderful adults who have taken time away from thier busy schedules to serve with them this week.

More KE08 Testimonies!

2008-05-04T16:15:00.003-05:00

I continue to hear from people all over town about their wonderful impressions of the Kindness Explosion 08 event a few weeks ago. I thought I would share just a few of them with you here on the Love Granbury blog:

...a huge word of appreciation for "Love Granbury" today, Sat., I was just downtown, and the young people were handing out water/beverages and the neat red cards to everyone....what a neat and special idea and the young people were so precious......I am savoring my water! Thanks for this endeavor and what a positive influence for our community as well as the many visitors who were wandering the square. ~ M. Bingham

Just a quick note to affirm Love Granbury. As I sat with other event participants in worship this weekend, I couldn't help but think that the annual March For Jesus event is coming soon, but we have chosen not to organize that locally this year. It's funny, the major theme of March for Jesus was always a "church without walls." I sat there and thought, Love Granbury has taken up that mantle to bring together the community of Christ in Hood County...I believe it is going to ignite in our community...this is a new day and WHAT A DAY IT IS! ~ J. Phillips

Love Granbury deserves two thumbs up! Our church is already looking forward to April 17-18, 2009! It will only get bigger and better each time! ~ K. Coleman

WOW! I'm sorry we were so late to sign up, but I'm so glad we did. We will be one of the first to sign up next year!!!!!!!!!! ~ K. Deel

All any of us can say is that God is GOOD, and we give Him all the honor and praise and glory for He alone, is worthy!

Servant Evangelism Tip For The Week - Starting Small

2008-04-26T22:41:00.003-05:00

So once you catch the vision for bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world, it's common to assume the way to begin is to try to do "something really big for God!" That's certainly the "American way," but in our experience, bigger isn't always better. We recommend doing something profound: Start small. Remember our motto: small things done with great love will change the world. Small seeds grow into tall trees, and they're small for a reason - to take greatest advantage of the tiniest of openings and opportunities.

Contrary to what you may have been led to believe by television and the movies, changing the world is a pretty simple and humble process. Though it's serious business, it's often really fun, too. You don't have to write a best-selling book or become a missionary to some far away foreign land. World-changing opportunities will present themselves when you step out your door. One group of Christ-followers we know had a simple idea as they watched people walking down the boardwalk at the beach in Santa Cruz, California. They'd noticed lots of people uncomfortably brushing the sand off their feet as they walked along and wondered, "Didn't Jesus teach his followers to serve by washing feet?" One of the group members relates this story from their experience:

"Our church friends said, 'No one is going to let you touch their feet! You guys are crazy!' But they couldn't have been more wrong.

We set up at the Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz about 1:00 in the afternoon. There were just a handful of us. We chose a spot right at the entrance to the beach. Our supplies consisted of two fold-up chairs, two plastic containers, paper towels, liquid Dial soap, a five gallon jug to haul water, and a heart for the lost.

Our opening line went something like, 'Hi, would you like to sit down and let us rinse the sand from your feet?' We had very few refusals! In fact, we were so busy that we actually had people lined up! We took about three minutes with each person. We silently prayed as we worked, but when asked, about 95% of the people let us pray out loud with them. There were many heart touching encounters that day, but there was one I'll always remember. One gentleman from Asia kept calling one of our team members "Jesus." When we tried to correct him and explain who Jesus was, he replied, 'I know who Jesus is, and you are just like him.'

We all knew that if we showed up and were faithful, Jesus would show up, too. And let me tell you, seeing people on that beach through Jesus' eyes was absolutely amazing!"

Maybe this story doesn't sound particularly earth shattering, but we think it's exactly how God likes us to go about changing our world. This little group of board walk foot-washers was responding in the spirit of Jesus to a simple need they had observed. In fact, what they did calls to mind Ephesians 5:1-2 which tells us to, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

When we think of Jesus giving himself up as a sacrifice to God, we're likely to focus exclusively on one event that took place on the cross and forget the lifetime of service that preceded it. Jesus was "giving himself up" all the time. From the moment he awoke in the morning, to the time he went to sleep every night, his was a lifestyle dedicated to serving the Father by serving others.

It isn't one big moment in your life - one big act of service - that will change the world. It's the little things. The everyday things. It's the way you live your life moment to moment, day to day...today.

From the book, "Outflow: Outward-focused living in a self focused world" by Steve Sjogren and Dave Ping.

Another Testimony from KE08

2008-04-22T12:20:00.002-05:00

This from Michael S., one of the participants from KE08:

Last weekend we did several service projects around all of hood county. We were at the schools, churches, other big businesses, parks, ball fields, and communities. We passed out water, food, healthy kids fliers, car washes, cookies, we helped do yard work, bagged groceries, pumped gas, etc. We were all over the place doing so many things and helping out so many people. I have been involved in every Love Granbury, when we do the monthly ones and i was involved last year in the really big one that we did. But this year more churches were involved and thousands of people were affected by our efforts.

That is nothing short of God's handiwork because there is absolutely no way that we could have accomplished all that we did on our own. God was and is moving in Granbury, He was with us on Saturday and provided in abundance so that we could accomplish the task that He had set out for that weekend. My group was in for the long haul and i really appreciate them for that. Love Granbury was scheduled to be over at 2:00. We grabbed a quick bite to eat then we were back to work. After the official Love Granbury was over we worked on a lady's yard, trimming bushes and hauling off a massive tree branch that had fallen in her yard. When we finished there we went on to another lady's house and she needed her yard mowed and weed eated, so we jumped on that. We worked until it was time to go to the church for the evening service and finally made it back home to get cleaned up. Love Granbury was very successful and i look forward to all the other projects we will do in the future.

Love Granbury, however, was not over on Saturday. Helping out people and meeting them where THEY are and bringing Jesus to them is something that we should do on a daily basis. There will always be more people in need than there are people to help. I am very excited to see what God can and will do in Granbury, Texas, but it is up to us to be faithful and accomplish the task that Jesus sets out for us on a daily basis.

Catching the Vision

2008-04-21T12:52:00.004-05:00

So I guess when Micky asks me to post...that means I am supposed to write something. Love Granbury at Lakeside was such a great experience this year because it went across all age lines. We had our little guys in preschool all the way up to our senior adults working that Saturday. And I am excited to say that the excitement is spreading around our church. We are hearing from adults from all age groups who want to be involved and are sad they missed out on such an incredible weekend. our adults are already signing up to be involved with the May Love Granbury. And we can't wait to see how God uses the seeds that have been planted.....God is good. Keep serving! You never know who needs to hear God loves them today....and that His love is free!

Servant Evangelism Tip for This Week

2008-04-17T13:45:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, starting this week, we will be posting a new servant evangelism tip on the Love Granbury blog and web site each week. These will be practical, helpful little tips that will assist you with integrating the "servant evangelism" model into your church's regular, ongoing outreach ministry. If you come up with an idea for an outreach, please feel free to post it on the LG blog and share it with all the rest of us! Here's this week's tip:

Learning to work together, even on a small job -- can help a group become closer. Get your small group involved in a hands-on project. The project might be in the home of one of your group members, or it might be at your church or another location where people are in need of some volunteer help. Here are some tips:

Consider the skill level needed for the job -- is it laying tile, changing or fixing a faucet, hanging window coverings, painting rooms with decorative techniques, or refinishing wood floors? If it's beyond the average person's skill, arrange for a specialist to teach on the topic and demonstrate the methods involved. Check local hardware and home improvement centers to see if you can find someone willing to teach your group.

Determine what materials your church will provide and what group members need to bring. Make sure any supplies and tools are on hand.

Present a short devotional on Nehemiah 2:17-3:5 either before or after your project. In the face of oppression and ridicule, Nehemiah led his people to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. They depended on God to give them success. They dedicated their work to the Lord, and tackled it together. Help group members understand that even when they face adversity in life, relationships, or marriage, they can depend on God to give them success. Encourage them to approach the home improvement project with Nehemiah in mind, remembering that God called them to work together.

KE08 Wrap Up

2008-04-17T00:25:00.000-05:00

What a glorious sight it was last Saturday during the Love Granbury Kindness Explosion - 10 different churches outside their walls taking God's love into their communities, many of them working together in the same neighborhoods. It truly was an amazing day.

One of the most amazing things about servant evangelism is how common, ordinary items or acts become extraordinary when offered out of a heart overflowing with God's love. It's so cool to watch as a hot dog, a cookie, a bottle of water, or a bag of chips transforms before your very eyes into a tangible expression of God's love! In the same way, a simple act like pumping someone's gas and washing their windshield becomes a holy moment in time. We live in such a "nothing for free" society, that when faced with the prospect of getting something for nothing, many people become highly suspect. It's not at all unusual to hear phrases like "what's the catch" or "why would you do that"? Even after you tell them that what you're doing is completely free, many people still want to know if you're accepting donations! When it finally starts to sink in that they are about to recieve something for nothing, simply as a way to show them God's love, you can almost hear the door to their heart creek open ever so slightly. What a holy moment indeed!

Those moments were in abundant supply all over Hood County last Saturday. We may never truly know on this side of eternity how many seeds of God's love and kindness were planted by the Body of Christ this past weekend, but what we do know about is phenomenal! Here are the overall stats as we have them:

Over 500 people participating representing 10 different churches
Approximately 1,350 hot dog lunches (w/chips and drinks) given out
28 vehicles washed
1,676 bottles of water handed out
Over 500 cookies home baked and distributed to local businesses
12 widows home worked on
Pumped gas/washed windshields for approximately 300 people
Distributed approximately 3000 Healthy Kids Summer Lunch Program flyers door-to-door in all of our Healthy Kids neighborhoods as well as at the Granbury City Park and at Granbury Middle School.

All this done free of charge, no donations accepted, no strings attached...all to show God's love in a tangible way! And remember that with each contact, whether it was from handing someone a free hot dog, a bottle of water, washing their vehicle or pumping their gas, each person was handed a "kindness card" with the simple message that what we were doing was a free gift...just like God's love is free! What a simple, yet profoundly powerful message!

As we talked about at the Saturday evening celebration service, the way to truly make Kindness Explosion 08 a real success, is for each of the participating churches to make the commitment to integrate some form of "servant evangelism" into their normal routine of ongoing ministry. Whether it's monthly, semi-monthly, quarterly, or whatever, there's simply nothing more powerful to a watching world than our churches getting outside their four walls and into their communities to share the love of Christ through servant ministry with no strings attached. To God be all the honor and glory!

We Welcome Just Like Jonah!

2008-03-04T23:07:00.000-06:00

Love Granbury is excited to announce that the group Just Like Jonah has committed to being with us as worship leaders for both nights of the Kindness Explosion, April 11th and 12th. You will not want to miss hearing these guys as they lead us in worship!

Fairview Baptist Announces their KE08 Project

2008-02-28T21:53:00.000-06:00

Fairview Baptist Church has announced their service project for the KE08 coming up on April 11-12, 2008. Fairview will once again be making the Volaro Convenience Store/Gas Station at the corner of Old Cleburne Road and Hwy. 377 (across from Walmart) a full service gas station complete with gas jockies and windshield washers from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. The group from Fairview did this last year and had a blast...so much so they want to do it again this year. This was one of our favorite projects last summer for KE07. Great job Fairview!

Service Projects for KE08

2008-02-20T22:58:00.000-06:00

Good evening to all our Love Granbury participating churches! Please remember to be thinking about what you want your service project to be for KE08. We need to have this information by no later than 3/14 so that we can shoot the project preview video during the week of Spring Break. Thanks and have a blessed day tomorrow!

We Welcome Two New Churches to Kindness Explosion 08!

2008-02-12T16:07:00.000-06:00

We are very pleased to announce that Harvest Church and Generations Church have joined us for the Love Granbury Kindness Explosion 08! Please join us in welcoming these two great congregations to KE08!

KE08 Point Person Meeting

2008-02-12T06:55:00.000-06:00

This is just a friendly reminder about the Love Granbury KE08 Point Person meeting tomorrow at 12 noon at the First United Methodist Church (our host church this year). Lunch will be provided by FUMC and this will just be a short informational meeting for your designated point person, whoever that might be.

If you were no able to make the initial meeting two weeks ago, that's not a problem. Come on and join us tomorrow at noon and you can get all the information you need about this year's Kindness Explosion Servant Evangelism Outreach.

Thanks and I look forward to seeing all of you tomorrow at noon.

Kindness Explosion 08 Dates Announced!

2007-08-27T11:06:00.000-05:00

The dates for the Love Granbury Kindness Explosion 08 have been announced. Those dates are April 11-12, 2008. Kindness Explosion 08 will start on Friday evening, April 11, 2008 at 7:00 PM with the Kick-off worship service. The Kindness Explosion servant projects will start at 10:00 AM on Saturday, April 12th and continue until approximately 2:00 PM. The Kindness Explosion will wrap up on Saturday evening at 6:30 PM with the celevration/wrap up service. Mark your calendars now and make plans to attend! Specific information will be coming to you just after the first of the year.

2007-07-30T23:32:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the official blog of Love Granbury. Our mission is to love the people of the greater Granbury/Hood County area into a relationship with Jesus Christ.