What do you Believe?

Beliefs are dangerous.  Beliefs start wars, make history, and change the course of nations.  Democracy, Communism, Nazism, Socialism, all began with simple beliefs.  They grew to causes, good and evil, that people were willing to die for.  Beliefs do that to a person.

Beliefs are passionate.  When people "believe in" a candidate for President, they can become passionate about that person.  When people "believe in" a sports team, they will cheer, scream, and even start fights with opposing fans.  

Beliefs are personal.  "Don't tell me what to believe - that's my right!"  People say this.  Beliefs are what make a person who they are.

So, what do you believe? 

Is it a cause, a philosophy, a way of life, a person, an agenda, a family, or a Savior?  

Do you believe in Christ?  Really?  

Sunday, we begin a journey that will take us through the coming summer as we look at the essential beliefs of a Christ follower.  These beliefs are best articulated in a statement, or creed, many of us know very well - the Apostles' Creed.  Many of us grew up reciting it in church. Yet do we truly believe it?  Do we view the Apostles' Creed as tradition or truth?  We will dig deep into the Creed, the Scripture to support it, and our own lives to see, truly, what we believe.  

We hope you will join us this Sunday, as we begin with "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth."  Our Scripture focus will be Ephesians 2: 8-9, Ephesians 1: 2-7, 17-23, and Isaiah 45: 5-12. 

We hope to see you Sunday.  And, we hope you will invite someone who needs to truly believe in Jesus Christ, and to know why they should believe in Him.  

Easter, Prodigals, and Permanent Place

What a great Easter weekend!  We hope you were blessed by our Maundy Thursday, Good Friday Tenebrae, and Easter Sunday services!  We were honored to be part of 8 baptisms on Easter morning!  Praise God for His New Life in Christ!  

Our Easter service blew the roof off!  It was so powerful to all celebrate our Risen Lord - and that He is indeed Lord of all!  We hope and pray you know this today - because 4 days later - He is still Risen and He is still Lord!  

Thank you for helping, serving, praying, and being part of all our Easter weekend services.  May every Easter we celebrate at Bellwether be so uplifting.  

Now, for this Sunday, the Sunday after Easter, don't take a break or a breather!  We want to keep proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that He and only He brings salvation to us. 

We are doing a "stand alone" message on the classic parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15.  This is a powerful story of how the Gospel can save - both the younger brother and the elder brother.  Please try to be with us and invite someone!  Why?  Because they will hear the Good, Life-Saving news of Jesus Christ proclaimed!  

Finally, thank you for all you do and have done for Bellwether Church - in service, prayer, worship, and love.  We made a big announcement Easter morning that we are setting a goal of being IN a permanent facility by the end of 2013.  I would love to see us have our FIRST service in a new permanent home Christmas Eve 2013!  I know God can do this and I believe by stepping out if faith, we can do it too!  Thus, as pastor, I ask for you to pray as you never have for God to guide and direct His Church over the next 20 months.  That He would show us precisely where we need to be, and He would keep raising the leaders here to help make that happen.  Please know - we will be open and transparent about every possibility we are looking into, and we will be sharing more in the weeks and months ahead on Sunday mornings.  

This will be an exciting time as His Church, Bellwether, takes the next step in our life together.  We want you to be part of it and we want you to grow as a leader for Christ here.  That is why we exist:  to raise leaders (our way of saying make disciples) of Jesus Christ for the furthering of His Kingdom. 

We look forward to seeing what God will do as we are faithful to Him.  

Hope to see you Sunday and God bless you!

Bellwether Holy Week Services

This week is Holy Week, the most important week in the Christian calendar.  We celebrate, remember, honor, and can ultimately be transformed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

At Bellwether, each year we try to honor Holy Week in a great way.  We do our best to take you through Holy Week, event by event, step by step - from the Last Supper to the cross and the empty tomb.  Each service is unique and powerful in its own right.  We hope you will be able to attend some of them.  At best, we hope you can be at each one.  If you can, we believe you will experience the fullness and magnitude of this Easter Holy Week.  

Here are our planned services, times, and places, and what they are about:

Maundy Thursday:  6pm dinner, 7pm service.  At Bellwether Fondren beside Cups.  This service is about experiencing in a small way what it was like at the Last Supper Jesus had with His disciples.  We will eat together as the body of Christ, we will reflect on what was happening that evening, and we will take Holy Communion together.  Again, this service is at 7pm, with dinner before.  You are welcome to bring the entire family.  This year, we will have the service outdoors in our Fondren space.

Good Friday Tenebrae service:  11:30am, Jackson Academy Performing Arts Center.  Many people say this is our most powerful service each year.  It is extremely moving.  A Tenebrae service is when you focus on the death of Christ on the cross.  It will be extremely dark, in lighting and in tone in reflecting the death of our Lord.  We will go over each sentence Christ spoke on the cross, and give a brief message on what He said.  Please try to attend this service and invite someone to it. 

Baptism service Easter morning.  7am.  Outside Jackson Academy's Performing Arts Center.  Bellwether will have its immersion baptismal outside to baptize new believers of Christ.  At this moment we have 8 people who will be baptized.  However, anyone is welcome to come forward and be baptized by water and the Holy Spirit.  Why this baptism on Easter morning?  A tradition of the early church was to baptize new converts each Easter morning, and have them affirm that they believe the tenets of the Apostle's Creed.  We will honor this tradition of the early church as we begin to celebrate that Christ has Risen! 

Easter Resurrection - 10:30am - Jackson Academy Performing Arts Center.  He is Risen!  We will rise again if we have faith in Him!  This is our Easter celebratory service of New Life and that Jesus is Lord!  We hope you can be with us to worship, celebrate, and invite someone who needs to hear the Good News of New Life in Christ!  

We hope to see you often in the next few days as we walk together through the Last Supper, the Cross, and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We believe He will bless you, and change you, through it.