Habitat for Humanity build

Last Thursday, some co-workers and I had the privilege of building a Habitat for Humanity home for some dear members of our church family. Here's the final product! Soli Deo Gloria!

Career Fair at Cedar Springs

This past weekend my church hosted a career fair. Here's coverage from local news station WATE. (A big shout out to Scott Jackson, newest dude on pastoral staff, for putting this together. You'll see him on the video.)

Track the Swine Flu on Google Maps

Everybody wash your hands.

Mark Altrogge

C.J. Mahaney is doing some "Meet some ordinary pastors" posts on his blog. This one on Mark Altrogge starts off really well, with some very helpful insight. I especially appreciate the IOUS prayer, and the reminder of George Mueller's commitment "to have my soul happy in the Lord".

Town Hall for Hope & Community Career Fair at CSPC

Cedar Springs is very excited to be hosting this exciting Live Nationwide telecast of Dave Ramsey's "Town Hall for Hope."

Bring your friends, family and co-workers to our sanctuary on Thursday, April 23 for the 8 p.m. broadcast of this important and timely message from Dave.

Connect with families across the nation for a truly radical message: HOPE.

Tired of hearing the fear, doom and gloom that’s filling the airwaves? Join Dave Ramsey for a nationwide town hall meeting and discover what’s happening with the economy, how we got here, and where we’re going. Plus, Dave will answer your questions live throughout the event!

________________________________________

CSPC is also hosting a Community Career Fair this Saturday, April 25th from 10 am to 12 pm in the CSPC Family Life Center. This is an opportunity for local companies to find the best and brightest applicants to fill vacant positions, and for people who are currently looking for work to connect with potential employers.

Several companies from this area will be represented at the fair. Some of the companies who are planning to attend are:

- AEROTEK Professional Services
- Quadriciser Corporation
- TVA
- Y-12 National Security Complex
- Petro's
- Green Mountain Coffee
- Pilot Corporation
- And More!


There will also be people on hand to help with career coaching, bilingual support and resume-building. These services will be on a first come, first serve basis.



If you have any questions regarding the Career Fair, you may contact Lynn Buchanan at lynnbuchanan @ cspc . net or Katie Smith at katiesmith @ cspc .net .

The Normal Christian Life

This coming Sunday, our pastor will be preaching on John 11:45-57, where we read about the Jewish leaders' resolve to have Jesus arrested and tried (and ultimately killed) for blasphemy after he raised Lazarus from the dead. Our preparatory reading for the morning is from modern day Chinese Christian martyr Watchman Nee:

The death of the Lord Jesus is representative and inclusive. In his death we all died. None of us can progress spiritually without seeing this. Just as we cannot have justification if we have not seen him bearing our sins on the cross, so we cannot have sanctification if we have not seen him bearing us on the cross. Not only have our sins been laid on him, but we ourselves have been put into him…

God’s means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger, but by making us weaker and weaker. That is surely rather a peculiar way of victory, you say; but it is the divine way. God sets us free from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening our old man [= old nature] but by crucifying him; not by helping him to do anything but by removing him from the scene of action. (Watchman Nee in The Normal Christian Life)

I'm currently planning the songs for this service. So if any come to your mind after reading this post, feel free to comment your thoughts.

Harp-style guitar playing

I've read Acoustic Guitar Magazine for years. Now they send me stuff in via email. Today's mail included harp-style guitar playing. If you play guitar, give these scales a try. Pretty cool.

Old school search engine technology

HT: http://www.fromwhereisit.org

"I like, I like"

My son, Ben, says "I like!" when he likes anything. Well, when I saw this shirt, that's what I said! So if you want to get me a present for my 36th birthday Mom, get me this. Hah!

"Unfashionable" Tullian Tchividjian on YouTube

My dear pal Tullian gives a explanation about the purpose of his forthcoming book, "Unfashionable":

Hello Love Tour

I love Israel Houghton. I sing some of Chris Tomlin's tunes. But it feels ery strange to pay $26.50 to go see them in "concert", singing worship music. And I don't know the answer to this. Growing up, our church would have folks like Babbie Mason and NewSong come and perform. I was a kid. I don't know how it worked. But we didn't pay for tickets. Maybe we did a love offering. Anyone out there with some clarifiying thoughts and compelling ideas about 1) why I feel weird about paying to go to a worship event, and 2) what , if anything, should be done?

I know these folks are good musicians, and need to rent out the auditioriums where they perform, and rent the lighting rigs, the multimedia machines they use, and pay the sound techs, etc.

My beef is with the thin line we are walking when we are paying professionals to come in to lead a night of singing, which has the appearance of a lively church service, but is really a concert.

I mean, what does $26.50 pay for exactly? How do they split that up? How much of it is paying for Chris Tomlin's million dollar home (or so I've heard he has)?

There you go. Any thoughts??

So Beautiful

Leonard Sweet has a new book called So Beautiful. You can download it for free at ChristianAudio.com.

Watch a teaser for the book below.