A Journey to Discover

Recently I did something I never thought I would do. I stood in front of the congregation that I have served for around 8 years, and told them that Amy & I were going to start a journey somewhere new.

Over 3 years ago, God began to birth something inside of us. We loved what we were doing and the people at our church, but God was putting a new desire and urgency inside of us. We started to feel as though our time there was coming to a close. This was not an easy decision and we started to pray about exactly what God was calling us to do.

We have spent that last 3 years praying, fasting, and seeking the council from some pastoral friends. We are announcing that God has birthed a passion inside of us to plant a church in Central Sussex County. We are planting a church for those not in a church so they can find love in Christ and a community to work with. We want to reach outside the "walls" of the church to leave a lasting impact on our community and build relationships that will change lives through Jesus Christ.

We may live in what seems like a small county, in a small state, but did you know that over 58% of people that live in Sussex County do not attend a church, thats around 125 thousand people. So we hope to join in the community of believers in Sussex County to reach the lost.

Discover Church is who we are and if you have a heart to change your community, town, county, and state than you may want to join us. 

We are seeking people who will:

Pray - For the leadership team & launch team, for the perfect location, financial provision, and that people will come to know Jesus.

Give- Our goal is to raise $80,000 to launch Discover Church. Please prayerfully consider giving a one time donation, or partner with with us to sustain this ongoing project. All donations can be made by mail or securely online at www.discoverchurch.cc and are tax deductible. 

Go-  We are looking for people to help make this vision a reality. We believe that God wants to do something incredible in the lives of people in Sussex County and we are deeply committed to serving, attending, and making it hard for people to go to hell by making it easy to go to church.

We need you!

Smooth out the edges

So after working in a church for a while you realize there are a whole mess of well…crazy people out there! You know the kind of people that who after they come around you, you have to ask Jesus for a little more patience. You might say to me, you don’t even know about the people I have to deal with in a day, week, or month, but I can guarantee that we all have those who get under our skin.

Kerry Shook in “One Month to Live” called these people sandpaper people, because they are rough to deal with but they can help smooth out the edges in our own lives. And do you want to know a secret, we are sandpaper people, we all drive someone in this world a little crazy. You never thought of that have you? Think about the person who really drives you up a wall, and then think about the fact that you do that to someone else. It’s comforting isn’t it?

 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, 

which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10 

(Who is a sandpaper person in your life presently? How do you usually relate to them?)

An easy way to help understand others is to identify how they bug you. What part of their personality do you struggle with? Then think about how that person was raised, the life they have lived. This could be the explanation for how they behave. We have to realize that no one is normal, there is no such thing as normal, God has made us all unique. We should not try and pick someone apart when we all have our own problems we have to deal with.

"And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, 

but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, 

‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?"

Matthew 7:3-4 

God puts people in our life sometimes to help smooth us out and to try to help us be transformed from what we were to become more like Jesus.

Portions quoted other than scripture came from "One Month to Live" by Pastor Kerry & Chris Shook, to buy click http://www.onemonthtolive.com/

True Values

“Trust in the Lord and do good;

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him and he will do this”

Psalm 37:3-5

Ever wonder why so many times we wait till we have a major issue in our life before we let God catch our attention? We get off track and start on a path to a collision and don’t know how to apply the brakes. Many times it start when our time is crunched, we get overbooked and feel overwhelmed because we know we don’t have enough time. Many times we think we can just manage our life better to solve the problem, but have you ever thought that maybe we are spending time of things that really are not important?

(“When was the last time you experienced a life collision,

a season or experience in which you found yourself coming apart at the seams?”)

We think our schedule is overbooked because we have to many things to do in a day, it may just be we need to reevaluate our lives based on our values not what we would like to get done. Many times we say our health, spouse, or children are important to us, but does our schedule and time spent line up with this belief? Other times we need to seek God’s point of view and ask “Is what I am spending time on what you want me to spend time on?” Our values are based off of what we truly believe is important. Do you work late when your kids have games or plays you should be at? Do you feel it is more important to sleep in on a Sunday rather than show up to worship God with the church your part of? No matter what you think you hold near you true test of what you value will be tied to what you spend time doing.

Take time today to ask God if the things you value and the things He values line up.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:5-6


Portions quoted other than scripture came from "One Month to Live" by Pastor Kerry & Chris Shook, to buy click http://www.onemonthtolive.com/

How Deep is Your Love

“He who cannot forgive others

Destroys the bridge over which he himself must pass.”

-George Herbert

So growing up in Southern Delaware many people who did not grow up in the area often ask about the beach, and to their surprise I inform them that I don’t visit it very often. Not too big on the sand or the fact that I can’t see what’s in the water with me. But, whenever I go somewhere tropical, I am always fascinated by those who snorkel and scuba dive. There is a whole other world in the ocean to explore.

Did you know that most people who scuba dive can only go around 130 feet deep? That may sound deep however consider the ocean at its deepest is around 7 miles deep!

We often like to treat God and his love for us the same way as we do the water at the beach, splashing around on the surface. We don’t like to realize our sin never goes away unless we really dive into the love of God.

“(If you only had one month to live, what would you ask forgiveness for? From whom? Whom would you need to forgive?)”

Why do we need to forgive? Well…because Christ commands those who follow him to do so, if you follow Jesus, forgiveness is not an option. (Colossians 3:13) If we try to live without forging others we won’t survive, we just turn into bitter ungrateful people.

“(How have you experienced bitterness in your life?)”

We have to realize that bitterness often leads to anger and Ephesians 4:26-27 speaks of not letting the sun set while you are still angry because you can give the devil a foothold in your life for anger. Sometimes we get angry at God and some would say they don’t, but the great thing about God is he already knows about your anger, he can handle it.

Jesus prayed in Luke 23:34 “Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” this is where we get the power to forgive others. Jesus can take our sin, guilt, and shame and totally get rid of it, but only if we let him.

Portions quoted other than scripture came from "One Month to Live" by Pastor Kerry & Chris Shook, to buy click http://www.onemonthtolive.com/

Tick, tock

Tick tock, tick tock, Hook's afraid of an old crock. - a line summarized by Peter Pan when he confronts Captain Hook. We all know Hook to be the villain in the story. However if you think about it we know that we can be just like him from time to time. We all know that there's a point when we run out of time, you can buy it, you can't trade it, and you can't get anymore no matter how hard you try.

This is something that Captain Hook fights with trying to out run the crocodile and at the same time getting Peter Pan. Now at first look we think that Pan and Hook just don't like each other but Hook doesn't like Pan because in his words he doesn't show "good form." In other words Pan and the lost boys are wild and do whatever they like with little or no consequence, wile Hook always gets the bad end of the deal. I think we relate to Hook and Pan in different was at different times. We can't spend so much of our lives worrying about time that when we get old we wonder what happened, nor can we just go about doing any crazy thing we want just because we feel we can. Also we can't be so blind that we end up thinking we are just a good guy like Hook thought. That's right Hook would not have thought of himself as the villain he would tell you Pan was. Hook was educated businessman who lead his men through life. Pan did the same thing with his lost boys the key difference was that the boys never wanted to grow up and the men were not responsible enough to think things through clearly. 

Ephesians 5: 15-17 "Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is" 

I don't know if you have ever felt this way but I feel the older I get the faster the weeks, months, and years move. So I don't want to live afraid of time slipping away but take every opportunity that I get to live a life that in the end I would be happy how it was spent. Enjoy your friends and family wile you can, take nothing for granted.