Night of Worship 09//09//10 (7pm)
September 2nd, 2010 by Jesse Smith
Directions to the Mountain View Campus – Here!
September 2nd, 2010 by Jesse Smith
Directions to the Mountain View Campus – Here!
August 24th, 2010 by Jesse Smith
I’m more convinced today that relationships have the potential to get better with time. As the stores start to put out Candy Corn and as pre-season football begins to air on t.v. I enter a season of reminiscing with my wife, Camille. Fall is our favorite season together. We got married on the first day of fall.
Around this 
time, we talk about how simple life was in the 650 sq. ft. duplex we lived in after first getting married. We say, how easy it was to clean and how fun it was to have lots of people over. Her favorite phrase to describe it is that, “it was elbow to butthole in there.” We remember when we just did volunteer ministry and worked on our undergrad school. We always say 1000 times how crisp the air is once the heat dissipates.
I’m sure we’ll look back on 2010 one fall and think of how great this time in our life was too. We helped plant a church, lived in the craziness of Master’s degree studies and watched Isaiah grow up. But one thing is certain – relationships can get better with time. On our wedding day, I did not love Camille as much as I do now.
I think our Heavenly Daddy knows this principle all to well. And as his children, we can look forward to our relationship with him getting sweeter for all of eternity. Just thinking about that blows my mind. Paul says, “And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.” – Acts 15:19
August 18th, 2010 by Jesse Smith
Reading through the first three chapters of Esther seemed eerily familiar to the show Flava of Love, starring Flava Flav. I’m not sure if King Xerxes wore a big clock around his neck, but not a whole lot has changed over the centuries. Flava Xerxes partied hard for seven days and then wanted his wife, Queen Ashti, to parade around for his viewing pleasure. When she said, “eeehhh, no thanks,” she 
got the pink slip on her Queen career and Flava Xerxes looked for love elsewhere.
The God-given beauty of Esther enabled her to rise to the top of Flava Xerxes list. Many women came from all around the land but Esther stood out. This is definitely a strange story, that God was able to turn and use for his glory.
Don’t wait for a New Year’s resolution to pick up the One Year Bible. Learn daily about who God is, and how he has worked throughout history. You can thank me later!
August 17th, 2010 by Jesse Smith
What I learned from the Queen of the Mooses in City Center Park, Greensboro yesterday.
My best friend, Ray and I were shooting a promotional video for the Radical Capital Campaign and catching up on life. A lady was walking past and I said, “Hey, how ya doin?” I found out soon that I wasn’t prepared to really listen to the answer.
She went into an hour monologue as the sun set and ruined my chances of catching good sunlight for the video. She slammed the Church, men in general, spouted serious doubts about God and queried without end about why she was even alive. “No one wants me. My parents never wanted me. My son doesn’t want me.” She laid her soul bare about being raped, molested, neglected, spit on and condemned. And it went on and on.
Part of me started to write her off because she didn’t respond to my pastorly advice about Joseph’s crappy life and how he kept trusting God in hard times. I reached my breaking point and thought…”Guess she just can’t see that God does love her.” I wanted to get on with what I came to do, but my friend Ray continued to listen. Linda, the self proclaimed Queen of the Mooses, quoted more Scripture than I personally have committed to memory.
Her stand off attitude and tone of voice to both of us was finally broken when she saw that Ray really cared for her. She finally sat down and softly admitted she just wanted a friend. Ray said he and his wife would like to be her friend. She went to the car and got a pen so they could exchange numbers. When she got back it was as if hope for another day had filled her. She hugged us both and sang us a song about God’s love. We left each other after we stood praying and holding hands.
Lord, let me make time for those strange but real Queen of the Mooses types who get overlooked and trampled on in life!
August 9th, 2010 by Jesse Smith
It is strange, isn’t it that two people can witness the same event (a car accident for example) and come away with completely different stories as to what happened. A new young driver hit me in a parking lot not too long ago and when the police officer showed up, I wondered if the young man was talking about a completely different wreck than the one I had just been in.
“I wasn’t going that fast,” he told the officer, though the skid marks disproved his story. When we are the ones who cause mess in life we want grace and forgiveness. When someone else causes the mess we want justice and retribution.
The call for me from Scripture tonight is to be real. Be real with God about my mess. Be real with myself about my mess. His loving kindness leads us to repentance, but repentance means that we will accept the change he made possible on the cross and walk in it.
Proverbs 21:2 “People may be right in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their heart.”
August 6th, 2010 by Jesse Smith
I was walking in downtown Orlando this evening, enjoying the view of the lake and relaxing after a long day of church history class at Asbury Seminary. A 39 year old man approached me as I headed deeper into the city. He was pushing a bicycle and wearing a black cut off shirt with baggie jeans and an army hat turned back and to the side. He looked poor but physically healthy.
He asked for .60 cents and said he wanted to buy something for he and his 11 year old son to eat. He said, “I don’t want to inconvenience you,” so I’m just asking several people for .60 cents. I told him I only had a check card, but that I’d be more than happy to buy him something to eat. At first, I was skeptical, wondering where his son was and his motivations for asking for the money. He accepted my invitation to eat and introduced himself as Robert.
We walked eight to ten blocks until we found a Subway. Smelled fresh and as a runner, I wanted to eat fresh. We walked in and the piercing glance of the employee behind the counter was impossible not to notice. With his eyes he asked me, “Why are you bringing such scum in here with you.” I pretended not to notice and ordered my food. I danced to the Michael Jackson song Beat It, to ease the tension I felt. Guess that’s my way of dealing with conflict. Robert grinned and then gave an incredibly big smile because he had never seen a white boy dance so good, or he thought I was crazy. I told Robert to get what he wanted for himself and his son. By this time he had told me that a nice older lady was watching his son while he went to look for food. There was something in his eyes that told me he was telling the truth.
When Robert ordered his sandwich, our friendly sandwich artist treated him rudely. It was like he didn’t even want to talk to him, much less serve him. Robert asked him to speak up because he couldn’t hear what the man was saying. The man behind the counter raised his voice loud and obnoxiously and said, “What kind of cheese do you want?!” I’d had enough and told the man we’d take our business somewhere else.
As a middle-class white man that’s the first time I’ve really ever felt like that. I felt sorry for Robert, who must deal with this constant struggle daily. We walked further down, I danced as we walked and talked about Michael Jackson and Tupac. We talked about our struggles in life and God. Robert’s faith seemed genuine, like that of Abraham in the Bible. He didn’t have any money but he knew somehow, despite the evidence, that God was good and that He would provide. He thanked me a thousand times, even though I told him I was glad to buy him dinner and not to worry about thanking me.
We ended up at a pizza place, where we sat for an hour and a half sharing life. Robert was teary-eyed before he bit into his stuffed pizza slice. He humbly thanked me once again. He got a stuffed slice of pizza and a coke to go for his son. He didn’t eat all his, but carried it with him out of the restaurant. I was going to throw the rest of my slice away, but he encouraged me to bring it along because he said, “someone will want it.”
I walked him back to his bicycle that he had locked up around a pole earlier so that he could walk with me. We laughed some more and he talked incessantly about what a blessing his son Jamal was. He gave me his cell phone number and showed me another homeless lady to give my half-eaten slice of pizza (that I was going to throw away) to. Reflecting back at pizza with Robert, I might as well been in the presence of an angel. His life has encouraged me once again to be different.
July 25th, 2010 by Jesse Smith
I’ve circled nearly 30 times around the sun on this marvelous journey we call life. On August 3rd I took my first breath. 20 years later, I was born again from above by the grace of an incredible Savior. Nearly a decade in to this whole Christian thing, I’m more thoroughly convinced of my own sinful nature and also of the potential of something great inside of me. I’m reminded of the great theologians quote which says, “Continue seeking God with seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him (C.S. Lewis).”
I’m humbled that such a great God would want to call me friend. I’m amazed that he has chosen people like me to communicate His promises. I’m 
floored that God communicates and reveals more of himself when I search and wonder. When I feel separated, when I lack a seriousness in my search and wonder of God…I’m reminded of Paul’s words that say: “No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:39).”
Nothing. No Power. No fear. Nothing can separate me from God’s love. That is a beautiful promise that I cling to on this clammy night on my back porch in Conover, NC.
July 22nd, 2010 by Jesse Smith
During the summer, I go to the gym and see absolute brutes with shirts that don’t fit over their bulging biceps. I see ladies working to tone their legs and abs. I go to Wal-mart and see 4 different magazines with titles like How to have a Sexy Summer Body. All around me there is a culture that says attractiveness is how this shirt fits or how these pants make my butt look.
And yet in Proverbs I’m told: Loyalty makes a person attractive. It is better to be poor than dishonest. (19:22)
When you think about it down deep, its undeniable. The man who leaves his wife for a younger model. The woman who dresses up when she hits the mid-life crisis. The young people on college campuses – they all want to be attractive. There is nothing more 
attractive to me as I approach 30 than seeing a couple who has been married 50 years or more. There is nothing more attractive than a persons loyalty to God in the midst of mess of life.
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave this God I love, take my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above!
God please grant me the gift of loyalty.
July 20th, 2010 by Jesse Smith
This morning in staff we did things a little different at Christ Church. We took time to fall on our knees and faces as a staff and pray. We were led in worship by Michael and AB and God’s presence was thick in the midst of the Triple Divided Room. Our Heavenly Daddy was eager to meet us in that place.
It was refreshing to refocus on why we do what we do. We proclaimed out loud the many attributes and promises of God. I’m more convinced today of what I’ve been raised from and what I’ve been raised to in a new way.
The daily reading echoed behind the lyrics of Stronger by Hillsong. It read:5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
12 Do not let sin control the way you live;[a] do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. (Romans 6)
God is good!
June 23rd, 2010 by Jesse Smith
As a leader, I feel that it is important for me to report the great things God is doing from time to time (and tonight is one of those times). One year ago, we began preparations to launch a new campus of Christ Church. In America today, we are starting 500 more churches a year than are closing their doors (CC-Fairgrove is one of those). It is a privilege to be a part of new birth and new beginnings.
In the last 12 weeks, since our Easter launch, God has done some pretty incredible things at Christ Church-Fairgrove. We are averaging 239 in attendance without averaging in launch weekend where we had 645 people! I think God wanted to show us right up front what the capacity of the building was on the 1st weekend. And I have no doubt that we will continue to grow towards that as we continue to see lives changed.
On launch weekend, we did not start with a J-Train (1st – 5th Grade) component at Fairgrove, because we wanted to let people from the campus become the stakeholders rather than bringing in “ringers” from the other existing campuses. Within four weeks though, we were able to offer full-blown Children’s Ministry (Yay God!). We are still praying for several “techies” to step up and volunteer one or two weeks a month to make J-Train all that it can be but at the same time are amazed at where it has come.
On June 12th, after a Saturday Night Worship Experience, we had 60+ people stay in the sweltering heat to build community and creatively develop ways to impact our community. We’re narrowing the list that we came up with that night and plan to take the area by storm with our focus on living missional lives.
From the beginning we have wanted to have Levites, similar to what St. Stephens Campus does, since they set-up and tear-down every weekend. Launching with three services spread us thin on volunteers, but we continued to trust that God would raise up the right person. And he did. Tim Jennings, who fell in love with what was going on at Christ Church decided to spearhead this important ministry (using his background as a YMCA executive) and develop leaders underneath him. He has been trained by our facilities central support staff person and is running full-speed ahead!
The most exciting thing that I have seen in 12 weeks is how great of a job our stakeholders are doing at being invitational. I see people engaged every week with new people on the patio. They are asking them about their lives, family, workplace, school, etc. and also if they would like to join them at their life group or in their area of service.
“They called the church together and reported everything God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, too (Acts 14:27).”
