This Past Sunday

This past Sunday we were in week three of our summer message series entitled, "Reel to Real." The movie we used was Evan Almighty. As I said on Sunday, personally, this movie has saved my summer movie going experience. I loved it! It's rated PG, which means you can take the whole family. It's funny. And it has a great message. If you haven't seen it yet, go see it before it leaves the theaters.

Now to those of you who are offended by me promoting a movie that you think makes a mockery of God or God's Word, my first reaction is to say, "Get a life and please don't come to our church." But I've matured, so just let me say that at Coastal we believe that we have several options when it comes to the culture in which we live. We can ignore it, imitate it, condemn it, or we can use it and leverage it. We choose to do the latter. That's what Jesus did. That's what the Apostle Paul did. Most people today are Biblically illiterate (including many church goers), so why not at least use something like a movie to simply give us the opportunity to create or continue a conversation. The message on Sunday was not about Evan Almighty. The focus or goal at Coastal is not to be culturally relevant or hip or cool. The message is always Jesus Christ. The goal or focus is always on pointing people to Jesus Christ. We simply choose to do that in a way that IS culturally relevant (and yes I am a hip and cool 40 year old Pastor!).

The main point of my message this past Sunday was that God does want us to change the world - one life at a time. And to do that it requires faith. And faith is obeying God immediately, even when it doesn't make sense. Faith is also obeying God completely, even when I don't feel like it. Somebody actually told me after church that this really has been a "hard hitting" series. So much for watering down the message.

Although it seems like most of our church has been out of town for the last couple of weeks, we have visitors showing up every Sunday. Keep it up Coastal! Intercede. Invest. Invite. Include. I can tell that when the summer is finally over, we are going to be busting at the seams and will have no choice but to go to multiple services (which is why we've already been praying, planning, and preparing). One highlight of the service for me was praying for our Mission Team (Jeremiah, Twila, and Cameron) that left this morning for Jamaica. Keep them and their families in your prayers. We also gave away a DVD Player, T-shirts, and movie tickets again. Last week one of our members, Mary Harrigan, won something and gave it away to one of our guests! Is that awesome or what?! Hey, we also had someone use our giving online feature on our website on Sunday. We really haven't promoted this very much, but it is a great way to give, especially during summer travel. After the service we had our Newcomers Lunch. I could do that every Sunday. I love telling people our story and talking about Coastal. I know you feel the same way!