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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Pancakes, The Family, and TV

last night the wife and kids were on the news! For eating pancakes! Yup, life is exciting in Nebraska...where everything makes the news. See it at the link below. Be sure to click on the "Pancake Day" next to the blue camera. http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/84961192.html#

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posted by Mark Ashton, Lead Pastor at 7:48 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Top Ten Symptoms

The Top Ten Symptoms of Emotionally Unhealthy Spirituality
1. Using God to run from God
2. Ignoring the emotions of anger, sadness, and fear
3. Dying to the wrong things
4. Denying the past's impact on the present
5. Dividing our lives into secular and sacred compartments
6. Doing for God instead of being with God
7. Spiritualizing away conflict
8. Covering over brokenness, weakness and failure
9. Living without limits
10. Judging other people's spiritual journey

According to Peter Scazerro, our speaker this coming to CCC March 15 and 16 at 7 p.m., these are they symptoms that your spirituality is UNhealthy. Do any of these resonate with you? Or, perhaps does the list itself confuse you? Or, do you know people whom you could serve to become more spiritually and emotionally healthy? Or, if you are really feeling risky, why not share the list with your best friend or spouse and see if THEY see any of these traits in you!

Our dream is that we are all on a journey from immaturity to maturity, from emotional unhealth to emotional health, always toward Christlikeness! Because our our desire to mature, all of the leaders and servants of CCC, along with about 100 pastors from around the area and special guests from local churches will be gathering to worship, listen, grow and be challenged toward full maturity in Christ.

I am looking forward to seeing you there!

posted by Mark Ashton, Lead Pastor at 12:47 PM 0 Comments

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Better Than Happy!


“The Epistle of Joy” – that is what Philippians has been known as – at least in intellectual, academic circles. People who speak to normal audiences might call it “The Joy Box”, “Better than Happy”, “The Ultimate Thank-You”, or “Paul is rockin’, when he should be bummin’.” Here’s why:
Philippians is really a long “Thank-You” letter to a church that Paul has huge affection for. Some time before Philippians was written, there was a famine in Jerusalem and the Macedonian churches (i.e. Philippi) stepped up to be the big givers. Their deep poverty overflowed in radical generosity. (2 Cor. 8-9) So, Paul is writing a letter that is cheerleading them in their faith.
At the time, Paul is in prison – technically under house arrest – in Rome. You might think he would be depressed, sad, or overwhelmed, but he is actually stoked about his situation. He is waiting to appear before Caesar, whom he will certainly witness to for Christ. (Just like he did with Herod in Acts 26) In the mean time, he is witnessing to the entire palace guard and everyone else he can get close to about Jesus and many are coming to faith. He is discipling Christians and sending them off to missionary Journeys on his behalf.
Because of all this, the tone of the letter is Joy. Some have found the theme verse to be “Rejoice in the Lord always, I say it again rejoice!” (4:4). The book is filled with reasons to rejoice. These include: your salvation, grace, partnership in the gospel, spread of the gospel, the work of God in you, life after death, the mission of God, the wonder of God’s family, the humility of Christ, the example and care of Timothy and Epaphroditus, an Anxiety free life, contentment, the strength of God, a transformed mind, and of course, the amazing gift that the Philippians gave.
In this short, 2-1/2 page book, the words ‘joy’ or ‘rejoice’ are mentioned 14 times! Paul rejoices, prays with joy, commands joy, and seems to rejoice over…everything.
So, why am I telling you all this? Well, it is because we are launching a new series. On the backside of "Conquering your Fears" is "Living you Joy". We can be "Better than Happy" and Phillipians will teach us how. Bring a friend for the beginning February 28!

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posted by Mark Ashton, Lead Pastor at 9:10 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Bank Robber Turned Supreme Court Expert

So, this guy sent me an email this week. I met him on Sunday. This is all really true! And in the New York Times this week! Whoa!

"I just thought you would like to know that one of your attendees made the
New York Times this week. My name is Shon R Hopwood and the article about
my UNIQUE life story is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/us/09bar.html.
The article is also in today's print version.

The last 24 hours has been a whirlwind. KETV Chanel 7 interviewed me at
work yesterday for 2 hours. The story has made every major legal blog in
the country. I have had 5 book offers and 4 movie offers. Also, Harvard
University wants me to come and talk to their law students.

But the most amazing part is the fact that both I and my wife became
Christians this summer. We were married in August and had a baby boy on
Christmas day.

Talk to Steve Yost about me. He knows my family and my mother Becky very
well. We attended his church in Kearney during the 80's.

Just thought you may want to know this incredible news."

posted by Mark Ashton, Lead Pastor at 8:00 AM 0 Comments

Monday, February 15, 2010

Emotionally Healthy - More!



A person’s spiritual maturity is capped by their emotional health. In other words, we must learn to love God with our heart (emotion) AND soul (spirituality). The two are directly linked.
Emotional health can be described in many different ways, but here is one great one:
• Infant-Adolescence – “You meet my needs”
• Adolescence-Teen – “I learn to meet my own needs”
• Dating-early marriage – “I learn to meet my needs and one other person’s needs”
• Parenting Young Kids – “I learn to meet the needs of a group”
• Parenting Older Kids/beyond – “I learn to help groups and systems of people have their needs met.”
The more mature you become, the more able you are to be other-centered. Our natural bent is self-centeredness, but maturity necessitates replacing this bent with a God-centered bent. A person who is centered on God spends their time giving themselves away in love toward others for the sake of the kingdom. This is very difficult for those who are emotionally immature.
Now, it is certainly possible to be ‘saved’ from sins and the wreckage of your life at any of the above stages. Anybody can be forgiven of their past and assured of their future in Christ. The problem comes with reaching spiritual maturity when you are emotionally immature. So let’s imagine that somebody gets stuck in the infancy or teen stage. They are only thinking about their own needs. Their world revolves around themselves. All of us can think of people like this. Maybe it is you! Until they/you get unstuck, it will be very difficult for them to “Love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength… and love their neighbor as themselves.”
We must grow as a congregation – emotionally AND spiritually. If we hope to Double Our Impact, we must be healthy on the inside – as individuals and as a group. During the next few weeks, you can count on a couple of things to press us toward emotional health and spiritual maturity.
First, we will be launching a sermon series from the book of Philippians. It is entitled ‘Better Than Happy’. You can find out why by coming to the services beginning February 28. We will explore the full life in Christ as Paul described it in one of his most joy-filled and life-giving letters.
Second, we will be having a special two-night seminar – March 15-16 at 7pm. Our speaker will be the author of “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality,” Peter Scazerro. I am anticipating two phenomenal nights that will be a deep investment in the health of heart and soul. If you lead or serve at CCC, I encourage you to carve out time in your calendar to be there and be filled.

posted by Mark Ashton, Lead Pastor at 9:04 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Emotionally Healthy

Inside Scoop: Mark your calendars for March 15 and March 16. Peter and Geri Scazerro will be at CCC to bring us a leadership conference on Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. Every leader, aspiring leader and servant at CCC is welcome to attend! Pete is the author of "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality" and "The Emotionally Healthy Church".

He has drawn some fantastic connections between emotional health and spiritual maturity that could reshape your spiritual world for a lifetime. AND it is free! Two nights, two keynote messages, both at 7:00. Make it a priority to be there!

posted by Mark Ashton, Lead Pastor at 8:12 AM 0 Comments

Monday, February 8, 2010

Power of the people in Superbowl Ads

I can't help it. I was a marketing major. As much as I love the superbowl, I turn the volume UP when the ads come on. Advertisers sock hundreds of thousands of dollars and the biggest names in advertising into making great commercials. At the top of my list of favorites are the sheer hilarity of the Betty White snickers ad (who can dislike the surprise of Betty White getting tackled in mud?) and I loved the Google ad for its sheer simplicity (like Google), assumption of the intelligence of its audience, and brilliant correspondence with the product. A great story and ad.

But the big winner is Doritos. Their ads were phenominal. According to USA Today's ad meter, of the top 16 ads, four were Doritos (Dog Collar, "hands off my mama", casket, and dorito-ninja). The amazing thing about them is that they were all dreamed up, produced and shot by amateurs.

Doritos ran a competition on their website and people submitted great entries. One friend told me that 'Dog Collar', ranked second on the ad-meter, only cost $300 to shoot. But the creator of that ad won $600,000 for making an ad that placed second. Doritos is brilliant in this regard. They saved all the money of hiring an advertising firm and got the best products. They beat out Bud Light, Mororola, Vizio, Denny, Intel, Teleflora, Honda,Sketchers and Taco Bell. They blew away the overpriced, overproduced, overcelebretized GoDaddy rubbish.

The big lesson here? Release the power of the people for maximum impact.

As it relates to the church, most of the potential is in the pews. The most creativity, passion, humor, and love is in the laity. The best ideas, the most significant impact, the greatest power is in ordinary people.

Not only does this follow from our 'Dorito' lesson, but it is all over the scriptures. When Jesus came, he picked ordinary unschooled men. He transitioned religion from an elite high priesthood to a 'kingdom of priests'. He invested deeply in people, then let them lead. The early church exploded without stringent applications, high barriers, long educations and formal systems. It was all about the power of the Holy Spirit in ordinary people. Extraordinary stuff happens when God blasts his power through regular people.

A.B. Simpson got this. His passion was to break through the power structures and ennoble normal people for ministry. He was right. Jesus was right. The principle is just true. And Doritos proved it for us once again.

posted by Mark Ashton, Lead Pastor at 7:11 AM 0 Comments

Monday, February 1, 2010

Protesting what you have not seen

During the Super Bowl, Focus on the Family is planning to run an ad. The basic storyline behind the content is this:
* Tim Tebow's Mom was pregnant and caught an unusal bug in the Philippines
* The doctors recommended that Mrs. Tebow abort the baby
* She decided to carry the baby. It was healthy and grew up to be Tim Tebow, who we now know and love.

The ad is designed to be a feel-good story that affirms the family and the courageous women who choose to keep their babies.

Jehmu Greene, Women's Media Center President is putting pressure on CBS to abort the ad, so to speak. She has gone on Fox News to promote a position that because it comes from a pro-life source that the ad undermines CBS policies.

Now, nobody has seen the ad. Nobody knows whether any policies are being violated. Nobody knows what kind of reaction this will stir. Perhaps it will be a boost to women who are struggling to raise a child alone. Perhaps it will give strength to women who are choosing to have the baby. Perhaps it will decrease the number of abortions in our culture. Perhaps it will highlight a great family making a fabulous impact in this culture and the Philippines.

What is the potential downside? I can't see any!

Families could win. Babies could win. Courageous women will win. One thing is for sure...with all this extra publicity on the top of the world's most watched sporting event, CBS will win!

It could be the most interesting and talked about part of the superbowl. Sure beats a wardrobe malfunction.

posted by Mark Ashton, Lead Pastor at 11:06 AM 0 Comments