challenge – John Markum

Challenge #7: Bring your Bible

Posted on March 3, 2011 by johnmarkum

Edgewood Challenge #7: Bring your Bible to Church

Probably the easiest challenge we could deliver! As a follower of Jesus, the Bible is your lifeline to God’s encouragement, instruction, correction, and entire worldview so that you and I can reach our full potential in Christ (2 Tim 3:16, 17). You wouldn’t even think of leaving the house without your cell phone. But going to church without your Bible… many people don’t even give it a second thought.

Now, to be fair, it’s partly our fault as church leadership. I mean, it was our idea to put those high-tech screens in the church with lights and videos, lyrics, and – not least of all – every Bible verse we intend to quote in the course of a service. But that was intended to benefit our guests and those who don’t yet have a relationship with Jesus, not the faithful who attend week-in and week-out. You need to bring your Bible because you need to see for yourself what the Bible says – not just take our word for it. We’re not trying to dupe anybody! God gifted you with the intelligence to read His word for yourself. Don’t sell yourself short by leaving it to the “religious professionals” to tell you what to believe. Learn from us, yes. But read it for yourself, and see what God has for you.

And hey, we’re hip to the 21st Century… bring the Bible ON your cell phone. Or your iPad. Or your iPod touch. If it gets you into the Bible on your own, we’re for it!

Blessings,

John

Challenge #2: Pray for the church

Posted on February 16, 2011 by johnmarkum

Edgewood Challenge #2: Pray for the church one hour a week.

Ok, so earlier I talked about our first challenge as a church – to read through the entire Bible over one year. But this second challenge requires us to pray in addition to read the Bible. I already know what you’re thinking. And I totally agree! Read the Bible and pray?!? Man, some churches are so demanding!!! And not just pray for an hour a week, but to pray for an hour a week for the church. That doesn’t even include praying for other important stuff, like our food 3 times a day! So why are we doing this and how do we actually accomplish it instead of adding to a list of New Year’s resolutions that have already been broken?

Well we’re doing it because we understand the power of prayer. A praying church is a healthy church. We’re also asking the entire church to take this challenge because, as a church, we are dependent on the supernatural, Holy Spirit power of God moving among His people. That’s not something we have direct control over. So you and I better be in touch with the One who said He would build His church. In Acts 5:34-40 we read the story of Gamaliel warning the other Pharisees not to be to hasty in punishing the apostles who were preaching the Gospel and he made this observation in verses 39 and 40, “If this is of man, it will come to nothing. But if it is from God, you cannot stop it. You my even find yourself fighting against God!” The same is still true of the church today: If we attempt to do this “out of man” it will come to nothing. But as individuals, and as a church, if we become a part of what God is doing, we are unstoppable!

So pray for your church! 1 hour broken up between 7 days comes out to about 8.5 minutes a day. But let’s not count minutes with God and just round it to a nice even 10 minutes! How do you pray for your church for 10 minutes every day? Great question. Glad you asked! Here are some ideas to pray for 10 minutes for your church everyday.

Monday: The staff and our families. To see who we all are and what we do, click here.
Tuesday: Our Children, Teens, and Families.
Wednesday: The Sick, Elderly, Widowed, and Home-bound.
Thursday: The people in the Quad Cities who are far from God and need to know Christ.
Friday: Our Friday night program, Celebrate Recovery
Saturday: Saturday Night Service (The Awakening)
Sunday: Sunday Morning Service and the Youth Service (Elevate)

With each of these, try to get specific. So for Mondays, maybe focus more of your 10 minutes on a different staff member each week. On Thursdays, think of specific people that you are going to invite to a service with you this week. On Tuesdays focus on the kid’s program coming up, or the teen’s summer camp trip. You get the idea. You’ll find that 8.5 – 10 minutes is easy to fill. Aditionally, you’ll feel closer to God and your church family.

Where there’s little prayer, there’s little power. But with much prayer, there’s much power. Let’s be a power house in the Quad Cities!

Blessings,

John

Challenge #1: Read through the Bible

Posted on February 16, 2011 by johnmarkum

Edgewood Challenge #1: Read through the Bible in one year.

For many years, Edgewood has maintained a focus on teaching the Word of God. But you shouldn’t take our word for it! You should read it for yourself and see what God says. And so we are unashamedly calling all of our people to begin reading through the entire Bible over the next year.

Let’s break that down… In order to read through the entire Bible in 365 days, you would need to read on average approximately 4 chapters a day. Which takes the average 8th grader 15 minutes to read. For a mere fifteen minutes a day, you can read through the Bible. You could pull that off during the commercials of your favorite 1 hour TV show!

As many of you know, I am currently in the middle of reading through the entire Bible in 90 days. I am on day 46 and am about 4 days behind. But I was behind almost an entire week, so I’m catching up! When I get completely back on track, I’ll be just over the halfway point. I find that if I can stay focused on reading for 1 hour a day I can stay on track and even get ahead.

Our church has provided 1 year reading plans that split the reading up chronologically – an excellent resource. In addition to that, I want to direct your attention to a great online, Bible reading resource: youversion.com. YouVersion provides several different reading plans so one is bound to fit you. You can also choose to read in almost any translation. I happen to be reading in the New American Standard Bible (NASB) which I would recommend among a few others.

Bottomline: Get in the Bible! Spend some time in God’s Word. Create a regular time of 15 minutes to an hour and get alone with God. This requires you to be intentional about your relationship with God. Nothing worthwhile happens by accident. Including marriage, parenting, school, work,… and our relationship with God!

Imagine the change that we could create if, as a church, we all became faithful to reading God’s word? It would absolutely change the way we live, love, work, and relate to others. Let’s do this church!

Blessings,

John

Click here and check out www.youversion.com for yourself!