John Markum

“Come to The Awakening!”

We wanted to share the following video with all of the friends of our Saturday night worship experience, The Awakening. We’re asking all of you to watch the video, and pass it on. Even invite someone to come to church this Saturday with you. We are encouraging all of you who are close enough to attend, to see for yourself what The Awakening is all about. We understand that many people have their own hang-ups to coming to church. Maybe you did go to church at one point and you’ve stopped. Maybe someone in a church hurt you. Maybe life has simply been painful and you feel like God wouldn’t want you anyway.

Whatever your story is, we have a place for you at Edgewood on Saturday nights. Come as you are – hurts, successes, failures, baggage, doubts, insecurities, hopes, and dreams – and find that you’re not alone, and we’re all in this thing called “life” together. It doesn’t matter if you’ve struggled with addictions, had an abortion, grew up in church, or have been running from God. This is a place of hope and healing. This is a place to start again. This is a place to belong.

We hope to see you this week!

John

 

New Series: Relationships

My leadership team and I wanted to take the month of February and deal with relationships. We wanted to broaden it past the typical series on dating or marriage though. We wanted to deal with all relationships, and communicate that somehow. So tonight, we began a new series called, “Relationships: Mothers, Brothers, and Others”. Above is a video to let you know about it. We hope through this series that people will feel empowered to see their relationships healed in the name of Jesus, and establish healthier ones. If you happen to be around the Quad Cities, we would love to have you as our guest. If you’re not in the area, you are welcome to see the message online later this week (www.qcawakening.com). And if you’re a preacher and want to take our series idea, graphic, and/or video to use at your church… be our guest! Email me or leave a comment if you want something specific.

See you all this week!

John

Unplanned Day Off

This week in the Quad Cities, almost everyone was graciously given a free day off of work, school, etc. courtesy of the snow. But for myself, many of our readers, and perhaps yourself, taking an extra day off just puts you behind. And some things must get done every week regardless of what the weather did, who got sick, or what kind of family crisis broke out. I couldn’t show up this Saturday for The Awakening and apologize for not having a message to preach since I couldn’t get into my office because of the snow. That’s just not good enough, and chances are that you have your own high demands that don’t take vacation days, sick days, or snow days. So to stay on target, you and I must have a plan for these unplanned days off. Most likely, your plan will consist of answering a few of the following questions:

  • What can I do from home? Obviously this depends on your resources since you’re not in your typical work place. You also have to manage distractions, and the fact that you should take some of the time to recuperate (especially if your unplanned day off is because you’re sick).
  • What can wait? Maybe some things can get postponed this week.
  • When can I make it up? Perhaps you go in early the next day. Or stay late. Or both.
  • Where can I cram? Maybe you take 2 hours preparing a certain report. This week you can get it done in 1 hour. Maybe not your most careful work, but it will pass this week.
  • What can I delegate? Your friend covers your shift this week and you get him back next time.
  • What can get skipped? Some things may be possible and necessary to skip altogether. If that’s the case though, you kind of have to ask, “Why do I do this any week?!?”

Hope you had a fun snow day and that no one got hurt out on the roads.

Blessings,

John

The phrase no pain, no gain has been a mantra for athletes and fitness junkies for years. And what they understand about physical pain needs to be broadened to a much more general use in all of our lives. Pain hurts. That's the whole problem. No one enjoys it, and if someone does, we rightfully

The Premium of Pain