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New series; “Landmarks: Life Defining Decisions”

Posted on June 7, 2011 by johnmarkum

“Remove not the ancient landmarks…” Proverbs 22:28

A few months ago, I posted a blog about life-defining decisions that have shaped my life which you can read about here. It seemed appropriated that this subject deserved more than a casual blog post about it. So next week, at our 6pm Saturday night worship service, we begin a whole new series about establishing landmarks to guide your life. Landmarks that will stand the test of time and take you where you ultimately long to be. This will be a very powerful series to begin our summer, so don’t miss!

Below is a video to set it up.

Blessings,

John

2 Year Recap

Posted on June 5, 2011 by johnmarkum

My top 10 highlights for The Awakening, our Saturday night worship experience at Edgewood, would have to include the following moments:

Faith Night: At the iWireless Center. Had over 160 people show up. Dozens of lives rededicated. Amazing!
Worship Sessions: An entire series devoted to how we worship in the summer of 2010. The worship team put their heart into it and did a killer job. We really connected with God.
Super Church: Our children’s ministry on Saturday nights. Barely had any kids when we began. Now we average 6-10 kids each week. Love our kids’ volunteers!
Connecting Point: Became a half hour meet-and-greet to help bridge the gap between attending and joining us on Saturday nights. We’ve seen lot’s of people get plugged in through it.
Spontaneous Baptisms: Craziest thing we ever tried. We had literally no one planned to be baptized and it turned out to be one of our smaller attendances, but 4 people came forward with their faith that night. Absolutely intense!
Give. Me. Faith.: Incredible 4 week series dealing with faith. Lots of salvations. Lot’s of big faith.
Easter 2010: Back at the iWireless Center with our entire church in attendance. over 2,000 people together worshiping Jesus!
Easter 2011: Came back to our campus this year with 4 identical worship services. We filled the place up at the Saturday night service with over 630 people.
Riverbend Foodbank: We’ve made several donations to Riverbend in the past 2 years, totaling over 700 pounds of food donated to the hungry. The church is the change the world is waiting for!
2 Year Anniversary: We had an amazing night celebrating what God has been doing for 2 years, and the best is still to come! If you were NOT there,… wherever you were, or whatever you did, we had more fun than you! Should have made it!

Whatever you do, don’t miss what God does in year 3! We begin a new series this week, and the summer is going to be fun, busy, and full of impact. I cant wait to see you there.

Blessings,

John

5 Ways to Make your Kids Hate Church

Posted on June 3, 2011 by johnmarkum

I have served in full-time ministry for over 6 years now. I’ve been a children’s pastor at one church, and the college pastor at Edgewood and leading pastor for our Saturday night service. Having seen kids growing up in church as well as the aftermath of kids who have grown up in church, here are a few ways to make sure your kids will one day hate church as adults, if not sooner…

Give them a choice. Yeah, yeah, I know. Your kids should want to go to church on their own. But do you give them the choice to go to school or not? NO?! You make them go whether they feel like it or not?!? How dare you force your educational values on those poor kids! Of course I’m simply making a point here. You are suppose to parent your kids. If you hope they will want to go to church as young adults you will have to make them go now. You have to lead them to good behaviors, not simply expect them to decide it on their own.
Bad-mouth the preacher. If you don’t honor the pastors and leaders of your church, why should your kids? They will pick up your attitudes.
Be a hypocrite. My generation is full of adults who grew up out of “good Christian homes” and everyone is stunned at why they left church at 19 and never looked back. For many of them, the reason is that the people their parents were at church was different fro the people they were at home. Be two-faced and you’re sure to run your kids far from a place where they feel like everyone there is a liar.
Christian school. Here me out… I came from a Christian school. I loved my Christian school. But a good Christian school will never compensate for poor parenting. As a former children’s pastor, my wife and I observed kids who were sent to public schools, Christian schools, private non-Christian schools, and home schooled. While there were some distinguishing characteristics, no particular schooling produced kids who were better behaved, more spiritually inclined, or intellectually superior. What we did notice, however, was that the kids who made good choices, were spiritually growing, and had good grades all had parents who were training their children to be that way. Some of the most impressive young people I’ve ever met had only been in public schools. Conversely, some of the most rebellious I’ve known had always been in Christian schools. You still have to be the parent.
Be inconsistent. Nothing says, “this isn’t that important” to a kid like being a CEO church attender (Christmas and Easter Only). My kids never question attending church on Easter and Christmas. Why? Because they’ve attended every weekend for the past year, not just last Easter. It’s part of who we are as a family. And not just because I’m a pastor. My home growing up was the same way. And my Dad was in the Army. We moved every 3 years. But we always found a new church home and stayed connected to it. And we never left that church until my Dad got relocated by Uncle Sam. Your kids will determine what you believe by what you do. Don’t tell your kids that God, faith, and church are important and then attend church once a month or twice a year. Your actions have already told them differently.

You are the best person to teach your children spiritual morals and life values. Don’t you dare back away or chicken-out on the holy anointing God has called you to as a parent! You and I are in the best position to raise a generation of godly men and women. As parents.

Blessings,

John