We've all seen YouTube videos that have gone viral. They get forwarded and forwarded and forwarded, until literally millions of people have seen the video. We are praying that the gospel goes viral in Dahlonega and Lumpkin County. One way that will happen is when people who have been deeply affected by the gospel begin forwarding invitations for others to experience the counterintuitive, yet transformative message of God's grace in Jesus. 

So, if you are a Creekstone regular, or have attended a Sunday gathering just once, but plan to return, would you take a mintue today to send an invitation to someone else to join you tomorrow?  Tell them you'll meet them out front and sit with them.  I'll try to be out front, too, and would love to meet your friends. 

Encountering the grace-centerdness of Creekstone's music, and what I think will be a distinctively helpful message for many, just might be a combination that the Spirit uses to help fulfill our mission, which is "to glorify God by helping people come alive to the wonder of the gospel." 

If the life-giving disease of grace is beginning to affect you, help us make it go viral. Forward it to a friend today. 

Creekstone meets Sundays at 10:30 a.m. at the Lumpkin County High School Performing Arts Center. Click here for a map. 

Click here to visit Creektone's website.

Click here to join Creekstone's Facebook page.

For some Christians, the word evangelism is the source of guilt and frustration. If you find yourself in that category, relax. After all, what did the woman at the well do after she encountered Jesus?  She simply invited others to check him out. "Come and see..." She had never been to even one evangelism training session. :) She just practiced what came naturally. Invitational evangelism. Low pressure. Relational. Pretty cool.  That is one way that you can use your partnership with Creekstone to reach others with the message of God's saving and sustaining grace. Invite folks to join you on a Sunday morning. We promise to share the gospel clearly and practically every week. And if those who visit have questions, you can field them over lunch. Or hey, ask me to join you, and I'll help field them with you over lunch! 

I had a conversation this week with a friend who shared that he had been reading an author who believed that preaching with too much of an emphasis on grace will adversely affect the mission of the church. He said that grace will lead to laziness, license and apathy with regard to the command to evangelize. I immediately thought of the new iPad- seriously! I watched the entire Apple Keynote presentation on the iPad, and was totally blown away. I can hardly stop talking about it. Others have only watched a snippet, or heard about it second hand, and THINK they understand iPad technology. Therefore, they are not that impressed. I realized that is the way it is with the gospel and mission. The problem with a lack of mission is not that we’ve made the gospel too good (too much grace). The problem is that we have not made it good enough!  In preaching we only show snippets, and people think they get it—but it doesn't blow them away. I think that the only way mission will be set free from the umbrella of guilt and duty is if we see the grace of Jesus more like the full iPad presentation. Revolutionary. Captivating. Life altering. No longer will I see life from a religious grid where I am forgiven, accepted and blessed on the basis of MY obedience and sacrifice. I will have a new lens on life, whereby in the gospel, I am forgiven, accepted and blessed COMPLETELY on the basis of the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus. This is the gospel. Revolutionary. Captivating. Life altering. It is not something that I have to share. It is something that I am compelled to share. It is the propulsion of grace.

Andree Seu is one of my favorite writers. She is real and raw, and writes from a distinctively grace-aware perspective. Her latest entry in WORLD Magazine is entitled "Taking Risks for the Gospel: It's Better to Make a Fool of Yourself Than to Play It Safe." Sounds like a church planter slogan to me. : )  Anyway, in that article she says something that I need to hear.