Eric's Blog

200th Comment

We have a winner. The 200th comment was posted today, Friday, August 29, at 10:43:41 AM by Leia Donald. Congratulations Leia! You can pick up your copy of Wild Goose Chase Sunday. Thank all of you who are faithful readers and take the time to leave comments.   

Focal Point Book Review

Do we want to get more accomplished in your life? Do you want God to do more through you and in your ministry? Then you must simplify your life and focus on your goals. Here are some of my favorite quotes from Focal Point.

"Among the most important personal choices you can make is to accept complete responsibility for everything you are and everything you will ever be."

"People without goals are doomed to work forever for people who do not have goals."

"What one skill, if you developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would help you the most in your career?"

"Your life gets better only when you get better."

"The more you invest in yourself, the more you will believe in yourself."

"To change anything in your outer world, you must begin by changing what is going on in your inner world."

"A person who takes a single action as the result of a new idea or insight is far more valuable than the person who learns a hundred ideas but does nothing."

"The more attention you pay to your day-to-day spending, the smarter you will become about the amount of money flowing through your fingers."

"Look for the valuable lesson in every difficulty."

To double your productivity: "Perform more and more task of higher value and delegate, delay, outsource, and eliminate tasks of lower value."

Tracy's favorite organizing principle for high productivity is: "Concentrate single-mindedly on one thing, the most important thing, all day long."

"The key focal point question: "What one skill, if you developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would help you and most in your career?

"Essentially, there are only four different things you can do to improve the quality of your life and work:

1. You can do more of certain things.

2. You can do less of certain things.

3. You can start to do things you are not doing at all today.

4. You can stop doing certain things altogether."

Hope you enjoy these quotes.

Fellowship One

One of the many changes we are making at New Life this fall is a change from a PC to a 100% web based church management system. A lot of growing and mega-churches are using or changing over to Fellowship One. So, why would a smaller church change to Fellowship One? Because we don't want to stay small. Here are a couple of reasons we are changing:

Top Reason: It's web based. Since our staff currently consist of volunteers they can access the database and complete a lot of their weekly task from home. Being able to access our data base from home is a huge plus.

Weblink - Link your church's website into Fellowship One to provide: 

• Contact Form Submissions - The church can post its various contact cards / forms on the website. Any contacts made through the church website are captured in Fellowship One, which automatically assigns contact tasks to the appropriate ministry/minister.
• Online Donations - Attendees can create online donation schedules that automatically deduct from a debit / credit card or from their checking account. Additionally, it provides a view into their giving history.
• Event Registration - Provides the church with the tools to create customized online event registration forms for church activities / events. These forms can include up-sell items such as t-shirts, learning materials, tapes/CDs, etc. Attendees can browse the website at their leisure and sign-up for activities when it's convenient. Using the same technology as online donations, the entire activity and any additional materials can be paid for online via a credit card or bank draft.
• Small Group Finder - Attendees can find a small group or bible study that most closely fits with their lifestyle, location, hobbies, marital status, etc.
• Small Group Manager - Small group leaders can respond to group seekers, manage the people in the small group, add new people, track attendance, mass email group members, and record meeting minutes.
• Volunteer Applications - Provides the church with the tools to create volunteer applications containing one or many job opportunities. Each opportunity can be configured to display additional information depending upon the requirements for the opportunity. Once an attendee has completed an application, it is submitted and enters Fellowship One's volunteer pipeline.

We are still in the implementation phase with our second meeting with our delivery manager scheduled next week. Our site is set up and we have been adding people to our database and setting up all the features for the last couple of weeks. This move will allow us to be more effective and efficient in all aspects of our ministry.

We are so excited about this change. There are so many benefits to using Fellowship One that I would not even attempt to list them all. If you are considering a change in your church management system you have to check our Fellowship One.

Blog Time

I wanted to let you know why the blogs have been slow the last three weeks. Three weeks ago my wife's grandmother passed away so my priorities were with my family.

Two weeks ago I had massive training and home work to complete. We are changing over to an on-line database (I will blog about this later) and I had over a dozen training classes to complete along with entering information and setting up our ministry on-line. I had to really work hard two weeks ago to get done as much as possible because...

Last week I went on vacation with my family to Myrtle Beach. We have several BIG and exciting project going on and they are all winding down. These have taken up a lot of my time but this week I plan on getting back to a more routine blogging schedule. Please pray for me and New Life as we complete these projects. Thanks!

Sunday Night Reflections

A few thoughts from today and last week...

Last Sunday we left right after lunch for Myrtle Beach for some much needed vacation time. It was a great, fun filled relaxing vacation. Seth loves the beach!

I want to thank everyone who called, emailed, and sent cards for my birthday. I really appreciated it.

Today was absolutely awesome. I enjoyed getting to meet Ebo and receiving from his ministry. Remember: If you don't quit, God will do in you and through you what you can't do!

I am so proud of our band. They have been working hard and it was great to see and hear them use their talents for the special today. We have so much more in store for you.

Next week we are starting a series called, "Rules of Engagement." This is a series for everyone because it is all about relationships. We are going to be talking about communication, finances, and sex. You need to get all the singles, engaged and married couples you know and bring them with you. Seriously, bring someone with you next week.

The Big Reveal: Sunday, September 7th we will be revealing our new UpTown Children's Ministry environment. A lot of money, time, and effort has went into this and it is almost time to celebrate another giant step in our ministry. Mark it on your calendars now!

If you have not heard yet we are giving away a copy of "Wild Goose Chase" by Mark Batterson for the 200th comment on the blog.

Have a great week!

Wild Goose Chase

First,I would like thank Mark Batterson and Random House for the opportunity to read and review Wild Goose Chase. To read more about the book and Mark's 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals go to www.chasethegoose.com.

- Introduction to Wild Goose Chase.

Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something…

Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.

Now for my review-

Some of my favorite quotes:

"God often uses us at our point of greatest incompetence."

"One of the great mistakes we make is asking God to do for us what God wants us to do for Him."

"When you give beyond your ability, God will bless you beyond your ability."

"We become so fixated on past mistakes that we forfeit future opportunities."

"Our greatest regrets are often our worst reactions."

"You can't do the will of God if you don't have the heart of God."

"Indecision is a decision, And it is our indecision, not our bad decisions, that keeps us in the cage."

From Craig Groeschel - "The difference between where you are and where God wants you to be may be the painful decision you refuse to make."

"You have to stop repeating the past and start creating the future."

So how is your relationship with God? Is your life boring and seemingly without purpose and meaning? Have you lost your passion? Are you living your life without adventure and fun? Then this book is for you. As the introduction says living life pursuing God is an adventure.

Mark lists and discuss 6 cages that will keep you from the spiritual adventure God has destined for you:

1) The cage of responsibility.

2) The cage of routine.

3) The cage of assumptions.

4) The cage of guilt.

5) The cage of failure.

6) The cage of fear.

Pick up the book, remove the cages from your life, and let the chase (and adventure) begin! Wild Goose Chase is now available at your favorite book store.

We are nearing the 200th comment on the blog and I will give a copy of Wild Goose Chase to the person who leaves the 200th comment.  

Healing Revival?

Below is an article by J. Lee Grady the editor of Charisma magazine dealing with the healing revival in Florida. He touched on two important weaknesses I see in the Body of Christ right now: lack of discernment and spiritual immaturity.

People are spiritually hungry. The questions we must answer are: What are we feeding them and how are we representing the Kingdom of God in our ministries?

Life After Lakeland: Sorting Out the Confusion

By J. Lee Grady

Todd Bentley’s announcement that his marriage is ending has thrown our movement into a tailspin—and questions need to be answered.

It was not supposed to end like this.

Evangelist Todd Bentley had heralded the Lakeland revival as the greatest Pentecostal outpouring since Azusa Street. From his stage in a gigantic tent in Florida, Bentley preached to thousands, bringing many of them to the stage for prayer. Many claimed to be healed of deafness, blindness, heart problems, depression and dozens of other conditions in the Lakeland services, which ran for more than 100 consecutive nights. Bentley announced confidently that dozens of people had been raised from the dead during the revival.

But this week, a few days after the Canadian preacher announced the end of his visits to Lakeland, he told his staff that his marriage is ending. Without blaming the pace of the revival for Bentley’s personal problems, his board released a public statement saying that he and his wife, Shonnah, are separating. The news shocked Bentley’s adoring fans and saddened those who have questioned his credibility since the Lakeland movement erupted in early April.

I’m sad. I’m disappointed. And I’m angry. Here are few of my many, many questions about this fiasco:

Why did so many people flock to Lakeland from around the world to rally behind an evangelist who had serious credibility issues from the beginning?

To put it bluntly, we’re just plain gullible.

From the first week of the Lakeland revival, many discerning Christians raised questions about Bentley’s beliefs and practices. They felt uneasy when he said he talked to an angel in his hotel room. They sensed something amiss when he wore a T-shirt with a skeleton on it. They wondered why a man of God would cover himself with tattoos. They were horrified when they heard him describe how he tackled a man and knocked his tooth out during prayer.

But among those who jumped on the Lakeland bandwagon, discernment was discouraged. They were expected to swallow and follow. The message was clear: “This is God. Don’t question.” So before we could all say, “Sheeka Boomba” (as Bentley often prayed from his pulpit), many people went home, prayed for people and shoved them to the floor with reckless abandon, Bentley-style.

I blame this lack of discernment, partly, on raw zeal for God. We’re spiritual hungry—which can be a good thing. But sometimes, hungry people will eat anything.

Many of us would rather watch a noisy demonstration of miracles, signs and wonders than have a quiet Bible study. Yet we are faced today with the sad reality that our untempered zeal is a sign of immaturity. Our adolescent craving for the wild and crazy makes us do stupid things. It’s way past time for us to grow up.

Why didn’t anyone in Lakeland denounce the favorable comments Bentley made about William Branham?

This one baffles me. Branham embraced horrible deception near the end of his ministry, before he died in 1965. He claimed that he was the reincarnation of Elijah—and his strange doctrines are still embraced by a cultlike following today. When Bentley announced to the world that the same angel that ushered in the 1950s healing revival had come to Lakeland, the entire audience should have run for the exits.

Why didn’t anyone correct this error from the pulpit? Godly leaders are supposed to protect the sheep from heresy, not spoon feed deception to them. Only God knows how far this poison traveled from Lakeland to take root elsewhere. May God forgive us for allowing His Word to be so flippantly contaminated.

A prominent Pentecostal evangelist called me this week after Bentley’s news hit the fan. He said to me: “I’m now convinced that a large segment of the charismatic church will follow the anti-Christ when he shows up because they have no discernment.” Ouch. Hopefully we’ll learn our lesson this time and apply the necessary caution when an imposter shows up.

Why did God TV tell people that “any criticism of Todd Bentley is demonic”?

This ridiculous statement was actually made on one of God TV’s pre-shows. In fact, the network’s hosts also warned listeners that if they listened to criticism of Bentley, they could lose their healings.

This is cultic manipulation at its worst. The Bible tells us that the Bereans were noble believers because they studied the Scriptures daily “to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11, NASB). Yet in the case of Lakeland, honest intellectual inquiry was viewed as a sign of weakness. People were expected to jump first and then open their eyes.

Just because we believe in the power of the Holy Spirit does not mean we check our brains at the church door. We are commanded to test the spirits. Jesus wants us to love Him with our hearts and our minds.

Because of the Lakeland scandal, there may be large numbers of people who feel they’ve been burned by Bentley. Some may give up on church and join the growing ranks of bitter, disenfranchised Christians. Others may suffer total spiritual shipwreck. This could have been avoided if leaders had been more vocal about their objections and urged people to evaluate spiritual experiences through the filter of God’s Word.

Why did a group of respected ministers lay hands on Bentley on June 23 and publicly ordain him? Did they know of his personal problems?

This controversial ceremony was organized by Peter Wagner, who felt that one of Bentley’s greatest needs was proper spiritual covering. He asked California pastors Che Ahn and Bill Johnson, along with Canadian pastor John Arnott, to lay hands on Bentley and bring him under their care.

Bentley certainly needs such covering. No one in ministry today should be out on their own, living in isolation without checks, balances and wise counsel. It was commendable that Wagner reached out to Bentley and that Bentley acknowledged his need for spiritual fathers by agreeing to submit to the process. The question remains, however, whether it was wise to commend Bentley during a televised commissioning service that at times seemed more like a king’s coronation.

In hindsight, we can all see that it would have been better to take Bentley into a back room and talk about his personal issues.

The Bible tells us that ordination of a minister is a sober responsibility. Paul wrote: “Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others” (1 Tim. 5:22). We might be tempted to rush the process, but the apostle warned against fast-tracking ordination—and he said that those who commission a minister who is not ready for the job will bear some of the blame for his failures.

I trust that Wagner, Ahn, Johnson and Arnott didn’t know of Bentley’s problems before they ordained him. I am sure they are saddened by the events of this week and are reaching out to Bentley and his wife to promote healing and restoration. But I believe that they, along with Bentley and the owners of God TV, owe the body of Christ a forthright, public apology for thrusting Bentley’s ministry into the spotlight prematurely. (Perhaps such an apology should be aired on God TV.)

Can anything good come out of this?

That depends on how people respond. If the men assigned to oversee Bentley offer loving but firm correction, and if Bentley responds humbly to the process by stepping out of ministry for a season of rehabilitation, we could witness a healthy case of church discipline play out the way it is supposed to. If all those who were so eager to promote Bentley now rush just as fast to repent for their errors in judgment, then the rest of us could breathe a huge sigh of relief—and the credibility of our movement could be restored.

I still believe that God desires to visit our nation in supernatural power. I know He wants to heal multitudes, and I will continue praying for a healing revival to sweep across the United States. But we must contend for the genuine, not an imitation. True revival will be accompanied by brokenness, humility, reverence and repentance—not the arrogance, showmanship and empty hype that often was on display in Lakeland.

We are weathering an unprecedented season of moral failure and spiritual compromise in our nation today. I urge everyone in the charismatic world to pray for Bentley; his wife, Shonnah; his three young children; Bentley’s ministry staff; and the men and women who serve as his counselors and advisers. Let’s pray that God will turn this embarrassing debacle into an opportunity for miraculous restoration.

Sunday Night Reflections

Here are a few comments, thoughts, before bed...

• Did you see the opening ceremony for the Olympics? Wow!!! The way they lite the torch was awesome.

• I can't wait for college football. Go Tigers!

• Today we talked about, "Preparing for the Race." We looked at the preparation that an Olympic athlete goes though and all the money China puts into its athletics then ask the question, "How much money and time are you putting into your spiritual growth?" 1 Cor 9:24-25, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” NIV In other words we are to live our lives in such a way that when it's over we will receive the Crown of Life. So...how are you living?

• This was a difficult week. Thank you for your prayers, support, and of course the food.

• Mark your calendars for August 24th. Ebo Eldera former professional boxing champ and a participate on ESPN's Contender will be sharing his testimony with us. You do not want to miss this.

• We have so many new great things we are going to reveal this fall. Can't say much about it yet but stay tune for some news real soon.

Have a great week!!!

Funeral Arrangements

We will be having visitation for Greatma (Mildred Fricks) from 1 until 3pm on Saturday at Robinson Funeral Home in Downtown Easley.  The funeral itself will take place in the Robinson Chapel at 3.  The burial will follow at Greenlawn.

The family is going to be gathering at my grandfather's house in Easley.  Thank you again for all your prayers and support. 

Alisha

Alisha's Grandmother

Late Tuesday night, Alisha's grandma, Brenda Maw's mother, had a massive heart attack.  The EMS were able to get a faint heartbeat and so she was taken to the ER where she was admitted into ICU.  Wednesday she was given a Cat Scan where it was determined that there was no brain activity so the family decided late Wednesday afternoon that they would take her off the ventilation machine.  The plan was that they (the nurses) would begin a morphine drip and that slowly they would stop the medication that was keeping her blood pressure up and slowly take her off the ventilator. 

What actually happened was that Wednesday at 7 the family gathered in her room and began to sing some of her favorite hymns and prayed that God would take her home, and He did. At 7:20, without medical interference, Mildred Fricks, Greatma to Seth and Katie, went to be with the Lord.

Please pray for Alisha, Brenda and Paul Maw, Papa Charlie and the entire family as they go through the grieving and healing process.