It’s funny, whenever someone comes to visit Fellowship to speak or to play music or share their ministry with us, they always say the same thing, “You have an incredibly neat church,” or “you have a cool kind of vibe going on here”.  Of course, “neat”, in this context does not necessarily mean clean and “cool” has nothing to do with the pastor, but what they are doing is complimenting the community of people that make up Fellowship Church.

And when it comes to loving people.  First class, that’s what I think.

Jon Acuff, writer of “Stuff Christians like”,  as he spoke yesterday – Yeah, pretty much treated like royalty. (He, by the way is an amazing guy – and truly hilarious)

And The Wrecking, The Black Raspberries, and Steve Patton – I heard quotes all day from them like the ones mentioned above, plus others like, “We’ve never been treated like this” and “You all know how to treat people”, and of course the “It’s a sin if that woman (the lady who hosted the band’s dinner last night) doesn’t have her own restaurant.”

So basically, we know how to treat people.

Today I’m praying that we would also become a church and I would become a pastor who would treat one another as well as we treat strangers.  Sometimes, that’s easier, ya know?  Treating strangers well.  And familiarity can breed contempt and all that.  Like the teenage son who treats his mom like dirt, then goes out and treats his friends like royalty, as if they had something to do with him becoming who he is today.

So the last few weeks have been about bringing in “cool” people and treating them like royalty.  The next few weeks?

Causing the ones who we see each week in life groups and every Sunday in church to say,

“Wow, this sure is a neat church.”

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Something about the human nature that you’ve no doubt seen or experienced, and the chances are good that you’ve done it:  Most of us have probably gone on record in social networking either by blogging or twittering or “facebook statusing” to make some sort of reactionary statement against something that has either happened to them in the past or a perceived popular notion that easily has another side that’s been apparently neglected by whoever came up with the notion.

I’m thinking about this because recently I’ve seen many people take a few jabs at Rick Warren in the Facebook world.  Now I understand taking jabs at some extremes like the KJV only position or preaching against alcohol or any number of insane extreme personal convictions that are not backed up by Scripture but simply by the Holy Spirit convicting an individual (this of course is not wrong, and I applaud those who have different convictions from others), but come on, Rick Warren?

The guy preaches what he preaches, and it is the gospel, gives away 90% of his income, and so now countless numbers of people decide that this guys fluff, why?  Because he’s not reformed or uses his influence to reach far outside of the church?  One thing I’m learning about the church and myself:  We need to pick on someone.  We have a desire in our hearts (clearly not from the Spirit, so where’s it coming from?) to find what we assume is a weakness in someone because of what they didn’t say or what their book didn’t point out, and we call them out.  I call them out.

Enough of that crap!  I’m not doing it anymore.  If someone’s preaching a gospel that’s different than the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus, that’s one thing.  But Fellowship Church in Massachusetts will not be known for our who we pick on or who we call out.  We are called to build up, and encourage, and esteem others better than ourselves.  And that starts with me.

And that starts now.

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I’ll cut to the chase.  Sunday morning at Fellowship we’ll be hosting a great author, an author of a book one of my fave pastors, Andy Stanley says, “I Can’t put it down.”  His name is Jon Acuff, and he writes the popular blog “Stuff Christians Like”.  He’ll be speaking at our 10:30 am service, and frankly, I can’t wait!

Here’s one of my favorite posts from him about “Our prayer requests that aren’t big enough”:

“Uh oh,” my friend said the other night at the end of our men’s group, “I don’t think I should share my prayer request anymore.”

Why did he say this? Simple, he didn’t have a “big prayer request.”

After hearing everyone’s very serious, very heartfelt prayer requests, his suddenly felt small and insignificant. He didn’t want to say it out loud. He was struck with a bought of prayer envy or “prenvy.” And you hate to see that kind of thing strike a kid so young. It’s a shame, a dang shame.

So to help him, and others out there, I thought it would be a good idea to review some ways to prevent feeling like your prayer request isn’t “big enough.”… (read the rest and more here)

This Sunday.  10:30.  Fellowship Church.

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I see 100 life groups happening all over Central Massachusetts.

I see people people living out their lives together and learning what it is to “be like Jesus”.

Different backgrounds.  Different stages of life.  Different living conditions.

But one God.

And one Savior.

100 Groups of people listening to the Father, much like the One who gave His life for all of us thousands of years ago.

Not judging, criticizing, or forcing one another into a mold.

For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And we were created for freedom.

And for Him.

 

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1. Worcester Scary Scavenger Hunt

2. 12 Days of Christmas parties

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There is some sweet brainstorming going on right now for the Fellowship Church Student Ministry. Aaahhh, I so love what I do!

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Where can you meet in a church on a Sunday morning with children and adults alike and have the kids just as in much in tune and focused on the service as their parents?
Why, Fellowship Church of course.

Sunday morning @ Fellowship showcased our “Family Experience”, a shared worship experience for children and adults.  The Experience featured music, dancing, drama, humor, great lighting, and yours truly sharing the first message (10 minutes, amazing!) in a 5 part series called, “A Family Christmas”.

I was so proud of Steve and our family ministries team that came together and pulled off a huge win in teaching the important virtue of generosity to the wide variety of ages who were present.  It’s not easy capturing the attention of 3 year olds and 40 year olds, but I would say they did it, and I couldn’t be more proud of our church!  I think we’ll see more “Family Experiences” in the near future.

If you were able to be there, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Today marks the beginning of the 2nd year of a new pastor at Fellowship Church – me.

I wanted to take some time to write out my thoughts about our church, and try to convey my deepest appreciation for who we are as a group of people seeking to lead others into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
First of all, thank you for your patience and understanding in my first year in this position.  I realize it is only that, a position, and God uses anyone to do His work, but I also believe that pastors have a great responsibility to be an earthly leader of the kingdom of God.  This involves humility, courage, patience, self-sacrifice, and love.  In fact, a pastor who does not have these characteristics would probably be best suited using his or her gifts in another way.
My prayer is that my ministry to you is washed over with these qualitites, and that they would not only occur in my every day life, but they would be clearly evident as I talk and minister to you.
Also (and this is for the future), I hope that as a church we can begin to grab on to our culture – that is, our strengths, personalities, likes and dislikes, and the dominant gifts we’ve been given – and, in doing so, we will unite in such a way as to spread that culture to make a difference for Christ in the New England area in which we find ourselves.
That being said, I look forward to seeing and participating in where God brings us as a group of people who love and genuinely want to have relationship with Him and with one another.
You see, one of the greatest triumphs of Fellowship to date, I believe is the relationships that have been created and have given us even more potential to grow than we would have had without those relationships.
As we grow in our walk with Christ, let’s move forward with our mission by igniting a movement here in Central Massachusetts.
How?
The easiest way to “ignite a movement” is to be passionate about what unites us, which in this case, is Jesus.
Grab on to this:  I’m not talented or handsome enough (can I get an amen?)for a church to be united around me, and if I was, I’m sure some day it would fall apart anyway.  If I am anything it is simply this: I am a single part of what God is doing here at Fellowship…

I almost said Fellowship Church, but I think I’ll say Fellowship movement this time.

Thanks for your love and care to Carie and I, and please feel free to respond to this letter any way you see fit.  Let’s ignite the movement!

Marty

Abba Father from Marty Holman.

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This weekend is our last weekend of “One Prayer” at Fellowship Church in Holden.
Tomorrow we will be going out as a church community to serve by claiming a street for the Kingdom of God and cleaning up the trash on that street.
On Sunday we’ll be hearing a message from Craig Croeschel of LifeChurch.tv, as he prays his one prayer for the church at large – “Make us One”  Here are two examples of some of the excellent things Craig has done in his community and beyond.
For those of you who have been a part of One Prayer, both at the FC or elsewhere,
I’d love to hear your thoughts on how it’s impacted you.

SUNDAY MORNINGS @ FELLOWSHIP  (10:30 am)
325 BULLARD ST.
HOLDEN, MA 01520
fellowshipthis.wordpress.com

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Sometime in 2005 I took a test to find out what my strengths were.  I found that my top 5 were as follows: 1.  Ideator, 2.  Positivity, 3.  Connectedness, 4.  Competition, 5.  Developer

I noticed as several of my friends took the same test that several of us had one of those in common.  Out of the 7 people I know that took the test, 5 of them had connectedness as a strength.
Some qualitites of someone with this strength – “That I gain confidence from knowing that we are not isolated from one another or from the earth and the life on it;  I am part of a larger picture, and I must not harm others because I will harm myself;  and I am a bridge builder between people of different cultures.”

Enter the beauty of web 2.0 to people like me. 
I’m not a fan of compartmentalizing my life.  I like things, whether it’s people in my life or web sites I go to, to all be connected to one another.  This makes my mom and google both very happy.

How does this affect me?
I like it when my family and my friends and all the people in my life meet.  What makes this interesting is when they don’t get along.  I think everyone should get along.  Not like each other, just get along.

I like using google and itunes.  My friend Clay swears against itunes, and probably rightfully so, but I like when things connect together easily, so I use it.  I know, I know Clay, I sacrifice things to use itunes.  Google connects a lot of things in my web life, like my Calendar, my way to find where I might be going, my blog reader, my connect with Fellowship Church podcasts, and even my weather, not to mention my documents (I don’t have to pay for Microsoft office again!)

Weather

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