"Most Nights" by Central

I Think I Lost My Christmas Spirit... Now What?

Sooo... you think you lost your Christmas Spirit... what do you do now? Well if you are like me you open up Google and find out how to get it back! First you will notice an eHow article explaining how to get it back... some of those suggestions are actually good.

Perhaps the Christmas Spirit can only be found in the heart of a young child, you think... so to find out I asked my son Josh to tell me, how to get the Christmas Spirit back if you have lost it... here is what he said:

"Well... put up a Christmas Tree, and put a big snowflake at the top with star lights on there... put God into your heart, that will get you the spirit."

I think maybe Josh nailed it, but you still may not have the Christmas Spirit back... so you have wisely come here. Let's get to work fixing you...

The first thing we want to ponder is: what IS the "Christmas Spirit?" To find that out we have to go back to the beginning and remember what Christmas IS. 

First, let’s start with the word Christmas:  from Old English Crstes mæsse, Christ's festival. Literally it was a feast to celebrate the birth of Christ. It is not some random holiday to celebrate a fat man in a red suite... It was, "Christ' Festival." So to revive the "Spirit of Christmas" we must return to the original meaning of Christmas - a festival in Jesus' honor. 

Now we know what Christmas IS...and that's a lot different from how we celebrate it today. What is the Christmas Spirit? Well if you go back to Google you find this ridiculous article that tells us it was how people thought and acted in the 50's and 60's... HA! What a laugh!

No... the Spirit of Christmas is the Spirit of Christ. When we say we want to get the Christmas Spirit, we are saying that we want to get more of the Spirit of Christ. So, how do we do that?

I'm glad you asked! Josh once again, gives us this sage advice: 

"You pray to God, that is the first thing I know, and you just believe in Him and you will get all that stuff that you need with the Christmas Spirit."

Man my boys are smart... not to brag, but... DANG!

Here is my advice: 

#1 Rekindle your quite time with Jesus... start by reading the Bible, book of John if you don't know where to start - there you will get to know this Jesus and you will find out why he deserves his own special feast day! 

#2 Once you begin to know about Jesus and what He has done for you... how He has loved you and given so much to you, you'll want to do the same for others. So do it! Show some love this Christmas season. As you do, you will be filled anew with the Spirit of Christ and the Christmas Spirit will mean more to you than it ever has before.

Merry Christmas,

Pastor Willy 

5 Ways to Get Your Spiritual Fire Back!

This week at Southside we are half-way through our study of the Pastoral Epistles. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus. This week we started 2 Timothy 1. In this chapter Paul tells Timothy in VS. 5 & 6:

5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 

6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 

This Sunday we talked about how our Christian faith has a tendency to lose its flame, lose its passion. It is so easy for that to happen to any of us. This letter was written by the Apostle Paul, in chains, under a death sentence, to Timothy a fellow pastor. If it is possible for a pastor, who was a follower of the Apostle Paul to lose his flame, how much more so for us?

Here are 5 Ways to "Fan into Flame" your love and passion for God:

1. Personal worship times.

Don't wait for Sunday morning to roll around! Don't look to a church worship service to be your only time of worship during the week. Turn on some worship songs and worship along... just you and Jesus. Not because you have to, because you want to!

2. Read and Memorize the Bible.

This is a no-brainer. If you want to get close to Jesus, read the letter He sent you! As you meditate, think about, study, read and ingest God's letter to mankind, you will find the fires of your faith stoked!

3. Offer to pray for friends and family. 

Nothing helps fan embers into a roaring fire like being pushed out of our comfort zone. You know you should do it... so do it! You will find the more you make this a lifestyle the more spiritual fire you have. 

4. Give something away.

Kicking greed out of your life and putting your focus on others helps us see others the way that Jesus sees them. Once you start to view the world through those eyes of compassion, you will never be the same.

5. Serve the needy.

One of the biggest ways we can fan the spiritual flames is by serving those who have need. When we get the focus of off ourselves and onto others, then we can realize our own need. Each one of us is broken and needs to be healed by Jesus. Serving others not only demonstrates the goodness of God, but it also is part of our own spiritual healing and stokes the spiritual fire in our souls.

Fan the Flame!

Pastor Willy

Holloween... Spooky Fun or Satanic Ritual

Every year at the onset of Halloween we are once again bombarded by emails, sermons, podcasts, televangelists and radio preachers all telling us how Pagan Halloween is and as Christians we should steer clear.

Really I don’t know that I have the perfect answer to this debate, honestly, I don’t know if anyone does.

Churches try their best to “Christianize” this most wicked of holidays, but even the best attempts really fall short.

For years I grew up in the same church, every October the pastor would preach at least one sermon on Halloween and give out many materials explaining the Pagan roots to this Satanic night. I could probably recite to you in pretty good detail the origins, practices and history of this black day... but I will let you read another blog for that!

The fact is, even though I know all of that information and history, this holiday is still hard to know how to handle, exactly. For instance, at Southside, we would do a “harvest party” every year and just bless the community with a fun carnival, on the other end of the spectrum, there is a Christian church here in Newberg that has a “trunk-or-treat” in their parking lot, costumes encouraged...

Now the church I grew up in literally taught that if you celebrated Halloween at all, you were giving worship to Satan, intentional or not. The problem with that kind of thinking is, if you do ANYTHING on Halloween then you are giving worship to Satan, and that same church would have a “Harvest Party” every year, costumes not welcome... only thing was, inevitably someone would show up in a costume and we would carry on as if they were not. Now we never treated those folks different, we never acted as if a “persona non grata,” were amongst us, we were nice to everyone who came, fake blood and all. And, I think this seemed like a reasonable alternative.

Problem was, like it or not, we were having a party on Oct. 31. We could say that it was a Christian alternative, but as mentioned before, if you followed the logic, Satan would have been glad that we were having a Christian party on, “his day.” As a matter of fact, if you think it through, he would have been ecstatic that he got the church... THE CHURCH... to celebrate his BIG day.

So, I don’t know how much we should buy into this kind of black and white, all or nothing kind of theology. These are the kind of problems you get into when you have such thinking. Clearly, Halloween is an evil holiday that celebrates Satan, Death and the Occult. Not exactly the kind of thing we Christians want to be a part of celebrating.

For me, my ideas about Halloween began to change about 5 years ago when I took my first church over on the coast in Newport, Or.

My family and I were not going to celebrate Halloween... not until, that is, one of the single women in the neighborhood that we had been talking to about Jesus came by with her kid and asked if we would go along with them... we did. We walked the neighborhood with this single mom and shared LIFE with her. This was part of the bridge building and relationship building that lead to conversations about Jesus. This lady was into New Age Mysticism already... what she needed was to encounter Jesus and have her life changed. Now I am not certain, but I doubt the devil took much pleasure in THOSE activities.

Bottom line, as Christians we should NOT be celebrating the evil side of Halloween, as a matter of fact the scriptures tell us that all who hate God, love death. Prov. 8:36. What we need to focus on is, how can we:

1. Be relevant to culture.
2. Use this as an opportunity to show the goodness of God (Rom. 2:4)

This year we are looking at joining with some other Christians who will be giving away glow bracelets downtown during the annual trunk-or-treat on main street. The point is not to join in and look the same as everyone else, the point is to shine the light where the people are, not from behind the safe walls of a building, but out amongst the crowd. Jesus told us to be in the world but not of the world... it may be cliche but... “What WOULD Jesus Do?” What will you do? How will YOU light up the darkness in your little neighborhood?

Pastor Willy

Why I don't need a Small Group or Community Group.

The Amazing Race - Southside Edition: Official Rules:)

Vlog / Blog Update!

Free Methodist Church of North America Live Vision Cast

Live Vision Cast

Sit down with the bishops here at fmcusa.org/live at 7 p.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 26, for our next Vision Cast. The bishops will help us see where we’re going as a church and how we’re going to get there.

To watch live click HERE. 

Chick-Fil-A is not Anti-Gay, they are Pro-Marriage!

Well, it has been one heck of a Summer. I don't know about you but I am about sick of peoples life choices being jammed down my throat. Everything from the political scene of pin the blame on the donkey to the cultural reality of alternative lifestyles being thrust upon the populous along with a corresponding expectation that what was once considered alternative, be recognized as mainstream, and if you don't agree, well, you better be strapped in and ready to be slammed... hard. 

If you have taken in any movies this summer you have been inundated with Hollywood's efforts to mainstream the homosexual lifestyle. It seems every movie or music video that comes out nowadays HAS to have a token gay couple in it and yes, they must kiss onscreen at least once. This makes it so difficult to watch TV with my 9 year old and 7 year old boys... last week, "Dad, why did those girls kiss?" ... uhh, well boys, I think they are sisters or something, uhhhh... 

What has become so evident to me recently is the fact that the homosexuals (and those who support that lifestyle choice) are NOT interested in is equality, what they really crave is validation for their choices.

How do I know this to be true? Well, they insist on gay marriage for one. Although they have been offered domestic partnerships that will allow them all the same rights as a heterosexual couple, healthcare benefits, the right to will properties and inherit assets, the homosexuals have stated that this is not good enough for them. Why, what will marriage do, nothing more than add legitimacy to there lifestyle choice. 

Here is a just one great reason why offering marriages to gays is a bad idea. If we validate this lifestyle then what is to stop a man from marrying his sister... or both his sisters. Well, they could have a baby that would be inbred you say, well ok, what if he wanted to marry his brother or his dog or his horse for that matter... after all who are we to define love?

This is not about love, you are free to love anyone you want. This is not about rights, you have all the same rights as heterosexual couples. This IS about validation. 

There has been a major push lately in our society to offer the validation that these people crave, Oreos, Barack Obama, Target, and the Main Stream Media have all jumped on the bandwagon to legitimize this group. 

What is sad is that when you look at this group you know that they just see dollar signs or votes, not people. The issue is irrelevant. The people irrelevant. 

The only little snag is that as much as some may want to say this is OK, we know that God has told us that this is not OK. 

Romans 1:26-27

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Plus many more scriptures that we will not take the time to look up...

If we see these people through God's eyes we should be filled with compassion that our brother or sister has been deceived by the enemy. All too often though, the church has been guilty of showing anger instead of love and compassion. You can take a look at many  "Christian Blogs" that spew nothing but hate... that is clearly not working and not the answer. 

What is the answer... love. We have got to return to love. Love wins. Love covers a multitude of sins and offences. When we show the love of God to those who are broken, hurting and lost it will be like a beacon of light drawing, restoring those lost brothers and sisters back to the Father. 

Romans 2:4

Amplified Bible 

⁴ Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)?

It is not about our frustration from our values being hijacked and trampled on, it's about love. Its not about getting the right guy elected, (although that is important), it's about restoring love. It's all about showing the kindness of God to a generation who have lost sight of a Father that cares deeply for them.

Once this happens, we wont have to worry about legalizing gay marriage, or marijuana, we wont have to worry about making abortion illegal and making sure we don't have to pay for someone else's contraceptives. Once love is restored in our communities all those problems take care of themselves and we win back our brother or sister that was lost. 

Oh, and if you have some time, go out and have a chicken sandwich!

Pastor Willy

Steve Sjogren visits Southside

Don't miss out this Sunday at Southside we will have a VERY special guest: Steve Sjogren. Steve will be sharing a special message about what it means to be a servant. Read on to learn more about Steve.

Steve Sjogren launched the Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1985 with 37 people. Under his leadership, the dynamic congregation grew to more than 6000 in average attendance. From the onset VCC had a strong emphasis on servant evangelism, small groups, church planting and caring for the needy. Following a medical accident in 1997 and during his recovery, Steve became the Launching Pastor. Through the years the church planting internship program and Steve’s coaching efforts have produced several dozen successful church plants. Steve is currently focused on writing, speaking and mentoring church planters. Steve’s passion for evangelism, church planting and leadership development is reflected in his writing.

In 2007 Steve and his wife, Janie, began the launch of their fifth church planting adventure in the greater Tampa, Florida area. Steve’s first book, Conspiracy of Kindness (Vine Books, 1993), has gained attention across a broad base of church leaders as an effective and creative approach to sharing the love of Christ. 101 Ways to Reach Your Community is a “cookbook” of projects and practical guide to getting started with Servant Evangelism.

Other books include:Irresistible Evangelism: Natural Ways to Open Others to Jesus, (Group Publishing Inc., 2004), Community of Kindness, A Refreshing New Approach to Planting and Growing a Church (with Rob Lewin, Regal Books, 2003), Perfectly Imperfect Church: Redefining the “Ideal” Church, (Group Publishing Inc., 2002), 101 Ways to Reach People in Need (NavPress, 2002), and Seeing Beyond Church Walls: Action Plans For Touching Your Community (Editor, Group Publishing Inc, 2001). His articles on evangelism, church planting and leadership have appeared in a variety of magazines including Outreach Magazine, REV, Charisma, Decision, Ministries Today, New Man, Christian Reader, Leadership Journal, Discipleship Journal, and Current Thoughts and Trends.

www.stevesjogren.com

Brother Lawrence, a Quote

I have to admit that I consider myself the most wretched person. I am full of sores and corruption, and I know that I have committed all kinds of offenses against my king. I truly feel bad about this and openly confess to him my wickedness and ask for his forgiveness. 

Then I simply place myself in his hands so that he may do whatever he wants with me. And here is the amazing thing that I find: this king is full of mercy and goodness.

He does not chastise or condemn me as he might. But it is as if he comes and hugs me, full of love and has me eat at his table.

He even serves me with his own hands and gives me the key to his treasures. He loves to talk with me and take pleasure in my company. He makes me feel as if I am truly his favorite. -Brother Lawrence

Southside is on FIRE!

Hey everybody! Check out the update to the Southside website, new sermon series is online now, update to the summer schedule...

Facebook Like Page

To get my updates please go to: http://www.facebook.com/southsidenewberg and LIKE my page, that will get you on the inside scoop. 

The Ultimate Servant Series at Southside

I wanted to give you a little taste from Pastor Greg Knox, the special speaker that will be joining us this Sunday to kick off our new series on Servant Evangelism.

Here is a blog post of his from a while back, I hope you enjoy!

Pastor Willy 

I suppose we could avoid the hostility of unbelieving family and friends if we just kept quiet about Jesus.  I suppose the devil wouldn't be focusing on us if we threw our lot in with him.  I'm sure there isn't that battle between good and evil when only evil dominates a person.  Jesus has called us to a life different from that.  It’s like salmon making their epic runs in the spring.  Every inch they are going to be going is against the flow.  Only the dead ones go with the flow.  Only those who are no longer Christians will go with the flow of this wicked, wicked world.

“Rather, be afraid of the One Who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.  Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven.  But whoever disowns Me before men, I will disown him before My Father in heaven (28b-33).”

Look at the sparrows, He says.  Those birds which are almost worth nothing according to our estimation, God is so concerned with His creation, sustaining it and upholding it by His mighty hand, that not one of those sparrows ends its short life apart from His will.  Well, let’s take something even worth less than a sparrow!  And something a lot closer to home!That head of hair most of you have!  God is so interested in us that He knows how many hairs we have left on our head.

It’s not idle curiosity on His part.  It’s because He loves us.  That’s God’s attitude towards us.  “I will never forget you,” He says, “I have written you on the palm of My hand.”  He comforts us like a mother comforts her newborn infant in her arms, cooing and oohing, blowing kisses and watching the face of her child so intently that her love for that child grows by the minute and she is comforted as much as she comforts her child.  That’s the picture of God’s loving knowledge of us.  It’s Jesus, after His resurrection, taking Peter aside and asking him, “Peter, do you love Me,” three times and then three times telling Peter to “Feed My sheep/lambs,” so that Peter knows that his denying Jesus three times is all is forgiven.  And the best part of it?  Peter doesn’t rely on himself at all.  “Yes, Lord.  You know all things.  You know that I'm Your friend. (John 21.17).”

How do I know I am loved by God?  How do you know you are loved by God?  We don’t look at ourselves, our wonderful lives, our good intentions, the potential we have.  We look to our God.  We are loved by Him because He says He loves us and He shows He loves us.  “You are worth more than many sparrows.”

Sit at Jesus’ feet and we will be transformed.  We will reflect Him more and more in our lives and that’s a good thing.  Not only can we put His teachings into practice every day of our lives, the circumstances we find ourselves in will demand it.

-Pastor Greg Knox
Phil. 1:6

Summer Update!

Relationships Trump Experiences

Recently I have been complaining to my wife about this nagging feeling that some of the people we give money to, so that they can go on short term missions trips feels a lot like we are funding a vacation for said people. Now don't get me wrong, I believe in short-term missions trips, I really do, it's just when you see those people sightseeing, with pictures of them eating ice cream in the public square posted on Facebook and you wonder, what are they doing there? Reaching the lost or buying trinkets in the tourist market? Well this short article by Bishop Matt Thomas sums up very well how I feel about short term missions... check it out. 

As a Free Methodist bishop, I travel a lot. I just returned from a trip that included California, Asia, Indianapolis and back to Washington State. I depart in a few days for Hong Kong and Taiwan.

This issue of LLM is about the church around the world. I have seen the church on all six populated continents, and I have learned the impact Americans have on the church outside the United States.

From the global church’s perspective, there are two kinds of Christian brothers and sisters who visit.

One group includes those seeking an experience. The other group includes those seeking a long-term relationship.

The ones seeking an experience cannot get enough of the travel and the exposure. They want to see the world and experience other cultures. Wanderlust draws them to do a little here and a little there for people scattered around the world. You can hardly mention a place or culture without their eyes lighting up and their mouths prepping to tell their stories. They often have big hearts and always have curious minds.

Those seeking relationship may not have been to many places. If they have, it was to find a place and a people where a love relationship might develop. These relationships include heart, head and hands — commitment for the long haul.

When I travel to Cambodia, India, Taiwan, Thailand, Mexico, Burundi or Ethiopia, I quickly learn who is in that second group. The eyes of the international brothers and sisters light up when they mention members of the relationship-seeking group. I am often inundated with stories, pictures, smiles and sometimes tears of gratitude as they speak intimately about that man, woman or couple who have been like a father, mother, parents, brother or sister to them.

Both groups might be mentioned, but when speaking about the second group, people respond as though I had asked them about family members.

No one can commit to everyone everywhere. No one can know everyone everywhere in a meaningful way. The church around the world will always have and appreciate drop-ins, but drop-ins are seldom remembered.

The church around the world longs for stay-withs. The stay-withs are always remembered. Choose to be in that group.

Tina Turner... Dead!?!

Well today there was a hoax on Twitter that Tina Turner had died! So many famous/iconic people have died over the last two years it was a pretty easy hoax to get going.

You know, this got me thinking about the story of Alfred Nobel who as the story goes, woke up to read in the paper his own obituary. He was recognized as someone who profited from selling bomb making materials and was not recognized for much else, motivated by a rare insight, he dedicated his fortune to bettering the world, most notably with the formation of the Nobel Peace Prize.

What would it be like if you didn't wake up tomorrow? What would you be remembered for? Who would remember you, how would they remember you? It is not too late to start thinking about what will happen after you are gone, (this is starting to sound like a pitch for life insurance... ha!)

Seriously though, how are you making a difference?

Questions, Questions, Questions...Always Questions!



What are the top Bible Questions that you have? If you could ask any question and not feel
embarrassed about asking it, what would it be. Would you ask about hell, who is going who is not? Would you ask about sex or dating? Maybe you would ask about Jesus and if he really was a man who was God and is it true that He NEVER sinned?

Whatever the question, I want to hear it! We will be doing a one time talk at Southside where we answer any and all questions that you have. So, don't be shy and don't hold back. Let the questions flow! Post them in the coments section below or email them into me at burns.willy@gmail.com

Are you up for the challenge? Lolo Jones is!

Living the Christian life can definitely be a challenge. As a matter of fact, Jesus told us that, “the way would be narrow and few who find it.” There are days when it would be easier to give in and just do what “feels good.”

G. K. Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”

Many people that I have met over the years who have walked away from the way basically said it was too hard and they just didn’t want to have to live with all the “rules.”

Honestly, it is supposed to be difficult, it means that you are doing it right!

One example of someone who describes trying to live a Christian ideal is Lori Jones. Now I do not have any idea if Lori Jones is a Christian or not, however she has been all over the news lately because she is a famous athlete who is in her late 20’s that claims she is a virgin and will remain one until marriage.

Lori Jones more commonly known as Lolo Jones is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 60 and 100 meter hurdles. She won three NCAA titles and garnered 11 All-American honors while at LSU. She won indoor national titles in 2007, 2008 and 2009 in the 60 m hurdles, with gold medals at the World Indoor Championship in 2008 and 2010.

She was favored to win the 100 m hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but she tripped on a hurdle, finishing in seventh place. She went on to win silver at the 2008 World Athletics Final. Jones is the American record holder in the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.72

When speaking of her virginity Lolo said, "It's just something, a gift that I want to give to my husband," she says during an interview. "But please understand this journey has been hard. If there are virgins out there, I just want to let them know, it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Harder than training for the Olympics, harder than graduating from college, has been to stay a virgin before marriage."

What a thing to say! Harder than training for the Olympics or going to college! I know it can be hard to live the way we are called to live, only by the grace of God can we make it.

Be encouraged today, we are all in this together! There is not one of us who struggles alone, the enemy would love for us to believe that we are, but we aren’t.

1 Corinthians 10:13

 13No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.

From Facebook IPO to Facebook I Dunno

Well this Friday the Social Media giant became a publicly traded company. The world was a frenzy over who would be able to snap up stock in the worlds largest online meeting place. I was even half tempted to buy a couple of shares just so that I could post on my Facebook page as the new owner of the company, "please stop sending me invites to Farmville."

The only problem with buying this stock is one has to wonder if Facebook is just a passing fad or if it has real staying power. It wasn't too long ago that Myspace was all the rage--I still have a Myspace page, I think... It's one of those things you can never delete.

Some speculate that perhaps Google's "Circles" will replace Facebook. Personally I just wonder if one day, people all around the world will suddenly look up from their smart phones, gaze into the robin's egg blue sky, notice for the first time in a long time, the dazzling majesty of the sun and wonder all at once, "why have I been staring at this phone for the last 2 years?"

I mean, some people are literally addicted to Facebook in a way that can only be addressed by an intervention. Sometimes you will see families with mom and dad both staring at the little screen while their little kids are growing up right at their feet! By the way, the family I am describing is my own, we don't spend copious amounts of time on Facebook, but the irony of reading status updates of mostly strangers while ignoring family members in my own home is a phenomenon I have witnessed more than once at the Burns residence.

Bottom line, my hope is that one day there will be a true "Facebook" revolution, one where families begin to get "status updates" from family members, live and in person. This revolution would include people actually having real friends that they meet in person and share their lives with. In this revolution against Big Blue, people would emerge from their computer rooms and re-enter the light of day, learn their neighbor's names and children would play outside! In this revolution we would move away from emoticons and move back to real community, the way God intended us to live, Face to Face.

Genesis 28:3
May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.

Service Fair this Sunday 5/13, Be there!

Living a life of Love means living a life of service.

Living a life of Love means living a life of service.

“Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.... You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. ” -Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

Not only CAN you serve but you were CREATED to serve.

When we look at the scriptures we see that it is God leading the way in serving mankind, He loves, cares for, protects and ultimately sends a savior and redeemer to us in His son Jesus-- who by the way revolutionized our ideas about leadership and the very nature of God. He said things like how He did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as ransom for all of mankind; now that is service!

The goal of Southside is to BUILD God’s kingdom to SERVE mankind in the name of our King and to GROW in our faith and love by the help of God, (often WHILE we are serving).

This Sunday we are having our first ever Service Fair, it is an opportunity to learn about potential ministry opportunities in the community and at Southside for you to get involved in, it is going to be a very fun day where we spend some time getting to know ministry leaders and finding ways that we can get involved in showing the love of God to our community.

Like the scriptures tell us, faith without works is dead -- I implore you to make it to church this Sunday! Find a place to volunteer and just watch as God does some great things in you and through you!

Pastor Willy

Calvinism VS. Arminianism Epic Battle of History!

The other day I was talking to a co-worker about the church (Southside). We were talking about what kind of church Southside is and I explained that we are a Wesleyan-Aminian denomination known as Free Methodists. My friend was floored because he thought that that meant we followed someone else besides Jesus Christ, I explained that no, we do not follow anyone else, only Jesus – I went on to explain that we agree with the interpretation and application of scriptures as understood by John Wesley and Jacobus Arminium. I could clearly tell that my co-worker was still not tracking with what I was saying so I asked him where he went to church; he told me that as a child he had been a part of the Baptist church. So, I explained that the Baptist denomination followed in the teachings of John Calvin – This lead to the questions of, “what is Calvinism and what Arminianism is.”

I explained it to my co-worker; but I thought, how many people wonder the same thing? So here we go! I will break this down as simply and fairly as possible.

First let’s start with, “Who are Free Methodist?”

Taken from the Free Methodist book of discipline:

Theologically, they are committed to the Wesleyan- Arminian affirmation of the saving love of God in Christ. Through prevenient grace He seeks to bring every individual to himself but grants to each the responsibility of accepting or rejecting that salvation. Salvation is a living relationship with God in Jesus Christ, giving the believer a legal position of righteousness, and therefore affirming the security of all who continue in fellowship with Him. Along with the Arminian emphasis on the universal offer of salvation, John Wesley rediscovered the principle of assurance through the witness of the Holy Spirit. He declared a scriptural confidence in a God who is able to cleanse the hearts of believers from sin here and now by faith, fill them with the Holy Spirit, and empower them for carrying out His mission in the world.

The Free Methodist Denomination uses the acrostic R.O.S.E. to help define the nature of God and how God responds to and deals with a free creation.

R – God is Relational

O – God is Open

S – God Suffers

E – God is Everywhere Active.

Regarding Atonement, Free Methodists believe:

a.      Universal Atonement

a.       All may be saved. God wants to save all people. Christ died for all, not just a “select group” called the “elect”.

b.      Knowledgeable Atonement

a.       All may have assurance of their saving relationship with God. The Holy Spirit confirms it, “witnessing” to the inner person, “You are my child.”

c.       Comprehensive Atonement

a.       Through the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the outpoured love of God persons may be transformed, being set free from destructive self-centeredness with which they are born.

d.      Grace, Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom

a.       “God creates according to God’s sovereign will and governs justly all that has been created. God does not over-leap and displace human freedom by coercing human decision-making. Rather, God supplies humanity with sufficient grace to which freedom can respond and for which freedom is accountable.” – Thomas Oden

b.      Different aspects of Grace:

                                                                          i.      Prevenient Grace

                                                                        ii.      Convicting Grace

                                                                      iii.      Resistible Grace

                                                                      iv.      Justifying Grace

                                                                        v.      Sanctifying Grace

                                                                      vi.      Renounceable Grace

To sup up all of that in its simplest terms, Jesus died for the Sins of all, He draws us to repentance of sin and new life in Him and it is up to us to respond with a, “Yes” or “No.”

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Since I am not a Calvinist, but my wife and I both attended a Baptist University (Liberty University) I will share with you what we learned from our Theology professor Dr. Elmer L. Towns in regards to Calvinism.

First Calvinism is often explained by using the acrostic T.U.L.I.P. to help understand the nature of God and how God responds to and deals with mankind.

In 1618, a national senate of the Church of the Netherlands convened in Dort and examined the teaching of Arminius in light of Scripture. The council consisted of one hundred forty-four sessions stretched over at least seven months. They concluded that the points of Arminianism were heresy. At this conference in Dort, they reaffirmed the reformed teaching of John Calvin. They stated their conclusion in five points, expressing it in the form of the acrostic forming the word TULIP.

T - Total Depravity
U - Unconditional Election
L - Limited Atonement
I - Irresistible Grace
P - Perseverance of the Saints

a.      Total Depravity

a.       Most Calvinists interpret total depravity to mean that any person in his natural state in incapable or unable to do anything to please or gain merit before God. Man is in complete rebellion against God, and by his “free will” he cannot and will never make a decision for Christ.

b.      In reality, total depravity does not mean total inability to respond to God, but total inability to please God.

b.      Unconditional Election / Unmerited Favor

a.       Calvinists believe a man obtains salvation because God began the process by choosing him without any outside influence.

b.      In truth, the term “elect” is always applied to those who have already accepted Christ, after the fact of conversion, not before.

c.       To say that God has chosen some and passed over others is to breach the unity of God. God is One, which means He is Unity and acts in perfect harmony with His nature. Every part of God influences every other attribute of God. One attribute can never act in isolation from the others; hence God cannot be guilty of acting ignorantly or with a double mind.

c.       Limited Atonement

a.       It is widely taught that Salvation is only for those who were predestined by God and that Jesus did not die for the sins of the whole world but only for the sins of the elect (Theologian D.E. Spencer).

b.      A more balanced Calvinist view agrees that the Bible teaches salvation is open to all.

c.       Christ gave substitution for all, redemption for all, propitiation for all, reconciliation for all.

d.      Jesus satisfied the demands of the law against all.

d.      Irresistible Grace

a.       Calvinists teach that the grace of God is as irresistible as the power of God, so that the elect cannot resist it, but God will bring him/her to a place of belief and salvation.

b.      Dr. Elmer Towns teaches that a balanced Calvinist would agree that, “if the human is unable to resist, then human responsibility is taken away and people are but passive agents.

c.       Irresistible Grace takes away human initiative from people.

d.      Irresistible grace is inconsistent with the biblical doctrine of the image and likeness of God. Man is created with personality. God cannot deny Himself by going contrary to the human nature, which He created.

e.       Perseverance of the Saints

a.       Calvin implied in his doctrine that if one is saved that person will persevere because of the election of God.

b.      However believers in Scripture apparently died in rebellion, sin, disobedience, they did not persevere to death.

c.       The word preservation is closer to the biblical doctrine than perseverance.

So pardon the very academic explanation of Calvin VS. Arminian doctrine, however, my hope is that maybe some will read this and avoid the common stereotypes and classifications that go on in the church.

It is so important for us to recognize that there are extremes on both sides and without going into a reductio ad absurdum on the topic, we can see where a more balanced approach in our theology is actually much closer to the truth and far more Biblical.

Pastor Willy