Do You Have Intimacy Issues?

In last Sunday's sermon, we mentioned that there are lots of places we search for intimacy in other than Jesus. Here's a few ways to help identify if you have intimacy issues. So here's 7 ways to recognize intimacy issues:

1. Do you always need someone on the hook? Is there always someone you're trying to reel in? Someone you need to show an interest in you? This might not be someone you're dating or interested in dating, but just someone you want to be interested in you.
2. When bored or lonely, do you start texting? On the more uneventful nights, do you shoot out some texts to different people of the opposite sex to see who responds first? Do you use texting as an escape from your loneliness?
3. Do you look at porn? Porn usually goes deeper than sexual sin. It reveals a heart that desires intimacy without commitment.
4. Are you a serial dater? Do you jump from relationship to relationship constantly? Do you always need to have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
5. Are you a serial flirter? Are people constantly thinking you're interested in them when you're not, because you flirt constantly? Serial flirting usually reveals a heart that is looking for intimacy from anyone.
6. Are you needy for attention? Building off of #5, do your actions and words indicate that you need everyone paying attention to you? Do your Facebook, Twitter, & blog posts cry out for someone to pay attention to you?
7. Are you a totally different person around the opposite sex? Are your mood and mannerisms so different around the opposite sex, that your friends hardly recognize you? This is one more way to grope for attention.

Hope for Intimacy Issues The reality is we were all made to be loved, to be pursued, to be chased after. The problem is that looking for that solely in the opposite sex or in dating relationships almost always goes really bad. What we truly need is to have our intimacy issues dealt with by the cross of Jesus. Jesus gives us, in the gospel, what we're really looking for in the numbers 1-7 above. Jesus tells us that in Him we are fully known, and still fully loved, in such a way that relationships or flirting could never provide.

So if you're looking for intimacy somewhere else without first finding it in Jesus, then stop, repent, be overwhelmed with his love for you in the cross, and then look to show that love to someone else. If you reverse that order, it goes really bad.

Are you in college and want to learn more about dating and relationships?

[button label="Sign up for College Fall Retreat" link="http://midtowncolumbia.com/events/college-fall-retreat-2/" shape="default"]

Ain't No Party Like a Midtown Party

Sometimes on our Day Mission Trips, we help paint or build houses. Sometimes on our Day Mission Trips, we help serve food or do some yard work. And then sometimes on our Day Mission Trips, we dance. All through the Party Jesus series, we learned about how Jesus loved to enjoy parties, meals and celebrations with people, and how he calls us to do the same. So when our friends at the Babcock Center asked us if we'd help host their dance party, we jumped at the opportunity.

The Babcock Center is an organization that loves, serves, and houses people with lifelong disabilities. And last Friday night, we got to party with them, and we've posted some photos below.

Join the Production Team

Every Sunday, a group of people arrive to the Gathering a couple hours early and passionately see to it that all the details and people are in place to make our Sunday Gatherings a success. We love our production team, because they love to lead our family in making our Gatherings happen. But in order to understand why we love our production team, you should know a few other things. We do not consider what we do on Sundays the most important thing we do as a church, but we do take Sundays seriously and desire to see people worship the Lord and come to know Him. With that being the case, we want make every effort to create an atmosphere that is welcoming and clearly communicating the Gospel.

We do not believe that perfect lighting and  a cool graphic on the screen will bring people to Jesus, but we do believe that spending time making those things good will help make an atmosphere for people to feel comfortable at the Gathering. So in every postion from Sound Engineering or fading the lighting, to putting scripture on the screen, we are passionate about our production team.

We would love to have more help in this area, and all areas of production. Since we have two locations and so many Gatherings each Sunday, we are constantly looking for more volunteers to help each week. Here's a list of the available positions:

• Producer: Oversees all audio/visual elements on Sundays. This person directly oversees and leads all other positions on the Production. They are ultimately responsible for how everything goes during a Gathering.
• Sound Engineer: Responsible for set-up, sound check, and maintaining comfortable and clear audio levels at gatherings (some experience required).
• ProPresenter: Responsible for the display of all on-screen elements at Sunday gatherings. This person is in charge of cueing all slides and videos during the services.
• Lighting Tech: Responsible for stage and crowd lighting at Sunday gatherings. This person works in conjunction with the ProPresenter and the band to make sure that lighting is at comfortable levels depending on the feel of the song/speaker and how much light is necessary for the room.

If you've got a passion for using technology to worship Jesus, and a willingness to learn, we'd love to have you as part of our production team.

[button label="Ready to volunteer? Sign up here" link="https://midtowncolumbia.ccbchurch.com/w_form_response.php?form_id=129" shape="default"]

Poems, Books, & Standing Room Only | A Photo Essay

This past Sunday, we launched our new sermon series and campaign, A Marriage You'd Actually Want. We gave out  somewhere around a thousand Campaign Resource Guides, had live spoken word at all services, and had our highest attendance at a non-Easter week ever. In light of all the excitement, we wanted to post a photo essay with images from all our services and locations. Enjoy!

September-09,-2012-1

September-09,-2012-3

Devine Teaching

Devine Books

Earlewood Panoramic

Earlewood Music

Jon Vision Time

Ant Earlewood

Jon Teaching Doors

Text in Your Marriage Questions

We want our our new sermon series, A Marriage You'd Actually Want, to be as helpful as possible. In an effort to do just that, we wanted to make it possible for anyone and everyone to text in their questions about all things marriage (that includes singleness, sex, sexual abuse, porn, parenting, and anything else that relates to marriage). During three specific weeks of the series, we'll pick some of the questions you text in and answer them live from stage.

You might be asking, "how do I participate in such a wonderful thing?"

Here's your answer:

Text the word MARRIAGE followed by your question, to the number 411-247.

And don't worry: this isn't a ploy to get your mobile number and annoy the snot out of you. At the most you'll receive one follow up text, just to let you know we received your question, and then you'll never hear from us again. The texting is just one-way.

Feel free to send in as many questions as you like. Even if your question doesn't get answered in this series, it may help us to know how and what to teach in future sermon series.

Happy txting!

5 Ways a Marriage Series is Helpful for Single People

In our city and in our church family, the probability that you are not married is as good if not better than the probability that you are married.  Those who are single in college, single out of college, single living at home, lifelong singles, divorced, widows, and those dealing with same sex attraction make up a majority of our urban community. We want to make a few things extremely clear:  Our decision to do a series on marriage is in no way an attempt to make you feel unloved, ostracized, excluded, or out of place in our church family.  Your marital status does not dictate your identity or your value.  A wedding is not graduation into a more valid status of life.  Marriage is not heaven.  It’s not our hope for the good life.  Jesus is.

At the same time, marriage is a gift (Proverbs 18:28) and throughout the Scriptures, God uses marriage as an incredible picture of the gospel. So, for a number of reasons we are excited to see God use this series to sanctify our entire church family, including those who are married and those who are not (a.k.a. you).

“How?!  In what ways can I possibly grow from a ten-week series on marriage when I’m not married?  It doesn’t apply to me!  You guys must hate me and don’t care about me!”  That is simply not the case.  Here are five ways this series applies to you:

1. Understanding marriage helps you understand the gospel. The marriage relationship is used over and over throughout the Bible to describe Christ’s relationship to the church.  What that means is that whether you are married or not, properly understanding God’s design and intentions for marriage helps you understand how Jesus loves, leads, forgives and walks in relationship with His bride, the church.
2. Understanding marriage helps you understand other relationships. Marriage is the first human relationship that God ever invented.  As such, it serves a specific role in informing all of our relationships.  Marriage is a microcosm stage where the friendship, tensions, conflicts and reconciliations we experience in all of our relationship gets played out on a daily basis and in extraordinary ways.
3. Understanding marriage helps you interact with married people. Whether you are married or not, you are likely to either already have or to have in the future close friendships with people who are married.  Understanding, studying and praying about what God and His Scripture have to say about marriage allows you to interact with married people (neighbors, parents, coworkers) in an informed and helpful way.  It’s interesting here to note that much of the teaching about marriage that we’ll be looking at comes from Paul and Jesus, neither of whom was married.
4. Understanding marriage helps you live on mission. Marriage is one of the most prevalent and clear pictures of how we live in a good world gone bad.  Broken marriages are in the news.  It’s in the tabloids.  It’s in our family histories.  It’s in our personal histories.  And no one believes that the brokenness of marriage in our society is how it was designed to work.  Everyone knows that marriage has been skewed since sin entered the world, whether or not they would use those words to explain it. So, the more you understand how Jesus loves to repair broken marriages, the more equipped you are to offer a uniquely Jesus-centered and hopeful position to the people in our city.
5. Understanding marriage equips you in the event that you get married.  We intentionally left the most obvious reason for last.  Statistics show that some 87% of all people will be married at some point in their lives.  That’s almost nine out of every ten people. Some have accused the church of rounding this number up and treating it like one hundred percent.  We don’t want to do that.  But we also don’t want to fail to prepare and equip the 87% of people who will statistically get married.  So if you turn out to be one of the 87% of people who get married at some point in the future, we hope this series goes a long way to equip you now in terms of preparation.  If you are single and turn out to be part of the 13% who don’t get married, refer back to reasons 1 through 4.

(This post was adapted from the Campaign Resource Guide)

Campaign Resource Guide

(Update 9/7/12: The PDF has been updated to include editable fields in place of blanks.) As we gear up for our new sermon series, A Marriage You'd Actually Want, our desire is for the series to be as helpful as possible, especially to the LifeGroups of our church.

As a resource to our LifeGroup leaders and members, we've published a Campaign Resource Guide to help learn and apply the teaching from the series. The guide walks through additional content for each week and includes discussion questions for you to discuss with your group, whether you're single or married.

Want to begin preparing you and your LifeGroup for the series?

[button label="Download the Campaign Resource Guide" link="http://midtowncolumbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/AMYAW_LGBook_Editable.pdf" shape="default"]

A Marriage You'd Actually Want (a Poem)

http://vimeo.com/48293839  

Marriage.  Holy Matrimony.  Your fairy-tale romance is set to begin because you’ve found that one and only. So, now the two of you are off to live happily ever after With days filled with smiles, hugs, kisses, and laughter. 

But the state of marriage today is really pretty saddening Half of all marriages end in divorce; and half of the rest don’t seem happy The news is reporting that only 50% of adults today are married, That’s down from about three-forths in 1960. Hey why is this happening?

It seems our culture is looking at marriage like, “No thanks, I think I‘ll pass.” It’s not worth the risk. Besides, marriages really don’t last. So, I’ll just spare myself the pain from the old ball and chain Just to have my marriage eventually crash… 

And burn. And, because of divorce, there are some who, as children, were burned. Things got heated, people got mistreated, and you just heeded the lesson learned. The lesson: Don’t touch a hot stove because when you do, it leaves scars that last. Especially if you still have the scars of a divorce that happened in the past

Or maybe you’re in a marriage and its not what you hoped. There’s dysfunction and bitterness, and you don’t know how to cope. You’re trying to hang on, but you feel like you’re at the end of your rope. But what if you could have a marriage you’d actually want?

What if the husband loves his wife the way he loves himself, And she responds to his love with much love and respect? And what if the two were so struck by the love shown on the cross That they gave their lives to serve each other, no matter the cost? And what if the primary purpose of marriage is to display the Gospel of Christ, Showing each other genuine love and grace demonstrating his sacrifice?

What if you truly treasured your marriage, and your best friend was your spouse And the two of you could not wait for the next time you could have a night out.

So many have given up on marriage.  Here’s hoping that you don’t. What if, through in Jesus, you could have a marriage you’d actually want.

A Video about the Marriage Series

Teaching pastor Jon Ludovina shares a little about the upcoming sermon series, A Marriage You'd Actually Want. http://vimeo.com/47876161

Best First Week Ever

Every year when USC students arrive on Columbia's campus, Midtown throws a week of amazing events to kick off the school year. This year is no different. For Best First Week Ever 2012 we're bringing free coffee, a dance party, a dodgeball tournament, football and lots of food. A smörgåsbord of goodness and you're invited!

Sunday - College Hangout

Details: frisbee, spikeball, football, music, food, drinks. 8/19/12 || After our 7pm Gatherings, from 8:30-10pm at Strom Field

Monday - Greene Street Day

Details: games, music, costumes, life-sized jenga, cornhole, free shirts, freezie pops 8/20/12 || 1-3pm in front of Russell House

Wednesday - Cool Beans

Details: free coffee from Cool Beans, games outside. 8/22/12 || 8-10pm at Cool Beans

Thursday - Dance Party

Details: Need we say more? DJ'ed by DJ Willdabeast. 8/23/12 || 8-10pm in the Russell House Ballroom C

Friday - Dodgeball Tournament

Details: Bring a team of 5 (or just show up) and throw down. 8/24/12 || 2-4:30 at Blatt Field

If you're in college, you're invited to come hang out with us this week. All of the events are free. Definitely swing by, it will be a lot of fun. Best First Week Ever!

5 Reasons Sunday Gatherings are Incomplete

As a church, we seek to be the church by gathering corporately on Sundays, and by gathering in LifeGroups in each other’s homes.  We do this to follow the biblical model of the early church seen in Acts 2:42-47. For a long time, we have correctly emphasized the need for Jesus-centered community through small groups, in some part to fight the ever-popular “Sunday-only” mentality about church in our culture. We have not spent as much time explaining the biblical reasons for our Sunday worship gatherings. Sunday gatherings are both important and incomplete.  So, here are 5 reasons Sunday gatherings are incomplete. To find out why Sunday gatherings are important, read part one.

1. More difficult to consistently show our love for one another. In John 13:34-35, Jesus tells His disciples to love each other the way that He has loved them.  Then He tells them that people will know that they are His disciples if they have love one for another.  If showing up on Sundays is our only church experience, we won’t have the opportunity to really love each other the way Jesus loved us. Additionally, outsiders won’t be as able to see His love at work in us.

2. Easy to just “sit and watch” If we only attend corporate gatherings, there is often no one to encourage and/or rebuke us if we aren’t applying God’s Word to our lives and repenting of sin. This form of accountability is much easier to do when God’s Word is being taught and discussed in a small group format.

3. Easy to hide If we're honest, there’s a part of us that doesn’t want people to see the sin in our lives even though it is beneficial.  If we only attend corporate gatherings, it is very easy for us to show up, sing, and hear a sermon without every being transparent with others about what’s really going on in our lives.

4. Lack of relationships Often in corporate gatherings, it is extremely difficult to build relationships that are deeper than the surface.  In order for us to live out our identity as family, we should pursue deep meaningful relationships with our brothers and sisters.

5. Easy to hear the gospel, but harder to experience its effect. Only attending corporate gatherings keeps us from experiencing and displaying the gospel in the most tangible ways in our relationships.  For example, we can experience the gospel in a real way when our LifeGroup family keeps forgiving us because of Christ after we‘ve sinned against them multiple times.  This often puts the gospel in perspective in a way that hearing the gospel does not.

5 Reasons Sunday Gatherings are Important

As a church, we seek to be the church by gathering corporately on Sundays, and by gathering in LifeGroups in each other’s homes.  We do this to follow the biblical model of the early church seen in Acts 2:42-47. For a long time, we have correctly emphasized the need for Jesus-centered community through small groups, in some part to fight the ever-popular “Sunday-only” mentality about church in our culture. We have not spent as much time explaining the biblical reasons for our Sunday worship gatherings. Sunday gatherings are both important and incomplete.  So, here are 5 reasons Sunday gatherings are important.

1. Jesus and early church leaders preached to large gatherings On multiple occasions throughout Scripture we see Jesus and Peter addressing thousands of people at once. Paul also often taught to large gatherings of people on a regular basis. Christians have been gathering in large groups to worship and teach Scripture ever since the church began. If Jesus, Peter, and Paul consistently gathered in large groups; it seems important enough that we should too.
2. Gospel proclamation God is a preaching God; using His word ever since creation to enact change in the world. Throughout Scripture God has chosen to speak through the mouths of men to His people. Sunday gatherings give us a great opportunity to continue to faithfully proclaim God’s word and the message of the gospel.
3. Unity As we try to be the church through LifeGroups on mission, Sunday gatherings give us the opportunity to unify under Christ as we pursue His mission. We gather together as the church to unify all of our LifeGroups under the gospel, committing together to continue to pursue God’s mission with Him.
4. Corporate Worship Sunday gatherings give us the opportunity to worship God together through giving, singing, and teaching. As Paul instructs both the Ephesian and Colossian church to address each other in “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” gathering together each week allows us to address on another and God to address us through worship.
5. Mission Sunday gatherings continue the mission of God. We are able to proclaim the gospel and introduce people to Jesus-centered family each time we gather to worship and proclaim the name of Jesus. Gathering allows us to host our city well as we pursue Jesus-centered family on mission loving and serving the city with the gospel.

Tomorrow we'll post part 2, "5 Reasons Why Sunday Gatherings Are Incomplete."

10 More Ways to Spot Pride in Your Life (21-30)

In keeping with our current series on Humility, we've been posting practical ways to spot pride and cultivate humility in your life. Below you'll find 10 more ways to spot pride. If you've missed the previous two posts, you can find #1-10 here, and #11-20 here. 21. Do you have a hard time admitting you're wrong? Do you often find yourself covering up, excusing, or soft-selling your sin instead of admitting it?

22. Do you have a hard time receiving correction? Do you find yourself jabbing back, changing the subject, or joking to redirect attention after someone calls you out? Do you view correction as an invasion to your privacy and dismiss the person correcting you as being invasive?

23. Do you end up resenting people who correct you? Instead of responding with gratefulness whens someone helps you see sin in your life, do you often get bitter and withdraw from the relationship? Do you respond by dwelling on their faults, whether it's internally or verbally toward them?

24. Are you constantly finding yourself in conflicts with others? Do you have a hard time getting along with most people? Do people regularly tell you they "struggle" with you?

25. Do you have little esteem or respect for others? Do you think lowly of people? Do you have a hard time complimenting or honoring others?

26. Are you self-willed and/or stubborn? Do you have a hard time cooperating with others? Do you love your own way and insist on getting it?

27. Are books and sermons consistently "too shallow for you?" Do you regularly dismiss teaching through various mediums because you consider yourself too mature to learn from them?

28. Is it hard for you to learn from people different from you? Discernment is a good thing, but do you refuse to learn from anyone that isn't exactly like you, just because they're different?

29. Are you quick to speak? Is your voice always your favorite voice in the room?

30. Do you constantly find yourself wanting to impress people? Do you use clothes, possessions, money, talents, and the like to point to yourself and draw compliments from others?

10 More Ways to Spot Pride in Your Life (11-20)

Here's 10 more ways to spot pride in your life. If you missed the previous post, you can find it here. To follow along with our sermon series on Humility, find the podcasts here.

1. Are  you prayerless? If you are slow to pray, you're believing the lie that you are self-sufficient. You aren't moved to prayer because you believe you can handle whatever it is by taking matters into your own hands.
2. Do you hate asking for help? If you need help with something, but won't admit it or ask for it because you "don't want to be a burden." Often pride masks itself with fake selflessness.
3. Are you easily offended? If you're always offended, it screams of an "I deserve better" attitude. When people make fun of you, is your first instinct to jab back? When you are forgotten, neglected, or overlooked, do you sting back or respond with passive aggressive comebacks?
4. Do you fish for compliments? Again, sometimes pride wears a humility disguise. Do you go to people and say "I'm really not good at this," just hoping they'll disagree and pay you a compliment?
5. How much do you compare yourself to others? This can take all different forms: looks, possessions, abilities, talents, religious performance, morality, income, job performance, and most anything else. Most always, comparison is a way to puff up pride in yourself.
6. Do you use social media to draw attention to yourself? Fishing for laughs, retweets, 'likes,' pity, sympathy, argument, or love via Facebook and Twitter are easy ways to walk in pride and avoid walking in community.
7. Do you love expressing your opinion? Feeling like your required to give your opinion and answer for every question and every subject says "people can't survive without knowing what I think on this." My opinion is as valid, if not more valid than everyone else's (Proverbs 18:2).
8. Are you unkind or harsh? Being insensitive towards others often indicates an understanding that they aren't worth your time or effort.
9. Is it hard to admit you don't know something? If you consistently make up answers on the spot rather than saying "I don't know," it usually indicates a "must hold it all together" attitude, or pride.
10. How often do you interrupt? Do you regularly interrupt people before they finish a thought so that you can express yours?

10 Ways to Spot Pride in Your Life (1-10)

Following along with our Humility series, we thought it might be helpful to post some help identifying pride in your life so you know how to identify it. As we mentioned in the sermon Sunday, sometimes getting humans to discern pride in their life is like a fish trying to discern water--it's everywhere. In light of that, our hope is that by posting these "pride indicators," we can all press into Jesus, be amazed by his shocking humility, and put sin to death by the power of the Holy Spirit. So to kick us off, here's the first 10 ways to spot pride in your life:

1. Are you caught up in sin that nobody knows about? Do you avoid confession because of how you might be viewed?
2. Do you have a hard time rejoicing when God provides and blesses someone, because you feel like your needs are much greater and more desperate?
3. How much do you bring up yourself in conversation, or make yourself the center of the conversation? Do you always talk after somebody says something?  Do you always have a story to relate the conversation back to you?
4. Do you immediately defend yourself and attack people when they correct you?
5. At work, do you think more about how frustrating your job is and which aspects of it are beneath you? Do you have a hard time just being grateful for God providing a job for you?
6. Are you bitter?
7. Do you have low self-esteem? You've inflated yourself so much that God's voice has no room to speak truth into your life. When he says, "you're valuable because you're made in my image, and defined by what I did for you in the cross," you don't hear or don't believe it because you're so consumed with what you don't like about you.
8. Are you consistently angry? A short temper says "who do you think you are to talk to me like that or do that to me? Do you know who I am!? How dare you disrespect me?!"
9. Are you easily annoyed?
10. Are you sinfully competitive? Is your attitude and outlook on life significantly altered, even temporarily, when you don't win?

What Happens at Kidtown?

Volunteers take pies to the face. That’s what really goes on in Kidtown. Now, before you decide to take your family elsewhere where the volunteers seem more sane, let us explain. One week at Kidtown, a volunteer provided one of our children with a pie. The child was told she could do anything she wanted with the pie--anything at all. So as expected, the child soon returned the pie to the volunteer's face. Then a second pie was brought out. The volunteer made it clear that "I now get to do whatever I want with MY pie." As the kids all chanted for revenge, another Kidtown volunteer walked up, intercepted the pie, and slammed it into his own face.

The volunteer then explained that the just thing would be for the young girl to take a pie in the face from the volunteer. It’d only be fair payback. But, Tim, the male volunteer, steps in and takes what the girl deserved. Becca teaches the class that this is grace and this is exactly what Jesus did for us. Though it might look like just a bunch of volunteers entertaining kids with silly antics, something much more is being displayed.

Kidtown exists to teach your kids that Jesus is the hero we all need. Kidtown wants to lay the foundation of the good news of Jesus for families to build off of back at home. We’ll go to whatever lengths necessary to see this happen (even if that means taking the occasional pie to the face). Kidtown isn’t simply childcare while parents are taught in the main gatherings, but each Sunday is intentionally leveraged to teach your children all about who God is and what God has done.

If you’re a parent, Kidtown wants to do more than watch your kids, we want to help you lead your family. If you’d like more information, please feel free to come visit us on Sunday.

Where does Teaching & Preaching Come From?

Launching out from James 3:1, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly," we are rolling out three blog posts explaining Biblical foundation for teaching, warnings for teachers, and our teaching philosophy at Midtown.  This is the first one that explains the Biblical foundation for teaching and preaching. God is a speaking, teaching and preaching God. In Genesis 1, the Bible starts with a picture of God speaking. In the first picture of God, He is talking, using words and language. But He’s not just talking because He likes the sound of His own voice. His words are vibrantly full of purpose. He could have created in any way He wanted to, but He chose to use words to do so. Genesis 1 has been called God’s creation sermon. The whole chapter displays the amazing effect of God’s words. God’s words create things. They create life. They create order and an environment in which living things can exist. They separate and divide and organize. They reveal who He is and what He’s like. They accomplish his purposes in powerful authority.

Not only does the Bible start with God speaking, but it also ends with God teaching. Revelation 21:1-8 and 22:7-20 record Jesus preaching two powerful sermons about Himself and the gracious life that He offers free of charge to those who are thirsty as well as the righteous judgment He has stored up for sin and sinners.

Jesus’ public ministry starts in Matthew 3:17 when God declares who Jesus is with a short, quick sermon. Immediately, Jesus’ response is to start preaching and teaching in Matthew 4:17. His preaching ministry led and paved the way for all his other ministry.

God uses people to be His mouthpiece. In light of the reality that God teaches, speaks and preaches, we now have a foundation for why we teach. We are formed in God’s image and through the cross of Jesus, God is welcoming and inviting us to join Him in going to work with our Dad. Romans 12:5 says that if you have the gift of teaching, you should teach. 1 Peter 4:11 raises the ante when it says, “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.” When you teach, teach like God does. When you speak, speak like God does. Let your words have the same purpose that God’s words have.

God teaching is the foundation for our philosophy of teaching. God invites all of us to join Him in what He’s doing, and some of us to join Him specifically in His practice of teaching and preaching.

Coming soon: How do I know if I’m supposed to teach? What is Midtown’s teaching philosophy?

Why Doesn't Midtown Have a Lead Pastor?

If you've ever visited the leadership page on our website, you'll notice that there is no singular lead pastor listed. Since many churches in America do operate with a singular lead pastor, we thought it might be good to explain why we don't. Elders are the leaders of the church who in the Bible are also called pastors, bishops, and overseers (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 5:2). Elders are to be men chosen for their ministry according to clear biblical requirements (1 Timothy 2:11-3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9) and a elder’s duties include ruling (1 Timothy 5:17) managing (1 Timothy 3:4-5), tending (1 Peter 5:2-5), giving account (Hebrews 13:17), living exemplary lives (Hebrews 13:7), using authority (Acts 20:28), teaching (Ephesians 4:11, 1 Timothy 3:2), preaching (1 Timothy 5:17), doctrinal instruction (Titus 1:9), and discipline (Matthew 18:15-17).

When the bible speaks of pastors/elders at the local church level, it speaks in plurality. From our best understanding of scripture, it was always the goal for local churches to have multiple qualified elders serving together as a safeguard for both the church and the elders. This protects the church from inappropriately being built around one person, often a charismatic leader. It also protects the pastors from being crushed under the weight of leading a church alone.

The Bible calls Jesus the Chief Shepherd, or senior leader, of the church (1 Peter 5:4). Within Midtown's leadership, we reserve the title of Senior Pastor for Jesus, and with him as our leader, we have worked hard to train up and empower qualified pastors and leadership. Our hope is that, by God’s grace and through a team dynamic, being a pastor of our church will be more of a joy than a burden, and though the weight is heavy it would never be crushing.

Why Don't We Have Gatherings on Super Bowl Sunday?

The Super Bowl has become an event almost like any other in American culture. Over 100 million Americans will gather to watch the game, with countless more using the game as an excuse to throw a party and be with friends and family.  Along with major holidays, the Super Bowl is one the few events that brings our entire country together.  As missionaries in our neighborhoods and city, it seems to be good practice to take advantage of the Super Bowl phenomenon instead of fighting against it.  If Americans are that excited to have parties and watch the game (and maybe more so, watch the commercials) then we want to leverage it for Jesus’ sake. Church is not an event we attend, but rather a group that we belong to.  So, on Super Bowl Sunday we encourage our church family to throw parties or attend friend’s parties and use the day as a chance to build relationships with neighbors.   There are 100,000 people within five miles of the state capitol in downtown Columbia that do not know Jesus and we want to take advantage of every opportunity that God brings our way in order to see that number shrink.  This is one of those opportunities.

This year, Midtown will be hosting a Super Bowl party for our homeless friends at the Winter Shelter, as well as hosting a party for middle and high school students and their families.  If you are interested in attending or being involved with either of these parties, you can find more information about the the party at the Winter Shelter here, or the Student Superbowl Party here.

Some Potential Questions about Dustin's Transition

With the transitions mentioned in the two letters above, we wanted to take the time to address and give answers to some potential questions our church family might have regarding Dustin's transition to the new position at NAMB. Did something suspicious happen behind the scenes? No, not at all.  The letter from Midtown addresses this more fully.

Who will be preaching more? Dustin had been preaching at one of our campuses approximately every other week.  We will continue to operate with a teaching team that prepares sermons together and you will simply see more of the same people preaching as before.  As always, we will continue to train and develop people in our church family with the giftedness to teach and hope to always be ready to give preaching opportunities to them.

Will we hire someone else? We have already hired Kent Bateman to come on and take a more substantial role than he previously had as a staff intern.  He has served our church in a volunteer capacity for years and we are glad to be able to bring him on in a full time role.

Will this affect our vision moving forward? In short, no.  We have no plans to slow down our efforts towards being all about Jesus, living as church family, and loving our neighbors in Jesus’ name.  When Jesus comes back we can take it easy.  Until then, there is a lot of work to do!

What will happen with Vision Team? Our Vision Team pastors serve as the overseers of our overall church direction and heath.  You can find more information on our church's leadership structure here. Allen Tipping and Adam Gibson will continue as Vision Team pastors and will be praying about who should be added. The goal is for Vision Team to consist of 3-5 pastors.

Am I allowed to talk to Dustin and ask him more questions? Yes.

When are Dustin and Renie moving to Atlanta? March

How long have the pastors known this was going to happen? Around the first of December is when we began to discuss and pray together. In God’s providence, we talked about being ready for change on our Family Vacation trip in November.  We had no clue that this would be one of those changes, but God did.  He continues to lead our church quite well.

Are other people planning to leave? No. We have been working to develop a culture of ‘family’ in our church.  We want for all of us to see church as family and Columbia as our home.  Our hope is that people will stay in Columbia to be a part of Jesus’ mission here unless God specifically calls them elsewhere. We want Columbia to be our default location.  But when Jesus says to move, we move, no matter how hard that move is.  Our staff has adopted this mentality and Columbia is home for us.  We are here and ready to get to work.  If Jesus says to move, then we move. If he doesn’t, then we stay because Columbia is home and we are family!

How can I be praying for the Willis family? Dustin & Renie have been very clear that one of the most difficult things about this move is that they are leaving their best friends here in Columbia. Obviously this will all be difficult for them.  Pray that God would bring them new friends quickly in Atlanta. Pray that God would lead them to a new church family that they can be a part of.  Pray for a quick transition into Dustin’s new job and for more and more churches to plant healthy churches all over North America.

How can I be praying for the Midtown family? We have a lot of changes going on right now.  With Sunday morning gatherings that require even more people to serve and an upcoming move to Devine Street, it’s a lot to take on!  Pray that Jesus would continue to lead us and make us ready for whatever he brings our way.  Pray that more people would meet Jesus in Columbia. Pray that Jesus would keep raising up godly, strong leaders to oversee our growing church family.  Pray that Jesus would protect us from burning out, as we have a lot of paid and unpaid people who give every drop of energy they have in service to God through Midtown. And specifically, pray that God would continue to provide for us financially by growing our generosity and bringing more adults into our family.