There’s a book printed recently entitled, “You Are Not So Smart.”  It’s about the things we think we know, but which actually turn out not to be true.  Turns out, I’m not so smart.

It would be awesome if I just sat in a room and came up with all kinds of brilliant ideas.  Maybe some people do that.  Maybe you think I do that.  I don’t.  Instead, I scour the world, trying to learn things that make a difference, then include them in my life, my leadership, and my writing.

So just like Toto pulling back the green curtain in the Wizard of Oz, I’d like to pull back the green curtain on one of the most helpful writers I follow: Michael Hyatt.  I’d like to say Michael is a “guest writer” for my blog.  But really, I’m just copying a link to a recent article he wrote.  I think it’s worth sharing with you.  Click here, or on the URL below to read his article.  The video is also on his site.

http://michaelhyatt.com/everyday-hero.html

I hope you find inspiration and encouragement from this article.  I hope it spurs you to become an everyday hero.  And I hope you can join us this weekend for a PowerHouse presentation, “Diary of a Not-S0-Wimpy Christmas.”  See you then!

-Pastor Mark

One of the Tindle family traditions is the Advent calendar.  Beginning on December 1^st, we open a different “window” in the calendar each day leading up to Christmas.  Okay, sometimes the windows are simply the portal to the hidden candy if I’m completely honest.  So what’s up with the Advent calendars anyway?

The advent calendars help us anticipate the celebration of the arrival of God’s gift.  Advent is a Latin word that means “arrival.”  The advent season has been celebrated in the church from the earliest times to remind us of the arrival of Christ at Bethlehem, AND the anticipated arrival of Christ that he promised when he left his disciples after his resurrection.  Two arrivals.  Two advents.

You’re probably looking forward to Christmas.  And rightly so.  It’s a celebration of Christ’s first advent.  Shepherds, carols, baby, lowing cattle…it’s all good.  But are you also looking forward to his second advent?  Maybe this December we could keep both advents in mind.  Maybe the way we celebrate the first advent can be shaped by the expectation of the second advent.  How would your Christmas preparations be different if you truly believed that Jesus was returning to our planet next year?  Would that change your Christmas celebration?  Would it change anything else?  Why not try to live this December in light of that.  Why not try to live this whole next year in light of that.  Let the advent-ure begin.  (Sorry…couldn’t resist that one.)

-Pastor Mark

I don’t do Black Friday shopping.  Period.  But I generally keep my thoughts about it to myself.  Until now. (begin rant here)

The weekend news wires lit up with stories of bizarre behavior by grown adults scrambling and fighting for cheap appliances.  I watched a couple of the grainy cell phone videos.  This is what Christmas has come to?  From an unbelievable night in Bethlehem where God crashed into our little planet with a precious gift in the form of a baby…to an unbelievable night in WalMart with  people crashing through lines and doors in order to pepper spray others and snatch their precious electronic gift for Christmas.  It’s beyond sad.  It made me sick.

Here’s my knee jerk reaction: Occupy Christmas.  As best as I understand it, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement is about addressing something (the financial system) that’s gotten seriously lost along the way.  Christmas has seriously lost its way in our culture.

I’m not suggesting you camp out in the parking lot at the discount stores.  But I am wondering what I can do to protest something that has gotten so far off track that millions of people in this very country don’t even know the real story behind Christmas.

• Maybe it’s offering to pray for your neighbors and co-workers this Christmas season.
• Maybe it’s throttling back on spending money, and spending more time with the people God has put in your life.
• Maybe it’s intentionally reading and reflecting on the actual Christmas story for the entire month of December.  (see www.youversion.com for some creative Christmas reading plans)
• Maybe it’s prayerfully asking God to show you how you can live out the meaning of Christmas for someone else this year.

If you have any ideas on how to Occupy Christmas, I’d love to hear them.  Use the comment section below.  Together, we can begin to help this incredible holiday find it’s way back for the sake of the people all around us.  The people God invented Christmas for in the first place.  That includes me.  And you.

(Rant over.)

Serving together,

Mark Tindle

Lead Pastor

We are all under stress.  Job demands, family concerns, financial worries, health problems and more.  Maybe you view Thanksgiving as a temporary hiding place for your stress, drowning it in calories.  But it can actually be much more than that.

It turns out that giving thanks can be the key step toward relieving the stress you’re carrying.  Very often our stress shows up as worry, frustration, and anxiety.  But you can actually start to replace all that junk with peace.  And it begins with giving thanks.  Listen to what God has to say about this in Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, WITH THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God.  And the PEACE of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. [emphasis added]

Translation: take all that stress, take it to God, and begin with thanksgiving!  I can’t explain exactly HOW this works.  I can only state THAT it works.  I experience it on a regular basis.  When the stress begins to mount, I turn to God in prayer.  And when I begin with giving thanks, it starts to change everything.  Beginning with me.  And the peace of God starts to invade my stressed out mind.  Giving thanks literally changes my life.  It happens so often it’s almost like breathing.  It can happen for you, too.

So this year, don’t let Thanksgiving be an escape from your life.  Let it be a habit that actually transforms your (stressed out) life.  Try it.  You’ve got nothing to lose but your stress!

-Pastor Mark

I recently saw a TV commercial showing a young woman in a restaurant making multiple decisions while ordering her dessert.  The waitress concludes by asking if she wants “oil…or cream” with her pie.  The not-so-subtle message is that one of the options is real (cream) and the other is an imitation (made from vegetable oil).  The advertiser is screaming, “Go for the real…nobody in their right mind would want the imitation!”

What you choose for your dessert topping is up to you.  But as I read Acts 12 this week (in our Quiet Time Challenge), I was struck with the fact that the people in that chapter were the first ones who were called, “Christians.”  It’s a word that means “little Christ.”  Which got me thinking.  These people were essentially being called an IMITATION of Christ.  Something about them reminded people of the original…the REAL Christ.

When Jesus said, “follow me,” it wasn’t simply an invitation to go somewhere.  It was an invitation to become something.  To become LIKE him.  A disciple was one who became LIKE his master.  Jesus said as much in Luke 6:40:

But everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

He doesn’t say a student would KNOW what his teacher knows.  He says he would be LIKE him.  An imitation.

Here’s the exciting part.  In our search for the real, the authentic, the genuine…it turns out that someone with REAL faith in Jesus—a genuine, authentic follower of him—is actually an IMITATION.  When you and I imitate Jesus in our lives…we’re as real as we can possibly be.  You can actually be real, and be an imitation at the same time!

So what about you?  Are you really imitating Jesus in your life?  Would anyone say something about you reminds them of Jesus?

– Pastor Mark

P.S. Join in conversations like this one on our Facebook page.  Watch for the Quite Time Challenge updates.  And if you haven’t seen the “oil or cream” commercial, here’s a link.

Did you know you have what it takes to make Seneca Creek a better church? It’s easier than you might think. And it will take less than three minutes.

We want to help you develop spiritual vitality. In fact, we want this to be the best year YET for your spiritual vitality. What’s spiritual vitality? Vitality is defined as:

• The capacity for survival or for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence
• The power to live or grow

So it’s the continuation of a meaningful, purposeful existence as someone created as a spiritual being. It’s the power and resources to experience consistent spiritual growth.

To help us help you, would you please take three minutes (max) to fill in the survey below? We’ll check back each quarter to see how we’re doing at helping you. This will help us become a better church. It will help you become a better you.
And if you want to add further comments, feel free to do so in the comment section below. Thank you for your time and feedback!

Click here

-Pastor Mark

We just wrapped up an incredible week of serving.  Ignite HOPE Week 2011 was life-changing for us, and for those we served.  I’ve even heard people say, “We should do this every week!”  Right.  That might last for 2 or 3 weeks, and then we’d burn out.  So how do we prevent that?

Ignite HOPE Week is intended to get us moving toward igniting HOPE in our daily lives.  That’s good.  But if you’ve served for long, you may have begun to experience burnout.  When that occurs, nobody wins.  So here are seven guidelines to ensure that you can continue to serve with joy, passion, and effectiveness for the long haul:

1. Don’t try to be God.  You can’t fix every problem.  You can’t meet every need.  You can’t “boil the ocean” as some would say.  So recognize that God is still God, and he has other ways to meet the needs you can’t.  He’s that smart.
2. Don’t serve alone.  Community has many benefits, and this is just one of them.  Serving with someone else will lighten the load and help sustain you for the long haul.  Find someone else to serve with you.
3. Don’t live someone else’s passion.  People get passionate about serving in areas that matter to them.  Then they recruit you.  If you share their passion, great.  If not, find out where yours is and server there.  (Seneca 301 will help you with this.)
4. Don’t forget to refuel.  Maybe for you it’s worship music.  Maybe it’s a long walk in the park.  Maybe it’s a couple hours of solitude.  Maybe it’s reading your favorite Psalm.  Whatever it is, put fuel in your tank.  Regularly.
5. Don’t get stuck in a rut.  Try a new area of serving.  Or try a new strategy.  Or a different schedule.  Variety is good.  That’s why God made us all so different.
6. Don’t neglect your body.  You’re not the Energizer bunny.  You can’t go 24/7.  Take care of the only body you’re going to get.  Rest.  Exercise.  Eat smart.  Your ability to serve depends on it.
7. Don’t lose perspective.  Remember that God serves us.  We serve because of that.  It’s reciprocal.  That’s good to know when serving seems unattractive, or people start to get on your nerves.

Are any of these seven guidelines out of whack in your serving?

For weeks now you’ve heard me challenge/nag/encourage/beg you to get involved in Ignite Week. “Where will you serve?” asks the banner. But if someone asked you what’s so great about serving, what would you say? Honestly. Would it be one of these top five answers?

1. Because you’ll feel good about yourself when you help someone in need
2. Because if you don’t, we’ll never hit our goal of 1,000 people serving
3. Because it will help get your mind off your own problems
4. Because you can donate your SSL hours to your high school student, ensuring they’ll be able to graduate and move out of your house (you can’t really do this…sorry)
5. Because Mark/Jeannette/Harold will stop asking you to sign up and serve

All of these are good answers (well, maybe #4 isn’t so good). But may I offer a better answer? Because serving actually leads to greatness. Yes, greatness. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Jesus:

Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. (Mark 10:43)

Here’s why. God serves us. He serves you. Jesus came to serve. Serving is part of God’s nature. And when you serve, you momentarily look a little bit like God. You reflect the image of our great God. His greatness is seen in you.

THAT’S what’s so great about serving! And some of you are learning that for the first time this week. You’re serving, and God’s light is shining through you into this dark world.

I hope you’ll share your stories of Ignite Week on our web site. And then please join us this Sunday as we celebrate the greatness of the God we serve, and share our stories of how he’s working through our serving! It will be an inspiring morning. See you then.

-Pastor Mark

Sure, you may have heard that our bodies are the “temple of the Holy Spirit.” And that taking care of them is a good idea. But this…well, this is just crazy wrong! [insert link to my blog]
exercise? I’m glad you asked. It might look a lot like Ignite Week 2011! Why? Because when the

Okay, so that’s just some good, honest fun. ‘Cause nobody seriously thinks that’s how Christians should take care of their body, right?

But what about the “body of Christ,” a.k.a. “the church”? What would it look like if THAT body got exercise? I’m glad you asked. It might look a lot like Ignite Week 2011! Why? Because when the church begins to use its limbs and sinews and muscles and nerves, it gets stronger, and things start to happen. And that’s EXACTLY what we hope will result from Ignite Week 2011. As we all roll up our sleeves and serve someone in need, we’ll be exercising the body. It will grow in strength. And things will start to happen. Things that God would like to happen. Like, for example, people discovering hope. 

So this is the last week I’ll be urging you to sign up for Ignite Week. Next week we’ll be giving progress reports and telling stories! Please join the hundreds already committed, and together let’s exercise the body of Christ and ignite HOPE!

-Pastor Mark