• Actually felt a little “off” early on. For whatever reason, maybe the prescription med’s I take, I have those “off” times.
• (Go ahead … cue up the “we knew something was ‘off’ about you” jokes)
• BUT my “off” always switches to ON when I get around ROCK people, hug some friends, listen to our awesome band, and sense the presence of God. I wish I could bottle it.
• Loved all the songs. Always love Hannah and KLock’s harmony. And Mark Stanley ALWAYS plays a lot better when he gets to hear a little Taylor Swift (like he did during baby dedication). Ask him.
• Speaking of babies, wow. We had a whole stage full of them. Mamas and daddies and church family all joining together in covenant with God. All kinds of backgrounds and back stories. One perfect baby was my grandbaby, Navy.
• My book-hander-outer / KidzRock assistant / fashion model Jalin Johnson did a fabulous job helping me on the platform.
• Always great to reconnect with some Jesus-loving friends from our previous ministry in Gaffney. Michael and Cindy Beaty and Jack and Laura Bolick (& studly sons) were there. So honored when friends take the time and trouble to drive over to worship with us in Conway while vacationing.
• Message was either inappropriate or perfect for Father’s Day – depending on who you ask.
• The overall focus: According to Jesus, there actually IS such a thing as sexual and relational normalcy.
• Sometime during the message, we covered: the centrality of biblical truth, God’s divine design for relationships, threats to that – homosexuality, cheap love, pornography, masturbation, dopamine – and how to correctly shoot the preacher.
• Ask a ROCKer if they know that a bike is not a Kitchen Aid mixer.
• We ended on a good note: God will meet broken people right where they/you are. And so will this church. We are (& always will be) a safe place for broken people to heal up.
• So, what’s the action plan if your relational life doesn’t square up with God’s divine design? Repent, repair, resolve.
• Some people did that today.
• I had the privilege of leading a young Marine to Christ between worship times. He was beaming. His fiancee was boo-hooing. It was awesome. Pray for him.

Here is a fraction of the things I learned from my dad:

• Treat everybody with respect. Everybody.
• Treat your mother with utmost respect. Or else.
• The correct order of things is: God, family, all other things. He left politics when I had cancer. He devoted himself exclusively to my mother’s care when she did … until she died.
• “You’re grounded until Friday” meant “until Friday.” And not a minute sooner.
• Serving the community is a responsibility.
• “Meet me in the bathroom” did not mean he needed help with the plumbing. It meant that my offense warranted corporal punishment. There’s a Bible verse (Prov. 23:13) that reads, “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.”  And my dad believed the Bible.  Especially that verse.
• Football teaches character, and real men play it.  ”You do not have to play football, just like you don’t have to reside in this house.”
• If I catch you drinking, you lose everything. If I catch you using drugs, you no longer live in this house.
• Decent people who claim to be Christians go to church on Sunday. Period. You hear the Bible preached there. You meet good people there. It is not optional.
• The look. I don’t know if I have “the look.” When my father gave me “the look,” it was paralyzing.  It was more intimidating that being yelled at, and he didn’t yell.  He just employed “the look.” I could hear it sizzle from any distance.
• The “marrying kind” of girl is worth waiting on. (And I did.)
• Just because everybody else jumps off a bridge, doesn’t mean I should.
• Following the crowd just to fit in is a sign of weakness.
• “But everybody else is going” … doesn’t work.  What I heard in response was, “No – that’s not true.  I’m not going.  And you’re not going. So that makes two people who aren’t going.”
• It means something that my name is Childs. I am responsible to live up to that. And not disgrace it.
• A man’s word is supposed to mean something.
• There’s a time for a man to humble himself, compromise, and understand what he can or cannot change.
• There’s a time for man to take a stand, even if he stands alone.
• Principle trumps political partisanship.
• Education is important.
• Hard work is honorable.
• Integrity is more important and more honorable.
• Loving people doesn’t necessarily mean enabling them.
• Nobody is better than you.
• You’re no better than other people.

That’s just a fraction. If I can get a fraction of that fraction to stick to my kids, I’ll die a happy dad.

Yeah, that’s how we roll at our “nothing but entertainment,” shallow, gimmicky church.

Some observations from our time together:

• We didn’t state all that deeper theological stuff in exactly the terms above. We think good teaching is making deep things understandable, NOT making biblical things too complicated to understand or remember.
• A lot of ROCKers are a lot deeper than a lot of people realize.
• It’s not just about rules. It’s about our relationship with Christ. But all relationships have rules. And Jesus didn’t say that the rules no longer matter. In fact, He said the opposite. (Matt. 5:17-20)
• God gave us rules because He loves us, wants to protect us, wants what is best for us.
• Good attendance (720), and good offering. 12th Sunday in a row that our offering has exceeded $10,000. First time ever in the history of our church that has happened. That means ROCKers are following through with our ALL IN commitments. That takes me to a very happy place. And it is – God willing – going to take us to a campus of our own.
• Got to hug on and talk to two sweet couples who have been important parts of The ROCK. The Jones were a big part of our early days. The Cains plunged into our ministry before they moved to Georgia.  I miss both families.
• From a volunteer who was already volunteering elsewhere, but started a new (additional) volunteer ministry this morning:  ”I didn’t want to be one of those people who just sat there.”
• Amen.
• A-to-the-DANG-MEN!
• Can’t wait to see how many new volunteer ministers emerge from this morning’s Starting Point.
• Band cranked it up. Jon Parfitt did work banging it out on the drums in his ROCK debut. I like this kid. Thinking about getting a nose ring like his. Nothing says “cool” like a middle-age guy getting something pierced.
• I also liked Mary’s hymn. I wouldn’t mind singing that EVERY Sunday.
• What if I told you that several weeks ago I talked to a couple in an unusual situation. Not married, but have kids together. One of the adults coming out of a cult group background. Unsure of their future path. And what if I told you that she’s now been saved and wants to be baptized. And that he has affirmed his salvation. And that they want me to marry them this week.
• Welcome to The ROCK.
• What if I told you that a 6th-grader has been inviting a friend for a long time, and the friend finally came, and he brought him over to introduce him to me – happy that his investment in a friend paid off.
• What if I told you that my 5-year-old granddaughter re-told her mama the WHOLE story of King Josiah because her awesome KidzRock teachers taught it to her THAT well on her level.
• What if I told you that I heard people praying out loud to be saved after the teaching time today.
• Welcome to The ROCK.
• AND, nobody hit me up for money today in the lobby to secure airfare for his mail-order online Romanian girlfriend. Thank you, Lord.
• I made a joke during the teaching time about me being “eye candy.” And people laughed. Too loud. Too long.
• I think, in addition to the deep and thick theology parts of the sermon, that I said various things about: The Purge movie, lusting while saying DANGGGGGGG, buying socks for Father’s Day, and tinkling in the shower.
• Welcome to The ROCK.

Take, for instance, what He said in Matthew 7:6,

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

He said that? Yes, He did. The same Jesus who said really sweet things like The Golden Rule, and “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” and “love your enemies.” He said that engaging some people is like giving holy things to dogs. Or pearls to pigs.

He can say things like that. He’s Jesus.

The most charitable way to read those words may be to hear Jesus merely using colloquial terms to advise us to sell where the customers are buying. “Hey guys, time is short, the bad guys are coming, so fish where they’re biting. Not nibbling there? Then why not move to another fishing hole.” Maybe. But that may actually be milder than what Jesus intended.

Ever felt like you were offering something precious to someone with absolutely no appreciation for its value? Me too. “Frustrating” isn’t quite adequate to describe it. It’s like Sheldon Cooper explaining advanced physics to Penny. It’s like my wife explaning the complicated plot line of any chick flick to me. It’s like trying to, well, put pearls on a pig. Pigs just want to eat them. Or trample them in the pig-sty.

I get drawn into too many pearls-to-pigs arguments. I would really love to say that it is always because I have a heart for articulating the gospel to unbelievers. I do. But too often it is also because I have a heart for arguing. That includes arguing, unfortunately, with folks who have no desire for real dialogue.  No desire for truth discovery.  They just want to wallow in the muck of muddled antagonizing.

I’ve noticed a familiar rhythm: Say something provocative, insulting, pejorative to you. Draw you into debate. Try to get you to say something the slightest bit intemperate. Get you away from the original subject. Then attack your character. Mischaracterize what you’ve said. And the original provocative assertion is never really addressed.

It’s so hard to get untangled from all that. Especially if you’re stubborn, prideful, overly impressed with what you think you know, and too addicted to winning every argument you’re in. Like, um, me.

But, here’s some things I’m learning. And re-learning.  Again. There’s such a thing as offering sheep-feed to a stubborn sheep.  Maybe there’s such a thing as offering sheep-feed to a goat in hopes that the goat will convert.  But then there’s the foolishness of trying to offer pearls to pigs. It’s not always easy to tell the difference. I get that.

But according to Jesus, sometimes you just have to leave pigs in God’s hands. And pray that they don’t become bacon.

• We actually had a brief “business meeting” just before the 11am worship. Only item was requiring Matt to do announcements like KLock did. (If you weren’t there, KLock “sang”/slow-jammed them.)
• Speaking of Matt, Mr. Multitask, Multitalented, Renaisance Man was banging out some bass guitar on the stage.
• Speaking of the band, wow. Banjo, harmonica, hymn, thump, awesome.
• People got saved. I know of two 5th-graders and an adult lady. Maybe more.
• Between services a guy approached me with a clipboard and wanted to talk about “helping children.” What he actually wanted was money to get his “online girlfriend” from Eastern Europe to here. And she has a kid. He went on to say that ROCKers helping get Bob in a house is “just like” helping get airfare for the might-not-even-exist Romanian girlfriend. No, it isn’t. If he approaches you, please let Security know.  :/
• Saw two ladies that I LOVE this morning. Shauna Cain, and Joy Powell Jordan. Shauna and her husband Grant were (& always will be) ROCKers. But he is now a football coach at Mercer Univ. I’ve known Joy since she was a kid. She gave me a Clemson “ALL IN” car magnet. I love her anyway. I want Joy and her sisters to come sing at The ROCK one Sunday. Awesome sweet country girl harmony!
• I met Josh, a Worship Leader from a newly planted church in Spartanburg. Pray for Hub City Church. I have a great friend (& former staff colleague) who also attends there.
• I got to pray with two young ladies who want to live for Jesus and NOT for the world. That was awesome.
• I also got to hear a lady tell me that she asked her husband to attend with her JUST during February’s “Love Month.” And if he’d come then,  she wouldn’t bother him about coming any more. He hasn’t missed since, and I was able to meet him today.
• I took a moment to “speak to pastors” during the sermon. I told them to get out of the ministry if they cared more about pleasing the world than pleasing Jesus. And I meant it.
• I also said that if you’re ashamed of Jesus, or love the applause of the world more than the approval of Jesus, quit telling people you are a Christian. I meant that too.
• I think I said some other stuff too about yelling in traffic, and robot zombies, and stallions, and Facebook.
• This morning’s video about reversing our thinking is on my short list of all-time favorites. Wow.
• One KidzRock volunteer crawled on a bathroom floor to get a stubborn 2-year-old who locked himself in a stall. (He may or may not have been my grandchild)  Another incredible couple of volunteers got down on their hands and knees to clean the nursery floor because somebody took the swiffer. I think we should work up a new ad-campaign that says, “World’s Best Kidz Ministry!”
• We’re giving 25% of this morning’s non-designated offering to tornado relief in Oklahoma. We’ll either give it through the North American Mission Board, or through trustworthy channels to help one specific family. I’d love to link up with a family to see what else they need.
• Don’t forget that there’s a Starting Point next Sunday if you’ve never been to one. (Check the website) And the following Sunday is Father’s Day. We’ll do Baby Dedication that Sunday.

Such an anachronism, isn’t it. So out of place these days.

With each passing year, fewer among us say things like, “I remember when a man’s word was his bond.” Or, “There was a time when deals were sealed with a handshake.”

Hard to know when our steep national slide to distrust started. Some say it was the complicated politics surrounding the Vietnam conflict. Others say the scandal and resignation of Nixon. Maybe some of the blame falls to the evolving omnipresence of the national and global media covering everything about everybody. And now smart-phones and social media have created who-knows-how-many “journalists.” Do we know more than we need to know? Google CEO Eric Schmidt says that we produce more information every 2 days than in all of human history until 2003.

Gulp.

All of this has coined a new term: trust deficit. I googled the term, and there are 43 million results. Whatever the root of this trust deficit, we recognize the fruit: spiked divorce rates, airport security more thorough than annual physicals, video cameras everywhere, burgeoning anti-spam/anti-ID theft businesses.

I’m sure it doesn’t help that we have entered what one pundit calls “The Scandal Season.” We still don’t have clear or consistent answers about what happened at Benghazi. Just more questions. And less trust. The government is gathering information about the press. That seems backwards, doesn’t it? And the most ominous enforcer of government power, the IRS, apparently hyper-scrutinizes those on somebody’s political enemies list.

Readers Digest recently produced a Top 100 list of the Most Trusted People.  The top 4 were actors: Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Denzel Washington, and Meryl Streep.  Take a second to process that. Nothing against those fine people, but … actors?  We place the most trust in people who say whatever other people pay them to say? Really?  I guess that isn’t radically different than lots of politicians, when you get right down to it.  Some might argue that it isn’t too different than the mumblings of some hireling puppet-not-prophet “preachers.” I’m not sure I’d disagree.

Hey, we’re sinners. All of us. Bible says so. Common sense and common experience say so. Everybody we see today and tomorrow and all the days following is a flawed human being. That includes the person staring back at us from the mirror. We built a nation partly on that troubling truth. It is why we have checks and balances, and three co-equal (in theory) branches of government.  It is why, historically, we relied on divinely delivered truths as the foundation for our republic. Our presidents take their oath with a hand on ancient sacred script, not on last year’s psychology book.

What’s the solution to the trust deficit? I tend to think micro-, not macro-. So, let’s experiment with some crazy notions.  Here goes:

Tell the truth.

All the time.

Keep your promises, even if you could wiggle out of them.

Tell the truth about your failures when you fail. There’s something liberating about admitting your bondage to sin.

It helps people trust you.

That’s a start.  Let’s shake on it.

In the Bible, there always seem to be two things at work with a supernatural act: (1) the undeniable work of God, and (2) the obedient work of God’s people. God parted the Red Sea, but Moses held the staff. Jesus turned water into wedding punch (you’re welcome if you’re Baptist), but the guys filled the water pots. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but obedient human beings rolled the stone away. Jesus fed 5000, but with the obedient offering of a kid’s lunch. God does the miraculous, but almost always seems to invite us into the miracle.

In my view, what happened with ALL IN was nothing short of a miracle. I can’t quite explain in purely human terms how a new church of largely new Christians, a church that is NOT wealthy, could give almost $360,000. Some gave a lot. Some gave what was – for them – a WHOLE lot. Several gave, then gave again, and some even gave more. A boat, a car, a plot of land, a 401K, vacation money, savings accounts, emptied checking accounts, even totally emptied piggy banks. A lot of people did a lot of wonderful things. But this was unmistakably a God thing.

Some notes about worship today.

• Great attendance for Memorial Day weekend. 750-something. Maybe I should announce some big news for EVERY holiday Sunday.
• I met a 13-year-old young man who made a salvation decision today. I haven’t seen other results to know if other follow-Jesus decisions were made.
• I prayed with some people about things they’re facing: coronary issues, sexual abuse, and biopsy results.
• Band was awesome. Songs were awesome. Loved Mary’s version of the hymn. We should do that again. And again. When I get to Heaven I will be able to play guitar like Mark Stanley. That excites me a little bit.
• The sermon was about “follow through.” Follow through is continuing to do something even after you’re kinda done doing it. That applies to sports. And marriage, and kids, and college, and exercise, and jobs.
• And pushing forward with ALL IN.
• Most of the New Testament is about follow through.
• Favorite line: “If you don’t think Jesus is the real deal, don’t budge. But if you know He’s Savior and King and that He loves you, what the heck are you waiting on?”
• A college student and her mom found me in the lobby. She wanted to tell me she loves this church, and that ROCK people helped the college kid move in. ROCKers were the first peeps she met after moving down here from Ohio. And the fact that ROCKers served them still matters to them.
• What a joy and privilege to announce our ALL IN win to our people. I don’t deserve it. And I promise you that I don’t take it for granted.
• At the end of the 9am worship time the aisles filled with people streaming forward to each drop $.50 in a bucket. Part of it was to pull a prank on me (ROCK insider joke). But the first few people said, “We’re all in.” It put a lump in my throat. It looked like a show of unity. Everybody giving the same. Everybody giving just two coins like the widow in Jesus’ story. What started as a light-hearted joke ended up – for me at least – as a meaningful display of what our church is all about.
• ALL of us … ALL together and individually … ALL in.
• To God be the glory.
• And I am still blissfully cat-free,
• God is so good.

This whole week has been a constant exercise in recalculating, and that’s a good thing. We’ve had to recalculate because ROCKers keep finding ways to give toward ALL IN.  I’m writing this after 10pm on Friday night, and I JUST got an email from somebody who wants to give more. Four people came by the office today. To give.

So we keep recalculating to see if we’ve reached our goal.

One way or the other, I’ll announce the total on Sunday morning during the message. It’s been a big win no matter what the total is. Kids have emptied piggy banks. College kids have scraped the last dollars and dimes from their pockets. People who aren’t sure how they’re going to pay their next stack of bills literally went ALL in. LOTS of people have given more money, and with a lot more joy and purpose, than they have ever given to anything before. Those are huge wins.

This has been one of the most incredible experiences of my years in ministry. I think – whether we reach our goal or not – that these weeks of “generosity coaching” have changed our church. That’s a win.

A few notes about what to expect on Sunday:

• We won’t count this coming Sunday’s offering toward our last Sunday’s goal.
• If we hit our target, I don’t want to cheat to do it. I know you don’t either.
• We’ll swear our folks to secrecy. If you skip church, you miss the announcement.
• We might even switch off the video cameras so you can’t fudge and watch it online.
• The message this Sunday is, “OK – What NOW?”
• You can contact me via Facebook or email (rockconway@gmail.com) if you weren’t able to attend Sunday, and what to give something – before Sunday – that will apply toward our goal.

No matter what, to God be the glory.

God is punishing us for the moral decline of America.

This wasn’t God. This was the work of the devil.

One day this will all make sense.

God never puts on us more than we can bear.

Unconvincing, isn’t it? Was God an innocent bystander, unable to do anything about the storm? Or an unWILLing bystander who chose not to intervene? Or did He – for purposes we cannot fathom with mere human minds – orchestrate this?

Some take the hard line and remind us that we sinners always get better in this life than we deserve. They point to the innocent biblical character Job and the whirlwind that devastated his life. They focus on the majesty of God, His righteousness and holiness and rightful wrath toward sin. Others take the softer line and insist that God is, above all, the lover of our souls. They portray Him as the One who grieves with us and cares for us in the midst of our suffering – a suffering He never ever could have caused. Because He’s too nice.

I’m honestly a little uncomfortable with both. God is not a cruel kid in the schoolyard stomping us like bugs underfoot. And God is not a weepy wimpy former superhero who’s had his powers stripped away. I get nervous when I hear anybody too excitedly defend the angry wrath of God. Don’t you? I also get nervous when somebody tries a little too hard to “get God off the hook.” Don’t you?

I think it’s OK to say “I don’t know.” God inspired the Old Testament prophet Isaiah to write (Isaiah 55:8-9):

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
declares the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I know God hates sin and loves sinners. I know God is all-powerful and all-loving. But do I have Him totally figured out?  Of course not. Neither does anyone else. See the verses above.

I do know one thing. I know that it isn’t our job to get God off the hook for human suffering. At the cross, God put Himself ON the hook for it. He took it upon Himself, identified with it, suffered for it, paid for it. The same prophet Isaiah predicted that event some 700 years before it happened. (Isaiah 53:4-5)

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

I can love this God that I don’t fully understand. That is because He fully understands me, but loves me anyway.

Soooo many sweet stories already:

• A brother who gave by faith with no assurance he could make a truck payment. Then God sent a customer with EXACTLY the amount of that payment.
• THEN, out of nowhere (actually, we all know where), ANOTHER customer with a strangely familiar amount.
• People who attend sister churches, but asked THEIR churches to pray for our victory.
• A child who asked her grandma to buy a lemonade stand so she could make money for ALL IN.
• A boy who gave everything from the “give” part of his piggy back. And then insisted on giving everything he had in the “spend” part too.
• Teenagers digging out every dollar and piece of change from their pockets and purses.
• I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like the scores of people eagerly and joyfully flooding the “altar” to give. And to give much more than money.
• I’m excited to see how much money we gave. But I can’t WAIT to see what bigger spiritual decisions were made.
• I choose to believe that some people changed the rest of their lives this morning.
• They poured out at the feet of Jesus what they used to be … so that He can now transform them into what they are GOING to be.
• One brother said “I’m ALL in, and as of this morning, I’m ALL sober.”
• Our consultant from Augusta joined us for the 11am service. At some point during worship, his teenage daughter leaned over and said to him, “I could REALLY go to this church!”

Lots of firsts today:

• First time I’ve ever dared my church family to cough up over 1/3 of a million flipping dollars.
• First time a guy has ever kissed me on the cheek. Don’t ask.
• First time I’ve ever dropped money in an offering bucket for an atheist friend (who gave it to me last week).
• First time I’ve ever been part of handing out coins TO church attenders.
• First time I remember Duck Dynasty footage AND banjo music on the same Sunday.
• First time I’ve gotten a report that our bass player pulled a back muscle during a worship set. (Don’t you love being part of a church where the musicians strain muscles while leading us to worship?)
• First time I’ve ever heard people say they were sooooo excited that they couldn’t sleep the night before … because of a Sunday we were asking people to give like crazy.
• First time I’ve ever prayed I could get a cat.

The future of our ministry might have taken a change today.

I’ll let you know.