the church at greenbrier – Nickcarnes.com

December 19, 2008December 19, 2008

TCAG Community Group Christmas Party

Last night we had our annual Greenbrier Community Group Christmas Party. Every year all of our Community Groups come together to have one massive party. This is one of the highlights of my year at the church. We have delicious food and a great time playing our “Pink and White Chinese Christmas Ornament Game” or whatever its called. If anyone leaves this party without slightly chuckling a little, its probably a sign you are suffering from massive depression and need serious psychological help 🙂 Here are 53 photos from last night…

Note: When you select the album below the slideshow will switch photos every 5 seconds, to see the caption, place your mouse pointer over the picture, to select individual pictures click the link “Show Picture List”

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And My Favorite…

nicki-name-tag

Comments?

November 24, 2008August 19, 2009

Brenden Foster Dying Wish Update

11 year old Brenden Foster is no longer with us on this earth, but his legacy will live on. He lost his battle with cancer since I posted the first story about him HERE. As you can see in this new CNN Report, Brenden inspired several groups, including some schools to get involved in helping the homeless who are less fortunate than any of us who have the capabilities of viewing this blog right now.

I wonder how many of us would lie in a hospital bed with only a few days left on this Earth and instead of thinking about the sad state we were in, would spend our time thinking of others and how we could help them? I can’t help but to be inspired by Brenden. I can’t help but to ask myself, “What’s my excuse for sitting still?” I can’t help but to ask, “What’s your excuse for sitting still?” Shane preached this morning about “The Kingdom” and his main point was, The Gospel is lived out with your hands and feet, not your body in a seat.

If you live in the CSRA, especially if you attend The Church @ Greenbrier, you can join us at The Augusta Rescue Mission, this Thursday (yes that is Thanksgiving) to serve the poor and homeless a Thanksgiving meal. It starts at 9 a.m. and most people are working until 2 p.m., but you are free to leave earlier if you need to. Join the Conversation, What can you do to make Brenden’s dying wish come true?

Video URL: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/11/22/jaffe.wa.boy.dying.wish.obit.komo

November 18, 2008

Hypocritical People

A few weeks ago I was given the privilege to preach at my church for our series Rock Band, relationships in Concert. This was a tough message for me, I seriously felt like I was speaking at a counseling session. It was probably tough because of the hypocrite story I shared in the message. Despite that, I had several people come to me afterward and share that they received some encouragement or help from the message, so I thought I would post it here, in hopes other people may do the same.

CLICK HERE to download the Audio.

I am not the best speaker in the world, but I trust that if God gave me the opportunity to speak, he can overcome the flaws to get his message across. For more messages from The Church at Greenbrier CLICK HERE for instruction to our podcast or HERE to go straight to the Greenbrier I-Tunes podcast.

November 8, 2008

Our Cash Envelope System

Nicki and I went to the ReThink Money Workshop today that our church put on with Casey Graham. Casey talked about using one of three plans to pre-designate your monthly funds: 1. A written spending plan 2. A Cash Envelope System or 3. A computer method (Quickbooks, Quicken, Etc.). If we used the cash envelope system, here’s what it would look like right now:

We are not going to use a cash envelope system, because cash is easier to spend, and we don’t have money to spend, period. Hopefully, applying the principles we learned today will help us save money and cut spending where we can, it is not going to help us overcome my need to start a second job for a while, but it will reduce the amount I need to earn in that job. If you hear of a ReThink Money Seminar in your area, I highly recommend you go to it.

Join the Conversation: Do you use a budgeting system or a spending plan, if so what is it?

August 6, 2008

Sunday Recap: Lord Make Us ONE

My church (the church @ greenbrier) jumped on board with the ONE Prayer Campaign as other churches were finishing up, but I am glad that we did. I love hearing our pastor when he shares God’s Word with us, but there was something special with the messages that we were treated to during the last 3 weeks, I truly believe Jesus gave Craig Groeschel a fresh idea of His vision for His church. This week, we watched the message by Craig, “Lord, make us ONE!”

Craig started the basis of his message with Jesus’ prayer from John 17:20-24. Pete Wilson is starting a series on relationship surrounding verses 20 & 21 of chapter 17 in the fall, I can’t wait to check those out on Cross Point’s website. I am sure that series will be just as powerful as this message, and people’s lives are going to be changed because of it. Here are some of the highlights and my thoughts at the end, take a couple of minutes and check it out:

“We always want Jesus to answer our prayer, but what if we (Christians/the Church) decided to be the answer to Jesus’ prayer?” – Craig Groeschel

What will it take to unify the church?

1. If Christians/the Church recognize we have ONE ENEMY! Amen & Amen!!!
**Satan is that ONE enemy, not other churches or other believers.** We all have ONE thing in common, the same enemy! (1 Peter 5:8-9) (John 10:10)

2. ONE HEART! Christians/the Church can have different methods or manners in which they do ministry; there is power in our diversity, but we should be united in our passion of making the name of Jesus famous, because it is through Jesus that those who do not know him can be saved. We are not called to be uniform in style and preference, but to be united in Love. (**My Note: I wholeheartidly believe this, but only when it does not cross the line into doctrine of the Gospel and of God’s Word**) (John 13:34-35 – “Love One Another”)

**Christians/the Church should be united. When “I” get out of place, united become “untied” (which is the state our churches are in), but when “I” is in its proper place we have “united.” – We must stay aware of whether we are in our proper place or whether we are not.

3. ONE PURPOSE! (Matthew 28:19-20) “Go and make disciples” – Church in greek is “ekklesia” which means “called out ones” (**Personal Note: Why do we allow personal style and method preferences stand in the way of this one? No matter which version of the Bible you read or what denomination you are a part of, this teaches and reads the same, so on this point alone, why are we not united here?**)

I encourage you to go watch the video HERE. The illustrations, stories, and videos that were shown with this message are great! I really enjoy messages like these, because growin up I saw and heard so much division due to personal preferences over styles and methods. Through a disagreement on these things people came to conclusions about doctinal beliefs of other denominations or churches that were not true, thankfully I have learned to explore & question on my own and to allow the Lord to free me from the legalism and the bondage these people put me under. I have seen first hand how these things divide the Church Jesus said He was going to build versue building it up and uniting it. I believe the greatest thing is at risk by our churches being divided over petty issues, People’s souls!