Platform and stained glass former Grace Zion church, Uptown Charlotte, NC

Platform

Originally uploaded by g8rben

Interior of former Grace Zion Church, Uptown Charlotte, NC

Looking down main aisle in sanctuary

Originally uploaded by g8rben

Looking down main aisle in sanctuary

Outside of former Grace Zion Church, Uptown Charlotte

From the northeast corner

Originally uploaded by g8rben

This is a very possible location for Ephesus Church to meet in Uptown. Phenomenal space, phenomenal location, with what is looking to be a phenomenal price!

Paul at Ephesus

Just reading in Acts 19 today as part of my devotional. This is where Paul is spending a large amount of time in the city and what happens because of his preaching. Here’s my journal thoughts on Acts 19. You’ll see these again!

v. 10 Paul spent 2 years in Ephesus and it says all of Asia heard the word of the Lord. This meant the area today known as Turkey, but I think it is significant that from with the city the word went out to the entire region surrounding Ephesus. ALL heard the word of the Lord, because influence and communication flowed out of the center of the city where Paul spent his time. What an example for Ephesus Church.

v.17-20 We see the continued impact on the city as many were healed and those practicing sorcery denounced their practice and destroyed their books. The word of the Lord continued to increase and “prevail mightily.” Ephesus was radically changed!

v. 23-27 Paul’s preaching and the impact of the truth of Jesus so impacted the city of Ephesus that the economy was affected. A large business was made crafting statues of Artemis, the goddess chiefly worshiped in Ephesus, as the truth of Jesus spread, it is implied that their business suffered, therefore the craftsmen banded together and rioted and denounced Paul. While I’m sure that was a scary time for the believers, what an impact on the city! It’s obvious amazing things were happening and the very culture of the city of Ephesus was being changed by the preaching of the word of God.

Possible site for church

A week and half ago I had very exciting meeting about a possible meeting site for Ephesus Church. It is actually a historic church building in Uptown. This past Friday the Charlotte Observer did an article about the church and the new owner that we are working with. We are meeting again this week and will be working to finalize everything very soon. This could be a very nice deal for us in terms of cost, location, and other intangibles like historical significance and the uniqueness of the building. God continues to move this thing forward…

Remake of Karate Kid

Check out this great video from No More Kings. This is the Youtube version, there’s a higher res version on relevant.tv.

It has all the original cast, freakin awesom!

Adam Sandler, Reign Over Me vs. Billy Madison

I just recently watched Reign Over Me with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. It’s amazing how far Sandler has come since Billy Madison. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge Billy Madison fan, often accused of mimicking him when I make my sarcastic mocking voice. I mean “flaming bags of poop” is a line that will live on in movie lore for ages, but Sandler continues to expand his acting range as many comedians do. This movie in particular brings such depth and thought. It’s real and authentic. The dichotomy between Sandler’s struggles from the loss of his family and Cheadle’s struggles from the seeming monotony of it all. He has everything, Sandler has lost it all, yet both are deeply struggling. Sandler’s character seemingly has all the freedom that Cheadle desires, but it is not all that it seems. Sandler has all but lost the ability to care and remember his family. Cheadle feels trapped by his work and by his family. So together they struggle through their pain and their chains. Anyway, I’m not a movie reviewer but I do appreciate a good movie where men are challenged in what it means to be a man. I don’t want to give up the ending, but this movie is so worth the watch. Someday I’ll take a group of men through this movie and we’ll dig in. A little warning, a lot of f-bombs, but overall a great great movie.

A little more about Facebook and Ephesus

This is a brief description I wrote about what we’re using Facebook for with Ephesus…

We’re a new church that is set to officially launch on Easter of 08 in the Uptown area of Charlotte, NC. I have begun to work on creating an online presence mainly through FB (v.1 of our website is at ephesuschurch.tv. this is mainly a placemark until our full site is up, interestingly my main goal with the web site right now is to drive people to our FB group). I’ve created a group Ephesus Church Charlotte, that has allowed me a place to get information out, post videos, create events and work on building momentum before we have physically launched. I’m working on creating video devos, mini sermons, that will be posted to the Group Page to drive discussion and begin to give people a feel of what Ephesus is about, as well as engage those from around the country who have joined the group. It’s a low cost (free!) way to begin an online church. It’s long term impact? Don’t know yet, but with 5 months still left before our official launch we already have 94 people engaged in what God is wanting to do through Ephesus. A year ago, that wouldn’t have been possible. Yes, FB was here, but people’s engagement in it was not. What a cool and unique opportunity to present Jesus to our community both physical and online!