At Keystone, we beg God to “trust us with your broken people.”  That means that God will position you to make a real difference in someone’s life.  When that magical moment happens… What do you say?  How do you share Jesus with someone else?

Check out this brief video that will equip you TODAY to make a difference in someone’s life FOR ALL ETERNITY!

I’m not sure exactly when I picked up this nugget of truth, but it has made a major difference in my life: Do the HARDEST task FIRST.

Your DESIRES can become the greatest enemy to your success.  If you only do those tasks that fulfill you emotionally, you are DOOMED.  Life is filled with actions that we would rather put off.

There is an easy explanation for this BEAT DOWN: It is our BROKEN WORLD!  Check it out:

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread…

Genesis 3:17-19, ESV

Work is HARD… You can’t escape it!  Stop pursuing those things that ONLY bring you pleasure… The purpose-filled life is paved with DISCIPLINE! One could define discipline as DOING THE HARD THING FIRST!

Do you want to know the hardest work you’ll ever do? Check this out:

Paul said to Timothy:

As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

2 Tim. 4:5 ESV

The HARD WORK of bringing others to Jesus is something that many of us would rather do LAST… NOT FIRST.

Do we really believe that Jesus is the hope for all creation?  Do we really taste the joy of our salvation?  If we did, wouldn’t we want others to experience it as well?

Evangelism is HARD WORK.  At Keystone, we do this work FIRST.  It is followed with a strengthening of the believer (hard work as well… but most people love learning and applying the scriptures to themselves).

Too many churches are content to grow primarily through EXCHANGE GROWTH (transferring other believers from other churches) or GENERATIONAL GROWTH (having babies and almost conversions happen in the kids ministries).

Join us as we passionately follow Jesus in his MAJOR RENOVATION PROJECT to ‘Make ALL THINGS new (Rev. 21:5)!’

This weekend we are launching a new series, KICKS. I am convinced that if you really invest in these messages, OTHERS will thank you!

You see, we are ADDICTED to LIFE-CHANGE at Keystone Church! We just can’t get enough of it.

It is SO SATISFYING to hear the stories of lives impacted by Jesus, marriages healed, and families united. Yet, in order to experience so much transformation… it requires massive investment! It’s HARD WORK to change the world!

Here are some tangible ways we give LIFE-CHANGE a priority place at Keystone:

1. We pray about it. Prayer reveals your passion. God will honor your prayers, if they align with his passions!
2. We talk about it. Each staff meeting we remind ourselves of the people and their stories.
3. We beg God for it. If we are running out of new life-change stories, WE BEG GOD to trust us with his broken people… We will pray as a staff for more opportunities to help others.
4. We plan for it. Each service includes a FILTER for the unchurched or de-churched. We don’t assume biblical knowledge of basic characters, for example. We lay out bridges (songs, jokes, videos, illustrations, etc.) to bring the good news of Christ to interested ears. We also have strategic ‘harvest weekends’ that mobilize the church for evangelism.
5. We anticipate it. We believe that many will be spontaneously baptized, so we have everything ready for them. We are not SHOCKED when God moves… we are BLOWN AWAY!
6. We fund it. Mailers, Community-wide events, Street Teams, and many more strategies are funded for life-change. We put our money where our mouths are!
7. We empower it. This one is HUGE. We have many things at Keystone designed only for believers (community groups, men’s/women’s groups, communion gatherings, etc.). By doing this, we are empowering evangelism through TRAINING, ENCOURAGEMENT, PRAYER, SCRIPTURE, etc.
8. We evaluate it. We hold ourselves accountable at a staff level to a 1/10 ratio. In other words, for every 10 people you see in the lobby on a weekend… at least 1 of them has been baptized this past year. This is not a biblical mandate, but we believe it honors the biblical mandate of Matthew 28.

How can you EMPOWER life-change on a personal level?

Are you ADDICTED to life change? Don’t answer too quickly….

You might be INTERESTED in life-change. When Christmas or Easter come along, you might invite a friend to church. In the pie of your life, you give LIFE-CHANGE a good slice, a delicious bite. You might even cry when others tell their stories of life-change.

Life change may knock on your door a couple times a year, and that’s great… when you’re INTERESTED in life-change.

You might be SUPPORTIVE of life-change. You aren’t against it. You say a prayer for the kids at camp and are glad to be part of a church that supports some orphanages in Haiti. It’s easy to smile when you think of your church, because you know marriages are saved and people are rescued from hell on a regular basis.

Yet, life-change is not flowing THROUGH you. You support it from a distance, but are rarely part of it.

You might be AGAINST life-change. This one is hard. I don’t meet many believers who will openly admit their animosity toward life-change. Yet, there are signs. Believe me, there are signs that you are negatively bent toward life-change.

• Are you cynical at all the hands raised to accept Christ during a life-change service?
• Do you resist participating in compassion offerings because you’re not sure it’s really making a difference?
• Are you in favor of shutting down life-change ministries during a budget crunch?
• Are you more interested in preserving consumer-oriented ministries like the Wednesday night meal or pottery classes?
• Do you passionately argue over the color of the carpet in the church, while you can’t even muster the passion to invite a friend to church?

You’re against life-change… and sadly, you’re against God.

Genesis 12
Matthew 28:19-20
Acts 8:4
Acts 9:20

Baptism is the spiritual SLAM DUNK of Christianity!

Don’t you love the electricity of the arena as your team breaks away for the majestic SLAM DUNK?  The crowd goes WILD with excitement.

That’s what we do at Keystone!  We go WILD with celebration when someone marks their life change with public baptism.

I’ve noticed that many churches treat baptism as a sweet tradition… biblical, but not essential.  Tearful and heart felt, but not something to work toward.

We have forgotten the art of SCORING.

Baptism is MORE than a sweet notion.  It is MORE than an enduring iconic symbol.  Baptism by immersion is an EMBLEM of LIFE CHANGE.

The last words of Jesus: ‘Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:19,20 NLT).

Baptism is HUGE in God’s eyes.  Don’t keep putting it off for your aunt from Wisconsin to personally be there.  Don’t  be embarrassed by your hair getting wet or your mascara running.  These excuses are WEAK compared to the great sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

If you haven’t been baptized biblically, I urge you to sign up to join us THIS WEEKEND for the most AWESOME Baptism Celebration EVER!

Email JODY at jody@keystonechurch.com

One of my MAIN INSPIRATIONS from church history is PATRICK. You may know him for the yearly celebration named after him: ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

Our culture seems to have completely forgotten this iconic example of LIVIN THE MISSION. We have exchanged his legacy for green beer, leprechauns, and lots of pinches! We throw massive parties and dye entire rivers green in his honor… but we don’t know the HISTORY.

To know a little more, here’s a brief video from this past weekend’s talk… You’ll never look at him the same!