Barack Obama and the hope of a dream fulfilled

Like most Americans I was tuned into TV today's coverage of Barack Obama's inauguration. I am filled with a sense of hope for many reasons. here are a few of my thoughts.

1. the end of an administration that has seen little tangible success. Dubya's administration reflected the way it started out at the turn of the century; chaotic and controversial. Remember the way he got into office and the scandal surrounding the election process?
2. the conversation surrounding racial equality has taken a giant leap forward, with our first African American president taking office. It is my hope that Obama (and all people) will be judged by the content of his character, and not by the color of his skin. Many Americans are willing to do just that, while many more still cling to racial biases that will dictate how they look at our new president, or any one else who is different from them for that matter.
3. I am hopeful that the walls that separate us will come down, and that racism will be eliminated. Barack Obama's election furthers such hope among all Americans, not just African-Americans. Just as Martin Luther King's "Dream" encompassed all people, so the election of our first black president is for all of us... "One nation under God".

What Obama's election will not provide:

1. The answer to all of our problems. We may have a renewed sense of hope; individually as well as collectively, but Barack Obama cannot do it alone. Nor can he provide the answers to our greatest dilemma, which is spiritual in nature. He may be able to, with the help of others, lead our nation to brighter days, but we dare not put all of our faith and hope in one man. Let us pray for him and do our part as citizens, but let us look to God for the answers that only He can provide. God will use Barack Obama for His good purpose, perhaps to unite us as a nation or even more. Only time will tell.
2. The fulfillment of MLK's dream. As many have said, this is just the next step (a big one I might add) in the process of uniting us as a nation and breaking down the walls of racism. The real work is ongoing, as we embrace the reality of what it will take to see King's dream become reality. We need to come together and continue the conversation with openness and honesty. The only way combat and overcome the differences that separte us is to come together in the bond of God's perfect love, and to speak truthfully to one another; confess our sins of pride and prejudice, and realize that God, indeed, created us equal. We can do this without abandoning our own cultural heritages, as God, through His Spirit, develops a new culture among and within us. It is a Jesus culture;one that is defined by the love we have for God and one another.
3. True and everlasting peace. President Obama may be able to resurrect our fallen economy. He may also be able to restore peace in the US and abroad. He may, very well, go down as the greatest president our nation has ever known. But true and everlasting peace come from another King who laid down His life for the sins of the world.

When we, as followers of Christ, come together as one body, the world will see what God can do. God's desire is to use us, the Church, as His light in the midst of a dark and dying world. As we live, love and serve the way Christ did, Christ will be seen through us, and people will see the True and Living Way to God

Knowing Christ is a Powerful Experience

Philippians 3:10-11

10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.



Paul says, "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection..." (3:10b)

The NLT puts it this way, "...and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead."

Knowing Christ personally is to experience the full power of His resurrection; the power that flows from union with the resurrected Christ. The very same power that raised Him from the dead will also give new and everlasting life to our mortal bodies.

Philippians 3:20-21
20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. 21 He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.

1 Corinthians 15:42-43
42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength.

Ephesians 1:18-20
18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.

In the power of His resurrection there is:

* Hope and strength for daily living
* Freedom from the power and dominion of sin (Romans 6:5-14)
* Victory over death, darkness and the devil
* The promise of eternal life (John 11:25-26)
* The promise of our helper and comforter, the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-17, 25-26)

One of my favorite TV Dramas, ER, is wrappiing up production after fifteen great seasons of hospital emergency room drama. A common scenario in this and other hospital dramas is that of a person in cardiac arrest; their heart stops beating, medical personnel rush in with a "crash cart," grease up the defibrillator paddles, place them on the patient's chest and zap him. Power flows through the paddles and the patient's heart starts beating again. He's been zapped with new life. In the power of Christ's resurrection we are zapped with new life as Jesus pumps His Spirit and His life into us. We are then empowered to live abundant, joy filled, victorious lives in Him.

Are you experiencing the power of Christ's resurrection in your life, daily?

If you have encountered Christ personally, coming to know Him as Lord and Savior, this same power that raised Him from the dead is available. As you live amongst your neighbors, co-workers, family and friends; as you go through the daily struggles and trials of life, perhaps a jolt of His resurrection power is what you need.

Indeed, knowing Christ is first a personal experience and a powerful experience as we seek Him daily. Know also that it is, often, a painful experience.

Join us at the CORE Church of Troy this coming Sunday, January 18th, for the next part in this sermon series. I've referred to this series by two titles.

1. New Goals for a New Year
2. The Greatest experience of a lifetime (and beyond)

We could call it "Set a new goal for the new year; to encounter the greatest experience of a lifetime and beyond." That's kind of long, but it works. This sentence also describes the content of the 5 part series

Discovering the Value of Social Media and Networking

My Twitter Bio:
Lead pastor of the CORE Church of Troy, social media/networking apprentice on my way to ninja status, helping people find their way back to God.

At the young age of 45, I'm caught between the TV/Telephone generation and the current iGeneration; internet, iPod, iPhone, etc. I am seeing the need to get with the times; to change with the changing times and embrace modern technology.

Social media and networking via the internet is not a new thing. Chat rooms, discussion boards, forums, etc. Have been around for awhile. What seems to be happening (I am a slow learner) is a streamlining or simplifying of what we've been enjoying for two decades.

I'm still a little behind. I don't have an internet ready cell phone. I still have my two and a half year old Cingular(now AT&T)/LG flip phone. I'm still learning the texting and IM features. Someday I'll move up to a Blackberry or an iPhone. But, by then there will be a new thing everyone else will be flocking to. I'm not as internet savvy as those who are half my age. I'm learning what SEO and other internet terminology is and hopefully I'll catch up and reach ninja status. But for now I'm enjoying being an apprentice of social media and networking and reaping the benefits thereof.

People Planting!

What A Crew!

This past Saturday, with the winter temperatures dipping into single digits, what better way to spend the morning than painting and sprucing up an old church building.

We have been using the basement level of the CORE Church building for many outreach events over the past few years. There is plenty of room for a wide variety of activities here. However, when we took the building over from the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church at the end 0f 2005, this basement level was barely useable. We removed some rotted, wooded partitions, along with the majority of the wood and tile flooring, which was also rotted and seriously deteriorating. We brought the floor down to its original cement base with the plan of putting a new floor, either wood or poured cement, at some point in the future. For now we are using it as is, with some indoor/outdoor carpeting placed over the cement floor. We have held many community and/or children's events in this room, partnering with other churches, our local neighborhood association, and most recently with the Missing Link Street Ministry in hosting a three day per week feeding ministry. Our plan is to continue using this room for free community events, including the Feed-a-Kid ministry, CORE/Kids events, holiday parties, movie nights, teen nights, etc.

The vision God gave me three years ago, when we came back to Troy to re-start a dying church, recontexualized for inner-city ministry, is that of a community of Christ-centered faith that goes beyond the four walls of our God-given facility, reaching into the surrounding community with the love, grace, peace and hope of Christ. This facility provides ample community space for gatherings, giving us opportunities to connect with people and families living in the North Central/South Lansingburgh community. Collabortive partnerships with other local churches and ministries, along with neighborhood groups, local schools, businesses, etc. is a necessary component of planting churches in our inner-cities. Church planting is really "People Planting." By partnering with others the CORE Church of Troy will be successful in carrying out the mission God has sent us here to fulfill; which is to make Him known in the hearts of people living in the heart of the city.

By continuing to renovate this century old facility, we will see the vision of a seven day per week ministry unfold. As God gives the increase, we will have front row seats to watch what He is doing in this community through His people. My deepest passion and desire is to see this community transformed by the hand of God. Being a part of this transformation is a tremendous blessing that I desire not to take for granted. Every hand and heart God has moved to join us in this effort has not gone unnoticed, and we thank God for ever one of them.

Perhaps you, your church, or someone you know would like to join us in this great commission vision of reaching the people of this community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You may join us prayerfully by lifting us up in regular prayer. You may join us physically by co-laboring with us (please contact us for more info). You may also join us financially, by sending us your best financial gift; either one time giving or regular support.

You can make checks payable to the CORE Church of Troy. Our address is 6th Ave & 101st St. Troy, NY 12180.

Additionally, I do not take a salary or even a stipend from this new work called The CORE Church of Troy. My personal/family support comes through the missions agency that I serve with, Missions Door . If you or your church would consider supporting the Lewis family in the Great Commission vision God has appointed us and anointed us to, we would consider it a tremendous blessing. You can check out Pastor Dave's online bio HERE.

when making connections, everyone counts

I was watching Ugly Betty last night. The episode was all about social networking. Betty was a little behind on this important aspect of the corporate world, so she tagged along with a coworker to a party where he filled Betty in on the do's and don'ts of connecting and networking. He told her to introduce, share a tidbit of information, exchange buisness cards, and move on. So she went about applying what she had been told. But she found it difficult to talk to people for such a short time and ended up spending twenty minutes talking to a caterer. Her co-workers criticized her saying, "No one talks to the caterer, especially for twenty minutes." She felt like a failure.
However, later on in the episode Betty found herself in a jam. As she thought about whom to call, the caterer came to mind. She found his business card, called him, and he came through for her.

What did I get out of this? all the people we meet are important. The ones we think are insignicant may be the ones we call on when we find ourselves in a bit of a dilemma.It may be a caterer or a janitor, or it may be the CEO of a company...you never know!

New Sermon series: Part 1

Knowing Christ is a Personal Experience


10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phip.3:10-11, NKJV)


A. Paul says, "I want to know Christ..." (Phil.3:10)

• Paul once put confidence in the flesh, personal achievements, and self-righteous legalism (Phil. 3:4-6).
• In his former life, before He came to know Christ (Acts 9:1-7), he had religion, position, influence and power in society.
• He came from the right family and the right tribe. He had all the right stuff that makes a man great in the eyes of the world; even in religious circles.
• Yet he put all of this aside, counting it worthless, for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ personally as Lord and friend(Phil.3:7-9)
• Paul goes on to encourage and exhort the Philippiam Christians to do the same; that is, to seek a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to grow in Him, instead of striving to please God in the flesh.

Know" in this context comes from the greek word (ginosko) which is the same term used in other New Testament passages to convey the idea of the connection or union between a husband and wife. This implies:

• Intimate relationship vs. intellectual knowledge; not just a head knowledge, but a personal, intimate relationship that continues to grows deeper as each day passes.
• To know Christ personally is to know God. Jesus clearly made this connection

If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” (John 14:7);

"...He who has seen Me has seen the Father..." (John 14:9)

• Paul is saying in Philippians 3:10, "I want to know Him as my closest, most personal friend" (John 15:15)
• Friends spend time together, listen to one another, and are honest with one another; even when it hurts. Friends trust one another and often know each other better than they know themselves
• How can I tell others about someone I don't know personally in my own life? I can tell others about George Washington or Elvis Presley, yet I never knew either of them personally.
• We can know Jesus Christ personally and intimately, although none of us have ever seen Him in the flesh.
• As we share Christ with others, will they respond more to a mere head knowledge or formal religion, or to a personal experience with a personal friend?

There is a song entitled "Name" from several years back, written and recorded by Christian band PFR. The chorus of the song goes like this

My hands they made you,

My breath I gave you,

My son he saves you

If you want to, you can wear My name

My love unending,

My truth unbending

I want you to wear My name

• God wants to have a personal relationship with each of us; He wants each of us to wear His name. That is personal.
• Our goal as followers of Christ is to know God personally, to grow daily in this relationship, and then make Him known to others as He reveals Himself to us and through us.

Do you know God like this? You can!

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:23, NKJV)

When you come to know God like this, you will discover the greatest experience in this life and beyond!

Knowing Christ is not only a personal experience, but also a powerful experience

New CORE Church sermon series: New Goals for a New Year

What are your goals in life? What about for the next year?


We have experienced the first week of 2009. Many of us have set resolutions for the new year in an attempt to improve our lives. Some of us have pledged to take up a new, healthy habit such as dieting and exercise, or to give up unhealthy ones; smoking, cursing, etc. Many Christians resolve to do better at reading their Bibles, going to church more regularly and being more actively involved. Some set more lofty goals such as continuing education or running for public office. Some of us are making progress, while others are not doing so great.

As we search for significance in this life, many of us set goals and strive to meet them. However, the ultimate goal in life, as the Apostle Paul discovered, is to know Jesus Christ, to grow in an intimate relationship with Him, and to make Him known to others.

In Philippians chapter 3, Paul expresses what he has discovered to be the number one aim in his life; to draw closer to God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and to experience the benefits of this relationship in his daily life.

After many years of life and ministry, Paul's goal in life had changed; from one of confidence in the flesh, driven by personal achievement and self-righteousness, to a much more humble, simpler, single minded goal; to seek after a life that is found in Christ alone, and to live this life in the fulness that Christ promises to those who follow Him.

How can each of us realize this same goal in our daily lives?

Here in God's word we are exhorted to not put confidence in what we have done or can do to make our lives better; to somehow improve our human experience on this earth and in this life, but to seek after and put confidence in a personal, powerful, often painful, practical and purposeful relationship with the Living God, so that we may truly experience life the way God intended from the beginning of creation. This experience is for now and for eternity, as we come to know and experience Christ in our daily lives

Over the next several weeks we will take a look at five facets of the greatest experience any of us can know, in this life and beyond. Using Philippians 3:10-11 as our backdrop and outline, we will search the Scriptures together and either discover this experience for the first time, or rediscover it anew.

Personal Experience..."I want know Christ..." Phil.3:10a
Powerful Experience..."And the power of His resurrection..." 3:10b
Painful Experience..."and the fellowship of sharing in His suffering..." 3:10c
Practical Experience..."becoming like Him in His death..." 3:10d
Purposeful Experience..."if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." 3:11

Follow along as we experience God's truth together!