I wanted to share a little more about Milfred Minatrea.  I attended a deal last week in which he was teaching how to become a missional church.  If you want  more info about him  and his organization you can go to www.missional.org.  He really hit on some thing that have been burning inside of me for a long time now.  It was just great to  hear someone else say that.  I am not claiming to be anywhere near this guys level, but it was just great confirmation.  I could not begin to tell you about all he spoke about, but one of the greatest things I left with was this quote.  “Missions does not exist because the church exists, but the church exists because there is a mission.”

I spoke at a basketball banquet Saturday night in Aiken. It was for Kindergarten through 11th grade teams for this particular church. I was asked to do it by an FCA contact. Even though basketball is probably one of my two worst sports, it still went great. There was a large number of students and parents who do not attend church there. I was able to present the gospel clearly and hopefully some decisions were made and some seeds planted. It was just a very good night.

Tonight Abi (the wife) and I, along with two other ladies from the SCBC had dinner with Milfred Minatrea.  Minatrea is the author of Shaped by God’s Heart:  The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches.  I was very impressed.  He was a very sincere and passionate man.  He is here to speak at a conference tomorrow being given by the missions group at the SCBC.  I look forward to hearing more from him tomorrow.  I will be sure to blog about what I learn tomorrow.  His book can be found on Amazon.com.  Check it out.

I was talking with a buddy the other day while at work. He is a fellow believer with a passion for reaching the lost that we meet on a daily basis. We began by discussing the usual things that young male believers talk about. We talked about the state of the church, the issues within the church, and those types of topics. While speaking of those topics the only thing that was really accomplished was an elevation of our blood pressure. We were both very passionate about the topic, but it only served to get us closer to anger than joy. We soon switched topics. We began talking about God and how amazing He is. We went on and on about how GREAT He IS, and what an honor it is to be able to do His work. What we noticed is that our blood pressure still remained elevated, but we were not being taken towards anger, but towards a passion that induced great joy and peace.

I think too often when we get together we only want to talk about what’s wrong, and how we think it should be fixed. We neglect to talk about what is right… God is what is right. He is still the same as always, and He will always be that way. No matter what the state of The Church or even what our feelings are on these topics, we can never lose sight that the Glory of God should still be bathed in. When we do this, we feel renewed, and not angered. Do not get me wrong, there is a time to seek ways to fix what needs to be fixed, and there are times to discuss what it is that is not working, but I think if we spent a majority of our time discussing and sharing about the goodness of God with our brothers and sisters… I think these other issues could be resolved quicker. These issues may even get resolved without us even bringing them up! It is more likely that we would be motivated by God and who He is, instead of us and what we think we can accomplish. After all, this is God’s show right?

Well, someone mark their calender, because Matthew Elrod finally has a blog. After being bugged by wife, brother, friends, enemies, and everyone else… I finally did it. I am a blogger. I hope you will check back in from time to time for rants, raves, praises, ramblings, and hopefully some valuable insight. I look forward to your comments. God Bless and be smelly. 2 Cor 2:14