A Festive Future

We ended the year at Crossroads Church with a message series called Festive. The premise of the series was the fact that all the things we love about Christmas - the joy, the celebration, the good will toward men we engage in - all those things should be the consistent life of the believer. Those things don't get boxed up and put back in the attack after the holidays! Ours is a festive faith. 

When we live out our lives with joy, striving for peace and good will, we can count on a festive future. That is my expectation for 2026! It doesn't mean that the coming days will be a bed of roses with no challenges, it means that even during the difficult times we have reason to celebrate! James 1:2 says, My friends, be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble. When we do this, we are being Christlike - and that is the whole point of the Christian faith. Hebrews 12:2 says Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. He had a festive faith because of the festive future that awaited Him. Will we do the same? Stop and consider today - what joy has God set before you in the coming year?

Just a couple of thoughts to help you with this effort to live in joyful expectation:

1.    Ours is a festive future because God has given us things to accomplish. 

Nothing is as fulfilling as achieving your God-given goals. Ephesians 2:10 says, God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do.

2.    Ours is a festive future because all things work together for our good and God's         glory.

That's what God's Word declares! Romans 8:28 says, And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Again, it's not that we never have challenges or disappointments - its the confidence of knowing God can use those things to bring about good and receive glory that keeps a gleam in our eye and a spring in our step even during difficult times. 

3.    Ours is a festive future because it doesn't end here. 

Paul told the believers in Corinth, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable (1 Corinthians 15:19). Thank God there is a life to come in eternity where all sin, suffering and evil is forever eliminated! That fact allows me to live out a festive faith here while I await a festive future there! 

Let's get excited about what's ahead! Let's celebrate the coming year because ours is a festive faith and a festive future! 

The Show Must Go On

In 2024 we weren't able to produce our annual Christmas production due to a lack of funds. We had laid some of our employees off and reduced the remaining salaried employees income earlier that year and, even through we were sure we could get the sponsorship for the production, we felt it just wasn't the right thing to do. 

In 2023 we hosted our largest production ever with over 18,000 in attendance and nearly 1,000 responding to the gospel. When making the decision to put the event back on the calendar for 2025, we wondered how much momentum we lost not doing the show in '24. We decided to come back with just one weekend, featuring seven shows verses the two-weekend/twelve shows we did in '23. We felt like if we drew an attendance of 10,000 or more it would be a clear indicator that there is still a big demand for the show. Man were we ever right about that! The show drew in over 12,000 people with over 1,200 responding to the gospel! We had to turn people away at every show and heard from people again and again how thankful they were that we did the production again! 

I am ever-indebted to Marshal Hunter for helping me build this show over the past decade! Marshal is stepping off the team in January to pursue building a production company and we are going to really miss him. He has been such an incredible friend and partner in ministry for many years and we are incredibly grateful for his faithful service to the Kingdom of God. 

Marshal's assistant for the past ten years has been one of our Leadership College alumni, Grant Robin. He is an incredibly gifted young man with impeccable character and is completely bought in to our mission, vision and values. He will be taking over as our new Creative Director on the Lead Team. I have always witnessed proof of the reality that God doesn't create void, He fills it, but I've never seen it proved more than this transition! I am so grateful! 

The Evangelist

Growing up as an Assemblies of God Pastor's son from Louisiana, Jimmy Swaggart had a huge influence on my upbringing. He was the consummate evangelist, the Pentecostal Billy Graham, traveling the world filling stadiums with a world wide telecast reaching millions. He was a preaching machine and with musical influences shared by cousins Jerry Lee Lewis and Micky Gilly, he brought a southern rockabilly to gospel music, along with a powerful anointing that was loved by so many - including my parents who had all his records. 

When I got saved in my early twenties, I felt called to write and record contemporary Christian music. At that time CCM was a fledgling genre that Brother Swaggart was very critical of. That soured me to his influence and despite the inspiration I drew from him as an evangelist and the admiration I felt for the incredible church and Bible College he built in Baton Rouge, I always felt conflicted about the man. I both loved him and resented him at the same time. 

When his moral failure happened in the late 1980's it impacted me in a transformational way. I have often shared that the event is what shaped my ethic and conviction about the role of accountability in the life of believers. I knew if someone like Jimmy Swaggart was vulnerable then I certainly needed a spiritual covering. I have prioritized it ever since. 

I never listened to him much after that. Not because of the failure - any of are capable of that. There was a certain air of judgementalism toward those that didn't completely see things the was he did that I never liked. Even writing this I am torn between the admiration I had for him and the frustration I often felt toward his criticism of those of a different stripe. Regardless, I am thankful for the life, the ministry and the influence of the evangelist and I am praying for his family. 

Who Has Your Autopen?

There has been a lot said lately about the role of the autopen in American politics. To be honest, I had no idea there was such a thing until the current administration began to criticize the former about it's use of this device that apparently allows your signature to be added to legal documents without you even being in the room. 

I don't bring this up to make a political statement but rather to ask us to consider who we are allowing to decide what we endorse. I want to challenge us all to determine right here and now that no one decides that but us! I am not going to allow Hollywood or politics or popular opinion to determine what I give my endorsement. I decide that through the wisdom of God's Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit! No one but God has my autopen!