Dean Inserra

Yesterday was our last day in the North Carolina mountains. The 3 of us had a great time. We are hanging out in Columbia, South Carolina today and will be heading back to Tally on Saturday morning. Krissie has some good pictures from our trip here.

Thanks to Matthew and James for their guest posts this week.

While driving through Spartanburg, I saw a Church sign that listed their service times/options, 9:45: Celebration Service, 11:00: Traditional. Are those at the traditional service not celebrating? Just curious.

August is a HUGE month for us at the Well. We will be back at Godby this Sunday and ready to go. It has been a good summer for us at Covenant, but we are all ready to be back. The time is Now to reach our city for Christ and I have never felt more confident in God’s calling upon our Church.

Mountains,Waterfalls, Minor League Baseball, tons of Ice Cream, and Bojangles. It has been a great time with Krissie and Tommy. Thanks for praying for us to get some relaxation! See you Sunday.

(by James Parsons, Guest Writer)

The Gospel is the most inspiring heartfelt love story of all time!  For so long I enjoyed hearing the story but didn’t know that hearing the story would expose me to mercy on a broken road.

I have spent the past two hours trying to come with the most spiritual things that I can say and I’m not getting anywhere, with that being said I’m just going to speak from the heart about what God is doing in me and how He is continually changing me to be more like him.

For so long I thought that once I was saved the process was over, that I could go on and never have to do anything again. It is amazing how different I am now than in high school. I haven’t even been out for five years. I am just now starting to realize that I am expected and called by God as a Christian to make an extreme effort to show his love to others in obedience of his love for me.

I really like Brad Paisley’s music and I know I may get made fun of for admitting that. He has a new song out called “Then.”  This song describes the first time he met his wife and thought to himself how much he loved her then.  As the song progresses he looks back on turning points in their relationship and he remembers each time feeling like he could never love her anymore, and to his surprise he always finds a way to fall harder and harder in love with her. It’s a great song.

In a round about way that describes my relationship with God. Every time I feel I am at the depths of his love something happens and more mercy and grace are extended like never before.

Every time we look at the gospel story we should be compelled to radically examine our hearts, mind, and every other facet of our being. As time flies by being a part of a church-plant/movement it is made very clear that we are being called right now to love like we have never loved before. I heard someone say that you cannot share Christ with your enemies, how true is that.
Philippians 1:6 says “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

What an amazing verse that describes the essence of everyday life. People ask what God’s plan for my life is; here it is:  Every day realize that God will be faithful to continue the work in you, meaning, what Christ started on the cross for you will be completed when we meet God face to face. So our plan is to devote every minute of our lives seeking to be like Christ and in the process bring others with us. This is the gospel that will continue to change you.

(by Matthew Robinson, Guest Writer)

Dean and I ask that question, and pray that prayer, all the time.

“What’s Next?”

Where does He want to lead us?
What’s in store?
What are we responsible for in getting us there?
What’s to come?
And what is His will for His church called The Well?

We’re two years in.

And we’re going to celebrate and party and look back and look forward in a few weeks.  We can’t wait to get back to Godby this Sunday.  We can’t wait to launch the morning service.  We’re excited because we know we’re being obedient.  We know we’re following where He has lead us.  And we know He has plans in store for us more grandiose than we could ever possibly comprehend.

We want to be an unexplainable church.  Because we know if it’s unexplainable, He’s in it.

But right now.  Today.

What’s next?

What’s He calling you to start doing?  To stop doing?

What’s He put on your heart to pray?  To say?  To believe?  To have faith in?

What’s going to be the catalyst to get you to stop just sitting there and taking it in, and standing up, and cannon-balling with a huge splash into the fun of it all.  The work of it all.  The life of it all.

The Bible’s filled with countless examples of men and women who met their Lord and said “Here I am.”

They said “What’s next?”

When will you?

“¹²Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phillipians 3:12-14, ESV)

There are 3 primary struggles I am seeing with young adult Christians:

1. Worship: there is certainly a belief in the basics of the faith, but a difficulty in drawing a line between the worship of the World and of God.

So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
But the people said nothing. 1Kings 18:20-22

If succes is god…If sex is god…If relationships are god…If money is god….Worship those.

If the LORD is GOD, worship Him.

2. Identity: As a young adult, it is common to still be looking for/forming your identity. We are old enough to be married, parents, pay our own bills, etc, but still call people “Mr. and Mrs” while saying “Yes Sir” to certain folks. It is a weird place to be! We are longing to arrive at our place in life and it is so easy to run the opposite direction of Christ to discover it.

I think about the Woman at the Well (gonna find out her name when I get to heaven). Her identity was being the lady who is living with her 6th guy after already being married 5 times. Jesus let her know that she would always be thirsting for more until she understood that He was and is the only One who can fulfill.

3. Expectations: Why are you still single? When are you going to get a real job? Is that really how you discipline your child? Expectations always seem to be placed on us and it is easy to get in the sinful habit of trying to please others instead of living to please God (Gal. 1:10)

Do you want to connect with and reach young adults? Look at those 3 struggles above: TALK ABOUT THOSE THINGS…IN CHURCH!!! Understand that they are dealing with real stuff. Let them know you give a crap about them, know where they are coming from, and tell them the truth.

Oh yea, they are tired of religion and same old same old churchy b.s.

Baptisms were tonight! It is my favorite thing we do. Krissie has some pics at her site. We had 5 young adults get baptized tonight. HUGE.

Tonight was our last night at Covenant. We are back at Godby High School this coming Sunday. I am PUMPED to be back. It is time to put things into full gear and expect greater things to be done for and through Christ.

Krissie, Tommy, and I are headed out on vacation in the morning. We are all ready. We will be staying at a friend’s home in the Asheville area. Of course, we will be attending some Carolina league baseball games during the week. For you college baseball buffs…we will be watching Jarred Mitchell from LSU play in the minors tomorrow night. I will be checking in throughout the week on this site. This is our deep breath before the big boom in August.

My Reunion weekend was a blast. So great to see old friends that I literally grew up with. I had the honor of preaching a sermon to my class this morning.

Tonight was Sally (my Sister for you non Tally peeps) and Bennett Acuffs last night at the Well before moving to Tampa. They will be missed very, very much.