Field Trip to Lebanon

I had the privilege of visiting Washington Chrisitan Church in Lebanon, MO this weekend. I actually got to preach on Sunday morning. It has been a while since I did that- I was a little nervous. I loosened up when I presented again Sunday night and was able to be more interactive with the crowd.

Sunday morning I spoke about the biblical basis for marketing the church. I used several references, but the key one is the great commission:

Matthew 28:18
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Marketing is really about learning to effectively communicate a message to a target audience. For Christians this means effectively communicating the Gospel to lost people.

In the evening I gave a mission building workshop. We had lots of fun making paper airplanes and drawing pictures, but in the end we also had a start on a mission statement, vision, and goals for everyone that attended. We also laid a great foundation for the mission statement that is being created for the whole church and discussed how they relate to and support one another.

I stayed with my buddy and preacher Heath Vogel and his family. We had lots of fun and watched Escape from Alcatraz- which was a funny movie that was supposed to be serious. Here's a quote from the movie:

Litmus: What's your name kid?
Charley Butts: Charley Butts.
Litmus: Charley's Butt? Hahahah, you got a pretty friggin' funny name kid.
Charley Butts: Oh yeah? What's yours?
Litmus: Al Capone.

Whew, you gotta go back to '79 for snappy dialogue like that.

The Vogels live in the parsonage right across the street from the church, and right next to a bunch of cows. Quite a view.

It was a fun trip and I got some cool cowboy shirts with snaps on the pockets from the outlet mall on the way back.


Hey, thanks for reading about my trip to Lebanon.