Harvest Comes to the Capital

Last week Greg Laurie and his Harvest “Crusade” rocked Raleigh. I was the first in line at the RBC Center on Friday night because the AWESOME David Crowder Band was performing that eveing. It was a very good night in Raleigh. DCB did their classic set which rocked the house. The Harvest people all ready have the webcast archieved on the harvest.org webiste. Go ahead and check it out now, and I will give a full review later.

Craig Tackett Finnally Got his Braces Off!

As I was surfing around the net I stumbled upon www.inlightenedministries.com the web home of Craig Tackett and The Johnathan Project. They are an awesome ministry that I have worked with, mostly doing events in the Jacksonville, NC area. As I checked out their new website I noticed that Craig no longer has braces. I am sure that he has had them off for a good while, but I feel honored to say I knew the braced Craig Tackett.

Craig and his crew do something awesome. They go into the most traditional acting and looking churches (especially ones with really bad carpet – I think only Craig would get that), and bring a creative and energetic presentation of the gospel. What does this do? It brings people to Christ. For more on their ministry and ways you can support them – check out www.inlightendministries.com/support!

Whats being blasted through my speakers this week…

My Top 5 Songs that have been blasting on the computer this week are…

Everlasting God – Lincoln Brewster
Let the Praises Ring – Lincoln Brewster (Its old – BUT Classic)
Marvelous Light – Chris Tomlin
Beautiful Girls – Sean Kingston
Do you know (The Ping Pong Song) – Henry Church (Enrique Iglesias)

I think my last two songs come from having XM Radio’s Top 20 on 20 engraved into my mind at work. They might sound annoying at first, but they can get rather addicting.

Google is taking over my life…

I think Google is about to take over my life. My Mac had taken over for the longest time, but now it seems that my homepage will be controlling my life now. With the advent of iGoogle my homepage is truly customized to me. I started by just adding my Gmail to the homepage and stuff like “famous optical illusions. Then I discovered both Google Calendar and Google Reader. Both of these apps integrate seamlessly into my homepage. I also use Google Products (formally froogle) at Circuit City to figure average market prices on cameras and camcorders. What will Google do next?

Newspring’s Streaming Video Inspires

Newspring Church in Anderson, South Carolina has become an inspiration to me with their weekly services provided in streaming video on their website newspring.cc. They continually amaze me with their pastor’s enthusiasm and passion to go big. Plus they were the closest church to me that used worship sets and intelligent lighting in their worship experiences until I found Port City Community Church in Wilmington, NC.

They are currently in the series “Reel Life – Uncut and Uncensored”

Perry Noble, their senior pastor, used a Monty Python clip before his message but unfortunately our web people only saw the series bump. So that made me wish I was actually there.

He started the service off with a prayer, which in most churches is considered an invitation, but invocations don’t traditionally happen in untraditional churches. I found it to be very powerful and started the service off powerfully. Following it with powerful modern worship music created an awesome and inspiring service.

This is an excellent example of how Emerging Churches have to always be changing. Change is very effective, and if it doesn’t happen even the most modern church will began to feel stale like the dying traditional churches across America.

Great job Newspring on another amazing service.

Who am I…

Who am I… that’s definitely a good question. My name is Brad Christian and I am a church consultant to churches in Eastern North Carolina. My mission is to not just help churches by integrating multimedia content into their worship experiences, but to help them become relevant to people. I find that Eastern North Carolina has a need for Emerging Churches, and I want to help fulfill that need.

I live in Greenville, North Carolina. Home of the East Carolina University Pirates! ARGH. My blood does run purple and gold and during football season you will find me at every ECU football game. I enjoy living in Eastern NC with the fine beaches and waterways of the Atlantic Ocean being in my backyard. When I am not helping churches grow and become culturally relevant I am working being a Technology Product Specialist and I am the Vice President of East Carolina University’s chapter of the National Broadcasting Society.

The Emerging Church

The Emerging Church… It is not a single church in particular, but a movement across the United States. Starting in the late 80’s and early 90’s with pioneering churches like Saddleback Church, Willow Creek, and Fellowship Church began doing church in a whole new way. While most churches thought that not using hymnals was contemporary, Emerging Churches were growing by being culturally relevant and doing things differently. Emerging Churches are defined by many different aspects. Reaching people for Jesus Christ by being culturally relevant in their music, services, messages, youth and children’s is the main focus of these churches. This blog will highlight these churches by following the change and evolution in the world of Emerging Churches.