September 29th, 2009 by Tim Moore

I want to share a passage today that has impacted my ministry more than any other verse. This verse challenged me and in fact showed me that I was relying on my own strength and ability to lead people to Christ rather than trusting God to do it. In some way I always felt that I need to be really good at convincing people that they needed God in their life. Until one day I was challenged by someone who has mentored me through his online blog about just preaching the Gospel and trusting God to work (Thank you Craig Groeschel). This one verse has revolutionized how I preach and what I preach! It has changed my ministry drastically for the past 1 1/2 years.

Romans 1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

As I read that verse I was convicted in 2 areas. First, I wasn’t preaching Jesus enough. I knew that Jesus was more confrontational, so I would preach “God” rather than Jesus. I repented for that. If Jesus is the ONLY way to heaven, then He MUST be preached. Second, I was relying on my ability rather than God’s power to communicate the Gospel. When the pure Gospel about Jesus is preached, God’s moves in power. If we want to see God’s power released to bring salvations, then we must preach the Gospel of Jesus. I began at that point preaching the simple gospel nearly every week. And all I can say, is that God’s power is INFINITELY greater than my ability. We have seen more people give their lives to Jesus in the past 1 1/2 years than I have ever seen in my life. We have baptized more people than ever. God is moving and lives are being changed.

I have this verse memorized and I quote it all the time. It has changed how I live my life and how I preach. It is a life changing verse! Do not be ashamed of knowing Jesus or to share Him with the world. Trust in God’s power when you share the Gospel!

September 28th, 2009 by Tim Moore

One particular verse from the Bible has meant a lot to me personally.  There was a year of  my life when I felt so overwhelmed.  Have you ever felt that before?  I was going to school full-time for ministry, planted a brand new church and was preaching almost every weekend, and working a full-time job outside of the ministry.  On top of all that, I was married and had a little girl to care for.  Needless to say, my life was so chaotic and stressful.  There were times when I just wanted to break.  There were times when I just wanted to quit.  I thought to myself, “Why am I doing all this?”   I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to quit the ministry that year.

But hanging in our bedroom was a picture that had a verse written at the bottom.  That one verse literally spoke to me so many times and kept me going when I just wanted to quit.

It was 1 Corinthians 15:58.

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Listen, there will be times when you will want to quit what you are doing for God. Leading the LifeGroup will be hard, getting up on Sunday to serve will be the last thing you want to do, and you will honestly want to quit. But remember this, don’t let those things move you! Only let God move you. If God doesn’t move you, don’t move.

Because God wants to use you to do something important for him. And God can’t use quitters. He can only use people who are there! People who have not allowed discouragement, depression or the devil to move them from right where God wants them. Some of you might want to quit right now. You want to quit church, quit giving your tithe or quit on a marriage. Don’t do it! Stand firm and give yourself to God and know that God will use you!!

September 23rd, 2009 by Tim Moore

Today I want to share a passage that really spoke to me as I considered stepping out in faith to move into ministry. It was written by the Apostle Paul to his spiritual son Timothy. Since my name is Timothy…I felt like God was speaking directly to me one day as I read this:

1 Timothy 4:12-16
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

15Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

I felt like this was written for me as I was in my early 20′s and considering Bible College for ministry. This is my ministry passage that I fall back on when I am desperate for God to do something. Here are my takeaways.

I am to live my life as an example for believers in speech, life, love, faith and purity. Those words still ring in my ears today. I believe what the church is missing most today is leaders who will model the type of life that Christ wants from all of us. We need leaders who aren’t afraid to do what Paul said, “Follow  me as I follow Christ.”

But my favorite part of this passage is what it says to me in the end. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Make sure Jesus is the forefront of everything you do. And persevere in them and so doing will save myself and those who hear! I can’t tell you how many times I kept saying to God…”When is this going to happen?” But thank God that I have continued to persevere, because I feel that I am beginning to see the fruit of it now!

So if you feel called to impact people for Christ and haven’t yet seen it. Continue to set your life as an example for other to follow and persevere! Continue to grow yourself and preach the true Gospel and know that God will use you to impact people’s lives in an eternal way!

This is still my ministry promise and I’ll still proclaim it even when I’m 50 years young!

September 22nd, 2009 by Tim Moore

I make a point to read God’s Word every day. My goal is to hear from God and feed my spirit at the same time. Over the years there have been a handful of passages that have impacted my life in profound ways. For the week, I thought I would take some time to share a few of those passages with you and how they have impacted me. I truly believe that God’s Word is living and active and it brings real change into our lives when we read it. (Heb 4:12)

John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

In my early 20′s I had felt that God called me to serve him in ministry, but I didn’t have a model for ministry. What I had seen in church was somewhat “fruitless”.  I would sometimes spend 3 or 4 days a week serving in the local church and quite honestly I wasn’t seeing any fruit from my life. Feeling very restless about this…one day I read John 15. It literally changed the course of my life.

I felt that God called me to bear fruit and fruit that will last. I wasn’t seeing any fruit…but I was doing a lot of work. As I read that entire chapter over and over I realized I spent more time “doing” for God than I did “being” with God. Jesus said that we can’t bear fruit unless we are connected to the Vine (Him).  That drove me to spend more time with God and reading His Word.

The lack of fruit from my life also began to fuel the passion in me to bear fruit – lasting fruit. It was at that point that I got together with a small team and began to dream and vision Crossroads Church. A church that is driven to bear fruit for God that will last for eternity.

Praise God…we are seeing some fruit!  Remain connected to Jesus and he will help you bear fruit in your life.

September 21st, 2009 by Tim Moore

Here are some of my thoughts when I look back to Sunday’s experiences:

– WOW!!! Probably the most inspiring worship experiences we’ve ever had at Crossroads!
– I preached on baptism and we offered for people to get baptized that moment – completely spontaneous.
– A special thanks to Elevation Church for offering a Spontaneous Baptism Kit to help us purchase everything necessary.
– We saw 33 people get baptized yesterday! GOD IS SO GOOD!!
– We had first time guests who got baptized.
– One guy was so inspired watching the baptisms and knew God was calling him to do it that he ran to get baptized when we were done.
– This might have been the first time I had nothing to say with hundreds of eyes on me! So I thought I’d bust out a priest and rabbi joke… (Okay, not really)
– The church went absolutely crazy for everyone. The atmosphere was electric.
– This just reminds me that if you are willing to step out in faith that God can use you in ways you can’t imagine.
– We removed every excuse by purchasing shorts, t-shirts, underwear, bras, hair ties, flip-flops, towels and more!
– I am praying for everyone that stepped up to show their 180 change through baptism. I’m proud of you!
– Lastly, I love leading this church. This church is SO amazing and so many people are willing to do ANYTHING to reach the lost with the Gospel.

September 16th, 2009 by Tim Moore

Are you afraid to try something new? If so, you are in the majority. Most people won’t try anything new for fear they might not like it or they might fail. I tried to get my daughters to try some fish the other night. I personally don’t care for fish, but at least I tried it. They just wouldn’t. I thought, what if they liked it…no what if they loved it? Look at what they are missing. (Okay it’s fish…they aren’t missing out on anything if you ask me)

How often are we afraid to try something new in the church? Do we shy away because we might fail? Are we afraid of what it might bring? What if Jesus’ disciples didn’t start any new churches for fear they might not take off and they would be seen as failures? What would the church be like today if they weren’t willing to risk the embarrassment of failure?

I am not afraid to try new things when it comes to figuring out how to reach people who don’t know Jesus. We are trying 3 new experience times starting October 4th. One of them is at 1pm. Will it fly? Will people come? I have no idea. But I’m not afraid to try. Perhaps people who work 3rd shift can now experience church.

And this weekend we are trying something that we have never attempted before. It could be one of the most inspiring things ever in the history of our church…or it could fail miserably and I could look stupid. I’ve wrestled with those fears before and have come to the conclusion if we want to see something that we’ve never seen before we have to do something we’ve never done before. If I feel led to do something, I just step out and do it and pray hard God shows up!

Bring someone with you this weekend that needs Christ…it could literally change their life.

September 15th, 2009 by Tim Moore

This past weekend we celebrated 1 year of ministry in Lithopolis. Since moving to Lithopolis we have seen dozens of people give their lives to Christ, around 50 people baptized and so many other incredible things. I want to give God all the credit for what has happened in our church. And I firmly believe this is just the beginning for what God wants to do in His Church through us.

Until we experienced this incredible growth I never understood the truth behind Ephesians 4:16. It says that “…the whole body…grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” In other words, when everyone in the body (or church) does its part, the church grows. Which means that when people DON’T step up to the plate…the church WON’T grow!

Over this past year I have seen this happen! We have so many incredible people serving at our church. They are impacting people’s lives. So much that we are moving to 3 new worship experiences on October 4th. And we need people in the body to step up and help us continue to grow. Otherwise we just keep overworking certain parts and in the end…the church suffers.

I truly believe that the Church is so close to experiencing an even greater harvest than we’ve seen. All we need are those followers of Christ who come and just sit on the sidelines to get off their “duffs” and get in the game. I believe when this happens the Church around the world will see incredible things happen.

Am I fired up about this? YES!!! Churches around this world are crippled because of this. So, I’m calling you out. If you are a professed follower of Christ and you simply just “go to church” each weekend, enjoy yourself and never help out…you are a pansy! If you always take and never give…you are a punk! Get off your duff, serve in your church and be part of what Jesus called you to do.

For those of you who give of your time each weekend to serve at our church…you are my hero! I’m honored to serve you.

I’ll get off my soap box for now.

September 11th, 2009 by Tim Moore

Every time I write the date 9/11 I am instantly reminded of that dreadful day. Most of us remember where we were when it all happened. I wonder if people felt like that in the years that followed Dec. 7, 1941? It reminds me that we are still in a fight and have soldiers on the line today.

In fact, this week someone my wife used to work with lost a son-in-law to a bombing in Iraq. I was shocked by that news as we rarely hear about those military deaths in the media today. But the fight is still very real and our troops still are putting their lives on the line for us every day. Remember them today and pray for them.

Remembering how those 3,000+ people died unexpectedly reminds me that the Church is still in a fight for lives every day. And this fight carries an even greater responsibility as it deals with people’s eternities. We never know when we will breathe our last breath. So take every chance to live your faith out loud and invite people you know to church to hear about Jesus. Each weekend we preach the Gospel. We do that on purpose. It might be someone’s only or last chance to hear it!

We are still in a fight. Not a political fight or even a physical one…but an eternal one.

September 8th, 2009 by Tim Moore

Have you ever noticed when you want something to happen it always seems to take longer than you hope for? Right now, my wife and I are trying to build a house. We’ve moved out of our old house and are staying with her parents until we can get our new house built.

We have been talking about building a house for nearly 5 years now and now that it is approaching, we are ready to get this thing rolling. But we can’t seem to get our plans done or get things in motion. Everything we do seems to take longer than expected. Sometimes I hate the building process. I just want it to be there. I just want what I envision to appear.

I think sometimes I want that in all areas of my life. I want God to do this for me…now. I want to be a better leader…now. I want to be a better preacher…now. But what we don’t realize is what we despise most, the process, is actually where we live. There is always something to build, something to change, or something to learn. We must learn to simply embrace life is a process.

What God is showing me is that I need to learn to simply “live in the process”. It might be slower than I want, but it is in the process where I develop a greater appreciation for what I have on the other side. But it is still hard to wait.

September 3rd, 2009 by Tim Moore

Well, most of you know I have embraced a new look with my hair as of late. But I thought it might be time for a new look on my blog. Since everything is changing…I might as well change everything! Or is that the best thing for me?

When you are experiencing a lot of change in your life, the one thing that must remain constant is your connection with God. If you never talk with God or read His word, then you need to bring that change into your life. If you do, then it must become your center in the midst of change.

Although many things may change in your life, you need a foundation that will keep you sane! My morning time with God is that constant for me. Even though everything is changing in my life…that is one thing I won’t be changing!