Yesterday was a fantastic day, filled with teaching, praising God, meeting old friends and making new friends from among our family in Christ.  Sojourn photographer Chuck Heeke took many photos throughout the day, which we will share with you in the days to come on our church planting blog and on the Acts 29 Network website.

Continue to be in prayer for this conference throughout the day.  We call them “Boot Camps” because they are intensive times of learning and preparation for the hundreds of men and their wives who desire to spread the gospel through the planting of cross-centered churches in America and abroad.  Pray for them, pray for the speakers and assessors, pray for all the servants who are making this happen.

The readings for the beginning of Ezekiel start here.

We urge you to jump into God’s word with us. We’ll be in Ezekiel again next week and we encourage you to read along. Here are a few thoughts and encouragements related to today’s sermon.

This Sunday’s sermon focused on the prophet Ezekiel’s call and commission as a messenger of God. One notable fact is that Ezekiel had spent his life training for ministry in the Temple, yet when his 30th birthday rolled around (the birthday when priests-in-training officially would become priests in the Temple), he found himself exiled with thousands of other Iraelites and knowing that the Temple was destroyed. The script that he had been following all his life seemed to be torn up and scattered at his feet and he was truly in a place utterly alien to him. His script must have seemed frustratingly destroyed.

We often fall into this same line of thinking. We have big plans, we have big ideas. They might even be big ideas for doing God’s mission of reaching people with the message of Jesus. We are very aware of our script and we are painfully unaware of the glory of God. And we can find ourselves bowing down to our script, our big ideas for career, family, even ministry. And boy do we get frustrated and discouraged when it seems we’re not living out our script. I would challenge you with this - if you’re not living out what you think is your script, then it’s obviously not your script. At least not now.

There’s a real danger of bowing down to some imaginary future with some imaginary group of people we’re going to reach for Jesus; and being so caught up in that future that we fail to see the opportunity to be on mission right now, as we are, where we are. Every moment you are exactly where God has sent you. You may have a desire to be somewhere else, and that desire could even be godly, but if you’re not there, then you are missing the present reality of God’s mission for you now.

God’s mission for you is an adventure that starts with you seeing God right in the middle of where you are and being faithful to God’s call right in the middle of where you are. Ezekiel found this out. His not serving in the Temple, where he always thought he’d be, didn’t hinder God from sending him on a vital, present-tense mission. You not being where you always thought you’d be won’t stop God from sending you on a vital, present-tense mission, either.

Proverbs 19:21 says, ‘Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.’ It was true for Ezekiel, it’s true for you.

To listen to this Sunday’s sermon and past sermons in the B.C. series, click here and visit Sojourn’s online resources page.

Check out Chuck’s photo journalism skills and relive (or live for the first time) this inaugural day at Sojourn East’s new home:

First, we have the worship team leading the congregation in some singing.

Second we have Daniel preaching some Ezekiel. This is the view from the (small) balcony.

Please continue to pray forward this new initiative!

Edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor, this is a collection of essays about the importance of words.  As Justin says in the introduction:

What do words have to do with Christianity?  Almost everything.  At every stage in redemptive history — from the time before time, to God’s creation, to man’s fall, to Christ’s redemption, and to the coming consummation — “God is there and he is not silent.”

You should buy this book.  Unless you’re among the hundreds who registered for Ambition in time, in which case, don’t forget to take it with you when you go.

Perhaps my favorite part is an essay from one of my favorite bloggers, authors and worship ministers, Bob Kauflin. He writes of the relationship between words and music.  He argues that music must serve the word, rather than undermine or supersede it.  From there he shows the importance of singing in our shared faith.  Through song, we engage emotionally with words of truth and we train ourselves to use words as an expression of unity.

Mars Hill pastor Mark Driscoll contributes a colorful, prophetic chapter.  Using the “shepherd” metaphor for pastors, he says that the four functions of a shepherd should be:

• Feed the sheep
• Rebuke the swine
• Shoot the wolves
• Beat the dogs

You want to read it to find out the implications, don’t you?  Do it.

You’ll also learn from essays by John Piper, Paul David Tripp, Sinclair B. Ferguson and Daniel Taylor. Then our editors close the book with two appendices: each a conversation with two or three of the book’s contributors.  They ask questions like

• “How would you counsel people to become more creative and to cultivate their imagination in a God-centered way”
• “How do you give words of encouragement in a way that’s not flattering to other people?”

If you care about words — as God commands of us — then this is a wonderful (and fairly short) book to own, to read, to meditate upon and discuss with your friends, family, community group and ministry partners. Check it out here.

Watch it now in the player above.  You can also either view or listen the the audio at the SBTS website.

Pastor Daniel will teach on “The Call” from Ezekiel 2, as we continue journeying through the Old Testament.  This is the first of two sermons we’ll hear on Ezekiel, a major prophetic book (next week we’ll dive into Ezekiel 37).

Like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel reminds the people of their sin and thus, the punishment that has come upon the nation.  He also has some of the most stunning visions in the Bible, which he presents to his people in great detail.  His book ultimately focuses on the worldwide reach of God, and the promise that God will revive and restore His people.

The call of Ezekiel, which Pastor Daniel will focus on Sunday, is filled with strange visions: a storm, from whence emerge four creatures (each with four faces and two wings), spinning wheels, the Lord Himself on His throne, and a sweet scroll that Ezekiel eats.

He. eats. a. scroll.

What does it all mean?  How is it relevant for us today?  Come Sunday, and let’s learn together.

If you have our Over The Grave record, you can practice singing “We Are Changed” this weekend, a song I wrote with Neil Robins and Dave Moisan.  And if you have the Before The Throne record, you can prepare to sing “My Maker And My King,” a hymn text written by Anne Steel, which our Pastor Mike arranged and fitted with a new melody.

Other songs we’ll sing together include the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” and “The World Will Know,” a song Pastor Mike and Brooks Ritter wrote, based on the work of Isaac Watts.  It will be on our next CD.  And word on the street is that the band will start with one of my favorite Dylan songs, “Every Grain Of Sand.”

Sounds like we’ll have a great time together singing, learning, praying, reading God’s Word, confessing our sin and celebrating our redemption in Christ together.  See you Sunday.

Sojourn East Campus from Sojourn Community Church on Vimeo.

This past August we launched our second campus, renting the theater at Walden School off Westport Road.  From the start, we filled that space with Sojourn members and new guests from nearby neighborhoods.  While limited space is a good problem to have, it’s still a problem.

So we’re moving.  The new campus is a beautiful church building just a couple miles down Westport Road.  We’ll be able to use this campus in the future for classes and meetings during the week, and for Sojourn Gathered at 10 a.m. on Sundays.  We’ll also have room for more guests in St. Matthews and eastern Louisville, which is why we’re now calling this campus Sojourn East.

In the short video above, East Campus Director Jamie Barnes shows you the inside of our new auditorium and describes how this fantastic opportunity came about.  Jamie also provides a hint of what’s in store for Sojourn East, beginning this Sunday, 10 a.m.

Directions to Sojourn East are already up on the campus page at sojournchurch.com