The Energized Church: Fill & Download for Free

I sure as hell hope not.Because I’m north of the 10th anniversary of my 50th birthday. I’ll give you a moment.My top 8 reasons why life just keeps getting better.Sex. With my wife. Seriously, when you’re young half the time you’re too exhausted. The other half you’re hoping the kids don’t pop in unexpectedly. Now, more time and the kids are gone. Bliss.Stress. I’ve built several businesses and a church. All with a ton of stress. Today my business flows along. I do interesting things, talk with friends, make a great living. And work less. Bliss.Happiness. I used to worry about everything. Sometimes I worried when I wasn’t worrying thinking I’d missed something. Now, I realize worry is a waste. So I don’t. Bliss.Money. When young, we hoped the end of the month came before the end of our cash. We survived lean times and setbacks. Now we make more than we spend. Bliss.Friends. While building careers and raising kids we lost time with close friends. Now most of our friends are retired and the kids are gone. So we spend a lot more time together. Bliss.Health. Frankly, I’m as healthy as ever. Maybe more because we don’t have kids bringing home every disease known to man. Like the energizer bunny we just go and go. Bliss.Success. I’ve made my share of mistakes building businesses and investing. Ok, way more than my share. But I’ve learned and keep getting more successful with less effort. Bliss.Love. That’s the best. My wife and I love each other. Are close with our kids. Have a new grandson. Live surrounded with love. Total bliss.So do I feel old and wish I was 30 again?Are you freaking kidding me?Growing older is best lived growing better.

teamnouna group of players forming one side in a competitive game or sport.verbcome together as a team to achieve a common goal.match or coordinate a garment with (another).harness (animals, especially horses) together to pull a vehicle.Definitions (all definitions are from The American Heritage Dictionary of the EnglishLanguage unless otherwise noted):SPIRITUAL: adj. 1. Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material. 2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul. 3. Of, from or pertaining to God.4. Of or belonging to a church or religion; ecclesiastical; sacred. 5. Pertaining to or having the nature of spirits; supernatural.SPIRIT: n. 1. That which is traditionally believed to be the vital principle or animating force within living beings. 2. Any supernatural being, such as a ghost. 3. That which constitutes one's unseen, intangible being. 4. The essential and activating principle of a person; the will.tr.v. 1. To impart courage, animation, or determination to; stimulate; encourage.The Energizer.Team which has , similar, vision which is focusing towards achieving same goal Energised by the energizer the Spirit.Team spirit= unison goal of a group enforced by the spirit energy.

Do you think Bishop Michael Curry's poor command of the English language in all its finer glories was an embarrassment for the royal family?Oh, there it is. Therrrrre it is.All y’all Brits answering this with a polite “It was a different style and I liked it very much” are appreciated, but for American readers, the question has a clear intent, and it’s vile.Answer part one:So in American Christian history, there’s a point at which white slaveholders forbade their slaves from worshiping independently, because the white preachers were putting God’s stamp of approval on chattel slavery, and the black preachers were preaching Moses and the liberation of the Hebrew slaves.Going to church became an act of sedition. Underground churches operated in tandem with the Underground Railroad. Later, freed former slaves were liberated to build their own congregations, families, and lives. The historic black churches in America are known for their focus on social justice, for the energizing and empowering movement of the Holy Spirit, for better hats than you’ll find at a royal wedding, and for—wait for it—a mastery of the nearly-lost art of oratory. The best preachers in this tradition are poets and prophets, using the power of voice and gesture to whip the congregation into a fervor through a psalmist-like repetition and a natural outpouring of exhortation that can only come from someone saturated in Scripture.Bishop Curry, a descendent of slaves, carries a toned-down Episcopal version of black Christian oratory into the stuffed-shirt Anglican tradition and into the very chapel at Windsor Castle. Thank goodness. But I should note that it’s really, really British to think this was a sermon so vibrant it should make international news, and that anybody who thinks 13 minutes is a long sermon needs more of this preaching style in their lives.Answer part 2: There are some default tricks that white Americans use to discredit black Americans. One of the most popular is to declare that most black people are too stupid to speak the form of English that white people speak. This makes a black person who speaks like a mid-Atlantic white person a miraculous anomaly, worthy of note—”You speak so well!”The ‘Well-Spoken’ Black Person Stereotype Still Thrives In 2018Declaring Bishop Curry’s sermon to be poor English is declaring Bishop Curry to be too black to speak well, too black to have anything useful to say, too black to stand in a position of authority and to have a blessing to offer the royal couple and all people who heard his message.Appendix: Here’s an excerpt from a classic black sermon that demonstrates the pinnacle of the tradition. Dr. Shadrach Meshach Lockridge:It’s a 6 1/2 minute excerpt from a sermon that caps out at over an hour. Build some stamina, people! One of my pastors chose to play another S.M. Lockridge clip during Holy Week (relax; this one’s under 4 minutes). Later, a regular church attendee stormed past my Sunday School room, then stopped to stick his head in and tell us, while vibrating with anger, that this kind of thing wasn’t the right style for a worship service at this church and didn’t belong here. We sat in stunned silence while he raged and then moved on down the hallway; I never saw the man again.That’s the context for this question.