Living among the dead

Jesus is often compared to great political, spiritual, and philosophical leaders of the past. Confucius, Gandi, Plato, Buddha, and Churchill all stand in the enormous shadow cast over history by Jesus. There’s no question that Jesus leads the pack. However, this past weekend, as we celebrated Easter, the angels words from luke 24:5 got me thinking.

“Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

This is the great declaration of easter, He is Alive! But with it come some interesting realities. Since Jesus is alive He is not only the greatest leader of history, He is the greater leader of our time. And on top of that, at their best those other guys can only inspire others to follow there example. Jesus is the only one who can empower His followers to follow His example.

Before Easter got to far away from us, I just wanted to share that thought. He is alive. May we all seek not only to be inspired by Jesus, but empowered by Him as well.

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Jason Mills, April 8th 2010 | Posted in Teaching

Sunday Recap #1

Sometimes I felt like this day would never come.  It always seemed off in the distance. Yet here I am on the other side of Calvary Spartanburg’s amazing first service. We had a great crowd and “Calvary Kids” (our Children’s ministry) was pretty active. It was a great time that went by in a flash.

It wasn’t without its share of problems however.  I found out last week that we would only have 15 minutes before service to setup. That obstacle alone would have made yesterday very challenging but we had 2 families from Calvary Chapel Pickens helping us and we were able to start the service only 5 minutes late. I want to give a big thank you the Hudsons  and the Lathrops for all their support and sacrificial service to this new congregation.

We are going through the Gospel of Luke at Calvary Spartanburg and yesterday I started with the first 4 verses of chapter 1. Luke wrote this gospel to Theophilus (which is translated “Lover of God”) so he would be informed and assured of what he believed as a young Christian.  I think a lot of people think they know what the message of the Bible is or who Jesus said He was, or how Christians should act. This is often based on experience, tradition or hearsay rather than from carefully reading the Bible to find the truth. The Gospel of Luke is a message to all modern “Lovers of God” so that they can know for sure the answers to those questions. Next Sunday we will be picking up where we left off in verse 5 as we continue in Luke chapter 1. If you plan on attending next week, feel free to read ahead.

dayone 1

dayone 2

dayone 3

dayone 4

dayone 5

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Jason Mills, November 9th 2009 | Posted in Reflections, Starting, Teaching

TR & USCU

I’ve got two opportunities to speak this week. Monday night I’m leading worship and teaching at a home Bible study with Harvest Chapel in Travelers Rest SC. Harvest Chapel is a Calvary church plant not far from where I went to college that just started up this March. I’m looking forward to getting to know this congregation better and encouraging them as we discuss the Word.

Thursday, I’ve been invited to teach at the weekly Campus Crusade meeting at USC Upstate. I met with some of the staff of Campus Crusade last week to discuss how Calvary Spartanburg could help them reach the area Colleges.  We had a good time of fellowship and at the end of the time they asked me to come a speak at their meeting. I’m very excited about this opportunity because I have such a desire to see students encouraged in their Christian walks.

Pray for these two speaking engagements, that God would speak through His Word and those that hear it would act on the message.

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Jason Mills, October 26th 2009 | Posted in Teaching

Catch 22

Tomorrow my family and I return to Spartanburg after a 4 week long trip to Albuquerque. So much has happened in the last month that I’ve wanted to talk about but it’s kind of a catch 22 because its those same events that have left me very little time to blog about them. There is a lot I want to cover, so with out further adieu I present the “Albuquerque Trip Recap”:

-The biggest piece of news happened the day after we arrived in ABQ. Calvary Spartanburg was officially incorporated. I used a great site called Leagalzoom.com that was very easy, inexpensive, and fast. The time between when I filed the paper work to the time I received the notice back from the Great state of South Carolina was only 20 days!

-August 1-3 I had been invited out to Re:generation in Oakland CA. I’ve talked about Pastor Albert and the Regen crew before but I just can’t pass up an opportunity to reiterate that this is an awesome church and I love how they reach out so effectively to such a unique and diverse community. I got to meet several people who were excited about the church plant in Spartanburg and even got to meet a few fellow South Carolinians (Nico and Betsy, you are awesome!). Most importantly I got to share with this sweet church from the Scriptures at both thier morning and evening service. This reminds me that teachings are now available at CalvarySpartanburg.com including that evening’s message from Luke 14.

-Calvary Albuquerque’s missionary weekend allowed me to reconnect with a lot of my friends, co-workers and supporters. Some of my goals during this trip were to retain some of our supporter and to share face to face with them the need for churches that teach expositionaly in the South. This missionary weekend allowed me to do just that.

-I got a chance to sit down with fellow southern Calvary church planter Kevin Miller. Kevin and his team are planning a church in Clarksville TN (yes, as in “the last train to…”) called Awaken Church. The start date is in mid September but he’s already doing a mid-week home Bible study and weekly events in area parks giving out free food and Bibles. I’ve known Kevin several years but I’ve never really sat down and talked ministry with him but I’m so glad I did. We picked each others brains for idea’s and I can’t wait to try out some new things. Pray for Kevin, his family, and ministry team if you think of it, would you.

The best/craziest thing about this last month is that it has sparked a few dozen other things I need to do. When I get back to SC tomorrow I need to hit the ground running.

Pray for the job interview I have this week, though I submitted 10+ applications before this trip, this is the only interview I have.

Pray for a meeting space. I have an opportunity to see a really great place this week that feels like God’s provision.

Pray that God would bring workers to the harvest field of Spartanburg!

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Jason Mills, August 17th 2009 | Posted in Events, Teaching, The road to SC, Travel, website

Now Where Did I Leave My Heart?

This weekend I’m in San Fransisco to teach the Sunday services at Regeneration (which I guess is technically in Oakland but still). Pastor Albert Lee has been a good friend and friendly ear over the years and is now a board member for Calvary Spartanburg. Albert invited me out this weekend to, pick his brain on a variety of subjects and share with his congregation about what I’ll be doing in SC and from the Scriptures.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing from Luke 14:25-35 in a message I’m calling “Discipleship, you’ll hate yourself for it!”

Please pray for me this Sunday as I’m sharing at 9am and 6pm (pst). Pray that God would use me to deliver a message that He wants the congregation to hear.

Sunday's slide

Sunday's slide

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Jason Mills, August 1st 2009 | Posted in Teaching, Travel

Ottawa Recap

This past weekend my family and I headed out to visit Andy Falleur of Calvary Ottawa. Andy gave me an opportunity to teach the morning service, and it was simply a beautiful time. Calvary Ottawa has been meeting in their new location at the YMCA for a few weeks now, and it’s great! The “Y” is centrally located, comes with a gym for the students to use and probably best of all, the YMCA provides its own day care.  

I’ve been out to Ottawa a few times and I really love the ministry and the people that are there. I had been working on this particular message off and on for a few months, thinking it would be for much later, but when Andy invited me to come out, I knew it was for this congregation. The Parable of the Prodigal Son is a familiar story, yet it holds a powerful message of freedom and forgiveness that unbelievers and Christians both young and old need to hear.

Calvary Ottawa was kind enough to record it and you can listen to it here: The Prodigal Son

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Jason Mills, May 27th 2009 | Posted in Teaching, The road to SC, Travel