Personal

great weekend!

kevinhaglund Leave a comment

Suzanne and I had a great weekend worshipping with the good folks at First Baptist Church of West Monroe, LA, pastored by former Fayette County citizen Dr. John Avant and his wife Donna. They brought me in to lead worship in their contemporary services.

We capped the weekend off with a great lunch with John and Donna at Copeland’s. The food was great and the conversation even greater! I was able to share the vision that God has called us to in starting browns mill church and our upcoming involvement with Missio (see previous blog post for more explanation). John is a kindred spirit when it comes to missional reformation of the church. It was especially eye-opening for me since First West has a membership near 7,000. The common belief among the missional church community is that it is impossible for a mega-church to be missional. Someone should have told John Avant. They have some great elements of missional living already in place with more to come.

immeasurably more than I imagined!

kevinhaglund Leave a comment

I have been aware of the promise in Ephesians 3:20 for many years: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” I think many of us could look back over 2, 3, 5, 10 years and say, “Wow, I never imagined that I would be doing what I’m doing now.” However, just in the past few weeks, I feel like God has given me a glimpse of “the unimaginable” He has in store for me and, boy, is it exciting! Here is a brief summary…

God has brought us approximately 40 individuals who have at least expressed an interest in being a part of browns mill church in our first two core group meetings! As Tim Coleman and I first met to discuss planting a church, we both sensed that God was calling us to a Kingdom impacting role. At the time, we weren’t sure what that was going to entail. Now we know at least a piece of what this Kingdom impacting role will be. Not only will Tim and I be planting a church together, we have been selected to train church planters all across the Southeast as part of the world-wide missional movement Missio as the directors of Missio’s Southeast regional hub!

For our “day jobs,” God brought an opportunity for both Tim and me to lead a sports-related non-profit ministry called Ultimate Leader. The primary purpose of Ultimate Leader is to impact our world for Christ through the medium of sport. This past Friday, we sat in a meeting of Christian businessmen and other like-minded sports ministries discussing global partnerships that will result in the gospel being shared worldwide and churches being planted–especially in “closed” countries!

You might say, “Kevin, you’re a worship leader. What about that part of your passion.” Well, each week, I have the privilege of leading our core group in worship and I’m learning to play guitar! On top of that, this weekend, January 25th, I will be leading worship at First Baptist Church of West Monroe, LA, a 7,000 member congregation pastored by Dr. John Avant, former pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville, GA, and former Vice-President of Evangelism at the SBC’s North American Mission Board.

I was content as a worship leader, but God saw fit to reassign me. It is both exciting and humbling to see the role that God seems to be preparing for me! More than ever, I recognize the need to cling to Him. I just pray that I don’t mess it up!