College Bible Study

The summer community college age Bible study has begun. We meet at CCJ Wednesdays at 9 PM. This year’s overall theme is “I Am Not a Fan” where we are focusing on becoming a deeper committed follower of Jesus instead of a casual fan. We had 14 for our first study and we hope to see more. For questions email darrel@ccjasper.com or cathy_scherle@yahoo.com.

CCJ on Twitter

CCJ is now on Twitter. Resistance is futile!

Don't know what Twitter is? It's kinda like the status updates on Facebook (which CCJ is also on, if you didn't know). Twitter consists of condensed, brief and to-the-point blurbs about things that are happening. It's a great way to get up-to-the-minute updates, etc.

Go sign up today and start following CCJ.

Blog "pick me up" - post 2

Since my initial post was getting pushed pretty far down, I thought I'd put another one up :). So here's the deal...I'm posting links to movie screenshots. If you think you know what movie the screenshot comes from. Post a comment. The first person to answer correctly gains 5 points. I'll keep a running tally as to the overall score...the first person to 100 points wins. You can, however, only post one answer at a time. Once you recieve a response from me, you can guess again :). That keeps anyone from posting 5 different guesses at once.

Here's the kicker. CCJ staff and their families are excluded from winning the prize. However, they can guess, rack up points, and frustrate others who are trying to be the ultimate victors!

Not all movies will be recent, not all will be well known. I'll do my best to post at different times during the day and a variety of genres. In closing, my decision of awarding points is final...confusing, vague or misleading screenshots are par for the course. Sticklers for the truth will need to start their own game ;).

ReThink: Serving Slide Show

This was shown during "God Of This City" on May 24, 2009 to highlight the events of the previous Sunday (the day of community service CCJ dubbed "ReThink: Serving").

Happy Birthday, CCJ! (and Darrel, too)

Today is CCJ's 9th birthday. It also Darrel's birthday. Happy birthday to both!

Getting To The Heart Of The Matter

Has Christian America Come To An End?
By Mark Driscoll
Pastor, Mars Hill Church

Has Christian America come to an end? That question has been hotly debated since Newsweek published their recent feature story reporting that the number of Americans claiming no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990. Additionally, the percentage of self-identified Christians has dropped ten points in the past two decades.

As an evangelical pastor with one of America’s fastest-growing churches in one of its least churched cities, I do not find the report surprising or discouraging. Newsweek missed the subtle — but vital — difference between Christian America and Christendom America.

Read the rest >>

I grew up in the Bible Belt (Tennessee) and I am extremely familiar with the so-called 'culture wars.' For instance, the church I grew up in had record burnings in the early 1980s, we watched "Hells Bells: The Dangers of Rock and Roll Music" in the early 1990s and we watched a video about abortion in Sunday School class. We did the "Pure & Sure" thing. We did the door-to-door campaigning against liquor by the drink in my hometown as well. So, yeah, I'm steeped in the 'culture wars.'

Having a background in this, I've heard so many times that we need to "take America back." This response (the article above) reflects my views about the matter. I think we've lived under a false impression for a long time and the recent polls shouldn't discourage so much as clarify what has really been going on for decades in our country.

Christendom America is comprised of those people who have not had a truly transforming experience with Jesus Christ and are living lives virtually indistinguishable from those who are non-Christians. The confusion is that it was common in Christendom for people who did not practice Christianity to profess Christianity. This was often done for social reasons, such as living in a culture that expected church affiliation, being born into a religious tradition and assuming it was simply part of one’s identity (like a cultural or racial connection), or personally, socially, and vocationally benefitting from being connected, even loosely, to a church or denomination. Researchers such as George Barna have documented the fact that, as Jesus himself said, not everyone who says he or she is a Christian is in fact one.

OK, did anyone else have as much fun as I did on Sunday?

I worked at the county museum, and I had a blast!

We cleaned up display signs and chairs, painted walls, swept and dusted - stuff like that. It was my first time painting! And I met some more CCJ folks who I didn't know before.

Who'd of thunk serving others would be such a great service to me too?

How was everyone else's sites? What did you do?

CCJ @ 9: Front Page Photo Details

Here are the details from the photo group on the front page of ccjasper.com this week.

First row from left:
2000: The early days in the Jasper 8 Theaters (picture scanned from from Saturday feature that ran in The Herald in late 2000).
2001: Building dedication for the warehouse building on Cathy Lane. The building was formerly owned by Canteen and was a full-on warehouse with oil stains, a not-so-lovely smell and uncovered walls.
2004: Sunday services on a Strassenfest parade float in August 2004. This was the first year the band played on a float.

Second row from left:
2005: Fall kickoff in late August 2005. This is the first year the inflatable jumper appeared at CCJ.
2006: Easter services at Jasper Middle School. CCJ was growing and didn't have enough room for Easter so services were moved to the JMS Auditorium.

Third row from left:
2007: First Sunday in current facility. Feb. 4, 2007.
2008: Additional staff helps CCJ. Mark came aboard in mid-2006 and Ryan joined us in early 2008.
2009: Breaking ground for building expansion. A week or so ago.

Feel free to share your thoughts on life at CCJ these past nine years in the comments.
What are your favorite memories and what are looking forward to seeing God do with the church in the future?

'God Of This City': The Story Behind The Song

We began playing "God Of This City" the week before last to go along with our ReThink sermon series. For those of you that already knew the song, you had probably heard Chris Tomlin's version. However, the song was written by an Irish band called Bluetree. Watch the above video to hear the amazing story behind this song.

a thought to contemplate

Marc Estrin:

Kindness trumps greed: it asks for sharing.
Kindness trumps fear: it calls forth gratefulness and love.
Kindness trumps even stupidity, for with sharing and love, one learns.

ReThink: Church Video

This is the video that ran this past Sunday morning.

So it begins...

While work has been happening before now, in my mind, the 18-24 month process of building our new facility officially began today. There WILL be headaches, there WILL be times we need to adjust...but I can't tell you how excited I am to see God use this new tool for ministry here in Jasper.

ReTHiNK Service

On May 17, 2009, CCJ will be releasing services early!


Nope. That's not a misprint. Church services at CCJ will only last approximately 15 minutes on Sunday, May 17th. But why the change? What's this all about? Can we do this every week? Before we get into the answer, let me begin by asking you a question.


What image comes to your mind when you read the word "zebra"? I'm willing to bet that it was an animal, resembling a horse, that has black and white stripes. Right? It just would not make any sense if for some reason you pictured a giraffe or a golf club in your head. That is just how we're wired. Now what comes to your mind when you read the word "church"? I'm willing to bet that you pictured a church building that you're familiar with. It's just like when you pictured the zebra, that's just how we're wired. The unfortunate aspect of this is that too often most Christians (myself included), begin to associate "church" solely with the place we get together to worship each week. And while the connection is natural and inevitable, too often the walls of the church building begin to define, and unfortunately confine, our ideas of what the church truly is about. And that is a connection that Jesus never intended when he founded The Church.


So what's this have to do with releasing services early on May 17th? If you have been around CCJ long, you've heard us say that our mission is to love God, love people, and change the world. This is a mission that we're passionate about that drives what we do. Loving God, loving people and aiming to change the world is a mission and an ideal that we at CCJ are consistently trying to communicate in creative ways to our church body and our community. This is what May 17th is all about.


We, as a local church body, are setting aside May 17th to put into tangible practice the idea of loving God, loving people and changing the world. Following the abbreviated services on May 17th, we are going out into a variety of community venues and serving the communities that we live in. Some service will involve picking up sticks and trash, while others will simply sit down to spend time with individuals at nursing homes. These are just some basic, tangible ways that for 60-90 minutes we can serve our communities and live out our mission.


Still have questions about what's going on? It's likely that you do. In fact since we first thought of and announced this idea we've had lots of questions. Here you'll find listed some of the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about our "ReTHiNK Service" Sunday. If you don't find the answers there please either ask by posting a comment, or you can shoot me an email. We're certain there are details we've overlooked that you may have thought of, so please do ask questions.