Author Archives: bdub77

1000!

Oddly, I’ve been waiting for this day for some time now. Its been 4 years in the making. Im just in shock that I actually had 1000 things to write about. But here we are; we made it.

This blog has evolved over the years. It started out called Confessions of a Worshipper where the focus was on student ministry & a life of worship. A few years later, I switched from Blogger to WordPress & Bobby Williams Live was born. Now it’s a buffet of topics, but mostly on pastoring & church planting.

Why stop evolving now? In a few weeks, I’ll unveil a new venture with a more stream lined focus on church planting, a planters life/family/struggles as well as a look into the life of church planting wives. Myself & my wife will be primary contributors, but you will also hear from other planters & their wives from around the country. It’s gonna be rad & I can’t wait to get started blogging with my wife!

As for this blog? It’s not going anywhere….more news to come!

Critics.  If you’re a pastor or church doing anything significant, you’ve got them.  We had one brought to our attention today concerning our sermon series based on the book Real Marriage by Mark Driscoll.  But let’s not talk about the critic…they don’t deserve the air time.

Some Objections/Questions You May Have Concerning Real Marriage

Why Do A Sermon Series Based on Real Marriage?

This one is simple.  I believe that the American culture has a broken view of relationships and marriage.  The church needs to step up and take this on, giving a biblical view of marriage, friendship, sex and relationships.  After reading Real Marriage and many reviews (both good and bad), I believe that this book offers a non-candy coated view on all these topics and is straight biblical.  That’s the most important thing.  So why Real Marriage?  Because…it’s a good book based the biblical view of marriage with real, gritty real-life situations.

Does Ridge Church Agree With Mark Driscoll?

No….not on everything.  But we don’t agree with everyone on anything any way.  YES, we do agree on a lot of things, but again, NOT EVERYTHING.  I believe pastor Mark is a man of God doing what God has called him to do.  But that doesn’t mean we will do those things, say all those things or mimic all those things.  Some things God called pastor Mark to, some things God calls myself and Ridge Church to.  They won’t match up.  Just like they won’t match up to Billy Graham, pastor Steven Furtick, or pastor Perry Noble.  We say it like this, we’ll eat the fish and leave the bones.

Real Marriage Is Kind of Racy…

Yes it is.  It’s gritty, but it’s real life.  Particularly chapter 10.  But here’s what I say…culture is talking about sex ALL THE TIME, on every channel and in many songs your kids hear and see on the daily.  Would you rather a pastor talk about these thing to people or do you want MTV and The Real World to continue to teaching generations about sex?  I’ll take the pastor every time.

I Disagree with Mark Driscoll and This Book….

That’s ok.  You don’t have to read it.  But, if you’ll listen to the sermons being preached in this series, they’re not following the book 100%.  There are some references to things mentioned in the book, yes.  Most weeks we are taking a passage of scripture on the topic of a chapter in the book and simply looking at what the Bible has to say about it.  We’ve done this with many books…Crazy Love by Francis Chan, Plan B by Pete Wilson, Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick and In a Pit With a Lion On a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson.

I Don’t Want My Kids Exposed To This

If you’re child is in Ridge Kids on Sunday, they won’t be.  But if you choose to have them in the service on Sunday mornings, they will be.  That’s not a bad thing, you just need to be prepared to answer some tough questions.  Bottom line is, they don’t have to be if you don’t want them to be.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is YES, we are doing this series and YES you can order a copy of the book at our resource table.  However, positionally as a church that does not mean we 100% agree with everything in the book.  We want you to eat the fish, and leave the bones.  Take an honest look at it and let God speak to you in it.  Listen to the messages each week that we guarantee will be Biblicaly based, accurate and Gospel heavy.

Yesterday at Ridge Church we started a series called Real Marriage based on the book by Mark and Grace Driscoll.  Naturally it has me thinking a lot about marriage.  If you’re in ministry or more specifically a church planter, then you know all about the strains this can all add to your marriage.  Here are a few observations I have;

• If I’m not intentional, my marriage suffers
• Getting home earlier than I  said I  would is worth a lot more to my wife than I think
• Doing ministry together is fun, but it’s no substitute for a date with my wife
• I may want to talk about ministry/the plant all day, but that doesn’t mean my wife does
• My kids are paying attention
• Even though my wife doesn’t want our conversations to be dominated by ministry talk, she still wants to know what’s going on
• Time away needs to be time away

I’m no expert on marriage and ministry.  I have a LOT to learn.  I’m still learning all these I mentioned and am far from mastering them.  There’s nothing like planting a church and having your wife involved.  Just make sure you don’t lose her in the process.

Here are just a few random thoughts I’ve had over the last few days…

• Stayed up a few nights ago tossing and turning because I have a new blog idea in my head.  Really excited about launching it towards the end of the month/first of February.  If you’re a church planter/pastor/ or even a pastor’s wife (yes ma’am) or wife of someone in ministry, I think this new blog might be helpful.
• I’m nearing my 1000th post on this blog.  I can’t believe I actually had enough things to say to constitute 1000 posts.  Crazy.
• I should hit 1000 within two weeks at my current rate of posting, but could hit it by next week if I bust it.
• Not sure what I’ll do yet with my 1000th post.  Any suggestions?
• Conference season is upon us and I’m pretty jacked about the stuff I’ll be attending this year; Velocity Church planters conference at the end of this month, Unleash in March followed by the Real Marriage conference and hopefully (fingers crossed) a trip to Exponential in April.  Now to find someone that wants to fly me to Orlando
• Yeah I’m one of those conference junkies, but honestly love what I get to learn.  I go to learn…everything else is butter.
• Speaking of the extras, I get to attend Velocity with my wife and I’m really stoked about that!
• My wife and I have a pretty genius idea for a possible side business we are thinking of launching this spring/summer.  I can’t tell you what it is cause you’ll gank it and then I’ll be mad.  But it’s awesome.
• Once or twice a year I get to play with our church band.  This Sunday is it and I’m jazzed.  I’m sure our sound guy will just turn me down, but hey, I’ll get to say I’m with the band.
• I do miss playing guitar on a regular basis.  I think it’s true that worship leaders want to be pastors and pastors want to be worship leaders.  Just like actors want to be rock stars and vice versa.
• We have a crazy talented group of singers and musicians.  I’m way outta my league.
• I’m jazzed about starting a new gathering for some men in our church that are potential pastors/teachers/church planters.  I’m really excited to see what comes out of this.
• We just recently finished going through the book Doctrine with 4 other men in our church.  I think it certainly stretched us all but was so worth it.
• Found out our daughter has Pneumonia.  Yikes…pray for quick healing there please.
• We start a new series on marriage this week at Ridge Church and the buzz about this series is the highest I’ve ever seen in any series we’ve ever done!  People are hungry for better relationships/marriages/friendships.
• Speaking of…I gotta finish fore mentioned message, so I’m out!