Thursday, December 23, 2010

Advent Expectations

I grew up in a suburban Southern Baptist home where we celebrated Christmas like most other evangelicals; you indulged in all the craziness of shopping and tinsel and Santa, but you went to church on Christmas Eve and reminded yourself that this was really all about Jesus. We never observed Advent. I didn't even know what it was until I was grown up. This is the first year that my family and I took the time to observe Advent. At the prompting of our lead pastor, Steve Whipple, We bought an amazing book by a Messianic Jewish writer Arnold Ytreeide called Jotham's Journey. It is an exciting and well-written adventure of a small boy who becomes separated from his family and winds up in Bethlehem the night of Jesus' birth. It has been a wonderful experience and I highly recommend Ytreeide's books.

Advent is all about expectation. It's the preparing oneself for the arrival of Jesus. When Jesus shows up, everything changes! It's not only about the arrival of Jesus' birth, but for Christians, it's also the looking forward to His second coming. But there is another aspect of advent I discovered.

While looking for music for our Christmas Eve services at Church at the Ridge, I discovered an Advent hymn by Charles Wesley, "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus." The version I heard was by the musicians at Red Mountain Church in Birmingham, AL. I was captivated by the beautiful melody and the hopeful, longing spirit of the song. Needless to say you will be hearing it this Friday night!

My thought was this: We expect too little of Christmas, because if we're being honest we expect too little of Christ. Deliverer? Redeemer? Shepherd? Savior? Healer? We sing these things but we don't really expect Him to come through for us. Christmas Eve we will see our largest crowd of the year at Church at the Ridge. I can't help but think there will be people, some of them our regular folks, who will sit and sing and go through the motions but not really expect "God with us." They long for Him, without even realizing that it's Him they long for. Their heart cries, "Come, Thous long-expected Jesus! I've been waiting for you all my life!" My prayer is that they will experience the presence of God made flesh this Christmas Eve.

Read the words to this hymn and make them your prayer this Advent season. I ask our people to pray these words over our service on Christmas Eve.:

Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us;
Let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth thou art;
Dear Desire of ev'ry nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Joy to those who long to see Thee
Day spring from on high appear
Come, Thou promised rod of Jesse,
Of Thy birth we long to hear
O’er the hills the angels singing news,
Glad tidings of a birth,
“Go to Him, your praises bringing;
Christ the Lord has come to earth.”

Come to earth to taste our sadness
He whose glories knew no end;
By His life He brings us gladness,
Our Redeemer, Shepherd, Friend.
Leaving riches without number,
Born within a cattle stall;
This the everlasting wonder,
Christ was born the Lord of all.

Born thy people to deliver,
Born a child, and yet a King,
Born to reign in us for ever,
Now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By thine all-sufficient merit
Raise us to thy glorious throne.

Words by Charles Wesley, additional verses by Mark Hunt
Music by Rowland Pritchard


Monday, December 20, 2010

Staying Married on Purpose Alumni writes

Got this encouraging letter from a couple who took our marriage class in Vegas and wanted to share it. Not because we think we are all that, but because it shows that when you obey God and just speak His truth into peoples' lives, He does great things... and you get to be in on it! Also, we want to challenge those who have taken the class to pass on what you learn there. It may be the very reason God had you there!

Hey guys. Hope all is well with you and your family. Wanted to drop you a note to tell a short story & to let you know I thank the Lord for you two everyday. This is how great our God is...I'd been talking with an old dear friend of mine since junior high who now lives in Philadelphia. Well...she'd been having problems in her marriage. It isn't her first time marrying but I could tell by the sound of her voice that things were going south with the relationship. Just like the 1st time. I felt so terrible. Apparently she caught her husband cheating and as in her previous marriage she was ready to call it quits right away. She was devasted. She said her husband & her had been separated for almost a year but they both knew they really wanted to make things work but didn't even know how or where to start. She finds it hard to trust her partner when it's comes to adultery. I reached out to her. Sent her one of our copies of "the Love Dare" that we won at your cool Fireproof movie viewing @ HOPE. I told her about how we went through the Fireproof Your Marriage series and took your SMOP class at HOPE. I went into a little bit of what Josh & I learned (yep, we kept all our notes) and told her that if they start looking at marriage in a biblical perspective, things will surely change for the better. I just planted the seed and we left it at that. This was all sometime this last summer. She e-mailed me with the greatest news yesterday morning. She & her husband are back together & working things out. They did the Fireproof Your Marriage series & are going to classes at there local church in Philadelphia. I cried tears of joy because way back when..I would've did the normal(worldly) thing and told her to dump him & move on. Instead I shared the tools that were given to me, with her & with God's grace...Wah-lah!! I am so so so happy for them. I'm not too familiar with her husband but says he deeply appreciates the suggestion made to them. They thanked me & so now I'm thanking you. WOW...what a great feeling it is & we are so greatful for you two. God had put ya'll in our lives when we needed the guidance the most and since then there has been an overflow of blessings in our marriage & in relationships around us. 10 years ago I woulda never thought our marriage could be such a great example to others. This is all because of the HIS light that you pointed us to. Jerry & Cheryl, God is definitely working through ya'll. He picked the perfect couple for the marriage ministry. You're work has helped & is in the process of helping people you dont even know. Isn't that awesome?? Thank you Thank you Thank you....God Bless guys! YOU ROCK!! Merry Christmas & Happy New year to you and yours! We send our love..............- Lore


Thanks Josh and Lori for sharing your story!

Undercover Ross



We had a blast doing this spoof on the CBS show Undercover Boss. This is Undercover Ross, where we sent one of our workers in our children's ministry at church to see where we could improve our environments. Check it out!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

A Social Network Christmas

Found this very clever mini movie from Igniter Media. What if the greatest story ever told took place in the age of Facebook?













Wednesday, December 8, 2010

In Sync with God

The other morning, I had the rare opportunity to drive my 15-year-old daughter, Whitney, to school. It was great to be able to spend a little time with her one on one without distractions or interruptions, just to find out what was going on in her life.

I knew she had been doing the student version of Experiencing God in her youth Bible study at church. So i asked her what she thought God was saying to her. I expected her to kind of think for a bit but to my surprise she answered right away: "I think God wants me to trust Him and not get stressed out so much in my life." Wow, I thought, my little girl is all growed up and hearing from God!

We talked for a while about what causes stress and I gave her my theory about why we stress out. I think I covered it here in an earlier post but the Cliff Notes version is basically this: We wake up every day with a set of expectations for the day -- things we expect to accomplish, the way we expect our day to go, how we expect things to work, etc. Stress happens when our day doesn't happen the way we expected. There is a tension between what we expect and what God actually gives us and that tension is called stress.

The way to avoid it, I told Whitney, would be to wake up and the very first thing you do would be to take all your expectations for the day and hand them over to God in prayer. Phillipians 4:6-7 says, "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." NLT

We began to talk about prayer, about what it is and what it is not. So many people treat prayer like it's a way to get what they want from God. They see it as a way to get God on their agenda, to meet their expectations. Rather, I told her, prayer is how we get on God's agenda, how we catch His heart and make it ours. It's how we sync our lives to God, I said. And that's when it hit me.

Suddenly in my mind's eye, I saw an iPod attached to a computer by that little cable. "Whitney," I said, "think about syncing your iPod to the computer. Let's say the computer represents God and the iPod is you. You want everything on the computer's library to be on your iPod, until it mirrors exactly what is stored on the computer. Now that little cable that connects the iPod to the computer is prayer. It is through that connection that you will be synced to God, He will download Himself into you, until you mirror Him exactly. Then as you go through your day, you are taking everything God is around inside you."

I don't know which one of us got more out of that illustration but she seemed to like it. Since that morning, though, that image of syncing my life to God's heart through prayer has been stuck in my head. Have you "synced" yourself to God today?

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Mary Margaret: Story teller for a new generation

This kid is an amazing story teller. Check her out...



What's in your hand?




"Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it ." - Prov. 3:27, KJV

This past week our lead pastor, Steve Whipple, was preaching on Giving Like God from John 3:16. Near the end he asked this question: What is in your hand? In light of this scripture from Proverbs, that is a very good question.

What do I hold in my hand that someone around me needs? Has God brought someone across my radar with a need that it is in my power to meet? Am I withholding some good from someone to whom it is due?

As I thought and prayed on this over the weekend one word kept coming to my mind: encouragement. Think about it. What is one thing everyone needs and everyone can give? Encouragement! It's something all of us can afford to be generous with and none of us can afford to live without. But how often do we withhold it from each other!

The word encourage literally means "to put courage into another person." We all face challenges every day. Even Jesus said that each day held enough trouble of its own (Matt. 6:34). His answer was that we should continuously set our eyes on God and the kingdom He was establishing, and the righteous life that would be the defining characteristic of that kingdom. But that takes courage.

Encouragement is so vital because it is much rarer than dis-couragement. Interesting thing about the prefix dis-: it is from the same Latin root that means twice or to divide. It literally indicates a separating or parting from something. So when we say we are discouraged, we are saying that we have been separated from our courage. It has been taken from us. So when the challenges come, when the trouble of the day rears its ugly head and threatens to overwhelm us, we have no courage left to deal with it. So we retreat, withdraw, hide, or, more often than not, simply do nothing and let life just happen to us. We take no part in it. We become disenchanted, disheartened, and disengaged. In short, we are a dis-couraged people.

Why? Because we refuse to see the significance of en-couraging each other, of putting courage back into someone who has been separated from theirs. Hebrews 10:23-24 says, "... let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near (emphasis mine)." It's not optional. You can't say, "I'm just not that kind of person." Are you a human? Are you a Jesus Follower? Then you are that kind of person!

It's true that for some it comes easily. Some have a gift of encouragement. But everyone everywhere who names the name of Jesus is required to encourage. Especially, the writer of Hebrews says, as the Day of His return draws nearer and nearer. Paul writes to the Thessalonian church about the return of Christ and then commands them to "encourage one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:18, ESV)

Hope gives us courage. Paul told the Corinthian believers, "Since we have such a hope, we are very bold." (2 Corinthinas 3:12, ESV) Paul was encouraged to speak plainly and openly and fearlessly about Jesus because he constantly reminded himself that Jesus was returning. And with His return would come a new heaven and a new earth. Death, Hell, Sin, and Satan would be no more. Now that's encouraging, isn't it?

So my wife and I have decided that as often as we can, we will be lavishly generous with our encouragement. We want to leverage whatever influence God has given us to put the courage to follow Jesus into everyone God brings into our path. What does that look like? Here are just a few practical ways we have thought of:

Use your Facebook to encourage. Put up a scripture that comforts or encourages. Send someone an encouraging message. Write on their wall what their friendship means to you. Brag on them on your wall.

Spend time with someone who needs encouragement. Take them to lunch. Invite them for coffee. Have them over for dinner. Invest your self into someone else personally.

Write them an encouraging note or card. end them an email just to tell them how much you appreciate them, especially if they sacrifice their time and energy serving in kingdom work. This is not just pastors or church staff (but God knows they desperately need encouragement!), but for volunteers and lay leaders as well.

Meet a real need for them. Lavishly and generously. One woman in our church is spending the holidays alone with three children while her husband serves our country in Iraq. It has been awesome to watch members of our church deliver firewood, offer to babysit, invite her family over for lunch, and just serve her in the name of Jesus. Nobody told them to. The love of God compelled them to. It is not only an encouragement to her, but to the rest of the church as we witness the love of Jesus in action, right in our midst!

So... what's in your hand? Who needs it desperately? Will you withhold it? Or will you allow God to love them through you, so that everyone around you can see Who He is and how He loves?

Monday, November 22, 2010

New message from Jerry

Hello everyone!
This past Sunday I had the honor of teaching our people on thankfulness from Psalm 100. You can check it out here. The message is called "Thank You!" from Nov. 21, 2010. I went long... AGAIN, but overall the feedback has been very positive. Give it a listen and feel free to comment. Have a Happy Thanksgiving from the Davison Family!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Ouch. Modern church planting made simple...

A buddy of mine posted this on his blog. If you are a church planter it will either be hilarious to you or it will make you want to crawl under a rock. More than a little sarcastic about the formulaic approach to many hip, "relevant" church plants. Enjoy (or cringe)!



Friday, October 22, 2010

Way to go, Ridgers! Pumpkin Patch 2010 update video

I am so proud of our Ridgers! The Pumpkin Patch has been an overwhelming success on so many levels. First, our people are pulling together to raise money to build clean water wells for the impoverished people of Burkina Faso, Africa. Secondly, they are reaching out into the community to meet and invite people to come check out what God is up to at Church at the Ridge. But also, I have personally seen the nods of love and fellowship grow as our people work, laugh, play, and pray together at the Patch.

One other really cool aspect of the Patch is the uniqueness of the opportunity we have. It's no accident that God led us to sell pumpkins this year. October 2010 is the first time in 823 years that there have been five full weekends (Friday, Saturday, & Sunday) thus maximizing the potential sales! How cool is that?!

This video is just a brief update on how the Pumpkin Patch is impacting lives both here in Paulding County and around the world.



Friday, October 8, 2010

We gots ourselves a Punkin Patch!

Our church, Church at The Ridge in HIram, GA is doing a Pumpkin Patch to raise money for missions efforts in Burkina Faso, Africa. The money will all go toward digging fresh water wells and purchasing mosquito netting to help prevent malaria. We are at the corner of Ridge Rd. and Dallas Nebo/Baker's Bridge Rd, at the Kroger parking lot. Check out the video below , then come see us! Buy a pumpkin and build a well!



Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A Couple that is in sync!

I found this video clip on a friend's Facebook page. Not only is it fun to watch, it's a great visual illustration for unity in a marriage. Scripture says that in marriage "they are no longer two, but are one flesh." (Matt. 19:6) The couple in this video are perfectly in sync in every movement and in every moment. Imagine if married couples who claim to follow Jesus would demonstrate this kind of unity in every movement and moment of our lives! Enjoy the video!



Sunday, September 12, 2010

Jacob's Trouble iMix on iTUnes

I created this little beginner's guide to Jacob's Trouble. Call it a primer for the uninitiated, if you will. A sort of JT 101. Enjoy!



Tuesday, August 17, 2010

a Radical thought....




Read this last night in David Platt's book, Radical:
"I am frightened by the reality that the church I lead can carry on most of our activities smoothly, efficiently, even successfully, never realizing that the Holy Spirit of God is virtually absent from the picture."


Have we programmed God right out of our churches? Have we effectively silenced His voice by our efficiency? He goes on to say:

"The church I lead could have the least gifted people, the least talented people, the fewest leaders, and the least money, and this church under the power of the Holy Spirit could still shake the nations for His Glory."


I haven't heard that in many of the church growth conferences I've attended! It's all about strategies and methods and buy my book. I fear we are so busy imitating each other that we have forgotten to imitate Christ.

Just a thought...

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The Legend of Jimmy the Cat

     A few weeks ago I bought a riding lawn mower from a guy off of Craigslist. We had recently moved into a house on 1.5 acres and a push mower just wasn't going to cut it... literally. My oldest son, Erik, and I went to meet the guy and look at the mower. It turned out that he and his wife were fellow Jesus followers and knew Johnny Hunt, our former pastor and mentor from First Baptist Woodstock. We hit it off immediately.
     He was former military and had just taken a job in Huntsville, AL. They would be moving at the end of the next week and they were getting ready for a big yard sale. His wife was a sweet, little Romanian lady with a heavy accent. She was scurrying all over the house getting ready to move. She was trying to sell us everything in the house!
     At one point she asks Erik if we would want a free cat. He tells her that he has always wanted a cat but that both he and his little brother are both allergic to cats so we have never been able to have one. She explains that these are outdoor cats; they have never been inside the house and that all we would have to do is put some food out and they would be fine. They are good mousers, she says, and that catches Erik's ear. We had been having a little trouble with mice getting in from the field behind our house.
     So Erik asks me what I thought. I tell him maybe but I would have to talk it over with mom. I have brought animals home without consulting my wife once before. Only once. And it will never happen again.
     So I buy the lawn mower and the man is nice enough to put it on his trailer and bring it back to our house. We shake hands and say goodbye. I ask Cheryl about the cat and she says let her think about it. We already have a dog, a bird, and a guinea pig. But the idea of an outdoor cat who will catch mice is appealing. The kids are all excited. We might get a cat! Especially my animal loving daughter, Whitney. They ask us everyday, Are we going to get the cat from those people?
     A few days later the phone rings. It's the little Romanian lady. "Won't you please take one of our cats? You know the Bible says in Proverbs that a righteous man cares even for the animals." Oh no she didn't! Did she just play the Bible card? Anyway, she's crying and telling us that the cats belonged to her neighbor who was a good friend and that she died and so she adopted them and it would break her heart if she couldn't find a good home for them.
     Needless to say, we took the cat. We arranged to come pick him up on my lunch break one day. So Cheryl and I drive out to her house with the little kennel that we use to crate our dog. That's what we planned to use to transport the cat to hi new location. When we arrive, she introduces us to Jimmy, a pretty orange and white striped cat. He is obviously agitated. He knows something is up. He's pacing around the kitchen, wide-eyed.
     Meg, the little Romanian lady, explains that Jimmy has never been in the house so he's a little freaked out. Oh, great, I thought, just wait until we try to cram him in the crate! Suddenly Jimmy walks over to the sliding glass door, leaps about eight feet in the air and claws the door all the way down! Yikes. Meg is talking sweetly to Jimmy, trying to calm him down. She walks over and picks him up and brings him to the crate. I open the door. It takes a few tries to get Jimmy and all his splaying limbs inside the crate. Once we do, Jimmy is not happy.
     In fact, Jimmy goes insane! He's howling and yowling and clawing and scratching and rolling over and over. It's all I can do to hold on to the thing. Meg is crying, "It's okay, Jimmy. Mommy loves you. It's all right..." Jimmy ain't havin' it. Jimmy is in full freak mode.
     Finally we get him in the car and Meg says a tearful goodbye along with some last minute instructions. She gives us some of Jimmy's favorite food, his dish. Some things to help make the transition go smoother. "I'll call in a couple of days to see how he is doing,"she says. We assure her Jimmy will be well taken care of. We'll take pictures and email them to you, we tell her.
     On the ride home, Jimmy calms down. He goes still and quiet. He even lets us scratch behind his ears. He's very friendly, just scared. We talk about how we are going to bring Jimmy onto our back screened in porch to assimilate him. The plan is to feed him and pet him and talk to him to give him the idea that this is home. We talk about how much Jimmy will love it at our house. It will cat heaven! Our kids will love him, he will have the run of the place. We laugh about how our dog will probably be afraid of him. Meanwhile, Jimmy is in the crate in the back, completely calm. Was that a purr?
     When we arrive with Jimmy, it's like a scene from a Disney movie. The kids all pour out of the house and run to greet Jimmy. They are so excited. We finally get to have a cat! But when we go to get Jimmy out of the car, he starts in with the freak-out again. He's howling and yowling and kicking with his back legs as hard as he can. I struggle to hold on as we slowly walk Jimmy around the back of the house to the porch, where he will be fed and loved and assured...
     I am almost to the steps of the porch when suddenly Jimmy, in a last ditch, super-feline feat of strength, kicks the entire cage door completely off it's hinges. In the half a second it took me to realize what was happening, an orange and white blur shot out of the cage door, paused at the corner of the house to give us a look of contempt -- as if to say, "So long, suckers!"-- and disappeared. Forever. And we've never seen him since.
     My head was spinning. What just happened? The kids were upset; our youngest was in tears. Disappointment hung like a fog over our backyard in that moment. Shock and disbelief gave way to anger. First at Jimmy -- How dare you! Do you know what I had planned for you? Do you realize how good you were going to have it? And you dare reject it? Reject ME?! But then I found myself angry with God. We had even prayed before our final decision to adopt the cat and felt like we had been given a green light. God, why would you do let that happen? We were just trying to do something nice for someone! Did we hear wrong? What was that all about?
     I wish I could say that I handled it well in front of our kids. I was standing there still holding that stupid cage, the door laying in the grass at my feet. "Well, that's just great!" I spat. I dropped the cage, disgusted. "He's dead! You know that, don't you? He's dead! He'll be hit by a car, eaten by wild animals. He'll starve!" My wife is looking at me in horror trying to cover our youngest sons ears from hearing all this. It was not my finest moment. And my lunch break was over. I had just spent it all on that ungrateful cat. My family piled in the van to try to find Jimmy, while I went back to the office -- angry, dejected, humiliated -- and tried to be a pastor.
     All day I felt horrible. I began to feel sad and defeated. I felt responsible for Jimmy. I kept hearing that sweet little Romanian lady's voice in my head, "I'll call in a few days to see how Jimmy is doing." For two weeks we wouldn't answer the phone for fear it was her! The phone would ring and the kids would yell, "Don't answer it! It's the cat lady!" I didn't know why it effected me so badly. I came home from work that evening. No Jimmy. Over the next few days, whenever we went outside, we would call out, "Jimmy! JIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMYYYYYYYYY!" Nothing. Jimmy was not coming back.
     That evening I was out in the back yard with my oldest son, Erik. We were just kind of standing there, on the spot where it all happened. I was no longer angry, just kinda sad. While we were talking it over, it seemed like God answered my question, Why did You let this happen? It just came spilling out over my lips as we talked. "It's like when God has something great planned for us, somewhere He wants to take us that is better than anything we ever imagined," I said, "but because the transition from the place we are now to the place He wants us to be can be scary, we panic and bolt, like Jimmy. And we miss out on all the good things He has." The lights were coming on for me, even as I was speaking. "What is worse, we take ourselves out from under His provision and protection and refuse to come under it. Then we are on our own in a dangerous and hostile world."
     Romans 8:28-29 sprang to the forefront of my mind:  
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son...
     My mind immediately went back to something Matt Chandler, pastor of the Village Church in Dallas, TX, had said at a pastors' conference I recently attended. He was speaking to a room full of church planters and pastors, and he made this statement:
"Suffering is coming for your people. It just is. You can't protect them from it but you can prepare them for it."
     That statement had really burned into my heart. I thought of all the families in our church and the things they were going through -- broken marriages, strained relationships with kids, lost jobs, addictions, diseases, financial struggles. The dots were beginning to connect. I remembered a prayer I had prayed a week or so earlier. I was due to preach in a month or so for our lead pastor who was going to be in Africa with a missions team. I had asked God, "What do You want to say to our people?"
     The incident with Jimmy, the quote from Matt Chandler, and the passage from Romans 8 all came into line perfectly.

  • God wants to take us somewhere we could never get on our own. He wants to produce in us the very image of Christ. It's what we were created for, to bear His image and so bring Him glory. 
  • The primary way He produces that in us is through suffering. James says that "the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (Jas. 1:3-4, NASB)

  • How we respond to suffering says everything about who we believe God is. That's why James said it was the testing of your faith. It proves whether or not you believe that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do. (see Hebrews 11:6)

  • Trusting God requires a change in our perspective about what is truly "good."
     Consider things from Jimmy's perspective: He was happy, comfortable, safe. Then one day he is snatched up without warning, crammed into a box, taken from his family, and driven miles away with total strangers. His only thought: Get out of this situation as fast as possible and get back to what I know and where I'm comfortable. But that was not the truth of the situation, was it? The Truth was that Jimmy was being rescued and brought into a place where he would be loved, protected, provided for, and where he would enjoy a freedom he had never known before. But Jimmy panicked and in fear he ran away, out from under our provision and protection.

     To this day, we don't know what happened to Jimmy. He's a legend, like Bigfoot. Maybe he's out there somewhere. Our oldest swears he saw him the other day at the fringe of the property. But he blinked and he was gone. But whether or not he ever comes back I am deeply grateful for what he taught me, and for how God used him to encourage our people to hang on to God even when things seem scary.


Click here to here the sermon I preached from this experience.

Monday, May 24, 2010

When Faith Takes Center Stage: Making the Most of Major Moments in our Culture

(This is a reprint of an article I wrote a few years ago for our church magazine at Hope Baptist in Las Vegas. I think it serves as an excellent refresher in leveraging the opportunity to speak truth into the culture that the final episode of the TV series Lost has afforded us. Enjoy!)

            If God had a face what would it look like? And would you want to see if seeing meant that you would have to believe in things like Heaven and Jesus…”
(from “One of Us” by Eric Bazilian)
I’ll never forget the first time I heard those words come wafting over my car stereo speakers. The woman’s voice that sang them sounded so sincere and the questions she was asking were so poignant that it stopped me in my tracks.  In the weeks that followed, that song rocketed up the music charts and you could hardly turn on a radio or TV without hearing it. Whether or not you agreed with the sentiments expressed in the song, there was no denying that the subject of faith in God had suddenly been thrust into the spotlight. It was as if the songwriter had tapped into something deep within our cultural consciousness; the longing for God to be real and, more importantly, to be accessible.
Suddenly, everywhere I went, people were discussing spiritual things. Friends outside the faith were anxious to hear my take on it. “You’re a Christian, Jerry, what do you think about it?” People who had been totally closed to the gospel only a short time before were now asking me to explain it to them.!
That was a rare moment in our secularized culture, a divinely orchestrated open window of opportunity to engage our culture on its home turf. Dan Brown’s runaway bestseller The DaVinci Code was another such moment. Suddenly the question “Who is Jesus?” made headlines in every newspaper and magazine in the world.
Dick Staub, in his book Too Christian, Too Pagan says, “Jesus didn’t invite the world to come to church, He commanded the church to go into the world.” The question for us is, “Can we put down the picket signs long enough to honestly answer the deep questions of faith our culture is asking in popular music, books, TV and movies?”
So how can we be ready for that next big moment when it comes? How can we engage our culture without succumbing to its influence? Here are a few ideas to help us be “in the world but not of it”:
Pray!  There is no substitute for spending time alone with God. Like Pastor Vance always says, “We don’t pray before we work, prayer is the work, then God works.” Changing your world starts by letting God change you into the image of His Son, then letting people see that image in your life.
Stay connected. Don’t retreat into a stained-glass bubble. Get out there and mingle! Watch a little TV, listen to the radio, go to a movie. Don’t retreat into the Christian subculture or you may miss what God is doing all around you.
Affirm Truth wherever you find it. There is an old saying; “Truth is Truth even in the mouth of Baal.” Sometimes pop culture can stumble onto truth, even if it doesn’t understand why it’s true. Look for themes in pop culture that line up with Biblical truth. Point them out at every opportunity. Use them to start discussions at work or school. Some helpful resources for doing this can be found at websites like movieguide.org, movieministry.com, and Focus on the Family’s pluggedinonline.com.
Be ready with a gentle answer. People will have a lot of tough questions about faith in a fallen world. Don’t get defensive or intimidated. It’s not about being right; it’s about speaking the truth with love (Eph. 4:15) and trusting God with the result.


What LOST taught us....



Ok, ok so I am probably just one of a million self-styled pundits blogging on the final episode of what was arguably the greatest show in the history of television, ABC's Lost. As expected, the final episode was polarizing and controversial among it's fans. The first few minutes after the final show finished, Facebook lit up with Christians who were fans of the show decrying the ecumenism and universalism of the show's theology. But really, what did we expect? Lost has toyed with spiritual and religious matters its entire run. In my opinion that is one of the things that made it so compelling. But ultimately you have writers and creators who do not know the truth or the Author of Truth so can we really expect it to line up perfectly with Biblical doctrine?

So... While it's fresh on my mind I wanted to share a few thoughts on where I believe Lost got it right.


The spiritual is as real and as significant as the material. Even more so.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, "... we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
What many of us miss in the busyness of our lives is that we are built for glory, made to last. We were created for the eternal, not the temporal. There are spiritual realities in us and all around us that are even more real than what we experience physically and will last far beyond this present world. We would do well to have an eternal perspective.

There is life after death, and the decisions we make here have an impact on where and how we experience it.
I want to be very careful that I am not misunderstood here. The Bible says clearly that Jesus Christ is the only provision for salvation. "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”(Acts 4:12) But even for the believer, how we live in this life bears heavily on the life we will experience in eternity with Christ. Otherwise why would the Bible say that "each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire." (1 Cor. 3:13-15) We have hope beyond this life, and a blessed assurance that we will see our loved ones in Christ again. I found this aspect of the final episode very comforting and very moving, even if it was theologically flawed.

Faith is a vital part of our lives, so be careful where you place it.
Every person has faith in something. They can't help themselves. It is written into our DNA by our maker. We long to know that we matter, that our lives have purpose and direction and significance. So whether it is in God or  in something else or even ourselves, we doggedly cling to that belief. Where we get "lost" (pun intended) is in the object of our faith. For Locke it was the island. For Ben it was Jacob. For Jack it was his ability to fix things. Every character had placed their faith in something. The truth is that everything other than God will fail us. Matt Chandler once said, "When you make gods of things that are not God, they cannot bear the weight of it and they will eventually collapse. And when they do, you will get hurt." Nevertheless, I loved the way that Lost fearlessly tackles the deeper issues of faith and doubt, redemption and salvation, purpose and destiny. The show handled deep issues of faith with more courage, honesty, and intelligence than all of Christian television programming combined.

Ultimately, life is about relationships.
It's not about blowing up hatches, pushing buttons and entering numbers. It's not even about smoke monsters and mysterious pools of light. This is the strongest theme of Lost. Our lives both here and in eternity are shaped by the relationships we have cultivated and invested in. How we treat people, how we love them, forgive them, comfort them, encourage them, these are the things that Bono calls "all that you can't leave behind." Your relationship with God through Christ is the fundamental, foundational relationship of your life, out of which will flow every other relationship. I appreciate that the writers of Lost never let the show stray too far from its heart: the relationships of the characters.


One final word of encouragement I would like to offer my fellow believers that may have been disappointed or upset at the universalistic approach of the final episode. Please do not get so bogged down in the details that you miss the big picture. Every now and then, God opens a rare and fleeting window for the Church to break out of its stained-glass ghetto and speak the Truth into the mainstream culture. Lost's  final episode was such a moment. All over the world today -- in break rooms, cafeterias, around water coolers, in cubicles, in chat rooms and message boards -- people are talking about spiritual matters of life after death because of Lost. People are asking questions like what happens when you die, where do I go, how can I know for sure? The Church has some very good answers to these questions. Hopefully we can stop the flaming and the hating long enough to see this opportunity and leverage it for the Gospel's sake.

Thanks to J.J. Abrams, Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof, and everyone else who worked so hard to make Lost one of the most compelling, intelligent, creative, and even spiritual hours of television I have ever had the pleasure to experience. Now please pray for me as I enter my period of post-Lost depression. I almost wore a black arm band to work this morning! Oh, well, there's always Wipeout! :-)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Exponental 2010

I am in Orlando, FL right now with out staff team at the Exponential Conference. It's an annual conference for church planters and pastors. I have to admit that my attitude going into it was not great.

We have just come off a whirlwind of back-to-back events at our church that began in February and ended with our big 4th anniversary celebration last weekend. In between has been a lot of stress, overtime, and being apart from my family, even when I was physically with them. At that same time we were buying and moving in to a new house, doing our taxes, teaching a class on marriage, and dealing with a series of stomach viruses that swept through the house, not once but twice! Now, don't get me wrong, there was also a lot of cool things happening: God was moving and growing me and my marriage, He was doing amazing things in our church body. There were plenty of good times along with the pressure, but the last thing on earth I wanted to do after all that is be away from my family for four days at a conference for pastors. I mean, seriously.

But in her Spirit-filled, graceful way, my wife reminded me to stop and ask God what He wanted to show me at the conference. She is so wise! I love that God put her with a doofus like me; I benefit from her wisdom and she gets to learn patience and long-suffering and mercy. It's a win-win! :-) So I asked God to show me what He has for me.

Okay, so it's only one day in and already it's been really great! Yesterday, I got to sit at the feet of one of the biggest influencers in my life, Matt Chandler, the lead pastor of the Village Church in Texas. Don't know if you know what all is going on in his life, but you can read about it just about anywhere. This dude is AMAZING. His wisdom, his knowledge of scripture, and how to practically apply it in personal discipleship is second to none. He is very funny but very serious at the same time. He will lay a truth on you that will just lay you out but you will be laughing at the same time. And he doesn't water anything down or pull any punches. I highly recommend his podcast as part of your regular intake of truth and wisdom from the Word.

Biggest takeaway from his workshops yesterday was this nugget: He was speaking on Matthew 13 about the parable of the sower and the seed. He was breaking down Jesus' explanation of it to the disciples in verses 18-23, as to what the different soils and scenarios meant. And he was framing it for church planters and pastors, who are sowers of the Gospel. We can become very frustrated and disappointed when people don't respond to the teaching or when our people fall away or don't seem to get it.

So he gets to verses 20 - 21:
As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

Chandler breaks it down this way: This is the guy who hears it, gets it, gets saved, gets baptized, plugs in, then a year later falls off the wagon and disappears. Why? Because he doesn't make the connection between the Gospel and his suffering, He doesn't connect the dots between the Gospel and persecution. Chandler says pastors have to make that connection for their people so they will be ready when suffering comes:

"Suffering is coming for your people. It just is. You can't protect them from it, but you can prepare them for it."

Isn't that huge? Isn't how we see and interpret and handle our suffering just ginormous in our relationship with God. Otherwise we think He is out to get us or doesn't care or maybe isn't really there. My thought is this: if we fail our people in this, we are handing them over to the Enemy. We are setting them up to fall away and disappear.

Also, I got to meet Matt and shake his hand and personally thank him for being faithful. I got to look him in the eye and tell him what a difference his faithfulness has made to me and my wife. Matt has terminal brain cancer and will die, when is anyone's guess. I just didn't want to miss an opportunity to tell him what he means to me while I had the chance. It was great. He is speaking this morning and I can't wait to hear what he has to say.

There is a ton more but I gotta run and grab breakfast real fast before we leave. Later!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

American Idol Finalist Predictions, Pt. 2: The Guys

Ok so everyone is talking about how much better the girls are this year but I thought the guys were much stronger this opening week. It's tougher for me to narrow it down to six, anyways. Keep in mind that my predictions are not based on who I personally would like to see in the Top 12, but rather who I think probably will end up there. So here we go...

1. Andrew Garcia - Our personal fave, as well as most other peoples, too. This guy is awesome! He has an amazing voice as well as a savvy for picking cool songs and giving them his own little jazz-indie spin. Plus he's all kinds of humble and likable. Look for this guy to go Top 3 for sure.

2. Casey James - I know, I know, I wanted to hate him, too, especially with the gooey Kara love affair thing happening. But it turns out he's not just a pretty boy, he can actually sing and his guitar chops are not bad, either. He's definitely the total package in terms of garnering votes and potentially selling records. And he kept his shirt on last night, so that's a big plus.

3. Todrick Hall - I thought he was much better than the judges gave him credit for. He is a natural performer and has tons of experience being a dancer for so long.

4. Aaron Kelly - The new David Archuleta. Nice kid. Nice voice. Kinda boring but will probably make it to the Top 12.

5. Alex Lambert - I think he's going to surprise a lot of people in the next few weeks. His voice has very cool raspy, tone and his dorky, shy, awkward stage presence is actually refreshing and fun to watch. I like this kid a lot and I hope he makes it. It would be cool to see him develop if given a chance.

6. Lee Dewyze - As much as I like Big Mike and Taylor the hippie Jim Morrison wannabe, I think Lee is more cut out for the Idol Experience. Or he could fall prey to the Shadow of David Cook and suffer by unfortunate comparison.


I hope that Jermaine Sellers goes home immediately. His voice is annoying and he is so full of himself it's nauseating. Those high notes he brags about hitting are so painfully bad I don't think I can take another week of him.

Also, Tim Urban has to go. Let Disney Channel have him. I mean, seriously, dude, you get a second chance like that and you do that lame song? You deserve to go home.

Who goes home first? I think John Parks already has his bags packed. "God Bless the Child"? Seriously? Joining him on a long bus ride home will most likely be Joe Munoz, the incredibly boring and forgettable Latino crooner. But I hope it's Jermaine Sellers. Please, oh, please let it be Jermaine Sellers!

For the ladies, I fear Lacey Brown's Idol dreams are about to get a wake up call. And joining Lacy will probably be Janelle Wheeler. So boring and forgettable I couldn't even remember her until I looked at the list of contestants.

We'll see tonight!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

American Idol Finalist Predictions, Pt. 1: The Girls

OK so here are our predictions for the 6 girls that will be finalists this year...

Crystal Bowersox - very cool indie chick. Needs to belt out some Dylan or Springsteen next time...

Didi Benami - Simon had his "crack" moment last night. She was by far the best.

Michelle Delamour - I'm so sure that's her real name. Puh-LEEZE. Still has the most commercial and professional potential of the girls.

Katie Stevens - A little too High School Musical for me personally but I think she will go far.

Lily Scott - Our personal favorite. Wasn't crazy about her Beatles cover but it was an inspired choice and I think she will be the Daughtry of this year's show.

Siobhan Magnus - As quirky and weird as her name but she has killer pipes and seems pretty savvy.

Stay tuned for the guys...

Thursday, February 18, 2010

It's official! We have a house!!!


Well, it's been a pretty amazing 8 months since we moved from our home in Las Vegas, NV back to our old stomping grounds of Atlanta. In those months we have packed up our house in a POD, lived with my mom for a month, and then moved to a temporary house in Woodstock and only partially unpacked. Our poor dog is going to be traumatized forever!

For those who aren't familiar with the area, Woodstock is an hour away from Hiram where the church we serve is located (it can be 2 hours in afternoon traffic). I think we added it up once that we spend as much as 18 hours a week in a car driving back and forth and spend around $400-500 per month in gas for the vehicles. Add to that the extra early wake up times required to get out there on time for work and church and it can be a pretty exhausting lifestyle. So believe me when I say this will radically change our lives!

The house is a great old single story ranch ult in the early seventies but recently renovated by a professional renovation company. It's only 1600 sq. ft. but has a huge garage that we will close in and use for living space. Best of all it is on 1.5 acres of grass and beautiful hardwood trees. It's not in a subdivision so there is home owners' association. That means we can grow our own vegetables and have a few chickens like we have wanted to do for a while. After 7 years of claustrophobic Las Vegas suburban life, this will be a wonderful breath of fresh air. I know, I know, we will have to know all 1.5 acres but, hey, that's what kids are for, right?

It's kind of a cool story of God's goodness how we ended up here. It was really important to Cheryl and me that we have a place with at least an acre where we do the garden and the chickens, where the kids could be outside, and where people could come and hang out and feel welcomed and loved. We knew it couldn't be a subdivision. An older house was okay, in fact we preferred it as long as it was in good shape. And we wanted it for around $100,000 or less. How's that for parameters!

When our realtor, Michelle Bullock, first told me about the place I (Jerry) went and looked at it. The lot was great but no work had yet been done so it still looked a little rough. And too small. I came back and said, "Yeah, the land is great but it's just not what we are looking for", and we forgot about it. A few weeks later, we were out looking at houses and not really finding exactly what we were looking for. We were beginning to get discouraged, thinking we were going to have to compromise on what we wanted, even though Cheryl especially felt strongly that God had lead us to look for that kind of property. There were houses and land like what we wanted but not in our price range. And there just weren't any houses with land like we wanted that were not in a subdivision that would restrict what we did. So at the very end of the day, after we had looked at the last house, Michelle said, "There is that one house on Clonts Rd. I told you about." I just sort of blew it off. "Yeah, I looked at it and I can tell you right now it's not what we are looking for." But Cheryl said she wanted to see it anyway. "Okay," I shrugged, "but you are not going t like it."

As soon as we drove onto the property it was clear this was the place. It had been beautifully renovated in the time since I first saw it. Cheryl looked at me and raised her eyebrows with that "So I'm not going to like this?" I was shocked. "I swear to you, this is not the way it looked when I saw it!" It has new paint inside and out, new flooring (even new floors in some places), new roof, new AC, the garage had been redone. It had a big screened in porch in the back. The backyard backed up to beautiful pasture land. And the best part was it was only $109,000!

We began to get really excited about it. We decided we wanted to put an offer on it. So we gathered in the front yard, held hands in a circle and prayed that if this was the place God had for us He would make it happen, but if not, we knew He had something better. When we called, the selling agent said there was already an offer on the house, but it was lower than their asking price, and that it had not been put under contract yet. So we said, we will give you what you you are asking for it. She was very happy to hear that. Unfortunately, a few minutes later we found out that another agent who was also working with the seller had just signed papers with a prospective buyer. They were very sad to hear that because they wanted to sell us the house. They said, "We would love to sell you the house but we can't back out of it now. There's no way to get out of it unless they're financing falls through."

It was disappointing but we had given it over to God and knew He had something for us. So in the weeks that followed we continued to look, but couldn't find anything quite like that. I found myself driving by on my lunch hour and looking wistfully at it. I would drive slowly by and just say to God, "Lord, if it pleases you for us to have this place, would you make it happen?" Michelle, our realtor, said she would do the same thing every time she drove by.

One day the next week, Michele called and said, "Are you guys ready for some good news?" The financing had fallen through and they wanted to know if we were still interested. So the rest, as they say, is history. There are some other smaller but no less awesome God-moments in the story but suffice it to say He has made it clear that this is where He wants us to be.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us through this time. Stay tuned to this blog and to Facebook for details on moving. We will need lots of help on both the Woodstock and Douglasville ends, but we are blessed with many wonderful friends and encouragers on both sides.

Click here to see the new Davison homestead!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

The Outsiders, Episode 1



Here is the latest of my video projects for Church at the Ridge. We shot it Thursday, in the freezing cold, on the corner of Hwy. 61 and Mustang Drive, and in White Oak Park, and at the home of John & Lora Bower. My son, Erik, did the camera work. I edited Friday and Saturday, and we showed it to the church this morning. It went over well, I think. We are already planning the next one.

This is part f our current series at The Ridge called "The Outsiders." Come join us and check it out! For more info on Church at the Ridge, you can click here!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Quote of the Day

I was watching an old John Wayne movie called The Cowboys. In the movie, John Wayne is leading a group of young boys across 400 miles of rugged country on a cattle drive. In one scene they come across the skeleton of a man with an Indian spear sticking in him. One boy asks, "What happened here?" John Wayne answers, "Little Big Horn." The boy looks at the skeleton in disgust and says, "They didn't even dig him a decent grave!." John Wayne says:

"Well, it's not how you're buried, it's how they remember you."

Good word, Duke!

Monday, January 25, 2010

You can tell a lot about a person by their iPod...

















Just out of curiosity I looked to see what my Top Ten most played songs on my iPod were. Interesting. I never would have guessed it. Here they are...

10. "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole

09. "Reminiscing" by Little River Band

08. "Carlisle Wheeling" by The Monkees (My most played Monkees song!)

07. "Something" by The Beatles (There was no way there was NOT going to be at least one Beatles song in my Top 10!)

06. "I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)" by Nat King Cole (I was not expecting there to be TWO NKC songs, however...)

05. "What's New" by Charlie Watts (This is the drummer of the Rolling Stones. He has a jazz combo on the side that records the smoothest versions of old standards. Great stuff!)

04. "In My Life" by The Beatles (My most played Beatles song... This song is songwriting genius.)

03. "Photograph" by Ringo Starr (Now this surprised me, I must confess. I mean, this is a great song but of all the solo Beatles to show up in my Top Ten, I would have expected McCartney. Ringo would be the last one I expected to see. Strangely fitting, though...)

02. "I've Got a Crush On You" by Charlie Watts

and the number one most played song on Jerry's iPod is... (drum roll, please)

01. "Chances Are" by Johnny Mathis

I'm not kidding. It really is. I am totally in love with this song. I grab my wife and we slow dance every time it comes on. Freaks our kids out. They run screaming from the room, "AAAAGH! Old people in love!" This has become one of our "special" songs. You know what I mean. ;-)

So I have to admit that this surprised me somewhat. I mean I love all these songs and they come up in the rotation regularly but I would have guessed I would see more power pop and modern rock stuff. I mean one Monkees song only? And not even one of my top favorites. No McCartney? No Cheap Trick? No U2 for cryin' out loud!!! How is that possible?

Nevertheless, I learned a little something about myself by looking at this list. I'm even more of a hopeless romantic than I thought. Actually, "hopeless" is not the right term; I am a hope-full romantic. Some would call it schmaltzy. But I am so crazy in love with my wife that I find I gravitate toward those songs that celebrate that. If you take a close look at all these songs there are common themes: faithfulness, loyalty, marriage, family, treasuring those relationships that make life worth living. These songs may not reflect my musical loves but they completely reflect my heart.

I also noticed there weren't any "Christian" songs in the list. But the songs that are there celebrate the kind of love that can only come from knowing the Author of Love. So when I sing them, they are coming from my heart, which is a new creation in Christ. So in that since, they are all "Christian" songs.

Looking at the next ten songs it doesn't change much. Cheap Trick and Macca and John Lennon show up finally but singing romantic love songs: "Carrying," "My Love," "Woman," "If You Want My Love"... There is even an Elvis song, "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You." And another Beatles tune, "And I Love Her." And more Charlie Watts.

I may be a rocker on the surface. But I carry the heart of a lover. At least, that's what my iPod tells me.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Had an intersting day...

I woke up feeling nauseous and exhausted. Stomach's been a little queasy for a few days now. Between feeling sick and the dog barking half the night, I hardly slept. I "texted" in sick to the office but worked from home anyways.

Here's the interesting part... The message that I preached this past weekend at church had failed to record due to a technical glitch. I was disappointed because I wanted my mom and my Vegas friends to hear it. Steve suggested I just set up a mic and preach it again. Hmmm...

So today I set up a home "studio" in my bedroom using my laptop and the mic from our Beatles Rock Band game. I moved our bird out of the room, silenced the phone's ringer, and banned everyone from the back of the house. Then I put my notes on a music stand and hit record and preached to the walls. It was weird at first but once I got going it was actually kind of fun. No time constraints so I could use all the material I wanted (though some would say I didn't seem to be bothered by time constraints Sunday!)

You can listen to it here. Just picture me all by myself, preaching into a Wii microphone plugged into my laptop and you'll get the picture.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Best Moments of 2009

I know I'm a little late on this but I wanted to weigh in on what I think are some of the best moments our family experienced in 2009. So here they are, in no particular order...

Our "Fireproof" small group at Hope Baptist in Las Vegas, NV.

Being ordained to the gospel ministry by Hope Baptist.

Staying at the bed & breakfast in historic Hiram, GA while we were visiting Church at the Ridge

Being called to be the new Creative Arts Pastor at Church at the Ridge in Hiram, GA

Getting to stay at a really cool old house in Woodstock for free.

Getting a new MacBook Pro for FREE!!! (And a free iPod touch came with it!)

Going to the U2 360 tour at the Georgia Dome with my son, Erik, and his friends.

Making some great new friends at our new church. Our new small group ROCKS!

Getting to preach on marriage at C@TR.

Getting a surprise visit from the Milligan family from Vegas!

Finally getting Beatles Rock Band this Christmas.

Celebrating 22 years of marriage to the most amazing, godly woman in the known universe. I love you, sweet-pea!


For what it's worth, here is my Top Ten of the best music from 2009 (again in no particular order):

U2 - "No Line on the Horizon"
Switchfoot - "Hello Hurricane"
Cheap Trick - "The Latest" & "Sgt. Pepper Live"
David Crowder Band - "Church Music"
Coldplay - "LeftRightLeftRight"
Fee - "Hope Rising"
Muse - "The Resistance"
needtobreathe - "The Outsiders"

Honorable Mention: Black Eyed Peas - "I Gotta Feeling" (single)
Ok, so I HATE this band but I cannot deny this is a catchy song!