2009 Recap

December 31, 2009- Before I can move into 2010, I just want to take a breath and reflect on the great things that happened in 2009. Here goes...
1.Married the greatest woman in the world on Febuary 14-








2. We baptized 143 people @Victory World Prayer Center on April 11-







3. We dropped eggs from a helicopter for Eggstravaganza-







4. We started the Revolutionize campaign, remodeled the sanctuary, changed the name and direction of the church(it was awesome)!






5. Swine Flu epidemic-








6. Community Outreach-







7. Twitter marketing-







8. Fun with friends- and family-






9.Trip to Savannah-






The end of the year with family and friends. Truly this has been a great year. But the best is yet to come!

Ratio Perspective

December 28, 2009- This past week, my wife and I took some time off in the beautiful city of Savannah, Ga. It was wonderful! The whole place was incredible. It is a place where time stands still. The history of this city is alive and well even today. But there was one place that I was drawn to time and time again. It was a monument to "John Wesley" . I was drawn to this monument of this great man of God. So naturally I had my wife get a photo of me standing next to this giant of the faith. I was truly fulfilled with this accomplishment until I looked at the photo. No ghosts(it is Savannah you know), but what struck me was the difference in our sizes. Now when I say this, I am saying nothing to discount any men of God today, what I am about to say was merely personal conviction. So here it is. This man was HUGE next to me. I looked so tiny. And you know what? I felt so tiny. The thing is, where are these giants of the faith today? I am a minister, and after thinking of all the accomplishments and sacrifices of Wesley, I simply felt small. I felt inadequate. It seems it is so easy to get comfortable with church and how we do things, that we think we are effective for the gospel. It's not that we aren't effective, but this simple picture taken on my vacation stirred a fire in me not only to do more but to be more!!!

The weight of the world

December 16, 2009- Too many times we look @ ministry like we have to be the one to do it all. I do realize that nobody can do it better than you can do it. So it only seems right for you to do it. But let's try a simple exercise to see just how effective one person would be in the personal evangelization of our planet. Ok, so you are a good preacher. Heck no! You are a great preacher. You live your life as to tell everyone you come into contact with about Jesus. Let's say you reach 10,000 people a month with the gospel. Do you know it would take you 50,000 years to reach the planet. That's a task! But maybe you are more effective than that. Let's say you can reach 500,000 people a month with the gospel. Do you know how long it would take then? 1000 years. That is, if nobody else were born in that millennium. The simple fact is, you can't do it by yourself. Nobody can. That's why we need each other. Now let's try another exercise. If I tell you about Jesus, and we both tell 2 people a month about Him, and we get each one of the next people to do the same, then, guess how long it would take to reach our planet? Just under 3 years. Now that is do- able and the cool thing is nobody would have to reach more than 2 people a month. That is the point we have to reach for the furthering of the gospel. Now that is preaching!

Just for today

December 11, 2009- Last night we have a wonderful time in Recovery. I have heard many negative remarks concerning recovery in the christian walk, but those people make me laugh. I see on a daily basis people whose whole life has been wrecked by drugs, alcohol, or other bad choices, and recovery is a safe place for them to share their experiences and to have people around who share those same victories, as well as defeats. Recovery is NOT discounting what God can do, but recognizing that God is the only way!!! The problem is that along this walk we are not the only person who effects our process. We have people around us with agendas of their own, and sometimes these people can be very damaging to our walk. There is a great quote in recovery that says"Just for today". That is where we have to live.TODAY. Otherwise we get focused on either things we cannot change or dwelling on the past to the point that we forget to live in today and we miss the very important moments that God has placed us in. We miss things in the process that are essential to our growth. There is a great picture of this on the cross of Christ. Jesus hangs on the cross between two people. There is a thief on one side, and a thief on the other. What does a thief do? He steals? The thief on one side of Jesus asks "are you not the Christ? Save us and yourself" He appeals to the signs and wonders Jesus is known for in that day. He appeals to the past. Aren't you known as this Jesus the Christ? We have those kind of thieves in our lives as well. People who appeal to our past. They try to cause us to live in the past, and if they get their way, they steal our today from us. The thief on the other side does just the opposite. He appeals to the future. "Jesus, remember me WHEN You come into Your kingdom". He say remember me WHEN. He looks to the future and says when. Many times we are so caught up in what is going to happen tomorrow that we miss our today. But the cool part is that Jesus, in answering the mans request, says something profound. He says, "THIS DAY, you will be with me in paradise. Jesus is not affected by the thief on either the right or the left. He neither is pulled into the past or drawn to the future. Jesus stays in the day. THIS DAY! That is awesome. My prayer is that we live in the day. We can't let the thieves pull us to the right or to the left. We must live in the THIS DAY!

Do you hear what I hear?

December 8, 2009- In reading the book of Luke this season something really cool happened to me. We were in staff meeting this morning and Pastor Mark said that his devotional time had him in the second chapter of Luke. He begin to talk about the moving of the Spirit of God. We talked about how Simeon and Anna were moved by the Spirit and they were ready for years for the moment they met the Lord Jesus @ the temple when His parents brought Him for dedication as a baby. The words they each spoke were prompted by the Spirit, they were filled with the Spirit, and they were both led and empowered by the Spirit. That is amazing, but the most incredible part of this story is that God was showing me things like this in my own personal time with Him yesterday prior to this teaching. The Spirit of the Lord is so Awesome! And in all this, the thing that touched me most is the topic. What is being moved by the Spirit? Well I think between my devotional time studies, and the topic Pastor used this morning, and the text he used for it, God plainly showed me that being moved by the Spirit is simply hearing Him. That's what I've been hearing. What about you?

Peace on earth

December 3, 2009- Well, it's that time of year again. Yep, the time of "peace on earth" which is anything but that. So here's my yearly contribution of insight(well not mine, but someone very creative)