simply…the truth

• Faith, therefore, is more than head knowledge; it is our lock upon the goodness and power of God so that no matter what we face outwardly, inwardly we stand secure.
• God’s goal is that we become Christlike. The real Jesus is going to call us to do the impossible. This means that we will be called to do what we have never done before. You will see Jesus ahead of you, probably in some kind of storm, but it will be the beginning of a miracle that will change you – and the world around you.
• Remember, I am talking about the real Jesus now, the one who said, “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). If the Jesus you are following is not leading you into the realm of the impossible to make changes in your world, you are probably following the wrong one.

taken from Francis Frangipane’s March 22nd newsletter titled, “The Real Jesus” – sign up for it! (Good stuff!)

simplify

every now and then i find it necessary to just simplify…as well as streamline!

simplifying is the process of removing those things that aren’t essential…those thing that serve as a distraction…those things that derail you from your focus. tonight it’s simplifying my desk, that means the paper calendar that i purchased at the beginning of the year (“because that’s the way we’ve always done it”) is going into the drawer in my desk (off my desk, off my space), the essential book(s) that i’m reading right now are going to be narrowed down to just a couple and i’m going to start taking them everywhere so that i can finish them here and there

streamlining is the process of making process more easy (great grammar, eh?) – it’s the process of making life more focused – that’s one of the reasons i use bloglines as an aggregator for all of the feeds i read (about 47 right now).

so…

what else can i simplify? (remove)

what else can i streamline? (focus)

what can you simplify?

what can you streamline?

love to hear your comments…

easter eggs, peeps, thorns, the cross and cars

enjoyed a little quiet and down time this morning…in doing so i spent some time doing a little forward-thinking about the next couple of weeks…

this friday i’ll hang out with my daughter at her easter egg hunt at school – i love these! there is something remarkable about watching a child’s face light up when they FIND the easter egg – there’s a ton of fun watching them HUNT the easter eggs. it’s neat to see them explore, follow in one another’s tracks, neat to watch the parents gently guide them to “finding” the easter eggs – it’s all just so cool – it’s all just so childish - can’t we be like that? do we have to have it ‘figured’ out before we start (speaking volumes to myself right now)? God has given us His Holy Spirit to guide us into ‘finding’ what God’s plan is – I’m looking forward to that visible, tangible reminder in a couple of days – Easter’s here!

then there are peeps - did you know that the amount of peeps chicks and bunnies eaten this year could circle the earth’s circumference? did you know that peeps are the best selling easter candy (non-chocolate) for the past decade? did you know there are websites dedicated to demented research on peeps (hmmmmm)? btw, i like peeps…

but, moving on, there is the issue of thorns and the cross at easter! of course, in recent years there’s been an uptick in the media trying to discredit or bring speculation to the meaning of easter – they’ve tried to discredit that Jesus was ever a real person, that perhaps the crucifixion/resurrection were just a hoax, and now they are claiming that Jesus was really married – i’m not going to launch into an apologetic here because frankly that’s not my gifting. this i know…Christ is real, i’ve experienced His redemption and His grace, Christ is arisen and there’s reason for hope. Hope! Hope, there’s a word that people all around us could use…imagine if hope were as prevalent as peeps. ok, seriously, our world is full of people without hope…then there are people like ’salavat.’

spent this morning doing a quick read of the latest issue of voice of the martyrs magazine i received this week in the mail…’salavat’ is a Christ-follower in uzbekistan – he’s been imprisoned countless times for the message of the gospel. recently he was imprisoned for six months! during this time his wife and 5 children were basically neglected by the church because the other Christians were afraid of coming around for fear of imprisonment. during his time in prison, he was to beaten by the other inmates – they spared him – favor of God. upon release, his family had little food, but lots of hope. his 7 year old daughter asked, ‘dad, when are we going to eat again?’ – think about that for a moment moms and dads…imagine your children asking that question – not, “when can we go to mcdonalds?”, but “when can we eat again?” – ’salavat’ told his daughter soon because he had hope…hope…hope that God would provide. the next morning they got up at 5am to work the fields when a car drove up to their home and two ‘people’ got out of the car – they stated that they weren’t supposed to be here, but that God had sent them…they handed ’salavat’ $200, returned to the car, and drove off. when ’salavat’ and his daughter went to thank them, they looked up and the car was gone! no dust, no tracks, the road looked as if it hadn’t been driven on for months – hope showed up in a car!

that’s how it is with God, He shows up!…He shows up in a car, in a friend (through a word or a challenge) and sometimes in an easter egg hunt!

what God is doing…

what God is doing is bigger than COTN!

‘four seasons’ of first impressions

we’re breaking down the first impressions training and expectation into the following…just thought i’d share about these things – it’s what works for us.

essentially, we’ve decided that almost every service contains these four seasons within it (only one is really ever dropped, but not often). we’re going to begin to look at what takes place in each ’season’ and what ministry as a first impressions team member looks like during that ’season.’

here they are – the ‘four seasons of ministry at cotn’

1. pre-service – i.e., the greeters and ushers greeting (not talking to their best friends about recipes and bbq’s), removing obstacles, heightened awareness for guests, setting the atmosphere for miracles
2. service – partnering with the pastor speaking to maintain the right order and atmosphere, intercepting ‘problems’ before the pastor has to (i.e. kids crying in the sanctuary)
3. altar – almost always happens! this is why we get together every week – for GOD to move BIG TIME! – having ushers ready to assist with needs at the altar, praying for the pastors, protecting them (their integrity, their time, their ministry)
4. post-service – this is the ‘exit greet’ – where we thank people for being at cotn – tag teaming them for ministry next week

btw, this is one of the BEST websites for learning from when it comes to first impressions

sunday night download (or, to blog or not to blog, pt. ii)

here it is…in bullet format!

• easter’s two weeks away – invite people now
• been an interesting couple of days…i’m learning A LOT! – and i love it and hate it at the same time! God’s in control, this i know…and this i trust in. i’m thankful for my wife and some friends that have covered our back in prayer.
• amazing two weeks in church…telling you, God is UP to something at cotn! will we be ready, will we receive it, will we embrace it – it will look different than what we are used to.
• for two weeks in a row we’ve had ‘unusual’ things happen during service – God’s in control here!
• i placed georgetown in the final four and i got that one right
• watching the lady tar heels play and it’s a non-game – they are awesome and fun to watch
• had a great first impressions meeting tonight – more on what we covered later
• easter…2, two, dos, weeks away!
• our building is coming along nicely – the wall studs are up, the heat and air’s going in, the plumbing is going in – so cool to see – in 6 months it’ll be ‘normal’ – whatever that will look like with God in control!
• we’re going to grow – we’ve got to add more people serving in the following areas: nursery/preschool, kids church, sunday school, first impressions, care ministry – these are my targeted areas – it CAN be done – we added 4 people to first impression in the last two weeks.
• we’re GOING to launch parking lot greeters in two weeks – i really believe we’ll have the right people serve – we have a couple right now
• i have a really long list of items to price out for the new building
• further tests on my daughter are on the way – got to get to the bottom of what’s going on with her health
• i like my new pillow
• easter’s two weeks away – invite people now!
• baseball’s right around the corner – glad the braves went ahead and locked up mccann – where do i get my mcccan can?
• love reading about what’s in the lives of these leaders in these churches:this guy, this guy, this guy, this guy, this guy
• i’m excited about the new cell i’ll be sporting in a few days…more later.
• braves pitching is second in the nl in preseason in era and k’s – awesome
• this is a really random list – more so than usual…
• things i’m thankful for – my risen savior, my hot wife, my two great kids, pastor mel’s preaching, change, health, college roommates, other bloggers, guacamole, myspace (great to connect with some of my ‘kids’ from when i was a YP who are now adults and parents)

to blog or not

that’s the question that goes through my mind the past couple of days…so much going on, so many things going through my head, so many thoughts, so many! where to start, here, there, somewhere? nowhere?

let me just say that today’s been great to be with my family! two soccer games – i love watching my kids participate in this great sport. alyssa’s team doesn’t keep score (technically, but ask any parent on the sideline…i think we didn’t win in terms of goals, but our kids really played well together). josh’s team has taken it up another level, so fun to watch them play with field and player awareness, great to see them develop some evasive maneuvers and put some moves on the other players. we won that game 2-1.

well, like i said, so much going on both in my mind and my life…just ask for your prayer…thanks!

needles, traditions and tears

been an interesting couple of weeks…

alyssa seems to keep battling a virus – first we think she’s better, then the fever spikes up again. had to have some tests done to see if there’s something more to it than just a virus…of course, ‘tests’ translates into needles, pokes, pain and tears…

thankfully, the tears and drama (very real for a 6 year old) wasn’t nearly as bad as it was for a 5 year old – she is indeed growing up. i was really proud that she cooperated more (of course, not totally, just more) than the first time ‘tests’ were done.

patrice did a splendid job of explaining that the our blood tells the story of us – our skin and what we see on the outside is like a book’s cover and the blood is the story inside…the dr. just wants to know what the story is all about! this related well to our daughter who loves to read and just a couple of days ago told me she was going to be a paleontologist – just the fact that she could say it indicates, at least to me, that she’ll in fact become one (or could become one).

fastforward to last night…it was a hectic night but i was determined to spend just a few minutes reading the bible with my son and praying for/with him – that’s been a tradition that we keep with both of our kids – although not all the time, we try to make sure it’s the rule rather than the exception…some traditions are really worth keeping!

following our reading time together (reading 1 timothy and talking about how young timothy was and the things he faced), we shared prayer requests. then, i prayed. typically i let him pray first and then i pray, last night i sensed God wanted me to pray first, then josh – i really sensed that God wanted me to ‘model’ prayer to my son.

there it happened…again…this time it wasn’t a 6 year old concerned about ‘tests’ – it was a 39 year old listening to his son pray for him and his mom – the tears rolled again! i was so moved by my son’s prayer that i began to cry as he prayed for us – i sensed in my spirit – ‘he’s got it!’

needles…

tradition…

each can bring tears, however, both have brought me closer to my children in the past couple of days!

24 back…and presidential bid

last night’s episode was great – i’ve really grown tired of 24 this year seeing that i’m able to predict almost everything that’s coming…last night, however, was a great episode – so glad to see jack back in the saddle – come on! i just can’t see the silver spoons dude taking jack’s place – plus, his character is a real jerk!

since my bracket’s falling apart – i’m throwing all (that would be my college roommate) of my campaign support behind the “jack bauer for president”  campaign

on my radar…

so, here’s what’s on my radar…

1. loving my wife more than ever – growing our relationship daily – never want to see it become stale or predictable!
2. loving my son as a father should by setting an example of godliness and holiness to him – helping him become the man God intends him to be
3. loving and nurturing my daughter so that she’ll know the exact way a man should treat a woman (see #1 above!) – also, praying for God to heal her and help us get to the bottom of why she gets sick frequently
4. the other stuff in life…