conditional

I'm so glad that the love of God, His mercy, His grace and His forgiveness is all UNCONDITIONAL. We can't earn it, but it is truly a free gift to us from God. BUT, His promises are conditional. If we do this (obey), then God does this. The Bible says, if we seek, then we find. If we submit ourselves to God, then we can resist and the devil will flee. If we give, then it will be given unto us. Truly, we reap what we sow. If we build our lives on the truth of Jesus Christ, then His blessing and favor will be upon our lives. It all comes down to obedience. If we obey, then we will experience the the promises of God.

community

We need each other. One of the C's of C3 Church is Community. We are striving to have a healthy community that is journeying toward Jesus. A community that is authentic and trying to show the love of God. This is a huge part of our spiritual growth. Anytime you are in close contact with a group of people there is going to be friction. We all have different opinions, personalities, styles and when you bring all that together, there is bound to be issues that come up. This is where the growth comes in. We are to extend LOVE and GRACE to others. If we do this, we begin to grow spiritually. There is not only learning how to love others with their junk, but I am forced to deal with my own issues. I have met many people who hop from church to church, because they don't want to grow. Community forces issues, which leads to friction, which should lead to change and then growth.

marriage counseling

We have a lot of young couples getting married at C3, which means a lot of marriage counseling. So here is the idea, rather than do it all myself, have some solid couples in the church do the counseling, couple to couple. The mature couple would meet with the new couple for 3 sessions before the wedding and then have a few follow up sessions after the wedding. This could be an incredible time of mentoring for this young couple as well as an opportunity for the older couple to minister. The couple doing the mentoring, after having now worked with several couples, could even do a small marriage retreat with those whom they are mentoring. I'm really feeling that would be more effective than just meeting with me 3x's prior. I'll tell you how it is working in about 6 months.

my pride

The Bible says "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want God opposing me. I feel like I have layers of pride that I'm constantly dealing with in my life. Just when I think I have almost got my pride under control, God reveals another level to work on. Currently, I'm taking a deep look at my motives. It could be after a conversation or even preaching I will ask, "why did I feel I had to say that?" I have found myself at times saying things to try to make me look better in someone else's eyes. I really didn't even realize it at the time until God revealed it to me. It could be something like, "last week I flew to ???? and used this one quote." Why did I feel I had to say anything about where I went, why couldn't I just give the quote. Anyway, it could just be me, but I am trying to remove the pride from my life. If and when you do this, you will find areas you didn't even know existed.
Here is a closing quote: (and I didn't fly anywhere to speak it) "If you talk about yourself, it's called bragging, but if someone else talks about you, it's called a reputation." (I actually think it's original)

central sectional meeting

This morning we met at C3 Church for our Central Sectional Meeting. I spoke and talked about "Excuses from a Sr. Pastor."
Here it is in a nutshell:
- "You Deserve What You Tolerate"
1. We Have No Leaders! -
* Do we just expect them to appear out of thin air?
* Do we expect some other church to train them and send them to us?
Solutions
- Iron Sharpens Iron - As the Pastor, I am developing 10 potential leaders for a 4 month leadership program, from which to draw.
- All Leaders mtng - We meet once a month and give those wanting a serve an opportunity to be trained with the leader in charge of serving opportunities.
- Spotting potential, and recruiting

2. Our People Aren't Growing Spiritually! -
* Sunday mornings alone aren't growing our people.
Solutions
- Creating a focused discipleship process
* Connect Grow Serve
* Transitions in between each

3. We Don't Have Any Money!
* You reap what you sow
* Abundance mentality vs. Scarcity mentality
Solutions
- Took offerings and gave them away to other new church plants
- Give away a portion of our fundraising money to the community
- Did a 3 month "Tithing Challenge" money back guaratnee...no questions asked

starwars journey

I have been going through all the StarWars movies with my 2 boys at our "guy nights." Sorry mom, sorry sister, no girls allowed! ha. Anyway, they are playing the lego starwars games and through that get a good handle on the story lines of the movies. Last night was the finale! I was kind of sad to be done with all the movies. (I did have to fast forward a couple dark or scary parts) I was amazed at the teaching moments that came from the movies. The biggest being, Anakin Skywalker turning into Darth Vader. It was a great lesson in guarding your heart. As a dad, I look for every opportunity to teach lessons for life. I look for any chance to teach them and to try to listen and be always open to learn personally as well.

off the chain

Today, I have to say was awesome! We had another record crowd and a ton of guests. Easter Sunday is like the churches "Superbowl". People who normally don't come to church, will come for Easter. We had several people respond to "Follow" Jesus. Our leaders did a great job pulling off an extra service and maintaining the 2 we already have. We are currently in the structuring process for the next level of growth. We have several leaders who are stepping up and stepping in. I am truly blessed to be the lead pastor of our incredible church. I tell our leaders all the time, "we have only just begun!"