Date week

Keri and I's "date week" is coming to an end. Our kids spent this last week before school starts with my parents in Canton Ohio. This left Keri and I with the whole week to ourselves. We literally went out on a date 4 nights in a row. It was awesome! I even skipped my softball game to make this happen. (talk about sacrifice! lol) We felt like a young couple again. I have to admit though, that it only takes a couple days and we both start missing our kids.
- On another note, our newest Staff members to C3, Brent and Starla Salyers move in today!
- As for our new building, the walls and trusses are here and will go up shortly.
- Sunday is also C3's annual picnic! There will be a huge kickball game, cornhole, food, fun.....and trophies....ha.

what it feels like

Tuesday, I was running "mile repeats" with one of my friends. Mile repeats are where you run 1 mile very fast, take a 3-4 minute break, and then run another mile and continue to repeat those 2 steps. Trust me, it hurts. As I'm running the last mile, I kept telling myself, that this is what winning feels like. Everyone says they want to run fast, but very few are willing to put themselves through the pain to do it.
I'm learning that as our church continues to grow, the pace begins to pick up. When there are times that I may feel it, I begin to think, "this is what a growing church feels like." The choice is then either to embrace the discomfort, or let off. Which one are you choosing?

obstacles

What are your biggest obstacles? The one's that stand in the way of you doing something great with your life. The obstacles that if removed, you could run after your dream on your heart? Those obstacles are effecting more than you. Think of the countless people that you could touch if your dream was realized. The crazy thing is, it's your dream, your obstacle and your responsibility to get over, under or around it. What's the first step? Take it!

fun

Sunday night I was at my parents church where I got to play some bluegrass music with my Dad and Papaw! It was awesome. At one point I beat boxed and my Dad rapped and his people gave a standing ovation! Everyone was laughing and we had a great time. Monday, we took the kids bowling and I had a turkey (3 strikes in a row) on the 10th frame! Today, we had our monthly sectional meeting and then to a coffee shop to meet with some pastors from another church. I pray Gary and I gave them something they can use. Tonight, Keri and I are going out with about 30 C3'ers to gameworks for dinner and games. It's cool Keri threw out some emails saying it's open to any who are available. I love our church.

Fairfield Christian Academy

Last night and this morning I got the privilege to speak at the beginning of the school year retreat. I had a great time and pray the students were touched by God. The band "the great transparency" led worship and did a great job. It was also cool to see a couple students from C3!

taste

My Keri and I had a conversation discussing how that whatever I speak on Sunday, we have usually had to deal with it the week before. The reason is, "we will have to taste what we preach!" It's easy to stand up and tell others to have "faith" through a rough time in their lives, it's a complete other thing to have to walk through it yourself. So, I'm looking at my preaching schedule through the end of the year to see what I should prepare to face....ha.

depth

I have wrestled at times with how deep to go with the teaching on a Sunday morning. If we don't go deep enough, we lose the mature believers, but if we go too deep, we lose the seekers or young Christians. Our approach has been to deal with real life topics and to look at how the truth of the God's Word can be applied to our lives. Application is the key to LifeChange. Faith + Action = LifeChange. Many Christians who have followed Christ for a while, are over educated and under applied. In other words, they have a whole lot of Bible head knowledge, but very little heart transformation. Who cares how much you know....what are you living out? In my opinion, true ministry depth is what others can take away and apply.