revealed

It's amazes me that more I grow, the more gaps that are revealed in my life.  As our church continues to grow, there are areas in my life and leadership that have been been covered up or I have had just enough competence in, to get by.  But as the level rises, areas of my life and abilities are tested and tried and many times exposed for what they are not.  I then have a choice to either bring some gifted people around me to compensate for those areas or seek personal growth in them.  It is a painful humbling process as the more I grow and learn, the more I realize I don't know.

all my needs

God never said He would supply all my WANTS...but He did say He would supply all my needs.  As we continue to walk out this journey of a growing church that is planting churches, God has always given us what we needed.  We never have a lot of extra resources, but we always have enough to do what He is asking us to do.  God has never let us down yet, and it is amazing to know that He is in control and He owns it all.  My God has never failed us yet!

my sabbatical

I've been offline for a while as I headed off to the woods to spend some time sitting 20ft off the ground, in perfect silence in a tree stand.  For me, it is truly a time to recharge.  I was blessed to be able to come back to the camp and hang with my Dad, brother and friends.  This year has been my best yet by harvesting 5 deer between WV and Ohio!  I have filled my freezer and a buddies freezer to.  I feel like I am gearing up for another crazy season of explosive growth at C3....I can sense it on the horizon!

it's never easy

I have learned that pastoring a growing church can be fun, but never easy.  It takes constant attention to continue to move forward and keep everybody on the same page.  This is especially hard when you continue to change and therefore nothing remains the same for very long.  At least for us, growth means never fully getting a grasp on what we are doing.  But....I wouldn't have it any other way.

burnout

This morning in our C3li meeting with our future church planters, we talked about burnout.  It's so easy to get caught up doing things For God, that we don't spend any time With God.  This leads to us getting stale and eventually burning out.  We have to learn to read our personal gauges.  Things like emotionally, spiritually, physically, your marriage and family and the list could go on and on.  The key is running a sustainable balanced pace for the long haul.  How much longer can you run your current pace?

no limit

I had one of those moments the other day where the sky seemed to peel back and I had that thought without limits and here it is:  my vision is my only limitation.  

- Granted, ultimately God gives the vision and we all have personal limitations, but many of us shoot for a tree instead of a star.  At least if we shoot for a star, we might hit a mountain.  There are no limits to what God can do through us.  The key is to keep our eyes and thoughts off of us and on HIM!  

5

Sunday was an amazing day in the life of our now 6 year old church.  We had a decent crowd and some excitement as we announced THE 5 NEW CHURCH PLANTS we are helping launch in 2013!!

. Simple Church - Reynoldsburg - Aaron and Shanda DeLong
. City Reach - Brice - Bruce and Ana Folwell
. Real Church - TBD - James and Tiffany Dewhurst
. A Missions Church - Eldoret Kenya
. C3 Church - Baltimore Campus - Buddy and Chelli Watts

The message I shared Sunday was called DENT.  Each of our church planters shared their vision, then took a sledge hammer and hit a car hood we had hanging and made a Dent!  I was an incredible day.  We had a Birthday Party that night with cake, inflatables and dodgeball.  Then our church blessed our socks off with a huge gift that I did not see coming.  I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of this amazing church.