cool cats

At the Oregon Convention, I got to minister with the Tim Bach Band. Tim (dark headed guy) and Lonnie both have great hearts. Both these guys have been around. Lonnie has played with Petra and DC Talk and Tim travels to lead worship and speak. Amazing musicians that I have enjoying hanging with. It always amazes me how the chemistry comes together at an event like this. From the host team to the speaker, worship band, students and leaders. All working toward the same goal.....seeing students have an encounter of God. God is so faithful. I love to hear the testimonies of students and what God is doing in them. I am truly blessed to play a part..

Oregon Youth Convention

Tomorrow bright and early, I am flying out to "Duck Country", Oregon Ducks that is. It's always a privelege to be asked to come and minister. For me, I feel it keeps me fresh. To get out of my little world and rub shoulders with others who sharpen me. I always go with the intent to give and to serve, but I always come back full and blessed. This will be a crazy weekend speaking 3 main sessions and a breakout at the convention, flying in at 11:30pm on Saturday and then speaking 2 services here on Sunday. I feel like I'm the District Youth Director again. I'm praying for God to move huge.
Side note: I used to get real nervous before I spoke, but now I've come to the fact that I'm just the servant. I will pray, study and prepare, but the results are up to God. Once I grasped that, it really took the pressure of me and I enjoy life and ministry so much more.

thefts

Last night, again one of the cars down the street got some stuff stolen from it. Usually CD's, sunglasses and some spare change have been all that has been stolen. I really doubt that the thieves are professionals, becuase they have never stolen any radio's or even cars. It's funny, they even got in my mom's car, but left her "Gaither" CD's sitting on the front seat. They are the one's missing out! Anyway the kicker is this, all the cars that have had things stolen, have been UNLOCKED.

Thinking this morning about how well locked my heart and mind are from the enemy of my soul who want to steal from me. Maybe the question is, "what am I doing to ensure that I don't fail or fall?" It's not that I plan to fail, but do I plan NOT TO? What measures have I taken to ensure it? Also, there are probably alot of people who haven't failed (morally, spiritually, with integrity) only because they haven't had the opportunity. My prayer is that God helps me to "guard my heart, for it is the wellspring of my life."

A good day

Sunday was a good day! We had a good crowd, took an offering for some other church planters (Adam/Jenna Long), baptised 3 and pushed missions. I always get a big kick out of the fact of how God blesses our church financially every time we take an offering for someone else. In fact I once encouraged a Pastor who's church was struggling, to take take an offering and give it away! I remember when we started we did the same thing and God blessed us huge, just as He did today.
We also announced the 3rd service and our people were excited. This excitement builds momentum and we are going to do our best to keep this momentum going to continue C3's growth. We are all truly honored to be a part of what God is doing.

Keri and I watched Akeela and the Bee tonight for our "in house" date night......I never thought I would be crying while watching a movie about a spelling bee.

We are launching a 3rd service

I am pumped! We just had our advisory board meeting and decided to go to a 3rd service on November 11th, following our 1 year birthday as a church on November 4th. It will be a Sunday night service that will be real close to the Sunday morning. We took a survey and close to 60% of our people said they would go to a Sunday evening service. So now we are quickly structuring the frame of it to hold the weight. In my gut I really feel this could be the "niche" in our area. Once again, everything is an experiment. Looking back at our last jump to another service, we gained 40 - 50 people that week. We are hoping this appeals to a whole new crowd. It will be the same message with a couple of tweeks in the service. Time will tell.

Sunday

I'm excited about this Sunday for several reasons. First, I am speaking on "missions". This will be C3's first real service, totally dedicated to missions. We will challenge our people to give (applied through a new church planter who we will take an offering for) and to go (applied through signing up for our missions trip to Nicaragua). Also, our church will get to hear about the 14 missionaries that we currently support. Secondly, we are having a baptism service this Sunday and have a couple people who are very excited to show their obedience to Christ. Thirdly, we are launching a new season of "Community Groups" through a Group Link, immediately following our service. This will be a lunch and sharing of all the new groups that are launching and give people an opportunity to meet leaders and get plugged in. I'm totally stoked about this Sunday, it should be good.

the kid 2 blocks over

Yesterday on my day off, as I was playing in my backyard with my kids, when a neighborhood boy who is 9 years old stopped by. He was peering through the fence and asked id he could come in. I said yes, and he began to play with us, everything from soccer to baseball to basketball. There was only a couple of problems, one being he kept using the Lord's name in vain. So I had to pull him to the side and explain our "house" rules. That along with him trying to bully around my little guys who are 3 & 6. He then did well for a while as I would try to coach him and encourage him just like one of my boys. But then he would go back to the same old stuff. Eventually, after a couple of warnings, I told him he had to leave for the rest of the day. He looked at me with this stunned look and then left. I told him he could come back tomorrow if he would obey our rules. I realize first I have to protect my kids, but also this may be a chance God is giving me to invest in this kids life who seems to have no real male influence. I am excited to see how this plays out.