Push me

You know how it feels to be pushed. While I was running my third mile today I saw someone cross the road and come up behind me. There was no way I was going to allow them to pass me. They pushed me to run my last two miles faster than I would have had no one been on my tale. Running isn’t the only area I am being pushed right now. God is using some things to push me to be a better leader and it feels good and hurts, similar to my run this morning.  My summer interns have forced me to plan more from day to day. City Reach is pushing me as we prepare for year two. My church is showing signs of spiritual growth which pushes me! Thank you God for pushing me! I want to become a fit leader (spiritually speaking).

Days of Summer

Well, our crazy summer is upon us. Here are a few details that have already begun:

Tim Ward, one of our summer interns arrived Sunday. He will be in WAPA until August.

City Reach is 16 days away-wow.

Coaching 2 soccer teams (both Jeremiah & Micah are playing)

Second intern, Maggie Murray will arrive on Saturday.

Going to the National Meeting after CR09

Preaching @ the MABA Church Camp in July

Taking a two week vacation sometime this summer

Putting on a free Life Point Car Wash on Saturday

Starting a new series next week called Serve

Just hosted a student pastor who is praying about moving to WAPA

Planting an awesome church!

Life Point Prayer Update

Over the past year, I have been encouraged on numerous occasions to begin corporately praying with my peeps. Well two months ago, I took the leap of faith. Since that time, we have consistently had six or seven family groups prayer each Wed. night. Nothing flashy or edgy about this, just having dinner together and then praying. God has already answered many of our prayers. Last Wed. we prayed for a couples marriage. This was a couple we all knew well. I got a call this Wed from one of them telling me that everything is going great! God moved in their life in just seven days and answered our prayers. One really cool thing about this whole praying together with Life Point meeting is how it has improved my prayer life. Pastors if you aren’t praying together with your people, not only are you missing out, they are too.

“WE” need to hear this

You owe it to yourself to read this blog post by Steven Furtick. It will challenge you to talk to people face to face and not about them. Wow, I needed to hear this. The old adage, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say “nothin” at all still applies in 2009.

Celebrating Mom’s

Yesterday was a great day for us. We had a ton of  people. My wife had 10 kids in her toddler class.  We had 4 first time  guests representing two new family groups. I preached a sermon detailing the struggle Hannah had with her deep desire to have a son and her awesome influence as a mother. At the end of the service, we honored our Mothers with Chocolate and Starbucks (gift card). Right now God is sending us a lot of mom’s. I am so thankful and honored to have the women at Life Point that we have. Now, I just got to figure out how to reach some of these ladies husbands. It’s not easy. They really don’t care much about church or God. Where would we be without the faithful ladies of today and of the many years gone by?

Idle or Moving Forward

Check out this post by Mark Batterson which talks about leaders playing it safe or pushing forward. Great challenge!

Update on Life Point

Things are going well at our church! God has brought a ton of new people to check us out. We had 20 first time guests in March & April and 22 second time guests. Since moving into our new location, it seems we have been getting a few new guests. Our Wed. night prayer time is going well! God is answering many of our prayers and Life Pointers seem to love getting together and praying. Let me share an awesome story with you. When we had our first day in our new location, a young couple visited and have come came back a hand full of times. Renee and I had them over for dinner last week and she said, “I’ve met you before.” “Three years ago, I met you at the fair.” Rewind:  when we first moved to town in June of 2006, we had a booth at the local fair, and only met one person who was slightly interested in our church. Three years later, God brought her & her husband to Life Point through a couple who is part of Life Point. Awesome how God brought that about. He knew they would one day come to Life Point. Never forget to plant seeds! It works.

Free Stuff

Everyone loves free stuff, especially pastors. Check out this, this and this. Three great  websites that offer free sermon logos and videos. (Don’t tell anyone, this is where I got my family tree logo for my upcoming series.) Let me know if you have any sites that offer any free stuff!

New Series

I am starting a new series on Mother’s Day called the Family Tree. I am going to be looking at who makes up the family and how we can impact our family. Here is a sneak peak of the new graphic.

What a work out . . .

Rode 12 miles on Saturday and it kicked my butt! Ran 3 miles today and can tell I haven’t ran in 2 weeks. Really glad that winter has passed, spring lasted a week and summer like temp. have reached PA. Ready to get in running and biking shape. Funny story about my ride on Sat. I was riding along on about my 4th mile when an older guy came up beside me. He was at least 30 years older than me. I thought to myself, this guy is not going to out do me. I can at least ride as long as he can. The fact that this was only my second ride of the season completely escaped my mind. By mile 10, I was hurting. After two massive hills, I thought I was going to lose my lunch. As I made my way home, I had to stop three times. I guess that guy showed me! Definitely got to get in bike shape. Glad summer has arrived.