New Thru 30

Three weeks ago, I challenged our church to begin reading through the New Testament in 30 days. Almost 30 people took the challenge. This is by far THE best thing we have ever done at Life Point. The  stories I have heard have been amazing. Father’s, mother’s, husbands and wives seeking to hear directly from God via HIS WORD. One thing that has amazed me is how awesome our worship has been at Life Point. The main reason I believe it’s been so good, people are hearing from God during the week and therefore ready to worship Him on Sunday. Another thing that has blown me away is how much God has been speaking through me on Sundays. I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, “I felt like you were speaking right at me.” I am not preaching any different. But I do filled more with the Spirit and feel like the Spirit is moving in our service and touching many people’s lives. I thank God for this season in our church. It is truly changing our church.

Primal

Mark Batterson’s new book Primal is a must read for 2010. It has proved in my opinion to be one of his best. Maybe its because this is exactly what I have needed. One of my favorite quotes in the book is :

“When you give your heart to Christ, Christ gives His heart to you. And you become a part of the tribe of the transplanted. That new heart gives you a new appreciation for life. You humbly acknowledge your responsibility to honor the donor. . . . Your heart begins to break for the things that break the heart of God. And that is the heart of what it means to love God with all your heart.”

Man, I want to love God the way I am suppose to with all my heart. My quest in 2010 is to truly learn what it means to love God. I highly recommend this book! I promise it will help in your journey of loving God.

You can purchase the book here. You can also follow Batterson’s blog here.

*This was book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah

City Reach 2009

Man, what a week. God blessed so much. After all the final numbers, we had 42 people accept Christ last week. I think at least 5000+ people heard about Life Point. Amazing. The entire week went by soooo fast, but man what a week. The preaching, worship, students and leaders serving, fellowship & overall spirit was great! I would like to thank everyone who came to WAPA to help. The CR board did a great job making this year a success. I pray that God will bless everyone who came and served. The leaders and students who attended CR, “just came to serve!”

CR09 Tuesday

Had a great day on Tuesday. God continues to bless. We had 83 sport campers, 24 video campers, washed a bunch of cars, knocked on a lot of doors, fixed up some more homes & served the people in Washington. Everything went really well. I want to thank the Construction Crew for all their hard work. They have really helped a lot of people and have made a lot of people’s day. Everyone they are helping have really needed some help. The kids and leaders of this track are just serving and never complain about all the hard work they are doing. That is true service! I also got an awesome phone call from a mother at the sports camp thanking CR & Life Point for the sports camp. She also thanked everyone for all the different ways that CR is serving all over the community. People are seeing the servants heart of the people at CR.

Please pray that the rain will subside today, so we can get back to work!

CR09 Monday

Here are a few things that happened:

• 78 children & students showed up at sports camp
• 20 students showed up at video camp
• C.OP.S. knocked on 1,029 doors
• Construction helped 5 home owners and fixed up one park
• Special Opps put out almost 35 Life Point Lawn Signs
• Carwash washed 150 (aproxiamtely) at two location Washington & Canonsburg

God is moving! Three precious souls turned to Jesus today. Physically draining day. Day one is always fun and exciting. Matt Miller and his band did yet another great job in leading worship! Better things are yet to come for our city!

Saturday – Day Two

Day two was a good day, first meal @ W & J. The food rocks here. The cooks really do a great job. One of my favorite things is the brick oven pizza, cooked to order. Everything went well today. Had student orientation & team building.  I also spent some time at the Olin Arts Center trying to get everything worked out for Sunday morning, media, stage props & lighting. After dinner on Sat. there was a ministry track prayer time. I went in with car wash and some awesome people laid hands on me and prayed for me, my family & Life Point. Pretty great experience. One of the men praying for me was Tim Colclaser, a good friend who I haven’t seen in a long time from Antioch in L.R. Matt Miller arrived today and lead a worship concert on Saturday night. He did a great job. God brought me to my knees. This worship on Saturday really prepares me for Sunday. It happened last year. Just standing in the presence of God and worshipping Him is an AH HAH moment. Being able to feel his presence it indescribable. Praying that our Life Point service is good today. Also praying for a bunch of Life Pointers to show up. 2nd day was great. Greater things are yet to come!

Art of Gleaning

Check this post out by Mark Batterson. What we do today, affects the generations to come!

Friday – Day One

Well, City Reach has arrived. God is so good. Here are a few details that happened:

• 238 regiestered.
• Beech Grove broke down on Thur. in Nashville, Jonathan (Sharon MBC) picked them up 16 total. Jonathan broke down in Bowling Green, KY. Made it to WAPA @ 8 p.m. after much prayer & the hand of God
• Jonathan Smith had a bad white water rafting accident. Stopped in Cin., OH for an MRI-everything checked out
• Friends arrived to CR from WV, MD, AR & TX
• Satan seems to be attacking with full force-God is bigger and has great things in store
• Had a great time of celebration and welcome to CR @ 9 p.m.
• Everyone got checked in and has bed to sleep in! (Yeah, the college took care of registration, less stressful)
• CR Board is an awesome group of men and women! ) love those guys and all their hard work

Here is a verse that came to mind when I think about day one: “It is not by force, nor by strength, but by my Spirit says THE LORD  OF HEAVENS ARMIES” Zechariah 4:6

CityReach 09

Can’t believe CR will be here in two days. 248 people are coming to Washington to serve our community. Since this is our second year, I feel better prepared for what will happen. We (myself and our interns Maggie & Tim) will be putting the final touches on everything today and tomorrow. One of the things I have been thinking about is not missing it or letting it fly by. John Yoho and I talked about this last week. I want to take it all in! I don’t want to miss out on anything. I feel like sometimes, we get so busy doing stuff that we miss out when God moves or touches someone. I am praying for safe travel for all the CR’ers.  Also praying for 10 people to be baptized as added to Life Point as a direct result of CR. God, do your thang!

Passion For Preaching

I know I have said this before, but there is nothing I love doing more than preaching. I love taking God’s Word and passionately sharing it with people. Sometimes I feel like people aren’t listening. It happened just Sunday. Check out this post by Mark Batterson. It really sums up my feelings!