Sunday

We had another tremendous service this weekend. We had 95 in attendance. Several new families came because of the signs we had placed out this weekend. (nearly 40 signs)

Almost every family that came said they would be back this next weekend.

I also want to say that I have received several emails about this weekends services, that have been very encouraging! I love to know when God is doing something great in someone's life.

Trailer

Well what a week. I found out last night that my trailer I use to haul granite with has been stolen. They took my trailer, the ramps, and my A frame that you actually put the granite on.

It isnt the end of the world, and hopefully my insurance will cover most of it. The hard part is it is just frustrating.

I am filing a police report in just a minute...

Fishing

We took the kids fishing the other day. They had a blast. We found this little pond at the front of our townhouse complex. (actually Steve and Jen found it)

Anywho.

The fish just love bread there. So I figured we could take some bread and put in on a hook or two and let the kids crank in some perch. They caught some little ones, and had so much fun.

Before it was over with we caught a "delicious bass" or two. And a neighbor kid caught about a 9lb catfish. He didn't know what to do with it, so he gave it to us. I gladly took it, filleted it up, and it was very tasty!

Joel and Morgans Grandfather

Just thought I would update everyone. Joel and Morgan's grandfather John Asmus, passed away this evening.

Please remember to keep the family in your prayers. Even though he lived a long full life, its always difficult to loose a loved one.

Citi commercials

I just saw another one of those citi commercials. I love them. The ones that have an Identity Theft... too funny. Here is a link to a few old ones. If you find the new ones leave a post.

Weekend Recap

Well this is the 4th time I have tried to leave this post. I don't know what is happening here, but either I am not supposed to be writing this or...

So here goes again.

Man this weekend was another good one. We had 85 in service. Awesome. It puts our August average attendance at 98. Very cool.

The thing I think is so cool is that even when you think you have an average at best sermon, God can perform a "miracle of hearing" and allow people to hear something better than you actually said. We had several new families that came due to our signs that we have out. Two families have already said they loved service and cant wait to be back this weekend! Great.God is really good.

This week is a busy one, and I am excited about this weekend's service. The sermon is called "What's love got to do with it." I am batting the idea of using the song somehow...
Hmmm

Rich Farthing

Rich is a missionary to Bolivia. I went to help him with an orphanage back in February. It was an amazing thing to be a part of. Since that time, we have kept in touch and our church has helped to purchase a piece of property that will help benefit the kids. It was amazing.

He came to our life group the other night, and shared his heart and goals for the future. He is such a man of integrity and value. It was good for everyone to hear his heart.

They will be leaving in April to head back to Bolivia. He does a lot of backcountry trips and was without a good tent so we added one of those to his supplies as well.

It was a MSR Storm King. If you know anything about high end tents, you know the storm king is at the top of the game. Bombproof!

How fun is it to be a part of something that not only touches us locally but has a global impact.

Grammar

Just a note. I heard through the grapevine some of you thought I was pranking you when I misspelled Christ as Crust the other day, after my post about correcting my grammar.

I wasn't. It would have been a funny thought and maybe I should have, but I didn't. Go ahead and help me!

Abraham and blindly following God

Do you ever just think about the men who followed God with out His word. Guys like Abraham who heard from God one day and God said just leave everything you have ever known or done and follow me to another place I will show you.

I am all about travel and adventure and risk. I live to take risks, to climb the highest thing around me, then jump off it. Or swim, or run, or whatever to the extreme. But I really like to know the destination, and what the results are going to look like.

Not Abraham, God said go, and he went. He didn't question where, or how long is this going to take, or what about the chariot I require. It has to be a German built one, I cant ride in an average chariot... Really the guy was pretty well off, before he started out on this journey. I was reading that story to my kids tonight and I thought "wow, am I really a risk taker for God?" Really, am I laying it on the line for him? Or do I still dabble in my own myopic issues of life?

The real vision of God is beyond my acute perspective. How bold and self centered we are to assume God only has a few little things for me to do, and I can just do everything else my way.

Forgive me God. I want to be like Abraham who simply said "Yes" instead of our "Yes? I think I will."

The last thing that got me is that after God blessed him and promised him everything in Genesis 12, God basically said, "Now keep yourself clean and stay before me. I'll work it out." Amazing.

God work it our for us, and help me to stay clean before you.

Becoming a Regular

I ripped this off my friend Bruce Chant's blog about how to become a "regular!" Awesome.

Bruce writes:
#1 Visit the same restaurant three times in the first month, then once a month ongoing. These are minimums, visit more if you like.
#2 Use your name and theirs. Hi [server], my name is [me]…
#3 Use the restaurant for a party, catering, or other service.
#4 Bring new friends (customers) and introduce them. Use this as an opportunity to stay in touch friends.
#5 Tip on free benefits, or you won’t receive them anymore.
#6 Treat servers as if they have more knowledge of the menu items than you , because they do….

In the suburban situation we find ourselves in at Northshore we are constantly looking for ways we can come alongside the people we live with in our local area. Becoming a regular - not just at restaurants but also cafes, service stations, newsagents, post offices, even supermarkets - is certainly a great way to enter the world of someone else near by you for the sake of Christ.

Great Post Bruce. It is almost a game to me when I go into a place of business. I love to try to find out as much as possible about the server/owner/attendant I am talking to.

I am fully aware that part of that is just the way I am wired, but I also think as Christ followers we need to be able to invest in people's life. We can begin that by just showing some real care for people.

Connection Power

Today at 2PM we have a conference call with the software people we use to get our follow up really rolling well.

Angela Sustala is going to lead that team and I am thrilled to get this up and running full blown. It is an awesome ministry that requires organization, some computer skills, some teaching/training ability, and a willingness to connect with as many people as possible.

I am excited to see where this is going.

Office

I have been "securing" some great office furniture in the past week. I was able to land some cubicle panels with a desk and some storage cabinets. Also our chiropractor Dr. Vince Hassel donated some desk and office furniture as well.

Needless to say my once clean garage is now filling up with items that go in the new office. Maybe its silly to be as excited as I am about making the switch, but I am pumped.

I have a meeting with The property manager at One Corporate Place today at 4 to pick out color of carpet, paint, and base.

Yeah! Definitely a step in the right direction.

Sunday

WOW. All I have to say is 117.

Not ears or hands, but people. 117. Our record attendance.

Amazing.

Deeper is Doing

There is this amazing thing that happens to some Christ followers as they grow into mature believers. Sometimes they get this idea that they need to be "deeper." Which in and of itself is great. We do need to be deep, not shallow Christians. But some how "deeper" gets translated as "mystical" in the mind.

So what starts off good as being a deeper or fully devoted Christ follower becomes a mess. I have a new theory. I call it "deeper is doing." Simply put deeper is applying the truth of God's word to our life right now. Not just looking for the mystical.

Deeper is asking the question "what does my giving look like?" A biblical mandate is giving.

Another is "am I living out all the text that we have heard being preached in the past 6 months?" Every single one? If you aren't you don't need a deeper bible study you need to be living already what you know.

Still yet another is "who have I brought to church this week?" or "who am I bringing this week?" Since the great commission was Chisst's last command to all the Christ followers, I think it is applicable to us.

I think Deeper is doing. I am trying to live by it myself. I don't want to be mystical and odd, I want to be applicable. I want to be able to be used of God. To be able to respond to his voice. If we are so heavenly minded we are no earthly good, we aren't really going to be able to impact anyone.

Childless

Both my kids are at Poppy and Mawmaws house this week in STL. They are riding horses and fourwheelers and having a blast!

I am enjoying myself as well. I am working at Scooters right now looking over my laptop at my Beautiful Wife. I have a wonderful job that allows me to be with her a lot. We are both working right now on different things. We aren't talking or really communicating in any way, but it is nice to be with her.

Amazing.

Relevance

Wow, I have been studying for this weeks new sermon series called relevant. The is Sunday we will simply be talking about "table talk."

The questions that arise are "what makes something relevant?" or "this used to be relevant but not anymore. What do we do with that?" Then it just gets crazy after that.

The real issue at hand is that we are supposed to making disciples of people. We are supposed to be helping people who are seeking truth make a decision for Christ, but instead so many churches split hairs over things that really don't matter.

I am not trying to be relevant to be cool or trendy. That is not the objective at all. But Jesus was amazingly relevant. Rarely do you hear him making profound things hard to understand. He simplified them for people to understand. Yet we make simple things difficult and hard to understand.

He also spent most of his teaching time teaching those who didn't have it all together. He was careful and loving with those who didn't know him. He was bold and even harsh to the religious crowd who were more often pretending to be something they weren't. Yet we focus our services to the "religious" not the seeker. Why when Jesus spent most fo his time with the non-religious?

We are here to build believers, yes. But also to serve seekers with truth.

This weekend we will have a table set up that represents the church. It will be the focal point of each sermon for the next 5 weeks.

Think about your role at the table. Were do you sit, what do you eat, what do you do? Ultimately who are we serving?

Sunday

Yesterday was another amazing morning. We had such a good crowd, 89 in fact! It was great. We finished the Zip It series with a sermon on Gossip.

It is amazing what the tongue can do. It really does hold the power of life and death.

We start a new series this weekend called "Relevant" Man am I looking forward to it.

Blog Comment changes

I have been having some robot comments left on my blog that haven't been so great. So I have enabled word verification before you can leave a comment. It only takes a second. I also have turned on the "you have to be blogger" as well. It only takes a minute to become a blogger too. You don't have to maintain it, just use it for your posting on mine and other blogger accounts.

Sorry.

Spelling and grammatical errors

Just a side note, leave me post if you find an error. I have had some in the past, but am really trying hard not to have them. Unprofessional. Sorry.

Thanks for the "encouragement." It is a little application for Joshua. I say all the time "excellence honors God," even in blogging!

Sunday Service

As everyone knows we have been growing all summer. I am just about to turn in for the night and I was just thinking about the mornings service. We have had steady growth all summer long and I can wait to see what is going to happen in the morning.

I am praying we break 90! It would be a great way to start the month!

New Office

Just thought I'd let everyone know that we are officially signed sealed and soon to be delivered to our new office space.

The office is located in the One Corporate Place building off 42nd and Westown Parkway in West Des Moines. Man am I ever glad to be getting moved in there.

The official address is 1501 42nd Street Suite 204 WDM IA 50266.

We take possession on the first of September and then we will be directing all mail correspondence to that address. Very Exciting.

Mel Gibson

I was saddened to hear about Mel's drunk driving arrest this weekend. He has tried to take a stand for a lot of things, and only looks ashamed at best.

To his credit he has since apologized and said his behavior was "despicable." Which I applaud him doing. Most men would just hide.

As to the anti-Semitic words he used. I don't know. Was he reacting with some Jewish disdain or was he just drunk and rambling about the danger and peril in the Mid-East? I don't know, nor can I really speculate. I just know that it was an unfortunate event, and he does seem to be very remorseful.

Pray for Mel. He really has a heart toward God. Pray he has clear direction to the feet of the cross and to the resurrection of the living savior.

Sunday

All I have to say about Sunday is Awesome!

From the music to announcements -Awesome!

We had 82 in service another high for us in the summer! I am blown away by Gods hand in this. I was reading another blog earlier by scott hodge , a great blogger from IL. He has experienced the same thing...

I can only think about the return of Christ. I have always believed it is imminent, but with all the turmoil in the Middle East and the growth of churches... imminent means more than it used to.

515 Alive

Wow What an amazing event this was. There were over 6,000 people in attendance and it was smoking hot! We passed out 2500 water bottles with our name and logo on it, and we were out by 9:15! I keep going back to that scripture were Jesus says, "if you give a cup of water in my name..."

Here are some of the break dance competition. These guys were off the hook! Crazy in shape!

The event cooridantor called me today to thank me for such an awesome booth and the service that we provided. He said more than once, "that we kept a lot of people from taking an ambulance ride." He said if it wasnt for the water we gave out, he would have been one of the passengers.

We were thrilled to have been a part of this urban event. We didnt see anyone in church yesterday from event. (which we expected) But we know that those people who were there saw the love of Christ and realized that Christians arent so crazy after all. The next time they are in a hard spot, they are going to think about Jordan Creek Family Church. The church who cares enough to give away free water....