easter weekend

I am at the office finishing up for the new Series, He Came He Conquered. (I challenge you to use the e invite on www.jordancreek.org to invite your friends) Anyway just thinking about who Jesus is and what he means to me.

I have had several interesting conversations this week from people from all kinds of backgrounds. I spent an hour alking with a woman who is openly agnostic, but admits she doesnt really know anything about the Bible. She really is pretty dis-enfranchised from the church due to some crazy experiences in the past in a dysfunctional church. I also spoke with some guys from an Amish/ Mennonite background.

So in just today alone I have dealt with who is Jesus and what does it mean to be born again, to infant baptism, the anti-war sentiments and sowing your wild oats peppered with several "well i just believe" statements with no real text or evidence to back it up.

So very fitting as we look at this weekend about who Jesus is, why he came and can we be sure of our faith in Jesus.

Next weekend on easter we will be looking solely at the resurrection.

Invite your friends. I am thinking of celebrating Easter with Communion this year as well.

A week in review

I cant believe that it is Friday already. I am sitting in our green chair in the corner of the bedroom, just collecting my thoughts for the week. Wow, it has just flown by.

I am trying hard to take Wednesdays off, I am 2 for 3 now in 3 weeks. Pretty good. This Wednesday I took my new bike out for a good breaking ride. I also realized that I was glad we were riding on a nice trail and not a good old dirt track. Get in better shape man!

We also took the kids to the Science center this week. They loved it.

Tonight we finished off the week with diner at Flemings. A very nice steakhouse at Jordan Creek. Upscale. New York Strip, hmmm.

Then headed off to see Jars of Clay play at Val-Air. They were good, but the opening band Need to Breathe was awesome. I am a new fan....

I had several productive meetings this week and some critical conversations. I used to fear some confrontation, but have grown to understand that conflict facilitates change. And change is good.

Dara is helping me become more organized, I still am a "piler," though. I am working on not just making piles of papers. We sat down last night, and sorted through a bunch of sermon series ideas I have for the rest of the year.

We have some killer stuff coming! We are doing an easter Mini-series called He Came, He Conquered. Then the 10 Commandments of JCFC, followed by a chapter by chapter teaching on James called Deeper is Doing.

In the middle of the Summer we are doing a new series called "The Peoples Choice." We will have some of the sermons up on the web from the past year, so that everyone will be able to vote for their favorite sermons. Then I will preach the top 4 back to back for 4 weeks. Get ready!

More even to come, Galatians, Chase the Lion, Advent, God at the Billboards, a series called God, Love and Sex... and the list continues. I am so pumped about what God is going to be doing in our services in the next year!

This weekend is our last Cantaloupe Sermon. We are challenging every Christ Follower to begin the Biblical practice of tithing. It will be great as we learn to trust God!

Alpha

We had an amazing Alpha on Tuesday. The evening talk was about reading our Bible, and the authority of the Scripture. Before the evening was over we all just shared about how God is really doing some great things in our life, and how Alpha has really brought that to our attention.

It was really amazing to see how our church has changed lives, just in the last few months. Casey Port, Heather Wilson, and Dara just really opened their hearts about what God has been bringing to their attention lately. It was awesome to see the raw emotion and power of God in their lives!

Great night!

Cantaloupes

Well this weekend we start a new series called simply "Cantaloupes."

Each of us are given a certain amount of Cantaloupes in our life by God and it is up to us to decide how we use them, and whether or not we bring glory to God with them.

Join us this weekend as we enter the realm of the Cantaloupes. By the way if you sit on the first couple of rows, you might want to bring a poncho. Maybe we should provide some.... Anyone remember Gallagher...?

Amazing Weekend

Wow, we just finished our Baggage Sermon series yesterday. Spoke about recovering from depression. This series has been a great series, since we all have some kind of baggage we carry around. I know that many people deal with depression, as it is a real issue in society today.

We talked about several ways you can begin to deal with depression, but ultimately we need to seek Jehovah-Rapha. Another name for Jesus and God. It literally means that He is our Healer.

Well we had 122 people in service and praise God for a good offering! Since we have had to cancel a service and two snowy days this first part of the year, we needed it! It was awesome.

My fast is still going strong. I have to say I was pretty hungry right after service, the first time since Thursday evening. I felt like it was a bit of a spiritual attack. So I prayed right be fore we went to Culver's and was fine the whole time. Even while Awnna ate those delicious fried cheese curds right across from me!

We had a great team meeting last night. Lots of laughter and camaraderie. We got a lot accomplished as we discussed the upcoming events, and recast the Vision of who we are as a church!

Here is the recap.

Remember we are a church designed for unbelievers. If you want to just exist as believer and not be involved in reaching new people for Jesus, then you might should try some other churches in town. We are passionate about changed lives.

Remember we are passionate about creating an environment that allows people to encounter God in a life changing way! Everything we do, is based on that.

Remember that building great relationships is paramount. It is vital as people, and critical as a new believer!

Also I am willing to do whatever it takes to get people inside our church to experience God. I am tired of so many Christians who just tell all their neighbors to just go ahead and go to hell, by not interacting with them in any way.

The Gospel is built on Jesus saying to the Pharisees that the all the text hangs on the commands that say, first, Love God with all you Heart, and second, Love your neighbor as your self.

If we really love God with all our heart we will act and be different that we are. If we love our neighbor as our self, we will be broken that those around us don't know Jesus and have a relationship with him.

Let's really live like Jesus lived.

UNLOCKED.

Well my blog was locked for a few days. It was considered a "potential Spam Blog." Whatever that really is.

It is funny. I know that I haven't been very faithful to blog on a regular basis this new year, but Thursday when I was really ready - it was locked up.

I am glad that is back to normal. I am trying to get some rhythm to my life. We have been working hard as a family to set up some boundaries and try to live by them.

I resisted it a bit at first, but now I am really ready to run with it. This new year has been pretty overwhelming at times, and talking it out with Dara and making a real plan has been helpful.

The last few days have been great. I have been fasting with only juice or smoothies since Wednesday. I have loved it. Fasting really is FUN. I have had some clear thoughts d been able to dial in my listening skills with God.

The first few days I was hungry at times, and my stomach growled a bit. But now I am not even hungry. (I still miss the eating crunchy things). I even cooked a whole beef stew for the family today. It smelled awesome. Dara and Awnna said it was great. I think I am going to freeze some of it!

Tomorrow will be an interesting day. Jason and Shari(our worship leaders) will be leaving after tomorrow. They have done a great job in helping us get to this point.

We are also finishing our sermon series called Baggage. It deals with overcoming depression. There are so many people who battle with this, it is amazing.

Chances are before your life is over you will be dramatically effected by someone who has a bout with depression.

Check out the podcast on Monday. It is usually up and running but Sunday evening.