da Vinci code

In life group tonight we will be discussing the major points of the Da Vinci Code... Should be interesting.

The movie was pretty much a let down. Only a 6 or 7. Not at all the level of a Ron Howard and Tom Hanks caliber movie. It deviated from the book in spots as well.

Do you think many Christians have been rattled by this book/movie?

Do you think that this book is a deterrent to Christianity?

Chris John

Had lunch with a great guy today name Chris. He will be leading worship for us on the 25th of June while Jason is out on a much needed vacation.

One of the things I really like about him is that he is a visionary. He has a dream of a worship leaders network for the metro. We discussed this ministry today and we want to partner with him in helping him make this a success.

The reason I love this dream he was is becuase it alines with our vision that God wants to touch every life in the metro. I know our church cant do that alone, and this kind of ministry will help us.

Chris and his wife are a part of the New Hope E Free in Adel where they are buying a house in the next week.

Anniversary

Monday was our 8 year anniversary. It was really nice. Just a note to everyone, don't get married Memorial day weekend. Everything closes at 6....

But we still had a great time. It was nice to be out with my beautiful wife. She is so eloquent and lovely. We sat at a restaurant and just enjoyed each others company for a few hours. Marriage really is great. I don't get these guys who just want to be single and date tons of women...

I have a wonderful wife who loves me unconditionally. I really couldn't make it with out her.

I love you Baby.

Technology The Love Hate Relationship

Well I found out yesterday that we have been recording the sermons to get the podcasting going for two months now, and they havent actually been recording.

It does make me want to do violent things to the computer, but I know that won't help. So I am posing this question for anyone who is interested, "Is there a person out there who loves technology as much as Kip from Napolean who wants to really take us to the next level with podcasting?"

If you read this blog and love in the metro leave a post....

JCFC 2nd Baptism

Just thought I would post Drews Baptism from Friday. It is absolutely awesome to be a part of the Great Commission!

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Baptism

My favorite thing to do! I love the passion and commitment people have when they are getting baptized. I makes me feel connected to Jesus. Somehow my mind goes to this far gone day on the bank of the Jordan River and we under the eye of distant religious Pharisees who are watching our every move while we baptize person after person...

Tonight we baptized my friend Drew Stinson. It was awesome. He is such a kind and tender guy. I was honored to baptize him.

I love living out the great commission.

I will post the video tomorrow!

Vision

I know this is crazy, but I really think that God's plan is for every single person in the metro to experince God, to encounter Jesus, and live a life that is pleasing to him.

One church is not enough. This will require a network of churchs. Our church multi sited across the city. JCFC partnering with other church, denominations, and fellowships. But I feel in the deepest part of me that God desires to know his creation.

I also think that the local church is the vehicle to change lives.
Can you help me?
Will you follow him?
Are you ready to throw out everything you think you know about "evangelism" and really lay it on the line for God?

This isnt just a game of win or lose, but it is life and death.

Think about it, life or death.

Online giving

Ladies and gentlemen it is finally here! Online giving in a secure paypal site!

I think this is going to be fantastic! If you are away on vacation or out of town for business you can still be faithful in giving!

Check it out under online giving at www.jordancreek.org

Thursday

Wow, in the past month I have been to three different conferences in three different parts of the USA. I went to STL with my wife for her Arbonne NTC. John Maxwell spoke. Off the charts. I was in DC for a couple days at the Buzz conference with Mark Batterson and Ed Young. Ed's big line was "use your eyes to plagiarise." (just ask me about it) Then I went to San Antonio and hung out on the river walk with Herbert Cooper, Dave Crosby, Tommy Sparga, and Anthony Scoma. Four guys that poured into me for two days!

I am truly on information overload. I have really been doing some soul searching in the past weeks. There are several things we do well as church but other things we are really weak in. We are gearing up for the fall early to get a jump on the natural rise in attendance as vacations stop and school gets started.

Check out the web page in the next few days for some upcoming events. We are doing these awesome park "character" lessons this summer with some cool give always for the kids. We have yard signs coming next week! And we are looking at doing a photography day in the mall for families.

We are trying hard to create some buzz in the community!

Pray like it depends on God work like it depends on you!

Updating my profile

Well I am uploading my picture so I can get it to my profile page... I think

easter weekend

Wow. It has just flown by. I can't hardly believe that Easter has come and gone.

Everything went well, we had some out of town visitors and we had around 65 people in attendance. Some of our regular attendees headed home for their family easter celebration.

We had one really powerful video clip that didnt want to play right and that was a bit of a bummer, but over all it went great.

At least 3 people recommitted their life to Jesus this weekend. Awesome.

What a week

This week has literally flown by. My inlaws were here until Wednesday, several lunch appointments and meetings, and now getting ready to head out on a short camping trip. I will return tomorrow afternoon. We are headed to Loess Hills in western Iowa.

Of course I planned this trip 2 months ago, and wouldnt you know it a thousands things happened this week, and now it looks like a huge thunderstorm is brewing. So be it I guess!

In laws are here

I ahve been out of the blogosphere for a day or so. Sorry. I will get the sermon notes up later today from the weekend. My wifes parents are here and we have been going 90 miles an hour!

Be back soon!

Sunday Recap

This morning we had a little issue with the Day Light Savings Time agenda. A few families came in as we were packing up. I felt really bad, but I think we can blame it all on our good friend Ben Franklin. As far as I am concerned we can just stay with this time frame we are in right now!

We had 47 today and a good response to the second sermon in our fear series. The fear of failure.

Day Light Savings time is not a good thing for churches. Every ministry position I have ever been in this sunday has been a bit low, and again we fit that same bill. Next year we will do something different to make a little better splash on DLST.

Maybe we will bill it as some kind of holiday.... hmmm.

Well my son is officially a drummer. He drums on anything he can bang on! I caught him on camera the other day!

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Lost in the Woods

Well I have to admit that I have been trying to get some much needed exercise lately. I have been trying to at least once a week get outside and do something active. Yesterday Mark and I decided we would go for a light hike through the woods over at Brown Woods reserve at 63rd and Park at 3:30 in the afternoon.

Well if you live in the metro you know about the thunderstorm we had yesterday. Wasn't just a little rain dropping.... It was a down pour.

At about 4 we pulled up to the trail. It was barely sprinkling and against my wife's better judgment Mark and I headed out. Before it was all over with we were literally soaked to the skin! It was raining so hard we ended up getting all turned around and a nice one hour hike or so became well lets just say a bit more than that.

I did find some broken airplane parts laying in a pile, and some weird animal skull. It was quite the trip. Actually we had a blast, just wet and bit cold by the end.

So we got home finally and Dara just looked at me like, I told you....

My new beautiful wife

Just thought I'd let everyone in on a shot of the new glasses. Dara got them yesterday and she looks great! Really she does. Colin keeps pointing to her and saying, "Eyes, eyes."

She loves them and can really see well. Amazing.

Balaam and Balak

Well, I just think Balak was an idiot. Take a minute and read Numbers 22 today. Basically Balak commissions Balaam to curse Israel. Well each time Balaam tries he can only bless Israel. After a few times, Balak is pretty upset and says lets move to another spot and maybe God will let you curse Israel there. Pretty dense guy. Ok twice God won't curse his own people, but moving to another rock is going to make a difference?

Yeah I dont get that?

How did this guy make the Bible?

Read the chapter....

I stay, and new glasses

Well my little boy, Colin, made a huge human advancement today. He was at the Main's house for a little play time with his friends. They were all playing outside when Amy came out and said it was time to come in. He kept playing and then Amy asked him if he wanted to come in. Colin simply responded with, "No, I stay." A sentence, huge advancement. It definitely brings him up to the Paleolithic stage of communication now :)

As for the new glasses, Dara had an eye exam today and she is in need of some new glasses. The doc said her eyes are awful by any stretch, but these glasses would help if she wants them. Well they are on order now and she will be the trendy new studious looking girl!

Leaders are Thinkers

I went to a business conference with my wife last night. The speaker was tremendous. Of course what he was speaking about was all business related, but it is my custom to try to get something that I can apply to church growth and health.

One of the first things that he said was, if you are going to do amazing things you have to learn to think differently. He was telling a story of a man who had succeeded greatly in business. The man's first goal was to get a car with a driver. You might ask why? Maybe he should have paid other things off, or put some money away for retirement, but he wanted a car with a driver.

His idea was he wastes so much time looking for a place to park, and driving around doing nothing when he could be being productive. So he did get a driver and a car and he became one of the top income earners in his company.

Now maybe that is extreme or radical thinking, but an amazing approach. So often we just do ministry by memory, and expect new results. When sometimes we need to have a totally fresh idea on how we do church. Obviously why is the same, and the principles stay true, but methods can and do always change.

So my thoughts are, what are we doing that is "getting us a car and driver?"