Who I am

I am:

a husband

a father

a friend

easily distracted

a risk taker

excitable

a multi-tasker

adventurous

Olympic Swimmer

Why Moses wasnt allowed to compete in the water sports in the Olympics.

Great Post by Scott Hodge

Scott nails it here in the post about simplicity.

check it out.

Been a while

Well it has been a couple weeks since I have posted. God has been really shaping some things in my heart and life lately. He is really pushing me to trust in Him, in my successes and failures.

I spoke this weekend about "The House" and how we need to serve as the church. It is great go to church, its great to know about church, but there is nothing like being the church.

We are working on giving out 50 complete Turkey meals this Thanksgiving to families in need.
I am stoked and so excited to see so may people excite to serve. It is awesome for me to see new believers get so excited to give back in a small way after God does so much for them in their heart.

I love how pumped new Christians are to jump in and run with things. Awesome.

Whirlwind week

Working fast and furious for 3 sessions I'm teaching at the marriage retreat this weekend,
and the new series that kicks off Sunday called House ( you need to be there)
looking at all the budget issues for the next 12 months,
trusting God to bring the funding to finish this month,
excited about giving away as many Thanksgiving meals as we can't afford!
Stoked about some men in our church rising to leadership and taking ownership of real ministry
Feeling God push and challenge me like ever before
Physically tired and not well this week,
Our marriage is close and strong,
Thanking God for an incredible wife
Loving my kids,
Excited about this weather change
Typing at my mac at the table,
the kids are supposed to be sleeping,
but i hear footsteps,
to which I ask, "who is up?"
Colin responds, "Its me."
"Why are you up?"
"Checking to see if i bit off the the end of my finger..."
"Nope, Dad its still there."

Weekend

Today went well over all. I felt like I overworked the sermon today, couple that with physically not feeling well... and tadah, today.

Anyway, I am still reeling from the Catalyst conference, and feel like my mind is on information overload. I am going to retype my notes tomorrow. I will try to post some thoughts from the leadership conference. It amazes me how "leadership" pushes all of us. It is not just a switch you turn on, but its something that continues to grow, as we learn from others, by mistakes and successes.

Looks like we finished off the mymarriageisdead.com series well with 23 people giving their hearts to Christ. To God be the Glory. So awesome.

I am excited to continue to follow up with these people. I know God is wanting to do great things in the city.

My heart is thoroughly stirred to serve our city. The church needs to BE the church, not just exist. My heart breaks for the one distant form a God who love them so much.

Yesterday I took the kids downtown to pass out water and granola bars. We met a homeless man named Oscar who has a broken shoulder. That really moved the kids, to be injured and have to live on the street. Just after that I watched a ladies van being repossessed.

I pray these moments leave an indelible mark on the minds of our kids.

We will be gearing up for a big Thanksgiving Adopt a Family dinner. More details to come on that.

JCFC -Building Relationships, Encountering God, Serving Others.

My thoughts

1. Service was great this weekend 4 people received Christ. That brings the total response to 23 for the series. So awesome. Thank You Jordan Creek for inviting your friends and family.

2. Catalyst has been awesome. The labs today were tremendous. I am very challenged, and excited at the same time.

3. Miss my family today. I love spending time with each of them. I hate being gone from them them.

4. Dara texted me and said Life Group was good tonight. Bummed that I missed it. Its awesome to see God moving people closer to Him. I feel like God is wanting to do some great things with the people we have in our group right now. Thinking of some strategic things....

5. Met some very interesting guys today. Dino Rizzo from Healing Place church in Baton rouge, spoke today. So great. Super passionate, and so kingdom minded.

6. Really digging the Neo Soul music out right now. anybody like Adele? She is great...

Scriptures that move me

One of my favorite Scriptures.

2 peter 3:9 (KJV as i learned it as kid)
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

2 peter 3:9 NLT
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

Gods heart is that all should know Him. What are you doing to make sure all know Him? I know I have been guilty of not doing what i can every time I could have.

One of the old car sales adages, I learned in the biz, years ago hits here pretty big...

"Everyday, Every time, Without Fail, No Exceptions"

I'm thankful that God never fails, anyday, no exceptions.

God make us like you, in all we do.

VP Debate

I wish Governor Palin and Senator Biden were running were the top of their respective tickets.

Good debate on both sides. Both were very respectable to each other, and I love both of their approach and comments.

Weekend update

Yesterday went really well. It seemed like everything really clicked as the worship began. I taught about how all couples fight and how to deal with it in a Godly way.

This series has been tremendous help in my own marriage as well. I love my wife and am proud to say that we are constantly working on our marriage.

On a different note we have had 19 people give their heart to Jesus during the last 4 weeks of service.

Join us this weekend as we look at Just Do It! We will be examining how our actions and words really connect!

Church Metrics

Introducing ChurchMetrics from ChurchMetrics on Vimeo.


this is going to be awesome, and its free...

Challenging Thought

I am in a coaching group right now with a pastor in New York named Nelson Searcy. He is lead pastor at The Journey Church.

He left a post today that is really convicting for me. Here is the quote.

“We are judged by what we finish, not what we start.”
- Anonymous

Hmm, what are we completing?

Excellence

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit" -Aristotle

We are streamlining things, and simplifying. I believe that excellence honors God with all my heart. Its not perfection, we cant be perfect every time of course, but the consistency needs to be there of our best.

I wrestle personally here, I believe that God is working in me, this thought of "excellence is a habit." If I dont watch myself, I can be lax in areas, and I dont want to be that way any more.

I want to honor God with what I do, what the church does, how we respond, how we deal with guests, how we help believers grow in faith, how we impact our community. (maybe grammatical sentence structure is an area I can work on as well)

handwriting cards

I am hand writing cards to every guest now. Trying to connect on a more personal level.

Today I wrote out like 9 cards. Doesnt sound like much to you maybe, but hand writing to me is huge. Well I got them all done and ready for Shanna to mail... a few minutes later she told me I wrote them all on the wrong side....

just my luck...

So I am writing them again, as I pray over each card, again...

Hmm, is God trying to get me to pray more?

weekend update

Another fine weekend at JCFC. The weather was great, and cooled off by the time service was over.

We jumped right into the second sermon in the series, www.mymarriageisdead.com called Perfect Seasoning.

There were at least 6 more people who gave their heart to Jesus this week, and I was able to connect with several families on Monday who are receiving some help in their marriage.

We are praying for 100 families to have major changes in their marriage due to this series. It is happening...

I got an email today from a couple in the church. Check this out (I changed the names...)

June and I have really connected with the current series and feel our marriage is already stronger just because we have focused on communication and each other. Without this series I don’t know that we would have taken the time to really talk about the things that we appreciate about each other. June and I have been married for eight years and together for 15 so there is a certain comfort that comes with that much time together. We both just assumed that there was a general understanding of love and appreciation. I know the assumption was correct but there is something far more powerful about taking the time to vocalize our feelings for each other. Like all marriages, we are not perfect, but we are better than we were two weeks ago. Keep up the good work. Can’t wait for the rest!

Keep praying, I am getting emails and hearing lots of talk about marriages becoming more healthy each week.

500th post

My favorite thing to do is baptism. It just doesn't get any better than helping people make that step of getting in the water and symbolizing that their sins are being washed away.

I am moved every time I see a baptism, whether live or video. Tomorrow we show this clip to the whole church.

I cant wait for you all to see it.

New Uncle

We were up yesterday around 4.30 to head to STL to see my sisters new baby boy Titus aka Mr T.

He is doing really well, and adjusting to life outside the womb! We are heading back to good ol Des Moines in a few hours here. Burning up that highway.

weekend update

If you werent there, man you missed it.

I have to say to all our volunteers and team, you guys were outstanding! The day went off amazing. We had 196 in attendance, with at least 6 people giving their life to Christ.

I saw lots of tears during the sermon, as I spoke from Song of Solomon about marriage. We specifically dealt with the way we speak to each other and overcoming insecurities through love!

The band was awesome, Kevin brought us through announcements, I spoke and the band closed out with LifeHouse cover Whatever it Takes. Beautiful.

Thanks again, invite your friends, and pray!

Wide Awake

I am so pumped about tomorrows service. I cant wait to teach tomorrow. I know God is going to use this series to change lives.

Hope to see you all there in a few hours.

Dark Knight

Do I even need to say anything? WOW