Its good to see you! Thanks for dropping by
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Utah is Missions!
More than likely you worship in a congregation that has more people attending it than attend all the churches of Christ combined in Utah! On any given Sunday, about 700 attend a church of Christ somewhere in Utah. Now, throw in the fact that about 50% of the population is connected the the LDS (Latter Day Saint) Church (Mormons) - with about 1.5% professing to be "Christian" and you have a furtile mission field!
We birthed our first daughter church from Southside about 18 months ago. They are now averaging around 50 per Sunday! We hope to build a new building this fall that will seat 500-700 - but we need help! We are $200,000 short of our fund raising goal. If you know of any congregations or individuals that have an interest in domestic missions - write me and I'll get in contact with them immediately!
Above all, keep the church in Utah in your prayers!
We birthed our first daughter church from Southside about 18 months ago. They are now averaging around 50 per Sunday! We hope to build a new building this fall that will seat 500-700 - but we need help! We are $200,000 short of our fund raising goal. If you know of any congregations or individuals that have an interest in domestic missions - write me and I'll get in contact with them immediately!
Above all, keep the church in Utah in your prayers!
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Good books
I love to read! Here are some of my favorite books in the last few months:
Visioneering by Andy Stanley
Summer of the Monkees by Wilson Rawls (same guy who wrote "Where The Red Fern Grows")
Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller (still reading)
Fred Factor by Mark Sanborn
Because of Winn-Dixie
First Impressions
The Broker by John Grisham
Books on "deck": Christ Plays in Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson, Unlearning Church; going to finish "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card.
Read any good books lately?
Visioneering by Andy Stanley
Summer of the Monkees by Wilson Rawls (same guy who wrote "Where The Red Fern Grows")
Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller (still reading)
Fred Factor by Mark Sanborn
Because of Winn-Dixie
First Impressions
The Broker by John Grisham
Books on "deck": Christ Plays in Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson, Unlearning Church; going to finish "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card.
Read any good books lately?
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
correction!!
3 of my final four are still alive! And Kentucky will be replaced with Utah! One of the coaches for Utah goes to our congregation - it was fun to see him excited! How is your final four doing?
how's your brackets?
I don't know about you - but my brackets look like downtown Beruit. Good grief! Well, I guess my status as a prophet will have to wait another year. My final four is still in tact - and my runnin' Utes are still runnin'! Is your favorite team still in it?
God's timing always amazes me. We've had a lady in our congregation who has been absent in the assembly for about a year. I'm in a prayer accountability group of ministers - one of our commitments is to pray for everyone in our congregations, by name, every week. So, I pray for this woman every week. Last Sunday night, as I was praying through the church directory (it becomes a prayer manual!) - God told me to give her a call. So I did. Well, she was in assembly on Sunday! She asked to speak to me after worship. She said that she was thinking of suicide - and that she had left her answering machine unplugged. She asked for a sign from God that he cared for her. When she came home - the light was blinking on her machine! She hit the play button and heard my voice. She said she played the message over and over! Wow! God's timing always amazes me.
If that story doesn't motivate you to pray for your congregation and contact those who haven't been in assembly of late, I don't know what will.
God's timing always amazes me. We've had a lady in our congregation who has been absent in the assembly for about a year. I'm in a prayer accountability group of ministers - one of our commitments is to pray for everyone in our congregations, by name, every week. So, I pray for this woman every week. Last Sunday night, as I was praying through the church directory (it becomes a prayer manual!) - God told me to give her a call. So I did. Well, she was in assembly on Sunday! She asked to speak to me after worship. She said that she was thinking of suicide - and that she had left her answering machine unplugged. She asked for a sign from God that he cared for her. When she came home - the light was blinking on her machine! She hit the play button and heard my voice. She said she played the message over and over! Wow! God's timing always amazes me.
If that story doesn't motivate you to pray for your congregation and contact those who haven't been in assembly of late, I don't know what will.
Friday, March 18, 2005
God is Still Good!
Forgot to give you the final four yesterday. The final four in the NCAA's will be OSU; Florida; Kentucky, Washington. There. Now, sit and watch. Read Deut.18.
Went to my neurologists yesterday to get the results of an MRI I had done about 10 days ago. Yesterday, I got the results of my MRI - the tests showed two abnormalities. The first, they were'nt even looking for! I have a twisted vein which could be just that - a twisted vein; however, it could also be a sign of aneurysm - which if it is - will require surgery to repair, because of the chances of having a stroke are very high! So, having this MRI was a huge blessing, from that standpoint. So, I will have a CAT scan that will show if surgery is needed. The second abnormaility is that the test showed that MS is still a possibility. I had 3 "ct" hits; if you have 6 - that's MS for sure. It is not definitely MS - but it hasn't been ruled out either. Having 3 is not good news - it is an MS indicator. In about 10 days - I willhave a spinal tap (ouch!!!) to confirm or deny MS. Even that is not a 100% - the dr said that he has had patients to pass the tap and still have MS, but in 99% of the time, it is accurate. Keep all this in your prayers!
Whether I have MS or not; we don't know. Whether God will choose to heal me or not; we don't know. (I've been to the Healing Rooms a few times; our shepherds here an anointed me with oil; other ministers have prayed over me) But what we DO know is this; God is good. All the time.
Went to my neurologists yesterday to get the results of an MRI I had done about 10 days ago. Yesterday, I got the results of my MRI - the tests showed two abnormalities. The first, they were'nt even looking for! I have a twisted vein which could be just that - a twisted vein; however, it could also be a sign of aneurysm - which if it is - will require surgery to repair, because of the chances of having a stroke are very high! So, having this MRI was a huge blessing, from that standpoint. So, I will have a CAT scan that will show if surgery is needed. The second abnormaility is that the test showed that MS is still a possibility. I had 3 "ct" hits; if you have 6 - that's MS for sure. It is not definitely MS - but it hasn't been ruled out either. Having 3 is not good news - it is an MS indicator. In about 10 days - I willhave a spinal tap (ouch!!!) to confirm or deny MS. Even that is not a 100% - the dr said that he has had patients to pass the tap and still have MS, but in 99% of the time, it is accurate. Keep all this in your prayers!
Whether I have MS or not; we don't know. Whether God will choose to heal me or not; we don't know. (I've been to the Healing Rooms a few times; our shepherds here an anointed me with oil; other ministers have prayed over me) But what we DO know is this; God is good. All the time.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Know how to put pix in profile?
Ooops! I meant to put this is my profile as a SMALL picture! Wow. Anyone know how to put this thing in my profile? Smaller?!!! Thanks!
Monday, March 14, 2005
Filling Out The Bracket!
Was flipping through channels last night and caught "Hoosiers" being shown. Of course, I had to watch it. What a great movie. Anyway . . .
This is one of my favorite days of the year to pick up a newspaper (I know you can print it now off the internet, but I prefer the one in the paper. I'm old fashioned in a new kind of way!) and fill out my NCAA tournament bracket. I love to pick the upsets, pick the final four - then, sit back and watch the games! Oh, baby! The 8th vs. 9th seeded games are always the toughest to pick seems like.
Even though my beloved Razorbacks are not it this year and haven't been for the last 4 years now, I still enjoy "March Madness". I still have Utah to pull for and other teams to root "against". Kinda bummed that UTEP ( I lived in El Paso for 5 years) is playing Utah. Oh, well.
Have favorite team? Who is your final four picks? I'll let you know tomorrow when I fill out my brackets this afternoon. An important thing like this deserves a time of meditation and thoughtful consderation. (or, you can be like my wife and just pick teams based on their mascot and get a higher percentage of picking games than I do! How does that happen?)
This is one of my favorite days of the year to pick up a newspaper (I know you can print it now off the internet, but I prefer the one in the paper. I'm old fashioned in a new kind of way!) and fill out my NCAA tournament bracket. I love to pick the upsets, pick the final four - then, sit back and watch the games! Oh, baby! The 8th vs. 9th seeded games are always the toughest to pick seems like.
Even though my beloved Razorbacks are not it this year and haven't been for the last 4 years now, I still enjoy "March Madness". I still have Utah to pull for and other teams to root "against". Kinda bummed that UTEP ( I lived in El Paso for 5 years) is playing Utah. Oh, well.
Have favorite team? Who is your final four picks? I'll let you know tomorrow when I fill out my brackets this afternoon. An important thing like this deserves a time of meditation and thoughtful consderation. (or, you can be like my wife and just pick teams based on their mascot and get a higher percentage of picking games than I do! How does that happen?)
Friday, March 11, 2005
Reason for conversion
Had lunch yesterday with Kevin Skidmore, who is sharing Jesus with city of Logan. He said something that caused me to stop and think about how I approach evangelism. He said, (quoting a name that I have forgotten) "What we convert people with, is what we convert them to."
Now, stop and think about that! That's true. Here's the thing - we say, "Come to our church. We have a great praise team! Man, the worship is really awesome." So they come. And the worship is awesome. But a few Sundays down the road, you have an "off" Sunday. The worship leader is sick or out of town - the singing is a little off. Then, it happens again. Your friend quits going and finds another church with better worship. Without realizing it, you converted "with" worship and that's what they were converted "to".
We do the same thing with preaching, youth ministry, etc. You've all seen it - people leave when "the " preacher leaves. When the youth ministry is in a down cycle, families bolt.
What about converting them to a relationship with Jesus? When the singing is off, they are still have Jesus! When the youth ministry is down, they still have Jesus.
Now, I'm all for praise teams, great worship every Sunday, - even great youth ministry! That is not the basis on which I will encourage people to come to Southside. I will invite them to a relationship with God! Because that is always constant!
Now, stop and think about that! That's true. Here's the thing - we say, "Come to our church. We have a great praise team! Man, the worship is really awesome." So they come. And the worship is awesome. But a few Sundays down the road, you have an "off" Sunday. The worship leader is sick or out of town - the singing is a little off. Then, it happens again. Your friend quits going and finds another church with better worship. Without realizing it, you converted "with" worship and that's what they were converted "to".
We do the same thing with preaching, youth ministry, etc. You've all seen it - people leave when "the " preacher leaves. When the youth ministry is in a down cycle, families bolt.
What about converting them to a relationship with Jesus? When the singing is off, they are still have Jesus! When the youth ministry is down, they still have Jesus.
Now, I'm all for praise teams, great worship every Sunday, - even great youth ministry! That is not the basis on which I will encourage people to come to Southside. I will invite them to a relationship with God! Because that is always constant!
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
questions
Is there a more addicting TV show than "Lost"?
Is there a better sports movie than "Hoosiers"? As one who rarely sees movies more than once, I watched Hoosiers about 30 times!
Any show in the history of TV that's better than Andy Griffith? Lets see if people will remember the entire cast of Seinfeld 40 years from now! Let me share this story with you - my five year old daughter is trying to learn to whistle. She asked to see the "gray show". After several minutes of figuring out what she was talking about, we figured out that she wanted to watch The Andy Griffith Show! She wants to learn how to whistle the theme song. Ah, it made me proud!
Any more beautiful place to live than Salt Lake City? Right now, the sky is a deep blue; the mountians (on both sides of the city) are pure white, the temp will be in the high 50's today. Perfect! After 12 years, I still can't believe that I get to live here and enjoy this every day!
Is there a better reality show than Amazing Race? I must confess - Survivor is a very close second - well, now that I think about it - its a tie!
Is there anything more anticipated than the next Harry Potter book coming out? (Not in my house!)
Enough questions for today! Any answers?
Is there a better sports movie than "Hoosiers"? As one who rarely sees movies more than once, I watched Hoosiers about 30 times!
Any show in the history of TV that's better than Andy Griffith? Lets see if people will remember the entire cast of Seinfeld 40 years from now! Let me share this story with you - my five year old daughter is trying to learn to whistle. She asked to see the "gray show". After several minutes of figuring out what she was talking about, we figured out that she wanted to watch The Andy Griffith Show! She wants to learn how to whistle the theme song. Ah, it made me proud!
Any more beautiful place to live than Salt Lake City? Right now, the sky is a deep blue; the mountians (on both sides of the city) are pure white, the temp will be in the high 50's today. Perfect! After 12 years, I still can't believe that I get to live here and enjoy this every day!
Is there a better reality show than Amazing Race? I must confess - Survivor is a very close second - well, now that I think about it - its a tie!
Is there anything more anticipated than the next Harry Potter book coming out? (Not in my house!)
Enough questions for today! Any answers?
Friday, March 04, 2005
Discovering praise/worship rescources
On Monday night several of us went to a Bebo Norman concert here in Salt Lake. Sara Kelly was the opening, and she sang a song entitled, "Living Hallelujah" which just blew me away. Yesterday, a good friend of mine, Jon Paul Dennis, who is the worship minister at the Shannon Oaks Church in Sulphur Springs, TX (if you're in the area I would encourage you to go visit this great church!), told me about Chris Tomlin. Wow! I love his song, "Coming Home". What a powerful song to invite us to come back home to God. I bought two of his cds - I'm listening to them for the first time as I write this. GREAT!!!!
Some of my other favorites to worship with: Mercy Me, Darlene Zschech and Dennis Jernigan.
And, yes, I do listen to Acappella worship. Zoe is my favorite. Some of the cds from "Acappella" are good to worship with as well. Free Indeed with Jerome Williams is a great source for acappella worship.
What are your favorite praise and worship cds? Any recommendations?
I don't know about you, but I'm finding myself listening to music that enourages me to worship rather than just entertain me. Does that ring true for you?
Some of my other favorites to worship with: Mercy Me, Darlene Zschech and Dennis Jernigan.
And, yes, I do listen to Acappella worship. Zoe is my favorite. Some of the cds from "Acappella" are good to worship with as well. Free Indeed with Jerome Williams is a great source for acappella worship.
What are your favorite praise and worship cds? Any recommendations?
I don't know about you, but I'm finding myself listening to music that enourages me to worship rather than just entertain me. Does that ring true for you?
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Its Tuesday!
Tuesday may be an ordinary day at your house but not at our house! My daughter calls them "Terriffic Tuesday!" This is the day that we go to the Playgroup small group at McDonald's, then we're off to story time at the public library. After story time, we check out a few books and a few videos. After a little nap, we'll read a book and watch "Hello Kitty" or whatever is the the pick of the week.
I used to get a lot of reading done on my day off. Or, I would go see a matinee movie (about half the price of an evening movie!) and spend some time drawing. Not any more - its Hannah's day!
The books will be there to read in a few years. The movies will be out on DVD and I can see it at home with cheaper popcorn to munch on. I can draw later. Hannah will only be five for a few fleeting months. She still loves to spend time with daddy. And daddy loves to spend time with her. These days won't last long, but the memories will.
I hope you have a terriffic Tuesday! I know I will.
I used to get a lot of reading done on my day off. Or, I would go see a matinee movie (about half the price of an evening movie!) and spend some time drawing. Not any more - its Hannah's day!
The books will be there to read in a few years. The movies will be out on DVD and I can see it at home with cheaper popcorn to munch on. I can draw later. Hannah will only be five for a few fleeting months. She still loves to spend time with daddy. And daddy loves to spend time with her. These days won't last long, but the memories will.
I hope you have a terriffic Tuesday! I know I will.
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