Mark Batterson has a new book coming out later this year called “Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity.” His book “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” was an extremely influential book in my personal leadership and spiritual pilgrimage. I read it all the way through in the middle of the night…I couldn’t put the book down.  It came at a time in my life when I was extremely open to the concepts and I really did take some risks that I felt God was calling me to do.

I am currently reading through his second book, “Wild Goose Chase” on my Kindle 2.  Really enjoying his book on the Holy Spirit along with a companion book, “Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit” by Francis Chan.  I have been studying and learning about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit lately.

The publisher, Waterbrook-Multnomah is giving away 500 copies of Primal to bloggers who would review the book.  I would hardly call myself a blogger of any significance. However, I love books…and Mark Batterson books…and Batterson lived in SGF for a while in college…and I lived in SGF for a long time–and college too!  Anyway, a guy can hope for a free book, can’t he?

Amazon.com: Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity (9781601421319): Mark Batterson: Books.

Interesting post.  I have had the same statements from people…especially when they are “checking us out.”  You can always tell when people have left their old church and are reluctantly looking for another place to worship–not necessarily a place to serve and sink their heart into for the long haul.  They have a lot of expressions like, “well at our old church, we did X…you ought to do that…that might be a good idea for you to do.”  I believe it was Rick Warren who said at a church planting conference I attended, “just respond back to those people, ‘Why don’t you just go back to your old church, be reconciled with them, and we will all be better for it.’” That takes courage to actually say that, but it is true.

Much like in a counseling setting; if you are not willing to work on it and put some of the things into practice, you are wasting the counselor’s and your time both!

I love this statement in the post:

I’m asking God to empower me to move people from “going to church” to “being the church.” When they stop going and start being, the church goes from yours to mine.

Lord, let that be our prayer as well!

Making It “Their” Church – LifeChurch.tv : swerve.

My friend, Eric Barb wrote a little about this need to have way too much stuff in his “Barb Wire” in the CFC Current. He is a really good writer. I miss the guys.  The were always a lot of fun.

Better get to sleep . . . huge day tomorrow.  Still can’t believe this is our last night in our house.  Tomorrow we will officially be home in Carthage!  WOW.

Here are some pics of Day 1 & 2 . . . mainly my kiddos in my room as well as our Finley Crossings kiddos.  Enjoy!

If you know Dale at all, you know that he loves hibachi grills, specifically, Fuji. We are eating tomorrow (Thursday) at Fuji at high noon. If you are available, come and grab a chair around the grill and hang out with Dale and Di. I think they are going to be at Finley Crossings on June 1st, so you might want to see them then! Good Day, Mate! To the American Kiwi!!

Here is the video I put together of the first season . . . enjoy!

KidStuf at CFC–Season 1

Lot’s of questions about “what is this KidStuf you speak of?” Here are a few answers.

• Is it a curriculum? Or do you just write your own stuff? It is an AWESOME curriculum from the Rethink Group called 252 Basics. You can look at and get it here. We have used the curriculum for several years now BEFORE we started doing the KidStuf program.
• How often do you do it? The KidStuf program can be done weekly–but wow, that would be a daunting task with TOO MUCH MANPOWER for us right now!! We decided we could only do about once a month because of all of the intense production elements. Plus, we take off over the Christmas holidays and summer. We love the results from KidStuf–but did I mention it is a TON of work? ALL WORTH IT THOUGH!! I know that ALL of our volunteers are going to be glad to see Monday, May 5th come!
• Why on Sunday Mornings? We decided that we wanted to do it in a time slot that would yield the most people–for us, Sunday morning. We just didn’t want to do it on another time when people weren’t used to coming, night, etc. We knew we would take a “hit” in attendance from those that don’t have kids, but have made up for it with all of the guests we seem to have for KidStuf. For example, we had 141 people on Sunday. We haven’t had that many people in attendance for a LONG time! Since 2 Christmas or Easters ago.
• Why go so far as to give up a Sunday service? We began doing this because we care about families and kids!! We know that a lot of churches and pastors would NEVER give up their precious pulpit time for a “silly kids program.” They might even preach the sermon after the program. Our thinking is that if we say we LOVE CHILDREN and WANT TO HELP THE FAMILIES that GOD HAS GIVEN US, then we need to put our TIME, TALENTS, AND MONEY where our MOUTH (VISION) is!! One of our members said, “I am so glad we do KidStuf because it give these kids a totally different view of church than what I had. My version was everyone was angry, no fun, no joy, and ’sit down and be quiet.’” THAT IS A WIN FOR US!!
• What is the future of KidStuf at CFC? Don’t know, but we are praying! And we want YOU to be praying as well! All we knew was we felt called to give it a try for a season and then re-evaluate after that first season. If you have an opinion either way, give us an email.

If you haven’t already noticed, we have a very fun and talented staff and volunteer force here at CFC! I really appreciate all of their hard work to pull of KidStuf these seven times. I know that the kids who are coming and bringing more and more of their friends thank you as well! Like we’ve said earlier, YOU are giving these kids an AWESOME VIEW of GOD and HIS CHURCH! Thank you very much!!

We really have had a BLAST doing KidStuf! It has been a very useful tool for us in reaching people. This summer, as with any tool, we are definitely going to be sharpening it and making sure it is the most useful tool we can be using. Lots of prayer and conversations on what the best tool(s) to use to help our children and families is going to happen over the next few weeks and months. Would you join me in praying for our church?

Exit question (Like on the McLaughlin Group): What was your view of church growing up??