Had an awesome “first Sunday” at Forest Park Carthage. Actually my second Sunday on staff, but my first being “on my own” doing all of the Campus Pastor elements.
I really felt good doing all of them! It is great to feel like God has really gifted you and placed you here “for such a time as this!” Pastor John talked about “Loving Your Enemies.” In the worship response time, I extended an invitation to Christ–basically, there is no way you can truly love your enemies unless you have the love of God in your heart. The New Testament also talks about those who are without Christ are “enemies of God.” We all need to realize that Christ loves all of us unconditionally and therefore we need to love the way He loves us.
John had a great idea of putting Post-It notes in the VISION to write down initials of people we have a hard time loving. We extended the illustration a step further here and had people leave their Post-Its on the altar. We will be praying over those Post-Its tomorrow at Carthage staff meeting!! It was really cool seeing people at the altar placing their Post-Its, praying, and taking communion. I love it when we can give someone a “takeaway” to hang the idea on as people leave! I am working on my “takeaway” for July 27th when I preach! It is going to be pretty cool!!
We had a Life Group “huddle” tonight and had a great time of prayer, encouragement and dreaming about the future of groups here at Forest Park Carthage. I can’t tell you how excited I am about groups this year!! They are going to be AWESOME. You will definately want to be here AUGUST 17th for the GROUPLINK and jump into Life Groups!! We had so many great stories of life change that happened because of Life Groups. I love that stuff!!
Oh yeah!! We have a CONTRACT on our HOUSE IN OZARK!!! It was on the market 20 days!! That is stinking awesome!! What a God thing!! We close on the 12th of August!! Yeah God!! Thank you, LORD!!
Finally got back into town from Neosho, MO around 5:45 p.m. I was the speaker for a Disciple Now at Northside Baptist Church where my lifelong friend Lyndall Jones is Music and Youth Pastor. We had a really good weekend. I haven’t done a Disciple Now weekend in any capacity since we planted Finley Crossings. I used to do several D Nows each year when I was a full time student pastor. I actually had a lot of fun talking to the students and hanging out with the band.
Something that I thought about this morning during the invitation time was the impact that these kind of events has on not just students, but the leaders. There was an awesome group of students from the BSM at University of Arkansas that were leaders at each house. There were several times during the weekend that some of those student leaders as well as other leaders from the church were at the alter praying.
I remember some of the most powerful events in my life were not “for” me, but they were for “the kids,” but the Lord had something else in mind for me. How about you? What were some of the best things in your life to help you spiritually?
Here is a video slideshow I put together to go along with the sermon on Sunday. I love the lyrics to this song! Still work to be done in this city!!
Wow, what a crazy weekend to end a great, but crazy week. I always feel like I am rushing to catch up after trips like we took on Monday and Tuesday to St. Louis. It is always awesome to get away and focus on ourselves, but it is always a feeling of trying to make up for “lost” time. I really need to get over that, don’t I. Time spent on my life and marriage is not “lost” time.
We went out on Friday to get some last minute things for KidStuf, including a Tuxedo tails coat for Ryan to wear during KidStuf (that was awesome–will get to that in a minute though.) The folks at Karl’s Tuxedos really helped us out by letting us borrow the coat for free for the production! Thanks Karl’s . . . it wouldn’t have been near as good without the tails! The maestro and CFC thanks you!
Speaking of KidStuf, it was awesome today!! We had a KidStuf attendance record this morning of 141!! What was really cool about that 141 was the fact that there were a TON of guests with us! I hope that we will see more of them back with us soon!
I am still amazed at our kids who are inviting so many of their friends that they have to make their parents drive two vehicles to transport them all to church! I told our folks during prayer this morning that the key to their zeal is the fact that they don’t know they aren’t supposed to bring friends to church! They haven’t learned that we do “hide it under a bushel, yes!” Of course I am being a bit facetious, but not that much. I just love the passion that these kids have for their friends to come to church with them. Who knows how many we will have with the “contest” for next month’s KidStuf in the mix. Kids, get those friends here to win the iPod Shuffle!
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