Growing
It is amazing that I have kidS! It was difficult enough to get my head around being a parent period, but to have more than one has been a little overwhelming. What is even more amazing is how fast it all goes by. I am constantly amazed that the speed by which my kid(s) are growing. I’ve posted a few new pictures to illustrate my point. Aren’t they something else?
Growing
It is amazing that I have kidS! It was difficult enough to get my head around being a parent period, but to have more than one has been a little overwhelming. What is even more amazing is how fast it all goes by. I am constantly amazed that the speed by which my kid(s) are growing. I’ve posted a few new pictures to illustrate my point. Aren’t they something else?
Two good… no, great….. no, amazing guys
God is doing amazing things at our church. We are rural, and yet contemporary; we sit in the middle of corn fields yet we’re reaching 20 somethings like crazy; we’ve been around for 140 years and yet the average age of our church attender is probably around 28-34; we’ve just been practicing an outreach program for two years now and yet our baptism’s have doubled every year for 3 years; we don’t have any wealthy people in the church and yet our budget has climbed by 300% in 3 years. I could go on and on. I am consistently amazed at the goodness of God to our church. In light of all this it’s time for me to say thanks to a couple of amazing guys. I haven’t really mentioned them as much in this blog as I should, but John and Nick are not only my best friends but they are, by far, the best parts of our church staff. Their faithfulness has been much of what has made our church go for the past two years. John is certainly the most talented musician/songwriter that I’ve ever personally known. His ability to lead people into worship is unmatched in my experience. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over how many times he’s shown up on a Sunday morning with a brand new song he’s written “while playing around” the day before that works with our service topic in amazing fashion! Nick has got to be the most persistent evangelist that I’ve ever met. It is impossible to have a conversation with someone whithout them hearing the gospel from Nick. He challenges me every day through his life to be more consistent in mine. His faithfulness to work with our students for almost 3 years now is unbelievable. In both of these guys’ cases they could have left long ago for much larger churches with much bigger paychecks but they have stayed because they feel certain that God put them with us. I don’t think it’s ever possible to understand how much I love, and value their partnership at Missouri Valley. John and Nick, you guys rock!
Two good… no, great….. no, amazing guys
God is doing amazing things at our church. We are rural, and yet contemporary; we sit in the middle of corn fields yet we’re reaching 20 somethings like crazy; we’ve been around for 140 years and yet the average age of our church attender is probably around 28-34; we’ve just been practicing an outreach program for two years now and yet our baptism’s have doubled every year for 3 years; we don’t have any wealthy people in the church and yet our budget has climbed by 300% in 3 years. I could go on and on. I am consistently amazed at the goodness of God to our church. In light of all this it’s time for me to say thanks to a couple of amazing guys. I haven’t really mentioned them as much in this blog as I should, but John and Nick are not only my best friends but they are, by far, the best parts of our church staff. Their faithfulness has been much of what has made our church go for the past two years. John is certainly the most talented musician/songwriter that I’ve ever personally known. His ability to lead people into worship is unmatched in my experience. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over how many times he’s shown up on a Sunday morning with a brand new song he’s written “while playing around” the day before that works with our service topic in amazing fashion! Nick has got to be the most persistent evangelist that I’ve ever met. It is impossible to have a conversation with someone whithout them hearing the gospel from Nick. He challenges me every day through his life to be more consistent in mine. His faithfulness to work with our students for almost 3 years now is unbelievable. In both of these guys’ cases they could have left long ago for much larger churches with much bigger paychecks but they have stayed because they feel certain that God put them with us. I don’t think it’s ever possible to understand how much I love, and value their partnership at Missouri Valley. John and Nick, you guys rock!
Driscollized
Can you imagine someone preaching, and holding the attention, of 5,000 20 somethings every weekend in 5 worship services? I’ll have to admit I’ve been amazed at the thought. Well, Mark Driscoll is able to do just that. In a more exciting development than just about anything Driscoll has offered before, he is now offering his sermons (in video) online for free. Unbelievable! Check them out here.
Driscollized
Can you imagine someone preaching, and holding the attention, of 5,000 20 somethings every weekend in 5 worship services? I’ll have to admit I’ve been amazed at the thought. Well, Mark Driscoll is able to do just that. In a more exciting development than just about anything Driscoll has offered before, he is now offering his sermons (in video) online for free. Unbelievable! Check them out here.
The bag is cat free
The truth appears to be coming out. Although Chairman Hatley informed me that specific information about the reasons for removing Burleson from the trustee board would not come out until later, it appears that one of the trustee’s who disagreed with Burleson has already let the cat out of the bag. In this article, published in The Christian Index of Georgia, Mr. John Schaefer who is a layman at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church claims that the problems do, in fact, lie with Burleson’s blog (as many previously assumed). He seems to say in the article that the trustee’s believe that Burleson’s online posts are a grievous action worthy of significant retribution. Read the article and stop by in a day or two when I’ll post my thoughts about this most recent revelation.
The bag is cat free
The truth appears to be coming out. Although Chairman Hatley informed me that specific information about the reasons for removing Burleson from the trustee board would not come out until later, it appears that one of the trustee’s who disagreed with Burleson has already let the cat out of the bag. In this article, published in The Christian Index of Georgia, Mr. John Schaefer who is a layman at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church claims that the problems do, in fact, lie with Burleson’s blog (as many previously assumed). He seems to say in the article that the trustee’s believe that Burleson’s online posts are a grievous action worthy of significant retribution. Read the article and stop by in a day or two when I’ll post my thoughts about this most recent revelation.
A tad excited
I haven’t been this excited about a SBC Pastor’s Conference since I was 17 and going to my first one. This year’s conference has been put together by Pastor’s Conference President, Bryant Wright of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. It appears that Wright has done a really good job of trying to reach out across ages, cultures and worship preferences to assemble a very strong conference. With speakers like Erwin McManus of Mosaic in Los Angeles and Nelson Searcy of The Journey Church in Manhattan, New York City, it looks to be something that I will really enjoy. What’s even more exciting is that on Monday morning of the conference they are holding a series of breakout meetings which helps it to become a functional conference for me. Some of the breakout sessions look to be interesting, and helpful. All in all, it looks to be a good year in Greensboro.
A tad excited
I haven’t been this excited about a SBC Pastor’s Conference since I was 17 and going to my first one. This year’s conference has been put together by Pastor’s Conference President, Bryant Wright of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. It appears that Wright has done a really good job of trying to reach out across ages, cultures and worship preferences to assemble a very strong conference. With speakers like Erwin McManus of Mosaic in Los Angeles and Nelson Searcy of The Journey Church in Manhattan, New York City, it looks to be something that I will really enjoy. What’s even more exciting is that on Monday morning of the conference they are holding a series of breakout meetings which helps it to become a functional conference for me. Some of the breakout sessions look to be interesting, and helpful. All in all, it looks to be a good year in Greensboro.
