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Burn the Boats!

May 15, 2012 in Church Life, Miscellaneous with 1 Comment

Sometimes it is just good to go on record and declare the coming victory! Sometimes the best way to experience victory is to storm the beach and burn the boats – leaving no option of turning back.

As the leader of Parkview (remember, I only have that position because I got here first:) I am declaring that with God’s help and by God’s grace we will have the best Children’s Ministry we have ever had. Call me Captain Obvious but the truth is that currently we don’t have the best Children’s Ministry we have ever had at Parkview. While we have some absolutely amazing volunteers who give 110% we have not had the leadership necessary to take our Children’s Ministry to a whole new level.

With arrival of Pastor Kelly we are recommitting ourselves to the ministry God has called us to – bringing Life Change to children and their families! We are reorganizing our staff, looking to hire a Children’s Director and committing all that is necessary to make God’s vision a reality. While I have a tremendous burden for multisite ministry, right now we are committing our horsepower to the children of our church before launching into multisite.

For clarity’s sake – we divide 0-18 years of age into 3 categories: pre-school, children and students. For several years I have stated that some of the best leaders and volunteers serve in our student ministry(6th-12th) – I still believe that to be true. With the arrival of Pastor Kelly and the ongoing commitment of those great volunteers you can look for a re-energized focus on group life for students and you will see additional opportunities for students to participate in community and fellowship while having a blast together!

Our pre-school ministry continues to grow at a rapid pace – something is in the water!! What a joy it is for our church to be filled with such new life! We are thrilled to welcome into pre-school ministry leadership Jacci Keeny and Alayna Dykes. These two ladies have been All-Star volunteers and have recently enlisted to lead our pre-school ministry. Watch out as these ladies empower an already incredibly faithful/loving group of amazing volunteers. These ladies have pre-schoolers of their own and their passion for all of our children is amazing. Welcome aboard ladies!!

Children’s Ministry (1st-5th grade) is where we are going to focus our energies and see the biggest change. We have begun to experience a shift and the momentum is changing in our favor. Please join with us in praying that God will lead us to the Children’s Director that He would have for us! So many things at Parkview are firing on 8 cylinders and I can’t wait for the day that Children’s Ministry is as well. Our Kids deserve our best ministry!!!

My Experiences with Alcohol

March 13, 2012 in Miscellaneous, Spiritual Thought with 0 Comments

This past weekend I spoke very candidly about sex and alcohol. I believe in the sermon I probably said some things that surprised some people. When it came to alcohol I shared my experience on Saturday night. I failed to remember at the time the experience I had just a few months ago. So Sunday’s sermon included my most recent episode. Unfortunately, I believe the sermon we videoed was Saturday night so you had to be there Sunday morning to hear about my most recent experience of requesting alcohol. (you can listen to the message here video will be up soon) If this intrigues you and you want to know more, just ask me and I will share. In light of the weekend sermon I thought I would post a few videos/articles that extend the discussion and may cause you to think -  which by the way is what each of us needs to do! Enjoy:

Click here

And here

A short article here

Any comments or questions??

Valentine Banquet

February 14, 2012 in Church Life, Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

At Parkview we have made it an annual event to celebrate Valentines Day with our Prime Time Group (55+). Each year (this is our second:)) our staff serves the group a nice lunch, we have some special guests (one serious and one very non-serious) and just enjoy spending some time together.

In honor of gracefully aging I post this link for all my prime time friends. If you are planning on living past 65 this is a great read for you also! Please click here for a really good article and brief video clip.

3peat

November 30, 2011 in Church Life, Leadership, Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

I wanted to pass along 3 articles that I read recently – great stuff!

  1. Click here for a good view on when the church disappoints.
  2. Click here for how to speak up when you need to.
  3. Click here to read about effective leaders.

Which article was your favorite and why?

What is your pulse?

September 13, 2011 in Church Life, Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

This past weekend I stated that while everyone has a physical pulse, not everyone has a relational pulse. I thought I would share some common characteristics of those who have relational pulses:

  • there are at least a couple relationships that have lasted many years
  • when a friend seems to have made a mistake they still assume positive intent
  • forgiveness is the first attitude not the last option
  • they don’t hold grudges
  • they use the hammer of their tongue to build others up not tear them down
  • they actually say “I was wrong, will you forgive me?”
  • they are not the center of every conversation
  • they listen more than they talk
  • when uncertain about a matter they ask for clarity

What would you add to the list?

 

Don’t let it bury you!

May 24, 2011 in Miscellaneous with 3 Comments

A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmer’s well. The farmer heard the mule ‘braying’, or whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened and enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery. Initially, the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back — he should shake it off and step up! This he did, shovelful after shovelful.  ”Shake it off and step up . . . shake it off and step up . . . shake it off and step up!” he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or distressing the situation seemed the old mule fought “panic” and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up! It wasn’t long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him, had actually blessed him — all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

Awesome Stuff

May 10, 2011 in Church Life, Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

I had the privilege of talking with Adam Whitley today and letting him know how once again the people of Parkview have been incredibly generous. Your offering for the Whitley family this past weekend was just over $2,700! Phenomenal! Praise God for your generosity to people in their time of need. If you missed the video about their little miracle son Sevrin, I will try to get it posted on my blog this week. The Whitley’s are so thankful for your generosity! If you have not been able to give but would like to do so, we will continue collecting money for them through the month of May – who knows what God would have us do!!!

In Your Presence

May 3, 2011 in Miscellaneous, Spiritual Thought with 2 Comments

Psalm 16:2 says, “…in Your presence is fullness of joy…”

The question I had after reading that verse was not, “How do I have joy?”. The reason that was not my question is because the verse tells me how to have joy. The question I had was, “How do experience God’s presence?”. So after thinking about it here are a few ways I can experience His presence:

  • Read all of Psalm 16
  • Re-read all of Psalm 16
  • Pray while I run
  • Thank God for my health
  • Have an attitude of praise
  • Enjoy the music in the car that is on the christian radio station
  • Love those that he has put in my life and love them like he does
  • Admire his handiwork
  • Push pause and think on him

How can you or how are you experiencing God’s presence today?

Happiness is based on what happens – joy is experienced in God’s presence. EnJOY your day!

How Can I Say Thanks

March 16, 2011 in Church Life, Miscellaneous with 2 Comments

Just recently our church had the opportunity to serve a lady in our congregation. In my mind, the way we reached out to her was not very big but to her it was huge. She is 81 years old and has been attending our church for a few years. It was very important to her that she express appreciation for the way that Parkview reached out to her in a time of need. So, in order to say thanks, she brought a home cooked meal and fed our whole staff today. In doing so she taught or reminded me of a few good lessons:

  • Saying thanks is good for others to hear
  • Saying thanks is good for me to hear
  • A grateful heart blesses all
  • Gratitude expresses love
  • Everyone can say thanks
  • I may have a unique way to really express appreciation
  • You never get to old to say thanks:)

I was simply reminded today of the importance of gratitude!

Japan Connections

March 14, 2011 in Miscellaneous with 0 Comments

I don’t watch much TV and therefore haven’t had much exposure to all the happenings in Japan. What  I have seen has primarily been by way of the internet. It has all taken my breathe away – devastation is an understatement!!!

Todd and Annie Lee are facebook friends of ours and fellow alumnus. They are ministering in Japan and this is what Annie posted on her status update yesterday:  i am overwhelmed by the love and support shown by so many of you to our family. thank you for your concern and prayers! there are 3,221 churches in eastern japan and in them are 241,498 Christians. please pray we can be a light to the world during this time.

David Harris is a missionary in Japan. His mother was actually my secretary when I was employed at Trinity Baptist College. David posted this on his blog: We have been receiving calls about churches and individuals who want to donate for quake relief.  BIMI has authorized us to oversee this fund.  If you are interested, please see the link at bimi.org.

We were in Misawa which is 200 miles north of the main quake area for a missions conference at Faith Baptist Church when the quake hit. Thankfully, we were only inconvenienced with 2 days without electricity, heat, or hot water. The church made sure we had food and water. There is little damage here, but we felt the dozens of earthquakes that followed.

Power was restored to almost the whole area on Sunday except for the military base inn in which we are staying!  We had power for church on Sunday.  We had a great conclusion to our mission’s conference at Faith BC in Misawa with Pastor Sammy Popwell.

We were to head back to Kobe this morning by bullet train, but found out that they are not running.  We are trying to get back down via the west coast of Japan, but learned that trains heading in that area are also out today.  We’ll try again tomorrow.  The only other option is for us to head to Aomori and then try to fly back home which will cost us over $1000 one way for the three of us.  We are praying the trains start back.  If so, we can get a night train that goes down the Japan Sea side for about $500 for all of us.  Roads are closed and buses are not running.

I am praying for some way to head toward the quake area to see if I might be able to help with relief.  If I can get Jenny and Josiah home, that might be an option.  Please pray for thousands Thank you for praying for Japan.

Click here to view a video and helpful prayer to help us know how to pray.

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