I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I don’t think it is a freight train.  I have been busting my bottom (for those of you who would prefer that I not use the word butt) for the last couple days.  Typically Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are my hardest days. This Tuesday I worked on laying the ground work for our next sermon series – by the way, totally stoked about it already. In fact, Wednesday I wrote the week 1 sermon for the next series. All I will tell you now is that it is going to be a study on  a  man from God’s Word. What I love is that the dude is just like us. That is a clue and if you do a little research you can figure it out, but no more clues!

Last night I taught the first session of Men’s Fraternity and had a blast and this morning I met with the guys that are doing the Love Dare.  I am so excited about what God is doing in the lives of our men – He is raising up some real warriors!

Tomorrow is my day off and it looks like Denise and I are going to take another stab at deep sea fishing. If you recall, last time we got about 5 miles out and it was so rough we had to turn around and come back. I would love to catch a couple nice red snapper!!!

This weekend is going to be phenomenal!!! Fantastic music set and a straight on message – can’t wait!!!!!! Be there and bring a friend!!!!!!!

Click here for a few words from Denise about her trip and return home.

I forgot about the emotioanl bounce that this weekend brings. Years ago, very early in ministry, I learned how hard the weekend following Easter can be. You see, Easter is typically the highest attendance of the year. This year we had 1364 to be exact. That is the second highest attendance in our hisory and the record is 1380. But I forgot about the emotional kick that you get in the shins the next weekend. The weekend following Easter is traditionally very low in attendance. Your CEO’s (christmas and easter only) are definitely not going to be there and your occassional attenders are not going to be there and your once or twice a monthers are not going to be there – you see they were all there last weekend for Easter. For the last several years I have prepared myself for the post-Easter weekend, but somehow not so this year – I simply forgot. Man my shin hurts! We have been running 700-725 on average and this weekend we had 625. Did I tell you how much my shin hurts! Because I have been pastoring for 12 Easters I can say this with a smile on my face, confidence in my spirit and joy in my heart. I know that God is doing PHENOMENAL things at Parkview! As a pastor I want to reach everybody with the life changing message. I don’t want anyone to miss Christ! I want everyone to experience life change in Christ. Even with an under-sized building, we fully anticipate our Easter services will bring us new families and new growth! Thank the Lord for it.

A couple other things – this was spring break weekend and that certainly did not help, never does. Believe it or not, we had a great number of returning Easter guests – I personally spoke with several. PTL! That really makes me wonder where so many others were. I think my other shin just started to hurt!
Hey, it is what it is. This is my blog and I always try and share what is going on in my heart and life. By the way, all the pastors that read this post will find this to be encouraging! Guys, keep your shins elevated and a little ice will help ease the pain !

A few more random thoughts:

• Loved kicking off the new series!!!
• Enjoyed Dom’s story
• From what I was told, alot of what I said is also clearly articulated in the book, Search for Significance.  Although I have never read the book, I have heard great things about the study. It is currently being offered to women on Wed. morning at 9:30.
• Loved unpacking the truth that we are redeemed – that is who we are!
• Love the fact that I went into the courtroom a criminal and left adopted by the Judge!
• Derek left church trying to pass a kidney stone at the 9am service. I don’t think he has given birth yet. Please keep him in your prayers. All of you card carrying kidney stone passers know how painful this is.  So glad I don’t have the card.
• I was invited by the manager at Outback to bring a guest to lunch for a free meal today. I don’t pass up free food, so 7 of us went (4 kids 7 or under) and they comped the whole thing. I told them to bring me the bill but was not overly sad when they said it was all on the house. By the way they loaded us up with appetizers and dessert!  I think they did all this so I would put it on my world unrenowned blog !
• Seth and I miss Denise and are glad she is coming home tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!
• This past week I got invited to go speak one night in the Bahamas at the end of May. Believe it or not, I am going! Oh yes, and Denise is going too – somehow I suspected that would be the case. It is a Friday night christian school commencement. You just never know when God is going to send you an unexpected blessing!
• Man this is a long post.
• We have an all-staff meeting tomorrow. Only one problem, all the staff will not be there. Couple sick and a couple AWOL. We have a great speaker coming!
• Had a great conversation with a missionary this week. Hope there is more to come with this story!
• Made several phone calls and emails after a couple of appointments today and called it a day a little after 6pm.
• The cookies just called my name – “I’ll be there in a minute, finishing my post!”
• I love pastoring Parkview.
• So glad that probably our lowest attendance of the year is behind us.
• Really loved the service and pumped about the new series and the coming weeks.
• Have a blessed week and share the amazing love of Christ with those around you!!!

Yesterday I posted my thoughts and reflections on Easter at Parkview. Now I would like to hear your thoughts.  Now, there is one problem with this approach – “closet readers”.  The reason I speak to closet readers is because I am one. I follow about 12 0r 15 blogs, mainly those in church leadership, and I almost never comment. In fact, in the hundreds and hundreds of posts I have read I only recall commenting once – safe to say I am a “closet reader”.  To those of you like me, I invite you into the game – commenting.

I am telling you a little about myself and at the same time inviting you to comment. Maybe this will even spur me on to comment on the blogs I read.  Also, just a little info – once you comment, I have to approve your first comment. Once I do that, all of your future comments post automatically. Just FYI.

All that being said – what are your thoughts on Easter at Parkview? What was your experience like? What was your ministry service opportunity like?  Did you meet some guests? Did you have to sacrifice in any way? Any thing you would recommend we do next Easter?  Who blessed you at Parkview?  Most importantly – how was God glorified in your life?  How did God reveal Himself to you this weekend? Is there anything about Jesus that you now see in a new light?

Enough questions. I just wanted to make this your blog today and not mine. Comment away…

• It is 2 hours before our first of five services.
• God is going to be glorified and the Risen Savior celebrated!!!!
• We are praying for people to stand and trust Christ!
• We just finished our last drama rehearsal a little bit ago – it went great and we got out earlier than I thought we would.
• It is not too late to INVITE!!!
• See you this weekend.

Just typing the words Good Friday hits me like a tidal wave. This is the day we reflect upon Christ being crucified for our sins.  Whenever I think of the crucifixion and the abuses that went with it, I immediately go to the movie, The Passion of the Christ.  That movie really gave me a perspective on all that Christ went through. I may try to rent it tonight and just get a fresh view.

INVITE!!!!

INVITE! INVITE!

Friday is my day off  but as we get so close to Easter it is not very realistic for me to take the entire day off.  I guess you could say I have been mixing bussiness with pleasure. Seth and I ran a couple errands, bought a “new” fishing pole for him at a yard sale and fished for about 30 minutes. I made a few phone calls, sent a couple emails and am getting ready to work on memorizing some more lines for the drama, as well as, tweak my sermon a little.

INVITE!!!!!

• The new light pole banners look phenomenal.
• We have made the 8 spaces right across from the front doors guest parking.
• Looks like the weather for the sunrise service is going to be very nice.
• The people at Princess Place Preserve have been MORE than accomodating and helpful!
• Rental Land is delivering the chairs at 5 am – Thanks Patrick and Josh!
• You can bring your own chair to the Easter sunrise if you choose.
•  Please pray for people to stand and trust Christ!!
• We added a little staging to our stage and it is going to be FULL.
• We added as many chairs as we can to the auditorium.
• If you are a parkview leader, please find the worst parking space available and park in it – saving the best for our guests!
• We will have parking attendants for our Sunday services.
• We can probably have a maximum of 400 at any service – praying we bust at the seems this weekend!!

I will try to post some more thoughts tomorrow morning.