The times I've wept...

9 - when mom said our ceiling might be too low to put up the Christmas tree.

18 - when I left Ocala - I walked down the road from a friends house to the Publix parking lot where my parents were waiting in the moving truck. I got in the car with my mom and the dam broke. I guess I had never had friends like those.

19 - seeing my buddy Jason Stirsman dressed up in his Marine outfit.

20 - for my sister and her new baby.

20 - when I left the kitchen at Drury College after working there for three years.

21 - trying to get home to Indiana after being stuck in Missouri for three days with the K car. I came outside the mail room at BBC and saw some green fluid dripping from a hole underneath the car. I tried to stop it with a crayon and duck tape. A missionary saw me and said he would help. For the next two days Robbie (a guy I had never met until then) worked on my car and purchased the parts with his own money. I got 25 miles away and the car died. I was ok until I called mom from a rest station pay phone. All she had to say was "honey, what's wrong?"

22 - at the thought of losing my sister to cancer (she never had it but thanks for not dying anyway Keri)

24 - When a slightly overweight, poor, blond haired, little girl with no accompaniment sang "You are my all in all" at church camp when I was a youth pastor.

Marty is my hero

As some of my buds know I was always a big 4Him fan (really a Marty MacGehee fan) for all of the nineties. Marty is now doing a solo album and he posted a bulletin about a year ago to send in pics of yourself and he and that some would be posted on his mySpace page. I saw his page and had forgotten all about that and happened to see me, Marty, Melissa Cameron, and you can just see Beka (wifey) behind us. Some of you are like "Dude, who is 4Him and may seem insignificant but this is pretty cool to me. You can see it on his slide show at - http://www. myspace. com/myriteturn

Memories on a Trampoline

Fall 1993 - sneaking into the gym after football practice and kickin' it up on the Olympic size trampolines and watching my dare devil friend Jim T. land in between the springs... yes - your thinking the worst and that is what happened.

Spring 1994 - Trying a backflip on the trampoline at my youth pastor's house in front of some girls and landing about 10 feet away from the desired location... in the yard.

Summer 1996 - at my buddies house in Canton... playing break the egg... Wade was the egg... we broke him.

This is why I say that we will never own one but let the kids play at the neighbors... Yeah it makes no sense - ok it makes perfect sense... I am a bad father.

10% FUN... 90% FAT

It's been since the 90's since I've been on a trampoline. My kids were in the neighbors back yard kickin' it up when I decided to give it a whirl. Let's just say if you want to lose weight... get on one.
I felt my face pull downward like it was made out of putty. And for the rest of me... well let's just say it didn't do much for my confidence.

WOW - that was awesome!!!

My buddy Zach and I went door to door today in Marion in hopes of speaking to some potential launch team members for the church plant. We went to some condo's and knocked about 40 doors. A lot of 'not homes' but we spoke with an unbelievable amount of interested people. It was something like 11-12 people that were really receptive. I really feel as if we are going to reap a long awaited harvest!

Thanks Dad

I tried for years to make my dad read books that I thought were cool..

I tried for years to beat my dad in one game of golf.. I did. It didn't feel as good as I thought it would.

I tried to convince my dad for years that sandals have a 5 year shelf life.. It took me six years to figure out that sandals just start to break in about that time.

For years I tried to be a little less like my dad.. not that there is anything wrong with dad - I just wanted to be a little more unique.. yeah, that's not happening.

It took me years to figure out that it has taken years for God to make my dad exactly how he wants him.

Thanks Dad.. you are more of a stud than you think.

Simple Church

I am reading a book entitled "Simple Church" by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. The content of the book is to help churches move beyond mission statements to real mission. I must admit I have had trouble gaining clarity on this subject and have read everything there is about processes, purpose statements, vision statements. All of them had something to say but nothing had convicted me yet.

I think that the point the Lord has been explaining to me is not to go over board on trying to contrive a tag line that will draw people to church but to simply return to a simplistic approach to it.

In the book they say that 500 churched were interviewed to reveal the stats given. The churches that were vibrant and growing, regardless of size, had a short and simple purpose and implemented these four common denominators.

• Clarity - Clarity is the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the people…clarity involves certainty, and it eliminates confusion.
• Movement - Movement is the sequential steps in the process that cause people to move to greater areas of commitment. Movement is about flow. It is about assimilation. Movement is what causes a person to go to the next step…Movement is what happens in between programs.
• Alignment - Alignment is the arrangement of all ministries and staff around the same simple process. Alignment to the process means that all ministry departments submit and attach themselves to the same overarching process.
• Focus - Focus is the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process. Focus most often means saying “no.” Focus requires saying “yes” to the best and “no” to everything else. While movement is the most difficult simple church element to understand, focus is also the most difficult element to implement.