Rugby

One thing I love about living in Washington are the different sports I have gotten to see. The two I have recently watched which I never saw in Oklahoma or Arkansas is lacrosse and rugby. As most of you know we live two blocks from W & J campus. The women's softball field is located about 100 yards from our house. Jeremiah, Micah and I went on an evening stroll and passed some guys practicing rugby on that field. They use a ball which looks like a football yet shaped a little different and they were doing some crazy drills where they push together. There were also tackling without pads. Those guys were bad! I have never seen a Rugby game, but I hope to catch a game this season. I love how living in the north has truly expanded my ideas and exposed me to new things like a hard hitting game like rugby.

Fourth Week

I have to say today was amazing in spite of me and my average job speaking. We had some new faces and also had a ton of returning guests. Andrew did a great job in worship. He's got some new things in store which should only enhance our worship. I felt like I did an average job today. I spoke about acceptance and took my message from John 8. It is truly awesome to see people beginning to take ownership and just doing things that need to be done. I have learned something in my short stint as a church planter: people are waiting to be challenged. I have seen people step up after a challenge and as a leader, there is nothing better. One thing I have learned which may be at this point my life's motto (which I stole from Mark Batterson) we need to pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on us. Today, God honored some invitations I extended. I praise His name for bringing some new faces who I have been working on. Thank you God for honoring our hard work and making our fourth week truly amazing!

Communicating For A Change

Started reading Andy Stanley's book Communicating for a Change. I absolutely love it. I am only on the fifth chapter, but I think it is going to give me some valuable principles to apply to my preaching. I know this book has been out for a while, but if you have already read it let me know what insights you learned or how it helped you improve as a speaker.

Brees Stinks

Since I am a little peeved at my hogs let me throw in some major complaints to my fantasy quarterback. Drew Brees is killing me. Because of his great performances, I have won every match-up to this point (serious sarcasm)! If he doesn't start getting more completions than interceptions, I may bench him and play Leinart which isn't much of an improvement. I am beginning to see that my draft choices are killing me!

Hogs Stink

I have to say I must eat some crow. My Razorbacks are truly stinking it up this year. Our defense is simply horrible. Alabama and Kentucky both picked our secondary apart. McFadden will not win the Heisman because AR can't win and therefore will not get anymore national T.V. time. I hope they can turn things around. If not, Nutt will be on the hot seat. WVU has a good team!

CORE

I have to admit that I am enjoying our current series. Last week I spoke on the Family. It was a good study and I enjoyed showing how important family is to God and Life Point. I have already began my studies for this weeks sermon on Acceptance. I am steelling/borrowing a concept I heard from Andy Stanley. Everybody we lay our eyes on is somebody for whom our Savior died. Unfortunately we only place value on people we like or know. Another angle on this concept is the fact that all of us place value on people because other people value them. Each of us place value on our bosses kids because our boss places value in them. The same thing should be true for us and God. God desires for us to see value in people because he sees value in them. He died for everyone. We are all guilty of failing to place value in people and then we (permission to speak freely) treat them like CRAP! That is not what God has called us to do. Like the person who pulls out in front of us in traffic or the customer rep who is rude to us at Target. God sees value in them and therefore so should we. If we at Life Point will implement this concept now, it will set a standard for the way we accept people. I have thoroughly enjoyed this study. I hope people are discovering who we are and what makes us Life Point.

Catalyst Tickets For Sale

My brother Andrew has two Catalyst tickets for sale. He is asking $150 for each (total $300). This is a heck of a deal. Currently an individual ticket cost $289. The dates of the conference are October 3-5. I have been to the conference three different times and it rocks! Anyone interested can e-mail him at andrew@lifepointatwashington.com

CR 08

It's official. City Reach will be held in Washington, Pennsylvania June 13-20, 2008. As you can imagine, I'm stoked that 250 students will invade the city of Washington as servants of Jesus Christ. It is going to be an unbelievable event. If you or someone you know is a student pastor and you think you might have students grades 9th grade and up who would like to be involved in one of the greatest weeks involving service, please give me a call. I would love to tell you about it. The City Reach board spent Sunday through Wednesday planning for CR 08. Major thanks to them for their hard work. Given the history of City Reach and huge success of the CR in Loveland, CO, I am super excited to see what God is going to do in Washington.

It was also awesome to see my brother Jonathan for a few days. Joseph Witcher a great friend of mine also came to town for the meeting. I love these two guys! I wish we could hang out more often. They pump me up and challenge me to continue doing what God has called me to do. I also got to hang out with John Yoho super cool guy and very in tune with todays students, Jason Wait, very organized and a man of many funny words, Jonathan Smith, a man who is passionate about CR and loves students, Donna Mercer, an awesome lady through which godliness oozes from her pores and from her speech and Tony Harp a wise and cool man. Also got to hang out with Jason and Russell. (You already know how I feel about those guys.) I absolutely loved working with the board. One of the things that impressed me was their vision for CR. It is to totally and completely to serve and help the church planter. They in no way tried to push their ideas or agendas on Life Point. They wanted to do anything and everything the best way so CR could help us reach and serve the most people as possilbe. Awesome stuff. Get prayed and and ready for an awesome week coming in June. CR 08 is going to ROCK!

Great Day (Sunday)

Sorry for the delay in posting about Sunday. It has been crazy (City Reach board meeting yesterdy and today at Washington) and I was super tired on Sunday, so here is a recap of our weekend service. Setup on Saturday was awesome. Got everything set up in under an hour. Sunday rocked. Our numbers were down some, but we still had four first time guests. The service was great and I had a blast preaching on authenticity. One of the statements I made was, "I want Eve, given her big time mistake, to be able to come to Life Point and sit on the front row and feel completely O.K." I went back to Genesis 3 and talked about the first cover up act. All in all it was a great day. I stressed the need for us to be honest and open, creating a safe place at Life Point where people can be real. Next week, we will be looking at another one of our core values, family. Get ready Life Point, its going to ROCK!

From PA TO AR

It was great to see Arkansas travel all the way to the great state of Pennsylvania to find their new AD. On Tuesday, Jeff Long was named AD for the Razorbacks. It will be interesting to see what changes if any will be made. Good things do come out of PA. GO HOGS!

Another Day of Firsts

Since moving to PA, Renee and I have experienced a ton of FIRSTS. Some that come to mind is buying our first home, having a third child and planting a church. Today I experienced yet another first when Micah went to Wednesday School for the first time. When I walked he and Jeremiah in, they just walked into their class and sat down. They needed no help or support from me. I had one of those moments as a dad where I realized how independent they are becoming, especially when they together. Together, their are fearless and unstoppable. Similar to the relationship I have with both of my brothers. Pretty cool how when you are with your brothers, you believe you can do anything and most of the time you can. Thanks God for allowing me to experience this today!

Taking Risks

Since finishing In a Pit by Mark Batterson, one of my prayers as a leader has been, what's my next risk. I have also been praying what is Life Point's next risk. I think I may have found my answer. Obviously, Satan is completely against everything we are doing and have done. But he can't and won't thwart the plan of God. Directly after our service, I spoke with the owner of the building. He brought it to my attention that he had never been told that we were meeting there. So we don't really know where we will be next week. We have been trying to figure out a more permanent meeting space for 2 months and have had no success. God is about to show up in an awesome way. One of the exciting things about be portable is if the person you are renting from decides they are done, you better have a back plan. God's got that back up plan and we are going to pray hard and walk by faith until he reveals His plan for us. I do really love Church Planting. It is hard but oh so rewarding. One of our guests told someone yesterday after hearing of our exciting dilemma that this is a great test and learning experience for me as the leader. Here is lesson #595 for me as a leader. They keep coming and I hope I am learning more to trust God and to more RISKS!

Great Launch

It is finally time to exhale and begin breathing again at a regular speed again. Our launch kicked off with great success. We had seventeen first time guests. Everyone else that attended was a direct result of one of our preview services or small groups. When we set up on Saturday, we wondered how many chairs to set out and we filled almost all 42 of them. That's got me really stoked. God showed up in a great way. Maybe next week we should set out 100. The time we spent in worship was absolutely God glorifying. As a leader it was great to hear the singing from the crowd. I know that made Andrew feel good. I truly enjoyed casting a little vision and introducing everyone to Life Point. At the end of our service, I loved seeing the smiling faces of the children as they came down stairs having attended Life Point Kids. My wife did a tremendous job with them. One of the new things we did (don't shoot me) was we actually took up an offering and everyone gave generously. Even having as many guests as we did, people really gave, showing great interest in investing in Life Point. I do want to thank the many people from all over the nation who prayed for us. I know of 80+ people who prayed for us and we say thank you. I spoke to Jason Sheffstall yesterday afternoon and told him that when I got up to speak, there was a calmness that came over me from the Holy Spirit. This was a direct result of God's people praying. Thanks guys! With your prayers and God's help, we can walk away and say that the launch of Life Point was a big win for us!

Poised & Ready

All systems are go. We have done everything in our power to get the word out. Wash Arts is set up and now we ready to Rock N Roll! God is going to do some awesome things tomorrow. While we were praying today as a team Andrew prayed, "God we want to make tomorrow your day!" That's it! We want it all to be about him. He deserves all the credit and glory for whatever happens on 9/9/07. I have a feeling of excitement and anticipation as our launch approaches. God - do your thing!

In Awe

I am totally humbled by the act of kindness and drive of Noah Lee. He sent out an e-mail through abanews yesterday requesting that 100 people pray for our launch on Sunday. At 2:49 today, 51 people/churches had committed to pray for us. Thanks Noah for your planning and asking people from all over the nation to lift us up in prayer. I do believe God is going to do some awesome things on Sunday. There is a sense of excitement among our core group as we prepare for Sunday. I got yet two more phone calls today from people who had seen our lawn signs and may be coming to our launch. It is my prayer that God is glorified by everything which occurs on Sunday at Life Point. This is all possible because our God REIGNS!

Psalm 97: 1-6 The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side. His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.

Unloading Information

-Pumped about launching Life Point on Sunday
-Begging God for people to show up at our Launch and get connected
-Worried about my wife and daughter as they fly home to Arkansas for three days
-Hanging with my boys for three days
-Pumped about upcoming City Reach board meeting in Washington/Seneca Rocks, WV
-Various (larger than usual) people have been checking out our website
-Local paper is going to post Sunday's launch service as podcast on their website
-50+ launch lawn signs have created a buzz around town
-Launch is going to give us some momentum
-Launching three new small groups next week
-Tired of summer. Ready for cold weather and snow!
-Steelers open on Sunday and we will be hosting a watch party after our service
-Did I mention how much I love my wife and daughter (Lily smiled at me before leaving for the airport)
-Stoked about Sunday's message which God gave to me Monday morning at 3 a.m.
-Not happy with my Fantasy League. (Picked Reggie Bush during first round)
-Hate I am going to miss the Mid-Atlantic Men's Retreat this weekend as Seneca Rocks
-Can't wait to begin preaching every week
-Still praying and planning for our College small group (Praying for word to spread throughout campus)
-Printed and delivered 70 small group fliers to Student Life & Resident Life at W & J to be posted around campus and on every floor at dorms

WildHog

How about those hogs. Loved seeing McFadden on Sportscenter as he ran the WildHog (formally wild cat). He faked the run and threw a 42 yard touch down pass. I predict McFadden will take the Heisman hands down. Can't wait to catch the Alabama game in two weeks on ESPN. Until then I guess I will settle for the Steelers & fantasy football.

Move In Day

I just spent 6 hours over the span of two days helping the freshman at W & J move in. Four hundred moved in, 100 on Thursday and 300 on Friday. One guys asked me why I came back the second day. I told him I just wanted to help and minister to the students. I passed out a few small group invite cards on Thursday, but Friday, I hit the jack pot. On Thursday, I was about the only one helping with move in. I met a guy who is the main RA over the men's freshman dorms. On Friday, I was talking to him and he took about 35 invite cards and said he would slide them under some doors as well as mention it at their first dorm meeting. Sweetness! I hope God will allow me to network with this guy and meet a ton of people through him. On Friday, I also worked with some awesome guys from one of the Fraternities. They worked super hard and I invited them to our service on Sept. 9. Overall hard yet awesome two days. Please pray for us as we begin our new college small group on Wed. night at Crazy Mocha coffee house. Crazy Mocha is going to stay open two hours later on Wednesday nights for our Bible study. I hope some students show up.