Whirlwind Week

Last Thursday I found out I had strep throat. I promptly went home and began pumping my system with penicillin. I recovered from strep and two days later my family drove to Richmond, VA. The next day we got up and drove to York, PA, and the next day Clark and I boarded a plane to Dallas, TX where we've spent the last 2 1/2 days getting our brains pumped full of good information at church planting boot camp. Now, I'm sitting in a terminal at DFW waiting to fly back to PA and I'm taking a moment to catch my breath and reflect - what a week!

There's no way I can download everything in my brain in one blog post, but I'll start by reporting that God is doing AMAZING, KICK-BUTT, TAKE-BACK-THE-TERRITORY stuff all over the United States. We met people from everywhere with hearts to win the lost in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ. We met people who are preaching Jesus boldly and finding ways to do church that have never been done before. Being around these people has increased the urgency I feel to reach out to our mission field in Summerville, South Carolina. We all have neighbors and friends who are living everyday with stress, burden, anxiety and fear (let's be honest, half the time that's us) - some seen and much unseen. We have what they need and His name is Jesus! We've spent far too long being comfortable as church-insiders and it's past time to get out into the world with a faith that is relevant and lived everyday.

One of the biggest takeaways for me from the conference is the idea that we need to "put an elbow" on people, meaning we need to get over the old model of attracting people and start getting serious about inviting. 90-92% of unchurched people come to church for the first time on the elbow, so to speak, of a trusted friend. We live in a post-Christian culture where people outside of the church are highly skeptical of our motives and methods. They're not going to come unless we bring them. This means starting to see your friends with new lenses - start seeing the people you live with, work with and play with as people who are only one invitation away from a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I want to throw down the gauntlet now and challenge everyone to make a commitment to start bringing people with you. In the coming months we're going to have lots of events from preview worship services to service projects at the high school to the Fall Festival - plan now to bring people with you to all of these events. I'll warn you now that some of our events will be "member-guest" events where your only ticket in will be the person you bring with you. Start praying about who God has placed in your life that you can invite. And once God has shown you who those people are, start praying for them everyday.

(As a side-note, if you're already thinking "I don't have any friends who don't go to church" then start doing things with new people - in the coming weeks I'll be joining a spinning class at the Y, starting a running group, joining the Chamber of Commerce and much more to get connected to the community and in touch w/ a wider circle of people - what can you do?)

I am so excited for all that lies ahead. We started a new phase in the Ashley Ridge journey this week. If we're going to launch in January then we need to have 150 fully-committed people by the end of December, only half of whom come from Bethany. I'm thinking it's time to get our hands dirty and get to work. I've been challenged to personally connect with 10,000 new people in the next two years - who's with me?!

It's raining, my throat hurts and I'm reminded of the song "nobody likes me, everybody hates me, might as well go eat worms..." Am I the only one that learned this song as a child?

It's amazing how quickly we can fall into a bad mood and convince ourselves that everything around us is bad, especially when the reality is quite the contrary. The truth is I like rain, I can take some medicine for the sore throat, I have a husband who loves me and a healthy, happy child, I have great friends, God is doing incredible things everyday as we prepare for ARC, people are coming out of the woodwork to be involved and offer their gifts - life isn't good, it's great!

So why do we choose the doldrums instead of joy? Sometimes we do it for the attention and other times we do it because it gives us a good excuse to hide from the world, but never do we do it because it feels good or leads to anything positive or productive.

Things don't always go our way, sometimes terrible things do happen, but because of our faith in Jesus we can choose joy even in those times.

And so, I'm headed home to take some medicine and on the way I just might take some time to thank God for all He has provided for me today.

So, everyone who knows me knows that I love Moe's and can be found there every Tuesday for lunch. No shame here - I'm all about a Joey (Joey Jr. these days - cheaper and not as many calories, plus it leaves more room in your tray for additional chips, which throws out the calories theory, but I digress...).

Today I walked into Moe's and had my worldview shifted by a little thing they've introduced called mango salsa - it's AMAZING! It's an instant fiesta in your mouth, you've got to try it!

"What's the point?" you're asking.

The point is that in order to keep things interesting, engaging and worth returning you've got to keep the main thing the main thing and then change the dressing from time to time. In "Built to Last" Jim Collins talks about this using the yin-yang symbol, saying that "enduring organizations have two dominant characteristics that are complementary opposites. The first is a strong conviction about core ideals that never change; these are purpose and values. The second is a clear understanding that everything else must change in order to preserve the core." (as described in Church Unique by Will Mancini, p. 46). Moe's will never stop serving burritos, but changing the salsa allows you to experience the burrito in a fresh way with new perspective from time to time.

So it is with church. Churches are meant to point people toward Christ and help people grow in a life-saving, life-giving relationship with Him that changes everything about their day-to-day life. To do this, we must continually change our methods and our approach. The same is true in our personal relationship with Christ. Sometimes it helps to jump around in Scripture and use a concordance to point us toward applicable passages based on our life situation. Other times we need to let God help us see Scripture in a new light by reading all of the Bible chronologically (as best as possible) over the course of a year. The approach changes, but the core idea of growing in our love and knowledge of God through the study of His Word does not.

Are you feeling stale? Find a new vantage point and try a fresh approach. Maybe you need to start praying the Psalms or standing on your head when you talk to God (maybe start by shifting to your knees before attempting the headstand) - either way, God's Word is always new and always fresh and always applicable - don't miss out by refusing to change your approach and challenge your assumptions.

"'Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.' After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." (Acts 4:30-31)

Do you start every day expecting God to do something incredible? Do you come to worship expecting to encounter God? When was the last time you prayed a prayer like John and Peter prayed above?

Ours is not a passive faith. Ours is not a God who is operating under the radar. God is all over the place doing incredible, blow-your-mind things and too often we miss seeing it because we're not looking because we're not expecting it. The old cliche says that if you expect nothing you'll probably get it, but that's not what our faith it all about. Jesus said that those who followed him would do and see even greater things than he had already revealed to them.

I've driven to work the last two mornings listening to Lincoln Brewster's "Today is the Day" and it has me pumped up - every day is a day that God is working, every day is a day God has made and God doesn't do anything halfway.

Expect more from God - I guarantee you won't be let down.

Who Leads You? Who Influences You?
What are you Reading? What are you Listening to?

I had the news on this morning as I was getting ready and typically I turn it off after the first 10 minutes of headlines, but today I left it on longer because of the teaser that perhaps there was trouble in paradise with the most recent bachelorette (turns out, there's not - and as an aside, I think it's important as we interact with our culture to always be cheerleaders for positive relationships and marriages instead of naysayers getting sucked into the tabloid drama). Anyway...I'm a bit embarrassed that I left the news on for that reason. It made me reflect on how much time I spend filling my life with positive influences and how much time I fill with the inconsequential.

Don't misread me here - I'm not saying that we should avoid the entertainment world. I'm as excited as most in SEC country that the college football season starts soon. I practically skipped into the theater (that's right, I said skipped) to see the new Harry Potter movie on Saturday because I couldn't wait to see how they would bring an incredible book to the big screen.

But, the question remains, how much time do we spend filling our lives with positive influences in terms of what we watch, read and hear? It does matter. It does make a difference in how we live our life. For example, if your understanding of relationships is informed primarily by shows like The Bachelorette or Dating in the Dark, you could be missing out on the relationship God intends for you (which, for the record, is much better than anything tv can portray). I'm reminded of the quote from Sleepless in Seattle - "You don't want to be in love, you want to be in love in a movie." There is a difference. Real life may lack the helicopter rides and limo rides, but finding someone to love who loves you in return and is willing to put you ahead of all their own needs, wants and desires is much more fulfilling and ultimately gives us a glimpse of Christ's love for His church.

Let me make some suggestions...instead of following a bunch of celebrities on Twitter, try following people like Rick Warren, Rob Bell, Andy Stanley or Perry Noble. Instead of reading TMZ online, maybe set your homepage to Mark Batterson's blog or a site that will give you daily Bible readings set up so you can read the whole Bible in the course of the year. Try mixing up the playlists on your iPod by downloading some stuff like Hillsong's newest album (Faith+Hope+Love). Pick up a copy of Francis Chan's new book "Crazy Love" or Tony Dungy's book "Uncommon" and add it to your reading list.

Who influences you? Are you reading and watching and listening to things that point you to Jesus? It matters.

Overcoming JDD (Jesus Deficit Disorder)

This morning I read "A Jesus Manifesto" written by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. In it, they argue that "the major disease of the church today is JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder." It's very well written and I definitely encourage you to check it out.

I don't know about you, but I can always tell when my life is running with a Jesus deficit. I get crabby, anxious, high-strung, bossy, selfish and an all-together lousy person to be around - just ask my husband. My Jesus meter starts to run low when I think I'm too busy to spend time with Him, too busy to sit with my Bible, too busy to pray because I'm wasting time figuring things out on my own.

If this happens over a prolonged period, we can start to forget what we're missing. We get so used to living life on our terms and by our rules that we accept the anxiety and worry as part of life. It's not good. It's not right. It's not how God created us. We were designed with a need for Jesus and Jesus has gone above and beyond to make it possible for us to know Him.

If you're running with a Jesus deficit and wondering why you're constantly out of steam, let me encourage you to get back in touch with Jesus. You don't even have to dial a phone and I promise you the requisite guilt trip for not calling won't be there. Get back in the Word, get back on your knees, leave the radio off the next time you get in your car and talk to Jesus instead - He's waiting.

ARC VISION

We are a community of people passionately pursuing God and participating in God's passion for reaching people with the love of Jesus Christ.


Read it, memorize it, live it.

"It is important people perceive our church to be..."

Yesterday I filled out an online questionnaire for our web designer in preparation for tomorrow's design meeting. One of the things they asked was for me to complete the sentence, "It is important people perceive our church to be" The first word that came to my mind was genuine. I want people to have no doubt that we are genuine in our faith, our passion and our commitment to live for Jesus every day and in every way.

Now I'm not a web designer, but my guess is that it's hard for a website to communicate "genuine." That's almost like asking an ATM to communicate a bank is friendly. Church's can have the best website in the world and that website can do an incredible job of connecting people to your church and encouraging them to check it out, but if they show up and realize it was just a fancy design, it loses all meaning.

In other words, genuine is not a perception you can fake. People will know we are genuine as we take our faith and our relationship with Jesus and let it truly transform the way we live and care for our family at home, the integrity we exhibit at work, the patience we show in line at the grocery store, the calm and reassurance we provide in crisis...you get the idea.

In my Bible study right now we're talking about friendships and one of the things we've talked about is the difference between a fake friendship and the real deal. We all know the difference and we can all tell immediately the people who are interested in the real thing. As a church (you and me), people can tell when we're genuinely interested in them just like they can tell when we're genuine about our relationship with Jesus.

Let's get real in our walk with God and let's get real in our current relationships so we have the kind of support and accountability that will keep us genuine as a community of faith.

Irresistible Environments

Clark and Jake and I just spent a week of vacation with my parents and my sister's family - it was a great week filled with all of the energy, joy and busyness that a 5-year old, a 2-year old, a 1-year old and a 5-month old bring to the table!

I don't know if Andy Stanley coined the phrase, but on more than one occasion I've heard him talk about creating "irresistible environments." I've always bought into the theory, but I had a chance to observe it in action with the kids one morning. We had been running like crazy keeping up with all four of them out at the beach as they went in different directions to play (one to the water, another to dig in the sand, another chasing a sea gull - you get the idea), so I decided to venture out on my own and see who would follow. I went down to the water's edge and begin to dig an enormous hole that would fill with water. On the edge of the hole I began piling my sand to be the base for a huge drip castle. As I worked, sure enough the kids found their way to me - first the 5-year old (Liza Jane) who wanted the hole to be big enough for a whale and immediately began to assist my digging efforts, then the 2-year old (Max) who wanted to use the shells he found as kayaks and motor boats to speed around the "lake", and then the 1-year old (Ruthie) who was curious to see what her big brother and sister were up to. The 1-year old is afraid of water and when she noticed the hole filling with water, she kept a safe distance, but didn't want to walk away so she stood by, continuing to observe, building up her nerve to be part of whatever this excitement was that had so engaged the big kids. Not long after, some of the kids from families nearby came over to see what was going on and before long the kids had made some new friends and had help building the "lake" and the drip castle.

The theory isn't profound, but it's absolutely true. With ARC, we are trying to create an irresistible environment where people not only want to come and see what's going on, but also a place where people want to bring everyone they know. Some may be hesitant at first (like Ruthie), but if we continue to be faithful and passionate about what we're doing, they won't be able to resist joining in, which means coming to know Jesus Christ as part of their life and worshiping God together.

Jesus said, "let the little children come to me" - what an opportunity to create that environment!

continuing thoughts on the last post...

On Thursday nights through the summer we've been meeting with the college students at Bethany and talking about relationships. Our pastor for student ministry has led great conversations on covenants and Christian marriage and tonight we made it to a discussion on homosexuality. I've been part of several conversations on this topic, but I was incredibly impressed with the direction these students went with it. We spent much more time talking about what it means to be judgmental than we did on our aversion to homosexual practice. There were great questions asked about how we interpret Scripture and what does it mean to live in a fallen world and what does reconciliation to Christ look like for all of us.

Homosexuality is an incredibly divisive issue in the body of Christ and I will be the first to say that I have definite thoughts about what I think Scripture has to say about it and how we should respond in the church, but I also think it's a shame that we have given the world the impression that the most important thing on the church's agenda is a stance on homosexuality. I think it's time we get back to showing the world that the most important thing on our agenda is proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ - no sidetracks, no exceptions.

What Unifies is More Important than that which Divides

Rick Warren had a great tweet this morning, saying "I believe in the absolute inerrancy of Scripture, I do not believe in the inerrancy of my interpretation - or yours either." Jesus prayed for all of the believers in John 17:22-23, saying, "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

Jesus' desire was for all of those who follow Him to be one - one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Too often we waste time at odds with one another trying to clarify our definition of inerrancy when the truth is we should all believe the Bible is God's Word, given to us without error. The problem is we are imperfect people who have trouble receiving without error. Paul said in I Corinthians 13 that on this side of heaven we know in part, see in part and prophesy in part. In other words, we do our best to understand the perfect Word of God, but we still acknowledge that we aren't perfect and we don't always get it right.

Instead of engaging or dismissing parts of the body of Christ based on different interpretations of Scripture, I like to ask the question, "Are we all pursuing God to the best of our ability and trying our best to be faithful to Him?" If the answer is yes, than we need to be willing to put our differences aside, or at least be open to good discussion, prayer and ongoing discernment instead of putting each other down and encouraging division in the body.

I've been asked recently why the new church is called Ashley Ridge Church instead of Ashley Ridge United Methodist Church, and the answer is that, bottom line, we are a Church that believes Jesus is Lord, and that's what we're all about. That's why there is a large cross right in the middle of our logo beside the word "church." Paul also said, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

My church history professor always told us, "agreement on the essentials makes us free to disagree on the non-essentials."

The Importance of an Excellent Worship Leader

So, the current priority numero uno for Ashley Ridge is finding the right worship leader. Easy? Afraid not. Worship leaders are difficult to find for several reasons, the first of which is that it is a very specific and highly specialized field. Worship leaders need excellent musical ability, communication skills, organizational skills, creativity, and more. They need to be relational and genuine, flexible and structured, passionate and disciplined, confident and humble - are you starting to see why they're so hard to find? And to top it all off, they need to be 100% sold-out, on-fire, and crazy passionate about living for Jesus and leading others into the presence of God. Speaking of which, check out this blogpost on Seven Keys to Being an Effective Worship Leader.

With all of these expectations, you might be asking, aren't our expectations a little too high? The answer - absolutely, but don't think for a second that we should be willing to compromise. We were made to worship God and it is the most important thing we do day in and day out. God deserves our very best, which is why we are begging God (my thanks to Perry Noble for asking the question, "What big things are you begging God to do in your church this fall?) for an amazing worship leader to guide us and direct us toward God on Sunday mornings at Ashley Ridge.

God, we pray for the person you are preparing right now to be the worship leader at Ashley Ridge Church. Please give us the wisdom to look in the right places and ask the right questions. And while we search, please work within us that we might be 100% sold-out, on-fire, and crazy passionate about living for Jesus always and everywhere.

Recommended Reading

I noticed as I've read more blogs recently that often people will post links to posts and articles from other people that they found interesting. I've learned a lot as I've followed some of these links so I may follow suit from time to time. For now, let me simply point you to some of the blogs I frequent as well as a few websites worth exploring:

www.perrynoble.com
www.stevenfurtick.com
evotional.com (Mark Batterson's blog)
www.new-song.org (a church plant in New Bern, NC)
www.flowing-grace.com (a church plant in Chicagoland, Batavia UMC is the mother church)
www.communitychristian.org (a church plant committed to planting churches, led by Dave Ferguson, a guy who is huge in the church planting world)

And, as always, I highly recommend a little book called the Bible - some crazy relevant stuff in there, don't miss it!

speaking the truth in love does not equal being nice all the time

Have you ever found that the quest to be nice can get in the way of being honest? Don't misunderstand me, I'm not advocating being a jerk. I'm sure as Jake gets older I'll find myself often saying "Be nice." It's a good rule to live by, but if there is a rule that trumps it (like paper beating rock in rock-paper-scissors) then that rule is "Be honest."

I suppose there wouldn't be a need for these two rules to conflict if we didn't translate being nice in our minds and lives as a means to making sure people like us. I find myself using the "be nice" rule as an excuse to say things that will make people happy, but aren't 100% truthful.

Think how much simpler our lives would be at home and at work and at school if everyone one was completely honest. Little things like "where do you want to go eat?" would not turn into monumental decisions because people would say where they wanted to eat first and then be nice second by choosing to eat where someone else wanted to go as a gesture of hospitality. It's amazing how being honest first can open the door to opportunities for being genuinely nice.

When Jesus threw the people out of the Temple for turning it into "a den of thieves" he actually made a whip to drive them out. That wasn't very nice. However, Jesus was completely honest about what was going on and how he felt about it. In turn, Jesus gave his life so that everyone could come to the "temple" and know Him and receive eternal life without having to wade through a bunch of junk. What a nice thing to do!

Questions of Accountability

I don't care how organized or self-disciplined you may be, we all need accountability. We all need people who are going to walk with us, help us stay focused, challenge our weaknesses and encourage us to stay on track. Last week I submitted a list of accountability questions to my husband. These are questions I would like him to ask me from time to time to hold me accountable. Some of the questions are:

Have you had your quiet time today?
Have you exercised this week, how much?
Are you caught up with return phone calls? (I'm terrible about listening to voicemails and returning calls - I need to work on this, but in the meantime know that you'll almost always hear back from me quicker on e-mail).
Have you been packing your lunch at least 3x a week or are you going out to eat a lot?

Let me challenge you to think of a list of accountability questions that would help you stay on track and give them to someone you trust, maybe its your spouse, maybe its a good friend or maybe its a parent. We all need help from time to time - don't let your pride get in the way.

I've tried for too long to be perfect on my own, and when that failed, I spent precious time and energy trying to put forth the illusion of perfection. The gig is up - I am extremely imperfect (not that this is news to anyone). The good news is that God still loves me and promises to bring to completion the good work He has begun in me. So, I'm asking God every day to make me new and I'm asking my husband and my friends to hold me accountable.

Try it...

Still in Nashville, having good conversations and enjoying time with family.

I mentioned yesterday that Clark's aunt and uncle were part of a church plant that launched about seven years ago. Their church is called Midtown Fellowship and it's in the heart of Nashville. You can check out their website at www.midtownfellowship.org, especially take a look at their church planting vision page. They are an urban plant, which differs from Ashley Ridge, but I love that they planted with a vision to be a multi-site church. I'm especially impressed by how they've thought through the differing identities of a multi-site set-up while maintaining a unified vision. They remind me of Community Christian Church in Chicago.

People often ask why we need to plant churches when there are so many dying churches already in existence. The simple answer is forget the dying churches, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people in all of our communities across the United States that do not know Jesus Christ and do not have a church home. We ought to be continually creating new communities that are going out into the world to invite people into a life-saving, life-giving relationship with Jesus. The church has no business retreating at any point in time no matter what is going on (i.e. denominational confusion, bad economies, you name it). The Church of Jesus Christ will go on and we must go forward in faith doing all we can to bring glory to God.

So, as we gear up to plant Ashley Ridge, I hope we have a mentality that says Ashley Ridge will be a church that not only thrives and grows as Ashley Ridge, but also goes out and plants new communities of faith all over the greater Charleston area and beyond. Greater things...

Yesterday our family worshiped at East Cooper Baptist Church with their pastor, Buster Brown. It made me happy just to be worshiping with someone named Buster Brown. I first heard about ECBC when some of the college students from Bethany started going there while attending College of Charleston. ECBC was a church plant in 1974/75 and their mother church was First Baptist in downtown Charleston. They moved east of the Cooper River when there wasn't a whole lot there...yet. Is any of this sounding familiar?

Today ECBC is a thriving church with simultaneous traditional and contemporary services. They use a video feed to show the sermon in the contemporary service. We noticed that the set-up created some awkwardness in the flow of the contemporary service, but it is obviously working for them.

Right now, we're in Nashville visiting Clark's family. Clark's grandfather was very eager to meet his first great-grandson. It will be a quick visit, but we're glad to be here. The added bonus is that Clark's aunt and uncle were part of 30 people who helped plant a church in Nashville 7 years ago. It was also a mother-daughter church plant so I'm looking forward to picking their brains about the experience. More to come...

For someone who never listens to talk radio, I have become a serious podcast junkie in the last two years. I subscribe to the Catalyst podcast, LifeisSport (great interviews w/ sporting heroes like Coack K about life) and some church planting stuff, but I primarily listen to sermons from Andy Stanley, Craig Groeschel, Perry Noble, Steven Furtick and Rick McKinley. You see, for most people one sermon a week is sufficient, but I need to hear at least one a day. I can't seem to get enough. Maybe it's a sickness, but strong biblical preaching and teaching gets me fired up and motivated. Plus, I need a good kick in the pants everyday to keep me on track.

This morning, I listened to part three of Andy Stanley's "Defining Moments" series. He was talking about Jesus' conversation with the rich young ruler who wanted to know what he needed to do to secure eternal life. Jesus told him to sell everything he had, give all the proceeds to the poor and come follow him - not so much the answer he was looking for. In his sermon Andy made the point that God wants to know whose we are. Money/possessions are the number one thing that competes with our relationship with God and God needs to know who and what we belong to. The amounts and the dollar figures are never the point, the question is whose we are.

Growing up, my dad would drop my sister and me off at school in the morning and the last thing he would say was "remember who you are and whose you are." It's easy to get distracted and wrapped up in all kinds of things - even really good things - but if we're not fully committed to following God then we've missed the point.

The same is true for ARC - will it be our church or will it be God's church? Who does the church belong to? Knowing the answer to that question gives me a lot of clarity about our purpose, courage to keep walking and humility to know it sure as heck doesn't belong to me. The Church at all times and all places belongs to God. And so, I leave you with this quote from Reggie McNeal that I read this morning, "Unfortunately it [the church growth movement] fell victim to an idolatry as old as the Tower of Babel, the belief that we are the architects of the work of God. As a result we have the best churches men can build, but are still waiting for the church that only God can get the credit for." Let's be that church.

Confession: my whole life I have been a church insider - first as a pastor’s kid and now as a pastor. I’m used to being on the inside, knowing the underside, seeing behind the scenes. And so, it is an incredibly strange, out-of-body experience for me to visit churches, which will be my lot for the next few months.

Yesterday, Clark and Jake and I went to the Summerville campus of Seacoast. From the moment we pulled onto their parking lot, there were people directing us to a parking spot, smiling and saying hello. When we walked in the door, we were directed to the first time registration table for Kidscoast where we registered Jake for the 0-12 month class before being escorted to the class and introduced to the childcare volunteers. It was a wonderful experience…and the whole time I was thinking about what the people on the inside were thinking as they looked at us: “There’s a young couple with a baby, I wonder if they’re new in town,” or “That family looks nice, I hope they have a good experience and want to join our church,” or “I wonder what they do for a living and if they would like to tithe here.” My insider voice can be very distracting.

Nevertheless, we had a great morning. The worship team was excellent and the preaching was powerful. Craig Groeschel, the pastor of lifechurch.tv, talked about the prodigal son and what it means to know God as Father. He talked about God as a patient Father, a forgiving Father and an intimate Father, and ultimately he extended the invitation for all of us to come home to our Father. Clark and I so rarely have the chance to worship together and it means so much to us. In fact, most of the times when we do worship together I have the thought at least once that I should quit my job so we can worship together weekly. The truth is that we do, but simply in a less traditional fashion.

So what did I learn this week…sometimes it’s good not to be an insider and simply worship, but, in fact, God invites all of us to be insiders, to claim the church as our home and pray for its strength at all times and in all places.

Ashley Ridge High School here we come!

We're finishing up the paperwork to turn into the school district, but everything looks great for meeting at Ashley Ridge High School. Keep praying specifically for the Ashley Ridge community and please let me know if you have an idea for how we can reach out to that area.

My last official day as a pastor at Bethany UMC is June 24, which means that as of June 25 I can get down to business as the pastor of ARC! Starting June 25 start checking in with this blog more frequently. I will be updating it at least 3x a week and I'm counting on ya'll to hold me accountable :)