Years and years ago, when I couldn’t have been but about 10 or 12 years old, I had a very interesting driving experience. There was a littel snow and ice on the ground in Deleware and I was out with my aunt. All I really  remember is being in a neighborhood and us being stuck on a little patch of ice. Somehow I ended up in the driver’s seat of her little white Sunbird and she and perhaps a good samaritan pushed us to an “unstuck”position. Never having driven in my entire life, I wasn’t wuite sure what to do with the fact that I was now driving in the snow. I am not sure if it was her yelling, or my own panic, but rather than hit the brake I just slammed the car in park. While it didn’t sound to good, it did accomplish the purpose, the car came to an abrupt stop.

While at our recent staff and elder retreat the speaker used the phrase, “park your heart before the Lord”. Life can get so busy…blah, blah, blah…. you could finish that paragraph yourself. Let me just jump to the point – make sure you are taking the time to recalibrate and be certain to park your heart before the Lord.

I want to lead us to be a church that has this as a part of our DNA, but it will never rise past the culture of our individual leaders. As a leader, what has your time with God looked like over the last 2 weeks?

I played several different sports as a kid but I was most dedicated to and involved in baseball.  I loved baseball and played it for probably 6 years. One my favorite baseball adventures was the opportunity I had to attend the University of Deleware Summer baseball camp.  One thing the camp did was reinforce the basics. One of the fundamentals taught over and over to every ball player is how to feild a ball. How a ball is played is all dependant on where the ball is hit – if you are a former little leaguer perhaps you will recall the instructions. If the baseball is hit in the infield, attack the ball, charge it, don’t let it play you, you play it, etc. If the ball is hit to you in the outfield the first thing you do is take a step back. It is always easier to run in on a fly ball than to run back on a fly ball. Interestingly enough, balls in the infield are played exactly opposite as those that are hit in the outfield.

I have shared my rememberance of baseball fundamentals for a reason. How we field a ball is similar to how we should field problems. Problems are hit into our lives on a daily basis.  What a person must do is determine whether a problem has been hit into the infield or the outfield. Some problems are in the infield and need to be charged, played on in an aggressive manner. Some problems are in the outfield, we need to take a step back and get a better understanding of how the problem is going to fly.

I think sometimes we are aggressive in attacking problems when we should really take a step back and at other times we take a step back when we should be attacking the problem. This is an area that I struggle with – I think we all do. One of the biggest challenges of leadership is trying to determine what type of a problem has been hit your way.

Just remember, if it has been hit in the infield take a step forward. If it has been hit in the outfield take a step back.

• On the way home tonight I was rejoicing over all that God did this weekend. It was just one of those weekends!
• Thrilled to se our church living out our vision of guiding people to life chamge.
• Love meeting guests who were wowed with their worship experience – to God be the glory!!
• Was so proud of our students who served as summer missionaries for Youth in Action
• Looking forward to what God is going to do through our Bible Club at Rymfire Elem this year. Please pray for our great team of volunteers.
• We had a tremedous Group Link event tonight as we prepare to launch our upcoming semester of groups. We started new groups and added people to groups already in existence. Our volunteer team served our guests in a great way!!
• Love seeing people connect to God’s people and God’s Word!
• I have reaaly enjoyed preaching through the first 4 chapters of Romans this Summer.
• This weekend we drilled down on Romans 4:6-8
• Our sins are sent away, our sin are covered and our sins are not imputed (credited to our account) to us.
• 9:30 service was packed again today. I would ask you to please consider coming on Sat at 6pm
• Excited about seeing what God is going to do this Fall
• We are getting real close to getting our building permit. Our building team and finance team have done a wonderful job in leading this charge. Thanks!
• Don’t forget to park your heart before the Lord this week. Live out of the overflow!

Last night just after 6:30 pm Denise called me and told me she was o.k. but that she had just been in an accident. On Tuesday I had the front left cv joint replaced in our ‘90 Honda Accord. Last night while driving on the Buckman Bridge, that is the huge bridge on I-295 in Jacksonville, the front left wheel seperated from the axle and only remained loosely connected to the car by what I believe is the control arm. The car then darted to the right at about a 45 degree angle and crashed up against the cement barrier. She was heading North, there are four lanes on the bridge and she was in the third lane from the right. This all happened during very busy traffic and amazingly she did not hit anyone or go over the side of the bridge. With the left front tire dangling off, the front left end immediately crashed to the ground, obviously slowing the car down very quickly – that was actually a blessing. Before I go any further, let me just say we thank the Lord for His protection! Obviously this could have been a whole lot worse!! We thank God for His unseen hand and watchcare over her! It was a crazy night with police, wrecker services, friends helping in many ways and decisions that had to be made. You have probably heard me laugh on occassion about our affinity with this car. Denise bought it brand new 20 years ago and it has over 280,000 miles on it. With a tinge of sadness the car will be released to car heavan. We texted photos to a mechanic in the church and he pronounced her DOA from his cell phone. If you would, please thank the Lord for protecting Denise – we are very grateful!!!! Denise posted some of the photos on Facebook, you can click here to see them. Once again, thank the Lord for His protection!

I have an appointment today where I want this verse to be true of me.

This is a cool verse about giving.

Everyone has experienced this verse at some point in their life.

I pray that this verse is not true of my life.

Watch this and then do this!!!!

While they were with us this weekend, Mark Patton gave us some specific ways that we can pray for their family. You may not have had a chance to write down his requests, so I wanted to give them once again in this post.

• Pray for their children as they attend public school and attempt to live out their faith in a very non-christian environment.
• Pray that the Lord would give them discernment in how to be most effective in reaching the people of Hungary.
• Pray that the Lord would guide them as they seek to bridge the challenges of ministering in a foreign culture.

Mark, Charin, Nancy, Benji, Esther and Hannah, have faithfully served for 17 years in Hungary. Please be faithful in praying for them, specifically as they fly back to Hungary this Friday. If you use the “Stamped” missions packet that we gave out at our missions event back in February and pray through the packet each night at dinner, or however you use the packet to pray through our missions partners, then please add the Patton’s prayer card into your prayer rotation.

• It was a great Summer and now it is going to be a great Fall!
• Loved kicking off our fall season with a great weekend
• Met several new friends
• Thankful for all those who started attending this Summer – so looking forward to getting to you
• Enjoyed preaching about our spiritual schizophrenia
• Romans 7:18-25 Romans 4:1-4
• The skin that I am in let’s me down often – it only verifies why I need a Savior
• Our 9:30 service was jammed – our weekend attendance was great
• Loved having the Mark Patton family from Hungary as our special guests
• Thank you Parkview family for making the Pattons feel so welcome
• We announced that we were going to give a gift to their ministry but asked our church to consider giving a gift to their 4 children
• We placed a plate at the back door and your generosity resulted in each child receiving $200. You gave almost $800 – we rounded up. I wish you could have seen the kids faces as we told them of their gift.
• Our mission of guiding people to life change is both a local and a global mission
• Please pray that we receive our building permit soon – we really need to get started with our expansion
• After applying for permit we received the City’s comment back and last week we resubmitted for our permit – hope it will be soon!

Last week as our elder team was gathered we had a brief talk around the notion of envy. One shared that where there is true spiritual maturity there will not be any envy. He then shared I Corinthians 13:4 – love does not envy. Just yesterday I was reading Proverbs 14:30 – envy is rottenness to the bones. Now that is a word picture!

Webster’s defines envy as, “a feeling of discontent or ill will because of another’s advantages, possessions, etc.; resentful dislike of another who has something that one desires”. I also looked up the antonyms of envy and found comfortable, content and pleased. Based on that discovery, I thought of Pauls words in I Timothy 6:6, “…godliness with contentment is great gain”.

If there is any envy in your heart about anything at all, my prayer is that today you will discover contentment.

• The weekend included alot of good fellowship – that was nice!
• Met some new friends at church – love the guests God is sending our way.
• Thankful for the students that were saved at camp last week.
• Baptized 12 people in our weekend services – that was awesome!
• Loved being back in the pulpit.
• Thankful for the patience of God when it comes to saving the lost.
• Looking forward to an incredible Fall.
• We resubmit for our building permit tomorrow. Pray we get our permit soon.
• If we were not expanding soon, I would probably lead us to four services in the Fall.
• More seats at prime time are much needed.
• The worship team did a great job – Laura’s song was really good.
• I am very thankful for all the people who have served to help launch Christ the King Community Church in Port Orange. I understand that we have had about 25 people serving the Lord in that missions opportunity! Continue to pray for Scott Kirschner and his family!
• Be blessed and have a great week!

Everybody has their critics – that is true of you and that is true of me. I read something recently that has caused me a good bit of thinking, I don’t remember where I read it but here is the quote, “Wise people let their critics become their coaches”. Now if you are like me, my first thoughts were about picking apart that quote and disproving it at several levels. After all who wants to think of their critics in a positive light. But the more I have thought about it the more the quote makes sense, at least at the big picture level. Why would you agree or disagree with the quote?