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 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.

Today was one of those days that I was reminded of all the talented people that the Lord has placed around me. If the congregation could really see it from my viewpoint they would see that I am not as talented as some think I might be. If they could see the amazing leaders around me they would have an ah..ha moment and discover much of the reason for our success. But something encourages me far greater than the leadership around me and that is the friendship that runs ahead of the leadership. The Lord has blessed me with leaders around me that are such incredible friends. They careand they show it – as a leader what more could you ask for when the talent is deep but the friendship is deeper!!

• This saturday night will be a night our church and city willl never forget!!!!!!
• Campus opens at 5pm
• Bring your food, chairs and blankets
• Inflatables are free
• Balloon man works for tips
• Dunk tank is $1
• Parking will be on the grass/dirt area adjacent the South of our building, the front parking lot and the park property immediately adjacent our property to the North.
• Patriotic service at 7:15pm
• Outdoor stage
• Gospel recording artist Channing Eleton
• Military Color Guard
• Veteran’s testimonies
• Looking forward to having one combined weekend service
• We will worship through the act of giving and be receiving an offering
• Patriotic message
• FIREWORKS SHOW following the service
• This is a professional, high quality show just like you would see at Disney or Sea World!
• Invite your friends and family!!!!!!!!

A number of people in our church have read the book, Crazy Love, by Francis Chan. In fact, I think a couple of our small groups have read the book and done the accompanying study. I read the book with a mentoring group and was really challenged by the read.

Just a couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to hear Francis Chan preach live.

I also stumbled across this clip and found it to be interesting, thought provoking and challenging. Click here to view an explanation of the middle road.

Sometimes in ministry we get overly focused on bigger. Nothing is wrong with bigger, in fact, I think bigger honors God. Not that small churches don’t honor God, but if you can grow and God has put you in a place to grow, then when you do grow that obviously honors Him. In other words, the more people we reach, the better. The bigger we are the more life change we are able to actualize. I do see value in numbers because ultimately numbers equals souls.  Empty seats never get saved!  With all my heart I want to reach as many people for Christ as possible. While I am all for bigger, I do think better is better. Let me explain – If we keep getting better, better at first impressions, better at campus beautification, better at loving babies, better childrens ministry, better at empowering students, better at preaching the Word, better at the excellence in our tech team, better at the quality of worship, better at the way we fellowship, better at the way we build stronger believers, better at our outreach events, etc, etc, etc. If we keep getting better – bigger will take care of itself!!!  If we determine to be better then the community will dictate bigger. By the way, better is normally not working harder it is just working smarter. If somebody is not interested in better then there is a bigger problem – pun intended.

If you are leading or serving in ministry, ask yourself, “what one thing could I do just a little bit better?”.

A favorite quote of mine is – excellence honors God and God honors excellence.

May we get better for His glory!!!

A rather common statement made by Christians is that they “want more depth”. While that statement can mean different things to different people, I think we need to be careful when we make that statement. I am all for growing deeper and expanding knowledge as long as it is not for knowledge sake alone. “Knowledge puffs up” if we are not careful.

Recently I made the statement in a sermon that “we are educated way beyond our obedience”. I was commenting to someone today about how I will discover a “new or deeper” truth, teach that truth, be totally excited from several different angles about the deeper truth and in a few weeks I can’t even remember what I sudied, discovered, prepared and taught. Perhaps that is a statement about my preaching but I think it is more about my memory. It also serves as just another reminder that I need to be concerned about doing what I know and not worry about the deeper truth that I have forgotten. If I never learned another biblical truth, I would still  not be able to obey all that I already know.

Pastor Steven Furtick had a recent post where he touched on a similar topic. He said, “The greatest problem of American Christians when it comes to the Bible is not that we are not deep in God’s Word. The problem is that we are not active in God’s Word. We have a lot more revelation than our current level of active application. And revelation without application leads to stagnation”. You can read his entire post by clicking here.

In Romans 1:15, Paul said, “So much as is in me, I am now ready to preach the gospel to you…”.

One obvious responsibility that I have is to preach God’s Word to our church family.  Not only is it one of my main responsibilities but it is also one that I enjoy the most. Paul statement was a real challenge though – I need to be ready to preach. So I began to think about what is required in order for me to be really ready to preach. I came up with the following:

• I must have invested in my own inner world, by spending time with God in prayer and His Word
• I must do all I can to go into the pulpit refreshed and not weary
• I must have qantity and quality study time
• I must seek to live a Holy life
• I must have the prayers of God’s people
• I must seek to improve my communication skills
• I must have the annointing of God’s Spirit

I love preaching His Word and particularly, I love preaching at Parkview! One main way that you can help me to be ready to preach is for you to pray for me. If you are not already doing so, would you please begin petitioning God on my behalf. I do not ask you to pray for my own personal benefit but for the furtherance of the Gospel and for people to come to Christ as their Savior. I will try to do my part, would you be willing to do yours?

Romans 1:15 challenges me and then Romans 1:16 fires me up!!!

On many occasions you have heard me brag on our Elders. I have never felt so supported and helped in all my days of ministry.  Our Elders are not perfect but they have such a heart for the Lord and His people.  Our Elder team recently invited two new men to be a part of our team.  The two guys are Rick Kidder and Steve Biederman.  Rick, Steve and their wives are an active part of this ministry and have demonstrated many characteristics that are fitting to their new role. Already, both men have made a tremendous impact!

The New Testament defines eldership as follows: elders lead the church, teach and/or preach the Word, protect the church from false teaching, exhort and encourage believers, see that the sick and needy are cared for and prayed for, and  they provide oversight and accountability.  In biblical terminology, elders shepherd, oversee, lead and care for the local church.

Just this morning I spent 2 hours with our elders and once again walked away so encouraged. What really thrills me is how the Lord has sent us men with unique gifts and talents that are matched so perfectly with our current opportunities, needs and challenges. Currently some of the areas that we are focusing on are systems, organization and administration – each of these things is being viewed through the lense of our mission. It is the responsibility of our elder team for us to see that the mission stays in its prioritized position and is supported by the best structure – structure that increases our mission and does not impede our mission.

As the lead pastor at Parkview, I have the privilege of being out front and as a result I also get much of the credit for what good takes place. Allow me to take a moment and just further reinforce the fact that the overwhelming majority of good that happens is the result of the great leaders and staff God has placed around me.

I know that the Lord has some phenomenal things in store for Parkview. By God’s grace and as a result of His power, we are about to see incredible growth take place in our church. 2010 and 2011 are going to be unlike any other years we have ever seen. The expansion of our facility is going to give us the space we need to bring life change to countless more people in our community. In advance of all that is about to happen, to God be the Glory!