I'm feeling thankful

At the end of another long and productive Sunday, I am so thankful.

I am thankful for the ability to speak God's word and feel like I got His heart accomplished. And for time with Candace and Aaron. They brought some new friends to visit, whom they met before even finished moving into their new place. The guy came as the cable guy to hook up their TV service, and invited them to church! They have become friends, which is so cool. It is so fun having adult kids and visits.

I am thankful for what is happening is Cowboy church, with a great attendance and outreach today! Very unique, very effective, very creative. And our Freedom House had a potluck dinner fellowship today which went very well. I'd love that house full, but what is happening blesses me deeply.

Thanks God for allowing me to do this job.

a decision about building

I think I finally made a decision about our next building projects. Let the second guessing ensue.

I believe the next building projects for Freedom Valley should be doubling our current sanctuary, bringing it to 600 seats or so (some think 800), and building a therapeutic riding arena.

There was a lot of discussion for the past several years, about whether or not we should go ahead and build 1500 seats in a whole new facility, and all that. I can't wait to get to that step, but it seems to me that the next step would best be an addition to our current facility.

Of course, all of this could change when we consult the engineers and do the actual studies on feasibility. This is just my current thinking on what would be a faith stretching move forward in the mean time that could be built fairly quickly (this is another assumption that may not stand the test of time), and could get us a lot farther down the road until we are ready for more.

The next steps, I believe, is for our wonderful building engineer, Angela Becker, to get some groundwork done on these things and order the feasibility study. Hopefully in the next month or two we will know a lot more.

I hope to get started even sooner than that with a plan to raise the money. Our current idea is to sell the 5000 square feet one at a time for $100 each, hopefully making it possible to build in cash.

Oh God, direct our steps, as I believe you have up to now.

conspiracy afoot

I've had some tough years and some amazing ones, and faced ridiculous odds. I have seen conspiracies and felt others that may or may have not existed.

And I hear stories. Some Pastors have their leadership team create havoc behind their back, and attack them even when they do well.

But this week, my leadership conspired together to bless Julie and I and encourage us. They spoke encouragement over us, prayed over us, anointed us, and chose to speak on our qualities instead of our shortcomings.

I appreciate them so much. It reminds me of the list of David's Mighty Men, who gained their friendship with the King due to their intense and loyal support, and being there for him when the chips were down. My team has also been there for me, and become so trustworthy in good times and bad.

My prayer is that God would bless them so greatly. They have been willing to suffer long, be underpaid, and some of them pay for the privilege of working for God. They have taken the criticisms, weathered the storms, and stepped in front of bullets meant for me. I am amazed at their strength, and encouraged by their faith.

May their return be 100-fold, so that they can give as they have always wished to give.

An amazing statement, that. But it's true, of them. And I am honored to know them, and serve them, and be their friend.

the 5'th most powerful day?

I can only remember 4 other days in my life that felt as powerful as today feels. Those 4 days were when each of my four children were born. As I held them for the first time, emotions washed over me, and a sense of destiny gripped me that felt like it would explode my humanity into 10 thousand pieces.

I'll try to explain; last night I arrived in Springfield, Missouri, the home of General Council Headquarters, along with 8 other ministers, who were invited here to meet with our newly elected International Leaders; George Wood and Alton Garrison. We had dinner at George Wood's home last night, and spent all day today in his office.

We came because we had been a group of people who had offered an amendment to the Constitution and By-laws of the AG that would bring major change (and we hope Kingdom growth) to this movement. The motion failed, but our national officers wanted to hear more about why we felt it should have passed.

We had dinner, and they listened to our hearts for hours. This morning as we gathered together again, George Wood, our General superintendent offered his own ideas on how to get OUR idea done! Bottom line- what we thought could take years to work on and waste countless hours of time, could possibly be accomplished far more simply and effectively, and be done by June of this year!

I can hardly stop weeping about this whole thing, and here's why. I believe this has potential to literally bring hundreds of thousands of people into The Kingdom over the next 10 years or so. I honestly believe this has potential to be a catalytic energy to the entire Kingdom of God, especially the slow growing church here in America! This could be one of the biggest changes ever made to our movement, adding fuel to a hot fire, and ushering Christ's Kingdom much sooner!

It's a simple idea, but the implications are profound! The idea; let some churches create a district with the AG that would have authority to create a new organizational model. This new structure could build on the enormous qualities that God has blessed our past with, while creating something much newer and more effective for today.

Because we think our structure was great (even awesome) for 100 years ago, but inadequate for what God is doing today. We thing structure should follow function and support it, not the other way around. We think a structure is possible that could bring incredible momentum to our movement, not hold it back as much as our current structure seems to. And, we think we should have some way to experiment until we find something that works.

This could be it.

day to minister to the ministers

Today is about ministering to the hard working team God has given me, and the other churches that have chosen to be part of us. Staff-meeting, followed by a noon Catalyst meeting, and then an evening church planter's Catalyst meeting as well.

God help me speak your heart, and encouragement over these leaders. Help me build the Kingdom by building leaders. Cause each of them to leave feeling refreshed, equipped, built up, and ready to face the challenges that you have set before them. Help me to be so full of you that my cup overflows and spills out all over all of them.

what a day!

Wow.
I spent hours today hearing about a dear friend who recently came to grips with being sodomized and also watching his sister get raped by his Dad when he was a kid. Years of help is bringing him to a healthy place, however, which is very cool.
And I got rebuked by about 3 people. It was in love, and some of it deserved, by it still stings. Not funny how much things like that bother me. It takes me awhile to work through some stuff like that.
The next few weeks are unbelievably busy. God, I'll need your grace to not get stressed about it.
But I am blessed beyond measure, and work for a great God. He is so kind to me, and I love Him for it.
Tomorrow afternoon I take Shawna to the airport. It is amazingly tough to let her go again. And then we go to Evan's basketball game.
Father, help my boy do well and grow as a player. You have given him great favor with coaches and players, fans, and referees. Would you also bless Him with great skill, and help him achieve his goals of going to a great school on a scholarship? I am asking you to give him 25 point games, and even beyond, so that he can achieve these lofty goals, and become the influence for you that he dreams of. And would you bless him with success in finally getting his car back o the road this week, please?
Thank you God for all that you have helped him achieve already, and how kind you are to him in so many ways. And for the joy of watching him use his gifts and dreaming with him about a bright future.
Which makes me want to ask you for Candace and Aaron- blessings for new and better jobs, new friends, and a deep church connection in Lancaster.
And for Luke and his wonderful friends- please bless him with opportunities to use his talent for you, and to bring his school friends and acquaintances into The Kingdom!

church tonight

Tonight was something different.

I thought I was preaching a sermon about Jesus leading by servant hood.

But it turned into an altar call for salvation, with men responding. The new guy from the Freedom House (moved in today) started it off. Mitchell was gloriously saved, repenting of sin and accepting Christ as his Lord and savior. He told me later that he thinks God already called him to be a missionary.

Then others came, several weeping their eyes out. A couple who openly told me that they are wildly hooked on drugs came. She had just had a baby which was taken away from her because of the drugs they found in the baby's system. She was weeping uncontrollably, as God forgave her sins and started her toward being a new person. They had been brought by Maria, a lady who came first (and received Christ) about a month ago, on prison release. Maria brought about 10 new people tonight and I think ALL of them responded to the altar call.

There were so many others. God did a big thing among us tonight.

I think it was no accident that a lot of prayer happened in that sanctuary before the service tonight. I believe the day is coming when our weekend services will be preceded by a major Saturday afternoon prayer service, which will lead into some great breakthroughs in our TV recording, our weekend fruitfulness, and especially in the power of that Saturday night service.

I am unbelievably excited about the "Year of fruitfulness and multiplication". I believe God is up to something awesome here. Thank you Father for letting me be part of it. Please help us be a good steward of it.

The evangelicals are coming

I started voting in the late 70's. Since then, something important has been happening in American politics, in my little view.

It seems like now every new campaign surprised the political establishment with something often called "the evangelical vote". Last night Rush Limbaugh, commenting on the Iowa Caucuses, said "these people scare the political elites"

But once again, the news people can't seem to get over how powerful the evangelical vote turned out to be.

I think there is something very important happening here, and the cool thing is that it is happening very quietly, under the radar screen of national politics. God's people seem to be given extra power and influence on the nations stage.

God help us be good stewards of it, and grow it to where it becomes truly influential.

heavy lifting on vision

Tomorrow, Thursday Jan 3, I have a lot of heavy lifting to do concerning a season of vision seeking for 08. In the next several weeks, I am pursuing my usual slate of time with God to make sure that I am still on track, doing what He has called me to do.

The vision items that I have outlined below (previous post) are part of that. There are more muling around in my little brain.

The questions I am praying through today, exactly , are these;
1. Am I producing real disciples of Christ, or am I simply building a church?
2. Exactly what are the characteristics of a true disciple of Christ?
3. Is there some way that I can build more of them, or higher quality ones?

I would very much covet your prayers on these matters, especially today and tomorrow.