Learning, Growing, Maturing....

11"It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." Ephesians 4:11-13 (NIV)

As I read over this passage of scripture today I could not get the Unity, Knowledge of the Son and Maturity out of my head. It just kept coming back to me. Wheather you hold to a 4 fold or 5 fold ministry, is besides the point. God has given these to help edify the body and for all to come to have unity with one another, knowledge of Jesus and being fully mature in our faith. Just thought I would share this passage with you today...more thoughts later.

Momentum

Momentum is a great thing to have on your side, especially in the early life of the church. I realize that there is an ebb-n-flow with how things will go down the road, but for now the momentum is going strong and I feel like there is another swell of it about to burst, coming just around the corner. Well I should say I know there is.
You see we are about to add a new dynamic to the adult service with Overflow. When we first launched back on 3/16/08, we felt that we were unable to make this happen, mainly cause of the lack of volunteers starting out. We probably could have made it happen, but we are committed to excellence and didn't feel like it would be the right time or manner in which to do what we are about to do starting Mother's Day.
Starting 5/11/08 "Mother's Day" all the "mothers" for the first time will be able to enjoy there kids with them during our worship part of the service. We have always envisioned the families praising and worshipping God together, sharing with one another that time of intimate worship with our Almighty Creator, we just didn't have the volunteers and/or maybe the plan in place once we launched. Plus the KidMo and Lil'K cirriculum that we are using provides a worship time geared towards the kids. However with that being said we decided as a team last week that this would do a couple of different things for us. One being the obvious and already stated, family worship time, second being that this would add even more momentum in the adult service and the people with out children will see that there actually are kids attending SPLASH (our children's min)...
I'm really excited personally to be in the adult worship time, plus it will be good for all the volunteers as well. This is just for the preschool and 1st-5th rooms, the nursery will be open the entire service. I'm also thinking about the families all being together, learning, growing and understanding more about what it means to priase God who is worthy of all our praise!

5 Dollar Blessing

Sunday we were givin $5 to bless some one with as part of a sermon about leaving a legacy. Now I know that this shouldn't be hard but I'm having a bit of a problem finding someone to bless...any suggestions. Well I'm just praying that somone comes my way or I run into someone or something I can give to that will be a blessing to them.

Quote of the Day

Came across this quote in Leadership Mag.
"I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face...is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Hanning out with Hanna

Today Casey and I took our friend's little girl, Hanna, with us today to help give them a break as they move into their new home. I probably had more fun than our little one, Olivia and Hanna did. I was such a joy to have Hanna around, even if it was for only a few hours. First we went to MacDonalds grabbed some lunch and played around for awhile. From there we went to the local craft store and grab some things we needed for the church office and got a craft for Hanna.
While I was in one of the stores Hanna told Casey that she KNEW that we were having a boy! We laughed and said well that would be nice, but we'll have to wait and see. It just reminded me how kids are so honest and sincere when they say things like that. Anyway, having a blast with all the girls today, couldn't have thought of a better way to send my Saturday.

Building Relationships

My wife and I had our first house guest over for coffee this morning, well I should say Apartment guest, since we moved in 3 wks ago. She's a single mom who started coming to our church a few weeks back. Her son is in SPLASH and he's loving it. Its' really nice to connect with people and hear their stories. God is building His Kingdom and making His glory known here in SW Michigan! And I'm lovin it!

Vision Or The Lack There of...

To be honest with you this is an area that I struggle with as a leader. Not that I cannot envision where things are heading or atleast where things should be heading and it's not that I cannot catch the "God-Size Vision", but it's more along the lines of I'm not real sure that all that Vision is all that necessary all the time. Not that I don't believe that it's not important or anything, it's just that I struggle with the "where we're going" when most of the time the church doesn't even know where they are at, at this present moment to begin with.
Please hear me out on this...I do believe that vision is essential, I'm just not sure that the traditional way of getting and casting vision is really what it's all about. I mean for the most part "vision" as we call it, usually is the lead pastor's heart for their "Idealistic" way of doing church, and their heart for a people or an area. These things are not bad, they are actually very good, I just think that things get more complicated along the way. Andy Stanley talks about keeping your vision simple. How that vision comes out to play in the life of the church and as time goes by it becomes more fluid and organic, if you will. It looks differently as things come up and as people lead and take ownership of it.
That's what I love about one of Overflow's values: Discipleship Movement. Connecting, Growing, Serving, and Multiplying. It's this thing that as people get connected with the body things happen naturally at different speeds and levels, but that's why its a movement.
Just some thoughts that I was having on this and my own struggles with this. Still learning, growing and wanting to hear what you have to say on this.

"Developing vision is right-brained and organic - like composing an album" -NLC Next Level Church

Touch of Summer

For the last week, the weather has been amazing here in SW Michigan! It's actually been in the seventy's a few times. This has been a very very long winter here, probably the longest winter I have ever experienced and I grew up in PA, that should tell you something about the winters here.
Anyway, the season is turning and so is life. Our little girl just turned 1 year old on the 12th. It's really hard to believe how fast this year went by and now we are expecting another at the end of Sept! So as there is excitement in the air for the touch of summer, so it is life.

Benton Harbor High School

I had a great time this morning down at the local high school. There is a program they do here that encourages the community to be involved with encouraging the students on their progress reports. This is not their actual report cards but it's more like a mid-point check to see how they are doing. Back in the day, we had the parent/teacher conferences.
This was a great experience for me. I really enjoyed talking with the kids and encouraging them in the process. Plus it was my first time in an urban school setting, security/metal detectors and all. I was really intrigued by everything. I guess I didn't realize how rural I grew up until today :)

Out of Step

I am way out of step with this blogging thing...it's like I have no time to do it (except at work :0)
Well my parents are coming in from PA today for Livy's 1st birthday tomorrow...can hardly believe that she is a year old already! Anyway, things are going great with Overflow, Family, Work..etc..life is just extremely busy right now. But through it all its been amazing to see how God gives me breathing room every day and we know that He is our source of strength.