1. I woke up in the morning to about 5-6 inches of snow (in Dallas, in March, on the first day of spring!). We had a white Christmas this year and now a white birthday! Hoping that I don’t get any white hairs though.

2. My kids all gave me cards and each of them had money in it. That’s a big deal because my kids love MONEY. Kailey gave me $20! Emily gave me $20 too! Nathan gave me $1.27.

3. But, not only was today Sunday, in which I get the privilege of sharing God’s Word with a congregation that I love, but they threw me a surprise birthday party after our second service. It was just fun to share that moment with the congregation and I didn’t see it coming.

4. Then I was scheduled to have a birthday dinner at a pastor’s house but they told me they changed the venue and it was at another house. To my surprise again, they had more people, including pastors, staff and leadership. They all cooked some great food and dessert and we all were so stuffed!

5. Then they brought out another surprise … a huge framed poster of a mosaic picture of our family that was compiled by all the picture of the events in our church for the past 3 years. Wow. And the whole church signed it … without me even knowing about it! It’s got to be one of the best gifts I’ve received. The only problem with this gift is that I have a huge dilema of whether to hang it in my home office or my church office. Can I have another? =)

6. I have been waiting all year for my birthday, as I have been looking forward to giving my annual one days wage to an incredible non-profit organization called OneDaysWages. They partner with some great organizations to fight extreme global poverty. I know giving 0.4% of my annual salary (one days wage) is not that much, but I want to share and be a blessing to others, as I have been so blessed. I would challenge you to consider doing the same on your birthday.

God, thank you for my family and my church. I am so blessed. May I be a blessing to others.

No related posts.

This was my closing prayer for this Sunday’s Easter service (rated PG):

This is the most embarrassing thing that I have ever said in public. I tried to race through to cover it up, but don’t know if that helped … what do you think?

Forgive me, Lord!

No related posts.

If you haven’t heard, Louie Giglio is starting a church in Atlanta called Passion City Church with Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and Christy Nockels. The first thought that everyone had was, does Atlanta need another church … especially with North Point Community Church (Buckhead Church and Browns Bridge Community Church) there. And the interesting thing in all this is … Andy Stanley (pastor of North Point) and Louie Giglio are very good friends. In fact, Louie has been a charter member of North Point since it’s start.

So, how are they dealing with this? Do they see it as a competition? How will they support one another? Well, they just did a podcast together and there were some honest reflections. This is part one, and part two and three will be coming … I”ll embed them here when they come out. But listen if you want some good insights on church planting and church leadership.

Listen to Part one:

No related posts.

We have the gift of choice: Freedom to choose on any given day what clothes we will wear, what work we will do, what food we will eat and what we will drink. In nearly a third of the world injustice threatens to take away these basic kinds of choices that we take for granted. In these places a woman can choose to drink the unclean river water or the unclean puddle water. She can choose to walk once for four hours to get water or walk twice for eight hours to get more water. She can choose to give her children something to drink that she knows may make them sick or she can give them nothing at all. She can persist or give up. You can help give her a real choice.

We challenge you to make Water your ONLY beverage for 40 DAYS starting MARCH 1 and ending APRIL 9 in conjunction with the Lenten Season and World Water Day (Mar. 22). Gather your friends and join in solidarity with our African brothers and sisters in an effort to provide clean water for communities in need. As you do so, we ask that you keep track of what money you would have typically spent on other drinks throughout the day and save that money. At the end of 40 days donate what you saved to Blood:Water. Imagine, if you saved $5 a day just by cutting out a visit to your local bar or barista, then you’d save $200 in 40 days. That’s enough to provide clean water for 200 people for an entire year!

So ditch the morning coffee and o.j., leave out the lunchtime soda, and cancel the evening beverage. You won’t need an ark for this 40 Days of Water, but you will need a little self-discipline. But we know you can do it, because you know who you’re doing it for. Make the choice. Visit bloodwatermission.com/40days to find out more, download materials, and get started.

Leave a comment if you are gonna join me and others … let’s make a difference!

No related posts.

Traditionally, churches have a service on Ash Wednesday and the participants are “imposed” with ashes marked on their forehead (in the form of a cross). Usually a Scripture is used from Ecclesiastes 3:20: “You’ve come from dust, and to dust you will return.” It’s a day that we remember that we are mortal. That we are nothing without the breath of God. We are just dust and we’re going to die. And yet, it’s a day that we remember and eagerly anticipate the resurrection of Easter, the good news that because we are in need of a Savior, Christ is risen. The ash represents mortality, the cross represents hope.

On this day, and for the next 40 days, remember your mortality and your need for God … so, that when Easter comes, you will celebrate what God has done for you.

I’m reminded of an incredible song:

Come Walk Among Us by Michael Hansen

Come walk among us
Come walk among us, Jesus
You know that we need You
You know that we need You, Jesus

You see our hearts, you know that we’re but dust
It’s You who made us, Lord it’s in You we choose to trust
Come Lord, come Lord

Copyright © 1995 Mercy/Vineyard Publishing. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

Related posts:

1. Do Justice Dallas It’s easy to forget that true social injustice and...

And here’s a pic of yesterday’s Christmas Sunday service:

In this past year, some of the things we have done:

• move the screen to the center so that people would not have to constantly turn their head and leave with a crick in their neck
• removed the speakers from stands and go speakers flown to hang from ceiling for a clean look and better sound spread
• added lights, LED color and spots that come from the right angle rather than straight down from top of the stage, that casted huge shadows on the face
• acoustic paneling, that dramatically reduced the amount of echo in a logistically acoustic nightmare type of space
• moved the worship team from the side, under the screen, to center stage, so that they can effectively lead people into worship

Yesterday’s Christmas service was one of the best worship experiences that we’ve had!
Here’s some pics from the service:

In the service, we showed a video that people really enjoyed:

Praise God for the journey of 2008 and praise God for what He will do next year!!!

Try leaving a comment with the new Facebook Connect. Scroll to the top of the page and look on the left sidebar for the Facebook Connect button. Click on that and it will connect to your Facebook account, so that you don’t have to login or enter your information if you want to comment. Check it out and help me test it out! Thanks!

Related posts:

1. Do Justice Dallas It’s easy to forget that true social injustice and...

We’re in the middle of a sermon series called “Influence” and it’s a series about being the salt and light. Each week, in the bulletin, everyone receives a different bookmark (2-3 different bookmarks for each week that people get randomly) with a bio of a person who have influenced the world for Christ. At the top of the bookmark is a black/white pic of the person of influence and below is a brief bio and how they made a difference. It’s cool because many are people that they’ve never heard of (i.e. George Washington Carver, Henrietta Mears), and yet they are inspiring stories of how God used them to influence the world. Well, this Sunday is the last week in the series, and they will receive their final bookmark. But this time, the picture on the top will be replaced by a mirror and the bio will say, “YOU are the light of the world, YOU are the salt of the earth.”

We hope that people will understand that they are all people who have been influenced by others as well as have the capacity to influence as salt and light. The bookmarks will hopefully be a reminder to SHAKE and SHINE and make a difference!

No related posts.

Each of the main sessions had awesome openers. Check it out!

EDIT: Had to remove the videos. Check them out on their site.

For more North Point Production stuff, check out their blog.

No related posts.

More pics coming …

No related posts.

No related posts.