Journey Folks, I need YOUR help

In 2 days we will be celebrating the fact that our Lord and Savior has the power to conquer both sin and death. On that morning there will be people maybe 2 maybe 200 who will show up at Journey for the very first time. These are people who have no connection to a local gathering and in most cases, no connection to God either. They might come out of duty, respect, looking for truth, or maybe even hoping their kids win a free trip to Disney. Whatever reason they come I am confident of a few things

1. They WILL hear about the Hope that is Christ Jesus 2. They WILL experience true worshipers of God worshiping Him. 3. They WILL encounter some of the nicest Christ-followers I have ever met.

I am confident all these things are going to happen, but I need your help in two areas. I need you to invite all of your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, and anyone else who is not already connected to a local gathering to join us. No matter why they come, even for the trip to Disney, you need to get them there. This weekend they are more likely to come than any other all year! The second thing I need is for you and your family to be there before 10 AM. We need smiling faces to great people as the walk in the door, smiling faces helping them check their kids in, and smiling faces sharing a cup of coffee and conversation. When you come, make sure you don’t take the “best spots,” but park a little farther from the door, so new people can park closer? Can you help?

Invite your Friends!!! Come early!!!!!

Thanks for BEING the CHURCH

Winning isn't everything, it's the ONLY thing

I have grown up playing competitive sports my whole life. There are lots of mantras that come with team sports.

• Winning isn't everything, its the only thing
  
• Second is the simply first loser
• Losing is not an option
• I will leave it all on the field
• We will, we will, ROCK YOU!

All of those have to do with the concept of winning at all costs. The problem is that I have bought into those ideas and concepts. I think many times that my worth is completely contingent upon what my rankings are or how many games I have won. I am a pretty competitive guy. This week at Journey we are having a Bocce Ball tournament, and I really want to win. Things are changing in my old age, It is less about winning. and more about who I play the game with. Let me give you two examples:

I have started playing Raquetball on Tuesday nights with a bunch of guys from Journey. I do it for both exercises reasons, and just fun hanging out with friends. It started with just a small group of us, and has grown into being so many people that we don't have enough courts and have to always play doubles. Now I love ALL of the guys that I play with, and they are all lots of fun there is one guy I want on my team more than anyone else. It isn't cause he is the best, cause he isn't. It isn't because we win lots of games, cause when I play with him, we loose more than we win. It is because we work really well as a team and can predict how the other one is going to play the ball. There is something about someone knowing you and how you think. There is something about being on a team with them. The funny thing is we both compete on a higher level together. We come close to beating the best team. It is a perfect pairing. I think the reason is that we are relationally connected. It is a reminder how much better your team works when you live in community together!

The other team is my team for Bocce Ball on Sunday. My teammate is going to be my friend Jason who works at the bank. we don't know each other well. He has never played Bocce Ball. He doesn't like to be outside, or be around "church people." I don't care at all if we win or even get a point. The performance of my team isn't the important thing in our case. The importance of the endeavor is the actual act of being on a team together, even around "church people." So in the act of being Jason's teammate, I already won.

This isn't to say that results aren't important, just that they aren't the ONLY THING.

Thoughts?

In honor of the Super Bowl tomorrow....

I thought this clip is worth a watch

Great Video

I stole this link from Carlos over at Ragamuffin Soul.

I hate blogs....

....that do nothing but make excuses about why the blogger hasn't been blogging, so I will tell you why I will be blogging on a more regular basis.

• It helps me process what I am going through when I write it out.
• It allows me the venue to share my thoughts and ideas with the people I do life with.
• It gives me a chance to have 40 year old single guys that live in their parents basement critique me.
• It is a way for people who are interested in Journey to see the craziness that makes up their Lead Pastor.

So be looking for more blogs, and a new design soon!

My happy girls

Ansley was the star of our polling place!

Ummm........

Comments?

It would work!

I tried to convience Katie that she could ride her bike off the porch, she didn't believe me, so I had to show her it "could" be done. The video below shows how it should not be done.



Oh yeah, and that is Jason Herndon, watching me fall on my face. Not sure if I should tell you that or not considering we announced today that he is the new Administrative Pastor at Journey. Shouldn't an Administrative Pastor watch out for the lead guy better than that? As opposed to just watching him?

Ansley & Uncle Joe

My best friend Joe, who has in the past few months moved to Virgina,
is in town staying with Lora, Ansley, & I. It is gonna be a fun few
weeks hanging together. Uncle Joe is reading Ansley a book........sorts.

My Round of Golf

A week ago I went and played golf. It will probably go down as the most memorable rounds of golf that I will ever play. I didn't play very good, didn't hit a hole-in-one, and the course wasn't even that nice. I will never forget it, because of who I played with. I played with my friend Greg. It was the one and only time I will ever play with Greg. My buddy Greg, nicknamed the Spunky Monkey, went to be with Jesus today.

God was a 51 year old man who loved Jesus and people. He lived his life in such a way that he would light up a room with his presence and his smile. His situation in life led him to be homeless, but in spite of his hard times he would be the first to tell you a few things.

1. He was not interested in begging anyone for money, but desired to work for it.
2. He didn't want to be in the woods and was going to work his butt off to get out of there.
3. He loved Jesus and wanted to serve people.

Greg told me stories about how he used to play golf all the time at the Publix Par 3 course. It was one of his fondest memories. As a child he spent countless hours trekking up and down those fairways and sinking putts in those greens. I decided that to take his mind off of the circumstances that surrounded him we would take a trip to the course he loved so much as a child. He was such a joy to play with. I still have the ball he played with in my truck. It is sitting in my middle console to remind me to live like Greg did. To live my life for something bigger than myself. To live my life to serve others.

Greg was found dead in the woods today. No one is exactly sure what happened, there are lots of guesses, but no facts yet. I think it was a mixture of his new medicine and his bad heart. I will miss him!

I am planning on planning a Memorial service for him in the upcoming days. Make plans to join us to celebrate his life. Below is a picture of my friend, Greg The Spunky Monkey.

Jason Dukes just said...

In order to reproduce churches, we must create environments that allow
for reproducing leaders to both lead and be reproduced, and we have to
ask the question, "what are we reproducing them to do?"

Sent from my iPhone

Brandt Russo at Journey

You can read the whole article of Brandt's story here.

Fios update

Ok, so I made you wait a week for the update on the Fios. That wasn't a marketing move to get some of you to e-mail me, or anything (even though that did happen). It was based upon both my laziness, and forgetfulness. So I decided today I would tell you about my Fios experience. The numbers I put up the other day which were taken as a test on Roadrunner, were pretty much what I have gotten every time I ever tested it, so it was right on. I have tested Fios 5 or 6 times and it almost always comes back close to as follows:


So as you can see, Fios is definitely faster on download, and MUCH faster on upload. This is with the supposed same package that Brighthouse was selling me. 1 Point to Fios.

As far as the phone service.......I don't know how to tell the difference. It has a dial tone, calls people when I type in numbers, and even recieves calls, on that I call it a draw.

Now on to the most important. The TV service. The channel selection is better, The amount of HD progamming for free is better. The menu system is better. The On Demand content is better. The Multi-room DVR is incredible. 1 point Fios.

The price. for the first 3 months, my Fios service is $45 cheaper than Brighthouse, for as you can see far suprior service. The following 9 months of the year Fios will be $10 cheaper. My contract is for 1 year, which basically means I am guaranteed to have cheaper better service during that whole year. If Verizon tries to up the price, (like all the Brighthouse people assure me they will do at the end of the year) I can always switch back cause my contract will be up. The way I see it, it was a no-brainer for us.

I always liked Brighthouse though. Just think I am going to like Verizon better.

Tim being.......Tim

Tim Lipe in all his glory in his Croc golf sandels. No joke they have
good cleats on the bottom.

Fly my flag proudly

Even though they will probably win the SEC and maybe even the National Championship. Urban, be a man and don't run the score up too bad on Hawaii!

Verizon Fios

I am getting Verizon Fios installed at my house today, so I figured for sake of comparison, I would do a speed test comparison. So below, you can see the test that I took at 8:36 AM at my house still hooked up to Brighthouse's high speed internet.
I used Speakeasy for the speed test, which I think is sorta the industry standard. I will post the speed of Fios, after the install guy gets done.

I am hanging at my house doing meetings here for now, as I wait on the install guy to get here.

Steve Jobs...

I saw this video yesterday and thought it was incredible. It was shot in 1997, and it was an internal lecture for Apple employees. I think that it has implications on church planting, and is as true of church planting as it is to making computers.

13 days, 11 hours, 37 minutes, 30 seconds til.....

What?

Guesses?

Do you have 45 minutes?

I am sure that many of you heard about the tragedy that hit Steven Curtis Chapman's family a few months back when their 17 year old son, accidentally ran over his 5 year old sister in the driveway in their home. Last week the Chapman family was on Larry King Live and the interview was candid and inspiring. Warning it is 6 different clips from YouTube and take a little while to watch, but I promise you will be encouraged and challenged if you turn off or pause the Olympics for a little while and check it out. I am posting all 6 videos below.

If you don't have alot of time, at least watch the last clip, #6.

Death by Love

I am excited about Mark Driscoll's new book coming out called Death by Love. Check out the trailer below.



I definitely like the BIG words Driscoll uses and his sorta freaky theatrical voice.

I am very excited about this book and hope to get a copy at the end of September. Go to the site here, and check out details and read a sample chapter.

Anybody at Crossway want to send me a free copy to read and blog about? If you send it I promise I will blog.

Todd Bentley's Angel House

I just read a report that Todd Bentley leader of the Florida Healing Outpouring is moving to Lakeland. This past week, he bought a lot in South Lakeland in a community called Mulberry. I had already heard reports of his moving here, and possibly starting a church here.

I write all of this to point out a funny fact, follow me and my humor for a second.

Todd has been highly criticized due to his unorthodox methods, tattoos, questionable accounts of healings, and even some encounters with an angel named Emma.

Todd bought a lot in Mulberry, in a community named Oak Landing, which is operated by Mercedes Homes. There are 4 floor plans of house that Mercedes is building in this community. Viscaya I, Wesley, Stanton, and ..........Emma. Can you guess which model I am thinking that Todd will build?

I betting on an Emma. I have no evidence to support that he is building that particular model, but a boy can hope can't he?

Church in Crisis

I got an e-mail yesterday morning from Greg Kappas, with Grace Global Network . It had some stats in it that I wanted to share with you. FYI, Greg's major claim to fame, is that he was Driscoll's mentor in Seattle when no one else basically believed in him.

The Following Stats are from Dave T. Olson's book "The American Church in Crisis"

1) Less than 20% of Americans regularly attend church - half of what the pollsters report.
There are approximately 330,000 churches in America; out of those churches approximately 17.7% (52 million) of Americans attend church on an average Sunday.

2) American church attendance is steadily declining.
Evangelical 9.2%
Catholic 5.5%
Mainline 3.1%

3) Only one state is outpacing its population growth.
Hawaii.

4) Mid-sized churches are shrinking; the smallest and largest churches are growing.
Churches under 50 and over 2,000 are growing
Average attendance of Protestant church: 124
1,250 mega-churches in America/one emerges every three days

5) Established churches, 40-190 years old - are, on average, declining.
New church starts reach more people better, faster, cheaper than existing churches.

6) The increase in churches is only ¼ of what's needed to keep up with population growth.
3,000 churches close every year
3,800 new church starts survived
Net annual gain: 800 new churches
Net annual gain needed to keep up with population growth:10,000 new churches

7) In 2050, the percentage of the U.S. population attending church will be almost half of what it was in 1990.
US Population in 1990: 248 million/20.4% church attendance
US Population in 2050: 520 million/11.7% church attendance

So..Thoughts?

Follow me on Twitter

So, blogging has become few and far between. It seems as though I don't have time, well probably I could have time, so instead of time, lets call it energy to keep up with blogging. I feel like everytime I post I am explaining myself and my lack of blogs, so instead of heading down the road of making promises that I can't and won't keep, I say this, "I will blog, just not to regularly." I found the perfect way to kill a blog, just don't update it. I went from having around 100 unique hits a day and a little over 150 people following me through an RSS feed to around 10 unique visits a day and people removing me from their reader daily.

I have started using twitter though. The below video will give you an idea of what that is:



I will update a post in a few hours though about my adventures with Turtle's wedding.

We are now at Bennigans grabbing some dinner. Thought I would share
with you a picture of Turtle as Batman seeing Batman. Oh yeah and
Shawn who us whipped wants me to say hi to Laura for him.

Batman......

Turtles bachelor party

I am out for Turtle's bachelor party. It is going to be Awesome, let's
just say this for now.......I am in a Monster Truck with Batman, both
r completely true.

Sent from my iPhone

Hah....I tricked him

Robert Beckman and I met with Larry Mcrary the other day. It was a cool time. He wrote about our meeting here. He wrote some pretty nice things about me in my opinion. I tricked him gooD!

Spotlight on: The Lynn Family

We have some incredible people that make up Journey. Because of that I think I am going to try to start telling their stories for the rest of the world to see how God is stretching and challenging them. All stories will be used with the permission of the person that I am talking about. Let's start today with talking about the Lynn family.

Gene and his wife Nicole are incredible followers of Christ and valuable members of our family. When they first joined us at Journey they had one adorable daughter named Isabella. I first met them 2 years ago and felt an immediate connection with them. It was through conversation that I found out that they have a strong desire to serve and love children who are in bad situations. They felt like their calling was to become foster parents. The next time I saw Nicole, they had 4 more kids. Can you imagine living in a 3 bedroom 2 bath home with just husband, wife, and precious 7 year old daughter, and then changing it all and having 4 more kids who all have troubled backgrounds.

We have stood in AWE of their steps of obedience in following Christ over the past year and a half. As God brought new kids into their home, and then moved them back out. A year ago, the Lynn family got a set of twins, Keith & Madison. They have taken good care of them, and through the process of parents rights getting terminated due to many charges of drugs and other things, it looked like they might be able to adopt them. All that was waiting was for the father, who was in prison to have his rights revoked, That was supposed to happen yesterday, when out of nowhere the grandma (who said she wanted nothing to do with them) decided that she wasn't getting enough money from the State of Alabama and her welfare, and decided if she added two kids to her house, she could get more money. There is the rub......now a family member wants them. Be praying as they seek wisdom from God as to what they should do. Be praying for peace. Be praying for them to show the love of Christ to those, who might not know it. Be praying for finances as they might have to get a lawyer.

Would you pray that God does something big in this situation? Will you pray that Gene and Nicole could be named as the "Legal Guardians" of Keith and Madison? They are already their parents, and very good ones at that.

If you have a blog that actually has people who read it (me posting once a month sorta kills my readership), will you re-post this or at least write a blurb about it. I want to get as many people as possible to be praying for the Lynns.

iPhone

I am waiting in line for the new iPhone. I am like number 40. I just got here. Will they have enough for me to get one too?

And I know, I never blog anymore. Sorta lost my desire and energy. I also sorta got tired of the stupidity of blogs nowadays.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

My GREAT deal

So, I blogged the other day about my saving $539.70 and left you all in suspense on what it in the world I could have bought and saved that much money. And from the Christian Book Store (for the rest of the blog I will call it CBS) at that.

Did I buy a Thomas Kincade Painting? A whole set of commentaries? Enough Evangacubes to swim in? Every copy of "Your Best Life Now" the board game? The answer to all of those is No.

Let me tell you the whole story. This past week at Journey we officially installed and announced our elders. They have been serving as elders for a while, but we had not had a commissioning/ordaining service yet, so we did that this week. I decided that I wanted to buy them all pocket ESV Bibles that they could carry around with them every day. So I went and bought them each one at $22.99 a piece from Barnes and Noble, because Barnes and Noble seriously has a better selection of Bibles that the CBS. (Weird I know)

Well I found out why the CBS had such a crappy selection on Saturday. The started a HUGE deal on Sunday. The same Bible that I paid $22.99 for, for $5. That is right, a Leather pocket sized ESV Bible for $5. It looks like this
So I bought 30. They have Black (the above pic is considered black even though I would call it grey), Brown, and Pink. I also have another pastor who wants me to pick him up 30. So is this happening at other CBS's as well?

If anybody wants me to go back to pick some up let me know. This only applies to those of you who live OUTSIDE of Central Florida. If you live here, drive and get your own.

I plan on using ours to give out at Baptisms and stuff like that as well as make them available for people to buy on Sunday's in case they didn't make it to the CBS before the sale stopped.

So as I go to buy 30 more copies for my friend I will hear those glorious words again. "Today you saved $539.70"

World Changer

First the update part of this post is that Ansley is doing really really well. She is growing bigger and stronger everyday, and up to this point has been completely healthy. It is a privilege and honor to be a dad and I relish it every single day.

Since the beginning (even during the NICU days) Lora and I have sought God to use our little girl in a BIG way to turn this world upside down. She has already caused many people who maybe didn't believe in miracles to start believing. We meet people on the street and when they hear her story they use the same word, "Miracle." We have even had people say to us "God definitely has a purpose for her." To which I always smile and say "Yes he does."

Every night I pray for my world changer, to do just that, Change the World. Well I am happy to say she is already doing that which can be witnessed in her outfit below.


She is wearing a shirt from Gap in their (PRODUCT)^RED Line. The tag line for their (PRODUCT)^RED is "You can Change the World." I know the RED campaign is not a new thing and I am not "cutting edge" in discussing it. But for those of you who don't know about it you can click here to find out more details.

WOW!

This video made put tears in my eyes.



ht emily.the.strange

You Saved........

You know how when you go to a store sometimes after you check out, the cashier will hand you your receipt and say "Today you saved $4.57." (or some variation of a statement like that) Today I was checking out at my local Family Christian Store, and the girl said.

"Today you saved $539.70"

More details on this later when I don't have to type this on a phone.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day from my our house to yours.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Tired of Being Badgered??

My Dad told me about some funny commercials put out by Johnson Automotive. There are a lot, but they are funny. Enjoy them below! I am thinking about driving to Raleigh to buy my next car because these guys are so creative.

Turtle's upgrade

So, I go back into what we refer to as the "swamp land" and this is what I see.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Turtle's Water attachment thing.

Well my Q would only video for 30 second so it cuts out mid sentence, but Turtle has a plan up his sleeves form getting rid of water.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Flooded

What do you do when you get to the school you are renting 2 hours before service is set to start and the room the babies meet in has an inch of standing water in it?

DRY YOUR STUFF OFF AND ADAPT!!!!!!

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

God of this City, Mobileless, Money, & other madness

Figured I would give you a run down of what I am up to on this Wednesday, apperantly I only blog in weekly, and it happens on Wednesdays, so here is your Weekly Wednesday Rundown.

• I am hanging out in Miami today with 4 guys who desire to bring transformation to the city of Miami. It is always cool to see guys with hearts like this. The really cool thing, is that they are representative of the city they are trying to reach. There is a Cuban guy, Haitian guy, African American guy, and a Caucasian guy. I am trying to talk to them about Mission. It is pretty cool and fun. I just listened to God of this City (that song gets me pumped up!).

• On a side note, this place doesn't have wireless internet.......is that even possible? I am having to sit in a kitchen "hooked" to a wall plate to get internet......of the good ole' days before we experienced the goodness or being mobile.
• I am working with a database program that we are using at Journey called Church Community Builder. So far we love it, but I have to move all of our giving records over to it. That will be a good thing though, cause that means anyone who gives can just log onto a site (that's password protected) and check their giving records. WARNING SHAMELESS FUND RAISING PLUG COMING UP That is reason enough for you to donate money to Journey, right? Go to startyourjourney.com and donate right now.
• My brother hooked me up with Dave Barnes new album, parts of it are Awesome, parts are Good, and parts of it I'm not sure of yet. It is definitely different from anything else I have been listening to which is nice
• Lora and I are planning on going on vacation next week. Should be a fun time of relaxing and fishing......but there is NO INTERNET. Not sure if I will survive.
• I am planning on switching to AT&T and getting an iPhone when the new ones come out, (I could dig a white iPhone) then MAYBE I can be cool, but not Manhattan Cool like this guy.
  

On my way back

I am on my way back from Ft. Myers, and this is in front of me. Been sitting her for 15 mins. Hope it hurries so I can get home to see my girls.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Arjuna

Hanging out with Arjuna Chiguluri..... Who is an Indian from India doing church planting. He has been a part of a movement that has planted 250 churches over the past few years. I wanted to share with you a quote he just said:

"My life was changed when God broke my Karma." (He was Hindu before God saved him)

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Hanging in Fort Myers

I am in Fort Myers for a few days. It is bitter sweet. It is cool cause I have been asked to teach at a Church Planters Basic Training class that is going on down here, but sorta sucks cause it is the first time that I have been away from Lora and Ansley overnight.

I am not at all worried about them since I am married to a pretty tough chic who is an incredible mother and can definitely handle Ansley on her own, but Ansley is starting to do new things every day and I don't want to miss a thing.

I have not been a regular blogger for a whole now. It seems like every time I feel like I am turning a corner and will start blogging more again, that something else happens.

I will try to update later on tonight on some of the exciting things going on at Journey, God is about to take us to another level!

Pray for me as tomorrow I teach on developing Core Values at 9AM and then Mission at 5PM.

Pastor Forrest Pollock's body was found

I asked many of you this morning to pray for Forrest Pollock and his 13 year old son Preston. TBO is reporting that the plane, and both bodies were found.

Please continue to pray for Bell Shoals and their members during this time. They are an incredible church and many people who attend Journey have ties to Bell Shoals in one way or another, either through attending there at some point, or having family members who still attend there.

All-In

This Friday Journey Church will put on our first ever Charity "All-In" Tournament. All the proceeds will go to support Churchwell Elementary. It should be a great time, and will hopefully raise alot of money for an INCREDIBLE school. I'm hoping to get a celebrity there like this guy.

Here are the details:

• Registration starts at 7 PM with a Texas Hold em' for Dummies Class
• Buy-in is a suggested donation of $30
• Appetizers will be provided by Outback
• Taking place at Churchwell
• Professional Dealers and tables
• Blackjack and Roulette tables as well
  

Lots of prizes like:

• Free in home poker tournament
• Free Family membership to the YMCA for a year
• Free Horse back riding lessons
• Karate membership
• Items from Go Fish
• Certificates to Nanna's Kitchen
• Certificates to Palace Italian
• Certificate to bowling
• Certificates to Movies
• Certificates to Five Guys
• Certificates to Cosy Oaks
• Certificates to Red Lobster
• Certificates to End Zone
• CD Radio from Sears
• iPods

And maybe more.

Are you willing to go ALL-In for Churchwell?

Forrest Pollock

Pastor Forrest Pollock and his son Preston have gone missing. Pastor Pollock is the pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, FL (which is just outside of Lakeland and a suburb or Tampa). He and his son were flying their plane to a conference in Texas and never arrived. They have not yet located him or the plane.

Will you join me in praying for them?

You can get updates here.

Mario Cart

Nintendo Wii - $299.99
Mario Cart for the Wii - $49.99
Watching Turtles fiance' KILL him at it - PRICELESS

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

I was going to post that....

I was going to write a post similar to this one today. Greg said it so well I am just going to let you go over there and read it. Here is an excerpt:

Then came his senior year. He started slow. It was a slump... surely he would come out of it. Game after game... he was good... still better than most, but something just seemed off. He looked to be a step slow on defense. His shot wasn't falling. His drives to the basket were out of control. What was wrong? Was it senioritis? Nerves? Did all the press go to his head? Turns out it was none of that...

It was cancer.

The Future of Church planting.........I hope.

This is the most amazing story I have ever read. For those of you who will not click through to the link, I will give you a run down.

There were two college girl softball teams playing against each other. The game was actually very important as the winner of the game would probably make it to the playoffs. It was Central Washington versus Western Oregon. Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon stepped up to the plate and hit the ball over the fence. In the excitement of the hit (which was her first home run ever) she missed first base, as she turned to touch it, something in her knee popped. There Sara lay in the dirt, not able to get up and walk. The coaches checked with the umpires to see what they should do, he was told that she could attempt to round the bases on her own, or get a pinch runner. A pinch runner would mean that it was not a homerun, but a single. When asked if her teammates could assist her around the bases, the coach was told that that if she was touched by her players, she would be out. Mallory Holtman who plays first base for Central Washington had an idea, she grabbed the short stop and they carried Sarah around the bases. In case you missed that. The other team carried the hurt girl around the field. Below is a picture.

Could God move us as the church in that way? To move past our own gathering and it alone, and be focused on THE CHURCH? I pray the future of chruch planting looks alot like a group of college softball players, carrying each other around the bases.

By the way Central Washington lost the game, something tells me that didn't matter.

National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer. I started me day with a round of golf with my beautiful bride, and I am currently at a prayer event. I have more prayer events scheduled or the rest of the day. I wanted to share with you some of the things I am praying for today.

1. The City (for repentance)
2. My Wife (that I could serve her more, and she would fall deeper in Love with God)
3. My Daughter (that God would grow her into a World Changer)
4. For Journey (that we would stay focused on God's vision)
5. For the Lakeland Church (that God would show us how to get along and how serve our city together)

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Easter Setup

Its raining, has been all day, setup won't be fun tonight. We keep everything in a trailer outside, it's gonna get sloppy.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Header to big?

Is my header too big????

I think so, thoughts?

Driscoll's Radio interview

Check out a Mark Driscoll radio interview by clicking here.
(this is mostly for Shawn, who has a Driscoll man-crush like the guy in the interview)

Anniversary

It's 3 o'clock.
I'm headed home.
It's my Anniversary.
Computer is off.
Time to enjoy my wife.

Ansley

Ansley is sleeping in her own bed tonight, cross your fingers.

Update

INBOX ZERO

My Pastor said next week is the week....

I have heard and read it said many times “Make sure you bring any of your lost friends next week because we are going to do a message that will lead them into a relationship with Christ.”

You will probably call me a heretic about this, but that statement makes me angry.

We at Journey don’t do an invitation a lot of times, nor do we do a lot of salvation messages (which has caused lots of “christians” to change churches) and it has nothing to do with the seeker sensitive movement and not getting in peoples faces. It has to do with being the church and not simply going to church.

Do you know why there are so many “christians” who are impotent when it comes to changing and impacting culture. Because they come to church and hear statements like the one above, and leave thinking, “The only way my neighbor Bill can start a relationship with God, is if I get him to church, and let my pastor talk him into it.” How are we calling people out on mission if we are cutting their feet out from under them saying, “Bring them to me and let me do it?”

At Journey we say all the time, that we want people making more spiritual decisions in living rooms than up at the front of our stage. We aren’t against to people making spiritual decisions on Sunday mornings at all, and we weekly give them opportunities to respond to whatever God is speaking to them about, but wouldn’t you rather empower your people to be leading people in their relationships with God?

Inbox Zero

So....last week I said I was going to work on getting my inbox cleared out, that never really went as planned, so I have been working on it this morning before and after staff meeting. I started the day with 798, and am currently at 407. I see daylight ahead.

I AM SO SORRY TO ALL OF YOU THAT NEVER GOT REPLIES.......THIS WEEK YOU WILL!!!!!!

Update

So.....blogs have been few and far between as of late. I am hoping to jump back on the wagon this week and blog. My goal this week is to write a blog of substance every day, not that I am going to continue that every other week, but that might just get me back in the swing of things. I figured I would use this blog to update some happenings in my life:

• Ansley is doing well, she is over 5 pounds now and continues to eat really well. Some of her premie clothes are actually to fit. Pretty cool and pretty sad for a 3 month old to still be in premie clothes.
  
• Journey is going well. We continue to connect with new people for the sake of the Gospel. We have alot of stuff going on in the upcoming months, not to mention Easter this week.
• This weeks service is going to be really cool. If I had to pick one place in Lakeland to go for an Easter service, I think I would pick Journey Church at Churchwell Elementary at 10:30. I think I will!
• I have started using Twitter, more on that later.

There is so much more, but....Right now my mind is blank, time to go get ready for staff meeting.

Tryin to get my hair fixed by Shawn's girlfriend.

This was very funny

The Reverend Driscoll made me laugh.

Click here and you can too!

Awesome Sushi

My boy Juan at Spice made me an incredible roll today.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

new page design

So.....I changed my page around, RSS folks need to click over to check it out.

Thoughts?

Something for you to see

I played you those videos so I could do this.......

I introduce you to a new blog written by my friend Turtle......so check it out, make sure you leave him a bunch of comments. (Yes he is the same one from the Turtle Tales)

Wow

This is a very well done clip of some of Steve's best moments on the big screen, and on the TV. Since I love The Office and Steve Carell, I thought this was cool........Do you?

Back to work....

Well, Life has somewhat returned to normal as far as work is concerned. I had moved all of my stuff from the church office to my home office to work and have been working there for the past 9 weeks, but now I am back to the church office, back to meeting with people, back to trying to not do things last minute.

I am going to try to follow up on all the e-mails I have been avoiding. Looks like I have 730 that are not junk mail, that deserve a reply........might be a long week.

Book 123 MeMe

Not really sure what MeMe stands for, but I was tagged by Ben, so I figured I would do it. I sorta felt like it was a chain letter, or one of those e-mail forwards.

Here is how this particular thing works. (I think if I don't do it quickly that my grandkids will one day be abducted by aliens)

* Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more (no cheating!)
* Find page 123
* Count down five sentences
* Post the next three sentences
* Tag five people

From Jim and Casper Go to Church by Jim Henderson & Matt Casper (given to me last Sunday by Jason Herndon)

I promise this was not planed. I followed the rules exactly. (Sheri, I did not plan this!)

"What I mean is that Joel Olsteen and other TV preachers are not making appeals to the worst people, but to the worst in people. They make appeals to people's greed, selfishness, envy, pride: 'You're gonna get rich, you deserve abundance, you're better than nonbelievers.' To me, it's not much different than what the worst of our political leaders do."

The people I tag are Chris C, Shawn, Erick, Chris E, & Jason.

I predict that The first 3 I tagged will do it, and the last 2 will not.

Famous words....sorta

Home at Last, Home at Last, Thank God Almighty Ansley is Home at Last!

Ansley's Blog

I know it has been a while, but I updated Anley's site with some new pictures.

You can get there by clicking here.

1 Year Anniversary

This Sunday morning is going to be our 1 year Anniversary of when Journey started meeting corporately last year. If you are around, we would love to have you!

My Pastor said going to Hooters is a sin....

I was talking with someone the other day and they told me, “My pastor told me that a true christian shouldn’t go to Hooters.” I of course pushed a little harder for information so I could get the full context of how and why he said it. In the end I found out that the pastor was doing a sex series, and during the part of the series where he was talking about lust, he made that statement. I asked if it was a blanket statement for all christians, all men, or all men who have deep struggles with sexual addictions and he said it was for all christians.

I then asked him what he learned from it, or how it was effecting his life and he said, “I sure do like Hooters wings, but I will tell you one thing, I will never go there again.”

So, was this person I was talking to blind up this point?

Did he not see the tight shirts and short shorts?

I am no advocate for Hooters. I don’t personally go to Hooters, but why do we as pastors feel like it is our responsibility to tell people the little things that they should and shouldn’t do. Should I become the consciences of the people in my gathering?

Should people come to me to find out what they should and shouldn’t do, where they should and shouldn’t go? If that is the case, why in the world do we need the Holy Spirit. If a message was delivered in such a way, that a person felt convicted, and through their conviction they figured out how to love Christ more, and be more like him, then I say all for it. I didn’t hear a man saying “the Holy Spirit convicted me on this,” I heard a man saying, “Pastor Adam condemned me, and told me how to live.”

Is there a problem with that?

Is there a problem with a man taking on the role of the Holy Spirit?

I have spoken with young men in the past and given my opinion, in a private conversation what my view on going to Hooters was. I told him that I don’t go for a few reasons.

I want to respect my wife, and encourage her.
Women many times lean towards insecurity, it is how they are made. That is accentuated by our culture parading women around who are a size 0 with large breasts. Girls have to live up to a certain standard in order to be considered attractive. What would my wife think I I continuously took her to a restaurant filled with women who she felt like she couldn’t compete with? I want Lora to know I make a conscious decision to attempt to only see her in a tight shirt and short shorts.

I have enough garbage in my head.
Some of this is due to our culture and some of this is due to my own choices made throughout my life up to this point. I will always have struggles for the rest of my life in many areas. I have enough images in my head that aren’t honoring God, or my wife, and I chose to attempt to limit them from this point forward.

I want my daughter to learn to be respected for more than big boobs and short shorts.
I know my $20 for dinner is not a lot in the financial situation for Hooters Inc, but maybe it could be a start. How can I show my daughter that her insides are more important than her outsides, if I supported girls walking around clad in next to nothing?

I am not saying that we should be silent, or not speak out on certain things? But should we change the the way we say them and let the Holy Spirit do his thing?

Ok your turn, What say you?

My Pastor said......

I have been bouncing around some concepts in my head for months now, that I think I am ready to share with the world through this blog. The thoughts are not complete, so in them you could find errors. I am sharing them here in hopes of this being a platform where communication can take place and where you can share openly your thoughts on these things as well. I have started the process of writing a series of posts called "My Pastor Said..." They will hopefully be completed throughout the next little bit (that is the easy way of not giving myself a deadline). I am going to be working on them as I sit at the Hospital with my beautiful daughter in between feedings. I want to share a disclaimer with you before we get started

DISCLAIMER ALERT: I am not against traditional churches that do things different than how we do things at Journey. I think that God wants and does use all methods of connecting people to him. I do not want any churches in my area to change their methodology and in some cases even their vision. What I do desire is a shift in Big picture leadership across the board in our churches. I do not write these as a guy from the outside looking in, but as an insider looking out. I am not only a part of the problem, but I hope to become a part of the solution.

Want to join me?

No commentary needed.....

I saw this on reformissionary

They call it Up Beat......I call it Piano Hero

This is for all of you who don't want to go out and spend 100 bucks on Guitar Hero.

Test

This is a test of trying to blog from MacJournal

This is what I saw this morning.

Quality of the picture isn't great, but that is Ansley, not in a blanket but in little girl clothes. Seeing her in clothes made me cry.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Good word

I just hear a Catholic Priest say this to a group of church women:

"It is time for us to stop going to church, and start being the church. We should daily be living sent."

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Ansley has a question for ya.

How many of you have a fly hat like this?

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Ansley

For some reason tonight, Ansley really likes to hold her nose. Since she has fallen asleep tonight she won't let go of her nose. It makes me laugh everytime I look down at her.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Sickness is in the air

It is that time of year when it seems there are a million little germs everywhere. I have never cared before or even paid attention, but with a little girl weighing in at just over 2 pounds, it freightens me.

There is a huge threat for her to catch everything and with her at the size she is a virus called RSV would almost certainly end tragically. After much consultation between Lora, the doctors, and myself, the concensus is that the only thing we can do is to restrict all visitors to see Ansley for a while. What that means to most of you, is that even if I have promised to get you back to see my little girl, as of today Wednesday January 23rd, Ansley can no longer accept any visitors beside immediate family.

I love you all and thank you for all the prayers. I look forward to the days ahead when we will all be able to sit around and play with Ansley, THE SECOND MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL ALIVE, (Lora is still number 1 even after having a baby)

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

This was on Ansley's bed this mornng.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

ANSLEY UPDATE.

I wanted you to take a look at my 2 pound baby!!!!!!!!!!!

Today 1-17-08 my girl broke into the 2 pound mark, saying that we are relieved and ecstatic would be an understatement. Her momma is so proud.

Oh and that IS Lora's chest but she is NOT breast feeding. That is Lora's upper chest.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Ansley update 1-13-08

Tonight was a fun night. We got the opportunity to give Ansley a bath and do lots of other fun little things with her. Her nurse tonight was Terry, and we absolutely love her! As you pray for Ansley, Lora, and I will you pray for the nurses as well? They are such a blessing to us, and they are taking very good care of our little girl. Make sure you jump over to the pictures pages to look at all the pictures from tonight, that are awesome.

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while, but having a baby in the NICU, pastoring a church, moving that church to a new location, and trying to love my wife are hard sometimes to do all at once so blogging has not been a huge priority. Thanks for all the prayers.

Ansley is currently weighing todays date. 1 pound 13 ounces on 1-13-08.

My Little girl

Tonight was great night at the NICU. I took 156 pictures (which I am editing down now) of Lora and I doing all kinds of fun things with Ansley. Make sure you check out Ansley Mayfield's website to see them. They should be up sometime this evening. Go to ansleymayfield.com

E-mail from Phil

Just wanted to share with you Florida folks, some news from Big Orange Country. This is a copy of an e-mail sent out today from Phillip Fulmer head coach of the University of Tennessee football team. By the way, they were also the SEC East Champions this year, and for that one reader who is a Wisconsin fan, they beat them in the bowl game.

Dear friends,
Over the past month, I have had a lot of great discussions with some of football's brightest coaches about our offensive coordinator opening. I have thoroughly enjoyed the search and research process and there certainly was a lot of interest in this position. I took the attitude that this was a great opportunity for me to evaluate the coaching talent out there and find the perfect fit for a new era of Tennessee offensive football.

Today is an exciting day for the Tennessee football program as we introduce Dave Clawson as our new offensive coordinator. Dave brings experience both as an offensive coordinator at Lehigh and Villanova and a head coach at Fordham and Richmond. During his eight seasons as a head coach, he has proven himself as a program builder, being named national Division I-AA coach of the year twice.

Dave brings a great work ethic, high energy and is a great teacher of quarterbacks. His multiple offensive system using the talents of the players available to their fullest has been impressive. He has a great passion for recruiting, which is important for Tennessee, and his experience as a head coach will serve us well.

He is young, highly intelligent and competitive, well-organized and a great person and family man - all attributes I was looking for.

Over the next few months, Dave will be on the road meeting with recruits, fans, friends and alumni. I hope many of you will come out to meet him at one of our Football Recruiting Celebrations in Knoxville, Nashville or Memphis on Thursday, February 7.

Please help me welcome Dave, his wife Catherine and kids Courtney and Eric to the Tennessee family.

Go Vols!

Phillip Fulmer

National Championship Game

I was at the hospital so I missed the whole first half, but ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Can the BCS create a system that will keep these weak Big 10 teams out of the picture completely?

Ansley's site

You can now go directly to Ansley's site by typing in ansleymayfield.com. Thanks for your help Tonya!

Update 1-4-08 Evening

Tonight was a good night, my mother-in-law & father-in-law got to touch her for the first time, I got to hold her, Lora got to hold her hand for a while, and I put a bow in her hair. Below are pictures of some of those things.
She is now on 5ml of FULL Strength breast milk......Which is huge. Pray that she continues to put on the ounces. She can get as fat as she wants. I will support her obesity, at least at this stage in her life.

Ansley's first video

What do you think of my baby girl?

Update 1-4-08 Morning

Good morning this morning, Lora was able to hold Ansley which was precious. Ansley's belly rubin (not sure how to spell it) is going down and she has started to put on weight. She now weighs 800 grams or 1 pound 12 ounces for all you USA folks. Good stuff, enjoy the beutiful pictures of my gorgeous wife, and precious daughter.

Ansley's site.....HELP?

I have some problems with Ansley's new site. I bought the domain ansleymayfield_dot_com but don't know how to get the domain service I bought it through to integrate with iWeb. Any of you Mac guys know how to do it?

I also heard that her site is in Spanish, but not sure how or what that is on some browsers. On my browser, it is not, and of course I didn't make it in spanish, since I don't know it!

We are half home

We have made it back to our house and boy does it feel good to be home. It is bitter sweet, cause we left half of us in the NICU, but we are praying that our little girl will be home with us in the next 8 weeks. Will you join us in that prayer?

I want to thank all of you again for all of the thoughts and prayers over the past week. God is good, and he has been faithful to take care of us and our little girl. If there was any question whether she would have my wiped or not that was wiped away when I saw her tanning, with her shades on.......

I love my WIFE.....she is doing good.

I love my LITTLE GIRL.....she is surprising the doctors.

I love my family......they have stepped up in a huge way!

I love the Church of Lakeland......We have had calls, texts, e-mails, and messages from people from more gatherings(local congregations) than I can count.

Thank you all, for all the support. Give us a few days to rest and for Lora to heal and then we would love to see you guys!

Ansley's Page

You can visit Ansley's Page Here.

I'm a daddy

Today Lora and I gave birth to a beautiful healthy girl who IS BREATHING ON HER OWN! She is a tiny 1 pound 15 ounces. She was 13 inches long and has a full head of hair. We are going to have a few months of hard times, but we are rejoicing in the birth of our miracle child.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Good Day

We got good news today. Lora's numbers are down, and if they stay down we might be ale to push the delivery back a few days. No guarantee, but good news none the less. Lora and Ansley are currently doing fine, please keep us in your prayers.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Settled in

It has been a crazy 48 hours. It appears that Lora DOES have HELLP Syndrom That basically means that Lora's symptoms (the stuff that would hurt her) progresses very very quickly. So....they have to take the baby very early so as to make sure that it is safe for Lora.

As we are sitting now, Ansley will be delivered Monday morning at 9 AM. That means she will be 8 and a half weeks early. They will do a C-section because Ansley won't be able to handle the trauma of a natural birth. Lora will also be under general annesthetic which means Lora will be asleep at delivery and I will not be in the room.

We are settled in our room trying to fall asleep, Lora took an Ambien and I am just worn out with all the stress. We are listening to some Shane & Shane on the iPod and trusting God who we know isn't suprised by this, and who WILL get all of the praise and glory for whatever he is going to do through all this.

We love you guys and will try to keep you updated.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

No Visitors

Well......the party is over. I just got yelled at by a nurse who said NO VISITORS! So we are sitting in a room with the lights out and I am not supposed to talk to her even. I can already tell this is going to be a hard few days.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Quick Update on Lora & Ansley

They are admitting us to the hospital. They think Lora s HELLP syndrom. I don't know alot about it or what it all means. We are both in good spirits and know that our God is bigger than any of our problems, and that He is still in control. We love all of you guys, thanks for the prayers and calls!

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

A small Update

Well, I have finally got my wife to sleep and she appears to be resting well. It has been a pretty stressful day on both of us. Lora of course was very concerned with the what ifs, and what could happen, while I was mostly concerned with what can I do to ease her pain both emotionally and physically.

I honestly had no desire to come on here and post a blog entry, but then I remembered that to not do so would rob us of a blessing of having people from all over the world pray for us and join together with us during this time that will definitely bring God glory in the end. I am confident that God allows us as followers of Him to be in situations like this so that we can truly show people, how Big, Loving, and Graceful He is. Robert Beckman who knows the whole story, sent out a great e-mail earlier this evening on behalf of Lora and I (Thanks Robert!) I want to copy and paste it in here because he, as always, wrote it more eloquently than I can.

Hello Friends,

Please forward this to anyone God brings to your mind,

Adam and Lora Mayfield went in for tests and some results came back very quickly. Lora has preeclampsia.

They will do more tests tomorrow (Saturday) morning. Their doctor is on call this weekend so he should be there to give them faster results.

The baby is fine, originally due in February. Lora is not fine until the baby comes out to see us. Risks to Lora include stroke, seizures, organ failure.

Lora will have to take it real easy. The baby might be given steroids to help the lungs develop and get ready for an early delivery.

Thanks to God for Tim Lipe helping Adam and Lora finish an awesome nursery already. It might be used sooner than expected and each day between now and delivery will need to be very restful.

-Pray that the continued tests tomorrow will give God's insight to the doctors for a clear strategy: an early delivery for Lora's sake and a developed baby ready to breath on her own.
-Pray for Adam and Lora to hear God's quiet whispers of assurance.
-I'm praying for you to Be The Church.

Blessings,
Robert
p.s. See you this Sunday as Jason Herndon brings a word to Journey. Then we bug out of the theater and relocate to party at the school. The folks at the theater have been awesome. It was their idea that Journey signs be placed at the theater to tell folks of the new school location. Lakeland continues to be blessed by Journey. With you as The Church there have been so many lives re-connected with The Father. Adam and Lora will be blessed to see you as The Body doing better than ever while we walk through this difficult time together. Not a good time to be on the bench. Can your brothers count on you? I know you will rise to the occasion.

We need your prayers during this time. God is good, we know he is, and we trust Him during this time no matter what. We have prayed the whole time for a healthy baby, never though I would be praying for a healthy wife too, for some reason that thought never entered my mind. Not sure if this will sound chessy, not sure that I care even if it does, will you please join me and PRAY FOR MY GIRLS TONIGHT!!!

Prayers

I don't really have the time or energy to go into detail tonight (nor do I have enough information), but be praying for Lora and I. We found out today that there are some complications with the pregnancy. I will update you as we know more. We covet your prayers!

It's Christmas Eve

Since I know that none of you want me to sing Christmas Carols for you, I figured I would let these guys do it.

Merry Christmas

Great Movie

I have good luck with movies lately. Last night Lora and I watched "Once" which was INCREDIBLE, and tonight Lora, Turtle, and I watched "Beyond the Gates" which was very good.

"Beyond the Gates" (sometimes referred to as "Shooting Dogs") is about the Genocide that took place in Rwanda. The setting is in the a place called the Ecole Technique Officielle, which was a catholic school that man of the Rwandans took refuge in. The movie ended with a great quote, that I wanted to share with you.

The opposite of faith is not heresy but indifference.
-- Elie Wiesel

Wow.....

The blog below of my date (Turtle) is from a few weeks ago, not sure why my Motorola Q decided to wait until today to send it.  I bet if I had an iPhone it would have posted that entry back on December 6th, when I made it.  

My Date

Tonight is the Christmas party for area Church Planters and their wives. Lora is working, so my date to Sam Seltzer's is the good looking guy up there............TURTLE.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Where did Urban Myer get his scheme from?

I know all of you have been wondering where in the world Urban got his idea for the offense that Florida runs..... well the answer is below. Brings new meaning to the term so easy an elementary school kid could do it. If only Florida's line was as good as these guys, or is Tebow was as fast. But as we all know, it is impossible for the student to be as good as the mentor..........I will go ahead and apologize for the annoying music with the video, I didn't pick it. Oh and you will get the picture early, you don't have to watch the whole video.

All right, you can know too!

So here is the deal.  We meet on Sunday mornings at an incredible place.  We meet at the Lakeland Square Mall Theaters which is in a highly commercial place.  Everybody in town knows exactly where it is, how to get there, and it isn't too far from anyone, cause we are pretty central to Lakeland.  We are directly off of I-4 which is the stretch of interstate that connects Tampa to Orlando, so people from those cities find us very easily.  We are paying less rent per month than the last church I worked at paid weekly.  We are able to store EVERYTHING we use on site at the theater for FREE.  When it's not the holidays or summer, we get to use ALL 1o theaters all for the same low price.  The allowed us to put permanent signs up on the outside of their building for advertising.  There is a new neighborhood directly across from it that has 250 new homes going up.  It is a church planters dream.  Since we started "publicly" meeting there last year, we have only not had a 1st time guest 1 week.  That means new families are finding us in our great location every week.  In real Estate they say it is all about Location, Location, Location and they say they same thing about church planting.  God has blessed us tremendously with our meeting location.  And we are not staying.  So I formally announce publicly today that:

JOURNEY CHURCH IS MOVING TO CHURCHWELL ELEMENTARY

Let me tell you a little about the location of Churchwell. It is a school that most people from Lakeland have never heard of.  Almost no one knows where it is.  It is not on a major road. Even when you tell them the road it is off of, if they aren't from North Lakeland, they don't know where it is.  It is extremely far north, basically as far North Lakeland as you can go and still be in Lakeland, did I mention that 50% of our leadership lives in South Lakeland? It has no Auditorium.  Parking is really weird and confusing to get in and out of the place.  And lastly schools are supposed to be the most expensive places to rent in the city. 

Let me tell you why we decided to pursue the move and then about the faithfulness of God since making the decision.  We wanted to truly invest in our community and partner with a school or schools to love them and serve them.  We wanted to move away from it being all about a Sunday morning show, which it's hard to go to any movie theater and not expect a show.  We wanted to secure some children protection issues that we were having at the theater.  Lora and I also felt led a year and a half ago to start a gathering at Churchwell, but the school wasn't available.  85% of all the new houses built in North Lakeland in the past 4 years have been built north of Duff Road, which is where Churchwell is located.  We are truly now in the middle of a bunch of neighborhoods and not in a retail place like the mall.  

Let me tell you what God has done since we started following him down this road.  

1.  We had no-idea how much it was going to cost.  It is going to be cheaper than we pay now. 

2.  We had no idea even what the inside of the school looked like, or how we would set everything up.  We are going to have a sweeter set-up at Churchwell then we have at the movie theater. What I mean by that is the way the children's area will be and how we can set things up accomplishes our main goal for Sunday morning which is provide a safe place to learn more about God.  

3.  We were going to need to buy trailers to transport all of our stuff to and from church on Sunday.  They are letting us put a Site Storage container at the school to hold all of our stuff.  

4.  Wanted to continue blessing the manager and staff at the Theater.  The manager is excited for us and had one request, could we leave our signs up on the front of the building in order to continue advertising for Journey.  

5.  How do we advertise? Looks like we are going to be able to hang banners on the fence around the school and leave them up ALL WEEK LONG!

So we moved to a better set-up facility for us, which is  cheaper, has storage, and we get to have advertising on the theater still as well as the school.  Oh yeah I forgot to tell you that we also are going to try to get in and do a full sound run-through on Saturday nights and that the set-up team will be able to sleep in at least 2 hours later.  We are pumped! It is going to be a good move to a supposed bad location.

Not Tired

You know, its funny.  I have been up since 2:30AM, and I am not tired at all.  It's not like I had to go somewhere, or that I was sick. We didn't do some super early set-up this morning.  I have been up praying and seeking God.  

I am really restless about a decision that we are making with Journey.  It is definitely going to shake things up!  After much prayer, and advice from mentors, I truly believe it is the best thing for the future of Journey.  Some might think I am stupid, some might think we are doing the worst thing imaginable, I think we are doing the only thing we can at this juncture in our journey in order to truly live as the church.  

I am not tired, I am excited to share this new chapter at our gathering this morning.  If you for some reason are up early enough to read this, yet aren't planning to come this morning, try to make it there.  It will be a special day.  Hope to see you there!  If I don't see you there, you will have to wait for an e-mail or blog update that might not some until as late was Friday, so if you want to be in the know, be at the theaters at 10:30AM.

So....I guess I am selfish

I got this e-mail yesterday:
All of your posts are about you. YOU YOU YOU.. What about Lora how is she doing, Feeling. What about your impending bundle of joy.. It's always about what your doing, some crazy new electronic gadget, or some video.. I don't care about what your doing because I already know your always up to something and thats not news. HEHE. I want something fresh. like maybe a belly shot of LORA your wife.. Something Original.. Written in Love LOL HEHE

So I repent of the sin of not talking about Lora and Ansley enough. So here goes:

We are now in the third trimester which is very cool. I get to feel Ansley kick on a regular basis, and of course Lora feels her all day. We went to the doctor yesterday and it looks like everything is still going fine. Lora had to drink some kind of cola mixture to test for gestational diabetes, and we should get those results back soon.

Because we are in the 3rd trimester we will now be going to the doctor every 2 weeks, which isn't super exciting for me or Lora, since we don't get ultrasounds every time. For some reason in my mind, I assumed that we would always get to see her, but I was wrong. We do LOVE our doctor though and enjoy chatting with him every time. He is a cool guy.

Ansley's room is almost done already. I assembled all of her furniture and stuff. There is just one more piece or furniture that we need and I think Tim and I are going to be building it in the next few weeks. (By "Tim and I" I mean that he will cut the wood, nail the wood, stain the wood, and I will carry it to the room when he is done.) I will try to get some pictures up later today.

So to make the e-mailer happy, here is a picture of my pregnant wifes stomach with my mom touching it.

Funny Stuff

My brother Corey sent me this. It was originally published here.

Evangelical churches and ministries across America are reeling today after a lower court in Manhattanfound the defendants guilty in the "U.S. vs. 'Rev. John Smith'" sermon sharing case.

On April 1, 2007 the justice department filed charges against thousands of pastors and seminary students across America. Due to the large number of parties involved, the justice department simply designated the defendant as "Rev. John Smith" to represent the whole.

At the center of the suit are the sermons and writings of Rev. Timothy J. Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. After an intensive three year investigation the justice department uncovered an extensive network of pastors, seminary students and other church workers who downloaded hundreds of sermons by Rev. Keller, distributed them and preached them regularly in churches across America.

Lead investigator Roscoe P. Coltrane commented, "we received a tip from an elderly lady from Flynt, MInamed Lois McGillicuddy. Being retired, she travels extensively throughout America and is in a different church every Sunday. She noticed that she kept hearing the same sermons over and over and after three years of this became suspicious and notified us. We launched an investigation which uncovered a massive underground network of illegal sermon sharing. Mrs. McGillicuddy was right, the same sermons are being preached over and over again in the churches throughout America, and they all are tied to Keller."

The means for sharing these sermons are various. Coltrane noted that the recent explosion of "Christian leadership conferences" has been a major source of sermon sharing - "On any given day, one to two dozen of these 'leadership conferences' is being held in churches, conference and convention centers across America. And these conferences are multiplying like rabbits, we estimate there are three to four new nationwide leadership conferences announced every week. Ninety percent of the pastors in Americaattend 6 or more of these conferences a year, as well as a large percentage of seminary students and others training for ministry." Coltrane went on to point out that these are prime opportunities for sermon sharing. "Attendees will frequently be found exchanging small USB devices containing pirated sermons, and there are many hallway and backroom conversations telling each other where to find more."

But by far the biggest source of sermon sharing has been the internet. Just as hackers routinely break into Microsoft to acquire copies of the latest software, these sermon hackers have bypassed all of the security measures of the "Redeemer Online Store," which stores Keller's sermons. Every sermon Keller has ever preached has now been downloaded and is available to preachers and ministry leaders across Americafrom "sermon-warez" hackers.

When notified about this, Art S. Prince of Redeemer Church Associates, cooperated fully with the Justice Department. "I can appreciate that pastors need material to preach from," said Mr. Prince, "but we have to maintain some quality control here, people are taking Rev. Keller's words and are mixing them with their own, so we need to put a stop to this."

On hearing about the verdict, Genea Simmons, a spokesperson for the Redeemer Church Associates said, "I do feel bad for these pastors who can no longer use Mr. Keller's sermons. But we here at Redeemer believe this is all a part of God's sovereign plan. For 15 years now we have been telling everyone that God wills that every Christian in America move to New York City - if we reach New York City with the gospel, we have reached the world. This will force pastors and others who want to use Keller's material to come to New York City to hear it live. And by living in New York City, they are helping insure that the Great Commission is fulfilled."

The fallout has been devastating, even catastrophic for some. One denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, found that from 2002-2006, 65% of the sermons preached in their pulpits were plagiarized from Mr. Keller. Even more alarming was the fact that new pastors who graduated from PCA related seminaries from 1995-2006, 87% were using versions of Mr. Keller's sermons each Sunday. Because of this verdict, 37% of PCA churches across America closed their doors last month because they couldn't find preachers.

The seminaries are also being hit hard. There are no new enrollments at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, and the various campuses of Reformed and Westminster Theological Seminaries. Sean Fanning ofNapsterville, IL recently dropped out of Covenant Seminary. "The only reason I went to seminary was to get 'credentials' so I could pastor a church. I felt called to pastor a church but have never been a good student. The leaders in my church told me not to worry about that, I could go to Covenant and skate by with C- grades in all my classes and still graduate. Then when I got 'on the field' they were going to hook me up with the 'Keller underground' and I'd have all my sermons taken care of. Now that's all gone."

But it's not only the PCA that is suffering from this, the Southern Baptist Convention has also taken a hit. Every Southern Baptist Church that has been planted in America since 1995 has either been planted by the Rev. Ed Stetzer or by someone who was following the script of one of his books. But Stetzer confesses "frankly I lift all of my material from Tim Keller, with this ruling I'm done." Because of this, Stetzer has been relieved of his duties as the SBC's "Missiologist in Residence," and he has ceased his writing and speaking ministry. Dr. Frank Page, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, says "I'm not sure what we're going to do - now that Stetzer has dried up we can't plant SBC churches and most of our younger pastors are dropping out. They just can't go on without Stetzer."

Geoff Hammond, President of the Southern Baptist's North American Mission Board (NAMB) is upbeat. "Yes, losing Stetzer was big, and we wish him well in his new job as Marketing Director for the Dunder-Mifflin office in Erie, PA. But we Southern Baptists are a creative and resilient sort - we'll adapt. In fact, just this morning we recast the purpose and mission of the NAMB. Since we don't have Stetzer we're no longer trying to plant churches - instead, we are moving forward with a new vision of hosting more Beth Moore conferences. In fact, on January 2, 2008 Broadman and Holman will publish Beth's newest book 'Become a Moore Better You,' to coincide with her much anticipated 'Your Beth Life Now,' nationwide bus tour. So yes I am upbeat - who needs Stetzer or Keller when you've got Moore?"

The internet was the arena where most of Keller's sermons were shared, amongst Christian blogs and social networks. But these are being hit just as hard as the denominations. Famed Keller blogger and minister Steve McCoy of the Reformissionary blog has shut down his blog and left his church and is pursuing his dream of becoming a member of the Hollywood paparazzi. The leading Keller blogger on the internet, D. J. Chuang believes this is the end of the "Christian blogosphere." Chuang says "when it comes to 'Christian blogging' 50% of the bloggers out there were either blogging Keller's words or commenting on them. The other 50% were arguing with them. Now 50% of Christian bloggers have nothing to say and the other 50% have no one to argue with."

It remains to be seen what the total fallout from this verdict will be. Many Christian leaders refused to be interviewed for this story, evidencing a sense of shame over their involvement in this sordid affair. But the feelings of all the defendants in this case were expressed eloquently by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. When asked to comment, Driscoll said simply "@!%$*+^% *&^%@#!"

Late-night Snack

Lora and I ate dinner before going to our Life Group, after Life Group we went by the hospital and by the time we got home, walked the dog and all that stuff, I was hungry again, so I searched and searched the cabinets, refrigerator, and freezer and I made...........Mussels in a creamy garlic sauce for a snack.  

(the picture above are not of the mussels I ate, but mine looked similar without the pretty decorative leaf.)

How weird am I?

Saw this...

...and thought it was funny.

Love Lakeland

Bob had this incredible quote the other day from Falwell. Not sure how many of you guys saw it, but it fired me up. I hope it fires you up as well.

"Let us capture our cities for Christ. I mean literally overwhelm them. Let us do it through the principle of saturation, filling the city with our doctrine. And let us do it through the two secret weapons of a Bible-believing local church: (1) contacting people and (2) contacting people, continuously. If you do that long enough, well enough, and loud enough, you are going to get everyone’s attention. A pastor may not win' everyone this year or the next year, but if he is willing to go to a church and invest his life he will win them one day."

Jerry Falwell

Major Prayer Concern

Be praying for Journey.  We are in the midst of making some pretty big changes in the next few weeks.  Be praying for wisdom for myself and the leadership as we take big steps for God.  

I am excited as we are only 2 months away from our 1 yr. anniversary and what God is about to do with our gathering.  I will give you more details as God opens doors.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

It appears that Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers will be preforming at halftime at the Superbowl.  Should be cool, what do you think?

My favorite Petty song is "You don't know how it feels"

Turtle's favorite is "Don't come round here no more"

What is your favorite Petty song?

This is AWESOME

I am not sure if I am behind the times on my videos or not, but Danny played this clip at FCYC this past weekend.



You can read the whole story here. In case you don't have time or the desire to click through, here is a synopsis.

80 people dressed like Best Buy employees went into a best buy and just stood at the end of rows. They weren't supposed to shop, or pretend to be employees, but to stand there. If they were approached by a customer and asked for help, they could help if they knew the answer, but were not to say they were employee. If an employee asked them what they were doing, they were to say that they were waiting on their boyfriend/girlfriend. It was funny! Make sure you watch all the clips and read what people wrote about it at the bottom of the article as well. It is long, but if you have time, worth the read.

SEC questions..... answered biasedly

There are a lot of questions going around college football this year, many of those are about the SEC, I give my opinion about a few of them.  (realize I am a UT fan and my blood runs orange, so I might be a little biased) By the way, is biasedly a word?

How is Tennessee representing the East?  I mean they lost of Florida 59-20, Georgia is ranked 4th in the nation, South Carolina put up 500 yds, and if only Vanderbilt and Kentucky could make field goals.  How is this happening?

Those are all facts, you might even say that Tennessee is the worst team to ever represent the SEC East, and that might be accurate as well, but the reason that UT is playing and not any of those others teams is this UT persevered.  They took advanta

ge of their opportunities. 

People are saying Fulmer should be fired.

Now I have said many times this year that there are parts of our program that must change.  I am not sure that Fulmer needs to leave for it to happen, but because of the guy Fulmer is, it might not change until he leaves.  To all of those that think he should be fired, or like to talk about how he likes to eat a lot of donuts, I ask you this, Wh

o is a better coach in the SEC, besides Miles who he is playing against in the championship and who might not be an SEC coach much longer?  All the other coaches in the SEC are UNDERACHEIVERS this year. They didn't play as well as projected at the beginning of the season, and this weekend they will watch the SEC Championship from the sidelines.  Fulmer has his team in a position to possibly play in a BCS game.  Does Myer, Tuberville, Spurrier, Johnson, Brooks.... the list goes on and on.  While you all prepare for your comments at how your coach is the Savior of the world, I want to watch Phil do a little jig.

Oh by the way the Atlanta Journal Constitution is picking UT to win!

Will Tebow win the Heisman? 

I don't really care who wins as long as Tebow and McFadden are 1 & 2.  If I was going to say who the most dominant player in college football is, it would be Tebow.  If I was picking the best quarterback, it would be Tebow.  If I was picking the MVP for each team, it would be Tebow.  If I was picking a person to guard me in a dark alley, it would be Tebow.  All that to say, will Tebow win?  Probably not cause the Heisman is the DUMBEST award in college football, cause the best play doesn't always win.  If you ask me if he should win, I scream YES, YES, YES!

Will Miles go to Michigan?

I hope not, he makes SEC football fun, but I would laugh if he left and Saban went back to LSU, It would leave Alabama with not coach again, and I would love it!

Will Zook beat Myers?

Oh please yes, but I don't think it will happen.  Florida is too good, and Illinois is still, well too bad.  If Florida plays Illinois, Florida will be the only SEC team I won't be rooting for in the bowls.  I think the University of Florida didn't give Zook a fair shake and I would love to see him stick it to them!

Pretty Excited

I am pretty excited about this weekend.  I have a lot of things planned and it should be a blast.  

-  This weekend I am speaking at the Florida Christian Youth Convention.  It's going to be pretty sweet.  Lora isn't going to be able to go with me, so Joe D is going to be hanging out with me and maybe even helping out with some teaching on Saturday.  

- While at the convention, I will have the chance to hang out with some new friends as well as re-unite with some old friends.  One of my favorite people, Ryan Russell, will be at the conference so it will be awesome to re-connect with him.  He is also coming home with me Saturday night and going to be sharing a little at Journey on Sunday. 

-  Saturday night is the big SEC Championship game, and it could be really good, or really bad.  (I will have another post on this later today)

-  Sunday we will have a very different service at church that should be a lot of fun.  

I will try to do a little blogging from he conference.  We will see how that goes!

Podcasting

Wow!  I am way behind on uploading podcasts....sorry.  I will be uploading quit a few today.

Restoration Movement How I love Thee

I am speaking at a conference this weekend and during a breakout session I am doing, I am talking about Christian Unity and how multiple churches, can, should, and I believe will work closer together for the sake of the Gospel. What is cool is that the Restoration Movement was started with that agenda. Its all about going back to great moves of God, seeing what He did and why, and how we can maybe get back to some of those thoughts. I am swimming through a pile of old sermons and writings from Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell. I also have my 688 page "Memoirs of Alexander Campbell" on my desk.

Lots of history, lots of good stuff, but not necessarily lots of good times!

I am tired

I stayed up a little late last night watching football.  It was pretty cool.  The final score was 3-0, on a rain soaked field.  The field goal didn't even come until the end of the 4th quarter with less than 30 seconds left.  It was the longest NFL game with no score since 1946, I think.  The reason I am tired is cause I was awakened very early this morning by a phone call by one of my closest friends wives (he is a pastor of another church in town).  He is out of town and one of the people in his congregations mom is in the hospital and doesn't have much time. 

I went and prayed, cried, and just loved on this family.  It was a sweet time, even in the midst of all the pain and possible passing of a loved one.  The ladies name is Versa, and she woke up a few times during the 3 1/2 hours I was there.  She was awake just as I told her I would back to see her in a few hours, and she was doing really good.  She looked at me and said "I'm trying, that's all a person can do is try."  It was incredible.  Will you pray today for Versa?  She has 3 daughters Debbie, Linda, and Jenny. Pray for that whole family.  Versa has multiple grandkids as well, but the only ones I know personally are Jason, and Andre.  The highlight of my morning is when little Andre wanted to hug and kiss his grandma and tell her he loved her.  She woke up and saw it was him, he kissed her on the check and she said "No, kiss me on the lips." It made us all laugh, it made us all cry.  I was glad to get up early and do life with the Hall family.  Pray for them please.

Desktop Image

I need a picture to use as my desktop image, will you help me out?  Send me whatever you want me to use as a desktop image.  It can be a picture you took, or just a picture you love.  Help me make my desktop pretty, oh and lets keep it to people fully clothed.  E-mail me the picture at adam at startyourjourney dot com.

Mac OS X Leopard

Oh by the way, I just typed the last blog, and I am typing this one from my Macbook loaded with Leopard........so far it is pretty sweet.  It feels smoother, and faster.  I am sure it is just me being giddy, but so far I love it!

My week

I have had a great few weeks.  Life is good, God is good.  I will share with you some of the highlights.  

1.  I had the privilege of sharing during a community Thanksgiving service last Sunday.  It was an ecumenical event and truly a lot of fun.  If you live in Lakeland, you need to try to catch it next year.  I will give you a run-down of what types of people were involved in the service. 
  -  Old Catholic Priest
  -  African-American Pastor
  -  Presbyterian Pastor
  -  Jewish Rabbi
  -  Greek Orthodox Priest
  -  Christian Science Practitioner
  -  and I got the title of Emerging Pastor.

2.  Monday afternoon my grandma, uncle got to town and went and ate dinner together.  Then I drove to Orlando to pick up my brother Corey and his wife Stephanie.  

3.  My cousins Renee & Kelly came on Wednesday and stayed at my house, while my aunt Vivian stayed at Mom's.  We had a Shrimp Boil that was out of the world on Wednesday, followed by a Bon-fire on the beach of course with s'mores.  

4.  Thursday we ate lost of good food, and then had another bon-fire and s'mores at the beach. 

5.  Friday we all woke up really early 3 AM and went to hand out Free Starbucks Coffee to all the crazy people waiting in line to go shopping.  I am not sure who was crazier, us or them.  It turned out to be an incredible day.  We had TONS of volunteers show up and in 4 1/2 hours we passed out 1,473 cups of coffee.  Thats a lot of Starbucks.  (By the way Stephanie at the Starbucks on Socrum Loop rocks.  She hooked us up in a big way, if you live in Lakeland, try to make that YOUR Starbucks.)

6.  Saturday morning I got to hang out with my new good friend Clyde Yaist.  You will hear more about him and our talks at a later date. 

7.  Sunday I got to sit in the audience for the second week in a row and listen to one of our leaders, a guy with a "real job", teach from the stage.  It was refreshing!  He did a great job, and it continued to remind me that I love what God is doing at Journey.  I love that this isn't my church or my ministry, but it is God's and that He wants to use ALL of His people, even those who have never taught from a podium on a Sunday morning.  

So there you go, that is a short run-down my last week.  How was yours?

Late last night when I got home from picking up my brother Corey, and his wife Stephanie from the airpot, I checked my e-mail and realized I got an invitation to check out Hulu. It rocks. I will let you know more about it as I try it out. Go sign-up today for the "beta-version." You will be put on a really long list, but when they get to the end, you can get an invitation too!

Another shot of Shawn's glasses

He is even wearing then on top of his head like a girl.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

WOW......Feels good in Florida.

If the picture in the dark isn't clear it says its 48 in Florida, and I love it. We slept with all the windows open last night.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Life Journal Entry

I am sitting at my Life Group right now. I got done early, and an 11 year old girl who also got done early passed me here journal. With her permission here it is:

SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 13:7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

OBSERVATION: God is love, so no matter what we do he will never give up and is always hopeful that our choices will not steer us away from him.

APPLICATION: I won't give up hope so easily now that I realize that God will not give up on me.

PRAY: I pray that you can help me through my journey of following in your path. Amen.

There are many parts of this "doing life together" thing I like, this is one of the highlights.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Gives me chills.

This is a great song by a true Tennessee fan Kenny Chesney.

It still gives me chills when I hear John Ward say "20...15...10...5....Touchdown Tennessee"

Operation Christmas Child

We worked on some boxes today at the office after our staff meeting, it was pretty fun. The pictures are people in action packing boxes.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Oh the Bird Flu!!!!!

After my post earlier in the week and hoping that the bird outside my office would get bird flu, you can re-read that post here, I got listed on a website called Bird Flu Breaking News. Wow....didn't know my blog on hoping an annoying bird catching bird flu would warrant breaking news, but thanks!

My neighbor made my morning.

I got back a little bit ago from setting up at the theater and noticed that one of my neighbors was out walking her dog. The site was awesome. She was wearing pants, a long overcoat, gloves, and a toboggan (that is what we called it growing up, some call it a beanie see pic to right.) This is all in 54 degree weather. I was pulling in after being gone for a few hours already and I am wearing shorts and a t-shirt.


Florida people don't handle "cold" very well. Can you even call 54 cold?

Where's the Love

Joe is doing a Corey Smith song on Sunday called "Where's the Love" on Sunday. It is going to be pretty cool. It is actually going to be the theme song for our current series. You can listen to it apparently it just plays instantly when the page loads. By the way, the recording you are listening to is Joe singing it. He recorded it for me this week. If you are getting this post in an aggregator, you need to visit my site to hear it.

UPDATE::: It doesn't actually automatically plat anymore, you can click here to go to Joe's myspace page and listen to "Where's the Love." Oh by the way listen to "This Way" too. Good stuff

Audio File?

Can somebody tell me how to upload an audio file to play on my blog? I use blogger. Any suggestions?

Corey Smith

I have been a fan of Corey Smith for a few years now. My cousin Renee told me about him a few Christmases ago, and I go through spurts of listening to him alot and then move on to something else. This week Joe is going to be doing one of his songs "Where's the Love", so I have been listening to him alot the past few weeks. One of the songs that I can listen to enough is "Be the Change" you can read the lyrics below.

Be the Change
written by: Corey Smith

Open your eyes up people, and take a good look around,
Catch the tears fillin up all those cracks in the ground.
Turn off you televisions; leave your picture perfect neighborhoods
A lot of folks out there ain't doing so good,
To many of us left out in the cold

No invitations given, no welcome mats unrolled,
But you can, be the change you wanna see.
Be the hope to those whose lives are far from easy.
Reach out and lend a hand, share everything you can,
And be the change, be the change.

Carry the world on your shoulders, for a little while,
Put on someone else shoes, and walk around.
So many cups a runneth over, while so many goin dry
The grass ain't always green on the other side.
There's still a lot of work to be done,
A lot of wrongs to right, a lot of battles to be won.

If you can be the change you wanna see,
Be the hope to those who lives are far from easy.
Reach out and lend a hand, share everything you can,
And be the change, be the change.

Reach out and lend a hand, share everything you can
And be the change, be the change.
Be the change.
Be the change.
Be the change.

It's Halloween

Today is the day that all children long for. They get to play dress-up and they get to eat way too much candy. Tonight my friend from college, Jason, and I are gonna pass at some candy, and maybe play some tricks too.

I added a picture of Lora's grandmas costume below for you to enjoy.

Shawn's girl glasses?

I am eating lunch with Shawn today and he is wearing some "questionable" sunglasses. They are made by Burberry and they look like my wifes glasses. So I put it up to you, do they look like girls? By the way, they only cost him $215. I think that is important to mention so you don't think he was conserving money and wearing Big Lots sunglasses. You tell me. What do you think?

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Pumpkin Carving

Found this cool site from Bob Robbins. The site lets you go on and carve a pumpkin. You can carve your own as well, just click here. Could be fun for the kids.

What I carved is below, what do you think? I only spent like 4 minutes on it.

I confess, I was wrong, but I was also right

I have to make a confession. I was wrong about Tim Tebow. HE IS SUPERMAN.He is THE BEST football player every week, every game, not matter who Florida plays. The problem is this...there is kryptonite, and Urban Myer is the one who holds it.

I was right about the fact that Urban Myer doesn't care about anything but wins and loses. I think the Krytonite for Tebow will be Myer continusly running him into the face of SEC linebackers.

Maybe I will be wrong again, and Myer will care more about the young phenom who commands his offense and less about wins or margin of victory. Is Myer willing to makes his offense more diverse? I think if he does, Florida could have at least 1 National Championship before Tebow leaves.

What do you think?

Going All the Way

I am really wanting to read Craig Groeschel's new book "Going All the Way." I have heard nothing but good things about it, so far. I will let you know what I think about it after I finish.

Bill Hybels....

Chris mentioned to me that he had heard somewhere that Bill Hybels said that everything that that had done and they ways that had spent money was wrong. He didn't say he had heard it, or agreed with it, just told me what he heard. It didn't take me long to find the people who were saying that. I went and watched the video. I didn't think that he said everything was wrong, just that they were training people to grow in a limited way. You can watch the video here.

My brother

So....my bother corey has a blog and he didn't tell me, I found it today. You can find it here. He has also been added to my sidebar.

Whats been going on?

Thought I would fill you in on my happenings this week, since I never blog anymore.

1. Jason Lynch who is one of my best friends, and my roommate from college is moving to Lakeland this weekend. He is coming to be a part of what God is doing at Journey and to help with the planting or numerous churches in our city surrounding areas. For those of you who have never heard of Jason, have you ever heard of a guy named Turtle? Same guy.

2. I have been busy doing training. We have been taking people through spiritual gifts inventories and taking people through Crossroads classes. It seems like every night I am out late doing something. My life is busy, but I wouldn't want to do anything else!

3. Planning for the baby. It also seems like any free time that I have, Lora wants to show me a magazine or a webpage that shows baby ideas for our nursery. I know many of you might think we are doing all that a little early but I told Lora 2 things. I want the nursery down 2 weeks before the due date, and as soon as possible Ansley will sleep in her room. From all the book I have read and advice I have gotten, it is easy and tempting to have the baby just sleep with the parents, but definitely not the best in the long run.

4. God is up to some cool stuff at Journey, I am trying to prepare our people for what is going to happen, the cool thing is as I paint the picture, they not only see it, but are adding their own colors and strokes to the painting as well. Jason will help us make some steps that we need to make in the right direction.

5. My wife and mother are in Knoxville for the weekend to see my niece and to help Jason make the move to Lakeland. Lora has only been gone since 5 AM this morning and I already miss her? What am I going to do about dinner? It isn't that she cooks all the time, we share that load, but it is weird to try to make any plans for just me....I am much better with her around. I will probably lay around the house, watch movies from blockbuster.com, catch up on TIVO, sleep, and read all weekend. Yeah pretty boring......

Frank Lloyd Wright Dome

For those of you who live outside of Lakeland, you might not know that we have a college near downtown Lakeland called Florida Southern College. The campus is pretty cool primarily because the whole campus was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. You need to go check it out sometime. There was a dedication last night as they opened the new Wright Waterdome. You can watch a video of the ceremony courtesy of the Lakeland Ledger by clicking here. The Tampa Tribune also had a cool article here.

Since Lora is out of town this weekend, I think I am going to go check it out.

The Dumb, Undefended, Annoying, Persevering Bird

I would like to tell you a story. Before we start the story, let me introduce you to the cast in the story, they are:

A Bird (just you average run of the mill bird) My Office Windows (pretty self explanatory) My Emotions (I will let you know what I was feeling) My Weird Distorted Mind (you will get to hear exactly what it was saying)

Right now, as I write this blog in my office, there is a bird that is trying so hard to get in through my office window. It is pretty funny, and sad all the same. It keeps getting back and coming up with a head of steam and keeps hitting the window. I would like you to take a minute and look at the emotions and thoughts that have been going through my head the last few hours.

(The bold-ed text is what I was feeling, and the italics is what was going through my mind.)

First I thought it was humorous. How dumb the bird must be. Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different outcome? I laugh at the stupidity of the bird. And I get joy from the pain it feels every time it collides with the glass. Maybe I should clean all the windows, so the birds hit them more often. That would be funny. What if I only cleaned the middle part of the window, and made it like a target, could I get the birds to try to hit a bulls-eye? Could we make a game of it with a points system? That bird is DUMB, but it brings me humor.





Humor was followed by sadness. I am worried about the bird. Doesn't it hurt the bird to continuously run into a piece of glass? It isn't as though I feel a strong connection to birds or their wellbeing, but I don't want one to die either. How was I laughing at this bird this is a tragedy. I would think if a bird broke its wing on a window, that would make it hard to fly, get food, and in general stay alive right? Shouldn't someone start an organization that saves birds from the pain of windows? No one stands up to help the bird, it is so UNDEFENDED. I have so much sympathy for that bird. I am not sympathetic enough to open the window and let the bird in, but sympathetic none the less.




After sympathy, I felt frustration. Doesn't that dumb bird know that I am working in here? I am trying to figure out how we are going to finish up the year with the programming on Sunday mornings. I can't concentrate or get anything done with that dumb bird hitting my window every 30 seconds. That bird is not as important as what I am doing. I so wish that bird would break its wing, then it couldn't fly up and hit my window. Then I would have silence, and I could get work done. Where is the Bird Flu when you need it? That bird is so ANNOYING. Can't that bird just die or something? I don;t know why it is even here. Does it even have a purpose? It is never going to get inside me office, all it is doing is making me get more annoyed by the moment.




After frustration, came Awe. I heard something at my other office window, no.....it couldn't be. The same bird moved to the other side of the building and was trying to get into another window? That determination, the fortitude. That bird won't quit. The bird has a purpose, it has a focus and it is determined to follow through until it either gets in or it dies trying. The bird is PERSEVERING Why can't I be more like that bird? Why can't I persevere? That bird is so smart, It has so much to teach me. I wish we as the church had the perseverance to continue when things get tough, a willingness to run into walls, or in this case windows.

There is a lot that that bird taught me today. I learned about life, my journey with Christ, my relationships, and even blogging. You see we are all on a Journey through life, each and every one of us. That is one of the main reasons that we chose the name Journey Church, because everyone regardless of life experience can immediately relate. As we walk through this journey, we daily run into windows. Do you know how I feel when I run into a window? I feel dumb. I feel like God wasn't looking out for me, that I was undefended. I feel annoyed that I just can't get through the window, I yell "Why won't you open?" The question I need to ask myself today, and you do as well, is.......are we able to keep persevering? Do we like the bird never give up and even sometimes look for other windows to try to get through?

I wish I could be a bird, strike that, I wish I could live my life in the way a bird lives his......Yeah that would be awesome. I wish we as the church could like like birds, cause unfortunately, we give up way to easily.

Its gonna be an Ansley!

The picture above is of Lora holding a little blankie that I bought 7 years ago. Today is the first day that Lora has seen it. We are gonna have a girl. My life is going to change. Now I have 2 women to tell me what to do

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Blossom

I am at a new conference that is happening for the first time. It has coined itself as the "un-conference." The way it works is interviews in the main sessions with church planters who are in the field and then conversations that take place throughout the building. Pretty cool stuff. I will post more as the conversation continues.

Reading Blogs

Another thing with my absence from blogging has been blog reading, I haven't read many other blogs at all the past few weeks, I found this cool commercial over at Greg Adkins blog, that he posted a long time ago, pretty cool. Not sure how Drummer Chris hasn't posted this yet.

Tennessee Football Poem

Not too long ago, we thought the Vols were doomed.

Now we’re crossing our fingers that we don’t get Croomed.

We control our own destiny, who would have thought it?

If you told me that after Florida, I’d never have bought it.

But now here we are after whooping the Dawgs

Trying not to look ahead to the Tide, ‘Cocks and Hogs.

And trying to build on the momentum we gained

From hobnail-booting ol’ Jawja in last week’s game.

Look at us now, sitting at 3 and 2

With an improving defense and a healthy Ainge, too

Dreams of Atlanta dance in our orange heads

We include in our prayers Vol wins as we crawl in our beds

Still, Fulmer’s our coach and Chavis the DC

Don’t know if that worries you, but it sure worries me.

But all we can do is sit back and tune in

To see if UT’s youngsters grow quick into men

If they do, we’ll remember ‘07 as a great turnaround

When we forgot 59 points and became Georgia Dome-bound

If they don’t, we’ll whine and gripe and call for Phil to be fired

Or at least beg Mike Hamilton to urge him to retire.

There is one thing still of which we can all be proud

So say it with me Vols, and please say it loud:

Just remember this friends, even if there is no Atlanta

We can always thank God that we’re not ALABAMA

Written by: Ghost of Neyland

Blogging Sabbatical

So.....I haven't blogged much lately, and even when I have, it hasn't been anything of substance. I just checked my blog stats and it is lower than it has ever been before, and I lose people everyday that used to subscribe.

OH Well, other church planters are deserting me, no big deal since I don't fit in to many of those circles anyways. I honestly have never really wanted to fit in either....

I wasn't even planning on talking about that in this post. I have 15,345,345 things I want to blog about, the goal this week is to get 2 of those in, think we can do it?

One of my Tennessee loves.

I really like this unique little drink called Dr Enuf, it is bottled and sold only in East Tennessee. It has been around since 1937 and touts itself as "The Original Energy Drink." I love the stuff even thought it is an aquired tast. I wll be coming back with as many bottles as my suitcase will hold.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Home Sweet Home

I am in Knoxville, the place I am from. It is cool showing the guys in the picture up top around.

We flew out of Clearwater at 8 AM, and so far have gone out to Johnson Bible College. Then went to lunch Red Fez Deli for some hamburgers, fries, & a good falafel. We are now 3 blocks from our hotel in downtown Knoxville about to see a movie at the new Riviera Theater. Cool theater in downtown Knoxville. I will post more details as they happen.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Women and Porn

Today in my message I referenced the study that many women have with pornography. Thought you might want to read this article by Anne Jackson, she has been there and done that.

If you missed my post a few weeks go, go check out her blog, heck subscribe to her RSS feed. I am not a big fan of the bubbles bath posts (i have to at least to try to keep some kind of masculinity), but its worth the read.

BULLS WIN!

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Wow...the energy is INCREDIBE

There are some serious drunk people in the house.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

RANDOM QUESTION

I think I have asked this before, but what in the world is up with my blog turning bullets into flowers?

Any ideas how to make it more manly?

USF vs. West Virginia

I am PUMPED! Tonight is the night, I am going with 5 guys from Journey to the West Virginia, USF game. It is going to be awesome. Look for me on ESPN2, it will be easy to spot, I will be wearing green!

Lakeland ROCKS!

I wanted to let you know a few reasons, why I love living in Lakeland, FL. It all started last week. Let me take you back to last Thursday.

Thursday

• I went to the opening of a new restaurant named Shane's Rib House with my friend Joe for lunch. The food was awesome. For all you Lakelanders, go check it out it is in Lakeside Village.
• I went back to Shane's for dinner with Lora and Tim and then went to the Lakeland Dreadnaughts game. They are first in the state again. It was the best quality football I have ever seen for $5.

Friday

• Friday night Lora and I went to the Lakeland Community Theater to see Bridge to Teribithia, a girl from our church named Caitlyn was in the play
• While we were down town we saw a concert, it is the picture to the right. Lakeland has a lot of culture and events. The band was called the Legendary JC's.
  

Saturday

• Performed a wedding at Hollis Gardens in the afternoon.
• Went to my parents house to watch the Vols game in the evening.

There are sooooo many things to do in Lakeland all the time. I love this place!

Podcasting

There is a BIG problem with the podcasting at Journey Church, it is this. I am the one who uploads the podcast, so it doesn't always get uploaded expediently. So, I just worked on it and uploaded 5 new podcasts today. For your listening pleasure there are 2 interviews and 3 sermons. You can listen to them now at Journey Church's main site, or you can wait for it to update in iTunes. It should be in iTunes in the next 24 hours.

Welcome to the Blogging World

Why don't you join me in welcoming Brannen Padgett to the blogging world. He was a member of our gathering at Journey but he and his wife have moved to the great nation of Texas to plant a church. Will you jump over to his site and tell him hello in his comments section?

Beowulf

Anybody else pumped about this movie?

I'M NOT DEAD

I am still alive, I got an e-mail today asking me if I am dead.....I'm not.

I haven't been blogging lately due to business as well as lack of desire to write anything. I have lots of thoughts, lots of things God is teaching me, yet I have no desire to attempt to write any of it out. I will try to write some stuff later this evening, but no promises, I have a busy night out in the town with the misses.

I am alive and hope to resume my relationship with this blog and many of you soon.

Life Groups

I just got out of a new Life Group that just started today. I had the privilege to meet with some ladies this morning at Nanna's Kitchen. It was a lot of fun and a great time of sharing in the word together. If you live in Lakeland and aren't a part of a Life Group you need to get in one ASAP!

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Thoughts Post Florida Game

I will let you know some of my thoughts on the game tonight.

First and foremost, Florida was the better team for sure.

1. Tennessee played well the first part of the game, I was ok with how they were playing before "the fumble."
2. Tim Tebow is a hoss
3. Do we have a defensive cordinator?
4. If the answer to the former is yes, can we fire him before the flight back to Knoxville?
5. Do we have linebackers?
6. If the answer to the former is yes, can they start playing for our team and not our opponents?
7. I love Ainge, think he is talented, but when will we realize that his pinky is hurting us? It has lost two games so far, if we are going to lose anyways, can we at least let Crompton get some playing time?
8. Florida's players are punks....I think they are the new Miami. I have never seen more taunting and shoving in an SEC game.
   
9. How many "no calls" where there tonight? I remember 5 obvious ones.
10. Tim Tebow is an incredible quarterback, I still don't agree that he is he Messiah, but he is darn good.
11. Tebow kisses guys?
    
12. I lost respect for Myer like crazy tonight. Wonder if he would have cared if Tebow tore his ACL, wonder if he cared that one of his starters did on the 2nd to last drive when no starters should be in. I think I might have a new favorite team, whoever is playing Myer.
    
13. I think any other coach (with the acception of Richt) would have gunned for Tebow while they were running up the score.

I thought we would lose, we did, I am only surprised ultimately by 2 things, TN's defense and Myer's choices. Oh well.....FANTASY FOOTBAL baby, I am ready to dominate again tomorrow. If you are in my league, you might as well quit now......it's already over.

Any blogger people have any idea why my numbers up above turned into roses?????? I now feel awkward, it reminds me of when Tebow and that guy kissed tonight.

Made this after the game

WOW.......

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Verty Beboish

Bebo just sang:
The hammer holds
Nothing without you
I lift my eyes up
Light of the word

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Bebo is rockin the house. I have never heard him with a full band. The whol place is shakin. I am not sure what song he is singing but it is pretty cool, not Bebo-ish. (adam-made word)

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Monk & Neagle are opening up the night & are singing an incredible song called 21st time. Its INCREDIBE, find it on itunes, listen and live it.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

I am sitting in the 3rd row of a concert that has yet to start. It is the Shane & Shane , Bebo Norman concert. I am pumed! I could get what some call "singer spit." I'll let you know.

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

Today is Sept 11th

Where were you 6 years ago today? It is 9:34 am as I type this. What were you doing at this exact time? I was sitting in shock in front of a TV. I was wondering how this could have happened to us, how could it happen in the Land of the free, BECAUSE of the brave (i think that is the way it should be said).

What were you thinking? What were you feeling? Today, lets remember those feelings, lets think back on what happened to those men and women who died. Lets remember the men and women who have put themselves in harms way in order to make sure it won't happen again. This country is great not because we have a Starbucks on every corner, but because we have men and women who have given their lives so we can not have attacks on a daily basis. Remember them today.

Sidebar links

Someone told me that I didn't update my side links like I said I did........so i did.

That sentence made absolutely no sense.

Check out the blogs linked on the side, I removed some and added new ones.

New Blogs.....

Some ladies at out church just started a new blog called Lakeland Kids. It looks like it is going to be pretty cool, Gretchen described it like this;

a new blog, by mothers for mothers. All those contributing are at different points on the journey of raising kids, from an expectant mother to a grandmother. Our desire is to share our experiences with you and each other.

I am excited about what it means for these mothers to give themselves away to our community and what it will mean for out community with other mothers connecting with ladies going through the same things. As if there weren't enough things on their plates already, they get to add blogging to the list.

Why don't you stop by their site and welcome them to the blogging world?



** UPDATE** From things asked in the comments section

1. They are on the left side of the sidebar under Journey Kids.
2. I added the link up top in the main article.

Rankings.....

So....Tennessee beat Southern Miss pretty strongly, yet we were jumped in the polls by South Carolina, Clemson, & Oregon


ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Reggis Bush

I saw an incredible Reggie Bush commercial a few minutes ago and I tried to find it on Youtube, but couldn't find it yet. I found a very cool commercial of Reggie and David Beckman, you can watch it below.

Death, Cancer, & a Clean House

Well, we got the results of some tests from a friend of ours and he has pancreatic cancer. I don't remember what it is called, but it is the worst kind possible and the doctors think he could only have 1 - 6 months to live, needless to say it has been pretty rough, mostly on my wife since he has been a part of her life for her whole life and is sorta like her second dad.

Lora and I were talking about cancer and how it ravishes a persons body and changes the cells around it and multiplies so quickly. It is hard to deal with, it is hard to fight, it is so strong. It is hard to look at a person whose life is coming to an end and their bodies being ravished, but Mr. B is strong. He is confident, and it think it all comes from the fact that he knows he has done what he should with his life and he can finish this life happy.

I definitely would like for you to keep the Brenneman family in your prayers. One of the hardest things that have to deal with is that one of his sons is getting married in March and Mr. B is the best man, pray that God gives them wisdom in that area of their life as well as help them through this hard time.

Because Lora has been upset I have tried to take care of her and all or her responsibilities around the house, last night I made dinner and then today I cleaned the whole house, did 2 loads of laundry, and mowed the yard before she got home. Just trying to let her relax and chill. She takes care of me every week and night, so I guess I can do it for her once a year.

Tennessee vs. Cal

I haven't commented on the past Tennessee game not because I am made or was afraid to, but simply haven't had time, so today I have time and I will. There were a lot of questions going into the game for Tennessee. All of them were answered.

The only thing I thought I was sure of was our linebackers........I was wrong. Our linebackers were bad, our linebackers were really bad. The offense played good though. If our offense plays like that I think we can be competitive against any team in the nation IF OUR DEFENSE COULD TACKLE. I hope Chavis steps up over the next few weeks and teaches his boys to wrap-up We shall see.

I did want to comment blog about one thing. why do the channels continue to put clueless people as commentators for games? Why are men commentators that don't even know the rules? Watch the clip below to see my point.



I thought that the call on the field was wrong when it was made, but not knowing the exact rule or where to find it, and not having my laptop, I decided to wait til I could look it up. My dad disagreed with me when I said it doesn't matter where the ball lands.....It feels good to find out later that you are right.

Herbstreit says and I quote "I think if his arm is coming forward or it isn't coming forward this is a fumble"

Read if you will the rule in section 19 of the NCAA rule book, page number 50 if you would like to download here and read yourself.

When a Team A player is holding the ball to pass it forward toward the
neutral zone, any intentional forward movement of his arm starts the
forward pass. If a Team B player contacts the passer or ball after forward
movement begins and the ball leaves the passer’s hand, a forward pass
is ruled regardless of where the ball strikes the ground or a player (A.R.
2-19-2-I).

I know I grew up attending a Tennessee public school, but the word REGARDLESS is pretty strong there.

I do not think that if that play hadn't happened that Tennessee would have won. Cal outplayed us and deserved the win. They were the better team, but can someone, if not the commentators at least the refs learn the rules??

NBC's fall lineup

Lora and I got the "NBC New Fall Preview" from Blockbuster yesterday. We were supposed to sit together last night and watch it, but life happened and I ended up watching it alone, so I figured that I would give you my feedback of the new shows.I color coded them so you can tell the difference between the shows when I am talking about them. The color I picked has nothing to do with the show or its genre, but is only to be used to differentiate between them. The shows that I previewed were:

1. Chuck
2. Journeyman
3. Life

1. Chuck is described as a new series laced with humor about young twenty-something spies. Zachary Levi plays Chuck, a nerdy computer tech who has a database of government secrets downloaded into his brain.

I thought that is was funny at times, but a loose story line that will not make it to more than one season.

2. Journeyman is described as a story where Dan the main character is happily married with a son. It seems like he has everything going for him. Dan ends up traveling into the past. He changes people's lives, sometimes for the better, but sometimes not.

This show was awesome. I really enjoyed it. I used to love to watch Quantum Leap and reminded me of a modern day Quantum Leap, except he doesn't leap into someone else's body and he does return back to his life on occasion. Good show. Hope it makes it.

3. Life is a show that is described as a show were Damien Lewis stars as a former police officer who, after years of false imprisonment, returns to the force with a decidedly different philosophy.

This show was pretty good. It was a cross between Dexter, Monk, and Law and Order. Not sure if it will make it cause sorta weird drama shows are all around and usually good ones don't make it.

Missional What?

Just got done reading a post over at Anne Jackson's blog, that challenged me. Here is the specific post. Every person around at all times of the day could any minute
- pass away
- lose a loved one
- get fired
- get dumped
- be mistreated
- .....

And the list goes on and on. It is up to us to figure out a way to share the transformational love of God with every person we see and meet.

How are you going that?

by the way, I have been reading her blog for sometime now but just got around to adding her to the sidebar, so......there she is. READ HER OFTEN!

New iPod

The new iPod looks sweet, but do I really need a new one? The answer to that question is no.....I need to keep reminding myself of that even in moments of weakness.

Oh.....I will take one if someone wants to give me a late birthday present.

Sunday

I am in the process of getting the podcast ready to upload, (we have uploaded a podcast in a while) and I realized that Sunday I preached for 51 minutes........Oh my wow.

Video I got in my inbox today

If you are like me, as you start watching this video you will say, It's pretty good, but if you watch it all the way through you will say, Like me. That is my story!

Excited.

Am I a weirdo for being excited when this came in the mail today?

(sent from my Motorola Q that wishes it was an iPhone)

I want LOVE, not Power

I am reading through a great little gem called "In the Name of Jesus" by Henri Nouwen. There have been tons of little nuggest in here so far, but I want to give you one.

"Power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life."

This has been so true of mankind dating all the way back to the Garden of Eden when we were tempted with eating the fruit so WE could be as smart as God. That point in history started the decline where we started to replace love for power.

There is hope, Jesus showed that he had power over the need for "power." (Am I supposed to use the word power twice in the sentence like that? Oh Well) At anytime, he could have chosen to put aside his love for us and chose power instead, but he didn't.

God, help us today to chose Love instead of pursuing Power. We need your help to do this, it goes against our very nature.

The Gospel

mark driscoll-the gospel

Add to My Profile | More Videos
by Mark Driscoll

Today's matchup

Just wanted to give you a picture of the match-up that is taking place today in California. The rednecks against the hippies.

Live Like You Were Dying

So....I had a lot of time today to think about death, with the news of our friend. (see post below) I asked myself the question "Self, if you were told you only had 8 weeks to live, what would you want to go do before you died?" My answer surprised and scared me, I said "Well self, I would continue doing the same thing I am doing now here in Lakeland, my mission and purpose wouldn't change." That surprised the heck out of me.

I am not trying to sound like I am the man, or one who has it all together here either. This isn't some ploy to build up me as the guy who is living a perfect life. I am not saying at all, that I don't struggle and sin. I am not saying that everything is perfect in my relationships, I am saying, this; I WOULDN'T WASTE MY LIFE DOING ANYTHING BUT WHAT I AM DOING NOW.

That is scary to me. I mean as good as life is, is this all there is to it? I mean seriously. I am blessed, live in a beautiful house in a beautiful city, have an incredible wife, and a child on the way, but is this the best life can be? I answered to myself that it is. That confirmed to me that we have so much more to look forward to one day. I love my life now, but I long for that day, when all this........stuff, will pass away.

I was strengthened in my calling, encourage by all the blessing that I have, and reminded of these fleeting life today. Hard way to learn it with the circumstances, but God has a way of making flowers grow out of a pile of smelly waste. (see I am not that emerging, I didn't use the S-word or the C-word)

Friday Night Rundown

- I had a busy week this week, too many meetings. I need to manage my time better.

- Lora and I found out today that a close friend of her family probably has Pancreatic Cancer, pretty tough and sad times.

- Lora got me Tiger Woods 08 for my birthday. It is incredible! Tim Lipe came over tonight while his family went to this, and we played. I dominated. Beat him by 14 strokes one time and was winning by 8 when he left to meet his family. Yeah, I am just that good, and Yeah he is just that bad.

- We are done with our marketing push and expect a bump in attendance Sunday. It should be fun either way cause we are having a BBQ with 2 bounce houses after the service. If you live in Lakeland, and want to find something fun for your kids to do, we would love to have ya!

- I am watching the Syracuse game right now and WOW, Syracuse is horrible, and their uniforms are UGLY.

- I am pumped about the Tennessee game tomorrow. I am a realist and not an illogical fan. I think Tennessee could win by 2 touchdowns or lose by 3, depends on how good or bad we are, anyone who claims to know already, is both dumb and a liar.

- I am excited to see how Tebow does tomorrow. I think he is a great athelete, but I don't think he is the Messiah as most who live around me. "Tebow for Heisman"???? I promise you will see that sign on TV tomorrow.

- I have begun the journey through the Harry Potter series, I am almost done with book 2. I never read it cause I was always a little "too old." It is incredible. I repent for not reading this incredibly crafted series earlier.

- Because Sunday is going to be a BIG day, we need as many people there as possible to help, can some of you come early and help? We ARE doing an early service for those who are going to be working during the service. Shoot me an e-mail if you can help out on Sunday. Even if you haven't been trained on a team yet, we will train you Sunday.

- I came to the realization today, that I wouldn't change anything about my life if I could. (more on this on a post to immediately follow this one)

- I was reminded this week that I only care what God and my wife think ultimately.

T-minus