Category Archives: church

Great Day

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I had a great Father’s Day today. We had an incredible worship service this morning; watched a dad baptize his daughter, saw a young man give his life to Christ in the service and had an opportunity to lead a lady to the Lord AFTER the worship service in the foyer during the second Sunday School hour. Man, God is good!

After church I went home and had one of my favorite meals; peanut butter and honey sandwich with my family. Then, played with the boys and baby girl for a little while, took a nap and went out to eat. It was my choice where we ate for supper tonight since it was Father’s Day and I chose to surprise the entire family. We went to McDonald’s…and believe me, this is a huge surprise! The only reason we went there is because it has an indoor playground and the boys love it. Neither Stephanie nor I really enjoy the food. But the boys had a blast and after choking down some supper we enjoyed our time as well.

Came home after supper, invited some neighborhood friends over and jumped in the pool for a little while. The boys are swimming like crazy! Neither can swim without help but Jake does great with swimmies and Judd wears a life-jacket and swimmies and he does fine as well. Both of them will swim to me, jump off the diving board and play all around the pool. All in all, it was a great day.

There is nothing in the world like being a father. It’s a tough job with enormous responsibilities and huge rewards!

Trust

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Someone in our church sent me an email of encouragement and support a few days ago. Included in this email was this quote by Brennan Manning about trust. I think it’s absolutely powerful!

“The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined, clearly delineated plan for the future. The next step discloses itself only out of a discernment of God acting in the desert of the present moment. The reality of naked trust is the life of a pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without any rational explanation to justify the decision or guarantee the future. Why? Because God has signaled the movement and offered it his presence and his promise.” – Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust

I don’t know about you, but I want to trust God like that! If you are anywhere near Millington, make sure to be here THIS SUNDAY; I’ll be talking about what it means to trust God with everything.

Change

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I announced Sunday morning in our worship service that we have some big changes coming to Crosspointe in the fall! We are all excited about what God is going to do and looking forward to seeing this vision He has placed in our hearts become a reality. I spoke Sunday morning on “The Power of Change” and mentioned several facts about change. It’s interesting because naturally, I don’t really like change myself. But I realize in order to be the pastor God has called me to be and for us to be the church that God has called us to be we must continually change. Here’s what I said about change on Sunday morning;

1. Continual growth means constant change
Everyone wants the church to grow, but not everyone wants the church to change. The simple truth is, change is a part of growing businesses, organizations, educational institutions and churches.

2. If you stop changing, you stop growing; if you stop growing, you start dying
It’s true of an organism and an organization; there’s a life cycle that is present. In order to continue to move forward, you must continue to change.

3. We constantly change our methods; we never change our message
I believe one of biggest and most damaging mistakes that many churches make is confusing theology and methodology. Our forms are not sacred, Scripture is sacred; our traditions are not sacred, the cross is sacred! While we will always change the WAY of doing church, we will never change the WHY of doing church.

4. Some people can’t handle change
I have a pastor’s heart and never want to leave anyone behind. But the truth is this; it’s impossible to make everyone happy. To me, this is one of the most challenging facets of leadership. When it comes right down to it, I have to live my life, make my choices and lead the church for an audience of One!

5. God is the author of change
I know what you’re thinking, “God never changes.” You are absolutely right! God never changes, but He certainly changes things! Since the creation of the world, God has been the Agent and Author of continual change.

I thank God for the privilege of pastoring at Crosspointe. It’s an honor and I’m humbled to serve here. I also take my responsibility to listen to the voice of God and lead His people accordingly very seriously! I’m excited about the days ahead. I truly believe they will be the best we’ve ever seen.

Great Weekend!

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Man, this was a really great weekend! It started on Friday afternoon with a 1:00 PM date with my wife. As you might deduce from the earlier post, we went and saw the new Narnia movie, “Prince Caspian.” It was great! I’m not a huge movie fan but I’m also not a critic. This is a trilogy we will definitely own when it’s all said and done. Great movie…and Stephanie and I had a great time together on our date.

Sunday was incredible at Crosspointe! God has been moving in our church in awesome ways and I’m just thankful to be a part of it. We had several people saved in our service yesterday and God really moved in a powerful way. I am excited about what’s coming up for our church. The fall is going to usher in some big changes for us but we will be positioned to really impact our community and reach families like never before.

I think this great weekend was just a preview of things to come. David Ring will be with us this coming Sunday and even though it’s Memorial Day Weekend, this should be a huge day for our church. Our people love David Ring and God always uses him in great ways.

I’m thankful for a great weekend and excited about all that God has in store for us as we continue to move forward.

I Love What I Do!

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I can’t imagine what it must be like to hate your job. I’ve known lots of people who went to work every week just for the paycheck…nothing more. They’re not doing something they love or something they’re passionate about. That must be tough!

I am so blessed because I love what I do! I get to do the second most important job in the world (to me, Stephanie has the most important and most difficult job on the face of the earth- managing our home and our children while I’m at work). I love being a pastor. Since I was 16 years old there’s nothing else that I’ve ever imagined doing. It’s such an honor and privilege to lead the people of God in His church.

And I love my church as well. In case you didn’t know, you cant find out why right here. I am so thankful God has brought us here to lead, love and shepherd the flock of God. It’s an incredible honor and privilege to pastor such loving people and I’m always encouraged by the incredible potential I see here at Crosspointe. God has awesome plans for our church and I’m just thankful to be a small part of it.

In good times, hard times, fun times, sad times, up times and down times…I LOVE what I do! How great is that!?!?!