Many Thanks!

Thank you to all who continued to stay connected via this blog and twitter.  We were gone from Monday to late Thursday night.  Had a great week of learning and fellowship with mentors, coaches and members of the NEXT Initiative network.  Thanks to Ron Sylvia for driving through the Next Level Leadership network in spite of a brain tumor (some people will do anything for attention).  Thanks to Ron, Teddi and Luke for their friendship and hospitality! The Springs in Ocala is the mother-ship for Crossroads and there is no doubt we would not be doing what we are doing, the way we're doing it, as well as we're doing it (and I don't mean me and Leslie - I mean ALL of us at Crossroads) if it wasn't for Ron and Hal Mayer and Jan Greggo and those who have supported The Springs and their commitment to church planting.

Thanks to Danny Schaffner and his team at Common Ground in Tampa.  What a great church with a great facility and a God-vision for inner-city ministry.  It's a privilege to know and work with you!

Thanks to Hal and Sandy Mayer for their tremendous hospitality having us in their home in Tampa.  It was great to finally meet the staff at Church at the Bay.  Looking forward to having Hal IV and the CATB youth group up here the week before Easter.

Roadies, we are truly blessed to have such committed and influential people speaking into our lives and ministry.  I am awed by what God is doing in Enterprise and all those who work so hard at NEXT need to know that they share abundantly in the kingdom harvest at Crossroads.

Looking forward to tomorrow morning as we kick off a new 6-part series called GOD LOVES U2.  Invite big and share with others what God has given us.  It's a privilege to serve and worship with you all!

  

BLOGGING ON TWITTER

Check out the column to the right.  For the next three days we'll be out of town and I will post from the road 140 characters at a time in hyper-intelligent micro-blogs (or I will ramble about what I had for dinner and why it took so long to get seated).  Either way, let's stay connected.

MONDAY MIND DUMP (Whole 'Nutha Level Edition)

Wow.  Amazing.  Stupendous.  Outrageous.  These are just the first four words that come to mind when I think about what God is doing at Crossroads, and what kind of day Sunday Feb, 22nd was! Truly this was yet another turning point experience.  Here are some of the reasons I say that:

1. Highest attendance since our premier service.  167 in the building.  Huge!
2. Almost a dozen people made first-time decisions or rededicated their lives to Christ this morning!  That's why we're here.
3. Looking around at the crowd in the lobby it is becoming obvious that God has given us something that has wide appeal.  We are seeing people from all walks of life come through our front door, and return.
4. Two words: COMMUNITY GROUPS! six of our small groups kicked off tonight with their first meetings.  I heard from many Roadies that their gatherings were great.  I know our Starting Point group was a fantastic experience.  As I sat there tonight, I thought about all the other Roadies out there gathering together in small groups, and I was overcome with the sense that were are experiencing another BIG STEP in the growth of our church, and our own lives as well.  HUGE DAY!
5. We wrapped up The Game Show with The Price is Right this morning - a straight up GRACE message.  I was really blown away by how well the service flowed and I felt a tremendous sense of connection with the people gathered in Cinema One as I shared the message.  It was a powerful and really sweet encounter with God and each other.  Very cool.
6. February - the shortest month of the year - saw Crossroads receive the LARGEST AMOUNT OF GIVING for any month since we started.  Amazing!
7. TONS - TONS - TONS of first-time attenders.  Were you in the main service on Sunday?  Did you SEE how many FTA's raised their hands?  AWESOME!
8. We had a few technical glitches this morning, but in true overcoming style, we wore it, owned it, and rolled with it.  And it didn't impact the momentum of the service in any way.
9. The worship band was TIGHT this morning.  We had some real difficulties with the sound system which is NOT their fault.  They really brought it today, and I apologize to them for not reproducing their sound as well as we should have.  Look for us to overcome that difficulty quickly.
10. Fantastically excited for our new series GOD LOVES U2, which starts next Sunday morning and runs for the next six weeks.
11. So many people working to make Crossroads what it is.  As leaders we will meet later this week to organize our efforts better to help hook people up with volunteer opportunities.
12. Overall it was a FANTASTIC day.  Even the areas where we had some difficulties were great and I'll tell you why:  We wouldn't HAVE the opportunity to experience the glitches (technical or organizational) if we weren't GROWING and striving to be BETTER at what we are doing.  I LOVE that about Crossroads.

So many more GREAT things from today, the people - oh my gosh - so many people and so good to see them.  What a privilege it is to get to do what we are doing at Crossroads.  Thank you God for letting us do this!

There is so much more I could share about today, but I gotta go.  Me and Leslie are off to Ocala tomorrow morning for my Next Level Leadership Network meeting.  Tuesday night we'll jhead down to Tampa and have dinner and stay the night with Hal and Sandy Mayer.  We'll be back late Wednesday.

God bless you and keep you this week.  We'll be praying for you all, and look forward to the next time we get together.  Until then - let's keep up with each other on twitter!  Have a GREAT week!

 

GAME SHOW CLASSIC

I've gone positively buggy watching so much game show footage over the past month. Here's one of my favorite finds.  Enjoy!

Classic Game Show from Gene Oden on Vimeo.

Farewell Game Show

This Sunday, February 22nd, we bid a fond farewell to our current series The Game Show.  The Dating Game, the Newlywed Game and Family Feud have given us powerful insight into God's plan and purpose for our lives in the area of dating relationships, managing expectations in marriage, and forgiving family members who have mistreated or hurt us in the past, helping us to move forward with our lives.

Thanks to Natalie Lurie for sharing in Week Two, and thanks to all whos hard work made this series a success! Tomorrow, we close with The Price is Right - a message of God's great grace to you and me.

Just for grins, I'll be posting an old game show video clip of "What's My Line" featuring Groucho Marx.  Look for it.  Lotsa fun!  See you Sunday at Crossroads! 

Why Come On Sunday?

Hey guys, just a quick post to encourage you to INVITE BIG this weekend.  Yes, I say that often, but this weekend it is particulary important.  Not only will we have coffee, donuts, great music, and a chance to laugh, but we're going to have something even longer-lasting.  

The final installment of our current series The GAME SHOW will be "The Price Is Right", and I ain't talkin' about what a gallon jar of pickles or a roll of aluminum foil costs.  I'll be talking about the price of peace, the price of healing, the price of forgiveness, the price of joy, the price of abundant provision, the price of freedom from the bondage of addiction, depression, anxiety, fear, guilt, remorse and sorrow.  I'll be talking about the price that needs to be paid to ensure that life doesn't end in the graveyard, but lasts eternally in the presence of a loving Creator.  I'm talking about the price that we could never pay.  But Jesus Christ, God's only Son paid that un-payable price Himself, and God called the price, the cost, the debt - paid it in full.  And we got it all for FREE!  The price IS right.

This Sunday will be the most straight-forward, evangelistic GRACE message we have ever shared from the platform at Crossroads.  BRING SOMEONE.  If you know someone who has never heard the message of the Gospel, or someone who has heard and never responded: BRING THEM.

I make you this promise: You get them there, they will hear the truth about salvation and have an opportunity to respond.  Just BRING THEM.

And if you think you've heard it all before and you don't need to hear it again, I make you another promise: If you come, you will hear and learn things you never thought of before. Not just things that are interesting, but things that may change the way you think about salvation forever.  See you Sunday!

Peace

   

We Don't Have a Sin Problem.

Years ago when I began a path of recovery they told me something that has always stuck with me.  They said, "We don't have a drinking or a drugging problem, we have a living problem.  We simply do not know how to live, and we medicate ourselves to keep from facing real life".  When I embraced God through Christ, I embraced real life, and the drinking and drugging fell away.

I was thinking about that in the context of just plain old sin in our lives.  You know, the everyday stuff we ALL do that we know we really shouldn't, no condemnation no bondage here, don't get uptight and say you don't because you know you do, and it's different from person to person, and if we are Christ-followers, we know EXACTLY what it is.  At least, we should.  (If you're not sure what yours is, spend some time with a few well-meaning Christians, I'm sure they'll be able to point it out for you).

Look, because we were ALL sinners, before we received forgiveness through the sacrifice of Christ, we cannot say we have not sinned.  I think we can all agree on the truth of that.  But many of us (if we're honest) still struggle with areas of just plain old sin in our lives. Whether is something we do, something we say, or some attitude we allow ourselves to have - it's all the same.  Why?  Why, why, why?

You may disagree (and that always makes for great conversation), but I have come to believe that we really don't have a sin problem at all.  What we have is a GRACE problem. That is to say we have great difficulty at times LIVING under, LIVING by, LIVING in, or LIVING because of God's great and complete grace through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  We view grace as an "act", not something that is alive in us.  Oh, we live by FAITH, but do we live by faith in faith, or faith in grace?    

Is it possible that if we truly understood that the grace of God was a power that is ACTIVE, on-going, life-sustaining, and all-encompassing, we'd spend a lot less time wrestling with sin? I think maybe so.  Perhaps the reason we run headlong into sin (and we ALL do at times, whether a one-off, once in a blue moon type sin experience, or some form of habitual sin - I'm not qualifying sin, you do it), is because we look at grace as a one-time event; "God saved me by grace, I received it by faith".  And our understanding of grace becomes past tense.  

Looking at that "act" of grace as something that happened, rather than something that happens causes us to fix our gaze backwards saying, "there's the place I was saved by grace and forgiven for all my sin"; rather than embracing the reality of grace as something that is eternally active and dynamic.

In the same way "reformed" old druggies and boozeheads like me learn to embrace real life, and that propels us forward in sobriety, what if we endeavored to (because we're already empowered to) embrace the grace of God as something that propels us forward in holiness?  

Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law.  Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace.  Romans 6:14, NLT

We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have lived with a God-given holiness and sincerity in all our dealings.  We have depended on God's grace, not on our own human wisdom...  2 Cor 1:12, NLT

In light of these (and other) scriptures, is this grace and freedom from sin only for the life to come?  What do you say about sin and grace?  Do you think we have a sin problem, or a grace problem?  Speak out.

Mother Teresa Was An Atheist?

Wow.  Just read Seth Godin's blog where he included this inflammatory line not as I have, as a question, but as a statement of fact, but I include it today probably much for the same reason that he did...simply to get traffic going.  The Intersection (or any intersection for that matter) is a dry and dusty place - like the crossroads of ghost town somewhere in the old West - without traffic.  So let's hear from you on this one.

In Seth Godin's blog post 'Authenticity'  he says, "Mother Teresa was an atheist, filled with self doubt.  But she was an authentic saint, because she always acted like one".  Apparently for Godin (one of my personal favorite new media, new marketing,Web 2.0 guys), ACTING (or doing what you promised) is more a measure of authenticity than BEING (as in, 'being who you are').  Somehow, for reasons that escape my understanding, Godin (remarkably observant and complete in the work that I have read) equates "self" doubt, with doubt in the existence of God.   

So here are some questions to get you thinking and responding this morning (laying aside the whole Mother Teresa argument - it's old news, Google it, you'll find thousands of entries that try to prove her atheism by parsing the words of her personal confessions):  Does self-doubt equate to doubt in the existence of God?  Do you ever doubt yourself?  Do you ever doubt your faith?  What do YOU do when you find that you are doubting your beliefs?

Mouth off.  Speak out.  Let's get the conversation going.

Here's Godin's original post: Authenticity

      

MONDAY MIND DUMP

Hey guys, what a great day today at Crossroads.  Though I spent most of last week battling the crud, and I was feeling the effects of congestion and cough medicine this morning, I had my wits about me long enough to recognize that God is doing something really cool in our midst.  Here's a few quick takes from the weekend:

1. I was blown away by how HUGE the crowd was today considering the icky weather.  GREAT turnout!
2. The people of Crossroads continue to exhibit overwhelming faithfulness and generosity in their giving.  It is always inspiring, but especially in difficult economic times, to see people rely on and trust in God as their ultimate provider.
3. Great to welcome so many first time attenders this morning!
4. Really great also to see those who have hooked up in the last few weeks!  I don't know if you have noticed but we have a couple of dozen new folks that were at church for the third or fourth week in a row...and threatening to return!  Awesome.  Nothing like repeat offenders!  Very cool.
5. We live in a military town and one of the realities is that we only get our faithful flight school families for a short time.  But what an important part of the fabric of the church these families are!  Always sad to see families leave, but encouraging to see more and more of them coming and making their home at Crossroads. We need to find ways to connect with flight school students and their families EARLY ON when they just get to town, so we have maximum time to spend together!
6. The message today was needful on many levels.  Though it wasn't a laugh-a-thon (and I was not on my A-game due to the crud effect), I had more than normal people comment on how important it was that they heard what they did today about reconciling with others.  Thank God that He knows what we need to hear, when we need to hear it!
7. How amazing it is to see so many who come each week experience life change, true transformation, as they come in direct contact with the love of God.  I see it over and over again.  (If you are not seeing happen, grab me some Sunday morning - I'll show you MANY examples...starting with me!)  
8. I heard from MANY out in Roadie-land what a tough week they had last week.  I had many calls and spoke and corresponded with many people who were really struggling in the area of relationships with God and with other people.  Add to that the many who were fighting colds and flu, and those who were simply worn out and stressed out from their work life - it was good to gather together today, to worship, to pray, to hear Gods Word, and to recognize that God cares about EVERY area of our lives.  We can count on His grace and mercy to lift us up even in the really hard times.  Seeing that happen was probably my biggest "get" this weekend.
9. Thanks again to Brett Himes for allowing us to use so much of his sound equipment.  Though little by little we are getting our own stuff, we could not have done what we did to this point without his help!
10. To all who come early work hard and stay late to clean up each week - transforming the college cinema into the place we call home - THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.  Our amazing high output staff, leaders and volunteers are the backbone of the Crossroads community and cannot be praised enough!

Okay, 'nuf for now.  Have a great Monday and a fantastic week!  I look forward to connecting with you throughout the week, until we meet again next Sunday at Crossroads.  I will sleep well tonight, counting myself as the most blessed and fortunate man on the planet, to get to pastor this church.  How did I get so lucky?     

       

It's Gotten Worse...Where's My Bell?

Quite Possibly The 2nd Most Important Blog Post Ever...Maybe.

Well, I have to admit I'm approaching my keyboard a bit sheepishly this morning as I think back on Sunday, and how big a deal I made of using my Blog as a tool to stay connected to the going's on at Crossroads.  And I haven't blogged since Sunday night.  Hopefully, if you're showing up for the first time, you've found plenty to wade through in the archives to keep you intellectually stimulated and spiritually motivated, and tickled somewhere close to your funny bone.  If not, you're not looking hard enough.  Keep digging.

Truth be told, I wrote an extraordinarily long (and completely useless, for much the same reason) Blog post on Tuesday evening entitled, The Most Important Blog Post Ever. Apparently, it fell somewhat short of that billing, being relegated to the trash bin shortly after Leslie read it and found it neither intellectually stimulating, spiritually motivating (or funny bone tickling for that matter).

Here is what I meant to say:

1. We have a RARE opportunity at Crossroads.  The kind of opportunity that comes along in life about as frequently as Haley's Comet.
   
2. I can vouch for the scarcity of such opportunity, having been on the winning side of a similarly rare opportunity (though in the business world).
3. Because of that, I recognize that we must do everything possible to capitalize on this opportunity, lest it slip through our fingers.  Because it can if we let it.
4. We have a great deal of work to do.
5. We are infinitely qualified to do that work.
6. Keep your nose in the wind, and your shoulder to the wheel. (In other words, pay attention to everything around you, and keeping pushing through the hard part).  

I get goose bumps the size of baseballs when I think of what God is really doing in Enterprise, Alabama.  I get goose bumps on those goose bumps when I see what he is doing in our community at Crossroads.  I am not dumb enough to think that feeling all goose-bumply will get the job done.  The things we have accomplished, to get where we are in one short year, will not take us where we need to be one month, one year, or five years from now.

What will?

Praying God's will.  Studying to show ourselves approved (and not just the Bible, either). Connecting with God, each other, and the world around us. Not giving up when things get tough.  And working diligently to improve our systems (how we do things), our environments (how things look and feel), and our communication (how we send and receive information).  

If you are part of the staff or leadership, or are a volunteer at Crossroads, I look forward to working with you to improve systems, environments and communication in your individual area of ministry. If you are not...Why not?  Join with us as we commit to improve those three areas in our church, and in our personal lives as well!

Love you guys!  Hope you are stimulated, motivated...and tickled.  I have a screaming headache and a stuffy nose and I'm going back to bed.  Have a great day tomorrow!  Invite someone to Crossroads this weekend.     

   

MONDAY MIND DUMP (Sunday Night Version)

I am so stoked about today, there's no way I can possibly wait until tomorrow to download.  So...here we go:

1. Nat Lurie - Off the chain!  Great job! Kudos!  Like a Pro!  "What the Crap?"  Hahaha, you bought it today girl, and left it ALL on the platform.  I appreciate your boldness and willingness to stand and deliver! GREAT MESSAGE! My BIG takeaway from it...DISCUSS EXPECTATIONS...PRAY FOR YOUR SPOUSE EVERY DAY!  Good stuff.  Thanks.
2. Explosions in the tweet-o-sphere!  Roadies connecting.  It's a mad, mad craze and we're all learning about one another.  What a cool thing.
3. Great crowd yet again.  Our average attendance is climbing.
4. The lobby was ELECTRIC this morning (@leslieoden)!
5. First-time attenders rock!
6. Thanks Laura Armstrong for killing "Mom & Pop" in the main sanctuary with the hot new custom fit seat concealers!  Way to help us get our sheets together! 
7. What a HUGE donut victory and a (Bob Ross) happy accident by Krispy Kreme!  What it taught us about our crowd today:  They like VARIETY. What a great tweak! Way to take control Janna (no Donuts in the WHOLE town of Dothan)!
   
8. Thanks to @JCutrell for steeping up and stepping in for Officer McElveen today.
9. DUG the Taylor Swift tune...twice!
10. Way to WORK IT set-up team.  Volunteers stepping up and helping out all over the building.  @Benrice1 bringing leadership to make the whole thing rock solid.  Watch it grow.     
11. Amped about the billboards and the other adverts that are giving presence to what God has given Crossroads.
12. Overwhelming amount of communication cards got filled out today (maybe people were hoping I'd stop talking if they filled them out)!  MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
13. Strong giving for the first of the month.  Yea, God!
14. Moved by what God is doing by his Word and by the power of the Holy Spirit in our midst.
15. Great meeting with Community Group Leaders tonight.  Great leadership from Leslie (she's WAY smarter than me - and holds shorter meetings)!
16. Again...way to go Natalie.  Thanks for all the hard work (and for Prince Charming's help - ouch, sorry, Will) putting together a great, and totally practical message!

So excited about today, I'll be buzzing deep into the night.  Pray - continually - that God would give us the wisdom to know EXACTLY how to reach people that left church, got burned in church, got burned out by church, or never went to church.  Pray - continually - that God would equip us to share his love with the beat up and the bummed out.  Pray - continually - for God to strengthen marriages in our church.  And pray that those far from God would find him alive, well, forgiving, patient, caring, compassionate, and ready to receive them at Crossroads every time the doors are open.

Love you guys.  Have a GREAT week!

I'm Ba'aaaack!

Okay, until I get some professional help (and I'm not just talking about the electronic kind), I'm keeping my Blog right here.  I moved making some assumptions about Wordpress that do not appear to be correct.  Just meet me here (and mouth off) until further notice.  Thanks.

No More Secrets

If you want different results than you've had before - really, in any area of life - it's pretty plain that you have to do different things than you've done before.  Same things, same results. Rocket science, right?

Quietly, we started doing church differently than it was traditionally done in this town. And we've had very positive results.  Quietly we have begun to coalesce into a community (tribe) of people connected by a common purpose.  Quietly we have begun to learn how to connect with one another, and we have begun to use new and innovative ways to communicate within our tribe.  Quietly we have reached those outside of our community with a positive and inspiring message.  Quietly we have experienced - and have witnessed others experience - life change.  Quietly.  

Enough quiet.  It's time to crank the volume up.  Time to let the secret out.  We're taking a big step to do just that at the end of this week.  Look for it.

 

02-03-08

Exactly one year ago this very hour we had our first official Sunday service/launch team meeting at our house in Gateway. 30 people sat patiently while Leslie and I gave a tag-team talk about all the fantastical stuff we believed could be accomplished if a bunch of people came together and practiced loving God by loving other people.

Though it's not really Crossroads "first anniversary" (that date will be celebrated August 10th, the day we officially "launched" at the College Cinema), it's still a remarkably memorable day.  So...here's some remarks:

Crossroads would not exist without the people that showed up that day and on the Sunday's that followed.  Most of you still show up every Sunday and make Crossroads work.  Our time at "The House" was a time, not so much of planning and strategizing, but of group dreaming in the presence of God.  Those meetings were sweet and fresh and alive with possibility.  And we couldn't do what we do now, if we hadn't done what we did then.

Thank you to everyone who came that first sunny day in February, as we awkwardly sat on stools wearing blue jeans (a first for me on Sunday), and explained (for far too long a time) what our purpose and all 21 of our core values were.  Hopefully, we've been able over the past year to narrow them somewhat.  Perhaps they'll finally be reduced (not by elimination, but by being brought to a boil and simmered over an open flame) to something like: Love God, Love Others, Serve the World - everything else is negotiable.

I'll never forget how terrified and exhilarated we were on that day.  Many worked all day and stayed up all night until the wee hours to make sure we were ready. Zero sleep - far too nervously excited for sleep.  And before we knew it, the donuts were on the folding table in the kitchen and cars were rolling down the driveway. (BTW, it is really weird having church in your house.  It's a lot like having a block party in your underwear drawer.)    

We drank coffee and ate donuts, and we shook hands and shared hugs.  Jeff and Rusty played, and we sang together, and Nat did communication cards, and Will ran cues and Max did sound, and we prayed together, and we read from God's Word, and it all seems like a dream - like it was a thousand years ago, or like it was this morning.  

In keeping with the spirit of what we talked about in that first meeting (how those who came after us were the truly important ones - how we're here to reach and teach the un-reached and un-taught - how if you're already a Christian and you don't like to work, you probably won't like Crossroads very much - etc.) let's keep our focus on how we can Go and Love and Serve THIS day, and not make too much of THAT one.  Anniversaries are cool, but really current testimonies (like, who did I share Christ with this morning?) are way cooler.  So pause and reflect, but move quickly forward, giving glory to God not only in the remembrance of what he did then - February 3rd, 2008, one year ago today - but in the importance of what He is doing now.

 

MONDAY MIND DUMP

Sunday was such a great day for Crossroads in so many ways I don't even know where to start, so I'll try chronological order.  No...that'll never work.  Okay, here's a few take-aways:

1. After spending an inordinate amount of time preparing Sunday's message, I woke up Saturday morning completely stuck.  But God knew exactly what would happen Sunday morning.  Though I'm getting better at relaxing and trusting, it was still a rather tense day.  Thank God for his Word and the power of the Holy Spirit (see post below 'Up Late').
2. What a GREAT CROWD on Sunday morning.  Many, many regulars out and we still had one of our best crowds ever.
3. God did something HUGE Sunday (see previous post), giving was off the chain, right on time, and exactly the amount we needed!
4. Many people rededicated their lives to Christ on Sunday!
5. Great to have the Comm Card lady back in action.
6. Many, many people under the weather on Sunday still WORKED THEIR BUTTS OFF!  What an inspiration. Thank you all for blowing off your very real physical challenges to make Crossroads work this weekend.
7. Saw old friend and his family Sunday that I only dreamed I would see at Crossroads.  Guess what?  They had a FANTASTIC time!
8. Mad props for Filling Station. MANY GREAT COMMENTS from moms and dads about the quality of children's ministry at Crossroads!
9. Set-up team in sanctuary ROCKS!  Everything looked great.  Cool new series signs were a highlight in the big room.
10. Crack tech staff did a great job yesterday.  Sound was great, cues were right on time, no buzz, no fuss, no muss, and we had a feed from the board through the whole building.  Yeah!
11. Worship band cooked it down.  LOVED the open song!
12. Top to bottom, front to back, yesterday was probably about the best day all around we've ever had at Crossroads from the standpoint of doing ministry the way God put it on our hearts, and communicating practical application from God's Word to help people LIVE better.
13. People STAYED in the lobby after the service.  That's a big win.  When people aren't flying out the door as soon as the bell rings, and we keep the donuts out and the coffee on, we get more time to connect.  I love the lobby at Crossroads. (But I do wish it was twice as big as it is.  Someday...soon).
14. Great lunch with a handful of Roadies at the Hut.
15. GREAT BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION FOR JOHN!
16. And, uh...oh yeah, the Superbowl was a pretty good game.  The commercials weren't nearly as good as they usually are, but it was GREAT to be home on Superbowl Sunday Night, and not at an obligatory church service with a handful of people that a) don't care anything about what hundreds of millions of other people do, or b) didn't want to be at church either.  (insert chorus to Aretha Franklin song 'Think' here, "Freedom...woh-oh freedom...") 

Peace.

       

Big News

Okay, no more tease.  I'm going to share something important with you.  Now, having said that, this may not be big news to anyone but me and Leslie, but I can assure you it's big news to us, and I believe it will have a far-reaching impact on the continued growth of Crossroads.

Now, having said all that, let me say that last week Leslie and I felt very strongly - and felt a great deal of peace - about putting some real teeth into the way we advertise.  So we began looking at some rather large options.  When the pricing came back, we were not surprised, but we knew it was more than the church could afford right now.  So Leslie called them back and said, "Look, here's what we can afford, what can you do?"  Well, what they did was meet our price.  Not only that, but they offered a package which included an additional option that we did not consider before because we were sure it would be too expensive.

So we entered this weekend, knowing exactly what we wanted to do as a big piece of our advertising presence in the community (not ALL of it, but a big piece); we felt certain that we were hitting the bulls-eye on God's timing for it; and we knew we did NOT have the money in our possession to cover the initial cost of setting the whole thing up.  Today, this very morning, while the normal weekly  offering we feel we are somewhat able to project was very strong,  there was something else in it.  In this morning's offering was a large check - one which we did not expect, because it was outside the projected level of our normal offering - that was MORE THAN ENOUGH to cover ALL of the initial costs to get this advertising push rolling!

Having said all that, let me just keep from going completely public with the exact nature of what we're going to do until we actually do it.  However, understanding you may be getting tired of all this crap, give me a call and I'll talk to you about it if you want to know.  I just really don't want it on the blog right now.

Here's the thing I think is the important take-away:  WHEN GOD GIVES THE VISION, HE MAKES THE PROVISION. Guys, what God did this morning BLEW MY MIND.  I should know better, right?  I've seen Him do things like this a hundred times before.  We were dreaming out loud, and while we were dreaming out loud, God had ALREADY PROVIDED everything we would need to make those dreams a reality.

Now THAT, is big news!  

  

Up Late

Wow.  What is it about God that makes us always wholly dependent on Him?  I have thought about little this week other than tomorrows (this morning's?) message. Throughout the week I have studied passages of scripture, made notes, and of course spent hours editing video for the service.  My normal routine of late has been to have my message essentially ready by Friday night, so I have the luxury of tweaking all day and night Saturday if necessary.

I began today feeling as though I had never prepared a message, let alone stepped up on the platform to deliver one.  

God is supernatural, and we require supernatural ability to do His work.  Paul calls our lack of recognition of that fact foolish.  "Are you so foolish?  Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? (Gal 3:3)"  I can no more rely on my own natural ability to minister the Word of God, than I can rely on my own natural ability to receive forgiveness for my sins, or eternal salvation.

I am really excited about tomorrow's service at Crossroads. It's been difficult to weed out the unnecessary elements of the message to get to the "main thing".  But now I can't wait to see how God's Word and the power of the Holy Spirit work together to bring change to people's lives.

Start with me, Lord.  Continue to move ME out of the way, so I can be something You can use.