WEEKEND UPDATE (082910)

Hey guys, yes it's Tuesday.  First time EVER in two years that me weekend update hasn't been done by Monday.  Really long week prior with some out of state travel and a large proposal that was due Monday morning left me powering through the weekend, working through the night Sunday, and falling into bed Monday late afternoon for the first time since Saturday!  That said, SUNDAY was a FANTASTIC day at Crossroads.  One for the books!  Here's a few things that stood out:

• MANY people renewed their commitment to Christ on Sunday!!
• Others decided to go public with their faith through baptism!!
• That's why we do what we do!
• Taught about the RAPTURE in Sunday.  Very cool stuff.
• Some people don't believe in the rapture.  I'm okay with that.  One thing is certain regardless of what you believe, we're ALL going out of this life and into the next one way or another.  Whether it's the rapture or the end of your life, you and I will depart this life one day.  So I just figure that the best thing we can do is LIVE READY, yeah?
• I liked the idea that Peter teaches about: Live holy and godly lives, while looking for the day of God.  We don't always do that.  Many of us trust Jesus with our TOMORROW, but not really with our TODAY.  We'll take eternal salvation, but we kinda like deciding what we do with everything else.  I believe that God would have us all come to realize that the best use of our time in the HERE and NOW, is to live it FULLY ENGAGED in the things God wants us to pursue, in the way He wants us to pursue them.  Now THAT'S a life well lived! 
• Nic and the worship band were GREAT.  Love their version of the last song "Our God", and so did EVERYONE during the first and second service!  Way to bring it!
• GROUP LINK was great on Sunday afternoon at EOCC!  About 150 people gathered for a great free lunch, a chance to mix and mingle and sign up for our FALL SEMESTER of small groups.  If you didn't attend, you missed a great time, but you didn't miss out on getting in a small group.  Sign up sheets will be in the lobby before and after each service for the next two weeks.  Sign up!
• Following up on that: Our purpose at Crossroads is these THREE simple things: Love God, Love Others and Serve the World.
• We do that by doing these THREE simple things: Connecting people to God, to each other, and to the world around us.
• To accomplish that we ask YOU to do these THREE simple things: Attend Sunday service, get in a small group, volunteer your time.
• It's time for the second of those THREE simple things to take place, so make sure you get in a small group and dig in to Crossroads Fall Semester!  Isn't SIMPLE great?  Yup, yup!
• And finally this: For the first time EVER, I wore dress shoes, slacks, a nice belt and a long sleeve shirt TUCKED IN to my pants on stage on Sunday morning.  It felt great, but I probably won't do it again for a while.  Some people said, "Wow, you really look great like that!", while others said, "I don't like the way you dressed today!".  Opinions were about 60-40 in favor.  Just so you know...while I appreciate your comments (especially the complimentary ones - who wouldn't?)...I don't really care about all that.  It's not personl, it's just the way I roll.  I wear what's there.  I may wear a dashiki, a kilt, a racing jumpsuit, a tuxedo, or a pair of cutoffs this weekend.  Don't really know.  It usually comes down to what's clean and hanging in my closet. (So I guess that leaves the kilt out!  Or DOES it???)

May God grant you great peace as you live FULLY in TODAY, while LEANING IN to TOMORROW.  May God grant you wisdom to STAY FOCUSED on the task at hand, while being TOTALLY AWARE that there is a life to come.  God bless you, protect you, and keep you healthy and propserous 'til we meet again next Sunday for the final week of OUTTATIME!

WEEKEND UPDATE (082210)

Great weekend at Crossroads!  Wonderful, happy day Satruday celebrating my 50th with family and friends!  Sunday morning was absolutely one of my favorite Sunday's at Crossroads to date.  Here's just a few of the many reasons why:

• So exciting to teach about END TIMES as we continued our series OUTTATIME.  This is stuff that people want to hear about, just like they did 2000 years ago when Jesus talked about it.
• We had fill-in-the-blank Worship Guides this Sunday for the first time since we were at the Annex.  It's a great way for people to connect with the message!
• WORSHIP WAS EXCELLENT.  Seriously, Nic and the band were very good today, especially in the second service.  We are SO FORTUNATE at Crossroads to have such great worship leaders and such a talented and comitted group of musicians.  Way to go, guys!
• LOVE the opening video.  Great to see it again.  We'll get it up on the Crossroads facebook page so everyone who wants to can see it.  It's almost 5 minutes long, so we'll do an abbreviated version of it for the final two weeks of OUTTATIME.
• I wonder what Ben is going to be running from next week.  Too funny!
• Great attendance on Sunday! It was a blessing to see so many people on the Sunday before school starts tomorrow.
• Been wanting to say this for the longest time, and keep forgetting to: FIRST SERVICE, you guys totally ROCK!  Seriously, the first service crowd is always alert, awake, on top of the teaching and ready to laugh BIG.  I am always amazed at how focused the early service crowd is.  Second service attenders, come check it out sometime.
• HUGE kudos to all who work in Children's Ministry at Crossroads, especially those in our nursery, toddlers and pre-school areas.  Services have been going long, and you guys have done a great job handling the changeover between services.  THANK YOU!  Your hard work and faithfulness will be rewarded as everyone in Cinema one (including me) redoubles our efforts to tighten our service up so we don't put you through a difficult transition.
• Thanks to Pastor Ben for driving through ROADIES 101, and WELCOME to our newest ROADIES!!
• Look for ROADIES 201 on the schedule next month!

Again, thank you to everyone who made my birthday such a special day!  Nothing better than spending time with friends and family!  Thank you Crossroads for the GREAT CARD on Sunday morning!  I am stoked, energized, strong, and more comitted than ever to do the work of the ministry and MAKE JESUS FAMOUS in our community and in our world!  Have a GREAT week!!

Blog Slacker

Yup, that's me: Blog Slacker.  I have done a horrible job over the last couple of weeks getting new posts to this blog out.  Just like it is for you, my time is at an aboslute premium.  Work responsibilities, business travel, church-related meeting and preparations have eaten up a great deal of time lately and I've slacked on the blog front.  Blah, blah, blah.  I know, sounds like excuses.  Just make it happen.  I hear you.

Okay, confession and repentance over.  I'll do better.  Here's a quick update as we turn the corner into Sunday at Crossroads:

• I turned 50 today!  Holy cow!  It's just not right that someone my age should look this good, huh?
• ROADIES 101 on Sunday morning at 9:00AM in Cinema Three!
• Got to tour the new high school in Enterprise today with Caitlin and Sam and Leslie.  It is AWESOME!  So excited for school to start again, I know the kids can't wait either.  We are truly fortunate in Enterprise to have such a great facility for our high school kids!  Can't wait for the first home football game.  Go 'Cats!
• Spent a lot of time here this week: www.persecution.com
• TOTALLY STOKED for tomorrow's service.  Part Two of our current series OUTTATIME will focus on Signs of the Times.  Here's Your Sign: Read your Bible and don't panic!
• Wanted to jump out of an airplane today to celebrate my birthday, but I still have another 12 pounds to lose before they'll strap my big fat white butt to someone else and throw me out the door of the plane.  I'm okay with that. 
• I'm working my own health-care plan.  The weight is coming off slowly, but very steadily.  Excited to be eating healthy and making better choices.  My goal is to lose 50 pounds by our 30th anniversary.  38 more to go!  

Here's some of the signs of the times Jesus talked about, that we'll be talking about tomorrow:  Spiritual Deception, Political Unrest, Natural Disasters and Religious Persecution along with a discussion about what you and I should do about all those things.  Gonna be a good one.  Invite a friend.  See you there!

 

WEEKEND UPDATE (Extremely Late Edition)

Wow.  Reeeeaaaaally long day today.  Sorry to be so tardy in getting the update out.  It was a tremendous weekend with some off the charts wins.  But I was mostly sick as a dog throughout.  I thought I contracted beriberi, or yellow fever or some other dread disease while I was in Haiti last week, until I looked them up on Google and found out if it's what I really had, I'd be laying on the ground twitching, and foaming at the mouth.  Fortunately, most of my malady revolved alternatley sweating and freezing, and staying close to the restroom.  I've narrowed it down to brushing my teeth with Haitian tap water.  Oops.  I know.  TMI.  Deal with it.  Here's a few things I noticed about an AWESOME Sunday at Crossroads:

• Amazing amount of first-time attenders and quality eternal destination decision makers!!! Blown away by people's response to Sunday's message!!!
• GREAT to kick off our new series OUTTATIME!
• Loved teaching about End Times!
• When will it all happen?  We don't know so we gotta LIVE READY!
• The opening video by our crack creative, technical, video, CG team (Will, Justin, Max) was THE BEST FREAKIN' VIDEO I have ever seen in a church anywhere!  Guys, I've never even HEARD of a video piece that good in a church! WOW!!!!!!!!!
• Worship on Sunday was SMASHING!!  We are SO BLESSED at Crossroads to have the incredible worship leaders and musicians that we have.  Nic & Janna and the whole band bring it every week, and it gets better every week.  We need to remember how fortunate we are.  It is so rare for a church to have what God has given us!
• Billy Donegan built an AMAZING 3/4-Scale Back To The Future Delorean!  Will Reeves put it up in the air.  We have liftoff of the coolest stage prop I have ever seen!!
• The video, the props, the band, the lights, the plexiglass "whiteboard" with giant colored markers - all of it was SO COOL, but the coolest thing of all was being able to take 45 minutes and crack open a discussion about things like the Rapture, The Judgement Seat of Christ, The Tribulation, The Antichrist, Armageddon, the Millenial Reign, the White Throne Judgement...  People have SO MANY QUESTIONS about END TIMES and we're taking the time to talk about them!
• Amazing how many copies of the Left Behind books were sold.  End Times are BIG BU$INE$$!
• Amazing how many people think President Obama is the Antichrist. 
• Favorite Quote: "Instead of trying to identify who the Antichrist is, let's focus our attention on identifying and rooting out anti-Christ-like behavior in our own lives."

Love you all, and pray that God will use this series at Crossroads not just as a way to deliver INFORMATION about the End Times, but a way to bring TRANSFORMATION to our lives as we apply what we learn together!  Have a GREAT week!!

   

SCATTERED THOUGHTS AS I LEAVE HAITI

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  (1 John 4:8, NIV)

In Haiti this week.  This morning, after breakfast I came back to my room to write a few things.  I was going through some files and saw Michael Gungor's 'God is Love' video and clicked it.  I hadn't seen it in a while.  It rocks.  If you haven't seen it in a while, watch it HERE.  I'm am leaving today with a profound sense of how much God love us all. 

It's easy to get emotional in this place.  It doesn't really help anyone, though. 

Speaking with someone earlier in the week, he talked about a renewed spirit of gratitude among many Haitian people.  Many are simply grateful to have survived the earthquake.  Each day for them is a gift.  Even in the most difficult circumstances, they find much to be thankful for.

In the US, even the poorest among us have far more than the vast majority of Haitians will ever see in their lifetime.  In our country, our poor have access to public housing, food programs, health care, and education.  Here, over a million are displaced, living in tents and on the street.  The last time I was down here, I saw people living in the median of a very busy roadway.  You can see a picture of it HERE.

A unimaginable number of people on this island live in conditions so bad they defy description.  They have so very little.  But their spirit is indominable.  They are entreprenurial to the core.  On every street and in every tent city and every camp, people are buying and selling and trading with one another.

I didn't come here to serve in the camps.  I came here on business.  The company that God uses to feed my family is establishing a full-time, permanent presence in Haiti.  I don't know how all of that will play out, but I am confident that we will be a huge help to the Haitian people by providing training and jobs, and promoting economic stability through investment.

This week, I met with officials from the Haitian Government, the Central Bank of Haiti, the United Nations, USAID, Unibank, as well as some of the largest NGO's (non-governmental organizations) like CRS and CHF.  Incredible people.  Brilliant people.  People who are here every day to change the world.  Fantastically inspiring.

Can't wait to hug Leslie and the kids, and to see you all this Sunday at Crossroads!

Peace.

  

WEEKEND UPDATE (2nd Anniversary Service)

Sunday was the second anniversary of Crossroads launch at the College Cinema!  It was a wonderful, wonderful day with a service that was a fitting expression of our JOY over what God is doing in our community!  Such a privilege to get to participate in His work!  Here's just a few of the many things that made yesterday so special:

• Everyone got an extra hour of rest as we combined our services into ONE BIG service.
• Second biggest crowd EVER at Crossroads, second only to Easter Sunday 2010!
• HUGE outpouring of love by people who brought enough food for emergency food boxes to fill the bed of Dave's pickup!! He spent the afternoon building food boxes!  Keep it up guys, feeding the hungry is one of our BIGGEST assignments.
• Worship band - two words: BEST EVER!  Love the song at the end of the service. too!  Do it again soon!  Great job!
• Cake and Ice Cream!!
• NOISEMAKERS!!!
• So cool having Cinema One PACKED!!
• Biggest crowd in Filling Station in a long time, too!  So much fun when there's tons of jumping, screaming elementary-aged kids in the house!!
• Third favorite quote: "The Lord blesses the church with growth when the church is characterized by authenticity." 
• God reveals Christ.
• Christ builds the church.
• We do the work.
• Kudos to Shawn for the great FPU piece and awesome giveaways!!
• Second favorite quote: "Having cool graphics and making cool videos and having musicians in your worship band with cool facial hair doesn't make your church authentic.  Doing the things Jesus said to do makes your church authentic."
• I'm blown away that so many people at Crossroads are faithfully commited to doing the work - feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, welcoming strangers, nuturing the sick, caring for widows and orphans, visiting people in prison, fighting injustice and opression.  We need to do those works continually, and do them more and more.  If we're not doing those things it doesn't matter how cool we are.
• Still, I'm really glad that we have cool graphics and make cool videos and have a cool band (with a moderate amount of cool facial hair).  I know it doesn't make us authentic...but it is undeniably cool. 
• Great looking back through the pics from the House, the Annex and the launch at the Cinema.
• The MIKE and CARRIE video!  Oh my goodness!!  That was AWESOME!!!  I miss those guys like crazy.  In the three short months they attended Crossroads, they walked out EXACTLY what we hoped and prayed and planned that people would be able to experience.  And they're taking it with them to PA.  God is so awesome!  FYI: There's a full-length version of that vid.  We'll get it up on facebook or on the website so you can see it. 
• What they experienced as a family is what gets me out of bed in the morning.  How great is God to allow us to stand at the intersection of His Word, and someone's thirst for God!      
• Favorite Quote (Ben Rice at the end of the service coming back from the future, and don't even ask me how that happened): "We've got to go back...to the FUTURE!"

I'm sitting here and great stuff from this weekend just keeps pouring into my head.  What an incredible ride this has been so far!  I gotta get to work, so I'm going to close this out now.  Can't WAIT for this coming weekend as we kick off a brand new original series about THE END TIMES that we have been planning for months!  OUTTATIME is going to be out of this world!!  Heading back to Haiti tomorrow morning.  I'll be home late Friday.  Peace & Love.

FRIDAY

Wow, this week has been a blur!  Two big projects earlier in the week had me working around the clock.  Yesterday I looked up and it was Thursday afternoon.  How does that even happen?  Anyway, it's a big happy Friday now and I wanted to take a few minutes to catch up and let you know about some things going on and coming up at Crossroads.

This Sunday morning it's the 2nd Anniversary of our launch at the College Cinema!!  To celebrate, we're having ONE SERVICE at 10:30AM.  The doors of the cinema will be open at 8:30AM for all the set-up teams.  Enjoy a few extra minutes of rest this Sunday and then let's PACK OUT CINEMA ONE and celebrate!!  Here's just a few of the things we'll be talking about:

• THE BIG NEWS about the Children's Center next door!
• THE BIG NEWS about progress on the Cinema purchase front!
• THE BIG DEAL about Making Jesus FAMOUS in our WORLD!
• THE BIG RESPONSE from people brining food to the Annex!
• THE BIG NUMBER in our current Pledge Drive!
• A REALLY BIG NOISE (to be explained later)!
• And perhaps most importantly: THE BIG STORY of a family whose lives were changed because YOU dared to make Jesus FAMOUS in Enterprise!

All of this adds up to a seriously BIG DAY as we CELEBRATE the BIG THINGS God is has done and continues to do in our midst!  Don't forget to bring FOOD from the LIST for our EMERGENCY FOOD BOXES.  This is such a valuable and important thing for all of us to participate in.  If you can't do the whole thing, no problem!  Bring a bag of rice, a box of mac and cheese, a can of soup.  The great thing about this is that EVERYONE can do SOMETHING, and when we all do it together, we make a HUGE impact in our community and we make Jesus FAMOUS!

Invite BIG this weekend and show up ready to look back and look ahead to the GREAT things happening at Crossroads!  Can't wait to see you on Sunday.  One service.  10:30AM.  Have a GREAT weekend!!!

WEEKEND UPDATE (080110)

MEGA-HUGE-GIGANTIC-HUMONGOUS day at Crossroads on Sunday!!  Here's just a few of the many things that stood out to me:

• People made high-quality, life-changing decisions to rededicate their lives to Christ's purpose!
• Other's decided to go public with their faith through baptism!
• Another BIG day of first, second, and third-time attenders!
• Great to be 'back in the saddle' after spending last weekend away with my family.
• Kudo's to our Children's Center Staff for their ability to improvise, adapt and overcome as they faced week two of construction in our Children's Center that ate up about half their normal floor-space.  Great job guys! 
• Great series with a tip like a spear: Our mission is to make Jesus famous in our LIVES, in our COMMUNITY and in our WORLD!
• That spear tip had a razor-sharp point on it Sunday: If we believe that Jesus is the Christ, then what we DO will look like we believe it.  If not, Jesus won't be 'almost famous' just to US, but to everyone in our circle of influence!
• HARD to tell the story about the Food Closet at the Annex.  HARDER STILL to recognize that the state of that closet seemed to make Jesus look 'almost famous'.  Good news: we can change that!
• HERE'S THE BIG WIN:  Sunday's message, as tough as it was to hear, is EXACTLY what we NEED to hear when loving others, serving others, and caring for others is hanging in the balance.  I can't WAIT to see how the people of Crossroads respond to providing supplies for our emergency food boxes.  I know it will be huge!  You guys ROCK, and you are TOTALLY sensitive to what God is doing in our community.  I have faith in YOU and in GOD in you!
• In a completely unrelated (and totally awesome and necessary) 'NUTHER BIG WIN on Sunday, we recieved the largest offering we've had since Easter Sunday!  It should be noted that it was an offering that was recieved BEFORE we spent the service talking about making generosity a LIFESTYLE!  I love it when people are responding to the direction of the Holy Spirit and not being compelled to give.
• So important to recognize that just because the place is stuffed with people, it doesn't mean all the needs are met.  THANK YOU for your faithfulness and attention to always keeping the lights on so we can do the BIGGER STUFF!
• Personal biggest takeaway from Sunday: If we are to be known for something, let us be known as those who "spend themselves" in caring for those whose basic needs are not met.  Leaving everything on the field, saving nothing for the locker room, let us "spend ourselves" in pursuit of serving the under-resourced.  THAT is what will make Jesus FAMOUS in our COMMUNITY!
• Other BIG stuff from Sunday: We received ANOTHER $10,600 in pledges for the I Love My Church Building Drive!

Don't forget, just ONE BIG SERVICE this Sunday August 8th at 10:30AM as we celebrate our SECOND ANNIVERSARY at the Cinema!  Have a GREAT week!!