I’ve never had the privilege of meeting Steven Furtick, although our coach from ISS was also his consultant for the capital campaign his church just completed in Charlotte, NC. But his post today was just too good not to pass along to everyone I know, so read this and enjoy

I had forgotten how much holidays like Thanksgiving affect attendance & offerings – but we survived this weekend, and still saw some new folks give their lives to Jesus, which makes everything we do worthwhile!
I also observed a lot of parallels between today’s BEARS’ game, and our church:

you don’t win football games or grow effective [...]

Ok, I’ll admit it’s probably not real newsworthy, and thanks-living is better than an annual Thanks-giving, but here’s my list for 2007 anyway:
1. My wife of almost 35 years – Chris, I never cease to be amazed at how you continue to grow! Your love for God and His people keeps me forever [...]

No, I’m not asking about domestic disputes at your house or what menu to prepare for the big T-day.
I was listening to a CD teaching from my pastor, Bishop Joseph Garlington, this morning and he said something that made a lot of sense (he has a habit of doing that)Bishop was saying that prophecy is [...]

Chris and I did something we’ve never done before: we visited Grace Tibbs’ preschool class this morning for “Grandparent’s Day”. Since her mom, Carmen, has been part of our ministry since 1984, and all her family still lives in Missouri, I guess it’s only appropriate for us to serve as surrogate grandparents. (In fact, Miss [...]

Here goes, in no particular order:
1. Couldn’t help but notice a LOT of folks missing in TP this weekend – I’m so spoiled by usually preaching to a full auditorium that all the empty seats was really noticeable. But I’ve heard good reports about the attendance at our other campuses, and all told, [...]

Well, I survived!
I gotta admit, doing without my ‘crackberry’ for a full day really showed me how addicted I had become, as I kept reaching for it at different odd times of the day (glad I left it off and at home).
I know Chris enjoyed the fact that she had my undivided attention, even though [...]

I’ve thought about it and talked about it for long enough; it’s time to do something.
I first got the idea from Mark Batterson, but I’ve heard several others talk about the need and the benefits in recent months.
So, starting in just a few minutes, I’m going to observe a weekly “E-sabbath”, which means on my [...]

Serendipity, according to Wikipedia, is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. And that’s exactly what happened to me at the Externally-Focused Church Conference this week.
We (Dan Johnson, Doug Neal, Chris Payne and I) went to the conference in search of practical tips and ideas for [...]

Someone anonymously commented on my latest “GO totals” posting, and they were right-on.
Someday I’ll learn to pay attention to the ‘nudge’ of the Holy Spirit, because the truth is, when I typed my post last night thanking the 77 families who stepped up into ‘generous’ giving, I sensed a little twinge that I needed [...]