Sunday Remix 8-3-08

-This Sunday was off the chain for sure.

-We broke out a second trailer. The thought of that freaked me out a little because we usually are pushing to start on time as it is. It went awesome! Everything from the Welcome/Cafe' area and Kid's Live (K-5) was in the 12 ft trailer. The main theater, nursery, and preschool stuff was in the 20 footer.

-Our K-5th Team unloaded the cafe and their room. Our load control team went right to unloading the main room. Usually the cafe stuff is unloaded first. This accomplished two things. It doubled the work force for overall load control. Second, It started the load out of the main room 15 minutes earlier. What I love about this procedural change. It came from the ground up as people saw the need, provided the trailer, and set in motion the changes to make it happen. Great Job!!!

-Robby started "Reverb" this Sunday. Reverb is a group designed for 6&7 graders. It takes place during my Sunday teaching. They begin in the main room and exit after worship to go to Reverb. From my 6th grader it sounds like it went great. Thanks to Echo Student Ministries for making this happen for our younger students.

-I had a blast preaching about something I have a great passion for. We finished up our Summer of Rock series. We looked at the first disciples "Come and See" model of evangelism. I said that every Christian should live to influence others to experience Christ. We can't make people "follow" Christ, but we can influence them to "experience" Christ. When we do that Jesus himself will make it very difficult to deny.

-We brought our kids and school teachers in to pray over them in preparation for the coming school year. I called out 5 names: Adalee, Jessica, Brianna, Katie, and Ryan. I bragged on these kids because they make up 25% of one class room at Carmel Elementary. One influenced another who influenced another...and now the kids and their families all come to EMC.

Dude that rocks. These kids didn't back down, but they invited..."come and see" and Jesus did the rest!!

-The Band rocked Tom Petty's "No I Won't Back Down" when it comes to influencing others to Christ we are not going to back down.

-Next week we begin our God at the Movies series. Don't forget to invite 3 friends. This is your chance to influence others to experience Christ. I promise you...you do your part.....and I will do mine. August will be as insane as you want it!!!

-Lately I've been saying to myself, "I'm not going to say freakin as much". I have been saying it for years and at times it creeps into my Sunday sermon. I was so freakin'....er I mean incredibly proud of myself on Sunday because I did not use the weak adjective. Instead I self-filtered and skipped it. Ok before you praise me for self control and decorum in the pulpit....I did say the word "dammit". I think my self-filterer still needs a little adjusting. To know the context you'll have to listen to the podcast.

-Last night we had a great final Discipleship for Leadership night. I love seeing our leaders getting a hold of what God is doing in and through us together as a church.

-I have been finding it hard to sleep lately. I am more excited about emc and it's future than the day we launched 2 1/2 years ago.

-Emc-ers pray for me as I lead out of the heart and vision of God. I am more excited than ever, but I feel more spiritual attack then ever as well.

-I Love you guys. I am so pleased to be your pastor.