Cooperland

This past Sunday, we at LGM celebrated our 4th anniversary of opening our doors to our surrounding communities by hosting our annual Family and Friend Day.  As you may have read from my latest post on the Monday Morning Rewind series there were 3 Beyond Youth students who opened their hearts to God’s salvation and 152 people in attendance.  That was awesome.

What else was cool was the lesson that I taught to the Beyond Youth, and they seemed to enjoy it.  At least, if they didn’t, then they should win their own personal Oscar.

The Beyond Youth started a new series entitled, A King’s Story, and I wanted them to make Jesus’ life real to them.  A real Jesus for real students.  So I dressed up as Jesus to tell the story of Blind Bartimaeus, as found in Mark 10, as if it was coming from his point-of-view.  His feelings, his thoughts, his perspective.

Those students were hanging onto every word that I said.  Their eyes were glued to me.  What they were told were words of love and compassion coming from the Savior (but not really).    In the end, 3 students’ lives were changed.  It was our best class so far.  And I’m expecting better in the future.

Last night’s Timberland vs. Stall varsity softball game was hard to watch last night.  Timberland is a good team.  They’ve struggled through scrimmages and a tournament, but they have the ingredients to be a great team.

Stall, on the other hand, needs help.  I don’t know the backgrounds of the players, but it looked like they had never played softball before.  Ever.  The pitchers (there were 4 of them in 4 innings) didn’t have the speed necessary to pitch so it looked like slow-pitch softball.  The infielders made a few good plays, but there were many errors.  And so for the outfielders, too.  Overall, they lacked the foundational skills to play competitively.

Final score: Timberland 15, Stall 0.

Like I said; hard to watch.

What a way to start the week! Church at Life-Givers was, well, how many times can I say awesome?  Okay, it’s list time. Here are my thoughts over the past week.

• Three Beyond Youth students gave their hearts to God today at church. That’s amazing.  I knew God was going to do something great today, and boy did He show up.  I’m humbled just to be a part of His plan, and I’m celebrating with these students on their new lives.
• Jesus made an appearance in the Beyond Youth class today, and he was cool.  He kicked off our new series entitled “A King’s Story” by telling the students the story of him healing Blind Bartimaeus.  What a story indeed. (BTW, it was me dressed up as Jesus, and I loved every minute of it.)
• Oh, and their were 17 students in today’s Beyond Youth class.  I didn’t know there were that many at church.  I set out 20 chairs for class, and I had counted 13 students before church started, but somewhere I missed the other 4.  And a few of them were first time guests.  That’s cool.  Let’s keep that going.
• Last week was aggravating.  I couldn’t accomplish anything.  And I mean couldn’t.  I was completely unable to finish anything.  Every time I started a task some small problem or a series of problems would surface that would put my task on hold.  It was, shall we say, frustrating.
• Public speakers need to be creative in their presentations, especially pastors.  There’s no reason why those attending churches should be bored.  We are presenting the greatest message in the history of the world, are we not?
• Blind Bartimaeus was desperate for Jesus’ help. Jesus was his last hope, and he wasn’t going to let anyone keep him from Jesus.  Why, then, do we not call on Jesus to help us in our times of desperation?
• On that same note, Jesus is waiting to help us in all of our circumstances no matter how big or small.  Call on him.
• Once again, the teens of the Crossover Drama Team rocked their performance this morning.  I don’t know what to else to say about it. Simply phenomenal.
• I don’t know the exact number, but I was told that approximately 150-160 people were at Life-Givers this morning. Cool. It’s not about the numbers, but it was great seeing that many people there.  Why can’t we have that many people every week?
• Saturday was my 28th birthday for those who didn’t know.  Another year come and gone.

Enjoy your week.

On this month, day, minute and even day of the week 28 years ago, I came into existence. Yep. It was Saturday, March 6, 1982. My birth date. 1:22 P.M. My birth time. The point in time when God revealed me to the world in full glory. Then, He sat back, looked at me, and said “I’m done. Here lies perfection.” Ha ha! Maybe not exactly like that.

Thinking about my life brings a lot of things to my mind. A quick list would be:

• Why was I born in South Carolina?  Why not another state or even another country?
• Why did I grow up a part of the IPHC?
• How cool was it to race bicycles around my parents house?
• It was more awesome when I hit a golf ball over the same house with a sand wedge (woohoo, I didn’t break a window!).

Honestly, what comes to my mind every year on my birthday is how God chose my birth date and time to bring me into human life.  Then how he chose my parents and family.  Then how he chose where I was to live, grow up, and reside.  Then who he chose what schools I would attend.  What friends I’d hang with.  What teacher’s I’d have.  What companies I’d work for.  What churches I’d serve.  My wife.  My personality.  My likes and dislikes.  My interests.  My calling as a pastor.

Then I think about the future.  How God will direct my life day-by-day.  How many kids will I have: blood-born and adopted?  How long will Bridgett and I be alive together?  Will we ever move to another community, state, or country?  Where will God take us?  Will God allow me to become a senior pastor?

These are just a few questions that I have.  And to think of it, I don’t want answers right now.  I want experience them as the answers are provided.  I love my life, and can’t wait for what’s next.

Can I be completely honest?  I try to do that anyway, because with the changing culture, being transparent with your life is of the utmost importance.  But seriously, let me get something off of my chest.

I believe that one way that people grow together is to share their fears.  One of my biggest fears is the fear of failing.  I feel as if it was scared into me as a kid.  Throughout grade school, I passed every class with at least a C.  It wasn’t until college that I failed a class, which to this day is the only class that I’ve ever failed.  My biggest apprehension at trying anything is trying my best, and finding that my best isn’t good enough.

But failing doesn’t have to be a bad thing.  Failing implies that I tried.  Who cares if I fail, because, at least, I tried.  And hopefully I learned something along the way.  No, I don’t want to fail. Who wants to fail, but if I never try, then I fail at life.  And that’s my greatest fear.

What’s your greatest fear?

This video has been around for a while, but I love it.  Sure, it looks like a gimmick, but who cares.  It reminds us that God is the creator of all people, and that only he can hold us together.

What do you think?

Let me get this out of the way: my wife is awesome.  I love her so much.  Her passion for helping people oozes out of her, and it’s contagious.  Good thing I love helping people too or I’d be in a heap of trouble.

Being in youth ministry with her is a huge blessing, too.  She loves children and teenagers, and because she’s experienced so much in her short life she knows much of what they have going on in their lives and wants to share the wisdom that God has given to her so to help them battle through their problems.  That’s why I’m glad to announce that Bridgett has launched a new Q&A site for teenagers to ask questions for advice while being able to answer other questions themselves.  We call it Fight 4 Your Life.

The idea is simple.  Teenagers can ask a question to get help or advice, and Bridgett and/or other teens can answer the question.  Or Bridgett can ask a question to get ideas and suggestions from others.  It’s a win-win.  The only issue that we’ll keep in mind is to watch others’ answers to make sure that they are uplifting and not negative.

Before I finished my announcement, let me say a big “Thank You” to the 8Bit network for bring QHub to my attention.  QHub is the website that is powering Fight 4 Your Life.

This is interesting.

Via: Online Schools

So, what’s your thoughts?

Ever had a day like that?  Where everything seems to go wrong, and nothing goes right.  That was my day yesterday and so far today.  In fact, the only good thing yesterday was going to the Cane Bay/Timberland softball game.

It’s okay though.  I still know that I’m loved by God, and that’s encouragement enough to keep going, and to keep forging ahead.  Like Rocky Balboa says in the latest Rocky movie, “It’s not about how hard you hit.  It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

And guess what?  I’m still moving forward.  And all I have to say to life is this: BRING IT!!!

Well, it’s another Monday, and I’m extremely busy today.  As I do every week, here’s the weekly Monday Morning Rewind post with my thoughts over the past week.

• Last week and weekend has been one continuous week.  I haven’t stopped since Monday a week ago.  In other words, I really need some sleep.
• God gives us the greatest gift of all: Freedom. And, too often, we trade it in for something that is worthless.
• A student (Macie) hit her first home run on Saturday.  I’ve heard that she’s been close many times, but this was her first.  Congrats, Macie!
• Speaking of Macie’s home run, after the game she asked Bridgett and me to sign her ball.  I was thinking, “Why? It’s your ball.  Enjoy it.”  And she did enjoy her temporary success, but she wanted us to share it with her.  How could I turn that down.  I was humbled and honored yet again. Being a pastor is the greatest calling God can give someone.
  
• Communication is key to an organization’s effectiveness.  If your people can’t communicate with one another, then
• Pride is at the center of all sin.  How?  Because sin is the result of putting yourself or your own needs above God.  That’s pride.  And pride is #1 on God’s hate list.
• Forgiveness is paramount to real Christianity.  If you can’t forgive someone else, how can you expect to be forgiven?
• Yesterday’s Beyond Youth class took a turn that I wasn’t expecting.  First, it was too cold to have our prayer walk.  Second, I had quickly prepared a lesson on love, but was surprised when a leader brought up the idea of worship.  So I came up with an impromptu lesson on worship and why it is so important.  The good thing is that we have a great idea that we may be able to integrate into our Sunday morning experiences.
• I love to worship God, and when I return from my personal time of worship I want to be soaked with God’s so much so that when I touch something, it leaves a handprint.

Enjoy.