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Great stuff from a great book

I've been reviewing and re-learning some memorized Scripture the last couple of weeks. The book of 1 Peter in the Bible is awesome. So many amazing things to encourage us to press on and thrive in this life.

Here are some nuggets:

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance" - yes.... YOURS IN ABUNDANCE

We have a new birth... a living hope.

We have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.

We are shielded by God's power.

We greatly rejoice... (just for a short time, a "little while", we may have trials but in the grander scheme of things we are about GREATLY REJOICING)

Our faith is of greater worth then gold.

Ratatouille

We just saw the Pixar movie, Ratatouille. Amazing animation, great story. I wish Walt Disney were alive to see these movies.

After the movie all three of my kids were down all fours crawling like rats through the hall of the movie theater.

On the way home Em wrote a recipe for a salad with a special, original house dressing. The kids are now in the kitchen cooking. I just heard Susie say "There's a tomato on the floor". Alex... "Can we use some of the celery?"

Deb said they have knives out to cut cucumbers. I'd better go check on them.

Man... am I beat

What a packed two days! Yesterday I got to shoot video at the Texas Motor Speedway. That place is humongous! Between seats and infield it holds 215,000 people. We got to shoot three cars running on the track and various other cars, pit, garage, etc. Very cool. I've never, ever, not even once at all wanted to go to a nascar race. Visiting the speedway, though, makes me at least want to go to one race and experience it.

Today we shot at a restaurant some content that goes with the speedway stuff.

All fun and good... but I'm beat.

Things I love about our church

This week I had to make a form so that our congregation can sign up for which service they plan to attend, which area they will serve in, and what LifeGroup they will attend.

I was so happy that after I completed the form that looks like this...




I also had to make one like this for our integrated Latino population...



LifeGroup...........GrupoVida!!! Love it.

Baby steps toward serving

Today we did something a little different in our Sunday morning worship service. Since it was an idea I had pitched, I was a little nervous.

We need just about everybody to serve in some way on Sunday mornings as we go to 2 services soon. Instead of just hitting them with a big sign up, we eased them into it today and threw in some vision.

Our pastor gave a short talk and then we had the congregation make a baby step - but a step none the less - toward serving. We had five "stations" set up around the church, one for each of the five major serving areas on Sunday morning. At each station a carefully selected passionate leader spoke to people who came to that station about why the work of that area is vital to the health and life of the church. We didn't have people visit all FIVE areas as that would be information overload. We just asked them to visit two areas. In asking them to visit only two areas, we were causing them to do a little work, to engage in the process, to make a mini-decision on the path to determining where that can serve in the fall.

The scary part was in wondering whether people would actually choose an area to visit or whether they would just stand around or even leave the service early.

Drum roll please........

Most people visited the stations! Of course, the real success of today will be measured by how many people really do commit in coming weeks to serve. Today, though, seemed like a step in the right direction.

A few pix...

CHILDREN'S MINISTRY


CONNECTIONS - greeting, intro to Mosaic, etc


ENVIRONMENTS - Cafe, community meal, interior atmosphere


YOUTH


WORSHIP/PRODUCTION/PRAYER


We also had two stations set up for those only speaking Spanish and for deaf persons in order to share with them where they can serve at Mosaic.

I gotta make more time to post

Man, things are busy. Things are ramping up quickly with my job at Mosaic Church. Loving it, but lots to do!

Tomorrow we head briefly to Texas to take Em's friends back from their two week visit with us. We'll just stay Friday night and return to Little Rock Saturday since we have a big day at church on Sunday.

Once we get back to only five of us in the house, maybe I'll get back in the rhythm of blogging. See you Monday.

Ever Been Burned Out or Beaten Up at Church?

My friend, Anne Jackson, is writing a book called "Mad Church Disease".

Mad Church Disease is a book which will discuss the epidemic of ministry burnout in today's contemporary church. Currently, surveys are being conducted at MadChurchDisease.com for those who are on church staff, those who are family of church staff, and those who are volunteers.

By analyzing these surveys, as well as conducting interviews with pastors, families, and volunteers world-wide, Anne hopes to bring this touchy subject to light using real-life stories of not only tragedy, but redemption and healing for those who have been affected by this disease.

Anne is a gifted writer with a huge future. Please help my friend, Anne, and the countless others who will read her book by clicking on the following graphic and taking the quick survey!