What a great Sunday! Our attendance was down quite a bit, but I think we had a really good service! Our worship band sounds better each week! Not that it was really bad before! That’s like saying, “boy, have you lost weight? You sure look great!” Makes you wonder if you really looked HORRIBLE before! Ha! It was “Stars Sunday,” so our elementary age kids were out of the service for the whole time, which made the sanctuary seem that much more empty.

God seems to be moving among our people.
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This past Sunday’s sermon was on “overcoming adversity.” There is no better illustration than the the Nixa Lady Eagles basketball team this season. There was a really great article in the News-Leader on Tuesday that says it all. The varsity girls started the season with 6 fewer girls than planned, so the “youngsters” had to step up and play on the varsity! And stepped up they have done! They beat my alma mater Kickapoo in Nixa on Friday night to win the District Championship. . . something they were not “supposed” to do!
We took a family road trip to see them play last night in Bolivar and all I can say is “unbelievable!” They have really defied a TON of odds and overcome a TON of adversity to be one step away from going to Columbia to take part in a Final Four! Congratulations to coach Randy Towe and the Nixa Lady Eagles. Good luck on Saturday!

The word church in the original language of the the New Testament can be translated “the called out ones.” Part of being called out is that we ALL have a calling to GO! That might mean that we are called to GO overseas to tell others about our great God. However, that might also mean that we are called to GO next door, or to the next office cube down and be a good neighbor, build a relationship in order that we might be able to share the Good News of Christ to them!

Tomorrow evening, our church is beginning a journey . . . a journey to GO! GO to reach our COMMUNITY . . . our NATION . . . our WORLD. March 1st, at 6:30 p.m. at CFC, we are having our first G.O. Team (Global Outreach) meeting. Johanna Jones is heading up this crucial team and I would like for you to hear her heart on the matter.
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It’s 15 feet from the basket . . . on basketball courts all over the planet. We shoot them from the time you begin playing basketball as a kid (although it might be from the bottom of the circle for the little ones!). In the end, you have to make your free throws in big games. Missouri State ended the game last night against Southern Illinois 15 of 25 from the line. The final score was 51-47 SIU.You can’t miss free throws and expect to win in the MVC or any other conference for that matter! The difference it seems in the game last night from my seat way up in the blue seats–poise. Southern Illinois looked and acted like they had been there before at the two minute mark . . . sadly, the Bears didn’t. Missed free throws, poor execution by the Bears. . . made free throws, poise in execution by the Salukis equals a win for SIU.

Sure the officiating was AWFUL (and seems to be worse every year), but it was awful for both teams. It depends how you are going to react to the horrible calls. Making or missing free throws doesn’t depend on the officials! They called their share of fouls on Southern Illinois, we just didn’t make our free throws!!

I really hope we can learn from this loss. We are probably going to have to win out the rest of the season and go deep or win the Valley Tournament to get to the NCAA Tournament. Missed free throws=Missed opportunities.

The pictures in the News-Leader say it all.

Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow! For the WORLD CHAMPION St. Louis Cardinals anyway. For the Cardinals, it could almost be “catchers report tomorrow” as there are many question marks about the pitching staff. With many injuries, trades, free agents, etc. it should be an interesting Spring Training in Florida for the Redbirds. It is good to have the great game back on the radar.

Jim Pearson, my golf coach, P.E. teacher, and one of my favorite people at Kickapoo High School, died yesterday from a long battle with cancer. He was a great man. A man of high character and integrity! Here is the article in the News-Leader. Read more »

Wow, it was so great to be back in our church on Sunday morning! What was even better was the fact that our staff has been working really hard in getting our First Impressions teams up and going. They hit a home run on Sunday morning!! The band rehearsed at 8 a.m. and were finished and ready to go at 9 a.m.!! That is when about 40 people started showing up to our new prayer time at 9:15 a.m. Heather Payne has so graciously volunteered to watch kiddos for that 45 minute time so that our other teams, First Impressions, Worship team, Sight & Sound, Cafe, Children’s Ministry teams could pray for the services!! Thanks Heather!!

We had several first time guests that I think are going to come back because you guys did such an awesome job in making them feel at home!! Way to go!! Read more »

Jenny, Taylor, Tucker and I had the privilege of going to North Point Church yesterday! We decided on Saturday night that we would go because it was a different denomination than ours, we have heard good things, but really the deciding factor was the noon service! Read more »

Along with our Regeneration process, we are not having Sunday morning services (WHAT??  Can you do that??) so that we can visit other churches in our area to see how we can make our place better.  There are SO MANY great churches around here that we feel are “getting it done,” that we want our folks to watch and learn so that we can try to implement some of their strategies to make Finley Crossings the best it can be!  I want us to work on our CHURCH PLANTING eyes, so that this place really becomes the church we have envisioned it to be for ALL people!
I am starting a new category to help us “talk out loud” about the good (and bad) things we have experienced on our visits to other churches.  We are NOT, I repeat NOT going to badmouth any of our sister churches . . . so if you have a bad experience . . . please don’t mention the place by name.  I don’t want us to get the reputation of not wanting to support other churches.  If you had an awesome experience, like Jenny and I did yesterday . . . then by all means use the comments section of this post and mention their name and a link to their website.  You can also email me with your comments if you don’t want them on the world wide web.

Again, let’s learn together. . . but also like the Kindergarten teacher might say . . . “be nice and play nice with others!!”

The saying holds true, “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” (Sang in the 80s hair band style!) I really missed being together with our people when we had to cancel last week. This Saturday night’s “CORE” was AWESOME! What a great turnout for such an “iffy” weather night! We had well over 50 adults and 19 kiddos. It was so good to see people hanging out before and after the event. Jenny and I had made plans to take the Jackleys out to dinner after Brandon shared with our group and they were left there standing seemingly FOREVER because of everyone standing around talking. It reminds me of the “old days” that still happen quite regularly where we have to “run people out” of the church in order to lock up.

How about Brandon and Jill Jackley’s story of faith and expanding the Kingdom of God through chicken sandwiches!?! What came through, in my opinion, was their heartbeat for missions and evangelism. They actually got out of “ministry” in order to DO ministry and to “build a platform for sharing the gospel!” Wherever you are in life . . . that is your ministry field! How we need to hear that! We often think ministry happens, “out there” somewhere. It happens in our lives, everyday!

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