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!
I had this question asked of me on Saturday night after a Friday night of the electricity being knocked off because of the ice. Pretty easy answer, right?
I was going to start with something real good like, “because.” Not going to work! Or, “it just happens sometimes.” Oh really, David? Sometimes it just gets the perfect temperature, not a degree too hot, or a degree too cold, and 2 inches of ice just “sometimes happens!” I know the real question was, “is the electricity going to go out again,” but it surfaced in a pretty “deep” way of “why did God make the ice storm?” After much convincing that mommy and daddy would be in the next room if he needed us, many trips down the hall saying “I’m scared,” and borrowing daddy’s new rechargeable flashlight, Taylor finally got to sleep on Saturday night. But it got me to thinking. . . “why did God cause this ice storm to happen.”
I have been thinking about it for quite a few days now. I don’t have a real good answer, except a few that I gave Taylor on Saturday night in my feeble attempt to wrap my brain around the events of the last week. Read more
“The CORE” for January 13th HAS BEEN CANCELED! The roads right now are fine to drive on, but we don’t know at 5:00 p.m. Also, if you are like us, we lost power last night and didn’t get it back on until this morning. I know many of us don’t have power and won’t get it back on until even a few days from now. We are not going to jeopardize anyone’s safety for something that we can just as easily do next week!Again, maybe God is helping us understand that we really do need to rest and refresh. To take some time out of the ordinary routine and spend it with your family. (Although shivering in the cold isn’t very fun. . . look on the bright side–it’s a definite memory for years to come!) If you have power and internet access, then keep looking at the online devotional.
We hope that you have a good weekend and stay as warm and dry as possible. We can be reached for sure on our cell phone 425.1761 if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to call.
Love you all!
David
As much as it is a HUGE bummer to type this. . . we are probably going to have to cancel “The Core” on Saturday night. We have been waiting for this weekend, working hard on the journals, childcare is ready, excited about the content of the evening, etc.We are going to try as hard as we can to meet, but we are not going to jeopardize anyone’s safety for something that we can just as easily do next week!
Maybe God is helping us understand that we really do need to rest and refresh. Sometimes it takes “acts of God” to make us listen to Him. You know, the response to the online devotional has been AWESOME. (There are a lot more of you reading it and not commenting that let on. . . we’ll keep that our little secret!) Seriously, this is a great way for us to connect with the heart of God through His Word . . . together as a church family. Maybe this is a way for us to realize that “church” isn’t about the building, the meetings (although they are invaluable), the singing in unison (that is great too!)–but maybe church is about “community” aligned in a common purpose. Our purpose is to know Him and to make Him known all around the world. We can do that, and will continue to do that here at CFC, but maybe in a different method this weekend.
We’ll see.
Keep your eyes posted on this blog as well as our website for details. We are also checking with KY3 to get on their cancellation list. They will be our primary cancellation list source along with this blog and the CFC website.
All I can say about yesterday is . . . WOW! I felt as if there was not much more that God could do to help make the day any better! Our morning service was really unbelievable! Our band did such a great job leading us in worship as well as Paige helping me with the sermon. It was really cool to hear about what God is doing through the Passion movement and their support for the eight missions groups that were highlighted at the conference. (More on this in a later post. . . so much to say. . . so little time!)
In the evening, we had our Annual Banquet. It was one of the best banquets we have ever had! We decided to go with an ‘Oscar’ theme this year-complete with the red carpet! The 1st Annual “Finley” Awards were a real hit with everyone. Leslie and her crew did an awesome job, as usual, with the decorations; Kaylyn did an awesome job with the food; and I can’t thank our childcare folks enough for their hard work! You ALL represented us very well!
My side still hurts from laughing so hard at Jeff Houghton’s crew from Skinny Improv! It has been a long time since I have laughed so hard. . . especially in church. Thanks again Jeff for coming out and making us laugh! I think Paul says it best “rejoice in the always, and again I say, REJOICE!” Paul had to repeat it to us so we wouldn’t forget. Sometimes I think we all forget that God wants us to have fun as the Church. We need to take our calling very seriously, but no ourselves too seriously!
I will post some more emails and comments from many of you who had such a great time later on this week. I can’t think of a better way to end our 4 years as a church than with the day we had yesterday! We all left that place smiling at what God has done over this time and excited about Regeneration coming up this month! See you Saturday night at the Core! Thank you God for 4 unbelievable years and we look forward to many, many more years of fun. Fasten your seat belts!
Bears lay a 95 on the Shockers! Wish I could have been there at the game! Standing room only crowd. Had to give our tickets away because of the banquet. Bears let a couple get away from them versus St. Louis University and Creighton, both on the road. Let’s hope that the January slump will stay away for the Bears this season.
In secondary news, the other game on Sunday afternoon, the No. 9 Jayhawks (right Gary?) roll over South Carolina.
The Church at Finley Crossings is going through a season of spiritual growth this January and February called “Regeneration.” We will be taking some time to rest, refocus, and restore our lives to where God wants them to be.
Our church has experienced great growth in the last four years of its existence and we are preparing for another major move of the spirit of God in our next major season. In order to prepare for the growth, we have prayerfully entered this time of Regeneration in order to seek God, refocus on His will for us, and most importantly to rest, or Sabbath, in Him.
Along with this blog, we also will be entering into a time of Bible study and prayer that includes an online devotional that everyone can comment and dialogue with other people.
Here is a PDF with all of the details of Regeneration.
Well, I did it! I have decided to be one of the “cool kids” and have a blog. My good friend and hero, Brad Daily had the first blog I had ever seen. . . it is still here. Everyone seems to have a blog or mySpace these days. I just wasn’t keeping up! With the advent of Regeneration at our church, I bit the bullet and want to journal “out loud” about my experiences along this journey.
I will also have other posts about the things I love . . . my family, sports, church planting, fly fishing, as well as what I am reading at the time.
Enjoy. . . but be nice and don’t throw too many stones!!