Every time I sit down to post about what has been going on and on my heart over the last several weeks, I seem to get interupted–interupted by good stuff. . . mostly.? We have been super busy with family as well as church stuff.
Just a quick post to let you know that everything is going well . . . just extremely busy.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Check out the recent Twitter/Facebook on the left margin in the meantime.
Got this email from Pastor John yesterday and thought I would share it with you all.? I agree with him completely and it would be worth the effort to go see the final performance tonight at 6:00 p.m. for those around J-town.
My dear friends,
Wow, wow, WOW!? Last night’s presentation was simply the BEST Christmas
performance I have ever experienced!? I laughed, I cried, my soul soared.
The people around me in the balcony were wrapped up in it too.Thank you, thank you, for your hard work.? I NEEDED last night.? It was the
first time this year I have felt “the Christmas spirit.”? I woke up still
feeling it today!Thank you for being willing to “reach down” to engage our culture.? By
telling a story from our culture, people who don’t know Jesus could relate
to their need for God.? Some might say that the church has no business
singing songs that are from culture.? To that I would say, “then why did
Jesus use culture so often in his teaching?”? “The Kingdom of heaven is
like” he would say, and then use things from the world to help his audience
understand spiritual truth. You did EXACTLY what Jesus did last
night…which is why it had such a powerful impact.? What some call “carnal”
is actually “incarnational.”? The WORD was made FLESH (John 1:14).Thank you most of all for your personal walk with Jesus.? In my sermon last
Sunday I started by saying that some people have God all over them.? Last
night, you all had God all over you.? Excellence and talent (which this
performance had) is no substitute for God’s hand being on those who are
telling the story.? God came down on Forest Park last night, some might say,
but the truth is, because He lives so powerfully in YOU, He was already
there.I wish I had EVERYONE’s email address…feel free to pass this on to others.
I’ll be praying for you this afternoon as you tell the story once again.
For those of you who missed the news story on KODE, there is a link below.http://fourstateshomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=45191
I love you all so much!? And I am thankful that I get to be one of your
pastors!John
The first night of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” went really well! Jenny did an awesome job on her solo! Of course she did…I taught her everything she knows.
My mom and dad, my mom’s sister and her husband( Barbara and Jack) came too. Thanks for not saving us a seat, dad! Just kidding!
Here are some pictures of the night. Will add more when I get on the computer, not my iPhone.
Hanging out at the greatness of Chick-fil-A for our weekly Friday morning ritual of breakfast with Mom, Dad, and Tucker.? We absolutely love their Chicken Minis–especially Tucker loves “the minis” with lots of jelly!
We are watching Tucker play in the play place and trying to find some Christmas presents online.? We are also talking about Christmas budget–which we should have probably talked about some time ago, but haven’t had the chance… with all of the stuff going on.
Jenny is singing in the Christmas musical at church, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” tonight, Saturday, and Sunday.? In the meantime, I think we are going to submit ourselves to the beating of looking for some Christmas presents with a 3 year old in tow.? Yes, Virginia, we are crazy!
We are going to get to hang out with my parents and my Uncle Jack and Aunt Barbara Sanders.? Barbara and my mom are sisters.? Jack is one of my heroes. He has been a bi-vocational pastor for his entire life–pretty stinking cool indeed.? Going to be fun to see them at Forest Park at the musical.
P.S.–It’s 4:45 p.m. and I just sat down to finish this post.? We had an absolute beating of a time going to four different stores–just four. I find it amazing how busy the stores are these days–even in the midst of an economic recession.
I saw this first on Eric Barb’s blog and clicked on the link and am hooked!? Alpha Inventions.com is a live blog reader.? What is that you ask?? Well, you go to Alpha Inventions.com and just check it out.? You will have blog after blog come up in random order.? You can pause the shuffle, bookmark the site, etc.? I’ve already found several interesting posts in just a few minutes of time on the site.
Here is the explanation by the inventor of the Alpha Inventions, Cheru Jackson:
Here is how it works. (simple as possible I hope).. Ready?
Let?s go?
If you update or publish your blog at the same time my visitors are browsing blogs in my site then my visitors will get a chance to see your blog in real-time. BAM! (the entire blog is in their face instantly) It?s not even annoying to watch.? Is it alpha addicts??
I also provide a link to your blog in case they want it to open your blog in a new window, or bookmark your blog . The links provides your title, and description to help my visitors get a better understanding on what your blog is about, and get more interested.
I don’t know, we will check it out and see if it brings me more hits on my blog.? So far, so good though.? In the meantime, it is pretty fun to read blogs in real time!? Check it out!
So much going on lately this fall around C-town and the Stone family!
I finally got my blog moved over to my own personal hosting account at Dreamhost last week.? I had a few gliches in getting it moved over and looking right and such, so I haven’t been focused so much on writing posts as the programing side of the blog.
One of my resolutions and goals this next year is to use this blog to really share my heart with my congregation and show off the family a lot better.? Technology is such an amazing thing–and easy (when it works), that I think I need to harness that much better for my ministry.? In meeting with my leaders here at FP Carthage, I have heard 2 major “issues” that I need to help us do better around here–communication and motivation.? Both of which I believe can be conveyed quite well through this medium and I intend to do a better job using this tool.
There are going to be a lot more posts focused on the things I am passionate about–family, missions, church planting, etc.? They are probably not going to all be original things because there are so many other smart people out there that I will probably use their stuff (and give them link love of course).? Basically, what I do on the sidebar with the “Surf’s Up” section, I am going to do a lot more with the main posts.
So here’s to turning over a new leaf (again) and getting after this thing to keep people up to date!? Feel free to comment and “spur me on” to post when you haven’t heard from me in a while!
Here we go.
Here are some pictures over the last couple of months that I have been wanting to get up on the blog but haven’t done it!? Enjoy!
I have been intending on posting more, but have just been busy or lazy, or both!? I am moving my site around at the hosting company, so the blog may be down for a bit, but will be back better than ever (ahem, mediocre as usual)!
When it gets back up and running, there will be many stories to tell as you can tell by the Twitter updates on the left column–puppies, birthday parties, holidays, etc.? Lots of photos to get uploaded to the ol’ blog!
Until then . . . peace and quiet.