Maple Leaf Recap

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Another Maple Leaf Festival is in the books here in Carthage. ?Lots and lots of cards handed out in the parade to advertise the Trunk or Treat coming up on Halloween night. ?We also continue to get a lot of thanks from the Duathlon folks for a great job by our volunteers! ?Again, you FPCarthage people rock!!

Here is another example of a great email that Pastor John got this last week…

Yesterday, as Race Coordinator of the Maple Leaf 5k, all my volunteers showed up. Much to my delightful surprise, they were all Forest Park Carthage members. How fun was that to get to know my fellow members just east of us? I think they had a good time, protected the runners, stayed to the end, showed incredible positive attitudes, and exuded pure joy. Hats off to David Stone and his reaching out to the community emphasis!

Glad I could join in them in the mission field. There are truly no mere coincidences in this life.

Best

Cathleen

Taylor Orr took a bunch of pictures of the parade…you can take a look at them here.

Here are some of my favorites! ?A huge THANK YOU to all who helped us out this week of Maple Leaf!!

Sox H8r ? My Soul Friends

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Great post from one of my soul friends, Daryl Eldridge.? Got to hang out with him for a while this afternoon at an Emerging Leaders Group that meets each month.? Great conversation today and a great post here!

Sox H8r ? My Soul Friends.

Question: Much like an orange being squeezed produces orange juice, when life squeezes in on you, what comes out?

Making It ?Their? Church

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I came across this post from the Lifechurch.tv/Swerve folks and it made a lot of sense in regards to my recent post, and particularly John’s comment.

Interesting post.? I have had the same statements from people…especially when they are “checking us out.”? You can always tell when people have left their old church and are reluctantly looking for another place to worship–not necessarily a place to serve and sink their heart into for the long haul.? They have a lot of expressions like, “well at our old church, we did X…you ought to do that…that might be a good idea for you to do.”? I believe it was Rick Warren who said at a church planting conference I attended, “just respond back to those people, ‘Why don’t you just go back to your old church, be reconciled with them, and we will all be better for it.'” That takes courage to actually say that, but it is true.

Much like in a counseling setting; if you are not willing to work on it and put some of the things into practice, you are wasting the counselor’s and your time both!

I love this statement in the post:

I?m asking God to empower me to move people from ?going to church? to ?being the church.? When they stop going and start being, the church goes from yours to mine.

Lord, let that be our prayer as well!

Making It ?Their? Church – LifeChurch.tv : swerve.

Maple Leaf Duathlon Recap

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Man, what a great afternoon of helping with the Maple Leaf 5K and Duathlon!? We had a blast helping out racers from all over the area.? I am so proud of our church family who stepped up and volunteered their time and energy!? You guys ROCK!? I had a ton of the racers who were so thankful for the kind words and encouragement from our people.? Belinda Shores (#330 in the pic) is a triathlete and serves in our Kids City children’s ministry every Sunday? She did an amazing job in the Duathlon (5K run/15 mile bik/1 mile run). She is standing in-between Trisha Fisher and Jessica Ensz, two other Forest Park(ers)!? They decided to run the 5K together and did an awesome job too!

Check out an email that Jenny got this morning from Belinda…FP Carthage, you guys are awesome and it really shows!!!

Hey Stone Family and church family!

Just wanted to tell you how much your help was appreciated at the Maple Leaf Run and Duathlon.? What a great response from our church and what a unique way to reach out to our community!? You all did a wonderful job of protecting the racers from oncoming traffic and giving directions.? Thank you!? Those of you who were serving the water were a refreshment to the thirsty.? Thank you!

Matthew 10:42 “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”

Joyfully,
The Shores Family

By the way, Taylor your a great runner!? I could tell you trained hard, because you ROCKED the run!? Also, Patricia and Jessica what a great run!? Your run times were spectacular!? Way to go girls!

Thanks again to all of our FP Carthage folks who really made a difference yesterday in our community!? AWESOME!

Here are some pics from my iPhone…random, I know…forgot the “real” camera in the truck!

Risen Ranch Cowboy Church Launches!

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Please be praying for Pastor Steve Stafford and his congregation as they launch their Sunday morning service at 10:30 a.m. THIS Sunday! I am so excited about what God is doing and continues to do at Risen Ranch.

I got these in the mail last week and they reminded me to be praying for the work the God is doing at Risen Ranch Cowboy Church and Arena…

Facebook News Feed From Throughout History! ? The Mystery Hour

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Friday is for…FUNNY!

This post is really well worth the read from my friend and blood drive coordinator, Jeff Houghton.? This dude is hilarious!? He and his Skinny Improv crew came out and did an annual banquet for us at Finley Crossings and made me laugh so hard my side hurt!

Here is a bit of the post for an appetizer…Thanks for the laugh, Jeff!!

I started to wonder what it would be like if Facebook was around throughout history. What if they had all been friends? I wonder what their News Feed would be like? I?ve heard of a similar thing people have done with Twitter, so it?s not a totally original idea. But, this time it?s Facebook?totally different.

George Washington Just crossed the Potomac. Hellacold!

Alexander Hamilton likes this

Napolean Bonaparte Heading to Waterloo. Should be fun. When I get back I?m buying at Applebee?s.

Ghengis Khan took the quiz, Which Ruthless Leader From History Are You? The result was: Ghengis Khan

My personal favorite…

Richard Nixon This is going to be the party of the year! BYOB!

Ain?t No Party Like?a Republican Party

Location: Watergate

Time: 3 am-

Check out the main course on the link below…

Facebook News Feed From Throughout History! ? The Mystery Hour.

Maple Leaf Duathlon

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mapleleaf-duathlon

Our church family is helping serve at this event this weekend!? I am really exited about it! We have several of our members who are competing in the races as well as Taylor “might” run in the Kids run…and I “might” be running with him if he decides he wants to do the run.? That should be a lot of fun in itself (well worth the price of admission!)

We already have a whole bunch of folks signed up to serve, but you can jump in and serve with us on Sunday even if you haven’t signed up already.? I know that several of our groups are using this as a project to serve together as a group.? It is really going to be a good time and a great opportunity for us to serve our community as we kick off Maple Leaf week!

Andy Stanley on Leaving A Mark

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I have never been to the Catalyst Conference, but I would love to go sometime.? I had hoped to go this year, but as Chevy Chase says in Fletch, “I’ve been foolishly squandering my money of heat and rent!” Silly economy!

Andy Stanley from North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA) has been one of my “heroes in the faith” for a very long time.? (Probably came around the same time I began following Louie Giglio around the country at Student Life Camps!) He spoke at the first session at Catalyst and from what I have read on many blogs and tweets, it was really good!

Several of my good friends (and family) are there in ATL enjoying the conference.? But it sure is a whole lot cheaper to sit in my office and log in than to hop on a flight to ATL and hotel, and … you get the point.?? Enjoy it Becks, Daniel Mc, and several others!

For us “foolish people” who aren’t there…here is a great post synopsis of his first session talk.

Andy Stanley on Leaving A Mark | churchrelevance.com.

I absolutely love the last few paragraphs…(emphasis mine)

It is not about your mark. It is about His mark.
It is not about who is for or against you. It is about who you are for.
When God does His greatest work through you, you will have no idea what happened.

Our mark isn?t worth our life. Living to make my mark is too small a thing to give my life to, but to somehow be positioned in a place where God can work through me is something worth giving my life to.

Leaders are going to leave a mark. But the daily question for you is, ?Whose mark are you going to leave??

Let’s leave a mark today…HIS MARK!

So what is multisite again?

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Here is a really good video that Zondervan has put out to advertise for two great books that you need to read to understand what I do a little bit better.? I like the concept here that the New Testament Church was actually a multisite church.? Interesting.

We have found that we are averaging almost 1000 people each weekend in our multisite campuses after only two short years.? It is really cool to be a part of a church, Forest Park, that truly cares about reaching people for Christ!? Some churches talk a good game, but Forest Park is trying to put our talk into action by sacrificing some of what we like and want so that others outside of the church might find Christ!

Multi-Site ? Being One Church in Multiple Locations from Zondervan on Vimeo.

Keep me accountable please

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I am (for about the billionth time) making a commitment to read the Scriptures daily. I have been challenged over and over that I need to be in the Word daily, for myself, my own walk. I am in the Word each day it seems, however, that is not always for my own personal time. It is often for a message or Bible study I am doing.

One of my buddies from way back at FBC-Springfield, Bryan Shaw is leading his church in OK through a “Read the Bible through in 90 days” deal. ?I thought to myself, self, if those folks can do that, then so can I. Terry Kendrick, my pastor at Hopedale in Ozark used to read through the Bible several times each year. ?He had broken down the Bible into chapters and into five different sections to read from each day. ?It is very similar to this reading program called “The Five Lane Reading Plan.” ?I also looked at Zondervan’s plans, specifically the 90 day plan but liked the 5 lane plan better because of the varied readings from 5 sections of the Bible, not simply a OT reading and a NT reading. ?(Basically, my ADHD kicks in about Genesis 10 and I can’t get any further than that! ?I can’t tell you how many times I have decided to read through the Bible in a year and on about January 15th I was totally off track and defeated.)

So here’s the deal. ?I am going to go for it and make my own read the Bible through in 90 days, or so. with the 5 Lane Reading Plan. ?I am choosing to do the plan that has 15 chapters per day, 5 chapters from 3 of the 5 sections. ?Again, you can go here and join me if you would like. Actually, I would love for you to join me as I need some motivation and support, as Nike would say, “Just do it!” ? I know 15 chapters is a lot of reading…but it probably isn’t near the reading I do on Facebook and reading blogs in my Google Reader! So, I am finally going to put my faith to action here and get going. ?I am praying tht the Lord will help me to stay on track with it this time!

Here is the essense of the plan…

According to this plan the Bible has been divided into 5 Sections.

  • Section 1: Beginnings: Genesis to Ruth (236 Chapters)Section 2: Nation Building: 1 Samuel to Job (242 Chapters)
  • Section 3: Poetry: Psalms to Song of Songs (201 Chapters)
  • Section 4: Prophets: Isaiah to Malachi (250 Chapters)
  • Section 5: New Testament: Matthew to Revelation (260 Chapters)

I will be doing the “Silver Plan” which is broken down, as follows…

Plan 2:?The Silver Plan

If you want to finish the Bible nearly 4 1/2 times in a year (nearly 9 times in two years); read 5 chapters from three sections every day.

After day 1, your record will look like this:

Genesis 6
1 Samuel 6
Psalm 6

After day 2, the continuation of your record will look like this:

Genesis 6
 1 Samuel 6
Psalm 6
Isaiah 6
Matthew 6
Genesis 11

On day 3 you can start reading from 1 Samuel 6

SO…Here goes day one…

Genesis 1-5; 1 Samuel 1-5; Psalm 1-5

Please feel free to comment and encourage me along this journey. ?I may not always do a post on this blog for every day, but I will however keep you updated on my progress!