Friday is for My Soul Friends…Daryl Eldridge

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One of my “soul friends” is Dr. Daryl Eldridge.? Actually, the idea for this category on my blog is based off of the name of his blog–“My Soul Friends.”

Dr. Eldridge is the Founder and President of Rockbridge Seminary, an online seminary based out of Springfield, MO. He was “my” dean while I was at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, TX.? Actually, I was a MDiv. guy and Daryl was the dean of the Religious Education School, but I still had my share of classes in his “school.”

I did not personally meet Daryl until a few years back when I began attending a Pastors Learning/Accountability Group that was started by Michael Haynes, the Director of Missions of the Greene County Baptist Association.? Michael and Daryl have a heart to pour into the lives of “young” pastors/church planters and have somewhat “tag teamed” the leadership of this group.

Honestly, Daryl and the rest of that group really helped me make it through a very dark, difficult time a couple of years back.? He has always been available to listen and give advice to me when I have needed it.

What I love about Daryl is his passion for the education process.? Rockbridge Seminary is set up to reflect those passions.? Each student that is enrolled must find a mentor for their classes that they can learn from a “practicioner,” not just a professor that isn’t “in the trenches.”? What is awesome about this mentoring process is that not only does the student learn from the process, the mentor learns as well!? Daryl calls it “cross mentoring.”? I believe that as I walk with a student through this process, I am probably learning just as much as them.

A huge thanks to my soul friend, Daryl Eldridge!? Thank you for pouring into students, pastors, and future leaders of His Church!

Who is one of your mentors?? What is your relationship like?? How often do you meet with your mentor(s)?

Friday is for . . . family & food. . .and some Christmas shopping!

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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.

Wow, what a weekend!

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We have had a crazy busy and productive weekend so far!? Tucker and Jenny went to Springfield on Friday so Jenny could do an inservice training for the Elementary music teachers in Springfield Public Schools–she’s so stinking talented and smart it’s pretty amazing she hangs out with a schmuck like me!! While they were gone, I took the opportunity to fix the brakes on my car that were about 3 weeks overdue and the rotors showed!? Thanks to my friend Devin Bobbett for helping me change my first set of brakes probably about 7 years ago.? I have always tried to repair them since then after I found out how “easy” it is.? There is always something that goes wrong when I try to do anything it seems.? This time, I stripped out some screws and had to go get some screw extrators from the store to finally get the brakes repaired.? Of course, I had to put the old brakes back on, go to O’Reilly’s and then come back and finish them.? I finally got them fixed at about midnight last night. Henry (our new puggle) and I went to pick up Taylor after school and decided to go to the pet store to get some stuff for the dog.? The pet store has another puggle for sale and the girl was really pushing hard for us to get another to keep Henry company.? Funny thing happens–Henry poops right in the store–while Taylor is supposed to be watching him on the leash!? I told the girl, “see I’ve got one that poops all over the place, I don’t need another!” Jenny and Tucker got home and we went to eat at the Ranch House.? We walked in and saw our good friend Kent Doyle and the Ozark High School varsity girls softball team that was in a tournament here in Carthage.? It was awesome getting to hang out with him for a bit.? Sweet people!? Taylor got to talk to Kaleb on the phone and Morgan got to talk to Jenny.? Pretty cool deal for everyone. Had our first CONVERGE this morning.? It went pretty well.? The next CONVERGE will be in January.? I am really excited about what God is going to do this fall through Forest Park Carthage! Went to Crosswalk tonight to hear John’s message “Dirty Jerseys.”? We are starting a spiritual growth campaign tomorrow called Generations.? It was an awesome message and I am really excited to see the response from our people tomorrow morning.? We have the potential to really reach a TON of people for Christ in the next decade or so through this campaign. The key verse is, “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.” Psalm 102:18.? Stratton, McBride and I went out on Thursday and shot some videos for our children’s ministry classes.? It was a lot of fun!? The best part is related to this verse. . . we have an opportunity in this campaign to reach people of the future generations by our faithfulness to get involved with God in this generation!? I am excited that we are helping Taylor and Tucker’s generation to have a great facility here in Carthage.? My hope and prayer is that they will in turn, because of our example, build His Church for their future generations!? I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through this campaign!? Fasten your seatbelts.

Friday is for…

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Friday is for friends, family, and football! Our Friday’s many times constitutes of Chick-fill-a Chicken Minis with just Tucker with mommy and daddy in the mornings. We also then like to go to football games with friends.

Tonight, we are headed to a game with Kevin Stratton, our new associate campus pastor. Here are some pics of this morning and last week at Nixa.

Friday is for . . . Friends and Family

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A buddy of mine said today, “You know a true friend when they help you move.”? My thoughts exactly!!? We had some of our dear friends and family help us move the “easy” stuff of boxes.? There was nothing “easy” about unloading our storage unit and filling the biggest Penske truck we could get with stuff–lots of it should have been let go of years ago, but you know how hard it is for pack rats to give up their stuff.? It is amazing how much stuff you seem to accumulate over the years.? We had a step smaller Ryder truck when we moved from seminary to Ozark–packed yes, but we made it in one load.? We probably won’t have a totally full truck tomorrow, but full enough to think about cutting out some things.

My friend, Eric Barb wrote a little about this need to have way too much stuff in his “Barb Wire” in the CFC Current. He is a really good writer. I miss the guys.? The were always a lot of fun.

Better get to sleep . . . huge day tomorrow.? Still can’t believe this is our last night in our house.? Tomorrow we will officially be home in Carthage!? WOW.

Friday is for FLYING!!

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Tucker and I were out riding bikes. OK, I was sitting reading while he was riding his bike on the sidewalk and a huge Army helicopter kept circling our neighborhood. (I think it looks like a UH-60 Series Black Hawk combat assault helicopter. John, maybe you and your aircraft expertise could help a brother out on this one!)

Finally, the circle got smaller and smaller and it landed in Taylor’s elementary school field. Tuck and I couldn’t help ourselves, so we drove up to the school to see everything. While we were there watching the Army helicopter, the Cox Health Med-evac Helicopter landed right next to the Army helicopter. Way cool for the kids to get to climb up in and on the helicopters! There was also the Keebler Elf and 18 wheeler, concrete mixer truck, ambulance, fire engine, limousine. Must be a vehicle Field Day, huh? Way cool opportunity for the kiddos.

Here are some pics from Tuck and my “covert ops”:

Friday is for Family

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Here are some pictures of the devastation left from the tornado that came through Racine and Seneca.? My aunt Carolyn’s husband Ed’s family lives down there and one of their houses was totally destroyed. Here are some pictures of their house.

Please be in prayer for those who are picking up the pieces of their lives and especially for those who are having funerals this week. Pray also for those pastors as they help lead those communities to the Lord’s peace through this tragedy.

Friday is for Friends

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Friday is for friends. This Friday is for church planter, Marc Backes. He is planting Eternity, a new church in his home town of Jefferson City, MO. Check out the website here. You can check out his blog here.

Here is a great video prospectus he put together. Reminds me of our video 6 years ago, eh Brad??

Friday is for . . . Friends

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This is a very sad Friday is for . . . installment. My friend and especially Taylor’s friend, Randy Towe was officially fired at the Nixa School Board meeting last night. Here is an article concerning the issue.

The problem we are dealing with is really at the core of what education and “extracurricular” sports are all about.

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Friday is for “Free!”

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Friday stands for “free” the whole month of October at Chick-fil-a in Springfield! Free breakfast Fridays each week in October. Today, Jenny, Tucker and I got some free Chicken Biscuits–yummy! Go check it out each week. I’m holding out for October 19th . . . free Chicken Minis!!