How Do You Make It Go Away?

Since we got back from Catalyst, I've been feeling like I'm getting sick. Don't know where it came from, and was even more surprised to find out that Lora wasn't feeling good either. Well last night was terrible. Stuffy, sweating, coughing, just not good sleep. Went to a meeting at 7AM and came back and laid back down I felt so bad. Still don't feel great.

Maybe you can help.

Leave a comment and let me know what you do to help you feel better or make a head cold go away? Already overloading on vitamin C, drinking gallons of water and took some Airborne but don't really feel like it's helped. What do you recommend? How do you make it go away?

Whirlwind

Been a crazy few days. Left for Catalyst on Wednesday and sat in traffic on a closed interstate for about 3 hours. Not the best way to start. Didn't matter too much though since the conference was really good.

We hooked up with a couple other guys from Wilson Community Church and spent some time with them. I won an 8GB iPod Nano from convoyofhope.org,

we scored a free lunch one day, and when we got back on Saturday, I got invited out to the ECU football game and dinner with my wife as part of Pastor Appreciation (had to miss set up but they did great).

Got home in time to sleep a few hours before going to church to finish setup, run a service and speak and then grab lunch and a short nap before our small group tonight. Tomorrow Lora's back to hospital orientation (for 12 hours!) Tanner has his last baseball game (hurray), and I'll be ready to pass out (and post a bit more). Until then.....

Here We Go

In a few short hours, the staff and a few others from Discovery will be headed off to Atlanta and the Catalyst conference. That's a good thing - looking forwards to it and all I'm going to learn and be challenged to think about. I'm really excited to hear from Craig Groeschel from lifechurch.tv and from Patrick Lencioni who wrote The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and some other best sellers. The rest of the speakers aren't nobody's, but those are the two I'm most excited about.

The thing that totally bites is that I've hardly seen my wife since Sunday afternoon, and I'm leaving before I see her today. She started orientation at the hospital on Monday (she's gonna do some postpartum nursing 1-3 days a month) and with staff meeting, ball games and flag football at night and her needing to be to the hospital before 7 and a Bible study this morning that started at 6 - I haven't seen her. Man, I miss my wife - and I live with her!

Oh well. You do what you gotta do. So I'm doing laundry for her before I leave so she doesn't need to. That makes me a good husband, but folding her clothes still isn't the same as holding her. See you when I get home Lora.

PARTner Party

You read it here first. We're having our first annual PARTner Party on Saturday, October 27th. Only people who are PARTners at Discovery Church are invited. That means that they've been through our PARTnership class, signed our PARTnership agreement, and are PARTicipating in the life of the church.

For those that might be wondering, we have PARTners and not members because PARTners commit to doing ministry while members only commit to being there when they can. PARTners are depended on to help advance the cause. Members are only expected to pay their dues. Look at any gym, country club or even Netflix. They all have and want members, but couldn't care less if the members use the available services as long as they're paying their membership fee. We do, and that's why we have PARTners.

So, if you're a PARtner at Discovery, look for this in your mail box this week. If you don't get one, make sure you get yourself to the next PARTnership Class and you'll get invited next year. PARTnership has its privileges.

What About Your Pastor?

I still haven't decided if I'd like my boys to grow up and be pastors or not. There are still enough difficult days for me that I don't know if that'd be a good dream for me to have for them or not. But then there are "the moments." You know, those times when all the work, effort, tears, bruises and hurts count for something. When the seeds you planted bear fruit. When the story finds a happy ending.

The last two days have had a couple of those moments. Yesterday I had one of our church families invite the staff (Claude, Davey, myself and our wives/fiance's) to their house for dinner. They're providing childcare for my five kids, and they're doing it just to show appreciation to their pastors/ministry leaders. Then today Claude and I sit down with someone who totally blessed us both with a nice little check, again, telling us how much they appreciated us and what we do. They also happened to mention that it's October which is Pastor Appreciation Month. (I don't know if it's a coordinated effort or not, but that's one act of kindness for each day of October so far....and there's 29 days left this month)

Now that I've been doing this pastor thing for a little while, I don't care what you personally think of your pastor - I just know he needs to see that he's appreciated. I felt so honored these past two days. Now, I have people tell me all the time how much they appreciate myself, our staff or Discovery. Still there's something special about making the extra effort to communicate that. So if you're at a church and it has a pastor, take him to lunch, offer to watch his kids so he can have a date-night with his wife, do his yard work, send him on vacation somewhere or maybe even buy him a car. Somehow though, make the extra effort to let him know how much you appreciate what he does.

We don't do it for the accolades, recognition or six-figure income - we do it because we care, we're called and that's all there is to it. So how are you going to honor your pastor?

Really Officer?

So I'm on my way back from getting some stuff out of the outdoor trailer at the Boys and Girls Club because we can't set up until 9:00 tonight since there's a basketball tourney. Anyhow, I was just cruising along and not paying attention when I notice a police car coming the other direction turning on its lights. It makes a U-turn in the road so I slide to the side so he can pass, but....he doesn't. He pulls in right behind me. [Claude happened to be following me and made a few passes and took pictures - how sweet]

He asked me if I knew why he was pulling me over and I honestly didn't so I said no. He told me I was going 61 in a 45. That kinda surprised me and it must have showed since he asked if I knew that and all I could say was I just wasn't paying attention. Again, honesty ends up being the best policy though. I hope Claude got a good laugh out of it. All I got was a warning.

I didn't tell the officer I was a pastor, but if he was paying attention he may have figured out I at least go to Discovery Church. Look on the warning and you can see that my license plate is "DSCOVERY"

Glimmer of Hope

So far this year, my Saturdays have been anything but enjoyable. I love college football and cheer for Ol' Notre Dame. At 0-5 now there's not much to cheer about. Yet today, I saw a glimmer of hope. Sure they lost to Purdue (not a throwaway team) but they moved the ball and defense, while not stellar by any measure, did good enough to at least keep them in the game until the fourth quarter.

My take-a-way is that it's not how bad (or often) you lose, it's how hard you work to improve. Without a doubt, ND has improved. Without a doubt, some things at Discovery have improved. And I'm certain that we've worked really hard to get to where we're at and are planning on working even harder to move ahead.

I'm not saying that Discovery is a losing team - not by a long shot. But I'm trying to redeem what's been a terrible season for the Irish and learn a few lessons I can apply to where I'm at. Maybe you need this reminder too. Regardless of what's already happened, the only thing you can influence is the your future - so work hard, improve and we'll see what happens when we get there.