This post is my 300th post so far. Sure, I don't post every day, but I do post pretty regularly and have to say that looking back, I'm glad I've shared some of my thoughts and experiences. Here are a few of my favorite.
Blogging Hannah's Birth (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
When I Got Pooped On
$20k Truck for $3500
Halloween Pictures with Pirate Hannah
Sarah's Birthday
The story of my initiation into the V-club
Picking On Claude (and here and here)
Almost Got a Speeding Ticket
Thanks for reading, commenting, checking in, encouraging, and allowing me to be who I am in the blogosphere. You guys are great...but for this day, this week..... I'm the Freak Of The Week!
I'm finally feeling better (thanks for the suggestions) and am really looking forward to the upcoming weeks. We got a huge "green light" on a project we'd like to do that will really improve our Children's Ministry and we'll be announcing those plans at our PARTnership Party on Oct. 27th. There's a couple of other big announcements that we'll share then too so if you're a PARtner, you'll want to clear your schedule so you can plan on being there and I'm not kidding about that.
Excited about this weekend too. It's the second Saturday of the month and that means time for Second Saturday Service. This month we're helping out another local ministry put on their first ever 5K run to help bring attention (and solutions) to poverty in our areas. Yes, there are people living in poverty right here in Pitt County! If you didn't sign up, you can just show up anytime between 8 and 3 and I'm sure they'll find something for you to help with. Most everything happens near Moe's off of Red Banks Road. CLICK HERE for a map.
Then I'm really stoked about Sunday because we're not doing church, instead we're going to BE the church. We told people who were there last week what was going on but some might just be finding out about it now. Basically, we're saying that the church has left the building. We'll still meet at 10:10, and once people get there, they'll get a worship CD that they can play in their car while they're driving away to their location. They'll either go to one of our sites where we're doing a $1 carwash (meaning we wash a car and then give people $1) or a beautification project (meaning trash pickup).
People who were there last week picked up a bag that had a list of what to bring in it. If you didn't get one, you can choose. If you want to wash cars for a while, bring brushes, sponges, buckets, hoses, nozzles, towels, squeegeez, etc. and if you plan on picking up trash bring gloves, buckets, garbage bags, vests (or wear bright colors) etc.
We'll tell people to finish up by around 11:45-12:00 and head back to the Boys and Girls Club for lunch - provided by Cubbies in Winterville (burgers and hotdogs). I've heard some great stories of people who've begun to understand what it means to notice people and love them through simple acts of kindness. Sunday's just another opportunity to do that in our community. I'm pretty confident that most people will come and BE the church in the community and not consider it a day off of church. Should be great. Don't miss out.
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?
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.....
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.
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.
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?
