Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Huckabee rolls through Blue Ridge!
Today Presidential contender Mike Huckabee made a campaign stop at North Greenville University. Milo and I drove up there to catch the action. In fact, as we were getting out of my car Governor Huckabee's bus came rolling in past us. It was interesting to be a part of a campaign rally and observe. I'm still undecided but I like many of the things Mike Huckabee stands for.
Tonight it started snowing. Half of the Upstate will be closed tomorrow! I'm going to get up early, get some message prep out of the way, and take Thursday instead of my regular Friday off. It's going to be fun to take Ethan (and maybe Landon) and play in that white stuff! I told Ethan today on the way home that we were going to have snow tomorrow morning. He told me, "No daddy, no snow, pop-tart!" Sometimes you gotta say, "Whatever?"

Friday, January 11, 2008

New York City Coaching Network January Meeting
I spent today at the Journey Church office in Manhatten with 15 other pastors from around the nation for a coaching network I'm involved in. I've never been involved in a network like this. It's been a great benefit to me. The issue at hand today was that of evangelism. Pastor Nelson Searcy laid out four areas concerning this area: The Pastor's role, Personal Evangelism, Promotion, and Preservation/Preparation. One thing that stuck with me today was the "principle of spiritual readiness" we discussed. Those who use well what they are given will be given more. We can put some preparation into expecting God to work in our church and God will bless it. Roy Mansfield stated churches pray for the fire of God to fall down on their churches but don't prepare the wood to burn. Are we as a church preparing for God's blessing to fall down on us by getting ready for Him to entrust us with new babes in Christ? Growth groups we are starting next month are a great first step!
By the way, I shot a video in Times Square I am going to share Sunday morning in my message. It is short and sweet but I couldn't waste an opportunity to be in the most recognized place in the world and not use it in some way to illustrate a message point.