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Why my church is amazing 1 of until I’m done

People are getting saved.

I am not excited because I see them “walking the aisle” or going to the prayer room. That is not how you tell if someone is saved. In all my years of ministry, I have seen many, many people take the walk and never show up again.

I am excited because I see them raise their hands, fill out a card and then get plugged in to the life of the church.

I love watching people make a true Biblical profession of their faith through water baptism.

My church is amazing because it is all about what Jesus has done for us. Everything we do is because He died for us and we believe everyone should know Him like we do.

If you do not see your church people bringing their friends on a regular basis and then seeing new people saved…

God, thank you for the amazing church called The ROCK that you planted in our city. Thank you for giving an amazing vision to our pastor. Thank you for allowing me to serve in this ministry.

My church is amazing because the Great Commission is being realized.  There is still a lot of work to do but the excitement continues to build.

Leave a comment and tell us what makes your church awesome.

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How to cut a kid’s hair

Coni did an amazing job cutting the boys’ hair. She figured out how to keep Adam still… that is, until he scores and celebrates.

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

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Thanksgiving fun

Most of our family and friends are gone. So, Jen and Adam decided to disguise themselves. Enjoy!

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

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I’m thankful for…

Today, I’m reminded that I have a lot to be thankful for. I can’t even begin to list all of the things for which I am grateful. So, I will just give you a few.

Jesus, Jennifer, Gabriel, Noah, Adam, my mom & dad, Matthew,  The ROCK, our ministry staff, St. Arbucks, the Grand Cozumel, our Small Group Leaders, HandUp team, ushers, greeters, prayer teams, motorcycle rides on winding roads, diving with sharks, shrimp & grits, my smokin’ hot wife, air conditioning, iPhone, wireless internet, summer time, hot winter nights, meat, Jason Bourne, oxygen, amazing leaders in my city like Jeff, Mike, Tim, Tom and many others, people who say thank you (even when it’s not necessary), my beautiful city, eating calamari and lobster with Megs, poker with friends (it’s been too long, Thanksgiving movies and banjos.

God has blessed me. My family has blessed me. Every time you read and comment on this blog, you bless me.

Thank you.

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In my head (long post)

The last few months have been a whirlwind. It’s a good thing I like adventure. Many of the recent events in our lives have been amazing and some of them have been heartbreaking. But, I believe God has been with us through them all. Allow me to take a few minutes to tell you what God is doing.

• September brought kidney stones to Jen, dad and me at the same time! Dad had lithotripsy, I had a cystoscopy and Jennifer just passed hers by herself. She made us look bad.
• September also delivered two ovarian cysts to Jen resulting in the need for surgery.
• In October, Mom, dad, Matthew and Valerie went to Bulgaria to minister to pastors at a leadership conference.
• I took the first four weeks of October to speak to our youth at FlipSide about love, sex and dating. I really enjoyed getting to hang out and talking about love.
• Just four weeks after Jen’s surgery and the cysts were back with a vengeance. We’ve been trying to fend off surgery. With only one remaining ovary, we are believing God to preserve this one and heal her completely. It is amazing what Jen is accomplishing in Kid’s ROCK while struggling with intense pain. I am so humbled to be married to such greatness.
• Noah has been nominated by his teachers to participate in a youth leadership forum in Washington, DC next year. If he attends, he will be able to meet political leaders, receive advance training in leadership and learn from Sean Covey. Oh, yeah, NOAH IS 9 YEARS OLD!
• Adam turned 7 in October. Man, he is growing up fast. He had a great year playing flag football .
• Gabriel turned 12 in October. If he stands still, you can watch him get taller! His progress report this week showed that he has been working his rear end off and his grades reflect that. He makes me proud.
• In October, I took four weeks to teach on Jonah. I believe we are all Jonah. The question is which chapter of Jonah are we? You can listen to the messages HERE or subscribe to our podcast HERE. On the last week of Jonah, dad gave me the greatest compliment I have ever received. He said the message was the most significant, prophetic message he had ever heard about the direction of our church. My head did not swell with that compliment. It did just the opposite and I was humbled to the point of lacking words.
• Dad and I went with David and Vivian Beech to the International Leadership Summit hosted by Dr. Myles Monroe in Nassau, Bahamas. It was amazing. I’m going back next year and I hope to bring alot of ROCKERS with us.
• While in the Bahamas, we received the report of my aunt Kristy Dykes. Kristy is married to Milton (mom’s brother). They found a tumor in her brain on November 7th and their families’ world has been shaken since then. You can read Kristy’s account of the diagnosis HERE. Mom, immediately left to be with the family and dad followed soon after our return to Wilmington. The medical reports are not good. But, God is in control. Please pray for them and send them a comment of encouragement on Kristy’s blog. We love you Uncle Milton and Aunt Kristy.
• Jennifer got a great medical report this week that her cysts are continuing to shrink. The shrinking process is very painful for Jen. But, it’s much preferable to surgery. God is up to something and it’s awesome!
• Today, two major milestones at The ROCK happened on the same day. I had the honor of teaching the first membership class where dad was not a part of the class. Thank you, dad, for believing in me to share the vision. The second milestone is that the class was done in 3 hours and 15 minutes! When The ROCK first began, Membership Class took 10 weeks! We eventually convinced dad to reduce it to 5 weeks. This year, we presented all 5 sessions on the same day. It was a long (9-4) day. Today, we began at 9am and were done by 12:15p! WOW!
• Tomorrow is going to be amazing! You have got to be at The ROCK to see how the message begins. I’ll bet you a dollar that tomorrow you will experience a first in church.
• Oh, yeah. We also found out a few weeks ago that I’m going to be an uncle again!

Sorry for the long post. I have actually left quite a few adventures out of this for brevity’s sake. There have been many, many stories in our family and church that have made me more and more excited about what God is doing. I could count at least 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12 things that I did not include in this post.

What’s happening in your world?

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