Tweet You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ… Colossians 1:7 We have different methods of learning these days, than they had…
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Tweet We went to a fairly new restaurant recently as a family… It was new enough to have the opening bugs worked out, but still new to us… We were…
If you’ve been following my blog this week, I’m in Ecuador with a group of pastors on behalf of Compassion International.
We were blown away today as we entered a village in the mountains of Ecuador. It took an hour to drive the curvy dirt road, our bus got stuck, and we walked a short distance to the village. Upon rounding a corner, we saw a crowd waiting for us. Hundreds of children from the village had formed a receiving line where they gave us a rose (Ecuador is famous for their roses) and a homemade card welcoming us to their village. It was slightly overwhelming.
Have you ever received an overwhelming undeserved show of affection?
I can’t help but share this picture. This little boy warmed my heart (as did many others). I’m not sure he knew how cute he is!
It’s Friday discussion time!
Let’s discuss spiritual growth…specifically yours.
I’m always interested in spiritual growth, because…well…that’s kind of what I do!
Help me by telling me some of your spiritual growth process.
To help you think, consider answering some or all of these questions:
Are you closer to God today than you were a year ago?
If not, what changed?
Is yes, what did you do differently?
What helps you most to grow spiritually?
Was there a time in your life where you felt the closest to God?
Who is mostly responsible, in your opinion, for your spiritual growth?
Do you practice any spiritual disciplines, such as Bible reading, prayer, fasting, tithing, etc.? If so, what do you do?
What changes would you need to make to grow more spiritually?
Help me out…tell me about your spiritual growth…
Discuss…engage…Go!
This week I’m in Ecuador with a group of pastors and ministry leaders, including our family pastor Michael Bayne, and my good friend Casey Graham.
We are here on behalf of Compassion International seeing the work they do to improve the world of children around the world.
We will see first hand where an individual’s monthly dollars to support Compassion children goes. I look forward to reporting to you what I see. I’ve never been to Ecuador, but so far it looks much like countries I have seen, such as Costa Rica, Brazil, and Mexico. I have learned, however, that there is a rich uniqueness about each people group and I’m excited to explore this one.
Please pray for our team and check out the ministry of Compassion International.
Like many of you, I use my Facebook account every day. There are some things I like and some things I don’t like about this means of social media.
Let me share first what I like:
Do you know that nervous energy you get when you face the uncertainty of life?
You feel it when you assume a overwhelming risk?
It’s that emotion…that adrenaline rush…
You feel it deep in your gut…
Ever felt it?
Well here’s the reality…
Some of us…as awkward, difficult, stressful, and even painful as it can be…
Live for that emotion…
You’ll find it in…
I love the vision Grace Community Church has to impact our community. Our people serve their community throughout the year. The largest project, and the one that draws the most attention, is our annual Operation Serve held each fall where hundreds of volunteers serve in a one (sometimes two) day blitz of community needs. I’ve written about it before HERE. This past year over 1,300 people logged some 10,000 hours of service to our community meeting all kinds of practical needs.
Well, another project is stirring interest. Our community, like many others nationwide, have experienced struggles adequately funding school systems. Enter Operation Serve School Edition.
April 9th we hope to have hundreds of people volunteering in all 35 schools in our public school district. Operations Serve School Edition invites the community to participate with our church in landscaping, painting, cleaning, and completing other things the school needs done, but the budget simply can’t provide. The schools are compiling lists now and materials are being acquired.
To accomplish such a large task, we are also partnering with 5 Star Radio Group. They are providing publicity to recruit volunteers and providing tremendous moral support the day of the event with live remotes.
It’s catching on already. Here are a few articles already talking about Operation Serve School Edition:
Operation Serve: School Edition
Church aims to renovate entire school system
Church To Fix Up 35 Schools In 1 Day: Grace Community Church In Clarksville Seeks Volunteers
Besides the fact that we meet in a school…actually two schools…and doing a church our size and age would be very difficult without this partnership, it makes sense to partner with our schools because:
I’m away for a few days relaxing with Cheryl and another couple. We are at a beach, eating well, and doing basically nothing. I will spend some time reading, running, and writing…because that’s relaxing to me.
I thought I’d use this as an opportunity to ask the question:
What do you do to relax?
What’s a normal relaxation experience like…the kind you do often (hopefully)? What is a dream relaxation experience (the kind you plan and budget for)?
Go! Share!
Theory: The rate of increase, often determines the rate of decline.
In my early twenties, I was working in retail and this theory developed in my mind as I watched dozens of items gather immediate interest, grow rapidly in popularity, quickly rack up sales, but then as a fad changed, the item sales just as quickly decline. I called it my “fad theory”. Other items grew slower, but styles changed gradually and so they slowly began to decline in sales.
Let me give you two classic examples I observed firsthand: