Fall Fury

So much is going on right now that I've got vertigo! It's an exciting and tiring time to be in ministry. With the coming of fall, there is low rumble as momentum begins to build in the church.

It starts with attendance rising as vacationers get back in town. Seacoast Church had an unbelievable weekend from an attendance standpoint. The numbers at the Greenville Campus were large, but the church as a whole blew the doors off! ...and I love what Pastor Geoff Surratt said at our All-Staff Meeting yesterday in Mt. Pleasant: "Numbers only matter if you care about lost people!"

Momentum continues to build as we gear up for the next semester of Small Groups. The "Get Smart" small group series that tracks with the weekend messages has really created a buzz. In fact, we're training about 25 new small group leaders for this fall---WOW! People are regularly emailing me about small groups, and how they can get plugged in--it's very cool. I can't wait until next Wednesday when we have our Small Group Chili Cookoff as a draw for unconnected people to come meet our 'chili cookin' small group leaders and get into a group!

The youth group is growing as well...Middle School All-Nighter coming up September 14th in Mt. Pleasant, and the High Schoolers are going out to Monterey's with some of our adult leaders and then to Frankie's Fun Park. Good times in youth ministry as we move toward more of a small group emphasis.

The Alpha course will begin in a few weeks, and more people will get discipled, and although our building situation is not ideal, God seems to be pouring out His blessings on us.

I think the key to success this fall (...and always) will be to continue lifting up Jesus and relying on the Holy Spirit----not my feeble efforts.

Whew...I'm going to bed! :)

Current Positives and Negatives

++
1. Amazing family
2. Doing a career I love with friends
3. Getting free books to read at work
4. Facebook and Myspace
5. Contentment
6. New Computer...soon
--
1. Unbearable August heat
2. A '95 Saturn SL2 with no A/C while cruising in #1 above
3. PCs that crash, burn and lose all your data (O iMac, Where Art Thou?)
4. Moving stuff from one room to another to another to another...
5. Shoulder injuries that wreak havoc on my workouts
6. The constant struggle of the will to maintain self-discipline

Summer Reading Update

The summer is rocketing past, but I can check one more text off my summer reading list. I just finished The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs. It's a biography that connects the events of Lewis' life with the works that he produced. How interesting to see what was happening in his personal life while he was producing his varied writings. It would have been useful if I were more familiar with the Lewis canon beyond the Chronicles of Narnia and the Screwtape Letters, but it was still excellent.

The tragedies of so many of Lewis' human relationships are heart wrenching, but the fact that he was pursued by the Hound of Heaven is so encouraging. God is not intimidated by scholarship or deterred by blatant unbelief. Rather, He presents us with His-story. The winsomeness of His narrative is so attractive that hard hearts are softened, and people of every background and training who will hear can fall into the loving arms of the truth of Jesus.

Favorite quote: p 210, ""God did not die for man because of some value He perceived in him...He loved us not because we were lovable, but because He is Love." It is His love that gives value; we do not possess it."

Note for the future: Either read these library books and return them on time, or BUY the book! This is going to be expensive.