WOW

If our family was under different circumstance right now I would probably pack them all up and head off to Charlotte for Elevation's 2 year anniversary. God has taken this group from 121 to 4000 people in attendance in two years. Wow! Amazing! 1300 people came to Christ last year at Elevation!

Mind boggling. Inspiring.

PGTC

I just finished reading Tim Steven’s new book, Pop Goes the Church. Being from a very traditional background I have to say that I struggled through the first part of the book. At some points I got pretty squeamish but I read on, and man am I glad I did!

I am new to the whole concept of a church being “innovative”, I have to admit, so at first I really balked at some of the points that Tim was making. At one point I went to bed thinking, “Man! Why am I even READING this!?” But as I read on I found all of my concerns addressed from a Biblical and logical (almost embarrassingly glaring) perspective. Tim uses great examples from scripture of Jesus and Paul casting out with cultural hooks in order to bring in a catch of lost people (okay, that was my cheesy example, but you get the point). I’ve been brought up and heard time and time again that some churches are just entertaining people. Granted if that is all a church is doing, then they missed the boat and Tim spells that out very bluntly.

I was skeptical, but by the end of the book, I have to say I was on board. Great stuff. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Praise God for people like Tim who are willing to challenge us. Think like a missionary. Take the culture that people are living in, expressing their thoughts and feelings through, and use it to point them to Jesus.

Awesome.

WOW

140 people gave their lives over to Jesus at Elevation this weekend.

How cool is that.

EXCITING STUFF!!!

Awesome stuff.

Awesome God.

Amazing results.

Read about Elevation Church and what happened when they put God first and made their capital campaign all about what God can do. Inspiring.

Great post from Pastor Furtick today

Great comments about temptation, falling and turning to God for healing and forgiveness.

Good stuff.

Good weekend

We had the privilege yesterday to attend the kickoff of the new Unbreakable series at Sun Valley Community Church. The boards were breakin, the music was rockin' and the pastor was dead on target. Good stuff. We had the advantage of having three other families there that we knew, which is definitely a plus. We found SVCC to be very alive and very friendly. In our search for a church home SVCC is definitely on the short list.

Hunter commented that the teachers really seemed to communicate well with the kids. All of the kids were very involved and participated in the singing and the dancing... they were all really into it.

I love getting his take on the different churches and the things he observes. Very insightful seven year old.

HUGE sign of progress

If this isn't one of the BIGGEST signs of IMMENSE and UNDENIABLE progress in Iraq, I don't know what is.

It's largely been unreported, but the few groups in Iraq have suffered like the Christians who live there. The fact that this church was reopened with help from Christians and Muslims is huge.

A country is really free, not when all signs of God and religion have been removed, but when people have the ability to worship God freely and with rejoicing.

Another one.

Good stuff from Pastor Furtick today. If his blog is not a daily read yet, you are missing out!

Catch it here.