Apology to Marissa

I am sorry that I did not put a post in about the loss of another of our family members. Ginger Rush (Marissa's Teddy Bear Hamster) passed away on Father's Day. I seriously did not mean to leave it out. I got a call from home before church started that morning and drove straight home to hug a broken hearted girl. She was a great pet for Marissa for almost 2 years. Hamster's do not live much past that because of their metabolism. Marissa learned a lot taking care of Ginger. She learned responsibility. She learned that something else depended on her in a very important way. I will say that Marissa loved Ginger the way a great pet owner loves a pet.

While Ginger is gone - she will never be forgotten. I am sure that we will all remember her and that Marissa will always cherish the memories of ONE GREAT HAMSTER!!!

A Sense of Accomplishment

We are leaving next week for vacation/camping in Yellowstone (thanks to Buddy and Mary Camp for loaning us their trailer). I have been thinking about it for some time now. I am anxious to get out in God's great outdoors and see His majesty.

Part of the deal of borrowing the trailer was that I needed to install a trailer brake controller on our Trailblazer. In my past, I used to do things like that all the time. Did I say in the PAST!!!! Well, I went and bought the controller and googled information about how to install it. I got home and began the installation and could not find the wire loom that was supposed to be pre-installed by the manufacturer. Soooooo, I went back to Google and found a better article. To make a long story short - I FOUND IT!! I finished the installation and voila - so far so good.

STEP 1 complete towards our journey. The next step is now to go and hook up the trailer and make sure that everything else works. I will keep you posted.

When God Shows Off

After yesterday I feel as though I need to say something. Sunday's at Immanuel keep getting better and better. I serisously mean that. Just when I think it can not get any better, God shows up and makes me eat my words. Here is what I mean.

Yesterday started out pretty normal when Ray and I got the privilege to make coffee for our Bible Fellowship Groups (this is our weekly service ritual). Then the staff gathered for an awesome time of prayer. There are a lot of hurting people within our congregation and we get the privilege every Sunday to lift some of them up in prayer. Then people started showing up for Bible Fellowship at 7:45. I was able to go into the service before teaching my class at 9:00 and say hello to some people who I had not seen since the week before. Then I went and taught my class, which is growing and always an incerdible blessing!!! We had an awesome time discussing the book of Habakkuk (we are in the minor prophets right now). As soon as Bible Fellowship was over we went to the 10:40 service and God continued to show off. The praise time was great and pastor's message was fantastic. As if that were not enough, we had a class fellowship at both our house and our great friends, John and Teresa's house, after church. We ate our house and swam at theirs. It was a great time. The day was capped off with last night's service. The praise time was again great and Doug preached a great message.

All this makes me anxious to see how God is going to show off again next week!!!

Seeting our focus

I just got back from our staff retreat yesterday. Of course I am not too sure why we call it staff retreat because it is more like a staff planning conference. This year the goal was to reset our focus. To really clarify what Immanuel is to be about. We have a great purpose statement.

Glorifying God by introducing Jesus Christ as Lord to as many people possible, using the most effective means, leading them to be imitators of Christ, making a positive difference as a community of believers, in this generation and the next.

It was agreed that our purpose is good, but that we need to boil it down to some specific tasks the church should do in order to accomplish the ultimate goal of Glorifying God. So here are the four specific tasks.

1. Attract people to church
2. Connect them to the body
3. Grow them up in Christ
4. Empower and equip them to SERVE

Now comes our task of really developing that and communicating it to everyone.....

Me Church

Check This Out..

Father's Day and Going to Church

Tomorrow is Father's Day. I am going to enjoy the day by going to church. Some father's choose to set the day aside and have "their" time (sometimes this includes not coming to church). It is my prayer that this Sunday we see many father's doing the right thing and leading their families to worship!

I had the privilege of growing up in a home where my dad made sure that every Sunday we were in church. There were very few excuses for missing church that he would ever allow. As a father it is my responsibility to be the pace setter in my family and make sure they see me worshiping in and out of church.

Some might say that this is religion. I say it is biblical (Do not forsake the assembling together). Going to church energizes and equips me for the work that God has called me to perform for Him.

So... See all you fathers in church this Sunday!!! Let's celebrate and worship our Heavenly Father together!!!

Proud to be a Partner

I have been on staff at Immanuel for seven years (actually it will be seven on the 23rd of this month). I realized very early (actually before I came on staff) that Immanuel was a church which was built on obedience to the Great Commission and God's Word. The reputation of Immanuel in the community and beyond was a well known fact. After coming to Immanuel I realized that this was the case because the Pastor is obedient to the Word of God.

As I am sure many of you know, our pastor spoke the final word at this years Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in San Antonio (when it is in the archived file I will post the link). I watched the entire sermon and was prouder than ever to partner along side a pastor who knows what it means to be obedient to God's Word. I am sure that there were those who disagreed with him; however, if they did then they clearly are in disagreement with God's Word and with God Himself.

It is my prayer that as a church we lay aside any complacency and pursue exactly what God's Word tells us. We are to GO. I also pray that this concept again seeks into the very DNA of our church body. We have the best news in the world and we should refuse to be silent. Get excited Immanuel because God is moving us forward!!!!

They Call it Baseball

After dinner tonight Marissa asked if we could go and play catch. So we went out to the front to do just that. It did not take too much time before we had a crowd of about 10 kids outside. Marissa asked if we could play baseball, after a little thought I gave in. We played 3 innings of sandlot ball.

WHAT A BLAST. My team consisted of 3 girls and me. The other team had 3 boys and 2 girls. Needless to say we had a great time. The kids batted, pitched and played themselves silly (of course I include myself in that group). The game ended in a 2 - 2 tie. I guess I am just going to have to give in again so we can finish what we started.

Alright kids - bring it on....

Recap for the Weekend

As weekends go, I thought that this last weekend was a great one. It started out Friday morning with Gretchen and I going on a mid day date. We went to Ocean's 13 (4 stars out of 5) then went to Chili's in Redlands for lunch. After almost 20 years of marriage I still enjoy going on date's with my wife. We just enjoy each others company - so it is always great to get some one-on-one time with each other.

You can read my post about my Saturday morning and afternoon. Saturday evening we went with David, Lisa, Jerry and Judy to the Cherry Festival. WHAT A BLAST (5 out of 5 stars). We had great food and fun just walking around and spending time together.

SUNDAY was great. Our Bible Fellowship Ministry seemed to go really great. We launced a new ladies department (S.O.S. Single on Sunday). Thanks to Norma, Sallie, Brande and Amee it was a great success. Then we had a meeting with our Blended Families Department to discuss how to launch a new department by the end of summer. I will keep you posted on how that goes. It really looks like more than a department will come of that meeting.

My own class was GREAT!!! The lesson really spoke to me (before, during and after). I really felt the class begin to gel together. GOOD TIMES ARE AHEAD.

Saturday but Sunday is Coming

It was a typical Saturday. Typical for when Upward is in session that is. We got up and went to the game. Team Lightning played against the Bulldogs (arguably the best team in the 3rd and 4th grade division - of course I am not sure how I know that since we do not keep score). Needless to say, it was.... Well, on to the next practice to get ready for next week.

Then we came home and I got to do one of the things I like most. YARD WORK! I am serious about that. I love working in and around my yard. To me it is therapy. It is one of the most relaxing things I get to do. You may be right, I may be crazy (Thanks Billy Joel). Then I got to clean up the garage. Enough said about that. After that I washed my golf clubs.....

The rest of the afternoon was pretty relaxing as we chilled out and got ready to head out to Beaumont for the Cherry Festival with our best friends David and Lisa. I will let you all know about that later.

Tomorrow is church. I am anxious about what will happen then. I pray that people will come ready to get charged up to take the message of the gospel out into our community and world.

SEE YOU THERE!!!!

Getting Ready for Summer

Summer is almost here. Meagan and Marissa have only 5 days of school left. Malory has to go one extra week. I am anxious for them to get out. I remember very well how excited I was when I knew school was going to be out. No more homework or tests for three months (of course now it is more like two months). Just a time to relax and recuperate from a busy 9 months.

I am looking forward to this summer. As a family we have some fun things planned. We have Gretchen's uncle flying all the way in from Maine to spend a week with us. He has never been to California so we are going to take him to Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo, the beach and whatever else we can do in the short time he is here.

Right after that we are going on a camping trip to Yellowstone. I think I was 5 when I went the first time and have not been back since. The same goes for Gretchen. The girls have never been so, (thanks to Buddy and Mary Camp) we are loading up the trailer and going for 5 fun filled days in Yellowstone. WE ARE PUMPED!!!!

After we get back there are a lot of church things happening. Camps, VBS, youth group outings and much more to keep us busy. Did I say this was a time to relax????

Launching Pads

I have been doing some reading and thinking about how our Married Adult Bible Fellowship Groups function. After some consideration I think they basically function two ways.

1. Holding Tanks
2. Launching Pads

Holding tanks are just that. They hold people with little thought to fulfilling the great commission. Every once in a while they might give something out, but for the most part they are content with just keeping the same people in the same place.

Launching pads are places where the great commission is aggressively promoted and lived out. These are place where it is a natural occurrence to invite friends, find a place of service, reach out to the lost, etc.. Launching pads are exciting! They are places where growth (spiritual and numerical) occur naturally.

I guess the question that I am asking is - what kind of department are you a part of?