Sunday Night in Albany

Well we just arrived in Albany New York after a six hour drive. Well what a great day! We have such a great bunch of team leaders at Jubilee and it has been a fun day of travelling with them. We are here for the Creative Church Conference put in by Ed Young of Fellowship Church inn Grapevine Texas. I am pretty excited about what God is doing at Jubilee right now and really enjoyed being in the house this morning. There was a hum in the foyer and a feeling of excitement in the foyer. Here are some things that are exciting me right now.

1. I feel like we are all begining to believe that God is doing something good, and that we are all willing to do our part in the goals we have set.
2. The new look, First Impressions team is really awesome and they are creating the environment of excitement and welcome that we have been working toward. Good job team!
3. we have been having quite a few visitors start to settle in and make Jubilee their home church, and I just want to give all of you a warm welcome to the family!
4. I was relieved to share the things that God has put in my heart as far as future vision and it also feels good to be officially working on transitioning to our new site.
5. Please, please, please start asking God who you should invite to church next week, I believe that God wants to touch people but He wants to work through us.

Well we have five guys in our room and most of them want to go to sleep now so I will keep you posted on the conference later this week. Have a great one!

Sunday Night Reflections!

What a great day today! I am so excited about what God is doing, I feel so blessed to be a part of it! Here are some of the great things that happened today!

1. I got news about Jeremiah today. He is doing great on his tour and Is really sensing that people are praying for him. By the way don't stop praying for him, he is on a mission for our country but also on a mission to reach lost people. So pray!
2. Heard some great reports of restored lives today. Couples getting back together, families coming back from crisis to have a stronger family. It is awesome to see that God is working in the marriages in the house and building something lasting and strong.
3. I have had a ton of comments from our men, about how they have been challenged through our "Why" series, and I am expecting a great service next week as we wrap it up with "Why Give"! I love the guys in our church, they love to be challenged.
4. Excellent worship this morning! I am so thankful for our worship team. I could really feel the presence of Jesus as we worshipped Him.
5. Pastor Bob showed the servant heart of our leaders, as He launched our parking team this morning! You are awesome Bob, thanks.
6. God is bringing new people to the church every week, and I am so excited about the new people He is bringing our way!
7. I love Jubilee and I feel so honoured that God has called me to pastor here,

Have a great night all!

Monday Morning Recap

Hi everyone! I am sorry it has been a while since I wrote on here but last week, I just needed to slow things down and get some time with God. I am excited to be back at it. Yesterday was a great day and I am so thankful to God that I get to pastor this church. so here are a few of the highlights of Sunday.

1. The worship was absolutely awesome! We have been working out a few glitches with sound and opening and things like that and yesterday it all came together. I am so happy with that.
2. I really sensed the presence of the Lord in the service and I know that lives were touched.
3. The Life group sign ups went great, we had a lot of people sign up and we are looking forward to a great Life Group session. If you have not yet signed up then get involved soon.
4. The videos and creative work done for Life Groups was amazing, and I want to thank Sylvie and Mike for all their work on Life Groups.
5. We had a bunch of visitors in the service and were thankful that we got the opportunity to serve them.

Have a great day!

Sunday Night Reflections

Wow! I am so tired, seven hours of sleep all weekend. What a great time we had up at camp with our young people! Here are a few Highlights of the weekend.

1. The youth worship team did an awesome job at leading us into the presence of God!
2. I could tell people were praying, because right from the first few minutes of our Friday night service the teens were responding and I felt like they had really open hearts, and were really wanting to meet with God on the weekend.
3. Kathryn Fleming was amazing! She was honest, transparent, challenging and inspiring (also pretty cool :)
4. We have an amazing group of young men and women in our church and they make me feel very positive about our future!
5. We have some really funny, and creative guys in our youth group and I want to thank them for make me laugh all weekend.
6. Nathan is working on a video of the camp experience so hopefully you will get a closer look soon!
7. Several young people made some serious steps forward in their relationship with God and I am so thankful and amazed that God has given me the opportunity to serve these amazing people again after a three year absence.
8. God is absolutely amazing and I am thankful that whenever we take the time to seek Him He always does great things!
9. A big thank you to Pastor Paul Yuke for speaking in the morning service at Jubilee, I have only talked to a couple of people, but I heard that you all had a fantastic morning also!

Here are a couple of things for all of you to think about.

1. What would you attempt if you knew that you could not fail?
2. What is God asking you to do that is making you feel uncomfortable?
3. What are you doing to keep your love for Jesus white hot?

Have a great night!

Sunday Night Reflections (A little late)

Of this one thing I am sure, God wants us to reach lost people. There is a fire inside of me right now that just keeps getting bigger all the time, and sometimes I feel like it will consume, and that fire is for lost people. I am at the point that I can't tolerate another moment of the same old same old and I hope you all feel the same way.

1. I think that yesterday was an amazing day.
2. One man who has been coming to our church for a long time put up his hand to receive Christ.
3. One of our young men renewed his commitment to live for Jesus as a 100% Christ follower. This may seem small and insignificant but I believe that it is Huge. Because that is what God is calling each of us to do right now, to commit to live as 100% Christ followers. He got it and I hope you did to!
4. I felt the presence of God in the house and when I was asking the question "What do I still lack?" God was moving in peoples hearts in a big way (People were wiping tears all over the room)
5. Someone told me yesterday that "I had to make a believer out of them" and when I asked them what they meant by that, they said "I have a hard time believing that we can baptize 100 people in this next eleven months". Here is what I asked him and what I want to ask anyone else who is struggling with that. Do you think that Jesus would want us to accomplish that? (the answer to that question would be yes) and secondly, would you be willing to work along with us at this goal? (The answer to this question should also be yes). So if it is God's will and we will get involved why wouldn't we be allowed to accomplish that. Besides don't you want to set a goal that you can only reach if God helps?
6. Great time was had by all at Jeremiahs farewell party!

Live life beyond the boundaries of what you think is possible and live within God's limitless boundaries! Have a great day!

Sunday Night Reflections

Oh man, am I tired. The three hour time change has fully taken hold not to mention the mental toll of all the info we took in this week. Anyway here are my thoughts on the day.

1. I don't think that I have ever spent more time preparing for a message then I did for the one I preached today, nor have I ever felt as confident that God would use what I said to work in the hearts of His people as I felt today.
2. I really felt that the service was effective as a whole and that we were all made to feel a little uncomfortable with the status quo.
3. I am begging God that we would all be impacted to really live our lives with a passion to reach out to lost people.
4. I got to spend time with some of our volunteer staff tonight and I am so blessed to get to build a great house along side of a bunch of people that I really love to be with.
5. I just want to remind you all that church is first a person you meet before it is a place you go. So be the kind of people that would attract others to Jesus and to the church!

Sunday Night Reflections

Just had dinner with the Flemings, the Geralds, and the Scanlons. I feel like it was the best Christmas ever and it is only August. I am so amazed at the blessing of God in my life and I just feel that His hand is upon us as a church. The people that He has brought into my life are just amazing. We got to Hang out with Steve and Beth all day (They are such a God send to Kristine and I) then tonight I was sitting beside Paul Scanlon at dinner and right across from Kevin Gerald. I think I am going to faint. Any way here are some of my thoughts for today.

1. God is really in love with People and we should be to.
2. The question is not, can God love people who sin? It is, can we love them?
3. The church should exist for those who are not yet reached.
4. Including all people in our circle of love as a church will mess with our routine
5. Our routine needs to be messed with.
6. God is really in love with people and we should be to.
7. And last but not least, God is in love with people and we should be to. (did I say that already?)

Here are some questions I am asking myself.

1. How do we become a church that is inclusive for all?
2. How serious are we, really about reaching the unchurched?
3. What price am I willing to pay to see God's dreams fulfilled?
4. Who else is there that is willing to pay the price with us?
5. God do you still make dreams come true?

I am so excited about what God is doing in my heart and life right now and I just know that as a church we are standing at the edge of something great. Please pray that Kristine and I will learn what we need to learn to go to the next level in our life and leadership.

Sunday Night Reflections

• I am really excited about what God is doing in my life. He is really pushing me to develop in a lot of areas right now and it has been challenging but inspiring. I think that so many times we get bogged down in what we think we can't do that we miss out on the amazing things God wants to do through us. Let's stop thinking we can't accomplish our dreams and let's move ahead with boldness and do everything that God has put in our hearts to do!
• Great service this morning. I want to encourage you all again that God has given us an amazing gift and He is off the hook when it comes to generosity, so let's be like Christ and model generosity in every area of our lives! Five new people showed up and I am believing to see this on a regular basis.
• Had a great time at the beach today, and was really excited to realize again how great of a church we are building, and that I am doing life and church with a bunch of amazing and dedicated Christ followers. Also realized that I am glad God called me to pastor and not throw a football for a living, because I am really bad at that.
• Looking forward to the Team Church Conference coming up later this month.
• Live life like it matters! (It does)

Sunday Night Reflections

Today was an amazing day! I am so excited to see what God is doing at Jubilee!

1. This mornings service was awesome, it was so good to back at home in our church with the people that we get to do life with. I love Jubilee and the people that we serve and I never feel that great about missing a Sunday.
2. It was exciting to see so many visitors this morning (13 first timers). If you were one of them we were so happy to have you join with us!
3. Even though I got to preach the message I was really convicted by it and I am working out what it will mean to me.
4. I am so stirred in my heart to believe and trust God that we can baptize 100 people in the next twelve months, not so we can look good but so that we can make the name of Jesus famous here in the area that God has called us to.
5. I am praying and trusting God that we will never be satisfied with where we are at but that we will continue to live big for Him!

Have a great night!

Sunday Night Reflections

What a great day! I just feel so excited about what God is doing and what He is going to do.

• This morning's worship was awesome, I could really feel the presence of the Lord in the House
• I feel so blessed that I get to do life with some of the most awesome people in the world!!!
• I really believe that God is asking us to really step out in faith as a church and believe that in the next twelve months that we can see 100 people follow the Lord in the waters of baptism. One of the things we are going to need to be in order to accomplish that is to be courageous and really start to go for the ask. We need to ask people questions that would move them toward Christ. We need to ask God who we need to reach out to. We need to ask people to come with us to church. I believe that God wants to impact our community but He needs some people to work through.
• I am begging God that He would help us bring people to Himself because I know that He has placed us here for a reason in this community, and it wasn't just to keep up the building and have club meetings.
• The message from Mark Beeson was absolutely challenging. I have a Sycamore tree in my front yard and now whenever I walk past it I am asking God who He wants me to share His love with, and I will never look at Kick the Can the same again. Who is there that is crying out to be free that you can share Jesus with.
• I am feeling so challenged by God to dig deeper during this time, because I really believe that He wants to do something great where we live. So let's bring up there, down here so our friends, loved ones, co-workers- and neighbors can experience a little bit of heaven on earth.

I want to encourage each of you to start praying for next weekends service. The message is going to be on healing and I am believing God for miracles in the House. Also start thinking about who you can invite (It is Cafe Sunday), and last, but definitely not least come with an expectant heart.

Have a great week all, I am praying for you!