Weekend Update

Okay, after a weekend like this, I couldn't pass up a chance to share the great stuff God is doing at LifePoint Church right now. Too fired up to sleep, so blogging commences:

• Loved the way the crowd responded to Matt Hein and company this weekend in worship! Lots of energetic singing to some juiced up Christmas carols. It can be a challenge to worship to some of the carols, but the arrangements and the spirit of the leaders and the crowd made it a spiritual moment each service!


• Great to hear the response to the picture of Sunny and Jaxon (and Gracie, of course), and to share the joy of that family's new addition, as well and let folks know she's going to be back in February.


• Yes, there was a Josh Uht sighting in our 10:45 service! He, his wife Johanna and his mom Mary were here for a quick visit. If you haven't heard, Josh is our new Worship Pastor, and he's going to be starting in January, so pray for them as they prep for their move here from California.


• Heard great updates about the 12 Ways Of Christmas, SO pumped to hear that we had OVER 400 ORNAMENTS come off the Legacy Tree and turn into presents for people all over our valley. Lots of folks are going to get a gift of love this Christmas, thanks to generous people at LifePoint!


• And the Great School Bakeoff was a hit! 17 schools worth of teachers received goodies and encouragment this week from generous Lifers. NICE!!


• Can't wait to hear the total for the caroling parties this week!


• Lining up for our 5 Christmas Eve services, we've got literally 100's of volunteers ready to share God's love at our services. Can't wait to see what happens there! (Who are YOU going to invite??)


• Hearing a lot of folks taking up the challenges of the these past few weekends to allow God to mess up OUR plans in order to get in on HIS plan which is ALWAYS BETTER!!


• Bonus! Hanging with my small group tonight, we were working on how we can jump in on some more of the 12 Ways Of Christmas and share some love. It's great to be in a group with committed Christ-followers who are willing to get involved!!

Okay, for a blog that wasn't going to fire up again until January - That Looks Fired UP!!!

Merry Christmas!!

The lyric that keeps running through my head is from the Chris Tomlin version of Joy to the World: "Joy! Unspeakable JOY! An overflowing well, No tongue can tell! Joy! Unspeakable Joy! Rises in my soul, Never lets me go!"

Ever since we started working on our Christmas Eve services, that song has been in my head and heart. Unspeakable Joy! God loves us so much, He wouldn't let us alone. He gave the most expensive, beautiful, amazing, personal, thoughtful gift ever: Jesus! Angels sang because the joy is too much to just say, it had to be sung! The shepherds didn't just listen to the news, they had to see it for themselves. The Magi saw the star and didn't just imagine what it was about, they had to go see the newborn King.

So when people ask why we did six Christmas Eve services, it's simple: it's because we had to. We had to celebrate the gift of love that God gave us in Jesus. We had to share with our community the joy we feel for what God has done and is doing in us. We had to remind ourselves that it's not about us, but about the Best Gift Ever.

We had over 2600 people come to our services the last three days, including an overflow crowd of 800+ for the 4:30 service yesterday. Lots of new faces, lots of folks bringing their friends, neighbors and co-workers to come share the JOY. Such a great turn out has to be the work of tons of Lifers making the effort to invite people. Way to GO!

What I'm most proud of is the amazing group of volunteers who gave of themselves to build the sets, play the songs, usher the crowds, care for the kids, bake the cookies, serve the coffee and cocoa, play the nativity scene parts, dance their legs off, sing their hearts out and generally give of their gifts to celebrate the Gift of Jesus this year. I was so blessed and blown away by the hearts of those who came early, stayed late, sweated the details and gave their best to make the services a great experience for all who came.

To the volunteers: THANK YOU for all you gave to make it wonderful! (take the weekend off, you deserve it!!) To the staff: THANK YOU for your incredible servant-leadership. You blessed and blessed, gave and gave. I'm proud to be a part of your team! To all who came and brought friends and neighbors: THANK YOU for making the effort, taking the chance, and filling the house, just like Jesus said to!

Merry Christmas, everyone! May God's Best Gift be yours in fuller and fuller measure this year, and may your hearts be full of Unspeakable Joy!!

Just Got Back From Dress Rehersal

So glad we get to rehearse first, because working the bugs out is important, but after our dress rehearsal tonight, I'm excited. We're going to offer six Christmas Eve services at LifePoint Church, and the music, dancing, drama, all of it will be an opportunity to celebrate the gift of God's love in Jesus. And from the shepherds to the singers, the wise men to the tech crew, we're fired up to share God's love with the people who come.

If you are coming to our services, please get there early, bring a friend, sit up close, and be ready to enjoy the celebration! If you can't make it (all my Idaho, Tennessee, Oregon and Washington peeps!), please pray for us! We have an opportunity to share God's love with thousands of people this year, and we want to do our best for God's glory.

It's going to be great, don't miss it! I'll try to blog after each night's services and let you know how it goes.

Merry Christmas, and All God's Best!!

Giving Myself a Gift This Christmas

I figured out what I need for Christmas. I'm not sure what I want (I want a lot of things, but they are just that... wants. And not many are going to fit in the budget, but that's a post for a different day), but I know what I need.

I need permission.

I have some feelings. I'm a guy, so I have a harder time verbalizing them or even recognizing them, but I recognize the symptoms of having them. I'm feeling those symptoms today, so I know that there are some feelings rattling around in my life.

So I was talking to a friend today, and they said that I needed to give myself permission to feel those feelings. It was the most simple thought, but it was huge for me, an epiphany, "like lightning hit my brain!"

I am going to give myself permission this Christmas to feel my feelings. I'm going to be okay with having them, with acknowledging them, and with dealing with them. Period. It will be the best present I can give myself this year. Permission to feel? GRANTED! I can feel what it is like to be in a new place for Christmas, what it feels like to miss my friends, what it feels like to want to be with my family and know that I can't. I can feel anticipation for Christmas and the little nervousness of wanting to do well my first time at LifePoint Church on Christmas Eve. I can feel the awkwardness of new friendships and the distance of old ones. I give myself permission.

I was reminded that emotions and feelings are all over the Bible, even among leaders of God's people. So I'm in good company. Moses, David, Jeremiah, even Jesus had feelings. Mary was scared, so the angel said, "Don't be afraid." Peter got mad, Paul got frustrated, and on down the list. We all have feelings.

Do you need permission to feel this Christmas? It's okay, give yourself the gift of feeling your feelings. Then, each time you do, say a prayer and ask God to show you if there is bitterness, or fear, or unforgiveness or something else under those feelings that needs to be rooted out and dealt with. Because the greatest gift you could give yourself is the freedom that comes from allowing God's help into your life to deal with difficult emotions, feelings and situations.

This Christmas, enjoy the gift of feeling. Feel all of it: the wonder, the love, the grace, the amazement of the gift of Jesus Christ. Feel it all. Take it all in, and give great thanks to the giver of all good gifts.

It's the Waiting...

I'm excited for this weekend. The second in our Thoughtful Gifts series is coming (aren't you at least a little curious what Frankincense is all about?), the announcement I get to make about the food pantry is so cool, and the song right before the teaching will be...

But it's Christmas, so we have to wait. No peaking! No hints, no pinching the presents, no shaking the packages.

That's one place where Easter and Christmas are so different. Easter is a weekend, perhaps a whole week. Christmas is a season. It is weeks long, even if you have the patience to wait for Thanksgiving to be over before you start. We have a whole season of Christmas, which means a lot of waiting until the big day.

In some churches, they celebrate the waiting with the tradition of Advent, the time right before Christmas, leading up to and waiting for the coming Savior. Can you imagine, celebrating waiting? But we wait at Christmas. We wait through the season to the celebration. We wait to unwrap the gifts under the tree. We wait.

Just like the world waited for a Savior. Just like Israel waited for Messiah. Just like we wait today for the return of our triumphant King of Glory. Waiting isn't my favorite part, but it is a big part of Christmas and following Jesus.

Merry waiting. May the time we spend be time not wasted, but time invested in the now and coming Kingdom of God.

Christmas Time Is Here...

All day, that song from the Peanut's Christmas special is in my head. I've always been a "no Christmas until after Thanksgiving" guy, but this year is different. First, all the prep work for Christmas had to be started on much earlier for me than I'm used to, and second, the constant unpacking of boxes in our house has meant that its felt a lot like Christmas for a while anyway.

One of the boxes we have unpacked is the gift my staff and elders in Pocatello gave us as a going away present. It's a wonderful nativity scene, with wise men and shepherds, cows and baby Jesus. Beth collects nativity scenes, but this one is obviously special to us. The staff each wrote a message on the back of bottom of the characters, and I purposely didn't read them until we pulled the set out this year. I wanted to save some of the joy for later, and now it was suddenly later. It was good to think about my friends back in Idaho, and to remember their generosity and grace to us.

All of Christmas is like that. We spend a lot of time being nostalgic, thinking back to Christmases past, remembering friends and loved ones, sharing thoughts of good times we had. And hopefully, we also spend a little time thinking about the greatest gift we've ever received, Jesus Christ coming to Earth to be our Savior. Maybe, in all the hustle and bustle, above the nostalgia and the memories, we can also take some time to think ahead to the day we get to unwrap the rest of the gift of Jesus, the day we see Him face to face. Maybe in the midst of it all, you and I can find some time to think about what waits for us in the future, too. All the generosity of God's grace isn't contained in the past, or even in the present. There's a future to grace, a future with Christ in Heaven, looking at Jesus the way the shepherds did, singing to Him like the angels did, and touching His had like Mary and Joseph must have in that stable.

Just a Christmas thought to start your month.

Catching Up

Okay first, thanks for hanging in and being patient with me. Things have been intense lately, and I haven't had moments to read blogs, much less write one. So, here's the update, and the plan going forward:

After a process that tried my patience to the MAXIMUM, Beth and I were able to purchase a house last month. It's a very nice three bedroom home with a great kitchen, and a back yard full of... potential. It was bank owned, so the yard was abandoned months and months ago, leaving the grass and most of the trees dead. It will be a project for the spring, but some nice folks from church put in new grass in the front yard, so the neighbors like us right away. The house is closer to the church and in a nice neighborhood, close to Rachel's school and Mac's best friends. I just tried out the walking trail this morning, it is in great shape. I, however, am not.

We have spent the last month packing up, moving our stuff over, unpacking and setting up the new house, so workouts and just about anything else has been on the back burner. Other than cheering the SF Giants to the World Series win (while unpacking boxes), there's been little on the 'fun' side of the ledger. I'm so tired of cardboard right now...

Also while all the packing and moving and unpacking has gone on, we've been working on the budget for LifePoint Church. We're changing our fiscal year to start in July, so we're doing a 'mini-budget' for January through June. It's been a challenge to change how we think about budgeting and to try to forecast our congregation's giving going into the New Year. What's the economy going to do here? What's the excitement level going to be for what God is unveiling to us about the future?

The move of placing Pastor Mark Marsella over our small group ministry and take him out of Worship Arts has already paid dividends. We're seeing a huge influx of people wanting to be in groups, and we're praying and looking for leaders to rising to the surface to take on those groups. Mark and Gayle just went to a training event in Stockton this week, so progress and a plan for the future are both being made.

I'm excited about the current series, "Name That 'Tude," and Pastor Roy gets another opportunity to teach in this one. The Christmas series, set design, Christmas Eve services and all that are coming together very nicely right now, and the energy is building. I'm fired up to see what the end of this year and the start of 2011 have in store for us in God's plan.

Okay, that will get you (mostly) caught up. I'm going to try to blog two to three times a week, and we'll see what comes out of it. God is teaching me some great lessons, reminding me of some more great lessons I learned along my journey, and preparing me for more lessons to learn. It's an exciting time, and a time to learn to trust God more and more.

Who Are You Going To Invite To HOPE?

Christmas Eve is tomorrow. The last day to shop, wrap and ready yourself before Christmas Day. It's also when we as a church family are going to celebrate the Person behind all the festivities, Jesus Christ. God's gift to us is hope, and as we've been looking at Thoughtful Gifts this Christmas season, we're going to finish with a bang.

So bring someone. Somebody in your life needs hope. The economy has people scared. The war has people nervous. The problems we face in our nation and community has people on edge. Give them the gift of hope this year. Bring someone with you to one of the Christmas Eve services, 6 pm and 8 pm. You'll be glad you did. They will be glad, too.

Merry Christmas!

What Do You Talk About At Christmas Time?

I was at the gym the other day, and a guy whom I see there a lot stopped me with a question:

"So what are you talking about Sunday?"

What you need to know is that this man is what we in the church call 'de-churched,' he used to go to church, but he quit going years ago, let go of his faith and never looked back. We have conversations from time to time about spiritual subjects, and I've invited him to church a few times. He threatens to show up. I'm still hopeful.

Back to our conversation at the gym: he asked if I was doing the old stand-by stuff this Christmas. That's the interesting dilemma that we have as speakers in church - the Christmas story is pretty well played out for some folks. There's all the players - angels, Mary, shepherds, Joseph, the inn keeper, the wise men, the manger, the star... who hasn't heard all of that? Maybe a few people, but there are few over the age of 10 who haven't heard at least a majority of all that. What do you say that's fresh? How do you tell the same old story in a new way?

I told him what we were doing, the Thoughtful Gifts series. I told him about having frankincense in church and how it came from trees. He asked me what myrrh was. I told him he needed to come hear for himself on Sunday. He smiled. Pray with me that he does.

It's always an interesting process to go through, figuring out what to say at Christmas time. It's interesting all the time, but especially at Christmas. So this year, my goal has been to do two things - share the same old Christmas story in the most creative and thought provoking way I can, and then not worry if people have heard any of it before. All of us need a reminder of the hope that Christmas brings, and if there is anyone who comes who doesn't know the real reason for celebrating Christmas, they'll hear it as clearly as I can say it.

I just finished the message for this Sunday. No, I don't have any myrrh, sorry. But it's going to be the most hopeful and most challenging message I've ever given at Christmas time. Don't miss it. I can't wait to see what God does with this one.

Which leads me to Christmas Eve next week. Make plans to be there, and bring someone with you who needs some hope this year. For some, it's been a hard year on many levels. Bring someone who needs to know Hope was born in a stable in Israel 2000 years ago. And if you've heard the story, don't let that get you so jaded that you forget there are thousands of people in our community that haven't. They may know the players and the plot, but they don't know how it really ends. Bring them for the Christmas surprise of their lives! Jesus came to set us free from sin! All our guilt can be gone! All our hope restored! All our hearts made new!

Remember that this is the easiest time to get someone to come to church with you. Remember that Jesus died for your friends and neighbors as much as He died for you. Remember that Christmas is a gift that you can give. Remember Jesus this Christmas.

Getting Hope For Christmas

Sunday was just an amazing day, I love Christmas when God is moving and stirring in His people! Some highlights:

• The four baptisms were great, but knowing the back story on each of those folks was even cooler. God has been at work in the lives of these four individuals in four unique and custom created ways. It was a privilege to be in the tank with them all and witness their public expression of putting their hope in Jesus.
  
• The look on the faces of people when I pulled out a lump of real frankincense was fun to watch! I had never seen it in my life before that morning, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. Folks were genuinely curious about the stuff that wise men gave to Jesus.
  
• I love sharing the good news of God's grace at Christmas time, it seems so natural to talk about God giving His best to us, and all of us needing to receive His gift.
• I appreciate Karl and the team working so hard to make Christmas music into something worshipful. It's harder than you might think to take what we all have sung at Christmas all of our lives and make it into something that worships the Great Gift of Christ.
  
• The blessing of being in a church family was evident all around. I know several people stepped in to help Stacy and Eric Rude with their trip to California for Stacy's father's funeral. I'm always so encouraged to see people be generous when they see a need. I know Stacy and Eric will be touched, too.
• The Student Ministry worship team was getting some work done after church, and I can't wait to hear the teens in our church family start leading in worship.
  
• The Children's Ministry had a Christmas themed thank you potluck for all their volunteers, and I got to go as Mac's escort. It's a cool thing as a parent to see your children start to serve and be givers in ministry in their teen years, and I was proud to go with him to an event where he was being encouraged for serving, along with dozens of other volunteers.
  

Just another great Sunday of ministry and grace at FBC!!

Thoughtful Gifts

I'm getting the feeling that Christmas is for real this year. I spent my lunch hour helping Beth shop for a gift for her office Christmas party tonight. So that's Christmas shopping, presents and a party today already.

The message series for Christmas this year is Thoughtful Gifts, looking at the gifts that the Magi brought to honor Jesus. The old song, We Three Kings, while not exactly accurate about the number of kings, gets the gifts right, gold, frankincense and myrrh. Each gift was expensive, important and carried a special meaning about the birth of this special baby.

Don't miss this message series, and be sure to bring someone with you who needs some encouragement and hope this Christmas season. The message of the manger is hope, and this year there are lots of people who could use some hope.