Office Team

Today I spent some time with one of the most incredible teams at Palm Valley Church: the office team. These dedicated gals do an incredible job setting the tone for our entire office. They answer phones, handle requests, assist the pastor, scramble to do whatever it takes for us to get the job done, and they do it all with incredible grace!

I was reminded that these gals do their work not as a job, but as a ministry. There’s no way they could have so much fun if this was a job to them; but they have a blast because they know they’re a part of the team, and their work makes a difference in the lives of people.

So, thanks again to the gals who make our office run, and help our pastors to focus on their leadership!

And if you’re a pastor, make sure you affirm and encourage your office team, they make or break you. In our case, they make us look much smarter and efficient than we really are!

Rick Warren On Fox

I’m watching FoxNews special on Rick Warren and the Purpose Driven Life. I’m Tivo’ing it also, to watch later when I don’t have 4 kids on the bed with Lori and I

I’m often asked my opinion on Rick Warren; and not that my opinion should or does matter to him, but here’s my 2 cents…

I’m forever indebted to Rick Warren; and anyone who has ever been encouraged through my ministry or the ministry of Palm Valley Church is also indebted to him. I’ve often said, if it wasn’t for Rick Warren and his 1st book, the Purpose Driven Church, Palm Valley Church would not exist today.

I also love that Rick has the guts to do what God has called him to do. Not many people will put themselves out there on the line like Rick has; and few people ever have the impact he has. I love that he’s trying to tackle the world’s giants, and I pray that he succeeds!

Can you imagine how the world would be changed if the body of Christ around the world began to look beyond themselves and care for others? Can you imagine the millions of people who would be exposed to Christ’s love through Christians acting in compassion? Maybe Rick’s onto something? And maybe we should all be paying attention?

Family Helps

I promised in my message today that I would provide some resources that families can use to have a devotional or Bible study time together. If you’re wanting to start this habit in your family, I commend you for wanting to help your kids know Christ as your family grows together. Here’s a list of some resources I recommend, you can pick them up at any Christian bookstore or through most online bookstores…

Day by Day Kids Bible : Great for young children, this is what we’re using with our kids right now.

Josh McDowell’s One Year Book of Family Devotions: a great resources for family devotions, especially with kids of varying ages.

Sticky Situations: 365 Devotions for Kids and Families : great discussion starter, written by Betsy Schmitt.

One Year Book of Josh McDowell’s Youth Devotions 2: for teens.

One Year Book of Family Devotions, Vol. 1: for the whole family.

The One Year Book of Devotions for Kids #2

The One Year Book of Did You Know Devotions for Kids : fun devotional by Nancy Hill.

 

 

What’s A Thunder Cake?

In my message today I talked about our family traditions; including making “Thunder Cakes” when the monsoons come to the desert each July. I had a lot of people ask, “what’s a thunder cake”?

So, in the interest of informing, here’s a link to buy the book Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco.  In short, it’s a book that talks about a family baking special cakes during a thunderstorm. And as you read the book you bake the thunder cakes yourselves.

Our kids love thunder cakes, and they look forward to the coming of the monsoons every year. So, if you’ve got young children, I encourage you to pick up a copy of this book and enjoy some great cake!

Best Chili Dog Around

We’ve been doing Saturday nights for about a year and a half now. Everyone warned me that it’s nearly impossible to get Saturday going, but we felt strongly that God was leading us to try a new way to reach people who may not come on Sundays (work, family, football ,etc).

One of the things we’ve tried to do is make Saturday special. We added Celebrate Recovery, which brought a ton of life and the added dimension of support and recovery after this service. Having CR was such a benefit, we’ve added an intro to Celebrate Recovery class on Sunday mornings.

The other thing we wanted to do was utilize the time after service to help people connect. We invested in a big ol’ New York style hot dog cart, and added food to the after service time. Now, you need to know that food is an area I’ve got a ton of expertise in, and I believe that we serve one of the best darn chili dogs you’ll ever have! It’s incredible, and it’s only a buck w/chips.

Saturday night is really growing, the momemtum is there right now. I love talking to people each weekend who couldn’t come to a Sunday morning service, but have been able to connect because we go the extra mile and provide worship on Saturdays!

So, thanks to the volunteers who make those incredible dogs, and keep everyone on the patio smiling every Saturday night. Here’s to you mister chili dog guy!

Discipleship Classes

It’s my firm belief that information does not change lives. If information is all we needed to change, we’d all stop eating junk food and start exercising.

Our discipleship ministries are built around this belief. We want to teach people the Bible, but also to help them apply the teaching for life change. This is why the Bible was written!

This September we’re taking another step in the development of our discipleship ministries. We’re offering “Power Source” opportunities. These will be discipleship classes offered to help people learn the Word, and grow in the exercise of their faith.

I’m excited for us as a church to take this next step in the development of our spiritual maturity vision. Here’s a list of the classes we have going so far, taught by the pastors and lay leaders of Palm Valley Church…

New Believers, Discovering Palm Valley Church, How To Study The Bible, Foundations Of Our Faith, Financial Peace University, Leadership In The Marketplace, Discovering Your Design, and Becoming A Contagious Christian.

We also have a number of men’s and women’s classes starting. These are all in addition to our Home Teams. It’s going to be an exciting fall at PVC!

 

 

Busy Week

Traveling made this a very busy week. I’ve learned that even when I’m gone, everything still needs to get done around the church. I still have to prepare for the weekend.

Monday night was cool, we had dinner with our Celebrate Recovery leaders. They were in Orange County for the annual CR conference. It was cool for me to see this team, so committed to our church and to helping hurting people, being able to go this conference to be equipped to be even more effective.

We had a blast at Bucca Di Beppo’s, eating a ton of food. I loved that my son got to hang out with this group, and hear their stories. It will leave a lasting mark on them. Here’s a pic of the table during dinner…

The Construction team was showed up a little later. They’re doing a great job preparing for the building of our campus. They came out to tour some SoCal churches. I love getting ideas from others. Here’s the crew…

Going Back To Cali’

Traveled to Orange County last night with one of my boys. It’s pretty cool traveling with him, and we’re having tons of fun. There’s nothing like having some 1 on 1 father/son time!

Our Construction Team is out here and we’ll be touring some very cool church campuses like Saddleback Church and Mariners Church, as well as a few others.

Why, you may ask? We want to learn from others who have built great campuses. We’ll be looking at what they did, talking with their staff and custodial teams, and learning from them. We’ll learn some great ideas that will benefit us, and we’ll also learn about some mistakes they made, hopefully saving us from making the same ones.

It’s one thing I love about being apart of the Kingdom of God. You see, we’re all in this together! I’m thankful for churches willing to share with us and help us to do it better. Palm Valley Church will benefit because we’ll be more efficient in buildiing our campus, saving money, and getting the most out of our investment!

Hitting Our Stride

Man, it really seems like we’re hitting our stride at Palm Valley Church. Over the past few weeks I’ve really seen the level of many of our ministries being raised. Over the past few weeks God has sent tons of new visitors, most of whom don’t yet know Christ.

The Fresh Start ministry is awesome. Over the past two weeks they’ve had lines of people after every service who have received Christ. This team has done a great job of praying with, encouraging, and following up with each of these people, making sure they’re getting plugged in at PVC so that they can begin to grow in their faith.

The Children’s ministry is amping up big time. I know, I know, I keep mentioning the HUGE changes about to happen. Let me just say, the school has been awesome in working with us to get us more space, enabling us to make these changes. We’ll be revealing the new set-up over the next few weeks. But again, all I can say is that every kid at PVC is going to be rocked by their experience each weekend, and it’s going to challenge them to become passionate, sold-out followers of Jesus Christ!

By the way, we have dozens of new volunteers stepping into the Children’s ministry; forming music teams, drama teams, becoming small group leaders, and just generally pouring Christ’s love into children.

We’re also seeing a big growth in the Safety Team. The safety team ensures the overall safety of everything happening on the campus each weekend. They do a great job, and we’ve never had an incident. You don’t have to be huge (although it doesn’t hurt), but if you’re looking for a place to serve at PVC, this is a great way to make a difference!

It’s Saturday

We had a sleep-over last night, so it’s pretty crazy in our house this morning. The kids stayed up until 1:00 am, and then were up playing at 6:00 am. How do they do that? I made the donut run this morning, and now it’s just hit me, it’s Saturday!

Saturday is different at our house, because it’s a work day for me. It’s one of the bummers of having a Saturday service. Typically I go to the office on Saturday morning and spend a few hours reviewing my message, and making sure I’ve got it all buttoned up.

Set-up starts at the school at 1:30, so I’m at the school really from then until everything’s done at about 7:30 this evening. To be honest, there’s times I feel like getting rid of Saturday services and simplifying my life.

However, every Saturday night I see people coming to Palm Valley, connecting with Christ and other, and growing in their faith. I talk to so many people who couldn’t come on Sunday, It reminds me why this is worth it! I love that our staff, leaders and volunteers are willing to pay the price to do whatever it takes to reach people for Christ!

So, it’s tiem to go gear up for another great Saturday at PVC.