Our #1 initiative as a church this year is to have every person at Palm Valley read the Bible in 2008. I have been praying that each of us would hear from God every day as we read His Word. In order to help, we’ve concentrated on doing these things together…
We’ve also set up a web site, www.pvcroute66.com, which will be a place you can visit daily to share the journey with our church family. There’s even a blog so you can write in and share what God is doing in your life through the journey. Each day one of our pastors will write some thoughts from their daily reading, and others in the church family will also.
As we begin, I encourage you to visit www.pvcroute66.com and share with us why you’re excited about reading the Bible this year, and/or what you’re hoping to get out of it. This will become a journal for our entire church as we read from Genesis to Revelation this year!
I’m fired up about men’s camp next weekend. If you’re a guy from Palm Valley Church, you need to be going! Walk, don’t run to www.palmvalley.org and sign-up. I’m speaking at two of the sessions, and I can’t wait to share about some of the things God is doing in my life.
And no, I won’t be playing paintball with you. I’ve learned from experience that everyone loves to gang-up on the Pastor.
I’ve taken a few days to get away with the family up the the snow of Pinetop. Some friends let us use their cabin, and man is it awesome! I’ve had a blast just hangin’ out with no agenda. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I find myself sleeping 12 hours per night, and then taking a nap on top of it
I’m glad I don’t live in the snow, but it has been fun. Here’s some highlights…
That’s it, I’m off to throw some snowballs at the boys
Okay, I’m just recovering from 5 incredible Christmas services. All I can say is Wow! Some thoughts…
I just can’t explain how sweet it is to be leading Palm Valley Church right now. There is such a great spirit and incredible momentum right now. Christmas was awesome from beginning to end, and I believe a great kick-off to what God’s wanting to do in and through us in 2008.
Last wednesday the video team (Michael, Derrick and Darius) flew with me to Chicago to shoot some video for the Route 66 series. We had to get up VERY early, which is never a good start to the day. The flight to Chicago was great, landed about 1:00 pm. This is where reality set in!
We went straight to Wrigley Field to shoot video. It was awesome to be at such a historic place, especially as a huge baseball fan, but it was stinkin’ cold in Chicago (about 30 degrees). With the wind blowing I’ve never been that cold. To make the video look more natural, I wore just a sweater, no gloves, scarf or hat. I’m not sure how I look natural standing in the cold talking about the route 66. I think I just looked like a natural idiot
 We even got to shoot some video from atop the apartments across from Wrigley, which provided an awesome view down into the stadium with it’s snow-covered field.
Next, we drove up and down Michigan Ave, the magnificent mile, with the windows and sunroof open to get the best lighting. Again very cold. What a mad house that place was with all the holiday shoppers.
Thursday morning we woke up early and went to shoot video from the starting point of the route 66. Very cool to stand there and think about Palm Valley Church as we begin the route 66 Bible journey for 2008. The street where we shot was like a wind tunnel, making it incredibly cold (I know, cold is a recurring theme). Lastly we headed to the Sears Tower for our last video shoot.
Why all the video? Well, you’ll have to be at PVC on January 5th or 6th to find out. All I can tell you is that we’re going all out to help every person in our church to read the Bible in 2008. We’re going to travel (via video) across the United Stated via the route 66 as we literally travel God’s route 66, the superhighway of His information for us
(I just like that phrase).
As we flew back late Thursday night I was frozen and exhausted, but excited about how God will use this video to excite and interest people about reading the Bible this year. One fun part of the trip was getting to eat Geno’s East pizza in Chicago. Without a doubt, this is the best pizza I have ever had!
Mike Bullock is a guy who is having a huge impact at Palm Valley Church, as well as in the world. Mike is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ, and a committed servant at PVC. He works the sound board, and is always willing to help wherever necessary. I love his heart. He and his wife Angie are two of the most encouraging people I’ve ever met!
Mike is also a renowned writer of award-winning comic books. As Mike has been seeking God as to how he could use his talent to impact people, he came up with an idea for his latest series, “The Phantom”, issues 17-19. Mike decided to write a series in which the Phantom would help protect food shipments to the Invisible Children of Uganda. In the series Mike is able to shed light on the plight of these forgotten children (by the millions), and promote a ministry that is seeking to help them. Read about it here.
A couple side notes: if you buy the comic books with the “B” cover (I recommend you do), you will see that the food shipments being delivered are from Palm Valley Church. Every crate has our logo on it. I also love that in the pictures of Mike he is always wearing a Palm Valley shirt (he’s rockin’ the “Made” shirt in the interview above).
I know people often wonder “how can I make a difference”, so I wanted to share Mike’s story to inspire others. Here’s a follower of Christ who took the career he already had and asked God to use it to impact people. That’s a prayer God loves to honor.
Lastly, I must also disclose that Mike is a Raiders fan, which further elevates him in my eyes. I’ve actually found someone who’s as passionate about the Raiders as I am!
Had a blast this weekend just hanging out on the patio and talking with people. It’s not often that I’m not teaching on a weekend and have the opportunity just to walk around campus and see what’s going on, but it was fun to do that this weekend. Here’s some thoughts…
Jeremiah Rockin’ Out!
 Jon and the boys jammin. I loved it when he climbed up on a speaker and jumped backward while playing!
Extreme Faith Productions is sponsoring an area-wide competition, the Arizona American Christian Music Showcase (ACMS).  The competition started with 24 bands, and two bands represented by Palm Valley have made it to the semi-final round.
One band, About The Author, is led by our Jr. High pastor Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s a great youth pastor, and I’m told he rocks the house leading worship!
The second band, Two Days ‘Til Tomorrow is the youngest band by far – their band has members from 12 to 17 years old, and the other bands are made up of members in their 20’s. Jon, Zach and Ryan are all from the youth praise band. I’m fired up to know that we’ve got up and coming worship leaders at PVC, and that they can flat out rock. I love these young guys, and I’m pulling for them as they head into the competition Saturday night. Pray for them as they give it their all.
By the way, if you’re free, It’d be great to have people show up and support these bands as they compete. I’ll be there. The info is:
Saturday 12/15 (pm)
Scottsdale 1st Church of the Nazarene
2340 N Hayden Rd
Scottsdale, AZ 85257
    7:00-EchoTribe
    7:35-No1Else
    8:10-About the Author
    8:45-Two Days Till Tomorrow
http://www.extremefaithproductions.com/event3.htm - the Rage Music Festival info
By the way, I also told Jeremiah that if his band beats out the student’s, he’s the absolute worst youth pastor ever
I love the fact that Palm Valley has an impact on our community, and it always amazes me that I see PVC’ers everywhere I go. Two weeks ago at a school assembly (one of my boys was student of the month
) the principal brought 3 boys on stage. All 3 were on a local footbal team playing for the state championship, and all 3 attend PVC. By the way, the one 27-24 with a touchdown on the last play. Congratulations to Dylan, Trupe, and Blake!
Tonight I was at a Christmas musical at school. The first soloist comes on stage, and he’s a 5th grader who’s in the KidsZone ministry at Palm Valley. The third solo of the night was another young man from PVC. Great job Brandon and Walker!
Another cool aspect was that friends of ours from church came just to cheer our boys on. Can I just say I love doing life together. I love the people of PVC, and I can’t believe what kind of opportunities God will give us in the future to reach this community for Jesus!
By the way, if you see me out in the community, please say Hi! It’s hard for me to recognize everybody, but I love saying hi and getting to know each other a little better.
I wrestled with this week’s message as much as any message I’ve ever done. As of Thursday I had 7 or 8 different directions on my heart. But one thing I’ve learned about wrestling through the message preparation process: often the more I wrestle, and the more uncertain I am going into the weekend, the bigger the opportunity for God to use it. It reminds me that it’s all a God-thing anyway. This weekend was certainly true of that as I felt very uncertain going into the weekend, yet God gave me very clear direction as I headed into the 2nd message of the (ACT) series. It really hit home as we all consider the impact we’re to have on the world around us for Jesus Christ.
Here are some other thoughts from the weekend: