TarHeels!

Anybody who knows me knows I’m a huge University of North Carolina TarHeel fan. Have been since I was a little tike and always will be. Love the Carolina blue, can’t wait to see them cut down the nets in San Antonio next week!  For those of you who are Duke fans (D-Lo), here’s a great picture…

 

Honestly, I have a great deal of respect for Coach K and Duke, it’s just fun to poke at Dukie fans once in a while!

Weekend Reflections

Amazing. Today was like easter all over again. We officially went to 5 services and every one of them was rockin’. Here’s some thoughts from my tired mind…

• There were a ton of new families again this week. It was awesome to see a family that came because my oldest son Jake invited their son, who is in his class.
• The Fresh Start With God team is growing. Very cool to see every new believer being discipled minutes into their relationship with Christ.
• I’m excited about baptism coming in a few weeks. We’re working on doing them right in the middle of services in the auditorium.
• Our children’s team is hitting on all cylinders. I’ve never seen a kid’s ministry so well staffed and organized.
• The D-Backs kick-off their season tomorrow at 11:10 a.m.. I predict a lot of staff working on laptops in the creative room (TV on).
• Darius and I are headed to Durango, Colorado to scout out some final details for our High School summer camp.
• Set-up and tear-down were rockin’ this week. DJ is doing an awesome job organizing and encouraging the volunteers in this ministry.
• I find healing every time I tell the story about my mom. God is so good! (you can watch the message at www.palmvalley.org beginning Tuesday).
• Very cool to see so many people stand for prayer in each service. I love watching PVC’ers stand and pray for them!
• Had a good work-out this evening, but my IPod died so I got bored and cut short I need to focus.
• Thanks to all who moved to Saturday night, it was cool to “play two” on Saturdays. I’m digging that late service (6:30 pm).
• Played with my myspace page today.
• There is so much momentum at PVC right now it’s unbelievable. The amount of life change we’re seeing is unlike I’ve ever witnessed.

I can’t wait to get in the office in the morning and dream about how to help more people become fully devoted followers of Christ. I’m praying for you this week as you impact the people around you with His love.

Unexpected Laugh

During the easter weekend services I told a story of “betrayal” about my oldest sister. In the story (true story) she told me to put my last quarter into a video game that didn’t work. During our 6th service I was telling the story when who walks up to the stage but my sister, holding a quarter and asking for my forgiveness. I was stunned, but the crowd got a great laugh. Here’s the video…

http://www.youtube.com/v/-7tVtRVIeTg

Weekend Reflections (easter edition)

I’m still recovering from easter, but it was awesome. 6 services wore me out, but I’m glad we did that many.

Palm Valleyer’s, thanks to everyone who served and made it possible to pull off such an incredible easter. To see greeters and childrens workers arriving at 6:30 a.m. reminded what an awesome team of volunteers we have! Overall, 3,435 people attended easter at Palm Valley Church, an all-time record for us. It amazes me to see the continued growth God is bringing. Here’s some other thoughts…

• D-Lo and the worship team brought their A-game this weekend.
• The video support of the worship was moving.
• Zooplosion in the KidZone was awesome!
• Safety team handled some issues very nicely, love ya’ guys and gals.
• The testimony from the Moreno’s reminded me why I love being a part of a church that reaches people for Christ!
• 7:00 a.m. is way too early for a service
• Loved the 2 service Saturday night thing. I encourage PVC’ers to make the move to Saturday night.
• Our staff rocks; they put in a ton of extra work this week to make things happen. Ryan and Adrienne even slept overnight in a motorhome at the school so they’d be there early for Sunday morning!
• Lots of buzz in the community about our easter egg helicopter drop.
• Had a great lunch today with local pastors. I love hanging out with other pastors.
• Special thanks to the refreshment team for keeping us fed and watered all weekend!

That’s it for now. Easter was awesome, but the reality sets in that we’re doing 5 services every week for now on. So, here we go!

Call It A Revolution

Spent the afternoon on the phone with Gary Lamb talking about Revolution Church’s easter egg drop. They had advertised big, and what happened in return was monumental!

I’ll let Gary share what happened when He’s ready, but let me tell you I’m proud of the risks Gary and Revolution are willing to take to reach people for Christ. When you hear what happened, you’ll know it was an easter egg hunt like no other! Go Gary, and go Revolution!

We Are The Champions

Today was the last basketball game for my two oldest boys. I’ve had a blast coaching them this year, I think I’ve had more fun than the coaches. We were playing for the championship, against a team that has beaten us both times we played them this year.

It was a nail-biter of a game, with us coming from 4 points down with just 2 minutes left to tie the game. We ended up going into double-overtime where we scored a bucket and won. It was so much fun to watch the kids celebrate the victory and realize that they had actually won! Our kids played hard and I’m glad they won despite some very questionable coaching.

Good Friday Night

Lori and I had an awesome time tonight, as we hosted our staff and spouses for dinner at our home. Our staff works incredibly hard, and with the Spring Carnival last week and easter this week, they’ve been running all out lately. We decided to have a special time just for them, a well deserved time to be appreciated and to be able to hang out together.

Dinner was incredible, spaghetti with meat sauce and sausage, as well as fettucini alfredo. It was off the hook!

After dinner we spent time worshiping together and taking communion. We took time to share what God has done in our lives this year, and the word “faithfulness” kept coming up. God is truly faithful and has been just that to Palm Valley this year! I think the everyone really enjoyed spending time together and being able to worship without being “on”.

Power Outage

Warning: honest confession of a pastor contained…

Saturday night the power went out at the school about 5 minutes before service was to begin. It left our team with a dilemna. Much of our service had been planned around video we shot, and of course w/o electricity there would be no band or mic’s.

As we contemplated what to do, I must confess…

• I was tired from the spring carnival that day.
• I had a long list of things on my mind.
• I’ve struggled a bit with my voice lately.
• I secretly liked the idea of getting home early.
• I was disappointed we wouldn’t be able to use the video
• I was really leaning towards just cancelling the service and asking everyone to come back in the morning.

THEN…I looked down at my notes. You see, I was prepared to teach from Luke 5, where friends carry a paralyzed man on a mat to Jesus so that He might be healed. The main point of my message was that we’re to be unstoppable in sharing the gospel of Jesus with people who need to know Him.

It was a great little reminder from God to practice what I preach. After a quick prayer of repentance we went “unplugged” with the service. Derrick improvised on the accoustic and led 2 songs, then I preached w/o a mic. It did strain my voice, and it was tough, but it was honoring to the Lord.

By the way, the service was awesome, and a lot of people commented that we should go “unplugged” more often (I vote against that ).  It was a great reminder that it is all about God, and we must be preapred to give him everything we have, even when we don’t feel like it!

Spring Carnival

All I can say is WOW! Thanks to all the volunteers who made Saturday happen, it was awesome. A huge thanks to Adrienne Nunez, our Children’s Director, and the staff of PVC, you guys rock.

It was incredible to see thousands of kids having a great time, and knowing there is a church that cares about them. I got teary realizing that we had a chance to make a small difference for one day in the lives of so many families. Here’s some cool pic’s from the event (my favorite is Johny Faux covered in cotton candy )

Feel The Buzz

Man, everywhere I go people are talking about the Spring Carnival tomorrow. I can’t imagine what it’s going to look like, other than possibly chaos

Most of the papers and news stations have told us they’re planning to cover the event. My hope is that God will use all of this to bring a lot of people back to Him this easter!

Anyways, I’m excited and probably won’t sleep a wink tonight. See you bright and early tomorrow as we begin one awesome weekend together!