Beautiful Promo Video

Had a ton of response to the Beautiful series promo, check this out for a good laugh…

Weekend Reflections

Wow, what an awesome weekend…

• Our service was centered around the important topic of Baptism. If you missed it, watch the video at our web site
• Teaching in a bathing suit and t-shirt was cool, felt very relaxed.
• Amazing response, baptized 136 people this weekend! Yes, 136!!
• Paul and the Fresh Start team did an awesome job preparing for the weekend
• DJ did awesome on his first baptism
• It was so cool to see such life-change in our church, I was humbled during every service. I loved how excited people were taking this step of obedience!
• Loved hearing people understand that baptism isn’t a ritual, but an idendification with Christ and declaration of their commitment to Him.
• I love baptizing couples and families together, means a whole household is being changed!
• Darius and his team are rockin’ the youth ministries. Over 200 students coming each week.
• Two major additions about to happen with our children’s staff. Be patient, wait for it. All I can say is…KidZone will be the most rockin’ place in the southwest valley for any child to be on the weekend!
• I’m excited about “Beautiful” beginning next weekend. I believe it’s going to impact every woman, and man, who attends.
• Invite people to the first week of Beautiful, they’ll thank you!
• Check out the Beautiful promo video here.
• Thanks to the volunteers at PVC who make it happen, you guys and gals rock!

Weekend Reflections

I know it’s been a few days since I last blogged, it’s just been plain crazy around Palm Valley (in a great way). God is working in us in an incredible way!

• This last weekend God spoke in a big way through the message. I wasn’t supposed to be on, I’ve been teaching straight through since January and was looking forward to a break. However, God clearly spoke to my heart and told me I needed to deliver this message.
• This weekend wore me out. I was literally and completely “spent”. I felt like I went through a 15 round fight.
• As I walked on stage Saturday I had no clue how the message was going to preach. I had studied and studied, just wasn’t sure how it would come across. I love that feeling because I know it’s going to be a message from God, and not me.
• I did say that word this weekend That’s why we have a children’s ministry.
• Derrick and the worship team gave it their all this weekend, and it was awesome.
• Heard about some big time answered prayers in people’s lives, yeah God!
• Record crowd for Saturday night, it continues to grow. If you can, make the move to Saturday and free up seats on Sunday.
• Excited about baptism this weekend. If you haven’t been baptized as a follower of Christ, take the plunge this weekend! We’ll be doing baptism in all 5 services.

Humbling Day

There’s days where I see God at work in such an incredible way that I can’t believe He’s allowed me to be a part of it. I’ll be the first to admit I’m in way over my head, and that it’s only God’s grace and power that is doing this. I’m so grateful to the Lord for letting me experience this. Today, I was humbled and moved by a number of events…

• Heard some incredible discussions amongst our staff. Our guys and gals are growing in such a great way, they’re developing the leadership integrity and skills it’s going to take for PVC to go to the next level. I see our staff thinking and talking about things at a much higher level than in the past. They’re moving past simple details and into visionary leadership, and it’s exciting me for the coming days. We’ve got a young staff, but they’re hungry for the Lord’s presence and power in our ministry.
• Paul Lewis came and shared with me that 163 people have made decisions for Christ in the past 3 weeks at Palm Valley. I know, I couldn’t believe that number either. I’m also excited because every one of these people who have stepped across the line of faith are being followed up with by our Fresh Start team. I’ve never experienced such a wave of people coming to Jesus, it’s awesome!
• Got to pray with Mark today as he heads for Africa. I hated seeing God lead Mark off our staff, but I’m digging having a front row seat to watch (and be a part of) what He’s going to use Mark to do next. Mark loves Jesus, and he’s going to impact the world (literally) with the love of Christ. Pray for him over the next 3 weeks as he travels Africa discerning his role in helping churches connect with opportunities.
• Had lunch with big-wigs from a bank that’s considering funding our building project. It amazed me today to sit in a meeting that reminds me how close we are to actually seeing a campus for Palm Valley Church became a reality. Thanks to those who were praying, I felt it went incredibly well. In the coming weeks we’ll be making some huge decisions about how we move forward; it’s definitely speeding up. Drove by our land on the way home, all the roads are in and infrastructure is almost all in place. Yeah God!
• Ended the day by celebrating the 80th birthday of Lori’s dad. Hosted the party at our house for Lori’s family, just had a great time celebrating an incredible man. Lori’s dad pastored for 50 years, and has done things for the Kingdom that the rest of us dream of having the faith and courage to do! He took about a 1/2 hour and shared his life story with the kids and grandkids, ending with a special prayer of blessing for us. I was moved to tears thinking about how much his faith has meant to me, and the huge amount he’s poured into me. It meant alot to me to see my kids so intrigued and interested in PaPa’s faith, I know they were processing it. I pray that I will be as faithful to the calling God has placed on my life as this man has been.
• Sitting here tonight thinking about what an encouraging message God has given me to deliver this weekend. We’ll be talking about “Growing Through Failure”, and I believe what I’m going to share will have a huge impact on all of us; since we’ve all failed at different times. I’m so thankful God’s definition of success is far different from ours!

That’s it, what a great day! To top it off, tomorrow I’ll be hanging out and swimming with my kids, then Lori and I are taking our boys to our very first Nascar event at PIR; thanks to a friend who shot us some tickets. We’re fired up to honorary rednecks for the evening!

Coming Up

Just sitting here thinking about so many exciting things coming up at Palm Valley, thought I’d share a little…

This Weekend: Talking about “Growing Through Failure”. So many people struggling with failure, thinking it’s final. Can’t wait to help people understand God’s definition of success and how to moving towards it!

Baptism: Two weeks from now, April 26th/27th, we’ll be having baptisms as a part of all five of our weekend services. I’m excited about seeing so many people who have made commitments to Christ “go public” with their faith in obedience to what Christ taught us. If you’ve made a commitment to Christ and haven’t been baptized, contact the church office and get signed-up asap. This truly is one of my favorite things to do as a pastor!

“Beautiful” a series for women: Beginning May 3/4th I’ll be teaching a series called “Beautiful”. I’m looking forward to talking about the differences in what our culture teaches our young women about beauty versus what true beauty is. I’ve been working with a group of women in our church in preparation for this series, and they’ve doing an awesome job with staging, environment, creative ideas and some other fun surprises! I’m challenging the people of PVC to bring every young woman, junior high and up to attend this series. I believe it will be life-changing for so many women (and us men too).

Summer Camps: Lori and I are attending and speaking at Palm Valley’s Elementary, Junior High, and High School camps to invest in the young people of our church. I think all of these camps are going to be off the hook! Parents, get your kids signed up now, they won’t want to miss out!

Seize The Moment moving forward: We’re making big strides towards being able to build our campus. All the infrastructure for the area is nearly in place, and we’re working with the Town of Buckeye on site approval. God has been so good to us in this process, and it’s definitely time to seize the moment and move forward!

One Prayer: As I talked about last week, we’ll be joining with thousands of churches around the world for one unique teaching series. Utilizing video teaching we’ll hear from some of my great friends, who also happen to be some of the best teachers around! What a statement to have so many churches come together as the body of Christ!

The Ultimate Fighter: This series was originally scheduled for June, but due to “One Prayer” we’re moving this to August. We’ll take four weeks and talk about what it means to be a man in today’s world. We’re pulling out some awesome surprises for this!

Weekend Reflections

• Derrick did a phenomenal job with worship this weekend. He is developing into a great worship pastor!
• Greeters/ushers are off the hook, they’re an army.
• So much healing taking place during this series. I love being in a church where we can be so real.
• Sharing my story this weekend was very tough, but necessary.
• I’m getting a ton of response for kids and youth camps this summer. Parents, sign your kids up now!
• “It Is Well” is such an awesome song, calms my spirit every time I hear it (that rhymes ).
• Very Big crowds at 4 of the 5 services. We need more people to move to the Saturday night 6:30 service.
• Talking on failure this week, got plenty of personal stories here
• Fresh Start had 22 people in the new believers class this weekend, can you believe it? God is bringing them by the bunches!
• The Fresh Start team is awesome! They’re growing and discipling more and more people every week.
• I love Palm Valley Church!
• Took a bunch of hits for being a TarHeels fan.

That’s it for the weekend. There’s so much momentum at PVC right now, God is changing lives in a greater way than I’ve ever experienced! Can’t wait to see you this weekend! I’m praying for you as you go through the week.

Party Cancelled

Due to reasons I will not discuss, the North Carolina victory party scheduled for Monday evening at my home has been cancelled. For all those invited, you’re no longer invited.

The party will be rescheduled for the first monday in April of 2009, when UNC will cut down the nets in Detroit, Michigan. Thank you all for your support.

Warmly,

Greg

Investing In The Next Generation (2)

One of the core values I have is that I want to intentionally investion in the younger generations. I love my years as a youth pastor, and thought I would always be working with young people. Now as a Senior Pastor, I realize that I reach young people through a different conduit; by creating a church atmosphere where young people are valued and invested in. At Palm Valley, we make children and teens a priority in budgeting, scheduling, and space. We seek to make the children’s environments as significant (or better) than the adult worship environment.

This year I’ve really been praying about how I can be more involved directly with the young people of our church. So, I have felt led to get involved this summer directly with the camps for our elementary, jr. high, and high school students. Lori and I will be attending all these camps, hanging out with kids and I will be speaking at each of these. I’m fired up about investing in and pouring my heart into the young people of our church.

Parents: if you haven’t already, I encourage you to sign your children up for camp. I know it takes time, and money; but the investment will be well worth it. We spend money on so many things that don’t really matter. This year send your kids to camp; they will benefit spiritually! Camp registrations are already happening and filling up quickly; don’t let your kid miss out!

Elementary Camp: for those students going into 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. Dates are June 15-19th. We have rented out the entire Tonto Rim Camp in Payson to be shared by our elementary and jr. high camps. Cost is $250 (for 1st 100 registered). you can register here… register for elementary camp. Contact Adrienne Nunez for more questions.

Jr. High camp: for those entering 6th, 7th and 8th grades. Dates are June 15-19th. Cost is $250. you can register here… register for jr. high camp. Contact Jeremiah Hann for more questions.

High School Camp (crashing the Rohlinger family vacation): For those entering 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade. Dates are July 21-25th. Cost is $300. We will be heading to Durango, Colorado for a week of hiking, alpine slides, rock climbing, white water rafting, and so much more. Contact Darius Sanders for more questions.

Great Saturday

With 5 services each weekend, as well as sports for the kids and other stuff, my weekends are usually shot before they began. Today feels like the best Saturday in a long time…

• last night we had a birthday party for our youngest son. Blast to have his friends over and wreck the house
• Got to sleep in ’til 7:00 am this morning, awesome!
• Laid in bed and went over my message notes.
• I feel very relaxed today, first time in a while.
• Watched recording of “The Ultimate Fighter” from Wednesday. Going to be a great season.
• BBQ’d hamburgers for the family.
• Back in bed to study my notes.
• At 3:00 I’ll watch a little UCLA – Memphis before heading to church
• TIVO’ing the Carolina – Kansas game. Will watch Carolina run the Jayhawks off the court later tonight when I get home! Go Heels.
• Two services tonight, 5:00 and 6:30: hope to see you there.
• Feels like I’ll need some ice cream tonight while watching Carolina win, just to top off a great day.

Good Laugh

Apparently the forest service is using hidden cameras to study bear behavior. What results is some cool bear dancing.

Check this out for a laugh