Weekend Reflections

Can somebody help a brother preach? Man, I felt like I did some good old-fashioned preachin’ today, and it was tense! Here’s some thoughts from the weekend…

• Lilly singing “On Christ The Solid Rock I Stand” was moving, she’s incredible!
• The baptism video made me cry every service.
• Baptisms remind me of the changed lives God lets us be a part of.
• Can’t wait for baptims at the picnic next week!
• “Come and Listen” was perfect today, love that song.
• Still not happy with some of my message. I feel like parts came across a little condemning. I hope my heart came through.
• Truth is truth, it must be spoken.
• God is stirring my heart right now about some things; mostly how to help hurting people.
• I love our church.
• My prayer (and commitment) is that I’ll last the long haul!
• Big stuff coming with our building program, please be praying.
• Raiders. Uggghhh.
• Our Israel trip is 1 month away. I’m excited to lead a group to the Holy Land.
• It’s not too late to go with us, go to www.palmvalley.org for more info.
• Had a few comments telling me to speak slower so people can understand me It cracks me up because it’s true. I get flying and have so much to say

Study Helps

During last week’s message, I mentioned the Babylonian and Persian empires, and I had a lot of people ask more questions about the area they covered. Here’s a couple maps that give you a sense of the landscape of the middle east during these times. We’ll be talking more about the Persian empire and Nehemiah this weekend…

Babylonian Empire (609 – 539 BCE)

 

Persian Empire (550-330 BCE)

Reaching Students

At Palm Valley we’re deeply committed to reaching the next generation with the gospel. Our Student Ministries team is really hittin’ it out of the park, and gaining incredible momentumin our community. One of the big challlenges we face is doing student ministries in a portable setting. We’ve been able to create an awesome atmosphere on the weekend, but there’s really no place for teens to meet during the week. One solution is small groups, where students gather throughout the week in homes.

Two other ideas we’ve had to give our student ministries identity are:

1) We’ve created www.pvcstudents.com, which I believe will become THE web address for teens in the west valley. We’re loading this site with info for teens: messages, audio and video, event info, writing from other teens, and much more. Don’t tell the teens, but there’s also some stuff for the parents on there. 

2) Another tool to help identify our ministry was rolled out last week, “The Jeep”. We took a donated Jeep Grand Cherokee and totally “styled it”. Leo Vasquez, a volunteer in our church completely re-wired the whole vehicle to handle a 4,000 watt sound system, PlayStation 3, a 32″ television that drops down in the back, IPod video, and a few other fun surprises. We then threw on some 22″ rims, undercarriage lighting, and wrapped it with the www.pvcstudents.com look and web address. I’m excited to see how this tool will grasp the attention of young people and open the door for us to share the gospel with them. Here’s some video and pics from the big unveil….

Style My Ride – Reveal from Palm Valley Students on Vimeo.

Weekend Reflections

Lori and I got away with the kids for fall break to get some family time, and it was great. We didn’t do much, just hung out as a family. Here’s some of my thoughts from the weekend…

• I heard Darius nailed it. No doubt, he’s so gifted and personal, God’s handprint is all over him!
• I heard the promo for the next series, “Letters To The Next President”, was hilarious. I haven’t seen it yet, can’t wait ’til tomorrow.
• Had a crown break on Friday, looks like I’m back in the dentist chair tomorrow. This one’s not so bad, my dentist is awesome! He goes to Palm Valley and makes sure I don’t feel any pain
• Looking forward to being back with the staff tomorrow. I seriously love working with these guys and gals, I even missed them last week.
• Heard the choir rocked once again; it’s special when they’re on stage.
• Raiders, what more can I say :(
• Hitting the gym early with Lori, need to work off my vacation.
• Flag football practice for my kids team tomorrow afternoon. Coaching these kids is a blast!
• Leadership Development night tomorrow with about 60 leaders from Palm Valley, can’t wait to celebrate with them and talk to them about “Maintaining Joy In Ministry”.
• I realized that when I teach a 6 week series I actually preach 30 times. Normally pastors preach 1-2 times a weekend. God really spoke to me about making sure I’m in top shape so that I can physically do all that He wants me to.
• Part of this is getting proper rest: I’m working on this one (pray for me).
• Just read and prayed over prayer requests from this weekend: there’s a lot of hurting people right now. I believe this is an opportunity for the church to be the church and shine!
• Going to C3 regional Tuesday, can’t wait to re-connect with Ed Young. He and Lisa have been very generous to Lori and I, and have been great mentors to us!
• If you’re a pastor in Arizona, you should be running, not walking, to get signed up for C3 regional. If you’ve got questions, call us at the office tomorrow and we’ll explain why you can’t miss this.
• The staff has been working hard on our Christmas Eve services. I promise you don’t want to miss Christmas at Palm Valley this year.
• Prices are coming back down on our Israel trip: if you’re thinking about going check it our here and get signed up.
• look for some fun posts this week right here on the blog.

Raising Ultimate Fighters

This past weekend was a very personal message to me, as I talked about raising Ultimate Fighters. My 3 boys did a great job doing the welcomen and announcements, I was so proud of them. Raising my children is one of the greatest privileges, and toughtest tasks, I will ever have. 

If you missed the message, you can watch it here. I mentioned that I would blog some good books on the subject, here you go…

• Better Dads, Stronger Sons
• Wild At Heart
• Bringing Up Boys
• King Me

How Do You Spell Relief?

Thanks to all who prayed for me today; I’m home and doing great. Had a few bone spurs, but the doc was able to swiftly (and fairly painlessly) remove them.

It feels so good to not feel pain

Pray For Me Today

For those of you who remember my ordeal with my wisdom teeth, I’m asking for prayer today. This weekend I developed a “bone spur” in my lower jaw, which is scraping/cutting my tongue every time I talk, swallow, eat. It’s intensely painful and just plain annoying.

Anyways, please pray for me today as I go to the oral surgeon to have it removed. Not sure what that entails, except probably more pain.

Back From Retreat

We’re back from our Pastors Retreat, thanks to all who prayed, and ready to hit the ground running. Our time away was the most incredible time I’ve spent with the pastors of PVC. We had some great discussions about our personality profiles along with the “5 Dysfunctions Of A Team”, although we only got through 3 dysfunctions The talks led to some intense discussions, open and frank conflict, which led to forgiveness, commitment and solid unity.

I love the team I work with, they’re men of God who love PVC. I feel like we have the healthiest team we’ve ever had, and we left with very practical steps to take to be stronger leaders. I’m excited for the future with this team; I believe God is going to use these men in incredible ways as we move forward!