Weekend Reflections

Man, I felt wiped from CatalystWest! It was wesome, but wore me out.  Here’s some thoughts from the weekend…

• Live Like You Were Dying has been a challenging series. Very practical, very impactful!
• I love our worship team.  They serve all weekend and bring it every service.
• We showed up for set-up Saturday and the school had moved all of our staging.  Sean and the team did a great job of improvising, but we lost our moving screens.
• Cool to have Darius in service for a few moments, people love him!
• With Adrienne out on maternity, the Children’s Ministry team has stepped up big time. Props to Adam, Priscilla, Beki, Amy, Tracy, Stephanie and Lynn. You all rock!!
• I felt horrible (chills and tired), but God gave me strenghth.
• Our goal is to help people cross the 3rd line, and become fully devoted followers of Christ.
• Can’t wait for next weekend, “Learning To Forgive”. Should be powerful.
• Still decompressing from Catalyst, I’ll be writing some thoughts later.
• Just got word we got final site approval from Town of Buckeye. It’s been a long process, but praise God we’re that much closer.

Weekend Reflections

I felt like I was still recovering from Easter heading into this weekend, but fortunately God has enough energy for all of us!

• My Lil’ Raiders won in convincing fashion.  Drew up a reverse halfback option play that kept the defense on their heels
• Lots of visitors Saturday night; it just keeps growing.
• All 3 services on Sunday are full.  We need people to move to Saturday night. You’ll be hearing more about that.
• Felt the message was very simple and practical: which equated to powerful. God seemed to be using it in very specific ways.
• D-Lo brought great leadership and insight this week. Seriously, at the end of the worship I felt full, before the message!
• The worship might have been that much better because my bride was on stage this weekend
• Live Like You Were Dying really seems to be hitting people.
• Ryan and Adrienne had their 3rd son Friday morning! Yeah!!
• Lots of hurting people right now: what a chance for the local church to shine.
• Praying for teachers and administrators right now; the schools are hurting.

Lori and I are in California for the Catalyst West Coast Conference. We have a team of 42 from Palm Valley here, with staff and volunteer leaders.  It’s going to be an awesome type of growth with our team.  Pray for our leaders, that God challenges us to a whole ‘nutha level at Palm Valley Church!

Stay At Home Moms

This weekend I referenced a better job description than “stay at home mom”.  Here it is…

The Spirit Was Working…??

We preachers are a funny (warped) bunch; and we have our own language.  From time to time I’ll ask a fellow pastor how there service(s) went.  The reply will sometimes be “I felt a great freedom, the Holy Spirit was really working.  During our 10:00 am service this weekend, a thought occured to me (thoughts in red)…

When preachers say this, they usually mean the crowd was full of Christians who were amen’ing away, and it really fired the preacher up to say everything they’ve always wanted to say.  The crowd already believes, so they keep agreeing.  The preacher gets more and more fired up and yells alot, the people clap, and everyone leaves saying “that was a great sermon!”.

It amazes me with 5 services each weekend (6 on easter) how different each of the crowds can be.  This weekend we asked our regular crowds to move to Saturday night or early Sunday; and man did they respond.  Thanks to PVC’ers who made the move to free up seats in the 10:00 and 11:30 services.  However, this left our 10:00 and 11:30 services made up of a large portion of visitors.

It was obvious during worship that the 10:00 crowd was full of people who aren’t used to going to church.  They didn’t know the words to the songs, they didn’t sing, but they were intently watching   During a video our worship leaders commented how different this crowd felt.  As I got into my message I could tell that this was not a “Christian” crowd; but had a large portion of people who were checking out church on easter.  I could also tell the message was hitting home and causing a great deal of thought and angst.  So here’s my point….

I felt like I could literally see people standing between heaven and hell, eternal life and eternal death, and wrestling with the reality that they needed to make a decision.  There was a great heaviness in the worship center.  It was during this that I sensed that this is when the Holy Spirit is really working; convicting men/women of their lostness without Jesus, and the fact that they are not “good”.   To me when the crowd is silent, not applauding a word you’ve said, that the Holy Spirit is using the words to convict of sin, change hearts, and move men to repentance!

I pray for and relish the opportunity to be a part of the conversation with people who realize they need Jesus, and this is when I need the Holy Spirit to speak the most.  It’s fairly easy to preach to Christians, the already convinced.  It’s a much tougher message, and more critical, to deliver when people’s eternity is at stake.   By the way, 63 people visited the indicated they made a decision for Christ this weekend; that’s God at work!

Weekend Reflections (easter edition)

Wow!  I feel like I was run over by a truck, but easter at Palm Valley was awesome!!

• Over 4,000 people came to PVC this easter, a new record!
• a ton of life change happened.  There were lines at the Fresh Start table every service.
• Saturday 5:00 had people sitting on the floor; what an awesome kick-off to the weekend!
• Our children’s volunteers had such awesome attitudes: they were loving the fact that there were kids everywhere.  You guys/gals are the best!!
• I hear Student Ministries were packed in all 4 of their services.
• There was even a crowd at the 7:00 am Sunday service. Who would have thought?
• Preaching 6 services is insane
• I couldn’t stop myself from greeting every service. I love talking and praying with people.
• Live Like You Were Dying is really striking a chord.
• The song “More” is awesome, loved D-Lo singing it.
• Praise team brought the energy this weekend. Worship was awesome!
• God’s doing something big at PVC.
• Cool thing is: we do it again next weekend. Here we go!

Game Time

It’s Saturday afternoon, getting ready to head to church. Over the last 10 days…

• the flu has run through our house a few times over
• I’ve got a stomach doing twists
• the evil one attacked every piece of technology the church owns
• Crazy people from days past keep popping up, trying to distract me.
• I’ve not slept well
• I just don’t feel right…

However, it’s game time. Over the next 24 hours I get to preach Christ, and Him crucified and risen, to people who need life that’s only found in Christ.  The Palm Valley family has stepped up, they’re inviting and preparing, it’s GAME TIME!  I love our church; they get it!  It’s not about us, it’s about Him!  It’s not about us, it’s about them finding their way back to Him!  We get to make the introduction!

I’m all jacked up to see what God does this weekend.  There’s nothing greater than knowing that the things we do for Christ will last for eternity; it gives a great sense of focus.

Purity Night

If you read this in time, I’d really appreciate your prayers this evening.  Our Student Ministries is wrapping up their Sex In The Spring series with “Purity Night”. This will be a special night for parents and their teens to come together for a time of worship, teaching, and a commitment to working together for purity.

Pray for me as I speak, that God will use this talk to really help students, AND THEIR PARENTS, take responsibility for protecting their purity until marriage.  By the way, watch this video and tell me Darius isn’t one of the most incredible youth pastors you will ever find…

Purity Night Promo from Palm Valley Church on Vimeo.

TarHeel Nation!!

Weekend Reflections

• Great wrap-up to Snapshots of the Savior series.
• Derrick and the team nailed worship: loved “nothing but the blood”/”you never let go”.
• Thanks to worship hosts: great job with communion
• Kidzone is blowing up!  Thanks volunteers!!
• Student Ministries wrapped up Sex In The Spring. Proud of the team for handling such a tough subject!!
• Pray for me as I prepare to speak to students and parents at “Purity Night” Wednesday.  I’m looking forward to students and parents committing to working together in purity!
• My son Jake had his first weekend on the youth praise team.  I’m so proud of him for stepping out in this!  I’m proud of you son!!!
• My 8 – 11 year old Raiders lost our first game, but I had a blast.
• Great Home Team Sunday night.  BBQ and all the sides, awesome Bible study, some tears, real prayers: all make for a great night together.
• Home Team is something I need, not something I do because I’m a pastor!
• PVC’ers: are you in a Home Team?  If not, contact Dennis and get connected.
• Seriously, do it now
• My TarHeels are playing for the championship, can’t wait to watch the game!
• All Duke and UConn fans who rode me all season: there’s always next year for you  
• Pray for me this week as I prepare for Easter.
• Invite people to join you at PVC this week.
• Go to www.palmvalley.org and download your free copy of “More”. It’s an awesome song!

Easter Promo

Here’s the promo for our Easter series…

Live Like You Were Dying Invitation from Palm Valley Church on Vimeo.