Weekend Reflections

I just never get tired of the life change that happens at Palm Valley Church every week!!

• My favorite comment spoken to one of our pastors today after a service, “you guys f**^*** nailed it”. Made me laugh out loud.  Shouldn’t that comment offend a pastor?  No, because it tells me we’re hitting our target.  We’re a church committed to reaching those far from God, that they might be filled with hope and life through Christ!  Comments like that cause me to rejoice!
• We began recording for our first worship album in all 5 of our services.  Very cool to see Derrick and Sean’s leadership in this project, and how it’s all coming together.  Our hope is that this will encourage people and help them worship God throughout the week.
• Some tense moments in the service as I talked about some real life issues like living together, adultery, honesty, etc.  I love the “Holy discomfort” when God is working in us.
• I pray that we will listen to His Word, and obey His Word, even when we don’t feel like it!
• Singles, if you’re living together and want to commit, get a marriage license and call or come to the church office, we’ll marry you on the spot.  BTW…you can also sign up for our pre-marriage mentoring minstry and get a great start.
• Tons of people going to the Fresh Start table.  I love that every person who makes a decision for Christ at PVC is discipled and helped to grow. Way to go Paul and the Fresh Start team!
• Loved that our people get excited about our “Buddies Ministry” for special needs children.  I meant what I said, every special needs child in the west valley need to know they matter to God and will be loved on at PVC.
• had pastors from other churches visiting today to check out what we’re doing at PVC.  Cool to share our lessons from 9 years being a portable church.  It’s good stewardship of our mistakes!
• Pastor Daniel was in Las Vegas preparing for our missions teams to go and help Verve, a church plant in Vegas.  If you’d like to go on a 4 day mission trip in October or November email him at dconner@palmvalley.org
• Lots of buzz about the new building. Keep praying for the process and your part in it!
• My Lil’ Raiders played great Saturday. I love the kids and the guys coaching with me.  So much fun!  Now if we could get under 100 degrees
• My NFL Raiders dropped the Chiefs; that makes me happy!
• Great small group tonight, I love the guys in our group and the growth we’re experiencing together.  If you’re not in a small group, I encourage you to get in one today.
• Don’t miss our “Night of Worship” this Wednesday, September 23rd at 7:00 pm. It will be an evening of passionate worship, and we’ll be recording it for our new album.  Make sure you come pack the house and sing it out, we want the essence of PVC worship to come through on this project!

Adultery?

As I’m teaching through the Staying In Love series, one of the hot buttons we’ll be dealing with is adultery.  Unfortunately the numbers of men and women stepping out of the marriage is skyrocketing, and seemingly becoming accepted in our culture.  I want to encourage you to tune in to ABC’s “Nightline” program next Thursday, because the topic is adultery.

A mentor and friend of mine, Ed Young Jr., will be debating live from his church with a couple who runs a website that promotes adultery (i hope you’re not familiar with it).  I’m praying for Ed, and believe he will do an awesome job.  Don’t miss it, NEXT Thursday night on ABC…

“Thursday, September 17, Ed Young faces off with one of culture’s most outspoken advocates for adultery. Through this debate, Ed will have a unique opportunity to deliver God’s truth about this topic to an international stage.”

This show is being recorded tonight, and shown next Thursday.

Weekend Reflections

• Great start to the “Staying In Love” series, all around incredible weekend.
• Loved the love song medley; especially the way our crowd jumped at Bon Jovi.
• Having the Community Pastors on the patio praying with and caring for peole is awesome.
• Felt like the message hit home big time.  Loved the crowd response; fun to watch couples smile together.
• heard we have 30 people taking Financial Peace University.  I think every person who has debt should take this course.
• Had a blast at Small Group Sunday night.  Started with a mexican fiesta, and then then Bible study. We split guys and gals so we could fix our spouses   Actually, I left with some great action points for “making love a verb” in my own marriage.
• So fun to have football back!!
• Announced the location of our new building: stay tuned for video.
• Now we have to pay for it   Can’t wait to see what God does in the next few months!
• Heard from a visitor who couldn’t find where we meet, so they followed a car with the Palm Valley window decal on it!
• Felt like a train ran me over after 5 services, can’t wait to do it again next week
• PVC’ers, bring people who need Jesus!

About This Weekend…

Our first winners…

First people to let me know they found the new building, and they’ve sworn to keep it a secret…

Where Is The Building?

Great labor day weekend at Palm Valley Church…

• Ryan did a great job with the message.  As I sat in service he challenged me to give up something for God, and develop a habit to grow in my relationship with Him.
• enjoyed having time to greet on the patio and tour the different ministry areas.
• The Children’s team is nailing it!!  Loved the new KidZone area in the cafeteria for elementary students.
• I was booed in 3 of the services for not announcing the location of the new building
• Derrick’s gone to a whole ‘nutha level as a worship leader!
• Students need more space.  Watching our youth worship really moved me.  They’re passionate about Jesus!
• Loved the tension in the worship center as I talked about the next steps for PVC, and what it’s going to cost us.
• Yes, I do enjoy the tension, because it means people are wrestling with God.  The fact is that following Christ has a cost, and this is going to cost us
• I feel like we’re taking our biggest step of faith yet as a church, what a cool place to be.
• Can’t wait to start the Staying In Love series next weekend.
• BTW…loved having college football back this weekend!
• Stay tuned later today for a hint on the new building.

Friday Family Fun night

Every Friday we have what we call “Friday Family Fun night”. Each week one member of the family gets to choose the agends for the night: food, games, movie, location, whatever? The rule is that everybody participates and nobody gets to complain about the choices for the week.

This week my oldest son wanted to make “orange chicken” and invite the grandparents over. I was skeptical, but man he put together a great dinner. Lori has been teaching the kids how to cook, and Jake put together an orange chicken dinner that puts PF Chang’s to shame. It’s fun watching our kids develop and flourish!

Here’s a few pics to make you hungry…