Creative Team Hits a Home Run!!

I wasn’t involved much in the look of our new series, Snapshots Of The Savior.  As a matter of fact, I hadn’t seen it before I walked on stage to teach. And because I was staring at the crowd I never saw how cool the staging looked behind me; until I watched the weekend video. Sean and his team truly hit it out of the park with this set! Check out the video…

He Might Surprise You – Snapshots of the Savior Series from Palm Valley Church on Vimeo.

Weekend Reflections

I know it’s been a few weeks, but I’m back in the blogging mood. I even have a re-design coming, with lots of extras being added to the blog.

• my 7-9 year old basketball team lost our 1st game. Incredible match-up, glad we get another shot at them next weekend.
• Personal confession: I really enjoyed not having Saturday services this week. We felt like a real family, having all day Saturday together, including a date night for Lori and I
• Thanks to the couple who bought Lori and I dinner at Claim Jumper, that was awesome!
• Couldn’t sleep Saturday night, too pumped about starting “Snapshots“.  Finally fell asleep about 4:00 am.
• 3 packed services Sunday morning. It was fun to have the whole body together on Sunday morning again.
• We need more people to move to Saturday night. If you can, I dare you to move
• Awesome opportunities to pray with people on the patio Sunday; lots of hurting people clinging to Jesus. I love being there for people who are trusting during tough times!
• The message really flowed Sunday; very cool to help people leave guilt and shame in their past.
• What’s with people leaving before the worship is over?
• Our memory verse for the week is 1 John 1:9, join in and “hide His Word in your heart”.
• The volunteers who built the staging did an awesome job!
• I love what God is doing at Palm Valley right now, it’s a blast watching the maturity develop within this young body.
• Had an awesome Home Team Sunday night. Our group is really coming together. As tired as I am Sunday afternoon, meeting with our HT refreshes me.
• Great workout at the gym this morning. Love working out with my bride, so much fun.
• Looking forward to staff meeting tomorrow, some fun surprises for the team and a special guest sharing with us.
• PVC’ers, bring people with you this weekend, it’s going to be awesome!

Weekend Reflections

Great weekend as we continued LifeCoach, dealing with a tough subject: Physical Health…

• I know people who skipped because of the topic: they missed out
• Had a lot of women (in particular) share that they had a breakthrough in the area of how they view their body. Cool God moments
• Teaching that message 5 times drained me.
• Loved Lilly singing Amazing Grace, rocked the house!
• The new video system is really kicking, love the 3 big screens. Very impactful.
• Can’t wait for the next series: teaching through the life of Jesus.
• A friend who has season tix gave me a ticket to the Cardinals game.
• Got to the Cardinals game midway through the first quarter. The buzz was amazing.
• Great seats, the band Lincoln Park was sitting right in front of us. Master P was 5 rows in front of us.
• Can’t believe the Cardinals are in the Super Bowl!!
• Home Team was very cool; Lori and I are really enjoying our new HT; they’re a blast!
• Enjoyed Monday off, but just one day less to get everything done this week

Weekend Reflections

Palm Valley kicked off 2009 in style. “LifeCoach”, my new teaching series seemed to strike a chord and really challenge people to strive for God’s best in 2009…

• I’ve never heard so many stories of life change in one weekend. It was incredible to hear so many people share how God is at work in their lives. I’m addicted to life change, there’s nothing like seeing people take steps of faith, trusting in God, and seeing Him respond in a big way!
• Loved the worship this weekend. Derrick and the team really led us closer to God through the music.
• Great buzz on campus. Must be resolutions for the new year, but people came, came early, and had a sense of expectation.
• My son Jake told me that the youth service was the best he’d ever attended. When I asked him why, he said “because they helped me discover the spiritual gifts God has given me”. That’s real, that’s practical. Thanks to the student ministries team for helping students live out their faith.
• launched our Home Team Sunday night with 22 adults and way more kids. It was crazy, but awesome to begin journeying through the Bible with others.
• Loved the video wall behind the song “God of Wonders”, very moving!
• I believe PVC is poised to make a huge impact on the community this year. I’m pumped!
• Love what happened at Revolution Church this weekend. Yeah God!
• Tons of people at Palm Valley reading through the Bible and S.O.A.P.’ing this year, it’s going to be awesome!

A New Journey Begins

Yesterday I wrote that we completed the Route66 journey, reading through the Bible in 2008. The cool part is that God’s Word is living and inexhaustable, so January 1st marks the begining of another journey. Today we begin reading through the Bible again in 2009. We will also be emphasizing journaling, using the S.O.A.P. method. This will help us record our journey, and grow closer to Jesus this year.

This is a great tool, because it doesn’t matter what your knowledge/experience is with the Bible, you simply record your thoughts each day. You can learn more about the S.O.A.P. method by watching this video: http://media.palmvalley.org/video/121308.html or reading here: http://www.pvcroute66.com/studytools.htm . I highly encourage everyone to watch the video by Wayne Cordiero, it will really help you.

My hope is that our conversations as a church will center around our reading of God’s Word, and what He’s teaching us. Tonight I had great joy as I looked around the room as all my family was reading the Bible, and then gathered to share our S.O.A.P.’s for the day. What a unifying factor in our family to read and share God’s Word together. Parents and grandparents, I pray you’ll take time each day to do this with your kids/grandkids. What a great way to invest in the young people in our lives.

I encourage you to find others to share this year’s journey with. Our Home Team is reading and S.O.A.P.’ing together, sharing our growth together. If you don’t have a group, I’d encourage you to find one or even start one. Contact Dennis Johnston, our Home Teams Pastor at djohnston@palmvalley.org for help with this.

I believe journeying through the Bible together will make 2009 the best year ever, join us on the journey!

Route 66 completed

This morning we opened our Bibles and read the last reading of the year, completing our journey this year through God’s route 66, the 66 books of the Bible. I’m so proud of so many in our church who read through the Bible for the first time! If you fell a little short, celebrate that you read the Bible more this year than you did the previous year. That’s a good thing!

2008 was an incredible year for Palm Valley Church, and much of it is due to our growth in God’s Word. Let’s keep striving forward as we read through the Bible again in 2009, adding the element of journaling, using the S.O.A.P. acrostic.

So, as January 1 hits, let’s open to Genesis 1 and start again, growing in our understanding and application of the Bible!

Christmas Eve Reflections

After some time off to recover and reflect, here’s some thoughts from our 6 Christmas Eve services…

• So proud of all our volunteers, many who served multiple services to make it happen!
• Sean Smith did an incredible job pulling together all the creative elements. I loved the stage design with 3 huge video screens and Christmas decorations.
• So proud of so many PVC’ers who invited people to come!
• During our first service all the video stopped working, creating a major mess, since our songs were tied by clic-track to the videos.
• Derrick and the worship team kept plowing forward and didn’t let it stop the service, they did an awesome job!
• The Felix testimony is one of the most moving stories of hope I have ever seen. You can watch it at the beginning of my message, click here.
• Thanks to all the Home Teams who brought cookies. I personally tested as many as possible, and they were all good.
• Adam Waltho and Lilly Hughes nailed their solos on Christmas, they both moved me to tears at different points of the worship. 
• Good to have Fernando and Eileen back on stage. Glad they escaped from Arkansas!
• 6 services is a lot of preaching, I was fried Christmas morning
• Can’t wait to kick-off “LifeCoach” this weekend, great way to start the new year!

Weekend Reflections

It was good to be back at Palm Valley after my travels, but jet-lag is still working me over.  Here’s some thoughts from the weekend…

• Glad I wasn’t teaching, I was so tired I could barely do announcements.
• Wayne Cordiero’s message was awesome. Video teaching works!
• I loved the praise team’s leading of “Let Me Sing”. Very worhshipful!
• Video team was right on cue all weekend.
• Nate rocked the sound board, it was crystal clear.
• Lots of excitement for Christmas, it’s going to be awesome.
• Route 66 has been the best thing we’ve ever done. Most of our church has read the Bible more this year than they did last year. That’s a win!
• December cracks me up. People are so busy with Christmas stuff (the birth of Christ) that they can’t make it to church to worship Him.
• Big things in the works that I hope to be able to share in a week or two.
• I mean really big!
• Had our staff Christmas party at our house Sunday night. I love our staff!
• The highlight of the night was the white elephant gift exchange. Somebody brought Derrick’s new monitor as their gift. You should’ve seen the stress on Derrick’s face when he realized what was going on.
• Some gals from PVC put together all the food and decorations, as well as serving. Thanks to Kathleen, Michelle, Jane, Judi, Kim, Toni, and Nancy.
• Don’t forget to invite people for Christmas Eve services, 6 great opportunities to see your friends meet Jesus!

Traveling home, longest birthday ever!

We woke up at 3:15 in Cairo to begin our long journey home. At 4:15 we all met for breakfast, and as I walked in the whole group sang happy birthday to me. It was a surprise, but great to know they cared By the way, I celebrated one of the longest birthday’s ever. Due to the 9 hour time difference and travel, I actually celebrated my birthday for 33 hours today on 3 different continents. Top that!

Our flight from Cairo to London was extremely empty, which allowed us to spread out and relax. Very nice. With a 3 hour layover in London, Lori and I had lunch with friends at Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant in the airport. We’re big fans of his, so it was cool to eat there. Our last flight was 11 hours from London to Phoenix. It seemed like an eternal flight, but we finally made it home about 7:00 pm Phoenix time.

Side note: the long flight allowed me to read Craig Goershel’s book, “IT”, which was an awesome and challenging read, especially for pastors.

It was so nice to get home and seek our kids, I can’t explain how much we missed them! So concludes an incredible journey, one that I’ll never forget.

King Tut, Lunch with a view, Ancient wonders

Today was our last day of the trip, and we went out with a bang. Here’s the highlights…

We began the morning by heading to the Egyptian Museum of History. What an incredible place. We only had 2 1/2 hours there, but we’d really need 3 days just to see everything there. Our guide focused mainly of the King Tut grave relics. It was amazing to see how much was packed into his tomb, and the ornate details of all the pieces. The museum actually has over 1 million more ancient egyptian relics they don’t have room to show, but they’re building a huge museum near the pyramids.

Egyptian Musuem of History

We then headed to the “suspended” Coptic church, which is egyptian Christians, in the old city of Cairo. As you enter the area you pass the “city of the dead”, which is a huge development of small homes that house the bodies of the dead of the city. Each family has their own “house” where all their dead are buried. It literally looks like a “ghost city”. The suspended church is named so because it was built on columns that exist from the Roman occupation.

The “suspended” Coptic (Christian) church

We hit lunch at a restaurant right across the street from the pyramids. Lunch was okay, but you couldn’t beat the view! Traffic was “light” today, but from our terrace table at a main intersection we found great amusement watching.

The view during lunch

Making bread for our lunch

Light traffic (seriously)

After lunch it was time to ride the camels to the pyramids. I had pictured the site being out in the middle of the desert, but they’ve literally built the city of Cairo around the pyramids. We started by riding camels, which was quite an adventure. It was hilarious to watch the whole group hanging on for life while laughing at each other. Somehow we all managed to survive!

Riding the camels

Pyramids and sphynx

Some of the group walked the tunnels to the middle of one of the pyramids while the rest of us just took in the sites. It truly is an amazing piece of workmanship. Our guide informed us that there’s actually 95 pyramids throughout Egypt, and he even pointed out a group of 7 pyramids off in the distance.

Group at the pyramids

King of the Pyramids

The last stop was at a papyrus store, where they showed us how they make paper of the papyrus plant. Very simple, yet fascinating technique. It’s amazing how resourcesful we are when we want to accomplish something.

Tomorrow we wake up at 3:15 am to head to the airport for the long journey home. Please pray for us, especially because I’ve picked up a stomach bug that’s waging war inside of me (I’m losing). We fly to London then straight to Phoenix, getting in around 6:30 pm. I have to tell you I can’t wait to see my kids, I miss them all so much!

This has been an incredible journey, one all of us will never forget!