So this week Lori and I tagged along for our elementary and jr. high summer camps up in the white mountains. All I can say is Wow! Our teams hit a home run and then some. Here’s some thoughts…

• Tonto Rim Camp worked out great, lots of cool stuff (zip line, mud pit, jump rock, etc…)
• My back hurts from sleeping on a crummy bed
• Cool to be big enough to rent out the whole camp for ourselves and do our own programming. Made a huge difference.
• We have awesome kids at Palm Valley Church. I had such a blast just hanging out with them.
• I remembered how hard it is to preach to kids and youth. Took me back to my youth pastorin’ days and it was a blast.
• I love speaking to a couple hundred kids around a campfire!
• Our volunteers were amazing, they kep bringin’ it all week. They made a huge impact on kids lives this week!
• One of my boys spent his whole $20 dollars in 15 minutes at the camp store. So much for “saving for a rainy day”. At least he was generous and bought Icee’s for everyone in the store
• Somehow my 6 year old took over the whole camp and did whatever he wanted. He had more fun than anybody.
• This was one of the most spiritually significant camps I’ve ever been a part of. I was overwhelmed by the depth of decisions young people made this week.
• I’m pumped about the next steps for our ministries to the next generation.
• There are some things we’ll do better next year, but they’re small tweeks. Overall, the whole week blew me away!
• Can’t wait for High School camp in July. If you haven’t signed up, do so now.

I was at camp all week (’nother post) and am catching up this morning…

• OnePrayer continued with an awesome message by Perry Noble; seriously one of the best sermons I’ve ever heard!
• Video worked awesome. As soon as I heard people laughing at Perry’s jokes and amen’in his points, I knew it was working. This opens up huge ministry doors for PVC.
• The new 16′ x 9′ screen looked incredible.
• The youth leading worship was “off the hook”. They brought such energy, and it brought me to tears hearing our church respond to them.
• GO team students did a great job sharing about their trip; it amazes me the quality of students Darius is developing.
• Filmed a short video for “Style My Ride”. What’s that you ask? Can’t tell you just yet, but it’s going to be awesome!
• Switched to ProPresenter and Mac for worship projection and it worked great.
• I love when I’m not preaching and I can just hang out and pray with people and thank our volunteers!
• KidZone and Playhouse are thru the roof. Adrienne and her incredible team are knockin’ it out of the park every week. If you have a child who isn’t attending kids ministry, what are you smoking?
• My oldest son is a jr. higher, that makes me feel old.
• It’s hot in Phoenix this time of year!
• People who greet outside in June and July really love Jesus.

I’m fired up for this weekend at Palm Valley. We’re continuing the OnePrayer series with Perry Noble  preaching at PVC. If you don’t know about Perry, strap your seat belt on, ’cause the man can bring it! I believe Perry is one the best leaders and strongest communicators in the church today, and he’s a good friend.

Perry pastors a church in Anderson, SC that runs over 8,000 people each week. His straight forward teaching mixed with southern humor is going to speak to all of us.  He’ll be teaching via video, as churches share together for OnePrayer. If you’re wondering how that will work, trust me. You’ll be blown away this weekend. I know I’ll be sitting in the front row taking notes. Palm Valley’ers, you don’t want to miss this weekend!

As you know, we have 28 high school students (plus adult leaders) in Goldfield, Nevada this week reaching out to communities in the area. It’s been so awesome to see what God is doing in and through these students. If you haven’t been following (and praying for them), you can check out their daily updates at Go Mission Blog

We’ve been moving along with the development of our campus. For the past year we’ve invested a lot of money in roads, streets, sewers and other utilities. Later this month we go before the town of Buckeye to re-zone our property, which is one of the few remaining steps for us to break ground. This sign on our property got me pretty excited today…

Click on the picture to read

It was great to be back after a couple weeks off. I loved being with the people of Palm Valley again!

• OnePrayer kicked off awesome. I love that our people want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.
• I preached for about an hour each service, that’s alot of talking!
• That’s what happens when I get some time to sit on the beach and hear from God
• Greeters who serve when it’s 100+ degrees really love Jesus. And I believe He’s proud of them!
• Over 1300 churches, nearly 800,000 believers in OnePrayer. How cool is that?
• Why aren’t more churches participating?
• Launching 500 new churches in Sudan, India, China and Cambodia is pretty darn exciting!
• I loved that so many people said thanks for challenging them to be uncomfortable. You couldn’t say what I said yesterday and still have a job at a lot of churches.
• Our children’s team is hitting it out of the park EVERY week.
• I feel like I got hit by a truck this morning. 5 services is a lot of preaching.
• Our high school students are on their GO trip, follow their journey here… Go Blog
• I’m hooked on the “Deadliest Catch” on Discovery Channel. That’s awesome TV.

Today is Memorial Day, much more than a day off work and a chance to bbq with friends and swim. Today is a day to remember those who have paid the price to purchase and protect our freedom.

I live in the greatest country on the face of the earth. I have freedom of speech. I can go wherever I like today. I don’t live in fear (although gas prices are starting to scare me ). I have food to eat. In short, I’m blessed beyond measure to live in the United States of America.

So today, thank you to every person who has served in our country’s armed forces. Thank you for putting yourself on the line for our freedom, and attaining freedom for others. To families who have lost a loved one in service: THANK YOU. I can’t imagine the pain in your loss, but I want you to know your loss is acknowledged and appreciated by those who benefit from it.

As you celebrate today, take time to remember and appreciate those who have paid such a high price for our freedom. Remember, freedom isn’t free, it comes with a cost!

Coming off two great series, Life Hurts - God Heals and Beautiful, I feel like God has been given me great clarity about what to teach. That’s a reassuring feeling, because I never want to simply speak from my own wisdom or desire, but to know I’m teaching that which God has placed on my heart. I also believe He’s placed some teachings on my heart for the next couple months. Here’s what’s coming…

June - OnePrayer - we’ll be joining with over 800 churches around the world, representing over 600,000 believers to answer the question, “if we could pray one prayer, what would it be?”. I’ll be teaching the first week regarding my prayer for the church. The following three weeks we’ll be utilizing video teaching to hear from some of today’s greatest teachers and pastors, many of whom are also personal friends of mine. We’re planning to have Craig Goerschel, Perry Noble and Ed Young teach at Palm Valley. At the end of the series we will give an offering  along with all the other churches to plant 500 new churches in India, China, and Africa. How awesome to be a part of what God’s doing around the world! PVC’ers, you don’t want to miss this series, it’s going to awesome.

July - Jonah - I love the story of Jonah, it’s more than just a big fish tale. We’ll be talking about what it means to follow God with everything we have, and his vision for us to spread His good news around the world.

August - The Ultimate Fighter - this series has been on a my heart for a long time and I finally get to teach it. I had planned to do it earlier but some other things came up. Anyways, we’ll take a month to talk about what it means to be a man in today’s culture, and how to stand strong as leaders in our marriages, as dads, at work, and in the church. We’ll talk about common temptations and how to overcome them. As you know, I’m a HUGE UFC fan, and we’ve got some awesome surprises (guests) planned for this series. Ladies, drag your men to church

I’m still praying about a couple options for September and October, but I’ve got a good idea where we’re going. We’re hoping we’ll have all our permits in place to break ground on our buildings, so I’d like to do something teaching around that.

We wrapped up the “Beautiful” series this weekend, and here’s some thoughts I left with…

• Adam did an awesome job leading worship. He’s got such a great presence, it was cool to see him take this step.
• This is one of the best series we’ve ever done. The positive words we brought to women obviously struck a cord in our church and our community.
• I’m going to do another series for women in the future.
• Had a visiting couple brag on one of our greeters, Craig. He went out of his way to walk them around our campus to check in their kids and find them a seat in worship. That’s what I’m talking about!
• Alvin, John, and the video team did an awesome job the last couple weeks overcoming some major equipment issues.
• I’m wiped out. I’ve taught 24 of the past 25 weeks, that’s way too much! Throw in 5 services and I’m drained physically and emotionally.
• God has blessed Palm Valley in incredible ways over the last few months; I’m blown away!
• I’m getting pumped about OnePrayer in June, it’s going to rock the world.
• Our kids team is getting even stronger: Adam Nunez has returned to our staff to head up all of our large group programming. He’ll be stepping up the level of music, drama, video and teaching! Priscilla Tallman is coming on to head up Elementary small groups. She’ll be equipping, encouraging and mentoring our children’s small group leaders to pour into the lives of every child who comes to Palm Valley.  Children’s ministry at PVC is going ot a whole ‘nutha level!
• It was awesome to see our “GO” students in service this weekend. 28 high schoolers who are going out this summer as our missionaries.
• The response of the people of PVC to our GO team was overwhelming. The students are fully funded for the summer.
• Someone donated a Jeep Grand Cherokee to us. We’re going to trick it out with a pumpin’ sound system, video screens with Xbox and wrap it with the Palm Valley logo. Our Student Ministries team will be using it to go on Jr. High and High School campuses and get to minister to students.

I’ve not been blogging a lot lately, spending a great deal of time focused on what’s coming next (and beyond) for Palm Valley Church. Last weekend was another incredible weekend, as we continued the “Beautiful” series and celebrated Mother’s Day. Here’s some highlights…

•  2800 people in attendance. We keep growing every week.
• Kids and Students are hitting it out of the park. They’ve eliminated the excuses with being portable and are creating incredible environments for young people to thrive in their faith in Christ. I’m challenging 100 more people to step in and volunteer in these ministries so we can reach even more kids for Christ!
• Dedicated over 60 babies last week. I guess our PureSex series last year was a big hit
• Taught about Hannah, what incredible faith in God she possessed!
• Susie’s story rocked everyone’s world. you can watch it online.
• Preaching 5 services wears me out. It’s Wednesday before I feel human again.
• I love hearing about changed-lives. God is doing something amazing, and I love that I get to be a part of it!