Who Needs Sleep?

Pastor’s log: 2:37 a.m. Who needs sleep I ask? Seriously, I’m way too amped up after this weekend to sleep, so I’m answering emails, reading, preparing for next weekend, and blogging. Wonder what time the sun will come up. Can’t wait to watch it!

Big day today. We’ve got lead team meetings all day planning the building stuff, working on our next series, “Beating The Christmas Blues”, Christmas Eve services (they’re going to be awesome), and hiring a new staff person. Who you ask? Can’t tell you now, have to wait for them to accept. All I can say is I’m excited to have this person coming on, they fit right in on the team, and will help us go to the next level with our weekend services (that’s a hint)! Stay tuned…

When People Get It

Late last night I was at Walgreen’s picking up some drugs for my kids when I ran into a gal who’s a member at Palm Valley. She’s a huge encourager to me, so it was cool to see her outside of church.

She told me she had invited a number of friends to attend PVC this weekend, and that they were coming. It was cool to see her excitement, and know that God was really working in her life. I realized she was trusting me to help her friends come to know Christ. It challenged me to make sure I don’t blow it for her this weekend..

Tonight after service I talked with a gal who had brought 6 friends from work. Get that, she took last week’s message to heart and brought her whole office! They were enjoying a chili dog on the patio, I could sense God at work there.

I saw and met a ton of first time visitors tonight. I love that a lot of Palm Valleyer’s took a step this week and invited friends to church. Coolest thing, they were inviting people who don’t know Christ, not just friends who attend other churches. That’s our mission! I love it when people get it!! That’s why I love being the pastor at Palm Valley Church!

My Thoughts On Pastors Falling

A few weeks ago we were all rocked by the news about Ted Haggard and his struggles. First, let me tell you, my heart aches for him, his wife, his kids, and their church body. Nobody wins in this. If you’re thinking, oh year, Satan wins. Can I remind you that the story isn’t done yet, and that God loves to redeem our failures to be trophies of His grace!

Anyways, here’s some thoughts I have about the whole situation…

1) Pastor Haggard stated that this has been a life long struggle for him. It saddens me that a man who really loves the Lord and has served Him with his life couldn’t get help for his battle. For whatever reason, it appears he never felt comfortable seeking help from for his struggle. This is sad, because victory and freedom are ours in Christ.

2) I’ve been asked a ton lately about my accountability. Why does everyone assume because a pastor fell that we’re all in that boat. I know a ton of people from every walk of life that struggle with sin, don’t single out pastors. However, I do realize that we’re held to a higher standard, so here’s some rules I have always had for myself in ministry to help build hedges around myself…

• I never travel alone. I always travel with my wife or another staff member of the same sex. I rarely leave the office during the day without someone with me.
• I never meet with a woman alone. Never. Not anytime. Doesn’t happen.
• I don’t counsel women. This can lead to attachment that’s not healthy.
• I don’t have unaccounted for time. People (my wife, my assistants, other staff) always know where I’m at and what I’m doing.
• I don’t have unaccounted for money. I have two credit cards. One is a business card that’s checked by our financial team for every expense. The other is a personal card which my wife checks for every expense. I rarely have more than $20 in my pocket. This said, I don’t have the funds to get into trouble
• I have friends who are very close to me and know when I’m struggling with something. I seek to be open and honest with these guys.

3) If somebody has set in their heart that they are going to sin, it’s hard to stop them. Even with all the protections and accountability in the world, nobody is beyond temptation. So, I seek to keep growing in my relationship with Christ, and maintain a healthy love for Him, balanced with a healthy fear of His discipline.

4) I magnify the consequences in my heart. I don’t ever want to have to tell Lori, the love of my life, that I’ve blown it. It would devestate her. I don’t ever want to have to tell my kids that daddy didn’t live like he taught. This would cause incredible damage in their lives, especially in their relationships with Christ. I don’t ever want to forfeit the ministry God has blessed me with at Palm Valley Church. So many people would be hurt!

5) Ultimately, I covet the support and prayers of the awesome people at PVC. I am honored to be called your pastor. Realize that this places a target on my chest, and please pray for me and the rest of the staff!

That’s some thoughts, that I hope make you think. We’re all on a journey to become more like Christ. I pray for Ted Haggard, that God would bring freedom into his life, and forgiveness from those around him. While much of the Christian community heaps guilt (is that Christ like?), I pray God’s grace for him and his family.

Thanks

To all who prayed for me, thanks! I was removed from the jury on day 2, which was a blessing since it was looking like it could be a long trial. I would have served, the case actually seemed quite interesting, but I’ve just got a lot on my plate.

Under the “what are the odds” category…I was on the jury with a gal from Palm Valley, so it was cool to talk with her some and get to know her better. I love that God is giving us an influence in this community, and I love seeing people whose lives are being touched by PVC all over the place!

Prayer Needed

I’m asking for prayer from the people who attend PVC. This week has been crazy. Monday, I sat through 13 hours (dead honest) straight of meetings (all incredible). Tuesday was meetings early, and then off to jury duty for the rest of the day.

I’m writing at 3:00 am as I’m working on my message for this weekend (I’m pumped), but I’m not feeling well. Visited the Doctor tonight and I have an ear infection. Can you believe that? I haven’t had an ear infection since I was 4! It’s pretty painful, so I’m hoping the antibiotics will kick in soon.

As I always say, all of this must mean that God is going to do something incredible this weekend! Please pray for my health, for some rest, for the message this weekend, and that I don’t drive Lori crazy because I act like a big baby when I’m sick

Bring People This Weekend

As I talked about last weekend, this is an incredible weekend to bring people with you who don’t know Christ. My message is “How Good Is Good Enough?”.

I challenge you to bring as many people with you who don’t know Christ as you can fit in your mini-van, make two trips if necessary. If you don’t, you’ll be sitting through the message wishing people you know who don’t know Christ were with you.

Also, worship is going to rock. The team has put together a set that will absolutely have you worshiping all out! I can’t wait to see what God does this weekend. Please pray for every person who’s coming this week that needs to hear the gospel.

Jury Duty

Man, I can’t believe I not only got called for jury duty, but I made it through the first day of cuts. I spent today sitting through questions ad nauseum, hoping to be eliminated, but no dice. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

Now don’t get me wrong; I don’t mind doing my civic duty and all that. However, this is a horrible time for me to get called. I’m starting at a trial that’s going to last at least a week. Either way I’ll make the best of it; but I am praying that God would get me off the jury tomorrow (I know, sounds selfish).

If not, I’ll have some cool stories to tell, because this does look like a really cool case!

NASCAR in town

If you’re attending Palm Valley this weekend (and why wouldn’t you?), you’ll want to be aware that there will be increased traffic due to the NASCAR event at PIR.

With this weekend’s racing event at Phoenix International Raceway, we recommend that you avoid the traffic delays on Estrella Parkway by taking Cotton Lane to Yuma and then head east to Desert Edge High School.

Leave a little early and you’ll be fine. See you this weekend!

Worship last weekend

It was awesome. Derrick did a great job connecting with our crowd. He’s back this weekend and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be talking about the harvest as we continue our SEEDS series; focusing on how we as a church reach people for Christ. You won’t want to miss it. If you missed last week, you can watch it at www.palmvalley.org.

Drive Conference

A bunch of the staff and I have been in Atlanta attending the Drive Conference. This was an absolutely phenomenal conference, it really challenged and recharged me. Tony Morgan gave a blow by blow of the 3 days, you can read it here…

My thoughts…

1) Andy Stanley is an ablsolutely incredible leader. Seeing/hearing how they’ve developed at North Point was a huge challenge to me as I seek to grow in my leadership, as well as developing a staff of leaders.

2) North Point does things first class. They observe the small details, and it makes the difference.

3) Their worship is off the hook. These guys brought it! It excites me for the developments in our worship team that Palm Valley will be seeing over the next few weeks. It also gets me pumped about building a worship center of our own. There are certain things we aren’t able to do in a gym with the excellence we’ll be able to do in the near future. No excuses for not doing our best, but it’s an honest observation.

4) Charles Stanley challenged me to live by faith, obey God in the face of conflict, and trust Him for the resources. He’s been through more conflict that I can imagine, and it was encouraging to hear the real deal from somebody who’s come through the wars and seen God bless!

5) We’ve got an awesome team at PVC. I love our staff, they’re incredibly gifted, they love the Lord, and they’re sold out to our vision.

These are my initial ramblings from the airport in ATL. We’ll be back in Phoenix about 3:00 a.m., and I’ve got meetings about our buildings beginning early tomorrow. I’ll write more later!