What A Blast

I decided to head over to join the set-up crew tonight for the midnight special. As I drove into the parking lot at 12:05 am (I know, 5 minutes late) my heart was encouraged big time as the parking lot looked pretty busy. There were already about 75-100 people doing set-up, and man, they were going at it!

I briefly reflected on how early on in our church, this would have been a huge crowd, now it’s the set-up team. As we celebrate our 6 year anniversary today, I’m amazed at all that God has done in such a short time. I can’t wait to see what happens over the next six years!

A huge thanks to all the folks who came out tonight; it was a blast to see you having so much fun serving the Lord. I love the spirit of the people at PVC: no task is too big for you, and no task is too little. See you in the morning.

PDL 9/29/06 (Day 19)

Creating Community is today’s reading. I think one of my favorite phrases when it comes to our community of believers is “we’re doing life together“. THat’s really what community is. It’s a bunch of us being committed to each other, because of our commitment to Christ. This only happens over the long haul, as trust and understanding is developed.

I think that’s one of the things that grieves me most about our church shopping mentality in America today. People “choose” a church based on what it does for them (as if they aren’t the church), and then as soon as they’re bored or tired of that church, or heaven forbid the leadership makes a decision they don’t agree with, and they’re out.

I don’t think this is what Christ meant when He designated the church as His bride. I don’t think it’s what Paul meant when when he described the church as a body; as if the arm could simply disatttach itself without consequences the minute it didn’t agree with a decision the brain made.

I’ve committed my ministry career to serving at Palm Valley Church, and doing life with the people of this body, as their shepherd. I’m thankful for a lot of people who get that we’re in this for the long haul; and they’re willing to grow with me. Because they understand that in community we all make mistakes, we all have growing to do, and we all need each other to fully become like Christ! They allow me to be myself, do the best I can, and have a blast doing life together!

Set-Up This Weekend

This weekend is kind of crazy. The school we’re meeting at has a dance Saturday night, so we have to cancel our Sat. night service. I love it when God has us do something different to overcome a challenge, it keeps us fresh and creative.In order to get set-up done, here’s the schedule…

Saturday at 1:30 pm: we will set-up all the children’s and youth rooms, including nursery, pre-school, grade-school.

Saturday at Midnight: we will set up the gym .

So, if you’re looking for something fun to do this Saturday nigth, come on down to Desert Edge and join your friends in turning a gym into a worship center. By the way, I’m bringing free pizza for everyone who shows up. It should be a blast!

PDL 9/28/06 (Day 18)

This morning I was having a conversation with Paul Lewis, our Pastor To New Believers, and he was sharing how much this morning’s reading in the Purpose Driven Life had meant to him. So, I asked him to guest write today’s blog on the PDL. Enjoy Paul’s thoughts…

I love the red sandstone here in Arizona. I have a chunk that I collected off the side of the road some time back. This piece sits on a shelf in our house (I know it sounds weird, but once I even bought a rock because it looked cool). It occurred to me in my devotions that that stone is like my heart.  It is a hard rock that you could walk on, but over time God shapes it and chips off the corners until finally it is melted away into sand. I love people, and care for them, but sometimes my hard heart makes me want to slap them up side the head and say “why did you get yourself into this mess, what were you thinking.”  Sometimes I care on the outside, but wonder if I really care on the inside. I don’t want to go through the motions. I want to care deeply for people. I don’t want to judge their situation, I just want to care and show them the grace and love of Jesus Christ.

 

Along with my devotions (I’m currently in Jeremiah), I am reading “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren (today was day 18) and “Just Walk Across the Room” by Bill Hybels. It’s amazing how the Holy Spirit worked especially today through these authors to address this area of my life that I need to grow in. To reach people for Christ (and to care for those who know Him) we need to truly care for them and interact with them. Bill (JWAR) pointed out what I already knew, that for most Christians, the longer you believe, the less you interact with the non-believing world. He goes on to say that this isn’t God’s plan. We need to get to know our neighbors and others we come in contact with daily by truly caring for them.  Do you know the story of your checker at the store? Then Rick (PDL) points out that in Galatians 6:2 it says that we need to share each other’s troubles and problems, in doing so we obey the law of Christ (To love one another). Notice that it says share them, not just hear about them.

 

Here goes another chunk of rock! I know and trust that God is working in my heart to mold me daily more and more into His image. My prayer is that when I see Jesus face to face He will show me a jar of sand to show me that my heart was been melted away. That’s my prayer for you today too! Take the time to call someone to show that you care. Ask someone you encounter today to tell you their story and pray for them. Let the love of Christ leak out of you today and spill into the life of someone else.

6 Years

This Sunday we celebrate 6 years to the day that we started Palm Valley Church. What an incredible journey this has been! I love that God called Lori and I to start PVC.  I’m pumped to be with our body this weekend as we celebrate!

One of the things only church planters really understand is how crazy beginning a church can be. Starting with 8 in our home, to what PVC is now has been simply off the hook. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life, I’m thankful for this.

Beginning tomorrow, I will be blogging each day for the next few weeks about lessongs I’ve learned along the way. Primarily, I’m writing to express our journey in a way that might help other church planters. But if you’re a person who attends Palm Valley, you’ll get a unique insight to some things you may have never known, issues we’ve dealt with, things I’ve never talked about publically, and just the nuts and bolts of what God has taught me! Tune in tomorrow.

PDL 9/27/06 (Day 17)

We were made to belong. We were made for relationships. The focus of this is in the body of Christ, and visibly the local church. I’m a big fan of the local church, it’s the bride of Christ, He gave His life for it. I love what Bill Hybels has said, “the local church is the hope of the world”.

Specifically, I’m thankful for my local body, Palm Valley Church. I’m thankful I belong! I’m thankful for what this body has meant to my life…

• My four children are growing up at PVC.
• 3 of my kids have accepted Christ as their Savior at PVC.
• I have a ton of deep relationships I’ve formed at PVC, the best friendships I’ve ever experienced.
• I love that I can be myself at PVC, no need to try to impress anybody.
• I love that my wife loves our church (that’s huge for pastors).
• I love that my kids look forward to the weekend at PVC.
• I love that my kids love Breakout, our growth program for kids.
• I love that the nursery workers know my baby girl’s name.
• We’re reaching a ton of people for Christ.
• Lives are being changed.
• Addicts are being freed.
• Marriages are being restored.
• Young people are becoming passionate about their faith.
• We have an incredible staff team.
• I work with friends.
• People at PVC have incredible hearts for the Lord. They want to grow.
• PVC has provided me the opportunity to help other pastors.

That’s a few reasons why I’m thankful I belong in the body of Christ, and to the local church of Palm Valley. How about you?

PDL 9/26/06 (Day 16)

It’s all about love! 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us that love is essential to life. I liked the statement today, “the best expression of time is love, and the best time to love is now”.

Think about it, if we say we love someone, they should get our time. I love my wife, so I make sure we have time together each day; and extended time each week through date nights. I love my kids, so I give them time. Time doing whatever communicates love to them.

We say we love Jesus, but does He get our time? I mean it, really. Does He? Does He get the best time of our day? Does He get extended time each week? Do I spend time doing things which are important to Him?

If the answer is no, than we need to make an adjustment. Because the Bible says if we have faith (or even love), it must be backed by actions. We can’t say we have faith in Jesus, and love Him, if we’re not willing to back it up with action!

PDL 9/25/06 (Day 15)

This week we begin talking about the fact that we “were formed for God’s family”. God made us to be in relationship with Him, but also to other’s in His family. Today really made me think about baptism.

Baptism is the declaration of my faith in Christ, I love thinking of baptism as “going public”. Too many Christians are “undercover”, we’ve got to be living out our faith in front of others.

I love when we do baptism at Palm Valley, it always brings me to tears. It reminds me how crucial the message of life through Christ is; it reminds me of new believers who are beginning their walk; it’s also a huge reward for our people who have brought their friends to Christ, that they get to be there with their friends as they “go public”.

If you’re a follower of Christ, and haven’t taken that step of faith and obedience to be baptized, I encourage you to take that step right away!

Palm Valley Backstage

As I’ve blogged recently, one of my great desires is to help church planters and other pastors become more effective. Some great men have helped me along the way, and I want to pass on what we’ve learned here at Palm Valley; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Palm Valley really is an incredible story. In less than 6 years we’ve gone from 8 people in a living room to 800 people in a movie theater, to 2,100 people meeting on a high school campus. Along the way we’ve learned a ton of lessons, and as one of the largest portable churches in America, we feel like we can really help some churches in their process.

So…Later this fall we’re going to begin what we will call Palm Valley BackStage. We’re going to open the doors to 10 pastors/church planters who want to come to Palm Valley Church for a long weekend, and learn together. This will be a no-holds-barred look into how we do church. The weekend will include…

• opportunity to observe set-up and tear-down in a large portable church setting. We’ll even show you how we’ve made our own equipment to accomodate moving in and out equipment.
• Observing different ministry areas (children’s, youth, volunteers, 1st impressions) in action during weekend services.
• Observing the nuts & bolts of our weekend service.
• Multiple Q&A times with entire staff of Palm Valley Church, allowing you to ask ANY questions you want; we’ll give you the real deal answers.
• Time with Greg and Lori Rohlinger, to ask any questions you have. come prepared, because I want to learn together with you; so I’ll be asking tons of questions also.
• Participation in staff meeting; seeing how we evaluate the weekend, plan for upcoming events, and develop staff.
• Participation in a creative team meetings, seeing how we put together a series, and this upcoming messages, as well as creative elements in the service.
• Opportunity to sit down with staff members of your choice, to ask any questions you may have about how we do specific areas of ministry.
• Incredible winter weather in the valley of the sun; it will be a great escape for those of you coming from the cold.
• Participation will also give you ongoing access in the future to the staff and leaders of PVC.
• Time for pastors wives to be with Lori Rohlinger and staff wives of PVC, where we will talk about the unique challenges of being a pastors wife. Lori will share openly about the stress, struggles, and joys of managing the demands of raising 4 children while supporting Greg in the growth of Palm Valley Church.

We’re targeting the first weekend in December, which is usually a slow time for most churches, and a great time for Pastors to escape. There will be a cost for the weekend, but we’re keeping those as reasonable as possible. As a bonus, spouses are invited and encouraged to attend and participate.

If you would like more information, please email my assistant, Kathleen Flanagan, an kflanagan@palmvalley.org, and she will help you.

PDL 9/24/06 (Day 14)

When God seems distant. As we close this week’s topic, which has been about worship, we wrestle with the greatest question we ask. Where is God in the pain? Has He left me? Does He care?

We all go through tough times in life, admittedly some experience worse than others. It’s at these times that we’re most tempted to question God’s presence in our lives. That’s because we’ve bought the false bill of goods that says if we’re Christians our life should be perfect. That’s simply not true.

We live in a fallen world; and therefore we’re going ot experience the consequences. We all sin, and sin has brought hurt, pain, rejection, and even death into our lives (this doesn’t mean that all bad things happen because you’ve sinned). Pain and hurt are simply part of our lives.

Jesus actually promised us that if we lived our lives for Him, they world would hate and persecute us, in His name! He encourages us to strand strong in the face of persecution, becuase this produces greater faith and endurance; and it brings honor ot Him.

I’ve got a unique perspective on pain; beause it was through the worst times of life that I came to know Christ. When I lost everything, and was tempted to question God’s existence, I came to know Him! He’s changed my life and made me whole.

So, instead of cursing pain and hurt, I seek to embrace it as a fact of life, and ask God to use it drow me closer to Him; to make me more attentive to His Words; and to realize that it’s not He who has moved, but me!