Darius brought it

Talked to some friends this morning who told me that Darius rocked the place this weekend.  Darius is one of the most sincere followers of Christ I’ve ever met; we’re so blessed to have him on staff.

Anyways, had to give a shout out to D, and thanks for challenging our body this weekend.

I’m so proud of the staff we have. They do an awesome job under tough conditions. It’s not easy being a portable church our size, yet they make it look easy!

On Vacation

Okay, so you’re wondering where are the posts?

Last Wednesday we loaded up the family and headed for a little summer vacation. As I write this morning, I’m sitting in Starbuck’s in Durango, Colorado. Man, is the weather nice! I’ll blog more thoughts when I return later this week, but here’s a highlight reel of our vacation…

Wednesday:  Saw the Grand Canyon for the first time. We stopped in Tusayan to watch the IMAX film about the Canyon, then went and saw it for ourselves.  The kids loved it. It was cool, but i couldn’t help but think of Chevy Chase’s reaction in the movie Vacation. Cool to see the kids experience things for the first time!

Thursday: drove to Purgatory in Colorado for a two night stay. Great mountain resort, with tons of fun stuff for the kids. My favorite part has been just sitting and talking with my boys. They’re so cool, and so much fun to be with.

Friday: Watched my oldest boy climb a rock wall for the first time. He rocked, and I could see a sense of accomplishment on his face! Dad was pretty proud too. Read stories from the Bible and talked as a family about how blessed we are.

Saturday: Drove to Lake Vallecito to hook up with Lori’s family for the week. Our cabin is what you’d call rustic, but it’s right on the front of the lake.  The kids are having a blast with all of their cousins. They seem to enjoy the BB gun and fishing the most!

Sunday: Visited Vallecito Church this morning. It was great to sit in church with my kids; I don’t get to do that much   I always want my kids to know that we go to church and worship because we love the Lord, not just because it’s my job. After church, we went creek stomping. The boys loved it, but the water up here is freezing!

That’s a wrap, can’t wait to see you this weekend!

Construction Team

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately with the construction team. Art Day (Pastor of Construction & Development) has done a great job assembling an incredible team of people from our church to lead the buildling of our church campus.

Over the next few months they will be nailing down the long term master plan for our campus by defining space usage/needs, building styles, asthetics, traffic flow, and so many other areas. I’m really pumped about the direction of this team, they’re going to lead us in building an incredible campus! And yes, the kids fountain is still at the center of the campus

We’ve also partnered with some great companies to make sure we build the best possible campus while maximizing every dollar…

Our Architect — Todd & Associates

Campus Media Design — Clark ProMedia

General Contractor — Adolph & Petersen

So stay tuned, this is going to be awesome!

Great Staff Meeting

Today was a great staff meeting. We spent time talking about what God did this weekend, celebrating the changed lives. I really thought the team pulled off a great weekend with the move to the theater. The volunteers didn’t miss a beat in accomodating the changes!

What topped off staff today was watching Andy Stanley together. I pulled out the DVD from the 2005 Catalyst Conference and we watched it together.  Andy gave an incredible talk on integrity, and how to maintain it despite the challenges of ministry. He also talked about how not every open door is from God.

It was a great reminder for us to always seek what God is doing, not just look for the easiest open door! I’ve never been to Catalyst, but listening to Andy today made me want to go this year.

Failure

I had someone come talk to me today about an area our church had failed them in. Now, I’m not talking about someone with unrealistic expectations that the Church exists solely for them. This person is a huge part of our church, and we let them down in an area they have a very realistic expectation of support in.

It was a tough conversation, in that I really had to look at why we do what we do, and how we can do it better.  Here’s a couple of things I took away from the conversation…

1) I’m thankful for Godly people who will speak the truth to me in love. This person came with no agenda. They simply wanted me to know their feelings, and their main concern was that we as a church make sure this didn’t happen again. They even wanted to help be a part of the solution.

2) We need to grow. It broke my heart that someone with a realistic expectation was let down. I left that meeting with a deep sense that we need to get better at this as a church. We need to get more people involved in ministry. We need to disciple every person to maturity in Christ. We need to be there for every person in our body!

3) We need to listen to the Holy Spirit. I had to apologize to this person tonight. I knew that this need was there, but I asked someone else to take care of it. I really believed I didn’t listen to the Holy Spirit prompting me to go. As a pastor, this is tough to admit. But I think our growth depends on us all being humble and honest.

4) I am praying about how we as a church can be more effective. Please join me in praying. If you’re not currently serving in a ministry, I’d ask you to be a part of the solution by volunteering. You can start here.

Tim Got Married

I had the privilege of doing a wedding for a young couple in our church this weekend.  The groom, Tim, has a very special place in my heart, so this ceremony had great meaning to me. And yes, Tim and I  both cried through much of it.

I led Tim to Christ 11 years ago in a Walgreen’s parking lot. I watched him go from being a young man with little purpose or direction into a rock-solid follower of Christ. He has been amazingly consistent in his relationship with the Lord over that time.

In short, Tim’s like a son to me. I was filled with pride as Tim stood and made his vows to Melinda.  They both love the Lord, and I’m excited for them to experience all God has for them now as a couple!

Weekend Reflections

This weekend was really different at Palm Valley Church. 

We wrapped up the “Don’t Fight Naked” series, and I talked about persistent prayer. It’s vital for our church to develop a greater heart and stamina for prayer. I think this weekend was a start to that!

We met in the theater, which made for a really cool atmosphere.  It seemed much more intimate that the gym we normally meet in, and having a real stage was nice.

It was fun to watch people park on one side of the campus and walk all the way around; despite it being 116 degrees this weekend. Thanks to Dave and his team for the water stations along the way! It’s always fun to have a weekend that’s very different, and this was very much that way.

We’re in the theater one more week, so should be another cool weekend.

Prayer

This weekend we’ll be wrapping up the “Don’t Fight Naked” series, and I’m pumped.  We’re going to be looking at Ephesians 6:18, and specifically the power of prayer. I’m excited to share with you what God has been teaching me in this area over the past few months.

I have a real burning passion to help the people of Palm Valley Church become prayer warriors this year, and I believe it begins this weekend. So…make sure you don’t miss this weekend!

Don’t forget, we’re meeting in the theater at the school for the next 2 weeks, should be very cool!

Staff Off-Site

Took a few days for a staff “off-site” meeting, and man was it good. It was really powerful to be away from the phones, emails, web sites, etc… as we concentrated on praying together and dreaming of what God might do this year at Palm Valley Church.

We have such an awesome team! It was good to laugh together, remember all God has done in the past year, and hear how He’s been working in each of our lives.

And PVC’ers, all I can say to you is “LOOK OUT”. I believe God is preparing to do something incredible this year at Palm Valley. I have much the same feeling about what God’s about to do as i did about lauching the church 6 years ago. I don’t know exactly what it means, but i do know He’s going to do something significant. Stay tuned 

Fresh Start

One of the cool parts about our staff retreat was hearing how God is growing different ministries.  I was really taken by the growth of our Fresh Start ministry this year.

Fresh Start is our ministry that supports people who make decisions to follow Christ, or to re-commit their lives to Him.  This ministry has evolved and expanded during this past year with the addition of a Pastor to New Believers, a Fresh Start Class (which answers questions New Believers have and helps them get started in their journey with Christ), and an expanded ministry team led by Volunteer Coordinator Diane Maloney. 

Diane has been such an encouragement to our team as this ministry has really taken it to the next level. It has been great to see the team answering the questions of those coming to the Fresh Start table, praying with them, and providing materials (including a Bible) to help them in their growth. This connection continues as the team follows up with our New Believers to encourage them in their Faith. 

We want to give a big thanks to Diane and her team for the wonderful and important job that they do.  There are a few opportunities to serve on this team, so if you have a desire to help new believers grow in their faith, indicate “Fresh Start Team” on your communication card, stop by the Fresh Start table, or Volunteer Central to find out more.