Sunday, August 31, 2008

Brunch & Sunday Mind Dump

To say that the brunch today was a hit would be an understatement!

A few things I noticed today. We had a few people with us that were not everyday members of Real Life. Our people did an excellent job of making them feel welcome and like a part of the family. That is just awesome to see. It makes me incredibly proud as a pastor to see our people loving as Christ would. The fact is, I can't be everywhere, I can't have a conversation with everyone, I can't spend the kind of time I would like to with everyone. You guys take a lot of pressure off me by being so open to new people! I cannot thank you all enough.

So lets dump:
  • The food was incredible.
  • I could have taken a long bath in John's Sausage gravy. I know that sounds nasty.....but when you run our of biscuit's and see people eating it straight out of a bowl like soup. You know you have done something right!
  • Irene knows how to make a cheesecake. I know what my request is for every potluck from here until Jesus returns.
  • For those of you who know April. You'll love this. She had two plates of food. On the way home she was complaining about being hungry. How does she stay so dang skinny!
  • A great day. We are going to have to do more of these things!
I love our people! I love our church. We are doing exactly what God has called us to do. That is an awesome thing and place to be.

Friday, August 29, 2008

I've been a slacker

I have been kind of a slacker around the house when it comes to my audio/video stuff lately. That changed tonight! I spent a few hours tonight redoing our family room and rewiring. Last night a guy from directv was here to install a new dish and upgrade our receiver. Our old one was on the fritz and we needed the upgrade. They went ahead and put the new dish up because our signal was pretty week.

Anyway, since that was done I figured its high time I set the family room up for the NFL season. Got the surround sound all jamming and with the new picture we are looking and sounding great. Just in time too. Next weekend we are going to host the first Real Life football party. It's for all the people in the fantasy football league. It's going to be a good time!

See You there!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Brunch Anyone?

This weekend we are going to do something a little different at Real Life. We knew that many people were going to be camping and spending time with family and not in church. So, we thought that this would be a great time to scrap the "service" aspect of a worship service and just spend some time enjoying each others company.

So, in that spirit we are having a potluck brunch in place of a worship service. If you are free and you want to stop out and fellowship this weekend. We'd love to have you. It doesn't matter which church you call home. If your free you're welcome. Come hungry! There's going to be some great grub to be had.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Sunday Mind Dump

What a day. I love Family Worship Experiences!

First off, I could never say it enough. Thank you to EVERYONE who pitches in and does something at Real Life. Whether you help teach, greet, play music, or clean up thank you! We would be no where without you guys. You are awesome.

So lets dump:
  • The kids were freaking cute today.
  • Loved having the tables up and in place for the whole day. It made transitioning from church to lunch so much easier.
  • I was loosing my mind doing sound today. I am way to hyper to put me behind a sound board. I need freedom to roam. And talk.
  • I am excited about the new kids curriculum. I think it's going to be the best series we have done for them.
  • School starts tomorrow. It was great to pray for all the kids before they went off to school.
  • Next weekend is the brunch. My mouth is already watering thinking about the good stuff that is going to be served. If anyone cares. I like cheesecake. In fact, I love cheesecake.
  • It was a long day. After all the church festivities we did our fantasy football draft. I am going to kick it.
I need a shower and to stretch out on the couch. It was a long day today!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

We Found Atlantis

Went to my first Screemo concert last night as my son's band was playing at Club Bijou. To say it was loud would be an understatement! There were some bands that were not bad and some that I'd prefer not to see again!

This was Jakes bands first show. They were pretty nervous when they first started. The got progressively better with every song and by the end it looked like they were having a little bit of fun.

I tried to take some pictures with my mobile phone and they really didn't come out. This was the only one that sort of came out. You can see Caleb the singer/screemer and Jakes drum kit.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Pig Roast

It's on!

We are doing a pig roast and it is going to be cool. We have a bunch of bands lined up to provide live music and don't even get me started on the food. We are also looking for inflatables for the kids to bounce on. If you have some let me know!

Mark the date on your calenders. October 18th be there or be square.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Facebook

Some friends have been after me for a while to get on the facebook bandwagon. I have been putting it off because, quite frankly, like I need one more thing to keep up with! But, I went ahead and did it and it was suprizingly much more user friendly and faster than myspace. I really like it. Finding your friends in easier and the applications are much more suited for the over 30 crowd like me!

I am diggin it!

So look me up!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Business Meeting

Last night we had our business meeting/board meeting for the month. It was probably the most productive meeting we have had since we started with this group of people. We covered a ton of ground set some great things in motion that you'll be seeing take place as soon as this weekend!

I am really blessed to work with the group of people God has surrounded me with at Real Life. They ask hard questions but still love one another. They seek the very best for the kingdom and its people.

I can't wait for some of the cool things that are going down between now and the end of the year!!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Give it up for Ft. Leonard Wood!

Was looking at the Geo-tracker that keeps track of where everyone reading the blog is from. I noticed someone read the blog that was from Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri! I went to basic training in the Army there. That is sweet!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Sunday Mind Dump

It was really nice to be back in the saddle teaching again. I have only taught about half of the summer messages and it really was nice to be back at it again. Will be glad when summer is over and we get back to having all our people back most Sundays! So, let's dump.
  • Talked about risk and failure today. The Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear. We need to be taking smart risks for the Kingdom.
  • Some of the risks we are taking are: Doing a major advertising push and spending money we don't have to reach people. We are going to reach out to hurting people. That means more work for all of us. The payoff is we get to see Christ continue changing lives.
  • In terms of advertising we are going to do secular radio ads, direct mailers, and billboards.
  • We are also hosting a pig roast with live music.
  • Doing a Sunday Brunch on Labor day weekend. That is going to be sweet!
  • I am really excited about the kids/family worship experience next weekend. It's going to be cool.
  • The band is kicking it lately!
  • Missing everyone not here this week: The Stones, John and Shelly, and Jeanie. See you all soon!
  • Gotta get ready for the Tampa Bay football game tonight.
  • That reminds me, fantasy football draft next weekend! Bet there!
I am ready to kick back and relax with a cold one! You know I am talking about a diet Dr. Pepper. Shame on you for thinking otherwise!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

A day with the family

Hung out at my Mom's cottage today with my family. That was pretty cool because we really don't get to do that very often. In fact, the last time all three of us boys were together was my Dad's funeral eight years ago. As you can see I am the smallest of my three brothers.
Joel is the middle brother on the left. He's 6'3'' and Ray is the brother on the right he's 6'5''






This is Chelsea and Ray's girl Gabby hanging out on Mom's pontoon. Gabby is a cute little thing!
Man, did she sure love hanging on Chels! It had been two years since we had seen her. Man that girl is cute!









This is My brother Joel's girl Jaina. She had a ball driving the boat. All these kids are getting so big.

Heading to the Lake

I am heading off to my Mom's cottage this afternoon. I am picking up my grandparents and taking the kids. We are meeting my youngest brother who lives in Florida. He and his family are up at the lake for the week. Should be a good time and I am sure that my grandparents will enjoy being up at the lake for the day. The kids always love going up there and we don't go very often.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

This weekend

Spent this morning working on this weekends message. It was an awesome morning. The message is going to be an outpouring of some of the things God has been hitting me with over our vacation. We are going to be talking about taking some risks. For some of us it's taking a risk for the kingdom of God and for moving it forward. For some of us its taking a risk in restoring broken relationship. For some of us its taking a risk and opening ourselves up to live and love again. I am stoked. Can you tell?

Get your friends to church this weekend!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Sunday Mind Dump

First off, great to be back home at church this weekend. It was nice to get away and we needed some family time but it's always great to be back at church. I love my church family and enjoy spending time with you guys! So let's dump:
  • Nice job by Tony Trezzo today. It was his first time doing a Sunday message and he did a fine job.
  • I am itching to be back teaching again. God has hit me with some big time stuff. It's coming but it's going to be a little while with family day coming and Labor day weekend we are doing a church brunch!
  • Nice job by the band today. It was cool getting to sit in and play bass. I don't get to play very often so it was cool that I got to.
  • Aaron is doing a killer job leading worship. He is getting better and better. It's great to see.
  • It'll be great to be into September when everyone gets finished with vacations and camping. I miss seeing everyone together!
  • Some really cool things on the horizon. I am stoked!
About to head off to bed. See you all soon!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

What's New

I generally use vacations as a time to reflect and seek God on a deeper level. It's easier to do sometimes on vacation. At least for me because I am away from the day to day distractions of running a church. The reality is that most people see their pastor as a teacher or preacher. Without a doubt, that is true, and a part of what we do. The reality is that for most pastors the administrative aspects of running a church take up much, if not most of our time.

I don't want to write a long list of everything I do for the church but a few months ago I made a list and that list contained over 60 things that I am responsible for. No complaining here, that's part of the deal. As we grow and as people come along with talents many of the things I do will be handed off to people better suited to manage those tasks than I am. That's a part of being a good leader. Knowing when it's time to give something up so that you can move on to other projects. In fact, on that note. If you are good at something and want to help take something off my plate feel free to give me a call! I'd gladly hook you up with errand running, stops to the post office, weekly bulletins, and a host of other things!

Getting back to my main thought here!

While we were away God began to hit me with the notion that we need to take more risks for him. God isn't pleased when we take the easy or known road. In fact, there are some great parables taught by Jesus demonstrating that fact. We need to seek God and not be afraid to take some risks.

We are going to be doing that. Over the next few weeks our leadership team is going to be meeting and discussing the business end of church. I am going to be presenting a growth plan that is going to require us to step out on faith. Right now there is no way we can pull this off. The money isn't in the bank to do it. But, we are going to step out on faith and watch it happen anyway!

Every time we have stepped out God has provided exactly what we needed and then some. It's time to do it again. We are going to be stepping out on faith here. But here is the thing. God is pleased by our faith and obedience to his calling. We have been teaching for the last few months that Gods provision or Gods blessing usually follows our obedience to his calling or his word. We are going to start putting that to practice as a church.

I am not saying we are going to take crazy and unrealistic risks that we have no business taking at our age as a church. What I am saying is that we are going to step out on faith and believe that God is going to do what he has promised he would do! More details later!!

Friday, August 8, 2008

Vacationlog Day 9 - The Final

Wow....what a long day!

So, here is the deal. We had planned to spend the night in Kentucky and get home tomorrow afternoon. We were making really good time in the car so we decided to just call the hotel and cancel our reservations for tonight and drive all the way home. We left this morning a few minutes after 6am and met no traffic or slowdowns at all. We only stopped four times today and it ended up that keeping the hotel reservation would have kept us getting at the hotel at 5pm. That's a little early to check into a hotel for an overnight stay.

Needless to say we are all wiped out and ready for a long night in the sack. See you all later!

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Vacationlog Day 8

Our last day here in Orlando. We did almost nothing today. We laid around the house all day long. We swam in the pool and vegged out. That was the extent of our day. I wish we could say we did something more exotic but it was nice to just do almost nothing. We are getting up early and getting out of the house at 6:15 in the morning tomorrow. We are going to be driving a little over 12 hours tomorrow and spending the night in Corbin Ky.

See you all this weekend!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Vacationlog Day 7

Got up this morning and put some time in reading that book. Almost finished with it. That is usually my goal to start and finish one book per vacation. I am really still digging this one. Its a great read.

Today we let the boys sleep in. Man did they sleep. They didn't get out of bed until after 1pm. They ate breakfast at 1:30 pm....what a life!! After the boys got breakfast and dressed we took off and headed to a local outlet mall for some shopping. The girls of course found things to buy. April tried on about 100 shirts and didn't buy any of them (not that I am complaining, ok maybe a little!)

It was flipping hot today. By far, the hottest day yet. It was 95 with a heat index of 105. Some places have a dry heat, this isn't one of them. The heat here it comes with large doses of humidity. Usually there are thunderstorms everyday that help bring down the temperature but this week has been pretty dry so the temps have really crept up.

On a side note. The sunburn I got Monday no longer hurts. In fact, pretty much all the pain is gone. The pain has morphed into a full body itch. I have been taking meds to help manage the itching! What a drag! Last day in Florida tomorrow. We are planning a day of just chilling at the house.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Vacationlog Day 6

Today was a fun day. Everyone (except me of course) slept in and after breakfast we all took off and headed over to the coast for an afternoon at the beach. We went to New Smyrna Beach which I enjoy because it's not really a touristy kind of place. We had lunch at this little seafood place right off the beach it was great and really pretty cheap too!

After an afternoon at the beach it was back to the rental house for dinner (French bread pizza) and a night of relaxing around the house. I just spent two hours watching I Survived a Japanese Game Show.

It's about time for bed!

Monday, August 4, 2008

Vacationlog Day 5

Woke up a little earlier this morning and spent a little extra time reading. Craig's book is hitting me hard. On one hand it's been a freeing experience and on the other it is causing me to take a hard look at some things I have been dealing with.

Today we spent the day at Typhoon Lagoon a Disney water park. It was a blast. I am really fried. So much for my trying to get a tan before I left. I supposed that helped a little but I am pretty red right about now.

We came home about 6 an make a taco/nacho bar for dinner tonight. Pretty tasty!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Vacation Day 4

So, vacation log day four.

This morning I got up before everyone else (surprise surprise) and tried to finish the announcements video but no such luck. Yesterday I spent a little time working on our church announcements. The plan was I was going to do the announcements from here. I recorded them yesterday but had a tough time getting the web cast to work from here. So, I recorded them and tried (unsuccessfully) to email them to Tony so he could play them. Any how, to make a long story short, Tony had to do the announcements because I just couldn't get them to work.

After all that I made breakfast for the clan pancakes, sausages, and eggs. Then I sat down to watch the web cast of our church service this morning. That was an interesting thing. Being on the other end of the web cast and not actually being a part of it. I am used to being in charge of what happens at church. It was kinda cool to see it go on with out me. It's cool because ultimately that is my job to train people to do the work of the ministry (Eph ch4.) Seeing it in action was cool. Everyone did a stellar job.

Stu Rickart filled in for me teaching today and it was neat to see him fulfilling something God had called him to do.

After church I got cleaned up and we took the kids out to this newer mall here in Orlando. We did some shopping and then we had a late lunch/early dinner at The Cheesecake Factory which is one of April and I's favorite places to chow. We hung out at the mall for a while and then made the trek back to the vacation house to hang. I did a little reading (still digging Craig Groeschel's book) while the kids swam. After that I stretched out and watched the hall of fame football game.

What a lazy life! Tomorrow I take on a Disney water park! Oh the humanity! Told the kids I am wearing a nice Speedo.

Sunday Mind Dump -Guest Blogger Tony Trezzo

Since I was on vacation this week we have a first here on my blog. A guest blogger. I asked Tony Trezzo to tell us his thoughts and reflections from todays worship experience.

Here Goes.....

Here is my dump:


  • Stu did a great job with his first message ... looking forward to hearing him again.
  • Aaron really stepped up with leading worship ... the band sounded great as usual.We are so blessed when it comes to our music ministry.
  • No major issues with the webcast. Someone mentioned that we need to work on getting the camera on a more solid mount so that it doesn't jump around as much. At least I didn't fall off the chair trying to zoom and pan it around.In the words of a wise woman, "What are you going to do about that, Jeff?"
  • Great job by Shelly II on the powerpoint today ... Happy B-day to her, and we are glad she is feeling better.
  • With everyone on vacation this week, the church would have been empty if it wasn't for Stu bringing his own support team! We are glad that his family and friends were able to make it, and we hope they visit us again soon.
  • And finally, the congregation would like to thank Stu for the beautiful cross that he gave the church. It was received with such joy, that some members of the congregation couldn't wait to hang it on the wall. In the words of someone we all know, "it's not a church without a cross!"

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Vacation Day 3

So this is the first real day of our vacation as the first two days were primarily travel days although we did do a little visiting yesterday. I was spent last night and I went to bed at 11:30 and slept like a log until 8:30 this morning. For those of you who know me you know how rare that is for me as I generally get 4-6 hours a night and am usually pretty satisfied with that.

Today I was up an hour before anyone else in the house got up. I started the day of with a new book. I picked up Craig Groeschell's book Confessions of a Pastor. I read the introduction and the first chapter. Wow. What a great book so far. Craig, as he usually does, hits right at the heart. I don't want to give away too much of the book but basically it's about what can happen in a persons life when the start to get real about who they are and drop the pose we try to present to everyone. It's good stuff.

We laid around the house all day and the kids swam and watched movies. We cooked some BBQ chicken on the grill. An old friend of mine from College (Tiffany Scott) who lives a few hours from here came down and hung with us today. It was great getting to see her and hang. The last time she saw the kids they were little things and seeing them as teens was a a funny thing for her.

The kids wanted to go see the new batman movie tonight so we dropped them off and April and I just chilled here at the house. Talk about a nice relaxing day. Tomorrow we have some fun activities planned for after church (yes even on vacation I am going to go to church, ok it's Real Life and I am going to attend online) but still. We are actually thinking of driving over to Lakeland and checking out the Lakeland Revival at some point this week.

As an interesting note. We drove right past a Real Life Church. its a few miles from the rental house! How cool is that?

Friday, August 1, 2008

Vacationlog Day 2

Day two of our vacation found us traveling from Perry Ga to Kissimmee Fl with a stop off in Gainesville. April has an old friend who is a Professor at Florida. She hadn't seen her since she was in high school so she really wanted to stop by. We dropped the kids off at a mall and they shopped for a couple of hours while we visited and had lunch with Aprils friend. From there we jumped back into the family truckster and and made it to our vacation rental.

We got in at 4:30. From there we dropped the kids off and they relaxed while April and I went to Walmart to stock up on food and supplies for our stay. We came back to the villa and made tacos for dinner. All in all a pretty uneventful day. The real part of the vacation starts tomorrow for us. We are doing exactly jack squat. We are going to have a cookout and sit around the pool!

Sounds like a great day!