Sunday Night Mind Dump

I took today as a true sabbath day. I did almost nothing (except for shovel the driveway.) It was kind of relaxing since I don't get many of those. April kept trying to get me to do stuff, I kept ignoring her:) Since we didn't have a service today I don't have all that much to dump but here goes:

• Had a business meeting yesterday we decided the building on Reynolds is a go. So we are going to be working on that.
  
• We have a TON of things to get done over the next month if we are going to move.
  
• We have to buy chairs, decorations, tables, and a host of other goodies.
• Everyone is pretty pumped about the new place.
• We rescheduled the Family Worship Experience because of the snow. It'll be two weeks from today. That's going to be a blast!!

Building Update

For all the Real Lifers that read the blog I just wanted to give you all a quick update. We did get the price and the terms that we needed from the Realtor on the rental property on Reynolds Rd. We are going to sit down Sunday before small group and take a hard look at the budget and see if it makes sense to make the move.

It's a close call financially on the building and if we do make the move we want to make sure it's the God thing to do. We are really just a baby church and taking on this kind of responsibility requires some serious prayer. So hang in there we are going to be taking a few weeks to make the call on this one.

Minding Your Own Business

Real Life is going to partner with Lifechurch.tv in January to bring the message series Minding Your Own Business. This will be an awesome time of learning and relearning how we can become better stewards of God's resources. In the series we'll learn how to look at our family finances as a business, how we can eliminate and reduce our personal debt, and how we can begin the process of giving back to God what is rightfully his.

You won't want to miss a single one of these messages. In fact, they are so good that I am going to allow Pastor Craig from Lifechurch.tv to teach them to us. This kind of thing doesn't come up nearly as often as it should in church and I am pumped to be able to do it here at Real Life. Check out the promotional video's at the top of the blog.

Sunday Night Mind Dump

A nice service today. We had a solid turn out considering the freezing rain storm which turned out to be not that big of a deal. The car was covered in ice but the roads were just wet and not really slippery at all. A couple of thoughts about today.

• John did a great job with sound. He has only done it a few times and we aren't using the perfect gear for what we are doing so just getting a good mix is a pretty good thing.
• Tiffany stepped in for Jackie today and did a nice job with the preschool class.
  
• Martha has been doing a killer job getting the kids ready for the family worship experience next weekend.
• April has been working with them teaching them a couple of songs to sing for the church and it is really cute (or so I hear!)
• Getting excited about Christmas in a few weeks. I need some time off work and it can't come too soon.
  
• We are going away for a few days over Christmas and I am really looking forward to getting some quiet time to get message ideas and do some writing!
• The building we visited yesterday looks like it might really work for us. We just need to get a deal that will work in terms of finances.
  

Everyone steps up every week and that is so cool. I am looking forward to not having to set up every week. That will be sweet!

Community

One of the values we share at Real Life is learning to live life in community with others. Why do we need to live life in community? It's simple, because alone is never a good place for us to be. All of us will struggle on occasion, all of us will fail from time to time, and all of us will need some encouragement now and then. Living a life connected to others provides a venue for that to happen.

Is it easy? Nope.

It means we have to allow ourselves to actually be open to others. It means we have to allow them to see things in us that are less than perfect. Most of us aren't willing to go there. We don't want people to see the imperfections in us. We want to put on our happy faces and let people believe the illusion that we have it all together.

Don't fall for that trap. Allow people to love you for who you are. Be who you are...but be it together.

Forgiveness: Say What?

This year we are doing a Christmas series called Christmas is... The theme of the series is that Christmas is a time when we should be seeking forgiveness from those we have hurt and offering forgiveness to those who have hurt us.

As I sat down over the last few weeks to work on these messages I got to thinking about something. When it comes to Judging people we have different standards. For, example:

• We judge other people by their actions.
• We want to be judged by our intentions.

Think about those for a second. We judge others by what they do and we want to be judged by our intentions. If we didn't mean to hurt someone then they shouldn't have taken what we said in a hurtful manner right?

Wrong. We need to realize that this runs both ways. Other people are judging you by your actions and themselves by their intentions. Remember that the next time someone is hurt by something you have said or done. That will make it easier to go to them and ask for their forgiveness.

Sunday Night Mind Dump

We had a decent service today. Music was a little rough it was almost like the band was fighting each other over the tempo. The message seemed to go over well. I saw a lot of people nodding along with me and laughing at the funny points....which is nice!

• Went and looked at a possible new location today. It's nice and looks like it might be a fit. Now the hard part getting the money stuff to work out for us. They are within a few hundred dollars of where we are at the YMCA so it's going to be close!
• I love our people. Every week I see them stepping up in a bigger and bigger way.
• My wife really puts up with a lot. It's tough to lead a worship band anyway. Let alone being the only female. She tolerates a lot of boyish behavior and jokes. Everyone should thank her!
• Last month was our second largest month in terms of giving. That is so cool, not because we think dollars equal success but because we have been self-funded from day one and God just keeps providing for our needs.
• Martha is doing a killer job with the kids. They all have their Bible memory verses down and keep coming up to people quoting them. The kids really love what she has done with that ministry.
• We still REALLY need to find a couple more singers. Ideally a guy who could sing lead and a girl who could sing harmony would give us everyone we need.
• I am really pumped about where we are as a church and where we are going.

Church planting is a huge rush! I can't imagine doing anything else in ministry. I love just watching God bring people in as we need them.