Just Another Manic Monday (or, The Stuff that Matters)

There's really no other way to describe the day. It started out with the pure fun of taking my 13-year-old daughter to school. Neither one of us is a big a.m. talker, but we really enjoy that time that's just us. And, every day that she still enjoys being with me and being family is a gift.

Next, I found out that a good friend had passed away. Vanessa Whitwell was a key member of the staff at Fellowship Church and in the absolute prime of life. 34 years old, she had a headache come on last Thursday, slipped into a coma, and graduated to be with Christ last night. No one packed more God-honoring living into 34 years than she did, and I know she's with Christ face to face. But, I can't imagine her husband Andy and what he's experiencing right now.

I also know she was such a rare gift she was to Ed & Lisa: a loyal friend. Vanessa did more to move the Kingdom of God forward than most people even consider doing. All of us who knew her, and those who knew her so much better than I did, were incredibly blessed by her life.

THEN...I got to have lunch with the lead pastors of our church for our monthly roundtable. Just getting to work with these people and laugh, lead, serve, dream, and strategize with them is one of the greatest blessings and privileges I've ever had. It's such a unique mix of talents, passions, personalities, and backgrounds. But it works. Big time.

THEN...I got to meet two of the finest young men I've ever been around. Jack and Joey are brothers who are raising money to buy instruments for the kids at the Pan de Vida women & children's shelter in Mexico. They came up with the idea to sell t-shirts to raise money, and they've already amassed $1200 for their troubles! They had to order a second printing of the t-shirts! What a privilege to visit with them and their CFO/Chauffeur (mom, Jennifer) and to affirm what God's doing through them and in them.

So, the circumstances of this Monday were truly manic. But God was real and palpable in all of them. To him be the glory.

One Prayer

Yesterday, I suggested checking out Craig Groeschel's blog, and today's post is the reason why. In case you didn't scroll down past the video window, there's more information available at this site.

Bottom line, some of the greatest communicators and leaders in the Church today will each do a sermon called "One Prayer", the premise being this: If God would answer one prayer for the Church at large, what would you pray?

I believe that this move will make one of the biggest Kingdom impacts that our generation has ever seen. It's hard to believe that we get the privilege to be a part of this opportunity. Here are just some of the reasons that this will be great for Lake Hills Church:

1. It's a Kingdom thang. We'll get to participate and experience the joy of investing in something bigger than anything we could accomplish by ourselves.
2. The introduction of video teaching in our church--which we'll be using through our satellite campus(es)--using some of the greatest teachers and biblical communicators in the world.
3. Through a special offering, we'll be able to partner with hundreds of thousands of Christ-followers to make a significant difference in the world through missions.
4. Our church will be introduced to some incredible teachers who are also friends of mine that we couldn't possibly bring in all at once in person because of scheduling, expense, and logistics.

There's obviously more to come, but I wanted to let you know about it and be praying about it starting NOW.

Check Out

...these other blogs:

Ed Young -- this has absolutely no purpose other than a great laugh and an insight into a very unique mind. Part of what I love about Ed is his passion and sense of humor. This has ample amounts of both.

Swerve -- Swerve is the blog of Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald, Pastor & Exec. Pastor respectively of LifeChurch. Their mother ship campus is in Edmund, OK and they have multiple satellite locations across the nation. Check this one out on Monday for a unique, God-honoring ministry initiative that is going to blanket the nation this coming summer.

ANTI-Septic (or "Not Coming Up Roses")

For those of you who think that life's always coming up roses for Christians, check this out...

We are putting in some new grass, and yesterday we found a little puddle in our backyard (you can see where the dirt goes from dry to wet in the picture). No big deal...except that our back yard is where our septic field is located and the puddle is apparently a septic field issue. Good times...good times.

What an opportunity for perspective. I'm not excited about a septic field problem, but in a grand-scheme-of-things, big-picture perspective, this is one of those things that everyone gets to deal with from time to time.




PS I think I have my opening illustration for a sermon series called "Overflow" that we're kicking off this weekend! See how good God is! ...although, I'm not sure that this is exactly what Jesus had in mind when he talked about giving us "LIFE to the full".

Overflow

Good...

Night...

NURSE!

What an amazing celebration of Easter this past weekend! I was blown away by the
overwhelming number of ways God showed up so huge:

1. THANK YOU to every single one of you who invited someone to come and experience Easter. There's nothing deeper spiritually than pointing someone toward the fullness of the empty tomb.

2. THANK YOU GRANDE to everyone who selflessly attended services on Good Friday and early Easter morning. You are glad you did because you got to sit down for church! That, and the fact that you knew you had created a seat for a guest to encounter Christ.

3. What an amazing job everyone on our staff and volunteers did to communicate the essence and power of Easter. Big props to Vic Dominey for the "I Believe" scrolling text piece (we're going to post it in case you missed it).

4. Huge thanks to Jon Branch for finding and LEARNING (!?) the hammer dulcimer in a week and a half. And to all the band and worship team for taking us to the throne!

5. To all of you who gave up comfortable seats for our guests to sit down instead of standing on stairs, in the lobby and even out on the sidewalk at the last service: YOU ARE LAKE HILLS CHURCH!

Kindof funny that after overflow crowds this weekend, I'm starting a series of messages called Overflow this coming Sun. Mar. 30th. That's how Jesus describes the kind of life he died and rose again to make available to us. I hope you'll make it a priority to be there this weekend--back on our regular schedule: Sunday, 9, 10:15, and 11:45 a.m. And, hey, go ahead and bring a friend with you this weekend, too.

"Deep"

A good friend of mine--who's not a member of LHC--emailed me Tuesday and said that he is coming to our Easter celebration this weekend because he's invited a friend who doesn't know Christ.

A couple of things in that email struck me:

1. What a compliment that he's bringing his friend to LHC.
2. What a selfless act that he's putting his friend's spiritual need in front of his own desire to attend his church on Easter.

Forget attending the service he wants to attend--he's going to a different church altogether so that he can help point his friend to the love of Christ.

That might be the "deepest", most spiritually mature thing I've seen in a long time.

Easter Preview (2 of 3)

Tomorrow, we'll kick off our church's celebration of Easter~the lynch pin of the Christian faith. Musically, it will be one of the most amazing experiences we've ever had as a church.

Mark Groutas and his team have put together such an incredible, worship-full, and engaging course for us to run together. Be praying throughout this weekend that God will prepare you for what He has already prepared for you in corporate worship this weekend. Remember that worship isn't just about singing with a group of people; it's something that we do every day in everything we say, do, think, and want.

And, the day-in/day-out worship of our lives feeds corporate worship when we come together just as that corporate expression of love to God feeds us throughout the week. Especially this week.