I love Christmas but what I don't like is cleaning up after it is all said and done. I think I broke down over 100 boxes this weekend. All and all it was a great time of celebration. I feel our Christmas Eve services went really well. I love the feel of a Christmas Eve night services. I love the candles and the carols. It was a little different this year as we had candles representing each person in the Christmas story. We blew out all the candles except for Jesus and lit our candles through His. The point was that Christ's light lives within each of us as we carry His light to others.

Our kids had a great Christmas as well as Ethan was really cute trying to open the presents for the first time. Olivia and Caleb were fun as well. I had a blast putting together toys and it gives me an excuse to be a kid. I hope everyone else had a great Christmas as well and I'm looking forward to the New Year and all that God has in store.

Angel Tree Presents

All day yesterday we had families coming into the church to receive their angel tree presents. What a blessing it was to see their faces as they saw all the presents that were given. One family had five kids and the mother was very thankful for the help. I was reading in Philippians 2 yesterday that says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the the interests of others." Christmas can easily become about our own interests but Paul says look to the interests of others. In other words, when you see someone in need, help them out. Because of so many people in our church that looked to the interests of others, 13 children will have a good Christmas this year. That's what it is all about!

Salvation Army Update

Just heard word this morning that we took in over $1000 on Saturday for Salvation Army. Praise God! Thanks to everyone who volunteered their time. For those that do not know, the Salvation Army gives back the money that was donated to our Ministers Asscoation for the community. The monies are used to help needy people in our area.

This years Kids Christmas play is all finished! The kids did a wonderful job singing and Pastor Keaton did a great job preparing them this year. Pastor Keaton did a great job on his message as well teaching us that we all need to become like little children. The coolest thing of all was we got to eat happy birthday Jesus cake!

Salvation Army

This past Saturday the church rang the bell for Salvation Army. Our kids had a great time ringing the bell. Olivia decided to sing most of the time while we there and it was amazing how many people got her attention. One man stopped and sang with her for about ten minutes. The coolest thing of all was as we were about to leave a lady stopped Olivia and told her that she made her day by her singing and then she pulled out a Barbie doll that she bought just for her. That truly made Olivia's day. Lesson learned was that God blesses us back when we serve Him with joy.

Tis the Season

Looking forward to the coming two Sunday as we focus in on the birth of Christ. This Sunday the children will be doing their musical. I know Pastor Keaton has been working hard with kids and last Sunday they sounded great as you could hear them practicing through the wall. I'm also looking forward to our Christmas Eve services. We are having one at 9 a.m. and the other at 5 p.m. They will be two different services as the first will be a short worship service and the second will be carols and candles. This is a great time to invest in those that normally do not go to church. Take this opportunity to invite someone you know to one of these services. We have people today that attend Community Hope because they attended a Christmas service last year. People's hearts are open to the message of God's love this time of year.

Prayer and Planning

Spent the day yesterday with Keaton as we geared up for 2007. It was a good day of prayer, vision casting and calendar planning. Thanks to Pastor Glen at Christian Life in Des Moines for the use of his facility. I was reminded once again of the importance of staying focused. I believe that God has called the church to four non-negotiable purposes:

Include-We must find ways to bridge people from the community to the church.
Instruct- Jesus told us to go make disciples. The Word of God is our foundation!
Involve- Every member is a minister. Every person has a ministry!
Invest- We must invest our lives to evangelism and reaching the lost.

As we plan the year, we must remember these purposes for the church. Many churches can become busy but not focused. We must remain focused on what God has called us to do. We are in the business of building the kingdom. Every program, ministry and activity must fulfill those purposes. If we do this, I believe we are headed in the right direction.

Got done reading Mark Batterson's book "In a pit with a Lion on a snowy day." (I know it's a long title but a great read.) I got the chance to meet Batterson at his "Buzz Conference" in Washington DC last May. What an incredible time it was. Mark is on the creative edge when it comes to ministry.

My favorite chapter in the book is the chapter on "The importance of looking foolish." Jesus says to enter the kingdom of God, you must become like a little child. As adults we can learn a lot from children. Children are willing to just be themselves and they are not concerned about what others think. This past Sunday I looked pretty foolish as I was talking about Christmas I kept referring to it as Dec. 24th. I looked pretty foolish as the pastor of the church doesn't even know when Christmas is. Oh well! My wife was the one who had to tell me it was December 25th. Anyways, my point is it is good to laugh at yourself and look foolish at times. When was the last time you looked foolish?

Church Planters

Just got back from IA City from another church planters meeting. I'm always encouraged to hear the stories of what is going on around the state as regards to church planting. I blogged a couple weeks ago about Rich Greene from IA City who is giving away bikes to the elementary school there in IA City. God has granted him great favor as already the city newspaper did a feature article on the giveaway and the television stations will be coming out this Saturday to record the actual giveaway. Just the past two weeks the principal of the school has been attending his church. Praise God! Keep Life Church in your prayers this Saturday for them to touch many children and families through this awesome outreach.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Sunday was one of those days! I'm really not for sure what got into me but I let it all go this past week. Talked about the Grinch of busyness. Busyness is a thing that we have come to accept as a society. We think we have to be busy. But what we don't realize is busyness will rob us from the things that are important to us. I really believe that busyness is a tool of the enemy to steal our faith, family and friends. God specifically designed us for these three things yet we don't have the time anymore to really invest in all three. God says slow down and take a Sabbath. The Sabbath is a wonderful thing. God thought the Sabbath was so important that He put it in the Ten Commandments. It was a time to invest in God and invest in others! I want to continue to challenge us to do those two things. Don't let busyness rob you from the things that are most precious in life. Take a breath and slow down.

Computer Crash

Just wanted to let everyone know that my computer crashed on Sunday right after church. Not for sure whats going on exactly. I hope to be up and running by the end of this week as my computer is in the shop. Technology is a weird thing. You really don't know how much you depend on it until its gone.

Christmas Shopping

I had a funny thing happen to me this past weekend as Jen and I went shopping the day after Thanksgiving. We went into the Olive Garden for lunch and the waitor came up to us and said that I was the first man he had waited on all day. I looked around and he was right, I was surrounded by women. Later that day Jen overheard a conversation an older man had with probably his daughter. He said "The only thing I can compare you girls shopping on a crazy day like this is the first day of feasant hunting." Good Comparison! In fact I found a statistic that I will share this Sunday that says that women spend an average of 288 hours of shopping before Christmas. Wow, that's a whole lot of shopping!

Grinch of Stress

We started our new message series yesterday on the Grinch's of Christmas. I love the Grinch story! It was just a couple weeks ago that I was watching it with my kids that I noticed how much meaning is behind just a simple story. The next few weeks we will be talking about the Grinch's that try to steal Christmas away from us.

This past week we talked about the Grinch of Stress. Isn't true that Christmas is a stressful time for some. Just go to the malls and you can see stress written all over people's faces. God wants to teach us a few things about stress.

1. God wants us to see His purpose in stress- When we are stressed, things can get ugly. I remember working at Toys R Us at Christmas time and seeing how mean people get. Maybe God wants to teach us about our character when we are stressed. What do I become when I get stressed. Am I irritable, angry, emotional? Don't ask God why am I going through this stress but ask God, "What do you want to teach me?"

2. God wants us to see His presence in stress- Psalms 23 is a great example of how David when to God in his stress. David said things like, "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want, He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters, yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me." How could David say such a thing? David has the presence of God in his life. We have a choice in our stress. Will I draw near to God's presence or away from God's presence? It is our choice entirely.

God is not the author of stress, but God may want to work in our stress for an eternal glory. Remember that next time you get stressed out!

Happy Thanksgiving

I will be taking off today and headed to Des Moines for Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a great weekend and remember to be thankful for all the blessings that God has poured out on your life.

Turkey Sunday

Turkey Sunday was a great success and thanks to everyone who invited people to church. We gave away sixteen turkeys and had 154 in attendance. This is the most for one Sunday besides Easter. God is definately awesome! It is amazing how God can use a turkey to bring people to a life changing experience with Jesus Christ. I am reminded of the words of Paul in 1 Cor 1:27, "For God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty."

Hope it's not a bill!

My son Caleb sometimes says the craziest things. Just yesterday he got a Thanksgiving card in the mail from Jen's parents. Jennifer told Caleb he had some mail and out of the blue Caleb says with all seriousness, "I sure hope it's not a bill!" Where did that come from? I didn't know four year olds had to worry about bills. I guess he may have heard that out of our mouths one time or another.

Thou shall not judge

We wrapped up our dirty laundry series this past week. I hope it was encouraging to all and a good reminder to think before we speak. Sunday we talked about judging. Two things to remember about judging:

1. God holds me accountable when I judge- Romans 2 and Matthew 7:1 tells us that the measure we judge will be the measure that comes back to us. OUCH!

2. When I am tempted to judge, I will show mercy instead of judgment- The women caught in adultery is a great example. The Pharisees were ready to stone her on the spot but Jesus stopped them in their tracks by telling them if any one of them were without sin to go ahead and cast the first stone. Problem was, no one could do it. Mercy had been showed to them and now it was their turn to show mercy.

One more thought: Why is it that Christians easily put people on a pedestal but when someone messes up, we easily throw them down and allow them to be run over by a bus? Shouldn't our first response be mercy and forgiveness? I'm so glad that God has shown me mercy time and time again. Jesus Christ came to give us mercy. I'm not excusing sin by no means but by God's standards, we all have sinned. Over the years we have ranked some sins higher then others but in God's eyes it is all sin. Let us leave the judging to God and let our response be prayer and mercy.

Youth Convention

It was another full weekend as the kids headed to Youth Convention Friday and Saturday. It was exciting to hear their testimonies on Sunday morning on how God touched them. The main speaker talked about the need for change and how this generation is looking for change. What the world wants to see is not religion but they want to see people living out what they believe. I know it challenged many of our teens and they came back excited to see change in their own lives and in their schools.

It was at a Youth Convention that I was called to the ministry at the age of 16. I will never forget being at the altar and having a deep passion and burden to do anything I could for God. I wasn't for sure what it was going to be at the time but I knew that I had to surrender my life completely to Him and do whatever He wanted. Camps and Youth Conventions are so important and I want to encourage everybody to support our camps and Youth Conventions. If you have kids, do whatever you can to send them. There is something about getting away and allowing God to speak into your life. Thanks to Pastor Keaton and all our great leaders that took our teens this past weekend. YOUR ARE AWESOME!

Unexpected Phone Call

So I was sitting in my office this week working away when the phone calls rings and I hear this familiar voice on the other end. It was Pastor Dennis Niles, my former pastor at Glad Tidings who is now leading Trinity Bible College in North Dakota. Pastor Niles wanted to know if he could come speak to us the week of District Council. (April 22nd) Many of you may not know but Pastor Niles was the Pastor in New Sharon before he was my pastor in Des Moines. It was Pastor Niles' vision to plant a church in Montezuma years ago. I even believe the New Sharon church voted on it but it was turned down. It is amazing how God works. Here we are fifteen years or so later, a church has been planted in Montezuma and I am the pastor of it. God has a sense a humor doesn't he? Who would of thought that the young teen that was in Pastor Niles church in Des Moines was going to be a part of the vision that he had years ago. I am reminded of the verse that says in 1 Cor 3:66," I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." (NKJV) God always has a way of seeing His plans accomplished. It may not be in our time and our ways but God will see that it gets done. I thank God for Pastor Niles' vision and I 'm looking forward to having him come April 22nd.

I am really excited about November 19th and our Turkey Giveaway Sunday. It is a great chance to invite those that you know to come to church and experience what a loving Christ-like community is really like. That Sunday we will be talking about "Living in the Dash." I know it maybe a little confusing but the dash represents our lives. On our tombstone we will have a birth date and the date that we died. The dash is what we did in-between. So many people waste their lives and live their lives with no purpose. God's plan is filled with purpose for each of us.

Please pick up your invite cards this week and start handing them out. Jen and I already have four families that we know that we are going to invite and give cards too. It is a great tool and a good reminder for everyone plus they get a free turkey. You can't beat that! GOBBLE, GOBBLE!

Don't forget to Vote!

Just a reminder for everyone to go out and vote today. Remember what a privilege it is that we can vote here in America. As Christians, it is important that we vote for the those that we know will make good moral judgments in the Senate Seat and in the governor race. We need godly leaders in office. Our country was based on godly principles and there are some out there that would like to see that totally gone. Make sure before you vote that you know what each candidate stands for on moral issues. Also, make sure you pray for our leaders. Pray that God would give them the wisdom they need as they lead our country and state.

Youth Impact<

Last night we kicked off our first Youth Impact Night at Fun Valley. I was totally shocked that we had 56 kids our first night. Pastor Keaton did a great job organizing the event and the teens really got behind it inviting their friends. It shows that there is a true hunger for the spiritual in this community among the teens. I'm looking forward to seeing what God is going to do with this ministry in the future!

Iowa City

I spent all day yesterday in Iowa City with Pastor Rich Greene who is the pastor of the new church plant, Life Church. Rich is an incredible guy and someone with a lot of courage. Iowa City is one of the largest unchurched areas in Iowa. Rich was telling me of an outreach that they are doing with one of the public schools in their lower income areas. They are going to the school and handing out bikes to every (yes I said every) student in the elementary department. He is building a bridge between the community and the church. Isn't that what the church is suppossed to do? The church was never called to be isolated on some island. Jesus was out in the middle of the marketplace ministering to the tax collectors, prostitutes and the sick. The church's job is to build those bridges to the community. Way to go Life Church!

20 Somethings

I got the chance this Tuesday night to go and speak at Grinnell College for their campus ministry. It was exciting to see the students there worshipping and wanting to grow closer to God. As many of you know, I was a young adult pastor for two years. I have a passion to see college students come to know the Lord and grow deeper with Him. Sadly to say, the church is loosing the battle when it comes to 20-somethings. Here is the blog from Catalystspace.com:

"A Barna study finds most 20-somethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years despite 61% being involved in a church as a teen. 50% of teens attend a church-related service or activity in a typical week and more than three-quarters discuss matters of faith with peers. However, only 20% of 20-somethings have maintained a level of spiritual activity consistent with their high school experiences. Just 33% of 20-somethings who are parents regularly take their kids to church, vs. 40% of parents in their 30s and 50% who are 40 or older. Most 20-somethings maintain outward allegiance to Christianity: 78% say they are Christians, vs. 83% of teens. 20-somethings are 70% more likely than older adults to strongly assert if they “cannot find a local church that will help them become more like Christ, they will find people and groups that will, and connect with them instead of a local church.” They are also less likely to believe “a person’s faith in God is meant to be developed by involvement in a local church.” Much of the activity of young adults takes place outside congregations. "

One of the core values of this church is to reach every generation. This includes children, youth and young adults. The church must be a place where young adults can come, feel accepted and be able to express their questions about God and spiritual things. I was once again reminded of this while I was at Grinnell. Young adults are spiritual hungry, but we as a church must provide a place where they can be fed.

Tame the Tongue

Started our Dirty Laundry series on Sunday and felt it was a good start to an exciting three weeks of learning about the dirt of our words. Our first week was about taming the tongue. James says that we have no problem taming animals just as birds, fish, or even horses, yet we have a hard time taming a two ounce mucous membrane. Three things from Sunday's message:

1. The tongue is petite yet powerful! ( Very small yet with it, we have the power to build up or destroy!)

2. Valuable yet venomous-The tongue can poison others-Things like gossip, slander and secrets are all venom that we must avoid!

3. With the tongue we praise God yet curse men- We can't praise God and yet curse people at the same time. When we curse people, we are really saying, "God made junk!" We know that this is a false statement.

I hope this message series will be valuable to everyone as we discover the dirty laundry of our words.

I am currently reading Craig Groeschel's book "Confessions of a Pastor." This a great read for anyone involved in ministry. Craig's honesty is so refreshing in this book. One of my favorite chapters so far is the confession of feeling inadequate. Craig tells the story of his first funeral. It was a grave site service and the people involved asked if they could sing Amazing Grace. Craig didn't know that it was going to be a solo. As Craig was trying to get through the song, a fly flew into his mouth while he was singing. At that point, he had a choice to make. Spit the fly out in the middle of the song or swallow. He chose to swallow! He goes on to say as he closed the service he went to quote the scripture, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." The only problem was he forgot the rest. So to close the scripture he said, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, hope this coffin doesn't rust."

I know there have been times that I have felt totally inadequate to be a pastor myself. I never went to Bible school like most pastors and my training of being a lead pastor is zip. I'm glad that in my times of inadequacy, God gives me the power. I look at those in the Bible that were in adequate yet God chose them anyways. God chose David, Gideon and Moses even though they were failures in the world's eyes. Jesus even chose the twelve disciples that were unlearned and untrained fisherman. This is good news because if God can use them, He can use me as well. Maybe there are times that you feel inadequate, know that God can use you as well. All God is looking for is a willing heart.

Dirty Laundry

I am getting ready for our new sermon series called "Dirty Laundry". We are going to be exposing the dirt of our Words the next three weeks. Our words are very powerful. We have the choice of speaking life with our words or death. Here are the three sermon titles for this series.

Week One-Tongue Tamer
Week Two- Contain the Complain
Week Three-Thou shall not Judge

I think everyone has had a problem with their words one time or another. I hope this series help us all to realize what our words can do.

Same Spirit

I was reading from Numbers 11 this morning on how Moses was overburdened by the people of Israel. Moses was leading them through the wilderness and all the people did was complain. God's answer to Moses' prayer was giving him seventy men of Israel that would have the same spirit as him so that they would help him carry the burden. In verse 28 and 29, Joshua had overheard some men prophesying other then Moses. Joshua went to Moses and asked him to forbid them from prophesying. Moses response was, "Are you zealous for my sake? Oh that all the Lord's people were prophets and the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!" This a true sign of a leader. Moses' prayer was not that he would get all the glory but that others would carry the burden with him and have the same Spirit as him. It is so important as a church that we carry the burdens together and be unified with the same Spirit. I have been a part of too many churches that didn't have the same Spirit, instead every person had their own idea of what they thought should happen. God's plan has never been this way. My prayer for CH is that we carry the burden and the vision together. What is that vision?

1. Kingdom Focused
2. Relevant Ministry
3. Missions Minded
4. Finding needs and filling them
5. Finding hurts and healing them
6. Serving every generation

Let us carry the vision and the burden together to reach our community and world!

What fabulous weekend we had for missions. Jeff and Bev Diltz were absolutely incredible. Jeff shared his testimony about how he lost his teen age son in a boating accident. The dream that his son had was to have the best sidewalk Sunday School program in the west. Jeff and Bev have carried on the dream as they minister in the LA area doing Sidewalk Sunday School out of a firetruck. (please see pics below.) I don't believe there was a dry eye in the building yesterday. Our missions giving yesterday was over $700.00. Praise God! Jeff and Bev have inspired me to do more and reach more at any means possible.

Olivia is turning seven

Seems like we just got done with one birthday and now we are on to the next. Olivia is turning seven on Saturday. Today we are having a surprise birthday party with all the family. I think she will be surprised when she comes home from school today. Olivia is truly a blessing and definitely our prayer warrior in the family. I love to hear her pray right before bed as she prays truly from her heart. Just the other night she prayed, "Jesus thank you for mommy and daddy not just because they are a good mommy and daddy but most of all because they love You." Wow! She is truly incredible. (Sorry, I like to brag on my kids!) Jen and I are no where near perfect parents but as long as they love God and put others first, we feel that we are doing a somewhat decent job.

Missions Weekend

I'm really pumped about this coming Sunday and our missions emphasis. Sunday morning we will be having Jeff and Bev Diltz from from the LA Dream Center come share with us. Jeff and Bev are in charge of the Sidewalk Sunday School program in LA. They are very unique as they go out into the streets of LA and teach kids from a firetruck. Every week they literally touch thousands of children. Here are a few pics of their ministry.

Unusual Blessing

Just finished up the unusual sermon series. I feel that the past six weeks have been beneficial as we have covered a lot of unusual topics. This past Sunday I talked about probably the hardest subject for any preacher to talk about, "Giving". The fact of the matter is, Jesus talked more about money then He did heaven or hell. The reason was Jesus knew that money is an issue of the heart. The challenge this week is unusual giving leads to unusual blessing. God has promised to always meet our needs when we put Him first. I have seen it time and time again in my own life. I don't know how God does it, but He always provides when I give and put Him first in my finances. I guess that's what makes our God unusual!

This past Friday Caleb had his adenoids taken out. I think it is always scarier for the parents then it is the kids. He was a true trooper as the doctor came in and took him to the surgery room. The hardest part was seeing him in recovery after it was all over. All and all we pray that this will help him breathe better. Please keep him in prayer as he is still recovering from all this.

Seize the Opportunities

I recently listened to a podcast by Andy Stanley who is the pastor of North Point Community Church in Atlanta. Something that has stuck with me was he said that a lot of leadership has to do with having courage to seize the opportunities that God gives us as a church. He said that if we don't seize the opportunities then God will choose someone else to do it. I cannot agree with him more. Over the last couple months God has given us some great opportunities. Celebrate Recovery is an awesome example of that. Celebrate Recovery is meeting every week and is helping people overcome their habits and addictions. Another recent opportunity is the start of a youth ministry at our church. I've always felt that it was something we needed to do but the timing was never right. God has now opened the door and we are going to have our first Impact Night on November 5th at Fun Valley. God is doing some exciting things but these things would not be possible if we didn't have the courage to step out in faith. Let me encourage everyone today to seize the opportunities that God gives you and don't let fear stop you from allowing God to use you.

25 years of service

Sunday night I had the opportunity to go back to my old church Berean Assembly of God in Des Moines to celebrate Pastor Weet's 25 year anniversary at the church. What a awesome thing to see someone serving 25 years in one church. God has really blessed Berean the last 25 years. Berean was a struggling church before Pastor Weets came and now there are a 1000 worshippers there every Sunday. I learned a lot things under Pastor Weets and I appreciate all that he taught me in just the two years that I was there. Pastor taught me the importance of prayer, Sunday School and rightly divinding the Word of God. May God continue to bless Berean as they win the lost of Des Moines to Him!

Unusual Power

We are still in our unusual series and yesterday I talked about "unuual power". The story is found in Mark 5:24-24. The woman did three unusual things in the story.

1. She had unusual faith (She spoke faith into existence)
2. She made an unusual contact (She touched Jesus' garment)
3. She walked in unusual peace. (Jesus told her to go in peace.)

The Big Idea is that unusual circumstances require unusual action. When we have problems of our own, God wants us to do the unusual. The woman in this story had a huge problem and was willing to do anything she could to get to Jesus. In our own lives, are we willing to do the unusual? Many of us face problems of our own and God wants to give us the power we need. The problem is not with God because He doesn't lack the power to give. If you have a problem, are you willing to do the unusual measures neccesary to see the answers in your own life? God wants to give all of us unsual power.

Divine Appointments

I don't know about you but I believe in divine appointments. I believe that God gives us divine appointments everyday but sometimes we just miss them because possibly we are too busy. Just a few weeks back I prayed that God would use me to be an influence to those outside our church. That simple prayer led me to two opportunities to tell someone about our church and one opportunity to be involved in a business lunch for area businesses. God is so awesome. I dare you to pray a divine appointment prayer. Believe me, if you do, God will give you those divine appointments. God wants to use us in ways that we may not even know.

Ethan turns one

Wow, I can't believe little Ethan turns one year today. It is hard to believe that it was one year ago we were at the hospital and nurse told us that we had another little boy. Ethan has truly been a blessing to our family. It is so neat how God creates us all different. Ethan is definitely different from the rest of the kids. He is a curious little guy and he is into everything. I loose my breath watching him for a just a couple of hours. He is full of energy but full of fun. Jen and I are very blessed to have three wonderful, healthy children. It is important in life that we don't loose focus on what is important. My family is a priority in my life. We can win the whole town of Montezuma to Jesus but if my kids don't follow Him then its not worth it. My challenge for us all this week is take life slow. Time goes fast as did the year with Ethan already turning one. Take time to build memories with those that you love. You will never regret making an investment in those that you love most.

Back to the Basics

Just got done with my sermon for Sunday. We are still in the "Unusual" series. God shifted gears on me early this week as I had another message planned. This Sunday I'm going to talk about the unusual God we serve. It is a basic message of grace vs. works. Ethan is being dedicated this Sunday and there will be a lot of our family members at CH that have never heard this type of message. I'm praying that God will use it greatly. Please be in prayer for God's annointing and that His Word will not return void.

Prodigal Friendly

Just got back from our Iowa District Ministers Conference. What a great couple of days. Dary Northrup spoke to us on Monday and Tuesday morning. He is the pastor of a church of 5,000 people in Fort Collins Colorado. He spoke on the prodigal friendly church. He has an amazing story on how God began to transform his church from an insider church to a church that reaches the lost. It all began with a stripper that got saved in one of his services. After she gave her life the Lord, her friends began to attend and some of them got saved and began to attend the church as well. At first, it was messy. Sometimes church folks don't like it when things get messed up. He talked about the struggle the first few years of changing the mindset of how they must welcome the prodigal home and not be like the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son. I challenge you sometime to read the story and read how the elder brother reacted to his younger brother coming home. It is found in Luke 15 and it is very interesting. Sometimes we can be like the elder brother in the parable. Even in my own life, I have had expectations and thoughts that God has had to crush. The goal of Jesus is to seek and to save that which is lost. God's heart is to see the prodigal come home. The conference reminded me once again how important it is that we keep our focus to reach those that need to come home.

Awesome God!

Another great Sunday at CH we had. I was battling a serious cold today. During Sunday School, I could hardly talk but I was thankful that the class laid hands on me and prayed for God's touch as I preached. I am so amazed at how faithful God is. While I preached the message this morning, I didn't feel the effects of the cold at all. I am so thankful that God always comes through and His Word was delivered. How has God been faithful to you recently? Post a comment on the blog and let me know.

Gifts of the Spirit

What a great past Sunday we had. We were jammed packed full as we had 131 in attendance. Gary Smith was having to park cars on top of one another. It shows our need for the two acres directly behind us for parking. What was definitely neat about the service was the moving of the Holy Spirit after worship. The Lord spoke through a tongue and interpretation of tongue. I know for many of us, this is new. I want you to sometime look at 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 sometime. In this chapter Paul talks about the 9 gifts of the Spirit. Two of those mentioned are tongues and interpretation of tongues. Paul then goes on in chapter 14 to explain the purpose of tongues, interpretation of tongues and prophecy. In a quick overview, here is what he says.

1. Church should desire the spiritual gifts vs. 12
2. Speak in a tongue, pray that it would be interpreted vs. 14
3. Tongues are a sign to the unbelievers vs. 22
4. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two at the most three and let one interpret vs 27
5. All things to done for the edification of the church vs. 26
6. Every shall be done in decency and in order. God is not a God of confusion. vs. 40

I hope this helps everyone understand a little more about the gifts. If you ever have any questions, please don't be afraid to ask.

Unusual Life

Here is a quick recap from yesterday on how we can live the unusual life.

1. Dare to be Different
2. Dare to be available
3. Dare to give yourself completely to God
4. Dare to never give up

Genesis 6 tells us that Noah lived the unusual life in a world that was full of evil. Today, God still searches for those who will live the unusual life even in a world that is full of darkness. 2 Peter 2:9 tells us that we have been called out of that darkness to walk into God's light. That's what makes us peculiar as the KJV states or in other words "unusual". Dare to live the unusual life!

Unusual Sundae

Here are the pics from Sunday morning and Pastor Keaton's human sundae. The kids really got behind the whole thing. We had five girls spend the night because Olivia wanted to see Keaton get the ice cream on his head. It was a huge mess but worth it all.

Unusual Weekend

What a weekend we had. The free car wash went well even though it was a cloudy day. I think people have a hard time understanding the word "free." We had lots of people ask us "what's the catch." There really wasn't a catch, it was a free car wash! That's why it was unusual. Thanks to my home church Glad Tidings in Des Moines for all their hard work. Pastor Matt Loomis is doing a great job with those youth. What is really crazy is some of those kids were in my children's church. What an awesome thing to see them grown up and still serving the Lord. At the end of the day they all laid hands on me and prayed for this community and church. What an awesome experience.

Everything is an Experiment

I was reading an article by Mark Batterson the other day about action regrets rather then inaction regrets. In a recent survey, most people regret not doing some things they wish they had when they had the chance. I'm sure all of us regret not doing some things in our lives. As a church I never want us to be afraid of failure. Let us not be afraid of trying new things and stepping out of our boats so to speak. I don't want us to say, "We never tried it because we were afraid we would fail." Remember that there are lost people in this world that need to hear about the good news of Jesus. For that reason alone, it is worth trying. For that reason we are doing a free car wash on Saturday morning and also going door to door asking people in our community if they would like prayer. Even if we can touch one person for the kingdom, it will be worth it. So remember, everything is an experiment and don't be afraid to fail. Do something unusual!

Great Exchange

I hope everyone had a good labor day weekend. Mine was full of good food and school shopping for the kids.

Sunday's message is still on my heart and I once again want to go over the main points in case you missed it. Isaiah 53:4,5 tells us of the great exchange that occurred on the cross. The Bible says that Jesus took and carried our griefs, our sorrows, our punishment and even our sicknesses at Calvary. It was the greatest exchange ever made for mankind. It is nothing that we deserved but what Christ did on our behalf. Christ died so that you and I can not only be made free from our sins but be made whole. (in our souls, spirit and body.) If you have not exchanged some things that you have been holding on too, I encourage you today to do so. Christ wants to totally set you free. He made the great exchange for us.

We are gearing up for the Fall and our theme will be the Unusual. God has called us to live in the unusual. I am excited about the month that is ahead of us. On September 9th we will be doing an unusual free car wash for our community from 9 a.m. till noon. We will also be going door to door asking our community if there is anything we can pray with them about. On September 10th we will start our new sermon series and our Sunday School contest. If our children reach 25 that Sunday, Pastor Keaton will be made into an unusual sundae. I would like to see this. Make sure you mark your calendars and get ready for the unusual.

Church Picnic

What a great time we had this past Sunday at our picnic. Curt Bates did a fantastic job grilling for us again. One of the highlights of course was the famous dunk tank. (or should I say garbage disposal because that's what it looked like.) I have to say I was scared to death as you can see from the picture. Plus the water was freezing. It was all good though because we raised $70.00 for BGMC missions. Thanks to Pastor Keaton and Katy for being a good sport and getting in the dunk tank as well.

Master Asker

It was great to be back in the pulpit yesterday after a three week break. I have to say I was pretty pumped and ready to go. I love to preach the Word of God. There is nothing greater and I thank God that He has given this great privilege to explain His Word. Yesterday's Big Idea was how to become a master asker in our prayers. A master asker finds the will of God and is persistent in their praying. Jesus gave us many examples of persistent prayer. I want to encourage everyone who hasn't seen the breakthrough to their prayer just yet. Hold on to your faith and be persistent until you see that answer come to pass. Many people give up too soon. Paul said that there is a fight to our faith. Many give up after the first round but that is not God's will for you. God's will is persistence! Why doesn't God just answer our prayers right away? Maybe He wants to teach us something along the way. Many of us will become stronger people in the end if we hold on. Life is not always easy, but find the will of God, be persistent and become a master asker in your prayer life.

The countdown to Celebrate Recovery has begun. We took a team of leaders to Des Moines on Sunday Night to watch an actual Celebrate Recovery in action. What an awesome ministry to see people being set free from their addictions and compulsive behaviors. The team we took over is absolutely awesome. I know the Lord has brought this team together for reason. Our launch date is September 10th at 6 p.m. Please be in prayer for this ministry in the coming weeks.

First Day of School

Well today is the first day of school. You would think that it would get easier the second year of school but it sure doesn't feel like it. Caleb started preschool today and Olivia is now in 1st grade. Caleb was so excited this morning that he was up before any of us. Olivia went right to her class and just waved goodbye. It is sometimes hard as a parent to let go of your kids but I am reminded by what God's Word says in the book of Proverbs, "Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." It is our job as parents to train our kids. We are training them for life. Sometimes we want to hold on to our kids as tight as we can (believe me sometimes I do.) but that is not our job. Our job is help them and train them to become mature Christ-followers. It is our job to let them go so that they can impact the world for Christ. It's not easy but in the end it sure will be worth it all!

Great Sunday

What a great Sunday we had yesterday. I was very blessed by the ministry of John and Dina Mussacchio. It was so good to see them after so many years. I was very blessed by how our own people got behind the vision of John. The church gave yesterday the highest offering it has ever given to a special speaker. Praise God! What a privilege to bless people above and beyond. Way to go church!

Special Sunday

I am looking forward to this Sunday as my good friend and former youth pastor John Muscacchio will be with us at CH. I have great memories with John and his family at Glad Tidings in Des Moines. John is now a missionary to Guatamala. It is hard to believe that it has been almost four years since I last saw him. In fact, I was in Ohio the last time we got together. This will be a great Sunday and I hope everyone can be here to listen to what John has to say. I know you will be blessed.

DREAM

While we were in Tulsa, Jen's cousin was able to take us to Church on the Move. Church on the Move is known for their awesome children's and youth ministries. I was able to take the grand tour of their new Oneighty Youth Building. Check out some of the pics.

Excited to be back!

Today is my first day back at the office. Jen and I had a great time on our vacation. This past week we took the kids camping. Olivia and Caleb had a great time fishing and making sand castles on the beach. Overall it was a relaxing time. One of the things I was encouraged about was when we told the kids they were going to visit another church yesterday, they were disappointed that we were not going to CH. Pastor Keaton is doing a series on the Armor of God in children's church and they didn't want to miss it. I was excited to hear that that our kids enjoy going to our church above anywhere else. I guess the old saying is true,"There's no place like home" and home is here at Community Hope.

Precious Moments

I'm here in Tulsa OK on my first week of vacation. Jen's uncle has a computer so I thought I would update everybody with a picture. Before we came we stopped at Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, MO. The kids were especially cute. Here are a few pics!

Blog Vacation

Jen and I will be celebrating nine years of marriage this week. I will be taking a much needed vacation for the next two weeks. Jen and I are planning on getting away by ourselves and then we plan to do a few things with the kids. Looking foward to investing in my family. God Bless!

Crazy Week

Just wrapping up another week and what a week it was. Thursday we had Rag Bri ride through the great town of Montezuma. I couldn't believe we had over 10,000 bikers in our little square. I was the official runner of lunch. If we ran out of something, I was in charge of going and getting it. While I was on the way to the store to pick up some napkins, I witnessed a hit a run on one of the bikers. Fortunately no one was hurt but the guys 2500 bike was detroyed. I really felt bad for him. By the time the day was done I took a long nap to get ready for our Free Garage Sale. We set up on Friday and the sale was on Saturday. We gave away lots of stuff to people in our community that needed it. I couldn't believe all the stuff we still had left over. It is great to be a part of something bigger than yourself. I know God smiles down at us everytime we help someone in need. All in all I'm pretty tired but it was all worth it. ( I am looking forward to vacation though.)

Preaching that Makes a Difference!

I'm reading a book right now by Andy Stanley called "Communicating for Change". It is basically a different approach to preaching that calls for one point messages. His point is that people can only remember so much. I remember the messages in my life that stuck with me the most were the messages that were either illustrated or had one central point. What about you? Was their a sermon or a message that has always stuck with you? I would like like to hear your comments on this one. Please post a comment below. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Missionary Journey

I just got done reading Acts 13 and 14 this morning. It is the story of the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas. For the first time, the Gospel was being spread outside the region of their custom. Paul and Barnabas came into contact with some interesting characters. On one occassion they came into contact with a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet. On another occassion they were mistaken as gods because of a miracle that was performed. But through it all, the message of Jesus was proclaimed and people came to the faith. The missionary journey was a success!

This reminds me of the importance of sending missionaries to areas of darkness. This past Sunday we had the privleage of hearing Andy Reed, missionary to Central Mexico. I am excited to say that the Missions Committee decided to support Andy at $100.00 per month. CH now supports six missionaries a month. Missions has been the foundation of our church and one of the reasons why I believe we are blessed. Let us not forget the importance of the lost in our community and those outside.

Special Missionary this Sunday!

I am excited for this coming Sunday as we will have special guest, Andy and Chelsey Reed joining us. I was on staff wtih Andy at Berean in Des Moines for almost two years. Andy has a great heart for missions and is just an all around great guy. Him and Chelsey are going to Central Mexico which is known as the "Heart of Darkness." They will be sharing their hearts with us on how they plan to reach those in Central Mexico. Please plan on attending this Sunday as I know you will be blessed.

Making right investments

We had a great Sunday yesterday. If you weren't there you missed a crazy video that we did about finding the lost treasure of Montezuma. I broke out the Montezuma Jones hat as I went around town trying to find clues to the lost treasure. I ended up in the basement of the Methodist church (pretty scary down there) and found the map that led to a treasure full of junk. The point was that Jesus told us not to store treasure here on earth where moth and rust destory but rather make investments in things that matter for the kingdom. I have three investments that are dear to my heart. Let me go over them again once more.....

1. Family- My family is my number one priority. I must make investments in my marriage and my kids.

2. People- I want to invest in people that can't give back.

3. Ministry- Winning people to the kingdom far outlast's any possession on earth.

I hope that all of us will make the right investments. Remember that life is short, so make the most of the time that you have and make a difference for the kingdom of God.

Not Ashamed

I was reading in my Bible this morning from Acts 5. I encourage everybody to read through the book of Acts. What a powerful book that tells of God's awesome power and moving of the Holy Spirit in the First Church. In Acts 5 we read about how Peter and some other apostles were brought before the Pharisee's to try to stop the apostles from preaching the name of Jesus. The apostles response was simple, "We would rather obey God than man." Knowing that the Pharisee's couldn't kill the apostles at the time because of the support they had, they instead whipped them and ordered them out. I love what chapter 5:41 says, "The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name." Wow! Did you get that? They were rejoicing after being whipped. What about us? Do we rejoice when we have to suffer for the name of Jesus? Many of us will never be whipped or beaten because of our faith, but often we whine when we suffer just a little bit of persecution from maybe our peers or co-workers. Let us take the attitude of the apostles and rejoice when we suffer persecution because of the name of Jesus. Jesus suffered for us while He was on the cross. He took our sins and nailed them once and for all. Let us not be ashamed of who we are and who's name we carry with us not matter what others may say.

Celebrate Recovery

What a great meeting we had Sunday Night as we discussed the beginning stages of our Celebrate Recovery Ministry. I have felt for a long time that something was needed in our community to help people recover from their addictions. It is so cool to see how God's timing is always the right timing. He has brought the right people together for this ministry to get going. Please be in prayer for the next few months as we continue to plan for this ministry. Launch date is scheduled for September 10th. God Bless!

Give up to Gain

We started our new sermon series yesterday called "Treasure Hunt." Yesterday we learned the principle that sometimes in life God calls us to "Give up to Gain." The principle comes from Matthew 13:44,45. Jesus tells of a parable of two merchants that sold everything they had, just so that they can have the one thing of true value. For one merchant, it was a treasure, for the other it was a pearl. Jesus was making a strong point that sometimes in life, God calls us to give up some things that may not be pleasing to Him in order for us to gain true treasure that is found only in Christ. Jesus wants to be the only true treasure. What are the things that are holding you back from God's best? I believe that if you made a commitment yesterday, God will bless you for it. I know that this week may be especially painful for some of you. I encourage you today to stick to your commitment. Remember that God will replace the thing you once valued with something even greater. Jesus is the only true treasure!

I'm looking forward to our new sermon series starting this week called "Treasure Hunt." There has been a great interest in treasure these days from Hollywood. For the next three weeks we will be discovering what the Bible says about true treasure. Take this opportunity to invite someone to church in July as we hunt for true treasure.

Back from Camp

We had a great week a camp this last week. What an awesome thing to see teenagers go after God. The theme for the week was "Lost in Jesus." What does it mean to be lost in Jesus? When you are lost in Jesus, you are setting every distraction aside and doing nothing but focusing on Him. When was the last time you got "Lost in Jesus"? I know the Lord told me this past week that I need to get lost in Him more then I do. This week, why don't all of us set some time aside, turn off the televisions, the radio's, the telephone's and everything else that distracts and focus in on Christ. I know that if you do, the Lord will bless you greatly.

Gone to Camp

What a great Sunday we had yesterday. The kids did a great job singing their songs. I am excited to see what God is going to do in our children's ministry in the coming years. I know He has great plans. I won't be blogging this week because I will be off to Ogden for High School Camp. Please be in prayer for the week that God will do some great things in our teenagers lives. (Also pray for me that I survive!) Anyways, I know it will be a great week and in all seriousness, please be in prayer. Thank you all and God Bless.

Girls Win

What a great week we had at Sports Camp. Even with the rain, we still managed to have lots of fun. The boys and girls had an offering contest and Pastor Keaton and I had a deal that if if the boys won, I would get a pie in the face but it the girls won, he would get the pie. As you can see, the girls won. I appreciate all the great help we had throughout the week. Pastor Keaton did a fantastic job and so did all those that helped him. Thanks again to everyone that made Sports Camp what it was.

Painting our Church Purple

One of the ideas from Mark Batterson's top ten list for new pastors was to paint the church purple--make the ministry hard to ignore was the concept. Here are some examples from Glenn Renyolds blog of churches and places that are hard to ignore:

• Kids at Granger Community Church enter their classrooms through a McDonald's Playland type slide. They check in upstairs and slide down to their class below. That's purple.
• Phoenix First Assembly and the LA Dream Center have such a passion to reach out to hurting people that it paints the church purple. That's purple.
• Everything at Walt Disney World is painted purple. Think about it--there was no such thing as a theme park before Disneyland. That's really purple.

What are some things we can do as a church to paint things purple? Think about it!

Rain Day!

Sports Camp Day 1

Community Hope Softball Champs!

What a whirlwind of a weekend. We just ended our marriage seminar and then played in the softball tournament that very night. What a game! We lost our first game to the Pres. Pounders and then went on to win four straight games to win the trophey. The whole thing didn't get done till about 10:30 p.m. How much fun was that! What I took away from the whole thing was it is good to have fun together. You may have heard it said that the church that plays together, stays together. At Community Hope, lets find more ways to play together and fellowship with one another. If you have any ideas, please post a comment on the website.

SPORTS CAMP HAS BEGUN

The fun has begun, we start our Mega Sports Camp today. I am truly excited to see what the Lord is going to do this week. I will be updating the site with pics from the week so make sure you check out the site.

Plant Good Seeds

Last night was our first night of our relationship conference. I was very pleased to have almost 40 people in attendance. Brother Wenig last night talked about planting good seeds in our marriages and relationships. I love what Brother Wenig said when he said if you plant a tomato seed you are going to get a tomato plant, in the same way if we are planting discord, anger, criticism, then those things will come back to you. Paul tells us this in 2 Cor 9:6 "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."(from New International Version) Let us sow good seed in our relationships by sowing some of the Fruits of the Spirit. Begin to sow love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. If we begin to sow these things, then in due time we will reap our harvest.

By the way....Jen and I did the five love language test last night and it seems that her primary love language is Acts of Service. I had no clue. It goes to show even after nine years of marriage, I'm still learning my mate. My primary love language was words of affirmation.

Walk in Love

I am getting ready for our Bible study tonight and we are studying the book of Ephesians. I love what verses 1-3 tells us in chapter four of Ephesians, "beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Paul is talking about walking in a manner that is worthy of our calling in Christ. The walk is not an easy one because the walk includes the words, lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering and bearing one another in love. What do these words mean?

• Lowliness means walking in a spirit of humility
• Gentleness is way of living (Gentle with the way you handle people and situations.)
• Longsuffering can be translated as long term patience.
• Bearing one another in love means to put up with or endure in love towards a person.

What is interesting here is that Paul is not talking about how we should deal with relationships with non-Christians but he is dealing with how the church should act towards one another. We should act in humility, being gentle, having patience and walking in unconditional love towards one another in the church. Why? Paul tells us in verse three, so that we can keep the unity of the Spirit. The unity of the Spirit is so important to the church and that is why it is important that we walk in these attributes that Paul gives us. Let us all walk worthy of our calling in Christ and keep the unity of the Spirit at all costs.

Miracle in the House

I am so excited from last Sunday's response to the "Miracle in the House". We have so many new people signed up for ministry opportunities. There is nothing better than being used by God and letting God use you for a miracle. Here are the six points from last Sunday from 2 Kings 4 to remind us all how we receive the "Miracle in the House."

1. Know where to go when you don't know what to do.

2. Find out what's in the house
- What gifts and talents has God given you?

3. Don't be blinded by the negative but move on to the positive!

4. Shut the door on doubt. (Don't let anyone tell you, it can't be done.)

5. Faith is not faith unless you do something- Action is Required.

6. Pour until there is no more.
- Find someone or something to pour your life into!

I hope this encourages you all to find the miracle in your house. If you were not here last Sunday, make sure you pick up the "Miracle in the House" sheet and sign up for a particular ministry. I believe that God is ready to do some miracles at Community Hope!

Now Blogging

Hey everyone, I've just started blogging. I hope this gives everyone the chance to get to know me and my life a little better. I will be updating the blog all week so make sure you check out the site.