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.