Firefighter Outreach

Today we packed thirty bags for our volunteer fire department as a special thank you for all their hard work. I know our guys work hard and do a great job at what they do. Here is what was in the bags:

1. Fireproof Movie

2. Bag of candy

3. Home made bread

4. Popcorn

5. Easter invitation

Praying that some seeds are planted as we distribute the bags on Thursday night. Thanks to our Missions Team that came up with the idea and helped getting all the things we put in the bags and putting them together.

Ready, Set, Go!

Easter is usually one of the biggest weeks in ministry. This week seems to be especially crazy. Here are some of the things we have going:

1. Mailing out 2500 postcards to Montezuma, Barnes City, Malcom and Deep River.
2. Finishing up the filling of 14,000 eggs and getting all the prizes together.
3. Special outreach to the Fire Department for Easter. Each fireman will get a Fireproof movie along with some candy, popcorn and thank you from the church.
4. Maundy Thursday I am preaching at the Methodist church. Really pumped about the message.
5. Easter Sunday!!!! Starting our new series called 'Fearless'. We will be talking about the fear of belief. What are we supposed to do with an empty tomb?

Please be in prayer for the weeks events. Ready, Set, Go!

Weekend Reflections

1. Went to the Montezuma School play on Friday night. We had quite a few of our church kids in the play. I didn't realize we had that many talented kids. They did an awesome job and Derek did a great job leading them. My kids loved the Little Red Riding Hood played by Emily Cashman. Her mood swings were awesome!

2. Saturday went to the pig farm. Read "Today I rode a pig" and you find out how that went. I know a lot of people got few laughs out of that one. I'm just thinking of a way I can use it in a sermon illustration but without reacting the whole thing.

3. Another great Sunday as we wrapped up our series on 20/20 vision. We talked about the importance of "Finishing Strong." God has called each of us to a vision but over time something called vision drift will settle in. Things will come that will try to drift us away from the purpose that God has for us. Jesus illustrated this in a parable of the seeds and the sower. Jesus listed three great distracters.
1. Satan
2. Trials and Tribulations
3. Worry
In order to finish strong, we must not allow these vision distracters get us off course or trip us up. Remember its now how you start that matters but how you finish.

4. Sunday night was our business meeting to move forward with our building project. I am excited to say that we had a unanimous vote. God has truly blessed us with a spirit of unity in our church. I am thankful to God everyday for every person in our congregation. I can't wait to see what God is going to do in the next year. I know He has big plans.

Today I rode a pig

Well there is a first for everything. I got up this morning and met a couple of our guys at a pig farm of one of our congregation members who just got out of the hospital. We are trying to help with the chores while he recovers. I grew up in the city so for me at a pig farm was interesting enough. Things were going pretty good until we found that a couple of the pigs had gotten out of their pen. We tried to coral them back into their gate but one of the pigs weren't moving very easily. We thought we had him when the pig came straight at the city boy. He went straight at my legs and I ended up riding him for a few moments before I got threw off. Needless to say it was experience. We did finally get the pig in the pen and all was well. This will definitely be a experience I won't forget.

New Building

This Sunday night at 5 p.m. will truly be a historic night for us as a church. We will be voting on the proposed building project that we presented a couple months ago at our annual business meeting. It is so important that everyone is in attendance that night. We want every one's voice to be heard on this project. I was reminded once again a couple Sunday's ago of why we need to build. I was told that we had a person drive into our church and could not find a parking space and ended up turning around and leaving. This presents a huge problem as we are not called to turn people away from worshipping our Lord. The new building project will present solutions to many of our problems.

1. Parking - We will ad an additional fifty spaces right away with more coming.

2. Sanctuary Space- We can go to one service and have room for growth

3. Sunday School Space- We will have adequate space for our children and youth rooms.

The new building also presents possibilities of using our current buildings for outreach. I am excited about some of the things we can do with our facilities.

We have fasted and prayed and now it is time to move. Please be here this Sunday night for our business meeting.

Sunday Thoughts

We had another great Sunday at Hope. We are in week three of our series on Vision. Yesterday we talked about the importance of 'moral authority'. This was one of those messages that was a little hard hitting yet it is so important. Moral authority can also be defined as your character or your integrity. It is the alignment between what you say and what you do. Nehemiah was a man of moral authority. People listened and followed his vision because there was alignment in his life. As Christ followers we are called to walk with moral authority. If we ever want to influence people for the Gospel then our walk needs to match our talk. When there is misalignment between these two, people will not want to follow us. Christ said that we need to be salt and light. In other words, people will be attracted to what we have. Today in the church there is just too much dead religion. People don't want dead religion, they want to see people with a living relationship with the living God. This is what will make a difference in the world.

21 Day fast

Today we are on the fifth day of our fast leading us to Easter. I want to take a minute and explain a little bit about fasting.

What is fasting?
- Abstaining from something, usually food for spiritual purposes.

What does the Bible say about fasting?
-There are so many examples in the Bible that deal with fasting. Moses fasted, David fasted, Ester, Daniel, Paul and the early church all fasted. Jesus placed fasting on the same level as financial giving and prayer. Paul even tells the church that there should be a time to prayer and fasting.

What is the purpose of fasting?
-The purpose of fasting is to focus on God and center our attention on Him. Fasting can increase our effectiveness of prayer, bring guidance to our lives in our decisions, it can help our physical well-being, and bring deliverance in certain situations.

What are the different types of fasts?
- Absolute fast: No food or water
- Normal fast: Only water but no food.
- Partial fast: This is often referred to as the Daniel Fast
- Lenten fast: giving up something specific for the duration of Lent
- Fasting from things: media, telephone, habits, etc.

Whatever type of fast you chose to do, I encourage you to do something. Let's believe God for a great outpouring in our church services and also for many to saved this Easter.

Weekend Reflections

1. Had to deliver girl scout cookies to Des Moines so we made a Friday and Saturday trip out of it. The kids had Friday off so we went to Chuckie Cheese and stayed at a hotel so the kids could swim. Hoping to build fun memories with the kids.

2. It was Spring Break during the Sunday School hour at Hope University. The kids had their beach party and the adults had a good time as well. Thanks to John Bushong for all the hard work decorating the sanctuary and putting on a great program. Looking forward to the new semester of classes this Spring.

3. Sunday was another incredible day. We continued in our 20/20 Vision series with Nehemiah. Yesterday we spoke about how to face the opposition. If you have a burden from God, expect opposition and even critics. This is the hard part of the vision. No one likes opposition and no one likes to be criticized. I know that early on in ministry I had a huge issue with this. I constantly wanted to please people. When people opposed or criticized what I was doing, I would get upset. I have had to learn to not always be a people pleaser. We need to learn are we going to please people or please God? Nehemiah wasn't concerned about the opposition or the criticism. Nehemiah did three things that I think we can learn today;

A. Intensify your prayers- Nehemiah was a man of prayer. He was God-focused not critic-focused.

B. Be on your guard- Nehemiah got his men ready for battle with swords, bows, shields and armor. We need to be on our guard against the enemies attacks. Remember, our enemy is never people but rather Satan.

C. Surround yourself with fellow warriors- The Jews that were rebuilding the walls had to depend on each other. While one was protecting the walls, the other was rebuilding. As a church, we need each other. We need to uplift each other in prayer and when the other is weak we need to strengthen each other.

4. Started our 21 Day fast Sunday. Our whole family is doing the Daniel Fast. I am praying that God will truly lead us in the days ahead as want to see many people come to know Christ this Easter and as we also move ahead with the building project.

This Sunday

Don't forget this Saturday to move your clocks ahead one hour. You definitely don't want to sleep in and miss our 'Spring Break' Sunday. We will kick things off around 9:45 a.m. with our activities. The kids will head to their beach party in the fellowship hall and the adults will be in the sanctuary. Also, come dressed in your favorite spring attire. It should be an interesting Sunday. We will also continue our series on 20/20 vision. Don't miss out.

Business Expo

Last night was the Montezuma Business Expo. This year our church gave away the "Book of Hope" to teens and kids. We also gave information about our church and Easter events. The business expo is always a good time to meet people and know the area businesses. Thanks to everyone who sat at the table and greeted people as they came by. We are so blessed!

Easter Candy

Our Easter Egg Hunt is quickly approaching which means we desperately need candy. We are once again so thankful to Montezuma Telephone and Iowa Telecom for their generous donation to get us started but as you know we fill around 13,000 eggs which means we need a lot of candy. Please no tootsie rolls or bumble gum. Anything else would be awesome! Our goal was to have the eggs out Sunday for people to take home and start filling but at this point we still don't have enough candy to do that. If everyone could get a couple bags of wrapped candy from your local store or Walmart, that would be great. Thanks for all your help.

Weekend Reflections

1. Friday night was our Sweet Life Cafe for the women's ministries. I heard lots of great things about the night. I appreciate all the hard work that Brenda Smith and the ladies put into this event. We really need ministries in which we can fellowship and be a community. I have been praying once again about a Men's Ministry and what we can do to fellowship as men.

2. Saturday was day of relaxing. Basketball is over so it was weird not to be rushed. We headed to Oskaloosa for the day and did some shopping for the kids. Caleb keeps growing like crazy so he needed new jeans and tennis shoes.

3. Sunday we started our series on 20/20 Vision. Nehemiah is a great story in the Bible. Vision will always start with a burden of what 'could be and should be'. Nehemiah had a vision to go back to his homeland and restore the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah teaches us two things about the burden we carry;

A. Seek God- Nehemiah got on his face before God and prayed and fasted about his burden. We cannot forget to seek God's will on the things in our lives. Prayer and fasting will internalize our burdens and insist that we quiet our hearts and listen to the voice of God.

B. Make a plan- I love what Mark Batterson says, "Pray like it depends on God, work like it depends on you." Nehemiah had a strategy in place to see the vision come to pass. I know a lot of people who have a vision, but they don't do anything to work towards seeing that vision to come to pass. For example I know pastors that will say, 'I want to see my church reach my community." But my question is, "What is the church's strategy in reaching the community?" Does it have opportunities for people to evangelize? Are your promoting missions in your church? Do you have a system for discipleship? Are you following up on guests? What's the plan? I am so thankful for my time at Berean Assembly in Des Moines as Pastor Weets my former Pastor taught me this valuable lesson. He taught me to have goals and make action steps to obtain those goals.

3. Sunday was also our Ministry Spotlight on BGMC. Remember to fill your buddy boxes for the month of March with any loose change. If the kids reach their goal of $300.00 for the month my wife will die her hair green. ( Still not for sure how I feel about that one.)

4. After church we headed to Grinnell with the Bushongs and ate Mexican. I love Mexican food. I think I can eat it at least three or four times a week. Especially chicken fajitas. Yummy!

Ministry Spotlight

This Sunday is Ministry Spotlight Sunday and we will be featuring BGMC. For those who don't know BGMC stands for Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge. BGMC money goes to help missionaries in all sorts of ways like funding for sound equipment, teaching materials and other supplies for missionaries on the field. We are asking everyone to help our children out with BGMC this month. Everyone will be getting a buddy box to take home. We are asking that you fill that box with change and on the last Sunday of March please bring back the box. We want to help our kids make their goal this year of 2010.00 for 2010. BGMC is a great cause so let's fill our boxes with change and support our children.

Father & Son Cake Bake

Last night was our monthly Boy Scouts meeting and this month was Father & Son Cake Bake. Caleb wanted to make a Koopa Troopa from Super Mario Brothers. I was pretty pleased on how it turned out. We got third place over all. Caleb did most of the frosting and I did the drawing. The cakes were auctioned off later that night. We won our cake back for a whopping $12.50! Can't wait to bite into the Koopa Troopa.

Starting a new series this coming Sunday called "20/20 Vision". We will be going through the book of Nehemiah the next four weeks. I am really excited about this because I think this is the first time we have actually went through a book in the Bible on a Sunday morning. Nehemiah is an awesome book because it is book about a man who had a vision to do something big for God. I believe this series will challenge us to get a vision for our lives. I also want this series to challenge us as a church to have a vision to reach our community. Looking forward to this Sunday.

Video on forgiveness

Here is the video we showed on Sunday on forgiveness.

Weekend Reflections

1. Had a great date night with my wife on Friday. Went out to eat and then saw "Percy Jackson and the lightning thief." Basically it was the only movie at the theater that was rated PG. Kind of corny movie but hey, a date is a date with your wife.

2. We wrapped up the Upwards Basketball season on Saturday. I was really proud of our girls as they improved a lot over the season. We even ran a few plays correctly. I am going to miss meeting with them every Tuesday night for practice and Saturday games.

3. Had lunch at Red Lobster with friend and our crazy drummer Pete Smith. Both of our wives hate seafood so we decided to head to Iowa City just the guys.

4. Sunday we a great day of worship. Worship team did a special number called "Love is not a fight" from the Fireproof movie. We wrapped up our "Love is a Battlefield" series on the 'Battle to forgive." Talked about the story of Joseph and how Joseph chose to live a life of forgiveness. Here are the three points if you missed it;

1. Joseph had the right attitude
2. Joseph let go of the past
3. Joseph chose to bless instead of curse.

We wrapped up the message with a video on forgiveness that I found on Youtube. Really powerful video. If I can, I will try to post it on here this week. Felt the Holy Spirit really move in our second service. I believe God was doing a work in some people's lives.

5. Sunday night was the Q & A discussion on our building project. I thought there were a lot a good questions and ideas on the building. Not as many people there as I would have thought but the discussion was uplifting. It is really awesome to be part of church where there is unity.