Weekend Reflections

1. Friday night we went to see Toy Story 3. It was a good movie but a little scary in a few scenes for Ethan my four year old. Buzz and Woody are always fun and there was funny scenes throughout especially Ken and Barbie. This movie was a little sad with Andy growing up and making the decision to get rid of his toys when he was a kid. All and all it was good movie and would recommend it to anyone.

2. Saturday we celebrated Father's Day since Sunday is such a crazy day. We went to Iowa City and ate at Red Lobster. My wife got her normal motzerella sticks and I got a Lobster and shrimp platter. Yum!

3. It is funny how Mother's Day is our second highest attended Sunday of the year and Father's Day is one of the lowest. Makes you think.

4. Continued our Q & A series on Sunday with the question "How do we know the Bible is accurate?" Many people have this question and I hope that I gave everyone some good information on the reliability of the scriptures. The truth is, if you take the Bible and compare it side by side with other historical documents of that time period, the Bible is one of the most accurate historical writings known to man.

5. I hope everyone got the point that the best way we can prove the Bible is by living it out. God's Word is truth and changes us from the inside out.

6. Gave away a GPS system to Ed Hundley, a Theisens gift card to Pat Cashman and a Grinnell Steak House gift certificate to Austin Young. All great guys and great dads.

No one stands alone

I was reminded this Sunday of one of our core values at Community Hope as I visited another church. One of our core values is 'No one stands alone." This value simply means that when we see somebody in our congregation that is all alone we go and stand by them and engage in a conversation. This also could mean that when someone visits our church for the first time and we see them sitting alone that we go and introduce our self and be friendly and make the visitor feel welcome. Sunday we visited a church in the Pella area. Right before service began, the worship leader talked for about four minutes on the importance of getting to know one another. He then gave everyone about three to four minutes to greet. It is always interesting to look through the lens of a guest in a church and not the pastor. As our family stood there, we only had one person come up and greet us. We stood there for the awkward three to four minutes and had no meaningful conversations with anyone. In fact, the whole time we were there we did not have one person come up and engage us. Now I am not being harsh on this church as the worship was very good and the message was good as well. The reason I bring this up is simply for the benefit of our church. Let's not just have a value for the sake of having a value. Let's practice this value of "No one stands alone." The church we visited was a very large church. This made me think that the larger we get the harder it gets for this value to be practiced. When we were 80 people, it is easy to practice engaging new people and making them feel welcome. It was even easy at 100 and 120. But what about 200? What about 250 or 300? This value will get harder and harder to practice as we grow. That is why it must be intentional. Here are some simple things we can do to make sure "No one stands alone."

1. If you see someone in the foyer that looks lost, go up to that person and introduce yourself.
2. If there is someone sitting in the sanctuary all alone, ask if you can sit by them and engage them in a conversation.
3. During greet time-PLEASE DO NOT ALWAYS GO TO THE SAME PEOPLE THAT YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH. Find people you don't know so well. Greet them and make them feel welcome.
4. If there is a guest with children-make the children feel welcome. Jesus said that if you welcome one of these little ones you would be welcoming Him. Tell the family about our great nursery and children's ministries in the education building.

I want to encourage all of us to continue to reach our to new people. I believe that in these last days, God will bring a harvest to our church. As they come in, we must be ready and welcoming. Let's make sure that "No one stands alone."

Six Flags and Yogi

Had a great week of vacation with the family. We went to St. Louis and camped at JellyStone with Yogi Bear. JellyStone is a great place for the kids as they have activities during the day and a swimming pool to hang out. Tuesday it rained all day so that kind of ruined our plans a little. We ended up finding a Pizza place that had go-karts and games. We spent Wednesday at Six Flags and rode some roller coasters with the kids. Also the kids got to meet some Super Heroes. (Green Lantern and Flash pictured.) All in all it was great week and time of refreshing. It was definitely good to be back and sleep in my own bed on Friday. Sunday we visited a church in Pella and enjoyed the worship and the message. ( I will have to say, I missed our church and our people.) God is good and I'm looking forward to a fruitful week back at the office.

Vacation

Heading out tomorrow for a weeks vacation! We are going to St. Louis and will be camping at JellyStone Park with Yogi bear and Boo Boo. We will be hiding our picnic baskets so the bears can't get them. We also will be spending a day at Six Flags as well. We'll see how many roller coasters I can talk my two older kids to get on. It should be a great week of relaxing and spending time with family. I will see everyone next weekend for Father's Day.

Q & A starts this Sunday

Our Q & A Series starts this Sunday! Thanks to everyone who put in questions who have voted the last couple weeks. This has been a lot of fun. It was fun to get input on what the church was thinking and it was fun to see how the votes went. The funny thing is the votes keep changing besides the top two. This Sunday I will be taking two questions and combining them into one sermon. Looking forward this coming Sunday.

Weekend Reflections

What a beautiful weekend the Lord gave us! Here are some of the highlights;

1. Friday I spent the night hanging out with some great guys as we had a going away/bachelor party for Derek (student ministries leader). We ate some wings at Buffalo Wings, played some mini golf and then went to Bass Pro for some bowling. I'm not for sure when the last time I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. We wish Derek the best the next two months and can't wait for his return in August with his new wife Samone!

2. Sunday we wrapped up our series on "Judgment Call" with a message on when it is the right time to make the call. This is a difficult message but such an important one. The Bible clearly teaches that there is a time to judge and sometimes judging is the loving thing to do. We must always remember though the guidelines set in God's Word before we make that call. 1. First depend on the Holy Spirit, 2. Trust in the authority of God's Word, 3. Accountability is the key to maturity. Always first look to our own hearts and ask God if there is a plank in our own eye. Also, does that person's sin truly break your heart. If it doesn't, then the problem is not with the person but you. If you didn't listen to the message, I encourage you to listen to it on the website at http://www.communityhope.org/

3. On Sunday we also credentialed Darren Mathes with a local church credential. It was exciting to see Darren's family there to support him. Darren will now hold a church credential as a minister of the Gospel. This will allow him to get into the prisons and other ministry opportunities. We are so excited for Darren and how God is using him in great ways.

4. Memorial Day we went to the Omaha Zoo. I love the zoo! The fish aquarium never gets old and they had some new exhibits there as well to explore. The kids had a great time looking at all the animals and it was beautiful day to spend with the family.