Death & Life

I was asked a couple of weeks ago to preach the funeral of a man I've never met. A visitor of our church lost her father & he, nor anyone in the family, had a pastor to officiate, so she asked me. My schedule allowed me & I was glad to attempt to give this family the peace of Jesus & personal comfort. It quickly became evident this man was most likely not a Christian, which makes for a tough job, but incredible opportunity for me as a pastor.

I spoke briefly from Matthew 11:28-30 on Jesus calling all who are weary & burdened to come to Him. The service went well & I prayed only to make much of Jesus & let God do the rest. And He did...

The next morning in our worship service the daugther (who's in her early 60's) stepped out on the 1st line of the invitation song & gave her life to Jesus & truly experienced the peace I had spoken of the day before. It was an incredible celebration that morning & I baptized her the following Sunday.

I prayed by faith, as many others were praying as well, that God's Word wouldn't return void (as Scripture promises) but He gave us an almost immediate return on our investment. Many individuals heard a clear presentation of the Gospel at the funeral & my prayer is this is only the beginning of the lives touched by Jesus.

This new Christian is already actively involved in the ministry of our church. Everyday I can't wait to see how God's going to work in His Church. I'm so grateful to be able to be part of such a great move of God as we've already baptized 10 new Christians in 2010.

I'm reminded regularly, as I remind our church family...God's still in the business of changing lives!

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful weather, the great time w/ family, & the reason we can live abundantly & eternally - Jesus. Cade had a great time playing, eating some candy, learning how to hunt eggs, & of course going to church w/ a huge crowd (largest since I've been here & maybe one of the biggest in the church's history). Here's some pics from the weekend.

Closely examining the dyed egg, which was way more interesting than the plastic ones.

Post-church family pic right before his 3+ hour nap


Hunting eggs at our church's Easter Bash on Saturday.

Trying to get a good picture before church.

Checking out his Easter basket before breakfast.

Dying eggs on Saturday.

Reading his Easter book from Papaw & Nena he got in the mail in his Easter Envelope (guess a basket wouldn't fit in the envelope).

Cade also got some great stuff from Pops & Mimi but we didn't have the camera handy at the time. We tried to talk about the true meaning of Easter & maybe next year he will be able to tell us what Easter is really about.

Our Little Dancing Man

Here's a fun evening of entertainment at our house these days.

Poor quality video...high quality dance moves.

Bless Bastrop Project

Grace is setting out to be a light in the darkness right here in Bastrop, LA. This is our "Jerusalem" & we want to serve our city through hard work, generosity, & the love of the Gospel. Several Sunday nights have been set aside for service in our local community. Our prayer is this will instill within us a greater heart to serve others as Jesus did. We need to be reminded as well as display to others we don't exists for ourselves but the world around us.

Our great group of volunteers showed up Sunday afternoon ready to serve. We've adopted the part across the street from our church & we're renovating the playground equipment. Another team picked up trash at the park & 3 local school campuses. Others went to a local grocery store to bag groceries, carry & load groceries, retrieve buggies, & greet customers with a smile. The overall purpose of this initiative is to be a blessing to our town. We want to get outside the walls of the church & love our neighbors as ourselves. We had a blast serving together & many have expressed excitement in the next opportunity to serve.

Some of our volunteers were able to share the Gospel with people we met at various places in town, but most of us were able to be a positive example of love & service to others. Here are some pictures from Sunday afternoon.

My Sports Buddy

I'm glad I've got a friend to watch Ranger games with me.

I'm even happier I have a friend to watch Razorback games with me.

Who says there's not a "man gene" somewhere in our DNA from birth?

A Visit from the Governor

Sunday we had the privilege of having Governor Bobby Jindal share his personal testimony of his faith in Jesus Christ in our morning worship service. The Governor tries to spend many Sundays a year speaking in churches, not as a political event, but as a ministry opportunity. Yes there were aspects of his message that felt political (such as discussing various things that have happened during his tenure) but the primary focus was telling his story.

I was impressed with his personal nature & receptivity to meet, take pictures, & sign autographs with everyone who wanted after the service. He truly left an impression on our church & others from the community who attended that we have a caring, Christian Governor who puts effort into helping the entire state of Louisiana. He challenged us to continue to plant seeds of the Gospel b/c his testimony recognized the various seeds planted in his life along the way, eventually leading to his salvation. He also encouraged the importance of prayer for one another.

My prayer through this experience, as I clearly shared the gospel at the end of the service, is that Bastrop & the surrounding community will see Jesus in us & allow us to transform this community for Him. I'm hoping many who attended (290 people) we're exposed to the love & acceptance of our church family. I'm committed to praying for Governor Jindal & our entire government system & I hope you will too.

Grace Gives Back (pt. 3)

A little more than a week removed from the beginning of our churchwide emphasis "Grace Gives Back", I want to try to explain how we went from conception to reality. 1st & foremost, my heart as a pastor was burdened to lead a church to be a driving force in meeting needs in our local community. We're to be Great Commission & Great Commandment people. Too many Christians live w/ blinders on & only focus on the needs of those immediately around us at home & in the church (& many times we miss those too).

I knew the "honeymoon" phase of being a new pastor would soon wear off as it always does. I felt we needed to do something meaningful & impactful soon to continue the momentum of the 1st few months. Spending much time in prayer, meetings, & brainstorming I felt this concept of giving back to our people so they could be empowered to be a blessing was what we needed to do.

Our staff discussed many things & this idea came up a time or two (aware it wasn't original w/ us). I then attended a one day event called "THR3E" @ Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. This event radically confirmed many things in my heart as well as opened my eyes to many things. When getting the rare privilege to talk directly with Pastor Steven Furtick for only a couple of minutes I shared my situation & we talked personally. Then before I walked away he encouraged me to "do something big, & do it now." I left that event & on the flight home that evening had a headache from information overload. After processing all I had experienced I shared w/ my staff about what I felt God taught me. Soon after we talked about doing something to kick off the Fall ministry of our church & I was told by a staff member Elevation had done this one Sunday (I wasn't aware they had done it, but maybe that was the "big" thing we needed to do). Long story short, God put all the pieces in place & used Pastor Steven to confirm this vision from God.

This decision wasn't made on a whim. It was a process we struggled through for awhile, but the end result has blown us away. We're beginning to see what a New Testament church is supposed to look like. God has overwhelmed us w/ His glory in numerous ways. There were times I questioned whether this was the right thing to do or not & if it would have the desired impact. All along the way God has given us confirmation. I plan to share stories of God's blessings every week for who knows how long. We'll eventually post them on here or our new website so others can be blessed through this project. God is changing lives right before our eyes & using us in the process...there's no greater privilege this side of heaven!

I end by giving an example of God's confirmation in a practical way. Since we gave away a week's worth of offerings & didn't receive any that Sunday, we gave up 2 weeks of offerings essentially. The Sunday BEFORE we did this (& only 6 or 7 people knew about it) our offering was a little more than double the weekly average. God blessed before as if to put His seal of approval on it. We expected God to bless & make up for it the following Sunday & boy did He ever. The Sunday AFTER we did this our offering was a little more than triple the weekly average.

YOU CAN'T OUT GIVE GOD! Let's continue to give in response to the great mercies God has given us. Be a blessing, whether you are a member of our church or not. I look forward to sharing God's stories as a result of this in the future.