Home from Atlanta

I got home last night from my whirlwind trip to Atlanta. I spent two days working in our house to prep it to sell. I can hand the keys over to my real estate agent and feel good about how the house looks.

While I was there I paid a visit to Westridge Church. The church is about five miles from our house there and I have been fond of the church for a long time. Westridge is about 12 years old and averages 4,000 in worship. I have been blessed to know some of their staff. God has built an amazing church there.

I went to worship as well as observe how they do certain things. I wanted to learn more specifically about how they do two different things:

1. How they handle guest services.
2. How they handle lighting, sound, and other environment issues during their services.

Their guest services are exceptional. I expected it it to be such. They are a church that truly exists to bring people to Jesus. From the layout of the building to the volunteers, I always feel like special guest when I attend.

Their worship service was great. The music was the same as our contemporary service (although I prefer our worship leaders). I did, however, learn from how they handled their lighting and sound. I was impressed with some of what they did.

It was a profitable trip. I feel good about our house. I learned from a great church.

By the way, my father-in-law is still in ICU in Lake Placid but is feeling much better. Thanks for all of the prayers.

Heading North

Tomorrow morning I will be on the road to Atlanta. I haven’t been back since we moved. I still have a house there for sale and I have to do some work on it. I’m looking forward to the cooler temperatures that I have been hearing about.

Coincidentally, as I am heading out of town, my inlaws are coming into town. They are going to spend some time with my wife and kids. No, I didn’t plan it this way. In fact. I really enjoy the time I get to spend with Mandy’s parents. I have been blessed to have a great relationship with them.

Pray for me as I drive. I had the opportunity to fly for free but in the words of my wife, “How are you going to bring things back from the old house if you fly?” Oh well, so much for the short flight.

However, I do get to stop by the Holy Land (Gainesville) on the way. I could use a little Bono’s BBQ and a glimpse of the Swamp.

We all have Comfort Zones

We have been talking a lot over the past few weeks about moving from 2 Sunday worship services on Sundays to 3. I have to be honest and say that I am excited about this. This change is not based on the hopes that God will do something. This change is in response to what God is already doing. That excites me. To know that God has chosen to work in and around us is a huge blessing.

I also have to be honest about something else. I’m not real excited about the personal changes that I’ll have to make to adjust to the church changes. We all have comfort zones. We all have schedules and experiences that we do not want to do differently. I know that there are people in the church that don’t like the schedule changes. There are some that don’t like that they will have to attend at a different time or be part of a different Link Group or even serve in their ministry at a different time.

I can understand. I’m not crazy about some of the schedule changes it will create for me. It is going to stretch my comfort zone. It’s going to inconvenience me. But I must remember that God’s goal for me and for us is not convenience – it’s commitment. All of us have made comfort such a high priority that we forget that most of the world’s Christians have very different challenges than we do. When we are inconvenienced by changes in service times other believers face being killed for meeting together in the middle of the night.

Sometimes I need to shake myself up to get a proper perspective. Have you been shaken today?

Fresh Start

Prior to coming to Lake Placid I maintained a blog and posted to it fairly often. I moved to this great church and hit the ground running. I would post a few articles here and there but, for the most part, I have been too caught up in ministry to write to a blog.

I don’t think that my pace has very changed much but I have have hit a comfortable stride. I have thought about it a good bit over the last few days and have decided to blog again. This time I want to start fresh. So this is post #1.