- Monday was Presidents' Day in these great ol' United States of America. I spent most of the day reading and studying, and watching History Channel specials about the Presidents of these United States. It was a great day that you can read about here if you'd like.
- Tuesday was a beast of a day ...I was at the office ALL day. Literally. From first thing in the morning 'til 9 pm at night. All I worked on was my message for Sunday about the Gospel. I've NEVER worked that hard on a message before (not that I'm lazy in my sermon prep), but I felt God calling me to do it, and I knew it would be worth it.
- I slept in just a bit on Wednesday because I was so worn out from Monday and Tuesday. Gosh, I did SO much on Wednesday though. I worked on launch timelines and job descriptions for the Northeast campus, returned emails, made calls, setup a meeting for a GrowGroup I'll be leading this semester, and much more during the day.
- On Wednesday night I met with Mark & Candi Pryor to talk and dream a little bit about the future and the possibility of launching a Del Sol Church campus out in the Fabens/Clint/San Elizario area in a few years. I try to always look towards the future without getting ahead of myself, but that's not always easy. I'm glad Mark & Candi have a vision for their community there.
- On Thursday I spent most of the day working on job descriptions for my staff at the NE campus. I also made some minor tweaks to my message for Sunday, met with Terry Gooding (our Prayer Ministry Coordinator) to talk about a prayer strategy for the NE campus, met with Walter to catch him up on what I've been doing and to think some things through for the launch, and then I spent the latter part of the afternoon writing a report for the church council and getting ready for a presentation at the church council meeting that night.
- The presentation to the church council went great! These men know me and they know my heart somewhat, and I think now they know that I know what I'm doing and am able to get this done, and done well.
- Thursday night was Village Inn night with Rick and Kristin. Seems the past few weeks we've just been pretty tired when we go there. I always enjoy it though.
- Friday, for the first time in a LONG time, I felt somewhat rested and refreshed on my day off. I was able to just relax at home and watch a movie and enjoy myself. I love people, but I get stressed out if I don't have some time to myself to decompress.
- Friday night and Saturday 'til mid-day I went to Coronado Baptist Church for the BGCT's Engage XP evangelism conference. I was so glad that the state convention actually took the time and money to invest into El Paso. Because we're so far from Dallas, we usually have to get people from New Mexico for anything we do, so it was great having people from the Dallas office come spend the weekend with us.
It was also great to be around Baptists. Usually I go to conferences and they're not very Baptist (not that there's anything wrong with that), and so it feels great to be with my people. I mean some of the practices and philosophies of Baptists - Texas Baptists especially - are kind of hokey, but they genuinely love the Lord and love the Gospel and at the end of the day, they're my people. I love being a Baptist, and I love my Texas Baptist family. =)
- Also Saturday, I had the first staff members commit to the Northeast campus. I felt SO honored and humbled and excited to have Josh & Nick Sattelmeier commit to join our staff. God's brought them to our staff - now I'm asking Him to provide a kids' ministry director, and the money to pay salaries. I'll tell you what though ...when they said "we're in!" (their exact words), I felt like a thousand pound weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Gosh, my eyes are welling up with tears right now as I remember that moment. To have two incredible people like Josh & Nicki say they're in ...wow. Thank you, Papa God.
- Went to Cracker Barrel on Saturday night with the Pryors to celebrate Mark's birthday. I'm so glad to have them in my life. Mark and Candi really are just great, great people and I'm blessed and privileged to have them in my life.
- Sunday morning. DANG! God's Spirit was with us at the Firehouse and He worked in the hearts of many people tonight. I had this message in me all week and was just dying to preach it! It was like a fire in my bones just itching to get out of me! I had several people pray for me before we got started, then I got up there and preached it, and by the end of our time together, God had stirred the hearts of about a dozen junior and senior highers to give their lives to Christ.
- THAT is what it's all about! Our million-plus dollar budget at Del Sol Church, the thousands of hours each year that our staff work, the tens of thousands of hour our volunteers give doing things from leading GrowGroups to welcoming guests to working the parking lot to taking care of babies ...THAT is what it's all about! It's all about people who were once spiritually dead and are now alive in Christ!!!!!!
- After preaching that message today and seeing the response, I could die a happy, very content man tonight.
- God is so great. So awesome. So mighty to save. So victorious. So ...WOW! Words truly cannot even come close to describing Him!
No comments:
Post a Comment