BLeach

Family Bloggers

I just found out today that a couple of family members have joined the blogosphere. 

Jonathan Palmer is my cousin on my mom's side.  We get along 364 days out of the year.  You just don't want to get us together in November when Michigan takes the field against Ohio State.  He's attending North Central University in the fall.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for him.

Doug Clay is the District Superintendant for the Assemblies of God in Ohio.  It's a long story, but he's essentially my fifth uncle.  He's had a big influence on my life.  If you're in ministry, watch for great stuff to come out of his blog.

Help!

I need some help dreaming for the Fill the First vision.  During the next few weekends we want to offer some creative tips for people to invest into relationships with unchurched friends this summer.  It's a commitment to invest into the relationship once a week for 12 weeks.  I'd like to come up with a top twelve list of creative investment suggestions.

Here's the criteria:

It has to be positive (uplifting and encouraging)

It has to be selfless (expecting nothing in return)

It has to be something anyone can do (not expensive or overly elaborate)

Here's three ideas to get the juices flowing:

• Do some surprise weeding in your friend's garden.
• Wash/Wax your friend's car.
• Bake your friend seven cookies, one for each day of the week, with something different that you appreciate about them written in frosting on each cookie (although I admit I could never do this one).

Email me your suggestions or leave a comment below.

Fill the First

In my talk on Sunday I laid out some summer vision.  For 12 weeks from July 2 - September 17 we're embarking on an outreach adventure called Fill the First.  The goal is simply to fill up the remaining empty chairs in our first Sunday morning service. 

We wanted our summer outreach strategy to be as simple as possible.  I honestly think that what we unveiled on Sunday is something that every person in our church can do.  The challenge is for everyone to accept an invest and invite mission. 

On June 25 we'll turn in commitment cards with one name written on them.  Over the next two weeks we want to be asking the Holy Spirit which name that should be.  It could be a co-worker.  It could be a neighbor.  It could be an old high school friend you haven't seen for 7 years.  I just think that God has been getting someone specific ready.  The only catch is that this is a person who has yet to cross the line of faith in Christ. 

Once you've identified the current or potential relationship, the invest and invite mission has three parts.

Pray for that person to be saved once a day for 12 weeks.  That's 84 prayers.  They don't have to be long; just specific.  Jesus, turn (insert friend's name here) life around!

Invest into the relationship once a week for 12 weeks.  That's 12 touches.  They don't have to be spiritual; just selfless.  One week you might mow your friend's lawn.  The second week you might write an inspiring encouragement note.  The next week you might cook them dinner.  The goal is to inentionally build your relationship by loving and serving like Jesus.

Invite your friend to attend church with you as God gives you the opportunity.  Trust me.  If you pray for someone's salvation 84 times and selflessly serve them 12 times, you'll get an opportunity:)

Ministry is not rocket science. 

Summer is the best season to reach out relationally.  I see neighbors during the summer that I rarely see the rest of the year.  I can't help but imagine what our church will look like this fall if we all make a personal outreach commitment this summer. 

I think we'll have two full services!

Odd Sightings

Today I uploaded the last few weeks of pictures from my Canon SD450 and noticed that I've seen a few odd things during the past few days.

I saw these ducks in the alley outside of one of my super-secret-sermon-study-spots.  Without giving it away:), I'll just say it's on the west side of arguably the busiest street in Metro Detroit.  In other words, there's no water around.  Somehow these ducks lost their way.

And then there was the wannabe van:

I pulled up behind this van at a red light on 12 Mile.  Is it just me or does this van not look like a Grand Cherokee? 

Does anyone know where I can find the letters H-U-M-M-E and R?

The grass is always greener on the other side.  I actually have a Grand Cherokee:)

Google Giggles

It's often good for a laugh to see how various people come across my blog.  There are some unique search topics that bring people over. 

I'll periodically check statcounter to see where people are being referred from.  This morning someone came over from an interesting google search:

is it alright for assembly of god pastors to drink

I don't ever remember posting on that.  Maybe I need to:)

Bad Boys

My head is still spinning from the disappointment of Friday night.  I had to wait a few days so that I could regain my composure enough to post about the debacle that was the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.  I still have more questions than answers.

When did Big Ben decide to become a pre-Madonna?  He used to be the definition for an NBA player going to work.  Now he just seems focused on going to the bank.

The NBA needs to write a new Shaq rule.  You can dunk 5 times, and after that dunks count for only one point instead of two.  This guy is too big.  How he can catch the ball, turn around, knock defenders to their derriere with his elbows and still end up on the foul line is beyond me.  And seriously, what's up with his post-game interviews?  Can anyone understand a word he says?  He's the Master of the Mumble.

Would the real Chauncey Billups please stand up?  He could have his own prime time special now that David Blaine turned into wrinkles in New York City.  Chauncey found a way to make himself disappear.  It must have been some kind of black magic!

Dwayne Wade even looks good while dehydrated with the flu.  Now everytime he makes a fade away jumper or banks in a layup while collapsing to the hardwood it's like a pinched nerve reminding Pistons fans of the infamous Darko draft.

So there's nothing else to do now except settle in for a depressing NBA Finals and a summer filled with trade talk.

Go Tigers!

I can't believe I just said that:)

Weekend Reflections

Well, I've got one more weekend in the books.  I remember going to bed Saturday night, September 1, 2001.  I had a strange feeling, as if my weekends were about to change for good.  The following Sunday was the practice service with our core group.  The Sunday after that was our launch.  Other than vacations, whenever my alarm has sounded on Sunday morning during the past five years I've been on the job.

Weekends were different pre-pastoring, but I wouldn't trade what I get to do on Sunday for anything:)

Yesterday we kicked off our new series called The Tribes of Christ.  What was God thinking when He launched this thing called The Church?  Was He desperate?  Or was He on to something revolutionary?  Hopefully this teaching can help us clear up some of the misunderstanding people have about the church by correcting misinformation and misrepresentation.

You can listen to the message here.  Read it here.

A Little Luck

Are you kidding me? That was my reaction when I saw this video. Why don't I ever have this kind of driving good fortune?

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Napkin Dreams

I had lunch today with Abdu Murray.  Abdu is a converted Muslim and one of three founders of Aletheia, a ministry startup designed to share Jesus with Jews, Muslims, cult members and skeptics.  One of the other founders is a converted Jew.  The third is a converted atheist. 

Great conversation.  Mike Kern set the lunch up (that's Mike Kern jr for those of you at COTK).  Abdu is currently a lawyer (which by the way is a great profession for an apologist).  The guy can flat out debate and reason.  Mike is a buisnessman.  We spent alot of time dreaming about creative ways to fund ministry startups. 

Planting The Oaks has been a great thing for our church, but the experience has also caused me to think a little bigger about how we will resource future church plants.  To be a church of 200 and plant a daughter church required us to leverage virtually every ministry that we have.  As a result we're experiencing alot of transition right now.  I dream of the day we will find ourselves planting not only one church, but several at the same time.  To do that we'll need some creative resource strategies.

I actually used a napkin to draw some thoughts out for Mike and Abdu that have been floating around in my head the last few weeks.  Who knows.  Maybe in ten years that napkin will be hanging on the wall in the entrance to a church planting resource center for Metro Detroit!  I only need $200,000.00 to make the napkin work.

It could turn out to be an expensive napkin:)

On a side note, I must be hitting that age where I'm thinking more about health.  I chose the baby carrots with my sandwich over the potato chips.