random kick off weekend stuff

First of all, our fall kick-off usually doesn't really "kick" anything off. It's just the weekend after Labor Day that is usually a strong attendance weekend cause everyone is back in the routine after summer (although it is the official kick-off of the NFL and I was happy to see the Bears were playing at night and since I'm a nice guy that's all I'll say about that - but my Cowboys won so It's all good). This year however, we kicked off our "the call" campaign for growing closer to Christ by heeding his call to follow him. Well...the weekend was cool. I can't tell you all the ways, but here are some thoughts. Prayer saturated this place and the presence of God was palpable. Listen people, the more we pray, the more God does miracle stuff through our faith. Nearly 100 men joined me Thursday morning at 6:00 a.m. for a "sweet hour of prayer". Moving stuff man! the light and tech stuff was cool as well. I know most of you come in on Sunday morning and say, "Wow, the stage looks cool" but like me you just can't imagine the work that goes into something like that. HOURS of time from our staff and volunteers to help set the mood in our worship. the sermon on "grow up" was hard hitting for all of us. We all need to grow up in our faith. Maturity (perfection was the Greek word) is our goal and while we are all at different maturity stages, we are all called to grow up. (Here are some grow up ideas....on a piece of paper write: prayer, bible reading, bible memorization, service, giving, fasting, and personal musical worship time. Next to each, write how many hours, minutes, or days a week you do each. Then set a goal next to it and try to make it happen for a month - for example Prayer - 10 minutes a day - goal: 15 minutes a day). Woudn't it be cool if our whole church goes through a spiritual growth spurt at once? the video produced for your small group studies for "the call" is so high quality it's unbelievable! Again so much work went into this project, from writing, to filming to editing and production. Hope you enjoy. our first small group is Wednesday night and I'm sure my group is going to make fun of my hair, my clothes and certain facial expressions (isn't it great to be loved?) so feel free to do the same, but make sure you hear the teaching. the building was absolutely packed on Sunday morning, but what struck me was how many people were here on last night! It was ubelievable. the spirit lifters had their monthly program, the Yancy concert for pre and grade schoolers and their families was in one auditorium, I was leading step one another. Way down the hall, Fuel was getting ready for their worship, while out on the grounds hundreds of Jr. Highers were having a party/cookout/wiener roast thing. I estimate (and yes I'm a pastor and it's probably inflated) 1,000 people were in the building on a Sunday night. Very cool and blessed to be involved in the work that God is doing here. noble sugai was absolutely perfect on stage for the interview yesterday. In second hour he started giggling and it got me laughing. How much fun was that? Come to find out, his dad and other people were trying to bribe him to ask me "where babies came from?" Luckily he's more mature than many of you:-) ! It was a great day in the Lord...and today's not too bad either.