Aim Small Miss Small

In the movie The Patriot, Mel Gibson plays the role of William Wallace, a war hero from Scotland. There is one part of the movie where he and two of his sons are about to take on an entire group of soldiers, and the last bit of advice he gives to his young son was, "Aim small, Miss small." For them it meant living or dying. As an avid hunter, I know what it means to make a good shot on your target. It can mean the difference between success and a lot of hard work for nothing. And for the record, I have done both...made incredible shots and horrible ones. It is a lot more fun and a lot less work when you make a good one!

At The Crossing, we have decided to narrow our focus to reaching young families. Not that we will never reach the youth, or the middle-aged, or the elderly. All of these certainly have there place in the family of God, but for us to get this church of the ground and rolling we have to maximize our first "shot." If we miss it, we may not have the option of another shot. The median age in Little Elm, TX is 28. That is our bullseye, others are definitely on the target, they are just the outside rings and not the center focus.

Many times, people tend to have a "buckshot" mentality. Just pull the trigger and let it fly! We don't know for sure what we are going to hit! "It may be sporadic but we might hit something." Not a good idea! We end up just doing a lot of hard work for very little return. We should like it to more of a "rifle" mentality. You have one shot, one bullet, make it count. Lives and destiny's are at stake! By narrowing our focus, we increase our effectiveness. In life, you don't always have the option for a re-do. The damage has been done when the trigger is pulled.

Think about it this way, if we all individually hit our bullseye...we conquer the entire target. Just a quick thought! Have a good one!

Event Advertisment in a Liquor Store

I did it! I went into a liquor store again after 7 years of sobriety! But this time I wasn't looking for the most toxic beverage to get wasted on. I was simply doing a little advertisment for our next outreach! It was quite comical as Zach laughed at me from the truck! I have to be honest, we were both laughing and taken by the moment because a year ago that action would have been out of the question for both of us. But I have a good feelin that Jesus would have done the same thing. Religious folks gave him a pretty hard time for His outreach tactics, but He knew who he was after and He didn't let the ridiculous accusations from the pharisutical crowd sway Him. We want to attract lost people, and what better way to attract them and connect to them than by showing them that we are not afraid to go to them and give them something worth having when we get there. That is how I was reached, and I know that many more would come to Jesus if we had the guts to meet them where they are instead of waiting for them to come to us in all of our pride and pomp. There is a balance, Jesus had people come to Him, but He also pursued them wholeheartedly. He spent time in the Temple, and He spent a lot of time in the market too! I am not saying open yourself up to temptation or expose yourself to danger or We are chasing lost sheep...no matter what the cost. Anyways, chew on that for a little while.

Already Workin' Out

Seth shows off his brute strength on the bun and thigh machine! We are so proud!

Imagine

We have been preparing for our first series at The Crossing. We are taking a team approach to our sermons, with Zach, Seth, and me being the main communicators, while the creative team will assist us with ideas for illustrations, introductions, closers, and so on. As we have been in preperation for our first series, Imagine, God has been dishin' out some cool stuff. As Zach and I started discussing some of this and hashing out ideas yesterday, I really started to get excited about it! Here is a little taste:
To imagine is to have an intangible vision. Everything that exists, including creation itself, started as an intangible vision. It was imagined before it was created. From things as simple as a wooden baseball bat, to things as complex as the i-phone, everything that we can physically touch never materialized until it was initiated by thought first.
People have been imagining things and making them a reality from the beginning of time until now. As we go on, it seems that our imaginations get more and more complex. This generation is seeing things come to pass that the previous generation could have only imagined. If the truth be known, this generation enjoys the benefits of the imaginations that the previous generation had and their willingness to act on and strive for those imaginations to materialize into a reality.
In order to imagine what God has for us, we must visualize the final image that God desires to create through us and be willing to take the course of action that will allow us to attain that measure of greatness. If we can see it, we can be it…if we believe it.
I promise you it gets even better. The things that Pastor Zach will have to say in these initial messages will be incredible, but you will have to come to The Crossing Preview Services to get the rest! See you then!

Do what you gotta do

I have been pretty tuned in to the 08 Olympics in Beijing. One of the only problems I have had is picking up the channel on my t.v. We should be able to get cable or satellite in a month or two, but until then....well the pic says it all!

Installing Work Ethic

Some would say this is cruelty...but I say it is simply encouraging work ethic at a young age!:)

Waiting

The Lord spoke something to me about waiting on Him. On most occasions, I have interpreted the Scripture in Isaiah 40:31 to be on a devotional level and not an ongoing basis. I guess I always think about it that way because I relate waiting on the Lord directly to my prayer life and drawing strength from Him there. Here lately God has been teaching me not to compartmentalize my communication with Him, but to be continually sensitive to His voice.

Jesus said in John 5:19, "I'm telling you this straight. The Son can't independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. The Father loves the Son and includes him in everything he is doing." (The Message) If we want to be included in what the Father is doing, we are going to have to learn to wait, watch, and listen for Him at ALL times. By waiting on Him in this way, we allow Him to dominate our entire existence. It's pretty simple...just wait.

Our New Neighbors

We just moved into our new house, and I intentionally made it a goal to connect with my neighbors the first time that I saw them. By doing that, I have already met and connected with most of my surrounding neighbors: Emily, Rodrick, Cindy, Emanuel, and Calista.
The last two names that I just mentioned are actually non-denominational, spirit filled ministers from Zimbabwe. They have two kids, 9 years and 18 months old. It was actually pretty comical the way that we met, it was about 9:00 at night and I had just run outside for a minute to pull some stuff off of the u-haul trailer. I didn't have a shirt on, due to the scorching Texas heat, and here they come pulling up into their driveway. I was going to just say hi and introduce myself from a distance, but they seemed to want to get up close and personal. So, there I was, trying to cover my shameful nakedness and thinking about how awkward the situation was about to get whenever they asked me what I did for a living and I had to tell them pastoring, since most pastors don't just run around without a shirt on. It got a little more embarrassing when they said they were pastors too! Eventually I found a reason to run inside real quick and throw on a shirt while Lindsey continued conversation with them.
Despite the awkwardness of the moment, I couldn't help but just stand there in awe of the God moment we were experiencing. Emanuel and Calista had uprooted and traveled a two day flight from Zimbabwe 5 years ago, leaving everything they had ever known, and here we are in the same boat just not quite that far from home. It was one of those moments that you know something bigger than you is happening at that moment. Who knows what will come out of this connection! I am glad we met them, even at the expense of my embarrassment. God is sooo big!
After talking to them for awhile, Emanuel invited me to come and preach to their congregation some time...which mainly consists of people native to Zimbabwe! That could be just as comical and equally as powerful as meeting Emanuel and Calista for the first time! Please pray for me, that when the opportunity arises, that this very white country boy can speak something life changing into our brothers and sisters from Zimbabwe!

Engaging in Your Call

When you are not actively involved in whatever it is that the Lord has gifted you to do, it thrusts you into a state of vulnerability. It causes you to have to fight harder to serve God on a day to day basis because you can no longer rely on the routine or comfort of your strength. It makes you vulnerable because you lack engagement, and lacking engagement gives us an excuse to let down our guard and get lazy. Anyways, just a quick thought.

More Miraculous Connections

We have had so many "God moments" since we started this church plant! I just got off the phone with a friend of mine, Shanan, that moved to the Little Elm area to be a part of The Crossing, and he was telling me about the connections he has had since they moved here a couple of weeks ago. We haven't even started the main thrust of our marketing yet, and you can already feel the buzz in the air! This place is truly ready for the kind of church we are bringing to the area.

Ben Arment talked about the fact that church planters should check the spiritual climate of an area when considering to plant there. You should ask yourself the question, "has this area been cultivated and prepared for what we are going to bring?" The further along this journey we get, the more I see that Little Elm, TX is cultivated and ready for a major move of God! I am just pumped to be a part of something so great!

We're In!!

We are officially moved into our new house! God totally blessed us with an incredible home! We have a little more stuff to get form the apartment, but for the most part we have everything moved. It feels so good to be back in a house again! After living in a home previously, it is difficult to downsize to an apartment. We are lovin' it! We will try to get some pics on here later.

When Rock Bottom Becomes a Solid Foundation

You know, I really don't care to much for the opinions, stance, or product of J.K. Rowling, but she said something in her speech to a group of Harvard Graduates that really stuck out to me. Her entire speech encompassed the idea of turning failure into success. She talked about how she went through a terrible divorce right out of college that left her as another victim of a failed marriage. After illustrating, she stated the phrase that demanded my attention, she said,"I allowed rock bottom to become a solid foundation to build on."

What a cool thought! If only we would allow the stripping of everything away to become a fresh foundation and not an object of demise. Sure, rock bottom can be cold and lonely, but there are also no other diversions in place to compromise us. You can't go anywhere else but up. The problem is that when we hit rock bottom we tend to let the loss of what we once had overwhelm us. If we find ourselves here, our best bet is to hang onto Philippians 3:13, and go ahead and let go of what is behind us and the things we can't do anything about. The only thing you can do at rock bottom is work with what you've got, and what we have is Christ...the Solid Rock. We can build on Him, He will never falter.

Exposure: An Incredible Teacher

I am beginning to realize just how significant "exposure" is to my success. I can look back on my life and truly see the impact that exposure to different elements has had on my life and on the people around me.

I can remember my dad used to always expose me to some of the highest levels of competition when it came to baseball. So much so, that it became commonplace for me to find myself competing with guys 2 and 3 years older than me. If he would have neglected to expose me to greater levels from a young age, I would have never known what it took to compete at that level nor would I have known that I could compete at that level. Later in life it truly showed by the awards and accomplishments that I was able to achieve. The exposure led me to greater places.

That same element has been vital in my success in life, ministry, marriage, and so on. The people, events, ideas, creativity, etc., that we have been exposed to seems to push us further than we ever thought possible. People with a lack of exposure are also people with a lack of vision and drive. For instance, if you have never been exposed to the need, you can't have a passion to meet that need. If you have never been exposed to someone who is a step ahead of you, you just might find yourself putting "it" into cruise control. If you have never been exposed to creativity, you may struggle to get out of the box yourself. The list could go on forever! You will react to things you are exposed to.

Not only do you react to exposure, but it is also easy to morph to it. Exposure to negativity causes you to be negative. Exposure to passion encourages passion in your own life. Exposure to excellence teaches you to strive for perfection, and so on and so forth. Anyways, exposure....pretty cool thought!

"Martha Mode"

OK, so I am a lot like Martha sometimes. In Luke 10:38-42 Martha was pretty consumed with everything that had to be done, while Mary just sat at the feet of Jesus and listened. Mary had it figured out.

I find myself doing the same thing as Martha....busy, busy, busy. I am a "doer," and I find it hard to just set still. I want to "hit the floor running" everyday. I want to feel productive, and the way I do that is by accomplishing the minuscule tasks of life. I hate pending projects! I am probably the guy that always shakes the table by bouncing my leg up and down underneath, because I can't be still even when I am sitting down. It's how I stay skinny despite the fact that I eat everything in sight all day... I just keep on movin'.

What we fail to realize out of this story is the fact that Mary was being more productive than Martha...and all she was doing was just sitting there...and listening. Production isn't just in physical movement; successful, effective, and precise production always originates with thought first and fulfills itself by acting on that thought or meditation. I guarantee you this, if Mary was more productive in life than Martha it was because she learned to listen and ponder on things first. All of us "high strung" folks got to watch out for this one...the "Martha Mode."