Random Thoughts On A Friday Morning…

Dec 30, 2005

It’s Friday—YEAH! I ran five and a half miles yesterday trying to prepare for this marathon thing in June…whew…this is going to be tough.

For pastors/leaders who check out this blog—Mark Batterson hit the ball out of the park with this post concerning “Should the church operate like a business,” check it out here.

One thing I forgot to mention about Tim yesterday—my friend who was in Iraq. He experienced some amazing “church growth” in the middle of a warzone. He began his chapel services with 12 people coming every week…and when he left a year later there were an average of 96 people coming every week. That is AWESOME! He said one of the coolest things he went through was trying to figure out how to arrange the chairs in the tent they were in so that they could get more people inside the place.

I’m excited about this Sunday at NewSpring...we are trying something different—something never done before…and we will be concluding the series “Wonderbread.” On January 8th we are launching a new series entitled, “Lost.”

If you want to laugh about churches not being open for services on Christmas Day there was a dude who actually visited Willow Creek on the 25th and gained some incredible insight…check out his post here—it’s awesome!

Joe, Jenn, and Melea Sangl came into town yesterday and are crashing at the Noble estate. Jenn’s brother, Dan, came along with them as well. Most of you have NO idea who these people are! Joe and Jenn were among the 15 people who helped to plant NewSpring—Jenn was the first church secretary and Joe was an elder. However, they moved several years ago because of Joe’s job—BUT they still manage to make it down about once a year. They are REALLY involved in a church in Indiana and Joe is a FREAK about Dave Ramsey and financial peace.

Anyway—I was able to walk them through the new building yesterday and they were amazed at all that God has done! I know how they feel—I am incredibly overwhelmed every time I go out there.

By the way—we went to Brick City Grill last night for supper—their bread is AWESOME! This afternoon will be Little Pigs for lunch!!!

Oh yeah, lunch yesterday was awesome—I ate at a new restaurant called Barbaritos! (I am so sure I butchered the spelling!) It was awesome—the food and the company…and I was able to share an aspect of our vision for how NewSpring is going to begin to do some incredible community outreach in 2006…it is amazing the vision that God is giving us for what He wants us to do right here in Anderson! I can’t wait to begin to share this with our church!

That’s about it for the day—hope you guys have a safe weekend. I usually try to stay off the roads on New Years Eve because of the inevitable idiot who will load up on booze and then try to drive.

See you guys on Sunday…or on Monday! :-)