Wow! Last night was a special night. We had Pastor Keith (leader of AMI) and his family join us in our meeting. Pastor Keith blessed us by delivering God’s Word and sharing about what God is doing all over the world. It was a great time of fellowship afterwards as well. God is setting the […]
Two Things to Avoid
Earlier tonight, the pastoral staff and I went out to celebrate a b-day. This was a special b-day because one of our pastors was turning the big “Three-O” (30). Somehow in the midst of our conversations, we decided that we will not talk about two particular topics that always stir up passion and even dissention […]
Out on the Edge
I was reading a book recently and there was a quote in there that captured my attention. Olive Drane said, “I remember being at a workshop on leadership at which a nun drew a diagram of how different human systems connect. Neat circles intersected in different ways until she drew a line flying off the […]
Fusion Youth Conference 2006
How long has it been since I spoke at a youth conference? This was the question that was running through my mind as I was getting ready to preach yesterday night. The worship was energy packed with colored lights, strobe lights and media presentations. The students were jumping up and down and singing their lungs […]
Jewish Youth Camp
I was at the Detroit airport getting ready to go to a youth conference out in the East Coast. As I was sitting at the gate, waiting for my flight to take off, I noticed that there was a large number of young Jewish boys waiting for the same plane. Without knowing all the details, […]
Chilling with the Board & Mentoring Groups
One of the phrases that we use within our leadership is, “The ministry is the people, and the people are the ministry.” It is all too common to be task-oriented when it comes to doing ministry. Since we have to get things done it is easy to take the relationship for granted. But a strong […]
NU Church Plant Update – 8.20.06
This past Sunday’s meeting was a little special because we had a lot of people from Ann Arbor join us for our gathering. We had the Board of Directors (people that I am mentoring) and Christina’s mentoring group come out to see what God is doing in this new church plant. The energy in the […]
Leadership Prayer Summit 2006
We just finished off our leadership prayer summit tonight. By God’s grace, our prayer times this year were deeper and sweeter. On Friday, the first night’s focus was on our devotion to prayer (Col 4:2). We then spent a lot of time just praying on our own and seeking God’s face. Saturday was declared a […]
Back in the Game
I just came back from my personal retreat. Now, I am rested, refreshed and renewed. It was awesome reading through the whole NT again. There were a lot of insights as the Holy Spirit was speaking through God’s Word (you will probably hear about them in the near future). When I was younger in my […]
Personal Retreat
I am going up north for several days on a personal retreat today. In the last 7 years, I have tried to get away to seek the Lord before all the madness starts at the end of August. Last year, I was not able to get away and I took a hit for it. This […]
BBQ Update 4
Today was our final round of BBQs for the leaders… four BBQs within 10 days! We have made good use of our grill this summer; and after grilling for so many people, a person gets better and faster. But cleaning the grill afterwards is the hard part… thanks to those who helped clean the grill. […]
Future Technology
Do you remember the movie, Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise? I remember watching the scene where Cruise used a glove and a big glass screen to move various computer applications. I was thinking to myself, “We are going to have that kind of technology some day.” Now, four years later, we have the beginning stages […]
BBQ Update 3
This was the third group of leaders that we had over to our house. It was hard adjusting as the host, since I just got back from Chicago and had to help cook right away. I realized that traveling back and forth to Chicago takes a toll on the body and mind. For some reason, […]
NU Church Plant Update – 8.14.06
We are 6 weeks away from officially launching the church plant. The text that we studied this past Sunday was Acts 17:16-18:28. There were three things that we highlighted in this passage: 1) The PREPARATION of people’s hearts – It is sobering to think that God is at work long before we actually arrive at […]