Prayers driven by BIG faith

Thank you, again, for your faithful prayer and friendship!  I feel like I'm growing in faith and strength by the day.  I came through a really withering attack here and I know for sure that it was a Holy Spirit breakthrough that saved me from just caving in.  I'm not only excited, but optimistic about the future for me, my family and my church.

Some areas I'm praying this week:

• Another pastor in the same spot - I have a friend who pastors another church here in town and he's away on a similar sabbatical as I just was.  I know he's feeling really tired and discouraged.  I'm asking the Holy Spirt to give him the same, soul-level, breakthrough that He gave me.
• Financial breakthrough - I've prayed for this before, but this time I'm not praying from a posture of fear or desperation, I'm praying from a place of faith.  If God owns all the stuff in this world - and He does - it's not much for Him to dramatically increase the income of our church.  I'm asking Him to double our regular income in the next 30 days.  Like Jonathan said to his armor bearer in 1 Samuel 14:6 “Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord. He can win a battle whether he has many warriors or only a few!”
• Continuation of the growth on our team - The last month has been a big stress and a very growing time for our leadership team.  I'm asking God to continue to bind our team together and grow our team.
• God's power to be at work in and through our church - Our church is good.  We have good music, good preaching, good kids ministries . . . just about everything is good.  I'm asking God's Spirit to move in big ways in and through our church.  I'm asking God to do what we can't do . . . make our church great.
• My father-in-law - Barry, my father-in-law lost his wife some years back and the holidays are especially tough for him.  I know he's really struggling right now and my heart is breaking for him.  He's one of the most wonderful, godly men I know.  I'm asking God to lift him up above all the junk he's feeling weighed down with now.  

Thanks so much for your prayers.  I'd love to pray with you this week.  Let me know what's going on.

Christmas Cookie & Coffee Party

Yes, this is the actual coffee I plan
to brew.  Mmmm.

Hey, we're hosting a Christmas Party at our place tomorrow night!  I hope you can drop by and hang out a little.  I'd love to celebrate with you.  You can see all the info here.

What a difference a week (and prayer) makes

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your prayers lately.  In the last month, I have come through the most discouraging and darkest time I've ever had, personally, in my life.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that Romans 8:28 is true and even this incredibly painful time is working for good in my life, my family's life and the life of our church.  Simply put, I no longer have expectations concerning our church.  Yes, I still have vision.  I still have hopes.  But I no longer expect God to do certain things on a certain timetable.  And I certainly no longer have illusions that I can get anything done.  I'm part of His plan and excited to see Him do what He wants to do.  I'm just in love with Jesus and, for the first time in years, feel no pressure to deliver or perform.  I believe that your prayers have a huge hand in helping me get to this place today.  Thank you.

Some areas I'm praying about this week:

• Families in New Oxford - Five high school students were killed in a car wreck in New Oxford, PA yesterday.  You can see the news story here.  I'm praying for those families this morning and would ask you to join me.
• God's power to come into our church - As I alluded to above, short of God's power working in our church, we're just having meetings.  I'm seeking God and asking - even begging - for His power to show up and change people's lives in and through Freedom Valley Church.
• To love my family even more - My new found focus has me loving my family even more than ever.  I'm asking God to help me love them in really practical and special ways right now.

Thanks again.  I love you guys so much.  Can't wait to see you at at church this weekend!

A great musician and a great man

Jake Lewis is about to record his first album.  I'm hoping to help him.  Maybe you can too.  Just click here.

Loving me some Redskins football

This Thursday my skins play for their 4th straight state title.  Yeah, I know I'm a little stupid to be so excited about high school football.  I also don't care.  I just love it!  Enjoy some highlights from last week's semi-final win over Jenks.

Sorry, this video won't embed.  You can watch it here.

thank you!

Just wanted to say thank you for praying.  It's no coincidence that just hours after my post yesterday (which I almost did not post) that I felt a serious breakthrough inside of me.  I have energy and vision flowing inside of me again!  Thank you.  Thank you .  Thank you!  Love you guys.

Where I'm at this week . . .

Sorry I skipped last week.  I didn't have any clear avenues of prayer to ask you to join me on.  I'm not sure I do right now either, but I probably need your prayers more now than I ever have.  A dear friend of mine says I'm under spiritual attack.  I have to admit that hearing other people saying that over the years has really turned me off to that idea.  In the past, I've been of the opinion that most "spiritual attacks" are not really spiritual at all and that the person being "attacked" is just making excuses.  Maybe that's true in some cases.  I really don't know.

What I do know is that I am in a state now that I have never been in before.  I am confused, disappointed, discouraged, angry and scared.  I am presently trying to adjust to a much different reality than I though I would be facing at this point in my life and how that adjustment is going changes by the hour.  But, the reality is that I am the pastor of a small church that is, evidently, going to grow slowly.  The reality is that church is unable to afford any income to me or any other members of our leadership team.  The reality is that my family and I have set ourselves back years, financially, based on the vision and promises we believe God showed us.  I'm not loving the reality, but neither can I stick my head in the sand and pretend it's not there.

There are many positives.  Our church is healthy.  My wife and kids are a delight and we are all healthy.  I live in a city I absolutely love.  I have family nearby.  Our leadership team is one of the best I've ever seen.  My wife has a great job that she loves.  The list goes on . . .

Some prayers you could pray with me this week:

• Reality - I just want to come to terms with my current reality and feel good about it.
• Job Search - I am officially looking a job again.  If you know of any opportunities, please let me know.
  
• Renewed faith - I'm just struggling to have faith in God's promises right now.  I want to believe.  That's about as much as I can muster now.

Thank you for your prayers and friendship.  I love you all.