We continue to be amazed at the generosity of our people towards the tragedy in Haiti. Contributions to date are growing close to the $5,000 number.  Thank you for your faithfulness. You truly are giving people.  Continue to pray for the relief efforts taking place in Haiti.

Many have asked whether trips are planned to Haiti from our church, and the answer is yes and no. No, we do not have any current trips planned.  Yes, our hope is to go in the future. We made a decision, since our missions program is still new and being formed, that we could best serve the country with immediate needs by sending cash to World Vision, one of the many reputable organizations already on the ground. They know the immediate needs of the country and can best access where funds are spent.  We are being told that the country is not ready to receive large numbers of volunteers at this time and that our help will be much more needed in the months to come.  We will keep you posted.  

Immanuel, God with us.. Very powerful words. It hit me this morning while doing my quiet time, I was reading the Christmas story in Matthew. And there it was, the words just jumped out at me ” Immanuel, God with us “now I have read those words a hundred times but it hit me this morning, it made me realise how often in my 25 years of ministry  I have felt alone. I am just being honest here, but full time ministry can be a very lonely life at times. As a matter of fact, there were so many times when I felt like just giving up and go to work at Costco ( yep you heard me, Costco )  but in reality, ministry is a calling, and it is a calling that we were never meant to be alone in. Yes I will get tired at times, I will get frustrated at times, and yes, I will feel lonely at times. But God reminded me today, I am not in this alone, and if I was, well I would have been gone a long time ago. Immanuel, God with us! We are not alone!

The other day I heard a phrase that I have heard many many times…’ just what this town needs..another new church’ come to think of it, I am sure I have made that comment myself over the years. When I heard it the other day, it struck me differently for some reason. Maybe this town does need a new church! Now the town that I live in has many many churches, and in some parts there truly is one on every corner. I use to view new church start-ups as disgruntle church folks, you know, I don’t like this or I don’t like that, so I am going to take my toys and go home or in this case I am going to start a new church that does things my way…. Well, maybe that is not so bad. In the church that I work for at, we have many small groups, and we would like to see more small groups, WHY.. because it gives our folks a chance to connect with other people and Jesus. I know that in some small groups, it is theme based, or a certain study that interest them, or a singles group or divorce group. We call that healthy, I call that healthy. I view small groups as more of the original church. So who is to say that only a couple of churches can be good. My wife Julies always used this phrase when it came to our children personalities ‘ everyone is born with a song to sing and a dance to dance’ well that holds true of all of us. Some like there church small, some like them BIG, some like loud music, some like quiet. But all said and done, I don’t care how many churches we have in town, just as long as they are pointing them to Jesus. Loud or quiet, small or big, lets just get our communities turned on to Christ love! Maybe it;s time for a new church in town.

Come and help me out with the youth group. Those are very dangerous words, yet I think most of us in ministry have used them many times. To be blunt.. how arrogant can we be… And yes I was the most arrogant of them all. Let me tell you what I mean. When I first got into youth ministry back in the 80’s I was a one man show, a lone ranger. I knew that God had called me to youth ministry, so I took that call very seriously and wanted to make sure it was done RIGHT! So I was pretty sure that I was the only one who could really do it right. My first couple of years I did not even use volunteers,I guess I did not trust anyone else. After going to a couple of youth ministries training’s I was finally convinced to get some volunteers to HELP ME out. So what that meant was very simple, come HELP me. Those first lucky volunteers got the privilege of sitting in the back of the room and making sure everyone behaved during the program, and if they were really good volunteers I would allow them to hand out cookies… WOW. But I could not figure out why all of my volunteers would leave after a couple of months of shushing kids and handing out cookies. I just thought they did not have what it took to be in the world of Youth Ministry. After all, I did all the hard stuff, welcome, announcements, music, games and speaking, why were they leaving. Finally I had some one who was honest enough with me to speak the truth, ROG I know that God has better things for me to do then hand out cookies. Finally God got my attention, ministry was NOT ABOUT ME. Yep it was not all about me. And guess what, it is Not our Youth Ministry, it is Gods, and he has just simply allowed us to be a part of it. But lets take this a step further, think about our ministries. When I was a one man show, it was OK,but I have to think that the kids got sick of seeing me on stage all the time , every week. Maybe we need to realise that someone out there just might lead music better then we do, or lead games. Don’t we want to give our kids the best,give God the best. We may not always be the best. Sense God finally got it through my thick head, our ministry has grown and has defiantly gotten better. It is simple multiplication, If I can appeal and reach 15 to 20 kids, what if I train 15 adults who can reach and appeal to 15 or 20 kids, well now we are making a impact. At my last ministry we had a car ministry, I hate car stuff, but I had a volunteer leader who loved cars, so every week he had a group of 10 to 15 guys and they would work on each other cars and just hang out and talk about life.

Maybe it is time for us (The Professional ) to take a back seat and spend most of our time training and investing into the lives of the adults that God throws our way. After all it is not ALL ABOUT US right!

Oh YA, you just might have someone who loves handing out cookies…. Let them.