I have the privilege of traveling with Pastor Mark this month to Orlando and California. Well be attending the Exponential Conference on Church planting in FL were Pastor Mark will be speaking on Creative Communication. Then we hop a flight to CA where he will be speaking at Catalyst West Coast on his newest book, Wild Goose Chase. Look forward to making some great connections! I will be sure to post some pics during our travels.

On April 11th from 1-3pm we will be hosting our 8th annual Easter Egg Hunt. We went on our own hunt this week as we searched to purchase 20,000 plastic easter eggs. I have to say that this is a first for me. But it was a memory in the making. Had to laugh when we cleared the shelves and pulled up to the aisle as everyone watched us. 

I have really enjoyed our "Scars" series. It has forced us in a way to look at the areas in our lives that are left suppressed unless we force ourselves to face them. It's risky business! I felt an extra anointing, i can say that, this weekend while sharing the message. I know with all my heart that God wants to make us whole so that we can be complete and enjoy our lives in abundance. Too many of us for too long find ourselves running as fast as we can on a treadmill and still ending up nowhere, and empty at that. The take away from this weeks message was: what are the things that WE need to do, or the risks that WE need to take in order to bring healing and find reconciliation in our scars. We looked at the amazing transformation of Saul/Paul, and the relational encounter between him and Ananias that changed the course of Christian History. Both  of them took great risks to come together and obey God. Both of them had to humble themselves greatly and lay down what THEY thought was the right thing to do. In the end, God was glorified and the return of their obedience still impacts us today. Today, we have 1/3 of the New Testament which as written by Paul. Today, there is no slave, Greek, Jew, black, white, hispanic, ect..We are all one! Thanks Ananias and Paul, we owe you one! Let's learn from their example today and humble ourselves and take great risks to bring healing to our scars. If you have the time, I would encourage you to read over Acts 9 and be challenged by their story. 

I am very excited about preaching this weekend. One of my prayers/goals this year has been to grow in my speaking/preaching ability. I believe there is a great balance between doing your part so that the Holy Spirit can do His part. I want to rely on the Holy Spirit each time as speak and could not imagine doing it without His guidance. I also want to acquire as much knowledge and content as I can about the context of the message. I can feel a shift in my speaking prep and process as God is stretching me and teaching me. I am living more in the passage and reading more resources about the topic. I am also noticing a shift in that I am using much more of an expository route in my speaking than topical in which I am most used to. Another great shift in speaking that I am noticing is that I am using more primary sources than secondary and feel more of a release of energy and relevancy in doing so. What I mean by that is that as I am getting older, even though i am still in my twenties, I am accruing more life experiences and can preach out of first hand revelation, and/or primary sources. This excites me. I am feeling a stirring in my heart more and more to continually be a student of communicating the Gospel. It stretches me to no end..and I understand that those who teach are judged even harder. But so be it!! If God can use a donkey..he can use you and I! 

Had a great weekend at all of our services. God is doing some amazing things as we examine our lives and reveal our scars. A lot of confession and healing is taking place among NCCers. It is amazing how confession brings healing and healing breeds more healing.  Its contagious! Today i am preping for this weekends message as we continue the series. Here is a taste of the message: God calls us to commitment not comfort. What risk do you need to take today to bring healing to your scar?

Had to laugh at ourselves yesterday. Shelly and I drove to the gym after work, as is our normal routine. We felt kinda tired going into it and the funniest thing happened. After changing and getting into our workout regimen, Shelly stood by me as I began my first lat pull down set. In mid pull, i stopped and said I am tired and don't feel like doing this. Shelly energetically agreed and we grabbed our stuff and walked out the door:) It was a record 5 minute workout. It's great to have the freedom to say "NO".!