Things I saw / heard this morning at Southside:

1.       The music special was “off the charts” amazing.  It was one of those “Southside” moments.  If you missed it…you missed it.

2.       Talked with many Single Adults this morning that stated the Friday Night Live was awesome.

3.       The doughnuts made a comeback this morning…extra glazed…I had a few J

4.       We introduced our new Children’s pastor this morning…can’t begin to tell you how fortunate we are to have Drew.

5.       Our pastor said “crud & jerk” today in his sermon…that’s how we roll!

6.       Sermon statement – “During the most dangerous time in his life, Daniel continued what he had already has been doing…being faithful and consistent.”

7.       Love how pastor challenged senior adults to give more time to God when they retire.  Made me think of a senior couple that came to me 9 months ago and said “we want to pour our lives in young couples.”  They now have a small group of eight couples and have become amazing mentors.

8.       Saw two couples walk into church with shorts on…I was jealous.

9.       Huge crowd for a June service, especially the 10:30 hour.

10.   Met a new couple in my small group tonight that said “this church is bigger than my home town.”

I finally finished up my series on “Sticky Thoughts” and this past Wednesday, I actually shared a thought that came to me as I was reading the Scriptures a couple of years ago.

The thought that came rushing into my head was this one:  “The way to the top is through the towel”

Here are some other thoughts I shared on Wednesday:

“Sometimes I struggle with serving others.  It’s not that I don’t want to help anyone else.  Just the opposite is true.  I really want to be a servant, but everything within me seems to fight against this desire.” 

“I find it incredibly relieving to know that the people who were ‘best friends’ with Jesus, struggled with serving too.”

“In Matthew 20, Jesus redefines greatness for his disciples.  He says, ‘I’m changing the rules.  Greatness is not in power or prestige or position.  Greatness is in service.’” 

“If we want to be great in God’s kingdom, we must learn to put other’s needs before our own.” 

“Jesus unapologetically and with no ambiguity whatsoever is calling every one of his followers to acts of kindness and servanthood like foot washing.”

“Jesus comes into this competitive, look-out-for-number-one, dog-eat-dog, kind of world and He lives a life like nobody had ever seen.  And I can only speak for myself, but I want to be like him.” 

Yesterday, we started a four week summer push to recruit volunteers for our various family ministry environments. 

In the upcoming weeks, we’ll highlight our children’s, middle school, and high school ministries, but yesterday we highlighted our preschool ministry (aka “Awali Land”)

We have an amazing team of volunteers in our Awali Land ministry, and these volunteers our led by our equally amazing Awali Land director, Jennifer Tucker.  Jennifer loves preschool children like no one I know, and you can see it in everything that she does, as well as on her blog, which you can check out here 

Anyway, if you’re not involved in a ministry at Southside, and you love preschool children, we would love for you to join our awesome team of Awali Land volunteers. 

And by the way, here’s the video we shared with everyone yesterday.  Check it out.

A few things I saw / heard this morning at Southside:

1.       New people everywhere.

2.       The music was awesome.  How much better can it be?

3.       Pastor did not wear a tie this week…my world is back in order.

4.       Pastor went to NYC this past week, I wonder if he saw the “Naked Cowboy?”  I’ll ask him.

5.       Our High School ministry is headed over sees for a Mission trip…praying for Josh and his team.

6.       Great preschool video at the end of the service…hope many will catch the vision.

7.       The doughnuts did not taste well this morning…something is up with Krispy Kreme and I’m getting to the bottom of it.

8.       Our new Children’s pastor starts this upcoming Sunday!  Excited to have Drew on the team.

9.       With the help of some faithful peeps, we turned the Fusion building into a dining hall under 20 minutes…so many helped out and great job guys.

10.   Glen Collins is simply the greatest cook.

loving Southside…

This past Wednesday I continued my series, “Sticky Thoughts”, and I just thought I would briefly sum up what I shared. 

If you haven’t been coming on Wednesday nights or been following along on the blog, my goal in this series of messages is simply to share some principles, some truths, some statements that have “stuck” with me over the years, and have had a profound effect on my life and ministry.

Anyway, the thought that I shared on this most recent Wednesday comes from the book, “The Purpose Driven Church” and it is this:  “It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.”

So, here are a few of the thoughts I shared in that message:

“I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this as you’ve read the New Testament, but there are lots of different kinds of churches.”

“It’s very obvious that God is using multiple churches in Middle Georgia, who in some ways, are nothing alike, to impact the people in this area who do not know Christ…and I love that!”

“Occasionally I’ll get an e-mail or phone call from someone I know or from some hyper-religious person, who wants to go off on our church.  They typically quote a lot of Scripture out of context and are extremely judgmental and mean.  And while part of me wants to get in there and defend our church and argue our point of view, I really don’t have time to get into Junior High name calling contests with people who supposedly are already going to heaven.”

“I don’t know how you feel about other churches in this community, but I love them!  I’m thankful for them.  I hope they prosper.  I hope they have success.  I hope they grow and flourish.” 

“There has to be a church in this community, and really, there needs to be multiple churches, that will really go after lost people.”

“I want as many people in this community as possible to go to Heaven, and we need to be the kind of church that makes it a priority to see men and women commit their lives to follow Jesus.”