It’s the end of the month and I just wanted to share with all of you what a great January we had here at Southside. I almost never share statistics on the blog because they don’t tell the whole story, but I had to share these numbers with you.

First of all, we had 82 people decide to join our church this month. I don’t know that we’ve ever had more people join our church in one month than this month, and we are so excited to get to know all of our new family members.

Secondly, we had 27 people give their lives to Christ this month, and have seen 21 of them already follow Him in baptism. We’ve definitely been celebrating life change this month!

Finally, we had over 2,300 people in worship this past Sunday! And more than that, all of our environments were packed and the spirit in these environments was unbelievable!

Anyway, we’re really excited around here about what happened this month, and I just wanted to remind all of you to keep investing in the lives of the people you know, and keep inviting them to our Sunday morning worship services.

I love the study the Bible! Seriously, I do! I’m currently taking a break from my preparation for Wednesday night, but I can’t think of anything to write about because I’m so obsessed with the passage I’m studying.

So, instead of sharing some insight or principle, I thought I’d just share a picture of my study buddies.

Below, you’ll find the three basic tools I use to help me study. They are my computer (yes, it’s a Mac!), a legal pad, and a mechanical pencil. (Some of you are wandering where my Bible is, and I am happy to tell you that it is on my computer!)

I have other tools that I use from time to time, but without these three specific ones, I wouldn’t know what to do during my study time.

And with that said, I really need to get back to studying!

This past Wednesday, I talked about the importance of unity in a church.  

Every church has its struggles with maintaining a spirit of unity because every church is filled with imperfect, sinful people.

However, Paul calls us to passionately guard and protect the unity of the church (Ephesians 4:1-3).  This is Jesus’ prayer for the church as well (John 17:20-22).  

So, how do we do it?

We must have an others first mentality.  For unity to happen, we have to humbly put others ahead of ourselves. This is a non-negotiable.  We can’t make church all about us.   And of course, this also means…

We must waive our own personal rights.  If unity is going to take place in our church and others, then the people who make up the church have to set aside their own personal wants, needs, and desires, for the sake of the greater good, namely, the Gospel.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be guilty of getting in the way of what God wants to do by demanding that the church does what I want it to do.  Finally…

We must make allowances for other’s shortcomings.  There all kinds of people in our churches, and we have to not only tolerate them, but we have to accept them, shortcomings and all. Unless that happens, unity won’t either.  

Unity is so crucial to a church’s health and to allow or contribute to disunity in your church is to be at odds with what God is trying to do in your community.    

I just wanted to invite all of you regular readers to check out Fusion’s new website.

If you don’t know what Fusion is, it is a weekly, (each Sunday at 10:30 a.m.), fun-filled, interactive, shared experience designed for families.

Anyway, if you have kids, we’ve created this site to be a safe place for your children to play games, watch videos, and be reminded of what we’re talking about all month. If you don’t have kids, but know someone who does, this is a great site to introduce them to our church family.

So, check it out here!

·         Another awesome day at Southside!

·         Music was powerful…loved the opening song.

·         If you were in the 2^nd service then you saw God do some really cool things…our counseling room was packed with people who decided to become Christ-followers.

·         Pastor took a few minutes and talked about some highlights from 2008…

o   Southside was able to baptized 187 people

o   Over 360 people joined our church last year

o   Our people were super faithful in giving of their offerings and for missions

o   Countless life change in 2008

·         Pastor had a great sermon for “Vision Sunday.”  He shared what were the values of our church:

o   Communicating Truth

§  Churches don’t have problems because they don’t know the bible; they have problems because they don’t apply the bible.

o   Challenging the Status Quo

o   Creating Community

§  We want to do what is most effective, not what is most popular.

§  Awesome video about connecting people in Life Groups.

o   Compelling Environments

§  We will not sacrifice the future of the next generation on the altar of someone’s personal preference.

o   Choosing Love

§  People matter to God and they should matter to us…and at Southside they do.

o   Celebrating Life Change

§  Another great video about two people who gave their life to Christ while at Southside.

I read a quote from Bill Cosby this week, and it was so profound I just had to share it with all of you. I don’t know the context of this particular quote, but at the same time, I know that if fits my current context as a leader in the kingdom of God.

Anyway, here’s the quote: “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try and please everyone.”

Isn’t that good? Isn’t that so true?

Our mission as a church is not to please everyone. We couldn’t do it if we tried. It would be doomed from the start.

On the contrary, our mission is clear. Our mission here as Southside is to help people learn to love God, love people, and love the world, and we believe that when someone makes it their goal to pursue that mission, it will lead to a phenomenal change in their life and in the lives of others.

Just a thought.