I’ve always wondered why they didn’t start daylight savings time on Friday night. It seems like it would mess up fewer people if everyone changed their clocks earlier in the weekend, but what do I know!

Anyway, don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour this Saturday night!

Sometimes, the things I see other Christians do makes me cringe.

I’m not against “Christian” apparel, but if you have a “Tommy Hellfighter” shirt, please throw it away. It doesn’t attract people to Jesus. If anything, it makes them think Christians are weird.

I’m not trying to attack other Christians, so please don’t misunderstand. I just think we ought to be a little less cheesy as we try to reach men and women who are far from God.

So, I’ve got an idea:

Act like a Christian. Do a simple act of service for someone today. Meet a need. Work hard at your place of employment. Love your wife and be faithful to her.

Don’t worry about putting the perfect Christian bumper sticker on your car or wearing the latest Christian accessory (cross necklace, WWJD bracelet, etc…). God doesn’t care if you have a Christian fish on your car or not (and for some of you, with the way you drive, it would be best if you take it off!)

So, instead, just live right.  And of course, as we always say around here: Love God, love people, and love the world on the journey to life change!

This past Thursday I was able to attend an event called Catalyst One Day. It was a one day conference built specifically around leadership. Andy Stanley, the lead pastor of North Point Community Church, and Craig Groeschel, the lead pastor of Life Church, led the main sessions, and they absolutely knocked it out of the park every single time they spoke.

Anyway, I left with a couple of thoughts I couldn’t get out of my head. And I just thought it would be selfish of me to keep these thoughts to myself, so here are some of the best takeaways I received:

Andy Stanley- Part 1:

• “If you want to create momentum, chances are it will require something new.”
• “Established churches will always be tempted to tweak the old rather than launch the new.”
• “If you are not evaluating the areas where you are experiencing momentum, the clock on your success is ticking down.”

Andy Stanley- Part 2:

• “As culture changes, many of the questions remain the same, but the answers don’t.”
• “If we institutionalize an answer, the day will come when it is no longer an answer.”
• “What have we fallen in love with that’s really not as effective as it used to be?”

Craig Groeschel- Part 1:

• “What got you here, won’t get you there.”
• “We can reach more by doing less”
• “We can’t allow someone to hold back the mission of the church because we’re afraid we might hurt their feelings.”
• “Your church can grow when people leave. In fact, some people need to leave.”

Craig Groeschel- Part 2:

• “I will do today what I can do, to enable me to do tomorrow what I can’t do today.:
• “Create artificial deadlines” (I wish I could explain this more now, but it’s worthy of its own blog post)
• “Delegating responsibilities creates followers. Delegating authority creates leaders.”

A few things I saw / heard this morning:

·         Wild weather…I’m convinced that snow is only good for skiing.

·         We learned a new worship song this morning and it took rhythm…not cool for me…I was born without a lot of talents and having musical rhythm is not one of them…thankfully the choir has it.

·         We baptized a few people in each service…never gets old.

·         Started a new 3 week series called EPIC – the fall, flood & fight

·         A few notes from pastor’s sermon: Genesis 3

o   The voices you listen to influence the choices you make

§  We like to listen to the voice that tells us what we want to hear

§  Eve did not take an apple, it was a chocolate bar

o   The choices you make determine how your story turns out

§  God had given them heaven on earth and they threw it all away for a moment of pleasure

o   As far as we have fallen, we are still within the Father’s reach

§  Interesting, the first recorded death in the Bible was to cover the sin of Adam/Eve…perfect precursor to what Jesus did for us

§  It was a sneak peek of Calvary

o   (for all you pastor’s reading this post, you’re welcome for the free sermon outline)