• 219 people have decided to make Southside their church home (with almost 80% of them coming from an unchurched background!)
• 93 individuals have surrendered their lives to Christ
• 96 new followers of Jesus have been baptized

On top of that, we’ just had our best July ever in terms of attendance.  We’ve been pushing 2,000 people every Sunday, and that just doesn’t usually happen in the summer. 

Anyway, God continues to be good to our church and lives continue to be changed. 

But we’re not satisfied.  Not even a little.  And while I hope that you’ll rejoice over these numbers with me, I hope more than ever that you’ll join us in loving God, loving people, and loving the world on the journey to life change.

• I’ve been helping our new children’s pastor get moved in and have been showing him the ropes.
• I spent a week in the middle of nowhere for children’s camp (it was awesome though!)
• I’ve been handling the preaching duties for Sunday mornings.
• I’ve had sick kids, out of town guests, and haven’t been feeling well myself.

Anyway, I just wanted to apologize and let you guys know that I’m going do better.  Sorry!

1.       Tim Lee did an amazing job this morning.

2.       We had over 50 people raise their hand for salvation!

3.       26 people committed to membership this morning.

4.       I think Tim Lee could beat me up within 15 seconds.

5.       Can’t say enough about how good our music is…Mark is doing an amazing job.

6.       My world is confused…pastor does not wear a tie, but Mark does?

7.       Over 100 youth are going to camp this week…sound fun and scary at the same time.

8.       If you were in the 10:30 service, you missed the “what’s happening” video…check out our website to view it.

9.       Our church softball team won the district championship over the weekend…yea baby!

10.   Huge crowd in the second service…within a year we might be out of room…yea baby yea!

Anyway, this past Sunday, we highlighted our Middle School Ministry.  Jim Gray leads this amazing ministry, and if you have a middle schooler and aren’t bringing them on Wednesday nights to Ignition, then you should be ashamed of yourself.  Jim and his aweseome volunteer team go all out every week for this unique age group, and I promise you that your student will not leave Ignition disappointed. 

In case you missed the super cool video from Sunday, I’ve embedded it below.  And if you’re not following Jim’s blog, you really ought to check it out sometime.

1.       We sang “God of this City” this morning.  What a moment in the service.  Absolutely love the words to that song; “Greater things are yet to come &still to be done in this city…”

2.       Mark & Amber sang “Rescue.”  If you know their story, that is an amazing song for them.

3.       Matt spoke or preached (depending on how old school you are) on Matthew 9.  Great passage. 

4.       Loved the illustration of Sunday school flannel graph…haven’t we all been there?

5.       Essence of sermon, “Is your Christianity private/safe or public/dangerous?

6.       Doughnuts were great today.

7.       I think all the 0-2 year olds got the memo this morning…cry as loud as possible in the nursery.

8.       Our new Children’s Pastor Drew got baptized into Fusion this morning…and so it begins.

9.       We have a great guest speaker line up this fall…and of course it starts with me speaking Wednesday night.

10.   Saw more people wearing shorts this morning, I truly believe the Holy Spirit is moving in me to change the dress code policy for staff…however, Pastor Dennis would look funny in shorts with a jacket & tie.