Things I saw / heard this morning

1.       Another great attendance for July…does anyone go on vacation?

2.       Music was awesome…it was really cool to see Gerald leading with Mark beside him…can you say all-star team?

3.       Gerald told me afterwards “you are blessed to be at this church…your people are amazing.”

4.       Choir and A. Driggers rocked the house out with her song…If I knew how to dance I would have been…powerful…not the dancing but the song.

5.       Met 3 young couples this morning that were first time visitors…every Sunday is someone’s first Sunday.

6.       Saw a family being baptized this morning (mom and two kids)…it you knew their story you would have broke down when they were “dunked.”

7.       Have a great Preschool meeting this afternoon…we have some of the best and most committed volunteers.

8.       What’s Happening Video was very creative…taken from the show “the office.”

9.       They used my office for the video (I was on vacation)…heads will roll tomorrow.

10.   The staff is working really hard to bring you an amazing weekend for Leadership Conference…all I can say is that it is going to be a blast.

If you are a preschool volunteer or interested in joining our awesome preschool team, you definitely want to show up for Awalipalooza. 

I thought I would tell you a little about this event, and then as I was visiting Jennifer Tucker’s blog, I came across this video she put together which says everything you need to know. 

I hope you’ll joing us for Awalipalooza!

Several months ago, I gave you an update on how well our church was doing this year.  Almost four months later, I thought I’d give you another update. 

• 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 know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged, and I feel like I need to apologize.  July has been crazy for me. 

• 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!

A few things I saw and heard this morning…

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!

The last couple of Sundays we’ve been getting the word out about several of our Family Ministry ministries (that sounds weird, doesn’t it?) 

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.