One of the largest attended and most watched televised events is happening this weekend — the NFL Super Bowl! It’s game time and everyone is excited. It’s about a competition to find out who is the best of the best each year. Personally, I wish we were watching the Houston Texans against the Packers or Steeler’s but there’s always next year!!!

So here’s my question ‘What can the church learn from the superbowl?’ Besides the emphasis of excellence, atmosphere, energy and so on… the NFL has built up an incredible following and fan base around this one huge weekend — it’s goal and purpose to determine the best team of the season and put on an incredible show for all the fans.

So let me state the obvious – we ‘the Church’ are not here to compete with one another and certainly not here to put on a great show. We are the body of Christ and are called to work together to accomplish one goal to share the good news of Jesus Christ, reach people for him and equip them to reach others who do not yet know what He did for all of us. This was God’s original vision for us ‘The Church’.

Pro football players understand they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Let’s employ every method and means to give people a glimpse of the vision of the Church that Jesus talked about when He was with us on this earth — an incredible team of people who love God, love each other and love life.

Today marks a first. I registered online at Apple.com for the genius bar repair appointment. Seriously. The funny thing is I use to be one of “those people” who protested this process. I still kind of wish I could just walk on in and say “help please”, drop off my broken device and go run some other errands until I received a text or email that everything was all better.

So what processes do you wish you could ditch or are you at the point of adding new ones? If the end game is providing a better service then… fine, I’ll think about conforming.

Had a great couple of days in Corpus Christi, Texas hanging out with the Bay Area Fellowship Multisite Campus team and wanted to post some of the photos. We toured five out of their eight campuses and all were uniquely setup while offering a consistent BAF experience. Thanks again to John Atkinson, Brandon Cunningham and Joey Davila for being excellent hosts. These guys took a day and a half out of their schedules to give us an excellent multisite experience! Amazing. Check it out via Flickr below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gfcinnovation/

Great meeting today prepping for 2010 Christmas at Grace Fellowship Church. Stan Durham our Pastor of Creative Innovation shared his initial script for Christmas with Myra and me. I am blown away by the creativity and how his mind works. It is rare that I am caught off guard by people and I have to say this time I truly was. I have always known that Stan was a creative person, I have seen his part in creating many services, skits, dramas, songs and messages. I have often referred to him as being “out there” x 10. He really is. For some reason this was different. He locked himself away for several days in a row to create a Christmas piece and wanted to walk-through it with Myra and me today so we could get a feel for art direction, parts, roles, etc. Lots of fun. Even at 2:00pm in the afternoon right when the lunch lull hits.

I am blown away how we are all truly made different, with unique talents, minds, ways of doing things and communication style. Dig it. Looking forward to see this in full detail. Good work Stan. Glad you stay true to who you were made to be.

What do you see when other people let you into their world? Do you really listen? Are you judging or are you patient or open enough to hear their story?

It is crank week at Grace Fellowship Church as we get ready to launch the all new Live streaming of the services! Check it out September 19 at 9:30 & 11:00am. We tested behind the scenes this weekend and the quality looks good so far. The second DSL line is scheduled to be installed this week in order to help with load balance and maximizing bandwidth. We plan on using a simple custom css/php template to run it with chat, live prayer, social media integration and more. The best thing is letting friends, family and new viewers see what Grace Fellowship is all about. It’s a great way to check out the church and see if it is worth visiting but also a great tool for getting the message out across the states and globally.  Stay tuned!

http://live.gfcfamily.com

Also, our temporary page and recent announcement seems to be drawing attention from many sides. Love seeing the different perspectives in the area.

It has now been a month since I have relocated to Paradise, Texas. For the first time in four weeks I have been able to spend more than three days in a row with my beautiful wife and two amazing kiddos! I thought it would be tough but tolerable to be here without them waiting for school to end and for the house to sell. It’s been tougher than I could have imagined. The good news is we are moving our essentials up this weekend!

Imagine 81 acres in the country with a stocked fishing pond, a metal barn that has been converted into a house and wide open space to roam. There is also a creek that cuts through the rock & hills lined with huge trees! Every bit of the area was created to photograph. Beautiful wild Texas flowers, tall grass perfect for horses, cattle and a spectacular sunset every night! God knows what we desire and in time He speaks.

This was a very tough transition for us relationally – we are starting over 100% in every way. For me things went quiet almost over night. Timing is never what we expect but each step has been one of faith – and believe me mountains have moved. For Myra she is leaving so many great friends and memories. But somehow it seems like God is underlining that He created us to do life together. He has a purpose for us that we do not yet fully see or even understand and that He desires our full attention.

Funny – how just two years ago I sat in my car in a shopping mall parking lot reading over with the faith of a mustard seed we could move mountains. I literally began to pray for mountains to move, for anything to move – for one particular brick on a wall to just move an inch! I trust God, I have faith that He loves us and would do anything for us – He truly does want to give us our heart’s desire – it’s just not the way we ask or expect sometimes. Honestly, I began to pray that He would give us Colby back – that losing him had caused so much pain – left wounds that we could not repair. Just as in 2 Kings – I expected for God to raise him and give him back to us. I truly believe God could do that and I wanted to see it happen. That we did not deserve to lose our son and that Colby did not deserve to go at the age of three – especially to Cancer.

For the next two years – I prayed, pushed, ran out of patience and let myself burn out. I was insistent on my timing for everything; our finances, my marriage, for leaders to lead & love, for negative or blinded people to find Jesus again – to forgive. I had faith that a mountain would move but I was more focused on my wants rather than His will. Even though I was not asking for anything out of the norm – I was unknowingly expecting it to happen now. I was fighting God. Again. I kept it up until I exhausted everything in me.

When we tell God that we are in control we are taking the first steps to totally messing up. I promise. We can move mountains without God – it’s called dynamite – it ugly and destructive. It’s impatience, selfishness and hurtful. Blasting your way through a mountain to get your way is not His plan.

When questioning His plan and thinking about heading out with our own He allowed us to go through some of the toughest yet most clarifying trials in our life. He hammered us with trials and storms and each brought a clear choice. Each one with very clear consequences. It was then I heard clearly “it’s your will or Mine”. In his grace, He allowed us to see that he was in control, that we have no clue what’s best for us. He knows exactly who we are and how He wants to use us.  We had to choose. Especially since we claim to believe that Jesus died for us – and that we are to spread His story to the world, but we could not be in His will without choosing Him every-time – not just when we feel like it. Every time.

Mountains have moved. Our hearts have moved. Our vision, passion and love have moved. Stone by stone I have seen the mountain move. I am grateful to have chosen Him every step of the way.

God thank you for who you are – we truly do get to experience Paradise with you, here on this earth if we simply seek and trust you. Thank you for calling us to a place where relationships are first – with You & with others. Thank you that we are on our way to being totally who you created us to be. Thank you for using us.

Wow, great article posted front page on the Sunday, October 11 Houston Chronicle Newspaper. “Praise for Technology: Tweeting during church services receives blessings from pastors.” Really excited that Pastor Kerry jumped in and is experimenting with new technologies and connecting with the congregation. I am still amazed and how church is viewed and how this sort of thing might create controversy in the public. Check out the comments and the rest of the article here: http://www.chron.com/disp/discuss.mpl/metropolitan/6662287.html

Seems to be a bit of a controversy Tweeting in church. What do you think? Cast YOUR VOTE. Also, fun note: just got off the phone with my other half and she said this is the main article on the front page of the printed edition!! Amazing. Give a quick hello to Pastor Kerry via Twitter and maybe follow Woodlands Church if you want to track with us.

Great article! Your comments and thoughts can be posted via the huge button below.

Ephesians 3:14

Thank you for today. You are our Father and you only want the best for us. Sometimes you let us see it through our choices or possible choices. Our hearts can be filled with so many things. Thank for time enough to slow down to make sure it is you.

Sitting Poolside at The Woodlands Resort and Conference Center. Beautiful place.

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Post any questions for the contest here! Cya. Looking forward to creating your new site/logo/businesscard design!

READ ARTICLE HERE @time http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html