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.

It all starts this November 2009!

Join us for this LIVE Online Event // Pastor Kerry Shook and Woodlands Church services online! If you are in the area join us at one of our three locations in The Woodlands, Atascocita or Tomball.

Or if you are elsewhere join us for our BETA test of Church Online and let us know what you think. http://live.woodlandschurch.tv/ Saturday 6:00pm or Sunday 9:30, 11:00am or Wednesday at 9:00am.

See you on campus or online!

Really enjoying Interactive worship and the online experience today. I went to church this morning at http://live.lifechurch.tv/ and heard from Christine Caine from Hillsong. She spoke about the tough reality of slavery today; 27 million people are caught up in slavery. She specifically spoke of sex trade of women and gave several examples of her encounter with girls and women who were kidnapped or sold into this cruel business.

This is a very tough topic and I instantly stopped to pray about what God wants us to do; wants me to do to help. I then began to be very thankful for the opportunity to hear Christine’s story. To hear the other girls story to learn through an online experience. Then I started to think about the thousands of others who have had a similar experience. This is possible because we are learning to become more interactive; engaging; we are learning to be more like Christ. He is giving favor to those who are exploring new areas to deliver the word and His hope.

I am writing all this thinking about the investment that Woodlands Church is making to be more Interactive Next weekend a whole new level of interaction will take place. You will love the leaders behind this new experience, join Kerry Shook, Justin Keller and many more passionate and driven Christ followers and experience something fresh and unique. Find out more at @WoodlandsChurch or #SundayPM. This is just the start. I feel like I want to pour everything I have into creating an online interactive experience, a place where people get excited about and will inspire action and change. I am praying for a fresh perspective and approach to doing what Christ called me to do; us to do.

Would love to hear what you have experienced recently that excited you that you want to learn more about. What new areas are you exploring in the next few months? How are you making this world a better place? I am asking myself the very same questions.

What do you feel compelled to right now? Anything? Let us know here.

It’s great to see churches broadcast their service over the Internet. I wanted to see the camera angles, shots, etc. It’s always interesting to see how much effort goes into different church web casts. LifeChurch.tv goes all out with an Internet Campus pastor and the option to choose worship services and more. Newspring.cc recently launched their new Internet campus a month or so ago.

So when are we launching? That’s the question. Submitting the details for our 2009 vision and goals next week. Fun stuff.

Still bringing it. LifeChurch.tv Internet Campus.

Heard Chapel Live was amazing last weekend. I am looking forward to checking it out this Sunday night. We will probably go to the 5:30pm service. We have not attended services in the Chapel yet – should be fun. I think we will have to move our small group meeting time around, we usually meet Sunday nights as well. We will see. College age to thirty-somethings will probably love the service.

I’ll post some photos of the service after this weekend.

Link here: http://www.fotw.org/currentseries/default.asp

Highway 242, The Woodlands, Texas – Waters Receding, on my way to Saturday Night services just after Hurricane Ike moved north.

Hurricane Ike Hit us Friday Night with about 70 to 100 MPH winds; trees fell, power went out and life seemed to stop for about 24/48 hours. Woodlands Church however pushed forward and held services as promised Saturday evening at 6:00pm. About 400 brave people decided join us for services (without power) in the Chapel in The Woods. Pretty cool service actually. Afterward we held sign-ups for those who needed help with trees, food, water, ice, etc and those who were able to get out early and start helping. Since then we have cleared over 100 homes of trees and debris, distributed over 50,000 meals, hundreds of thousands of bottled water, not sure about the hot meals, I think about 15,000 to 20,000 so far and we are just getting started.

Check out more information on what we are doing to help the community get back to par.
http://www.fotw.org/main/connect/churchimpact/

Keep up with the updates via http://www.Twitter.com/WoodlandsChurch or http://www.woodlandschurch.tv! Very very very exciting. Pray that this new location reaches thousands for Christ this year!