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It’s definitely going to be a sprint from here all the way to New Year’s Day as we have about 5 Christmas parties to go to, endless church meetings, and critical holiday church services as well. Add to that the mix of relatives visiting, Christmas shopping, and a car that doesn’t work anymore and well…you see my point.

I’m not complaining though (even though it’s tempting) because I know many people have it bad FOR REAL and God has blessed our family over and over. All in all I’m grateful for everything that we have and all that we’ve been giving. I’m just praying for the strength and resolve to get through this holiday season in one piece.

This week marks a milestone for my wife and I.  We’ve been married for 17 years.  Yep.  17 years ago we drove to Iowa (Stef’s home town) and said our vows at Harmony Bible Church – a good sized church smack dab in the middle of a corn field.  At the time I didn’t realize that 17 years could go so fast.  Sometimes when I think back on it, I’m still that goofy 22 year old kid who, although knowing nothing about the world, thought I knew it all.  Ahh, memories.

To celebrate, Stefanie and I are taking a short golf-themed vacation.  I know what some of you are thinking – gag.  You know me, I’m way into golf.  But what you didn’t know is that Stefanie is WAY into golf too.  She might be worse than me!  The cool thing is that it’s something that we both like to do – and we like to do it together.  That’s even better.

We are heading down to Orange Country National to play 54 holes of golf at all three of the courses at the resort.  They have an executive course called the “Tooth Course,” and two nationally renown courses called “Panther Lake” and “Crooked Cat.”  I’m really looking forward to playing golf but more than that I’m excited to hang out with the girl I married in 1992.

I’ll be out of the office on Wednesday through Friday.  I look forward to seeing the LifePoint crew on Sunday.

At LifePoint we believe with all of our being that building God’s kingdom is about building the big C church – helping other churches develop and grow and doing whatever we can to support and encourage local congregations that might need a hand.  Why do we do this?  Simple – because other churches have done this for us.  Specifically, Holy Cross Lutheran Church (Lake Mary) and Real Life Christian Church (Clermont).  The leadership from both of these congregations has poured into us encouragement and allowed us to use their facilities to help us get established and grow.  We are excited to do the same for local churches as well.

This Sunday evening I’m going to be speaking at Orlando North Community Church (www.orlandonorth.com).  Orlando North is a growing group of believers in the area.  Currently they are holding services at Strang Communications but in the fall we are planning to allow them to use our 2,500 sq foot facility known as “The Loft.”  We know that this move will help them save some money, do some great ministry in the area, and grow to a point where they can grab a facility that will enable them to help other churches as well.

Last week, Orlando North’s lead pastor, Rob Duford (http://duford.wordpress.com) spoke at LifePoint and did a tremendous job – he even had props!  He’s a gifted communicator and speaks a conferences and has even written a book.

As always, please pray for the churches (little c’s) in Lake Mary – that we can continue to work together to building God’s Kingdom.

Phil

p.s. by the way – if you would like to come and join me at Orlando North on Sunday evening – they meet at Strang Communications (600 Rinehart Rd. Lake Mary) at 6:00pm.

We got talking about all the things that pastors talk about when they get together – the current state of our congregations, our budgets, programs, and personal lives.  Quickly the conversation turned to the many, many details that ministry professionals face on a day to day basis.  I think this is a trap that all Americans fall into.  WE ARE JUST SO STINKIN’ BUSY!  There’s no way around it, really.  It’s something I think we all have to manage and do our best at.

Joseph was asking how I was doing managing the day to day affairs of the church and I told him that “I was getting through my list of tasks slowly but surely.”  Then he said something that really stuck with me.  He said, “I try to keep a TO DON’T list instead of a TO DO list.”  His point was how critical it is for so many of us to find out what is really important for us to do each day and focus on that, instead of listing a bunch of things that we may or may not have time to really do.  If we don’t need to do it – drop it and focus on the most important stuff that there is to do.

Here’s my TO DON’T list for today:

• Don’t watch more TV than is necessary tonight – spend time with family.
• Don’t answer the phone from 10am-3pm today – I’m need to study and write my sermon for Sunday.
• Don’t get overly engrossed in Facebook today – check it, send a message or two and GET OUT.
• Don’t worry about Sunday – it will take care of itself.

Well, that’s a start…

What a great season we’ve been having at LifePoint so far this fall. I have to give God all the credit because He’s been leading more and more people to LifePoint and more and more people have been making LifePoint their home church. Each week we find ourselves in a situation where we have to buy more chairs! For those of you that are interested in stats, here are some of the numbers.

Average attendance August 2007: 160
Average attendance August 2008: 242

Average attendance September 2007: 168
Average attendance September 2008: 247

Average attendance October 2007: 170
Average attendance October 2008 (so far): 264

I think it’s so exciting to see new people every single Sunday – and many people are making decisions to follow Christ and be baptized. As a matter of fact, we baptized around 17 people in 2007, but this year so far we have baptized 26!

I’m excited to see what will happen for the rest of this year – and then 2009 will be awesome because we are planning some great things and praying about them like crazy.

Pastor Phil

A Screenshot from Biblegateway.com

I came across this when browsing the web site of a friend of mine who is pastoring at Discovery Church in Orlando.  Bible Gateway is a free web site that let’s you search just about any version of the Bible by keywords, themes, etc.  At the moment they have a page up called  “Biographical Bible Reading Plan.”  It is a 121 day plan that put the main persons of the Bible in chronological order and then provides a link to each one.  Basically, you start with Adam (Gen 1:26-2:17) and read through to the Apostle John (Revelation 1).  If you were to start today you would be done about the 2nd week of February.

I love the idea because nothing is cooler (in my opinion) than having a reason and purpose to studying the Bible.  I’ve never been one to jump around the Bible from week to week just hoping to find something to apply.  It is a much better idea to look and study in an ongoing manner, working though a book or section of the Bible.  You gain better context that way.

So, if you’re up for it, here’s the link: http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/readingplans/biographical.php

Yes, my Mac Crashed!