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Oct. 29

STOKED!

Proverbs 22:9 says, “Generous hands are blessed hands because they give bread to the poor!” (MSG)

Last night, my family had the privilege of serving alongside many of you during another packing session. In all, we packed over 140,000 meals! It was a highlight in my life! The video about Haiti moved me…I want to take everyone one of you to Haiti with me! As I was watching my two children put rice into bags and pack boxes, I kept asking God to raise up a generation of Kingdom servants at Southland who would be completely sold out to the mission of Jesus! Everywhere I looked I saw kids going for it! Parents, you’re doing a great job! And students, way to be! I saw an entire middle school basketball team serving together—powerful! You are not the church of tomorrow, you are the church of today! “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” (I Timothy 4:12) I looked around the room several times and saw people of every age and walk of life carrying boxes, putting labels on bags, and my heart was filled with such joy because everyone was sweating and smiling at the same time!  It was fun and fulfilling all in one! I took several mental snapshots that I will revisit from time to time…one of a middle aged woman dancing to “The Eye of the Tiger!” That was awesome on several fronts! When Van Halen’s “Jump” came on, every dad in the room started reliving the glory days of high school! And the hairnets…yeah, we’re going to get some mileage out of some of the pictures we took!

This is only the beginning of what will be an unprecedented 20 year church experience! You won’t want to miss what’s next at Southland! We’re just getting started—we’re 9 weeks old as a new church! We’re dreaming big, we’re serving big, we’re giving big, because we serve a big God! Thanks for letting me be a part of this church family! I love you guys! I’m praying for you today as you make Jesus famous! See you this weekend!!!

 

Oct. 27

Feed My Starving Children

IT is happening…

Last night at our Danville Campus, 458 Jesus followers packed 531 boxes with 114,696 meals! That is enough food to feed 314 children for an entire year! Danville, you’ve set the bar really high! Way to go! Unbelievable!

Lexington Campus…are you ready???

Danville Packing

Oct. 26

Make things fun

As we discussed this weekend, there is nothing funny about global hunger, but it is going to be fun to put an end to it! Because of 1,000,000 meals you’re getting ready to pack…4,000 children will get to eat for an entire year…let that sink in…the next time I see you I’ll be wearing a hair net and so will you…fun!

Oct. 23

Dancin’

You probably never knew I could dance like this… …I don’t care what anyone says…break dancing is still the coolest dance form ever!

Oct. 23

Vows

I’m performing the wedding of a good friend tonight and after presiding over a hundred weddings or so over the years, I decided to re-write the vows using scripture and real life marital issues cut straight from the pages of real marriage. If you are yet to be married, make sure you’re marrying someone who can actually say these words and mean them. If you are married, it’s always a healthy practice to re-commit to one another by re-stating what you’re really committed to.

“I (groom), choose you (bride) to be my wife. I will do my best to love you, the way Jesus loves his bride, the church.  I will encourage you daily. I will provide for you, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I will pray for you. I will listen to you. I will respect you as a woman. I will honor you as a child of the Most High God. I will be gentle towards you.  I will challenge you to grow in your faith. I will hold you accountable to a high standard of purity. I will forgive you. I will apologize to you. I will lead you with humility. Our family’s spiritual development will be my highest priority. I will die to my wants and desires. I will surround myself with Godly friends who make Godly decisions. I will have accountability in my life. I will hide God’s Word in my heart daily. I will not settle for anything other than God’s best for us. I will not be arrogant. I will not raise my voice at you. I will not cheat on you. I will love you for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; until we are separated by death. God is my witness. I give you my promise, and I give you my heart.”

“I (bride), choose you (groom), to be my husband. I will do my best to love you, the way Jesus sacrificially loves me. I will trust you. I will ask God to give you wisdom as you lead us. I will follow you with humility. I will encourage you daily. I will respect you as a man. I will honor you as a child of the Most High God. I will serve you. And I will serve with you. I will be your friend. I will challenge you to grow in your faith. I will hold you accountable to a high standard of purity. I will provide for you emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I will forgive you. I will apologize to you.  Our home will be my priority. I will be a Proverbs 31 woman. I will surround myself with Godly friends who make Godly decisions. I will have accountability in my life. I will hide God’s Word in my heart daily. I will not criticize you. I will not compare you to other men. I will not cheat on you. I will love you for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; until we are separated by death. God is my witness. I give you my promise, and I give you my heart.”

Oct. 23

Change

If leaves can change and fill the world with beauty so can people…

Oct. 22

John 6

In preparation for the upcoming “Hungry” series I want to challenge/encourage you to read all of John 6 in two translations. You can click on both translations below:

NIV

The Message

And commit to memory John 6:63 which says, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.”

Oct. 22

The Hole in Our Gospel

 

In his book, The Hole in Our Gospel, Richard Stearns writes,

“There is so much at stake. The world we live in is under siege—three billion are desperately poor, one billion hungry, millions are trafficked in human slavery, ten million children die needlessly each year, wars and conflict are wreaking havoc, pandemic diseases are spreading, ethnic hatred is flaming, and terrorism is growing. Most of our brothers and sisters in Christ in the developing world live in grinding poverty. And in the midst of this stands the church of Jesus Christ in America, with resources, knowledge, and tools unequaled in the history of Christendom. I believe that we stand on the brink of a defining moment. We have a choice to make. When historians look back in one hundred years, what will they write about the nation with 340,000 churches? What will they say of the Church’s response to the greatest challenges of our time—AIDS, poverty, hunger, terrorism, and war? Will they say that these authentic Christians rose up courageously and responded to the tide of human suffering, that they rushed to the front lines to comfort the afflicted and to douse the flames of hatred? Will they write of an unprecedented outpouring of generosity to meet the urgent needs of the world’s poor? Will they speak of the moral leadership and compelling vision of our leaders? Will they write that this, the beginning of the 21st century, was the Church’s finest hour? Or will they look back and see a church too comfortable, insulated from the pain of the rest of the world, empty of compassion, and devoid of deeds? Will they write about the people who stood by and watched while a hundred million people died of AIDS and fifty million children were orphaned, of Christians who lived in luxury and self-indulgence while millions died for lack of food and water? Will schoolchildren read in disgust about a Church that had the wealth to build great sanctuaries but lacked the will to build schools, hospitals, and clinics? In short, will we be remembered as the Church with a gaping hole in our gospel? More is at risk than the lives of the poor and orphaned. The heart and soul of the Church of Jesus Christ, the very integrity of our faith and our relevance in the world, hang in the balance.”

Southland family…I love you because I know you understand what is at stake…I know your heart for the poor is real…I know your love for Jesus is real…so don’t forget to sign up today! I John 2:6 says, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”

Oct. 21

The Dollar Club

For those of you who don’t attend Southland, we have a very fun club that only takes a dollar to join, thus its name—the dollar club.

Your church needs to start one. Every week, we challenge everyone in our church family to give an extra dollar. It’s funny how everyone in the U.S. loves to talk about the value of an American dollar, but I’m not so sure everyone really understands just how much good a single dollar can accomplish. So, challenge everyone to pony up an extra buck each week and then give it all away each week.

Here’s how it goes down at Southland…we take our weekly attendance and based on how many people come to church over the course of the weekend, that’s how many dollars we give away the following week. For example, we had 11,200 people this past weekend, so we gave $11,200 to a widow in need this week. Each week we have the joy of surprising a complete stranger in our community with a large sum of money that has absolutely no strings attached. We’ve paid for people’s surgeries, put roofs on houses, helped people purchase a reliable car, pay off debt, keep the bank from foreclosing on their house…on and on we could go. Don’t let all the naysayers and non-generous people tell you all the reasons why it won’t work! Just do it! Because guess what? It really does work! And guess what else? It’s a blast! In a down economy, there is nothing better than being ridiculously generous.

Oct. 17

Weekend Video

As I said this weekend, the wedding feast of the Lamb will be a celebration unlike any you’ve ever seen!

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