reset

Sometimes God brings things into our lives just to remind us of what’s most important. Today, for me, it was a conversation. I’m so thankful for people who are not afraid to speak truth into my life. Let’s face it…we all have blind spots. And I think sometimes people are afraid to be completely straightforward about stuff that needs addressed because:

• they don’t like conflict
• they don’t want to hurt your feelings
• it’s just “easier” to avoid it

And then there are those who have come to realize that unless stuff gets addressed and dealt with, things don’t just get better on their own.

I love it when people are so committed to the misson (leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ) that they do the hard thing and have hard conversations. Because MAN, I WANT TO WIN! I want people to come to know Jesus.

Today, someone hit the reset button for me. And I need that from time to time. Today, resetting for me meant refocusing on the mission…refocusing on people…remembering why, exactly, it is that we do what we do as a church (as NewPointe staff, as followers of Christ). And what we do is all about people. Loving them. Including them. Sharing Christ with them. Listening to them. Helping them. Discipling them. Growing them. Serving them.

IT IS ALL ABOUT PEOPLE! It’s not that I’ve forgotten that. I just lose focus sometimes.

Reset. I needed that.

50 pound challenge (week 7)

Craig and I both continue to lose weight. Craig’s in the lead (he must be starvin’ himself).

Here’s the latest update

Craig: –23 lbs.

Me: –21 lbs.

Between the two of us, we’ve managed to drop 44 big ones so far!

why are we doing a series called ‘making room?’

Well…I randomly snapped this photo in the atrium with my cell phone about 10 minutes after second service let out Sunday…

Evidently, we need to make room.

sunday’s scuds (february 22, 2009)

Dwight started a two-part series Sunday called MAKING ROOM. It’s unbelievable to think that a little over two years in to the new building, we’re already having to talk about making room because we’re out of space on Sunday mornings. Crazy.

Sunday Dwight began to talk about why we need to make more room and how we’re going to do it. Here are some of the scuds:

• When Jesus walked the earth, he was contagious. People wanted to be around him. Shouldn’t the church be the same way? Shouldn’t NewPointe be the same way?
• When the house is full we ignore those on the outside.
• To reach the sick, the healthy must make room.
• Obstacles are non-issues when it gets personal.
• When it’s personal no obstacle is too great. When it’s personal, our attitude becomes, “I don’t care what it costs me, I don’t care how inconvenient it is, I have to get my friend to Jesus!
• One day each of us will stand before Christ and give an account. And I believe that God will pull back the curtain and say, “This is what I really wanted to do in your life…this is how I wanted to use your life.” And I don’t want to stand there in that moment and say, “I could have done more.”
• Because of Jesus Christ, I am now called, not to lecture people about Christ, but to love them with the love of Christ.
• This is not about being bigger. It’s about reaching people for Jesus Christ.

Dwight closed his message by sharing a clip from Schindler’s List. If you missed it or would like to see it again, here it is:

 

D-lite dropped a couple of scuds at the very end. He mentioned some big changes that we’re initiating (including a new parking plan, satellite campuses, and the launch of two additional Sunday services at NewPointe sometime this Fall). More on that next week.

Exciting times!

pimpin’ dwight’s ride

Wanted to share what’s probably my favorite “Shop Talk” segment from the last series at NewPointe, XCELR8. In case you missed it (or you’re not a NewPointer), each week during the series a couple “characters”—named Mark and Louie, showed up to do their “Shop Talk” show live before the NewPointe studio audience.

Each week their show tied in to the message. This particular week, the message was about accelerating to a new level of fun in our lives. So Mark and Louie decided to have some fun pimping Dwight’s ride while he was out of town (for real…and Dwight didn’t know what was happening). Check it out…

Each week was a lot of fun. Mark and Louie (Firman Erb and Jared Royer) did a great job. The concept and the scripts were original to NewPointe (written by Carol Miller and me).

I don’t know about you, but I’m kind sad to see Mark and Louie go.

So what was your favorite Shop Talk sketch?

top five things to look forward to this sunday at newpointe

5. A tremendous worship set that includes Let God Arise and It’s All Because of Jesus.

4. KidStuf @ 10:10! It’ll be hilarious and fun as usual.

3. An appearance in the big room by a fairly well-known KidStuf character (any guesses?)

2. The beginning of a very important two-part series called “Making Room.”

1. Baptisms! Four in each service. I LOVE baptism Sundays. Can’t wait for you to hear some awesome stories of life-change.

See you Sunday!

marriage referee

Here’s a video we produced for last Saturday’s sports-themed Married Life Live.

(Stolen off of Danny’s blog).

Major props to the NPCC video team for this one. Very fun!

50 pound challenge update (week 6)

Craig regained the lead with a monster 5 pound-loss week. Dang!

Here are the standings:

Craig: –20 lbs.

Me: –19 lbs.

Six weeks in, I’m pretty pleased (for both of us). 31 lbs to go!

we adore thee

This is my friend Carmen D’Arcy. She’s an amazing songwriter and musician.

Jenny and I have known Carmen and her family for about six years (we traveled with them to Guatemala to adopt kids together).

In the meantime, between raising kids, being a wife, leading worship and the choir at this church, Carmen released an amazing worship project, A Place Called Grace.

Wanna hear something cool? Carmen’s latest single, We Adore Thee, just cracked the top ten on the Radio and Records charts.

It’s a great song. You can see a live video of Carmen singing this song on CCLI-tv.

If the verse lyrics sound vaguely familiar, perhaps it reminds you of an 18th century hymn.  Here's how Carmen describes the song's inspiration:

"I'm a huge collector of old hymn books.  One day last year, I was paging through an old hymnal given to me by one of my choir members.  I came across Joseph Addison's "The Spacious Firmament".   Somehow, I'd never heard it before, but as I read the lyrics out loud I couldn't help thinking -- wow, this hymn writer really 'got it' when it came to capturing the beauty and grandeur of God.  A melody idea started playing across the back of my mind.  And then, later that day, as I took a walk around our neighborhood and was totally taken in by the glory of God's creation all around me,  I was inspired to write a new chorus and bridge.  Every time I sing it now, I'm reminded of how the God of time and space, before whom we have no choice but to stand in utter, trembling awe -- invites us, at the very same time, into an intimate, adoring relationship with him.  That the two can, and even must co-exist, is amazing to me."

I encourage you to pick up a copy of Carmen’s CD (available at your favorite Christian music store) or download it on iTunes.

By the way, I’ve already asked Carmen if she’d be willing to come lead worship at NewPointe sometime this spring. We’ve started looking at dates. Stay tuned! :)

a few pics from married life live

Oh…my…goodness! I’m pretty sure we went way over the maximum fun allowed by law at Married Life Live on Saturday night. After a not-so-encouraging run-through (tons of technical issues to go along with a very ambitious program anyway), we were able to get our act together and offer, what I think, was one of the best MLLs so far.

Major props go out to Dave Beachy, Shannon Bailey, Jean Vacha, Dawn Lee, Randy Brinkman, and all the awesome crews that came together and pulled off one fantastic evening.

Here are a few memorable moments…

The kick-off (Celeste Honigford and me)…

The SportsCenter guys (Double D and K-West)…

Scenes From a Hat (the fabulous NewPointe impov team)…

Let’s play the Feud!…

Dennielle bringin’ it…

D-lite delivers the goods…

sunday’s scuds (february 15, 2009)

Sunday was the conclusion of the XCELR8 series. Strong wrap-up by Dwight. He talked about accelerating to a new level of FREEDOM in our lives. Here are the scuds:

• No one in this room is fully experiencing the kind of freedom that Christ died for you and I to have.
• It’s possible for Christians to be in bondage. You can be a follower of Christ and still have strongholds in your life.
• We don’t want to admit that we have addictions.
• Two ways to know if you’re in bondage: 1. you live with fear in your life, 2. you sin habitually.
• Processes and programs won’t set you free…true freedom is found only in Jesus Christ.
• Many people don’t live in freedom because they’re always offering reasons and excuses.
• There’s nothing I can do to make God love me more and there’s nothing I can do to make God love me less.
• There’s way too much faking and pretending in the church.
• Counseling and therapy will  not remove guilt and shame. Only Jesus Christ can remove guilt and shame.
• If you think money = security then you’re in bondage.
• The most free person in the world is the person who can forgive.
• You can’t change on your own.
• You’ll always have someone or something controlling your life. The good news is that you get to choose that who that someone or something is.
• In the words of the great theologian, Bob Dylan, “You’re gonna serve somebody.”
• Christ will never lead you down a path that is harmful or destructive.

pimp my shoebox

Today is Naomi’s 5th grade Valentine’s party as school. Remember those? You know, you’d take in a decorated shoebox and all your classmates would drop Valentine’s cards and candy into it.

Things haven’t changed much. It’s the same drill nowadays. So…last night, after homework, Naomi asked for help decorating a shoebox. Only, get this, she didn’t want a “typical” red and pink heart-covered box. No…her idea? She wanted to somehow make a FROG out of a shoebox.

So we start brainstorming…how exactly DO you make a frog out of a shoebox? We got creative and then enlisted the help of the rest of the family….before we knew it we found our whole family pimpin’ Nomie’s shoebox.

Here’s what we came up with: a shoebox frog whose mouth actually opens for the cards and candy. Nomie is thrilled. It’s not necessarily a “Valentine’s” shoebox…but it’s what she wanted. Check it out…

old school

I came across this pic of our old worship center the other day. If you attended SFMC back in the day, this will bring back some memories.

Those were fun (and challenging times). I can remember looking toward getting into the “new building” with great anticipation. There was this sense of: Man, wait till we get into the new building, everything will be great! The truth is, things ARE great. We’re thrilled with the ministry tool we have. We just did not anticipate being out of room just a couple years into the new building. (At the time the above photo was taken, we were more than a year away from the new building and running four services each weekend.)

Last Sunday’s attendance was 2, 860. The same Sunday one year ago attendance was 2,188. That’s an increase of 672 (or 31%) in one year. Crazy.

So…changes are on the horizon. We’ve got to do something to MAKE ROOM (that’s a not-so-subliminal message). They’ll be good changes—changes that we believe will help us as continue to try and reach people with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

I can’t wait to see what the next chapter in the story God is telling at NewPointe will be!

now that’s funny…

50 pound challenge update (week 5)

Uh-oh. The momentum has shifted. Check out the latest results:

Craig: –15 lbs.

Yours Truly: –16 lbs.

No further comments necessary.

sunday’s scuds (february 8, 2009)

Sunday was part four of the series XCELR8. And it dealt with accelerating in the area of our finances. Here are some of the scuds Dwight fired:

• The tithe is not for God’s benefit. It’s for your benefit.
• If you can’t trust God with your finances, you won’t be able to trust him with your kids…or your health…or your life…
• Tithing does not compensate for poor money management. There are many more principles involved.
• If you don’t have a job, there’s work out there, you just gotta go find it!
• Your problem is not that you need more money.
• Money tries to promise us stuff that only God can deliver.
• If you’re willing to honor God’s principles on finances, peace and joy will come into your life.
• If you put stuff on credit, you’re not being a good steward.
• We tend to spend money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.
• First, we must learn to be content. Second, we must learn math.
• We’re more like God when we’re generous than at any other time.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” –Hebrews 13:5

beauty rest

Snapped this pic in Volunteer Central with my camera phone two Sundays ago during Dwight’s message. There are monitors and audio in Volunteer Central so the vocalists, musicians, and other volunteers can follow the service backstage. I’m thinking that either April is really focused and meditative…or…she’s just flat-out snoozin’. What’s your call?

Now, in April’s defense, she’s a busy wife and mom who had to be at run-throughs at 7 a.m. that morning (this, after getting herself and her kids ready for church). So from 7 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. on Sundays, it’s non-stop for many of our volunteers.

Also, I’m sure she was able to catch Dwight’s message, in its entirety, during the other service…I’m assuming. :)

Wonder how long before my phone rings and it’s April going, “Thanks a lot, John!”

the music my kids listen to

I took my girls (and four of their friends) to Winter Jam in Columbus last Saturday. Francesca Batistelli, Brandon Heath, BarlowGirl, PureNRG, Stephanie Smith, NewSong, and TobyMac…all for only $10. It was amazing.

As we were enjoying the concert, I thought about this: for the most part my kids and I enjoy the same kind of music.  We all like TobyMac. We all like Family Force 5. We all like Krystal Meyers, Jordin Sparks, Carrie Underwood…(I’ll take a pass on the Jonas Brothers, tough—thankyouverymuch).

I find that really interesting.

I don’t remember that being true of me and my parents. We definitely did NOT liste to the same music (as a kid I really wasn’t all that into the Gaithers).

So…am I just a cooler-than-usual dad? Maybe (wink), but I don’t think that really explains why we like the same kind of music. I just think times have changed. It’s a new era—which makes things interesting when it comes to programming services at NewPointe (at least I think so). When our creative team is brainstorming song ideas, it’s great to know that there’s a lot of current music out there that’s going to connect with multiple generations.  

Here are a couple of “for-instances”:

We opened the services last Sunday with Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.” Everyone in the room knew that song. My kids loved it because there’ve been several remakes of that tune (PureNRG, Jump 5). The “grown-ups” dug it because they remember the original version of the song. And it’s just a fun song (by the way, you can watch that opening song by clicking here).

Three weeks ago, we opened with Edgar Winter’s “Free Ride.” Same idea.

My kids like Crowder. I like Crowder. We’ve got multiple Crowder songs in our worship set rotation.

Back in November we set up a message of Dwight’s with DecembeRadio’s “Greed.” And it’s so cool to think about how so much of today’s music is so multi-generational.

When we select music, we’re looking to do one of several things: 1. connect with as many people as possible. 2. relate truth 3. have some fun, loosing people up in order to help them have open hearts and minds about what’s going to be shared. 4. Cause people to think or stir up an emotion within them.

The music we select for Sunday mornings at NewPointe is never random. If you pay close attention…you can see the dots connect. We always want to take people on a journey and ultimately set up the message or put an exclamation point at the end of the message. 

This Sunday, if you’re paying attention, you’ll see what I’m talking about. 

By the way, you can see more pics from Winter Jam, check out my Facebook page.

a few married life live secrets

I can’t reveal too much here but for those of you who read this blog, here are some things to look forward to at the next MLL (February 14).

• A very funny NewPointe original video: Marriage Referee.
• Back by popular demand: Scenes From a Hat (Whose Line style).
• Don’t Forget the Lyrics.
• A very special speaker (someone who’s never spoken at MLL before).
• Great prizes, per usual.
• A great value—where else can you go and get a great meal for two, world-class music, huge laughs, and a real boost for your marriage for the low price of $30?

You can get your tickets by clicking here or in the atrium on Sundays.

half-court shot

I visited my friend Bill Ferris (a NewPointe attendee) at his car dealership last week. As I looked around the showroom, I noticed a sweet, brand new Harley-Davidson Nightster. Then I remembered that Bill actually WON the Nightster by sinking a half-court shot at halftime of the Dover-New Philadelphia game a few weeks ago. Bill showed me his amazing shot on YouTube…so I thought I’d go ahead and share it here. Here ya go…

I asked Bill What he plans to do with the bike (he doesn’t ride). I was hoping he’d just give it to me out of the goodness of his heart :) plus, I turn forty in two weeks…what a great b-day gift that would be!

Anyway, it’s currently for sale on eBay. I walked around to the back of the bike…and wouldn’t ya know…the expiration date on the temp tags read “Feb. 17, 2009”—MY FORTIETH BIRTHDAY! I took it as a sign that I’m supposed to have that bike.

Well…A guy can dream, can’t he?

Way to go, Bill. What a shot!

50 pound challenge update (week 4)

Through four weeks of the competition…

Craig: –18 lbs.

Yours truly: –15 lbs.

We’re both still losin’, but our pace has slowed down. The good news for those of you who voted for me: I did 60 minutes on the elliptical machine at lunch today!

This may be the week I catch Craig!

sunday’s scuds (february 1, 2009)

Sunday was part three of the XCELR8 series at NewPointe. Dwight talked about accelerating to a new level in our family lives—specifically our marriages. Here are the scuds:

• This is how we  tend to approach our marriages: we protect our rights and limit our responsibilities.
• The only way a marriage relationship (and Christianity) works is to give up our rights and assume our responsibilities.
• Most Christians approach their relationship with God as a contract rather than a covenant.
• That’s why there are so many unhappy Christians.
• If you approach your relationship with God that way then you better chec to see if you’re really saved.
• God does not do contracts.
• When we enter into a marriage covenant we are called to give top priority to our spouses.
• EVERYTHING comes after your relationship with your spouse—even your kids.
• If you want your kids to be emotionally healthy…love your spouse.
• If you love your kids more than you love your spouse, your kids will end up dysfunctional.
• If your spouse is not first in your life then God is not really first in your life.
• Whatever you have, whatever you are…it’s for your spouse’s benefit.
• God designed Man so that he would never fulfill his potential without a woman in his life (and vice versa).
• You can’t change your marriage….but you can change you.

Dwight rapped up by giving some advice to those couples who have been approaching marriage more as a contract than a covenant:

• Repent before God
• Ask your spouse for forgiveness