I had the privilege to speak at Northway Church on Saturday and Sunday. I always enjoy my time there. They roll out the red carpet and treat you with some incredible Northern hospitality (like southern only better). They are reaching people for Jesus in an area where churches struggle. This was my first visit since they moved their Malta location to Clifton Park and all I can say is Wow! Their facility looks great. They are ready for prime time with their video production and I could see TV ministry in their near future. Their second campus at Colonie is continuing to grow and expand as well.

I wish my bro was in town but his staff stepped up huge. I want to thank the NWay staff of Brian, Dave, Chad, Kevin B., Eva (special thanks to Eva for the Starbucks), and Kevin M. for all there help. You guys are incredible hosts! This was my first experience with the whole Thai and Sushi deal but I will definitely remember it!

I also want to thank my friend Greg Davis for making the trip with me. Road trips deepen and develop friendships. It was really cool to hear more of Greg’s faith journey and passion for ministry. He and Mary have been big-time additions to our Fellowship family. Greg also got me hooked up on Twitter so if any of you like to “tweet” let me know! I’m looking for some Twitter friends.

A huge God thing happened when Greg and I ran into some guys from Life Church.TV at Northway. We got to spend some priceless time with two of the leaders of Life Church, Terry Storch and Chris Beall. Terry is the digerati (no I didn’t spell that wrong) pastor at LC. He is all about leveraging technology to reach people for Jesus (Greg Davis is one of his disciples). He also co-authored a book on blogging and was a big catalyst behind the recent One Prayer series. Chris Beall serves as a regional pastor for LC. He oversees several of the LC campus pastors. The dude has Alec Baldwin (younger) looks (no, I don’t have a man crush…ok just a small one) and Solomon type wisdom. You can tell that Craig Groeshel is one of his mentors. Two really cool guys that hung out with us until close to 11:00 Saturday night.

Finally, I just want to thank God for the incredible outpouring of your Spirit on all three services. I have never really been part of so many people responding to God’s calling. I will be praying for them this week and looking forward to God doing great things in their lives.

It was great to be home at Fellowship after an amazing trip to Russia.  I really appreciated Ed’s talk about the church as a whole, waking up!  I thought he “brought it” in a loving and uncompromising way.  I think of the many times I have been sleepwalking through my faith journey… it’s wasted time that I can’t get back.

I was thinking after church yesterday how much going on a  mission’s trip can grow you in your faith.  You get out of your comfort zone and enter into the world of others.  That is the reality of Jesus.  His incarnation was him leaving his place of comfort and entering into our messed up world because of two main reasons.  First, it was his love for us.  It compelled him… it moved him to action… action is, after all what love is about.  Second, it was obedience.  Jesus was following the will of his Father.  There are plenty of times I don’t “feel” like going on a trip like this but then I remember the call of Jesus to GO and I’m off again.  Strangely enough, I never regret going.  In fact, it is quite the opposite.  I wouldn’t trade my experience with our friends in Russia this year for anything in the world.  I learned from my parents at an early age that obedience brings blessing… God’s blessing.

I’m hoping parents got the wake up call yesterday.  There are so many things that pull at our kids today.  Making Sunday worship a priority is the parents responsibility.  It messes me up to see how Dad’s and Mom’s have advocated the decision making process in their homes.  We are the adults.  It is on us.  Wake up call time.

I’ll be filling you in more this week on our Russia trip.  Be praying for our team as the assimilate back into their day to day responsibilities.

This Sunday Ed Young will be our speaker for One Prayer. I can’t wait for you to hear him. I can think of no other pastor who has taught me more about leadership, loyalty, and creativity. Michelle and I have had the privilege of attending the C3 conference at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX for the the last three years. It has been the ministry highlight of our year. This past year we were able to take our staff with us. They loved it.

You won’t want to miss this Sunday. Unless our flight is delayed I will be there, jet lag and all. Ed’s one prayer for the church is to wake up! He is going to bring it! Join us as we continue to be a part of something unparalleled in the history of the church.  Over 1500 churches and 842,000 attenders worldwide are joining  us!  See you there!

I loved Wayne Cordeira’s talk. If he wasn’t a preacher he could make tons of money doing infomercials. I love that he can speak God’s truth and smile at the same time. I grew up on angry preaching and can still default to that style if I am not careful. I admire skill and encouraging communication. I hope to learn from Wayne.

What is up with the silver dude, Lamar? I don’t know if the medicine exists that could help me stand that still! Have you ever seen more beautiful scenery in a “sermon?” His church does a 6-day leadership intensive that has perked my interest…

Where do you get wisdom?

1. Personal experiences
2. Other people’s personal experience (the better way)

You baseball fans have heard of the 5-tool player. Christ followers have 4 tools they need to bring everyday when they come to hear from God.

1. Your Bible
2. Your Pen
3. Reading Program
4. Your Journal

Favorite quotes:

“You have to harvest wisdom along the way”

“If you will understand what God has placed in here (the Bible) for you and for me, then you will begin to understand the source of wisdom.”

“Wisdom isn’t built in a day, but it will be built daily”

“Feed yourself!”

Thanks for praying for us in Russia. By the time you read this, we will have begun our work projects. The group will be tired from all the travel and the enemy will try hard to get us off track. Pray for safety and unity. Pray that lives will be forever changed. Pray that life-long friendships will be forged and refreshed. If you have never gone on a mission’s trip, let me ask you why not in 2009? What is holding you back. Jesus said “go.” Answer the call. Live different. Live dangerous. Thanks to those of you who sacrificed so others could go. Parents, your students are going to do a great job. Friends and family, keep lifting up your loved ones who are here. They will come home different…God loves to bless this kind of sacrifice and faith! I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

This Sunday’s talk has me very excited. We have the privilege to have Pastor Wayne Cordeiro of New Life Christian Church speaking for us. Wayne’s one prayer for the church is, “God, make us wise.” I was awestruck when I listened to Wayne several weeks ago. What an inspired and gifted communicator! You will not want to miss this Sunday…trust me.

New Life Christian Church was founded in beautiful Hawaii 13 years ago with Wayne Cordeiro and his wife. Today, over 14,500 attend the mother church and the nine satellite campuses each weekend. They have planted a total of fifteen plants on Oahu and fourteen on the outer islands in the last13 years. New Hope has planted 102 churches with the majority of them being in the mission field.

You will see by his talk that they really lead the way in video teaching. I would love to see Fellowship begin a second campus in the near future! I guess this means our campus in Hawaii is out of the question…

I loved Craig’s talk yesterday. I love his heart and his passion. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.”

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all - Ephesians 4:3-6. Craig’s one prayer for the church today would be, “Father, make us one!” It is the same prayer that Jesus had. The church struggles with unity as a whole. For some of you its the first time you have even thought about it.We are more unified after Craig’s talk.

The church does have and image problem. Christians are the problem. You and I are the problem when we don’t display a spirit of unity. We are the problem when we criticize others - when we make those outside our walls jump through hoops to be with us. When we drag the name of Jesus through the gutter with our behavior and attitudes. That is the bad news. The good news is that we are in the process of redefining church in the Delaware Valley one heart, one life, at a time. Our future is bright!

What would unify the church?

1. If we had One enemy - Satan (loved the video - I was thinking of who could play the part of the devil if we ever do a similar video). Let’s remember who we are actually fighting!
2. If we had one heart. This is what makes us different!
3. If we had one purpose. Our mission is bigger than all of us. I told our staff this very thing this week. It is not about John it is about bringing people to Jesus. Period.

Favorite quotes:

• “Unity is not the same thing as uniformity”
• “When have we forgotten that we are the church, the church doesn’t exist for us and we are the church and we exist for the world.”

One Prayer Stats:

• Total Churches: 1,451
• Total Attendance: 812,644

Next Speaker: Wayne Cordeiro

New Hope Christian Church