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

This Sunday Fellowship Church will hear from Craig Groeschel with the message, “God, Make Us One”. Craig is founder and lead pastor of LifeChurch.tv (based in Oklahoma City, OK). You can read his thoughts on leadership and ministry at the Swerve Blog (coauthored with Bobby Gruenewald).

Craig has also written a couple of books including Chazown: khaw-ZONE - A Different Way to See Your Life and Confessions of a Pastor. Both are great reads that I highly recommend.

I am honored to have Craig speak to us this week. He has been a mentor in my life even though I don’t know him personally. If I didn’t go to Fellowship, I would want to be under Craig’s ministry. I see and sense God’s hand all over him. I have had the privilege to hear him speak in public twice and have heard many of his sermons on line. He doesn’t mince words and he is ruthless in his pursuit of those who haven’t met Jesus. Let me know what you think this coming Monday. Be praying about this Sunday. Pray that God would use Craig’s words to change us…to make us one!

Wow! Sunday we had the greatest single day offering in the history of Fellowship Church! We had a total of $147,574.05 for our Elevate summer kick-off offering! That is 74% of our summer goal of $200K and 20% of our campaign goal of 750K! God is awesome and I continue to be amazed at the generosity of Fellowship and the support of the vision God has given us. Thank you to those of you who stepped up and sacrificed! We still have two and a half months for the remaining $52,500 of our summer goal to come in. Some of you still need to sacrifice and jump in! Please be praying hard about that amount as we desperately need to address some key areas in our kids wings, and multi-media.

This is going to be the best fall in the history of Fellowship Church. In order for that to be true, this needs to be the best summer in the history of Fellowship Church. I believe we are on our way. Eighteen people went public with their faith in baptism on Sunday. That is huge! I will tell you what I told our staff and elders on Tuesday. Make sure you have the chance to exhale this summer. Strategic breaks are a must in our lives. When you go away for your vacations do your best to unwind and clear your mind. Having said that, don’t vacation from your spiritual journey this summer. Don’t fall back into the RTD of compartmentalization. Don’t take the summer off from serving, connecting, and giving. Remember, company is coming and the sermon starts in the parking lot. We will have lots of guests this summer as people relocate to the area. I believe our church will grow this summer - that is what Elevate is all about.

Speaking of Elevate. I met with someone this week who was not in a position to give financially to Elevate. God was still speaking to her in a big way. She recently fasted for 21 days crying out to God for his will and direction in her life. Based on God’s leading she approached her employer and cut back on some teaching responsibilities so she could have more margin to serve and follow God’s calling on her life. She took a serious financial hit (thousands) but spiritually she has elevated her obedience to God and her life mission. Elevate is a spiritual growth campaign first and foremost. It is about listening to the voice of God and having the courage to obey. This dear lady stepped out of her comfort zone and made what many would say is a dangerous financial decision. She is praying high risk prayers.  She is walking to the edge of the ledge in faith.  I love it! She is living different! God, make us all different. May we follow your lead of sacrifice and serving just as this lady has done. Great things are happening at Fellowship and greater things are coming.

I had the interment today for my friend Gail Oxley. Gail was a Viet Nam veteran so there were soldiers present to give him the military honors he so deserved. I love our troops. They inspire me. After I finished my brief talk and prayed, one of the soldiers played taps. He then marched smartly to the casket and gave the order to “retire the colors“. I got a lump in my throat as they folded the flag and presented it to Gail’s wife Joanne. “On behalf of the President of the United States and a grateful nation” they thanked her for Gail’s service and presented her the flag followed by a salute.

Yesterday, we also “retired the colors” at Gail’s celebration service. Gail was wearing his “Live Different” bracelet and had his “Live Different” t-shirt folded neatly inside his casket. Joanne arranged for everyone at the service to have a bracelet just like the ones we passed out earlier in the year. I am on bracelet number 6 because I have given mine to several new children at Fellowship. I had one young lady who worked with Gail come and ask me for 15 more bracelets for her co-workers who had to miss the service. Cool stuff.

I’m reminded today that I am first and foremost of citizen of heaven. Paul said we are “strangers” to this world. My home is in heaven. I’m just staying here for a while. Gail being there before me makes me more anxious to “go home.” The “colors theme” make me think about the color red. The blood that our beautiful Savior, Jesus, shed for my sin and yours. How priceless his gift was and still is today. Someday, Jesus will say “retire the colors” and I will lay my spiritual armor down. I long to hear God say, “Nice Job John, welcome home Son.” The lump is back in my throat.

Until that day, I want to fight the good fight. I want us all to fight the good fight.  The one thing I will no longer be able to do when I get to heaven is to tell people about Jesus and the difference he makes. That is why I do what I do. That is why I exist. It is why God is calling us to Elevate what we do as we redefine church in the Delaware Valley.

Gail served…do you?

Gail loved to worship…do you?

Gail connected with his life group…do you?

Gail gave…do you?

Gail made church his priority…do you?

Honor the colors…live different.

Life is complicated. Relationships are hard work. It is so simple for me to see the answers in others but my personal radar is flawed. I guess its one more good reason that I have the Holy Spirit in my life. Where would I be today without his promptings and guidance. Proverbs stresses over and over the wisdom that comes from a multitude of advisers. People who will love you enough to speak truth into your lives.

Lately, I have had the opportunity to speak with several people that are going through some really tough seasons relationally. My heart goes out to them. Stuff like this seems to come in waves and lately it has. It takes a lot out of me because their pain resonates with me. Pain stinks. I hate to see people struggle, but I also know that God builds some pretty special things out of the midst of life’s mess. Change comes through pain. People meet Jesus there and they find healing. Not the kind of fairy tale healing (they all lived happily ever after) that we might look for, but the kind of supernatural life-change that only takes place at the Master’s invitation.

So today, I am feeling it for some of my friends that are in some dark valleys. I try to distance myself from their pain so that I can do this job for the long haul. Self preservation. At the same time, I’m reminded that Jesus seemed to walk towards people in pain. He walked right in the midst of it. Somewhere, there is balance…knowing you are not the cause or the solution…and not turning your back. I’m not even sure where this post is going other than to say that I am sad for my friends but excited about what God is going to do in them in these all important seasons of their lives.

Tonight was our first VIP Event at the school and it was amazing. I had the privilege to greet many of them at the door. What a personal thrill for me to get to say thank you. We were able to see you walk on the red carpet and be honored.

Here are a couple of the highlights from the evening:

1. Our staff did a great job of having everything pimped out.
2. Loved the elevate mugs filled with candy.
3. The mix and mingle in the cafeteria was a great chance for those of you who are busy serving on Sunday, to connect with others
4. The band was just crazy sick awesome. Hope they bring it that way tomorrow.
5. It was awesome to recognize our 4 remaining founding elders! That was the longest standing ovation I have ever heard at Fellowship.
6. Our sister church, Elk Creek Church, handling our child care for the evening so that all our volunteers could be honored. Thanks to my good friend and colleague Pastor Mike Silliman
7. The news I shared about the school sent a real God vibe through the room.
8. Is there any body better at crafting a video than Ben Jones? Great job bro.

Thanks to all who came. You are the backbone of Fellowship Church.

I want to introduce you to a great worship artist named Steve Fee. Steve led worship at the this past week in Atlanta at the Orange Conference. I picked up his CD and it is awesome. It has a great mix of songs…some that will make you want to drop to your knees and others will make you want to jump up and down and dance (I can’t dance - but still can jump up and down some).  Steve is currently my second favorite worship leader (Jeff Ream comes in first!) and I want to encourage you to jump on itunes and get his “we shine” album. Listening to worship music while you drive, at home, when you workout, or even at work, is a great way to feed your soul. I’ve heard Steve in person at three conferences now and he has such a great time praising God and leading people in worship. My favorite song he does keeps changing the more I listen. Your kids will love it as well…he gets after it. We enjoy worshiping together in the car as a family…Let me know what you think.

June 8th is going to be one of the most important days in the history of Fellowship Church.  That is 39 days away from today.  Our Elders and our Staff are praying and fasting as we prepare for what God is going to do.  April was the most attended month we have ever had as we averaged 640, but we believe that it is just the beginning of what God wants to do in reaching people in the Delaware valley region.  I will be talking more about this in the next couple of weeks.

I was reading today in the 2nd chapter of Proverbs about wisdom and guidance.  Words like “tune your ears“, “search“, “cry out“, “concentrate“, “seek“, and “ask” are used in the first five verses.  When it comes to decisions and our future, God doesn’t necessarily want them to be simple or easy.  Sometimes it’s complicated…sometimes the future is unclear.  I believe he loves to guide and direct us…he loves to give wisdom.  He just wants us to be hungry for it.  Wisdom is something that comes from God as we experience life with him.

Crying out is something we do when desperation sets in.  His timing is not always in sync with ours.  It seems the more I follow Jesus on this journey the more desperate I become to be like him.  More of him and less of me.