Self-sufficiency: If you want something done right, do it yourself.

• I’m responsible for my own success
• I am a self-made person
• I have to do life on my own
• I can only rely on myself
• My way is the best way

Incredibly, this is how most people walk through life.  People are networked through technology like never before yet more and more people walk through life lonely and isolated.  They don’t reach out  why is that?

One reason is fear.  Maybe you are shy and struggle with connecting with others.  Maybe you have been burned in the past and refuse to trust again.  Maybe you value yourself so little that it’s difficult to imagine someone caring enough to invest in you.  Fear keeps so many of us from realizing our God-given potential.

Psalms 34:4 says, “I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.  He freed me from all my fears.”  1 John 4:18 says “there is no room in love for fear…well formed love banishes fear.”  Jesus came to set us free, just as David said…”He freed me from all my fears.”  So remember today…you are free to move forward…free to reach out…and free to reach up.  God will meet you there.

It is time to get back into the blogging groove…Today is eight years for Michelle and I at Fellowship Church.  It is hard to believe Alli was only 10 years old when we joined Fellowship with a handful of families.  Man, was I clueless when I took this job, but I was passionate about trying to reach people for Jesus in our community.  I have learned a lot since the “early days.”  Our church has been patient with me as God humbled me of my pride and emboldened me with his dream of redefining church in the Northeast.

I want to thank Michelle today.  She has been at my side all the way.  No one besides God knows my flaws and my heart better than she does.  It is not easy being married to me or being the pastor’s wife of a growing church.  She does both with a grace and joy that is infectious.

I also want to say thank you to my elders today.  Thanks guys for having my back and for pushing me to be all that God wants me to be.  I love doing this journey with you.

When I first came it was just me and a part-time secretary working here at the church.  Today I have a tremendously talented and passionate team to work along side of.  Ben, Gus, Nancy, Kristi, Jeff, John, Shari, Ryan, Kyle, Alli, and Laurie - thank you for sharing and owning the vision with me.  You are more than I could have hoped for or imagined.

I want to say thanks to my favorite church…Fellowship.  Thanks for letting me be who God created me to be.  For showing up every week as we share this incredible journey of faith together.  And thanks for joining me in the call to elevate all we do to share Jesus as we redefine church in our neighborhoods and workplaces.  I love you.

Finally, to my God, I say thank you for keeping me here.  That you would let me serve you in this capacity blows me away.  You have shown your incredible strength through my pitiful weakness.  You continue to stretch and amaze me.  The very least I could do is to serve you with my whole heart and my life.  Thank you for your steadfast love and new mercy for me everyday.  You are my hope and the love of my life Jesus.

It is easy to lose focus when conflict comes.  Conflict is distracting and it is emotionally draining.  People will intentionally and unintentionally try to talk you out of what God has for your life.  I bounce stuff off friends all the time but the vision I get has to come from God and only God.  God gives me God-sized dreams.  Losing focus causes me to lose the audacity of dreaming big with God.

Where is your focus?  Is it centered around God’s unique purpose and calling on your life?  Do you continue to dream God-sized dreams and pray high risk prayers?  Have you let doubters or the haters cause you to lose your focus?

Stay on mission.  Paul said that he had his eyes on the prize - he was living life with the “end in sight.”

Opposition will come when you “elevate.”  It isn’t “if” it’s “when.”  In John 16:33 Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (emphasis mine).  There is a cost for following Jesus.  He never promised us any different.  It is a hard and difficult road.  Obedience can feel very lonely at times - but the peace that comes from it is difficult to explain.  It is the reason Jesus gives in John 16 for saying what he did - so that we can have peace and be encouraged.

Satan is real and he will do anything to keep us from moving forward.  He doesn’t play by our rules and he is smart enough to know where to attack  and when we least expect it.  Nehemiah faced opposition to building the wall from inside and outside.  Internally, his team struggled with fatigue and doubt.  Satan tried to exploit both.  On the outside there were some serious “haters” that tried everything they could to stop God’s dream for his people.

Half of the battle for most of us is seeing the opposition in our lives for what it is - Satan’s attempt to keep us from elevating God’s call in our lives.  Paul said it like this in Ephesians 6:12 - For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world…

Where do you feel the opposition in your life?  Do you see it for the spiritual warfare that it is.  More on “elevate” tomorrow.

Our staff just went on a prayer walk around our campus this morning.  It was awesome!  One of our Elders was driving by and he stopped and joined us.  Here are the things we prayed about today…why don’t you take a minute after reading this and pray as well.

1. We stood on the new sidewalk to the school and thanked God for the relationship we have with the school system.  We asked God that this sidewalk would be blessed to build a bridge to students, teachers, and parents of our school district.
2. Next we walked to the front of our property and thanked God for the beautiful new “look” he has given our building.  We asked the Holy Spirit to use it to prompt spiritual conversations with those who drive by and see it.  To create some curiosity in those that are seeking spiritual answers and lead them to Jesus through Fellowship Church.
3. Finally we walked up to the new stone facade on the front of our building.  I reminded our team that the dream of giving our campus a makeover began back in February after we returned from a conference in Texas.  I thanked them for their sacrifice and dedication to Elevate our mission of redefining church in the Delaware Valley.  What a great team God has put in place here.  We then prayed and thanked God for the incredible team of volunteer servants he has brought to Fellowship.  So for those of you who read my blog, we prayed and thanked God for you today.  We are praying for you that God will sustain you in your service to him.  That your life will be enriched spiritually as you step up and step out in your walk with him.

Last Sunday I spoke on taking risks.  I know God has called us to put it out there…to not play it safe.  The vision he has given us is an audacious, God sized vision and sometimes its just down right frightening.  I don’t want my life to pass me by while I play it safe.  I’ve always wanted to sky-dive.  To see if I could muster up the courage to jump…to take the plunge.  Well, at 44 years young I finally went for it.  Thanks to my staff guys Ben, Dan, and Greg, that went with me so I would not back out.  We had a great time.  I think I’m ready to go again sometime soon… you can relive the experience by watching below.  (email readers you can see it directly on my blog or by  clicking here.)

Sky Diving from Fellowship Today on Vimeo.

Sunday was a real turning point for “elevate.’  In understanding the risks that Nehemiah took we begin to see the risks in front of us.  But better than that we get to see the DNA of a God who loves it when we walk to the edge of the ledge in faith.  What areas is God calling you to take a risk?  Where is playing it safe going to be risky in your life?

I had the experience of a life time by going SKY-DIVING last week.  I figured if I was going to ask you to take a risk I mihgt as well take a crazy on myself.  I will have the video up tomorrow for you to check out…Show it to your friends…it’s a great conversation starter…”my pastor is so crazy look what he will do in order to make a point.”  Send the link to your friends and neigbors as well to get a conversation started.

Tomorrow in about 5 hours I am headed to Indianna for a conference at Granger Community Church called “innovate.“  You should check out both the links to their websites…awesome stuff!  The will be my first time at Granger and I am really excited about it.  The have a top notch leadership and production team.  I always learn when I am around other great churches.  I’ll also have Ben Jones and Greg Davis with me so we will have the best teambuilding possible without food!  I’ll be blogging from the conference to keep you posted.

I’m enjoying a good day off today.  I really enjoyed Sunday in so many different ways.  I sense a surge of momentum of God being at work that is very heartening.  This is a big Monday for those of us in the Philly area.  It’s “Dallas week” and in a few hours the Monday night part will begin as the Eagles and the cowboys continue their rivalry.  I had a good friend call me from Texas today to stoke the fires about tonight’s game.

Anyway, I have some random thoughts about tonight that I wanted to share.  I love my “Philly” heritage and all that comes with it - the good and the bad.  There is a passion that comes with this region that is difficult to explain.  I’m not sure what our dearth in championships has to do with it but it is intense.  You are either for us or against us.

Following sports for me is an area of my life that I have to set some boudaries.  While I am fired up about tonight, I refuse to let it influence the trajectory of my week.  I’m not going to live and die with something as eternally meaningless (that’s right I actually said that) as a football game.  I have to be real careful about stuff like this.  I also have to set some boundaries in the area of friendships.  Believe it or not some of my closest friends are on the dark side when it comes to football - they are cowboy fans.  Yuck.  Again here is another sad reality about my redeemed heart…I have to be careful that I love people more than football.  So, I don’t usually watch the game with the “the bad guys.”  It helps me keep myself in check and project what I hope is the attitude Jesus would want.  By the way…Jesus would so be an Eagles fan!

So, anyway…please accept some random thoughts from a fasting Eagles fan today (I’m about to go sit at the table and watch my family pound some cheeseburgers).  No cool food for the game tonight…but hopefully a win.  And if and when we ever get our championship, I will be at the parade with all my championship starved friends.  Go Eagles.

When you fast, stop looking sad like the hypocrites.  They put on sad faces to make it obvious that they are fasting.  I can guaruntee this truth: That will be their only reward.  When you fast, wash your face and comb your hair.  Then your fasting wont be obvious.  Instead, it will be obvious to your Father who is with you in private.  Your Father sees what you do in private.  He will reward you.  Matthew 6:16-18

When or if?  Jesus didn’t say if dis he?  He said when.  Just like when he said “when you pray” and “when you give” he assumes that we will have fasting as part of our life.  This is one of the things that challenged me when I read the book Starving Jesus by by Craig Gross and J.R. Mahon.  J.R. commented on my earlier post.

Here is the quote from J.R.

Michelle and I are sitting in the Charlotte airport waiting to catch our connecting flight home.  The last 24 hours have been kind of surreal for both of us.  We had the privilege to attend Joy Dougherty’s funeral today.  She was our pastor’s wife while we worked at a church in Jacksonville, Florida before we came to Fellowship.

We got to see many friends from our old church last night and today.  Many we haven’t seen for quite some time.  Can’t believe that in October we will have been in PA for 8 years.  Time goes fast.  We haven’t been back to our old church in probably 6 years.  Everyone commented on how great Michelle looked…

The viewing last night was unlike any I have ever attended.  It was more like a reunion.  People were gathered around laughing and catching up on old times.  It was just what Joy would have wanted.  After the viewing Michelle and I went out with Dale and Tami Ward (Joy’s daughter).  Dale is my best friend from college…like a brother to me.  He spoke at our church not too long ago.  It was great to get to hang out.

Today’s service for Joy was what she would have wanted.  It had a southern flavor that’s for sure.  People in the south sure know how to make you feel welcome…and I love me some sweet tea.  Tami eulogized her mother in an incredible way.  I was very proud of her.  What a great job she did of taking care of her mom through her cancer.  There were a lot of tears as should be expected.  Joy was the best of what her family represented.

I had several guys from the church ask me if they could tag along to Russia sometime in the future.  The more the merrier.  All in all it was great to be back to where I got my “start” in the ministry.  Michelle and I have had a good time being together and reminising about the past.  Tonight over dinner we even talked some about who we would want to speak at our funerals…I know kind of morbid.  Being here also helped me see just how far God has brought us.  We live in a different world now.  There aren’t many similarities with our past.  It is the same faith but a totally different language and culture all together.  It’s all good because this is what God has for us and I love it.  I wouldn’t want to do church any other place or in any other way.  Fellowship is an amazing place.  I hated that I had to miss our kick off for United (our student ministry) tonight.  I’m sure it waw awesome!  Tomorrow is a big day for us.  Summer is officially over.  Volunteers will be at the school at 6:30 AM beginning set up.  Let’s get it on.