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.

We will be starting a new seriers called One Prayer this Sunday. We are joining 1280 other churches with a total average attendance of over 740,000 people.

If God would answer “one prayer” for the church at large, what would you pray? My prayer is that he would Make Us Different. That has been our theme this year…Live Different. Here are the following speakers that will visit Fellowship via video.

• Craig Groeshel from Life Church in Edmund, OK will speak on “God, make us one.”
• Wayne Cordeiro from New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, HI will speak on “God, make us wise.”
• Ed Young from Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX will speak on “God, wake us up.”
• Perry Nobe from New Spring Church in Anderson, SC will speak on “God, make us dangerous.”

Through www.oneprayer.com, we’ll be encouraged to fast and pray with other believers from around the world and we will also be contributing to and offering that combined with hundreds of other churches will help plant new churches Cambodia, China, India and the Sudan. This series is going to promote unity in the body of Christ as we stand together like never before. It will also refocus our understanding of the Church as a body of believers instead of a physical location.

I believe God’s timing with us joining “one prayer” is going to be a tremendous kick-off our summer giving to Elevate. What a great reminder to know that we are part of something much bigger than us! I encourage you to jump on the one prayer site as we join an unprecedented moment in the history of the church.

It was awesome having my brother Buddy and my favorite sister-in-law, Debbie with us today. Buddy brought an incredible and timely message for our Fellowship family. I’m very proud of him…still wish he would give up the singing, but I think the rest of you dig it. I am blessed to have my brother for my best friend and Northway Church has an amazing pastor. Almost every Sunday we pray with each other over the phone so it is that much better when we get to be together. Here are some other thoughts about the day…

Kudos to our tech team for fixing things between services. We had the humming from hell in our speakers in the first service but by our second service it was just rockin’. These guys are great problem solvers, and with the holiday we were a little lean on our set up crew today.

• Jeff, Michelle, Donny, and the band killed it. Did I say that they killed it? I mean they really killed it folks. Buddy told me he felt a freedom in our service like never before.
• Do you have a blazing passion for God? That one is still marinating with me.
• God is more than the miracle maker he is the Miracle!
• Our volunteers were incredible for a holiday weekend. You guys bring it every week!
• We had a great crowd…we must have put a dent in the shore traffic.
• Saturday highlight - we took Buddy, Debbie, Devin, Natalie, and our entire crew to see Indiana Jones. First time I ever dropped over $100 just on tickets. My personal review…it was okay…not bad, but not great either.
• I’m still praying about our offering on June 8th - we need a miracle God!
• I might head to the beach with the family tomorrow.
• I saw Gail Oxley today and he looked very pleased to see me. He is having a difficult time communicating verbally but his eyes and his infectious smile say it all. Gail is unbelievable…he is my friend. Pray for Gail and Joanne this week.

I am asking God for a miracle.  I asking him to “elevate” his presence among us.  I’m not sure of all the theological implications of that statement, but I know I am hungry for more…more of him and less of me…more of his ways and less of mine…more of his wisdom and less of my own understanding…more of his discipline and less of my hit and miss.  How about you?

I introduced Fellowship to “Elevate” last week.  Elevate is a capital campaign.  Elevate is a spiritual growth campaign.  Elevate is about a group of people that are hungry for more of God…hungry to be used by him…hungry to see his love spread like a virus throughout our community.  How hungry are you?

God has opened the door for us to stay in the school for two more years.  Since we won’t have to build yet, we will now be able to invest in elevating the way we do ministry with our kids and students.  We hope to begin videoing our services so we can hook into the school’s close circuit TV system.  That allows us to develop a “cry-room” for parents with babies and create a video feed into our nurseries.  It also prepares us to link video to our web site and the possibility of a second campus in our future.

We also need to address our 209 Bethel Rd. property.  Our building needs a make-over.  Big time.  Our parking lot is an asphalt wasteland.  We need to be better neighbors.  Better representatives.  We live in a community that throws $50K at an after prom party, and the way our campus looks says a lot about us and our God.  We would like to upgrade our road-sign to include a digital display that would let us communicate to thousands that pass by everyday.

I could go on with the list of things we believe God wants us to do but I won’t.  For now, I just would like you to pray.  Ask God how you can help.  Ask how you can invest in God’s kingdom.  Our goal over the next 27 months is to raise 750K.  Our immediate goal is for God to give us a miracle offering of 200K on June 8th.  What is “miraculous” to us in “no sweat” for God, but I believe he loves to show up for people that are hungry to know him more.

Seventeen days.  God is already showing himself strong with lead gifts, but we still have a long way to go.

I read once that we should expect preferential treatment because of who our Father is. God pulls strings for his kids all the time. Many times I am not even aware of how God’s favor is directing and blessing my life. I believe that God’s favor is on our church right now in a huge way. Here are the ways I see his favor:

1. The Life Change. We baptized more people in the last 12 months than at any other time in our history. Baptisms, maybe more than anything represent changed lives. People are going public with their faith and it makes God smile.
2. Our Attendance. 70 people started this journey with us 7 years ago. Just 3 years ago, 200 of us moved out of our “home” into the Middle School (that in itself was a miracle). In April, we averaged 650 in our Sunday services. 80% of churches in America are flat or declining but God has decided to grow Fellowship. When you factor in the fact that we are in the Northeast this is huge.
3. Our Relationship With The School. Our connection with the school district is unprecedented. God is allowing us to be a vital part of our community. My pastor friends are amazed at what God has given us with the school. We met this week with their representatives and I have some exciting news that I am saving for the our VIP event tomorrow night.

Why are we seeing God’s favor? A couple of things jump out.

1. Fellowship’s Heart For The Unchurched. We are learning to be preoccupied with what God is preoccupied with. People. People far from Him. People in crisis and in pain. Spiritual people who have yet to find their connection to God through Jesus, and have yet to discover their purpose serving and growing in His bride, the church.
2. Fellowship Is Not Playing It Safe. The larger you get the more there is to protect. 2007 was a brutal year for Michelle and I with the toll that pastoring and ministry takes. It was tough on our staff and elders. The human part of us says to take a break…catch our breath…maybe we can just coast for a while. NO WAY! We are continuing to run the race…we will be taking our biggest faith risks this year. This is not the church to come to if you want to just get comfortable.

So today, I am thankful to be a small part of God’s plan. I’m thankful to serve God and you. I’m humbled that I get an inside look at his favor in our midst. Great things are happening at Fellowship and greater things are coming!

One of the core values of Fellowship Church is relevance. I love what I heard Mark Batterson say, “To be irrelevant is to be irreverent!” The reality is that religion has become irrelevant to people’s everyday lives. I’m not going to get into the “why” behind this dynamic because that isn’t the point of this post. I had breakfast this morning with a new friend, Bob, who asked some great questions about the strategies behind what we do. He asked I received much push-back from using secular music in our service. The answer, I’m glad to say, is NO. Used to, but not anymore. It is who we are today Bob. Plain and Simple. Thank God.

The raw truth is that we will do anything short of sin to try to influence and reach people with the love of Jesus Christ. Staying “relevant” and “plugged in” with where people live today is one of our strategies. Jesus was continually building bridges to people where none existed. Pop culture is a great “bridge” to people. I just received a copy of a new book called “Pop Goes The Church” that I would like to recommend you read. The author, Tim Stevens, deals with the issue of the church engaging in pop culture far better than I ever could. Tim is one of the pastors at Granger Community Church and has been on the cutting edge of reaching people for Jesus for sometime. I don’t know him, but I love this guy. These are the guys that help shake people out of their traditional slumbers and give permission to start coloring out of the lines.

Order a copy. Become an apologists for the vision of reaching people for Jesus no matter what.

Yesterday, I took my oldest daughter Alli out for lunch. We tried a new (new for us) restaurant in Kennett Square called Amici Miei. It was good to have some special “daddy time” with Alli. As we looked at the menu I noticed that a lot of my traditional favorites were missing. When I asked the waitress about it she informed me that the omissions were intentional. You see the chef, she told us, is from Italy. He wants to cook authentic Italian cuisine. He figures you can get spaghetti and meatballs anywhere.

As I considered this response, it occurred to me how much in common Fellowship has with Amici Miei. You see, you really can get the “traditional church entree” at most churches in the Delaware Valley and the Northeast as a whole. Not at Fellowship though. God has called us to prepare food in a way that those who have been marginalized from church, for one reason or another, will be tempted to dine again. Some are actually dining for the very first time. There are many traditional entrees that we just don’t serve. It is intentional and by design. It is not that we don’t like “spaghetti and meatballs (I actually love them) it is just not who God has called us to be.

There are many great people in our area who enjoy traditional church. Some churches are even beginning to blend their services with the old and some of the new. That’s great. I celebrate what they are doing. It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.

This past Sunday 725 people showed up for something a little different and I feel like we gave it to them. We gave them some Bon Jovi…we gave them some crazy videos…and we gave them the truth prepared in a way they have never heard. Every now and then I get a well meaning person ask me why we can’t go back to some spaghetti and meatballs and I have to explain this all over again.

Let me just say it again. We are NEVER going back. We are moving FORWARD. This is who God has called us to be. I have peace about it. Our elders support it. Our staff loves it. More importantly, God has positioned us to serve some authentic “heaven” dishes. And our bread…oh man…you just have to try our “bread of life.” People are drinking from a cosmic Gatorade called “living water” that is quenching a life-long thirst. So don’t forget to tell your friends this week about a place that is serving it up heaven style. They will never, ever, be the same.