"When Life Surprises" Jacob, Rachel, and Leah from Genesis 29

I don't think Josh and I crossed paths at OC (unless I've just forgotten). We connected via Twitter and Facebook a couple months ago though. I'm in a class on Organization Development right now. Really good.

yeah, I'd like to do that. I generally blog once a week anyway. Some ideas that I have for blogs I do not put on my own because they're a little more in-depth leadership/ministry focus than the general ethos of my personal blog. I'm in class this week and next, so I have a little less time for outside things, but I'll jump into MON more after that.

Thanks James!
I'm really enjoying it - its a perfect fit for me I think. I'm off for the summer which is great - I can spend some extra time with the boys and recharge for the Fall.

I'll upload a picture soon - I'll probably have Josh take a current one. I think all my pictures have one of the kids or Josh in them : )

How are you and your family?

Hi james,
My wife, Maxine, and I are members of the west End Church of Christ in Nashville. We moved here after fifteen years of work as missionaries in st. Petersburg, Russia and more than thirty years in business. The Lord blessed us with three daughters and one son and now seven grandchildren. I am enjoying serving with your father on the FBS/ITCM boards. Grace.

James, Chuck Whittle is on the Board of Trustees for ITCM. He personally established about 20 congregations in Russia.

Hey man, VERY good here. We are very tired after an intensive week last week and coast to coast travel. Kairos had a full house last night at their gathering. So good seeing so many friends we will spend eternity with. Hmm, who will be our new friends who will receive the same honor from Christ? Great to ponder. Love your network, BB

Thanks, James. We just held our 2nd BMZ Leadership Summit last weekend. Our theme this year was "Essential." We shared the things we were doing to make Jesus, your church, missions, ministries, etc ESSENTIAL to the un-churched, de-churched, and over-churched. We had over 70 pastors & church leaders from all over WI & IA attend, some driving more than 5 hours. Exciting!

You previously asked how much of our grow is from unchurched. I don't have any stats, but my guess would be 70% or more would be classified as un- or de-churched (went to church at some time in their life, but had stopped). Off the top of my head, I know that our attendance has grown from an average of 60 in 2002 (both campuses/all worship celebrations combined) to 360+ in 2009!
I would say our growth is due to: 1) slowly (painfully) trying to changes Worship/kids & youth programs into something more relevant. 2) becoming more missional & reaching outside of our church (Pastor Stan has repeated the phrase "It's not about me (us)" more thimes than we can count)! 3) "Purple People (the name comes from having all our volunteers during our 1st Leadership Summit wear purple t-shirts so they could be easily spotted). PPs have replaced the regular greeters rotated from the membership rolls. Instead they have asked to be a PP, are trained in hospitality, body language, etc. We also try to follow up thorougly on every lead we get on our Merge (connection) cards. Assimilation is a ppriority...offering classes, Bible studies, small groups, missions that relate to & meet the needs of our local culture. Hospitality is being taught from the pulpit, at Sunday school, in the newsletter, & by example. [You just received an excerpt from my LS workshop--lol]!

Exactly what type of info would you like shared?...I will proabaly catch on as i spend more time on your site. So far it looks awesome =o)

I don't know Terron. Melissa and I are joining the second phase of some work in Northern Togo. Just recently some missionaries completed their stay in Southern Togo. That work goes back a ways.

Hey James, just trying to figure this out. Still in Kansas, struggling, we have elders again, it was actually a wonderful ordination ceremony, a first for me. Not sure when we will be more outward focused

Everything is going well! We had two more baptisms this last Sunday! We are thankful for the growth here in Caracas! I'm headed to the States for Furlough this next month! How are things where you are at?

Absolutely. I had already planned on that! I know God is with us; he's been guiding us for a long time. It makes a huge difference in your life when you: Be Still and know that I Am God.

James, I'm slowly getting started. After this month I can get my feet wet. We're closing our Trk business April 30, and everything is so helter skelter. Jim's not been home before 12 or 1 since Sunday nite. It looks like you're having a wonderful time in Orlando. Missed you Sunday. I hope everyone there discusses how "Upper MANGLEMENT" is trying to outlaw our National Day of Prayer next month!

This campus began in Sept '09. We have had 2 mission outreach champions (that is what we call leaders). So far: raked neighborhood leaves, Thanksgiving dinner, food pantry food drive, feed the children food drive, did other odd fall spruce up jobs. Our pastor feels that this is the major area he wants to focus on to reach the lost. He wants all the small groups to be doing weekly outreaches (maybe adopt some area of need), plan monthly outreach events and then some bigger events through the year. With the change in leadership some things have been dropped. We want to incorporate prayerwalks into this but need to take that a step further. I am going to be anxious to see what others are doing. My official start date is next Wed. when we will have an organizational meeting - getting the vision down, etc.

Thank you for the nice welcome. My interset in mission outreach is that I was just honored to be named Mission Outreach Champion for our new congregation and open to new ideas, resources, etc.

Good

James, that good approach, I think there will be same people that would like to do the three columns at home. I am sure that will find some “sons of peace” from those attendees. I have not tried myself in that setting, but I thinks is great.

God blessed me with ability, and time (as much as I'd like to have a job right now). It is in my nature to pay it forward. this is a small way that I can.
the only thing you'll have to do is fill out the xml file (a bunch of 1-liners) I'll email you a color-coded one like I did for the rotating cube.
1920x1080 are *very* large images, watch out for bandwidth gobbling, but other than that it should work fine.

Just shared this website on our FB page for the church.

We are involved in a local ministry called Cypress Assistance Ministries, which has a food pantry and other great stuff for the poor in our neighborhood. We are also heavily involved with Kairos prision ministry. Our youth have begun to focus on a ministry that is growing called Love Out Loud for special needs people in the community. http://cypressunited.org/ministry/7/104.htm . We just finished some local mission work during the Lent season and repaired houses. Even our 5th graders went out to serve.

Not sure how you can help right now. Information is coming in fast. Let me process this site and see how we can partner. Very excited.

Sound great...we will take a look into it. Let me talk to sr. pastor.