Couldn’t sleep last night.  I was up at 2:50am with a gnarly headache.  By the time I was able to get rid of it the clock read 5am.  By that point almost no point of going back to sleep, would have to get back up in just an hour or so.  Arggh.  I’m going to feel the lack of sleep thing later, that’s for sure.

Last Sunday evening we held our annual Partner Meeting at LifePoint.  I think it went well - at least I haven’t heard any negative feedback so far (I’m always the last to hear that kind of feedback anyway).  For the most part we just reviewed some of the numbers from last year - payed tribute to God for what he has been doing in the church this last year.  We are definitely grateful to see some real growth over the past 12 months.  Also, we are blessed that our giving has been steadily rising over the past 12 months regardless of what is happening with the economy.

I previewed some of the ideas that we’ve been working on in the way of programming next year at LifePoint.  Most notably the fact that we are going to limit our 2nd Saturday events from 12 per year (once a month) to 4 per year.  We hope to add a congregationally led program called, “IN2IT” (more on that later) as well as get involved in some much needed service oriented ventures such as serving once a month at Grace & Grits, a local homeless kitchen.

I’m excited about next year at LifePoint but I have to keep myself focused as well.  We have a holiday season ahead of us to navigate and with so many people struggling to make ends meet and find jobs we may find ourselves with an extra challenge this year.

If you’re a part of LifePoint, be in prayer for the elder team as we seek God’s will with the remaning decisions for LifePoint - most notably budget, staffing, benevolence, and programming for the year ahead.

God bless,

Phil

A View of the 11th green at Mayfair Country Club

Some of my friends have sort of pointed out that recently I am becoming a “golf nut.”  I can see how it might look like that from an outside perspective.  Let’s see, golf a couple times a week, take lessons, buy new clubs…yeah, sounds like a golf nut to me.  I’m not going to try and defend myself or anything but I will say that I do enjoy hitting the links.  It’s peaceful, it’s natural, and (most of the time) it’s fun.  My golf instructor, Dave Allen, has really had his hands full getting my game in shape but I’m happy to say that today I dropped an additional 2 strokes off of my handicap (it’s 32).

I also found this cool web site, www.oobgolf.com, that tracks your progress.  I’ve inserted a little chart into this post in case you are interested in my progress.

Cheers!

Phil

Today I preached a message at LifePoint on the Biblical characters of Judah & Tamar (Genesis 38). Though the message was longer than I hoped (44 mins) I was very pleased with how it turned out.  The image that you see above this post is a slide that I used during the beginning of the message to inform families that the content of the message contained some adult themes.  Take a listen and let me know what you think:

Here’s an encouraging message for parents based on a short study on the mother of Moses: Jochebed. Most people don’t even know that Moses’s mother even had a name - but believe me, she’s mentioned in the Bible!  Anyway, for anyone who’s looking for some encouragement when it comes to raising children check out this message.

Some folks know that I’ve been taking golf lessons for the last couple months or so. I still have a long way to go but my swing has been improving slowly. Here’s the latest video - I shot this at the driving range at Mayfair Country Club.

This last week was definitely a challenge for me.  First of all, it was very busy.  Crazy busy.  I share with the leadership team (staff) at LifePoint how important it is to say “no” every once and a while when ministry starts to get overwhelming but the funny thing is how much I learn to take my own advice.

I was out of the house on ministry-related tasks 5 out of 7 evenings this week.  We co-sponsored the YMCA’s annual Fall Festival which kept all of us at the YMCA from 1pm until 9pm and then we followed that with our regular Sunday morning gathering service and then a special “CyberSafety Seminar” in the evening.

It’s so easy in ministry to get so wrapped up in doing tasks that you forget about the big picture.  If ministry is like a race then it is much more of a marathon and not a sprint.  Tomorrow I plan to take the afternoon off for some R&R.  I’m looking forward to preaching again this week as we continue our series called “The Bible Jesus Read.”  To be honest, I’m not sure what passage I’ll be speaking on but I trust that God will give me some ideas before Thursday!

What a great season we’ve been having at LifePoint so far this fall. I have to give God all the credit because He’s been leading more and more people to LifePoint and more and more people have been making LifePoint their home church. Each week we find ourselves in a situation where we have to buy more chairs! For those of you that are interested in stats, here are some of the numbers.

Average attendance August 2007: 160
Average attendance August 2008: 242

Average attendance September 2007: 168
Average attendance September 2008: 247

Average attendance October 2007: 170
Average attendance October 2008 (so far): 264

I think it’s so exciting to see new people every single Sunday - and many people are making decisions to follow Christ and be baptized. As a matter of fact, we baptized around 17 people in 2007, but this year so far we have baptized 26!

I’m excited to see what will happen for the rest of this year - and then 2009 will be awesome because we are planning some great things and praying about them like crazy.

Pastor Phil

A Screenshot from Biblegateway.com

I came across this when browsing the web site of a friend of mine who is pastoring at Discovery Church in Orlando.  Bible Gateway is a free web site that let’s you search just about any version of the Bible by keywords, themes, etc.  At the moment they have a page up called  “Biographical Bible Reading Plan.”  It is a 121 day plan that put the main persons of the Bible in chronological order and then provides a link to each one.  Basically, you start with Adam (Gen 1:26-2:17) and read through to the Apostle John (Revelation 1).  If you were to start today you would be done about the 2nd week of February.

I love the idea because nothing is cooler (in my opinion) than having a reason and purpose to studying the Bible.  I’ve never been one to jump around the Bible from week to week just hoping to find something to apply.  It is a much better idea to look and study in an ongoing manner, working though a book or section of the Bible.  You gain better context that way.

So, if you’re up for it, here’s the link: http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/readingplans/biographical.php

In just a few weeks we will co-host the YMCA’s annual “Fall Festival” here in Lake Mary.  It’s totally family oriented and usually draws over 1,000 people.  This year the LifePoint Student Ministry Team is selling hotdogs, chips, and sodas.  Also, we’ll be setting up the whole stage and sound system for a talent show later in the evening.

Some LifePointers browse the ministry fair booths

Last Sunday at LifePoint Christian Church we did something that we had not done since 2002 - we held a ministry fair.  It was different than last time, however, because this time around we decided to host the ministry fair during our main worship service.  So, right after the band played their 4th song, instead of doing our regular 3-minute “meet-n-greet” thing we took 15 minutes to allow people to browse the multiple ministry booths that were setup in the sanctuary.  It was pretty cool to see more than 10 ministries setup with their little science fair style booths - advertising their ministries and signing up new people to serve.

The ministry fair concept was born out of the fact that as a church we have been growing and a large number of new people have been integrating into the ‘fabric’ of the church.  We think it is very important to offer service opportunities to these new guests in case they are looking for a way to get involved.  By our rough calculation, more than 40 new people signed up to help in various ministry areas!  Awesome.

Great things are happening at LifePoint and it’s awesome to be a part of what God is doing.