Awesome Thoughts from Perry

Back in September I had the opportunity to hear Perry Noble speak at Granger Community Church's Innovative Church Conference. He totally blew me away. He spoke truth, he didn't pull any punches and he is the pastor of one of the fastest growing churches in America. He started Newspring Church a little over 6 years ago and last Sunday they had 6,816 people in church and over 100 people accepted Christ.

The other day, Perry had a great post on his blog. He was reflecting on some insights from his recent trip to Las Vegas. I don't want to even attempt to paraphrase it for you so here's the link to that post. Check it out. It will rock your world.

CLICK HERE to see Perry's Post.

Happy Hippo

Jim, the lead pastor here at The Carpenter's has been in Germany for the past two weeks on vacation. His daughter is in the Air Force and is stationed in Germany. He arrived home late yesterday afternoon and this morning he brought in some German Chocolate for us to try.

I have to say that the Kinder Happy Hippo's are the bomb. They are a wafer shell surrounding a soft chocolate center. I don't know if they sell them here in the states but they are incredible. They're like a tiny flavor explosion going on in your mouth. They alone would be worth the trip to Germany.

Your LIFE!

WOW!

Tonight I had the chance to preview the drama "Your LIFE!" for our Good Friday service and all I can say is . . . WOW!

It's going to be amazing. Do whatever you need to do to get there and bring a friend who doesn't know Jesus. Call in sick from work, cancel your vacation, return from your vacation early, cancel all existing plans, step out in faith and invite someone and do whatever it takes to get people to this special night. It's going to be incredible and God is going to show up in a big way.

You wait and see.

"24" Starts Next Weekend!

Easter is only 11 days away and that means the launch of our new message series . . . 24!

I am pumped about this new series and the impact that it's going to have on our congregation and the people of our community. The invite cards arrived yesterday and they are awesome. They'll be in the programs this weekend and they'll be available for people to give out to their friends, neighbors, co-workers and relatives to invite them to the new series.

We'll actually be launching "24" on Good Friday with a dramatic service called "Your LIFE!" If you know anyone who has not made a commitment to Christ, this is the event to invite them to. Do whatever you need to do and get them here for the 6:30 and/or 8:15 presentation of "Your LIFE!" It will impact them for eternity.

Start the BUZZ today. Tell everyone you can about this new series and make plans to be here for all 4 weeks of 24. It's going to be amazing.

It's Softball Season

Well, it's that time of the year again. Time to break out the old ball glove, grab some sunflower seeds and spend a lot of time on the softball field.

Both of my daughters, Emily & Maya, are playing again this year and I've agreed to be one of the assistant coaches on both teams. I think I'll end up spending more time with Maya's team this year but I absolutely love coaching these girls. I get to teach fundamentals and watch each girl improve from the first practice today until the end of the season in June. It's really cool.

I feel the same way with my responsibilities at The Carpenter's. I get the opportunity to help coach people in their spiritual journey. It is truly amazing to be involved in someone's life, see them come to know Christ and begin making steps toward Him. If you want to be involved in someone's life, maybe a friend or relative, make plans today to invite them to church this weekend. I'll be speaking and we're going to present the Gospel as clear as day. You won't want to miss it and neither will your friends. So, invite them and bring them with you.

Disconnected From The World

I've been a "Technology Guy" for a long time. I got my first PC for Christmas in 1981. It was a Tandy TRS80 and I was elated. You created your own "basic" program and if you wanted to save the program, you did so on the attached cassette recorder. Believe me, it was cool.

Today I've got my Palm Treo, my Notebook and Desktop computers that are all connected to the world via Wireless access and High Speed Internet. I check my e-mail many times a day, keep up with the happenings in the world via RSS Feeds from the BBC to USA Today about news, sports, entertainment, and health issues. I Keep up with the latest iTunes download statistics, follow about a dozen blogs from Pastors, Church and Technology leaders around the country and use all of this technology and information to help lead one of the most cutting edge churches in N.E. Pennsylvania.

However, this past weekend, I disconnected myself from all of that technology and connected with Jennifer. As you know, last week was our 15th Wedding Anniversary and so this past weekend we went to Fernwood Hotel & Resort in the Pocono's and had a wonderful time. We did a lot of nothing, I didn't answer a single phone call, didn't check e-mail, didn't keep up with the Blog World, didn't read a newspaper, didn't watch a news broadcast or log onto the internet at all. In fact, my wife was amazed that I didn't even bring a computer with with me. This weekend was all about disconnecting from life and connecting with my wife. Who, by the way, is an amazing women.

I tell you all this to encourage you to disconnect from life and connect with your spouse on a regular basis. It's these little things that make a big difference and build strong, rock solid relationships.

What To Learn From Apple

Apple TV hits the stores this week. This little device will allow computer users to download TV shows or feature films from iTunes, play them on the computer and see them on their TV via a built in wireless connection. I don't know if I'll ever own one of these new devices but I believe they will be very successful. One of the reasons for Apple's success is a philosophy of Steve Jobs and the leadership team at Apple, Inc. When asked about the success of Apple, Steve Jobs said this:

"It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much."

I think the church can learn a lot from this philosophy. Too often, the church tries to be all things to all people and ends up with tons of "Ministries" that don't have any effect or impact on anyone.

At The Carpenter's Church we've made a decision to focus in on four areas.

1. The Weekend: Nothing competes with the weekend. This is where we have the opportunity to reach the most people and share the Gospel to our community. We'll be relevant, contemporary and show people from Scripture what God has to say about the pressures, successes, failures, joys and sorrows that everyone faces every day.
2. KidZone: The Children's Ministry at The Carpenter's is called KidZone. This is where Kids and God come together. We believe that children aren't the future but rather they are the present. They are the church of today and we're going to invest time, money and resources into making sure that the Kids of our church and our community have the chance to know Christ and learn how He can be effective and relevant in their lives.
3. Ignite Students: Our student ministry is absolutely off the hook. Tucker and his team of V-Staff do an amazing job of bringing the Gospel to life in a way that Jr. and Sr. High students can relate to and understand. Current statistics indicate that 4% of graduating high school seniors claim to have a relationship with Christ. We have made the decision that this statistic is not acceptable in our community and we're going to do our best to change it.
4. Connecting Points: Our Connecting Points are where adults can meet in a small group each week and connect with each other and with God. We believe that the Great Commandment is lived out through our Connecting Points and we are committed to continued leadership and leadership development to start, grow, build and strengthen Connecting Points all across the Lehigh Valley.

We can't be all things to all people. In fact, no church can. There are 165,000 people in Northampton County who don't know Christ. We need lots of churches and lots of Christians to focus in on a few things, do them really well and watch God do His thing.