DON'T HATE!!

Barry bonds has long been my favorite baseball player. He now is baseball's new home run king!! Now, I know some of you "purists" out there (whatever that means)... won't give Barry his just due... and that's okay. It is what it is, and will be what it will be.

It's amazing how many Barry Haters talk about his alleged steroid use... with no proof whatsoever... and they say things like, "He never would've done what he's done had he not been juiced up." Maybe... maybe not. The alleged steroid use was supposed to be within a 3-year period... supposedly. But when I show them Barry's overall stats, there is only one year that his HR's spiked unbelievably upward (2001, when he hit 73 home runs). Even if you take half of those away (given the fact that half is about his career avg), it wouldn't have been difficult for him to break Aaron's record. Remember, he missed almost the entire 2005 season, and only hit 5 HR's that season. And don't forget that for the seasons of 2002-04, he was intentionally walked 250 times!!!! But people "conveniently forget" those facts.

Truth is, Barry Bonds... at 42 years old... is still the most feared hitter in the league. It's a given that he's not juiced up this year (or even last year), but he's still clockin 'em... at 42 years old. In his last two seasons, Barry his hit 49 HR's (and he still has more than a month left to finish this year). Hank Aaron, in his final two seasons, hit only 22. Hank played for 23 years; Barry is in his 22nd... so I think he should play one more year, just to shut everybody up. :-)

Now, Barry hasn't always been the most wise person around and has stirred up controversy time and time again by what he says. But I'm not talking here about his mouth... I'm talking about his bat. And, at 42 years old, the bruh still swings a very fast and mean one.

Sometimes God Doesn't Move Fast...

One of the things I've had to understand in this church planting journey is that sometimes God doesn't move fast... yet His timing is always perfect. It's easy to see other ministries moving forward at breakneck speed, and expect the same thing to happen in our context. But it doesn't always happen that way for us.... for whatever reason. And God is still God.

However, I'm convinced that every healthy church will grow! The pattern and principles for growth come straight out of the New Testament, and we shouldn't have to to be embarrassed or defend ourselves because of growth. And we shouldn't feel pressure to manipulate or manufacture growth in order to "try to keep pace" with other churches. Only God gives growth.

So, praise God for the awesome new churches who, like rockets, are taking off from the start. You're setting the pace, and clearing the way for us who will follow in your paths. But for those of us who are growing not quite as fast, keep expecting huge things from God... we must keep being faithful... keep taking risks... keep reaching people who are far from Christ... because one day, maybe soon, we'll unexpectedly hit our "tipping point" - where our faith and God's faithfulness intersect - and our ministries will never, ever be the same again.

Shout Out!

I had a great talk with fellow blogger and church planter, Jay Hardwick, today... great guy with a great vision and great insight. He shared his church planting journey, which really helped me to think through some things that we're presently facing at Mosaic. Thanks, Jay, for being open and transparent about your journey! Glad we're connected!

We had an awesome meeting tonight... and we've got a great group of folks! This was a very important meeting, and just about everybody was out in full force. We've got some stuff to pray about over the next couple of weeks... and it was awesome to see everybody out. I don't know if I've mentioned on the blog, but we've got to find a new meeting space in... uh... 23 days! We've had a couple of months to find something... we've just been unable to locate anything. But we've got a couple of sticks in the fire... God's got it all worked out already, and I'm just bustin' waiting to see what He's got planned!

Reconnected!

Got a chance to hang out with an old friend "from around the way", Marco, and his lovely wife, Jill. We had an awesome time! I'd seen Jill a couple of times over the last several years, but it was great getting to know her better. This was only the 3rd time in the last 15 years that I'd seen Marco D, and I loved every minute of it!

Marco and I were best of friends... along with our buddy, Earnest (Eazy) who died last year... back in our teens and early 20's. We were, me and Marco, the Collegians (at least we called ourselves that), because we were the only ones from our crew that went to college... I went to Univ. of MD, and Marco went to the Maryland College of Art and Design. We were cool, we were unseparable... we were best friends... and last night brought back some great memories.

Marco and Jill, I LOVE YOU GUYS... and look forward to hanging more regularly!! ;-)

Sunday Nite Speak!

* AWESOME time tonight! Two more visitors... YAY, GOD!!

* Kicked off the God On Film series tonight... great start! Fulfilling Your Dream seemed to connect with everybody... we all have a God-given, God-honoring dream deposited in us, and we all want to be people of signifance. It's an awesome thing to realize that our story is only part of God's grander story! Whoa!

* I led worship tonight at Mosaic (sorry, Mom, you missed it) for the first time... not a huge fan of leading worship/preaching in the same service... it really tires me out usually. But I was pretty pumped to be leading at Mosaic! And I didn't feel too rusty, since I've had a few opportunities recently.

* My youngest son, Seth, hopped on stage with me during our opening song! Reminds me of Big Brother ("expect the unexpected")! He just came on stage, and held on to my leg... I just kept singing, hoping he'd join me! Ha! It was awesome... I love it!

* The wife of the couple who visited tonight is one of the staffers with Inter-Varsity at Univ. of MD. God keeps on giving us favor and connections with people on that campus... GO GOD!!

* Roland, our bass player, was back after a 2-month hiatus. He had been on a summer missions project with The Impact Movement, and is back - ON FIRE FOR JESUS!!! God is doing some awesome things in Roland's life, but I'll let him share all the great details! ;-) It was nice having a fuller sound from the band tonight!

* One of the days, soon, I'm gonna get caught up on my rest! Early tomorrow morning, I head to Frederick, MD to speak at Mancation, for Infinity Church. Sounds funky, but it's basically a men's retreat. I spoke at their church a couple of weeks ago, and am really excited about tomorrow! Hopefully, I'll catch up on my much-needed rest tomorrow night...

* Big props to my main man Jody in Bismarck ("What good thing comes out of North Dakota??")... heard he just turned 30. Wow. Bet he's countin' that gray! Or... not. ;-)

* We have a major meeting this Tuesday evening... OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE for all Mosaic-ites to be in attendance! This is the meeting of ALL meetings... if you're not there, you'll miss it. And you don't wanna miss it.

* Next week's message: Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye! You have GOT to invite your circle to church with you next week... this message is gonna rock the socks off of somebody... I promise you! Some of you are going around in circles, the bottom has dropped out, you're having marital issues, you can't beat lust... whatever! You need to be there! And that person looking over your shoulder reading this email needs to be there, too! Don't keep this to yourself... INVITE THREE FRIENDS this weekend!

Great Quote!

"Successful people accomplish more than others because they go ahead and do it before they are ready."

-- An Enemy Called Average, John L. Mason

I'm in The Simpson's Movie!!

Jim Henry gave me an idea... what would I look like if I were in the Simpson's Movie? Well, here you go! This is me... sorta! HA!

Go ahead... Simpsonize yourself!

New Blog Friend

Came across a new blogger, Jim Henry, who commented on my last post. He's got a great blog... check it out!