Live Right...or Die!

Each year I resolve to read thru the Bible. My goal is to read a different version each year. This year I am reading thru the KJV. So, if I say something like..."art thou goeth to lunch today? Peradventure I shall goeth with you." You'll know why I'm talking like that. Anyway, I was reading the story of Joseph the other day and something strange jumped out at me. In the middle of the Joseph story (chapter 38) it breaks off to give us some info. on his brother Judah. Judah marries a Canaanite woman and she gives birth to 3 sons. Er, Onan & Shelah. Weird names huh? Er was wicked in the sight of the Lord, so guess what God did? He slew him...killed him. Judah wanted Onan to get his brother Er's wife pregnant but Onan didn't want to. Onan had relations with her but the Bible says, "he spilled it on the ground." It's in the Bible, I'm not making this up. So what happened to Onan? God was displeased with him so he slew him...yeah, he killed him. You can fool some people some of the time but you can never fool God. If you're displeasing God...look out! How did God kill them? I don't know, but this is a stern warning to please God. We worry so much about pleasing man, but God is the one we should worry about. Wow, I hope you're living right!

Pictures

I promised some pictures of our new (new to us) facility. We hope to move in on the???.........not really sure when we'll move in, but we hope it's quick. As you can see from the pictures we have quite a bit of work ahead of us. The red room is my office, which I am currently using, the other pictures are the lobby area (which will totally change) and the auditorium (which will totally change). I'll try to post pictures as this project progresses. See ya!

I'm Back!

I would love to type a ton of excuses for not blogging but I just can't find the courage to do that. I just got out of the blogging groove during the holidays. What can I say? Anyway, I'm back and I'll try my best to get some consistency going on my blog. I know that several thousand people depend on this site for encouragement & wisdom. As many of you know, Crossroads will be changing facilities in the very near future. We found a building in the center of Jonesboro and we are currently in the beginning stage of rennovating it for Sunday service. I'm actually moving into my office this Friday...I type that with my fingers crossed...how do I do that? Talent, my friend...talent. We will be doubling the size of our auditorium, the location rocks & it's cheaper. We're pumped! If I can remember to take a camera I'll throw some pictures of the building on the blog. That's it for now...have a nice day!

Remarkable!

Here is a quote from a book I've been reading..."The bottom line is this: You still have to be remarkable if you want to get remarked about." How true is that? The book I'm reading is a business book but I'm reading it with the mindset of Church. Applying this comment to the Church will do wonders. I have heard that 80% of Church growth comes from word of mouth. So, the question is what are people saying about the Church? We could get a billboard, run an ad in the paper, or do any other type of advertising and whatever message we want will get out. The problem, most of our growth doesn't come from that avenue. It comes from what the people who experience it are telling their friends and co-workers. So, if we want to be remarked about we must be remarkable in what we do. Does this mean perfection? Absolutely not! However, it does mean excellence. I have really been thinking alot about this lately. The secular world gives their "A" game but I think many times in the church we just do enough to get by from week to week. It's not easy, but it's our job as messengers of the greatest love story in the world to do a remarkable job, and if we do...we will be remarked about in a remarkable way!

Brookland Christmas Parade: 3-peat

Yeah, we had two big guns...we shot t-shirts, candy, stuffed animals, a soda (not kidding here) & anything else we could fit down the barrel. It looked like it was going to rain the whole time but God held it off. I kid you not, it started pouring down rain when we pulled into the parking lot with the float. We had just enough time to race to the truck and pull away. Great timing! It was awesome...you should've been there.

1st Place Float!

Well, as you can see from the Jonesboro Sun...we won 1st place last night in the Jonesboro Christmas Parade. The really exciting part, though, we didn't get kicked out. We had two air guns shooting stuffed animals & t-shirts into the crowd. People were going crazy. We even shot two (that I know of) on top of a couple buildings downtown. We accidentally added a tad too much pressure in the gun...I'm not sure who to blame. Also, we hit one guy right on top of the head and he wasn't too happy about that. I know who to blame for that, but I won't mention his name on here. Seriously, it was a lot of fun doing ministry last night. I hope the people that caught the shirts or stuffed animals with our webpage on them will check us out. We are also going to enter the Brookland Parade, scheduled for Sunday, but there is a 70% chance of showers, so it's looking as though they may re-schedule that one. We have won that one 2 years in a row, but it's not really about that, it's about the ministry...gotta go...I need to check on some 3-peat shirts!

Christmas Parade

Tonight is the Jonesboro Christmas Parade. It all starts at 7:00 p.m. and wouldn't you know it...it's cold today. We will be getting in line on Cherry Street & our float is #52 I believe...all the information can be found on this page. Just follow the link and click on Christmas Parade. The rules for tonights parade are pretty simple...no throwing candy...no giving away any items of advertisement. So, what are we doing? Yeah, we got a big honkin' gun and we're gonna blow t-shirts, beanies & stuffed animals into the crowd. We'll probably get kicked out of the parade. The float this year is pretty cool and different. The theme for the parade is "Christmas through the Decades." Our approach is a little different. Rather than go back in time we are going forward. 1/2 of the float is 2007 and the other half is 2207. There is a cross in the middle of the float which signifies that Jesus never changes (which is written on the side of the float). So, it looks pretty good and if you want to come out tonight and have a good time...meet us in downtown Jonesboro @6:30. See ya!